On air on Byron Bay’s bayfm 99.9 on March 25, 2013

Today we have so many wonderful guests that I have cancelled most of my belly bits, so you can listen to…fabulous local Rosie Lee, who dressed up as a flying pig for one cause & is now covered in bees for another. World Skills regional winning local chefs Nadia de Jong & Joseph O’Grady . The fabulous belly astrogourmet, Lilith, with tipples & nibbles for Aries. And 2 wonderful gentlemen bellysisters, Ilias & Robert, in the belly kitchen. Ilias is learning to make delicious radio for you, & Robert has just come back from Womadelaide with some of his favourite music to share with us.

MELTING MOMENTS WITH PASSIONFRUIT ICING RECIPE – from Rosie Lee

150g self raising flour

150g cornflour

250 g butter, room temp

1 vanilla bean seeds scraped

4 tbsp icing sugar sifted

FOR ICING

60 g butter, room temp

150g icing sugar

1/2 passionfuit

Preheat oven to 160 C

Sift flour and cornflour

Cream butter, vanilla seeds and sugar in electic mixer till light and fluffy

Add flours and mix thoroughly

Place small spoonfuls on buttered tray or use piping bag with 1 cm star nozzle for swirl pattern

Bake 15 to 20 mins till golden, place on wire rack et WOILA !

ICING

cream butter, icing sugar and passionfruit till creamy

Small amount on one biscuit and top with another.

Store in airtight container

DAINTREE LEMON PUDDING – from Rosie

Cream 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tablespoon butter, add 2 tablespoons flour, the juice and rind of one lemon, 1 cup of milk and the beaten yolk of one egg.

Stiffly beat the egg white, fold into mixture and pour into a greased pie-dish. Place in a dish containing water and bake till browned in a moderate oven. A light cake mixture rises to the top, with a lemon curd sauce beneath.

All time fave recipe my mum used to make. Copied from her ancient old cookbook, the Woman’s Mirror Cookery Book.

My son loves it too !!

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Or just look for the tent at local markets – it’s very yellow.

THE APPRENTICES

Today we have two upcoming local apprentice chefs Joe O Grady and Nadia de Jong who recently won the World Skills regional cooking competition and competed for the nationals placing 6th and 8th amongst strong fully qualified chefs!

They’ve studied at Wollongbar TAFE under the guidance of David Forster and Mary Allen and have blossomed into their roles as chefs in Fleurs Ballina and Harvest Newrybar.

Keep an eye out for these young talented chefs in the future

Opa!    ilias the GREEK

ASTRONIBBLES AND ASTRONIBBLES FOR ARIES – by Lilith the belly astrogourmet

Aloha Tess, today we¹re talking what kind of appetizer plate to bring to an Aries birthday celebration, and since we¹re both Aries today¹s program is all about guess who – yes, us.

Like all fire signs we like hot food, and are particularly partial to red food. But whatever you decide to birthday us with, think food with attitude: as in feisty flavors, spices, chili, Indian, Thai, and abandon bland.  Also  being Show Don¹t Tell people, despite how often you say you love us, we¹d really like to see that demonstrated by your going to a hell of a lot of trouble concocting celebration snackies to tweak our tastebuds and ignite our appetites..

Being the first sign of the zodiac Aries love the first course better than anything and would be happily satisfied with a selection of starters. Being creatures of extremes, we like both totally raw food or else food to which serious heat has been applied. So I’m putting my hand up for Individual Aries-red Roast Tomato and Bocconcini Tarts with rocket pesto, which makes tasty use of autumn produce. Because Aries are such individuals and this is a segment on finger food, we¹d like to put you to the time and trouble of making these tarts personalized, bite size and served up on a heart shaped betel leaf ­ because despite our fiery tempers we are all heart. Where to find? Betel leaves are dead easy to grow or available from the farmers markets. They’re actually a bit chewy raw, so if you think that mightn’t appeal to your particular Aries, Vietnamese sources suggest wilting them with a light grilliing, which also releases their peppery fragrance.

We¹ll cater to our raw natures in the drinkies department Tess with your personal favorite, suitable for both the alcohol-loving and alco-shunning Aries, the Virgin Mary ­ or its vastly more popular deflowered version, the Bloody Mary. The Virgin Mary, suitable for teetotallers and designated drivers simply omits vodka from the recipe, and is apparently also known in Australia as the Bloody Shame.

According to Wikipedia The Bloody Mary has been called “the world’s most complex cocktail” and barman Fernand Petiot who claimed to have invented it in 1921, described its construction thus: Cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes black pepper, two dashes cayenne pepper and a layer of Worcestershire sauce; then add a dash of lemon juice, cracked ice, two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour. Note no Tabasco in his original recipe.

I loved reading about the creative variations of this drink, ie. The Bloody Maria using Tequila instead of vodka, the Bloody Fairy with absinthe, Bloody Murder featuring wasabi sauce and the Bloody Hog made with Bacon Vodka  -­ who knew such a thing existed ­ all there in the wonderful world of google. My favorite has to be the Flaming, Frozen Bloody Mary, which is a frozen Bloody Mary topped with overproof rum and ignited in a ceramic mug to avoid shattered glass.  [please don’t try this at home]. I won’t even mention the version garnished with a sausage, or the desperate marooned people forced to use pasta sauce.

We here in the Bay can just get creative with chili or citron vodka, a little fresh horseradish, so some oysters. So Bottoms Up and happy birthdays, Aries.

INDIVIDUAL ARIES-RED ROAST TOMATO AND BOCCONCINI TARTS – from Lilith

INGREDIENTS:

110g plain flour

Pinch of icing sugar

60g cold butter

1 egg yolk

250g cherry tomatoes

1 tub of baby bocconcini, drained

extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup fresh basil pesto

Fresh basil leaves, to garnish

METHOD:

•
 Preheat oven to 190°C.

• 
Sift flour, icing sugar and a pinch of salt into a food processor, add butter and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and 1-2 tablespoons of cold water. Process until mixture forms a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes

•
 Bring pastry to room temperature, roll out on a lightly floured surface and use it to line indvidual tart pans with removable bases. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

• 
Line the pastry-lined pan with aluminium foil and fill with pastry weights or rice. Bake for 10 minutes.

•
 Meanwhile, toss the tomatoes in the oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

•
 Remove tarts from oven, remove foil and weights. Return to oven with the tomatoes on a separate baking tray for 5 minutes or until pastry is golden and tomatoes have softened slightly. Spread a little pesto over base of each tart and fill with bocconcini and tomatoes. Place in oven for 5 minutes to warm through. Serve with remaining pesto and basil leaves.

ILIAS’S FAVOURITE FOOD BOOKS

Greek cookbook : Tess Mallos

Lansdowne Press – Last print 1976

Eggs – Michel Roux

Quadrille publishing – Last print 2007

THE MUSIC today was very tasty I thought, thank you so much Sister Robert for the Womad tracks, and Rosie and Lilith for sharing some favourites too. Go here (bayfm page) for the full list and lots of videos

Love and chocolate bunnies,

Sister Tess

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