On air on bayfm 99.9 community radio in Byron Bay on 5.12.11
Christmas trees are going up and carols are in the air from Bangkok to Buenos Aires, from Tokyo to Doha. I know because I looked at the Twitter carols thread. Doha is in Qatar, I had to look it up,but even there people are getting into the carols, yes this is your annual belly carols alert. And we are getting into another tradition, presents, which is older than all the Christian traditions of this festival. Especially the giving of food gifts. We are cooking up the presents on belly today, with Miss December & our new baking bellysister Deanna. Miss December also brought us the most abundant December fruit & veg, and we launched a new series that will turn you into a confident pastry cook. Chock full of goodness today on belly.
The lovely Miss December, Alison Drover, is sharing her father’s Royal Easter Show winning Christmas cake recipe, and great easy to make cheese biscuits.
MISS DECEMBER’S BELLY CHRISTMAS – TRIED AND TRUE EDIBLE GIFTS
DON’S (ALISON DROVER’S FATHER) CHRISTMAS CAKE
[This is an old family recipe,from before Australia went metric, so these are Imperial measurements, not American cups if you are looking at Belly from the USA]
1 &1/2 lbs sultanas
1/2 lb raisins
4 oz currants
4 oz mixed peel
3 oz dates
1/2 cup macadamias
1/2 cup rum brandy or sherry
8 oz butter
1 vanilla pod - scraped
1 tablespoon grated orange range
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
5 eggs
1 cup brown sugar - firmly packed
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
2 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons rum or brandy
Soak mixed fruit in brandy. Cream butter until smooth, add vanilla and rinds. Add sugar, beat well until mixture is combined, do not overcream or cake will crumble when cut.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding the next one. Add marmalade and mix well. Add creamed mixture to fruit mixture, mix thoroughly, sift dry ingredients, add in two lots to fruit mixture, mix thoroughly.
Put mixture into a 71/2 inch square cake tin lined with four layers of greaseproof paper. Spread mixture level. Bang tin on table to settle mixture.
Bake in a slow oven for 3 to 3 1/2 hour. Remove cake from the oven and test with a skewer. If it comes out free of cake mixture, remove cake from oven. Brush the cake evenly with extra rum brandy - you can use a little less or more than 2 tablespoons.
Cover immediately with some tin foil then a towel. (This traps the steam giving a moist cake). When the cake is cold (about 12 hours) remove from the tin and wrap in foil. Wrapped in this way it will keep for several months.
CHEESE BISCUITS – By Alison Drover
Ingredients
1oog fresh goat’s cheese or blue cheese
1 & 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
150g softened unsalted butter
scant pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
175g plain flour, sifted
Method
Blend cheeses, butter, salt and fennel seeds quickly in food processor until smooth. Remove to a bowl and fold in flour. Spoon mixture onto baking paper and roll into a log about 5cm in diameter. Refrigerate for several hours until firm.
Preheat oven to 180 Celsius. Slice thinly and put on baking trays lined with baking paper.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Cool, then store in airtight tin.
DEANNA’S CHRISTMAS TRUFFLES
BASIC TRUFFLES
200g good quality eating dark chocolate
1/3 cup cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup cocoa powder or icing sugar
Combine chocolate and cream in the top of a double boiler or in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir with a metal spoon until just melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla
Place in fridge to chill for approx one hour or until firm enough to roll into balls
Using approx. 2 tsp of mix at a time, roll into balls, place on a baking sheet covered in baking paper and refrigerate again until firm.
Place cocoa powder in a shallow dish, roll truffles in cocoa powder to coat.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge
PEPPERMINT TRUFFLES
400g good quality dark eating chocolate
2 tbsp peppermint liqueur (or 2 tsp peppermint essence)
70g peppermint chocolate (could be peppermint crisp, or mint flavoured chocolate, but not cream filled or green) crushed,
50g white chocolate chopped
Melt 200g of dark chocolate and cream as in method for basic truffles. When melted, take off heat and add liqueur or essence. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and add peppermint crisp.
Chill and roll as in previous recipe.
Melt remaining 200g chocolate. Place a toothpick in each truffle and dip into melted chocolate to coat. Place back on baking tray and allow to chill in refrigerator.
When chilled, melt white chocolate. Using a piping bag or small ziplock with the corner cut off, place chocolate in bag and pipe white chocolate over truffles. Refrigerate until set.
HAZELNUT TRUFFLES
450 g good quality milk chocolate, chopped
40g butter chopped
20 roasted whole hazelnuts
100g roasted hazelnuts chopped finely
50g dark chocolate chopped
Melt 250g milk chocolate and butter as described in basic truffle recipe, mix in chopped nuts and chill.
When firm, roll into balls pushing one whole hazelnut into centre of ball. Chill until firm.
Melt remaining 200g milk chocolate and place toothpick in each ball. Dip in melted chocolate and allow to set. Melt dark chocolate and pipe over truffles as described in peppermint truffle recipe.
TOFFEE TRUFFLES
140g packet of werther’s original hard toffees
400g good quality milk chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
50g good quality dark chocolate.
Place werther’s in food processor and process until fine crumbs. Melt 200g chocolate and cream as in basic truffle recipe. Stir toffee through chocolate mixture. Chill as in previous recipes, and roll, then chill again. Melt 200g milk chocolate and dip truffles in melted chocolate using toothpick to hold on to truffle. Allow to chill and then pipe melted dark chocolate over top.
WHITE CHOCOLATE COCONUT
450g good quality white chocolate chopped
1/3 cup cream
30g butter
2 tbsp dessicated coconut
2 cups shredded coconut
2tsp coconut essence
Melt 250g white chocolate, cream, and butter. The method I use for the white chocolate truffles is a bit different when I melt the
chocolate: I heat the cream and butter until almost boiling, and then pour it quickly on top of the white chocolate pieces and stir to melt.
Stir through desiccated coconut and essence. Follow steps for chilling and rolling as in above recipes. When chilled, melt remaining white chocolate and dip truffle in melted chocolate using toothpick, immediately afterwards rolling in shredded coconut. Allow to cool.
Truffle recipes adapted from “Superfood Ideas” December 2007
BELLY BULLETIN
Northern Rivers Food Links would like to connect food businesses who have leftover food going to waste with food aid groups who could put their leftovers to good use. If you have a food business operating in the Ballina, Byron or Richmond Valley local government areas, give them a call on (02) 6681 4772 or email
kim@northernriversfoodlinks.com.au
Shark fins are an expensive delicacy in Chinese restaurants. Scientists estimate between 26 and 73 million sharks are killed for their fins worldwide each year. Hong Kong is the major market, but local campaigns are successfully changing customer habits. About 60% of people there now say they wouldn’t eat shark fin, the price has dropped by 20%, and almost 100 caterers and hotels have signed up to the shark free menu campaign of the World Wildlife Fund, including the prestigious Peninsula group.
Global warming could be getting you drunk. More sun means riper grapes, which means more alcohol in your wine. Estimates are that global warming alone is increasing alcohol content by about 1 degree per decade. Wine writers and judges are also responsible, as many have praised big, full flavoured wines which also have a high alcohol content. Twenty years ago, most wines were 12 to 13%, now many are 15% or more. The smh has an interesting article listing average percentages in many wines, and reports calls to put alcohol content on restaurant and bar wine lists to help customers who are looking for a less potent drop.
If you want to trap a fire ant, give it a hot dog. Introduced fire ants have become a problem in Northern Queensland. They’ve displaced up to 95 per cent of the native ants, they can blind pets, they sting people as they garden or in their swimming pools. Biosecurity Queensland staff are luring the ants to footpaths and nature strips with traps baited with hot dog meat. Field staff put down the hot dog and leave it down for an hour and come back and pick it up and see what ants they’ve got. Spokesman Gary Moreton said “These ants are quite generalist eaters so they like all sorts of things, they like sugars, oils, proteins, and I think probably with those hot dogs, they’ve got a bit of everything in there.”
EDIBLE QUOTE
Irene Kangasniemi, a neighbour of Santa Claus from Lapland “When we are visiting places we don’t bring flowers, we bring food”
MUSIC
Amy Winehouse – I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus
The Temptations – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer 2:58
Eileen Barton – If I Knew You Were Coming 2:51
W.A. Mozart, “Sleigh Ride”, opus K605 no.3