on air on bayfm’s 99.9 on August 1, 2011

MORE COMING!

By Khiara Brown (11 years old)

Miss August – Alison Drover

The sun is shining and the strawberries are putting smiles on everyone’s’ lips. Spring is on the way and it is the time for kissing goodbye the cold.   Take time to savour the winter vegetable soups – conserve and preserve surplus so that you can enjoy them in the months to come.
Asian greens are high in magnesium and so easy to cook.
Look for Choy sum, wombok, bok choy and use finely chopped cabbages with
Root vegetables – turmeric,  galangal, ginger and spring onions.
Eat locally and waste not, enjoy August

X Alison Drover

What’s in season around Australia in August

Beetroot
Mushrooms
Brussel sprouts
Broccoli
Cabbage green and red
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celeriac
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Onions
Parsnips
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Silver beet
Sweet potato
Witloaf
Rhubarb
Oranges Navel and Seville
Tangelo
Mandarins
Lemons

ASIAN ROOT FAST CONFIT – perfect for vegetables and for basting chicken

Typically when we make a sauce or stirfry we add our ingredients to the oil.
This technique is the opposite as the hot oil is poured over the ingredients.  The benefit is that you have a concentrated flavour and infusion.
This is one recommendation however you can vary this according to individual preference and what is in season

•    3 stalks fresh lemon grass peeled and chopped
•    1 tablespoon ginger  – peeled and grated finely
•    1 tablespoon galangal root – peeled and grated
•    ½ tablespoon turmeric root – peeled and grated
•    2 shallot – peeled and sliced finely
•    1 clove of fresh local garlic peeled and chopped

½ cup of Sesame oil or vegetable cooking oil

*Variations – add 1 piece of lemon zest or orange approximately 5cm x 5cm piece,  palm sugar, coriander roots chopped

Put all the ingredients into a heatproof bowl  – ceramic style bowl is great.
Heat  oil in a saucepan until it is spluttering but not burning or smoking.
Pour the oil over the mix and combine. It will splutter and crackle which is the idea as all the ingredients are cooking.

Ideas

Vegetables

Cook up some a mix of Asian greens whatever is in season and available. Add your root oil mix and then serve.

Chicken

Take a pastry brush and brush the chicken with the oil and then roast in the oven. Alternatively for a stronger more intense flavour pour over the oil and leave to marinate overnight before cooking.

THE PERFECT SPONGE – made even more perfect with strawberries

Alison writes for Sprout Magazine  and these are her thoughts on baking the perfect sponge.

Sponges look easy but really test  our baking skills yet they are well worth the patience and can be enjoyed all year around filled with jam in summer, lemon butter in winter as it gets really cold with marmalade and some real custard.
The test is following the instructions and understanding the principles of baking as you go step by step. The proof is my confession that one of the first sponges I made for this article failed, which further highlighted for me the difficulty in baking and the art of the sponge. It was actually a blessing though, as it made me provide much more detail in the method so you can get the perfect sponge every time.
The following recipe seems to be the one that works. Duck eggs are best but if you can’t get these, go for the freshest eggs you can get. If your oven is not fan-forced or has a fan-forced function that can be switched off, preheat oven to 190°C and move the oven rack to about one-third of the way up from the base of the oven. If you are using a fan-forced oven or are not able to turn the fan off, preheat oven to 170°C.
You will need two 20cm diameter cake pans that are at least 5cm deep. Grease the inside of the pans and line the bases with a circle of non-stick baking paper, then grease the baking paper (this will make it easier to pull the baking paper off the cake when removed from the oven)

100g (2/3 cup) self-raising flour
50g (1/3 cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
5g (1 teaspoon) butter, at room temperature
60ml (3 tablespoons) boiling water
4 large eggs, at room temperature (I used eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar

Sift the self-raising flour, cornflour and salt together three times to remove lumps, aerate, and thoroughly combine the ingredients.
Once the ingredients have been thoroughly sifted, place the sifter over a bowl or on a piece of greaseproof paper to catch any flour that might escape from the sifter and return the flours to the sifter. Set aside.
Place the butter and boiling water in a small heatproof jug. The water needs to be hot so that the butter will completely melt.
Break the eggs into a large bowl. Using an electric mixer beat on medium-high speed for about 10 seconds to combine the yolks and whites. With the beaters running, add the sugar and continue beating on medium-high speed for about 6 minutes When you lift the beaters, the mixture that falls from the beaters should sit on top of the egg mixture (rather than sinking in).
Sift about one third of the flour mixture over the egg mixture, and using a large deep spoon, gently but quickly fold the flour into the egg mixture until nearly combined. Sift half the remaining flour over the egg mixture and gently fold until nearly combined.
Sift the remaining flour over the egg mixture and pour the water/butter mixture around the edges of the bowl. Fold the ingredients together, making sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl as you fold so the water combines with the other ingredients and doesn’t remain in a pool at the base of the bowl. Don’t mix any more than is necessary to combine the ingredients—if you knock too much air out of the mixture the resulting cakes will be flat and tough.
Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared pans.
If your oven has any hot spots, try to avoid placing the cake pans in the hottest areas of the oven. Bake for 20–24 minutes or until the cakes are lightly golden and spring back when gently pressed in the centre. Don’t use a knife/skewer to test the cakes in case they deflate.
Place a piece of non-stick baking paper on a wire rack, and turn the cakes out onto the baking paper. The baking paper helps prevent the tops of the cakes from being marked by, or sticking to, the wire rack. Gently peel the baking paper off the cakes.
Turn the cakes over so they are top-side up. Place a piece of greaseproof paper loosely over the cakes while they are cooling to help prevent them from drying out.
Spread a thin layer of strawberry or raspberry jam on one of the cakes—the least attractive side as it won’t be visible—top with a layer of fresh whipped real cream, gently place the other sponge on top.
Make a real pot of leaf tea, gather around and enjoy immediately.

CAKE MAKING TIPS

•    Use eggs at room temperature—and for goodness sake use organic or free-range.
•    To ensure good volume, use a metal spoon with a cutting and sweeping action when mixing in the flour—any grease in the bowl, even a small amount of yolk with the egg whites, will prevent the sponge from rising.

Principles of cake baking
•    Beating introduces air into the mixture, therefore, beat butter, sugar and eggs well together in some varieties, and eggs thoroughly in all cases.
•    Beating the mixture after adding the flour and any fruit forces out the air; therefore never beat mixtures after the flour and fruit are added.
•    Air expands with heat, thus raising and lightening mixtures, so a hot oven is necessary.
•    Large cakes, if baked quickly, brown on the outside before being baked through. Small cakes baked slowly lose their moisture through evaporation and become dry and hard, therefore, bake large cakes slowly and small cakes quickly.
•    Lay one or two layers of paper over the top of large cakes, to prevent them over-colouring.

Other reasons cakes can fail

•    Ingredients. Bad or damp flour, rancid butter, cheap, dirty, or dry fruit, doubtful eggs, inferior sugar.
•    Methods. Rubbing the butter into the flour badly, or creaming the butter and sugar together insufficiently.
•    Moving cakes before they are set, this causes them to sink, and sometimes form holes in the centre. Banging the oven door during baking produces the same effects.
•    Not testing cakes with a skewer to ascertain if they’re thoroughly baked before removing from the oven.
•    Placing cakes when baked in such positions that the steam is unable to escape, with the result that it condenses inside the cake, and causes it to become heavy.

STRAWBERRY MUFFINS – made with buttermilk
small is beautiful and no need for a muffin top – quality over quantity
Recipe Alison Drover

Makes 10 muffins

•    380g flour plain
•    150g sugar
•    1tsp baking powder
•    pinch of salt
.        150 grams butter
•    2 eggs organic or free range please
•    300ml buttermilk
•    ½ vanilla bean
*   1 punnet local strawberries – rinsed, hulled (green bit removed from the top) and then chopped roughly but taking care not to squash   the fruit or bruise it.
*  ½ cup approx Demerara sugar

Weigh flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir don’t  beat several times with a whisk.
Melt butter – take care not to split the butter so melt slowly on the stove on low. Break eggs into a separate bowl and stir in the buttermilk and vanilla.
Pour the eggs over the melted butter and then place the bowl over the gas flame.
Stir continuously and until it is about 38 degrees blood temperature. (If you use a temperature once you will know what this should be for the future)
Gently fold the wet and dry ingredients. Don’t worry if there are a few lumps as it is more important that your dough is not overworked, as this will make your muffins heavy.
Add chopped strawberries halfway through this process.
Take a metal spoon and knife and transfer to patty tins.
Sprinkle carefully so as not to spill on the tin as this will burn the top the sugar on each individual muffin. This will give the muffins the crunchy top, which is delicious and also compliments the strawberries by creating a toffee like top.
and bake for 150 degrees Celsius for 20-25 mins.

BELLY BULLETIN

The Sydney Morning Herald this week is investigating sales of rural land in NSW.
Mining and energy companies have bought up more than 35 000 hectares .  Foreign investors in agriculture have bought 225 000 hectares – both just in the last year.  The dominance of overseas buyers is being put down to Australia’s openness to foreign investment, and recent difficulties in getting credit within Australia.  There is growing worldwide demand for agricultural produce, as well as rising prices for mineral resources, especially coal and natural gas in NSW.  Many farming communities are concerned about agricultural land being used for mining.  Mining companies say some land is being bought as environmental offsets, and will not be lost to farming.

Do you remember all the rain we had in the first half of this year?  Unfortunately it also fell in most of Australia’s wine regions.  Wine grapes really don’t like rain just before and at harvest time, it dilutes the flavours and tends to cause rot.  So when you see the 2011 vintage on a bottle, maybe look for wines from Western Australia, which had very little rain.  The NSW hunter Valley was also ok.  You should expect very cheap prices though, as it was a big harvest.  Experts are concerned that many winemakers added concentrated grape juice to low quality wine to boost alcohol levels and richness, which is legal but doesn’t lead to a fabulous wine.  Concentrate has little flavour and can also be made from rot affected grapes.  Former Winemakers association of Australia president Alister Purbrick says as much as a quarter million tonnes of grapes may have been made into concentrate this year.

In local news, the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival starts this week, with workshops from today and festival events all over the region.  The main event is back at the old beach resort aka North Byron.  Festival director Candy Baker told me on the weekend she is predicting a mini draught for the rest of the week.  No cooking workshops this year unfortunately, but plenty of lunches and dinners.  Food obsessed festival guests include locals Belinda Jeffery and Janella Purcell, last year’s Masterchef winner Adam Liaw, and Victoria Alexander.  The very first session on Friday, at 9am, is called ‘eat my words, why we love foodbooks’, so make sure you get there for that one.  There’s also a new event, called Writers at the Lakehouse, where you can have a nice cuppa tea or coffee, and hopefully a biscuit, with your favourite writer.  This is a separately ticketed event, with tickets available at the Box Office on the day, so you could go along just for that.  15 people per writer, five writers in the Lakehouse at any one time.

It’s a good time for cookbook writers.  At the Australian Book Industry awards last year, 5 out of 6 finalists in the illustrated book category were food books. And the first Masterchef winner, Julie Goodwin, won with “Our family table”, beating books by 3 well known food professionals.  The  Award for outstanding service to the Australian book industry went to the first lady of Australian cooking teachers, Margaret Fulton. She is the first woman in six years to win the award and the first cookbook writer.