On air on Byron Bay’s Bayfm 99.9 community radio on 31.10.11
Tara Pearson's outrageously cute fondant monkeys
Today belly was all about the Melbourne Cup of the baking world, the second annual Mullumbimby farmers market bake-off. In the studio with Sister T were Mullum and New Brighton farmers market manager, and long term delicious belly guest on all sorts of gardening and cooking topics, Judy MacDonald. And the undefeated defending champion in the sweets category, Deanna Sudmals. I also managed to celebrate Melbourne cup with a little pony pot pie, think about going vegan for a month (mmm), and play part 2 of a series of excepts from the Byron Writers Festival on the joy of food books. More info on all that below. But mainly it was all about the joy of baking. Judy tried to tell us that there was no competitiveness involved on the day, just a friendly day of community fun, but Deanna pulled out all stops in defence of her title. She found her mother’s apron at the bottom of a drawer, channelled her and set to work with fresh in season peaches, lots of other market ingredients, including macadamias (also an ingredient in last year’s winning dish), much love and the experience acquired while keeping her lucky workmates supplied with home-baked treats. Deanna says this pastry is quite an easy one to make, but if you want to make the recipe even easier, just do the peaches with the pastry as a crumble topping, and/or do individual ones in ramekins. I love adding nuts to pastry too, it gives texture and that great roasted nut taste.
RUSTIC PEACH PIE WITH MACADAMIA CRUMB TOPPING – by Deanna Sudmals
Crust
225 g plain flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
Pinch of salt
115g cold butter, chopped
3-4 tbsp ice water
1 egg beaten
Filling
4 cups peaches (around 10-13 peaches) peeled and sliced
¾ cups white sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Topping
½ cup plain flour
½ cup rolled oats
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp salt
85 grams of unsalted butter chopped
1 cup macadamias roughly chopped
Method
Make the Crust:
Blend the flour, butter, salt and icing sugar on pulse in food processor until it resembles fine crumbs. Add chilled water slowly until pastry just comes together, over mixing will cause a tough pastry. Form into a ball and flatten into a round. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour.
Make the Filling:
Peel and slice the peaches, ( use a vegetable peeler like I did, or score the peach in an X and drop into boiling water for a few seconds to loosen the skin)
Combine the flour, sugar, and spices. Add lemon juice and honey to peaches, and then mix in dry ingredients. Allow to rest for half an hour.
To make the Topping:
Mix the flour, oats, sugar and salt. Add the butter and mix with fingertips until forms moist clumps. Add the nuts and mix.
Assembly and Baking:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Put a baking tray in the oven to heat. (pie will be placed on tray to help ensure a firm crust)
Roll out the pastry and line a 23 cm deep pie dish with pastry. Crimp the edges. Place in fridge to chill for half an hour. When chilled, remove from fridge and baste inside bottom of pastry with beaten egg with a pastry brush (this helps keep the bottom firm, not soggy). Fill the pie with the filling and sprinkle over the crumb topping. Baste the visible crimped edges of pastry with remaining beaten egg.
Cook for ½ hour on 180 degrees (having placed on lowest shelf in oven on top of baking sheet)
After ½ hour, decrease heat to 150 and cook for a further hour until topping is bubbly. Keep checking in last half hour to be sure not to over cook.
some winners, and judge Victoria Cosford. Deanna is the 2nd smiley person holding a certificate from the left
judges at work
Nadia de Pietramale's creative cassava cake, which draws on her Brazilian heritage
those cute monkeys on Tara Pearson's banoffee pie cupcakes, winners in the vegan/raw food category
Maurizio Viani's market pie (foreground), savoury winner
the punters' choice! Kate Durkin's vegetable and feta tart
Margaret Rose's Macadamia and chickpea patties, vegan/raw runners up
Winner in a very strong Young Cooks' field, Zane Smith's blueberry crumble cake
Zane Smith is a Year 11 student at Mullum High, as are Young Cooks runners up Holly and Maxine with their sweet potato brownies. Judy did not quite manage to take pictures of everything, as after the judging the public were allowed to taste the entries and they vaporised in seconds!
I am not surprised, my mouth is literally watering uploading these pictures (several minutes have passed since my last meal). If you click on the pictures you should see a bigger version. If you would like to pass the bellysisters any of the recipes for these gorgeous cakes pies patties and muffins, please email the bellysisters: belly(at)belly(dot)net(dot)au. Substitute the appropriate symbols for the words in brackets (spam protection measure).
Judy MacDonald also updated us on what is going on with the shire’s market policy. If you would like to have your say, she recommends you start by reading the proposed policy. Click here to download a pdf of the policy from the Byron Shire site.
And Judy is just back from Europe, where she says two striking food trends are the heirloom vegetables, especially tomatoes, and the emphasis on sustainable fish, with lots available at farmers markets.
EAT MY WORDS AT THE 2011 BYRON BAY WRITERS FESTIVAL – part 2
“Eat my words, why we love food books”, was chaired by Janella Purcell, with masterchef winner Adam Liaw, restaurateur Victoria Alexander, and local food legend Belinda Jeffery, all of whom have writtten and love cookbooks. Today, the panel talks about the process of writing a cookbook, which is maybe not the peaceful process with pots pans and a notebook we may expect. First up Adam Liaw, talking about his first book, 2 Asian Kitchens. The publishing contract was part of his prize on Masterchef.
These are edited audio clips, that you should be able to listen to by just clicking.
Eat my Words Part 2a – audio clip
Eat my Words Part 2b – audio clip
WORLD VEGAN DAY
You might want to try giving up horsemeat, and milk , and eggs and honey and fish and all other meats and animal products, in honour of World Vegan day tomorrow. It has been going since 1994, there will be events all over Australia next weekend, although Sydney had its veggie fest yesterday. There will be lots of talks, food of course, art, even vegan speed dating. Or for something you can do from home, why not try the 30 day vegan challenge. This is a link to the vegan challenge, which helps you out with a 30 day menu and lots of recipes and info. This is a great list of world vegan events, from the veggie pride parade in Cape Town to the festa vegana in Barcelona, the verdurada in Sao Paolo to the Ghana Veg Soc day. Lots of great events for you and your loved one to attend, after you find each other at the vegan speed dating! Also have a look at last week’s meditation on going vegan by the very vegan, vibrant and healthy Sister Rasela, here.
EDIBLE QUOTE
Noma chef Rene Retzepy says that “cuisine is the edible expression of a culture”. I reckon farmers markets are the edible expression of a landscape.
MUSIC
For more info, video links etc on the belly music, and the music of lots of shows on bayfm, check out www.bayfm.org, and go to the individual show pages
TODAY ON BELLY
Come on in my kitchen, Eric Clapton
Coffee flavoured kisses, Saffire, the uppity blues women
Pony pot pie, the Red Hot Poker Dots
Pouring milk out the window, Apricot Rail
Vegan baby, Trip Poppies
Love and triple chocolate shortcrust tart, Sister T
