Eggplants and What to do With Them

This year has been my most successful season ever for growing eggplants; a combination, I think, of hot weather plus more summer rain than usual.I am growing two varieties: long purple and black beauty.

Eggplants are definitely one of those vegetables that taste much better when home-grown.  I think this is because home-grown eggplants can be picked smaller when they are less bitter and have fewer seeds.

By the way, if you look closely at the eggplant photo below you can see my reflection in it!

At present I have an eggplant glut, so we are eating them at almost every meal.  Apart from adding eggplant to curries, risottos and other dishes wherever possible, my three staple preparations are:

• Marinated, grilled eggplant: I either fry or grill the eggplants then marinate them as I did zucchinis in this recipe;
• Eggplant parmigiana (no recipe: just egg-and-crumbed, then fried, layered in fresh tomato sauce and baked with grated parmesan or other cheese on top)
• baba ghanoush (I'll publish a recipe in the next few days) 

 I always salt the black beauty eggplants before I cook them to draw out any bitter juices, but I don't bother with the long, skinny ones.

What I would like to do is bottle some eggplant chutney or preserves.  I'm still looking for a recipe, so if you have one you can recommend I'd be delighted if you would share it with me!

Mad March

March often seems to be a crazy month here at our red house.

To start with, three of our six family members have birthdays in the first two weeks of March.

Last year Tom had his accident on the first of March, then we had all those difficulties later in the month as we attempted to move house.

This March has gone more smoothly, although young Will's head had a collision with a metal school bench two weeks ago that led to a visit to a plastic surgeon to get him mended.

The big news for me this month is that I left my old job two weeks ago and started a new one on Monday.  The hours could not be better for a mother of four school-aged kids.  They are 9 until 2.45 from Monday to Wednesday, and 9 until 12 on Thursdays.  I'm still hoping to buy a bike and start riding to work, but at the moment I'm driving part of the way and walking the rest.

I'm looking forward to having more time to get the house under control; more time for the garden; more time for friends; and more time to cook up a storm.

Stay posted!

Getting the House Ready

Katy worked with a will for the next two days.  Twenty times, at least, she went into the blue room to make sure that nothing was forgotten; repeating, as if it had been a lesson in geography, "Bath towels, face towels, matches, soap, candles, cologne, extra blanket, ink."  A nice little fire was lighted in the bedroom on Friday afternoon, and a big, beautiful one in the parlour, which looked very pleasant with the lamp lit and Clover's geraniums and china roses in the window.  The tea-table was set with the best linen and the pink and white china.  Debby's muffins were very light.  The crab-apple jelly came out of its mould clear and whole, and the cold chicken looked appetising, with its green wreath of parsley.  There was stewed potato, too, and, of course, oysters.

                                              From Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did at School, (first published in 1873)

Baked Cheesecake

Yesterday was my eldest son's birthday and he requested baked cheesecake for his birthday cake.  He even chose the recipe.

This cheesecake comes from our well-thumbed copy of Sweet Old-fashioned Favourites ("Australian Women's Weekly" Home Library). My edition was published in 1996.

Cheesecake

Base
250g plain sweet biscuits
125 g butter, melted

Filling

3 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup castor sugar

3 eggs

3 teaspoons grated lemon rind

1/4 cup lemon juice

Grease 20 cm springform tin.  Blend, process or crush biscuits finely, stir in butter.  Using a flat-bottomed glass, press crumb mixture evenly over base and side of prepared tin, refrigerate 30 minutes or until firm.

Place springform tin on oven tray, pour filling into tin.  Bake in moderately slow oven about 50 minutes, or until firm.  Cool in oven with door ajar.

Cover cheesecake, refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.  Serve with whipped cream, sprinkle with ground nutmeg, if desired.

Filling

Blend cheese and sugar in medium bowl of electric mixer until smooth.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beat well between each addition.  Add rind and juice, beat until mixture is creamy.

Last Night of the Fringe

One of the things I like most about living in Adelaide is the fabulous festivals and community events.  However, this month has been so busy it took us until tonight, the last night of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, to see a show.

Our choice was Tom Tom Crew, an energetic mix of male acrobatics and beat boxing.  After a picnic in the Garden of Unearthly Delights, some members of the family rode on the Dodgems whilst others chewed away on long liquorice straps observing the sights.

Next year I will be more organised and book more events at the Fringe.

Emma's French Toast

 This morning my daughter got up early to make her Dad French toast for his birthday breakfast.  I think she's fantastic: shamefully, I don't think I've ever cooked him a special breakfast on his birthday.

Not only did Em make French toast; she also poached apples to go with the toast and made a cup of tea to wash it all down - and all before she walked to the bus stop to catch the 7.50 am bus to school.

French Toast

4 thick slices white bread, crusts removed

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

2Tbsp sugar

30g (1 oz) butter

good pinch cinnamon

Beat egg, water and 2 tsp sugar with a fork.  Heat butter in medium frying pan until melted and turn to medium heat.  Dip slices of bread into the egg and then straight into the frying pan.  Cook slices for about 2 minutes on each side.  When cooked, sprinkle with remaining sugar and cinnamon.

Duck Egg Sponge Cake

ducks' eggs and hens' eggs

This morning I came home from the March Essential Edibles Food Swap with three beautiful, grey duck eggs.  I had never cooked with duck eggs before but remembered reading somewhere that duck eggs make the most wonderful sponge cakes, so that is what I decided to do with them.

The recipe below for Victoria Sandwich comes from The Country Women's Association Cookbook: Seventy Years in the Kitchen.  I like this recipe because it doesn't require the eggs to be separated or for the flour to be sifted multiple times, yet the result is a beautiful, light cake.  The recipe is, of course, for hens' eggs, but I substituted my three ducks' eggs with no difficulty.

I used an electric mixer to beat the eggs, but you could use an egg beater as the recipe suggests.  I filled my sponge with raspberry jam and whipped cream and dusted it with icing sugar.

Victoria Sandwich

Beat 220g (1 cup) sugar and 3-4 eggs in a bowl for 10 minutes using an egg beater.  Sift together 150g (1 cup) plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder and add to the egg mixture.  Melt 1 teaspoon butter in 4 tablespoons boiling water and stir into the cake mixture to combine.  Spoon into greased sandwich tins and bake in a 180 degrees C oven for about 20 minutes.  Ice or fill as desired.

Over 5 Kilos of Goodness

According to one of my cookbooks, Kent or jap pumpkins grow to between 1 and 2 kilograms in weight.  Yet this pumpkin, which we picked on Thursday, weighed well over 5 kilos (close to 11 pounds).

 

As is so often the case, the pumpkin vine was a 'volunteer'.  It grew out of the worm castings I spread around our new plum tree not long after it was planted last winter.  Naturally, none of the pumpkin seeds I intentionally planted have been so fruitful.

So far about half the pumpkin has been used, transformed into an enormous pot of pumpkin soup.  Some will be roasted to accompany tomorrow's roast chicken.  

 

And the rest?  I haven't decided, but am thinking perhaps a pumpkin pie or pumpkin scones or spiced pumpkin and raisin cookies.

What is your favourite way to eat pumpkin?

A Family Birthday

When people in our family have a birthday, they get to choose whatever they like for dinner.

Today's birthday boy chose home-made sausage rolls with tomato sauce, nachos and a three-layer rainbow birthday cake - not a bad effort for this mama on a work day (although I do finish at 3).  He also took cupcakes to school for his entire class of 28 children - my daughter made the cakes and I decorated them.

The birthday cake's layers are chocolate, vanilla and pink, although you can't tell that from the outside.  The cake is a light sponge and the cream whipped with a little vanilla but no extra sugar.

This sort of food is true kid birthday fare: completely un-nutritious but really rather nice occasionally.