Passionfruit Curd - Tangy and Sublime.

One of my favourite childhood memories was helping my Nana cook.  Or should I say, hanging around her tiny kitchen, being a  perfect child with the eternal optimism of licking the spoon, or on rare occasions, being given a bite of some freshly baked treat.  
Nana's passionfruit butter tartlets were sublime and memorable -  a family Christmas tradition and annual indulgence.  I do wish I had paid more attention because although I remember the flavour so well, I do not remember the special knack Nana had of transforming a few ingredients into the taste of a Queensland summer. My lovely cousins unearthed her handwritten recipe but so far, I have not had much luck perfecting her method.  Therefore, I have shamelessly amended Mamma Marmalade's lemon curd technique,   no-fail-lemon-or-lime-curd   which was courtesy of Beth Dunham's blog  (Beth Dunham never-fail-lemon-curd) . Thank you for sharing!

Passionfruit Curd by  Feed Your Inner Cook

Passionfruit Curd by  Feed Your Inner Cook

Passionfruit Curd by  Feed Your Inner Cook

Passionfruit Curd by Feed Your Inner Cook

Passionfruit Curd by  Feed Your Inner Cook

 

Ingredients

6 tablespoons of softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 large free range or organic eggs & 2 egg yolks

6 passionfruit - pulp

Method
Cream butter and sugar, together for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and yolks one at a time still mixing on a low speed, continue beating for another minute or two until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
Add passionfruit and mix on a slow speed until incorporated it will appear curdled but have no fear it will be a success! 

Next, place curd into a small saucepan on low heat on the stove top. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is heated through and no longer appears curdled.  
Increase heat to just medium and still stirring for approximately 12 minutes or until it is the consistency of whipped cream.  

Pour into clean jars and allow to cool.

Curd will keep in the fridge for a week or freeze for later.

Thank you  Darling Nana, 
                   my Lovely Cousins, 
                   Beth Dunham 
                  and Mamma Marmalade
Enjoy!  Colleen 

Meatballs and french onion gravy

Winter and Covid 19 lockdown combined, make it the perfect time to prepare and enjoy some comfort food.  In addition to being delicious, these light and tasty meatballs are Keto friendly. The original recipe called for chicken mince but I have substituted with beef mince, which works perfectly. They are easy to make because you bake the meatballs.  If you could stop eating them in one sitting, they would be a wonderful stash to have in the freezer.

Great for school lunches (when school returns) or make them smaller and enjoy as a party snack (when we are allowed to party again).

Ingredients

Meatballs

500 g beef or chicken mince
1 egg (organic or free range)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup almond meal or bread crumbs
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 medium onion, diced
1/3 cup parsley, chopped

Gravy

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon onion powder (if you have)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Mozzarella or Gruyere cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Either grease an oven tray or line with baking paper
Combine all the meatball ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Stir to combine.
With wet hands take a dessertspoon of mixture and roll into a ball and place on oven tray.

Bake in the oven for approx. 20 minutes.

Whilst the meatballs are cooking, heat a frypan on the stovetop.
Add butter, olive oil and sliced onions to the pan.
Cook on medium to low heat for 25 minutes until the onions are soft and slightly brown, Stirring intermittently.

Add beef broth, fresh thyme, salt, pepper and onion powder. Stir to combine, bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer for 10 minutes, until it thickens.

Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce, cook for a few minutes and then top with the cheese. Cover for 3 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serve, garnished with chopped parsley or thyme.

A new family favourite.

Mamma Marmalade

Savoury Cheese and Spinach Buttermilk Scones

How good is it to visit your family bearing home baked treats, still warm from the oven, to share?  The cheesy savoury aroma is irresistible. Wilbur likes his with a little butter and vegemite.  You could almost feel virtuous as there is lots of green spinach goodness and no sugar. 
Best eaten just after baking or the same day. These would be a great crowd pleaser for breakfast or brunch too.  I doubt there will be any left over!  
Enjoy!  Colleen

Savoury Cheese Scones. Feed Your Inner Cook

Savoury Cheese Scones. Feed Your Inner Cook

Preparation   20 minutes
Cooking        15 - 20 minutes
Makes           approx 22 - 24 

Ingredients
3 cups Self Raising Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Mustard Powder  
dash ground White Pepper
1 cup (firmly packed) baby spinach leaves - finely chopped
3 cups grated Cheddar cheese  (reserve 1/3 to 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top)
1 tablespoon Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1 1/2 cups greek yoghurt and 1/2 cup milk stirred together OR  2 cups ButterMilk

Method
Preheat oven to 200 ℃ and line 2 scone trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl : Sift together -  the Self Raising Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Mustard Powder and Pepper.

Stir in with a knife - the grated cheese, Parmesan and chopped spinach into the flour mix.

Make a well in the middle of the mixture and gently pour in the combined yoghurt/milk stirring with the knife until just combined and all flour incorporated.  Don't overstir or it toughens the flour.

Use two dessert spoons to dollops blobs of mixture onto your trays - should get about 10 per tray.  I usually get about 20 in total. Leave a few centimetres between each to allow for spreading.

Sprinkle the reserved grated cheese over the scone mixture.

Bake for approx 15 - 18 minutes.  Test with a skewer, and cheese with be golden melted on top.

Serve hot.  Eat as they are or as Wilbur recommends, split apart and spread with a dash of butter and a little vegemite.

So yummy.   Enjoy!   Colleen

Lemon delicous pudding

It has just started to turn cool here in Northern New South Wales and with the onset of the cooler weather, it is the perfect time for indulging in a warm pudding.  Citrus grows well here so we are now harvesting plenty of limes, lemonade fruit and lemons.  This recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander a woman who admire.  Her "Kitchen Garden" program in Australian schools is a fantastic initiative.

I would love to share this pudding with my dear friend Sue who visited last year and I unwittingly used plain flour instead of self raising flour (what a disaster)!

Ingredients

2 lemons
60g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
3 organic/free range eggs, separated
3 Tablespoons self raising flour
1 1/2 cups full cream milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Grease a 1 litre pie tin or oven dish with butter
Zest one of the lemons and juice both
Combine butter, zest and sugar in a food processor and whiz to cream the ingredients
Then add egg yolks
Add flour and milk alternately until a smooth batter is formed.
Scrape the mixture from the sides and blend in lemon juice.
Transfer batter to a clean bowl.

Beat with a hand mixer, egg whites until fluffy, fold gently into the batter
Pour batter into prepared oven dish.
Place oven dish into a baking dish and pour kettle boiled water in to come half way up the side of the oven dish.

Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean from cake topping.

Allow to cool if you can resist and then serve with cream or ice cream.

Delicious in name an delicious in taste.

Mamma Marmalade