grandma's salad dressing

Recipe

❤ Grandma’s Salad Dressing

The words boring and salad should never appear in the same sentence.  Creating a salad that is a superb meal in itself is really fun - perhaps a warm Thai Yum Salad inspired by Annette Fear from Spirit House Yandina or a divine Salmon Stack Salad like this one from The Deck Cafe at Currumbin Beach.

Photo courtesy of The Deck Cafe - Liz bella barista & photographer

When I want to jazz up a Green Salad, I like to fill it with fresh mint, italian parsley, sunflower sprouts and freshly picked Nasturtium from the garden. Salads can be taken from simple to sophisticated with only a little extra effort on prep and presentation.  

Try dressing your next Salad creation with this delightful, old fashioned, handmade mayonnaise. It’s the perfect addition to tangy peppery greens, baby spinach, iceberg, cos or mesclun. 

Ingredients

2 eggs

4 tablespoons of water

4 tablespoons of white vinegar

4 tablespoons of white sugar

1 heaped teaspoon of mustard powder

Method + Tips

Beat eggs lightly.  Pour into a saucepan that fits inside a larger one. The larger saucepan should be filled with boiling water about 1/3 full.  You may have a double boiler especially for the job. Otherwise just improvise with a small and larger one - that’s fine. 

Add water, vinegar and sugar to the eggs in the smaller saucepan.  Dissolve mustard powder in a little extra vinegar - just enough to take the lumps out when you stir it with a teaspoon.  Add the mustard to the ingredients.  Stir frequently in the same direction - until dressing starts to thicken. Approximately 10 minutes.  It will thicken more upon standing - when dressing has completely cooled.

Tale

This is a really popular one. I would always make it  x 10 times the recipe i.e using 20 eggs.  You can be very confident to double or triple or more, if you want plenty leftover for later in the week or next.  It keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks.

If it looks and tastes familar to you it's probably because your own Grandmother made it.  This homemade double boiler dressing was 'the dressing' of their time.

I was often asked for the recipe at the Farmers Markets & the Pantry. Hesitated to give it out though as the sugar content is quite high. Perhaps some might feel this defeats the purpose of eating salad.  I say don’t stress. A little of this dressing goes a long way and what a difference it makes. Enjoy.

On Friday I’ll post a terrific frittata recipe that's perfect served with a Salad - drizzled with Grandma’s Salad dressing. See you then.

Spirit House Cooking Class - If you haven't been to one or two yet, you must treat yourself.

Sweet Country Tomato Relish

Recipe

I’m thrilled to share this recipe with you. I can’t give credit where credit is due as I don’t know the lady who passed it on to me.

Seven years ago I started this baking and bottling adventure with a roadside stall. One hot Sunday, under the shade of my market umbrella (the local rainforest), a virtual stranger kindly shared her family’s best country preserve recipes. A terrific Mango Chutney and this wonderful Sweet Tomato Relish were two of them. They are still the simplest and best relish recipes I’ve come across. Bottle some soon - before the last of the peak summer tomatoes finish. This batch will delight you right through Winter.

❤ Sweet Country Tomato Relish

Ingredients

1.5KG (3lb) Ripe Tomatoes                       

¼ cup salt

500gram (1lb) Onions                      

Water

2 cups Brown Malt Vinegar            

2 cups Brown Sugar

1 tablespoon Curry Powder

2 teaspoons Dry Mustard Powder

¼ cup Cornflour

¼ cup Brown Vinegar (extra) 

½ teaspoon each of ground Nutmeg, Pepper, Cinnamon & Ginger

Method + Top Tips

Score the tops of tomatoes with a sharp knife to help loosen skins. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water. Allow to cool a little and remove skins. If you prefer your relish chunky with skins on, then don’t worry about this process. 

Thick slice tomatoes into a large plastic bowl. Peel & chop onions into small slices and add to the bowl of tomatoes. Cover with water, sprinkle with salt, mix through lightly and cover bowl. Stand overnight. 

The next day, drain all the liquid from the tomatoes and onions. Place in a large saucepan with the brown malt vinegar added. Bring to the boil uncovered.  

Add brown sugar & stir over low heat until sugar has fully dissolved.

Meanwhile, combine curry powder, mustard & cornflour, gradually adding extra vinegar to mix until smooth & lump free. Remove pan from heat & add cornflour/mustard mixture slowly, stirring until combined. 

Return pan to heat and stir until mixture comes to the boil.  Leave uncovered to cook for 35-40 minutes or until mixture thickens. 

Add spices five minutes before the end of cooking & mix in well. 

Stir frequently during cooking and pour into hot sterilised jars and seal immediately. Makes approximately 1½ litres (6 cups). Recipe can easily be doubled if you have a big jam pot.

Other tips: Sterilise jars in your dishwasher on its hottest setting to save time. Always use a large stainless steel, heavy based preserving pan. Never try to make relish or jam in a pot that’s too small.  Lightly butter the preserving pan before starting. Use a long handled wooden spoon for stirring.

During a hot Aussie Summer wait for a cooler than usual evening, a thunderstorm or the odd rainy day!  Preserving should be a labour of love that’s fun - don’t even think about turning on the cooktop during the peak of a Summers day.  The fun quickly expires. Have a good stainless steel jug for pouring out relish. Have your clean lids ready for immediate sealing. Use your largest, hottest gas burner for effective, speedy setting of relish and jams.

Seasonal Jotting

We grow a small quantity of tomatoes at the farm. Growing your own is so satisfying - however don’t you also love the produce of an experienced, specialist farmer. One who ignites passion for their crop - so much so that you can clearly see, hear and taste it. 

Like many of us in well populated areas on the East Coast of Australia, I’m spoilt here for choice when it comes to weekend Farmers Markets. Our closest are at Palm Beach , Mudgeeraba and Miami Organic Growers Market. Over the border in nearby Northern NSW the choice gets even bigger.

We seem more than happy to pay a bit extra for genuine farm produce - Lockyer Valley tomatoes and potatoes, Bayside berries, local herbs and greens, Stanthorpe apples and pears ...all the seasonal pickings.  Because we can tell at first sight this produce has a local farm story behind it. Not an import carton.

Just one example is Peter Sutton and his wife Carmel. They make the ordinary tomato extraordinary and visit several farmers markets around SEQ. They grow heritage tomatoes in the Lockyer Valley near Gatton. Peter used to be a dairy farmer and grape grower.  Now they grow several types of old tomato on the grape trellises. Their tomatoes come in all shapes, colours, sizes and flavours - ranging from green to yellow, pink, purple and even black.

I often buy a colourful mixed punnet and reserve these special beauties for a salad, bruschetta, margherita pizza or seafood pasta dish with lashings of local garlic & freshly picked parsley.

In the height of the season, I use the bigger toms (most often the Roma variety) to make double batches of the tomato relish above. This way we’ve got enough relish to use with cold meats, sausage rolls, chicken pie, burgers, frittata and any dish calling for a pretty side of preserved relish. With plenty left to give away.

tamarillo jam

It's mid-summer and that means it's Tamarillo time. This jam is an ideal Tree to Table Preserve you can make in less than one hour, not including the time it takes to climb the ladder and pick the tamarillos!

Recipe

❤ Tamarillo Jam

1.5kg tamarillos

1.5kg sugar

juice & rind of 2 freshly picked lemons

1 x 440gram tin of crushed pineapple, drained

Makes about 7 x 300ml jars

Method + Tips

Place saucer in the freezer. Butter the bottom of your preserving pan.

Slit tamarillos top & bottom with a cross to assist peeling them. Boil the jug & pour boiling water over the tamarillos to remove skins.  Do this twice if necessary or top up with more boiling water if skins aren't coming off easily enough. Skins can be quite thick, especially on underripe fruit.

Once skin-free, slice the flesh and place in a large preserving pan with ½ a cup of water and cook fruit until soft - about 10-12 minutes. You will need to stir occassionally to ensure fruit doesn't catch on the bottom of pan.

Reduce heat, add the sugar and stir really well until sugar fully dissolved. Increase heat, add lemon juice & cook for another 13-15 minutes - or until jam jells and setting point is reached. Stir as required to stop catching or burning.  Use the wrinkle freezer test (see marmalade mornings posting for more details). Take off the heat and stir through crushed pineapple.  Bottle jam and seal while hot.

Store in a cool, dark place. Keeps for 12-18 months.

Seasonal Jotting

Tamarillos are also known as tree tomatoes or tomato de arbol. They are exotic, versatile fruits native to the Andes of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. Also grown in a few other sub-tropical areas around the world, including our orchard at Weka Weka. Very tropical at this time of year.

You can see the rejects in the last pic. Don't ever use rotten, 2nds or damaged fruit for preserves. The same rule applies here as with all cooking - quality ingredients in, quality product out.

I can't bear to watch the birds attack these beautiful egg shaped fruits. Any fruit that satisfies my sweet tooth e.g great jam/cheesecake/smoothie as well as my savoury one e.g terrific chutney and salsa, is a real winner with me. Get your hands on some. Try them raw too. The yellow and orange ones are sweeter. Don't eat the skin and perhaps sprinkle a little sugar on the flesh when you've cut them in half.  Gotta run. Must pick & preserve mine now - before those pesty birds beat me to it.

lovely lemon curd

Recipe

❤ Lemon Curd

Ingredients

2 cups white sugar

110 grams butter

4 well beaten eggs

the finely grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

Adapted from Miss Schauer's Lemon Butter (The Schauer Australian Cookery Book)

Method + Tips

Fill large saucepan with boiling water approximately half full to use as base for double boiler.

Place sugar, butter, beaten eggs & lemon juice/rind into a small saucepan that will fit inside a larger one. Place inside larger saucepan without touching the bottom to create a double boiler. Cooking in this way allows the butter to cook slowly, on low heat and will not curdle mixture.  

Stir in one direction gently during the entire cooking process. I stop only towards the end once the lemon butter has started to thicken to allow a nice set & until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and is quite transparent.  Bottle and cover down with lid immediately, sealing whilst hot. Never seal when warm as it will become mouldy.  Refrigerate after opening to keep well for at least several weeks.

Same method can be used for any citrus fruit really. Blood Orange Curd is fab. Passionfruit Curd is also delicious. Don't bother modifying the recipe, just add the passionfruit pulp to this recipe at the beginning of stirring.

Tale

The phenomenon. It's quite remarkable really. I'm the Lemon Butter Lady. Have been for quite some time now.  Perhaps I was just the only one crazy enough to stand & stir over a double boiler for the past seven years - Summer thru Spring and loving it. I took the baton from my Mum, who used to stir and bottle it for me for the Farmers Markets.

We especially love it when the lemons are just picked from the farm. Promise me you'll use your own or local lemons. Don't buy imports. Every backyard or balcony tub should have its own lemon tree. Whether of the Meyer or Lisbon variety, it doesn't matter. Have you seen the colour of Lemon Curd sold in the supermarkets? Check it out - it's grey. How'd they manage that?!

I'm glad this lemon curd is so well loved. It's such a simple recipe - a real winner. Whether you call it Lemon Butter or Lemon Curd is irrelevant. Just call it delicious. Fill pastry cases with it & atop a meringue. Spread it on warm scones, toast, muffins and pikelets.  Use as a sponge filling too.

I've had many a loyal customer over the years tell me they eat it directly from the jar out of the fridge. Whichever use you find for it, long live lemon curd.

marmalade mornings

"The thrill of making one's own jams, jellies & preserves never seems to diminish.  With every making we have pleasure in seeing the results of our labour and feel the joy of achievement and economy" Miss Amy Schauer

Recipe

3 Fruits Marmalade

4 lemons ❤ 2 large oranges ❤ 2 large grapefruit ❤ 1.1 litres/2 pints water ❤ 900g/2lbs sugar

Grapefruit & Ginger Marmalade

3 lemons ❤ 3 large grapefruit ❤ 3.5 litres water ❤ 2.5 cm piece of fresh root ginger (peel it and add to the pan, remove it before adding the sugar) ❤ 2.25kg sugar ❤ 175grams chopped crystallized ginger (stir in after setting and skimming)

Method + Tips

You will need; a good quality, large (e.g holds 13litres+) heavy based jam pot, long handled wooden spoons, sharp chefs knife for paring fruit, scales, metal ladle, stainless steel jug for pouring, muslin for tying up pips, kitchen string for tying up muslin bag, wooden board, sugar thermometer (not essential but handy), citrus zester to remove the fruit skin but not bitter pith and sterilised jars/lids.

This general principle of making marmalade works with most citrus fruits. There's alot of little tips here. But it's straight forward and each tip is important to achieve success every time. You will notice conserve recipes vary slightly from cook to cook. Stick to the basic principles -  beginner jam makers, remind yourself it's an art form that requires time.

We've talked equipment. Let's talk produce. Love the sour class of citrus for marmalade i.e Seville oranges, cumquats, lemons, grapefruit, pomelos and limes.  Never use cheap, poor quality fruit for any jam making. Choose firm freshly picked - on the under-ripe side is terrific. Under-ripe fruit contains a good balance of acid and pectin to help it jell. Never use overripe soft fruit in jam making. And it only takes one rotten little berry from a punnet to destroy your efforts. Fruit highest in pectin levels; currants, cranberries, lemons, quinces, cumquats, grapefruit, all oranges & tangerines. Grab a fruit guide from your local greengrocer or markets.

Let's talk balance of flavours. Only limited by your creativity. I adore a combination of citrus fruits (e.g 3 or 4 fruits as above). I'm also keen on additions to balance out combinations - like grapefruit with organic local ginger - such as the recipe above. Pear or Apricot with vanilla bean, Rhubarb with ginger, Dried Fig with walnuts, Orange with coriander and ginger - the possibilites are endless.  

Prep Sterilise your jars in a very hot cycle in the dishwasher. Then stand them on a wooden board to insulate the jars and your benchtop. Wash and dry your fruit well to commence. Place a saucer in the freezer for later. Lightly butter the bottom of your jam pot.

DON'T  be tempted to cut corners, ever use a microwave or food processor. Make marmalade over two days. Jam & Conserves in an hour or two. When using dried fruit for conserves, soak overnight. Don't increase the quantities unless you have large commercial pots/equipment. Respect the process below. It's absolutely worth it.

Preparing the fruit Wash and dry fruit well. Peel the rind off the citrus using a zester. The zester that looks like an odd fork, with tiny holes at the tip of its teeth. These holes cut lovely long fine strips of rind from the citrus fruit and leave behind the white pith if you don't push down too hard. Halve and quarter the fruit, slicing the fruit into segments. Put any seeds, pith and trimmings aside.

Muslin Bag trimmings  Now put the seeds and white core/pith into a muslin bag. Place fruit, juice and muslin bag in a tupperware plastic bowl, adding enough cold water to barely cover fuit to float. Must be non metallic. Rest overnight.  In this way you will never have to use store bought pectin, jam sugar or jam setter. The all natural pectin from this slow food process will set your jam perfectly.  

Boiling the fruit  Next morning, transfer all contents of the bowl to your big jam pot. Never have this pot more than 1/3 full. Hang muslin bag tied over the side of the pot so its dangling in liquid.  Cover and bring mixture to the boil over high heat, reduce heat and simmer for about 45mins-1hour, or until rind is tender. Liquid level will reduce.

Measuring the fruit/adding sugar Using a stainless steel heatproof jug, allow 1 cup of sugar to each cup of fruit mixture, using the quantities of sugar in the recipe as a rough guide. Remove muslin bag. You can press extra pectin out of the muslin bag with a wooden spoon against the side of the pot before you remove it & before adding the sugar.  Use regular but good quality granulated white sugar for clear sparkling jam.  I avoid the home brand sugar for jam making. Return the fruit mix and sugar to the stove, stirring well over high heat without boiling until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Rapid Boil  Boil rapidly until the marmalade jells, reaching setting point. Keep a saucer in the freezer to test your jam has set nicely. It's called the 'wrinkle' test. When you push the jam with your finger on a cold saucer, the jam will wrinkle up when set nicely.  Jam is ready to set at 105-110C (221-230F) if you have a candy thermometer you wish to use. I just wrinkle test it.

Finish  Stand the marmalade for 15 minutes to allow fruit to settle and disperse. Remove and discard any scum from the surface. Pour out into sterilised jars & seal while hot. Label and date. Store in cool dark place. 

You can preserve everything from prickly pears and pineapples to melon and marrow. Be brave, give it a go. Message me if you need any more tips or trouble shooting. Happy to help.

Seasonal Jotting

Each morning I spread warm buttered toast with a teaspoon of handmade marmalade. It's so exciting to preserve food until nature makes it available again next season. Beware the joy of achievement in this dying art form. Making preserves is seriously addictive once you master it. Better yet, the bright handcut marmalade gifts are so pretty for friends at Christmas or to use on glazed baked ham.  

Here in Queensland we grow sensational citrus and some of the best organic ginger in the world. Buderim Ginger on the Sunshine Coast exports thousands of tonnes of fresh and processed ginger to over 17 countries each year. Their Ginger Festival in January is a wonderful flowering event. The varieties are overwhelming.

We've found the perfect damp, partially shaded spot at Weka Weka to grow this amazing herb.  At night their flowers are highly scented and seductive. Ginger grows from rhizomes - an underground bulb-like fleshy arrangement. This is also the commercial part. The rhizome which is the root, is best planted in Spring - September or October - here in Australia. I suggest always storing your fresh ginger in the freezer in a sealed plastic bag. It retains its moisture and nutrients for months.  As an addition to the Grapefruit Marmalade above - and so many of our Asian recipes - it's spectacular. Not to mention a great tonic and aphrodisiac... I'm told.