For the soul

Hubs and I have had a massive attack of hayfever this season. Before moving to New Zealand, I never had any allergies or hayfever. Our first year here, 2010, I didn’t get hayfever but this year….well, two major attacks. Thanks so much New Zealand!

Hayfever tends to strike in Spring and Autumn (or Fall for my American readers). And it has nothing to do with hay and you don’t actually get a fever. Hayfever is allergic rhinitis and occurs when you breathe in an allergen, such as dust or pollen. I read that if you move locations, you can suddenly get hit with hayfever despite never having suffered from it before because there is different flora. The main enemies appear to be birch trees, ash, oak, horse chestnut, willow (all of which we have on our property) and ryegrass. This year is a bumper season for grass too. There’s so much grass around and grass pollen flitting through the air. I heard that bales of hay will be going for around NZ$4.50 because of the abundance of grass – last year they went for anywhere between $6.00-8.00 per bale.

The height of the grass pollen season in New Zealand occurs between October and Christmas and thanks to lush grass this year, everyone I meet says they have hayfever. The major amount of pollen in the air occurs between 6.00am and midday, so I’ve learnt to try and stay inside between these hours. But with horses and energetic dogs, that doesn’t always happen. I also try to wear sunglasses to stop the pollen from getting in the eyes and I slap Vaseline inside the nostrils to block the pollen from getting up the schnoz.

Everyone has been discussing why hayfever is rife this year. People are saying that there’s a lot of dust swirling around because of the reconstruction going on in Christchurch. I’ve also been told that liquefaction in Christchurch has contributed but not sure why liquefaction would be a culprit.

My first attack was in May this year and I seemed to meet with success by taking tissue salts. But it hasn’t worked this time. Since arriving back from Rome in October, I’ve been plagued with a runny nose and itchy eyes. So I tried another natural remedy – Allermed – which everyone in Oxford seems to know about. Nope, doesn’t work for me.

Unfortunately, our attacks have been so bad, hubs and I now have chest infections. I’m trying to avoid taking antibiotics. The doctor prescribed them for hubs but I’m relying on natural remedies. Here’s what I’m doing:

• I chew slowly on some fresh ginger. Ginger contains natural decongestants and is a powerful anti-inflammatory;
• Honey – a couple of teaspoons per day to soothe the throat and chest. I’m using clover honey straight from the bees down the road, courtesy of a local farmer. By eating honey produced by local bees, you can desensitize your immune system to local pollens;
• My father’s remedy for any infection – take two Panadol, wrap yourself up in warm clothes, go to bed and sweat it out (this never seems to fail me). The pores open up and whatever toxins are in the body are excreted;
• Organic apple cider vinegar – put some in water and swig on it. I take a glass of water (250ml) and about 2 tablespoons of ACV. Sip all at once or swig throughout the day. If you can’t stand the strength of the ACV, sip on some honey or add honey to the ACV and water mixture. ACV is a purifier and can break down the phlegm. It’s also acidic so rinse your mouth out with water or brush your teeth after taking this remedy.

I now know that I need to start the honey and ACV remedies well before the onset of the next hayfever season. I’ll be taking a tablespoon of honey per day and the ACV remedy once a day.

We both felt so lousy last weekend, I decided to brew up a pot of chicken soup for the soul. The steam from the soup can clear blocked nasal passages and the chook broth can reduce inflammation and ease sore throats. We hadn’t been able to get out for our weekly shopping, so I had to make do with what was in the pantry.

Here’s my recipe:

• 4 or 5 chicken thighs
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thinnish slices
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 7-8 cups chicken broth – I had no chicken wings or carcass to make a broth out of – so made it from chicken stock cubes
• 2 cups egg noodles

This was all I had on hand but you could also throw in 2 celery stalks, trimmed and cut; leeks and 200grams of barley (instead of the egg noodles).

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil and cook the sliced onion until transparent. Add 7 cups of chicken broth, along with the carrots (and whatever other veges you use) and egg noodles. Chuck the chicken into the water and make sure it’s fully covered. If not, use the remaining 1 cup of broth.

Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Take the chicken thighs out and allow the soup to simmer for another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, shred the chicken and after the 5 minutes is up, return to the soup. You can then add some tarragon or dill if you like. Stir, season to taste and serve up. The day before, I baked some Italian-style bread so we enjoyed the chook soup with a slice of bread.

This homeopathic remedy didn't work for me but some people swear by it.

Chicken soup for the soul.

Homemade Italian-style bread.

 

Foal watch

Karma has given me permission to show you her pregnancy photos. She was thinking of doing the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, a’la Demi Moore, but was far more interested in getting a pedicure yesterday. Our farrier is great (finally hit the jackpot). It’s been raining for the last week and we’ve spoken over the phone a couple of times about when he might be able to get out to the property. I wanted Karma’s hooves to be in tip top condition before the foal arrives (the things you think about!).

Yesterday was our first sunny day in ages and he hotfooted it out to do all the horse’s feet. This chap is over 70 years old and is amazing, with a capital A. He wanted to go see the horses in the race first of all and check Karma. He’s more than just a farrier; he’s a very caring man when it comes to horses. He’s invited me to a natural horse clinic in late February/early March – just hope this is before my return to Rome. Considering this chap has over 50 years’ experience with horses, following natural horsemanship, I can learn a lot from him, so I’m all ears whenever he pops in to see the horses.

Back to Karma. Karma has been a dream mare whilst pregnant. Calm and affectionate. I’m sensing her time is near. The tail has been up a bit and her teats are a bit waxy. Turn away now if you don’t want to know about the rest – her “bits” are elongated more. She’s not restless but I think dropping the foal is going to be happening sooner rather than later.

But since she’s a maiden mare and the weather is a bit iffy, she could cross her legs and hold on. Mares can give birth anywhere between 320 and  350 days – depending on what you read and who you talk to. I’ve read that some mares can be in-foal for over 360 days! I could be totally wrong and Karma’s nowhere near ready to drop the bundle but better to be safe than sorry.

Since mares have the habit of dropping foals in the darkness of night, I moved her to the foaling paddock yesterday. Rosie and Muff are nearby but it’s important for the mare to have some privacy. I might get a foal alarm but, as the vet said, Karma could lie down for a snooze and I rush out thinking it’s the birth. The vet reckons let nature take its course. I imagine I’ll have many restless nights ahead and you’ll find me lurking behind trees in the darkness of night, making sure Karma is okay.

I’ve had a few emails from people asking me to talk about Karma’s broodmare mix. I don’t believe in feeding my horses any processed crap. After chats with natural horse people, I am mixing up:

• 2 scoops top quality lucerne chaff (has great nutritional value);
• 1 SMALL scoop organic horse muesli. I make this out of steamed rolled oats and rolled barley; sunflower seeds and a touch of molasses. Molasses can be bad for your horse’s teeth, not to mention it can make your horses fizzy. But broodmares need energy for the birth and feeding the foal;
• To this I add an organic mineral mix and garlic granules, along with some equine flaxseed oil;
• I then add enough organic apple cider vinegar to wet the mixture and I thoroughly mix.

With good paddock grass (but not too much given the Spring toxins) and hay for roughage and fibre, Karma is getting a good balanced regime. The vet said she’s looking good and whatever I’m doing, keep going.

Meanwhile, Karma asks that you make no comments about her rotundness. She is very sensitive about “weight issues” as she’s always been a chunky girl. But she’s very proud that she’s about to become a first-time Mum, so wants the whole world to see her pregnant glory.

What? You're asking me to turn sideways so people can see my pregnant belly? You know I'm sensitive about my weight!

Zeph and Karma are good friends. He's telling her she looks beautiful slim or chunky.

Ok so let me suck in my stomach a bit so I don't look TOO fat. Hang on....

Wait! That human waiter has just delivered some food. Who cares about the camera when there's food around! I LOVE my food.

 

Old-fashioned tea cake

I’m mildly excited. The old, old, old oven in our New Zealand house finally gave up the ghost. It belonged to the previous owners and had seen better days even then I reckon. So we had to bite the bullet and get a new cooktop and stove. We decided to go with induction technology. And this also meant throwing out pots and pans and buying ones that can be used with an induction cooker. Fortunately, Briscoes had a 60% off sale so we managed to get some Hampton & Mason stuff, plus some Scanlon cookware from Farmers (sadly, not on sale).

I say I’m mildly excited because an induction cooktop has no horrid electrical coils and cooking is much faster and more energy-efficient. As you know dear reader, I’ve only recently discovered the room in the house known as a kitchen (after years of working in organisations). And besides, I’ve never really been much of a whiz in the kitchen.

But this induction business is so super-fast and easy, I had to whip up a tea cake. Tea cakes seem to have gone out of fashion. I well remember growing up with afternoon soirées filled with tea cakes and cucumber sandwiches (courtesy of my mother who was quite the entertainer in her younger years). The tea cakes were always lightly dusted with cinnamon and sugar. And I loved them.

The old oven, however, used to give me grief. Without fail, it would burn the outside edges of cakes and was one of those hideous “hot ovens” (an oven that just seems to have one temperature, hot). But with induction technology, I got the perfect tea cake first go. The recipe is from my mother’s handwritten recipe book and is from the 1940s (it was actually my grandmother’s recipe but my mother made it regularly).

1 tablespoon butter

2 eggs, well-beaten

1/2 cup sugar

1 heaped cup self-raising flour (sifted)

almost 1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon melted butter

Pre-heat oven to 180C/356F. Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, milk, vanilla, salt and then the sifted flour. You end up with a mixture that looks a bit like the consistency of whipped cream. Whack mixture into a cake tin – round or square – and bake for 30 minutes. Whilst tea cake is still hot, brush melted butter across top of cake and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Serve with a piping hot cup of wonderfully made tea.

New induction cooktop and oven - teacake is baking inside.

My mother's handwritten recipe.

Tea cake - fresh out of the oven, brushed with melted butter and dusted with sugar and cinnamon.

 

Eggs gone wild

I’ve never been much of an egg eater. I like eggs but just never seem to fancy eggs for breakfast – unless I go out for breakfast on the weekend. Then I like nothing better than a good Eggs Benedict.

But I have to figure out what to do with eggs now because the chooks have gone wild. They are busy laying. And laying. And laying. We have eggs coming out of our ears. So I thought what better way to use up some eggs that whip up a good old-fashioned quiche. Growing up, I remember quiches were considered fine dining. Maybe they’re a bit ordinary now but I consulted my mother’s recipes and found an easy quiche recipe that requires minimal time and effort. My kind of recipe!

Basically, you can chuck anything into this quiche. I’ve whipped it up several times now and have used leftover chicken, beef, any veges to hand, herbs from the garden and so on. It cooks in around 40 minutes and is delish with a crisp garden salad. It doesn’t have a base, making it an even easier recipe.

Here’s what you need:

4 eggs

1.5 cups of milk

1/2 cup self-raising flour

3 tablespoons of melted butter

1 cup grated cheese (although I like to bump this up to 1.5 cups)

Filling – anything you have leftover, any veges etc. You’ll need about 2 cups.

Set your oven to 180C or approximately 350F (356F is the correct conversion). Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, milk, flour and melted butter in a large bowl. Toss in the cheese and fold through. Toss in your fillings. I like to fry some leftovers before adding to the quiche mixture.

That’s it! Now, pour the mixture into a large quiche dish and whack in the oven for 40 minutes or until set. Voilà.

 

Baked sago pudding

Sago is a bit like quinces. You don’t hear too much about either these days. Or tapioca for that matter. But back in the day, they were staples on the family dinner menu. I grew up loving sago. Both my grandmother and mother used to whip up sago desserts. Usually, a lemon sago pudding.

The Thai people are very good at sago desserts (or might be tapioca, not sure). And at a Malaysian restaurant back in Sydney’s Lane Cove, my great mate and I used to delight in the sago dessert with palm sugar and coconut milk.

So when I spotted some sago in the supermarket the other day, I decided to try one of my grandmother’s sago pudding recipes. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure about this dessert. It’s not very sweet. So I had it with some vanilla ice-cream and a bit of maple syrup. Without these extras, I think it was a bit bland, albeit it had a delicate flavour. I’m going to try again using a different recipe based on coconut milk.

But if you’ve never had sago before, this is an easy dessert to try. And you can add whatever you like to it if you agree with me that it’s a bit bland.

Here’s what you need:

* 250ml or 1 cup of sago

* 2 eggs, separated

* 500ml milk

* 2ml vanilla essence

* 1/2 cup sugar

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

First up, cover the sago with enough water and let it soak overnight. The sago will absorb most of the water, if not all. Just use enough water to cover the sago and don’t drain the water off when it comes to making the pudding.

Preheat your oven to 180 C or 350 F. Then heat the milk in a saucepan to lukewarm and stir in the sago. Remove from heat. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and salt in a bowl. Then add the milk and sago mixture a bit at a time, stirring well between each addition.

Now beat your egg whites until stiff and fold into the milk and sago mixture. Stir in the vanilla essence and pour into a greased ovenproof dish. Bake for around 40 minutes or until set. Serve your pudding hot. I think this pudding could taste quite good with golden syrup, honey, cinnamon or maybe even some jam.

Sago pudding mixture - ready to be poured into baking dish after having folded in the egg whites and vanilla essence.

Baked sago pudding with a dollop of ice-cream.

 

Gifts galore

And speaking of my birthday as I was yesterday, I received more great gifts. Zeph and Zsa Zsa presented me with a slow cooker. Yeegads people: if only you knew! All my life, I have really tried to avoid cooking. Apart from a short stint as a teenager, when I used to cook with my dad, I’ve not been known for my culinary abilities. But since taking a “career break” and moving to wonderful New Zealand, I have become familiar with the kitchen.

I’ve noticed that slow cookers seem to be a big thing here. Isn’t a slow cooker simply a reincarnation of that icon of the 1970s – the Crockpot? Or was the crockpot a clever renaming of the slow cooker? I remember my dad’s crockpot. It was a burnt orange colour (mind you, wasn’t everything in the 70s a burnt orange colour?). So when Zeph and Zsa Zsa asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I thought I’d ask for a slow cooker largely because I’m such a lazy cook. I figure if you can toss everything into one gigantic pot and leave it to cook away for 6-8 hours – bonus! So they bought me a Russell Hobbs 6.5 litre slow cooker and two recipe books.

Hubby excelled himself and bought me a gorgeous silver mesh bracelet studded with black stones and beads. It’s by Louis Thompson, not sure who he is but love, love, love the bracelet.

Zsa Zsa posing with the gorgeous fuschia and black bag the bracelet came in.

Louis Thompson bracelet.

Cookbook for slow cookers - best recipes.

Second cookbook.

Russell Hobbs 6.5L slow cooker.

Hubby is cooking my birthday dinner - Moroccan Honey Spiced Lamb.

 

Bombe Alaska

How negligent of me dear reader! I haven’t posted a recipe in AGES. I admit to being sidetracked by Zeph and my trip back to Oz. But let me redeem myself.

We had some guests over for dinner last week and I thought I’d whip up a Bombe Alaska – a favourite of the 1970s. I was ferreting through my mother’s recipes and found a pretty simple one. Bombe Alaska is a rather vivid childhood memory for me because my Dad once set fire to one. Well, not quite but this spectacular dessert is usually flavoured with liqueur and you pour brandy over the finished Bombe and set it alight. That’s when things went a little wrong for my Dad – too much brandy I suspect and with curtains very near to the dining table…..well, let’s just say the fire brigade was nearly called out.

So I decided to omit the “meringue on fire” part of this dessert. I used a combination of French Vanilla and Chocolate ice creams but frankly I think you can toss in any ice cream you like. I reckon honey nougat would be fab. I used blueberries and toasted almonds in the Bombe because that’s all I had in the pantry and wanted to give the Bombe a bit of a twist. But you don’t have to include anything other than ice cream really. You could just serve it with a wonderful caramel sauce (such as the Cahills Caramel sauce I recreated) or any other variation you like.

Here’s what you need:

1 x sponge cake or madeira cake (you can use this recipe from the 1940s for the sponge cake)

1 Litre ice cream

4 egg whites

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Frozen blueberries, raspberries, strawberries – or whatever fruit you like

1/2 cup toasted flaked almonds or any other nuts you like

2 tablespoons jam – raspberry or strawberry – or 2 tablespoons of Marsala or your favourite liqueur

• Line a 23cm tin with baking paper and cover the base with the sponge cake. Just cut the sponge to fit, doesn’t need to be perfect.
• Spread jam over or drizzle with liqueur.
• Cover with a layer of ice cream. To spread easily, just whack the tub of ice cream in hot water for about 10 seconds, then the ice cream should slip out of the tub. Here’s where you can get inventive – a layer of vanilla ice cream, then a layer of chocolate and so on.
• Scatter frozen berries and toasted almonds over the ice cream layer OR you can omit this step.
• Whack your Bombe base into the freezer for a few hours. It must be rock hard.
• When ready to prepare, crank oven up to 250ºC/482 ºF.
• Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Gradually add the sugar, beating to make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and the meringue is standing stiff.
• Get your Bombe base out of the freezer and transfer to a heatproof plate.
• Spoon meringue over the base making sure the ice cream is completely covered. Covering the ice cream helps insulate it from the blast of heat you’re about to subject it to – so make sure you can’t see any ice cream.
• You can go wild at this point and pile the meringue on so it’s like a tower.
• Whack in oven for 5 minutes BUT make sure you watch it carefully. You want the meringue to be lightly-browned not cremated.

If you want the “flaming meringue”, take the Bombe out of the oven when meringue is lightly-browned. Get 3 tablespoons of brandy and pour over top of the Bombe. Ignite with a match and watch your guests cower in fear. Just be very, very careful that you’re not near any flammable materials.

Bombe Alaska base with sponge and ice cream layer, blueberries and toasted almond flakes.

Just out of oven - you want a lightly-browned meringue.

Crap iPhone shot but you get the idea of how yummy this dessert can be.

 

American shortcake

Whoa! WAY TOO MUCH cream on this creation. I went a bit overboard. I admit it. In fact, this American Shortcake should be festooned with ruby-red strawberries snuggled on a bed of minimal cream. Somehow, I did the reverse. Oh well.

This recipe is from my grandmother’s handwritten notes. I’d say it’s from around the 1950s or 1960s as most of my grandmother’s recipes were from that time period.  I don’t remember her ever making it though. Probably because, like me, she was always on a diet. But over Christmas, I thought what the heck and decided to whip it up and stun the guests we had over for dinner. Stunned they were but most likely due to the humongous amount of cream weighing down the cake.

So if you decide to make it, just decorate the top with a chunky layer of strawberries and then a dollop or two of cream to finish it off. Here’s the recipe, which I’ve converted to metric.

2.5 cups plain flour, sifted

3.5 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

125g butter

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup icing sugar

3/4 cup milk

60g butter or marg, softened

strawberries + whipped cream

Sift together the flour, BP and salt. Then stir in the sugar. Cut the 125g butter into small pieces using a knife and then rub into the sifted mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and half the milk (make sure it’s only half) and stir with a fork until lightly blended. Add enough of remaining milk to get a fairly soft dough. Knead dough about 20 times on a lightly floured surface and divide into halves. You need to get two 20cm rounds, so just pat out the dough and then place on a lightly greased tray. Chuck into a very hot oven for about 20mins or until golden brown. Allow to cool.

Mix together the icing sugar and softened butter until smooth. Spread one of the halves with this mixture (I actually doubled the amount of icing sugar and butter). Cover this layer with sliced strawberries and sweetened whipped cream. Top with the other layer and finish with more strawberries and cream (far less cream than I used). Voilà!

Looks more like the snowy peaks of the Southern Alps than an American Shortcake.

 

Almond biscuits

I was busy baking over the Christmas/New Year period and must catch up on sharing the recipes with you. I whipped up a batch of almond biscuits to take to a friend’s place for New Year’s Eve. The recipe is from my mother’s handwritten recipe book and I reckon is from the 1960s or 1970s. Super simple and pretty tasty too. I had to convert from the old system to metric but I’ll give both.

1/4 lb or 114 grams butter

1/4 lb or 114 grams sugar

1/2 lb or 227 grams of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon almond essence (I bumped this up to 2 teaspoons and it wasn’t too much)

1 egg

Mix all together. You’ll get a sticky, stiff mixture. Form into balls and press top down lightly with a fork. Whack into moderate oven – around 180°/350°F for 15-20 mins. I pressed a walnut on the top of each biscuit while it was still warm – I didn’t have any almonds. And I sprinkled just a bit of caster sugar over the top.

Almond biscuits

 

Happy cooking

Dunsandel is not far from us. It’s a small rural community in the Canterbury region about halfway between Christchurch and Ashburton. If you blink as you’re passing through the town, you just might miss it. On our way back from Ashburton the other week, we stopped and visited the Dunsandel Store.

The store itself is from the 1880s and has been a billiard parlour, bicycle shop, drapery shop and a food bar. In 2001, it became a reinvented old-fashioned country general store and post office combined with a cafe. The food is amazing. Even better is the cookbook you can buy called A Year’s Worth: Recipes from the Dunsandel Store.

It’s probably the most attractive and cleverly designed cookbook I’ve seen in a long time. And the recipes are sensational. From lemon tarts to Irish soda bread, this book has everything. Divided into the four seasons, the recipes give you the opportunity to make your own quince paste; duck confit; old-fashioned winter puddings; hearty casseroles; and there’s even a section on how to plant herbs and use foraged foods such as nettle. There are templates to make animal-shaped biscuits and advice on what to do with a hare.

Basically, in this cookbook I have all I need. Plus, the photos and illustrations are colourful and inspiring. I managed to get an autographed copy from one of the authors of the book. This cookbook will become well-used and a personal favourite.

The Dunsandel Store cookbook. I also picked up some nifty measuring spoons.

Autographed by one of the authors.

Fabulous photos.

And more fab photos.

Great artwork.

Colourful illustrations throughout the book.

The section on Valetine's Day recipes.

The Summer recipes section.