Author: Judith

my blog is plainandsimpleblog.com
recipes

Ham

JudithLeave a comment

slow roasted beans

By this stage of the season, simple is the adjective we reach for when thoughts turn to the day’s upcoming menu.

On recent supermarket visits, I notice basic items – the likes of yoghurt, eggs and honest loaves returning to people’s trolleys in an attempt to restore equilibrium after lavish seasonal feasting. Lovely as it is to enjoy the spoils of Christmas, we eventually seek out the familiar constituents our system and soul relies upon throughout the mainstay of the year.

Delectable leftovers must not be ignored either – so constructing a meal that incorporates feast remnants in a toned-down fashion, is the aim. Our succulent ham, after featuring as the celebration table hero, took a backseat to some lovely baby tomatoes and the pantry staple – beans. Here’s how it went:

750g small tomatoes
bulb of garlic separated into individually peeled cloves
200g chopped ham of the bone (small chunks, not thin slices)
salt and pepper
2 cans of beans (butter, cannellini or whatever you prefer) drained and rinsed
1/2cup chicken or vege stock
small bunch of oregano sprigs
feta cheese to serve

Place tomatoes, garlic and ham in a roasting pan, and cook for 30 minutes in a 180 degree celsius oven for 30 minutes. Season with pepper and a little salt. Once the tomatoes are shrivelling and the ham has crisped a little, add the beans, stock and oregano and cook for a further 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and crumble feta over the top. Serve with warmed pita bread.

pita beans hamPostscript:Ham still in plentiful supply, any further suggestions welcome…

 

book reviews · family · homemaking

Pippa

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Celebrate by Pippa Middleton If you can’t squander an afternoon leafing through a beautiful new book at this time of year, then when can you?

After perusing her newly published book, it appears Pippa Middleton and I may be kindred spirits. I say this sheepishly, as I initially let the media hype color my view of this young lady, and was reticent to open the cover. So glad I pushed past this bias, because I now have a lovely reference of simple ideas to add to my repertoire. Should you need a little inspiration, this is a valuable book to visit.

You may not wish to follow Pippa’s ideas slavishly, but a good 30 minutes spent within the pages serves as a wonderful reminder of the simple things you love to do – and need to carve out more time for. summerSet across the seasons, each section contains doable recipes, practical family activities and plenty of shoestring decorating ideas. With charming photos and illustrations as well as a smattering of childhood verse and cheery text, this is certainly a feel-good read.
Trifle

Luxuriating in the post-christmas peace, I can think of no better way to reward recent efforts, than disappearing into a new book – particularly one that sparks the imagination and opens the door to a sea of new projects to embark on in 2013. If you were the recipient of a new read this christmas, make sure you spend some quality time with it before the hubbub of the new year begins again. I’m happy to take your recommendations, as I’m sure ‘Celebrate’ will be devoured by the end of the week.

Postscript: It was this candid opening in Pippa’s book that really won me over –  ‘It’s a bit startling to achieve global recognition (if that’s the right word) before the age of thirty, on account of your sister, your brother-in-law and your bottom. One day I might be able to make sense of this. In the meantime, I think it’s fair to say that it has its upside and downside. I certainly have opportunities many can only dream of, but in most ways I’m a typical girl in her twenties trying to forge a career and represent herself in what can sometimes seem rather strange circumstances.’

recipes

steamed

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christmas pudding

Whether you make your pudding the night before or three months earlier, it’s going to taste wonderful – because you made it from scratch.

Like sound child rearing, a pudding needs you to be around. You needn’t hover, but it’s vital to be in the background for times when a gentle water top up (nurturing) or a watchful eye (safe-keeping) is required. Don’t think of pudding day as a tie, but rather an opportunity to consolidate and take respite from the hectic lead up – to Christmas.

You can soak the fruit for as long as you like, provided the bowl is covered or sealed – so essentially, it is done in two stages. Once cooked, your wrapped pudding will last for eons – I often make two so we are enjoying the spoils mid-winter.

It’s possible I have experimented with at least twenty recipe versions over the years, but this one has become the favorite. I hope it becomes yours too.

250g sultanas
250g raisins
250g currants
60g mixed peel
handful of glace cherries, halved
125g blanched almonds, chopped
1/2 cup brandy
250g butter
11/4 cups brown sugar
grated rind of 1 orange
4 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1tspn mixed spice
1tspn ground ginger
125g fresh breadcrumbs

  1. Combine fruit and nuts in a large bowl and pour over brandy. Leave overnight, covered.
  2. Cream butter, add sugar and rind and beat until light and fluffy.
  3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  4. Stir through sifted flour and spices.
  5. Stir through breadcrumbs and fruit mix until everything is well mixed.
  6. Grease an 8 cup capacity pudding basin and line the base with greased baking paper. Spoon in the pudding mixture. Cover the top with a circle of baking paper. Wrap a sheet of baking paper over the top of the basin and secure tightly around the rim with twine. Make sure the paper has a pleat through the centre to allow for the pudding as it rises.
  7. Place the basin gently into a large pot of boiling water, with enough water that it comes halfway up the side of the basin. (To stop the pudding burning on the base, place an upturned saucer on the bottom of the pot and stand the basin on it.) Cover the pot and let the pudding steam for 6 hours. You will need to check the water level frequently, and top up with boiling water from the kettle when required to keep the level.
  8. When cooked, let pudding completely cool, turn out of the basin and wrap in cling wrap. Store in refrigerator until required.

pudding fruit mix

recipes

Crunch

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Chocolate almond cookies

Done with shopping? Me too. The last of my gifts are coming from the peace and solitude of the kitchen, sans parking lots, harried faces and never-ending landfill.

These cookies epitomise pure cooking escapism – easy to prepare, high yielding and incredibly toothsome (love that word, it sounds like a descriptor that would horrify a dentist). Depending on how reasonably stocked your pantry is, you may not even need to leave the house to get your batches underway.

And just to give you that little extra bang for your baking buck, the mix can be rolled into half-size balls, for twice the output. Put a couple of choc chips on top as soon as they are lifted from the oven and you will end up with at least 30 of these:

chip-topped cookies

Start with the almond topped ones, or build on this mix and design your own.

125g softened butter
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ cups self-raising flour
½ cup cocoa
¾ cup dark chocolate chips
almonds to decorate

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
  2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
  4. Stir in flour and cocoa, then fold through chocolate chips. (The mix will be quite stiff)
  5. Roll tablespoonfuls into balls and place on greased baking trays. Flatten slightly with fingers.
  6. Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked. Cool on a wire rack. (makes about 20)

Postscript: If you have some bags and left over tags, you’ve got something to hand to your colleagues or neighbours over the next few days.

cookie bags

family

Spruce

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christmas tree

Despite the carpet of needles, the slight lean and the odd squashed bit, nothing beats the unmistakable scent permeating the entire house and the twinkling majesty of the christmas pine, steadfast in the corner of the room.

It seems there is a role for every family member to play in the christmas tree ritual. The careful manoeuver into the car by teenage son (rule of nature: size of tree selected must exceed boot depth by 50cm) with crossed fingers on the drive homeward that the prize does not escape through the unfastened hatch.

The installation into the living room – joint effort by all to ensure: tree stands straight rather than Pisa style, a minimum of detritus is shed along the way (mother’s priority) and enough room around base to allow for the sea of packages that will inevitably appear.

lights on the treeLights must be expertly applied before any form of decoration takes place. Teenage son is then excused to attach metres of fairy lights around the periphery of the home Lampoon style. At this point, teenage daughter with self-claimed aesthetic prowess, proceeds to direct the decoration process with as much skill and concentration as a philharmonic conductor. (Should any individual make an inadvertent ornament placement, you can be sure it will be carefully adjusted during her private visits to the tree).

decorating the tree

And taking in the wonder of it all, the youngest, whose role may not have visible significance, but one that ensures the magic, spirit and sparkle of the season pervades the entire household.

the final touches

craft · personal style

Pins

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Small pieces of stitching are usually enough to satisfy creative urges without becoming overwhelming projects that slip into the ‘will finish some day’ box.

Heart pins fit the bill. Creativity is assuaged in the selection of fabric and thread colour, and size ensures the piece makes it to completion. Pinning one onto a denim jacket or a canvas satchel, is quite gratifying – you have endorsed your look with your own logo.

Make yours by:

heart pin ingredients

  1. Cutting two large heart shapes from felt (I used old felted jumpers) and one small heart from a scrap of coordinating cotton fabric. These templates are perfect.
  2. Using a contrasting thread (stranded cotton is available in a myriad of colours) blanket stitch your cotton heart onto the front of one of the felt hearts.
  3. Sew a brooch pin (or safety-pin) to the back of the second felt heart.
  4. Place both felt hearts (blank sides together) and using a second contrasting thread, blanket stitch your way around the edges, so both are attached.
  5. If your heart is to be gifted, cut some coloured card into squares, pin on your heart and slip into a plastic bag.

Postscript: See if you can stop at one.

recipes

Jam

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apricot jam

Tell me who’s going to pass by firm ripe apricots at the market for $1.99 per kilo? Not me, and therefore the kitchen has a distinct aroma of stone fruit about it this week.

Spread (thickly) on toast or dolloped over some creamy yoghurt and muesli, apricot jam happens to be one of life’s little pleasures. With the current prices and the jam sugar I mentioned here, there is no reason why you cannot have a pantry shelf full of it either.

As I was stirring the pot, I noticed one of the ‘feature’ tiles in the splashback and it made me smile.

kitchen tile

I must have cleaned and moved past this tile at least a million times, and today the realisation that an apricot keeps watch over the cooktop, came to be. How often are we looking but never really see?

If you would like to get your jars full this week, use the same recipe as I did for the White Peach Jam. Of course you will have to move quickly, because fresh apricots disappear quickly if like me, you live with a group of fruit bats…

apricot jam and apricot

gardening · health and wellbeing

Plot

Judith3 Comments

vegetable garden plot

There aren’t many places more grounding than a vegetable plot.

To potter amongst the growth, inspecting leaves for bugs and looking for signs of a budding flower – or better – a spent flower giving life to its fruit, is a most pleasant way of expending time. A quick morning reconnaissance with a cup of coffee in hand, can become an hour in what seems like no time.

A vegetable patch, aside from the obvious benefits of bountiful produce, provides a place of introspection and digestion of all that has taken place in your busy world prior. With only snails and the occasional thrip to hear your thoughts, your mind is given licence to open itself to broader pastures, normally fenced off by the chatter of indoor living. New resolve, clarification and acceptance are often arrived at as a tomato branch is secured to a stake or withered foliage is removed to make way for new. The patch is a place to reassess, formulate and commit to future steps.

Gardening expertise comes not from books, a degree or birthrite but by simply – gardening. The former will certainly put the icing on your earthy cake but the latter: turning over soil, planting and watering provides the knowledge that embeds itself and becomes second nature – over time.

Start small. Mark out  an area to dig and fertilise. Mine is located several steps from the kitchen door, to ensure quick retrieval of herbs in mid-stir or a greater likelihood of a visit when the weather becomes inclement. Choose a few vegetables that appeal and some herbs for instant gratification. No doubt some will flourish, others will die or be feasted upon by invertebrates before you, but inevitably your place of inner sanctum has been established.

broad beans

Postscript: and your horticultural career has begun.

family

Ritual

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Maamoul (date-filled)

Cast your mind back to your developing years, and I daresay it will result in a generous haul of recollections firmly imprinted by the repetition of simple customs and rituals performed by your family as they went about their daily business.

For me, grocery shopping on a Saturday morning, followed by a trip to the local newsagent for swap cards (carefully selected to make up sets and pairs with those painstakingly mounted in albums at home) was a weekly event that easily springs to mind. Now, as an adult, this has evolved into a regular excursion to an open air market for produce, followed by lunch at a middle-eastern bakery.

A custom of the Lebanese community at Christmastime is to bake maamoul  (pictured above). These delectable crumbly semolina biscuits filled with walnuts or dates, are such a treat, with the intricate pattern achieved by pressing the dough into a beautifully tooled wooden mold. Tis nigh on impossible to leave this bakery without a white paper bag filled with a small selection.

maamoul (walnut filled)

After perusing the wide selection of exotic grocery items and delicacies the bakery stocks and the purchases are made, it is time to sit on the well-worn timber chairs at rickety tables, enjoy good coffee and

spinach and feta

feta and spinach pies.

This constitutes a satisfying week-end ritual for us, and I am sure in many middle-eastern kitchens, families are currently taking pleasure in their seasonal ritual of baking maamoul.

watching passers by

Postscript: and what better way to lay the foundations for fond recollections, than enjoying an oregano pizza in the bakery window?