Lemony rice pudding with poached tamarillos

This is the rice pudding to convert all rice pudding haters. It is rich and lemony and the strips of peel melt down and you get a lemon hit when you bite one. This recipe is an adapted Jane Grigson recipe and you can serve it with anything you like. I have done it with slow roasted quince and poached rhubarb before. Its nice with fruit with a bit of tartness to cut through the rich rice. My mum requested this for Mother's day dessert and she loved it.


Lemony rice pudding
50g short grain rice
300mls milk
300mls cream
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon

Peel the lemon thinly, taking off strips with a vegetable peeler. Put rice, lemon peel, sugar, butter, milk and cream into an ovenproof dish. Cover with tin foil and cook in a very slow oven, 125°C, for 2-3 hours until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and it looks deliciously creamy. Stir it every 3/4 hour.

When the pudding is done, give it a good stir and add the juice from the lemon and some more cream or milk if it is too solid. I cooked the pudding for 2 1/2 hours and then let it rest in a warm place for about half and hour, it only need a little of milk to loosen it up.

Poached tamarillos
8 tamarillos
2 cup water
1 cup sugar
Zest of  one oranges and lemon
1 cinnamon quill
1 star anise 

Meanwhile you can get on to your tamarillos. You can do these ahead and then gently reheat them when your pudding is ready.
Put a small pot of water on to boil. Score the bottoms of the tamarillos with a cross and when the water has boiled blanch them in boiling water for about 10-15 seconds. You can leave them in a little longer if they aren't the ripest. After about 10 seconds, scoop them out and plunge them into iced water. When cool, starting at the scored end carefully peel them and set aside.

Place the water, sugar, zest, cinnamon and star anise in a saucepan and simmer to dissolve the sugar. Add in the peeled tamarillos and bring to a simmer and gently cook them for 10-15 minutes.


To serve...
100g almonds - roasted and roughly chopped
Extra cream or yoghurt if you like

When your rice pudding is nearly ready, bring your tamarillos back up to temperature.
Spoon the rice puddings into bowls and top with the tamarillos and with a little extra syrup, sprinkle over the chopped almonds and serve.

Squashed Raspberry, Strawberry and Mint Tart

Today we went strawberry picking at the local orchard just up the road. Its one of those things that is so close and easy that you often forget to do it! With such a perfectly sunny day we had no excuse not to go today.
The orchard is beautiful and you can pick all sorts of fruit there - but today strawberries were our target.

The Local Orchard

The strawberries have been a bit hammered lately by the crazy, hot weather we are having at the moment in Melbourne. But despite that they are still juicy, sweet and full of flavour. Not to mention they are cheap as chips!

Strawberries!!

So what to do with so many strawberries - something that highlights their delicious flavour. 

Below is a very easy summer berry tart. You can substitute the berries for any berries.

Squashed Raspberry, Strawberry and Mint Tart

x2 sheets of pre-rolled puff pastry

1 egg white

1T caster sugar

1 punnet of raspberries

an equal amount of strawberries (or a bit more if you want to load the tart up!)

1T icing sugar

1cup sour cream

1/4 cup cream

1/3 cup brown sugar

mint for garnish

Preheat oven to 200C. Lay x1 sheet of of baking paper on a square of non-stick paper. Cut the other sheet of pastry into 2cm strips. Layer up the strips on all 4 sides of the original sheet of pastry to make edges.

Brush the whole pastry case with egg white. Prick the pastry case base all over with a fork. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30minutes.

Take pastry out of the fridge and sprinkle with the castor sugar.

Place pastry in the oven for approximately 20minutes.

Remove and leave to cool.

Place sour cream, cream and brown sugar into a bowl and mix until smooth.

Place the raspberries and icing sugar into another bowl. Using a fork squash the raspberries until you get a consistency you like. Make sure you mix in all the icing sugar as you go. Slice the strawberries and add to the raspberries.

Place the cream mixture into the pastry case, top with the berry mixture and then place mint on top.

Enjoy!

Flourless Orange Cake with Syrup

The thing that I hate the most is wasting quality produce. So every weekend I go through the fruit bowl and pick out all the fruit that is nearing its 'time to go in the compost' date. I then google for a cake recipe that has the fruit I have picked out in the recipe. This way we have a cake to eat with lunch for the week and we don't waste any fruit. This is how the above orange cake came to be in our cake tin, and, boy was it a good one.
Usually my partner juices any left over oranges so that we have fresh OJ in the fridge. However, when I saw this recipe I wrestled the oranges off him.
We usually always have Navel Oranges in the house. We find that, one, they usually have the best flavour and juiciness, and, two, the local oranges tend to be all navel and we try to buy all local produce. Its good for the environment, good for the local economy and produce tends to be tastier as it is fresher. However, you could use any type of orange, mandarin, tangelo, etc.
I have given you two syrup recipes to choose from. In the photo above I have used the orange syrup but I have previously made a killer orange cake using the spiced coriander syrup which is delicious!! So use what ever one you feel like. I know the coriander syrup seems weird but definitely give it a go sometime - you will be pleasantly surprised.

FLOURLESS ORANGE CAKE

2 Oranges

3 Eggs

1cup sugar

3cups almond meal

1t baking powder

Pre-heat oven to 170C. Grease and line a cake tin.

Place oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to the boil and boil for 15mins.

Drain the water and repeat the process again.

Once the oranges have been twice boiled drain them and chop the whole orange roughly. Remove any seeds. Then place the whole orange (pith and all) into a food processor. Blitz until a smooth puree is formed.

Meanwhile beat eggs and sugar together until pale yellow and thick.

Fold almond meal, baking powder and orange puree into the egg/sugar mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 1hour.

Once cooked let sit for 15mins then carefully using a skewer poke holes in the top. Then pour either one of the following syrups over top and allow it to soak in.

Serve with organic natural yoghurt.

ORANGE SYRUP

1 orange

3/4 cup sugar

Zest the orange and place zest in a small saucepan. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and boil for 5mins. Drain.

Juice the orange. 

Place the juice, sugar and boiled zest into a saucepan.

Cook over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup has thickened slightly.

SPICED CORIANDER SYRUP

2t coriander seeds

100g sugar

100ml water

2t lemon juice

Toast and grind up the coriander seeds.

Add ground coriander to saucepan with the rest of the ingredients.

Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has thickened slightly.

Lemon sugared doughnuts

Made these bad boys today at work. Delicious dipped in lemon curd!