When Life Gives You Lemons....

.... make Yucca!


While living in the US we we were introduced to a wonderful party drink called yucca (yucka) and despite having an abundant supply of lemons I'd never actually gotten around to making some of my own. The weekends have been sunny and the pool has been hovering around 30-31 degrees celsius/88 degrees fahrenheit - perfect conditions for a nice refreshing batch of yucca or as I like to call it "electric lemonade".

I think what had put me off making yucca until now was the fact that the original recipe calls for a 5th of vodka (750 mls) and unless you have company that's just a little too much alcohol for two people. Also, I've been unable to find a large enough glass jar. I scaled the recipe down by about a quarter and use an empty Ocean Spray Cranberry juice jar which works pretty well.

Here's the recipe:

Yucca Cocktail

Ingredients
175 mls vodka - approximately 6 fluid ounces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Ice
3-4 large lemons, deseeded and chopped small enough to fit through the mouth of your jar
A large glass jar with a wide mouth lid

Method
Mix vodka and sugar in the jar
Add lemons and ice
Wrap in a towel and shake until the sugar dissolves and the towel is starting to stick to the jar

Serve over ice in a tall glass
Enjoy

When Life Gives You Plums....

.... Make plum jam!


I was given a big bag of plums from someone at work and thought I would make a batch of jam. Although I’ve been making chutneys and relishes for regularly for the last few years it seems like a frillion years since I made jam. Things were going great, my jars were sterilised, my fruit and sugar bubbling away.


... and then my mum phoned me – right in the middle of the “stir constantly” stage. Frick on a Stick! After a brief conversation I went back to my jam making; stirring, stirring stirring. I looked at the timer on the microwave and thought – great, only seven minutes and 23 seconds to go. WRONG! I’d forgotten to put the timer and was looking at the actual time on the microwave clock. Who knows exactly how long I’d been stirring; I know I started it when the news still on and that finished at 7.00 pm. The recipe called for cooking the jam for 18 minutes so I think I may have overdone it, just a tad.


Frick on a Stick on a Brick! ……my mother phoned again as I was pouring the jam into the jars. “What part of I’m in the middle of fricking jam making don’t you understand mother??? “ She got her own back when I phoned her later and managed to time my call to be right in the middle of her favourite soap - “What part of I’m watching Coronation Street don’t you understand?” she asked. I love you mum!

Actually it didn't set quite as hard as I thought it might. Mum tells me that the trick is to stir a little hot water into the jar and then keep your jar in the refrigerator. Another idea I read for overcooked jam is to use it in thumbprint cookies. I think Dorie Greenspan has a recipe in her book Baking: from my home to yours.

An article in a recent Essentially Food magazine on homemade preserves suggested that you should write down the time you start to cook something. Usually with cake baking it’s not so much of an issue because you can test for doneness with a skewer or see if it’s starting to brown or pull away from the sides of the tin. I usually go by the smell but sometimes by the time you can smell a cake it’s already overbaked. Given that I’ve forgotten to put the timer on twice in two days I think that writing down the time may be a very good suggestion to adopt.

My most recent timerless cooking fiasco before the plum jam was a chocolate cake which I ended up giving to the birds because I didn’t want my baking reputation at work to be besmirched. While I was breaking it into pieces I suddenly had the thought that I could have just split it, filled it with whipped cream and put a really nice ganache on top and that would probably have offset the dryness but by then it was too late. Oh well, never mind.

To make this a bit of fun, a free (and pre-loved/read I might add) cooking magazine to the first commenter who can tell me who I stole my expletive from.

Plum Jam
based on the Edmonds Cookbook recipe

Ingredients
2 kgs/approx 4 1/2 lbs plums
1 1/2 cups water
6 cups sugar

Method
Place all together in a large pot
Bring to the boil
Skim out stones and skins as you go
Boil rapidly, stirring constantly, for 18 minutes or until jam tests set
(to test jam drop a teaspoon of jam onto a chilled saucer and leave for a moment. If you can run your finger through it and leave a clear trail your jam is good to go)
Bottle in sterilised jars

When Life Gives You Pumpkins....

... make Pumpkin and Ginger Bread!

A colleage at work gave me a humungous pumpkin that had self-seeded in her fiancé’s cow paddock. I like crown pumpkins because the flesh is kind of dry and not all wet and flavourless when you cook them. Here is the pumpkin against my biggest chef's knife (8" blade). In the scheme of things it's probably a pretty average sized pumpkin but heck I took a photo and you're gonna get to see it whether you like it or not!


Our weather hasn’t quite cooled enough to think about making a nice big pot of soup so I cast my mind to baking and I found a great pumpkin bread recipe on a friend’s blog. It’s right up my alley – quick, easy, requires no frosting; and even better it’s a great keeper.

I know it’s not really fair to take someone’s well used recipe and mess about with it before you’ve even tried it but I just couldn’t help myself. The modifications I made were to reduce the oil by ¼ cup and add an extra ¼ cup of pumpkin. I also reduced the sugar by ¼ cup and added some finely chopped crystallised ginger in its place. Next time I make this recipe I will cut the the ginger in slices because I would like a more intense ginger burst but the crystallised ginger is certainly a great addition.

How to line my pans neatly? Google to the rescue! I found a really great pictorial (and an amusing post) at Brown Bread Icecream and I can say that Rachel's instructions for cutting the paper to shape worked really well for me.


This pumpkin bread is definitely a keeper both in terms of longevity and remaining on my regular baking list. You can find the recipe over at Heaven On Earth - go check it out.