Chocolate Fudge Slice

Intro
When I was at primary school my best friend was Denise; actually she is still is one of my very best friends now. You know the kind: you can ignore each other for months and months and months then when you do get together you just pick up where you left off.

It was the late sixties when 'good' mummies were home by after-school 3pm, cooked yummy nutritious meals every night and had full cake tins. My Mum's baking included sultana cake, chocolate cake, coconut cake, ginger crunch, peppermint slice, coconut macaroons and a cruncy biscuit made with Greg's instant pudding; it came in all sorts of different flavours and the biscuits were different every time. I remember three things that Denise's Mum, Verna, made: yo-yos, coconut ice slice and chocolate fudge. My kids love this now and its easy to make. Sometimes I jazz it up with a few raisins or walnuts but its perfectly nice as it is.

Recipe

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tblsp cocoa
• vanilla essence
• 1 pkt plain sweet biscuits (eg super wine)
• 6 ozs butter - melted

Break the biscuits into pieces - not too small is best. Place in a bowl with all the other ingredients and combine.

Press into a greased or tinfoil lined biscuit tin / tray. Ice with chocolate icing and store in fridge until set. Cut into small squares once set.

Thai Pumpkin Salad

Intro
Kiwi's eat pumpkins. I discovered - quite by accident - that some people around the world don't. Apparently some people consider pumpkins as stockfood!

I discovered this one night after inadvertently horrifying a young German lad who needed a bed for the night. He was hitchhiking through NZ and had come into the library late one afternoon looking for accommodation and it had just seemed rude to not take him home.

I've met a few interesting people this way - or just picking them up like the Czech lads of a few years back. They pitched their tent on my back lawn and spent a week camping out, reading books and swimming in the sea. A few months ago Youji from Japan, who was cycling around NZ, left his bike at the library overnight and came home for a homecooked meal (he ate like a horse - everything I gave him) before heading down to Wellington to stay with #1 Son. We are a friendly lot in Levin; my neighbour collected a French couple at the supermarket on New Years Eve just gone. They saw in the New Year at my place, stayed across the road for a few days and then headed down to my sister's home for a week before heading across Cook Strait.

Anyway, pumpkins. I love roasted pumpkin and this is a strong, tasty salad that stands up well to plain bbq steak or roast chicken. The leftovers are yummy in a sandwhich with crunchy lettuce.

Recipe

• 1 butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes,
• 1/4 cup olive oil,
• 1 cup roasted salted almonds, roughly chopped into thirds or halves,
• 200g feta, crumbled into chunks,
• 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced,
• 1 bunch coriander, torn into leaves,

Place the pumpkin cubes in a large roasting dish and toss through the olive oil. Roast in the oven until cooked (about 20 minutes at 180 degrees or 375 fahrenheit).

Remove from oven, allow to cool then mix together with the remaining ingredients in a glass bowl (its prettier that way). Pour on some of the dressing and gently fork through to combine.

Dressing

• 4 cloves garlic: peeled and crushed,
• zest and juice of 4 limes,
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce,
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce,
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar or muscavado sugar or brown sugar,
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil,
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil,
• 1 fresh red chilli, sliced finely,
• salt, pepper.

Combine together in a jar. Keeps in the fridge for a week.

Variation:
Omit coriander, add seeded sliced cucumber, cubed avocado, thinly sliced red onions and feta cubes

Pet Food

Intro There are people who come into your life for short periods but whose impact and memory stays with you forever. Dorothy Picken is one such person. (And Travis my beautiful boy is another ...)

She was the Levin Librarian before my time and led the building project for the existing Levin Library which opened in 1965. Upon leaving Levin she went down to Wellington and was for many years the Library School librarian at Teachers College in Karori, where I did my librarian training. This involved a series of 3 six week residential block courses over 2 years with extramural assignments in between. One of the lovely things Dorothy did was make her home available for Levin girls boarding in Wellington for the residential courses.

She had a great collection of NZ painting and pottery and I was so impressed with her huge weaving loom which dominated the dining room. She made the most beautiful striped rag rugs from recycled fabrics including bed spreads and sheets - and so fast. She just got stuck in and worked at the task for hours every day until it was done.

Dorothy was a great cook, had a home with splendid views over Wellington and was one of the most interesting people I had ever met meaning that I inevitably had late evenings rushing to get the homework and next days prep done because the evening meal conversation and food and view had been so interesting.

While I was staying with Dorothy my hubby and I had just bought our first dog, a golden labrador puppy called Jess, which Dorothy very kindly allowed to stay overnight in the house once. She gave me 2 recipes which I will share here: homemade pet food (for Jess) and Marmalade (which I loathe eating but love making).

Recipe

• 1 kg tripe
• 250g ox liver
• teaspoon or 2 of salt
• grated carrot and root veges
• 500g beef
• 250g kidney
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 450g tinned oily fish (mackeral etc) optional
• 1 tablespoon vegemite

Chop meats and boil with salt for 1 hour, add vegetables and rice and simmer for half hour. Add oats and vegemite and simmer for half hour stirring often as it thickens (it catches easily).

Put into containers. Keeps in fridge for a week but freezes well until needed.

Image: Dorothy Picken led the new Levin Library building project in the 1960s. This photo was taken shortly after it open.

Walnut and Apricot Meringue Torte

Intro

I can't make pavlova, well not as good as Mum anyway, but I can make this very fine pavlova-ish dessert which always looks amazing when I take it as a plate to shared meals. Its not at all tricky to make but looks like you have real talent. 

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 150 walnuts

Topping

• 80g dried apricots
• 1 tablespoon brandy (at least)
• 300 ml whipping cream
• 350g can apricot halves

Praline

• half cup castor sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• half cup chopped walnuts (I usually toast these with the first measure)

Method

Meringue Method 

Chop the walnuts roughly, place on an oven tray and bake in a moderately slow oven for 5 minutes. Remove and cool. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, add the sugar very slowly beating all the while until all sugar is incorporated. Fold in the cooled walnuts. Take 2 oven trays, grease them lightly and line with baking paper (or dust with cornflour). Mark a 25 cm circle on each. Divide the meringue between the 2 trays and spread it out into neat circle shapes. Bake in a moderately slow oven for one hour, changing tray positions half way through. Allow to go completely cold. The meringue disks can be stored in airtight bags or containers for a few days if needed. 

Filling Method

Cover dried apricots with boiling water, stand covered 20 - 30 minutes. Drain, puree in blender or processor, push through a sieve. Stir in brandy. Whip the cream and fold together with the apricot puree. 

Praline Method 

Place the sugar and water in a small pan, stir without boiling until sugar has dissolved, boil rapidly 5 to 10 minutes or until a light golden colour. Add the walnuts, pour the mixture onto a lightly greased tin, tray or plate. When set, break into pieces and chop roughly. 

Assembly

Place 1 meringue disk onto a serving dish. Put a third of the apricot cream on top, then put the second meringue disk on top of that. Spread half of the remaining apricot cream over the top disk. Pipe a circle of generously sized rosettes around the outer edge and place a circle of apricot halves inside that. Sprinkle praline over everything. It looks good if the rosettes are about the size of the apricot halves.

Grape Sauce

Intro

A yummy variation on tomato sauce, I collected this recipe over the fence when I was a Child Bride. Our neighbours, Bruce and Julie Gallagher, had a grape vine and used to make this sauce from the ones not quite sweet enough to just eat. 

Recipe

Simmer together gently in a preserving pan for 1.25 - 1.5 hours or until beginning to thicken:

• 2 kg grapes
• 5 cups vinegar
• 4 cups sugar
• 4 teaspoons salt
• half teaspoon cayenne pepper
• half teaspoon black pepper corns
• 2 teaspoons whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Skim seeds and spices off and blend for 5-10 seconds. Bottle in hot clean bottles. 

NB This can be quite thin sometimes ... seems to vary. Occasionally I have helped it thicken with a few teaspoons of cornflour mixed to a thin cream with cold water, then stirred into the simmering sauce stirring all the while.

Caramelized Mango, Bananas or Pineapple

Intro

This is a Bill Granger recipe that works really well for mango and pineapple to. I have 3 of his cook books now - he is the only chef whose books I covet and must own. I love that everything I have cooked of his has turned out perfectly. 

Recipe 

Peel and slice fruit: 3 bananas or 2 mangos or half a fresh pineapple. 

Melt below ingredients together in a heavy frypan until it forms a caramel and darkens:

• 60g butter
• 90g brown or demerara sugar
• half teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons water

Add the fruit an toss through for a few minutes until well coated. Yummy with crepes for breakfast.

Crepes

Intro 

Take note bambini: crepes are completely different to pikelets and you cannot use the same batter recipe and just make it thinner. It took me ages to learn that lesson and I share it with you now. The secret to crepes is all in the technique and patience with the batter. I got this recipe from a Julie Biuso book back in the 80s. Its good for sweet or savoury fillings. I love it with caramelised mango, bananas or pineapple. 

Recipe

• 115g flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
• 300ml of milk plus a bit more (maybe)
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

Sift the four and salt in a bowl, make a well in the middle and tip the eggs in. With a whisk start stirring gently drawing the flour in from the edges - at the same time start adding the milk in a thin stream keeping the mixture a thick cream consistency. Continue adding all the milk and the melted butter. Whisk well then set aside for at least 30 minutes. This does something to the starch particles and is important. You may need to add a bit more milk as it does thicken on standing. 
Heat a heavy based pan and lightly oil the pan with a papertowel. Once the oil starts to smoke pour in about a quarter cup of batter and quickly swirl it around tipping the excess batter back into the bowl. It should form bubbles quite quickly. loosen the edges with a palette knife then flip the crepe over for half a minute or so. Tip it out onto a rack and keep making crepes. They are pretty fast to cook and if I make a double quantity of this I interleave the hot ones with the ones cooked earlier to keep them warm.