Sometimes You Just Want a Kebab for Breakfast - A Home-Made, Gluten-free, Organic Chicken Shawarma Kebab, Laced with Basil Cashew & Almond Pesto

Sometimes You Just Want a Kebab for Breakfast. A healthy one. Here's the fixings for hand-made Buckwheat Gluten-free Pita breads; Organic Chicken Shawarma; Basil, Cashew & Almond Pesto; and Tahini Sauce...

Buckwheat Pitta Bread Recipe: ingredients are per person, so double, triple, etc as needed
1 egg
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon sticky-rice flour
1 tablespoon arrowroot flour (or cornflour)
water, enough to make a pourable batter.

Mix together until there are no lumps in the batter and it is a good pourable consistency. Heat a non-stick fry-pan the size of the bread you want to make - I made these in a small pan cos I wanted delicate mini-kebabs. Lightly grease the pan by wiping over with a paper-towel and oil. Pour the batter in - I used 1/3 cup for each mini-pitta. Allow to cook until the back is drying and then flip to brown on the other side. Stack pittas on a plate while cooking the rest.

Cashew, Almond, Basil Pesto recipe:
Handful of freshly picked basil
10 or so almonds
10 or so cashews
A clove of garlic
1/2 a lemon juiced
olive oil
garlic
salt

Grind together in mortar and pestle, tasting and adjusting seasonings. You want a homous-like consistency. The quantities are not that important, use your nose, eyes, taste.

Home-made Organic Chicken Shawama Recipe:
1 chicken thigh per person, bashed out thin with a rolling pin to tenderise.

Mix sauce together:
a heaped teaspoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
a splash of sesame oil
a splash of fish sauce
clove of garlic, crushed

Rice wine  to deglaze

Heat pan and grease lightly with Olive oil. Fry chicken fillets, turning when browned. Pour over sauce and swish fillets around to coat the chicken and cook the garlic, but being careful not to burn the sauce. Pour over a few tablespoons rice-wine to deglaze the pan and ensure all the flavour is coating the chicken. Remove from pan and slice the chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Tahini Sauce Recipe:
1 teaspoon Tahini
1 small clove garlic
a pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper
a pinch of palm sugar
water to mix to a smooth sauce-consistency
juice of half a lime (add a bit at a time and adjust to Taste)

Serve kebab ingredients to the table with shredded lettuce and parsley so that diners can roll their own.

Winter Solstice Ginger, Nut & Date Cake with Orange Cashew Cream

Ingredients:

1/3 cup rice-bran oil

2/3 cup medjool dates

3 eggs

1 tablespoon date molasses (or maple syrup, or coconut syrup)

½ cup pale tahini

½ cup glutinous rice flour

½ cup brown rice flour

1+½  cups almonds

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 heaped teaspoons grated fresh ginger

140g of preserved stem ginger

4 tablespoons soy milk

Method:

Grind the nuts into a fine meal in a food processor. Sift the other dry ingredients and set aside.

In a high-speed blender, purée the dates, date molasses and eggs until light coloured. Add the oil in a thin stream and the soy milk and blend until combined.

Pour wet ingredients into a mixing bowl and then add the nut meal and the sifted dry ingredients - the rice flours, baking powder and ground ginger. Fold in the grated fresh ginger and the chopped stem-ginger.

Prepare a 25cm spring-form cake-tin by lining the base with baking paper and lightly greasing the sides before pouring in the cake mix.

Bake for 50 mins in 170°C oven, testing with a skewer to make sure it is cooked.

Allow cake to cool, before icing with Cashew-Coconut-Cream.

Cashew-Coconut-Cream:

Ingredients:
½ cup cashews, soaked for 4 hours and drained

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

½ cup orange juice

5 Medjool dates

½ tablespoon lecithin

Optional extra coconut syrup for sweetness

If you want a Chocolate-Jaffa icing, add 3 tablespoons Cacao powder and blend.

Method:
In a strong blender, grind the soaked drained cashews. Add the orange juice and orange zest, the dates and the lecithin and whiz until smooth. With the blender running, slowly drizzle the melted coconut oil until it is completely absorbed and the mix is smooth. Pour into a container and refrigerate for a few hours until firm. Apply to cake with a palate knife or piping bag and refrigerate cake until serving.

Revolver: Makers of The Best Burger Ever

Sunday Brunch... or indeed any day of the week, from 8am to 4pm, will guarantee delightful food and hearty hosting. Rod Jones and the crew are doing something really special here, bringing warm hearts and good soul to the neighbourhood. And the food, don't forget the food - wave your finger anywhere over the menu, or in the direction of the specials board and you will be sure to have something delicious delivered to your table. And if you're a bit 'special needs' like I am (wheat-free, dairy-free) there is nary even an eyelid batted in the swift and generous accommodation of the special tweaks to the dishes. Do your self a favour, go to Revolver for breakfast or lunch. Go early, or be prepared to join the throng on the footpath as the faithful wait for a table. It's worth the wait!

291 Annandale Street Annandale NSW 2038
(Corner of Rose St)
Hours: 7 Days, 8am - 4pm
Revolver Contact Phone: (02) 9555 4727

Soy-Supreme Coco-Crème (Vegan & Sugarless) Frosting:

This recipe is from Erin McKenna's vegan New York cupcake bakery - Babycakes.. It's one of the best gluten-free, dairy-free, and mostly sugar-free dessert cook-books around. Seriously. If you want to bake the most luscious cakes and pastries that are also healthy - buy her book! 

Soy-Supreme Coco-Crème (Vegan & Sugarless) Frosting:
(Frosting needs to be made at least 6 hours ahead)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/3 cup dry soy milk powder
1 tablespoon coconut flour
4 tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cups coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a blender, combine soy milk, soy-milk powder, coconut flour, agave nectar and vanilla and blend until smooth and combined. With the blender running, slowly drizzle the melted coconut oil and lemon juice until they are completely absorbed and the mix is smooth.

Pour into a container and refrigerate for at least 6 hours until firm. Can be made up to 5 days in advance.

Apply to cake with a palate knife or piping bag and refrigerate cake until serving.

Gingerbread Hearts: Grain-Free, Dairy-free, Cane-Sugar-Free.

I Googled up this recipe for gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar-free gingerbread  via Amy Green's blog at Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free. So what's in them, you ask? The regular biscuit-ingredients of butter and cane sugar are replaced with coconut oil and coconut sugar and the usual wheat-grain-flour is replaced with flour made from buckwheat-seeds and psyllium husks. Tried and tested - Yum-oh!

Red Cabbage and Fennel Salad

Red Cabbage and Fennel Salad:

Ingredients:

small red cabbage
fennel bulb
Italian parsely
baby capers, drained.
sunflower seeds
tamari
sesame oil
lemon juice
agave syrup

Method:

Dry-roast sunflower seeds in a hot pan, moving constantly to prevent burning. When they are golden, splash in a few teaspoons of tamari and stir quickly to coat and dry, then remove seeds from pan to stop the cooking process and prevent burning.

Finely shave the red cabbage and fennel and roughly chop the parsley.

Toss all ingredients together in salad bowl and dress with sesame oil, lemon juice and agave syrup to taste. I like quite a lot of sesame oil, to make that the dominant flavour. The agave syrup is used as a sweet counter-balance to sourness of the lemon juice.

Serve immediately with crusty Rye bread.

Gorgeous Ginger Cake - (Gluten-free & Dairy-free)

This recipe makes a fairly large cake (25cm diameter, 7cm high). You can halve the ingredients for a smaller cake.

Ingredients:

350g rice-bran oil
100g rapadura (evaporated cane-juice)
6 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
285g of sweet preserved stem ginger
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
3 cups nuts (Almonds + Cashews + Hazelnuts)
6 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 heaped teaspoon grated fresh ginger
4 tablespoons soy milk

Method:

• Grind the nuts into a fine meal in a food processor. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat oil and sugar until light coloured.
• Add eggs gradually, whites first and then the yolks and beat until light and fluffy.
• Fold in molasses.
• Fold in sifted flour, baking powder, ground ginger and nut meal.
• Fold in fresh ginger and chopped stem-ginger.
• Fold in milk.
• Pour into a greased 25cm spring-form cake-tin, lined on the base with baking paper. 
• Bake for 50-70 mins in 170°C oven
• Allow cake to cool, before icing with Cashew Frosting.

Cashew Frosting - Sugar-free! (not pictured - but very, very yummy!)

1 cup raw, unsalted cashews (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
1/8 to 1/4 cup agave Syrup (taste it and see how sweet you want it)
juice of 1 large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Coconut oil, melted
purified water

Soak cashews in water for at least 30 minutes but no longer than 60 minutes. Drain cashews and combine all frosting ingredients, except the coconut oil, in a food processor or blender and begin blending – add water slowly until the mixture becomes creamy and reaches desired consistency, you might need only a few tablespoons, as the lemon juice and agave syrup often give enough liquidity on their own. When the cashew mix is smooth enough, add the melted coconut oil, which will help the icing to set when it cools. Refrigerate the frosting for a few hours until it is cool and firm, then frost the cooled cake, applying with a palate knife or piping bag just before serving.

Enjoy!

PS: The flowers used for the styling of this photo are from Silk Flora - 109-111 Parramatta Rd Annandale, 2038

Da Dong's Duck and Seafood Restaurant in Beijing

We flew via Beijing last month on our way to Nepal, deciding that a week of relaxing (and eating!) would be a good preparation for the mountain trekking ahead of us. The restaurant created by Da Dong ("Big Dong" - do you think he has tickets on himself?!) has to be one of the dining highlights of visiting Beijing. Housed in a Heritage Granary, Chef Dong has created dishes of culinary genius that are a fusion of traditional Chinese flavours with modern French nouvelle cuisine... absolutely delightful!

According to The Beijinger, "arguments will never cease as to which kitchen produces Beijing’s best roast ducks, but Da Dong’s ability to transcend the duck genre is marked by its repeated wins as "Best Chinese Restaurant of the Year" in the Beijinger’s annual Reader Restaurant Awards. Try dipping a slice of duck in the sugar provided alongside other condiments – somehow, it works, beautifully. The 160-page menu is a work of art in itself, with a plethora of duck dishes backed up by vegetable dishes, soups and more. If you’re only going to eat duck once in Beijing, book a table – or else be prepared to wait for one – at Da Dong. Voted best "Chinese Restaurant of the Year," "Beijing Duck" and "Best for Impressing Visitors" in the 2011 Reader Restaurant Awards."

Located  in a heritage precinct at 22A Dong Si Shi Tiao, in Dongcheng District.

Nepal Calling! - come join a Writers' Trek in October 2011.

Hello Writers, Colleagues, Friends and Friends-of-Friends of
Beth Yahp Writingworks and Sacred Journeys Nepal,

This year's Nepal trek and retreat is filling fast. There a few places left, but be quick!

Details of the tours can be found at http://bethyahpwritingworks.blogspot.com/Nepal
feel free to pass the word on to anyone you know who may be interested.

You can join one or both of these options, the itineraries are attached and the web-links are here:

1. 12-Day Writing Trek in the Himalayas: 9 - 21 October 2011 - US$3700
http://bethyahpwritingworks.blogspot.com/2010/12/writers-treck-in-himalayas-with-beth.html

2. 10-Day Writers Retreat in Nagarkot: 25 October - 4 November 2011 - US$2600
http://bethyahpwritingworks.blogspot.com/2010/12/writers-retreat-in-nepal-october-2011.html

There is a discount of US$200 for those who join us for both tours - the Writing Trek is for the more energetic (though there will be lots of rest stops and easy stages) and the Writers Retreat is just that: staying in one beautiful place with yoga and ayurvedic massage while we work on our writing projects, with a combination of masterclasses, small workshop groups and individual meetings with me to discuss your specific concerns.

These are not backpacker tours, but comfortable and relaxed travel, looked after by our highly experienced local tour manager and aimed at nurturing you as a traveller and creative being!

I hope you'll be able to join me for this wonderful adventure - and/or forward the info on to anyone who might be interested. These tours are strictly word-of-mouth, which is how we are keeping costs as low as possible.

Hope you are writing well, keeping well and staying warm (or cool)!

Thanks and best wishes,
Beth Yahp

Ocean Trout, Rice and Egg Donburi - A Warm Salad for Breakfast.

The Japanese word for Big Bowl is Donburi - and there's no better start to the day than with a big bowl of fishy-ricey goodness, a balance of complex carbs, proteins and fresh herbs.

It's simple and quick - if you don't have fresh fish on hand then canned or smoked fish can be used.

Method & Ingredients:

Compose in individual bowls for each breakfaster:

- half a cup of cooked rice (brown, white, red - whatever your preference on the day)
a serving of flaked fish (ie, cooked fish, separated into bite-sized 'flakes'. Nice fish for this dish include: tuna, salmon, ocean trout, or river trout, etc.)

- top with a fried egg

- sprinkle on a handful of rough-cut Italian parsley

- dress with a mixture of lemon juice and organic mayonnaise

- season with a grind of fresh black pepper.

Yum-oh!

Pineapple Lemon Qi Cake

As you may have noticed, the Yum-oh blog doesn't include any recipes that use wheat or dairy, as those things just don't agree with me. Most of the time that isn't an issue at all - there are so many yummy cuisines to eat in the world that don't use wheat or dairy, or that soy is a fine substitute. But the one stumbling block was always CHEESECAKE... How do you get that creamy mouth-feel and unique flavour from anything else? So you can imagine how I was bowled over recently by the introduction to this amazing cake: no wheat, no dairy, but Oh My! how creamy-dreamy-yummy-cheezy it seemed! The discovery of this desert felt like nothing short of a miracle. This truly is an ‘I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-dairy’ epiphany of a ‘cheese’-cake. The recipe is blessedly shared with us by Regina and David Power from calmbirth® and PermaculturePower. Regina created the recipe after researching several sources and drew on some of the ideas from Julie Mitosis who runs a raw food company and cooking course in Sydney.

Regina and David's two-year-old daughter Maia has taken to calling it ‘Qi-cake’ – which besides being incredibly cute is also very apt, because you feel full of good Qi-energy after eating this delightful raw-food desert. (Regina says technically I can't call it an entirely raw-food recipe, because I created the addition of the agar-agar jelly topping, which does require boiling for a short time to set the jell in the seaweed - and the more hard-core raw-foodies wouldn't be seen within a hundred feet of a stove... But me? I'm into this cake for the flavour, the texture and the feeling of utter indulgence!)

So let’s cut to the chase – here’s the recipe - you’ll need a very strong blender for this one! I bought a whizz-bang, you-beaut, ice-crushing Ikon 600 from the Breville factory shop in Wattle St Ultimo for $160 that handles the job extremely well.

Pineapple Lemon Qi Cake Recipe:
(recipe kindly shared by Regina Power)

Cake Batter:
1 really nice, ripe, fresh pineapple (3 cups)
1-2 lemons juiced (taste the batter and see how tart you want it to be)
1½ half cups of fresh Thai coconut meat (approx 4 Thai Coconuts as sometimes you get more water than flesh.)
2 cups of dry cashew nuts (they get really soft when you soak for a few hours.)
3 tablespoon Agave Nectar
1 tablespoon Yacon Syrup (if you don't have yacon syrup, just use an additional tablespoon of Agave or Honey or to taste.)
2 Tablespoons lecithin*
1 Tablespoon of honey
¾ cup organic extra virgin coconut oil

Note:
*Soy Lecithin consists of three types of phospholipids, which are basically phosphorus rich lipids. The purpose of using soy lecithin in raw desserts is to emulsify and homogenize the fats and the aqueous liquids so that they do not separate, and it also helps make the dessert creamier. This desert will work without it - I didn't have any and it worked fine!Nut Crust:2 cups of dry almonds
Rind of one lemon
Some lemon juice to your liking
3/4 cup of pitted dates

Pineapple Agar-Agar Jelly Topping:
500ml fresh, unsweetened pineapple juice
200ml water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons agave syrup
5g agar-agar powder
extra water, if needed

Method:
Pre-soak the cashew nuts for the batter in fresh cold water for a few hours to soften.

Place the crust ingredients in a food-processor and process until mixture forms a ball. Take out small chunks and press them into the bottom of a spring form pan, pressing to form a solid base. Be sure the cover up the seams of the spring form pan as the cake batter may leak through the sides since it tends to be a bit runny until it hardens.

Open the Thai coconuts by shaving the pith off the top of the nut with a large kitchen knife, revealing a bald ‘friar tuck’ nut. Keeping your hands away from the coconut, whack the nut on the ‘hairline’ with the sharp corner of the butt of the knife (not the tip) and wedge the base of the blade into the crack, working it backwards and forwards until the round ‘lid’ of the coconut lifts off. See a video demo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THEdI_gSNQ4

Serve the coconut water as a refreshing drink. Enjoy... it is delicious!

Scoop out the flesh of the coconuts and place the flesh in a heavy-duty blender with the remaining cake-batter ingredients, except the coconut oil, and blend on high speed until smooth and creamy. Taste the batter and adjust the lemon juice and sweeteners to your liking. Then when the batter is very smooth, and whist the blender is still running, add the coconut oil and blend until well incorporated and mixture is smooth and uniform. This is the stage where you get to see if your blender can handle the job, as it can really start to work hard at this point.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared spring-form tin, covering the nut-base. Refrigerate for approximately 3-4 hours until the mixture hardens. Any left-over batter can be poured into dessert dishes and keep in the fridge. Put a plate underneath the spring-form tin in case it decides to leak a bit. Allow to set before adding the pineapple agar-jelly topping.

To make the pineapple agar jelly topping, bring the pineapple juice and water to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Measure the amount of liquid remaining and add extra water to make up to 60ml. Add the agar-agar powder and bring liquid to boil again, stirring until dissolved. Add agave syrup, sweetening to taste. Allow the agar jelly to cool slightly, but don’t allow it to set too much. Pour the jelly syrup over the cake and return it to the fridge for the final setting – it won’t take long, 15-20 mins should be enough.

And Voi-La... there you have it: Pineapple Lemon Qi Cake...

Yum-Oh!
Eat & enjoy!

Kota Bharu Breakfast Revisited

Lately I've been longing for some of the food we ate on a trip through central and northern Malaysia a few years ago... Still haven't found anything in Sydney *sigh* like the Nasi Lemak Bungkus that we had at the night Markets up in Kota Bharu on the border of Malaysia and Thailand... The other thing I've been longing for is the delicious curry breakfasts we had in cafes sprinkled throughout the country towns we visited. The first picture shows a typical breakfast meal: rice, curries, a fried egg and condiments. The second picture is my breakfast this morning, a red lentil curry on red rice with salty mango pickle, at home in Sydney Australia, dreaming of Malaysia.

Curried Red-lentil Dahl with Red Rice, Egg and Mango Pickle
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
oil
1 tablespoon mild curry powder
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1 teaspoon palm sugar
1.5 cups red lentils
water

red rice, cooked
fried egg
mango pickle

Slice and fry the onion in a little oil until golden. Add chopped garlic and fry lightly. Add curry powder and fry until fragrant. Add lentils, water, palm sugar and tamarind paste and simmer until lentils are tender, approx 15-20 mins.

serve with boiled red rice, a fried egg and a spoonful of mango pickle.

Mmmmmm - Yum-oh!

Plant's Eye View - a Talk by Michael Pollan on TED.com

I was recently introduced to TED - a remarkable site that publishes video of talks by some of the world's most remarkable thinkers and do-ers. Below is a sample of a talk by the Real Food journalist Michael Pollan, who I wrote about in an earlier post... You can watch the talk full-screen by clicking the slightly obscured link in the top right hand corner of the embedded video (the width of my blog column cuts off a teensy bit of the edge of the video) or click here to access the video on the TED site.

It's worth having a browse of the rest of the TED site for inspiration!

Rice Cracker Infinity-Screen Experiment:

Simple pics today: - a stack of five tamari-seaweed brown-rice crackers and a set of three glasses. These were taken about six months ago and were among my first attempts at learning studio lighting techniques using an 'infinity screen' - which in this case was a curved piece of white PVC sheeting taped to a metal laundry-basket frame, so that the background behind the objects is smooth and white without the intrusion of any angles, edges or corners.

Here's some of the sites that were helpful when I was learning about studio lighting:

Digital Photography School
Jayden's Steamy Kitchen
David Kilpatrick at Photoclub Alpha
Kaylins Kitchen
Dragon Image - where I bought a kit of 3 soft-box lights, in Artarmon, Sydney.

Drink to Your Health!

Testing out some snazzy Mocktails - cocktails without alcohol. This one is Cranberry Juice in a martini glass... simple, classic.

Long-Time-No-Hear: Where's all the Recipes???

I've got a new Blog!

Where's all the recipes??? Weeeell, I have still been eating great food, just not necessarily photographing it...! Making a really good food-photograph literally takes HOURS, by the time you fiddle with all the props and ingredients and lighting... which is a perfect pass-time for a winter's afternoon. But the serendipitous summer days more recently have drawn me out of the kitchen and onto more spontaneous subjects. I'm sure the kitchen will once again become a food-photography studio when the weather cools down and there will be more great recipes coming your way - but for now, let me share some of my other photographic adventures on my new blog: Photo-Ventura.

http://photo-ventura.blogspot.com

According to Spanish-English dictionaries,
Ventura means:

1. Happiness, Contentment (felicidad).

2. Luck (suerte)'por ventura' = luckily
'Buena ventura' = good fortune told by gypsies and vagrants.
'Probar ventura' = to try one’s fortune, to venture at, on, or upon.

3. Contingency, casualness, happenstance, adventure.
'a la (buena) ventura' = at random; without a fixed plan.

4. Future; that which is to come.

... which is a pretty good description of my approach to photography...!

This new blog will showcase selected photos from my travels in Australia and O/S; of dance; plants; people; Life.

If you are interested in receiving these images as emails, simply log onto the site and subscribe to this blog, in the same way that you are currently subscribed to Yum-oh.

Happy New Year, may the year of the Ox bring stability and peace.

How Much Food is $700 Billion??

In the light of the recent stormy weather on the Global Financial front and the various knee jerk responses of governments around the world, reading this article on the SBS website gave me pause for thought. It seems astounding that $700 billion can be found 'just like that' to prop up a bubble of greed, when the far more alarming problems of global warming and food shortages could be all but solved with a fraction of that money.

To bring it all down to a human scale the SBS article (by journalist Phil Lees - creator of the Cambodian Food blog Phnomenon) crunches the numbers of the $700 billion corporate bailout down into bite sized chunks so we can picture exactly how much food that figure translates into - and how many starving people could be fed.

Here are some examples of what $700 Billion equals:

• $700 Billion = 2000 good old American Apple Pies for every man woman and child currently living in the United States


• $700 Billion = Dinner for the entire population of the top 5 most populated countries, at one of the world's most expensive restaurants: El Bulli in Spain could shout the entire population of China, India, USA, Indonesia and Brazil to dinner.


• $700 Billion at the other end of the spectrum = the UN World Food Programme able to feed 86 million people for the next 23 years.

Like I said, Food for Thought...



This is a photo from the fresh-produce marketplace in Kota Bahru in northern Malaysia, 2007.

A Crop of Cumquats

Last weekend, I just had to get into the garden – it hadn’t had any attention for months and the springtime jobs of pruning and tidying were over-due. The cumquat trees especially needed a serious prune, to clear out the heart of the tree and get them ready to spark up with spring growth in coming months. I’d planted five of these trees in pots for Feng Shui reasons in the garden of my Natural Medicine clinic – the bright orange fruit are considered a symbol of luck and prosperity in Chinese landscape-design - and I have to say, I like a tree that self-decorates with cute orange baubles! Some of the branches that needed to be removed were laden with this golden fruit and I couldn’t be let them to go to waste.

So the question arose: what to do with a bowl full of Cumquats?

Consulting the Oracle (Google) produced numerous articles involving advice and recipes for dealing with a crop of cumquats, including:

Cumquat Marmalade: from Cooks Almost Everything
Candied Cumquats: from Morsels and Musings
Kumquat, Fennel and Blood Orange Salad: from Erins Kitchen
Kumquat Compote: from Seattle Bonvivant
Kumquat Salsa: from Garrett at Vanilla Garlic
Wickid Kumquatini Cocktails: from Wallflower Entertaining

But in the end, what really captured my imagination was a mention of:
Cumquat Curd… I couldn’t find the actual recipe online – if no-one else is doing it, does that mean it’s a really good idea (that no-one in the Whole-Wide-World has thought of yet) or really a bad idea (that no-one in their right mind would even consider)?? - but the concept piqued my interest. So using my mum’s recipe for Lemon Butter, I juiced and zested my cumquats, reserving the skins to make into a pickle and here is the result:

The verdict? Cumquat Curd IS a really good idea - Yum-oh!

Cumquat Curd Recipe:
4 eggs
140g sugar
70g unsalted butter
2 tsp grated cumquat zest
120ml cumquat juice

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy.

Tip into a heavy-based non-reactive saucepan and add butter, zest and juice.

Stirring constantly, bring to simmering point over a medium-high heat (about five minutes).

As soon as bubbles appear, remove from heat, still stirring. Allow to cool. Transfer to sterilised jars and seal.

Makes 2 cups

Cumquat Pickle

I wanted a recipe that would make use of the skins of the cumquats after I had juiced them for making the cumquat curd.

Cumquats are unlike other citrus fruits, as the peel is less bitter than the flesh. They produce an excellent sweet-and-sour pickle, combined with palm-sugar, vinegar and spices.

Cumquat Pickle Ingredients:
250 g cumquat rinds
100 ml white wine vinegar
2 cardamom pods, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 cm piece of ginger, shredded
1 tsp sea salt
60g soft palm sugar
2 cloves
water

Cut the cumquat skins in half and put them in a saucepan with the salt and water to cover. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the kumquats, discarding any pips.

Place the vinegar, palm sugar, cardamom pods, clove and the shredded ginger into a pan and heat gently, stirring, until all the palm sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat and bring to the boil, then add the pre-boiled, drained cumquat rinds. Simmer for one minute, then allow to cool slightly.

While the mixture is still medium-hot (about 75 degrees), ladle the cumquats and the liquid into warm, clean, pre-sterilized jars. Cover with non metal (ie vinegar-proof) lids and seal.

Store in a cool, dark, dry place for 1 month before using.

Cumquat Pickle is wonderful with Malaysian and Indian Curries.

Yum-oh!

Naggy's Fork

As you know from my previous posts, I've been exploring of the art of cutlery - and here's the latest results of fiddling with my fork...

Fatima's Fork

Waiting for friends to arrive at Fatima's Lebanese Restaurant on Cleveland Street Surry Hills and playing with my Canon IXUS pocket-camera... alas, no photos of the great food we were served, cos we were too busy chatting and eating when dinner arrived on the table, but it was definitely Yum-oh!