My idea, when I started writing this column, was to give children and non-cooks basic easy recipes that they could use every day.
I've avoided complicated ingredients and equipment and I hope that those of you who have used the recipes go on to cook more, always remembering that simple, fresh and tasty food will always be well received, even in the most "upmarket" of company. The Aussie family magazines have good recipes this winter, so try them, too.
As I said, I'm going to take a break. I'll be back in October with ideas for Christmas ornaments, gifts and food.
We don't know how the Covid-19 pandemic is going to play out. For some people Christmas is going to be fairly lean. Now's the time to start planning to make a simple, but merry Christmas.
Sow a pinch of lettuce seed every week, plant early potatoes, peas, beetroot, etc. Sow early tomato seed indoors, ready to plant out late September, and buy spring seeds, ready to sow later.
Buy a few extras with your groceries each week when you see them on special. Start saving pretty jars and buy pretty plates and bowls from the op-shop to fill with bounty from your kitchen.
Save coloured paper, (even those pesky advertising flyers, and coloured pictures from glossy magazines can be turned into Christmas decorations), cardboard, scraps of fabric, lace and ribbon to make Christmas gifts and decorations. I promise you that we will put them to good use later.
In the meantime, now that oranges are so plentiful and cheap, we can start our Christmas store cupboard.
ORANGE MARMALADE
1.25kg sweet oranges
2 lemons
1.5 litres water
sugar
Squeeze the juice from the fruit. Tie the pips in a piece of muslin. Shred the skins and pulp of the oranges and lemons, add to the water with the juice and pips, and boil about an hour, until tender. Cool a little. Measure the pulp and return to the preserving pan. Bring pulp to the boil, then add 1 cup of sugar for each cup of pulp. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then boil hard for about 20 minutes, until the setting point is reached. Remove the muslin bag of pips and discard. Pour into sterilised jars. Cover, wipe and label the jars. Makes about five 350ml jars.
To test for setting point:- Chill a plate in the freezer while cooking the jam. Put a little of the jam on the plate and leave to cool slightly. The mixture will set if the surface wrinkles when touched, and a channel remains open when you draw your finger through it.
If you're giving as a gift, make covers from pretty fabric, or even dampened brown paper. Tie them on over the cellophane jam jar covers with a piece of ribbon or raffia and add an attractive label (there are free labels a-plenty on the internet)
CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
Save the peels from oranges or mandarines when you eat them. Drop them into a bag in the freezer and make this confection closer to Christmas.
Peel of 2 large oranges or 3 mandarins
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
Caster sugar or melted chocolate for finishing
Cut peel into strips. Cover them with cold water and bring to the boil. Drain. Repeat 4 or 5 times until quite soft. Make a syrup of 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar. Cook the softened peel in it until all the syrup is absorbed. Roll in caster suger and dry in a cool oven. Pack into jars and cover with dry sugar. Cover tightly to keep out ants and other insects. Close to Christmas, pack the peel in attractive jars and titivate with ribbon. It is also delicious dipped in melted chocolate. The orange-scented sugar can be used to add flavour to Christmas baking, as can the peel.
CLOVE ORANGES
Once they're dried, these can give your wardrobe a sweet, spicy scent, and the spices deter moths.
Take small, ripe oranges, and insert whole cloves in the skin in a decorative pattern. If you are going to hang them in a wardrobe, leave room for thin ribbon between the cloves. You will need something to pierce the orange skin so that you can push the cloves in - otherwise your fingers will get sore. Roll each orange thickly in a mixture of ground cinnamon plus powdered orris root if you can get it, then wrap in a square of tissue paper or baking paper and put in a warm, dry place to dry out. The orange will dry hard and shrink in a couple of months, and can then be used in your wardrobe.
ORANGE POT-POURRI
Dry orange, mandarin and lemon peel on a hot, sunny windowsill or in a cool oven. Once it is like hard leather, mix it with broken cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise, (if liked), whole nutmegs and other spices you like. I like to soak dried peach, apricot and nectarine stones in orange oil and add them to the mix, and also dried yellow and orange strawflowers for colour. I pack the pot-pourri into small zip-lock bags and either put the bags into a pretty jar or find a pretty bowl in the op-shop. Once they're wrapped in cellophane, and tied up with ribbon, they make a very attractive gift. I've also packed this mix, minus the flowers, in small fabric bags, to scent drawers and wardrobes. Tie several of the fabric bags on to a wreath or a wooden spoon with some raffia bows, add cinnamon sticks, glue on a few nuts and maybe dried peach, apricot or nectarine stones, and you have an attractive Christmas kitchen decoration.
