'Only a ginger can call another ginger, ginger' ...Tim Minchin

I have been asked many times in the past by several individuals for my recipe for  'Steamed Ginger pudding'.  I've been making it since my teens and it's my Mum's favourite dessert, and so it's the recipe that I have become famous for (or possibly infamous for)  at family gatherings.  Seeing that it is Easter Sunday tomorrow I was once again asked to make it and thought I'd better stop procrastinating and finally blog my recipe too. So here goes nothing...

My Steamed Ginger pudding recipe…

The finished product..Yum!

Ingredients: 

3 cups self-raising flour

1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

175 grams unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

400g Jar of Stem ginger in Syrup (I like Hong Kong ‘Tung chun’ brand usually available from Chinese supermarkets or Sri Lankan Spice shops.)

4 eggs

1/2 cup lukewarm milk.

Method: 

1.       Preheat oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF)

2.       Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.

3.       In another mixing bowl cream butter and sugar and beat well. Add eggs one a time mixing thoroughly.

4.       Remove stem ginger from the jar carefully with a fork, saving he remaining syrup left in the jar for a later step. Either chop up ginger with a knife or pulse in a food processor until chopped. Pulsing is necessary otherwise you will end up with a paste, which is ok but you lose any texture.  Add chopped ginger to the butter/sugar/egg mixture.

5.       Add sifted flour/baking powder that you set aside earlier and warm milk to the mixture and mix until combined. The mixture should be a soft dropping consistency. If the mix is too dry you can always add a little more milk if needed.

6.       Pour the ginger syrup that was left in jar into the bottom of a well-buttered baking dish (I find a 20cm square tin cooks the most evenly) and then carefully spoon your batter mixture over the top.  Cover the baking dish with foil.

7.       Place baking dish into another larger baking tray and then pour enough water into that tray to come halfway up the sides of the dish.

8.       Bake for about  1 ½ to 2 hours at around 180ºc (maybe 170ºc if fan forced, depending on your oven) until the pudding feels firm and springy to touch in the centre and has loosened from the sides of the tin.

9.       Carefully turn out into a plate and serve hot with cream or custard or vanilla ice cream.

Note: if there is any syrupy cake (after baking) stuck to the bottom of tin I just scrape that off and spread back over the top of the steamed cake, as per the image below. 

*Variation: If you are real ginger lover like me add a heaped teaspoon of powdered ginger when sifting the flour for an extra ginger kick!.

Close up shot of steamed gingery goodness.

My preferred brand of 'Stem ginger in Syrup'. 

I like this brand because they use young ginger in their product.  I have tried other brands in the past and was not pleased with the results as old ginger was used which made for a hotter-too spicy flavour.

Constant (chocolate) cravings...

Had a bit of chocolate craving yesterday, but wanted whatever I ate to be healthy yet still quick and easy to make. Then I remembered a post in my facebook news-feed by 'Grass Fed Girl' for a 'Nourishing Dark Chocolate Gelatin Pudding' ...http://www.grassfedgirl.com/nourishing-dark-chocolate-gelatin-pudding/  I didn't have any chocolate in the house so tried a cocoa powder variation. I also altered the amount of gelatine as I wanted a more smooth and silky texture and not a jelly consistency and used coconut cream rather than coconut milk for extra richness. I had a box of 'Natvia' (A Stevia-Erythritol blend) that I'd won in a competition a while back so I used that to sweeten it. Here are the the results...

I call my version: Quick and Easy chocolate and coconut pudding.

Ingredients:

2 tsps. Gelatin powder

1/3 cup hot water

60 g Cocoa powder

1 400ml can coconut cream

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup Natvia (or honey/agave if you prefer) 

Method: 

Dissolve gelatin in hot water and set aside. Blend the remaining ingredients in another bowl until well combined.  Add the dissolved gelatin into the mix.  Pour into 4 ramekins and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours until set.

Couldn't be easier am I right? ...I hadn't planned on blogging about it but as it turned so delicious I had to share. The photo above isn't particularly great sorry. I think next time it might also be nice to decant into drinking  glasses rather than ramekins for better presentation.

I see red, I see red, I see red..!

I had a gift voucher lying about from a hardware/nursery store that was given to my for my birthday last September.  I went there last Saturday with the intention of only buying some much needed gardening supplies, which I did do by the way, but while meandering around the nursery section there I happened upon a most unusual fruit tree. I had just enough balance left on my voucher after getting said ‘much needed supplies’ that is, to purchase it.  There was only one tree left and who was I to tempt fate? Zoink!... Straight into my trolley.  The fact that the tree looked rather advanced as well and already had a tiny fruit on it also helped convince me that it must be purchased immediately. The fruit tree was an ‘Australian Red Centre Lime’ AKA ‘Australian Blood Lime’.  It’s a Hybrid of a Red finger lime (Microcitrus australasica) and a Rangpur lime (Citrus × limonia). A Rangpur lime is in itself a Hybrid, between a mandarin (AKA as a tangerine) and a lemon.  The resulting combination being a stunning red skinned lime!!.  As soon as I arrived home I transplanted it into a larger pot and added some organic liquid fertilizer & Epsom salts to the potting soil. I’ve done my part, now to hope like mad that the tree doesn’t suffer to much transplant shock and loose its precious fruit.

Fruit on tree when purchased...

Fruit and flowers...

The tree in its entirety...

The label... This is what the the mature fruit will look like... Purdy huh?!

He’s the Hunter… I’m the gatherer… Although at times I will hunt right alongside him..

 So what have I been up to the last year you may ask? Well besides doing the invoicing and bookkeeping for my husband’s business I’ve also been getting my edible garden up and running that’s what. Add joining in on an occasional fishing expedition thrown in with my fella to my list of activities and that about sums it up. There seems to be a running theme here between the two of us all our leisure time is spent catching or growing stuff to eat.  Let’s face it gardening requires time and effort and ornamental plants are exactly that…ornamental so why bother I say.  They look nice and all but other being something pretty to look at they have no other use… Not un-like models in that sense. :P  I personally like plants the reward you for your efforts and growing fruit, veggies, herbs and spices, certainly does that.  Where to start…  Sings: Let’s start at the very beginning; it’s a very good place to staaaaart-tah!’ Uuum okay maybe I should stop referencing songs from ‘The sound of music’. But the beginning is definitely the place to start. Reading and research - I spent many an hour reading up about all the varieties of edibles available. Carefully working out what plant types that would, fingers crossed both suit our Gippsland climate and also be something that we would really enjoy eating.  After all fruit trees are an investment of both money and time.  What could be worse that patiently tending a fruit tree for years only to discover on partaking of your first harvest that the tastes was just well, ‘Meh’.. or even worse ‘Blaaah’..  Yep those are the technical terms for it. I also became a member of the ‘The Diggers Club’ http://www.diggers.com.au/ It’s a gardening club that I had always thought about joining but was waiting until we lived in a place that allowed me the space I needed for growing food. Their philosophy is in line with mine. That is preserving and using non-GMO heirloom seeds and plants and growing real food with real flavor. I wanted to get my fruit trees planted as soon as possible because they can (depending on the variety and also depending on whether or not they are grown from seed or grafted) take a few years to get a harvest, so the sooner you plant them the sooner you’ll get a crop.  Only logical right? So in first 12 - 18 months this is what I have planted… (Some trees/plants in the ground and some dwarfed trees in large containers to make maximum use of what space I have)

My first garlic harvest.. pulled up only yesterday.

Lemon - Meyor

Lemon - Lisbon

Lime - Finger

Lime - Makrut

Lime - West Indian (Key)

Avocado - Wurtz

Avocado - Bacon

Imperial Mandarin (x2)

Persimmon - Ichikikei Jiro

Bay Tree

Tangelo - Minneola

Mulberry - Red Shahtoot

Mulberry -Red Shahtoot

Apple - Sundowner (AKA Cripps Red  )

Apple - Winter Trenorden

Cherry - Stella

Parsley

Sage

Rosemary

Thyme

Garlic

Mint

Strawberry – Hokowase

Strawberry - Cambridge Rival

Lemongrass

Curry Leaf tree

Unexpected apples on my tiny tree.

Japanese Pepper - Sichuan

Spanish Liquorice

Wasabi

Galangal

Turmeric

Chillies (a plant that my Dad gave me so not sure what variety it is)

White Sapote

Olive - Manzanillo

Pomegranate -Rosavaya

Mulberry- Dwarf Black

Pomegranate - Ben Hur
Saffron

And now I’ve finished getting my raised veggie beds set up and my Spring/Summer seasonal vegies seedlings and seeds gave gone in and are showing signs of growth.  I’ve planted…

My raised beds..

Tomatoes

Snow peas

Capsicums

Eggplant

Basil

Carrots

Beetroot

Lettuce

Spaghetti squash

Cucumber

Spring onions

Stevia

Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for a decent crop. I must admit fruit tree collecting has become quite an obsession, just when think I’ve planted all the fruit varieties that I could possibly want, I stumble upon another variety that makes me think ‘oooh that looks delicious, I wouldn’t my trying to grow that!”  But then I must say there are worse things to be addicted to that growing organic healthy food…Am I right? Phyllis Theroux once said ‘I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation’, and I couldn’t agree more.  I hope I never lose the sense of awe I feel when I see the first few leaves pushing its way through the soil and also the sense of satisfaction that I had a part to play in making it happen in my backyard.  I’m also hoping that we’ll be in are in a better place financially next year and that a greenhouse for my yard might be on the on the shopping list. This will allow me to get a head start growing seedlings and also give my more cold intolerant plants a safe haven during the frosty winter and also allowing me to grow tomatoes in containers out of season. I'm even hoping to be able to grow a dwarf mango in a container there. A fruit that would be impossible to grow in our climate otherwise.  So for now I’ll sit outside at least once a day sipping a hot cuppa,  watching my fruit trees and veggies swaying the breeze and dream about the bounty that will one day be….