Cooks' Corner

[Anthony Darby]

I don't know whether they've improved, but we certainly choose NZ wine over anything else these days. We especially like the Oyster Bay Merlot.

[Arykana]

I never had New Zealand wine - Leslie, if you come, please bring me some

Kalács

[Maggi Young]

Erika.... I love that photo....... a picture which manages to be both artistic and potentially  delicious 

[maggiepie]

Oh Erika, that looks fabulous.
Is kalacs the same as challah?
Can you give us the recipe?

[Arykana]

Yes, I think it is quite the same - this one is for holidays, my family forced me to make a test baking   they always do this with me  

Ostoros kalács - Whipper
Increase 5 dk yeast in 4 dl of warm milk with 3 tablespoonful of sugar, add to it
3 eggs yolk, 7 dk melted margarine or butter, a chip salt, and 60 dk flour
we knead it,  raise it double size
We divide it into 6 parts, roll all dumplings out onto rectangular one
Filling: 25 dk melted margarine, 12 tablespoons of sugar and 4 heaped tablespoons cacao and  spread it on  the sheets, roll up, and braid 3-3 as you see on the   on the photo, raise again for a half an hour and bake in a preheated oven, on medium

be careful! there is a dependency

[maggiepie]

Thanks, Erika.
That seems pretty similar to a recipe I have for challah ( apart from the cacao), plus mine uses honey and sultanas .

I have been meaning to make it for weeks, it is soooooooooo yummy!!!

[Arykana]

yes, you can use honey, sultana, dried apricot, poppy seeds, almond or wallnuts - even you can try with curd or sauted cabbage

[Lesley Cox]

Anthony you will have hundreds to play around with when you get here. The supermarkets have excellent selections of cheap to moderately priced wines, all very drinkable and the wine shops have the top of the range versions. Then you can go to any of the vinyards too. Many have a good cafe or restaurant attached so a day out with family including southern lakes, mountains, superb scenery, a couple of vinyards and excellent food, is a favourite summer day for us - and many others.

[Anthony Darby]

Excellent. Tickets're booked!

[Paddy Tobin]

Has anybody cooked with Chaenomeles cathayensis, a Chinese quince?

This quince is the size of a large orange, hard as a rock here as it doesn't get the weather to ripen fully. I tried out a few yesterday, following a recipe from Sarah Raven, an English gardener/writer who has written a number of cooking books.

I prodded the quince all over to puncture the skin, wrapped them in tin foil and baked them at 190C for an hour and then left them to cool enough to handle. By the way, at this stage the quince have the most amazing and beautiful aroma, very, very like a cherry liqueur, say Kirsch.

I cut the quince into halves and removed the cores and copious seeds, put the halves back into a baking dish and added an orange syrup. The syrup is made with 275ml water + 250ml water + juice of an orange + rind of the orange, very thinly peeled from the orange, brought slowly to the boil and simmered for five minutes. I removed the rind of the orange, poured the syrup onto the quince and gave them another hour in the oven at 180C uncovered. The flesh becomes quite soft but holds its shape while the syrup thickens, becoming a soft jelly if left to cool.

Serve with cream and the orange peel which I cut into very thin shred. Delicious!

[Lesley Cox]

I don't know that quince at all Paddy but it sounds different and good.

I've heard of Sarah Raven but didn't realize until recently when we had a TV series about Sissinghurst, that she is Adam Nicholson's wife and Vita's grand-daughter-in-law. The series, which I'm sure you've seen was not about the garden but about the modern Nicholson's attempts to bring Sissinghurst back to a working farm, in support of the restaurant. Home-grown produce etc. They had a very difficult time of it what with an intransigent National Trust and bloody-minded restaurant staff.

[Paddy Tobin]

Yes, Lesley,

I saw that programme, interesting.

The quince seems promising though only a small number of fruit this year, a dozen maybe. Next year should be better. I suppose the seed can't be sent to New Zealand?

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

Surprisingly Paddy, yes, it can. That species is at the top of a short list of permitted Chaenomeles species which means that it is already here or has been at some stage. If you happen to save a few seeds sometime.....

[Paddy Tobin]

Lesley,

I have a few unopened fruits so PM your address.

Paddy

P.S. on Dec 19 - all quince gone.

[Arykana]

almond filled crepes