FOOD FRIDAY - ITALIAN "PESCHE"

“In Italy, they add work and life on to food and wine.” - Robin Leach 

We visited an Italian pastryshop the other day and I asked for a particular type of sweet that I used to really like, but unfortunately they did not make it. I vaguely remembered seeing a recipe for it in our trusty recipe notebook and yes, when we got back home I did find the recipe. Here is the recipe, which we made that afternoon. 

Pesche (Peaches)
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
apricot jam
maraschino liqueur
red and yellow food colouring
caster sugar
Whole cloves, crystallised angelica (or fresh mint leaves) for decoration 

Method
Heat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease baking trays.
Mix together sugar, eggs and oil. Add flour and baking powder, stirring to form a light dough (you may need to add a little more flour to shape balls).
Form 2.5 cm balls and place on flat baking tray, pressing slightly on top to form hemispheres and bake about 10-15 minutes (until lightly browned on the bottom and pale on top).
While still warm, take a small pointed knife and scoop out a pocket on the flat side of each cookie. Fill with jam and spread a small amount on the flat sides as you join 2 cookies together to form the peach.
Colour the maraschino liqueur with a little food colouring to make a light peach colour and brush on the peaches to give them a “blush”. Then roll the peach in granulated sugar, placing a clove on top of each peach for a “stalk”. You may garnish with crystallised angelica “leaves” (or fresh mint leaves) for presentation.

In Italy, pesche are often served at wedding feasts as they are a symbol of Hymenæus, the Graeco-Roman god of marriage and they signify a long and happy marriage.

ALL ABOUT FENUGREEK

“I grow my own vegetables and herbs. I like being able to tell people that the lunch I'm serving started out as a seed in my yard.” - Curtis Stone 

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiarid crop. Its seeds and its leaves are common ingredients in dishes from South Asia. The English name derives via Middle French fenugrec from Latin faenugraecum, faenum Graecum meaning “Greek hay”.

Major fenugreek-producing countries are Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Spain, and Turkey. The largest producer is India. Fenugreek production in India is concentrated in the states of Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Rajasthan accounts for over 80% of India’s output. 

Fenugreek is believed to have been brought into cultivation in the Near East. Charred fenugreek seeds have been recovered from Tell Halal, Iraq, (carbon dated to 4000 BC) and Bronze Age levels of Lachish and desiccated seeds from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Cato the Elder lists fenugreek with clover and vetch as crops grown to feed cattle. In one first-century A.D. recipe, the Romans flavoured wine with fenugreek. In the 1st century AD, in Galilee, it was grown as a food staple, as Josephus mentions it in his book, the Wars of the Jews. A compendium of Jewish oral law known as the Mishnah (compiled in the 2nd century) mentions the plant under its Hebrew name, tiltan.

Fenugreek is used as a herb (dried or fresh leaves), spice (seeds), and vegetable (fresh leaves, sprouts, and microgreens). Sotolon is the chemical responsible for fenugreek’s distinctive sweet smell. Cuboid-shaped, yellow- to amber-coloured fenugreek seeds are frequently encountered in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, used both whole and powdered in the preparation of pickles, vegetable dishes, dal, and spice mixes such as panch phoron and sambar powder. They are often roasted to reduce bitterness and enhance flavour.

Fresh fenugreek leaves are an ingredient in some Indian curries. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are used in salads. When harvested as microgreens, fenugreek is known as samudra methi in Maharashtra, especially in and around Mumbai, where it is often grown in sandy tracts near the sea, hence the name samudra, “ocean” in Sanskrit. Samudra methi is also grown in dry river beds in the Gangetic plains. When sold as a vegetable in India, the young plants are harvested with their roots still attached and sold in small bundles in the markets and bazaars. Any remaining soil is washed off to extend their shelf life.

In Turkish cuisine, fenugreek seeds are used for making a paste known as çemen. Cumin, black pepper, and other spices are added into it, especially to make pastırma. In Persian cuisine, fenugreek leaves are called shanbalile. They are the key ingredient and one of several greens incorporated into ghormeh sabzi and eshkeneh, often said to be the Iranian national dishes. In Egyptian cuisine, peasants in Upper Egypt add fenugreek seeds and maize to their pita bread to produce aish merahrah, a staple of their diet.

Fenugreek is used in Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine. The word for fenugreek in Amharic is abesh, and the seed is used in Ethiopia as a natural herbal medicine in the treatment of diabetes. Yemenite Jews following the interpretation of Rabbi Shelomo Yitzchak (Rashi) believe fenugreek (which they call hilbeh, hilba, helba, or halba) to be the Talmudic rubia.  When the seed kernels are ground and mixed with water they greatly expand; hot spices, turmeric and lemon juice are added to produce a frothy relish eaten with a sop. The relish is also called hilbeh; it is reminiscent of curry. It is eaten daily and ceremonially during the meal of the first and/or second night of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.

MUSIC SATURDAY - A VIENNA NEW YEAR

“Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.” - Frédéric Chopin 

The Vienna New Year’s Concert (Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker) is a concert of classical music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic that takes place each year in the morning of New Year’s Day in Vienna, Austria, and is regarded by many as the most important classical concert worldwide. It was broadcast live around the world to an estimated audience of more than 50 million in 73 countries in 2012 and 93 countries in 2017. The concerts have been held in the “Goldener Saal” (Golden Hall) of the Musikverein since 1939.

The music always includes pieces from the Strauss family (Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss) with occasional additional music from other mainly Austrian composers, including Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Joseph Lanner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Otto Nicolai (the Vienna Philharmonic’s founder), Emil von Reznicek, Franz Schubert, Franz von Suppé, and Karl Michael Ziehrer.

There had been a tradition of concerts on New Year’s Day in Vienna since 1838, but not with music of the Strauss family. From 1928 to 1933 there were five New Year concerts in the Musikverein, conducted by Johann Strauss III. These concerts were broadcast by the RAVAG. In 1939, Clemens Krauss, with the support of Vienna Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach, devised a New Year concert, which the orchestra dedicated to Kriegswinterhilfswerk (Winter War Relief), to improve morale at the front lines. After World War II, this concert survived, as the Nazi origins were largely forgotten, until more recently.

Here is the New Year’s Concert of 1987, with conductor Herbert von Karajan. The program has as follows:
1. Beginning/inicio (2:04): Der Zigeunerbaron: Ouvertüre – Johann Strauß
2. 10:06 – Sphärenklänge: Walzer – Josef Strauß
3. 19:34 – Annen Polka: Polka française – Johann Strauß
4. 23:56 – Delirien-Walzer – Josef Strauß
5. 33:28 – Die Fledermaus: Ouvertüre – Johann Strauß
6. 42:24 – Beliebte Annen-Polka – Johann Strauß
7. 45:52 – Vergnügungszug: Polka schnell – Johann Strauß
8. 48:48 – Pizzicato-Polka – Johann Strauß
9. 51:48 – Kaiser-Walzer – Johann Strauß
10. 1:03:34 – Perpetuum Mobile, Musikalischer Scherz – Johann Strauß
11. 1:06:36 – Unter Donner und Blitz – Johann Strauß
12. 1:10:28 – Frühlingsstimmen: Walzer (Kathleen Battle – Sopran) – Johann Strauß
13. 1:19:18 – Ohne Sorgen: Polka schnell – Josef Strauß
14. 1:21:22 – An der schönen blauen Donau: Walzer – Johann Strauß (Neujahrsgruß nicht anwesend - no se presenta – not given).
15. 1:31:50 – Radetzky-Marsch - Johann Strauß, Vater

ALL ABOUT TURMERIC

“All those spices and herbs in your spice rack can do more than provide calorie-free, natural flavorings to enhance and make food delicious. They're also an incredible source of antioxidants and help rev up your metabolism and improve your health at the same time.” - Suzanne Somers 

Turmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant (Curcuma longa) of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia, and requires temperatures between 20 and 30° C and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive. Plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes and propagated from some of those rhizomes in the following season.

When not used fresh, the rhizomes are boiled for about 30–45 minutes and then dried in hot ovens, after which they are ground into a deep-orange-yellow powder commonly used as a colouring and flavouring agent in the cuisines of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Pakistan, especially for curries, as well as for dyeing. Although long-used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat various diseases, there is little high-quality clinical evidence for use of turmeric or its main constituent, curcumin, as a therapy.

Turmeric is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches up to 1 m tall. Highly branched, yellow to orange, cylindrical, aromatic rhizomes provide the plant with an anchor in the soil. The leaves are alternate and arranged in two rows. They are divided into leaf sheath, petiole, and leaf blade. From the leaf sheaths, a false stem is formed. The petiole is 50 to 115 cm long. The simple leaf blades are usually 76 to 115 cm long and rarely up to 230 cm. They have a width of 38 to 45 cm and are oblong to elliptic, narrowing at the tip.

In China, the flowering time is usually in August. Terminally on the false stem is a 12 to 20 cm long inflorescence stem containing many flowers. The bracts are light green and ovate to oblong with a blunt upper end with a length of 3 to 5 cm. At the top of the inflorescence, stem bracts are present on which no flowers occur; these are white to green and sometimes, tinged reddish-purple, and the upper ends are tapered. The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and threefold.

The three 0.8 to 1.2 cm long sepals are fused, white, have fluffy hairs and the three calyx teeth are unequal. The three bright-yellow petals are fused into a corolla tube up to 3 cm long. The three corolla lobes have a length of 1.0 to 1.5 cm and are triangular with soft-spiny upper ends. While the average corolla lobe is larger than the two lateral, only the median stamen of the inner circle is fertile. The dust bag is spurred at its base. All other stamens are converted to staminodes. The outer staminodes are shorter than the labellum. The labellum is yellowish, with a yellow ribbon in its centre and it is obovate, with a length from 1.2 to 2.0 cm. Three carpels are under a constant, trilobed ovary adherent, which is sparsely hairy. The fruit capsule opens with three compartments.

Turmeric is one of the key ingredients in many Asian dishes. Its use as a colouring agent is not of primary value in South Asian cuisine. Turmeric is used mostly in savoury dishes, but also is used in some sweet dishes, such as the cake sfouf. In India, turmeric plant leaf is used to prepare special sweet dishes, Patoleo, by layering rice flour and coconut-jaggery mixture on the leaf, then closing and steaming it in a special utensil (chondrõ).

Most turmeric is used in the form of dried and powdered rhizome. In some regions (especially in Maharashtra, Goa, Konkan, and Kanara), turmeric leaves are used to wrap and cook food. Turmeric leaves are mainly used in this way in areas where turmeric is grown locally, since the leaves used are freshly picked. Turmeric leaves impart a distinctive flavour. In recipes outside South Asia, turmeric sometimes is used as an agent to impart a golden yellow colour. It is used in canned beverages, baked products, dairy products, ice cream, yogurt, yellow cakes, orange juice, biscuits, popcorn colour, cereals, sauces, gelatins, etc. It is a significant ingredient in most commercial curry powders.

Although typically used in its dried, powdered form, turmeric also is used fresh, like ginger. It has numerous uses in East Asian recipes, such as pickle that contains large chunks of soft turmeric, made from fresh turmeric. Turmeric is used widely as a spice in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking. Many Persian dishes use turmeric as a starter ingredient. Various Iranian khoresh dishes are started using onions caramelised in oil and turmeric, followed by other ingredients. The Moroccan spice mix ras el hanout typically includes turmeric.

In India and Nepal, turmeric is widely grown and extensively used in many vegetable and meat dishes for its colour. It also is used in Nepal for its supposed value in traditional medicine. In South Africa, turmeric is used to give boiled white rice a golden colour, known as geelrys (yellow rice) traditionally served with bobotie. In Vietnamese cuisine, turmeric powder is used to colour and enhance the flavours of certain dishes, such as bánh xèo, bánh khọt, and mi quang. The powder is used in many other Vietnamese stir-fried and soup dishes.

The staple Cambodian curry paste kroeung, used in many dishes including Amok, typically contains fresh turmeric. In Indonesia, turmeric leaves are used for Minang or Padang curry base of Sumatra, such as rendang, sate padang, and many other varieties. In Thailand, fresh turmeric rhizomes are used widely in many dishes, in particular in the southern Thai cuisine, such as the yellow curry and turmeric soup. In medieval Europe, turmeric became known as Indian saffron because it was used widely as an alternative to the far more expensive saffron spice.

Phytochemical components of turmeric include compounds called curcuminoids, such as curcumin (diferuloylmethane), demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Curcumin constitutes 3.14% (on average) of powdered turmeric, having variations in content among the species of Curcuma longa. In addition, volatile oils include turmerone, atlantone, and zingiberene. Other constituents are sugars, proteins, and resins.

Turmeric grows wild in the forests of South and Southeast Asia where it is collected for use in Indian traditional medicine (also called Siddha or Ayurveda). Claims that curcumin in turmeric may help to reduce inflammation have not been supported by strong studies. Turmeric or its principal constituent, curcumin, has been studied in numerous clinical trials for various human diseases and conditions, but the conclusions have either been equivocal or negative.

In the language of flowers, a spike of flowering turmeric means: “You have captivated me with your exotic beauty.” The use of leaves only in an arrangement carries the message: ‘Your charms are duplicitous.”

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #92 - LOURDES, FRANCE

“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” - Helen Keller 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven, often shortened to the Assumption and also known as the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin, mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Dormition), according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of Anglicanism, was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. The Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”.

 In the churches that observe it, the Assumption is a major feast day, commonly celebrated on 15 August. In many countries, the feast is also marked as a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church and as a festival (under various names) in the Anglican Communion.

Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan) is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in south-western France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château fort de Lourdes, a fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its centre.

In 1858 Lourdes rose to prominence in France and abroad due to the Marian apparitions seen by the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who was later canonised. Shortly thereafter the city with the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes became one of the world’s most important sites of pilgrimage and religious tourism. Today Lourdes hosts around six million visitors every year from all corners of the world. This constant stream of pilgrims and tourists transformed quiet Lourdes into the second most important center of tourism in France, second only to Paris, and the third most important site of international Catholic pilgrimage after Rome and the Holy Land. As of 2011, of French cities only Paris had more hotel capacity.

Yearly from March to October the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is a place of mass pilgrimage from Europe and other parts of the world. The spring water from the grotto is believed by some to possess healing properties. An estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860, and the Roman Catholic Church has officially recognised 69 healings considered miraculous. Cures are examined using Church criteria for authenticity and authentic miracle healing with no physical or psychological basis other than the healing power of the water.

Tours from all over the world are organised to visit the Sanctuary. Connected with this pilgrimage is often the consumption of or bathing in the Lourdes water which wells out of the Grotto. At the time of the apparitions the grotto was on common land which was used by the villagers variously for pasturing animals, collecting firewood and as a garbage dump, and it possessed a reputation for being an unpleasant place.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme. 

Add your own travel posts using the Linky tool below, and don't forget to be nice and leave a comment here, and link back to this page from your own post:

ALL ABOUT DITTANY OF CRETE

“Alas, poor me, that the wounds of love cannot be healed by herbs!” – Ovid 

Origanum dictamnus (dittany of Crete, Cretan dittany or hop marjoram), known in Greek as δίκταμο (díktamo, cf. “dittany”) or in Cretan dialect έρωντας (erondas, “love”), is a tender perennial plant in the Lamiaceae family that grows 20–30 cm high. It is a healing, therapeutic and aromatic plant that only grows wild on the mountainsides and gorges of the Greek island of Crete, Greece. 

Dittany of Crete is widely used for food flavouring and medicinal purposes, and is also found as an ornamental plant in gardens. This small, lanate shrub is easily recognised by the distinctive soft, woolly covering of white-grey hair on its stems and round green leaves, giving it a velvety texture. Tiny rose-pink flowers surrounded by brighter purple-pink bracts add an exuberant splash of colour to the plant in summer and autumn. Dittany is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Plant Species 1997. 

Origanum dictamnus is a many branched plant with discoid to ovate, grey-green leaves that are sited in pairs opposite each other. The slender arching stems and lanate leaves are covered in a velvety white down and are 13–25 mm in size. The flowers are pale pink to purple and have a deep lilac corolla with many deep pink-coloured overlapping bracts. The colourful flowers forming a cascade of elongated clusters are in bloom in the summer months and are quite a pretty sight in the rocky mountains of their native land. The flowers are hermaphrodite, meaning they have both male and female organs, and are pollinated by bees attracted to their scent and bright colour. The primary ingredients of the herb’s essential oil are carvacrol (68.96%), β-phellandrene (18.34%) and p-cymene (4.68%).

The herb symbolises love and is reputed to be an aphrodisiac. Traditionally, only the most ardent young lovers would scramble on mountainsides and go into the deep gorges of Crete gathering bunches of the pink blooms to present as love tokens. There are numerous deaths reported throughout the centuries by collectors of this magical herb. Even in recent times, the collection of dittany of Crete was a very dangerous occupation for the men who risked life and limb to climb precarious rock faces where the plant grows wild in the mountains of Crete. They were named erondádhes (“love-seekers”) and were considered very brave and passionate men to go to such dangerous lengths to collect the herb.

Dittany of Crete has always been highly prized; it is gathered while in bloom in the summer months, and is exported for use in pharmaceuticals, perfumery and to flavour drinks such as vermouth and absinthe. In Ancient Greece, Hippocrates prescribed plant cures to aid all manner of ailments, and considered dittany of Crete useful for stomach aches and complaints of the digestive system and as a poultice for healing wounds, as well as inducing menstruation.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work “The History of Animals” (612a4) wrote: “Wild goats in Crete are said, when wounded by arrow, to go in search of dittany, which is supposed to have the property of ejecting arrows in the body.” The Greek scholar and philosopher Theophrastus agreed with Aristotle about the healing properties of dittany of Crete. In his work “Enquiry into Plants”, he noted that dittany was peculiar to Crete, and that it was: “Said to be true, that, if goats eat it when they have been shot, it rids them of the arrow.” (9.16.1).

Other scholars of Ancient Greece and later times have made reference to dittany, but probably referred to Dictamnus albus, known as false, or white, dittany. Today, the wild, naturally grown dittany of Crete is classed as “rare” and is protected by European law so it does not become extinct. Cultivation of the herb now centres on Embaros and the surrounding villages, south of Heraklion, Crete, and the product used to make herbal tea and for use in natural beauty preparations. It is used as a flavouring in sweet wine, its dried leaves mulled in the warm liquid. It is used as one of the flavourings in vermouth and Benedictine liqueur.

In Book XII.411-415 of Virgil’s “Aeneid”, Venus heals the wounded Aeneas with dittany: “Hereupon Venus, smitten by her son’s cruel pain, with a mother’s care plucks from Cretan Ida a dittany stalk, clothed with downy leaves and purple flowers; not unknown is that herb to wild goats, when winged arrows have lodged in their flanks.” In Canto XI of Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered” the crusader leader, Godfrey, is healed by means of a dittany salve. This scene is a reference to Virgil’s as the dittany used to heal Godfrey is fetched from Mount Ida and reference is also made to the idea that goats eat dittany when wounded.

In the language of flowers, a sprig of non-flowering dittany carries the message: “Heal my wounds”; while a flowering sprig means: “I am in love with you and only you can heal the wounds of my heart.”

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - CHELSEA BUNS

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis 

A cold Winter’s day is simply begging for some hot, gooey, and very sweet baked buns. These Chelsea buns are lovely with lots of hot tea to have on a cold afternoon. Enjoy! 

Chelsea Buns
Ingredients - Dough
2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 cup lukewarm milk
4 cups strong plain white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup caster sugar
60g butter
1 egg, beaten
Filling
1 cup mixed dried fruit
1/3 cup chopped mixed peel
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon or mixed spice
30g butter, melted
2 tablespoons clear honey, warmed
Sugar, for sprinkling 

Method
For the dough, stir the caster sugar into 2/3 cup of the milk and whisk in the yeast. Cover the bowl and leave to stand in a warm place for 15 minutes, or until frothy, then stir in the remaining milk.
Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl and rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast liquid, add the beaten egg and mix to a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. Put into a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.
Combine the fruit, peel, sugar and spice. Grease a 30 x 23 cm baking or roasting tin. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for 2–3 minutes, then roll out to about 50 x 25 cm. Brush with the melted butter, sprinkle evenly with the fruit mixture and roll up, like a Swiss roll, from one long side. Cut into 15 equal pieces and space evenly, cut sides up, in the greased tin. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave until doubled in size.
While the buns are rising, preheat the oven to 190˚C. Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until well risen, golden brown and firm. Remove from the oven, brush immediately with the warmed honey and sprinkle with the sugar. Cool in the tin.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - CREAM SCONES

“Wilful waste makes woeful want.” – English proverb

Do you have some cream that has been in your fridge a few days past its use-by date? You know it’s still good, smells OK, but maybe it’s just turning? Well, use it all up by baking some scones that need some of this “turning” cream and no butter, nor eggs. They will taste wonderful and fluffy and there will be no hint of sourness! 

CREAM SCONES

Ingredients

450g self-raising flour, plus extra to dust

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons icing sugar

200mL thickened cream (“turning”)

125 mL cold water

Pinch of salt

Vanilla essence

Some sultanas (optional)

Milk, to brush 

Method

Place an oven rack in the top third of oven. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 200˚C. Lightly dust baking paper with self-raising flour and place on a metal baking sheet.

Sift flour, baking powder and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add the sultanas (if you are using them) and stir to cover with flour. Add the cream, vanilla essence and the cold water. Cut and fold mixture using a spatula until it starts to come together.

Form mixture into a ball with floured hands. Place ball on baking paper, dust fingertips with flour and knead lightly until just smooth and slightly springy. Do not overwork. Mould the dough to roughly form a square, about 2cm deep.

Dust the spatula with flour and use the edge to cut the dough into scone shapes. Gently separate each scone.

Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake the scones for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Split the warm scones and serve with thick cream or butter, and jam or marmalade if desired.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - YOGHURT CAKE

“Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.” - Letitia Baldrige 

Afternoon tea in Winter is a lovely tradition and having the right cakes is absolutely essential. One of the cakes we often have is the "1-2-3-4" Yoghurt Cake from Greece. It’s lovely and light and moist.

 Yoghurt Cake
Ingredients
1 cup (250 mL) Greek yoghurt (use the same cup to measure the other ingredients)
1 cup light vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 cups self-raising flour
4 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Your favourite icing to decorate or a simple dusting with icing sugar

Method
Separate the eggs, beating the yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (reserve).
Add the oil little by little while beating the yolk-sugar mixture. Once incorporated, add the yoghurt, a little at a time, mixing slowly. Add the vanilla essence.
Stop beating the mixture and add about a quarter of the flour and a quarter of the beaten egg-white alternately until they are used up, folding gently with a spatula to mix thoroughly.
Empty in a well-greased and floured ring cake tin and bake in an oven pre-warmed to 180˚C for 55 to 60 minutes in the centre shelf. Don’t open the oven door for the first 40 minutes or so, but later you may need to cover the cake with a little foil to prevent the top burning. Check if it’s done by inserting a skewer. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven and then upend onto your serving platter. Ice or dust when cake is cold.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

MUSIC SATURDAY - A RUSSIAN EASTER

“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine.” - Dwight L. Moody 

The St. Petersburg Chamber Choir and their director, Nikolai Korniev, show off subbasement basses, soaring sopranos and a rich, well-blended sound in “Russian Easter”, a group of eleven settings for Easter worship by Alexander Grechaninov, Dmitri Bortnyansky and other masters of Russian church music. The compositions were written variously from the 18th century through the present, but all stay true to the spirit and aesthetic of the Orthodox tradition. Those who find plainchant a little on the monotonous side but are still looking for a spiritual element in music will find much to admire and enjoy in these beautifully sung presentations.

1. 00:00 Alleluia. Behold The Bridegroom (Anon. XVIII cent.)
2. 05:08 Gentle Light (Viktor Kallinikov)
3. 08:14 Of Thy Mystical Supper, Op. 58 (Alexander Grechaninov)
4. 14:34 The Wise Thief, Op. 40 No. 3 (Pavel Chesnokov)
5. 17:04 Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent, Op. 27 No. 1 (Pavel Chesnokov)
6. 21:24 In the Flesh Thou Didst Fall Asleep (Hieromonk Jonathan)
7. 24:34 The Paschal Hours (Pavel Chesnokov)
8. 39:04 Paschal Hymns To The Virgin (Pavel Chesnokov)
9. 43:04 Today All Creation (Stephan Dekhteryov)
10. 48:46 Concerto No. 5: Come, O People (Concerto No. 5) (Dmitri Bortnyansky)
11. 55:24 Give Ear To My Prayer, Op. 26 (Alexander Grechaninov)

HAPPY EASTER!

FOOD FRIDAY - GREEK EASTER SWEET LOAF

“Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life.” - Janine di Giovanni

It’s Easter and as is traditional in Greek households we have done our traditional baking of Easter cookies, sweet Easter loaf, the dyeing of eggs red and the preparations for the “mageiritsa” soup and the roast lamb for Easter Sunday. Here is the recipe for the sweet Easter loaf, which is considered a “difficult” baking project as while the loaf should be well baked, it should also be light, yielding, sweet, aromatic and full of textured “trails” of baked dough.

Tsoureki (Greek Sweet Easter Loaf)

Ingredients

180 mL water

100 mL milk

650 g plain flour (high gluten, “strong” flour”

1 tsp baking powder

15 g dry active yeast

2 large eggs

50 g unsalted butter (melted)

200 g caster sugar

40 mL invert syrup

Pinch salt

1/2 tsp ground mahlepi

1/2 tsp ground gum mastic

1/2 tsp cardamom

Extra egg for glazing

Blanched flaked almonds

Method

In the large mixer bowl, mix the lukewarm milk and water and dissolve in it about a third of the sugar and the salt. Add the yeast and mix well so that it dissolves. Leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes to ensure that the yeast is activated (bubbles will appear).

Add the rest of the sugar and invert syrup to the yeast mixture, the lightly beaten eggs, the spices, the butter and begin mixing with the dough hook.

Once the ingredients are well mixed, add the flour (into which you have mixed the baking powder) little by little and continue mixing with the dough hook with large speed until the (soft) dough adheres to the hook. Do not add extra flour.

Stop mixing and cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise.

Once the dough has doubled in size, place some melted butter on your hands and punch it down. Cut the dough into three equal lots and form three long slender rolls. Form the dough rolls into a plait and place on a buttered baking tray. Glaze with beaten egg and sprinkle with the blanched flaked almonds. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise.

Warm the oven to 160˚C and before placing the loaf to bake, place a fire-proof bowl filled with boiling water in the lowermost shelf. Bake the loaf for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

ALL ABOUT KAFFIR LIMES

“Every era has its own list of ingredients that are considered exotic and then, 15 years later, they’re not.” - Yotam Ottolenghi 

The makrut lime (Citrus hystrix), sometimes referred to in English as the kaffir lime or Mauritius papeda, is a citrus fruit native to tropical Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Its fruit and leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisine and its essential oil is used in perfumery. Its rind and crushed leaves emit an intense citrus fragrance.

It should be noted that term makrut lime favoured over “kaffir lime” because kaffir is an offensive term in some cultures and has no contemporary justification for being attached to this plant. The etymology of the name “kaffir lime” is uncertain, but most likely was used by Muslims as a reference to the location the plant grew, which was populated by non-Muslims. The Arabic word for non-Muslims is kafir. 

Citrus hystrix is a thorny bush, 1.8 to 10.7 m tall, with aromatic and distinctively shaped “double” leaves. These hourglass-shaped leaves comprise the leaf blade plus a flattened, leaf-like stalk (or petiole). The fruit is rough and green, and ripens to yellow; it is distinguished by its bumpy exterior and its small size, approximately 4 cm wide. Citrus hystrix is grown worldwide in suitable climates as a garden shrub for home fruit production. It is well suited to container gardens and for large garden pots on patios, terraces, and in conservatories.

The leaves are the most frequently used part of the plant, fresh (most preferred!), dried, or frozen. The leaves are widely used in Thai and Lao cuisine (for dishes such as tom yum) and Cambodian cuisine (for the base paste “krueng”). The leaves are used in Vietnamese cuisine to add fragrance to chicken dishes and to decrease the pungent odour when steaming snails. The leaves are used in Indonesian cuisine (especially Balinese cuisine and Javanese cuisine) for foods such as soto ayam and are used along with Indonesian bay leaf for chicken and fish. They are also found in Malaysian and Burmese cuisines. It is used widely in South Indian cuisine. The rind (peel) is commonly used in Lao and Thai curry paste, adding an aromatic, astringent flavor. The zest of the fruit, referred to as combava, is used in creole cuisine to impart flavor in infused rums and rougails in Martinique, Réunion, and Madagascar. In Cambodia, the entire fruit is crystallised/candied for eating.

The juice and rind of the fruit are used in traditional medicine in some Asian countries; the fruit juice is often used in shampoo and is believed to kill head lice. The juice finds use as a cleanser for clothing and hair in Thailand and very occasionally in Cambodia. Lustral water mixed with slices of the fruit is used in religious ceremonies in Cambodia.

In the language of flowers, a sprig of this plant means: “Your beauty is exotic and beguiling”. A flowering sprig indicates: “You are beautiful, modest and accomplished.” Fruits included in floral arrangements carry the message: “Your accomplishments are even greater than your beauty.”

This post is partof the Floral Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Friday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - ORANGE TEA CAKE

“One mustn’t ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.” - Gustave Flaubert 

Time for tea! And of course a slice of tea cake. This lovely, fragrant, moist tangy and sweet orange cake foots the bill. Enjoy it with a cup of fragrant, light and partly oxidised, greenish Oolong tea. 

Orange Cake
Ingredients - Cake
125 g butter softened
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cup self-raising flour sifted
1 tbs orange zest
1 tsp vanilla essence
Ingredients - Icing
1/3 cup butter softened
1 and 1/2 cup icing sugar sifted
2 tbs orange juice
1/2 tsp orange zest 

Method
Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the zest, vanilla essence and continue beating, adding the yolks one by one.
Lightly beat the egg whites and add alternately with the milk, little by little, while beating the cake mixture lightly.
Add the flour little by little alternating with the orange juice. Do not overbeat at this stage.
Pour mixture into a buttered 20 cm x 10 cm loaf or 20 cm round (or ring) tin. Bake in centre of 180˚C fan-forced oven for 30-40 minutes. Turn onto wire rack and allow to cool.
Ice with orange icing and garnish with orange zest if desired.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - CHRISTMAS CAKE

“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.” - Oren Arnold 

It’s that time of the year again and if you haven’t made your Christmas cake yet (like us, here), you’re leaving it a bit late. This weekend is our last chance, so here it goes, leaving it to mature a few weeks before serving it up at the Christmas table!

Christmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients

1kg mixed dried fruit (use a mix of raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, cranberries, prunes, figs, candied citrus peel)

zest and juice 1 orange

zest and juice 1 lemon

150ml brandy, plus extra for feeding

250g unsalted butter , softened

200g light soft brown sugar

175g plain flour

100g finely ground almond meal

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 tsp ground cloves

1/3 tsp ground mace

100g flaked almond

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing of your choice (optional)

Method

Put the dried fruit, zest and juice, brandy, butter and sugar in a large pan set over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Tip the fruit mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool for 30 mins.

Heat fan-forced oven to 130˚C. Line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment, then wrap a double layer of newspaper around the outside – tie with string to secure.

Add the remaining ingredients to the fruit mixture and stir well, making sure there are no pockets of flour. Tip into your prepared tin, level the top with a spatula and bake in the centre of the oven for 2 hrs. Remove the cake from the oven, poke holes in it with a skewer and spoon over 2 tbsp of brandy. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

To store, peel off the baking parchment, then wrap well in cling film. Feed the cake with 1-2 tbsp brandy every fortnight, until you ice it. Don’t feed the cake for the final week to give the surface a chance to dry before icing.

Feel free to share a recipe of your own: