2010: the year of living recklessly

After careful consideration, I have decided that 2010 will be the year of living recklessly (obviously the careful consideration and reckless bits are somewhat at odds, so reckless behaviour will commence after that last careful consideration).

I've taken the first step. My contract at work has just expired, and they kindly offered to make me a permanent member of staff. My stomach sank, my marrow screamed 'no'and two weeks later I said no - somewhat less emphatically than my marrow had. Significantly less emphatically, actually, as they weren't quite convinced that I had resigned. It took two tries and that letter to leave.

I don't ordinarily follow/pay attention to/place significant weight in the words of horoscopes, except, of course, when they match up with what I want. But a colleague, upon hearing that I was departing, emailed me a rather detailed description of which moon is moving through which sign, who is orbiting who and so forth (all sounds a bit rude really), the short of which is that apparently this is a time when we can expect radical change. Rather accurate really. And not just for me, either. The fortune of Mr Anti Choice himself, Tony Abbott, for example, has vastly changed. Those ears were just meant for politics and newspaper caricatures.

So, universe, I have opened up a giant and expensive chasm in my life. Now if you could please oblige by sending something radical my way, I'd be most appreciative.

Since it's not quite 2010, the recklessness is quite tame at this stage. This weekend's act of recklessness is to pulp three perfectly lovely mangoes and risk spoiling them for the potentially happy outcome that is sorbet. The other potential outcome, of course, is sad and ruined mangoes that would have been wonderful just as they were until I got all reckless on their loveliness. On reflection, this could be a terrible allegory for what I have just done to my employment prospects: pulped.

If you would like to pulp things I would recommend starting with mangoes before chucking in your job.

This is pretty much a Tessa Kiros recipe, from Apples for Jam (I've just used a little less sugar).

What you'll need...

2-3 ripe mangoes
1/3 cup caster sugar
juice of 2 limes
grated rind of 1 lime

The how to...

1. Peel the mangoes and chop the flesh into small chunks.
2. Tip the mango into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, then stir and cover. Leave overnight - this draws out the mango juice.
3. The next day, blend until smooth. Sieve the mixture if it is stringy. You can add sugar a little at a time if you like, for more sweetness.
4. Top up with water to make about 2 cups of mixture and then pour into a container with a lid. Stick it in the freezer. After an hour, pull it out and give it a whisk then put it back in the freezer for a couple more hours, before pulling it out to whisk again. When it is nearly firm, pull it out for one last whisk then leave it in the freezer to set. If you have an ice cream maker you can circumvent the in/out/whisk thing.

Will post a picture tomorrow if it turns out pretty. This is supposed to serve 4-6 people, but I'm inclined to thinking that on a hot day it is enough to make one person very happy.

Resolving the banana issue

As a small person, aged about 5 or so, I had a playground accident that left me with a serious aversion to eating bananas the normal way.

We had one of those play frames that had a slide, a swing and some other bits and pieces contained in it. I quite liked sitting backwards at the top of the slide, with my legs resting on the rungs of the ladder, gazing at the tall sky-scraping poplar trees that lined our back fence and contemplating the kind of things that five year olds do; were there enough spangles on my dance concert tutu? How did my Barbie dolls feel when I had finished playing with them and stuck them in a dark, airtight container? Did my neighbour notice that I wasn't actually listening to his battle strategies, but leafing discreetly through a nice Disney princess story instead? It was a nice place to chill.

One life-changing day, I sat in this happy place eating a banana and swinging my legs. The heels of my shoes were bouncing off the rungs. Swing-bounce, swing-bounce, swing-crash. My feet tangled in the rungs, and my body tipped forward until my forehead rather painfully connected with the bottom rung. Since then, bananas eaten the regular way bring back a disconcerting sense of concussion. I can eat them sliced on my breakfast, blended in a smoothie, mashed into baked goods, but just not whole.

A little embarrassed by not having grown out of this odd borderline phobia almost twenty years on, I hadn't shared this anecdote with my boyfriend, who buys a bunch of bananas every week. They start their life in our fruit bowl with a lovely waxy yellow skin. A couple of days later they are streaked brown and black. A few days on again, and the kitchen smells entirely of banana. Any longer and fruit flies start to swarm. This has been going on for a number of years now, we are in a constant state of banana oversupply. I usually catch them at the overripe stage and turn them into banana cake/bread/muffins, or freeze them for baking later.

This recipe for banana and walnut muffins started as Tess Kiros' recipe for banana bread; I have altered it to suit me.

You will need...

3 large bananas, mashed
2 eggs, beaten
100g butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 warm milk (soy or rice milk work quite nicely)
1/2 cup walnuts (you can use any nut you like, or chocolate if you prefer)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)


The how-to...

1. If you keep eggs in the fridge, take them out - when baking it is best to use eggs at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grab a magazine and a lemon Calippo, put on a hat and go bask in the sun for a half hour.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric beater. Whilst still beating, slowly pour in the oil.
3. Add the mashed bananas, beaten eggs, vanilla extract and/or maple syrup to the butter mixture, and whisk.
4. Sift in the flour with the baking powder and a pinch of salt.
5. Warm the milk and stir into it the baking soda. Once combined, tip this into the main mixture. Add the walnuts and stir the mixture until just combined.
6. Spoon into muffin/friand tin and cook for about 12-15 minutes (if you are making large muffins you will need longer, probably 20-25 minutes). They should be crisp and golden brown on top, and a clean knife/skewer pushed into the centre of the muffins should come out clean.

Enjoy - they are particularly good with butter when they have just come out of the oven.

Banana crisis averted.

Jam, with a side of nonsense

Having revisited Edward Lear's poem, 'The Owl and the Pussycat', I was inspired to buy a bag full of quinces on a recent shopping trip. Dining on quince seemed like quite a sweet thing to do...

"They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon."

Unfortunately, the only variety of quince that I have found in Australia is rather inedible raw - too hard and sour - so I use it to make jam.

I started out with a Tessa Kiros recipe (from her book 'Apples for Jam') and made a couple of changes. At mid-August, I believe we are at the end of the quince season, so snap to it if you're interested...

You will need...
3 cups caster sugar
4 quinces
2 apples
1 lemon
a splash of vanilla essence
jars (of any shape or size) to store the jam in

The how-to...

1. Rinse the quince, apples and lemon. The quince skin will probably be a little sticky, and covered in a grey-ish fuzz. Scrub this off.
2. Quarter the lemon, and then pop it into a large pot with the quince and apples (leave these whole for now). Tip in enough water to just cover everything and then heat it all on the stove top. You want to bring the water to boil, and then to let it all simmer for about 30 minutes. Then, turn off the heat and leave it all to soak overnight.
3. The next day, drain the fruit, and keep the liquid. Peel, core and dice the apples and quinces. Squeeze the quartered lemon , flesh and all, into the reserved liquid. Discard the lemon skin. Scoop out any seeds that have fallen into the liquid.
4. Put the diced fruit back into the pot. You need to add ten cups of liquid to this. Use the liquid that you reserved earlier, and then make the rest of the quantity up with water.
5. Add the sugar and a splash or two of vanilla - the vanilla adds a toffee taste to the jam - and turn on the heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil. Cool to a simmer, and let it bubble gently for about two and a half hours (if you like your jam runny, a little less, and if you like it really thick, a little more).
6. Whilst the jam does its thing, you can prepare the jars. Pre heat your oven to around 200 degrees. Soak them in hot water to remove any labels, and then wash the jars and their lids in hot soapy water. Rinse the soap off and then put the jars and lids into the pre heated oven on baking paper-lined trays. Leave them there for about 20 - 30 minutes, or until they are thoroughly dry. This process sterilises the jars.
7. Back to the jam. The quince will have turned a lovely ruby-red colour. Once it is at your desired consistency, turn the heat off. If you like a smooth jam, blend or mash the fruit, otherwise you can leave it as is.
8. Let it cool a little, then spoon it into the warm jars. Put the lids on the jars, then turn them over to create a seal. Unopened, this should last in the cupboard for 10 - 12 months. Once you have opened it, you will need to keep it in the fridge.


It's quite nice to make this using lots of small jars, because then you can give them away to friends. With a ribbon tied around the lid, these make quite a pretty present.

Quince jam for me, quince jam for you, quince jam we shall eat. If you like nonsense with your jam, then you can read 'The Owl and the Pussycat' (and gander at the illustrations) here. Find someone to dance on the sand with and then get your quince on!

P.S. For the Sydney-siders...if you like homemade jam but don't have time to make your own, try Paul Simon's 'Jam packed'. You can buy it from him at 324 Cleveland St, Surry Hills, or Google the name for online grocers who stock his lovely preserves.