Lemon Love Notes

I have shared this recipe around a bit lately. I posted it over on the Taste forums before they went down for maintenance. I number of the members over there tell me how much they loved them and that the recipe was very popular. I, myself, had not made it in a long time though.

This is my mum's recipe and I remember asking her to make it all the time. It wasn't something that she did make a lot however it made it more special when she did make it. There is another recipe that I used to beg her to make all the time I haven't made it in years either, I will have to dig that one out as well. She always used to let me help her make it. It is such an easy recipe that it really is one that the kids can help with making. I remember pressing the base into the pan and mixing up the ingredient for the topping. Mum would, of course, take it in and out of the oven and would pour the filling over the base. Even when I was older it was still something that we always made together. I made it this past weekend to take along to my Toastmasters meeting tonight and it was enjoyed by all.

Mum has some notes next to a few things. I am also not sure why the recipe specifies an ungreased pan. I both grease and line the pan. Also I have used my slice pan to make it rather than a 20 cm square. Finally the one I made on the weekend I made the base as it but made 1 1/2 times the topping recipe, I this it was better. I then cooked it for 28 minutes and it seemed perfectly cooked.

Lemon Love Notes

Base: 

125g butter, melted

1 c flour

1/4 c icing sugar

Combine all ingredient and press into an ungreased 20cm square pan. Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 8 minutes (I usually bake for 12 - 15 min) or until golden brown. Cool slightly.

Topping:

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c sugar (Mum says 3/4 c)

2 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp lemon zest (Mum just says more! I usually use 1 tbsp)

Combine sugar, flour, baking powder. Add eggs, juice & zest and mix well. Pour over base and bake at 350 F for 25 min. Top puffs up in baking but falls when cooled. Cool in pan and sprinkle with icing sugar to serve. 

Peach Pie

I was given some lovely peaches by a neighbour last week. I had used some to make a peach chutney, that I will write about soon, but the rest were sitting in the fruit bowl and I was starting to worry that they would go bad. While I do like peaches, they are not my favourite stone fruit to just grab and eat, that prize goes to nectarines. This afternoon I decided to use them up I would make a peach pie. I wasn't sure that I had enough fruit to make a full pie so decided to go with some individual pies. I pulled out my Mum's recipe book and used her recipe being sure it wouldn't fail me and nor did it. They turned out extremely well. Just the right amount of sweetness. They could have used a touch more spice though. I think perhaps nutmeg instead of cinnamon. Excellent way to use up the peaches I think. 

Peach Pie

Crust: 

2 cups plain flour

2 tbsp caster sugar 

160 g butter, diced 

1 egg. lightly whisked

1 tbsp vinegar

water to make 2/3 c 

Add flour, caster sugar and butter to food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Combine egg and vinegar and add water to make up 2/3 cup. With the motor running add about 3/4 of the liquid, adding more if necessary, until it comes together. Wrap in glad wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. 

Break off small pieces roll out to line 4 individual pie pans, remembering that you need enough for lids as well.

Filling: 

6 peaches, peeled & diced 

1/3 - 1/2 c sugar (depending on sweetness of peaches) 

1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg

Pre-heat oven to 180 C.

Mix sugar, flour and spice together and then pour over peaches and stir to coat. 

Divide filling evenly between pie tins.

Roll out the remaining dough for the tops of the pies and place on top. Crimp edges as desired to enclose. Make two cuts in the top of the pies and then place on a baking tray and bake for 35 - 40 minutes. Turning the tray halfway through to brown the pies evenly. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Pumpkin Pie with Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream

I have spoken of my love of pies before. I know that this all stems from my gramma. She was the best pie maker ever. Plus she grew all of her own fruit so in the summer time it was one glorious pie after another with fresh just of the tree (or bush) fruit. My gramma would also preserve or freeze her fruit as well so that we could have her glorious pies (and other desserts) all year round. 

This pie however, I remember more from Mum. It is Mum's recipe that I have. I always remember begging Mum as a kid to make pumpkin pie but it didn't very often get made so I like to make it a couple of times a year now just to savour it. If you don't tell people that there is pumpkin in it then they would never realise. It is just such a fabulous recipe, lovely and spiced with just the right amount of sweetness. This time around instead of one big pie I made some individual sized tarts so now I have a bunch of those in the freezer for any time I am feeling like it and I didn't have to eat a whole pie myself. LOL.

This time I also made a vegan pumpkin ice cream to serve with it which I found over on Tasty Yummies. I was intrigued by a vegan ice cream and was very impressed with it. I couldn't find almond milk so used oat milk and I used brown sugar as that was all I had. I really liked it a lot and it went perfectly with the pumpkin pie. It has also piqued my interest in exploring more vegan ice cream recipes. 

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 2/3 c brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 1/2 c cooked mashed pumpkin, well drained (roasted and then mashed is best)
• 1 can evaporated milk

Method: 

• Combine sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger & salt. 
• Add eggs, pumpkin & cream and mix well. 
• Pour into an uncooked pastry shell. 
• Bake at 210 C for 15 minutes. 
• Reduce heat to 180 C for 40 minutes, or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.

For my pastry I use my Gramma's recipe it is the best pastry in the world:

Gramma's Pastry (for one single crust pie)

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 c plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c butter (gramma used lard)
• 1 tbsp white vinegar 
• 1 small egg 
• water

Method:

• Combine flour and salt. 
• Cut in butter using a pastry blender.
• Place egg in a 1 cup measure and lightly beat, add vinegar and top up with water to 1/2 cup. 
• Add to flour mixture and little at a time until you have a soft pastry (you probably will not need all the liquid). 

Pecan Maple Pie

Well, my cold decided to hang on a lot longer than I had expected it would. I had hoped to get all sorts of things made and done over the past week however it was not to be. It is a long weekend here and finally today I started to feel like I was getting back close to 100% although I have all of a sudden gotten very tired tonight. Perhaps I will manage an early night. 

Lately I have found myself in a little bit of a slump when it comes to my plans for my little blog. I haven't made anything from Bills Sydney Food in ages. I think it started when I had a couple of things that I did make (yet to be posted about) that just did not work. I am also finding myself in a position where I have made most of the things that I really wanted to and am now left with the others that I am either ambivalent about or and really unsure about making. There are also two recipes that I did make but the photos are not up to scratch so need to be remade. I have still been cooking and have so many things that I want to post about but just haven't done the posts as yet. I may yet do a few posts of just the recipes and pictures to get them up, a bit lazy, but at least it would let me catch up. Every time I post something that I have only just made I feel a little bit guilty as there are so many other recipes with their hands sticking up saying pick me, post me! LOL. 

Anyway, this is something that I did just make, well last night anyway. I just wanted to make a pie this weekend. I sat down with my mum's old recipe folder and handwritten cards and came up with a recipe for pecan pie that sounded perfect. I did make a few changes though, reducing the sugar as I usually find pecan pie too sweet. I also substituted the golden syrup in the recipe for maple syrup. I thought that this might be an interesting little twist on the regular recipe, plus I find maple syrup less sweet than golden syrup, not sure if it is or whether that is just psychological. It all came together really quickly and easily. I think next time I would use a tart tin that is a little deeper or a little bigger as I couldn't fit all the filling in although there was only about 1/2 c left over. I served the pie with a drizzle of cream today with lunch.

Pecan Maple Pie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
2/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoon Jim Beam (or other bourbon) (optional)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup pure cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pie crust (see below)

Method:

Combine sugar, syrup, bourbon and butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and bring to the boil stirring occasionally and then remove from the heat and allow mixture to cool.
Beat the eggs with the cream and vanilla and then add to the cooled syrup.

Spread the pecans over the bottom of the pie crust.
Pour the syrup mixture over the pecans.
Bake at 170C for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Pie Crust 

1 1/2 c plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
125 g butter, cut into chunks
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 small egg
water

Combine flour and salt in a food processor, add butter and pulse until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Place egg in a 1 cup measure and lightly beat, add vinegar and top up with water to 1/2 cup.
Add to flour mixture and little at a time until you have a soft pastry.

Roll out to size required, line tart tin. Prick the base with a fork and then place in the freezer for 10 - 15 minutes.

Line the pie shell with baking paper and fill with pie weights, rice or dried beans and bake at 190 C for 15 minutes. Remove the baking paper and weights from the pie shell and return to the oven for a further 5 - 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  

Spiced Orange Pork Chops

What is your favourite recipe that your mum made or you when you were a child? Do you know how to make it? Do you have the recipe memorised or written down somewhere? Perhaps this weekend is a good time to ask your mum to show you how to make it. My family owned a piggery when I was younger so our diet always involved a lot of pork. I have a number of recipes that I made up when I was younger using the large amounts of pork that was always in our freezer. 

This recipe is one of my mum's. No, actually, that is not quite right. This is a version of my mother's recipe that I came up with after she had passed away. As far as I know she had made the recipe up as I couldn't find anything similar in any of her cookbooks or her many recipes cut out of magazines. I was also unable to find it amongst her hand written recipes. It took a bit of trial and error to get this right. I am not sure that it is 100% correct but I have been making it this way for about 8 years now so it is difficult remember it any other way now. I would normally use smaller pork chops than the one I used on the night I made this but some times you just have to use what you can get at the time. I don't eat near as much pork now since the piggery is long since sold. It has turned into a rather expensive meat. Although maybe it always has been and I just never realised it before. What I do know, is if I want some comfort food there is nothing that is a bigger comfort to me than this recipe. 

Spiced Orange Pork Chops

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of orange juice
• 1/2 tsp onion powder 
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder 
• 1/2 tsp chinese five spice 
• 2 tsp brown sugar 
• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 or 3 dashes of worchestershire sauce 
• 4 small pork chops 
• 1 red (or brown) onion sliced

Method:

• Mix first 7 ingredients together and pour over pork chops and onions. Marinade for at least 30 minutes.
• Drain chops, reserving marinade.
• Fry the chops until lightly browned on both sides.
• Pour the reserved marinade over chops including onion slices.
• Simmer until the sauces is reduced and slightly thickened and onions are soft. 
• Serve with steamed vegetables and rice or mashed potatoes.