Wiebe/Roberts Away Down Under: Dust Storms

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Dust Storms

This hasn't happened in 40 or more years... the sky turned red...our eyes were watering... the winds howled from the dry western (middle Australian) salt lakes and deposited tonnes of dust on the beaches and buildings of the eastern coast of Australia.

We were on the 2nd day of our visit to the Gold Coast (southern Queensland and northern NSW) and our friends Ted and Penny (Ped and Tenny as they are now known) took us to a gorgeous beach just north of Surfers Paradise. A paradise indeed... kilometres of gorgeous sand and waves. The stretch south of Southport, where we chose to play/swim, is built up with high rises, the playground of many international travellers. We were stopping in for some beach fun before we drove on to the Byron Bay area. The sun was out, but the day descended into murk as the dust storm hit the coast. We had to give up and head for a shopping centre (gasp!) to take a break from the dust-laden air. Of course there is a gigantic shopping centre, just ready for the tourist dollar. After a few hours it calmed down, but by then the zest for the beach was gone. THe wind was still howling and the waves were wild and strong... it was too much work to stay upright and try to body surf or boogy board, so we headed "home" to Beenleigh.

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Date and Ginger Oaties

I've mentioned the date and ginger cookies by the Byron Bay Cookie Co. I'm still looking for their recipe, but have been experimenting with a few of my own, and have found a fig and ginger recipe that can be adapted and gets quite close to the Byron Bay original!

Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped dates (soak them a bit first if they're very dry)
2 tablespoons chopped glace or fresh ginger (increase this amount if you like a stronger ginger flavour)
* add some allspice, if you want to intensify the flavour*
125 g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp water

Sift flour into bowl, stir in oats, coconut, sugar, dates and ginger. Combine butter and golden syrup and water in pan, stir over low heat (or use microwave) until the butter is melted. Stir hot bubbling mixture into the flour mixture.

Shape 2 level tsps of mixture into a ball, place onto greased (or use paper) oven tray. Flatten slightly. Allow about 5 cm between cookies. Bake in moderately hot oven (180/350ish or a bit hotter) for 12 - 15 minutes (depends on size of cookie) or until slightly browned.

Carrot, Radish and Orange Salad

3 oranges, peeled with a knife
6 large radishes
4 large carrots, coarsely grated
80 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon, plus a little extra for dusting
1 tbsp orange blossom watter
1 lemon, juiced
flaked salt, to season

Lay the sliced oranges on a platter and scatter over some of the radish, sliced thinly. Grate the remaining radishes and mix with the carrot.

Mix olive oil, cumin, cinnamon, orange blossom water and lemon juice, and season with salt. If you can't get the orange blossom water, just leave it out... I have tasted a salad with it as a dressing and it's amazing, but don't stress about finding it if it isn't easily available. Pour the dressing over the grated carrots and refrigerate for 15 minutes. To serve, pile carrot and radish mix on top of the orange and radish slices, and dust with a little cinnamon.

Fr sunday life, by K. Martini

Brekky Bars

3/4 cup S.R. flour
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup firmly packed br sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup sultanas
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
3/4 cup low fat milk
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160 fan forced. Grease a 3 cm deep (or line with baking paper) slice pan, allowing for overhang at ends.
2. Combine flour, coconut, sugar, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sultanas and apricot in a bowl. Whisk milk and egg together in a jug. Add to flour mixture. Mix to combine. Add choc chips for some decadence!
3. Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until firm. Stand slice in pan for 15 minutes. Turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy

We do like a few choc chips in this recipe. It's yum!

From taste.com.au

Chicken and Prawn Laksa

We met up with some fantastic laksa in the Adelaide Central Market's Asian food court. The line ups were wicked in the lunch hour ... Tom would willingly have his lunch there every day!

Serves 4

1 tbsp oil (veg, canola, peanut or whatever you like)
4 tbsp good-quality laksa paste (I found a jar of the stuff in the Asian food section of the local Woolies)
1 tbsp palm sugar chopped (didn't have it, so I used raw sugar)
800 ml coconut milk (use light if you want)
500 ml chicken stock
6 kaffir lime leaves and 2 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp fish sauce
200 g chicken breast, finely sliced
8 green king prawns, peeled and deveined
200 g dried rice noodles, boiled until soft, then drained and kept in cold water
8 pieces tofu, either deep fried or plain
1 cup bean sprouts
4 tbsp deep fried shallots (I stir fried my own -- from fresh)
1/2 cup coriander leaves

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat and add the laksa paste, stirring occasionally for 2 min. Add the sugar and cook until dissolved. Add the coconut milk, chicken stock and kaffir lime leaves and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, chicken slices and prawns (add prawns later if you wish), and getnly poach them until just cooked.

Drain the rice noodles. Divide the noodles, tofu and bean sprouts among four large bowls and ladle over the soup, chicken and prawns. Top with shallots and coriander leaves.

Orange and Almond Cake

Ingredients
1 large orange
3 eggs
1 heaped cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder (increase if not using s.r. flour)
1 cup almond meal
1/3 cup S.R. flour (the brand used in the original recipe is gluten-free, I think)

Method
1. Place orange in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook 1 hour or until orange is very soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Remove seeds from orange and place in food processor/blender. Blend orange, including skin, until smooth. Cool.
2. Preheat oven -- 180 - 200 C.
3. Grease and line 20 cm springform pan with baking paper.
4. Beat eggs, sugar and baking powder until thick and pale.
5. Mix orange pulp into egg mix.
6. Whisk flour and almond meal together and fold into egg and orange mixture.
7. Pour into prepared tin.
8. Bake 45 minutes. Insert skewer into centre of cake to ensure cake is cooked. This cake is slightly moist when finished.
9. Cool cake in oven. (Turn oven off first!)

From Dianne Boyle.

Roasted beetroot, spinach and goat's cheese salad

1 bunch beetroot, washed and dried
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
baby spinach leaves
75 g goat's cheese, roughly crumbled
2 tbs roughly chopped walnuts, toasted

1. Heat oven to 180C. Roast beetroot in oven on baking tray for 35 minutes or until tender. (I did not wrap in foil.) Cool when finished, peel skin, and cut into wedges.
2. To make dressing, combine oil, vinegar and brown sugar. I didn't have red wine vinegar so I used a sweetish red wine we have in the house and combined it with the oil, and some white wine vinegar. Season with cracked pepper and salt.
3. Place beetroot in large bowl. Drizzle with dressing and marinate if you have time. Add the spinach and gently toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with goat's cheese and walnuts.

Adapted from taste.com.au

Cate's Scones

We are in the final throes of winter. The following scone recipe is courtesy of Cate, our neighbour.

Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour (if no SR flour, add 2 tsp baking powder to the flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
3/4 cup milk

Method
1. Set oven at 220 C.
2. Rub butter into flour and salt, using the fingertips.
3. Mix into a soft dough with milk. Add a little milk if required.
4. Turn on to a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic.
5. Roll out 2 cm thick and cut into shapes.
6. Arrange on oven tray and glaze tips with milk.
7. Bake at 220 C for 10 - 15 min.

Variation
Fruit - add 1/2 cup of dried fruit and 2 tbs caster sugar after step 2.

Anzac Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
2 tbsp golden syrup
125 g butter
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp boiling water

Method:
1. Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together.
2. Melt syrup and butter together.
3. Mix soda with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup.
4. Add to dry ingredients.
5. Place teaspoons of mixture well spaced on a greased baking tray.
6. Bake in a slow oven for 12 - 15 minutes at 180C.

Watch them. Every oven is different and they can dry out quickly. Makes up to 50 (small, obviously; we got about 25 biscuits out of this recipe).

Passionfruit buttercake

125 g butter, melted
300 g (2 cups) self raising flour (or add 1.5 tsp baking powder)
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 passionfruit, to serve
1 cup icing sugar, to serve

1. Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and line a loaf pan. Place the butter, flour, buttermilk, eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Using hand beaters (or a wooden spoon), mix until well combined.
2. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 45 - 50 min or until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cool in the pan for 5 min then transfer to a wire rack.

To serve, remove the pulp from the passionfruit and place in a small bowl. Add the icing sugar and stir to combine until the mixture forms a smooth paste. Drizzle passionfruit mixture over the cake.

If you can't find passionfruit, use the juice and pulp of any tart fruit you love.

ENJOY. Adapted from a recipe in the Herald Sun's taste.com.au, May 6, 2009.

Book and Music List

"it's raining in Mango" by Thea Astley. Bought it used in Nimbin. The guy selling books couldn't help me out when I asked about it. A nice surprise. Traces 5 generations of a family with Irish and Canadian roots in northern Queensland.
Ruth Parks: "Missus", "The Harp in the South", and "Poor Man's Orange". Set in country Aus and on to Sydney. Follows an economically (and socially) deprived family over several generations. It's pathetic at a basic level, but inspiring to see how certain individuals try to escape their status.
"The Castle" and "Crackerjack" -- 2 sweet little Aussie movies. In "The Castle", a man fights a powerful corporation from taking over his house to enlarge the airport acquisition. "Crackerjack" is about the members of a lawn bowling club and their fight to save the club without resorting to the pokies.
the waddi tree by Kerry McGinnis (author of The Road to Coorain) -- an authentic account of growing up in the outback in the 1950s/60s
The Call of the Currowong by singer Harmony James
The Family Frying Pan by Bryce Courtenay (short stories, family history, Russia, America, Austarlia)
My Place by Sally Morgan (a woman searches for her own spiritual and family roots after finding out her grandmother is Aboriginal)
Jackson's Track by Daryl Tonkin and Carolyn Landon (life in the Australian bush from the 30s onwards)
A Fortunate Life by A.B. Tracey (the life story of an Australian man, 1894 to 1981)
Ghost Train to the Eastern Sky by Paul Theroux
The children's book by A.S. Byatt
Deadly Unna? by Phillip Gwynne (teenagers play footie in a small SA town, life intervenes)
The Memory Game by Nicci French (British psychological thriller )
Saving Billie by Peter Corliss (Sydney based private detective looks for a missing woman)
Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett
Music by Abi Tucker - new album, One December Moon
Ghosting by Jennie Erdal -- memoir of a woman worked as a ghost writer for several decades
The Bachelors of Broken Hill by Arthur Upfield -- crime fiction set in NSW in the 30s/40s
Wood Brothers, a duo from the States -- check out their song "Luckiest Man"
Tim Winton's books, anything you can find by him -- read them!
American Journeys by Don Watson