nostalgic baking: mum’s Sourcream & Spice cake

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Another of mum's cakes from the original recipe folder, that Emma and I are delighting in as we leaf through looking for things to cook during this second lockdown.  Mum didn't bake this cake often, perhaps because my father isn't big on spiced…

anglo-australian classics: sausage rolls, with rough puff pastry

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Rough Puff, also known as (quick) all butter puff pastry   Real puff pastry is a laborious process that involves much folding and refrigerating to produce that - oh so wonderful - effect of buttery layers. A puff pastry is best used for open…

mothers’ love: anzac biscuits

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A couple of days ago a gentleman asked me whether I was British.  I replied 'No, I am Australian'.  He suggested that this was the same; making me essentially British.  I repeated that I was Australian, and that did not make me British. 2015…

anglo-australian classics: shepherd’s pie

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One of my earliest food memories is stopping at a little cafe restaurant in the blink-and-you-will-miss-it town called Yarck on the Melba Highway.  It was probably a Friday night, and we would have been on our way to Jamieson for the weekend. …

anglo-australian classics: meat pies

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When you go to a football game in the southern part of Australia, where we follow Australian Rules Football, a home grown style of footy first played in Melbourne in the 1800's, the standard stadium food is a meat pie, with sauce, otherwise…

anglo-australian classics: scones with jam and cream

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For better or for worse, Australia occupies a sort of novelty position in the eyes of many Italians.  Newspapers run spots about killer sharks and koalas on the loose, and us auw-stra-yalini get lots of questions like how long does the flight…

about my father, seville oranges and making marmalade

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I don't often write about my father on my blog, unfairly so, because I am, and I think you can say this at 44 years of age, as much my father's daughter as I am a replica of my mother.  Our real shared love is for the Australian high country,…

through the mountains and down to the sea: an Australian road trip

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A road trip has to have a destination, even though by its very nature it's a journey where getting there is what it is all about.  Motels and cabins, ice-cream cones drippy in the hot wind on a sleepy afternoon main street, the mandatory fish…

festive baking: gingerbread

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Photo Marie Sjoberg Gingerbread.  Ginger powder and cinnamon, with a sprinkle of ground cloves and everything smells like Christmas. Basic gingerbread recipe 60 g butter 60 g dark brown sugar 2 tablespoons golden syrup 1 egg 175…

festive baking: super mince pie pastry

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When I'm in Australia I feel nostalgic for Italy and want to make a batch of Cavallucci di Siena at Christmas time or a Pastiera Napoletana at Easter.  And every single Easter I have spent in Italy I have faithfully made hot cross buns,…

boot Sales for beginners: passionfruit sponge

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Photos Marie Sjoberg Charity shops make such good sense, people clean out their attics, volunteers feel good and gain experience in the stores, buyers find bargains or just pass time sifting through what is one man's trash but another…