Tuscan Plum Upside Down Cake

We had family for dinner last night. I don't always do dessert - but my father-in-law is a dessert fan so I decided to find a dessert using our plum surplus. With our Italian leaning this week a Tuscan Plum Upside Down Cake seemed to fit the bill. I haven't made an upside cake before!

Ingredients

• 275 g Sugar
• 150 ml Water
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• 900 g Plums, Halved and Stoned 
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• 150 g Soft Butter
• 175 g Sugar
• 200 g Self Raising Flour
• 3 Eggs

   

Method

Preheat the oven to 170’c.
• 
  
• Put the sugar and water into a heavy based pan (that can go into the oven).
• Stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until the sugar caramelises to a golden brown. (I turned it off at a hint of brown as the cast iron pan I used held heat and the caramel continued to darken after I removed it from the stove)
• 
  
• 
  
  
  Carefully and immediately arrange cut side down in a single layer in the caramel (this will be the top of the cake when it is cooked).
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  Put the butter, sugar and flour into the bowl of an electric food processor, whiz for a couple of seconds, then add the eggs and stop as soon as the mixture comes together. ( if you don’t have a food processor, just cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one by one, then mix in the flour).
• 
  
  Spread the mixture in an even layer over the plums in the pan.
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  Bake in the preheated oven for about one hour.
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  The centre should be firm to the touch and the edges slightly shrunk from the sides of the pan.
• 
  
  
  Run a knife around the edges to make sure it has not stuck anywhere.
• Leave it to sit for 3 or 4 minutes before turning out.
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  Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or crème fraiche.

It was delicious, hot at the time and in my lunch box today. I also have a nectarine stack - I could see this becoming a regular dessert!

Iced Tea

I was at a café the other day, craving iced tea. But it’s like $4.00 dollars for a really small bottle so I had something else instead.

And in my iced tea craving that followed, it occurred to me that iced tea is pretty much just tea and sugar, plus maybe a bit of flavouring.

So how the heck can shops get away with charging $4.00!!!!!!!!!

I’d made iced tea before, but only ever  lemon, but suddenly I realized how easy it would be to make it peach flavoured! (or any other flavor for that matter)!

And it was really yummy! And just like the stuff you get at the shops! Plus it probably cost less than a dollar to make the whole jug!

I used this fruity T2 tea (Strawberries and Cream), which gave it a lighter, sweeter taste, but you could use any black, green or herbal tea of your choosing.

 Basic Iced Tea Recipe

1 Tbsp Loose leaf tea or 1 tea bag of your choosing

1 and a ½ Tbsp Sugar

1 litre of boiling water

Put the teabags in a large jug (if using loose leaf be sure to put it in an infuser). Pour over the water and allow to infuse for five minutes, or until your tea is stronger than you wuld drink hot. Stir in the sugar until dissolved, and allow to cool before putting it in the fridge to cool completely. 

Variations:

-       Peach flavor

Add 2 peeled, diced peaches to the jug with the teabags, before adding the water. Either remove it before serving or serve it in the tea.

-       Lemon Flavour

Add a tablespoon of lemon juice (or to taste) to the tea when you add the water. You may choose to add more sugar for a sweeter tea.

Mia 

Peach, Pear and Tomato Relish

For a few weeks I'd been planning on making a chutney or jam to use up all the stonefruit we keep getting in our fruit co-op. I stumbled across THIS recipe in my search, which struck me as sounding incredibly delicious (as well as being a great gift idea). It was however, slightly unrealistic sounding in terms of school term- which is why on my very first day of holidays I set about making it. 

All ready for giving away!
(sadly,  half of it had already been given away
when I though to take this photo) 

It was a downright scary recipe- especially the reccomendation to allow a whole day for it, so I had some niggling doubts about either not finishing it or it turning out disgusting after so much work! Still, I needn't have fear- it was delicious! The blanching and cutting was labour intensive and took a long while, but once it was on the stove it just needed occasionally stirring and a little bit of adjustment in terms of vinegar, so there was plenty of opportunity for going about whatever else needed doing. 

I chose not to use the chilli- I'm sure it would have been delicious, but some of the people I gave it to aren't big on heat- and used 1 1/2 cups of vinegar, which worked fine I thought. I chose to use only 2 pots, because they were very large. The bigger one (which was also on a larger burner) took about an hour and a half less, but this allowed time for bottling it while the other finished off.

Peach, Pear and Tomato Relish (AKA Gramma Miller's Tomato Relish)

From: http://kitchen-paradeveggieventure.blogspot.com/ 2007/08/gramma-millersripe-tomato-relish-aka.html

Time: allow a whole day, about 2 hours for prep work, then several hours stove-time with frequent attention

Makes about 10 pints (4.7L)

6 peaches
30 medium ripe tomatoes
6 medium yellow onions
3 green peppers
2 jalapeno peppers (this isn't traditional, I'm adding it this year for the first time)
6 pears, peeled and diced (because pears aren't yet in season, I use 3 15-ounces cans of pears in light syrup, including the syrup, the fruit diced small)
4 cups sugar
1 - 2 cups (or more) white vinegar
2 tablespoons table salt
2 tablespoons pickling spices


Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil for blanching the peaches and tomatoes. While the water comes to a boil, in batches chop the onion, green pepper and jalapeno in a food processor. Transfer to a large bowl Add the pears, sugar, vinegar (see notes below about vinegar quantity) and salt.


Four or five at a time, drop the peaches into the water and blanch for 1 minute til skin splits, transfer to colander to drain and cool. Let water return to a boil before adding more.


Cut an X in the skin of the blossom end of each tomato, then four or five at at time, drop into boiling water. Cover and blanch for 1 - 2 minutes til skin splits, transfer to a colander to drain and cool.


One by one, peel and then chop the peaches and tomatoes, discarding the peels and adding the pieces (juice and seeds and all) to the bowl and stir to combine. If there is more tomato than the bowl can hold, keep it separate until the relish is on the stove, making sure you allow it space in the pots.


Fill two-three large pots (depending on the pot size) about 2/3 full. Wrap the pickling spices in two or three squares of cheesecloth. (You'll need as many as you have pots for cooking. You can also staple the spices into coffee filters).


Bring the pots to a boil and let simmer until liquid cooks off, adding any leftover tomato as soon as you can. Especially at the beginning and near the end, stir ever 15 minutes to monitor the temperature. 


A couple of hours in, TASTE the mixture. It needs to have a strong vinegar component, if it doesn't, add vinegar. (My Mom and I made a very unsuccessful batch one year, we realized too late it was because we didn't use enough vinegar.) It's done with the liquid is cooked off and the whole mixture has turned a beautiful shade of brown. (Although the recipe says it takes 2-5 hours, my smaller pot took almost seven. I think the amount of liquid and the size of the pot/burner were to blame). It could be refrigerated at this point ... say if it's time for bed and you don't have the energy to fill and process the jars right then! If so, return to a boil but be careful, once it's fully cooked, it's easy to accidentally burn the bottom.


Fill the jars and process for 10 minutes.

The pickling spices were based on a google result-recipe.
Given the sizes of the pieces, I mostly ignored the quantity
for the relish.

Aren't the colours beautiful??

Almost done!

All in all, a big success, that I'll certainly make again (though it may have to wait until next holidays)!

Mia