RIPE CHERRY SLICE

This homemade take on a Cherry Ripe comes from Mum’s friend Thel, who was a great cook and gave Mum some terrific recipes.

Ripe Cherry Slice cropped

RIPE CHERRY SLICE

  • 250g dark chocolate
  • 30g copha
  • 1½ cups coconut
  • ½ cup ground almonds
  • ½ cup icing sugar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2 tablespoons rum
  • 125g glace cherries

Melt chopped chocolate and copha in double saucepan.  Line 2 – 25x8cm bar tins with foil, pour half chocolate mixture over base of each tin (reserve the other half for top).  Refrigerate until set.  In bowl combine coconut, ground almonds and sifted icing sugar.  Add unbeaten egg whites and rum, mix well.  Chop cherries roughly, add to coconut mixture and mix well.  Spread over chocolate in tins, pour remaining chocolate over.  Refrigerate until set.  Allow to stand at room temperature 30 minutes before cutting.  Remove from tins, remove foil before cutting.

 

QUICHE LORRAINE

Mum used to make Egg and Bacon Pies all the time, but also made this Quiche Lorraine recipe when she wanted something a bit fancier. The difference between an egg & bacon pie and a quiche lorraine is that for a quiche the eggs are beaten together with cream and milk and poured into the base on top of the bacon.  While for the more basic egg & bacon pie you just break the eggs top of the bacon.  As a result a quiche has a much lighter filling than the more rustic egg & bacon pie.  Whichever one you go for, they’re both really great.

Quiche Lorraine

QUICHE LORRAINE

  • 15g butter
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 100g bacon
  • 20cm uncooked shortcrust pastry case
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Salt, pepper
  • 150ml fresh cream
  • 75ml milk
  • 175g cheddar cheese, grated

Melt butter and fry bacon and onion until soft.  Place in pastry case.  Beat remaining ingredients together and pour over bacon and onion.  Bake at 190c for 30-40 minutes.  Serve hot or cold.

FISH CURRY

A curry to my Mum was always made using curry powder bought from the supermarket. There were no jars of curry mix in all the levels of heat that you can buy now and no one made it from scratch using individual spices.  You either put in one tablespoon of curry powder or more depending on the heat you wanted. So this recipe is in no way a modern curry, but Mum and Dad didn’t like their curry hot and they did like smoked cod so this worked for them.  When I make it I always put in some peeled potatoes that soak up the sauce and taste great.

Fish Curry

FISH CURRY

  • 375g filleted or smoked cod
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • ½ clove garlic
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • ½ tablespoon curry powder
  • 1 dessertspoon tomato puree
  • 150ml cold water
  • Potatoes, peeled and quartered

Wash fish cut into bite size pieces.  Saute onion and garlic in oil for 10 mins and stir in the curry powder.  Stir well and cook for a few mins.  Add water gradually stirring all the time and bring to the boil. Stir in the tomato puree.  Put in fish and potatoes, cook very gently, low heat 30mins.

MUSHROOM, SPINACH & FETA QUICHE

This is another no-pastry quiche which Mum collected from the New Idea.  I’m not sure what the difference between a quiche without pastry and a frittata is.  I suspect it’s just  the country it’s made in – Quiche, Australia – Frittata, Italy.  What do you think?

Mushroom Spinach & Feta Quiche