prickly pear & lime curd

from sour to sweet

Australia has a sour history with the prickly pear plant.

The very first settlers, on the First Fleet, brought it with them to establish a cochineal industry (the tiny cochineal grubs that live in the plant are squashed to produce red dye). Since Britain required a lot of red dye for their textile industry (not to mention the Red Coats of their army), they hoped an Australian colony would break the cochineal monopoly held by Spain and Portugal.

Instead, the prickly pear became one of the most invasive weeds ever introduced to Australia.

Last week I wrote about eating the prickly pear cactus paddles, but their fruits are also very popular in Mexico (where it is known as tuna) and southern Italy (where it’s called fico d'India or Indian fig). They are eaten fresh or in drinks, jams, ice creams and salsas.

There are many kinds of fruit as well, ranging from ultra sweet to tart.

1. The Juana (sometimes called roja) has large, chewy seeds and tart, crimson flesh. 2. The roja pelona, kiwilike in flavor, is free of thorns, and while the seeds of all tunas are edible, the ones in this variety are smaller than most. 3. The widely available cristalina, also known as zarca, is juicy and crisp, with a sweet flavor like that of a white peach. 4. The naranjona has a honey-sweet, subtly spicy flavor reminiscent of a ripe persimmon's. 5. The wild xoconostle has a sour and chewy, edible peel that is sometimes used in savory stews. 6. The most widely available wild variety, the cardona has soft seeds and a flavor that's both sweet and bitter, almost like a Luxardo cherry's. 7. The cuerno de venado has a floral flavor; its high water content and small seed size make it a favorite snacking tuna. 8. The yellow platanera has a tropical flavor like that of bananas, the fruit from which it takes its name. www.saveur.com

The prickly pears I was given by my colleague had vibrant red flesh, so I went for something sweet that exposed the beautiful crimson juices.

Dolloped upon perfect lime-scented meringues, this curd was a rather delectable treat.

Prickly Pear & Lime Curd

Anna’s very own recipe. Makes approx 250ml (1 cup).

Ingredients:
40ml lime juice (2 tablespoons or 1 lime)
60ml prickly pear juice (¼ cup or 1-2 prickly pears)
30g sugar
3 egg yolks
75g butter, chopped into pieces

Method:

1. To peel the prickly pears, use gloves and cut one end off, stick the top with a fork then with a very sharp knife make a cut lengthwise down the fruit to peel the outer layer off. Cut base off then discard peel.

2. Place the fruit in a food processor and puree. Strain through fine mesh using the back of a spoon to push pulp through and separate seeds.

3. Transfer to a heatproof bowl then add egg yolks, sugar and butter. Whisk to combine.

4. Stir continuously over a saucepan of simmering water until mixture has thickened and coats the back of a wooden spoon (3-5 minutes).

5. Remove from heat then set aside to thicken for an hour or two. Cover and store in refrigerator up to three days.

Note: Can also be kept for a month or two in the freezer and defrosted.

So how did it the prickly pear spread across the countryside?

In the mid-1800s, gardeners foolishly planted the cactus in paddocks and parks all along the east coast, mistakenly believing it would make great stock fodder or hedge plants. It flourished in the arid Australia climate and move from garden to paddock where it exploded across the country.

The impact was devastating and it took Special Acts of Parliament in the 1920s for coordinated and serious action to be undertaken. By that time some 60 million acres (25,000,000 hectares) of Queensland and New South Wales were overtaken and 40,000 km2 (15,000 sq mi) of farming land was rendered completely unproductive, with families unable to move between the plants and forced off their land.

The saviour in this story came in the form of the Cactoblastis cactorum, a dusty brown South American moth that, in a case often cited as one of the world’s most successful biological pest control, almost wiped out the Australian infestation of prickly pear.

But what of the cactus today?

From one of the most invasive weeds ever introduced to the country, it’s now on the supermarket shelves next to exotic pitaya, fragrant feijoa and vibrant rambutans. Curious customers are oblivious to its history as a noxious weed.

This is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Cinzia from Cindystar.

potato & cactus omelette

This is my favourite kind of breakfast.

Once upon a time I craved fluffy hotcakes soaked in maple syrup, but these days I wake up craving eggs and chilli.

Any Mexican-style breakfast is a win for me, but those doused in the tangy heat of salsa verde really gets me out of bed in a hurry.

I love this omelette because it combines the soft vegetal flavours of the cactus with starchy potato and chillies.

Too good. Too easy. Drool*.

Tortilla de Patata y Nopal (Baked Potato & Cactus Omelette)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 2.

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup chopped prepared cactus
1 cup diced, cooked potato
4 eggs, beaten
1 green chilli, finely chopped
¼ cup (60ml) sour cream or natural yoghurt
Salsa verde, to serve
Lime wedges, to serve

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic and sauté and until softened.

2. Add cactus and sauté for a minute or so.

3. Add potato and fry until heated through.

4. In a bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs, green chilli, salt and pepper.

5. Spread the potato and cactus evenly across the frying pan, then pour over the egg mixture.

6. Cook for 3-5 minutes until set, then finish off under the grill if preferred.

7. Serve with generous lashings of salsa verde.

*That “drool” was for you, Fabio.

passionfruit slice

This recipe made me swoon.

I had never made passionfruit slice before, but it’s an Aussie favourite. Rightly so, given all the backyard passionfruit vines. Passionfruit will grow out of control if you don’t keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t care less given the amazing fruits it yields.

My favourite types of passionfruits are panamas. They are much bigger, yield more pulp which is a vibrant golden hue and ultra fragrant, and they also seem to contain less white fibres to battle with when extracting the pulp.

Purple passionfruits are prettier though, and still damn tasty. These are the ones I ate the most growing up, as two different homes I lived in had purple vines in the back yard. In fact at one house the vine was right next to the pool so all you had to do was hop out of the water, rip one off the vine, jam your stubby finger inside and suck out the pulp as you jumped back into the pool. Kids, eh.

These Aussie childhood memories are fitting for the recipe I made after receiving a basket of passionfruits from the Passionfruit Industry of Australia.

Passionfruit slice: a simple biscuit base smothered in a tangy, fudgy topping.

The base is pretty standard in every recipe you'll come across, but I decided to add a little vanilla to enhance the flavours. And for the topping, I doubled the usual passionfruit quantities to ensure you’re hit with the intense flavours you’d expect from any passionfruit dessert.

Jonas thinks it’s one of the best cakes he’s ever eaten. Even better than my Easter egg friands, which he loved.

SK from my office told me it was one of the best cakes she’d eaten in a very long time, and when my colleagues swooped back for seconds it confirmed the ooohhs and aaaaahs were not just politeness.

If Jonas has his way, I’ll be making this recipe again and again and again and again.

And again and again.

Passionfruit Slice

Anna’s version of an Aussie classic. Makes approx 30 squares.

Ingredients:
100g (½ cup) caster sugar
85g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
125g melted butter
¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
395g can sweetened condensed milk
250g passionfruit pulp (about 12 passionfruit)*
62ml (¼ cup) fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C / 350’F (or 160’C / 320’F fan forced). Grease a slice tin and line with baking paper.

2. *First prepare the passionfruit by scooping out the pulp of all but one passionfruit. Blitz in a food processor or blender to release the pulp from seeds, then strain through a fine strainer to yield juice. Mix in the pulp and seeds of the last remaining passionfruit (now weigh it to see you’ve got around 200-250g).

3. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, coconut, vanilla bean paste and melted butter to form a dough.

4. Press mixture firmly into the prepared slice tin, to create a “cookie” base.

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden on edges. Allow to cool.

6. In another bowl, mix together the passionfruit pulp, vanilla essence, lemon juice and condensed milk, as well as the additional passionfruit pulp.

7. Pour over cooled base then bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until just firm.

8. Bring to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until completely set.

9. Cut into squares for serving. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

daikon braised in mirin & miso

My husband once had a crush on Alicia Silverstone. During his military service he spent long periods guarding supply stations with his comrades, watching Clueless over and over again. It’s an odd movie choice for a bunch of soldiers, but then again I suppose pretty girls in short skirts tick all the right boxes for bored, lonely boys.

What I hadn’t realised about Alicia Silverstone is that she’s a vegan and has written a cookbook called The Kind Diet. OK, so she “co-wrote” it with macrobiotic nutritionist Jessica Porter, but without Silverstone’s celebrity backing, utter dedication to veganism and regular recipe tweeting, I might never have discovered this amazing dish.

Boiled chucks of radish doesn’t sound like the most appetising meal, but it truly is fantastic.

The slabs of daikon soften, but they keep a toothsome texture and complex flavour that’s almost meaty. I defy omnivores not to raise their eyebrows in surprise at how wonderfully hearty such a simple vegetarian dish can be.

In order to meet one of my 2012 Food Challenges (cook with daikon), I adapted this recipe quite drastically, deciding to turn the braising liquid into a much richer concoction adding miso soup, rice vinegar and sesame.

Daikon braised in Miso & Mirin

Anna’s adaptation of a recipe from The Kind Life by Alicia Silverstone. Serves 4 as side.

Ingredients:
1 large daikon radish
20g red miso paste
60ml (¼ cup) mirin
40ml (2 tablespoons) light soy sauce
20ml (1 tablespoon) rice vinegar
20ml (1 tablespoon) white sugar
3cm x 5m piece dried kombu
5ml (1 teaspoon) sesame oil
1 tablespoon, toasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Slice the daikon into 2cm-thick rounds

2. Place them in a large saucepan, or lidded pan, in a single layer

3. Add water almost to cover the daikon

4. Add the miso paste, soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, sugar and kombu

5. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, then reduce to very low, cover pan and simmer daikon for 30 minutes or until almost all liquid has been absorbed

6. Sprinkle braised daikon with sesame oil and sesame seeds

chocolate “easter egg” friands

HAPPY EASTER!

Easter is a time to eat lots of chocolate. For non-religious folk like me, it’s a holiday for relaxing around the house and catching up with friends.

Our Grandpa Hipster pal, Fabio, recently moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. One might say it was love at first sight as their eyes met across the party, and within minutes of introduction they were already in a passionate embrace.

So now that they’re living together, I invited Jonas and myself over for Easter Sunday lunch. Fabio relented to my bossy imposition, but he neglected to tell me that their apartment doesn’t have a kitchen.

IT DOESN’T HAVE A KITCHEN. How is that even possible?

After going into convulsive shock, I pulled myself together and set about baking these little chocolate friands to share with the happy couple.

Part housewarming gift, part Easter gift, part pity-the-fools-that-don’t-have-a-kitchen gift.

Apart from being made with intense dark chocolate (70% cocoa), I hid a little Easter egg in the centre before baking. In this case I used two types of “cream filled” eggs, mint and strawberry, which worked as decent substitutes to the caramel eggs I would have preferred but failed to find.

Chocolate “Easter Egg” Friands

Based on a recipe by Jeremy and Jane Strode. Makes 12 friands.

Ingredients:
175g butter
200g dark chocolate, chopped
6 egg whites
125g almond meal
250g icing sugar, sifted
30g cocoa, sifted
80g wholemeal flour
12 filled mini Easter eggs

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Grease 12 friand moulds.

2. Melt butter and chocolate.

3. Lightly whisk egg whites.

4. Add melted chocolate and butter and stir.

5. Add almond meal and icing sugar and combine.

6. Add flour and cocoa and mix well.

7. Spoon half the mixture into moulds, add an chocolate Easter egg then top with remaining mixture.

8. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through.

9. Rest for five minutes before turning onto a cooling rack.

quince crumble tartlets

This morning I awoke to the new time. An extra hour to sleep in, but one less hour of sunshine.

It’s Autumn, my favourite time of year.

While most of my readers in the northern hemisphere are anticipating the warm weather that’s on its way, I’m getting equally excited about autumn.

The leaves turning beautiful shades of amber, ochre and crimson. The chill in the air that gives you the excuse to wear ribbed tights and wool scarves. The wonderful harvest fruits and vegetables that inspire a change of cooking in the kitchen.

Quinces are one of those harvest foods. Their pretty yellow skins and fragrant aromas reminding you that cool weather is on the way. Beautiful.

And another cold weather treat is warm desserts. I adore warm desserts.

Jonas is happy with a scoop of ice cream, but my favourite desserts are always warm.

This is the perfect autumn warm dessert using aromatic roasted quinces, prepared as individual fluted tartlets with crunchy crumble tops.

Eat warm, with lashings of vanilla custard.

Quince Crumble Tartlets

Anna's very own recipe. Makes 8 tartlets.

Ingredients:

1 batch of shortcrust pastry (or use frozen)

Quince
3 quinces
1 cup sugar
2 cinnamon (or cassia) quills
1 vanilla bean, split

Custard
1 cup cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 vanilla bean, split
3 eggs
½ cup brown sugar

Crumble
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup wholemeal flour, sifted
65g cold salted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup Demerara sugar

Method:

Bake quinces
1. Preheat oven to 180’C.

2. Peel and core quinces, reserving scraps. Cut each quince into eight pieces..

3. Scatter quince scraps along the base of a baking dish, place segments on top.

4. Nestle cinnamon quills and vanilla between pieces, then scatter with sugar.

5. Top with 1 cup water, then bake in oven until soft (about 1 hour). Allow to cool.

6. Slice quince into thin pieces so you can layer them into tarts when ready.

Prepare tart shells
7. Ensure oven is still at 180’C. Grease and line 8 tart cases.

8. Roll out pastry and place into tart cases. Prick with fork, line with paper then fill with baking weights.

9. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, then remove baking paper and weights and bake another 7 minutes.

Make custard
10. Bring the vanilla bean and cream almost to the boil over a medium heat.

11. Meanwhile, whisk eggs and sugar in a bowl.

12. Remove vanilla from cream and pour over egg mixture in a steady stream, whisking constantly to prevent eggs from scrambling.

13. Return the remaining custard to a sauce pan and over a medium heat, stir until it has thickened.

Make crumble
14. Chop butter into small cubes.

15. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl then rub the butter pieces into the flour with your finger tips until the mixture resembles crumbs.

Assemble
16. Line quince slices in the base of the pastry shells, then gently pour custard over quince slices until it reaches the top of the pastry case.

17. Top with crumble mixture, then bake in over for 40 minutes or until crumble is browned.

18. Cool slightly. Serve with warm custard.

achacha thirst quencher

I’m off to Singapore this afternoon for a week of networking, pitching and purveying sites.

I’ve never been to Singapore before. I’ve been through Singapore, but never stepped off the plane to take a look around.

Everyone keeps telling me it’s hot. Hot and steamy and sweaty. Not the most conducive weather for maintaining a polished, corporate look.

In anticipation of the heat, here’s a lovely little thirst quencher I prepared using the skins of the unusual achacha fruit.

Achachas (achachairú) are tropical fruit from the Bolivian Amazon, and they are delicious.

The bright orange skins are so pretty, but when you puncture them with your fingers and peel back the thick skins you’ll find soft, white flesh that tastes like a creamy, tropical combination of custard apples, lemon, pineapple and banana.

They taste amazing.

After you devour a bag of achacha fruit, don’t throw the skins away! You can infuse them with water and sugar to make a refreshing summer juice.

Chicha de Achachairú

Recipe from www.achacha.com.au Makes 1 litre.

Ingredients:
6-8 skins
1 litre water
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water (extra)

Method:

1. Wash achacha skins. Blend with 1 litre water.

2. Leave for at least 24 hours (or longer) in the fridge.

3. Make sugar syrup by bringing sugar and the extra 1 cup water to a simmer for 5 minutes. Cool.

4. Strain skins through a mesh strainer. Discard skins and add sugar syrup to remaining juice.

5. Chill and drink.

smoky chipotle chicken nachos

The base of this meal is Jonas’ amazing Shredded Chipotle Chicken. I cannot emphasise how amazing it tastes after 6 hours of slow cooking in our wonderful NewWave 5 in 1 MultiCooker.

The chicken absorbs the wonderful spice of the chipotles (smoked jalapeños) and Jonas breaks it apart into shreds that soak up the sauce it sits in.

The shredded chicken recipe will make enough nachos for a group of 8 people, but if there’s only a few of you then the leftover chicken is a beautiful filling for another meal like tacos, enchiladas or burritos. It’s as versatile as it is tasty.

The best part is just how easy it is to make. Fry up some garlic, onion and chilli, throw all the ingredients into a slow cooker and then shred. That’s it.

Shredded Chipotle Chicken

Jonas’ very own recipe.

Ingredients:
½ brown onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 chipotle chillies in adobo, finely chopped
1kg chicken thighs (no bones)
800g canned organic tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Olive oil, for frying
Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Fry onion and garlic until soft.

2. Added chillies and fry until softened.

3. Add all ingredients to slow cooker, cook for 6 hours.

4. Remove chicken, shred into fine strips.

5. Return to sauce, stir through and keep warm until ready to serve.

Smoky Chipotle Chicken Nachos

Jonas’ very own recipe. Serves 8.

Ingredients:

Jonas’ shredded chipotle chicken
Tortilla chips
Cheese
Guacamole
Pico de Gallo
Sour cream
Salsa verde or salsa de chipotle y tomato

Method:

1. Spread tortilla chips over baking tray covered in baking paper. Scatter with cheese and grill until cheese has melted.

2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat the chipotle chicken until warmed through.

3. Once the cheese has melted over tortilla chips, remove from oven and place on serving dish.

4. Top with shredded chicken, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo and sauce of your choice.

5. Eat blissfully, perhaps with a tamarind margarita.

toasted marshmallow fudge on valentine's day

I’m not a big believer in St Valentine’s Day. I hate the expectations it brings.

As a modern woman, I disdain the idea of chocolates, roses and a dinner date just because it’s February 14th, but I nonetheless fall into the morose of disappointment when the husband does exactly as I tell him and doesn’t make a fuss.

Poor thing. But he ought to know better after all these years!

So if you want to be sweet to your sweetheart, homemade truffles and treats are always well-received.

Try this toasted marshmallow fudge and see if it doesn’t win you a few sweet kisses.

Toasted Marshmallow Fudge

Adaptation of a Solo Foods recipe. Makes 35 small squares.

Ingredients:
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste (I use this one)
170g (6oz) white chocolate, finely chopped
230g (8oz or 1 cup) sugar
100g (3.5oz) evaporated milk
1 tablespoon milk powder
100g (3.5oz) marshmallows*
60g (1.5oz) butter
1 teaspoon cocoa, for dusting

Method:

1. Mix vanilla and white chocolate in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

2. Toast marshmallows over an open flame until they are melting and slightly browned on edges, which gives a smoky flavour.

3. In a medium saucepan mix sugar, evaporated milk, milk powder and half the butter.

4. Bring to full rolling boil over a medium-heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until a candy thermometer reaches 110’C (233’F).

5. Add the toasted marshmallows and remaining butter and stir until ingredients are melted and the mixture is smooth.

6. Bring to the boil then pour over chocolate and mix continually to melt chocolate through mixture.

7. Pour fudge into tin, sprinkle with cocoa, then set to room temperature before cutting into squares.

* Or you can cheat and use this toasted marshmallow fluff.

pollo en salsa verde

Chicken Baked in Green Tomatillo Sauce

I am a sucker for Mexico’s salsa verde (green sauce). What’s not to love? Tang, acidity, spice and salt.

It’s great on anything and everything, but this is one of my favourite applications. In fact, this is quite possibly one of the tastiest and easiest dinners you’ll ever make.

Either prep your own salsa verde or buy it in a can or jar. If I am feeling lazy and just want to use a can, I love Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce. Those living in the Americas (north, central or south) will no doubt find Mexican ingredients on their regular supermarket shelves but those of us in Australia are not so lucky. Fireworks Foods is a brilliant online store that ships nationally across Ausland and, if you’re in Sydney, Fiji Market in Newtown is a great supplier.

I serve this with Arroz Verde, which is basically rice cooked in a green stock of puréed chillies and coriander, finished with lime.

My Mexican friends jokingly call this meal “chicken rice” due to its sheer simplicity, but this belies the astounding flavours. I think of this as comforting homely food with a wonderful punch of gutsy Mexican sabors.

Pollo en Salsa Verde (Chicken baked in Green Sauce)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
8 chicken thigh fillets (deboned)
2 pickled jalapeños, chopped
750ml salsa verde
Olive oil, for browning
Coriander, for garnish
Queso freso (or crumbly feta), for serving
Arroz Verde, for serving

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C (360’F).

2. Put salsa verde in a sauce pan on the stove and heat over high.

3. Heat the olive oil in a pan and brown the chicken thighs to give them a little colour. No more than a minute or two on each side.

4. Remove from pan and place them in a large baking dish. Scatter with chopped jalapeños.

5. The salsa verde should now be at boiling point, so pour over chicken thighs and place baking dish in oven.

6. Cook for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and salsa verde has thickened slightly around the edges of the baking dish.

7. Sprinkle with coriander and queso freso, then serve hot with arroz verde.

smoked trout & potato salad w horseradish-crème fraîche dressing

Fabio, his gal pal + Jonas and I recently ate at Eathouse Diner and were inspired by their fantastic smoked trout salad. Jonas and I decided we had to replicate it at home and this is what we came up with.

As was the original, this salad was DELICIOUS.

We did make a few changes, for instance they used watercress and we switched our greens to baby spinach. It’s not as crunchy as the watercress, but it works well nonetheless.

This is a perfect summer dinner. You can serve it as your entree (starter) but Jonas and I happily ate it as our main course. It would be wonderful at a picnic too.

Smoked Trout & Potato Salad w Horseradish Crème Fraîche Dressing

Jonas & Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4 as an starter.

Ingredients:
½ cup (125ml) crème fraîche
3 tablespoons (60ml) lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
3 teaspoons grated horseradish
700g potatoes, boiled then cubed
400g smoked trout, chopped
50g baby spinach
6 radishes, finely sliced

Method:

1. Make the dressing by whisking together the crème fraîche, lemon juice, lemon zest and grated horseradish.

2. In a large bowl add to the potatoes, radishes, chives and parsley enough dressing to suit your tastes and toss gently.

3. When you’re ready to serve, add the spinach and combine well. Top salad with trout.

peach cobbler

Baking fruit in pies and crumbles is a wonderful way to serve deliciously ripe yet bruised and marred summer fruits.

So what about the Cobbler?

Cobblers originated in the American colonies when English settlers wanted their traditional, homely pies but needed to be more economical with precious ingredients like butter, suet and flour. Ingeniously they invented the cobbler: a pie without a dough base yet still yielding that pleasurable experience of breaking through flaky pie crust into the stewed fruit or meat treasures beneath.

Pondering this history, Washington Post food writer, Kim O'Donnel, suggested since the apple pie is English and the cobbler is American, perhaps the saying ought to be changed to “American as cobbler”.

The earliest written reference to a cobbler comes from 1839 in The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan:

“A Peach pot pie, or cobler, as it is often termed, should be made of clingstone peaches, that are very ripe, and then pared and sliced from the stones. Prepare a pot or oven with paste, as directed for the apple pot-pie, put in the prepared peaches, sprinkle on a large handful of brown sugar, pour in plenty of water to cook the peaches without burning them, though there should be but very little liquor or syrup when the pie is done. Put a paste over the top, and bake it with moderate heat, raising the lid occasionally, to see how it is baking. When the crust is brown, and the peaches very soft, invert the crust on a large dish, put the peaches evenly on, and grate loaf sugar thickly over it. Eat it warm or cold. Although it is not a fashionable pie for company, it is very excellent for family use, with cold sweet milk."

It’s fascinating to think they inverted the dish after cooking and served it with the pastry on the base. No wonder they thought the messy end result wasn’t fit for company!

It’s thought that the decorative placing of the crust into biscuit or dumpling shapes reminded people of either cobblestones or small cob loaves (which in turn were named for the cobblestones they themselves resembled). In fact, a cobbler’s rippled surface does look somewhat like a cobblestone street.

A thousand variations on the baseless pie exist across the US including the Crisp, Crumble, Betty, Grunt, Pandowdy, Slump, Buckle and Sonker.

Crisps and Crumbles have oatmeal in their tops; Grunts and Slumps are iron skillet stove-top cobblers from New England; Buckles combine the fruit with a yellow cake-like batter and bake them together; Pandowdies have their crust broken and stirred through the filling during baking; Sonkers are deep dish cobblers from North Carolina; and Brown Betties are layers of fruit and buttered breadcrumbs baked into a bread pudding consistency.

It is traditional that cobblers from the Deep South are made of single fruits, most popular being and blackberry, blueberry and peach, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Since peaches are synonymous with the American Deep South, it’s only fitting I fill this cobbler with slices of fresh, yellow peaches. You could peel them if you like, but once cooked the skin looses its horrid fuzziness and flushes the peach flesh with pretty pink hues. Given it’s easier, I recommend keeping them on.

Peach Cobbler

Anna's very own recipe. Serves 8.

Ingredients:

Filling
1kg ripe juicy peaches, washed
¼ cup caster sugar
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon corn flour

Topping
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour*
30g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
60g butter, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon sea salt flakes
½ cup buttermilk, heavy cream or natural yoghurt
Milk, for brushing
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, for dusting
1 tablespoon Demerara sugar, for dusting

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190’C.

2. To make filling: cut each peach into eight slices and discard stones.

3. In a large pot, combine peaches, water and cinnamon then cover and simmer until peaches leach juices and start to bubble.

4. Add caster sugar, stir to combine then cover and simmer 3-5 minutes. Taste to ensure mixture is sweet enough. Add more sugar if needed.

5. Using a ladle, transfer a small amount of liquid to a bowl. Add cornflour and combine well.

6. Return cornflour liquid to peaches and stir through for a minute, then remove peaches from heat.

7. Pour peaches into an oven-proof baking dish. Spread evenly along base.

8. To make topping: process flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and sea salt in a food processor until combined.

9. Add buttermilk, heavy cream or natural yoghurt (whichever you use) and process in short bursts until a dough forms.

10. Lightly flour hands and surface, then turn out dough and flatten.

11. Cut out shapes and place over peaches, overlapping.

12. Brush tops with milk, then sprinkle with cinnamon and Demerara sugar.

13. Bake for around 35 minutes or until has risen and turned golden.

Serve with good quality vanilla ice cream or heavy cream.

*Note: use wholemeal flour for extra depth of flavour.