More home cooking

Things are grim down south. They're in the middle of a heatwave and the area right along the bottom of the Australia continent, that part closest to Antarctica, is sweltering in 45 C (113 F) heat. And it will continue for several days. Ugh. There are quite a few readers from southern Australia and I send my best wishes to all of you. I know how debilitating that kind of constant heat is. Have they closed the schools?

I spent a pleasant day here yesterday and did everything I had planned for myself. We are having frequent showers of rain, so the tanks are all full, and the garden is looking as good as it gets during summer.

One of the extra things I did yesterday was to start a sour dough sponge. I usually make bread with commercial yeast, and have often made the NY Times quick sour dough, but I want to get back to a traditional sour dough that will develop in flavour over the months, and hopefully years, that I keep it going. I'll write more about sour dough as the starter matures.

All I did yesterday was to add one cup of wholemeal spelt flour to one cup of warm filtered water then mixed it together. It's now sitting in a wide mouthed glass jar on the kitchen bench. Overnight I covered it with a cotton cloth but I'll remove that soon so the wild yeasts in the air here will mix in the starter and help with the fermentation.

One of today's tasks will be to make a jar or two of plum jam. I bartered some eggs for a bowl full of Davidson's plums, they're a plum that is an Australian native rainforest plant. They're very sour when raw but make up into a nice jam that isn't too sweet.

Still in the kitchen, here is last night's (and tonight's) dinner - a tomato and caramelised onion tart. Simply made with whatever pastry you care to make, or have on hand, I had two sheets of butter puff pastry in the freezer and used them. I blind baked the tart for about 15 minutes before adding the filling.

To make the filling, peel and slice two onions and slowly fry them to caramelise. In a bowl mix together four eggs, about ½ cup of cream, one clove of garlic, about ¾ cup of finely shredded Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to your taste. Pour that into the pastry shell, add some thick slices of ripe tomato and the caramelised onions into the mix, careful not to overflow it. Then just bake until it's golden brown on top - 20 - 25 minutes on 190 C (375F). I used a flan tin to bake my tart. It's delicious.

I am always surprised by the generosity of some of the people who read here. The lovely Rose told me she had send some cotton yarn and sure enough, it turned up yesterday. It's called Down to Earth! Thank you Rose. I appreciate your warm, kind heart.

Hello to all the new readers who have come to read over the past couple of weeks. There has been a sharp increase in readership since Christmas so I hope you're all enjoying the posts and the archives. If you have the time, I'd love you to say hello.

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