Monday 30 April 2018

Mary Poppins makes Dundee Cake with Pineapple

Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book with a Story, P. L. Travers and Maurice Moore-Betty (culinary consultant), illustrated by Mary Shepard 1975 London


Dundee Cake

125g butter, softened; 125g granulated sugar; 3 eggs; 100g plain flour; 100g raisins; 100g currants; 3 tblspn mixed glazed fruits (I used glacé pineapple and ginger, and crystallised mango); 2 tblsp flour to be mixed with the fruits; loaf tin, approx. 18cm x 8cm

Heat the oven to 150°C, 300°F, gas mark 2.

Line the bottom and sides of tin with greaseproof paper. If it is not the non-sticking kind, coat it lightly with butter.

Beat the butter and sugar together – this is called creaming – till lemon coloured and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat strenuously after each one. Stir in the flour little by little and beat again. There is a lot of beating, and you may need help. Take turns.

In a separate bowl mix all the fruits together. Sprinkle with the flour and mix thoroughly so that each individual piece of fruit is well coated. This will prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the pan as the cake bakes. Stir the fruit into the batter and spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 2 ¼ hours in the middle of the oven. Look at it after half an hour, and if it becomes too dark on top, cover it with brown paper – a paper bag will do – or foil. Test it with a toothpick. It is cooked when the toothpick, stuck into the middle of the cake, comes out dry. Cool and turn out on a wire tray.

Thursday 26 April 2018

Pineapple Cake

Bandon Grove School Building Centenary Cookbook 1882-1982 Reprinted 2016

“The Bandon Grove School Building Centenary Committee are proud to present, recipes that have been tried and proven and as an advertisement for the culinary skill of their members and residents, past and present.” A. P. Forster

Pineapple Cake (recipe contributed by Julie Chesworth)

8ozs/225g butter; 2 cups castor sugar; 4 eggs; 3 ½ cups plain flour; 1 X 15oz/425g can crushed pineapple; 2 ½ tsp baking powder; 1 cup milk; pinch salt

Method: Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, beating well, stir in milk and drained pineapple and lastly add the sifted dry ingredients.

Bake 9” or 10” for 1 hour, ice with orange icing if desired.

Monday 23 April 2018

Once upon a pineapple . . .

Donna cast an accio spell upon us and we apparated in the kitchen where she was murmuring incantations that sounded suspiciously like the recipes for a Harry Potter dinner party from this magical book


She transformed simple ingredients into delicious Pumpkin Bread and Shepherd’s Pie served with Buttered Peas and Glazed Carrots

Greg charmed us with some Honeyduke-style Poached Pear with Pancakes and Apricot Syrup

and I conjured Nicholas Flamel’s Flummery


Who would’ve thought? The Philosopher’s Stone is a piece of pineapple?

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Eat Up that Pineapple!

Eat Up! The Healthy Weight Gain Cookbook, Lee Gold, 2002 Melbourne




Nourishing drinks: Pina colada smoothie
1 serve

½ cup (125ml) unsweetened pineapple juice; ¼ cup (50g) pineapple pieces, drained; ½ cup (125ml) coconut milk

Combine pineapple juice, pineapple pieces and coconut milk in a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process for about 1 minute or until smooth. Strain the smoothie through a strainer for a smoother texture. Serve immediately.

Nourishing drinks: Tropical smoothie
1 serve

1 cup (50ml) unsweetened pineapple juice; ½ ripe mango (about 125g) peeled, stoned and cubed; ½ ripe banana, peeled and chopped; ice cubes

Combine pineapple juice, mango and banana in a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process for about 1 minute or until smooth. Pace ice cubes in a glass and pour smoothie over. Serve immediately.

Grains, pasta and rice: Quinoa with fruit porridge
Serves 1 – 2

¼ cup (40g) quinoa; ¾ (185ml) water; 2 tspn honey; 1//4 cup (40g) old-fashioed rolled oats; ¾ cup (185ml) unsweetened pineapple juice; 2 tspn sultanas; 2 dried apricots, diced; 2 prunes, pitted and diced

Place quinoa in a colander and rinse under cold water and drain well.

In a medium saucepan, bring water and honey to the boil. Stir in quinoa and bring to the boil over medium-high heat., stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Stir in oats, pineapple juice, sultanas, apricots and prunes and simmer for another 15 minutes or until quinoa is soft, stirring occasionally. Pour the porridge into warm bowls.



Saturday 14 April 2018

Frozen Fruit Salad

The Myrna Rosen Cookbook 1986 Cape Town, South Africa



Frozen Fruit Salad

250g cream cheese; 250ml sour cream; 50g (1/4 cup) sugar; pinch of salt; 3 ½ cups drained, mixed tinned fruit (lychees, mangoes & peaches) (I used 1 can mango, 2 X fresh passionfruit, 1 X kiwi fruit); 1 X 475g tin crushed pineapple; 2 cups marshmallows, quartered

Method: Soften cream cheese and beat until fluffy. Stir in sour cream, sugar and salt. Fold in fruit and marshmallows.

Pour into a pan or individual foil cups and freeze for 6 hours. Cut into squares and serve.

Serves 8 to 10



Sunday 8 April 2018

Tuna Croquettes with Pineapple

http://unusualcoleslaw.blogspot.com.au/ 
Thanks Vicki !


1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 slightly beaten egg, 2 tbspn butter, 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tspn salt, 1 tbspn cornflour, pinch of pepper, 1 can tuna, flaked and drained, 2 cups cooked rice, oil for frying.

Method: Cook onions in butter, add milk and thicken, then add rest of ingredients. Chill several hours. Shape into patties, roll in breadcrumbs. Fry. Serve on broiled pineapple pieces.

Source: contributed by Dora Zacher in Blyth Recipe Book: Favourite Tested Recipes of the Blyth Trinity Lutheran Ladies Guild (Blyth Womens Guild, 1972), p.14

I wasn’t too sure what “broiling” meant, turns out it’s similar to grilling and caramelises the pineapple, so I grilled some pineapple rings and tossed them in chopped fresh ginger and basil leaves, Anne.

Tuesday 3 April 2018

Pineapple flans

Radiation Cookery Book, a selection of proved recipes for use with the Regulo New World Gas Cookers, 1955 (First edition 1927) London





Pineapple flans
Ingredients: small individual flan/tart cases; fresh or canned pineapple pieces or crushed; whites of 2 eggs; 4 ozs (100g) castor sugar; vanilla or almond essence
Method: Place a small amount of drained pineapple into each pasrty case, whip the whites of eggs until very stiff, gold in the castor sugar and flavouring. Put a spoonful of the meringue on top of the pineapple, and place for 10 minutes on bottomplate of oven, to set and brown the meringue. Serve hot or cold.


I used gluten-free tart cases from the local supermarket and filled some of them with finely chopped fresh pineapple



      and some with pineapple and orange marmalade before topping with meringue, Anne