Favourite biscuits and a rugby treat.........

After a glorious mild Spring day, we are back to rain & wind, perfect baking weather. So I thought I would make an old favourite of mine. Not the most glam treat for sure, these don't have the classic appeal of a macaron , or the flash of a whoopie pie, but they can be whipped up in no time, and with no nervous breakdown involved....
Great tin fillers, sweet, spicy & full of fruit,  I have used cranberries & sultanas in this version, but raisins, current or mixed fruit would also be fine. Mum used to make these for our "playlunch" (morning tea) when we were kids, they are super easy to make, sturdy, stay fresh for days & one batch makes approx 25 biscuits, an important consideration in a family of seven!
I think the recipe may have come from the NZ Woman's Weekly, it was written on a bit of paper, then years ago transferred into my recipe book, so became Mum's Fruit Drop Biscuits.

Mum's Fruit Drop Biscuits

2 cups/300 gr plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
175 gr butter, at room temperature
1 cup/200 gr brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sultanas/mixed fruit/cranberries or raisins

Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F

Sift together the flour, salt, soda & spices. Meanwhile beat together your butter & brown sugar, until pale & fluffy. I use a Kitchen Aid, but a handheld beater or a wooden spoon would also work. Add the eggs one at a time until they are well mixed in, then add the vanilla.
Stir in the flour mixture, then the dried fruit, I use a wooden spoon for this.
Cover and put into the fridge for 20-30 minutes so the mixture firms up.
Put teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking tray and cook for 12-15 minutes, they will spread slightly, and should be pale gold. The kitchen will smell wonderful. Cool on wire racks then fill your tins (sorry, but I just love that phrase, makes me feel so competant....)

For those of you reading this outside of New Zealand, the Rugby World Cup is currently being held here, and the country has gone Rugby Obsessive (even more so than usual). In a spectacular piece of blagging we managed to get tickets to a Corporate Box for the Opening Ceremony on Friday at Eden Park, and what a show it was! Completely fabulous, I am now ruined for the cheap seats forever. This is very unfortunate as we have brought tickets for the Semi-finals (the cheapest ones possible. They are so high up in the stands I fully expect to be given an oxygen mask & parachute on arrival) Oh well, it was nice to see how the other half lives for once, and I got to meet Tana Umaga, who is totally charming and didn't seem to mind watching the first half of the game sitting next to me instead of someone knowledgeable.....

I stopped scoffing the free food & booze long enough to take a picture, what a view!

I went to the cinema last night for my friend Yummy Mummy's birthday, sadly I was allowed to select the film, and boy did I get it WRONG!  The Priest in 3D, I am praying you don't make the same mistake & fork out $20 for this load of tripe.
I was seduced by the thought of the delicious Paul Bettany in 3D, but even a gratuitous naked ab shot was not enough to make it worthwhile. The highlight was probably me jumping two foot in my seat & spraying popcorn all over myself. It  really itches when it goes down your top. The guy next to me was at least trying not to laugh too loudly, unlike madam next to me.....

How great the gratin....

I am still undecided over the success of last nights dinner . I was back in the kitchen with my friend Yotam Ottolenghi, making a Winter Saffron Gratin.

As you might have noticed I am a big fan of the gratin. You could take pretty much anything (and I mean anything, spuds, cardboard, last weeks leftovers..), chuck some sauce over, grill the top till crunchy and I'll be first in line with a spoon. So I was pretty excited about this, even when I got to the shops and realised a) I wasn't entirely sure what kohlrabi looked like and b) they didn't have any anyway. Ditto tarragon, which was annoying as I knew my little pot of aniseed heaven in the garden had succumbed to the cold weather. I would have to improvise. I hope non of my cooking class students are reading this. I always encourage them to stick to the recipe the first time around, then fiddle at will after.............do as I say, not as I do people!

Anyway, I sliced up a kilo of vege, roughly equal quantities of Jerusalem Artichoke (VERY roughly peeled, is there any other way with the darn things??), swede, parsnip, and my substitute kohlrabi, turnip. I was tempted to chuck a few sliced spuds in as well, which in hindsight I  wish I had. I blanched the vege for a minute in boiling water and drained, then stirred through my sauce. This was a bechemel made with 30 grams each of butter & flour, and 100ml each of water and milk, in which a 1/2 tsp of saffron strands had soaked. I find saffron very hard to measure as the strands are to long for spoons, so I eyeballed it, if anything I was a bit mean (it is expensive stuff!) yet the sauce still ended up very strong. I stirred in 150ml of cream which loosened it up, and a big handful of parsley. There should also have been 2 tbsp tarragon and 60 grams of basil joining the parsley, and I think in retrospect more herb flavour was required. 30 grams of grana padano (the recipe called for Parmesan) completed the sauce, with plenty of seasoning. The whole lot was put into a greased gratin dish (ok, it was a  casserole, but doesn't gratin dish sound nicer?) and covered with foil for a supposed 40 mins at 160C...........that would be dandy if you like crunchy root vege, I don't so it took another 35 mins at 175 and we were nearly there. The foil came off and another 30 grams of cheese was mixed with 3 tbsp of panko breadcrumbs and sprinkled over the top for cheesy crunchy goodness. 10 mins later we ate.

 It was good, creamy and comforting, but I think it was a little too strongly saffron, and a little sweet. The inclusion of a potato or two may have tempered this, my husband loved it and he has a very sweet tooth, so this could just me my taste buds. Next time I will infuse my milk with bay and onion as well as the saffron, for a more savoury note, up the herb quota but give the turnips a miss, and include some potato. I will also use a bit more cheese, maybe some Gruyere as well..........a bit like grandads hammer, its kinda the same recipe.........but not really!

I didn't do nearly as much cooking this weekend as I hoped. I intended to make these delish crackers from over at pod and three peas but instead made the mistake of hanging a picture. We have been in our house six months, but have resisted hanging many of our pictures as we intend repainting. When? Exactly, hang some pics and make the house look lived in. I am especially pleased with this one, as it is a cheap Ikea frame, with a picture that has started to warp. I replaced it with a beautiful piece of wrapping paper from Passion for Paper, pretty,  although my home handy boy is starting to wonder how much more pink he will have to live with......Anyway one picture turned into about six, then I realised just how dusty everything was & thought I had better tackle that as well..............six hours later I was done, and too knackered to do another more taxing the sit at the Civic with my girlfriend watching Certified Copy with the lovely Juliette Binoche. In the best tradition of European films it involved relentless talking and an ambiguous ending, the jury is still out with us but do see for yourself.

On Friday Mr PK and I saw Cooking History which was an unusual documentary charting the history of cooking through European field kitchens. Mr PK has a long standing love affair with all things military (he is very useful to have at pub quiz), combined with my love of all things food (and documentaries) we had a perfect date night movie............

PS My friend Tiff wanted all my readers who are skeptical to know Lardy Cake is the best and should be brought back into fashion......

'That’s fab, I used to love lardy cake at school, we used have afternoon tea at 4pm everyday after school, a cup of tea and cake, some days lardy cake, others sticky willies (iced buns) or donuts, all sorts!!! Lardy cake was my fav though. Can’t seem to buy it in cake shops these days though.'