The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 26

i Page 26 The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, February 10, 1982 Ldvdodoi Don't take that Heartwaunnmiiiig memories off meals from mother's Mtdiem deep-fryer for granted WHAT do people think of their mothers' cooking? Mostly, they remember some special dish. MARGARET RICE brings the recipes from their sources the mothers. 60Minute Q-ourmet mas, the tram-driver had to take money covered in puddy from all the local kids. "I've got this theory that that's why Australians are so good at mining, becuse they spent so long poking around in their Christmas puddings looking for the threepence. "Lang Hancock's been mining for them in the big steaming mudheaps of the mines.

"I suppose other favourites of mine are bread in dripping and corned beef with the string in it -do they still cook that these days? "But the traditional plum pudding, tied up with a nappy and hung up for six months, looking like decapitated heads was my favourite. In fact we've still got a couple that are 30 or 40 years old sitting at home." CHRISTMAS PUDDING 125g flour, 125g breadcrumbs, 125g brown sugar, 185g shredded suet, 500g mixed fruit, 12Sg peel, 125g cherries, 1 tspn spice, 1 tspn nutmeg, 3 eggs, to cup milk, cup orange juice, 1 dsrtspn grated orange rind, tspn almond By PIERRE FRANEY Mre'jean Schofield country-style one and one-half minutes. Drain Serve hot with tartare sauce. Yield: 4 servings. Sauce Tartare I egg yolk; 1 tblspn imported mustard; Tabasco sauce to taste; 1 tblspn white vinegar; 'A cup peanut or olive oil; salt to taste, if desired; freshly ground pepper to taste; 2 thlspas finely chopped sour gherkins or cornlchons; 1 tblspn finely chopped capers; I tblspn finely chopped onion; 1 tblspn finely AS ONE who remembers all the way back to the days when paper towels, plastic wrap and aluminium foil were nonexistent in the kitchens, I can still marvel at today's kitchen miracles.

The chief new marvel, of course, is the food processor. There are, however, other minor but taken for granted appliances that I regard with considerable gratitude and these include the automatic electric deep fryer. I am not addicted to deep-fried foods, but there are times when I relish deep-fried shoestring potatoes known in French as pommes allumettes or matchstick potatoes. And one of the finest deep-fried; foods of which I am aware is deep-fried, breaded prawns, surely one of the most easily made and quickly cooked foods in my own kitchen repertoire. The important thing in deep frying, of course, is the use of fresh oil (oil should probably be discarded after being used twice).

The menu thai I recommend here includes both' deep-fried breaded prawns and deep-fried shoestring potatoes. One important thing about frying the' potatoes: they should be cooked briefly at a relatively low temperature (330 degrees) to rid them of their natural inner moisture. Let them stand a very short while and cook them at a higher temperature (375) to crisp them. The finest accompaniment for deep-fried seafood, including fish, is tartare sauce; it is easy to make and: may be done in advance and refrigerated. CREVETTES FRITES (Deep-fried prawns) .12 large prawns, about S00 to cup flour; 2 eggs, well beaten; cup water; salt to taste, if desired; freshly ground pepper to taste; 2 cups fine fresh breadcrumbs; 2 litres peanut, vegetable or corn oil; tartare sauce (see recipe), t.

Peel and de-vein the prawns. 2. Dredge the prawns lightly in flour and shake off excess. 3. Beat the eggs in a shallow dish with the water, salt and pepper.

Coat the prawns first in egg and.then in the breadcrumbs. Coat well. Set 4. Heat the oil in a deep fryer or to a chopped parsley. to say what influence her mother had on her cooking, but she drew a blank.

"I lived on a diet of overdone lamb chops, mashed potatoes and peas, followed by tinned pineapple and powdered custard," she said. "I didn't even think about food until I was at Melbourne University. All my catering since has been a reaction to my childhood, although I wasn't under-nourished. "The piece de resistance for very special occasions was an "Early made of a layer of green jelly, followed by a layer of custard, then a layer of flummery made on red jelly. The red jelly layer was sprinkled with passion-fruit." Margaret Throsby's mother's brownies are an institution in her family.

"Whenever Mum goes to visit any of her children, she always takes a plate of. brownies for afternoon tea," Miss Throsby said. "Her sons-in-law always know when she is over for afternoon tea when they see the brownies in the kitchen." Mrs Alison Throsby was happy to give her recipe for brownies. "They are only fairly simple, you know, but whenever I visit any of the children, I usually take a plate of them," she said. Mrs Throsby said they were a plain, everyday sort of cake, but nice and reliable.

BROWNIES SOOg minced fruit, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, 125g butter, tspn bicarbonate of soda, to tspn cinnamon and nutmeg, 2 eggs, 2 cups self-raising flour. Boil together for five minutes the minced fruit, sugar, butter, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Beat the eggs, sift the flour; add these to the cooled mixture. Bake in a moderate oven for one and a half hours or until a straw comes out clean.

Sprinkle with icing sugar and cut into slices. I'atric Juillet, owner of Le Cafe Nouveau, never tried his mother's cooking. "She managed large hotels and always had a whole bevy of chefs working for her, so I never got to taste it. But I will in June when she comes to stay for a month," he said. Phillip Adams's favourite meal as child was his grandmother's Christmas pudding.

"I loved her Christmas pudding with threepences poked all the way through. For weeks after Christ I Put the yolk, mustard. Tabasco and vinegar in a bowl and start beating with a wire whisk. Gradually add the oil, stirring vigorously with MOST of us could be accused of developing the fanciful notion, as we get older, that Mum's cooking is the best in the world. We gradually forget the mundane meals and the flops, thinking only of the secret recipe for tiger cake, handed down from generation to gen-eration, or the blancmanges that used to cheer us up when we were sad.

Hideo Fukishima, head chef at the Suntory Japanese Restaurant, loved bis mother's cooking so much that it influenced the course of his life. He ended up in the restaurant business because of it. "We lived in a big house in the country and my mother always did a lot of entertaining and was always gathering many people into the house," he said. "She was an excellent cook and I moved naturally into the cooking business because of her." Mr Fukishima's favourite dish, cooked by his mother, was Chikuz-eni (vegetables and chicken). LeoSchofield's mother was also a "country" cook, but of a very different style.

"What I remember is that it was all sort of terribly real. We had our own chickens, amazing eggs and fuel stoves that gave the place a real country smell," Mr Schofield said. The advertising executive and Herald columnist's favourites from his mother's kitchen were (and still are) lemon cheese tarts and almond fingers. Mrs Jean Schofield does all her cooking "out of my Her recipe: ALMOND FINGERS 60g almonds, I egg, 2S0g flour, 250g butter, 3 tspn baking powder, 1 tblspn sugar, a few drops of vanilla, 12Sg icing sugar. Rub butter in Hour well, then add sugar and baking powder to make into paste with the egg yolk.

Mix in a tiny drop of milk. Roll out into a thin paste. Take half the white of the egg and beat to a stiff troth, then add the icing sugar. Spread this thinly and evenly over the paste; chop the almonds and spread thinly over all. Cut the mixture into fingers and bake to a light brown in a moderate oven.

Leo is not the only Schofield who has fond memories of moth er's cooking. Nell Schofield, star of the film Puberty Blues, loved her mother's pumpkin soup. "That's something I really remember and it was superb. I've tried it at several different places and none of it is as good as Mum's," she said. "She used to make an unreal chocolate and almond cake for parties, and my sisters and I were allowed to eat the leftovers, but the thing that really sticks out in my mind is the pumpkin soup." "That's; a recipe from one of Babette Hayes's cookbooks," said Mrs Anne Schofield.

PUMPKINSOUP 125g butter, 1 large onion, 2 kg pumpkin peeled aid seeded, tspn mace, tspn nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste, water, 250ml cream, enough milk to thin down the pumpkin pulp, sour cream for garnish, finely chopped onions or chives for garnish. Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the onion and gently fry until transparent Add the pumpkin (cut in small pieces), mix well into butter. Add the spices and season to taste, then add just enough water to cover. Cook until soft. Pass through a sieve or liquidiser, then stir in the cream and enough milk to make a thick soup.

Pour into a large tureen. Dot with sour cream and chives (or just chives) and hand around a bowl of cream separately. Serves six. Senator Susan Ryan's favourite was the same as her father's -something that is rare these days, rabbit in white sauce. "Mum was a very good cook.

She was conscientious about feeding us our greens and was very traditonal. We always had a big roast dinner for lunch on Sunday, always enjoyed eating at home," she said. Mrs Florence Ryan laughed when told that Senator Ryan picked her rabbit in white sauce. "I haven't cooked that for a million years, and none of my grandchildren have every tried it, even though they love the way I do chicken," she said. was Susan's father's favourite, He could have eaten it five times a week and still come back for more." Mrs Ryan often cooks for her "12 beautiful "Theyiive well but their parents are extremely busy and just don't get the time for creating, and baking the whisk.

2. When thickened, add salt, pep. per, chopped cornichons, capers, onion and parsley. Blend well. Yield: About Pommes Allumettes (French-fried shoestring potatoes) 4 large potatoes, about 500 2 litres Mrs Florence Ryan old-time favourites peanut, vegetable or corn oil.

1. Peel the potatoes and trim off the opposite small ends of each. Cut off a small slice from the sides of each, Sift the flour, spice and nutmeg. Shred the suet finely and add to the flour, together with the breadcrumbs, brown sugar, washed prepared fruit, essence, orange juice and rind. Add finally the beaten eggs and milk and allow the mixture to stand for half an hour.

Place it in a well-floured pudding cloth and tie it up securely, leaving enough room for the pudding to swell. Place it in boiling water and simmer for five hours. Before serving, it should be boiled again for another one and a half to two hours. Hang for at least one week. Margaret Whltlam's children have an absolute favourite: "tomato and onion "It's terribly easy," Mrs Whitlam said.

"Whenever they come home and I haven't served it for a while, they say: 'Where's some of that tomato and onion thing you cook, TOMATO AND ONION THING" One can of tomatoes or any number of fresh tomatoes, several large onions, 2 tspns vinegar, breadcrumbs. Slice the tomatoes and onions and place in a large dish. Pour over the vinegar. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and seasoning. Serve when soft.

And the best dish Bryan Brown's mother could, serve him? The very same diet of lamb chops with mashed potatoes and peas that Gay Bilson so roundly condemned. "It was my favourite and still is," he said. Place the potatoes on one side and cut into lengthwise slices about 1 cm thick or slighty less. Stack a few slices at a time and cut them into 1 cm thick strips. Drop them as they are sliced into hot water.

When all have been cut, drain immediately. There should be about four cups. 2. Heat the oil in a deep fryer or to a if desired. Add the rabbit and stir tor a short while.

Put aside. Make a white sauce. Take one tablespoon of cornflour and a good knob of butter, and blend over low heat. Season very slightly with salt and pepper. Add the milk and stir until the sauce thickens so that it looks like a thick custard.

Put aside. Put the rabbit and vegetables in a medium-sized saucepan. Add three-quarters of a cup of white wine or water if preferred. Cover tightly with lid and cook for one and a half hours over very slow heat. When tender to touch with a fork, add the white sauce.

Stir very gently with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens enough to serve this should take about one minute. Serve with mashed potatoes or new potatoes with butter and parsley. This dish serves four. When Gay Bilson, owner of Sydney's Berowra Waters Inn, tried and cooking all the old-time favourites like baked custards and cakes," she said. RABBIT IN WHITE SAUCE 1 large rabbit, 1 cut lemon, seasoned cornflour, knob of margarine or butter, 1 sliced onion, 1 sliced zucchini, 2 large sticks of celery, 1 carrot, 1 clove of garlic, 1 cup white wine.

For the white sauce: 1 tblspn cornflour, knob of margarine or butter, 250ml milk. Clean the inside of the rabbit and soak it in salt and water for lO.minutes. Rinse off and wipe dry. Wipe all over with a cut lemon. Chop the rabbit into four portions.

Roll the pieces in seasoned cornflour (seasoned with pepper, salt and herbs). Put into a pan with a good knob of margarine or butter and fry the pieces until they are brown. Put aside. Fry the sliced onion, the sliced zucchini, celery and carrot (both cut to pieces about 4 cm long). Add the garlic temperature of 330 degrees.

Drop in the potatoes and cook, shaking them occasionally. Cook five minutes and lift the potatoes from the oil. Let stand four or five minutes. Heat the oil to 375 degrees. Return the potatoes to the oil and let cook about three minutes until the potatoes are nicely browned and crisp.

Drain and serve temperature of 375 degrees. Drop in the prawns a few at a time and cook hot. Yield: 4 servings. Quality is a casualty of the wine -cask price war J)rink BOOK NOW FOR VALENTINE'S DAY You've said it with flowers Now you can say it with Music For mobile music or musical messages at your restaurant, home, office, party or wherever you want DIAL-A-MINSTREL 698 5642 If it's a business lunch, a romantic dinner or just a friendly gathering, Lindemans Macquarie Port is always welcomed. Macquarie is a good natured, oak matured, fine tawny port that's perfect to enjoy.

after all is said 133 and done. XL By SAMUEL COOK ADVERTISEMENTS OURMET UIDE THE consumption of alcohol is up in Australia but the consumption of beer, for so long the national drink, is declining. Australians are turning into regular wine-drinkers and they are buying 68 per cent of their table wine in flagons or casks. Last week, Good Living found the best whites in flagons. This week, the best whites in casks are revealed.

written and Uliauattd by Jay Butler Inquiries: 2 0944. Ext 2217 Hill The best wine was Penfold's Vineyard Riesling The other wines preferred were the Pokolbin RieslingHock, from Hungerford Hill (S5.25); Hunter Vale Riesling, from Saxonvale, about and Tollana Riesling The Lindeman's Riesling had an off nose but fair flavour. Most of the other wines lacked flavour, were bitter or had "stalky" odours and flavours. Almost all reflected strong characteristics of the Riverland or Griffith gordo grapes from which so many of Australia's bulk wines are made. Fruity styles A very disappointing cast.

The best buys were Lindeman's Moselle which was clean but lacked fruit, Pokolbin Vineyard Moselle Hunter Vale Moselle ($6.13) and Renmano's six-litre Moselle, which represented good value for money at $6.30, or about 70c a bottle. The only other possible recommendation here was Orlando's Steinwein, but there was evidence of excessive sulphur The Stanley Leasingham range was not tasted because a consignment failed to arrive, but those who bad tasted such wines recently were generally impressed in the context of cask and flagon styles. The tasting The wines were tasted slightly chilled. The tasting panel comprised: Good Living wine writer Samuel Cook, NSW Wine and Brandy Association manager Ian Stewart, and a trained winemaker, Chris Hancock, who is also the managing director of the Rosemount Estate winery in the Upper Hunter (this company does not market any cask or flagon wines). The casta tasted Lindemans's Cellar Pack White Burgundy; Orlando Coolabah White Burgundy; Wynvale W.B.; Killawarra Vintage W.B.; Berri Estates W.B.: Brown Brothers Milawa White Hermitage (10-litre pack); Penfold's Vineyard W.B.; Berri Estates Chablis; Lindeman's Cellar Pack Chablis: Orlando Coolabah Chablis; Pokolbin RieslingHock; Berri Estates Riesling (six-litre); Wynvale Riesling; Orlando Coolabah Riesling; Hunter Vale Riesling; Tollana Riesling; Lindeman's Cellar Riesling; Renmano Super Six (litre) Riesling; Penfold's Vineyard Riesling; Kaiser Stuhl Riesling; Stoneyfell Riesling; Leo Buring Table Cask (Clare) Riesling; Pokolbin! Vineyard Moselle; Lindeman's Moselle; Wynvale Moselle; Coolabah Moselle; Renmano Super Six (litre) Moselle; Kaiier Stuhl Moselle; Hunter Vale Moselle; Orlando Coolabah Steinwein; Berri Fruity Gordo Moselle! (six-litre); Orlando Coolabah Spatiete-ityle.

THE WINE price war has seen casks readily available around NSW for about S3.99, or a little more for the standard four-litre cask (it used to be a gallon, or 4.5 litres, pre-metrication). The prices quoted below are the makers' recommended retail, but obviously most of these bear little relation to actual prices. The discounting war has forced most prices down, around the S4 mark, and these have stayed roughly stable for the past few years. One of the stong feelings which came out of the tasting was that cask wine quality overall has' deteriorated during this period undoubtedly because of the price pressures imposed on winemakers. Wine companies are, therefore, squeezed from both sides.

Discount chains which can buy in great quantities can virtually dictate purchase prices at a'time like the 'present, when wine companies must empty their storage vessels with the onset of a new vintage. The quality of many of the casks was not good and in some cases was poor or worse. Some wines showed basic wine-making faults, such as clearly evident H2S (hydrogen sulphide or "rotten egg" gas), volatility, gassiness, sourness and oxidation (browning due to exposure to air). What was of little surprise was the correlation between price and quality. As with many other things, the better wines were more expensive.

The cheapest wine was a four-litre cask of Moselle, sold for $2.99 under the No Nonsense brand. The quality of the contents can be summed up in two words: No Good. The wine was heavily oxidised and undrinkable; the packing had no evident sign of the recently introduced NSW legislation which requires these containers to have a "packed on" or "drink by" date which may explain why the wine was oxidised. Cask shelf-life is generally limited to six months or so. For the sake of simplicity, we broke the tasting down into three broad categories: dry wine styles, such as the so-called Chablis and White Burgundy styles; medium, including the Rieslings; and fruity, the Moselles and sweeter wines.

Dry styles The wine whicn stood out was unusual and in an unusual pack: Brown Brothers of Mllitwu While Hermitage in a ((Mitre Super Super Deli Hunters Wandering around the very attractive Hunters Hill Village Shopping Centre, we came across a Super Super Deli which stocks International Gourmet Foods. Among the Swiss-German delicacies we noticed scrumptious Black Forest Ham also Buendner Fleisch and there's an unusually fine selection of International cheeses, superb chocolates and Continental biscuits. And that's not all -they have dishes that can be taken away such a blessing when time is of the essence and can supply a catering service with yummy hors-d oeuvres and cold plate servings for your next party. There's a perfectionist at work there so you can order with confidence at the Super Super Deli, Hunters Hill Village Shopping Centre, Hunters Hill, 816 1668. Gourmet Catering Service 'i soft pack.

This is hardly the size most of us' could easily accommodate in the fridge, but is good for parties or for use from a garage beer fridge. It contains the equivalent of normal wine bottles and was bought for $16.85 a bottle price of about $1.30. It is cheap drinking, but not as cheap as some of the other standard casks. The wine is a flavoursome, dry white style made from a number white grape varieties, 'and in quality terms the tasters felt it was tops in this section. It was clean, well-made and good drinking.

The other wines we liked reflected the pattern of the rest of the tasting. The two Lindeman's wines in this category, Cellar Pack White Burgundy and Cellar Pack Chablis, were both sound, with the White Burgundy offering the best value for money (recommended retail price If you can get it for $4, the bottle cost is approximately 85c. The Lindeman's clean, but with little flavour. The only other wine we felt could be recommended in this class was Penfold's Vineyard White Burgundy Medium In the medium dry styles, which were mostly labelled Rieslings, the overall quality was higher than in the drier styles, i 750ml tzz3 At a sizeable engagement party recently we raved about the catering which turned out to be by the "Portable Porker." The menu provides for a delicious entree of Seafood Melon and a selection of Pork, Beef, Goat, Lamb or Turkey on the Spit or perhaps Candied Chicken dishes and a selection of 4 salads. As well, there's a Fancy Bread Basket plus a mouth-watering top-rating dessert.

However, this delicious fare can only be provided for parties of SO or over, at a cost of $19 per head, including everything except the liquor and glassware. And during the winter, they change the entree to a thick home-made soup! You don't have to do a thing, except call "Portable Porker," Mitchell-Pickering Catering Sr-vice, 62 1215 or 449 3707 (also A.H.). I'Ml tm tiyll vi mi ii.