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  • marjorie, the white goods queen
  • pumpkin and bacon soup
  • pumpkin and truffle ravioli
  • gingerbread and butter pudding
  • jack the lanterns!
  • it's horrible!

  • trick or treat
    if you're not one, then you're the other!
    October 19th 2004

    Greetings!

    disconnect the doorbell, pad the door knocker, leave a bowl of candy and a 'help yourself' jack o'lantern on the door step.

    forget about stray children wandering the streets dressed as ghouls (unless, of course, they're yours!)

    the weather has finally turned; it's time to cozy up and hunker down!

    stage a halloween stand-off; eat pumpkins intsead of carving them! get undressed instead of dressed up!

    it's a BOO!tiful thing



    marjorie, the white goods queen
    an australian halloween tale

    it's not easy to get a good halloween story out of an australian. it's not our thing. we are running around in the violet glory of spring at this time of the year; the jacaranda and wisteria are carpeting our cities and the warmth has returned to the sun

    any kid wily enough to knock on a neighbour's door and yell, 'trick or treat' is likely to get the standard reply: 'bugger off!'

    the only halloween party I even remember was organised by the flock of qantas flight attendants that my flatmate, spider, had set upon me

    and that's how I wound up in the southern highlands outside of sydney at a b&b lovingly named 'linger longer'

    two of the flight attendants had started it as a nest egg for their twilight years. warren and murray had decided to launch their venture on halloween, and thus we all traipsed up in my little alfa romeo, a car that seemed to keep going on the strength of its racy memories. the feisty eva sat in front with me (her black leather catsuit melding with the upholstery), spider was in the back. he had offered to do the flowers for the party and this entailed stopping the car so that he could leap out, garden shears in hand, every time we passed a half decent garden...plundering mercilessly

    the property was a long, continuous row of rooms and there was a back veranda that ran the length. it was from here that I got to witness the spectacle of the evening. I was wedged between murray and eva, who was holding the fattest joint that I've ever seen. eva nudged me to bring my attention to a recent arrival in the hallway. 'marjorie's arrived...'

    there was a woman, with an impossibly coiffed sugar-frosted helmet of hair and seamlessy co-ordinated peach ensemble. behind her were two south african hairdressers, both with equally frosted 'lady di' hair styles and fruit print blouses. none of them were intentionally in costumes

    'they call her the white goods queen'

    a word to the non-australians, white goods are the big appliances that you buy; the fridge, the washing machine, the dish washer and so forth

    'she's a chief purser and has a dreadful reputation for having affairs with pilots when she's on layover, then when she gets home, she blackmails them. but she never asks for money...only new appliances. a fridge from a shanghai stopover, a new stove from a trip to rome...you should see her kitchen!'

    with that, eva whipped the top off the jack o'lantern, dipped down and re-lit the joint from the candle. took a big drag and sauntered along the veranda spying on marjorie and her posse as they cut a swathe from room to room. the south africans trilling and squealing, marjorie air kissing and waving...not a single hair moving. she was, of course, on her way to the kitchen to check out the miele appliances

    eventually my curiousity got the better of me and I wandered inside for a closer inspection. unfortunately, I was suffering from a sudden surge in appetite and I didn't make it any further than the buffet, where I settled in quite nicely with a plate of devilled eggs before passing out all together


    pumpkin and bacon soup
    with white corn, buttermilk and cilantro

    where we lack halloween tales, we make up for it with pumpkin recipes; we eat pumpkin all year round...and usually as a savoury dish

    peel and dice: 1 seeded butternut squash or half a pumpkin; 1 russet potato; one rutabaga (swede); 1 large onion. place all vegetables into a large soup pot

    add: 1-2 pieces of ham shank (or) 8 oz diced bacon (or) 2-3 bacon bones; 1 chicken stock cube; 1 stick butter (4oz); 1-2 tspn cracked black pepper; 1 tspn fresh grated nutmeg; 1 tspn hot paprika

    sweat: the vegetables and bacon in the butter for 5 mins then fill the pot up with water, about 3 inches from the top. bring to the boil, lower the heat slightly and let simmer uncovered

    taste: for salt after 1 hour. depending upon the flavour of the bacon, you may need to add salt. boil another 20 minutes

    blend: in a food processor (in several batches). this part can be done days in advance. keep the soup in the fridge

    before serving: heat the soup, add the kernals from 1-2 cobs of white corn. cook another 20 minutes

    serve: in bowls with a hearty drizzle of buttermilk or sour cream and a handful of chopped cilantro (coriander)


    pumpkin and truffle ravioli
    in a burnt butter and sage sauce

    there is some halloween magic to this dish: anyone I've ever served it to enters such a delirious state that they roll on their back, like a puppy waiting to have its belly rubbed

    mix: 1 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin; 2 tablespoons diced, fried (not crisp) bacon; 2 tablespoons grated parmesan; pinch each salt, pepper, nutmeg; 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs (they take the excess moisture from the pumpkin) and 1/4 teaspoon white truffle oil

    taste: add more seasoning or truffle oil as desired

    spoon: dessertspoonfuls of pumpkin mix along a laid out sheet of fresh lasagne pasta. dab some beaten egg in a square around each spoonful of pumpkin, fold the pasta sheet over. press around the edges to seal each bump of pumpkin, then cut into squares with a sharp knife. these ravioli can be made well ahead and kept in the fridge (ask marjorie for operating instructions)

    heat: a pot of salted water to a rapid boil and add the ravioli. they will take about 4 minutes to cook. try one to make sure that it is 'al dente'

    while: the ravioli cook, heat 1 stick of butter in a skillet, add 6-8 sage leaves. let the butter melt, fry and brown slightly. the sage should fry to a crisp

    add: porcini mushrooms or brussel sprouts to the butter sauce if you like...you'll still have a delirious belly rubber in front of you!

    take it over the top: make a second batch of ravioli mixing mashed carrot, parsnip and rutabaga; butter; parmesan; pepper and nutmeg. spoon onto a spinach pasta sheet, add a nugget of goat's cheese into each spoonful of filling, seal and cut into squares. serve both ravioli together for a full autumn vegie sensation!


    gingerbread and butter pudding
    with pumpkin-pie ice cream and toffee sauce

    I was in boston last week and left a freshly baked loaf of gingerbread for my buddy, james, to tuck into whilst he was house sitting

    well, los angelenos are about as comfortable with carbohydrates as paris hilton is in a full length skirt. it was still there when I got home. A little dry with a briused ego from the neglect: perfect for a bread pudding!

    slice: gingerbread (or use a stale raisin loaf/ plain bread/ brioche) into slices 1 inch thick. butter both sides. break into pieces to line the bottom and sides of a buttered dish or individual ramekins

    sprinkle: some raisins and dried orange peel onto the bread, cover with another layer of bread. add more fruit. add another layer, and so forth

    mix: 2 eggs; 2/3 cup brown sugar; 1 cup cream; 1 cup milk; 2 tspns pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tspn cinnamon, 1/2 tspn ginger, 1/4 tspn cloves, 1/4 tspn nutmeg)

    pour: custard over the layered bread. let sit 10 minutes, add more. if bread still looks a little dry, splash some more milk over the top

    bake: in a preheated (350) oven for 25 minutes

    pumpkin ice cream: mix 1 cup cooked pumpkin; 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream; 2 egg yolks, 1/2 cup milk; 1 tablespoon molasses; 2 tspn pumpkin pie spice; 2/3 cup light brown sugar. blend in a food processor. pour into an ice cream maker and churn according to instructions

    toffee sauce: melt 1 stick butter (4oz); 6 oz heavy cream; 2/ 3 cup of brown sugar. bring to boil, lower heat and simmer 5 minutes

    serve: slabs of hot bread pudding with toffee sauce spooned over. dollop some ice cream on top and take a spicy, sugary ride to cholesterol heaven

    somehow james managed to overcome his aversion to the carbs and down 2 helpings...


    jack the lanterns!
    say it with pumpkins...

    carving a message for a loved one seemed like a great idea...I found these cute little gourds down at trader joes, spent an inordinate amount of time deciding what message to spell out for the significant other...finally settled on something action bound: 'kiss me'

    this would have been followed with 'you fool', but this novice pumpkin carver was undermined by the thick skin of these little buggers. the gourds were SO HARD...I nearly broke a wusthof paring knife on them

    and so, with a menacing grin, I threw them all into a rather large steamer and cooked them for a good 5 minutes. that made them much easier to carve! beware if you try this: they build up a little gas during this process and when you finally get a knife through the skin, there is a somewhat umbecoming 'release'. watch the knife too (or, more importantly, the fingers!)


    it's horrible!
    please don't get this playlist...

    it's halloween...just go rent 'the rocky horror picture show' and call it a night

    failing that, put the soundtrack on and try doing the 'time warp' on your twister mat. the two of you are bound to wind up somewhere that you haven't been yet!

    thanks for getting 'bit'
    if these pumpkin recipes take your fancy, then there are loads more on the website. I roasted up a chicken stuffed with pumpkin, peanuts and kaffir lime last week. served it with a tamarind & palm sugar glaze

    also made a pumpkin, golden syrup and rum cake (thanks to lisa for the idea)

    and check out the pumpkin and gingerbread tiramisu

    (yes, one pumpkin can go a looong way!)

    orange is the colour of love this month!

    mannix@thelovebite.com

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