Lyn de Reggie / Passata! O heavens’ tomato! February 2008

Ingredients
12 whole fresh figs (750g)
100g blanched whole almonds (If you wish, so you can add an almond in the middle of each fig before cooking)
125g sugar
115g honey
2Tbs lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick

Method
Dissolve sugar with 3 cups water, add honey, zest, lemon juice and cinnamon stick.

Add figs and gently poach covered for 30 minutes.

Remove figs and reduce sauce then spoon over the figs.

Serve with Greek style yogurt or icecream.

Rosalba Velletri / Slow Food Perth 01 Aug 2007

Ingredients
250g plain flour
125g butter
125g sugar
1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg
Grated rind of 1 lemon
300g marmalade or favourite jam

Method
Sift the flour into a bowl, mix in the sugar and form a well, add the egg yolk, the whole egg, the butter chopped and the lemon rind. Knead quickly to a dough. You can also place all the ingredients in a food processor with the blade attachment and mix to form a dough. Work it as little as possible and roll it into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Break off three quarters of the dough and roll it out thinly (about 1cm thick) on a floured board, line base and sides of a greased 24cm round loose-based flan tin. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into even strips. Spread the jam over top of the pastry and cover with the strips arranged in a lattice pattern. Bake in a moderate oven (180C) for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Rosalba Velletri / Slow Food Perth 01 Aug 2007

Ingredients
1 cup chopped pitted dates
2 cups peeled, cored, diced apple (2 medium apples)
1 ¼ cups boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
150g (3/4 cup) soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Icing sugar to dust

Method
Combine dates, apple and water in a bowl. Stir in soda. Cool. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg and beat well. Beat in essence. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Fold apple mixture and dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Transfer to a greased 22cm round cake tin that has had the base lined with baking paper. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave cake in tin for 10 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar.

Farangeez Ahmadi / Slow Food Perth 16 June 2007

This recipe makes enough baklava to fill two baking dishes 43cm x 30cm x 2.5cm. You will need to make the syrup a few hours before so that it is cool before you assemble and later cook the baklava.

Syrup
3 cups of sugar
one and a half cups of water
half cup of rosewater
1 tablespoon lemon juice
extra tablespoon rosewater

Put the sugar in a saucepan with the water and rosewater. Bring this gently to the boil for up to 20 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the liquid lightly coats a spoon. Add lemon juice and the extra rosewater. Cool and have ready for assembling the baklava.

Baklava
1kg ground almonds, or buy almond meal, as the Persian variety of baklava uses very finely ground nuts. (The result is more compact and smaller than the Greek version.)
1kg pistachio nuts, for roasting
400g icing sugar, or if the baklava you tasted at the workshop was too sweet, reduce the amount
3 teaspoons ground cardamom (Farangeez used the ground white type)
500g unsalted butter
rosewater
two packets of filo pastry - according to the experts the Antoniou is the best one available. Do not use frozen pastry. (I have seen the Antoniou in Farmer Jacks’ markets.)
300ml oil, preferably scentless

Method
Place pistachios in a moderate oven for 15 minutes and, when cool to touch, rub off as much of the skins as possible. Grind the nuts finely. Combine well with the ground almonds or almond meal, icing sugar and ground cardamom and set aside.

Butter the base of tin well. Place six layers of filo, buttering each layer in turn, on base of tin. Fill with half of the nut mixture and, most importantly, spoon this down until it is compact. This takes a little care and time. Moisten the nut layer with rosewater and lay another six buttered sheets of filo on top of nut mixture. Place in a refrigerator overnight as this makes the baklava easier to cut.

The next day, remove from fridge and trim any edges before cutting through with a very very sharp pointed knife. Farangeez does not just score the top but cuts right through, maing either a square or diagonal shape. (Use a ruler or guide to help you cut.)

Heat the oil in saucepan until very hot and then spoon gently over the cut baklava. (Test if oil is hot enough on a corner; it should bubble as you spoon it over.) Then bake on the middle shelf in a moderate oven until golden brown.

Cool baklava to room temperature and spoon syrup over it, then leave for an hour and if necessary pour over some extra syrup. Covered baklava will keep in the fridge for a good week. If it has been in the fridge for a few days and you want to refresh it, pour a little more warmed syrup over it.

Romy Surtees / Elixir Raw Honey
This cake has been a favourite at home for more than a decade. It must be old - it’s in ounces! The softening of the dates gives a delightful texture to the cake and the honey enhances the flavour.

Ingredients
6 oz butter
1 cup Elixir Raw Honey (9oz)
4 eggs
one and a half cups plain flour (9oz)
1 pound dates
two-thirds cup hot weak tea
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
half cup chopped cashew nuts
vanilla essence
mixed spice (I do up to 3 tsp for me; if its for kids I go down to 1 tsp)
pinch of salt

Method
Mince or finely chop dates. Mix bicarbonate of soda and tea and soak dates for three hours. Cream butter and sugar well, add beaten egg yolks. Stir in sifted flour, spices and salt. Add dates cashews and vanilla. Beat egg whites to peaks and fold into the mixture. Bake in a well lined 9 x 9-inch tin for 60-75 minutes in a moderate oven. Take care as this cake burns easily.

Freddie Kronborg / Slow Food Perth long table paddock luncheon / May 2006
Uses rhubarb, raspberry and pernod sauce made by Western Australian 2006 Terra Madre participant Patricia Tew of Bullsbrook

Sponge
Make two single layer sponges in a standard round or square tin, or buy plain sponges, turn out and then leave for a day or two in a covered cake tin to enable the cakes to lose moisture.

Crème patissière
one-and-a-half cups full cream milk
150ml thickened cream
one third cup vanilla sugar
three egg yolks
quarter cup plain flour [sieved]
250g mascarpone or King Island crème fraiche [according to taste]

Whisk egg yolks and flour with enough milk to form a smooth thick liquid in a large bowl. In a saucepan, heat remaining milk, cream and vanilla sugar almost to boiling point. Do not boil. Remove from heat and pour milk mixture over yolk-mixture, whisking constantly, and replace into saucepan. Heat gently until custard thickens. Again, do not boil. Remove from heat and cool for five minutes or so, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming. Whisk in mascarpone or crème fraiche, transfer to a cool bowl and cool quickly [eg: sit bowl in a larger bowl of cold water], stirring occasionally. Store in fridge with plastic wrap touching the surface to avoid a skin from forming.

Trifle
To prepare trifle, used a large, clear glass bowl or tall glass vase that will fit in your fridge.

You will also need:
200g dried cherries and 200g dried cranberries
200g slivered almonds, toasted
two 250ml Food Symphony rhubarb raspberry & pernod sauce [depending on size of the bowl to be used for the trifle]
fine sherry or muscat

Slice the aged sponge horizontally into 1cm layers and trim to a shape that fits your bowl or vase. Place this layer across the base of bowl. Some bricklaying-like work may be required to ensure you cover the area to the edges of the bowl. Drizzle with a fine black sherry or a good muscat so that the sponge layer is wet but not drowned. Add a liberal dose of Food Symphony rhubarb raspberry & pernod sauce so that the sponge is completely covered. Scatter generously with dried cherries and / or cranberries, ensuring the fruit also shows against the glass. Add a layer of the crème patissière and sprinkle this with toasted almonds. Repeat the process until the bowl / vase is filled to within 2cm of the top.

Just a note on the liquor: you need to use something that will sweeten the trifle with alcohol but not overwhelm the taste of the pernod in the Food Symphony sauce. The two liquors need to marry, of sorts. A bit of trial-and-error may be needed here, plus a good supply of panadol and a comfy bed to recover between tasting attempts to see if the marriage is going to work.

To the top layer add double whipped cream and decorate with dried cherries and more toasted almonds. Cover with plastic wrap sitting up from the top layer on toothpicks and leave in the fridge for a day or two to allow the rhubarb sauce and sherry or muscat to be absorbed. Serve by the large spoonful.

Note: if you want to buy custard, great. Instead of bought custard, try a good natural or custard yoghurt for a zip of tang.