It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Aside from work, I’ve managed to squeeze in a Frames concert (Aside : one of the best bands to see live. Ever. Glen Hansard has this .. joy .. about him, when he performs. The strength and beauty of his voice always amazes me. And the way the band works so cohesively, makes this an experience whereby your understanding and appreciation of their songs are actually enhanced by seeing them being performed live, as opposed to the reverse, where your appreciation of a live act is enhanced by the fact you already know the songs. Highlights include all that rampant singing along, the violin solo, Glen singing sans microphone, and the sample of Hotellounge by dEUS. This, I believe, might be the only chance I’ll ever get to hear dEUS live!). Also, D and I made a rushed trip, in the middle of work, to Restaurant 07 to see a demonstration by elBulli Taller research and development chef, Alain Devahive. More on that another time…

Sometimes my boss comes over to my work station and has this look on his face like he’s about to tell me that a client has requested fried kittens in caramel sauce for their special function. My first response is usually yes, but in this case I might ask if they could swap over to chipmunks because apart from this guy and this guy, chipmunks generally aren’t as cute as kittens.

This time however, it wasn’t kittens, but 5000 biscuits. I balked a little. One oven, three days; it just didn’t seem physically possible, even if I was to omit sleeping altogether. We reached a compromise, but I still wonder if I had passed on some Guinness Record challenge…

Recently I’ve been finding some afternoon tea respite from Kate Zuckerman’s The Sweet Life. The Pignoli cookies are great, as are the Gingersnaps, but the verdict’s still out on the Walnut Rugelachs. In any case, my heart still belongs to the Belinda Jeffery’s Anzac Biscuit. B sums it up nicely as follows : “Those Anzac biscuits must’ve been good because we’ve eaten nearly a whole tin’s worth” !

The chosen fruit for this month’s AFAM, as hosted by Sig of Live to Eat is the Lychee. I grew up eating a lot of lychees as a kid, and seeing them served in chinese restaurants with cubes of cold almond jelly as a dessert – and so was pretty amazed to discover last year that one of my co-workers had never tasted a lychee before. We plied her with a handful of the fruit and after a few tastings, she agreed that they were pretty nice, and likened them to being somewhat grapelike in flavour.

I love lychees, and was recently inspired by two things that led to my decision to participate in this event.

First item of inspiration came from this book and a picture of a lychee and ice-wine jelly with coconut and lime. Refreshing, clean flavours and lovely simple presentation. Then I watched Great British Menu, in which chef Mark Hix made an absolutely tantalising jelly out of perry and mixed berries, with elderflower ice-cream. Keiko of Nordljus recreated the recipe on her blog, using elderflower mousse instead of ice-cream with equally gorgeous results.

Enough procrastinating, I simply had to follow suit! In my version, I used less gelatine because the first time I made this, it turned out quite firm. If the jellies are being served set in their bowls, they can afford to be a little more …wobbly. Also, as lychees are already quite sweet, I reduced the amount of sugar in the jelly. If you’d rather stick with the original recipe, it’s available here.

Perry, a pear based cider, is not to be found in any Sydney bottle shop I’ve visited. As for apple cider, virtually only one brand is available in most places. Apparently Sydney isn’t mad for cider (even if I am). I used Strongbow Draft, for this jelly. If you can find something a bit more interesting in flavour, by all means use it. What you’ll end up with is a very delicious and refreshing jelly.

Cider Jelly with Lychees :
(serves 6)

750ml cider
5 gelatine leaves (gold strength), bloomed
100g sugar
1 tin lychees, drained (or fresh, if in season)

Heat 150ml of the cider and the sugar in a medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring almost to the boil, drain and squeeze the gelatine leaves, then add to the hot cider and stir until melted.

Remove from the heat, add the rest of the cider, stirring. Put the pan of jelly aside to allow it to cool a little.

Divide the lychees among your jelly moulds – I used 6 glass bowls for this, and got 3-4 lychees per bowl (some only had 3 because I did a lot of vigorous taste testing..). Pour in a third of the cooled jelly. Chill for an hour or so to set, then top up with the unset jelly. Chill several hours until completely set.

Cooking with figs again this weekend. This time, little wild figs from Iran, which I picked up from a local fruit and veg shop. This batch features closed fruit, but you can also get them split, revealing their pretty pink interiors. In the dried form, they are hard – less fleshy than their larger dried counterparts. When poached, they puff up slightly and, depending on how long you poach them for, can be sultry and soft, or slightly chewy, just the way I like them, as an accompaniment to scoops of vanilla ice-cream or dollops of sweetened yogurt.

Rather puzzlingly, it’s not often you find these wild figs being utilised. In restaurants, they rarely rate a mention. So far, I’ve only seen them making guest appearances in delicious Whisk & Pin muesli. One could almost say that they’ve already had their moment in the (Persian) sun, and require no further trumpeting of their virtues. Oh well, more for me, I say.

Here I have poached the figs following a Chez Panisse recipe. Gently spiced, so as to not be overpowering, I hope to serve these alongside an orange creme caramel (the orange in the creme being echoed by the peel in the poaching liquid for the figs).

Poached Spiced Figs :

1 1/2 cups fruity red wine
1/2 cup water
6 tablespoons sugar (I used a little less than this)
strip of orange zest
6 peppercorns
1 whole clove
2 allspice berries
225g dried figs

Bring all the ingredients but the figs to a simmer in a non-corroding saucepan. Add the figs and cook them at a very slight simmer until they are tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 12 hours, depending entirely on the figs. Remove the figs to a container with a slotted spoon, raise the heat, bring the syrup to a boil, and reduce by one-third. Pour it over the figs and chill. They will keep for one to two weeks and will benefit from sitting in their syrup for a few days.

This week’s WHB is hosted by Chef Melissa of Cooking Diva.