TheBanyanTree: Cooking72

[Roger]

Six months ago Robin and I moved from one extreme to another - biggish city
with many malls and shopping centres to tiny rural settlement with none!
The reason? Our landlord put the house we were renting up for sale and
friends near the village offered us a house to live in. We had notice of
when it would happen and time to make our own plans, it wasn't done
sneakily or anything like that. So a particular day in June saw us arrive
in the beautiful Araluen Valley, southeast NSW, with our worldly
possessions and our menagerie - seven chooks, four cats and a dog (since
increased to two dogs). Whilst I have been semi-retired for some time Robin
was and still is an assistant professor at the University of Canberra so
she commutes each week and boards with a friend and some of her research is
done at home. All well and good but not a long time had passed when I
realised that whereas before I met Robin sixteen years ago I had
practically existed on soup, I had had such good food since meeting her,
and got used to having it, that I would have to learn pretty quickly how to
cook. Something I had not even tried to learn let alone master in my 72
years.

We are both vegetarians, she on principle and I for practicality's sake,
and after producing an excellent vegetable and soy stew for dinner, I
decided that provided one treated the ingredients of main meals with
respect, did not hurry the preparation and cooking time, and generally took
great care in judging what went with what, one could cook just about any
main meal offering. Biscuits and slices were something else again however.
So on the basis that 'Life is uncertain, eat dessert first" that was the
area I began my true cooking lessons in and, to date, that is where I have
stayed. Muffins and suchlike are not my strength but I do love making
biscuits and, even more, slices. In the doing I have learned many things.
Like, for instance, when the recipe lists the ingredients they are not
generally in  the order of preparation; cooking on a slow combustion stove
as we do is vastly different to cooking on a gas or electric stove whose
oven can be set to switch on and off at specific temperatures; and words
such as combine, fold, beat and sift have precise meanings which must not
be forgotten.

It still amazes me that putting different substances together in the manner
described in cookery books and exposing the mixes to heat for varying
periods of time does usually produce a yumminess though possibly not the
one expected by the recipe's author. However, in terms of the following
recipe I would have to say without any doubt whatsoever the yumminess
achieved is fantastic!!

*Fresh Berry Slice*
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 cups self-raising flour
pinch of salt
raspberry jam, for spreading
1/2 fresh raspberries, blueberries or blackberries

*Topping:*
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 egg

Preheat oven to 180C (try THAT on a slow combustion stove!). Lightly grease
a 19cm x 29cm slice tin.
For the base, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in egg,
sifted flour and salt.
Press mixture into tray, spread thickly with jam and sprinkle with fresh
berries.
For the topping, mix all ingredients together and spread evenly over base.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool before slicing (makes 24).

(from the Biscuit and Slice Bible copyright Penguin Group (Australia) 2007,
published by Penguin Group)

Wishing you All the Best for 2012

Roger