Cheese Cake from Yoghurt Quark

Yoghurt

Get  

1 liter organic full-cream milk
1 tbsp live yoghurt

do

Heat the milk in a small pot slowly until bubbles appear. Turn the stove off but allow the milk to stay hot for another hour or so. This can be automated with a timer on an electric stove to switch itself off after a given amount of time (e.g. 47 minutes on setting 4).
Cool to body temperature.
Mix in the yoghurt starter culture and whisk it.
Pour into a yoghurt maker and turn it on for about 10 hours.
Cool.
Cooking the milk produces milk solids and keeping it hot promotes more solids for a thick yoghurt. The amount of time in the yoghurt maker may influence this too. When in doubt leave it longer. 

 

Quark

Pour 1 liter of refrigerated yoghurt into a large fine sieve over a large bowl. Cover it. Allow the liquid to drain off into the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours. From time to time pour off the clear liquid (whey) into a cup and continue draining.
Tip the quark from the sieve into a bowl, cover and keep cool.
Eat it fresh or use to make a cheese cake.
 

Cheese cake without pastry

Get

2 portions of quark
4 eggs
8 tbsp agave nectar
sultanas soaked overnight in lime juice (or blueberries)
9-10 tbsp spelt flour 

 

do

Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Butter a baking dish.
Drain the quark and put it in a mixing bowl.
Separate eggs.
Add egg yolks and 4 tbsp agave nectar in the middle of the quark and mix well.
Lift the flour under.
Lift the sultanas under. 

Click to enlarge

Beat the egg whites in another bowl with 4 tbsp agave nectar. Lift under.
Put mixture into the baking dish and bake on the 2nd shelf for 50 minutes. Turn the oven down to 130° and bake for a further 25 minutes until lightly golden. Turn off the oven and cool in the oven without rapidly or suddenly cooling. The cake will rise when baking and sink again when cooling.
Let it settle down for a day in the fridge. Best on the 2nd and 3rd days. And the 4th if there is any left.
Serve with blueberries.

The above cheesecake variation was created by Ross. Quark made with lemon and topped with Davidson's plum jelly.

More cheesecakes: here, here and here

Jostaberry Dessert Sauce

Jostaberries (Ribes nidigrolaria) are a cross between black currants and gooseberries. The name Jostaberry combines the German words for blackcurrant (Johannisbeere) and gooseberry (Stachelbeere). They are much larger than black currants and have a tangy-sweet flavor.


GET
400 g of Jostaberries
1 cup of water
Agave nectar

DO
Boil water, add cleaned and washed berries. The fruit should be almost covered in water. Turn down the heat very low and add the lid for 3 min. Add the agave nectar. Take the pot off the stove and let it stand for another 3 min. Press content through a sieve. Refrigerate and serve with a white dessert like yogurt, ice cream, semolina or milk rice pudding.

Blueberry Banana Cake Pacific Style

The mid-north coast of NSW is converting from banana production to blueberries, so this recipe takes advantage of the presence of both fruit in one place. You can use as many blueberries as you wish.

Get
150g organic almonds
1 bowl blueberries
8 fat ripe cavendish bananas (more if small)
some lemon juice
8 tbsp agave nectar
4 eggs separated
200g unsalted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
about 150g flour
5 level tsp baking powder (no aluminium or phosphate, quantity depends on the type of baking powder, do not use too much)

Do
Roughly mash 8 bananas with some lemon juice.
Grate the almonds finely.
Preheat the oven to 190°.
Beat the soft butter in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until it is smooth. Beat in alternately the egg yolks and 5 tbsp agave nectar. Beat well into a soft mixture.
Add the cinnamon.
Beat the bananas into the mixture one at a time.
Beat the almond meal into the mixture gradually.
Add the flour a tablespoon at a time while beating. Alternately add the baking powder so it mixes in evenly. Only use enough flour so that the mixture is thick but still falls slowly - “heavily” - from the spoon. Beat well.

Mix in the blueberries keeping some aside for decoration.
Whip the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining agave nectar and continue beating until stiff.
Lift the egg whites under the mixture.
Butter a baking form and dust it with a little flour.
Add the mixture to the form and spread it evenly.
Decorate with the remaining blueberries and press them lightly into the mixture.

Vaccinium myrtillus

Bake on the 2nd shelf from the bottom for 25 minutes. Cover it with paper. Turn the oven down and bake for a further 25 minutes at 120°c. It should be golden. Test with a thin knife that it is cooked. The knife should come out clean. If it is not clean, return covered to the oven for another 10 minutes and test again. Turn off the oven.
Cool in form in the open oven.
Remove from form when cool.
Store in a linen cloth.

Green salad with Native Raspberries and Violets

This is a salad of mixed garden greens with the edible flowers of the European field pansy and the Australian Showy Violet (Viola betonicifolia) Or use V. banksii formerly Viola hederacea.

The tropical native raspberry is used in the dressing and for decoration. One could use any edible petal or berry of course.
When making a flower salad, be mindful that the flowers and all other ingredients are from a trustworthy source as pesticides/ weed killers are ubiquitous in Australia. Always make sure you know the plant/ flower you are eating.

GET
A bowl of mixed salad greens from the garden
A handful of snow peas
25 Tropical raspberries
5 Flowers of edible violets

3 Tsp. Macadamia oil
2 Tsp. Balsamic vinegar or mirin
2 Tsp. Vegetable stock 
20 Native Raspberries
 

DO
Place 20 raspberries in stock and mash. Sieve and keep liquid.
Wash all vegetables, fruit and flowers and dry. Rip large green leaves into bits. Cut large peas in halves.
Mix oil, vinegar and sieved berry juice in to a dressing.
Place greens into a bowl and mix half the dressing under. Sprinkle with the remaining berries and toss the flowers and the rest of the dressing over it. Serve immediately.


Images:
1. Rubus probus, Viola tricolor, garden greens
2. Snap peas, Viola betonicifolia flowers and leaf, flower of Rubus rosifolius
3. Mixed berries: Rubus probus, strawberries and blueberries

Infusion of Raspberries and Passionfruit

get
5 ripe native raspberries
1 ripe passionfruit
Some lemon juice
4 mugs of filtered boiling water

do
Wash berries, scoop out passionfruit and put into a jug. Add a few drops of lemon and pour over the boiling water. Mash fruit a bit with a spoon and allow to stand for 3-5 min with a cover.
Strain into cups (hot) or glasses (when cold) and decorate with some extra berries or lime wedges.

The drink is nice as a hot 'tea', but can also be served cold with endless variations.


See
Queensland Raspberries
Native Raspberry Leaf Tea and Fruit (Rubus rosifolius)
Cold drinks from finger limes or passion fruit

Queensland Raspberries

Rubus probus is a widespread tropical raspberry that occurs in Queensland and in Papua New Guinea. Like the NSW Rubus rosifolius it is edible. It can be used like all other raspberries either raw - it has a slight crunch - stewed or in cakes. It also is cultured on the north coast of NSW. It is rather prickly and can form impenetrable thickets if left unpruned.

see
Native Raspberry Tea and Fruit (Rubus rosifolius)
Infusion of Raspberries and Passionfruit
Green salad with Native Raspberries and Violets

Ginger fruit and herb tea

GET

Ginger, thumb size piece
5 strawberries
4 slices of citrus
A sprig of sage/ mint/ or lemon balm
2-3 fruit of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) or rose hip
Honey (optional)

DO

Take the young ginger rhizome, wash, peel it thinly and slice.
Wash the strawberries and slice.
Slice 4 slices of an orange, remove the pith and pips
Wash hibiscus/ rose hip fruit
Wash herbs, remove stalks
Add all into jug
Pour 1 liter of boiled water over ingredients and let them steep for 6 minutes.


The drink can be composed freely depending on the availability of ingredients. It can be served hot or cold. You might want to strain the tea and add a few slices of strawberry only. Serve with or without honey.

Native Raspberry Tea and Fruit

Native Raspberry, Rubus rosifolius Sm, (syn. Rubus rosaefolius) occurs in rainforest or on rainforest edges of SE Australia. It is one of many in the Rosaceae family. The (Thimble-) berries are delicious raw or prepared into desserts. The leaves of the Rose-leaf Bramble make a pleasant tasting herb tea, that is supposed to have many health benefits. The plant is very prickly and can be grown in cultivation. Outside its endemic home range it has the potential to become an invasive plant.

Herb Tea
Remove stems, wash, crunch a hand full of leaves, pour boiling water on and let steep for a short time. Drop in a raspberry ( if available).

See
Queensland Raspberries
Infusion of Raspberries and Passionfruit

Blackberries (Rubus spp.) weed or native?