Toasted brioche with vanilla dusted lady finger banana, cape gooseberry conserve, and Maggie Beer's vanilla bean and elderflower ice cream

I'm prone to burn out. I lose faith in the people who are meant to provide me leadership and try though I may I often find myself on the outer and wondering why I insist on speaking my mind. Twice when this has happened I have wound up washing dishes in one of Brisbane's best bistro's. The first time was when I dropped out of uni in 1998 and went to work for Philip Johnson's Ecco Bistro. It was there that I encountered cape gooseberries for the first time since my childhood.

A cape gooseberry in its lantern. Physalis peruviana

The cape gooseberry is not a true gooseberry. It is in fact a type of tomato native to Peru and brought to Australia in the same way that lantana came here, via English gardening fashions. What makes the cape gooseberry so endearing and what fascinated me as a child is the delicate 'lantern' that surrounds them. But what makes them so memorable is their flavour. They vary in acidity from tart to sweet but when the sweetness and tartness are in balance the flavour is thrillingly electric! Over the years I have tried to find words to describe the flavour but only the words 'grown up tasting' come to mind.

Since rediscovering the cape gooseberry I have gone on a long journey and made many mistakes. It has been a true test of my jam making skills. Compared to strawberry or peach jam, gooseberry jam, as the older ladies at my mum's charity The Little King's Movement call it, is exceedingly tricky to perfect. The berries have a high water content and while I have been tempted to cut them up to release more of the pectin in the seeds, I am too attracted to the berries' colour and shape. So producing a jam/conserve of an appropriate consistency requires diligence and commitment. I've developed techniques to release the pectin whilst keeping the golden berries more or less in tact.

A cape gooseberry lantern after a few months in the garden

In 2001 I went to wash dishes at Arc Bistro started by P.J.Macmillan who had been head chef at Ecco. He was ably assisted by Lynette Knowles, an alumnus of Le Bronx which Philip Johnson started on his return to Australia. Knowlesie would make a cape gooseberry conserve using brown sugar which was designed to be served with a banana and poppy seed upside down cake which had halved cape gooseberries placed in the bottom. Since then banana has been my favourite thing to pair with cape gooseberries.

A worthy cause

Each year, dependent on availability, I make a small batch of jam/conserve for The Little King's Movement fete which falls in late September at the end of the cape gooseberry season (they are very seasonal). The jam/conserve is a favourite of the older ladies and also helps to lure my friends along. Over the years interest in my jam/conserve has grown steadily and since I feel that I have sufficiently refined my method, this year I am going to make a larger batch, with a label and all. My friend Kristina who co-owns the charming Flamingo Cafe has agreed to buy some and my mum has given me permission to name it Little King's - Cape Gooseberry Conserve.

Mum and Dad enjoying a special dessert

So the 'hero' of the dish at the top is the cape gooseberry! And in keeping with Rick Stein's 'The hunt for Australia's top food blogger' competition I've made a rustic dessert that reflects Australia's diverse cultural heritage, our significant food people, and Queensland's subtropical climate (cape gooseberries grow wild an hour west of Brisbane). Oh and I provided Splayds (invented in Australia) with which to eat the dessert.        





Toasted brioche with vanilla dusted lady finger banana, cape gooseberry conserve, and Maggie Beer's vanilla bean and elderflower ice cream

• Brioche slices 8mm thick 
• Ripe but firm lady finger bananas
• Cape gooseberry conserve
• Vanilla dusting sugar
• Maggie Beer's vanilla bean and elderflower ice cream

Method: Dice bananas into 1cm  pieces, add to a bowl, dust liberally with vanilla dusting sugar, and toss gently. Lightly toast the brioche slices and allow to cool a little. Place the brioche slice on a dessert plate. Place the diced banana at one end of the brioche slice and place a scoop of  ice cream against the banana pieces. Dollop cape gooseberry conserve at the point where they meet and drizzle a little syrup over the bananas and ice cream, and serve.


Cape Gooseberry Conserve

• 2kg cape gooseberries
• 1.2kg white sugar
• 1 to 2 lemons

Method: Preheat a deep heavy based saucepan on medium heat. Vigorously sweat the berries stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until they begin to simmer in their own juices. Reduce the heat to low and allow them to simmer for 10 minutes, then add 1kg room temperature white sugar and stir till the sugar dissolves. Simmer for at least an hour on low stirring regularly and pressing the berries against the side of the pan to release the seeds. When the berries are almost translucent add the juice of one medium lemon and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. As the berries are becoming fully translucent begin skimming the foam from the top of the mix and start tasting. If the mix is too tart add a little heavy sugar syrup (pre-prepared), if too sweet add a little more lemon juice. When you're happy with the flavour test the consistency by dropping a little of the mix on a chilled plate to test for thickness (the mix should develop a slightly crinkled skin). Continue to skim and be careful not to let it caramelise much. It is better to remove some of the syrup than allow to reduce too long.

Day of Honey: A memoir of Food, Love, and War

I've never wanted to read a book more than this one! Day of Honey: A memoir of Food, Love, and War explores the idea that the pursuit of food and culture help maintain our humanity in times of war and violence. My heart is warmed whenever I hear it said that the preparing and sharing of food in war time brings comfort and some joy to a difficult life.

Eating for empathy

It's time to pretend I'm stuck at home in London during the Blitz. I'll be doing this with the help of my new purchase 'Eating for Victory' which is a compilation of official WW2 instruction leaflets on cooking with food rations. I've had a brief look at the table of contents and I've decided to start with 'Crumb Fudge' and 'Dresden Patties' from the 'What's left in the Larder' chapter. It's certain to be enlightening!

Food Riots! Economic pressures in poorer countries and the social effects of food shortages

• Police chase protesting youths in the El Harrache district of Algiers on Thursday. The violence came after price hikes for milk, sugar and flour in recent days.
• Image Credit: AP

The brief I have given myself for this blog is to look at the future of food and violence in the west. But of course my often stated agenda is to get westerners to look at life in developing countries and into their own country's past for examples of resilience and struggle in periods of violent upheaval. In that light I recently contacted Amy Bentley Associate Professor of Food Studies at the NYU Steinardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and author of Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity after discovering her contribution to the book Food, drink and identity: cooking, eating and drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages. Her chapter entitled 'Reading Food Riots: Scarcity, Abundance, and National Identity' made me think about the social responses to the onset of scarcity and the role that markets and governments have to play in bringing affordable and culturally appropriate food to the people.
So it was timely when today I found a Jan 7, 2011 article at gulfnews.com about unrest in Algeria over "price hikes for milk, sugar and flour in recent days". The article entitled 'World on brink of social unrest over food prices' discussed food inflation in Africa and across Asia quoting unnamed "international organisations" as saying there is going to be a global "food price shock". This seems quite plausible to me as there has been much talk in the US about inflationary pressures around food and with many European governments unable to exercise control over economic factors affecting inflationary pressures.
Amy Bentley's writings on food riots impressed me so much because she demonstrated empathy through her conclusions saying that rioting resulting from price hikes and lack of availability of staple and cultural foods was caused by "intense frustration and anger at being trapped in a global economic web in which they seem to have no agency".

Coconut crisis in Sri Lanka caused by loss of plantations to new housing developments!

Mexico's drug/war lords and the suffering farmers

  

Image from www.agoranews.org  Behind Mexico's Bloodshed Part 1&2

Some argue the North American Free Trade Agreement has played a part in the current bloodshed in Mexico by driving farmers off the land and fundamentally shifting the economy into the drug trade to the US. While some politicians in Mexico argue that the majority of those who've died were engaged in the drug trade, more and more evidence is appearing that ordinary citizens are being brutalised, tortured, and killed by both drug lords and the Mexican military sent to tackle the problem.

Molly Molloy in 'Who Is Behind the 25,000 Deaths In Mexico?' The Nation July 23 2010

" “armed commandos” dressed like soldiers and wielding high-powered machine guns are witnessed at the scenes of hundreds of massacres documented since 2008." 

Bruce Livesey in Behind Mexico's Bloodshed says:

"While free trade wiped out Mexico's traditional agriculture, the drug cartels moved in."

Laura Carlsen in 'The Mexican Farmers' Movement: Exposing the Myths of Free Trade'

International Forum on Globalization February 25, 2003

"The reemergent Mexican farmers' movement reflects not only the serious crisis in the country's rural sector but also a crisis of faith in free trade itself"

Scott Henson, writer of the Texan criminal justice system blog 'Grits for Breakfast' argues in his post 'Stop Digging: US policies enriching Mexican drug cartels' that a range of US policies including NAFTA and US agricultural subsidies have:

"combined to enrich Mexican cartels unimaginably, even financing military-grade weapons purchases, most of which is smuggled in from the United States"

Food is something we have to do as humans. When contrived arrangements cause the production of food to diminish and dependent populations are pressurised, those desperate for a market will go to violent extremes. 

Is it 'end game' time yet?

It seems pretty clear that ConspiracyWatch.net with their investigator Tom Retterbush seem to think the apparent rise in gun purchases in the USA is cause for concern. If they didn't, why would they title their story thusly.

"Record Gun Sales as Americans Prepare for Financial Collapse"

. 

They even mentioned people stockpiling non-perishables, petrol, and water. Seems pretty end-gamey to me.

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

This is great! What an amazing array of diets and liefestyles! So artfully arranged.

Found on twitter. The link to the photo essay (thanks @michaelpollan )and also yours truly operating as @empathiser. 

Powdered Egg Whites: The first experiment.

Well finally, as promised nearly a year ago, I have had a crack at a powdered egg whites dish. All the ingredients are either from my pantry or our little herb garden.

This was the end result. Delicate and very tasty corn cake ramekins topped with a grilled red pepper and Italian herb salad. I gave these to the girls from Stag who were recording in my house mate's home studio, and sweating it out to lay some new tracks on his valve driven reel to reel. I explained this blog to them and asked if they would appreciate a small meal like this if they found themselves in a war time situation. They said absolutely!

I learned a great deal from the process. According to Pace Farms who sell massive amounts of powdered egg whites for commercial use in Australia, powdered egg whites should be mixed at a rate of  7:1 water to egg white powder. I made a huge oversight and failed to consider just how little I needed for my purposes. I used 100grams of egg white powder when I only really needed 25grams which is the equivalent to 6 medium egg whites. This meant I had to continually move up to a larger mixing bowl and ended up wasting loads of egg white mix. 

While I did achieve soft peaks after lots of hand beating with my Swift Whip. I feel I haven't fully demonstrated the ability of powdered egg whites to adequately substitute for fresh egg whites. I feel I really do need to make a souffle or macaroons to prove the point though I feel access to a temperature controlled oven during The Age of Warlords would be limited. 

It was my hope to make fluffy corn cakes in a heavy based pan as a single burner is likely to be what most families will possess or afford to run. I will have another go at corn cakes and try fluffy pancakes as well. I'll need to get myself one of those dope dealers scales and some baggies to measure quantities.  

Corn Cake Ramekins topped with a Grilled Red Pepper and Italian Herb Salad

Corn cakes

300grams corn kernels

300grams creamed corn

25grams powdered egg white (equivalent to 6 medium egg whites)

powdered garlic

dried onions

chilli flakes

water

salt

Red pepper and herb salad

fire roasted red peppers

aged balsamic

extra virgin olive oil

fresh parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme 

Follow me on twitter @empathiser

The Future We Deserve an excellent project!

The Future We Deserve is a collaborated book about possible futures that takes account of the very real possibility of castastrophic climate change and economic disintegration. It will be a collection of writings from dreamers, pundits, thinkers, inventors, campaigners, and activists looking at ideas, answers, technologies, culture, feelings, economics, and social strategy for an uncertain future.
Vinay Gupta is the inventor of the Hexayurt (a portable, lightweight house deployed in Haiti after the recent earth quakes) and a curator of The Future We Deserve. He contacted me recently saying he loved the Age of Warlords blog title and asked me to write an essay for the book. Needless to say I am very excited as I have been following the Dark Mountain Project as it develops and would be glad to make a contribution to discussion around their challenging ideas.
The Future We Deserve book will be made reality using Creative Commons licencing and funded using Crowd Sourcing through Kickstarter