review by Wendy Tucker
Black Cake
Charmaine Wilkerson
Black Cake is a delicious debut novel that shows how history and chance can change a family.
The actual black cake has a complicated history, as does Eleanor Bennett the main protagonist. The cake is dense with fruit soaked in rum for many weeks and finished with burnt sugar and is a Caribbean tradition for all celebrations. For many immigrants from the Caribbean, it is a continual reminder of home and culture. … Read more »
Characteristics of Vietnamese cuisine by Anh-Thu Stuart
I was born in the Mekong Delta, the ‘rice bowl’ of Vietnam. I came to Australia in 1964 on a Colombo Plan Scholarship to study Economics at university. After graduating, I worked as a researcher and then public servant in Canberra. In 1986 I published a cookbook with my mother – Vietnamese Cooking: Recipes My Mother Taught Me. It was sold in Australia as well as the US, … Read more »
Anh-Thu Stuart
4 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1 large lemon
4 ½ tablespoons sugar
125 ml fish sauce
125 ml cold water
1 chilli, chopped (optional)
Mix all ingredients together. Add more water, sugar or lemon juice to taste if necessary.
Anh-Thu Stuart
400 g boneless belly pork (remove skin) or pork rashers
½ teaspoon salt
300 g cooked or uncooked, small to medium prawns
100 g medium rice vermicelli
20 rice papers (medium to large)
lettuce leaves
mint leaves
150 g fresh bean sprouts
1 bunch garlic chives (optional)
Method:
Wash pork thoroughly. … Read more »
Anh-Thu Stuart
1 kg fillet steak or rump steak
1 large onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons finely chopped lemon grass
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons oil or lard
100 g roasted peanuts, crushed
bamboo skewers (soak skewers in a dish of water for 30 minutes before using)
Keith Mundy
Welcome to another winter with the ground at saturation point after so much rain in our local area that, in turn, should be a great start to spring in three months. Deciduous plants are starting to commence their winter dormancy that, in turn, leads to many tasks in the garden that need to be completed before winter sets in.
During this month with plants going into dormancy, pruning should commence in the rose … Read more »
