Christmas Foods in Australia

While the northern hemisphere deals with blizzards, rain, and wind, Australia is currently enjoying the beginning of its summer. Over the holidays, I spent some time in Australia, and I was lucky enough to taste some of their holiday season food.

On Christmas day, I had a Christmas lunch with some relatives, and it included a large fruit plate. Since it's summertime, we had some large blueberries, very ripe watermelon, and juicy Australian mangoes. It was such a treat, since mangoes have been out of season for quite some time back in New Jersey. Australia produces on average 60,000 mangoes per year, and the season lasts from mid-September to mid-April. The mangoes are larger than mangoes I've seen in the U.S., and they have a hint of coconut flavor in them.

We had multiple desserts, including a Christmas cake and Pavlova cake. Christmas cake is similar to fruit cake, except in my humble opinion it tastes much better. Pavlova cake is a popular Australian dish made with egg whites and sugar, and it is similar to meringue.

Here are a couple quick recipes to try.

Christmas Cake

Ingredients:
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• 4 tablespoons of brandy
• ½ pound of butter
• ½ pound of currants
• 4 eggs
• 10 ounces flour
• lemon peel and almonds (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon of plum jelly
• ½ pound of raisins
• Salt
• ¼ pound of brown sugar
• ¼ pound of white sugar
• ½ pound of sultanas

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, and eggs.

3. Sift half of the flour into the mix, and half the fruit.

4. Combine the mixture with the other ingredients.

5. Place in a baking cake pan, approximately eight inches in diameter, and bake for approximately four hours.

Pavlova Cake

Ingredients:
• Fresh berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)
• ½ tablespoon of corn flour
• 3 ounces of caster sugar (very finely granulated sugar sprinkled from a caster)
• 1.5 ounces of granulated sugar
• ½ tablespoon of vinegar
• Whipped cream
• 3 egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites and caster sugar until it is smooth and thick.

3. Add the granulated sugar, corn flour, and vinegar. Fold in, using a spoon to scoop up the ingredients from the bottom of the bowl and then turn over.

4. Bake for two hours in a cake baking pan, approximately eight inches in diameter.

5. Put whipped cream and fruit on top of the cake.

Resource:

Australia Fresh