A word from Belinda Jeffery

"My recipes are easy. They’re for the food I like to eat. Simple, fresh, full of flavour and just a bit different. You certainly don’t need any great cooking skills for them, you just need to like food and like eating – just like me. The rest is simple."

Most of my 'A word from ...' posts are written on days when I'm feeling uninspired. It's a quick and easy way of doing a post. This one is slightly different, because it's inspired by what I am cooking for my son's turkey feast today. Yet again I have been asked to make a lemon tart, and I can never remember which version is best. I re-read Felicity Cloake on the subject but couldn't remember any of her suggestions working out particularly well, so I started looking through my cookbooks. One of the first I went to was a small book I have by Belinda Jeffery, because I know she is big on baking and indeed there was her recipe of 'luscious lemon slice' which is not quite a lemon tart, but sort of. And I think I have made it before, and she is usually pretty reliable so I thought I would give it a go again.

Incidentally as a slight aside I did not have a baking tin of the size she recommended and so I rushed out to the shops to see if I could find one, having checked in advance that I had a roasting tin about the right size and also a ceramic dish. But I was hoping to find one with a removable base, so that I could get it decoratively on to a plate. No luck though - well not with a removable base, so in the end I went with my ceramic dish reasoning that it would look better, because there is no way that I can get it out of the dish and on to a plate. It will just have to stay in the dish. So - someone make a roasting tin size removable base cake/slice tin please.

But back to Belinda Jeffery. She is Australian and I first found her in delicious magazine in which she wrote a regular column for a while. I liked her recipes and often added them to my database. A real favourite is her upside down tomato and basil pie (see below). She no longer writes in delicious concentrating instead on writing cookbooks and giving cooking lessons, somewhere around Byron Bay. In my mind she is a sort of Australian Delia Smith but with Country Womens Association touches - 'simple, fresh, full of flavour and just a bit different" - as she says. After all she was born and raised in the country and still lives there - and loves to bake.

I actually only have the one cook book by her. A rather small Lantern Cookery Classic - from a series of books by Australian cooks that were sort of 'best of' selections. I keep my eyes open and if something else turns up I will certainly buy it. I suspect, though, that unlike Delia Smith, but perhaps a bit like Robert Carrier, she actually doesn't have a huge repertoire. But what she has is just yummy.

When I read her About section on her website I was struck by how much of her life in cooking resembled my own - with the notable exception of my not having pursued cooking as a career - though I nearly did. She talks of how she learnt to cook from her mother:

"As she cooked I would stand on a chair beside her and insist on having my own bowl and spoon then make my very own version of whatever she was cooking."

As did I - well I'm not sure I made my own version - I most likely just helped her, or made something under her instruction - or Grandma's. I do remember cooking a lot with her though. She then talks about reading her mother's Margaret Fulton Cookbook during the week and then practising at the weekend - for me it was the women's magazines which I pored over and then made something from them at the weekend, often with my mother's enthusiastic and interested assistance. We experimented a bit together - particularly after my first visits to France.

"All through my teens I continued to cook. I cooked when I was happy and I cooked when I was sad; I cooked when I was in love, (and cooked even more when I was out of love!)"

Here again I differ because at the time when I was falling in and out of love I was being fed by the refectory at my university, and so there was little opportunity to cook. But yes, I do cook for my man - I try to please him with food. They do say 'the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach' after all. It gives me pleasure.

I could not find many quotable quotes from Belinda - other than the somewhat standard quotes about sharing food with loved ones, so I shall end with two recipes - the lemon slice and a wonderful upside-down tomato pie which I cook frequently. It is one of my favourite things. Vegetarian too.

LUSCIOUS LEMON SLICE

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour

1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar, sifted

Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

180g cold unsalted butter, chopped

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon topping

6 eggs

3 cups (660g) caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 3 lemons

1 cup (250ml) lemon juice, strained

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

Icing sugar, chopped pistachios or fresh berries, and cream (optional) to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly butter a 5 cm x 24 cm x 32 cm baking tin and set it aside.

For the base, put flour, sugar and zest in a food processor. Whiz to combine. Add butter and process until mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs. With the processor going, add vanilla and 2 teaspoons icd water and whiz until it forms a ball. Take it out and press the dough evenly into the prepared tin. Gently roll a tumbler across the top to smooth it out. Bake the base for 18 minutes or until the edges are starting to cook and top is pale golden.

Meanwhile make the topping. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until they are well combined. Whisk in the zest and juice. Sift flour over the top and whisk it until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.

When the base is ready, transfer it to a wire rack to cool. Reduce oven to 150°C. Once the base has cooled for 5 minutes, whisk filling briefly again, as it will have settled, then pour it over the base. Return to oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until topping is set. Leave slice to cool in the tin on a wire rack.

Once the slice is completely cool, use a sharp knife to cut it. I vary the shapes depending what I'm using it for: I tend to cut narrow bars for everyday; small squares to have with coffee (that's to fool myself I'm only eating a little bit - the trouble is I usuallye at three or four of them!); or elongated diamonds if it's for dessert, as they look quite elegant.

Just before serving, dust the tops with a little icing sugar and sprinkle them with a few chopped pistachios. If you're making this into a dessert, put one slice on each plate and pile the berries up on top so some tumble onto the plate. Dust the berries with a little icing sugar, then serve with a dollop of cream.

If you're not using the slice straight away, cover the tine tightly with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. You'll find the bottom will become a bit soggy as time passes, but it still tastes wonderful.

UPSIDE DOWN TOMATO AND BASIL PIE

In spite of this being called a pie it's really more like a savoury cake.

800g can diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour

1 tsp dry mustard powder

100g Parmesan, freshly grated

50g good cheddar, finely grated

125g cold unsalted butter, chopped

2 eggs

1/3 cup (80ml) milk

A couple of shakes of Tabasco sauce

6 ripe tomatoes, (preferably Roma), thinly sliced

1/2 cup finely shredded basil

Basil leaves to serve

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Butter a shallow 26 cm round ovenproof dish and line the base with buttered baking paper. Set it aside.

Pour canned tomatoes into a sieve over a bowl. Leave to drain for 5-10 minutes. Give it a stir occasionally to make sure as much liquid seeps away as possible.

Meanwhile, whiz flour, mustard and 1 tsp salt in a food processor. Add cheeses and whiz to just combine. Scatter butter over the top and process until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. (If you don't have a food processor, you can do this in a bowl and rub the butter in by hand.) Tip mixture into a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and Tabasco. Make a well int he cheese mixture and pour in the egg mixture, then stir to make a fairly stiff batter.

Lay the sliced tomatoes in overlapping circles in the base of the buttered dish so the bottom is completely covered. Spread drained tomatoes evenly over the top and sprinkle with the shredded basil. Dollop spoonfuls of the atter over the tomatoes, then, with lightly floured hands,pat it out with your fingers to spread it evently. (Don;t worry if there are a few little gaps - they fill out as the pie cooks.) Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the pie is risen and golden. (The time will vary a bit depending on how thick your dish is.)

Test it by inserting a fine skewer into the pie, if it comes out clean the pie is ready. Remove the pie from the oven and leave it to settle in the dish for 5 minutes before inverting it onto a warm serving platter. Mop any juices that seep out onto platter and scatter over basil leaves.

Old-fashioned in many ways she may be, but yes there is always something a tiny bit different that makes her modern and interesting. Look out for her books and give her a go.