I really feel like pulling out some dusty old map and pointing out the many places we visited in our four weeks of Australia time, but I’ll just settle with a recipe to get us started. In our last week of gallivanting, we ended up in Perth on the west coast, where we met up with mum’s friend from back in the day – Margaret. And to those of you who don’t already know it, my mum’s Australian and lived there into her twenties when she moved to Europe and eventually settled in Denmark with my Danish dad.

Anyway, my mum was also in Perth and the four of us (T included) rented a car, a blue thing full of testosterone  although the license plate only said “1DIK”. Seriously. Naturally we milked that one for days. But the car took us everywhere, around Perth, further south through Busselton (Margaret’s native town), the Margaret River wine region and to the south-tip where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Pacific. And somewhere in-between, we found a Saturday market in a sleepy town hall, where the locals had brought stuff like those classic knitted bits no one know what to do with (like a hat for boiled eggs or a napkin ring) as well as a few food-related things.

Enter the prunes in red wine syrup.

There was this one stall with a pretty simple setup and a guy in a laid-back chair, who had the best mouthfuls! Not an awful lot, but just the right things. The two I remember best were the runny-centered chocolate “muffins” (very much like the French moelleux) with a single soft prune in the middle and then the whole jars of prunes in Shiraz (Australian Syrrah) syrup. And we couldn’t stop marvelling at the velvety deep flavoured syrup and the prunes, ahh the prunes. Can’t stop saying “the prunes” and I’m not even that pruny myself. Thankfully, he revealed a lot of his cooking secrets to us, which mainly consisted of Shiraz, sugar, prunes and 12 hours of patience.

So now I’m back in Denmark, where the snow is lining the branches like thick toothpaste and we’re all struggling to keep warm in our silly designer wellingtons. Just the right time to pull out a feel-good recipe or rather – an experiment in that direction. Here it goes:

Prunes in Red Wine Syrup (serves at least 8 people)

• 1 bottle Periquita (happened to be the only red wine at hand, left over from my friend’s bachelorette party, but any not too sweet wine will do I suppose)
• 180 grams raw cane sugar
• 180 regular sugar
• 320 grams prunes
• 1-2 limes

For serving:

• Peeled, toasted and chopped almonds
• Greek yoghurt (2% fat)
• Cream for whipping
• Vanilla sugar

Add the wine and sugars to a heavy-bottomed pot and leave to simmer without a lid for about 30 mins (but keep an eye on it now and then). Then add the prunes and let it all simmer for another 20-30 mins, still without a lid, but don’t let it bubble up. If it does anyway, it probably means the syrup has turned too sticky (and it will thicken even further when cooled down). But don’t fret – you can always dilute it with a bit of water. Then take it off the heat and add the juice of at least one lime and add a bit more if the sweetness is still a bit too much. I prefer doing it this way rather than just cutting down on the sugar as the lime adds a nice spice to it. Then leave the prunes for a couple of minutes while you scald a large jar. Finally pour the prunes into the jar and leave to set in the fridge. I like to serve them chilled with peeled, toasted and chopped almonds and a dollop of 3 parts whipped cream to 1 part greek yoghurt with a bit of vanilla sugar. It’s just the right combination of crunchy nuts, slightly sour and fluffy cream and intense prunes.

I’d love to give the chocolate treatment to the prunes at some point too. Let me know if you do and what becomes of it.

NOTE: With this recipe, the prunes stay slightly chewy (the way they are soft and chewy when fresh from the bag), but if you like them softer you could go in the Australian guy’s direction and opt for 12 hours of very slow cooking… I still think his 12 hours are meant for ginormous portions, so maybe try with two hours and see how you go from there.

Hello honeyz! It’s Sunday night at the lazy mansion and I want to tell you about last week’s treat for the knitting club (yes, I am 80 years old and need to start wearing a diaper). I had two friends over for a knitting session and made some toffee from a Swedish recipe book called “Julgodis” (~Christmas candy, a book by Johanna Westman about whom I know absolutely nothing, but seeing as you have a computer too you can do me the honour of googling her yourself, lazykins). It contains a lot of very accessible recipes for hard caramel, soft toffee and all sorts of chocolates. Very tempting stuff. Here’s a combination of two recipes of hers, or rather one roughly translated lemon toffee recipe with a bit of ginger. It’s dead easy. Hell, I think you can have it done by the time a new X-Factor contestant is voted off the island. And then you get to sit there and gloat while enjoying the lemony-gingery butterness of the softest toffee you’ve ever had.

Swedish Ginger & Lemon Toffee (25-30 toffee bits)

• 50 grams butter
• 1 decilitre cream
• 1,5 decilitre sugar
• 1/2 decilitre light syrup (as opposed to dark)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
• Grated zest of 1 organic lemon
• 1 tbsp grated ginger

Melt the butter in a large saucepan with a thick bottom, mix in the cream, sugar, syrup and vanilla sugar. Boil the mixture without a lid until it has reached 122-125 degrees Celcius or time it for 15-20 mins and you should be alright.  To make sure that the mixture is done, drop a teaspoon of it in a glass of cold water and if you can shape it firmly between your fingers, it’s ready. If not, boil it for another 5 mins. Now add the lemon zest and the ginger, stir it well and pour it into a greased and lined tray or square cake mould. Then leave it in the fridge until it has set (took mine about 15 mins). Remove from the tray and cut  the toffee sheet into individual bits (I recommend using a pair of scissors) and wrap them in baking paper. They can keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 5-7 days.

There’s just nothing like sharing a great roast with the whole family. But let’s be honest, the roast alone won’t do. Without the right condiments, eating meat can end up being a very bland experience: Brown, grey and red-ish grey. So try this out as a little splash of colour on the plate. And when these babies are done, you will have replaced the pungent onionyness with a sweet pink flavour and colour. They go perfectly with lamb, poultry, game, roasts in general and can easily sex up a sandwich of left-overs. Have you tried piling up the cutlets from yesterday’s roast on an Italian bread roll along with some chilimayo, tomatoes, pickled red onions, fresh cilantro etc? Well now’s your chance.

Sweet Pickled Red Onions

• 3 decilitres of apple vinegar/white balsamic vinegar + a splash of raspberry vinegar (optional)
• 1 decilitre of water
• 3 decilitres of white sugar
• 4-5 thinly sliced onions (~ 200 grams when done)

Put the vinegar, water and sugar in a saucepan and boil them together. Let the mixture reduce until it has a cordial like consistency. While it is boiling, start preparing the onions. Peel them and cut them in halves, remove the core and slice them into thin slivers.  When the vinegar syrup is done, add the onions and stir, leaving them to boil for 5-7 mins. or until they have become soft and slightly transparent. Pour the onions and the syrup into a disinfected glass (one easy way of doing that is pouring boiling water over and into it). They can keep for quite a while in the fridge and when the onions have been eaten, you can reuse the syrup for the next round. Just reheat and put the new onions in.