Apple tarte tatin Photo: Jennifer Soo
The modern Mother's Day was created by American Anna Jarvis as a memorial to her own late mother who died in 1905. It shouldn't be confused with the British Mother's Day or Mothering Sunday, which started in the 16th century, or with early pagan and Christian traditions honouring mothers.
Mother's day is celebrated on various dates, reflecting different origins in each country but it is thought our Mother's Day may have begun with the Greeks, who had a festival celebrating Cybele, a great mother of the gods. This spread to Rome, where another holiday, Matronalia, was dedicated to Juno, queen of the gods. On this day all mothers were given gifts.
A beautiful meal is always a lovely gift, either enjoyed at a restaurant or at home. The following recipes are ones the whole family can help cook, except mum, of course. Jeremy Strode
Apple tarte tatin
Traditionally, the apples are cooked in the pan before being topped with pastry and baked. This is a simpler method that tastes just as good.
Ingredients
180g brown sugar
50ml water
5 green apples, peeled
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 sheet butter puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 180C. Place sugar and water in a saucepan and stir over a low heat to dissolve. Bring to the boilfor five minutes. Pour into the bottom of a 21-centimetre pie dish.
- Cut apples into quarters and remove cores. Toss apples in cinnamon. Press apples into pie dish leaving no spaces. Cut some of the apple quarters in half to pack tightly into tin.
- Cut puff pastry into a 23-centimetre circle. Place over apples and tuck in edges (see tip). Brush with egg wash and bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and puffed up.
- Remove from oven and stand 1minute. Place a plate on top of pie and turn over in one quick movement. Remove pie dish and serve with vanilla ice-cream.
Serves 6
Pot-roasted blue eye
This recipe comes from Heston Blumenthal's book Family Food, which I wholeheartedly recommend.
Ingredients
75g butter
2 lge brown onions
2 garlic cloves, sliced
3 bay leaves
Salt
Pepper
4 x 180g fillets blue eye or groper, pin-boned, skin on
1/2 cup white wine
1 tbsp thyme leaves
Method
- Preheat oven to 200C. Melt butter in a heavy-based pot with a lid. Add onions, garlic and bay leaves, season and cook until soft, about 15 minutes.
- Place fish, skin side up, on top of onions. Cover with lid and bake for 12-15 minutes or until fish is just cooked through.
- Remove pot from oven, take out fish and add wine and half the thyme to the onions. Place on a high heat and reduce wine by 1/2.
- Return fish to the pot, sprinkle with remaining thyme and serve from the pot. Green beans and mash potato would be good side dishes.
Serves 4
Warm mushroom salad
While they may not have the depth of flavour of their European cousins, local wild mushrooms are still worth tracking down.
Ingredients
4 pine mushrooms, stalks
and undersides removed
and wiped
4 slippery jacks, stalks removed and wiped
50ml olive oil
Salt
Pepper
4 handfuls rocket, trimmed
and washed
1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, washed
30ml balsamic vinegar
80ml extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
50g shaved parmesan
Method
- Cut each mushroom into eight wedges.
- Heat a fry pan with the olive oil and fry mushrooms until just cooked. Season and drain in a colander.
- Toss rocket, parsley, vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil in a large bowl with the mushrooms.
- Place in bowls and top with pine nuts and parmesan before serving.
Serves 4
Perfect crust as easy as pie
It's simple to get a professional edge to a pie by using a spoon. Lay the pastry over the apples and use a spoon to bring the apples away from the sides, while simultaneously tucking the pastry into the pie dish. Using a spoon gives a more even result than warm hands, which will stretch the pastry.
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