Aussie food and 80’s nostalgia

Hi gang,

I’m in Newcastle this week for a friend’s wedding. While searching for a book in my old cupboard I came across this gem from Kraft foods, the Every Aussie Kid’s Cookbook published in 1987. As adverts masquerading as cookbooks go it’s fairly fun! I don’t remember if we ever made anything from it (I have vague memories of attempting Kookie-burras) but it’s a somewhat clever little kids’ cook book that makes good use of the shape of various ingredients to make amusing (if not particularly nutritious) food.

I feel like these types of food creation were a particularly 80’s phenomenon. Probably the best known incarnation of this love of food structure is the famous Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book.

As a kid I use to leaf through this and dream of the wonders within. You can get a typewriter cake! A swimming pool! A train!!!! This kind of creativity with ingredients is a bit naff now but it kind of fit with the time. Massive amounts of sugar, frosting and decoration using chocolate and lollies: what a golden age.

I find this book so nostalgic for a number of reasons. Primarily it’s the fun 1980’s visuals, a kind of slapstick silliness that marked my childhood. Part of it is also a nostalgia for a time when processed cheese on a slice of bread was considered a legitimate snack, where as nowadays we (rightly) see it as a nutritional vacuum and culinary abomination. Just because we know better doesn’t mean I don’t miss the blissful ignorance.

OK, legitimately pretty cool (the recipe, not the dubious illustration).

Noice

 

But looking at the book provokes plenty of modern day concerns: the heavy use of processed foods, the questionable portrayal of native people in the book and the fact that “every Aussie kid” is a white kid. No Asians, Africans, not even any swarthy Europeans. Revisiting this book is a difficult mix of acknowledging my childhood, while acknowledging how blinkered our idea of ‘Australian’ was back then (and still is).

I’m still going to make the Ned Kelly though.

Sausage and melted cheese. Priceless

 

Wattleseed and macadamia caramel slice

I think I’ve mentioned here before how nostalgia can be a funny old thing when it comes to food. Foods that should be objectively discordant (i.e. peanut butter fairy bread) is deemed amazing due to the nostalgic aura surrounding it. Yes, it is better than plain old fairy bread and if you say otherwise I WILL FIGHT YOU! 😉

It’s with this in mind that I present this recipe. It has been adapted from an old pecan caramel slice recipe my mother made from time to time. I used to love it, not least because a major ingredient is condensed milk and that means you get to scoop the dregs out with your finger. I once cut myself quite badly doing this, the sight of the blood swirled in the sweet milky thickness is one I’ll likely never forget. But aside from that one catastrophic time, I’m all in for this slice. It’s interesting because it’s not quite a set caramel, such as you may put in a caramel slice. It’s not runny either, it exists in a gooey middle ground, kind of a peanut butter, stuck to your teeth vibe. I could not get enough of it!

I’ve come to think of wattleseed in the same way you might think of sesame or poppy seeds but with a more roasty complexion. Hence I’ve been using them in many desserts combined with either caramel or chocolate to heighten the nutty bitterness and balance out the sweetness of such sweets. And the Anzac biscuits are both on theme and a delicious biscuit crumb base.

 

Ingredients

Base

250g Anzac biscuits, crushed

100g butter, melted

50g self raising flour

 

Filling

400g tin condensed milk

30g butter

2tbsp golden syrup

1tbsp wattleseed

 

Topping

2/3 cup chopped macadamias

Method

1. Combine butter and crushed biscuits.
2. Stir in sifted flour.
3. Press mixture into a lamington tin.
4. Bake in moderate oven (180 – 190C) for 12 mins or until firm.
5. Allow to cool.
6. Stir all filling ingredients except wattleseed over low heat until melted and combined.
7. Stir in wattleseed and spread over pastry.
8. Sprinkle over chopped macadamias.
9. Bake moderate oven for 10mins or until golden brown.