Home sweet home

Photographer Bindy Welsh launched a cookbook featuring recipes from Canberra-region chefs and cafes last week, inspired by the centenary celebrations.

Here, she shares two recipes suitable for Mother's Day: salted caramels from top Canberra chocolate maker Lindsay and Edmunds and rice-pudding ice-cream from Canberra ice-cream supremo John Marshall.

Welsh's book is part recipe book, part stroll past some of the city's cafes, and part food history, with an essay contributed by the Canberra and District Historical Society.

The society's Helen Digan says as early as 1924, parts of the city were being set aside for dairy farms, orchards, vegetables and poultry farming. In 1917, Reuben Hill was made manager of the vegetable farm at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and in 1922 he took over the farm in a commercial arrangement, making him the first commercial grower in the ACT, other than a Chinese market garden at Oaks Estate. In 1925, Hill opened the city's first fruit shop in Kennedy Street, now Kingston. His business remained in the family through successive generations until 1987. Pialligo vegetable blocks also began in the 1920s.

Digan includes a recipe for ''fleed cakes'', made from ''fleed'', the layer of fat around the kidneys of a pig. A pound of fleed is mixed with two pounds of flour, water and salt and the dough is kneaded roughly until the fat and flour are mixed, with a result like puff pastry.

The book also includes a recipe for all bran loaf, from Heather Henderson, daughter of former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies. Henderson launched the book for Welsh last week.

> The Canberra Regional Cookbook is self-published by Welsh (Indigo Images, $45), with featured cafes and producers paying for inclusion.

Lindsay and Edmunds salted caramels

For this recipe you will need a sugar thermometer.

85g organic thickened cream

1organic vanilla bean scraped

12ml water

62g organic raw sugar

50g organic rice malt syrup

10g organic unsalted butter

10g organic honey

Murray River salt flakes, or sea salt flakes

200g dark, milk or white organic Belcolade couverture (for dipping)

Bring the cream and vanilla bean to a boil and keep hot. Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan, heat to dissolve the sugar, then add the warmed rice malt syrup and cook to 145C. Stop the sugar cooking by adding the butter, honeyand about half a teaspoon of salt flakes, stirring with a whisk.

Continuing to stir, gradually add the strained cream, so that the temperature stays above110C.

Reheat the mix to 121C then pour into a silicone mould of your choice. Allow to cool overnight then hand dip into tempered/pre-crystallised organic chocolate (see below) of your choice.

Place the dipped caramels on to a prepared baking sheet on a firm tray, sprinkle with sea salt flakes, an allow to set.

To temper the chocolate, place it in a double boiler of a saucepan and heatproof bowl over gently simmering water. Heat the chocolate to 45C then pour three-quarters of the chocolate on to a cool surface and cool with plenty of movement, using a crank-handled palette knife and a scraper, to 26C. Add the cooled chocolate back to the remaining warm chocolate and stir continuously until the chocolate reaches 29C. Use immediately. The tempering time will vary according to the environment.

John Marshall’s rice-pudding gelato

Allow at least four hours chilling time.

575g rice milk

60g arborio rice

280g sugar

160g cream

Heat the milk to 80C.

Add the rice, cover and simmer for about 30minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the sugar and cream, stir to dissolve the sugar, then chill for at least four hours. Add the chilled mixture to your ice-cream machine, and churn according tothe manufacturer’s instructions.

Tip: Infuse the rice pudding mixture with spices or, for a dairy-free variation, substitute the cream for 40 grams of rice bran oil, and an extra 100 grams of ricemilk.