Sentimental journey

David Moyle is a chef. He is a food editor of The Saturday Paper.

In the northern rivers district of New South Wales at this time of year, ash regularly falls from the sky. It’s the result of burning sugarcane – a crop that is fairly prolific in this area but perhaps not as much as it used to be. Burning sugarcane triggers a definitive Australian nostalgia, it seems. And with the ongoing pandemic and rolling lockdowns, nostalgia seems to be reflected in our current eating habits.

My biggest food nostalgia is golden syrup dumplings. All sides of the family served them as dessert in the cooler months. So when I first moved to the northern rivers of NSW 12 years ago, I developed a version of those dumplings using local ingredients, while still trying to do justice to their colonial origins.

Golden syrup is a derivative of sugar drawn from sugarcane, as well as sugar beet et cetera. This relatively unrefined sugar would go through a process similar to making treacle in order to stabilise it to a texture similar to that of honey. I basically bought the fresh juice that was extracted weekly at the local market from sugarcane and turned it into a sauce with the fresh ginger that was also readily available. And in an attempt to provide some nutritional value to the finished dish, I would top it with grated macadamia.

Another element I manipulate is the flour: I use mostly wholemeal. This does produce a more dense dumpling, but the flavour also becomes more rich.

Given the prevalence of tropical fruits up in these parts, it is a little drab to produce a dessert using mostly flour and sugar. Maybe it is just the fond memories of these dumplings that make this dish feel a bit like a warming hug in these strange times.