Kitchen Made

Thank you!

2010-08-01T10:26:00.001+10:00

I'd just about convinced myself that my last post should be my last post ever. I wasn't quite ready to kill the blog, but I was thinking about it. This morning, listening to the rain pelting down and the dog snoring and feeling warm and comfortable, I realised how good I'm feeling again and what a fantastic day it was to do things at home. It's time to start creating and photographing again! I just thought I should say hello first to anyone who might still be interested!

I suppose some people might ask "where have you been?" Well, unfortunately I had to have more surgery. Major surgery. In the lead-up, I was feeling the effects of some pretty toxic medication and I was extremely anxious about how things might go. Afterwards, I couldn't pick up a frying pan or large knife to save myself. Thankfully, the surgery went well and I'm on the road to a full recovery. I'm moving a little better each day and have even started going for walks with Tim and Bug and cooking again, although our freezer is so full of food that I don't really need to cook for at least another month.

On that note, and at the risk of causing spontaneous gagging from anyone who might still be reading, the the love and support from our family and friends has been uplifting and so greatly appreciated and I feel extremelt fortunate. A few of the wonderful kindnesses shown to me which made all the difference, include my mother and godmother travelling to Sydney, (again), so that they could be there to support me and Tim. They brought me chocolate and bandaids with a picture of Jesus on them to cheer me up. My brother and sisters made the trip up for a single day and spent hours doing their best to make me laugh. I did and had to beg them to stop because I was in danger of rupturing something. Seriously. Thank you, you clowns! Our uncle Dave took care of Ladybug for a week. She supervised his woodwork, he fed her steak and took her for walks. It was a fair exchange. Friends and colleagues from all over the world called Tim daily to check up on things and offer support. And when I got back to Gippsland, old neighbours visited with tasty treats and old friends travelled up from Melbourne to keep me company and fill our freezer with a couple of weeks worth of dinners.

Thank you everyone! I hope you know how much easier you made what's been a very difficult time.

And especially thank you Tim who has been loving, kind, patient and supportive in every way possible during this whole crazy ride. There aren't enough words to describe the way I feel about this man and the way he has helped me get through this. You get it.

Now, stay tuned...

Choc-orange gluten free biscuits

2010-05-28T16:28:00.003+10:00

I've eaten a lot of gluten free biscuits in my time and to understate it, most are disappointing. I'm not sure at what point it became acceptable to ditch gluten and flavour from recipes, but somewhere along the line, it apparently did.

Anyway, after a week of privation with ration book cooking, it was definitely time for something decadent. Something that would melt in the mouth and make me feel good and just a bit naughty. Something that photographed well and didn't look just a little like the dog's dinner. It had to involve chocolate and I particularly had a hankering for a good biscuit. Was I hoping for too much?

Let me just say first that I've never been that into biscuits, with a few exceptions. I used to love Oreos, Chocolate Wheatens and those thin, plain coffee biscuits that were so good for dunking. Otherwise, I can take or leave the average biscuit, or even the fancy ones for that matter. For some reason, I suddenly had to have a biscuit I could ravish. Not the bought type either, but the home cooked, rich, delicious kind. And they had to be gluten free.

To add to my list of exacting demands, I decided that nothing less than a gluten free biscuit that didn't taste like a gluten free biscuit would do. I didn't want to take that first bite, filled with anticipation, and find that I'd replicated the gritty, dry and overly sweet taste that so many store bought gluten free biscuits seem to have. Not after a week on ration food!

What I came up with is my new, all-time favourite gluten free chocolate biscuit. They are full of cocoa, moist but not soggy, sweet but not sickly (unless you try eating more than two in a go and then you may need an ambulance) and most importantly, they do not taste gluten free. At least I don't think so. To put it into perspective, Tim, who I agree will eat just about anything I cook, is addicted and has asked me to hide them. Hide properly too - not put them in one of my usual hiding places. The problem is that I'll still know where they are and I have zero self control.

But down to business. For all my hype, these don't take much to make. I found the dough was a bit sticky so it's preferable that you roll it on or between some non-stick parchment or a baking mat. I also used flour to dust the board, top of the dough and the rolling pin, but try not to use too much. You don't want to fundamentally change the dough by adding too much more flour. I also found it easier to halve the dough before rolling, but you might be more skilled than me.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups gluten free plain flour
3/4 cup good quality cocoa
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
fine zest of 1 orange
1 large egg
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp pure vanilla essence
pinch of salt

For the filling:
150g dark chocolate (plus extra)
3/4 cup sour cream
finely grated zest of one orange

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until it becomes pale and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, milk, zest and salt. Mix together well. Sift the flour and cocoa into the mix and beat slowly until it just combines, and then beat faster until all the ingredients have bound together. Turn out on to a floured board or parchment paper and knead gently with lightly floured hands until it just forms a firm ball.

Halve the dough and roll each piece to about 3-4 mm thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut out shapes. You'll get around three dozen individual biscuits. Place them on a tray lined with baking paper, leaving just a little space between each. They don't spread very much at all. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Melt 150g dark chocolate in a bowl. Remove from the heat and stir in sour cream and zest. Stir until you get a shiny, smooth mixture and then set it aside to cool a little. As it cools it should start to stiffen up. [If it still looks too runny when it cools down, add some more melted chocolate and stir well.]

Top half the biscuits with about a tablespoon of filling in the centre, and place the other biscuit on top, pressing down slightly. Store in an airtight container and hide if necessary!

Day 7: Crunchies & Rhubarb Bread Pie

2010-05-23T20:16:00.004+10:00

We've made it through the week and I sincerely thank God that this caper is finally over. I hope that doesn't make me sound too spoiled, but I really am glad we can go back to regular eating. I love cooking from scratch and even cooking with very basic ingredients, including carrot. I could cook again with almost all of the ingredients I've used in the last week, but I'd use them a little differently. The lard no longer has a place in my fridge.

Tonight's dinner consisted of a plain, but tasty vegetable soup. It was my own creation, but very much in the ration book spirit. My approach was to use any vegetables I bought for this week but didn't use. Into a pot went diced onion, parsnip, swede, potato, carrot (!!!), beans, tomato, celery, peas and some herbs. I can no longer stand the taste of vegetable stock, so I stuck with salt and pepper for seasoning, and a little lemon juice and zest at the end. It worked really well and resulted in a warm, wholesome and satisfying dinner. I diverged slightly from ration book cooking and made some garlic bread (with margarine) to fill it out. Yum.

The two final authentic ration book recipes I have from the past week are for crunchies and rhubarb bread pudding. I made the crunchies at the beginning of the week. I tried one and they're very much like the old fashioned oatmeal biscuits I used to love. Tim certainly had no problem with them and polished off the lot. I will be making them again.

On the other hand, the rhubarb bread pudding wasn't a favourite. It's a version of a bread and butter pudding, except you don't use any butter. Also, you don't sweeten the rhubarb and that does make a difference as rhubarb can be quite tart. Because I used regular bread, I couldn't eat this one either (poor me) but Tim has been trying his best to work his way through it over the last couple of days. Not even the offer of hot, fresh custard has made it go down any easier so it sits in my fridge, unloved and uneaten.

Crunchies
100g margarine, lard or clarified dripping (I used margarine)
50g sugar
50g syrup (I used golden syrup)
100g medium oatmeal
1tsp baking powder
vanilla flavouring

Cream together the fat, sugar and syrup. Add flour, oatmeal, baking powder ad a few drops of vanilla. Knead until the mixture binds. (I then wrapped the dough in plastic and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours). Roll out about 5mm thick, cut into rounds or fingers. Bake in a moderate oven until golden brown for about 20 minutes. These biscuits keep well stored in air-tight tins.

Rhubarb bread pudding
225g stale bread
jam for spreading
6 sticks of rhubarb
150ml water
2tsp custard powder
275ml milk and water

Cut the bread into neat thick slices. Spread each one with jam. Cut the sticks of rhubarb into 25mm pieces and stew these in a pan with a little water until almost tender. Strain the fruit, retaining the liquid, and lay (half) the pieces in the bottom of a pie dish. Cover the fruit with a layer of bread and jam slices, add another layer of fruit, then another layer of bread. Pour the rhubarb liquid (which should still be hot) over the fruit and bread and leave to soak for 1/2 hour. Mix the custard powder smoothly with a little milk and make it up to 275ml with hot milk and water. Pour the uncooked custard into the pie dish and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Recipes from: Ration Book Cooking; Gill Corbishly; 2004

Day 6: The Oslo Meal

2010-05-22T17:24:00.001+10:00

Last night's dinner wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. After a bit of a disaster where I couldn't get the car started and therefore couldn't pick Tim up from work, going out anywhere for dinner was off the menu. Instead, I veered slightly off the ration course and had a glass of wine while I waited for both Tim and the RACV man to arrive. They did, almost simultaneously.

With the car situation sorted very quickly, we made a decision to stay in and stick to the program. The wine helped. I couldn't bring myself to eat the battered sardines, but I tried the carrots and rice and they were edible. Tim thought so too, although he says he will be glad when the seven days are over.

Without doubt, our favourite meal this week has been the Oslo meal and although it's meant to be a lunch, it is something I will gladly have for dinner, even on so cold a night. I don't know where the name came from, but the Oslo meal was apparently tried out on children during WWII as a way of providing a nutritious lunch. You can see why it worked so well. All the important bases covered with a simple salad, bread, cheese and milk. I suppose the idea might have been to make sure kids had one decent meal during the day, given the whole ration situation.

Making an Oslo meal is the easiest thing I've done all week and has been the easiest eating too. It consists of lettuce and other salad items, including tomato, cucumber, carrot, etc. Probably any salad vegetable you could find would have done. After day two I avoided adding carrot, for what I hope are obvious reasons. Also included is a small piece of cheese (about 25g) which could be grated over the meal. Next, two slices of wholemeal bread with margarine, and a glass of milk.

Verdict: this is such a fresh, easy and healthy lunch that became the highlight of the day for both of us. Far from being an out of date idea, it's the sort of thing I've taken to work many times in a lunch box. I don't usually drink milk by the glass, but I can see how it helps fill you up in a healthy sort of way. For Tim's lunch, I used cheese slices so that he could have it on bread because he won't eat chunks or grated cheese. So in other words, he had a cheese sandwich, salad and milk.

Tim says: simple and filling. In fact, it's deceptively fulfilling. I loved it best of anything I've had this week. I wouldn't mind if Julia keeps making me Oslo meal lunches.

Day 5: Sardine fritters, rice bake and more carrots!

2010-05-21T17:27:00.005+10:00

Tonight's assault on the palate involved sardines, egg substitute and carrots. Unlike yesterday, I got super-organised and put it all together early so I could photograph in natural light. I was hoping that this would make things look a little more appetising. I was disappointed. Nothing could make this lot look any better.

If you hadn't guessed already, I'm not feeling quite so enthusiastic about ration food on day 5. I tried to make it a little more like a regular dinner tonight by making a few different things. I even made a dessert - rhubarb bread pudding. Notice the absence of 'and butter'. Thank God I can't eat bread. (Sorry Tim).

I thought sardine fritters could be good. First let me say that I have never liked sardines. I hate the look of them - slimy and greasy looking. I hate the smell of them, especially on someone's breath. It doesn't help that I come from a family of sardine eaters. My brother Sam sings the virtue of a good sardine and advised me to make sure I bought good quality. I did and I was willing to give it a try.

This is no Mediterranean delicacy where fresh fillets are lightly tossed in seasoned flour and gently fried in olive oil. This version involves taking chunks of sardine from a tin and dunking them in a stodgy batter before frying.

Next we have curried carrots. They're pretty much like curried sausages without the sausage. For my money, this was the best of the lot as it's fairly tasty and I didn't boil the carrots to death beforehand so they retained some texture. Not sure that's how they were done in Britain during the 1940's but I'll never know.

Last of all, I made egg and rice loaf. This was looking alright, in spite of the egg substitute. It smelled great but didn't work that well. It should have bound in the oven so that it could be turned out of the tin in a loaf. This didn't happen so I had to spoon it out in a pile. Also, it was bland.

Verdict: I have offered Tim the option of going out for dinner. I just don't think I can do it to the poor man, five nights in a row.

Day 4: Waste not, want not...

2010-05-20T18:58:00.000+10:00

It's day four of the ration book cooking challenge and my insides are a little bit sick and tired of carrot and potato based meals. On their own, each dinner so far has not been too bad. But eating like this every single day is starting to get monotonous.

I had grand plans for tonight's dinner that involved sardines and rhubarb - not in the same dish! Two things intervened with my well-laid plans. First, I had to go into Melbourne at short notice. This took most of the day and I wound up with a cracking great headache as a result. I really didn't feel like tackling canned seafood. Second, and possibly more unfortunate, there was a lot of leftover Lord Woolton pie, carrot and mashed potatoes looking back at me every time I opened the fridge.

In true wartime spirit, I decided it was time to get creative with the leftovers. I certainly couldn't make Tim eat them as-was, although I noted that the potato scones were almost all gone. It took about five minutes to throw together a more substantial and tastier pie.

First, I greased and lined a pie dish with some pastry. (Yes, I did use a sheet of frozen stuff - remember the headache.) Next, I made a filling by combining the rest of the original pie, leftover grated, cooked and seasoned carrot and some fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs and chopped parsley. I placed this in the pastry, and topped it off with mashed potato and some salt and pepper. I baked it until it started to brown.

The result was a pretty good pie. It was warm and hearty, it felt closer to a normal meal than previous nights, and it means that nothing has been wasted. I would have grated a little cheese on top, or perhaps even under the potato like I do with cottage pie, but I ran out of cheddar.

Verdict: Waste not, want not! This is a classic example of how bits and pieces can be pulled together to make an enjoyable meal. The carrot and fresh breadcrumbs gave the original pie more body and the parsley freshened it up. With the potato on top, this was like a sort of vegetarian cottage pie and I enjoyedit. I'd definitely make something like this again.

Tim says: Next to fried Spam, this is my favourite dinner so far. It was tasty and filling without being heavy. Much better than potato scones.

Day 3: Carrot roll and potato scones

2010-05-19T19:53:00.003+10:00

Day three and we're hanging in there with the ration book dinners. It's not that there isn't enough food; it's more that it's becoming clear that it's all fairly similar food. There's no doubt that it's low in fat, healthy and designed to fill people up by making the absolute most of what was available. It's not even particularly stodgy or lacking in taste. It's just that what was available was a lot of carrots and potatoes.

Tonight's dinner was slightly more involved than the last few days' efforts. This is because I had to make mashed potatoes in one pot, and grate and cook carrot in another pot. Then came the challenge of moulding the whole thing together to make it look sort of like a roll. Even more of a challenge was photographing it because like yesterday, it isn't the prettiest dish. Still we persevered and here's what you get when you mould mash potatoes around grated carrots and bake.

We also had potato scones. These aren't like the normal, light and fluffy scones you may know and love. You can probably tell that from the photo.

By mixing mashed potato and flour together, you get a fairly sticky dough that you roll and cut discs from, before frying them in dripping. First, they really don't cook very well in a frying pan because the dough is quite dense. Leave them in for too long and they burn. Leave them in too little and they're still raw and gluey inside. My solution was to brown them up in the pan and then throw them in the oven in a tin covered with tin foil. It helped because they cooked right through and were much lighter.

Verdict: Tonight's dinner only required slightly more effort than the last two nights but was still pretty quick and easy. I enjoyed the carrot roll and I could happily have this again as a side with with a roast and some tasty gravy, instead of the usual versions of mash. It's quite tasty and light in texture which was a big difference from the scones.

The scones I wouldn't do again. I found them heavy and not at all tasty and they were no substitute for regular scones or bread. (Or nothing!) I think the recipe book may have left out a few instructions, but I used common sense and they seemed to work out as intended.

Tim says: Not as yummy as last night and I really noticed the lack of meat. The same sort of vegetables are starting to get a bit tiring on day three. The scones aren't as good as normal scones. They're very stodgy. This food might be low in fat but it's energy dense food and can still be heavy.

Carrot roll ingredients:
2 large carrots
salt & pepper
1 tsp vegetable extract (I used half a large stock cube)
2 tsp fine oatmeal, toasted
cold cooked mashed potato

Grate the carrots coarsely and cook for ten minutes in a very little water. Season well and add the vegetable extract and toasted oatmeal. Boil for five minutes, stirring to thicken. Cool. At this stage the mixture will be quite stiff. Have some cold mashed potato ready, dust the pastry board with flour and roll out into an oblong shape. Place the carrot filling in the centre, then fold over and shape into a roll. (I just spooned out some potato and flattened it, arranged the carrot on top and folded the edges over, using extra potato to cover any gaps. I did this directly on a lined baking tray). Dot with a few shavings of fat and bake in a moderately hot oven until nicely browned. Serve well seasoned with brown gravy.

Potato scone ingredients:
225g mashed potato
225g flour (I used spelt)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
milk
1 tbsp dripping (I used lard)

Mix the potato, flour, salt and baking powder together with enough milk to make a stiff paste. Roll out about 5mm thick. (I just patted it into shape on a floured board, then used a cookie cutter to cut discs) Fry the first cake in a little dripping, the others will do without. (I fried in two batches.) Butter and serve hot, in a pile.

Recipes from: Ration Book Cookery, Gill Corbishley, 2004; pp34 & 38

Day 2: Mock goose and fried Spam

2010-05-18T19:38:00.000+10:00

Ration book cookery seems to have involved a lot of 'mock' stuff. Mock goose. Mock beef rissoles. Mock crab. Mock clotted cream. And so on. Not very appetising propects on the whole. Tonight's dinner involved mock goose, but I can categorically state that it neither looked, nor tasted, nor in any other way resembled any breed of goose known to mankind, even in the slightest. Whichever clever clogs down at the Ministry of Food invented and named this dish, must have thought the British public were either complete dolts or very easily fooled. I bet they weren't.

It was even difficult to photograph because it's not very attractive. I was dreading serving it up, imagining having to throw the whole lot out and make us toast instead. But here's the surprising bit. It actually wasn't bad.

In the most basic terms, mock goose is a bit of stuffing made of bread crumbs combined with onion that has been sauteed in stock, and pressed between two layers of boiled lentils. Then the whole thing is baked for a short time. I agree, it does not sound that good and if someone said they were making this for dinner and would I like to join them, I'd find some reason not to go.

Now I wouldn't want to have to eat this every day or even every week, but as a meal I can value its merits. It's filling, contains no fat at all, costs practically nothing to make, and with the right amount of seasoning, it's quite tasty.

Verdict: This is another quick and easy dish to make, although I had serious doubts about how well it would work. I'm glad that once again my doubts were unfounded. The whole thing binds together pretty well and can be sliced to serve. I added the tiniest bit of grated cheese on the top, mainly for photographic purposes, but you don't need it. I had one small piece and along with two slices of Spam and some iceberg lettuce, I felt full without feeling heavy. Satisfying is probably the right word.

Tim says: It was salty, yummy goodness. I would be happy with that every night. I even ate my lettuce, although I could do without that. I LOVED the fried Spam.

Ingredients
150g split red dried lentils
275ml water
15ml lemon juice
salt and pepper

For the stuffing:
1 large onion, chopped
50g wholemeal fresh breadcrumbs
15ml fresh sage, chopped

Cook the lentils in the water until all the water has been absorbed. Add lemon juice and season.

Then make the stuffing: saute the onion in a little water or vegetable stock for 10 minutes. (I used stock and cooked until the onion was soft and the stock evaporated. Probably closer to 15 minutes). Drain, then add the breadcrumbs. Mix in the chopped sage.

Put half the lentil mixture into a non-stick ovenproof dish, spread the stuffing on top, then top off with the remaining lentils. Put in a moderate oven until the top is crisp and golden.

NB. I lined a small tin with aluminium foil to avoid any sticking as there is no fat in this one. This took about 20 minutes to cook at 180ºC.

Ration Book Cookery, Gill Corbishley, 2004, p24

Day 1: Lord Woolton Pie

2010-05-17T21:17:00.004+10:00

Yesterday, as I tootled around the local supermarket, I was really looking forward to this week's ration cooking challenge. Groceries were basic - carrots, beetroot, parsnip, potatoes, etc. Nothing processed, except the Spam. From two supermarkets, I managed to get everything I needed, except an egg substitute. I'll look for a health food store tomorrow and if I can't find it, I'll pretend we live in the country and have chooks.

After porridge for breakfast and an Oslo meal for lunch, it was time to tackle the first dinner recipe for the week. Tonight we had Lord Woolton pie. This dish was named after the Minister of Food from 1940 and apparently it wasn't altogether well received at the time. I can see why that might be if you had to eat it regularly. It's sort of like a thick, winter vegetable soup, baked in a dish under a crust of wholemeal pastry or potato. While it might not sound all that appetising, I found it warming and wholesome and it felt healthy.

The recipe advises to serve with gravy. You need the gravy to give it some extra body and to make it feel more like a meal. For gravy, I used a chicken gravy that Tim (yes, Tim!!!) made for dinner last night. It was delicious and added just that little bit of extra flavour. I chose a crust of sliced potato because I didn't feel like making pastry from scratch and it was fine. Possibly I should have mashed the potato first, but the recipe didn't stipulate. Other versions say to top with some cheese, but I didn't do that either. Next time I will.

I also said I wasn't going to alter the recipes this week as far as possible. I didn't, except that I will be using stock cubes instead of 'vegetable extract.' Having done some research, I think this is about as close as I'll get. Oh, and one last thing - I halved the proportions below, because 1.8 kilograms is a lot of vegetables for two people for one dinner!

Verdict: This is such an easy recipe to make and it's actually very tasty but you do need to season it well. The gravy helps with this. It's also fairly filling, although you will need something else with it unless you eat a whole lot of it. We had leftover roast chicken. Would I make it again? Yes, in some form. I'd probably make the pastry or top it with mashed potatoes and cheese to make it a little more robust.

Tim says: It was yummy. Full of flavour, filling and good comfort food. I would eat this one more often. I was a little bit hungry afterwards, but I didn't have much to start with. I'll be happy if the food is this good all week.

Ingredients
450g each of diced potatoes, cauliflower, swedes and carrots
3-4 spring onions
1tsp vegetable extract
1tsp oatmeal
a little chopped parsley
225g cooked, sliced potatoes or wholemeal pastry for topping

Place the diced vegetables, spring onions, vegetable extract and oatmeal into a saucepan, add just enough water to cover, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool. Put the mixture into a pie dish and sprinkle with parsley. Cover with a crust of potatoes or pastry. Bake in a moderate oven until the topping is nicely brown and serve hot with gravy.

Recipe from: Ration Book Cookery by Gill Corbishley, 2004, p19.

The Ration Book Cooking Project

2010-05-16T15:01:00.001+10:00

When we were in England a few years ago, Tim and I wound up at the Imperial War Museum's Duxford air field on WWII day. We had planned to go because we both love aeroplanes, but it was a total accident we were there on that particular day. It was meant to be.

Not only were there many people there in full WWII attire, complete with gas mask boxes, hairstyles and uniforms, but we had the pleasure of seeing many wonderful examples of historical flying machinery, some still in working order. We wandered through the ill-fated Concord and saw a cool black spy plane. We rode on 1940s bicycles which was thrilling, so much so that when we got back, I spent months trying (in vain) to find a pair to buy. In one tent there was a lady who was an expert in ration book cooking. She'd made a few things that we tried, including a chocolate truffle made of potato, cocoa and sugar. Nothing more. It wasn't half bad either.

Since then, I have bought a few WWII cook books that I love pouring over. I have a couple of authentic volumes from the period, from both the UK and the US. It certainly seems as though there was a big difference between the food situation in each country. In fact, the second edition of 'Wartime Recipes' that was published by the Omaha World-Herald is funny for the lack of rationing. It contains recipes such as 'chocolate jelly roll', 'enriched french toast' (with real eggs!) and 'baked squash with sausage links.'

I also have a more recent and very helpful book called "Ration Book Cookery" by Gill Corbishley. It's a British book and has a nice range of easy recipes and a lot of interesting information. I've often meant to cook from it and over the next week, I'll get my chance.

I've had in mind a project for a while where I cook ration meals for one week. Tim asked me why. Basically because I'm interested to know how well these recipes work and what they taste like. It's pure curiosity, although I would also like to have some appreciation of what people were eating then.

The plan is that for the next seven days, I'll cook a ration meal each night. I'm not going to follow ration quantities in the sense of how much we're allowed to eat. It's simply an exercise in cooking and eating, although I won't take my usual liberties with the recipes and I will follow them as exactly as today's ingredients allow. Tim's agreed to get into the spirit and eat ration meals all week, including breakfast and lunch, so there will be a lot of porridge, Spam and Oslo meals happening. He's also agreed to provide feedback each day on the blog.

Now just so we're clear, this is not a weight loss exercise or a social commentary. It's just something that I thought would be fun and interesting to try. I read somewhere that during ration times in Britain, the British people as a whole ate better and were healthier than at any other time, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to enjoy the food either. Having said that, Tim's Godmother Al told me yesterday that she remembers rationing as a child and said it was horrible. I guess we're about to find out!

Mother's Day Cupcakes

2010-05-07T16:40:00.000+10:00

We're making the trek to Canberra this weekend for Mother's Day. (Also I need to see my beautician and hair dresser and one or two other extremely important people...)

This year we're taking the easy option of going out instead of cooking, and will be going out for yum cha on Sunday morning with our mothers, our Godmother and various siblings in tow. When invited, our Godmother quickly flagged champagne drinking as a staple of Mother's Day (even at 10.45am!), noting that she couldn't possibly drink green tea. My mother went one step further and suggested that the champagne drinking should start the day before. (Notice a theme here...)

So to sop up all the champagne, I have a few treats in mind. First, I'll be making the chocolate chestnut cake I tried earlier this week. It's so good that any excuse will do to make it again, including pre-Mother's Day festivities. Second, I thought a batch of old-school cupcakes might do the trick.

This is a recipe very like the one my mother taught me as a kid so it's apt that I make it this weekend. It's a basic vanilla cake recipe; it's quick, easy and works every time. It's not too sweet, as Tim pointed out, and it doesn't have that plastic sort of taste to it that you can get with over-engineered or shop bought cake. It turns out quite robust and makes a substantial snack, although it's not quite a muffin.

Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour, sifted twice
1/2 cup caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 180ºC

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each. Add the vanilla and yogurt and mix well. Add the flour and milk and mix on high speed for two minutes.

Spoon into patty pans. Bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden.

This makes 12 large cupcakes.

Happy Mother's Day Mum xxoo

Gluten free chocolate chestnut cake

2010-05-04T12:44:00.006+10:00

In the past, Tim's seemingly constant twittering used to drive me so nuts that on one occasion I physically removed his iPhone from him and threw it away. (He couldn't understand why I objected so vehemently to him tweeting people he didn't even know while we were out to dinner, in bed, or on our wedding day.) He doesn't have time for it as much these days which is excellent, and there have been far fewer phone related incidents in our home as a result.

I actually do have a twitter account. It's a fairly recent thing and I joined up initially to see what all the fuss was about. My personal experience is that it's something to do to take a break from other tasks or when I'm procrastinating from study. You can steal a moment on Twitter and read about the second-to-second happenings of people you don't know, or post your own. For example: 'Kitchenmade is bored and needs another coffee.' Thrilling stuff.

All of that aside, if you can get past the inanities, tantrums, spruiking of products and people who tweet every five seconds, there is some good stuff to be found via Twitter. It turns out that there are a lot of like-minded people out there who just love food and cooking and sharing their recipes and knowledge. For me, it's been a good way of keeping up with what's going on in the foodisphere.

The point of all of this is that a few days ago, I was on Twitter and I saw a post that caught my eye with two key words: 'chocolate' and 'chestnut'. Following the link, I found a recipe that I just couldn't go past for a gluten free chocolate and chestnut cake. I've been wanting to do something like this for ages and this looked simple and delicious. It got extra ticks because it's gluten free and because chestnut is the best nut you can eat due to it's zero fat content. In fact, as far as chocolate cakes go, this is about the healthiest I've ever seen without compromising on taste. The result is a smooth, moist texture, and just enough sweetness to make it rich without being sickly. I honestly cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a cake so much.

Now as always, I deviated slightly from the original recipe. First, I added rum. Second, I didn't have a spring-form square tin so I lined a small tray with baking paper and it worked just fine. However, I'm making this again for a dinner party on the weekend and it will be in regular round tin form. I also used a slightly different method which I've described, below. Finally, I glazed it with a dark chocolate-butter-coffee combo, but I wouldn't do that again because you just don't need it.

Ingredients
425g chestnut puree (I used a full 439g tin)
250g 70% cocoa chocolate (I couldn't get it so used 63% which was fine)
125g butter (I used unsalted)
6 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum
60g caster sugar
25g brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180ºC

In a food processor combine chestnut puree, butter, egg yolks and vanilla.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Add it to the chestnut mixture, making sure it's well combined. You might need to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. When done, place the mixture into a large bowl.

Whisk the egg whites until doubled in volume and fluffy. Add the caster sugar bit by bit and continue to whisk until you get a glossy, stiff mixture. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top and stir through gently. I just turned the electric mixer down low for this bit.

Add the meringue mixture to the chestnut mixture a little at a time and fold through gently. I used a hand whisk. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes.

When it's cool, remove from the tin and dust with cocoa, icing sugar or glaze if you really want to.

See the recipe in its original form at: http://www.frillsinthehills.com/2010/05/sunday-baking-projectgluten-free.html

[Oh, and if you're wondering why the photo quality is so different this time, it's because I only had the compact camera on hand]

Pear & ginger tart

2010-05-03T09:07:00.003+10:00

It's Monday morning and a beautiful one at that. No rushing off to the office to deal with unhappy people. No struggling into pantyhose and tottering around on heels. No stress because there are no car parks left at 7.30am. Yes, I'm still loving the country life.

This weekend past has been notable for a few things. First, we ate an excellent birthday dinner in Melbourne on Friday night for my good friend Jane. It was at a place called Gypsy's. Gypsy's takes you by surprise because it's on a suburban street in Beaumaris, wedged between two regular houses. The only thing that gives it away as a restaurant is the big sign splashed across the house. The menu isn't large and consists of five main dishes. I remember them all - slow cooked pork in cabbage, beef and pinot noir stew, roast pork, risotto and harpuki. All were served piping hot and in generous proportions. There are a few other things, including a vegetarian minestrone and a number of dessert options. Trust me, once you have a main, you don't need dessert. Oh, and the bathroom was gorgeous!

Yesterday we drove to Maffra for the markets. It's a pretty drive through Gippsland to get to Maffra and there are some stunning old homesteads to see along the way. I love that old Australian architecture, complete with long, oak-lined driveways that lead you to the main attraction. If it wasn't for the sealed roads and occasional reminder that we're in 2010, you could be driving through pre-WWII Australia. Unfortunately, the markets were not what we were expecting and one truly terrible coffee later, we left. Actually, it's the first time I've thrown a coffee out after one sip. I wanted to go get a refund, but Tim baulked at the idea and reminded me that we really should have known better. I won't explain why.

But the main thing about this weekend just gone is that Ladybug earned her keep by catching a mouse and dispatching of it so quickly and cleanly that we almost didn't realise what had happened. She'd been on guard since Friday night when we got home around midnight and one had run in from the laundry and under the fridge. Tim poked around with a broom handle for a while and it ran, over him (yuck), and took up residence behind the dish washer. The Bug has kept watch ever since and at about 2.30 this morning, she got her reward. It's a downside of living in the country - there are all sorts of creepy crawlies all over the place and it's not a question of keeping a clean house. They're everywhere!

Otherwise, I did a lot of baking with mixed results. One thing that did work well was the pear tart. I'm loving pears at the moment and they're my new snack of choice. Get them while they're just going ripe, but not too mushy, and they are beautifully sweet with a delicate texture and I find them very satisfying. Mmmmm...

Natural progression means a pear tart. This is pretty simple and can be simpler if you just use bought pastry. I made spelt pastry but won't bore you with the details.

Ingredients
Filling:
150g almond meal
150g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter, soft but not melted
2 large, free-range eggs
40g plain flour
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla

Pears:
3 pears, cored, peeled and halved
50g caster sugar
2 pieces of ginger, about 3-4cm long each
1 stick of cinnamon
1 large piece of lemon zest
1/2 tsp rose water (optional)

1-2 pieces of short crust pastry.

Grease a flan tin (about 20cm) and line it with the pastry. Dock and set aside. Preheat oven to 180ºC.

Place the pears in the pan with the sugar, ginger, cinnamon, zest and rose water. Just cover with water. Bring to a steady simmer and turn the heat down so it's only just simmering for 10 minutes. Remove, drain and cool.

For the filling, place the sugar and butter in a bowl and with an electric mixer, beat until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one and then slowly add the almond meal. Finally, mix in the flour, zest and vanilla. You should have a fluffy, sweet sort of mix.

Spoon the filling into the tin and even it out a bit. Place the pears in a circular arrangement on top of the filling and slightly press in. Bake until it's turning a golden brown. Serve hot or cold.

Peanut butter cookies

2010-04-28T14:40:00.000+10:00

Lately I've been baking tasty treats a couple of times a week. I have the time and I've always enjoyed baking. It's my down time and I love experimenting and creating. Tim's not complaining because he's living the dream with slices and cookies almost every day in his lunch box. In fact, I have a freezer full of goodies that should last a couple of weeks if I stopped baking today...unless Tim discovers my stash.

Recently I picked up the free Coles magazine. I've rifled through previous editions in the past for ideas, noting that the food looks accessible and family-friendly. I think that the benefit of a magazine put out by a supermarket is that it contains recipes for the average person that are generally straight forward, quick to make, good value and contain easily obtainable ingredients.

Anyway, in this year's Autumn edition, I found a recipe for peanut butter cookies. For a change I stuck to the recipe, word for word, except I forgot to chop the scorched peanuts. It didn't matter. They worked out well although I thought they were a little dry. This could be because I used light peanut butter, but if I make them again I'll probably use a little more butter or slightly less plain flour. In any case, Tim loved them, they're quick to throw together and could be a fun one for the kids to try.

Ingredients
200g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup self-raising flour
200g scorched peanuts, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 160ºC or 140ºC fan forced. Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Using electric beaters, beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until light and creamy. Beat in peanut butter. Sift flours over the butter mixture and use a non-serated knife to mix to a dough. (I used an electric mixer on low). Add the scorched peanuts and m ix through with a knife.

Roll heaped tablespoons of dough into balls and place onto prepared trays. Flatten to about 1.5cm. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly golden underneath. They will still be soft.Leave on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Anzac slice

2010-04-25T11:45:00.005+10:00

Over the past few days Tim and I have talked about whether to go to any of the local dawn services, memorials, parades or other events planned for today. We've both done all of that before and while both of us are fully aware of the significance of Anzac Day and respectful of those it serves to memorialise, we really wanted, and needed, a day at home.

This morning Tim and I awoke to the carry-ons of Ladybug. We leapt out of bed and went running to see what was wrong. Nothing was wrong, but the farmer had moved his cows into the paddock that runs alongside our driveway. The Bug was just letting us know. Then we remembered it was Anzac Day and we could still go to the local memorial service if we wanted to. We decided against it.

I personally find Anzac Day services moving and emotional and something that's worth going to at least once in your lifetime. I had an uncle go to Vietnam. My mother says he was never the same after that. Tim had two great uncles die in Japanese POW camps during WWII. His grandfather served in Borneo and was much affected, although people didn't tend to talk much about it then.

We're now living in a very small town with streets named for families that lived here for generations. I imagine that people still remember the names of men on the local cenotaph. I always find it sad that all over Australia, the smallest towns gave the largest percentages of their young men to wars fought almost a century ago.

To change tracks slightly, I think it's great that we have an every day reminder of something so important, albeit in the form of the Anzac cookie. These tasty morsals are something every Aussie kid has grown up with and thankfully people keep on baking and sharing them. This year, inspired by a recipe my friend Dimi shared with me, I made something slightly different - chocolate Anzac slice. It's every bit as easy as making cookies, and perfect for your lunch box.

Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup coconut
1 cup sugar
250g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
4 tbsp hot water
4 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp bicarb soda
melted chocolate - optional

Preheat oven to 160ºC. Line a flat baking tin or lamington pan with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, rolled oats, coconut, sugar an cocoa.

In a medium sized pan, melt the butter with the golden syrup. Add the vanilla. In a cup, mix the bicarb with the water and add to the completely melted butter mix. It will froth up. Add this to the dry ingredients and combine well.

Press the mixture into the tin and bake for 15-20 minutes. When cool drizzle melted chocolate across, cut into squares and keep in an airtight container. Oh, and enjoy!

Passion fruit pavlova roll

2010-04-19T18:49:00.009+10:00

My love affair with passion fruit continued over the weekend. I've now used all the passion fruit curd I made last week, but I still have plenty of little gems clinging to the vine and ripening daily. I suspect they won't last much longer but I will enjoy them while they're here.

On the weekend I decided to attempt a pavlova roll. I must confess that meringue isn't my best thing. Whether I follow a recipe or not, I find it a bit of a hit and miss affair. That being said, I've been dying to make pavlova for ages and since I had loads of passion fruit curd left, I thought I'd give it a go. I've seen pavlova rolls in books and magazines over the years and think they look really pretty. I also figured they'd be a little different to serving great big slabs of pavlova, especially since Tim is not a pav fan.

After doing some research, I decided I should keep things simple. Just egg white, sugar and a little vanilla. No messing about with cream of tartar, vinegar or corn flour. I wound up with a lovely thick, glossy meringue mix. I spread it on the paper hoping for the best and slid it into the oven. Then I waited and watched. I worried about how unevenly it rose in the oven, but once I took it out and it cooled, it evened out. I was quite pleased with how the whole thing came together, and enjoyed the sliver I tried when I cut the ends off so it would fit on the plate. Then I gave it away.

Why on earth would I do that, you say? Partly because there's no point going to the gym and then coming home and stuffing yourself on sugar and cream. But mainly because we have stumbled into the kind of neighbourhood one can only dream of. It's a place where people actually care about their neighbours (not in a weird, Desperate Housewives sort of way) and make an effort to get along. For example: whoever is out first brings in the next door neighbour's rubbish bins. If one guy is edging his lawn, he edges the lawns on either side of his house. People share home grown veg, kids ride bikes in the street with the knowledge that they're safe, and on the rare occasion that Ladybug wanders, I'm immediately allerted by calls of 'Ladybug's wandering down the street!' so that I can quickly retrieve her. Go the country life!

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1/2 cup caster sugar plus 2 tbsp extra
1 tsp vanilla essence
pulp from two large passion fruit
1 cup passion fruit curd

Preheat oven to 200ºC.

In a perfectly clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add the vanilla and then the sugar gradually, in about four goes, whisking constantly so it disolves completely. The mixture should look glossy and feel very thick when it's ready.

On a lamington pan lined with baking paper, spread the egg mixture out as evenly as you can. Cook for ten minutes, or until it's very lightly golden.

While it's cooking, tear off a piece of baking paper that's longer than the tray, place it on a flat surface where you have some room to move, and sprinkle with about two tablespoons of caster sugar.

Take the meringue out (don't worry if it's risen unevenly) and turn it upside down onto the prepared paper. Pull the paper off the back of it and let it cool for a few minutes.

Mix about 2/3 of the whipped cream with about 2/3 of the passion fruit pulp. It doesn't have to be completely combined, just sort of mixed in toghether. Spread the mix onto the meringue before it cools right down. [If you want to, you can just put 2/3 of the whipped cream and top with fruit of your choice, such as strawberry or mango].

Roll the meringue from one of the long sides. Take your time and try not to panic. The paper should fall away as you roll. Place it on a long plate and top with the leftover cream mix and drizzle with passion fruit pulp, or alternatively, decorate with more fruit. Refridgerate until you serve it.

NB: To test whether the sugar has dissolved properly, rub a little between your fingers. If it feels gritty, you need to keep whisking.

Isabel has arrived!!!

2010-04-17T21:13:00.004+10:00

Congratulations Fleur and David and welcome Isabel!!!

Babies only arrive in the wee small hours and Isabel was no exception. Mum spent the evening in hospital and finally had Issie at 5am this morning. Dad went home to sleep it off. Aunt Lizzie texted me at 5.40am, but I'm not complaining. The best sort of news is worth the early wake-up call. Now I just can't wait to meet the little one.

Cookies and knitting will be in the post in the next few days.

xo

Passionfruit in season

2010-04-15T14:00:00.005+10:00

I am lucky enough to have a passion fruit vine in my new back yard. At the moment the fruit is in season and I'm enjoying them with a passion (very bad pun intended). I never used to get in to these little gems of the fruit world, except for special recipes. Now that I have a vine, I'm out there checking every day for ripe fruit. I love the combination of sweet and sour, the colour of sunshine when you open them up, and the crunch of the seeds.

This week I've gotten totally addicted to passion fruit curd. It's a bit of a problem since I'm spending more time at the gymthan I have in years. I don't want all the crunches, lunges and squats to be in vain. But passion fruit curd is so divine, it's hard to keep away from it. It's also so simple and quick to make, and really versatile in its uses. For example, use it as a cake or tart filling, on English muffins or toast, or spooned lavishly over ice cream or meringue.

Today it took me literally under half an hour to make some small, short crust tart shells, filled them with passion fruit curd and topped them with meringue. I placed these under the grill for a few minutes until they started to brown then let them cool. They're perfect to eat alone as a treat or with a dollop of rich, thick cream.

But enough drooling! Here's my recipe for passion fruit curd. I've used 170g of passion fruit pulp because if you're not lucky enough to have a vine, that's the size of tin it comes in.

Ingredients
4 eggs
3 egg yolks
170g passion fruit pulp
3/4 cup caster sugar
150g cold butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
finely grated zest of 1 lemon

In a bowl over simmering water, vigorously whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until the mixture starts to froth and thicken. Don't stop mixing because you don't want to wind up with scrambled eggs. This could take 10 minutes or so but it's worth it. You'll know when it's ready because it becomes pale and frothy. Add the butter and keep whisking while it melts and combines.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the passion fruit pulp, lemon juice and zest. Let it cool down and then refrigerate.

I don't bottle mine as I use it within a few days usually, but this can be properly sealed and preserved if you want to.

Gippsland's working out (and so am I)

2010-04-12T08:36:00.004+10:00

It's Monday morning in Gippsland. It's cold, wet and windy and has been for most of the weekend. The sun pops out from time to time but it's only for show. I've dug out my sexy tartan dressing gown that drives Tim wild with desire (not) and I don't plan on changing until after at least my first coffee. Speaking of which, the jug is boiling and in a few minutes I'll go plunge some coffee and decide on toast or breakfast muffin. Toast would be sensible. Muffin would be delicious. I made some yesterday and topped them with a dollop of strong coffee icing. Mmmm...

The dog is refusing to even acknowledge me and is buried deep in her basket under a blanket. She's not stupid! She knows its cold and windy and once she's up, she'll be put outside to do whatever she needs to do. Since I'm now attempting to 'get in shape' over the next three months, I'm also tired and stiff this morning, thanks to yesterday's trip to the gym. I know, it gets better.

It's just Monday mornings because on the whole, I'm enjoying the country life style. We live in a tiny town of just a few hundred people. It's close to several bigger towns that have everything one needs, including a kitchen store and a knitting store, right across the road from each other. I have a lemon tree and a passionfruit vine and from our front door we look out across dairy pasture and up to the hills. The neighbours are nice and the Bug is settling in and I'm getting used to not being in the office. Truth be told, I'm loving not being in the office and I'm loving being a student again.

As Tim says, I'll never get this sort of opportunity again so I should make the most of it. He's right. I don't want this time to pass and to feel like I've achieved nothing at the end. On the weekend I decided I needed a plan set down in black and white, for all to see. Right after my second coffee, I'll get to work on it.

Anyway, following Tim's man cold, I got back into the groove of cooking. In the last week I've cooked so much and we've taken a whole lot of photos. I will start posting regularly again. But first, coffee. And toast. Or muffin.

NB. The photo is of sunrise from my front door one day last week.

Meal for a Man-Cold

2010-04-06T19:34:00.003+10:00

Tim has a man-cold. He's really, really, really, really sick. Really. He keeps telling me at regular intervals just how sick he really is. Really. He reckons I made him sick except I wasn't as sick as him because I'm not a man so I wouldn't understand how sick he feels.

He searched the internet for treatment for a man-cold. It turns out that it's my job to offer an unending supply of tea, sympathy and tasty treats until he gets better. He is exceptionally hungry. I pointed out that this means he can't be too sick, but I was informed, with conviction, that he gets super hungry when he is especially sick. So I cooked.

It turns out that Tim's man-cold is responsible for booting me back into the kitchen in any serious way. Yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and dusted off my KitchenAid after a considerable absence. It's not that I haven't wanted to cook or that I haven't been cooking. It's just that a I've had a whole lot going on. Moving to a new state, from city to country, adjustment to a new environment, not to mention new kitchen. And then there have been the treks back to Canberra, the study and the fact that it took weeks to get the internet and telephone up and running. It all takes time and effort. At 11pm on Saturday night, after a seven hour drive, I found myself toasting ham and cheese and throwing together tom yum soup out of a packet.

In essence, I'd resorted to just doing the necessary stuff -dinners, lunches, cookies for Tim to take to work to impress his colleagues with. That sort of thing. The man-cold single-handedly drove me to be creative again and to think about what anything I cooked would like in a photograph.

Needless to say, I did my best to fill every gastronomic need my terribly ill husband might have had in order to restore his health. I preserved lemons. (Obviously these didn't do him any good yesterday, but taking photos temporarily distracted him from how sick he is.) I baked a French-ish pear tart and some scorched peanut cookies. Then I turned my mind to dinner. I thought of all the things a man-cold might respond favourablt to and threw them all in: ginger, garlic, onion, chilli, citrus, chicken and lots of wine.

Now you might think it's odd to combine red wine with chicken, but this works. The red wine combined with the sweetness of the fruit, the cinamon and the citrus add body and depth to the chicken that you wouldn't get with white wine. It's sort of a mulled wine flavour with a chilli kick at the end. Perfect for a cool evening or a man-cold.

Verdict? I enjoyed it. It was warming, packed with flavour, healthy and helped clear the sinuses. Tim said it had a lovely texture but he couldn't actually taste a thing. Perhaps he is sick...

Ingredients
500g chicken thighs
50g butter
2tbsp olive oil
4 shallots, finely sliced
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
1/2 brown onion, finely sliced
5cm piece ginger, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely sliced
1 green chilli, finely sliced
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup saltanas
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup muscat (or other sweet wine or fresh orange juice)
2 cups red wine
1 cinamon stick
Salt to taste
Finely chopped continental parsley, slivered almonds and chilli to garnish.

Place the apricots and sultanas in a small bowl. Pour the muscat over, cover with cling film and set aside for at least 15 minutes.

Place the butter and oil together in a heavy sautee pan or saucepan. Brown the thighs on each side, but don't cook through. Remove and set aside.

Add the onion, shallots and garlic and brown slightly. Add the ginger, lemon zest and carrots and stir. Add the apricots, sultanas and cinamon stick. Place the chicken thighs on top of the other ingredients, pour over the red wine and cover.

Cook this very slowly for an hour or until the chicken is full of flavour and falling apart. You can stir occasionally but do so gently so you don't break the ingredients apart. If it's looking too dry, add some more red wine. When the chicken is cooked, pull it apart and stir it through. Add salt to taste.

Serve with rice or couscous. Top with slivered almonds, parsley and more fresh chilli.

NB. You can use chicken drum sticks if you can't get thigh fillets. Just pull the meat off the bone at the end.

Dim sims and removalists

2010-01-31T07:31:00.006+11:00

The move is just about complete. "What move?" I hear you ask. The move that is taking me away from my lovely new kitchen, that's what move!

I've decided that moving is a particular brand of hell that should be reserved for use as a form of cruel and unusual punishment, and little else. It really is painful. First of all there's the lead-up in which you have to sort everything out. This wasn't too bad and I got rid of all sorts of things we thought we needed but never really used. Then the pack up. This was interesting. I booked a removalist and all seemed to be going alright, except I seemed to have trouble confirming our address. As it turns out, they had decided they were going to move us to a town that we'd never heard of somewhere in NSW. I found out about this the day before the scheduled pack up. My confidence in them shattered, I promptly cancelled the deal. Later that day I got an email, asking very politely and with apparently genuine curiosity, why I had decided to cancel. Seriously.

A week later a group of people from a different company turned up to pack, on time, in good spirits and with the correct address. Of course they packed everything in their wake, which I suppose is the idea. But I really mean everything, including stuff I'd put to one side to throw out. Such items included Tim's dirty painting gear, the linen off the bed I was sleeping in, a bottle of out of date OJ and the cat. Well not really the cat, but if we'd had a cat and it had been sitting still at the time, it would have got packed! These guys were very efficient!

At the other end, I've managed to unpack most of the main stuff we need to live and that includes the kitchen. It's amazing what you find when you're unpacking and deciding where to put it in a kitchen that isn't yours. Tim says I'll have to make it mine. And so I will.

Not having all my usual cooking resources sorted yet, I went out foraging for easy meals. I wasn't disappointed. The dim sims pictured come from a deli I found in the Gippsland town of Traralgon. It's one of the best delis I've ever been in and for around $30 I managed to buy Tim and I lunch, dinner, dessert and a loaf of artisan bread. Not bad. These were pork and beef dim sims and they were huge, very filling and very delicious. I did nothing fancy to serve either - just steamed and served with soy sauce. I've attempted making dumpling type stuff myself in the past, but I need lessons because it doesn't come naturally to me.

Coming up this week, I have some exciting cooking ahead, including catering for a 60th birthday party. I'm going to do a test run of the cake today so crossed fingers. I've also been given some fantastic kids recipes that I'll be testing as well. I figured Tim's just a boy in a man's body so it all works out.

Better late...

2010-01-13T09:18:00.005+11:00

I think it's fair to say that 2009 was a full, rich year. I feel like I barely had time to take a breath and already it's mid-January 2010. To recap, aside from the cooking and photography, we spent the first three months of 2009 planning a wedding and getting married. Over the next few months, we had heaps of overseas visitors come to stay, there was a new job, birthdays, some major home improvements and then without warning, I found myself in hospital. Twice. The second time resulted in a week-long trip to Sydney for my mother and God-mother Ali, who, when they weren't being wonderful and supportive and bringing me proper coffee and drooling over my surgeon, wandered around Sydney shopping and marinating. So it wasn't time wasted.

By December I was ready for some fun and so was Tim, having done so much travel since October that the dog was starting to have abandonment issues (wait until I go back to work!). I felt it was time for a Christmas party, and I was right.

I couldn't stand for hours in the kitchen, so I kept things as simple as possible and made a lot of stuff in advance. My mother and Ali helped and if I do say so myself, we put on an excellent spread. I think particular triumphs for the evening were the stuffed mushrooms, Ali's mini sausage rolls, and the roast vegetable frittata cut into bite sized pieces and served with tomato mustard, fresh basil and fetta on top.

Unfortunately, I picked the hottest night in December and we don't have aircon. I remember feeling the temperature suddenly and steeply rise with the influx of people and not helped by the bottle-neck of revellers who insisted on collecting just inside the kitchen doorway. I just couldn't shift them. About half the crowd eventually spilled out into to the backyard which was excellent. Anyway, nobody seemed too worried, champagne continued to be drunk, food got eaten and we were lucky to get a refreshing breeze fairly early on in the piece. I was exhausted for about three days afterwards, but I needed it and thoroughly enjoyed it and would do it again. Next Christmas.

The purpose of the gingerbread house? I haven't made one in years, I wanted a Christmassy centrepiece for the party, and I could make this mostly sitting down which was absolutely essential in December. It took me a few days to do as I worked in fits and bursts. I had my brother Sam help me build trusses and assemble and eventually taste. There were gingerbread men standing around it but Tim apparently tripped and as he fell, his open mouth was broken by the fall of the gingerbread men. Several times. He tried to blame it on two and a half year old Henry, but I watch enough crime TV to know to match up the bite mark on the gingerbread torso that I did find, with the man. It was way too big for little Henry. At least Tim didn't hurt himself.

What next? Well so far 2010 has involved decisions about moves and jobs and health and studies and I can see it's gearing up to be another huge year involving a lot of choice and complications. Will I take the promotion? Will we get Ladybug a little brother or sister? Will Tim take my name? Will I continue to cook and blog? I know the answer to the last one will be yes, starting with me getting organised over the next few weeks.

Thanks to everyone who read this last year. Please be patient - I will be getting back into the swing of things as soon as I'm removed and resettled.

Silly Season

2009-12-07T22:00:00.004+11:00

It's the silly season and so far I haven't done a lot for it. Traditionally, I get cooking in the first weekend of December and start turning out ginger bread, fruit mince and so on, followed by finding a new place to hide said goodies from Tim. This weekend I made a pathetic stab at soaking fruit in grog. Tim took one look before reaching for some kind of shop bought abomination we had lying around.

The first weekend in December also sees me putting up the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, it took me about twice as long to put up half the decorations on a tree that Tim very kindly assembled for me, before retreating to the garage which suddenly needed an urgent tidy up. Maybe it was the Christmas CD I had on a loop? (Well you can hardly erect a Christmas tree without the appropriate sound track playing, can you?!) The whole exercise resulted in me needing a lie down. (This recovery thing is getting old).

Anyway, I feel that Christmas cooking is on the cards in the next few days. I think I'm just about ready to get into the kitchen again, I mean, for something besides toast. At least most of the beverage purchases have been taken care of and that's important. Nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like bubbles...

From the vintage kitchen

2009-12-01T11:42:00.008+11:00

I'm in 'pottering' mode at the moment since I feel well enough to be up, but not well enough to do anything much. I'm in a phase of rifling through forgotten boxes, dark cupboards and drawers, to see what I've got lying around that could be given away, sent to the Salvos or eBayed. It's amazing what one accumulates over the years, and I seem to have accumulated all manner of vintage kitchen stuff. Some of it is still functional, some dangerous and some, well I don't actually know exactly what some of this stuff is.

First of all are my gorgeous old Salter kitchen scales. Salter has been around for years and is a bit of an icon. I used these scales, (and an even older set involving free weights in ounces), until about two years ago when I splurged and invested in an electric set. Still, I can't part with old faithful.

The same can't be said for the Sparklet Corkmaster. It's a bizarre looking object that was made for about 20 years in the UK, I suppose in an effort to revolutionise the removal of corks from wine bottles. Whether it works that well is something I've not tested and don't intend to try. Interesting trivia includes that quite a lot were sold to the US Department of Defense, and at a dinner to which James Bond was invited in 'Diamonds are Forever' the baddie brandishes one. Enough said.

Dutch cocoa has also been around for a long, long time. Droste is still made today and in fact, on my honeymoon earlier this year, I found the current product in an obscure little supermarket somewhere on the coast. Droste still uses the same picture. The cocoa is excellent too. The Muisjes I believe are little sprinkles. My mother hails from the Netherlands originally, and I remember them as a kid.

Now this one I'm not sure about. Are you meant to make a bomb, somehow out of Schnaps? Is it like the Jager Bomb? Or something more sinister? The best I can do is that I think this is a dinky little glass flask and aluminium protector for the transport of Schnaps. Am open to suggestions.

Excuse the slightly smudgy shot (Tim will have a fit when he sees this) but this always makes me smile. It doesn't work that well as a shaker because whatever you've got inside comes out a bit clumpyand the lid sticks, but it reminds me of the robots in the original Dr Who show so I can't get rid of it. You know, the ones that gave kids nightmares and everyone in the show ran from in panic, even though they couldn't fit through a door? Funny, funny stuff.

And finally, I give you the Birko food and drink heater. My mother tells me that the Birko is an all-in-one sort of appliance that people had in their caravans and bedsits. Apparently you can boil water, make soup, cook eggs a half dozen different ways, and so on. So all the basic stuff was covered for a person on their own in small premises. Occasionally I look at it and think I should try it out and see what it can really do. But then I remember I have a great big stove that I really love using, even when it's just me for dinner.

Me, a knitter?

2009-11-29T12:19:00.004+11:00

For the last week, knitting has really been a salvation. Each day, after doing the ordinary stuff like making coffee and putting the dog out, I get to settle down in front of a DVD and pick up the needles. I really look forward to that time now. In fact, such are my days at the moment that starting a new colour has become a highlight worth calling Tim at work to boast about. He's thrilled. And very interested.

If you can't tell from the photo, I'm knitting a baby's blanket. I have several friends with babies and several friends due in anywhere from a few days to a few months, so it seemed like the thing to do. I've got enough wool to blanket the whole house, and a range of colours because I keep changing my mind and obliging siblings have driven me to the wool shop a couple of times to buy more. It's an outing.

I'm not sure how to describe the technical side of things. You'd think I'd know by now, being an avid reader of Bellsknits. Helen very kindly supplied me with a pattern and the kind of useful advice you won't get from just anyone. Now I know about all sorts of stuff I would never have considered, such as circular needles - brilliant. I know about easy-care wool - fantastic if you're knitting for a baby and something I would never have thought to look for. I know about matching dye lots - actually I picked that up from a man at the wool shop, but good to know nonetheless. It's a whole new world and one that I'm thoroughly enjoying in the absence of being able to cook.

Now I'm operating in the belief that whatever I create will be good enough to impose upon my friends and their newborn offspring, for whom they want only the best. I don't think my current effort is looking too bad for someone who can only knit in straight rows, but then I am on a lot of pain medication. I'm also assuming that my friends are too polite not to praise my efforts and thank me profusely. Sorry unsuspecting friends who read this. Finally, I'm assuming that my recouperation activities are interesting to anyone other than me. Humour me - I'm on a lot of pain medication...

Hospital Food

2009-11-26T09:50:00.006+11:00

I spent last week in hospital. I put it in the category of 'one of those things' that sometimes crops up in life, unexpectedly and seemingly without reason.

The whole thing happened quite quickly. In the space of a few weeks, I had minor surgery, lots of tests and a lovely trip to Bowral (with it's brilliant cafes and kitchen shop it was such a difficult day) to see a specialist. I found myself scheduled for major surgery in Sydney almost immediately. While it didn't go entirely to plan, I feel fortunate to have had such an experienced specialist in charge, and be treated in an excellent facility without having to wait for months.

I also feel incredibly blessed to have received (and still be receiving) so much support from family, friends and colleagues. My mum and godmother came to Sydney with me, stayed 600 meters away and visited twice a day, bringing trashy magazines and decent coffee. Both necessities when one is confined to a hospital bed.

Since I've been back in Canberra, I haven't spent a single night alone. With Tim away some nights, there's always been someone here just in case. Last night it was my brother, the night before, my sister. My dog has been fed and walked, milk has been purchased, and one brilliant friend even sat patiently with me for several hours at the ER the other night. So thank you everyone for the calls, messages, cards, visits, etc. It has made this whole thing as un-depressing and as easy to deal with as could ever have been possible.

Now, surgery and pain aside, hospital wasn't too bad. I had my own, very nice room with a view of the water (well I could see the boats anyway), cable TV, aircon, pain relief at the push of a button and staff who couldn't do enough for me. This included the catering staff who made a point of letting me know what flavour jelly was available before doling it out. This was very kind of them, since jelly was on the menu each day, at every meal.

For the first couple of days I was allowed only clear fluids, and I couldn't manage much of that anyway. Then things picked up. For one lunch I had smoked salmon. On another occasion, I had the chef's salad which, despite my shabby photo, was really nice and fresh. One night they even brought me white wine, although I couldn't touch it at the time and am still off alcohol.

Since I can't cook at the moment and am living on pre-prepared meals and toast, I have taken up another activity for the duration. Knitting. Yes, seriously. Not only can I do it while lounging about, but I'm finding it so therapeutic and I love the instant gratification factor of seeing something form in front of me, even if I am slow and not very good.

Thanks to Helen at Bellsknits for the help with getting me started. It was a lot of fun going and choosing wool and I've revised my colour scheme twice already. I probably shouldn't be so precious with a first effort, but I can't bear the thought of undoing all that knitting and starting again because I no longer think my original colours work. Anyway, I'll take some photos of my efforts and post something later this week. Just be kind - remember, I cook!

Another tart

2009-11-25T16:00:00.000+11:00

Yes, I am slightly obsessed with savoury tarts at the moment. Should I call them quiches? Does it really matter?

I've had an over-abundance of fresh, free-range eggs lately, as well as lots of other good stuff that goes really well with baked egg. (Well that's what it is, when all's said and done.) Today's effort involved asparagus, wilted baby spinach leaves and little tomatoes.

Once again, follow my basic recipe for the egg and pastry. Fry up some onion and bacon, toss in the asparagus for about two minutes and the leaves for about one minute. You want to just take the edge off and slightly wilt them, not kill them. Season to taste and spoon it into the tart case, trying to spread it around as evenly as possible. Pour the egg over, dot with little tomatoes and bake. Could it be simpler?

Frangipane jam drops

2009-11-20T18:00:00.000+11:00

Another winner from my little freebie recipe book - Frangipane Jam Drops. Is the frangipane thing about the almond meal and butter? I should check my Larousse, but it's pretty late and I just can't do it. Whatever the case, I really, really liked the cookie dough this time around. I just can't go past almond meal. It makes for such a rich, textured mix and goes beautifully with butter. So that's the first good thing about this.

The second thing is it's a really easy recipe. Those good folks at Woman's Weekly have the easy, 'anyone can do it' recipe down pat. And, these cookies are lovely. Very old fashioned, to be enjoyed with a good cup of tea. Tim calls them 'jam spots'.

The one thing I didn't rate was making a hole with a wooden spoon handle. The dough was too sticky for that, so I just sort of pressed the jam in with a teaspoon. It worked fine and didn't stop my cookie thief who didn't think I noticed the mound slowly diminishing...

Ingredients

125g butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

1 cup (120g) almond meal

1 egg

2/3 cup (100g) plain flour

2 tbsp raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 180º C/ 160ºC fan forced. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.

Beat butter, extract, sugar and almond meal in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg, beating until just combined; stir in sifted flour.

Drop level tablespoons of mixture on trays 5cm apart. Use handle of a wooden spoon to make small hole (about 1cm deep) in top of each biscuit; fill each hole with 1/4 tsp jam. Bake about 15 minutes; cool jam drops on trays.

Pretty patty cakes

2009-11-15T18:19:00.003+11:00

Yet another weekend has passed, but what a productive one! We've seen just about everyone we know, the house is sparkling clean and I now have a freezer full of dinners, including a dozen doggie dinners. Good stuff! In the middle of all of this, I thought some pretty little patty cakes might be the go. Tim didn't disagree.

Now I'm not a regular reader of Woman's Day, but the other day I was in line at the supermarket (trapped, you might say) and this week's copy caught my eye. No, not because Simone's taken Shane back again, but because of the neat little cook book glued to the front as a freebie - The Women's Weekly "Baking Favourites." I couldn't resist. It turns out to have been a an excellent purchase and one that made buying the magazine worthwhile. I've already made two things out of it this weekend and I'm pretty happy with both. I'm also up to date with all the celebrity gossip.

The first is Patty Cakes with Glace' Icing. This is quite a traditional cake mix, and I just added a little more vanilla. You could also add some lemon zest for a bit of zing. They cakes came out light and fresh and fragrant.

I used some cute little papers I found in a fantastic kitchen store in Bowral a week ago. There's pastel blue, pink, yellow and white in the one packet. I topped them with glace' icing and sweet little sugar flowers I found in the same store. These cost about eight bucks for 20 pieces, and they're very fragile, but so cute and perfect for a special occasion! They made it back to Canberra with only about two broken. Then of course I dropped one and broke off a petal. But I still had enough.

About the glace' icing, I found this looks good but you have to work quickly because it dries very fast. I kept it over the hot water but occasionally added a few more drops of water when it became too thick. You could just use a water and icing sugar mix though.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 (165g) cup caster sugar

3 eggs

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

1/4 cup (60ml) milk

Glace' icing:

2 cups (320g) icing sugar

20g butter, melted

2 tbsp hot water (approx)

Preheat oven to 180º C/ 160ºC fan forced. Line 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.

Place ingredients in a medium bowl; beat with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium; beat about 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and paler in colour.

Divide mixture among cases. Bake about 25 minutes. Stand cakes in pan 5 minutes before turning, top side up onto wire racks to cool.

Meanwhile, make icing: sift icing sugar into small heatproof bowl; stir in butter and enough of the water to make a firm paste. Place bowl over small saucepan of simmering water; stir until icing is spreadable. (I actually just threw everything in a bowl and stirred over the simmering water)

Super energy slice

2009-11-11T20:50:00.006+11:00

I don't have a lot to say about this one. Tim rides a bicycle. A lot. So do his mates. They are constantly hungry, especially before, during and after big rides. Where most of us would be worried about fat and sugar content, these guys insist on cramming in as much of both as physically possible without throwing up. Anyway, apparently my last effort wasn't nearly energy-dense enough. Specific feedback included that it needed chocolate. So here I go again.

This is the new and improved version, dubbed iSnack2.0 by Tim, who incidentally thinks it could have been sweeter. Sigh...

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup fresh apple juice

1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup muscovado sugar

1/2 cup rice puffs

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1 egg

100g melted butter

1 tbsp cinnamon

It's simple - mix everything together really well. Press into a greased or lined tin and bake at 180º until golden brown, but don't let it go hard. This should take about 20-30 minutes.

Melt 375g white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Add a half a cup of chopped craisins and stir. Spread over the cooled slice. Allow the chocolate to set and then cut into slabs.

A stylish tart

2009-11-04T20:03:00.005+11:00

I'm really enjoying savoury tarts at the moment. Don't ask me why. I certainly didn't grow up in a quiche making family. My father baulked at the idea of eggs that didn't come out looking like eggs, so my mother never made quiche. I've never gotten into making them before, except for the mini-party kind. Just now and then. Recently, it's been a lot more now than then. Nobody's complaining.

One of the appeals for me is that they're super-easy to make and very hard to mess up. They freeze, slice and travel well, and keep for several days in the fridge without a drama. Also, you can stick whatever you want in them which is handy. On more than one occasion, I've scoured the fridge for vegetables, any member of the onion family I could lay my hands on and anything resembling ham and/or cheese.

As if this wasn't enough, a savoury tart can look fabulous, like you've spent hours cooking when really you threw it together in ten minutes flat! Just choose a nice tin and put some effort into arranging some tomato, asparagus, salmon, herbs, or whatever you've got, on the top. Serve with some nice salad and interesting chutney to round out the meal.

This week's effort involved the same basic recipe as the broad bean and bacon tart, but instead of broad beans I used spinach in the egg mix and cherry tomatoes to garnish. The result was tasty, healthy and looked beautiful.

[Don't worry - I have a sweet recipe for you next!]

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-10-31T18:15:00.001+11:00

Mr Pumpkinhead is back! That must mean it's time to say happy Halloween to all you girls, guys and ghouls. Have a great night, whatever you're eating.

Broad bean & bacon tart

2009-10-29T21:03:00.004+11:00

Growing up, broad beans were something that I never really liked and ate only under protest. I had relatives who grew them prolifically and they were always in abundance at the dinner table. I got sick of being told how good they are for me and I suspect more beans were surreptitiously slipped into pockets and onto the floor than made it into my mouth. I'm not sure exactly what it was. Perhaps it was the smell of them cooking, or the thick grey skin that you get on older beans. I just wasn't impressed.

These days, the tables have turned and I get excited when I find fresh broad beans in their shells for sale anywhere. I love carefully choosing them from the box, all the while imagining what I'm going to do with them when I get them home. I love announcing to Tim that I found fresh broad beans and I love peeling them and placing the fresh green beans to one side, and the pods in a bucket for the chooks or the compost. I really love that particular shade of green they turn when just blanched and are still tender and full of flavour.

Infatuation aside, what I don't love is eating them as a dish all by themselves. For me, broad beans have to be the high note in another dish; a key point, a little treasure that distinguishes an ordinary dish from something special, however simple it may be. Recently I've had them in risotto and pasta, and this week I worked them into a savoury tart. And it worked very, very well.

Ingredients

180g fresh (podded) broad beans

4 rashers bacon, thinly sliced

4 free range eggs

2 sheets of puff pastry

1/2 a large brown onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp light sour cream

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

olive oil

salt & pepper

In a frying pan, splash a little olive oil and fry the bacon and onion together. You can brown, but don't crisp the bacon. You really just want the flavours infusing and the onion softening. This should only take a few minutes and when done, set aside to cool a little.

Grease a tart tim (mine is 23cm) and line it with the pastry to form a shell. I used puff pastry this time, but only because I'd run out of short crust. It worked pretty well, but you can't bake it blind because of the puff factor.

Pierce holes in the pastry with a fork and spread the bacon and onion mix evenly.

Heat a small pan of water, and when boiling rapidly, throw the beans in for three minutes. You really don't need any more than that. When done, drain and plunge in ice cold water to retain the colour. Drain and then scatter the beans over the bacon and onion.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, milk, sour cream and parsley together until well mixed. You can add some salt and pepper if you want to. Carefully pour this mix over the bacon, onion and beans.

Cook at 180º oven for half an hour, or until golden brown. Serve hot or cold, with or without salad. This also keeps really well for a couple of days in the fridge.

Rolled chicken with craisins

2009-10-26T19:10:00.004+11:00

It was the weekend. We'd spent it productively. We were going to go out to dinner as a gastronomic pat on the back for everything we'd achieved. Then we realised what the time was and that we were tired, grubby and just wanted to have a shower before sitting down to a decent meal and a glass of something cold and refreshing, preferably while dressed in (clean) trackies. Ah, life in the suburbs.

So, while Tim finished unclogging the down-pipe in the back yard, I rummaged through my fridge and pantry, desperately trying to find something worthwhile. Tim had been away and I'd been busy, so I hadn't done the groceries yet. I had some fresh, free-range chicken breasts. I had a packet of craisins. I had sweet potato. I had an idea!

It was as simple as stuffing the chicken with a few fresh ingredients, pan frying to a nice brown, and then letting them cook through while the sweet potato boiled and I turned it into mash. By the time Tim had washed up, dinner was on. Nice. Sometimes the best meals are the unplanned, quick jobs that you don't have time to mess up.

Ingredients

2 free range chicken breasts

1/3 cup polenta

1/4 cup craisins

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tbsp lemon zest

tsp dried parsley leaves

juice of 1/ lemon

1/2 cup dry white wine or verjuice

1 tbsp butter

olive oil

salt & pepper

Place the chicken breasts on a board with the thickest part facing you. With one palm flat on the breast (the chicken breast, not your own or somebody else's), slice horizontally through the breast until you're almost all the way through.

In a small bowl, mix all the other ingredients well, except for the butter, olive oil and wine or verjuice. Fold the chicken breasts open, being careful not to break them completely open. Take half the mixture and press it onto the bottom half, and then press the top half of the breast over the top. Cram it all in and secure at the side with a skewer. The breasts should now resemble little bulging packages.

In a heavy fry pan, splash in some olive oil and the butter and heat it up. Brown the breasts on both sides. Pour in the wine and if you want to, throw in another small handful of craisins. Turn the heat down and cook, covered, for 20 minutes or until cooked through but not dry.

To make the sweet potato mash, peel and chop up one large sweet potato. Boil it until soft, drain and mash with some butter or olive oil. Salt to taste.

When the chicken is done, remove the skewers and slice into thick pieces. Place on the mash and pour some of the juices over and sprinkle with some finely chopped, fresh flat leaf parsley. Serve with a small, green salad and a nice glass of white.

Birthday cake

2009-10-18T10:24:00.004+11:00

Yesterday was my birthday. It wasn't very exciting. Not that I was really expecting it to be, especially when it became clear that if we were going to have birthday cake, I'd have to make it myself.

To put this in perspective, I've been cooking ever since I was a kid and I can't actually remember many occasions when I haven't made my own birthday cake. There was the time when I was about eight that my cousin made something with lots of cream and blue icing. And another time mum made a M*A*S*H themed cake with a helicopter on top. But that's about it. I suppose the up-side of the arrangement is that I do whatever I feel like on the day.

Yesterday, I felt like chocolate and rum should be combined in some fashion. At the same time, I didn't want a really heavy, nut-meal based cake that wouldn't rise very much or would be too rich. I felt like your basic type cake. I haven't had one of those in many years.

I used a white spelt flour to achieve the basic style cake, although you could just use a normal self raising wheat flour and forgo the baking powder. I liked it and since people asked for seconds, I think it was a winner.

Ingredients

2 cups white spelt flour

200g dark chocolate

125g butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp rum

1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180º C.

In a bowl over a saucepan of hot water, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring as it melts.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture looks pale and thickens slightly. Fold in the chocolate and butter mixture until well combined. Add add the sour cream and rum and combine well. Sift in the dry ingredients and add 1/4 cup milk. Fold in gently or use the slow setting on the electric mixer. The mixture should not be overly runny, but if you feel that it's too stiff, add some more milk.

Line a spring form baking tin and spoon the mixture in. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. At 45 minutes, test whether it's cooked by stabbing it with a skewer. Push it in right the way to the bottom of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done.

I iced this with a plain white icing spiked with melted white chocolate and topped off with little pink hearts. I enjoyed it, including for breakfast today.

Oh, and I've carefully cut myself out of this photo and left the much more photogenic Layla in as the face of the evening.

When a man loves a burger...

2009-10-15T08:32:00.008+11:00

Find me a man who doesn't like a hamburger. Seriously. I dare you.

Your average bloke, even ones with a developed palate, seem all too willing to throw caution to the wind for a hamburger from any greasy spoon, franchise or road-side wagon if they're hungry enough. Or if their mates suggest it after a few beers. Personally, I'd rather go hungry than eat from most of these places, and generally don't have a choice because of the whole 'can't eat wheat' thing. Sadly, your average hungry bloke requires more instant gratification.

To prove the point, I give you my sister's boyfriend. He's a fantastic cook. He's also smart, sensitive and gives a damn about food and where it comes from. He keeps a stock of good ingredients. He owns a bread maker and can use the ravioli setting on my pasta maker better than I can. Last night when my sister was here, he called to let her know he was home safely. Then came the inevitable "what did you have for dinner." Silence. I heard my sister ask "did you have McDonalds?" followed by "you always mumble when you've had McDonalds." And then "well, you deserve it."

I sat there wondering if that meant she was cross at him for eating fast food and thought he deserved whatever digestive issue he may have during the night as a result? Or, did it mean that lining up for a burger and fries prepared by some exhausted uni student towards the end of their shift, was perceived as a treat? Frankly, I couldn't see how but then I remembered my sister loves this man and would hardly wish him to spend a night kneeling before the porcelain goddess.

A couple of weeks ago there was a lot of talk about a burger wagon in Kingston. Sightings of this fairy-lit, red wagon of pleasure were being bragged about online and it seemed everyone was raving about it. Funnily enough, one night Tim announced he really felt like a burger, I shouldn't have to cook (it was his night) and it would be a good exercise to take photos of food at night. Sure...

It wasn't hard to find the Brodburger wagon. It's red and lit up, just like the legends say, and had a couple of dozen people milling about it. All sorts of people were there - young, old, couples, dogs, you name it. And everyone was chilled and happy to wait. The whole atmosphere was pretty relaxed and friendly. We got talking to people who'd come from the far north and the far south, such was the Brodburger reputation.

Each time the little window slid open, you could almost hear the waiting crowd draw a sharp, collective breath, each person hoping that they would be called next. With hope and expectation on their faces, the lucky ones moved forward when their number was called, reached up and were handed their little parcel of burgery goodness. A few people stood around, huddled in little groups of confidents, eating cosily and boastfully. Most people took theirs away to savour privately in cars and homes all over Canberra.

Then it was Tim's turn. He got the Brodburger Delux. We drove over to the bus depot car park where we could check it out without pressure. It had two beef patties, lots of fresh salad, and I'm pretty sure two types of cheese. The bun was fresh and crunchy and the whole thing smelled divine. I tried the beef and it was very, very good. Not sausage meat; it tasted like real steak with very little culinary interference. It cost about $14 but Tim felt it was worthwhile.

To put it in perspective, Tim can go out for entree, mains and dessert, and then go home and have toast and cereal for supper. (And yes, he stays exactly the same size.) The Brodburger hit the spot. No supper required.

A carnivore's dream

2009-10-09T07:55:00.004+11:00

Tim and I didn't used to be much into meat. Not any particular view about it, just not something we ate a lot of. Since Tim did a stint in the north, he has a taste for steak. Unfortunately for him, steak is something I don't cook at home. Ever. I leave that to the experts, and to Nathan, the 'king of the grill' (or so his apron says). For me, steak is a real going-out meal; a treat. I'm not a great steak cook, so I don't try. I think it disrespects the meat to cook it badly. And besides, nobody likes gnawing on rubber posing as sirloin. So I stick to other meat dishes.

One of Tim's favourites is a rolled veal dish I do from time to time. It's a real carnivore's dream. Meat rolled in meat. I've seen many versions of this sort of dish. My mother cooks little rolls of beef in tomato sauce and serves with pasta. Yum!

I got this idea from a French cook book and what I really love about it is the difference in texture between the meat and the potatoes. It's important to make sure that the ingredients are all chopped very finely because the last thing you want is a chunk of onion or a big flat leaf of parsley ruining the texture. Having spent time chopping and grating on the finest setting, I have to say it is a very simple dish to make and yet somehow impressive. Tim refers to it as meatloaf. It sort of is, but just a little bit fancy...

Ingredients

500g pork and veal mince

400g veal steaks (about 4-5)

2 eggs

1/2 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

3 tbsp finely grated parmesan

1 finely chopped garlic clove

scant tbsp coarse black pepper

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 tsp fine lemon zest

1 tsp salt

In a large bowl, combine with your hands everything except the veal steaks. If the veal steaks are a little thick, flatten them slightly with a meat mallet. They don't need to be super thin though.

Place a quantity of the mince mix in the middle of a piece of steak. Roll it up and secure with a toothpick or skewer. Repeat with the rest. Brown these off very slightly in a fry pan or oven-safe pot in a little olive oil. You just want a little bit of colour - you're not trying to cook them. If you're using a fry pan, remove them after cooking and place into a lightly oiled oven dish or pot with a bit of room. Add the following to the dish or pot:

1/2 red onion, coarsely chopped

3 sprigs thyme

1 cup beef stock

1 cup dry white wine

6-8 small potatoes

1 tbsp corn flour (sprinkle over)

salt to taste

Add the dry ingredients first and then pour in the wine and stock. Cook, covered, in a moderate oven for around an hour, until the potatoes have soaked up the flavour and have softened without becoming mushy. Enjoy with some crusty bread and fresh butter, and a glass of something cold.

Friends and baked salmon

2009-10-05T21:05:00.005+11:00

I'm sitting here exhausted and slightly sore, but I can't complain. It's been the kind of weekend that I love - busy and full of friends and food. We had our friends from the UK, Sue and Pete (Jayne's folks) stay for a couple of nights and while they brought the English weather with them, we managed to show them a side of Canberra they really enjoyed.

Having done the main sights before, and being too wet for Floriade, we thought our activities should be inside as much as possible, and revolve around food. It wasn't just my preference - Sue used to be a caterer.

We started in Fyshwick, went to the markets in Kingston, and wound up in Woden. Along the way, I picked up organic tomatoes, salad greens, cucumbers, and the most delicate little grey zucchini I've seen in years. I bought a deliciously fresh foccacia for lunch, and we also got honey, chocolate and nuts. Sue and Pete really enjoyed all the taste testing along the way, and on Saturday night we had a party of seven for cannelloni and Italian mascarpone tart with blackberries (that Tim and I picked last summer) and we culminated last night with dinner of baked Atlantic salmon, salad and kipfler potatoes with garlic and parsley.

Then this morning they left. Tim and I were a little sad to see them go because they're great company and we've enjoyed ourselves immensely. To ease the pain, we threw ourselves into shovelling some more of the 20 cubic meters of mulch that was delivered to our driveway on Saturday morning, as well as lots of weeding and shredding. The upshot is not only that we've been well fed, but our front yard is looking less like a dirt farm tonight. I have to say, it's such a satisfying feeling to see the results. Almost as good as turning out a perfectly cooked meal.

This evening, in between rain storms, we finally took Ladybug for a well-deserved walk up the hills. She went slightly nuts. Tim and I just tried to keep a decent pace and not think about how tired we were. From the top of the hill, at my favourite spot, we stopped to look around. What I took in was inspiring. Towards the Brindabellas there was deep purple and grey and thunder and rain; to the north, Telstra Tower was shrouded in pinks and mauves and a downpour of light grey; the airport was looking dark and menacing and we were both happy not to be flying tonight; over the south, the sky was clearing and there were actually patches of blue. We watched planes come and go for a bit, and I found myself thinking how much I love this place.

Another wedding

2009-09-24T21:16:00.006+10:00

I'm sitting here at the end of the week feeling drained and looking forward to cracking the Verve in the fridge and spending what I hope will be a relaxing Saturday night with some of our best friends. Tim thinks I'm nuts because I want to make pasta from scratch, but since he doesn't cook, he has no veto powers. It's actually not that hard or time consuming and I'll share my recipe for spelt pasta next week. It's also highly satisfying to plop your pasta into a pot of boiling water and watch it cook without falling apart. But I digress...

In a few days, Tim and I will have been married for six months. Six months! When did that happen? It feels so much longer. I still haven't gotten my dress back from the shop and I'm only hoping they've managed to repair the damage they did when they attempted to clean it. Sigh...

On the other hand, our godparents, Ali and Dave, have notched up 25 years! That's right folks, a whole quarter of a century. A silver wedding anniversary! And these two still act like teenagers in love. (It can be a little sickening to be honest.) Congratulations!!!

To celebrate, we threw a party and they renewed their vows. It was a really beautiful day with wonderful weather and wonderful friends , some of whom were at the first wedding. Ladybug doubled as flower dog, complete with silver tutu, and she was great (although she had to be dragged down the aisle) and the food was well received. Champagne flowed and the mostly white chocolate and berry cake didn't melt. I burned myself on the oven, but champagne's a great anaesthetic. I can only hope I can still cook for 35 people without batting an eye for Tim and my silver anniversary in 24.5 years!

[Ali is the stylish lady in red in the middle of the top photo and David is the old bloke (who also scrubbed up pretty well) talking to me in the bottom photo.]

Sausage rolls

2009-09-15T21:10:00.003+10:00

Sausage rolls are another Tim favourite. I remember being able to eat them - the tasty, salty, meaty filling with just the right amount of fat and all encased in light puff pastry and beautifully enhanced by a good splash of tomato sauce. Sigh...

My mother's are brilliant. Tim raves about them and she knows it. I sometimes get the question from him on a Friday night: "I wonder if Christiana is making sausage rolls this weekend?" How would I know?

I also get calls from her when she has made them and they've just gone into the oven. It's a sort of sausage roll alert system, if you will. I can be at work, or scrubbing the bathroom or out with friends and if that call comes through, it's usually followed by "now, can you come and pick some up for Tim while they're still hot?" Of course mum. I'll just leave my job/chores/friends right now and come get some sausage rolls for my under-fed husband. (!) Neither of them think this request is unreasonable.

Last weekend I decided to whip up some of my own. They're super easy and much healthier and tastier than anything you'll get at a shop. If you make the large variety, one (or four in Tim's case) will make a good meal with some salad.

I was pretty happy with these. I still can't eat them, but Tim tells me they worked for him, although they weren't the same as Christiana's. Not better or worse, he tells me, just "different." I'd be concerned, but then being different didn't stop him from devouring the whole batch!

Ingredients

500g beef mince

1/2 cup grated carrot

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1 small shallot, finely chopped

2 eggs

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

2 sheets puff pastry

sesame seeds

tbsp milk

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except for one of the eggs, the milk and the pastry. Mix well with your hands, making sure everything is properly combined. Wear disposable gloves if your squeamish about touching meat because this is one occasion when a wooden spoon won't cut it,

Make up an egg wash by beating the second egg and the milk together. Brush each sheet of pastry with the egg wash and cut in half.

Divide the meat mix into four equal amounts. Place one quantity of the mix into each of the four pieces of pastry and roll. You may need to flatten the roll out so it makes a large, cafe style roll. Brush each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for 30 minutes (or until golden and puffy) at 180º C.

Dinner with Maggie Beer

2009-09-05T10:12:00.005+10:00

Earlier this week, Tim casually suggested we go somewhere nice for dinner on Friday night. He said he'd make a booking and I thought we'd probably go to one of our favourite places in town. Yesterday morning, I asked him where we were going and after mentioning things like 'that pizza place' he said we were going to dinner with Maggie Beer. I didn't really believe him.

Anyhow, it became clear last night, once we were rounding State Circle that we were headed for Old Parliament House and Maggie's Table.

Pre-dinner drinks with friends in the courtyard were nice, followed by a Maggie-inspired three course meal. There was a live band, nice wines and Maggie and Janet Jeffs regaled us with some funny stories and Janet's vision for food in Canberra. Maggie and Janet then went from table to table to thank everyone for being there. It was a nice touch. I also managed to meet Maggie on the stairs and she graciously agreed to let Tim take our photo.

The Kitchen Cabinet is officially opening today and once the hysteria of a Maggie opening dies down, I'll go and have a look. I love the idea of having another outlet for regional and seasonal produce that supports local growers. The notion that Canberra can become a Barossa-style centre for food is one that appeals to me and was a theme of last night. Canberra is quite capable of making its mark as a great food destination. The region has so much to offer in culinary terms and I for one will be making more of an effort to support our local industry.

Minestrone: the right kind of soup

2009-08-28T09:20:00.010+10:00

I’ve never really been into soups all that much. I have to really be in the mood. I don’t order them when I go out, and I rarely make them at home. However, when the mood does strike me, I’m happy to cook up a big pot of something hearty and tuck in.

One thing I can’t do is leftover soup. Don’t ask me why. Perhaps it’s the fact that a lot of soups sort of congeal into a slippery, stodgy looking, unattractive mass when refrigerated. Perhaps it’s the sight of waterlogged pieces of veg or meat floating like so many corpses in cold broth that turns me off. (Not that I've ever actually seen a floating corpse, but I watch a lot of Midsommer Murders.) I suppose it’s a question for the ages and best left alone, lest I turn anyone else off.

I think the one exception for me is a decent minestrone. Not any old minestrone, but one that I know the providence of. Seriously. The issue for me is that so many versions of minestrone seem to contain too many indiscernible ingredients tied together by mushy shell pasta and labelled ‘minestrone’ as if that’s meant to comfort and convince. I won’t touch it with a ten foot barge pole. Or soup spoon for that matter.

Minestrone should have a clean, strong, wholesome feel about it. It should be hearty and satisfying. It shouldn’t be strewn with random vegetable matter, but with carefully combined ingredients. The pasta should go in at the end, having been par-cooked and drained. If meat is included, it should not be great, soaking, sinewy chunks. Minestrone should be able to count as a meal all on its own and able to stand up for itself the next day. But for that to happen, you need a solid recipe. Here’s mine, based on years of contemplation.

Ingredients

1 small brown onion, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 cup potato, diced

1 cup carrot, diced

2/3 cup celery, diced

1/2 cup red capsicum, diced

1 x 400g tin kidney beans

1 x 400g tomatoes (crushed or chopped)

1 raw chorizo, diced (optional)

1 sprig thyme

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

1/2 tsp smoked sweet paprika

enough beef or vegetable stock to cover ingredients

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup small shell pasta, par cooked and drained

This is completely simple. Lightly brown the onion, garlic and chorizo together in a large pot. Throw in all the other ingredients and cover with stock. Let it simmer gently until the veg starts becoming tender but not soggy. Once the soup is cooked, add the pasta. The pasta will soak up the juices and flavours and soften so you don't need it to be too soft to start with.

A bit of a tart...

2009-08-25T20:00:00.005+10:00

I was inspired the other week by some stuff I saw in a cafe display case. Not inspired in a good way mind you - just inspired to do better. Sorry if that sounds trite, but the half dozen ordinary looking, still partly frozen savoury tarts in the display case did nobody any justice. I could see the condensation collecting on the limp strip of pepper draped over the top as they slowly thawed. Yuck! They looked soggy and unappetising.

In the week that followed the defrosting tart incident remained very much on my mind. Am I obsessive? Maybe. Am I determined? Definitely. What did I do about it? I decided to get creative and make my own.

Now I don't come from a quiche or tart sort of family. Dad didn't eat that sort of thing, so mum didn't cook it. It was as simple as that. And, since I do come from a 'everything is made from scratch' type of family, we never bought the ready made variety when he wasn't around. My point is that my experience is somewhat limited to the occasional lunch at a friend's house or cafe adventure.

But back to my plan of action. I rummaged about in the fridge, and found some seasonal ingredients that I really love: leek and potato. What a marriage made in culinary heaven these two are. Throw in some free range eggs, some nice cheese, parsley, etc, and there you have it - a potato and leek version of the humble savoury tart. It was pretty quick and simple too and kept well in the fridge and lunchbox.

End result? I was pleased. Very pleased. So was Tim. (Especially since I took the easy route, used bought pastry and couldn't eat any of them myself!)

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

1 cup sliced leek (white part only)

200g thinly sliced potato

1 sheet short crust pastry

2 eggs

1 tbsp light sour cream

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup freshly grated grana padano

Place half the butter in a fry pan and soften the potatoes for about five minutes at a low temperature. Add the rest of the butter and the leek and cook for ten minutes. Salt & pepper to taste.

Lightly beat the eggs, and then add the cream, milk, parsley and cheese.

Oil four 10cm (diametre) tart tins, quarter the sheet of pastry and gently ease each one into a tin. Cut the excess pastry away. Prick the bottom of each with a fork.

Spoon a quarter of the potato and leek into each tin, spreading it out evenly. Then spoon in the egg mix over the top. Tap the tins to settle the mixture.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180º C. Serve with tomato relish, salad and a glass of white wine.

Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards

2009-08-25T12:39:00.003+10:00

I like the idea of an award for the best maitre 'd. See story in the SMH.

Take 5 - again!

2009-08-19T19:03:00.003+10:00

Well here we are in all our glory as the Take-5 Reader's Choice winners. I would like to state for the record that this photo doesn't look much like me (don't know why that is) and I definitely do not talk like that. Oh, and my mother has never called me darling. That's all.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Chocolate caramel slice

2009-08-16T15:52:00.005+10:00

What a weekend it has been! Lots of cooking and photos and running around generally. I've had a few flops and a few successes. It's all a learning experience and this afternoon it's perfect weather to stay inside and tell you all about it.

I started the weekend with a chocolate caramel slice from the Donna Hay Simple Essentials: Chocolate cook book (p32). It's something I've wanted to try making for years. I remember school fetes and morning teas when someone's mum made caramel slice. I was fascinated every time. I thought it was this magical, mystical creation that took much more skill than I had. Well it turns out that it's not actually that hard, even when converting the base to wheat free. (There are some things I'm not prepared to forgo taste testing of!)

The recipe worked well although I'll use more chocolate on top next time. The one thing I found was that the base can dry out quite quickly and become a bit hard. I think this is because the base is baked twice - once with and once without the caramel filling. Or perhaps it's just because I don't have a feel for this recipe yet? Whatever the case may be, it hasn't deterred Tim and I've had to hide a large portion of it. I want him around for a long while yet and I fear that if he gets his hands on this and acts with his usual abandon, it will go in a flash and may cause a little artery hardening. Yes, there's a fair bit of butter in this one.

Ingredients

base:

1 cup plain flour (I used spelt flour)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

125g butter, melted

caramel filling:

1/3 cup golden syrup

125g butter, melted

2 x 400g cans sweetened condensed milk

topping:

200g dark chocolate

3 tsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Place the flour, coconut, sugar and butter in a bowl and mix well. Press the mixture into a 20cm x 30c slice tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 15-20 minutes until brown.

To make the caramel filling, place the golden syrup, butter and condensed milk in a saucepan over low heat and stir for 7 minutes or until the caramel has thickened slightly. Pour over the cooked base and bake for 20 minutes or until the caramel is golden.

Refrigerate until cold, then melt the chocolate and oil and pour over the top.

Dishwasher Love

2009-08-13T22:54:00.004+10:00

If you've been following this blog for any period of time, you'll know that I started with a kitchen that was, frankly, a dangerous place. I finally cracked it a couple of months ago (after yet another hot plate on the badly installed stove broke and I got an electric shock) and made my demand: a new kitchen or I stop cooking. I got the new kitchen.

You'll also be aware that Tim and I got married earlier this year. A group of wonderful friends gave us a voucher for a dishwasher. I think this came after hearing me complain way too many times about things like Tim getting distracted mid-wash and the lack of rinsing that was taking place.

Finally, with the kitchen purchased and about to be installed, it was time to go out and purchase the dishwasher. Here Tim took control. The pre-purchasing research was phenomenal. Thank goodness for the internet. After several weeks of intensive study, Tim decided on a lovely white Bosch model with simple mechanics, rather than the type with the flash LED display panel. I like it. As you can see from the picture, Tim likes it even more.

Thanks to all our friends for the most wonderful gift. Now that it's been connected, it's even more useful!

Me vs Madeleine

2009-08-11T19:11:00.003+10:00

Everyone has their kitchen achilles heel. It's that one thing that no matter how hard you try to get right, you just can't. You can try over and over and something is slightly off every time. It's so frustrating and doesn't seem fair, especially when you follow a recipe to the letter.

For me it's Madeleines. They're so small and seem so simple. I wish I could tell you that I'd succeeded in making perfectly textured little morsels that look fabulous and taste great. Unfortunately, success evades me.

I've tried different recipes, from traditional French to modern 'no-fuss' versions. I've used different flavours from lemon to chocolate to coffee. I've bought a new tin. I've had Tim supervise and double-check my measurements. But nothing! I cannot seem to get them right.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing wrong which makes it all the more frustrating. All I know is that my madeleines, when I can even prise them out of the tray, are lumpy on the upside and the kind of texture that I'm sure isn't right. Because I don't like to believe that any culinary challenge is too much for me, I will keep trying. Perhaps one day I'll get it together, or perhaps not. Either way, Tim will be taste testing a lot of Madeleines in the future.

Anyway, the photo you see is my most recent and successful batch so far. They don't look too bad, they weren't too lumpy on the up side, but they were a bit dense. In spite of this, Tim ate all two dozen. I guess that counts for something?

Julie & Julia

2009-08-09T09:52:00.004+10:00

This is the story of Julie Powell cooking her way through Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and blogging about it. Well, there's actually a bit more to it than that because it is about a personal journey through which cooking every recipe in this iconic cookbook seems to have been the one constant. It's a funny, poignant story and one I recommend reading if you can find a copy. Or else go and see the movie, starring Meryl Streep, no less.

Frank Sinatra, pot roast, and me

2009-08-05T20:52:00.002+10:00

I have had some particularly odd dreams lately. I have a feeling they're food related on account of me either having eaten new and unfamiliar things for dinner that have set me off, or because there are things I'm thinking about cooking. Whatever the cause, it's made for strange times.

The other night I had what began as one of those unforgettable dreams. I dreamed I was dancing with Frank Sinatra. It was when Frank was arguably at his sexiest too. He was about 40 years old and had filled out a little bit, but still looked fit. I recall his blue, blue eyes, the cut of his beautiful suit, the cocky hat and the commanding way he held me while we danced. He was gently crooning something into my ear. I don't recall what song it was. I was entranced and had decided not to resist the inevitable attempt to seduce me.

Just as Frank drew me close with those strong arms around my waist, I stepped back and took the sight of him in, breathlessly. I looked into those clear, blue eyes that were smouldering with lust, and I asked Frank Sinatra to hold on while I went and cooked dinner.

What the hell is wrong with me?!

I told Tim. He laughed and wondered what it meant. I have no idea. Would I turn down Frank Sinatra to cook dinner? (I mean, if I was a single woman of course.) I just don't know. The point is that unfinished business has haunted me for days as I wondered why I stopped to cook dinner, for whom was I cooking and what kind of a dinner was so damned important that it couldn't wait until Frank had finished his song?

Instinctively I think I must have gone off to cook a pot roast. I've waxed lyrical about the pot roast on several occasions so I think it's a pretty good bet. It's a stable, wholesome meal and one that a woman probably would have stopped to cook in the 1950's in the middle of a Frank Sinatra seduction. Anyway, I think it's probably time to share my way of doing it. (Since I can't share how Frank did it.)

1. Use almost any cut of meat. For today's demonstration, I've used just over a kilo of roasting beef. You could also use pork or lamb (pork is amazing done this way). The slow, long cook time should soften the meat and make it just about melt in your mouth.

2. Heat up a decent splash of olive oil in a heavy pot that can be transferred to the oven. If you don't have one, use a frying pan for this step. Throw in a quartered onion and several unpeeled cloves of garlic. Place the beef in the pot and sear each side. You're not trying to cook the meat through, just brown.

3. Throw in one large, roughly chopped carrot, about a tablespoon of sweet paprika, half a cup of good beef stock and a bouquet garni - parsley stems, thyme and bay leaf. Add some salt and pepper. I also threw in about a tablespoon of chopped parsley leaves that I had left.

4. Put the lid on the pot and put it into the oven for about four hours (or until very tender) at 160º C. At about every hour or 45 minutes, baste the meat with the juices.

5. When it's all done, I don't strain the juices for serving purposes, but I do remove the carrot and bouquet garni. You can use the juice as is, although I often slightly thicken it with a little corn flour.

Dream well.

Croquembouche conquered...almost

2009-08-02T19:53:00.010+10:00

For a long time now I've wanted to try making a croquembouche. Why, I hear you ask? Well, why not?

I guess I see it as one of those ultimate kitchen challenges. Tim has always thought this a bit of a silly idea and steadfastly discouraged me from attempting such a foolhardy exercise. He has pointed out that it involves hot sugar, which he assured me has a much higher boiling point than water. Also, boiling sugar is sticky. That makes for one big 'ouch' if you come into contact with it. I don't always listen to Tim.

Instead I called my sister Esther. I distinctly remember her high school home economics teacher commending her choux pastry efforts. Esther imparted what would become my mantra for the pastry making part of the deal - just keep stirring. One sore arm later, and I had several dozen fairly decent little puffs. Tim said they were shaped a bit like doggy do. He still ate them.

I'd read somewhere that profiteroles are best for croquembouche use the day after they're baked because they dry out a bit. I think this is true. I baked on Friday evening and constructed on Saturday morning and they did seem drier. I threw together a very thick custard filling that seemed to do the trick and piped it in about two dozen profiteroles.

At this point it was toffee time. I followed a recipe of sugar, glucose syrup and water and boiled until it started changing colour. I then dipped the top of each profiterole, without incident, and put them aside.

Finally it was time to construct. I was fairly confident, even though I didn't have a mould. Since the tower I was making wasn't that big, I thought I'd be fine. With the bottom layer down - the ground work you might say - it was time to put to work all that icy pole stick construction practice I'd had during various team building exercises over the years. Not quite the same thing but it still involved gluing somewhat unwieldy objects together to form a recognisable shape. And this is where it got nasty.

While dipping the bottom of a profiterole in molten sugar, I managed to drip some onto my right index finger. (Being right handed I could hardly have picked a worse spot for a bad burn.) It's true - molten sugar is very sticky and and very, very hot. And you can't stick your finger in your mouth for instant relief because you'll burn your mouth and hurt for hours in two places at once.

I don't recall swearing. I didn't cry. I stuck said finger under cold running water. In fact, I spent most of the rest of the day with a container of cold water at the ready for finger dunking. What didn't help was re-burning it later on when I went to get a hot tray out of the oven. I'm pretty sure I swore on that occasion. Ladybug certainly got a fright. I'm also pretty sure that I could just about pinpoint the spot in my brain where I felt some sort of chemical release every time I stuck my finger back into the cold water and relief washed over me. It was weird and strangely satisfying.

Besides the huge blister, I now have a sense of achievement and a healthier respect for hot sugar.

Oh, and Tim has offered to buy me special heat proof gloves, just in case I try this again. He's so thoughtful.

The most revolting dish ever devised

2009-07-29T20:47:00.011+10:00

I recently read an article about Elizabeth David and the fact that she would scrawl notes in recipe books that reflected her thoughts on the recipe and/or its creator. Let me tell you, she did not hold back.

I've never really gotten into her work and don't own anything by her, although I've read bits and pieces about her as a woman who was passionately interested in food. It seems that she was adventurous, loved Mediterranean cooking, abhorred a lot of the old English cooking traditions, and was quite forthright with her opinions. I think she also came along at the right time, before the masses knew what prosciutto and arborio rice and verjuice were. But that is how history is made.

In any case, I don't disagree with her view of the most revolting dish ever devised. I can safely say that I will never, ever try this one. Not even just to see for myself. I can also safely say that having spent most of my life around Italian cooking, I have never, ever come across anything like this. But you be the judge...

Angelina's lemonade scones

2009-07-25T08:07:00.005+10:00

Scones are a unique part of any Aussie childhood. They're one of those things that every kid remembers someone in particular being pretty good at. Often it's grandmothers who do the scone thing well. I had ethnic grandmothers and neither were into scones. Well, one wasn't into cooking much at all, but the other one was and I guarantee she never cooked a scone in her life. Mum, on the other hand, has always made a killer scone. She says her secret is sour cream. Let me confess that I've tried the sour cream trick and it's not that simple.

The problem is that the humble scone is so deceptively simple looking. Made from a few basic ingredients, it doesn't seem like anyone could ever possibly get it wrong. Well I've had the unfortunate experience of trying many a hard, or dry, or bicarb laced scone in my time. These versions of the humble scone are rarely pleasant and often barely edible.

It seems to take a special touch to have a scone come out with a light texture that lets it break open from the middle, properly risen without half a box of bicarb, and just sweet enough without being sickly. A good scone involves getting some air into the flour and not over-working the dough. In my experience, very few people manage this.

One young lady who can is Angelina, the daughter of a friend of mine. Angelina's mum kindly shared her recipe for lemonade scones with me, assuring me that they work every time. Now I can't eat them, but last weekend I had a houseful of Canadians keen for the Aussie experience. I gave them a go and true enough, they worked beautifully with minimal effort. But then maybe that's the thing with scones - keep it minimal? Whatever the case, I recommend this brilliant little recipe. Thanks Angelina!

Ingredients

4 cups self raising flour

300 ml cream

1 can lemonade

1/2 tsp salt

It's simple - mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Once properly combined, turn the mixture out onto a floured bench and gently knead until everything is sticking together well. This should not take long. Don't over-work the mixture or your scones will come out tough.

You can roll the dough out, although I just eased mine gently into a flat shape. Using a cookie cutter, cut rounds out and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cook at 200ºC for about 15-20 minutes until brown. Serve hot with butter and jam, or cold with jam and cream.

Note: I glazed mine with a little milk & egg but it's not strictly necessary.

Winners are grinners!

2009-07-23T20:33:00.003+10:00

Thanks everyone who voted for me in Take 5 magazine over the last week. The good news is that it was not in vain. I got a call this afternoon telling me that I won the Reader's Choice prize.

Tim and I are both thrilled and pretty excited about it, not only for the neat prizes, but because it's our first foray into the world of competitive cooking.

We won some Kitchen Aid appliances (my all time favourite kind) and a Breville grill. Not bad! Together with the Royal Doulton cooking and serving gear we nabbed, our kitchen is going to be better fitted out than I ever expected it would be. It's just brilliant and we really appreciated everyone who took the time to make the call.

There will be some sort of follow up story in next week's edition for those who are interested.

Thanks again!!!

Inspired by the Tour

2009-07-21T19:33:00.002+10:00

Tim loves cycling and every year when the Tour de France rolls around, I wind up staying up late on lots of nights to watch with him. Of course, I'm not as hard core a fan as Tim, but I do ok.

One thing I really love about the race is the incredible shots of the scenery, especially the overhead stuff. The green fields, the sunflowers, the blue skies and the amazing chateaus and other centuries-old buildings just make me want to throw caution to the wind, apply for all my leave at once and spend an idyllic summer in the French countryside.

Imagine learning to cook in some little town, and then wiling away the afternoons lying in the sun, magazine in one hand and a glass of red in the other. Or proper champagne. Sigh...

Since I can't have that, I've been cooking a lot of French, or French inspired things over the last few weeks. My favourite is probably beef bourguignon. I cooked this on Friday night for some friends from Canada. Shortly before they arrived, Tim informed me that one was a proper French Canadian and I had a slight stroke. He wasn't and the meal was good anyway so it would have been a moot point.

My second favourite is something of my own - French green lentils with smoked pork & chorizo. (I know, chorizo is Spanish, but it works!)

What I love about this dish (besides being incredibly easy to make) is the wholesome, comforting feeling it brings. First, it bubbles slowly on the stove until the meat just about falls of the hock and all of the flavours are infused. Then, you get to eat it really warm with some crusty home made spelt bread and creamy butter. Heavenly on a cold winter night! Tim went back to the pot four times so I consider it a success.

Ingredients

2 cups French green lentils

1 smoked pork hock

2 raw Spanish chorizo

175g French shallots, peeled (just over a cup)

1 lt stock (beef or vegetable)

olive oil

3 bay leaves

about 10 sage leaves

2 tsp sweet paprika

In a decent splash of olive oil, just brown the chorizo and onions together. Add the stock and then the rest of the ingredients.

Cook slowly until the meat is tender and you can gently tease it off the hock. This shouldn't actually take too long - perhaps an hour or so. The beauty of the French green lentils is that they really maintain their shape and texture with cooking and don't go all mushy like I've seen the brown sort do.

When the meat is tender, take the hock out of the pot and remove the meat. This should come off really easily but you'll need to slice it into manageable pieces. Put the whole lot back into the pot. Stir, taste and add salt and black pepper. Don't be too hasty with the salt though. You don't want to mask all the other lovely flavours, and there is a lot of salt in the meats already. If you wind up putting in too much salt, try adding a little lemon juice.

Australia's Best Home Chef?

2009-07-15T23:21:00.007+10:00

You be the judge!

I have made it to the dizzy heights of top 5 finalists in the Take 5 Magazine competition to find Australia's best home chef.

Now it may not be Masterchef, but then there's no public meltdowns, war of the words or sucking up to the judges involved. Just straight cooking. And, I'd really like to win!

There are two categories of winner - judges choice and reader's choice. To vote for me, you can ring 1902 554 994 or SMS 199 54994. Voting code is 55.

Voting ends on Tuesday at midnight (or does that make it Wednesday?)

Fingers crossed...

Classic Aussie Trifle

2009-07-12T18:07:00.010+10:00

The new kitchen, and especially the beautiful stove, has inspired me to start cooking again in earnest. Looking through my mother's trusty black covered 'Good Housekeeping' that was the only cook book I remember growing up with, I thought I'd branch out into the wonderful world of of Swiss rolls. How hard could it be, I asked myself?

I managed to come up with an edible version of a basic jam-filled Swiss roll from spelt flour (I didn't want to be left out), but I wasn't thrilled. They're such dry cakes and unless you pull them out of the oven at exactly the right moment and then move quickly, they crack and don't roll properly and generally suck. No problem. That's what trifles were invented for - to make dry cake appear appealing.

Is trifle an Aussie invention? I always assumed it was. What other country could bring together jelly, custard, cream, fruit and alcohol in such a horrific fashion??? Brought out every hot summer holiday, it was the bane of my existence as a kid. I hated it. I hated the smell of it, the cheap, mock-cream filled Swiss rolls soaked in far too much sweet sherry, covered in tinned fruit, jelly and sweet, sweet cream. YUCK!!! Thank God (and I sincerely mean that) my mother never made trifle. It was just that every single other mum, aunt and neighbour did, clearly labouring under the false impression that trifle was the height of sophisticated desserts and should be served as often as possible to kids who must politely accept man-sized portions slopped into plastic dishes, or risk being considered spoiled and badly mannered. Sigh...

Taking inspiration from some old recipes, I put a decent trifle together, although I opted for individual glasses, instead of throwing the whole lot together in a large bowl. Although, you could do that if you like it the old-school, hope it stays together while you're serving, look. Tim, my mum and I have enjoyed trifle this time around. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Ingredients

1 packet Aeroplane jelly crystals, raspberry flavour

1 large jam filled Swiss roll

600ml thickened cream

1/4 cup sherry (actually I was out of sherry and used Dubonet)

1/4 cup custard powder

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1 large can peach slices, drained (825g)

1 punnet strawberries

flaked, toasted almonds to garnish

Make up the jelly as instructed and pop it in the fridge until it starts to set but can still be poured. Make up the custard by placing the custard powder with a little milk and the sugar in a small pan and stir into a paste. Then add the rest of the milk and bring to the boil, slowly, without burning. Take off the heat and cool a bit. When cool, stir in 1/2 cup of the cream. Whip the remaining cream until stiff.

Cut 6 slices of Swiss roll, about 2 cm thick each. Place one slice each in 6 large glasses or individual sweet bowls. (Alternatively, you can make this up in one large bowl). Gently spoon some alcohol onto each slice of cake. Pour the jelly over each slice of cake and place back in the fridge until properly set.

When the jelly is set, arrange the peach slices on top . Pour over the custard, followed by a generous helping of whipped cream. Place sliced strawberries and toasted almonds on top.

Truffle Festival

2009-07-08T21:42:00.004+10:00

Just a quick spot of news as I settle into the new kitchen (read: madly clean up because the outlaws are coming to dinner tomorrow night). The Australian Capital Country Truffle Festival is on. I'd love to do a cooking class, but we'll see how we go. I'd love to hear from anyone who has taken part in events or classes.

Out with the old...

2009-07-04T09:29:00.009+10:00

It's finally happening - the new kitchen is here! Well that is, it's sitting on a tarp in the dining room, waiting to be installed. I don't care! It brings me one step closer to having a functioning space to work in. It's all shiny and new and covered in protective plastic and looking like it will make me very happy, once it's in. I can't wait. Step by step, it's taking shape.

The picutre above is of the old (clean) kitchen, ready to be demolished, with the new one sitting in the background. Note the sexy 1970's overhanging shelves. Some thoughtful design there. (!)

Bizarrely enough, I found myself cleaning the bench tops shortly before the demolition guy arrived. I know! Ridiculous but I blame my mother's influence on me for that one. I mean, one wouldn't want the demolition guy thinking one was a grot! (I won't describe the demolition guy, but suffice it to say that I don't think he would have noticed an un-wiped bench).

The rip-out happened yesterday morning. I can't help but think that it must be many a young bloke's dream job. Crow bars, large hammers and other heavy instruments were involved, and there was a lot of loud noise and chucking of stuff about carelessly because it's not like it matters if it gets broken.

At this juncture, I think it's only fair to share pictures of some of the contact shelf lining that will most definitely not be missed. c 1973?

Next, the plumber arrived to do plumbing related stuff. All good, although when he got the blow torch out and fired it up, without so much as a set of protective glasses or gloves in sight, I just had to walk away, close the door behind me and hope for the best.

The sparky was great. He pointed out that it was going to cost $64 to move a perfectly placed and functioning power point from one spot to another. He kindly offered me the choice of not agreeing to this and saving said $64. What a good bloke!

Finally, at around 5.30pm, the plasterer arrived. Not that impressed with the rip-out guy's work, he decided enough was enough and he'd be back on Sunday morning to take care of things. OK...

So I anticipate my weekend will be spent pottering about the place, trying not to get in anyone's way and occasionally making a cuppa for the men who are charged with making me more happy than I've ever been in that kitchen! It's worth it.

Here's what we're currently left with:

New Vegemite!!!

2009-06-30T18:49:00.005+10:00

Apparently we are about to experience a whole new Vegemite! This is the first I've heard of it, but then I have had my head under a rock lately (metaphorically speaking of course). We're supposedly in for a smoother, creamier taste in a different jar that will be available from this Sunday. I will definitely lose sleep over this one...

Photo courtesy of AAP

Roast pork with fennel & figs

2009-06-29T20:59:00.004+10:00

Bizarre sounding combination? Perhaps, but it works. And it's totally simple.

Get whatever cut of pork you like. I was after something on the bone but couldn't find one I liked, so I used a boneless rolled roast. Cut some slits in the skin. For crispy pork skin, rub it down with lemon juice first. Don't use the bottled stuff. Actually grab yourself a lemon and juice it. Then rub the lot down with salt, making sure you get some salt into any cuts in the pork skin.

Place the pork in a roasting pan, throw in some dried figs, quartered fresh fennel and unpeeled garlic cloves. The quantities aren't all that important so long as you make sure you've got enough for everyone. Drizzle the fennel and figs with some olive oil and season with some salt & pepper. You can also drizzle some lemon juice on them. Don't oil up the pork or it won't go crispy. Cook covered, and then uncover and let the pork skin crisp up. You might need to take your veg out so it doesn't burn. Turn the heat up and watch it crackle.

This is really good served with roast veg and gravy, or just pan juices. Don't be put off if you've never used fennel either. It has such a delicate flavour that goes well with the sweetness of the figs and the saltiness of the pork. You probably couldn't transfer the combination to beef or lamb, but it could work with a nice fish, like barramundi.

Oh, and excuse the slackness over the last couple of weeks. I've joined the ranks of people with a dose of winter flu, so toast has played a pretty major role on the menu. Not really blog-worthy though...

When good pannacotta goes bad

2009-06-23T17:36:00.004+10:00

Our great mate Nathan (aka Dr Dootlittle) has long told stories of how easy pannacotta is to make. He wheels the stuff out at every possible opportunity he gets. (I mean, we all love the stuff, but nobody likes a showoff!!!) Convinced that it was easy and that it would taste brilliant and photograph beautifully, I tried. Sadly, I failed. In fact, I failed miserably.

My pannacotta came out more like a moulded mound of mashed potato. It's like ice cream that isn't icy. Or cream that has somehow managed to solidify during mid-whip. There is no wobble. In fact, if it's possible to make a stodgy pannacotta, I managed it. Perhaps that's an achievement in itself?

So there it sits, in my fridge, untouched by Tim who usually wouldn't be put off by something like a dessert that doesn't wobble like it's meant to. In fact, he won't even photograph the stuff. He did very helpfully suggest that we pop it into the freezer and pass it off as ice cream. He meant well.

And with bruised ego, I leave this post here and will resort to Lindt for dessert this week.

Winter weekend warmer

2009-06-19T15:55:00.008+10:00

I know I've been a bit slack with the blogging lately. It's been for the usual reasons - someone did not create enough hours in the day!!!

In the last two weeks, Fleur and Dave's wedding has come and gone, I've managed to finish a major project at work, and we're finally on the path to getting the new kitchen. There's actually been a lot of good cooking and eating along the way, but just no time to share and even less sleep. In fact, I think I'm now over-tired because it's 1 am and I can't sleep. Why not blog?

This is one of my new favourites - chunky chorizo pasta sauce. It's warm, it's chunky, it's comforting and it's really easy to do. And it's gluten free. It's all good. Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients. Once you've washed & chopped, it takes very little time to throw it all together. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days and goes well with rice, although I really enjoyed this on toast as well.

More from me soon, but for now, here's a recipe.

Ingredients

2x raw Spanish chorizo (about 250g), sliced

3 cups skinned & diced eggplant (about 1 medium sized eggplant)

400g can pureed tomatoes

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 1/4 cup diced zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp hot chilli powder (optional)

salt to taste

1 packet of linguine pasta

Pour about a third of the olive oil into a pan and over a medium heat, fry the chorizo slices until brown. Sprinkle the paprika in during this process. Put the chorizo aside in a bowl when cooked.

Pour the rest of the olive oil into the pan and soften the onion. Add the garlic and eggplant and fry until the eggplant starts to soften and brown. This won’t take long. Add the zucchini and diced fresh tomatoes and fry for another couple of minutes, moving around the pan with a wooden spoon.

Add the remaining ingredients, except for the salt and chilli, and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Don’t overcook or the vegetables will go mushy. Stir the cooked chorizo through.

At this point, have a taste and add some salt if needed and the chilli powder if you’re using it. Serve sauce on pasta with parmesan if you like it, although you really don't need it. There's so much flavour going on in this one without it.

OK. Probably time to try sleeping again.

Say it with pie

2009-06-06T20:18:00.008+10:00

Tim travelled most of this week which meant lots of plane food, conference centre food and possibly one decent dinner. I knew after days on the road (or in the air) he'd like to walk up the driveway, interest piqued by the smell of dinner wafting out into the night, before stepping into a warm house to be greeted by wife and dog.

I also knew that he'd be after something simple, comforting and substantial, so I presented him with a proper meat pie. You know the type I mean? The kind with actual meat in them, thoughtfully marinated in red wine & herbs, gently cooked with choice vegetables and finally married to puff pastry in a brilliant combination which makes the meat pie a national food icon (sadly). Well this is what he got, and judging by the empty pie dish left in the sink afterwards, I think he enjoyed it.

Go the leftover pastry!

Chocolate tart

2009-06-02T18:10:00.002+10:00

The memories of my weekend of excesses has not died away just yet. I've been caught looking wistfully through my window at work, thinking of three pleasant days spent going to markets, eating, and chilling out with friends we hardly ever see. Chocolate plays a big part in these memories.

The chocolate tart I made really takes the cake. (Does that even make sense???) I got the recipe for the filling from 'The Naked Chef' by Jamie Oliver. He calls it Simple Chocolate Tart. It is simple. Simple but effective if you're after that slightly stunned silence as people take the first bite and don't know quite what alternate universe they've fallen into where creamy chocolate rules the world and nobody worries about desserts being fattening. The awed expressions of your guests alone should make this one worthwhile. Not to mention the satisfaction of melting mouthful after mouthful until you feel like you shouldn't eat any more but can't help yourself because it's just so damned good...

Ingredients

1 tart shell, baked blind (or just go buy one)

315 ml double cream

2 level teaspoons caster sugar

smallest pinch of salt

115g butter, softened

455g best quality cooking chocolate

110ml milk

cocoa powder for dusting

Place the double cream, sugar and pinch of salt in a pan and bring to the boil. As soon as it has boiled, remove from the heat and add the butter and chocolate. Stir until it has completely melted. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, stirring in the cold milk until smooth and shiny. Sometimes this mixture looks like it has split. Allow to cool down a bit more and whisk in a little extra cold milk until smooth. Scrape all the mixture into the cooked and cooled pastry shell with a spatula. Shake the tart to even it out and allow to cool for around 1-2 hours until it is at room temperature. Dust with cocoa powder. The filling should be smooth and cut like butter.

And it did...

Now I made the pastry shell but not using Jamie's recipe. The filling is what makes this amazing. Definitely a sometimes food, and totally worth it.

Another fabulous weekend

2009-05-31T16:20:00.006+10:00

What a super-cool weekend! Unfortunately it's over. Our UK friends Jayne, Darren & Lucie are on their way to Sydney and it's Sunday night which means it's time to iron shirts, polish shoes and decide what to eat this week. (Not that eating has been an issue this weekend. Frankly, I've eaten for the nation and with Fleur and Dave's wedding less than two weeks away, and me wearing satin for the occasion (bridesmaid duty) I could be in trouble! Nothing is so unforgiving as satin.)

This morning we went off to the Bus Depot markets in Kingston and I walked away with free range eggs, spelt bread, finger-puppets for the nephews in England and a plant I can't remember the name of. There's plenty of new stuff there since we last went (probably over a year ago) and quite a nice vibe with live music on the top level. It was busy and lots of fun, but you can feel that winter really is here now so rug up if you're heading down there.

Anyway, it has been a wonderful weekend full of good food, company and conversation. Inspired and well-fed, I've finally tried using the Flickr mosaic tool for something different. Little Lucie has been the star of the show, and what a great baby she is. Ladybug has been very nice about it all. And now it's back to reality...

1. Chocolate scrolls 2. Lucie helps Nathan with dinner 3. Hand made biscuits 4. Beautiful yarns 5. Hand made pasta 6. Bread 7. Ladybug is over it 8. 'World Wide Knit in Public Day' advertisement in Civic 9. Felt finger puppets 10. Olives 11. Jayne & Lucie shop 12. Chocolate tart 13. Bagels 14. Free range eggs 15. Lucie before her babychino arrived

Sometimes Food

2009-05-30T13:55:00.004+10:00

This really has been a 'sometimes food' weekend. As I sit here blogging and ebaying, I've polished off a lunch of leftovers, including half a chocolate twister bread roll, a sliver of chocolate tart and some cold arancini with dip. YUM!

To put this into context, I spent a lot of yesterday cooking. Tim and I both had the day off to await the arrival of our good friends Darren and Jayne from the UK. Oh, and let's not forget little Lucy who Ladybug just doesn't quite get. We think she thinks Lucy isn't exactly a person like mum and dad are, but more like some weird kind of hairless dog complete with her own cool toys that she doesn't like to share. All at once the new kong isn't cutting it. But I digress...

Besides the usual pre-houseguest cleaning and shopping, I made a whole lot of food for the weekend. Last night we also had the lovely Penny and Nathan over. The following was served: antipasto plate of char grilled artichokes, baked ricotta, baba ganouch and arancini, followed by a pot roast and baked veg. If that wasn't enough food, we had chocolate tart and vanilla ice cream to finish up.. Even the blokes were struggling so I consider it a job well done.

This was after I'd made chocolate twister bread from Jamie Oliver's 'Return of the Naked Chef' recipe book, for afternoon tea. Another 'sometimes food' that has gone down extremely well. The premise is to take a basic bread dough recipe, roll it out, spread it with butter and then sprinkle chopped up chocolate and nuts. It's then rolled into one big sausage-like roll, and carefully chopped into rounds. These are baked to perfection. The result is heaven.

I won't go through the basic bread recipe because it's quite long. It's a great recipe all on it's own, and I used spelt as usual too. Here are the ingredients for the chocolate part.

200g soft butter (although I used slightly less)

200g hazelnuts (although I only had 150g almond meal available)

310 g dark chocolate

I put the chocolate and almond meal in the food processor and whazzed it up pretty well. It was just out of sheer laziness but it worked.

See pages 222-3 and 226 of The Return of the Naked Chef if you want Jamie's instructions.

Morning Tea Alert!!!

2009-05-24T13:35:00.009+10:00

Last week was so full-on work wise that I didn't have a lot of time for creativity. Even the prospect of the big staff morning tea on Friday morning didn't raise my interest and I felt a bit underwhelmed by the thought of baking of Thursday night. So, I found myself doing something I rarely do - I reached for a packet of store bought muffin mix. You know the kind - one of those big packs with several varieties of muffin in it. In my defence, I'd bought it months ago, on special, for just such an emergency situation. Imagine my surprise when I found only one lonely, small packet of plain dry mix left inside the box! No chocolate chips, chocolate batter mix or icing in sight. I turned to Tim, speechless. He had the decency to blush.

I work in one of those offices that has an 'all-staff' do once every month or so, I think. I can't keep up to be honest, and usually just show up to hear the boss say a few words before leaving the obligatory supermarket lamingtons, french onion dip and cheezles for the I.T. boys and anyone else desperate enough to go there. That sounds a bit snobby I suppose, but really it's just self-preservation. Mostly there isn't anything gluten free and I'm not going to be sick for two days for the sake of networking with people I already know.

On this occasion it was my branch's turn to provide the nosh. Thankfully we have some excellent cooks among us including an ex-caterer. No pressure at all. I kept it simple - mini cupcakes and date loaf. The abundance of home-made fare was, for the first time in my history of the office, noted during aforesaid boss's speech. We all felt pretty proud of ourselves. There were several home-made cheese cakes, key lime pie, hot and cold dips, cupcakes, loafs, fresh spring rolls, brownies and more. Altogether a fantastic spread and barely a shop-bought item in sight.

Where does that leave things now, recipe wise? Well yesterday I came up with a recipe for gluten-free, roast vegetable lasagna that I'm quite proud of. But that's a recipe for later this week. Right now I have to get back to erasing any evidence of one of the all-time worst home paint jobs in the history of mankind. I think the previous owner laboured under the mistaken belief that one coat of the cheapest paint they could lay their hands on, in a shade that can only be described as homicidal-pink, applied haphazardly from ceiling to floor (including skirting board!!!) would make a classy feature wall and significantly raise the value of the house. Sigh...

Poached mandarins

2009-05-17T20:04:00.010+10:00

Mandarins are in season and boy are they nice at the moment! They're sweet, compact and smell gorgeous. They're also such a convenient fruit - no need for a washing or a knife, no drips or spills even with a juicy one, and each little segment always comes away so beautifully in a bite-sized piece. Altogether a satisfying design.

We've been eating a lot of them au naturale of late, but I thought I'd try something different for dessert and poach them. Now these worked really well and are so simple to make, but I learned two important things in the process: first, star anise may be small but it packs a punch in the flavour and aroma departments so go easy on it; second, mandarins can be surprisingly delicate creatures.

My solution is not to use more than one star anise at a time, and not to poach mandarins for longer than about 15-20 minutes, at a gentle simmer only. They can sit in the warm syrup for a while and infuse longer that way. Also handle with care when serving.

Now about the spice in this - star anise is that little bit edgier and different and lends a whole other dimension to a dish, but I appreciate that it is an acquired taste. Even the fragrance is quite strong and can be overwhelming. If you're definitely not a star anise fan, cinnamon would go just as well with these flavours. If you don't know, just try it. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

Ingredients:

4 whole mandarins, skins off

3/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup dry vermouth

1/4 cup orange blossom water*

1 star anise (or one cinnamon stick if you hate star anise)

tiny pinch of saffron threads

In a pan that's big enough to hold four mandarins without cramping them, but not too big, place all of the ingredients except the mandarins. Stir for a minute or two over medium heat to dissolve the sugar.

When the sugar is dissolved, or mostly so, turn the heat right down, place the mandarins in and pour over enough water to just cover. Very gently simmer for no more than about 20 minutes. The fruit should be soft, but not the mushy consistency of baby food or in danger of falling apart when you lift it out.

Gingerly remove the mandarins and star anise and set aside. (Actually, you can thrown the star anise out unless you want to use it as a decoration and photograph your efforts.) Bring the liquid to a boil and boil it rapidly until it reduces and thickens into a decent syrup.

Serve mandarins cold or hot with syrup poured over the top, and a dollop of double-cream or scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or on their own if you like.

*You can find orange blossom water at Middle Eastern grocers. There's a good one in Mawson if you're in Canberra.

Double Choc-Cherry Friands

2009-05-12T19:17:00.005+10:00

My mum's favourite sweet is friands. I can live with that. As a Mother's Day treat, I came up with this version.

I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. They're fragrant, sweet, moist and altogether delectable. They're filled with little surprises in the form of dark chocolate chips and succulent dark cherries. They look good and decadent. Actually, I'm surprised I had anything left to photograph. And on that note, one half of the team was missing, so I definitely DON'T rate my photo on this occasion. But you get the point. It's a friand.

Ingredients

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup good quality cocoa

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 cup (100g) almond meal

100g dark chocolate, chopped

5 egg whites

180g butter, melted

425g can pitted cherries, drained and halved

Extra melted butter for greasing tins

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 200ºC. Brush a dozen friand moulds with melted butter.

Sift the flour, icing sugar and cocoa into a large bowl. Stir in the almond meal and chocolate, followed by the cherries. In a different bowl, whisk the eggs until they're frothy. You can do this with a whisk or a fork. Then fold it through the dry ingredients. Next, stir in the vanilla and melted butter until just combined. Be a bit gentle.

Spoon the mix into the moulds. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the friands rise a bit and spring back to the touch. When you pull them out of the oven, let them cool for about five minutes before you try removing them from the moulds. You might need to very gently and gingerly run a knife around the edge of each mould. Serve however you like, warm or cold.

Mother's Day Morsels

2009-05-10T12:26:00.004+10:00

Is Mother's Day another Hallmark special? I don't know and I couldn't be bothered Googling it's origins. Whatever it is, I reckon it's about best of a bunch of thinly veiled commercially motivated occasions. We all have mothers, after all. Mine happens to be the best. She really is. No competition. Actually I often wonder how she stayed sane with five kids and my particular brand of father. She's the best mother-in-law too, according to Tim, whose catch cry whenever there's any sort of family debate is "you're either with Christiana, or you're against her." It's just that simple. Anyhow, I won't rave about my mum any longer. She's great.

Needless to say, it's a special day for a lot of us and a chance to express love and appreciation in whatever form works for you. I choose Oil of Ulan (yes, I know it's Olay now, but when I was a kiddie it was Ulan and will forever be known as Ulan to my mum) and baked goods. It's what I do best.

Mum's not a great sweet-tooth but she loves friands. I got up early this morning and made her favourite kind - double-chocolate and cherry friands. (Photos and recipe in the next post). Yesterday I also made these little morsels. They're just tiny vanilla cakes, baked in a mini-muffin tin and iced liberally with drippy pink icing and a raspberry lolly. So simple, so pretty, so mum.

Happy Mother's Day!

A very veggie kind of week #2

2009-05-07T17:57:00.003+10:00

Well I did say I was craving veg this week. Actually today I had an absolutely beautiful salad for lunch at "As You Like It" which is what I always used to call the Street Theatre cafe, since that's where it is. With colleagues I really like, we dined on a range of tasty treats, washed down with champagne we didn't mean to order. It worked, but I felt a bit fuzzy going back to the office. Thank God for Earl Grey.

Anyway, the current issue of Delicious has an Italian focus. I love Italian food. I grew up with it and I'll enjoy discovering new Italian dishes until the day I die. I saw a recipe for eggplant parmigiana with buffalo mozzarella and thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately I didn't have quite all of the ingredients and it served 8-10 people which is way too much parmigiana for this household without company present. And even then... So I compromised - slightly changed the herbs, used spelt and cut back the quantities. And this is what I came up with - eggplant parmigiana, suburban style.

I have to say, even my little carnivore who only eats veg at my insistence, loved this and wasn't impressed when I got to the last piece before he did.

Ingredients:

Two large eggplant, washed and cut into 1cm rounds

1 cup spelt flour (or whatever plain flour really)

2 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves

2 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves

2 free range eggs

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 x 400g peeled tomatoes, pureed

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

280g mozzarella, sliced

Put the eggplant in a colander in layers, sprinkle liberally with salt at each layer and let stand for 15 minutes. Rinse well, pat dry with paper towel.

Preheat oven to 190ºC and olive oil a deepish baking dish.

Place the flour in a shallow dish, together with the chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Stir well. In a second shallow dish, lightly beat the eggs with a tablespoon of water. Dip each slice of eggplant in the flour, shake a bit, then in egg. Place them on lined baking trays in a single layer and sprinkle with garlic. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked.

In the oiled baking dish, layer a third of the eggplant. Cover with a third of the tomato, Parmesan and mozzarella. Repeat until it's all used. Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbling. You can start by covering the top with foil and removing it about half an hour in so that it browns last. Serve hot or cold.

Now if you want the original recipe, you'll find it in this month's Delicious on page 88.

A very veggie kind of week

2009-05-05T19:52:00.005+10:00

Sometimes you just want, nay - need, a lot of veg. This is such a week for me, much to the Ladybug's disgust. (She counts on choice tidbits whenever possible). Such is my desire for veg that today I even ordered chicken prahram without the chicken.

Inspired by the latest issue of Delicious, I thought I'd try something new - schiacciatta as the Italians call it. Broccoli pie for the rest of us. Now you may find yourself asking: 'Why? Why, oh why would anyone put broccoli in a pie?' It's a good question and I can only imagine that at the time it was invented, the inventor was met with as much enthusiasm as I was when I suggested a sort of breakfast pie. (I still don't think it sounds that bad.)

I have to admit if someone sprung this on me as a concept, without visuals, I'd be dubious. Having seen it in the magazine, I was more hopeful. It looked good, and turns out that it is. The flavours are simple and clean, it's easy to make and it works well cold for lunch the next day. In one shot, the pastry has become my favourite pastry recipe ever. I used the leftover to make a killer calzone. Even my favourite carnivore gave it two thumbs up. So from page 127-128 of this month's Delicious, I give you schiacciatta.

Ingredients:

3 heads broccoli, trimmed & thinly sliced

6 spring onions, thinly sliced

100g parmesan cheese

1/2 cup (125ml) olive oil, plus 3 tbsp extra

6 anchovy fillets (optional) - but I really recommend this. It adds that little something.

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional) - again, just do it!!!

Dough

30g fresh yeast or 2 x 7g sachets dried

2tsp sugar

700g plain flour

100ml plain flour (naturally I used spelt flour)

100ml olive oil

For dough, crumple fresh yeast into 3/4 cup (185ml) water and add sugar. Stir until yeast dissolves. (If using dried, mix water with sugar then sprinkle with yeast) Leave it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until frothy.

Sift flour and 2-3 tsp salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in yeast mixture, add oil and 3/4 cup (185ml) lukewarm water. Mix well with your hands. If it's too dry, add a little more water or if too wet, more flour.

Knead dough in bowl until soft and elastic - sprinkle with a little flour if too sticky. Roll dough into a ball. Cover with a damp tea towel. Stand in a warm lace for 1 1/2 hours to double in size.

Preheat oven to 190º C. Put broccoli, onion, parmesan, oil, anchovies and chilli and some salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix well with your hands.

Halve the dough and roll out one piece to the same size as a baking dish about 30cm x 35cm. Brush some extra oil over the dish, then line with dough, using your fingers to stretch it out to cover the base. Spread the broccoli on the dough, leaving a border.

Roll out the second piece of dough and place on top of the broccoli. Seal edges well by pinching dough - the steam trapped inside will cook the broccoli. Brush top with oil. Bake 1 - 1 1/4 hours until light golden. Rest for at least 30 minutes, then serve warm or cold.

Just a couple of things: If you really wanted to avoid making the pastry from scratch, you could try puff. But this is just so easy and so delicious that you should give it a go. Second, I brushed the edges with water & stuck the lid on by pressing the edges with a fork and cutting away the excess. No pinching for me.

Filled mocha cake

2009-05-03T17:46:00.010+10:00

One night last week, something caught my eye on my bookshelf. It was a compilation of recipes clipped mostly from magazines and newspapers, held together in a cut-down manila folder and tied with a piece of string. I found it years ago in my mother's garage, apparently inherited from a late relative.

I'd never used anything in it before, but could never bear to throw it away. I guess I see it as a sort of time capsule representing the efforts of some distant person, long gone, in their personal culinary journey. I can imagine them sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and scotch-finger biscuit, kids at school, cleaning done. Finally time for leafing through the latest woman's magazine, a real treat, and scissors nearby in case they found anything interesting or that was bound to come in handy. Presumably, only the most worthy clippings made it into the folder.

When I think about it, it's not so different from the scrap books of recipes that I keep. And there's the link. But that's where it stops.

The recipes are fairly ordinary stuff, befitting their era. There are recipes for salmon mornay quiche, noodle and sausage casserole and Montana Mom's Dynamite Cheesecake, amongst other horrors that were no doubt considered very sophisticated throughout the 70's and early 80's.

There are even some handy hints stashed amongst the recipes. For example, Mrs Gladys.S. of Merrylands writes "if you crochet face washers and hand towels around the outside, not only will they look pretty, but they will last twice as long." Or Mrs W of Kranton's pearl of wisdom:"save the plastic egg-shaped containers that pavlova mix comes in. They make excellent gift containers for birthdays or Christmas." Hmm.....

The compiler of this collection must have sent away for a few promotional pamphlets too, like one from the Bingo Custard Powder company or Bourneville Cocoa. It was something on the cocoa pamphlet that grabbed me - a recipe for spiced cheese cake that you're meant to either use a fancy ring tin for or a slab cake tin and cut into diamond shapes. (!)

I decided the filling sounded good, so I'd do something around that. I came up with a mocha-ish cake, based on the Bourneville cake recipe. I used a sour cream mocha icing and praline coated walnuts to top it off. I've always thought that coffee and walnuts go together really well. I know the extra sugar in the praline probably isn't necessary, but it's so very good, I recommend going that further step. As usual, I see no problem with swapping the spelt for regular flour.

I really like this one for a change. It's been ages since I haven't used proper chocolate in the cake, so it's not as sweet as the last few cakes I've made. The walnuts make up for it and the slightly burnt sugar taste works beautifully. The sugar isn't actually burnt, it just has that deep flavour to it. The cheese filling in the middle is an excellent contrast - light, very slightly tart, and spiced with cinnamon. Tim is certainly happy with the result. He has asked me outright to hide it, lest it disappears overnight. Not a bad endorsement.

Ingredients:

Cake:

125g butter, room temp

3/4 cup soft brown sugar

3 eggs

1 cup spelt, sifted with 2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp coffee powder

Filling:

250g soft cream cheese (I used Philly 60% less fat)

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp cinnamon

Walnuts:

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1/2 cup caster sugar

Cake: Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg, one at a time, mixing in between. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.

Filling: Blend all the ingredients until smooth.

In a round spring-form cake tin, spoon in half the cake mix and spread over the bottom of the tin. Spread the cheese mixture on top. It doesn't have to be totally even, but be a bit gentle because it's probably best that it doesn't hit the bottom of the tin. The spread the remaining cake on top. Bake for about 1 hour at 180ºC. When it's done, let it cool completely on a wire wrack.

Walnuts: heat the sugar in a pan, stirring until it becomes liquid. Take it off the heat immediately and working very quickly, mix in the walnuts and then pour or spoon the mixture onto a lined baking tray. Let it cool and harden and then chop into rough bits. Be really, really careful when working with molten sugar. It's the worst kind of burn. I got the tiniest drop in my finger and it hurt. A lot.

Frosting: I admit I didn't take down the icing ingredient quantities at the time, but here's what I did: I based it on a very basic butter cream icing recipe, but instead of any water or milk, I used sour cream. I threw probably about 2 cups of pure icing sugar in the mixer and mixed it dry to get rid of the lumps. (I was feeling lazy.) I then threw in about a tablespoon of butter and then about two tablespoons of lite sour cream. Add more icing sugar if it's too runny, or more sour cream if it's not. You'll figure it out. Once you get the consistency right, add a couple of tablespoons of cocoa and one of powdered instant coffee.

Ice the cake and sprinkle the walnuts on top liberally.

Perfect roses

2009-05-01T06:32:00.004+10:00

From time to time I run across non-food related information that I think is worth sharing. This time round, it's information about the florist who did our flowers for the wedding. People keep asking me where I got them. Well, where did I get them?

Based on recommendations from people I know at the office and otherwise, I tried a few different places to much disappointment with the level of service and cost. I've had too many friends feel disappointed with their bouquet, so I was feeling cautious.

This is where Chellie of CH Floral Designs came into the picture. Chellie was recommended to me by a friend with a super eye for detail, as someone who did beautiful flowers from home at a reasonable cost. With only six weeks to go before the wedding, I was willing to give her a try.

It went roughly like this: I emailed Chellie with a description and pictures of exactly what I had in mind. She emailed me back promptly, and telephoned for a chat. I was offered an appointment with her. I was feeling pretty confident, and frantically busy, so declined because she seemed to understand exactly what I wanted. She sent me pictures of two slightly different coloured red roses to choose from and bouquets that she'd done of the style I'd requested. We agreed on my bouquet, throw away, button holes for the men and corsages for the mothers and a very reasonable price. Closer to the day, she phoned to discuss the ribbon on the handle. All good.

On the day, Chellie arrived at my mother's house at the agreed time. I was blown away. The flowers were spectacular. They fulfilled every idea I'd had about them and were what I'd requested down to the last detail. My bouquet lasted so well throughout the night that it didn't look like it had been used. It lasted in a vase for almost two weeks. Tim's button hold dried perfectly over the next few weeks and I will keep it forever.

Comfort food

2009-04-29T19:51:00.003+10:00

Comfort food means different things to different people. To me, it means something either pasta or potato based. Tonight, I really needed comfort food. I won't bore you all with details about my less than eventful day spent pouring over files, making hand-written notes and constructing what is a cogent argument for presentation in the morning. Suffice it to say, I needed something quick, easy and that reminded me of those stress-free childhood days when mum happily (?!) slaved over a hot stove to produce authentic dishes for five kids and husband (variously categorised as a kid depending on who you ask).

But back to tonight, I really didn't feel up to mashing anything, so my all time favourite of mashed potatoes and butter was out. I resorted to pasta. Nothing high-faluting either. Not me. Not tonight. Nope, I went for the good, old fashioned, everyone's happy, easy to make spaghetti bolognese. Or spag bog as it's known on the street.

As an aside, I weighed in on a serious debate a while back with my friends Fleur and Dave. Dave likes chilli in his bog, and Fleur doesn't. I sat there, bemused, while both made compelling arguments for why you either should or shouldn't add this flavour enhancing ingredient. At this point they turned to me to cast a vote. Sadly for Fleur, I had to admit that I actually like a hint of chilli in my bog sauce. It's not that I like it loaded - no point not being able to taste the dish because your mouth is on fire - but just a hint is nice. Dave on the other hand I suspect, does like it loaded. But then Dave is Indian and grew up burning his taste buds off on his mother's brilliant Indian cooking. Really, it's up to you - add chilli; don't add chilli. Either way, a good spag bog rates as a fairly healthy and easy comfort meal.

Ingredients:

750g beef mince

1 x 400g tin tomatoes, pureed

1 x 140g tin tomato paste

1/2 brown onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

handful fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn

1 glass red wine (or whatever)

1 tbsp Hungarian style sweet paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

olive oil

salt to taste

chilli (optional)

Soften the onion in a generous splash of olive oil. Once it's looking soft and golden, add the garlic and the mince. Break the mince up with a wooden spoon so there are no large clumps. Once the mince has browned off slightly, add the tomatoes and tomato paste and stir it all together. Then add everything else. Simmer on the lowest heat until it's well cooked. Salt & chilli to taste. (Or not)

You don't need to boil the living daylights out of this sauce and you definitely don't want it to burn, but it's mince, so make sure it's thoroughly cooked. I quite like letting it simmer gently for ages so that all the flavours infuse. In fact, I think it's one of those sauces that tastes better when it's had a chance to cool down slightly, and it's great the next day.

Serve on spaghetti with Parmesan and more fresh basil if you like.

T'was a stormy night in Canberra...

2009-04-27T10:23:00.005+10:00

OK. So perhaps 'stormy' is slight overkill, but it was windy, rainy and freak'n cold! And yet our friends still dragged themselves from their warm houses on the other side of town to come to dinner on Saturday night. I knew I couldn't disappoint them on such a night!

I turned to my friend, Mr Pot Roast. I really love pot roast. It's rich, tender and flavoursome if done properly, (which is hard not to do since it's so easy). Even the cheapest, most uninspiring piece of meat can be saved by a slow cook in onions, red wine and it's own juices.

On this occasion, I used a piece of basic roasting beef from the supermarket (Mr Chops was shut) and browned it on each side in a combination of macadamia oil infused with lemon myrtle, and olive oil. I threw in two quartered brown onions for good measure. When everything was brown, I chucked the lot in a large pot, splashed in some red wine, salt, pepper and a spring of rosemary, and cooked it, covered, at about 150ºC for around four hours, without touching it. I could have basted it from time to time but I was busy with other stuff. No matter. It still fell apart on the fork.

But I digress. What I really wanted to say is that with any dinner party, there's always someone with special needs. It's usually me, and I'm lucky that most of our friends know this and take care of me. This time, we had someone of the vegetarian persuasion at the table. I almost did the whole meal vegetarian but Tim vetoed that idea pretty quickly.

What I really hate about vegetarian cooking is that so many people approach it as though it's just a simple case of removing the meat element from a meal. Restaurants cop this criticism from me too. Frankly I think it's a lazy way of doing things, and one that has a tendency to result in a half-arsed effort that leaves the vegetarian feeling short changed. To cook vegetarian well, you need to make the vegetables the hero of the meal, not just remove the meat and hope that what's left over will do. It's not that hard!

For our vegetarian friend, I decided to do stuffed peppers. I know it's been done a thousand times with different rice-based fillings, but I was pretty happy with this recipe. I made a proper risotto first, rather than mixing some rice with vegetables. Make up whatever risotto you like - I used arborio rice, vegetarian stock, white wine, finely chopped carrot, celery, roasted red pepper, oyster mushrooms and shallots, and seasoned with fresh sage, lemon zest, a little chilli and salt. I tossed through some parmesan and cheddar cheese. Normally I'd never use cheddar in a risotto, but I ran out of parmesan and the shops were shut, being Anzac day & all. It still worked. Into the peppers this went, and I roasted them in a bath of basic tomato sauce- tomatoes, onions, basil, salt & pepper blended finely, in a covered dish. The trick was not to over cook these. First, the risotto and sauce is already cooked so you really just want to cook the pepper a bit. You also want the peppers to retain their shape and texture and not turn into a sludgy mass.

When you take the time to prepare something like this, it really is a substantial alternative to meat. It was served with all the baked veg, bread and salad that the carnivores got. Nobody missed out!

As an aside, and for what it's worth, I've got a few tips for making a good risotto:

1. Don't let the stock cool down. Keep it simmering away and add it bit by bit into the risotto.

2. Keep stirring!!!

3. Risotto should not be a stodgy mass that can be sculpted into shapes. It should have some liquidity to it.

4. Cheese should be added as the last thing, after the risotto is properly cooked. Wine should be the second last thing you add.

Easiest chocolate brownies ever

2009-04-25T14:51:00.000+10:00

The chocolate gingerbread turned out so well that it got me talking to colleagues about it. A promise was soon extracted from me to supply something along the same lines for Monday morning tea as well as a recipe for chocolate cheese cake. The recipe was duly copied and stuffed in my diary, and then I recalled promise number two and set to work.

Polly, a super talented and creative friend of ours, emailed me her recipe for chocolate brownies, assuring me it was delicious and no-fail. Well she was right. It did not fail. It turned out great. What failed was me.

I must have had some kind of brain explosion during the making of these brownies. First I found I didn't have enough walnuts. Not fatal. I toasted some almonds to make up the difference. Then I was slightly short on chocolate. OK again since Polly and others had given me, sorry, us, a 1kg bag of Lindt as a wedding gift. I didn't want to open it just yet since I know it could lead to surreptitious depletion by Tim while I'm away this week, but I had to take the risk. Next, the batteries in my scales died. I removed batteries from something else and used them. I then managed to fling half the flour onto the floor because I very un-cleverly added it to the mix while the whole thing was whizzing on high speed. Finally, I managed to get the gooey mixture all over me, several pieces of equipment, fresh fruit, the clock and the dog. [To explain about the dog, normally I leave her outside while cooking because she tends to get under-foot, hoping for a tidbit. On this occasion, I let her in to lick up the flour off the floor - I couldn't find the mop and Tim was out. Anyway, she was still hanging around when things went further awry. When Tim got home I bribed him with a brownie to bath her. Neither party were amused.]

The point is, despite my uncharacteristic clumsiness and lack of attention to detail (like chucking things in the mixer in my own order), this recipe worked really well. I didn't ice it as I found it suitably sweet, but if this isn't enough sugar for you, knock yourself out. Thanks Polly - this one's a winner!

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

175g butter

2 eggs

230g soft brown sugar

125g plain flour (I used spelt - I was NOT going to be denied brownies!)

40g good quality cocoa

100g walnuts

100g extra chocolate if you want it especially rich

Melt the butter and chocolate in the pan and then leave to cool slightly. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix in the sifted flour and cocoa and then fold through the nuts and optional extra chocolate.

Pour the mixture into a pan or tin (I used a lamington tin) and bake for 20 - 30 minutes at 180º C. Test at 20 minutes.

If you want to ice it, Polly's recommended icing mix consists of 200g dark chocolate, (melted and cooled), 125g sour cream and 30g icing sugar. Mix the whole lot together, spread on the brownies in the tin and refrigerate overnight.

Anzac biscuits

2009-04-19T20:17:00.004+10:00

This time last year, Tim was posted to the NT and I visited him in Darwin. I attended my first dawn service ever. It's not that I grew up without an appreciation of Anzac Day. I think it was just that my parents weren't into waking up five kids in the early hours of the morning, rugging them up against the freezing Canberra weather, driving around looking for a car park somewhere in the vicinity of the War Memorial and then standing about shivering until it was all over.

Last year I didn't have to rug up. In fact, I wore shorts. Most people did. There were a few men in dark suits which I thought was lovely, respectful gesture, but with the bats playing in the foliage above while sweat trickled down the back of my legs, it crossed my mind that there really was no need to be a martyr in this weather, in the dark! Needless to say it was a moving and worthwhile experience and I'd like to repeat it some day.

With all the hoo-ha this year about whether or not Monday should be a public holiday, I decided to get back to basics and be grateful that Anzac biscuits haven't changed since I was a kid.

This is a pretty cool recipe for any time of year, but funnily enough, I only remember them being made in April. I especially remember couples taking cute excursions together to the supermarket to buy the ingredients (I was once a checkout chick). I remember my friend Nicholas making giant sized ones that he put straight in big glass jar to look at but not eat. I remember in recent times seeing them on the shelves in the biscuit aisle and wondering why? They're so easy and fun to make, as well as being a good reminder of what 25 April represents.

I probably won't go to dawn service on Saturday. I will cook dinner for a number of friends. And I have already made and safely stowed away three-dozen Anzac biscuits. My recipe is the same one I've used since I was a kid. It works every time.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour, sifted

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

150g butter or margerine

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp boiling water

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

In a decent-sized bowl, combine the rolled oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Melt the butter and syrup together in a small saucepan. Mix the boiling water and bicarb in a cup and whisk this into the butter mixture. The pour the whole lot over the dry mixture. It will froth up a bit and you need to make sure it's all mixed together well with a wooden spoon.

Roll teaspoons of mixture into walnut-sized balls and put them on a lined baking tray. Make sure they have room to spread out.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 150º C oven. Let them sit for a few minutes and then place them on a wire rack to cool. Store them in an airtight container - if they last that long. I make three dozen from this mix.

NB. I didn't make it with spelt this time around, but of course you can. This will make them wheat free but not gluten free because of the oats. If anyone wants a proper gluten free Anzac recipe, I do have one that I've used successfully and I'm happy to pass it on.

Chocolate Gingerbread

2009-04-19T13:13:00.006+10:00

My first week back after four weeks off work was salvaged only by the discovery of the last piece of chocolate gingerbread in the fridge. I ate it by myself on the back step while reflecting quietly on the previous month, shivering a little from the Autumn chill in the air and ignoring the searching gaze of Ladybug. Of course, this happened on Tuesday night and the week rapidly descended into a the daily grind that I hadn't missed at all in the preceding weeks.

Although I was greeted with very genuine exclamations of 'thank God you're back' on my return to work, I wasn't convinced that I was ready to get back to the salt mines. Sigh... I really could have gotten used to a life with no sleep deprivation, reading for fun and cooking with chocolate more than once a week. Or perhaps not. (I weighed myself this morning for the first time since before the wedding when I couldn't stop losing weight if I'd tried (which I did try after the final dress fitting) and thought 'oops!')

Anyhow, along the way I made the most delicious cake/brownie I have made in a very long time. It's adapted from the wonderful Nigella's Feast (p278) and I served it as dessert at Good Friday lunch. It's now a firm favourite. I've made gingerbread, ginger cake, chocolate brownies, biscuits and cakes, but have not put the two together in a baked good. For whatever reason, chocolate and ginger baked together really, really works.

I adapted this to my own special needs by using spelt, brown sugar and upping the ginger content slightly and I can swear by this as an easy and delectable bake that should impress anyone with functioning taste buds.

Ingredients:

175 g unsalted butter

125g dark muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)

2 tbsp caster sugar

200g golden syrup

200g treacle or molasses (I used treacle)

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger (I used 4 tsp)

1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp warm water

2 eggs

250ml milk

275g plain flour (I used spelt flour)

40g cocoa

175 g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170ºC and line a roasting tin or dish of approximately 30cm x 20 cm x 5cm deep.

In a decent sized saucepan (and make sure it is b/c I started off with something way too small and had to switch), melt the butter along with the sugars, golden syrup, treacle or molasses, loves, cinnamon and round ginger. In a cup dissolve the bicarb or soda in the water. Take the saucepan off the heat and beat in the eggs, milk and bicarb and water mix. It will froth up a bit at this point, hence no small pan!

Stir in the flour and cocoa and beat with a wooden spoon to mix. Fold in the chocolate chips, pour into the lined tin and bake for about 45mins until risen and firm. It will be slightly damp underneath the set top and that's the way you want it.

Put the whole thing on a wire rack and let it cool.

For the icing:

250g icing sugar, sifted

30g unsalted butter

1 tbsp cocoa

60ml ginger ale

In a heavy based saucepan, heat the butter, cocoa and ginger ale. Once the butter's melted, whisk in the icing sugar. Lift the chocolate gingerbread out of the tin and unwrap the paper. Pour over the icing just to cover the top and cut into generous chunks. I served with a dollop of double cream but there's no need for extras.

This is really nice fresh and soft out of the oven, but will keep for several days in the fridge. When it's cold, it has a texture more like a heavier brownie.

Orange Food Week

2009-04-16T20:02:00.000+10:00

A couple of years ago we were in Orange, NSW, for some friends' wedding. It just happened to coincide with the Orange Food Week and we were lucky enough to see some of what Orange had on offer. We hadn't booked into any of the big events, but walking through Orange we were able to get a taste of fresh, locally grown produce, baked goods and breakfast. I remember taking some kind of fruit back home and something from the very good kitchen shop on the main street. I don't know what it was, but I remember being happy. The other thing I recall was a good meal at a big pub and some nice cafes to choose from.

We're thinking of taking an overnight trip either this weekend or next, depending on how the home decorating goes (yes Tim, we're painting again). If you've got nothing planned, you could do much worse than take a leisurely drive into some beautiful country and sample the culinary delights on offer. At least check out the website for inspiration.

The Boulangerie is changing!!!

2009-04-15T19:40:00.000+10:00

It's time for a change. The Boulangerie is about to become 'Kitchen Made.' Why? Well I just think it suits the blog a whole lot better. From sometime this weekend (let's say Sunday afternoon to be safe), you'll be able to find me at www.kitchenmade.blogspot.com. I've got a lot more great food, pictures & stories to share, so I hope you'll keep reading and commenting, despite the lack of a fancy French name! Watch this space...

Easter bunny

2009-04-12T14:33:00.000+10:00

This morning I was greeted with a sleepy voiced 'where are my Easter eggs?' To which I replied, 'you're a big boy now and I didn't get you any.' Quiet sobbing into the pillow followed. And then I remembered our good friends Scott and Britta had brought us an Easter gift to Good Friday lunch - the always looks good, never fails to please, Lindt bunny pack. I reminded Tim and he was OK after that.

Happy Easter everyone.

Hot cross buns

2009-04-10T20:44:00.000+10:00

Tim got lucky today. Although possibly not in the way you may be imagining...

After allowing myself to be dragged out of bed at some uncivilized hour (for a public holiday), I went for a long walk with Tim and Ladybug down streets, across ovals, over hills and through fields. I did this clad in exercise gear. Yes, I know it's Good Friday! Once we got home I remembered the tasty treat lying dormant in the fridge, just waiting to be taken out and made into something truly wonderful for a crisp, clean autumn morning - hot cross buns!

Apparently you're meant to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday, so I did the right thing. At this time of year with a slight chill in the air, I could happily eat them hot with real butter on any morning. I was especially determined to make home made ones this year because I haven't for about two years and I feel a bit slack. I don't think I even bought ones last year. On the last occasion I made them, and try and imagine how this went down with the lycra bandits, Tim blew of his riding buddies for a morning ride, texting them with "I can't come out this morning. Julia's making hot cross buns." They haven't forgotten.

Since the last time, I discovered spelt so I can now partake. And I have. Several times, including one for dinner tonight, this being the only thing I could manage after a huge Good Friday lunch of Atlantic salmon, bbq'd with coriander, chilli and lemon, various salads, hot and cold entrees beforehand and to finish properly, a decadent chocolate gingerbread cake served with double cream (recipe coming). Shared with a group of good friends as well as some newer ones, it was a good day. Tim has only just started the washing up.

But back to the buns, they're a bit involved in that you have to make the dough the night before and let it prove in the fridge overnight. It's not a big thing but it does mean you have to prepare in advance and be a bit patient. In other words, you can't just decide you feel like hot cross buns for afternoon tea and whip some up. I promise they're worth it!

I've altered a Nigella Lawson recipe and have used spelt. I've found in the past that spelt doughs don't necessarily rise as well as regular flour if you work them too much, so I used a dough hook in the mixer and didn't go nuts after I'd punched the dough back in the morning. Also, I warmed the dough up a bit to get it going. I did this by putting the trays of dough balls over a large bowl of boiling water for about 5 minutes. It does help and they rose really well and were brilliant with butter, straight out of the oven. Supermarket buns these ain't!

Ingredients:

150ml milk

50g butter

zest of 1 orange

1 cardamom pod

400g spelt flour

7g dry yeast

125g mixed fruit (I used currants, sultanas and mixed peel)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 egg

Heat the milk, butter, orange zest and cardamom pods in a saucepan until the butter melts, then turn the heat off and leave to infuse.

Measure the flour, yeast and fruit into a bowl and add the spices. When the infused milk has cooled down a fair bit (but not cold), remove the pods and beat in the egg. Pour this liquid into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Knead the dough either by hand or with a machine with a dough hook until you have a silky, elastic dough. Remember the fruit will mean this doesn't come out exactly smooth. Place it in a buttered (or lightly olive-oiled) bowl and cover with cling film. Put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and let it return to room temperature. Or do what I did with the bowl of hot water. Punch it down and knead it for jut a little bit again until it's smooth and elastic. Divide into 16 pieces (or less if you like bigger buns) and roll them into balls. Place them on a lined tray closely but not touching. Cover and let them rise a little in a warm place for up to 45 minutes.

Make up an egg wash: 1 egg beaten with a splash of milk. Brush the buns over with this. Score a cross on the tops of each bun with a butter knife. Make up the cross mixture: 1 tbsp plain flour, 1/2 tbsp caster sugar, 2 or so tbsp water or enough to make it runny but not too thin. Dribble this into the crosses scored.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Eat immediately with some good, salty butter and a cup of decent coffee.

If you want to get fancy, you can make up a sugar glaze to brush on them when they come out of the oven (1 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tbsp boiling water) but I don't bother. I don't like my buns sticky. But we're all different.

Wedding cupcakes

2009-04-07T19:01:00.000+10:00

As promised, here is one of the two wedding cake recipes I used. The photo isn't brilliant (just with my little digital compact after several champagnes) but you get the picture - a lot of cupcakes!!!

The beauty of the cupcake tower is that first, it's a bit different from the traditional wedding cake and it can look terrific. Second, there are no cake plating issues that sometimes attract an additional cost. People can just be given one each or invited up to help themself. Third, based on one per person, you know exactly how many you need. And last of all, if you're at all capable and organised time-wise, you can do it yourself and this is extremely helpful if you're on a tight budget. Cupcakes can range from about $2 to $15 each if you buy them. No disrespect to the pros, but they're cupcakes! In about three bites, they're gone.

I used a really basic vanilla cupcake recipe because I think vanilla is a flavour that most people like or at least take no offence from. Also, done right, vanilla can have such a dainty and yet decadent feel to it that you don't get from chocolate or fruit cake. Don't worry - there was also fruit cake for all, but this was taken home in little grease paper bags as is the tradition. And yes, the recipe for that is coming!

Ingredients

115g butter, soft but not melted

115g caster sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

115g self-raising flour

4 tbsp good quality vanilla essence

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla, and then sift in the flour. Mix until everything is blended together, but don't overdo it.

Divide into twelve paper cases - this really does make exactly twelve perfect sized cupcakes. Bake in a 170ºC oven for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and ice however you like.

I put together a very basic butter cream icing for this (icing sugar, a little water, soft butter), but instead of all water to moisten the icing sugar, I used Cointreau. Really, really good. My sister helped me do the icing the day before the wedding (simple piping) and honestly, I am surprised any of the icing made it on the cupcakes. I haven't included the icing recipe as I tend to just throw icing together. When it's the right consistency, it's done. Do try and use a good quality butter though because I think it helps the flavour.

For the hearts, I coloured marzipan with quite a lot of pillar-box red food dye, and used a tiny heart shaped cookie cutter. When the hearts had dried a bit, I painted them with confectioner's varnish for shine. Final thing, these freeze really well.

The honeymoon's almost over... but not quite!

2009-04-05T20:06:00.001+10:00

Back to real life tomorrow after a very fun few weeks. Our wedding was fantastic, even if predictions came true and we didn't really get a chance to eat. We got back on Friday from the honeymoon and went to another wedding last night, this time at the Kurrajong Hotel in Canberra. The gorgeous food and Helm wines served were all magnificent. Thanks guys! Lunch at the godparents' place today and more wine. Delicious.

So basically, we've been eating for the nation for the last week and enjoying a thoroughly decadent life that has no resemblance to reality. I highly recommend it.

This morning, since there was no fresh bread in the house and I was really hungry but too lazy to bake, I found a solution. I had scrambled eggs and avocado on a couple of corn Cruskits (so sad), but for Tim, I made a special 'end of honeymoon' cooked breakfast - crumpet french toast. So simple and really delicious. I know I've seen something like this done before. I think it was Jamie Oliver. Wherever I saw it, it certainly worked a treat today.

I've put down the ingredients but the principle is exactly the same as normal french toast so you can make up an egg mix however you normally do, dunk the crumpets instead of bread, and cook on both sides in a little butter or olive oil. Serve with banana and maple syrup (or a rasher of bacon) or have plain if you prefer. For the cyclists amongst you, it covers all the essentials - carbs, protein, sugar, fat. A great thing about these is that they keep really well as a snack if you let them cool and then refrigerate them. I can see these being sent to work in someone's lunchbox...

Ingredients:

4 fresh crumpets

2 large free-range eggs

Splash of milk (about a 1/4 cup)

1 tbsp melted butter

pinch of salt & pepper

banana and maple syrup to serve

Vigorously whip up the eggs, milk, butter and salt & pepper and let it sit for a few minutes. Soak the crumpets and cook.

A couple of things - be patient and let the crumpets soak for a good few minutes and then let them cook slowly, rather than flinging them into a really hot, bubbly pan. This way the egg has a chance to be absorbed and then cooks right through evenly, rather then you winding up with a crisp outside and raw centre. Unless you like it that way.

Wedding done. Now back to food...

2009-04-03T20:18:00.000+11:00

Well, almost!

We literally just got back from our honeymoon where we did exactly nothing for almost a week. It was wonderful. Truly wonderful. I slept for whole nights without waking up. I drank a lot of nice wine. I ate a lot of really beautiful food in stunning coastal surroundings. My freshest memory is last night's dinner which was an entree of poached pear, prosciutto and walnut salad followed by a chilli crab risotto. THE BEST risotto I've had at a restaurant outside of Italy. No kidding. If you're interested, try the Tipsy Fig in Milton, NSW. Gorgeous.

Recipes to follow, including wedding cake. (Still officially on honeymoon!!!)

Hen's Night Antics

2009-03-17T17:59:00.000+11:00

First thing's first: I have photos but to share them may result in me being sued.

More importantly, the hen's night was a blast. Imagine this: around 20 women, dressed up to the nines and looking forward to catching up, eating well and dancing the night away. We did all of that and then some. And no penis paraphernalia in sight. I think one or two were slightly disappointed with that, but oh well. I didn't organise it. My beautiful sisters did and they did a good job.

Also the Harem Turkish Restaurant in Kingston is great. The food was fresh, tasty and plentiful. We started with a series of flavoursome dips that tasted like they'd just been made. Plenty of fresh Turkish bread was provided and even a pancake/flat bread sort of thing for me who couldn't eat the bread. I think it was made from chick pea flour. This was followed by what I'm told are Turkish lady fingers - flaky pastry with cheese inside and absolutely beautiful, or so I heard, and zucchini balls. Also a sort of a chicken dish in sauce, plenty of rice, salad and kebabs. This was followed by proper Turkish delight and I think baklava. Vegetarian meals were provided for those who asked. The servings were generous and the service was good. I plan to go back asap!

Half way through the meal a belly dancer showed up to entertain the guests. At this point my mother with her broken foot and godmother with no broken feet decided that they could show the dancer a trick or two. I swear they got more male attention than the pro (possibly not for the right reasons but hey, it was that kind of night). And from that point, there was no going back.

Thanks everyone who made it such a great night!

The Wedding Cake Saga

2009-03-09T21:00:00.000+11:00

With less than three weeks to go until the wedding, the time has come to 'get real' as Dr Phil would say, and admit that I do not have time to learn how to do white icing for the wedding cake. I've prepared the cake without a problem and I'm fairly proud of it. It's a rich, wheat-free, fruit cake that I've been dousing in brandy once a week. However, despite my best intentions, I've come to the conclusion that icing it with the required skill is best left to an expert.

Thank goodness I found myself pondering this out aloud at work last week. Linda from my office very helpfully suggested someone she knew who has set up a business and who is apparently brilliant. We shall see, but I really do have a lot of faith. It certainly could not be any worse than my efforts which could actually be pretty awful. I just don't know and the immediate weeks before one's wedding is no time to find out!

The decoration will be simple - I found a quirky cake topper that just suits me and Tim. The rest of the cake will be cupcakes organised in a number of tiers, but that I can manage without a drama. Haven't quite decided yet on the flavour but I'm thinking some sort of chocolate would be good. I guess I'll decide on the Thursday beforehand when I actually have to make cupcakes for 72 people. (What is wrong with me???!!!)

For now, think about this - in August of last year, a slice of Princess Diana's wedding cake sold for one thousand pounds. Will mine achieve the same greatness? I think not, but it should last until either our first wedding anniversary, or first child. Whichever comes first.

Chocolate mud cake (a food group of its own)

2009-03-03T19:08:00.000+11:00

In one week and three days, I will be on leave for a whole month. Not that I hate my job, because I actually love it, but I am counting down the days, hours and minutes until my freedom touches down at Canberra airport on Friday night. My last day will be the longest - a day-trip to Melbourne with the boss. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Today was a particularly long and treacherous day in the office; one that required careful maneuvering to avoid prickly obstacles such as colleagues best avoided (arch nemesis getting out of the lift) and the extra work that seems to flow into our pod like maple syrup onto Tim's cornflakes. (Yes. He really does that). My stance on the matter is that I can't tidy everything up before I leave if I keep getting new stuff. So far, nobody has pressed the point.

It was also a day that required chocolate. I was soooo good too. I turned down my favourite choc-hazelnut brownie from the deli down the street, I didn't cave when I saw a new batch of double chocolate chip gluten free cookies at the coffee shop across the road. I didn't even open the box of chocolates I have stashed for the honeymoon (don't bother looking Tim - you'll never find them) or dip into the Italian hot chocolate mix.

Only now have I cracked and it's been in the pathetic form of four Nestle dark chocolate melts. I have officially resorted to cooking chocolate. I hang my head in shame.

I hope to salvage some self respect by sharing why the really good, organic, $40 a kilo dark chocolate is gone. I put it in a killer chocolate mud cake for my sister's birthday. This is divine, although Tim didn't find it sweet enough, but then he does eat maple syrup on corn flakes. You can really taste the luscious, good quality chocolate and cocoa in this cake and I think it goes brilliantly with the olive oil flavour. In fact, in the past I've used virgin olive oil and I think it tastes fantastic. If you don't like the flavour, just use unsalted butter and if you don't want to use liqueur, use milk instead.

Ingredients

375g olive oil spread (or butter), softened

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

2 cups spelt flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup cocoa powder

200g dark chocolate, melted

3/4 cup creme de cacao (or milk)

3 eggs

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes, or until light and creamy. Add eggs in one by one. Beat the whole thing until well combine. Fold through the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Combine well. Then fold through the chocolate and stir in the liqueur or milk.

Spoon the mixture into a 22cm spring form tin lined with baking paper and bake in a 160º C oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until cooked - use the skewer test. Cool it in the tin. I decorated with little hand-rolled truffles, but you can just dust with cocoa or icing sugar or leave it plain. I wouldn't ice this one personally, but it might suit the super sweet-tooths to do so.

Chocolate and Zucchini Muffins

2009-02-26T21:43:00.000+11:00

My recent lack of posting has absolutely nothing to do with lack of interest, and everything to do with lack of time. The problem is I need more than 24 hours in a day. Especially with the job I'm doing and trying to organise our wedding in such a short time. It's that hard to book in the big things, but as a friend recently said, the devil's in the detail. We're now at the pointy end of things and have to make decisions about readings and seating arrangements and music and oh yes, vows. Tim's determined that we'll write our own. Great in theory, difficult in practice.

I've also made what I think is a very sensible decision and will no longer be icing the top tier of the wedding cake as originally planned. I continue to douse it weekly with brandy, but I've found someone to do it who has years of experience. I had an epiphany about a week ago and realised how scary it is that I've never used white icing before, and while I'm totally confident that I will one day be able to master it, I don't think the weeks before one's wedding is the right time to start trying! So in about a week I'll drop off one very heavy, very moist fruit cake, and pick up something that looks like an elegant wedding cake. I've bought a very cool cake topper, so stay tuned for the photos!

But back to the muffins. It's the season for zucchini and my brother Sam's garden is exploding! Time to help him out and since I love zucchini with it's tender sweetness, it wasn't a big ask. Combine it with chocolate and something beautiful happens. The pecans tie it all together. It may sound weird but this combination really works, although it is more of a grown up muffin with the olive oil flavour coming through. Also, I think they're better cold so resist the temptation to heat them up. They really are a lunch box treat you can feel good about.

Ingredients:

200g grated zucchini

150g dark chocolate, chopped

100g pecans halves - chopped except for 12

2 cups spelt flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 medium free-range eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Super simple: place the flour in a bowl and stir through the zucchini, chocolate, pecans and sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and combine very well with a wooden spoon.

Spoon the mixture evenly into a 12 hole muffin tin, press a pecan halve gently onto each one. Bake at 180ºC (fan forced) for about 20 minutes. You can do the skewer trick to check but 20 minutes is usually right.

Makes 12 large muffins or about 16 medium ones.

Love & Food

2009-02-14T08:21:00.000+11:00

It’s Valentine's day. (Note the excitement).

What is it about Valentine’s Day that makes people go nuts? Is it the expectation? Is it the thought of rejection? Is it the cost? It's certainly the only day of the year I can think of when complete strangers can openly offer tokens of love (or lust) to another without being reported for stalking.

My thoughts usually turn to food when thinking about gift giving on Valentine's or any other day. And not just to chocolate either. Frankly, a well cooked pot-roast can be the most romantic thing in the world when it’s served with a juicy, flavoursome gravy and crisp baked potatoes, on fine china, a damask table cloth, and with no mention of me having to help clean up afterwards. I was proposed to after just such a meal. High on the euphoria of a delicious dinner that I didn’t cook (and vast quantities of pink Chandon) the only possible reaction was to burst into laughter and accept. Tim has timing, if nothing else.

However, if a slow-cooked hunk of beef isn’t quite your idea of romance, there are some really good specialist shops around that sell all manner of gourmet delights to tickle the fancy of the most difficult to please.

What you do have to do is have a good think about what you’re trying to achieve. Will chocolates cut it? If so, forget the supermarket or the chocolate heart in red tin foil. Instead, try a specialist sweet shop that offers interesting and exquisite treats. Perhaps rose-scented Turkish delight, or chilli chocolate for a change. For cakes and pastries, there are some brilliant bakeries in Canberra. Tim swears by the Italian bakery in Mawson for fresh cannoli. He won over my mother with that cannoli. It came right after offering her a cold VB. (What was the woman to say?)

If your sweetheart has a food allergy, think about something that they can really enjoy without having to call the paramedics. Being allergic to wheat, there’s a lot I can’t touch, but the good thing is that there are now some fantastic wheat and gluten-free products around, many of which can be found in the supermarket. A hamper of goodies is thoughtful and shows you’ve paid attention. Major points can be scored.

Personally, I’ve always longed to be presented with a fresh black truffle to call my own. Nothing says ‘I love you’ like expensive fungus, especially if it’s a locally grown truffle. Many people baulk at the price, which is understandable, but it is a unique and memorable gift if you have a true foodie on your hands who’s never had one before.

Which brings me to the big push – if you’re at all culinarily inclined, try making something yourself. It needn’t be fancy or difficult, but should be thoughtful and appetising and require an effort. That’s what most people are really looking for. Prepare a meal and set a beautiful table, bake cookies, or make a cake from scratch. Keep it simple if you’re a beginner, or get creative if you’re a confident cook.

Tim once made me gluten-free cupcakes with what can only be described as homicidal-pink icing and a deluge of heart-shaped decorations on top that had accidentally tumbled out of the container. I overlooked the colour and the fact that packet mix was used because they were made with genuine thoughtfulness, love and affection by a non-cook who wanted to me to know how he felt. Long after the last crumb disappeared, I still remember the look, smell and taste of these little morsels - perfect.

Something to think about...

2009-02-08T23:05:00.000+11:00

One of my colleagues sent me this. I'm not sure where it came from and I doubt it's a licence to throw caution to the wind and start eating whatever you want so long as it's washed down with red wine. It did get me (albeit temporarily) thinking about our national obsession with fat content, carb content, sugar content, salt content, portion control, meat intake, fibre, organic origins, etc, etc, etc. So I stopped thinking, went across the road and bought a double chocolate chip, gluten free cookie and my third large coffee for the day. (I would have bought red wine but it was only 10.45am!)

THE FINAL WORD ON NUTRITION

After an exhaustive review of the research literature, here's the final word on nutrition and health:

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

3. Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

4. Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

5. Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

6. The French eat foie-gras, full fat cheese and drink red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

(In my limited experience, the Parisians would agree...)

Cooling pomegranite rice salad

2009-02-03T22:03:00.000+11:00

It's been almost unbearably hot in Canberra over the last couple of weeks and I have been going through what's a rare phase for me of just not feeling like cooking, or for that matter, sitting in a hot room in front of a hot computer. Don't panic! We've still been eating, but it's been basic. On several occasions, Tim's wandered down to the kitchen to ask me what's for dinner and I've pointed him in the direction of the toaster or the supermarket. Or given him a sufficiently dirty look to send him on his way in silence. Suffice it to say that my weekends spent in kitchen doesn't hold the same allure when it's in the high 30's before you turn the oven on!

The upside of this time of year is that we start to see some pomegranites in the supermarket. Pomegranites are one of my favourite things and a real gem. At the moment, what you'll find is imports, but they'll do. I've always thought that pomegranites look ancient and regal with their little crown at one end, and seeds that are like sublime, shining rubies that explode with sweetness in your mouth. Part of the attraction is the knowledge that pomegranites have been enjoyed and revered for thousands of years. I have no doubt that they've had the same mystifying effect on humans for all that time. Anyway, I love them, and the intrepid Tim has grown to love them too, so long as he doesn't have to be involved in prying the seeds from the skin. (It's not that hard).

Anyway, for anyone else who's sweltering in the heat and for whom the oven or stove resembles hell in the suburbs, here's something cool. It's one of our favourite salads and tastes just as good the next day. It's sweet & sour, cooling and refreshing. If you vary it, the main thing is that you hit an even contrast between sweet & savoury - sweet sultanas and pomegranite and savoury carrot, zucchini & herbs. Then the zing of the lemon based dressing to set it off.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice, cooled

1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled & grated

1 medium zucchini, grated

2 shallots, chopped

1/2 cup sultanas

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (or 1/4 cup pine nuts, dry roasted & chopped)

seeds from 1 large pomegranite

Dressing:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup or so of lemon juice

1 large clove of garlic

1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 decent pinch of salt

For the salad, just throw everything into a bowl and toss until well combined.

For the dressing, thrown everything in a blender or food processor and whizz until the garlic is finely chopped and everything's well mixed. Taste the dressing - don't be afraid to use more lemon juice. If you're using lemon juice from a bottle, you may need a bit more. You want a nice, zesty kick to it.

Pour the dressing on and toss the salad until well combined. ENJOY!

Super-moist banana & spelt cake

2009-01-19T21:15:00.000+11:00

Another busy weekend, another Monday rolls around.

I actually did a bit of cooking on the weekend - pancakes for breakfast, roast beef on Saturday night, and the top tier of the wedding cake. The whole house smelled gorgeous for about 24 hours and I'm pretty happy with the result. Now for about 8 weeks of drizzling it with brandy and I'll be ready to try my hand at old fashioned white icing for the first time in my life. If I think about it too much, I'll realise how insane that sounds and get discouraged. So I'll move on quickly...

Yesterday I made two banana cakes. In this heat, everything ripens so quickly and I hate wasting food so the bananas had to go. Banana cakes are not nearly as glamorous as old fashioned rich fruit cake destined for the all-important top tier, but they're really nice in the lunchbox and I was grateful for the sugar hit today at about 3pm. It's so moist that butter was not necessary.

This recipe makes two cakes. I had a loaf pan and a standard sized round tin on hand so that's what I used. Both work, but the loaf is probably more traditional and manageable. If you don't like or have spelt, just use regular plain flour. Or use self-raising flour, and leave out the baking powder.

Ingredients

4 medium sized, ripe bananas

4 cups spelt flour

4 eggs

250g butter, softened but not melted

2 1/2 firmly packed cups brown sugar

3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp baking powder

I usually make cakes the old fashioned way that my mother taught me. That is, cream the butter and sugar first. Then in go the eggs, one by one. Followed by the baking powder, cinnamon & vanilla and half the flour. Add half the milk and once it's all mixing together well, thrown in the rest of the flour and milk. Add a little more milk if you feel the mix is too stiff. It should have some body to it, but not too much. Oh, and I use an electric mixer, but once all the ingredients are in, you don't need to beat it to death. Just combine everything really well and get some air in there.

Bake for about 45 mins to one hour at 180ºC (or 160ºC fan forced). Depending on your oven and whether you cook both at once you might need a little more or less time. Keep an eye on it and when you think it's cooked, test with a skewer - if it comes out clean, you're done.

Canberra when it sizzles...

2009-01-14T22:39:00.000+11:00

It's hot. I mean, really hot. Dry and hot, but that's Canberra for you in the summertime.

Today it was too hot to walk the 10 minutes into town at lunch time. And I even wore flat shoes and a cotton dress to work. My natural inclination is to tend towards comfort by not wearing more clothing than necessary when summer heats up, while still maintaining a modicum of dignity and my professionalism. I would definitely not be inclined to wear something as archaic as a slip. But being such a lady I wore a slip today as I didn't think a clear view of my underpants was appropriate for the office. Pity I didn't realise until I got to work that the damned thing had slid down and was slightly longer than the dress. The whole effect was slightly grandmotherish and wouldn't do. So out came the stapler.

Stapling up the back bit was tricky, but my very accommodating and unflappable colleague Emma (who would never wear a slip that's too long), helped. She assured me that as a mother of two girls, nothing (such as the week before waxing legs) would phase her. I was in no position to be proud.

With hem of aforementionedd slip safely raised and with no fawn coloured beige lace showing, I ventured out onto the street. The slip situation didn't help, but at the end of the day it was just too darn hot, as the song goes. So I went back to my airconditioned office and read the news online. It's funny how we all long for summer and then when it heats up, everyone complains. Except Tim who loves the heat.

It's getting late but I'm still hot. Tim's hot. Ladybug is hot. We had hot soup for dinner. (Ladybug had cold dogfood. Dogs are smart). Maybe not that well thought through a decision, but it meant nobody had to cook and it's the first day the local laksa place has been open in a month. It's certainly too hot to attempt going to sleep. Grrrr....

So how does all this drivel lead into a food blog entry? Well, the long and the short of it is that it's too hot to cook and looks like it will stay too hot for another day or so. But stay tuned folks because I have a few cool things coming up on the weekend, including the start of a wedding cake which will be an experiment I promise to share, even if it's a total disaster!

In the meantime, I suggest a cool shower and a lemonade icypole.

The world's top 10 most interesting foods

2009-01-10T22:01:00.000+11:00

Here's something different - a cool little article about the world's 10 most interesting foods. While I'd love to try a hachiyagaki persimmon, I think I'll pass on the mite cheese.

Man colds and comfort food

2009-01-08T18:43:00.000+11:00

I've been back at work for two days and not even struggling. The same can't be said for Tim, who has a man-cold and is suffering. Sadly, he does not suffer in silence. Calling him 'Rudolph' didn't help. We now have the paramedics on stand by and my mother is scheduled to make chicken soup in the morning after she gets home from night shift. Sigh...

Comfort food is the word in these situations, preferably something you've got close at hand. Cottage pie on this occasion. It's warm without being too hot so on a warm, but not scorching, day like today, it still works. It's comforting without being heavy or stodgy. It's good for you... relatively good for you... And it's delicious. I actually made this on the weekend and the brilliance of it is that it is not only comforting and able to tempt the palate of someone on his death bed (aka the couch), it also freezes really, really well. So I was set when I got home to my poor, sick, germie, man-cold victim.

This recipe makes enough for several meals for two hungry people. Or it could probably feed an average family with leftovers. Unless your family is made up of rugby players and then it's an entree.

Ingredients:

tbsp or two of olive oil

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, finally chopped

1 large carrot, finely chopped or grated

1 kg beef mince

1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

140g tub tomato paste

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 tsp ground cumin (optional)

1 tsp dried oregano

salt & pepper

1 tsp finely ground chilli powder (optional)

1 kg potatoes, peeled & boiled

60 g butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cups frozen peas

1/2 cup grated cheese (or more if you like)

In a pan with a little olive oil, soften the onions, garlic & carrots. There's no need to brown them. Then throw in the mince and parsley. I don't use the leanest of lean mince as I find it gets too dry. Brown off the meat and make sure you break it apart with a spoon or spatula as you go. You don't want big chunks and you want to spread the flavour.

Add the parsley, tomato paste, wine, oregano & cumin if you like it. Some people don't, but it gives it a really nice taste and it's not hot, so leave it in if you can. Same with the chilli - I like it a little hot. I know it's not traditional, but whatever. A hint of chilli, and that's all it should be, gives the flavour extra depth. Salt & pepper to taste. Don't overdo the salt though.

Make up the mashed potato. I've given my ingredients, but do it however you like. Salt to taste but again, not too much. Not a health kick, you just don't need salt taking over a flavoursome dish.

To assemble, put the mince into a baking dish and flatten out a bit. Then a layer of frozen peas - they'll soften up in the oven. Flatten them down. Then gently top with the mash. If you like, scatter some cheese on top. More or less as you like.

Cook for around half an hour or until you see the mince bubbling a bit and the cheese is brown. Alternatively, cook for a bit, then stick the cheese on top and brown under a grill. All the ingredients are cooked and at a minimum you could probably just grill, but I like to give it a chance to get all the flavours working and each layer sticking together really well.

Back to work...almost

2009-01-05T07:45:00.003+11:00

I couldn't face going back to work today. Thankfully I realised this on Friday and my wonderfully understanding boss didn't press the point. (If you're reading this, you're the best!) Having had two weeks off work, I'm more tired than when I started! Why? I suspect it has to do with too much holiday spirit, the lurgy, and not enough cooking. On the weekend I took steps to rectify this by mucking about in the kitchen.

The first thing I made is a sort of 'getting back into the swing of normal living' comfort type dish. I'll share that later this week. After all the richness of holiday feasting, I just felt like something simple and normal and unfussy. Still tasty and good, but without the intricate flavours and heaviness that sometimes creeps into Christmas food. Last week we attempted lots of salads and simple pastas, but still managed a few bbqs with friends and on one occasion my mother cooked one of her favourites. Nobody complained. I think this week we need to return to utter simplicity and since I will have to go back to work at some stage, lunches will be a priority.

But back to the new recipes, the one I'm sharing today is a sort of left-over thing you can do with your Christmas goodies, if you have any left. A friend mentioned something along these lines on Friday night, and I just had to come up with my own recipe on Saturday because it sounded so good. Basically, it's a variation of cookies and cream ice-cream. Instead of cream filled cookies, you use fruit mince pies.

This may sound weird but it really works. I can't actually eat it, but I have it on the authority of both Tim and my brother Sam that it's good. It's also totally simple to make and literally takes a few minutes.

Fruit mince pie ice-cream

Ingredients:

1.5 lt good quality vanilla ice cream

4 mince pies

1/2 cup fruit mince (see my earlier recipe)

1/2 cup frozen pitted cherries

Plonk the whole lot in a food processor or mixer (I cut up the cherries roughly first and used the mixer) until well combined. Put the mixture into moulds or into a single container and freeze until firm.

Serve with whatever you like, but I used some more cherries blended with Cointreau into a thin sauce. You could also drizzle white chocolate over the top.

NB. Tim's not happy with this photo, but you can't have everything.

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-01T22:10:00.000+11:00

First, thanks to everyone who made Christmas brilliant this year. It really was something extra special. Huge thanks to my super-hospitable Melbourne friends - Samira, Tamare and Nigel, my beautiful mother, and of course Tim, who out-did himself in the super-thoughtful surprise present category.

Christmas day was brilliant and involved some truly wonderful and very memorable food, none of which we photographed because we were having too much fun (and possibly a little too much champagne as well). As soon as we returned from Melbourne (and I mean within hours) I got sick so as not to be sick when I'm back at work next week because that would be so disappointing.

Second, congratulations to my friends Jane and Mic who decided to get married over the break. We were two of the four people invited to attend. All the best you two!

Third, Happy New Year!!!!!

I'm sure that like a lot of people, I can't believe that it's already 2009! The last few weeks of 2008 were certainly a little mental and I felt like I bolted to the finish line with work, slightly struggling in the final days. The hair cut from hell that I nipped out to get on my final day of work did not help the situation. Thank God my hair grows quickly.

But moving on, there's lots of good stuff coming up in the next few weeks. For now I thought I'd share one of Tim and my favourite photos of Christmas food that I made. They're my gingerbread cookies that I make every year as gifts. There's no recipe coming but since Christmas is past, I can't see anyone minding. It's the one recipe of mine that I selfishly keep to myself, year after year. Sorry.

And now back to 2009.