Thursday 28 April 2011

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Winter is knocking

It's raining today.
I'm sure this is not a significant thing to note in many places, but this is Perth. For future readers that are not familiar with our little city, Perth is a city of the sun. This summer has been one of the longest I can remember, it actually feels like it has been 34+ degrees Celsius for the last 7 months straight. The months before, staying in the mid to high 20's and peaking at the height of the summer well into the 40's. We are a city bathed in Sun. After the end of summer it rains, everyone then stands around palms outstretched, eyes looking upward in a haze of confusion as if we have all forgotten what rain actually is. I love this city, but everything good about it seems to disappear in the wet season. Gardens never really recover from the drought season, so the view out the window is never too exciting. The traffic is worse because no one wants to take public transport and risk getting wet. Swimming pools turn green, late fees are finally paid off at DVD rental stores and bored dogs bark louder and longer.
At the beginning of every winter I envision myself rugged up on the couch in front of a fireplace with a bottle of red wine and a good book, unfortunately reality is not so picturesque. Our couch is vinyl and cold, red wine makes me sick, I barely have time for a page here and there (this is how I read books: I get to work 5 minutes early I get in two pages, quick toilet trip equals one page, lunch break at work, three. I'm lucky to get through a chapter a week) so actually sitting down long enough to read for even half an hour is a stretch. To top it off, most houses have cold tiled floors, and fireplaces? I haven't seen houses built with fireplaces since the 1960's.

It's raining today.

There is one thing I do like about winter....
The food.

Roasted meats with crispy baked potato's, Guinness stew, hot fresh crusty bread, pudding's, cooked breakfast, braised pork ribs, spicy meatloaf, slow cooked lamb shanks, laksa and hot noodle soups. My favorite food group comes well into season (green vegetables!), my teeth turn yellow from too many cups of hot scolding tea, all the things that don't make sense in summer come to life in a winters' kitchen.

I am inspired by the ways of old and the first touches of winter draw out my desires to pursue that which inspires me. How to bake bread. I am still yet to perfect the English roast. What I know in preserving can certainly be stretched. Yesterday I went to lunch with some friends who have most certainly mastered a good roast and made her promise to teach me. Having been reading 'A Year in Provence', I found myself flicking through a french cooking book and made these little beauties:















All I can say is, this winter I am determined to make the most of my kitchen.



Stuffed Baby Zucchini:
Pre-steam zucchini's, take out centre and fry in a little oil.
Add crushed garlic and fresh basil for last few minutes in frypan, 
then mix with fresh breadcrumbs, ricotta,
finely grated parmesan cheese,
currants and pinenuts.
Bake in hot oven till golden.

Thursday 21 April 2011

Good-Friday

Well this week has been a very interesting week; it’s been a roller coaster to be frank.
I’m sitting here eating Shiraz infused chocolate (which is just delicious) and mulling over in my mind the last few days.
Wednesday I visited my girlfriend Zoie's for tea, she made me a fat juicy steak with a red cabbage and walnut salad. This particular friend of mine is what I would call a driven cook. She makes almost all her sauces from scratch (and likes to regularly tell me this too) and she is the only person I know who will come home from work and cook a 3 course meal just for just for herself. She LOVES cooking and I LOVE her cooking for me! We have also had a tongue-in-cheek boasting-banter going on for the last year and a half. If she makes something delicious, Zoie will send me picture of it with a text that says something like this; “Mmmmmm, smoked salmon falling apart on a bed of herbed couscous drizzled in a pepper lemon sauce! And it’s alllll miiiiinnneeee”.  Then a few days later she’ll get a text from me with the words, “dukkah encrusted lamb cutlets, I’d save you some but I already ate them all! So sad”.
After the steak and half a bottle of wine, we ventured back into the kitchen to make some lavender shortbread. Lavender shortbread, I must say (after you get over the thought that you might be munching on one of those scented pillows you put in your underwear draw) is actually quite nice!
The dip in the roller coaster this week was Thursday morning. The processing of a death in ones mind is often hard, but when it happens at the hands of another human being it is so much harder. A lady we know…knew, is hopefully now in the hands of God.  This was so shocking that it has really overshadowed the fact that also this week I have been booked in for a catering job. Actually my mum got the job, but I will be splitting the workload somewhat with her. Despite everything, I am looking forward getting some experience under my belt. It’s a men’s breakfast and at this stage we are looking at 50+ guests. I am hoping also to start looking more into this catering business idea this week. There are a few people I want to talk to, an accountant for one, and a bit more refining in terms of a ‘plan of attack’, what is my aim and all that.
I think that may be there is something behind the desire to start a catering business and I would like to explore it some more before I blow it off as another one of my random ideas.


Lavender Shortbread:

225g plain flour
115g caster sugar
250g softened butter
115g rice flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons of culinary lavender

Sift flours together, add sugar and lavender and then rub through the butter until you get a smooth dough.
Roll out on a floured board and shape as you like.
Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 30-45 minutes depending on your oven

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Blog-head

Hello, Hello!

Today I am very excited. I have just been handballed a website from a FB friend that I think will open up an entire new field of food experimenting!

Since I started this blog, I have been taking notice of things I usually wouldn't. For example, the above mentioned friend who not only knew a radish recipe I should try but also knew what purple carrots were! (I found some in a shop in Tasmania and took a picture to post on FB to see if anyone knew what they were) I looked at his wall and found that actually he was a bit of a cook himself. Now there is a bit more conversing between us about food and he is giving me so many ideas and challenges I never even considered! I talk food with the blokes at work too (who would have known that tradesman knew so much about the kitchen?!).
My English workmates are of the most interest to me. This week I learnt about stuffed heart and Faggots (No, not that! they are round sausage balls generally served with pea pudding and/or mashed potatoes).
I also learnt that in Middlesbrough in the Napoleonic times a French ship crashed on their shores, the only survivor being a pet monkey. The local fishermen having never seen a Frenchman (or for that matter a monkey) thought the creature a spy as he would not co-operate with questioning and hung him.
Pomes’ are full of interesting stories!
Back to the point, they are also full of great ideas for my blog and I am enjoying our lunchtime conversations immensely.

Everywhere I look there is a new idea, a new challenge and a new lesson to be learnt. Because I am constantly thinking of what to write, I am constantly noticing things to write about.
Does that make sense?

Anyway, that website? It's a butcher, actually one not far from my house.
I sped home today, showered, poured myself a glass of wine and ran upstairs to the computer eager to check it out.

They sell; Buffalo, camel, crocodile, emu, goat, kangaroo, rabbit, venison, wild boar, goose, guinea foul, partridge, pheasant, quail, spatchcock and squab, also chicken, duck and turkey! Among other things.

This is not the way I thought my blog would be going, but I am open at least.

Till next time xoxo!

Saturday 16 April 2011

100 eggs

I’m going to let you in on a little cheat I use regularly.

I don't fry eggs, I bake them.
No, not all the time, but if I am making fried eggs for large quantities of people, say for burgers or bacon and egg toasties, then I bake them.
I mix them up in a bowl with a little milk and salt, then I lay a sheet of grease proof paper in a tray, pour the egg in and bung it in the oven. In at moderate, it only takes 15 minutes, which means I can cook (if I have 2 trays on the go at once) about 50 serves of eggs in an hour and still have vacuumed, washed the dishes, done a load of washing and still have 15minutes left over to sit down with a cup of tea!
This idea came to me one day when I was trying to make omelette without a frying pan.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Did I mention I help make 100 burgers once a month? It’s a life saver and all us burger ladies do it now. I don't suppose you'll be making 100 burgers anytime soon, but you never know!
I am actually doing this today. The only downside is that you may need a few more eggs to make it work, however time wise, you’re not hovering over a frypan so it is miles better and worth the few extra eggs.

Friday 15 April 2011

Plum-toffee

Last night, I made jam.

The plums were a gift from (my mum's fridge) my sister, more in an effort to make room for mums weekly shop than in the spirit of giving, so I believe.
In my first month of being married I often rang my mother with questions like, "how long do I boil an egg for?", or, "what is in potato salad again?" There were some very basic questions that I had somehow missed the answers to in life. "Mum, what does moderate mean?!"

What I do know however, is jam.

Actually I know about preserving. Jam, bottled fruit, pasta sauce, even relish, they all make perfect sense to me. I can make jam.

(You'll hear a lot of this but...) In Tasmania (my recent trip) I stayed at my mother's sisters' house in the Lachlan valley. There is something quite significant about the Lachlan valley these days. It has always been beyond beautiful, but nowadays it also is home to a place I long to go. In fact this 'place', is a stones throw from my Aunt’s and I stood out the front of it once or twice staring longingly through the trees like a child in front of a ice-cream truck, hoping vainly that someone will come along and buy them an ice-cream.

I want an agrarian ice-cream.

This 'place' is called 'the Agrarian Kitchen'.

(http://www.theagrariankitchen.com/)

I googled them.
They have a class called 'the whole hog', which is scary because whilst standing there, gazing off into the "I wish", I noticed they have a pen full of hogs. I asked my Uncle why they had hogs, to which he explained to me the meaning of "Agrarian".

"AHH!"

I used to be a vegetarian you know, briefly, but it still counts!

They also have a class on 'preserving'.
That will set you back $380(ish) for the day.

(BTW: if anyone wants to learn about preserving, I live in Perth WA, ill teach you for half that and still come away smiling)

That evening my Uncle Les gave me a reminder lesson with plums. He is a tad lazy I think and can't much be bothered leaving the jam on the stove to thicken. Therefore, he tells us he prefers it runny. "It's better that way. You know for cakes, yogurt or even ice-cream".
He is right.
He is also lazy.
I am also lazy.

I put the jam in a frypan thinking I could go one up on my Uncle and get thick jam, but still keep my Laziness in full tact.

What can I say? This blog entry is entitled 'Plum-toffee' for a reason.
Lesson learnt. Jam takes time and patience. I'll leave my short-cuts where they belong, with roux on high, and a whisk.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

My first radish.

2 days ago I ate my very first radish.
I’ve started following another blog that my girlfriend put me onto recently and this blogger recommended a radish-dish matched with some very appealing photos of gleaming red radishes. Longingly admiring her photography skills it suddenly occurred to me that I have never eaten a radish!  My lovely husband picked me up from work that day and needless to say he was shocked at my lack of radish experience and insisted that we drive past the our local garden market and cook this recommended radish-dish.
My husband is a very interesting fellow. He swears hands down that he can not, in any shape or form, read a recipe or cook. I will stand beside him on his claim that he has never actually picked up a recipe and read it through, (its 100% true, I promise) however the inability so cook is not so firm in its truthfulness. I often flick through fancy French cookbooks or trendy overly photographed recipes out of magazines and follow them step by step to try and imitate cooking genius. My husband however will come in towards the end of the cooking process and enquire as to what I am making, taste it and suggest that it needs soy sauce or fresh basil or worse, something completely random that I would never have conceived of adding to the dish. “You want to add what to the cabbage?? Yuck babe, yuck!” but for some odd reason, he’s almost always smack on the mark. He can improve almost anything. Did I mention he is a wielder by trade?  
I cook by direction. My husband cooks by taste.
I followed the recipe. I soaked the radishes and prepared them. I melted the butter in chicken stock and put the little red gems on to simmer. Then I popped upstairs to have a shower whilst my beloved kept and eye on the bubbling experiment.
After I returned a different woman I realized the radishes were very different too. They were white! And the sauce had thickened into an oozing pink glue that actually tasted amazing! Oh to have that drizzled over a hot roasted chicken!
My husband swears he didn’t change the recipe.
I don’t really believe him.

Monday 11 April 2011

Remind me why I am doing this again?

I have told two people that I started a blog, one yesterday, one today.
They both screwed up their faces asked "why?".
My husband Teased me for an hour about trying to be Julie Powell.
My mum won't even read my blog because apart from having more of a social life than I do, she is just frankly, way too busy.
I posted a link on FB, then took it off an hour later because I got embarrassed.

So why am I starting a blog?
Actually I don't know.
A desperation to express myself? I don't think so.
Attention perhaps? But then I would left the link on FB, so no I don't think that either.
I wonder perhaps if it has something to do with a chat I had with an old friend a few years back. I'm a creative person who has gone a long time not really creating anything. My friend suggested that not giving creativity room in my life would eventually make me miserable. I'm not sure about 'miserable', but I can say I have been struck down with envy of a few people around me that do have that opportunity.
So, I am making my own opportunity.

I'm starting a blog.

Saturday 9 April 2011

dreamin.........








i am not a cook.

14:03:11
a day before i leave for a month in Tasmania, this was my FB staus:
"Would u believe I got up and cooked this morning?! 7am and the onion hits the pan with an exploding sizzle. U'd think after 200 skewers yesterday I'd have had enough but nooo. The smell of spices 5 seconds after it hits the pan, I'm in heaven."

i am a painter, a tradesman (well, trades-woman),
not a cook.

However, i do cook.

Two days before I left for my trip to Tasmania, I made an impressive 200+ chicken skewers at home in my kitchen and I thought to myself, "you should do this girl. You should should make finger food and sell it. You should start a catering business!" I laughed at myself and replied, "what a crazy idea! don't be ridiculous! You know a fair amount, but you don't know enough!" To which i suggested, "You could learn! You could start a blog and blog about learning!".
I smiled and patted myself on the head like a young child and moved away from the conversation to more realistic, grown up things, believing this would all just fall away like so many of my crazy thoughts and ideas. 

A month in Tasmania did me no good.

i am not a cook.

But who knows what the future could hold........