Discovering the Summer Roast

I realise that it is summer and that roast dinners really have their moment in the spotlight during winter, but every now and then a situation calls for more than a simple salad. The last six months have been a real adventure of uncertainty and in the short time Teej and I have been camping out at our friend’s house the three of us have shared both the good and bad parts of that journey. The one thing we really hadn’t shared much of though was food.

A decent meal.

This is surprising considering Hazel (the friend in question) and I head the kitchen at our church. That’s more than 60% of our relationship right there. Despite the different ages and the diversity of our individual cooking histories, we make a stellar team. If I were to ever open a restaurant, there is no one I would rather partner with to do so.

Thank God for Hazel who this month decided to finally end that lack of communal feasting.

Inviting around some Kiwi mates we all partook in a summer roast meal or perhaps I should say a summer banquet. Frankly put, the woman knows how to entertain guests.

 I have a lot to learn from her.

Starting with dips, then onto to prawns, we began to feel like royalty moving from course to course. The star attraction being a summer roast platter served with a light gravy and lime chutney.

As I watched the boy’s reposition themselves from the dining room table to the lounge room floor groaning with over satisfied stomachs, I re-pondered the place of the traditional roast in the different seasons. It appears I have really been limiting the roast all these years. Unconsciously confining it in one room of the house and not really discovering its full potential. Of course, winter will always be its time to shine, but I can tell you I am truly looking forward to a year long friendship with the roast dinner.

Thanks for everything Hazel <3

Change

I’m aware. It’s been a while since my last published blog entry. I say ‘published’ because I wrote many times. At least I tried to write many times. I have twenty or so half written blog entries saved on my hard drive, mostly the same words, just in different order. I don’t think it was writers block or a lack of desire to cook. I think mainly it was the lack of camera and the lack of time. I can’t seem to get my head around writing a blog about food and not being able to show you what I am doing at the same time. I guess that’s part of being a very visual person.

It’s been an interesting few months. 

A few weeks after I returned from my trip to the states, I attempted to call my Oma (Grandma) several times before finally trying my Father on an old number (He lives up north so my contact with him is very limited). Turns out she had been in hospital for almost a month.  I have to thank God that I was not working because it meant that over the next two months I was able to sit with my Oma as much as I wanted, as much as she needed, as much as I needed.

 I really cherish that time. We talked about so much, her life, my life, everything we’d missed (I didn’t grow up around this side of the family, hence the odd distance in relationship between my father and I). Most of all though, we talked about food.

When she passed away she organised with my father to pass all her recipe books to me. Then that was that. It’s very hard for me to write about this. As time has passed I have found it harder and harder to not have her around. I feel like I’ve lost more than I can explain.

So much has happened since that but it all seems a little insignificant. We moved out of our inner-city town house, put all our stuff in storage and rented a room in a house in suburbia. My car broke down and my sister lent me her car as a long lender till I can afford another. My husband took out a loan, quit his job, and did a bit of training and heading back to the welding industry. He is currently driving one hundred kilometres a day for to new job.

Most recently, I got a job cooking in a newly opened cafe. No qualifications to cook, just experience and a blog. Yep, in this rather downward slanted blog entry, we finally have something to lift it up again. The owners read this blog and consequently I had the strangest interview for a job I’ve ever had;

“So, do you want to work for us?”

“Yes”

“Yay!”

My Oma would be so proud.

So in everything that has been happening, I am sad to have lost my Oma and I know it looks like not everything is moving up and forward, but it all just feels like change.

Honestly, that’s kind of exciting.

It’s a refreshing word....”Change”

.........Oh, I didn’t mention, my Christmas present this year was a fixed camera! J

I heart recipes

Well, as promised, HERE is my little scrapbook. There are still a few bumps and hiccups that I will being trying to sort out but hopefully they will all work out along the way.

Hope you enjoy it.

Also if you guys get anygood recipes you want to pass on to me, email me! I believe you can see my address on my profile....hmm, better double check that.

New Blog: Recipe Scrapbook

Well that's it folks, I've had enough of this blog and I'm starting a new one!

Okay, okay, That's not really true, actually I love this blog, but I am starting a new one. A side one. Crazy full of recipes! I have noted that finding my favorite recipes via blog entries is actually quite hard. So, to save you the search time I've started a recipe scrapbook that I will be uploading all my favorite recipes onto. That way if you want to just look at the recipes, you can!

Also because (major disaster!!) my camera is broken(!!!), I think it will be the perfect time to put this idea into play. Just hope it will actually work :) The first recipes I will be uploading are to ones I promised long ago on the 'Babies, Bumps, Breasts and Baguettes' blog entry. So look out for the link which I will put up over the next week.

(Meanwhile, I'll work on getting my camera fixed and a new cooking based blog entry for you.)

Till then folks..........

Poached Egg and Bacon Tarlets (or Open Pies)

When it comes to going out for a meal, my most favourite meal of the day to do so is always breakfast. I wouldn't say I’m a morning person really, may be a forced one due to six years as a tradesman, but certainly not naturally.

Then again, who said breakfast was about getting up early?

It’s about getting up leisurely and slowly heading out for a late breakfast or brunch. Taking it slow and enjoying what’s left of the morning before you race off to do whatever it is that you need to get done for the day. It’s also the only meal of the day where a ‘comfortable silence’ is a welcomed thing. At dinner silence’s always lean more to the awkward side, but never at breakfast. You can sit for almost half an hour without a word and it would be okay. Your partner will be reading the paper whilst you are watching the world wake up and roll out of bed, (and let’s face it, Australia has an amazing birdlife, all of whom go pretty insane first thing in the morning, even in the city) it’s beautiful really.

Actually I love breakfast so much I often eat it for dinner! There is also here the fact that I like to eat all my meals ‘backwards’, it suits my appetite. Dinner for breakfast, dessert for lunch and breakfast for tea......I’m not joking, I genuinely do this. Heck, I did it last night!

After two reasonable cooking failures recently I decided to something a little more ‘safe’. Not because I’m scared of more failure, oh no, I’m a big fan of kitchen fails! Not only are they mostly hilarious, (I recommend cakewrecks.com by the way - thanks mum for the heads up on that site) but you never learn from success the way you learn from failure, especially in the kitchen. However dear friends and readers, I would not want you to believe that I am completely useless in the kitchen and it would be nice to cook a recipe that is actually worth passing onto you.

Today’s recipe I have pulled from my most favourite magazine, which sadly ‘passed away’ late 2010. I believe that ‘Notebook’ magazine was so awesome it self combusted, a very sad story indeed. This recipe is also very easy both to make and to eat, which was good for me because it meant that it was sort of like the coffee beans you have between the wine tastings; palate cleansing for my desire to try new recipes. All in all refreshing really. There is also a really good method for poaching eggs in this recipe.

So now ill stop my babbling and give you the recipe already, because I know that what you came here for. Enjoy;

POACHED EGG AND BACON PIES

Filling:

20g of butter

5 rashes of bacon, diced

1 brown onion, diced

4 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons of thickened cream

1 tablespoon of white vinegar

6 free range eggs

Baby rocket leaves to serve

Sour Cream Pastry:

2 cups of flour

100g of butter

½ cup of sour cream (125g)

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons of iced water

Method:

To make the sour cream pastry, place butter and flour in the bowl of a food processor (if you have one, other wise work through with a knife or fork - refrain from using your 'bare hands' as much as possible) and process until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Add the sour cream, egg yolk and water and process till mixture comes together. Turn onto floured board and gently need until the mixture again comes together. Wrap in glad/clingwrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes (this may need longer if you used your hands a lot, which one shouldn’t do because one should never use their hands a lot when making pastry of any sort, I’m just saying, if you did....)

Preheat your oven to 200°c (392°F)

Divide pastry into 6 portions and roll each portion out to a 12cm disc. If you are using fluted tart tins (as the recipe recommends) then line the sides of six 10cm fluted tart tins with the pastry (I didn’t have tart tins, let alone six of them, so use what you have and divide appropriately).  Trim pastry and refrigerate for a further 15 minutes.

Line the cases with baking paper and rice or beans and bake for 10 minutes, remove paper and rice and bake for further 5 minutes.

Meanwhile fry butter, bacon and onion in till a frypan till they begin to brown, add ¾ of the green onions and cream, cook for a further 2 minutes and remove from heat.

Fill pastry tartlets with bacon mix and return to oven for another 5 minutes

Eggs:

Place vinegar and enough water to cover an egg in (deep) frypan and bring to the boil.

Break 1 egg into a cup, then using a serving spoon, create a whirlpool effect in your frying pan, carefully slip the egg into the centre of the whirlpool (you can gently..... very gently continue to swirl the whirlpool around at a slower pace once the egg is in). Poach for 1-2 minutes or according to the firmness that you prefer then remove and repeat with other eggs (you may need to top up the water to make sure the eggs remain covered by water every time. A boiled kettle near by is good for this)

Place tartlets on a plate with rocket, then serve poached egg on top of tartlet with salt, pepper and remaining green onions.

P.S.  just as an end note; the apple crumble and custard I had for lunch was pretty amazing too ;)

My Dream Kitchen......

You know those girls who always dreamt of their wedding day, yeah, you know the ones, the ones that have those scrapbooks under their bed; full of dresses, hairstyles old chapels, garden marque's and floral arrangements.

Well, I had a kitchen scrapbook.....uh, 'have'.

I found it the other day tucked safely behind a wardrobe in the spare bedroom. Flicking through it brought home all my 'childhood' dreams of a one day getting the 'rustic-french-modern-American-chic-country-industrial-bohemian-medieval-style' kitchen that I had always dreamed of.....(lets hope I can have a few different shots at this or that is going to be one confusing cooking space)

Inspired, I thought whilst I can't put my crummy old scrapbook onto the blog, (yet) I could go hunting for some new picture's and start the 'on-line leg' of my scrapbook dreams.....

Enjoy!

Communal Baking #1

Last week a friend and I were casually talking about macaroons, the difficulty in finding good ones and the even greater difficulty in making them. I suggested Alexander’s macaroons to her noting that ever since I introduced these macaroons to my mum, she has been madly baking the tiny goodies in an attempt to find the secret to the perfect macaroon.  Really, they have taken over her life, when you think about it, they are actually quite dangerous! We also decided it might be fun to attempt to make some of our own and see how we would go with them.

A few days later I was flicking through a recipe magazine and, there before was a shiny new recipe for…yep, you guessed it! I forwarded the recipe to said friend (aka Lena) who happened, at that very moment, to be standing in front of a three tear masterpiece of a cake covered in non other but macaroons! 

At this stage I need to point out there is something very odd about my life style that, while most of the time brings me great joy, it also on occasion, makes me kick myself in utter frustration.

I don’t have a TV.

I haven’t had one for over four years.

It’s a story i'll save for another time, but what I will say is this; I don’t watch master chef so I can say this with a completely clean conscience, I came upon a fascination of macaroons entirely of my own accord. I can also say, because I don’t have a TV that I had no idea there was a food festival in town and therefore completely missed, not only the entire festival, (Kick!)  but the enormous macaroon cake tower!

(KICK…..KICK…..KICK!)

However my heart was soothed when dear Lena suggested we come together to try and attempt such a cake.

A date was set and ..."oh Bev is coming too”, great! I love communal baking! Ingredients were divvied up, I was to bring the macaroon requirements, Lena the cake and Bev, lunch. Then Kate caught wind and well, what is cake baking without Kate? She brought her much needed cake icing tool belt. Then Stef came with Bev and there we were, five of us, all crammed into my little apartment sized kitchen. Communal baking indeed!

It wasn’t like there wasn’t enough to do. I had brought some macaroon pre-mix packets that I was assured by my mother would be a great back up if the recipe I found did not pan out. So that was two batches of macaroons on the 'to-bake' list.  Then Lena (as only Lena would) decided, 'what’s one cake without having another cake to eat whilst we were making the main cake?' So there was another ‘side cake’ to bake as well. So while we settled at a two tear cake we had the equivalent of three cakes (two butter, one citrus) and two large batches of macaroons (almond chocolate and lavender).  Thankfully I also have a decent sized dinning room table which served us very well.

You know it’s times like these success doesn’t really matter. I myself, am never one to shy away from kitchen failure. The macaroons, (both batches) turned out more like chewy biscotti and the two-tear cake was unfortunately more like a two-tear pancake stack (someone, I sharn’t blame anyone by name, forgot that doubling the recipe might be a better option than splitting the one quantity between two cake tins. Although in the midst of the pandemonium that was my kitchen, I’m not surprised such a mistake was made). However the citrus cake was quite the success and was muchly enjoyed at lunch with ‘Rose and vanilla tea’ (thank you Lena for getting us all hooked)

The macaroons could be mastered another time….(and will be) and cakes can be re-baked with quantities doubled. But somewhere in the chaos, there was a pleasant satisfaction. May be it’s just me and my love of homes that a bustle with noise and colour and laughter and for a moment that’s what my quiet little nook had been transformed into. A little more than perhaps my fellow house mates were up for though, my husband and the couple currently residing with us started out in downstairs community, but one by one retreated to the safety of the bedrooms upstairs. Sorry guys.

There is one more thing. Apparently communal baking is an exciting thing to people. I couldn’t believe how quickly what I thought was two of us, turned into five of us, on top of which I was making a very direct effort not to mention to anyone else because the idea of it lit up people eyes and I didn’t want to feel obliged to invite more. I felt it could have easily turned into eight or nine the way we were picking up people.

Hmmmm.

Gives one ideas doesn’t it.

Till next time..