PIE FLOATER!

Travelling far? Then eat something from yr hometown before you go
This is my farewell meal for Josh



Pea Soup
500g Split Green Peas - rinse and drain then left soaking for 24 hourss
1 Lemon
Ginger
Garlic
I whole leek - sliced and sauteed with the garlic and ginger
Tamari/Soy Sauce
Wine Vinegar
Ground Pepper
Cup Of BonSoy
Half a Litre of Water

No need to use exact measurements - cook to taste - sautee leek,ginger and garlic, throw in split peas and water, boil then simmer till soft, add lemon, pepper, soy sauce, bonsoy and blend - bring back to heat and simmer till serving

We used La Panellas vegan pies on High st but you can also get meat ones or bake your own

Float the pie - stab with yr thumb and cover in Tomato Sauce

I was trying to think of different ways of cooking tempeh today because i always tend to fry them with soy and it becomes a little unexciting especially when you have to work through a whole slab of tempeh by yourself. So i tried baking them and it turned out really well. the mixture is: mustard, curry powder, salt, honey/agave mixed together and then dip tempeh strips into them and put them in the oven and turn when they start to brown. i also poured some hot water into the bowl with the remaining mixture and used a brush to apply the rest to the other side when it got dry. Also red cabbage and beetroot salad - yum!!

probably my favourite meal to share,

19 Smith Street in Chinatown Singapore, the la mian noodles are made by the owner of the shop who stands in the kitchen in the back of the shop working the noodles into long lengths, and slightly varying widths. The la mian with been pork sits on 2/3 of the noodle surface and shredded cucumber  takes up the rest. These noodles have a joy that it's hard to find in food. I love them.

my dad showed me this restaurant years ago and i go there more than anywhere else, except the pool and kinokunya, when i'm in the city. when you sit down the co-owner, noodle maker's wife, brings you pickled vegetables that are gritty with crushed nut and spicy and sweet. The pineapple tastes amazing with the cold sweet tea.

FAVOURITE CUTS carrot owls

scone

I recently had a hankering for scones.

The thing that is appealing about the scone is it's basic-ness, immediacy and connotation of hospitality.

My favorite bit of scone wisdom is from a friend of my parents who lives in rural Queensland - she once told me that you should start making your batch of scones when you see your visitors' car in the distance. The scones I've always made have been wholemeal, due to beginning my baking life in the late '70s. I think that it was the first thing that I was able to make myself.

My other piece of scone apocrypha is from a chef who claims their grandmother as champion scone maker in the A.C.T. She used only plain flour, cream & soda water. Doesn't that immediately conjure up images of a pale yellow kitchen with red laminex bench tops?

This is my recent variation.

• Light the oven and turn it to the highest setting. Grease and flour a flat baking tray.
• Juice half an orange and marinate a handful of currants in the juice.
• Sift together 2 cups of wholemeal flour, a pinch of salt and 4 teaspoons of baking powder. Sift the flour again.
• Rub in 60g or two tablespoons of butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Lift the flour way up as you do this (it makes the scones lighter).
• Drain the orange juice from the currants into your measuring cup, add the currants to the flour mixture. Stir to distribute currants well.
  
• Top up the orange juice with milk to make one cup of liquid. Add approximately half to the flour and mix with a knife or a spatula. Keep adding liquid and mixing until you have a slightly sticky dough that holds together in a casual kind of way.
• Turn out onto a well floured bench top and bring the mixture together with your hands. Pat it into a evenly thick flat shape that's around 3cm deep.
  
• Cut out rounds with a glass or squares with a knife. Arrange close together on the baking sheet and brush the tops with remaining liquid.
• Place in oven and turn temperature down to 220C - they should take 12 minutes. Turn the baking sheet once during cooking.
• Once cooked, tip the scones onto a clean tea towel and bundle them up until ready to serve.
  

These are good with butter only, and a cup of tea.

I'm fond of a cheese scone - use grated parmesan, finely chopped spring onion & parsley, and a generous pinch of paprika or cayenne. These are good with a glass of medium sherry.

Plain scones would be good to serve with that plum jam I made a while ago.

For Ian Brackenbury Channell

In spite of my present interest in gastronomical economy, brought on by the morbidly high cost of quality foodstuffs due to this alien heat, I sometimes feel the need to break the misery of the market and cheer myself up with a small treat now and then (even if it is a little meretricious – if only you could see what I really feed upon.)

I first came across this recipe when I was living at Albion St but never could make it due to the scarcity of some of the ingredients at the time. I am not sure of its origins but strongly suspect that the Golden Bough would point the finger at Bel-tein hence my posting at this time of year. Some friends will know of my fondness for this recipe, and some of them will murmur the word cholesterol under their breaths – but like many another I cannot pay any attention to that for this is a good recipe to know of and has an air of barbaric luxury to it.

THE COLLOSSAL EGG

1 sheeps bladder
1 bulls bladder
48 eggs separated into whites and yolks.

Put into a sheep bladder 48 egg yolks and sew shut. Submerge in boiling water until yolks have set as a semi firm sphere. Peel bladder and place yolk ball aside.
Place some whites in a rounded bowl slightly smaller than the bulls bladder and double boil. Remove when set, and place cooked whites inside the bulls bladder. Sit the yolk upon this biscuit of whites and fill the bladder with the remaining egg white. Sew shut and submerge in boiling water until whites have set. Peel and serve in a large wooden bowl of straw.

For the first time in a long time , i set out to cook something not knowing exactly what i wanted to make - only that it had to incorporate brown rice sweet potato and broccoli. While the rice was boiling, i changed my mind too many times and what resulted from a rough plan of porridge, and then to soup was an accidental risotto. Just boil brown rice with sweet potato for a while then add broccoli and chickpeas, then add a spoon full of white miso, dash of soy, pepper and sambal. Garnish with sesame seeds, spring onions and parsley. LEKKER!

Also you may have noticed my use of the same bowel in several photos. That is because all the plates and bowels in the house have pink rainbow swirls on them and this is the only one which doesn't.

'Japanese'

Sometimes I cook these meals which I call Japanese, and there are indeed many Japanese ingredients involved, but somehow they are so Australian, too.
The Norwegians used to ask me what typical Australian food is, and other than things like damper, vegemite and anzac biscuits, this is the kind of food I think of, with origins in any number of cuisines, but full of freshness...

Kangaroo fillets cut into strips and marinated in mirin, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil and tamari, then braised with onion; avocado with lemon; blanched green beans; pickled ginger; carrot and cucumber salad.

Late Post

From Stiks' birthday barbeque

with strong flavours

a curious recipe, worth perfecting by juggling the amounts of each ingredient ... this version is modeled on one I learnt from Elena when I worked at Yelza.
for one or two people:

pasta: either linguine or bavette
salt
olive oil
4 - 6 anchovy fillets, cut small
2 cloves garlic
half a red onion, finely diced, soaked in red wine for a half to one hour
a handful of pine-nuts, toasted
a handful of currants
finely chopped parsley
parmesan cheese, shaved or grated

put the pasta on to cook in salted water.

Over lowish heat, cook the anchovies and garlic in olive oil until garlic starts to colour. Add onions and red wine, sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Add currants. When red wine has reduced (to a kind of syrupy consistency), add pine-nuts and half the parsley. Set aside until the pasta is done. Return to heat, add drained pasta, remaining parsley, half of the parmesan, oil to lubricate, if needed. Fold all ingredients through pasta thoroughly. Serve with additional parmesan to garnish, if needed.

the dish is called (in Italian) 'pasta i sapori forti' - pasta with strong flavours. The combination is a subtle and nourishing thing.

bats love mangoes

My neighbour Elizabeth dressing her mango trees to try and thwart the bats, who are visiting nightly. I love this garden! The view from my kitchen window & she grows so many interesting things down there. I scored all this green fruit in the anti-bat efforts, which have ripened up beautifully on the sill

Some food i've been eating lately.

grilled salmon soaked in dressing made from soy sauce, mirin, ginger, and a sugar alternative, i use agave, white wine or vinegar or white wine vinegar. i'm also really obsessed with sweet potato at the moment. They are best wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven until they are soft in the middle - it reminds me eating them from street venders in china

I don't really eat out much here because everything is so super expensive. but occasionally i splurge. This was really nice - pumpernickel bagel with goats cheese, honey, walnuts and thyme. what a combination!

I bought this one jar of cashew paste and i just use it in everything as a butter or cream replacement. I made this dish with Tempeh, mushrooms, spinach - it was really delicious.

Since i've been in Amsterdam, i've started to realise how many australian products i eat and use on a regular basis. The other day i went to the Noordermarkt which is an organic market that sells the MOST amazing bread and cheese and nuts, and fresh produce. I saw that one of the stalls, the had bonsoy, and i've come to the conclusion that it really is still the most unbeatable soymilk in the world i think. The other one is teatree oil, i still use that all the time. and of course, macadamia nuts. There's this brand of ice cream here with chains of stores in several locations called 'Australian', it's homemade ice cream, but i have a feeling it is only a holland phenomenon.

LITTLE BIT OF EARTH

MISO SOUP

i guess its with that end of summer/change of season thing that i get drawn to soups... miso soup especially at the moment; quick to make, earthing, hearty (yet light) and warming.

i start with either of two methods

01. make a sort of dashi broth with water, tamari, mirin, ginger (whole if i'm being lazy or grated), 2 or 3 whole shiitake mushrooms and a 2 inch stick of kombu. after simmering for some time i add a little bit of ume vinegar (to add a pungent element) then add vegetables

02. if i feel like something a little bit richer, i like to fry soaked and drained finely sliced shiitake mushrooms and ginger (sometimes half an onion) in a little bit of toasted sesame oil, then add other ingredients to make broth + vegetables

++ the vegetables i usually like in miso soup are jap pumpkin, radish (whole or cut in half) or daikon, carrot, corn (cut with cob... cob adds heaps of sweet flavour to the stock, i sometimes add a cob if i have one to the stock anyway), wakame and lately just before serving i add finely chopped kale

++ i add the miso paste (i prefer either barley or rice miso from spiral) to each bowl and add enough hot stock to it to mix through then add the soup and stir through. its good not to boil miso as this kills the good stuff (acidophulus etc.)

++ i like to serve with a few drops of sesame oil, finely sliced spring onions and as i haven't had any kombu or wakame lately, a sprinkle of dulse flakes.

++ if i have used kombu i like to take it out of the stock and cut a few thin slices to add to each serve. i do someting similar to the shiitake mushrooms if i have used them whole in the stock.

++ also you can make the stock without vegetables and keep and use to make fresh batches of soup daily

fragrant/hot/sweet

I made this for Sunday dinner, having in mind something that I have eaten before at a Southern Indian restaurant.

I made a spice mixture with about two dessertspoons of coriander seeds, one of cumin, and about half that again of fennel seeds, roasted in a dry pan and then ground in a mortar and pestle. I mixed this with maybe a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a little less of ground cloves.

In a food processor a reduced half an onion and a piece of fresh ginger about the length of my thumb to a paste, which I mixed with the spice mixture, some turmeric and ground black pepper.

I sliced up the other half of the onion, and fried it slowly in some vegetable oil with a whole dried chilli cut in half. When the onion was browned nicely, I added the spice paste and cooked it until it smelt nicely. I added chickpeas (well soaked and boiled) and some potatoes, cut into large cubes. When everything was nicely combined, I added water, not quite enough to cover, and a generous pinch of salt. Once it had come to the boil, I covered it, and reduced the heat to as low as possible.

When the potato was soft, I added about a dessertspoon of pomegranate concentrate. This last ingredient wasn’t really authentic to South Indian cuisine, but I guess if you wanted authenticity, you could use tamarind, if that’s what they use in Southern India. So I guess my version was a kind of Indian/Persian/general middle eastern one. I was surprised with the result, it was like the dish that I have eaten before at the restaurant – but with more heat, and I think all the more enjoyable that I had made it myself. Making the spice mixture, I felt like a blind man, finding his way by smell.

I imagine you could make a raita to go with this – with grated cucumber, mint or coriander. But it went fine with plain yoghurt, and plain Basmati rice.

Such successes are incentive to eat out at better and better Indian restaurants, to find more dishes to replicate.