mallung meal

DHAL with RADISH GREENS MALLUNG, TOMATO + ONION SALAD & LIME PICKLE on BURGHUL

[leftovers for lunch today ~ even better than last night. Save for the mallung, which was amaaazing freshly made]

DHAL
--onion fried with the usual spices [bay & curry leaves, mustard seeds, garam masala, turmeric, cardamon, cumin, coriander]
--stir in a cup or so of lentils + garlic & chilli + pepper
--two veg... i had cauliflower & zucchini
--bit of stock then water
--cook til melted together nicely
--season along the way with splashes of mirin + tamari

MALLUNG
he.marli's recipe from the 'pickings' comment OR with a bare pantry i got away with:
--oil flavoured/fried with a whole garlic clove (fine chopped onion is better)
-- add fine sliced radish greenery (or anything else green, or cabbage)
--fry together with a few tablespoons dessicated coconut, turmeric, dried chilli, big pinch of salt & lemon juice to moisten.
--done when greens are cooked... not long

TOMATO & ONION
--fine sliced onion + tomato + juice of a lemon + a little oil + S & P
--mix it with your hands

eaten on coarsish BURGHUL cooked absorption method with a little stock ~pearl barley is even nicer. Both lighter than rice.

with my favourite head-clearing LIME PICKLE ~ Fern's is the best!

the beautiful bean

I found fresh borlotti beans at the grocer's this morning. I never fail to be enchanted by their mottled pink and white pods, and the delicate white, green, pale pink and maroon beans. I cooked these in lightly salted boiling water, and then incorporated them into a salad with tomatoes, parsley stalks, parsley, red onion, mint, bread, olive oil and lemon juice. This is good with sausages. Pork and fennel sausages work well. Sausages and beans are meant to go together.

chickpea soba noodles

who knew chickpeas and buckwheat noodles would go so well together!

onions
garlic
carrots
mushrooms
spinach
mirin
water
vegetable broth/ stock
chickpeas
soba noodles
white miso paste

to be added in that order roughly.

1 2 3 GO

WHITE RICE/PAN FRIED MUSHROOMS with LEMON THYME/CUCUMBER, SNOW PEA and AVOCADO SALAD/PERSIAN KALE/CHICKPEAS with HARISSA and PUMPKIN/OVEN ROASTED TOMATOES and BASIL/ROASTED POTATOES



last week renee and i decided to make a meal together. we shoppped separately but then cooked in the kitchen together, consulting each other but not really with any grand plans. like those rare times when you have a potluck (rarely lucky) and everyone by some collecitve consciounsce brings just the right amount of each course and the flavours seem to sing together (more or less), we syncopated. the meal evolved effortlessly and flavoursomly.

WHITE RICE
a japanese friend of mine taught me how to cook rice, slightly more involved than most methods but worth every grain filled morsel

meth
++ rinse thoroughly 2cups of white rice (i like short grain) until it runs clear (the white suff that runs out is apparently talc...)
++ soak for 20-30mins, then drain
++ bring 2cups of water to a boil in a pot with a well fitted lid and add the rice placing the lid back on
++ bring back to the boil, then immediately turn flame down to lowest possible flutter and place a flame tamer under your pot if you have one (really useful for dispersing the heat evenly on low flames)
++ cook for 20mins (without ever removing lid) then bring flame up to full again for 20 seconds (slighlty toasting the bottom layer of the rice) then remove from heat
++ leave for 5 more minutes then remove lid and fluff rice up to release the steam

quick snack options with freshly cooked rice (white or brown)
++ toasted seeds (pumpkin/sunflower/sesame) + umeboshi + flaxseed oil (stoney creek farm is my favourite) + dulse flakes or fresh parsley

late night pickings

Even a bolting, forgotten garden is a blessing in busy times...
Prize radish + rocket-cos-mizuna.
Interested in tips on how to use the radish greenery? So lush & folic.

Lunch

Ceramic cuts

Rory brought back this ceramic knife from Japan. The blade is made of zirconium oxide which the Kyocera website tells me is second in hardness to diamonds. The knife is really light but has a good central balance, it cuts exceptionally, and although the handle is ugly slate toned plastic it is entirely ergonomic and comfortable. The range is also produced with a black blade, but the white is super attractive - slightly iridescent with the calcareous quality of a cuttlefish bone.

Schweetums

This is what's classified in Norway as something light to finish off a meal (of mutton ribs, mashed swede and boiled potatoes):

A slab of cream thickened with lime juice. Garnish.

BTW, Sonsa's on Smith Street have the most amazing pomegranates at the moment.

Drunken ostentatious dessert at bourgie rooftop expat bar in Kuala Lumpur:


And the best kind of dessert, or breakfast for that matter - Matthew's aunt's mulberry tree:

people should.....

today i feel like i'm getting a cold,

and i thought:

why don't people serve freshly brewed ginger tea everywhere?

...especially in a climate as cold as this gets.....

people should serve this in cafes!

so now i'm home this is what i'm doing, washing and slicing ginger, and simmering it in water in a lovely little pot until it is so hot, and then drinking it with some honey and some lemon.

more! from the broadway markets

once again, the lure of the market pulls me on a saturday morning, but

this time lucky enough to have Petra visit from Figures for a weekend

of eats and constant treats! yeah.

the booty we schlepped back from the market;

english cox apples (usually hate them in australia - always mushy, but here so crisp and complex and just delicious)

apple-pear juice

spelt bread

harissa

olives stuffed with garlic

daikon root

black-kale

cabbage

fennel

broad beans (so sweet...)

beets

shallots

goats cheese-loggins, moulded like a blue cheese

and what we whipped up:

spelt bread with goats cheese, tapenade and harissa:

fennel salad: ( i think i've eaten this salad on average, like, 3 times a week for the last 10 years its my absolute favorite flavour....)

- 1 bulb fennel sliced really finely

- lemon zest (finely sliced rind of lemon)

- lemon juice

- sliced kalamata and green olives

- parsley

- olive oil

- sea salt and pepper

++whip up olive oil with lemon juice, zest, S&P 

++ add the fennel, olives and parsley

++ mix and serve!

------------------------------------------------------------

we also sauted black-kale with:

++ shallots in olive oil, sauteded til soft and golden

++ add some salt and pepper and more olive oil

++ add in some fresh fresh sweet braod beans (i like them double shelled but petra likes them single....so this recipe has single shelled beans), cook up quickly

++ add in ripped up black-kale (i take out the stalks coz they are hard to chew)

++ then add some freshly chopped tomatoes and a bit more olive oil, cook a tiny bit more til it looks good to eat

Banana Cornbread 

____________

I combined a few different recipes to make this

it worked out quite well if you like dense bread with no butter and sugar. 

2 cups cornmeal

4 ripe bananas

2 tsp baking powder

cinnamon 

maple syrup or molasses (if you want it to to be sweet, but i also like it plain)  

nutmeg

ground cloves

milk/ water

I'm really addicted to (food in general at the moment), but especially macadamia nuts - so tasty. 

Hummus Place was the one the best places we ate at in East Village, NY.

Torino

A butcher in Turin dedicated exclusively to horse-meat:

Hormone central:

Much respect to the chocolatier who came up with the idea to make a savoy cabbage out of chocolate, and then actually went and did it.

Becky Bellwether with post-Artissima feast from Eataly:

When we first arrived in Turin, someone had said 'you have to go to this place called Eataly, it's amazing', and we were like 'Eataly? That is the worst name in the world, it must be bad', but when you walk in there you find yourself in a supermarket with the most mindblowing range of Italian foodstuffs imaginable, including a full aisle dedicated to olive oil classified by region, a truffle counter which stinks from about ten metres away, super-fresh rabbits and seafood, locally made nougat, piles of fresh oranges, and so on and on... we loved Eataly.

Literary indulgence

While some we know are skiing the Japanese slopes, attended by butlers bearing champagne, skiing alongside.

From aptly named authors Medlar Lucan & Durian Gray, comes The Decadent Cookbook: Recipes of Obsession and Excess. Not entirely a cookbook, rather an assemblage of decadent writing on food interspersed with recipes, the book enables the reader to re-create such meals as Caligula's dinner of Roast Dormice or the Marquis de Sade's preferred dessert (complete with recommended codes of conduct). One entry of note introduces the keeper of the greatest table in 18th century Paris Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reyniere. As the city's unequivocal host, his parties were the hot ticket, indeed his 'banquet burial', a dinner inspired by death, was attended not only by dining companions but also 300 invited spectators. Aware the reputation of a dinner party relies on scandal, Grimod de la Reyniere shockingly claimed a family member supplied the diner's pork. Though untrue, the false revelation of low social connections so humiliated his parents they had him exiled from Paris.

plum

We recently moved to Preston, which is in the north-east of Melbourne. Along with all of our belongings we took about 5 kilos of plums from the blood-plum tree in the garden of our former home. On the advice of my friend Meg - creator of the formidable plum cake once served at the Black Cat Cafe in Fitzroy -, I halved and stoned half of our crop and froze it. This will give me time to plan plum duff, plum crumble, and that German Black Plum Tart in the Claudia Roden book that I made once and loved so much. I might also glaze a bit of duck or pork with some plum puree ... The other, less ripe half, I made into jam. The recipe is adapted from one which is apparently Mrs Beeton's -

for every 450g of fruit, weighed before being stoned, allow 340g of sugar. Divide the plums, remove the stones, and reserve about half to two thirds of the stones for later. Lay the halved fruit face up in a deep dish and sprinkle with the sugar. Continue in layers, until you have used all the fruit and the sugar. Leave overnight, or for 24 hours.

Crack the plum stones and remove the kernels.

When you are ready to make the jam, empty the plums and sugar in a large pan, with the juice of a lemon, and the peel and pith of half of the lemon. Heat gently and simmer for about 20 minutes, throw in the kernels from the stones, then boil vigorously for 15 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent the jam burning on the bottom of the pan. Test for set-ness in the usual way. I place a saucer in the freezer for a while, then put a blob of jam on the saucer and return it to the freezer for 1 minute. If you can draw your finger through it and leave a distinct trail, the jam is set. If not, boil for a further 10 - 15 minutes and test it again.

What I like about this method is it's slow and meditative quality, stretching out the process out over a day or a day and a half. I like the pleasing progress of the plums as the sugar draws out the juices, and the absence of the need to heat sugar in oven and test the jam with a thermometer. It's a recipe with a gratifyingly chunky result.

There is some doubt these days as to whether Mrs Beeton actually wrote, or even tested her recipes ... but I nevertheless like the simplicity and the fact that the method assumes that you have some common sense.

In between halving, sprinkling, cracking and freezing, I went to our local grocery store for a look around and a bit of a shop for necessities. The woman in the store said that she calls these "tiger plums", but the box they are displayed in said they were a "dappled dandy"

the skin is a weird and slightly unnerving dappled green-yellow and brownish red. The inside is so beautiful, so wonderful ... and tastes something like a cross between a plum and a strawberry. Sweet, tart, slightly woody.

winter-ness

i was shown this place to eat by Kirsty Ogg from the Showroom. It's only a walk away from where I'm working, in a pavilion by the lake in the famous Victoria Park. Traditionally a park for the health and recreation of the working class of the east-end, the area is now well and truly gentrified - serving up hordes of new-ling parents delicacies such as lamb and lentil stew or organic mushroom soup. Oh and they do flat whites with bonsoy. How very Melbourne!

northern inversions

some east london institutions:

Season

Plums from my dad, rosemary from Stix's mum, lemons from Andrew and Geoff's.

Catching up...

Bacalao is a Portuguese/Spanish way to prepare Norwegian salted cod. I learnt to make it in Trondheim from a woman named Helga, who had an incredible instinct for cooking.
I only have images of the preparation prior to cooking:



BACALAO

Best made in a great big pot and shared with many.

Ingredients:
1 dried, salted cod (saltfisk) - you can buy them at the Mediterranean Wholesalers, those whole dried fish that look as though they are roaring
2kg fresh tomatoes, thickly sliced
1kg white onions, roughly chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato puree
1 whole bulb garlic, roughly chopped
Loads of olive oil
Water
2kg potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 habanero chillies, finely chopped

Cut the saltfisk into chunks and soak for 24 hours, changing the water 3 times during the soaking period. Keep refrigerated whilst soaking. Drain.

Put the sliced potato in water about 2 hours prior to cooking and leave to soak, then drain. This helps the potato to cook evenly with the fish.

Heat a large, deep pot, put a splash of olive oil, a handful of onion, a can of tomatoes and a handful of fresh tomato (chopped) into the pan and cook until the onion begins to become transparent. This is to sort of start it off.
Then turn the heat off, and layer the pan up in this order, the way you would a moussaka:
Potatoes, fish, onion and garlic, tomatoes, chili, daubs of puree or splashes of canned tomatoes.
The order is important, the fish needs to rest on top of the potatoes.
Layer right up to the top of the pan, then pour on about 1 cup olive oil and 1 cup water or so, such that when you tilt the pan you can see the liquid appear.
Cover and bring to the boil, then lower heat and cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. It is cooked when the potatoes are ready.
Serve with fresh, warm bread (ideally pariserloff), herb butter, and a bowl of olives.

who said food in england was shite?

on my way to the studio this morning (driven threre by a bout of anxiety that time is a slipping....i mean its a saturday....) and i got distracted a wee bit by the lure of BROADWAY MARKETS. Everyone i've met over the last 10 days insists on it, and so, a freezing but somewhat bright morning seemed perfect to try out what, on approach, made itself abundantly evident that it is THE bourgiest little corner of London (i think - i mean i havent exactly exahusted all the possibilities for this and I'm sure such corners abound)...and we know what this means don't we - the best food on earth.....almost.

like this here fresh pheasant:



and it gets better - wild mushrooms!! and they cook them on site into a "medley of mushroom sandwich"....errr i wish i hadn't eaten that brown rice museli an hour before...

and these quaint wooden barrels full of stuffed olives, tapenade, dolmades, harissa et al...served up by 2 incredibly good looking and somewhat arrogant french ex-patters. That'll be 3 pound 45, please



which i took to the studio and used to spruce up my rather white-looking lunch of lima beans (they call them butter beans here....a garnish of dolmades and extra-oily tapenade that i still seem to be digesting almost 12 hours later....urgh


recepie for lima/butter beans:

1 cup of beans - soaked overnight and simmered slowly until tres tres soft but not falling apart. this can be tricky at times...i often find my beans in a mashy-soupy state and it really is too late once this transformation has occured....i find that the longer you soak the beans (ie. overnight) - the better chance yr gonna have making sure they stay intact during the cooking process. Cook for like, 20 minutes, and be at the pot so as to catch them if they dare threaten to get any softer...

1 leek, chopped
1 onion chopped
lots of garlic
fresh or dried rosemary
sea salt
pepper
olive oil
lemon zest

++ sauted the onion til clear and starting to caramelize (in lots of olive oil....and add water a bit to help soften)...i usally grind in heaps of pepper and add sea salt toward the end of this stage - chilli can be nice too
++ add the leek and rosemary and cook til soft
++ then add the garlic and keep cooking (by the way stirring consistently, adding water to soften etc)
++then add in the cooked beans, more seasoning, more oil, and water and cook away, stiring and stewing until it gets all creamy
++ when done, stir threough lots of lemon zest and some roughly chopped italian parsely

+++ so this is what is above in the image (lunch box)
+++ ontop are some roasted tomoatoes from the night before (which have simply been roast in the oven for about one hour with olive oil and sea salt and pepper)
+++ then a flavor explosion is added from the 2 dolmades and the most delicious tapenade i've eaten in a long time.

brown rice museli-ish breakfast

I've been eating japanese-style breakfasts most mornings since being in London, tofu, wakame, miso et al.
But this morning was in need of sweetness!

This is something i forgot about until i saw the honey jar on the kitchen table. YEAH!

ingredients
- brown rice - best if its freshly cooked, but i usually have a container in the fridge ready to eat
- fat dried raisins
- dollop of tahini (scott would HATE this....)
- vanilla essence
- freshly minced ginger - or powdered ginger is good too
- little bit of cinamon
- toasted sesame seeds
- honey to taste
- soy milk

process
++ steam up the rice in a double steamer (if you are using from a pre-cooked batch -otherwise cook your rice absorption style), add the raisins in there too - they swell up to perfection
++ while that's cooking, get a bowl, add in the tahini, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, and toasted sesame seeds - mix it all up into a creamy consistency. I find adding a bit of water to moisten is a good trick.
++ add in the hot rice and raisins, and also the sesame seeds, and mix it all together
++ add in soy milk as you would museli

extras
+++ add chopped fruit on top, i had kiwi fruit this morning (was craving greeness...which has been hard to get in a wintery city dominated by root vegetables....) but i think strawberries or any berries are better with this
+++ i always find i need to add extra honey
+++oh and i had some awesome organic soft goats cheese in the fridge which was delicious on top too!

This is one of the best teas i have ever tasted. i had it at a microbiotic cafe here in amsterdam and it's served with apple juice and honey. MU tea is made up of about 15 different herbs, it's amazing! I must say foods that have been on my mind of late include: soy yoghurt and waffles. the waffles are so addictive here it's insane!