magnolia jam

As you may have picked up from my recent posts, I've become rather enamoured of magnolias lately. I feel like I'm seeing them everywhere at the moment but especially in a few key locations where I often need a beautiful pick me up (on the way to work; on the way to the hospital). I feel like they're such a hopeful flower - blooming as they do at the end of Winter and early Spring on naked branches, gradually making way for green sprouting leaves.

If only I could cook up and bottle magnolias as jam, to savour them on toast in the morning, to literally consume the hopefulness they hold for me. Instead I thought perhaps homemade strawberry jam might be a fair substitute, especially as the strawberries seem to be exploding with brightness and flavour at the moment. There is something about the idea of ingesting bold colours that is appealing to me, something intrinsically nourishing and life affirming. And besides, I've never made strawberry jam before. In fact I never even used to like it. I don't know why, perhaps it was because growing up we were more of an apricot jam household. But the strawberries are demanding my attention at the moment and so to strawberry fields of jam we go.

Sally Wise, as usual, was my go to for this one and she makes it pretty simple and straightforward, which is always a nice way to go.

Strawberry Jam
Adapted from Sally Wise

500g strawberries, hulled
3/4 tsp tartaric acid
1/4 cup of water
500g sugar

Chop the strawberries roughly and place in a medium saucepan with the tartaric acid and water.  Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes.  Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.  Bring the jam to the boil and boil over medium heat for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it though. If you have a raging hot gas burner like I do, you may want to lower down the heat or take it off the stove a bit earlier. My jam ended up quite caramelised, which was good but might not be what you're going for.

Pour into sterilised bottles and seal immediately. Then enjoy on toast or stirred through yogurt or with fresh strawberries, gingerbread biscuits and mascarpone (as we did with my Mum on Tuesday night) or however you like it.

Just before we go, here a few interesting facts about magnolia which I discovered during my travels and which further reinforce my enjoyment of this rather amazing plant:
- Magnolia evolved before bees appeared
- the aromatic bark contains magnolol and honokiol, two polyphenolic compounds that may have demonstrated anti-anxiety properties
- in parts of Japan, the leaves of magnolia obovata are used for wrapping food and as cooking dishes.

So there you go: beautiful, hopeful and useful - qualities I think can safely apply to jam as well.

I wasn't the only one to make jam this month.
To see what all the lovely cooking club members made, do stop by their places below.

Lucent Imagery (cooking club founder)
From River's Edge
Down by the Sea
Explody Full
Chi Garden
Under Lock and Key
Adventures of the Ordinary
Christa to the Max

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full of possibility

New favourite thing: get up early on a week day, grab someone special and head to a café for breakfast before work. It has a magical way of making the day feel longer and more full of possibility.

Last Friday Kristian and I braced the early morning cold and headed over to Gather on the Green in Camperdown, which has pretty much the best muffins I've ever had. It's also in the street where I used to live so it has good memories for me. We got there so early that the muffins weren't yet out of the oven so we had a coffee and first breakfast while we waited and then had a roadie blueberry and chocolate muffin as we walked to work.

Here are a few other nice places where I have enjoyed morning breakfast catch ups recently:
- Deus ex Machina in Camperdown
- Palomino Espresso on York Street in the City (also has great muffins)
- Biaggio Café in Pyrmont (they do a breakfast granola that will do you for the whole day).

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a week of breakfasts

There is something to be said for seeing the passage of time in food. You get glimpses of your own patterns and behaviour, something that has a tendency to slip past in the normal course of the week. Looking through my camera recently was an interesting insight into what I've been preparing for breakfast.

I realised after my last post just how many avocado toasts I've been having for a start and I also noticed a certain proclivity for extravagant weekend breakfasts. Not that this is representative of a typical week in our household. I don't usually make a habit of feasting on cake or pie for breakfast (although when I do it is magnificent). 

The Banoffee Pie was courtesy of our lovely friend Bec, who had made it for a games night we hosted recently. There was some leftover and on Sunday morning, bleary-eyed and a little tired after a late night of games related hilarity I opened the fridge and thought 'Yes, that pie is going to be breakfast.'

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workaday meals

I realised recently, after reading this wonderful post, that I don't often write about the food I actually prepare for us during the week, especially those regular workaday meals or snacks that come together almost by themselves because I've made them many times before.

I don't know why I have this hesitation because I get just as much inspiration from seeing what people make to nourish themselves when they're busy as from perfectly styled meals that require fancy ingredients and dedicated preparation time.

So here goes, a simple meal that I often make for breakfast or whenever the need for something quick and sustaining arises, or just when I feel like it.

Avocado Toast

1 avocado (makes plenty for two)
some thick crusty bread or toasted bagels
salt and cracked pepper
squeeze of lemon

Spoon out your avocado into a small bowl and mash it up well with a squeeze of the lemon. Toast your bread or bagel (I didn't make the bagels this time around but I have before and if you have a bit of time up your sleeve one weekend I recommend making some - it feels a little bit like a magic trick).  Then lather the avocado onto your bread, season with salt and cracked pepper and eat with gusto. An optional very Australian extra: spread your bread with a little bit of Vegemite before putting on your avocado and then omit further salt.

In NSW the Hass (purple pebbly skin) and Sharwil (greenskin) varieties of avocado are in season for the next few months, so I daresay I'll be having a few more avocado based meals before then. My childhood self is cracking up laughing at this because she knows I used to hate avocados with a passion and now look how far I've come.

For more seasonal produce inspiration make sure you check out the other members of the cooking club below:

Lucent Imagery http://www.lucentimagery.com/
From River’s Edge http://fromriversedge.net/
Down by the Sea http://downbytheseadorset.blogspot.co.uk/
Anything Squirrel Squirrel http://anythingsquirrelsquirrel.com/

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homemade marmalade

There's something almost magical about some things that you make yourself. Especially when they're items that you usually buy from the supermarket. This is me and marmalade - I love it, as you can probably tell from here, but I've never made it myself.

So when a lovely blogger friend recently invited me to take part in a cooking club, with this month's challenge being to make something from scratch that you would normally buy in a jar/carton/bottle/packet, I leapt at the chance. The universe was giving me a little nudge to get over my weird fear about preserving and canning and just do it.

There is a wealth of information out there about preserving, canning, bottling, pickling and it can be a little overwhelming to say the least. I think part of the secret of not talking yourself out of doing it is to start small. Remember when I made pickles a while back? - well I made so much of the stuff and was worried that I hadn't properly sterilised the jars so I ended up having to throw some of it out - something I hate doing.  Since then I've found a few good tips, such as here and here on sterilising jars.

So now onto the fun part, making the marmalade.

Orange Marmalade
Adapted from A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise

Makes 750g, approximately (enough for three jars)

4-5 large oranges
1/2 a lemon
3 1/2 cups water
500g sugar

Start by chopping the oranges finely.  Place them in a large pot, add the water and bring to the boil. Cook for about 25 minutes or until the fruit is soft. 

Now add the sugar and bring to the boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue to boil on high for 25 minutes. Don't do as I did and try to make an omelette for dinner at the same time and forget to stir your marmalade - burning will ensue.

Allow the marmalade to stand for 10 minutes before pouring into warm sterilised jars.  Seal immediately.

This recipe produced a fairly chunky, thick marmalade, which is exactly how I like it but if you prefer yours more runny, I'd suggest adding more water at the start and reducing the heat a little in your second boil, towards the end of the 25 minutes. 

I opened up one jar this morning to go on my toast, one jar went into the cupboard and the other was gifted to a friend at work. I have a feeling I'm going to be finding ever more inventive ways to feature marmalade in my cooking over the coming months. I'd like to think my marmalade loving Gran would be proud of my efforts.

You can find out what the other wonderful members of the cooking club came up with for the challenge below:

Lucent Imagery http://www.lucentimagery.com/

Quiet Paws http://quietpaws.com/

From River’s Edge http://fromriversedge.net/

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breakfast habits

I was inspired by this fantastic series to do some posts on breakfast. There's something about breakfast it seems, more so than perhaps any other meal of the day, that reveals something intrinsic about people - about their habits, likes and personalities. It's as if the way we choose to begin our day, when we're still sleepy, unconsciously speaks something of our true selves - whether we're morning people, active and rushed, or quiet and contemplative, creatures of habit or constantly up for change.

Kristian would say that I'm not much of a morning person (except on occasions of community garage sales) but I love mornings... once they're underway. We've been trying for a while now to get up early, around 6am to go for a run and then still have time to hang out at home and luxuriate in the making and eating of breakfast before we head out the door to work.

Usually we make vegemite toast (or sometimes marmalade) and tea.  But lately, now that the weather is cooler, I've been making porridge again, my autumn and winter friend, sometimes with brown sugar, sometimes with sultanas and honey, occasionally with maple syrup if we've got any in the house. But I'm thinking I need to mix it up, maybe add some coconut and walnuts...
As a kid I think I ate Weetbix with sultanas for breakfast every day for about 10 years straight.

A long term lover of coffee, I've recently switched to tea in the morning, with the occasionally coffee later in the day. For a while there I was having two macchiatos before I got to work and it was unsustainable madness. Now I'm having up to 5 cups of tea but with much less crazy.

My favourite breakfast ever was when I travelled in Italy as a teenager and would go to Cafe Tonnollo in Venice every morning to have a cappuccino and a brioche con marmellata (croissant with jam).

A recent discovery, whilst breakfasting with a lovely new friend, was granola with yogurt at Cafe Biaggio in Pyrmont.  Crunchy and nutty and thoroughly delicious.

How about you folks, do you have any favourite breakfast routines, rituals or preferences?
I'd love to know.


P.S. Yes, that is a big hunk of cheddar cheese. I inherited from my grandmother a predilection for teaming it with marmalade toast - not everyone's cup of tea, but certainly a favourite of mine.
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easterings

A smattering of moments from a wonderfully long Easter break. Don't let the photographs fool you - a

lot more hot cross buns were consumed that it would appear, along with twenty or so cups of tea, fresh figs, banana cake, quesadillas, tuna mornay, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes and soup. I got up ridiculously early almost every day and read books in our garden with cups of coffee, whilst I waited for Kristian to awake.

Instead of having chocolate eggs we made brownies instead and watched the most delightfully quirky British show - Dirk Gently, based on the books by Douglas Adams, which I can highly recommend. It is reassuringly awesome in the manner of most English crime comedy/dramas. 

Hope you had a lovely break and here's to another short week!

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a few breakfasts lately

A few breakfasts enjoyed at our place recently. Normally, I'm a vegemite toast and tea person but on the weekends we have been splashing out a little in the breakfast department.

Sunday was the first time in about a month that we've had a day at home together - we celebrated with huge baguette french toast, bacon and maple syrup, with coffees from Norton street. Heaven.

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scenes from the new year

Happy 2012 to you! Hope your New Year's Eve was matched in goodness by the days that followed!
The first thing Kristian and I did on New Year's Day was to play a game of hungover celebrity heads - highly recommended!

We've had some friends Matt and Hiroko staying with us over the last few days, which has made the celebrations that much more enjoyable for us. We have snacked and chatted, drunk a medley of hilarious drinks, interpretive danced along to Kylie, watched fireworks from a nearby park, hit up DJ's for song requests, eaten late night pies and welcomed the new year with cooked breakfasts, swings in parks, picnics and drinks at dusk.

Here's to many more of these good things in the year ahead.

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hey bagel

This was bagel Sunday. After a week of dreaming about them, and gazing wistfully at photos of them on my pinterest board, I finally succumbed this weekend just gone and made bagels - one of the dough wonders I had yet to try at home.

With their crisp outers and chewy interiors, it was far too easy to eat two in quick succession and then I rested, hands on satisfied belly and thought - why have I not made these before?

These beauties are not hard to make but they do take a little bit of time and preparation so they're perfect for a weekend when you're pottering around at home. You can do some prep work and then make yourself a cup of tea, do some more steps, then relax with a good movie (may I suggest The American or Submarine - two very good films I saw on the weekend).
 
Bagels
Adapted from Peter Reinhardt via The Wednesday Chef
Makes 6 to 8 bagels

3 1/2 cups all-purpose plain flour
3 teaspoons salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup warm water plus 2 tablespoons extra water
1 teaspoon baking soda
Poppy or sesame seeds

Firstly, dissolve the yeast together with the honey in the warm water and let rest for a few minutes. Then mix together the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, the yeast/honey/water mixture until the ingredients form a stiff ball of dough (adding a little extra water if necessary), then let it rest for a few minutes.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes until it feels more pliable and smooth.

Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to several hours.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and remove your dough from the fridge.  Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces (I just flattened the dough out and cut it like a cake into quarters and then eighths) and form each piece into a round ball by rolling it on a clean, dry surface. Now roll each dough ball into a long, sausage shape about 20cm in length. Pinch the ends together to form the round bagel shape, using a slight dab of water to get the ends to stick if necessary. You can then squeeze the bagel to even out the thickness although the unevenness gives a bit more of a rustic feel, if you ask me.  Now pop your bagels onto the prepared tray, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Here's where you can pop in a movie and settle in for a relaxing night, knowing you'll be having fresh bagels for breakfast.

In the morning, take the bagels out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you plan to bake them. Fill a large pot with water, cover and bring to the boil. Once the water has boiled, add 1 teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and reduce the heat to a simmer. Meanwhile, put the oven on and heat to 220 degrees centigrade.

Test the bagels by placing one in a bowl of cold water. You want it to float to the surface. If it doesn't, let them sit for 10 minutes and try again. Once your bagel floats, you're ready to roll.

Gently ease each bagel into the simmering water, adding as many as will fit comfortably without overcrowding. Poach for 1 minute and then turn the bagels over with a wooden spoon. Leave them in for another minute then, using a slotted spoon, remove the bagels and return to the lined baking tray.  Sprinkle your bagels with poppy seeds or sesame seeds or nothing if you prefer then pop your baking trays in the oven for 8 minutes.

After 8 minutes has elapsed, rotate the sheets and continue baking for another 8-10 minutes, until the bagels are golden brown. Around this time the most wondrous bready smell will begin to permeate the house. Get your lox and cream cheese ready. Remove the trays from the oven and transfer the bagels to a rack for at least 30 minutes before serving. And oh the joys of serving and smothering in butter or cream cheese, or lox or marmalade or whatever really.

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monday monday

I think Mondays have become my experimental breakfast day. There is a hangover of breakfasting goodwill from the weekend and a desire to stretch out that feeling for as long as possible. Usually by Thursday I'm back to vegemite toast but for now at least Mondays have a certain delicious promise. 

This morning I made cous cous in the key of sweet, a first for me, and then ate it whilst watching a crazy cartoon Kristian and I have recently discovered, called Adventure Time. A bizarre but great start to the working week. 

Cous cous with sultanas, apricots and yoghurt 
Serves  2

1/2 cup couscous
3/4 cup boiled water 
pinch salt
zest of half an orange and a squeeze of juice
1 Tbs chopped nuts
2 Tbs dried fruit like sultanas or currants
some sliced fruit - I used apricots but banana, berries or grated apple would all be great
dollop of yoghurt
drizzle of honey

Put the couscous in a medium bowl and add the raisins, orange zest and juice. Pour the boiled water over the top and cover for about 5 minutes. Once the cous cous has absorbed all the moisture, fluff the grains with a fork. Add the fruit, nuts, yogurt and honey then enjoy. 

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vitamins

I've been a bit sick this week so Kristian has kindly made me some wonderfully vitamin loaded breakfasts. Yesterday it was eggs on vegemite toast with a cherry blossom shaped berocca. I pointed out that it may have been the first time I've had eggs on a weekday (how indulgent!) for as long as I can remember.  I think it might have trumped Monday's breakfast bigtime.

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breaking the fast

I don't know about you but I'm a bit of a creature of habit in the breakfast department. Funnily enough this is not the case when I travel but when we're at home there's about three basic breakfast options on constant rotation in our kitchen: porridge, weetbix or vegemite toast. Occasionally a bit of marmalade or a piece of fruit sneaks in there but otherwise it's pretty much the standard fare. Lack of time is usually the excuse but since starting my new job I actually have more time in the morning.

So I've decided, especially during these winter months when mornings can be a dark, bleary and unappreciated time, I'm going to start jazzing up breakfast, introduce some different options: an egg or two, a fruit loaf, some hot bread rolls, even perhaps a scone or a frittata. I'm going to make the joy of breakfast signal the start of an adventurous day.

First up the challenging Monday breakfast. Here goes...

Banana, Honey and Seed Loaf
Adapted from here and here.

1 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 Tbs poppy seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pepitas
1/2 cup extra-light olive oil
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup buttermillk, or an equal combination of yoghurt and milk
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sultanas
1 1/4 cup self raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C fan forced. Grease and line the base and sides of a loaf tin.

Combine the seeds and spices in a small bowl and then place the oil, sugar, honey, eggs, banana, buttermilk, oats, raisins, sifted flour and 2/3 seed mixture in a large bowl and stir until just combined. The mixture should be fairly runny and lumpy. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle the remaining seeds on top.

Bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn the loaf onto a wire rack and brush the top with some extra warmed honey if you like.

I made this on Sunday, which was a wonderful way to warm up whilst I had the sniffles. This morning it was just a matter of slicing a nice wedge, toasting it under the grill, then buttering and consuming, whilst reading my book and enjoying a steaming hot cup of tea. A great way to kick off the working week. Stay tuned for more adventures in the land of breakfast.

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saving the day with cornbread

The weekend was a Sydney classic - sunny on Saturday, showers on Sunday - a perfect balance for breakfasting out, wandering around yard sales (where I snapped up a few cute, glass bottles), baking and then consuming baked goods on the couch with some DVDs. K was horrified to discover that I had somehow made it through my childhood without seeing Back to the Future (great scott indeed!) so all three discs were whipped out and the 80s reminiscing kicked off in earnest.

And what to eat whilst watching Michael J Fox continually save the day? Well, popcorn aside, the cooler weather on Sunday seemed like the perfect excuse to make a hearty, comforting classic - cornbread. The last and to be honest, first time I had cornbread was on New Years Eve in Japan a few years ago made by our friend's boyfriend, an American sailor. I had never had anything quite like it - essentially savoury but with an intoxicating hint of sweetness. Perfect for a mid-afternoon feast.

Cornbread Muffins
Adapted from this recipe

1/2 cup polenta
1 1/2 cup plain flour (I used half wholemeal)
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated, reserve a small amount
1 Tbs brown sugar/ treacle
1 Tbs butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 200C and line a 12 cup muffin tray with muffin cases.

Combine the polenta with sifted flour, baking powder, salt and cheese. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, melted butter, treacle and milk and then combine it all in with the dry ingredients. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and top with some of the reserved cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden. Best eaten warm and with your favourite childhood movie. Next stop Willow or The Princess Bride! 
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