if you could time travel

I recently listened to a remarkable interview with the writer Ray Bradbury. When asked which moment of his life he would revisit if he could time travel, he answered: 'Every single moment.' Have a listen to the whole interview here. It's amazing.

With that in mind, here are a few moments above of late that I would be happy to revisit:
~ afternoon tea at a friend's new sun drenched flat (where she made fresh ground coffee, polenta cake and bruschetta);
~ a chat with my elderly Italian neighbour which concluded with her giving me some flowers from her garden;
~ a cheese-plate eaten with friends, as we shared hilarious flirtation and relationship anecdotes.

Not long now till our London trip. I'm really looking forward to it but trying to stretch out the delicious sense of anticipation too. Being in the moment is key.

If you are in London during 19-22 September, come along to 100% Design, Stand L318, in Earl's Court, where you will find Kristian showing his wonderful new range of products - very exciting!

Pub lunches, ciders and steaming mugs of tea ahoy!

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warming on up

Our place was alive with the sounds of merriment the other night as friends gathered to help us officially warm it up. I made guacamole and ginger punch and friends surprised us with gifts and drinks, and, in the case of our Melburnian friends Emma and Sam, with their unexpected presence from across the border - wholly unanticipated and wonderful! A mojito station was quickly established and all I had to do was drink in the deliciousness and crank the oven for hot food, which was consumed at lightning speed, in amongst sparkler displays, nerf gun wars and even a pregnancy announcement from a friend. What a night!

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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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seasonal delights

So I somehow managed to enter the festive season with one doozy of a two week long headcold (a summer cold of all things, although this summer so far has been rather disappointing on the warmth front to say the least!) But, as of now, I am putting sniffles and weather complaints on the backburner, dosing up on vitamins and determined to get excited about the holidays and the delicious anticipation of baking, catching up with friends and general all round festive cheer.

So I plan to get cracking on in the next few weeks about Christmas snackery, foodie gifts, side dishes and other seasonal delights.

Firstly, let's talk fruit mince tarts. Something I haven't made since we visited Japan a few Decembers ago and I suddenly started channelling Delia Smith in a big way. This time though, I did them the cheat's way, which is to say the easy far less time-consuming and curse-inducing way.  I referred to this inspiring post on jam tarts for the pastry and... (here's where I whisper a little bit) then filled them with Robertson's fruit mince filling (from a jar!).  No pastry lids, no fuss, just pure wanton deliciousness. Hence why there are no photos...

Anyway, whilst we're on the subject, can I also tell you that the aforementioned fruit mince filling goes alarmingly well stirred through plain yogurt.  I mentioned this to Kristian the other day and his excited, wide-eyed response was: "What about if you stirred it through ice-cream with broken up pieces of shortbread?" This particular pimped up variation might be a good one to try in the post-xmas haze when you stumble upon some left-over tarts in the fridge and think, How could we disguise these into a new and rather marvellous dessert? Yup, we're a sweet-tooth household we are!

But as all good sweet-tooths know there is a cure and it is cheese. The other day I arrived home after an epic session at Harris Farm to discover I had bought five different kinds of cheese. I was a little excited and decided to have another crack at parmesan biscuits.

I first tried making these a few months ago and I was so disappointed by the result (I basically ended up with a tray-sized flat mess of buttery-cheesey gloop) that I was a little gun-shy. Empowered by my army of cheese and several conversations at work on the subject, I decided to have another crack.

Parmesan Biscuits
Adapted from this recipe

125g salted butter
250g plain flour
80g grated parmesan
1 egg
pinch salt
1 tsp sweet paprika

Rub together the butter and flour, salt and paprika then mix through the parmesan and egg. The mixture should come together to form a dryish dough. Add a little water if needed to bind it all together.  Form the dough into a thin sausage about the diameter of a 50c piece and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. This bit is especially important and I think where I went wrong the first time I made these biscuits. The colder the dough is when it goes into the oven the better. There will be less spreadage, which is a good thing.

Preheat the oven to 180C then cut the dough sausage into coins 3-4mm thick and place on a baking tray.

Cook for 10-12 minutes until golden then rest the biscuits on a rack to cool and harden up a bit. They are great on their own but also go rather well with quince paste and seedless red grapes, which are absolutely smashing at the moment! Red fruit and festivity ahoy.

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inspiration

Spring has finally sprung and in the spirit of the season I've been on a tidying and clearing out blitz around the house.  It's been wonderfully cathartic. I've thrown away stuff I've been holding onto for years (old Christmas cards, cassette tapes from the 80s - the bad, embarrassing ones, school assignments and... even some cookbooks!

I was inspired by my friend Gianna, who told me all about her pre-three-month-world-tour packup.  When sorting through her belongings she asked herself the question, "Does this have a role in my future life?" If it did, it stayed, if not then it was turfed. I found it to be a wonderfully effective way of dealing with the reflective, sentimental items that we (I) tend to keep.

So with this in mind, the other night I finally got up the courage and stamina to tackle my pile of Gourmet Travellers and Delicious Magazines. I cued up some bad TV and got ripping. The result was primarily a lot less bulk on my cookbook shelf but secondly, and more interestingly, a distillation of the food I'm  drawn to make and eat at the moment, namely: coleslaw, salads featuring apples or figs or nuts, anything with lemon and lemon on everything, halloumi with watermelon, tacos tacos tacos,  skewered things, ceviche and juicy tomato salads with basil and balsamic.

The last picture is a little experiment of mine with lemon curd (very loosely adapted from this recipe) and inspired by a visit to Newtown's Black Star Pastry. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend ahead!

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drinking up the last of July

Oh hello August, I didn't see you there.

It feels like it's been a busy time of late. Work, life in general, a wee spot of travel - it all adds up and all of a sudden you realise you haven't gone grocery shopping or written anything interesting in weeks...oops.

So July has come and gone and here we are in the eighth month. We're getting into the business end of the year now, birthday festivalling, warmer weather, spectacular amounts of sunshine, spring just around the corner... parties on the horizon. But before I get ahead of myself, let's take one last sip of July.

Yesterday we joined the entire rest of Sydney down at the Aroma coffee festival and imbibed a giddy, giggly share of caffeine and sugar before lunching down at the pub. There we enjoyed an accidental free meal featuring halloumi (the best kind of accidental free meal in my opinion) and it could only go up from there. A stellar afternoon really, the kind that holds the promise of spring and summer barbeques in its grasp. We rounded it out with some soup and toast, classic Sunday night fare, and a bit of Project Runway - hell yeah.

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lately, one saturday night

A few pictures from last weekend when our friend Cath invited us round for a lamb roast, mulled wine and apple crumble. It was the sort of night I could happily live in for a months at a time.

We gathered in the kitchen, drinking mugs of delicious, spicy, mulled wine and chatted enthusiastically about design, furniture, food and movies - a few of my favourite topics. Then out came the roast lamb, vegetables and gravy and I entered something of a food fugue state, transported to imaginary lands of rustic farmhouses where large families gather around communal tables for festive feasts. This feeling may have been enhanced somewhat by the setting itself - at one point Cath's flatmate came in and began softly playing guitar in the corner and I sat there feeling warm in the belly, slightly mulled and very very content.

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sunshine, chai and a miraculous pie

A few scenes from the weekend. It was a bit of a stunner really, bathed in sunshine and with plenty of great food.

Several coffees and a strong chai from the markets kicked things off in glorious caffeinated fashion. Then we ate lunch whilst watching a rather addictive new tv show - The Great Food Truck Race, which if you're in Oz, you can still catch on iview. It's a pretty simple premise - a bunch of food trucks racing across America competing for 50 grand by trying to make the most profit, but my god is it watchable. If you're anything like me you'll want to race out to find your nearest gourmet burger joint or vietnamese roll store.

Luckily for us we were having dinner at our friends' place (thanks guys!) where we were completely spoilt in the food department - an incredible corn chowder, made from the legendary New England Soup Factory cook book followed up by hands down the best pecan pie I've ever eaten. It was miraculous, in that way that desserts can sometimes be. I sat there afterwards bathed in the warmth and joy that was friends and laughter and pecan pie and everything was good and right with the world.

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a delicious week

Week one of my new job is finished and so far so wonderful. Thank you for your kind comments last week. It's always a big relief when you feel like you've made a positive change in your life. It has gone pretty quickly as first weeks have a tendency to do and I realise now that I've hardly cooked a thing but we have still had some amazing meals: an amazing farewell dinner for my pal Sarah at the Duke Bistro on Flinders Street in Surry Hills, a lunch with both sets of folks, yum cha with friends, tea with friends, and toast with each other.

I think this cold weather may warrant some soup making in my near future.

I hope you are keeping warm and dry out there and having a lovely long weekend (if you're in Australia) and a great start to the week otherwise:)

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vegetables with a side of deja vu

Today, I took a stroll around the city, spotting citrus eye candy and strange lists;
finalised details of an exciting new job;
met my friend Gianna for lunch at the building of my old job (a bizarre bit of deja vu) and enjoyed chocolate dipped ginger and coffee, as well as some laughs (hence the blur);
got out all the vegetables in the house and made vegetable and halloumi skewers with lemon rice, as suggested by a friend Jacqui a few days ago;
and enjoyed devouring the above skewers, whilst cosying up on the couch to watch Fringe with Kristian.

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wedding watch, with scones

I have lots of stories and recipes to share from our weekend away in the country - rolling hills, log fires, giant parsnips, farmers' markets, a dog called Tuppence and so much more - but first there is the little matter of a wedding, a royally good excuse to indulge in some of my favourite things.

The idea first occurred when we were sitting with our friend Sophie in a café in Leura and they'd run out of scones. Within seconds the word 'scones' had morphed in my mind into a full-blown marriage watching menu of favourites - English muffins, Pimms, Gin and Tonics, cider, sausages, baked beans, bread and butter pudding, scones of course (a little drinks and desserts heavy but it is a celebration after all.) I knew it was naff but I was excited nonetheless. As it happens, there were a few opportunities to practice my scones and more than one afternoon tea before the big event so, of course, the minute we crossed the home threshold, I headed straight for the kitchen.

When I think about afternoon tea I seem to channel the influence of my rather distant British ancestry. At around 3pm, I feel there should be hot, strong tea, freshly baked scones with cream and some sort of jam or marmalade and possibly a slice of a nice ginger cake or something similar as well. I think we may be starting early on the big day....

Scones with Jam and Cream
Adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks Companion

500g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
100g butter
300ml milk, soured with a squeeze of lemon
extra plain milk to glaze
your favourite jam
1 cup cream

Heat oven to 220C then grease and flour a baking tray.

Put the flour, baking powder and chopped butter in bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Another more hands-on method is to grate the cold butter into the flour mixture and then rub into the flour with your fingertips. This is my rustic, farm kitchen approach, mainly because - are you ready for it? - we don't own a food processor. Yup, it's all good arm muscle action for me, which to be honest with you I kind of like - you feel more connected to the process of baking when you are elbow deep in flour.

After your dry mix is looking suitably crumbly, add the milk, mix together quickly to form a dough and pat into a round or rectangle about 3cm thick on a floured breadboard. It might be quite sticky at this point but don't worry, just generously coat with flour and knock it all together. Cut into rounds or squares and put close together on the prepared tray.

Brush tops with a little milk and then bake for about 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Cover and store in the fridge until needed. Remove scones from the oven and allow to cool slightly on a wire rack.

Serve the scones whilst still warm with lashings of jam and cream and nice hot cup of tea, or perhaps some Pimms, depending on the occasion. I think the royal union may call for at least one or two genteel cups of Pimms, don't you?

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