{ 0 comments }
Just a quick post this cosy Sunday evening. A reminder this weekend, in the chilly sunshine of the Southern Highlands, about the chest-puffing possibilities of growing your own fruit and veg. Look what we picked! These cherry tomatoes are as sweet as anything, proper vine-ripened things that burst in your mouth (once you’ve rubbed off some straw and a bit of dirt). What we don’t eat fresh in salads I’m going to drizzle them in olive oil with a couple of cloves of garlic and slow roast them for sandwiches and more salads and to have with plates of prosciutto for lazy afternoons, like today’s. I have herbs growing on the balcony but now I’m also going to get a book on seasonal produce (like Indira Naidoo’s) and do much much more growing at home in Sydney.
{ 0 comments }
Happy Friday everyone. I hope there will be great adventures and cruising and relaxes with tea and icey bubbly drinks. This weekend I’m off to Kangaroo Valley, where we’ll probably do a bon fire, herd some cows, read books in the sun on the massive lawn. Dare I take my swimmers? I’m taking a pork belly to test a recipe for my Sunday Life column The Perfect…, and will let you know how that goes. I’m thinking crispy, spicy and wholly aromatic. It’s a wintery kind of dish and a brilliant precursor to the supernova of special days on Sunday, mother’s day. But you’ll get the perfected recipe in a few weeks when it’s published. Meanwhile, check out the Mother’s Day page this Sunday. She’ll love it (a surprise), and it’s simple enough to gather the kids and get them to cook it.
This weekend I’ll be taking loads of pictures in the Valley, and will share them all here. I know we’ll be doing a pub lunch tonight, hopefully with roaring fire to beat the Southern chill.
This Sunday as well I’m on 702 ABC Sydney with Simon Marnie. I’ve grabbed not the mother but the grandmother Margaret Fulton, and we’ll be chatting about all things food and good. So flick on your radio at 11ish to hear that, and call up for a chat! Meanwhile, it’s nearly 5 o’clock.
{ 0 comments }
I love a road trip. Wind in your hair (or airconditioning in your hair), music strumming, a gorgeous destination and a boot packed with chilled nibbles for the route. It was this idea that inspired the latest The Perfect column in Sunday Life magazine. My New Zealand grandmother Marion used to pack homemade sausage rolls for my parents in their twenties as they headed off on some road trip to the South Island, or up to the Bay of Islands. My parents still remember these morsels, and I’ve always wanted to do them myself. Using shortcrust pastry instead of puff pastry is important – they hold together better, and taste so much better cold. The meat is chopped rather than minced, which I much prefer – there’s a real texture instead of the spongy sort. Soft chicken sandwiches, sliced almonds giving a pleasing crunch, are perfect palm-sized snacks for the road.
Pork, parsley and poppyseed rolls
300g pork belly, skin removed, finely chopped250g pork mince
200g streaky bacon
½ tsp grated nutmeg
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 sprigs thyme leaves
2 sheets pre-rolled shortcrust pastry
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp milk
Poppy seeds
Preheat oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Combine meats in a bowl, add nutmeg, zest and thyme, season with pepper and mix well. Place pastry on a floured bench top, cut each sheet each in half. Divide and shape meat mixture into 4 sausages, each as long as a pastry sheet, then roll each in parsley. Place 1 sausage along the edge of a pastry sheet, brush pastry edges with water. Fold pastry over filling to form a long roll, open at the ends. Repeat. Cut each roll into three, place rolls on baking tray, brush with milk and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden.
Chicken, almond and caper tramezzini
Soft Italian chicken sandwiches for the perfect pit stop.
Cover 1 x 320g chicken breast fillet with water in a saucepan, season with sea salt and peppercorns, simmer 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave in water for 10 minutes, then remove and let cool. Use hands to finely shred chicken, then combine in bowl with 3 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 tbsp almond slivers, 2 tsp capers, rinsed, and ¼ cup chopped parsley. Season to taste. Pile mixture on 6 thick slices white bread, crusts removed, top with 6 slices. Cut into square quarters, wrap and pack.
{ 0 comments }
Did you see The Perfect… column in Sunday Life magazine on the weekend? It was one of my favourites so far. Cooking for the in-laws can be fraught with too-much-effort and disappointment. Instead, showcase domestic know-how and culinary spark when the in-laws are in town. It’s about being relaxed and remarkable. How to impress with minimal fuss. I made this three times to test the recipe, and while it’s hard to keep thinking something is delicious even though you’ve eaten it for three meals in seven days, this one was. The pomegranates give a bursty tart crunch, and the spatchcock are not fiddly and are gorgeous wrapped in these spices. Just serve with couscous and a simple do-ahead eggplant salad.
Pomegranate roasted spatchcock
Tart and sweet roasted spatchcock, infused with Middle Eastern spices and scattered with jewel-like pomegranate seeds and almonds.
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra
1 garlic clove, sliced
4 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 spatchcock, butterflied
¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted
seeds from 1 pomegranate
To make marinade, place all ingredients except spatchcock, almonds and pomegranate in a bowl, mix well and season. Add spatchcock to marinade and turn to coat well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 200C. Heat a little oil in a roasting pan over medium-high heat, add spatchcock (reserving marinade) skin-side down to lightly brown. Baste spatchcock with marinade and cook in oven skin-side up, until tender and juices run clear (15-20 minutes). Serve halved on a large platter, with cous cous if liked, sprinkled with almonds and pomegranate seeds. Serves 4-6.
Spiced eggplant salad
A do-ahead, fragrant and soft eggplant salad with punches of mint.
Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a large frying pan and fry 3 eggplant cut into 2cm thick slices in batches, until very soft and golden brown on both sides. Add more oil as needed. Drain on paper towel and season well, sprinkle with 1 tsp ground cumin. Arrange warm eggplant on serving plate, scattered with 1 large tomato, finely chopped, and 1 cup mint leaves. Drizzle with dressing made with 2 tbsp yoghurt, 1 tbsp tahini, juice of ½ lemon. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds if liked.
Photograph by Katie Quinn Davies.
{THE PLAYLIST}
The gritty blues of Ruth Brown in Miss Rhythm makes for a dreamy backdrop, to suit all tastes. How can you not love this?
{ 2 comments }
New single by Santigold. New album, Master of My Make Believe, is out tomorrow. Best bits are her boots in the beginning, and the song.
{ 0 comments }
Every now and then, something comes along and just changes everything. It’s a shift so great and so momentous, we just don’t want to go back to how it was. And that’s what’s happened in Sydney, with the opening of The Grounds of Alexandria. This is where I ended up (upon the recommendation of the wonderful Jill Dupleix, and then everyone else) this morning, with the rest of cool hunters and leisurely espresso cravers. I’ll post a proper post this week but I just wanted to do a sneak preview of sorts. The place is darned revolutionary. It’s a warehouse space turned into my future dream home of rustic, polished, spacious, light-drenched, and just awesome.
Drinks in jars may be more overdone than zeit geist, but here it works, and the rippled iced coffees done in a two-hand-to-hold jar is syrupy and not too sweet. There are vanilla and chocolate milkshakes and granola with yoghurt and berries so fragrant you’d think they were fake. And a little carrot cake topped with cream cheese icing had me pause for teariness. It is the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. And I like carrot cake. But actually, speaking of carrots, Peter Rabbit is outside.
There’s a whole garden out there. A whole sprawling brick-paved, pergola-topped garden with raised garden beds and raddichio growing amongst the strawberries (see fragrant strawberries earlier). There are tiny baby eggplant for heaven’s sake. Sitting perched on a rafter-sided garden with my carrot cake in one hand, strong soy flat white in another, and balancing some almond and plum compote-topped porridge there somewhere too, I was as happy as a duck in water. Yes, and there are ducks, and rabbits.
These kids wander around with towel-wrapped ducklings that squeak with concern, but it’s a cute sight. I’d like to see a more watchful eye over the critters, (nobody should be allowed to hang a rabbit in the air for that long), but I have no doubt the uncomfortable animal handling will be ironed out. Or I hope it will. The visiting children are overwrought with excitement, it’s a veritable petting zoo. But with good coffee.
Inside the place is immaculately designed, high ceilings, massive windows, the white railway tiles, copper coffee pots and turquoise cup and saucers just gorgeous. There’s a cafe, coffee roasting and testing facility and bakery, all housed in this massive warehouse. The coffee roasting facilities also incorporate a boutique coffee school, which includes a coffee workshop area to educate caffeine fascinators. But this is a game changer because of the garden, where The Grounds grow their own heirloom vegetables. The vegetable garden patch meets cafe makes us conscious that what grows around comes around. It’s an idea that Sydney will hopefully see a lot more of in the future.
At the helm of The Grounds is creative entrepreneur Ramzey Choker, as well as coffee expert Jack Hanna and interior design and events agency The Artistry.
Photography by Kate Gibbs.
BUILDING 7A, NO.2 HUNTLEY ST ALEXANDRIA NSW 2015.
{ 0 comments }
Drink in one hand, crunchy spiced bite in the other, and a bunch of friends to clink glasses with. The perfect celebration drinks are intimate, elegant, and supremely fun. These recipes appeared in my Sunday Life column, The Perfect… Check out the next one on Sunday, or see it at Daily Life here.
Oyster po’boys
A New Orleans palm-sized sandwich, piled high with glorious fried oysters.
1 egg2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup plain flour
2 tsp smoked paprika
½ cup panko crumbs
20 oysters, shucked
2 cups rice bran oil
4 small soft white rolls
1 baby cos lettuce
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
spiced mayonnaise (see below)
Whisk together egg and milk, season and set aside. Combine flour and paprika on one plate, panko crumbs on another. Dust oysters in flour mixture, then dip in egg mixture, then panko crumbs. Heat oil in deep heavy-based frypan. Use tongs to drop oysters, in batches of 5, into hot oil. Deep-fry oysters until golden, 30 seconds each batch. Be careful, oil may spit. Drain on absorbent paper. Fill rolls with lettuce leaves, tomato, mayonnaise and oysters. Add a few sprigs coriander if liked. Serve while oysters are still hot. Makes 4.
Chilli fried school prawns
Heads on or off, these fun crunchy are perfect with bubbles or beer.
Take the heads off 500g raw school prawns (optional). Dust prawns in seasoned tapioca flour. Heat half of 750ml rice bran oil in a wok or large, deep heavy-based frypan. Cook one-quarter of the prawns in very hot oil, until crispy and golden. Transfer to absorbent paper. Repeat with remaining prawns, adding more oil as needed. Season well with salt flakes and dried chilli flakes. To make spiced mayonnaise for dipping, combine ¼ cup Japanese mayonnaise with juice from ½ lime and ½ tsp smoked paprika.
Food photograph by Katie Quinn Davies.
PLAYLIST: Bright, happy, cheers-worthy tunes for celebration drinks with Awkward, an EP by San Cisco.
{ 0 comments }
Love the photography of Melbourne-based food and travel photographer Bonnie Savage. You’ll know her work from Australian Gourmet Traveller and the SMH’s Good Weekend. I just adore it, all peaceful and moody at once, with lovely non-garish pops of colour. Look at the drinks pic below for heaven’s sake. Bonnie did a string of photos of a milkbar, where she followed the dear apron-clad owner around and took snaps of her feet up a ladder and peeking between jars of things. Check out Bonnie’s site to see them. Nothing is too polished in this photographic world of Bonnie Savage’s, but it’s all magically gilded and sparkles with real life.
{ 0 comments }
{1. Farmers Market baskets, $14, anthropologie. 2. Wooden iceblock from So Little Time Co. 3. colourblocked cutting board in assorted shapes, approx $248, from Anthropologie 4. felted acorns in icey blue from Etsy. 5. Proper buttermilk, the luscious dense liquid left over from churning cultured butter, from The Butter Factory 6. menagerie juice glass, assorted, $12 each, from Anthropologie.}
{ 0 comments }
