I hadn’t taken much of jacaranda trees lining streets of Australia, announcing the start of spring, until three weeks ago when I went on a school excursion and heard a co-teacher explaining about the specialness of the trees. I would see purple colours in streets and think summer is getting closer but didn’t pay enough attention; maybe I did, when I first came to Australia, and I remember walking through jacaranda tree-lined streets of Paddington with girlfriends of mine, chatting and laughing, exhilarated by the sight of the beautiful flowers falling as if it was snowing, and then, over time, the significance of the tree that once existed in me seems to have faded and died .

“It’s human nature to start taking things for granted again when danger isn’t banging loudly on the door.”

~ David Hackworth

We often forget how precious people around us are because you assume that they will be there for you no matter what and you turn elsewhere to find meaning and answers.  Then, we realise the meaning of their being there, once they are gone. To save me from regretting in the future for not having beautiful photos of jacarandas in full bloom, I went to the spot where fallen flowers were carpeting the ground and managed to get some shots before it started to drizzle.

There is a cake rooster for Friday at work, which I regard quite seriously as an opportunity to test my weird recipes on the taste  of the  general public; still it is not the best way to get unbiased, honest opinions since people  tend to say only good things about what you bring, first, to avoid offending the person who made the cake , creating awkwardness, and having the whole idea of Cake Day ripped apart as a result, and  second, not to be seen as a snob by complaining about free food!

Vanilla Custard Tart with Prunes

I enjoy making tart, especially the process of making puff pastry from scratch, because it involves butter, I mean lots of butter. No other pleasures can beat the sensation of rolling out the buttery smooth tar. Next comes the vanilla. I love everything made with vanilla, from vanilla slice to French vanilla coffee.

This vanilla custard tart has an unusual, unthinkable twist: prunes soaked in orange liqueur. Ta da~   Is it doubtful “hmms” I’m hearing? Wait a moment and they will become approving “arrs” and “wows”.

The idea of ‘plum tart first came along after the plum tart I had from ‘Central Baking Depot’, where I have a lunch time  treat, ‘chocolate poppy seed stick’, and recently I have been getting my weekly supply of fennel cherry walnut bread. As you know, it is very difficult to find a decent patisserie in Sydney, so buying good bread is a bit of a mission. I used to go to ‘Bourke Street Bakery‘ when I was living in Surry Hills, and this newly discovered place is a gem that makes me smile whenever I pass it on the way home from work.

Central Baking Depot

As plum season is still a month away, when I saw prunes in my pantry, I said to myself, “Why not?” I, first, soaked the prunes in Cointreau to soften them up as well as to enhance or disguise – whichever you prefer to see it as- the flavour of dried fruit.

Vanilla Custard Tart with Prunes

I was rather surprised by the outcome and patted myself, AGAIN, for my ingeniousness. The prunes, with their intense flavour, still had their moistness, and because they are not acidic as fresh plums, they didn’t kill the delicate flavour of vanilla. I made strawberry custard tart prior to this, and I remember it wasn’t as good as this, with all the liquid from the fruit extending the cooking time and destroying the look and taste. If you ever decided to give this recipe a go, I’d love to hear your opinion.

I had it with ‘Mocha Affogato’ – coffee with chocolate icecream intead of vanilla icecream. I had to be very quick to take pictures since the icecream was melting or rather ‘drowning’.

Vanilla Custard Tart with Prunes

Ingredients:

For the pastry
125g cold unsalted butter, diced
75g icing sugar
1 large egg, beaten
250g plain flour
A pinch of salt
cold water if necessary

For the custard

2 cups milk
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs castor sugar

1 cup prunes, cut and soaked in Cointreau
Nutmeg to sprinkle

1. First, make the pastry. Process diced, flour and sugar until it resembles bread crumb. Add egg and process for 2 mins until the dough comes together. Flatten the dough into a disc, cover and chill for at least an hour, until firm.

2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and use to line a 20cm fluted tart tin with a depth of 3.5cm. Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, fill with rice and chill again for 20 minutes. Then, preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350°F and place a baking sheet on the middle shelf while the oven heats.

3. Bake the pastry case on the sheet for 15 minutes, until pale golden. Remove paper and rice and cook for a further five minutes. Remove from the oven, then reduce heat to gas mark 2/150°C/300°F.

4. Make custard in the meantime, by whisking egg, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and heating milk. Whisk hot milk into the egg mixture and pour it into the pastry that has been lined with prunes.

5. Bake it at 180°C for 15 mins and sprinkle with nutmeg, and then bake for further 15 mins.

6. Allow to cool and refrigerate till cold.

Daylight saving starts this Sunday, but the weather has been a bit unpredictable and colder than a couple weeks before this amazing red dust storm hit Sydney.

When I woke up that morning and saw orange light coming through my bedroom windows, my instant thought was that a war had broken out like in the film, War of the Worlds, and the weird orange colour was lights reflected from tanks, fire engines and ambulances passing by to rescue people. Even when I was walking through the city in a red haze, I had no idea what was happening, until I arrived at work and someone told me it was a dust storm. There are amazing photos of Sydney covered in red dust on this website, so check them out if you are interested.

Since I had been away most of the winter here, I hadn’t had many chances to cook, especially, the nice winter comfort food such as risotto, stew and curry. Instead, I had the wonderful experience of being cooked for by my generous French CS hosts. Every single French guy I had come across during my trip was such a gourmet cook and passionate about food.

Delicious food cooked by lovable French men, which not only melted in my mouth but also melted my heart …

Everything was  seriously delicious and they seem to know how to put flavours together. I was especially impressed by their presentation skills and knowledge about pairing food and wine, too. Then I started to wonder where their passion for food comes from and whether there is a national system in France to teach males how to win a girl’s heart through gastronomic competence. The word, gastrosexual, is how I describe French men.

Baking at 2.30am – giving up sleep to make someone happy

It doesn’t matter what time it is. They will cook for a girl any time of the day or night with their charming accent. Cooking is a way of expressing your emotions and it is such a joy to cook for people who you care about and whatever you make for them taste better than when you cook for people who you don’t like.

Now that there is no need to cook for someone every day, which I miss so much since it used to be a great excuse to go shopping and buy lovely fresh produce at the markets, I don’t cook much at home any more, so my poor camera is sitting by my desk collecting dust.

So I decided to treat myself and made two shopping trips. I planned to make something with whitebait, something like a crispy whitebait cup made with the mixture of potato and pecorino cheese, like this…

but the whitebait they had was too big for my recipe. So I had to go for the conventional way of deep frying.

Deep fried Whitebait on the bed of fennel salad

It proved to be an excellent combination; peppery fish with a hint of hot paprika, refreshing fennel salad with fresh garlicky lemon aioli. I threw in some chicory left in the fridge and its bitter flavour happened to be quite a nice contrasting matching with everything else,  just hitting the right spot.

Try wrapping a couple of fish and some salad in radichino. It just tasted heavenly and I could hear my body saying ‘This is what I needed!, calcium!’ I felt my bones getting stronger and the pain in my knee disappearing as I was chewing the little bones and heads. It doesn’t sound very appetising, but whatever it takes to keep my bones healthy.

After the healthy lunch, I prepared for my dinner, which required a hour long simmering in red wine and herbs.

Lamb Stew de Provence with Balsamic&Dijon

I adapted a recipe from a cooking show on TV under the title of French girl’s night in and added balsamic vinegar to give a bit of sweet, tangy flavour. This dish is so aromatic infused with bay leaves, orange zest and rosemary that every one can tell that it is one of the best soul warming food to snuggle with on a cold, lonely night.

It is a very simple dish to make in the sense that you don’t need to keep an eye on the pot or keep stirring and adding things. Once you have sautéed some chopped celery, onion or shallot and garlic, and add any meat of your choice with generous amount of red wine, bay leaves, rosemary or thyme and orange zest, then as soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat to the lowest and go have a bath, watch a DVD or chat with your friends. It will just simmer away for an hour, turning all the ingredients nice and tender, and when you’ve done what you had to do, throw in some vegetables such as carrots, eggplants or potatoes (I didn’t put in potatoes since I have creamy potato mash on the side ) and cook for further 20 mins or so.

I did a bit of an experiment with making potato mash. I wanted something more interesting than just plain potato flavour. I thought about blending it with peas or carrots or pumpkin, then I went for pinto beans, which I always have in the freezer.

Creamy Potato&Bean Mash

I might have infuriated potato mash purists, but we need people like me who are willing to push the boundaries and expand culinary diversity. We never know what you would end up with as there were many iconic food items created by either mistakes or bold attempts such as chocolate, cheese, waffle cones, potato chips, etc.

As far as nutrition goes, my mash has more fibre and other vitamins and minerals than just potatoes on their own. To justify my mix-mash action, a scientific study suggests that eating food rich in fibre, in other words, resistant starch, such as lentils and beans helps to reduce the risk of bowl cancer by helping to grow beneficial bacteria in our gut.

It is more sensible to eat a bit of everything than to avoid things that are said to be bad for health, then let our body do the magic inside.

Home-made Marinated Goat Feta

My dish was missing one thing, which was green; I could have put in some peas if I had had some, then I saw a bunch of beetroot leaves sitting in the corner looking sad. So I figured that the quickest way to whip up the greens was to sauté them with olive oil from my home-made marinated goat feta since the oil already had all the flavours.  Nothing goes to waste in my kitchen. Voila!

Provençal Lamb Stew with Sautéed Beetroot leaves

As an attempt to stop my dream of living in France from flying away, I’ve been reading ‘Salut!’, the book  I was given for my last birthday, which I regret not having read before my trip, and also following up a blog, ‘God, I love Paris’.

‘Salut!’ is full of lively and delicious stories about French love affairs with food and wine. Written by a famous chef from New Zealand, who had lived in France, working and travelling around different regions , every page bears a different smell and flavour, making it impossible not to settle myself with a glass of wine and cheese before I turn the third page. She has been a huge inspiration in my ever growing French dream.

‘God, I love Paris’ is a blog about pleasures of living in the city of love and life, Paris, by an American girl, whose passtime includes either eating or thinking about food, just like me, yet unfairly half my size. Her stories are like a much needed pat on the shoulder saying ‘There is no time limit to achieve your dream.’

I didn’t let myself be guided by travel books unlike most tourists, but rather by my instinct and that had led me to a lot of pleasant surprises during my trip, like this beautiful meal I was served on Eurostar on my way from London to Paris. I was so impressed by the quality of  service by the French staff, which instantly gave the impression that I was heading towards the world of gastronomic perfection and I was getting more and more excited in anticipation for French gastronomic adventures ahead.

First Class Meal on Eurostar

But later on my second Eurostar trip back to London, when I settled in my seat looking forward to another yummy meal and couldn’t see any sign of food being served, I realised that I bought a first class seat by accident the first time. So I consoled myself with  a small bottle of wine bought from an onboard bar and munched on a packet of cashewnuts, which saved me from starving to death, because I had no euro left to buy any food after the wine.

Metro, Phillipe Auguste

Charonne, a quiet suburb of Paris, is the first place I stayed at and is closed to Bastille and Belleville, which I explored the next day. But for the first night in Paris my CS host ‘A’, his friend ‘F’ and I hit Canal St-Martin, first Jaurès where all the young people fashionably dressed were hanging out for live DJ and dance, then moved on to another side of the canal and had a good time on a red jungle boat.

The next morning I had my first croissant hungover ‘F’ bought from the best local boulangerie and among croissants were French buns scented with orange zest, which I hadn’t had before and I’ve forgotten the name of,  but anyway they were really yummy. Croissants are the second food item after cheese that I get cautious of buying from any bakeries after having tasted these wonderful flakey, buttery ones.They are especially nice with pot boiled coffee. An electric kettle, which is so essential in English speaking countries, is so rare in French and even Italian households. Only one place out of about a dozen places  I stayed at throughout Europe owned the one of the best invention made by humans and as it turned out, the people bought the kettle having realised how convenient it was while in Australia.

My tour de Paris began at the marché de Bastille where I witnessed the popularity of all sorts of pâté and terrine, and tasted yummy French cherries, which were in season and so cheap, and a different variety of peaches, so called doughnut or Saturn peaches, which have white flesh and sweeter and juicier than ordinary peaches with slight almond flavour.

We continued walking in the roasting heat towards Le Marais where we finally sat down for over 6 euro ice coffee with no ice in it, inhaling cigarette smoke. There is no way you can avoid cigarette smell and it is funny that even a cigarette between the fingers of French people looked like something edible and yummy while I was there. In spite of the recent anti-smoking campaign, the  ‘Coffee and Cigarette’ culture was very prominent, more than I had imagined, and I suppose that is the part that shows the ‘Don’t give a damn’ attitude of the French.

One of the things I like about Paris is that cafes and boulangeries are everywhere, filling the city with the unique sweet smell that hypnotises people to fall in love with the city after the first breath of the air. Cafes are open till very late so you would always find somewhere to sit down and relax, have a chat or read without being forced into a grubby pub thick with beer smell and noise.

Finally we had come to a neighbourhood, Le Marais, which was bustling with boutique shops, small art galleries,  trendy cafes and young people in high fashion, and we were magnetized to a narrow street, Rue des Rosiers, packed with people in huge lines waiting for something- one of the most popular snack during lazy weekend strolls, falafel. You get a ticket from a few guys going around taking orders and everyone gets the same thing.

It was a bit different from the falafel kebab I was used to. The pita bread pocket was stuffed with roasted eggplants, pickled crunchy cabbage, hummus, creamy tahini sauce and finally a dash of hot chilli sauce, harissa. It was so cheap and cheerful- feeling full and satisfied after paying €5 is pretty amazing in Paris, although eating it was a bit of a challenge trying to stop the stuff spilling out and finish it before the sauce gets to the bottom of the bead making the napkin all soggy and messy.

Place des Vosges

One lazy Sunday afternoon, I tried out the falafel recipe from one of my favourite TV cooking show, The Cook and the Chef. The chef on the show used raw chickpeas soaked overnight, but I used cooked frozen ones and skipped baking powder because I was going to panfry instead of deepfrying.

I made my own tahini by grinding sesame seeds into paste then blending with olive oil, and once you’ve got the paste ready you can easily make hummus dip and tahini yoghurt sauce or add a bit of it to anything you make for extra flavour and nutrition.

I didn’t have chilli sauce at that time, so I added jalapeño chillies for a kick. The key ingredient for a good falafel is freshness and moistness. Once you’ve had dry, horrible falafels from a kebab shop next to a pub where all the drunks grab a bite to soak up the alcohol at the end of the night, or one near the train station where people eat anything to save time and don’t give a damn about the taste, you would away from the vegetarians’ best friend enriched with good protein and fresh herbs for your lifetime.

Everything home-made is yummy, but it is so true with falafels. I made a quick n easy wrap with leftovers the next day and it was still delicious!

When I look at all the photos of food I took on my trip, I start wondering how I’m going to get them sorted and put on my blog;  a) make a few photo collages and put them all in one post, b) categorise photos by theme or country and write in several posts, c) find photos that match with food I cook and weave stories around it each time, d) ….. (any other ideas?)

Well, I’d always thought ‘a’  would be the most efficient way to do it until the idea of having my holiday stories stretched out by savouring them over an extended period came along. Hopefully, I will be ready to go on my next adventure by the time I’ve gone over most of my holiday photos.

(Pizza + Wine) x 2 + Trevi Fountain =  Love
Pizza + Trevi Fountain x 2 = Sick

Yes, I had a lot of pizza and panini for sure. The quickest, easiest and cheapest meal of all time. What makes pizza in Italy so different from one you eat outside Italy? How can pizza go wrong? How do you define the good pizza? Some say it is dough and some the quality of mozzarella. What about the combination of flavours?

It might be true that anything you eat at a beautiful piazza would taste good because it is the view you pay for that makes it taste so good. Eating through your eyes!

The pizza in Florence was definitely better than Rome as was  everything else,  more generous and fresh toppings, and in large rectangular shape. Florentine cuisine seems to be simple and solid-  no frills like the people there?

Some say pizza in Naples is simply the best,  with its fame of being the birthplace of Pizza Margherita symbolising the Italian flag: red (tomato), white (mozzarella cheese), and green (basil), but I’m not sure if no cheese means the best, then it deserves it. Neapolitans are certainly not big cheese eaters. I regret not having tried many pizzerias in Naples, though, I was getting tired of pizza as I travelled down to the south from Venice. However, the point where I the excitement of finding good pizzerias went out the window was after my street snatch incident. Two young guys on a scooter shocked me by grabbing my bag while driving by, but I managed to hold onto it and saved everything I had including my precious camera. From then on, I got scared of walking around alone and I couldn’t risk getting into trouble again.

Two days later, however, I decided to give it another go and started off toward one of the most famous pizzeria, Da Michele, which serves only two types of pizzas, Margherita and Marinara. I always thought marinara sauce contained some kind of seafood, but the origin of marinara sauce is that it is the sauce that was made in Naples for the sailors when they returned from the sea. There seems to be a huge emphasis on how good pasta is defined by such simple sauce.

In my opinion, the secret of a good pizza lies in its crust; fresh, hand-tossed, thin but not crispy like biscuit (not Domino’s Thin n Crispy type), light and airy crust. Then a good combination of fresh ingredients comes next. My attempt to make the first pizza since my return crumbled when I found that the yeast I had kept in the fridge past its use-by date. Would it still usable? I wasn’t sure, so I quickly thought out an alternative dough recipe that didn’t require yeast, but self-rising flour, milk, olive oil and herbs. I used whole wheat flour, though.

As it turned out, it had more like a cross between tart and pizza, which was quite interesting, let alone quick and easy, yet tasty!

I threw in leftover Spanish ham, which my CS guest bought for me the day before, but it baked it for too long and came out way too crispy. *Disappointed*

Ham, Cherry Tomato, Rosemary Tart- like-Pizza

But the next one came out well and the smell was just mind-blowing. There is no need to mention about the taste…..:) It is absolutely a beautiful combination.

Caramelised Fennel&Onion, Spinach, Goat cheese Tart-like-Pizza

]]> http://eateng.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/pizza-dough-without-yeast/feed/ 0 eateng pizza rome_trevi IMG_6005_1 copy IMG_6004_copy pizza napoli_1 tart_making tart_ham toma tart_ham toma_1 tart_fennel spinach_baked http://eateng.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/after-a-long-long-break/ http://eateng.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/after-a-long-long-break/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:33:03 +0000 eateng http://eateng.wordpress.com/?p=1109 ]]>

At first, I thought I would be glued to the chair in front of my computer, writing about how wonderful my holiday in Europe was as soon as I am back in Sydney, when the memories are still warm and fresh. To my surprise, it has taken a few weeks to write this first post. I have been slacking off a bit, stretching the 6 weeks of holiday to 6 months while going through my holiday photos. Although the time in Europe had been a lot of fun, I felt so glad to be back to the homeliness and familiarness before I set out on a big adventure on my own. Only until I realised what I came back to seemed no longer the same as before I left. Except the return of the London Eye copycat to drag more people out to cold Darling Harbour for the winter remained unchanged.

I guess everyone find it hard to get back to the old routine after a long holiday and I remember someone saying it is impossible to ever get back to the same routine you had before holiday and you don’t have to because you won’t come back from travel as the same person anyway. I wonder if I have changed, and if anything, I hope the changes have been positive ones.

The only negative part that bothers me sometimes since my trip is that having tasted so many good cheeses in France and Italy, I keep being disappointed by the Australian cheeses I used to buy here. Now I am more careful about choosing the right cheese, then again, it you look at it in another way, I have been buying less soft cheese and trying to indulge in quality cheese every now and again since I can’t keep up with my cheese craving without breaking my bank account.

<Fig and Walnut Biscotti>

During what I call ‘Travel through my stomach’, mainly France, Spain and Italy for my culinary discovery,  I had seen, eaten and taken pictures of so much food, but what I had realised towards the end of the foodie trip was that the essence of the joy I had came from coming across interesting people along the way and sharing different cultures and ideas. Thanks to this great website, Couchsurfing, I was able to have the beautiful memories to treasure for the rest of my life and the new perception on the world, people and life. After all, my trip had turned into a journey of humanity as time went on. I will probably bring the exciting topic of couchsurfing again in later posts, something for people who don’t know about the site should look forward to, as I am planing to share  some photos from my trip for trivial food talks that connect with the adventures I had through crashing on people’s couches across Europe.

<Fig and Walnut Biscotti>

I was so lucky to be in France and Italy when fresh veggies and fruit were in abundance, especially figs and cherries were so delicious and cheap that they were a must-have for a picnic. Hmm…a fig wrapped in a slice of prosciutto.. one of the best food pairings I had found. Back in Sydney, however, figs make only a brief appearance in summer and they aren’t quite as cheap. Anyway, we have a plenty of dried imported figs available all year around, which I like snacking on for my calcium and fibre intake. So the first thing I did after I arrived at home was to stock up dried fruits and nuts for the week and bake some cookies for my sweet teatime treat. These biscotti have been approved by my French guest that I received a couple of weeks ago although she gave two thumbs up for my oat cookies- she was probably biased against Italian biscuits, being French All that talking of figs has led to me actually eating dried figs while writing this. Munch, munch…

The recipe below is a version adapted from Smitten Kitchen and I sneaked in wholemeal flour and honey.

Fig and Walnut Biscotti

Makes approximately 24 biscotti

1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup dried Turkish or Calimyrna figs, quartered
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons or 3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1/2 a large orange (I used a clementine)
1 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon. ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg white, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant. Allow the walnuts to cool completely

2. Place the walnuts and dried figs in a food processor and process until they are finely chopped.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula occasionally. Beat in the vanilla and the orange zest.

4. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture to form a somewhat firm dough. Add the walnuts and figs and beat until thoroughly combined. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill 35 to 40 minutes or until completely firm.

5. When the dough has chilled, lightly grease a baking sheet. On a floured board, use your palms to roll the piece of dough into a log the length of the baking sheet. Place the log on the baking sheet.

6. In a small bowl, beat the egg white with a fork until frothy. With a pastry brush, glaze the log with some egg white and sprinkle it with granulated sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (this took longer in my oven, but everything seems to these days), or until the log is lightly golden brown, firm to the touch and just beginning to crack slightly.

7. Allow the log to cool on the cookie sheet until cool to the touch, about 40 minutes. With a serrated knife, slice the biscotti, slightly on the bias, into 1/2-inch slices. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet in single layer (I always end up needing a second baking sheet in this step, as they have a lot more surface area); Return the biscotti to the oven and cook for 20 more minutes, or until the biscotti are toasted and crisp.

Store the biscotti in an airtight container. They will keep up to about 2 weeks.

<Conmeal and Nut Biscotti>

As I was clearing my hard drive and putting files on to my new external hard drive to save some space- you wouldn’t believe how big the size of my food folder is- I stumbled across more photos of biscotti I made a few months back when I was fantasying about sitting around at a market selling my own biscuits at a market while reading a book. I had come up with some interesting recipes for biscotti at that time and I remember this was one of the nicest combos that was incredibly aromatic with rosemary and anise fragrant and had a good crunch.

I usually use honey for my biscuits and cookies because home-made goodies are meant to be healthy, otherwise it is much easier and cheaper to just buy commercial ones. No?

Cornmeal-Nut Biscotti

Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen biscotti

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped, blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped skinned hazelnuts
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fineley grated orange or lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 honey
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds
• 2 large eggs
• Egg wash made with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven, stirring occasionally, until they a lightly golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack (keep the oven on)

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Turn off the heat and add the orange zest and rosemary. Let cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer set on low speed, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and anise. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. add the cooled, melted butter mixture and mix to combine. Stir in the nuts. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

With wet hands, (this really does help) form the dough into a log 2 inches wide and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the log with egg wash and bake until it is a deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, slice the log on a diagonal into 1/4 inch-thick pieces. Arrange the biscotti on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets and dry them in the oven until crispy, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack.

This is one of my favourite parisserie in Sydney, which is located on Victoria st in Darlinghurst where many good cafes and restaurants can be found. I wish I could get a flat next to the shop and reach my hand out of the window to get nice and fresh croissant every morning. Not even that, just looking at the seductive looking pastries and cakes is as satisfying.

On my last visit there I had ‘Sour cherry strudel’ with mocha, which I almost died in delight eating it. It truly put all other cherry strudels that I had tried before to shame. It tasted very original, no cheese or cream, stuffed with so much cherry filling inside that you could taste the sourness right through, which was the reason I chose the dessert in the first place, to taste the fruit and sourness, not just gooey filling wit starch, sugar or gelatine or what not. Besides, I enjoyed the taste of cinnamon bursting in my mouth enhancing the sourness of cherries.

I nearly ordered another one to eat in the same sitting, but to save myself from embarrassment of being seen as a greedy pig, I bought it and took it home to have after dinner. The next day my palate still craved more sourness, so once I was in the mood I tried making my own light and fresh version of cherry strudel with filo pastry which I had handy. Here is Nancy’s Extra Sour Cherry Strudel.

I cut down on the amount of starch in making the cherry filling since I didn’t want the gooey texture. I just wanted the nice natural flavour; maybe, the fact that I had been watching the second series of ‘The Rome’ that week somehow caused my craving for bitterness, sourness and rawness.

If you are up for some fresh, light and healthy dessert which is quick and easy to make, this is well worth considering. It is so easy you don’t even need a recipe! Yet, the most satisfying dessert ever!

Finally, after long and hard research and hunting, I’ve managed to finish off sewing on the internal padded insert where my camera safely sits without being knocked about. I wish I could show you how perfect it looks with the camera in it; there’s still enough room to fit in my purse and some other stuff so I won’t need to carry an extra bag. With this bag, now I can rove around Europe feeling safe from the eyes of those who might try to ruin my long-waited holiday.

My unique camera bag with the smart and personal touch.

I could have given more thought to buying some pretty and Nancy-like fabric with lovely patterns on it. Honestly, at the beginning I wasn’t sure how the bag was going to turn out and didn’t want to see nice fabric go to waste. If I get to make another bag in the future for any reason I will definitely get some girly fabric now that I have the know-how. While sewing in all the protective padding by hand til my fingers went stiff I thought it might be worth investing in a sewing machine. Am I going to dabble in DIY business now?

If you have been looking for something different from an ordinary, rather dull looking camera bag, here is the tips to make a stylish and discreet camera bag of your own taste.

All you need is any bag of your choice (mine cost me only $10 from Paddy’s Market), a camping mat ($20 at K-Mart) to be cut up to make padding and fabric (I used a pillow case). The inside of the bag was lined with the padding all around, the bottom of the bag double layered for extra protection.

(DIY Stylish Discreet Camera Bag)

It was quite a simple and enjoyable project to what I had imagined. The hardest part was to attaching the extra divider, which could be skipped if you think it unnecessary, because for me, having a very poor spatial ability, it took a while to figure out how to place it on the bag turned inside out, otherwise I would have had to sew it from inside, which would have caused a lot of stabbing from a needle trying to make its way along with the limited vision inside the dark bag.

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the process of making my camera bag, so feel free to ask!

Be individual!

Be different!

Be creative!

Be the first!

Be free!

It’s funny to see the spiral fountain at Darling Harbour without kids in it. Why do kids love it so much, I wonder. Why do they take the long way around it to get to the core when they can just walk straight across to it?

In the end, it’s all about the walk and pleasure itself rather than GETTING THERE; You might see or feel something interesting or even meet someone special along the way to enrich your life, though it might take longer than others to get to where they might want or need to be. But how long it takes doesn’t really matter, does it?  We are heading in the same direction after all. No hurrying or rushing. It is so true when it comes to cooking.

I’ve been watching French shows lately to prepare myself with the knowledge of  European cooking and learned the art of rolling, which end up on  restaurant menus with the French word roulade. As I watched the chef elaborate with chicken fillets by stuffing them and then rolling them with spinach leaves and then again with pastry, I thought to myself if a dish involved that much of effort before landing on a plate I would eat very slowly appreciating every bite of it with ‘Umm’s and ‘Wow’s.

<Pepitas Pesto>

I had some extra time one weekend and, inspired by the cooking show, thought I might put my rustic cooking aside and make something more intricate and artful. Sole Roulade! To start off, I made pesto with pepitas instead of usual pine nuts, which I really liked, and I  made a cheese and tomato sandwich with it to take to work for the next few days. It makes great sauce for pasta dishes as well.

The choice for fish was ling fillet, which wasn’t the right sort that I had in mind for the recipe because it wasn’t wide enough to roll, but I didn’t see any other suitable fish that day at the market. Then after some brainstorming for the stuffing, I settled for zucchini and carrot, so I shredded them and pan fried them slightly.  Then came the rolling part and it wasn’t a complicated job for me at all; I have years of experience in rolling sushi and kimbab. The one thing that went wrong in making this was that I forgot to cook the rolled fish before rolling in filo pastry, so the juice oozed out during baking and made a bit of a mess.

<Sole Roulade>

This dish was surprisingly satisfying, bursting with flavours, and the texture of the fish was so meaty that one could mistake it for chicken. I’m not sure if i would have liked it as much, if I had used more delicate fish. The prominent flavour here was basil from the pesto and I think that rather gave away more Italian feel than French, so I might use thyme next time and see how differently it works with fish. Although the outer filo layers add crispiness and crunchiness, therefore extra character, to the dish,  you can skip it if you think it is a bit of hassle.

Pepitas Pesto

a bunch of basil
1/2 c slightly toasted pepitas
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1 glove garlic
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
salt&pepper to taste

Put seeds and basil in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped , and add the rest and process it.

Sole Roulade

3-4 fillets of white fish
filo pastry (one sheet for each fillet)
spinach leaves(optional)

For the filling

1 zucchini, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 onion, finely sliced

Pan fried all until it just turns soft and set aside to cool

For the lemon butter sauce

3 Tbs butter
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c white wine
chives chopped

Spread the pesto over each fillet sprinkled with a bit of salt and place filling, then roll it.
Continue the same process with the remaining fillets and bake them for 5 mins at 180 ‘c.
Cover each fillet with spinach leaves before wraping it in filo pastry.
Bake it at 180′c for 12-15 mins until gold.
Serve the whole fillet as a main dish with the lemon butter sauce or serve it sliced as an entree or capanes.

It’s been a long and hard few weeks for me trying to sort out personal issues. With all- rather almost- sorted, I feel more at ease and more love for things around me, though there are still things crawling inside your head, popping in and out every now and again, persistently holding the position of a constant reminder for whatever it wants me to become or do. If that means a privilege of being human, I’m willing to take it gracefully, further, enjoy it gratefully.

Nobody really mulls over decisions. I think deep down everyone makes decisions instantly, they just spend justifying them.

- quote from French Letters -

However, one thing over which we takes a lot of time to come to a decision is creating an interesting combination for a nice cake. There’s no excuse or justifying for deflated cake or mismatched frosting or the cake that tastes so bad that nobody wants to eat. I’d been trying different variations on traditional carrot cake recipes; I think carrot cake is one of the things that can never go wrong.

<Carrot Mandarin Cupcake with Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting>

Of all this latest version of my carrot cake seems to deserve a place on my signature recipes list.  Not only did a mandarin match with the colour of a carrot, but also its aroma complemented that of a carrot so beautifully eliminating the characteristics of the root vegetable, adding more of fruitiness and tropical aroma to it. The modified cream cheese frosting with distinctive citrus flavour was a perfect marriage with the cake, and the candied mandarin peels made as an attempt to confirm its unique character and not to let it be underestimated for its affinity with others alike.

I’ve been enjoying oatmeal in my backing, and oatmeal seems to give moist and lightness to baked goods. Because I know how healthy and fresh  my goodies are, nothing can stop me reaching for another, another and another. Nowadays it is so hard to be satisfied with any bought cakes, especially with the unnecessarily and sickly sweet frosting, which puts a lot of people off. The sweetness of my frosting was JUST right.

Carrot Mandarin Cupcakes
makes mini 30 cupcakes or medium 15 cupcakes / 350 degree oven

2-3 medium mandarins
2 cups finely grated carrot
3 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar or adjust to your sweetness up to 2 cups as the original measurement
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup oatmeal or 3 cups flour
1 or 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup dried currents(optional)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch of allspice
pinch of ground nutmeg

1. Toast nuts in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from the oven, let them cool, then chop coarsely.
3. Peel mandarin skin with a peeler carefully since it’s softer than lemon and hard to peel and puree in a blender or food processor. Measure out 1/2 cup of the liquidy pulp. Save the rest for frosting.
4. Peel, rinse, then grate carrots finely. Add oatmeal in buttermilk
5. In a large bowl, combine mandarin pulp, carrots, eggs, buttermilk&oatmeal, vanilla, sugar, and vegetable oil.
6. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
7. Fold flour mixture into the carrot mixture.
8. Fold in nuts.
9. Scoop out into cupcake papers.
10. Bake at 350 degree oven for ~20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting with Lemon and Mandarin

1 packet of Philly cream cheese
30g butter
2-3 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed mandarin juice
zest of 1 lemon

*Double the recipe for more generous frosting

1. Bring cheese and butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours.
2. Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment.
3. Beat butter and cheese at medium speed until creamy.
4. Add half of the sugar and the orange juice. Beat until combined.
5. Gradually add remaining sugar (more if you have to) until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

Candied Mandarin Peel

In a sauce pan, add peels, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 water and cook until peels turn translucent. Drain well and roll them on caster sugar. Allow to dry.

The long Easter weekend of indulgence has now ended, leaving me with a small bulge in my tummy to work off. I planned to do some girly shopping that I had been putting off for ages over the Easter holiday, but that didn’t happen unfortunately. Ever since I got into cooking, shopping for clothes doesn’t excite me enough to make me bother to go through the course of endless taking off and putting on clothes. Not a good sign, is it? I don’t even remember the last time I bought anything to put on my body rather than either to put in my mouth or stock up my kitchen. BUT, BUT, BUT!!!! I’m definitely going to clean out my wardrobe soon… maybe after trimming my body a bit so that I won’t get depressed when the clothes I try on don’t fit.

<Beetroot Risotto>

I think this gorgeous looking dish will help to take toxins out of my body and reset my diet. I love beetroot in almost everything, especially grated raw beetroot in my sandwiches, and I also love beetroot dip made with yoghurt. Still, the best way to enjoy everything it can offer, the earthiness and sweetness, is warm beetroot salad because you can eat a lot of it at one go. But risotto, not only the most versatile but also the easiest and the most satisfying of all cooking methods, seems to be  simply the best way to get all the goodness out of the healthy vegetable.

Risotto is one of the foods that are longed for by many on a cold winter night as comfort food along with pasta, stew, curry and roasted vegetables. I didn’t roast the beetroot this time, though, if I had had more time I would probably have because I like roasted flavour. I think it is the best to keep the recipe as simple as possible so that you don’t spoil the delicate flavour and elegant perfume  of the beetroot. The herb used here is parsley, but you can use rosemary, thyme or dill. You could also play around with different type of cheese, from feta cheese to goat cheese. To top it off I made cucumber rocket salad, whose peppery flavour seemed to bring out more of the creaminess and sweetness of risotto.

Seductive purple…. Nice to look at…Just eat with eyes….

I could have added wilted beetroot leaves on top, but I had already used them up for something else. It is quite recent that I started eating the leaves and I quite like the spinach-like taste, besides, I feel much better about not having to waste any parts.

To create this purple art for 2-3 people

You need:

1 bunch of beetroot, leaves and all
3 cloves of garlic
1 onion, chopped
30g butter
olive oil
1 ltr vegetable stock
200g arborio rice
1 glass of red wine
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/3 c heavy cream or sour cream(optional)
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon juice

Cook the beetroots,  either roast or boil with skin on, and cool, then peel off the skin and cut into pieces. Set aside.

In a large pan, heat butter and a splash of olive oil. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic until it is soft. Add the rice, and toast for two mins. Tip in the red wine, and stir till it is absorbed. Add a ladle of hot stock, stir until it is completely absorbed, then add the next ladle, and continue in this fashion for about 15-20 mins, until the rice gets to the desired texture and consistency. Lower the heat and add cream and grated parmesan stir for 2 mins. Taste for seasoning.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the beetroot and herb, and gently fold in,  then put the lid on the pan and leave it to rest for 1 – 2 minutes, then squeeze some lemon juice and serve.

NB: I would add more stock and butter to make it creamier on a colder night.

Serves 2 generously.

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