pantone801

Brisbane at Dusk

// January 15th, 2012 // No Comments » // Photography

I took these on the day of the winter solstice, it was a cool evening and there was a warm orange sunset.

Veggie Patch

// January 15th, 2012 // 5 Comments » // Uncategorized

One of the things I am most excited about in having our own house is having my own garden. All those years of renting and planting in pots are gone- we can now start putting things in the ground! There are grand plans for the garden- there are several trees which cast a lot of shade, and a hammock is slung between two of them. This area under the trees is going to be filled with sub-tropical plants such as bromeliads, gingers, heliconia, anthurium, ferns, cordyline and impatiens.

Then there is the vegie patch along the westen fence. Inspired by Don Burke’s book Organic we started the plot last weekend. There are going to be two plots, each 2.4m x 1.2m and they will have a sleeper border that will get built in the coming weeks, the two beds are going to be separated by a 1m gap that will be bridged by an arbour for growing peas, beans and other climbers. Continue Reading

First Home

// January 15th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Home

Mark and I bought our first home a few months ago in the suburb of Bulimba. It is a small inter-war Queenslander dating from the 20′s in the Ashgrovian style. It is in really good condition and had a major revovation done in the 90′s. The house is filled with heritage features including a small front porch, VJ walls and ceilings, dado and picture rails, breezeways, frosted windows with amber and magenta glass panels, and wide oak floors. Continue Reading

Croque Monsieur & Croque Madame

// January 15th, 2012 // No Comments » // breakfast

These are very similar to the Dutch Tosti’s I made a few weeks ago. Croque Monsieur is a hot ham and cheese sandwich, the Madame variation is topped with a hot fried egg. They originated in France as a fast-food snack served in cafés and bars. The name is based on the verb croquer (“to crunch”) and the word monsieur (“mister”)— the reason behind the combination of the two words is unclear— and is colloquially shortened to croque. While the origins of the croque-monsieur are unknown, there are many speculations on how it was first created. The croque-monsieur’s first recorded appearance on a Parisian café menu was in 1910. Its earliest mention in literature appears to be in volume two of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu) in 1918.

I had these for the first time on a recent trip to NZ at the La Cigale French style Farmers Market in Parnell (Coincidently right next to the old woolstore apartment building Axis that Mark and I lived in).

Traditionally these are made with a Mornay or Béchamel sauce, however this version by Matt Moran is much easier and can be put together in minutes. Continue Reading

Bacon and Cheese Deviled Eggs

// January 15th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // hors d'oeuvres

I made these for a party last night and they were delicious. I’d like to see devilled eggs make a comeback, and love their 70′s kitschiness. Did you know they are also called Eggs Mimosa, that they originated in Rome, and that in Hungary the yolks are mixed with bread soaked in milk. Wikipedia has a lot of other information including how they got their name.

The term “deviled”, in reference to food, was in use in the 18th century, with the first known print reference appearing in 1786. In the 19th century, it came to be used most often with spicy or zesty food, including eggs prepared with mustard, pepper or other ingredients stuffed in the yolk cavity.

This recipe is from last years Saveur 100 (Number 135)

Red Velvet Cupcakes (Redux)

// January 15th, 2012 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I made this old favourite again yesterday. See my previous post for the recipe. I have changed the icing mixture slightly and now leave out the butter. I found the butter yellowed the icing mixture too much. The cream cheese is moist enough to hold the icing sugar and gives a nice creamy colour to contrast the bright red cupcake filling. The red and white pinstripe cupcake cups from Paper Eskimo are perfect for this recipe and I topped them with pink heart-shaped sugared almonds from the Bulimba Deli.

Dutch Toastie

// December 20th, 2011 // No Comments » // Food, Travel

Earlier this year Mark and I spent a few nights in Amsterdam for their Pride festival. We stayed at a stunning hotel originally built as shipping merchants offices in the 1600′s called Grand Hotel Amrâth. Just down the road we found a café called Prins Heerlijk. We can best describe this as a Dutch version of our favourite Saturday morning haunt- Brown Dog. Prins Heerlijk, like Brown Dog have a simple menu, and everything is made fresh from smallgoods in their front cabinet, sliced especially for your sandwich. Specials are written on the tables in chalk and on the day of Amsterdam pride; the staff all had pink T-Shirts bearing their logo and the statement “Gay for the Day”, and they blasted campy dutch techno music from their speakers. We were so besotted with their food we had breakfast and lunch there pretty much every day of our trip.

Dutch Toastie

Simon Hopkinson’s baked pasta with porcini

// October 30th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

We have new food-porn! Simon Hopkinson [wiki] has a show that is playing here on Friday nights on ABC called The Good Cook. I have not really followed him that much. His style homely and simple. The show is filled with stunning videography including tilt-shift and the Matrix effect, in fact they can seem overdone. He also his great little segments explaining where the ingredients come from and how they are prepared.

So Simon introduced me to dried porcini mushrooms. I have seen them round but never really knew how to cook them, and would steer towards fresh mushrooms. I have been missing out. Porcini have a meaty (in a good way) smell and are filled with glutamates, and have a sweet flavour.

I am a kitchen gadget collector, I think I get this from mum who’s kitchen benchtops have and electric grater, steamer and juicer and drawers are filled with little time-saving devices. This recipe calls for a lot of stirring which means I can use my auto-stirrer. I picked this up from Walgreens in Racine, Wisconsin earlier this year. Walgreens have this cheesy as-seen-on-tv section filled with crappy gadgets and I was a sucker for this (and a set of talking Jersey Shore pens). The auto-stirrer is basically a whisk-like attachment with a vibrator attached. It works a charm, see the video below.

Fried whitebait with cumin salt and smoky mayonnaise

// October 30th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Food

A couple weeks ago I went to Auckland to catch up with some family who were over from The States, to watch the Rugby World Cup semi finals, to Bungee off the Auckland harbour bridge and to catch up with my mum. I spent a night down in Hamilton to check out my Mum’s new place and see how the renovations are coming along. The drive between Auckland and Hamilton is so much better than it used to be- thanks to improved roads and is dotted with foodie attractions like Pokeno Bacon and the Mercer Dutch cheese shop. I large sign advertising whitebait caught my attention and I could not resist.

Whitebait is a New Zealand delicacy, folks have their favourite spot to catch them and spend hours gently corralling into their large nets. I have tried, these little guys are timid and skittish and it takes a lot of time and patience to fill a small tub.

There was a lot of discussion on how to cook these guys, and the consensus was fritters, but I have had bad whitebait fritters and did not want to risk creating rubbery fish pancakes so I decided on this version. Tip- only add the flour just before you fry, otherwise they go gluggy and stick together, also I skipped making the mayonnaise, and use my old time favourite- Best Foods.

Rhubarb and Apple Chutney

// October 1st, 2011 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I am back after a long hiatus. We have been so busy with travelling and work that I have not had much time to do much interesting cooking, or had time to record anything here. Mark and I recently went to Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Chicago for a month-long holiday. We found some fantastic foods while away, and brought back a suitcase laden with spices, jams, relishes, hot-sauces and a tonne of Belgium chocolate.

We made this a few days ago to have with roast pork, and it was so good that we have run out already and have just made a second large batch. This chutney is a great mixture of savoury, sweet and spicy flavours, and is great with white meats like pork or chicken. We have also been having it with sausages, on a cheese platter, or even on a simple sandwich with white bread, cheese and ham. Mark can be a bit crafty- he made the labels using swingtags and a moustache stamp.