My Sunday Photo 9 Nov 2014

In My Kitchen November 2014

Yep October was another hectic month in the Pickings household.  And here we are about to drive off to Sydney for a few days so I am hurriedly throwing up an In My Kitchen post just before we go!  I got some lovely things for my kitchen in October and hopefully I will pick up something special on our trip down south for the next In My Kitchen.  So let's join in with Celia from Fig Jam & Lime Cordial again and show off all our kitchen goodies.

another cookbook to try out plus Tassie oil and assorted yummies

I love this Tassie peanut butter, and my new Spode plate!

Had never heard of lychee balsamic before!
another cute primary school cookbook collection-love it!

I really love these wonderful community cookbooks.  It is like having your mum or grandmum in your kitchen giving you her recipes and advice.  Something very heart-warming about them.  You can see a few Tasmanian items here; sadly not because I have been there lately but due to me ordering from Bruny Island Cheese Co.  They have such gorgeous stuff. And they even mail cheese to hot and humid Queensland!
The peanut butter is seriously good eating.  Nutty and full of flavour; the roasting obviously gives it an extra flavour boost.  I had to try the cultured butter as I had heard good things.  To be honest, it didn't thrill me.  It seemed to have a really odd tang to it.  I have tried other cultured butters and really enjoyed them so I am not sure why this one didn't appeal.
You can see I bought Murray River salt and a hand-picked Tassie salt.  Silly me forgetting I had also recently bought some Maldon sea salt.  Oh well, I am prepared for the next 12 months!  I bought some very garlicky and wonderful aioli at the Good Food & Wine Show.  I get annoyed when they whimp out on the garlic, so this was a delightful surprise.  What haven't I mentioned?  Oh yes- the vanilla bean paste.  Can't wait to try that one.  I do make my own vanilla extract but the paste just has that little bit of extra oomph.
Well, hope to see you all at Celia's (virtual) place this month.   It is such a fun event, and I look forward to sharing everybody's kitchen each and every month.  See you there!

Salted Caramel Apple Slice- the easy way!

Okay, don't think me a lazy git, but I have made the cheat's version of apple slice today.  This is apparently an old CWA recipe that has been around the traps for decades.  Somehow I missed the memo, and only found out about it a few months ago when a friend brought it to afternoon tea.  When she told me how easy it is to make I thought I just had to try it out, but with a few tweaks.  I found a version of it in one of the primary school cookbooks I have been collecting lately so that inspired me to get a move on.  I have said before how much I love community cookbooks as they bring back happy memories of mums' and grandmums' recipes, and this book is no exception.  The instructions tend to be minimal I have noticed and you have to do a bit of guesswork most times but that is all part of the fun!  The book has ring-binding which I really love, as it makes it so easy to toss around the pages.

cute drawing too

Ingredients:

340g of caramel mud cake packet mix
1 cup dessicated coconut
125g butter - melted
2 large pinches sea salt
550g tinned apple slices (buy the Australian ones with no sugar or additives)

Topping:

300g tub of sour cream (the tub I bought was only 250g- how dare they??)
1 large egg- beaten
salted caramel sauce (optional)
pinch of sea salt


Method:

Stir together the cake mix, coconut, melted butter and sea salt in a medium mixing bowl
Press this mixture into a greased lamington tin (30cm x 20cm)
Cook for 15 minutes at 180C till golden brown
Let it cool for a few minutes
Spread the apples over the mixture in the baking tin
Mix the sour cream and beaten egg together
Plonk this over the apple
Dob on the caramel sauce if using
Scatter some sea salt over the whole thing
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until topping is set
Allow to cool and store in fridge

making the base

yep I know!  that French caramel sauce looks very dubious

it is really delicious- very sweet but so moreish

I rely on Mr Pickings to eat up all my cooking as I am on a low-fat, low-sugar eating plan (hate that word diet!).  But guess what!  He had to rush off to the dentist this morning and is unable to indulge.  Disaster!  I may have to pass it on to the neighbours -  poor things.

The Bloomsbury Cookbook- book review plus recipe!

Does anyone else love Virginia Woolf?  I have long loved her work and have read everything ever published by her and about her, and about the Bloomsbury set.  So loving her and food how could I resist adding this cookbook to my evergrowing collection?  It appeals to me enormously, but honestly I think you would have to be a die-hard fan to really enjoy it. There are recipes scattered throughout, but it is mostly about the characters involved in the Bloomsbury set, with delightful artworks set amongst the pages.  These were people who lived in the Bloomsbury area of London who were heavily involved in the art and literary scene in the first half of the 20th century.  They were, to put it indelicately, in and out of each other's knickers constantly; male or female it didn't seem to matter. What an energetic bunch!  Many of them were of the upper classes and had servants so didn't actually cook themselves, but loved food and drink and parties. Vanessa Bell, the sister of Virginia Woolf, did have a cook/housekeeper who was with them for 50 years, and I have chosen one of Grace's recipes to make for this post.  It is fascinating to see how little information is given, and how much is expected of the reader/cook to fill in the gaps when making the dish.  Clearly you are expected to have a working knowledge of the kitchen already, so woe betide the novice cook if she/he is trying to cook for the household based on these scanty recipes!
Here is the recipe as given by Grace for her Algerian omelette:

oh so scanty details for this recipe!

Sorry you may need a magnifying glass to read it!  And here is my interpretation:


Ingredients:

1 onion chopped finely
20g butter
1 tbs uncooked rice
1 cup chicken or beef stock
salt and pepper
4 large eggs
1 tbs water
extra salt and pepper
small knob of butter for frying
any leftover meat and/or vegies you have in the fridge can be added in to the rice mixture
herbs like fresh parsley or chives
tomato sauce to serve

Method:

Fry the onion in the butter till golden and smelling delicious
Add the rice, stir into the onion mixture and allow it to get beautifully coloured
Pour in the stock and add the seasoning
Cover the pan and leave for 15 minutes  (the mixture was still quite liquidy at 15 minutes so I let it cook out for a few more)
Make the omelette by whisking the eggs, adding water and seasoning
And pour into a hot pan once the knob of butter is sizzling
Cook the eggs quickly by running your spatula around the edges
Allow the eggs in the middle to run out to the edges so they cook also
Once the omelette is almost all set, add the rice mixture over it and fold
Serve with tomato sauce if desired

frying the onion, then adding the rice and stock

omelette whisking  (and I added leftover meatballs to my rice mixture!)

omelette made, filled and rolled!

I know it looks a bit brown and ikky but it was delish!

I was really pleased with how the omelette turned out, and it was delicious, but rather rich with the butter and the stock. Fresh herbs and some baby spinach leaves instead of meat would make it truly delightful I think.

the young and beautiful Virginia before madness set in
(stock image)

and just because I love this photo,
I have added in this portrait of Julia Jackson
(Virginia's mother)
 by Julia Margaret Cameron her great-aunt

My Sunday Photo/Silent Sunday 26 Oct 2014

Adam Liaw

Adam Liaw winner of Masterchef season 2 was in town this week.  I managed to get into one of his sessions at a wonderful independent bookshop here in Brisbane - Avid Reader.   They are very active in the literary scene having more than one published author working there plus an amazing owner Fiona who is currently a judge for The Australian/Vogel Literary Prize and The Stella Prize.  I always enjoy heading there from my side of town to bohemian West End, full of interesting shops and people.  The venue was packed as usual at one of their events (the courtyard is not huge) and crammed with happy and interesting people.  I was lucky enough to sit in the front row so I got a bird's-eye view of everything.  Adam was standing right in front of me, so I got a great close-up!  He looks and sounds exactly as he did on Masterchef and as he does on his current TV show Destination Flavour.  He was warm and funny, and told us lots of stories about his life (he spent 7 years in Japan before being inveigled into coming back to Oz for Masterchef.)  He now has a young son which he said has changed the way he thinks about food in that he is looking for more quick and easy recipes after a hard day's work.  He regaled us with interesting snippets about filming Masterchef; for example when they were given 90 seconds in the pantry it was really only 90 seconds but as the pantry was quite small and had to fit a producer and a camera man and soundman too, they had to take it in turns to go in.  He said some contestants were quite strategic and tried to be further back in the line so that they got more time waiting so they could come up with an idea for the dish they were about to create.  Very clever! He said he didn't think that way and just took his position wherever it fell.
He also gave us some insights into writing his cookbooks.  He said some cooks just allow their name to be put on a book but he definitely wants them to be his books.  He said he just keeps cooking and writes down the recipes over time; after a few months he can see a pattern emerge and he uses these as the basis for his next book.  He does not want his books to be overtly Asian he said as this may intimidate some people, so he doesn't allow the stylist to use chopsticks or anything Asian looking.  He also said that we should all aspire to be food photographers as they have the easiest job in the world.  He told us the home economist cooks, the stylist styles, and it is all done with natural lighting so the photographer just clicks the button on his computer when it is all ready.  I am sure he was joking (mostly?!) but it did sound like a breeze.
Next up he has another TV show in the offing (could be Northern Hemisphere I am thinking), and a couple of books in the works.  What a great night, and a lovely man!

Fiona introducing Adam

the man himself (about 2 feet away from me!)

his new book

I haven't tried any of his recipes yet but they did serve a couple of little dishes at the talk, and they were lovely.

Hummus - made with love and peanut butter

Well, Nigella has gazumped and pre-empted me!  There I was all ready to make this amazing hummus with peanut butter as per Jamie Oliver's suggestion the other night when lo and behold! what do I find on Facebook but a recipe from Nigella (Lawson) using peanut butter in her hummus.  I was slightly miffed! How dare she get ahead of me!  Anyways, you know I'm joking, right?:)  So here is my version of her recipe, slightly adjusted for people who are crazy about garlic.  I also halved her recipe as I was making it to try it out rather than for a big party - or just for herself.  She is fond of telling us that she eats everything up on her own!

Ingredients:

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
2 cloves of garlic peeled but not chopped
30-40mls olive oil
3 flat tbs peanut butter- smooth, or crunchy if you like lumps - I do!
2-3 tbs lemon juice depending on your taste and the thickness of the hummus
1-2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cummin
2-3 tbs Greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
extra olive oil

Method:

Drain the chickpeas
Place them in the blender with the garlic, 30 mls of the olive oil, peanut butter, lemon juice, salt and cummin
Whizz away till you have a thick globby mix in the blender
Add the yoghurt and whizz again
Add more lemon juice and/or yoghurt, salt etc till you have the taste and viscosity you like
Keep adding, tasting and testing till you love it.
Serve it with smoked paprika and extra olive oil over the top
Eat it up with pita bread or vegie sticks or by the spoon

ingredients

getting ready to blitz

mostly blitzed!

all blitzed

ready for eating

chickpeas galore! (stock image)