Snadra

My only personal experience of pastizzi is the ones I can buy from the frozen food section at the supermarket (my local shop has a small freezer dedicated to them). My first thought was the SBS Food website as the footage for the commercial pastizzi operation you linked to came from one of their programs. Unfortunately they don't seem to have any recipes for pastizzi (there are a few other maltese recipes though). I'm pretty sure that the Bakers Extra Flour they are using is a strong/bread flour like this one, so at a guess, I'd say they must want at least some gluten to develop. Also: Don't portugese custard tarts (pasteis de nata) have a similar pastry base? Check out from about 1.55.

So, I'm planning on making a rhubarb semifreddo to take to the outlaws' place for our Christmas get-together. I've looked through a few recipes, and think that I will use an italian meringue as a base, like in this recipe, but with a sweetened rhubarb puree folded through. However, I've seen other recipes that seem to be based on a saboyan. Does anyone have any experience with these? Is one type more stable than another? I'm guessing the italian meringue is the most stable, but I'm tossing up whether to further enrich it by making a saboyan of the yolks to add in, which shouldn't really decrease the lift from the whipped cream and meringue.

The three rices I use regularly are basmati, calrose and brown and I cook them all in the Tefal rice cooker. I use the measuring cup that came with it, but for basmati & calrose I keep the water below the line for the appropriate number of cups (probably a bit less water for basmati than calrose). With brown rice I go at or slightly above the line. I do find the texture of the rice is better if I fluff it up a little after it goes onto 'warm' function, and let it sit for another 5-10 minutes on warm. I've also cooked pilaf-ish rice dishes, sauteeing onions etc in the cooker on 'cook', then adding rice and warm stock and they've come out pretty good. You do need to keep depressing the 'cook' button though.

These menus are sounding more and more delicious. Alex, how is the pastry for your leek tarts spiced? We have made some minor modifications to our original plan. We had wanted to do a small whole fish on the weber in banana leaves for Christmas lunch, but I'm having trouble sourcing banana leaves and storms are predicted and I don't have a suitable undercover space for grilling, so I might steam some fish inside instead, still served with coconut rice and a cucumber salad. I am still making the rockmelon (cantaloupe) icecream for dessert, but instead of studding it with candied ginger, I'm going to sugar some pistachios. I picked up some pistachio Persian fairy floss yesterday and will try to incorporate that somehow as well. It turns out we're doing some visiting too, so I have promised to bring some grissini and thyme crispbreads to a friend's house for her family lunch on Boxing Day, and will probably bring along a cake salé as well. We're going to my inlaws for Boxing Day and I'm bringing dessert: currently thinking it will be a rhubarb semifreddo on a sponge or shortbread base with lime zest and strawberries in syrup, decorated with rose & pistachio persian fairly floss.

Funny, I was just speaking to someone about making lard cookies! I haven't made gingerbread cutouts in a few years, but I usually follow my mother's lead and use 100% lard. The recipe I use (which I cannot find at the moment) calls for heating the molasses then melting the lard in it. The dough is mixed by hand (it's quite soft so it's easy) and chilled before rolling out. They're quite crisp, and sturdier than versions I've made with butter. I've never experimented with a mix of lard & butter though, and it will be interesting to see what others have found.

Bought some pashmak/persian fairy floss today in rose and pistachio flavours. I got it from David Jones Food Hall here in Sydney, but the brand, Pariya is available online here and in the US & Europe. I've never tried it before, but it looks so pretty! My plan is to use it as tasty decorative frippery for the rhubarb & lime semifreddo dessert I am doing for a family lunch on Boxing Day, but there will be leftovers. The package suggests layering it with fresh berries in a glass, but I'm wondering if anyone has any other ideas. By the way, the ingredients in the pistachio flavour are sugar, sesame, flour, vegetable oil, pistachio oil, food acid & colour, and the rose flavour has rose extract replacing the pistachio oil.

Just realised I hadn't finished this sentence! Aldi has a policy of pricing being the same in all stores, while pricing at Coles, Woolworths, etc tends to change from store to store. It seems that pricing is higher in the inner/trendy suburbs, and cheaper as you go further out, although this is not a hard & fast rule. And go too far out and things start getting pricey again. What's worse is that quality of produce, organisation, etc, varies greatly from store to store. There are a number of locations I no longer go to because of quality issues, like trying to convince me that I should pay $12 for a punnet of mouldy raspberries. Some of this is down to individual store management, I'm sure, but I have been reliably told that stores are tiered, and those on the top tier get the top quality produce, while those lower down the rung get diminishing quality, depending on what's available at any time. Which is all to say, if you find one Coles or Woolies to be great, you may find the next to be sub-par.

What kind of forgotten skills does it address? For example, does it discuss or give directions for properly preparing a chicken from feathers and feet? I would find that quite useful. I usually get my chickens post-feathers, but including feet and head. I have not yet found a useful method for properly butchering the bird down to a roastable form. Mainly I just flail at it with my cleaver until it fits in the pan, but there's gotta be a better way. No Dorie love for me this Christmas, Amazon "sellers" won't ship it to China, and Chapters.ca is a non-starter as well. I'm looking at going to Singapore at CNY just to hit the bookstores. A surprising amount of forgotten skills are in the book including introductory cheese making and charcuterie, gardening, poultry keeping, and yes, killing and butchering poultry. Re buying your books: have you tried book depository (either uk or us site)? We use booko.com.au to find the best prices to Australia and bookdepository is almost always cheapest and they claim to deliver worldwide. ETA: Andie I hope you like the book! Your skills and knowledge are lightyears beyond mine, but it might hopefully yield some new ideas or methods for you. I just find it quite beautiful to browse through - it makes Ireland inviting!

I'm so glad you found an apartment! Parramatta gets maligned by many, but I think it's a vibrant and exciting place, with a real multicultural mix. The grocery market in Australia is nearly a duopoly, dominated by Coles and Woolworths. Aldi, Franklins & IGA are more minor players. Aldi has a policy of pricing being the same in all stores, while pricing Westfield Parramatta has Coles, Woolworth & and IGA Express. Aldi is just around the corner within walking distance (bring your own bags). There is also a greengrocer, fishmonger and at least one Asian supermarket at Westfield, but I don't do groceries at Parramatta (purely because of logistics issues), so I can't speak to the quality. There used to be a Harris Farm Markets in the Brand Smart Centre on Church Street (nothing seems to survive there long) but it closed this year. However, the Baulkham Hills & Merrylands stores will be within very reasonable driving distance from you. Tatra Deli on Darcy Street, on the other side of the station from Westfields is a great Polish deli, but there are quite a few arcades on that side of the station, and you will no doubt find plenty of little shops if you do a bit of exploring (although they can also be pretty dusty - it's not all excitement). There's a weekly farmers market in Parramatta as well. I don't go because it's a bit of a hike (plus parking drama) for us on the weekends, but I've heard good things about it. If you stay on Church Street and continue South past Westfields, you will come across some Asian grocers, butchers and bakers. If you go to nearby Granville, Harris Park and Auburn you will have access to lots of middle eastern food stores, halal butchers, and the marvellous Abla's Pastries.

Meat pies are a pretty iconic food in Australia (how much meat they contain is a matter of some debate). A recent choice article rated the Aldi meat pies quite highly, but I prefer a tourtiere myself .

Sounds like the reverse of some of my experiences at Woolworths and Coles supermarkets near me ($8 for a punnet of mould-laden raspberries, anyone?), whereas when I shop in the more upmarket neighbourhoods the quality is much better. There are 3 Aldi shops in the Northwest that I have been to fairly regularly and they are never dirty and the staff are always quite friendly. Interesting to read of a different experience. I wonder why the difference though?

This is a recent thread on the subject: It's Sweet Potato Season And these are slightly older topics: Yam/Sweet Potato Fries Unusual Sweet Potato Recipes Sweet Potatoes: The Topic

Laksa! A good laksa makes me swoon. You can purchase a paste instead of making your own and still be swooning.

We used to do this with raspberries when I was growing up. I think my mother learned it from a polish lady. Very good, but I never thought of doing it with grapes. You have me thinking now.... This recipe on epicurious seems like an extension of that idea. I think it would look really lovely with all green grapes, and maybe you could gild the lily with a puddle of grape syrup as mentioned by djyee100 as well. And grape syrup might be nice on freshly made crepes or a crustless french toast/pain perdu as a winter dessert, maybe with some halved grapes warmed in it. Not a dessert, but would the soup djyee100 is referring to be Ajo Blanco? I tried it once years ago and really liked it. Looking up recipes most just use the grapes as a garnish, but this one uses them in the soup. And actually, it might be just the thing for Christmas (well, in my neck of the woods anyway )...

My company generously gives its employees half a ham or a side of smoked salmon every year. We get the ham, because if eternity is two people and a ham, a side of (delicious) smoked salmon and two people is a short trip to smoke-induced insanity. And the ham is fantastic. But I'd really like to try doing a whole fish on the weber this year, so we will have the ham at breakfast, and then everyday after that for the next few weeks.... These are our plans so far. It's only two of us at home, so I want to keep things pretty simple and not overshop, etc. Hey, it could happen! Christmas Eve (cold): Green salad (possibly with chevre and toasted walnuts, walnut oil dressing) Steak Tartare with rye bread toasts (for me) Prawns (not sure what I'll order yet) with home made mayo and soft white rolls (for Gerg) Asparagus vinaigrette Sago pudding with fresh mango Christmas morning: Fresh fruit (mangoes, cherries, nectarines and whatever looks good in the few days leading up to the weekend) Ham (probably not fried as it's so delicious when it's fresh) Fresh cornbread with honey (we were given some local honey recently, only roughly filtered and unpasteurised) My current cornbread recipe is completely non-US traditional: I soak polenta overnight in buttermilk, and used whipped eggwhite in the batter before cooking it in the cast iron pan. It's very light. Christmas Lunch (late): Whole fish on the weber (fish species to be determined this weekend), possibly wrapped in a banana leaf, if I can find some easily. Sides: If I go the banana leaf route, probably some coconut rice of some description (time to pull out the Charmaine Solomon books!) and maybe a cucumbery-salad of some sort or whatever else looks good from one of her books. If no banana leaf I will probably stuff the fish with lemon slices, dill and parsley, so maybe a pressed cucumber salad and a lemony potato salad on the side. But if anyone has better ideas, please lay them on me! Dessert: The rockmelon ice cream from Sean Moran's 'Let it Simmer', hopefully successfully stuffed back in its melon shell. I'm going to make the 'ginger jewels' for it (ginger pieces simmered with beetroot and sugar) for it this weekend I think. We're probably going to a friend's house that night to hang out - I'm bringing over some homemade grissini for her family lunch the next day and our traditional giant platter of lebanese pastries from a shop in Greenacre. Because for some reason, it's not Christmas for me anymore if it doesn't involve obscene amounts of syrupy, flaky lebanese pastries. If we're hungry when we get home we'll have some ham! Boxing Day: We're having lunch with family that day, so to get me through I was thinking of girding myself with eggs benedict (maybe homemade muffins...), wilted spinach and something like a tropical mimosa. I love eggs benedict and am invariably disappointed when I order it at a restaurant. And hey, except for the pastries, the menu is otherwise, healthy, right?

Private label - THAT's the term I couldn't think of for the past couple of days! Customer service at Aldi is practically non-existent here, and the queues through the checkout can be a bit annoying, but at least they move quickly, so I never really feel like I'm waiting forever.

Don't be ashamed of the convenience foods! Spill! To be honest, if chocolate isn't a convenience/junk food, I don't know what is. And my husband just reminded me that there is at least one convenience food we get from there: american style hot dogs. I love the ocassional tube of mystery meat, as long as there's a decent time interval between hits, but every hotdog I've tried here has been mushy and horrible. The American style ones from Aldi are surprisingly good, with a nice bit of snap to them. WRT tuna, they have a chunk-style tuna in small tins that's very good, and is sustainable. I've tried the smaller bottles of Aussie olive oil and it's not bad. And they have signed up to the Australian Olive Associations Code of Practice too. So is it very similar to Trader Joes? For some reason I always thought that Trader Joes was more upscale, but maybe I've got it wrong - I've never been to one!

Not to the best of my knowledge! That said, I have seen quality problems with their vegetables. I used to buy the packages of baby spinach quite regularly (I love spinach) but they don't date the packages and I had a few that were less than fresh once opened. I don't buy it any more. In general the quality has been really good for what we buy, but I can't comment on their processed/convenience foods. They sell some name brand products, but mostly house brands (which is why you don't see them elsewhere). In fact the arrival of Aldi in Australia was the catalyst for a lot of scrambling by the Coles/Woolworths duopoly. As a result we now see a lot more house brands in both major supermarkets, in tiered quality levels. For a while they gave them specific names for different categories the way Aldi does, but now they've gone to the same name across all categories, but with a different name for each quality level. You can tell which brands are in/trying to get into Aldi by their packaging: their barcodes are supersized to meet Aldi requirements. Aldi doesn't sell alcohol in NSW, I can't speak for other states. I do remember buying a shockingly awful bottle of schnapps in a German one on our honeymoon (it may have been a Lidl or similar) . Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time! Another good product I'd forgotten about: Tinned Organic Tomatoes $1.29/400 grams: again, really good quality, and comparable to the italian brands at the supermarkets.

I love a nice fruit loaf once in a while. I'll have to give that a go. We tried the crumpets a while ago but I found them oddly sweet. I don't buy eggs from them because they're not refrigerated and I find the white are always too runny. We tried the fairtrade (or was it organic?) chocolate when it first came out and it was sort of chalky, but I might give it another go now. The rye is great, but it's a super-heavy one you have been warned!

So, confessions time: I have been known to shop at Aldi, and what's more, I like it. The selection is limited, but not unchanging, (some of) the quality is good and it's easy to get in and out pretty quickly. After a bit of experimentation, there are a few things we buy at Aldi quite regularly, including: Unsalted butter $1.49/250 grams: I do more baking than my hips need. Their butter is always fresh and sweet and the price is excellent. I only buy it elsewhere if I have to. Rye bread $1.99/500 grams (approx 8 slices): This is the brick-like stuff that has no preservatives and yet seems to last forever. It's as good as anything I remember having in Germany, and the nearest equivalent I can find elsewhere is much more expensive and I've frequently found stones/hardbits in it. Chocolate Moser Roth $2.49/125 grams; Choceur $2.49/200 grams: I suspect that when Aldi first came here Whittakers supplied their chocolates - the blocks looked the same as Whittakers and they had an odd mouthfeel and almost artificial flavour. They've since changed and the quality is really good. The Choceur 'dark' isn't nearly dark enough for my taste, but it has a nice smooth texture and no off flavours; it's perfect for baking applications - I chop it to use instead of chocolate chips and find the flavour superior. And the Fruit & Nut version, which is filled with sultanas and hazelnuts is addictive. The Moser Roth chocolates are excellent, with a nice snap (except in summer in my kitchen), and are conveniently packaged in 25gram tablets to prevent over indulging. Potato Gems/Jewels $2.49/750 grams: We don't buy much in the way of prepared food (the great lean cuisine experiment of '06 ended in a freezer full of expired frozen meals) and I don't like oven baked fries but the potato jewels are very good as a side to almost anything. And anyway, it's not my fault see, because eGullet has this whole thread on tater tots, and it brainwashed me. Obviously there are a few more things, but I'd like to hear from you. Do you shop at Aldi? Why or why not? What have you found to be worthwhile and what was disgusting?

Thanks so much for posting this and your replies. The pictures are great and I can't believe how full the birds' crops are. I had always thought that the ptarmigan lived quite high up as well, but I guess not as high as the blue grouse!

I love the simple preparation you've done with the birds. They look delicious. When you write 'picked up' are these birds you shot yourself? Have you hunted the other species? Where I grew up on the other side of the Rockies most hunters focussed on elk and deer rather than game birds (at least in my memory!) and it's interesting to see this. I'm curious about the different contents in the birds' crops - are they from different areas or do they have quite distinct diets? (And I haven't thought of knick knick berries in years!)

I'm looking forward to your blog - already loving the amount of food you're sharing! Do you find your focus is more on meals that don't involve gluten or on reasonable substitutes? I've known a few coeliacs and their approaches vary, but they all say hidden gluten is the most frustrating thing of all.

Well, I have been scouring regular and specialty book stores (Kitchen Arts & Letters and CHIPS Books, as well as some overseas stores) and the word I get is that Cruz' book is no longer in circulation because the publisher went out of business. I've looked on eBay too - no joy. Ignore this post if you have already checked these out. Infusions Ltd , a UK site, lists the book as available Virtue Books, an NZ site also lists the book as available (but for NZ$195) BuchGourment has it listed as a pre-order (although if the publisher went out of business I don't quite see how that would work). I only understand bits of Spanish where it overlaps with French, but: Agapea, a spanish language site, appears to have the English version of the book available As does Temario-Oposiciones Hope this helps somewhat.

Thank you so much everyone for following along with my ramblings. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. Now, to continue with my cocktail education ...