Snadra

That's why I pretty much stopped Christmas baking...it just made no sense to have winter smells on a hot day to make the house feel warm. I will definitely keep you posted on the hominy!

Thank you!! Well, we have a way to go before the weight loss hits, but it's good to hear a positive result from someone The two weeks of fast food towards the end of last term probably didn't help. I am finding a focus on simpler food makes me more appreciative of complex dishes when I have them.

Thank you! I wish I could say we always eat so well - there are too many nights when we end up having toast or oatmeal in winter - but it's a lot easier when I've not got study hanging over my head. The last couple of years I have been making a real effort to simplify my cooking while still keeping it flavourful. There was a time when I would have tried to put a sauce of some kind on everything and have 3 sides, but these days I am focussing on cleaner and fresher flavours (and hoping my waistline responds as well). That doesn't mean it's not fun to go all out sometimes, but when it's mostly just the two of us eating I'm finding I waste less and we eat less too. Although all the press is about Christmas seafood (and the Sydney Fish Market says that Christmas Eve is the busiest day of the year), you would be amazed at how much meat still gets eaten. A friend of mine was telling me that her family will be having ham, roast beef, turkey and seafood, but it will all be cold. My husband has less than fond childhood memories of hot Christmas lunches, with flaming puddings and all. When we have a choice we wait until evening to eat our celebratory meal, as we often find it too hot during the day (I think I am allergic to humidity ). Mind you, nothing beats the oddity of melting in the heat while hearing the 'the weather outside is frightful...'

Thank you! When the installers came to put the kitchen in and saw the one wall done in green, they were pretty dismissive, telling me it wouldn't work, but they changed their mind once it was installed. It's a small room (we weren't in a position to knock out walls), but it works and when it's tidy it's a really pleasant place to hang out. It's not perfect, but can any kitchen be perfect? Now, in my dream kitchen....

So, we had dinner quite late tonight: some turkish bread, the last tomatoes and a bit of ham. As soon as we went to eat, we looked at each other and made a sandwich! Not quite sure why I didn't do that in the first place. Finished making lunches for the next two days as well - tarts with caramelised onions, roasted tomatoes and swiss cheese (St Clair in this case). What fun. Best part is, the kitchen is almost tidy too. I hate a messy kitchen on a Sunday night.

So, a few more things... First, the finished walnuts from a recipe that JAZ put into RecipeGullet. This is a fantastic way to make candied nuts. No deep frying, no watching a frypan, and they have a glossier finish than the ones that use an eggwhite to make the sugar and seasonings stick. The pide. We turned 1/2 of one of them into dinner (post to come). I ended up cooking them on parchment, which I would rather not do, but it's a messy job transferring the soft dough to the oven and I didn't want to end up with a doughy floor tonight . I slid the paper out from under them as soon as it firmed up enough. I didn't use the eggwash on them either - more mess I didn't need! Great texture to this bread. Tomorrow we're going to use some of it for roo sandwiches.

What's the deal with 'minimum chips'? Ever since they offered it in a shop, I've been happily ordering fish and 'a dollar's chips'. No one has said, I couldn't do so, although some places you really don't get many chips. I had bream last week and it was very nice. No one around here seems to have flathead. I've never quite understood minimum chips either! In this case it was $2.50 for minimum chips, but I've heard people order $1 chips at other places. I think flathead might be a NSW thing. Whenever I see bream I always think of Down River.

So, the Anzac Bikkies weren't a complete disaster. I've never made them before, but I know that I will need to get my mother-in-law in to give me a tutorial. The dough was a really crumbly mess, and I don't think it's supposed to be. It could be that I used quick oats instead of rolled, but I'm not really sure. The recipe I used is essentially the same as what's on the back of the McKenzie's packet. The ingredients: I just squooshed spoonfuls of it together to form the biscuits. And the final result: They tasted just fine! But not as crisp and light as my mother-in-law's. Well, it's always good to have something to improve on. While the oven was on, I thought it might be nice to make some Walnut Crack. They're still in the oven, but I can already smell them. Even Gerg, who's not fond of nuts can't stop eating them. Not too sweet, just a bit of spice and all the walnut flavour coming out. I need to do a bit of cleaning up now. Still to come: pide, and possibly dinner, if we feel like it after all that lunch .

So, skipped breakfast again today (I know, I know!). Usually breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, but I think the heat and humidity have been getting to me. Seeing as it was my last day doing the blog, we thought fish & chips might be in order. I stuck to NSW fish though - in this case a piece each of bream & flathead. I also got a couple of salt&pepper calamari for Gerg as he quite likes them. My eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach. Even though I got 'minimum chips', it was still too much. We had some salad (not all of what was in the spinner, mind!) and I made a mayonnaise which I spiked with some lime juice. I generally love flathead, but the bream was nicer today. I like getting battered fish better than crumbed because (a) I like a bit of batter, and (b) you can discard it if you like, and you are left with essentially steamed fish. The crumbs never taste right to me, and they don't come off as nicely if you don't want them. While I was at the shop I had a chat with the owners about putting in an order for Christmas. They recommended a coral trout, but that would be a bit big for us, so I might get a snapper, and some prawns, of course!

First, a couple more kitchen posts. Note the cleanliness? I've been happily destroying that this afternoon.

You punned! The hominy is from Fireworks Foods. I ordered it this winter (I wanted to try it as I've never had before), but never got around to using it, so in the cupboard it stays until the cool weather comes around Easter. I take it it's a good brand then? I had the choice of exactly one... But isn't it odd that this can happen?

So today is the last day of my blog! I will have a few things to show you later this afternoon, but I'm afraid it will not measure up to the spectacular things I have seen in other blogs. I'm planning on making some Anzac biscuits, some pastry for a few little tarts to take to work with a salad for lunches this week and probably a pide as well, which I want to try again. As long as the oven is on.... I will also roast some beetroot, which I may make into a salad, or maybe something else. Speaking of something else, I'm also planning my meals for the week (as much as they can be planned). We used to do a weekend shop, but now we usually do a grocery shop on the way home from work on Mondays or Tuesdays. It's less crowded, we usually get a bargain on meat (like the organic chicken breast Gerg found last Monday for 1/2 price) and it means Saturdays and Sundays are ours to do with as we please. If we need anything extra during the week, it's easy enough to stop off, or to pick something up while we're out on the weekend. I plan pretty much the way everyone does - a combination of what's in the cupboard, what's on sale/in season at the shops (I am a sucker for reduced meat) and what just sounds good. We try to eat a vegetarian or mostly vegetarian meal at least 3 times a week, and now we're making an effort to limit the carbs we eat in the evening, at least a little. Last week I got some chinese sesame paste from the asian market where I meet Gerg from the train if our timetables line up. So, I'm thinking I might make the Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad from hzrt8w (Ah Leung) pictorials. Perfect weather for something like that. There is also the roo, if we don't end up eating it tonight, and we were given some flour tortillas by someone at my husband's work, so I'm thinking I make cook some black beans (gotta use them up!) to stuff into one with some cheese and tomatoes and what-not. And, if I make the pide, we will probably eat it later in the week with this beetroot and yoghurt dish, which is simple and surprisingly delicious. More soon!

Costco in Sydney is open? That's great news! It's definitely not open yet. I drove past the site in Auburn less than two weeks ago and it was just foundations and a frame. They won't even start recruiting non-managment staff until next year. Costco in Sydney

Well, as you know, I grew up in a household pretty far from anywhere, so when we went grocery shopping somewhere exciting we came back with LOADS. I guess being an ingredient hoarder is in my genes. I have memories of coming back from family trips to the States and we would have at least a case of Grey Poupon, in addition to whatever else had caught my parent's fancy. When we went to Calgary we always went to Chinatown, had a big meal and then went shopping. My mother would buy I don't know how many large bags of long noodles at a time (I think they were called wonton noodles, but I can't quite remember), bottles of soya sauce, dried mushrooms, etc. Trips to Lethbridge resulted in sacks of brown rice and flour and oats (yes, I was a granola child). Most of our neighbours did similar things. A friend's basement pantry was stocked full of catering sized jars of mayonnaise and ketchup, etc. Plus almost everyone did home canning and pickling as well. We would drive the pickup to Creston and come back with a tonne (a literal tonne) of apples that would then be turned into juice and jelly and sauce using the steam juicer on the camping stove outside. Or lesser amounts of peaches or cherries which all had to be processed... When I think of my mother doing all that work, I just want to go have a lie down. I don't shop in those quantities, but I can't help bringing back something everytime I go out! Plus, like you say, how can you cook if you don't have the ingredients? Although one of my goals for the coming few months is to empty the cupboards by using everything up. And tidy the really messy one... But at least I have food in the cupboards, right? A friend of mine has a very full fridge, but it seems to consist entirely of condiments ! Roulade is great, isn't it? I was thinking in winter it might be nice to replace the rhubarb with some cooked apple, but chocolate sounds even better.

They are fantastic, and I love that drawer. The dowels all have a threaded screw at the bottom so they are quite secure. All the drawers (we have 5 more for cutlery, containers, etc, all half the size of the dish and pot drawers) have soft close slides from Blum, which is good for us as I tend to be a bit of a slammer sometimes! The pot drawer goes all the way to the floor and is a bit of a bare foot hazard in summer.

I can't believe I completely forgot to post pictures of the kitchen! Here are a few. Drawers below the cooktop. Next to the dish drawers is this cupboard. The dishwasher is the closed cabinet you can see on the left hand of the picture. And the messy cupboards... Fridge & freezer. Most of my cookbooks. There are a few lying about the house in various stages of being read and drooled over. The left hand side of the bookcase is magazines. Mostly Gourmet, but also some Australian Gourmet Traveller, Vogue Entertaining and Travel (which I think is cut down to two issues a year now) and the New Zealand magazine Cuisine, which I adore and which has the most beautiful covers.

Like you I've investigated the pepperberry but not much else. Strangely enough, I'm more likely to use obscure Asian ingredients than obscure Aussie ingredients. After Rene Redzepi's talk at the Opera House in which he strongly encouraged the use of local ingredients, I suppose I should be more adventurous. Unfortunately, apart from macadamias, I can't really think of anything that gives a wow factor. Am not sure that we've moved beyond the "use pepperberry instead of pepper" or "rainforest lime instead of lime" or "lemon myrtle instead of lemon" stage of cooking. They are subtly different but not markedly so. It's almost (waits for scorn and opprobium) like a gimmick. I'm definitely open to using native ingredients but want a genuine culinary advancement rather than incrementalism purely for the sake of using local. Well said. My personal tipping point was when someone tried to sell me a 'native bush tomato sauce' that had 1 part bush tomato to 19 parts tomato. Or maybe I'm just shopping in the wrong places. It strikes me that Rene Redzepi is operating in a culture that has a much longer history with its surroundings. From my limited experience, Danes have a strong sense of their history and they and their forebears have always used what was around them; I think it's reasonable to suggest he's reflecting a preexisting connection to that past. European Australians don't have the same depth of history with the Australian environment, and historically there hasn't been much cross-fertilisation between Indigenous and European cultures. It's going to be a long, long road to the real incorporation of native ingredients.

So, the planets have aligned, and tonight I can offer you kangaroo. I thought you would like to see just how bright it is. I was reading up on it a little and Maggie Beer says that it oxidises quickly, hence the vacuum (and I think inert gas) packaging. Those outside Australia might be unaware that kangaroo sold in stores here is wild shot by licensed shooters. As an aside, it's not the only 'wild' meat we can get. Although most of the rabbit you can get here is farmed, I have access to wild shot rabbits through my local butcher - frozen, of course. I have very fond memories of eating wood-grilled rabbit in Spain, and now that we have a Weber I'm keen to give it a go. I also know someone who goes pig hunting, and could probably get some wild boar, but I've heard frightening things about their parasite loads... Maggie recommends coating it in oil as soon as you open the package, so I decided to marinate it in a flavoured oil. I crushed a piece each of lemon and lime peel, a small red chili, some coarse salt (currently using Murray River Pink Salt), rosemary, thyme and garlic in the mortar and then added it to olive oil and coated the roo fillets in that. Normally we just give it quick coat of oil and throw it right on the grill/pan, so this was an experiment. While it was marinating I made a salad of shredded green cabbage, parsely and chives. I salted it lightly and mixed it then bashed a clove of garlic and set it in the juice of half a lemon while the meat was cooking. When I was ready to dress the salad I strained the lemon juice in, sans garlic, and added some olive oil. We do variations of this salad throughout summer. A favourite is cabbage (cut into larger squares), parsley, sultanas and the juice of an orange. I like it because cabbage lasts so well in the fridge and it's quick to shred a little and dress it with whatever is lying about. Instead of using the grill pan, which I hate cleaning, I used my french skillet (I didn't want to use non-stick because I wanted really high heat). It rested for about 10 minutes until I plated up. You can see it's still quite rare, in fact at first we were a bit worried that the larger piece was underdone, but the texture was just right. I dug around my wine cabinets, but completely failed to turn up a Pinot (my other choices were a Cab Sav and an untried Zinfandel), so ended up with the WA Shiraz again. This is a 'big' wine (so descriptive, ain't I?), with strong berry flavours but it has quite a soft finish. It suited the roo quite well, with the slightly sharp and herbal flavours from the marinade, but the salad not so much (I dunno, is there a wine that goes with cabbage?). I'm really keen to do this again with a Pinot - it's on the list, Nick! And yes, there are 4 fillets. We cooked two tonight, and will do the other two tomorrow, possibly as a steak sandwich on homemade pide.

Nick, you rock!! (I can't believe I just wrote that...) Every day I am amazed by the things eGulleters do on a regular basis. So much to learn. I do a few of these things (mayo and ice cream, for example), but only on ocassion. I've been thinking about making some fresh mozzarella and ricotta (or maybe queso fresco). Have you found a supplier for cheese making ingredients in Australia?

So, it's been raining pretty much ALL day today. Blech. Because of this, and our sleep deficit, we've been a bit inactive today, mostly just pottering about. We didn't even eat lunch (we had afternoon tea instead). For breakfast Gerg had cereal again, while I had some of the ham from Thursday on heavy rye bread, watermelon and coffee. Later, when the rain let up we thought something with rhubarb might be in order, so Gerg cut a bunch from the garden. I decided to make a roulade from epicurious. I've made this one about 8 or 9 times and usually I it pretty straightforward. It's so simple that I've had one ready to serve in as little as 40 minutes when we've had guests coming. I like to add citrus zest to the cake mix, and I usually cut the sugar in the rhubarb filling to 1/3 cup and put a tablespoon or two of strawberry or raspberry jam in while it cooks, which I find intensifies the flavour. Today though, I was a bit scattered, and did everything just a little off. First, I folded the mixtures and flour together with a rubber spatula instead of a metal spoon. Actually, lately for mixtures like this (including souffles) I've been using a big balloon whisk, very gently. I find it cuts through as well as a spoon, and with the extra number of 'edges' on the wire, it does it in fewer turns. This time the cake is ever so slightly tough, and that's never happened to me before - I blame the spatula (never the cook! ). I forgot to butter the paper (not so bad, as it didn't really stick anyway), and then rolled it in the wrong direction. Gah! Still, it tastes good, and for an at-home cake, that's got to be the first consideration, right? It makes a nice afternoon cake - not too rich (even if you put a dollop of whipped cream on it) and not overly sweet. Right now, there is roo marinating in oil and garlic for our dinner tonight. Still haven't decided on sides - I'm thinking either roasted beets or sweet potato at the moment...It is going to be pretty simple. There may also be another cocktail...

There used to be a cream cheese available that my mother and all of her friends used for cheesecakes, but I think it's been at least 20 years since it's been available -- and they still bemoan the fact. But I don't remember gooey cheesecakes, more rich and creamy. Hmmm. I did a quick websearch and found this, but I remember an actual brand that came in quite small tubs, the size of a single serve yoghurt. Still, it's been 15 years since I left, and who knows how many odd connections my memory has made since then! Speaking of cream cheese, I enjoy cream cheese and sliced apple or cucumber on rye bread for breakfast or lunch. My colleagues think I'm mad (when they see the apple they tell me it looks very Canadian - am I the only person who was fed apple sandwiches as a child?), but I love it, and it makes a nice contrast to the topping that's not as rich as butter would be.

Being in possession of a bottle of Chambord that I do nothing but glare at occasionally, not knowing what to do with it or even why I bought it, I'm really keen to hear about some of the cocktails you have made successfully. Nothing involving Baileys though please, I can't stand Baileys.

Nick, I've been meaning to ask you (and any other Aussie eGulleters here): do you use any native ingredients in your cooking? I've used a bit of pepperberry ages ago, but not recently. For some reason it just doesn't come up on my radar. And when I do see products with native ingredients, they're often the kind of products I wouldn't normally buy, like sauces with cute names or the world 'outback' in their name - just call it a blind spot...

So as I alighted at the station tonight it started to rain. Hoorah! It was 7.45 before I got home and we were feeling a bit tired and decided to leave the roo until tomorrow night (roo yesterday and roo tomorrow, but never roo today) so that we could do it justice. Instead we had poached eggs on a potato hashbrown with greek yoghurt and harissa. Not bad, although it really could have used some pide to mop it up with. But the best part is that I poached eggs for the very first time without any plastic-wrap tricks, and it was reasonably successful! I think it would have worked a bit better if the eggs had been fresher and the pot deeper, but not a bad first effort! To be honest, I think that olive-oil fried eggs would have suited the dish better, and wilted spinach would have been a better side to complement the yoghurt and harissa. Still, it was tasty, relatively quick (except for the hashbrown which gave me some much-needed negroni time).

Maybe it was just a brand name? I saw it quite a bit in BC at least. I loved it. I was richer and more unctuous than regular cream cheese. I like using the Stones in marinade where I want a touch of sweetness and some spicy notes. It makes a great substitute for sherry in old-style "chinese" dishes as well. I've also started using it in salad dressing when the salad has asian flavours as well. I find it gives a touch of sweetness and lets me cut down on the oil, yet it doesn't add an alcholic flavour to the salad, it just makes them seem a bit lighter. I will definitely check out the ginger drinks!