rarerollingobject

I'm a Greek yoghurt fiend (as in, an Australian fiend for Greek yoghurt, not a Greek fiend for yoghurt..heh.) I get through about a litre a week. I use it for: - Marinating chicken or lamb in it to tenderise and moisten (ala tandoori, with garam masala) - Making a dip of yoghurt, chopped chillis, lemon and salt (and using that on all kinds of vegetable fritters) - Substituting it for cream in scones (sparkling water, yoghurt and flour alone makes great scones, no butter required) - Draining it of its liquid through a cheesecloth and rolling it into balls of labneh yoghurt cheese - rolling also in mint, chilli, chopped garlic, lemon zest. I store these in olive oil and they're lovely. - Blending it with mango and salt for a sweet lassi, or cucumber, salt and pepper for a savoury one - Drizzling it over roast vegetables with some olive oil and harissa - Swirl fruit jam into it and freeze for popsicles - I make a nice puffy egg pudding with beaten eggs, yoghurt, tomato, and any kind of cheese, poured into ramekins and baked. So many things. I basically substitute it anywhere I'd use sour cream, or buttermilk (thinned a little), or even heavy cream, and for some things (e.g. tenderising meat), it's superlative in its own right.

If it doesn't taste or smell acrid or funky, I'd eat the hell out of it.. But that's just the way I roll.

Love your work, Blether. Speaks right to my "non breakfast foods for breakfast" streak. Though your egg shots always make me reconsider that, percyn! Breakfast here was beetroot, carrot and green onion fritters, cooked in goose fat and doused with my new favourite condiment: yuzu tabasco! It's like liquid yuzu kosho, only hotter. I love this stuff, but am having to get friends in Japan to mail it to me..haven't found an Australian sauce source.

Interesting you raise dim sum restaurants..I can't bear noisy restaurants, for much the same reason I can't stand talkback radio: I spend most of my working day bellowing, screaming at, cajoling, bossing and just generally talking at people and having them chatter incessantly at me in return, why would I want more of the same in my personal time?? But yum cha restaurants I have the inverse reaction to, and will withstand and even expect a level of noise I couldn't otherwise bear. Absence of ear-splitting noise in that context is quite unsettling to me. In fact, one of the oddest experiences I had on one trip I made to Hong Kong was sitting in a nearly full yum cha restaurant and noticing how deadly silent it was for some reason, despite the crowd..something I didn't think was really possible. Spooky!

Great looking meals, everyone. And welcome back, Kim Shook..you've been missed! A clean-out-the-fridge meal for me, to close out a week of not properly cooking very much..here's to a better culinary week next week! Roasted carrot, cauliflower, sweet potato, beetroot, zucchini, garlic, onion and jerusalem artichokes - mixed with wakame seaweed, dressed in a white miso/sake/mirin/sesame oil combo, and served over soba noodles with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

That would be kani "mustard". Yes, the Japanese call crab mustard/tomalley "kani miso". This reminds me, I never finished this trip report! Must get back to it with the rest of the food pics.

Yes, that had been the plan..roasted hazelnut pieces scattered on top. But when I went to find the hazelnuts I was sure I had, the gremlins had disapparated them. Likewise the mint I'd been planning to garnish with! Hehe. I did scrounge up a few walnuts in the end though (post photo), which was nice enough.

A raw beetroot salad (chioggia and standard), with mandarin juice, hazelnut oil and feta:

A couple of nights ago I made a delicious jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) soup. Sweet, nutty and earthy - I love the flavour, despite their reputation for..err..physiological after-effects. It was just finely chopped onions and jerusalem artichokes sauteed in butter till golden, thickened cream and milk stirred in, blended, and seasoned. It tasted beautiful, though it was indeed a little windy in Sydney that night..

A (mostly) vegetarian dinner here tonight: Chioggia and normal beetroots, marinated in mandarin juice and then drizzled in hazelnut oil, with feta: Roast broccoli with ras-el hanout breadcrumbs: Purple kale braised with bacon, onion and duck stock:

And cracked pepper outrage in Australia:

Rightio, you try it out and let us know! Some good info here, specifically about the combination of compounds that make it poisonous, and how much would actually be required to kill you, versus just make you ill. I do recall my cousin accidentally offed a rabbit by feeding it rhubarb leaves. Granted, I am somewhat larger than a rabbit, but doesn't seem worth taking the risk.

Erm..poisonous. Do not eat.

WOW, Dakki..that sausage looks incredible! Did you take any in-progress shots, perchance?? Dinner here was a bit of a Chinese-Japanese fusion of chicken breast, wrapped around ume (sour plum) paste and shiso leaves, dusted in cornflour and panfried. That's the Japanese. Gailan in XO sauce for the Chinese.

Lovely meals, everyone! Dinner here was jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) soup. I'm always (re)amazed at how sweet and earthy these are, with nothing but a little onion and garlic cooked in butter, cream, salt and artichokes..topped with crispy parsnip chips and bread'n'butter on the side.

Before. I trimmed them of all sinew and anything that looked greenish or unpleasant, which rendered some of them about half their original size. But duck livers (these ones, anyway) aren't that huge to begin with. Good luck with the rabbit liver, be sure to report back!

I've made kaya before (thick coconut milk 'jam') and absentmindedly overcooked it to the point of firm caramel. It has egg in it, so it's not traditional caramel, but I was able to cut it into squares and wrap in wax paper, so...here'sa recipe, I didn't have pandanus so skipped it.

I was actually going to make this Indian poultry liver curry with them, riffing on an idea I got from Blether a couple of weeks ago, but ran out of time..so just dusted them in cornflour (less pasty than normal flour) and salt and pepper. Heated quite a bit of butter till foamy and seared them for a minute on each side. They were still pretty damn pink but I like poultry livers underdone..would cook it a bit more for rabbit liver.

Looks great, Blether. Love the flatbread! Dinner here was duck livers, sauteed in butter and then glazed in fig balsamic. Served with lightly toasted bread and a lemony green salad.

Beautiful! This kind of salad is right up my alley; how long did you SV the asparagus, and at what temp?

That pork looks delicious! Lunch for me today was an old Vietnamese stalwart, fried tofu puffs simmered in a sauce of fresh tomato, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, black pepper and a little sugar. And steamed beet greens on the side. Snipped some birdseye chillis over before eating.

Jenni, how do you make the ginger chutney? I love anything with ginger in it. Breakfast for me was: zoong! For those unfamiliar, these are glutinous rice packages, stuffed usually with pork, sausage, salted egg yolks and peanuts or mung beans, steamed in lotus leaves. Dejah makes amazing-looking ones. Apologies for the steamy photo!

Thanks, Patrick! It was pretty incredible (if I do say so myself). Tonight I fried a little red curry paste, stirred in coconut milk, palm sugar, and fish sauce. Then mixed in prawns and chicken and simmered till just cooked. Cooled slightly and then mixed with sliced snowpeas I'd blanched for 60 seconds, mint, coriander, red onion and crispy shallots. With some rice and lime juice squeezed over to serve, this was a lovely meal.

Thai salad of prawns and chicken cooked in a light red curry and coconut milk sauce, sweetened with palm sugar and dressed with fish sauce. Mixed with sliced snowpeas, mint, coriander, red onion and crispy shallots, over rice.

Yes, a thick wholegrain cracker. The brand name in Aus is Ryvita, but no doubt there are similar things that could be subbed. Any kind of nubbly grainy bread works for me. Normally I'd grill (broil in US parlance) mackerel, but this was just seasoned on the skin side, popped into a hot oiled pan skin side down, put a plate on top of it to keep it flat and let it go for 5 mins on medium heat. Flipped for 30 seconds and that's it. Speaking of Japan and mackerel..my two other favourite mackerel preps are: 1. Marinated overnight in sweet white miso thinned with soy sauce, mirin and grated ginger. Wipe marinade off and grill (broil) till skin blisters. 2. Marinated briefly in equal parts soy sauce, mirin, sake and a little sugar. Pat dry and grill. It's mackerel again for dinner tonight, so you might see one of these make an appearance on the Dinner thread! If I don't go the other route I was thinking, which is pan fried in a reduction of Pimm's and fig vinegar..hmmm.