eG Foodblog: Snadra (2010) - Cows to the bridge!

[plum tart]

That dinner looks delicious and beautiful. Ditto the mango. I have an excellent Danish rye recipe that is easy to make once you have the sponge fermenting. It is moist and not crumbly and the kind of rye bread Danish people eat for breakfast.

I am amazed what you cook from scratch after your long commute. I commute two hours each way every day between Hamilton and North Toronto. I determined long ago that I wanted to eat delicious food every day but would prepare some of it in advance. I mostly make braised dishes on the weekend, or stews, ragus for pasta, Chinese red cooked dishes, or curries. They mostly improved with age. Obviously accompanying vegetables are cooked fresh as are the salads. On Fridays if I don't go out for dinner I will buy wonderful fish or seafood at Pisces in Rosedale and cook that from scratch with salmoriglio sauce and some baby vegetables. I also cook sausages a lot. This weekend I made frikadiller (sp?)(Danish meatballs) in a sauce with boiled potatoes, danish pickled beets and cucumbers and Danish red cabbage which I alway have on hand in the winter to accompany the sausages.

I am envious of the freshness of all your produce.

[Pam R]

I never like macadamias much, but when we collect the ones off our tree I tend to feel differently. Maybe it's the freshness, or maybe it's just headology.

For shame! I love macs. Do you ever cook with the ones off your tree or just eat them out of hand? (Do they have to be toasted first?)

[Snadra]

I never like macadamias much, but when we collect the ones off our tree I tend to feel differently. Maybe it's the freshness, or maybe it's just headology.

For shame! I love macs. Do you ever cook with the ones off your tree or just eat them out of hand? (Do they have to be toasted first?)

Well, we just eat them out of hand, to be honest, not even toasted! I use nuts a little in cooking and baking, but mostly pecans (there are some enormous pecan plantations in Australia) not macadamias. They are a bit of work to get out of their shells, even with the BONK, so the thought of shelling enough for, say, Macadamia Shortbread puts me off a bit. And shelling them is a bit like picking raspberries when I was growing up - you put as many in your mouth as you do in the bucket.

[Snadra]

That dinner looks delicious and beautiful. Ditto the mango. I have an excellent Danish rye recipe that is easy to make once you have the sponge fermenting. It is moist and not crumbly and the kind of rye bread Danish people eat for breakfast.

Thank you! I would love your rye bread recipe if you are willing to share. I should say that the bread I get from Aldi is crumbly because it's a vollkornbrot (I think I spelled that correctly), and essentially looks like grains of rye squooshed together into a brick before being sliced. It's great for storage because it lasts months and is a perfect stacking shape.

I gather that ryebread is generally quite long lasting. My grandfather told me that when he was a boy growing up on a farm they would bake once a month, eating the mischbrot (a lighter mixed-flour bread, but anyone feel free to correct me) first, and then the heavier rye breads which were stored above the fireplace. Towards the end of the month they would have to cut the mould off the bread and it was really hard.

I am amazed what you cook from scratch after your long commute. I commute two hours each way every day between Hamilton and North Toronto. I determined long ago that I wanted to eat delicious food every day but would prepare some of it in advance. I mostly make braised dishes on the weekend, or stews, ragus for pasta, Chinese red cooked dishes, or curries. They mostly improved with age.

Well, I don't cook like that every night, but we manage one or two nights a week, usually towards the beginning when I am still feeling fresh. And last night we were busy chatting and mucking about, so dinner took longer to prepare than it really should have.

I usually have a bit more food partially prepared on the weekend, for use later in the week, but with the end of uni and the warm weather (which ended this week for what looks like the rest of summer) I got a bit disorganised. We eat some sort of quick egg dish at least one night a week, and every second week I try to stop off at the Polish deli in Parramatta on my way home to get some sliced meats and we have that on fresh bread. In summer if I've been creative on the weekend we often have a few different salads in the fridge and a plate of those, maybe with some cold meat is dinner on the table in about 5 minutes. And a pasta with a raw sauce of some kind is pretty quick.

But your red-cooked pork reminds me that earlier this year I made a pork shoulder in masterstock for the first time and it was really useful in all kinds of quick dishes during the week. Hmmmm...

This weekend I made frikadiller (sp?)(Danish meatballs) in a sauce with boiled potatoes, danish pickled beets and cucumbers and Danish red cabbage which I alway have on hand in the winter to accompany the sausages.

Ooooh, frikadeller !!! I lived with an aunt in Denmark for a few months when I was a teenager and I love frikadeller (sild is a completely different kettle of, er, fish). How do you make yours?

[Snadra]

Dinner tomorrow night, I think. Any suggestions? At the moment it's probably going to be on the raised grill pan and served with salad.

[Chris Amirault]

Does one prepare kangaroo as one might any other dark, oft-used muscle?

[Snadra]

Does one prepare kangaroo as one might any other dark, oft-used muscle?

The general wisdom with the steak/fillet cuts I see at the supermarket is they should be cooked quickly, over high heat, to no more than medium rare. It's how we do it and it always results in tender and flavourful meat. Like elk & venison, it's more intensely flavoured than beef, but the texture is more like beef (I always found elk especially had a texture that reminded me a bit of liver - short muscle fibres?).

It makes a great steak sandwich on turkish bread.

Actually, your asking prompted me to look up the Roocipes booklet that I read about the other week.

[Snadra]

Cocktails?

While the roo marinates, so to speak, I have another burning issue I could use some help with: cocktails. I know nothing, nothing about cocktails, but imagine it would be quite civilized to sip one on the lounge before supper. I have a fairly large cabinet of bottles, but I mostly drink them on ice or with soda, use them in cooking/baking applications, or look at them and wonder what I was thinking (I'm looking at you, Chambord). I have two lovely cocktail glasses (although they are large), but no cocktail mixer (unless you count the plastic shaker thing mouldering in the cupboard). If I give you a list of bottles, can you suggest a drink? I can pick up additional non-alcholic ingredients on my way home tonight. And if you think my cupboard is missing something essential, let me know!

• Tanqueray Gin
  
• Kahluha
  
• Aperol
  
• Campari
  
• Grand Marnier
  
• Cointreau
  
• Kellybrook Apple Brandy
  
• Chambord
  
• Canadian Club
  
• Cinzano (red and white, although the red has been open a little while)
  
• Cognac (of some description)
  
• Glenfiddich
  
• Angostura Bitters
  

There is likely to be something resembling vodka in the cupboard, and I have a large hoard of limes on hand at the moment.

[Snadra]

Weather report: 19C (~66F). Rain, wind, rain.

Welcome to the first day of summer! The sound of rain pouring down onto the verandah woke me this morning, so naturally my thoughts turned to tea and crumpets. One of these days I will try making my own. In the meantime, I'm buying them.

I like a crumpet with something sweet, especially honey, but this morning I topped them with the last of the Strong and Bitey. We have tasty cheese in the house, but it’s not my favourite. When I first came to Australia I was very confused by the rows of Tasty Cheese in the supermarket dairy case. Were the dangerous tasteless cheeses being stockpiled in abandoned opal mines?

Lunch today was a slightly greasy slice of salami and olive pizza. There was a time not long ago when I would have avoided anything with olives on it, but then I was exposed to the gateway olive: marinated and roasted. There is no looking back from a warm olive…one of my favourite things now is to make a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley and slivered olives and pour it over lightly cooked green beans. The forgotten watermelon remained forgotten .

Tonight we got in the door at about 7.45 again, and weren’t organised enough to think of dinner until 8. We ended up having the leftover chicken from last night and a rocket and tomato salad with a verjuice and grapeseed oil dressing. Plus two boiled eggs which I had meant for a potato salad, but which I know we won’t feel like in this weather. After dinner it hit me that I should have made them into devilled eggs, but they were delicious on their own. I had my chicken on a slice of ryebread because I was starving. We were eating by 8.15 and followed it up with a brownie each. Perfect.

Now, just a bit more watermelon and then maybe to bed.

[weinoo]

I see a Negroni in your (immediate) future. Just build it straight on the rocks - equal parts (say about an ounce each) of the Tanqueray, Camapari and red vermouth. Perhaps a thin section of orange to garnish.

In the future, it's best to keep your vermouths in the fridge...if you can, buy half-bottles as they do tend go off after a couple of months. Add a bottle or two of bourbon to the mix you've got and Manhattans are just around the corner.

[nakji]

Were the dangerous tasteless cheeses being stockpiled in abandoned opal mines?

No doubt. I'd like you to say a little about Australian coffee nomenclature. I remember walking into a cafe on my first day in Sydney, excited after a couple of years in Asia to get a solid cup of coffee, only to be completely stymied by the names. Long white? Short black? And what's the difference between a long white and a latte?

As for the macadamias, one of the things I enjoyed most about Australia was driving around the country roads, picking up produce off of stands on the end of people's driveways. I remember eating a cupfuls of macadamias with my husband in our '86 Toyota we picked up in King's Cross, giggling madly like we'd made out like criminals. I don't think we paid more than two dollars for them? Good times.

Do you ever get out to wine country?

[Chris Amirault]

Cocktails?While the roo marinates, so to speak, I have another burning issue I could use some help with: cocktails.

Given your desires and that list, and provided you can find a lemon, you're ready for Society member Audrey Saunders's Intro to Aperol, a delicious apertif.

[plum tart]

First the rye bread recipe. I had been searching for this recipe ever since I visited relatives in Denmark 18 years ago and finally found it last year in a newish Danish cookbook:" The Scandinavian Cookbook" by Trina Hahnemann. This is not "Noma", it is Scandinavian home cooking. Here is her recipe for rye bread:

Sourdough starter: 1.5c rye flour, 1.25c. buttermilk, 1tsp coarse sea salt.

Mix rye flour, salt and buttermilk in a bowl; cover with foil and let stand for 3 to 4 days at room temperature(77-86 degrees F)

Dough

3c lukewarm water

scant 2.75c rye flour

scant 2.75c all purpose flour

1Tbsp sea salt

In a bowl dissolve the starter in the lukewarm water. Add the rye flour, all purpose flour and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until you have a runny dough. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and set aside for 12 hours at room temperature.

Loaf 1 pound cracked whole rye

generous 1c lukewarm water

2 tsp salt

Add the cracked whole rye, lukewarm water, and salt to the dough and stir again with a wooden spoon until the grains are evenly distributed.

Take 3 Tbsp of dough, add 2 Tbsp coarse salt and save in a container in the fridge until you next make rye bread. It will last 6 to 8 weeks.

Pour the rest of the dough into an 11.5 by 4 inch nonstick loaf pan that is 3.5 inches deep. (if you don't have a nonstick loaf pan oil your pan instead.) Cover the pan with a dish towel and let the bread rise 3-6 hours or until the dough has reached the rim of the pan. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and bake the loaf for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Removed from pan and let cool.

Note from plum tart: Being greedy I don't save any starter and use all the dough in a pullman loaf pan. That makes a nice large loaf which I cut into sections, some of which I freeze until I am ready to consume them. Of course I have to make the starter from scratch every time, but I love the ritual of this bread, so I don't mind.

This is indeed a volkesbrod and you will love it. It is great with cheese, smoked fish, curried herring - all sorts of open face smorbrod combinations. It is wonderfully moist and chewy and of course, strongly flavoured of rye.

[Shelby]

Dinner tomorrow night, I think. Any suggestions? At the moment it's probably going to be on the raised grill pan and served with salad.

Now this is something I've never, ever seen! Really enjoying your blog.

[nickrey]

When I first came to Australia I was very confused by the rows of Tasty Cheese in the supermarket dairy case. Were the dangerous tasteless cheeses being stockpiled in abandoned opal mines?

Unfortunately the "Tasty" cheeses typically aren't.

I always get "Vintage" or "Extra Vintage."

[annachan]

Its really great reading your blog. We definitely need to check out the Sydney Markets once we get there. Can't wait!

[Snadra]

I see a Negroni in your (immediate) future. Just build it straight on the rocks - equal parts (say about an ounce each) of the Tanqueray, Camapari and red vermouth. Perhaps a thin section of orange to garnish. In the future, it's best to keep your vermouths in the fridge...if you can, buy half-bottles as they do tend go off after a couple of months. Add a bottle or two of bourbon to the mix you've got and Manhattans are just around the corner.

Almost unbelievably, I have never had a negroni. No more excuses for me! I will definately start storing in the fridge, and might get a vacuum sealer as well.

Can you recommend a bourbon brand or two? I can only think of Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels and Makers Mark off the top of my head, but I've no idea what's good and what's horrible.

Cocktails?While the roo marinates, so to speak, I have another burning issue I could use some help with: cocktails.

Given your desires and that list, and provided you can find a lemon, you're ready for Society member Audrey Saunders's Intro to Aperol, a delicious apertif.

Oooh, choice of two AND an opportunity to use the Aperol. Good job I'm not planning on cooking tonight (the Polish hams are calling me ). There are lemons around, it's just they're out of season here so mostly imported, but I will do my bit for the cocktail effort and pick one up tonight.

Thanks to both of you for these recommendations. I shall try to remember to take pictures.

[Snadra]

I'd like you to say a little about Australian coffee nomenclature. I remember walking into a cafe on my first day in Sydney, excited after a couple of years in Asia to get a solid cup of coffee, only to be completely stymied by the names. Long white? Short black? And what's the difference between a long white and a latte?

Ooh, the coffee nomenclature. Aussies never can see a thing without itching to name it something else ...

I'm not that much of a coffee person, so not completely across what everything means (and I swear it changes from one place to the next anyway), but here is a rough guide.

short black = espresso

long black = single shot but with more water put through (ie a full cup of black coffee). Could this be called an Americano elsewhere? I've never been sure what that is.

flat white = seems to be a cappuccino without foam (ie flat), but I'm not sure. If that's correct though, I suspect it came about because the foam often used to resemble meringue

Those are the ones that usually stymie (love that word!) the unsuspecting visitor. Otherwise there is the standard cappuccino, latte (I personally know someone who ordered 4 lattes in an airport in Italy and was perplexed when he got 4 milks, or so he says), macchiato. I see people drinking coffee with flavoured syrups in the suburbs more than in the city.

For takeaway coffee, unless you go to (one of the few remaining) Starbucks, or, even worse, Gloria Jeans, coffee usually comes in two sizes: regular and large. Some good coffee and quite a lot of bad coffee was around when I first arrived in 1995. Now good coffee is the norm, and tere are a lot of really focussed coffee places that do their own roasting, etc. Coffee is up to $2 cheaper in the city than out in the suburbs.

As for the macadamias, one of the things I enjoyed most about Australia was driving around the country roads, picking up produce off of stands on the end of people's driveways.

Oh, yes! I love the unattended fruitstands with the honesty boxes. I took a trip with my parents up the east coast years ago and we had to make frequent stops to buy incredibly cheap and delicious bags of oranges, avocados, tomatoes, etc. Another good reason to drive yourself on holidays!

Do you ever get out to wine country?

Well, Gerg doesn't drink (no philosophical objection, he just doesn't like the taste ), so it's not a big focus for us. But we're planning a getaway in the Upper Hunter early next year, and will definately visit a few to restock my little cabinet. Or just for me to drink while we're up there. Near Sydney the Hunter Valley and Mudgee are probably the easiest to access, but Western Sydney itself once had vineyards, and there is still at least one in the Hawkesbury.

[Snadra]

First the rye bread recipe. I had been searching for this recipe ever since I visited relatives in Denmark 18 years ago and finally found it last year in a newish Danish cookbook:" The Scandinavian Cookbook" by Trina Hahnemann. This is not "Noma", it is Scandinavian home cooking. Here is her recipe for rye bread:

This looks great. I really would like to start doing a bit more baking and I have a great source for rye flour now. I will report back to you with pictures as soon as I get some cracked rye.

Re smorbrod: I was going to school when I was in Denmark, and it always cracked me up that the students took smorbrod to school, carefully re-arranging them after they took them out of their bag. I wonder if they still do that?

[Snadra]

When I first came to Australia I was very confused by the rows of Tasty Cheese in the supermarket dairy case. Were the dangerous tasteless cheeses being stockpiled in abandoned opal mines?

Unfortunately the "Tasty" cheeses typically aren't.

I always get "Vintage" or "Extra Vintage."

I agree. My supermarket choice is usually the Bega Strong and Bitey, although I also like Mainland extra vintage. My idea of a perfect snack is vintage cheddar with a slightly sharp and crisp apple.

[Snadra]

Its really great reading your blog. We definitely need to check out the Sydney Markets once we get there. Can't wait!

You will have so much fun! Make sure you visit the Fish Market too. You can do an early morning tour as well that takes you out onto the floor to see the fish close up. It's amazing what never makes it to the local fishmonger.

[Snadra]

Dinner tomorrow night, I think. Any suggestions? At the moment it's probably going to be on the raised grill pan and served with salad.

Now this is something I've never, ever seen! Really enjoying your blog.

Glad you're enjoying it! Sorry to say you'll have to wait another night to see it cooked - we're going in a different direction tonight.

Edited December 2, 2010 by Snadra (log)

[Snadra]

Weather report: 22C (~71F). Rainy, but with bits of sun and blue sky.

I hate humidity. It makes the biscuits (cookies!) go soft, the towels damp and it gives me bad hair. Which is why I ended up eating breakfast at my desk this morning.

Skim latte with turkish toast. I have a fairly large appetite, but I could still only eat 3 of the 4 pieces. What's the weird brown stuff on top, you ask? Why Vegemite of course! Unusually for someone not raised on it, I love it, but can only eat it in small quantities. My standard veggie toast order is 'light butter, light veggie', because otherwise my mouth burns. Actually, sometimes it risks burning anyway. Some people just don't understand the concept of 'light'. Once it came so thick I scraped spoonfuls off and still couldn't eat it. I think it tastes best on a slightly rustic toast, like wholemeal or turkish with all its craggy bits. And isn't just a bit funny that a bread from Turkey and a salty, yeasty spread from Australia are such perfect partners?

Lunch today was at Verandah Bar with some colleagues for a birthday celebration. I had the lamb kebabs which were a bit fatty and gristly, but tasted nice and slightly smokey. For $16 you can't complain too much, and anyway, the company was perfect and delightful!

Now to get dinner on the way home. Tonight is late shopping night.

[haresfur]

As a former Winnipegger in Australia, I'm enjoying your insights and looking forward to more.

Ooh, Winnipeg! ... Do you miss any particular foods or ways of eating from the prairies?

Let's see... I miss fresh pickerel (walleye). And being able to order fried pirogies in the pub.

I haven't tried to eat 'roo yet (although I'm sure the Dalmatian has). How did it turn out? I should try it, if only for ethical reasons - kangaroos emit much less greenhouse gas than cattle.

For mixed drinks, Australia is a great place to explore ginger with Cascade or Bundaberg ginger beer (gin gin mule), candied ginger to infuse into vodka, and Stone's ginger wine (Whisky Mac; Ginger Envelope. The last one has become one of my favorite drinks.

[Snadra]

So it was quick and simple tonight – it always is by Thursday! In the end I left work a bit late to be bothered with Thursday night shopping (why are the shops open late only one night a week?). I’m sorry to say I did not get any lemons to try my hand at a cocktail; in fact, by the time I got home the least likely words to be seen together in a sentence were ‘cocktail’ and ‘restorative’. Instead I had an iced tea with a squeeze of lime in it (from home brewed tea, not a bottle – that stuff just doesn’t taste right to me).

I picked up some rolls from Luneburger in the city – two sunflower seed rolls and two pumpkin seed rolls. Now, they’re made from a frozen product shipped here and baked on site, but tasty is tasty (except maybe in cheese). Since they set up shop in Sydney I have seen a copycat bakery and similar rolls at Woolwoths; I have it on good authority that they are all sourced from the same supplier.

The ham is from Tatra Delicatessen in Parramatta. I love going in there – it’s like walking into a wall of smoky, porky goodness. Tonight I picked up a piece of Tatra clobassy (a ham sausage with a touch of garlic and a few other flavours I haven’t picked out yet), some gypsy ham (a slightly dry double-smoked style) and some country style smoked pork neck (the darker meat in the photo). The last is a bit like a smoky prosciutto, salty, dry and fragrant. I wish I had asked for it shaved instead of sliced, as I was thinking it would go perfectly on a pizza just after it comes out of the oven, or with some melon…