Category Archives: Food Glorious Food

the community garden

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Our local council is trialing a new community food foragers garden. I really love the idea of this and hope that it takes off,  just getting bigger and bigger.

Imagine city living where on each high density living block there was a community kitchen garden readily accessible for all the locals. An attached community compost bin, for all those to access that didn’t have backyards. Seasonal food grown within a hop skip and a jump of where you live, with composting scraps being used for the same garden while decreasing all the food scraps being sent to land fill.

It doesn’t seem like a big ask, does it?

It just makes sense. Cutting back on waste having to be collected by council. Making more efficient use of space. Encouraging a community spirit. I’m sure on each block there would be at least a couple of willing people who would love to regularly tend the small edible space. If people are living in a high density living area, green spots are hard to come by and the chance to actually dip your fingers in to some soil and tend a little foliage would be incredibly appealing to a lot of inner city dwellers.

More green spaces in the city are needed. Whether it be roof tops, street corners, reclaimed concrete areas, where ever they may be. However,  first people need to ask for it, and be encouraging when trials are put into place. Be vocal, spread the good word. Whispered words of encouragement is what gets ideas moving. Spoken words and acts of enthusiasm keep them there.

If everyone’s local councils started up just one food foragers garden in their area, it was successful, and people respected the space. Surely this could mean the start of many more to come?

The benefits of a nation wide scheme like this?… Oh can you imagine.

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Do you have any community gardens or food foraging gardens in your area?

in my kitchen

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In my kitchen sits a beautiful gifted hand made bowl, with tahini balls in it. Without these little balls of energy, well…I’d be a lot less energetic. This is the recipe I gave originally, but they really are so super-duper easy to cater to your own taste buds and using whatever’s on hand in your own kitchen. (These had added dried dates and LSA in them.)

Oh radish, talk to me… tell me your dinner plans. Tell me what else to do with you besides chopping you up in a salad, or up top of a stir fry for a bit of crunch. Speaakkkk to me radishes.


In my kitchen sits this little timer, and without it I would say 90% of my baking would be burnt. It’s still not a sure thing of not burning everything in the oven, (mul.ti.task.ing) but it helps.

Pink and quite tarty, (the drink that is.) I bought this, as really who could resist it with a label like that. She was quite delicious tasting in a bitter, sarsaparilla kind of way. Now I’m just not sure what to do with the bottle.

On my kitchen floor sits my little giggling helper. Arms and legs are flying. She likes to smell things as I cook with them, taking her job very seriously, and is currently rather taken by the smell flat leaf parsley. (Although I did catch her eyeing off my chocolate yesterday. She looked keen…very keen.)

As for what type of mixer will be sitting on top of my kitchen bench? Still not sure but thank you so much for everyone’s input with what they use and like. Invaluable help. So thank you, you’re all awesome.

Now what’s shaking in your kitchen?

(“In my kitchen”… is a jump in and show us around monthly link up done by the lovely Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.)

waving goodbye with my fork in the air

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A good friend has just moved away. Away to a land of tropical fruits, green rolling hills, yoga with a rising sun, organic road side goodies and visiting pythons.

If there is anywhere to move, that tropical land is a good place to start. A new beginning, a new phase, a new rhythm for their family.

Although, there is a hole in our coffee club now. A rather significant one. There is also a hole in The Monkey Club. Two little blondies that are going to be missed as they find new places to swing, build and create.

Letters to write, pictures to send and promises of visits soon.

Waving goodbye with my fork in the air, as this idea was passed on from her. A little fork, a little prociutto and just a little more please.

See you soon L.

*******

Baker’s Help– My Sunbeam Mixer Professional series has died. Three times this year the same mechanism has conked out. Why? Probably because I’ve given it a huge flogging with mixing sourdough, and to be honest I’m surprised it’s lasted this long. (I hadn’t really thought I might be exceeding the size limit, but alas it seems I have….and it’s been waaaay over!) Kitchen bench space is teeny tiny, and while I can get by with very little kneading for my bread. Just incorporating the salt can be a pain when it’s 3 plus k’s of dough in a 40cmx40cm space with ‘stuff’ on either side.

SO, what I would love to know is…

what kind of kitchen mixer do you have?

Kitchenaid pros/cons? What is it like with small amounts? Say two egg whites?

Kenwood? At the moment I’m looking at a Titanium Major KM020. Could easily change though… This model takes 2.4k of dough where the kitchenaid’s only take 1.3/1.5k. Has anyone used upwards of this on a long term basis?

Any other snippets of mixer information would be very much appreciated!

number 5 chocolate cake

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Me and the word perfection is not usually a word that goes hand in hand.

I don’t usually strive for it, happy enough just to sit with the word content. So why was I trying to perfect a chocolate cake? To be honest I don’t really know. I started the challenge and apparently I would be unrelenting until I perfected the bugger.

Everyone needs a chocolate cake recipe up their sleeves. A go to recipe that was tried and true. Unfailing in its taste and you know it will turn out each time. I didn’t have that recipe. Sure I had made countless chocolate cakes in the past, but none of them were quite what I was after. Not too chocolatey, not too rich, not too dry, not too fancy pancy and not a pain to put together.

Shouldn’t be too hard right?

There are probably a few chocolate cake recipes on the internet, Mr Chocolate helpfully suggested.

Yes. Yes there probably is… but they aren’t the righhhht ones.

So I set forth. The chocolate cake challenge was on.

Cake one, no. Cake two…no. Cake three….still no. Cake four, it’s getting closer. Cake five?

Cake five might just have it. Not being particularly enamored of chocolate cake I did wonder why I was putting myself through this. These unhelpful thoughts were pushed to the side however. I’d come this far, surely that chocolate cake was just around the corner?

Chocolate Cake

150g softened butter

150g brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 beaten eggs

150g sourdough starter/ sour cream*

150g melted chocolate (50%)

60mls espresso coffee (1/4 cup)

225g s/r flour (1 1/2 cups)

cocoa powder (1/3 cup)

2 tbls amaretto

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until changes colour to a white shade, then add vanilla, eggs, cocoa, melted chocolate, amaretto and sourdough starter/sour cream. Fold through flour.

Bake at 180C for approximately 45 minutes in a greased springform pan or greased and lined square pan (approx 21cm). Or until skewer comes out clean.

Icing

1 tbls softened butter

1 1/2-ish  cups icing sugar

5og melted chocolate

* if you don’t have a sourdough starter, substitute sour cream.

*******

So does Number 5 cake cut it? It’s certainly not a bad cake. The flavours are complex enough to keep me happy with the addition of the amaretto, coffee and the starter. It’s moist. It’s chocolatey, without being intense and it was easy to put together.

So will chocolate cake and I ever become firm friends?

It’s quite doubtful. but I’ll make it to keep the rest of the family happy, and they are certainly happy enough with Number 5 Chocolate Cake.

seasonal cooking for June

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The seasons have changed and along with it so has what comes out of the kitchen.

I like that. Seasonal menus and changing what goes on our plate according to availability and the weather outside.

Orange and Coconut Cake, an easy one to make up a head of time. Keeps well, using some of the delicious new season oranges about. Try to find some organic oranges, as they shouldn’t be waxed. You don’t particularly want zest of wax in your cake do you?

I was lucky enough to get a lovely load of my dad’s backyard citrus.

Ribollita adapted from this Jamie Oliver recipe. A really easy meal based on vegetables on hand and using up stale bread. Frugal, seasonal, healthy, local produce and tasty. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Will the kids eat it? If you have miracle children they might, mine wouldn’t touch it.

So what else is looking tasty round these parts in June?

mandarins…. eaten by the bucket load at the moment. Easy snack.

radish… finally sliced in salads

pumpkin… thai pumpkin soup with a swirl of coconut cream.

cauliflower… I’m thinking this risotto, with extra chillies please.

kale… raw or cooked green goodness. SUPER food.

leek… base for a hearty soup or sitting in the bottom of a quiche.

mushrooms… cooked up in some olive oil with a side of polenta. Yum!

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What seasonal cooking are you doing?

puddings and puddles

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The sun sets early now, when there is a sun that is.

It’s been cold, wet and grey here lately. The days have the stamp of winter on it.

Looped scarfs. wet puddles to jump in, bare trees and mornings starting with wailing black cockatoos overhead.

This is our winter. Not a winter with snow, and sub zero temperatures but a Sydney winter non the less. A winter that calls for heartier food. Slow cooked soups, polenta dishes and perhaps the odd pudding or two.

Sticky Date Pudding

125g softened butter

80g brown sugar*

2 beaten eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

zest of an orange

300g self raising flour

220g dates (I used medjool dates)

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

125mls boiling water

Take any seeds out of the dates and split the dates in half. Pop them in a bowl, add the bicarb and boiling water, set aside.

Cream butter and brown sugar together. Add beaten eggs, orange zest, and cinnamon mix well. Then add date mixture and fold through the flour.

I baked these in individual size cake pans for approximately 25 minutes at 180C. You can easily bake it as a whole cake, and adjust cooking time to suit.

* you could add more sugar if you like your whole pudding experience to be on the sweeter side. I think there is enough sweetness in the sauce though.

Sauce

300mls cream

110g dark muscavado sugar

100g butter

Bring cream to a simmer, add sugar and butter. Stir continuously until butter has melted, (and don’t let it boil over!)

Now with all that pudding energy…best go find some puddles to jump in.

apple and oat muffin season

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Slack jawed, and with my elbow cast at an odd angle, my eyelids creaked open. It seemed I had fallen asleep. These things happen sometimes. It’s  called the sneaky nap. Not a nap that you sneak in, more a nap that sneaks up on you.

There you are going about your business, and then suddenly… whooshka! You wake up slack jawed and no feeling in your arm. The sneaky nap as struck again.

Bleary eyed I staggered out to the lounge room only to find things were looking a little different. Very different. I couldn’t put my finger on it. The Monkeys were quiet and going about their monkey business, surprisingly not causing havoc at that particular moment. So it wasn’t them.

I continued looking about. Things looked clearer, clearer than they had for quite some time. I didn’t think I had napped for that long, so it can’t have been clarity of thought that had returned. I squinted… then it dawned on me, that was it. The fact that I was squinting. Squinting in my lounge room. Squinting in the afternoon autumnal sunlight. At that same moment Mr Chocolate cheerily walked in with a wad of newspaper in hand, and proceeded back to the windows. The light was different…

That was it. The windows were clean!

To celebrate the soft autumn light, and to use up some seasonal apples, Apple Oat Muffins it was.

Apple and Oat Muffins

150g softened butter

3/4 cup raw sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of whole oats

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

2 beaten eggs

3 grated apples *

Cream butter and sugar together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Spoon mixture into lined muffin tray. Sprinkle with a little extra raw sugar. Bake at 190C for approximately 25 minutes.

*Apple season runs from January to May.

for the love of italy

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You know that bubble of excitement you get some times? It starts at the pit of your stomach, spreading a warmth through out your body, and ending at the very ends of your hair strands. Every fibre of your body has just experienced that warm happy feeling, that if you could capture it in a glass jar, would surely radiate a pulsing soft yellow glow.

A whole bundle of descriptive happy emotions all wrapped up in that one glass jar. You might get that feeling on seeing a loved one, the simple touch of someone who cares, hearing something that truly speaks to you on the radio, giving something to another, or simply feeling a warm afternoon breeze coming down off the mountains.

For every different person there could be a hundred different reasons for generating that wonderful feeling. And the best thing about it? It usually takes you by complete surprise. There you are going about your business, and bam. Every fibre of your body has just been touched by that invisible soft pulsing yellow glow. Leaving your mouth smiling, eyes sparkling and your heart just that bit bigger.

There are several things that can quite often trigger these feelings for me. Without completely leaving my soul out on a canape platter for the whole world to snack on, I’ll mention just the one today.

Italy. Bella Italia.

Now for any long term readers, this isn’t a surprise. I’ve often written of my love of all things Italian. Italy runs through my veins like a good custard slice does. It’s part of who I am. Not because of an extensive family tree, but my branches have definitely self sown themselves in that Italian direction.

Reading this article (here) on Italian street food brought forward a wonderful array of delicious taste bud memories from my different times spent there. Piadinas in darkened bars eaten at late hours. Wedges of thick volcano hot foccacia eaten while strolling up and down the one street as a teenager. Towering gelato eaten on freezing cold days, eaten simply because we could.

And the one that stands out as the most novel of all?

Ending all night club dancing with a crema filled croissant at 4am. Not just any croissant, but one that can only be purchased from the early morning baker who opens a tiny portion of his centuries old wooden door through a darkened cobble stoned alley way to tired dancers on their way home. A crisp and flakey croissant, still warm from the oven with custard like crema that brushes past your lips far too quickly. The secret baker who made this sweet delight and will only open up to the friend, of the friend, of the friend, who knows where on earth that secret wooden door can be found again come the next Saturday night.

********

Watching Two Greedy Italians recently I was inspired to make something similar to their Lemon and Ricotta Tart. I had limes and I had ricotta and if I talked to The Monkeys in an Italian accent while I baked the thing… maybe just maybe I could be transported even for a minute or two, to the land of vespas, pizza and that crema filled 4am goodness.

I was willing to give it a shot anyway.

Lime Ricotta Tart

(the love child of this Lemon and Ricotta Tart and this Lemon Meringue Pie)

one can of condensed milk

half cup lime juice and one grated lime

3 separated eggs

300g fresh ricotta

one sheet of puff pastry

Mix all ingredients together, except egg whites. Whisk egg whites separately, fold into mixture. Grease pie dish, line it with a sheet of puff pastry. Pour mixture in and bake 40minutes at 190C.

Verdict?… Dead easy. Tastes a bit like a light cheesecake, and a bit like a not so sweet lemon meringue pie.

Slow Living April

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slowing it down…

(a wonderful concept created by the lovely Christine over at Slow Living Essentials)

it's not pretty but it fills happy bellies

Nourish– I’m loving a simple rustic family sized quiche once a week at the moment. A couple of sheets of puff pastry, (seems I got over that packet guilt rather quickly) beaten eggs and what ever looks appealing on the day. The Monkeys quiche of choice? Fetta and some free range bacon. Mr and Chocolate and I? Whatever seasonal vegetables that look particularly quiche like from our local CSA delivered box, (but lets be honest…he’d rather the fetta and bacon one too.)

Prepare– School lunches are particularly easy when all I have to do is whack one out of the freezer. Pesto parmesan scrolls and apple cinnamon ones are the taste of choice at the moment. They are also easy for a hungry mama to grab on the run.

Reduce– I’ve been putting aside some old worn out clothing. Rips, tears, thinning fabric, too big, too small. I’m sure I can turn them into something else. Just waiting for the inspiration as to what. I’ve also been incredibly lucky with receiving a whole bunch of wonderful little girl clothing. She will clearly have a whole heap of Monkey clothing to grow into but a small amount of pink as been infused into the mixture as well.

Green- Being economical with the oven use, and utilising all the racks when cooking. Also cooking bigger batches of things, and cluster cooking. (cluster cooking…. now there’s something to pop into you days vocabulary.) The worm farm is still going strong. The little fellas seem to have worked out their own little wormy balance and it requires very little maintenance.

Grow– I’m growing mould on my bathroom ceiling… does that count? No, no I guess not. I’m also growing my children, and they are growing like weeds!

Create– Making a little hat for a three year old girls birthday. Teddy wanted to model it, as my own residing three year old refused, (at least teddy keeps still.) I’ve also been playing with using vegetables as stamps and creating cards. It’s been fun playing with what works and what doesn’t.

Enhance- There is hooking action going on lately. I still suck, but I’m willing to learn as I want to get better. Hooking plans in the park or cafe with other hook yielding friends. A recent visit to this shop, just inspired the pants off me. (Thankfully they stayed on while I was in there as I didn’t want to scare anyone away.) Crochet and knitting classes I can see being a part of down the track, unless I really nut out the whole crochet thing by myself, (which seems unlikely to happen at this stage…sigh.) I’m still getting my Foodconnect box delivered too, it makes life just a tad easier.

Discover– I plan to become one with the above crochet book… that’s the plan anyway.

every man needs a penguin sinking into his cake

Enjoy- Mr Chocolate’s birthday, being with my little people, BLT’s in the back courtyard with family and enjoying the beautiful time of year that Autumn is.

autumn

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a changed beat

different air

cool nights and sunny days

autumn is here

along with school holidays

long walks in the park

the crackle of brown leaves under foot

perfect to build up and then run through

changing colours, changing light

changing rhythms

long days and aimless running

 need lots of snacks

healthy ones

Tahini Balls

1 cup whole oats

1 cup desiccated coconut

1/3 cup unhulled tahini

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup hazelnut meal

1 tsp vanilla

sesame seeds

Mix it all together, add a couple of tablespoons of water just to bind it. Roll into balls with dampened hands,  then roll in raw sesame seeds. Keep in the fridge.


eggs in baskets- Frugal Friday

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I always thought Toad in the Hole was an egg cracked into a slice of bread and then fried. Turns out I’m wrong. (Thank you for the correction wikipedia) Apparently Toad in the Hole involves a sausage and instead my fried egg is called Egg in a Basket. I’m not sure that’s got quite the same ring to it, but it will have to do until I think of something else. I always liked the sounds of Toad in the Hole… makes me think of Wind in the Willows.

What you’ll need is some

small round bread rolls and

free range eggs

hollow them out, enough to hold a whole cracked egg

into a low oven (they are a good thing to pop in on your second shelf of the oven while something else is cooking up top)

eat them when you think they are ready

and serve with a little capsicum chilli sauce

(For me an egg is ready when it’s cooked right through, Mr Chocolate likes ’em runny.)

 ******

As for a new name…any ideas?

Bunnies in Burrows?

Fat Cat on a Cushion?

chocolate vanilla layer biscuits

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Biscuits are handy.

They can sidetrack a hungry belly that is calling out for food.

They can quieten a noisy Monkey.

You can eat them with one hand.

They can give a subtle little sugar hit, when the search is on.

You can balance one on your nose… if you felt so inclined.

And most importantly they are really easy to make.

Chocolate Vanilla Layer Biscuits, my current favourites.

Chocolate Vanilla Layer Biscuits

250g softened butter

220g (1 cup) caster sugar

4 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

450g (3 cups) plain flour

2 1/2 tbls cocoa

Beat softened butter and sugar together until creamy looking. Add vanilla and eggs, beat until mixed well. Add the flour and mix until a dough forms. Divide the mixture in half, and add the cocoa to one of the halves. Mix it in well. Roll out mixtures seperately, between two sheets of baking paper to about 1cm thickness with a rolling pin. Pop the dough sheets in to the fridge until hardens completely.

Once hardened, take the sheets out, remove baking paper and line the two doughs on top of each other. With a sharp knife, cut through the two layers, about an inch in width. Place strips on top of remaining dough and cut again, making sure it’s the same size. Once you have the four layers, cut strips into approximately 1 cm sized thickness. Lay them on a lined baking tray, and keep going with the rest of the dough.

Bake at 180C for approximately 25 minutes.

(This recipe makes quite a few biscuits… but it does depend on how much of the dough you eat raw.)