M’hanncha

Posted on by
19

M’hanncha. A traditional Moroccan dessert, meaning “the snake”. I’m not sure I quite got to the snake… but I gave it a red hot go.

I had seen Jamie Oliver make this dessert on his latest TV series and thought it looked delicious. After I was given his lovely cookbook as a present a little while ago, the delicious recipe again beckoned to me. Whispering its moroccan song from the books pages. The recipe needed to be made. Now I just needed a kitchen with more bench space than mine (you need two metres of rolling room). A visit to my mums kitchen and I had the bench space I needed.

Time to get cracking.

Mixture looks good, and it comes to the pastry part and rolling….oophh!

He made it look so easy! Was my pastry no good? Was I too slow? Were my arms too Neanderthal? Was my technique decidedly lacking when it came to putting the thing in the tin?… Probably yes to all the above. After much huffing, puffing and sighing, it was plonked in the oven and resigned myself to the fact it wasn’t going to be the standout dish I had hoped for.

However…It was delicious!

Didn’t look a thing like the book. Not a tooting thing, but the taste got me by. Thanks Jamie.

foodconnect

Posted on by
26

For quite awhile now I’ve been frustrated with my vegetable eating options. Actually…no. It’s not the eating options, it’s the buying options. Ideally, I’d love to be growing them. However living in a flat in the city with a designated area that’s not optimum for growing, my growing in pot choices are limited. So what are some other choices available to the average city dweller?

* Super market bought fruit and vegetables- big business

* Independent green grocer- small business

* Farmers Markets

* Wholesale Markets

* Box schemes- quite often delivered to your door

* Community gardens- add your name to the waiting list and grow your own

* Food Co-ops- member owned and operated, bulk goods

* CSA- Community Supported Agriculture

Choosing how you get your fruit and vegetables depends on many things, so it feels like it’s been a long time coming that I’m finally happy with a fruit and vegetable scheme that works for us.

Four weeks into my new CSA fruit and vegetable box and I couldn’t be happier. It suits our family, the quality is fantastic and it works for me. Hoorah!… I found it in Foodconnect.

Foodconnect uses local sustainable farmers, bringing their produce to city folks like me. Box gets dropped off at a local drop off point, where you pick it up once a week, and go home happily munching on the seasonal goodness. All boxed and ready to go, all you have to do is pick it up from a local ‘city cousin’.

So it’s local, organic, seasonal, easily pay from 4 weeks- to a year, it’s not the same fruit and veges each week, supports regional growers, farmers get a good price, super super fresh, has got us eating different vegetables, (I was in a vegetable rut and didn’t even know it) if I don’t like something there is a swap box and I don’t have to do anything but pick up the box. Pretty good deal I think.

* I’m always happy to see a caterpillar or slug in my organic produce. To me, it means it was pretty darn happy just to hang out in the leafy goodness, and also shows that it’s really fresh. Saying that, I would prefer to find them before I eat the leafy greens and not after, wiggling out of the kitchen sink. All this does to me is question my washing skills and did I just inadvertently eat its sluggy cousin?

Now there’s a cheery thought…

Sydney Foodconnect

Adelaide Foodconnect

Brisbane Foodconnect

Chocolate Cherry Biscuits

Posted on by
25

For Christmas I’m thinking of getting three t’shirts printed. One for Mr Chocolate and two for The Monkeys. What would the T’shirt have on it?…

I Love Biscuits

Seriously, the love those three have for their biscuits is quite strong. A biscuitless household is not very often. This recipe The Monkeys and I whipped up, (as I had seen a ‘Cherry Ripe’ ad, and the chocolate had embedded itself in my mind- who said advertising doesn’t work…sort of.)

With pudgy toes standing on a chair, and sticky fingers eager to help. An egg was cracked, flour was strewn, butter was softened, biscuit dough wedged in to floor boards, chocolate chips were nibbled upon and biscuits were eventually made. Watching both their faces as they tasted and tested, grinning from ear to ear as they discover the wonders of a new biscuit.

Choc Cherry Biscuits

125 grams softened butter

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 beaten egg

1 tps vanilla

3 tbls glace cherries

1/2 cup choc chips

1/2 cup desicated coconut

3/4 cup s/r flour

3/4 cup plain flour

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla together. Add the egg, and mix in. Add rest of ingredients. Mix well. Roll in to balls and slightly flatten. Bake until light golden at 180C.

embracing that grey hair

Posted on by
43

The ageing process kind of snuck up on me. There I was a footloose, fancy free kinda gal. Got married, had a baby, got my first grey hair. Hang on, grey hair? Hmm, I thought that only started to happen when you got older, much older. Well it did for everyone else in my family. So childbirth= grey hair? Oh ok. It’s just a couple, they are kind of cute. We’ll just ignore them. Second baby, and hang on a second what’s going on up top there? Those three or four strands have turned into a bushal. Baby turns into a toddler and what the hell…it’s a grey forest up there.

With a disgusted fascination I part my hair in the middle. WHAT’S going on up there? My family are slow greyers. My Nana still has a lot of natural colour and she is 80 this year, my mum seems to be paddling in the same gene pool, so naturally I supposed that I would follow that lineage right? No. It seems not. I’m rowing off to the land of grey. Uncharted waters with no one to guide me.

What to do? What to do?

It doesn’t seem particularly socially acceptable for a woman in her 30’s to be actively grey. (Now there’s a term…”actively grey”.) Do I embrace it and get a funky hair cut, showing that I can still be relatively young looking with grey hair?

Do I deny it ever existed and dye the hell out of it? Grey hair?… Not for me!…Oh you have some, you poor thing.

Do I swap all my silver jewellery for gold and try to coerce it to look blonde?

What to do, what to do?

Grey hair seems to be a lot more acceptable once you hit a certain age benchmark. The graceful age of 50? 60?…that means I have a little while to ponder about going grey disgracefully. Looking in the mirror again. It’s still there, silently doubling the troops. Each look in the bathroom mirror, show that those frizzy grey strands have fortified themselves and are working their way towards complete take over. How could this be?

Looking closely at other peoples heads, I try and glean which approach to go for.

George Clooney, the salt and peppered look is quite becoming. Women swoon over him. That guy from The Gruen Transfer, Todd Sampson does grey in a funky I’m still young and with it way…except I’m not a man, so darn it, that’s not going to work for me.

At an ayurvedic seminar recently the crowd was a sea of grey hair, dangly earrings and sweeping shawls. It was a looking that was working for many of them, but was it me? Could I work it?

I’m not being inundated with floods of younger women embracing their grey hair. Does that mean there are very few of us out there? Judie Dench is a gorgeous woman sporting a head of grey hair. However, she has quite a head start on years to me.

I’m not in the least bothered by grey hair on other people. Old, young or otherwise. So why is it bothering me?

Because there was no warning. No ease into transition period.

It was, ah, there are a few up there… to DEAR god whats going on!

Tricia from little eco footprints recently posted about using henna on her hair. I love the idea of using something natural instead of chemicals, but is that the colour for me? Gorgeous dark locks with hints of red….My skin colouring is hard to match at the best of times. How do I stop myself from looking like Richmond from the IT Crowd?

Richmond works it. Todd Sampson works it. Judie Dench works it. Now I just have to work it.

So until I work out HOW to work it, will you excuse me while I go and have another disgusted but totally fascinated look in the bathroom mirror?

Potato and Rosemary Sourdough- Frugal Friday

Posted on by
19

There always seems to be one more loaf of bread to make. If I had the time, and sizeable pants. I would happily be making a different type of bread 7 days a week. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don’t have that sort of time and my pants aren’t that stretchy. So if I have a bready idea I usually have to sit on it until we are out of bread again or a suitable meal comes up that we can accompany the bread with it.

Frugal Friday seemed like a good accompaniment. A simple salad and a wedge of bread.

Potato and Rosemary Sourdough

sourdough

3 partially roasted roughly diced potatoes

3 rosemary stems

This little number was a normal white sourdough. The potatoes I had cooked half way through while I had one tray of biscuits in the oven and the second tray being free. Sourdough folded once before popping into the fridge, for an overnight ferment. During the fold,  2/3 of the cooked potato were folded through, leaving aside the remainder 1/3 for the next day. Also adding 1/2 the rosemary roughly chopped again. When it came to shaping time the next morning, rolling out  a short fat snake shape and loosely spiralling round. Lightly pressing in the remaining potato and roughly chopped fresh rosemary. Allow for another prove, approximately 1 hour, a good grind of sea salt all over the top of the dough. Then popping it into the oven at 250C, with steam. Bake until golden and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom.

Kangaroo Valley

Posted on by
25

A recent weekend away with friends was just what I needed. A chance to inhale, exhale…and return to centre.

A beautiful sunrise.

a misty morning in the valley

and a spot of cat chasing in a winery while parents are wine tasting.

The winery, Yarrawa Estate is nuzzled into some beautiful looking hills. Their view was quite simply…stunning. While wine tasting with 4 little kids isn’t the most relaxing way to spend your afternoon, I can certainly think of worse things to do. It did give just enough time to demolish a cheese platter, sample a few drops, chase two cats, plunder the chicken coop, and tease the family dog with a nut or two. Bottles bought and onwards we went, (Chambourcin and Verdelho some delicious stand outs.)

Kangaroo Valley is a picturesque little valley that sits a 2hour plus drive from Sydney. East of the Southern Highlands and just a little further west than the Sourdough Bakery at Berry. Famous for it’s locally made fudge, and lush fertile land. The areas dairies produce some great local milk, South Coast Dairy. While fudge, wine and milk doesn’t sound like much if eating as a locavore.

It’s certainly not a bad way to start if you are in the area.

****

 

wrap it a little differently

Posted on by
23

I really like thinking of new ways to give presents to people. I’ve always thought it was a bit funny the idea of buying gift paper, wrapping a present and then watching it being ripped to shreds by the recipient. Not that I don’t like giving presents, I do. Actually I love it. However, if it’s expensive beautiful paper it seems like such a waste and if it’s cheap, well it’s still a waste. I’ve mentioned before using chocolate wrappers which if you go through the quantity that our household does certainly puts it to good use.

Christmas is still a little while away, but if you like these wrapping ideas they may take a little while longer to accumulate.

1/ Old maps make perfect wrapping paper. They are square and flat. Easily bought in second hand shops where they are quite often sold very cheaply as areas change. Places get outdated easily. Looks funky too, well I think it does. Add a ribbon or some wool, tying it up and gift is ready.

2/ Old movie or music posters. Quite often sold in music stores cheaply as they were advertising a band or album that was coming out. For the music or movie  fan this can make an exciting present….(well the wrapping of it anyway.)

3/ Turn your head slightly on the side and look at your food packaging slightly different. Bulk rice bought in a bag can be a wonderful way to present a gift. Linen sack of oats, beans, coffee can all be done the same way. Just have  a look around. This one is a zippered 5 kilo bag of basmati rice.

4/ Second hand stores are usually brimming with baskets of varying sizes. Save wrapping a present altogether and present it in a basket.

5/ Use retro fabrics, easily picked up in second hand places, (or auctions). Hold the fabric together using ribbons or wool.

6/ Use simple brown wrapping paper that hasn’t used dyes and decorate it yourself. Draw your kids hands all over it and get them to decorate it. Paint some flowers all over it. Or write little messages all over.

So many possibilities.

Strawberry and Black Pepper Jam Tarts

Posted on by
12

The queen of Hearts she made some tarts

All on a summers day

The knave of Hearts he stole those tarts

And took them clean away.

****

The humble jam tart is always an easy one to whip up for when people come over, an easy little dessert, or an afternoon treat. If you have some pastry already in your freezer it makes it even easier.

First roll out your pastry and cut out to your desired shape. (Really you can use what ever you have at hand. A big long tray can also look great. Just cut the pieces to suit then.) For a pastry recipe, you also try here.

Grease tray, and place strips of baking paper down. All this does is makes it super easy to flip out when they are cooked. Rather than baking blind, I pricked the pastry with a fork and baked until golden at 180C. When the pastry shells are cooled, you can add ANY jam you want. It all tastes good. For these little numbers. I melted a little dark chocolate and then drizzled a small amount on the inside of the shell. This just gives a thin layer of chocolate underneath the jam mixture. Then spooned a strawberry jam mixed with freshly ground pepper. The pepper isn’t overwhelming just gives a gentle hint of… ooohh, whats that?

The King of Hearts called for the tarts

And beat the Knave full sore

The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts

And vowed he’d steal no more!

****

it’s all gone a rye

Posted on by
27

When I was a little kid all I wanted for lunch was a white sliced sandwich in triangles. Ideally with devon, tomato sauce and slapped together with so much butter it would make even a French chef frown. Why did I want that? Because that’s what I didn’t have. That’s what other kids had.

I had the sensible bread with grains or wholemeal, with nutritious things inside. Up until about 9 years old I could potentially have a cheese, chutney and sprouts sandwich. This was my mum’s idea of a delicious sandwich, and perfect for a healthy growing-at- a-cracking-rate young girls lunch. At 9 years old though, enough was enough. My palate wasn’t that developed yet. Not developed enough for chutney and sprouts anyway.  Although I never threw my sandwich out, I did hastily eat it hoping it would just quickly fill me up and no one would see it and say ….ewww whats that? On the odd occasion it may have found itself under my bed…where it may have sat there, next to a book (The Secret Seven) and slowly grow its own penicillin…

Alright that only happened the once, but at 9 years old I decided that I would take over the reins of making my own sandwiches. No more chutney and sprouts thanks. Salami and cheese would be fine. Salami and tomato. Tomato and cheese. They were the three combinations I had pretty much throughout my school career. Until I got to my final year of highschool and I stepped it up a notch and had capsicum and cheese. They were certainly exciting sandwich times.

How things have changed now though. As an adult…phew. Bread and all its loveliness. All the wonderful concoctions you can have for a simple sanga. Since embracing the heady world of sourdough, those concoctions have got even more enticing. This Apple Walnut Rye included…

* So will The Monkeys be having white sliced bread with devon and tomato sauce for their school lunches? Hell no! Do you know what’s in that stuff?!

Apple Walnut Rye Sourdough

200gms starter

225gms of rye flour

225gms of plain flour

200mls water (approx)

1 1/2 tps salt

1/2 chopped apple

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

a shake of cinnamon

Mix up rye dough as usual, when it’s time for the first fold, add apple and nuts. Folding them carefully in. I did an over night ferment, then baked at 250C until top was golden looking. Then popped it out of the tin and baked a further 10 minutes, while turning the oven down to 200C.

The top came out a little messy, but I was happy with the consistency and it just feels so healthy when you eat it. I’m loving this one for breakfast at the moment. And to totally cancel out the health factor, slap some peanut butter on there- so thick you could walk on it…mmmm.

Light Rye Sourdough

350gms starter

300gms rye meal

300gms bakers flour

480 mls water

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 tps salt

Mix ingredients. Wait for 20 minutes, then add salt and mix again. Let it prove for 1 1/2 hours. First fold. Prove for another 1hour. 2nd fold. In oiled tin, rise for another hour. 11 hour ferment in fridge. Out for 1/2 an hour on the bench. Slash. Then baked at 250C for 20mins top shelf, (steam) then a further 15 mins on the second shelf.


*This post submitted to Yeast Spotting

Bamboo Toothbrushes- you might want to try it

Posted on by
43

A little while ago I was trying to find out what my alternatives were to using the conventional plastic handled toothbrush. I’d like to keep my teeth, so the brushing twice a day for the rest of my life is quite the long term plan. Now if I changed my toothbrush every 3 months as reccommended. Add in the odd change of toothbrush after illness. Times that for the next 60 years (I’m optimistic). That’s a lot of toothbrushes!

All sitting in their landfill graves. Silently sitting and waiting to break down. Waiting…waiting…waiting…waiting…

Now there are a few alternatives out there on the market at the moment and I’m sure give it another few years and there should be a lot more readily available options to the average consumer. However for the most part, the average plastic toothbrush is what sells. Looking at a few of my options, I could get a 100% recycled plastic toothbrush, made from yoghurt tubs, (made in USA). I could use a twig from an appropriate tree, or I could use a bamboo handle toothbrush… Bamboo sounded good.

Step up, The Environmental Toothbrush. Simple biodegradable packaging, looks just like the picture and how does it brush?…

Really well! The head is small enough to get in at the back teeth. The bristles are soft, works well on the gums and that little fella knows how to clean. To be honest I was slightly hesitant when I first saw it. How can something so basic looking work so well? However after giving it a go, I was left nodding to myself muttering that’s a good tooth brush, and with sparkly clean teeth to show for it.

The toothbrush was designed by an Australian dentist. It’s biodegradable, environmentally sustainable. When you throw it out, it simply breaks down into compost.

If you would like to give this toothbrush a red hot go, (not the one I was using obviously!) I’m giving one away. To get one for your pearly whites, tell me something about teeth or bamboo. Anything you like. An interesting fact about bamboo, or a story about your Nana’s false teeth, what ever takes your fancy…Post a comment by the 3rd of November…seriously, it’s a really good toothbrush.

* Top photo from G magazine online.

EDIT- Congratulations to Christine from Slow Living Essentials for getting the Bamboo toothbrush.

Banana Chocolate Pecan Cake

Posted on by
14

Hello…what have we here?

Banana Chocolate Pecan Cake

Oh Mama…delicious

How about a little more?

*****

Banana Chocolate Pecan Slice

50gms dark melted chocolate

75gms melted butter

3  bananas

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 1/2 cups s/r flour

Bake at 180C for approx 20-25 minutes.

A surprisingly tasty and simple cake. I had left over melted chocolate, and bananas that needed attention. Not too showy. The honey, banana and chocolate all seemed to harmonize well together. Not one of them jumping up and and vying for attention. Little Monkey approved.

Caramelised Onions on a simple sanga

Posted on by
18

For two weeks I had been thinking of caramelised onions. Yep, I could have put my brain to better usage but no, it was all about the carmelised onions. On a pizza, teamed with a sausage, in a tart….oh caramelised onion what was I going to do with you?

Nope, I think it had to be a simple open sanga (Australian slang for sandwich).What you need is a loaf of your favourite bread. I used a three seeded sourdough. Now slice it up, and add your caramelised onions.

But how to make Caramelised Onions?

Slice a brown onion and pop it in a pot, add a good slurp of olive oil and give it about a 2 minute head start. Once its wilted down a bit add, two dessert spoonfuls of brown sugar and 2 good slurps of balsamic vinegar. Cook it until it’s reduced down, and gotten thicker.

Pop it on your bread, add a slice of your best cheese, and grill it. We used a tasty little St Claire from Tasmania. Mr Chocolate and I couldn’t stop smiling while we were eating this, it just tasted so good. A truly simple meal that has you begging for just a little more.