A Taste for Change Dinner

Eating food by top chefs for a good cause = my idea of heaven

This year's Taste for Change dinner brings together acclaimed Australian chefs

• Michael Kean (Host chef, Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney)
• John Lanzafame and Peter Evans (Hugo's)
• Dave Pegrum (Forbes & Burton)
• Darren Simpson (la Sala)
• Dietmar Sawyere and Chris Edwards (Restaurant Forty One)
• Peter van Es (Amora Hotel Jamison)

Each chef will create a one of the 6 courses to be served on the night, check out the grab your fork post from the 2006 event . The Taste for Change dinner is a fundraising event for the Oxfam International Youth Partnership (OIYP) program.

The OIYP program brings 300 young leaders from 90 different countries to share their ideas, energies and aspirations for bringing about positive change in their own communities.

G and I are looking forward to gorging our selves for a good cause.

If you are interested in attending and treating yourself for a very good cause the dinner will be held at:

Music will be performed by Old Man River and Dan Sultan.

When: Thursday 26 July 2007, 6:30pm–11pm

Where: Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney

Cost: $200 per person

You can buy tickets here


** In the interest of the full disclosure I should let you know that my husband G work for Oxfam - and no that doesn't get a me a free ticket!**

Reminiscing

I am busily preparing to go overseas next week for a holiday - I'm very excited, I have a couple of weeks in France and nearly a week in Tokyo. I am so excited about going back to Japan, it will be the first time since G and I moved back to Australia after nearly 3 years living there. I have list as long as my arm of things I'm going to do - starting unsurprisingly with eating my body weight in sushi. Bliss!

Before I go I'm co-hosting a wedding shower for one of G's cousins - it will be the second wedding in the family this year, when the other cousin was married earlier in the year my mother-in-law and I hosted a high tea for the bride to be. It was a lovely Autumn afternoon and we had polished the silver and chilled the champagne, it was a decedent and suitably girly afternoon.

The little pastry cases come from Pasteles Bakehouse in Botany - they make a beautiful selection of sweet and savoury tart cases in a range of sizes - perfect for filling with smoked salmon or goats cheese. I highly recommend them.

I'll try to post a couple of times while I'm overseas but if I can't I'll catch you when I get back in mid July.

No recipes today, just a little bit of food porn!

An army of of silverware ready for tea

Can't have a high tea with out scones, jam and double cream

The full spread

Individual chilled strawberry mousse

Smoked salmon tarts with dill and lime marscapone

The fine china out and ready for tea

Deviled eggs

Pasteles Bakehouse
1545 Botany Rd
Botany NSW 2019
Tel: 02 9666 5477
Fax: 02 9666 5257

Roast Chicken with Grapes

One of my favorite meals growing up was my Mom's Roast chicken with grapes - I'm pretty sure it was a dinner party classic in the 70's but it has, in my opinion at least stood the test of time.

Pieces of juicy roast chicken rest on steamed julienned potatoes topped with tarragon scented gravy and crisp green grapes. To me it is the perfect meal witha glass of crisp white wine and a couple of friends. Or just my husband and a couple of beers, or straight of the fridge for lunch the next day. Just perfect.

I don't have a recipe for this meal - I learnt to cook it with my Mom so please excuse the lack of precise instructions.


Roast Chicken with Grapes

Stuff a roasting chicken with an one onion cut into quarters and season well - roast until the skin is crispy and the juices run clear. The time will depend on the size of the chicken.

Peel 2 medium potatoes for each person you are cooking for - cut into strips like you are making french fries. Steam in the microwave until soft.

When the chicken is cooked take it out of the pan and let is rest before carving it. Pour as much oil as you can off the pan juices and put it on the stove on a low heat. Add tarragon, salt and a couple of tablespoons of flour. Stir until the pan juices thicken taking care to break up any lumps. Add a good slosh of white wine and enough water to get the gravy to a good consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Add the fresh grapes - about 2 big handfuls.

Put the steamed potatoes in the bottom a serving dish and top with the chicken pieces. Pour over the gravy and serve

A cozy afternoon of baking

It is starting to get cold here in Australia - I've already dug my ugg boots out from the back of the wardrobe and am sleeping in my favorite flannel pajamas (they have sushi on them!)
So after a long walk with the dog it was imperitave to bake something sweet and warm to have with a cup of tea.

Oatmeal and date biscuits
(adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

Sift together:
250g self raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt

Cream together:
225g butter
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Add:
300g rolled oats
200g chopped dates

Roll tablespoons of the dough into balls and place on a greased baking sheet. Flatten with a fork and bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned all over and almost form when pressed in the middle.

The ticket here is when the house gets all warm and cozy, smelling of brown sugar and spices and you're on the couch with a cup of tea and a warm biscuit not to forget the batch that's in the oven!

These biscuits are NOT Weight Watchers friendly so will be packed up to share with work colleagues on Monday.

Eating for a weigh-in

One of the down sides of loving food, cocktails and ummm well everything really is the propensity to overdo it a bit and gain weight. Factor in a general unwillingness to get out bed early for exercise recently I'm sure you can understand why I've re-joined Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers recipes have come a long way from the 70's and the points system they use allows me to balance my food so that I can drink cocktails on a Friday night and still lose a little weight.

One recipe that I come back to time and time again - even when I'm not counting points is this salad. It's good at a barbecue with grilled meat, it keeps well so it's really good for work lunches and people it has fried cheese in it - what other reason do you need?

Cous cous salad with haloumi

I have adapted this recipe slightly from the original by adding chick peas - it does bump up the points slightly but I think they're worth it.

1 cup cous cous prepared according to directions (I make my mine with stock to add a little more flavour)
1 can chick peas
100g haloumi cheese sliced
Rocket or baby spinach leaves
Tomatoes
Capsicum (or any other salad vegetables you like)
Lemon juice

Combine the cooked cous cous with the drained chick peas and dress with lemon juice to taste.
Add the sliced vegatable and rocket and toss. Taste and season if needed.

Heat a frying pan and use spray oil to grease. Fry the slices of haloumi until they are heated through and just starting to brown. Place on salad and serve.

This makes 4 generous portions and I have calculated it to be about 5 points per serve. You can decrease the points by adding more vegetables or salad leaves and decreasing the amount of cous cous you use.

Enjoy!

Easter Feasting

**I'm sorry it's been so long, things have been busy but I'm back with a guest post from my lovely husband Geoff**

Lamb in the Ashes

For the H and the M Clans camping at Easter is a given. Every year the pilgrimage begins with a 4 hour drive North West of Sydney to a friends property in the Upper Hunter. The camp site has changed a couple of times in the last 30 odd years but the tradition of 'Lamb in the Ashes' on Saturday night has remained the same.

When we were kids it was always the oldies that cooked lamb in the ashes, this all changed a couple of years ago when the old folk started a revolution....... apparently when a child reaches the age of 30 they have to feed themselves....... so the tradition has now moved from the oldies to the kids. It was the first year the M kids had cooked lamb in the ashes and you could feel the tension around the campfire.

Cooking lamb in the ashes is not an overly complicated processes however if it goes wrong you could end up with a blackened Easter meal.

The M's first took time to prepare the campfire by building it up a healthy pile of hot coals through out the afternoon burning big hard wood logs. While the fire was settling down 4 whole legs of lamb were seasoned and marinated with olive oil, garlic, fresh herbs, black pepper and salt. Once the lamb is seasoned the legs are covered thoroughly in foil. This is crucial process as if the legs aren't completely wrapped and sealed they will dry out. The next step is to wrap the legs in a second layer of damp newspaper.

Now the fun part, All the hot coals from fire are dragged to one side and a hole is dug in the base of the fire twice the depth of the lamb. Quickly the wrapped lamb legs are placed in the pit and covered immediately with the hot coals. If you faff about too much your lamb will just go up in smoke. Once the legs are buried leave the lamb to cook for 2 hours. Its always a bit of guess work as to when the lamb is cooked, over the years 2 hours has been found to be about perfect.

And that's it, the M's made a awesome sauce of olives, fetta, garlic and lemon rind to go with the lamb and accompanied by baked veggies and corn. It was an awesome meal one of the all time Lamb in the Ashes. There is something special about a roast dinner cooked without any of the usual creature comforts, served on the finest of plastic plates without a matching piece of cutlery as far as the eye can see......... pure camping bliss.

Family Favorites

As I'm sure everyone does, I often associate people or places with certain foods - my collection of recipes is littered with the names of people who gave me the recipe or who I associate the food with - my Sister's little passionfruit cupcakes, my Mother in law's friend's brownies - my Grandma's shortbread recipe.

My Grandma had a fantastically sweet tooth - she was the only person I knew who ate Mars Bar slice outside children's birthday parties and she would always had a tin full of sweet baked goods on the fridge when we'd visit. Her shortbread was legendary and always plentiful. One of my childhood cooking memories is Grandma teaching me to make shortbread - I managed to burn quite a few trays then and since to a total crisp before I was able to produce a tray even half way close to the quality of hers.

G and I spent Christmas with my Mom and my Aunt D's family in Queensland this year - my Aunt D is a fantastic cook and she had cooked all the old time family favorites including Grandma's shortbread.

A perfect finish to a celebratory meal or with a cup of tea after a swim - or anytime really

My Grandma's Shortbread

250g butter, softened
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup corn flour

Process the butter till pale in a food processor, add the remaining ingredients.
Press into a brownie tin (you don't need to grease it) and bake in a moderate oven till pale golden brown and cooked through. Slice while warm. Store in an airtight container

A Blogging by Mail surprise!

Blogging by mail is a physical extension of the international food swap that is food blogging. Organized this round by the lovely Stephanie, The Happy Sorceress, all the way back in September last year!
I sent my parcel full of Australian goodies to a fellow blogger in the US and eagerly awaited my parcel from some far flung part of the globe. And waited and waited....

Just when I had given it up for lost or confiscated by customs and just before Christmas I came home after a grueling day at work to find a LARGE parcel on the back step! It literally made my day!

With much excitement I opened the beautifully wrapped box and surveyed my bounty from the very generous and sweet Abby from North Carolina.

Every piece of the parcel had a label attached explaining it's heritage and meaning to Abby and her family. I was thoroughly charmed!

My favorite things in the parcel were hands down the Moravian biscuits - wafer thin and beautifully spiced - they were perfect with a cup of tea. Abby thoughtfully provided the recipe and while it was challenging to roll them as thin as the ones that were sent they were delicious.
Abby is a Moravian and the biscuits are part of her communities Christmas tradition so I was very pleased to be able to bake them for my friends and family along with my traditional Christmas fare. The other highlights were the hot sauce always a favorite with G and the MapleNut candy - teeth achingly sweet but great!

I apologise for it taking a little while, well okay a couple of months to get this post up - I really have no excuse - just the usual - the holidays, work blah blah.

I have always loved receiving mail and this event and parcel was a fantastic experience - and thank you again Abby!

Thank you

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone and thank you for your support with the Menu for Hope event. All up we managed to raise a mind boggling $60, 925 for the UN World Food Program. I wish you the very best of luck in 2007 and hope you all bag a prize!
For a more complete round up check out Chez Pim.

Menu for hope

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising campaign originally devised by Chez Pim. Last year the campaign raised US$17,000 for UNICEF in just twelve days. In 2006 we will be raising funds to support the United Nations World Food Programme.

How does it work? On December 11th food bloggers around the world will be pledging food related prizes for a HUGE raffle. To participate and be in the running for some fantastic prizes all you need to do is buy a raffle ticket! Given this is a blog we are selling online tickets via Firstgiving for $10 USD

I thought long and hard about what to offer as a prize, nothing seemed quite right- inspiration struck while visiting the Manly Fairtade Markets (Thanks Jules!). I spent a very happy morning putting together a hamper of lovely, ethical treats - including coffee from Republica, Cocolo chocolate, Hope honey - produced by Australian bees but will all the profits going to the needy in Indonesia. Fairtrade rice, handcream and a handbag as well! The prize code for this particular prize is AP40

**Updated****************************************************

Kylie Kwong - celebrity chef, author and Fair Trade Ambassador has very generously donated a signed copy of her new cookbook "Simple Chinese Cooking"

Kylie's restaurant Billy Kwong is a Sydney classic - if you're in Surry Hills give it a go
Billy Kwong - Shp 3/ 355 Crown St, Surry Hills, (02) 9332 3300

Head over to Grab Your Fork and check out the prizes on offer and PLEASE support this worthy cause by buying a ticket! There are some fantastic prizes on offer including dinner vouchers for Tetsuya's and Becasse and a whole raft of other mouthwatering things.
If you are based outside the Asia Pacific region go to Chez Pim and check out who's coordinating for your area and pick a prize from there!


Here's what you should do...
1. Go to the donation page at (http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII)
2. Make a donation, each US$10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of US$50 can be 2 tickets for AP01 and 3 for AP02.
3. For US donors, if your company has agreed to match your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we may claim the corporate match.
4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the results of the raffle. (The drawing will be done electronically. Our friend the code wizard Derrick at Obsession with Food is responsible for the wicked application that will do the job.)

Good luck!

Joining the (no-knead) club

After all the buzz in blogs I had to give it a go and all I can say is it was worth it. The recipe is from the NY Times and requires no kneading at all - you make a very wet dough and let it rise for 12-18 hours. You then bake it covered in a casserole dish - the steam producing a dense chewy loaf with a crunchy crust.

If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet I highly recommend you do - it is very simple to make and absolutely delicious. The only change I'll make next time is to add a little more salt.

Check out these blogs for the recipe and their beautiful photos -

The Wednesday Chef
Brownie Points

and of course the flickr group

Indian Tea Masala Truffles - SHF#25

I found it challenging to come up with an original flavoured truffle for Sugar High Friday #25 - so in the end I didn't! I have had a box of Indian tea spice in the back of cupboard for a number of months. I bought it in an Indian frenzy at Saini Emporium in Dee Why along with some metal thali plates and huge bags of cinnamon quills. While researching truffle recipes in the net I came across a number of recipes for Chai truffles which I adapted to my spice mix.

The recipe is very easy - I haven't made truffles before and assumed that something so rich would be a little more complex but I was surprised. The hardest part was trying roll neat balls of ganach on a hot summer day!

In hindsight I could have added more spice mix, it added a subtle peppery flavour to the chocolate that wasn't unpleasant but not earth shattering.

Tea Masala Truffles

(adapted from Whole Foods Market recipe)

2/3 cups cream

200g good quality dark chocolate

2 Tbsp butter

2 tsp tea spice powder

Cocoa power for dusting

Heat cream, butter and tea spice until almost boiling. Turn off heat and stir in chocolate pieces until completely melted. Refrigerate for several hours till firm. Scoop up teaspoon-sizes balls and dust with cocoa powder. Dust your hands with cocoa powder and roll gently into balls. (Stop frequently to rinse, dry and re-powder your hands). Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Thanks to Johanna from thepassionatecook for hosting this months SHF - make sure to check out the round up!

Spoilt Rotten

I love love love birthdays - I love shopping for birthday presents, planning parties and cooking birthday cakes. I especially love my birthday and have been known to drag the celebrations out over several weeks.

This year being the big 30 I have been very spoilt - I had a lovely party at Vera Cruz in Cremorne with fancy Mexican food and way too many margaritas for a lady my age. I have had more cakes and champagne than is good for me and had my traditional birthday breakfast.

My family birthday tradition is to have a special breakfast on your actual birthday - a champagne breakfast if possible but something special to wake up to. G has adopted this tradition and every year I get breakfast in bed. This year was no exception and he out did himself with berries, mango and King Island yogurt, fresh bread and Nutella.

Oh and a little blue box! As I said, spoilt rotten!

The promise of spring

It has started to really heat up here in Australia in the past couple of weeks. It is getting light earlier and earlier, daylight saving has finally begun and it's very nearly summer!
G and I finally moved into an apartment with a garden at the end of last year and have been steadily working on our little vegetable patch. We have a fairly established little herb garden, some spinach and have recently harvested some baby beetroot.

So far it's all been great but to me, summer + vegetable patch = tomatoes!
The search for a really tasty tomato has been the topic of numerous articles in food magazines here, the tasteless supermarket variety widely decried. This led me to an interest in heritage vegetables and Digger's Seeds. At the first hint of spring I ordered a selection of tomatoes from Diggers and some Jiffy pots to grow them in. I ordered some beautifully striped tigerellas, some yellow grapes and a sauce making variety called Amish Paste.

We may have gone slightly overboard though - I recently planted out 8 of seedlings and when we did some quick sums from the catalog it looks like we can expect to harvest several hundred kilos of tomatoes. Sauce any one?

I have also ordered Mexican chilli seeds from Fiery Foods, hopefully this summer we will have a crop of jalapeno, poblano and mulato chillis to make Mexican moles with!

Bring on summer!

PS: If any one has a great tomato recipe to share I would be very keen to know about it!

Let's do lunch - Forty One

The joys of gourmet food are celebrated all October long in Sydney - woohoo it's Good Food Month! There are a huge number of activities from markets and master classes to degustations and dessert events. G and I have been to several events in the past couple of weeks, this week we took a long lunch break and went to Forty One for their Let's do lunch offering.

I've never eaten at Forty One before and this was a great introduction - to be honest I wasn't sure what to expect. When I looked at the list of restaurants available for Let's do lunch I picked Forty One because of the views - being as it is on the forty first floor of the Chifley Tower.

When we arrived we were unfortunately sat at a table back from the windows so we missed the full effect of the location. We were served bread and Western Australian olive oil - the bread was lovely - light but with a chewy crust. We ordered an entree to share and then the $35 GFM lunch. Our entree was a squat tower of slow-cooked veal chilled and topped with sweet crab meat and drizzled with a tangy dressing. It had a pleasant subtle flavour - the mild veal balanced well with the juicy crab and offset nicely by the citrus tang of the dressing.

The main course was slow-cooked ocean trout, Israeli cous cous cooked like a rissotto with baby zucchini, chilli and grated bottarga. I admit I had to google bottarga when I got back to the office - it is apparently Sardinian dried tuna roe and after looking at pictures of it on the web I don't think our meal contained any but I could be mistaken. Israeli cous cous has the texture of pasta but looked like glossy little pearls. The ocean trout was nice but in my opinion a little under cooked. It had a lovely buttery texture but the edges that were slightly more cooked were more to my taste. G liked it just as it was. The meal was served with a glass of Brown Brothers Pinot Grigio.

All in all it was a lovely way to spend a Thursday lunch hour - the service was a little remote but consistent - it would have been fantastic if we'd gotten a window seat, if I go back I'll ask for one when I book. The view from the men's bathroom G assures me has to be seen to be believed. This would be a great place to lunch with overseas visitors.

Forty One -The Chifley Tower, 2 Chifley Square, Sydney 9221 2500

Make sure to visit Cucina Rebecca's round-up of all the other Good Food Month events other Sydney bloggers are involved in.

gfm06

Sweet somethings

I voraciously read food blogs, reviews, magazines - anything really that relates to food, cooking, bars or restaurants. This information overload often means that I've read about a food or restaurant, poured over the recipes, drooled over the photos and read the reviews - both good and bad but not actually eaten it.

This is the case with macarons - J at Kuidaore has a mild obsession with these French morsels and she makes and takes the most fantastic photos of them. I have spent a great deal of time looking at her recipes and ultimately decided that while her macarons look (and probably taste) fantastic they were something that I would never have the patience or skill to try.

Recently there was an article in the Good Living liftout of the Sydney Morning Herald about macarons and where to find them in Sydney. The Lindt cafe in Martin Place is one such place.
Lindt call their macarons delice and they have a variety of flavours. I have to say when I got the store and saw their display I was momentarily disappointed - their Delices were not as shiny or as beautifully proportioned as J's.

Lindt delice's come in a variety of flavours - dark chocolate, hazelnut, coffee, choc-orange, berry and champagne. The meringue halves are light and crisp the filling smooth and rich. The chocolate and hazelnut flavoured delices were nicest, the champagne the least so.

The packaging makes a small selection a great gift - make sure you ask the sales assistant to dress up the box with a ribbon in a colour of your choice. A single delice is $1.60 or you can buy premade boxes for around $9.

SHF# 23 - A surprise (butterscotch) inside!

Alanna over at A Veggie Venture is hosting this Septembers Sugar High Friday - her theme is 'A surprise inside'. I thought long and hard about all manner of creative and interesting ideas that I could make with this theme but in the end kept coming back to a family standard - Butterscotch Surprise Cake.

This recipe was clipped out of a 70's Women's weekly magazine by my mother and stuck into her personal recipe book. When I moved out of home I carefully transcribed it onto a file card for my recipe box. It's my husband's favorite cakes of my repertoire. This is not an exciting take on the theme but it's such a good recipe I had to share it - it's great coffee cake and keeps well or is excellent as a dessert served warm with icecream.

The one of the key ingredients if custard powder - I have heard that this is not readily available in the States - it is sold here under a couple of different brand names but the most readily available worldwide seems to Birds. Otherwise a quick Google search seems to suggest that vanilla Jello pudding mix is a good substitute but I can't confirm this.

Butterscotch Surprise Cake

Cake

125g butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/4 cup of milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Butterscotch

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp custard powder

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp butter

1 egg, beaten

Cream the butter and sugar, add the vanilla. Add the eggs and then alternatively mix in the flours and milk. Beat till smooth.

To make the butterscotch, combine the custard powder and sugar in a saucepan. Gradually stir in the milk - cook over a medium heat stirring constantly till it thickens. Stir in the butter. Cool slightly then add the egg. Use while warm.

Grease a ring or bundt pan - spread half the cake mixture evenly. Pour in the warm butterscotch and top with the remaining cake batter.

Bake in a moderate oven for 35-40 mins - the top will crack. It is done when the cake springs back when touched and pulls away from the sides of the pan. It is hard to use a skewer to test doneness with this cake because of the ribbon of butterscotch. Cool in the tin.

SHF23

Feeling better...feeling like tapas

I have been feeling infinantly better since my weekend of flu and pickles (btw: the best pickle shirt ever is here) So much so that I decided to go on a bit of a mission and try cooking some traditional tapas dishes. Tapas is something I've wanted to get my head around for a while - I haven't had much exposure to Spanish cuisine, I'm embarrassed to say that in all my travels I haven't been to Europe yet.

There are a number of tapas restaurants in Sydney - I haven't been to many, the one in Manly - Alhambra Cafe and Tapas Bar has a nice selection but the prices are a little prohibitive. Not exorbitant but enough to stop you ordering all the dishes you'd like to try. They have Flamenco dancers there on Saturdays - I suppose to add to the atmosphere but it's was all a little cheesy for me.

I have been coming across chorizo a lot recently after never really eating at all. My sister and I had dinner with our partners at Whitewater not so long ago. They do a decadent tasting menu and have the most divine martinis - if you are ever in my neck of the woods I highly recommend that you eat here. But I digress..one course we had that night was seared scallops on thick slices of chorizo drizzled with a BBQ style sauce. The sweetness of the scallops was perfect with smoky sausage - the sauce was almost too much but it was drizzled so sparingly that it managed to complement both flavours well. We have also recently eaten pizza, paella and a myriad of other dishes with chorizo featuring prominently.

When it came time to decide which dishes to cook chorizo was always going to be there, but we also decided on some meatballs, a seafood dish and plenty of vegetables.

The final menu was as follows:

• Patatas Allioli (Potatoes with garlic mayonnaise)
• Banderilla (Tuna skewers with caper berries and olives)
• Marinated Capsicums
• Champinones al ajillo (Sauteed mushrooms with garlic)
• Chickpeas with chorizo
• Albondigas (Meatballs in spicy tomato sauce)
• Calamares a la plancha (Squid with picada)

It sounds like a lot but most of it is quite easy to prepare - there was an awful lot of garlic in almost every dish. I'm not squeamish about garlic at all but I did pity my co-workers the next day. While all the dishes were nice, for me the standout was the chorizo and chickpeas, I am biased though, I'll just about eat chickpeas with anything and need little excuse to add them to a dish.

Chickpeas with chorizo
(adapted from A little taste of Spain - Murdoch books)

1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed
I bay leaf
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup of chicken stock
2 stalks of fresh thyme
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 garlic clove crushed
375g chorizo sliced
1 Tbsp flat leaf parsley

The original recipes called for the soaking and cooking of dried chickpeas - I had neither the time nor inclination to do that so used a can of chickpeas and simmered them in the stock with the garlic, cloves, cinnamon and fresh time to give them extra flavour. Let them simmer till they had almost boiled dry making sure not to let them get mushy.

Heat the oil in a large frypan and add the onion and cook over a medium heat till translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Turn the heat up to high and add the chorizo and cook for a couple of more minutes.

Add the chickpeas and stir until heated through. Remove from heat and mix in the parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This dish can be eaten hot or at room temperature depending on your preference.

Pickles!

A case of the flu over the weekend meant that I had even more time than usual on the internet to read (and drool) over the food blogs in my favorites list. It's winter here in Australia and Saturday was suitably cold and miserable. I was coughing, spluttering and thinking about cooking some warm and hearty when I came across Orangette's post about pickles and all things with vinegar.

My husband and I love just about all things pickled - we go through at least a jar of gherkins a week, standing in the kitchen after work with forks passing the jar between us while we decide what to have for dinner. It is impossible for us to eat Japanese food with out least a couple of types of Japanese pickles (tsukemono) - he prefers the bright purple eggplant variety I prefer the pickled plums (umeboshi).

Being sick I wanted something easy - not too many steps and something that wouldn't be ruined if I took a nap halfway through. I settled on bread and butter zucchini pickles from Stephanie Alexander's huge stripy bible. The fitted the bill being simple to prepare (slice and soak in brine then add vinegar) and there was built in time for a nap.

I have to admit when I first tasted them just as they were made I wasn't overly impressed, they were nice, vinergary and sweet but nothing special. When I took them out of the fridge two days later to have a forkful while I waited for meat to defrost for dinner it was an entirely different experience. Crunchy and tart but with a lovely pungent mustard flavour perfect for cold meat sandwiches and hotdogs.

Bread and butter zucchini pickles
(from Stephanie Alexander's The cooks companion)

The original recipe makes 1 litre of pickle, not having enough jars for that amount I halved the recipe. I've put the full recipe here as some of the measurements get tricky halved (I'm no good at fractions) and they are so good and easy next time I'll make a full batch. They keep for 2 months in the fridge.

1kg small zucchini sliced
3 onions finely sliced
1/2 cup salt

3 cups white-wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp ground tumeric

Toss the zucchini and onions with the salt in a non-reactive bowl and cover with water. Let the vegetables soak in the brine solution for 1 hour, then rinse well and drain in a colander. I rinsed them 4-3 times - they were really salty. Return to the bowl.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat till the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and pour over zucchini. Leave to cool.
The recipe says use at once or pack into sterilized jars and refrigerate. I highly recommend not using then right away and letting the flavour develop at least overnight - if not a couple of days.
[food]
[drink][pickles]

SHF 21- Kakigori with spiced espresso syrup

One of the biggest surprises for me when I moved to Japan was how hot it got in summer. Before I moved I'd seen photos of monkeys taking a bath in the snow and patchworked mountains of autumn leaves but not a single shot of the humid, sweltering summer streets of Kyoto.
Summer in Japan was HOT but lots of good fun too. In Kyoto a lot of the department stores open up roof top 'all you can eat' buffets and the 7-11's sell beer and fireworks, and in the suburbs little trucks drive around selling kakigori. Kakigori is the Japanese version of a snow cone - ice is shaved really finely from a huge block and covered in syrup. Flavours include colourless sugar syrup, green tea, melon to sickly sweet strawberry and blue hawaii.
When I found out that this month's SHF was ice - the song going round my head wasn't Vanilla Ice but the"kaaaaakiiiii gooooriiiii" call from the a truck driving around with a huge block of ice balanced on what looks like a medieval torture device and a row of bottles filled with brightly coloured syrups.
To make what is essentially a snow cone a little more interesting I decided to make a syrup with a slightly more grown up flavour - Espresso with cinnamon, cloves and Cointreau.

Kakigori with spiced espresso syrup

Syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup espresso coffee
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 Tbsp Cointreau

Shaved ice
Condensed milk (optional)

To make the syrup - put the all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a rapid boil - lower the heat to a simmer. Let the mixture reduce to a syrupy consistency - about 10 mins. Pour into a bowl with the cinnamon stick and cloves and chill thoroughly.

I used an attachment on my hand blender to crush the ice - it wasn't as smooth as a snow cone - if you have a proper ice shaver you'll get a better result. Shave enough ice to make a firm snow ball the size of your serving dish. Pour a small amount of condensed milk over the ice if you like and then pour over enough espresso syrup to soak into the ice.

Itadakimas!

SHF