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Archive for July, 2009

Picnic

Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on July 21, 2009| 4 Comments »

How to have a perfect picnic:

Step 1: choose a perfect location.  It doesn’t get much better than Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, where you can admire both the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the water’s edge.  I didn’t take the photo above, but that was the view we had on Sunday as we sat in the winter sunshine and ate lunch.

Step 2: plan to spend the day with people you love – in our case it was Dan and Patrick and their gorgeous kids, Little T and Bodhi, home for a visit from the US.  Dan’s twin brother Daz and his family were there as well, ensuring there were lots of little people to be “eaten” when Mr Wolf announced it was “dinner time!”.

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Step 3: make simple picnic food. I was up early on Sunday morning and made a couple of loaves of olive and cheese bread.  These were still slightly warm by lunch time and easy to slice and share.  I started at 8.30am and the loaves were out of the oven and ready to go by 11am.  That might sound like a long time, but remember that breadmaking is mostly about leaving the dough alone – the actual hands-on time involved can be measured in minutes.

I began by making the basic bread dough and, at the initial mixing stage, threw in whatever I could find in the fridge – in this case it was pitted Kalamata olives, chunks of pecorino cheese and chopped pancetta.  After the first rise, the dough was shaped and risen a second time in loaf tins, then baked until golden.

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A bag of homemade meringues was the perfect finish to a simply perfect lunch.

On the way back to the car we passed a colony of flying foxes roosting in the trees, a flock of Australian White Ibises flying overhead (they honk like geese) and an astonishing array of flora from all over the world. Just magic – yet another reminder that we live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

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Roasted Tomato Passata

Posted in Gluten Free, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on July 19, 2009| 11 Comments »

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Whenever we can, we make our own tomato passata, using an adaptation of a Bill Granger recipe.  Forget your preconceived notions of sauce making being an all day affair involving barrels of tomatoes and backyard boilers – this is an easy way to make a reasonable quantity of passata in a relatively short time.  We freeze our sauce in one cup (250ml) takeaway containers, which is a good working quantity for us – one tub is enough to top three pizzas, or three tubs will make a batch of bolognese sauce.

To give you some idea of value – we bought a box of romas from Jimmy the Tomato Man last Friday for $10 ($1/kilo).  We still have two kilos left, which means the eight kilos we used cooked down to nine small takeaway containers.  It doesn’t seem like very much, but remember that the tomatoes have already reduced.  As a result, you don’t need to use nearly as much in a recipe, nor do you need to cook it for as long. Apart from being  more economical (our bolognese sauce uses $9 – $10 worth of tinned and bottled tomatoes, when we don’t have our own), the homemade passata tastes better – Big Boy now won’t eat pizzas topped with anything else.

Step 1: buy great tomatoes.  Romas are by far the best if you can afford them, but the recipe will work with any sort of red tomato, providing they’re ripe and juicy, but not too mushy. Wash them and cut them in half, then lay them out on a large oven tray lined with parchment paper.

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Step 2: Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle over with salt. Bake in a preheated 220C oven for about half an hour, or until some of the edges just start to blacken.

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Step 3: In the meantime, heat olive oil in a large pan and fry some chopped onion and garlic until soft.  Add the roasted tomatoes with any juices to the pan and stir well.

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Step 4: Add a large spoonful of tomato relish (optional). We use one that Pete makes.

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Step 5: Cook well until the skins separate from the tomato flesh and the passata is reduced and thickened to your liking.

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Step 6: Process the sauce through a food mill to remove the skins.

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Step 7: Ladle the finished passata into containers, label and store in the freezer.

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. . . . .

© copyright 2009 by Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. All rights reserved.

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Black Truffle

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , on July 17, 2009|

Maude knocked on our front door this morning with a plate of scrambled eggs, topped with grated black truffle (!!!).

Han the Delivery Man had arrived with a parcel for her – a Tasmanian black truffle on ice – a birthday present from her brother.  Since her birthday isn’t even in July, I can only assume that Jason was working on the principle that she has a birthday sometime this year, but truffles wait for no-one.

Big Boy came out to investigate as soon as Maude arrived – he could smell the earthy aroma from his room.  He and I demolished the dish standing up in the kitchen, with a fork each, working in from opposite ends of the plate.  Our first taste of fresh truffle, made possible because we have the best neighbours in the universe!

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Taramosalata

Posted in Gluten Free, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , on July 14, 2009| 6 Comments »

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I used to make this regularly a decade ago after Soula the Greek Girl (as she was known at the time) gave me the recipe.  I hadn’t thought about it in years, but when I passed a tub of tarama roe at the markets recently, I couldn’t resist buying some, despite having Pete in my ear, saying “Are you sure you want to do this?”. I understood his concern. Whenever I’d made this in the past, I’d eaten it until I was sick, then sworn off it forever – it’s one of those recipes…

But this time I was smarter, I made the batch and split it four ways to share with the neighbours.  It’s something you have to do straight away, before you get a chance to (over)eat it – if you think about it too long, you’ll have eaten a tub in the “just tasting for seasoning” process.

This is quite an unusual taramosalata recipe in that it uses potato as thickener rather than bread crumbs.  It’s a lot lighter as a result, but probably won’t keep as long (not that I’ve ever had that problem).  It has the advantage of being gluten-free, and I’ve varied Soula’s original version to lower the fat content, which is hard to believe given that there is still one to two cups of olive oil in the recipe. However, it does make a large quantity – my batch filled four 750ml takeaway containers (now I wish I’d kept two for myself, as I’ve eaten mine).

  • Juice of 1 large lemon
  • 1 Tbsp white vinegar
  • 5 medium pink potatoes (approx. 1kg)
  • 1 large brown onion
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 1 – 2 cups pure olive oil
  • 200g taramosalata roe

Note: taramosalata roe, or “tarama” as it is sometimes labelled, can be bought from most continental delis.  It’s sold by weight – look out for a large white tub of brilliantly hued paste.

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1. Wash the potatoes, but don’t peel them. Prick them all over with a fork, then microwave in a covered pyrex dish until soft – in my microwave that took about 13 minutes, but it will vary depending on the size of your potatoes.  Take them and allow them to cool slightly.

2. While the potatoes are microwaving, puree the onion in a large food processor.  Add the lemon juice, salt, vinegar, tarama and ½ cup of oil, and blitz until well combined and as smooth as possible.

3. Peel the hot potatoes, cut them into pieces, and while still hot, add them to the food processor one potato at a time.

4. Add the boiling water and oil as required to keep the mixture loose and dip like.  I like to add the full amount of boiling water and as little of the oil as I can get away with (but a minimum of one cup).   The finished result should be like a very runny mash potato – it will thicken up as it cools in the fridge. 

Note: Soula’s original recipe specified 1 cup boiling water to 2 cups olive oil, in case anyone wants to try the full fat version.

I know it’s culturally incongruous, but I always serve this with corn chips or corn crackers – there’s something about the flavour combination that really appeals to me!

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Colours Of My Kitchen

Posted in Food & Friends, In My Kitchen, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2009| 6 Comments »

You know how some people have white kitchens?  Everything is white and stainless steel and elegant.  That is so not the case at our house. Sure, the benches are white, and we serve dinner on white bone china, but the advent of silicone and plastic has added glorious colour to the room.  On a dull and overcast day, just opening the kitchen drawers can put a smile on my face.  I thought you might enjoy seeing the colours of my kitchen.

Here are the browns – chocolate, dutch cocoa, and more chocolate.

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Pete’s magnificent jams are always jewel-like and luminescent. If they didn’t taste so good, I’d keep them on the shelf as decorative pieces.

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I have a pair of Emile Henry tagines in flame red which I am completely besotted with.  Food always tastes better cooked in these – I’m sure the colour makes a difference…

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My friend Robyn gave me a Herbie’s Spice Kit for my birthday, and Pete V brought  back saffron for me from their trip to Spain.  I find the colour of  the spices appealing – particularly the red and terracotta toned ones.  The saffron is so alluring that whenever I need some for a recipe, I have to spend ten minutes admiring it first…

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And finally, here are my customised Fig Jam and Lime Cordial Welding Gloves.   You know you’ve hit the big time when you have branded merchandise, although it’s a little sad when you have to make it yourself.  I found these welding gloves at a great price, and can you guess why?  How many welders do you know who would front up to a construction site wearing bright orange welding gloves?  Which is a shame, because these are day-brighteningly gorgeous!

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