We had a full and (mostly) fun-filled weekend! Here’s a diary of events as they unfolded, captured on my iPhone…
The weekend began on Friday with lunch at our favourite Marrickville Thai with the Spice Girl. It had been a long week, and I was looking forward to lunch with SG so desperately that I nearly wept with joy when we arrived at the restaurant. We always order the same thing – Pla Rad Prik (deep fried fish in an amazing sauce), green papaya salad (Som Tum), and sago pudding…
After lunch, SG suggested we meander up Illawarra Road to peek into the Vietnamese grocery stores on the way to our respective cars. We were amazed by the intriguing assortment of fruit and vegetables – I surreptitiously took lots of photos to show you…
There were rambutans…
…and pomelos…
…okra, or lady’s fingers, as I’ve always known them…
…my mother’s favourite, bitter gourd or bitter melon…
…big fat stalks of lemongrass…
…green papaya for Som Tum salad…
…I had no idea what this was – does anyone know?
…lotus root – I’ve only ever bought the tinned version…
…I really should know sort of yam this is, but for the life of me, I can’t remember…
…galangal, a root which we’re hoping to grow in our garden…
…and another mystery melon/squash…
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On Friday night, we cooked pasta con cime di rapa – the broccoli rabé plants are back in season in our garden. Apart from oil and salt, the only ingredients are garlic, chilli, broccoli rabé and pasta…
The boys happily devour this vegetarian offering…
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On Saturday, Pete and I walked up to the local shops. Along the way, we passed this discarded piece of exercise equipment on the nature strip. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how it’s used, and every possible scenario that comes to mind is somewhat..um..risque. Can anyone enlighten me?
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On Sunday morning, we were beside ourselves with excitement – our gardening hero Linda Woodrow was joining us for brunch! We were also just a little bit nervous…would she like us? Would she approve of our garden, which had been built following her plan?
Of course, we were being silly, because Linda is the nicest person we’ve met in forever. We talked almost non-stop from the moment we picked her up at the station to when we dropped her off at the airport. I knew she liked very dark chocolate, so I made a batch of rocky road just for her, using a 75% cacao blend mixed with marshmallows, cranberries, slivered almonds and crystallised ginger…
Brunch was a laid back affair, with homemade focaccia and ciabatta, served with jamon, quince paste, cheeses, smoked salmon and antipasto…
I also made Chicago John’s grandfather’s tuna salad – tinned tuna in oil, topped with sliced Spanish onion, anchovies, ground black pepper, extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. It’s a fabulous combination of flavours, and destined to become a house favourite…
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On Sunday afternoon, I accidentally cut half my nail off while chopping leeks – I sheared it clean off the nail bed and then proceeded to bleed profusely all over the kitchen. After the melodramatic wailing had died down, I took this photo and posted it on my twitter feed, much to Pete’s amusement.
Needless to say, this blogpost has taken me a very long time to type, and if I’m slow with commenting and replying, please excuse me for a few days…
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I’d promised to bake bread for a party the following day, so I had to wear latex gloves! And not for the first time, I was incredibly grateful that my doughs in general, and my ciabattas in particular, require very little hands-on kneading…
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My darling friend Becca, the very tolerant InTolerant Chef, stayed overnight with us on Sunday to attend the party the following day. On Monday, we sat down to a Japanese feast for lunch at Manmaruya…
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And here are my loaves, artfully arranged at the party on Monday night!
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It was a fun few days and I love that my iPhone lets me share them with you!
How was your weekend?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Celia, I knew I should not have looked at the photo of your finger, but I did.
I had to walk away and put my head down – I don’t deal well with this type of stuff. Oh, gosh, this must be soooo painful!
It’s a lot better today Sally, thank you! (And please don’t worry!) xx
Oh dear Celia, get well soon, this should be so bad. I loved all these vegetables… they seem so beautiful. Thank you, love, nia
Thanks Nia, the veggies were all so photogenic! Light was good too! Wish you could have been here to photograph them with me!
What a lovely post Celia, well, except for the part where you chopped your nail off – ouchie! Isn’t that unknown green long fruit/veg possibly a type of cucumber? Also I reckon the exercise machine has something to do with twisting your body – don’t you put your knees on the black bit round bits and hold onto the other handle bits – oh heavens, I am not explaining this very well.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, from the comments below I think it’s a type of melon. And that exercise machine had me intrigued – I honestly couldn’t think of a graceful way to use it. :) xx
Oh, Celia! I have such sympathy/empathy about your nail?finger injury! Honestly, I know most cooks/bakers have scars and burn marks to identify them to each other. My husband thinks I’m accident prone, but these injuries are just a part of the job, I think.
I made a bitter melon salad last week- it is supposed to be very good for diabetics- but it is totally a flavor that has to grow on one. I ate it, thought I hated it, then discovered it wasn’t as bad as I had first thought. I’m not going
to make it again soon- but I will make it again.
You did have a very busy week- so glad you could enjoy most of it before the accident.
Heidi, thank you for your empathy – this one was quite bad, but I’m usually cutting or grating myself in some minor way in the kitchen. Bitter melon – it does take some getting used to, and it’s certainly not a favourite of mine, although my parents love it.
Fascinating post, Celia – there are no ethnic shops in my small town, so all these vegetables are unobtainable to me. I hope you finger mends quickly!
Suelle, thanks love, you made me glad that I took the photos! I wasn’t going to put them up for fear of being longwinded, but now I’m glad I did! For what it’s worth, they’re certainly not available in every fruit shop here either…
I hope your finger gets better quickly, it looks painful.
Thanks Deb, much improved already!
Knees go into those cup thingies, and then hold the handlebars and twist. If you have a dicky back, don’t use this contraption! Ouch on the finger. Wow, I bet that’s sore. :(
Misky, from your description, all I can think of is a back injury! No wonder it was on the verge! :) Finger much better, thank you! (I heal fast!)
In my experience, things that are tossed away are usually not tossed because they’re surplus – they’re tossed because they’re rubbish. :D Glad to hear the finger is healing.
I love taking photos at the market too. You had a lovely weekend of food ( and drinks).Well except for slicing your finger. I have told you Celia if you are going to get serious about losing weight you cant just lop off body parts. (I hope you picked up that piece of exercise equipment because I believe your knees go into the red cups. That might save you getting nasty bruises on your knees each time you kneel down.). Love you!!
I once saw a fabulous comic/cartoon that had a woman standing on scales without any hands. It read something like “Julie was delighted to realise that by amputating her hands, she’d finally reached her goal weight!”. :D
I am new(ish) to your post and to sourdough. I have just read your cibatta post. Could you please tell me what hydration my starter is – I feed with 150gm four and 150gm water. Is this different from using half cup of four and half cup of water? As a novice I would have thought both methods would produce starter at 100%. Love your blog and look forward to clarification.
Oooh Carol, sorry, I replied to this, but not sure where my reply ended up.
The hydration of your starter (and your dough) is a ratio determined by weight. It’s specified as a proportion of the flour weight. So…your starter fed at 150g flour and 150g water would be 100% hydration.
My starter is fed with half a cup of water (125g) and half a cup of flour (75g), which is 125/75, or 166% hydration. Hope that makes sense! :)
It was lovely meeting you on Monday night :)
I wish we had all this interesting produce at our markets! It all looks amazing, we rarely get okra or anything lightly out of the ordinary here :( The finger looks pretty bad :0!
I thoroughly enjoyed the ciabatta on Monday night and the chocolate you made.
Julie, didn’t we have fun! It was great getting to know you (now you know why I had that strange silver thing on my finger on Monday night – it wasn’t jewellery! :))
Gosh your bread looks amazing Celia – and that is with a sliced up finger! Lucky for you we know that you make amazing bread all the time or we might be tempted to think that the sliced finger was playing a role in the success here… (Reminds me of my brief and highly unimpressive foray into basketball when at uni – the best game I had was when I played with a broken toe. My team mates offered to break a toe for me before every game. Needless to say, I quit soon after)
SG, thanks for a really lovely day on Friday. Hope the cold didn’t get any worse! xx
What a busy weekend! How lucky you are to have those fresh Asian ingredients close by. We have planted turmeric and cardamon recently in pots. They are lovely looking plants, I hope they survive the winter.
Chris, we’re going to try planting turmeric, I think! It’s supposed to be very good for us! :)
Erk, that finger photo still makes me curl up my toes. Glad you didn’t let an injury stop you from baking tho!
Amanda, I’m like the pony express of baking…very little stops me.. :D
That chocolate! Dear readers, Celia not only fed me the most glorious dark dark, not too sweet, rocky road, but sent me home with 5 different dark chocolate treats, which meant I had to invite my friend Brett who is dark choclaholic like me for dinner last night to share the bliss. The root crop looks like Taro to me. We’ve grown it in the past but the brush turkeys love it too much. Subtropical and water loving. oooo that finger.
Linda, honestly you made our weekend! Please come again soon! And I’m delighted you enjoyed all the chocolates and found someone to eat them with. Thanks for the headsup on the taro, and also for the garlic which arrived today! xx
My sister-in-law has one of those exercise machines – not sure of the name but you oput your knees in those dents, hold on to the handles and then swing your body round. It’s harder than it sounds! And you look ridiculous cause of course we had to have a go! Your finger gave me the shivers – hope it’s better soon!
Claire, thank you, it’s a lot better now. Was quite sore for a couple of days!
OUCH! You’re such a trooper, Celia! Nothing will get between you and your bread. You sure had a busy — but great — weekend. Sounds like a lot of fun and plenty of good food. That pasta you prepared is one I’d surely enjoy. Thank you so much for the shout-out. I can’t wait to tell Zia that you all enjoyed Grandpa’s tuna salad. She’ll get a real kick hearing that. :)
John, we LOVED the salad – so simple and perfect! I’ve bought small tins of tuna so that I can eat it regularly for lunch, although I wish I could get the fish out in a perfect round shape like you did with yours! :)
Oh your finger looked so painful! How is it feeling now love?
Much better, thanks darling x
What an interesting market. There were so many things there I’ve never seen before!
Ouch to your finger! Hope it get better soon.
Your bread looks just wonderful. I think I might be up to the cibatta challenge now. I shall give it a go soon.
Claire, it wasn’t even a market! It was just a shop! Do try the ciabatta, you’d love it! :)
I love all that fresh produce. So many wonderful things. And that vege pasta looks very devour-able. And your bread looks amazing and I can understand why that torture apparatus is on the nature-strip and still there – it was bought at midnight on one of those shopping channels in a sad moment of despair – everyone’s made that mistake at least once and there’s a contraption under the bed to prove it in every home xx
Charlie, not only is it scary looking, but think of all the space it must have taken up! :) So nice to stir risotto with you the other night, love x
I love those Marrickville shops… I don’t get there as much as my sisters have moved. Finger damage is the worst – there’s not a body part that gets as much use, and those nerve endings…ooohh. Thanks for sharing your weekend – you inspire me with your IPhone snaps… I have to do better…
ED, the iPhone has been wonderful – it’s unobtrusive enough for me to take photos almost everywhere I go! The guys in the fruit shop weren’t the least bit concerned, which they would have been if I’d pulled out a huge SLR.. :)
Awesome range of veggies!
Sorry about your finger – ouchy!
The pasta dish looks amazingly tasty! :-)
Sandy, thank you! The pasta is a house favourite – not bad in a house full of carnivores! :)
After all the time I erstwhile spent in A&E whilst in Med School [and a few mishaps of my own] methinks I know just HOW painful and burning that ‘brave’ finger is: day by day and look after it, lady! Nice weekend . . . and, would you believe it, I made John’s tuna salad also – thanks and good vibes > across the Pond :) !
Eha, snap! Isn’t John’s salad great? Finger is much improved, thank you! :)
Ouchie:( WOW – the variety of foods – loving your captures:) Have a Great One!
Renee, you too! Weekend coming soon! :)
You have such lovely fruits and veggies in Australia!! Are the bitter gourds hollow inside? The bread looks soo good! And you made it with a bunged up finger/hand. I can well imagine how it hurt. Hope you have a speedy recovery!
Manuela, thank you! The bitter gourds have a small hollow centre, but they’re quite fleshy – and bitter!
I had to wait to read this post this morning on my lap top as my tablet does not display all the photos when I am not connected to the wifi. I have no clue what your mystery ingredients are either – and that exercise ‘thing’ looks interesting to say the least. Thank you for sharing your amazing weekend with us, and I hope that your finger heals quickly :)
Tandy, the finger is well and truly on the mend, thank you! It was really a great weekend, thanks for taking the time to read the post! :)
I had to whizz past that bloodied finger, Celia… sheesh! Love those rambutans. I could eat a bucket of those. Yes, you kneel onto that stupid machine and hold the handles while you whirl side to side. Gives you killer abs apparently. I reckon it most likely gives you bad knees!
I’d be worried about my lower back! Sorry about the photo darling, but it was a diary of the weekend happenings! ;-)
Hello Celia. Your post made me smile (& laugh!) because it is so warm and full of good stuff! It is amazing how a ‘meet up’ with an old friend can be so special, especially when it only happens occasionally. All of those fruits and vegetables are incredible…not what I see at the shops in down town Broken Hill let me tell you! The exercise machine looks daunting :)
The rocky road…oh my Lord. Ditto to your brunch, yum.
I look forward to reading more of Linda’s blog. How fun to meet a new friend and make an instant connection. Longest comment ever from me tonight.
Jane, I think you’ll love Linda’s blog! She’s an inspiration! I was really happy with the rocky road – and Pete’s just asked me to make some more for him! :) Thank you for your lovely (and not really very long) comment! xx
busy, busy, busy! And ouch!!
Loved shots from the market, so thanks for taking me along :)
Claire, you always make me feel better – when I posted, I’d wondered if I was being too longwinded with all the veg photos, but they were all so intriguing that I didn’t know which one to leave out. So thank you for enjoying them! :)
Oh Celia, I feel your pain…on my toe!! I have an incredibly overstocked fridge right now and I go to open the door, Wham! A large jar of tomato paste falls on my toe and shatters the nail. Ouchie….
Man, they are huge lemongrass stalks are’nt they?! Wow..
Lisa that would hurt! I hope your foot is doing better! You’ll be pleased to know I used my kataifi pastry today! :)
I “ewwwed” when I saw your finger. I can’t unsee that.
The food looks amazing – must have been a humdinger of a party!
Thanks Maureen, it was a great party! :)
i hope your finger is better soon! My poor friend. Hugs and sympathy,
Maz.
Thanks Maz! Much improved already!
The gourds (photo below the green papaya) are fuzzy melon (mo gwa or jit gwa) it is related to winter melon.
The roots (photo below the lotus root) are taro also known as eddo and dasheen.
The squash (photo below galangal) looks like smooth skin luffa. (loofah).
You should try the fresh lotus root, so different from the canned ones. I think once you have tried the fresh ones, you would not want to eat the canned ones again. The rambutans are so fresh looking, did you try some? Were they sweet.
Hope your finger is better now and you are not in great pain.
Norma, I should have known you’d know! Thank you! I didn’t buy anything – we were in a rush and I was too busy taking photos, but I might take my mum back there one day soon! :) Finger is much better, thank you! x
Celia, You can use fresh lotus root in stir-fries, soup and salad. I posted a few recipes on my blogs and will be happy to send you the links.
What a very full weekend you had Celia dear! I was so blessed to be taken in and made so welcome by you and your lovely boys- thankyou thankyou thankyou xox I hope your finger heals quickly, and wear that guard to protect it! Xox
Becca, thank you for putting up with all the melodrama last weekend around the sore finger! And thank you for suggesting the guard. It was SO nice to have you stay – hope we get a chance to do it again soon! :)
Dear Celia,
I’ve never heard of broccoli raab but that dish looks quite nice even though it’s vegetarian.
As for the exercise machine, I think you are meant to place your knees on the two cups, hold on to the handle bars and then twist around to work your side abs, if they are flabby.
Sorry to hear about your finger. Then again, you now have a huge tub of lady’s fingers to choose from should you need a replacement.
Sounds like you had a great weekend and I know also know what “surreptitiously” mean.
Those things below the green papaya are winter melons. You cut it in half, use a peeler to rid the skin, chop into small piece add it at to a pot of pork ribs soup and Chinese red dates when it’s done. Makes an awesome winter soup.
Now your Chinese mother would be quite cross that you didn’t know all this!
Oh I’ve had the soup, but had no idea what the melon looked like! Don’t tell my mother.. ;-)
Oh no, to your finger!! Ouch. Other than that, it looks like you were on track for a great weekend – and what amazing produce you captured.
Kari, the produce was just so interesting! Glad I had my camera with me! :)
Ow ow OW! Nail injuries are so very painful. How cool to meet Linda! It would be hard to know where to start with the questions.
Jo, it was SO exciting! We talked non-stop for hours! She’s as wonderful as we thought she’d be! :)
OH NO CELIA!!!! I’m soooo sorry to hear about your finger. Ouch! Are you ok?
That pic reminded me of a very similar injury I had at my first kitchen job. I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say I lost my finger nail by way of a meat slicer! Thankfully, everything has healed nicely. I feel your pain :(
On a different note- I love when you do posts like this. I miss Sydney and all of its beauty. These pics at the market are just wonderful! xx FEEL BETTER!!!
Emilie, thank you – it’s much better now. I’m hoping the nail will grow back ok, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Sydney is getting cold now! :)
i was a nurse once and as strange as it sounds i can cope with seeing bodies being operated on but the sight of a chopped finger such as yours makes me feel yuck..i hope it’s on the mend and that you haven’t done permanent damage to the nail bed..x
Jane, thank you – it was surprisingly gory! Sorry to make you feel sick!
What a lovely weekend – except for the finger slicing! They do say you can tell a cook at a glance by the scars and burns on his/her hands!
I just looked at mine and there is STILL a faint scar from opening a tin about 30 years ago!
Pat, I’m such a damn klutz in the kitchen! I’m always covered in cuts and scrapes and burns. I’m trying harder as I get older though – have to be just a bit more careful…
Hope your finger gets better soon. Don’t have time to read all these comments – are those roots Jerusalem artichokes?
Sally, thank you! No, they’re taro!
Morning!
I found your blog via Lorraine, and I’m staying.
In answer to your question… it ‘s called an ab circle.
The two things at the bottom are for your knees, and yes it works in a circular or half circular motion and is for your abs.
It is adjustable in order to work on different parts.
If you were to go on to the ab circle website, you might be able to download how to work it.
Have a Joyful Day :~D
Charlie
Thanks Charlie! I left it on the footpath – it looked like a back injury waiting to happen to me! :) Thanks for visiting!