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Archive for the ‘Food & Friends’ Category

Small Man’s 21st

Posted in Food & Friends on September 2, 2017| 45 Comments »

Our Small Man has turned twenty-one.

It’s a big deal.

As those of you who have been following along for the past decade will appreciate, it hasn’t been an easy road for him. He’s had stage 4 cancer, which in turn led to learning and social difficulties, anaphylaxis-inducing allergies, and a variety of other health issues. At one point, we weren’t sure he’d make it to twenty-one months, let alone twenty-one years. I’ve written a bit about this in the past, so I won’t rehash it all here, but you’re welcome to read these posts if you’re interested: Small Man; Giving Thanks.

When we asked our son how he would like to celebrate, he replied very much in character by asking for a “modest” party. So we invited only those who knew him well and loved him nearly as much as we do. We tidied up the back deck and spent a day cooking in the kitchen.

We made pork and fennel sausage rolls from scratch, starting with kilos of homemade rough puff pastry (following this great YouTube tutorial from River Cottage)…

Despite my best efforts, the birthday cake was seriously ugly.

I started with two of our chocolate slab cakes and then attempted to join them together with icing…

Thankfully, Small Man didn’t care how it looked…

…and our friends were all happy with how it tasted – most came back for seconds…

As always, the chicken liver parfait was very popular. I used free range livers from Harris Farm Markets in Leichhardt and a heavy-handed pour of XO brandy…

We deep-fried a mountain of Malaysian prawn crackers.

Monkey Girl and I discovered that they were sublime spread with the parfait…

Maude’s gojuchang and caramel popcorn was inspired by Lorraine’s Peking Duck popcorn recipe. It was a huge hit…

There were platters of antipasti, loaves of freshly baked sourdough, giant slabs of pizza, and many, many bottles of French champagne. We all had a wonderful time…

Small Man, we love you and we couldn’t be prouder of the young adult you’ve grown up to be. Thank you for being such an important part of our lives, and for allowing us to be part of yours! ♥

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Random Hilarity

Posted in Food & Friends on August 25, 2017| 21 Comments »

A random assortment of bits and pieces from the past few weeks!

As I was putting this post together, I kept laughing at how absurdly funny life can be. After all, when was the last time you saw a raspberrying fish? This one was a super fresh orange perch at the Viet Hoa Fishmarket (Moo, if you’re reading this, can you please explain exactly what the “tongue” is? Thanks) …

. . . . .

My take on morning yoga stretches. I’m sure you’ve all heard of “Salute to the Sun”?

Well, I’ve named this pose “Moon the Sea”. Sometimes I wait until the rowers are going past…

. . . . .

I’ve added a couple of ammonite fossils to my collection.

The suture pattern in this one is so intricate that it messes with my mind a bit. How on earth does nature create patterns like this in stone? Both fossils below are cleoniceras ammonites from Madagascar and they’re 113 million years old…

The second fossil has been polished to display its nacre (the lining of the shell, similar to the inside of an abalone or pearl shell). It’s known as a fire ammonite, because under the right lighting, it glows an iridescent red…

. . . . .

After searching all the coffee shops in our area, I finally ordered myself a tiny Keep Cup directly from the company. It’s the cutest wee thing and the perfect size for my decaf piccolos. As an added advantage, it fits into my bag or pocket when I’m out walking…

Best of all, they’re designed and made in Australia…

. . . . .

Big Boy is now working three days a week in a client’s office and was trying to sort out lunch options – he’d eaten about as many bacon and egg rolls as he could stomach. I made him a quick couscous salad from ingredients we had in the fridge…

…then wrapped it up in a furoshiki (of course). My darling boy was ever so grateful, particularly for the opportunity to go to work looking like (his words) “a Japanese schoolgirl”…

. . . . .

I sent this photo to Cynthia, and told her that that the wall-flours sit demurely in my kitchen, but they’ll dance if they’re asked. She loves both a good pun and a bad Regency romance…

My baby sister replied with…

“What do you call a theoretical chemist?”

“A hypothecary!”

It must be genetic, because these days, we find each other hilarious, even though nobody else seems to. Our families are mostly appalled.

. . . . .

Finally, I’ve decided that this is the only ice cream I’m ever eating from now on.

Ok, that’s unlikely to stick, but it’s definitely the ice cream I want to be eating from now on. Cow and Moon in Enmore won the Gelato World Tour title in Italy in 2014 on the strength of it. It’s a Mandorla Affogato gelato, made with caramelised Italian almonds, single origin coffee and Madagascan vanilla, and it’s ridiculously good…

. . . . .

Have a fabulous weekend, folks! ♥

PS. Blogging is about to slow down a bit, as life is about to get very busy, in a most excellent way. It’s been wonderful catching up with you all this month! x

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Yum Cha at Home

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living, Recipes on August 5, 2017| 28 Comments »

My mother is completely adorable.

This is my favourite photo of her, but hopefully she won’t see this post, or I’ll be in trouble for posting a picture of her with grey hair…

Last weekend, she came over for lunch.

I made char siu bao (this recipe by Rasa Malaysia is brilliant)…

…and pig’s tail congee with homemade chilli oil…

…and potsticker dumplings. I normally make these with bought wrappers, but my friend Maree inspired me to try making the skins from scratch. They were a bit thick and wonky, but delicious…

Mum was  very impressed and told me in Hokkien…”you can go and live in the mountains now”. My Chinese is basic at best, but I think the implied translation is…”you can go and live in the wild places now”. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t thinking of Leura.

She made us laugh so much – we’ve been baking our own bread for a decade, growing fruit and vegetables in the garden, collecting eggs from our backyard chooks, making yoghurt, muesli, preserves, chocolate and generally living as self-sufficient a lifestyle as possible. But in my gorgeous mother’s eyes, this was the turning point. Once we could make dumpling skins, then we could surely survive in the wilderness. I’m smiling just typing this.

If you’d like to make your own dumplings at home, it’s hard to beat this fabulous instructional video by the aptly named Dumpling Sisters. Maybe you can go and live in the wild places too! ♥

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A Foodie Adventure

Posted in Food & Friends, My Photos on July 22, 2017| 23 Comments »

A couple of months ago, my young friend Rory, who takes great pains to keep me up to date with all that is cool and hip in the 21st century (including not using the words “cool” and “hip”), tried to explain to to me what a “homegirl” was.

I’m still not quite sure I understand, but what I am certain of is that if I did have a “homegirl”, it would be Allison. We don’t see each other as often as either of us would like, but when we do, it’s always for a food adventure. And it can’t be expensive, high-end restaurant dining – we’ve tried that and always ended up disappointed. Instead, it has to involve ferreting around for treasure in little suburban stores, finding new and exciting cuisines that we haven’t tried before.

On our most recent day out, we started in Homebush West (formerly Flemington) at the recently opened Hometown Hand Made Noodle Restaurant (97 The Crescent, Homebush West). Their house special –  the Xi’an Cold Noodle dish – was delicious and set us back just $7.80. The noodles were chewy and handcut, and the sauce was spicy and sour. It was an auspicious start to a great day…

The Special Pan Fried Pork Dumplings were a huge serve of 15 pieces for $10.80. Al declared them to be the best dumplings she’d ever eaten…

Edit 2018: Sadly this restaurant has now closed!

From there, we wandered around the corner to the Viet Hoa Fish Market. Since discovering this place, I’ve almost completely stopped going to the Sydney Fish Markets in town. Their stock is always fresh (often live) and interesting, and the prices are very reasonable. Cash only though!

On a tip from  my mate Jay, we asked about the live eels they keep at the back of the store. I’d never cooked eel before, so I bought one ($20/kg) which they killed and filleted for me. Packed with a bag of ice, we stashed it in the boot of Al’s car and kept going (be warned, there’s a freaky end to this story coming up…)

From Flemington, I persuaded Al to come with me to Petersham on the promise of Portuguese tarts. First stop was Charlie’s Deli – an old established store on the main strip. I love this shop, because whilst it’s quite sparsely stocked, every single item on offer is unusual and interesting. I’ve bought ceramics there in the past but this time I came home with imported Portuguese chicken seasoning mix.

By the way, the blue slabs in the photo below that look like Play Doh? They’re laundry soap…

The promised Portuguese tarts were scoffed with coffee at the Honeymoon Bakery. We prefer these to the ones sold at the more famous Sweet Belem across the road, and at $2 each, the price is hard to beat. We both bought a box to take home for the kids…

We ended our day with a visit to the intriguing Petersham Liquor Mart. Where else can you find Serbian plum brandy in Sydney?

. . . . .

Al went home with amazing beef ribs from the Portuguese butcher, but I still had my eel to tackle. Lovely Ania suggested I cut the fillet into pieces and then simply flour and fry them in butter. Sounds simple right?

Well, it was, except that no-one warned me that eels have very primitive nervous systems and can continue to spasm even after they’re long dead and dissected. Warning! Warning! Don’t click on the video below if you’re squeamish!!

This video was taken four hours after the eel had been killed. Pete pointed out that it was only happening as it  warmed up, so hopefully it didn’t do this the whole time it was in the boot of Al’s car. The sound is off so you don’t have to listen to me screaming…

It was, without doubt, the best eel I’d ever eaten, but Pete had to fry them for me, as I couldn’t touch them again…

Finally, a free range chicken, roasted in  my Portuguese chicken seasoning. The boys loved it…

Thanks for a fabulous day, Al! Can’t wait for our next food adventure! ♥

 

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Weekend Sewing Project: Pincushions

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living on July 8, 2017| 19 Comments »

When I was twenty-one, I worked part-time in a little cross stitch shop called Topiary Lane during uni holidays. While I was there, lovely Rhonda taught me to make these pincushions.

I’d completely forgotten about them until I came home with my pile of Japanese cottons recently. Some of the pieces were too small for furoshiki and as I’m not a quilter, I was keen to find something else to do with them other than juggling balls. These little pincushions are quite easy and quick to assemble, they make a fabulous gift, and if times get tough, you can sell them for $10 each like Rhonda used to!

Start by tracing and cutting two circles of fabric. I used a small side plate as a guide which resulted in a large pincushion, but I was keen to keep as much of the pattern as possible. A small tea cup saucer produces a more standard size…

With right sides together, join the two pieces together, leaving a gap.

Edit: Margo suggested clipping the seam carefully at regular intervals to prevent puckering. It works! There are some great instruction son how to do this here.

Turn right side out, stuff firmly (but not to rock hard), then turn in the open edges and whipstitch closed…

Thread a large needle with embroidery cotton in a matching colour…

Start in the centre of the base with a few backstitches to lock the thread in place…

Push the needle through the middle of the pincushion to the front and through a small button…

Repeat at the base – it’s a bit tricky to line up the buttons, so watch your fingers. The aim is to pull the centre of the pincushion in slightly. Sew through both buttons a couple of times to secure, then tie off the thread by wrapping it a few times around the bottom button…

Cut a long piece of embroidery thread (from memory, Rhonda used thin ribbon but I didn’t have any on hand) and tie it around the bottom button. Wrap a couple of times to secure, then bring the thread to the front and wrap it around the top button. Pull gently to form “petals”…

Continue wrapping the thread from front to back, going around the middle button each time, until you’ve divided the pincushion into six sections…

I went around twice, resulting in a double thickness of embroidery cotton at each divider. Finish by tying the thread off around the bottom button, wrapping the loose thread a few times more, then trimming carefully…

These are great fun to make and a good way to use up the big bag of polyfill leftover from my sock toys. The only tricky part is getting the needle through the middle buttons, but once you’ve managed that, the winding bit is easy. I’m going to make smaller ones next for Christmas presents! ♥

PS. Here’s the one I made this morning, using a smaller template and following Margo’s suggestion in the comments below to clip the seams every 2cm or so. It worked a treat! I’ve used a scrap of Japanese woven indigo and sashiko cotton this time, and made eight sections instead of six. ‘Tis a cute wee thing!

pincushion

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