Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

At the Artisan Markets a few weeks go, I had a cup of the most delicious beef and barley soup.

The following week I found myself craving the taste again, but I had a busy morning planned and didn’t have time to fuss over a pot on the stove. So I pulled out my Römertopfs and let all the ingredients simmer away in the oven.

The end result was a thick stoup (my friend Joanna’s term for a stew-like soup). It wasn’t quite as caramelised and unctuous as traditional versions, because I didn’t brown the meat and veg first (I was a bit pushed for time, and I didn’t want the extra washing up), but it was delicious nonetheless.

I used beef brisket (it was in the freezer) and assorted root vegetables. Below are approximate quantities and instructions – I filled two clay pots, so please reduce the amounts accordingly if you’re only planning to use one.

• Beef brisket, cut into small cubes (I used about a kilo in total)
• potatoes, 3 medium, peeled and diced
• swede, 1 large, peeled and diced
• celeriac, 1 large, peeled and diced
• carrots, 3 medium, peeled and diced
• onions, 2 medium, peeled and diced
• a couple of bay leaves
• plum tomatoes, 4 medium, diced
• Swiss brown mushrooms, 2 large, peeled, de-stemmed, and diced
• thyme, a few sprigs
• pearl barley, 1 cup per pot
• homemade beef stock, about 1 litre per pot or as much as needed to cover the ingredients
• salt and pepper
• Worcestershire sauce

1. Presoak the Römertopf base and lid in a sink of water while you prepare the ingredients. Arrange the oven shelves to fit the pots, but don’t turn the heat on yet.

2. Pile the ingredients into the wet base of the pot and season well with salt and pepper. Stir well, then pour over the stock. Add a splosh of Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine, then cover with the wet lid and place the pot into the oven. Turn the heat up to 200C with fan.

3. Bake for two hours, pulling the pot(s) out every hour or so to stir. Then reduce the heat to 160C with fan and bake for a further one to two hours until the beef and barley are both tender. For the second half of the time, check the pot every half an hour or so, stirring and adding more hot water if needed (be careful not to add cold water to the hot pot).

This was warming and delicious and exactly what I was craving. I rang Carol and invited her over for lunch, and then froze boxes of leftovers for future meals. It’s so thick that it tends to defrost like a porridge rather than a soup, but I don’t mind at all!

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This hot chocolate recipe, from David Lebovitz’ The Sweet Life in Paris, is so simple that it’s almost embarrassing to blog about it. But please trust me on this one, it’s incredibly good, and worth the little bit of extra effort and washing up…

It’s made with just three ingredients – milk, good quality chocolate and a pinch of sea salt. The secret is to prepare it in a saucepan on the stove and to simmer the brew for a few minutes. The end result is thick and unctuously silky, with the consistency of luscious pouring custard.

It’s so rich that it coats the side of the glass when poured…

Here’s the basic recipe – adapt according to your personal preference. These proportions make a very rich hot chocolate which can be diluted down with milk if desired.

• 500g (2 cups) milk (full cream or low fat)
• 140g (5oz) really good quality dark chocolate, chopped or in callet form (I used Callebaut 811 54% cacao)
• good pinch fine sea salt

1. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat, whisking constantly.

2. Turn the heat down as low as it will go and simmer for 3 – 5 minutes (the longer it simmers, the thicker the finished hot chocolate). Keep whisking!

3. Serve in small cups or large mugs, with or without whipped cream (it’s a very rich drink, and I’m a bit lactose intolerant, so I sip it in small doses). Store any leftovers in the fridge as a restorative tonic. According to David Lebovitz, it should keep for up to five days – reheat it gently in the microwave or on the stove.

I pour a slurp in with my decaf coffee (made with biodegradable EcoCaffe pods – I wrote a bit about them here) for a truly fabulous mocha…

I love having a jug of this in the fridge – I pour myself little espresso-sized shots during the day and warm them up in the microwave. It’s the perfect cure for winter greyness!

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I buy a lot of cookbooks, but rarely ones on Chinese or Malaysian cuisine. Because these are so familiar to me, I need to look over the recipe list first to see if there are any that I recognise. Unless the name of a dish brings back a flood of taste memories, I’m unlikely to make a purchase.

When I read the contents of the Dumpling Sisters’ new cookbook, I couldn’t click the “buy now” button fast enough. You might recall that these lovely girls taught me to make dumplings via Food Tube last year. Since then I’ve been eagerly subscribed to their channel, watching every new video clip as it’s uploaded…

. . . . .

Their tender braised brisket sealed the deal for me…

. . . . .

It was the perfect opportunity to test out the beef I’d had delivered recently from Country Meats Direct. I received two rolled brisket roasts in my order, which I divided into 500g portions…

I followed the recipe in the book, which varies slightly from the video. The beef was brought to an initial simmer for 30 minutes, then rested with the heat off for a further 30 minutes, before simmering for a final 60 minutes. I added in the softened bean curd skins at the end as instructed. The finished dish was moan-inducingly good, particularly on soft rice noodles.

Here’s the ingredients list:

• 500g beef brisket
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 3 small pieces of ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• large pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon Sichuan pepper (I substituted white pepper)
• 3 star anise
• 3 dried whole chillies (I used two)
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 30g dried bean curd skins

. . . . .

This very tasty noodle dish from the book also caught my attention…

It’s the easiest thing to make, simply boil up whole wheat pasta and toss it in a sour and sweet sauce. I had fresh egg noodles on hand, so I used those. The sauce was a combination of chilli oil (plus goop), sesame oil, Chinkiang vinegar, soft brown sugar, salt and spring onion. The girls also recommend adding fresh chilli, but we’d used our homemade chilli oil, and the noodles were quite fiery as is.

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If you’re looking for a great Chinese cookbook, do check this one out. The Kindle copy I bought from Amazon is well formatted and easy to navigate. The recipes are simple, comforting and delicious!

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This month’s IN MY KITCHEN is now closed!

Please join us again in August! ♥

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In  my kitchen…

…is a lime green Polartec cover for my insulated granny flask.

With the colder weather, I found the thermos wasn’t keeping water hot for quite as long, so I sewed a cosy for it. Since taking the photo, I’ve made a thick fleece coaster for it to sit on. It’s surprising what a difference a little insulation makes…

In my kitchen…

…is my first delivery from Country Meats Direct.

A few weeks ago, Murray put a flyer in my mailbox offering to sell grassfed Black Angus beef direct from his father’s property in the Hunter Valley. They only deliver to a limited area, and had recently expanded to include our postcode.

At $14.95 a kilo and sold in 10kg lots, it certainly isn’t the cheapest meat on offer, especially as the price is the same regardless of cut. But we’re keen to support Aussie farmers wherever we can – most of Pete’s uncles are or have been graziers, and we know how tough it can be for them to get a decent price for their stock.

On Saturday morning, Nick (another partner in the business) delivered my first order. I’d specifically requested cheaper cuts – we don’t eat a lot of steak, but I was happy to have some eye fillet in the mix. Here’s how the meat looked on delivery…

I spent a cheery hour or so repacking the meat into vacuum sealed bags for the freezer. We’re very good at stretching out meat, and this quantity will provide us with more than a dozen family dinners. This is what we plan to do with our purchase:

• 6 x 500g mince – each packet is sufficient for one dinner for four adults, either as pasta sauce, Mexican style mince, meatballs or keema.

• 6 x 500g brisket – this is a favourite Chinese stewing meat and again, each packet will feed the whole family, accompanied with rice or noodles and stir-fried vegetables.

• 1kg osso bucco – four large pieces, enough for one dinner.

• 1.3kg gravy beef – this will be used in a stew or curry. Leftovers might be turned into a pie the following day.

• 3 x 350g pieces of eye fillet – we’ll use these in our tender beef on rice, as well as in stir fries and noodles.

My order was a little under 10kg, so I was charged the reduced price of $140. If my maths is correct, each meal will work out at about $2.50 in meat per person…

I made braised beef brisket last night for dinner (post to follow) – the meat was flavoursome and tender…

In my kitchen…

…are treats from my recent visit to Eveleigh Markets. They include pink kiss potatoes, purchased from the Highland Gourmet Potato company…

…a generous bag of Swiss Brown mushrooms, picked the day before I bought them…

…Small Man’s favourite apple juice, grown and crushed in Thirlmere (about an hour out of Sydney) plus a kilo of freshly picked Pink Lady apples…

…and a bag of water cress from the Darling Mills stand, which we ate as salad the following day…

In my kitchen…

…is a very generous gift from the lovely Ella Dee – macadamias from Macksville, NSW…

In my kitchen…

…a surprise present from my friend Francesca of Almost Italian. The sarong will be put to good use as an outdoor tablecloth once the weather warms up, and the Balinese sawa wood board will be perfect for cheeses and antipasto…

In my kitchen…

…is yet more meat, bought a few weeks ago. I love Cape Grim beef, so when I saw this piece at Harris Farm Broadway, I put it in my trolley…

Following a Jamie Oliver recipe, we paired this  with a mushroom sauce, baked potatoes and beans. The 500g steak was more than enough for the four of us…

Finally, in my kitchen…

…are baked treats from Kraving K – the latest Sydney cake sensation. Big Boy and Monkey Girl queued up for over an hour to buy these for us last Saturday. I love that they’re out and about seeking food adventures of their own…

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?

If you’d like to do an In My Kitchen post on your own blog, please feel free  to do so. We’d love to see what’s happening in your kitchen this month!  Please link back to this blog, and let us know when your post is up, and we’ll add it to our monthly listing. Please upload your post by the 10th of each month.

Here are this month’s posts…

Christine @ Food Wine Travel (Brisbane, QLD)

Nicole @ Miss Food Fairy (Melbourne, VIC)

JJ @ 84th & 3rd (Sydney, NSW)

Melissa @ The Glen House (Ireland)

Cate @ A Travelling Cook (Berlin, Germany)

Emily @ Cooking for Kishore (New Jersey, USA)

Beck @ In Search of Golden Pudding (Canberra, ACT)

Claire @ Claire K Creations (Brisbane, QLD)

Siobhan @ Garden Correspondent (Ulupinar, Turkey)

Sandy @ The Butlers Good Life (Southland, New Zealand)

Emma @ Surrey Kitchen  (Surrey, UK)

Choclette @ Tin and Thyme (Cornwall, UK)

Tania @ The Cook’s Pyjamas (Perth, Western Australia)

Sherry @ Sherry’s Pickings (Brisbane, QLD)

Mel @ The Cook’s Notebook (Brisbane, QLD)

Debi @ My Kitchen Witch (Sheffield, UK)

Moya @ Food and Tools (Bahrain)

Lisa @ I’ll Be There With A Fork (Brisbane, QLD)

Sandra @ Please Pass the Recipe (Melbourne, VIC)

Maree @ Around The Mulberry Tree (Gippsland, VIC)

Joanne @ What’s on the List? (Adelaide, South Australia)

Shaheen @ Allotment2Kitchen (Wales, UK)

Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook (Philippines)

Sally @ Bewitching Kitchen (Kansas, USA)

Ardys @ Ardysez (Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

Jan @ A Gluttonous Wife (South West VIC)

Liz @ Spades, Spatulas & Spoons (Oakland, CA, USA)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Elaine @ Food Bod (Milton Keynes, UK)

Lori @ Cooks with Evie (Canada)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Kirsty @ Make it Bake it Snap it (Canberra, ACT)

Vicki @ Boiled Eggs & Soldiers (Sydney, NSW)

Amanda @ Lambs’ Ears and Honey (Adelaide, South Australia)

Ella Dee @ Ella Dee (Sydney, NSW)

Josephine @ Napoli Restaurant Alert (Sydney, NSW)

Ania @ Milk, Toast and Honey (UK)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (London, UK)

Cassandra @ Just a Little Piece (San Diego, USA)

Gretchen @ Feeding My 3 Sons (South Carolina, USA)

Sarah @ Chantille-Fleur (North Queensland)

Charlie Louie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

Liz @ Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard (Gold Coast, QLD)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, Victoria)

Jennifer @ Milk and Honey (Gippsland, VIC)

Sally @ My Custard Pie (Dubai)

Misky @ The Chalk Hills Kitchen (West Sussex, UK)

Fiona @ TIFFIN – Bite Sized Food Adventures (Brisbane, QLD)

Tandy @ Lavender and Lime (Gordons Bay, South Africa)

Liz @ Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things (Canberra, ACT)

Shari @ Good Food Week (Canberra, ACT)

Dee @ On The Move – In The Galley (Seattle, WA, USA)

Nancy @ Plus Ate Six (Shanghai, China)

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, Western Australia)

Tania @ My Kitchen Stories (Sydney, NSW)

Mandy @ The Complete Cookbook (Sundays River, South Africa)

Greg and Katherine @ Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide (Little Rock, Arkansas, USA)

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Small Man, who is studying for his HSC (matriculation) exams, desperately needed some R&R. So last Friday, we drove out to Penrith to the iFly Indoor Skydiving Centre…

Our son, who passionately enjoys this sport, launched himself into the wind tunnel with enormous glee…

I had great fun playing with the slow motion setting on my new iPhone…

When the kids were finished (Big Boy and Monkey Girl both flew as well), we had a chance to watch the experts hone their skills…

Their instructor Mark then had his turn…

It’s a fabulous (if expensive) way to work off a little tension. Small Man is very keen to go back, so we’ll try and find another time for him after the HSC trial exams.

Penrith is an hour’s drive from home, so it was 5pm by the time we came home. Instead of cooking dinner, we all hopped onto the Light Rail and went into town to Big Boy and Monkey Girl’s favourite sushi restaurant (Umi Sushi Haymarket). Pete studied their huge long fish tank very carefully – it was very clean and well maintained…

The sushi was very good, and we were amazed that you could have a whole scampi for $6.50…

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On Saturday morning, Pete and I popped into the Rocks. We were greeted by the most amazing view from the platform at Circular Quay station…

The Museum of Contemporary Art have a new exhibition on display called Energies: Haines & Hinterding, showcasing the work of  Australian artists David Haines and Joyce Hinterding (both based locally in the Blue Mountains). It’s a very unusual collection which allows the viewer to experience unseen energies through visual and audio mediums.

In the Level 1 Gallery, the large Haines installation Geology lets the spectator interact and control an enormous video display. The photos below are of Pete conducting the creation of the planet…

A large part of the collection is audio-based. By tracing the black ink lines with their fingers, viewers can cause changes to the radio signals which are being transmitted through the headphones…

These large radio antennas capture the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the sun and transform it into audible sounds. In effect, this artwork allowed us to “listen” to the sun (although as Pete pointed out, there is no actual sound in the sun because there’s no air – I was very glad to have him with me when visiting this exhibition)…

Yet another radio antenna, this one being very long wave, captured invisible energies from all around and converted them into static which could be heard through the accompanying headphones. To be honest, I was a bit over static by this point…

…but I was very taken by how the wires inadvertently turned the regular studio lights into a multi-faceted beam…

I stood there for ages studying how the beam of light split halfway through and touched the ground at two separate points. It was non-existent from the other side of the artwork. No one else seemed to notice, but I was completely entranced…

After viewing the exhibition, we went to the MCA Cafe on the top floor for a quick lunch. The view from the roof is always grand, but this was the first time I’d seen this statue…

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Strolling through the Rocks Markets after leaving the MCA, we paid a visit to our fossil friend Tom. He had a couple of irresistible new treasures, including this amazing and rare (but fragile) black amethyst crystal formation…

This small block of dendritic limestone is also known as a picture stone. These are often described as “nature’s paintings” and I find them fascinating. I can see faces in this one, can you? (At the bottom, in the middle.)

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Hope you’re all having a glorious weekend!

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