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Slowing Down

July 3, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

My friend Patrick once said to me…“Celia, you’ll sleep when you’re dead”.

He was referring tongue-in-cheek to how crazy busy our lives get sometimes. And indeed, the first half of this year was both hectic and stressful.

So for a couple of weeks, while everyone is on school and uni holidays, instead of making plans to go away or filling each day with activities, I’ve decided to do everything at half speed. I’m getting up later, cooking more (hey, I find that therapeutic) and spending less time on the internet. But I’m still taking photos on my iPhone to share with you – here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to…

I’ve been baking Pan Cubano with the garlicky lard we found in Petersham…

I opened an old bottle of wine and drank it with  my boys – I can’t tell you how happy I was to be able to do that. I had the bottle stashed in the cellar for over a decade waiting for such an occasion…

pet4

Life is always better when I get to have a cup of tea with my dear friend Tezza…

The weather is cooling, so I made treacle pudding for Small Man…

I only had a small piece…

This is how we eat when we’re feeling lazy – almost all the ingredients are in the freezer, and I can assemble the burritos in under an hour. I defrost tortillas, pulled pork, grated cheese and leftover rice, then cook a quick batch of frijoles refritos. The tortillas are filled, seasoned with a little chipotle salsa, then topped with cheese and baked to golden.

I used to use tinned refried beans, but Big Boy was emphatic that the frijoles made the dish, and it was important that they were freshly cooked. I love that my sons are so particular…

Curry puffs were on the menu last Friday, made with my new flaky pastry (I wasn’t quick enough to take a photo of them once they were out of the oven)…

I’ve been pottering in the garden, reading light novels with guaranteed happy endings, and playing games on the iPad…

I spent several hours making Paula Wolfert’s Morrocan Harira, which tasted very nice, but unfortunately all my photos ended up looking like dog food. If you’ve got Paula’s Clay Pot cooking book, the recipe is in there, and it caught my eye because it’s thickened with sourdough starter…

All in all, we’re pretty chilled out at the moment, and it’s glorious. How are things going in your part of the world?

Posted in Food & Friends | 89 Comments »

In My Kitchen, July 2014

July 1, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

In my kitchen…

…is an olive dish, complete with pip and toothpick holder…

In my kitchen…

…are bay leaves from Mark’s garden, hanging up to dry…

In my kitchen…

…are the shells from our backyard eggs. We dry them out a bit in the oven and then blitz them in the food processor. The powder is then sprinkled into the worm farm, where it adds minerals, provides the worms with the grit they need, and helps with the acidity levels. Eventually it ends up back on the beds, where the chooks pick it out, thereby getting the calcium they need for their shells. Isn’t permaculture fabulous?

In my kitchen…

…are treasures from Essential Ingredient. This hamper was PeteV and Nic’s birthday present to Pete…

At the bottom of the photo above you can see a vanilla flower, made from twisted  and shaped pods. We now have two of these, so I popped them into a jar of vodka to brew into extract…

In my kitchen…

…is a litre of Portuguese olive oil, bought solely because I couldn’t resist the hatted man with his jacket slung so jauntily over his shoulder…

In my kitchen…

…are passionfruit and lime cupcakes. I meant for them to look rustic. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)

In my kitchen…

…is a delicious version of Jacques Pépin’s potato ragout, made with pepperoni and bacon from Black Forest Smokehouse…

In my kitchen…

…are two containers of lard. If you’re in Sydney’s Inner West, it’s worth knowing that the Talho Portuguese Butchery in Petersham (4/88-97 New Canterbury Road) sells lard at a very reasonable price – just $4.50 per large container. It’s a byproduct of the crackling they make for feijoada every week. This lard isn’t unscented and neutral like the one we make ourselves – instead, it’s garlicky and savoury. (Edit: Sadly Jose is closing his butchery on 26/7/14)

I gave one box to our neighbour June…

…and used some of the remainder to make flaky pastry for the freezer. Given my recent debacle with packaged frozen pastry, I’ve resolved not to buy it any more, but I do like having a stash on standby…

I’ve figured out that if I make the pastry by hand rather than in the food processor, it has a better chance of ending up flaky. I think that’s because making it by hand leaves lumps of butter in the finished dough (as you can just see in the photo below)..

Here’s the recipe I used:

  • 400g plain (AP) flour
  • good pinch of fine sea salt
  • 75g lard
  • 75g cold unsalted butter
  • 125ml cold water (from the tap is fine)

Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Rub in the lard and butter until mostly combined, then add in the cold water and knead briefly to bring the dough together. This quantity makes enough to top two large pies. I also use this pastry for empanadas and curry puffs.

I ended up with the best pastry I’ve ever made – the garlicky lard adding flavour and crispness, and the cold butter producing flakiness. It was also quite sturdy – making it easy to roll out and shape…

In my kitchen…

…are the most wonderful lemons in the world, picked from our backyard tree…

My friend Sally from My Custard Pie said to make preserved lemons – so naturally, I did. I used the Stephanie Alexander recipe, tucking pieces of cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves into the mix…

. . . . .

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…

Emma @ SurreyKitchen (first IMK post! Surrey, UK)

Tina @ The Rogue Sparrow (Australia)

Moya @ Food & Tools (Bahrain)

Laila @ Table of Colors (Finland)

Selma @ Selma’s Table (London, UK)

Bernice @ Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen (Calgary, Canada)

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

Danielle @ The nOATbook (Melbourne, VIC)

Becca @ The InTolerant Chef (Canberra, ACT)

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

Ngan @ Ngan Made It (first IMK post! San Francisco, USA)

Shaheen @ Allotment2Kitchen (Wales)

Joanne @ What’s On The List? (Adelaide, South Australia)

Christine @ Invisible Spice (Sydney, NSW)

Minnie @ The Lady 8 Home (first IMK post! Boston, USA)

Emily @ Cooking for Kishore (New Jersey, USA)

Fran @ The Food Marshall (Canberra, ACT)

Siobhan @ Garden Correspondent (Ulupinar, Turkey)

Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

Nicole @ Miss Food Fairy (Melbourne, VIC)

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

Sandy @ Vegans Eat Yummy Food Too! (Sydney, NSW)

Maree @ Around The Mulberry Tree (first IMK post! Gippsland, VIC)

Ella @ Mulberry and Pomegranate (Sydney, NSW)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella (Sydney, NSW)

Claire @ Claire K Creations (Brisbane, QLD)

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

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

Veganopoulos (first IMK post! Melbourne, VIC)

Debi @ My Kitchen Witch (Sheffield, UK)

Jennifer @ Milk and Honey (Gippsland, VIC)

Sandra @ Please Pass the Recipe (Melbourne, VIC)

Marian @ Apricot Tart (Adelaide, South Australia)

Anne @ Anne Lawson (Melbourne VIC)

Stephanie @ The Dessert Spoon (first IMK post! Brisbane, QLD)

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

Sherry @ Sherry’s Pickings (Brisbane, QLD)

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

Diane @ Photographs and Recipes (Massachusetts, USA)

Kim @ A Little Lunch (Oklahoma, USA)

Clare @ The Life of Clare (Geelong, VIC)

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

Ale @ Ligera de Equipaje (Argentina)

Lauren @ Living the Savory Life (Perth, Western Australia)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Charlie Louie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

Nancy @ Jamjnr (Shanghai, China)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (now in London, UK!)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Kylie @ Town Mouse Country Mouse (Northern Victoria)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, VIC)

Emma @ Gustoso (Brisbane, QLD)

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots (Essex, UK)

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

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

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, Western Australia)

 Tania @ My Kitchen Stories (Sydney, NSW)

Posted in In My Kitchen | 179 Comments »

Lemon and Poppy Seed Tea Cake

June 29, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Last weekend, our darling neighbour Michelle had a baby shower. Little Arturo (our current working title for her bump) is expected to make an appearance any day now and we’re very excited for her and Shaun!

The day before, we’d picked a bowl of lemons from our heavily laden tree, and I was keen to incorporate them into a cake to take to the party…

Early on Sunday morning, I consulted my copy of The Flavor Bible. This fabulous tome isn’t a cookbook, but rather a detailed study of how we perceive and taste food, accompanied by comprehensive lists of different ingredients and their recommended pairings. I read recently that it’s a favourite with chefs, who will often refer to it when creating new dishes.

I turned to the “lemon” listing and noted “almond” and “poppy seeds” as two of the recommended matches. From there, it was a doddle to adapt our tea cake recipe to suit…

  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 200g white sugar
  • grated zest of two large lemons
  • 4 large (59g) free range eggs
  • 150g self-raising flour
  • 150g blanched almond meal
  • 30g poppy seeds

Icing

  • 150g icing sugar mixture (confectioners sugar)
  • juice of half a large lemon (or as much as needed)

1. Preheat oven to 160C with fan and line a baking tray with parchment paper (I used a rectangular 30cm x 23cm / 12″x9″ pan enamel baking pan).

2. In the large bowl of the food processor, blitz together the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and pulse until combined, adding in a spoonful of the flour if required to stop the batter from splitting. Scrape down the sides as needed.

3. Stir together the flour, almond meal and poppy seeds, then add to the food processor and pulse until just combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared tray.

4. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Rotate the tray half way through the baking time if needed. Place on a wire rack to cool, but don’t lift the cake out of the pan.

5. Once the cake has cooled, sift the icing sugar mixture into a large bowl, and gradually whisk in enough lemon juice to form a fairly thick but pourable icing. Drizzle the icing over the top of the cake, and spread evenly with a spatula or butter knife.

6. Allow to cool before lifting out of the pan and cutting into neat squares…

Like the pound cake recipe, our basic tea cake formula is proving to be extremely versatile – this is now its fourth incarnation, and each one has been distinctly different to the others. Pete decided that he would have preferred a straight lemon cake without the poppy seeds, but everyone else loved this!

Posted in Recipes | 98 Comments »

Man’oushe Fougasse

June 27, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

“Mum, is this bread Lebanese or French?”

Small Man came home crook from school on Friday, so on Saturday morning, I baked him fougasse loaves topped with za’atar. Traditionally, za’atar topped flatbreads called man’oushe are served as a Lebanese breakfast, and my son adores them.

Fougasse are quick and easy to make – the yeasted dough proves quickly, the loaves don’t need a second rise, and they bake up in just 15 minutes in the oven. I wrote a detailed post a few years ago and my basic bread formula is listed below, but the shaping technique can easily be applied to whatever dough you normally use…

  • 500g bakers/bread flour
  • 10g dried yeast
  • 8g fine sea salt
  • 320g water
  • 50g olive oil

The za’atar I use is Jordanian by Al Salam. I mix it with light olive oil to create a spreadable paste…

If you can’t buy a za’atar blend, you can mix your own using this recipe from Spice Notes by Ian Hemphill, owner of Herbie’s Spices:

  • 3 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed but not powdered in a pestle and mortar
  • 1 tsp sumac
  • ½ tsp toasted sesame seeds
  • ¼ tsp salt

I spread the spice paste over the shaped fougasse with my fingers – it’s a messy process! Once shaped and coated, the dough goes straight into the oven…

My 900g batch of dough resulted in six fougasse – Small Man ate three of them for lunch. They’re a fun and easy weekend bake!

Posted in Recipes | 44 Comments »

Our Winter Garden

June 25, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

We’re having a very mild winter in Sydney and as a result, the garden is growing lush and green.

Our lemon tree is heavily laden with the best tasting fruit we’ve ever tried…

We’ve been substituting perennial leeks for onions in all our cooking…

Just one monster squash remains in the front bed – the chooks are due to rotate onto it any day now…

In Sydney, winter is the season for leafy greens! The bed we planted in February has evolved and is now full of continental parsley, leeks and fennel…

I’ve been turning mountains of parsley into chimichurri sauce…

Our fennel bulbs are starting to fatten up…

The bed we planted out six weeks ago is already full of broccoli rabé, bok choy and red amaranth…

The broccoli rabé is a family favourite and we eat pasta con cime di rapa at least once a week…

Some of the plants are already starting to form flowers…

Our most recently planted bed is filled with Green Dragon broccoli and more rabé seedlings. We’re trying to grow telegraph peas as well, but none of the seeds have germinated…

At the front of the bed, mini cos lettuces (Little Gems) are coming up…

…as are Francesca’s red leaf lettuces…

There’s a little red rainbow chard left…

Our dwarf lime tree now has five baby limes…

For those of you who’ve never seen a passionfruit vine – here’s the one sprawling over the fence from our neighbour Mark’s yard…

On the herb front, we have oodles of prostrate rosemary, a healthy supply of thyme and a sea of oregano (which also goes into our chimichurri sauce)…

Our potted garden mint is in fine form at the moment…

My succulents, however, have been quite neglected over the past few months. These echevaria prolifica are pretty sturdy though, and seem to have survived quite well…

How are things going in your garden this month?

Posted in Garden | 81 Comments »

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