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Early Morning Garden

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

A few photos from this morning…

A sea of basil occupies the front bed…

Bishops Crown chillies are notoriously difficult to germinate, so we were chuffed to find a small volunteer plant growing next to the kaffir lime tree. All the chillies have started to ripen…

The weather has been cool and wet this past week, and the brassicas have suddenly taken off…

Our self-sown Lebanese eggplant continues to fruit…

A couple of years ago, Julie at Eveleigh Markets gave me a basket of French marigolds. They’ve now spread throughout the garden, adding glorious colour (they deter pests as well, apparently)…

Our lemon tree is growing a new crop…

Lemongrass seems to really like our backyard – the small plant Nic gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago is growing well…

And finally – rainbow chard self-sows itself into all the beds – there’s always some in the garden to pick…

How are things going in your garden?

Posted in Garden, My Photos | 82 Comments »

A Bowl of Soup

February 24, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

You know, I love to cook.

I understand completely that it’s not everyone’s thing, and that many people view it as a chore, but I find it soothing and relaxing. I think that sometimes (not always), I like to cook more than I like to eat. I often find the process of preparing food – sitting at a table folding dumplings, or piping meringues, or shaping bread – more enjoyable than consuming the finished dish.

Sometimes, life gets big, and tiring, and complicated. When that happens, I find solace in a little comfort cooking. It helps me to focus my attention on the minutiae, and  allows me to create, to feed, and to nurture. I find it incredibly satisfying on a soul-deep level.

Last week, I tried making char siu. It was very good, but the flavour wasn’t quite right (so I won’t be posting a recipe yet)…

Later that day, I needed a late lunch. I took a container of treasured Burrawong Gaian chicken stock and a handful of homemade wontons out of the freezer. The stock was defrosted in a small pan, while the wontons were boiled for ten minutes in a separate saucepan of water. Once cooked, the dumplings were added to the stock along with the sliced char siu, and lunch was ready.

As I sat down to my bowl of soup – made with stock that I’d meticulously saved months ago, dumplings which I’d folded the previous weekend, and pork that I’d made that morning – I felt instantly restored. With the exception of the chilli sauce, everything in the bowl was the product of my efforts. It was satisfying in a way that restaurant dishes never quite seem to achieve.

My bowl of homemade soup was small, soothing and comforting. It reminded me that, even though it can occasionally get big, tiring and complicated, life is always good!

Posted in Musings, Recipes | 91 Comments »

Bits and Pieces

February 22, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

A random assortment of recent happenings…

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We’re planning some changes to our fish tank soon, so we’ve been visiting local aquarium shops to see what’s on offer. Labyrinth Aquarium in nearby Campsie has the most amazing range of incredibly healthy fish that I’ve ever seen for sale.

In one corner of the shop sits a gigantic tank, filled with huge breeding pairs. The cichlids in the photo below were easily 20 – 25cm (8 – 10″) long, and they were attempting to guard their tiny fry from all the other equally large predators hiding behind the rock. As my friend Amanda commented, it’s no wonder that they look worried…

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On Thursday night, I made Hainanese chicken rice with Beth McMillan’s magnificent Burrawong Gaian chook. I had enormous fun tweeting Beth with photos along the way – it’s wonderful that technology now lets us interact directly with producers in such a rewarding way!

This method of cooking treats the bird with great respect – the fat from the bird is rendered down and used to fry the rice, the meat is very gently poached to allow its full flavour to shine, and the resultant stock is used to cook the rice. Nothing goes to waste…

Best of all, there were six containers of amazing leftover stock for the freezer…

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I have a new umbrella.

Pete rolls his eyes at me – he thinks I’m bonkers, because I keep raving on about it – but I love my baby umbrella. It’s made by Boston Umbrellas (an Australian company, despite the name) and when it’s folded up, it’s tiny.

I bought my first Boston pocket umbrella nearly a decade ago, and it’s been in my handbag ever since. In fact, it’s outlived many bags, and is still working well, but it’s now grotty enough for me to justify buying a new one.

To give you an idea of how small the umbrella truly is, I took a photo of it next to my glasses case. It weighs just 175g (6oz) and measures 17cm (6½”), but it opens out to a full-size canopy. Can you see why I’m excited? It’s such a clever, well executed design, and it’s one of those little things which makes my life better…

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My beloved Small Man, whiteboard marker in hand, spent half an hour trying to explain to me the chemistry behind how metals combine. I struggled to wrap my old brain around alloys, malleability, conductivity, elements, outer energy levels and delocalised electrons. I tried to look cool and interested, but inside, I was so happy I could cry…

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The amaretti have been going down a storm, and they’ve proven to be a great way to reduce our egg glut. I ran out of almond slivers for the last batch, so I tried making them with roasted blanched hazelnuts instead.

These were so good. The roasted hazelnuts added a deep, almost caramel-like flavour, and the centres were crisp and brown. I wonder what sort of cookies other nuts might produce?

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Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!

Posted in Food & Friends | 72 Comments »

Char Siu Bao

February 21, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

For the longest time, I’ve wanted to make char siu bao.

These barbeque pork filled steamed buns are a Yum Cha (Dim Sum) staple, and one of my favourites as I was growing up. When I came across this recipe by Lydia Teh at Rasa Malaysia, I thought it looked promising. Turns out it’s more than that, it’s an absolute cracker!

Follow Lydia’s directions carefully, and you’ll turn out fluffy white buns that taste just like the ones they serve at Yum Cha. The only change I made was to increase the amount of char siu used – my sixteen bao used 350g of pork rather than 250g…

I found low gluten flour and wheat starch at the Tan Hung Long Supermarket in Flemington…

Each bao was shaped and placed on a small tart liner – squares of parchment paper would work equally as well…

This photo of my first attempt highlights a mistake I made – be sure to dissolve the baking powder well before adding it to the dough, to avoid a blotchy finish…

A few other tips:

  • Use a rolling pin rather than flattening out the dough with your fingers – it results in a more even bun.
  • Use scales to divide your dough and filling into sixteen portions before you start assembling.
  • Adding a little vinegar to the steaming water really does seem to whiten the finished bao.
  • Keep the steamed char siu bao covered until ready to serve – if exposed to the air for too long, they’ll harden and dry up.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! It should be quite easy to find the specialist flours needed at Asian grocers. And if you’re looking for a gluten-free version, my friend Becca the InTolerant Chef has one here!

Posted in Recipes | 61 Comments »

Pulled Pork Burritos

February 19, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Completely by chance, I’ve been able to tweak my pulled pork recipe to produce a much more tender result!

I was roasting one of the pork necks we bought at Haverick Meats on Saturday, and was all set to roast it for four hours, when I realised that I had to leave the house to run an errand.

So I only gave the meat 35 minutes on 200C (fanforced), then dropped the temperature to 150C (with fan). As I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be out for, I added a lot more hot water to the pot (at least twice as much) to ensure that it didn’t dry out. When I got home two and half hours later, I checked on the meat. It was so incredibly tender that not only did it not require an extra hour of cooking, it took two of us to get it out of the pot, as it simply fell apart when we tried to lift it. I’m going to amend the original post now!

I could have shredded the pork with a spoon…

I packed two 300g boxes of pulled pork in the freezer, then turned the remainder into two trays of baked burritos – one for us, and one for the neighbours. The $19 pork neck stretched a long way!

Our baked burritos are a hodge podge – I fill soft tortillas with annato rice, refried beans, black beans, salsa, pulled pork and cheese, then roll them up and pack them snugly into a baking tray. These are then topped with more salsa, jalapeños and grated cheese, and baked until golden.

Small Man’s not a fan (so he had a huge plate of annato rice topped with pork, refried beans and cheese), but Big Boy absolutely adores these!

Posted in Recipes | 74 Comments »

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