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A Busy Saturday

February 17, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Hooray, it rained on Saturday!

That meant Small Man’s sporting commitments were cancelled (don’t all parents cheer when sport is off?), which in turn meant that Carol and I were able to race out to Haverick Meats at 8am. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s really worthwhile buying meat from a specialist wholesaler, let me give you a breakdown of my purchases from last weekend:

  • 1.45kg free range pork mince $13 – enough to make filling for 175 dumplings (three dinners)
  • 6 x grassfed beef burgers $10  – these were marked $11.90, but reduced on the day.
  • Free range bacon $11 – I divided the packet into three bags and froze two of them. Each will be used for a pasta dinner.
  • 2kg free range chicken wings $8
  • 2.5kg free range chicken drums $11.50 – the wings and drums combined will be enough for three large pots of curry.
  • 1.75kg free range pork loin chops (rind off) $14 – these were an amazing buy at just $7.90/kg, and they’ll provide us with two easy meals.

In total, I spent $125, and came home with enough great quality higher welfare meat for eighteen family dinners. That works out at under $7 a meal, or just $1.75 per person. And I was being conservative – I suspect the pork necks will provide us with more than two dinners per piece.

We don’t eat meat at every meal, so this quantity should last us a month. I bought mostly pork and chicken, but on my previous visit, most of my purchases were grassfed beef. We still have eye fillet and mince in the freezer, so I didn’t buy any more this time.

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The big find this weekend were these dry aged grassfed MBS2+ (that’s the marbling score) beef burgers.  I’ve never seen all those words on the one label before…

They were marked $11.90 but reduced to $9.90 on special…

I baked a batch of Dan Lepard semolina buns to go with them…

The burgers were fantastic – pure, tender meat with very little (if any) filler. We cooked them to medium in the cafe press, and served them with mustard, pickles, cheese and chilli sauce.

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On our way to Haverick’s, Carol commented on how much she liked my amaretti, so I offered to bake a batch for her when I got home. I’ve discovered that if I pipe the cookies with a large round nozzle (the one that usually makes everything look like poop), then flatten the top gently with a wet pastry brush, I get far more “authentic” looking amaretti.

Of course, once I started making these, my tribe wanted more as well, so I ended up baking two batches…

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As the amaretti were cooling in the oven, I used 900g of the pork mince to make dumpling filling. I thought I’d have a go at wontons…

I made 45 wontons and 70 dumplings while watching the Winter Olympics (it was very therapeutic)…

Most of these went into the freezer (apparently they defrost perfectly, but I’m yet to try)…

I left a few out and deep-fried them as a pre-dinner nibble – the boys devoured  them…

. . . . .

I love having time on the weekend to get ahead – we now have a couple of dumpling dinners stashed in the freezer, plenty of amaretti for the boys to snack on, and enough meat for the next month.

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living, Recipes | 77 Comments »

A Present for Lynda

February 15, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

I have a lot of friends turning fifty this year!

Lynda is the latest to reach the half century, so I made her a fifty piece gift, similar to the one I made for Gill at the end of last year. Since I’m always banging on about homemade gifts, I thought I’d give you another example of what we do here.

Lynda’s present began with twenty of her favourite chocolate chip cookies. I’ve packaged them in sealed bags of five, so that she doesn’t have to eat them all at once…

Inspired by a photo in Alice Medrich’s book, I individually wrapped twenty of my amaretti cookies in tissue paper, then packed them in two bags of ten…

There has to be chocolate of course, including the birthday card in the top photo, and six chocolate lollipops. They’re all made with a dark/milk feuilletine blend…

And in case you’ve been keeping count, that’s forty-seven pieces, so I added three treasure coins to round up to fifty…

The cookies all went into a floral shopping bag, and the chocolates were wrapped and decorated with a tissue paper flower.

Happy birthday, Lynda!

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living | 47 Comments »

Flemington Shops

February 13, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

I thought I’d take a few photos while I was shopping in Flemington today. As I was merrily clicking away, this post just grew and grew! So please, grab a cup of tea, there’s nearly forty photos to look at.

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I don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese.

I do speak a little Hokkien (my mother’s native tongue) and can manage to order at Yum Cha, but that’s about it. Being Chinese, it’s quite a handicap – taxi drivers in Hong Kong laugh at me, waiters in restaurants shake their heads, and shop attendants will often just stare blankly at me. When I shop in the Mandarin speaking grocery stores in nearby Ashfield, I often struggle to communicate what I’m after.

That isn’t the case in Flemington. The Asian stores here were established far earlier than in other suburbs (I think by the Vietnamese community), and almost everyone speaks English reasonably well. On top of that, parking is easy and free, folks are friendly, and prices are the cheapest I’ve found anywhere in Sydney.

Despite taking so many photos, I’ve only showcased a couple of the shops in Flemington. There are at least half a dozen good Asian grocery stores, stocking Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian supplies (and a few other cuisines that I’m not familiar with), as well as a couple of Indian spice stores. There are two fishmongers, several butchers, traditional herbal medicine shops, and lots of restaurants. If you ever find yourself in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit!

My favourite grocery store is the Tan Hung Long Supermarket, located in a small arcade off the main street…

The wide aisles are packed with produce from all over Asia…

I’d popped in to pick up more dumpling supplies – I came home with two packets each of gow gee and wonton wrappers ($1.69 each)…

There are rows of traditional Chinese herbs and spices. I’ve tried most of them over the years, but have no idea what any of them are or what they’re supposed to do…

Soup bases for invigorating tonics are available – the entire packet of roots, herbs and spices are stewed for hours with meat (usually chicken)…

I have no idea what these tiny rosebuds are used for, but they were very pretty (I didn’t buy them)…

Oodles of dried Chinese mushrooms – I bought a packet for my next batch of dumplings…

This is my favourite Malaysian curry paste, and I’ve only ever found it in Flemington. It’s preservative free, sealed in two layers of foil, and costs just $2. It contains enough paste to make dinner for all four of us…

There is an entire aisle dedicated to religious paraphernalia for traditional ancestor worship. It’s not something we practice in our family, so I’m not sure what the ceremonies involve, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

I do know that all these items are made of paper and designed to be burnt as an offering to ancestors – there is paper money, gold bullion, electronic equipment (note the paper iPad on the top shelf), clothing and more…

An entire paper outfit, complete with gold watch…

Colourful incense known as joss sticks are widely used in religious rituals…

In Flemington, you can buy a 4½kg (10lb) bag of MSG…

An aisle full of hot sauces, including our favourite Lingham’s, a Malaysian product which can be hard to buy elsewhere…

Fresh fruit and vegetables on offer include exotic dragonfruits…

…and spiky durian…

Salted jellyfish is (I think) soaked and then sliced up and served cold. It’s an acquired taste, but I love it. I’ve never seen it in its raw state before though – it reminded me of bacalhau…

Bitter melon is another acquired taste, but the Chinese believe it’s very good for you…

A wide assortment of Chinese mushrooms, including oyster, shiitake, straw and King Browns…

Locally made rice noodles sit unrefrigerated by the door. They must turn over very quickly, because all the packets had long expiry dates on them…

Salted duck egg is a delicacy – I grew up eating this on boiled rice…

I won’t buy quails’ eggs any more – they’re too hard to peel!

Dried shrimp is used extensively in Chinese and Malaysian cooking. Here it’s sold by the kilo…

…as are dried scallops ($78/kg!)…

For the folks who take gingko biloba to help their memories – this is what the nut looks like. My mum adds it to soups, and it’s delicious…

There was a plethora of fresh desserts on offer…

One of the things I love most about shopping at Flemington is that foodstuffs from a wide variety of Asian cuisines are on offer.

There’s belacan (stinky prawn paste) from Malaysia…

Indonesian palm sugar (gula melaka)…

…and an entire stand of Thai curry pastes…

It’s Chinese New Year until this Friday, so the lanterns are still up…

An aisle full of interesting teas and drink mixes…

And finally, something very unusual – these sea cucumbers are an expensive delicacy. This one kilogram bag retails for $280…

Just across the arcade from Tan Hung Long is the K.W. Barbecue Shop, selling roast ducks, char siu, roasted belly pork and more…

My sons have declared this to be the finest takeaway roast duck they’ve ever eaten…

Squid, chickens’ feet, giblets and all sort of other (ahem) treats are laid out behind the counter…

The roast pork boasts rich brown crackling…

The suburb of Flemington is located about sixteen kilometres from Sydney’s CBD.  It’s easy to get to  – either by road, or by train – the station is located right between the shops and the fruit and vegetable markets. One tip if you do decide to explore the area – buy yourself a bubble tea from the shop at the entrance to the arcade – they’re delicious!

Posted in Food & Friends | 106 Comments »

Dumplings

February 11, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but…even though I’m Chinese, I’d never made dumplings at home before. I was keen to try them though, as they’re a traditional Chinese New Year dish, so when this video appeared in my email feed, I was inspired to have a go…

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I followed the instructions for the filling provided in the video, but I bought wrappers rather than making my own. At just $1.69 for 32 pieces, these locally made ones were silky smooth to work with…

The ingredients list for the filling was quite long, and we made some substitutions based on what was available in our garden. Our dumplings were filled with:

  • 400g free range pork mince
  • bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  • cornflour (cornstarch)
  • fine sea salt
  • sugar
  • white pepper
  • water
  • dry sherry
  • dark soy
  • light soy
  • sesame oil
  • chopped bok choy
  • minced garlic
  • garlic chives
  • baby perennial leeks

The ingredients were all combined in a large bowl and stirred together with a pair of chopsticks. Make sure you add enough water to give the mixture a soft, scoopable texture…

A little cornflour was mixed with water and used to moisten the perimeter of each wrapper before folding…

Pleating the skins takes a little practice. The video provides clear instructions, but I’d previously had a lesson from Carol’s son Nick, the Grand Poobah of dumpling shaping…

As I made the dumplings, Pete cooked them.

His tip for cooking the perfect potsticker is to slowly fry the dumplings in a little oil until the bottoms are very brown and the skins start to puff up (which means the filling is starting to boil and cook). Then add half a cup of water (it will sizzle like crazy) and cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid. The water will evaporate away in a minute or so, and the dumplings will be ready…

We made nearly sixty dumplings, and ate them all for dinner that night. We’ll definitely be making them again – the boys loved them!

Posted in Recipes | 96 Comments »

Indian Street Food

February 9, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

My mad but completely adorable friend the Spice Girl skyped me last week…

“Andrew threw out my lard! I’m halfway through the Cuban bread recipe, what can I use instead?”

In the end, she raced down the road to her local butcher and came back with a tub of duck fat. Then she went into her garden and cut four lemongrass leaves…and voila…

Of course, any conversation with the Spice Girl always leads to lunch. “I’ve heard about this new place in Harris Park, let’s check it out..” she said.

So we did…and found ourselves eating the most delicious Indian street food that my Goan friend has ever tasted in Australia. The prices were extremely  reasonable, and the all-vegetarian dishes were (to me) new and exciting. And before anyone asks, yes, there were only two of us, and yes, we did attempt to eat all this food (we didn’t quite succeed). Eating out with the Spice Girl is always an adventure!

We began with a Bombay style Mysore Masala Dosa ($9.90) stuffed with a special chutney and mostly raw vegetables rather than the usual potato filling…

It was accompanied by a lentil soup and tomato chutney…

The Methi Gota ($4.90) are fried balls of chickpea flour and fresh fenugreek leaves. These were tasty, but a little doughy…

When I saw this Bombay Style Vada Pav ($4.40), I was a little sceptical. I shouldn’t have been, because the soft white bread roll was the perfect foil for the spicy fried potato ball inside it…

The Sev Puri ($5.90) were superb (although a proper food blogger would have moved the spoon before taking the photo). According to SG, this is classic Indian street food – small crispy flat breads topped with onions, tomatoes, green mango, pomegranate seeds and an assortment of chutneys, with crunchy lentil vermicelli sprinkled over the top…

The Chhole Bhatura ($9.90) was obviously a house special, because every table was ordering this dish! The puffy hollow flatbreads had a crispy exterior with a soft, slightly spongy underside to soak up the chana (chickpea) curry that was served with them. The red onions were essential to balance the flavours…

These Khaman Dhokla ($4.90) were really unusual – the savoury chickpea flour cakes were steamed rather than baked or fried. They were tasty, but by this stage we were getting quite full, so SG took most of these home. The tamarind chutney that accompanied the dish was fantastic, and I ended up dipping all sorts of things into it…

For dessert, Spice Girl ordered Jalebi – freshly made deep fried spirals of dough soaked in sugar syrup. They were very sweet and crispy, and not at all stodgy like previous ones I’d tried…

Chatkazz is a small takeaway-style shop in Harris Park, near Parramatta. There are several tables for dining in, all their dishes are completely vegetarian, and the service is cheerful and efficient. It’s definitely worth a visit – here are all the details you’ll need to find it!

Posted in Food & Friends | 83 Comments »

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