His name is Ben, and he’s three years old. His mother Dan is one of my best friends in the entire universe. She and her family moved to California eight years ago, but that hasn’t been an impediment to our relationship – if anything, we’re closer now than we’ve ever been. To steal her words, I love her to the moon and back.
Benny seemed to know this instinctively – even though I hadn’t seen him since he was a baby, he marched right into our house and plonked himself on my lap. Then he helped me take the selfie above to send to his mum. We dragged out our twenty year old collection of wooden Thomas trains and constructed a track on the living room floor. He was very chuffed…
Ben was over to visit his grandparents with Patrick, but Dan had stayed at home with the older kids. Which meant she’d missed out on hot cross buns at Easter – apparently they’re almost impossible to buy in San Francisco. So I baked a batch for her and sent them home with Patrick. I made our yeasted buns and coated them in a sugar and milk glaze…
Packing the buns became an engineering exercise – they were frozen until the morning of departure, then packed in bubblewrap first for insulation, then in a reinforced cardboard box to ensure they didn’t get squashed en route.
Patrick filmed Dan’s reaction, and it made me so happy that I thought I’d share…
For my birthday, our old friends Kevin and Carol gave me an Amazon gift card. It was the perfect present, because they know how much I love having Amazon credit. I’m not much of a clothes or trinkets shopper, but let me loose on Kindle e-books and cookware, and I’m as happy as a pig in mud.
One of the first books I bought was the Saveur New Classics Cookbook. It was just $10 (as compared to $26 in print copy) and offers 1,000 recipes from the excellent magazine of the same name…
The first thing that caught my eye was Ella Fitzgerald’s Favourite Cheddar Cheese Log. I’ve changed the recipe up a bit, adding a little Kirsch for that 70’s fondue feel, and omitting the parsley (I figured it would last longer that way, and I wanted to serve it over the entire Festival).
500g assorted cheeses
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 chipotle chillies in adobo, chopped
Kirsch as needed
½ cup chopped pecans
Note: like the Fromage Fort, this is a great way to use up leftover cheeses. I’ve made this recipe twice now – once with Margaret River cheddar, Greek kefolagraviera and Philadelphia cream cheese; the second time with Dorset cheddar and aged Parmigiano.
1. Using the grating blade on a large food processor, grate the hard cheeses. Switch to the chopping blade, then add in any soft cheeses, the Tabasco, mustard, and chillies. Blitz together, adding as much Kirsch as needed (or desired) to form a cheesy paste. It should be firm enough to shape.
2. Spread the chopped pecans over a large piece of cling film. Scrape the cheese over the top and shape into a rough log, then roll it in the nuts. Use the cling film to form the shape neatly. Wrap tightly then leave in the fridge to harden up for a few hours. The flavour will mellow and integrate over a couple of days.
Last year, my friend Tania gave me a commercial mini loaf pan.
It’s a stunning piece of kit – made by Chicago Metallics, it bakes evenly and is heavy enough not to warp or twist. Each of its twelve holes will hold 180ml. If you ever see one for sale, it’s worth picking up, although you’ll need a wide oven to fit it in…
If you can’t get your hands on one of these, the Baker’s Secret petite loaf pan will work just as well for this recipe (although it only has eight holes instead of twelve, and it’s not nearly as sturdy).
These wee loaves have a golden buttered crust, which adds a lovely flavour to the finished bread. I discovered it completely by chance – I didn’t want to use spray oil on my nice new pan, so I brushed the holes with melted butter instead. Then, since I had leftover butter, I brushed the tops as well…
I use our standard overnight sourdough recipe for these, and one batch makes exactly twelve mini loaves. They’re seriously cute…
Some basic instructions:
1. Prepare a batch of overnight sourdough and allow to prove. Then turn the risen dough out onto a bench dusted with flour (I use fine semolina) and divide it into 12 x 160g pieces.
2. Melt a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter. Brush each cavity in the pan with a little butter.
3. Shape each piece into a round ball, then shape each ball into a small loaf, following the photo instructions here. Tuck each loaf, seam side down, into one of the rectangular holes.
4. Brush the top of each loaf with melted butter (don’t get too carried away, it doesn’t need a lot), then cover with a tea towel and allow to prove until puffed up and risen. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220C with fan.
5. Uncover the loaves and slash the top of each with a single long cut down the middle. Spritz the tops with a little water. Bake for 15 minutes at 220C with fan, then reduce the temperature to 175C with fan for a further 10 – 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack before eating.
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These loaves are delicious eating and also the ideal shape for Melba toast. I let the bread sit on the bench in a plastic bag for a day or two, then slice it thinly and dry the squares in a 100C (non-fan) oven for three hours…
Although a bit thicker than the commercial version, these are delicious nonetheless. They store well for weeks in an airtight container…
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dotti sent me a photo of a Mister Gee burger, with a note saying, “they’re not far from you!”
She was right too – parked in an old car wash on the border of Five Dock and Haberfield, this hipster food truck was only a short drive from home. I picked up my friend Carol on the way and we arrived at 6.20pm – 10 minutes before official opening time.
It was raining and cool, and the queue was already snaking out of the undercover shelter by the time we got there. And you know what? At fifty, Carol and I were, without question, the oldest people there…
It was dark by the time we got towards the front of the queue.
“How old are you?” I asked the two young Asian guys standing in front of us.
“Eighteen”, one of them replied.
“Seriously? Does your mother know you’re here? And do you think she’d be happy that you’re standing in the rain?”
They laughed so hard – I turn into everyone’s mad Chinese mother at any opportunity…
Inside the truck, music was blaring and a crowd of young workers were moving at speed – I counted eight people behind the counter.
On offer that night were “Geeism” burgers (beef patty, oakleaf, tomato, onion, kimchi mayo, bacon, havarti cheese), chilli cheese fries and baklava shakes. As you can see, I’d given up on getting stoically wet by that stage and had pulled out my purple pocket umbrella…
The young guys in front of us ordered five burgers (two with double patties), four trays of fries and a baklava shake between them. They were planning to eat the whole lot on their own. It’s hard not to respect appetites like that! The person in front of them ordered a triple burger, which was so humungous that I had to take the photo below.
By this time we’d been waiting for an hour and ten minutes, and friendly strangers had started sheltering under our umbrella…
So was it worth it? Absolutely! It was great fun, everyone was cheerful and patient, and I thought my burger was the best I’d ever tasted. The meat was flavoursome, incredibly tender and cooked to medium perfection, the brioche bun was soft and just the right size (I don’t like burgers with crusty buns) and the kimchi mayo was divine. The fries were a nice accompaniment, albeit not outstanding.
Pete and Big Boy enjoyed their burgers too, Small Man less so. He prefers something with a bit more chew – this one was all a bit too tender for him.
If you’re after a cheap foodie adventure and you’re willing to stand in a queue for an hour or so, the Mister Gee Burger Truck is delicious fun. Burgers are $10 each, fries $5 – cash only.
Rather than throwing a large party, I celebrated the occasion with a fortnight of lunches and dinners with my family and closest friends. Each gathering was small and intimate, with just one or two couples plus Pete and I.
With the exception of Twitter, I took myself offline for the month. My apologies for not visiting any of your blogs or IMK posts in March, but I was partying with determination. Over the course of fifteen days, we had seven dinners, five lunches, drank our way through a dozen bottles of my best wine (plus an obscene number of cocktails) and laughed until we were doubled over in pain and gasping for breath. It was glorious.
Here is a random assortment of photos taken mostly on my iPhone. I didn’t manage a shot at every meal – often the lighting (and alcohol consumption) didn’t allow for it. Five of the seven dinners were at home, with Pete and I cooking. Because that’s what we love to do.
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We confitted a rolled suckling pig belly roast in a sea of lard for five hours…
…then rubbed it with fennel and bay and finished it off in a cazuela. It was an auspicious start to the celebrations…
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I received the most beautiful flowers – Big Boy’s darling girlfriend put this arrangement together for me…
My mad, demented friends Lynda and Karen (their words, not mine) sent me this glowing box of colour…
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Gorgeous Terri and her hubby Tony gave me this stunning Tiffany pendant and chain. It’s a tricky thing to buy jewellery for me, but Tezza clearly knows me better than I know myself, because I adored this…
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Nic and Pete, who know full well my current obsession with Sidecar cocktails, presented me with bottles of VSOP Cognac and Cointreau, gracefully wrapped in pretty tea towels…
And on the subject of booze, here are just a few of the dead soldiers from our dinners at home. Vintage Taittinger 2000, 1993 Howard Park Cab Merlot, 1977 Taylor’s vintage port…
More champagne, 1991 Leo Buring Leonay Riesling, 1990 Leoville Las Cases and 1970 Niepoort vintage port…
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At one of our dinners, I served up a 70s style fondue cheese log and a rabbit and quail terrine on homemade melba toasts. Recipes for both the cheese and bread to follow in later posts…
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For our family dinner, I roasted a goose. It’s Small Man’s favourite…
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On my actual birthday, Stephen and Marcela took us to lunch at Sugar Cane in Surry Hills. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s rare for me to be excited by restaurant food, but the dishes here were sublime…
A couple more dishes that impressed me – a perfectly constructed gnocchi with wild mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes at lunch with my darling friend Carol at La Grande Bouffe…
…and a stunning 18 hour slow roasted lamb shoulder at One Penny Red in Summer Hill, where Will and Bethany took us for dinner…
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After lunch in town with Allison and Lisa, we walked under the Forgotten Songs art installation between George and Pitt Streets. It’s been there since 2012, but this was the first time I’d seen it…
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I baked canelés for dinner with my folks, as my mum adores them…
…and crawled out of bed early one Saturday morning to bake myself a birthday cake…
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On the night of my actual birthday, my lovely young friends Roars and Zanzibar baked me a St Honoré Gateau. Gotta love it when a fifteen year old and a seventeen year old make spun sugar for you (we opened three bottles of champagne that night!)…
The neighbours joined in the festivities – Liz brought me an amazing bottle of 50 year old port and June gave me a gorgeous bone-handled cheese knife…
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On Andrew’s suggestion, we dined at Sushi Studio in Neutral Bay with Maude and Yuj. The sushi was superb, but drinking Sidecars after the sake shots wasn’t a brilliant idea…
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The amazing Jason from Don’t Boil The Sauce! secretly organised my twitter friends and Priscilla bakers from all over the world to send me a surprise birthday video message. He made me teary – I was overwhelmed by how kind everyone was, and how much effort J had gone to…
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In amongst the revelry, during the quieter moments, I read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It seemed a grown up thing to do for my 50th birthday. I savoured every word of it…
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All up, it was the best Festival of Fifty I could have hoped for. Thank you to my beloved family and friends who partied with me! You guys are the best!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 