RFFMT – Welcome to Book Club

I joined a book club!

I think it’s kind of weird that it’s taken me this long – I love to read and I love to talk about books I have read. However, this is a rather special club catering to those of fairly specific tastes. Don’t worry, I am not about to get all 50 shades of weird on you; it is a food lovers book club where, instead of novels, we discuss cookbooks.

I am a cook book junkie. Here is part of my collection. .

There is also another shelf in a different room that has most of the retro food books. Then there are the hundreds of magazines…..and regular trips to the local library.

So, given this ~~problem~~ predilection when I read in their weekly newsletter that my local book store was starting a food lovers book group, I did a little dance of joy. No, not quite like this…well…maybe a little.

The First Rule of Book Club

Each meeting will have a theme. The first theme was Winter warmers. Members have a choice of three books that they could purchase related to that theme. The books were really well chosen by the owners in terms of both variety, audience and price point.

Whoo, hoo….new cookbook fix guaranteed. And to those annoying people who ask “Don’t you have enough cookbooks?” (you know who you are) you can genuinely say. “I had to buy it, it was for book club”.

I chose Slow by Valli Little which was actually the cheapest option but I love her work in Delicious Magazine and I knew there would be plenty in here I could, and would, make outside of the group. I was not disappointed on this count – it jam packed with great ideas for everyday cooking. And, incidentally, this book was rated the best on value and practicality as well as being visually alluring.

Second Rule of Book Club

You must cook from the book you have chosen.

This is utter genius. So, not only do you get your cookbook fix but you also have none of that guilt of buying a book and never actually making anything from it.

I made the Autumn Rosti from Valli’s book, my slightly adapted version of the recipe below.

Third Rule of Book Club

You must have evidence of cooking from the book.

This could be in photographic form or, as I and some of the others chose to do, you could bring evidence of your cooking to the meeting for the group to sample.

Best. Idea. Ever.

I took along my rosti. We also had an amazing Chicken Liver and Porcini Pate, a killer Carrot and Lentil Soup, a super tasty Lamb and Apricot Tagine with couscous and we ended the evening with a delicious Carrot Cake. The following pictures of the soup and the tagine are from Valli’s book. I did not take pictures of the food on the night because “Hey, I’ve just met you and this seems crazy but I’m going to take photos of your food and put them on the internet” is no song I want to be singing. However, in both instances, as with my rosti, the actual product looked a lot like the picture.

Valli Little's Lamb & Apricot Tagine — Valli Little’s Lamb & Apricot Tagine

Working within the theme allows you to step out of your normal comfort zone and try something new and or different. And tasting other people’s goodies can also expand your horizons. I generally do not like cooked carrots and one of the worst soups I have ever eaten was full of bits of grated carrot. So I did not look twice at the Carrot and Lentil Soup recipe in Valli”s book. Not interested. Not even remotely. In fact, I could not turn the page fast enough.

Luckily for me, someone else did give it a second look.

Valli Little's Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup from Slow — Valli Little’s Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup from Slow

DISH OF THE NIGHT. Who knew carrot soup could taste so good. How good? I’m making it as we speak. Damn it was good! Make it. Make it now! (Recipe below). You will not be disappointed. And even if you are? Firstly what is wrong with you? And second, get over it. By my reckoning this costs about $2.50 to make. At around 40 cents a serve even if you hate it, which I’m pretty sure you won’t, you’ve lost less than the cost of a cup of coffee.

Fourth Rule of Book Club

You must talk about your book.

This has to be the fourth pleasure of cooking – the buying, the preparing, the eating and finally, the talking. You got to speak about what you did and didn’t like about the book and learned about the good and bad of the books you didn’t buy as well. It’s really interesting to see what people do and don’t like. For instance, this was one of the other books we could choose from:

Salt Grill.

Let me tell you, this cover was controversial. People had opinions. I had opinions. I didn’t know I had opinions but it turned out I did. I quite like it but other people thought the dirty spoon was kind of gross.

The other great thing was that you got to share war stories. You know how sometimes you make something and despite following the recipe to the minutest degree it just doesn’t work? And you automatically assume it was something you did wrong? Well two people from the club made the exact same recipe and had the exact same problem with it. Coincidence? I think not.

It was awesome. I can’t wait for the next one, where the theme is Middle Eastern. I have chosen Persiana as my book and it looks amazing!!!!

Persiana

Stay tuned!

Have a great week!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:7]

13
Jun
2014

B is for Baby Bundt, Bacon & Bay and Blonde Bombshells

categories: Bacon, Cake, Canapes, Chocolate, Cocktail, Habanero, Hors D'oeuvres, Parfait Amour, Prunes, Sparkling, Spice Peddler, St Germain, Strawberries

B is also for Bozo, Blog and Birthday.

As in guess which bozo forgot to celebrate her own blog’s 2nd birthday on May 25th?

So, today we’re having a Belated (don’t worry, I promise I won’t capitalise every word that starts with a B) Birthday, (no really, I won’t) celebrating my second annivesary with food using the second letter of the alphabet. See what I did? Second year, second letter?

You’d think I planned it.

Maybe you should keep thinking that….I”m all for anything that makes me look better!!!

So anyway, it’s my birthday so let’s get this party started. And I’ve said it before, and no doubt I will say it again, (purely because I’ve got a bottle of the stuff that isn’t going to drink itself) a retro party isn’t a retro party without Parfait Amour. And any party is better with a blonde bombshell!

Nope not like this, the blonde bombshell I am referring too is a cocktail made with the aforementioned Parfait Amour. I’m not sure why it’s called a Blonde Bombshell as it comes out a gorgeous dusky pinky purple.

First Course – The Birthday Blonde Bombshell

It’s my party…cocktails count as a course….in my perfect world, we would skip main meals altogether. We would move from cocktails to fingerfood to dessert.

Wow!!! I think I may have found my Parfait Amour drink of choice. This was lovely!!! Sweet and florally and almost kind of musky…it reminded me a little bit of Turkish Delight…maybe it was the roses in the Parfait Amour. Very girly, very pretty. Easy to drink….hmmm….maybe getting rid of that bottle won’t be as hard as I previously thought!

Second Course – Bay Wrapped Bacon and Prunes

This is basically a take on a Devils on Horseback. But wrapped in a bayleaf. And I added a little smear of my Strawberry Habanero Sauce to the bacon before wrapping it around the prunes.

Note for the unwary – grilling bay leaves makes your entire kitchen smell like you’ve been smoking marijuana. For about a week. Which is fine until you have a plumber come to fix your leaking tap and they ask you if you can score them some bud.

I barely even know what that means.

Despite that, you really can’t go wrong with these…salty, sweet, spicy, crispy…The bay leaves added a slight resiny flavour that was quite pleasant but prevented the bacon from getting really crispy which was slightly disappointing.

I served it them with some more of the strawberry habenero sauce. And the saltiness was a great foil to the sweetness of the Blonde Bombshell.

Delicious!

But now to the piece de resistance. The dessert.

So….what’s better than a triple chocolate baby bundt?

A QUADRUPLE chocolate baby bundt.

And what’s better than a quadruple chocolate Baby Bundt?

A Quadruple Chocolate Chilli Baby Bundt!

Third Course – Quadruple Chocolate Chilli Baby Bundt

So, if you’re following me on Instagram you would have already seen me post my first experiment with the Spice Peddler’s Mexican Chilli Chocolate Cake Mix. That was a Chili Chocolate Cupcake with a Chilli Toffee Shard topped with Vanilla Icecream and my Strawberry Habenero Sauce. OMG, I thought this was the best thing ever…so, so good. The cake was fudgy and spicy and delicious, the vanilla icecream and chilli sauce worked together perfectly and the chilli toffee was a cute and quirky touch. Basically, this was me on a plate!!!!

Chocolate Chilli Cupcake with A Chilli Toffee Shard

Gahhh….so how do you top that?

Well, I found a recipe for a cake called a Tyroler in a Delicious Magazine and I had a little play with it. And came up with the Quadruple Chocolate Chilli Baby Bundt. I used the Spice Peddler Mexican Chilli Chocolate Cake Mix as my base and it was super delicious!

This was really good. Then again, how could it not be?

It had quadruple chocolate.

And a touch of chilli.

And walnuts.

And rum soaked sultanas.

And did I mention quadruple chocolate?

So, it may have been belated but worth the wait because these were all awesome!!!!

I’ll try to be on time next year and if not, I can always repost this and rename it Birthday 3 – Cocktails, Canapés and Cake.

Hope you all have a fabulous week!!!!

(Recipes below)

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Blonde Bombshell

Print Recipe

A delicious cocktail, perfect for a celebration.

Author: Taryn Nicole Fryer
Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 5
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 ounce Parfait Amour
1/2 ounce St Germain Elderflower Liqueur
Sparkling Wine, preferably pink, definitely chilled

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Pour the Parfait Amour into a chilled champagne flute.
Add the Elderflower Liqueur.
Top with the sparkling wine.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1

28
Dec
2013

Lending a Hand – Hangover Eggs

categories: Bread, Cheese, Eggs, Hummus, Lemon

Now that I have more storage space, mum has been bringing over various bits and pieces of my childhood that she had been keeping for me.

This included a whole heap of my books, including all of my old Famous Five Books. OMG, I loved these, I must have read each of them a hundred times! And yes, at some point I will do a post on the food of the Famous Five. And it will have lashings of ginger beer.

She also brought over my old Brownie Uniform.

Even better than the uniform was, that, in the pocket was my Brownie notebook and official brownie pencil emblazoned with the Brownie Motto of “Lend a Hand.”

On the first page of the notebook there is a note about a recipe with a big tick next to it. I started this cooking thing young! On the second page is a cryptic note saying “Next week jeans + t-shirt not to wear” I wonder what the hell we were going to do with them…Sadly the rest of the notebook is blank so we’ll never know.

As New Year’s Eve is looming, I thought that in the spirit of “lending a hand” I would share my recipe for Hangover Eggs. And, all you party revellers can “be prepared” and get in some supplies. I can’t remember where I found this recipe originally but over the years, it has morphed into the recipe below.

It is however very flexible. You can add tomatoes to the toast; mushrooms, fresh chilli, or green or red pepper, or anything else you fancy to the egg mix. I also find most bought hummus does not have enough tahini in it and I’m far to lazy to make my own so, as per the recipe, I tend to add a bit. You can do this, use the hummus as is, or leave it out altogether. It’s your raging hangover, you know what’s going to work best for you!

Oh and this is really too good to be saved just for hangover days, I would eat it every day if I could!

For the healthy, you can wash this down with some green tea maybe with the rest of the lemon juice squeezed in.

For the rest of us, an ice cold coke is the perfect beverage.

For the truly suffering, a small glass of champagne just to top up your levels may be in order!

Ok, I think I’m done…better just check….

Yep, I”m done!

Happy 2014 everyone, I hope it’s your best year ever!

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13
Dec
2013

Retro Food In the News – Vintage Christmas Ideas

categories: 1960's recipes, Bread, Christmas, Cocktail, Cream Cheese, Retro Food in the News, Starters

I read an article called Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas today. (It is no longer online so I have removed the link.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/christmas/have-yourself-a-very-vintage-christmas-20131204-2yqzu.html

The Pita Bread Christmas Trees mentioned in the article are adorable. And, will be featuring in my Christmas menus.

The article mentioned Susan’s Party Loaf which is this gorgeous looking thing

However, if you are going down that route you could also try this very pretty version from Betty Crocker. You really know you’re taking a ride on the way-back machine when you have a completely gratuitous use of food colouring!

And the Madras Cocktail ? Take a look at this piece of awesomeness…

Don’t drink them all they say? Who are they kidding? The recipe which is here

put me in mind of the old Dorothy Parker quote:

“I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
after four I’m under the host.”

This thing might not just knock your socks off, it could take your ankles with it.

I can’t wait to try it!

So what retro treats are you all planning for Christmas?

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17
Jun
2013

Let’s See How Far We’ve Come – Cheesy Meaty Goodness On a Stick – 1970’s vs 2010’s

categories: 1970's food, Books, Cheese, Finger Food, Olives, Serrano Ham, Starters

My favorite thing to eat is finger food. And it doesn’t have to be fancy – I’m just as happy with a mini-quiche or a party pie as with a teeny Peking duck pancake or a tempura prawn on a stick with wasabi mayo.

If I was ever going to open a restaurant, all it would serve would be tiny bites. And champagne. Cocktails of course. But the entire menu would be finger food. It would be a cocktail party restaurant. Anyone wishing to fund this establishment…you know where to find me.

Finger food has been on my mind recently as I have been drooling over the contents of Lydia France’s Party Bites which is like setting a child loose in a sweet shop – I want that one! And that one! And I REALLY want that one!

I was also not the only one who thought this book was looked delicious. Oscar’s been suffering from a little bit of separation anxiety since I have gone back to work and I came home one day to find the book, which I had left on the couch was not exactly how I had left it….

No so much dog eared.... — No so much dog eared….

I then had to go fess up to the library – the upside of which, after exchange of some financial compensation, the book, albeit slightly chewed now belongs to me!

There is a recipe in Party Bites which is a modern take on the old retro favourite of a cube of cheese on a stick with a bit of something. This is often to be had with pineapple in the fabulously kitschy Cheese and Pineapple Hedgehog:

Then there is the equally retro but less whimsical Aussie Staple of kabana and cheese….

No Australian barbeque of the 1970’s or 80’s would have been complete without a tray of this. Often, the kabana and cheese was topped with chunk of pineapple, a gaudily coloured cocktail onion or, if you were really classy, a stuffed olive.

The idea is actually sound. Who doesn’t love a meaty cheesy snack? And if topped with something sweet or sour or salty…well, so much the better. We here at Retro Food For Modern Times are not subscribers to the minimalist maxim that less is more. We believe that more is more. With a cherry on top!

The main problems with kabana and cheese is that kabana is kind of gross and although this combination might be tasty, it is drop dead boring. So, how do you give the ubiquitous kabana and cheese a modern twist whilst still retaining some of the kookiness of the cheese and pineapple hedgehog? Hello Lydia France’s Spanish Men…or should that be Hola los hombres españoles!

Here’s Lydia’s Version:

Spanish Men - Lydia France — Spanish Men – Lydia France

And here are mine…my Spanish men look a little drunk and definitely more chunkier. I think my Spanish men may have been hitting the Rioja a little too hard….

Spanish Men - olives, quince paste, serrano ham and manchego cheese — My Spanish Men

Spanish Men Recipe

For all their wonkiness, I loved them. These were sooooo good! Serrano ham, where have you been all my life? If you weren’t so damn expensive I would be feasting on you non-stop.

The salty olive, the sweet quince paste, the meaty deliciousness of the serrano and the creaminess of the cheese combine to create a little piece of heaven on a stick!

Spanish Men I love you!

And you’re not bad either Mario Casas…

I’m going to be spending my week checking out Spanish cinema. Enjoy your week whatever you do!

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Category: Starters

The First Rule of Book Club

Second Rule of Book Club

Third Rule of Book Club

Fourth Rule of Book Club

First Course – The Birthday Blonde Bombshell

Second Course – Bay Wrapped Bacon and Prunes

Third Course – Quadruple Chocolate Chilli Baby Bundt

Blonde Bombshell

Ingredients

Instructions

Nutrition