Category: World Cooking

27
Feb
2016

REPOST from February 2016 The Dishiest Dish – Poulet Vallée D’Auge

categories: Apples, Books, Chicken & Poultry, Dish of The Week, Dishiest Dish, France

This week’s highlight came from France…from Normandy to be be precise. Or to be even more precise from the the Pays D’Auge. This is apple country and the chicken casserole that is the Poulet Vallée D’Auge contains both apples and Calvados, the apple brandy that is also a specialty of the region.

And if chicken, apples and Calvados aren’t enough for you how about we add a generous dollop of creme fraiche into the mix. Bon Appetit indeed.

We had a bit of a cold snap in the week so this hearty kind of meal was perfect. And for those of you in the Northern hemisphere who are still in the midst of winter, this will warm any, and all,the cockles you have.

The perfect drink to have with this would be a cider, one from Normandy would be perfect! Or maybe a wee glass of that Calvados.

This is a lovely dish and that sauce is divine!

I also made these prawn cakes from the Paleo book. They looked gorgeous but tasted only ok. I felt the restrictions of the Paleo diet really made themselves felt here. Thai food is meant to have that mix of sweet, salt, sour and heat. The recipe as it stood had no sweet in the dipping sauce. It vastly improved after I added some sugar. They do look pretty though!

The Six Week Challenges

No Alcohol

The six weeks of “no” alcohol are nearly over. I had a bit of a set back this week. A friend of mine resigned from work and we arranged to go for doughnuts so he could tell me all about it. And somehow on the way to the doughnut shop we got waylaid by the little bar on the corner. We were halfway through our glass of vino when we started getting messages. “Where are you? The fire alarms are going off. We need to evacuate the building”. I am the fire warden for our office. Can you believe it? I never leave my desk. NEVER. And the ONE time I go off for a sneaky ~~doughnut~~ pinot, the flipping fire alarms go off.

What could we do? They would have grounded the lifts, we weren’t getting back into the building in a hurry. Nothing for it but to have a second glass o’ wine.

Here is the scene of the crime – Dikstein’s Corner Bar,

We had a lovely New Zealand Pinot but ewwww…did I feel seedy afterwards. Totally lethargic, no motivation to do anything except flop on the couch and tune out in front of the telly for the entire evening. I will say more about this challenge when it is over – in just a couple of days. But after yesterday I am seriously evaluating my relationship with booze.

Meditation

Still struggling with this one. I thought this would be so much easier than giving up booze. Not so. I”ll try to lift my game for the last two weeks. And this one can go back on the list for a re-do later in the year.

Flexibility

I’m LOVING this. And after only a week or so in, I am already seeing the difference! I am mixing it up between two different routines – one has a morning routine and an evening routine so if I get up early enough I do that one. If not, there is another where you do one 10 minute workout for the day. Really happy with this one!

The March Challenge

I have not decided what will replace the no alcohol challenge come the first of March.

I am narrowing it down:

Journalling – I used to journal all the time and love it. And I think in some ways that was my meditation. I REALLY want to get back into it.

Candy Crush – MUST. STOP. PLAYING.

Food – I feel I should replace a “food” challenge with another food challenge – I was thinking maybe a month without bread, pasta potatoes. But Jenny has inspired me to do one around food waste.

I will do what I did last month and see what jumps out at me on the morning of the first! Eeeeekkk – can you believe it’s almost March?

Reading

I have given up on The Apologist for my audiobook. I could not get into it. I had previously started Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantell and I have gone back to that.

You can keep your real Housewives…for real scandal and intrigue, give me the Tudors anyday!

But my major discovery this week was this:

Savage Lane by Jason Starr

Savage Lane = Jason Starr

The hot pink cover had me at hello. I like to read dark and this is pitch black! It is also pitch perfect. Nasty, nasty people doing nasty, nasty things. I’m loving it!

Here is the premise:

“Life is sublime in the idyllic suburbs of New York City. Recent divorcée Karen Daily and her two kids have, for the first time in years, found joy as they settle into the close-knit community of Savage Lane. Neighbours, Mark and Deb Berman have been so supportive as she moves on in life: teaching at the local school and even dating again.

But behind the pristine houses and perfect smiles lie dark motives far more sinister than Karen could have ever imagined. Unknown to her, Mark, trapped in his own unhappy marriage, has developed a rich fantasy life for the two of them. And, as rumours start to spread, it seems that he isn’t the only one targetting Karen”

This is the first book of his I have read but I am now keen to read more. And all of his covers from No Exit Press are equally arresting:

Plants

I am going through a phase where I want to fill my house with plants.

Have started following the jungalow. Her instagram is also amazing!

https://www.instagram.com/justinablakeney/

And have been trying to find a local version of these West Elm Planters.

West Elm Mid Century Planters

Now I just have to buy some plants!

That’s about it. I haven’t really done much else this week except work.

On The Menu

Saffron chicken from Persiana
Lamb Kebabs from the A-Z of Cooking with the tomato salad with pomegranate salad also from Persiana….and eeeekkkk. Sabrina has a new book coming out in May! I can hardly wait!
Honeycomb Cheesecake from A Moveable Feast
Sweet Potato cakes with Lemon Chickpeas

Sirocco

That’s about it for me for this week. Except for the recipe for the Poulet Vallée D’Auge – which you can find here.

What are you cooking, reading, doing this weekend? I am planning to take the dogs down to the dog beach for a play.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you do.

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26
Jan
2016

REPOST – The Bobby Dazzler – History Happy Hour – 1788

categories: Australasia, History Happy Hour, Mocktail, Recipe Fail

G’day mates, Happy Australia Day!

Today we are celebrating with a dubious mocktail with a fabulous name – The Bobby Dazzler.

Australia Day celebrates the 1788 landing of the First Fleet into Port Jackson, New South Wales and the raising of the British flag on Australian soil.

The day is marked by celebrations both formal and informal across Australia, with many people enjoying the day off work with barbecues, at the beach and otherwise enjoying the lovely summer weather.

Over at chez Retro Food, we are celebrating with this:

If you had asked me as a six-year-old to design my perfect drink it would have been something very like the Bobby Dazzler. “I want coca cola with something pink in it and whipped cream and a strawberry and sprinkles….” Seriously, if the Bobby Dazzler came with some glitter and a unicorn, it would have been my six-year-old idea of heaven.

However, according to International Mixed Drinks by Ken Fin (1995) the Bobby Dazzler was created by Maxine Nash at the Bubbles – Wodonga Hotel where it was the runner-up in the Best Border Beverage Competition of 1991. International Mixed Drinks is silent on whether or not Maxine Nash was a six-year-old.

F.Scott who normally taste tests all the cocktails I make wasn’t having a bar of this. But like his namesake F.Scott is partial to a sip o’ the hard stuff.

So another tester had to be found. And how more appropriate than our friend the Tasmanian Devil?

He loved it. But then again, we found him later on gnawing on one of the popper bottles.

The Bobby Dazzler is not so much bad tasting as unremittingly, unrelentingly sweet. And just when you think you can have no more sweet, you get a mouthful of cream.

Unless you are a six-year-old girl or a Tasmanian Devil you probably will not want to celebrate Australia Day with a Bobby Dazzler! I still feel a bit ill after drinking it. I feel like I need to have a little lie down. Simultaneously, I am so wired on caffeine and sugar I feel like I may never sleep again.

For those who want it, here is the recipe:

Bobby Dazzler

Print Recipe

A very sweet and creamy mocktail.

Author: Maxine Nash / Ken Fin

Ingredients

Scale

60ml Grenadine
200ml cola
whipped cream
100‘s and 1000’s or other sprinkles
Strawberry and 2 blueberries to garnish

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Instructions

Blend the Grenadine and cola and pour into a glass.
Top with the whipped cream.
Sprinkle with 100’s and 1000’s and garnish with a strawberry and the blueberries.

I am calling this a recipe fail not because there was anything wrong with the recipe, I think it worked out exactly as it should have. To me the recipe fails because there is no counterbalance to that cloying sweetness. I also did not like that big chunk of whipped cream which pretty much just made your mouth feel greasy. I think ice-cream may have been a better choice. What do I know though? It’s not like I ever came runner-up in the Best Border Beverage competition.

I hope your Australia Day is dazzling, even if this drink is not.

Have a wonderful week.

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09
Jan
2016

Frikkadels – The Danish Girl Goes To Sri Lanka

categories: Books, Dill, Minced Beef, Movies, Sri Lanka

I am reading The Danish Girl for book club. I am not that far into the book – so there are no spoilers here for anyone who may be concerned but there was a part very early in the book that blew my teeny mind and most likely not at all for the any of the reasons you might be thinking!

Here is the passage:

Even with his eyes closed, standing shirtless in front of his wife felt obscene. It felt as if she’s caught him doing something he had promised he would avoid – not like adultery, but more like resuming a bad habit he’d given his word he would quit, like drinking aquavit in the canal bars of Christianshavn or eating frikadeller in bed”

– David Ebershoff, The Danish Girl

In Sri Lankan Burgher cooking, we have a delicious meatball called a Frikkadel. The name was too similar to the frickadeller found in The Danish Girl for me not to undertake some extensive research. (Otherwise known as googling the word Frikadeller.) And yes, they are pretty much one and the same.

Knowing this also helped to fill a gap in my knowledge about these meatballs. I have long wondered why they are flavoured with dill which is not used that much in Sri Lankan cooking. But it is used a lot in Scandinavian Cooking. Mystery solved!

I cooked some ages ago and never got around to posting them so here are my Friikkadels.

Sri Lankans would not normally eat frikkadels in bed but they would be quite commonly handed around at a drinks party as a “short eat” which is what we call finger food.

Here is the “official” description from the delightful ( but totally demented) Daily News Cookbook, a bastian of Sri Lankan Cooking.

“The term “short eats” was originally used to describe the dainty sandwiches, dry cheese or other savoury biscuits, potato chips and miniature sausages accompanying the drinks at sherry or cocktail parties which usually began at six o’clock in the evening and lasted for a couple of hours at the most….

The chief requisite of short eats is that should appeal to the eye as well as the palate; but they must also be easy to eat – that is, small enough to be conveyed to the mouth with the fingers or, at the most, a small wooden pick”

My frikkadels were eaten as short eats with a dollop of date and tamarind chutney and a garnish of coriander. However, the best, best, best way to eat your frikkadels – better than a short eat or even in bed is as part of a lampries.

Part of a what you ask? One day, when I have an infinite amount of time on my hands I will make one for you. And your minds will be blown by the awesome deliciousness of them. It’s unlikely to happen in the foreseeable purely because of the seven billion things that need to be included. For the lampries is a little pack of many items of Sri Lankan delciousness. Traditionally this would be cooked and served in banana leaves but nowadays alfoil is also used. The lampries contains:

Ghee rice
Lampries Curry – made with chicken, lamb beef and pork. I know it sounds mental but it’s so good!
Frikkadels
Brinjal Pahi – which is an eggplant pickle
Coconut Sambal
Prawn Blachang – which is a dried prawn pickle type thing. Ish.

Now do you see why I will most likely never make this myself? Not only do you need to have all of those things. But they all have about twenty ingredients each. To make lampries tis a labour of love. Which is why we buy them frozen. The best are straight from the kitchen of a little old Sri Lankan lady. Next best is from your local Sri Lankan cafe or restaurant.

And here is one that I ate at The Dutch Burgher Union when we were in Sri Lanka last year:

My favourite way of eating a lampries is to eat one of the frikkadels first. Then the rest. Then the second frikkadel as the very last thing. Kind of like the cherry on the top!

Frikkadels came to Sri Lanka from the Dutch who borrowed them from the Danes. There is also a South African version also via the Dutch. Frikkadels can also be found in many other countries of Northern Europe. This is certainly the little meatball that could!

Frikkadels

Print Recipe

Delicious Sri Lankan /Dutch / Danish meatballs

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

500g minced beef – do not use the leanest type, you need a higher fat content to keep the frikkadels moist
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
a piece of ginger about the same size as the clove of garlic, grated
1 tsp black pepper
juice of 1 lime
a large pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 sprigs of dill, finely chopped
2 eggs
1 cup of bread crumbs for coating
Oil for frying, ideally coconut but peanut will do

Optional Ingredients

Lime wedges to serve.
Coriander leaves to serve
Chutney or sweet chilli sauce to serve

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Instructions

Separate the eggs.
Mix the minced (ground) beef, onions, ginger, garlic, pepper, lime juice, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg dill and salt thoroughly with the egg yolks.
Form into balls the size of large marbles.
Beat the whites of the eggs with a fork just enough to break them up but without frothing.
Dip the balls into the eggs whites then roll in the crumbs so they are well coated.
Heat the oil in a deep pan until boiling then fry the frikkadels a few at a time.
When cooked through they should be crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside.
Keep hot, draining on kitchen paper.
Serve with a wedge of lime, chutney or as part of a lampries.

Why not try some at your next party? Or in a lampries? Or even in bed?

The Danish Girl does not open here until the end of the month. Have any of you seen it? What did you think?

Have a fabulous week!

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24
Nov
2015

Sussex Pond Pudding

categories: Desserts, England, Lemon, Pudding

In a weird coincidence, the last three cookbooks I have read have all contained recipes for Sussex Pond Pudding. I had never heard of such a thing before and suddenly, it was stalking me! The universe was absolutely, positively telling me something. And I took that message to be that I should make one. Because that’s what the universe does right? Offers a gentle guiding hand to point you in the direction of where you need to be going.

But first, somewhat of a digression. The cognitive bias that had me seeing Sussex Pond Pudding everywhere has a name – The Bader-Meinhof Phenomenom. It occurs when a word, name or thing comes into your attention and shortly afterwards it reappears with what seems like greater than normal frequency. I’d love to know if, after reading this any of you randomly hear the words Bader-Meinhof or Sussex Pond Pudding over the next few weeks. Let me know if you do.

Sussex Pond Pudding – The Inspiration

My most recent sighting of a Sussex Pond Pudding (kinda makes it sound like the Loch Ness Monster) came from Big Table, Busy Kitchen by Allegra McEvedy.

I find Allegra McEvedy immensely likeable and all of her recipes that I have tried have been successful. She describes the Sussex Pond Pudding as follows:

“This classic English Steamed Pudding is definitely of a superior nature to most of it’s steamy brethren…it’s the only steamed pudding I ever make and I need to make it at least once a winter”

High praise!

The next reference came from The National Trust’s Complete Traditional Recipe Book by Sarah Edington.

She offers some the following explanation of the name.

“Sussex and Kent extend their rivalry to puddings – the most famous being Sussex Pond Pudding and Kentish Well Pudding. The former consists of a suet crust enclosing butter, brown sugar and a whole lemon, and in the latter currants are added. Either way, when the pudding is cut open, a rich sweet syrup, the well or pond – oozes out.”

The final book (which was actually the first book I read containing those three words was Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking. Which you can read more about here.

You may have noticed that thus far, you have not seen any of my photos of the Sussex Pond Pudding. I thought I would intersperse my pictures with Laurie’s commentary.

A Digression on Suet

By the way, Laurie Colwin calls it Suffolk Pond Pudding. For the sake of consistency, I will refer to it as Sussex Pond Pudding throughout.

But first. Can we talk about suet? OMFG – was a more disgusting substance ever invented? This has to figure right up there with the civet pooping coffee and that bird embryo they keep getting people to eat on Survivor and The Amazing Race. I had to look it up because I was actually not too sure what it was. I wish I hadn’t

Suet – raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys.

I am really sorry British people who eat this stuff all the time but that is just disgusting. Raw sheep kidney fat. Exactly what I want in my sweet pudding.

Turns out you can buy (fake?) suet in the supermarket and it looks kind of like breadcrumbs of butter. So not as bad as you might think. Just try not to think where those buttery breadcrumbs come from.

And that pastry? Was a bastard of a thing to make. And I was not at all happy with the finished product. It was very both heavy//thick and fragile. Getting it to line the pudding bowl was a nightmare.

Sussex Pond Pudding – The Commentary

And now, over to Laurie Colwin.

“Sussex Pond Pudding although something of a curiousity sounded perfectly it splendid….it never occurred to me that nobody might want to eat it”

No one wanted to eat mine either. The fussiest eater in the world took one look at it.

“What is that?”

It’s a Sussex Pond Pudding”

“It looks disgusting”

He comes from Kent. Maybe I should have added currants.

Back to Laurie:

“My suet crust was masterful. When unwrapped from it’s cloth, the crust was a beautiful deep honey colour”

Mine too, at least at the bottom, which became the top where all the butter and sugar had soaked into the pastry.

“My hostess look confused. “It looks like a baked hat”, she said.

“It looks like the Alien,” my future husband said.

“Never mind, ” I said. “It will be the most delicious thing you ever tasted”.

“I cut the pudding. As Jane Grigson had promised, out ran a lemon-scented buttery toffee. I sliced up the lemon which was soft and buttery too. Each person was to get some crust, a slice of lemon and some sauce. What a hit! I thought. Exactly the sort of thing I adored. I looked around me happily and my happiness turned to ash”

The buttery lemony sauce was by far the best thing about this . It was actually quite delicious. And the soaked buttery pastry was not awful either.

My host said: “This tastes like lemon-flavoured bacon fat”

“I’m sure it’s wonderful, ” said my hostess. “I mean, in England”.

The woman guest said “This is awful.”

My future husband remained silent.

Mine did not taste like bacon fat, maybe because I used the fake supermarket suet. If you got the right ration of sauce (lots) to pastry (not much) it was actually not too bad. It was not the “weird inedible sludge from outer space” Laurie Colwin describes however it is also not something I will feel compelled to make at least once a year like Allegra. Or ever again.

Although I am going to have to find something to do with the rest of that suet!

I guess that sometimes, instead of being that gentle guiding hand, the universe is a smartarse little jokester who is six steps ahead of you laying down banana peels for you to pratfall on.

And then, just as you are shaking your fist at it, it gives you a little wink and a grin and holds out its hands in a let’s be friends gesture. In my instance, remember a couple of weeks ago I said this:

I have a real hankering to go back and watch some early XFiles. I have yet to scratch that particular itch but it’s there….

And lo and behold, I was flicking channels on Saturday night during an ad break in, ok, I admit it, The Hunger Games and look what was on my telly:Just a couple of minutes before this scene Mulder was examining Scully’s butt for alien probes. It was AWESOME! I can’t wait for next Saturday!

Have a great week!

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27
Oct
2015

Braving Brioche

categories: 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Bread, Brioche, France

They say you should do one thing every day that scares you. Well, this week we are jumping ahead to the letter H in the A-Z of cooking and I am doing something that terrifies me. The reason for the leap from E to H and the sudden boldness on my part will become apparent in the next post….Huh…instead of a cliff hanger ending I think I just gave you a cliff hanger starting! Anyway, want to know what scares me? That third episode of Limetown still makes me shiver but cooking wise, one of the things that frightens me is bread.

And not only did I made bread this week but ooh la la, I made French Bread! Brioches to be exact. And they were very good! They looked kinda like brioches, they smelled like brioches, and they tasted like brioches! I cannot tell you how pleasantly surprised I was because the manner of making seemed odd.

I have never made brioche before but maybe, possibly this is how it is done. It seemed to work!

You made your bread dough then divided it into 12 pieces which you rolled into balls. Then you pinched off a small ball of dough from each of those so you then had 24 balls, 12 small and 12 larger. The recipe then called to make a hole in the large ball and stick the small ball inside. I found it easier to flatten the large ball and wrap it around the small ball.

Then into the baking pan for a rest and rise:

Add a glaze, pop in the oven and a short while later:

BRIOCHE!!!!

If I’d known brioche was going to be this easy I would have been making it for years! I love that high shine glaze! And to copy a phrase I learned from the Great British Bake Off, the bread also has “good crumb”.

Even though I had specifically made these for another purpose, I couldn’t resist having a little taste. Brioche and apricot jam for afternoon tea? Yes please!

As for the rest of them? Stay tuned. You’ll see in a couple of days! And it’s worth the wait! Meantime, get your brioches ready!

Brioche

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

1 tbsp plus 1tsp sugar
3 tbsp hand hot water
2 tsp dried yeast
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
50g butter, melted and cooled

Egg Glaze

1 egg
1 tbsp water
pinch of sugar

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Instructions

Dissolve 1/2 tsp of sugar in the water. Sprinkle over the yeast and whisk it in with a fork. Leave in a warm place for 10-15 minutes or until the mixture is frothy.
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Mix in the rest of the sugar, the yeast mixture, the eggs and butter.
Mix by hand until the mixture leaves the side of the bowl.
Knead on a lightly floured board for 5 minutes.
Put the dough in a warm place and leave to rise for about 1.5 hours or until it has doubled in size and springs back when lightly pressed.
Preheat your oven to 230C.
Divide the dough into 12 portions. Break off a small bit of each portion and roll into 12 small balls.
Roll the remainder of the portions into 12 larger balls.
Poke a hole in each of the larger balls with your finger and place the small ball inside. Close the hole by pressing the dough together.
Place the balls in your baking tin and leave to rise for about an hour or until light and puffy.
Mix the ingredients for the egg glaze together and brush over the brioches.
Place in your preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Have a great week!

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