This week in History Happy Hour we are celebrating my home town and the running of the Melbourne Cup with this delicious Kiwi Cocktail.
First run in 1861, the Melbourne Cup is the richest “two-mile” handicap race in the world, and one of the richest turf races. It is, in Australia, the race that stops a nation.
It is run on the first Tuesday in November each year and here in Melbourne, we get a day off from work for the Cup. A sneaky Tuesday off work? Now that’s worth celebrating!
The Kiwi Cocktail also specifically celebrates the 1983 winner of the cup, Kiwi. Why are we celebrating 1983? Well…you try finding a cocktail called Archer (first winner) or Protectionist (last year’s winner). And if you do, send them my way!
And kiwi fruit are super delicious. And very healthy. So, you get a teeny bit of detoxing even as you are toxing. And that can’t be a bad thing.
Don’t let the pretty green colour of the Kiwi Cocktail fool you either. With 75ml of booze in it, The Kiwi has a kick like a prize-winning stallion! So drink it responsibly…remember the Cup is a race for stayers not sprinters!
PSA over, this is delicious and perfect for a lovely Spring afternoon as long as you take it easy!
English is meant to be one of the most descriptive and eloquent languages in the world. Why then, do some phrases sound so blah when contrasted to their foreign counterparts? Take Green Sauce, this week’s dish o’ the week. How much better would it sound if it were called Salsa Verde or Sauce Verte or even Pesto?
All of these suggest a zing, a zippiness, a brightness that plain old Green Sauce totally fails to convey. However, out of everything I made from The Meatball cookbook, the green sauce was an absolute standout highlight which I will make over and over.
This stuff is like crack. Seriously, make it once and you will want to smear, drizzle, spread this over EVERYTHING. And here’s the thing – it’s good with everything. Here are some of the stuff I have eaten it with outside of the meatballs:
Steak
Roast chicken //Poached Chicken
Pasta
Bread
Fish or any white seafood – lobster, crayfish, prawns, scallops
Baked and boiled potatoes
And it’s not just me. Everyone in the book club who made this sauce agreed it was the bomb!
It’s also a good way to get rid of some of the herbs you have used in other recipes that might otherwise go to waste. I have added tarragon and mint into the mix and it was delicious both times.
Make it. Make it today. You will not be disappointed. I promise.
Oh yeah, the meatballs were good too! These are the chicken, cheese and corn balls.
No real recipe fails this week – just me failing to make some Banana Buttermilk Pancakes (which have been top of my list for weekend breakfasts) for maybe the tenth week in a row. I’ve given up, I’m making a saffron and pistachio kulfi with the buttermilk as we speak.
This week I am looking forward to cooking:
After the meatfest that was meatball week, I am looking forward to making some salads and this Cucumber, Pistachio, Grape and Feta salad from Australian Gourmet Traveller is hitting every button I have.
So is this Shaved Asparagus, Cured Beef and Manchego Salad but I’m not sure if I can be arsed curing my own beef. Does that make me lazy? Or is that asking too damn much? What is a good substitute? I was thinking I could use pastrami. Suggestions gratefully accepted!
Hmm…there’s buttermilk in that dressing. Maybe the banana pancakes are back on the menu.
In the oven at the moment is Vincent Price’s Champagne chicken for the #treasurycookalong over at Silver Screen Suppers, it is smelling delicious!
In Other News I Am
Listening To
I have downloaded but am yet to listen to The Message Podcast. I’ll let you know how that one works out.
Reading
Still on Orphan #8. Had a moment this week sitting in the doctor’s waiting room to get my foot x-rayed whilst reading about a woman who had her whole life destroyed by x-rays and briefly wondered if I should make a run for it. Sadly, the most I could have managed was a slow hobble.
Reading/Listening
For some reason my computer decided to wipe all the files for Life After Life. Which is a shame because I was really enjoying it.I’m not totally upset though because I think it is something I will like even more by actually reading it.
I have switched to audio reading Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed and I am loving it. I think Jon Ronson is brilliant and have read (nearly) all of his books and never been disappointed. There is something about those smart witty British boys (Ronson, Alain De Botton, Louis Theroux) that does it for me BIG time. I am also totally loving that Jon Ronson is reading the audio himself. I would recommend this to anyone who has any online presence (this means you) in terms of how to behave on the old dub-dub-dub that we all share.
Niki Sengit’s The Flavour Thesaurus is a book I have dipped in and out of for years. I am now reading it cover to cover. And loving it too. I can’t tell you what I enjoy more, her scalding wit or the great recipe suggestions.
Watching
I watched Best in Show earlier today and it was as funny as ever. I had totally forgotten some of the mad random bits of hilarity such as Eugene Levy’s two left feet. Utterly watchable!
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….
Here is the Green Sauce Recipe and if you are only ever going to act on one thing from this blog make this green sauce.
50g (a large bunch) flat leaf (Italian) parsley, leaves picked
50g (a large bunch) basil, leaves picked
1 clove of garlic
35g blanched almonds
10g anchovies
Juice of 1 lemon
120ml extra virgin olive oil
25 parmesan cheese, finely grated
Instructions
Blitz the herbs, garlic, almonds, anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor for around a minute or until a smooth sauce has formed.
Add the parmesan and blitz for another minute.
What’s going on in your life / kitchen? What was the best thing you made this week?
Maybe it’s because it’s Halloween week but here I am with another thing, actually two things that scare me. Batter and deep-frying. Because I made Sliders. And not just any sliders, Oyster Sliders. And not just any Oyster Sliders but Old Bay Oyster Sliders!
Ooooooohhhhhyeeeeeaaaahhhh!!!
Can I just say that these were as good as they look?
Start off with some mini brioche…..hmmm..now where would you find some of them? And toast them up.
Whip up some aioli ( I had this saffron and roasted garlic aioli from something else I had made), but any aioli or even mayo would be fine. But the saffron makes it look so pretty!
Choose your vegetables. I used lettuce, carrot, red cabbage and red onion.
Don’t forget the pickle! I used a pickled jalapeno but a dill pickle would also be fine.
Next up a tempura style batter loaded with Old Bay! Heat some oil, drench your oysters in the batter and drop into the hot oil. These only need a minute or so to cook. Drain on crumpled paper:
And assemble.
Now, you have to promise not to laugh or judge me too harshly…(oh wow does that make a third thing that frightens me, in this post alone?) but I made my first ever gif.
Ok, deep breath, here ’tis…
Eeek….if anyone’s left after that, here’s the recipe!
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!
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.
Black berries, blueberries, dots of marzipan, almonds, choc chips, a splash of amaretto and, of course some custard? How could the Black and Blueberry Crumble not be the dish of the week?
Fail of the week? The Broccoli con Anchovy from The River Cafe Cookbook. I’m not sure what it is with me and this book. Last week the rotolo was a fail. This week, I didn’t even get to cook anything.
Here’s the thing. I put broccoli on my shopping list. I ticked it off my list meaning it had gone from shelf to basket. I should have had broccoli in my fridge. BUT I tootled off to twilight yoga on Sunday afternoon planning to have a healthy broccoli con anchovy supper on my return. Got home, had my aromatherapy bath, got into my jamies. And no broccoli. Not in the fridge, not misplaced in the cupboard. Not in the car. Just a black hole of broccoli.
And yes, I could have gone and bought some but I was already in my pyjamas and Doctor Who was about to start.
This week I am looking forward to cooking:
Tasty Reads is coming up, I am going to make the Chicken, Cheese and Corn meatballs and the Raw Tuna Meatballs from the meatball cookbook. I found the Turkey Cran meatballs I made a little too sweet for my taste. I will try these again but instead of the dried sweetened cranberries required by the recipe I will use fresh (frozen) cranberries. They will bring a much needed touch of tartness. Also place the balls in the freezer for maybe 15 minutes so the cheese doesn’t ooze out everywhere.
In Other News I Am
Listening To
I know I spoke about this last week but OMG Episode 3 of Limetown sent shivers up my backbone. The last ten minutes? Possibly the scariest thing I have everlistened to.
In the same creepy vein, Mark had never heard of Jonestown until this week. Reminded me of this other creepy, but this time true, pod.
Reading/Listening
I finished A Rush Of Blood on audio, It was ok. I think the author drew a long bow for the reasons for the murders.
We saw William Shatner’s Stage Show the other night. Briilliant. We have started marathon watching Boston Legal on the back of it. It’s still immensely watchable!
Also A Beautiful Lie on ABC. This is a modern day version of Anna Karenina which so far has been superb. Except for one teeny thing…the Vronsky character is not at all good looking. In fact, Mr Karenina is waaay more handsome. Despite this, absolutely loving it.
50g (a large bunch) flat leaf (Italian) parsley, leaves picked
50g (a large bunch) basil, leaves picked
1 clove of garlic
35g blanched almonds
10g anchovies
Juice of 1 lemon
120ml extra virgin olive oil
25 parmesan cheese, finely grated
Instructions
Blitz the herbs, garlic, almonds, anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor for around a minute or until a smooth sauce has formed.
Add the parmesan and blitz for another minute.
What’s going on in your life / kitchen? What was the best thing you made this week?
First run in 1861, the Melbourne Cup is the richest “two-mile” handicap race in the world, and one of the richest turf races. It is, in Australia, the race that stops a nation.
In Other News I Am