Cuisine Diplomatic

New home!!!

2016-01-06T21:16:00.001-08:00

Hi there! Just letting you know that this blog has a new home! Please visit me over HERE! Thanks!

Betty's Fennel and Celery Salad

2015-10-18T21:38:00.001-07:00

Our friend Betty is a bit of a legend. She has a cafe, a catering company, teaches kids to cook through the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program and then on weekends she and her sister Stella work minor miracles with a BBQ and produce from the stall holders to serve breakfast at farmers markets around town.

At a market last spring, she made this amazing salad to go with her bacon and egg rolls and found time to the recipe down for me. She chopped lots of celery, fennel, mint, black olives and dressed it with lemon and olive oil. It was so, so good, the kind of thing that makes me hold my bowl very close to my face to speedily hoover up.

Betty's fennel and celery salad
Serves 4 as a side dish

1 small or half a large bunch of celery
1 fennel bulb
A handful of mint, chopped
1/2 a cup of black olives, pitted and chopped
2-3tbs olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Salt

Cut the fennel bulb in half, then slice length ways using a mandolin. Slice the celery stalks on a mandolin too and place them in a large bowl with the fennel. Finely chopped the leaves of the celery and the fennel fronds and add them to the bowl. Add the mint, black olives, then the olive oil, lemon juice and salt and toss well. Serve straight away.

Grilled peppers, lentils and walnut taratoor

2015-10-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

Spring has been absolutely scorching in Melbourne so far, this Sunday morning just passed though, was cool enough to jump on the bike and consider turning on the grill to cook some peppers.

It's pretty funny how often I find myself doing things in my leisure time that I often do for work. Roasting eggplants, grilling peppers and chopping salads my MO at Shuki and Louisa and while I love my time off to spend as I please, often I find myself doing just these things, on a much smaller scale. I'm always thinking too of dishes we can add to our catering menus and this one, which was inspired by a dish from the London restaurant Moro was a prime example.

The market closest to my house is run by lovely Turkish man. He's always giving my daughter grapes and peaches and his range of peppers and eggplants is mind boggling. Sunday morning I picked bag of these and being inspired by the menu at Moro, I grilled them and mixed them up with warm black lentils, mint, lemon and olive oil. I also whipped up a bowl of walnut taratoor, (which is incredibly delicious!) to serve alongside.

Grilled peppers, lentils and walnut taratoor

1/2 cup of lentils
1 bay leaf
1 clove of garlic
8 small or 4 large peppers(a mix of colours is nice)
2 tbs olive oil
Juice of one lemon
Handful of fresh, chopped mint

Walnut taratoor
150g walnuts, toasted
1 clove of garlic, crushed with salt
3 tbs olive oil
1.5 tbs red wine vinegar
Salt

Heat up your grill to very hot. Lay the peppers under and cook, turning once until the skins are very black and loose. Place in a plastic bag and set aside to cool. Rinse the lentils and add them to a pot, cover with plenty of water and add the garlic and bay leaf. Place on a high heat and bring to the boil, then simmer slowly. Check them after 20 mins, you want them to have a bit of bite and the cooking time depends on their age. Meanwhile, peel the peppers and cut into strips.

Make the tararoor by placing the walnuts in a food processor. Process until it resemables bread crumbs, add the garlic and pulse again for 10 seconds. Mix the olive oil, vinegar and 1-2 tablespoons of water together and add a little at a time to the walnuts. Season and pour into a bowl.

When the lentils are done, rinse and place in a bowl, pour the olive oil over, toss, then add the lemon juice and season. Add the mint and toss well. Serve with a spoon of taratoor on top, or spread on the bottom of the plate.

Chopped tomato and roasted eggplant salad

2015-10-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

We're entering the party season and the calender at Shuki and Louisa is REALLY feeling it. With catering jobs, felafel pop ups and orders for dips on the up and up, the rest of the year is set to be eaten up with chopping, peeling, markets and filling the car with boxes of vegetable and staring again. It's such a great time of year though and it's hard not to feel a kind of exhausted joy about dishing up lots of delicious food.

It's times like these you need a really good lunch! We always stop at midday and feed ourselves a good lunch no matter how busy we are. Working through or eating a quick pita on the run always ends up making you feel lousy at the end of the day. Today, as it hit 35 at midday, Camille and I sat in the back yard in the shade and fell on this salad. It was so delicious. It's just the kind of thing we love to mix up and pile inside pitas to keep us going for the afternoon.

The eggplants were covered in plenty of oil and I put a tray of water in the oven as they were roasted to create steam and make sure the eggplants didn't dry out. The warm eggplants were mixed with tomatoes, salt, lots of olive oil, lemon juice, corriander and mint. Then a bit of creamy tahini on top, with sumac. I really love the way the tahini, tomato and lemon juices pool together in the bottom of the bowl for this one. Such a good, easy lunch or dinner for a hot day or night!

Chopped tomato and roasted eggplant salad

Preheat the oven to 200C. Dice one large eggplant and toss with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a big pinch of salt. Place them in the oven with a tray of water underneath and roast, turning occasionally for around 30-40 minutes until they are starting to brown and are soft through. While the eggplants are roasting, mix 2tbs of tahini with half a cup of water, a little lemon juice, salt and a little olive oil. Mix til smooth and creamy.

Place in a bowl with 4 diced ripe tomatoes, olive oil to coat, salt to taste and the juice of one lemon. Add a handful each of coriander and mint and toss gently. Lay on a platter and top with tahini and sumac.

Carrot and radish salad wtih dill and capers

2015-09-27T22:04:00.001-07:00

One of the best sights at the farmers market in the early morning is the radishes on the vegetable stands. On dark mornings, they glow brilliantly and it's pretty hard not to buy a few bunches. This Sunday just passed, I picked some up from one of my favourite vegetable stalls Peninsula Organics(their stuff is so good! I bought silver beet from them a few weeks back and it looked like it had just been picked after a week in my fridge!). The radishes were so good in this salad along with a few sweet carrots, salty capers and dill!

Radish, carrot and dill salad

4 carrots, peeled

1 bunch of radishes, washed and trimmed

2 tbs chopped dill

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt

1 tbs of capers packed in salt, rinsed

Using a mandolin, finely slice the carrots and radishes. Lay them in a bowl, add the dill and capers. Pour the olive oil over, add the lemon juice and salt, then toss gently. Serve straight away.

Artichokes, broad beans and dill

2015-09-20T22:27:00.002-07:00

The first broad beans popped up at the farmers markets a few weeks ago. I bought a big bag and eating them raw with our fried Janair, who sells brilliant dried fruit at the stall next to us, he told me about how his Mum cooks broad beans. She cooks them simply with garlic, lemon, olive oil and then finishes them with dill. She sometimes adds artichokes to the mix too.

It's a Turkish style of cooking broad beans that works REALLY well! I added some dry white wine to braise them in and ate them with a bowl of yoghurt and olive oil for lunch and it was so delicious. A really good recipe to try for those in Australia where early broad beans have just arrived.

Artichokes with broad beans and dill

2 tbs olive oil
4 small artichokes (trimmed)
2 cups of broad beans (podded, if young and peeled as well if old)
2 spring onions
1 clove of garlic crushed
1-2 tbs of dry white wine
Salt and pepper
Dill
Yoghurt and olive oil, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat and add the spring onions. Saute til soft then add the artichokes stirring to coat in oil. Add the garlic and cook briefly, til fragrant. Add a pinch of salt and the wine, stir again and cover. Cook for around 15 minutes, or til the artichokes are very soft, then add the beans and cook until just done. This should take 1-2 minutes with young broad beans, a little longer with older ones.

Persian Style Sabzi Platter

2015-09-13T20:36:00.002-07:00

A cool lunch for a hot day. This is a dish that Persians often eat to open the table. It's a lovely combination of fresh herbs, sliced feta, toasted walnuts, crisp radish and lots of fresh olive oil. You grab a bit of each, fold it up in some pita and eat it. It's so delicious and very nice if you're entertaining on a hot night.

Persian Style Sabzi Platter

Fresh herbs (parsley, dill, mint, tarragon are all good)
Sliced feta
Toasted walnuts
Washed spring onions
Chopped radishes
Good olive oil
Fresh pita

Lay everything out on a platter and drizzle olive oil over the top, with the pita on the side. Scoop up a bit of each and place inside a piece of pita.

ARTICHOKE CAPONATA

2015-09-08T00:37:00.001-07:00

Since spring started I've been flicking through the spring section of Fabrizia Lanza's great book "Coming Home To Sicily" a lot. I love Sicilian style spring dishes, heavy on the artichokes, broad beans and wild fennel. From it, I've made fava bean and wild fennel soup, pasta with wild fennel and sardines(so brilliant!) and this artichoke caponata a number of times. It's so delicious. Very simple to prepare, much better made in advance and the artichokes soak up the sweet and sour tang of the tomato sauce beautifully.

Artichoke Caponata
Adapted from a Fabrizia Lanzas recipe
3 large artichokes
3 large stalks of celery, washed and sliced
1 brown onion, thinly sliced
2-3tbs extra virgin olive oil(enough to cover the bottom of the pan)
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of dry white wine
1 1/2 cups of tomato sauce
1/4 cup of capers
1 tbs brown sugar
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of pitted green olives
Salt and pepper

Bring a medium pot of water to the boil and cook the celery for around 5 minutes. Remove, strain and place in a bowl of cold water.

Prepare the artichokes by removing the tough outer leaves. Then cut in half, scoop out the fuzzy centre and slice into half inch pieces.

In a large fry pan, cook the onion and olive oil over medium heat until soft and light gold. Add the artichokes and stir, add the water and wine. Bring to the boil and then simmer for around 15 minutes. Add the celery, tomato sauce, capers, sugar, vinegar, sauce, olives and season. Simmer 2-3 minutes and cool. Serve at room temperature.

KAREN MARTINI'S CHOCOLATE, YOGHURT AND HONEY CAKE

2015-08-29T21:46:00.001-07:00

This is such a good cake! I baked it on a rare weekend off from the farmers markets and with lots of honey and butter in the batter, it gave off a very dreamy scent while baking. It's good at room temperature or an hour after it comes out of the oven, when the dark, honey flavoured crust reminds me of a French caneles!

CHOCOLATE, YOGHURT AND HONEY CAKE

You can bake this is a 24cm round tin but I chose to make it in a ring tin.

2 eggs, whisked til light and fluffy

280g melted butter

140g honey

170g yoghurt

90g raw sugar

pinch of salt

130g plain flour

130g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix the honey, raw sugar, melted butter, yoghurt and salt together. Sift in the flours and baking powder and fold in to mix. Add chocolate and fold in. Pour into a greased and floured tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin and then turn on to a wire rack to cool.

ORANGE, FIG AND CARDAMOM GRANOLA

2014-03-25T00:06:00.002-07:00

Last week I got so very sick of forking heaps of money for tiny little packages of muesli with ingredients I don't even like(ie. dried paw paw) in them. So I made a big lot of this granola, with everything I love in it. For cheap.

It's got olive oil, honey, salt, dried figs, orange zest, hazelnuts and a healthy bit of cardamom and I can't stop eating it.

ORANGE, FIG AND CARDAMOM GRANOLA

3 cups oats
1 cup hazelnuts, roasted and peeled seperately
1/2 a cup of pumpkin seeds
1/2 a cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of olive oil
2-3tbs honey
Zest of 2 oranges
3/4 tsp cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 a cup dried figs, chopped into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 150C. Mix the oats, hazelnuts, seeds together in a large bowl. Melt the honey, olive oil, together and stir in the cardamom, orange zest and salt off the heat. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir very well. Spread onto a large tray and bake for 45 minutes, stirring at 15 minute intervals to make sure it cooks evenly. When golden, remove from the oven and stir in the dried figs. Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container.

EGGPLANT "TARATOOR"

2014-03-16T16:45:00.002-07:00

When Shuki and I score a catering gig we spend a few weeks planning a menu, a few days prepping then we serve up a Middle Eastern feast buffet style. It's hard work but actually pretty fun because it makes a difference from cooking huge pots of chickpeas and smoking kilos of eggplants, as we do for the dips.

Planning the menu is pretty grouse. Our latest job is for a repeat client, so we have to keep mixing it up to keep it interesting for them. Shuki usually comes up with something I've never tried like Iraqi style fish cakes in pita or chickpea and haloumi sambusac. I usually come up with a few salads or sides.

For one we have coming up in a few weeks, I've been testing an eggplant "taratoor" style dish. A halved eggplant roasted, spread with yoghurt, tahini, walnut, pomegranate molasses and a bit of mint. It's something I've done with baked salmon fillets many times and loved, so I thought I'd give it a go with eggplants. It works really well. As long as you bake the eggplant til it's soft enough to scoop easily out of the skin, you can't go wrong.

EGGPLANT "TARATOOR" // MAKES 4 SIDE SERVES

Adjust the quantities of the sauce ingredients to your tastes!

2 large eggplants
1/2 cup of yoghurt
1-2 tbs tahini
Salt and pepper
2 tbs olive oil, more for basting
Juice of one lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed, optional
Drizzle of pomegranate
Chopped mint leaves
Handful of roasted walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 200C. Slice the eggplants in half length ways and score the flesh. Season and rub with olive oil. Roast for 20 mins, then baste with more oil and roast for another 20 mins. When it's soft and creamy, remove and set aside to cool a little. Mix up the sauce, then spread on the cooled eggplants, finish with mint, pomegranate molasses and walnuts.

SLOW BAKED ZUCCHINI WITH TOMATO DRESSING

2014-03-10T21:20:00.002-07:00

This is a take on a Karen Martini recipe from her Feasting book which I stole from my Mum ages ago and have no intention of giving back. It solved a little zucchini tomato problem I had a few weeks back; tomatoes are best fresh when picked straight off the vine in your sunny backyard but zucchini is best cooked through and infused with another flavour. Therefore, if you want to serve them together, one vegie ends up suffereing. Not here! The zuchini is slow cooked with a bay leaf and the tomato is fresh and punchy in a dressing on top.

I put this together a few hours before dinner, then about 20 minutes before we were ready to eat, I baked some salmon fillets to serve taratoor style(another recipe I'd like to share here soon!). A good, easy dinner.

SLOW BAKED ZUCCHINI WITH TOMATO DRESSING

3-4 medium zucchini, sliced into rounds
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs water
Salt and pepper
1 bay leaf

For the dressing
3 ripe medium tomatoes, chopped
Handful of parsely, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 150C. Lay the zucchini in the bottom of a casserole dish with a tight fitting lid. Add the water, olive oil, bay leaf and season. Bake for around 45 minutes or until the zucchini are very soft. Mix the dressing ingredients together. Place the zucchini on a plate, top with the dressing and serve.

LAMB, CHICKPEA AND BARLEY SOUP

2014-03-03T02:39:00.002-08:00

One of the awesome things about having a farmers market stall is getting to know other stallholders and swapping produce. I especially love to get meat at the markets as you can buy it straight from the farmer and they can tell you exactly how it was raised.

At one market a few weeks back Anna Kelly from Plains Paddock had some especially lovely hogget meat going. Hogget, for those who don't know(I didn't) is a young sheep, a bit older than a lamb. I'd heard some good stuff about hogget, so I picked up a few shanks.

A freak late summer cold snap hit Melbourne that weekend, so I made this soup. Loosely based on the idea of North African Harira, it features lots of spices and pulses. I love a good pulse based soup and this one, with chickpeas, barley and lentils has plenty of textual variety. After a slow cook, the lamb falls apart, the grains swell us and you've got a thick, spicy mess of flavour. Adding yoghurt, herbs and lemon at the end freshens it up.

Lamb, chickpea and barley soup

2 tbs olive oil
3 shanks
2 onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 carrots, diced
3 celery, diced
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp coriander
1 1/2 tsp paprika
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs Harissa
3-4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup pearl barley, rinsed
1 can of chickpeas or 200g soaked, cooked
1/2 a cup of lentils, rinsed
Coriander, lemon and yoghurt, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a big pot. Add the shanks and brown all over, set shanks aside. Add onions and saute til softened. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and cook until soft. Stir the spices in and cook until fragrant, then add the tomato paste and Harissa. Stir and cook for around 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, then add all of the pulses. Cover and cook around 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is falling apart. Spoon into bowls and serve with coriander, lemon and yoghurt.

Harissa Baked Fish

2014-02-24T17:19:00.001-08:00

Every week for Shuki and Louisa, I make a big batch of super spicy Harissa to sell at the farmers market. It's one of my favourite things we sell. Made of a mixture of dried red chillies, roasted capsicums and spices, it's a little different to the traditional Tunisian version you find in little tubes at shops.

The roasted capsicums gives a nice freshness and even though I can't usually handle super hot foods, I find that the spices balance this one out and the way it's eaten, mixed with mayo on a sandwich, a tiny bit on eggs for breakfast or a spoonful in soup means that you get a nice kick without setting your mouth on fire. While I can't share the actual recipe for our Harissa (it's my bread and butter!), there are plenty of great other recipes out there and you can buy it conveniently pre made in the stores.

Once you've got the Harissa made/bought, this one's a super easy, knock out dish to serve. By slicing the potatoes thinly, you don't have to peel them and they cook really quickly. Then all you do is rub the fish with harissa, bake on the potatoes and serve with parsley, capers and a bit of lemon. Baking the fish atop the potatoes means you get some lovely crisp, chip like spuds and some, soggy with harissa fish juice ones. A really nice thing if you ask me!

Harissa Baked Fish

Serves 2

2 large potatoes
1 tbs of oil for potatoes + 1 tbs for the fish
2 fillets of fish
1-2 tbs harissa(depending on how hot you like it)
2 handfuls of parsely leaves
1 tbs salted capers, rinsed
1 lemon
Extra olive oil, to finish

Preheat the oven to 240C. Slice the potatoes into rounds and lay on a piece of baking paper. Rub both sides with olive oil, season and bake for around 15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooking through and beginning to colour. Remove from the oven.
Mix your harissa with the extra olive oil and rub all over the fish. Place back in the oven and bake for around 10 minutes, or until cooked through. Finish with parsley, capers and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with lemon wedges.

Fig and Hazelnut Smoothie

2014-02-17T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hey all! It's been a REALLY long time since I've written a blog post, I know. I've been busy with Shuki and Louisa and a few other life things, but the figs in the backyard are starting to ripen and I was inspired to post this smoothie recipe I tried out today.

It's pretty simple, figs, hazelnut butter, honey, milk, yoghurt but it's absolutely lovely. A great thing to make if you've got a fig tree (or your neighbour has one) and you want to do something other than rip into a ripe fig straight off the tree. I've used hazelnut butter but whole hazelnuts or even walnuts would be great too. If you're using those, pulse them at the very beginning, before you add the ice.

Fig and Hazelnut Smoothie

5-6 ice blocks
3 ripe figs
3 tbs yoghurt
1/2 a cup of milk
1 tbs hazelnut butter(or a scant handful of whole hazelnuts)
1 tsp honey

In a blender, pulse the ice. Add the rest of the ingredients and blitz until smooth.

Introducing Shuki and Louisa + Brussels spout pasta

2013-07-28T23:42:00.001-07:00

Sooo, I never meant to turn things into Cuisine Neglectomatic around here but it seems like it happened. My last post was months ago and I felt like stopping by here to explain a bit about what's been going on lately. So here's what happened; I started a business! It's called Shuki and Louisa and we make Middle Eastern specialities to sell at farmers markets around Melbourne. Our main 'thing' is dips. Here's some right now!

So, here we've got pumpkin, cauliflower, matbucha, babaganoush, hummus, green tahini and red and green chilli sauces. The reason this business went down is mainly due to my friend and now business partner, Shuki. A few months back, he asked me to start a market stall with him and I said yes. Having grown up in Israel with an Iraqi Mum, he made pretty awesome hummus, baba and a couple of other things I'd never heard of, couldn't pronounce but had no trouble eating. So, I got some chickpeas off my farming Dad and brother and we were away.

It's all pretty hectic but in an awesome way. I don't have as much time on my hands to post here anymore but I'd love to get back into the swing of it because for one thing, coming home from the farmers market each weekend with a loot is super inspiring when it comes to cooking and also, I miss it! But in some ways the business has filled the food gap in my life that the blog previously filled. I always wanted to do something with food and the blog was a nice way to do it while I was only teaching for a living, but now I cook every Friday and Thursday and spend my weekends at farmers markets, so I get my fill of food.

While, I 'm here I also wanted to express a massive thanks to the people who have helped us get going(and whom I'm pretty sure don't read this, but anyway, I'd like you to know how great these peeps are.) We've had some support from some truly awesome people along the way, the people at the Victorian Farmers Market Association who accredited us a few weeks back, Melbourne Farmers Markets, Don Linke who lets us loose at Flemington every weekend and Elwood on the second Saturday of the month. The farmers market network in Melbourne in general is an ace thing to be a part of! If you haven't been to one for a while, can I encourage you to get along? Not just for my sake but because they are seriously rad. Ever since I've been lucky enough to get to them(and pretend I'm working at the same time!) my food life has improved expontentially. I come home every Sunday with the greatest vegetables, fruit, cheese, bread and meat around and I've met some of the nicest, most generous people ever. They really are remarkable things. Finally, not associated strictly with the markets but no less excellent, a big thanks also to the people at Cultivating Community in Fitzroy who we are working with at their ace(never seen a commercial kitchen with so much natural light!) kitchen.

Last but not least, a recipe! As mentioned, coming home from the market with heaps of awesome stuff is pretty great. It's forced me to be a bit more creative with my vegies. Often at the end of the market day we get offered vegies we wouldn't normally buy by the generous stall holders, like Brussels sprouts and parsnips. When I found a bag of sprouts in the drawer on a Saturday afternoon, I decided to make this pasta. It had been an especially grey, windy morning at the market, which seemed to make the pasta even more rad. I'd never had sprouts like this before and I loved it so! You caramelise them a little, mix in some pancetta, chilli, lemon, rosemary and butter and you're done. It's so good. Also good, is writing on this blog again! Hopefully I'll be back soon and if you'd like to come down and try out our goods, we'll be at the Woodend and Flemington Farmers Markets this weekend. Peace out!

Brussels Sprouts Pasta

I would have used penne for this one, had I been able to find any. But I couldn't and rigatoni it was. Adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe.

200g Brussels sprouts, well washed, any tough outer leaves removed, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
80g pancetta, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large sprig of rosemary, leaves removed, finely chopped
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
Good grind of pepper
Pinch of salt
Juice of half a lemon
Pecorino or Parmesan, grated

Boil the pasta and cook til al dente. Meanwhile, heat the oil to medium in a large frying pan and add the pancetta. Cook stirring occasionally until the pancetta is lightly browned. Next add the garlic, chilli and pepper, stir until the garlic is fragrant. Add the sprouts and a pinch of salt next. Press down on them and cook until they are browned. Squeeze the lemon over, add the cooked penne, a splash of the cooking water and stir well. Add a bit of extra oil if it's dry and finish with cheese.

Sunday feast + bitter greens pie recipe

2013-05-06T21:08:00.001-07:00

Hey! It's been a busy couple of weeks for me and things have suffered a little on the cooking front(at least the home cooking front) but I do have a few things I'd like to share today, starting with a bit of a rant about feasting and in keeping with my obsession with pastry parcels of late, a recipe for Middle Eastern pies.

First about feasting, I decided before the weekend it had been waaay too long since I'd had people over for dinner, so I picked up some things at the market on Saturday and started planning. I love planning feasts, they don't have to be complicated but I do like to put on a well rounded dinner when I'm having people over. Usually, I like to serve something small to start, some roasted nuts or chopped vegetables. When it comes to mains and sides, I like to think, would I like all of these things mushed up together on a plate and if the answer is yes, I make it. Something sweet to finish is always good and I've recently become a huge fan of serving fruit at the end of a meal. For a long time(ie. my childhood) I thought a plate of fruit was a totally bogus excuse for a dessert but now I'm old, I like it. It's refreshing and unless you're into fruit art, takes pretty much no effort.

For Sunday's feast, I made a batch of Sam and Sam Clark's fatayer, stuffed with some beautiful greens I found at the market on Saturday to start, which was a bit more effort than roasted nuts or chopped vegetables but still very easy and totally doable in advance. When it came to the goat I was honestly a bit clueless but I took the lead from Farmer Joe(real name) who sold it to me and treated it like lamb. Marinated with cumin and garlic, then slow, slow cooked in a pot with some water, it fell of the bone. For sides, I roasted some pumpkin and onion to have with tahini suace, then dressed some chickpeas with lemon and parsley. I think it's nice too, no matter what you're eating to have a crunchy salad, so I dressed a bowl of cos leaves as well. A sweet note is always welcome in my book and after a big meal like this, I decided a plate of sliced oranges would do.

It was quite a spread so, rather than bombard you with recipes for everything I cooked, I thought I'd share what was for me, the highlight; the pies with bitter greens and sumac. Have you heard of this recipe by the people from Moro? It's famously easy and extremely delicious. I made a pumpkin version last year but on Sunday I fancied a straight green version and they were good. Stuffed with sauteed sorrel, rocket, onion and a good pinch of sumac, so good that cheese and nuts weren't necessary. What about you? Cooked any feasts lately? Have a favourite way to plan a spread? I'd love to hear about it!

Bitter Greens and Sumac Pies

Adapted from a Sam and Sam Clark recipe. Makes 8 entre sized pies. I made these a few hours in advance, right up to the baking stage, then baked them off just before serving. They didn't suffer for waiting. I also found it helpful to divide the filling, as well as the dough into 8 pieces, so that everything was evenly sized.

Dough
220 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
100 mls warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg, beaten (optional)

Filling
1 tbs olive oil

1 onion, sliced
1 bunch of sorrel, washed, finely chopped
300g rocket, washed, finely chopped
1 tsp of sumac
Salt and pepper

Start with the dough, put the flour in a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Sprinkle the yeast in, then pour the water, slowly mix and add the salt and olive oil as you go. Once everything's mixed, knead the dough on a floured surface for about five minutes. You want a smooth, non sticky dough. Set aside and cover with a tea towel.
Preheat the oven to 230C. Gently saute the onion in the olive oil until soft. Add salt and pepper, then the greens. Cover and cook until wilted, about five minutes. Remove from the pan, season and add the sumac.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces, and place on a floured surface. Roll into a thin round and fill with about two tablespoons of the mixture(see note above). Sprinkle the edges of the round with water and fold into a trinagle shape. Secure the edges together firmly by pinching and brush with egg wash. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and fold the rest of the pies. Brush each with egg wash for a nice golden finish and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. You'll want to let them rest for 5 minutes to cool down to eating temperature. Serve with yoghurt sauce or a wedge of lemon.

Empanadas at La Morenita

2013-04-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, a Colombian lady I know gave me a hot tip about a certain Latin American bakery called La Morentina in Sunshine North. After stalling for that long, I finally got around to visiting a few weeks back and let me tell YOU! This place is awesome. Just awesome.

While I don't normally write about eateries, I think La Morenita is pretty special and Marco, the baker/owner was kind enough to chat to me as he baked the empanadas, which I'll show you in just a minute. But first a bit about this marvelous place! La Morentina has been about for twelve years, in the same little shopfront in Sunshine North(it used to be called Las Penas). It's run by the lovely Maria and Marco, a Chilean born baker. Five days a week, Marco cranks up his imported Chilean ovens to bake bread rolls, empanandas and sweets. Maria meanwhile, makes the best sandwiches which are made in both the Uruguayan and Chilean styles. But, it was the empanadas I came for and the empanadas I watched being rolled, filled and baked.

When I got to the bakery early-ish on a Friday morning, Marco welcomed me in and began to roll out the dough he made the day before from flour, water and lard(it's the only way to make the best dough, according to Marco!) To stretch the dough out and get it down to the right thickness, it gets rolled through this press a few times, just like you do with pasta in a pasta machine.

Marco rolls the dough around a huge metal rolling pin to transfer it to the work bench, then uses these cutters to press circles for the empanadas. He forces the cutter down with a hard bash and shimmies it upon impact to cut through the dough.

He piles them up to rest for a while.

Everyday Marco makes new batches of each variety. But I watched the beef ones happen, which is what's going on here. A single black olive and little slice of boiled egg go down first.

Marco then places ice cream scoops full of beef mince cooked with onion in the middle. It seems like a good tool for the job; you get a nice round mound and each one is portioned out correctly.

A quick spray with water from a spray gun and the tricky part happens; the fold! You need to press down to remove the air and also firmly enough so that the pastries don't split when baked. The fold of the beef empanadas are fashioned into a distinctive bull horn shape for beef recognition.

They're loaded onto an imported Chilean oven tray, brushed with egg wash and (unpictured) snipped with scissors to release the steam as they bake...

......and baked until golden brown.

And that's how it's done. While I'm pretty sure that these pictures should be enough to convince you, I feel it's worth saying again that these empanadas are really good. The dough on the baked ones is perfectly soft with a bit of chew and the fillings are delicious. The fried ones are excellent too. If you do drop by for an empanada, I highly recommend a serve of the Chilean chilli sauce, pebre, on the side and if you can fit it in, one of the beef and green bean sandwiches and also maybe an alfajore for dessert! If that's not enough, look at how happy the empanadas make people. Guy in the blue can't hardly believe it!

Finally, before I left the bakery that day, Marco appeared with another one of his creations; his gorgeous baby daughter Selina. Every now and again, you can hear her bouncing around out the back playing with a spatula and giggling while you chew on empanadas.

Thanks very much to Marco and Maria for showing me around your ace bakery! Everything I have tried at your place has been super delicious and I don't seem to be able to leave without completely overdoing it. Nice work.

La Morenita, 67 Berkshire Rd, Sunshine North, VIC.
Ph: 03 9311 2911

Someone else's turn: cornflake biscuits

2013-04-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! This week, I'm giving someone else a turn. That is, someone else cooked something, I took some photos and wrote a bit about it. Here's how it happened, when I was away at my Dad's I asked my dear friend Margaret to show me how she makes the cornflake biscuits I loved sooo much when I was a kid. Very kindly, Margaret said yes and we spent a morning cooking.

I've known Margaret my whole life, when I was a kid she lived across the road from us. At about four ks away, she was one of our closest neighbours.When my parents went away, they'd often leave us at Margaret's farm which was something we loved because not only is she one of those great country ladies that can dip into her freezer and produce cream cakes, biscuits and slices to lay on an afternoon tea at a moment's notice, she had a kind of inbuilt knowledge of things that rock kids worlds. For example, once she made me and my siblings a GIANT hedgehog that she divided into quarters and piped all of our names on to. She also loved to play cards and razz us about footy teams and other things that little Victorian kids love.

Those afternoon teas I mentioned were always a highlight, the highlight of the highlight for me was cornflake biscuits. Thus, I was really stoked when Margaret agreed to show me how it's done. I paid Margaret a visit and she already had the ingredients ready to go. We set about creaming the butter and sugar, chopping the raisins and rolling out the cookies. Then while they were in the oven, she produced from seemingly nowhere, this spread to tide us over. (In case you're not sure, that's cream cakes, ginger biscuits, cornflake biscuits all on the one platter. Also, a few slices of pizza and some dip and biscuits. Margaret's hosting skills have always been superb.)

When the biscuits were ready, browned with crisp cornflakes on the outside, they were exactly as I remembered them. Even though there's not many special tricks or ingredients involved with making them, I really love these biscuits. There's something about the combination of buttery biscuit, sweet, chewy raisins and crunchy cornflakes that ticks all my boxes. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with me Margaret!

(Not only did Margaret send me home with a huge container of my favourite biscuits and the recipe, she gave me some her cream cakes from the freezer. What a legend!)

Cornflake Biscuits

Makes 12

125g butter
1/2 a cup of sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup of flour
1 cup of raisins, sliced in half
Cornflakes

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease an oven rack. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg, flour and raisins. Mix well. From the dough into tablespoon sized balls and roll in the cornflakes. Place on the tray and bake for 15 minutes. You should get a nice golden top. Cool on the tray for 5 minutes, before cooling completely on a rack

Roast Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary

2013-04-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the country! I'm writing to you today from the sunny, sweet spot that is my Dad's front verandah. A pretty ace spot to spend a few days away from the city, the house is on the family cereal farm in north western Victoria. Here, Dad and my brother grow wheat, barley, peas, oats, canola and chickpeas. A lot of chickpeas. Taking a walk around the farm during the week, I discovered an 80 tonne pile of them, just lying around.

I love coming here. This past week I've made my childhood favourite biscuits(recipe soon!), driven Dad's enormous ute to Swan Hill for some good Japanese(surprise!) and taken a ridiculous amount of photos. How could I not? The colours at sunrise and set are pretty insane.

It's been pretty hard to tear myself away from the sweet spot on the verandah to cook much but on Wednesday morning Dad pulled a hulking leg of his own lamb from the freezer to cook up for a family dinner. Dad doesn't have a great deal of stuff in the cupboard and the nearest shop is a ten minute drive away, so I made use of the tough old rosemary bush in the garden and a few lonely cloves of garlic to make a version of Karen Martini's Greek style roast lamb.

I always roast a lamb when I drop by Dad's and I have to say, this is the first lamb we've ever both agreed was good. Usually when I cook roast lamb, Dad complains that it's underdone. When I cook it the way he likes, I reckon it's tough. So this week, I did a long slow roast, 3 hours at 160C under foil and then a further hour uncovered. Best roast lamb ever and so easy. The meat is really tender and juicy and finishing the meat uncovered leaves the skin lovely and crisp. I know the recipe looks long but it really is as simple as I described above, don't be fooled by my lengthy instructions. Have a an awesome week everyone!

Roast Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary

A few things about cooking a lamb roast, I think it must be at room temperature when it goes into the oven. As I've noted through the recipe also, if your oven cooks unevenly, it's worth rotating the roast as it's cooking. That way it cooks through evenly and crisps up evenly on top.

1 leg of lamb(mine was 2.5kg)
6 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste
2 large sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
1/3 a cup of olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 cups of dry white wine
2 cups of water

Mix the garlic and rosemary together. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper and stir well. Season the lamb all over and make 8-10 incisions in the flesh. Rub the garlic and rosemary all over, pushing inside the incisions. Leave to marinate for at least two hours, but preferably overnight. Before you're ready to cook, take the lamb out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 160C. Prepare the roasting dish by placing a rack in the bottom(if you don't have a rack, slice up an onion and place it under the lamb.) Place the lamb in the dish pour the wine and water in the bottom and cover tightly with foil. Put the roast in the oven, after an hour and a half, baste the lamb, adding more wine or water if necessary, and turn it if your oven cooks unevenly(mine does.) Roast for another hour and a half. Take the lamb out, season again with salt(you're getting ready to create a crisp top and salt aids carmelisation). Roast for another hour.(Again if your oven cooks unevenly, rotate it half way through.) When the top is lovely and crisp, remove from the oven and rest for 20 minutes. This gives you time to steam the vegetables and make the gravy. Carve and serve with roasted potatoes and steamed vegetables.

PUMPKIN EATER

2013-04-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

Since my Mum bought a country pub nearly two years ago, Easter hasn't been a huge cooking holiday for my family and I. In fact, we barely cook on any holidays at all anymore. Even at Chrismtas, we usually chow down on a few plates of leftovers and prawns after lunch service. This Easter, I did make a hot cross bun pudding with brown sugar and orange custard but no one ate the damn thing. We ended up selling it to customers by way of the specials board and I was reminded again why we don't cook on holidays. This may sound sad, but there are other advantages to having a Mum with a pub, I promise.
Because of this little spell over the four day weekend, I came back to the city with a strong desire to cook! And as you can no doubt tell from my photos, its pumpkin that's taken my fancy this week. I've been at it with pumpkin a lot this week, mainly roasted because well, why would mess around with boiled or steamed, really? Pumpkin is the huge, sweet king of vegetables, if you ask me, and roasting brings out all it's glory. I absolutely love it. One thing I am wary of though, is pumpkin dishes ending up too sweet, I'm thinking mainly of a pretty horrific pumpkin pasta I put together last year around this time. God! It was sweeter than a lollipop. Yuck. As such, when I'm making a savoury pumpkin dish, I usually make sure to include lots of lemon, chilli, lime or other spices to make it distinctly savoury. But of course, being the king, pumpkin is great in sweets too and goes brilliantly with autumn friendly spices like cinnamon, ginger and allspice. Here are some things I made with pumpkin this week.

Roast pumpkin with dates and lemon
I love this dish! Not quite a salad, just a brilliant side, it's adapted from a Suzanne Goin recipe. Lots of lemon juice is required to tone down the sweet dates and pumpkins, but the salty parmesan, the crunchy pepitas and the peppery rocket make this one spectacular thing to eat. Trust me!

Quarter of a large pumpkin(around 350g), chopped into wedges, seeds removed
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup of olive oil, divided
1/4 cup pepitas
Juice of one lemon
Handful of parsley leaves
Bunch of rocket
3/4 cup of firm dates
1/2 a cup of shaved parmesan

Turn the oven to 350C. Spread the pepitas out on a large baking tray and bake for 7-8 minutes, or until slightly puffed up. Turn the oven up to 425C and toss the pumpkin pieces in one tablespoon of the olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay on a baking tray and bake for around 20-25, moving the pieces around half way through cooking time to make sure they bake evenly. Remove when they pierce easily with a fork. Make the dressing by mixing the rest of the oil, with the lemon juice and seasoning. Place the rocket in a bowl and toss a little of the dressing over, just enough to coat the leaves. Lay them on a platter, place the pumpkin pieces on top. Put the dates and parsley in with the rest of the dressing, then pour over the pumpkin. Finish with the parmesan and pepitas.

Pumpkin kofta curry
I love this too! Little tiny pumpkin and corinader koftas fried then simmered in a tomato/coconut sauce, it's so good. It takes a bit of work, making the kofta and the sauce separately then simmering them together. But it's so worth it and you can do the sauce and make up the balls ahead of time, then fry them off and simmer together for a few minutes. Adapted from a Claudia Roden recipe.

For the kofta
350g chopped pumpkin
1/2 a bunch of coriander, plus more to serve
1 large green chili, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste
3 cm piece of ginger, grated
Salt
75g plain flour(you may need more depending on what type of pumpkin you use)
1/4 cup of oil

For the sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
3 small red chillies
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 a cup of dried coconut, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes
1 tsp poppyseeds
3 tbs oil, sunflower or grape seed
1 large onion, chopped
1 can of crushed tomatoes
250ml water
Salt
1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 425 and roast the pumpkin on a large tray for around 30 minutes, or until very soft. Set aside to cool. Start on the sauce, blitz the cumin, coriander, chili, tumeric and coconut together until a fine paste forms. Fry the onion for around 10 minutes, until soft and golden. Add the paste and fry until it starts to brown. Add the tomatoes, water, salt and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, remove the skins and place in a medium sized bowl. Add the rest of the kofta ingredients (except the oil), mixing with your hands. You may need to add more flour than I've specified. the mixture needs to be firm enough roll into balls and fry off but not dry. Form the kofta into balls, I made mine about 3/4 tablespoon size.(I found that making large once resulted in doughy middles.) In a large frypan, fry the kofta, in a little oil until browned. When they are all done, add to the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes. Serve with the rest of the chopped coriander and rice.
Pumpkin loaf with brown butter and rum
Sometime last year, Melissa Clark posted a recipe for a pumpkin loaf and I've been wanting to make it for ages. I made it this week as part of my pumpkin cook up but to be honest, I was unmoved by it. It was probably my fault, or my oven's, it was too squidgy and I used Stroh rum, instead of bourbon! A rum favoured for high alcohol content, not flavour. Anyway, the real recipe is here and is probably a lot better than my version.

Tomato and Bread Soup

2013-03-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

This week I had planned to post a few recipes to celebrate the beginning of autumn. But then the Australian "autumn" blew up like a 35 degree hair dryer in the face. It was stinking hot and didn't feel very much like autumn. Then, work also blew up and suddenly, I was busy cycling all over Melbourne for work and it was stinking. Not a good formula for a series of lovingly constructed, autumnal meals.

Today though! It's rainy and cool, so I threw together this soup, which could have fitted in nicely with my abandoned brief. It's so delicious and just the thing for the upcoming cooler days, particularly if you've got late season tomatoes and stale bread lying around. Adapted from a fantastic recipe in the new Yotam Ottolenghi book, it's mildly spicy and thickened with a slice of sourdough bread. It doesn't sound like much, but turns out one slice of bread is enough to melt unrecognisably into the tomatoes and give you a soup you can almost stand your spoon up in. Kind of like pappa al pomodoro gone smoky with cumin. As a bonus, it comes together really quickly. Quickly enough for a weeknight dinner and quickly enough for me to put together before I jump on a train bound for the country for the Easter long weekend. Happy, happy Easter everyone!

PS: Super late, to the party I'm instagramming!

Tomato and bread soup

Adapted from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. Note on the recipe! I didn't have any stock on hand so I used the skins off the onions, garlic, green bits off the spring onion and some fresh herbs to boil up a mini stock. It worked fine.

3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 spring onions
1 onion
1 tsp of chilli flakes
1 tsp of ground cumin
2 chopped garlic cloves
Salt and pepper,
6 medium tomatoes
1 can of tomatoes(I love Mutti brand, if you can find them anywhere, get them! No one paid me to write that, no one has ever paid me to write anything or offered to come to think of it, so you can feel safe in my endorsement.)
500ml of stock(see note above)
One slice of bread

Saute the onions in the olive oil for around 10 minutes. Add the cumin, chilli, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir as it cooks, for 2 minutes. Add both of the tomatoes and stock. Simmer for ten minutes, taste at this point, if your tomatoes are not ripe, you may want to add a bit of caster sugar. Then add the bread and simmer for ten more minutes. Check seasoning, pulse a few times with a blender and serve.

Tamarind Paste

2013-03-18T01:30:00.001-07:00

I started this post a week ago, just after my friends and I spent a long weekend in the sunshine at a music festival. A kind of mindblowingly fun last summer hurrah. When we got home, our fridge was packed to the roof with leftover crap from the weekend, including nearly ten liters of Bloody Mary mix. I won't go into how a person actually ends up with this much tomato juice on their hands but I will say that the fridge was in general need of a clean out. That's when I found two whole jars of tamarind paste, so I decided to be practical and use some up.

Just now though, a week later, I'm sitting at home, fresh from a totally different kind of weekend. A chilly one, spent indoors working at my Mum's country pub. The first chilly weekend we've had yet, Mum started ordering wood for the fireplaces and planning soups for the specials board. So, while the tamarind paste/fridge cleaning out/ hot weekend of music festivalling is no longer fresh in my mind, I'm too excited about cooking with tamarind paste not to have a little, outdated rant about it here.

So here goes, before the Bloody Mary mix made our fridge explode, I didn't know that much about tamarind paste. Usually, when it's called for in a recipe, the quantity is so small that it doesn't get right up in your dinner grill. But I have to say, after a bit of experimenting and despite a rough tasting spoonful straight from the jar, I'm in love with the stuff. There's no subsitute for the subtle, sour tang it gives. It's a tang that needs a foil though, straight from the jar, as mentioned is foul. Make sure you balance the sourness out with sweetness, from honey or dates. Then there are so many possibilities. Just check out the culinary uses section on its wikipedia page, it's phenom. Jam, baking, stews, soup, you can even use it to polish metal and fix your guts. If you've got some lying in wait from the time you made Pad Thai or Tom Yum, I highly recommend you dust it off and enjoy.

Coconut, Date and Tamarind Chutney
This stuff is gold. Sweet, coconutty and beautifully balanced with a bit of sour tamarind, it goes well on rice, in omelettes and with fish. Take care with the dates, they vary in size, so if you have monsters, you might like to adjust the amount a little. The recipe comes from my new favourite old cookbook, Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food.

125g dried coconut
1 large bunch of coriander
6-8 dates
1 tablespoon of tamarind paste, mixed with 2 tablespoons of boiling water
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Juice of 1-2 limes or lemons
1/2 a teaspoon of chilli powder
1/2 a teaspoon of salt

In a food processor, blitz the corriander until it forms a paste. Add the rest of the ingredients and blitz again, adding 1 - 2 tbs of water to loosen, if necessary.

Egyptian Eggplant and Tamarind Stew
A mix of chickpeas, tomatoes, eggplants on a thick, sweet with honey and sour with tamarind base, this is one of my favourite stews. Adapted from an Allegra McEvedy recipe.

1 large eggplant, cut into 2cm x 2cm chunks
1 onion, sliced
4 tbs olive oil
2 red chillies, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped,
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp corinader powder
1 tsp tumeric
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tamarind paste
1 tablespoon honey, molasses or fructose
1 400g can of chickpeas, or 2/3 a cup of dried chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked
4-5 medium sized tomatoes
Mint, yoghurt and rice to serve
Lemon, to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 190C. Place the eggplant on a lightly oiled tray and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden. Set aside. In a casserole dish, saute the onion in the olive oil for around ten minutes. Add the chilli and garlic, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add the spices and stir, cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and 1/2 a cup of water, simmer for ten minutes. Next, add the tamarind paste, honey and eggplant pieces. Lower the heat, add the chickpeas and tomatoes and let it simmer for ten minutes. Check the seasoning and serve.

Date and Tamarind Cake - My friend Alex made a loaf version of Dan Lepard's Date and Tamarind Cake for her cake blog, the Cake Doctor, which is what inspired me to make this dead set delicious cake. Recommended.

Marintated labne with chilli, rosemary and fennel seeds

2013-03-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard about that thing where people eat so much of something that they give themselves an allergy? I have. I heard about it happening to someone who ate too many avocados. Tragic. I'm asking because, I'm scared this is going to happen between me and labne. So, what do you reckon? Urban legend or truth?
I hope it's not true because this summer, I've eaten a lot of labne and I'd like to continue eating a lot of labne. It started because when I was fresh off the plane from Africa, I wanted to make something a bit time consuming, something you wouldn't make while traveling in a foreign country. It was too hot for baking and jam making leaves me and the kitchen sticky, so I decided to make labne. Turns out, making drained yoghurt is an ideal summer activity. You get to stick your head in the fridge every now and again, and it goes great with summery things like stone fruits, eggplant and salads. Also, as it's yoghurt to the power of a thousand, it's wonderfully thick, tangy and great with sweet things like caramelised onions and roasted tomatoes. For example.......

Labne for breakfast - I love labne on toast with roasted tomatoes or sauted spinach.

Fried eggplant with labne - This is really easy to make and so creamily tasty. Just fry one diced eggplant in oil, then stir it around 50g of labne. Season and add some lemon juice if you like. For a good early autumn dinner spread, serve it with some grilled lamb fillets and tabbouleh. Makes enough for a small side dish for two.

Pasta with caramelised onions and labne(Adapted from a Diane Kochilas recipe) - Finally, my favourite, but probably ugliest(not helped by my shaky, hungry hands - sorry bout the blur), dish that I made with labne this week. This is a good one to make with the final few balls, as you can use up the marinating oil to gently fry the onions, giving them a wonderful fennel seed, chilli and rosemary flavour. The sweet onions and the tangy labne are ace together. Quite rich, I recommend you serve it with some bitter green leaves. I caramelised two onions, stirred in 100g of labne, half a packet of cooked pasta, a little of the pasta cooking water, pecorino and chilli flakes. Enough for two people.

How to make marinated labne

My favourite way to eat labne is in marinated ball form, so I've given instructions for rolling it up below. Of course, you can skip this and just it eat plain and tangy. Adapted from a Stephanie Alexander recipe. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

600ml plain yoghurt (see notes below)
1 tsp salt
Enough olive oil to cover the balls, (will depend on your container)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 sprig of rosemary, leaves removed, chopped

Mix the salt and yoghurt together in a bowl. Line a strainer with muslin cloth or a clean Chux and pour the salty yoghurt in. Place over a bowl to catch the whey and then leave in the fridge for at least 24 hours, but preferably two days. Check every now and again and drain off the whey.
Roll the mixture into small balls and place in a shallow container. Sprinkle over the fennel seeds, chilli and rosemary and leave overnight to let the flavours develop.

Here's more of what I learnt about labne:
- I've had the best results when using a mix of yoghurts, both sheep and cow milk but I really think the most important thing is that you use good quality yoghurt. An average yoghurt makes passable labne but ritzy, biodynamic or organic yoghurt makes something you'll be stoked with.
- Most recipes say to hang the yoghurt for at least two days, but I found that when making balls, it's best to hang it for even longer. The best balls I made, the yoghurt had hung for five whole days!
- You will probably use what seems like a sickening amount of olive oil to cover. But don't worry! You can reuse it. I've found that, when the balls are done, if you strain off the cheesey bits, you can use it as you would any other type of oil.
- They will keep for two weeks, as long as they are fully submerged in the oil.

Coconut

2013-02-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

Hey there! I'm not sure if you're a new or old reader of this blog. Either way, there's a chance you may know that some months ago, I started doing some partly insane but mainly educational(I cringe at the boringness of this word and I'm a teacher, sorry) and fun(for me) posts revolving around a particular ingredient. Being a horrible food nerd, I got a massive kick out of it and found that I was challenged to try new dishes and I even invented a few new ones. The insane bit comes in when I'm find myself eating coconut rice, fennel or prunes every night for a week.
Anyways, the wheels kind of fell off those posts last year when I wound up living in Africa for a few months. But now, just this week, they're back! I made a conscious effort/decision to revive this old thing this week and I loved it. Mostly because I chose one of my all time favorite ingredients, to experiment with; coconut!
I picked coconut this week mainly because the Australian summer is drawing to a close and a coconutty fiesta seems like a good way to say arrivederci to this glorious season. But also because my time in the tropical west African nation of Ghana, made me fall even more in live with the coconut. Since I've been home, I've been obsessed. Baking with it, rolling juicy slices of pineapple I it and drinking the watery belly of the fresh ones they sell at the store up the road from my house. (Did you know they're full of electrolytes! It's true.) I'm so into them but I do draw the line at hacking open and cutting the flesh from a fresh one. It's a plain old pain in the caboose. So here are some dishes that involve coconut in it's more convenient form.

Thai Style Coconut Soup
I made the coconut soup recipe from Sarah B's blog, My New Roots. It's so easy make and super delicious. I also liked this chilled, minus the mushrooms with bean shoots.You can find the recipe here.

Guyanese Boiled Corn
Where's the coconut? It's in the water the corn was boiled in! Amaze. It tastes amaze too.

1 x 400ml can of coconut milk
2 cups of water
Salt and pepper
One red chilli, chopped(optional)

Bring the water and coconut milk to the boil. Add the garlic, salt and pepper. Break the corn in half and add to the pan. Cook over high heat until all the liquid is absorbed. This takes around twenty minutes, but keep your eye on it as the milk can burn. I served mine with chopped coriander but I reckon rolling them in crisp shallots and peanuts would be good too.

Dark Chocolate and Coconut Biscuits
Here's a recipe I've been making since I was about 8. I've still got a hand written version, faithfully copied from an old Gourmet Traveller, that I would fax to relatives in Melbourne when they asked for it. It's one of my favourites. There's a little milk in the batter, which means you get a nice, soft, chewy biscuit and also that the dough bakes up much more nicely if you chill it for a at least an hour before baking. It makes 60 but can easily be halved.

250g soft butter
3 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups of plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 a cup of cocoa
1 teaspoon of salt
1 2/3 cups of desicated coconut
350g dark chocolate bits

Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffly. Add 2 lightly beaten eggs, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Combine well then add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Mix well then add the coconut and chocolate. Roll into logs and refridgerate for at least one hour. Preheat the oven to 180C and arrange tablespoon sized balls of dough, at least 5cm apart on baking trays. Bake 10-15 minutes, leave on the tray for 5 minutes, then cool on wire racks. Makes 60.