A: Valentines Day

Whether you’re a believer or not; swingingly-single or hopelessly in love, any Hallmark celebration is good enough reason for me to get baking!

A: Cordial for real!

In the middle of packing for our Christmas break, sorting out last minute end-of-term stuff for work and packing up the house to be painted, I’d nearly completely forgot about the very generous pile of lemons on my dining table just begging to be used!
What does one do with nearly 30 lemons? Do I chuck them all in the fridge and hope they survive the 3 weeks that we ‘re away, or do I make a ridiculous amount of cakes and slices that will only cost more money, time and effort than they are worth? I didn’t want to make anything the required too many extra ingredients and I didn’t really have the time to soak the lemons for preserving. What to do, what to do?
Enter: Belinda Jeffrey to the rescue!
I spotted her recipe for homemade limoncello in a magazine a while back, and the fact that I am the proud owner of 2 2l preserving jars– made it the perfect recipe to write off 24 lemons. The liqueur isn’t ready just yet, but when they are I shall be certain to provide lots of photos and the recipe.
Since the limoncello only called for the lemon peel, I opted to turn the juice from the remaining lemons into good old-fashioned cordial. Most recipes for cordial call for tartaric and citric acid. Seeing how I was pressed for time and couldn’t find either in my supermarket, I decided to take my chances and make one without. The recipe is simply:

1 part sugar syrup (I make mine strong, from 2 parts sugar and 1 part water over low heat until all the sugar dissolves)
1 part lemon juice (obviously this depends on how sour your lemons are and how sweet you like your cordial)

Voila! Store in bottles/jars and keep in the fridge. We ended up with about 3 litres of cordial, most of which we gave away. It should keep for about 1 month, although in the heat of summer ours was gobbled up in 2 days!

A: The prodigal blogger returns…

6 blog-free weeks for me and the guilt weighs horrendously on my shoulders! Man and I are in the midst of a home renovation overhaul and in between stacking cookbooks in the shower recess, ripping out carpet and playing furniture tetris out on my space-starved limited balcony, it’s been difficult to say the least, mustering up the energy to even think about blogging! Stay tuned however, I have lots to report on since I last wrote… if only I could remember where I placed my camera cable so I can upload photos!!! Watch this space!

R: Sodium Surprise

After another eventful Canningvale visit, and a nice relaxing afternoon at Langford, we came home and whipped up some guacamole and tomato salsa to put a little dent in the box of tomatoes and avocados we got.

And as we settled aroung the bbq grilling the capsicums (also from the market), we dug into the dips with our improvised corn chips. Well, improvised by just toasting lavash bread till cripsy, and really because we couldn’t find out favourite coles brand salt reduced corn chips. I like chips that are less salty 😀

Anyway, while waiting for the capsicums to blister, we started looking at the ingredients list on the lavash bread and GASP. It had MORE sodium than the packet of potato chips I got out from the cupboard. That really surprised me because when I eat a potato chip, my first thought is ‘HMM, SALT’. But my first impression of a lavash bread has never been of its saltiness.

There you go! I wonder what other products have caught other people by surprise!

A: R.I.P Grandpas.

On Monday 17 November, man received the unfortunate news that his Grandpa has passed. He wasn’t sick and there wasn’t much warning. Just a fall, followed by a quiet passing in the night. Man flew back for the funeral on Wednesday night.

On Thursday 20 November, I received a text message from my Aunt that my Grandpa has also passed. He was pretty sick, and had been for a while. He too, passed quietly in the company of loved ones. Grandpa was cremated at 10a.m. this morning. I was unable to fly home quick enough for the ceremony but man was able to represent me, heading from his grandpa’s to mine.

My grandpa worked hard all his life. He worked primarily as a foot reflexologist and I remember being pertrified of his “foot poking stick” that used to sit in his bumbag just in case. I would beg mum not to let him know if I was sick as he’d turn up at the door with his poking stick in a bid to cure me of my cold. Mind you, it sure worked, but it hurt like hell! Grandpa would bring us fruit galore, convinced that we couldn’t possibly be eating enough bananas. I remember calling him from Australia, and all he wanted to know was the price of milk, meat, if I could get asian vegetables here and how long it took me to drive to work. He was also deeply concerned about whether or not I was able to cook curries and fried rice here. Well, last I checked it takes me 18 minutes to get to work, t-bone steaks are currently on special at $14.99/kg and pasturised milk is $1.69. Asian vegetables are readily available and grandpa was very pleased to hear that I am able to cook all manner of Asian treats in Australia.

When I was 8 he told me that I should sleep on my right side, as sleeping on my left put undue strain on my heart. I don’t know if it’s true, and there’s a very high probability that it’s not, but to this day I still sleep on my right, just in case. When I was 12, he said that I should eat potato crisps while studying and before I sat for my exams as they would help me focus. Again, as an adult I wonder how true this could be, yet as I sit at my computer writing students’ reports, a bowl of crisps rests firmly on my lap, just in case. I remember looking forward to his visits when I used to stay at my grandma’s, as they always meant food. Hot steamed buns, fried noodles, breakfast grandpa style!

He was a fiesty man who didn’t suffer fools lightly, gradually writing off all the doctors, dentists and other healthcare providers within a 50 mile radius of his home either a “rogue”, “crook”, or “robber”.

I’m going to miss my grandpa.

Yes grandpa, we have bananas in Australia. $4.99/kg.

A: Lemoncholy and the Infinite Madness.

A month ago, my neighbours and I decided that we needed a lemon tree on our side of the apartment complex. Soon after, I went out and purchased one and in the ground it went. We were all feeling quite pleased and looking forward to harvesting our first lemons in the coming year.

Fast forward to today, after 4 weeks of love and care have been invested in the tree. I walked out to water it this evening and IT’S GONE!!! Someone has stolen my tree! Plucked it right out of the ground and taken away to who knows where!!! I AM SEETHING.

Fast forward a little more to after dinner on this same day, when my neighbour knocked on my door to inform me that someone had PICKED UP my 1970 VW Beetle and moved it out of its parking space!!! I looked out onto the street and there it was, blocking traffic in the rain.

Needless to say I’m feeling pretty damn lousy right about now. Writing about it doesn’t really seem to have the usual restorative, cathartic effect and I suspect I shall have to go to bed rather angry. Grrr.

R: Dragon eye

I’ve been seeing Longans (Dragon’s eye) in the markets and supermarkets lately going stemless for about $5/kg. It’s a little exciting for me as its one of the fruits I love, but don’t quite get to enjoy in Australia.

Longan also brings back memories: Dad used to fashion these tops out of the seeds and we’ld have challenges to see whose top spun the longest. He also used to belt out “Say you say me” by Lionel Ritchie who he prefers to refer to as “Longan Lychee”.

A: Loving food; hating waste

In the spirit of R’s and my “waste nothing!” campaign (sparked by our recent wholesale-market obsession), coupled with the inspiring Love Food Hate Waste website, I was entirely in my element when recently faced with an unsavoury amount of leftovers.

It all started with a really simple potato sidedish. One of my favourite ways to eat potatoes- lemon juice and zest, good olive oil, fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Mix in with warm potatoes and voila!

Thyme and parsley from the garden plus free lemons from a colleague makes this a cheap eat!

We had these with a rack of lamb and roasted eggplant, with quite a bit of eggplant leftover.

SO, what now? Leftover cooked potatoes are incrediby versatile. I considered potato fishcakes, goose-fat roast potatoes, a last minute stew addition even, but decided on a classic cottage pie instead. Boring, yes but oh-so-comforting on an unseasonably cold spring night.

Cottage pie

Ingredients:

1carrot, chopped

1 capsicum, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

500g minced beef

1 cup frozen peas

leftover eggplant

1 tin tomatoes

1/2 cup beef stock

Handful chopped parsley

Cold mashed potatoes, well seasoned (I like cheddar cheese in my topping with lots of herbs and butter)

Method:

Fry onions, capsicum, carrot and garlic till soft. Add beef and fry until beef browns. Add tomatoes and beef stock and simmer for 20 minutes uncovered. Add remaining vegetables and herbs and simmer for a further 10 minutes to heat through.

Transfer to a baking dish and top with mashed potato. Fork through the topping to create lots of little ridges that will crisp up in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes at 200C.

We ended up with dinner for 2 plus 3 meals for the freezer!

With this one meal I managed to use up a bunch of vegetables that had been near-festering in my crisper for a while now.  Which leaves me currently feeling quietly pleased with my contribution (or lack of) to the food wastage crisis!

A: Say cheese!

Sick days at home always gives me an opportunity to

1. Rest.

2. Catch up on my favourite blogs.

3. Bond with my crazy cat.

While reclined on the now deepening woman-sized indent on my couch, laptop balanced precariously on my gluttonous belly with (patent-pending) nose tampons inserted to cease and desist endless snotflow, I came across this video.

A word of warning– don’t watch if at all squeamish about offal or butchery, or if (heaven forbid) vegetarian. It’s basically a short documentary on how to make head cheese. By head, I mean pig’s head, and the cheese bit basically refers to the end result after boiling off and picking all the edible bits from the head and making a jellied terrine with the boiling liquid. Really, really interesting. The way food should be- honest and simple, utilising every last bit of the animal (at least it wasn’t slaughtered for nothing!).

Speaking of low-wastage, the British government recently funded a new initiative championed by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) that aims to help reduce food waste. The Love Food Hate Waste website is simply wonderful. From recipes that use leftovers, to tips on proper food storage and how to save money on your food shop. The forums are loaded with other people’s tips on ways to cut waste and celebrity chefs are all in on it, sharing their own recipes and hints to minimise food waste.

We’re all guilty of the food chuck-out when unused food rots and has to be thrown out. In fact as I type, as overripe pear glares at me from my fruit bowl, begging to be eaten! This website is a great source of information and a wake up call for all who buy too much and use too little (myself included). Check it out. It’s interesting stuff.

R: Italian Hot Chocolate- Best in Perth !

GFM recently returned from a Tuscan holiday, and besides the awesome cycling he got to do, the other thing he raved about most was their hot chocolate. He loved its thick, creamy, mousse-like consistency and the rich depth of flavour. Having had a cup every single day he was there, he is now an authority on what makes a good hot chocolate.

Now, A & I have had it at Cafe Pronto in Claremont (Also excellent for its wonderful waitstaff!) and The Riverbank Winery at the Swan Valley, so we knew what he was talking about. So this became a challenge to me- how to make GFM praise-worthy hot chocolate!

Research on the internet didn’t throw up much details on where we could get it from (to sneakily investigate the ingredient list). There were Ciociatto , Hot Ciok and Ciobar available, but not much luck buying them in Perth. We were going to try the Re-Store at Leederville or Northbridge, but it was a Sunday and neither were open.

Then, thanks to the always dependable google, I found that other people what similiar quests for this magical hot chocolate. The Drunk Chef and The Diversionary suggested recipes to try out, and GOLLY GOSH! Who wouldav thunk that the trick to make a good chocolate extrodinary was cornflour!

Liquid Gold

To make the hot chocolate for 2, I heated up 2 cups of milk with 4 squares of Lindt 85% chocolate (40g) and enough swiss hot chocolate mix to give it the right sweetness and colour. It is important you do not let the milk boil. I then slowly stirred the cornflour/water solution until it gave me that thick moussey consistency. Don’t go overboard as it will continue to thicken as it cools. I guess for more accurate measurements you should refer to the links above!

The GFM verdict? As good as the Italians do it! And that’s both green thumbs UP!!