Talk about chilly, winter has arrived in Melbourne and sunk its teeth into the very bones of the city that I call home. Even the more hardcore members of Melbourne’s Miniskirt Mafia (the slightly insane girls who prance about in miniskirts regardless of the weather) appear to have conceded defeat to the numbing winds and close to freezing point morning temperatures.
Looking at the lunches that my colleagues bring to work on a daily basis, it appears that the arrival of nipple-freezing weather launches the start of instant soup season – packets and tins of pre-made /powdered soups do roaring trade, and the slurps are aplenty come mealtime.
Whilst packet cake mixes (f*ck you, white wings and greens instant cake and pancake mixes) are what most drive me to fits of irrational rage, pre-made soup follows a close second. The main reason for this is that soup is possibly one of the easiest things in the world to make, so the idea that people are purchasing something as basic as pumpkin soup instead of spending a little time and love in their kitchens gives me a bit of a crazy-person eye-twitch.
As far as pumpkin soup recipes go, at last count I had accumulated over twenty different recipes through my food magazines and cookbooks, and the range of flavours goes from a basic roasted vegetable to mixtures of different spices and flavours aiming to complicate what really should be a dish that celebrates and revolves around the buttery, sweet flavour that cooked pumpkin provides.
This recipe, as far as soup recipes go, really could not get any easier. Sure, it takes a little time and a little elbow grease and grunt work, but the payoff is a deliciously smooth and sweet soup that you’ve made yourself from scratch, instead of purchasing a powdered/tinned/vacuum-sealed baggie full of soup manufactured in a factory somewhere with claims of being ‘just like homemade’.
Because (and let’s be frank) there ain’t anything ‘homemade’ about a hermetically sealed doggy bag of soup, no matter how the manufacturers wish it to be so!
Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
800g pumpkin, peeled and cubed (my preference is actually for half butternut and half Kent)
1 large brown onion, roughly diced
2-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 knob unsalted butter
1L stock (chicken or vegetable)
Salt & pepper to taste
Cream & fresh chives, to serve
1. Put a large pot onto a medium heat, then add the butter and allow it to brown. Add the onion and garlic and cook till the onion is translucent, then add the pumpkin and stir to combine.
2. Saute till the pumpkin begins to soften, then add the cumin and paprika and continue to cook for another minute or two. Pour in the stock, bring the pot to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer and cook till the pumpkin is completely soft and begins to disintegrate.
3. Allow the soup to cool, then blitz with a blender/immersion blender till completely smooth. Bring the mixture back to a simmer and cook till the mixture thickens up slightly.
4. Plate up while hot, and serve with a dollop of cream and some freshly snipped chives, and with a nice crusty roll on the side.
[tags]winter, recipe, savoury, vegetarian, pumpkin soup, soup[/tags]
When I bake, I have to be on constant lookout and ever vigilant from roaming fingers. You see, my family suffer from Finger Dippyitis – otherwise known as the compulsion to stick their unwashed fingers into my cake and cupcake batters.
This sometimes involves being armed with extra teaspoons and spatulas, as a wandering finger can be redirected with a teaspoonful of batter, and a whack from a spatula can deter even the most eager batter-seeker as they inch towards your mixing bowl.
These members of my baking arsenal proved particularly useful when I was baking these adorable peanut butter cupcakes this afternoon…
My family ADORE their peanut butter. It’s not uncommon to see my kid brother wandering around the house with a spoon full of peanut butter dangling from his mouth (in much the way most folks devour their nutella!), and both my mother and brother will spread peanut butter on almost anything as a flavour aide – from muffins to celery, and even on most crackers!
Therefore, when my mother sniffed her way into the kitchen while I was mixing up the batter, I immediately took the offensive, grabbing my spatula and posing ‘en garde’, wiggling my spatula in her face to indicate that she had better scram before I started whacking. Grumbling under her breath, I could hear the pout as she slouched back to her bedroom, proclaiming loudly that she had only wanted to ask what I was baking – and that she didn’t even think it smelled tasty.
I sighed, scooped up a little batter on one of my clean teaspoons and carried it to her room as a peace offering, which she gladly downed and declared to be delicious. I considered this a sign that my peace offering had been accepted, and settled down next to her to take a baking break and hang out for a few minutes, when she declared that she was out of tea and plodded off to make some more.
Engrossed in the video that we had been watching, I thought nothing of it till I realized a minute later that the cupcake batter had been left in the kitchen unattended! I raced into the kitchen and my pounding footsteps heralded my arrival to my mother – who proceeded to freeze like a rabbit in headlights, with a guilty finger stuck in her mouth.
…
“MOTHER!!!”
My mother looked at me blankly as she finished sucking off the last of the batter she had scooped up. “Well,” she said, “it’s your fault for making it so delicious!”
I stood there, gobsmacked, as she calmly walked back to her room with a fresh cup of tea in hand.
Woman, you may have won this round, but next time, I’ll get you!
Peanut Butter Cupcakes – two ways!
(with Strawberry Filling & Frosting or Chocolate Ganache & Chocolate Whipped Cream)
Cupcake Ingredients
60g unsalted butter
220g brown sugar
150g peanut butter (smooth or chunky, whatever your preference!)
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
225g all-purpose flour
100mL buttermilk
Filling Ingredients
Chocolate – 200g good quality dark chocolate, 2/3 cup double cream
Strawberry – 1/4 cup strawberry jam, warmed and sieved
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
200g cream cheese, at room temperature
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 tbsp strawberry jam
1-2 cups soft icing mixture (replace with pure icing sugar/confectioner’s sugar if you cannot find)
Pink food colouring
Chocolate Whipped Cream Ingredients
1 cup double cream
1/2 cup chocolate ganache (reserved from filling)
Cocoa powder, to dust
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, then beat together the butter, brown sugar and peanut butter till creamy, then add the eggs and vanilla and beat till smooth.
2. Set aside the batter, and sift together the flour, bicarb soda and baking powder.
3. Fold the flour into the batter in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk. Spoon into cases (I got about 20 cupcakes with each weighing about 40g) and bake for 20 minutes, or till a wooden skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out with moist (not wet) crumbs.
4 Once baked, set the cupcakes on a wire rack to cool, then proceed to fill and decorate however you wish.
For PB & J cupcakes – fill the cupcakes with the strained strawberry jam and set aside. Mix up your strawberry cream cheese frosting, ice the cupcakes and decorate with a few silver cachous.
For chocolate cupcakes – mix up your ganache, then beat your cream till it almost reaches firm peaks (if you beat it till it reaches firm peaks like I did, it will take on a curdled appearance as you work in the chocolate.)
6. Reserve about 1/2 cup of ganache and use the remaining amount to pipe into the cooled cupcakes as filling. Use a large metal spoon to slowly and carefully fold the chocolate ganache into the whipped cream, until it is no longer streaky and has been properly worked in. Ice your cupcakes, dust with cocoa powder and decorate with a few silver cachous 
Now, these cupcakes do develop a fairly hard crust so I would suggest icing them at least a few hours (and up to 24hrs) before serving as this will help soften the crust. However, in the case of the chocolate whipped cream, they would need to be refrigerated – and you certainly would not want to keep the icing longer than 24 hours at most.
Also – here is more evidence of what I have to put up with! Even Mr Woofy wanted in on the cupcake action – I was about to line up to take this shot when his head appeared out of nowhere and made a beeline for the cake platter – it was pure luck that I managed to stop him before he ran off with one!
However, despite my scolding and stern commands for him to move, he plonked himself down and refused to budge till he got some cupcake goodness for himself!
And in case you’re wondering, he did get a little bit of strawberry-filled peanut butter cupcake for the road
[tags][/tags]
“I smell….chocolate!”
My mother drifted into the kitchen, following the scent of the brownies I had just baked. I had just set the steaming tray onto the bench to cool, when I saw her nimble little fingers reaching for the pan. Quick as a flash, I grabbed a spatula from the drying rack and gave her hand a little whack. “Stay away from my goddamn brownies” I growled, as she shot me a filthy look and sulked her way back out of the kitchen.
You see, my mother is an edge nibbler.
What’s that, you ask?
She’s one of those people with darting fingers, who will attack at the edges of any freshly baked produce, pinching off bit by bit till it looks as though it has been attacked by a family of rats! She even this to a mate’s birthday cake that I made a few weeks ago, even though I’d told her to keep her paws off! Thankfully, the entire thing had to be covered in buttercream and fondant so I was able to hide the raggedy edges…
Unfortunately, I had somewhat overbaked the brownies (by about half an hour! This is why afternoon naps are dangerous!), and it was too dark to take photos, so I covered the tray with foil and ended up hiding the lot in the laundry cupboard to keep them safe from her destructive touch!
That also explained why I received a text message from her the following day, demanding that I reveal where I had hidden the goods. Honestly, is it just me that thinks there’s a bit of a role reversal problem here??
Oh, and incidentally…since the brownies had to be trimmed for the photos anyway, she did end up getting her edges
Double Dark Chocolate & Roasted Macadamia Brownies
(From ‘Mix & Bake‘ by Belinda Jeffery)
Ingredients
250g unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
180g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
385g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
150g all-purpose flour
100g roasted macadamias, coarsely chopped
100g dark chocolate chunks
Icing sugar, to serve
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and line a 23cm square cake tin with non-stick baking paper and set aside. Place the 180g of dark chocolate and butter in a heavy-based saucepan and place over very low heat to melt. Give the saucepan an occasional stir or swirl so that the chocolate solids don’t stick and burn to the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture is smooth and shiny, set aside to cool for 8-10 minutes.
2. Once the chocolate mix has cooled, add your caster sugar and vanilla extract and whisk in till smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition.
3. Once all the eggs have been incorporated, the mixture should be thick and gooey and much lighter in colour. Grab your freshly roasted macadamias…
4. and add them to a mixing bowl, along with the 100g of chocolate chunks and flour, and give it a quick stir to make sure the nuts and choc are covered in flour. Tip the lot into the saucepan and gently fold through.
5. Once the flour and chocolate mixtures have been folded together, tip the lot into the lined baking tray and bake for 40-50 minutes, or till a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out with moist (but not wet) crumbs clinging to it.
Once baked, allow to cool completely, then chill the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm it up and make it easier to slice. Allow the slices to come back to room temperature, dust with icing sugar and serve!
A word of warning – these brownies are intense. I’m talking instant chocolate overload and sugar rush. You are best cutting these into small bars as large portions may just be a bit too much!
[tags]brownies, dark chocolate, macadamias, dessert, cake[/tags]
The Good Food & Wine Show is one of those events which, when it rolled around, perked my interest a little but had never quite inspired me to get off my arse and attend. It wasn’t that it sounded boring, but to me it was the sort of event where you should really go with someone, and nobody I knew had been and could vouch for whether it was a worthwhile day’s outing or not.
So, when I was contacted and offered two tickets to attend this year’s show, I figured that it was a good chance to get my feet wet and see what it was all about.
Only one word comes to mind to describe this event.
WOAH.
I was totally unprepared for just how huge it was (and my poor feet are currently paying the price after truding about with 2kg of camera equipment all day on 2.5″ heels…), and the moment that I stepped through the entry doors, I was completely blown away. So many vendors, so much food, so much wine…I wondered whether it was even humanly possible to get through them all in just one day!
With my friend and trusted assistant Amy there to provide a helping hand, we started walking through every single aisle, taking the opportunity to talk with as many vendors as possible about their products. This aspect was without a doubt the best thing about the show. Majority of the vendors were wholesalers – selling their products to places like Woolworths and David Jones. I’d seen some of their products before but had just glanced at the packaging and walked straight past.
It was absolutely fabulous to be able to speak to the stall holders about their products, getting a chance to sample the goods that they were creating, and hearing their excitement, passion and enthusiasm for the goods that they had on display.
As one vendor said to me “We do wholesale, so we’re always talking to our suppliers, but this is the only chance we have to interact with the public, and communicate directly with them about the stuff we do!”. There were a few stalls there that sold overproduced
prepackaged meals and I admit that my own prejudices kept me from visiting them, but the overwhelming majority were niche market producers who could vouch for every single detail of their product – from when and where their berries were picked, whether any and what additives had been added to the product, and the taste.
There’s also something to be said for the range of products that were on display. Having the chance to sample so many different varieties of jams, olive oils, balsamic vinegars and other goodies really offered a chance to taste the subtle (and not so subtle) differences in flavour between different brands and makers, and talking to the vendors meant you could begin to nut out how some of these differences came about.
Majority of the vendors were amazing, particularly the wealth of knowledge that they had to offer to the layperson. Talking to one honey vendor, she had quite a bit of information to share about how different honey varieties are created. For example, have you ever wondered how an apiarist can tell that one hive has produced a particular sort of honey, especially when you can’t tell a bee just to go and harvest from lavender? Apparently the way that this is done is that during winter, when the bees are keeping warm in their hives, the apiarist feeds them just a single sort of honey (such as lavender honey) and the bees become accustomed to the taste. Then when the bees come out to start work in spring, they will actively seek that flavour so long as it is around!
I was also extremely fortunate to receive two tickets to see Gordon Ramsay, Matt Moran and George Calombaris & Gary Mehigan in the LG Celebrity Theatre. I’ll be honest here and admit that I am really not a fan of tv cooking/kitchen programs and rarely watch them, and the draw to these four chefs was that I knew they were decent cooks and had seen a little of their television personas, and I wondered what they would be like live.
Absolutely amazing, and unbelievably entertaining. Surprisingly, Gordon Ramsay had the cleanest mouth out of all four chefs, and the Masterchef duo took the prize of the most swearing, which was absolutely hilarious as they each ordered each other to take time outs in the ‘naughty chairs’ when they caught each other cursing. Matt Moran was also surprisingly hilarious – he just wasn’t having much luck in the kitchen, but just went with the flow and talking with the censors off (at one stage saying something that even he couldn’t believe he had said – standing and looking shocked with his hand over his mouth as I almost had a fit laughing).
A word here to the wise – chefs swear. Their environments are high pressure and fast-paced, and swearing becomes habit. The chefs that I’ve met in my time have all been closer to Gordon Ramsay with his ‘fucking hell’ than Jamie Oliver with his ‘pukka’. Therefore, if you really are the sort of delicate flower who can’t handle a little swearing and joking, don’t waste a perfectly good seat in the celebrity theatre by booking yourself in for a show, and leave it for someone who would actually appreciate the good laugh.
At any rate, it was pretty fabulous to see these chefs being given the chance to get comfortable and really show their personalities without the restrictions of production company requirements, and I walked out of each celebrity theatre a bigger fan of each chef than when I had walked in.
All in all, this was definitely one of the most interesting and entertaining days out that I have had this year. The only gripe that I had was that when I got there at 9:00am, half the stalls had no vendors and by the time I worked back to them, the crowds were so big that I didn’t get a chance to talk to them properly. Nevertheless, I had a fabulous time and I’m already looking forward to what will be on offer at next year’s show!
If you’re a Melbourne reader, the show is on today and tomorrow, so if you’re looking for something to do, it’s $27.50 for adult entry, and well worth every penny! You can get a small idea of what is on offer by looking through my photos of the event.
For my interstate readers – the Good Food & Wine Show will be coming to your neck of the woods on the following dates:
- Sydney – July 3rd to July 5th
- Perth – July 31st to August 2nd
- Brisbane – November 6th to November 8th
A few tips for people who are thinking about attending:
- Get there as early as possible. I was there by 8:45am, 15 minutes before opening, and a large queue had already started to form. However, this is your best chance to have a proper chat with the vendors as the later you get there, the more people there will be and you will have very little chance of talking to them.
- Bring a shopping trolley, green bags and cash. There is a lot of good stuff on sale, and the best thing to do is be prepared. I had no shopping trolley or bags as I hadn’t intending on buying much, but after browsing the stalls for 10 minutes, I conceded defeat and went to buy a shopping trolley (which they were thankfully selling inside the hall).
- Wear comfortable shoes. It took us about 5 hours to trek through and talk to every food vendor and sample their wares – and that doesn’t even include the wine (we had planned to do that as the last stop of the day, and by the time we were done with the food, we were much too exhausted).
I’d like to extend a thank you to Johanna Scott, who gave me this opportunity to attend, as well as all the fabulous vendors who happily answered my questions as well as being good-natured about rearranging their displays or assisting me so that I could get the photos that I wanted. It was a wonderful day out, and I can’t wait to see what next year has in store!
[tags]Melbourne Good Food and Wine show, Gordon Ramsay, Matt Moran, George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan[/tags]
“So, there’s meant to be this really fun market nearby, my friends have been and they said it’s lots of fun…do you want to go with me tomorrow?”
I arched my eyebrow and looked at my mother rather suspiciously. “You do realize that tomorrow is Sunday, right? My cleaning & resting day?”
My mother flapped her hands at me. “I know that! But the market opens at 7:30am, so you only have to get up at 6:30am to get ready…and I promise it wouldn’t take too long…and you’ll have the rest of the day to do all the things you need to!”
The last time that my mother said that a market visit wouldn’t take too long, I ended up lightly thudding my forehead against a pillar at the springvale markets, 3 hours after arriving there and fighting for parking, while my mother tried to decide just which variety of sweet potato she wanted to buy.
You’d think that I would have learnt my lesson.
Being the dutiful daughter, I woke up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning in winter (a time of day that you really shouldn’t see on a Sunday – the only exception being if you haven’t actually had any sleep), rolled into the shower, back out again and then into some clothes. Finished getting ready 10 minutes early, I loped into the kitchen to fix myself some toast, when I noticed that the house was quiet. Too quiet. Which meant that my mother was still asleep.
I crept into her room and gave her a hard poke in the boob to wake her up, and scolded her for not being ready…however, to her credit, she was showered and decent by the time I finished munching on my charred bread and off we went to the markets.
Strike two against my mother – turns out that it was not a Farmer’s market, but a trash & treasure market. I had woken up at 6:30am on a SUNDAY to look over people’s second hand shit. Colour me unimpressed. In an attempt to make the best of the situation, I plastered on my ‘glowering’ look (to try and warn people against trying to interact with me) and shuffled about in the cold, foggy air, trying to feign interest as my mother looked over various pieces of bric-a-brac. Thankfully there were a few farmer’s food stalls that grabbed my interest, and even an apiarist (bee keeper, though he preferred the former term to the latter) who was selling slabs of honeycomb.
Oh, the honeycomb. It glowed golden even through the foggy air, and just looking at it made me imagine cutting a piece and having the warmth of my mouth melt the honey so it slid down my throat as I slowly chewed the waxy bits of honeycomb to extract every lick of sweetness.
As soon as we got back home, I unpacked my treasure and stared at it, wondering just how to show off its perfection…and after raiding the fridge and finding the ingredients for a panna cotta, I decided that a layered jelly topped with a piece of golden honeycomb would be perfect!
Milk & Honey Jelly
(Honey Jelly layered with vanilla panna cotta)
Vanilla panna cotta ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup double cream
2 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla pod, split in half with seeds scraped into the milk)
2 tbsp honey
Honey jelly ingredients
1 2/3 cup cold water
1/3 cup strongly flavoured honey (I used stringybark)
3 tsp powdered gelatin
Pieces of honeycomb (either the real beeswax stuff or the candy) to decorate
TIP: To make a vegan-friendly version of this dish, replace the milk with a rich, full-flavoured soy milk such as Bonsoy, and replace the cream with a vegetarian-friendly yoghurt. Also, you can replace the gelatin with Vege-gel, a vegetarian gelatin replacement.
1. Pour the water and honey into a pot, and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Leave to rest for 5 minutes to allow the gelatin to absorb some of the water (this helps it dissolve faster and more evenly during cooking), then place on the stove over a low flame and stir constantly till it begins to come to a boil and the gelatin is dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Combine the milk, cream, vanilla and honey in a pot, then sprinkle over the gelatin and rest for 5 minutes. Place the pot on the stove over a low flame and stir constantly till the gelatin is dissolved and the milk mixture is beginning to boil. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Grab 4 glasses (whether tumblers or wine glasses, whatever you have handy) and then use HALF the honey mixture to pour into each glass (so in this first pour, they should receive 1/8 of the mixture each). Carefully transfer the glasses to the fridge and chill for 30 minutes – 1 hour.
Even though the honey jelly and panna cotta should not set without being put in the fridge, give the mixtures in the pots a quick stir every 10-15minutes to prevent the gelatin from settling and the mixtures from forming a skin.
4. Once the first layer of honey jelly is set, pull out the glasses and carefully pour 1/8th of the panna cotta mixture into each glass, on top of the honey jelly. Carefully place back in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour to set, then repeat with the honey jelly, and then the panna cotta.
5. Just before serving, top each glass with a piece of honeycomb – and whether you use the real mccoy or the candy version is completely up to you
This recipe has been designed to be quite soft – it’s really not a jelly that you would want to unmould, as the jelly would most likely go a little flat. This was a deliberate move, as I wanted the entire dessert to be soft enough to melt away in your mouth without any chewing, so that the flavours were what you noticed and not the texture.
Also, whilst this does require the fridge to set, I recommend bringing it to room temperature before serving. This will allow the jelly to soften a bit more, plus if it is served cold, this will dull the beautiful flavour of your honey.
[tags]jelly, honey, pannacotta, dessert, cream, milk, dairy[/tags]
Others who have tried this recipe:
- Rina at Suitable For Consumption
