Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Cosy Kitchen - Rice Pudding and Reading

Autumn - such a beautiful season in Canberra, with the crisp, clean air and beautiful reds and yellows of the deciduous trees spread across the landscape. It also puts one in mind of starting to cosy up inside with the heater or hot water bottle, and perhaps some good reading materials and comfort food as accompaniments.

For several years now I have been in constant search of good 'foodie books' - not just cookbooks, but books about peoples' lives with food - what it means to them, their family, their community, beyond simple sustenance.

I have been lucky to find some really interesting and touching stories, such as 'La Dolce Vita', by Isabel Coe, about a Swiss-Italian family's food heritage, and Ruth Reichl's autobiography, split into two books - 'Tender at the Bone', and the sequel entitled 'Comfort me with Apples'. I re-read Ruth's books recently and enjoyed them just as much as the first time - such an honest, emotional and frequently funny account of her journey from a tumultuous childhood growing up with a manic-depressive mother, to life in a hippie communal household in California in the 70s, and finally a career as a food critic for some of America's most prestigious publications.

Ruth Reichl's Autobiographies

I am now waiting excitedly to receive in the post my latest food book, a series of stories/essays called 'Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant' - on the topic of solo dining, cooking and food adventures. Perfect for my single self, who sometimes still struggles with trying to look and feel comfortable and cool when eating alone on holidays!

And for the single cook at home, a recipe from a Family Circle cookbook, 'Cooking for One', for Baked Rice Pudding, a delicately sweet and comforting pudding for the colder months. Made without eggs, it is less rich than baked custard, but still has that caramelised taste and slightly custardy texture produced by the reduction of milk to a creamy sweet consistency.

I didn't have a two-cup baking dish as specified, so baked it in two 1-cup ramekins, although I found it even took a bit longer to absorb all the milk than the recipe said, probably all up it was in the oven for at least 1 hour and 30 mins. This may have been caused by two factors - firstly, my oven isn't fan forced, and secondly, I used arborio rice, which did have a beautiful texture in the finished product. In the picture, the one on the left has had the 'skin' that formed removed after baking, so you can see the texture underneath.


Baked Rice Pudding

2 tbsp medium grain rice
1/4 cups (315 ml) milk (full cream is a must)
3 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp sultanas ( I used currants as I prefer the taste)
Pinch grated nutmeg

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (315 deg. Fahrenheit). Lightly grease a 2 cup ovenproof dish.

2. Place the rice in a bowl and stir in the milk and sugar. Leave for 10 minutes. Stir in the sultanas and nutmeg, then spoon into the prepared dish and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

3. Leave for 5 minutes and remove the skin on top of the pudding, if desired. Serve with cream or a little extra milk. Serves 1.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Three Delicious Things

Well, since last post I have been quite busy with study, work etc. I have managed to fit in quite a few food adventures, but since my mind was full of assignments etc. I kept on forgetting to take my camera along. Quite sad, as there were lots of lovely things partaken of, including Silo's blueberry and chocolate snail (quite possibly the best pastry I've ever eaten - soooo good!) and a loaf of their delicious sourdough; a yummy meal at the Asian Noodle House at Tuggeranong, with tasty Hainan chicken and Pad Thai, and some great baklava from Little Istanbul next door to the Noodle House.

Anyway, I have a few pictures to go on with from recent times, one being a really warming, spicy, great goulash that my sister made in her slow cooker - so good on a cool Canberra autumn night, some lovely and pretty green tea (made from little rolled 'pearls' that open up in the hot water), and the last one - delicious, but not food related - a gorgeous cat picture (I did promise there might sometimes be random cats in this blog!)

So, onto the next lot of study, with hopefully many more food diversions along the way, and a camera to capture the action! :)


Slow-cooker Hungarian Goulash


Green tea 'Pearls' opening up



One of my favourite cats! Prrrr....

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Raspberry Cream Butterfly Cakes

Well, I've been doing a lot of baking lately. Baking is my therapy right now, whenever I'm not feeling good I get out the flour, butter and sugar and turn on the CD player or radio and feel instantly calmer. The soothing heat of the oven and the stirring and kneading and delicious sugary buttery smells just set off something in my brain that I imagine might be just a little bit like a cigarette to a smoker or a spin class to an exercise junkie (though both of these are so far from my mode of living it's hilarious!). Not to mention the eating - I have read that the consumption of refined carbohydrates stimulates the production of serotonin in the brain, and I'm sure that is the case for me, I find that a sweet scone or piece of cake is an instant happiness fix.

It is also so gratifying to see the finished product arrayed on a wire cooler or plate. I am enjoying taking photos for this blog in that I get to preserve an image of the finished product before it is eaten.

I was doing some late night shopping recently at Coles and spied the new Gourmet Traveller, instantly falling in love with the Raspberry Cream Butterfly Cakes displayed so prettily on the front cover. Having decided this would be my next baking project I stocked up on the requisite ingredients.

They didn't turn out quite as perfect and pretty as the photograph in the magazine, but I consoled myself with the fact that there are food stylists and photographers working for hours to convince us that is how food really looks.

This recipe uses very little baking powder, relying mostly on the beaten eggs and sifting of flour to provide volume and air. As a consequence, the texture of the cakes is denser than your average sponge cupcake.

The raspberry mixture before swirling into cream mixture also makes a great quick raspberry jam to serve with scones or toast!


Gourmet Traveller's Brown Sugar Butterfly Cakes with Raspberry Cream


100g (2/3 cup) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
40g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
50g butter, melted and cooled

Raspberry Cream

125g raspberries ( I used frozen and they worked just fine)
75g caster sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
100g creme fraiche
100ml pouring cream
30g pure icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Triple-sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.

2. Whisk eggs and sugars with an electric mixer until pale and tripled in volume (5-8 minutes). Sift over flour mixture and fold in with a metal spoon, then fold in melted butter. Divide mixture among 12 hole muffin tin lined with paper patty cases, filling to 5mm below rims and bake until risen and pale golden (15-20 minutes), turning tin halfway through cooking to ensure even baking. Cool in tins for 5 minutes, then cool on wire rack. Cut a circle part-way through each cake to about 1cm deep and about 3-4cm diameter. Remove with sharp knife. Halve each round and set aside.

3. Meanwhile, for raspberry cream, combine raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, cook until jam-like (6-8 minutes), remove from heat and cool completely. Whisk creme fraiche, cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form, then fold in raspberry mixture to form a ripple effect. Transfer to a piping bag without nozzle and refrigerate until required.

4. To serve, pipe raspberry creme fraiche into holes in cakes. Top with reserved halved cake circles, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately. Best eaten on day of making.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Donna-Hay inspired Thai Noodle Salad

While flicking through Donna Hay's latest book, 'No Time to Cook', I saw a recipe for 'Instant Thai Noodle Salad'. I had recently tried making a cold rice vermicelli salad with tofu, vegetables and shiitake mushrooms, with disappointing results. It was fairly bland, despite the addition of lots of lemon juice and soy sauce. So I was interested to try this one, but with a few variations.

I am quite a fan of tofu, especially silken, but wanted to make this dish a bit more hearty and meaty as it was being provided as lunch for some hungry people who had been hard at work on apartment renovations. So I pan-fried some scotch fillet steaks until juicy and tender, then sliced and added in place of tofu. I also had leftover shiitake mushrooms, so included these for their delicious flavour and texture, used rice wine vinegar instead of lime juice (I forgot to buy limes!) and omitted the coriander and cucumber as these were unavailable at my local supermarket (who are very poor at keeping up their fruit and veg stocks, particularly herbs - grrr!).

The sauce amounts are approximate - I love things very saucy, but you can adjust to taste.

All, including myself, agreed that this was a delicious dish, healthy, full of different delicious textures and tastes. Not bland at all, this one :) And great as leftovers the next day!

Thai Noodle Salad (with thanks to Donna Hay)

200g dried rice vermicelli
1 large carrot, finely sliced (I cut mine into little sticks)
100g snow peas, trimmed and finely sliced
1/2 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
1 cucumber finely sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts
400g scotch fillet beef steaks (or 200g firm tofu)
1/3 cup sweet chilli sauce
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar or lime juice
3 tbsp fish sauce
2/3 cup dried sliced shiitake mushrooms, soaked for 30 mins then drained and chopped.

Place noodles in a heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water to cover. Allow to stand for at least 5 mins or until tender, then drain.

Toss noodles with vegetables, herbs, nuts and beef or tofu. Combine sweet chilli sauce, lime juice or vinegar and fish sauce, pour over salad and serve. Serves 3 hungry people.


Friday, April 3, 2009

Some more Melbourne food photos

I'm still quite new to all this, so due to my non tech-savviness, am still figuring out some photo formatting issues. So here's an additional post with the rest of the Melbourne food photos. Enjoy!

Dumplings (Either the wagyu or the scallop ones, can't remember) at Ginger Boy



'Toffee Fruit' on a stick - apparently a favourite of Paris Hilton according to a poster in the window!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Some Melbourne Food Photos

Okay, so I've been completely lazy in respect to posting since Feb, but after deciding that Canberra needs yet another food blogger, I am back again (albeit with a non-Canberra related post!).

Here are some photos of some absolutely mouthwatering food that I indulged in in Melbourne. Lucky I did lots of walking to burn off the calories. I was very excited that I got to Acland Street and purchased some cakes - I was determined, if I did nothing else, to do that.

As it turns out, I had a wide and interesting variety of food purchases, including some finger limes from Queen Victoria markets which I had never tried before. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them, but they were quite different from anything I had every tried before - not at all juicy, but long green 'fingers' filled with little pearls of incredibly fragrant limey flavour - more complex and perfumed than either kaffir or Tahitian limes.

And I enjoyed a very stylish and tasty visit with friends to Ginger Boy in the city. Mmmmm...wagyu dumplings are the stuff dreams are made of!!
Plum cake and chocolate Kugelhopf from Monarch Cakes in Acland Street