Special Guest by Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe

Now that the boys are young men, out more than in and in various stages of leaving the nest, Mr Seasons and are enjoying a renaissance in cooking and eating. Gone are the staples of pasta, burgers and roasts that dominated our life for the past decade. Back are the salads, seafood and spicy food that we love so much. And hopefully, soon, we will rediscover/reclaim our dining room table to host a dinner party once again.

I looked to Crabb and Sharpe's Special Guest: Recipes for the Happily Imperfect Host to shape these urges.

Anyone in Australia right now, would be hard put to not have seen or heard Crabb on TV, in podcasts or on the radio lately. She seems to be everywhere, cooking with politicians, going back in time, chatting about books, politics and food.

I confess that I am not one of those enamoured of her journalistic style. But I don't go out of my way to avoid her either. Hence my dip into her latest cook book.

Her voice is very distinctive and you can hear it as you read her introduction. I enjoyed her timely reminders about having fun whilst hosting and not sweating the disasters,

Cooking for people in your home isn't about showing off. It's about delighting the people you love, while also remembering to actually spend time with them, not weeping in the kitchen.

Sharpe picked up on these themes with,

The most essential ingredient for a meal with friends is not, paradoxically, the food, nor the perfect house to host in, but the sentiment that you convey to guests when you open your home and carve out some time to share with them. 

I'm not a perfectionist, but I don't live very far away from being one! Part of my lack of desire to host a dinner party in recent years, is the muddle that is our small, inner city home, full of four adult beings and their stuff. I've learnt to live with the muddle, but I don't feel like showing it off.

After reading Special Guest, I'm a little closer to letting this go.

But what about the recipes, I hear you ask?

Crabb and Sharpe have included mostly vegetarian meals with some seafood dishes. They're conscious of food inclusivity and discuss vegan, gluten-free and halal options. Many of their meals could easily include meat on the side for the omnivores in your life.

One of their handy tips was about having a few signature home made items that quickly and easily add a special touch to any meal - things like home made pesto, harissa paste, hummus or lemon infused oil.

Sadly, though, I only found three dishes, in the entire book, that I wanted to try - Halloumi, Lime & Rocket Spaghetti, Roast Mushroom Cannelloni and Glass Potatoes.

Browsing through the other options only reinforced my dislike of the big breakfast - anything more than toasted muesli, fruit and yoghurt is too much for me - and confirmed that I am happy enough to eat sweets, desserts and cakes if provided by someone else, but they are simply not things I will seek out or make myself. I'm also not a huge fan of pies, tarts or pastries, all of which featured quite heavily throughout the book.

I once heard that most people will only ever actually make 2-3 recipes out of any cook book, so with that in mind, Special Guest, is a success!

Special Guest has been longlisted for this year's Australian Book Industry Book Awards (ABIA) and the Indie Book Awards for Best Illustrated Non-fiction Book.

Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to link up anytime over the weekend.

Pan-Fried Leatherjacket with Tapenade, Tomato and Basil

With the hot summer weather lingering well into March, it has been difficult to feel inspired to cook anything at all. However, seafood has proven to be a good option this year, now that B18 has gone away to uni (he doesn't like seafood, so we haven't cooked it very often in the past).

The latest offering comes from Mark Best in the Sydney Seafood School Cookbook.

Sydney Seafood School was opened in November 1989....Almost all of Australia's leading chefs have taught at the Seafood School.

The book is full of recipes from various well-known Aussie chefs; some of the recipes are easier than others, but they're all packed with tasty, sustainable ingredients.

Our Journey with the Recipe:

We substituted the leatherjacket with snapper (as suggested by Best in his alternative species box at the bottom of the recipe) but I didn't add the tapenade to the top of the cooked fish (couldn't be bothered to make it to be honest with you!)

The tomato salsa was very strong thanks to the scallions overpowering the rest of the ingredients.

I also blanched some bok choy leaves we had leftover in the fridge to act as a bed for the fish.

We still haven't mastered our cooking times when grilling/frying fish, so the fleshy bits where lovely, but the thinner sections were too dry *sigh*.

Looking back over the photos, I may not have used enough tomato to scallions in the salsa...there's always next time!

Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to link up anytime over the weekend.

Buttered Prawns With Tomato, Olives and Arak

During the week, I felt the need to explore another Ottolenghi recipe. I wanted something light and tasty and Buttered Prawns With Tomato, Olives and Arak from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook was the ultimate winner!

I needed:
4 plum tomatoes
12 tiger or king prawns
3½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¹⁄3 cup kalamata olives, pitted
4 teaspoons arak or Pernod
3 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
Coarse sea salt

Instructions:

1. Start by preparing the tomatoes. Make a tiny shallow cross with a sharp knife at the bottom of each one and put them in boiling water for 30 seconds.
2. Remove, refresh under plenty of cold water, then drain. Now peel the skin away and cut each tomato into 4 to 6 wedges. Set aside.
3. To prepare the prawns, peel the shells away from the bodies, keeping the tail segment of the shell on.
4. Cut a shallow slit along the back of each prawn and use the tip of a small knife to remove the dark vein.
5. Place a frying pan over high heat. When very hot, add 1½ tablespoons of the butter and sauté the prawns quickly for 2 minutes, shaking the pan as you go.
6. Add the tomatoes, pepper flakes and olives and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the prawns are nearly cooked through.
7. Add the arak carefully (it tends to catch fire).
8. Let the alcohol evaporate for a minute before quickly adding the remaining 2 tablespoons butter along with the garlic, parsley and some salt. Toss for a second for everything to come together in a runny sauce, then serve immediately.

Note: Arak is a Middle Eastern liquor made from aniseed and distilled grapes.

Our Journey with the Recipe:
Everything was easy to source or substitute at short notice, except for the arak. We decided, given the other ingredients, and our previous history with other prawn and tomato dishes, that a splash of white wine would suffice for this time.

Curiously fresh parsley was not to be seen anywhere either. Perhaps the long, hot summer and drought conditions have affected the herb market this year? A pack of 'lightly dried' parsley had to make do. I also prefer fresh chilli to red pepper flakes.

The other problem turned out to be the prawns. All the green prawns were gone by the time I was heading home after work. I had to use cooked prawns instead.

Normally I would be reluctant to use so much butter in a tomato based sauce, but it was divine.

Because I was using cooked prawns, we tossed them into the pan right at the end of the cooking process instead at point 5.

Ottolenghi says that all their "recipes evolve and develop" over time but

there are certain threads – or combinations of ingredients – holding things together. Prawns, tomatoes and Arak are one of these combinations. New ingredients share the stage – chunks of feta, the addition of more fish, bringing in a new herb or a different vegetable – but the trilogy still holds tight. This – the simplest and quickest version – remains the classic, the template against which all others are measured. It needs to be eaten as soon as it’s made, served as a starter, with fresh crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Given this holy trinity of ingredients, next time I will wait until I can source some arak, although it tasted just fine the way it was!

Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to link up anytime over the weekend.

The Australian Women's Weekly Basics - Paella

In the two years since The Australian Women's Weekly Basics: Simple Easy to Follow Recipes with Step-By-Step Photos (2016) found it's way into my kitchen, I've been wishing it had happened much sooner. It's the perfect book for working parents, trying to find quick, easy but interesting meals to feed the family. It would also be a great gift to that young adult in your life when they finally leave home for the first time.

All the meals are tasty and easy to make with regular ingredients. Substitute ingredients are provided and various sauces, sides or toppings are provided so that you change up your favourite meal every so often. We regularly make the burritos, san choy bow and the paella.

Last night, though, we nearly had a rice crisis with the paella, which I thought might be worth documenting.

The recipe clearly asks for Calasparra rice (with a possible substitute option of arborio rice). Previously I had been able to source the real deal from the David Jones food hall in the city, but when I went in yesterday morning they were out of stock...and not expecting more for another month!

A quick google showed that it wold be very difficult for me to find another nearby source for Calasparra rice. The next best option was a Sollana rice from Harris Farm. Fortunately, Mr Seasons was out doing his President of the Football Association thing, which meant driving by a Harris Farm on his way home. Crisis averted!

But what was it about this rice that made it so hard to come by and so precious for paella?

The back of the linen bag that the Calasparra is packaged in tells us that,

The fresh mountain water around the town of Calasparra in Murcia provides the perfect environment for paella rice. The rice planted in the area takes 30% longer to mature because it is grown in cool flowing water. A denser, more absorbent grain is the result, perfect for absorbing the flavourful broth of paella and other dishes. For this reason, Calasparra rice has Denomination of Origin status, acknowledging and protecting its unique qualities.

A bit more research told me that Calasparra is situated in a mountainous area surrounded by four rivers, including the Segura and Argos. The rice has been grown in 'arrozales' since the 14th century.

The paddies are small and the production of rice is also small compared to other rice growing regions around the world. But Calasparra rice is of a superior quality with an unequalled absorption capacity. The farmers use the Roman aquaducts to irrigate their paddies. They also rotate crops each year and sometimes let a field lie fallow. The seeds are hand-sown and then thinned by hand as well. The rice is hand packed, then 'about six women in blue uniforms and hairnets sew shut the individual white cloth sacks.' *

The rice varieties that are currently grown in the Calasparra region are:

• Arroz Balillax x Sollana or Arroz Sollana (sometimes simply called Arroz Calasparra & suitable for paella)
• Arroz Bomba (the very best rice for paella)

Bomba and Sollana rice are the only ones in Spain awarded the Denomination of Origin distinction.

Spanish rice is also grown in the neighbouring region of Valencia.

The rice varieties of Valencia are:

• Arroz Fonsa (very suitable for paella)
• Arroz Gleva (very suitable for paella)
• Arroz Bahia (very suitable for paella)
• Arroz Senia (very suitable for paella)
• Arroz Bomba (the best rice for paella)

Last night's chicken and chorizo paella recipe looked a little like this:

Lots of yummy tomato, chicken and chorizo...

...and lots of yummy prawns and mussels to top it all off!

Buon appetito!

* La Tienda website

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme.

French Onion Soup

Weekend Cooking with Best Fish Reads allows me to get one last post in for this year's Paris in July event with Thyme for Tea.

During the winter months I love my slow cooker, but I've never tried to use it to make soup. This weekend I felt inspired to give it a shot.

I have a wonderful Slow Cooking book by Aussie kitchen legend, Margaret Fulton. 

We've enjoyed her Osso Bucco, Lamb Pilaf, Lamb Shanks and Beef Stroganoff over the years and I've used her chicken and beef stock recipes as a basis for making my own stock.

I always find her recipes easy to follow, using ingredients I usually have to hand with the end results guaranteed yummy for the whole family (although I always add a little more herb and spice than she recommends).

In honour of Paris in July, I decided to try her French Onion Soup (soupe a l'oignon).

Onion soup dates back to Roman times and was considered the poor person's soup.

In the 18th century, the French developed the modern recipe we all know and enjoy.

Legend has it that it was actually King Louis XV who made the first French Onion soup from the only ingredients to be found in his hunting lodge - butter, onions and champagne.

The gratin and gruyere cheese version familiar to most Francophiles is a modern invention.

As with all her recipes, Fulton's French Onion Soup was easy to prepare and cook.

The aroma of the caramelising onion and butter was divine.  

I added some sprigs of thyme during the slow cooking phase because I simply have to have more flavour.

I also added some parsley, croutons and parmesan cheese at the end, but decided against gratinising it as I was too hungry to wait any longer.

It was delicious, although a I found that a little goes a long way. The sweetness of the caramelised onions was a little overbearing at times.

One recipes I read (for comparison) suggested using water instead of stock to get a more traditional flavour. I might try that version next.

I will also definitely explore adding more spices like pepper and garlic next time to give my savoury taste buds a break from the sweetness.

Sydney Seafood School Cookbook by Roberta Muir

I love it when Mr Seasons and I have the time to cook up a storm together. Just before Christmas we visited the new fish markets in Drummoyne and came home with a whole snapper.

My copy of the Sydney Seafood School Cookbook came to the rescue in how to prepare it and cook it.

"For more than 20 years, Sydney Seafood School has been teaching us how to prepare and cook the wonderful array of seafood found in our oceans and rivers. Now, for the first time, the School shares its wealth of tips and techniques, along with more than 80 outstanding recipes from Australia's leading chefs.

 There's also expert advice on choosing and storing seafood, plus step-by-step photos of essential techniques, including filleting and butterflying fish, shucking oysters, cleaning squid and octopus, and preparing crabs, prawns, and bugs. With beautiful photos of all the recipes to help you decide what to make, and illustrations of the various species so you know what to look for at the fishmonger, Sydney Seafood School Cookbook will give you the know-how and confidence to prepare seafood at home—with delicious results every time."

 It was so yummy scrummy I forgot to take a photo of the finish product - we were too busy eating it!
However the picture in the book above was pretty close to our first effort.

The whole baked snapper was so tasty and so easy, I can't wait to try out more of these recipes - watch this space!

 Weekend Cooking with Beth Fish Reads

Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen

Secrets of the Red Lantern was one of the books I tracked down after my Easter visit to Vietnam. Mr Books and I loved the food whilst in Vietnam - so fresh, so tasty and so much variety. We loved the casual, shared style of cooking and eating.

We have eaten at the Red Lantern restaurant in Surrey Hills before with great pleasure, but when I spotted that Pauline had a cookbook memoir, I knew I had to give it a try. I wanted to create some of their famous healthy, delicious dishes myself.

Preparations

I have been dipping in and out of Pauline's story ever since, but have failed to try any of the recipes.

Curiously, it has been #AusReadingMonth and #nonficnov that finally got me to have a go at one. On Thursday evening I made Cha Ca - ling fillets marinated with dill and tumeric - with great success.

I love any chance to use my granite mortar and pestle, so I was delighted to crush the garlic, spring onions, tumeric and curry into a smooth paste.

The aromas that wafted around the house were so sublime they drew Mr Books down from his office to partake of the process!

The recipe was easy to follow, easy to recreate and very, very easy to enjoy.

Dinner!

Secrets of the Red Lantern is much more than a cookbook with great recipes though. It is also a substantial family memoir.

Generously littered with family photos and stories, we follow Pauline's immigration to Australia at a young age with her family after the war in Vietnam, to her early life in Australia, the importance of food in maintaining family connections and the opening of the first Red Lantern restaurant with her brother Luke and (now) partner Mark Jensen.

The book is sumptuously put together.

Each chapter begins with another part of Pauline's life story and a few family photos. Beautiful, simple photos of the food follow with one recipe per page. Brief chef suggestions by Luke and Mark accompany each recipe.

It really is an aesthetic delight from start to finish.

This post is part of #AusReadingMonth, #nonficnov and #weekendcooking.

Saturday Snapshot - a trip down sweet, sweet Memory Lane

My mum was the proud owner of the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book.

Our childhood birthday's were made memorable by the cakes mum made from this book. She usually managed to match the theme of the cake to the present being given that year or to a particular interest one of us had at the time.

Unfortunately I don't seem to have photos of all the cakes and all the birthdays, but the few I found brought a great big, sugary smile to my lips!

Recently AWW brought out a revised, vintage look edition of this famous cookbook, so that modern generations of Australian children can also enjoy train, caterpillar, humpty dumpty and swimming pool cakes.

Thanks to Shannon at Giraffe Days for the prompt with today's post. 

She recently reviewed the AWW Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits from her childhood here.

The horseshoe cake mum made for me when we moved from coast to country.

I was in Year 8 at highschool and this was my farewell party.

I love seeing my old tape recorder on the side - because no teenage party is complete without music!

My sisters carried on the tradition with their kids when they were little (below). 

My stepsons were too old for theme cakes by the time I entered their lives, so, sadly, I missed this fun baking phase. Although I did manage to get one soccer themed cake into the picture!

This post is linked to Saturday Snapshot & AusReading Month.

I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson Part 1

I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson has had a lot of press and word-of-mouth buzz this past month or so.

Out of curiosity I finally took some time to go through the book.

I have spent a lot of time over the years reading up on food and health related issues.

When I was teaching, I constantly got sick. I expended a lot of time and energy looking at my eating, hygiene and exercise habits to try and boost my immune system and stay healthy.

Turns out the best thing for my health, in the end, was to retire from teaching completely!

But my interest in eating well, being healthy and creating a positive & sustainable food environment has stayed with me.

The Slow Food movement in particular caught my attention. I try to eat seasonally, buy fresh organic produce where possible and the rest of the time, I read labels carefully and look for products with the minimum amount of ingredients in them. I also try to avoid products with ingredients that are numbers or include a 5 syllable scientific word! If sugar or salt is listed as one of the first two or three ingredients I also leave it on the shelf (chocolate is the exception to this rule of course!)

My latest thing (post Bali) is to make my own granola and spiced yoghurt for breakfast.
I enjoyed the most amazing homemade granola and spiced yoghurt for breakfast every day that I was in Bali.

Sarah has a great granola recipe on pg 76 that I now use as a basis for my own recipe (I also have added wheat flakes, quinoa flakes and barley flakes and I use maple syrup.)

I'm still experimenting with ingredients and quantities, but it has been a HUGE success. Even my husband is being converted.

The spiced yoghurt includes crushed cardamom seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise and honey. Over winter I will try to add a little ginger as well.

Happy eating!

The Edible Balcony by Indira Naidoo

At this time of year (Spring), my thoughts turn to all things green.

As the days lengthen and warm up I find myself spending time once again mooching around my little city garden.

For 18 years I designed, created and maintained fairly large country gardens. My first two were mostly cottage/vegetable gardens. But my third (and last) garden was an epic attempt to make an Australian garden that was water-wise and attractive.

It has taken me 5 years of living in Sydney to finally feel at home in a city garden - to come to terms with the new climate, the new plants and the different soils.

One of the inspirations that helped me to understand gardening in smaller spaces was Indira's book. She lives in an apartment in Sydney and only has her balcony to work with, but her ideas and information about Sydney specific variables has been invaluable.

I love that she has divided her book up into seasons, so I can easily find what I should be doing when. She talks about her successes and failures, interspersing her stories and pop-out sections with easy to make, tantalising recipes using produce she has grown herself.

My Sydney garden is a bit of a hodge-podge garden that reflects five years of indecision, mistakes and some successes.
I love flowers and scent. I have natives and roses side by side.
I love to celebrate all four seasons, so my plant choice includes those that will flower or change colour at different times of the year.
I love to grow things to eat, but so far my successes have been limited to herbs, cherry tomatoes and eggplant.
I don't have alot of money to spend on plants, so most of my plants are cuttings from friend's gardens.

The thing that Indira and I share though, is a passion for the garden - the idea of being able to feed yourself and your family and of adding flavour to your meals. As well as creating a micro environment where birds and skinks and bees can find a home and where humans can kick off their shoes and feel earth between their toes.

I love watching my little garden change with the seasons - my garden has once again become my retreat, my haven, my solace. It just takes time.

Bill's Everyday Asian by Bill Granger

I have a new love.

His name is Bill.

Bill Granger.
It was love at first sight.

Just look at the cover of the book, then imagine every second page with similiar mouthwatering, pretty pictures....what's not to love!

I had been eyeing this book off for ages, but it wasn't until a friend pointed out the brief methods for each recipe that I finally succumbed and bought it.



Over the past few months I've enjoyed browsing through the pages imagining what I would cook.

I have now cooked 6 of the recipes (including the two photographed below) to much acclaim from husband and children alike.




Cashew & Chicken Curry with naan

Fish baked in a bag with lime butter and potatoes

The fact that little ol' me can make my dishes look almost exactly like the beautiful, artistic photographs in Bill's book is very satisfying and gratifying.

We also highly recommend the chicken and mushroom croquettes - we ate them too fast to take a photo! The children were completely unaware they were eating mushrooms and even asked for seconds :-)

Happy eating