Weekend Cooking - Ottolenghi

One child has flown the coop (to uni) and the other is planning on moving out in the next few months. Mr Seasons and I will soon be empty nesters. A stage we've been looking forward to for years, but already, we're finding it more of a bittersweet experience. One of the good points though is having some space in our lives (and our home) and not having to cater for the very basic eating habits of the youngest any longer (he took his pizza tray with him to uni, which I suspect he will eat from morning, noon and night!)

Part of my post-children-living-at-home plan is to cook more interesting food. Food with spice and zing and taste!

I have a slew of Ottolenghi cookbooks that I have only ever prepared a few meals from in total. A very sad state of affairs! I'm hoping to change that this year.

My book club's summer picnic night gave me my first opportunity this week. I was working and only had an hour to whip something up that had to be 'shareable' and of the finger food variety.

Simple by Ottolenghi was the obvious choice for this. This cook book categorises each recipe into 6 main areas:

S – short on time: less than 30 minutes
I – 10 ingredients or less
M – make ahead
P – pantry
L – lazy
E – easier than you think

I wanted something light and summery with a little bit of zing!
Beef Carpaccio with Spring Onion & Ginger Salsa (pg 29) was the choice. It was categorised as:
S - short on time
I - 10 ingredients or less
M - make ahead

Because I only decided in the morning over breakfast, which recipe I was going to use, the make ahead part didn't apply this time around, but I now have some leftover spring onion & ginger salsa in the fridge for more zingy tomato snacks this week.

It was super easy to make. The longest part was crushing the ginger into a paste in my mortar and pestle, but I love any excuse to use my mortar and pestle, so it's never a chore.

I also love it when your finished dish looks exactly like the one in the book!

I served it with some Greek cream cheese and ciabatta. It was delicious and a big hit at the picnic.

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.

Cheesemaking at Cornersmith

Last weekend I made cheese.

My friends have called me the Dairy Queen for decades. 

My love of cheese and cheese dishes is legendairy!

So a cheesemaking course at Cornersmith was always going to be something I had to do.

I just had to find a free weekend.

Kristen Allan is the cheesemaker; ricotta, yoghurt and labneh are the cheeses we learn to make.

Slowing cooking is the philosophy; sustainable, ethical food production is the aim.

And good times are the name of the game.

The course begins in a relaxed manner.

A platter of homemade cheeses, pickles and bread are provided for us to sample as we get to know each other over a glass of wine (or homemade cordial).

After a discussion about what type of milk we should use and the various processes involved we get stuck in.

We don our aprons, pick up tools and begin to slowly heat a pot of milk, lemon juice and salt.

Kristen told us lots of amazing facts about curds and whey, including the uses of whey to wash your face and to water your pot plants.

After the appropriate cooking time, it's time to separate the curds and whey.

Ricotta is born!

Kristen then showed us how to make our own yoghurt before providing us with enough of her homemade yoghurt (made earlier as it takes a day to make yoghurt from scratch) for us to start our own labneh.

  

I have since made my own yoghurt at home and another batch of labneh. 

Kristen provides a cheese hotline so that we can contact her with any problems.

My second batch of labneh ended up tasting quite different to the first - it may have been the milk I started with or not enough salt. 

I'll add some herbs and olive oil to see if that improves the flavour.

It's all very, very fascinating & I can't wait to have more time over Easter to make another batch!

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot and Weekend Cooking.

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.

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 - Vietnam Part 1 - The Food

There was so much to love about our recent holiday to Vietnam, but one of the stand-out highlights for us was the food. 

We ate well and we ate often.

A few margarita's may have happened too!

Pho - I made the mistake of eating the chilli (like I would at home).

We booked a morning cooking class whilst in Saigon.

It involved a trip to to the markets to check out all the fresh, local produce.

Our first lesson at the Saigon Culinary Art Centre was how to create carrot flowers!

I was only drinking iced tea - really!!

  

We then went on to make seafood spring rolls, morning glory salad with pork & prawns and deep-fried egg noodles with seafood & vegetables.

It was a fabulous way to start our holiday in Vietnam.

Mai loved a camera shot too!

It was all delicious!

I also enjoyed drinking the lotus & jasmine tea's.

On our last night in Saigon, we treated ourselves to a meal at Maxim's.

The decor was wonderful, the jazz groovy & the margarita's sublime!

The prawn spring rolls (above) were scrumptious.

But the whole red snapper in ginger and onion (below) was out of this world!

The BBQ'd prawns weren't bad either!

 Rambutans are a cousin of the lychee.

I managed to have several of these for breakfast everyday, along with dragonfruit (pitaya), passionfruit, pineapple and watermelon.

Our first lunch in Hoi An was the local specialty - 'white rose' shrimp dumplings.

The flavour was very subtle & very satisfying.

Happy hour margarita's for two by the pool, Hoi An

We fell in love with the Hoi An Special Spring Rolls - they became our lunch time special.

Along with a glass of cold Tiger beer.

Mai Fish, Hoi An do a mean kumquat margarita! A great way to watch the sunset.

In Hanoi (below) we joined a night tour of the local street stalls.

We ate 'rats tails' (so called like the American hotdog - for its shape not its contents)!

Rats tails were minced pork with coriander, cucumber & chilli wrapped up in a long skinny roll.

 It also included a tour of the local markets.

The highlight was eating from one of the DIY street BBQ stalls.

Mr Seasons loved the Iced Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk.

But while in Hanoi we also tried their famous Egg Coffee.
Yes - coffee and egg together!
 They blend the yolk into an espresso with a splash of condensed milk.

A liquid tiramasu say some! 

Too sweet says me.
One cafe also served them with a meringue made from the egg whites floating on top.

Our last night in Hanoi saw us dining fine on stuffed squid & pork ribs in Hanoi special spices.

The desserts at Porte d'Annam were pretty special too.

 Needless to say, the diet started this week!

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot and Weekend Cooking.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

This is one of the longest reads I've ever had. I started it in May 2012 and finished it Dec 2014.

Why you ask?

Was it hard to read? Boring? Too techincal?

None of those things. It was simply my swim bag book.
Which meant that I only read a chapter (or less) after doing my laps...in the summer months only...once maybe twice a week.

It was a fascinating read from start to finish - thought provoking, personal and very easy to read.

I have been on a personal journey to eat well & to eat consciously most of my adult life. As time goes by I'm also keen to eat as ethically and as sustainably as I possibly can. I try to source fresh, organic produce in season. I read the labels on everything I buy.

And I read foodie books.

There are so many messages to take out of The Omnivore's Dilemma that I'm not even sure where to start. It's the kind of book you need to read slowly, to allow time for all the ideas to sit, develop and work on you as they will.

Perhaps the best way to go is to pull out a few key points that caught my eye...to tempt you hopefully into reading this book for yourself!

* ' "Eating is an agricultural act," as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too.'

* The ubiquitous nature of corn - it feeds our cattle, the chickens, salmon, turkey, lambs & pigs. Which means there is some corn in our milk, cheese, eggs & yoghurt.It's in our soft drinks as HFCS - high fructose corn syrup.
Other corn additives include corn flour, cornstarch, corn oil, leavenings & lecithin, the mono-, di-, & triglycerides, colourings & citric acid, maltodextrin, glucose syrup, modified starch, ascorbic acid, crystalline fructose, lactic acid, maltose, caramel colour, ethanol, MSG, xanthan gum all = corn.
Corn is in our tinned fruit, soups, gravy, margarines, salad dressings, sauces, relishes & even our vitamins.

* ' "You are what you eat" is a truism hard to argue with, and yet it is...incomplete, for you are what what you eat eats, too.'

* 'The United Nations reported that in 2000 the number of people suffering from overnutrition - a billion - had officially surpassed the number suffering from malnutrition - 800 million.'

* 'When food is abundant and cheap, people will eat more and get fat.'

* 'Our bodies are storing reserves of fat against a famine that never comes.'

* Pollan went on a mission on pg 115-17 to detail the ingredients in McDonalds and other fast foods. I knew about the high sugar content, but was surprised by all the corn based additives and ingredients.

* The Salatin's from Polyface Farm are truly inspirational with their seasonal, rotational, intricate 'dance' with nature. Anyone interested in growing their own food, at any level, should read this book just for these sections.

* 'So we find ourselves as a species almost back where we started: anxious omnivores struggling once again to figure out what it is wise to eat. Instead of relying on the accumulated wisdom of a cuisine, or even the wisdom of our sense, we rely on expert opinion, advertising, government food pyramids, and diet books, and we place faith in science to sort out for us what culture once did with rather more success.'
I found the thought of suspect science rather confronting until I realised that the 'science' Pollan was talking about was the science sponsored by the food industry.

* 'As a rule, animals in the wild don't get good deaths surrounded by their loved ones.'

* '...appreciate just how parochial, and urban, an ideology animal rights is. It could only thrive in a world where people have lost contact with the natural world, where animals no longer pose any threat to us...and our mastery of nature seems unchallenged.'

* 'What's wrong with eating animals is the practice, not the principle.'

Michael Pollan is great for anyone interested in the food we eat, where it comes from, what it's made from and what it does to our bodies. The Omnivore's Dillema is US-centric, but the questions he asks about what we eat and why are universal.

I Quit Sugar - Part 2

I grew up with sugar.

We sprinkled it on our cereal, put it in our tea and coffee and baked with it all the time.

My sugar intake reduced and changed as the years went by & I focused on healthier eating options. I started using raw sugar instead of white sugar but I couldn't cut it out completely.

But high cholesterol is a family failing and during my 30's my levels hovered around the "we need to keep an eye on this" side. I moved to 'lite' everything and reduced my cheese intake.

Nothing happened.

A few years ago I came across a copy of Cyndi O'Meara's Changing Habits, Changing Lives in a second-hand bookshop. It encouraged me to change one thing at a time, starting with my breakfast habits. I cut my sugar intake from everything except half a teaspoon in my coffee and the occasional chocolate indulgence.

For the first time ever my cholesterol levels dropped to a level that my doctor was finally happy with.

So I know that sugar is bad for you and that your body is better off without it. But do you need to quit it altogether?

The science behind the I Quit Sugar idea states that it's not sugar per se, but fructose that's the enemy.  Fructose converts directly into fat, it makes us eat more as we do not feel full and it makes us ill. Fructose is in fruit, so the I Quit Sugar diet also includes quitting most fruits.

And that's where I have a problem with this book.

Up until now, everything I've read, known or heard about good nutrition suggested that balance, wholefoods (organic) and moderation were the keys to a healthy diet.

Cutting out a naturally occurring food group just doesn't seem to make sense.

So I've been researching it in my spare time.

People like Michael Pollan agree that the fruits that we eat today have changed (been modified) over the past 200 years in particular as we breed fruits and types to suit our (sweet) tooth.

But after that things just get muddy. One online scientists claims this and another online scientists claims that. As with anything, you can use statistics and figures to prove either side of the argument.

So what am I left with after all this pondering?

A gut feeling!

The same gut feeling that has been guiding my eating habits for most of my adult life.

Moderation and balance:

Anything and everything in moderation.
Eat a diet that balances all the food groups but focuses on naturally occurring and where possible organic foods.
Keep processed foods to a minimum.
Eat smaller portions at meal times.
Don't go back for seconds.
No snacking between meals.
Read the labels on the foods that I buy (if sugar is one of the top three ingredients, do I really need it? And I usually only buy foods with 5 ingredients or less listed on the label).
Include the occasional fast day.
Treat myself sometimes.
And, of course, exercise regularly and get a good night's sleep.

I do question the science and the validity of Wilson's I Quit All Sugar approach, but I also applaud anyone who helps us to look at, reassess and modify our intake of excess sugars.
Some of the recipes are very tasty, but the rigidity inherent in this approach is not something I feel comfortable with.

I Quit Sugar did inspire me to give up that last little bit of sugar in my coffee. And it convinced my husband to drastically reduce his added sugar intake too. A win/win situation!

I quit (added) sugars, but I do not quit fruit.

Happy Eating!