All posts by Christina Soong

I have my Dad to thank for a lot of things.

For my love of reading. For forcing us to go with him to see Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October, in which a much younger Alec Baldwin proves indisputably that brains are better than brawn. For taking me cockling every summer. For sending me a plane ticket so I could join the family for Christmas when I was working in London.

I also have my Dad to thank for my deep and sincere love for Malaysian hawker food. Malaysians are serious foodies, trading tips about where to get the best Hainanese Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow or Curry Laksa with the same fervour that other people trade sporting news or celebrity gossip.

However, Malaysians don’t see their passion for good food as anything special. Why wouldn’t you drive the family all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh (a 3+ hour drive) just because you were craving Ipoh Sah Hor Fun? That’s completely reasonable behaviour, isn’t it? Dad?

The Malaysian hawker dish, Har Mee (also known as Ha Mein, Ha Mee, or Har Mein) is one of my favourites. It’s just such a tasty, full-bodied, well-balanced dish. It’s not a dish to be merely shovelled down – Har Mee grabs your attention right away and keeps it there until the last drop of soup is gratefully slurped up. It’s that good.

Dad gave me his Har Mee recipe so I could include it in a cookbook I made for my brother’s wedding gift. I now pass it onto you with minor tweaks and adjustments.

If you cook only one new thing this year, please, I beg of you, make it this.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

16 large prawns, tails and head intact (approximately 500 grams)
750 grams pork bones (from Asian grocer/butcher)
3 spring onions finely sliced
4 tablespoons fried shallots + extra for garnish (bought in a plastic jar from Asian grocer)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 pack hokkien mee (yellow egg noodles) and 1/4 pack rice vermicelli
1 pack bean sprouts
1 bunch green vegetable like gai lan or choy sum, torn into small pieces (from Asian grocer)
2 eggs, boiled, peeled and halved
White pepper
1 beef stock cube
Chilli sauce and fresh chilli for garnish (if desired)
XO sauce (from Asian grocer)

METHOD

Boil prawns in three cups of water until prawns are cooked. Remove prawns and peel, retaining cooking water. Stick prawn heads shells back into the cooking water, add pork bones and one more cup water and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes.

Remove pork bones and prawn shells from soup.

Discard shells and remove every morsel of meat from the pork bones and set aside.

To the soup, add 4 tablespoons fried shallots, 3 tablespoons light soy sauce, white pepper, a garlicy chilli sauce (to taste, if desired) and a stock cube and bring back to the boil. Then turn down to your lowest heat and let simmer.

Prepare noodles according to package .Add beansprouts and vegetables to the noodle cooking water for the last minute to blanch. Drain all and set aside.

To serve, place a portion of noodles and beansprouts in a bowl, and top with prawns, pork and vegetables. Ladle a generous amount of soup over the top and garnish with half an egg, extra shallots, fresh chilli (if desired) and XO sauce.*

*XO sauce is a sensational chilli sauce made from frying onions, garlic and chilli with dried shrimp and scallops.

We’ve been cooking a lot of stir fries lately – they’re easy and quick to prepare, you can use whatever you have in the fridge, you only need one cooking pan and dinner is on the table within minutes.

It’s convenience food but way better than anything you could heat up out of a box.

You could substitute the chicken with prawns, beef fillet, firm tofu cut into squares or fried tofu puffs.

INGREDIENTS

400 grams chicken thighs, trimmed, and cut into small pieces.
100 grams cauliflower, cut into florets
100 grams green beans, trimmed and cut into pieces
100 grams cabbage, shredded
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce, plus 3-4 tablespoons extra for serving
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
Few drops sesame oil (optional)
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 packet noodles suitable for stir frying e.g. hokkien or flat rice (kway teow) noodles, prepared as per packet instructions.
2 Birds Eyes chillis

METHOD

Marinate chicken in soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, black pepper and cornflour for at least half an hour or overnight in the fridge.

Make dipping sauce by chopping up chillis and adding to 3 tablespoons light soy sauce.

Heat up a wok or large fry pan. Add one tablespoon of vegetable oil and fry garlic, ginger and onion over low heat for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.

Brown chicken, stirring occassionally, then add beans, cauliflower and cabbage. Stir to combine. Put lid on and turn down heat. Let cook for a couple of minutes.

Take lid off pan and set lid aside. Add noodles to pan, stirring vigorously to combine for a couple of minutes until the noodles are heated through and browning nicely.

Serve immediately with dipping sauce. I like adding the chillis directly to my plate as per the photos but you can just dash a few drops of the now hot soya sauce over your noodles for a less explosive experience.

This incredibly simple coconut pie is courtesy of my mother. She has been cooking it for years thanks to the Mitchell Park Primary School Parents’ Association 1992 Cookbook.

This is a very dense and moist pie that travels well. You can pack it in a lunch box or take it to a friend’s house without worrying that it’ll disintegrate en route.

Boasting a satisfyingly chewy crust, it’s sweet but not overly so, making it perfect for those odd types who say they don’t like sweet things. These people invariably ask for “just a taste” and then proceed to eat most of your serve.

Sound familiar, Mr Hungry Australian?

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My dad’s friend, Barry, gave us a bag of lemons today.

They say when life gives you lemons you should make lemonade.

So that’s exactly what we did.

INGREDIENTS

5 lemons, washed.
1.5 litres sparkling water
3-5 tablespoons sugar, mixed with 2 tablespoons hot water to make a sugar syrup

METHOD

Juice three lemons, and cut other two into thin slices.

Pour lemon juice, sparkling water and sugar syrup into a tall jug and mix well. Garnish with lemon slices.

One thing I love about Mr Hungry Australian is that he’s a great cook.

When we first started dating he was working as a consultant. So some days he’d be super-busy and other days I’d go over to his house to find he’d made oven baked lamb shanks with gremolata and mashed potatoes for a workday dinner. The way to my heart is definitely through my stomach so his talent and passion for cooking won him lots of points.

Mr Hungry Australian cooks so differently to me, too. I like the fact that he puts things together in ways that would never occur to me. Take his baby octopus with warm silverbeet and chickpea salad for instance.Or his brilliant Chinese sausage and spinach pizza.

He can also cook dishes that I have never learned to make, like fresh pasta. So nowadays we have a pasta routine: he makes the pasta and I cook the sauce, which is exactly what we’ve done for this recipe below.

As our five year old daughter would say: teamwork gets the job done.

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Australian MasterChef series 2 finalist, Alvin Quah – he of the funky white glasses and cropped ‘do – has been accused of plagiarising a recipe by Bee Yinn Low from Asian food blog, Rasa Malaysia, on his own blog, Cinnamon Pig.

Rasa Malaysia is the biggest independent Asian recipes site on the internet, receiving 2.5 million page views and 600,000+ visitors per month. Low’s first cookbook, Easy Chinese Recipes, has just been released worldwide and went to #1 on Amazon.com’s chinese cookbook category.

Quah’s recipe for Black Sesame Dumplings in Ginger Syrup, posted July 2011, bears a striking resemblance to Low’s Black Sesame Dumplings (Tang Yuan), posted April 5th, 2009.

Two hours ago, On Monday 3rd October at approximately 10am Adelaide time, Low tweeted this from her @rasamalaysia Twitter account:

@cinnamonalvin WOW u took my Black Sesame Dumplings recipe, copied it word-by-word w/ minor changes & made it on national TV with no credit?

Quah immediately tweeted back:

@rasamalaysia hey bee, is it a mistake? I promise it’s mine. No copying here. Mum use to make it for me.

Mmmmm. I breathe in deeply, inhaling the irresistible smell of bread baking and sugar caramellising. Does anything smell better than this?

I’m in the kitchen at Red Door Bakery in Croydon, watching owner & baker Gareth Grierson blowtorching crème brulee tarts. First, the tart is sprinkled with sugar, then Grierson leisurely torches it until the sugar blisters and caramelises. It’s a process that he repeats three times for each tart to ensure that the toffee layer is thick and crisp.

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If you were living in Australia in the 80s you probably would have seen this TV advertisement starring a then unknown Aussie actor.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt1YV9Bj72c]

Did you recognise her? Yes, that’s Australian actor Naomi Watts turning down a date with Tom Cruise in favour of her mum’s lamb roast. Tom Cruise was then fresh from the success of Top Gun and Cocktail and hotter than hot, but Naomi knew what was truly desirable and important.

I’m with Naomi on this. As a meat eater, a lamb roast is one of the ultimate feasts, reminding me of countless family dinners. Lamb roast is what I cook when we have people over and want to make a meal more of an occasion, or when I want to spoil my family.

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Is there a kid alive who doesn’t love fairy wands? I made these for my daughter’s five year old birthday party a month or so ago (see Throwing a Kid’s Party Without Losing Your Mind) and they were a smash hit.

They’re super easy, too. You just dip some Grissini in melted chocolate, roll them in sprinkles et voilà – instant Parent of the Year award from your admiring kids.

For a party I’d make probably 1.5 per child, so you have extras.

These fairy wands come by way of my friend Sophie, who made them for her son’s birthday party a few years ago.

I’ll pass on your thanks to her.

INGREDIENTS

1 packet Grissini (bread sticks). If the Grissini are extra long you can break them in two as I did.
50-100gms chocolate melts.
1/4 cup sprinkles

METHOD

Melt chocolate in small ceramic cup or bowl – the smaller the better so you don’t waste any chocolate. I put the cup in the microwave for 1-2 minutes on low to melt the chocolate, giving it a stir midway through.

Put sprinkles in small cup or mug.

Dip grissini end into melted chocolate and coat evenly. Now hold it upside down and jiggle it around so that the excess chocolate drips off and the remaining chocolate partly sets. If you dip the Grissini into the sprinkles when the chocolate is still really hot the sprinkles melt into the chocolate and disappear.

Once you have a nice even layer of chocolate, dip the end into the cup of sprinkles and swirl so it coats the chocolate evenly.

Stand the Grissini up in a small cup to dry so that the wet end is sticking up over the cup rim. Make sure the wet ends of the Grissini don’t touch each other.

I will cheerfully admit that the fairy wands in these photos are far from my finest work – my toddler was  rampaging through the house as I made these so I was a bit distracted. But even though they’re misshaped they still look pretty darn cute and the kids were ecstatic.

That’s the way I like it.

Aren’t these the most gorgeous olives you’ve ever seen?

They’re wild olives marinated in lemon pepper, garlic, oregano, vinegar, sea salt and extra virgin olive oil from South Australian producer, Patlin Gardens. My brother bought them for us from the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers’ Market.

I’ve never eaten wild olives before but I’m now a convert. They’re teensy compared to the olives you usually find in the supermarket or gourmet store – only about 1 cm in length – and they’re just so beautiful.

However, it’s how they taste that really blows me away. Patlin Gardens use a traditional salt treatment to cure their olives. The lemony marinade is flavoursome and yet beautifully mild, so you can really taste the delicate flavour of the olives coming through. Some canned or bottled olives taste mostly of brine, which is a real shame.

Patlin Gardens have just one of the 100 stalls at the weekly farmer’s market at the Adelaide Showgrounds. Many of SA’s leading food producers are regular stallholders – check out who will be there this week here.

I’ll be there, pottering around the stalls and happily breathing in the sights, sounds and smells.

Adelaide Showground Farmers Market
Every Sunday from 9am – 1pm.
P: 08 8231 8155
Enter via Leader St, Goodwood

PS Isn’t this a stunning bowl? I saw it at Better World Arts in Port Adelaide and couldn’t resist. The artwork is by Aboriginal artist, Ruth Napaljarri Stewart.

I seem to have developed a semi-serious addiction to chai lattes. There’s something about the combination of cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and star anise that is just so lovely and warming. And I adore rice pudding – it’s one of the ultimate comfort foods.

So this Chai Rice Pudding recipe brings together two of my favourites.

This dish was inspired by a conversation yesterday during a long lunch at my parent’s house. One of my aunties had brought along what is essentially an Asian rice pudding for dessert – gelatinous black rice cooked with brown palm sugar and coconut milk.

This led to me reminiscing about the rice pudding I ate in London when I was living there, which was basically white rice cooked in milk with vanilla.

I thought about cooking both the Western and Asian rice puddings and then combining them in a bowl in a yin yang design. As yin yang is about how opposites forces are interconnected and interdependent it would be both a recipe and a political, cultural, and anthropological statement. (Wow. Where did that come from?)

But I wasn’t sure. The yin yang pudding would be very dramatic but would it look a bit, well, twee? And would it taste good or would it be a confused mish-mash of flavours?

Then, as I was driving home, I had a lightbulb moment – what about a chai rice pudding? It would be just like a chai latte except it would contain rice and it would be just like a rice pudding but chai flavoured.

How could it not work?

So I made it this afternoon and I’m still eating it as I type this.

On this day, at this moment, I am completely content.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup rice (I used long grain rice)
4 cups whole milk
1 cup freshly brewed tea (I used Twinings English Breakfast and left the tea left to brew for five minutes)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon ginger powder
3 whole cardomon pods
1 whole star anise
6 large cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or 1 vanilla bean)
1/4 cup brown sugar

METHOD

Put milk, tea, rice and all spices in a small saucepan and bring to boil. The turn down and simmer for around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add sugar and turn heat back up to high. Cook for three to four minutes, stirring all the time as the pudding thickens.

Serve in individual bowls. If you wish, you can pick out the spices before serving (use a spoon as the pudding will be very hot) but I figure most people can cope with minor details like that.

Serves 4-6. Or 1. It all depends.

If you’re a chilli addict like me, you’ll love this dish.

For this is no ordinary cucumber salad. This dish was inspired by the ‘hot salad’ we used to buy from the Xinjiang restaurant opposite our old apartment in downtown Shanghai.

Xinjiang food refers mainly to Uyghur cuisine and is characterised by the use of lamb, mutton, tomatoes, peppers (capsicum) and onion, with lots of dumpling, noodle and rice dishes. Our favourite dishes were this salad, completely addictive mutton kebabs flavoured with cumin, Szechuan peppercorns and chilli (watch out for an upcoming recipe), and a fragrant lamb pie.

When my husband was travelling – his job took him all over the Asia Pacific – I would sometimes stop at the Xinjiang restaurant on my way home from work. My regular order was six mutton kebabs, this hot salad, and a serve of rice.

This smashed cucumber salad is a wonderful study in contrasts; it’s lip tinglingly hot yet cooling at the same time. It’s a great side dish to any kind of barbequed meat.

INGREDIENTS

4 small Lebanese cucumbers
2 small tomatoes
1/5 diced small Spanish red onion
1 small clove garlic, diced
1 teaspoon salt
Chilli oil
Sesame oil
Rice wine vinegar

METHOD

Peel cucumbers and chop off ends. With the flat side of a cleaver, smash them on a chopping board so they split lengthwise.

Cut the smashed cucumbers into medium slices.

Put them into a bowl and add one teaspoon salt. Mix to combine and then cover and leave for half an hour.

After 30 minutes, a few teaspoons of water will have drained from the cucumbers into the bowl. Drain the cucumbers and rinse with water to remove some of the salt. Drain cucumbers again and place back into a serving bowl.

Add diced onion, diced tomato and diced garlic.

Dress with a few shakes of chilli oil and sesame oil and 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar. Taste then add more of whatever you fancy until it tastes the way you want it to.

Me? I  like it hot, hot, hot!

If this isn’t a perfect example of fusion food, I don’t know what is.

I came home yesterday to find that Mr Hungry Australian had made this Italian-Chinese pizza.

I was quietly appalled. It just seemed so wrong. Slightly disturbing even.

But then I tasted it. And as I silently chewed, I made a mental footnote to encourage him to cook more.

Why has no one ever thought of this combination before?!!!!

The salty Chinese sausage went superbly with the silverbeet, pizza sauce and cheese. Moreover, the pizza reminded me of my favourite spinach and cheese pasty, which is also made with a wholemeal dough.

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Fresh picked crab is an absolute luxury. Picking the crab meat out of its shell is both time consuming and finicky work so it’s a real labour of love.

I am extremely fortunate because it’s a labour of love my dad willingly performs for me every time he catches and cooks crabs.

I know, I know – he’s a really good man.

One of the best ways to use fresh picked crab is in a crab dip. I’m not talking about one of those ghastly fluoro coloured monstrosities you find lurking in your supermarket chiller cabinet. I’m talking about real ingredients. Simple flavours. Pure indulgence.

Our great family friend, Auntie Ruta, made something similar to this one year for Christmas Day lunch and my Dad happily filched the recipe from her. My version below is different again – I’m not keen on seafood sauce, which is used in both their recipes, so I’ve kept this very simple, very basic.

Big thanks to my dad who picked the crab meat for me (again). I roped him in to help as I believe in going straight to the expert and he is certainly an expert crab catcher, picker and eater. (You can read about how he caught the crabs off Semaphore jetty here.)

Eating this makes me feel supremely happy.

INGREDIENTS

2-3 fresh crabs
Juice of half a lemon
2 avocados
1 block cream cheese, softened, or 1 tub spreadable cream cheese (200gms)
Freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Put your fresh crabs in a pot. If they are not dead you should kill them humanely. This suggested method is from the RSPCA website:

“Crabs have two main nerve centres. One is located at the front of the animal under a shallow depression and the second lies towards the rear of the animal and may have a small hole positioned over it. The recommended method is to lift the abdominal flap (tail flap) and insert a knife all the way through the hind nerve centre, followed by a repeat of the process on the front nerve centre via the shallow depression at the front of the body.”

Alternatively, you could put them in the fridge for half an hour and then the freezer for one hour so they go to ‘sleep.’ Crustaceans are cold blooded so when their temperature is reduced they become insensible.

Place crabs in a large cooking pot with no water. Put the lid on and bring to the boil. Cook for around 15-20 minutes on a medium heat until they have fully changed colour to a bright red.

Rinse the crabs immediately with cold water. This stops the cooking process.

Now if you haven’t already done so – change into old clothes. Picking crabs is messy work!

To pick the crab meat out, peel back the inner triangular flap using your finger. Pull back over the crab’s back and remove the whole top shell.

Tear body in half and remove gills and internal organs. Some people like eating the mustardy liver; some people don’t.

This crab is a female – you can see the yellow eggs. Some people love eating this.

Use your fingers and the crab craws to painstakingly remove every bit of crab meat from the shell.

You’ll end up with a small bowl of crab meat, which seems completely out of proportion to the effort that you’ve just expended. But keep going, it’ll be worth it, I promise.

Now grab your other ingredients. Squeeze the lemon and mash the avocados.

Find your best small crystal bowl to serve the dip and make equal layers of cream cheese and avocado, finishing with crab. Top with lemon juice and dribble over sweet chilli sauce. Finish with a grind of black pepper.

I have to confess I am deeply disappointed with how the dip actually turned out. Not the taste – the taste was magnificent – but the photos just don’t do the dip justice.

I couldn’t find the small round bowl that my dad used last time so had to make do with an oddly shaped vessel that was really impractical for a layered dip. Usually, we try to make the layers more or less equal but it was difficult with this shape and the cream cheese layer is disproportionately large. The vessel was also too small: I could only fit one avocado in instead of two. Moreover, the sundae glass shape of the vessel made the crab dip look like a funky seafood dessert.

I was also racing against the clock when I took these photos as the daylight was fading fast. Hence, the rather dull pics. I could pretend that I wanted them to look moody and atmospheric but then I’d be lying.

So I was feeling a little disappointed when I finally made it to my parent’s house with the dip in time for dinner. All that effort – and for something that looked like a seafood sundae!

But then I tasted the dip.

And I heaved a great sigh of perfect bliss.

I’d do it all over again, precisely the same way, if I could eat that exact same dip each time.

Every summer my dad and his friends go crabbing. Creeping out of the house in the early hours of the morning they drive to an undisclosed location, launch their boat and crab for hours. They then return home around midday sunburned, smelly and triumphant – their record is an amazing 120 crabs.

After beers to cool off, they cook the crabs in enormous pots and woks on outdoor stoves. It’s a day of feasting and celebrating; home gardeners and hunter gatherers know that food tastes better when you’ve grown or caught it yourself.

I’ve never been invited to one of these outings but the other day my dad mentioned that he and one of his friends were going crabbing off the Semaphore jetty. (Semaphore is a lovely beachside suburb west of Adelaide, about 25 minutes from the city. Check out my review of Semaphore cafe, Whipped, here.)

I was keen to see how they did crabbing off a jetty so asked if we could come along. Dad was meeting his friend at 4:30am there so I said we’d be along as soon as the kids were up – usually around 6am, thanks to Master Toddler.

That morning we all slept in but we were at the jetty by 7:15am. It was a beautiful morning.

It wasn’t long before we spotted a familiar face – my dad. As he’d been there since 4:30am he was still rugged up to the nines, almost unrecognisable in his deer hunter hat, anorak and ugg boots (thankfully not in shot).

We continued on our way to the end of the jetty, passing a lone fisherman who wasn’t having much luck, and a beautiful pelican.

We met up with Uncle Teck Ho, my Dad’s mate who is also from Malaysia. Uncle Teck Ho is an amazing gardener – every time he visits my parents he brings them huge bags of fruit and vegetables from his garden.

We checked out the crab nets. Nowadays my dad and his friends use carp heads to bait the crab nets. They used to use chicken but this is now banned as the fishing authorities were worried that chicken would attract sharks.

Last time they went crabbing off the Semaphore Jetty, my dad’s friends caught 20 crabs. But today, despite the choppy water which is apparently good for crabbing, they only caught four: two blue crabs and two sand crabs.

We weren’t disappointed by the small catch though. It was lovely to be down at the beach so early in the morning and watch the sun coming up over the horizon. With so few people around, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves – a rare gift.

We took the four crabs home and cooked them up. As there were so few we decided to make crab dip.

Down here in South Australia we like to do things in a big way. The Big Orange at Berri. The Big Rocking Horse in the Adelaide Hills. The Big Lobster in Kingston. I’m not sure what that says about our state psyche but we like to make a noticeable splash.

We’re not just talking about fibreglass and steel tourist attractions either. The Adelaide Fringe is Australia’s largest arts festival while our festival of cheese, CheeseFest, is Australia’s #1 cheese festival.

Created a mere six years ago by Founder/Director Kris Lloyd (manager and head cheesemaker of Woodside Cheese Wrights), CheeseFest is an outdoor festival at Rymill Park that showcases South Australia’s and Australia’s wonderfully talented cheese producers. You can enjoy cheese sampling, cheese cooking, cheese making demonstrations and even cheese master classes.

Celebrity Chefs appearing this year include patron Simon Bryant (The Cook and the Chef, ex The Hilton), Callum Hann (MasterChef 2010 runner up) and Paul Wood (My Kitchen Rules).

CheeseFest 2011 is showcasing a wonderful lineup of food and wine producers:

Cheese stalls

• Alexandrina Cheese Company, SA
• Australian Specialty Cheese Association, Aust
• Barossa Valley Cheese Company, SA
• B.-d. Farm Paris Creek, SA
• Island Pure, SA
• La Casa Del Formaggio, SA
• La Vera Fine Cheese Producers, SA
• Milawa Cheese Company, VIC
• TAFE SA Adelaide North Regency Campus, SA
• Udder Delights, SA
• Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, Vic
• Woodside Cheese Wrights, SA

Food stalls

• Cocolat, Adelaide
• Coriole Regional Platters, Mc Laren Vale
• Grace the Establishment, Adelaide
• Hotel Tivoli, Adelaide
• James Orlando
• Marrakech Restaurant, Adelaide
• Spice Kitchen, Adelaide
• Salopian Inn, Mc Laren Vale
• Twelve Tables Desserts, Adelaide

Beverage Stalls

• Brew Boys, Adelaide
• Coriole Vineyards, McLaren Vale
• Hart of the Barossa, Barossa Valley
• Kirrihill Wines, Clare Valley
• McLaren Vale Beer Company, McLaren Vale
• Nepenthe Wines, Adelaide Hills
• Shingleback Wine, McLaren Vale
• The Hills Cider Company, Adelaide Hills
• Tomich Hill Wines, Adelaide Hills
• Whistler Wines, Barossa Valley
• Zema Estate, Coonawarra

See you there.

CheeseFest 2011
Saturday October 15 12.30pm – 7pm & Sunday 16 October 11.00am – 6.00pm
Rymill Park, Adelaide City
Cost: $15 Entry one day or $25 two day pass (includes Official CheeseFest souvenir wine glass, cheese tastings, cooking demonstrations, Coles Alfresco Club. Tickets available from Venue Tix or at the gate (children U12 and accompanied by an adult free)

I’ve never cooked with baby octopus before. And truthfully, I still haven’t.

You see this dish was created by Mr Hungry Australian.

Sunday morning we were down at the Torrens Island Markets when he spotted some baby octopus. We’d seen a Spanish cooking show on SBS two nights ago and he was all fired up to cook something new.

So he bought the octopus and some silverbeet. He started tinkering around in the kitchen that afternoon and served this up for dinner.

I was impressed. The delicate, salty flavour of the octopus was beautifully set off by the warm silverbeet and chickpea salad. It wasn’t a combination that would have occurred to me but it really worked.

I think I have to take him food shopping more often.

By the way, if you like the sound of the salad but aren’t keen on octopus you could substitute with prawns, squid or even a firm white fish.

INGREDIENTS

400gms baby octopus
1 small bunch silverbeet, washed and shredded
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small Spanish (red) onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Small bunch parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
Handful of cashews
Pinch of coriander
Juice of 1 lemon

METHOD

Marinate octopus in lemon juice, a few teaspoons of chopped parsley, 1 minced garlic clove and 2 tablespoons olive oil for 1 hour.

Pan fry cashews for a minute or two until golden brown. Set aside.

Discard marinade and then fry octopus for a couple of minutes until just cooked. Be very careful not to overcook as the octopus will toughen. Drain octopus, making sure to reserve the liquid. Set both aside.

Heat up the same frypan, and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Saute onions over a low heat for a couple of minutes and then add 1 clove minced garlic and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley and stir for 1 minute.

Add silverbeet, tomatoes, coriander and the reserved octopus cooking liquid.  Cook for a few minutes, stirring occassionally until cooked. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, find a nice wide platter and ladle the the silverbeet and chickpea salad onto the plate. Place the baby octopus on top  of the salad and then scatter cashews over the top.

Would go well with rice or couscous.

Serves 3-4.

Adelaide is blessed with a number of fantastic markets. Last weekend we wanted to buy some fruit and veg so decided to check out the Torrens Island Market, situated along the Port River,

Getting to the Torrens Island Market is a bit of an adventure. It’s not that far away from Adelaide – about 30 minutes from the city – but after you drive through Port Adelaide it feels like you’re travelling through an industrial wasteland to get there.

The Torrens Island Market a small but busy outdoor market with about 40 stalls selling fruit and vegetables direct from the farm and fisherman selling fish directly from their boats.

Most of the stalls sell fruit and vegetables. The quality varies a bit but then so do the prices. You can buy by the kilo or by the box or sack. We scored some excellent tomatoes for only $1.50/kg, a whole cauliflower for $2 and zucchini and Lebanese cucumbers for only $2/kg. Other prices were comparable to supermarket specials e.g. bananas at $7.99/kg and potatoes at 99c/kg.

There is a bakery stall selling ciabatta, turkish bread, pizza, croissants, danishes, rolls and pide.

There are a couple of stalls selling olives, smallgoods, nuts, and eggs.

Rose trees and fresh flowers are sometimes available but the selection is limited.

One of the best things about the Torrens Island Market is being able to buy fish and seafood direct from the fishermen. The fishermen moor their boats on the North Arm Fishermen’s Wharf and sell directly from their boats.

You can also buy freshly shucked oysters for $12/dozen (or $10/dozen unshucked).

Pelicans hung around the fishing boats, hoping to be fed.

One thing the Torrens Island Market is crying out for is some hot food vendors. There is nothing here to eat except buns and pizza from the bakery. Moreover, there is only one vendor selling hot drinks and ice creams. Someone should open a dim sim stall or a sausage stand – they would make an absolute killing.

The Torrens Island Market is not a fancy market. There are no gourmet delicacies, handmade clothes or scented soaps. It does fruit, veg and seafood, and not much else. If that’s what you’re after and you are happy to shop seasonally and spontaneously, you can certainly bag some bargains here. However, you might want to eat breakfast before you come.

Torrens Island Market
Moorhouse Road via the Grand Trunkway
North Arm
Port Adelaide, South Australia
Open every Sunday from 6am – 1pm 

My five year old daughter has a sweet tooth.

She seems to have a never-ending capacity for ice cream, cake, buns, lollies, jelly and doughnuts. It’s not that she doesn’t like savoury food – she does – it’s just that she really, really, really likes sweet food.

So getting her to eat healthy food is sometimes a challenge.

However, this recipe is both sweet and healthy. Yes, there is honey and sugar in it, but I reckon there’s less sugar than what would be in a jam or Nutella sandwich. And the whole banana makes me feel positively good about myself.

I call it a win-win.

INGREDIENTS

2 pieces of bread
1 ripe banana
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon cream cheese
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar

METHOD

This really couldn’t be simpler.

Butter the bread with cream cheese and top with sliced banana.

Drizzle with honey and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top.

Finish with piece of bread on top and slice in half.

Serves 1.

Situated on Jetty Street in Grange, The Cooks Pantry is one of those rare neighbourhood cafes that is everything a good local hangout should be.

Everything has been thoughtfully put together here. From the stylish and practical outdoor seating to the range of mouth-watering take home gourmet food on offer, The Cooks Pantry has clearly been a labour of love for owner James Bodroghy. A professional chef who has opened and run a number of Adelaide restaurants (Henley on Sea, Sixty Six in, Mesa Lunga, Salt and Esca), Bodhroghy opened The Cooks Pantry around three years ago so he could better balance his family and work.

The Cooks Pantry offers a range of light meals including foccacias, omelettes, salads, tarts and cakes.

The Cooks Pantry also sells a range of gourmet take home dinners for those who like to eat well but are pressed for time.

Bodhroghy’s passion for using local produce, organic products and quality ingredients is clearly evident. The Cooks Pantry stocks their own range of relishes, pickles and sauces, as well as a selection of cheeses, Paris Creek dairy products and seasonal organic fruit and vegetables.

I seem to have developed a semi-serious chai latte addiction so ordered two for my husband and I and baby cinos for the kids. The chai latte was so dark it resembled hot chocolate and was the best I’ve had in a a long time. To make it, The Cooks Pantry mixes warm milk with 3 teaspoons of David Rio’s dairy-free Power Chai, made from a combination of evaporated cane juice, tea, cinnamon, clove, ginger, cardamom, and salt. Power Chai is available from Rio Coffee in Stepney.

The kids enjoyed their baby cinos, but then, they always do.

Proving that multi-taskers do it all at once, The Cooks Pantry also runs cooking classes and offers catering services for private functions.

All in all, I liked The Cooks Pantry very much. Check it out.

The Cooks Pantry
6 Jetty Road, Grange, South Australia
Tel: 08 8353 3626
Email: food@thecookspantry.com.au
Opening Hours: Monday – 9am to 4.00pm; Tuesday to Friday – 9am to 6.30pm; Saturday – 8am to 4pm.

This is not exactly diet food but then who wants to eat diet food all – or even some – of the time?

Not me, that’s for sure.

Yes, this dish is substantial. But that’s exactly what I crave at night in this coolish weather – a big bowl of carbohydrates with something creamy and melting on top.

In any case, carbohydrates are essential for feeling good; eating carbohydrates helps the brain regulate serotonin, a chemical that elevates your mood and makes you feel full before your stomach is over-stretched. This is why dieters that stick to diets like Atkins (high protein, no carbs) often end up feeling grumpy and hungry; their bodies are craving carbs and their feel-good effects.

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Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best. A ripe peach. A perfectly soft boiled egg. Bread fresh out of the oven.

I’d also put garlic mushrooms in this category. True, it’s a dish that requires a teensy bit of chopping and cooking but it’s only a few minutes at most. You simply chop up some garlic, shallots and mushrooms, fry them in a mixture of butter and olive oil and then add wine, salt and pepper to finish. It’s not hard; if you can fry an egg you can make this dish.

Besides being absolutely scrumptious, garlic mushrooms are versatile, too. You can eat them plain on hot toast, fold them over a soft boiled egg, use them as a side with steak, stir them through hot pasta with olive oil and parsley, add them to a green salad, or serve them as part of a cooked breakfast. There is simply no bad way to eat them.

Go ahead. Treat yourself.

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UPDATE: this recipe has been simplified and re-blogged here. And I’ve changed the photo above to the new version. But please do read on for a story about my grandmother and how this recipe came to be.

The mere whiff of a favourite family dish can evoke so many memories.

When I inhale the fragrance of my Grandmother’s Penang laksa I am instantly transported to her house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We’re sitting around her large round dining table, which is groaning with food. The night is warm and humid – 28 degrees – and the fan turns lazily above our heads. Tiny geckos dart across the dining room walls while outside, the whirr of crickets is continuous.

Cooking can be a way of connecting to those we love. Handed down, treasured family recipes become living legacies, a lovely reminder of those who are important to us.

I now have such a legacy from my Grandmother.

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When I was a young girl my parents took my brother and I to the Adelaide Royal Show every year without fail. As we were only allowed two showbags each, my brother and I spent days comparing the relative merits of different showbags, using a complicated formula I would be hard pressed to recreate today. The day itself was spent wandering through the animal enclosures, marvelling at the prize-winning produce, watching the various demonstrations, going on a ride or two and oohing and ahhing at the fireworks display.

Every year we indulged in the kind of food you only ever eat an outdoor fair: fairy floss, chips in cups and dagwood dogs. For those unfamiliar with dagwoods, they are a frankfurter stuck on a wooden (dagwood) stick, dipped in batter, deep-fried and plunged into a vat of tomato sauce. They’re really quite dreadful but as kids we used to love them and begged for them every year.

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Weisswurst (white sausage) served with Sauerkraut, red cabbage and potato mash is real German comfort food. So when I wanted to spoil my (German) husband this week, I immediately thought of cooking him this dish.

I first ate this Teutonic version of sausages and mash in Munich in 2004. I had travelled to Germany with my then fiancé to visit his family in Hamburg in Northern Germany. As we wanted to make the most of our time there we also decided to drive from Aarhus, Denmark (where his previous company is headquartered) down to Munich in Southern Germany.

While in Munich we visited the Viktualien Markt, a large, open air market selling fresh produce, small-goods, baked goods and all manner of fascinating foodstuffs. It was there that we ate weisswurst with mustard and baked pretzels, washing the lot down with wheat beer.

Since then I’ve been a loyal fan of the pale Bavarian sausage. Weisswurst is so smoothly textured it’s almost like a frankfurter so it appeals to the inner kid within all of us. Made of finely minced veal and fresh bacon, it is usually flavoured with parsley, onion, ginger, lemon, and cardamon, a combination of herbs and spices that I’d never come across before.

Although it looks time consuming, this meal is actually super easy – three of the four items (the sausage, Sauerkraut and red cabbage) are bought and merely heated up. So all you have to do is make the mashed potato and dollop some Bavarian mustard on the plate to finish it off. I felt like this was cheating a bit until my husband assured me that we were only doing what most Germans do.

Our kids loved the weisswurst and the mashed potatoes but Ms 5 Year Old refused to eat the Sauerkraut and red cabbage. However, Master Toddler went nuts over the red cabbage, sucking the sugary, vinegary strands and masticating them with his emerging baby teeth like a dog on a bone.

It’s good to know that the apfel doesn’t fall far from the baum.

INGREDIENTS

4 weisswurst (I buy mine from Standom)
1 jar red cabbage (I buy mine from Standom)
1 jar Sauerkraut (I buy mine from Standom, who make their own house brand)
6-8 large potatoes
Bavarian mustard or other similar mild grainy mustard (I buy mine from Beerenberg)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons cream
Salt & pepper

METHOD

Peel and cut potatoes into medium sized pieces. Bring to the boil in plenty of water and then simmer for 8-10 minutes until soft.

Meanwhile, bring 1 litre of water to the boil in a crockpot or large saucepan. When the water is boiling, turn off the flame and then drop the weisswurst immediely in. Cover and let heat through for 10 minutes.

Heat up the red cabbage and sauerkraut either on the stove or in the microwave.

Drain the potatoes and mash, adding butter and cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cover.

To serve, on each plate place one weisswurst, a generous serve of mashed potato, and spoonfuls of red cabbage and sauerkraut. Add a dollop of mustard and a parsley sprig if you so desire.

Serves 4.

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside. Oh, I do like to be beside the sea.

Except when it’s freezing and blowing a minor gale. Unfortunately, yesterday was such a day.

I’d been misled by the bright Spring sunshine into thinking it would be a great idea to take the kids riding their bikes along the Semaphore promenade. However, when we got there, the sun snuck behind a massive cloud bank and refused to come out. Instantly, any warmth disappeared.

Then my kids spotted the playground on the foreshore of Semaphore beach. So we spent 10 minutes shivering on the swings and turning blue on the slide before I shouted, “enough!” and carried my screaming toddler off the swing.

Holding my still protesting toddler in my arms, we left the playground on foot and set off in search of warmth and shelter. Luckily, we weren’t far from Whipped on Semaphore Road.

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This is what I make when I’m in a mad hurry and have no time to think about cooking.

Honey Soy Chicken is ridiculously quick and easy to make; it literally takes only a couple of minutes. You chuck the marinade on the chicken and give it a stir, then you leave it for a bit before bunging the chicken in the oven to roast.

And that’s it. Too easy. Plus, it tastes fantastic.

I like to serve this with my mum’s fried rice and steamed green vegetables. Any leftovers make great snacks the next day, too.

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I have a confession: I’m a slow cooking novice. I’ve steamed, I’ve baked, I’ve stewed, I’ve boiled and I’ve stir-fried. But until yesterday, I’d never slow cooked before.

I know I’ve been, ahem, slow to jump on the slow cooking bandwagon. People have been telling me for years how they lived by their slow cookers during winter. They raved on about how easy slow cookers were to use: according to them you just chucked some browned meat, vegetables, stock or wine and herbs into the cooker at breakfast time, et voila – you’d return home at night to a beautifully cooked casserole. Working mothers, in particular, sang its virtues as slow cooking meant they could have a home cooked meal on the table a few minutes after they’d walked in the door. Maximum reward for minimal effort.

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There are times when you just need to make a pudding. Perhaps you’ve had a lousy day at work. Or you are feeling a little fragile. Maybe you just feel like spoiling yourself and those lucky enough to be fed by you.

Whatever the reason, the tail end of winter, with its beautiful, sunshiny days and cool nights, is the perfect time for this recipe. The voluptuous caramel pudding is soothing and satisfying while the honey ice cream reminds you that spring, and therefore summer, are just around the corner. Which is reason enough to celebrate.

This dish was inspired by a Nigella Lawson recipe. I made it for dessert one Friday night and it was so darn good that I had to make it again two days later when we had a family celebration.

It’s so simple and quick to make, too. Can you chuck some torn up croissants in a dish? Boil some sugar water? Whisk some eggs? Throw it all in the oven? Of course you can. So you have no excuses not to make this dish.

Cook it. Eat it. You won’t regret it.

By the way, I don’t make the honey ice cream – I buy a tub of Golden North honey ice cream, which was my favourite when I was a child. Eating it reminds me of long, lazy summer days spent in the pool playing Marco Polo and pretending to be mermaids and narwhales. You could substitute it with vanilla or macadamia nut ice cream. But only if absolutely necessary.

INGREDIENTS

3-4 large croissants, to fill a small oven proof dish as per above
150 mls thickened cream
150 mls full fat milk
3 large eggs, beaten
100 grams caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 tablespoons water
Golden North honey ice cream

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius (160 degrees if fan forced).

Tear the croissants into small pieces and put into a small oven proof dish until dish is comfortably full as per picture above. I used three and a half croissants.

Put the sugar and water into a small saucepan and mix to combine. Bring to the boil and then let it bubble away for about 5 minutes on a medium heat to caramelise – once it changes colour from clear to a dark orange-brown it is ready.

Turn to low heat and add cream and vanilla essence. Whisk furiously away as the sugar will start to turn into toffee and you’ll end up with chunky bits as per the picture below. Whisk fast to dissolve the toffee over a low heat.

Turn off the heat and then add the beaten eggs to the mixture, stirring to combine.

Pour mixture over croissants and leave for 10-15 minutes.

After 15 minutes the croissants should have absorbed all the liquid and be gorgeously moist.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the top is crisp and beginning to brown.

Serve with a generous scoop of honey ice cream in individual dishes.

Be prepared for requests for seconds.

Perfect for 4-6.

Children’s birthday parties often start with squeals of delight and joyful anticipation but end in tears and swearing. From mum and dad, I hasten to add.

You see, us Generation X parents always want to do our best for our kids. Our mothers made us every single cake from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cake Cookbook when we were growing up and we feel responsible for ensuring our own kids have those same special memories of their birthdays.

So, yes, we can get carried away. Been there, done that, had the breakdown over the icing that wouldn’t set.

But this year I got smart. I managed to pull off a 5 year old party for 20 children with a fully home cooked menu without breaking a sweat, a nail or a plate over somebody’s head (usually, my unfortunate husband). A first for me.

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