All posts by Christina Soong

I’ve been meaning to make chocolate bark ever since I saw Chocome’s deluxe version at the Adelaide Good Food & Wine Show back in October.

Then Amy from Amy’s Town made some lovely ‘Chose Your Own Adventure’ chocolate bark for our recent Festive Favourites Blog Hop. Her version looked so lovely and her recipe seemed so straightforward that I was out of excuses.

What is chocolate bark? Well, it’s a slab of chocolate to which an assortment of toppings has been added. You can make chocolate bark with toppings like dried fruit, nuts, seeds, gold or silver leaf, crushed freeze dried raspberries or strawberries, and candy sprinkles.

Chocolate bark is easy to make, and even easier to eat. It’s perfect to take to a friend’s house to share, as I did last night, or to give as a gift, as I did on Christmas Day to multiple friends and family.

I’ve specified a combination of dried fruit and salted nuts and seeds below – the crunchy seeds and nuts add an interesting textural feature while their saltiness works marvellously with the sweet chocolate and dried fruit.

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My brother likes buying things.

Like most males, he doesn’t buy a lot of things but when he does shop, he buys big-ticket items. A windsurfer. A vintage electric keyboard or guitar. A top-of-the-range bicycle. A wood-fire pizza oven.

When he and his then flatmates went in for a $1200 wood-fire pizza oven six years ago my parents and I shook our heads. How often would they use it? It was one of those indulgent purchases you make when you are on a good salary and unburdened with the expense of kids or a mortgage.

But then he invited us over for a pizza party and we saw the light.

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We always have a big lunch on Christmas Day with around two dozen family and friends. It’s always a joyful day, with incredible food (everybody brings a dish), plenty of merry-making and lots of kids running around.

This year I’m down for a salad and a dessert. I already know that other guests are bringing a pavlova and a hazelnut cake so have decided to do something a bit different.

So my dessert for the Festive Favourites Blog Hop – Honey Almond Fruits – has three parts: Toffee Almonds, Honey Ice Cream and Fruit Salad.

I’ve chosen this combination for a number of reasons:

• Toffee Almonds is my mother’s recipe – she’s made them every year since I can remember and I love the smell of toffee cooking.
• Golden North Honey Ice Cream was my favourite ice cream growing up and it always reminds me of long, hot Australian summers. My kids love ice cream, so they will really enjoy this part of the dessert.
• Fruit is always lovely at the end of a big meal, being both light and refreshening.
• The Toffee Almonds and Ice Cream can be made the day before and the biscuits are bought. The fruit can be washed in the morning and just cut up on the spot, making this a very easy, low-stress dessert.

I love watching people cook.

People always do things differently to me, in ways I had never considered. So I always learn about something new – a new ingredient, a new technique, a new cooking style – and it sends me straight back to my kitchen feeling inspired and energised.

So I was delighted to take part in the Thai Seafood Banquet class at Sticky Rice Cooking School a couple of weekends ago.

Sticky Rice Cooking School is run by Claire Fuller, who decided there was a place for a cooking school that offered more than a celebrity chef demonstration without the formality of a professional cooking course. Her school offers people a chance to really get their hands dirty, to learn about the culture as well as the food, to leave knowing where to buy the ingredients used (and which brands are recommended) and exactly how to cook the featured dishes at home.

Chefs at the school include David Thompson (ex Darley Street Thai, author), Katrina Ryan (ex Rockpool), Kurma Dasa (Australia’s vegetarian guru, author), Kelly Lord (Spirit House), Genevieve Harris (ex Nediz), Ali Seedsman (ex Magill Estate and Universal Wine Bar), Jordon Theodoros (Aquacaf), Brian Smith and Allie Reynolds.

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Eating healthier is something I’m always keen on. I don’t mean eating less fat because I don’t believe in diets – dieting is like having no sex or no money. When I’m on a diet the only thing I think about all day long is food and what I can’t eat, which is an awful and unhappy state to be in.

Instead of dieting, I aim to eat healthier. This means less processed food, preservatives, additives, white flour and white sugar, and greater variety and exploration of unfamiliar foods.

It’s not about being a food cop and locking away all the lollies and sweet biscuits my kids love. Rather, it’s about eating a wider variety of healthier foods, and minimising the excursions into the lolly jar.

It’s also about eating less meat both for health reasons and minimising our environmental footprint. Mr Hungry Australian has been on a health kick lately, exercising every day, shedding nine kilograms and developing muscles in places I didn’t know you could even have muscles. He’s been nagging me for a while about eating less meat, and while I agreed in principle, putting it into practise has proved trickier.

So I was delighted to be sent a copy of Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day to review by Hardie Grant.

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There is an easy way and a hard way to do anything.

According to my mother, I always pick the hard way. It’s just one of my charming personality traits.

The other day I spent what felt like six hours making a batch of 100 cake balls for a pre-Christmas get-together. I might be exaggerating about how long it took but it seemed an awfully long time. I felt like one of those explorers who journey to the South Pole with hope and determination burning in their hearts, committed to reaching their goal no matter what the personal cost.

Now I didn’t lose any fingers or toes in the making of these cake balls but relations did become increasingly tense between Mr Hungry Australian and I.

Every now and then he would stroll through the kitchen and say, “you’re STILL making those cake balls?

“Go away!” I’d shriek.

Talking over the cake ball debacle the next day with my school friend Megan, she couldn’t understand why it took me so long.

“But I made some the other day and they only took me half an hour,” she said, blankly.

“Half an hour?” I spluttered. “But how?”

“I bought a pre-made cake, mixed it with a tub of pre-made icing, dipped the balls in chocolate and that was it,” she said serenely, little knowing how close she was to physical danger.

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I’m a big fan of acclaimed Australian/Sri-Lankan cookbook author, Charmaine Solomon.

The woman can really cook. And she can write, too, having trained as a journalist many moons ago. To date, she’s published over 30 books.

I’ve cooked a number of dishes from Charmaine’s books over the years and her recipes are always authentic, unfussy and delicious. People lucky enough to be fed the results inevitably ooh and ahh.

It’s not surprising really, because very single recipe I’ve ever tried works. I haven’t found a dud yet and I certainly can’t say that about every cookbook I own.

I was introduced to Charmaine’s cookbooks when I was a teenage by my mum, who had her 1980 Curry Cookbook. It was one of the first cookbooks I ever read for pure pleasure, especially enjoying the comments on individual recipes by Charmaine and Rueben, her husband and co-author.

Much later, I put Charmaine’s The Complete Asian Cookbook on my wedding registry and was delighted to receive it as a wedding present from my ex colleagues at Chunky Move. It was one of those cookbooks I instinctively felt I would refer to time and time again.

I was not wrong. The Complete Asian Cookbook is one of the important Australian cookbooks, right up there with Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion, and Margaret Fulton’s eponymous cookbook which I also often refer to.

It’s not just important from an Australian cookery point of view either – The Complete Asian Cookbook has sold well over one million copies since its first release in 1976 and is the most authoritative Asian cookbook available today.

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We have this amazing smallgoods producer in South Australia called Standom, who make all kinds of smoked and preserved meat products.

How good are they? Well, put it this way: my Bavarian-born, Hamburg-dwelling mother in law thought Standom’s products were better than what she could find in Germany.

So the other day when Mr Hungry Australian came home from Standom with some delicious bauernschinken (similar to prosciutto, but smoked and mildly seasoned) I decided it would be perfect for a pre-dinner appetizer.

This really couldn’t be simpler. You simply steam the asparagus for  a few minutes (I like them slightly underdone so they remain firm), then let them cool, wrap them in Bauernschinken, grate over Parmesan and black pepper, and spritz with lemon.

And that’s it.

How tasty is this dish? Well, let’s just say that I shot these photographs in our lounge room and then went off to do something in the kitchen for a few minutes. When I returned, our five year old had eaten half the plate.

“They’re just so yummy, mummy,” she rhapsodised.

Her grandmother would be proud.

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed of woody ends (bend gently until the stalk snaps and then tidy up with a knife)
Appropriate number of slices of bauernschinken or prosciutto
Fresh Parmesan
Black pepper
1/4 fresh lemon

METHOD

Steam asparagus for approximately 4-6 minutes until just cooked. Let cool.

Wrap in bauernschinken and place on a serving plate.

Grate over Parmesan and black pepper and spritz with lemon.

Do not leave anywhere near small children.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, tra la la la la, la la la la.

Regular readers will know that we had a rather spectacular Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop last month, featuring 36 amazing pavlovas made by food bloggers from all over the world. Click here to see my deconstructed pavlova entry and all the other amazing pavlovas.

Well, I’m thrilled to let you know that Sweet Adventures (aka myself, Delicieux, Dining With a Stud, The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader and 84th & 3rd ) have decided to run a monthly blog hop event focusing on different themed desserts each month.

This month, being the festive season, we have decided to throw the doors open to any kind of festive dessert.

That’s right – you can make a gingerbread house, Christmas tree cookies, yuletide log, festive Bombe Alaska, steamed pudding, Christmas trifle, egg nog or whatever you like really. The only criteria is that it has to be some kind of festive, celebratory dessert.

So what are you waiting for? Crack out the recipe books and your favourite food sites and start thinking about what to bake.

And we look forward to seeing your amazing creation, along with all the others, on Monday December 19th – Australian Eastern Standard Time [AEST]. 

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I’m secretly day-dreaming about moving my family to the Barossa Valley, Australia’s most famous wine region.

If we were living in the Barossa Valley we would enjoy single lane traffic, tree-lined streets, fresh air, and peace and quiet. There’d be room to move. Room to breathe. We could have chooks. A huge vegetable patch. We could live off the fat of our land.

And we’d have award winning wineries, restaurants and B&Bs as our neighbours. We could do the food and wine trail on foot, okay, maybe bikes.

I think we’d be happy there.

One couple I could ask for advice on the move would be Andrew and Marcia Frost, who run Collingrove Homestead in Angaston, along with Marcia’s brother, Zac Riemersma, who is Chef there.

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Designed to showcase the skill of the Chef and the kitchen, the degustation menu is as much about showmanship and spectacle as it is about the creativity of the Chef and the quality of the food. It’s a chance for the Chef to take a few risks, knowing his diners want to be inspired and will (usually) go happily out onto the edge with him; part of the fun of a degustation is eating food you wouldn’t normally eat, and of being challenged in your perception of how certain dishes should look, feel and taste.

Each course of a degustation menu is designed to fit with harmony into an overall experience centred around a particular theme, whether it be produce, region, cuisine or wine. At it’s simplest, a degustation is a chance, for a brief moment in our busy lives, to really focus on the food and wine.

I thought about this last Thursday night when I attended Bistro Dom’s Wild Degustation dinner, which saw Duncan Welgemoed from Bistro Dom teaming up with Quang Nguyen from Devour Dessert Bar and Sam Hughes, Anton Von Klopper, James Erskine and Tom Shobbrook from Natural Selection Theory.

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Welcome to The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop!

This post should really be called How Not To Make a Pavlova.

Let me explain.

A few weeks ago I was chatting with some Aussie food bloggers about food cravings and pavlovas on Twitter. So the five of us – myself, Delicieux, Dining with a Stud, The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader and 84th & 3rd decided to organise a pavlova blog hop so that we could all cook our versions and share them with each other.

So earlier this week I had visions of coming up with some kind of spectacular pavlova creation for The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop. I thought about using exotic ingredients and extravagant but tasteful decorations to create some kind of stunning and delicious masterpiece.

Unfortunately, I had the busiest week ever, was out every night, and then came down with bronchitis. Too many late nights had finally caught up with me.

So yesterday, when I grabbed a couple of free hours to bake, I decided to go with a fairly classic pavlova. However, I was feeling so unwell that when I tried to separate the eggs I broke egg yolk into the bowl of egg whites. It was a measure of my fragile mood that I contemplated sobbing into my tea towel for a moment. However, I decided to ask Mr Hungry Australian to separate the eggs for me instead, which he did with a bemused air.

As I hadn’t had time to experiment I used Stephanie Alexander’s wonderful pavlova recipe from The Cook’s Companion as a starting point. I had intended to dribble some melted blackberry jam over the whipped cream, and use a mixture of fresh blueberries and cherries, and dried cranberries, pomegranates, cherries and blueberries for the topping.

However, it was not to be. When I was lifting the pavlova out of the baking pan to place it on the cake stand, I asked my five year old daughter to help me by taking the baking tray away. She lifted the tray up to move it and smashed it straight into the bottom of the pavlova, cracking it into large sections.

I thought about sobbing into my tea towel again but controlled myself with some deep breathing. I had already regretfully cancelled my afternoon and evening engagements but I just didn’t have the energy to begin all over again.

Then I remembered a photo of a deconstructed pavlova I had seen on Twitter by the crew at Adelaide’s Grace the Establishment.

So I grabbed the largest unsmashed piece of pavlova, spooned over the whipped cream, and arranged it on plate. I then surrounded it with all the fruit and herbs I was going to put on top of the pavlova – the dried berries, the fresh blueberries and cherries, the mini chocolate melts and the mint leaves. I then dripped the melted blackberry jam straight onto the plate – if I had possessed a squeeze bottle I would have used that instead for a much neater effect.

As you can see, it all turned out OK. Better than OK, in fact.

I tell you this story not to elicit your sympathy but to demonstrate how easy it is to cook pavlova. If I can cook a pavlova whilst feeling utterly crap, and then salvage something useable after my daughter has smashed it into large pieces, then you can do it, too.

So I encourage you to check out all the amazing pavlovas baked by my fellow food bloggers by clicking on the link below. Be inspired, drool a little, and break out the egg whites to make your own magnificent pavlova creation.

INGREDIENT
4 egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of salt
250 grams caster sugar
2 teaspoons corn flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
300 mls cream
80 grams sugar
Fresh cherries and blueberries
1 packet of dried blueberries, cranberries, persimmon, and blackberries
Handful mini chocolate melts
A few tips fresh mint sprigs
A few spoonfuls of blackberry jam

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees fan-forced).

Cover a baking tray with baking paper and draw a circle on it approximately 20cm in diamater.

Beat egg whites with salt until it forms stiff peaks. Then add sugar, a quarter at a time, until the meringue is glossy and stiff. Sprinkle over corn flour, vanilla and vinegar and fold in to the mixture. Spread mixture over the drawn circle, smoothing up the sides and evening out the top.

Put the pavlova into the oven, immediately turning the oven down to 130 degrees Celsius (110 fan-forced). Bake the pavlova for 30 minutes and then turn the oven down again to 120 degrees Celsius (100 fan-forced) and cook the pavlova for another 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the pavlova to cool completely in the oven.

Whip the cream and sugar until firm.

Break the pavlova into large pieces (ask a small child to help you if necessary).

Arrange the pieces of pavlova artistically on a plate and spoon over cream. Decorate with dried cranberries and blueberries. Then arrange fresh blueberries and cherries, tiny chocolate melts, dried blueberries, cranberries and blackberries, and fresh mint tips around the pavlova, to your liking. Melt a few spoonfuls of jam in the microwave and dribble them artistically around (alternatively, using a squeeze bottle will give you greater control and make you feel like a rockstar chef).

Stand back and gaze in awe at your pavlova still life. Eat it, celebrating your triumph over disaster.

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Alternatively, visit Delicieux for detailed instructions on joining the Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop.

I miss Shanghai. It’s a big, brash, frontier city where buildings go up seemingly overnight, hundreds of new restaurants open every week and you can buy virtually anything at 9pm at night. Want a foot massage in your apartment? Someone can be there in 10 minutes. Need a haircut? You’ll also enjoy a vigorous arm and  shoulder massage and a complimentary ear cleaning. OK, that last service takes a bit of getting used to…

My husband and I lived in Shanghai for three years, from 2004-6. We moved there on his job, with a Danish engineering company, but I found an amazing job there, too, helping Australians do business with China.

Shanghai is a work-hard, play-hard kind of city for foreign expatriates, especially if you don’t have any children, as we didn’t then. The opportunities were everywhere and the possibilities endless, so everyone worked long hours, often under intense pressure. Many people travelled constantly around the Asia Pacific region, as Mr Hungry Australian did; at its most ridiculous, he was travelling 80% of the time, making only ‘guest appearances’ in Shanghai.

When he was travelling, I would rarely bother cooking. If I didn’t have an evening function on, I’d eat out or buy takeaway on my way home from work. One of my favourite takeaway suppers was six lamb skewers, a hot salad and a serve of rice from our favourite Xinjiang restaurant.

Xinjiang lamb skewers are marinated with cumin and liberally sprinkled with chilli, garlic and Szechuan peppercorns. They’re incredibly fragrant and very, very moreish. Like cloves, Szechuan peppercorns have an anaesthetic effect so your lips and mouth will go slightly and pleasantly numb as you eat, which only adds to the charm of these lamb skewers.

While Xinjiang restaurants can be found throughout China, there are not that many Xinjiang restaurants outside China. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never come across Uyghur food before. Or if you have, ignored it in favour of the more familiar Cantonese, Szechuan or Hunan style of Chinese food.

But if you like spicy food, this is one heck of an introduction.

INGREDIENTS

800 grams lamb shoulder
2 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons cumin
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons ground ginger, or one 3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled
1 tablespoon chilli flakes (for medium-hot heat skewers)
1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns
1.5 -2 teaspoons sea salt flakes
Freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Go to your butcher for the lamb shoulder. I specify the shoulder because you want the fattiest part of the lamb.

Trim the sinews but keep the fat. You can trim it from the meat if you prefer but keep the fat as you will thread these randomly onto the meat skewers for extra flavour. When you’re handling the raw fat, it may not look very appetizing but believe me, it’s unbelievably tasty once it’s grilled.

Cut the meat into 3cm chunks, trying to keep them all about the same size so they cook at around the same rate. Then put all the lamb into a mixing bowl and add oil.

Meanwhile, prepare your spice marinade by putting all the remaining ingredients into a mortar.

Smash the ingredients with the pestle until they are completely pulverised. This is very satisfying.

Spoon the marinade into the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly into the meat.

Cover and refrigerate, leaving it for at least a couple of hours or overnight.

Soak skewers in water for at least half an hour to help prevent them burning when you cook the lamb. (Mr Hungry Australian also put foil under the skewers on the BBQ so they wouldn’t burn, which I personally thought was unnecessary but let it go as he likes being in control of the BBQ. Boys and their toys, eh?).

Thread the lamb onto the skewers, using around four pieces of meat for each stick.

Grill or barbecue the lamb skewers until cooked to your liking. If you like your lamb pink try 4 minutes on each side. If you prefer your meat well done, try 6 minutes on each side. Make sure you test a skewer  to see if it’s done to your liking – cooking times obviously vary enormously on BBQs.

Serve with a hot salad and pita bread or potato salad.

PS This last photo is a bit flat because I shot it outside in the late afternoon shade. I wanted to do it again, setting it up properly with better lighting, but hungry guests and young children were waiting to be fed. So I resisted. Sometimes you just have to put the camera down and eat.

The other day, I returned home to interrogate my husband with the age-old question: “how much do you love me?”

“Out of ten? Maybe an eight,” he said.

‘*An eight?! Is that all?” I shrieked. “Try again.”

“OK, maybe a nine when you’re not being horrible to me,” he conceded. “Why?”

I told him that I had a plus one invitation to attend a Cheese Appreciation Masterclass by The Smelly Cheese Shop (TSCS).

His eyes lit up and he quickly back-tracked. “Did I say nine? I meant, twelve. Twelve out of ten – that’s how much I love you.”

Huh. Men. The way to their hearts is definitely through their stomachs.

So it was that Mr Hungry Australian and I found ourself at The Smelly Cheese Shop’s headquarters in Wright Street last Monday night.

We are welcomed by The Smelly Cheese Shop’s Valerie Henbest, whose horrible job involves travelling the globe sourcing the best cheeses for TSCS and Lulu Lunn, a highly experienced cheese maker who can be found behind the counter sharing her expert knowledge with customers. Both women are whippet thin – a fact that convinces all of us in the class (perhaps erroneously) that we need to add more cheese to our diets.

Firstly, Valerie takes us into the Cheese Cooling Room. It feels like a bank vault – secure, temperature controlled and housing items of great value: the cheeses surrounding us would collectively be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of the wheels weigh 40kgs – at around $100 a kilogram, that’s $4,000 worth of cheese in that single wheel.

But the prices these cheeses fetch are not outrageous when you understand how they are made. For example, I’m astonished to learn that it takes 12 litres of milk to make one 250 gram Camembert. Mr Hungry Australian made a lovely fresh cheese a month ago using only 2 litres of milk (see how to make fresh cheese), but a soft ripened cheese like Camembert is of course considerably denser and much more complicated to produce.

And then there is the ageing process. The most famous of all hard cheeses is Parmigiano-Reggiano, which cannot be sold for at least 12 months after it is made, although an ageing period of three years and longer is completely usual. This ageing process requires an investment of storage and time by the cheese maker, who must plan years ahead to ensure regular income.

Then it’s back upstairs to learn about the history of cheese and start the cheese tastings.

Legend has it that cheese was discovered by a nomad, possibly an Arab, who stored some milk in a saddlebag made from the stomach of a young animal. As he rode along in the blisteringly hot sun, the enzymes in the saddlebag separated the milk into curds and whey.

The first recorded cheese was a Gorgonzola, making an appearance in 879. This was followed by a Roquefort in 1070 and a Gruyere in 1115. Cheddar was recorded in 1500 and Camembert in 1680.

To whet our appetites, Lulu treats us to some Goats Cheese Mozarella, which she makes right in front of us. She firstly kneads the goats’ milk curds, before covering them with just boiled water, cutting the cheese and then stretching it and manipulating it into balls, which she squeezes off through her fingers.

Then Valerie begins the tasting by offering us some Buffalo Mozarella from Victoria. It’s creamy, buttery, and delightfully moist; pressing it softly yields drops of milky whey. It’s a very mild-tasting cheese and would be perfect with some vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh basil leaves on sour dough bread.

We are then invited to try the Coulommiers Truffes from Ile de France. A white mould, soft-ripened cow’s cheese, Coulommiers is similar to a Brie, with the same gorgeous runny texture. But the Coulommiers has a very special feature –  a paste of black truffle and triple cream cheese sandwiched in its centre.

The Coulommiers’ smell is magnificent, heady, and rich with truffle. I smear some onto a cracker and bite into it. I’m in love. Instantly. Irrevocably. The room seems warmer, the colours brighter. I have visions of flying to France and marrying the man who made this cheese so I can eat it every day before I remember that my husband is sitting next to me. I wonder what will happen if I leave him a Dear John letter along the lines of “the heart wants what it wants.”

But for now I have to concentrate on the next cheese. The Sainte Maure Frais Cendre from Poitou in France is an ash covered log of goats cheese. Valerie tells us that the ash would have originally been used to help protect the cheese but nowadays it’s mainly for decorative purposes. The Sainte Maure is tangy, full-flavoured and assertive. This is not a cheese for the faint-hearted, or those who aren’t really keen on ‘foreign food.’ It’s a cheese to make you sit up higher in your chair. I love goats cheese and enjoy it baked in the oven and served on crusty bread with a salad.

The Beaufort D’Alpage AOC from Savoie in France is next. It’s a very likeable semi-hard cheese, and similar to gruyere in taste and appearance. There’d be nothing shocking or risky about serving this cheese to unfamiliar guests; with a slightly nutty flavour it’s a real crowd pleaser.

The Luigi Guffanti Taleggio from Lombardy in Italy is next. This washed rind cheese is my least favourite of all the cheeses today. Not because it’s bad – it has an interesting, slightly grainy texture, and a mellow taste – but because I find the others more interesting. On the other hand, Mr Hungry Australian adores this cheese and pronounces it to be his favourite. As he eats the Taleggio, he keeps making whimpering noises and while his eyes roll back in his head. I’m slightly embarrassed to be seen with him.

But then a washed rind cheese, the Soumaintrain from Burgundy in France, is next, and now it’s my turn to whimper. I love this strong-smelling cheese. It’s voluptuous and dreamy, oozing languorously on my cheese board like a starlet draped over an unmade bed in a Vanity Fair shoot. It has a delicate, slightly sweetish flavour and is the kind of cheese that I would eat non-stop until forcibly restrained.

We finish with a bang. A bleu bang, that is. The Herve Mons Roquefort AOC is a fitting finale to what has been an extaordinary selection of cheeses. We’re big fans of blue cheese – we regularly buy another blue, the Blue Castello, which is a creamy, mild blue cheese.

But the Herve Mons is in a different class altogether. It grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shakes you around while turning out your pockets in a civilised, European way. It’s ferociously strong and tangy – Valerie suggests teaming it with honey or pear to tone it down a little or crumbling some through a salad. I am reminded of the sensational Gorgonzola Dolce I recently ate at Kingley’s Steak and Crabhouse in Sydney (see review here), which was served with honey, fresh apple, walnuts and toasted fruit bread.

Top cheese tips:

• For a cheeseboard – have segments of one soft, one hard or semi-hard and one blue cheese as a minimum. Add a washed rind for interest. Alternatively, serve only one complete cheese as a centrepiece. If you do, go for something really spectacular – the staff at The Smelly Cheese Shop can advise.
• Take your cheese out of the fridge an hour before serving it so it can warm up to room temperature. This greatly enhances the taste, aroma and texture of the cheese.
• Arrange your cheese on the board from mildest to strongest, and let guests know in which order to eat them. For example, once you’ve eaten a blue cheese your taste buds can’t really cope with anything else so save this for last.
• Serve with crackers and/or fresh bread and quince paste, dried figs and slices of fresh pear or apple.

The Smelly Cheese Shop’s Cheese Appreciation Masterclass has been a fantastic experience. I have a newfound respect for cheese-makers and a solid appreciation of just how much work goes into making an artisan cheese. I’ve learned about the different types of cheese, sampled some excellent fromage and learned how to select and eat cheese at home.

So with Christmas just around the corner, a gift voucher for a 2012 Cheese Appreciation Masterclass (usually $70 per person) would make a fantastic present for any cheese lovers you know.

As for my husband, well, if he keeps behaving badly then he will get a pair of socks this year. However, if he is good, I know just what to buy him: a hunk of Luigi Guffanti Taleggio.

The Smelly Cheese Shop
Shop 44 Adelaide Central Market
Gouger Street
Adelaide SA 5000
Phone: +61 8 8231 5867

Every year I cook something as a Christmas gift for family and friends. My daughter usually helps, and we spend a fun couple of hours baking and wrapping. Last year we made snickerdoodles, those lovely cinnamon and sugar encrusted butter cookers, but this year I’m toying with the idea of making rocky road instead.

Although rocky road is hugely appealing to kids I actually think of it more as an adult’s chocolate treat. It’s perfect to accompany a cup of coffee, to snatch between errands, or to treat yourself after dinner.

However, rocky road is full of sugar so if you’re the type that has 10 different recipes for no-sugar fruit balls, then this is not the recipe for you. Look away, and visit again another day when I am cooking something healthy.

The quantities below make enough for 21 muffin cups, which is enough for three Christmas gifts assuming seven pieces per gift.

If I was making it for a children’s party I would make 60-70 pieces and serve them in mini cupcake cups. I may be relaxed about my kids having some sugar but I’m not certifiable.

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My dear friend Eli once cooked me a delicious rice salad when we were both living in London in the early 2000s.

As an Australian-born Chinese, I’ve eaten a lot of rice. I’ve had it steamed, fried, and boiled until it collapsed into a congee (jook jook). I’ve had a glutinous dough form of it wrapped around sweet bean pastes and rolled in shredded coconut and sesame seeds. I’ve had it infused with coconut milk (nasi lemak) and cooked in Chicken stock (Hainanese chicken rice).

But I’d never eaten rice cold in a salad before. The thought had never even crossed my mind as the only rice salads I’d come across had looked drab and unappetising – they seemed like afterthoughts rather than the main event.

So Eli’s rice salad with nuts, seeds and fruits was a revelation.

I was reminded of her salad at the recent lunch to celebrate the Spencer Gulf Prawn Fisherman’s MSC certification. As one of the sides to the spectacular barbecued Spencer Gulf King Prawns, we were served a lovely saffron rice with orange zest, cranberries, sunflowers seeds, parsley and chives.

So today when I was thinking about sides to accompany some barbecued hoison pork strips and lamb sausages, I immediately thought of making a rice salad.

I wanted my rice to be similarly golden-hued but used turmeric instead of saffron, bumping up the Middle Eastern flavours with cumin and coriander. I then sprinkled over fresh herbs, seeds, nuts, dried fruit and diced vine-ripened tomatoes on top, finishing it off with a tangy lemony dressing.

My rice salad was lovely to look at – the brilliant colours make me feel instantly perkier – and it was wonderfully tasty, too. As I ate I took in the different flavours and textures of the ingredients – the tang of the vinegar and lemon, the sweetness of the sultanas and apricots, and the crunch of the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts.

So next time you’re wondering to make to serve with barbecued meat or seafood, take a walk on the wild side and make a rice salad.

Your taste buds will thank you.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of rice
Water
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes
1/6 diced Spanish onion
30 grams pumpkin seeds
30 grams pine nuts
40 grams sultanas
50 grams diced apricot pieces
4 spring onions, finely diced
1 handful fresh herbs e.g. basil, parsley and mint
3 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt & pepper

METHOD

Cook rice according to your usual method (I use my rice cooker) with your usual amount of water, adding turmeric, coriander and cumin to the cooking water. I figure out the quanity of water required by adding it until it reaches the first section of my pointer finger so I’m afraid I can’t be more specific about how much you’ll need in your rice cooker or saucepan.

Once the rice is cooked, leave it to cool, spreading it out in a wide dish to hasten the cooling process.

Dice tomatoes and then scatter over the rice, along with the onions, pumpkin seeds, sultanas, apricot pieces, spring onions, and fresh herbs.

Make a dressing by combining the garlic olive oil with the red wine vinegar, honey and lemon juice. Grind fresh pepper and add a teaspoon of salt flakes. Sprinkle over the rice and then mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasoning if required.

Serves 6.

Are you a food blogger? Do you love pavlova, that iconic Australian meringue and cream dessert? Have you ever been curious about making one?

Well, we’d love you to join us for The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop on November 27th!

A couple of nights ago I was on Twitter when I tweeted that I was eating peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon. A BIG spoon.

This led to some friendly banter with other tweeting food bloggers about food cravings. Jennifer from Delicieux asked if I was going to cook a peanut and chocolate cake for my blog and I told her I was actually thinking about a pavlova. Then Nic from Dining with a Stud, Heather from The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader and JJ from 84th & 3rd all joined in with stories about their favourite pavlovas.

So the five of us decided to organise a pavlova blog hop* so that we could all cook our versions and then share the recipes and photos with each other.

And if you’re a food blogger, we’d love for you to join us, too!

You don’t have to be an Australian food blogger to join in either – this blog hop is open to food bloggers world-wide. So if you’ve ever wondered what a pavlova was all about, here’s your chance to give it a go.

Here’s how it will all work.

On Sunday 27th November (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) food bloggers keen to take part should post their pavlova recipe and photos on their own blog. They should then visit Delicieux, which will feature The Great Australian Pavlova Bake Off invitation post. Bloggers can submit the link to their pavlova post via this post and obtain The Great Australian Pavlova Bake Off link code to share on their own blog. This way, each blog involved will show everybody’s pavlova submissions.

You are encouraged to share your post/entry into The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop with your fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter, using the common tag, #pavbloghop, when tweeting.

And that’s it. Too easy.

So what are you waiting for? Start separating those eggs now!

And we look forward to seeing everybody’s brilliant pavlova creations on November 27th.

The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop
Sunday 27th November, 2011 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time)
Post entries at Delicieux.

Last Wednesday I joined Neil Perry (Rockpool, Spice Temple and The Waiting Room), the Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermens Association, the MSC, the WWF, national and local media, bloggers, and seafood industry heavyweights for lunch  to celebrate the first MSC certified sustainable Spencer Gulf king prawn catch of the season.

Why the  fuss? Well, MSC is the Marine Stewardship Council, an international body recognising and rewarding sustainable fishing. When a fishery has received the prestigious MSC certification it means that buyers can be assured that the fishery meets strict standards regarding sustainability and traceability.

The certification covers the fishery’s 39 vessels, which use the otter trawling method to catch around 2,000 metric tonnes of King Prawns each year. The wild caught prawns are sold mostly to markets in Australia and America, and also to South East Asia and the EU.

Australia-wide there are only a handful of fisheries to be MSC certified, including SA’s Lakes and Coorong Fishery, which was certified in 2008. But more significantly, the Spencer Gulf Prawn Association is the first prawn fishery to be MSC certified in the Asia Pacific and the first king prawn fishery to be certified in the world. So the Spencer Gulf prawn fisherman have every reason to be proud of their latest achievement.

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As the final official event of Eat Drink Blog 11, the second Australian Food Bloggers Conference, we have dinner at Kingley’s Steak and Crabhouse at Wooloomooloo. Deciding not to go to my hotel between the conference and the dinner, I catch a taxi to the restaurant with Jan from Dinner in Ten Minutes, Jo from My Delicious Blog and Ashley from I’m so Hungreee.

We have about 45 minutes to kill before dinner so we order drinks. It is a perfect evening for a Mojito.

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Last Thursday, I was thrilled to receive an email asking me if I was interested in a last-minute spot at Eat Drink Blog 11, to be held that Saturday in Sydney. I immediately responded ‘yes’ and did a happy dance to the tune of Bobby Brown’s ‘Can’t Touch This’.

What was I so excited? Well Eat Drink Blog 11 was only the second Australian Food Bloggers Conference, following up from the inaugural conference in Melbourne last year. It’s an invite-only conference and only 80+ spots were offered Australia-wide, so I was extremely grateful to be invited, especially as The Hungry Australian is so new. (As it turns out, I was only one of two bloggers from Adelaide to attend, the other being Amanda from Lambs Ears & Honey.)

Eat Drink Blog 11 was organised by an amazing volunteer committee, including Jen from Jenius, Trina from The Gourmet Forager and Simon from The Heart of Food, who spent hundreds of (unpaid) hours putting together an event with an incredible lineup of speakers and sponsors.

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Seafood is one of my ultimate feasts. It’s both a must for extravagant celebrations and everyday family life. However, it must be fresh and it must be top quality.

Luckily, I live in Adelaide, South Australia (SA), where our seafood is amongst the finest in the world, largely because our waters are pristine and well-managed and our growers take immense pride in their work. Our seafood commands premium prices in Hong Kong, China and Japan: buyers and restaurants love our seafood because of its exceptional quality.

So you can imagine how happy I was to attend the industry launch of the Eyre Peninsula Seafood Guide at Jolley’s Boathouse last Monday.

The Seafood of the Eyre Peninsula is a beautifully designed, step by step guide explaining what to look for when buying seafood and how to clean and prepare it. Designed to educate and inform chefs, kitchen staff, restaurant managers and retailers, it features stunning shots of seafood by local Adelaide photographer Randy Larcombe.

If you’re a professional or student chef or restauranteur, I urge you to get your hands on a copy of The Seafood of the Eyre Peninsula. See the Seafood Frontier website to download a copy or have one sent to you.

Before the official proceedings begin, we are treated to a delicious selection of Jolley’s Boathouse canapés. It’s an extravaganza of SA seafood.

Firstly, I have to try the Angasi oysters supplied by Pristine Oysters on behalf of the South Australian Oyster Growers Association. Our original natives, Angasis were fished to extinction in the late 1800s and replaced with Pacific oysters – Australian growers have only recently been producing them again. Angasi shells are much rounder and flatter than the Pacifics with beautiful caramel and coffee tones. Brendan Guidera from Pristine shows us the correct way to shuck them – apparently, it’s all about the 2pm knife position.

I add a spritz of fresh lemon, then tip the shell up so that the Angasi oyster slides into my mouth. I savour it for a minute, chewing gently before letting it slide down my throat. While Pacific oysters are creamy and fresh tasting, Angasis have an earthier, more full-bodied flavour. I fall instantly in love with them.

Then it’s onto the King George Whiting ceviche (whiting courtesy Port Lincoln Fresh Fish) and Southern Bluefish Tuna crudo (tuna courtesy Southern Water Marine Products). Both are immaculately fresh and tangy with citrus and vinegar.

One of Jolley’s chefs prepares exquisite sashimi and crudo from Hiramasa kingfish (supplied by Cleanseas Tuna) and snapper (supplied by Port Lincoln Fresh Fish). The fish is exquisitely delicate and flavoursome. The chef grates fresh wasabi from a whole wasabi root to accompany the sashimi and the taste is a revelation. I will never, ever go back to eating that lurid green ‘wasabi’ paste again with my sashimi. If that means I have to move the family to Japan then that is what I will do.

Next up, blue mussels by Kinkawooka Shellfish and Boston Bay Mussels are covered with a creamy sauce and breadcrumbs before being placed under a hot grill. They’re amazingly tricky to eat – there is simply no graceful way to place a whole breaded mussel in your mouth – but amazingly delicious, too.

Next come some Chinese spoons filled with stir fried abalone supplied by Streaky Bar Marine Products, shiitake mushrooms, garlic stems and oyster sauce. Like most Chinese, I adore abalone’s distinctive and delicate flavour, and silky smooth flesh.

I next spot some interesting looking snapper tartare made from snapper supplied by Port Lincoln Fresh Fish.

It’s now time for the speeches. Mark Cant (Regional Development Australia Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula), Tony Ford (Boston Bay Wines), John Susman (Fishheads Seafood Strategy) and Stacey Fallon (RDAWEP) deliver some surprisingly relaxed, passionate and even occasionally witty speeches. It’s clear that this is a tight-knit industry where everybody knows each other very well. Then the Hon. Gail Gago, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, declares The Seafood of the Eyre Peninsula to be officially launched.

Shortly after, I make my way home, full to the gills with what feels like a kilogram of exceptional seafood. Despite my discomfort, I’m already thinking about what I am going to cook for dinner tomorrow night.

One thing’s for sure: SA seafood will definitely be on the menu.

When I was a girl I used to have a number of regular day-dreams.

One favourite involved me getting accidentally locked in a chocolate factory overnight. I used to spend hours thinking about sampling all the different kinds of chocolates rolling off the conveyor belts. Would I try a soft centre first? Or perhaps a caramel? What about a truffle or a chocolate frog? How many could I possibly eat before I was sick?

Roald Dahl’s wonderful book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, did nothing to quench my imagination. On the contrary, it encouraged me to dream of rivers of molten chocolate, trees made out of candy and bubblegum that turned your whole body blue.

So when I visited Haigh’s Chocolates earlier this week for a special behind the scenes look at the factory and an interview with Alister Haigh, I was nearly beside myself with excitement.

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My dad’s friend, Barry, is an amazing gardener, growing all kinds of vegetables, fruits and flowers. He is generous with his crop, too, always giving away bags of lemons, tomatoes and whatever else is in season.

The other day he gave us a bag of broad beans and a recipe.

I’ve played around with it a little bit, but it’s essentially the same.

So here it is: Barry’s broad beans with bacon and onion.

INGREDIENTS

600 grams broad beans, unshelled
1-2 rashers bacon, finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Few sprigs parsley, chopped
Generous splash vermouth or white wine
1/4 cup water
Salt & pepper to taste

METHOD

Shell broad beans.

Heat up a small frypan. Add olive oil and then fry onion on medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring regularly. Add bacon and continue cooking until bacon starts to brown. Add broad beans and mix thoroughly.

Add wine, parsley and water. Put lid on saucepan and turn heat down to low. Leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Just before twenty minutes, remove the lid and turn the heat back up to help reduce any excess liquid. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and serve immediately. Do not season prior to this otherwise the salt will cause the beans to toughen.

Serves 2-4 as a side dish.

When we were recently in Malaysia we ate the most amazing sui gao (dumplings) at my Grandmother’s house, bought from the local hawker stall. So this is my attempt to recreate them back home in Australia.

This Chinese Dumpling Soup recipe is similar to my jiaozi recipe however the sui gao filling has the addition of Chinese mushrooms, carrots and water chestnuts. This gives the dumplings extra flavour and a satisfying crunchiness.

The dipping sauce is a gingery, vinegary sauce enlivened with chilli and spring onion. It can be either sprinkled over your bowl of dumplings or dabbed onto each individual dumpling as you eat them. Personally, I can’t get enough of it.

Sui Gao is Chinese comfort food and very, very moreish. Make more than you think you’ll ever need because people often request seconds. And sometimes thirds.

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Our good friends, Kerina and Ollie, have just become the proud parents of a beautiful little boy.

I’m thrilled for them. As new parents, they’ve embarked on an incredible journey, one that will bring them more joy and happiness than they could have ever imagined. Their hearts will expand, be made light again. They’ll learn to adjust their pace to a toddler’s ramble and to see the world through the eyes of a child once more – all enormous gifts.

It will also be challenging at times. They’ll be pushed beyond what they thought were their limits of endurance and patience. They’ll have to get by with less sleep and less money. The awesomeness of their new responsibility will sometimes feel overwhelming.

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Australia’s largest cheese festival, CheeseFest, took place last weekend at Rymill Park in Adelaide.

We arrived just after midday on Sunday and got stuck straight into the serious business of the day: sampling and learning about all the wonderful cheeses and dairy products on display from companies including Barossa Valley Cheese Company, B.-d. Farm Paris Creek, Island Pure, La Casa Del Formaggio, Milawa Cheese Company, Udder Delights, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Woodside Cheese Wrights.

I’m in fromage heaven.

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For those keen on good food and wine, the cunningly named Good Food & Wine Show on October 7-9 at the Wayville Showgrounds in Adelaide was a great day out.

You could sample food and wine from some of South Australia’s leading producers, watch cooking demonstrations, learn about cheese or chocolate, take part in a wine tasting, get up close and personal with a celebrity chef in the kitchen, buy products at special prices and then relax and recharge in the Coopers beer garden.

Final numbers are still coming in but it looks like the second Adelaide Good Food & Wine Show was attended by 12,000+ people over the three days, a strong increase from last year’s inaugural Show.

Rather than try to summarise the whole Show, which would be a very long post, I’ve decided to highlight some of the producers, products and chefs that caught my eye.

First up is Murray River Salt, renowned for its award-winning, naturally pink salt flakes. We got a sneak peak of their latest creation, Truffle Salt, which takes their regular pink salt and soups it up by impregnating it with the scent of truffles. The smell is completely intoxicating – I can imagine this would be incredible on scrambled eggs. Truffle Salt is still in the development stage but should be available to buy in the next few months.

Many Adelaideans know Enzos on Port Road, the fine Italian restaurant serving up wonderful pastas, risottos and steaks. However, Enzos is just about to launch an Enzos at Home line producing pasta and other dishes for you to heat up at home. We try the lasagne and the gluten-free muffins and both are extremely good – I can’t even tell that the muffin is gluten-free and I’ve eaten a lot of gluten-free food. I foresee a bright future ahead for Enzos at Home – pick up some yourself at 302 Port Road from tomorrow.

ChocoMe is a brand new company producing custom Belgian chocolate. Andrea Simko, a trained pastry chef who used to work for one of Hungary’s leading restaurants, first spotted ChocoMe’s products in Hungary a year ago. She loved the products so much that she contacted ChocoMe’s founder and an agreement was reached so that she could open ChocoMe in Adelaide under a franchise agreement. Chocolate can be bought in the ready-made flavours or you can design your own combination of dark, milk or white chocolate, sprinkled with all kinds of freeze-dried fruits, seeds, nuts, flowers, confectionary and spices. ChocoMe’s products will be available to buy from their website from next week and can also be found at Viva in North Adelaide and Burnside, the National Wine Centre, Mercato, Unley Gourmet, and Gourmet on Main.

Created by Vicki Mattchett, a Cordon Bleu trained chef based  at Middleton, South Australia, Mattchett’s is a boutique producer making a selection of chutneys, sauces, dukkahs, dressings and olive products. Matchett’s packaging is bright and cheerful but also serious and grown up. It’s a line with a lot of personality. I especially like the tagline on their Chilli Fire relish below: “very friggin’ hot.” Take a bow, Matchett’s.

Preshafruit make fresh juices and fruit coulis that have been pressurised cold (not heat pasteurised), which preserves flavour, texture, colour and smell. Their packaging is modern, slick and playful, with a different animal on each container. I also like the quasi DIY label gun font and design. Nice work, fellas. We try the grapefruit juice and it’s absolutely delicious. I’d definitely buy Preshafruit juices again.

Kyton’s Bakery is renowned for their award-winning lamingtons, which are hugely popular with fundraising groups. My beautiful niece gives them two thumbs up.

Hailing from Muswellbrook in NSW, Pukara Estate make excellent, award-winning olive oils, relishes, mayonaises and dukkahs. I don’t sample them myself but Mr Hungry Australian raves about their mayonaise.

Cocolat is an Adelaide success story. Established in 1992, the family owned company operates three busy stores – Rundle Street in the city, Adelaide Airport and Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills – serving up chocolate in just about every conceiveable form. Their Rocky Road is delicious. And just a little bit addictive.

Beach Organics, located near Middleton and Port Elliot in South Australia, produce a line of organic spices, oils, salts, and breads. It’s founder, Barry Beach, manages the strictly organic, 4-acre property using permaculture techniques and also runs cooking workshops and garden tours. After seeing their gorgeous products I’m planning a day trip there.

Popular Indian restaurant Dhaba at The Spice Kitchen in Leabrook produces a range of readymade spice mixes including Tandoori, Vindaloo and an Easy Best of the South mix. I’m going to a farewell there in a few weeks time so will post about my dining experience then.

Although I love an occasional glass of wine or bubbles, my Asian genes and inability to metabolise alcohol without becoming bright red and itchy (not a great look) means that I am rarely in the market for a good bottle of wine. So I merely stroll through the wine exhibitors, organised by growing region.

I also poke my head into the Reidal Wine Theatre, where keen wine lovers are being tutored through a tasting of some great Australian wines.

I then duck into the Fisher & Paykel Celebrity Theatre to find Matt Moran (MasterChef, Aria) wowing the crow with his knife work. His salmon looks simple but stunning – something you could easily try yourself at home. That, I guess, is the point of these cooking demonstrations: to encourage people to get into the kitchen and try cooking like a MasterChef at home.

Next up is Alastair McLeod (Queensland’s Bretts Wharf and Tank Restaurant), who does a great job whipping the crowd into a frenzy for the next presenter, Ainsley Harriot.

UK chef Harriot is the star import of the day, the granddaddy of them all. The original celebrity chef with the longest running cooking TV show in the world, he has sold over 4 million books worldwide. He also has some funky dance moves.

Ainsley is enormously popular with the crowd, who hang on his every suggestive word.

After Ainsley I’m in need of lunch. I head outside to the Cooper’s Beer Garden where folks are enjoying the beautiful weather and great music.

With so many exhibitors I wasn’t able to make it around to everyone so if you don’t see your favourite company or Chef here, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t like their work. So feel free to comment below on who I should have included here. I was reliably informed, for example, that Manu Feildel had women swooning in the aisles during his cooking demonstration. I can understand this: a man who can cook is very, very sexy.

The Good Food & Wine Show will take place again in Adelaide in October 2012.

Christina Soong-Kroeger attended the Adelaide Good Food & Wine Show as a guest of the show. 

Char Kway Teow (Fried Noodles) is one of the ultimate Malaysian hawker dishes.

When I was holidaying in Malaysia in August, I ate Char Kway Teow nearly every day, mostly for supper at 10pm. I’d wander out from wherever we were staying in search of food and within a few blocks, would usually find a hawker making this dish at a street stall. I’d take it back to our hotel room and Mr Hungry Australian and I would fall upon it as if we hadn’t eaten in days.

Now that I’m back in Adelaide the only place within walking distance where I could find a Char Kway Teow at 10pm at night would be my parent’s house. My Dad even cooks a Char Kway Teow that is pretty close to the real thing. The only problem is that while he cooks supper most nights there’s no guarantee that he’ll be making Char Kway Teow when I need my fix. He’s a little unreliable that way.

So I made him give me his recipe so that I could cook it myself when the next Char Kway Teow craving struck.

There are a couple of things you have to remember when making this dish. Firstly, you must have all the ingredients ready to go – you cannot start cooking this dish and then let it cook away while you frantically try to wash and chop up the next ingredient to go in. Disaster will ensue. Secondly, as with all stir fry cooking, speed is the key. You want everything in and out of the pan as quickly as possible otherwise the noodles will become gluggy and the whole dish will collapse. Do not overcook this dish. I repeat: do not overcook this dish.

Cook it right and you’ll be rewarded with a plate of noodles that will make you sigh with sheer gastronomic pleasure.

(Beady eyed readers may notice one irregularity in the photographs of the raw ingredients: I was out of fish cakes when I made this dish so substituted with fish balls. It worked out fine.)

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Preheat work and add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Add half the garlic and fry with the prawns, Chinese sausage and fishcake. Remove from wok and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of oil and throw in the rest of the garlic and rice noodles. Add soya sauces and stir until slightly burnt/brown.

Then add cooked prawns, Chinese sausage and fishcakes and mix to combine.

Throw in beansprouts and stir through.

Make a well at the bottom of the wok and add another teaspoon of oil. Crack the eggs directly into the well.

Use your spatula to break up the eggs/yolk, and add a dash of dark soy sauce and a shake of white pepper into the yolks.

Cover eggs with the noodles and let it cook for a minute.

Add sugar and then mix the cooked egg evenly through the noodles. Add a touch of Vietnamese chilli sauce if desired. Do not overcook. Serve immediately.

My daughter is starting school next week and I’m excited and a little melancholy.

On one hand, she is completely ready for school – she craves stimulation and learning and she’s happy because she has a bunch of pals from kindergarten starting with her. On the other hand, it’s a milestone for her, the first independent step in a journey that may one day take her far away from us.

So my daughter going to school represents a big change for us.

I’d deliberately kept one day free this week so that we could do something together just as a family. I asked Ms 5 Year Old what she wanted to do and she replied without hesitation: “go to Henley Beach and ride bikes and get baby cinos and ice creams.”

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Posting a recipe for guacamole seems odd in a way. It’s a bit like posting a recipe for making a ham and cheese toastie – it seems like such a simple thing to that no recipe is required.

However, I’ve found huge variation in the guacamole I’ve eaten, both in restaurants and private homes. Everyone has their own take on it, their own special ingredient. Some people like using a spritz of lime juice. Some detest onion. Some go overboard on the garlic while others completely omit it.

I’ve never eaten it in Mexico but in Australia the general consensus seems to be that guacamole has to include avocados, onions and either lemon or lime juice. Everything else is up to you.

This is how I make guacamole. The ‘kick’ in the title is the addition of sweet chilli sauce.

You can blame my dad for this – a mild chilli addiction is in my DNA.

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