Occasional stories, food and travel inspiration
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.
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
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 litre
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
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 r
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 s
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
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
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
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
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
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 doe
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 nig
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 re
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.
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 h
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
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, sl
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
I love Vietnamese pork rolls. No, let me say that again: I LOVE pork rolls. So when my husband came home raving about a pork roll he'd had for lunch I was naturally intrigued and made him promise to
Yesterday my daughter told me that she wanted to go to her Grandma's house for a snack because "she cooks so much better than you." When asked to explain, she said, "I only like Popo's cooking. I don'
Brrrrr! I find this cold weather very tiresome. Winter in Adelaide is nothing extreme but I'm a summer girl and I don't cope well with it. All I want to do is huddle close to a heater, wrapped in l
Good food doesn't have to be complicated. This recipe is a case in point. Fried rice couldn't be easier or quicker to make yet it tastes simply wonderful. And it makes you feel warm and loved in the w
When my husband and I first started dating, he made this for me one night. It worked. Enough said. INGREDIENTS 1 jar of caviar, chilled 1 whole lemon, sliced into eights Half a red onion
Adapted from a Gourmet Traveller recipe, these dumplings are perfect as a quick after work supper or as the first course for a dinner party. Moreover, if you’re feeling stressed out, making the dump
I cooked this a couple of years ago for my cousin May when she visited us in Melbourne. She took one mouthful and said, “this is your mum’s soup”, even though she hadn’t tasted it in 20 years.
I love the convenience of two minute noodles, literally 'convenient noodles' in Chinese. With some veggies and a beaten egg thrown in, a snack is never more than a couple of minutes away. However, t
Fish and eggplant may sound like a bizarre combination, but trust me, it really works. I love this curry of my mother's. She made a big pot of it for me when my daughter was a newborn. I was consta
When my husband took me to Germany for the first time, mushrooms were in season. For lunch one day his mother cooked us pancakes with a creamy mushroom sauce using fresh pfifferlinge and dried steinpi
As a working mother our mum was always time-poor. So when I was a young girl learning ballet she used to attach the silver sequins to my tutu by stapling them on. Those of you nifty with a needle may
