Tag Archives: Australian food blog

Redesigning a blog is like renovating a house. Or getting elective plastic surgery.

You start off thinking that you’re just going to make a few minor cosmetic changes and you end up with a house (or body) that is almost unrecognisable. The thing is, once you’ve made one part look good everything around it starts to look a little tired.

The Hungry Australian redesign you are now looking at has been a long time in the making. While I really liked my old blog design, over time I began wishing that I could add some new elements and functionality to it. The trouble is, once I started I realised that making a few minor changes would be unsatisfying and that nothing less than a complete redesign would serve.

Because my blog is such a personal thing and I’m a bit of a control freak, finding a designer to work with me on the redesign was quite tricky. So I’m thrilled with the design that Joseph and I came up with. Thanks for all your (late-night) work getting the new site up and running, Joseph.

This new design includes a visual recipe index, which is something I’ve been wanting ever since I started blogging and my photos actually started resembling food. You can search by type of dish or dietary requirement: if you want to search by ingredient simply enter the ingredient into the search box on the top right of the screen.

A few things to note.

Firstly, the new post column is significantly wider than the old one so photos in old posts won’t be completely sharp when viewed on a computer screen. I may get around to replacing all of these images with new ones at the current width one day.

Secondly, I’m still re-categorising my recipes so there are actually more recipes in most of the sections. For example, the sugar-free category currently only contains a few recipes but there are actually a lot more sugar-free recipes in the archives. I’ll finish this off by the end of the month.

Thirdly, old comments haven’t been imported yet. This will hopefully happen in the next day or so but you can still comment in the meantime.

Lastly, we’re still working on it so you may find the occasional glitch. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Now regular readers will know that I’ve been blogging a lot less than usual lately due to firstly a killer flu and then work and family commitments. When you get out of practise with something it can become harder and harder to get back into it. But working on this blog makeover has made me fall in love with blogging all over again.

So with this redesign almost complete, I’m feeling re-inspired and re-invigorated as I set off on a much awaited trip with Trafalgar: tonight I’m off to Abu Dhabi where I’ll be staying for a day or so before I fly to Turkey for a week’s famil/media trip followed by a two-day extension to central Turkey by myself.

The week in Turkey was one of the prizes I received as overall winner of the Australian Writers’ Centre’s Best Australian Blogs 2014 competition. Many thanks to the team at the AWC for their support, and to Trafalgar for this amazing prize and for also hosting my add-ons to Abu Dhabi (partnering with Creative Holidays) and Cappadocia.

I will be blogging a number of current and recent food and travel stories while I’m on the road. If you want to see what I’m up to in real-time you can follow me at Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Christina xx

Summer Pudding

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of Summer Pudding, a simple pudding made with stewed berries and bread. So when I had a glut of berries in the house yesterday I decided to give it a go.

This is not a hard dessert to make and it’s a very light and pleasant one to eat, too. My daughter is notoriously picky when it comes to cakes and she ate four slices last night. How many can you eat?

5.0 from 3 reviews

Summer pudding

 

Author: Christina Soong

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Australian

Prep time:  25 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Print

A light, Summery dessert

Ingredients

• 1kg grams mixed berries, fresh or frozen
• ½ cup sugar
• 45 mls water (3 tablespoons)
• Fresh bread (crusts removed) to cover the inside of a 1 kilogram pudding basin, about 8 regular slices or 500 grams gluten free bread (gluten free bread is generally baked in smaller loaves so you have to use more as you lose more of it when you cut off the crusts).

Instructions

1. Place 800 grams berries, sugar and water in a medium saucepan and cook until juices run (about 3-4 minutes for fresh and 8-10 minutes if frozen).
2. Meanwhile, line pudding basin with bread ensuring that there are no gaps (cut to fit).
3. Remove approximately ⅓ cup juice from saucepan and then spoon remaining berries and juice into bread-line pudding basin.
4. Cover berries with remaining bread and then gently spoon over a few tablespoons of the reserve juice so that the bread is all red in colour. Cover the remaining juice and store in the fridge.
5. Cover pudding with a clean saucer that fits just inside the pudding basin and then put a heavy weight on top (e.g. a can or heavy plate).
6. Refrigerate the pudding overnight or for at least four hours.
7. To serve, remove pudding from fridge and discard saucer.
8. Place a serving plate over the pudding base and carefully invert the pudding onto the plate.
9. If there are any white spots on the bread, cover these up with the reserved juice.
10. Decorate with reserved fresh berries and serve with cream or custard.

Notes

SUBSTITUTIONS
Gluten-free: gluten-free bread can be used.
Refined sugar-free: stevia, honey, rice malt vinegar or agave syrup can be used instead of sugar.
Dairy-free: serve with dairy-free ice cream or whipped coconut cream instead of whipped cream.

3.2.2802

‘I ate a whole 200 gram block of chocolate last night,” my friend told me recently, shaking her head.

I laughed and then sympathised with her. Like my friend and many women, I’m an emotional eater. Forget about wearing my heart on my sleeve – I wear my feelings on my hips.

Stressed out from too many converging deadlines and not enough sleep? Why, hello midnight snack of spicy two-minute noodles!

Arguing with my mother again? No, I did not have relations with that whole piece of cheese.

Confused and upset by a guy? Just hand me the chocolate, OK?

Don’t misunderstand me. I love food and have an extremely healthy relationship with it for the most part: I don’t diet and I wouldn’t know how many calories were in something if my life depended on it. I exercise regularly and generally make sure I look after myself very well.

But when I’m stressed food is the first thing I reach for. As a coping mechanism it seems relatively benign compared to some of the things I could be reaching for but it’s still not a habit I like.

This is a list of things I have eaten standing next to the fridge or pantry or while seated in my car after a trip to the grocery store:

• salami;
• chocolate;
• smoked salmon;
• chocolate;
• cheese;
• chocolate;
• pork scratchings (crackling); and
• chocolate.

Looking over this list, it’s pretty clear that I like chowing down on salty and fatty things when I’m stressed. What can I say? I never met a smoked or preserved meat or fish product I didn’t like. And none of these products are bad per se; they’re certainly not the healthiest foods around but they’re fine eaten as part of a balanced diet.

However, when it comes to my chocolate addition I blame my mother: while she was pregnant with me she ate a family-sized block of Cadbury Dairy Milk every single day. Do you know how much chocolate that is? I was like a crack baby only with chocolate-coated veins.

Perhaps I need to somehow reset my brain and taste buds to favour healthy food while I’m stressed. Wouldn’t it be great if I naturally gravitated towards fresh fruits, kale and quinoa when tense? I have a friend who once ate fruit and nothing but fruit for a few months and he says he’s never felt better.

The problem is that I don’t want to be good and healthy when I’m stressed: I want to be naughty and defiant because it makes me feel fleetingly satisfied and therefore less stressed before the self-loathing kicks in. Plus, if I decide I won’t eat a particular food group it immediately becomes all I can think about.

In any case, I am good most of the time. Honestly. So maybe the act of emotional eating is actually a a way of letting of steam, in a culinary sense. Perhaps we should actually embrace our inner emotional eater instead of vilifying him or her?

I’d love to spend more time pondering this but it’s late at night and I have at least another 45 minutes of work ahead of me so I’m off to raid the pantry. Ahem. Just keep that last thought between you and me, OK?

Quince Crumble

There are few things more comforting and sweetly satisfying in life than a homely crumble. You make it with whatever fruit you have lying around before dinner, whack it in the oven and it’s ready by the time you’ve finished eating. I love making crumbles with apples, pears, berries, peaches and rhubarb. But quinces are in season at the moment and the smell of roasting quinces is so wickedly ambrosial I couldn’t resist buying some.

I’d be more than happy to bury my sorrows in a bowl of Quince Crumble any night of the week: this is food to soothe your soul, satisfy your belly and lift your spirits.

INGREDIENTS

• 5 quinces
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
• 75 grams butter
• 75 grams brown sugar
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel, core and quarter quinces and then slice each quarter into three slices.
3. Arrange quinces in a suitable ovenproof dish in three layers.
4. Pour over water so that it mostly covers the quinces and sprinkle over vanilla. Bake in oven for 2 hours, turning over slices mid way so none burn.
5. To make crumble, blitz butter, sugar, flour and baking powder in a processor until it resembles a fine crumb.
6. Sprinkle over cooked quinces and then bake for 25 minutes or until crumble is toasted and crunchy.
7. Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream.

NOTE

1. Serves 4 people or 1 person nursing a broken heart.
2. You could substitute 8-10 apples for the quinces but why would you want to? OK, if you really can’t find quinces you can use an apple like Granny Smith. In that case, don’t worry about baking the apples for the 2 hours – just bake the apples with the crumble for 25-30 minutes.

More dessert recipes

• Sponge Cake with Berries and Cherries
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake
• Strawberry and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
• Raspberry Pomegranate Layered Pavlova
• Sponge Cake with Berries and Cherries
• Passionfruit Sago Puddings

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Another year is almost over and I’m feeling sentimental. So if you’ll indulge me, here’s a look at some of the highlights of the year.

Better pinch myself, yes, it’s really happening…

The year’s biggest surprise was winning the Outstanding Use of Photography award at the Best Australian Blogs 2013 competition for my post Exploring Dubai: Spices, Diamonds, Gold, Fruit & Vegetables. The shock of winning this award — with so many brilliant photographers/bloggers out there — had me pinching my arms until I was black and blue. Big love to the Australian Writers’ Centre.

Coming a close second was being one of only five finalists in the Lifestyle category of the Best Australian Blogs 2013 competition. I started this blog because I was a writer who had lost her confidence and couldn’t finish anything so this nomination that was especially dear to my heart. Thanks again to the Australian Writers’ Centre for this honour.

Pick of the posts

These were my favourite posts on The Hungry Australian in 2013. I wouldn’t mind re-doing some of the photographs but these are the ones that most meaningful to me.

1. Messy Pavlova or Eton Mess Down Under Style – nationality, Twitter and baking
2. Anne of Green Gables and an Upside Down Plum Cake – my beloved childhood heroine
3. Bloggers and brands: why we’re (mostly) doing it wrong – the blogger/brand relationship
4. Penang Assam Laksa for Father’s Day – I finally re-blog my grandmother’s beloved recipe
5. Top 5 Meals I Wish I’d Never Eaten – pretty self-explanatory, no?
6. Prawn Lettuce Cups with Thai Dressing – a memorable argument with my ex husband
7. Cockling at Goolwa Beach + 4 cockle (pippi) recipes – a beloved family ritual
8. Moscato Stewed Quinces – a funeral and a gathering of friends
9. Steak with Asian Dressing – documents my one gym visit of the year
10. Thai Prawn Salad – the photo of my dad always makes me smile

Cool stuff

I worked on a lot of great projects this year for my amazing clients. Highlights include the Custard Apples 2013 media campaign, working with the Almond Board of Australia on an ongoing basis, and the Go Behind the Scenery campaign for Tourism Tasmania. I also did the food styling for two Wok in a Box shoots, one of which was a TV commercial that is due to air soon.

I took quite a few trips this year, which made me really happy because I love travelling and exploring new places. I visited Tasmania, Brisbane, Hamilton Island, Sydney and Perth for this blog, went on a family cruise and to a family wedding, and did numerous day trips around South Australia.

In early 2013 I  joined the Servved advertising network, home to some of my favourite Australian food bloggers. I have also just signed on with StockFood, the premier food image agency.

Thank you for reading The Hungry Australian and being part of this delicious adventure. Looking forward to sharing lots more recipes and travel experiences with you in 2014!

Christina xx

PS new recipe up on Friday :-)

Hello! I’m a few days into my first cruising holiday with my family. I’m here with my kids, parents, brother, sister in law, niece and nephew. Our family friend, R, came with us, too. No doubt she started regretting her decision to join us before we left Adelaide when my brother and I started bickering in the airport terminal. He started it, of course.

The cruise was my parent’s idea. Having been on one last year themselves they thought it would be an easy way to relax, enjoy each other’s company and travel with our kids (aged almost 7, 3 1/2, 4, and 18 months). So a few days ago we left Sydney on Carnival’s Spirit ship for a 9-day cruise. We’ve visited some islands in the Pacific and spent a lot of time in the water swimming and snorkelling.

As a food blogger I felt it was my responsibility to sample as much of the different food on board ship as possible. Unfortunately I didn’t quite grasp how much food was constantly available at all the different outlets. Let’s just say this: if I still fit into my clothes when I disembark it will be a miracle. I’m not even going to mention the three course dinner including melting chocolate cake for dessert every night. Or the 24 hour pizza oven. I’m not a clairvoyant but I’m suddenly seeing a lot of soup, salad and juicing posts in my future…

I’d planned to do a whole lot of blogging while I was away but unfortunately it just hasn’t happened. Mostly because I’m sharing a room with my kids who are going to bed between 9:30pm-10:00pm every night because my 3 year old thinks sharing a room equals party time. So the time I thought I’d have to blog has been spent yelling variations of “go to sleep!”and trying to stop my 3 year old from dive bombing his sister from his bunk bed. Totally a #firstworldproblem, right?

I’ll be back to my regular posting schedule soon. In the meantime, let me leave you with this postcard-perfect scene.

Christina xx

The Hungry Australian recently celebrated its second birthday. So here are some of my favourite photographs I’ve blogged over the last year.

It’s hard to explain everything The Hungry Australian means to me and how it’s changed my life. But I’m going to give it a go.

I began this blog in mid 2011 with a post about my dad’s Chinese sausage omelette after my dear friend Kerina suggested it. At the time I had recently moved back to my home town of Adelaide, following a stint in Melbourne as a SAHM which in turn followed a successful overseas career.

I was also a freelance writer — I had my first piece published in 1994 — but back in 2011 I wasn’t finishing anything because I had lost my confidence. So I saw blogging as a way of dipping my toes back into my writing again – it would be an outlet where I could safely practise my craft until I was brave enough to jump back into the deep end.

I didn’t realise that a blog can be a deep end in itself.

Fast-forward to two years later and my blog has helped create a new career for me as a consultant, freelance writer, recipe developer, food photographer and stylist. Just try fitting that onto a business card! What began organically through my blog with companies contacting me to do work for them is now my full-time gig.

Blogging has meant that I can work flexibly from home while my kids are small, which is basically my ideal setup. It’s meant that when my husband and I separated last year and I had to get a job after being a SAHM for so many years, the tools and skills to do so were already at my fingertips.

The Hungry Australian has taken me to places I never dreamed I’d go. It’s meant I’ve been invited to be part of some incredible food experiences in Adelaide, interstate and overseas. Last year, it led me to start up the Adelaide Food Bloggers Group and to co-chair Eat Drink Blog 3, the third Australian Food Bloggers Conference. Earlier this year, I was also invited to join the Servved network, sitting alongside some extraordinary bloggers who I’ve admired for years.

Blogging has also brought all sorts of amazing people into my life. People I used to only read about or cyber-stalk (in a non-creepy way) are now friends and colleagues. Some I chat to online but I’ve never met in person, some I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy meals and experiences with, and some have become close and treasured friends. If you’re one of these people — and you know who you are — I am so glad to have you in my life.

Along the way The Hungry Australian has been honoured with all kinds of recognition. I was especially thrilled to be a finalist in the Best Australian Blogs 2013 competition earlier this year and to win the Outstanding Use of Photography award for my post Exploring Dubai: Spices, Diamonds, Gold, Fruit & Vegetables – see photograph below.

The Hungry Australian is a work in progress – I’m still finding my feet and working out what kind of blogger I want to be and what kind of things I like to blog about. And I’m not always as regular as I’d like to be with posting content and engaging with readers because of my work and family commitments.

However I do read every comment left and I do feel a warm glow inside every time you share my work. I really love hearing from you, too – I especially enjoy it when you respond with your own stories and experiences because it’s like a little window back into your world.

I am just so grateful for everything that has happened because of this blog. I could never have predicted any of this and I guess that’s what makes it all so exciting.

As to what the future holds, well, I have a few ideas. Which idea I’ll eventually decide on is still up for debate. But I can promise you it’s going to be fun. And there will definitely be food – lots of food. So I do hope you’ll continue to come along for the ride.

Thanks for reading.

Christina xx

Posts from top to bottom:

• A Fathers’ Day Brunch
• Fleurieu Peninsula: Willunga Farmers’ Market, Coriole and The Elbow Room
• Bellini Sorbet
• Chocolate Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce
• Cockling at Goolwa Beach + 4 Cockle Recipes
• Grilled Figs
• A Lovely Afternoon Tea
• The Breakfast Rave, Barossa Valley
• 8 Favourite Things (Delicious Power Crackles)
• J’s Chocolate Banana Cake
• Exploring Dubai: spices, diamonds, gold, fruit & vegetables
• Bruschetta with Quail Eggs, Truffle Paste & Asparagus
• Blood Orange and Pomegranate Salad

I read  a lot of food blogs. Some I visit for a minute or two, while others I can hardly bear to tear myself away. With the latter, I explore deeper and deeper into their archives, marvelling all the time at the quality and consistency of their work.

Sydney food blog, Cook Republic, is one of those blogs I can happily spend hours on. Sneh’s work has a striking aesthetic – it’s lovely but edgy, not pretty. And her photography is nothing short of spectacular.

Sneh is one of the judges for the upcoming Eat Drink Blog 3 photography competition open to all Australian food bloggers. So with the recent announcement of the photography competition I thought it was a great time to ask Sneh a few questions.

Sneh, you’re a modern renaissance woman. You do so many things – graphic and web design, recipe development, styling, photography – and you do them all so well. When people ask you what you do, how do you define yourself? 

A very interesting question, Christina, one that I have pondered over myself several times. I usually tell people that I am a designer and writer. I follow that up by saying that I also do photography and styling. But for the most part, I am first and foremost a designer.

Where did your passion for design come from? Who are your design heroes and your greatest influences?

I have been creating art since I was a child. Even when I was ten years old, I was doing pastel portraits, charcoal sketches and dry paint street art. My dad used to create fantastic portrait sketches and beautiful hand lettering. I remember going through his artwork, completely in awe of what was on the pages. I wanted to emulate him. When I was at uni, I discovered the wondrous world of digital art and web design. Walter Disney has always been my design hero for a very long time. Some of the best children’s illustrators from a long time ago to modern day have been my biggest design influences.

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