Crow Sonts

 Hi Friend!

Croissants are tricky little buggers. We tried to make them in the summer and although they proved scrumptious they were right assholes, slopping around all over the place in the heat. So we tackled them in the winter this time. They were a fair bit of work but there is really nothing like a fresh croissant. We used the Bourke St Bakery cook book, which is generally pretty good but takes lots of deciphering. I'm convinced they make it sound more complex than it is so you'll still go to their bakery, and if we lived around the corner I'd certainly be tempted to buy a few and pretend I did the hard yards. I tell myself this so I don't feel so bad about it taking me a solid 30 minutes to make sense of the recipe.

They weren't quite as crispy as I would have liked, but I guess that comes with practice. From what I gather, the real croissant-y flavour comes from a yeast starter that is made the day before. I would recommend using a recipe that has the little starter, even though it takes a bit of time, the taste is well worth it.  

     We made quite a large batch, so froze the rest and they came up a treat under the grill and in the oven. With some of the remainder I also made a Bread and Butter pudding with the croissants and our quince jelly. Croissants are one of those things that make you feel like royalty, slathered with butter and jam first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night for a snack. I don't know how Marie Antoinette was so thin... I think I'd take a croissant any day

Would you like a map of Tassie?

 You know you're a proper adult when you go on holidays. Not so proper when you choose a destination because of cheap flights. Even though we had heard only good things about Tasmania, we didn't really think out travelling, pretty much, to Antarctica in the middle of winter. It was freezing, I mean freezing, so cold your chest hurt to breath- freezing. Well, that was at night and I am the kind of person that thinks having the heater on in spring is acceptable/perfectly normal. BUT it was still cold.

Us in our thermals, before our extra 5 layers

  There are a few things I will never understand about holidaying and one of them is exercise and the other is dieting. Not only do people go to this freezing cold part of the world they also walk around for days on end in the highest parts of the island eating rations and sleeping in tents, for fun! I can barely believe it let alone begin to understand why. So this holiday was designed to be a holiday. We woke up at 12noon had coffee for an hour and read the paper then meandered around the city until we got hungry. Then we ate lots for dinner.

  We found the most lovely little bakery / cafe called 'Pigeon Hole Bakery', a gorgeous husband and wife team with mighty fine bread and very good coffee. We spent a lot of time there as well as a cafe called 'Pilgrim Coffee', they use Axil coffee from Melbourne. It's a bit of a wanky place in the middle of Hobart, but the coffee was rather good, if you don't mind the 5 minute spiel on the raspberry flavours  you'll be tasting five hours later.

  We also had a marvellous time sampling all the cheeses from Nick Haddow's Bruny Island Cheese Company. James favoured the 'Tom' but I absolutely loved the 'C2', the only raw milk cheese commercially produced in Australia. The rest of Bruny Island was also quite enjoyable, it was very rugged and wild and very cold, but absolutely beautiful and full of kangaroos and wallabies (my favourite).

  MONA was, of course, amazing. We caught the ferry over, the most upmarket ferry I've ever seen, and made a day trip of it. Rather nice indeed.

On the Ferry

At MONA

Pretty Mona staircases

And that's all the photos we took, because we're rats

Home Sick

 Winter is one of those times when I get home-sick. I only really notice what it is that's wrong when I think about what I've been cooking. It's always comfort food, not really in the 'Donna Hay' sense of the word with chocolate or lard and potatoes, but things I grew up eating. I've been covered in flour and butter for about a week cooking things that make me feel warm and cuddly. Like 'Gingernut biscuits', how could anything be wrong when you have a cup of tea and a gingerbut (as James' calls them)? They are so hard and gingery you don't even need to worry about it falling into your cup, let alone the woes of the world.

Polenta porridge is another one of those things, my dad used to make us eat it for breakfast nearly every morning. No fruit-loops or nutrigrain- not even weet-bix, it was oat porridge, rice porridge, semolina or polenta porridge with honey and milk. I used to feign death to get out of eating it but now polenta or semolina porridge is prized. I have it for dessert with our home-made quince jelly and cream.   Mostly though, I think bread is one the most comforting things in the world. I sit munching away on bread thinking that even old Jezey ate this- I must be doing something right. Then I look at James and curse Jesus and his beard that has regained fashion.

Dad's sourdough just before baking

  I'm not sure if it's because my dad is a baker or if it's because bread is one of the only traditions I can truly relate to in my mostly cultural-less Australian background but freshly made sourdough is a little bit  of old magic. When I go home I often wake up with the sound of the mixer and sit on the bench chatting away while my dad makes bread. I couldn't resist sharing these with you...

My Papa and all his dough

Little Turkish bread bunnies

Beasty Easty

Five years later

 Remember Easter? I can’t really but we did take all these photos of my papa’s scrumptious hot cross buns. Those I remember. 

Although sourdough hot cross buns are one of god's gift to earth we made yeasted buns, and by we I mean my dad and I ate them with a whole stick of butter. 

Yeasted because Dad couldn't find the book with the recipe in that we usually use for sourdough and they are pretty damn-near-close as good. The book mysteriously went missing about the same time as I moved out. I swear I don't have it, but I still get suspicious looks every time Easter comes around. 

 Anyway here are the little bunnies

Odds and Sods

Whats been happening since spewni (uni) started you ask? Well blog writing has been on the back burner, Rube has been working a lot and I have had assignments. However there is always time for cooking, three times (sometime four times) a day! 

Extra tart (unripe) gooseberries 

In the last few months or so we have made a few great discoveries. The first being on an outing to Subo. Whenever we go there we take a state of mind that we should eat whatever and how much we want, even if we regret it when rent time comes around. In saying that it really isn’t much more than a shit cafe/restaurant pricewise. RIGHT THE DISCOVERY! sorry i could talk about Subo all day (they grow herbs on the top of a roof out the back!) Right, we ordered a side salad with our mains. Baby cos came out drizzled in a light mayonnaise topped with the bestest capers in the world. Deep fried capers. Holy shit, crunchy and oily on the outside! juicy and salty on the inside! oh man, I made some for a salad but ate half of them straight after. If you live in Newcastle I could not recommend Subo enough.

Capers burst in the oil 

The Second discovery we made was a place in Marrickville called Cornersmith. A small cafe whom close on mondays to make preserves, syrups, cordials, pickles and all things good. They also barter and if you bring in seasonal goods from your backyard they trade you coffee/food or some of their preserves. How fucking fantastic. 

The third discovery, from Cornersmiths pantry was rhubarb cordial! Just cook some rhubarb till it breaks up with a dash of water, strain it through some cheesecloth for a few hours, then add the ratio of 1 part rhubarb, .75 parts sugar, .075 lemon. Then just pour it into some glass bottles and leave it in the fridge (it’s still fine two weeks later). Serve with ice and soda for the most delicious refreshing beverage.

One rhubarb straining

Two rhubarbs straining

Apart from these discoveries we also booked tickets to Tasmania in June for two weeks. If anyone knows anything to do in Tasmania in winter let us know! Below are just some pictures from odds and sods over the past few weeks.

Good loaf

A cap of cream on over the moons milk (none of that skim "milk") 

Bagel dough

Bagel shaped

Bagel done

-James

Cutie Pie, Honey Pie

Pies are yum yes? Yes they are.

For the past six months a packet of shortcrust pastry has slowly disappeared into the frost on the side of our freezer, accidentally bought instead of puff. Taking charge of our fridge contents in our usual timely fashion of about half a year we went down to an organic butcher and got a cheap cut of beef, the old chuck steak. We then went home chopped it up, dried it with paper towel (thank-you Julia Childs), sealed it in some hot oil, browned some onions, chucked in some carrots, garlic and huge sprigs of thyme and rosemary then emptied 3/4 of a decent bottle of red and about the same amount of home-made parsnipy stock. We then left it on low for a few hours, in our lovely thick bottomed (kind of like me) pan, until you couldn't pick it up without the meat falling away. Finally add some peas and a bit of parsley before doing your final seasoning.

Cheap cuts cooked slowly are perfect for pies

Next up was the fiddly bit. Rube lined some muffin tins with shortcrust pastry, spooned in the cooled mix and covered with a sheet of puff before brushing with egg. Done! Baked until browned (15mins or so) then scoffed with copious amount of gravy (which you should make with the leftover juice of the braising liquid). Don't forget the mash and peas.  Make enough mixture to freeze half for next week's pies! We managed to restrain ourselves and, instead of eating 10 pies each, two weeks later it was the perfect quick fix.

 

Yup pies are delicious! Maybe it's because I only eat meat about once a fortnight. Meat is such a treat for me and the rarity of it means I really respect and treasure meat a lot more. With people coming out our ears and huge problems with the food system we better get used to the humble veggie because soon meat will become too expensive for most. That said though, it doesn't get much better than a steak pie.
 Next conquest: making our own pie pastry- anyone got a good recipe?

Thanks, James

Ya Tart

Hi Friend!

  We have begun a love affair with tomatoes.  Roasted, fried, raw, sun-dried, in salads, as sauce, green and cherries. Absolutely everything we can imagine- tomato juice, tomato pie, tomato ice-cream (James actually did make a tomato sorbet once, it was a bit weird). We had a beautiful tomato and goat's cheese tart at a friend's house and I've been trying to replicate it ever since.

Foraged tomatoes, gooseberries, rockets, sage, asparagus and zucchini from the Community Gardens

Frying up some cherry tomatoes for a tarte tatin

  James is also back at Uni and I've taken a year off, hoping that I will be suddenly struck by the meaning of life, so I am dedicating my days off to being the ultimate time-waster. Exerting myself in life changing vocations such as finally cleaning out my closet and making sure we have a years worth of toilet paper at our fingertips. It's awfully tiring being the best house-wife ever. I've even bought an iron, and occasionally I even use it. Well I used it once and burnt the table.  Anyway, pursuing great tomato recipes is also on my list. And this one is quite gorgeous. Thanks Rachel!

Our lovely pan

A tomato, bocconcini and sage pissaladiere

Rachel&James' Tomato and Goat's Cheese Tart

Pastry:

200gms plain flour

50gm ground almonds

120gms cold butter

1 tsp pepper

1 egg

A good pinch of salt

Filling:

200gm cherry tomatoes

150gm goat's cheese or fetta

3 eggs

300mls cream

5tbsp chopped parsley

2tbsp chopped spring onion or chives

Preheat ye old oven to 180 degrees celsius and butter up a 25ish cm tart tin or just a cake pan with a removable base. For the pastry combine the flour, almonds, butter, egg salt and pepper in a food processor or by hand until it all comes together to form a ball. Don't be tempted to do too much. The recipe doesn't actually call for the pastry to be rested or blind baked so feel free to skip both but I like to. Should you like to as well, press the pastry into your prepared tin after resting the dough in the fridge for 15-30mins. Cover it with baking paper and pour over your pastry weights, these can come in the dignified form of old rice or beans.

My mother's beautifully made pastry weights

 Bake for 10mins with the weights in and another 3-5 without the weights or the paper. Cool the pastry case for a wee bit, 20 minutes or so, and meanwhile mix together the cream, eggs, parsley and spring onion for the filling. Season with salt and pepper or it will no longer be a tart but downgraded to a quiche. I couldn't actually tell you the difference between the two (I think if you blind bake it is a tart?) mostly I just think of one as nice and one as something I avoid at Christmas.

In a bit of a rush I overlooked the pastry shrinking, make sure you overcompensate

   By the by - scatter the goat's cheese and the cherry tomatoes evenly around the case and pour over the filling. Bake for 30 minutes. It should be soft to the touch but still spring back when poked. Wait for a little before cutting it and lifting the tart out of its tin.  Serve hot or cold on a picnic!

Thanks Friend!