As an Aussie with an American heritage living in Cambridge, UK - this is my foray into one of the most important things in my life - food. Whether it be local events, hotspots or cooking from home, this is a document about my life and the food in it.
Following a brief excursion into mayonnaise making the other week, it got me thinking about egg based sauces. For some reason or another, I had never tasted hollandaise sauce. This would have stemmed from the days when I had to make hollandaise on a regular basis at the pancake restaurant that I worked at - and although it always turned out fine for me - it had kind of put me off with the amount of butter it contained; not to mention the fact that by the end of the day it had turned into a split, coagulated mess.In effect, hollandaise is a butter sauce brought together with an egg yolk and seasoned. Egg yolk, so I've learnt from Harold McGee himself, is a natural emulsifier and when combined with fat, starts to thicken. The reason that hollandaise is a war...
This post is not a rant about the state of curry restaurants in this Country. I will not mention how many times I have tried the same meal at different curry houses to find out that they all taste the same. And I refuse to enter into a debate about which city has the best curry. Instead - I'll just tell you how I make my curry at home - where it's worth the work, fresher than ever, and better than any curry I've ever eaten out.With the knowledge of Madhur Jaffrey, the support of Jamie Oliver and the tuition of Padmaja I managed to knock up a pretty good meal. It's just amazing how fresh ingredients that are full of flavour can manage to turn a dish around.This is how I did it:Onion BonjisI don't call them bhajis, because, although they are bhajis as I (an un...
My very favourit-ist carrotcake of all time. Made again, yesterday.Johanna: you have to follow this to the tee. I've made slight variations - all to detrimental effect. In fact, the picture of the cake above didn't work out because I used all white flour and no nuts. Didn't turn out at all.Carrot Cake175g brown sugar150mL sunflower oil2 eggs100g white flour100g wholemeal/barley/rye flour (whichever you have on hand)1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon mixed spice3 medium sized carrots - peeled and grated (no doubt using your Thermomix *jealous*)50g chopped nuts1 orange, zested and juicedAdditional 75g brown sugarPreheat oven to 180° Celsius. Beat together the brown sugar and oil. Add in the zest of the orange and the eggs, b...
The view when I wake.Have I gone crazy? Yes you may ask that question when I post a picture of my bedside table the wrong way round. But let me tell you... I have entered into the world of mobile blogging with my new phone. How exiting!!! This was the very first post from my phone.Just think of the possibilities...........
Here is a meme that has piqued my interest. The beauty of it is I got to choose to take it up and the questions are much more pointed and relevant to me. It also gives my readers an opportunatity to know a little more about me and my outlook, tastes and disposition.Having met Johanna on no less than 3 occasions, we've not actually managed a proper tête-à-tête, and to be honest, I was quite curious to see what Johanna would ask.If you would like to be interviewed by me, let me know by leaving a comment below and I will, in turn, eventually email you 5 interview-style questions. Be sure to leave your email!Australia, the USA and now the UK: do you ever feel like you don’t belong anywhere? And to what extent does it show in your
All last summer I was eyeing off our neighbours elderflower bush trying to work up enough gumption to go and ask them if I could pick the elderflower heads. Last year however, my shyness got the better of me and before I knew it the flowers had turned into berries and the berries fell to the ground.This year was going to be different and a couple of weeks ago I found myself eyeing off our new neighbour's elderflower tree. Thankfully though I didn't have to overcome my shyness. On Sunday, after weeding the carrots, chard and radishes I sneaked over to the allotment opposite ours and into the elderflower bush (protected by a whole lot of stinging nettles). There were so many I figured that they wouldn't miss a few. I gathered at least 30 elderflower heads and I brought them home dreaming of ...
Ideally the first harvest of our allotment would have adorned the top of a pizza, been thrown through a salad or stirred through a risotto. But I wasn't the only one with the same idea. When I went to harvest the rocket the other night, I had found that it had been absolutely ravaged by slugs and other hungry insects. I don't blame them personally because the rocket is absolutely spot on. Peppery and fresh. And anyway - I should've put the milk out sooner.Rather than waste it I thought it was a good opportunity to make a batch of rocket pesto from the stems that were left over and the few leaves that had made it through the slug storm. I bulked it out a little with the spinach that we had. I'm freezing a bag for us to use on the odd occasion - slicing off ...
Of all the chard pies I've made over the year, I've never actually posted about them. I guess that's because for the most part it makes up one of our fall back meals - like spag bol, or stir fry. So to me it's not all that interesting although oh so yummy!Since my acquisition of Scapes recently, I've been trying to think of ways to use them. One of the most popular scape recipes seems to be pesto which I hope to try out this weekend. But for the mean time, I decided to try it out as a replacement for garlic in the chard pie. The end result was an earthier, more delicate flavour to the mix - which is a welcome change to an otherwise mundane-ish meal (although I really, really like chard pie in general - it's just you get used...
Dear Daydream delicious...,Please accept my sincerest apologies for the length of time I've been away from you. I offer, in way of an excuse, the incompetancies of British Telecom, who went out of their way to cancel our broadband connection and not show up on no less than 2 occasions. I know I should have found another way to be with you, my dear one, but to be honest the offerings I had for posts would have paled in comparison and would not have been worthy.Please accept this strawberrymeringuecake laced with vodka (I know how you like vodka) as a gesture of good will. I made one for you, dear Daydream delicious..., and the other as a house warming ...
Since British Telecom have not yet been able to restore our connection to the rest of the world I have to sneakily post this entry while on my lunch break at work. I wanted to get at least one more in before the end of April! Oh, how this year is slipping away...These marshmallows that I made were so sweet they just about burnt our mouths! But considering that they are made purely with sugar, gelatine, vanilla and water - that's hardly suprising.They were to be for my Easter post - and I did make them for Easter since it really reminded me of being young and making fluffy bunny mashmallows instead of colouring eggs. Bunnys are so much cuter than boring old eggs, no?For the most part, the recipe is the Cooking for Engineers test recipe. On their site ...
My life is in the jet stream at the moment and thoughts come tumbling out of my head at a million miles an hour.Among other things, my life has lately included the following:Stepping onto the property ladderWe're about to fall heavily into debt - expecting to exchange later this week, we're soon going to own our own little spot on earth. And I cannot wait! Anything to get me out of the current horrible kitchen! Speaking of kitchens...Optomen TV has asked me to create some video blogsSoon to be shown on UKTV Food, a new show called Market Kitchen is going to be aired on a daily basis from the Borough Market. They're teaming up with a number of UK Food Bloggers to feature a segment called Food Tube. My submissions so far can be viewed at D.D.TV.Cupcakes are coming out of my ears!And I'm lovi...
Never has savoury food been so appealing to me. For years and years I've had a sweet tooth and although I'm not about to denounce all sweet food, I must admit that its savoury ally has been ambushing me in an attempt to beat me down and win me over. And on the breakfast front it has worked. Our lazy (or not so lazy) weekends usually begin with a large main meal size brunch and like today, we ended the day with a simple soup - fennel. Apart from a little light snacking during the day this pretty much does for us until the morrow. When Dan flipped over the calendar to display April's offer, I yummed at first sight. I had to make this bacon & egg with thyme & potato rosti. A right fancy fry up.B...
I am quite adept a cooking crepes. I should be. For about a year, I spent 3 hours a day for 3 - 4 days a week cooking up 10 litres of crepe batter for the pancake restaurant I was working in. The music would be turned up loud and I would go into the zone like a machine. I usually had 4 - 5 burners going at a time and I got the technique down pat. I'm sure if anybody did it for this long, they would be quite adept as well.I saw this crepe cake a few months ago and it has been in my memory, sweet-talking to me ever since. Last week, with Pancake Day looming, I googled crepe cake and found this post in which a crepe cake is eaten. That particular cake was made with pastry cream. With my fascination with egg based sauces still in...
Although custard was not a huge feature of my childhood, the moment I poured the hot milk into the whisked eggs for this recipe I was taken back in time. Perhaps to a time when I was 13 and had just had my wisdom teeth removed and all I ate was custard. Or perhaps to an extremely hot Christmas day where a hot pudding with custard was served that was just almost unbearable.The vanilla recipe comes from a Donna Hay supplement that arrived with this month's Living etc. The little tarts stood out amongst the other very pretty recipes, but seemed more beautiful yet more simple at the time that I knew I would be making them soon.Almost on a whim and really at the very last minute, I split the cream into two saucepans and broke a...
I remade mayonnaise today. The formation of mayonnaise is really interesting to watch and ever since I had so much fun making it the first batch, I couldn't wait for a good enough excuse to do it again. And what better excuse than a BLT for lunch?I wanted to use our very special olive oil called Adamo which we discovered at the market and can now source from a website. I wanted to see how the oil effects the flavour of the mayonnaise. For the basis of the recipe, I started from Heston Bluementhal's basic mayonnaise recipe found in his Family Food cookbook. The choice of mixing bowl, as Heston describes, is critical. I made the mistake of starting in my glass bowl but had to start over when after 50 millilitres of oil, I realised that it wasn't thickeni...
This months edition of delicious. magazine included a short section on pies. As I flipped through the pages, a picture of mini-pork pies gave me the inspiration to not only use quail eggs again, but to also join in on this month's Waiter, there's something in my... pie.It may be a little early for the event, but when something just feels right for the day - I just go ahead and make it. I bought a little pack of quail eggs during the week, and today - I was in the right frame of mind for a good pork pie.The delicious. recipe used chilies, parsley and paprika which are not really traditional flavours for a pork pie, so after scouring Hugh's meat book I decided to use his mix with sage, thyme, mace, and cayenne. I didn't have any mace on hand, so used a sprinkling of grated nutmeg instead. To...
"If our family came together in one giant reunion and all had to prepare something for us to feast on, what would they bring? The scenario is hardly feasible considering our family spans half of the world's continents, but the question is certainly interesting when the family is full of foodies.The Ultimate Family Feast brings together the families’ favourite recipes retaining them for the future. With an eclectic mix - spanning generations and cuisines. From war time rationing, “Mystery Tart” to decadent homemade croissants. From Mexican rice pudding to Finnish “Pulla” and Australian pavlova. The 33 recipes would surely make an ultimate feast for any large family." And so s...
I'm still on hiatus, trying to tie up a few ends that I hoped to have done by now. For entertainment, check out the first banoffee pies that I made and ate! The crust was bit too thick, unfortunately, but it was tasty all the same.Made for an excellent Autumn dessert - back in October when I made them.........
Indeed, this was a Christmasfeast for just the two of us. We hardly even got through a third of it - though we did have a good go. From left to right - not including the magnificent goosey gander we had: my homemade fruit mince pies, creamed brussel sprouts,roasted parsnips, roasted potatoes, sage and onion stuffing and a couple of yorkie puds. The parsnips, potatoes and yorkies were all cooked in goose fat which achieved crisp, tasty results. The goose itself, was, and still is, intensly rich and flavoursome. Tonight we're having goose hash. I bet Mum wishes she was here.Over Christmas, I've had a bit of time to reflect on what my blog is about. Hopefully, in the new year I'm planning to push my boundaries a little bit...
Drugged up to my eyeballs, quarantined in bed, I am thankful for wireless and laptops. I've got posts to catch up on. Here are some more of my Christmas preparations.Last Sunday, before the little virus took a hold, I had a bit of fun building and decorating our GingerbreadHouse. A few years of graphical drawing at school helped when I drew and cut the templates. A simple royal icing acted as the mortar. Sweets from the sweet stall at the market. Dan's mother's gingerbread men recipe. Couldn't ask for better.We held off for one day before Dan ceremoniously bit off the chimney - the roof soon followed. By yesterday - with most of the sweets devoured we decided to throw the majorit...
As I sit down to write, a mug of hot Assam tea at my side, I finally find myself with a chance to breath admist a hectic schedual of shopping, partying, drinking, working, baking and planning. I'm also stopping to think about the less fortunate than I and I know exactly how I can give to them. Pim's tireless efforts for organising this year's Menu For Hope has most definitely not been in vain. At time of post the total raised so far is in excess of $US20,000 and it's still counting. There are some wonderful prizes this year and although I haven't had the chance to donate a gift, I'm going to head over to the donation page right now and participate in a different way.Secretly, I'm hoping to win Jeanne's and Johanna's canapé party because I'm going to invite some food bloggers from the UK t...
I remember my mother, every Christmas, boiling a pudding in a cloth to take to our old fisherman neighbour. His wife refused to make one for him due to the length of time and hassle it took to cook. I understand what she feels. One Christmas Dan and I made the same pudding about 10 times in two different batches to give away as gifts. The puddings had to be boiled for a good 5 hours and then hung up to dry before being re-wrapped, then kept for a further two months. On Christmas day the pudding then had to be reboiled for a further 2 or so hours before serving. But there is something stoic about the Christmas pudding. Something in me tells me to hold up this tradition proudly and make each pudding with love and patience every year. My Granny sent me this ...
I certainly recommend that any omnivore within our society should have a more hands on approach with the animals' lives that they consume. I don't wish to make this a full political post about animal rights or anything but just wanted to express my concern about people that are so far removed from the source of their meat that they cannot stomach the sight of offal or uncooked meat. Both Dan and I have made a pact to only eat ethically reared meat from within the UK. This ensures that our food miles are down and that we don't eat meat too often. That's alright though, because we always have an abundance of vegetables.Today I became a little more acquainted with dinner. Dan's brother, Leon, is a keen hunter, who, in the season, takes his lovely Labrador, Fern and goes to the local hunting g...
This is my modest first attempts at chocolatetruffles. I certainly LOVE trying new things and Johanna over at The Passionate Cook certainly came up trumps with this month's edition of Jennifer's Sugar High Friday. I pretty much decided to wing it this time and only do a bit of research and make up the rest. A very informative Wiki entry led me to this Cooking for Engineers entry. It came up with the ratio of 2 parts of chocolate to 1 part cream for a truffle-friendly ganache mixture.To make these slightly different from from your standard chocolately truffles, I put a honey-roasted, chocolate-coated almond within each ganache. They were especially decadent with the use of the 75% Valrhona<...
There's nothing like getting back into the kitchen and producing a lovely stack of pancakes for a Sunday brunch. What a busy November this has been! Family reunions, a food show, thoughts in career movement and attempts at getting onto the British property ladder have all been encroaching my peaceable existance.I finally got this recipe from my mother. I have yet to find a better pancake recipe. But why look for another when this recipe is perfection itself. When I was growing up, our Sunday breakfast was our traditional weekend feast - rather than a Sunday lunch. We sometimes had waffles, we sometimes had French toast but more often than not we had pancakes. It was my brother's ambition to break the household record for ...
This little cute pack of quail eggs arrived home in my basket after a day out of cycling. Along one of our routes we stumbled across a tiny little butcher that I had no idea exsisted. I quickly snatched up a well hung hunk chunk of beef, a dainty pheastant, some amount of Old Sussex Cheddar and 18 of these pretty little eggs.So what do you do with 18 tiny eggs. I thought a 9 egg omelette sounded quite appealing. But the butcher did say that boiled was the best way to have them. So I decided to make this very comforting potato salad with them. My mother's old recipe was perfect because it has a high potato:egg ratio... Potato Salad 6 medium potatos18 quail eggs or 6 medium sized eggs3 tablespoons of mayonnaise3 to 4 sweet gherkins½ teaspoon of gherkin jui...
My hopes were high. My ambitions were big. My plans were tight. My petit fours were going to be elegant, cute and sexy, just like the girl I was envious of in highschool. I was going to make four. Four petit fours. Fitting, no? All this in pursuit for this month's Sugar High Friday, hosted by Jeanne of Cooksister!. A worthy pursuit! After I was done however, I must admit that I was tempted to announce never to attempt petit fours again, such a disaster as I had. I am not one to say never, though. So I'll leave that open. In the end I think I became a bit overwhelmed. Same day I had fruit mince to bottle, and on request cheesey scones AND rhubarb crumble cupcakes. My timing was not the best. In the end, the best looking plate were these chocolate
A lazy afternoon spent in the dwindling sunshine of mid October. Apples and history holds on to the branches of burdened, sighing trees. I might have picked one to relieve the tension slightly, but an apple volunteered and let go. I read a poem instead. Whispers of families, friends and lovers hardly interrupt the silence, only the mesmerising flutter of the butterflies distract.Tea for two with fluffy scones smeared in red. Clotting cream makes it go down easier. The OrchardMill Way Grantchester, CB3 9ND Telephone: 01223 845 788 ......
I've just finished preparing this year's batch of fruit mince ready for the Christmas season. This will be my second year now, and I'm continually trying to develop the recipe for the right balance of alcohol, spices and suet. Next year's batch will be even better, I'm sure.For some reason, I get a great sense of accomplishment after bottling my homemade fruit mince. It's not that hard though, that's the thing. I guess it's just the feeling of preserving, of sterilising the jars and making sure that everything is just right.Just a quick note on the name. I've stopped calling it mincemeat. Just the thought of a mincemeat pie conjures up images of Aussie meat pies smothered in tomato sauce. I don't like thinking of that when preparing fruit mince pies at Chri...
In Finland you can find an amazing array of different types of bread for your eating pleasure. From the dessert-like leipäjuusto (breadcheese) best served with warmed cloudberry sauce through to a large variety of ruisleipä (ryebread). Today is World Bread Day and in honour of this all-important staple, I choose to serve up one of Finland's oldest breads, rieska. Rieska is thought to be the very oldest of all Finnish breads, as it was produced in the days before the fermentation technique was discovered. Every village and area of Finland has its own recipe.One of my fondest memories of Finland is visiting Mummu (Grandma) at her smallholder's farm and eating her rieska straight out of the oven, hot with butter. When I went back in 2005, I was on the lookou...
This is just a quick reminder that the London BBC Good Food Show is fast approaching, and as a lover of food festivals I'm just bursting at the seams with excitement. On the 11th of November, we'll be ordering our Christmas goose and mingling with the gourmands and spending too much money! What fun! If you haven't already bought tickets, you can find them here, and don't forget to check any recent Olive magazine for £1.50 off the entrance price. If you are going to be around I'd love to meet up! Give me an email at daydreamdelicious at gmail dot com and we can swap numbers! YAY, YAY, YAY!......
This month's round of European Blogging By Post was hosted by the gracious Johanna who is the Passionate Cook. Yesterday I received my parcel! I quickly discovered that it was from Cindy over at Gorgeous and Delicious. And here it is!The parcel contained the largest bag of sweets that I have ever seen in my whole life! The bag included Cindy's favourite, bonbons, which I think I will adopt as my favourite - purely based on the name. The bag is now being shared out between my grateful colleagues!Next up is this very tasty block of Lindt chocolate - macaron flavour, which is very nice, but unavailable here in the UK. Behind that is a box of La Paille d'Or, wafers with strawberry flavour jam which Cindy ate as a child. Lastly, behind that is a box of rolled c...
