So I’ve done a handful of baking projects recently and find it quite dissimilar to cooking. That sounds odd, but it’s definitely its own art. I feel like an alchemist weighing out each ingredient and adding it at the exact right moment. It’s really not my usual kitchen style – I’m a bit rough and ready. So, I just can’t help myself when it comes to playing around with a recipe.

I found a recipe, but didn’t have half the ingredients! So I winged it, and added other things instead. It turned out perfectly! The people at work thought it was pretty good too – they’re my baking guinea pigs! Mwah Ha ha ha! I’m sure they don’t mind – and it stops me from eating a whole kilo’s worth of cake in less than a day if I share it!

We seem to go through dozens of bananas a week these days – Josie is a fruit fanatic and it’s great to have them in a bowl in the middle of the house where we can grab a piece of fruit when we’re hungry – fruit is a really cheap snack too! So, when I get any sad, brown bananas I’ve been simply popping them straight into the freezer and letting them build up until I had enough for this recipe.

Ingredients and Method

Mix all these together in the biggest bowl:

1 cup flour
3/4 tsp bi-carb soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp psyllium husk (if you want to be a hippy like me, if not, just omit this and add a little less milk)

And then in another bowl chuck this together:
All chopped:
40g crystallised ginger
35g walnuts
20g almonds
40g choc chips

And in another bowl, whisk this together:

3/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup olive oil

And yet another bowl mash:
3 very ripe bananas.

Now, into the first and biggest bowl mix together gently all the other mixtures one by one. Pour it into a greased and floured baking tin and chuck it in a moderate oven (180 degrees) to bake for about 60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Share with friends.

So why do we use cutlery anyway?  It started off with the knife of course, slicing off chunks of food, stabbing them with the pointy end and shoving it in your gob. Then came the spoon – for all those not quite pick-up-able, not quite slurpable foods (Porridgefor instance). Then along came the fork. Once this happened, tableware became all rather fancy and then ‘the rules’ kicked in. I was speaking with a group of bloggers recently and Ms Strayed From The Table mentioned her partner does not enjoy going to upmarket restaurants because he simply doesn’t know what to do. I can understand this as some restaurants can be quite daunting. Yes, it is gratifying to experience lavish food and the traditions and rituals that surround it, but sometimes its just as pleasurable to enjoy simple food, eaten simply.

Ingredients

Ridiculous amounts of veges – cut up fairly small. Try: Eggplant, zucchini, capsicum, potato, sweet potato, beetroot, turnip, parsnip, carrot, mushrooms, swede, red onion, etc

Cloves of Garlic – as much as you want

Dukkah  - I use the Splendid Blends one from the Jan Power’s Markets in Brisbane. (3352 6855), or make your own with Sesame seeds, coriander seeds, hazelnuts, chick peas, cumin seeds, mint and salt and roast it all up.

Lamb backstrap or any red meat, Free-range preferably - Or leave this out completely

Cherry Tomatoes

Chopped Nuts (I used Chestnuts, but use whatever you have handy)

Fresh Rosemary sprig (Catherine was lovely and gave some to me from her garden. I’ve kept 4 sprigs of it in a glass of water on my window sill. They’ve started to grow roots – I’ll plant them in the garden in a month or so.)

Fresh Turkish bread or Lavash/Pita Bread. I bought mine from The Hills Bakery, 170 Patricks Road in Ferny Hills (0733515277) - They’ve got new owners, and truly this is a hidden gem of the bakery world. Worth a trip out to ‘The Hills’ to try their Fresh Rosemary Turkish Bread – just delicious. And if you want to have a good chat with a true foodie, definitely spark up a conversation with the owner.

 Method

1. Turn the oven onto 200 degrees Celcius. Put all the veges into a large oven dish with the whole cloves of garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle the dukkah on everything. Cover the tray with a lid or aluminium foil.  Chuck it in the oven. Wait until all veges are tender and a little brown (usually over an hour)

2. Brush the meat with a little oil on one side and press dukkah into the flesh. Sear the meat on all sides then shove it in with the veges, along with the cherry tomatoes and nuts. Cook Uncovered for about 10minutes.

3.Take the meat out and rest it for about 5 minutes, then slice thinly.

4.While waiting for the meat to rest make a yoghurt dressing with natural greek yoghurt, lemon juice (and zest if you’re using fresh lemons… I’m slack and use the bottled stuff if I don’t have fresh lemons) a bit of mint from the garden, a pinch of dukkah, salt and pepper.

5.Toast the bread for a short while and then put the dish of veges, bread and yoghurt on the table. Squeeze the soft gooey garlic from it’s papery skin and use it like butter.  Assemble messy, open sandwiches with the ingredients with your bare hands, get TRIBAL and shove it in your gob.

Uh-mazing!

COMPETITION REMINDER!! We have a mixed case of 24 bottles of Apple and Pear Cider to give away from Punt Road Wines. To enter, all you have to do is write a comment on ANY post on iatebrisbane. Open to Brisbane (and surrounds) entrants only (could you imagine the international shipping fees on a case of cider?!). Check out the details and the tricky little fine print here.

It is this sort of respect for food and its own history that I believe we need to teach our children. Our food deserves this sort of reverence because it is what makes us live. There is not much we really need to survive – clean water, shelter, oxygen, food. We take it all for granted, but it’s good to stop and think about it. Stop everything, sit down and really taste your food.
It’s important to understand the processes it takes to make our food. The more complex that process is the further away from nature it is. It becomes less real, less truthful and usually less healthy for us.  We all love the taste because it’s usually fatty, sugary and salty – it makes sense, back when food was scarce – of course we would want to eat the food with lots of calories – it’s efficient! But we don’t have a cold, harsh winter ahead of us - just more comfort food.

This is not to say we can’t enjoy these foods we all love (you only have to look around this blog to know how much we love our evil-goodness foods!), we simply need an understanding how much to eat and of how they got to our plates. Take the example of a loaf of bread. There are an inordinate amount of steps involved.  This is just what I’m aware of that goes into making a humble loaf of bread:

Wheat must be grown from seed, watered, fertilized, harvested, then the manufacturer will thresh the wheat, separate the wheat from the chaff, grind the wheat into flour then separate the wholegrain particles from the white flour, package it up, transport it then store it. Water and salt have to be sourced and transported, imported. If milk is in the recipe, they have to rear the cow from a calf, give feed, water, shelter and healthcare to the animal, milk the cow, homogenize, pasteurize, package and transport the milk. Then the yeast must be collected and grown, dried and stored. Then we get to making the bread. The manufacturer will mix the ingredients, leaven the dough, knead it, first proving, punching down, second proving, baking, slicing, packaging (design of packaging, manufacture of packaging, transport), transportation to shop, placement in shop, then you will pick it up from the shelf, pay for it, take it home, toast it and put some butter and jam (that process can be found here) on top.

Phew! I’m certain I have missed out some major steps in the process there, but it just goes to show just how much happens, and how many people are involved to create such ’simple’ products that we may not even care about much when all we want to do is eat breakfast and get to work.

I believe an awareness of what food is, where it comes from and why we eat it is what will save society from this tragic obesity epidemic we are experiencing. And I don’t talk about this without experience. Last year after having my daughter I was larger that I wanted to be (in the overweight category according to the Body Mass Index) and decided to do something about it. I didn’t go on a ‘diet’, I simply became mindful of what is good to eat and what I was eating everyday. And the more I thought about food the more I enjoyed the flavour of good food and the more weight I lost.  

Below is a video of Jamie Oliver giving a speech at a conference. He is inspirational, but sometimes he sounds like one lonely voice yelling over a very crowded dining hall.  We’re here too Jamie!

Mexican Food Boffin list - The 5 rules to makin’ Mexican.

1. It’s either gotta be fresh…straight from the ground right into your mouth. OR it must be stewed, fried and simmered for a minimum of 48 hours.

2. If you want something to look like Mexican food, follow the ’Mexican Flag Rule’ - red, green and white.

3. Loads of limes, bucketloads of chilis and lots of heart and soul

4. Cook with love and attentiveness

5. If in doubt, chuck some chocolate in it.

This jewel of a poached egg was gifted to me by my husband who kissed me on the cheek, banished me from the kitchen and 20 minutes later presented me with this yummy lunch. It sounds silly, but food surprises are my favourite kind of surprises, especially when Darren does it. When we’d first moved in together, Darren presented me with a piece of pavlova (he’s pretty darn good at them!) and my first ever taste of fresh raspberries. I savoured each one. 

Poached Eggs on Toast

Chop up tomatoes, avocado, red onion and mix together. Dress with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Heat  a couple of inches of water in a frying pan with a tablespoon of vinegar. Heat until there are bubbles clinging to the base of the pan. Swirl the water with a spoon to create a slow whirl-pool. Crack an egg and very gently slip it into the water. While this is happening toast some bread under the salamander. Once the bread is done, the egg should be done.

Cut a piece of garlic in half and rub it all over the bread. Put a couple of leaves of kale and spinach on top and finish with the salsa and poached egg. Crack some pepper over the top and some Cholula.

Fairy Bread seems to be a tradition at most kid’s parties in Australia. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s so crunchy and rainbowy and sugary and fatty and perfect for whipping perfectly angelic cherubs into a sugar fueled frenzy! There is nothing healthy about it whatsoever – and I’m guessing that’s why our Mums only made it a few times a year… although, if my sister and I found the left over sprinkle packet in the cupboard, we would always try to make it ourselves before Mum would notice us being very quiet and cooperative in the kitchen!

For me, there are a few rules.

1. Use the freshest whitest bread possible

2. Use round brightly coloured hundreds and thousands sprinkles – none of those long cylindrical sprinkles or chocoloate hail!

3. Use real butter, not margarine

4. Each slice must be cut into 4 little triangles, with the crusts still attached

Ok – now, is that a little OCD?  Probably.  Try it. You’ll Like it!

Butter a slice of bread all the way to the edges, Pour sprinkles onto a plate. Dip the bread into the sprinkles and shake off excess. Cut into 4 triangles. DEVOUR!

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about hosting my first kids party. The memories I have of my birthday parties are strong and vivid. Mum and Dad threw wonderful soiree’s for us kids – they were awesome! So, it was only natural I would go running to Mum asking for help and inpiration.

“You’ll be fine, they’re easy” she said.

“Ha! That’s because you’ve done almost 30 of these things – and not to mention helping out for friends and cousins parties, and they were always incredible!”

After a bit of flattery, she spilled the beans on holding a successful birthday bash – and it pretty much comes down to following ”the formula”. And each mother I talked to about kids parties always seems quite happy to host parties, but rattled off a number of rules that must be adhered to to ensure that you don’t get a gaggle of whippersnappers bawling and crying blue murder by the end of the afternoon.

1. Hold it in the afternoon for a few hours

2. Have some music playing (we were lucky to have a couple talented friends with guitars!)

3. There must be fairy bread and chocolate crackles

4. There must be cake and candles - and it must look like you’ve gone to some effort (even if you haven’t!)

5. Play a couple of party games (we didn’t this time, as our birthday girl can’t even walk yet!)

6. There must be party bags – make sure there is one for every child, and each has to contain identical items to all other bags – or else they’ll all cry.

This, of course is not an extensive list, but you get the idea. I was happy to follow the hallowed party traditions passed down from our forebears. There’s something special about fairy bread – the rainbow sugar encrusted triangles of fluffy white bread, and the popping crunchy chocolate crackles, heavily laden with copha – a vegetable shortening. Recipes will be posted soon!

The cake also was something I’ve been excited about making for about… oooh 5 years or so.  I challenged myself to a 3D rubber ducky cake and cake pops, and was pleased with the results! (again…. instructions to follow!) We also all pulled out our ol’ favourites – namely the peanut butter cookies and caramelised onion and goats cheese tartlettes.

I think the secret to a successful party is to let people help! For a gathering of 40 people, about 12 of them had an active hand in creating the event.

And the most important thing was everyone had a good time! No wailing kiddies – and happy friends and family! Yay!

It is with great pleasure that I say to you that I will NOT be boycotting Mecca Bah! Huzzah!

I went there a few weeks ago with a gaggle of girls for my sister’s birthday. The place is open and airy, but with a warm, sensual ambiance, using stylised Islamic motifs and geometric patterns to cover the floors and ceiling. Each chair is adorned with ornate cushions, and the table dressed with Moroccan tea glasses as votives.

We gathered in the outdoor area before being shown to our table – which was not reserved as they do not accept reservations, which I think is pretty cool – First in best dressed, and no “reserve sign” deserted tables!  We were given our menus and ample time to work out what to eat. The meal arrived shortly after, each dish looking as delectable as the next. This is when I usually get a bad case of Meal-Envy – I just want to try everything! Vine leaf wrapped fish fillets chargrilled with parsley, artichoke and olive salad ($22.50) was passed to the lady to my left, and Turkish Pizza with Spit roasted lamb, rocket, yoghurt & sumac ($19.80) to the lady on my right. I ordered the Garlic chicken kebab, mjaddarah (lentils and  rice), yoghurt sauce & tabouleh. ($21.50). It had a perfect balance of spices, the combination of chicken, rice and tabouleh complimented each other well. It was a light, but comfortably filling dish. I nabbed a piece of pizza crust from my sister, just to taste – it was a crunchy and light, perfectly risen dough.

After much deliberation over the dessert menu, I settled on Middle Eastern Halva Icecream and a Pistachio maa’moul. Halva is made with sesame seeds, the flavour was distinctive and texture creamy. It matched well with the maa’moul. This arrived in it’s own rice-paper packaging (obviously not baked in house, but that’s ok!) – a crumbly oval-shaped biscuit filled with nuts, flavoured with rose water, and dusted liberally with icing sugar. The icecreams are sold 3 scoops for $9, however, I asked for 1 scoop for $3 and they gladly sold that to me. To take home, I grabbed a couple of pieces of Turkish Delight. Mmmm.

Right at the end of the night, when there were only a few tables of people left, the kitchen and wait staff appeared and gathered around a table and ate together after their shift had ended. I suppose this is probably not a very ‘professional’ thing to see, but you could really tell that they were enjoying the meal they had prepared themselves. It was great to see that they liked it as much as we did.
Mecca Bah 19-21/1000 Ann St, Fortitude Valley
www.meccabah.com

Santa Claus is also bright red, and he is real.

These are just some of the truths of my childhood. Now I know better and I’ve grown up a little, I know that half of this just isn’t true. You can make Tomato Soup yourself!

The origins of each tomato vary in this soup, some from the local markets, some from the supermarket, and – most notably – 2 are from our very own backyard! Our neglected Roma Tomato vine bore fruit, and the quartered tomatoes sitting proudly on top are our very own. I’m very proud – and quite surprised that they weren’t eaten first by fruit fly and local possums!

I first stumbled across the idea of Roasting Tomatoes for soup on one of my favourite blogs 101 cookbooks. Please take a good look at her website – oh… and then come back! This lady can sure make rustic, healthy food look sexy…. what am I saying? Healthy food IS sexy! Especially this soup.

The burnished tomatoes add little flecks of blacky-brown to the soup, which almost has a silky/frothy consistancy despite the presence of whole tomato seeds and cracked pepper corns. It fills you up and gives your body a warm glow from the inside. The perfect soup for a cold winter’s night… but wait! It’s a Tomato Soup, so you can serve it cold… call it Gazpacho and you’ve got a winner for a steamy summer’s day!

 Serve this soup with Ham and Cheeses Toasts – Recipe and pic is below.

Ingredients

10 large Tomatoes (any variety)
1 full globe of garlic
1 red onion
Salt
Pepper
1 chicken stock cube (or 1 cup of real stock)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Cut tomatoes in half, cut the top off the garlic, peel the onion, keep the root attached and slice up to the root.
3. Spray all with olive oil, crack over salt and pepper. Put in oven for about 30-40 minutes or until slightly ‘cajun’
4. Let it cool a little and remove the skins from the tomatoes, put into a large bowl. Squeeze out a couple of garlic cloves from their papery skins and chuck in the onion. Add the chicken stock cube.
5. BUZZ with a stick blender
6. check for seasoning. Add extra garlic and salt and pepper as required. (I added about 6 cloves)
7. Serve with Cheesy Toasts

Ham Cheesy Toasts

Ingredients

French Stick, sliced
Cheese (any firm cheese), finely grated
Ham, finely sliced
leftover roasted garlic (from soup recipe)

Method

Grill the bread on one side, turn over and spread the garlic over it. (once it is roasted, the garlic spreads like butter)

sprinkle over cheese and ham. Toast until bubbled and brown.

The 6-pack

Lamington Goodness

The long and complicated history of Lamingtons can be found here, but I don’t want to get into that here. Lamingtons are delicious and bloody Australian, and that’s all I need to know! 

The other wares on sale at the stall

So what I’d like to know, do you have a favourite lamington?  Where is it to be found? Please share with me the secret location of YOUR favourite lamington.

DOUGH
(these are very rough estimates of quantity – I just chucked it in the bowl, and it seemed to work – I’m sure it’ll work for you too!)

1tbsp Instant Dried Yeast
1tbsp Sugar
1 cup Wholemeal Flour
1/2 cup Plain Flour – and more to knead
Water
1tbsp Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt
Pepper

1. Add the yeast, sugar, salt and a splash of water to a large bowl, mix around with a fork.
2. Add flours and oil and mix around, adding extra water to make a smooth dough
3. Flour your hands, a board and the dough and knead for a minute to smooth out.
4. Put back in bowl, gladwrap it, and place on top of the stove until needed (it will be a warm place while the oven is preheating)

5. Preheat oven and a flat baking tray to 180 Degrees

TOPPING

1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tbsp Yoghourt
2 cloves Garlic
Pepper
- Mix to combine.

2 handfuls Spinach, wilted in frypan and sqeezed of excess moisture
1 cup pumpkin, chopped
1 small onion, sliced
50g ham, chopped
50g pastrami, chopped
1/2 cup light and tasty cheese, grated
extra yoghourt
1/2 cup mixed fresh herbs (we used basil, oregano, rosemary, chives, thyme, tarragon)

Heat a frypan and add pumpkin and onion, and cook for a few minutes to add colour

On a piece of baking paper, sprinkle a bit of flour and pop the dough on top. With your hands, or a rolling pin, stretch the dough to make a rough round shape. Spray edges with olive oil spray and put straight on top of the preheated baking tray in the oven for 2-3 minutes to par-bake.

Remove dough from oven, spread over paste mixture, and arrange vegetables, meat and the herbs over the top. Sprinkle with grated cheese, add small dollops of yoghourt on top.

Heat in oven until cheese melts and dough is golden brown.