some christmas goodness

 Oh la la.. Cooking at Christmas is always so fun. I love the excitement of getting everything cooked, heated and served at the right time. This year we were cooking for 13 people and it was quite the adventure! Lucky my ma is a cooking pro and she organised all the shopping and ingredients and I just got to help out for the fun bits. I managed to get some photos of some of the deliciousness.

This ham was possibly the best ham I have ever eaten. I love the tradition of eating both ham and turkey for Christmas (turf and turf) but normally I find cooked ham a little tasteless. It reminds me of chewing on a moist sponge and I find that the flavour used to baste the beast never actually seeps into the meat.

But this year the ham was jaw-dropping-ly good. The skin was removed, the meat scored and cloves were pierced into the squares. The ham was then basted frequently while cooking in a maple and brandy glaze. I think basting the ham every ten minutes or so really helped the meat to stay moist and the flavour to infuse.

With the left-over glaze I whipped up the best ever gravy (much to my mother's disgust) by adding a little cornflower, salt and pepper. EASY! Although apparently it is a Christmas miracle that it didn't turn lumpy as I didn't pre-mix the cornflower (who was to know).

 

I also made a mad cranberry sauce from the Donna Hay Christmas cookbook. It was super simple and was a nice change from the simple jar sauces. When I started cooking this it felt like I was making mulled wine; mixing red wine, sugar, cinnamon and star anise and boiling it down. After straining the mixture and drinking a little, I then added fresh cranberries and a jar of whole cranberry jelly and kept it over a low heat for about 10 minutes. Mmmmmmmm..

 

OH my gosh! I am excited even thinking about what to write about these chocolates!

They are from the Norman and Dann food store in Hobart, Tasmania. These chocolates caused a stir last year at Christmas as they were so delicious and so beautifully presented. We sat around a table cutting them into little pieces and savoring every little bite. They are amazing!! I can only hope they are our new Christmas tradition (thanks to our Tasmanians)

movida love

When Jim and I were in France, we would sometimes daydream about Melbourne and what we would eat if we were there. We always regretted not having eaten at Movida before we left. We always talked about going but something else would always pop up. Finally after a year of dreaming about it we went, twice in one week, and it was amazing! I only ended up taking this one photo as I was too excited about eating to remember to take more.

This was the Wagyu steak Tartare that I ordered. I have never been good at eating a whole plate of raw meat (and normally just eat it off other people's plates) so I now see this dish as a turning point. It was so very delicious, a little bit spicy and it tasted so fresh. While in France, I tasted quite a few different steak Tartare and Movida's dish was a strong contender.

Some other stand outs from the night was the rabbit with roasted almonds, the truffle and cream served in a hollowed out egg shell and the anchovy served on croutons with a smoked tomato sorbet. Every dish that came to the table was well presented and delicious. The service was great, the atmosphere fun and while I wasn't choosing the wine, everything I drank was good. For desert, the hot chocolate ganache pudding with vanilla bean ice-cream and nougat was almost too rich but was a great dish to share.

honey joys

The other day my sister taught me how to make her famous honey joys. These are such a party favourite for all ages and they are quick to make, and also to eat.

Here is how we did it...

First put 90 grams of butter in a little saucepan, then add 1/3 of a cup of sugar and a big tablespoon of honey (add more if you love honey). Heat on a medium stove until the mixture is foamy/ bubbly.

Pour the mixture over 4 cups of cornflakes and stir in well being careful not to crush the cornflakes too much. Put the mixture in muffin cups and bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Honey- joyful joyful!

 

 

 

mushroom and onion pies

We had some left over pastry from making mince pies so we decided to make some savoury pies.

One of the most amazing things I have ever put in my mouth is the onion tart from the Brasserie Ilê Saint Louis in Paris. This tart makes my mouth drool thinking about it. It is on the entrés menu, they have probably been making it for decades and the final product is spot on. It's the perfect mix of beautifully flakey pastry with the smooth and creamy onion filling- who knew something so basic could have so much flavour?

So here is my new pie recipe in honour of the onion tart.

Chop up 3 big brown onions, brown them really slowly in a chunk of butter, cook cook cook until the onions are a light brown colour adding herbs (i used rosemary and bay leaves) as you please. Add a generous splash of red wine (probably about a cup, more if you like) and slowly simmer until the wine cooks off. Add mushrooms and then cook on for another while.

Prepare your pie oven tray, I put the pastry together in bits and bobs to make it look rustic and fun. In the bottom of each pie casing, add a small layer of bread crumbs to stop the bottom from going soggy (thanks mum for the tip) and then scoop in the filling (which hopefully is not too liquid by this stage). Add the pastry tops with some fun designs on the lids, pierce the tops with a fork, brush with some egg wash or butter and bake in the oven until the pastry is hard and golden. As the middle is already well cooked, it's just the pastry that needs to brown.

We served our pies with big steaks, mashed potato and mushy peas (which I hated until I tried them at S&M, a sausage and mash restaurant in London).

Voilà!

 

 

 

waffles

These are the waffles I nearly didn't order because I wasn't overly hungry/ didn't want to commit to too much sugar first thing in the morning. Luckily everybody on the table, and even the waitress talked me into getting them. They were perfect! A beautiful stack of crisp waffles, sautéed banana, maple syrup, cinnamon, walnuts and a spoon of creamy marscapone to top it all off. Delicious!!

Waffle Stack
ZenZero Blue cafe
32 Best Street, cnr St Georges road, North Fitzroy.

bake-off

There is something so satisfying about cooking in a clean, big, light-filled kitchen with a well stocked fridge and pantry. Since leaving home, I have never had that kind of luxury, that's why I love going home to my parents house and cooking up a storm. It's simple really, you have a flip through mum's cooking books, choose a recipe that tickles your fancy, check off the ingredients list in the well stocked pantry and away you go!

Here's what we cooked to get into the christmas spirit. This mince pie recipe was from a Donna Hay christmas book. They really turned out much better than I was expecting. They were light, yet still buttery with a nice taste of brandy. It ended up making a lot less mince pies than the recipe indicated but I think that's because a little bit of the filling ended up on ice-cream which tasted amazing!

I really loved the use of negative space for the lids, it also made the pies a lot lighter with a stronger focus on the filling rather than the pastry.

 

 

 

 

36 hours and 4 meals in paris

What would you do if you were faced with two last days in Paris?
Only 36 hours and 4 meals (one of which was breakfast) to revisit all of our favourite Parisian haunts, eat delicious food, and drink good French wines. We spent many days prior to our arrival deciding where to go for our two last dinners. We love thinking/talking/dreaming of food, making  this one tough decision.Do you go back to your old favourites, or try places you never had the chance to visit? Oh, stress.

So on night number one, we went for champagne in St Germain at 'Fish', a sweet little wine bar filled with expats. Then we headed to La Patache in the 10th near the Canal St Martin for apero. La Patache was one of the first places we ever went for dinner in Paris. They have a selection of wine to bowl you over, delicious picnic style food served with amazing bread and butter and a very cosy and warm atmosphere to while away long winter nights.

After our apero, it was on to Le Chateaubriand in the 11th. We had been here once before on my birthday for their deustation menu. We were blown away with the service (especially me as the waiters were all extremly handsome young French men), the quality of the food and the wines. The 4 course menu changes almost daily but is pretty much always guaranteed to make you weak at the knees with delight (all courses had either meat or fish involved, so many not great for vegetarians or fussy eaters- although their food would propably convert you).

Here is some eye candy of the deliciousness...

 

 

 

After a late and raucous dinner the night before we headed out in our sensible shoes to visit all of our favourite Parisian haunts one last time. Unfortunately it was a public holiday so not everything was open but we had a fantastic day rushing about in the metro, then strolling the streets. We went to Le Marche des Enfants Rouge for some Moroccan snacks (this had been a pretty good lunch spot over the year) then we went to Le Marais for our favourite felafel kebabs (at 5 euros 50 they were a staple when we first moved to Paris and didn't have jobs). Then along Le Canal and up Rue Belleville to Aux Follies for mint tea and cheap coffees. Then onto one last delicious Abraj from the Maroccan bakery (a super yum semolina sandwich type thing with mushy date filling- the perfect accompaniment with coffee for breaky).

 

 

 

 

 

 

That night, we went to the fun cocktail bar AndyWahloo (where they have Louis Vuitton leather seat covers- tres chic) for some Caipis and a catch up with friends before another spectacular dinner in Le Marais at Glou. We ate a massive Pata Negra entree, followed by perfectly cooked fish with a mandarin citrus dressing (my my I will miss how well the French cook fish) and a pretty special pecan pie for desert. More bottles of delicious wine and great service from a very handsome witer. We then squeezed in one last drink at La Perle and then headed home for 4 hours sleep before going to the airport and catching our flight back to Australia. My belly was so happy but my heart so sad.

 

 

Au revoir for now Paris,