January, perspective + Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter.

Blogs are a funny one. You share a part of your life but not all of your life because who wants to read about the crappy stuff. It’s the same with social media, who wants to see a filtered photo of a too cold, sad sandwich (yes sandwiches can be sad) balancing on your knee in a hospital room? The answer is no one. But life does have it’s crappy moments and January, boy oh boy did you have yours. Everything’s different now, for not so great reasons and also, for the best.

We knew it was coming, it just snuck up on us all a little quicker than expected. About two weeks ago we moved my dad into a nursing home to live. He has alzheimer's. He was diagnosed 5 years ago, just before his 63rd birthday. He was too young then and still is. It’s shit. It’s not fair. But it is life I guess. 

I know how lucky I am for everything and everyone I have and I could have kept this to myself and there are things I have kept to myself over the years. It is just part of life now and if I didn’t share it I’d feel weird going on and on about, what sometimes feels like nonsense here, when really some days are just plain shitty. I do also feel weird sharing it but I think it’s good to see both the good and crappy. It’s real. It’s life. And I don't think it's talked about enough.

But in saying that, I scrolled through the photos on my phone last night and it made me realise you’d never have known the year didn’t have the most joyest of beginnings. We just don't take photos of the ok days, it’s the good ones which you find yourself blurting ‘SMILE!’ out at someone and also grinning like an idiot in hopes the other person smiles too. Yes, some days were sadder than others but not every day was bad. January also included a mini-break to Cottesloe in WA for a cousin-in-laws (is that a thing?) wedding where we met up with family who we don’t see nearly enough and I rode a bicycle. Now this may not sound like a big thing for the average joe but I’m so so bad on a bike and it was my idea to hire them. As soon as I said it and everyone agreed I instantly thought, oh crap what have I done!? But I’m getting better and it was so worth the sore bum and all the weird squarks I made trying not to ride into people and parked cars. The views and beaches along the costal bike track are beautiful but pretty sure the cold beer and chicken parama at the end helped too. Oh and there are so many dogs along the way!! I couldn’t appreciate them as much as the others or I’d have fallen off and face planted the path but why doesn’t Sydney have more dog beaches? They should.

Blondies - a cross between a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie.

Jack Frost has taken leave this winter in Sydney. I haven't had any icy mornings or crunchy grass and winter has been here for officially 3 weeks now. I think the weather is drunk. Crazy storms one weekend (like swimming pools falling in the ocean) and then humid the next. Where is winter?? Jack Frost where are you??

Since Mr Frost has taken leave I've not had any desire to cook wintery comfort food yet. Instead all I've thought about it blondies. What are blondies? They are like a poor mans brownie since they have a whole bunch less chocolate in them but still just as good or more traditionally, a vanilla version of brownies. They go perfect with a morning coffee, delicious heated up so the chocolate chunks go molten with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (in front of the fire - if you're lucky enough to get cold weather to warrant a fire) or if your a cookies and cold milk kind of foodie then these will blow your mind. To me they are a mixture between a really great chocolate chip cookie and a brownie.

Have I convinced you that you need these? I need them. If only there was more hours in the day and we were born with two stomachs, I could cook and eat everything I ever want in a day.

Instead, since it's the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, why not do some night time baking and enjoy a molten blondie with some vanilla ice cream on the couch snuggled up tonight. Fingers crossed it gets a little frosty in Sydney!

*photo fail but since it's like a cross between a brownie and chocolate chip cookie - thought this was appropriate. Or click here to get your fix of 'blondie' images.

Blondies

adapted from Food52 & Cook's Illustrated 

100g macadamia nuts
215g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g butter, melted and cooled
290g brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
90g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate

- Preheat oven to 350F and move trays to bottom wrack. Spread macadamia nuts onto large baking tray and bake for about 10-15 minutes. Transfer nuts to chopping board to cool, roughly chop and set aside.

- While the nuts are toasting, line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan/tin with baking paper, making sure the edges come up a little higher so you can lift the blondie out once baked.

- Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

- Whisk melter butter and brown sugar together in a medium bowl until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Fold in the dry ingredients using a rubber spatular, until just combined but do not over mix. Fold through chocolate and nuts then pour into prepared tin and smooth over the top making sure the batter is level on top.

- Bake for about 22-25 minutes, until top is shiny, cracked and lightly brown. Do not over bake! Cool on a wire wrack in the baking tin until room temperature (if you can last that long!). Remove from pan by using the overhanging baking paper and cut into squares and enjoy!

Rhubarb and Apple Galette with an all butter spelt pie crust.

Yossy Arefi from the blog 'Apt 2b Baking Co' recently released her first cookbook 'Sweeter off the Vine' but I am yet to get my hands on a copy (come on payday!). This hasn't stopped me drooling over the recipes and photos from it, you see I've turned into bit of a stalker. I've been reading all the reviews from other bloggers who have a copy and I have serious FOMO. So to try and fix my serious case of FOMO I decided to make a recipe from her blog instead to feel included in this online bake-a-long. Just to make you also have FOMO, you can see a trailer for the cookbook here and if you don't crave pie or blueberry cobbler after watching it, something is wrong with you.

It was the perfect opportunity last weekend when I found a semi dodgy looking bunch of rhubarb (I think it was the last of the season) hiding in the bottom of our veg box. It was just asking to be turned into pie and when I saw the apple and rhubarb galette on Yossy's blog I was sold. A galette is a free formed tart where you pile the fruit in the centre of the rolled out pie crust and fold the edges over so a tart tin is not needed. It's rustic and in my opinion so much better than a traditional tart, you get more of the flaky pastry edges but not quite as much if you had made a pie so I think of galettes somehow in between a pie and a tart... kind of. Anyway, it definitely doesn't skimp on indulgence.

The recipe starts with your favourite variety of all butter pie crust. I don't have a specific favourite so had a little search around for a recipe and found a rye pie crust from Food52 but couldn't find rye flour (I didn't try very hard) so decided to use spelt instead. Totally different flavours I know but I just went with it and I think I've found my favourite pie crust because boy oh boy was it good!

You smoosh the cubed butter into fat discs so you end up with chunks of butter spotted throughout the dough, which when baked go all flaky and buttery and with the raw sugar sprinkled on top you get that sweet crunch. You can never go wrong with the combination of rhubarb and apple, it's always a perfect match. The tartness of the rhubarb works so well with the sweetness of the cooked apple and then the flaky buttery pastry... oh my! It is seriously good pie crust. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the warm galette and you've lost me to this dessert forever.

The pie crust recipe makes enough for two galettes (or one pie) so I have a disk in my freezer just waiting for me to roll it out, fill it with fruit and bake it. I know what I'll be baking and eating this weekend - and I highly suggest you make this too. As in, now.

Rhubarb & Apple galette

makes 1x 9-inch tart/galette
adapted from Apt 2b Baking Co by Yossy Arefi

1/2 recipe of all butter spelt pie crust (see recipe below)
225g rhubarb
1 large baking apple or 2 small apples
1/2 lemon
4 tablespoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 vanilla bean
pinch salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon raw sugar

- Line a baking tray with baking paper and preheat your oven to 200C/400F.

- Cut the rhubarb into 1/4-inch by 3-inch batons and the apple into thin slices, no need to peel.

- Use a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Combine them with the 4 tablespoons of sugar and using your finger tips rub the sugar and vanilla seeds together to evenly disperse them.

- Roll out the pie crust till it's about 12-inches in diameter then transfer onto the lined baking tray. Sprinkle the flour and 1 tablespoon of the vanilla sugar over the top, leaving a 2-inch boarder around the edge. Arrange your rhubarb batons and apple slices in the centre, overlapping each other and keeping the 2-inch boarder. Sprinkle the remaining vanilla sugar along with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice over the top of the fruit.

- Fold your boarder of excess dough over the fruit and press gently to seal the fold. Put the whole thing in the freezer until the dough is firm, about 15 minutes. While the galette is in the freezer, whisk your egg up in a small bowl.

- After the galette has chilled, brush the edges of the dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Bake until deep golden brown, about 35-45 minutes.

all butter spelt pie crust

makes 1 pie or 2 tarts/galettes

adapted from Food52 article by Yossy Arefi

170g plain flour
170g spelt flour *
250g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
120ml ice water

- Combine flours and salt in a bowl. Using your fingers smoosh the cubed butter into smaller pieces, some the size of squashed peas and others the size of podded broad beans. Some of the butter will end up completely worked into the flour, thats ok but you want some chunks as this makes the pastry flaky - don't be afraid of the chunky butter bits, this is not shortcrust pastry remember.

- Combine the water and apple cider vinegar into a jug. Make a well in the centre of your flour and butter mixture and slowly pour about 6 tablespoonfuls of the water-vinegar into the dough while gently mixing. If the dough seems dry add a teaspoon more at a time (I added ended up adding all the liquid but this will depend on your flour). You have added enough water when you can pick up a handful of dough and squeeze it together easily without falling apart. Press the dough together then split into two discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough for at least an hour (or overnight) in the fridge.

You can freeze the dough for up to one month wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil. You will need to thaw it in the fridge until completely defrosted before use.

*I found spelt flour in the health food section of my local supermarket. You can also use all plain flour in this recipe if you don't have spelt flour on hand.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with a Fish Sauce Vinaigrette from Food52's Genius Recipes cookbook.

When you read enough food blogs you realise everyone has 'the' recipe for you and I am guilty of that too. There are these recipes that flood the internet every now and then that nearly every food blog has a slightly adapted version of it on there, again I am also guilty of this. Most of those recipes which are worth writing about again and again are worth making and the ones which pop up the most end up on bigger sites then just little old food blogs, some even end up in cookbooks.

The other day I write a whole post on brussel sprouts. Yep thats right. I had a whole lot to say about them but then when I re-read it back I sounded like a sales woman for this recipe that I had stumbled across in Food52's Genius Recipes. And for goodness sakes there brussel sprouts right? You either love them or hate them. I sit somewhere in the middle and until about 2 weeks ago I didn't know how else to cook them except put them in a microwave safe dish, cover with cling film and press the fresh vegetable button on the microwave. When the microwaves beeps, smother them in butter with pepper and salt and you're done, right? Well, did you know you can roast them? I didn't until I read the recipe for Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette so maybe thats what I was trying to sell in my previous post that will never be published. You can bake them!

You literally toss them with some olive oil and place them on a baking tray and bung them in the oven. That easy.

They were completely unexpected - sweet from being roasted but salty and spicy from the fish sauce vinaigrette. I even used the vinaigrette later in the week for other roast vegetables like carrot, broccoli and mushrooms and it was so good. The recipe makes alot and you only need a couple of table spoons drizzled on top but it does keep well in the fridge for a few days. Plus the washing up was minimal which is always a good thing.

To sum this recipe up, they were kick-ass sprouts which will impress anyone you serve them to, even Tristan who is Brussel Sprout hater loved them or if I haven't convinced you with the sprouts, do the same with broccoli. It's worth it!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with a Fish Sauce Vinaigrette

Recipe from Food52's Genius Recipes cookbook which is lights adapted from Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan. Below is slightly adapted, find original recipe here.

Serves 4

Fish sauce vinaigrette (see below)

2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander stems & 1/2 cup leaves

3 tablespoons chopped mint

900g brussel sprouts
2 tablespoons light olive oil (or any other neutral oil)

- Preheat oven to 400F/190C.

- Combine vinaigrette (see below), coriander stems and mint in a bowl and set aside

- Peel away any loose or discoloured outer leaves, trim the dry end of the stems with a knife, and cut the sprouts in half. Cut any especially large ones in quarters. Do not wash, but if they are really dirty and you need to make sure you dry them very well.

- Toss the sprouts with the olive oil and spread them on a baking sheet, cut sides down. Roast in the oven, checking for browning every 10-15 minutes, tossing them around with a spatula only once they start to brown nicely. The sprouts are ready when they are tender but not soft, with nice, dark brown colour.

- Serve them warm or at room temperature. When ready to serve, divide the brussels sprouts among four bowls (or serve it all out of one big bowl), top with the dressing (about 3-4 tablespoons) to taste and coriander leaves, and toss once or twice to coat.

Fish Sauce Vinaigrette
Note: I halved the recipe below as the original makes alot.
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1 birds eye chilli, thinly sliced (or a good pinch of dried chilli flakes)

- Combine the fish sauce, water, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chiles in a jar.

- Taste; If too salty, add more water and/or lime juice. This vinaigrette will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

'Let my eggplant go free!' with spaghetti from Food52's Genius Recipes cookbook.

If you remember my post from 2 weeks ago about my struggle and failure to cook for one and you decide to keep reading this, you'll find out I still haven't mastered it. BUT what I have done is found a delicious pasta sauce recipe with a rich eggplant and sun-dried tomato sauce which a pretty funky name... 'Let my Eggplant go free'. Yep that the name of the recipe.

While Tristan was away this time I made a conscious decision to not let me self get into a frump about cooking for one. However I made enough dinner to feed about 4 people but only me to eat it. It meant lunches for the next couple of days so I wasn't complaining and it also meant I got to pig out on a huge bowl of spaghetti while watching 'Married at First Sight'.

This recipe has been around for a few years now but it's been recently re-published in the Food52 Genius Recipes cookbook by Kristen Miglore. It is another recipe I first saw on Luisa's blog The Wednesday Chef and then put two and two together while flicking through the cookbook, it's not like you come across a recipe name like that every day. So when I saw it on her blog and in Food52's book I just had to make it.

I'm not sure mushed the eggplant enough as mine looked a little different. I also didn't have dried tomatoes or basil so I used sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil and parsley since our parsley plant has gone bonkers. I've been putting parsley in everything lately... a bit of neglect and tough love and it's thriving!

First I started off salting the eggplant slices which is something most recipes tell you to do when cooking eggplant but I've always skipped this step and never done it. I did however do it this time. I salted my eggplant then jumped in the shower and by the time I was out and dressed again it has been about 20 minutes and the chopping board was full of water. So there is a purpose to this madness of salting. Next I diced it and through it in to the pan with what looked like a huge amount of extra virgin oil but within seconds all the oil was soaked up and the cubes of eggplant looks like they were dry frying.

Sometimes I don't understand the next step in a recipe if I haven't made it before until I see it happening. I have to trust the recipe which can be daunting to see what happens. Fry the eggplant until translucent huh? but it's eggplant. After not too long I knew what the recipe meant... sometimes you have to have faith but I have had experiences where I have screamed at books doing exactly what it said and ended up with a lumpy burnt mess. So it's a little hit and miss making something for the first time but theres nothing like a little adventure in the kitchen!

After adding some water to the eggplant and letting it simmer away until there was almost no liquid left I mushed it up using a potato masher and the back of a spoon, added the parsley and sun-dried tomatoes. I served it with a pretty decent serving of parmesan I sat down to some trashy tv and a huge bowl of pasta on the couch while the cat snored next to me.

This sauce is rich without looking rich. When you start fill your fork with a huge mouthful of spaghetti and try and get a bit of everything on it, all the extra virgin olive oil you put in the pan first is still there in the silky eggplant sauce and coats your lips like a good lip gloss. The herbs thrown in at the end give it a really fresh vibe which I think it needs, maybe even a squirt of lemon juice on top next time. It's not the prettiest but its definitely a winner if you love eggplant, just keep in mind this serves 4 people not 1 person alone with their cat.

'let my eggplant go free!' with spaghetti

Recipe by Francis Lam from Food52's Genius Recipes cookbook. - with my variations below.

Serves 4

450g eggplant, cut into ½ inch slices
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
2 springs thyme or oregano, chopped - I used 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 cup chicken stock or water
2 tablespoons sun-dried or oven-dried tomatoes, minced - I used ones which were kept in olive oil
6 leaves basil, sliced thinly - I used a handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
450g spaghetti

- Lightly salt the slices of eggplant and stack them back together. Let sit for about 20 minutes or so.

- Put the olive oil in a heavy saucepan, add the garlic cloves, and set over low heat. 

- Dry off the eggplant, cut it into chunks. When you start hearing the garlic sizzle a little and can smell it, drop in your eggplant and stir to coat it all with oil (this is where your oil will look like it has disappeared). Turn up the heat a little bit to medium high and add the thyme or oregano and stir. 

- Cook until the eggplant started to turn translucent and softens. Add the water/stock and let it come to a boil then turn it back down to medium-low. Let it bubble for a bit and cover it, leaving a crack for steam to escape. Stir once in a while so that the bottom doesn’t stick. If it does start to stick add a splash more water/stock.

- After about 20 minutes or so, the liquid in the eggplant pan should be mostly evaporated and the eggplant should be soft and melting. Mash it with a fork or spoon (I used a potato masher), and adjust the seasoning to taste.

- Meanwhile get the water on a boil for your pasta and cook the spaghetti until al dente. Make sure your spaghetti doesn't sit around waiting for you sauce to cook so try and time it according to the packet instructions to give you an idea of when to put it in the boiling water but always taste to check when cooked.

5. Toss the eggplant mush with the al dente spaghetti. Stir in the minced tomatoes and basil (or parsley). Drizzle with a little more olive oil if you dare and serve with some finely grated parmesan cheese and extra cracked pepper.

Anya von Bremzen's Potato Soup with Fried Almonds.

Since it started to get chilly here I have been completely obsessed with soup. Yes soup.

Growing up there was a few soups we got the choice of; pumpkin soup with a swirl of cream on top, chunky beef with vegetable and lentils that always tasted better the next day and parsnip soup which was only ever made when Mum was hosting a dinner party and she made extra for my dinner as well.

The first soup I made was Nigella Lawson’s Minestrone soup from ‘How to Eat’ and it was about 7 years ago. I remember this soup being a huge deal. I searched for a perfect minestrone recipe for days and when I found Nigella's I had to have the exact amount of everything and chopped exactly as it was written in the book. I even insisted on making homemade bread from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' to go with it which turned out like a large rock that just crumbled. My intentions were good and all I wanted to do was serve a homey meal and use the huge stock pot in the back of the cupboard but we ended up eating dinner at 10 o’clock at night and I’m pretty sure I yelled at one or two family members who attempted to enter the kitchen to see how dinner was coming along.

Had I cut the vegetables in the right sizes? What if mine were bigger than Nigella’s? What if they wouldn’t cook perfcetly? or what if they were smaller and they turned to mush? These were my worries when I made my first soup.

I’m feeling like a soup-pro these days and my soup making skills have come a long way since I was 19 and cooking in my mother kitchen. The chicken soup a made a few weeks ago was a revelation. I was amazed that I could create a chicken soup in less than an hour and that is had all the flavour locked in it still. The vegetable soup with a dollop of pesto on top is always a winner in our apartment but now I wanted to try Anya von Bremzen's Potato Soup with Fried Almonds from Food 52's Genius Recipes. And by golly it's a winner!

I’ve been wanting to make something out of this cookbook for a couple of weeks now but haven’t gotten around to it until recently.

I made it for a couple of girlfriends who came over for dinner and I’ll be honest I was hesitant to make it...I mean potato soup isn’t the most appealing sounding dinner is it? But I trusted the reviews of the recipe and the fact that it was in a cookbook call ‘Genius Recipes’ and let me tell you it didn’t disappoint. I loved it! It was easy to make, ready within the hour and really freakin’ delicious.

You can easily double the recipe to feed more people like I did, (I made one and a half recipes) as I have nightmares of having people over for dinner and them leaving hungry…

I’m not really sure how else to explain this soup but Luisa from the blog ‘The Wednesday Chef’ (one of my favourite blogs) made this soup a few years ago and called the soup 'sexy'. I guess it kind of is but I don’t have a way with words like she does and can’t quite explain why. Just make it!

Anya von Bremzen's Potato Soup with Fried Almonds

(Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 for dinner)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
6 large garlic cloves
55g finely diced prosciutto 
680g Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled & cut into irregular 1 1/2-inch chunks (I used ordinary 'washed' potatoes)
4 cups chicken stock
1 pinch saffron, crushed (I forgot to crush it...)
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (I used verjuice as I didn't have any sherry vinegar)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Crusty bread & Salty butter, for serving

- Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the almonds and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden, 4 to 5 minutes, adjusting the heat so the oil doesn't burn. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the almonds and garlic to a bowl to cool slightly. 

- Add the prosciutto to the pan and stir for 1 minute. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the soup.

- Meanwhile, place the almond and garlic mixture in a food processor and grind it. Add all but about 2 tablespoons to the soup. 

- Steep the saffron in a few tablespoons of the soup broth for 2 minutes, then add it to the soup. Simmer the soup, partially covered, until about half the potatoes have disintegrated, about 35 minutes. Continue to skim the soup as it cooks, and add a little more stock if the soup seems too thick.

- When ready to serve, break up some of the potatoes using a fork. Add the vinegar (verjuice) to the reserved ground almond mixture and stir it into the soup. Add the parsley and cook for a minute. Season with salt and pepper and taste, adding a little more vinegar (verjuice) according to taste. 

- Serve with bread smothered in salty butter.