November
2005 |
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| Saffron excess- still got loads from Emma's 30th do |    |
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| Saffron buns are traditionally made with lard but good lard is hard to come by, especially in non-porky Oz. Shona made a saffron dough from a recipe in the Independent a few years back (of non-Simon H origin!) having rubbed in a large amount of butter. The dough was quite wet, but the currants would absorb the moisture. The poor little buns almost got incinerated thanks to 'Batman Begins'. However, they were delicious. | ||
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Some left over sirloin with avocado. | |
| Open house for a barbecue so I commissioned Shona to do the marinated Lamb shoulder a la Mme Jaffrey. Two boned shoulders of lamb delighted the butcher at Engadine- so Shona says. A selection of pakora made very tasty finger food, dipped in green sauce. All went down very well. The whole affair was a bit like a continuous play with various families arriving and departing throughout the day. | ||
| Going Italiano, Shona prepared a very fine antipasto spread of rocket with pine nuts and parmesan, ham and olives, tomato and mozzarella buffala and wee artichokes cooked in an equal amount of oil and white wine. The bread is from La Tartine at the farmers market. |  |
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| The Jackson Pollock above was an attempt to make crêpes on the bbq. I really needed the T-shaped stick used to swirl the mixture to an even, though far less interesting, thickness. Anyway, Shona made a lovely spinach and cheese filling. For dessert, I had poached some peaches we had bought at the beginning of our trip down the coast. I did this in white wine and a little sugar and accompanied with cream, a fantastic 60% fat effort from Victoria, almost clotted cream. | ||
| We went
down the south coast and camped just beyond Narooma at a stunning
campsite at the wonderfully named 'Mystery Bay'- real famous five stuff.
Not sure what we ate on the first night, the memory is somewhat
overshadowed by that of running around semi-naked trying to put a second
tent up that promptly leaked iteslf. First time ever sleeping in the
back of a car, and even that leaked. Second night we had some barbecued
chicken, the thighs sprinkled with rosemary and the legs done in
paperbark, which has been hanging around for about a year. I have only
just noticed such a tree at the front of our house. The aroma is
wonderful.
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| In
Narooma we were advised of the origin of the oysters we ate in a
waterside restaurant, so we bought 3 dozen of the blighters, well, they
were quite wee. When we got back to Bundeena we had a fantastic meal of
sourdough (from a woodfired bakery in Berry, very good), oysters, a
cooked Balmain bug and a small piece of tuna. The bug was the nicest
ever, having not been frozen as most of them seem to be, which is a
great shame. The Narooma oysters were just fantastic, very green tasting
if that is possible.
The following days I made a favourite of oyster omelette with chives, washed down with Coopers stout, and the next day, oysters with pasta, melted shallot and cream. Enough oysters for now. |
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| Swiss chard lasagne | ||
| We had a delicious paw paw salad on Darwins Mindil beach back in June, with freshly grated strips of paw paw pounded with garlic, peanuts, chili and maybe lime. Here in Sydney, some very pretty Boys are serving up beautifully presented SE Asian fruit and veg at the Farmers market. They too are offering paw paw salad, but this one was less pounded and had more 'bits' in like slivers of miniscule raw aubergine. Very good snack indeed. I really must get the instructions for fish sauce preparation. | ||
| More squash gnocchi | ||