Cookie

Oh Cookie. Is your Bloody Mary worth $19?

It does feature muddled cherry tomatoes as well as lemon and lime...and actually contains what I believe to be the obligatory horseradish and tobasco (but sometimes omitted), as well as celery (also sometimes omitted) with the OTT salt-rim...




but, my answer is no.

They do let you chose the level of spiciness though, which is a plus. To me it is like asking to levels of flavour.
This is my friend trying to finish it off, unsuccessfully.

To quote: Oh no, my nose is too Italian for this glass. You want to do it, you're Asian.

When you're a responsible adult

And you're not on a diet, you say, "Fuck you icecream, I'll show you!"

That's a panzerotti from the night market filled with chicken and pea risotto. A panzerotti is basically a deep fried calzone and probably one of the better things at the market. And I know what you're thinking...calzones aren't filled with risotto.

That is because they are not.

I believe his was previously filled with salami, mozarella and napoli.

Kudos.

Oh, and he actually ate it.

Quinoa makes a come back.

Nothing much to say, more kitchen-bitching.

Quinoa Salad
serves 8

2 cups of cooked quinoa
1 bunch of parsley, leaves only, roughly torn by hand
1/3 bunch of mint, leaves only, shredded
2 bunches of broccolini
500 g fresh peas, podded
2 bunches of baby asparagus, sectioned
2 handfuls of almonds and walnuts, roasted and chopped
goats curd
1 lemon
salt
pepper

Mix the quinoa and herbs together while warm. Blanch the broccolini, peas and asparagus and add to the quinoa mix and toss. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Dollop goats curd over the top and top with the nuts and serve.

Blood for your Blood?

My friends were doing a performance called After for the Streets of Melbourne festival over the weekend and I was their personal kitchen bitch for the time.

The first night saw a lot of clambering and hiking bags full of ingredients, fridge cramming and impromptu cooking.

I made a bastardisation of Borscht from the ingredients they had. I know, hiking bags full, and still no cabbage or oink-oink.

One of the reasons for the Borscht, other than these being the first ingredients found, that their hearts all exploded on CentrePlace. It only seemed fitting.

Borscht
Serves 6
(and then some)

1 lamb shank, salted
2 cloves of garlic
2 beetroots, trimmed and diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 large leek, diced
1 large potato, diced
vegetable stock, to cover, and some extra
2 bay leaves
Salt
freshly cracked pepper
1/2 a bunch of parsley, chopped
yogurt


Seal the shank in a heavy pot, and reduce the heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrot, leek, potato and saute till translucent. Add the beetroot and cover with the vegetable stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 3 hours, skimming the scum off the top.
Scum bucket

When the shank is fork-tender, remove the meat from the bone, shred and return to the pot. Season to taste.
Stir in half the parsley.

Mix the yogurt with the rest of the parsley and dollop over the top of the soup when serving.

After the dumpling madness

Remember this?

Well, in the remnants, before I went to the gym, I fed the kids.

It was really tasty and unfortunately, I couldn't eat it. This is because if I eat before going to the gym, I usually find myself either incredibly nauseous or I throw up at some stage when I stop moving.

Really, it's disgusting.

Fried rice noodles with Chinese broccoli
(Technically serves 2)

1/2 packet of dried rice stick noodles, rehydrated in cold water and set aside
1 handful of black fungus, cut in strips, rehydrated in boiling water, water reserved

2 slices of ginger
1 bunch of Chinese broccoli, sectioned
1 1/2 teaspoons of XO sauce
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of chili oil (pictured on table)
1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce

2 spring onions, finely sliced.

Add some oil to a hot wok and add the ginger till it starts bubbling, add the chinese broccoli and stir fry for a minute with a bit of salt. Add the noodles and mushroom at this stage, tossing continuously. Add the mushroom water to soften the noodles along with the sauces.
When it is cooked and the noodles have softened, serve with the spring onions as a garnish along with extra chili. Feel free to add a squeeze of lemon/lime juice. It strangely made sense.

When Friends are good to you.

Last week saw desperation at the hand of myself and DaVa.

It seemed that neither of us had access to our accounts or our cash and had twenty dollars to our names for two days. Just to be clear, that was twenty dollars collectively.

I was feeling a little weary and defeated by technology, and DaVa was left confused. So, as I sat at the computer and sighed, he went off to the local Safeway to scrounge something to cook for the both of us because for the first time ever, I really didn't want to set foot in the kitchen. Of course, my anxiety peaked as I let someone loose in my kitchen where my obvious systems with how I shelve, store, pack, use and wash things showed how obsessive compulsive I was (and still am). Of course he giggled, and then at some stage, admitted that I was a mad bitch, but it was all in the name of Napoli.

So, this is what the boy conjured after the guy at Safeway took pity on him and our coins and let him walk free with cash to spare.

Oh, and we noted that the quality of sausage obviously makes or breaks this.

Fennel Sausages in Napoli with a Broccoli Something-Something.

olive oil
1 tin of tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic, diced
3 fennel sausages

pasta, cooked and drained

broccoli, boiled in heavily salted water

Make the napoli by reducing the tomatoes over a low heat with the olive oil after sauteing off the garlic for 30 minutes.
When this is done, swirl half of the napoli with the pasta so it doesn't stick together.
Fry off the sausages and add to the remaining napoli.
After the broccoli is cooked, dice and fry off with a clove of diced garlic and oil.
Assemble by dividing the pasta, adding the sausage and napoli over the top and serve with the broccoli on the side and mix in with the dish at to your own taste.

Wesley Anne in the afternoon is so wrong.

Well, last Friday, after cooking and rehearsing I ran to the Wesley Anne in Northcote for a few beers while my friend and I shared a plate of dips and she ate the beef and Guinness pie with mash and peas.

Unfortunately, it was too nice a day and the only guy working (to be fair, it was three in the afternoon) took ten minutes to notice us at the bar.

Generally, I like the food here, but there was something incredibly wrong this time. The bread was stale and not heated through for the dips. The token rocket was wilted and we preferred to just give up. The range was hummus, beetroot and a carrot and almond dip.

My friend, who had been awake since four in the morning, working for the breakfast news who usually demoishes everything in sight had to leave the peas as they somehow burnt frozen ones. It was just confusing.

So, we decided to make some art.

Dip face, and soon to be pea mountain with a cap of snow.

Fortunately, after this we cleaned it up for them...you know, cos we're nice.