Category Archives: Recipes

A simple pleasure

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Two 500-gram bags of rolled oats, one of crushed oats, roasted almonds (chopped) and sultanas.

That’s been my muesli recipe for more than a decade.

Sometimes, I’ll add some other fruit such as dried apricots.

And sometimes I’ll go without when it becomes too much of a chore, veering towards toast for breakfast.

Just lately, though, my muesli has made a resurgence – and has even become my lunch now that Bennie’s out in the workforce.

And now that I’m home.

Alone.

And pretty much retired.

Or should that read, unemployed?

Or unemployable?

In any case, I am going through a period of loving ma muesli.

Truly, when soaked for a while (or overnight), and with some fresh fruit and a Big Dollop of Greek yoghurt, it seems like a luscious, decadent desert.

 

 

Especially when the fresh fruit is fresh feijoas.

Wow.

I’m tellin’ ya, it’s as good as tiramisu!

CTS Readers’ Eats Digest 31/3/20

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From Sharnae in Werribee: “My almost five-year-old learning the joys and deliciousness of homemade pasta. It’s a simple carbonara with bacon, garlic, eggs, and parmesan and parsley.”

 

From Greg in Flemington: “Grass-fed rib eye for two, done sous vide, parsley and roquette salad, parmesan dutch creams, fresh horseradish. Please forgive the opened boxes of vinyl gloves … a sign of our current time.

“The wine was exceptional – Hickinbotham Trueman vineyard cabernet Sauvignon 2012. Have cellared since 2014. Sadly, no change from $75, but we wanted to say to ourslelves, ‘great produce deserves great wine’.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long-time Consider The Sauce readers and supporters Sian and Michael are eating well in West Footscray.

Sian: “We’ve had a couple of takeaway meals from Bruger and West 48, but probably the favourite thing I’ve eaten so far has been Eat Me Soulfood’s lasagna. But I didn’t take a photo of that. They’ve upped their range from single-serve meals (which we typically get two serves out of anyway) to include some ‘family size’ dishes since all this started, which has been great.

“So while we haven’t been shopping ourselves, we’ve had some fresh food to eat anyway!  I did make my own bread the other weekend – AND mozzarella from scratch!

“This Saturday past I ventured out to see what Restaurant Navi were doing with their new bakery option. Turned up five minutes before opening and stood in a carefully distancing queue for an hour, ordered at the door and brought home my sourdough and treats eventually. Turned some of the sourdough into epic three-cheese toasted bread.

“I also made my own pickles for the first time, pictured with a lunch frittata (we’re working from home now, a cooked lunch is viable).

“Next weekend I’m thinking of giving Cobb Lane a go _ they’re offering delivery for orders over $20 in the inner west and I’ve missed them a lot since they went wholesale only.”

 

From the Nat Stockley family in Carnegie: “Chiang Mai-style dishes – pounded jackfruit herbal and herbal chicken soup with mushrooms,”

(Editor’s note: I’m pretty sure Nat took the photos and Kanchana Auttama did the cooking!)

 

The Kimchi Guru

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“Kimchi” by Jackson Pollock, West Footscray, 2018.

 

If there’s one thing that exceeds in enjoyment the fabulous food we eat doing Consider The Sauce, it’s all the many wonderful people we meet in the process.

One of them is Justin Mansfield, a fine bloke and a long-time reader and supporter of CTS who has become a good lunch buddy and all-round pal.

He is also a man with very sour tastes.

We have happily taken delivery of jars from three different batches of his amazing pickled cucumbers.

So when the opportunity arises for me to take up an otherwise empty place in one of his kimchi classes, I grab it.

Even though I’m not a kimchi fan!

I figure Justin’s kimchi is bound to be superior to that served in most Korean places.

Besides, like it or not, I am interested in the story and the process.

(See below for details of a forthcoming class.)

 

 

The crew that gathers at West Footscray House is an interesting and happy one, with about half its members CTS readers.

Justin runs a great class.

He covers just enough of the history and background without getting bogged down in detail.

Just as interesting is his advice on the sourcing of ingredients and the tale behind his journey to becoming a self-confessed “kimchi nerd”.

 

 

Over two and a half enjoyable hours, he takes us from a pile of womboks …

 

 

… to the finished product.

 

 

Along the way, we learn about the necessity of sourcing the right dry ingredients such as salt …

 

 

… and chilli flakes, as well as the other vegetables.

 

 

After that, it’s just a matter of salting …

 

 

… mixing …

 

 

… blending …

 

 

… tossing …

 

 

… and bottling.

It was a hoot!

I learned a lot and now have two bottles of prime kimchi to experiment with at home.

For Justin’s kimchi class on July 15, go here.

 

Pasta with ricotta and asparagus

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Consider The Sauce is relatively familiar with reading and eating pasta recipes involving fresh ricotta.

But in them, the ricotta has always been used in a tomato-based sauce.

I have never seen an Italian recipe using ricotta like this.

But I would in no way be surprised to find there are Italian recipes that are the same or similar – it just seems so very Italian!

This has become a weekly staple for Bennie and I.

We sometimes use green beans, in which case we throw them in with the boiling pasta a few minutes before it is done.

But we prefer asparagus – and with asparagus, timing is everything.

The aim is quickly flash fry the asparagus so it gets a nice charred flavour before it wilts.

It’s a fine line and takes just a few minutes – so best to complete cooking the pasta before throwing the asparagus in the pan.

Depending on what’s at hand, we also sometimes throw in a few chilli slices or parsley.

But in this dish, the seasoning are simple so need to be freely used – very freshly cracked pepper, salt and extra virgin olive oil.

INGREDIENTS

Short pasta

Fresh ricotta

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Finely grated lemon rind or lemon juice to taste.

METHOD

1. Cook pasta, drain.

2. Heat a good dollop of EVOO to high heat, flash fry aspargus so it retians its structure but has started to colour.

3. Turn heat to very low and throw in the pasta, separating any pieces that have stuck together.

4. Add salt and heaps of black pepper.

5. Roughly chop the ricotta and add to pan, mashing to fine crumbs with wooden spoon.

6. Add lemon rind or juice and another splash of EVOO, mix.

7. Serve.

 

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The icing on the biscuits

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Julia’s work – how they’re meant to look.

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My beginner class efforts.

 

Consider The Sauce loves rabbit holes and those who gleefully scamper down them – people who are devoted with joy and passion to their “thing”.

Julia – Miss Biscuit – certainly qualifies.

Since CTS first write about her biscuit decorating pursuits more than three years ago, her dedication has paid dividends.

She’s found the desire for knowledge about her “thing” is so wide and deep that she’s been able to make it her main gig, moving her operations from her Yarraville home to a two-storey headquarters in Seddon.

 

 

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As well, she has become an employer, has embarked on a teaching tour of the Middle East, is bringing specialists from overseas to teach here and has taught many thousands of students and fans herself.

Decorating cookies is never going to something I’ll pursue, but I’m nevertheless extremely grateful for the opportunity to sit in on one of Julia’s beginner classes.

 

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She’s a fine teacher – in this regard, she draws on her background as a speech pathologist. Our class is a mix of information and hands-on practice in the form of decorating nine cookies ourselves.

The information comes in the form of making the base cookies; we are provided three different recipes – Miss Biscuit Vanilla Sugar Biscuits, Gingerbread (Adapted from Bake at 350) and Decadent Chocolate Roll Out Cookies.

The important thing here is that the recipes result in cookies that don’t lose their shape once they’re cut and baked.

 

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Then there is the royal icing itself.

We are led through the basic recipe, then the various consistencies and colours and their uses, as well as the use of piping bags and squeeze bottles.

 

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Finally, there is the matter of piping-bag tips, with some brands being much more favoured than others, and some (the narrow ones) being used for outlining and the wider ones being utilised for flooding, the all-over icing technique that covers whole – or whole parts – of cookies, creating a sort of blank canvas for more ornate artwork and detail.

 

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After demonstrations by Julia of the techniques involved, it’s time to give it a crack ourselves, firstly by trying outling on patterns on paper.

They key to outlining, we’ve been told, is to have tip about inch from the cookie.

 

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I’m surprised at how easy to work the royal icing is.

Mind you, as a rank beginner I do struggle – I try to concentrate on a certain fluidity, a steady hand, some momentum.

Flooding is something quite different – apparently a little easier to do, but I soon find out I have been too sparing in my icing applications.

As we finish the early stages of each cookie, they are set aside so the icing can dry and we move on to the next.

 

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During the lunch break, various of my classmates avail themselves of the cookie cutters and much more available in the shop downstairs.

After lunch, we get back to work by adding details to our cookies.

 

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It’s at this point my outlining technique gets well and truly found out – the lattice-work on my ice-cream cone and cupcake is squiggly where it should be straight!

Still, in the end I am delighted and surprised that all my cookie artwork actually looks recognisably as it is meant to.

 

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The concentration levels have been nothing unusual for me, but the subject of that concentration has been very different – so I am pretty tired by the end of the five-hour class.

But I’ve had a ball.

Check out the Miss Biscuit website here for details of classes, products and more.

 

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Real good ‘baked’ beans

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Foxtel, no doubt facing somewhat stiffer competition and in a bid to lessen customer leakage, has loosened things up a bit.

So what for many years has been, for us, a basic + sport package is now a basic + sport + just-about-everything-else-except-movies.

Truth to tell we’re not that impressed – if anything, the increase of futile channel surfing may actually push us closer to pulling the plug.

And the food line-up seems particularly awful at the moment.

But I did see one interesting bit at the weekend.

It was a show purportedly about British pub food but I wasn’t paying too much attention – book in hand, mute on, music playing.

And it stayed that way even when the dude started making baked beans.

I could see what he was up to, though, and thought: “Hey, I can do that!”

I’ve attempted baked beans in the past with no great success – the outcomes have been quite edible but have been more like a bean stew than your actual baked beans.

This one worked!

I made some changes – I used worcestershire sauce instead of red wine vinegar and I threw in a finely grated carrot.

When Bennie saw these in the pot, he said: “That looks weird!”

When he was eating them, he said: “Mmmm … these are good!”

A few days later, he was specifically requesting the frozen leftovers for dinner.

So from here on, in our home they’ll be referred to as “Bennie’s Beans”!

 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups dried cannellini beans (tinned beans are a shabby substitute).

3 rashers bacon

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 finely grated carrot

1 tablespoon worecestershire sauce

salt

pepper

 

METHOD

1. Soak beans overnight and cook next day in plenty of water until done; drain and set aside.

2. Finely chop bacon and fry off in plenty of oil.

3. Lower heat and throw in finely copped onion and finely chopped or grated garlic; cook until tender.

4. Add tomatoes, 1 can of water, tomato paste, worecestershire sauce, finely grated carrot, salt, pepper.

5. Stir until all the elements are blended in; cook on low heat for about half an hour.

6. Add beans and cook on low heat for another hour.

7. Serve on toasted good-quality sourdough.

8. Eat.

A sharing thing

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Cooking Connections at Yarraville Community Centre, part of the Care To Share Project

CTS missed the first, Vietnamese outing of the Care To Share Project’s Cooking Connections program, but was very happy to make the weekend pairing as host.

Thanks to the Care To Share crew for granting me the opportunity (see link below for more information).

Thanks, too, to the punters – many from the west but more than a few from all over Melbourne.

But most of all, warm thanks to the families and individuals who shared their cooking and food with us.

There will be photos and comments about the food in this post, but really they’re only part of the story …

First up on the Saturday were Jamshid from Afghanistan, Sara from Iran and the family of Ebi, Roya and Maryam, also from Iran.

All these folks are on bridging visas.

 

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Maryam did a fine job of splitting the dates and inserting walnuts in them for the Persian sweet rangenak.

 

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But in the digital age, some things are universal with young folks.

 

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The guests lost no time in leaving their chosen seats to talk to the asylum-seeking cooks.

Jamshid was busy making korme koftas, chicken biryani and Afghan pulao.

 

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Along with a stack of finely chopped greens – spinach, coriander, dill – dried limes went into the ghormeh sabzi prepared by Roya and Ebi.

 

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Jamshid’s lamb meatballs and Afghan pulao were fab …

 

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The ghormeh sabzi – with its greens, potato, lamb and red beans – was piquantly amazing.

 

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Everyone thought so!

 

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The walnut-stuffed dates were drizzled with pan-roasted flour mixed with oil and, finally, coconut for a suave “grown-up” post-meal sweet treat.

 

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On the Sunday, it was time for Rosa, her mum Nigest and niece Betty to present their Ethiopian cuisine.

The guests were split about 50/50 between those who had tried Ethiopian food and injera and those who had not.

The dishes cooked were lamb dishes key wat and tibs, and the cabbage, potato and carrot of key wat.

 

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Having long admired and respected the fresh zing with which our African cooks imbue their salads-on-the-side, I was tickled to discover how one family at least does it – marinating sliced green chillies in lemon juice and using it as a dressing.

 

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Once again, the guests lost no time in getting up close and personal with the cooks and the dishes they were cooking.

 

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For more information on the Care To Share Project, check out their website here and “like” their Facebook page here.

 

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Lentils, rice, yum …

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Indian rice ‘n’ lentil khichdi

There are variations on this dish scattered through our various Indian cookbooks.

But I’ve never felt inspired to give any of them a go, mostly because they all seem quite complex.

Then I found this recipe at the wonderful blog Peri’s Spice Ladle, which I would describe as contemporary Indian with some American touches.

This khichdi is much more to our taste, more like the simple dals we prefer, very easy and enjoyable to make, and super healthy.

According to Peri, the consistency of this dish varies across India, but I already knew how we were going to like it … sloppy.

Like a very wet risotto.

Or a very thick congee.

Or like grits minus the monumental boredom factor.

And I reckon this would work wonders with young children normally suspicious of anything Indian, let alone anything even a little weird.

The range of vegetables you can add is pretty much unlimited, but add things such as potato or carrot real early on and things such as our peas very late.

We halved the recipe for just us two – double up on everything for the full deal.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup basmati rice

1/2 cup moong dal

canola oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 garlic cloves

1 inch piece ginger

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons butter

1/2 cup frozen peas

METHOD

1. Rinse and soak lentils and rice together in 3 1/2 cups of water.

2. Finely chop garlic, grate ginger and pound or whizz them together into a wet paste.

4. Heat oil then fry paste, cumin seeds and turmeric for about a minute. Watch they don’t stick!

5. Add lentils, rice and water.

6. Mix together and bring to boil.

7. Lower heat, cover and cook for about 20-25 minutes.

8. Stir briskly a couple of times near the end of cooking time.

9. Add peas, salt and butter fives minutes before end of cooking time.

10. Eat.

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Chick pea ‘n’ bean salad with smoked paprika

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This was inspired by a dip I bought for an at-desk work lunch.

I quite liked the oily tomato-based dip with harissa and smashed beans and chick peas.

But it had a nasty edge – as so many store-bought dips do.

So my immediate thought was: “OK, I can do better than this at home.”

So I did.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of cannellini beans and 1/2 cup of chick peas, soaked overnight and cooked until tender.

ripe tomatoes – quantity equal to the combined pulses. If you don’t have very ripe tomatoes, make something else, as the tom juice is crucial.

1/2 small red onion, finely chopped.

salt.

pepper.

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika. Don’t spoil the salad by overdoing it.

heaps of extra virgin olive oil.

juice of one lemon.

METHOD

1. Combine all ingredients in the order listed. It should be really gloopy – almost like a really thick soup. And if some of the pulses get smashed in the process, so much the better.

2. Let sit for  couple of hours.

3. Gently re-mix and add even more olive oil

4. Eat.

We had this by itself as a light dinner with lavash bread.

But I reckon it’d be good with snags or grilled meat or fish.

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Very Spicy, Delicious Chickpeas

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Efforts in recent years to create a great chick pea curry in our kitchen have been uniformly desultory.

The results have been watery, pallid and unappetising.

And none of my current crop of Indian cookbooks have been much use.

Then I recalled that I had cooked a winning chick pea curry regularly in another time and another place.

I even recalled the author’s name and the book involved.

So I went looking and found it first time.

The Madhur Jaffrey book from which the recipe comes is still available and is now on my wish list!

So what makes this a success when other recent attempts have failed?

Well, it’s heavily seasoned for starters – so much so that the ground spices, including both roasted and unroasted cumin, actually help make the sticky gravy.

The tanginess comes from roasted cumin, lemon juice and amchoor (powder made from sour, unripe mangoes).

It really does have the lusty depth of flavour that goes with the chick peas I eat when out and about on Indian adventures.

It will keep real well for a few days, too, and maybe even improve with age.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups dried chick peas, soaked overnight and cooked until tnder

oil or ghee

2 medium onions, finely chopped

8 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp coriander seeds, finely ground

2 tsp cumin seeds, finely ground

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 can chopped tomatoes

2 tsp roasted cumin seeds, finely ground

1 tbsp amchoor powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

juice of 1 lemon

1 green chilli, chopped

2 tsp finely grated ginger

METHOD

1. Fry onions and garlic over medium heat until browned.

2. Turn heat to medium-low and add coriander, unroasted cumin, chilli powder and turmeric.

3. Add tomatoes and stir into spices and onion/garlic mix. Cook for a few minutes until well combined and sticky.

4. Add drained chick peas and 1 cup of water

5. Add roasted cumin, amchoor, paprika, garam masala, salt, lemon juice. Stir to combine and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

6. Add grated ginger and chopped chill and cook for another minute.

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Uncooked puttanesca sauce with short pasta

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This recipe is a simple, quick and cheap winner for summer – or for your typical heatwave!

And it’s another we’ve adapted from Michele Scicolone’s 1,000 Italian Recipes.

Vary the quantities to suit yourself.

We have it warm, with the tomatoes slightly cooked from interaction with the hot, moist pasta.

On this occasion, we used one punnet of tomatoes, a BIG handful of parsley, three fat anchovies, a single fat garlic clove and no capers.

Whatever you do, though, don’t be stingy with the olive oil!

The book lists salt, but we find the anchovies the care of that.

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INGREDIENTS

Cheery tomatoes

Anchovies

Flat-leaf parsley

Capers (optional)

Dried oregano

Extra virgin olive oil

Red chilli or dried red pepper

Freshly ground black pepper

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METHOD

1. Halve tomatoes and place in bowl.

2. Add to bowl finely chopped garlic and anchovies, oregano, chopped chilli and black pepper.

3. Mix.

4. Add hefty doses of extra virgin olive oil.

5. Mix again.

6. Let stand at room temperature for at least an hour.

7. Cook pasta, then drain while reserving some of the cooking water.

8. Add pasta to tomato concoction, then mix all ingredients together.

9. Add some of the cooking water if pasta is too dry.

10. Let sit for another five minutes so flavours can blend.

10. Serve.

Bennie’s Kitchen Rules

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Chick pea, lentil and chorizo soup

Efforts are being made to extend Bennie’s involvement with affairs in the kitchen beyond eating and doing the dishes.

This seems to be having beneficial and laudable effects.

He certainly seems to more at one with breakfasts of yogurt, fresh fruit and muesli now that the latter is largely a product of his own hands and effort.

When let off the brekkie leash, he gets his own toast and jam (“No butter!” he proclaims).

He has a way with eggs.

And he’s an expert at instant noodles.

What’s next?

Soup!

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Bennie has developed a deep fondness for the Iraqi red lentil soup shortbat adas that has become a routine fixture in our home – he certainly prefers it to the various Indian-style pulse stews and soups I regularly knock together.

So I’m hoping to combine something of that vibe with a soup that also involves the kid-friendly tantalisation of fried chorizo and one that will also hopefully nudge him back towards the fondness for chick peas he once possessed.

I’ve soaked a cup of chick peas overnight and have cooked them prior to us starting the soup proper.

As I’m seeking a sort-of South American or even Middle Eastern feel through lemon juice and cumin, we’ll be using capsicum rather than carrot.

We’re using good quality Istra chorizo, but it’s soft so Bennie struggles a bit in finding the right cutting motion to slice it into nice, even discs.

He does much better with the celery, once I show him what’s required in terms of fineness of dicing.

Still, for a parent it’s nerve-racking watching a child – even one as generally capable and always smart as this one – handling very sharp blades.

He also oversees the roasting and mortar-and-pestle grinding of a 1/4 teaspoon of cumin seeds.

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And he really, really digs what is the key moment, the most headily intoxicating part of making this dish and many like it – when the diced vegetables hit the hot, fragrant oil that is a mixture of olive oil and grease from the sausage.

Oh my!

It’s in this phase of the cooking process that my boy shows that he may have just the right stuff to make a good home cook: As he’s stirring the vegetable/oil/sausage mixture, he simply and intuitively assumes “the cook’s prerogative” – without asking his father’s permission – and nonchalantly gobs a couple of pieces of fried chorizo.

The resultant soup is perfectly fine, but I am somewhat disappointed – it simply doesn’t have the depth or richness of texture and flavour for which I have been hoping.

Bennie?

Oh man, he loves it to pieces.

Now we’re cooking!

Later in the night he asks me: “Dad, am I going to take over the blog when you’re gone?”

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Books For Cooks

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Books For Cooks, 233-235 Gertrude St, Fitzroy. Phone: 8415 1415

As someone who has come to love the online ease with which I can get my hands on music and books, and the information about them on which to base my buying, I have lamented the lack of bricks and mortar businesses in Melbourne that cater to my specific interests.

I have learned to live without them, though.

But in the form of Tim, at the splendid Fitzroy emporium Books For Cooks, I get a superb example of just why local, homegrown businesses should be encouraged whenever possible.

As well as looking to do a story for Consider The Sauce, I have driven across town with the notional purpose of buying a Lebanese or other Middle Eastern cookbook to fill a gap in my modest home collection.

I mention to Tim a particular book, one that is listed on the shop’s website but is not in stock.

He knows the book well. He informs me of its background and its virtues and drawbacks.

He’s not trying to dissuade me from buying it as such; it’s more like he’s trying to steer me towards a purchase that will suit my needs.

We go through the same routine with another book, this one covering Persian cooking.

In the end, and somewhat to my surprise, I end up buying The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos.

This makes all kinds of sense.

The book is the same size and in the same format, using the same typefaces, as Charmaine Solomon’s equivalent Asian tome.

As such, it will no doubt become a cherished asset and dependable companion in our home, and duly become dog-eared, sauce-spattered and loved a lot.

As well, my new book’s concept of “Middle East” stretches from Greece at one end to Afghanistan at the other.

So there you go – I’ve ended up with a book I can use and use often, and Tim has adroitly manoeuvred me away from the allure of those that had been seducing me with flash.

“We don’t aim to sell the book with the highest mark-up as a priority,” says Tim. “We want people to have a rewarding experience with the books they buy here.”

Helping me buy a book turns out to be just a small part of an engrossing hour of conversation as Tim gives generously of his time and insights.

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Books For Cooks is in its 13th year, Tim and partner Amanda having bought the name and “some stock” from a couple of dears for whom it was a sideline to their Malvern East travel agency.

“We saw a tiny ad in The Age and ended up being the only ones interested in buying it,” Tim says. “There was no research … we bought it on credit cards – and then did a business plan.”

The seems scarcely believable to me, such is the detail Tim provides me on running the shop, the various inequities of the international postal system, the effects of the internet, the ongoing subject of a GST on online imports and much more.

He tells me about 10 per cent of the shops turnover is online but that 40 per cent comes from the custom of professional cooks.

For some reason this surprises me.

The current best-sellers are three books by Israeli-born, London-based Yotam Ottolengh – Ottolengh: The Coobook, Plenty and Jerusalem.

The shop will often stock two or three copies of a book – perhaps one will be secondhand, or another may be printed using a particular font.

Books For Cooks sources books from about 650 suppliers in England, the US, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Singapore, Japan, Canada and more.

There are at least two incoming shipments a week each from the US and the UK.

The main trade, of course, is in recipe books of many different kinds, vintages, sizes, styles, genres and nationalities.

But Books For Cooks also carries titles that cover biographies, history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, food science, humour, fiction, kitchen design, implements, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, health, etiquette and table settings.

And no doubt several more categories!

We even get around to discussing the merits (mostly Tim) and otherwise (mostly me) of MasterChef and its various offshoots.

But we end up in pretty much the same place anyway.

“Mostly I like peasant food,” Tim says. “It’s almost always brown …”

He definitely says that as if he believes it’s a good thing.

And which is why, within a few hours of getting it home, my new cookbook is prickly with stickies denoting my interest in recipes that are overwhelmingly to do with cabbage rolls, pulses of all sorts, hearty stews and simple salads.

Check out the Books For Cooks website here.

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Our Top 10 for 2012

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Mighty thanks to our many visitors, eating companions, leavers of comments and providers of tips!

Remember, it’s only a list.

If I did it on another day, it’d likely be different.

And there’s lots of other places and people we like.

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1. COFFEE

We love the vibe at Cup & Bean in Kingsville – welcoming and cool without trying too hard.

We love, too, the simple, nifty $5 ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches Tim knocks us up for cheap lunches.

And every cup of coffee is perfection.

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2. TOP NEWS STORY

The opening of super ritzy grocery A.Bongiovanni & Son in Seddon really had tongues wagging.

We’re happy to report we’ve become regular customers.

And not just for specialty items, either. More than often than not we’re in there for regular fresh produce and groceries.

The arrival in the west of a food truck, White Guy Cooks Thai, was hot news, as well.

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3. SURROUNDED BY INDIANS

Is there any doubt the western suburbs – especially the inner west – have become Indian Central for Melbourne?

Especially at affordable prices?

We have no particular favourite – we do, however, have particular favourites at specific restaurants.

It’s been a matter of horses for courses and all that for wonderful meals we’ve had at Yummy India, Biryani House, Salaam Namaste Dosa Hut, Pandu’s, Vanakkam, Indi Chutneys and Mishra’s Kitchen.

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4. BURGERS/F&C

Rockfish at Edgewater is proving a grand regular for us when we’re in the mood for burgers and/or fish and chips – old-school, good service, table seating both indoors and out, tasty food.

We dig Dappa Snappa Fish Cafe in Williamstown, too!

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5. A TOAST TO THE ROASTS

The old-fashioned charms of a roast meal really kicked in for us in 2012.

The incredible $10 Sunday roast deal at the Spottiswoode Hotel was a highlight, but we loved our dinners at Bruno’s Coffee Lounge and the Famous Blue Raincoat, too.

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6. BEST NON-WESTERN SUBURBS JOINT

Abbout Falafel House in Sydney Rd, Coburg, serves thoroughly wonderful, delicious, fresh and cheap Lebanese food.

Some days we’re pretty sure it’s the best restaurant in Melbourne.

And there’s times, too, we’re convinced it’s the best eats emporium in the known universe …

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7. BEST FRANCHISE FAST FOOD

We’ve been back Guzman Y Gomez Mexican Taqueria at Highpoint several times and always enjoy it.

The food may not match it in terms of presentation and zing of your more high-falutin’ Mexican places, but it’s cheap and we like it.

8. MOST “OUT THERE” ADVENTURE

Some musing on the nature of “crab sticks” saw me visiting Austrimi Seafoods in North Geelong for a tour of their surimi factory.

I’ve watched with bemusement as the original post has become a regular, daily Google go-to story for searches such as “is there tripe in seafood extender” and “what are crab sticks made of”.

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9. FAVOURITE RESTAURANT

It’s a tie!

We only made it to Safari in Ascot Vale once this year, but we continue to hold the establishment, its fabulous Somalian food and the welcome in the very highest of regards.

Ace Japanese place Ajitoya in Seddon has become a regular for refined comfort food – even if that is a contradictory term.

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10. BEST SANDWICH

We adore La Morenita in Sunshine every which way, even if Bennie has gone off having cold empanadas in his school lunches.

All the sandwiches are good, but we especially love the chacarero of steak, cheese, tomato, mayo, greens beans and hot green chilli.

The beans squeak!

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11. TOP MEAL

Such a simple, earthy pleasure – chicken curry with a fresh baguette roll at Xuan Xinh, a rather anonymous St Albans cafe.

Ciambotta

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This rustic Italian vegetable stew would go real swell served cold with fish, chicken or sausages at a barbecue, but we only ever have it as a light main meal when we’re a little weary of heavier, richer fare.

This is based on a recipe found in Michele Scicolone’s 1,000 Italian Recipes.

Her recipe calls for one red and one yellow capsicum.

For this brew, I went with two red, as the yellows at the place where I did the shopping were more than $12 a kilogram and looking a bit sad on it.

I used kipfler potatoes, thinking the discs would go just right with the other vegetables, but they took too long to cook, so we’ll stick to our usual desiree in the future.

This is so simple and easy to cook – it basically takes care of itself.

And the way the tomatoes and – to some extent, the eggplant – break down to form a terrifically unctuous sauce that soaks into the spuds is fabulous.

In fact, it makes even a muddling, middling cook such as myself think I’m pretty hot sh… stuff.

While it was cooking, I went looking for other recipes, and was surprised – I don’t know why – to find Scicolone has a blog.

And as she says on it: “I’m always amazed at how good it turns out.”

She lists a few other additions and variations – green beans, courgettes, more elaborate seasonings, cheese or eggs or basil at the end and so on.

But once you start talking about courgettes, I start thinking ratatouille.

No surprise then that further sleuthing revealed there’s little or no difference between the two dishes.

Goes great as leftovers gently warmed up or as sandwich stuffing.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion

4 plum tomatoes

2 potatoes

1 medium eggplant

2 red capsicums, or 1 red and 1 yellow

Salt, freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

METHOD

1. Roughly chop onion and cook in olive oil on low-medium heat until soft.

2. While the onion is cooking, chop remaining vegetables into bite-size pieces.

3. Add vegetables to cooked onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook covered on low heat for about 40 minutes – or no longer than when the potatoes start falling apart a bit. Gently stir occasionally, as potato pieces can stick.

4. Eat.

Relish of Indian pickle with tomato (Anba wa tamata))

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OK, here’s another recipe from Delights From The Garden Of Eden, the Iraqi cookbook by Nawal Nasrallah – and a simpler recipe you’ll never find.

Seems obvious, too, now that I’ve tried it.

I wonder if Indians use pickles in this way?

We use commercial Indian pickles at home sparingly on our Indian cooking. But this relish takes such products to a whole new level of usefulness.

Gosh, I reckon it’d go great in sandwiches, along with curries and rice and all sorts of things.

I reckon, too, it’ll keep in the fridge but I suspect fresh is best with this.

Nawal’s recipe uses mango pickle but I used what we had – a tangy lime and ginger pickle.

I had it slathered on bread as a snack while I was cooking something else.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup store-bought Indian pickle of your choice

1/2 cup chopped ripe tomatoes.

METHOD

1. Mix both ingredients together gent;y.

2. Eat.

Best eats to snack on while cooking

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1. Corn chips and taramasalata.

2. Olives.

3. Indian snacks bought from Barkly St, West Footscray.

4. Parmesan shavings.

5. Pickled onions.

6. Sour pickled gherkins.

7. End nubs of really excellent sourdough bread dipped in VOO.

What are yours?

Do you, like me, often spoil enjoyment of the finished dish by snacking too much while cooking?

Indian fruit salad

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Sometimes after a big lunch day, we back off for the night-time meal with a simple fruit salad.

Most often that means the chopped fruit with a dollop of yogurt on top.

But every now and then we take the time to make this delicious variant.

I found this in a book of vegetarian Indian cooking I used a lot when I first started cooking Indian food.

The book is long gone, but this recipe remains its legacy.

I’ve never heard, read or seen anything like it any other cookbook or Indian eatery.

For this particular effort, we had a particularly tropical line-up of fruit goodies – two small blood oranges, a large and very ripe mango and a punnet of strawberries, bulked out a little by the everyday-exotica of a couple of bananas.

INGREDIENTS

Fruit – whatever you have on hand, desire or can afford.

Salt – to taste

Freshly ground black pepper – to taste

Freshly roasted and ground cumin seeds – to taste

Chilli powder – to taste

Lemon juice – to taste

METHOD

1. Chop fruit into bowl.

2. Gently mix fruit

3. Add seasonings.

4. Gently mix seasonings into fruit.

5. Serve.

Chilli con carne

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After enjoying a good bowl of chilli con carne at Liquid Yarraville, I resolve to make some myself.

I may have done so some time in the faded past, but if so I cannot recall.

My only Mexican recipe book has no recipe for same, but that’s no surprise as it’s not exactly a top-shelf publication, if you get my drift.

As well, I suspect there’s very little Mexican about chilli con carne in terms of how most of us think of it – it’s more like your south-west US thing.

This recipe is the result of scanning a half-dozen or so versions found in Louisiana community cookbooks River Road Recipes and Talk About Good!

For such an easy, “knock together” recipe, the result is surprisingly, gratifyingly delicious and deep of flavour.

I reckon I can do better, though, in terms of tweaking the seasoning, and I know Bennie’ll love it.

We hardly ever use mince in our joint, but that could change …

Maybe a little less sugar, more chilli and some oregano? Maybe more cumin, roasted and ground?

Smoked paprika?

Any tips?

(I used red capsicum instead of green, because I had a good one in the fridge; and I used red onion because of ditto …)

INGREDIENTS

olive or other oil

1 can red beans

1 can tomato puree

1/2 red capsicum, chopped

1 onion, chopped

450g minced beef

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoon brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon chill powder

3 whole cloves

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 cup water

METHOD

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat.

2. When hot, cook meat, capsicum and onion for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. Add seasonings and tomato puree.

4. Cook over medium heart for about 10 minutes.

5. Add drained beans and cook on Very Low Heat for at least an hour and a half.

Makhlama bil poteita (Iraqi omelette with potatoes and herbs)

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Yes, here’s another one from Delights From The Garden Of Eden by Nawal Nasrallah, although I’m guessing my version only approximated what the author was intending.

That’s because I made some changes.

Used five eggs instead of the full half dozen.

Had no dill or mint, so went gangbusters with the parsley.

Used two diced spuds instead of the slightly greater quantities of two cups of diced spuds.

And used most of a large green chilli.

So maybe my pan was too wide for the lesser amount of total ingredients.

Only about half of it lifted from the pan in the form of a coherent omelette; but that was OK, too.

It was a messy, delicious jumble – I ate it with pita bread, which I used like or injera, or the pita when eating scrambled eggs at Al-Alamy.

And the leftovers were cool eaten the same way cold the next day at work, and would be good in sandwiches, too.

INGREDIENTS

2 spuds

2 tablespoons oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 medium tomato, chopped

3/4 cup parsley, chopped

5 eggs

METHOD

1. Pre-heat oven to about 220C.

2. Chop spuds into small dice, place on a foil-lined tray, spray with oil and place in hot oven. Should take about 15-20 minutes to cook. Turn potato bits over halfway through cooking.

3. While they’re getting nice and brown, fry onion over medium heat with turmeric and curry powder.

4. After about seven minutes, add the potato, tomato, parsley, pepper and salt. Mix well and cook for a few minutes more.

5. Flatten vegetable mix with wooden spoon then create spaces four the eggs.

6. Lower heat to medium low.

7. Break eggs into the holes made for them. Fry gently until cooked as is, or run a knife through the eggs to disperse the yolks through the vegetables.

8. Serve with sides, condiments and accessories as you desire.