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In digest: fortnight ending 6 March 2016
Culinary innovation has been in short supply in our kitchen during the last couple of weeks. However, there have been mitigating circumstances for our apparent indolence. We had a housepainter in for...
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Fruitless Waldorf is a beet-up of a story
I am sure that most readers are familiar with Waldorf salad and that many of you have made one on numerous occasions. As is also well known, this salad takes its name from New York’s Waldorf Hotel,...
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O Cisco! Gazpacho!
I have never been anywhere close to the Texas-Mexico border-lands frequented by the fictional Cisco Kid and his side-kick Pancho, but I would be surprised if you couldn’t find a taberna with gazpacho –...
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So, not every aubergine goes into ratatouille
The latest recipe I have used from Mastering the art of French cooking (Mastering) is ‘Aubergines farcies duxelles’ (Eggplants stuffed with mushrooms). The eggplant I used was originally destined to be...
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Peaches hit the high notes
In Melbourne, as in many other parts of the world, the summer months bring an abundance of fruits which can be enjoyed as the basis of a light and refreshing dessert. Think strawberries, raspberries,...
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Valentine’s Day mass….
… of meat. No Al Capone, no bone. No South Side, no North Side. Just a lovely piece of topside. No ugly pools of blood on the floor; a pleasing little puddle on the plate. About 80 years after the...
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A lamb-friendly warm potato salad
A creamy, slightly-chilled potato salad goes well with most meats that have been barbecued. Maggie and I make one several times during the warmer months; the latest one was one of our best ever, thanks...
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As cool as a cucumber soup
Our Greek neighbours, Nik and Sula, have been sharing some of the seasonal produce from their vegetable garden with us. Nik, now in his 70s, is very accomplished at working his soil to produce...
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In digest: week ending 7 February 2015
It was a rare week in our kitchen – all the main-meal dishes of food we prepared were tried and true favourites. No recipe discoveries. No experiments. No radical departures. Just a series of...
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Further French forays, a food faux pas or five, and fresh fritters …
… following a fraught fortnight. Maggie and I have just been through two weeks of anxiety and stress involving a health scare. Thankfully, an investigative procedure has found no evidence of anything...
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More Moorish
In August 2015, I published a post about chicken marylands that we had marinated with Moroccan flavours and then roasted in our Weber Q. Last week, we prepared another batch of the marinade and applied...
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At the base of the J-curve
So, as of Christmas Day 2015, I am the happy owner of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Happy, despite the fact that this book was first published in 1961 and has not been updated since 1983. Happy,...
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Christmas seafood recipes
As promised in my previous post, here are the recipes for the seafood dishes that we prepared to share with our family at Christmas. Crayfish salad Well, this wasn’t too difficult. The folks at Eat...
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Our seasonal seafood saga
In the lead-up to Christmas, my father requested a meal of crayfish, and my son, Julian and his wife, Sara simply said they would like a variety of seafood. That suited Maggie and me just fine – we...
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Why did the tomato turn red?
Because it saw the salad dressing. Hah, hah, hah! That’s exactly the kind of corny, pun-based joke that Maggie’s late father, Noel used to crack and, much to my son’s embarrassment, I let slip quite...
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In-digest: week ending 13 December 2015
In common with my late mother, I particularly enjoy the festive season for the opportunity it brings to prepare special items of delicious food, and share them with friends and family. This year, I...
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In-digest: week ending 6 December 2015
It’s been a few months since I last wrote a post about noteworthy dishes that Maggie and I had cooked in the preceding week. Not that there hasn’t been a whole mess of cooking going on! It’s just that...
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Rack ’em Danno
Maggie and I returned from Europe in the second week of October, slap bang in the middle of Spring-lamb season. Although the supply of quality cuts of lamb is not as seasonal as it once was, it is...
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A pair of favourites
Late last week, Maggie and I spent a couple of hours making two very different foods with pears, each dish a favourite, each one using a different variety of pear. First, it was Maggie’s favourite...
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A treat of a pumpkin dish, no tricking
This recipe began with a search through our Italian-influenced cookbooks for a dish that would make good use of some leftover ricotta. I found what I was looking for in a collection compiled by...
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