Weekend Soup and Fritters

The last week has not been my finest in the kitchen. I have baked a sponge cake that didn’t rise as it should. I baked bread that kept rising much more than it should. I baked cookies and forgot to add the oil. I made Scottish vegetable and barley soup that should have lasted a few days but went sour after a couple of days. I dropped apple puree on the floor and pikelets in the cat’s water. So you will not be surprised to hear this soup and fritters I am posting today are nice but not great.

Actually I was going to bake but circumstances kindly suggested I didn’t. We went to Andre’s coffee house for brunch on Saturday. The drinks cabinet has arrived and I sampled his mum’s excellent silverbeet and raisin pastries. Best of all was the slice of his birthday cake that E and I shared. It was a fancy creation of layers of sponge cake, custard and cream made by the Greek cake shop next door. We also had my friend Alison visiting with a tray of Sugardough pastries. The bomboloni with chocolate filling was particularly pleasing, so unfortunately it had disappeared before I took the above photo.

Rather than baking yesterday, I had a lovely bike ride through a sunny afternoon filled with people socialising on old couches on the verandah and kids playing football on the street. I had planned to go to Wholefoods but firstly had a look in the gift shop over the road where I purchased some gifts. I found a little box of Beatrix Potter cardboard blocks for Sylvia. Once I had the set of blocks I had to be restrained at Wholefoods because I was limited with what I could fit in my bag – so much smaller than the pram.

I don’t get to such ‘health food’ stores often enough these days so I came home with an exciting swag of goodies. I bought some apricot and cardamom chutney, barley flour, red quinoa, dried lima beans and purple corn flour. It is not necessarily the cheapest way to shop. When I told E what I paid for the chutney he said he expected them to come around and serve it for that price. But it is such a pleasant way to shop. So much variety and I had a friendly chat at the counter about cooking purple food.

For dinner on Saturday I made a celery soup and carrot and potato fritters. These recipes were suggested by what vegetables needed to be used. I added some cheese to the fritters because it had sat in the fridge long enough. The soup was quick but the fritters took some time for grating the vegetables and frying. After my efforts, E said he wasn’t keen on the soup and the fritters were a little greasy. I was not sure about baking or grilling the fritters but might try that in future.

Last night we had the leftovers. E had baked beans instead of soup and I grilled some vegetables to go with the fritters. E agreed that the fritters were much better the second night after sitting (cooked) in the fridge overnight. I put them in a moderate oven for 15 minutes to reheat. The recipe suggested serving with a minted yoghurt but I forgot to buy yoghurt so I served them with some chutney. I thought the soup with 1 tsp of salt and a generous half tsp of smoked paprika was a little too intense but it was more mellow the next day. Not a bad way to use up vegetables on a lazy weekend.

Carrot and Potato Fritters
From BBC Australia Good Food August 2009
Serves 4-6

• 4 medium (500g) carrots, grated
• 3 small (300g) potatoes, grated
• ¾ cup plain flour
• ⅔ cup buttermilk (I used milk with a squeeze of lemon)
• 1 egg
• 1 spring onion, thinly sliced
• 100g cheddar cheese, grated (optional)
• ¼ cup mozzarella cheese, grated (optional)
• ⅓ cup oil for frying

Drain water from grated vegetables. It is easiest to do this by grabbing handfuls and wringing them out like a dishcloth but you could also press them into a sieve. Mix with remaining ingredients except oil. Heat oil in a large frypan over medium heat and fry tablespoons of mixture in batches. The recipe suggests 3-4 minutes each side but I just watched til they were golden (and at times had to go and sit for a few minutes to quell my impatience). Serve with minted yoghurt or chutney.

Creamy celery soup
Serves 4

• 1 onion
• 6 large sticks of celery
• 3 small potatoes
• 1 small carrot
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½-1 tsp salt
• ¼-½ tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp mustard powder
• dash of cayenne pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Roughly chop vegetables. Cover with water, add spices and bring to the boil. Simmer for 60 minutes. Add beans and heat. Remove bay leaf. Blend and serve.

On the stereo:
The Man in Black: the concert collection 22 greatest hits: Johnny Cash

Banapplerry smoothie and an epiphany

I am starting to feel that this blog should be renamed Adventures in Food with a Small Baby. Now that Sylvia has begun to eat solids, her presence in the blog will continue. Little bits of leftover baby food are sneaking into my cooking. Even my smoothies are beginning to resemble baby food.

I have mentioned once or twice before how much I hate pureeing food through a sieve. But for Sylvia, nothing is too much so for her first few weeks of solids I have pushed her food through the dreaded sieve. It does not make a good start to my days. I am not organised enough to freeze puree but I do have some in the fridge for a day or two to have a break from the sieve.

Then there is the actual feeding. Sylvia loves her milk but doesn’t fancy solids. So I slave over a stubborn sieve only to have the mouth clamp shut when the spoon goes anywhere near it. Grrr. A lot of time is spent coaxing the smallest amount in – and it gets pushed out quickly enough. She thinks spoons are for chewing and food is for finger painting. I find such a disdain for food inconceivable, given how much I love my food, though my mum assures me I too wasn’t so keen on solids. Maybe this is payback!

We have even bought her some airplane spoons. When E saw these he was surprised they were real and not just the fancy of the author of Foodie Babies Wear Bibs. (It seems he has lived a life oblivious to all baby things. When I told him Sylvia had her first ride in the kiddie seat of the supermarket shopping trolley, he expressed surprise that trolleys had such seats. But he couldn't resist buying her a three piece bunnikens set yesterday. We both grew up with such bowls although they weren't melamine.)

Yesterday I decided that enough was enough and mashed her stewed apple with a fork. In my energetic mashing, the container fell on the floor and most of it spilled out. I was not happy. I’d much prefer to spend my morning blogging!

Then today I had an epiphany. I finely grated the apple before cooking it. This seemed to work as well as anything. Some of it got into her mouth. She didn’t choke. I think there will be more fine grating. Strangely enough I don’t find grating fruit and vegetables odious like sieving.

As I said above, I end up eating some of her leftovers. Mashed banana or apple on toasted cranberry and raisin bread with cream cheese is one of my favourites. Apple sauce in baking is another. This morning I thought of how well her leftovers would go in smoothies.

I love apples in smoothies but as I don’t have a powerful blender nor a juicer, I find that fresh apples go furry and fuzzy in smoothies. So I end up buying apple juice to add. Today I thought I would try the finely grated apple in my smoothie. It wasn’t bad, although the smoothie was quite chunky. A bit like baby food. But it tasted good. Maybe I should try pushing it through a sieve to make it smoother! If only there wasn’t a crying baby demanding my attention!

Ginger Banapplerry Smoothie
Serves 1-2

• 1 banana
• 3 strawberries
• 60g blueberries
• ½ tsp ginger, finely grated
• 1 green apple, peeled and finely grated
• ½ cup red grape juice

Blend

On the stereo:
The Best of Blur

MM Heirloom Ginger Fluff Sponge

I grew up with a mother who loved to bake sponges. It was her heritage. They appeared on birthdays and often in between. If ever I want a light fluffy sponge that rises sky high I can go home to my mum’s place. Every now and then I feel maybe I should embrace my culinary history and bake a sponge.

Now let me explain what I mean by a sponge. When I met E he would tell me how much he loved sponge cake. Oh my mum will make you a sponge, I would tell him. But we discovered that his sponge was not my sponge. He is talking about a dense buttery sponge that I might call a butter cake, a pound cake or even a plain cake. My sponge is an airy fluffy cake – a bit like angel food cake – that is lots of eggs, very little flour and no butter or oil.

A sponge cake in my childhood was always two layers sandwiched together with whipped cream or lemon filling, iced with white or pink icing that dripped over the sides and often decorated with a ring of hundreds and thousands around the edge. Little kiddie fingers would scoop up the dribbles of icing. Every now and again my mum made me happy by baking one that was chocolate instead of vanilla.

Recently I saw a recipe for a Ginger Fluff Sponge in the weekend papers that interested me. It had golden syrup, a little cocoa and fragrant spices. Much more my sort of thing than a plain vanilla sponge. The measurements in dessertspoons made me feel nostalgic. I decided to try it. The opportunity presented itself on the weekend when E and I had our wedding anniversary.

I spent enough time with my mum to know a lot about baking sponges. They have no shortening so even the tin is dusted with flour after greasing to ensure no butter touches the cake. The batter must be handled gently, the flour must be sifted and a metal spoon – not wooden – must be used to fold in the flour. If the flour is not folded in properly you end up with what we called flour bombs. I know that a sponge cake is a challenge with a high degree of difficulty. I made them in high school home economics classes and don’t think I excelled. This is something to be feared.

So you would think I would be careful to follow the recipe exactly. I meant to. But as my mum always makes hers without any flour I was curious to try this one gluten free. So I substituted soy flour for the plain flour. I also realised at the last moment – when it was too late – that I didn’t have cream of tartar and the baking powder was the wrong mix of bicarb and cream of tartar (1 part bicarb to 2 parts cream of tartar) according to this website. I used 1 tsp of baking powder rather than the bicarb and cream of tartar. I also didn’t warm the golden syrup or prepare the tin traditionally.

I shouldn’t have been too surprised that it wasn’t a great success. It tasted great but it didn’t rise as it should have. Not like my mum’s sky high marvels. Not even with all my sifting. I am not sure if it was my changes or just my lack of skill. I have noted my changes on the recipe below. Fortunately I had a secret weapon. I covered it with chocolate ganache, which hid a multitude of sins. (Actually I mentioned the sponge to E last night and he said, oh you mean the chocolate one.)

I found it strangely moreish. The spices and ganache paired wonderfully. E was most pleased with my efforts. I’d like to tell you that Zinc serenaded us on the guitar while we ate it but life is more mundane. We ate it watching Midsomer Murders on the telly like an old married couple. It is just the sort of thing they might enjoy with a cuppa tea in a ye olde worlde cottage on that show while wondering who is the latest serial killer.

I was congratulating myself on finding a modern twist on a family favourite. But as T S Eliot said, in my beginning is my end. Yesterday I had lunch with my grandmother yesterday and told her I made a sponge. She laughed when I told her it was flat. You should always follow the recipe that your mother and I use, she advised. I told her it was ginger fluff. Oh my mother used to make wonderful ginger fluff sponges, she said. My aunty Liz was in the kitchen and nodded in agreement. I was amazed and delighted to find that my discovery had led me back to my great-grandmother’s kitchen.

My mother told me that it took her some practice before her sponges rose as spectacularly as they do today. But I am sure they are now a match for her grandmother’s legendary sponges. I remember my mum’s family proudly telling her she made sponges just like her grandmother. Maybe I shall further explore the daunting world of baking sponge cakes. Maybe one day I will make them just like my mum.

I am sending this post to Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi for September’s Monthly Mingle, because the theme is Heirloom.

Ginger fluff sponge
(from Cath Claringbold’s of Thelma Marshall’s recipe in The Age Good Weekend Magazine on 22 August 2009)

• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup castor sugar
• 1 dessertspoon of golden syrup, warmed (I didn’t warm it)
• ½ cup cornflour
• 2 heaped dessertspoons plain flour (I used soy flour)
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp cocoa

• 200ml cream (mine had 45% fat)
• 100g dark chocolate (mine had 45% cocoa solids)
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• walnuts or hundreds and thousands or coconut or other to decorate
  

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and line two 20cm round cake tins (NB the traditional way is to grease with butter and then add a little flour and tap around the tin so it clings to the buttered surface and any loose flour is discarded.)

Beat eggs and sugar until pale, thick and creamy. Add golden syrup and beat to incorporate. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl and then sift these ingredients into the bowl with the egg mixture. Use a metal spoon to gently fold flour in until just combined.

Pour into prepared tins and bake for 15-20 minutes. I think it starts to come away from the sides of the tin when done. Cool in tin for 5-10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

When cake is cool, place one cake, bottom up, on a serving plate. Whip 100ml of the cream with the icing sugar and spread over this cake. Place the other cake on top of the cream. Melt chocolate and cream together in the microwave on medium heat for 1-3 minutes. Pour over cake. Decorate with walnuts, hundreds and thousands, coconut or whatever takes your fancy.

On the Stereo:
The smell of knowledge: Lonsai Maikov

NCR Lemony Mediterranean Salad

Vegie sausages were on special in the supermarket on the weekend so I put a packet in the trolley. With the onset of spring, I was in the mood for a salad to accompany them. The days are getting sunnier so salads are back on our dinner table. So I am only too glad to send one to Lisa and Jacqueline for their No Croutons Required event with the theme of Mediterranean this month.

We are all able to conjure up pictures of Mediterranean feasting. Large raucous families gathered al fresco under some grape vines. They laugh and gesture excitedly around a large table groaning under large dishes of food, lots of marinated tomatoes, olives and artichokes in the antipasto, fresh green leaves and lemon in the salads, and loads of garlic and olive oil in every dish. We might not have the large family in our household but we did gather around the dinner table to share the large platter of salad that felt very Mediterranean.

The plate is one I bought on a trip to Turkey which is probably the only place I have really spent time lounging on Mediterranean beaches. In a strange twist of coincidence that is where my parents are today as part of their European holiday. We experienced heavy rain when I was in Turkey (my passport never recovered) but nothing like the current floods. Hope there might be a little bit of sunshine too for mum and dad. If not then my dad will just have to be warmed by the thought of Collingwood being in the AFL semi-finals on the weekend.

I did manage to catch up with a few of my siblings over the weekend. With my parents away, my brother Paul took over doing the family Friday night dinner in Geelong. I don’t normally get down there but we had things to do down there and so had some of his delicious roast dinner. I helped out by making gravy (with gluten free flour) which none of Susie’s girls would touch because it had onion in it. Their loss! I took a couple of pictures of the flowers in my parents’ yard to reassure them that the boys are looking after the garden.

They will be less pleased to see the leaves that the little girls brought into the living room. I am sure Grace and Ella took them outside before going home. I took Ella to the supermarket with me before dinner and she said Paul had said they could have ice-cream. I don’t like using the mobile phone in the supermarket but didn’t want to load up the children with unnecessary sweet food so I checked with Paul. He said yes so we chose a box of icecreams and paid for them at the check-out. I was surprised when we got outside and Ella turned to me as asked accusingly why I didn’t buy any ice-cream! Kids!

I also visited my brother Andy on the weekend to catch up and borrow his baby bath seat (it is techinically not Andy’s – it was his little boy Cooper’s) for Sylvia. They were out doing some work in the garden. In our backyard my lavender continues to flourish. If you look back to the lavender photo at the start of September you can see how much it has bloomed. Our lemon tree now has many many buds just waiting to open into flowers. This will make it all the nicer sitting in the backyard in the sun. I also had a lovely bike ride on the weekend.

Oh yes, it is most definitely salad weather. To those enjoying a Southern Hemisphere spring, I highly recommend this salad. It is adapted from Vegie Food with some changes, including the addition of grilled asparagus. Who can resist the fresh cheap piles of asparagus at the moment! (Another coincidence is that the president of the Asparagus Council is on the radio right now saying how back breaking the picking is.) And asparagus looks so pretty. Not that this salad needs any help because it is full of gorgeous colour and flavour. I can confirm it looks lovely on the table when entertaining because I have made this for a dinner party some years back.

We both loved the salad. E loved it because he just couldn’t get enough of the rocket, which I used instead of spinach. I loved all the different components and the sharpness of the lemon and garlic. It was great with vegie sausages and pesto polenta mash but with a few additions, such as roast pumpkin or chickpeas, it could be a complete meal with just some crusty bread. The leftovers went into the fridge and I had them for lunch today. In fact, I think the salad was even better the next day so don’t be afraid to make it ahead of time.

Lemony Mediterranean Salad
Adapted from Vegie Food
Serves 4 as a side

• 100g rocket (arugula)
• 170g jar of marinated artichokes, drained
• 100g semi sun dried tomatoes
• 90g kalamata olives, pitted
• 1 bunch asparagus, woody ends trimmed
• oil spray
• 1 quarter preserved lemon, rinsed and sliced thinly
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Spray asparagus with oil spray and lightly grill (broil). Cut into 2 inch long pieces.

Lightly whisk (or shake in a jar) garlic, lemon juice and oil.

Arrange rocket, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, olives, asparagus and preserved lemon in a large shallow salad bowl. Drizzle dressing over salad. The salad keeps well in the fridge if you don't want to serve it immediately.

On the Stereo:
Heimkunft: Svalbard

Fruit scones, yellow and uncertainty

I am beginning to understand why my foremothers baked a lot of scones. They are so quick and easy. Lately I have made quite a few scones. I made banana and chocolate scones because I was missing Bakers Delight’s version (which is no longer made at our local bakery). Mine weren’t quite as light, perhaps because I used wholemeal flour. Then I made berry scones when I wanted to take food to a friend’s place and had very little time. Most recently I made some cheese and apple scones because I had wanted to send a yellow offering to Barbara from Food and Winos for LiveSTRONG with a touch of yellow 2009 food event.

This is the third year that Barbara has held this event. The first year I had not commenced blogging but wanted to be part of the fun. Last year I was thrilled to be able to participate with a chowder. So I have been determined to send something to Barbara this year but am quite late as I think today is the last day for entries. The event is a special one because it is held to raise awareness of cancer by Barbara who has fought the disease herself.


There is much that I wanted to write about how cancer alters our perception of life but I will have to keep it short (for me). Thinking about the disease made me reflect on how much we take in the past and the future as we think about our lives. Today is just the mundane but yesterday is filled with the path that brought us here and tomorrow is full of plans, a roadmap to take us on marvel journeys.

We look back. We look forward. We remember the first time, the laughter, the tears. We plan dinner for tonight. We celebrate a wedding of many years ago and tell each other the big anniversary is next year. We think forward to how we will be when we are sixty-four.


So many of us have such a firm view of where we think our life might go. But minutes with a doctor can change this. Or it can be days and months as tests and consultations gradually reveal the bad news. It reminds us of how easily our lives can change, how plans can go awry and how our vision of the future can be shown to be mere dreams. Cancer suddenly makes us remember that each minute is precious. It makes us appreciate the moment as it fills us with uncertainties about the future.

It is not the place to talk about others' pain, disappointments and hopes but I know of those who are battling cancer and those who feel the loss of loved ones to cancer. I dedicate this post to them with my best wishes. Barbara has chosen yellow for her event. It is a colour that shines with the warmth and cheer of a positive outlook that is needed to deal with cancer. Those I know who have encountered the disease have great courage and strength in how they have faced or are facing it.


To speak about food after contemplating cancer can seem like a leap from the sublime to the superficial. And yet in difficult time, food can comfort and nurture. Scones are great for a busy day and also will be just the thing for a day when you want to cook but don’t have the energy for much. The scone recipes I am posting have the added benefits of fresh fruit.

The scones I have made are based on the style I learnt from my mum who in turn learnt it from her mum and so on. No eggs, only a little butter that is rubbed into flour with the finger tips. The dough is not to be handled much – I have started using a butter knife to mix the mixture after hearing somewhere that this makes better scones – and is cut into round scones that are wrapped in a tea towel when warm. They are fluffy when pulled apart and are then loaded with jam and butter or cream.

The banana scones were nice but not quite what I was after. I had wanted them just like the Bakers Delight banana and choc chip scones so I would have used all choc chips but ran out so I used some cranberries. Although not like the lovely BD ones, this is a good quick recipe that I will make again.


The berry scones were lovely. They were as light and fluffy as I had hoped. I wanted to use all buttermilk but ran out so used a bit of milk to top it up. In the original recipe it called for strawberry yoghurt, which sounds like a good option but this is not something I have on hand for whipping up scones from what is about. I substituted honey for sugar and found the scones were barely sweet. This pleased me and seemed to allow the juicy berries to shine all the more.


The cheese and apple scones are part of a search for great cheese and apple baked goods. I tried a cheese and apple cake that was too sweet and not cheesy enough. I looked at many cheese and apple

scone recipes when I had decided this would be my yellow baking for Barbara’s event. None quite fitted my idea of what I wanted. I eventually made many changes to a recipe which was nearest my ideal.

The scone dough was firmer than that of most scones I have made but the final result was golden fluffy scones with a slight crunch of cheese and cornmeal. The cheese is the dominant flavour. You can barely taste the apple but it contributes to keeping them soft. They made a lovely brunch at home and then a tasty offering when visiting my brother, Andy. With melting butter and runny honey, they are the touch of yellow that Barbara has requested.

Cheese and Apple Scones
Makes 12-14 scones
Inspired by desserts-recipes.com

1 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100g shredded Gloucestershire or cheddar cheese
30g butter, chopped
1 small apple, peeled and grated
1/2 cup milk with a squeeze of lemon juice (or buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 220 C and grease a baking tray. Mix flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder in a medium to large bowl. Rub butter into dry ingredients to make a sandy mixture. Mix in apple milk and lemon juice to make a soft dough. Turn onto a floured board and knead briefly. Pat dough into a circle about 1 inch high. Use a floured scone cutter to cut rounds. Place scones on the greased tray. Brush tops with milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until it scones are golden brown and a little golden brown on the bottom. I tend to take out the scones around the edge and return the middle scones to the oven for a couple of minutes as they bake a little slower. Serve with butter and jam or honey.

Banana and Choc Chip Scones
Adapted from ichef.com
Makes about 16 scones

1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup wholemeal self-rising flour
1/2 tsp salt
30g cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk or milk (about)
2 tbsp honey
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup choc chips and/or cranberries
Extra milk to brush on scones

Preheat oven to 230 C and lightly grease a baking tray. Put flours and salt in a bowl. Rub in butter till crumbly. Make a well and add remaining ingredients. Gently mix with a knife or a fork to make a soft dough. Turn on to a floured ball and knead lightly. Cut into 2 inch rounds with a floured scone cutter and place on greased tray. Brush the tops with milk. Bake for 10-12 minutes til golden brown. Serve plain or with butter.

Berry Scone Wedges
Adapted from here
Makes 8

1 and 3/4 cups self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
60g butter
1/2 cup (80g) mixed berries frozen
200ml buttermilk (or milk or strawberry yoghurt)
2 tbsp honey
extra milk, for brushing

Preheat oven to 220°C and lightly grease baking tray. Place flour and baking powder in bowl. Use your fingers to rub in butter. Add buttermilk, berries and honey. Gently stir ingredients in with a butter knife until just combined.

I found the dough very soft and sticky so I put it straight onto the greased tray and using well floured hands, I patted the dough down until it was a circle of about 3cm thick. Make a deep indentation with a sharp (floured) knife to make 8 wedges. Brush with milk.

Bake 10 minutes and then cut into wedges along the indentations and move apart slightly. Bake an additional 10-20 minutes or until cooked and golden. (I baked mine for 30 minutes altogether with the tray on the top shelf for 20 minutes and on the bottom shelf for 10 minutes because the top was getting a bit too brown.) These can be served with butter and jam or honey but are delicious with no adornments.

On the stereo:
It: Pulp

Old Fire Station Café Gallery – tasty transformation

The sky is darkening but it has been a lovely spring day. The temperature was predicted to be 25 C and I am sure it got to that (NB: since writing this, I have seen it was a record breaking 30 C). In fact, I am sure it was a lot hotter than that in our car. It was t-shirt weather, café weather, bike riding weather! We met my friend Will and headed off to the Old Fire Station Café Gallery in Preston.

I love old buildings and, if they can’t be used for their original use, I do enjoy a transformation into a funky café. The doors are still the huge doors that the fire engines would fly out of in an emergency and give a sense of what the building might have been like in its heyday. The walls are the original naked red brick (if the brick bonding is anything to go by – one of my esoteric interests when a student) and serve as exhibition space for artwork. But now the place has a large blackboard menu, a glass display cabinet of yummy food, and a sundry assortment of retro chic laminex tables and chairs. There are also outdoor areas and a few comfy armchairs.

I plonked Sylvia, in her little blue floral sun bonnet, on the table to play with Will and went to order. I had looked up the place on the web and seen an intriguing dish called 'the King'. It was a fried banana and peanut butter sandwich with bacon and maple syrup. But on the board it didn’t say it had bacon. Being a suspicious vegetarian I asked if it had bacon. No, I was told. So I ordered it, even though they seemed a bit confused with 'the Elvis' which was a fried banana and peanut butter sandwich.

When my meal came it was topped with a generous helping of bacon. Oh no, I assured them, I was told there was no bacon. So they took it away and brought back a freshly fried sandwich. But this time I looked at the little dish on the side, dipped my finger in it for a taste and said it was honey not maple syrup. They took it away again. I was beginning to feel like a difficult customer but I only wanted what I had seen on the menu. Finally it arrived and I could tuck in.

I ordered the dish because I am very partial to maple syrup, and this dish was quite different to my usual vegie breakfast. It was very heavy and rich but I enjoyed the combination of flavours. I think a properly indulgent vegetarian alternative should have cheese as well, but, hey, that wasn’t on the menu.

The little pile of greens at the side made me laugh. Who were they kidding that these could make any dint on the greasy, syrupy sandwich. I ignored the greens and tried to make amends by ordering a banana and berry smoothie. This came in a large glass that Sylvia would have loved to get her paws on. The waitress showed her sense of humour when we asked what was sprinkled on top of the smoothie. Dirt, she joked, with a laugh and then told us it was cinnamon.

E and Will wisely chose more healthy meals than I. E had the Fireman’s Feast and enjoyed the fry up except that the baked beans were luke warm rather than hot. Will had a rather tasty looking vegetarian pasta with pumpkin and feta cheese.

We then decided to have something sweet to finish up. I had a lemon slice, E had a yo-yo (or melting moment) and Will had a vanilla slice. There were some chunky muffins but I would have liked a few cakes to choose from. The lemon slice was nice but a bit too much lemon for me, and I left all the icing for E and Will to pick at.

On the way home I asked E if he would go back there. No, he said. He didn’t like the service because of my experience with the King. While I never appreciate being served meat, I thought the service was prompt and friendly. I hope I will be back but I might need to omit to tell E where we are going. Will had been to the cafe before and I am sure he will be back.

The Old Fire Station Café Gallery
378 High St, Preston, 3072
Phone: 03 94712100
E-mail: enquiries@tofscg.com.au
Website: http://tofscg.com.au/

Fontina onion and potato tart

I’ve been busy this week. Life has been full of playing with Sylvia and her blocks, long walks, pureeing food for her, and – when I really have to cook – sitting her in the high chair in the kitchen beside me. I’ve found time for eating, of course. Cranberry and raisin bread with sliced banana and sugar. An easy sesame slice (which I will share later). My fabulous vegetarian lasagne. I’ve tidied and organised some of the clutter (not that you would know it to look at the house). It doesn't leave had much time for blogging.

So I have dredged up a stodgy old tart from my backlog. It is not a terrible tart but it was a little rich and heavy. It had a lot more cream and eggs than other tarts I have made lately, but at least there was no plastic on the bottom. I made it so long ago I can hardly remember a lot of details. Half the time in doing this post was spent seeking the magazine where I found it. I can tell you that E was not overly impressed with the tart.

I think that the side dishes weren’t inspiring enough for E. He wasn’t so keen on the kale on the side the first night nor the broccoli mash the next night (recipe below). I enjoyed the mash but I am not sure if it was quite right for the tart. In fact, I think what might have helped is a sharp sauce like the Cheat's Beetroot Chutney (recipe below) that I made for the broccolini and brie tart recently. I made the chutney in dire need of a sauce in the middle of winter when it seemed silly having tinned beetroot in my pantry. One day I will made a proper beetroot and apple chutney to store in jars in my pantry but this cheat's chutney did the trick for a couple of nights.

I made the potato and onion tart because I needed to use up fontina cheese after the buckwheat pasta bake. Although heavy, it gave a high degree of comfort in my book. Maybe some sharp cheddar might be better than fontina. And if I continue making pizza bases like last weekend, I might just be interested in taking the magazine up on the suggestion of using the onion and potato and fontina cheese as pizza topping. Now that sounds much more our style.

Fontina, caramelised onion and potato tart
From BBC Australian Good Food Guide June 2009
Serves 4

• 1 tbsp oil
• 3 large onions, finely sliced
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 500g potatoes, cut into 1.5cm and par cooked
• 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed
• 2 eggs
• 100ml cream
• 100g fontina cheese
• 2 tsp thyme leaves, plus extra to serve
  

Cook onions in oil in a large frypan for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add sugar and vinegar and stir for about 20 minutes until onions are caramelised. Stir in potato.

Line a baking tin with pastry (I used a lamington tin, which is 30 x20 cm). Trim edges and place strips of extra pastry along edges. Spread potato and onion inside pastry edges. Lightly whisk together eggs and cream with a fork or small whisk. Pour over onion and potato (sounds easy but there wasn't much in the way of edges to keep the cream mixture in and some of my flowed over the edges). Scatter with cheese and thyme leaves.

Bake at 200 C for 20 minutes or til puffed and golden. Garnish with extra thyme leaves.

Broccoli and parsnip mash
Inspired by Diet, Dessert and Dogs
makes enough for leftovers that make good soup with some stock

• 5 small broccoli heads, chopped
• 2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium potato, chopped
• 50g blue cheese (or other cheese)
• 2-3 tbsp yoghurt
  

Cook parsnip and potato in salted water for about 15 minutes. Add broccoli and simmer another 5 minutes. Mash with cheese and yoghurt. Check seasoning. If you have leftover mash, it will easily transform into a soup.

Cheat’s beetroot chutney
serves about 4 as a side

• 1 tsp oil
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• ½ x 400g tin of beetroot with juice
• 1 apple, grated and peeled
• slurp of vinegar
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• good shake of cayenne pepper

In a medium saucepan, fry the onion in the oil for about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or till chutney thickens but is still spreadable. Serve warm or room temperature. I used it within a couple of days so am not sure how long it would keep but it was good when fresh.

On the Stereo:
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