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:
iselect10CC (The Sunday Mail Freebie) – 10CC

Chocolate cookies and pizza

It was a busy weekend. A superhero birthday party, a birthday brunch and then father’s day. E spent lots of time with Sylvia, playing and changing nappies and giggling. But no more than he does most weekends. I made him a nice dinner but I don’t need an excuse to cook for him.

In fact, it is my cooking that gives E more time with Sylvia than he might otherwise have. I seem to spend many evenings saying can you just hold her while I …. Of course he never complains about spending time with his wee treasure. Yet another benefit of blogging!

The excellent food we had yesterday made me very grateful for blogging. I baked two things I might not have made without my blog. Chocolate cut out cookies and pizza. Baking cookies while pizza dough rose filled the kitchen and the house with homeliness.

I have avoided cut out biscuits or cookies (I usually say biscuits which is more Australian but because I like the name of these – Best Ever Chocolate Cut Out Cookies – I will use cookies today.) The idea of having to wait for cookie dough to cool in the fridge and then roll it out did not appeal and the end result always seemed to dry and crunchy for me who prefers soft cakes. I am more comfortable making ugly chunky cookies than making them elegant morsels with pretty designs.

I recently found some Australian animal cookie cutters that seemed just the thing for easily making pretty cookies to parade on my blog. The gingerbread recipe I made was so delicious and soft (for cut out cookies) that I have made it three times in the last month. Not just for me. I have given them away as presents and taken them to social gatherings. This recipe has given me back my cut out cookies mojo. It reminds me of the fun of playdough. I am sure Sylvia will enjoy making and eating these cookies one day.

When I posted the gingerbread recipe, I looked around at other cut out cookie recipes and listed them on my blog to remind me. After helping out with superhero biscuits at Quin’s party on Friday I had some tubes of chocolate fudge icing leftover. I thought I could use them up by decorating some more biscuits. These chocolate cut out cookies had been beckoning me and I was easily able to find them through my link on my blog. The dough was very soft and sticky but it was worth it.

The cookies were exceedingly good. Terribly moreish. Dark and devilishly chocolatey. In fact E, who spends his life telling me not to bake chocolate goods, said he liked them more than the gingerbreads. He love their buttery flavour and softness. I have new gingerbread cutters that are cute but have a tendency towards decapitation. I tried decorating the little gingerbread men with the fudge icing and found the tubes too hard to pipe with but when I gave E a plate of my dodgy attempts he gobbled them up. These are the sort of cookies I feel like telling someone to take away from me because I can’t resist the temptation. Luckily I had been out for a swim yesterday.

As well as the cookies there was pizza. I was partly inspired to make this by a comment by Maybelle’s Mom, who said they have pizza once a week. I haven’t baked with yeast for ages – well not since last year – and have been itching to do so. Pizza seemed like a good way to ease back into it – although Spring is not a good time to try and get back into bread baking, which is a winter activity for me. But I love a good pizza.

When you eat pizza on bases bought from the shops you forget how good a home made one is. I wanted to try a wholemeal one but wasn’t feeling brave so I revisited Isa’s pizza base that I had blogged before. I tried stretching the dough with my hands rather than rolling it out with a rolling pin. For the toppings I was quite keen to try something different. I had some leftover roast potato and pumpkin to use up (NB I didn’t use them all on the pizza so I made a great soup today with roast potato and pumpkin, onion, garlic, carrot and stock).

Both pizzas had a sauce made up from what I could see around the kitchen – tomato paste, pumpkin puree (rejected by Sylvia), garlic, walnut oil, olive oil, lemon juice and fresh basil. The first pizza had this sauce, roast pumpkin, thin asparagus, marinated feta cheese and a drizzle of the marinade oil. The second pizza had the sauce, grated mozzarella, roast potato, thinly sliced red capsicum and more grated mozzarella. Both were delicious.

I am still hoping I might try a wholemeal pizza base soon. I was pleased to see that Maybelle’s mom had posted her pizza dough recipe and it had mashed potato in it. I also was inspired by a few other recent posts:

• Feeding Maybelle – Wholewheat Mashed Potato Pizza Dough
• Munchkin Mail – Wholemeal Pizza
• Food for Laughter – Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
• Melbourne Kitchen Tales - No Knead Pizza Dough
  

What kid would not love pizza and chocolate cookies. E, being a big kid, was delighted. We watched an old war movie called Sea of Sand recently. I was amused by one scene where they use cocoa to make their faces dark when on a night raid. So not only is this recipe like playing with play dough but the cocoa is all you need for some war games! A perfect game for Father's Day.

Best Ever Chocolate Cutout Cookies
Adapted from All Recipes
Makes about 36 x 5cm diameter cookies

• 170g butter, softened
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 egg
• 1⅓ cups plain white flour
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar (I softened butter from the fridge by microwaving on a low heat so I could cream it by hand rather than with electric beaters). Add egg and stir or beat till combined. Gradually add in dry ingredients to form a soft dough.

The dough was so soft I didn’t even bother making a ball with it. The recipe said to refridgerate for 2 hours but I put it in the freezer in the bowl for 30 minutes instead.

Take dough from freezer or fridge and lightly knead on a floured ball. It is so soft that you need to have your hand and board well floured but it should be quite firm from the freezer and need a little kneading to be pliable enough to roll out. Use a floured rolling pin to roll out to about 1 cm thick or less. (The recipe suggests ⅛ inch in thickness).

Use well floured cookie cutters to cut shapes (or cut shapes with a knife or use the floured rim of a drinking glass). Carefully transfer shapes to greased or lined baking trays (I line mine with baking paper.) Bake at 190 C for 8-10 minutes. Cool on baking tray for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool. Or you can transfer the baking paper with cookies onto the wire rack (this helps if you have more than one batch of cookies to go in the oven).

On the stereo:

Living in the Past: Jethro Tull

Gravy Train Cafe - yummy yabbering in yarraville

The family birthdays continue. After Quin’s superhero party on Friday, we went to brunch for my sister Francesca’s birthday yesterday. Fran always manages to find groovy places to gather family and friends for celebrations. Yesterday it was the Gravy Train in Yarraville. I was pleased to find it was a café we had loved visiting when house hunting in the area a few years ago

It is a deceptively large place (the web review said it seats 120) because the space is divided into three areas. You can take your pick. Out the front is lots of plastic chairs and concrete where you can smoke and people-watch, inside with snuggly lounge chairs and wooden tables and chairs in a warm red area decorated with funky artwork, or in a sheltered greenhouse-style area out the back with the sun and gentle breeze finding a way in through the mesh ‘windows’.

We were quite late because Sylvia had wanted to party all night and sleep all morning (I thought we didn’t get such behaviour till she is a teenager)! By the time we arrived, everyone else was finishing their meals. I was starvin’ marvin because we had rushed around to get out of the house and not even had time to eat. I rarely leave home without eating something. So I sent E off to order food soon after seating ourselves at our table out the back.

I pounced on my food when it came. My big vegie breakfast was delicious and hit the spot. It was a fine spread of lovely sour dough soft with melted butter, fantastic grilled mushrooms, wilted spinach, juicy soft grilled tomato, sweet caramelized onions, a crisp hash brown and a little bowl of home made baked beans (I was pleased they were much less intense than my recent baked beans). E loved his plate of pancakes, fried eggs, bacon and maple syrup. I also heard that the meaty big brekkie was very good.

It was a pleasant and relaxed place to catch up with my brother Andy’s family and some of Fran’s friends. Large groups and babies were well catered for. Erica was pleased there was a high chair for little Cooper. Sylvia got lots of cuddles and had a friendly tug of war with Cooper over her favourite rings.

After the rest of Fran’s guests left, we had a nice chat with her and her partner John over coffee and cake. Actually I had a raspberry, blueberry and banana smoothie. It was huge and I needed to eat most of it with a spoon because it was so thick. That is almost a meal in a glass.

Fortunately E helped choose a cake to share with me. We had a chocolate mousse cake that was not too heavy although it was quite rich and creamy with layers of chocolate biscuit, dark chocolate mousse, white chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. E sat with fork posed as he patiently waited for me to take a photo or two. By the time I had finished Fran and John were halfway through their piece of cake.

It was good to catch up with Fran and John in a smaller group. We left having had an elephant’s sufficiency. A great way to celebrate Fran’s birthday.

Gravy Train Café
83 Gamon Street
Yarraville VIC 3013
Phone: (03) 9687 9866
Web Review at Australian Good Food and Travel Guide

Superhero Cake – Kapow!

My oldest niece chose a superhero them for her birthday party yesterday and cake was on the menu. The previous night I baked a chocolate birthday cake and gingerbread biscuits while E looked after Sylvia. Then on Friday, Sylvia and I headed down to my parents’ place where the party was taking place.

We arrived just as my brother Paul got home with a gaggle of nieces. Little Ella came with me to buy a few supplies including liquorice at a lolly shop. I was impressed that when I asked if she needed anything, she shook her head. I checked with her mum Susie later who said Ella prefers tomato to lollies. (Please take note, Sylvia – but ignore her dislike of pumpkin!) Ella also managed to get into the blue food dye so that her mum had to wash her mouth out. (Note to self: don't leave food colouring unattended when small children about.)

I had planned to make a cake looking like a superhero comic onomatopoeia speech bubble. You know the ones I mean? The Pow! Biff! Bam! words that punctuated comics and the 1960s Batman and Robin television series when the heroes and villains had a fight. I found this webpage of bat words. It seemed a fun way to have something instantly recognisable as superheroic without being too complicated.

I had also suggested to the birthday girl, Quin, that we do some cut out biscuits (cookies) in superhero shapes. I produced Superman’s shield, Batman’s bat symbol, the Flash’s lightening bolt, Spiderman’s web, a few ducks and lots of gingerbread man buddies. The last two might seem an odd choice of shapes but I couldn’t find any superhero cookie cutters. Instead I bought a few other new cutters – a duck, a wombat and a wee gingerbread man. It was taking me ages to cut the shapes so I use the cookie cutters at hand. E reassured me there is a Superduck superhero, though he didn’t look like a rubber duckie. We decided the little men would be the villains. The plan was for the girls to help with decorating the biscuits.

By the time the doorbell heralded the arrival of the first of Quin’s friends, we had started mixing icing and purchased a few ready-made gel icing tubes. The guests had been asked to dress as a superhero so there were lots of impressive costumes with masks, capes and lycra. They joined in the decorating with gusto and giggles. The discussion of the gingerbread men as baddies stimulated lots of fun and creativity. They gave them masks, stripes, suits etc. Paul’s partner, Miriam also helped out and made some impressive designs on Superman’s shield. Making up a good red icing is quite a challenge, so this was no mean feat.

Once the biscuits were done, the girls went off to play some loud video games, which made me feel quite old. But it wasn’t long before the bumper order of fish and chips arrived. This is a traditional Friday night meal in my family – a grease and oil change, we used to joke! Great comfort food, if not overly healthy. Easy way to cater to a crowd. I had chips and potato cakes after the corn jack went missing.

Next was the ceremonial blowing out of candles on the cake following singing happy birthday by candle light. The cake was a success. Susie and Grace were happy to have a gluten free cake. It tasted good to everyone else (although when I took a piece home to E he made a funny face at the liquorice on top). Quin was very pleased with her cake and helped out with the liquorice outlines around the edges.

I have reposted the recipe because it was originally posted on my first blog post for the Vampire Cake and I was pleased to find it still worked well with regular milk rather than evaporated milk and marmalade rather than raspberry jam (and mixing the baking powder in the cake tin when I realised at the last moment that I had forgot it). I have also posted step by step instructions on making the cake, though it was fairly straightforward.

If I did the superhero cake again I would be tempted to do BAM rather than KAPOW. Kapow looked cool but was harder to fit on the cake and to outline with liquorice. I also would dry the blue icing before piping onto it because I think that was why my icing outlines weren’t as sharp as I had hoped.

Then party organisers, Paul and Miriam, made everyone raspberry spiders. These are raspberry lemonade with a scoop of ice cream so they are all fizzy and creamy. I think they are like root beer floats. I should have asked Miriam who is American. She told me that in America they always had cake and icecream for birthdays but no one does it here. I can think of a few people who would enjoy it.

Once well fed, the girls returned to their activities. I had found some fun superhero party games ideas when searching for the cake but the best was the idea of having a Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth game in which guests had to lasso soft toys. Imagine the questions you might ask them if you know they would tell the truth! I also had superhero songs going through my head when thinking about the cake so I couldn’t resist putting together a little superhero playlist below even though I know it wasn’t needed for this party.

When we left there were lots of gingerbread superhero biscuits left. (I spoke to Paul today who said that the slumber party went well and all the bickies were devoured.) So I took one to send us on our way. It was a bat bickie with 'evil' piped across it in icing. I felt like it was a fitting end to the night to take the Bat of Evil and my cackling sidekick Sylvia and swoop off into the dark night.

Superhero playlist:

• “Aquaman’s Lament” - Mark Aaron James
• “Flash” - Queen
• “Looking out for a hero” - Bonnie Tyler
• “Ode to a Superhero” - Weird Al Yankovic
• “Spiderman” - The Ramones
• “Sunshine Superman” - Donovan
• “Superman” - Laurie Anderson
• “Superman” - REM
• “The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love” - Flaming Lips
• “Theme from Greatest American Hero (Believe it or not)” - Joey Scarboro
• “Waitin’ For A Superman” - The Flaming Lips

How to make a Superhero Kapow Cake

• Make one Heavenly Chocolate Cake using recipe below. (If you don't want a gluten free one you can make any cake that holds its shape - check out this cake or my other novelty cakes for other ideas.)
• Cover a large tray with foil – I used a baking tray – and place cake on foil.
• Take a sharp knife and carefully cut zig zag shapes around the edge of the cake.
• Set chunks of cake aside (we iced them with extra icing and piled them on a plate next to the large cake).
• Use a dry pastry brush to brush away any crumbs.
• Mix up some blue icing (frosting) by mixing icing sugar, some hot water and a few drops of blue food colouring to make a spreadable paste It should be a lurid bright blue.
• Spread blue icing over the cake. Ideally I would ice around the sides but as I didn’t have much time I just iced the top of the cake.
• If you have time, let blue icing dry so when you pipe the yellow word on it is less likely to bleed into the blue.
• Take thin strips of liquorice and cut to lay along the jagged edges of the cake.
• Make a very thick bright yellow icing.
• Spoon yellow icing into a icing gun or other piping contraption (if you don’t have one you could fill a snaplock plastic bag with icing and snip a small hole in the corner.)
• Sketch the word (Kapow, Bam, Biff, Pow etc) you want to use on a piece of paper. Use a sharp knife to lightly copy your word onto the blue icing to check it fits well - you should just scrape the top of the icing, especially as you may need to smooth with a hot wet knife and rewrite if it doesn't look right.
• Pipe the word onto the cake using thick letters.
• If you have enough yellow icing you could also pipe it around the edge of the cake on the inside of the liquorice strips. This is optional. You could also use liquorice strips on the other side of the yellow outline so it is had the dark outlines like in comics – but I didn’t.
• Cut thin strips of liquorice to outline the words.
• If you don’t want candles on the cake you could use some of the chunks of cake cut from the edges to hold the candles.

Heavenly Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free)
Adapted from my previous version of this cake

1 cup soy flour
¾ cup 100% corn flour (cornstarch)
2 teaspoon GF baking powder
½ cup cocoa
1¼ cups sugar
150g melted butter
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 mashed banana
2 tablespoons marmalade (or other jam)

Grease and line a lamington tin (30 x 20cm). Preheat oven to 180 C.

Place flours, baking powder, cocoa sugar, butter, vinegar and milk into a large bowl beat with electric beater on low speed for 1 minute. Add eggs, banana and jam and beat on medium speed for two minutes.

Pour cake mix into prepared tin (it is quite runny). Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes or until cooked. Stand cakes in pans 5 minutes, turn onto wire rack to cool. Sandwich cakes together with whipped cream.

On the stereo:

Breathless: Camel

Spring Beans

In my last post earlier this week, I shared some of the sights of my spring garden. The following day I went for a long walk with Sylvia and it was such a gorgeous sunny day that I took some photos to further celebrate the arrival of spring.

Green buds were sprouting on winter branches:

The sky was blue and the blossoms were a delicate pink:

In fact, there was a profusion of blossoms:

We spied red geraniums in this garden looking lovely against the backdrop of a lacy cast iron verandah:

The jasmine was flowering. We had jasmine in the first house E and I lived in when we first moved to Melbourne. I find the smell so evocative and wish I could share it with you:

Some lucky folk had far more lemons on their tree than me:

And some lavendar bushes were far more advanced than mine - and far more enticing to the bees:

So what spring dish did I make for dinner? Gulp! Slow baked beans. It is the transitional time of year when I look forward to fresh spring dishes but am also sad about the missed opportunities for winter dishes. I had seen Jules of Stone Soup making these baked beans recently and wanted to try it before the weather was too warm. The sky might have been blue yesterday but then the heavens opened in the afternoon and we had fierce thunderstorms.

I have loved baked beans in a tin since I was a kid. More recently I have enjoyed 'home made' baked beans in cafes for brunch. Jules baked her beans overnight for 7-8 hours instead of soaking them. I was not so brave or organised. I had planned to potter about the house and bake them while I was home - I worry too much about leaving the oven on overnight. But it was so sunny that I was out longer than I intended. So I ended up turning up the oven for the last part of cooking. It strikes me that I could do it next time but baking the beans for a few hours in the evening and finishing them off the next night - especially when I am back at work.

I love the idea of smoky dark molasses baked beans but the beans I am used to aren't at all like that. I found these beans a bit intense and would decrease the flavourings a bit next time. So I have adjusted the recipe for the molasses, smoked paprika and mustard, which I think could be a bit less. I also think I needed a bit more seasoning. I have been a bit confused about not salting the beans when cooking from dried. I had worried that they might have tough skins if I cooked them in stock but these beans were nice and soft. So next time I would be a bit more generous with stock and soy sauce, if needed. I also needed more liquid and will remember the celery next time.

So I will make some adjustments next time but I did enjoy having my own baked beans without having to soak the beans. I served it as I might serve it for brunch one day by frying up some toast, mushrooms, zucchini and spinach. I think some fried potatoes, avocado and tattie scones would also go nicely with this.

I am sending these baked beans to Sia of Monsoon Spice for My Legume Love Affair which is founded by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook.

Smoky baked beans

Adapted from Stone Soup
serves 6

500g (1lb) dried beans, cannellini or navy
2 onions, peeled & diced
4 sticks celery, diced (I didn’t use)
2 carrots, diced
4-6 cloves garlic
2 x 400g (14oz) cans tomatoes, chopped
2½ cup water (or stock)
500ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1-3 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1-3 tsp yellow mustard powder
1-3 tsp smoked paprika
seasoning

Place all ingredients in a large casserole dish stir to combine. Check flavourings and seasonings and then adjust to taste. Cover with a lid or foil and place in cold oven. Turn on oven at 140 C and bake til beans are soft and sauce has thickened. Jules suggested 7-8 hours without looking at it. I baked for 2½ hours, turned off the oven for 2½ hours, returned oven to 140 C when I got home and baked for 1½ hours, checked the water, added more and turned up oven to 180 C for 1½ hours. I stirred mine about every hour.

On the Stereo:
Platinumum Collection: Genesis

Spring garden and WIP pasta

The spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where de birdie is
Some say de bird is on the wing
But isn’t that absurd
Because as everybody knows
De wing is on de bird

Yes, it is the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere and time for a bit of pottering about the garden. It is looking gorgeously green and I feel we should appreciate it before the forecasted scorcher of a summer reduces it to a brown and burnt shadow of its current glory.

My first stop is the lavender bush, which is less than a year old. It was flowering when I was given it. Once the flowers left I wondered if they would ever come back. Just a few days ago I noticed a bit of colour on the plant. Hurrah! This looks promising. I am even hoping I might get to cook with some of the lavender if it keeps growing like this.

If we step back to view the lavender with the rest of the garden, you can see it has flourished. The mint is growing like crazy and my other herbs are looking green and healthy, except my bay tree which suffered during last summer and seems to have been pilfered a little too much. My mum has bought me some rainbow chard and kale this year. The kale is looking a little bald because I took the scissors to it for a rather good minestrone last night.

Next stop is the lemon tree. It is a Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree in a pot. There are lots of purple and white buds that we hope will blossom into flowers which will shed their petals to become little lemons.

There are only a few lemon buds right now. The tree is almost two years old so I haven’t allowed too many lemons to grow on it so far. We had quite a few lemons earlier in the year but the poor wee tree lost quite a few leaves that turned yellow. So I gave it a rest from fruiting. I am not sure that it was the fruit. My mum, my garden mentor, told me she heard that lemon trees have been doing that in Melbourne over winter. I hope mine will perk up with the onset of spring.

The lime tree has always been the smaller of our two citrus trees. We had a few blossoms and buds but no fruit. Last summer the lime seemed to really suffer in the heat and its leaves got badly burnt. So I am pleased at how green and leafy it looks after winter. So long as it looks healthy, I am happy, and any fruit would be a bonus.

The weather is not terribly spring-like. It is still a bit gloomy grey. I measure the weather by how well my washing dries. I put the washing out on Saturday and it poured rain but was dry the next day. Today I put the washing out and it dried. So it is improving.

But I thought I should post a springy recipe. Something that is a bit lighter and easy. I made this pasta dish in winter but I think it might work quite well in sunnier weather. I made it because I wanted to use up my facon but I liked the simplicity of the dish and the fact that, without the facon, it could be made by poking about the pantry, fridge and freezer staples. It is still work in progress. I would like to try it again with fresh spinach and a bit less cheese. Maybe some olives and artichokes would work well. Actually, a squeeze of lemon from the tree might be just the lift it needs.

I am sending this to Ruth of Once Upon a Feast for this week’s Presto Pasta Nights (#129). Ruth not only founded and organises the event but she also has an alternate version of the little ditty at the top of my post. I always think of this rhyme at the start of spring and then it reminds me of childhood events like piano lessons and the Puffin Club. No wonder spring makes me feel young again!

WIP Pasta with Spinach, Chickpeas, and Facon
Adapted from Lidia’s Italy by Lidia Bastianich via Serious Eats
serves 3-4

• 1 dessert bowl of pasta
• 1½ onions, sliced
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 2 slices facon (fake bacon), chopped (optional)
• 1 green chilli, finely chopped
• 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 250g frozen spinach, thawed and drained (or fresh spinach)
• slurp of white wine
• ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 handfuls of cheese (about a cup)
• 2 tbsp walnut oil, or to taste
• Salt, to taste
  

Cook pasta according to the instructions on the packet, but cook it less a minute or two than it needs.

Meanwhile heat oil in a large frypan and fry onion for a few minutes til soft and starting to brown. Add garlic, facon and chilli for a minute. Add chickpeas, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, cooked pasta and white wine for a few minutes to warm through (if the spinach is fresh, give it enough time to wilt).

Remove from heat and stir through cheese. Check seasoning and drizzle with some walnut oil.

On the Stereo:
Colour of White: Missy Higgins