26.

Last weekend was my 26th birthday.  Gosh, I'm getting old!  I had some friends round for lunch, and we ate and ate and ate.

I didn't manage to get any good pictures of my guests, but here's the cake..

It's Elizabeth David's chocolate almond torte.  I make it every year and it's never failed me!

To make it, you do this:

Preheat the oven to 375F (190C), and line a 20cm springform tin with baking paper.

Separate 4 room-temperature eggs, with the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.

Melt 200g dark chocolate (the best you can get, and at least 70% cocoa solids) with 150g chopped unsalted butter in a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Remove from heat and cool.

Beat the egg yolks and 100g caster sugar until pale and thick.  Beat in the melted chocolate/butter mixture and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Fold in 100g blanched almond meal.

In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy.  Add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (I usually omit this, it's not really necessary) and continue whisking until soft peaks form.  Sprinkle in 50g caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.  Fold about 1/4 of the whites into the chocolate batter to lighten it.  Quickly fold in the rest of the whites and mix only until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 45 to 50 minutes or until ready.  Remove and cool.  The cake will rise during baking but falls during cooling, leaving a crisp and cracked crust.  Once cool, run a spatula around the inside of the pan before undoing the tin.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with strawberries and thick double cream.

Mess-making.

I've got a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, and a cheesy, crunchy, creamy, garlicky pasta-bake in the oven.

Today I picked up a sad, wilted bunch of rainbow chard and a cauliflower with a rotten brown spot out of the take-home-or-throw-away box at work.  I roasted the cauliflower with some garlic (also from the box!), and sauteed finely chopped chard with bacon and butter.  I cooked some spiral pasta and made a balsamella (bechamel) sauce.  I put it all together in a baking dish with stacks of grated parmigiano cheese and crunchy panko breadcrumbs on top.  Now it's in the oven emitting rays of deliciousness throughout my apartment.

Making balsamella is easy-peasy.  I do it the way my mum showed me when I was little - melt 60g butter, add 60g plain flour, stir and cook until the flour doesn't taste "floury" anymore, sploosh in milk until it's the consistency you want it, and keep whisking all the while to ensure your sauce isn't lumpy.  My mother uses an actual whisk but I use a fork.  It's a bit lumpy, but I don't mind.  I stirred in some salt, some black pepper, and some nutmeg too.

I'd have taken pictures to show you, but the batteries in my camera are dead.  Next time!

Quince crumble.

I poached a quince today and now my apartment smells of the fresh ginger and star anise that I simmered it with.

After the quince was cooked, I put it in a little baking dish with the ginger and star anise, some of the poaching liquid and scattered some sugar over the top. Then I made a crumble and dotted it over the top, and then I baked it.

Quince crumble for one.

To poach the quince:

(inspired by this post. If it wasn't for David Lebovitz I wouldn't have remembered the bag of star anise sitting in the pantry!)

Peel and core the quince. Put it in a small pot and just cover with water. Add whatever aromatics you like - I used star anise, a slice of lemon, and slices of fresh ginger. Add some sugar. Simmer until the quince is cooked. It took me about half a hour, but David says it can take up to two hours! Just check your quince and when it's ready, it's ready. Let it cool in the poaching liquid.

Set the oven to 190C (or 180C if you have a fan-forced oven) and make the crumble while the oven heats.

To make the crumble:

(my crumble was inspired by the recipe at the end of this post, but you can use whatever crumble you like best)

Rub 70g Nuttelex or similar into 75g plain flour. Mix in 40g large breadcrumbs (I used panko 'cause that's what I have), 40g brown sugar, some ground cinnamon and nutmeg, and a little splash of water to make it all come together nicely.

Now, put the quince into a little baking dish. Put in the star anise and ginger too, if you like. Scatter some sugar on the top. Put the crumble on the top in clumps until it's all covered over. Bake for about half an hour until the top is brown and crunchy.

You could eat this with icecream or cream or yoghurt or ricotta or cottage cheese or anything, really. I don't have any of those things so I ate it as it was, straight out of the dish.

What do you do when life gives you green peppers..?

Stuff 'em!

I got a bagful of green peppers from the "staff" box at work, and devised a recipe around stuff I already had in my pantry.

I cooked some brown rice and black-eyed peas, mixed that up with onion, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon, cumin, cinnamon and paprika.  I chopped the tops off the peppers and stuffed the mixture inside, and put them in a baking dish.  I made a quick tomato sauce (this one) and poured it over the top of the peppers, and sprinkled some nooch and breadcrumbs over the top, and stuck it in the oven for half an hour to bubble and brown.

It was pretty damn tasty.  Yum!

Mighty Ducks 8.

1. $60/kg cheese.
I couldn't help myself! I dropped into Maria's Coffee House & Deli in Nicholson St on my way home from uni to stock up on capers (an essential in my larder) and this little wedge of cheese caught my eye.



It's parmigiano di bufala, or buffalo parmesan. I tasted it in the shop, and it's much sharper and zingier than cow's milk parmesan. The woman in the shop told me firmly to hide it! For the price it was, I'm going to use it for something special. I'm Googling recipes as I type so hopefully I'll find a dish that complements the cheese perfectly. I shall report back!

Side note: OH MY GOD. As I was hunting up recipes just now, I found this on a menu - "Spaghetti alla castagne: Spaghetti sautéed in a chestnut cream sauce topped with cocoa powder. Like Pip says, that sounds like it should be illegal.

2. People on public transport.
It was a bit scary on the bus home from uni tonight - a young man got on and sat up the back of the bus near me who was very agitated. He was muscled, and dressed in trackies and a tank top - not someone you'd want to mess with ordinarily. He was talking to himself quite loudly, and bouncing up and down in his seat, occasionally coming out with bursts of manic chuckling. I don't want to say "crazy," or that he was dangerous but he definitely made me and some of the other passengers that I spoke to later feel very uncomfortable. What do you do in those types of situations? I just kept my head down and my sunnies on and read my book. The whole bus breathed a sigh of relief when he disembarked.

3. Cute thing cute thing!!.
Everyone! One.. two... three.....

...AWWWWWWWW!






I spied these cuties at uni, enjoying a walk in the sunshine around the campus with their mum. Awwww!