chrismukkah, oy humbug!

I've watched: 

The Shop Around the Corner, Bad Santa, Home Alone 2, Love Actually,the Melrose Place Christmas episode,* both of the Chrismukkah episodes from the OC and the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine accidentally slips a nip on her Christmas card. Two words: SETH COHEN.

I've eaten:

Steamed Czech dumplings filled with strawberries, doused in melted butter with a dollop of cream cheese. Roast wild boar, covered in a rosemary and thyme herb oil, served with whipped potatoes and red cabbage, followed with licorice ice cream and fra angelico on ice. A burger with bacon and cheese, also a sausage pizza, cheese pizza with extra mushrooms. Frozen coke. A suspicious tasting "ginger bread" frappaccino on the most humid day so far. I went to Winehot with my Pa and had a simple pork belly with new potatoes and (more) cabbage. At flat christmas, where several of the movies above were watched, I ate mushroom and ricotta empanadas and drank horchata for the first time (delicious!)
*"Does this gift cross the line between friendship and...romance?"

forgot to mention asparagus

After the not-a-good-choice lammington I had some skinny spears with lemon juice, butter and parmesan. I ate it with my fingers, while watching An Education in my track pants and wishing I could have a sixties makeover like Carey Mulligan. And Sezza, you are SO right about Nigel. Pictures from here.

Saaarsssgaaaaarrrrrd

Sent this photo to my friend who works in a very busy television newsroom (from here): 

her: oh my goodness

  his little face!

 me: eeehheee!

15:48 just standing on some cheeseburgers

  that is my kind of art

 her: currently stiffling silent laughs in the newsroom

15:49 me: mua ha ha!

15:51 her: aaand now it's my wallpaper

 me: YES

15:52 her: I want to know what's going on in his head.

  I imagine it's "oohhhweeeeiiirdddwwhhhyyy"

15:55 me: hahahahah!

 her: someone just asked me what's wrong because I had my shirt up over my mouth and my eyes were watering

peas and other things

I love eating frozen peas straight out of the freezer! Another really good thing to do is to smash them with broad beans and pop them on some toasted ciabatta with a wodge of mozzarella. Another thing I feel like eating is ravioli. Like, really good hand-made ravioli from Maria Pia's, covered in sage butter. Dripping in it. I could also go a giant American hot dog, with onions and mustard, cheese, and a medium-to-low quality sausage in the middle. Yesterday I ate the rest of the Gouda that Lou gave me while making a lemon and asparagus risotto, and that was pretty good. I would like some lamb, marinated for hours and cooked on a barbecue. A cheeseburger from a fish and chip shop, cooked on a grill. I had Cocoa Pops for breakfast. I wasn't allowed them when I was little but I figured "Hey! I'm a grown up! I can eat whatever I want!". Take that, Mum. We bought the most incredible honey-cured streaky bacon from the Kerikeri farmers' market on the weekend, it made my fingers smell delicious. The market also had beautiful orange juice - or perhaps a mix of orange and tangerine - which we actually kept a secret from our friends waiting for us back at the bach so we would not have to share. Corn fritters with fresh mozzarella. Vietnamese salad with mint and lemongrass. Mushroom lasagne with bechamel and no tomato. Pizza blanco with Gorgonzola, prosciutto and big basil leaves. 

my cup of tea

In my adult life I have swung in and out of heavy tea drinking phases. Going months without any and then suddenly finding myself drinking more tea than water, with boxes and boxes of bags and leaves to offer guests along with biscuits and gossip. My flatmate and I once went through a 100 box of earl grey in a little under a fortnight and considered that quite an achievement, he was unemployed at the time so had more tea drinking time available to him than usual I suppose. Han and I used to share pots of lady grey, with a little honey, through cold Wellington winters. I recently bought a new teapot, it's large and blue and my favourite thing in the kitchen at the moment. Since moving into an all-girl house I have found myself once again drowning, not unpleasantly, in cups of tea around the kitchen table, on the front stoop, in the backyard, on the living room floor and taken back to bed on a Saturday morning. The jug is constantly boiling and I am increasingly stuck on what kind to have, sugar? honey? milk or soy? My indecisiveness is usually reserved (embarassingly) to meals out with friends but as the weather warms and my body craves hydration, perhaps more than the comfort of a hot mug, I'm getting stuck on this simple offer, ever gracious and oft off-handed.

It's no wonder that tea preparation and consumption has attracted such ritual in so many societies. The Japanese tea ceremony is something I've only experienced through books but the british high tea is an event ceremonious enough for a birthday or baby shower. The watery, sepia offerings of dumpling houses in chinatown, where I was once scolded 'no water! Only tea!' (this did happen) is self-served from steaming urns into grubby cups but they're free and you'll find you can't sit through a noisy drunken meal without refilling.

My favourite varieties change with each phase but earl grey is my rock. Lately I have become a sucker for Celestial Seasonings' Bengal Spice. It's the cinnamon, combined with a splash of milk and some manuka honey, that reminds me of a drink my mum used to make on the stove and call 'sleeping potion' on dark winter nights. Perhaps there's nostalgia also, in the brand; after a school tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado when I was six we were each given a sampler box of herbal teas to take home. Only recently have I gotten over my 'smells great tastes nothing' disdain for herbals, and I have to admit, it was Celestial Seasonings berry zinger that turned me. My recent flu was coddled with a tisane of lemongrass and ginger, the same leaves in the pot for two or three refills of hot water, and, while I've developed a recent craving for hot chocolate, I have a steaming cup of peppermint on my desk in front of me.

Kate from stylized, Gaga from popdirt and George via weheartit...

tip

DINNER FOR ONE
Get one egg yolk, some grated parmesan,the juice and zest of about half a lemon (or less), about five tablespoons of cream. Salt and pepper. Mix them together with a fork. In the meantime, put some fettucine or other fat noodles on to boil. Chop up some parsley. When the pasta is almost cooked, drain it and pop it back in the pot, off the heat. Roll some butter through it, as much as you like. Then, very quickly, put the eggy lemon mix in, and stir it through briskly so it does not turn into scrambled eggs. Tip it in a bowl, sprinkle it with parsley, devour, hopefully while wearing pyjamas. This is a Nigella recipe and I can't stop thinking about eating it again.

the vermillion discs tumble in

NOTES TAKEN WHILE WATCHING NIGELLA LAWSON:

Tangine: dark lady

Ruby droplets of pomegranate

Carmen miranda's christmas crown

The russian formalists said the purpose of literature was to make the stones stonier, this makes the nuts nuttier.

Lovely...river...of pink juice...folded together in a messy clump...

I love their...waxy richness

What you do with this beautiful amber disc, is break it up into big fat gold shards...

One meat is a meal, two meats is a feast!

Glorious porcini...expensive, but, you're worth it

There's something strange that happens when you add them to the porcini, its like they respond to the call of the wild

Look at this venison (mince), like something out of a still life

Far from dreading that recurring turkey, I live for it

Blitzed into wonderful, velvety, creamy emulsions.

Treacle: just malevolent

a recipe and an unrelated photo

Here's a soup that I made for dinner the other night. It's hearty and comforting and I know that you will like it Han. It probably isn't something you'll want to make for at least 4-5 months if you're in the Northern hemisphere, however.

Leek, potato and fennel soup (adapted from regular leek and potato soup, which I don't have a recipe for because it's just one of those things you know how to make, isn't it?)
Serves 4-6 or less with leftovers.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only)
2 cups sliced fennel bulb (or whole bulb for more pronounced fennel flavour)
4 cups stock (chicken or vege) - I used about a cup of some frozen homemade chicken stock*, and then a few cups of hot water with powdered vege stock but of those tetra packs of stock from the supermarket would probably be perfect.
4 cups chopped red-skinned potatoes - I don't peel them but if you don't like the skins you can
some tarragon (optional) - however much you want really, I threw a small handful in as an afterthought
salt and pepper for seasoning

Method
1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add leek and fennel and sauté until leeks are translucent.
2. Add stock, tarragon (if you have any) and potatoes and bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat until potatoes are nice and tender.
3. Remove pot from heat and using a stick blender, purée soup in pot, or alternatively in batches in blender. If using a blender, return to pot and rewarm if necessary. I usually leave a few chunks of potato...
4. Season with salt and pepper. Ladel into bowls and garnish with reserved fennel leaves, yoghurt, or sharp cheese like pecorino or parmesan.

You're welcome.

*it wasn't technically stock, but excess juices from a while ago when I made this roast chicken

The picture's from bookshelf porn. It has nothing to do with this soup except that it could be a nice place to eat it.

take care

I just read about how making food can be "a way to do your best while helping your fellows". Its true. I think there is nothing more comforting than cooking with a friend if you're feeling sad, and cooking a meal for someone who is going through a tough time seems a rather primal impulse to me. Its a combination of being simultaneously distracted and focused, the sense of accomplishment you get while eating something divine you created, nourishment (as my Mum would say, its "good for the soul"), being able to legitimately cry while slicing onions and, um, bonhomie, I think.

happy mondays

Today has so far been a lovely start to the week, despite what might actually be a slight hangover and some bad late for work dreams this morning...

I am eating the most delicious, flaky, crisp on the outside soft on the inside french pastry - an escargot from Monsieur Truffe on Smith St. It was a reward for the lateness being only a dream and a consolation for the hangover, and half of it is now embarassingly adorning the front of my dress.

I've just watched these two videos which both made me very happy. The one above I found on We Love You So and below is via The Debonaire, who's also posted this trailer which looks funny!

ffffood

Oh god I love food. I actually dreamed about two of my favourite leafy green vegetables the other night, kale and cavolonero. If anyone knows where I can find some in Melbourne please share!

My mouth is watering just looking at these pictures. I'm excited because I have some red quinoa at home which I've not used before so if I can get my hands on some kale I'm hoping to make a kind of variation on this salad. Also I recently made this chilli and it was AMAZING and I am recommending it to everyone I can. I might have even already posted about it on here, it was that good.

I'm not going to be cooking anything tonight because as soon as I finish work I'm off to see the founders of Refinery 29 give a little talk and then another runway show at LMFF which I might tell you all about on Monday...

Here are some links to my favourite foods on the internet: Tastespotting is basically food porn and also an excellent resource for recipes and things. Salad and Candy is funny and interesting and a bit weird. Everything that Trotski and Ash make looks and sounds incredible and I want to try it all, also they're local so aren't posting about stews and casseroles when I'm craving salads and sorbet. For drinks Liqurious is like the boozey version of Tastespotting and while I generally don't have all the ingredients, is great inspiration for dinner party cocktails and the like.

sleep

I'm so tired after a much-too-fun weekend. All I want to do is go home, eat a vitamin rich stew and fall asleep.

Speaking of which, last night I fell asleep with my light on and my face in a book. When I lived with a boy I used to wheedle and whine until he'd spoon me, every night. It is amazing how you get used to not being hugged to sleep. I thought I could not live without it, so being able to was a happy suprise. It is very nice though. Images from an article from the Guardian called The Politics of Sharing A Bed.

foooods

Last night, my flatmate and I were talking about the classic "if you had to choose, would you go without food or sex for the rest of your life?" question (assuming, of course, that you could survive on sex and not need to consume food). Neither of us hesitated when we chose the former. I could, I think, quite easily live without sex if I had a wide selection of creamy blue cheeses to eat and lots of asparagus. And prosciutto.


Perhaps that's because I've mostly lived with people who really appreciate nice food. I've lived with kitchen hands and stoner chefs in training, people whose parents instilled in them the desire to put delicious things in their faces. We'd cook epic meals together, have weekly roasts, make trips to Mediterranean, Indian, South African food warehouses to find new things (mostly cheeses...). We'd have long and obsessive g-chats about what to cook for dinner. * We'd pick blackberries from the abandoned council land up the road to make pies with. It all sounds rather twee but they're some of the least twee people I know.

In my current flat, we buy cookbooks and plan fancy-ish meals. We're getting an organic vege box delivered to us every week (it winds up being really cheap! And they're seasonal, la di da la la). That's not to say that we're amazing cooks, because we're really not. We eat an inordinate amount of pasta and cheese.

One of my favourite chefs in Nigel Slater. He's a cook after my own heart: everything is made from scratch, there's lots of butter, cheese and cream and not too much fluffing about with fancy things. He has writes casually but is clearly passionate. Comfort food is embraced, which is good, 'cos that's all I make.


When I found his column in the Guardian online it destroyed my workday. I went through about 500 pages of recipes, and then the "Ask Nigel" section. I also want his book about vegetables, called Tender.

Photos from Nigel's website.

* Neenish Tarts

3:40 PM Alex: did you just call your mum for the recipe

me: i emailed her

3:54 PM Alex: il print that one

me: i can't find it

mo

Alex: what

the edomnds

we have 2 at home

me: yeah

strue

3:57 PM Alex: okay then

3:58 PM shal we do it tonite, can you slot it in

me: yeh

although, as i have said - zero dollars

3:59 PM Alex: salreight u can O me

me: unless we buy the ingredients on the flat card and make them for the flat

as a whole

Alex: yeh let do that

me: sweet

4:00 PM Alex: do u got the card

me: yep

we could get ingredients on the way home from work

4:01 PM Alex: wukid

bliny/blini/love of my life which I shall probably never experience the like of again

Tepemok is a cult fast food chain in Russia. People who eat there get obsessed. I literally ate a cheese and creamy mushroom one everyday while I was there. By the end of two weeks Nigel and I were eating the "E-Mail" (feta and green things and an irrelevant name) and the cheesey mushroomy creamy one and a dessert one filled with condensed milk or cream and berries every day. It was amazing.

More reasons why this particular food joint ruled:

It was always open.

There were heaps of them. Whenever we were lost we would try and find one and once we did, oh boy oh boy did we get excited.

There were stalls AND restaurants.

It was cheap.

Sides: tea and borscht.

And once an old, old man listened in to our conversation and berated us for being cold. It was December in St Petersburg. It was cold.

I miss them so so much. Other snacks just don't measure up. Pancakes are always a disappointment. Galettes always taste wrong compared to them. It's sad when you fleetingly have something so good in your life, it spoils other things forever. I wouldn't have traded you for the world, Bliny.

a cup of tea

solves everything, right?

If you disagree you may as well stop reading because this is probably going to turn into some pretty unabashed tea loving rant. Seriously, I adore tea. Earl Grey is my long time favorite though Han and I used to branch out and drink a pot of Lady Grey (with a little spoon of honey in it) every now and then. One particularly dreary Auckland winter my housemate and I made it through a box of 50 Earl Grey teabags in 3 weeks.

When I was very young, my class went on a field trip to the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado, it smelled amazing and they gave us all a sampler box to take home; it remains to this day the most memorable school trip I've been on (second only possibly to 'drama camp' in 7th form on the Kapiti Coast, a truly hormonal excursion punctuated with late night truth or dare revelations, friends being banished back to Wellington still embarassingly drunk, a play about depression and lots and lots of gumboot tea). Celestial Seasonings is by far the best producer of herbal teas I have ever come across - they actually taste of something, not just a pretty smell - and (yay) I have started to see a small selection theirs stocked in Woolworths on Smith Street.

T2 is a tea-lover's mecca here in Melbourne, I have spent a lot of time in the Brunswick store, sniffing and tasting and umming and ah-ing, trying to decide which tea, or two, to take home with me. They aren't cheap and unfortunately none of the pre-packaged combinations really thrill me, so I have resorted to buying individual boxes, slowly, and building a bit of a collection. My recommendations include, for other Earl Grey fiends, the French Earl Grey, the same fragrant blck tea with a dreamy hint of rose and vanilla. I also love their breakfast range, a cute twist on English and Irish Breakfast teas, T2 produce Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand breakfasts. MelbourneBreakfast is described as 'a deep warm tea with a hint of sweetness, just like Melbourne', charming.

In NZ I collected vintage tea sets, the prettier of these are in storage still and will eventually make it to Melbourne I hope. I am very much looking forward to tea and girlfriends on the impending trip home. Sigh.

Do you have a favorite tea? Or routines and ceremonies that go with your tea or coffee drinking?

Pictures via: Daydream Lily, Oh Joy, Lolita