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Cooking From The Heart

Healthy Eating & Living Guide

Year: 2011

The Great Decider

Cooking from the heartCooking, Wine

My first experience with cider is one that will most likely be shared by many others. It involves being underage, overzealous and out of my depth. ‘Tis the reason I avoided it at all costs…until recently when a friend of mine was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Unable to imbibe his preferred tipple of beer (coeliacs are intolerant to gluten, a protein found in some components of beer such as barley malt and wheat starch), he turned to cider to keep his whistle wet. Any time he joins us for a bbq I case out bottle shops for less lackluster offerings than the one I’d had the misfortune of overindulging in all those years ago. And yes, I’d end up partaking in a glass or two as an act of comraderie for my friend who would otherwise be the only one drinking cider. And I have been enjoying it immensely.

It’s quite apparent that cider has undergone a revival of sorts over the last few years, with growing numbers of cider labels popping up in bottleshops and cideries opening in many regions of Australia. Particularly in the Yarra Valley, Adelaide Hills and south of Perth. While the varieties of cider apples grown in Australia is considerably less than in the UK and Europe, this hasn’t stopped cider being made from more widely available eating varieties such as Granny Smiths, Pink Ladies and Galas.

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Chilli Trepidations

Chilli Trepidations

Cooking from the heartCooking

Brrrr! The chill factor is extreme for this time of the year don’t you think? I don’t know about you, but autumn seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. I’m into winter comfort food in a big way already, with lots of recipes popping into my head that involve slow cooking on the stove top or a bit of spice to heat us up from the inside out.

Out of pure ignorance, I was once completely terrified of all foods hot. If there was the slightest hint of chilli I’d got for another item on the menu. Heat in food is just something I didn’t grow up with and with only movie references to practical jokes involving chilli as my reference; I came to the conclusion that it was to be avoided at all costs. Worse, I equated anything with spice or pepper to be ‘hot’ and as such any foods including such items were blacklisted.

Over time, I started to get an inkling that I was missing out. There were just so many delicious-smelling meals I’d refuse all because of an unsubstantiated fear. With the encouragement of friends, I started on working on overcoming my trepidation by introducing some not-so-hot foods, one of which was a mild laksa. It was love at first slurp.

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Tasty Brownies

Brownies

Cooking from the heartCooking, Healthy Eating

I had a little trouble deciding whether to include Rocky Road or Brownies in The Design Files chocolate story so I asked Twitter and the responses came back with Rocky Road winning by a narrow margin of just one vote. So I thought it best to include this great little Brownie recipe here so no one misses out.

My allegiance to Rocky Road is high having grown up eating Darrel Lea’s version and Brownies are a relative new-comer having only been exposed to it in its physical form after many visual reference on The Brady Bunch and other American TV shows in the 70s & 80s. There’s a million different Brownie recipes out there. I’m not much of a fan of those that include nuts so when I came across this recipe from Alice Hart’s Alice’s Cook Book gave it a try with stunning results.

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Mushroom

Mushroom

Cooking from the heartCooking, Kitchens

Have you experienced a mushroom explosion in your backyard recently? It’s as if a village of Smurfs decided to set up camp on our lawn, at the base of the old fig tree and beside the lettuce, seemingly overnight. It’s a pity identifying them is next to impossible because the white ones in the lawn look quite delicious. Having them around has me thinking my favourite way to eat mushrooms; large flat field mushrooms stuffed with lemon, chilli and oregano, flavoured ricotta and baked in the oven.

There’s quite a diverse range of mushrooms available at the farmer’s market and at supermarkets these days. I’ll have to see to it that I start marking up some more mushroom recipes beyond the flatties. Here are some I’ve bookmarked:
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Breakfast

The Design Files

Cooking from the heartCooking

Hello! I’ve been a busy bee these last couple of weeks preparing for a spot as a guest blogger at The Design Files this week. I nearly fell of my chair when Lucy asked me if I’d like to offer up some food-as-gift ideas. The Design Files is only one of my favourite blogs of all time. I’ll still be posting up a couple of treats here this week, but do be sure to head over to the guest blog each morning this week to check out some tasty gift ideas and nose around the rest of the blog. It’s a treasure trove of Australian interior and design goodness. Thanks Lucy & Jenny!

cakes-rich-fruit-scones

The Show Part I

Cooking from the heartCooking

Regional Shows are the last bastion of home baking and preserving. Recipes for traditional cakes, slices, scones, puddings, biscuits, pickles, relishes, jams and marmalades are put to the test by Country Women’s Association judges at Agricultural Shows and in town halls the country over. Traditionally the domain of seasoned home cooks, a new dawn is rising in the world of competitive cookery with men, children and women bereft of any prior baking and preserving experience putting their grandmother’s recipes for pumpkin scones and choko pickles through their paces.

Dean’s chocolate cake, my plate of four scones and marble cake.

Last weekend was The Newcastle Show and I entered the cookery and jam competition for the first time. The categories I entered were plain scones (plate of 4), marble cake (round, not iced), strawberry jam and traditional orange marmalade. I persuaded my husband, Dean, to have a go at the chocolate cake in the men’s section for which a recipe is provided. I had woken early last Friday morning, the first show day and the day all entries are to be submitted, to bake my batch of scones.

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Pear

Entrée to Autumn

Cooking from the heartCooking

This week’s visit to the Farmer’s Market turned my attention to pears. Yet another signal of the arrival of Autumn, alongside getting dressed into jeans first thing in the morning and having to change to shorts by 11am. The joy of in-between seasons.

I grew up thinking pears were the poor cousins to apples because they never stood up to lunchbox brutality like a Red Delicious. But if treated with care and eaten at the peak of ripeness, which it seems you never can tell until the morning of, they offer a juicy tenderness in their give where the apple smacks of sharp crunch.

That being said, I don’t mind a pear on the crisp side of ripe to eat with a good blue cheese. Add walnuts and you’ve got the trifecta for stinky cheese perfection. Forget crackers. Simply take a slice of pear, add a triangle of blue and crown with a toasted walnut. Pop in your mouth and….Heaven.

This Stephanie Alexander salad takes this idea and moves it from hors d’oevres to entrée.

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Cook Book

Favourite Cookbooks Part 2

Cooking from the heartCooking

So, after last week’s Part 1 post I couldn’t help myself and went on Booko over the weekend to finally order Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries and Tender Vol 1, plus Rose Bakery’s Breakfast, Lunch, Tea. Naughty I know, but after so many recommendations how could I not? Besides I am excusing flagrant cookbook buying behaviour as an upcoming birthday present(s) for myself. Anything to justify more cookbooks for a bookshelf already groaning under the weight of more than my fair share. I tell you though, I felt a whole lot better about the situation when I saw Rodney Dunn’s cookbook collection (above). No matter that he is a former Editor for Australian Gourmet Traveller and owner of the beautiful The Agrarian Kitchen just out of Hobart, Tasmania. My collection is measly in comparison. Let temptation lead us astray once more with recommendations for favourite cookbooks by some of the internet’s loveliest foodie and design bloggers, with this, Part 2.

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Indian Spiced Nuts

Indian Spiced Nuts

Cooking from the heartCooking

While the cinnamon sugar amaretto almonds that appear over on The Design Files earlier this week are exceptionally tasty and addictive, this version of spiced nuts is a fierce contender for the title of biggest habit-forming nut mix around. I should know because my Dad has been making them for years and they never last long, especially with a cold beer or glass of white wine. I made them last Christmas as little gifts packaged in little glass containers. You can omit or increase the ground chilli depending on your likeness for heat. I highly recommend it though.

I’m always on the prowl for new nut mix recipes, so if you a good one, please fell free to link to it in the comments section below.

Indian-Spiced Nuts
Makes about 5 cups

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YoGo To Yoghurt

From YoGo To Yoghurt

Cooking from the heartCooking, Healthy Eating

About as close as I got to yoghurt growing up was the chocolate confection known as YoGo. I remember trying real yoghurt for the first time as an early teen and wondering how there were so many passionate lovers of the stuff given it’s acidy, sour taste. How things change. I persisted and weaned myself off sugars and flavourings to the point where I was more than happy to eat plain yoghurt with a little honey and sliced banana every morning for breakfast. In fact, I was quite addicted to the stuff.

Given I practically live off yoghurt in summer I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to cotton on to homemade yoghurt. It has to be the most dead simple food to prepare. The best thing is it can be perfectly runny, unlike most commercial yoghurts that add stabilisers, starches, gums and gels to thicken and provide a ‘creamy’ texture. I make my homemade yoghurt is so runny I’ll be using it as a replacement for milk on cereal, which is good news for my granola breakfasts. And good news for people with lactose intolerance. During the fermentation process cultures (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) break down lactose to lactic acid meaning yoghurt is the only dairy food people with lactose intolerance can eat.

 

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