Geez, I was lucky to get this photo. I put a halt to all eating to get it, and I was just in time. We started with 24.
Shane Delia, in the preamble to this recipe, says it is all about the pastry and I think he is right. It is very light and flaky. Continue reading
Ok … Summer is here and the festive season is upon us and that means outdoor activities. We will have gatherings to host and requests to ‘just bring a plate’. Finger food is the go.
Instead of making meat pies, sausage rolls and mini quiches, how about making some Sanbuseh? They are just as easy to make but taste and look just that little bit different. I have already served them twice this season and they have been a hit both times. Best of all, they are dead easy to make. They use commercial puff pastry and the filling ingredients are all in together. They can be served straight from the oven or at room temperature. How easy is that? Continue reading
Leeks are a bug bear of mine. The problem is, they are so easy to grow, I just can’t resist throwing a few seeds into the vegie patch each autumn. Then, come spring, when they have all grown and are ready for picking on the same day, I have absolutely no idea what to do with them all.
I have tried staggering my planting like all the books advocate but, from my experience, the plants you put in late just catch up to the earlier plants so they still all ripen on the same day. Continue reading
Oh! My God! It is hot here – it’s 42°C. There is no way I am going outside. Dinner tonight (like last night) will be something I can find in the fridge or freezer.
I have been saying that a lot lately. Not much cooking has been happening in this household. Luckily for this blog, I made these little pastries before Christmas. Leading up to Christmas, we had guests several days in a row so I made these earlier in the week and froze them. On the day of the dinner party, I whipped them out of the freezer and baked them. They were perfect. The leftovers were last night’s dinner, along with an ubiquitous cucumber salad. Continue reading
As you all know by now, The Cook Book Guru this month is featuring Saha by Greg and Lucy Malouf. At the beginning of the month, I went through and tagged a number of recipes, including this one. Continue reading
These sausage rolls are to die for.
When you search Bourke Street Bakery on the net, most of the articles mention these wonderful sausage rolls. I have made them before but this is the first time I have made the puff pastry. I was very chuffed with the result – you can actually see the layers. And it was fun. Not hard at all, although, I did have a bit of trouble keeping mine to the suggested size and I did have butter oozing out in all directions. But it does not seem to have mattered – the pastry looks and tastes perfect. It is obviously forgiving. Now I know how easy it is, I am not going to buy puff pastry again. The only issue is that you need to start early or, better still, the day before you want to use it.
This month, The Cook Book Guru is featuring Claudia Roden’s A New Book of Middle Eastern Food. I have already posted two recipes from this cookbook, Moroccan Tagine with Prunes and Muhallabia (one of my all-time favourite desserts). As I have previously mentioned, Claudia’s book is the classic English language cookbook on Middle Eastern cooking. It was first published as A Book of Middle Eastern Food in 1968. Continue reading
This is one of our favourite mid-week dishes. It morphed over time. The inspiration was a vegetable roly poly recipe that came with an enamel baking dish we bought many, many years ago. Continue reading
We were in the local newsagency the other day, buying birthday cards (it appears that most people I know have birthdays at the end of January) and the cover of Feast Magazine (Issue 18) jumped out at me. It was a decidedly better photo of this tart. Continue reading
Silverbeet, silverbeet, silverbeet … Rainbow chard, rainbow chard, rainbow chard …
It is raining silverbeet and rainbow chard in this household. I have so much of it and I only planted one little itsy, bitsy container of it. Continue reading
Passion Fruit Garden 
