Say 'No' to Teflon...

I have a thing about Paella lately. I've cooked it twice in the past 3 weeks and it's getting better and better... pulling together a multitude of recipes, trying to understand the essence of this wonderful dish... and it is therefore predictable that I would end up in a camping shop last Friday seeking out the best possible Paella pan in Alice Springs. I was tossing up between something officially called a 'Paella Pan' made of some non-stick substance, and a gun-metal pan, not intended for paella, but would certainly do.

I'd been well and truly fluffling around in the shop, at this point with no longer any intention to purchase, and felt compelled to engage the shop owner in my quest. Despite his appearance as a teflon lover, he agreed with me, that non-stick was 'evil', mainly because it had killed his pet bird. Now I was curious, and so he told me the story...

He and his wife were cooking something in the oven, I assume, in a teflon pan.. and the teflon had caught alight. No-one had smelled anything or even been aware of the burnt pan, when the pet corella started to go limp... The Camping Shop man picked up his pet Corella and nursed it lovingly. He lay with it on his bed and placed it on his belly, where it died in his arms.

It was only later he discovered the burnt teflon pan, and after doing some research was convinced that it was the cause for the Corella's death.

Poor Corella!

Hot weather ices

It's been baking hot here in Alice Springs... my face got so hot last week while I was gardening it took 12 hours to get rid of the heat. So now, stuck in the air-conditioned house, what else to do but cook... but without heat. I was given an ice-cream machine two Christmases ago and it's only now coming into its own. Last weekend, I made five ice-confections of various sorts, including: tamarind sorbet, mascarpone gelato, chocolate gelato, espresso granita and aranciatta sorbetto (bitter orange). Various visitors and guests got to try them out, and while the tamarind sorbet one, my favious was the aranciatta sorbetto.
So, at this point, you may be asking the obvious question: What is the difference between ice-cream, gelati(o), granita, sorbet and sorbetto?

Holidays and their endings.. and inspirations.

I have been cooking like a demon for the past two and a half weeks: Three milk cake with marshmallow topping (from a recipe I found during my holiday); Tamarind sorbet; Paella; Mascarpone gelati; Chocolate banana cake; Zucotto cake; trifle; espresso granita etc... I'm plannng Tiramasu in the next few days and lamb pizza (Lahma Bi Ajeen) whenever Mark finishes my pizza oven.

Recipes for all the above are a work in progress and will appear here soon. Keep Cooking! Keep Eating! Remember Food is Love!

Holidays and their endings.... Melbourne snacks and groceries...

Melbourne was not disappointing in the food stakes. I managed to savour a Lebanese cheese pie from Sydney Road, the best spanakopita in Melbourne from Melissa's in Collingwood, bagels from Fitzroy and breakdfast at Stephanie Alexander's Richmond Hill Larder.
I transported the best chorizo money can buy in Australia, in my esky, back to Alice Springs and I even located gold leaf and citron from the Essential Ingredient in Prahan.

I had 3 days in Melbourne, and despite staying in the best accommodation, with the best kitchen, during our entire holiday, we never cooked once.

I was focused on food and not on images, apart from this delightful tearoom in the Block Arcade which was so inspiring.

Holidays and their endings.. Red fruit in Tassie.

I didn't realise at the time, but it would almost be a week before I had another 'great' food experience. And this was in the form of cherries... fresh red cherries from my father-in-law's tree/bush.


I have never eaten cherries so fresh, and it was quite a different experience. Not enough to cook with, and who would??? Only when you have excess.. then you can try something like.... 'Summer Pudding'... below. But these were of course raspberries, not cherries.
Now, I'm not a big fan of summer pudding... mainly because you end up eating berry soaked soggy bread, and mine was no different. Next time I will use Pannetone...... but oh doesn't it look fab.

My one last positive food experience in Tassie, was 'The Taste of Tasmania'... a 4 day event where local restaurants and suppliers sell small plates of food. I wanted desperately to try the Tempura Mushrooms, but couldn't face the massive line-up.. and in the end settled for Paella, and a delicious chocolate raspberry dessert. The Paella was good, especially the mussels (I'm not a mussel fan) but not as good as mine.

Holidays and their endings.. Brunetti's in Carlton.

Back to school tomorrow for Jorge.. and therefore back to the grind for me (although I have now been back at work for 2 weeks) and back to those ABC radio segments.
I thought I'd talk about food and my holidays... there were many average meals eaten out, and in the end we decided that, excluding Melbourne, we would be better off cooking ourselves.
We had to be in Melbourne by December 20 to catch the ferry to Devonport... we had three days. The weather turned cold at Coober Pedy and after a miserable rainy day on the road from Adelaide to Melbourne, we located our Carlton accommodation and I decided to expose my son, Jorge, to the delightful world of Brunetti.
What a wonderful place. It was a cold wet Melbourne Sunday afternoon, and the place was so full of people eating, drinking coffee and chatting. I felt like I was in a new country.. and one with so much choice. Jorge struggled to choose which chocolate treat to eat, but in the end it was done.He may not look happy, but I believe he was just overwhelmed. Behind us was a glassed section of the most amazing gingerbread houses.
After our Brunetti experience, I went shopping at King & Godfree for essential supplies for our trip: parmesan, olive oil, vinegar, pasta and that was it for this stage of Melbourne.