Brudda from anudder Muddah?

I know women who work together can be "in sinc", but bloggers??
Twice this past week, I have been thinking about recipes, only to find that the delightful
g o b b l e r has been there before me.

Firstly with his treatise on the humble, yet amazing Quince (of which I dreamed about last night) and then again with his recipe for Gratin Dauphinoise. Even his suggestions of paring it with a rib eye steak was a little freaky.

I'd guess it is because both gobbler and I both proudly and loudly advocate eating fresh IN SEASON local produce, so the chances of us both blogging about the same ingredients are not too bad.

But twice in a week??

I'd like to thing that the Universal Energy that binds (and sometimes blinds) all food bloggers has been working its majik through us.

Here's the recipe for the Gratin Dauphinoise. As for my steak, I took them out of their cryovac bags, and removed the weird little bone condoms (What the hell ARE those things, BTW?) and let them come to room temp.

My tips on the perfectly cooked steak can be found here.

I seared all sides in a cast iron pan, setting off the smoke alarms, and then because they were so incredibly thick, I whacked the in the oven next to the Gratin Dauphinoise. Furry's for 10 minutes, and mine for 5.

They were perfect!!

2008 is the Year Of The Potato (apparently), and this dish is unbelievably easy and fabulous for these cooooool Autumn nights.

Enjoy!

Bah.. Just realised that I have left my camera uploady cord thingy at home. Pics later today.

Quince and Bergamot Fool

My very first experience of the Quince was some 20 years ago, when my beloved Hobbit and Mater Beige took me on a day-trip to Gulf Station, an heritage listed farm on the outskirts of Eastern Melbourne.

As we were walking back across the old orchard, my father cried out "Oh, look!! Quinces!! My favorite fruit!"

In order to experience whatever it was that made my father cry out in such wonder, I picked a windfall quince and promptly bit into it. (Mater Beige remembers The Hobbit doing the same thing. I have no recollection of that, nor anything after I sunk my teeth into the raw quince)

It was as if every salivary gland in my mouth not only constricted, but actually inverted back upon itself, creating a million microscopic vacuums in my mouth.

My head nearly caved in on itself, my mouth was a veritable black hole of quince-flavoured anti-matter.

It was years before I tried one again.

Maggie Beer and her quince paste were my gate-way drug back into the aromatic, sensual world of the COOKED quince.

Over the years, the quince has been derided as the Fruit of Original Sin, honoured as The Fruit of Love. g o b b l e r has a wonderful scree here about this oft maligned fruit.

So it was with wonder, and no small sense of foreboding, I bought some quinces from my local organic shop on Saturday. Heng was unable to tell me EXACTLY what type of quince it was, but I suspect it was a Smyrna, as it lacked the discernable "tropical" smell of the Pineapple quince.

After much consultation, decided on George Biron's Quince and Jasmine Fool... but as is my want, I decided to do a little tweaking to his basic recipe.

I didn't peel the quinces (3, equaling 1.4kgs uncooked) , but did core them, and cut them into random bits. These I put into my crockpot with 1/2 a bottle of Muscat, 100mls of honey and 1/2 cup raw sugar.

I left these to cook on slow for 14 hours, at which stage they had developed that succulent, meaty, ruby red goodness and my house was permeated with that indescribable warm candy aroma that is a cooked quince.

I had no Jasmine tea at home, and didn't relish fighting the Mongol Hordes at the Glen, simply for a random handful of it.

Now, I've never claimed to be a "supertaster" but I do have an uncanny ability to be able to differentiate flavours and spices in complex stews/curried/casseroles, and I **ahem** taste in colour.

I don't actually know how to describe it, but if I read a recipe, or hear someone say "I cooked the onions in OO until golden", I can taste that. And then someone might add "And then I threw in some bacon", and as I read or hear that, I can physically taste the change in my mouth and the "colour" of the flavour changes.

So, with a mouthful of the stewed quinces, I stuck my nose into my collection of teas.

I rejected the ginger and lemon, the red currant, the Rooibos tea, but as I took a big nozzie of the Earl Grey tea, and the idea took place.

Over the still-simmering quinces, I placed a stainless steel bowl and in it poured 400ml of King Island Cream, into which I threw 3 Earl Grey (Twinings, I think!) tea bags. I covered the bowl with a lid and left it to sit and steep for about 2 hours.

On removing the teabags, I squeeze a disturbingly oily brown liquid into my (very expensive) cream.

The result was a heady Bergamot aroma that married amazingly well with the quinces.

I beat the cream to stiff peaks., folded in 400 mls of custard (sans vanilla pods)

The result was an headyingly aromatic (perfumatic?) marriage.

I delicately folded the now-cooled and slightly mashed quinces through the custard mix and then drizzled the top with thick, ruby-port, life-blood deep red juice.

UNBELIEVABLY GOOD

Canadian Wild Smoked Salmon

We are lucky enough to have, by virtue of the Internet, made friends around the world. So last week marked our second visit from Canadian friends, Lil and Marc. And knowing Furry and I as they do, they presented us with a HUGE box of Canadian Wild Smoked Salmon. I was verily aquiver with anticipation at eating this delux delight!! (We had previously scoffed their offering of Elk and Whiskey Pate.... le swooooooon!)

I had originally planned to go with some sourdough bread, the salmon and a perfectly poached egg, but after Agnes's wonderful offering of home-made bagels, lox and cream cheese, I had a hankering for something different.

So I asked my wise and worldly friends at Chowhound, who came up with the idea of doing ti Japanese-style. Thinly sliced at room temp, on hot steamed rice, with dipping sauces of terryaki, fresh ginger and lime juice. I also added a dipping sauce of light soy and wasabi.

There we were. Furry and I, ready to chow down.....

and then we opened the salmon....

Rather than being the light, orange, SLICE-ABLE fillet we expected, we were faced with a deep, dense meaty slab more reminiscent of a smoked mackerel. There was absolutely no way we could slice it. It was flaky and dense, redolent with the alder smoke.

It was absolutely divine, but NOT suited to the purpose of slicing and not really suited to the light Japanese flavours I had to accompany it.

Think double-smoked trout, or those lovely oily/dry meaty fish you can get in Greek deli's.

It probably went better with the ginger and lime dipping sauce than it did with the darker soy and wasabi. Eventually, I poured the dipping sauce over my rice, ate that separately and then tucked into the salmon as a finger lickin' snack of its own.

I had entertained ideas of blinis with creme fraiche and caviar, but I think this meat is even to heavy for that.

This salmon is not fit for dainty morsels and subtle flavours, this is a salmon to chow down on in the middle of the Canadian winter before you jump on your trusty steed, all Dudley Do-Right and wade thru 20ft snow drifts to save Miss Nell from Darstadly Dan!

Luckily, there is about 1/2 left, so next time, I am going to go with a more Scandinavian idea... or maybe back to the original of sourdough and poached eggs.

Bloggers Banquet.. the recipes

Fig, Blue Cheese and Caramelised Onion Tart.

Take 3 large red onions, slice very fine on a V slicer. Sautee until very golden in unsalted butter. While they're bubbling away, use some of the melted butter to grease a large baking tray. Divide a packet of good quality phylo pasty into 1/4's. On this tray, lay a 1/4 of a packet of phylo pastry. Brush with melted butter. Roll the 3 remaining 1/4's into sausages (for the sides of the tart. 2 rolls will be exactly long enough and one will need to be cut in 1/2)

**NOTE** In all the excitement, I forgot to brush the rolls as I went, as I was rolling them up... This meant when I served it, the sides of the tart were dry and a bit nasty. Note to self.. brush butter as you roll!!

Place sides on base to form tart case. Brush with melted butter.

When onions are done, taste test for sweetness. Mine weren't as sweet as I had hoped, so I added a little home made Balsamic reduction. Spread the onions evenly over the tart case. Sprinkle with fresh thyme (from my own garden). Top with crumbled blue cheese (in this case Red Hill Cheese's "Granny's Blue" ), 8 figs, (also from my garden) quartered and a further drizzle of Balsamic reduction.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes until pastry is golden. Allow to cool to room temp and serve.

Now THIS recipe was the funniest event of BB II! I had defrosted a rolled roast of lamb from Rutherglen Lamb, just incases we didn't have enough food (like, riiiiight, as my 16 year old daughter would say!) My theory was, that if I didn't use it for BB, we had gorgeous friends out from Canada, so I'd use it sometime over the weekend.

So there is was, sitting forlornly in the fridge.

And as I watched each new blogger come in, each seemingly carrying ANOTHER SWEET TREAT, I got more and more aprehensive! Thanh and his lemon/white chocolate/coconut cake (although he did bring poor man's potato's as well!), Vida with her Oblatna, Michael with his Chocolate & cream cheese Brownies (Thank goodness for Cindy's tofu balls!), Jon with his chocolate ganache tarts, Duncan with his macarons, Claire's Layered freeform cheescake with stewed cherries, rhubarb and hazelnut brittle..

Agnes was my only hope, and she bought smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, and carmelised onion tarts!

Hurriedly, I grabbed some random ingredients, a couple of anchovies, some sundried tomatoes, a woj of fetta, some black olives and stuffed the roll with said ingredients, I grabbed some fresh oregano from the garden and mashed it with some olive oil and smeared the whole shebang with it.

Popped it into the wood fired oven for about 2 hours and voila!!

Let's do it again some time, yes??


Photos courtesy of Jon from Melbourne Foodie.

Bloggers Banquet, The Sequel.

Cindy and Michael - Where's the beef

Thanh's - I Eat Therefore I am

Agnes - Off the Spork

Vida - Vida at Penthouse 2

Claire - Melbourne Gastronome

Duncan - Syrup & Tang

Jon - Melbourne Foodie


All the above attended Bloggers Banquet II, this Saturday past at Chez Fur.

What a hoot, guys!!

I hope I haven't upset too many of you with my childhood culinary tales, and Duncan.. I checked the freezer. They were indeed Marathon dimmies.

I hung my head in shame.

I can't tell you how chuffed we were with all the left overs, guys!! Claire's free-form cheesecake didn't look as nice the next day, but MAN, did it taste good.

Jon's chocolate ganache tarts were lovely for breakfast, along with Thanh's white chocolate, lemon and coconut cake.

Agnes gets my vote for "I would NEVER have attempted that, and I am utterly impressed!" award with her bagels, the honey note being more pronounced the next day.

Let's do it again soon.

And just waiting for permission to nick some photos from other people, before I post my recipes, as guess which idiot forgot to get out the camera?? (**insert embarrassed shuffling**)

Menu for Hope. Winners Feedback.

Dear Ella and Ray,

Thanks so much for the use of Chez Fur du Mer this past weekend. We
really enjoyed having the base in Dromana for exploring the
Peninsula. You'll be pleased to know we spent most of our time
eating, or so it seemed. But we didn't get to the Tasting Station or
Darling Park Winery, so we'll have to go back for those another time.
We did have great coffee/meals in Dromana (including dinner at Two
Buoys), and got to Sorrento for breakfast. We also went to
Queenscliffe by ferry, and had another great meal there.

Your home is the perfect place to relax. We especially enjoyed
sitting in the garden (glass of wine in hand of course) reading the
newspapers and watching the birds. It was good to have the tutorial
on the light switches, I don't think we'd have found the one over the
doorway on our own.

Thanks again, it was a treat!

Catherine

SOLE sistas (and bruffers)

FANTASTIC tasting platter from Darling Park winery

lamb cutlets from Rutherglen lamb

What I have discovered is that SOLE/localvore is easy. Easy as asking questions. What I have also discovered is that, apart from Google, there is no easy way to find a list of suppliers or products that come under the SOLE umbrella. So here's the deal. Rather that have a list of recipes here on the blog, I am going to list all the food purveyors I know of. either having tried myself, or recommended by YOU!!

So, in my comments here, list your fave SOLE/localvore supplier, and we'll get a list going that other people can used.

Share your knowledge, guys, and spread the word.

I want names, addresses, telephone numbers, HOW it fits into SOLE and why you recommend it.

Hit me with your best shots!!