Beans on the shelf
"Old beans may never soften, so just leave them on the shelf and get yourself a new bag." Yotam Ottolenghi Surely not leave them on the shelf! Surely you should just throw them out. I have to say though that this post was inspired by the photograph on the right in the latest Ottolenghi newsletter - a shot of what is captioned as "The OTK bean / rice / tiny pasta shelf". Not even Ottolenghi's home shelf but that of a professional kitchen. Although I'm sure that they all get
1 day ago
Pasta, flying saucers and grannies
"a personal undertaking to try every single type of pasta available the length and breadth of Italy" Jacqui De Bono Time for a look at a foodie blog and the next one on my list is The Pasta Project, which is probably one of the first that I recognised and visited from time to time, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to it with my website posts. I probably came across it long ago because - well it's pasta isn't it and I guess we are all pretty much obsessed with
Oct 3
The long lunch
"Civilisation is measured not by what we produce but by how elegantly we pause." Kenton Allen/Spectator Australia A long time ago now I proposed to myself a series of posts on lunch - because there are so many different kinds of lunch - a long list in fact. A browse through my Ideas and also a post on Instagram from Ottolenghi advertising a fund-raising lunch in the Wolves Lane gardens where produce for his restaurants and delis is grown, reminded me of the notion of the lo
Oct 2
The romanticised flavour of Tuscany
"The three basic elements of wine, oil and bread which to the Tuscans are almost sacred" Lorenza de' Medici I meant to sort of do this yesterday as an example of 'the geography of flavour'. Mostly because I have two Tuscan cookbooks sitting on my desk waiting for their moments in the sun. Not that there is much sun here in Melbourne at the moment. But look at a cookbook on Tuscany and the sun is always shining is it not? There is almost always a touch of soft focus, hon
Oct 1
Geography is a flavour
I have just retrieved this Ideas suggestion from my list - from a long time ago I think. That's all it says so I have no idea where the idea came from, but I thought it intriguing enough to tackle. And coincidentally I have just finished reading Kate Atkinson's latest novel Our Noble Selves, which is a sort of combination whodunnit/meditation on the state of Britain post war at the time of the Festival of Britain as well as her usual mordantly funny reflections on life, the
Sep 30
September 28th - a first recipe
"We are not here for long. So, let's at least make ourselves something good to eat." Nigel Slater Sorry - Nigel again. But he's next on my first recipe trawl through the bookcase with volume three of his Kitchen Diaries which he called A Year of Good Eating. And September 28th is obviously not the first recipe - but it has a kind of relevance - mostly because that's today's date and as usual in my investigations here I have rambled into three or four different areas. Firs
Sep 28
That postponed 'review'
"There's a quiet confidence in recipes that have so few ingredients, take so little time and yet promise so much." Alison Roman Hello, Again - these are the first words of this book - well the first words from the author - which are sort of relevant to this post because I suppose in a way I have reviewed this book already. I have mentioned it a few times, but today I am in tidy up mode and it's been sitting on my desk, waiting for its official 'review' for a while. When re
Sep 25
COVID's Caramelised shallot pasta
"Pasta that takes half an afternoon to cook. A pasta that can – should – be cooked in pyjamas. And a pasta that is on a whole other level of amazing. Two-hat Italian amazing." Robby Dog Cooks The collage above from Alison Roman's own website on a page headed Click to watch me cry is of some of a dish of Caramelised shallot pasta made by literally thousands of people. She calls the collage 'Beautiful children'. For it is a selection from those ordinary people who have p
Sep 19
Disappearing fish
I have been immensely frustrated of late, about the disappearance of two of my very favourite fish from the supermarket shelves. At first I just thought it was a temporary shortage but it's now been at least two, possibly more months since their disappearance. So today I tried to find out what happened. With mixed success. First the above - Sole Mare sardines in extra virgin olive oil. They are my favourite available - well not now - sardines after a bit of a taste test o
Sep 18
Some Charmaine classics
"I love cooking but I'm bored stiff by the idea of preparing the same kind of food day in, day out. For me, and I hope for you, the excitement of cooking is to be found in creating new dishes, playing variations of old and familiar ones, and in trying recipes from other countries." Which just about sums up my attitude to cooking too. Particularly the boredom of same old, same old, which was a bit of a thing when my sons were teenagers and I was working. Partly because of t
Sep 3
Boring - but it's Neil Perry!
Neil Perry is one of Australia's earlier celebrity chefs I guess. I don't know whether he still cooks in an actual restaurant or just manages his restaurant and business empire. But he is indeed much admired. However, somehow or other I have never really encountered him through books. Maybe he just doesn't put himself out there like Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone and the rest. Maybe he just stuck to being a restaurant chef writing the occasional cookbook - and indeed he has
Sep 2
A recipe, Coles and Curtis Stone - this and that
The recipe in question is from Curtis Stone, in the current Coles Magazine - Lemon-garlic fettucine with crisp chickpeas. I started out today thinking I would do a whole post on crisp chickpeas as they seem to be turning up everywhere I look these days, so when they turned up in the Coles Magazine in this very tempting recipe, from a professional chef, such as Curtis Stone - well he does have at least one Michelin star - I'm not sure how many - I thought I might look closely
Aug 23
Tussock Jumper - a label leads to ...
"Jump around the wine world" Last night we had this rather nice - not wow I guess - but very pleasant bottle of wine. We think somebody gave it to us. Thank you whoever you are because it's led me to a rather interesting concept in the wine world. I always look at the back of wine labels - partly to find out what I'm supposed to be tasting because I really don't have a disciminating palate. Our friend Stephen George - a more than reputable winemaker - - in the Adelaide Hi
Aug 8
Some Delia classics
"They are not so much the recipes that people dream over; this is the stuff they actually cook." Nigel Slater Indeed they do - as I did yesterday for my older son's birthday party. I made her Piedmont roasted peppers as part of an antipasti spread. I did cut out the stems - against her advice not to because: "they're not edible, but they do look attractive and they help the pepper halves to keep their shape." Well I was cooking for twelve and had decided to cut my large Au
Aug 3
Why did Louise stop writing?
WTF Do I Eat Tonight? a daily solution to an eternal problem It's a website - WTF Do I Eat Tonight? - now apparently dead. Which is very sad, because it's the kind of website I like to read. Not that I do of course, unless I come across a post here and there. And, because, I think this one, though much more popular than mine, nevertheless was tucked away in an internet corner. It rarely pops up in any of my searches. Actually if it wasn't dead I would subscribe to this o
Jul 30
Subtle and not so subtle advertising - which works best?
"A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself." David Ogilvy On the left an actual ad albeit Coles promoting itself in its Magazine and on the right what looks like the next recipe(s) it is publishing but which in effect is a page advertising several different things - some in-house, some from suppliers. Yes there is a recipe - and yes this is a discreet section of pages in the magazine. But it is also an ad albeit for a number of
Jul 28
Overbalanced - ads and websites
Time for a website and this is the next one on my list. I looked at it a while ago and wondered why I had it on the list, and actually decided it wasn't worth a look. However, since then I have wondered a bit at why I rejected it as unworthy of a look, but then thought, well it's relatively popular - it often comes up in the first few results in searches that I make. So I need to think more about it. And one thing that is a thing to talk about is the massive number of ads
Jul 18
From the big bang to apple pie
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Carl Sagan Somewhere on this website there is the above quote with a note from me - "which is intriguing but I'm not quite sure I understand it." Well today I found the answer and castigated myself for being so dense and not seeing what was meant. I mean it's pretty obvious if you think about it. The answer came from Yotam Ottolenghi of all people - well he does have a degree in philosoph
Jul 5
A missed opportunity
A couple of days ago, this brochure arrived in our letterbox. Of course I was not excited, but I did think that it might have some information inside that would be useful for a blog. And it did but not in the way I thought it might. I should explain that Woolworths has been undergoing the same renovation process that Coles undertook some time ago, and that I'm sure is happening everywhere, with variable tweaks made according to the physical size of the store and the demogra
Jun 25
For the coffee table or the kitchen? Or both?
"it cannot be called merely a cookbook but perhaps more appropriately referred to as a work of art." Gail Cooke/Goodreads It's time to 'review' this book that I acquired some time ago now in a kind of opshop in country Victoria. I 'read' it and put it on my desk to write about some day, and here I am. It is indeed gorgeous as a book. Gail Cooke, who wrote in Goodreads went on to say: "It is among the most beautiful books I've seen with a flower and food bedecked cover so
Jun 17