Emotional Cooking

When you love food and cooking, you come to realise how much your emotions come into play. When I'm feeling the love, I enjoy going to buy wonderful ingredients to turn into delightful dishes. What is even better is when I get to share them with loved ones to enjoy.

On the other hand, when ye old black dog comes snapping at my heels, my meals are less inspired. They are meals I wouldn't share with anyone else in a million years.  I tend to get very boring and make the same things on rotation. Perhaps this depresses me even more?

The last week has been very challenging for me. I had the week off with blackdogitis and have not felt like socialising with anyone. So when Saturday came around and I had invited friends to come over for dinner, my plans for a spectacular dinner were scaled down somewhat. I was even going to call it off but seeing 2 of the friends coming had arranged with their husbands to stay home with the children, it wouldn't have been very fair.

So I decided on a lamb tajine as it's easy to make but looks impressive served in my Scanpan tajine. When I served it up, the girls oohed and aahhed and said they loved it.  I was impressed that it actually tasted pretty good despite my bad energy but I think having these fabulous women in my home made a great difference. Three of them have their own labels and the other one is a musician embarking on a new band and style of music she hasn't performed before so the conversation around creativy was inspiring. We also drank copious amounts of alcohol which rendered me useless for the following day!

It's got me thinking; what is my creative strength? What do I have to offer and contribute? How can I break through this darkness and creative light? How can I do these things for myself and stop waiting for someone to sort things out?

It looks like I'll be having pasta with broccoli again tonight as it's what's available. Or perhaps I'll roast some vegies... all I know is I want to get my energy back and enjoy my life with a black cat with the black dog far away..

Lazy Haianese Chicken Rice

Laziness is the mother of invention- or so it is at Casa Lola.

The other week, I bought a package of chicken wings for both Django and I. He would get one or two to chew on (and strew around the apartment) and I would use the rest to make soup. Realising I was missing a couple of key ingredients for chicken soup, I wondered what else I could make in a hurry. I opened the cupboard and the first thing I spotted was a bottle of Vietnamese chilli sauce and a light bulb went off in my head; Hainainese chicken rice- my stylie!

• Chicken pieces of your choosing
• Water
• Salt
• Rice
• Frozen baby peas (the one's from Aldi rock)
• Vietnamese Chilli Sauce in a squeezy bottle from all Asian grocers

Place chicken pieces in a saucepan and cover with water (don't fill). Add salt to season. Boil till cooked. Take out chicken and rest on a plate. Add rice to the stock you just made with the chicken pieces as well as the peas. Cook till the rice has absorbed the stock- add more water if still uncooked.

When rice is ready, add to plate with chicken. Serve with a huge squirt of chilli sauce.

Great for a simple lunch/dinner/hangover snack.

Halal Meat

So good...

An Open Letter To Mama Elias.

Dear Mama Elias.

I could faff about and start this letter proper like but I won't. You are far too practical for such nonsense so I'll just get to the point;

I miss your chilli.

It used to arrive regularly, when your daughter, Sabrina (aka as Saboobies) would bring me a stash when she came to visit you and Papa Elias. You were overjoyed to give me those gifts in a jar with your cute handwritten labels; 'Dry Chilly with oil,salt and ginger'- I still have one that I cherish.

That jar has long since been empty. I pine for that gorgeous chilli paste which makes all others die in its strong presence. Only half a teaspoon is necessary to give a dish that snap,crackle,pop and roar. A whole teaspoon would set your hair on fire- delightfully, I must add.

The last time I was in Sydney, you gave me 2 jars of this heavenly,hot,homemade joy along with another packet of your favorite Baba's spice mix. Saboobs gave me some of her home grown curry leaves. I took that armful of heaven back to Mel's where I was staying and made a lamb curry that made our whole being sing.  Since Saboobs has taken a job in Perth to make more cash, she is no longer able to supply me with this wonderful condiment. All my attempts to recreate that curry of a year ago have failed. Oh the memories of that meal.

I can't live on these memories much longer. I must throw down the gauntlet; Either you make me more and post it to me (or better still, send my gorgeous Saboobs over to deliver it personally) or give me your recipe so I can at least try to make it myself.

So, Mama E, it's all up to you. I either await a care package full of chilli paste or an email containing the recipe.

Or better still, handwritten. 'My Chilly Recipe'. How cute.

Post Script- Received a text from Ms Saboobies stating she had just arrived back in Sydney and Mama Elias is going to hand write her recipe for me. Stay tuned for that! YAY!

Easy Chicken & Spinach Curry

Oh Monday night.. when you work full time, it's the hardest day to get through. You get home,you want to eat but imagination is low and creativity in the kitchen isn't that high on the radar either. However, I was craving Lamb Saag like nobodies business. I went to the supermercado and all they had in the way of affordable lamb were shanks. So I bought them thinking a nice,slow roast would make them perfect with that sauce and a pile of spinach. I also bought some F.R chicken drumsticks thinking I'd get clever and make chicken & veg soup for a couple of meals this week.

Then I got home.

The hunger gland kicked in and I knew there was no way I was going to wait 2 to 3 hours for shanks to get to that tender-fall off the bone-cut it with a spoon stage. So lamb saag became chicken saag. This is how it all went down;

• Chicken
• Spinach-
• A splodge of oil (vegetable or olive)
• A wodge of butter
• Onion(s), chopped anyway you like 
• Heaped tablespoon of Baba's Spice Mix *
• Garlic (minced or smashed)
• Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger ( minced or fine julienne)
• Salt to taste
• Fresh curry leaves- about 12 should do it- I love them.**
• Chilli (you decide the heat)
• Cream- you decide on light,full cream,pouring or coconut and the amount you want

Put on a CD and start prepping your ingredients. Have a sing song whilst your slicing and dicing.

In a heavy bottomed (hee hee hee) pan, heat the oil and butter. Add the onion,garlic,ginger,chilli and spice mix and sweat it down-careful not to burn. You want it translucent,not brown. Make sure your heat isn't too high. If using a cast iron pot, it retains the heat nicely so it should be a lower heat. Add your chicken thighs and keep turning till they change colour. Add your can of tomatoes and curry leaves,stir and cover. You may need about half a can of water to make sure it doesn't burn.

Let this simmer for at least an hour. Keep tasting to check the seasoning. Add your spinach. About five or so minutes before you think it's ready, add the cream. Don't do it early or the cream will split and then it all goes horribly wrong.

When you feel it's ready, serve with Basmati rice. Remember the culinary jazz aspect and improvise for the amount of people you're cooking for.



*My dear friend,Sabrina's sweet mum whom I will refer to hereon in as Mama Elias,gives me jars of her homemade chilli paste which kicks all chilli pastes arse as far as I'm concerned. She also put me on to this stupendous ready to go spice mix. I love making my own mixes,but when you're short on time but still want quality, Babas is the bomb. You can pick it up from most Asian grocers and it will set you back about $2.50.

**Curry leaves should always be used fresh or else they are shit. These can also be purchased at Asian grocers and are usually found near the front counter.

A Good Roasting

I am an unabashed coffee snob. I love my coffee. It must be good coffee. I buy my beans from a rather expensive coffee shop in town but it's worth it because each coffee is wonderful. I have a coffee machine and a grinder so those beans are fresh and good when they are brewed into liquid gold.

So it was only a matter of time before I entered the foray of roasting my own beans. The gorgeous Ruth Bruten of the award winning blog Gourmet Girlfriend blogged that she roasts her own coffee beans as she drinks a lot more java than I do. She also has a brood of six boys to feed (including her husband) so buying good beans on a regular basis would cut into the budget a bit. I do drink 2 to 3 cups a day-2 during the week and 3 on the weekend. I buy my coffee a kilo at a time and at $43 bucks a kilo, it gets a bit pricey on my salary.

So I emailed Ruth and asked her to give up her coffee bean connection and she very nicely did. I won't give them up in case she wants it to remain a secret. I did my online research and discovered a method using an air popcorn maker. After watching a few  You Tube tutorials, I decided this was for me. Now as we all know, air poppers are one of those things that people buy,use a few times and then it dies in the back of a cupboard somewhere. So I put a shout out to my peeps on Facebook to see if anyone had one they didn't want. My good friend Louie came back and said he had one that he never used and he was happy to pass it on to me in my quest for home roasted coffee. 

So I ordered a green bean starter pack and 2 days later, it arrived. It comes in four different bean types;Peruvian,Ugandan,Indian Mysore and Ethiopian Ghimbi. Due to my love of all things South American, I used the Peruvian. The green beans are pale and strange smelling.... it's hard to believe when you normally buy them and the smell is intoxicating.

                                                                  The raw product

 The before and after

Django the quality controller watching that all goes well.

I'm still finishing the last of my beans from Seven Seeds so I haven't tried them yet. I'll write a postscript to this blog when I do. Right now,they are resting. I am amazed that the popcorn maker does such a quick and good job on roasting them. Seeing I'm rather forgetful, I'm sure if I put them in the oven, the fire department would be around lickity split so the air popper is a better option for moi... Many thanks to Ruth,Coffee Geek and the gorgeous and yummy Tom from Sweet Maria's for helping me along.

Post Script! The coffee is wonderful! The smell developed into an intoxicating perfume overnight and when ground and brewed, tasted a bit like Nutella! I am in coffee heaven!



Olive Harvest

My friend,Cathryn has an olive tree in her backyard and a damn fine one. So when she invited me to strip the tree bare-with the help of her gorgeous 18 month son Ned- I was there in a minute.

I brought those babies home,cleaned them and packed them in salt. Two months later here they are;

It was a long wait but definatly worth it. They taste salty and buttery.

Aerial view of beautiful black olives..

Here they are doused in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Will add garlic and chilli then store in jars to give to friends.

Food and Life Flummery

I'm in a hole.

Despite my best efforts to tap dance and smell the roses, I've hit the skits and living the boo hoo life again. This is probably more of a post for my 'Tango and Madness' blog but seeing my mood is affecting my cooking, I feel it's appropriate to scratch this out here. This madam is feeling burnt.

I read my cook books, I trawl through recipes on the internet and think of shopping sprees in markets and the Middle Eastern bounty on Sydney Rd. Yet these days I inevitably end up at Coles or Woolies and it seems I'm on a rotation of pasta,soup and some form of curry. Even my foray into soba noodles has become a yawn fest
I went to a 50th birthday party on Saturday where a sexy Afro Cuban man was winking and waving at me and I was only barely impressed. Normally I'd be rearranging my cleavage and getting my groove on. This time, I just didn't want to. The juice,the mojo,the drive or whatever you want to call it just isn't there. Even Herb and his Tijuana brass can't do it for me at the moment.

So I've taken to my bed. The blinds are down and I'm holed up alone watching reruns of Northern Exposure. I've slept in my clothes for the past 4 days. My house is a feral pit. I wish I knew which direction to go. I am writing this in the hope that it will snap me out of my malaise. Damn chemical imbalances of my brain! My doctor wants me to increase my meds. I am ambivalent as I hate taking them in the first place and more meds means buying them more frequently which equals more money. I want to take them LESS so I can eventually get off them altogether.

I wish I could just snap my fingers and be in Buenos Aires. I'm not saying my life would be simpler but for some reason my life made sense there. Nothing felt foreign or odd there. I'm always having people comment about me in someway- such as when most people are preparing to have lunch, I'm having breakfast. When people are having afternoon tea,I'm having lunch. In B's A's, everyone's eating is on delay. No one rushes it and the only time someone commented on my eating time was when I went to La Plata at 9 they asked why I was having dinner 'so early'. It's a city where chaos and peace co habitate. No one wigs out at the slightest provocation as they do here. Jay walking is encouraged. If you can get across the street and live, you've earned it. I miss the men stopping and telling you that you are 'muy guapa'. Most of the time I am invisible in this town. I've had women say 'how sleazy are the men in Argentina' and I said 'not at all.' It was a nice change for men to appreciate me.

Anyhoo, what I'm trying to say or figure out here is maybe lack of creative is causing me to bottom out. I dream of making fancy cakes and feasts of roast goat and divine seafood but then I think 'who's it for?'
I'm not lonely and I love my little space but sometimes I feel it would be nice to meet Mr Lovely and co-habitate. To know what a real relationship is like because quite frankly, I've never had one. My first boyfriend ended up being gay and in reality, I was just a Sindy doll and he was gay Ken. We dressed up in our vintage sixties finery and I guess I was unknowingly a fag hag. A lack of self awareness made sure every other attempt at coupling was doomed from the start.

Perhaps the thing to so is get out of this bed, deferalise this apartment,go for a walk and buy some food. Then I should decide on one thing to do to change; get my learners permit,go dancing,realign my jaw and lose a bunch of weight.

Maybe then, my cooking creativity will return and my posts to this blog will start again with more frequency.

Like Thelonius Monk, it's all about space and time.

A Few Of My Favorite Kitchen Things

The Kenwood. I touch it everyday and tell it how much it is loved.

Matching Bessemerware butter dish and sugar bowl. Melmac love!

The love of my life. The first thing I think of when I wake up.

The result of using awesome beans purchased from Seven Seeds and using full fat extra creamy moo juice.

Ah coffee how I love thee!

Orange Tupperware cannisters just like the one's I grew up with in the 70's. My mum still has hers.Plus the funky 60's style one's purchased whilst visiting the lovely Ms Contessa is Taswegia. My wire basket full of bits;chillis,ginger,garlic,onions, the essential can of EVOO and another shot of the divine Kenwood.

Mi encanta mi cucina mucho!

Much Food But No Blogging!

Jaysus Jones! Has it been THAT long since I've posted any new recipe blogs??

I must I must I must START!

Good news- have purchased a dead sexy Kenwood Chef circa 1970's that works a bloody treat. So far, have made chocolate mousse in it but plan to use again this weekend.

Internet has arrived at Casa Margarita as of today so more time for bloggage.

Watch this space and feed yer face!

Lazy Arse Lasagna

I located a sensational recipe online for spinach,ricotta and roast pumpkin lasagna which I felt I had to try and make. I bought the ingredients on Sunday evening ready for Monday night.

Monday night arrives and I have a huge case of the 'can't be stuffeds'. I don't have any pumpkin and waiting for it to roast first before assembling it into the lasagna was not an option. Well, it was but I opted out. The spinach and ricotta were meant to be mashed together with an egg to bind and other flavours added. Again, this option was thrown out. With most of the method of this recipe decimated before we begin, this is how it panned out. Apologies, no photography because it was-after all- Monday night.

You will need;

• Fresh lasagna sheets
• Fresh ricotta
• Baby Spinach Leaves
• Grated pecorino
• Tins of Whole Tomatoes
• Onion
• Garlic
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil

You'll notice I have not given you quantities-this is where the 'culinary jazz' comes into play. I have done it this way because I have no idea what size lasagna you want to make. So only you know how much you'll need.
Preheat your oven to 150 degrees or moderate oven.

First of all-make the sauce as this will take the longest. Finely chop your onion(s). Heat a saucepan and add a splodge of olive oil. Add onion and salt and sweat off. Grate your garlic into onion and saute as well.
Add your tomatoes-using a wooden spoon, break up but leave a few lumps of tomato for texture. Simmer. Check the seasoning. (for even lazier lasagne, use bottled tomato passata and just pour on-no cooking or heating needed!).

While your sauce is a simmerin', cut your pasta sheets to fit your dish and slice your ricotta (unless you bought the one in a tub that is 'spoonable') and wash/shake your spinach leaves. When the sauce is ready, coat the bottom of your dish with the sauce,then add a layer of pasta,spinach leaves and ricotta. Sprinkle with some grated pecorino and a bit of salt and pepper (to flavour the ricotta). Keep layering until you have filled the dish. Make sure you have enough sauce for each layer and enough to cover the top. Sprinkle the top with the pecorino and some pepper.

Cook in a moderate oven for at least 45 minutes - check it at about the half hour mark. You may need longer if making a large one. Mine was small to medium sized ( I got 3 decent serves from it).

Serve with a lovely green salad. This lasagne truly rocks.

Green Olives,Black Olives and Harissa

I've been a busy girl with the above noted items.  A while ago, I blogged about my black olive adventure. After a month or so of those babies being cured in nothing but rock salt, they are done.  I have marinated them in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and chilli.

My green olives, which I cured in brine, were ready last week. They too were marinated in oil,garlic and chilli and are all gone. By God, they were magnificent. I have a pile of green olives at home ready to be transformed and this will happen tonight.

Here's the first batch of green babies-they were deeelicious! All gone now.

I also made some harissa, that magical red,hot sauce that is loved by the Moroccans. It is so fiery that I forgot I had chilli on my fingers and touched my nose. I was in so much pain I thought I'd end up like Ike Turner.*  This will be used sparingly with tagines and other meat dishes. Hot hot hot but good good good!

My goal is to have a stock pile of condiments and tapas-like items ready for use. The basil is coming to an end so I think I'll be stripping every last leaf and making a big batch of pesto for our use- if it lasts that long.

Have been watching Masterchef. There is  no way I could be part of that show as the stress would kill me. I could never cook that way which is why I could never become a chef. I like to noony noo around the kitchen not burn around it like Fernando Alonso. I'm definatly a fan of the slow food movement!


*It is alleged that Ike Turner tooted so much cocaine in his life that his septum eroded. Tried to find a picture but couldn't. I would imagine it would look hideous and I wouldn't want to put you off all this delicious food.

Julie and Poh Can Kiss My Culu Blanco

Okay, that might be a tad harsh but colour me happy- I created food on Friday that I seriously think would impress Manu Feidel (and oh,how I'd love to impress that man).

The menu; smoked trout and goats cheese ravioli with a creamy lemon sauce topped with toasted pine nuts.spatchcock with rose petals and pomegranate served with a preserved lemon couscous. For dessert- little flourless chocolate cakes with a dulce de leche centre.

I got so carried away with the process I forgot to photograph the ravioli and the dessert. I made the pasta from scratch and it worked. Using my trusty old pasta machine which I had purchased in 1987, I put the dough through the rollers until it was rolled into thin sheets of silk goodness. I cut the squares to the desired sizes,spooned in the trout filling and pushed a cube of goat's cheese into the centre along with a few capers. I brushed the edges with water so the top would stick. Placing a sheet of pasta over the top, I shaped it around the filling, using a cupped hand to push any air out. I floured the base and let them rest. I had a bit of dough left over and some time so we made some fettucine and spaghetti noodles:

Caroline holds some of our spaghetti up.

Look at her- just like out of a professional cookbook. My good ol' machine has stood the test of time.

The sauce was made from a 200 mls of heavy cream, a big blob of labni with half small preserved lemon (flesh discarded -use skin only). Check the seasoning and that the lemon flavour is balanced-not overpowering. Don't drown the ravioli in sauce-like the Pointer Sisters, they like a man with a slow hand and a lover with an easy touch.

The main course was spatchcock with pomegranate and rose petals served with a preserved lemon cous cous. First, I butterflied the spatchcock by cleaving it down the centre and flattening it out. I gave them a wash and dried them with a clean tea towel. I placed them in in a non reactive bowl such as glass or ceramic.In a bowl, I added the juice of  1 lemon, a big splash of rose water, a splash of pomegranate syrup or juice (or both), a dash of honey, a spice mix made of half a tsp each of ground cumin, cinnamon,ginger,cardomom and chilli, a dash of olive olive,salt and pepper to season.I whisked and poured it over the spatchcock then covered them with some cling film and placed in the fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours.  I roasted the spatchcock in a hot oven on a rack for 30- 40 minutes, being careful not to dry it out. I like to add some water to the pan below the rack to create some moisture. 

To make the cous cous,  I placed grains in  a bowl, added boiling water and mixed until all liquid was absorbed. I added some salt and butter to taste. Using the skin of half a preserved lemon, I chopped it into fine dice and added it. Using a mould (or in my case-a measuring cup), filled it with the cous cous and placed on a plate. I had some pine nuts left over from the ravioli so I added a few to the cous cous during the mixing process and also used a small amount on the top for presentation.

 I mixed up a dressing of pomegranate molasses (syrup),juice of a lemon, a big splash of rosewater, a clove of garlic and a bit of honey and shook it up in a jar. Once the spatchcock was rested, I placed it on a plate, spooned over the dressing (again,slow and steady wins the taste race), topped it with a sprinkle of crushed and toasted pistaschios, pomegranite seeds and some organic rose petals. Here is the result;

To say I am proud of this is an understatement. The flavours worked so perfectly. Not only did they 'marry' well but you could taste each flavour both separately and collectively. And how fucking cool is the presentation?
Call me Miles Davis but I'm blowing my own trumpet....

Here's Nicolette enjoying her meal.

I will definatly make this again. Not sure if I can claim this as my signature dish but it's pretty close.

Turning Lebanese...

The full moon has pumped me full of creative thoughts. All I want to do is cook at the moment. So, when I got home last night, I headed around the corner to The Circle shops to buy my ingredients for my planned night of cooking. No television, no music. Just me,a knife, a chopping board and the kitchen. As promised last week- Kousa Mahshi or stuffed zuchinis- lebanese style.

First, wash your zucchini's then cut the stalk end off. Once

you have done this, you will need to hollow out the middle by removing the pulp.

How does one achieve this you ask?

Ta da!! Behold- the manakra! This baby will set you back 2 fat ones.

You'll need it.

The manakra in action-not sure if I'm doing it right but I persist

I guess that's how it goes-they're hollowed out and ready to be filled

with rice mincey spicy goodness.

An arty shot of my green babies.

Place the zooks in cold,salted water for 5 mins. The salt

water helps to keep them firm for the cooking process.

Now to make your baharat or if you can't be arsed,

can be purchased ready made at Middle Eastern grocers.

I hope the person behind the counter slaps you for being so lazy.

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

2 teaspoons dry roasted and ground cumin seeds

2 teaspoons dry roasted and ground coriander seeds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a bowl, mix 250 grams of mince of your choice. I used lamb but the recipe called for beef.

I'm bored with beef mince. Add 1 cup of short grain rice that has been rinsed, half cups of flat leaf parsley and mint, 1 medium tomato,salt,pepper and the baharat. Do not cook. Mix well and begin stuffing your zukes.

This is where I made a bit of a mistake. Don't use as much water as I have in this photo.

Add 2 big blobby tablespoons of tomato paste to just over half full pan of water.

Add your zukes and start boiling.

Cover them and once they start boiling, lower heat to a low simmer and cook

for a further 60 minutes.

Now for the fattoush - a Lebanese salad with bread.

Finely chop 2 tomatoes, handfuls of mint,coriander and flat leaf parsley,some fine slices of radish,half each of red and green capsicums

and 2 lebanese cucumbers. Juice one lemon and add to 3 parts of good olive oil.

The rule of thumb for salad dressing is one part acid,3 parts oil. Add some salt and pepper. Shake/whisk well.

The recipe called for one large round of flat bread to be deep fried till crispy and drained on kitchen paper.

I wasn't in the mood for that caper so I put in the oven for ten or so minutes till crispy. No oil on the hips or all over the stovetop/floors/walls/me.

My first attempt was a disaster. Pan carcinogentico.

The end result- fresh and delicious.

Again, I forgot to photograph the end result! The water the zukes are cooked in are meant to create the sauce but due to too much water, it was just flavourless liquid. As suggested, I served it with a dollop of smooth,creamy delightful labni yogurt which was to die for. I also served the fattoush on a leaf of baby cos lettuce which gives a fresh and lovely crunch along with the bread pieces in the salad. I'll definitely be making both of these again and I'm very happy for my first attempt at making both.

They should have looked like this and they kind of did!

If vegetarian and reading this, it is just as simple to make sans meat.

Enjoy!

Post script! These aren't meant to be covered! If you do, the water doesn't reduce and you don't get the lovely sauce it creates. I made them the other night and they were so perfect. With the dollop of labneh, it's Lebanese heaven!!!

A Casserole Of Sorts...

I've been reading through an old French cookbook that I picked up at a church stall for fiddy cents which has boeuf bourguignon and Jill Dupleix's 'New Food' which has her version of 'coq au vin' with chicken.
Trying to consider my housemate who doesn't eat red meat, I opted for the latter choice. It didn't quite go as planned but was very delicious all the same.

First of all,preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

You'll need some vegetables:

• 10 pearl onions (more commonly known as pickling onions)
• 2 large or 3 medium carrots
• 3 stalks of celery
• 200 grams or around 15 mushrooms
• A few cloves of garlic - you choose the amount. I used 6.

Then you'll need to chop the mushrooms in half and the carrots and celery in fine dice.
Keep the onions whole. Rough chop the garlic.

In my sexy, cast iron, red enamelled casserole pan which I have heated up on the stove top, I add a lug of good olive oil and a wodge of salted butter. If you think home brand vegetable oil and margarine will suffice, kill yourself now.
Add your vegetable and a good dash of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Turn down the heat as cast iron stays hot and you don't want to burn your veggies. Saute and 'sweat off' the vegetables.

At this point you want to add your chicken pieces. Once they have 'colour', move on to next step.

Add a wine glass full of dry white wine (if you used fruity lexia or passion pop you are a bogan from hell and see above re; veg oil and margarine). Add 2 cups of chicken stock and a 'Scarborough Fair' (a bouquet garni made from a small bunch of parsley,sage,rosemary & thyme). Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until the alcohol in the wine has evaporated.

Drain a can of whole tomatoes-make sure they are Italian-and add to your casserole. Cover and transfer to oven.  Slow cook for 1.5 hours. The liquid should reduce by half to make a divine sauce. I served this with some whole steamed chats (little potatoes) and broccoli but you can choose what you like. Next time, I will buy a fresh,crusty baguette to mop up the lovely sauce at the end.

I love Autumn-my favourite time of year and meals such as this represent the beginning of the season change for me.  The sort of food that warms the cockles of your heart and stick to the ribs.

Enjoy.

Prez-erved Olives

Okay, I know I said I'd make something for Lester 'Prez' Young but I couldn't help the cheesy pun title. Forgiven?

On Saturday afternoon, I cycled around the corner to an olive tree that Sarah had discovered and told me was 'laden' with fruit. I took my back pack, a large plastic shopping bag and a regular supermarket plastic bag. Either her version of laden is a few olives or someone got there first. Thankfully, there were two trees and it got me about 1.5 kilos of black olives. I took those babies home and preserved them.

Here's how things went:

First, wash your olives under cold water and drain.

Look how purdy these babies are. Organic too!

You'll need some rock salt - I used a 2 kilo bag

 Cover your olives well. Try to do it in layers

The salt will break down the bitter juice in the olives. Make sure you

have a bowl under your strainer (you can also use a cane basket) to catch the juices.

Cover the olives with a clean cloth or tea towel and store in an out of the way place. I have a walk-in pantry and they are living on the bottom shelf. Give your olives a shake at least twice a week and drain out any of the run off from them. In about four to six weeks, they should be ready.  Watch this space for part two when I make the olive oil/chilli/garlic marinade in which to store them in.

Cost thus far; $3.00 for the salt. Olives were a donation from Mother Nature.... hmmm.

Greg Malouf and Miles Davis

Fossicked through a box of books and found my copy of Arabesque by Greg Malouf. It is filled with the most amazing recipes. Living in an area populated with Lebanese, we are privy to some good Middle Eastern ingredients that assist in the cooking of some great M.E cuisine. So it has inspired me to prepare some.

The train ride into the city this morning was actually enjoyable. Reading through the pages of beautiful recipes describing the lists of ingredients one needs to make this delicious fare accompanied with the sounds of Miles Davis' 'Kind Of Blue' album on the iPod.

Cooking to me is like jazz- there are rules but on the whole, it's completely improvised. That's why I've called my blog 'Can Madam Burn'. It's a term coined by the great Lester Young which was his way of asking 'can you cook?' He was also an innovator, an exceptional musician, Billie Holliday's soul mate and a beautiful man.

Prez, I'll pick something special from the Arabesque cookbook and make it just for you.

My Kitchen Rules Grand Final

Congrats to Veronica and Shadi for winning the MKR crown. I enjoyed watching this show, despite its cliched formula and the obvious -that Manu Fiedel is a right sexy bastard.

 I know as a Melburnian, I should have been cheering for the boys but I liked V and S from the start.  They cook the food I like with the same principles of culture and love.

I was so engrossed in watching, I totally forgot to photograph the step by step of the awesome bolognaise sauce I made in the commercial breaks. I used lamb mince instead of beef and the flavours totally worked.

Tonight I'm making stuffed peppers so will definatly have that process for you tomorrow- and hope the love is flowing for those little beauties. 

I also have a bunch of bananas getting very ripe so I can make a banana and raspberry loaf. Bake therapy is also back on my menu.  It keeps you sane.

Coffee...

Seven Seeds. The only name in coffee you need to know when in Melbourne.. snaps to Padre in case James is reading this!

If only I could photograph the fabulous smell as well...

Dud Night Of Cooking (or 'Where Is The Love?)

The making of the harissa didn't happen and my tagine that I made for the 'Taste Of Harmony' day was a flop.

I'm not feeling the love at the moment and my food is the poor victim of this.

Hopefully I can redeem myself soon. It's heart wrenching.