Recipes to fight hangrrr, food travel and interviews

Alles Gute Zum Geburtstag Lieber Florian

December 16, 2011 · 14 comments

courgette flower pasta image

December the 16th is, in my opinion, one of the most auspicious days of the year; without it, my life would be immeasurably poorer. The reason it’s such a happy day is because it’s the birthday of three (three!) of my favourite people. I know it’s not the done thing to choose favourites but let’s face it, we all do, right? And the favouritest of them all, is the one beginning with F. Also, the word “favourite” is beginning to look as if I spelt it wrong so I’ll stop using it now. Also, it would be weird if the month of December went straight from the 15th to the 17th, don’t you think?

pasta ingredients image on sasasunakku

Without the events that unfolded on the 16th of December a number of years ago there wouldn’t have been anyone to tell me about Duvetwochen, an Austrian celebration of the end of winter whereupon all the people of the village bring their duvets to the market square and throw them in a pile. The most elderly are then invited to choose a new duvet followed by the next eldest, and the next and so on. It is possible I have heard, to buy key-rings with tiny duvets attached to them as a memento of this, frankly odd, festival. No-one ever mentioned what happens if two people are born at the same time but I like to imagine that they have it out, right there on the street, and the last one standing is the first to choose.

zucchini flowers image on sasasunakku

Had the 16th of December been skipped that year, there’d have been no-one to inform me of the importance of consuming a boiled egg on the first day of snow (the famed Snow Egg) which is supposed to give one strength for the impending ~~doom~~, I mean winter.

guanciale image sasasunakku

No 16th of December, none of these, the most imaginative of my numerous nicknames: Sarakue, Sayakue, The Hashbot, Shiksenbaby, Monkey Lady and The Bogbot.

Without the 16th of December I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet the person with whom I’ve spent many of my happiest hours.

guanciale pasta image on sasasunakku

So, December 16th, thank you for existing. You are a special day. A great day.

What’s your favourite day of the year?

See guanciale and zucchini flower pasta recipe here

Tagged as: bacon, cheese, could be vegetarian, courgette, garlic, guanciale, herbs, italian, own recipe, parsley, pasta, recipe, zucchini

{ 14 comments }

Halloumi and Making Friends and Influencing People

October 23, 2011 · 32 comments

in Cheese,Gluten Free,Vegetarian

homemade haloumi cheese

Even though this weekend marks the end of my first semester back at school, what I really want to say is: I made cheese! Not once or twice! But thrice! Don’t mean to show off or anything (I’m showing off) but I made halloumi, mascarpone and there is a camembert maturing in the cupboard under the stairs as I type. Camembert!

draining haloumi image

Making cheese is one of those elemental things like making bread – not only does it make me feel supremely capable and accomplished but tricks other people into thinking I am too (bonus!). And, apropos of nothing, that was five exclamation marks in one paragraph and I mightn’t stop there! Even though my favourite English teacher told us too many exclamation marks dilute their effectiveness and furthermore are just lazy! So hold on to your hats people, I’m on the rampage this morning.

haloumi cheese image

One of the things on the long list of great things about coming home is having met my friend Marly, a cheesemaker, among other things. Her parents are German and with her pink and white complexion she fits the part perfectly – I can sort of imagine her wearing a milkmaid’s dirndl (is there such a thing? I might have made it up). She wasn’t wearing anything of the sort when when came over to make halloumi though but it turned out squeakily toothsome all the same.

moulded halloumi cheese image

Making halloumi is easier than making macaroni cheese, I kid you not. Unless you think macaroni cheese comes out of a cardboard box, to which I say “pah!” and also “I did not know you could get macaroni cheese in a box until I went to San Francisco earlier this year and spent an hour peering at all the stuff in the supermarket ‘cause that’s what I do when I go to new countries.”

So, without further ado, this is how you make friends and influence people: Make halloumi and feed it to them. That’s it. For realz. Unless they are vegan or hate cheese. In which case, they probably won’t be.

Also, between the 25th and 31st October, the Royal NZ Foundation for the Blind is organising “Bake a Difference” which involves baking some stuff and selling it to raise funds – fun way to fundraise right? Especially since I know lots of you love to bake. So, get on it people!

See halloumi cheese recipe here

Tagged as: cheese, milk, recipe, rennet

{ 32 comments }

Warm Tunisian Orange and Almond cake and How I Got to Like Mums

September 18, 2011 · 33 comments

in Baking,Desserts,Sweets

I really like mums. I didn’t always particularly though. When my friends and I were unruly teenagers skulking in parks after dark and knocking back gutrot that bore so little resemblance to actual vodka that it was labelled “vodka flavoured beverage” in basements, parents – our own and and others – were to be strictly avoided lest they… Actually I’m not sure exactly what, it was just the implied threat of having to have a conversation or something I guess.

As I’ve grown older I’ve come to realise what a joy it is that my nearest and dearest generally come as packages; somehow I lucked out on the friends-with-cool-mums lottery. They’re a trove of good recipes amongst plenty of other things and I grew to look forward to catching up with them whenever I came home to visit from overseas whether the dearests happened to be there or not.

The other day I was the lucky recipient of a slice of a cake that makes my top five delicious cakes of all time. People, I have eaten a lot of cake during my time on this earth and I tell you, if I that does not an authority make (plus! I chose nine out of nine flavours correctly the other day in a blind taste test of sweet, salty, sour and bitter!) I do not know what would.

The cake has a sort of golden caramelised shell that comes from baking it in an oven that starts cold, combined with the syrup that gets poured over it as it’s pulled from the oven, and a nubbly yet moistly yellow interior that comes from almond meal and the soaked-in syrup. It smells of souks and caravanserais minus the ordure. I made it for my best friend’s birthday this past weekend and I shall make it again, doubling the recipe this time, before the week is through. It didn’t make it past day one but I imagine that it is a very good keeper. It sort of reminds me of an exotic version of this yoghurt and lemon cake, though it doesn’t have any yoghurt in it.

Thanks Deb, for making Joe, and for this cake. The jury is still deliberating about which is better, though he may scrape in on technicalities, just.

Also, some lovely people (remember La Meune?) I used to cook for are starting an online business selling cinnamon. If you want a free sample, you can get one sent to you if you complete the short questionnaire, do it! You know you want to, you like free stuff, right?

Aaaand, this post is participating in Alessandra’s Sweet New Zealand, a way for Kiwi bloggers to get to know each other. This month, Alli is hosting.