I'm a stickler for freshness and quality in food, especially having spent nearly ten years of my life working on site as promotions manager at a fresh produce market. That wonderful stint in my career taught me plenty about fresh and seasonal produce across the board: fruit and veg, meat, poultry, fish, nuts, cheese, bread, the works. With Capital Region Farmer's Market at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) five minutes from our home, these days the farmer's market is the first port of call for Peter and I on a Saturday morning. Every visit for us is an enjoyable and exciting adventure, and celebration of what's on offer. Lately there's a guy at EPIC who sells the most delicious and inexpensive pumpkins. His stall comprises a simple table lined with whole pumpkins, various sized wedges of freshly cut pumpkin and a giant knife (and a few potatoes). There is always a lineup for his pumpkins, which is good as there are plenty more pumpkins stashed in a mesh trailer behind the stall. I'm not exaggerating when I say that supermarket pumpkin is pale in comparison with these, and I mean that in every sense of the term.
Greek-style Lamb with HummusIn the epilogue to her autobiography I Sang for My Supper (1999), Australian icon Margaret Fulton cites an event from the late 1950s that she says has stuck in her mind. 'Driving back to Sydney from Bowral via the coast, we came down the winding road over the mountain towards the settled area around Wollongong. It was a Sunday, about midday, and what hit us head-on was an overpowering smell of roast lamb. Every household in the Illawarra district, it seemed, was cooking roast lamb. And that's the way it used to be in most parts of Australia; the family gathering around the dinner table at lunchtime on Sunday for a meal of roast lamb with all the trimmings.'
How delicious! As strange as it may sound, I don't think I tasted lamb until I was well into my teens. My mother and father had bad food memories of roast mutton served regularly at Bonegilla, the migrant hostel the family stayed at when they first arrived in Australia from Hungary. It wasn't until the 1970s that dad decided to experiment with lamb forequarter chops on the barbecue. The chops were succulent and moreish, and a totally new experience for my tastebuds. Smoked Hock and Lentil Soup Lentils have been on the menu in my family for generations. My mother always kept packs of green/brown and red lentils in the larder. She made beautiful soups with them, and a hearty lentil stew which I didn't really appreciate the flavour of until I was in my twenties. Similarly, smoked pork hock featured often on mum's Hungarian repertoire, mostly in soups, such as bean soup or lentil soup; and sometimes with cabbage rolls.
As I write this post, it's pouring with rain outside and I am reminded about walking home from school on rainy winter days. Mum never learned to drive and my father was at work, so there was no such thing as the luxury of being driven home. The only time my father picked me up from school (very occasionally) was to take me to piano lessons, which I hated at the time. I was taught by nuns and the curriculum was ever so boring. Did I really need to learn how to play 'Song of the Volga Boatmen'?! Not to mention that I didn't enjoy having my hands slapped by Mother Superior if I made a mistake during 'pianoforte' examinations! Besides, she smelled, too. But I digress. Recipe for Slow Cooked Beef with Vanilla and CapsicumKeeper: /ˈkiːpə/ [Noun and adjective, informal] a sublime food or brilliant recipe that finds it way into your heart and onto your repertoire for life. Sometimes when you read a new recipe, you just know it's going to be a 'Keeper'. This week's snippet on Slow Cooked Beef with Vanilla and Capsicum is one such recipe and I am dellghted to share my adaptation with you.
Chilli Con CarneAccording to the infamous Spanish Dominican friar, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), 'Sin el chile los Mexicanos ne creen que estan comiendo'. In other words, 'without chillies, Mexicans don't believe they are eating'.
Mushroom, Tomato and Eschalot Salsa 'A solitary meal should engender a mood of tranquil satisfaction'.
- David Jones, The Bachelor's Dinner. Veal Shank and Vegetable Broth This weekend's snippet is a rustic, nourishing broth that my mother and father cooked for us kids, sometimes with a whole chicken and the giblets, instead of veal shanks. Their own parents, my grandparents on both sides, most probably cooked it for their children too. And their parents before them most likely taught the recipe to them. My son and daughter, and my sister's three children (and their children), and our partners, all refer to it as 'Nanna Soup'. Comfort food at its simplest.
Lamb Tagine with PrunesOn into the old city of Fez, where the streets of the medina, are so crowded we are pressed between the walls of houses and the saddlebags of donkeys, and the donkeys turn the eyes of the passers-by less than we do. Amazed at the visual richness of bare-torsoed men manning their pools of blue, red and saffron dyes in the Souk of the Tanners at the entrance, and the colour of the rugs, brassware, foods and myriad of wares in the medina, ... Our table is graced with beautiful tagines (simmered dishes), cooked and often presented in the cone-lidded, multicoloured pottery dish that bears the same name.
— Diane Holuigue Postcards from Kitchens Abroad (1999). Australia Day Barbecue Lamb Burgers with Hummus and Tzatziki |
Welcome...Üdvözölöm
Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion. Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writers and chefs; and news on food, cookbooks and cooking. - Liz Posmyk
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NB: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons in my recipes.
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