We’re at the launch of Bill Granger’s new cookbook. He’s so nice, and the food is wonderful! More when we get home…
Later: What a lovely evening! We were at the Hickson Road Bistro at the Sydney Theatre for this gleebooks event. Bill gave a great talk about his non-standard culinary career, and we enjoyed three courses from the cookbook. The highlight for me was the entree: a pea, mint, and feta salad. Divine! He also had a question-and-answer session, and most of the (old) people were asking boring things about the slow food movement and why we should all buy organic, blah blah blah. I turned to the Snook: “I’m about to embarrass you.” I put my hand up. “This is a bit frivolous, but it’s a hypothetical we like to discuss at nice restaurants. If SBS ever wanted to do an Australian version of Iron Chef, would you be on it and who would you want to face?” HE LOVED MY QUESTION. Apparently he’s a big fan of the show, and he started talking about how the most recent episode was on “whale tongue.” He said he’d probably be too intimidated to go on, because he doesn’t see himself as being as “cheffy” as some of the other professionals. He’d want to go up against “someone he could beat.” Later he came around to autograph our cookbook and have a chat. The Snook asked him about the “artisanal beer movement” while I requested this photo. I think it’s about time for our long-awaited pilgrimage to bills in Surry Hills…
I was at last able to pick up the Snook’s super-secret birthday surprise tonight – two beer mugs that I made him in my Ceramics class! (He didn’t mind that they were late; I couldn’t get them out of the kiln any sooner.) I had a lot of help from my tutor Peter. They have extruded handles and I finished them with a hand-painted pewter glaze. They turned out pretty much exactly as I’d hoped. They’re pleasantly heavy without being too chunky; they’re slightly wonky and obviously handmade; they look rather medieval and masculine. The photo makes the one on the left look chipped, but that’s actually water from where I’d just rinsed them out. Snookums only had them out of the wrapper for about two seconds before he’d filled the big one with beer!
And yes, that is a football-sized ball of Silk Garden. I pulled my cardigan apart. It’s a long story.
That last picture is my dinner creation for tonight – Chicken Pot Pie. Yes, I decorated it with a bird made from puff pastry. It was delicious!
Recipe:
Okay, this is just a slightly-modified version of the Chicken Pot Pie recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New American Cookbook, which is my all-time number-one go-to cookbook for just about everything.
First, you’re gonna need some cooked chicken. (The recipe calls for three cups.) You can either pull it off a roast chicken, or you can poach your own. Poaching’s pretty easy so I go with that. Just whack a couple breasts in a skillet and fill it with water. Cover and simmer until they’re cooked through. Sometimes if they’re really thick I cut them in half so they cook faster in the middle. Once they’re done, fish out the chicken and set it aside to cool.
Now get out a pot and fry up a chopped onion in a quarter-cup of butter. (Mmmm.) When the onion is soft, you’re going to dump in one-third of a cup of all-purpose flour, half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of dried thyme, and a good grind of pepper. Stir it around a bit so the flour soaks up the butter and cooks a little. (This is what makes the sauce thick.) Now you’re going to dump in two cups of chicken stock and three-quarters of a cup of milk. Stir it around and cook until thickened and bubbly. Now throw in your vegetables. Tonight I felt like using a lot so I put in carrots, potatoes, peas, broccoli, and green beans. While that’s cooking, go back to your now-cool chicken and tear it up into chunks. Add that to the pot. You’re nearly done!
All you have to do now is pour your mixture (basically a thick chicken stew) into a big Pyrex baking dish (or you can be fancy and put it in little individual dishes). Cover it up with some puff pastry (buy it frozen but let it thaw first) and cut a few slits to let the steam escape. If you’ve got some left over, you can go nuts with the decoration (a la my bird). Pop the whole thing in the oven on a fairly high heat (at least 180C if not more) and let it bake for 15 minutes or so, basically until the pastry goes flaky and golden. Pull out and eat!
For some reason I’m all about new products today. It’s Friday and I feel like shopping! Anyhoo, check out thefoodloop. I definitely think the Snook needs some of those for his next birthday. He’s a big fan of making elaborate stuffed roasts, and somehow I always end up holding massive pieces of meat together while he curses at useless kitchen twine. Plus we’re suckers for kitchen gadgets.
I poached an egg for my breakfast this morning… in the microwave! I’ve never done that before. A bit of quick Googling was all it took. I put a bit of water in a cappucino mug (something smaller would’ve been better), then gently cracked my egg into it. I used a skewer to poke the yolk a few times so it wouldn’t explode. (It doesn’t leak out though, and the resulting yolk was still nicely runny). Then I covered it with cling film and nuked it at 60% power for forty-five seconds, and then continued checking it in fifteen second intervals. Ninety seconds seemed to be about perfect. Yum!
Saturday morning the Snook and I joined his mom, sister, and nephew on a visit to the Rozelle Markets. We bought Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary for the amazing sum of $5, and I found a copy of The Magic Pudding. Our real haul, however, came afterwards when we stopped at Herbie’s Spices. The Snook’s been wanting to hit this shop for ages. We got chipotle powder, saffron, dukkah, fenugreek… heaps of good stuff. And today he used the chipotle to make me Ron’s Blue Stater’s Texas Chili. YUM! He actually used the beer brewing pot, he made so much chili. Our freezer is now full of it. The best part is that we worked out that it’s only, like, two Points per ladleful! Now if only I had some light sour cream…
I was reminiscing to the Snook about the truffle mash we had the other night at Tabou when he said, “Why don’t we put a truffle stuffing in the turducken?” And then I turned into Homer Simpson and drooled all down my shirt. Thus at lunchtime today we found ourselves at the David Jones Food Hall eyeing these fresh Italian truffles. “Does that really say THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS a kilo?” It did. So we turned and headed to the “gourmet foods” section, where a nice customer service lady pointed us to preserved truffles, truffle oil, and truffle salsa (from Tetsuya’s!). We went with $30 worth of preserved truffle. The things we do for our guests…
Happy Easter! We celebrated in true blasphemous fashion by eating The Easter Bunny. Seriously. I had been hesitant – “Will it have a face?” I asked – but in the end the smells won me over. It was really good. (Big thanks to Rodd’s grandma for getting us a La Creuset casserole.) It actually reminded me a lot of chicken, but in a good way. We also had lots of taters (precious), and salad and veg and bread and everything good. And now I need to sleep for 24 hours to process all these carbs.
Oh, and I tried the egg mold Jigglers again, and they didn’t work again. They always break in half. I suck.
The Snook made our third batch this morning: Coffee and Walnut bread. YUM. He again set the machine last night to have the bread ready for breakfast. This time it worked perfectly! I wonder if the caking problem we had last time was because it was a prepackaged mix and this one was from scratch. All I know is, waking up to the smell of fresh-baked bread only to discover that the Snook has left a buttered slice and a glass of milk beside the bed for me makes for the Best. Morning. Ever.
