{the food palate}

merry*christmas

Deborah — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:27:41 +0000

wishing you a safe and happy holidays with your nearested and dearest.

mini breakfast

Deborah — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:20:37 +0000

let’s face it. i’m not one of those people who can bounce out of bed to make it to the tennis courts on time. i’m more of a person who will bounce out of bed to make sure i have enough buttermilk for small stack of pancakes in order to feed a bunch of people who want to make it to the tennis courts on time.

and so, with visiting friends who were tightening strings on the rackets, eager to be the first on the court on a saturday morning (i know, who are these crazy people!?) i managed to convince them that a mini breakfast was required before we were to attempt a game of anything. “lots of vitamin giving fruit” i promised. “and low in fat!” i showed them while shaking the carton of buttermilk.

as i quickly melted the butter and poured it into the batter mr protennis was quick to ask “what’s that?” i repied “that is necessary”. once the blueberries and then the strawberries and apricots joined steaming hot pancakes followed closely by the syrup our plates were things of beauty. from now on all pancakes must be eaten with plump fruits. the berries add a tartness and the apricots a nice mellow to the syrup. buttery and tangy is what these pancakes are like. bill granger’s recipe can easily be halved, as i did for a mini breakfast.
the game? i lost and was demoted to drinks girl and in doubles the girls lost 6:3.

short out cake

Deborah — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:51:18 +0000

my second attempt at chocolate cake in one day.

i’m usually alright with cakes and stuff, but this morning a flourless chocolate cake which called for 2 blocks of 85% chocolate and 150g of almond meal turned into a disaster. think crumbly, dry and bleh. it may be rescued and turned into a cheesecake creation if i can be bothered. this evening when i attempted a regular chocolate butter cake it didn’t rise.

and now after a few glasses of wine (and a lovely roast chicken which i’ll post about in a few days) i realise that when i moved into our new place, i purchased new bakeware which was slightly different to my mother’s cake tins. my round springform tin is much bigger. aaah lateral thinking.

so this very flat cake was named chocolate blueberry shortcake by a very forgiving and kind friend. we like her very much (thanks saada!). amazing the difference a bit of cream and blueberries makes. and i’ve just realised that even though i love layer cake, one layer of cake is sometimes just what a girl needs on a friday night. and also a belly ache laugh and a glass of wine.

back for a bit. thanks for still reading.

twenty-seven

Deborah — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:41:26 +0000

been a little off with the food recently, but today there will be cake and playing with my new toy: a lomo action sampler!

lüneburger

Deborah — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:43:40 +0000

does one need another bakery?

apparently so.

lüneburger has been at its qvb location for months now and i never knew. quick to recitfy there was an order of two soft pretzels and a plum and ricotta danish. now must go back to try the landbrot, a typical german rye loaf which was my favourite bread as a kid. oh boy, it looks like this could turn into world bread week around here.

it’s world bread day today

Deborah — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 06:58:03 +0000

the international bakers union has proclaimed today to be world bread day. bread being such a glorious thing and i’m not going to argue about another day marked on the calendar.

so what could one do on world bread day? well you could eat some good quality bread, buy bread from a local bakery, teach someone to make bread or have a bread fight. well maybe not, but i like the idea of a day dedicated to eating bread which doesn’t come pre-sliced and wrapped in plastic.
the good people at fuel bakery made the bread rolls you see above. these spiral beauties were made for bécasse, that fine modern french restuarant which is currently the darling of sydney town. the head baker, keith slater gave my mother and i a little tour of their industrial bakery last week as well as a few still-hot-from-the oven samples of the rolls. they were delicious - soft, tasty and very good. fuel bakery mainly makes bread for eating establishments around town and only sells retail to fratelli fresh. if you live in sydney i would highly recommend that you pop into their industrial bakery, you will be told to relax many times and be given a hot sample or two. and if you’re keen their cake baking shift starts at 9pm
today i plan on popping back into fuel bakery to get one of their olive and rosemarry foccacias as well as a few plain baguettes, incase another foodie would like to engage in a bread sword fight. or something.

happy world bread day!

fuel bakery
19-21 larkin street
camperdown
(if the roller door is shut, just walk through the glass doors and go up the stairs. )

mondayitis

Deborah — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 02:15:51 +0000

just for fun.

over the weekend i saw a funny magent: “diet is die with a t“.

apparently monday is the day most people embark on a healthy eating regime. as far as i’m concerned it’s too much pressure. suffering with mondayitis on sunday evening, all i can focus on is packing my lunch and mucking about with a camera and cake decorations.

bookmarking for october

Deborah — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:21:16 +0000

oh, i’ve tried typing up so many posts over the last few weeks. i wanted to tell you about a book i’m reading called the ethics of what we eat. i also wanted to tell you about the degustation at bécasse, the night noodle markets, the sugar hit, raspberry + mocha muffins and fuel bakery. but umm, they have been hijacked by various other things going on. you know how it is? the phone rings or someone pops in for a cup of tea all the way from portugal.
so i’ve resorted to putting together some links because no matter how focused you can be, the internet is wonderful place and soon enough you’ve spent 4 hours reading and bookmarking …

fried twinkies! i waited with bated breath when megan declared a random day as country fair fried food day a few weeks ago. how would this experiment turn out? could she fry a twinkie and mac and cheese in one sitting? would she live to tell the tale? the answers are: golden and yes, kinda.

speaking of all things golden and kinda bad, when i saw the film thank you for smoking a few weeks back i became mildy curious about the taste sensation of apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese on top. you see, one of the characters, a hefty bloke with a thing for guns ordered it in a diner scene (don’t you love diner scenes!?). while it sounded just wrong i knew i had come across it elsewhere. taxi driver! you know the scene between travis and betsy? of course now, i just want to try it myself.

i ignored the permanent grin last week when i tried bill granger’s fast vegetarian fare. delicious, easy and went down well with the rest of the household. i highly recommend the spinach and pea paneer. next time i’ll have to try making the paneer at home as it’s ridiculously expensive at the indian grocer.

and to end, some mundane, yet cute instances of consumerism…

i’ve been loving my easy to use juicer which i was coveting last month. i’ve been using the smaller bottle for breakfast on the go and the larger one for mixed juice; grapefruit and orange. yum! anyone want to buy a hardly used electric juicer?

see mr. whiskie up there? he is the newest member of the kitchen. having always been tempted by these terribly cute gadgets, i’ve stopped myself from buying them because i could always use a fork right? well yes, but clearly the cuteness got to me this afternoon during a spot of retail therapy. standing tall at 14cm he’ll be whipping up some eggs very soon i’m sure.

not quite my style, but for the bacon lover who has everything, there is now a blt ring, in silver. bling bling.

lemon tree, very tasty

Deborah — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:16:35 +0000

note to self: it’s a crime to buy ready made preserved lemons when you have an aunty who has a lemon tree with a generous bounty.

today i managed to get a lot done. one of them, preserving a couple of kilos worth of lemons. a simple enough task, but also one of those thing i’ve been putting off for ages. with a pig full of salt i filled a few jars worth of lemons. for the next thirty days i hope to remember to turn the jars upside down and back straight up for the extra lemon juice to coat the golden skins. all of which will be ready for lots of moroccan feasts this summer!

design*sponge opens up shop

Deborah — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:50:53 +0000

one of my favourite design blogs has opened an online store to show case one off pieces by independent designers. a fabulous thing about the store is that grace has included international shipping to australia! such a bonus for those of us who ooh and aah over designs featured on blogs, but then find out that suppliers don’t offer international shipping.
i especially love the table runner featured this month. so lovely for spring this year.

go visit! such a wonderful feeling of niceness with 100% of all sales going back to the designers themselves as well as revenue from advertising donated to a chosen charity each month. for a cynic like me this is perfect example of grass roots projects and commerce working. thanks grace!