Meat Free Good Friday

I was raised a good Catholic girl.  No really I was.  At least that’s what my mother likes to believe.  I married a good Catholic boy.  True story!  And now my son goes to a Catholic school.  Which has been really interesting because he has been learning about God and Jesus and he is very in to it. 

He is a little confused about why Jesus’ mates couldn’t save him from his fate but is happy that Peter tried so nobly.  I’m guessing that's the way little boys can relate to bible stories is by comparing their own life and friendships to it. 

The other day when I picked my boy up from school he was very keen to tell me that if he had of known Jesus when he was put up on the cross to die he would have gathered all of his men – his dad, his grandfathers, his uncles, our male neighbours and all of our male friends, big and small and together they would have got the ‘baddies’.  Then Jesus would have been ok…

So of course we don’t eat meat on Good Friday. 

No really we don’t.  Except for all the times we have had to travel to visit family at Easter and my husband sneaks something with bacon in it on the mandatory road trip stop along the way.  But that was only because he ‘forgot’ that it was Good Friday so it doesn’t count, right?

So anyway this Easter we don’t have to travel anywhere so I thought I would post an Easter recipe.  In my mind I was thinking something sweet involving chocolate or yeast goods or Nutella (Nutella only gets a mention here because I have a new and possibly unhealthy obsession with it). 

I contacted my dear and beautiful chef friend Janelle.  I’ve wanted to feature Janelle on this blog for a while and I will properly at a later date.  Janelle is an awesome chef.  She used to be my chef when I owned my café, another lifetime ago.  She uses words like gourmet, schezwan and chiffonade like no other person I know!  Now she teaches people how to cook and become a chef at a TAFE in Western Australia.  Those people don’t know how lucky they are.  They are learning from one of the best.

To my surprise Janelle sent me a recipe involving squid.  I was surprised for one because she doesn’t eat seafood and for two I was expecting something of the sweet variety from her.   When I questioned her about her choice of recipe and why it was special for Easter she said, ‘the whole thing is special. I thought as it is Easter good Catholics should be eating seafood on at least Friday’.  Touché Janelle…touché!

People, Catholic or not, this is just a small example of why Janelle is one of the most super chef’s I know in real life!

Squid Salad mixed with special sauce, lemon grass and lime leaves

What you need (quantities are per person):

250 gram cooked squid (2-4 pieces) poached

1 stick lemon grass sliced very thin

1 shallot julienne

2 lime leaf julienne

10 mint leaves

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon sweet chilli in soybean oil or sambal olek

What you do:

Place last three ingredients in bowl and mix. Place squid, lemon grass, shallot, lime leaf and mint leaves in that bowl and mix thoroughly. Serve with lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

Happy Easter one and all!

Guest post - dejustation

This weeks post is a guest post by my mate Justin McPhail.  Justin is a man of many layers.  He co founded and is President of Bendigo Beer - an incorporated body that promotes craft beer.  He started and runs dejustation, co-ordinates many food events, loves to cook and is an all round nice guy.  AND he does all of this in his spare time!

Enjoy this weeks guest post.  You can catch Justin over at www.justinrhys.wordpress.com and www.dejustation.com and follow him on twitter @justinrhys

"The thrill in recipe development and the reasons why I created dejustation".

I’ve always enjoyed the moments in life where people go “ah-ha!” and look around for people to share the moment with. I’ve had more than a few of these moments during my time with Bendigo Beer with our beer and food matching dinners, whole beast feasts (with whole pigs heads in the centre of a table for people to nibble on), beer vs wine pairings (rating one vs the other with the only constant element being the food as a comparative), etcetera.

For me, to do something in life is to seek out this experience, a combination of this emotion of surprise, searching for flavours, the conversation. What I seek to create is the perfect storm of food, company, beverage and place.

I created dejustation to share this experience.

Experiential dining is something that first piqued my interest seeing Heston Blumenthal on one of the first series of Master Chef. Sitting on a couch in Adelaide (where I was living at the time), I immediately searched for more info, and within 15 minutes had purchased the Fat Duck cookbook. I read his story with reverence. Here was a man who hadn’t trained as a chef, taught himself, and created his own mark on the culinary world. I saw great parallels with myself. Interested in learning all culinary styles, ingredients, matches to beverage, I began a period of complete and utter devotion to reading and tasting anything and everything.

The culmination of this is a way of thinking outside the norm, using blueberries with star anise to create a sauce to match to a beer, making a lamb based dessert styled from the classic Aussie lamington, ‘lambington’, creating a sweet and savoury dirt for my last event ‘dig it’. It’s all in drawing from influences learned the past few years and ones I continue to learn. 

I hope to amaze, excite, wow, and hopefully, awe, my guests. From things as small as how the light shines, the music playing, the (hopefully unnoticeable) service, smells, sight and taste.

I have included below a taste of things to come for the next event. I’m working on recreating the classic Australian Milk Bar with dishes that include elements of paperbark, redskins, Big M’s, chiko rolls…the list goes on. For this test, I pictured a rich and sticky sweet beef sauce that draws on the unique sweetness of redskins with the stickiness of a classic beef rib. The results are great, but not something that will amaze people, so the testing continues… stay tuned.

Brewhouse

It’s no mean feat to relocate your relatively new business.  Particularly when you are talking about boutique coffee roasting equipment with a cafe arm to your establishment.  This is exactly what the Brewhouse in Bendigo has done – with absolute style, energy and consideration.

Originally opening in an industrial area in December 2011, the Brewhouse consider themselves a wholesaler first with a philosophy of perfecting and providing hand roasted coffee.  But it needs to be said that by opening their doors to the public to enjoy the vigour is absolute genius.

I am sitting in the Brewhouse on day one in their new premises and the place is absolutely pumping with a crowd that has come from all over town.  There are corporates, mums and bubs, gym goers, cyclists, Uni students and baby boomers - all here getting their caffeine injection for the day and simply soaking up the happiness, which is the vibe de jour.

In converting this old warehouse owner Corey Scoble and his team have maximised their new space in the centre of town, with long communal tables, comfy lounge chairs overlooking the street at the floor to ceiling windows and a semi outdoor area with faux grass overlooking the coffee roasters.  This space is begging for the lycra brigade to park their bikes and come in for a latte.

The absolute visual hero is the graffiti style mural art by ‘Hip Hop for Youth’, which takes up the most part of the wall space.  It’s so incredibly appropriate and you can hardly take your eyes off it.  The woman with the auburn hair is a knock out.

Led by their dynamic cafe manager Tim, the staff here are simply fabulous.  They are attentive, energetic, and friendly and provide seamless table service at shared tables - that is a talent in itself.  They certainly give you the feeling that they will and can solve any query.  Their passion for coffee is distinct, especially when you get a crew of them in unison on the grinders and machines yelling ‘coffee up’ when an order is ready.  Food is also a highlight here with a menu that serves breakfast and lunch all day also catering for the vegetarians and gluten free people amongst us. 

Congratulations Brewhouse – you have made the right move!

BREWHOUSE

402 Hargreaves Street, Bendigo Victoria.

(03) 5442  8232.

www.brewhousecoffee.com.au

twitter - @Brewhouse_Bgo

Open 7 days

Monday – Friday 6.30am – 5pm

Saturday 7am – 4pm

Sunday 8am – 3pm

MANtastic Meals - Part 4

My friend Grant lost his mum tragically and suddenly a few years ago.  I never got to meet her but through the incredible thread of food I feel like I have gotten to know her a little.

Over the last 12 months or so Grant has been on a mission to get is hands on the recipes that were his mum’s.  He has reminisced about these homemade delights that his mum was known for in his local community as he was growing up.

With every dish there is of course a story or a memory that Grant can recount and tell with a very distinct sparkle in his eyes.  I love hearing these reminiscences because it inadvertently gives me so much background about my friend and his life before I knew him.  I also love listening to these stories about this wonderful woman, mother and cook who seemingly tied so many people around her together with her cooking and passion for food. 

And so it was especially pleasing last week when finally these recipes came into his possession.  Finally he had the keys to culinary success for some of his favourites like Applesauce Sponge Roll, Porcupine Balls, Toblerone Mousse, Beef Milano and of course Grasshopper Pie from his guest post on this blog.

Last night I watched Grant’s excitement when he came over to my house to cook two of his mum’s memorable dishes for me.  These dishes are easy, quick, tasty and a cheap way to feed your family. 

This year on ‘International Women’s Day’, I pay tribute to this remarkable lady who was responsible for putting my dear friend on this earth and because her passion for food brought so much joy to those in her life.

Marj’s Spicy Baked Sausages

What you need –

·      3 tablespoons tomato sauce

·      2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

·      1 teaspoons dry mustard

·      2 teaspoons white vinegar

·      1 tablespoons brown sugar

Place sausages in a greased dish and split length ways down the centre of the sausage.

Mix all ingredients together and spoon a little into each sausage.

Bake in a moderate oven for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with rice or noodles.

Brown food!

Marj’s Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

What you need -

·      1 cup self raising flour

·      ¾ cup sugar

·      ½ cup milk

·      2 tablespoons butter

·      2 teaspoons cocoa

What you do –

Sift flour and cocoa.  Add sugar and melted butter and mix.   Add milk and pour into dish.

Mix -

·      1 ¼ cups boiling water

·      ½ cup brown sugar

·      2 teaspoons cocoa

Pour sauce mix over the mixture in bowl.

Bake in moderate oven for 45 minutes.

Serve with cream, ice cream or both.

Follow Grant on twitter @the_lux_list or www.theluxurylist.wordpress.com

If there are any male readers that would like to submit their favourite recipe to be published in the ‘MANtastic Meals’ series, I would love to hear from you.  Please email me at foodforyoureviews@hotmail.com