mmm pickle soup

I've been writing about pickles so much on this blog I can't believe I haven't posted this yet.

I discovered pickle soup (zupa ogorkowa) at Borscht, Vodka & Tears when Marion and I went there earlier this year. I was smitten - a slightly thickened broth packed with potatoes and grated pickles. Just the right amount of sour mixed with the dill flavour to make a winter favourite.

So I went digging for recipes. There's a lot of variations - some thicken the soup with eggs, or flour. Many have celery, some add leeks which I'm keen to try. The version I've been making has won a lot of converts. Sarah makes it endlessly and Shane just asked me for the recipe. It's a great soup for when you're feeling sick - a kind of vegetarian chicken soup replacement.

A note on ingredients:

• Using instant stock makes this very quick but of course using real stock would make it so much better. The traditional recipes recommend beef.
• You need pickles that are good and sour - not sweet. Bick's Polski Ogorki are good, so are the tinned Israeli ones you can find at some supermarkets. Avoid any Australian ones unless they come from a good Polish deli.

Now go get:

• 6 cups stock (I use Massel's fake Chicken)
• 1 medium carrot, diced very small
• 1 big potato, diced smallish
• 1/2 onion minced
• 6 big pickled cucumbers, grated or finely chopped.
• pickle juice from jar
• 1 cup sour cream and more to serve.
• a little flour
• dill
• butter

1. Heat the stock up and add the potato. Leave it to simmer while you saute the onion slowly in some butter.
2. Add the carrots to the onion for a minute, then the pickles.
3. When the potatoes are almost tender add the carrots, onion and pickles to the pot. Continue to simmer until the potatoes are nice.
4. Mix two teaspoons of flour with the sour cream then slowly stir into the soup to thicken it.
5. The sour cream might break up and look a bit mucky but that's ok.
6. Taste the soup and add some of the pickle juice to taste - the sour taste should be distinctive but not outta control.
7. Serve with masses of chopped dill, rye toast and more sour cream for the dairy pigs.

This is a very easy soup - it's the pickles that make it taste so good. So feel free to muck around with the recipe and let me know how you go. Other thickening tricks could be good too if you want it thicker - this version is still very thin.

Food porn

Well, when the housemates are already cooking what else is there to do but plonk myself down and read cookbooks. Lately I've been discovering the joys of my local library where I can enjoy all the fancy expensive hardbacks I want without having to make a new shelf for cookbooks in the kitchen. I was very excited to pick up Crazy Water, Pickled Lemonsagain. Marion had this last summer and we made so many great things - a beautiful pilaf with harissa roasted tomatoes and a Spanish sherry icecream which people still won't stop talking about. I've also been enjoying Crank's Bible which I'd been eyeing off for a while. This is where I got the crazy vegetable cobbler recipe and there's quite a recipes I'd like to get around to. Good for vegetables I'm never quite sure what to do with - like celeriac and turnips.

On the net I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the range of food writing and trying to find my feet. There's cute stuff like Nice Cup of Tea and A Sit Down and gourmet ruminations like Kitch'n'Zinc from Capetown but I must admit I quite like the simplicity of the nutella pretzel recipe at Fuck Corporate Groceries: get pretzel - dip in nutella. They also have a few recipes involving chocolate and peanut butter so you know they're always going to be a winner for me.

Just like NW only better?

Go Fug Yourself is a site just like that bit in New Weekly where they make fun of all stars for wearing bad clothes. With a slogan "Fugly is the new Pretty" what's not to like?

Kinda like the Honey Cake I made the other day as a late Jewish New Year's treat. Spicey, dense and only sticky on the bottom. It was the kind of subtle cake I normally ignore in favour of over the top richness but it went so well at the end of a pigging out picnic. With a cup of tea from the thermos and gum trees to lie under it was all just a little bit lovely really.

Restaurant props for the week: Borscht, Vodka and Tears on Chapel St, Prahran was where my sisters and I decided to bring in the new year. Honey infused vodka shots of course. And food kind of like mum used to feed us only fancier. The pickle soup is such a winner and the pierogi (like a Polish ravioli) were delish. Although I don't think everything's quite as tasty as it was when they first opened they still have my vote - where else can you sample a vodka list of 80+ types, eat Blintzes and avoid the wankers who flock to vodka bar type places.

food with scissors

One thing the Gold Coast has that Melbourne doesn't is a great selection of Korean restaurants. (They also have Ken Done shops!) Of course me and Sarah were totally excited. As Sarah said - eating Korean you can never get bored. There's always at least 4 side dishes so you can just go back and forth. And Korean is a pickles lovers dream - kimchi! But I was just struck by the fact that there's no other cuisine I've eaten where they give you a pair of scissors at the table to chop your noodles up.

If anyone knows a place in Melbourne to get good cold noodles please let me know - I could get addicted to the combination of thin (potato?) noodles, apple and raddish with that great spicy sesame sauce. And the scissors!

(happy new year fellow yids - let's try and make it a peaceful one.)

and more deep-fried pickles!

Actually I'm starting to have my doubts. I love pickles and I love deep fry but could this be a mistake? These folk think not.

Foods on sticks

I think I'm going to have to make a pilgrimage to Minnesota. Check out this description of all the deep fried foods at the Minnesota State Fair (scroll down to Sept 9).

42 different foods served on sticks! Deep fried pickles! Oh, it's getting hard to breathe just thinking about it!

"Dismantlement 101: Introduction to removing an outpost"

So inspiring when activism can be amusing as well as meaninful, even in the darkest corners of this fucked up world. (warning: not food related)

oh, and mazeltov to nell who posted her first assignment at learning to love you more. yay.

this new colour scheme hurts my eyes but I can't get it right... help me.

Rhubarb, Chocolate & Zucchini

Returned from 2 weeks away to find my rhubarb going crazy in the garden so I had to make a crumble of course. It was very oat-heavy so nice and chewy. Rhubarb is just the best thing ever. Plus it was exciting to use an oven after 10 days eating off a Trangia camping stove. Not that we didn't eat some great stuff.

Will post soon on my latest eating adventures... but just having a bit of a cruise of the blogosphere to see what else is out there in the world of the food obsessed.

Chocolate & Zucchini is very readable and has some yum looking stuff. I want to try the zucchini and polenta tart - just scroll down for a look. Actually I'd love to try the blueberry coffee cake but where do I get blueberries from?

So.. I'm thinking if I'm going to write this thing I wouldn't mind a few people looking at it - anyone with any ideas just let me know.

from the golden land

okay, so i'm away so the blog is gonna go quiet. but i didn't want anyone complaining (nell) so here's a little something to keep you going. other people should hassle nell to start her own blog which will be much more interesting as she is all into etymology and bondage and budgies.

so.. travel is normally a good eating time. but i seem to be stuck in some kind of tourist ghetto with restaurants that charge $15 for a curry. and unadventurous eating companions. it's weird - i never hang out with people who want to eat hawaiian pizza for dinner!

between the dinner options and the dodgy conference lunch (evil coleslaw with curry powder in the dressing, stodgy risotto in a bainmarie) i really miss cooking my own food. like the awesomely rich mexican chocolate custard bread pudding i made the night before i left. i was trying to make sure my housemates missed me but it was so rich that they all turned into groaning zombies... not sure if they'll miss feeling like that. needless to say i loved it and was the only one who went back for 2nds. if you too are at a film shoot and get sent home with heaps of spare bread you should try it. this recipe is from memory and might be slightly off.

250g old white bread - fluffy is best.
125g butter, melted
3 eggs
2 cups soy milk
1 cinnamon stick
180g dark chocolate, broken up
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1 apple, chopped up

preheat oven to 180 C and butter your pudding dish.

first tear the bread into small chunks (roughly 2 inch cubes). put them on a baking tray and pour the butter over. bake for 15 minutes, turning often and not letting them brown.

meanwhile, heat the milk with the cinnamon stick in it - until almost boiling. add the chocolate and stir until it melts. remove the cinnamon stick.

beat the eggs in a big big bowl and add the milk mixture. once the bread is baked add it to this mixture and leave it to soak for 10 minutes. add the nuts and apple and pour it into the baking dish.

cover with aluminium foil, poke some holes in for steam and bake for 40 minutes. remove the foil and bake for another 10 or until it's kind of glossy on top and not runny looking.

serve with cream and expect your housemates to zonk out.