full as a goog?

I was amused to see a debate at this noticeboard about what "full as a goog" meant and what the hell a goog is anyway. Most people seem to agree with my understanding - that a goog comes from a googy egg (?) and to be "full as a goog" is to be stuffed full of food. It was nice to find out that it can also mean that you are very drunk - full up of grog I guess.

If you want to get full as a goog but can't afford cicciolina you could do worse than a big bowl of noodle soup. This genre is one of my favourites but as usual I'm a bit of a snob - there's nothing worse than a big bowl of creamy orange flavoured soup with a few fat noodles masquerading as a laksa. So two of my favourite Melbourne noodle soup haunts, one old and one new:

the penang coffee house is where I had my first laksa and it served me well for the first 16 years of my life until I fled the Eastern suburbs. The laksa here wins on taste alone, it's a complex spicy broth, more brown than orange. There's also more thin rice noodles than yellow noodles which suits me, a good range of vegies and lots of squishy fried tofu puffs. At $9 or so it's no longer the cheapest option but it is the best. I remember a time when we used to get it take away, and then if there were leftovers I ate them for breakfast... mmmm. I also love that it has pineapple in it, though I know that might gross some people (hi Sarah) out.

Penang Coffee House is at 395 Burwood Road, Hawthorn near the corner of Glenferrie Rd, which is just near Swinburne.

kimchi tray is a new addition to my list. This little korean joint seems to be an offspring of kimchi grandma and offers a smaller range of dishes that come on a tray (ah ha) in more of a quick meal environment. Sadly, you only get 2 side dishes. I dropped in with Mum for an excellent kimchi noodle soup. It was just on the comfortable side of my chilli threshold, full of excellent firm rice noodles, lots of kimchi and some shredded vegies.

Unfortunately one of my side dishes was kimchi, which was a bit redundant while the other one was a couple of slices of orange - made for a good little palate cleanser anyway. The soup was so damn good though that I didn't mind. At about $8 it's going to be my new favourite quick city dinner and it's one that is guaranteed to make you full as a goog.

Kimchi tray is on Flinders st, between Elizabeth and Queen.

and a bit more eating

Last night marked 2 years of me and Sarah (a fact I feel slightly embarassed to mention here). It seemed only right that we celebrate by doing what we have done so well - being hot and eating a lot. So we started in the spa and steam room at the St Kilda Sea Baths and moved on to Cicciolina for a damn fine dinner.

Cicciolina doesn't take bookings (too cool?) but they do have a great back bar to wait in, complete with big mafia style booths and snazzy barmen.

It's probably good they didn't have a table for us, or we would have missed out on the arancini, from the bar menu. These little golden crumbed rice balls were the best I've had. Crunchy on the outside, soft and flavourful in the middle and served with a great aioli. The cocktails weren't too rotten either - I had a great one involving raspberry puree, chambord and tequila while Sarah had a "seedy pash" (typical!) full of passionfruit, cranberry, vodka and grand marnier.

So yes, we were a little drunk and quite a bit hungry by the time we got our table. The dinner food was just as great. We had:

* blue cheese and leek tart: very strong cheesy taste, lovely pastry

* fried kefi cheese: made totally excellent by a fennel crumb

* shitake, spinach and truffle oil risotto - oh yes, mushroomy goodness

* salad w goats cheese, croutons, pine nuts - okay, so maybe we didn't need to eat this much cheese. but damn i think this was the first time i've loved croutons in a salad.

* apple tart tatin - absolutely worth killing for. apple in big chunks that were sooo melty.

*fig and grappa ice cream - mmmm. what is grappa anyway? oh.

So yes, we were two very full puppies. But very very happy. I love how Cicciolina is posh in terms of food (and sadly, prices) and the service is very good but it feels casual and not snooty. The decor is just up my alley too; lots of nice wood, good chairs and quite cluttered so it feels more european than your average minimalist yuck fancy place. So if you have a bit of spare cash or a special occasion go - just go early or be prepared to wait. Next time we might try just going to the bar for drinks and arancini - and then seeing if we can make them give us some of that tart!

garlic anyone

Well, i'm not feeling very good at the moment. whether it's because of brain damage caused by my big bike stack or something else i dunno. But it made me think of this good tonic.

Garlic Soup
Not much beats this Mexican garlic soup. I forgot how good it is until Shane came and stayed and I made him make it. He made it over and over and it always went down a treat. It's warming, golden and delicous.

Particularly good if you’ve been being a trash bag, then on Monday you start to feel crappy and suddenly want to act like you’re taking care of yourself by eating good warming garlicky food. Although I know I said it about pickle soup, this is also definitely vegetarian jewish penicillin (chicken soup).

The key is to buy good garlic if you can (not that imported Chinese crap) and be really careful not to fry it for too long. It's basically foolproof but if you burn or overcook the garlic you better start again or it'll taste bitter and crap.

You will need
olive oil
1 whole head of garlic
1/2 baguette
2 ancho chilies*, crushed dried chilli or good chilli powder
4 medium tomatoes (tinned ok if you have to)
7 cups vegie stock
salt
sour cream

Separate the garlic cloves, peel and chop them coarsely (while muttering coarse language.) Chop the tomatoes into smallish chunks. Slice the baguette into 1cm slices. If using the ancho chilies stem and seed them and chop them coarsely too.

Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a large heavy frypan until smoking. Add the garlic and stir over medium heat for one minute – or until lightly toasted. Don’t let it go more than pale golden. Transfer the garlic to a large soup pot.

Add as many slices of bread to the frypan as will fit in one layer and fry for a minute or so until it goes nice and golden and a bit crunchy. Turn it over and do the other side. Drain on some old paper and set aside. Do all the bread this way. You will probably need to add a bit of extra oil.

Now place the tomatoes and chilli in the frypan and stir until the tomatoes are a bit wilted (1-2 minutes). If you’re using the chilli powder use 1 – 2 teaspoons, the soup should be warm but not hot, chilli wise. Transfer to the soup pot and add the stock and salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until the garlic is soft.

Ladle the piping hot soup into bowls and garnish each serve with fried bread and a dollop of sour cream. Serve to your adoring housemates, friends and lovers.

* These are a dried chilli available from Mexican and Central American suppliers. In Melbourne try Casa Latina on Johnson St.

ogorki a-hoy

The picture above is an old German satirical picture from the wonderful Food Mania. I tried to figure it out but I couldn't. Something about the economy going to shit and immigration? Anyway, some gratuitous stories about pickles to accompany it...

1) On Saturday night people were amused at John's Russian party that I had brought a jar of pickles with me. But the pickle chaser is my favourite - nothing better gets the taste of a shot of cheap vodka out of your mouth and nothing complements good vodka better.

2) When my sister Marion was seeing The Pianist in Poland there was a man sitting behind who didn't have very good eyesight - a woman accompanying him was explaining things to him. The mood was sombre and grim, as you'd expect in a holocaust film, until a scene which featured a big jar of pickles. "What are they?" the man said "Ogorki" the woman whispered. "What?"
"OGORKI!". I still think of this and chuckle whenever I see a jar of Polski Ogorki - the only style pickle to eat.

3) When I was about 12 we took my friend Chris Evans on a family camping trip. He had never eaten pickles before and had to be goaded into trying them. He thought they were really weird. I thought he was a freak for not loving them. Luckily my friends now have better taste. On a recent camping trip with 4 mates we had to buy 2 jars of Bick's Polski Ogorki everytime we hit a town.

baking time

Lamingtons!
A while back I noticed that someone had ended up at this site searching for "lamington recipe" - which sadly, I couldn't provide at that time. But now I can.

I think lamingtons are pretty Australian, so for those of you who don't know why I'm getting so excited that I have to use exclamation marks I better explain. Lamos are basically little cubes of a light sponge cake (or genoise for the fancy bakers) that are dipped in a chocolate mixture and rolled in shredded coconut. They are a staple of the old school bakery. Sometimes they have a layer of jam in the middle which is controversial. Sometimes cream too which is just yuck. My beloved Sarah is pretty lamington obsessed so we always end up with one in the car on any country bakery mission. When they're good they really are much better than the sum of their parts.

Sarah used this recipe and made some for our afternoon tea that were pretty damn sublime - a million times better than any bakery lamington. It's adapted from an old magazine recipe I found at my house which was for orange lamingtons and involved jelly crystals - yuk. But after Sarah's first recipe resulted in a sunken 1 inch high cake we tried this sponge recipe and it hit the spot - firm enough to cut but deliciously light. I made the chocolate part up.

Sponge:
8 free range eggs, separated
2 extra egg yolks
190g caster sugar
80g plain flour
40g cornflour
40g melted butter (cooled)

Icing:
cocoa
boiling water
icing sugar
1 tbsp butter
1.5 cups of shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Beat the 10 yolks with 90g of the sugar until very pale (5 - 10 minutes). Transfer to a large bowl. Sift the flour and cornflour three times, then fold into the yolk mixture.
Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff and glossy. Fold three quarters of the whites into the yolk mixture. Mix the melted butter with the remaining whites until well combined, then folk into the yolk mixture.
You will need a big wide rectangle baking tin (about 30 cm x 25 cm and at least 3 cm deep). Lime it with greaseproof paper and pour the mixture in. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until golden and spongy to touch. Turn out onto a wire rack and cover with a tea towel to cool.

To make the icing melt the butter in the boiling water. Pour it over the icing sugar and cocoa and stir until dissolved. It should be a very dark brown - if not add more cocoa.

Cut the sponge into 8cm cubes. Dip them in the chocolate liquid - letting it soak in just a bit - and roll in coconut. This bit can be a bit messy - try forks or skewers for holding the cake. Let them set a bit before serving.

eggplant goodness

Me and Nell are working on our cookbook again. Which means more cooking and damnit, more eating.

We couldn't decide if Eggplant Parmigiana was worth including or not - it was something we made a hell of a lot when we were teenagers, but not something I make much anymore. Also I figure it's something most people know how to make. So last night I made a trial batch and the verdict was definitive - delicious and well worth including.

Sarah was a bit surprised that I made it in a kind of layered lasagne style, but this is how I was served it at (the authentically Italian) Sonia's place and I think it's infinitely superior to the dry style which is like a pseudo chicken parmigiana [how did this poor dish become some gross skip pub food?].

This is perfect for when you are craving something baked and tomatoey - the flavours all meld together and the polenta crust gives it a great texture. Mine probably tasted extra good because I made the sauce from homegrown tomatoes - but if you don't have any you could use cheap market roma's or just tinned. Make sure that your sauce has been properly cooked up though, with lots of onion, garlic and simmering time.

I haven't included quantities because this is an easy recipe to expand.. just allow about 1 eggplant for every 2 people. It takes a little bit of time, but it's not hard at all.

You will need:

• A batch of homemade tomato pasta sauce - about 2 cups per eggplant
• Eggplants (I used 3 medium sized ones)
• Mozzarella (a good white one from an italian supermarket)
• Polenta or fine cornmeal (a few cups)
• An egg or two
• Olive oil for frying
• A little knob of parmesan

Now...

1. Slice the eggplant lengthwise, about 1.5 cm thick
2. Sprinkle the slices generously with salt and leave them to sweat for about 15 minutes- this will make the eggplant more tender.
3. Cut the mozzarella lengthwise into thin slices.
   
4. Find a casserole/lasagna dish - choose a dish that will give you 2 - 3 layers of eggplant.
5. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)
6. Rinse the eggplant slices and pat them dry with a clean teatowel.
7. Beat the eggs in a wide bowl.
8. Put a cup of polenta on a plate.
9. Put a heavy frypan on the stove and heat a thin layer of oil. (If you can, it's probably good to have two pans going at once)
10. Now dunk the eggplant in egg, and then in the polenta - getting a good crust all round.
11. Fry the slices in batches until golden brown - this bit is annoying but you don't need to do a perfect job - it's okay if they're a bit patchy or not fully cooked as they still get baked.
    
12. If the oil gets too smokey you may need to get rid of the burnt bits of polenta and start again.
13. Put a thin smear of tomato sauce at the bottom of the casserole dish and then a layer of fried eggplant. Top the slices with mozzarella and more sauce. Then add another layer of eggplant and repeat. Finish with a decent layer of sauce and top with grated parmesan.
14. Bake for 30 or more minutes or until the sauce is bubbling around the edges and the top has gone brown and a bit crisp. If you need to turn the heat up to brown it that's fine.
15. Serve with a green salad and some bread for mopping up all that yummy sauce.

Alternatively, tv fans might want to make The Sopranos' recipe... which doesn't look that good at all.