summer camp breakfast

I love days where everyone just mooches around together like summer camp. No real plans but nobody really wants to go their own way for long. It starts with breakfast for 10 in the big kitchen..3 copies of the Saturday paper.. some wandering in and out to garage sales and voting. Cycling down to the velodrome for some strange performance art and slapdash picnic. Back home for a little rest. Sammy comes over because she's lonely at home after an hour's separation. Over to the ranch for board games, beer, whisky, gorgonzola arancini, pesto. Then crepes with ice cream and a surviving jar of feijoa jam that never quite set.

So yeah, I'm concentrating on refining my breakfast cooking at the moment. Last weekend was french toast with a loaf of Challah (egg bread) I bought specially on Thursday at the best Russian bakery in Melbourne. French toast with stale Challah is the best. Thick slices. Some browned bananas. Maple syrup. It was quite the luxury breakfast in these $10 banana times.

ps. Blogging seems hard lately. I'm not sure why. Practical issues of internet time and all, sure but something else hard to put my finger on. I might keep trying but I'm not sure.

don't think i didn't

On friday I made a massive feast at the ranch. I think the premise was that I would make lunch in exchange for Tal working her magic with the haircutting scissors again. Suffice it to say I got completely carried away and made an Indian luncheon consisting of:

• Sweet sour chickpeas (no not dodgy chinese style but with shitloads of tamarind)
• Broccoli the Madhur Jaffrey way with chilli and garlic
• Eggplant fried all tender in a tomato and ginger sauce
• Raita
• Radish and peanut salad
  

And yes... CARROT HALVA!

Those capitals and exclamation mark show you just how excited I was about making a dessert from carrots. So excited that I kept running around going - "don't think those carrots aren't going to be dessert." To which people looked confused and later, just tired. "We know esther, the carrots are dessert... get over it already" their glazed eyes said. Maybe they were thinking carrots as dessert is old hat, like carrot cake or something... but really, this is a whole new world of vegetal dessert excitement.

And i'm here to tell you that all the double negatives were worth it. Don't think that carrot halva is not the bomb. So so good. I was so sorry I had halved the recipe.. it cooks down a lot and we hardly had enough. Don't make my mistake.

There are heaps of other recipes for this - some with condensed milk, some where you pressure cook the carrots. I'd be open to hearing about any other versions people have tried. Apparently in the Punjab they make this with purple carrots. Now that would be hot!


Carrot Halva (or Halwa if you prefer)
1 kg carrots
1 litre milk
1 cup sugar
100g ghee or butter
2/3 cup raisins or sultanas
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 teaspoon cardamon seeds
ground cardamon

First up you need to grind your cardamon - pull out the green husks as you do. Now grate your carrots and stick them in a pot with the milk. Bring it to a simmer. Now cook it very very slowly until all the milk is absorbed. Careful it don't burn. This will take forever. Enough time for you to make 3 other dishes for your feast. Or get a haircut.

When it's absorbed add the ghee and cook until it browns a little. Mine didn't really brown, but anyway, add the sugar and cook until it's thick and dry. Add the raisins, cardamon and almonds. Serve with a few more nuts sprinkled over the top and a sprinkle of cardamon. Pass around the ice cream.

Hell yes.

success!

Hey I thought my mission to learn how to make crepes was going to be an epic quest complete with training montages and crumpled up crepes being thrown into the wastepaper basket. Yes I know I'm mixing my genres but I'm in shock because I had my first go this morning and I am full of the glow of success. This is when mum's theory really pays off.

Crepes for beginners
3/4 cup plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salk

Beat the eggs and whisk in the flour, milk and water. Add the other bits and whisk it all real well so there's no lumps or nothin. Leave it to stand for 20 minutes. Or if your breakfast buddy shows up looking hungry like mine, 10 will have to do.

This batter is so thin it scared me but it works. Really.

Heat a crepe pan (yeah right) or heavy frypan (ok!). Add a little butter. When it's hot pour in some batter and tilt the pan so it spreads real thin. Mine went all sorts of funny shapes, dunno how you get them round.

Now the trick is to not cook them too much at all. Keep the heat pretty low. We want a very light brown on the first side and then just a few spots of brown on the other. This way they are nice and soft not crunchy like from those lame "creperie" places that have sprung up all over town. Add more butter when they start to stick.

Ok eat them now. We had a choice of blueberries, cream, maple syrup and of course, marmalade. You don't need to be so excessive. This recipe makes 10 crepes. I think I should have invited someone else to help me and Bindy eat them. Now i think I have to go lie down and recover.

crazy sticky bitter goodness

Sometimes I think working with my mate Lish is the only thing that keeps me sane at work. But I worry that actually somehow together we make each other insane. Like whose idea was it to make marmalade at 9 o’clock on a school night? It seemed like a good plan for a while but at 1 in the morning, half dozing, half watching the soccer as we waited for it to reach the crinkle stage.. well right then it didn’t seem so sane. We started to think of all our friends who hate marmalade. What were we doing? Why? Would it ever set?

All this is forgotten though when I see the look on people’s faces as they taste the product of our insanity and enjoy what one dear eater called “the best marmalade in the world.” And I have been obsessively eating it all the time. Oh it's so so good! Starting the day with this baby on tal's excellent crepes made my saturday. And don't even get me started on how great it is on croissants. Yes, maybe I did take a jar to babka the other day so I could have it on their croissants. Is that more insanity?

Mandarin Marmalade
(if you’re not lucky enough to have a mandarin tree handy use whatever citrus you can lay your paws on)

Marmalade is real easy, it always seems to set even if you have the panic moment that it won’t. All you need is a big wide and preferably heavy pot. I’ve seen a recipe that didn’t have my flesh scooping step but this is how my friend Clare taught me and it’s always worked for me.

So all you need is some fruit and lots of white death sugar. We started with 5kg fruit and made about 13 big jars of marmalade. It took about 4.5kg sugar. Ok, lets get started...

• Put three saucers in the freezer. (No this is not part of the insanity – you’ll see)
• Cut the fruit in half (across not lengthwise) and stick in a pot with enough water to cover.
• Boil until the fruit is soft but not falling apart.
• Drain and let them cool a bit. Unless you are crazy (see above) and want to burn your fingers.
• Now you need to remove the seeds. This is kinda fiddly – use a fork or something. It don’t matter if you miss a few, you can scoop em out later. Keep the seeds.
• Now scoop the flesh out and keep.
• Cut the peel as finely as you can be bothered.
• Weigh the peel and flesh. Throw it in the pot with the same amount of sugar – yup scary amounts of sugar is what i'm talking about.
• Put the pips in a bit of muslin or a clean tea towel, tie it and throw it in the pot.
• Bring to the boil slowly letting the sugar dissolve but then boil the fuck out of it for a long time. Watch the soccer. Drink tea. Stir it a bit so it don’t stick.
• When it’s starting to look a bit thick you need to start testing it. Put a small dollop on one of your frozen saucers and wait. After 30 seconds push the top with your finger. If it crinkles it’s ready. You see the saucer is very cool – it simulates how your jam will be when it has cooled. If it’s not crinkling stay calm and keep cooking, it’ll set.
• When it’s ready put it into warm sterilised jars and stick lids on it.

Now serve to wide acclaim and convert all your marmalade hating friends into lovers. I mean, marmalade lovers.