Carlton lunch time food trail

A sunny day and I was in need of foody inspiration.  My pride had been dented by TWO failed cooking projects at the weekend!  One of my failed cooking projects was cooked perfectly by some precocious child on Masterchef kids on Monday night.  My humiliation was complete!

As a treat, I planned a lunch time food trail in Carlton.  I had in mind three stores, La Latteria for cheeses, Gewurizahaus for herbs and spices and La Parisienne Pate for a baguette to take back to work for my lunch.

La Latteria is in Elgin Street in Carlton (near the corner of Rathdowne Street).  I was interested in a couple of items here.  Salted Ricotta (ricotta salata) which I have previously only been able to get at Meditteranean Wholesalers and only in a half kilo block, some fresh ricotta and a cheese I had read about called caciocavella, which I have never seen or tasted.  

Baby smoked provolina

Buffalo mozzarella

Caciocavello con porcini

I had the opportunity to taste the caciocavello with porcini through it.  The cheese is a table cheese or can be used for cooking.  I liked the idea of porcini.  It was quite tasty.  I had a plan for it, so bought a small slice.  

Treccie with casalingo salami, crumbed olives, crumbed bocconcini

Diavoletti (smoked mozzarella)

I bought a small tub of fresh ricotta for $5.  I was going to buy some ricotta salata but it won't be available for another month or so.  The staff were so helpful, answering my questions.  It is a great place.  As soon as figs are in season, I'll be back for some buffalo mozzarella...a match made in heaven.

Gewurzhaus is fairly new on Lygon Street, opened by two sisters.  There is more info about the store at That's Melbourne.  I walked past it a few weeks ago with plans to revisit.  It is loaded with flavoured salts, sugars, spices, herbs, mixed spices and herbs, vanilla beans and saffron.  There is so much more here.  It is a treasure trove of goodies.

Spice blends

Cardamom pistachio sugar

When I got home I could have a taste.  This sweet mix is beautiful.  I'm thinking I might use it on cupcakes or cooking apples with it.

Merlot salt

The merlot salt smelt quite merloty in the shop, but when I got it home to taste, there was more salt taste than wine.  It is a pretty rose colour though.  I was wondering about using it on a beetroot, rocket and feta salad or with some berries maybe, not sure yet.

More merlot salt

La Parisienne Pate has been in Carlton for many years but in recent years the business moved to Lygon Street.  I've had a look a couple of times, but haven't bought anything.  I think there is probably too much to choose from!  My plan was to buy a baguette on this visit. I got to check out the mouthwatering fridges while I waited for my lunch to be made.  They also have take home meals such as cassoulet, duck confit and duck rillettes.  If you need to get in touch with your inner Francophile, this is the place.

La Parisienne Pate - meaty goodness

Terrines, mousses and pate

Lunch - chili pate, cornichons and lettuce baguette with lemonade from France.

I lashed out and bought some French lemonade to go with my baguette.  It wasn't a sweet as our Schweppes, but tasty nonetheless.  The baguette was nice.  But the bread was a bit too crusty for me, I like thin crust.

I was reminded of a phase I went through when I lived in Canberra a long time ago.  I used to go to a deli lunch place in a shopping centre and order a cheese topped roll (very unposh) and have it filled with pate and lettuce.   It was such a great food memory from the past and I remembered it today for the first time.  Might have to try and replicate that tasty lunch.  

Caciocavello on toast for after work snack...mmm

After a long day at work, I got home and unloaded my grocery goodies.  I cooked some toast and loaded up with caciocavello.  How good is something simple like cheese on toast? 

La Latteria

104 Elgin Street

Carlton 3053

Ph: 9347 9009

Gewurzhaus

342 Lygon Street

Carlton 3053

Ph: 9023 1028

La Parisienne Pates

290 Lygon Street

Carlton 3053

Ph: 9349 1852

Black-eyed pea, ham, hominy and okra stew

A blog post at Homesick Texan caught my eye, green chili hominy casserole with chorizo.  I've read about hominy a few times and have seen canned hominy at Aztec Products, Casa Iberica and USA Foods.  I checked out some more recipes using hominy and found this interesting recipe called Dixie ham stew over at Food.com.  The recipe uses other ingredients that I have never cooked with such as okra, black-eyed peas and collard greens. 

Collard greens are another mysterious vegetable.  Fresh collard greens are not available in Australia (there are canned ones available at USA Foods, but I wasn't keen on using canned greens).  So it was back to the internet to find something else I could use to replace the greens.  The options available seem to be, kale, kohlrabi leaves, bok choy, turnip leaves, spinach, swiss chard, silverbeet or mustard greens.  Mustard greens came up quite a bit in my search.  I was also thinking of spinach but at the markets the spinach wasn't looking so great.  I went to Little Saigon Market in Footscray to get my mustard greens (gai choy) and okra. 

Mustard greens (gai choy)

Okra

I grabbed a can of hominy from Casa Iberica.  The recipe calls for a 15oz (425g) can but the smallest can they had was 29oz, so I drained the hominy and wrapped half in plastic and put it in the freezer for another time.

Hominy

Black-eyed peas

Spice mix

Shredded ham

Ready to cook

Mmm, stew.....

It turned out to be a winner!  I had a friend staying for the weekend, so she helped me eat the stew and went back for seconds, as I did.  The Bloke headed off to the soccer and left us to our stew.

I will be making this again.  It's a creamy warming stew with a hint of heat from the cayenne pepper.  I might try and experiment with a vegetarian version one day too.  I've put some stew in the freezer for work lunches so hopefully that will be okay!

Black-eyed peas, hominy and ham stew

adapted from Dixie Ham Stew

1 and a half cups dried black-eyed peas

4 cups of water

2 cups (300grams) shredded ham

15 oz (425gram) can white hominy, rinsed and drained

285 grams fresh okra, cut into half

1 large onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons Creole spice mix (recipe below)

1/4  tsp pepper

4 cups chopped greens, I used mustard greens 

400g can chopped tomatoes

Creole spice mix  

adapted from Gumbopages

Mix together:

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

(Makes more than you need)

Method

• Rinse the peas and drain well.
• Place peas and four cups of water in a pot.  Bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.  Drain.
• Add to a large pot, the cooked peas, ham, hominy, okra, onion, garlic, spice mix and pepper.  Add six cups of water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about 1 hour.
• Add chopped greeds and tomatoes and cook for another 10 or 20 minutes.
• Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Zara Astrop and her honey crackles

As is my usual routine, I was reading Epicure in The Age this morning.  On page five, there is a great article about cookbooks that discusses why we enjoy them and how few recipes we actually use from each book…among other things!  The article is written by Rachel Cooke and it first appeared in the Guardian newspaper in August this year. 

Along with the article, there is also a mini interview.  Justine Costigan asked four people  about the cookbooks they treasure the most.  One of the interviewees, Zara Astrop (chef de partie, The Langham, Melbourne) mentions Edmonds Cookery Book (a New Zealand book) that she grew up with. Her mum bought the book for her when she was quite young.  It reminded me of the McAlpins book I grew up cooking with.  In the article, Zara mentions a recipe for honey crackles.  By 11am this morning I had purchased a copy of Edmonds Cookery Book online.   Honey crackles…here I come!

In a fit of gratitude, I filled in an online feedback form at the Langham Hotel website, thanking Zara for the info and that I’d bought the book on her recommendation.  The Langham is certainly 10/10 for customer relations!  I received an email to advise me that the customer relations manager had forwarded my email to Zara.  Later on in the afternoon, Zara kindly took a few minutes out of her day to ring me with the honey crackles recipe.   Apparently the new edition of the Edmonds Cookery Book doesn’t have the recipe in it.  I was blown away by her helpfulness!

Honey Crackles

(via Zara Astrop and Edmonds Cookery Book, edition unknown)

Ingredients:

125g butter

125g sugar

4 tablespoons honey

4 and a half cups Rice Bubbles/Rice Crispies

Line  a tray with baking paper.  20cm x 30cm or a 15cm x 25cm if you like it a little thicker.

Melt together the butter, sugar and honey.  Bring to the boil and turn heat down to medium cooking for about 5 minutes.  The mixture will darken a bit.

Turn off heat.  Stir in the Rice Bubbles into the honey mixture.   

Press mixture (quickly as it hardens in almost no time) into the tray and leave to set, which only takes about few minutes.

Cut into squares or rectangles; whatever your preference.

The Bloke came home from work and walked into the kitchen.  

"We can both take some of these to work in the morning," I suggested.

"I'll take some to work, but they're staying in my desk drawer.  I won't be sharing them with anyone."

Thanks for the recipe Zara!!

Banh mi chay - Delicious Vietnam #6

Javaholic is hosting Delicious Vietnam #6, a blog project from Ravenous Couple and Anh at A Food Lover's Journey profiling Vietnamese cuisine.  Here is a round-up of the other contributers.

I've been eating a few banh mi lately. I usually order it with the pate and some pork sausage.  I wondered about a vegetarian version.  I found loads of information about all sorts of banh mi fillings, including vegetarian, at Battle of the Banh Mi.   Some banh mi vegetarian options they suggest are cubed tofu, shredded tofu (mixed with jicama and vermicelli noodles) and wheat gluten (seitan).

I decided on some precooked tofu from the supermarket.  I used this one, there are several types to choose from.  

I decided I would make a mushroom pate to go with my banh mi chay.  After some searching I found a recipe for mushroom pate at Vegan Cooking.  

Mushroom pate 

(adapted from Vegan Cooking)

1 tablespoon olive oil

500 grams sliced mushrooms

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup yeast flakes

Salt and Pepper

Fry the onion in the oil until soft.  Add sliced mushrooms and fry for a few minutes on medium, add garlic and salt, put lid on pan and fry for a few more minutes until cooked.  

Put cooked mushrooms into a food processor with the sunflower seeds and yeast flakes.  Blend until quite smooth.  

Add salt and pepper (I found I needed to add quite a bit of salt).  Put in the fridge.

Makes about 2 and a half cups of pate.

(I am thinking of using a mix of fresh mushrooms and dried shiitake mushrooms next time for a deeper flavour)

Mushroom pate

Do chua

(I searched around for a recipe for the pickled carrot and daikon and there are plenty out there.  I put mine together using this ratio.)

1 cup white vinegar

A quarter of a cup of caster sugar

A heaped teaspoon of salt

1 cup carrot, julienned

1 cup daikon, julienned

Add sugar and salt to the vinegar and stir until dissolved.

Mix vinegar with carrot and daikon and put in the fridge for at least an hour before using.

The amount of time it keeps for varies in the recipes, but it looks like maybe five days or so?  I'll get back to you on that!  I might reduce the sugar a little next time too.

Do chua

My banh mi chay ready to eat!

Banh mi chay

I found some small banh mi rolls at To's Bakery (122 Hopkins Street, Footscray).  I added my mushroom pate, do chua, tofu pieces ( I will julienne the tofu next time) and finished off with some coriander.  I meant to use some cucumber and fresh chili as well but that will be for next time too.

I was pretty happy with my first attempt at banh mi.  Looking forward to more experimentation!

Hawaiian Jellied Salad

I bought this book, Heirloom Cooking via Amazon.  It is an American cookbook containing some traditional family recipes.  I bought it because it had some interesting cake recipes that I will get to soon.  There is also an Heirloom Baking cookbook too, which is on my to-buy list.

When I was flicking through the book, I saw this picture. The recipe is 'Dot Luke's Hawaiian Jellied Salad'.

The ingredient list intrigued me, lime gelatin (which I figured out is what we would call jelly crystals, I thought it might be some special gelatin), pineapple, orange and lime juice, canned pineapple pieces, canned mandarin pieces, cream cheese, cream, mayonnaise, marshmallows and pecans.

I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be sweet or savoury.

After several visits to that page of the cookbook, I decided I would just have to make it.  I was so intrigued by this dish.  The history of Dot's recipe was interesting as well:

"Liane grew up in Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu.  Dot (her mother) passed away in 2006, at the age of 84.  When Liane went through her mother's papers, she found her recipe for a jellied lime salad, which brought back fond memories of a refreshing treat on hot afternoons.  Dot often made if for potluck dinners and large family gatherings.  Family and friends always ate this salad with chopsticks." 

I went about converting the amounts from ounces to grams.  The only ingredient issues were tracking down canned mandarins, which I eventually found.  I bought a pack of mini marshmallows, which were pink and white coloured.  I figured white only would be best, so sifted through the pack...one pink marshmallow for me, one white marshmallow for the recipe, and so on!!

I heated the pineapple juice then added the lime jelly, stirring to dissolve then added the other citrus juices and some water.  then it goes into the fridge till nearly set.

When the jelly is nearly set, you add the whipped cream, soft cream cheese and mayonnaise. 

Next, you add the pineapple, mandarins, marshmallows and toasted pecans.

The mixtures goes into a mold that has been sprayed with vegetable oil.

Not so appealing as the picture because, (a) I had bits of undissolved jelly, (b) my mold not quite so pretty as the one used in the picture, and (c) perhaps my photography skills need an upgrade!

The first time I tried it was with some iceberg lettuce and tomato with a viniagrette, and it clashed with flavour of the jellied salad.  The next time I tried some with some iceberg lettuce, no dressing, which worked much better. I used a fork rather than chopsticks too!   The jelly was quite sweet, I would probably try a sugar-free jelly next time.  The salad was quite tasty with the creaminess and the texture of chunks of fruit, marshmallows and nuts.  I would cut the mandarin pieces into smaller pieces next time.  

The Bloke looked at it, "it's very green" he announced.  He had no desire to eat it.  I had about a quarter of it (had some with lettuce each night after work, for three nights) then I was done.  It would be interesting to have at a gathering of friends and family and see what they made of it. 

I will revisit it I think.  I found it a most fascinating dish.  I Googled the salad to find out a bit more of it's history.  I searched on Food.com (formerly Recipezaar) and it appears there as lime jello salad (44 versions of it).  I like this site, because recipe contributors usually write a little story about where the recipe comes from or when they make the dish, eg, Thanksgiving or Christmas.    

Christine on her blog Christine Cooks has a version of this salad and a history of the dish in her family.  

Lorraine at Not Quite Nigella has also made a version of this salad.  She used a recipe from Barbara at Barbara Bakes.