Beyond Beeton» gourmet

To Coffee, With Love

Rachel — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:39:25 +0000

When it comes to coffee, like many things, I'm definitely no expert but I'm very fussy.

It may not surprise my friends or regular readers of this blog but I don't have much patience for fancy-shmancy pseudo-coffee drinks.

You're likely to get a slightly odd look if you ask me for sugar in your coffee before tasting it - the same way I'll quietly glare at liberal use of salt and pepper before tasting my cooking.

I apologise to the girl behind me in the queue at Velvet the other day who ordered a large skinny decaf with two sugars - yes, I did laugh at you.

So now you see where I stand. Firmly in the uninformed but self-righteous camp.

True Love at Home

Which is why it eventually just wouldn't do to have an automatic coffee machine. While it produced coffee and it was free as it was my father's old machine, we tired of not-quite-good-enough coffee and regular servicing.

Isomac Tea

After a bit of consultation with the friendly people on the coffee snobs forum, a chat with the all-knowing king of self-righteousness himself, Matt from Abstract Gourmet (who will hopefully take that in the good humour with which it was intended) and a friendly tip from baristaapp on twitter, we decided on an Isomac Tea (pronounced Teh-ah).

For those clever about these things, it is an Italian-made HX machine with an E61 commercial group head. All I know is that it will look rather pretty in my kitchen and it makes fabulously rich, almost syrupy coffee.

My long-suffering husband who usually rolls his eyes when I tell him about something we "need" was way ahead of me on this one.

After I told him about various opinions, sent him links to look at and details of our friendly local stockist (thanks Ashley from Five Senses) it was all happening.

It took just one excellent ristretto and a fabulously textured flat white to sell him completely.

Stimulating the Economy - Thanks for the Rudd Bucks

Mazzer Mini-E

I do however know enough to know that there is no point having a great espresso machine without an even better grinder.

I've deployed my Rudd Bucks (for those outside of Australia, there has been an almighty cash handout of up to $900 per tax-payer earning under a particular amount) and bought Miss Tea a friend.

She's a Mazzer Mini-Electronic. Glad to see the money is going to those in need...

The Value Equation

While I'm not an advocate of wanton spending, I do believe very strongly in carefully budgeted luxuries.

A certain amount of money buys security and freedom and anything over that amount is pointless unless spent.

My husband and I do drink a fair amount of coffee and we entertain at home a lot too.

Having excellent coffee at home will reduce the temptation to drink coffee out (and with it, often a piece of cake).

I'm also a proponent of the buy cheap buy twice - so always try to buy the best value (not necessarily the most expensive) I can afford.

Our new toys also contribute to one of our major goals - to enjoy time entertaining friends.

Photo credit: Holding Love by nicely85

I'm looking forward to wonderful coffee at home.

Things I do know about coffee

The skill of the person operating the grinder and espresso machine is an important factor. Accordingly I'm sending my husband to the WA Barista Academy.
Fresh coffee is everything. We buy our coffee freshly roasted from Five Senses
Milk quality is important in a flat white or latte. We get Bannister Downs milk whenever we can - it becomes fabulous microfoam very easily.
Michael at Cafe Grendel knows more than I could ever hope to know about coffee
I prefer the taste of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe over Kopi Luwak, the world's most expensive coffee, pre-digested by an East-Javanese civet cat.

Lamb Racks and Love Handles

The truth about the supermarket and what you can do about it

Rachel — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:20:46 +0000

There is something incredibly dreary about every supermarket ever known.

As soon as you walk into one your heart sinks and you become a grumpy trolley shuffler, unless you're one of those crazy basket people that goes to the supermarket at 6am after a brisk jog (in which case you should go away and eat a carrot now and leave us all alone), or you're 2 years old, in which case it is your god given right to chuck a giant tantrum.

photo credit: jumer

The traffic inside most supermarkets is just as bad as roads in any modern city. The same women who can't manage to reverse without an oops or two are let loose here on far more dangerous vehicles without a licence.

You'll find those horrid perky athletic types in the supermarket too - jogging on the spot while contemplating whether they want 5 packets of lean cuisine spaghetti low-fat extra-goo or the smooshed up packets of tofu burgers with added tar that are on special this week.

There's always at least one newlywed couple - arms around each other, romantically deciding whether they should have a bright yellow packet of tacos or frozen lasagne for dinner tonight.

The aisles are set up like one of those awful hedge mazes that landscape architects think are "charming" and "quaint" but there is nothing at all quaint about an entire aisle of noodles served with varying kinds of sludge in styrofoam cups. This aisle is a particularly dangerous one and must be avoided at all costs, lest you accidentally tarnish your ears with the existential rubbish that can only be emitted from first year arts students.

When you run away to safer ground you find yourself surrounded by last year's apples, floury and tasteless. Or maybe they're the potatoes? It is hard to tell.

photo credit: Lab2112

A fact about supermarkets that you should know:

'Fresh' fruit and vegetables on supermarket shelves can actually be around a year old when you buy them. The Sydney Morning Herald bought apples from Australia's major supermarkets and sent them to the Sydney Postharvest Laboratory for testing. The tests revealed that the apples were up to ten months old.

Despite common misconception, apples are not grown year round in Australia. In order to meet the year-round demand, supermarkets purchase apples from growers during the short season and then keep them in cold storage. While the cool temperatures can help the apples last longer, it has a negative effect on the quality and flavour of the apple.

So what can you do if you want to eat produce that is actually fresh, full of flavour and nutrients?

photo credit: tanguero (BLOCK, rinse, repeat)

The answer is simple. You need to embrace the slow food movement and buy nearly everything from organic happylands where everyone wears hemp, talks about ecosystems and sustainability and smiles a lot.

The hippies have got it right. The birds sing and frolic as you stroll along at farmers markets or at those wonderful greengrocers that actually source fresh produce. I promise you will taste the difference. Nobody will smack you in the shins with a trolley. You will be able to identify everything on the stands and if you can't, a friendly person over the age of 12 will be able to explain it to you.

So how much extra should you pay for fresh? Almost nothing at all. Sure, the prices look more per kilo but somehow my basket, laden with fresh goodies, costs less than the equivalent from the supermarket.

photo credit: Indiana shutterbug

Fresh lasts longer too, so you won't need to resort to stringy lettuce or frozen peas at the end of the week. Is it any wonder that most kids don't like vegies? Get them to choose the fresh veg from the stands and see what happens next. You can thank me later.

If you can find a quality butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer or farmers market and wholefoods store you will come out ahead financially and have the knowledge that you're supporting your community, your own health and the environment too.

If you haven't got access to a fresh market, have you considered starting your own or a community garden?

How can neon lights and plastic wrapped in more plastic compete with that?

Orange and poppy seed cupcakes with passion fruit butter cream

Rachel — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:53:59 +0000

There's something so appealing about tiny, citrusy cupcakes, bursting with the peppery tingle of poppy seeds. Oranges and poppy-seeds is one of those combinations that just works. These cupcakes just work too - they can be whipped up in no time and I guarantee they'll be light, yet moist.

Ingredients: Cake

125g self-raising flour, sifted
120g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, chopped, room temperature
2 extra-large eggs
one large orange (or lemon): 3 tsp finely chopped zest and 2 TB juice
3 TB poppy seeds
2-3 TB milk
good quality marmalade, for glazing

Ingredients: Icing

2 TB passionfruit pulp, strained to separate seeds
125g unsalted butter, chopped, room temperature
220g well sieved icing sugar

Method: Cake

cupcake glazed with orange marmalade

Preheat oven to 180C (not fan forced) for mini cupcakes, or 200C (not fan forced) for standard size cupcakes.

Take eggs, butter and milk out of the fridge to come to room temperature. While that's happening, measure out the other ingredients and get everything ready.

Stir 2 TB milk into the poppyseeds in a small bowl. The poppyseeds should start making 'zingy' noises.

Combine flour, sugar, butter, eggs and 2tsp of the orange rind in the large bowl of a food processor, don't over-mix.

Add the freshly squeezed orange juice through the top of the processor while pulsing the mix.

If more liquid is required to make a smooth batter, add half to a TB of milk.

Fold the poppyseeds into the batter with a metal spoon. Add remaining chopped orange zest to taste.

Spoon the batter into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers. The mixture will make 36 mini cupcakes or 12 regular size.

Bake mini cupcakes for 8-10 minutes and regular cakes for 15 minutes. The tops will spring back when gently prodded.

When done, immediately take the cupcakes out of the tins and onto wire racks.

While cakes are still warm, use a pastry brush or bread knife to carefully spread gently warmed marmalade on the tops of the cupcakes.

Method: Icing

iced with passion fruit butter cream

Beat butter with electric beaters until pale and fluffy

Beat in half of the icing sugar and half of the juice from the passionfruit pulp until combined

Beat in the second half of the icing sugar and passionfruit juice.

Add a little extra milk (1/2 to a TB) if required to make a very light and fluffy icing

Pipe icing onto cooled cupcakes.

If desired, decorate with reserved passionfruit seeds or curls of orange zest.

I like my citrus cupcakes to have a gently rounded top. If you prefer a flat top, underfill the cases slightly and drop the oven temperature a little.

4 cookbooks and recipe collections I couldn’t do without

Rachel — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:57:14 +0000

I admit it, I have a small problem. Cookbooks and cooking magazines have overflown out of the kitchen, out of the bookcases and all over the house. To make things even sillier, I don't often strictly follow a recipe. I love to tweak, adjust, be inspired. I often read them in bed, imagining flavours and textures and smells. It is a guilty pleasure I'm unlikely to give up.

However, when it comes down to it - these are the best. The favourites with sauce spatters, smears of chocolate and well turned pages. These are the classics that will endure and will be passed on.

My favourite cookbooks

1. The Cook's Companion: The Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen by Stephanie Alexander

My younger sister was horrified to see that there aren't any recipe pictures but this book focuses squarely on the basics, fundamentals and classic recipes with little time for frou frou. It is an excellent resource on almost every food one can imagine, a seasonal guide, buying guide and more all in one.

This is the one I always recommend as a starter book for those moving out of home for the first time. This is the solid foundation to build a lifetime of cooking upon.

2. David Thompson's Thai Food

Fabulous, inspiring, challenging, aromatic. David starts with the basics and hammers you with them - stressing freshness and a thorough understanding of Thai food. This is another fabulous resource book with detailed explanations of thai ingredients and methods. If you're looking for pretty cupcake pictures you won't find them here. The text and sheer volume of information is the star.

3. Gourmet Traveller magazines and website

Besides the useful news and events (even though they are solidly eastern-states focussed) they share a great collection of recipes from the very basic to the challenging.

Different to the more pedestrian and commercial offerings from some other cooking magazines, Gourmet Traveller offers an inspired menu and reviews of great places to eat out.

4. My grandmother's index card recipe collection

A family heirloom, childhood memory and guide to a dizzying array of mostly sweet treats all in one.

I've previously written about cooking and eating as a child and I can't stress enough how amazing the gift of cooking and enjoying food is. My grandmother's recipe collection includes jewelled jam drop biscuits, home-made chutneys, casseroles, puddings and more.

While these are the most used sources of recipe ideas in my house, I don't restrict myself. I also happily browse the web and my bookshelves for inspiration and recipes.

I tend to particularly seek out recipes from Claudia Roden, Georgio Locatelli, Bill Granger, Maggie Beer and the venerable Stephanie Alexander.

While I have serious respect for the work he's done to encourage kids (and adults) to eat "real food" I'm not Jamie Oliver's biggest fan and I can usually happily ignore Nigella Lawson's (particularly savoury) options.

For more great suggestions on how to build your cookbook library, you can also check out the wonderful tips from Cake and Commerce.

I'd love to hear which cookbooks are your favourites - share them in the comments below or catch me on twitter.

Speedy mini post: Vietnamese Prawn Salad

Rachel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:29:34 +0000

I recently mentioned Emma Knowles' Vietnamese Prawn Salad recipe which was posted at Gourmet Traveller.

Vietnamese Prawn Salad

I made it for dinner last night, with a few changes to reduce the calorie content.

Firstly, I used snow peas instead of snake beans, because the snow peas looked great at the local greengrocer whereas the beans looked a bit tired.

To cut down the fat I didn't fry the prawns - I bought extra-large boiled prawns to go with the cold salad. I just peeled and de-veined them (leaving the tails on). I used more prawns than the recipe specified - prawns are low-cal and low-fat and 4 per person just didn't seem enough.

Coles now stocks palm sugar in my local supermarket (in the asian foods aisle, right on the top shelf) but you can use brown sugar instead.

If you like the look of this, you can click through to get the recipe for Vietnamese Prawn Salad.

Leftovers magic:

While I was fiddling about with the vermicelli and prawns I also peeled some prawns completely and wrapped them into some rice paper rolls with finely sliced cucumber, cooked and rinced vermicelli, coriander, vietnamese mint and thai basil. They were delicious eaten immediately, dipped into hoisin sauce.

Recipe round up:3 recipes I’m trying next week

Rachel — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:56:49 +0000

photo credit: Photoportunity

Each week I like to add some new dishes to the menu.

We do have our favourites that pop up on the meal plan on a regular basis (particularly mid-week) but I enjoy discovering new favourites too.

Here are some great recipes from the blogosphere and beyond that I'll be trying in the next week.

photo credit: Darwin Bell

Emma Knowles' Vietnamese Prawn Salad (Gourmet Traveller): This recipe looks light, fresh and well balanced. As a bonus, you'll find a short, simple ingredients list and minimal preperation and cooking time.

We'll be eating this one outside. Asian food and wine pairing can be tricky, however I think a young grassy sauvignon blanc or perhaps a riesling could work. I expect though that we'll be cracking open a few bottles of Hoegaarden (or Hoegaarden Grand Cru if we're feeling indulgent) instead.

Tips: I've previously successfully substituted brown sugar for palm sugar and if you have good pans I'm sure you can get away with less oil.

I have posted about this recipe and included a photo of the result at Vietnamese Prawn Salad.

photo credit: jspace3

Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez's Chana Punjabi (as shared by The Wednesday Chef): Warm, luxurious and enticing, without offending the budget. Store cupboard basics and a few fresh bits and pieces easily picked up on your way home never looked so good!

No you won't be eating this in 15 minutes, but pour yourself and your partner a glass or two of wine while you stir and allow yourself to slow down and relax. There's no complicated prep or advanced cookery magic here. All you need is a bit of time and basic ingredients.

Note: Cilantro is also known as coriander.

photo credit: sea turtle

crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies by Smitten Kitchen: Speaks for itself really, doesn't it? A classic recipe that I'm sure will please everyone.