It'll be all blanco on the night

Having spent this past weekend doing pretty much nothing other than eating and drinking with friends I think we can safely say that the silly season is now officially open. Having swapped my full-time job for the joys of freelancing earlier in the year, I'm actually expecting a quieter time on the social front than most years. Instead of doing the rounds of corporate events - advertiser-driven brunches, lunches, 6pm for 6.30pm dinners and the like - my calender is filling up with events involving people I actually know, and even better, like. Lovely.

And because every silly season needs a signature drink, I'm nominating Ellen Conolly's Sangria Blanco from last week's Good Living, which my friend Annabel made yesterday afternoon - basically white wine, ginger ale, blueberries, raspberries, cubed mango and nectarine slices, mixed and allowed to chill for an hour, then served with ice and torn mint leaves. Summery fresh and pretty, I plan to drink this updated version of the classic red sangria whenever I can this holiday season. Cheers!

(Thanks to co-host extraordinaire Stewart for the pic. I was too busy drinking the Sangria to be bothered taking photos of it!)

Singles get cooking

Now here’s a good idea for singles hoping to find love: Single Volunteers Cooking for a Cause. This Melbourne program brings “like-minded singles for friendship or more at the Fare Share kitchen [to make] hundreds of meals for Melbourne's hungry and homeless.”

There’s no guarantee you’ll meet your soulmate over the spuds but even if the chemistry is as flat as a collapsed soufflé, there’s the satisfaction of knowing you’ve helped someone in need get a good feed. Seems like a win-win to me.

Chocolate - mmm...

Reading food magazines and writing about food quite often makes me hungry and that was definitely the case writing about the origins of chocolate for this month's Open House magazine. In the interests of sharing the love, here is what I discovered.

The Origins of Chocolate

Is there any one ingredient as universally loved as chocolate? Rich, indulgent and immensely satisfying, chocolate arouses the senses and tempts the tastebuds of even the most kilojoule-conscious diner. Yet chocolate wasn’t always the sweet, seductive treat we now know it as.

Chocolate dates back to between 250-900 AD, when the Mayan people of Central America are known to have unlocked the secret of the cacao bean, harvesting, fermenting, roasting and grinding the seeds into a paste which they mixed with water and other ingredients such as chilli and maize to form a bitter, frothy drink.

By 1400 cacao beans had become a form of currency in Central America, with the by-now dominant Aztec empire demanding their conquered foe pay them tributes in beans. As well as monetary value, cacao and chocolate played an important role in religious and royal ceremonies of the period. The Aztec ruler Motecuhzoma (Montezuma) is said to have drunk 50 flagons of chocolate a day. In addition to chilli, other flavourings such as vanilla, coriander, sage and honey were used by the Aztecs to flavour the drink, which was drunk cold.

The word chocolate itself is believed to come from the Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) word “xocolatl” or "chocolatl”, meaning bitter water.

It wasn’t until after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521, when the Spanish began to ship cacao beans to Spain, that Europeans had their first taste of chocolate. With sugar added to the drink to make it more palatable, chocolate quickly proved a hit amongst wealthy Spaniards who could afford the pricey imported ingredients. By the 17th century the drink was popular with the ruling classes across Europe and increased demand led the French, English and Dutch to begin cultivating cacao in their colonies, often using slave labour to run their plantations.

As cacao became more plentiful and cheaper, people began experimenting with other ways of using it, including it in sorbets, pastries and cakes, but it wasn’t until the 1800s that advances in technology allowed chocolate to be made into bars. In 1828 Dutch chemist Conrad Van Houten came up with a way to press the fat - cocoa butter - from roasted ground beans, creating powdered cocoa. Treated with alkaline salts, this new form of chocolate not only blended more easily with water but could be remixed with cocoa butter to form a solid, leading to the first rudimentary chocolate bar appearing in England in 1847.

Later inventions by the Swiss allowed chocolate paste to be refined and kneaded into the smooth, creamy product we enjoy today. In 1879 Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter had the idea of using powdered milk to make milk chocolate, the most popular type of eating chocolate.

These days chocolate is available in a wide range of unsweetened, semisweet, bittersweet and milk varieties for both eating and cooking, and is produced around the world. Around two thirds of the world’s cacao beans are currently produced in Western Africa, with close to half coming from the Ivory Coast. Prices for the beans are extremely volatile and many farmers struggle to make a living wage. To try and combat this inequity, many chocolate manufacturers have embraced the ideals of the Fairtrade movement, which seeks to guarantee cocoa farmers higher and more consistent prices for their crops.

Now where did I put that block of Black & Green's Organic Chocolate?

If you love books, set them free

For people who love books letting them go, even if you have no intention of reading them again, is one of the hardest things to do. And yes, I am speaking from experience here. An ex-boyfriend of mine once took a series of photos of my double-stacked and groaning bookshelf on his mobile phone so that could bring them out at parties and pubs to show our friends. He couldn’t comprehend how anyone could read so many books, which come to think of it, pretty much illustrates why he’s now an ex…

They may be cluttering up bookshelves and gathering layers of dust, but like so many old friends, it’s impossible to just throw books away. Sacrilege! So, in the name of conducting a Spring clean on my aforementioned double-stacked and groaning bookshelf, I’ve come up with some other book-obsessive- friendlier ideas for letting them go gracefully…

Tag and release
Book crossing  is a worldwide book recycling movement that relies on serendipity to keep books moving. The idea is that books are tagged with a unique Book Crossing number and released "into the wild” in random places for other people to find, read and hopefully pass back on again. Each book has its own online log, which people who find and read the book can add to, allowing the book to be tracked as its travels around the world. In the last 30 days 805 books have been released into the wild in Australia that haven’t been caught yet.

Help the homeless
Started by a Sydney woman, the Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library distributes books to homeless and disadvantaged people living in hostels and on the streets, and through community organisations in Sydney and Melbourne.

Swap online
Greenerbooks.com.au is a new book swapping website, which aims to promote and encourage the saving of trees. For every book members put up on the site, they receive credits (known as branches) to receive other books. Books are swapped on a one for one basis. For every 116 books (roughly the amount of books which can be made from one tree) that get swapped, the website will support the planting of a tree.

Donate to a charity store
Charities such as the Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul and Lifeline raise up to 80% of their revenue from fundraising and retail operations, relying on donations including books to stock their shops. Lifeline also hosts a huge book fair each year.

Support classical music
Sydneysiders can donate books to 2MBS-FM’s Book & Music Bazaar, held regularly at various locations throughout Sydney, to raise funds for this not-for-profit radio station.

Support your local community
Schools always welcome donations of books for sale at school fetes, and local libraries are after good quality recent releases.


Ps: the photo is of a much tidier, more organised bookshelf than my own. Something to aspire to!

The Wright Family Christmas Recipe Book

I am reliably informed that there are only 34 days until Christmas (yikes!), which means that it’s time to start thinking about pressies – the ones we’re going to give, and if we’re honest, receive. The best gift I’ve received in recent years is a copy of The Wright Family Christmas Recipe Book which my fabulously thoughtful parents put together several years ago (print run: three copies).

As the title suggests, this lovely book brings together all the recipes we Wrights have traditionally used on Christmas Day, illustrated with photos from Christmases past.

The one of me aged about six, gazing bemusedly over a Turkeythat is quite literally bigger than my head - probably three or four times bigger - is a particular favourite of mine!

To be honest, we’re less likely to cook the full turkey ‘n’ all the trimmings extravaganza since we moved back from England to Australia and it’s been years since I attempted a homemade Christmas pudding (it’s too hard to keep puddings cool and dry for any length of time in Sydney’s steamy climate) but if I ever want to make “Real” custard (the key ingredient being double cream!) or a Yorkshire pud, this is where I turn to. Of all the recipe books I own this is absolutely my favourite one, thanks to all the memories that come with it. Thanks Mum and Dad!

Jamie Oliver's recipe for love

Is there anything that Jamie Oliver won’t turn his hand to? The TV chef, restaurateur, food campaigner and homewares mogul has now turned matchmaker, hooking up (ooh la la) with UK dating site Match.com to create a space “where food lovers meet”. Jamieoliver.com now offers users a searchable database of single foodies (sindies?) as well as “Dinner Date Tips,” “Foods to make you fall in love,” and recipe suggestions for “making the first meal for your partner.”

Announcing the launch Jamie said: “I’ve always found food to be a really powerful way of bringing people together and I thought it would be great if we could get people who loved food, to love each other!

“My site and match.com both have great communities on them and hopefully, by partnering up, we’ll be able to bring single food lovers together and make some love matches – or maybe even a marriage – happen.”

Hmmm, while I’m all for finding love over an aromatic dish of linguine with black truffles or shared gooey chocolate dessert, I’m not sure I need the Naked Chef egging me on...

Cheesed off by safety regulations

Author GK Chesterton once wrote “The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” Not so Slow Food Australia which has this week launched a public campaign supporting the right of local artisan cheesemakers to produce raw milk cheeses and consumers to eat them. As it stands at the moment Food Standards Australian New Zealand (FSANZ) regulations prevent it due to concerns about its safety, especially in soft curd styles.

Raw-milk cheese is made from milk that has not been subjected to pasteurisation or an equivalent process to remove bacteria. Unfortunately, pasteurisation also removes much of the variation and complexity of flavour found in raw milk. Raw milk cheeses are currently made across Europe and North America and many hard-curd varieties such as emmentaler, gruyere, parmigiano-reggiano and pecorino romano, and since 2004 roquefort, are imported into Australia.

Supporters of the campaign say that Australia is being left behind the rest of the world and local artisan cheesemakers and consumers are the ones who are suffering. At the very least people should be given the freedom to make their own minds up about the issue.

Interestingly, New Zealand, which usually stands with Australia on issues surrounding food safety, is currently preparing to lift its own ban on the manufacture of unpasteurised cheeses.

If you’re interested in standing up for your right to make your own decisions about the safety of raw milk cheeses (What do we want? Variety in cheese! When do we want it? Now!) visit Slow Food Australia's website for more information on the campaign.

Food for thought

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."
Margaret Mead

What are the meals Australians fall back on?

The average British mum feeds her family just nine different meals, a study reported in the SMH  has found, cooking them over and over and over again. A quarter made the same meals on the same day of the week, every week.

I think it’s fair to say that every cook has a repertoire of fall-back dishes but if variety is the spice of life this is bland fare indeed.

The top nine meals relied upon by UK mums are:

1. Spaghetti Bolognese
2. Roast dinner
3. Shepherds Pie/Cottage Pie
4. Pasta dish
5. Meat and two veg
6. Pizza
7. Casserole/stew
8. Sausages and chips/mash
9. Indian/Curry

I wonder what a similar survey of Aussie cooks would reveal? Are we really as sophisticated food-wise as a nation as we like to think we are? Given that the biggest-selling food magazine in Australia is Super Food Ideas, I suspect the answer is “not really”...

My bet is that spaghetti bolognese, roast dinner, pizza, other pasta, and bangers and mash would all make it onto a local list. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks everyone

Many thanks to the lovely folk at BBC Australian Good Food for giving Kissing Frogs & Eating Snails a mention in their December issue. Very exciting!

I was also thrilled to be the SBS Food Online's featured foodie back in August.

It's great to know that people other than my nearest and dearest are reading and appreciating this blog!

Why every restaurant needs a website

I had an absolutely superb meal last weekend at Lochiel House in Kurrajong Heights which I wanted to tell you about. A SMH Good Food Guide find, Lochiel House has one “chef’s hat” and came personally recommended by a twitter “friend” and the guide's co-editor Simon Thomsen, so I was expecting something pretty special but even so it exceeded all my expectations... From the moment we were greeted and seated by the charming waitress to the last mouthful of upside down peach cake with vanilla bean ice cream, everything was amazing.

Now any food blogger worth his or her (Murray River pink) salt would have been scribbling notes and snapping not so surreptitious photos of the food throughout the meal but sadly, I was woefully unprepared. No pen and no paper. No mini Dictaphone secreted up my sleeve. No chance of, ahem, “borrowing” one of the menus. Short of writing the names of the ingredients on the back of my hand with Raspberry Kisses lip liner I was just going to rely on my memory. Not to worry, I thought, I’ll log on to the website if I need to check any details.

And therein lies the rub: Lochiel House doesn’t have a website. The web address on the business card I picked up diverts to the Which Restaurant website, except that their page appears to have been removed.

Yes, Lochiel House is a country restaurant, and no, you can’t necessarily expect the same level of busy savvy as a city venue but I still would have expected a restaurant as sophisticated as this one to have a dedicated, not to mention operational, website.

I’m sure I’m not alone in turning to the internet first whenever I want a restaurant’s address or phone number (does anyone even bring the Yellow Pages inside anymore?), or information such as opening hours, price range and BYO-policy. I regularly drool over, sorry, I meant peruse, menus online and forward the links to friends I’m dining with. Listing your restaurant on a website like Which Restaurant certainly get the basics out there but a proper website can also help to establish a restaurant’s “personality” and to create a relationship with diners. The website for Surry Hills taqueria Mad Mex, which I stumbled across the other day, is a great example of one that does just that.

In the case of Lochiel House, if they had had a website I probably would have used this 400+ words to write about their miso and sake marinated roasted toothfish rather than blathering on about the internet...

Eat carbohydrates, be happy

Now here’s a surprise: a new study has found that low-carbohydrate diets make you grumpy. Comparing the emotional states of people of weight-watchers on low-carb diets and those eating more carbohydrates over the course of a year, scientists from the CSIRO, South Australia University and Flinders University found that the second group were considerably happier.

Well, der. I could have told them that without the paperwork, number crunching and hassle of waiting around for 12 months.

Carbohydrates aren’t just our bodies’ favourite form of fuel but they form the base of oooh, I don’t know, 90% of all failsafe comfort food dishes... Mashed potatos? Carbs. Pasta? Carbs. Pastry? Carbs? Bread? Carbs? Sugar? Carbs.

As it happens I wouldn’t call myself a big consumer of carbohydrates but take them away completely and you bet I’m going to get unhappy.

According to yesterday’s SMH, researcher Jonathan Buckley said the difference in mood may reflect how tricky it is to comply with a low-carb diet here in Australia, where the typical diet is about 50% carbohydrate.

''If you're eating a low-carb diet and you're out with friends at a restaurant, it might be more difficult to stick with that diet because restaurants don't offer many other options,'' said Buckley.

Hmmm, maybe. Or maybe it’s because low carb options are just so unsatisfying, as anyone who’s ordered a “burger” in America only to have a meat patty in a lettuce leaf arrive, will tell you.

Eating a healthy amount of carbs doesn’t have to mean disaster for your diet either. Carbs aren’t in themselves fattening; it’s the creamy, cheesy, buttery ingredients we often enjoy with them that do the damage. In the CSIRO study, people in both groups lost an average of 13.7 kilograms each over the course of the year.

Pass the breadsticks, I say.

I pie with my little eye...

When you think of a meat pie, what do you think of? A pastry case filled with meat and topped with a dollop of tomato sauce? Or perhaps it’s a pub grub-style pot pie with a puff pastry lid which captures your imagination? The Webster’s Dictionary defines a pie as “a baked dish made with fruit, meat, etc., and having either an under crust, an upper crust, or both”, so both descriptions fit the bill.

Now, what about a bowl of stew served with a triangle of puff pastry on the side?

This last option is what my dining-partner- in-crime Scott and I were served not once but twice over the weekend and at the risk of being accused of being a pedant, I’m just not sure that it fulfils the brief. Given that it’s unlikely that anyone would eat the pastry on its own, the idea presumably is that you dip the pastry into the stew, mopping up the sauce, before eating them together. Well, yes, fine, but part of the beauty of a well-made pie for me is that the inside of the pastry case or lid softens and takes on the flavour of the filling, while remaining crispy on the outside.

Both “pies”, a lamb and rosemary dish that Scott ordered for lunch on Friday and a beef, mushroom and red wine variety I had on Saturday, were tasty and satisfying enough but would we have ordered them if they had been described as stew? I can’t speak for Scott but my answer is probably not.

What do you think? Does a pie need a pastry case, lid or both to be the real deal?

More money than sense?

Just as I was contemplating how much I spent on meals during my weekend away in the Blue Mountains, my friend Nick sent me a link to New York food blog Serious Eats, which has posted this lunch receipt for a party of six from Nello's in New York state.

Yep,  you read that right: $47,221.09... That's not far short of the average yearly income here in Australia!

Wonder if they left a tip on top of that built-in gratuity?

Bath products good enough to eat

Chocolatier Max Brenner owes me a shower curtain. After just one session in the bath with his sinfully decadent products there are a handful of chocolatey smears on my white shower curtain that won’t rinse off.

Now before you ask what I was doing eating chocolate in the bath (which, come to think of it, is not the worst idea I’ve ever had), I should point out that the Max Brenner product I was indulging in was the Brazillian brown sugar cane & cocoa nibs body scrub from his spa collection. Yep, that’s right: Max Brenner of “Chocolate by the Bald Man” fame, also makes bath products. Chocolate-scented, smells-good- enough-to-eat, bath products.

Brenner’s mantra is that “chocolate is not just about taste”, which is fair enough, and he’s not the only foodie to be branching out into beauty products. Jamie Oliver has also launched a home, body and bath collection called Scent & Savour, available through his Jamie at Home party plan. The Jamie at Home website says that "Jamie believes that creative flavour combinations needn’t be confined to the kitchen”, adding that “combinations such as ‘a burst of clementine, red berries & festive spice', or ‘a twist of yuzu lime, green tea & cedar' result in fine fragrances from a fresh perspective.”

Ingredients derived from food have been used in beauty products or as beauty products since a human first worked out how to squeeze oil from olives but do cooking staples such as chocolate and beauty really go together?

The answer probably depends on whether you want to risk having strangers nibbling at your extremities in the coffee queue, but inasmuch as food smells are some of the most evocative, conjuring up treasured memories and making us feel good, then why not use them in products also designed to make people feel good?

Of course, I’d feel even better if I didn’t now need a new shower curtain...

11 ways to be a greener grocery shopper

With claims emerging this week that Coles and Woolies are understating how many plastic bags they hand out each year by as many as two billion bags, it seems likely that environmental campaigners and commentators will be renewing calls for consumers to BYOB(ag) when possible. I have to admit I don’t always remember my “green” bags but the intention is there...

Here are some other ways to be a greener shopper:

1. Shop locally to support local business and cut down on the amount of fuel you use. Ten points for walking to the shops.

2. Choose products with little or no packaging when possible. Do you really need to put that pineapple in a plastic bag before putting it in your trolley?

3. Choose fish wisely by downloading Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide.

4. Eat less meat. Producing a kilo of beef apparently generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours.

5. Choose energy efficient fridges, dishwashers and washing machines when old appliances need replacing. The government's energy rating website has lots of useful information.

6. Reduce the amount of food ending up in landfill by only buying and cooking what you need. Compost scraps or start a worm farm.

7. Grow your own vegies and herbs in the garden or pots on the balcony to minimise food miles and packaging. I’m lusting after a copy of Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion.

8. Buy Fairtrade products such as sugar, chocolate and coffee to guarantee farmers a fair price and help the environment (fairtrade products are generally organic).

9. Support local producers by shopping at regional farmers markets.

10. Avoid buying products that use genetically engineered (GE) ingredients with the True Food Guide. There is a growing amount of evidence that GE crops are harmful to biodiversity and the environment, and once they’re released they can’t be recalled or contained.

On the menu tonight

Rereading one of my old features recently, I was reminded of research from Cambridge University which suggested that breakfasting on eggs may help hangovers (and no, I didn’t have one!). Apparently eggs are high in an amino acid called cysteine, which is believed to assist the body detox. Is this subconsciously why we crave eggs after big night on the tiles (admittedly, usually with a side serving of bacon and maybe a sausage)? Or is it because eggs are such wonderful comfort food?

Growing up, mum always used to give me soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers when I was on the road to recovery after an illness and I still turn to eggs when I’m feeling off-colour or in need of the culinary equivalent of a hug.

Eggs are also one of nature’s most versatile ingredients. Delicious boiled, poached, scrambled or fried, eggs also shine in dozens of dishes including frittatas, quiches, cakes, tarts and sweet and savoury custards. With a carton of eggs in the fridge you’re never short of a meal. On the menu tonight? A no-fuss Spanish-style omelette - ole!

Genetically engineered food: it's your choice

If you’re interested in the integrity of your food it’s worth getting hold of the latest edition of Greenpeace’s True Food Guide. Now in its sixth year, the True Food Guide rates more than 1000 brands for the presence of Genetically Engineered (GE) ingredients, allowing shoppers to make a more informed choice about the products they buy.

The guide is especially relevant this year because Australia’s first commercial harvest of GE canola, grown in NSW and Victoria (above), will start making its way into foods such as pasta sauces, breads, cakes, baby food, oils and margarines.

Since the release of the first True Food Guide in 2003, more than half of Australia’s top food brands (including major players such as Nestle, Schweppes, Lindt and Fosters) have apparently committed to non-GE policies, which just goes to show what harnessing consumer pressure can achieve.

More than 180 chefs including Maggie Beer, Stephanie Alexander, Kylie Kwong, Margaret Fulton, Neil Perry and Stefano de Pieri have also signed the GE-free Chef’s Charter, which calls on the federal government to introduce labelling laws for all genetically modified food products.

To find out more about GE-food in Australia visit the True Food Guide website. Download the guide here.