Custard

There seems to be hundreds of ways to make custard but recently I nagged mum to show me how she does hers...

4 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp white sugar
600 mls milk
3 egg yolks

In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, eggs and some of the milk, stirring until there are no lumps in the mixture. Gradually add the rest of the milk, stirring the whole time.

Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and stir over a high heat initially, but reduce it to low when the mixture starts to bubble.

Tip - wash a lemon and cut off one end, pierce a fork through the other end and stir the mixture with the lemon for the essence.


When the mixture starts to get quite thick, take it off the heat.

If you just want vanilla custard then you can add some vanilla essence to the mixture.

For chocolate custard, put 3-4 tbsp of cocoa in a bowl and add a few scoops of the custard. Have the bowl in the sink with some cold water. Stir the mixture then gradually add the rest of the custard.

I made this custard to make cream puffs (which I bought, but can make if I have the time) to take to my niece's birthday party. I made both chocolate and vanilla, and filled the profiteroles with half vanilla and half chocolate custard. Sprinkle with icing sugar.


NB. If you need a larger portion you add more eggs and more milk only (i.e. with 6 eggs you would need 1 litre of milk).

Chocolate Pavlova

Yesterday for dad's birthday I made a pavlova that I had eaten over at the Hope's house a couple of times. It is truly delicious so I hope that Carol (or Nigella Lawson for that matter) won't mind me publishing it here. And apologies because I don't have a photo of the finished plate because I decorated it at mums.

Meringue base:
6 egg whites
300 gm caster sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
50 gm dark chocolate, finely chopped

Topping:
500 ml thick cream
Punnet of your favourite fresh berries (I used a frozen berry mix)
2 - 3 tbsp coarsely grated dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180c but turn oven down to 150c when the pavlova goes in!

Beat eggs whites to satiny peaks, then add 1 spoon full of the sugar at a time while beating constantly. Stop beating when all sugar is dissolved and mixture is shiny. This can take up to 15 mins.

Sprinkle in sifted cocoa powder, add vinegar and chocolate and gently fold through the mixture.

Scrape mixture onto a sheet of baking paper on tray and make a disc with the mixture approx. 23 cm in diameter. Don't spread it too much or it will be a flat pavlova.

Bake in the oven for 1 to 1.5 hours. Turn oven off but leave the pavlova in there to cool completely.

NB. Nigella says that when it is ready, it should be crisp on the sides and dry on top, and when you prod the centre you should feel the promise of 'squidginess' beneath your fingers.

You can invert the pavlova. Whisk cream and pile on top of meringue then scatter berries over the cream and sprinkle with remaining dark chocolate.

Enjoy!

Maggot cheese or mussels in coconut broth?

I am having withdrawal symptoms from not baking, but lately I have been either too tired or too busy. So tonight to alleviate the yearning, I thought I would watch another episode of Season 4 of Hell's Kitchen. But after watching that I was as bright as a button so I thought I would check out some Gordon snippets on you tube (it's 11.30pm and too late to get into the kitchen).

Unfortunately the video I wanted to post had embedding disabled, so do yourself a favour and search for "Gordon Ramsey maggot cheese" on you tube. (But only if you think you can handle it. Personally it is one cheese I won't be trying in this lifetime.)

Then I found this video, and this dish looks so good to me I reckon I would eat every last morsel.

2008 Music - year in review

Forget about the Arias. Here is where you need to come to find out about the best music releases this year... well, out of what I've been listening to at least.

My top 10 albums of this year (in no particular order):

1. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a dream (This album saw the collaboration of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore, and oh what a collaboration!)
2. Sia - Some people have real problems (Adelaide girl who went to the UK to be heard back in Adelaide. One of the best female artists to come out of Australia I reckon.)
3. Kings of Leon - Only by the night
4. Jackson Jackson - Tools for survival (Another Oz collaboration. Another success.)
5. Augie March - Watch me disappear (Like a good wine, these guys just get better with age.)
6. Bliss n Eso - Flying colours (Ausie hip hop, who'd have thought? Play it loud!)
7. Girl talk - Feed the animals (Mash it! Love it!)
8. Goldfrapp - Seventh tree
9. Laura Marling - Alas, I cannot swim (I have raved about this girl on this blog before...so young...so brilliant!)
10. As for number 10, I couldn't decide whether to leave off Gnarls Barkley's - The odd couple, or Josh Pyke's - Chimney's afire.

Dishonorable mention:
Coldplay - Viva la vida. This is weird. I really liked this album when I first bought it, but I don't think I have played it again after the first few times. I have decided they are boring (and it has nothing to do with the news that they are snubbing Adelaide in their Australian tour next year).

My top 10 single releases of this year (in no particular order):
1. Cass Mccombs - That's that
2. Moby - Disco lies
3. Empire of the sun - Walking on a dream
4. Kings of Leon - Sex on fire
5. Goldfrapp - A&E
6. Fleet Foxes - White winter hymnal
7. Rihanna - Please don't stop the music
8. Bon Iver - Skinny love
9. Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan dreams (This is the Lisa Mitchell that was on a recent series of Australian Idol. She got voted off, I stopped watching. Cannot wait to hear her first full album release next year.)
10. I am pathetic. I couldn't decide whether to leave off Pnau & Lady Hawke's - Embrace, or MGMT's Time to pretend.

Notes:
I am very pleased that such a large number of Ausie artists make the album list.
I am fairly certain that sometime next year I will buy an album that was released this year, and I will mentally change the list.

Arrested for possession of photographic equipment and causing aesthetic harm

When S flew into Melbourne, got into a cab, and a km away from the apartment had to turn around to pick up the bag he left at the airport... I figured I couldn't possibly do anything stupider than that.


For a few years, me and three of my friends have been organising and going on "photo road trips". The impetus behind these trips is to take photographs as we all have an interest in the art. We pick a location full of photographic opportunity, get away, have a great time together (i.e. drink too much) and take photos.

We were well overdue for another PRT (the last one being at Kangaroo Island in Nov of last year), when we finally got off our butts and organised one to Melbourne for the weekend just gone.

Being the friends that we are, we all dump shit on each other at every possible opportunity, so you can imagine the jokes we flew at S for having left his bag at the airport. That was pretty much the stupidest thing that had happened all weekend...until sometime on Saturday, I realised that I hadn't changed the white balance on my camera (that had been set at tungsten) after having taken a hundred photos of the Melbourne skyline from the apartment balcony on Friday. A few hours after that (and after having taken another few hundred shots at the Melbourne xmas pageant), I realised that I had my camera on the full manual setting (nothing unusual about that), but that I had only been adjusting the light metering and not the f-stop. In terms of stupidity, that's up there with leaving your bag at the airport!

So, whilst I had a great time in Melbourne, the majority of my photos are fucked. I was therefore arrested and here is the proof:


My camera, all my lenses and other photographic equipment have all been confiscated and given to this guy because he probably has half a brain:


I am comforted by the fact that I got to have one last coffee at this place:


Before being put behind bars until I have read and re-read every photography book in my library:

Third Wedding for the year

This year has been a year of celebrations. I have attended more weddings, engagements and birthday parties than any other year of my existence (and a couple more to go before the year is done). But last night I attended a wedding celebration for a very special couple who are already married!

My beautiful cousin Lili married her life partner Paolo, back in August of this year... in Italy. You see, they came to Australia from Italy a few years ago and stayed. They have settled in Adelaide, and so I have grown to love these two as much as if I had grown up with them. They went back to Italy to be married in front of all their family and friends. But because they are such a great couple, they have forged many amazing relationships here. Many of the Oz contingent wanted to go over to Italy and celebrate their wedding with them (including me), but logistically it wasn't possible.

So Lili and Paolo decided to have a wedding celebration just for us here in Australia. Guests even came all the way from Sydney for it. (Which proves how special these two are.) We had a great night, ate great food, and participated in their wedding by viewing a slideshow of the wedding in Italy.

For the third time this year... I really wish the couple a lifetime of happiness. They are already on the right track. If you see L&P together it appears as if they fall in love with each other every week. If I don't find a relationship like that, I'm not sure I actually want one at all...

Fettucini

Today I made my first ever home made pasta (solo effort). I know, I know, I should be ashamed, I'm a wog... how did I get to this age without having made my own pasta before? I'm not sure I know the answer to that question myself, so I won't even bother trying to analyse that here.

I used the Kitchen Aid (of course), which made light work of it, and made the whole process a lot quicker. I also nearly stuffed it up by adding too much water too soon, but quickly just added more flour. I think the dough did end up being too soft, so I will take things slower next time.

There are hundreds of different recipes for pasta, but mum uses one egg for every kilo of flour. And besides flour and egg, you only need tepid water and salt.

I obviously didn't want to make a kilo's flour worth of pasta, so I measured out about 5 'handfulls' of flour (I used 00, but plain flour is fine), and used one egg to this amount of flour. At a guess, this made me about 4 servings.

Most recipes you will see have at least 3 eggs. The more eggs you use, the heavier the pasta will be. And you can even make pasta without any egg at all.