Ugly Vegetables

I think the first notable change I made to my host family in England was suggesting the wonders of a weekly organic vegetable box delivered to your door. My hint was to my utter surprise enacted upon instantly and since then I have had the pleasure of getting to plan my weeknight meals around seasonal produce and have been saved the depression that comes from visiting the 'plastic' veggies (sometimes even pre-cut!) at Tesco. The delight of wondering what will be awaiting me at the front door Thursday morning is thanks to the wonderful people at Riverford. Most of the vegetables are your familiar faces broccoli, carrots, onions and always a bag of potatoes. However I'm getting acquainted with a few new faces who I can only describe as 'deliciously ugly'.

The two ugly vegetables I have had the pleasure of meeting recently are Celeriac and Swede. The trick to getting along with these characters is to remove their tough skins and reveal their softer insides. Once this is done you will have the beginnings of a really good meal, read below if you dare associate with the deliciously ugly ones.


Celeriac and Pear soup

1 onion, chopped
clove of garlic, finely diced
1 celeriac, peeled and chopped
4 pears, peeled and chopped
500ml of good quality vegetable stock

Get out a medium saucepan and pour a generous amount of olive oil into it. Then add the onion and garlic, allow it to frizzle but not burn. Once the aroma of onion is invading your kitchen it's time to add everything else including the vegetable stock. Allow the celeriac and pears to soften in the simmering stock for about 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow it all to cool for 5 minutes. Put the mix in batches through a food processor. Then serve it hot in some nice bowls on a cold day.




Potato and Swede Bake

1/2 swede, peeled and finely sliced
2 large potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
125ml vegetable stock
125ml milk
nutmeg, salt and pepper
parmesan cheese, grated

Get a medium sized baking dish and grease the inside with butter. Line the base of the dish with 1/2 the swede slices and the 1/2 the potato slices on top. Sprinkle all the garlic over it and hen get out your nutmeg and grate lots of it on top as well as a good shake of salt and pepper. If you want a creamy bake you could spread some creme fraiche on as well. Then it's time to arrange the other 1/2 of your swede slices on top and then the potoato slices on top again. Get the stock and milk you have kept on hand and cascade over your assembled mountain. Then get out your parmesan cheese and grate as much as you want on top of the bake. Put into a medium oven for about 60 minutes but if your oven has a habit of burning things as mine does do check on it at 40 minutes because it may be brown, crisp and very edible.

Now to finish I will talk of someone beautiful who I haven't had the pleasure of meeting. Alys Fowler is a divine Kitchen Garden Goddess who is responsible for a television show that is actually worth watching, The Edible Garden. Up until recently you could download episodes from the BBC itvplayer but unfortunately this no longer seems possible. If you can get you eyes on an episode do. She is my idol and therefore I think she deserves your worship. Also unlike my vegetable friends she is very easy on the eye. Happy cooking and looking.

Love London

Today is Saturday and I am doing loads of washing and ironing so I can pack my bag for our family trip to Devon tomorrow. The only good thing about today is that it's raining outside so I'm not really missing out on anything. While I undertake these domestic tasks I have been reminiscing about my previous weekend which was spent with Maddy in London and culminated in a delightful Valentines picnic on the Monday back in Kent. So instead of giving a long chronology of what happened in the past I decided to give love a list of my loves from the weekend.

1) Vintage Laura Ashley Dresses
Our Saturday morning was spent wandering down Portobello Road. We had a delightful time perusing antique stalls, then food stalls and finally clothes stalls. At one of the later stalls we managed to find a collection of Laura Ashley dresses that had been handily hemmed to more modern and practical lengths. I bought a long sleeved dress in Autumnal plum and green while Maddy bought a bright short sleeved summer dress that is sure to be worn at an Italian Villa in a few months.



2) Lulu Capes
At another stall in Portobello I spied the most magnificent cape. It was a blue check fabric 100% wool, handmade and lined. The lady behind these wonderful creations gave me her card and I still really want that check cape but I must be practical and 2 capes would really be too much for one backpacker. If you are not as concerned about excess luggage as I am you can order a cape online from
www.lululondon.com (I couldn't access the site from my computer but I put it anyway in hope that your computer will)

3) Red Velvet Cake
To finish off an exhilarating yet energy depleting shopping session we stopped at the Humming Bird Bakery. We shared a piece of the famous Red Velvet Cake and managed to demolish it on the side walk while watching the crowd of late comers (tourists) stream down the road. We vowed then and there to recreate the cup cake version of the cake for Valentines and the result is depicted below. They tasted as good as they look!





4) Picnics in Parks
On Valentines Day we sat down on a huge tree stump in Knole Park and filled grainy rolls with butter lettuce, goats cheese, beetroot and walnuts. We didn't share any of our lunch with the herds of deer because the signs told us not too and if truth be told I didn't even think of leaving a crumb for them. However we did manage to admire the deer from a respectable distance as we walked through the woodlands and reluctantly said goodbye to such noble animals. What we got in exchange 30 minutes later was a feral pack of school children who invaded the car, damn Mondays.

Hello England

So I know it has been ages since I last wrote a post but a friend suggested that this would be a good way of sharing my cultural experiences (yeah right) as an Au Pair to 4 children in Kent. Let's call them Caroline (pre-teen), William (preparing for 11+ with 4 tutors!), Harry (middle child) and Bobby (youngest at 6). As you can guess, all the children are very close in age and therefore constantly competing with each other. By the way, when I say competing I mean fighting.

So today I escaped the 18th Century stone house and went off to view my first ever hunt. I didn't really know what to expect, I was just given instructions to drive to the pub in a village 10 minutes away. As I drove up the hill I spotted 3 red coats, 2 blue coats and a pack of hounds waiting around outside the town pub. It seemed like all the unemployed locals were also out to view this unusual spectacle, appropriately attired in tweed coat, caps and wellies. I sauntered up and tried to act natural in my Hunter wellies but I think my constant picture taking was a dead giveaway. I thought that perhaps the hunt was only made up of 5 riders because it was a week day but half an hour later the rest of the field showed up. The master gathered everyone together and outlined his battle strategy for the day and then the horn was blown, rather feebly I must say, and the horses walked off down the road.

I headed back to my car perfectly happy with the sight I had just witnessed and decided to head home rather than trying to work out where on earth the hunt was actually going. I drove out of the town and got to the top of another hill close by where there seemed an easy pull over area that others had already taken advantage of. I stepped out of the car next to a small wooded area which two old men in green were watching intently. I didn't really know why they kept staring at an unmoving thicket of trees but I'm glad I decided to follow their lead because in a mater of minutes I saw the fox scampering out of the bushes. I'm not sure if it was a he fox or a she fox but it was much bigger than I expected and not red but fawn coloured. There was no mistaking it for a dog though because it wore a foxy grin and seemed to be working out how to avoid the dogs yapping in the distance. So I saw the fox but where were the hounds? We waited another good 10 minutes before the scarlet coats came trotting down the road while the dogs bounded along the woodland path that fox had already deserted. We informed them of our sighting and a lady in blue got out her mobile phone to update the rest of the field, obviously technology is catching up with tradition. I then walked further down the road to a clearing over looking the fields below. My final view of the day was the hunters going for a good gallop up another hill to try and get the fox which was suspected to have gone through the village. I called it a day after this because I am not vaguely familiar with these country villages and felt like I had got my share of luck for the day. View halloo!

Why I don't hate Monday

Maha! While everyone else was slaving away at another miserable Monday, I was enjoying a delightful three courses with my friends at Maha Bar and Grill. Yes I know you hate me, but please do keep reading.

For starters we had the mezze which incorporated lots of yummy things to spread on warm Turkish rolls. The best tastes were the beetroot dip and the marinated olives, the rest were all good but not rave worthy. The only negative I can say at all about the lunch was that a second serving of rolls should have come out as soon as the first were finished. Instead everyone was left to pick at the dips with forks, until some forward thinker on our table requested more bread, and once this request had been satisfied there was little left to spread on the new rolls. But this was a tiny inconvenience and for the rest of the meal I was continually impressed by the attention to detail and wonderful standard of service.

So next course, the sahen kbeer (large plates) which was blissful. I could have eaten the entire plate of butter fish that came to the table, it was mildly chilli seasoned, oh so tender and perfectly cooked. Gosh I think I am actually drooling while typing. There was also a vegetarian option of cheese filled ravioli, nice but not exceptional. The sides however were exceptional, a refreshing cucumber and lettuce salad evenly coated with a zesty cream dressing and a bowl of fried rice with mustard seeds and almonds. The meat eaters present did inform me that the goat was very good, but not as good as the fish. This can be proven by the reluctance of our only male dining companion, who was told to 'be a man' and finish the last forlorn looking steak.

The best part of the meal and the real reason we all gathered at Maha was the fabled Turkish Delight filled doughnuts. Yes, they are amazing. I could have eaten all three, but restrained myself. So go on, you've been meaning to try them and you should. They reminded me of the poshest jam doughnut known to humanity and they really do go down a treat in comparison to the ulcer inducing sweetness of say the Vic. Market variety. Equally fantastic though was the coconut cake topped with honeycomb mousse and complimented by what tasted like a bread and butter ice-cream. Gosh if I went back for dessert at Maha I would have trouble choosing whether to have the doughnuts or the cake.
The final component of dessert was a shot glass of chocolate cream with a rose water froth, though it was in no way unpleasant to spoon this sweet stuff into my glutinous gob, it was definitely punching above it's weight when placed in the ring with the other sweets.

The final part of this exemplary lunch was the Turkish cologne that was spritzed onto our hands. The fragrance has wafted around with me all day, constantly reminding me of just how wonderful a Monday can be.

Hot Chocolate Review #4

Cafe Vue Soy Hot Chocolate
Location: Little Collins Street
Price: $6.50
Take-away: Yes
Temperature: Well warmed

The French do 'classic', oh so well. Not surprising then that the hot chocolate I ordered at Cafe Vue was a classic beauty. Alas one must be patient and observe etiquette while they wait for a table, but will be rewarded if they do. A little note, if seated at the coffee tables in the corner gently nudge your dining companion to the cork while you claim the padded bench, if you are as ruthless as moi. Carry on.

Once seated you must order a Soy Hot Chocolate and if peckish the Pistachio Cupcake, which is green heaven on a plate. The hot chocolate will be transported to your lips in a smooth red tea cup of generous proportions and excellent quality. You will marvel at the pale cocoa milk froth as it bobs on your upper lip and long for the milky soft chocolate that lays below. The flavour could be described as chocolate neutral; an excellent balance between bitter and sweet. This is the comforting hot chocolate, that feels like home, but tastes much better. I admit the price is a bit rich, but then we are on the other side of Elizabeth where people supposedly work hard and definitely pay hard.

Melbourne Hot Chocolate Review #3

Location: Lygon Street (other franchises elsewhere)
Cost: $5.90
Temperature: Piping Hot
Take-away: Yes

This week I got acquainted with my old amigo, San Churro's Spanish Hot Chocolate with Hazelnut. This drink used to be called Baci Hot Chocolate but obviously word must have got back to management that Baci is an Italian delicacy and not authentically Spanish. Therefore it has now been given a name that I can't quite remember but I'm sure it started with A, so after extensive research of the Spanish word for Hazelnut I conclude that the new drink must be Christened Avellano or something of the sort.

So does a hot chocolate by any other name still taste as sweet? Yes. I enjoyed possessively mulling over my hazelnut hot chocolate while others walked by on Lygon Street and looked longingly through the windows. I sat there a while because the serving size is very decent and with the heat that the hot chocolate comes to your table at it's best to go slowly if you don't like scorched taste buds. I think this temperature is great though because no-one likes a cold chocolate (unless it's iced), the only minimal downside to the temperature is that a slight skin of chocolate can form on top if you don't keep stirring your cup of delight. I say delight because I feel that is the best word to describe the flavour, there is the delicious base of Spanish Chocolate that is full yet not heavy, and then the Hazelnut dances delicately on top adding a zing to the overall taste. The texture is not rough but I've definitely had smoother.
So will I be meeting my old amigo again? Most certainly!

Melbourne Hot Chocolate Review #2

Max Brenner's Hot Chocolate
Location: Melbourne Central
Temperature: Warm
Cost: $6.00
Take-away: yes

I've tried lots of hot chocolates at Max Brenner over the past 4 years and a worrying trend has come to my attention. I'm no Commerce student so I don't quite understand what the technical term for this is but basically the price of the hot chocolate has increased steadily and the quality has decreased steadily. The hot chocolate is still a good beverage, but I have that devil of prior experience whispering in my ear "It used to be better...and CHEAPER!"

I hate to seem like an old biddy, but back in my day, you could afford a hot choclate and would get two waffles without dinting your wallet. These waffles have now been reduced to waffle and the ice cream, chocolate pot and strawberries on the side are no longer 'standard' but classified as 'extras'. Damn it Max, you've sold out. You have turned the purest form of love, the love of chocolate, into a slogan. That ain't right!

Sure the Hug Mugs and Alice cups are darling and there's enough 50's nostalgia to sink the Good Ship Lollipop, what really matters is the hot chocolate so this is my honest review.
Max Brenner's milk chocolate has this delicate hint of caramel/toffee?...Well something sweet that my tastebuds can't identify but always want more of. You know it sounds a lot like sugar, but this lovely taste is the basis of all the Hot Chocolates. I've tried the Original, Danish Toffee, Waffle Ball and American Marshmellow all made with Milk Chocolate and I will base my comments on the later mentioned.
I first had this drink a few years back but can still remember how good it was. The chocolate liquid was densely flavoured with caramel undertones and enhanced by the layer of mini-marshmallow that floated mellowly on top, gently nestled in milk froth. Ahhhh.
That experience was tainted last week by the watered down chocolate liquid that had a distant memory of caramel flavour and two cheap marshmallows plopped unmelted in 2cms of froth. The worst part is that this experience cost me at least $2 more than the last!

No one likes to be cheated and that is the feeling I get now whenever I walk into Max Brenner's. It's like Max has become the unfaithful lover who I keep running back to hoping I will get back the joy I once had. Alas I have been scorned enough and for the good of my morale and my mortgage, I'm not going back.
Just a note for those who do enter Max's den, get the chocolate brownie with ice-cream for $8.50 as it's the only reasonably priced and rewarding experience on the menu...also invite me, so then I would only be eating there out of social politeness.