Yes, we have our annual glut of zucchini from our veggie garden, and we’re on the search for new ideas. Apsara’s recipe for bitter gourd in spicy tangy gravy looked like it could be adapted to give our palates a different taste experience. And it was. It’s a deliciously tangy dish that makes zucchini taste like nothing else we are used to.
There’s some debate out there about starch in our diets. Some say you need it to live; some say it will make your life miserable. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and it all depends on your body, your genes, and how you digest food.
The choclatey chocolatedness of this cake has to be tasted to be believed. It’s amazing. Its rich, just-crumbly-yet-muddy texture has knocked another long-term family favourite chocolate cake off its perch. That’s how good this is.
This walnut and coriander sauce is something we’ve used it for all sorts of things—as a filler for celery sticks, a sauce for those Turkish aubergine meatballs, or even a dip with these biscuits for something different. Just once, we used it for its purpose as a dressing for a chilled green-been salad.
This one is for those who love muffins. It’s a simple mixture of almond, apple, egg and a few other ingredients to give a really delicious and moist muffin. As a bonus, it’s perfectly suited to those can’t tolerate gluten or any starch at all.
St Kilda Library: designed by iconic architect Enrico Taglietti. His buildings feature geometric shapes, angular walls, deep overhangs and large, connecting internal spaces that create the freedom for people to interact.
Corned beef is one of the great comfort foods in our family. It’s really easy to make, satisfying, and serves many if you have enough mashed potato to go with it. The high salt content makes it an occasional food, but that makes it even more special when it turns up for (as) dinner.
This salad is easy to make. It’s just a matter of boiling some eggs and tossing together a few ingredients for a tasty and filling lunch.
Dukkah is a wonderful mix of coarsely ground spices. The idea is to have crunchy bits in there rather than a smooth powder, or even worse, a paste. It’s used as a dip for olive-oil covered bread, or a light seasoning.
Avocado is a bit of a luxury here, and guacamole is an absolute delicacy. Because of its specialness, our guacamole is really just mashed avocado with seasonings added: lemon juice, salt and pepper, and sometimes onion. That’s about it. If we have a few people, then it becomes a full-blown appetiser with some celery and tomato to…
Shadows on the south coast beaches of New South Wales, Australia.
This summer pasta salad of smoked salmon, avocado, fennel, lime and preserved lemon managed the high accolade of ‘my favourite pasta salad ever’. It’s easy to make and filling. You can also leave out the pasta for an easy, grain-free option.
We have a few standard car-camping meals, and the tuna, tomato and basil pasta is one of them. It tastes great, it can be cooked in a trangia (or over a campfire, but not in summer, alas), and it needs very little preparation. It’s also very healthy and full of calories, which is important when there’s another day of walking to come.
Australia in December: the light skims across mountain creeks and mossy bogs fed from the last snowdrifts in the Snowy Mountains
Who wants ants like this? Not us, I say. We prefer an ant-free kitchen. Sadly, no amount of vinegar, friendly redirection or anything worked. To get our ant-free kitchen we had to stoop to ant bait made of 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of borax, and ½ cup of water, all boiled in a…
This sponge cake is billed as a basic whisked sponge that’s easy to make, especially with an electric mixer. It’s true. It is easy, and it worked. if you have trouble with sponges, why not give this one last try? At least you can make trifle if it doesn’t work.
This soup has everything needed for a hearty Sunday winter soup: fish, veggies, warmth and nothing too heavy to weigh us down for Monday. The magazine we took it from called it kakavia, which, it says, translates as Greek fish soup.
My grandmother had a vast orchard, filled with dark plums. I’m sure there was more than one variety of tree, but it’s the dark blood plums I remember. And her dark plum jam, and her jam drops. This probably isn’t exactly the recipe my grandma used (the jam is rose petal jam for a start), but these jam drops match my memory of them perfectly: the shape, the size, the colour.
Land, sea and sun converge on the south coast of New South Wales at a place that somehow lost the right to be called Sunpatch.
This dry chicken curry uses chicken masala powder as one of the main flavours, and the whole thing has been enjoyed by everyone: from aged grandma to the gung ho I like it spicy teenager. With some rice, or pilaf, the leftovers are the basis for school lunches.
Mermaid's tresses 