A Literary Culinary Journal
by Rosa Mayland
INCREASE YOUR GASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE BY EATING IN SYNC WITH THE SEASONS
With the arrival of hotter weather, I am thrilled that some of my favorite fruits are starting to grace (super)market stalls. They are so fabulous that I can never get enough of them. Not one week goes by without me making either pies, pastries, cakes, trifles, crumbles, clafoutis or cobblers in my itsy-bitsy apartment kitchen.
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by Simon de Swaan
To ask a woman to become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality.–Naomi Wolf
Naomi Wolf is an American author and political consultant. With the publication of The Beauty Myth, she became a leading spokesperson of what was later described as the third wave of the feminist movement.
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by Alice DeLuca
Assador
This whole adventure started with a search for the perfect sausage to use in a recipe for pork with clams, which led to a little ceramic pig, and ended up with a truly excellent party. This cute little piece of specialty cookware, which looks like footwear for some impossible outer-space monster, is in fact designed for brazing sausages over flaming, hi-octane Portuguese liquor. As we learned the purpose and the method for using this device, we became completely distracted from our original mission and found ourselves planning a sausage-roast.
Sausages roasting over flaming Aguardente
First, we had to obtain the little pig dishes from Portugal – that was easy and took only a few weeks. As soon as the dishes arrived we set about making home-smoked sausages and invited some guests to come over and roast them with us – RSVPs were instantaneous and none declined the invitation.
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by Jonell Galloway
Every weekend the Hotel Intercontinental Geneva opens its large outdoor swimming pool to the public. The poolside restaurant serves light, healthy, inventive dishes, such as vegetable tempura (shown below) and mezzes, as well as healthy drinks such as the Detox Smoothie (shown below). They use local and Swiss ingredients as much as possible, buying them directly from farmers and producers and working in close conjunction with OPAGE, the Geneva cantonal promoters for agriculture, so the vegetables and fruit are of a surprising freshness.
The price is 50 CHF for the entire day during the week, and 90 CHF on weekends. It is best to reserve ahead, since on nice sunny days people head for the lake or pools, and Geneva is lacking in large outdoor pools. The spa is right next door and poolsiders, and it is also available pool guests.
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by Renu Chhabra
Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food.–Hippocrates
On warm days we crave cool and refreshing dishes; recipes that require minimum or no cooking to avoid heating up the kitchen seem most desirable. Salads, smoothies, cold soups, and sandwiches take center stage to make our lives a little easier.
One such recipe I enjoy a lot on warm days is cold yogurt soup. With the possibility of several variations, it is always a welcome relief to beat the heat. It is simple and refreshing with no cooking at all, which is always an added bonus when temperatures soar. Moreover, the health benefits of yogurt make it even more worthwhile. It’s good for digestion, and is a powerhouse of beneficial bacteria. But I say it is a “do-good” friend, and I enjoy it everyday.
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by Amanda McInerney
Whenever anyone asks me what were the high points of our recent trip to Europe I always answer with two simple words: the food. We happily indulged ourselves whenever possible, knowing we would be walking it all off within days, and I was pleased to note that I came home carrying no extra baggage except for my shopping.
I was having a conversation about our foodie finds with my friend Kris Lloyd, the cheese-making talent behind South Australia’s multi-award winning Woodside Cheese Wrights, not long after we got back and was waxing lyrical about some butter made from clotted cream (cultured butter) which we had bought on our last day in London. It was part of a significant haul that we took home from London’s Borough Markets for a final feeding frenzy before we flew home and had made quite an impression. Kris commented that she had recently been “playing around” (her words) with cultured butter, including one which she had washed in whiskey. With the taste of the delicious, golden London lipids still lingering, to say I was eager to try Kris’ efforts would be something of an understatement.
Cultured butter is something of a recent discovery for many Australians, but has been in use for hundreds of years in Europe. The butter we are used to is what Europeans refer to as “sweet cream butter” — delicious, but lacking the depth of flavour of cultured butter. Cultured butter is made in exactly the same way as ordinary butter, but a live culture is added to the cream which is allowed to ripen for some time before being churned, salted (or not) and rinsed. Kris adds the culture to her cream 24 hours before she uses it to make butter, giving the cream time to “clot”. Cultured butter has a richer, deeper flavour, which some find somewhat tangy, and also comes with a little probiotic boost from the addition of the live culture.
Kris gave me three different batches to play around with — an almost unsalted butter, salted butter and the remarkable whiskey-washed version — and I’ve had a very happy day or two getting to know them. They are all truly delicious and definitely add an extra facet to the dishes I used them in: a Mushroom and Almond Bruschetta with Chèvre and Vanilla-Poached Oranges with Pikelets. I kept these recipes fairly simple in order to let the ingredients do the talking. There’s no point in using outstanding produce and then smothering it with other flavours and fancy techniques; good food doesn’t need to be tricky. The mushrooms I used came from Marco the Mushroom Man in the Adelaide Central Market and the sublime oranges were in our CSA box from Jupiter Creek Farm, all fresh, local and fabulous. I couldn’t help adding some wonderful Beerenberg Caramelised Onions to the mushroom dish. They finished it off perfectly.
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Serves: 2
This made a good lunch for 2, but would also make an entrée for 4.
Click here for metric-Imperial conversions.
The whiskey-washed butter was used in an even simpler dish of pikelets (small bite-sized pancakes) with vanilla-poached oranges, but the combination was absolutely stunning and much appreciated by the guests to whom I served it yesterday for afternoon tea. My good friend Meg is very partial to a wee dram or two of whiskey and her eyes glazed over just a little while eating these.
I’m sure everyone can work out how to make basic pikelets.
As for the vanilla-poached oranges: the oranges were simply peeled, making sure all of the pith was removed, sliced about 10mm thick and gently poached for ten minutes in a syrup made of 1 1/2 cups of white sugar, 1/2 cup of water and one vanilla bean, split open and scraped – hardly a recipe at all! I cooled them slightly in the syrup, buttered the hot pikelets with the whiskey-washed butter and layered the oranges and pikelets, topping with a dab of the precious butter. Eat, then swoon.
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by Diana Zahuranec 
This is too exciting not to share.
I have discovered an entire, legally downloadable Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita, translated by Maureen B. Fant, with hand-drawn sketches of over 300 traditional types of pasta. A description and production method, origins and with what recipe each kind is used are included for every pasta shape. Plus, there’s a lovely introduction about pasta.
Next to see if it is downloadable on a Kindle.
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by Renu Chhabra
“There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.”― Yutang Lin, The Importance Of Living
Drinking chai is a way of life in India. Mornings start with a cup of chai, and it finds its way into people’s lives throughout the day. It is an expression to take a break, and calm your senses, one sip at a time — like punctuation is to pauses — and then move ahead.
Chai is the Hindi term for tea itself in India, where this wonderful beverage comes from. In fact, masala chai means the spiced tea that we know as chai tea or chai in the West. Masala means spice and chai means tea, hence “spiced tea”.
Chai, an everyday beverage in the East has gained enormous popularity in the West. From coffee shops to gourmet restaurants, it has found a trendy platform where it is star. We find this fragrant flavor in lattés, ice creams, truffles, cookies, brownies, and cakes. A basic Eastern spice blend has been given a very sophisticated Western face. Another Western twist is the addition of vanilla at times, which is not part of the traditional blend.
Aromatic spices give chai its distinct character. Their oils are extracted when cooked and steeped in hot water giving chai its fragrant foundation. Then black tea leaves, whole milk, and sugar are added to it. And you have a cup of warm comfort, perfect for any time of the day. Whole milk gives it richness and body, and sweetener brings out the flavor of the spices even more.
Chai spices can be combined in so many different ways. Every family has its own recipe — just like chili recipes. Make it as simple or as complex as you like, depending on the number and types of spices you like or have on hand. The usual spices that are used in chai are cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and black pepper. Some are warm and some are sweet, but they all lend a fragrant note. Try new combinations to discover your favorite.
I usually like to keep chai simple with just one or two spices. My favorite spice combination is sweet cardamom and ginger; they go well together. Sometimes too many spices overlap each other’s distinct flavors and lose their individual personalities — not a good thing, I say. My philosophy is to keep it simple and clean. Chai can be tea leaves with just one spice of your choice, which I often do, or it can be with as many as your heart desires. Make your own concoction. After all, it’s your cup of tea. Take a break and savor it.
The first cup moistens my lips and throat. The second cup breaks my loneliness. The third cup searches my barren entrails, but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideograms. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration — all the wrongs of life seep out through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified. The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup — ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves. Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.–Lu Tung, “Tea-Drinking“
This recipe has three spices: cardamom, ginger, and fennel. Cardamom and fennel give sweetness, whereas ginger gives warmth to this chai. If you are craving spicy flavors, add a small cinnamon stick, 2-3 cloves, and 3-4 peppercorns.
Makes 2 cups
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The stands have been taken down from the riverbanks in Elder Park; the visiting journalists and food writers have packed up their loot bags and flown home; PR bods are splinting their Tweeting/texting fingers, and exhausted, hardworking chefs, waiters, dishies and sommeliers all around Adelaide are breathing a huge sigh of relief as they slip into a restorative beverage or two. The Battle of the Chefs has been fought and won; celebrity dinners have been cooked and eaten; the master classes, kids cooking classes and celebrity demonstrations have been enjoyed, pearls of culinary literary wisdom have been dropped and retrieved at the Word of Mouth sessions, and the food-related exhibitions, workshops and competitions are done. The massive 8-day food and wine binge that is Tasting Australia is over for another two years.
A product of the fertile imagination of Western Australian chef and television personality Ian Parmenter, Tasting Australia has developed and grown since its very successful beginnings in 1997 to become one of the nation’s most influential and best attended culinary events. This year’s event has built upon this reputation and not only attracted more than 40,000 happy eaters to the two-day “Bank SA Feast of the Senses,” where the public can pick and choose food and wine from some of the state’s very best producers and chefs, but the informed eye would also have been able to spot flocks of interstate and international chefs, journalists and food writers. More than 150 high-profile gastronomic guests were being carefully herded about the state in manageable groups (not so simple a task as it might sound) as producers from Port Lincoln in the west, all the way down to the Coonawarra in the south-east took the opportunity to show off the culinary cachet for which this state has become noted.
Tasting Australia attracts an exceptional amount of international interest and food professionals from all areas of the culinary sphere, as well as journalists from all corners of the globe, who congregate in Adelaide for this time period. I helped Mark Gleeson of the Providore conduct the very first formal event of Tasting Australia – a (very) quick walking tour of our prime food gem, Adelaide Central Market, followed by a cheese workshop conducted by Valerie Henbest of the Smelly Cheese Shop – with a group which included, among others, journalists from Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden, author Matthew Fort and chef Mark Hix from London and Dublin-based food, wine and restaurant critic Ernie Whalley. They were just one part of the international contingent which was here expressly to get to know South Australian and Australian food.
The kind of exposure this generates for us simply cannot be underestimated and I have heard it stated that this festival has generated in excess of $100 million worth of editorial PR for South Australia and Australia. The overseas guests who enjoy our hospitality are ushered around to some of our most talented and respected food producers – both in and around Adelaide and regionally. They get the chance to meet and engage with nationally and internationally recognised brands like Maggie Beer and Jacobs Creek, but also many of the smaller producers and food/wine businesses whose goods merit equal attention, but whose advertising budgets are more modest and thus are less well known. There are trips out to the oyster leases in the pristine waters off the Eyre Peninsula, visits to the free-range home of Minribbie Farm Berkshire pork and (no doubt happy) time spent at South Australia’s first boutique distillery on beautiful Kangaroo Island – all aimed at showing off what we enjoy here in the hopes it will be shared with the rest of the world.
The dust is settling on this year’s celebration and within a surprisingly short amount of time the planning for the next festival will begin. Under fresh, new leadership things will change and the celebration may take on a different look, as it should after 16 years of much the same sort of format. What won’t change is the remarkable wealth of great food and wine products which we enjoy in South Australia, and the enormous dedication, expertise and passion of the people who are behind the production and promotion of it. It is our local skills which make Tasting Australia the tremendous success it is today, so – South Australia, take a bow!
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Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
