Martha Moss

Gorgeous E called me Martha Moss when we had dinner a few weeks ago and I love it, it's me to a T.

I was just going to have a quiet one on Friday night when A emailed me in the afternoon to see if I wanted to join his flatmate and neighbours for a pizza. OK, so first we tried a new place called The Lager Bar which is just an example of what not to do when you've opened a new place. However, Cooper's Lager is delicious. I mention this because I'm turning into quite the lager ladette. Most of last week I've been coming home and taking the edge off with a beer, and spending the night on the couch. Little could have made me happier. Mind you there is no edge to take off. But anyway. Instead of pizza we ended up at Indian having a banquet. It was all good fun. D's girlfriend was very keen to go dancing, so we headed to The Boatshed. I came to the conclusion that any place with a $5 cover charge is creep central. This had the right number of creeps, which all seemed to perk up even more when the girlfriend started rubbing herself up against me. When I accompanied her to the bathroom, as females are prone to do, she made it quite obvious she was very into JB so the rest of the night, in between tequila shots, was making out with my ex-boyfriend's neighbour's girlfriend. Funny, funny night.

Saturday I was feeling quite seedy and was planning on lying on the couch all day, but had a great lunch at a cafe and fell ga-ga for the waiter. Gorgeous, heard his whole life story. Meanwhile I'm sitting there washed out and in my hangover sunnies. PS when has it become acceptable for casual Sydney cafes to charge $28 for lunch (omelettes; mushrooms with cheese)? It was jam-packed so I guess anything goes in this fair town.

D came over later on bringing nana treats from a fete and we watched My Father The Hero. God I love Gerry Depardieu. Then off to our favourite Turkish restaurant in Enmore for more stuffing before sliding over to a party down the road at feral Newtown.

Went to pilates in the morning, made the most delicious mushroom pasta for lunch, then joined mum and her friends at Forbidden Fruit, an insane Chinese show at the casino. Acrobatics, a plot nicked off Shakespeare, and not one, but two retards in the storyline. All I could think of while watching this colourful spectacle was food, I need Chinese food. Noodles, dumplings, saucy meat. Three of us went down to Chinatown and found a new Uigher restaurant, it being the food of Central Asia, Uzbek, Mongols. Delicious! Handmade noodles, dumplings, lamb kebabs, tea. Massive amount of food for $30. And it was packed. And there is another Uigher restaurant next door. I love Sydney!

Turkish meat and oily grilled bread

Amazing gourmet mushroom pasta (hint: add a little lemon zest and juice to the cream)

Uigher lamb kebabs and cucumber salad

Uigher handmade square noodles with lamb

Sometimes, I Surprise Myself

At The Bentley on Saturday night one of the dishes for the degustation, which wasn't anywhere to be found on the menu, was a square of steamed white fish dressed in an avocado and jamon sauce. It was just so good that it was pretty much all I could think about this week. The delicate, clean-flavoured fish balancing with this interesting sauce, slightly tacky on the palate. I had to have it again. So last night I went about recreating it, amidst clicking for Spice Girls tickets, curing another salmon and making my own icecream (more on that later).

And, it was 9 out of 10 close to the original version. I was mighty impressed.

Quality Spanish jamon is fairly new to our shores and while iberico is the Chanel of Spanish hams, serrano is perfect for this sauce. At $99 a kilo (as opposed to $360 for iberico), $10 worth will give you a few very happy moments, including this sauce. I think Spanish ham is better in this dish than Italian, it needs that meaty oomph, that macho-ness, as opposed to the delicate sweetness of prosciutto.

It was as simple as pureeing an avocado and thinning it with a little cream, although light stock would be just as good. Finely, finely dice a thick slice of jamon serrano, and warm it in a frypan. Don't add oil as it will start to release it's own oil which will flavour the sauce. Add the avocado and warm through, season, then set aside.

Cut a fillet of bream or white fish in half, and steam for 4-5 minutes till cooked. Remove, and serve with the sauce. On the side I sliced a King Brown mushroom and sauteed it seperately until just coloured. It's such a meaty mushroom that was the perfect, minimal accompaniment.

I Don't Know

...but sometimes, all you want is a BLT and a beer.

Sure, there's a fridge full of delights such as gourmet mushrooms and gorgonzola dolce, but nothing tonight could tempt me more than a plain old BLT: lashings of crispy free range bacon from the markets, love bite tomatoes and butter lettuce on a grilled bagel, finished with the world's best mayonnaise and pepper. Heineken and a night on the couch. Marty Sheargold and I are meant to be.

I had the agents round for an appraisal of the apartment and was happily surprised by their estimate of $30-50 a week more than what I was hoping for, so even if they were talking it up I should get an amount that I'll be satisfied with. It'll cover the mortgage and a bit of the strata. The unfun bit is now having to decide if I should rent it out furnished or what to do with my beloved furniture...

No More Eating

Happy Birthday mum! Sunday was her birthday with a picnic in the park, naturally too much food, all delicious of course, the crazy Russian friends and relos, her ex showing up, dogs running around, vodka. She had a good time so I'm happy, although I'm not so happy at the amount of food I ate. Have a wonderful year to come my beautiful girl!

Saturday was up early for the Growers' Markets and I knew it was going to be manic in junction with Good Food Month and the gorgeous weather, but I never imagined it would be insufferable. Why Sydneysiders queue up 50-deep for a coffee is beyond me. The crowds were beyond me and A who joined me was more than happy to leave. We went to Fratelli Fresh and had a delicious brunch upstairs, of goat's cheese frittata and my beloved five cheese zucchini flowers. Stocked up downstairs then headed home to make some goodies for the picnic. I made mini peach cupcakes with the first peaches of the season and panzanella. But first I started with the pistachio macarons (it took an hour to grind and sift the pistachios and almonds and still they weren't that fine) and they just didn't work. The tops cracked all over, drying them out, and hardly any frilly feet. They worked beautifully for the trial and failed for the real deal - very upsetting. I think because it was so hot and humid and I used a different recipe which had a lot of icing sugar in it that made them very, very sweet. I'll go back to the original recipe and try to alter it for different flavours.

In the evening A and I went to The Bentley for the degustation - he buys dinner, I buy drinks, as that's all I can afford at the moment. Having tapas there last year blew me away so I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the menu was like a year on. It was really good, though the service was endearingly kooky (forgot our cheese course; forgot to charge us for the dessert wine; poured my beer with too much head; called the squid ink "black stuff"). Two dishes in particular wowed me: a pocket of steamed white fish with an avocado and jamon serrano sauce. I need to replicate this immediately. The other was the dessert, which A didn't really like but I thought was so interesting and fun. A tube of white chocolate encasing a fizzy sherbet sorbet, with a quenelle of mandarin icecream on the side and the plate sprinkled with dark chocolate cake crumbs. It looked so pretty - dark brown, white and pale pinks - such a great colour combination - and a spectrum of textures.

How To Make A Grown Woman Squeal

Apart from the obvious?

Last night I made macarons. Proper, French macarons. After weeks of consternating, after reading every known recipe and technique, after convincing myself I would fail abysmally...

They turned out just about perfect.

I cannot tell you how excited I was. I squealed when I saw the frilly 'feet' through the oven door. Yes, I squealed. Anyone with a half-interest in cooking and/or food blogs will know how delicate the issue of macarons are. They are the 'it' indulgence around the world. Laduree, Pierre Herme et al are on par with the Eiffel Tour as essential pit stops for visitors to Paris; at least, the queues waiting to go in are as lengthy. D and I ourselves this trip stopped at Laduree, La Maison du Chocolat and a random bistro in the 6eme for a macaron hit (as for Pierre Herme, well, we walked in only to find we had no money between us, oh, the horror!).

They are the loveliest, daintiest of sweet, made only more precious by the kaleidoscope of colours and exciting flavours and combinations available. In the queue at Laduree I had to just go with my instinct of caramel a la fleur de sel, and then a last-minute quip for coconut. I'd planned on taking photos of them, of us munching on them - that never happened. We gobbled them up before we even crossed the street. Such is the macaron.

So, to making them. As David Lebovitz, who's recipe I used, says, it's about the technique, and the precision of, which seems quite intimidating and I think this is what puts so many off, myself included. But it's mum's birthday on Sunday and to me she is a little macaron, cute and delicate, and I thought how nice it would be to bring some to her picnic. So a trial had to be done, and a basic chocolate recipe chosen.

I'm an impatient person, and a person of extremes. I knew that if my first effort didn't turn out I would get very stroppy and never attempt to make macarons again. Luckily D was over with wine. I made the ganache and started on the meringue batter. To be honest, as fixed as I was beforehand on following the recipe to the letter, I didn't. I didn't measure the ingredients all that precisely but I looked out for the technique. I sifted my almond meal (essential, as store-bought almond meal is too coarse) and got the mixture to fairly resemble motlen lava. I couldn't find my plain icing tip so had to use my star one, so some had a little wave on the top. I tapped the tray a few times on my table to get rid of bubbles and flatten them slightly. I didn't fuss with doubling up of baking trays, just piped them onto baking paper and onto the middle shelf. I lowered the temp to about 170C fanforced and after five minutes stuck a wooden spoon in the oven door to keep it ajar. I took them out at 14 minutes, and they came off the paper easily. I spread the ganache with a knife, and voila, chocolate macarons, which were scoffed down easily. The trademark crisp shell and chewy texture. Frilly 'feet'. That's all I could want for a first attempt. And the few leftovers this morning have the same crisp/chewy consistency.

I think making macarons is hit or miss for the amateur cook, dependant on so many factors, but even the miss are delicious. You could break them up and stir through icecream or marscapone cream. Maybe my next time will be a miss, but I'll keep trying.

Ooh la la.

Three Warm Days

I love that Sydney has three Colombian restaurants, and Friday night I joined Kath's friends to try the newest - any excuse to eat more empanadas. Which we did, along with lots of meat. God bless Central/South America.

Pilates the next morning is not to counteract but because I enjoy it again, and later D came over. It's spring and spring food is beautiful: green of peas and beans and sunlight of squeezes of lemon and pecorino and olive oil. So dinner is a real Liguarian pesto spaghetti, with steamed discs of kipflers but with spinach instead of basil for a softer finish, and tarts with frangipane and sauteed rhubarb, that prettiest of pink anything.

For the tarts, I was excited to try Careme pastry, a company making real pastry, unlike that stale, frozen-tasting stuff you get at the supermarket, which is so bad I refuse to buy it. Although I'm starting to make my own I wanted to support this local business and am so glad I did - the pastry was incredible. I chose the vanilla bean shortcrust which is perfect for individual dessert tarts, and tastes just like fine patisserie pastry. They include helpful hints on using the pastry which is a really nice touch. What I love even more about Careme is the adorable packaging, something out of Laduree, with pastel coloured boxes and elegant font. Bravo!

Sunday afternoon was dolling up for mum's pre-birthday high tea at The Victoria Room. A lovely couple of hours sipping cocktails and scoffing finger sandwiches and little sweet bites and the best scones (with lashings of berry jam and fresh cream) I've had. Although Kath and I learnt another Russian superstition - don't give mum her present one week early, she didn't want to know about it.

And to round off the long weekend the first swim of the season. I expected the water to be icey but it was the perfect temperature, and to dry off in the warm sun - just bliss. Will be spending as much time as I can at the beach until we go.

In the evening mum and I went to see I Have Never Forgotten You, the documentary on the amazing Simon Wiesenthal. I love how it starts, with a montage of journalists asking why he still pursues the war criminals, why not just let it go and let them grow old in peace. He describes trying to find his mother on the cattle car and tells the interviewer, "I can only hope she died on the train and not in the gas chamber", before pausing to say, "do you know what that means to say 'I hope my mother died on the train?'". His passion for justice and love for humanity, his humour...a truly rare individual and I hope everyone sees this documentary.

Vic's Meat III

I never cook chicken. I can't remember the last time I did because in those days-be-gone it always turned out dry and tasteless. But my recipe folder had a few chicken curry recipes that were singing out to me, so I ordered some La Ionica chicken from Vic's. And yesterday the weather couldn't be more perfect for a curry, grey and autumnal.

I chose Gordon Ramsay's Malaysian Coconut Chicken Curry from his cookbook Sunday Lunch (or you can find the recipe here) and I'll just get to the point - it was absolutely delicious. You make the aromatic curry paste (easily with the food processor) and then simmer with beautiful star anise and cinnamon. The chicken was so tender and flaked at the fork. Wonderful! I'm back to being healthy so I was careful to skim the fat and when it cools you can skim the solidified fat even more.

Verdict: The chicken tasted incredible and is chemical-free and free-range - I'll definitely be ordering La Ionica from Vic's again.

Under The Sound Of Helicopters

Too much eating on the weekend (Bodega; Mark Bittman's prawn ragu; hypocritcal queueing up at Bourke St Bakery for the lamb sausage roll, polished off with a lemon curd tart - verdict, the lamb is textural and delicious, but I prefer the pork and fennel; the curd is smooth and creamy, but I still want more of a pucker punch from the citrus; there was freshly squeezed blood orange Pims drunk in the park across the road under the sun; cold dumplings; gorgeous home-made curry).

There was The Bourne Ultimatum (prefer the first) and my beloved 5x2.

An absolutely awesome penthouse party the likes of which I haven't seen in Sydney, fortunately was on Sunday as it could have got very messy.

This week is nothing but cooking, cooking.

Sausage Rolls Are Ugly

Bourke St Bakery
I don't like hype. I don't like queues. It's a bakery. Don't line up for baked goods. There's plenty more where that came from.

Except there isn't plenty more where that came from. Good bakeries here are a destination. And I'd just about had enough of hearing all the raves and had enough of two years driving past and seeing a congo line of trendies snaking around it's famous little corner and never a parking spot in sight.

But there comes a point where curiosity starts driving you mad and you happen to give it one last go and it's an hour before quittin' time and there are no queues and a park right outside.

They were out of their infamous harissa lamb sausage rolls so it was pork and fennel. Oh and a strawberry and vanilla bean brulee tart. "Anything else?" Well I'd like to have ordered one of everything, it all looked so rustic delicious. But no, I needed to test them first. Hype means nothin'.

But it's more than good. It's incredible. The scent of fennel hits me as I break through the flakey shell and stays with me with each bite. The pork is chunky, it's real. Its pork and a little carrot and whole fennel seeds. Pastry is the real test though, and it soars, buttery and flakey and golden. Oh. Oh yea.

Fratelli Fresh
Next it's on to my favourite food stop in this town, Fratelli Fresh. Boxes of love bite tomatoes all cute and red welcome me, and I scoop them up. Blood oranges. I'll think of something to do with them. Russet potatoes for gnocchi or more rosti. Perfect bananas, which give me such satisfaction to never buy from the supermarkets. Italian spaghetti and flour. A wedge of pecorino and bags of herbs.

It's open till 6 and is so close, so why don't I do all my grocery shopping there. OK, I will, and maybe stop for a sausage roll on the way...

Hudson Meats
One more local stop. Hudson Meats has just opened and when I first saw the logo I got a bit excited. A good logo with a good font goes a long way. I thought it would be bigger, and the deli section is limited, but there is goodness there. Mainly in the meat. Most of the meat is free range, what I have been looking for for a long time. And it looks good. I can't wait to buy myself a big fat ruby red steak and tuck into it like a caveman. There are also cookbooks for the serious foodie and a small providore section arranged extremely stylishly - bravo. I bought Australian-grown French puy lentiles and Spanish dulce de leche wafers. The staff are friendly and the hours are good. They have my support.

After my dinner I turned to my brulee tart. My expectations weren't high, just a sugar hit. But again I was beyond impressed. The pastry was thin and crispy like the brulee top. It would be too easy to lump it with a thick, hard brulee; the thin shell is delicate and perfect. Inside, a creamy vanilla bean custard spread with strawberry jam. It's as innocent a delight as a neenish tart, but it has all the markings of a serious patissier, and that's why Bourke St Bakery deserves it's hype, and sadly for me now, it's queues.

When I win Lotto I will move to the beach, but until that happens, I will always stay in Surry Hills.

I Had A Dream

Just like Martin Luther King Jr. His was about equality. Mine was about a spaghetti with bacon, garlic and chili. Had to make it come true, with a twist.

Halve 250g love bite tomatoes/punnet of cherry tomatoes and mix in a bowl with a good lug of olive oil, one chopped clove of garlic, a handful of chunky, fresh breadcrumbs, a shaving of pecorino or parmesan. Sprinkle in some dried chili flakes, and if you like, fresh chopped herbs, like marjoram or basil. Season well. Bake in a moderate oven for around 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cook spaghetti, and grill strips of bacon until nice and crispy - always grill more than you need because who can resist munching on grilled bacon along the way.

Stir the bacon and the roast tomatoes with all the juices and oil into the spaghetti, and enjoy.

Have not-watched-in-ages Seinfeld on the background while cooking, and laugh yourself silly.

Chips An' Egg

One of my top ten movies is Shirley Valentine. When she starts to work in the cafe an English lobster couple come in and seemed over - and under - whelmed by the Greek menu. She suggests slow-cooked lamb in origano, they groan. So she leans in and conspiratorially offers to whip them up chips and egg, and it's "smashin'". They come in every afternoon for her "chips an' egg".

Chips an' egg. There are many comfort foods, but chips and egg might just top my list. Mum makes the best, frying the chips in the pan till golden, scrambling in the eggs and scraping up the crunchy bits on the bottom. If I'm over, and she makes a batch, not much makes me happier.

So last night when I didn't have much time to make dinner, but still wanted something delicious, I made a posh chips an' egg. Rosti with wilted spinach and poached egg.

Peel and parboil two potatoes. Allow to cool a little, then coarsely grate and season. In a frypan wilt a handful of baby spinach, then set aside. Melt some butter in the same pan, and fry the rosti for a few minutes on each side until crispy and golden. While the rosti is frying poach an egg. When all is ready assemble and enjoy.

Funnily enough after when I went to have a drink at the Paddo Inn this was their special of the day, and it looked good. I'll definitely have to try their version, $15 with a middy of pale ale, how can you beat that?

Sidenote: The Cook And The Chef is such a fantastic cooking show, the rapport between Simon and Maggie is so watchable, and the recipes inspiring and real. Bravo to the ABC for staying with this show amongst abominable TV programming across the board.

I Did It!

Tonight I made my own pasta!

Taking advantage of my second last night housesitting chez maman, with her lovely biggish kitchen, I got all excited. Literally, I was thinking about it before I went to sleep. Because you see, it has to be perfect. It is one of my three cooking challenges. I can't love pasta this much, study recipes, drone on wax lyrical about the food of Italy, and then when I finally make it, make slop. That would hurt.

And...for the First Pasta, which sauce? I thought about it, and thought about it, and remembered my beloved parpadelle with chicken liver and sage, a Stefano di Piero recipe that I picked up years ago and hold dear.

So off I went. 100g flour, 1 egg. What a fabulous equation. Hmm, too sticky, there's not much here. I added more flour, still not much. I should say that I didn't really measure the flour, I just used rough tablespoons. I'm arrogant like that. At this point I realised this was not a portion going to make, so I doubled the proper amount of flour and another egg. Voila. A nice elastic dough.

I stumbled upon this clip of Gennaro Contaldo with Jamie Oliver on Youtube the other day, showing how to make pasta without a pasta maker. A pasta maker to me looks like a two-person job, at least for a newbie, so I was besotted with Gennaro's "romantic" method, rolling and slicing with a knife.

Except mum didn't have a rolling pin, but she must because she makes rugaliki, so it means I couldn't find it (I am a man after all). So I improvised with a long pasta container. Who the hell knows, but I got it as thin and as light as I could. It even passed Genaro's 'blowing' test. Wide slices, floured. My parpadelle are ready!

The chicken livers are my own recipe now, so I prepared them and got the water ready. In went the pasta ribbons - ooh the excitement, what would they do, stick together, float? no they were just as described - and after a couple of minutes they were done. Mixed into the sauce, into a bowl, and the verdict?

Delicious! Real pasta! A little rustic, which was good, and I'm sure it's because the dough couldn't get a proper rolling. Better rolling would make a silkier pasta. And the whole thing, with sauce, took less than an hour.

So I'll keep perfecting it, and bask in the excitement of having made my own pasta!

Parpadelle With Chicken Livers And Sage, serves 2
Adapted from a recipe from Stefano di Piero

Handful of chicken livers, trimmed if needed
1 Spanish/red onion, thinly sliced
6 sage leaves
Lug of cream

Cook the parpadelle while you make the sauce. Heat some oil in a frypan and add the livers. When browned, add the onion and sage leaves and stir to coat. Lower the heat so as not to overcook the liver, and saute until the onions have softened. Add the cream, season* and cook for another minute. You can add a nob of butter to enrich the flavour and loosen the delicious browned bits.
Drain the pasta reserving a little pasta water and add to the pan with the sauce. Stir through and serve.
* Don't season before as the salt will toughen the livers while they are cooking.

The Great Cooking Challenge

A and I are having a cooking challenge thanks to his new obsession with a show on Foxtel called Masterchef Challenge or something.

The rules as in the show are two courses with the judges looking for wow value. I am thinking an entree and main because I'm not in a dessert mood (although I really should do a dessert). My idea is: creamy white gazpacho with seared scallop, and fresh spaghettini with poached lobster in a Champagne cream sauce dotted with crunchy caviar pearls.

Alternatively I'm thinking of something clever, like trompe l'oeil or maybe a classic dish deconstructed. Baked donuts with coffee creme anglaise (with a vanilla bean 'crema').

Either way as with any great competition the sledging has started - bring it on!

Firsts

I just poached my first egg.

Some people are scared of souffles, baffled by baking. I have three cooking 'challenges' (fairly basic ones) that I've always been daunted to try.

One is preparing an artichoke.
One is making pasta.
One is poaching an egg.

The artichoke I tried a few months ago according to Mark Bittman's instructions but they didn't quite work. It was a breadcrumby mess. I've yet to make my own pasta, which is crazy since pasta is my favourite thing in the world.

But tonight, I poached my first egg.

I adore poached eggs and probably order them more than any other menu item at weekend breakfasts. A good poached egg is a delight, but often ruined by too much vinegar.

But it looked complicated, delicate. I just knew the raw egg would go everywhere, boiling to a mess. Why try and fail when fried, scrambled, boiled are guaranteed delicious?

My beloved Gordo whipped up a watercress soup with poached egg on The F Word and it looked gorgeous. He makes everything look so easy on that show, and between the cookbooks, and that kiss, I realised I'd never even tried any of his recipes! I love the peppery sharpness of watercress, and picked up a huge bunch at the markets on Saturday, so it was now, or never.

Turns out - incredibly easy! I'm a bit excited because I've turned down so many recipes with poached eggs and now they'll definitely be a regular.

How to poach an egg:
Leave the egg/s to get to room temperature. Crack each egg into it's own ramekin.
Fill a saucepan 3/4 full with water, and add one teaspoon of white vinegar. Do not salt.
When the water starts to boil grab a whisk and create a whirpool. Carefully slide the egg into the whirlpool. The egg will wrap around itself and form a nice little ball. Some of the egg white might ribbon away or the egg might be a funny shape; you can trim the egg white afterwards.
Poach for 1.5-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon.
If not using immediately carefully wash it with a little cold water to stop it cooking (don't bung it under the tap or it will break the yolk).
That's it!

Gordon Ramsay's Watercress Soup With Poached Egg (serves 1 for an easy, luxurious dinner, what, you don't deserve it?)

1 big bunch of watercress
1 potato, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 Ts butter
1 cup boiling water
1 poached egg

Heat a little olive oil in a frypan and add the watercress. When it starts to wilt, add the potatoes and butter and cook for a few minutes until the potatoes are soft (the thinner the potato slices the quicker this will take). Pour in the boiling water (you may not need all of it, depending on how thick you like the soup. It's best to add about half and then add more at the next step if it's too thick). Puree with a stick blender until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Place a poached egg in the centre of a flat-ish bowl and carefully pour the soup around the egg. Drizzle a little olive oil over the soup, or dress with chopped chives like I did.
So easy, healthy even, and very delicious!

Weekend

It's funny, I spend the weekend with the niggling worries of moving overseas to a cold, grey city under a dome of cloudless blue sky. This weekend gave us perfect winter weather, sunny and warm with a chilly whisper every now and then to remind you of the season.

Friday night reminded me that cooking a delicious two-course dinner doesn't have to be a melodrama. D came over for dinner and a DVD and I got to try the one Jamie Oliver recipe I've been dying to make since I first saw it on tele, what, ten years ago?! His Fantastic Fish Pie, and a trip to the fish markets yielded some beautiful snapper fillets and Yamba prawns (and plump Tasmanian oysters as a personal snack). It was quick and easy to make and to tweak it I finely sliced a potato (oh, for a mandolin) and overlapped them over the top like fish scales instead of his mash. They turned out crispy and delicious. Dessert was Bill "white teeth white pants and now white hair" Granger's recipe for chocolate self-saucing puddings, which I made in my beloved Bodum glasses. Incredibly easy to whip up after dinner and dark chocolate delicious, so if you prefer sweeter add more sugar and/or use milk cooking chocolate.

DVD was It's All Gone, Pete Tong. Obsessed? Muy!

Saturday was up for the Good Living Grower's Markets and the beautiful weather meant all of Sydney was out, clogging up any chance of a parking spot and the many coffee cart queues. Seriously - 20 minutes for a coffee? Keep that. The $40 I had to last me till Monday (note, this is a new concept) meant I showed quite a bit of restraint but still came away with great buys: pure organic lamb sausages, lovely beetroot and cauliflower and watercress, roo treats for Nut.

D and I spent the afternoon annoying travel agents with flight questions, as we want to get our tickets asap. We found someone who actually knew what they were talking about (and quite cute) who gave us the info we needed to buckle down and make a decision re: departure dates. Lots to think about this week so we can get the tickets next weekend.

Curled up with Le Mepris. Incredible, especially after reading the novel last year in Europe (which was not a great idea when you have all that time to think, think, think...).

Sunday caught up with I then took Nut for a big walk. Dinner of lamb sausages and baked polenta, when I usually hate sausages but this post had me hankering. And the first good night's sleep in a week...

Memory Lane Food

After getting stupendously pampered (my wallet less so) at the Banyan Tree spa, Phuket, in 2001, I treated myself to lunch at one of their restaurants and had an incredible pasta dish that I still linger over in my memories today. Penne with swordfish, asparagus, tomato and basil. It was creamy and full-flavoured and a complete contrast to the hours of svelte-inducing massages and facials I'd just had.

You never try and replicate favourite meals. They never quite match and there's the fear that the initial taste might be replaced with your substitute. But I was willing to try with this one.

I don't know if it turned out quite the same, but it was delicious and surprisingly quick to make. While the pasta is cooking you make the rest, so you're ready in 15 minutes. Pour yourself a glass of wine and pretend you're in a tropical resort. Or laugh over Thank God You're Here like me.

Penne with swordfish, asparagus, tomato and basil, serves 4

4 serves of penne
1 swordfish steak
1 bunch of asparagus
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 Ts thick cream
6 large basil leaves, thinly sliced at the last minute

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the ingredients. In some olive oil and/or butter, cook the swordfish over low-medium heat. About 3 minutes on one side and 2 on the other - leave it nice and rare in the middle. Make sure you do not overcook it, as tough swordfish is rubbish. Take it off the heat and let it rest. Pop whole asparagus stems into the pasta water while the penne is cooking and remove with tongs two minutes later, it should be nice and crisp. Slice on the diagonal into inch-long pieces. Slice the fish with the grain into nice chunks - too small and the fish will flake apart. In the same pan as the fish, add the cream and basil leaves and warm through. Add the vegetables and the cooked penne, season with salt and generously with pepper and carefully mix together, making sure not to break the fish apart.
Remember, we don't serve cheese with fish.
Note: Make sure everything is al dente in this dish for it to taste it's best - the penne, the asparagus - the warmth of the dish will keep the ingredients cooking slightly anyway.

Favourite Local

The Robin Hood gets reviewed in the SMH. True, I haven't been there for a year, and it hasn't been my local for two years (a step-local?) but it does have the best $6 meals, good affordable wine and an easy atmosphere. No wankers, rare. Plus it has a killer jukebox (incl. Radiohead).

New York, USA

Mum is in New York at the moment and texting her some restaurants recs had me tripping through memories from four years ago...the Brazilian restaurants on our street...Katz's Deli...arguing before Cafe Boulud...that cool tapas bar...breaking my heel before Nobu...tequila and delicious Mexican...Papaya King hotdogs...what a fun, fun place.