recipe

Persimmon cake

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Autumn means persimmons. My friend Maz has a persimmon tree in her backyard – one year she gave me 5kgs of persimmons. Holy crap. What can you do with so many persimmons? I’m the only person in the house who’ll eat them, and even then I prefer the non-astringent Fuyu type.

This year she asked if I wanted any. I firmly told her that I only wanted a few. She countered with an offer of twenty – I’m guessing her tree is rather prolific.

I grudgingly agree to twenty.

She showed up with a box. There were *definitely* more than twenty. I should’ve counted them out and made her take the extra home. 😉

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Azza Fried Chicken

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I do some of my best thinking in the shower. I mentally draft blog posts, mull over problems and ponder recipes for upcoming feasts. The other day I had an “eureka!” moment while showering and thinking about fried chicken. A sudden flash came to me about how Thomas Keller’s fried chicken could be improved:

PANKO PANKO PANKO.

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Pandan and ginger panna cotta

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Do you remember how exciting it used to be to collect stamps in your passport? It was always fun to flick through and see all the stamps from different countries. But passports these days aren’t the same – not as many stamps are used with the new style passports that contain electronic chips. Also, rather annoyingly (at least for NZ passports) they’re only valid for five years, not ten. And doesn’t five years go by incredibly fast?

Recently my passport was due to expire and I needed to sort out a renewal. I had to get a reference for my renewal application, so off we went to visit Dany. While we were visiting, I saw that she had a copy of Indochine – a recent birthday present from her workmates.

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Ice cream cone cupcakes

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What’s the best way of taking ice cream to a picnic? One option is to load up an esky (chilly bin) with ice and hope for the best. OR you could get a bit inventive – and make ice cream cone cupcakes.

Okay, so it’s not technically ice cream, but look at how cute they are!

I’d seen this idea on blogs before, and a recent Australia Day picnic was the perfect excuse to try them out. If you haven’t seen these before, the cupcakes are baked in the ice cream cones (no they don’t burn) before being topped with frosting so they look like ice creams. So. Cute.
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Brioche

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Five reasons why brioche rocks:

1: Butter.
2: Butter.
3: Butter.
4: Butter.
5: Butter.

Need more convincing? Here’s five more reasons.

6: You can fill it with almost anything.
7: It justifies buying a stand mixer.
8: It can be sweet for dessert, or savoury for a snack.
9: It’s French for awesome. (I might’ve just made that up. Actually – I definitely made that up.)
10: It’s like bread, pastry and cake all mixed together.

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Thomas Keller’s Fried Chicken

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Fried chicken

Update: I’ve revised this recipe to make it even better! Check out Azza fried chicken.

I’m slightly obsessed with fried chicken at the moment.

There was fried chicken on my birthday last month.
There was fried chicken after Christmas thanks to I-Hua and her awesome man.
There was fried chicken at St Katherine’s the other week.
And finally, on Sunday we had a Fried Chicken Party.

Mazzle, Bro and I recently had an email conversation where we sent each other fried chicken recipes that we found online. From there, it was only a small step to planning a Fried Chicken Party. We decided that Maz would make a batch of chicken using the St Katherine’s recipe (KFC) while I decided to follow in the footsteps of I-Hua’s man and use a Thomas Keller recipe from Ad Hoc at Home.

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Mango jelly and coconut panna cotta

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Mango jelly and coconut panna cotta

People are funny. Melbourne was pretty hot during the first couple of days of 2012. Admittedly, 40°C is fairly warm, but… it’s Melbourne. Summers get hot. Anyone who lives here knows that several 40°C days occur each summer – it’s not a new occurrence or anything unusual. Yet when they happen, it’s all anyone can talk about. Note that I include myself in that – I’m not saying that I’m any better. See? I’m talking about it right now! Oh no, I’m part of the problem!

But back to the heat (ha): when it’s going to be that hot, you need to be prepared. For example, when the temperatures start to reach the mid-30s, I don’t turn the oven on. But what to do when I need to prepare a dessert? Easy – something chilled like this mango jelly and coconut panna cotta is perfect. Minimal cooking and effort required, ensuring that the house and I both stay cool.

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Paleo granola

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I haven’t really been talking about it here but I’m still eating paleo most of the time (ie avoiding grains, starches, legumes, refined sugars, and dairy). As you can tell by what I’ve been posting, I’m not strict on it, and tend to have one/two meals a week that’s non-paleo. Last week was a blow out because it was birthday week, but I’m back on the train. Choo choo!

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Pressure cooker butter chicken

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Butter chicken

The best kitchen item we’ve bought this year has been a pressure cooker.

It’s fantastic! I can’t believe I resisted one for so long. We purchased an electric one because it also doubles as a slow cooker. It’s a massive beast of a machine, but I keep it out on my kitchen bench because I use it at least once a week. I love being able to throw a stew in there and have it ready in 30 minutes. It is so, so good.

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