halloween, pt 1

Had a fantastic Halloween weekend in New Orleans. (I took my Pentax, so have been waiting to get my film processed before posting about it, and still have another roll to finish.)

We had weekend passes to the Voodoo festival. We saw Jonsi (who was wonderful!), a bit of Weezer, Muse, Florence and the Machine, White Rabbits, Janelle Monae (had a stage and time change, then started 45 minutes late, but was still good), Interpol (one of our favourite bands, always good live) and MGMT.

The venue, City Park, was great. Although the main stages were out in the open and got quite hot in the middle of the day, there were lots of nice big trees and shaded areas to sit. Pretty good food stalls too, lots of local food.

We also fit in a visit to the aquarium, and a couple of very tasty meals in the French Quarter at Deanie's Seafood (incredible charbroiled oysters and BBQ shrimp) and Crescent City Brewhouse (nice beers brewed in-house, and good food to match –
we had a deli platter, more baked oysters and hot wings. Yum).

Hope you had an enjoyable Halloween. And if you want to see, there are more photos on Flickr.

a pictureless post

My computer died on me the other week. I opened the lid to wake it up and about
10 seconds later, the screen went black, and it wouldn't boot up again. It's off now getting a new logic board. Fingers crossed it comes back to me ok. I'm hoping I haven't lost anything from my hard drive, as I haven't backed it up for... ever.
For now I'm using Jon's old, slow computer, so I'm not going to upload any new photos (sorry!).

Anyway, hope you had a nice weekend. Ours started early on Saturday morning
with a phone call from a friend's bucks party (in Melbourne). The phone got passed around, so Jon got a quick catch up with a few friends. Afterwards, we headed in
to LSU for an all-you-can-eat pancakes fundraiser, and stopped by Mike the tiger's enclosure (LSU has a live mascot!). We went out to BJ's for dinner (burger and pizza, good beer and a very excellent cookies 'n cream pizookie for dessert). The restaurant is part of the Mall of Louisiana, so after dinner, we went for a walk round the shops. Yesterday, we drove out to Gonzales for some more (outlet) shopping, and stopped in at Latte e Miele on the way home for some delicious gelato. Fun!

RECIPE : butter pecan ice cream

I love ice cream. It's one of my absolute favourite things to eat. Strangely though (and despite the fact I enjoy cooking/baking), I'd never really considered making
my own. After spotting these groovy ice cream makers on special at Sur la table,
we decided to buy one (in blue. The colour is really nice in person, quite purpley).
I searched the interweb, and we picked butter pecan for our first batch, though I bookmarked quite a few other recipes I'd also like to try.

Recipe from here and the video here (mostly for the directions)
Makes about 1.5 litres

Ingredients
1 stick (approx 115g) butter
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar (we found the end result pretty sweet, so might try 1/2 or 2/3 cup next time)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Melt the butter in a pan, add pecans. Cook until lightly browned. Remove from heat and strain, reserving the butter. Allow pecans to cool completely before use.

Heat milk and cream in a saucepan. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. Pour cream and milk into egg mix slowly while whisking (a tea towel or damp paper towel under the bowl helps keep it from slipping around on your bench). Once combined, add cream and egg mix back into saucepan and continue heating. At this point, I added a few spoonfuls of the pecan infused butter. Once this is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, strain into a bowl and add the vanilla. Cover with cling film (with the cling film sitting on the surface of the mix, this will prevent it from developing a skin), and refrigerate until chilled.

Assemble ice cream maker and switch on. Slowly pour in ice cream mix and churn for 20-25 minutes. Add pecans and churn for further 5 minutes. Transfer to a container and freeze 3-4 hours until firm.

Great on its own, even better in a waffle cone :)

a new favourite summer dinner

Now that crawfish season is over, our almost weekly (!) dinners of boiled craw, corn and potatoes have been replaced by tacos. They are the perfect meal for this warm weather. My hub (the bread man) makes great flour tortillas from scratch, and we fill them with guacamole, grilled and sliced steak or seafood, salsa (whatever kind we are in the mood to make), and grilled spring/green onion. So simple, so good!

(The above photos are from last weekend. Fish and prawn tacos with grilled tomatillo salsa. Yum yum yum...)

the long weekend and other stuff (mostly food related)

We had a pretty foody long weekend here for the 4th of July. It was also Jon's birthday, and good birthdays usually involve indulging in great food – and cake,
of course!

We spent the evening of the 4th in downtown BR, on the bank of the Mississippi. We ran into some friends from Jon's work, and ended up sitting with them. We listened to music, shared plates of funnel cakes, drank beer and enjoyed the fireworks after the sun went down. The show finished around 9.30, so we all went out for one more round of drinks, and finished with giant slices of pizza from Schlittz & Giggles (sort of dinner, as we hadn't eaten anything except the funnel cake), before heading home.

For Jon's bday, we went out for a nice dinner at Ruffino's Saturday night. We shared a ridiculously rich pork belly dish, and had some lovely creme brulee. With dessert, Jon ordered a scotch, and was surprised when he was brought a full glass (about four shots)! At home, we made a layer cake using recipes from the King Arthur book we got. Our yellow cake turned out nicely, quite dense and moist. For the icing, we thought we'd try the silky buttercream (sugar syrup poured into whisked egg whites, with a heap of butter whipped in). It sure turned out silky smooth, and very buttery. Pretty good though. (Here's a pic.)

While I'm on the subject of food, last night I made double broccoli quinoa for dinner. With the chilli oil, avocado and feta on top – deeelicious! I've tried a couple of recipes from 101 cookbooks now, and they are really good. Would definitely recommend taking a look if you're in need of any tasty vegetarian recipes.

Also, this afternoon I baked some banana bread (recipe here, but I added chopped dates and fresh blueberries). Fortunately/unfortunately (I'm not sure which), I'm the only one 'round here who likes banana bread, so I'm going to slice and freeze it. When I feel like some for breakfast or lunch, I can just pull out a slice or two, pop into the toaster and enjoy with a cup of tea. Very nice.

attention : people who like food!

I've just added a little spot on the sidebar (to the right, below the tweets) for the recipes I've posted (all tried and guaranteed tasty). Hope you can try some.

RECIPE : anzacs

So, this isn't a Southern recipe, but I thought I'd post it anyway because I made them for Australia Day. I've always thought Anzacs are best chewy, so this is a good recipe.

Recipe from Taste
Makes about 24

Ingredients
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (85g) desiccated coconut
3/4 cup (155g) brown sugar
125g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Directions
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, coconut and brown sugar.

Put the butter, golden syrup and 2 tbsp water in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until melted. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place on the trays, about 5cm apart.

Press with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Set aside on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack so they cool completely.

back to the french quarter

We spent another afternoon in New Orleans last Thursday. We had a visitor from Australia, and it was my 25th birthday – good reasons to head down to the big easy.
We basically spent the afternoon eating, drinking and walking through the French Quarter. I took a few photos, though they're mainly of building signs, like this...

You can see more on Flickr.

RECIPE : shrimp and grits

We tried grits for the first time a few weeks ago (warm with cheese, like in this recipe), and it's delicious. This is pretty quick and simple to make, but very tasty!

Recipe adapted from Martha Nesbit/Bobby Flay, Food Network
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cups water
Salt and pepper
1 cup stone-ground grits (could substitute with polenta if you can't get grits)
2-3 tablespoons butter
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (we used a combo of mostly cheddar and some parmesan)
455g shrimp/prawns, peeled and deveined
6 rashers bacon, chopped
4 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 cup spring onions, thinly sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
we also added some cayenne pepper and a pinch of paprika for more spice

Directions
Bring 3 cups of the water to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Add grits to one cup water, mix, then stir in to the boiling water (this will help prevent lumps) and cook until water is absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and cheese.

Rinse shrimp and pat dry. Fry the bacon in a large skillet until browned; drain well (but leave a little fat in the pan). Add shrimp and cook until pink. Add lemon juice, bacon, parsley, spring onion and garlic. Saute for 3 minutes.

Spoon grits into a serving bowl. Add shrimp mixture and mix well. Serve immediately. (Was good with some asparagus on the side.)

RECIPE : pumpkin cupcakes

We are getting in to the spirit of Halloween here, and carved some jack o lanterns which we'll light on Saturday night. We're not sure whether we'll get any trick or treaters since we're in an apartment complex. I'm hoping we do. We have some chocolates ready just in case... (and if not, well, I guess it's all for us. A win-win situation really).

Anyway, with a big bowl full of good pumpkin flesh scraped out, I thought I'd make something tasty, and found this nice recipe. I'm not sure about the canned solid-pack pumpkin... I've not seen this before, and not sure why it even exists. It sounds like something Sandra Lee would use in one of her 'semi-homemade' recipes, even with stacks of pumpkins around like there are now. Yes, we think 'half-baked' is a more accurate description of her 'cooking'. Anyway, I microwaved/steamed the flesh with a little water, and mashed it to use in this.

Recipe adapted from Honey & Jam (which was adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Makes 17-18 cupcakes (I made a half batch, which was enough for about 36 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients
CUPCAKES
1 stick (approx 115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 cups cake flour*

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger
 (I didn't have any, but grated in a little fresh ginger when adding the pumpkin)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 large eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin

* I hadn't heard of cake flour before, but looked it up and found a substitute recipe here. The cornflour with plain flour seemed to work out fine.

ICING
Two 8-ounce packages (approx 455g) cream cheese, softened

1 stick (approx 115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups pure icing sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

So, for a half batch of the cupcake mix, I made about a quarter batch of this icing. I hardly measure anything when making icing anyway, just throw it all in! Inspired by this Jamie recipe, I decided to add some lemon zest instead of the maple syrup, and a dash of milk.

Directions
Make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350° (175°C). Line a cupcake pan with liners.
In a stand mixer (or by hand with a wooden spoon like I did!), beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl.
Add the eggs one at a time to the mixer, scraping down the sides after each addition. Alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the pumpkin until smooth. Scoop the batter in to the cupcake liners — you’re looking to get them 3/4 full.
Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on racks completely.

Make the icing:

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. If you are doing this by hand, I'd recommend beating the cream cheese and butter together first, to soften. Then, sift in the icing sugar bit by bit, to avoid lumps.

Enjoy! They are quite delicious. I'm off to make pumpkin scones and soup for dinner.

RECIPE : chilli

Recipe adapted from Emeril Lagasse, Food Network
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons oil
1 pound (about 450g) ground beef
1 cup chopped brown onion
3/4 tablespoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bottle dark beer
1 (400g) can crushed/diced tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions
Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over high heat. Add the beef and brown well, about
10 minutes. Add the onions, chilli powder, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, and bay leaf and cook, stirring often, until the onions soften, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beer and cook until the foam subsides, about 1 minute. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and sugar to the pot.
Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent the chilli from sticking to the bottom
of the pot.

Jon had some chilli in a hot dog, I had it on a baked potato with cheese and coleslaw. We had the left overs with coleslaw and fresh tomato salsa in tortillas. Yum!

RECIPE : fish tacos

Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay, Food Network
Makes 8

Ingredients
TACOS
1 pound white flaky fish
1/4 cup canola oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
8 flour tortillas

COLESLAW
White cabbage, finely shredded
Carrot, grated
Red onion, finely sliced
Mayonnaise and/or sour cream
Squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper

TOMATO SALSA
2 tablespoon oil
1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 chilli, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon oregano
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
Salt and pepper

AVOCADO
1 avocado, flesh smashed
Squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, chilli powder, jalapeno, and coriander and pour over the fish. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the fish from the marinade place onto a hot grill, flesh side down. Grill the fish for 4 minutes on the first side and then flip for 30 seconds and remove. Let rest for 5 minutes then flake the fish with a fork.

Place the tortillas on the grill and grill for 20 seconds. Divide the fish among the tortillas and serve with the coleslaw, salsa and avocado.

For the salsa:
Heat oil in medium saucepan, add onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add tomatoes, chilli and jalapeno and cook until tomatoes are soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Puree the mixture with a hand-held blender or crush with potato masher and cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Add the hot sauce, oregano, coriander and lime juice, and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

RECIPE : lemon iced tea

Iced tea (sweetened and unsweetened) is very popular here. It's nice and refreshing on a hot day. I know it's winter in Australia (with some wild weather in Melbourne we hear), so you might have to wait til the weather warms up to try it out.

Recipe from Ina Garten, Food Network
Makes lots

Ingredients
4 tea bags
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (5 to 6 lemons)
1/2 cup superfine (caster) sugar
3 lemon slices

Directions
Steep the tea bags in 4 cups of boiling water for 10 minutes. Discard the tea bags and allow the tea to cool.

Combine the lemon juice, sugar and 4 cups of cold water in a large pitcher. Add the tea and lemon slices. Serve over ice.

RECIPE : chicken and smoked sausage etouffee

Etouffee is a Cajun dish, popular in southern Louisiana. We saw it made on Tyler's Ultimate (Ultimate French Quarter episode), while in LA and had been keen to make it since. This can also be made with seafood – here it would be crawfish or shrimp. The smoked sausage and chicken were great though, and this turned out better than what we've had at restaurants. Would highly recommend giving this
a try.

Recipe from Tyler Florence, Food Network
Serves 4

Ingredients
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 andouille sausages (or other smoked sausages)
4 pieces chicken maryland or thigh (with bone)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or salted would be fine)
3/4 cup plain flour
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
1 green capsicum, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 (stubby) beer (newcastle brown ale worked well)
4 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons paprika (or to taste, we put in about 3 tablespoons)
Pinch cayenne pepper (or to taste, we put in about 2 teaspoons)
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 spring onions, chopped (we didn't put any in)

Directions
Set a Dutch oven (cast iron pot) over medium heat and add a 2-count (a couple of tablespoons) of olive oil. Add the sausages and brown slightly. Remove and set aside on paper towel. Season chicken with plenty of salt and pepper and add skin side down to the pan. Cook over medium heat for 7 to 10 minutes, then turn to brown both sides of the chicken. Remove and set aside on paper towel.

With the pot still over medium heat add 2 tablespoons butter to melt with the fat (from the sausage and chicken) then add flour and whisk to incorporate, and then swap to a wooden spoon. Cook until it is nice and brown (you want a nice deep rich coloured roux – aim for the colour of peanut butter), about 10 to 12 minutes.

In a food processor add the onion, celery, capsicum, and garlic, and pulse to roughly chop. Add the vegetable pulp to the pot with the roux and stir with a wooden spoon. Cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes to sweat out some of the moisture, then deglaze the pot with the beer. Add the stock, bay leaves, paprika and cayenne. Return the chicken pieces to the pot and simmer until the chicken is tender, about 1 hour. Remove the chicken pieces from pot to a cutting board and shred the meat. Discard the bones and return the meat to the pot. Cut the andouille sausage into chunks and nestle back into the pot amongst chicken to heat through.

Give it all a final taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with plenty of parsley and spring onion. Serve with rice.

weekend

It's Monday again, which means we've been in our apartment for a week (and in BR for three already). We spent the weekend pretty well – starting off on Saturday morning at the Red Stick Farmers Market in town. It wasn't as big as we were expecting, but seemed to have some good fresh veggies (not so much fruit). They also had a couple of stall holders selling seafood like shrimp (prawns) and crab. We picked up some potatoes, jalapenos (which I stuffed and baked, see below), and a tabasco chilli plant. I repotted the plant today and it's sitting on our balcony. Hopefully soon we can get some herbs growing out there too.

Jon heard from someone at work that there are a couple of asian grocers here. Keen to make fried noodles, the asian grocers were our next stop after the market. We found everything we needed from the Saigon Hong Kong Seafood Market – fish, soy and oyster sauces, fresh rice noodles, chinese broccoli. We also picked up a cheap mortar and pestle. It was great, just like any shop we've been in at Box Hill or Springvale. Vietnamese music playing in the background, Hennessy behind the counter, food sitting out that should be in a fridge... there were some pretty funky smells coming from the 'seafood section' too...

After a chat on Skype, we headed out to Ralph & Kacoo's for dinner. This place was recommended to us by a girl from the local cupcake shop for some Louisiana cuisine. Jon had shrimp topped steak, and I tried the Atchafalaya. Not bad, but maybe not the 'seafood excitement' the front door told us we'd get.

On Sunday, we had brunch at IHOP. Light, fluffy pancakes drenched with pecan maple syrup. Need I say more?!

We've passed a shed style fruit and veg shop called Southside Produce a number of times, and this weekend we actually went in to get a few things for the week's meals. It was great – everything seemed fresh and seasonal, but they also had some nice looking breads (not just the sugary, over packaged crap they sell at the shops – hence my bread baking), olive oils, dairy products, local sauces and honeys. Will definitely go back.

In the afternoon, I stuffed and baked the jalapenos from the market (recipe here). I used salami instead of chorizo and didn't bother with the egg though. They turned out deliciously hot and cheesy, mmm! For dinner, Jon made a favourite – fried noodles. The chinese broccoli we bought was a little bitter, but other than that, they were tasty!