Abercrombie & Feast

I use the word muffin a great deal in my every day life.  It is one of my favourite terms of endearment.  For example, when a friend calls to share exciting news, like the purchase of a new handbag, I say, “Oh muffin!  That’s great!”  Or if a co-worker has a bad day and breaks the copy machine I say, “Ouch, muffin.  That sucks.” 

At one point, while I was living in South Dakota and working on a Senate campaign, I even started trying to determine what type of muffin everyone in my office would be.  Some people were apple cinnamon muffins.  Some people were corn muffins.  Some people were those yucky bran muffins.  It’s my theory that everyone has a type of muffin that fits their personality.  I like to think I would be a blueberry muffin with a lemon glaze… a classic with a tart and tangy twist. 

Wow.  I am kind of a huge dork.

I recently made these Italian muffins and loved them.  And not just because I am a fan of muffins.  These are really good.  Savoury and cheesy and full of flavour.  These make your house smell amazing while they are baking and make your tummy happy while you’re eating them.  They would be ideal for a brunch or to bring along on a picnic.  I also really like them with soup, particularly tomato soup.  Yum!

I wonder what kind of person would be an Italian muffin?  It would have to be someone slightly unconventional, but still really popular.  Someone who gets along with everyone.  Someone who smells good and makes you happy.  Someone who wears a little sun-dried tomato on their head.  If you can think of anyone, let me know. 

Italian Muffins
Adapted from Delicious magazine

Makes 12

3 cups self-rising flour
40 grams butter, chilled
(This is a hard measurement to convert for those of you playing along in the US.  30 grams of butter is 1/8 cup.  55 grams of butter is 1/4 cup.  So aim for somewhere in the middle and “she’ll be right” as we say in Australia.)
2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tbs sun-dried tomato pesto
(I didn’t have sun-dried tomato pesto and I wasn’t going to buy it for 2 tbs.  Instead, I used a marinade that I had in the fridge with tomato, basil and chilli and it turned out really well.  You could use anything you want here.  Regular pesto would be great.)
2 cups buttermilk
12 quarters sun-dried tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F.  Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.

Sift the flour into a large bowl.  Add a pinch of salt and rub in the butter with your fingers until combine.  Alternatively, combine the flour, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until combined.  Stir through the oregano and the cheese.

Whisk the tomato pesto (or whatever pesto you decide to use) into the buttermilk.  Add 3/4 of the liquid to the flour mixture and stir.  Slowly stir in the rest of the liquid until you have a soft dough.

Fill the muffin cases with the mixture and place a sun-dried tomato quarter on top of each muffin. 

Bake for 25 mins or until golden and cooked through.  Serve warm.

We’ve been planning our move to Europe for almost a year now.  No firm plans were made until more recently, but we knew we would leave Australia in April, 2009.  There are a variety of reasons for our move.  Our visas are expiring, we’re ready for new jobs, we want to explore Europe the way we’ve been able to explore Asia, we’d like to be a little closer to our families for a while. 

So, more than 10 months ago we decided to move out of our lovely, sunny apartment in Woollahra.  We wanted to find someplace a little smaller and cheaper so we could save money for our impending move.  It’s not cheap to move to the other side of the world. 

And here we are.  In our little one-bedroom apartment in Bondi Junction.  We have a lovely sun-room, where I am currently sitting as I type this.  The kitchen is much bigger than the one we left.  There are some benefits to living here.  But right now, I am having trouble focussing on anything but the Big Move.

I am surrounded by boxes and suitcases.  Half of our furniture is gone.  We have started the process of saying goodbye to all of our friends.  We are moving.  So, when it came time to tell you a story of our life in this apartment, I totally blanked.  All I can see when I look around this apartment right now is the passage of things from one life to the next.  The ending of our time in Australia and the beginning of our time in England. 

This is both very exciting and a little scary.  I can’t wait to board our flight to our new home.  To arrive with my shiny new passport and be greeted by the people we will live with for the next few years.  To experience my first “English summer” (an oxymoron I’m told.)  I know I will be homesick for Sydney, but I am thrilled to begin this new adventure!

So instead of telling a tale of the history of our time in this apartment, I’m going to tell you about the present.  What we’re doing right now.  I’m home today, putting more clothes in a suitcase than should really fit.  Andy is at work.  Tonight my friend from work will be coming by to pick up the dresser she is buying from us.  I will chill a bottle of white wine (we’ve still got a fair amount of wine to drink before we leave!) and I will make a simple dinner in the few pots and pans that we have left. 

I’m not sure what I’m making tonight, but last night it was risotto.  An easy, straightforward dinner that can be made in one pot.  A creamy, savoury rice dish that satisfies without leaving you feeling too full.  For the past week, all I’ve wanted to cook was comfort food.  The kind of food that makes you think about home.  I think this is a reaction to all the upheaval in our lives right now.  It’s still hot here, so lots of stews and casseroles aren’t really a great idea.  But, risotto fit the bill perfectly. 

This will be my final “official” post from Sydney.  I’ve got several other recipes and stories lined up to fill this space while we’re off moving abroad, so you won’t miss me.  I’ll tune back in when we’ve settled somewhere.  If comment approval is a little slow in the next month, forgive me.  I’ve got boxes on my mind and risotto in my tummy.  It’s all happening!

Sage and Pancetta Risotto with Asparagus

The great thing about risotto is that you can use up whatever is already in your kitchen.  I had sage left over from a recipe I made last week, and the rest of a bag of baby spinach kicking around in my fridge.  Together with some pancetta and asparagus, we had a delicious dinner with very little fuss. 

Serves 4

4 slices of pancetta, diced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 sage leaves, finely sliced
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
350g (about 1.5 cups) arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock
1 small bunch asparagus
1 cup lightly packed baby spinach leaves
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a small saucepan. 

Fry the pancetta in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium / high heat.  Once the pancetta is crisp remove it from the pot and place on a paper towel lined plate. 

Add the olive oil and butter to the pan.  Put the onions, sage and garlic in the pot and stir until soft and beginning to brown. 

Stir in the arborio rice and the pancetta.  Stir this mix together for a few minutes to “toast” the rice.  Add the wine and stir frequently until the rice has absorbed the wine. 

Add chicken stock a ladle at a time to the rice, always keeping the mixture wet.  Stir frequently.  As the rice absorbs the stock, add more.  You may not need all of the stock. 

Continue to add the stock to the rice mixture until the rice is “done”.  It will still have a bit of a bite, but will be mostly soft and creamy. 

Stir in the asparagus and the spinach and cook until the asparagus is slightly tender. 

Serve in bowls, topped with grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. 

I love to entertain.  My husband could tell you that an evening on the couch with me can be high entertainment depending on my mood.  As a former theatre student, putting on a show is one of my favourite things to do.

Our second apartment in Sydney, a bright and sunny two bedroom apartment on the 19th floor, was a perfect backdrop for many, many entertaining opportunities during our 2 1/2 years there.  The kitchen was tiny, but the view made up for that and more.  A sweeping, uninterrupted view of the south end of Sydney and out to the airport and Botany Bay.  We could sit with a drink on our tiny balcony and watch planes land all day.

Sunrise and fog from our apartment in Woollahra

Sunset over the Sydney Football Stadium

But as nice as it was to have a quiet drink on the little balcony, I liked it better when our apartment was full of friends.  So we hosted birthday parties, engagement parties, drama class graduation parties, our annual Cinco de Mayo party and scores of good old fashioned dinner parties. 

One dinner party in particular stands out in my memory of that time. 

I had just finished taking a one day course on traditional Indian cooking.  I learned to make butter chicken, dahl, beef madras and other tasty treats.  The cooking class itself was hilarious.  The class took place in a junior high school on a Saturday morning.  I was there with two other friends and we were painfully hung over.  The teacher hadn’t purchased enough supplies, so there weren’t enough onions to go around, and the ones she did buy were well past their prime.  I spent all morning trying not to fall asleep at the stove.  When I did finally get home and go to sleep I awoke to sheets that smelled like curry.  Not an auspicious beginning to my Indian cookery adventures.

However, I am nothing if not fearless.  And slightly stupid.  And a big fat show-off.  So I organised an Indian themed dinner party for the following week to demonstrate my new skills to my friends.  And I invited… a man from India.  See, that’s where the fearless stupidity comes in.  Who does that?  I was setting myself up for failure.

The menu was complex, but I had all day to work on it.  I had bought a lovely piece of shimmery blue fabric that looked like sari material to use as a table cloth.  I set the table and downloaded some Indian music.  I was in the zone. 

Everyone arrived and snacked on the pakora’s that I was frying up and serving with my homemade tomato chutney.  The chutney got a great response and I was starting to feel calmer.  We sat down for the main course and everyone ate well, having seconds and thirds of some of the dishes.  For dessert my lovely friend from India had brought traditional Indian sweets and we enjoyed them with port and whisky.  Everyone seemed happy and in good spirits.  No one got sick the next day.  It was a success!

There would be more successful evenings, and a fair few failures in our apartment in Woollahra.  We moved away from that apartment about 10 months ago.  And while I loved our apartment in Kings Cross and I love our current apartment near Bondi Junction, I know that when I think back on our time in Sydney I will remember that apartment set high up above Woollahra as our home. 

Tomato Chutney
This is easily the nicest recipe that I learned in the Indian cooking class.  It is easy, stores well in the fridge and tastes amazing.  You can serve it as a dipping sauce, on top of fish or chicken or pork, as a sandwich spread, etc. 

2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp chopped fresh curry leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 large clove chopped garlic
1 chopped green chilli
2 cans crushed / diced tomatoes, drained
2 tsp curry powder
salt and sugar to taste

Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Add the curry leaves, cumin and mustard seeds and fry for 3-4 minutes, until the mustard seeds are fragrant and beginning to pop.

Add the garlic and the chilli and fry for another minute. 

Stir in the tomatoes and reduce heat to medium / low.  Allow to reduce until thick, about 20-25 minutes. 

Stir in the curry powder.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and sugar as needed. 

Cool in the fridge until ready to use. 

But I did know that I was happy to be in Australia with my long term boyfriend, I was excited to see Sydney and make new friends, and I was going to continue learning to cook for my boyfriend and our friends.

This photo is from our first week in Sydney, March 2005

Within two weeks we’d found an apartment in the neighbourhood of Kings Cross.  It was a modern apartment with marble floors and an open living area in a secure building.  It was a 4 minute walk to the grocery store and the train.  We loved it!  It was the first apartment we’d picked out together and the first time we’d bought furniture together.  I loved being at the very centre of this new, shiny city. 

Some people laughed when we said we lived in Kings Cross.  You see, in Sydney, Kings Cross is known as a “dodgy” area.  Lots of clubs and bars and establishments where ladies take their clothes off for money.  We didn’t live in that part of the neighbourhood, but we could still hear the parties and the clubs and the people calling for taxis at 4am. 

But none of that bothered us at all.  We felt lucky to have a beautiful apartment that was so close to the shops and the trains.  We felt lucky to be right at the heart of our new city.  We felt lucky to be together. 

And we had lots of fun in our Kings Cross apartment!  We had dinner parties, my parents came to stay for several weeks, we explored our new city and Andy and I started to make Sydney our home.

Mom and Dad under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, June 2005

It was a sunny day and we threw the baseball and watched the sailboats coming in and out of the bay and we talked about how happy we were in Sydney and how happy we were together.  And then Andy said, “Will you marry me?”  And he gave me the most beautiful engagement ring I’d ever seen.  I cried and we laughed and suddenly life in Sydney was even better.

The view at Rushcutters Bay on 24 September, 2005

And… so will this recipe for Gorgonzola cream sauce.  I had already planned to have a special dinner that day, but it turned into a celebration of our engagement and our life in Sydney.  I’m actually pretty confident that I didn’t cook this very well- I kept stopping to look at my gorgeous ring and to kiss my gorgeous new fiance- but it was delicious and I’ve made it again since and always been pleased with the results.  Gorgonzola cream sauce can make any meal feel like a celebration, and can make a celebration feel even more memorable. 

Gorgonzola Cream Sauce
(adapted from the Barefoot Contessa)

Makes 1 1/2 cups

2 cups heavy cream
50 grams or 2 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
2 tbs freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan.  Boil for about 30-35 minutes, until the cream is thick like a white sauce.  Stir occasionally.

Remove the cream sauce from the heat.

Add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt and pepper.  Whisk rapidly to melt the cheeses.  Serve warm. 

I have four different containers of olives in my fridge right now.  Two of the containers hold black kalamata olives (how did I end up with two of those?), one has green olives in a Mediterranean marinade and the other has a mixture of stuffed olives. 

This is not particularly interesting news unless you knew us about four years ago.  Back then, I only ate black olives, and then only really on pizza.  Andy did not like olives at all and wouldn’t have anything to do with them.  We were pretty much an olive-free household. 

I’m telling you this to illustrate how far we’ve come in four short years.  Back then we were Americans living in Georgia.  Now we are an American and an Irish / American living in Australia.  Back then we were dating.  Now we have been married for almost three years.  Back then we didn’t eat olives.  Now we have four different kinds in our home every day.  What a difference four years has made.

And the changes just keep on coming.  We’ve got some rather large changes happening around our place right now.  It’s all very exciting and very time consuming… hence this short post.  I will be back here soon with a lot more details on the happenings at the Abercrombie household. 

In the meantime, why not try our favourite new way of eating olives… homemade olive tapenade?  I made this on Wednesday afternoon and we had it stirred through pasta with chicken and french beans for dinner.  But, it’s also lovely as a dip for pita bread, as a sandwich spread, as a topping on grilled fish or tossed with some steamed vegetables.  Four years ago I probably wouldn’t have made this.  Now, I had to stop myself from licking the bowl.

Homemade Olive Tapenade

Makes about 1/3 cup tapenade

This recipe is fairly easy and can be adjusted a great deal to suit your personal tastes.  I love the strong flavours of chilli and garlic, so I use a lot of them in this tapenade.  But, if that’s not your thing, feel free to reduce the amounts and add flavours that you like.  Some basil would be great in this, as would some oregano.  Also, you don’t have to use all black olives.  I’ve made this with a mix of black and green olives in the past and it is amazingly good. 

about 1 cup of kalamata olives, pitted
2 small cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
olive oil
cracked pepper

Finely chop the olives.  This will take a while, but you want it to be very well chopped.  Once you’ve cut the olives into small pieces, run your knife through them again several times.

Very finely chop the garlic and the chilli.  Again, run your knife over the mixture several times to really get the pieces small. 

Mix the olives, garlic and chilli together.  Add about 1 tbs olive oil to bring together.  Taste.  Add pepper as needed.