Abercrombie & Feast

Just a quick post this week to apologise.  I realised yesterday that in the past few weeks I have written some very contradictory posts here.  One week I wrote about how I hate cold soups and the very next week I wrote a post raving about a cold soup that I loved. 

Then, last week, I wrote about salads.  I told you that I wasn’t doing much baking due to the hot weather here in Sydney.  But, despite the heat and its curl frizzing effects, I spent most of yesterday in front of the oven. 

So, to make it up to you and to win back your trust, I give you this recipe for Lime and Passionfruit cupcakes.  These are pretty much my ideal dessert.  Fruity and tangy, summery and sweet, really fun to make and eat. (I did not mean for the previous sentence to rhyme like that, but I like it and I’m leaving it in.) 

In fact, these cupcakes are so good that I ate one at 3.30 this morning.  I got up in the middle of the night to watch the inauguration celebration live from the US.  Alone in the dark with my cupcake, watching history being made on television, I felt really really happy. 

Let’s be honest, I probably won’t be any more consistent in the future.  But try these cupcakes and I bet you won’t care.

Lime and Passionfruit Cupcakes
(adapted from Australian Good Food)

Makes 12 cupcakes

2 passionfruit
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tbs finely grated lime zest

for the icing

3/4 cup pure icing sugar
juice of one lime

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

Using a fine sieve, strain the passionfruit pulp over a small bowl.  Reserve the seeds that are still in the sieve to be used in the icing.  The juice will be used in the cupcake batter.

With an electric mixer, beat together butter, sugar, eggs, flour, buttermilk, passionfruit juice and lime zest until combined.  Then, increase speed to medium and beat for about 3-4 mins. 

Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake pan.  Bake for 15-20 mins, or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Allow to cool briefly in the pan, then remove and allow to cool completely.

For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl.  Make sure it’s smooth without lumps.  Stir in the lime juice and the reserved passionfruit pulp.  The mixture should be thick, but not gluey.  If it’s too thick, add a bit more lime juice.  If it’s too runny, add more sugar.

Spread the icing on top of the cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

I can’t believe I am doing this.  I am actually about to give you all my top-secret, 100% delicious, world’s best guacamole recipe.  Yes.  It is that good. 

I have been making this recipe in exactly the same way for about 3 years now (with the glaring exception of our first 2 months in Australia when I didn’t know that coriander was the same herb as cilantro, just with a different Aussie name, and thought that it wasn’t available in Sydney… tragic).  I’m sure it’s not very authentic, but it’s so, so good.  This guacamole is my favourite thing to make for afternoon bbq’s, picnic days and any trip to see our friends the Goldbergs. 

The Goldbergs are a charming family who are also from the Atlanta area and have been fabulous friends to us since our move to AU.  We have attended many a horse race, Christmas carol sing-a-long and bbq with them, and they usually request that this guacamole make an appearance.  Last weekend, the Goldbergs hosted one of their semi-regular poker nights, so the guac was in attendance. 

Before I get too far into the guacamole portion of the evening, I’d just like to spend a few minutes quietly telling you about the achievements of one of the poker players on this particular evening.  I WON!  I WON WON WON!  I WAS THE WINNER!  WINNER! CHICKEN DINNER!  I suck at poker and another player had to actually lend me a copy of her cheat sheet, but I was victorious.  A triumph never to be repeated, I’m sure, but I will forever live with the memory of my glory.

Ok.  Just had to get that out of my system. 

So, back to the guacamole.  I started making it like this after a visit to Harry’s market in Atlanta.  I was just about to buy a tub of ready-made guacamole when I decided to read the ingredients list.  It was so simple!  I could literally buy all the ingredients and make it myself more cheaply and more deliciously because I could add ingredients in proportions that seemed tasty to ME.  More chilli!  More garlic! So, on that afternoon, I made guacamole.  And I had to stop myself from eating the whole bowl of it with a spoon.  And the rest is heaven-on-a-corn-chip history. 

The lovely and talented Miss Amanda Goldberg helped me assemble the guacamole for the Goldberg’s poker night last weekend (I didn’t want to make it too far in advance and risk the avocado discolouring) and her adorable friend from London actually took these pictures. 

The girls then proceeded to wow us with their living room gymnastics routine and their multiple costume changes throughout the night.  Thanks girls!!

Greatest Guacamole

3 avocados
2 cloves of garlic
2 red chillis
1 handful of coriander (cilantro)
2 tomatoes
1 purple onion
2 limes
olive oil

It is important to add these ingredients in the order they appear here.  You’re building up the flavour and you want to give the garlic, chillis and coriander some time to infuse with the lovely avocado. 

Start by scooping out the flesh of the avocados into a large bowl.  Mash with a fork to get rid of any huge lumps.

Very finely dice the garlic.  You don’t want any lumps of garlic, so you’ll need to spend a few minutes really chopping this well.  Add the garlic to the avocados and mix.

Finely dice the chillis.  You can use fewer chillis if you’d like.  When I made this for the poker night I used less than 2 chillis, but when I make it at home I use more.  It’s up to you.  Add the chillis to the avocados and mix.

Wash and chop the coriander and add it to the avocados and mix.

Chop the tomatoes and add to the avocados. 

Chop the onions and add to the avocados.

Add a dash (about a tsp) of olive oil and mix well. 

Add the juice of both limes and mix well.  Taste.  Add salt if you’d like (I never do, but if you must, go ahead.) 

Put the guacamole in the fridge for at least 20 mins to let all the flavours mingle and become best mates.  Then enjoy the guac with cold beers, corn chips and some of your best mates!