Rain Drops and Jam Drops

Yet another rainy day although this time it's becoming an issue. Brisbane is flooding! My favourite park...gone! The river is rising, people are getting edgy and it seems like the entire population is heading to Indro shopping mall. It must be serious. So what do I do? Make some jam drops. Here is the recipe for Bill Granger's Jam Buttons - it's pretty delicious. They turned out light and fluffy which is excellent if that's your kind of thing. I'm more impartial to a stodgier, jam-ier (apologies for the word invention) version of ye old jam drop (thanks to Nanna whose jam drops will always be the best in the world). Nonetheless they are rather scrumptious so give it a whirl!

Jam Button's (taken from Bill Granger's Simply Bill cookbook)

250g unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
zest of 1 orange
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
250g (2 cups) plain flour, sifted
90g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
raspberry jam
blackberry jam
apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a large tray with baking paper. Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest with electric beaters until pale. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until combined. Fold in the flour and coconut. Roll tablespoon measures of the dough into balls, arrange on a baking tray about 2cm apart and press to flatten slightly. Make an indent in the centre of each one with your thumb. Place half a teaspoon of jam in each indent. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Makes 25-30.

New York I Love You

So it's a rainy Sunday morning and let's face it, i'm feeling a little under the weather after a big night out. What better time to make a nice hot cup of chai and perch on my window seat with my laptop admiring the soggy view. People in cyber space - I have news. I have been on a great adventure in which I probably ate my body weight in food, saw some great stuff, met some lovely people and learnt what it is to be an American. You heard it, I have been to the great land of America.

Having been to the US of A once before when I was about 8 my memories were a little fuzzy and I was under the impression that it was just a bigger, fatter version of Australia. I was pretty damn wrong. I love the US. The people there are lovely, they all LOVE their country which I think is fabulous and the food is nothing short of amazing. So on this wild adventure I went to New York, Boston and Portsmouth and then popped over to Canada to ski at Whistler for Christmas. Did I mention it was a family adventure? We caused quite the spectacle. Six people all squabbling over which direction to go, stopping traffic and giggling hysterically when times got a little tough.

What I am really wanting to write about is the food. Especially in New York. The thing that amazed me about New York was the diversity of the people there. Whilst sitting on the subway keenly searching for the mole people you would hear people speaking English, French, Italian, Hindi and a number of languages I thought sounded slightly reminiscent of a pig snorting but they might have been taking me for a ride (I do hear there are crazy people in New York). This diversity also corresponds to the food. We went to some amazing places - Eatily (an enormous Italian market serving the most delicious pasta I think I have ever had, all made fresh on site), Balthazar, the Spice Market and the restaurant (I cannot for the life of my remember it's name) in Grand Central Station are just a few of the places we whetted our culinary appetites. I won't go into the details of each place because frankly, I would be here all day but take my word for it - yum! I should have written about it at the time but I just couldn't be bothered so now the opportunity has gone poof like the vanilla cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery.

I will leave you at this, pictures will come later (all taken by my lovely sister, Eliza).

Toodooloo old chap.

PRAISE BE TO PORK BELLY

This post is an ode to an amazingly delicious yet heart stopping dish, pork belly. When I first came to Shanghai this was my dish of choice. Every time we ate out, that was what I ordered. That was until I found out what was in it. I was innocently watching a chinese cooking show on TV one morning when I saw the chef pour cups of sugar and lard (amongst other things) into a dish. What could it be? PORK BELLY. It was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen. So from that point on pork belly was no longer my go to dish on a night out. However, as horrifyingly bad this concoction may be for me, I still order it on occasion (very very special occasions) because it is so damn tasty. So my advice to you dear readers - if you haven't tried it, do! But exercise caution because you may very quickly become addicted.

Elalleqa friends.

Listing my life away...

What do you get when you mix a hungry Prue, an incredibly boring Chinese lesson and an imminent return to Australia? A list of all the food I have missed dearly and intend to purchase upon my return. Woolies here we come. Here is the aforementioned list, in random order.

Apples (not the shitty powdery chinese ones. I'm talking big, red, juicy, pink lady apples i.e. the bomb)
Grove OJ (only the pulpiest, most delicious OJ in all the land)
Grapes
Up&Go's
Chicken sangaassssssss
Milo!
Premier biscuits
Scones from Bakers Delight (kudos to the many friends who work there and never let me pay for my baked goods)
Mangoes
Strawberries
Go Natural muesli bars
Grain Waves
Muffin Break choc-chip muffin (they heat them up, the chocolate oozes...need I say more)
Everything from Chris's (my local fruit and veg shop/deli/provider of all things delish. EVERYTHING there is good from the caramel tarts, ravioli, greet yoghurt and of course the fruit and veg).

That just about sums up my list but it really does change by the day/hour/minute.

Au Revoirr

Easy Peasy Pancakes

 Here is a super easy pancake recipe that makes fluffy, delicious pancakes in the time it takes for you to realise that you really aren't that hungry but by then, batter in hand, you have passed the point of no return.That is, not very long at all.

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Whisk egg, milk, vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla essence together in a bowl. Add salt, flour and baking powder and mix (with fork/whisk) until batter is smooth. Use a little elbow grease (the smoother the batter, the better). Dunzo on the batter front.
Hopefully you know the pancake making drill but if you don't here are some instructions.
Put a pan on medium heat. Once hot, add a teaspoon or tablespoon (however glutinous you are feeling) of butter and swirl around until most of the pan is covered. Spoon/pour batter into the pan. You can make the pancakes any size you want but personally, I think coaster sized is best but feel free to go crazy. Wait until bubbles start to form on the top of the pancakes or until they move freely around the pan then flip them. Cook on other side for about 30 seconds (depends on pancake size but you don't need to cook them for nearly as long as the first side) then remove from pan and munch away!
                                   NOTE: THESE ARE NOT MY PANCAKES -- I WISH!

 How delish do these look! I would like to think that mine looked like that but honestly, they were gone too quickly to even think of making a stack and then drizzling them lovingly in maple syrup.

Totsiens

Stealing at Starbucks

So I went to dinner tonight at Amokka with some friends from uni and we got onto a topic that both intrigued and shocked me. The dialogue went a little like this...

Friend no. 1: "I finally managed to steal a Starbucks mug today, it's taken me so long to pluck up the courage."
Friend no. 2: "Aces! I've never managed to do it but xxxxxxxxx has like 30 that she has stolen over a couple of years"
Me: "So stealing starbucks mugs, is that some kind of freaky English rite of passage?"
Friend no. 1: "You've never done it?! Everybody has a stolen Starbucks mug"
Me: jaw on the floor and a shocked look on my face "you seriously do that!? Why bother?"


WTF!!! Should I jump on the band wagon and attempt to thieve a mug or stick to my small town morals???

Please inform me...does everyone wish to someday own (meant in the loosest sense of the word) their very own Starbucks mug, stolen with care and expertise, lovingly wrapped in the jumper you happened to be wearing at the time?

Tchau (the decision to use a german sign off is becuase my brother has taken to only speaking german on facebook. I can only imagine why but I thought I would embrace the trend!)

Muffin Jokes?

Just some high-larious muffin cartoons I found this morning when browsing google. Check it out...