Chic chooks and cosy blankets...

My favourite night in winter is Sunday night. There is something undeniably wonderful about lighting a fire, cosying up small creatures (ie children and Jack Russells) in warm blankets, uncorking a cheeky red and getting busy in the kitchen.

Last night I turned to Sean Moran’s “Let it Simmer” for inspiration. Back in my days at Elle magazine, Sundays without fail would be a chic, cosy comfort meal at his Bondi Beach restaurant, Sean’s Panaroma. I may now be gazing at a different coastline, but I can throw together his fab food myself and get all sentimental. One of my favourite dishes is his incredibly fragrant and flavoursome Good Chook, roasted with Oregano and served with Creamed Corn. It is not the quickest dish to make but well worth the effort and is ideally followed by a second bottle of red by the fire.

Here’s to Sunday’s with Sean, chic chooks, dogs in blankets and cheeky reds. Snuggle up and enjoy.

Good Chook, roasted with Oregano and served with Creamed Corn
Serves 4

• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 generous handfuls oreganosalt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 heaped tablespoons duck fat or butter
• 1 x 1.8-2 kg free-range chook
• 1 lemon
• 8 salad onions
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 500 ml chicken stock
• 250 ml dry white wine

Creamed Corn

• 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 large onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 cobs fresh corn
• 50 ml olive oil
• 6 sprigs thyme
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 250 ml Chook Stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel 2 of the cloves of garlic and pick oregano leaves then grind to a smooth paste in a mortar and pestle with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Mix duck fat or butter through paste.

With legs of the chook pointing toward you, slip your fingers under the breast skin to free it from the flesh, pushing carefully all the way down to the wing-bone joint on both sides, then slide seasoned fat in under the skin being careful not to puncture it as you go. Cut lemon in half and squeeze as you insert each half inside cavity of chook. Pull breast skin tightly toward you and make a small incision at the central point, about 1 cm intop of cavity, then tuck the end of each drumstick through this hole so that the legs cross. At the other end of the bird, tuck any excess neck skin underneath and twist each wing tip back and under for support in the baking dish.

Trim onions, leaving a 3-4 cm of green stalk then peel. Whisk tomato paste with a little stock until smooth, then stir in remaining stock.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Pour wine into a suitably large, heavy-based baking dish and add onions.  Sit chook in dish breast-side up, then pour stock mixture over bird and season well. Roast for 20 mins, then turn bird onto its side and return to oven for another 20 mins. Turn bird again for a final 20 mins, adding remaining unpeeled garlic cloves to dish. Remove from oven and rest for 20-30 mins.  Leave oven on.

While the chook is roasting, make the creamed corn…
In a small dry fry pan, toast cumin seeds over a low flame until fragrant, then cool and grind. Peel onion and chop roughly. Peel and crush garlic. Strip ears and silk from corn and cut kernels away from cob by running a sharp cook’s knife down sides, being careful to avoid any tough husk.

Heat oil in a small, heavy based pan over a moderate flame and saute onions for several minutes until lightly caramelised. Add corn, ground cumin, garlic and thyme (stalk and all), then saute for several more minutes until sugars just start to catch on base of pan. Deglaze with wine and stock, then reduce heat and cook at a steady simmer for 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally until corn is tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, then discard thyme sprigs. Set aside a large spoonful of corn, then blend remaining corn for a couple of mins. Pass thorugh a sieve, then return saved corn and season well to taste. Keep warm or reheat for serving under chook.

Just before carving…
Pick out onions and garlic cloves from chook dish and return to oven to glaze on a baking tray for a few minutes. I like to carve the chook in the roasting dish so I catch all the juices. Remove carcass, squeezing juice from lemon halves into pan. Gently spoon fat from baking dish, then quickly reduce over a full flame to a saucy consistency and check seasoning.

To serve…
Serve carved chook at once on a bed of creamed corn with the crisp garlic cloves and onions and a leafy green salad.

FFF in NY: Sarabeth's Kitchen

In 1981, Sarabeth and Bill Levine opened a tiny bakery-kitchen to make and sell Sarabeth’s preserves and baked goods. A few tables and chairs were soon added, first for breakfast and then for lunch. The little store, with its unique charm and wholesomely delicious products became an instant success with discriminating New Yorkers. Sarabeth’s Kitchen has spread to include restaurants in various prime spots around New York and also Florida.

If you want a succulent, American as apple pie start to your day in NY, get your motor running with farmhouse style breakfasts such as creamy porridge ‘three bears style’ — Baby (milk and honey), Mama (fresh cream, raisins and honey) or Papa (bananas, fresh cream, raisins and honey), or try the fresh crunchy granola, Popeye omelette or Goldie Lox (scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese). Or for something sweetly different, the pumpkin waffle with sour cream, raisins, pumpkin seeds and honey.

Follow our lead and kickstart your morning with one of Sarabeth’s legendary Bloody Marys (above). Beats orange juice hands down!

For more information visit www.sarabeth.com

Nigella in Wonderland

Tim Burton has spilt the beans to the LA Times on his inspiration for the White Queen in his latest epic “Alice in Wonderland”.

“There’s this very beautiful cooking show host in England named Nigella Lawson and I quietly had her as my image for this character,” Burton said. “She’s really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there’s this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, ‘Oh, whoa, she’s like really … nuts.’ I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don’t know.”

In fact, the White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway) even does her own spot of cooking in the film. Well, she whips up a nasty looking magic potion that includes worm fat, urine, and a dab of spit in it. Not very Nigella like in the list of ingredients, but she finishes with a very Nigella-esque “That should do it!”.

Nothing against Anne Hathaway, but now that we know this tidbit of movie trivia, FFF would have liked to see Ms Lawson tackle the role.

Oscar Food: Hungry like the Wolf

In Hollywood terms, he’s almost as famous as the little gold man. Legendary chef Wolfgang Puck will once again weave his culinary magic over the annual post Oscar’s bash — the Governors Ball. So if you were joining the A-listers for the evening, what would you be eating?

Mini Kobe Burgers with Aged Cheddar and Remoulade; Wasabi Pea Crusted Crab Cake with Mango and Thai Basil; House Smoked Salmon, Potato Galette, Creme Fraiche and Baby Greens with Butler-passed Warm Brioche; Chicken Pot Pie with Yukon Gold Potatoes, Baby Heirloom Vegetables and Homemade Pastry Crust; and “L’Etoile de Oscar”—Baked Alaska with Espresso Glace, Guittard L’Etoile du Nord Chocolate Sorbet and Toasted Meringue.

A few other fun facts: the Governors Ball will host 1500 guests, attended to by 900 wait and 250 culinary staff. There will 1200 Bottles of Moët & Chandon Champagne, an 18 Piece all female orchestra and for the first time, Academy Award winners will be able to have their Oscar statuettes personalised with engraved nameplates at the Ball.

However — if you miss out on an actual award, fear not. You get to take home the traditional chocolate Oscar covered in 24 carat gold!

How do we get a ticket?!

Quick Bites: The invention of cooking & McDonald's Macarons?

• Did the discovery of cooking make us human? According to a new theory, if we hadn’t ‘invented’ and learned how to cook, we would still look like Chimpanzees and would spend most of our day chewing as the average person would need to consume approximately five kilos of raw food to get their required calorie intake to survive. That equates to a lot of chewing … around 6 hours worth. Meat, and the ability to cook food, are the changes man made to separate us from the animals. So to speak. Read more about this fascinating theory on BBC News.

• It seems the beloved French Macaron might be in trouble! McDonalds (along with other chains) have started serving McVersions of this national treasure, and the French are not happy! They don’t like ‘homogenised’ versions of their culinary icons, and that doesn’t just go for cheese. So is the fragile little Macaron destined to become the next cupcake? Read the scandalous report on the Wall Street Journal!

Image via WSJ

Sir Michael Caine, King of the roast potato?

In my post on Friday, I wrote about Sir Michael Caine’s boast of making “The Best Roast Potatoes EVER”. It’s a big claim. Some might say fighting talk. When faced with such a bold statement, I had no option but to test his method, enlisting my trusty Roast Potato Expert and nephew Will (who lists my roast potatoes as ‘his most favourite food’) to be the judge.

I followed Michael’s method to a T — minus the rosemary and sage addition. I wanted these potatoes to be naked, except for the necessities — olive oil and sea salt. I parboiled, drained and steamed the peeled potatoes until dry, then shook them until their outer was rough and floury. I placed them in a bowl, and poured over a generous slug of good quality Greek olive oil, turning them dutifully for about fifteen minutes or so — until the thirsty potatoes had infused most of the oil. I then transferred them to a hot roasting tin, sprinkled with sea salt and spooned over some of the remaining oil and potato from the bowl … this had become a thick and creamy mixture, so I was beginning to think this might be the key.

An hour later, out they came looking very golden and decidedly crunchy (above). So what was the verdict from Will and myself?

Credit where credit is due. It would seem Michael is not only a legend of stage and screen, but a potato roasting genius. Sir Michael, Will and I salute you and your “Best Roast Potatoes EVER”.

Fair play to you. Now pass me another potato…

Weekend challenge: the perfect roast spud

I don’t know about you — maybe it’s my Irish lineage — but one of my all time favourites is the Perfect Roast Potato. All crisp and crunchy on the outside and flecked with a generous sprinkling of sea salt, fluffy and tender on the inside. You could call it Potato Perfection.

My lovely nephew Will tells me my roast potatoes are his ‘most favourite food’. I think he is telling the truth because for a slight little fellow, he can eat my body weight in roast potatoes in one sitting.

My method for roast potatoes is pretty simple. Pop a roasting pan in a hot oven with some oil (rice bran is perfect). Par-boil peeled potatoes, drain well and shake in the pot with lid until the surface is rough and floury. Then tip the hot potatoes into the roasting pan with the hot oil, turn ensuring the potatoes are coated in the oil, sprinkle generously with sea salt and roast until the outsides are golden and crunchy (approx 50 mins).

Now I tell you this because I’d always been led to believe (and found) that the Gorgeous Olive Oil was not the correct choice for successfully roasting the perfect spud. Doesn’t have a high smoke point, potatoes won’t crisp up, the oil turns rancid … the list goes on.

Then along comes legendary actor Sir Michael Caine with his “I make the Best Roast Potatoes EVER” claim, and I’m intrigued. Not only does he use COLD olive oil, he SOAKS his par-boiled potatoes in it first! Is this genius or pure madness? I can’t tell you, which is why I am instigating the Perfect Roast Spud Weekend Challenge. I will be enlisting Will, my Roast Potato Aficionado, as the judge and will report back Monday.

I encourage you to join me in testing Michael’s theory and comparing to your own roast spuds. See you Monday…

Sir Michael Caine’s Perfect Roast Potatoes (as outlined on Desert Island Discs)

• Pre-boil potatoes “otherwise they’ll be no good”
• Drain and let them steam until “absolutely dry”
• Replace saucepan lid and shake “so that they go all fluffy”
• Place in cold olive oil to soak (”so it soaks in”) with rosemary and sage, then place onto a baking tray and into a hot oven for an hour and they should emerge with a honeycomb coating that is deep, crisp and even.

Images: Daily Mail UK

Seriously scary food

If you are one of the many people who has already spent time on the floor in stitches enjoying this truly extraordinary site, please forgive me (and take the time to visit again).

If you don’t know what I am talking about, stay with me, for you are about to be introduced to the Weight Watchers Recipe Card Collection circa 1974.

I first came across this site in 2005, and since then it has remained firmly tucked into my bookmarks with never to be deleted double VIP status. Culinary masterpieces such as ‘Fluffy Mackerel Pudding’, ‘Rosy Perfection Salad’ and ‘Frankfurter Spectacular’ are matched with hilarious commentary “…I would almost be willing to upholster a whole damn pineapple with pork product just to be able to say I was serving Frankfurter Spectacular…”.

This site is akin to a horror movie cast entirely with food, and it’s a winning combination. Bad food has never looked this good.

So my gift to you this Halloween is the Weight Watchers Recipe Card Collection. Tricks and scary treats abound… enjoy!

Monkey magic

I was chatting with a friend yesterday about bananas (as you do) when she stunned me with a factoid that had me racing for the nearest fruit bowl so I could test this new found tip.

Apparently we have been peeling our bananas all wrong. We need to stop what we are doing, put the banana down and learn from our primate friends – the chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys. And Bubbles if he’s still around.

We usually attack a banana like so – we grab the banana and start peeling from the stalky bit that was attached to the tree, down. We peel away the outer skin in a stalk to bottom motion and guess what? We end up with stringy bits all over our banana.

But Bubbles and his ilk approach the banana from a different angle. The bottom.

If you hold the banana in your hand (with the stalk end facing down and the base, or bottom tip, of the banana facing up) and press down on this end tip with your handy opposable thumb, the tip will pop and split. You can then peel the skin back towards the stalk and now guess what? No stringy bits.

Genius!

Picture: Hungry Monk Restaurant UKPure genius in banana-dessert terms is the Banoffi Pie. Invented in 1972 at the Hungry Monk Restaurant UK, its deliciously wicked combination of bananas, rich caramel and softly whipped cream is more ménage a trois than marriage made in heaven. Banoffi Pie looks innocent enough with its virginal white peaks, but be warned! It’s a sinfully good concotion that will have you thinking lascivious thoughts for days…

The Original Hungry Monk Banoffi Pie
(serves 8-10 people)

The secret of this delicious dessert lies in the condensed milk, but PLEASE HEED the cautions below regarding the preparation of the condensed milk. Alternatively try this safer option for ‘Dulce de Leche’ or ‘Confiture de Laitfrom’ from one of our favourite food bloggers, David Lebovitz, in place of the condensed milk option.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces uncooked shortcrust pastry
• 1.5 tins condensed milk (13.5 ounces each)
• 1.5 pounds firm bananas
• 375ml of double cream
• Half a teaspoon powdered instant coffee
• 1 dessertspoon caster sugar
• A little freshly ground coffee (FFF likes finely grated dark chocolate)

Preparation
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 (400F). Lightly grease a 10in x 1.5in flan tin. Line this with the pastry thinly rolled out. Prick the base all over with a fork and bake blind until crisp. Allow to cool.

Immerse the cans of condensed milk unopened in a deep pan of boiling water. Cover and boil for 3 hours making sure that the pan does not boil dry *(see CAUTION).

PLEASE NOTE – Remove the tin from the water and allow to cool completely before opening. Inside you will find the soft caramel/toffee filling.

Method
Whip the cream with the instant coffee and sugar until thick and smooth. Now spread the caramel/toffee over the base of the flan. Peel and halve the bananas length-ways and lay them on the toffee. Finally spoon on the cream in soft folds and lightly sprinkle over the freshly ground coffee.

*CAUTION
It is absolutely vital to top up the pan of boiling water frequently during the cooking of the cans. 3 hours is a long time and if they are allowed to boil dry the cans will explode causing a grave risk to life, limb and kitchen ceilings.

Fly your food flag

FFF LOVES THE clever, edible graphics for the Sydney International Food Festival created by the agency WHYBIN/TBWA. Using culinary icons from across the globe, they have crafted a series of edible flags to celebrate the theme of international food.

We have the holy trinity of basil, pasta and tomatoes representing the tri-colours of the Italian flag. The vivid red with yellow star for the Vietnamese flag is deliciously recreated with lychees and star fruit. France is big, bold slabs of blue and camembert cheese cosying up to luscious red grapes, whilst the Australian flag is a rectangular meat pie complete with Southern Cross ‘pie-holes’ and the essential squirt of tomato sauce.

If only international airline food looked this good. Too clever!

Lemon Delicious!

    Left to right: Rachel Roy, Zac Posen, Victoria Beckham

CLEVERLY CONSTRUCTED DRESSES in happy-go-yellow has been a key look at the New York shows this past week. Rachel Roy, Zac Posen and Victoria Beckham turned out the sunniest, crafting architecturally-inspired silhouettes (with that all important waist) in a happy shade of yolk. Key to wearing this sunny but hard-to-pull-off shade? Tan up, accessorise boldly and amp up the blush (we love yellow but it can drain the life out of you). Delicious…

All this zesty runway action has got us dreaming about an old favourite everyone’s Grandmother used to make. Not only is Lemon Delicious the quintessential comfort food, it’s a pretty clever little pudding too. Simply mix all the ingredients together, pop in the oven for approximately an hour, and magically the pudding is at once feather light and souffle-esque on the surface, whilst oozing warm lemon curd deliciousness beneath. This time, we are adding a tropical twist with some passionfruit pulp. Grab a spoon…

Lemon Delicious (with a passionate twist)

Serves 4 / Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas mark 4

• 60 g unsalted butter, cubed, at room temp
• 230 g / 1 cup caster sugar
• 4 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• Half a tspn vanilla extract
• 4 eggs, separated
• 30 g self raising flour, sifted
• 310 ml cups milk
• 80 ml lemon juice
• 1 to 2 passionfruit, pulped

To serve: icing sugar and cream

Lightly butter/grease a deep souffle or ceramic baking dish
(approx 8 cup capacity).

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and lemon zest until creamed and pale. Turn beaters down to slow and gradually add eagg yolks, beating well between each. Mix in the flour, followed by milk, and continue beating until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and passionfruit pulp. Your mixture may look slightly curdled - this is fine.

In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form. With a metal spoon, fold a spoonful of the egg white into the batter. Gently fold in the remaining egg white, being careful to fold with a cutting motion so as not to deflate the air.

Gently pour your mixture into your baking dish. To create a water bath or ‘bain-marie’, sit your baking dish inside a large roasting tin, and fill the tin with enough hot water to measure halfway up your baking dish.

Bake for approx 55 minutes, or until the top is golden and firm but slightly springy to touch. Remove from the oven, and allow to sit in the bain-marie for approx 10-15 mins. Carefully lift the baking dish out, and rest for another 5 mins to allow the pudding to settle.

Sift icing sugar over the Lemon Delicious, and serve with a generous drizzle of cream.