Tag: Eggs

Best egg curry

A bowl of egg curry. The eggs have been boiled in their shells, and the sauce is brick red with onions and curry leaves. Surrounding the plate are different coloured eggs and egg shells.

A new happy era has descended on our chicken coop … Not like that time when we hatched baby chicks after three weeks of high tension, going a few days over the due date then flipping out with joy when we heard tweets coming from inside the eggs. (Something happened not long after I wrote about that. It involved a fox and a self-closing solar door that we mis-programmed. It was horrible.) … This year we have four new hens of different heritage varieties, including one of those cute silly chooks (kids’ choice) called a Silky with a fountain of feathers atop her strawberry blonde head. Another is a lavender Araucana, a tall grey hen who you couldn’t describe as cute – more rugged beauty with sideburns – but she lays the most beautiful green eggs. Continue reading Best egg curry

Nougat ice cream cake

Nougat ice cream cake with raspberries

This recipe was born from a failure, as my son likes to remind me! You could call it an experiment – because I knew it could fail, but was excited by the challenge anyway. I was trying to make nougat without a thermometer. It’s tricky to know when the sugar is cooked to the right point for the nougat to set and not ooze … Continue reading Nougat ice cream cake

Cheese souffle + best-dressed French salad

Cheese souffle and best-dressed salad

December cooking is the best, isn’t it? Christmas, obviously, plus all those extra get togethers with good friends and family … That feeling it’s the end of the year and time to mark and celebrate it in lots of ways, including through the food we eat. Some of the things that may happen in our house: Continue reading Cheese souffle + best-dressed French salad

Strawberry and coconut cake

Chick with Paris the mother henStrawberry and coconut cake

This spring we attempted some kind of holy grail in chicken keeping (shy of getting an actual rooster), and got twelve fertilised eggs to put underneath a clucky chicken. We’d wanted to do this for years, but hadn’t managed to seize the moment and get the eggs quick enough. This time things were looking good. Our famously clucky old chook called Paris started showing signs on a Thursday, and by Sunday we’d fetched the eggs and placed them underneath her. Then began a three-week waiting period that felt like an age. Continue reading Strawberry and coconut cake

North African grilled capsicum and egg salad

Boiled eggs and grilled green capsicum salad

Choosing green capsicum (bell pepper) over red is some kind of step into true, post-30 adulthood. All through my younger years I barely took any notice of green, always making a beeline for fire-truck red: so happy and sweet. But now I see that green capsicum isn’t just an unripe version of red, but a brilliant thing in itself – its sweetness balanced out with zing and depth. It’s become my go-to for paella, and I love it in this salad. Continue reading North African grilled capsicum and egg salad

Plum curd

plum curd and tart casesplum curd tarts 1

Once a year I scramble across the roof of our chicken coop to pick a bucket of cherry plums. The tree hangs right over the roof, and conveniently the neighbour’s chicken coop is right next door and the tree hangs over that too … It’s just one little step from our roof to their roof and I do it, cheekily never asking for permission. Up there I’ve got full view of their whole yard, but with my head in a fruit tree I get a bit bold and reckless – I just want to fill my bucket! My six-year-old daughter now wants to join in! (Fruit-focused recklessness carrying on into the next generation.) Continue reading Plum curd

Chocolate pavlova with cherries

chocolate pavlova with cherries

This pavlova has snuck onto the scene as a dessert for the festive season in our family – not as the main event (we’re all pretty wedded to Christmas pudding), but as a dessert for those barbecues and picnics in the lead up to Christmas or for Boxing Day. Continue reading Chocolate pavlova with cherries

Mushroom and potato stir-fry

mushroom potato stir-fry 1

Mushroom and potato stir-fry, tucked inside an omelette, on a pile of fluffy rice – if this was my last meal on earth I’d be happy.

It was how I felt yesterday after I took the omelette photo and tucked in. Was I just really hungry, or enjoying the first quiet moment of sitting down by myself in a number of days? Actually I think the food was just really, really good. Continue reading Mushroom and potato stir-fry

Gado gado with homemade sprouts

Roasted peanuts, palm sugar and kaffir lime leaves for satay sauce in food processorSatay (peanut) sauce and gado gado

My five-year-old daughter surprised me the other day and asked for some sprouts in her kinder snack box. I looked at her and said, ‘What, do you mean plain?’ And she said ‘Yes – a container of sprouts, with a spoon please Mum.’ I almost said, ‘Are you sure?’ but stopped myself. Continue reading Gado gado with homemade sprouts

Beetroot salad with spinach, egg and dukkah croutons

Beetroot salad with spinach, egg and dukkah croutons

We got a bag of beautiful organic baby beetroots in our Friday box of fruit and vegetables, and I set to thinking about all the things I love to do with beetroots. Sri Lankan beetroot curry and borsht are on the top of my list. But when it’s a matter of gorgeous baby beets, I think it’s best to keep it simple and do as little as possible, in what has become known in my head as ‘Italian-style beetroot’. Continue reading Beetroot salad with spinach, egg and dukkah croutons