Some dishes travel with you and are good in many places … Though they don’t jump into luggage by themselves. You pack them mentally; take the building blocks. You will them to come. This couscous has been on a few holidays of late. It went canoeing down the Glenelg River in 2023, and to the summit of Mount Feathertop in 2024. Where there are good times and adventure, there is couscous!? Continue reading Tomato couscous + pan-fried kale, carrot and celery salad
Tag: Vegetarian
Best egg curry
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
Two favourite Ethiopian dishes
I count myself lucky to live in a multicultural pocket of Melbourne. Footscray is particularly rich with Vietnamese and African communities, and when COVID hit I felt luckier than ever. As restaurants closed and we had to stick to our homes and neighbourhoods for months, I relished all the magical little food shops and groceries that stayed open. I made a short video about living and cooking in Footscray if you want to take a look! [Jump to my IGTV here.] The injera bakeries are my favourite, especially one, where the Ethiopian ladies behind the counter smile so broadly when you enter. My face cracks open too – no matter that we are all wearing masks; you can feel it. Continue reading Two favourite Ethiopian dishes
Nasi ulam (Malaysian herb rice)
Holiday photos and memories have a surreal edge to them right now. ‘Was that really last year?’ … ‘Was that real at all?’ Looking back on life before COVID19, you can’t help but feel it was a little hedonistic. We did whatever we wanted! Maybe we set some boundaries or tried to care for others or the planet, but our freedom was extraordinary, wasn’t it? Particularly if you had money for a plane ticket. Continue reading Nasi ulam (Malaysian herb rice)
Nepali cucumber salad with sesame and spices
Our defence against corona virus is stepping up here in Australia, but I can see so much to be grateful for. Events, sports and activities are being cancelled all around us and we’ve begun social distancing, though in many ways I think we’re the lucky ones in the southern hemisphere. It is early autumn and the weather is glorious! If we are fortunate enough to have a backyard and a garden, now is the time to give it some love, plant veggies, get that project happening you’ve long had on your list. Not only the circumstances but the weather is made for it … Continue reading Nepali cucumber salad with sesame and spices
Grilled peach and haloumi salad
Every summer for a few years now, the season of our backyard Elberta peaches coincides with two very special people coming to stay. My husband’s cousin Julian and his wife Anya arrive, all set for a few days at the Australian Open. Their visit turns into an all-round tennis bender at our house – evenings watching tennis on TV, punctuated with rounds of totem tennis with the kids in the backyard, and the occasional board game. Eating peaches straight from the tree is a happy sideline. Continue reading Grilled peach and haloumi salad
Sweet potato roti
Writing little stories and recipes here is just about my favourite thing to do in the world. They’re a record of life, gardening, travelling and of course cooking, and one day, you never know, my kids may read and appreciate them (I’ll probably print them out, bind them in a folder and put them under their noses the unimaginable day they move out of home) … I mean to do a recipe every month, but yeek, five months just slipped by. Partly it was because of a big editing job, but another reason is the mini cookbooks I’ve been making. Continue reading Sweet potato roti
Cheese souffle + best-dressed French 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
Okonomiyaki + homemade sauce
Okonomiyaki – I doubt I’d heard the word 10 or 12 years ago, but at some point this Japanese pancake made its spectacular entrance, bursting into our kitchen, our love for it totally sealed after we had kids. Throwing back to the good old ‘vegetable fritter days’, when our two children were babies and each went through that tricky stage of not wanting to be fed from a spoon, but not having the skills to spoon-feed themselves – carrot fritters and pumpkin quinoa fritters (and others; I made a list!) were the TOP way to eat vegetables and also be happy at the dinner table. Okonomiyaki, essentially a big cabbage fritter, with its bonus smothering of mayonnaise, brown sauce and seaweed, has always been the queen of all fritters, and the one I still make regularly, and it’s probably quite cagey of me that it’s taken this long to bring the recipe here. Continue reading Okonomiyaki + homemade sauce
Black bean and pumpkin soup
‘Return home soup’ has become a rare yet much cherished category of food for me, making an appearance whenever we’ve been away for a while (like the 20 days we just spent in Malaysia – more on that another day soon!). Continue reading Black bean and pumpkin soup