My Family's Easter Tradition.....our annual Flaounes baking day

I was lucky enough to have an article I wrote published as the feature article in last week's SMH "Good Living" magazine.

View article here

It was a story I really wanted to capture as it is a tradition that is very close to my heart and something my family have been doing ever since I can remember. Now especially I will cherish these photos as this Friday would actually be our annual baking day......however, it all depends on my Yiayia's health who sadly is in hospital at the moment and will be unable to help us this year. I hope her health is steady so we can bake the flaounes for her and take some to her, I am sure this will bring a smile to her face.

I hope you all enjoy the story and visualize what it is like in that kitchen every year, and what our Easter celebrations are like the following week.

Trish

Campos Cupping Session

I was looking forward to attending a cupping at the Campos roastery all week as I was lucky enough to be Campos’ guest taster for their ‘Bean of the Month’. I must admit however, that I was a bit scared I would not be able to pick up all the right characteristics and be a bad taster. To get my palette up to speed, I have been making plunger coffee every morning, trying 2 new beans a week so I can pick up a wider variety of flavours. It helps that I have a coffee roaster around the corner from work, although not Campos :( , they are in Alexandria, but I pop in a couple of times a week to chat to the boys about the new beans they have in and we always do a few pour overs (similar to a filter coffee) which really lets some of the lighter roasts exhibit their flavours, for example a lot of single origins like the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Kenya AA, El Salvador or Brazil Impanema.

Cupping involves grinding the beans to a coarse grind, similar to a plunger grade, We then smell the ground coffee to decide on a ‘Dry Aroma’. Water is then boiled and left to cool for a minute or so as boiling water will burn the coffee, so you want it to be between 95OC-91OC. 10g of ground coffee is put into a cup and 200mL of water is poured in and left to brew, during which the coffee floats to the top and forms a crust. After 5 minutes exactly, the ‘crust’ is broken using a soup spoon, dragging the crust to the edge of the cup and then mixing gently. This is when we smell to pick up the ‘Wet Aroma’ of the coffee. The crust is then scraped out of the cup so that a clean cup of coffee is left ready for the tasting.

To taste, we go along, one by one, and using our soup spoon we pick up the coffee and then slurp it into our mouths. It is a similar technique to tasting wine, although not as elegant, as you want to make a loud slurping noise and get as much air into our mouth as possible so that you can really open up the flavours of the coffee and get it around your whole mouth so each area of your taste buds can pick up different things.

I will admit, I did look really silly, and after a while I started spitting the coffee out as we continued to sip each coffee about 3 times and the coffee of the month I think about 10 time, which is a lot of coffee that would leave me buzzing for the rest of the night. However, even with wine, I was never a good spitter, so after a while I gave up and continued to drink it all.



The coffee of the month was the Indian Yelnoor Khan Cauvery. As it was roasted only an hour before the boys would do another cupping the following day to see how the flavours and aromas have developed. These however, are the results of today’s cupping:
Dry Aroma: Quite a strong wheat and barley smell with a underlying sweetness, but not overly sweet, more like a strongly burnt toffee.
Wet Aroma: A much earthier tone comes through, yet with still a hint of the burnt toffee.
Tasting: The coffee has completely transformed from our first smell. It is a coffee that hits you instantly with tar/smoky flavours, almost a pepperiness, which is still earthy and full of body. Although it might sound so, it is not too heavy and has a mid-high acidity making it pleasant to drink. I think the best thing about this coffee is that it leaves a really lovely aftertaste in the mouth. Dark chocolate or cocoa flavours leave a slight dryness on the palette which leaves you wanting to drink more.

Results of cupping the following day: Will (owner of Campos) and the other roasted thought that the Indian had calmed down a lot since the previous day and was a lot smoother. He explained this was because we tried it straight after it had been roasted, which is quite a harsh process, so it was quite volatile and showing off its full potential. After resting for a day, a much centered flavour came through and the boys liked it a lot more. (It will be available to buy as of this week in store).

Once we had finished tasting, I couldn’t help myself from looking around the roastery and having a chat to the head roaster, Ernest. As Campos supply to numerous cafes around town and also stock up their own store with beans, they roast around 3.8 tonnes of coffee a week. This means, over five days, they are constantly roasting from 6am-10pm as the roaster holds 24kg of coffee each batch, and each batch takes between 15-17 minutes to roast, depending of the bean of course. And that is not to mention smaller roasts for some of the single origins where they do not need such a quantity at once. Their aim is to roast only as much as they need so that they are not oversupplied and the coffee is as fresh as it can be. So each time you buy beans, they will be most likely roasted the day before, but they only hold them for five days, and then top up the containers with a new batch of beans.

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Standing next to the roaster as the beans were released was the most amazing smell, and after a while, one that is absorbed quite strongly into your clothes......I wasn't complaining. It is a smell I miss since working at their retail store on Missenden Road in King St. If you haven't been I highly recommend it as the vibe is constantly buzzing with the machines going full throttle and the jazz playing in the background. The coffee you will drink, I assure you, will be one of the best cups you will have. It is a place I will go out of my way for, and even make an effort to get there despite the fact they will close 5 minutes after I arrive, as long as I get my double ristretto, I will be happy, and I can assure you it will put me in the best mood for the rest of the day.

...............this is the effect of a coffee from Campos...................get addicted!


Campos Coffee
193 Missenden Road
Newtown
9690 0294

Valentine's Day

The big day. Lots of hype. Huge expectations, and a headache for most I'm sure.

I will be honest though, the last thing I wanted to do was go out for dinner, especially since Valentine's falls on a Saturday night this year. Restaurants would be overcrowded with tables of two, offering over priced, mass produced set menus and overall not achieve a very romantic atmosphere. Waiters are rushing around trying to satisfy all of the high maintenance diners who are expecting all attention of them during the course of the evening, which most probably won't be the case, and in addition all the women are dolled up, looking around the room, peaking to see what special treatment others may be getting, how big their roses are, if they are drinking champagne, what type, and if anyone will be proposed to. I didn't want any of this..........

SO instead I decided to cook for my man and treat him. A nice three course meal, nothing too fancy, but still fresh, hearty and indulgent food, with some good red wine, was my idea of a nice romantic evening. The table was set, wine glasses and all, music setting the mood, my gorgeous roses sitting in the background. However, I forgot to buy candles for the table to achieve that mood lighting all restaurants strive for, but not to worry, my down lights have a dimmer.

My preparation actually started the day before, but more on that later. After shopping all morning for ingredients for my feast, the first thing I wanted to prepare was the butter for the appetizer. I used the jar of Tetsuya's truffle salt,which was a present from the waiters I received when I dined there last year for my graduation. Just as they do, I mixed it with butter and Parmigiano Reggiano then served it with some freshly baked bread I prepared. (See 'Baking My Bread' but instead of adding a filling, just shape the bread, slit the bread across the top about 5 times and bake. It makes two large loaves). HOWEVER, disaster struck when I had to add more butter to the mixture as it was too salty. I slightly melted both the additional and the already prepared butter so I could mix them together, but I didn't realise that they had melted completely, so when I went to grab the ramekin with the truffle butter in it, it spilt all down my chest and also onto my just straightened hair which I was wearing out. This was the worst start to the evening I could imagine. Not only did I have to rewash my hair and re-straighten it, but prepare the butter all over again, this time without being a clutz.

By the time we went to sit down and started sipping some our first wine, a Paringa Estate Pinot Noir, and devouring the bread and butter, I just laughed at myself, as I am known for being clumsy. The truffle in the butter is very strong in flavour and that is why only a touch of the salt is needed to flavour the butter. It is soooo delectable smeared thickly onto warm bread, but since I knew what was to come I had to limit myself to one piece.

Whilst devouring the bread and sipping our wine, our taste buds I'm sure were widely awake by now, so I decided to serve our entree, but let it cook in front of us. It was a Peruvian Ceviche, which is a very traditional dish of raw white fish, in this case I used Perch, which is then cured with lime juice, ají limo (limo chili pepper), Spanish Onions and salt. Unfortunately I could not find ají limo, so I just chopped up some long red chillies, but they were not spicy enough for the dish. If anyone knows where I can get ají limo can you let me know : )

As I poured the juice mixture over the fish we watched it cook then ate it straight away with sweet potato and corn. The sweet potato added a nice sweetness to balance the citrus of the lime and....subtleness of the chilli, but I'm sure if the chilli was hot it would give a bit of relief from it.

View Peruvian Ceviche Recipe

I am sure there will be readers out there who might say my version is not the proper way to do Peruvian Ceviche, and they are probably right. I tried to research as much as I can, but with so much conflicting information out there it is hard to know what is the correct way to prepare it unless I went to a Peruvian's house and watched as they prepared it. Within the next few weeks I intend to dine at a Peruvian restaurant to see how they do it (review to come soon).

Generally I would serve this with a nice dry sparkling wine or blanc de banc to not overpower the fresh flavours of the fish, but as we started on red we just stuck to it. The Pinot I had chosen to start with was light and full of berry flavours. In my opinion, it is one of Australia's best Pinots, it has body, isn't too sweet with fruity flavours and is great to drink young.

I learnt last year around this time that there are two arguments to matching food and wine. The first says that every food has certain wines that will compliment the dish perfectly e.g. goats cheese and Sauvignon Blanc, lamb and Cabernet Sauvignon etc. Which is all good if you don't mind drinking many different wines throughout a meal or transitioning from champagne to white to red to fortified. In my opinion it can become quite an overload and leave you with a nasty headache the following day!
The second argument says that one should enjoy the wine they like best with each dish they have, regardless of whether that ends up being a nice big Shiraz with a fish dish, or a Chardonnay with duck, as long as you enjoy each individually, you will enjoy the meal regardless of whether the match............I choose argument #2 as I generally drink red wine and still enjoy it in warmer weather.

Anyways, back to the food......Once we had digested a bit, and had some more bread and butter, I really could not resist, I served our main, Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks on Soft Polenta. I slow cooked this dish for over 4 hrs as I wanted the meat to just fall off the bone, and it did. The meat was so tender and had a nice bite to it from the Moroccan spices I added. The sauce from the meat mixed well with the polenta making it a gorgeous hearty meal for a cold night.

View Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks with Soft Polenta Recipe

Of course, the best wine to pair with a lamb dish would be a big Cab Sauv, and I had a fantastic bottle. A 99' Katnook Estate Cabernet Sauvignon which we let air for about 4 hours prior to drinking. It was smooth yet bold with a slight tannic finish. It was full of deep red cherry and plum flavours and an excellent companion to the lamb's heavy flavour.


Although the lamb was delicious we had to save room for dessert, of course. I started preparing this dessert the day before, which was good as it made it one less thing to worry about on the day. I made a Passionfruit Semifreddo, which is similar to ice cream but a bit softer and a lot easier to make, especially if your don't have an ice cream maker.

It was so creamy and had a strong fruit flavour, something I was a bit worried about, so I added extra passionfruit pulp. The best way to finish off the night for sure!

View Passionfruit Semifreddo Recipe

I couldn't think of a better way to spend Valentine's day than relaxing in my own house, with nice food, excellent wine, and the best company ever.

Did you want some bread with that?.......a day of cooking side dishes

Today I organised a family dinner and was planning for the whole week to cook up a new type of meat I haven't used before. I finally decided on duck in a plum sauce and serve them with Chinese pancakes......well things don't always go to plan. One Thea had already bought her steaks and then my Mum was quite stern she was cooking a special sausage dish. Therefore I could not really add more meat, even poultry or game, onto that.

That would normally be fine as I would usually then do some amazing dessert BUT another Thea had been assigned to make crepes. So what was I left to cook??? My Mum told me to do salad. I was 'over the moon' at the prospect. I told her they probably would not be our standard Greek Salad, but use some 'exotic' ingredients and will be a bit different.

I saw it as a challenge, I needed to make salads interesting so they could be more than 'just a side'. So this morning I drove to the fruit shop and just picked up what looked good that day, then I would work out the combinations. Pomegranates were huge, red and firm.........into the basket they go. String beans weren't small dark and withered, but quite the opposite, so they went in to. I needed some more nuts so I got a packet of walnuts as I thought I could incorporate them in some how. I did have a lot of other ingredients at home but I wanted these to be the main ones.

Once home I thought I wanted to make a few more things, not just salad, maybe some bread and biscotti, since I wasn't allowed to do a dessert. It was still 11am by this stage so figured the biscotti would be first up. I have been craving aniseed biscotti recently so I fumbled through the pantry hoping we still had aniseed, and I was in luck.

View Aniseed Biscotti (Paxamathia) Recipe

So as they were cooking I decided to make Turkish bread. There is a lot of variance between recipes. Some had milk, some had honey, but I eventually decided to make a simple mixture with yeast, water and oil.

View Turkish Bread Recipe

I served my bread with home made tahina, which is one of the simplest dips to make.

View Tahina Recipe

Finally I prepared the salads which were really a matter of throwing together all the ingredients.

View Pomegranate, Walnut, Rocket & Ricotta Salad Recipe



View String bean, cucumber, feta and mint salad Recipe

So I will admit sides can be quite fun, and it was a challenge which I did enjoy. It makes you think of ways to make such dishes more exciting and forces you to use some ingredients you may not always use to mix things up a bit and add some variety to your dishes.