Dainty treats

I've always been a fan of middle eastern desserts, no matter how sweet they are, but these are an exception. Ghouraiba is simply a dainty biscuit perfumed with cardamom and rosewater and they were meant to last me through the exam period but it looks like I will be baking again. They are just small enough for you to have two without feeling greedy, the perfect size to serve guests alongside tea or coffee. Additionally, I put crushed walnuts in the mix but if you want to be traditional, use crushed pistachios.

GHOURAIBA

2/3 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon rose water
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease cookie sheets and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar.
(Note: I was lazy so I melted the butter and sugar over a low flame and the biscuits still turned out fine.)

Whisk together flour, ground nuts and cardamom. Add flour mixture to butter in thirds, mixing well after each addition. Stir in rose water.

Shape into balls the size of large marbles.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool for 2-3 minutes and roll in powdered sugar.

Carrot salad

I was treating mr-embarrassed-about-saying-the-word-tart (osteo rawks) and I'm just used to feeding people who come to the house (standard greeting in Singapore: Hi how are you? Have you eaten?) so I made this carrot salad from Claudia Roden. I really liked it, it's a keeper.

Depending on how many you are cooking for, this serves 2 -3 as a side dish.
half a carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 small apple, matchsticks (her recipe didn't have apple but I just bought a huge bag so am trying to use them. Apple lends a sweetness that is not in the original)
1 teasp ground cumin
2 tiny cloves of garlic minced
mint leaves
salt to taste
a squeeze of lemon juice, like from a quarter or half a lemon (I added this to the apples so they wouldn't change colour)
1 tablespoon of olive oil ( I used sesame cos I already had olive oil in a tabouli type salad)

Fry the garlic in oil till fragrant, then toss in the carrots and cumin. You don't want to cook them fully, sort of half cooked so that they are still crunchy. Turn off the fire and add in the apples, mint leaves, lemon juice and salt. You can serve it warm or cold.

dumpling party

I guess the wisdom of having already turned 30 is that you don't have to get drunk at your own party and you can organise something more sedate, like making dumplings. Getting a good party going is like getting a fire started, you need to give it enough fuel at the start, fan it so that it gets just enough oxygen, so I was too busy getting soup ready and serving snacks (and drinking beer) to take any more photos. Take my word for it, it was a good party, maybe a bit too much work to do it all again (and a big thank you to all the friends who came early to help out, contributed extra stools and chairs, and without which the party would have been impossible).

salty bread and salty tears

You know the feeling when you go back to a favourite food place but it is no longer there? Or perhaps it is there but the cook has changed and it tastes different...
a much more eloquent account of that here.

There must be an elegant way to say this in French, like how esprit de l'escalier (French for spirit of the escalator) refers to a witty comeback that only occurs to you when its too late.

September is a time for birthdays and this weekend is particularly busy - have a picnic in the afternoon and then late night drinks for another friend, plus a third friend is celebrating his at a guy club late late late into the night (don't think I will be going for that one).

So in the same order, happy birthday to Lachlan, Catherine and Jeff. May the coming year be better than before (and definitely better than my shitty run of luck last week). And a happy belated to Shravan, who I dobbed that it was his birthday yesterday and he had to do 25 rolls during training, the poor chap. Ah well, it was funny.

Mum is visiting, so I haven't been cooking but I whipped out this trusty tofu dish when I volunteered to cook for one night last week.

Ma po tofu
(It means pocked marked tofu dish, not sure why. This is a vegetarian adaptation of the one in Fuchsia Dunlop's book)

Chopped garlic 2-3 cloves
sliced cloud ear fungus (soaked)
chopped carrot
chopped caulifower
chopped spring onion
about half a block of tofu, cubes
2 tablespoons of sesame oil

Fry in wok. Add a couple of spoons of stock or water till the veggies are cooked.

For the sauce
1 teaspoon of salted black beans, crushed
3 tablespoons of chili bean sauce (you can get this in a bottle at most asian shops)
1 tablespoon of black chinese vinegar (this is the equivalent of chinese balsamic vinegar, it is more mellow than rice vinegar)
soy sauce to taste if it is not salty enough

Add sauce to stir fry, toss for a minute or so and it should be done.

sundays are for soup

In the orange corner, we have day-old sweet potato, parsnip and rosemary soup. I wasn't going to make a creamy soup until I smelt one of my neighbours making potato soup... I couldn't resist.

In the green corner is the beginnings of another soup. I've been craving a spicy korean hotpot soup, which actually comes in a tetrapack, but the shop that stocks it is a million miles away (okay, boxhill, but it is out of my way). So I am improvising with hatcho miso and some chilli paste. Not sure what the results will be.

You can never have too much soup in winter (even though the flowers say spring is finally here).

sweet potato, parsnip and rosemary soup
Qualities are for 2 - 3 serves.

A 5 inch length of sweet potato, diameter is about 8cm. You can also use regular potato, about 3. Chopped.
4inch length of parsnip
2 sprigs of rosemary
half an onion

Fry everything lightly in 2 tbsp olive oil, add about 2 bowls of water when it is sizzling. Let it cook over a low flame for at least 30min. Blend. Salt to taste. Because I am trying to go dairy free at the moment (except for yoghurt), I haven't added any cream or milk but you could.

little green giants

Last year I grew cabbages, this year, looking at the price of veges, I decided to grow broccoli. Organic broc goes for $8 to $10 per kg. It took forever to grow, at least 3 months from seedings, and they are still pretty tiny. Then again, I am growing them in an overcrowded recycled styrofoam fruit box, so I guess I can't expect giants. I'll just eaten the last of my store-bought broccoli, so I'll probably harvest a few of my own in a week, so that the rest have a bit more room to grow.

Another big welcome to another pickle sister, the person who gave me the idea for the title of this blog, Mon. Mon is an amazing and inspiring cook and will be posting soon!