pyrmont growers' market - october 2010

To kickstart the Crave Sydney International Food Festival (which I much prefer to call Good Food Month because it's much less wordy and what it used to be called), I thought I'd head to the Pyrmont Growers' Market to check it out (it's one of those places which I've been meaning to get to for a long time but never got round to). For those interested, the markets actually happen every first Saturday of the month, 7am - 11am across from Star City but being the SIFF this month, the markets were extended till 12 noon. We were there shortly after 7am as the advice from most people we talked to was to get there early otherwise you'll be stuck in queues all day - I'm glad we listened to the advice!

Arriving at the markets nice and early, both the boy and I were in much need for a coffee. We lined up for our flat whites at the Mayan Coffee store. The coffees were $3 each (for a small size), it's a bit of wait as only the one small coffee machine was working but the coffees are gorgeously rich and smooth, it's worth the wait. And as part of the SIFF, you were given a voucher for any purchases over $3 for you to go collect your free copy of the SMH. 

I'm generally not a morning person so getting to the markets that early in the morning was bound to lead to something stupid - like me yelling out to the boy that there was a sheep across the boardwalk. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a real sheep!

In the search for breakfast, we ended up deciding on a egg and bacon roll in what was probably the longest queue at the markets. I opted for the egg and bacon roll whilst the boy had the Mexican roll (as the steak and egg roll was unavailable). Both rolls hit the spot!

This is me with my squinty eyes on a Saturday morning sipping a Blood Orange juice purchased from the store next door to the Egg & Bacon rolls.

We left the markets shortly before 10am (just in time as it was starting to sprinkle a little). After a good perusing of the markets, I came home with a packet of macaroons from Sweetness The Patisserie (9pk for $10) and had a chat with the lovely chef Gena.

Purchased a pot of coriander and a pot of basil leaves (2 for $6) to add to my 'vegie plot'.

2 jars of Lynwood 'Nagami Gumquat' jam (one for me, one for the boy) and of course, we picked up our free copy of the SMH which comes in a rather adorable recycle shopping bag.

It was a really refreshing way to start the weekend as after going to the markets, I came back to head to the gym (when most weekends, I probably would've just slept in and woken up and slowly dawdled over to the gym). I actually did another silly thing that morning which I won't go into detail but I blame from the lack of sleep. Maybe in time I will become a morning person but for the moment, I'm not. Hoping to come back to the Pyrmont Markets next month as there were a number of things I wanted to get and try so maybe I will see you there if you end up going to!

yummy world @ ethel st, eastwood

It's actually my second time coming to Yummy World in Eastwood and as per my first visit, I find this little Korean restaurant extremely welcoming and comfy that I think I must be attached by some invisible threads which keep pulling me back! The first time I came with a close girlfriend and between us we shared two dishes which left us rather full, this time I brought the boy along and we managed to get through 3 dishes  quite comfortably - so it's not me, the boy does eat a lot!

Spicy rice cake with fish cake, vegies and a hard boiled egg. If you were to takeaway all the extras and leave me with the rice cake and chilli sauce, I could easily just eat and eat, and eat!

The last time I went to a Korean restaurant, I ordered all spicy dishes unknowingly and nearly did the same this time but ended up changing one of the dishes around so that there were only two. But hey, have a look at their selection of side dishes, all chilli except for the one!

Beef Bone Soup which is mildly spicy. Slightly disappointing in that there's not a lot of meat in this dish, only very small slivers of meat on the bone.

I think both our eyes bulged when this plate of homemade fried dumplings arrived at the table. One word - colossal! We managed to finish them, I personally quite liked them but yes, they were a bit big and even the boy thought so.

The restaurant probably sits just under 30 people (which I imagine would be quite a tight squeeze) but it draws in a rather pleasant crowd of families, young and old couples. You can actually see quite a bit of what goes on in the kitchen but I think the highlight for me is the friendly service (and the owner lady who just smiles at me as she sees me whipping out my camera to take a photo of the food, no questions asked). Compared to some of the other small Korean restaurants I've tried, Yummy World has quite an extensive menu; it'll probably take me a good number of trips here before I manage to get through it all. Current tally - 5 items off the menu!

growing tomatoes - week 2

It's actually been more than 3 weeks now since I started growing my tomato plant and I can boastfully say, it's alive, kicking and looking great! Here are photos from Week 2; hopefully you can see, the stems of the plant have grown much thicker and they actually appear slightly furry. I'll get to posting Week 3 photos soon but even with me watering the plant every day, I'm quite surprised at how quickly the plant has grown!

Mum has suggested I water the plant with 'Aquasol' which is a fertiliser which helps plants to grow stronger (or in the words of my mum 'bigger' - you'll get bigger tomatoes out of it she says. I read the back of the box and it recommends usage every 2 weeks so will probably stick to that dosage - simply mix a tablespoon of Aquasol to a few litres of water). 

I'm getting quite excited about my tomato plant and have been pouring over recipes with tomatoes in them - I think with my first tomatoes I'll make a Caprese salad (a combo of tomato, basil, mozarelle, olive oil, cracked salt and pepper - a rather simple recipe but always beautifully presented).

And to add to my collection of plants, mum came across this and thought she'd get it for me. I've since moved the seedlings into a much larger pot - hopefully these will grow strongly too!

I thought I was quite crazy about my tomato plant but it seems like the whole family has caught the gardening/growing vegies bug. Mum starts off with getting the cucumber plant, then dad comes home one day on the weekend with a gardening set, which was then followed by a set of pots (which have all come in rather handy). I've also made some extra purchases which I'll share with you in my next 'growing tomatoes' post but yes, the whole family has gotten quite into it!

marmalade pudding cake

I'm sure all cooks far and wide will agree with me that making any dessert recipe by Nigella Lawson is likely to make you feel a tad guilty (if not really guilty). The guilt comes from several counts; guilty for how rich the recipes taste, guilty for using mostly full-fat ingredients (but honestly, why make a dessert from anything short of full fat?) and finally guilty from the highly addictive consumption of the dessert until there's no more of it. Well amongst our busy lives, I think the opportunity to feel guilty once in awhile is healthy for you and I think this Marmalade Pudding Cake is a good form of guilty!

This recipe was the first recipe I made out of Nigella's new cookbook, 'Kitchen' which came ever so promptly on Bookdepository after pre-ordering at a bargain of $20! It's an extra thick volume full of everyday recipes that I'm struggling to decide where to start but the marmalade pudding cake stood out amongst them all. The recipe below has been slightly abridged for the cooking time as it took a bit longer than the 40 minutes which the recipe suggest.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and butter an ovenproof dish. In small saucepan, combine 75g marmalade and juice of 1/2 orange and set aside to make the glaze later.

In a large bowl, cream together 250g softened unsalted butter, 75g caster sugar and 75g rich brown sugar. 

Beat in 150g marmalade, then sift in 225g plain flour, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda and 1 tsp baking powder. Stir to combine. Add in 4 eggs, zest and juice of 1/2 orange. Fold together.

Place mix in the greased ovenproof dish and cook for about 50-55 minutes. Test the mixture with a cake tester to ensure that it has cooked through. Remove from the oven and leave in the dish.

Warm the glaze mixture in the pan until melted together, then paint the top of the pudding.

Use a large spoon to serve.

In true Nigella fashion, this cake was gorgeously delicious and did make me feel a tad guilty as after finishing my first serve I was quickly digging into my second. The pudding cake keeps rather well in the fridge and can be enjoyed over the next couple of days; just ping in the microwave for about 20 seconds and to make it a real treat, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream otherwise Nigella does recommend it served with custard or cream (but I think vanilla ice cream is a bit more of a staple at home). 

penne with pork & fennel sausages

A few weeks back, my mum drew attention to the fact that my dad loves to hoard dried pasta. He buys a pack when he sees it on special yet he never actually cooks pasta. The packs of pasta build up, mum thinks it's because dad knows I like cooking pasta so he buys it for me and well, the overarching result is that mum has needed to give me very occasional reminders about the pasta we have at home and the need for it to be used up. It's a good thing that dried pasta has a long-ish use by date (unlike fresh pasta which I've bought and wasted in the past after forgetting it was in the fridge) and well, it's been a good while since I've made myself a batch of pasta, and well, it's always handy to have bags of pasta at home when you get the sudden urge to cook up a batch!

This recipe has been adapted from 'Great Tastes Pasta' by Bay Books. Start by making the sauce and you'll need a good half hour for the sauce to cook reduce.  

Split 6 Italian Pork & Fennel sausages open, remove and crumble the filling and discard the skins. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook 1 small finely chopped onion for 3-4 minutes until fragrant and transparent. 

Add 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, 300g thinly slice mushrooms and crumbled sausage meat.

Cook over high heat, stirring gently to mash the sausage meat for 4-5 minutes or until the meat is evenly browned. Continue to cook, stirring once or twice for about 10 minutes. 

Stir in 1 tbsp dried thyme and 800g tinned chopped tomatoes, then bring the sauce to the boil. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the sauce doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Meanwhile, cook 1 bag penne pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain well and return to the pan to keep warm.

Add the pasta to the sauce and stir to combine. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

I'm not usually a big advocate of parmesan cheese but I think the parmesan really makes this dish. My brother had the pasta without the parmesan and found it a little bland and said I needed to add more salt. I usually like a lot of flavour in my pasta and really, I don't think it's the salt, it's definitely the parmesan which gives this pasta its flavour. Anyway, if you get round to making this recipe, let me know how you go!