Crab cakes were the perfect accompaniment to a traditional Summer favourite — a Pimm’s with lemonade and dry ginger. Is it “the most heavenly drink on Earth”?
Cooking
Daily Proposition: A cheesy pasta with a chocolatey drop
A Donna Hay-inspired three-cheese pasta (OK, maybe four) washed down with a Amherst Pyrenees Dunn’s Paddock Shiraz 2009 — just one of Michael Vaughan’s wine highlights from the past week.
Daily Proposition: Christmas in October — a festive Shiraz
Christmas has lobbed early. The Oomoo Sparkling Shiraz was decidedly festive — even with a Middle Eastern lamb tart as accompaniment.
Daily Proposition: In the company of a Canadian (scallop) and Aussie (chardy)
A night in with some big, fat Canadian scallops and an Ashcroft 2009 Chardonnay from Margaret River offered the perfect company after a dinner date gone wrong.
Daily Proposition: The tastes and smells of Spring
The weather has turned decidedly spring — so I made it a perfect example of things good and things easy. I hit the market to buy some goodies and have a “welcome-to-spring” feed.
Daily Proposition: The meat-eaters guide to tofu
Meat eaters fear tofu. But the almost tasteless prism of healthiness, high in protein and low in salt and cholesterol, can be spiced up with some saucy additions to help satisfy unhealthy urges, says Andrew Duffy.
Daily Proposition: Let them eat (banana) cake
As the months become progressively colder, it’s time to rug up in your winter woollies and hibernate. That means cranking up the oven and baking a cake to Crikey intern Esther Ooi.
Did MasterChef slip up on OH&S? Wet kitchen draws viewer fire
Occupational health and safety concerns are generating discussion in the vocal MasterChef community, with viewers questioning whether water visible on the floor of the show’s set represents a hazard for the contestants.
Eating Aunt June’s clitoria cake
It’s always an appealing past time to ignore the bad news in the world and whip up a tasty treat in the kitchen. W H Chong explains how to make his Aunty June’s bizarrely named “clitoria cake.”
Making (and eating) Ramona Koval’s Bubba Sponge
The Book Show’s Ramona Koval offered W H Chong the recipe for her Bubba’s Birthday Sponge. He carefully followed her instructions and, with sticky hands, took photographs of the process.
Daily Proposition: Rotting fruit? Make jam
The sun is shining, the days are getting longer and soon fruit will be bending bough, bush and cane as it ripens in the promise of summer. Got mangoes, berries, cumquats and other fruit rotting on the ground? Make jam, says Jane de Graaff of Broadsheet.
Daily Proposition: Make pizza dough from scratch
Time to dust off the trusty bread maker and discover the joys of homemade pizza dough — bread maker-style. Catherine Luu takes you through the recipe.
Daily Proposition: Daily Proposition: make broccoli health soup
Blast ill-health away — or at least get a soothing placebo effect — with this hearty soup full of healthsome broccoli, onion, garlic, ginger and chilli. Mel Campbell recites the recipe.
Daily Proposition: Make some real chicken stock
We seem to all want to eat more at this time of the year: big hearty comfort meals of braised meats, casseroles of wild game, curries to feed the soul, and rich brothy soups to keep us healthy. A lot of these meals require a good stock, and the best stuff is home-made, says Tom Clay.
Daily Proposition: It’d be un-Australian not to eat them
If there’s one way to celebrate the diggers, it’s with rolled oats and golden syrup and a cuppa after the dawn service. So make your own Anzac bikkies!
How to cook dinner in a dishwasher
OC Weekly’s food bloggers test what foods will and won’t cook in a dishwasher. Catfish, Brussels sprouts, corn? Yep. Strawberry cobbler? Not so much.
Video of the Day: Video of the Day: Great Depression Cooking with Clara
Ninety-four-year-old Clara cooks recipes and tells stories from the Great Depression in her online TV show. Today’s recipe: eggplant parmesan.
Breakfast around the world
What’s on the table for breakfast in Botswana, Egypt, Sri Lanka and El Salvador? Not cornflakes and toast, that’s for sure. Fascinating breakfasts from around the globe to make your Weeties look a tad weak.
Birmingham: Aussies are crap at BBQs
Ooh, them’s fightin’ words: John Birmingham reckons Australians’ self-image as masters of the grill is totally overcooked. Greeks, Germans and even the Yanks would give us an absolute basting in a battle of the barbie.
Cookbooks get heavier while their content gets lighter
Every year, cookbooks grow bigger, while the number of actual recipes inside them shrinks. Chefs: please cram the commentary, and make with the cooking, says Hilary Osborne.
If ABC presenters were cakes
Auntie has released a cookbook of cakes shaped like its kids’ TV show characters — but what about the grown-up programs? asks Mel Campbell. Kerry O’Brien, Margaret and David, Ali Moore and more, imagined as cakes.
VIDEO: If Michelle Obama was a hamburger…
… she’d be a free range turkey burger with caramelized onions, Swiss cheese, ruby red tomatoes, crisp lettuce and garden herb mayo on a freshly baked wheat bun, served with an avocado shake. Introducing the “Michelle Melt”.
Video of the Day: Pasta magic: making noodles by hand
Lots of stretching, bouncing and pulling of flour? With a kinda annoying host and tasty looking results? Why, it’s a chef demonstrating Chinese noodles being made by hand!
Poh poached by ABC
The ABC said this week that MasterChef Australia Poh Ling Yeow will be the star of its new cooking show to be screened in 2010. If successful, she could end up with a longer career in the public eye than winner Julie Goodwin.
VIDEO: How to make a home-cooked meal in a hotel room
Comedian George Egg demonstrates how to cook tortellini with spinach and fresh-baked English muffins, all in a hotel room, using just what he finds there.
