Esau Mwamwaya

One of the musicians I've been introduced to through my workmates' musical tastes is Esau Mwamwaya. The song below is Kamphopo (official Malawi Pride Video) from the album The Very Best.

I had fun working/dancing to this 'Very Best' album in the shop today, unpacking boxes has never been so fun. Rain pouring outside, inside all howdies and gladtalk with the customers.

The Big Orange Splot

He was carrying a can of bright orange paint - No-one knows why.

This picture book was one of my favourites as a kid so after the surprise online discovery with the last book I looked for, I had a go at finding this one. Maybe it's on my mind as Australia has boab trees which before I moved here only existed for me on the pages of that book! Perth also has some awful everything-the-same suburbs which make me cringe. This story is bound to make you smile, though!

I really like the way they read this even though there's a small glitch in the middle. They also have a special way of staying Mr Plumbean's name. Maybe because all New Zealanders are on a first name basis and 'Mister!' is a novel word? Also funny that the first result I found for this book was read by Kiwi kids, eh?


The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater

Flight Of The Conchords - Jenny

As I've been a bit forgetful putting my posts up, here is a song that's about forgetfulness, from Wellington duo Flight of the Conchords, if my memory serves me well.

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Would you credit it? Would you? Genius! I had the brilliant idea to see what came up if I searched for our childhood favourite Tikki tikki tembo... Why don't we all make a song of our favourite book?




If you don't know the book then buy it! (you might need to get the store to order it in as it's really old - like me!) Or look at this version:




I could say the whole name when I was four!

Lisa Ekdahl- Nature Boy

The lovely Lisa Ekdahl (thanks again, Sweden!) sings this eerie jazz standard, also beautifully covered by David Bowie. Lisa's voice is like a hot water bottle for your ears to snuggle up to in winter.

Focaccia

Focaccia
Italy. Recipe by Martha Rose Shulman from her wonderful book 'Mediterranean Harvest'
Makes one large loaf (I made two smaller ones due to the size of my baking dishes)



This is my second attempt at this recipe. The first time I got impatient and didn't wait to read all the instructions before trying to follow them. So just be good and follow the recipe - it works! The texture of this second one was just great. It did take ages though (all that rising it needs) but you can do half of it ahead of time - see notes below.

For the Sponge
1 t active dry yeast
1 c warm water
3/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour

For the Dough
1 t active dry yeast
1 c warm water
3 T olive oil
3 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t salt

For the Topping
2 T olive oil
1 t coarse sea salt

1. Make the Sponge: Combine the yeast and water in a large bowl and stir to dissolve. Let stand for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast is creamy. Whisk in the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until bubbly and doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.

2. Make the dough: Whisk together the yeast and water in a small bowl and let stand until the yeast is creamy, 5-10 minutes. Add to the sponge mixture and whisk in, along with the olive oil. Whisk in 1 c of the flour. Add the salt and remaining flour, a cup at a time, folding it in with a wooden spoon. When you can, scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until soft and velvety.

3. Clean, dry and lightly oil your bowl. Shape the dough into a ball and place in the bowl, rounded side down, then turn so the rounded side is up. (actually mine was ball-like so all rounded - just pop it in the bowl then turn over). Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

4. Oil an 11 x 17 inch baking dish (28 x 43 cm) with olive oil. Turn the dough onto the dish. Oil or moisten your hands and press the dough out until it just about covers the bottom of the dish. The dough will be sticky. Cover with a towel and allow it to relax for 10 minutes, then continue to press it out until it reaches the edges of the dish. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for 45 minutes -1 hour, or until the dough is full of air bubbles.

5. Thirty minutes before baking, set a baking stone (if you have one - I didn't, I just put a metal tray and it seemed to work ok) on the centre rack of the oven and heat to 250 degrees celsius / 425 F.

6. Top the focaccia: With lightly oiled fingertips or with your knuckles, dimple the dough, pressing down hard so that you leave indentations. Drizzle on the olive oil and sprinkle with the salt. Place in the oven on the baking stone (or at least in the middle of the oven). Spray the dough three times with water during the first 10 minutes of baking (I don't have a water spray bottle so flicked it on with my fingers from a bowl of water - I figure they were making focaccia before spray bottles were invented, right? So that MIGHT have been the original way to do it), bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until the edges are crisp and the top is golden. Remove from the oven, remove from the pan at once, and cool on a rack. If you want a softer focaccia, cover with a towel when you remove it from the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature.

ADVANCE PREPARATION: The dough can be made through to Step 3 and refrigerated for up to 5 days. Punch it down, oil it lightly and seal in a plastic bag. Allow it to come to room temperature before proceeding with step 4. Once baked, focaccia will not keep well but you will probably eat it up quickly anyway.

VARIATIONS

Whole Wheat Focaccia - Substitute 3/4 c of whole wheat flour for 3/4 c all-purpose flour in the dough.

Bell Pepper Focaccia - Knead in 2 red bell peppers, roasted, seeded and chopped, or scatter them over the top.

Tomato Focaccia - Knead in 1/2 c drained chopped, sun-dried tomatoes

Herb Focaccia - Knead in 3 T chopped fresh sage or rosemary or sprinkle over the top.

A Winter walk

Snapshots from this morning....before the storm.

Go Back To Where You Came From

Thank you SBS for showing something that is getting people talking about some of the issues surrounding immigration in Australia.


I like to learn something new everyday...or not - because most of what's news is crushingly depressing. This mini series didn't so much change my mind as provide some glimpses into what some refugees have been through. I did know about the war in Congo (DRC) but not actually much about it. Did you know, or do you remember these horrific basic facts:

In a country of 70 million, 5 million have been killed so far in a war that has been going on for the past twelve years. It is estimated that over 10,000 women are raped every day. I can't see how people can criticise people seeking to immigrate to safer countries than this.

Music of the streets of Congo

As Luc is in France (and I'm not) I think back to my visit there last year. As well as having a great time with him and his friends and family, I also did a little travel alone after he returned to Australia. While he was back at work I was traveling in Provence and staying with my first couchsurfing hosts.

The teenage son recommended a cool cinema in Avignon which I duly checked out. It was one of these small independent ones with a bar which everyone had clearly enjoyed before the film. I chose to see a music documentary as I don't (yet) speak French. I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend you track it down.

Benda Bilili is about a group of crippled musicians who met living and performing on the streets in Kinshasa, Congo. I've just watched the refugee documentary series 'Go Back to Where You Came From' (see post). There was a family who had fled Congo for Kenya and then maybe somewhere more permanent - so the lively man on that show reminded me of this music doco as he got the Australians dancing to Congolese music. Staff Benda Bilili were discovered by a Belgian music producer who helped bring their music to the world. These guys will amaze you.

Winter Solstice

It's the middle of winter. The shortest days are here but we're still getting temperatures of 22 degrees celsius. My friend is Finland tells me that there it's summer (that much I knew) but that the daytime temperatures on sunny days were around 15 degrees! Ay! I think when I visit her I'll do it in their winter to experience a real White Winter.
So here's a romantic wintery song perfect for snuggling up to. 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'. I like a version I can't find but this one is pretty good too. I don't watch the show but if it gets kids introduced to different musical styles that's good.

In Memoria di Me (In Memory of Me)

What gives our lives meaning and how far would we go to follow our beliefs?
One film exploring life's purpose is Italian film In Memory of Me. I kept thinking about this film after it finished and it can lead to some big questions so, although it is not a new release film (2007), I wanted to introduce it to you.


This pensive film follows Andrea, a man who decides to give up his outwardly successful but unfulfilling life 'in the world' in favour of a life of devotion in a monastery. Before committing to the church there is the trial period of the novitiate; this is the timespan of the story. The purpose of the novitiate is for the postulant (the one who wants to become a monk) to decide if such a life is the right path for them and likewise, for the church to assess if the postulant is suitable to join their community. For even here in the monastery there is a society to which Andrea and others struggle to adapt to. Their daily life, carried out in monastic silence, is full of rules, routines and scrutiny. The lack of open communication and the priests' encouragement of the postulants to watch each other and report on each other, builds a mood of suspicion and leads Andrea and the audience to doubt the monastic life and the role of the church.


Like the postulants lives, the action and dialogue in the film are sparse, allowing us to enter into the reflective and challenging journey they are going through. The uncluttered musical score and elegant cinematography support this portrayal of an outwardly measured life of a man where all the action is beneath the surface as he struggles with his most fundamental beliefs.

I wasn't thrilled by the ending but got something from it none the less. The film is easier to dwell in like you would a piece of music than expecting the plot alone to satisfy.

My advice to audiences? Although it is slow, don't talk all the way through this movie. Just observe, let it sit with you then see what discussions follow. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts - on the film and especially its themes.




In Memoria di Me (In Memory of Me)

2007

Director: Saverio Costanzo

Writer: Saverio Costanzo, based on the novel 'The Perfect Jesuit' by Furio Monicelli

Cinematography: Mario Amura

Original Score: Alter Ego

Editing: Francesca Calvelli

Cast: Christo Jivkov, André Hennicke, Filippo Timi, Marco Baliani, Fausto Russi Alesi, Stefano Antonucci, Rocco Andrea Barone, Paolo Bizzeti, Massimo Cagnina, Milutin Dapcevic, Matteo D'Arienzo, Ben Pace, Allesandro Quattro

Runtime: 118 minutes

Dos Bebidas

Instant karma got me. I only did the tiniest of favours for a friend and got the answer to my dreams. After seeing cafe photos posted online by a friend in Santiago, I remembered how much I liked the cafes there. In fact, I like the cafes here too, but not really what they serve. The hot chocolate is usually not hot and not chocolatey - just warm milk with that sugary fake chocolate syrup stuff - and marshmallows on the side to add yet more sickly sweetness. In Santiago I loved a type of hot chocolate called a Submarino. A submarino is very easy for baristas and so much fun for kids or people like me; it's a glass of hot milk served with a bar of real, dark chocolate which you sink into the milk and stir in yourself, watching the flecks of chocolate swirl through the glass. The best hot chocolate I've found so far in Perth is at San Churro, a Spanish style chain of 'chocolaterias'. Their main version og hot chocolate though I'm not a fan of - it's super thick, too thick for me, as they add flour so it ends up kind of gluey. They do have a 'couverture hot chocolate' though which is just hot milk with real chocolate melted into it - the taste and texture is perfect. Mixing the chocolate in yourself is more fun though and the price, AU$5.95, does seem a bit steep right?? -just for a decent cup of chocolate?


So I was thinking of hot chocolate, obsessing about it a little even, for most of a night, rueing that all the hot chocolate powders I find are too much full of sugar and even salt. I settled for making my own with cocoa and adding sugar to taste. Another kitchen tool, the battery-powered milk frother, gives that velvety lightness to the milk/soy milk so it's cafe style at home - but better.



The next morning before work took me just ten minutes' walk up the other end of the road I work on to collect some natural remedies for my friend. I don't usually walk up to that part of the street so after picking up the medicine, crossed the road to check out a second-hand shop. Right before the second hand shop though I found, to my delight, a new Spanish restaurant and supplies shop. At nine o'clock in the morning I was the only customer so asked the lady working there for some product advice. It turns out she was from Chile and had lived in NZ for 14 years so she was more than happy to chat with me. Hortense even taught me how to make Mote Con Huesillos, a drink I'd enjoyed in Chile. And yes, they sold the mote, and the huesillos and I bought them, as well as some unsweetened chocolate for making my own hot chocolate - a proper one :) Recipes follow! (P.S. I just read some good reviews of the restaurant part too).

Recipe for one cup of hot chocolate:

30g approx of dark chocolate
(if sugarless chocolate add sugar to taste, about 1-2 t)
1 cup or more of milk/ soy milk (depending on size of glass/mug you'll serve it in)
Heat milk with chocolate. Stir or use milk frothing whizz to combine. Serve when hot enough and frothed enough.

Additions - pinch of chilli powder and cinnamon for a more Mexican style hot chocolate.





Mote Con Huesillos

This non-alcoholic and wholesome drink is a bit stange - I mean, it's filling - it could be a dessert! But it's refreshing, surprisingly enjoyable and very popular in Chile. Read about the history of it here.

6 huesillos (dried whole peaches)
150g trigo mote (hulled wheat berries)
about 2 T sweetener like honey or sugar - I used apple juice concentrate
6 cups water
extra water to cover mote


A kiosk selling Mote con Huesillos drink in Vina del Mar, Chile. Photo from my visit there in 2004.

In a saucepan soak the huesillos in the 6 cups of water overnight. The next day add 1 or 2 cinnamon quills, the sweetener and a few pieces of orange or lemon zest. Boil for approx 25 minutes to bring out the flavours. Leave to cool.



In another saucepan, add the mote and cover with fresh water. Boil until the mote is soft. Drain, rinse under cold water and leave to cool.




Put both parts (the huesillo with 'nectar' and the mote) in the fridge until ready to use.
To serve, add a couple of tablespoons of mote to a glass, add a huesillo and top up with the nectar liquid. Often this drink is served with two huesillos per glass but it depends on how big the glasses are.
Variation: You could try pearled barley in place of the wheat. Apricots instead of peaches. This is what I initially thought it was, actually!

Charlie Horse

Introduced to this singer tonight thanks to a CD won by my flatmate for his awesome karaoke skills. Thanks Julien, thanks Charlie.

P.S. I call this Charlie Horse coz he's a good horse and he's born in the year of the horse. And he's Charlie.

Two Cars, One Night

A short NZ film by Taiki Waititi

Take what you need, give what you can

Who's gonna help those struggling

Who's gonna watch their backs for them

With no water in their well

And no food for the fire



Good people if you understand

It doesn't take much to lend your hand

And give to those less fortunate

What they cannot get themselves



You can close your eyes

It wont go away

Burgers and fries while the struggler pays

You shoe off the flies

They still hang around

Feel the vultures staring down at ya



You can't hide from what you know is true

There's always someone else worse off than you

And if there was something that you could do

Would you reach out and do it?



Intelligent people of this land

Help with ya neighbour if you can

Don't be afraid to lend your hand

Take what you need

And give what you can



Do it, give what you can





This song by NZ band The Blackseeds was a good reminder for me today - and a nice chilled out song to listen to as well.

Home-made aprons

I like that although I can't sew, other people can. I got these gorgeous aprons on the internet from a Annes Aprons and Bibs. Anne is a Perth woman who has found a new career in her retirement - making 1950's style aprons for me to flounce around in in my kitchen - and in the park for these photos so we could have the light (Thanks, Amy!). Anne was so nice, even delivering these to me at work! Check out her other designs on the link above.





And here's one my favourite 1950's songs that gets me in the mood to do housework!

Roasted Vegetables and Beetroot Greens Salad

Tips for making the best roast vegetables
(thanks to Jude Blereau's Wholefood Cookbook for reminding me of some fundamentals - when I rush they can turn out half dry, half steamed!)

- use metal trays, cast iron with enamel coating if possible, to transfer heat best. Glass and ceramic don't let enough direct heat get to the vegetables.
-don't crowd the veggies too close together - give them space in the trays so they can crisp up, otherwise they can steam-cook
-cut the slow cooking veggies like potato into smaller pieces than the faster cooking ones like kumara (sweet potato) or steam the slow-cooking veggies first
-Keep watery vegetables in different trays to drier ones.
-I keep different kinds of veggies in separate trays so I can take out the faster cooking ones first- if you mix them all at the beginning some, like beetroot, might burn while others are still hard.
-Wrap whole bulbs of garlic in twists of baking paper to stop them burning. Un-wrap then un-peel when cooked (about 20 mins so remove this before the other vegetables). I also wrap my beetroot in baking paper and unwrap when soft to let crisp just a little.
-Some oil is necessary for helping the vegetables crisp on the outside and be moist inside. Only about 1-2T is fine.
-Rub the oil and seasonings into vegetables before cooking them.



I seasoned mine with fresh rosemary, home-made dukkah. Adding cheeses like feta or goat's cheese to a bowl of roasted vegetables makes a nice cafe-style salad. You can even mix with greens when cooled a little.



Beetroot leaves make a great salad. I just used the leaves from my bunch of beetroot. First I picked the leaves from the stems, washed them thoroughly, rolled them up and sliced thinly. A dressing of juice of 1 lemon, 1 crushed garlic clove, 2 T extra virgin olive oil helped 'marinade' the tougher leaves (the little young leaves are fine as is). And I just added a can's worth of chickpeas, rinsed and peeled (the skin pops off with a pinch between thumb and finger) and 1 chopped avocado.

Rose's Winter Stew

Serves 4, Vegan (unless you add cheese at the end)

Last night I was all set to make some chilli when Luc said he wanted to eat some bocconcini. We didn't have any fresh tomatoes or basil as he usually likes it, so I made up this (un-chilli) puy lentil stew with ingredients we DID have. And I'll make it again - it was pretty yummy!

2 x 1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 bulb fennel, chopped
1-2 T apple juice concentrate (or another healthy sweetener to take off sharp edges)
2 c good vegetable stock (mine included potato which made this stew quite thick)
1 x 400g tin whole peeled tomatoes
1 x 140g pottle tomato paste (about 3 heaped T)
1 c dried puy lentils (I didn't pre-soak)
8 shitake or other solid mushrooms, chopped into large chunks
1 x 180g jar of roasted pepper (capsicum) strips
extra water as needed, to reach the consistency you like

This is a rather slow-cooked meal so use a med-low heat so it doesn't burn.
In a large pot, heat 1 T of the oil and saute the onion and garlic. Then add the fennel and the other 1 T olive oil. Saute, adding the apple juice concentrate to partially caramelise the onion/fennel mixture.
Pour in the vegetable stock and the whole can of tomatoes, including liquid. Either break the tomatoes in you (clean) hands as you pour them in, or break them up with your spoon in the pot (hands is easier). Add the tomato paste and mix altogether.
Stir in the lentils, cover pot with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring just occasionally. Add the mushrooms and pepper strips and continue to cook. The puy lentils will take a while (30 minutes?) to cook but the good thing is they don't over-cook and go all slushy and dahl-like. You can do other things in the kitchen / nearby while this is cooking. Jamie Oliver would have whipped up a couple of side dishes, a drink and a dessert, but we were good. Just give it a stir now and then to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and add more water if needed.
When the lentils are soft enough (still firm but nice to eat) and it's looking good and stew-y, well, should be done!
I served ours with really bad homemade bread (hence no recipe) which the stew revived, and the boccocini. It doesn't need cheese at all, but the cheese needed to be eaten! If you want salt and pepper you can let people add their own at the table. Luc adds it automatically so better not to add it while cooking or he'd get twice as much; I didn't think it needed ANY.

*I just had a jar of these peppers (cheap at the Re store, Perth people) but if you don't you could leave them out, or, even better, if you have real peppers/capsicums, you could chop and add them with the fennel, or, best of all, you could roast or grill them till blackened, leave to cool in a plastic bag or container (the trapped steam helps loosen the skin from the flesh), peel off the skin, core, and chop up the flesh into chunks or strips - voila, your own roast peppers! You just need a bit more time for this.
Likewise, you could use chopped fresh tomatoes instead of tinned and reduce down your own homemade tomato paste but that takes a lot more time and work and besides, it's not tomato season.


I made a quick entree while the stew cooked. It was using fruit in season - persimmon and tamarillo, and avocado which is still in the markets and affordable right now. I love, love, love persimmons which, besides being delicious, have a beautiful star design when sliced across. When I did a homestay in Seoul, my host, the lovely Mrs Kim, used to bring her boys and I snacks of fresh fruit, peeled and sliced. It was amazing how the simple and elegant presentation made me see fruit in a whole new light - a dish in its own right. Thank you Kim family and Korea for sharing the gift of persimmon appreciation!

A place for everything

Another small blue thing that I use a lot in the kitchen. It only has one purpose but it does it really well - holding my cooking spoon for me when I'm not stirring. It keeps it off the bench and the lip on it stops it from flipping out. I got it at a stall in Mandurah from the clever potter who invented it: Peel Pottery

One man band, two rocking chairs

Sunday afternoon sounds. Out in the back garden sanding down our rocking chairs and listening to Son of Dave, and the neighbours lunching.



A mini-documentary on Son of Dave, one man band:

Too much music in Freo

Here's who we almost saw at Mojos...we got sidetracked by eat-drink-and-be-merry-ness with friends, ending up at X-Wray learning to whistle loudly with an effusive Brazilian giving props to her friend rapping about Perth City ("just relaxing, making pavlovas...it's a good place to bring up kids"). Rapping about the issues! They say to sing what you know and he was singing his truth, representing both north and south of the river and the burbs!

But there were Kiwis representing, in fact starring, at Mojos
82 year old Melva of Tuaranga was there at Mojos stomping it out:

Those trees've got trunks like legs! - wearing warmers!

Yes! It's getting cold enough for hotties and snuggling under 'doonas' - duvets. I am even lucky enough to have a gorgeous crocheted hottie (hot-water bottle) cover given to me by my sister and made by her talented friend Rosa-May

But what about all those things in the great outdoors that don't get a hottie? What about the trees?! Don't they get cold? Well, some people think so! Tomorrow (June 11th) is the inaugural International Yarn Bombing Day. Let me know if you see any examples of cosy-ed up statues or snuggly looking bike stands.


This example of yarn-bombing is by a group lead by Austin, Texas 'knitta' Magda Sayeg. Like Rosa-May, Magda is one of these new generation crochet addicts and is using this time-consuming craft to bring joy to others' lives and hopefully money to theirs. Magda is getting comissions across the world now, so go for it people - use your talents!

I remember at college (high school) we did a class art installation once after our teacher had introduced us to the likes of Christo and Jean-Claude. But instead of doing big bulbous -and probably much faster - coverings, we decided carefully wrap a tree in plastic wrap, revealing every branch. The end result looked like a European winter wonder-thing - as if it were covered in icicles. I haven't a picture of our tree so looked online to see if there were images of something similar. Just type into mage search 'wrapped tree' and marvel, go on!, at the resulting instant art collection. When I narrowed it down to 'tree wrapped in plastic' though, I found this:

This is NOT what our tree looked like but is a good reminder to use less plastic! The website this photo was featured on has some tips for householders on which plastics can and can't be easily recycled.

So let's make our world more beautiful - whether it be with crochet and knitting or simply recycling rubbish and not creating lots of new rubbish, do what you can!

I wrote it for all the cows

After the ABC and then other networks broadcast those gruesome videos of Australian cows being tortured in Indonesian abattoirs, Australia has now voted to ban the live export of its cows to Indonesia. I am imagining the cattle farmers are very unhappy about this, but the cows might be happy. I am happy.

The whole thing has made me glad to already be a vegetarian and I thought I'd share this very sweet hippy song by Melanie Safka on eating right by our bodies and by the animals.

Chirimoya

Wow. This is one amazing bit of fruit. I tried them for the first time in Chile. Oh, there's such cheap fruit in Chile they use raspberries to make juice! Can you imagine - going to a cafe and just grabbing a glass of fresh raspberry juice? There was a nice cafe run by a Kiwi woman where they made a chirimoya juice - one sip and I was a convert. The texture is creamy so the juice is more like a smoothie - hence the English name 'custard apple'.

But you know, I like the name chirimoya. I learnt a tongue-twister about it:

Comí chirimoyas, me enchirimoyé,
ahora para desenchirimoyarme,
cómo me desenchirimoyaré.



The flavour of chirimoya has been compared to a kind of banana-pineapple-vanilla-strawberry thing.
They are in season here at the moment (locally grown - but then locally grown in Western Australia doesn't mean much - WA is bigger than most countries). Even though they are in season they are still mightily expensive $5-6 each! So after eyeing them up in the market for a couple of weeks...I bought ONE. Yes, a whole blog post about one piece of fruit.
To eat one, just make sure it's ripe - a bit soft. Then peel/cut off skin and remove seeds - the flesh will be in pieces by now - that's ok. Either eat as is or you can put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes and eat as sorbet. Or blend to make a smoothie.

A Small Blue Thing

A recommended tool:


I bought one of these, a mini rubbery spatula, for just one job - getting muffins out of non-stick muffin trays. It's been SO handy though, for all sorts of kitcheny jobs:

scraping out the last sauce from small jars
mixing and scraping out small mixtures in cups
scraping out the coffee grinder bowl
and heaps of other menial tasks that it is such a joy to do with a little rubber spatula!

That is all.

United we fail

I bought it. The idea of natural gas being clean - you know, not like crude oil or coal. Blue is a clean colour. And we want SOMETHING to be clean energy. Watching the documentary gasland shook me out of that easy belief. Granted, it is about the system of hydraulic fracturing to harness shale gas in the USA, but it made me realise how little I know about just how we get our gas in Australia and NZ. It made me realise how few questions I am asking.

The documentary was not even trying to be objective - everything from the narrator's whiney monotone to the way they edited interviews was clearly supporting their David vs Goliath type agenda. This movie needed an Erin Brockovich and it didn't have one - the filmmaker didn't appear to be much of a force to be reckoned with. But, by virtue of making this film and just showing some of how the pollution from gas drilling is affecting animals' and people's health across America, it heightens people's awareness and sparks a curiosity to learn more; already I have started doing some online research into just how our fossil fuels are extracted from the earth.

Here's a typically Hollywood type trailer for the film, replete with annoying voice-over. Watch it though - even in these couple of minutes you could learn something. And if you're wondering why to bother as it is an American health issue and you're not American - well consider the environmental impact of this gas extraction which is releasing dangerous levels of carbon into the atmosphere - in one city the film looked at, the gas-drilling carbon emissions were higher than that of all their cars! Now consider that shale gas excavating is big buisiness across the globe, including Australia.

GASLAND Trailer


Shale gas is just one type of energy. How much (or little) do you know about all the other ways our energy providers manage to harness the earth's resources to keep us in electricity?

On the weekend I went to a climate change rally.
(Photo not me or mine - from SayYesPerthRally, lympago.com)

A great morning with surprisingly good music (see video below), great people and for once, speeches we could actually hear and that didn't test our attention spans. But something wasn't so cool - all the cute little kiddies who at first were sitting ever so frog-like on the deck platforms in the wetland garden started increasing in number and migrating to the rush covered islands, trampling all over and pulling out the plants. Ie, a microcosm of our overpopulated areas. The parents did nothing about it so neither did anyone else. A few pointed and mumbled but not one person nearby said a word to the kids - kids who seemed nice enough and likely would have listened to some direction straight away. This 3000 strong crowd who were all at the rally to show they wouldn't sit idly by while our environment was destroyed, these same people were too shy to ask a couple of kids to look after the immediate environment. A bit weird but also very common crowd behaviour, really. You know that thing about 'it takes a village to raise a child?' It's not what happens, though, eh? Sure, schools do a lot of that child-raising these days, but outside of schools, how much do other people help parents raise their kids? I think lots of us get the impression we should just keep out of it - maybe we can acknowledge a child's talent or good behaviour but it's risky to try to console or discipline someone else's child. That book, The Slap, comes to mind (haven't actually read it myself...).

One thing that has broken away from the sheep mentality we often have, is, er, the cattle thing. ABC news channel first broadcast some very disturbing images of cattle being tortured in abattoirs in Indonesia. Not only was it screened on TV, but it was picked up by all the prime-time news channels and current affairs shows. Now maybe they were being sheep-y by showing the same story but putting something like that on TV here in the first place. I'm glad that they were challenging people to face a disgusting reality. It is interesting though that the debate about halal slaughter conditions has been brought in and I hope channels are not screening these features in an effort to prove Muslim laws inhumane. Decide for yourself why they are screening these images most of us would rather not see.

We can achieve great things working together - banning live export of animals is a good example of such a positive step. We can, however, also choose, together to collectively ignore things that deserve not just our attention but our consideration and action.

Positive action is my favourite. Being inspired more often than let down by other people. Here's some inspiration - if not to lofty things, at least inspiration to leave this post on a lighter note. The song is Headlock by Sticky Fingers - the Sydney band that played at the climate rally.

An Autumn feast of words

See my new 'my bookshelf' page? I got lots of cookbooks, eh? Maybe even more than I will ever use. The guys in the house don't share my obsession but never mind, I enjoy reading them maybe even more than I enjoy cooking from them. There are 10 cookbooks not yet on the list, too. One of the problems of working in a bookshop (well, the main one) is that when new books get delivered, I get to unpack and shelve them - the bad part being that many of them are so appealing that they might never make it to the shelves - like half our supply of the new Penguin Great Food series. These beautifully designed slim volumes of food writing proved too appealing to resist - so home I went with 9 of them! A few days later, one of my friends shared this link to someone else's self-justifying cookbook buying article featuring just the series I mentioned!

The first one I am reading is 'A Middle Eastern Feast' by Claudia Roden. I'm learning all sorts of thugs. Here's an excerpt from a section called 'Sweet and Sour'

"Reading quite recently about ancient pre-Islamic Persia of the Sassanid and its Zoroastrian dualist religion, which is based on the confrontation of the two enemy forces of good and evil, I was struck by the similarity between the early philosophy of the Persians and principles of harmony which they apply to their food.
The Zoroastrian belief is that their god Ahouramazda created the world. The spirit of creation which pulled matter out of nothing awoke a force of resistance, giving birth to a spirit of evil, Angromainyous, whose creative and malicious urge was to destroy the harmony of the universe. In this religion, creation could only exist in the equilibrium of the opposing forces which it had aroused. (text skipped)
It is also interesting to compare the Middle Eastern 'sweet and sour' with that of China. The Chinese have a predilection for sweet and sour, and harmony through opposites, and their early religion was one also based on opposing forces of good and evil."

Then follows a recipe for a 'delicious way of preparing sweet-and-sour leeks' which, I have to admit, I haven't tried.



A recipe I might just try from the 10th book I've bought recently, Nirmala's Edible Diary (actually not even from my bookstore but another independent who was selling this beauty for $11 - down from $45!), is feijoa and pineapple punch. Feijoas? you ask… Ah, feijoas. We love them, us Kiwis, eh? Who else loves feijoas? I had thought Brazilians might, but the Brazilians, and for that matter other South Americans, I've asked about feijoas (some homesick days I can talk of little else) haven't even heard of them. 'What is that? Like Kiwifruit?' some ask. More like guava really, and, according to my new book, also like pineapple. Really? I suggest you just try some if you find them and then you'll know - they taste like feijoas. In New Zealand many people with good old, 1/4 acre sections have feijoa trees which produce bucketfuls of fruit which we usually just cut in half and scoop out the middle with a spoon - yum! They are not a huge commercial crop though and here in Australia, really hard to find. Indeed, there is a Facebook page called 'I love feijoas' which is mainly populated by homesick Kiwis (New Zealanders) living in Australia, asking each other if there's anywhere to buy them!



A Kiwi school friend, now based in London, is currently here in Perth for a work trip. This weekend I took her to a market and as we looked around she squealed with joy thinking she had found feijoas - she hadn't, they were small avocados and she was crestfallen - that's how much we love our feijoas. There may be little point in me telling you about them as they're hard to get but I'm sure ex-pats all have their favourite foods to miss - what can you think of?

Last night, while looking for chocolate actually, I stumbled across a small food store selling feijoas! I'll give them to my friend but in the meantime, the smell is just divine. If you don't stumble across any, you might instead enjoy 42 Below's feijoa Vodka.

Here is the cut in half style of feijoa and another, sharper South American fruit -tamarillo- that's a hit in NZ.

Roast Tamarillo and Kumara (Sweet potato)

My dinner - and your next recipe idea, comes thanks to reading through my new cookbook: Nirmala's Edible Diary (South American recipes!) This was supposed to be made with Purple potatoes but I only had orange kumara (sweet potato), which means I got 1/4 of the ingredients wrong!

Ingredients

6 whole tamarillos
1 lb small purple poatoes (I used just one huge kumara)
freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
2 T extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. cover baking dish with a sheet of baking paper.

Put the whole tamarillos in a saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Drain and let cool.

While these are cooking, slice the kumara into 1" /2cm rounds and arrange on baking paper. sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle over the olive oil and rub or turn to coat each piece.

When tamarillos are cool enough, peel away the skin by slitting with a knife at the bottom and peel upwards to the stem. Leave stem on but throw away the skin. Toss just once in the oil with kumara (as they are fragile).

Put the tray in the oven - when kumara is soft, turn each peice over and move to the top of te oven to create a bit of a crisy outside. Keep an eye on them so they will look like mine and not like shrivelled burnt things.

I served mine with an omlette, black beans and pureed greens. Nirmala suggests they are a great side dish for any South American main and she likes to pair it with catfish. I prefer my catfish as a documentary (about facebook weirdness, not that scary one about all the killer catfish in the Amazon - I'm never going swimming in that river now! I won't tell you about those eat-y fishes as it might put you off your South American food which you should enjoy).