2 dried red chillis, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes to soften

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tbs peanut oil

1 bunch gai lan (Chinese broccoli), stems sliced thinly on diagonal, leaves cut into 4cm lengths

1 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), thinly sliced on the diagonal

1/2 cup leftover soya chicken (from Chinese BBQ shop)

1/2 cup leftover BBQ pork slices

1 tbs light soy sauce

1 tbs kecap manis

300g fresh flat rice noodles

1/2 bunch garlic chives, chopped into 3cm lengths

1. Pound soaked chillis and garlic to a smooth paste in a mortar and pestle

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a seasoned wok over high heat. When oil starts to shimmer add chilli and garlic paste and cook 10 seconds until fragrant. Add gai lan and stir fry for 1 minute until leaves have softened. Remove contents of the wok to a bowl.

3. Add another tablespoon of oil and fry lap cheong, chicken and pork for 1 minute or until heated through. Remove contents of the wok to a bowl.

4. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the wok and heat until smoking. Add noodles and spread out up the sides of the wok to get nice and charred. Toss a few times to make sure noodles don’t stick. Add soy sauce and kecap manis and cook 20 seconds. Add garlic chives and stir through. Add cooked ingredients to the wok and stir well. Serve immediately.

Hot Cross Buns

Bun dough
700g (4 2/3 cups) soft plain flour*
55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
2 x 8g packets dried yeast
1 1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
120g raisins, soaked^
130g sultanas, soaked^
300ml full cream milk
125g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 eggs, lightly beaten

White paste for cross
50g (1/3 cup) plain flour

Glaze
55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Whisk flour, sugar, yeast, allspice, cinnamon and 1 teaspoon sea salt in a bowl until combined. Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan until tepid (about 40C, no more or it will kill the yeast. If it gets hotter than this then leave it until it cools to tepid before adding to dry ingredients. 40C is about body temperature if you don’t have a thermometer). Add eggs to milk mixture, whisk. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, add milk mixture and stir until roughly combined. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer such as a kitchenaid or kenwood mixer with dough hook attached and mix for 3-4 minutes until a smooth elastic dough forms. Alternatively you can knead by hand for about 10 minutes.

2. Spray a large bowl with oil spray, place dough inside and cover with cling film. Put bowl in a warm place for 40-50 minutes or until at least doubled in size. If the dough is not bulging out at the top leave it longer, this is crucial for a fluffy dough. Knock back dough by punching lightly and knead in sultanas and raisins. Cut dough into 12 equal pieces, roll into balls and place in a greased rectangular baking tray. Cover with cling film and stand in a warm place for 30-40 minutes or until doubled in size.

3. For the cross, preheat oven to 220C. Combine flour and 1/4 cup water and stir to a smooth paste. Spoon into a ziplock bag, cut off the tip of one corner and pipe lines down the centre of each row of buns to form crosses. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 200C and bake for another 10 minutes until golden.

4. For glaze, combine sugar and cinnamon with 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes until glaze has thickened. Transfer buns to a wire rack to cool. Brush glaze over hot buns with a pastry brush and leave to cool.

* Soft flour is also called cake or biscuit flour, with a protein content of about 9g/100g flour. It is available at most large Australian supermarkets. Even at smaller retailers you can normally find a plain flour with a gluten content of about 9.5g/100g.

^Place raisins and sultanas in a medium bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak 10-15 minutes then drain and squeeze out excess moisture in a clean tea towel.

If you fall into the category of hot-cross-bun-lover then this post is for you. For all of you who can’t stand fruit in bread stop reading now. You were warned!

I have been amusing my workmates with my current obsession with hot cross buns. I do try to wait until a respectable few weeks out from Easter but that is as long as I can last. Once Davelle’s Bakery at Epping starts making them, all thoughts of low-carb/wheat free etc. go out the window. Not that I really hold strong to any of those theories but I do try to eat a wide variety of grainy breads, sourdoughs, spelt etc. and feel the better for it. But when it comes to hot cross buns there is something akin to the slice of white toast, thinly spread with butter and a smattering of vegemite. It’s a classic and classics sometimes should not be tampered with. Or at least if you’re tampering, prepare yourself for fabulous success or dismal failure.

Knowing all this as wise and true, I still felt the need to make some hot cross buns the other day. Not being able to get to Davelle’s for some reason, I decided I’d have a go at producing those light, spiced, glazed fruity pillows of heaven. Ok so the standard was set high. What I produced tasted pretty darn good, I have to say. I toasted some whole spices and ground them in my new spice grinder, thanks Tom and Mals… and the glaze was lightly spiced with cinnamon too. Even the crosses worked, but the dough was just a little too dense for my preference. And I like dense bread, just not a quality I favour in my hot cross buns.

I think I didn’t let the dough rise for long enough, greedy claws that I was. So next time, I’ll leave the dough a little longer and hope for an airier result.

The recipe I used was adapted from one by Adelaide Lucas available at Gourmet Traveller dot com.

Happy eating or baking if you are feeling like something home-made.

P.s. Note to the wise, Davelle’s sells out very quickly of hot cross buns so unless you get there before lunchtime head to Martelli’s Fruit and Veg at Carlingford so you won’t be disappointed. They buy them by the pallet it seems. I hate to think what time the bakers at Davelle’s have to wake up to make them fresh every day! A big thankyou for feeding my addiction

Does anyone have any favourite places to get hot cross buns?

Some have complained that GF glamorises the ordinary. But for people who don’t live with acres of land, a thriving kitchen garden, and chooks out the back, it isn’t ordinary, it is fascinating. It is also the knowledge that one would probably fail if you set out to do something as crazy as expect to create a farm that is financially stable with no experience. Somehow though, with the support of local farmers and a humble attitude Matt manages to be hopeful, and at times successful, which is what makes this show so Australian and a pleasure to watch.

I hope this show does well, cause this city girl still has a lot to learn about farming.

Watching an advertisement for Criniti’s while at the movies didn’t make me want to eat there. However, somehow I developed a raging appetite at the hairdresser after many hours of being analysed, foiled, washed, rinsed, treated, massaged, cut, heat protected, blow dried and styled. My hairdresser mentioned a great meal she’d eaten at Criniti’s about a week ago- lots of fresh seafood, a garlicky tomato sauce and bread for dipping. Then her assistant piped in about the 1m long pizza. I was sold, the greedy beast had won. There would be no healthy Friday night salad, who am I kidding, when do I ever feel like salad on a Friday night?

So we went to Criniti’s Parramatta last night. Called to book at 6:15pm and got a table for 8:30pm. Not a worry, had a bottle of McLeish Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot (wedding research) and some washed rind and blue vein cheese at home which was a nice way to spend the time. We found a free parking spot down the road on George St and got there five minutes early and had to wait a few minutes until the table was ready, but were quite happy with this as there were people queuing up outside.

Once we were seated we soaked up the buzzy vibe of Parramatta on a Friday night. Unsure of serving sizes, I went for an entree size of the Zuppa di Pesce, a thick seafood ’soup’ of large scampi, prawns, vongole, scallops, crab and calamari in a rich tomato sauce with two slices of fresh white bread on the side. This is definitely not first date food. I am a big fan of seafood served in the shell, and have no problem getting in there with fingers, teeth, whatever, to get at the luscious tender meat, but others may think this too messy for eating out. I was worried about splashing tomato sauce on my new scarf so had to make a bib of my napkin. Sounds attractive no? A Chinotto was perfect with the food.

Dave had Fettucine Boscaiola, also entree size.  It was tastier than your average Boscaiola, but not bursting with flavour. A nice, comforting, creamy dish if that’s what you’re in the mood for. It didn’t leave much room for pizza to follow so we had leftovers for lunch the next day.

I’m looking forward to trying the gelato for dessert next time, and am thinking this is the best pizza crust I’ve found west of Haberfield. A crisp but tender thin base with a little extra thickness at the edge and the distinct aroma of the woodfired oven. Addictive.

Recently, Crust Parramatta has been getting regular business from me, and now their only edge over Criniti’s pizza is that they deliver!

Criniti’s Parramatta

291 Church St, Parramatta

9635 0311

I started the season somewhat modestly, watching the price, waiting for it to go down and become ‘reasonable’. I bought the little trays on special, that either lacked a little in flavour or size and was slightly disappointed, not being very reassured by the fact that I was getting a bargain. So it wasn’t long before I began buying the more premium cherries, seduced by their plump roundness, deep purplish red hue and shiny skin. I even started hand picking them, making sure my pennies wouldn’t be thrown away at the sight of a split or mouldy reject.

The final straw was this afternoon when the patriarch of my local greengrocer said with a big grin that I must like this place. I had been in that morning buying ingredients for work. I had to own up that I was really just there for cherries, all the other items in my basket were a cover story. At least it’s out in the open now – Albino the Italian grocer, who is as excited for me about our European holiday as I am knows my weakness and is ordering a new delivery of cherries right now.

This is a wholemeal spelt sourdough using an organic white flour starter culture as the only raising agent. The shape of these loaves is called a ‘batard’.

This is a light rye loaf made with a blend of organic white and organic rye sourdough starters plus a little additional fresh yeast for a lighter texture. Also, I used a loaf tin to try to create a more easily toastable bread. The little slices of the first loaf were hard to get out of the toaster!

Tricks:

1. One of the most prized parts of sourdough is the chewy crust and to create this you need steam in the oven. To create this I crank up the oven (I did about 220C fan-forced) with a tray of water sitting on the bottom of the oven. By the time the oven heats up and is ready for the bread to go in the water is normally bubbling and you have your steam to create your nice crust.

Julia Child has a different method, she uses a piping hot brick which she adds to the tray of water to create a real burst of steam.

2. I find that the loaves burn quite quickly in my oven so I put the racks as low as possible and turn the heat down to 200 or 190 if the bread starts to brown too much. If it looks like it is going to go very brown you can cover the loaf with alfoil.

3. Bourke St Bakery’s cookbook recommends using filtered water and organic unbleached flour.

4. There is a trick that I haven’t used yet but am keen to try. Julia suggests using a terracotta tile to bake your bread on which you pre-heat, like when making pizzas the Italian way. This is meant to give an extra push from the heat underneath the loaf and help give a higher loaf.

Next step is to try some raisin bread, and some lighter fluffier loaves too…

My first attempt at making sourdough last year was very dense as I ignored the suggested rising times and this is not the time to be making up the rules! Once you are proficient, sure, but in the meantime I am taking advice from the Bourke St Bakery cookbook for good notes on making a successful starter culture using just flour and water and Julia Child’s very detailed notes on troubleshooting when baking. Very helpful.

So I made some wholemeal spelt loaves, which were nutty and delicious, though still a little dense so I think I may have under-proved them, but I am looking forward to today’s batch of light rye which in addition to the traditional sourdough starter also employs some fresh (compressed) yeast to make for a tasty bread with a lighter texture. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find fresh yeast but I bought some at the deli in Carlingford Court!

A home oven is not ideal for making bread, but with some tricks you can have success. I am only just finding my way at the moment but I promise to post some pictures if these ones turn out decent

More soon,

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

A hazelnut raspberry cake with white chocolate ganache and white chocolate panels.