Australia Day this year just happens to fall on the same day as Chinese New Year. A dilemma for many as to which to celebrate, however I simply looked at it as a 3 day eating fest. On the 25th of January we had a Burns Supper of sorts with friends, on the 26th we had a Multicultural BBQ with friends and on the 27th we are having a Chinese New Year Dinner with family. The Multicultural BBQ was with my friend M (who is Austrian) and her kids (who are half Austrian and half Peruvian) and we had people from all different cultures all across the globe. Everyone would bring a dish from the home country and share it with others. It seemed only fitting given the multicultural nature of Australia.

M’s Australia (temporary) tattoo

My contribution was Soya Sauce chicken with one of my mother’s recipes. She doesn’t give recipes out very often (three times only in fact) so I jumped on this immediately. I was also bringing Taramosalata and bringing the ingredients for shaved ice desserts which we would assemble while there (although the reasonably cool weather and the cracker of a cake that M made meant that this wasn’t necessary in the end).

This is a recipe that is so simple to make but so satisfying. I like this chicken with plain boiled rice or if I’m feeling particularly needy or cold, with some noodle soup and greens. The amount of water will determine how thick your sauce or gravy is, I personally prefer the sauce moderately thick, not so thick that it is sticky but definitely not runny so that it is like water. And for this recipe I try and overcome my fear of the smell of raw chicken.

Read More

My husband is a Mango jelly fiend. In fact he is a fiend for anything jelly like which I’ve often spoken about before. His love for jellied and wobbly things extends to the sweetened tofu dessert also served at Yum Cha and I have a very vivid memory of when we first met and taking him out to Yum Cha at Regal in Chinatown and letting him loose on the desserts there. He racked up about $30 worth in just desserts alone.

I’ve never known how to make it but when I was watching Food Safari on SBS sometime last year during the dead of Winter, I saw this recipe for Mango pudding made by Rosetta Lee from Kam Fook. I stashed it away in my subconscious waiting for Mango season to arrive. And when it did, in Summer of course, I bought some delicious mangoes and made this very easy dessert.

The hardest bit would probably be in the making of the mango icecream but of course you could just buy this easily enough.If you are making your own, make the Mango Ice Cream first and while it’s churning, you could get the rest of it under way and ready for the final combining in a bowl. Also, and this is handy if you’re like me and hate wastage, a 375ml/13.3floz tin of evaporated milk is exactly what you need if you make the ice cream. And don’t pfaff about washing up after making it as I did as it sets pretty quickly so pour it into the cups straight away (which explains the top not being perfectly smooth). It’s not as lurid orange as some are (I assume either from colouring added to the pudding or to the ice cream) so if you want to get that bright orange you can use colouring although my thinking is why use it if you don’t have to?

Of course the “traditional” way of serving this is in a plastic cup but I didn’t want to quite go all the way in authenticity when I had glass handy. And the verdict? Should you ever find yourself with a $30 Mango Pudding bill at Yum Cha and a husband asking for more, this is a fantastic version. I asked him, hopeful, whether it was as good as the Yum Cha version and after thinking for a bit, he declared it even better!

And one final plea. Not Quite Nigella has been nominated in two categories for Well Fed Network’s awards. Thankyou so much for the wonderful people that nominated me and those who have voted for me If you haven’t voted yet and would like to do you can click through on the links below. I thought I had a chance but sadly it seems that I am not doing so well so I think I need all the help I can get!

Best Food Blog – Post (for my Freeganism story)

Best Food Blog – City

Lots of love and happiness,

Lorraine aka NQN

xxx

Read More

I must apologise for the incessant rambling on about this but there are only a few days to go for voting. Not Quite Nigella has been nominated in two categories for Well Fed Network’s awards! Thankyou so much for the wonderful people that nominated me And if you would like to vote you can do so on:

Best Food Blog – Post (for my Freeganism story)

Best Food Blog – City

Lots of love and happiness,

Lorraine aka NQN

xxx

And now onto the story..

I don’t claim that Jackson Pollock had anything to do with the recipe for this ice cream. The title has more to do with my husband’s first reaction to seeing the ice cream in its about to be frozen state. I don’t even know if Jackson Pollock ate ice cream-do brilliant artists even eat normal food? I always picture them subsisting on cigarettes, tortured stares and “inspiration”.

I’ve spoken before about my love for Twister ice creams. Twister was a Vanilla ice cream cone with a swirl of strawberry and passionfruit syrup through it.  I say “was” as I don’t think they even make it anymore which makes me crave it that much more. January is the hottest month here in Sydney and the best, tastiest way to cool off is with ice cream and a home made one is always preferable to me. After making some Pomegranate syrup and finding it absolutely heavenly, I thought I’d give ice cream a bit of a stab. I’m on a bit of a health kick at the moment (although I must admit that the Krispy Kreme “Christmas Pudding” donut I had earlier was a bit of an aberration as far as that endeavour was concerned), so I wanted to make a low fat vanilla ice cream so that you could feel like you’re not contributing to the Christmas poundage whilst trying to stay sane in the heat.

The resulting ice cream is luscious. The Pomegranate syrup is divine and the combination with the vanilla reminds me so much of the Twister ice cream. If anything I might add some sweetened passionfruit puree to truly recreate it. That is, if there’s any left after my husband scoops himself as much as his hungry heart desires.

Read More