Once upon a time, my mother made some BBQ Pork buns. She told me that they turned out perfectly and she saved the recipe so she could make them again. However, like most mums, she became too busy to make these from scratch and would take advantage of the BBQ Pork Buns available in the freezer section of Chinatown grocery stores and we’d get our fill of them at Yum Cha. I was always naughty and ate the filling leaving the fluffy bun behind. Then one day recently she dug up this old recipe and straightened the paper reflecting on her batch made a long time ago “Would you like me to make these for you?” she asked me and without a moment’s hesitation I said yes and thus began the saga of the BBQ Pork Bun and the tale of the three attempts.
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November 13, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
How was your weekend? Good I hope 
If yours was like mine, it was furiously busy with a whirlwind of activity. And although I was frantically busy, a part of me (perhaps the insane part) thought that making my own cheese was a good idea. The cheese that I wanted to make was Mascarpone. For one, it’s usually quite expensive to buy with a 250g tub retailing for about $7.50 – a kilo of ricotta by comparison is about $7 a kilo and reason two, it’s delicious. Then one day I came across the wonderful Deeba’s post on Passionate About Baking where she made mascarpone and it looked so easy and yet beautifully creamy that I bookmarked it straight away knowing that I would be making my very first cheese soon.
Mascarpone is similar to a cream cheese although more creamy and voluptuous and less “solid”. A speciality of Lombardy in Italy it’s a double or triple cream cheese which is denatured by using tartaric acid or a lemon or lime juice. It’s then drained of its whey and the resultant cheese is sublimely rich and creamy. Simply mixing it with some rose syrup and some fruit and it’s an amazing but simple dessert on it’s own. It’s also the cheese that happens to be used in Tiramisu so you know it can’t be bad right?
Draining the whey off
The process was straightforward and the key was simply to heat it up to the right temperature. After that it was simple and the time taken was just in waiting and like making bread from scratch, I found making my own cheese very rewarding an experience too. You’d think I’d just split the atom such was my pride at my voluptuously creamy mascarpone (and sadly there was no-one around to High Five). “Try it!” I later said to everyone within a spoons’ reach. My 900ml of cream made 700grams of mascarpone and even then I was proud of having created something that would cost me about $20 to buy for a fraction of the price and not only that, it beyond fresh.
Last week I received some amazing news too! I was tweeted the news by the SMH’s Simon Thomsen that I had made it into the new The Sydney Morning Herald “Foodies Guide to Sydney 2010″ book! I was one of two bloggers featured in there (the other being The Elegant Sufficiency). For overseas readers, the SMH is the foodie newspaper and they put out an annual Good Food Guide with restaurant reviews and a Foodies Guide to Sydney. I was amazed and the very next day I got my hands on a copy. I opened it up to the index and squealed “I’m in the index!” to my mother who gave me an amused look. I flicked to the page and there it was. My own feature – and they got me. Yes they really understood me and what my blog was all about which was so rewarding.
My very own feature! Click to enlarge
So how did I celebrate? By going to the World Chef Showcase (story to come this week), a dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill and a lunch cooked by Martin Boetz and Peter Gordon at Longrain, all stories to come. Many years ago I would have bought a bag or some shoes but now it’s all about food and I couldn’t be happier (woe to my waistline though 
).
So tell me Dear Reader, how do you celebrate good news?
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October 12, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Pot Luck lunches or dinners can be a funny affair. All of my friends are great when it comes to Pot Luck meals and for some reason, we never end up with doubles and everyone always bring more than is needed. However a colleague of mine’s friends can be a different matter entirely. She and her friends host weekly Pot Luck lunches and she often regales me of tales of Pot Luck Politics. One woman (the organiser, let’s call her El Presidente) tries to corral everyone into bringing something different and therefore avoiding double ups. The Presidente has a Vice Presidente who has her ear closer to the ground and echoes her thoughts and follows up by calling people the night before to ensure that there are no dreaded double ups and god forbid, anyone changes their allocated dish.
She tells me that most of “the people” fall into place but there is one couple that consistently never bring anything along but whom are close friends of the El Presidente so they are allowed to get away with it. When others ask them which dish is theirs they gesture around grandly at the whole table and say something vague like “I brought this” randomly pointing at someone else’s dish of course fooling no-one. After the fifth time they did this, there was much grumbling among the people who have brought sumptuous items such as duck, prawns and pork belly etc. Then there are some people that bring the cheapest thing you could ever make i.e. boiled rice which is all very fine if you’re not the most moneyed up and they spend the whole time being observed eating the duck and the prawns. And you can bet they’re being watched.
Then there’s the psychological analysis. The dish that one brings is very telling. The people that bring the expensive dishes are the more generous souls whereas the people that bring the cheapest dishes are stingy on compliments and not such lovely souls. Sometimes, the stingiest are the wealthiest of the crowd. Sound like a microcosm of a city in one dining room doesn’t it?
My mother is a Pot Luck participant from way back and there is one dish that my mum makes that I absoutely love and she has made it for group gatherings and it was also the most requested fried noodle dish growing up. It’s versatile as you can make it vegetarian by replacing the stock powder with vegetable stock powder, the oyster sauce with a vegetarian version and adding tofu instead of chicken. I love the little pieces of chicken and the crunch from the lettuce and you could certainly char this more than we have to get that crunchy edge to the hokkien noodle.
So tell me Dear Reader, how are your Pot Luck dinners? Smooth sailing or fraught with political tension?
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September 10, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
I know a lot of people hate their names. I’m not really one of them. I have to admit though that I don’t really feel like a Lorraine if you know what I mean (my parents were going to name me Selina which I think suits me better). However it’s not a bad name-I could have had worse inflicted upon me. However as a consequence, I’ve been called Quiche Lorraine quite a few times which didn’t bother me as much as that Australian-ism “Lozza” which just made me cringe.
I didn’t particularly like Quiche Lorraine growing up, only because the Quiche Lorraine that I tried was the frozen type found in the freezer section of the supermarket. So I dismissed Quiche Lorraine as something watery and eggy and not particularly nice. Until I tried a good one.
This quiche is not your typical Quiche Lorraine with egg, bacon and cheese but a version made with whatever I had in the fridge before our move which happened to be leftover roast chicken, grilled eggplant and a few cheeses. So please feel free to use whatever you have to hand that you think would go well together. I’m hoping that by making Springtime and picnic friendly dishes that the weather will continue to be gorgeous. Sydney-siders be sure to enjoy the fabulous 28 degree day predicted for tomorrow perhaps with this quiche and a picnic!
And if you’re feeling like a night in I have some good news – an offer for Not Quite Nigella readers! The people at Menulog are offering you a $10 off coupon! The Australia wide website has over 600 restaurants in their delivery database delivering you food to your door so all you have to do is cue up Dexter or Mad Men on your DVD player. And how do you get this offer? Just use the coupon code “4D64FD” when making your order oneline. This is available for participating restaurants that display the “accepts vouchers” sign and is valid until November 2009. Minimum purchase $20 and for first orders. Have fun and happy feasting!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like or dislike your own name? And have you changed your mind about it once you got older?
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August 15, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Sashimi porn-yes.
I should start off with a warning about portions at Sushi Suma. Only visit here if you are starving, and even then only go if you’ve taken the precautionary measures and arranged for an emergency stomach compartment or a switch with your dessert tank. Servings here are legendarily huge and service, well it’s an in and out, stuff-em-full sort of place. Four Supermodels could probably share a dinner box and I am including those annoying Supermodels that keep telling us “Oh yes I hardly ever diet! I eat as much as I want”.
This evening we are supposed to meet Rose and Ronald at 6.30pm but we are 15 minutes late. Rose and Ronald have been kicked off their table downstairs in the restaurant and have been asked to wait upstairs in the bar area. We are given a copy of the menu and we order the items upstairs with the no nonsense man with the keypad. In order to expedite turnover, orders are taken upstairs and when the food and table are ready, diners are guided downstairs. Despite there being a bar and having a captive, waiting (and thirsty) audience, there is no bar service as the no nonsense man (we assume the owner) is busy corralling diners. Luckily we are waiting less than 10 minutes when we are shown downstairs. It’s a curious layout, the dining area is small and the kitchen is comparatively huge – larger than the dining space. As we sit down, with the super tightly laid out tables, Rose comments about how loud it is.
Complimentary Appetiser
This vermicelli noodle salad is lightly seasoned with a sweet, vinegary taste.
Complimentary Agedashi Tofu
The complimentary agedashi tofu is a nice surprise as everyone receives one. It’s delicious and one of the better ones I’ve had with a perfectly seasoned sauce (I often find the sauce isn’t flavoursome enough) but this is just right.
Kaiso Salad $8.80
We’re given our Kaiso salad and the size gives us an indication of things to come. It’s huge with a mound of shredded cabbage and thick and thin seaweed. The seaweed itself isn’t highly seasoned or flavoured but the salad has a light dressing over it and a scattering of sesame seeds.
Cream Croquette with crab meat $6.80
The items I went crazy for in Tokyo were Cream Croquettes. These are small croquettes filled with the creamiest potato. I can’t really see or taste any crab meat but I do see a couple of corn kernels.
Other diner’s plates are set down next to us and we are aghast at how big they are. The Katsu meal at the table next to us had 8 huge pieces of katsu and their Tempura had a large variety of food. We see why the sizes are legendary.
Sushi Deluxe $16.80
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July 15, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
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