**THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. THANKYOU FOR ALL OF YOUR ENTRIES. PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNERS**

I’ve heard that there was a time in Australia when the only seasonings or flavours used were salt and pepper. To me, that sounds unfathomable and a little frightening. Where would we be without the rich scents of the herbs and spices that routinely feature in our recipes today? It goes without saying that Herbies herbs and spices are the best in Australia. If ever there was an area to splurge it’s on good quality herbs and spices. They only cost you a dollar or two more than other but are well worth it as they contain no fillers, starches, MSG, free-flow agents or additives of any kind. Just pure unadulterated spice. I often see Ian Hemphill from Herbie’s on TV in the morning and he often shows how to use these herbs, his knowledge shining through.

This month, we’re giving away two Herbies Spice Kits worth $30 each. For those of you still battling the cold weather (me included), we have one Comfort Foods Spice Kit - Seven spices and blends (ground rosemary, mixed spice, Baharat spice mix, tagine mix, chipotle chilli powder, samber spice mix and thyme) with recipes for Apple Crumble, Bean Mash with Rosemary, Lamb Tagine, Smokey Vegetable Soup, Slow-cooked Ox Cheeks, Sambar and Farmer’s Potato Bake.

For Lovers and Wannabe Lovers we have one Aphrodisiac Spice Kit- Six aphrodisiac spices (Pasilla chilli powder, nutmeg, cardamom, saffron and cumin), plus Za’atar which you could team up with known aphrodisiacs like oysters, olives, artichokes and figs in recipes for making Oyster Soup, Bruschetta with Artichoke Puree, The Bird Stripped Bare, Pears with Saffron Jelly,and Spiced Figs. I’d say these will get you some action better than the phrase “I’ll do the dishes tonight honey, you relax!” or “Go ahead and buy that new Chanel bag, it’s worth every cent!”

All you have to do is tell me “What is the difference between a herb and a spice?” and which kit you’d prefer. Email me on: nqn.herbies.comp@gmail.com with your name, email and postage details. You can enter once daily but because the prize is food, I’ll have to keep the entries within Australia -we don’t want the precious spices to get caught at overseas customs! The competition ends midnight AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday the 30th of September so you have plenty of time!

If you can’t wait to get your Spice Kits, they are available from the Herbies website or at their store:

Herbies
745 Darling Street ROZELLE
NSW 2039 AUSTRALIA
Tel: (02) 9555 6035
Fax: (02) 9555 6037
Email: herbie@herbies.com.au

http://herbies.com.au/

On our drive back to Sydney, exhausted but blissfully happy at having a great time at the Snow, we sought out a great place to have breakfast. The little country style shop near the house was closed this Monday morning so we drove towards Sydney through Tumut to find a bigger town. I was looking for something cute and blog worthy whilst everyone else was looking for a meal to fill their growling stomachs. Luckily we happened upon the Coach House.

Housed in a sandstone building, there is a front counter with hot pastries, pies and sausage rolls and walking through, an eating area with handy monogrammed green blankets to help ward off the cold. We grab a blanket each and settle in to examine the menu. Ordering and paying at the front I ask about certain items and choose the home made raisin bread and pancakes (told you I was hungry!). The breads, pies, sausage rolls and quiches are all made there daily.

Poached eggs and toast $9

It takes a while for our food and drinks to arrive and when they do, they arrive one by one. Anneli’s poached eggs arrives first. The wholemeal bread is delicious, with a lovely crunch to it- Anneli loves it so much that she enquires as to whether they sell it by the loaf. They do, but require a day’s notice. After a few more queries they offer her a frozen wholemeal loaf which she happily purchases ($4).

The Hot Chocolate with marshmallow, one of those items that the cold weather enhances so superbly is not very impressive, tasting like the base is made up of water and chocolate instead of milk and chocolate - weak and watery.

Cappucino $3.00

The cappucino suffers a similar fate, very weak and not particularly full flavoured.

Raisin toast $3.70

My fruit toast arrives, with that lovely crunch and full with plump raisins. I slather it with the butter and crunch away happily.

Pancakes with syrup (or honey) $6.80

Read More

I’ll caution you that I was going to do Olympic cupcakes. But that time it rolled around, the last thing I felt like doing was fashioning Olympic rings in the various colours out of chocolate. Let the athletes train for it, I’ll just stay on the lounge and watch. So these are my little shout out to the Olympics.

My mum rarely gives out recipes. For some mums, revealing their best recipe is akin to a magician revealing how they have done their tricks. They prefer to keep these close to the chest and leave a bit of mystery. It’s not restricted just to mums and I’ve seen it in people my age too. Not that I blame them, they’ve probably been asked to keep the valuable family recipes a secret, a physical or mental “vault” if you will.

It seems that everyone is dumpling mad lately and sometimes you just want to whip up a batch of soup with some greens and dumplings without having to leave the house. And at night temperatures in Sydney reaching -1 degrees (aren’t we supposed to be the sunburnt country?) the thought of going out some nights just pushes me towards the heater and the snug quilt. So for these nights, my mum has open up her recipe treasure trove and revealed her famous Wonton recipe (ok famous among her friends and family) which can also be adapted to make Siu Mai. These are excellent to freeze (use greaseproof paper between single layers) and popped into boiling water to cook.

The easiest part of this of course is making the filling. I buy the prawns shelled but whole so I blitz the prawns, rehydrated shiitake mushrooms and spring onions in the food processor to make a fine mince. After making the filling, that’s where the fun begins. You may want to enlist others into this part as it can take up to an hour to make the wontons or siu mai. The biggest mistake in the past I’ve found was overfilling the dumplings. Please resist all urge to overfill them, especially when you’re halfway through and realise that you’ve still got loads to make (making a giant one when you’re well and truly over it isn’t a great idea).

How many this makes exactly depends on the kind of dumplings you make. The plain soup dumpligns require less filling but the Siu Mai and Gow Gees require more. Also make sure the ingredients are minced well, the finer the mincing, the less likely that the skins will burst from “sharp” or large bits. And either cook them once they’re made or freeze them, if you pop these in the fridge as is, they skin will become moist and stick to the bottom and split when you try and prise them off. The only thing I can think to counter this is to flour the bottom of the tray that they sit on although I haven’t tried this.

Read More