winosandfoodies

A Few Things From My Week

Watercress Soup for lunch in my lovely yellow Italian mugs a gift from Chris at Mel Cotte.

These mugs are a favourite in my house. They hold just the right amount of soup to enjoy with our lunch time sandwiches. Then when the cool air closes in at night we cup our hands around them as we warm up with a hot chocolate.

This beautiful bracelet  was made by Giz at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. She names all her bracelets and she named this one Barbara...... and sent it to me as a gift. Isn't it pretty? Thank you Gis. Whenever I wear it I think of you.  Food bloggers are the nicest bunch of people in the world.

.....and some of my favourite blog reading this week.

David's adventures in the South of France.
Mysterious Gifts Of Memory from Jennifer.
More pretty pictures from Maryam.
Missoni fabric at Melanies.

Enjoy your weekend.

Murray River Pink Salt

I love Murray River Salt....and they aren't paying me to say that. It's a pretty pale pink colour.

Tea Eggs

Tea eggs are a savoury snack found throughout Chinese communities. Which explains why my house currently smells like the aromas I remember from the restaurant area of Kowloon.

They are surprisingly easy to make and rather nice to eat. The eggs are boiled briefly to harden the shells, then cracked all over and simmered in water flavoured with soy sauce, black tea and spices.

Tea Eggs

6 eggs at room temperature
2 tablespoons black tea leaves
5 tablespoons say sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Five Spice powder

Place eggs into cold water and bring to the boil. Boil 10 ten minutes.
Remove from stove and remove eggs from water.
Refill pot with fresh cold water and add tea, soy sauce, salt sugar, spice.
With the back of a spoon crack eggs all over and return to pot.
Bring pot to boil and simmer for three hours
Remove eggs from water, allow to cool, remove shells and serve with salt. I served mine with a spiced salt.

Who else has made  Tea Eggs
Nook and Pantry
Umami
Just Bento
Figs With Bri

Tiramisu, Cupcakes,Peacocks and Cabbage - Highlights Of My Week

Thank you FX Cuisine for this idea, although mine doesn't contain rhubarb and I used a dry Marsala for an alcohol hit. It was brilliant.
Banana Nutella Muffins. Always a favourite from Delicious Days and * my * usual * cupcake *  base.

This bird has nothing to do with cabbages I just like the shot.I'm addicted to this salad I found over at Stone Soup. Thanks Jules, I'm enjoying your beetroot salad also.

Maryam is taking bookings. If you are headed to Morocco you really must stay at Peacock Pavilions.

Tomato Tart

Tomato Tart is one of those easy dishes that can be made even easier by using a shop bought shortcrust pastry. I make my own pastry with a shortcrust recipe from Stephanie Alexander's book The Cook's Companion. For the filling use quality ingredients like the best cherry tomatoes you can find, Maille mustard, good olive oil,  Maldon salt,  and freshly ground pepper.

It was only after I put the tart in the oven, I googled tomato tarts to see how long they should be cooked, when I discovered most recipes blind bake the pastry shell before adding the topping. I didn't and the  tart was perfectly okay.

Filling
2 punnets of cherry tomatoes, cut  into halves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Olive oil
Flaked salt and freshly ground pepper

Pastry
240 grams plain flour
pinch of salt
180 grams unsalted butter
3 tablespoons water

Sift flour and salt onto the work bench
Chop butter into small cubes and rub into flour
Make a well in the centre of the flour and add water
Use a pastry scraper to blend ingredients into rough lumps
Gather together to form into a ball, dust with flour, flatten to a disc and wrap in cling film
Place in fridge about 20 minutes

Remove pastry from fridge, roll out and line tart pan with a removable base
Spread mustard over base of pastry
Top with halved cherry tomatoes
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and  drizzle with a little olive oil

Bake at 200 degrees about 30 minutes or until pastry is browned and tomatoes have caramlised.

Spiced Salt For Bri

Earlier this year we dined at Harrisons in Port Douglas.On each table was placed a sweet little mortar and pestle containing a spiced salt. I've been intending to make my own spiced salts ever since.

 

Last week Jaden at Steamy Kitchen did a post on Asian flavoured salts. It was enough to kick me into action and make some spiced salts for our table.

I wanted to find a way to get more of the cancer fighting food turmeric into my diet. I also wanted to support the initative of  Jugalbandi  and their photographic CLICK  event in support of  Figs With Bri. Bri is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. Bee and Jai at Jugalbandi have organised a fund raiser to help Bri and her family with medical expenses. They chose the colour yellow for the photography event as it is the colour associated with cancer.  Remember LiveSTRONG Day and the fabulous array of yellow food.

I chose a traffic light set for our  table.

Red - Maldon salt and sweet hot paprika
Green - Maldon salt and matcha powder
Yellow - Maldon salt andturmeric powder

Visit Jaden for spiced salt ideas.

....and help Bri by entering your own yellow food photo.

Pink Muscat From Margaret River

I don't drink a lot of wine these days. It makes me sleepy. I'm not sure if that's my age or the result of the effects of my past sessions of chemo on my body.  So I have two choices - go for quality  - and that costs -  so naturally I'll drink less. Or look for a low alcohol wine.

Which is what I  like about Stella Bella Pink Muscat. It is only 7.7%. I can drink more than one glass and I can drink it with lunch and not spend the afternoon on the couch sleeping it off. It's pink, slightly sweet, slightly fizzy and very easy to drink. I drank it with a lunch of  Tortilla Espanola and Rocket Salad with Blue Cheese and Pears.

Recently I received a wonderful parcel of goodies from the charming  Chris at Mele Cotte. Amongst the carefully chosen pieces of yellow china and sweets was a packet of California Wine Wafers. If you haven't tried these yet you must. They look like a giant communion wafer.  If only communion wafers tasted this good! Chris had sent me the lemon vanilla flavoured wafers. I tried them alongside the pink muscat. Being sweeter than the wine the wine tasted less sweet.


Stella Bella Pink Muscat 2005
Grape Varietal: Muscat Blanc A Petits Grain
Price: Around AU$19 for 375ml.
Warning: Men are unlikely to enjoy this wine.

Shout Out For Bri

I only recently came across the blog Figs With Bri. For those of you who don't know Bri she is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Bri's Mom died of breast cancer so I can understand why Bri is fighting so hard to beat her own cancer.

The lovely Bee and Jai at Jugalbandi are holding a special edition of the CLICK photo event to support Bri's fund raising efforts. Read Bri's story and how you can help here.  Please help if you can.

Let's get together and make the June edition of  CLICK the greatest blog photo event ever.