Although it’s technically only Autumn here in Australia, in the southern states we’ve had the most disgusting weather that’s normally reserved for the depths of winter.
So the kam loves to cook…and when better than when it’s cold, miserable and tres awful!
Today’s culinary masterpiece was Golden Syrup Dumplings. OMG…topped with the best vanilla icecream you can afford, they’re da bomb!
(I’ve also got a slab of marinated beef cooking away in the oven, but I can’t gloat until I taste it).
Today in Brisbane was 7 degrees in the early hours and brisk and windy later in the day. Mrs P and I popped out and had a gorgeous crispy skinned pork belly.
Invariably, stewed beans. Usually lentils and garbanzos, because they’re easy and the results are consistent, but lately I’ve had a real thing for red beans with cabbage on the side and slightly hot chili peppers. Keep the peppers cold and serve them cold in a cold glass and some of the chilled juice from the jar. As you plow through the beans, you stop every so often for a pepper, and the sensation of cold on your fingertips (take the peppers by the stem), lips and tongue is sublime.
We had beef curry yesterday (the freezingest May day I can remember). That always goes down well here.
This morning I made a big pot of winter vegetable hotpot, some of which I took to work this evening. It’s nice and tasty but not as filling as I’d like.
Cassoulet d’isigny springs to mind - one day I cook the beans most of the way, then the next I line one of my heavy cast iron enamelware dutch ovens with thick cut bacon then layer beans and half inch dices of leftover duck, lamb and roast beef, and after the top layer of beans and a topping off of the bean cooking stock, a thick layer of bread crumbs topped with kielbasa or garlic sausage and bone in skin on chicken thighs [in place of confit of ducks legs or chickens legs. I am too lazy to make them and way to cheap to buy them] and then popped into the bake oven of my wood stove. I get the wonderful smell of the cooking beans one day, then 12 or 14 hors of gently baking cassoulet the next, and a week of eating [add a tossed salad and nice crusty bread.] I keep the pot of bean cooking liquid on top to add more to the cassoulet when I check it at the 6 hour mark.
Boeuf or cheval bourguinon - 2 inch cubes of meat with no gristle and decent marbleing if possible [horse can be extremely lean] large wedges of onion or 1 inch diameter pearl onions, whole cloves of garlic, baby carrots and a bouquet garni all simmered for hours on the stove or in the bake oven in the stove depending. I prefer a barberonne to a burgundy, though Gallo has a mountain burgundy that is quite nice too. I plan on having a go at making it with venison or ostrich at some point in time.
Braised pork belly - marinated overnight in soy, ginger, mirin, garlic, onion, szechuan peppercorns and then slow cooked all day until it is unctuous and the marinade has turned into a thick dense flavorful glaze. Thin sliced and on a base of veggie fried rice - really heavy on the veggies it is great. Or you can have it with home made ramen soup. Tonkatsu ramen preferrably The smell of the broth simmering away is amazing.
The smell of the broth simmering away is amazing.