Monthly Archives: August 2009

Aug22

I definitely have fennel vision

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baby fennel

baby fennel

Whats in Season? A wander down the fruit and veg aisle or a quick trip to a bustling fresh food market (my very favourite way to shop) tells you exactly what’s in ‘season’ and what’s not.

The ‘freshness’ and abundance of new season fruits and vegetables ensures the flavour punch I want, and the texture I want. But the price of seasonal food is also very appealing. By the middle of the season it is almost free, the price is so good.

In-season eating is the key to budget or good value shopping and fresh food markets are the first stop for supurb quality and price.

August is the month for delicious apples (Fiji, Lady Williams and Sundownder) and a selection of great winter vegies like brussel sprouts, beetroot, artichokes (Jerusalem), parsnips and fennel.

Oh, I just love fennel!  It’s an old-world vegetable, enjoyed since Roman times and prized originally for its medicinal qualities as it was eaten to guard against illness.

Used and truly loved in Italian cuisine, the fresh crunchy texture with the slightly aniseed flavour is fabulous in salads, soups, pasta’s and risotto but also sensational when roasted. A little extra fact about fennel is it can be male or female in origin (I will blog about vegetable gender in another post).

Fennel is delicious with cauliflower, cured meats, Read the rest of this entry →

Aug13

For the love of chocolate

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Oh what a weekend it was. The Chocolate Rush festival was held last weekend here in Melbourne – 8th & 9th August.   It was a glorious weekend celebration of all things chocolate (dark, milk and white)!

Chocolate is a comforting best friend or a tempting mistress! It has the power to make a bad day a good one! It is definitely one of life’s luxuries. Chocolate Rush featured world famous chocolatiers, pastry chefs, food writers, and teachers from abroad and locally.  Oh and a few speakers discussing the importance of  chocolate fair trade ( a topic I will write more about later).

From rolling up your sleaves and participating in a ‘hands on class’ to sitting back and watching the masters show their skill – it was a luscious weekend.

I was lucky enough to be part of the Masters at Work series amongst other greats like Maureen McKeon, Nici Wickes, Andy Van Zen Broek, Alan Campion, Pierrick Boyer and the ultimate chocolatiers from Australia, France and Japan – Kirsten Tibballs & Paul Kennedy, Christian Caprini and Koji Fujita. Have a look at a few favourite snaps.

My recipes for chocolate brownies inspired and delighted as I worked my way through a lite version, a cheeky beetroot spiked batch and finished with a luscious gooey nut studded gluten free batch. Each brownie recipe also has a different method or technique for preparing, which gives each one a totally different mouth feel and end texture. Here’s the recipe.

KitchenAid was the hero of the festival Read the rest of this entry →

Aug8

Fabulous food shows

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I am so lucky to live  in Melbourne… and for everyone else we are only a plane ride way. This wonderful city just thrives on food shows. Goodness, I literally think there would be a world class food show / festival  each and every  fortnight if not month.

Last weekend I enjoyed more of the  ’Taste of Victoria’ and  and two seperate exciting produce packed local farmers markets .  This weekend The Chocolate Rush Festival is in full swing.

Chocolate Rush is in it’s third year and yet again has been a whirlwind of truffles, incredible desserts, cakes,  pastries, sauces, ice creams  and  SO  much more. There is even chocolate wrestling and an X rated pavillion!

Please stay tuned for my next update with plenty of recipes and fun snaps with local and international foodies, pastry chefs and chocolatiers.

The festival continues today (Sunday 9th August) with a jam packed day of classes, tastings and hands on events for adults and kids.

The chef’s stages are packed with many KitchenAid standmixers and processors and Profiline supurb cookware. It makes me so happy to see the mixers ‘purring’ away sesssion after session and very delighted chefs and presentors  using them non stop.

If you come out to the festival today, please come up and say hi! You’ll see me on and around centre stage at the Masters at Work classes – happily chatting, cooking and helping out.

The gates are open from 10 – 5pm. Melbourne Showground , Epsom Rd Ascot Vale.

More soon too on the bithday party of all birthday parties!  Happy Birthday KitchenAid Oh what a night…. we cooked, ate and laughed. These recipes and fun pics soon.

It is  magical week of fun and laughter  and delicious recipes and eating- stay tuned I can’t wait to share more with you!