A log of dinners (and occasional lunches and brunches).

Weds 10 Mar 2010 Inspired by a tweet of Shari’s, made Orangette’s broccoli soup with lemon chive cream. Soup good; could eat the lemon chive cream by the spoonful (and a bit extra was also great later spread on rye bread). 

Tues 9 Mar 2010 Salad of plums, gorgonzola, walnuts, rocket and spinach with a dressing of olive oil, champagne vinegar and honey, and some light rye bread.

Mon 8 Mar 2010 Monday-night Ted in the kitchen: wonderful mushroom and sage risotto with a transformative dash of truffle oil.

Sun 7 Mar 2010 Typically traumatic excursion to Ikea led directly to indulgent and fantastically enjoyable viewing of 1981 version of Clash of the Titans (Harry Hamlin, you utter, utter bimbo), accompanied by commercial corn chips and bad salsa. Late at night finally got around to making dinner and gallons of leftovers for lunches. Panch dal (do NOT attempt to skip 2 hour soaking step next time) and delicious spinach and pumpkin curry.

Sat 6 Mar 2010 To Burger Urge for an aubergine burger and a beer. Sat outside and watched a mixture of hipsters and young women wearing miniscule black dresses and teetering heels flow down Brunswick St towards the Valley.

Fri 5 Mar 2010 Oh Friday night I love you. Ted and I stayed home and made this onion, fennel seed and mustard tart (superb), eaten with a salad of baby spinach and Swiss brown mushrooms. The lovely lovely mood was helped along with a great bottle of red (a gift from one of my Perl students, Andrew), a closely-fought game of cards, good music and lots of chat. Now early-ish to bed. [Notes for next time for the tart: 2 tblsp of mustard was perfect; 1.4 kg of onions is enough; heat a pizza stone in the oven, cook the tart for full 30 minutes and just cover with foil if it’s browning too quickly.]

Thurs 4 Mar 2010 Radical breakaway from Thursday night quinoa: this chopped cabbage/tofu/miso salad recipe from 101 Cookbooks, via Thus Bakes Zarathustra. Was a bit ad hoc with the construction; next time need seasoned rather than plain tofu, more (much, much more) of the delicious fried shallots, and less dressing. Ted came home without having had his usual apres-climbing Vietnamese dinner out and ate my leftovers intended for lunch tomorrow: FOILED. (This despite his look of frank horror when I cheerfully told him “it’s cabbage, tofu and miso! Bwahahaha.”)

Wed 3 Mar 2010 Goddamn it, food, we used to be pals. Why are you giving me this drama? Confit zucchini with mint and almonds (tasteless), white beans (mealy), ricotta (past its prime as I should have known perfecty well), roasted cherry tomatoes (fine but not enough to save an almost entirely unsatisfying meal).

Tues 2 Mar 2010 Full of dinner plans at mid-afternoon, by the time I am catching the bus home in the pouring rain at 7.30 I decide to skip grocery shopping and make pasta with a sauce of leftover veggies and fresh ricotta. Fine but uninspiring. I need to get back into the Saturday morning West End market groove so we have better starting material in the kitchen. I was fantasising about eating kilos of fresh spinach with that ricotta, a la the salad here.

Mon 1 Mar 2010 Ted made pizza dough while I was at pilates, aborted pizza-making at short notice to drive me to the doctor for finger-wrangling, drove me home again, resumed making dinner, and good-naturedly presented me with my fantasy zucchini/fresh ricotta/garlic pizza before making his own festival-of-salami pizza.  Best husband ever.

Sun 28 Feb 2010  A crapload of canapes, eaten during the NZ in a Glass wine tasting. Standout vineyards: Vynfields and Clos Marguerite.

Sat 27 Feb 2010 Dinner with Miffy and Simon at our place. Make-your-own pizzas, then green salad, followed by whisky chocolate cake with mascarpone.

Fri 26 Feb 2010 Oxymoronic Thai at Siam Thai Square. Friday beers on the roof appear to be 100% incompatible with actually cooking at home.

Thur 25 Feb 2010 My Thursday nights are becoming a cliche. I was not actually planning on the quinoa/avocado/nori thing but when I opened the fridge it was almost entirely bare except for a bowl of left-over quinoa and a nearly-too-ripe avocado. Fate.

Wed 24 Feb 2010 Take-away Indian from Agra for Vindaloo Against Violence. Peshawari channa, mmmmm. I love amchoor powder.

Tue 23 Feb 2010 Pumpkin and spinach ravioli with tomato sauce.

Mon 22 Feb 2010 Fairly unexciting pizza from Vespa.

Sun 21 Feb 2010 Baguette with blue cheese.

Sat 20 Feb 2010 A mix of black, red and white quinoa; roast capsicum, zucchini, fennel and some narrow baby carrots; pesto made with another huge bunch of basil from Ian and Lisa’s garden.

Fri 19 Feb 2010 Dinner at Raun Thai with Ian, Lisa, Jens and Alison. It’s changed hands in the last few weeks (after, what, 15 years?) and is alas not so good any more.

Thur 18 Feb 2010 Grilled parmesan on toast. Vegetables are a faint memory.

Wed 17 Feb 2010 Glass of champagne & an early night.

Tue 16 Feb 2010 Crackers with avocado and pepper at my desk at uni, trying to finish an analysis.

Mon 15 Feb 2010 Salad nicoise.

Sun 14 Feb 2010 P-p-pesto p-p-pasta.

Sat 13 Feb 2010 Dinner at our place with Tom, Flo, Jean and Edwige.  Awesome starter of saganaki with peppered figs (the original recipe was too peppery even for me; I filtered out about half the pepper before the final sauce reduction). Then pesto and veggie galette, with roast tomatoes and a true green salad (baby spinach, pea shoots, blanched fine green beans and peas, mint leaves, shaved fennel). Plums for dessert.

Fri 12 Feb 2010 Pasta with garlic, chargrilled eggplant, roast cherry tomatoes and feta.  Getting out of this pasta rut is going to take Olympic-level rappelling equipment.  Oh wait, rappelling is going down not up….    noooooooooooooo!

Thur 11 Feb 2010 The eternally delicious red quinoa/ponzu/sesame oil/avocado/nori bowl.

Wed 10 Feb 2010 A so-so spaghetti alla Norma at Arriva.  I knew I should have listened to that radicchio pizza calling my name! Good wine and chit chat with Brian though.

Tue 9 Feb 2010 Pasta with tomatoes, broccoli, chilli.

Mon 8 Feb 2010 Left-over curry and samosas from last night; thanks mum.

Sun 7 Feb 2010 Dinner at my parents’ place to celebrate Ted’s birthday last week and dad’s birthday this coming week. Mum made curries (goat, chicken and vegetable & paneer) and rice, and I made orange and cardamom cake. The cake was very good - perfect crumb, light but with good body.  I substituted the zest of two oranges for the orange extract.

Sat 6 Feb 2010 A great evening at Scott and Beth’s with Jean and Edwige. Prawns with lemongrass, reef fish with malaysian coconut curry sauce and rice, excellent cheese, and delicious pastry with raspberries.

Fri 5 Feb 2010 Feeling lazy after Friday beers on the roof, went to Yum Yum at Merthyr Village for tofu and asian mushroom hotpot with lots of lovely slightly bitter greens.

Thur 4 Feb 2010 Dinner at e’cco for Ted’s birthday.  Me: dukkah-crusted lambs’ brains with celeriac remoulade, rocket and spiced tomato pickle; sous vide ocean trout with parsley risotto, garlic emulsion and herb salad. Ted: pork rillettes, apple puree, frisee, fennel pollen (delicious!) and vincotto; lamb rump, chickpeas, chorizo, tomatoes, spinach and harissa. We shared a dessert, the absolute star of the meal: crushed orange and almond cake with orange caramel, fennel ice cream, and caramelised fennel.  Superb.

Wed 3 Feb 2010 Pasta with tomatoes, zucchini, oregano and goats cheese. Leftovers this tasty are perfectly acceptable.

Tue 2 Feb 2010 A piece of goats cheese with cherry tomatoes and rocket.

Mon 1 Feb 2010 Home-made pizza with tomato, oregano, zucchini and mushrooms, thanks to Ted the Monday-night chef.

Sun 31 Jan 2010 Corn chips at 5, pistachios at 10.

Sat 30 Jan 2010 Housewarming party at Edwige and Jean’s.  We took these rotolos of prosciutto, mascarpone, truffle oil and frisee.

Fri 29 Jan 2010  Dinner with Ian and Lisa at our place.  A galette of pesto, goats cheese, zucchini and capsicum, a bit burnt due to apparent brain damage on my part but still good, plus green salad.  Nectarines sauted with honey/muscat/bay leaves, with vanilla ice cream, for dessert.

Thur 28 Jan 2010  Thursday is Ted’s climbing night, and he’ll be eating out: my chance to eat the seriously hippie food this ex-vegetarian loves more than any meat ever, even anchovies.  Tonight, red quinoa dressed with ponzu, sesame oil and Sriracha chili sauce, with avocado and nori. Recipe from Tea and Cookies via Adventures in the Pointless Forest; it is every bit as good as they say it is. I put the first forkful in my mouth and everything slows down.

Wed 27 Jan 2010  Baguette traditionnelle from Chouquette, tin of good sardines, roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic, and a salad of finely sliced zucchini, basil and toasted flaked almonds. Spanish Albarino.

Tue 26 Jan 2010  Ultra-boring pasta with tomato sauce.  Waited till we were starving to start thinking about dinner, bad move.

Mon 25 Jan 2010  Stir fry of tofu, choy sum, capsicum, snow peas and ginger.

Sun 24 Jan 2010  Sunday lunch special at Curry Connection with Nouri, Nico and Frida.  Plain dosa and masala dosa, both excellent, plus good sambal and chutney and so-so mixed veggie curry.  No need for dinner!

Sat 23 Jan 2010  Dinner at Thai Wi Rat with Mel and Jason.  The ever-excellent duck laab, som tam and sticky rice, plus spicy Laos sausage, pork in red chilli, and vegetarian green curry. Then beers afterwards at Cosmo to continue the conversation.

Sat 23 Jan 2010  Brunch at Sassafras in Paddington.  Chilli corn cakes ok, not convinced about the combination with hummus. But Ted’s eggs were good, coffees fine, and it’s still my favourite cafe for atmosphere - friendly staff, jumble of big mismatched tables inside, and lovely back garden of plants, tables and umbrellas.

Fri 22 Jan 2010  Nothing for dinner - just back from  5 days on Heron Island with my compulsively-overcatering labmates.