April 30, 2008: Rosemary and cheese bites

In this week we had a special guest speaker in my workplace seminar series, so I thought I'd bring along some snacks. I've been trying to think of a few things that aren't just cakes or biscuits - partly for variety, but also in the hope that non-bakers in the group might feel comfortable volunteering their services. So I gathered together some dip and crackers and found time left over to try baking these rosemary and cheese biscuits anyway! The recipe is from Anna at Morsels & Musings.

What I didn't notice on first examination of the recipe is that the only wet ingredient in the list is a mere tablespoon of sour cream! I had enormous trouble pulling this dry powdery mix together and ended up doubling the quantity of sour cream. This meant that my biscuits were less shortbread-y (as Anna's were) and more akin to a chewy cookie, though obviously they had a savoury flavour. I also used only about one and a half teaspoons of dough per biscuit for small bites that could be flexibly shared amongst a small or large crowd. (It can be difficult to predict just how many people will turn up!)

Straight from the oven, these were a troublingly compulsive snack - so soft and warm and cheese-flavoured. It was difficult to stop at one test bite (...OK, one test bite per tray! And then one or two more) and save enough for the group. They are not quite as addictive at room temperature but were still met with a warm reception. One audience member whispered "Pass these along - I can't stop eating them!" at a volume that I wasn't supposed to overhear, and a couple of other people requested the recipe.

So, bake these at your own risk. And make sure you can guiltlessly eat them on the spot if you do.

For the recipe, visit Morsels & Musings.

April 27, 2008: Shakahari IV

As a gesture of gratitude for hosting her, Katy kindly bought us a meal at a restaurant of our choice and we took little more than seconds to choose Shakahari.

I declared that a shared plate of avocado rolls was mandatory. They were as exquisite as ever - buttery avocado and soft eggplant, firmer capsicum, crisp golden tempura batter and a slightly tangy herb sauce. Entrees don't get much better than this.

When we recently wrote about tempeh, Sarah mentioned how much she liked the tempeh laksa at Shakahari. Even though we'd never seen it on the menu ourselves, Michael had said earlier in the evening how much he'd like laksa and he got lucky - there it was on the menu tonight! This is the Green Laksa Siam ($18.50) - green tea soba noodles, spinach, mushroom and sprouts in a coconut broth of Thai herbs and spices; it is topped with seitan, tofu and tempeh strips. It was a large meal, even for Michael, and with quite a spicy kick.

I went for the Satay Legend ($17.50), not seen since Jason ordered it on our very first visit to this restaurant. These are "deep fried skewers of bean curd, seitan, onion and capsicum dressed with an addictive mildly spiced peanut sauce. It comes with pickles and turmeric rice." The satay sticks certainly lived up to the description, and my best guess is that the pickles were red cabbage, ginger and radish. These earthy slices of ginger were something entirely different to the slivers served with sushi!

Katy's main course was the Croquette Madam Fang that I had last time - how could she choose anything else after I raved about the kumquat chilli sauce? Also on the menu were Angel Jewels (a tagine of red quinoa, roasted vegetables and toasted almonds), the Bandit Queen (a plate of Indian delights), the Rustichella Linguini (the impressive pasta of Michael's previous meal) and Black Olive Passion (a most fusion-like paella incorporating dashi, olives, chickpeas, cashews and lemon).

I don't know quite how I did it, but I persuaded Katy and Michael that we could go thirds on a dessert. Not just any dessert, but a cherry chocolate pudding ($12.50), with maraschino liquer flavoured mascarpone cream. Hot pudding, cold cream and luscious berry sauce - those few bites each were the perfect finish. (But I'm glad I wasn't pushing myself through an entire serving at this stage.)

Another dinner at Shakahari, another rave review. It'd almost be boring if it wasn't so darn GOOD.

(You can also read our first, second and third raves.)

April 25-27, 2008: Melbourne, the land of chocolate

I knew that whenever Katy eventually made it to Melbourne, we'd have to go on a chocolate-themed excursion. I initially planned to join an organised tour but when they were booked out on our only available day, I figured I could easily plan my own. All it took was a notebook and 15 minutes on the internet!

To prevent any incidence of chocolate fatigue, we actually got a head start by eating two chocolatey desserts out on the town before the Day of Chocolate.

________

Our first stop was Cacao in St Kilda, towards the end of our Friday visit to the south side. I sampled three:

• Rose: milk chocolate ganache flavoured with rose water, crumbled roasted pistachios and dipped in white chocolate.
• Ruby: blood orange caramel filling and dark chocolate.
• Safran: citrus caramel ganache, milk chocolate ganache with infused saffron, dipped in dark chocolate.

They were all beautiful to look at and had a lovely creamy texture. However I found the special flavours too subtle and the chocolate too sweet.

________

Hours later, after dinner at Guru Da Dhaba, Mike and Jo-Lyn coaxed us to San Churro in Fitzroy for dessert. Katy and I shared a plate of the eponymous churros with dark chocolate dipping sauce. They've really perfected that cocoa-rich semi-sweet flavour.

________

Then came Sunday, the Day of Chocolate. With six shops on the itinerary, some focus and restraint was going to be needed. How would I successfully differentiate between each shop's offerings without succumbing to either chocolate fatigue or gluttony-induced illness? I decided that at each stop I would sample one item that combined chocolate with orange.

________

Haigh's in the grand Block Arcade offered a Mandarin Cream for about $1.50. I liked the dark chocolate here and though I wasn't overly impressed with the filling at the time, this proved to be one of the better bites of the day.

________

The Chocolate Box goes more for bright novelty and gift chocolates. Beyond the toys and hampers there is a display of individual truffles and other chocolates though they too are dominated by novelty shapes rather than flavours (marzipan pig, anyone?).

Still, I did manage to locate a Jaffe ($2.25). It was frosted by pretty but harshly sweet sugar crystals and the interior wasn't any better - too sugary with cheap orange flavouring and not enough cocoa.

________

I only recently discovered the Chokolait. Hub (in the Hub arcade) by accident. These folks were delightfully friendly and we decided to stay on for tea. Shame about the website. They had some tasty but messy-looking glazed orange slices on offer for $2.80 apiece, but instead I chose a little dark orange chocolate for $1.50. It had the right dark flavour but I couldn't taste the orange at all. The only evidence that they hadn't forgotten it completely was the texture of orange peel as I chewed.

________

Though it's one of my favourites, we didn't spend long at Koko Black. I just ordered my orange segment ($1.25) and savoured it while we walked. The orange has great texture and flavour and I'm definitely a fan of their dark chocolate - I just wish there was more of it on this treat. Then I suppose it wouldn't be as pretty, would it?

________

Two thirds of the way through and we needed a palate cleanser. Steamed dumplings at Camy's hit the spot.

________

Patchi is a swanky shop in Melbourne Central with lots of expensive glass ornaments on display, as well as their chocolates. Just about everything is praline based, and the most choc-orange item I could find was the Casablanca ($1.20) - "milk chocolate with giandula [apparently this is chocolate with hazelnut and almond paste], hazelnut pieces and bitter orange peel". It was an excellent quality milk chocolate with hazelnuts, but I didn't detect the orange. I think their prevailing nut obsession is a bit beyond my unrefined palate.

________

Last stop, Max Brenner. Katy was indeed looking fatigued but I resolutely shouldered my way through the crowds to the display cabinet. Hmmm, nothing orange. Besides, it's not possible to buy anything less than 4 specialty chocolates for $8.50. Then I found my hint of orange on the shelves...

$18? No sale, Max.

________

What a day! What a fabulous, decadent day. It was interesting to try a few chocolatiers that I hadn't visited before, and I was surprised to see Haigh's (which I've previously been skeptical of) and Koko Black (where I'm almost a regular) come out on top.

If it isn't already obvious, I'm very much a chocolate lover without being a chocolate connoisseur so these reviews reflect little more than my personal taste. What are your favourite Melbourne chocolates? Is there anywhere great that I've still not visited? Disagree with any of my judgements? Lay it on me and spread it thick.

(Of course this isn't my first hit of Melbourne chocolate. You can also review our previous brushes with Cacao, San Churro, Koko Black and Max Brenner.)

April 26, 2008: Bluecorn II

The Eels' rather strange combination of autobiographical documentary and rock 'n' roll show lured us (and some friends) across the river to St Kilda to The Palais* on a chilly Saturday night. While St Kilda is no doubt chock full of exciting new restaurants for us to visit, we get there so rarely (and we loved it so much last time) that we couldn't resist a return visit to Blue Corn. Part of the appeal of our previous visit had been the sunny, open courtyard, so I wasn't sure whether it would be quite as wondrous with the temperature in single figures.

I was even more apprehensive when we were ushered through to the courtyard. Fortunately, Blue Corn enclose their courtyard in the winter and we didn't even need our coats. We started things off with cocktails - a sour apple margarita ($15) for Cindy and a raspberry mule ($16) for me. Cindy's margarita didn't taste much different to regular apple juice but by the time she was half way through she was feeling its effects, so it can't have been alcohol-free. My mule was a bit more noticeably alcoholic, with the lime and ginger beer providing some sweetness.

Cindy and I both decided to order something different to our previous trip. I went for the roast vegie tacos, with achiote tomato rice and black beans. The tacos were full of juicy vegetables, and rich with delicious cheese. The accompanying sour cream and lime added a bit of pizazz, and the whole thing hit the spot.

Cindy went to the specials board and opted for the vegan tostadas, with roast vegies, cashews, salsa and guacamole. (You'll have to excuse the dodgy photo - I'm still figuring out our new camera.) The guacamole was the star of the show - fresh and flavoursome, and the thin eggplant layer was tender and delicious. Cindy was hoping for a bit more crispy tortilla though and, by the end of the evening, she was happily raiding a friend's plate of nachos.

I'm not sure if it was just the weather, but Blue Corn didn't quite live up to our memories - the food was really quite good, but our first visit was so wonderful that we wanted everything to be outstanding. Still, I don't mean to be too critical - we really did enjoy the food, the drinks and the atmosphere - it's still the only rival to Los Amates for delicious Melbourne Mexican.

Read about our previous trip to Blue Corn here.

*The dome pictured at the top is of course part of the Palais, and not the adjustable roof of Blue Corn's courtyard.

April 26, 2008: Bread-baking bonanza

So you know the people I work with are cool, right? Well, their families are cool too.

Stu is the son of one of my colleagues - he was responsible for the muesli, quinoa salad and multi-layered cake we enjoyed at the Prom. He's clearly a fine all-round cook but something he has spent quite some time perfecting is bread baking and all things yeast related. Over the past months, little samples of what he's made have turned up at work for us to taste - white bread, bread with olives, even bagels! But Stu's generosity extends further than sending in leftovers, further even than cooking for our camping trip - he offered to host a bread baking day in his home to teach a few folks the tricks he's learned in the past year or two.

So Cass, Yung and I crossed town on this miserable-looking Saturday to a cosy home with a comforting fire and well-prepped kitchen. Stu had everything at the ready, including a timetable co-ordinating the dough-making, resting, kneading and baking schedules of each recipe. He is the ideal teacher: enthusiastic but never overbearing, meticulous but flexible, and a keen learner himself. Take a look at what we made:

No-Knead Bread. After appearing in the New York Times over a year ago, this recipe circulated the world wide web a good three times, leaving a trail of rave reviews in its wake. Although there's no need to knead, the dough does need a big rest so Stu prepared it earlier... a whole day earlier. By his account this recipe is infuriatingly good, leaving open the question "Why bake anything else at home?" Indeed, this was a fabulous white loaf with a golden crust and soft, open crumb. It was heavenly just dabbed in olive oil when it first emerged from the oven; it was notably firmer but still impressive for breakfast the following morning.

Red onion and green olive rolls. Unusually, this recipe begins by making a roux with the chopped onions before introducing the flour and later the yeast. The resulting rolls are just scrumptious - moist and buttery from the oil that the onions are cooked in, while the onion pieces themselves are so soft, so sweet. Katy and Michael thought they were done after the no-knead bread for breakfast, but one taste of these rolls and they instantly found more space in their stomachs.

Garlic bread. This was the most involved recipe of the day; the first one we worked on and the last one to emerge from the oven. The ciabatta-style loaf is good, but the stand-out element is the garlic. A whopping three heads of the stuff are browned in oil, then caramelised in balsamic vinegar, sugar and rosemary. This was my job and it would be fair to say that the aromas drove me wild with desire. Somehow I managed to save this one for over 24 hours before savouring it with soup.

Five grain loaf. This bread is a real filler, comprising a mix of white, whole wheat and rye flours, along with cooked grains - Stu had pre-cooked lentils, glutenous black rice and boiled wheat grains soaked in red wine all lined up! It's all sweetened with a subtle dose of honey and treacle. I popped my half-loaf in the freezer and am looking forward to thin toasted slices of it, washed down with tea.

Bagels. This was the final, just-in-case-we-have-time recipe. The dough was simple to put together and the resting/kneading stages were quite typical. The key variation is that the bagels are boiled for just 10 seconds before being baked. I initially froze these too but have since rescued them, toasted them and slathered them in avocado, lime juice, salt and pepper. Given how little the recipe deviated from a standard bread I didn't expect much but these were as good as any bagel I've eaten, even in New York.

Naturally I was always looking forward to this day of hanging out with Stu, watching him cook up storm and taking home a bagful of goodies, but I didn't expect to want to make any of these recipes again. Cooking with yeast is just so sloooow and I can always just go to a trendy bakery instead. Having tasted the stunning fresh results I'm now actually quite keen to spend the coming winter weekend afternoons reading, kneading and filling the house with those incredible aromas.

April 25, 2008: Guru Da Dhaba

Jo-Lyn's Anzac Day Indian yearnings inspired us on an impromptu visit to Guru Da Dhaba in Fitzroy. Mike and Jo weren't as enamoured with De Orchid as we were, meaning that the quest for outstanding local Indian continues. The smells wafting from the corner of Johnston and Gore streets have tempted me every time I've walked past, but we'd somehow avoided making the trip until after we'd sampled almost every other Indian restaurant in the neighbourhood.

The menu is inspired by the dhaba street eateries of India - vegos are well catered for with 16 curries to choose from (aside: I've developed the theory - following our trip to Red Pepper - that Indian restaurants with beef-free menus are likely to be higher quality. For the record: there's no beef at Guru da Dhaba). Cindy, typically, went for the malai kofta ($9.90). She was a little disappointed with the kofta - it was a little floury and lacking texture. The sauce too was adequate without being particularly memorable. I went for a baingan bhartha - a roast eggplant curry that we really need to find a good recipe for. It was much more impressive than Cindy's kofta - richly spiced and silky, perfect to mush onto the well-cooked garlic naan that accompanied it.

Mike has decided that the real test of an Indian restaurant is its palak paneer and declared Guru da Dhaba's the best he'd bought in Melbourne. So it was a mixed performance: ordinary kofta, excellent eggplant and phenomenal paneer. We might need a second visit to come up with a definitive opinion.

Update (29/6/09): Guru da Dhaba has closed down, and has yet to be replaced...

Address: 240 Johnston Street
Ph: 9486-9155
BYO
Price: Veg curries ~ $10
Website: www.gurudadhaba.citysearch.com.au

April 25, 2008: The Galleon Cafe II

A mere three hours after Michael and I returned from the Prom, my high school buddy from Brisbane, Katy, arrived in Melbourne for a holiday. Yes, we were excited to spend some time together but you wouldn't have known it from our demeanours. She was as exhausted as we were, having spent the morning at work before making the interstate journey. I pulled together a meal and we all did our best to create a catch-up conversation before retiring to the sleep of the near-dead.

On Thursday we shared a hasty breakfast and went our separate ways to honour other commitments . Finally, on Friday, Katy and I had the entire day stretched out in front of us to do whatever we pleased, together. I decided to take her to St Kilda, and before the shopping and the eating and the bikers and the blondes in big sunglasses, I wanted to show her the community garden.

It was beautiful, showing even more colour and character than I remembered from my past evening visit for the first Bloggers' Banquet. Having just set up her own little herb garden at home, Katy was full of admiration for Vegout's efforts and happily soaked up the calm before hitting Acland St.

I steered us towards the Galleon for lunch. It was as busy as on my last visit; we waited about 10 minutes for a table (outside, in the cold and the cigarette smoke) and I crossed my fingers that the now-hungry Katy would ultimately judge it to be worth the delay.

We were seated at a table already occupied by two Nicole Richie wannabes, and sound and movement whirled around us. Trying to see it through Katy's eyes, I wasn't sure whether Grandma's old furniture was as cheerful and cute as I thought it was.

Katy's cappuccino arrived with surprising speed, and she pointed out the wall ornaments that she liked as she sipped. The menu was as varied and appetising as I remembered. I ordered the pikelets I previously pined for ($8.50, with strawberries and lemon curd) and they were gorgeous. A cheeky choice for lunch, but light enough to rejoice in and not regret later.

Katy swooned over the sweet potato, basil and feta hash browns, as I did last time. In spite of my few misgivings, it was a brilliant start to a grey but lovely afternoon. Window shopping, foot massages, chocolate (which deserves its own post), and a long walk along the pier and shoreline in our candy-coloured coats (her red to my pink); it was all accompanied by much-needed talk of the important and the frivolous.

April 20-23, 2008: Wilsons Promontory

How cool are the people I work with? Let me tell you. When two of us admitted over lunch in February that we weren't really campers, the wheels were set in motion for a camping trip that no-one could refuse. Three days in Wilsons Promontory with a choice of tent or cabin for shelter, walks and rests and games and chatting (and swimming and kayaking for the brave!). And how cool is my boss? When he found out about the planned trip, he not only packed a swag to join us; he packed 7 bottles of wine and insisted he'd find a way of reimbursing our accommodation costs. It seemed that even the gods couldn't stop us from having a good time, and they didn't even try, giving us unpredictably fine weather for the duration.

So on Sunday, Tracy squashed Mike, Michael, tents, pillows, food and wine and clothes and me into her car and we set off. The first stop was made after less than a kilometre - we needed lunch from Dench...

Mike snagged the last two vegetarian savoury items in all their buttery deliciousness. They could only be trumped by a bomboloni stuffed with lemon custard.

As the afternoon dragged on we closed in on the Prom, arriving at dusk and hastily pitching our tents. We retreated to the spacious living area of the shared cabin for a dinner of room temperature spiced chickpeas, packaged roti, red wine and then port served in plastic cups.

I'll admit that my first night in our tent wasn't particularly comfortable or restful, but it was difficult to be grumpy when there was this for breakfast...

That's home made muesli, contributed by Stu and Jane!

And then we walked, eating spiced chickpea sandwiches for lunch...

... and muesli bars thoughtfully prepared by Jo-Lyn and packed in with Mike.

We had been warned not to feed the local wildlife, with signs repeatedly warning that wombats have destroyed tents at a single whiff of food.

Michael thought he was manipulating this situation to his advantage when he used an icecream to coax a rosella onto this arm, but discovered he was the manipulated one when he no longer had a spare hand to switch the food to!

There was another brush with the wildlife on our evening walk.

Dinner was a collaborative affair. First up was Mark's camping trick - egg in a bag. This dish involved pouring 3 eggs, a splash of milk and omelette fillings of your choice into a Ziploc bag. The bag is sealed and then tossed into boiling water until the egg is almost set.

There were plenty of skeptics among us. Would the bag split? What if it melted into the water, or into the food? But egg-in-a-bag was a roaring success.

Next up was a stunning Moroccan feast: couscous, a quinoa salad by Stu, Beth's own version of the chickpea thing, and our fennel, pumpkin and eggplant tagine.

Much later, after several games of 'Werewolf', Stu impressed everyone again with this incredible multi-layered cake. If this is camp food, I might just permanently pitch my tent in Stu's backyard.

The next day? More great muesli.

More sandwiches.

More muesli bars - these are the date and tahini ones, with added dried cherries.

And of course, more walks.

I could get used to this. Except that my camera broke, and we had to return to work. (The boss's wine supply was exhausted, after all.) We folded ourselves back into Tracy's car and to prolong the holiday, just a little, we resolved to stop by every smalltown op shop we encountered on the way home. Amongst the crazy and kitsch I found some kitchenware to call my own.

This pretty plate set me back only $2.50.

Tracy's eagle eye spotted this one, but she kindly allowed me to possess it (for only $5!).

In some ways, the holiday had only just begun - I had an unproductive one-day working week on Thursday before the Anzac Day weekend arrived. And boy, did I do some eating! Stay tuned for much, much more.

Don't tell the Office of Film and Literature Classification, but it turns out we've been publishing all this time without a rating! Thank goodness Sarah and Mellie so kindly stepped in to bestow us with an E for Excellent. It's particularly gratifying to receive this from a couple of cool cookin' Melbourne gals who've been blogging a while longer than Michael and I - I've been reading their edible exploits since we first moved to the food capital of Australia.

In turn, I want to pass on the blog love to Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit and Hezbollah Tofu. These folks are rebellious and funny, proof for all the interwebs that veganism is one part compassion, six parts delicious swashbuckling adventure and zero parts self denial.

If you've got even more blog-browsing time at your disposal, take a stroll through all the Melbourne-based food blogs I've linked in the sidebar. They are brimming with enthusiasm for everything edible this city has to offer, and they're a treasure trove of restaurant recommendations and rave-worthy recipes.

April 19, 2008: Friday Featre Food - Enlightenment Cuisine

Not strictly Friday, and not pre-theatre. Instead, we wandered across to Enlightenment Cuisine in South Melbourne early on a Saturday evening following a matinée showing of Holding the Man at The Malthouse. Cindy had one of her semi-regular faux-meat cravings, and our previous trip to the incongruously located (across the street from Crown) Enlightenment Cuisine had been relatively successful. It all added up to good excuse to make our theatre-related dinner a slightly more expensive experience (although it turns out they're now offering a series of $9 'food on the run' meal combos straight from the lunch menu, so it needn't have been quite so expensive).

Cindy, bafflingly, is rarely able to expand her faux-meat enthusiasms from the sickly sweet Chinese treats she remembers from her childhood: usually honey chicken, sweet and sour pork or lemon chicken. This week it was lemon chicken - I always enjoy stealing one little chunk off her plate, but more than that would be too much for me - Cindy enjoyed it though, happily chowing down the sweet, batter-y goodness.

I decided to try another 'fish'-based treat - fish with black bean sauce (see top). It was the same kind of weird dry fish substitute that we'd had at Ten Ren's, but this time it was appropriately smothered in sauce - a vinegary, beany black bean syrup. It also came with a decent number of vegies stirred through, something lacking from the lemon chicken. I'm not as enamoured of the Chinese faux-meat experience as Cindy is, and at more than $15 a pop, this isn't the great-value city food that we can score from places like Nila or Lord of the Fries. Maybe next time we'll try the $9 specials and see how they measure up.

Read about our previous visit to Enlightened Cuisine here.

April 19, 2008: Ying Thai 2

I've visited Ying Thai 2 on several occasions, yet this is the first time it has appeared on this blog. The meals I've had there have been spontaneous outings with friends but not a camera, or on lazy nights with Michael when even photographing the food feels like too much work.

This occasion was instead a lazy Saturday lunch with a camera. I picked Ying Thai because I like their reduced-portion, reduced-cost lunch specials.

Although there are noodles and soups and stir-fries available, it's all about the curry really. Michael had the vegetable Kao Gang Dang (red curry, $8.90), with rice. He lapped it up as happily as he does most curries, remarking on the generous supply of tofu.

I ordered the vegetable Kao Gang Panang ($9.90), copping the extra $1 in cost for the luxury of roti instead of rice. I love dipping it in the spicy coconut milk broth, though it does get a bit oily and it's difficult to get through all the sauce in this way. It's best undertaken when you've convinced your eating companion to order rice and go halves! (See above.)

Ying Thai 2 is loud and a little obnoxious, all fluorescent colours and yelling over the noise and busy, somewhat inattentive staff. But it has reinvigorated my taste for Thai style curries, and I hear that it's actually quite authentic. We're lucky to have it in our neighbourhood.

Edit 16/06/08: We were back to take advantage of the lunch special last Saturday and discovered after ordering that the vegetable curries actually contain fish sauce. Damn! No more Kao Gang Panang for me.

Address: 110 Lygon St, Carlton
Phone: 9639 1697
Licensed and BYO wine
Price: veg lunch specials $7.90-9.90

April 13, 2008: Little pumpkin

This cute little fellow was a gift from my workmate Andy. (Refer to the accompanying biro in the photo to confirm his small stature.) I enjoy Andy's jokes and chuckles across the office wall so she doesn't need to buy my affection with vegetable offerings, but I was pleased to accept him all the same.

I was keen to stuff and bake the little pumpkin, but once I gently cut the top off I realised there wasn't actually much room for stuffing! Instead we just baked the segments, skin on, with olive oil, salt and pepper. It was deliciously soft and sweet.

On the side we had baby spinach leaves and emergency from-the-freezer square I-can't-believe-it's-not-meat pies topped with Chinese style barbeque sauce.

April 12, 2008: Mr Tulk III

Cindy and I had some serious camping gear shopping to sort out, on the last day of Kathmandu's Easter sale, and needed to find somewhere vaguely nearby to fill up on breakfast - you can't buy a tent on an empty stomach after all. We've not mastered the weekend breakfast in the city - a lot of the good places are set up to cater to the Monday to Friday office workers and take a well-earned break on the weekend. The Cheap Eats didn't offer us many new ideas, so we settled for a third trip to Mr Tulk. The trendy and welcoming interior has somehow tricked me into thinking that Tulk has a breakfast bounty to rival some of our local favourites. For some reason, however, it the menu didn't quite do it for me - none of the egg dishes caught my eye, so I settled for a simple avocado on toast. The avo was fresh and generously slathered on some plain toast - a small sliver of lime and a dash of salt and pepper completed the dish. It was excellent, and reasonably good value at $9.50.

Cindy opted for something from the cabinet: an almond croissant (at a slightly steep $4.50) and something from the menu: seasonal fruit salad with honey yoghurt ($9). The fruit salad fell well short of what you'd expect for almost $10 - some chunks of melon and a strawberry with a glob of yoghurt on top. The yoghurt was clearly top quality, but the fruit was a pretty dull selection, and not particularly fresh - a subpar performance. The croissant at least provided the quality to go with the price - buttery, nutty and rich - still probably slightly overpriced though.

So not a complete success - Mr Tulk is still a lovely place just to sit and sip a coffee on a Saturday morning, but the breakfast didn't quite hit the highs we've come to expect. Any tips for cheap, veg-friendly breakfast places in the CBD that open on the weekends would be greatly appreciated.

Read about our previous visits to Mr Tulk here and here.

April 11, 2008: Houndstooth II

It's been a while since our last visit to Houndstooth, and in the meantime the 3 course meal seems to have increased from an insanely cheap $15 to a still-reasonable $20. It's evident that most of Fitzroy is indeed happy to absorb the price hike, with a healthy crowd making it a little difficult to hear the words of Mike, Marty and Alana across the table. Dim mood lighting prevented this group of maths geeks from resorting to communicating via hand-drawn diagrams.

I started with the white nectarine, ricotta, almond biscotti and watercress salad. All the individual elements were of excellent quality and if you had removed the watercress this would have made a delicious little dessert. I was a little weirded out by the salad version, however.

Michael instead had figs with gorgonzola and maybe balsamic vinegar - he can't remember and I didn't write it down. Whatever it was, he happily demolished it in a matter of seconds.

The vegetarian main of the evening was capsicum stuffed with rice, almond and parsley; mushrooms stuffed with ricotta and herbs; and beetroot lentil spinach salad. I must confess to not getting the firm, nutty lentil thing. The capsicum was homely, filling stuff but those herby, creamy, earthy mushrooms were the star of the plate.

Unusually Michael and I were agreed on our dessert preference, but we didn't take advantage of this by sharing. Instead we each polished off a thoroughly enjoyable slice of lemon tart.

Houndstooth changes its menu weekly so you're unlikely to encounter these particular dishes should you head over yourself. But they set the mood for what you're in for - something equal parts trendy and homely, it's what I'd be served by my imaginary hipster friend who lives in a artsy shared Fitzroy terrace house and harbours a secret crush on Jamie Oliver.

April 10, 2008: Green Pepper

On Thursday night we met up with Mike, Jo-Lyn, Tracy and Lee to check out the weeknight showing of the game on exhibition at ACMI. But first we needed food, fast! I coerced the group into trying Green Pepper - I wanted to compare it to its sister Red, while everyone else was just happy to eat curry.

Green Pepper has been fitted out with noticeably more care and expense, with coloured walls, tasteful decorations and wooden furniture sparkling with varnish. However the counter service, menu and prices appear identical to those at Red Pepper. For the sake of comparison, I ordered the same malai kofta with two naans ($9). It appeared without the raw onion and salty lassi sides (and I didn't miss them). These kofta certainly didn't come out of the same kitchen - although I liked these dumplings more, the gravy was oilier and less impressive. Michael's mystery paneer curry (they were all out of greens so he didn't get the palak paneer he initially ordered) was similarly oily. But the naans were just as fresh and delightful as at Red Pepper!

Although the service was quite prompt, we took our time over food and conversation and decided not to throw $15 each at ACMI for only an hour's entertainment. Maybe next week we'll prioritise the exhibition and forage afterwards.

Address: 18 Bourke St, Melbourne CBD
Ph: 9662 2693
Licensed and BYO wine
Price: veg mains $5-10
Website: www.greenpepper.com.au

April 9, 2008: Leftover makeover - messy cheesecake

More chocolate biscuit crumbs, this time bound together with butter to form a crust.

Cream cheese and mascarpone, whipped together with a little brown sugar.

Frozen blueberries, only partially defrosted.

April 9, 2008: Creamy red lentil chowder

I'm really pushing the soup agenda lately - I guess I've missed it during the warmer months. This lentil chowder was a rich and filling mush, with really strong flavours - a little spiciness, some tangy vinegar and the earthy lentils. I loved it on the night we made it, but by the time we'd gotten through the leftovers the vinegary-lemon flavours had become a bit tiresome. I'm sure the whole package would have been improved if we'd used a delicious homemade stock as the recipe recommended, instead of store-bought salty stock. In future it might be best to make it in smaller batches (or for larger crowds).

Creamy red lentil chowder

1 tblsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery rib, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1 cinnamon stalk
1 large tomato, diced
1.5 cups red lentils
5 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup dry white wine
170g silken tofu
1 tblsp miso
2 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp cider vinegar
Splash of hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil and then throw in the onion, cooking for 3 or 4 minutes. Add in the carrot and celery and cook for another few minutes. Once the vegies have softened, add the bay leaf, garlic, basil, oregano and cinnamon stick. Saute for another couple of minutes.

Add the tomato and cook for another minute or so, stir in the lentils, stock and wine. Cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so, until the lentils are soft. If you can find them, take out the cinnamon stick and the bay leaf.

Put the tofu, miso and 2 cups of the soup mix in a food processor and whiz until well blended. Pour the mush back into the soup pot and stir it all through. Add the lemon juice, vinegar and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

April 8, 2008: Tokyo treats - Meiji

Though I'd never heard of it, Matt picked this block of chocolate out for us since it is Japan's most popular and well-known. It looks to me like the kind of bar that could conceal a golden ticket to Willa Wonka's Chocolate Factory!

I was impressed with this - it seems to have a higher cocoa content than the milk chocolates sold here. It was no effort for Michael and I to devour the entire 70g block in one delicious sitting!

April 7, 2008: Figs

A dessert of figs, a few drops of agave syrup, and a generous spoonful of strangely granular mascarpone.

April 7, 2008: Tofu in lemongrass broth

I realised the other day that it had been a long time since Cindy and I had made a Thai curry at home. We've ventured out for (unblogged) takeaway a few times, but it's been nothing but Pad Thai coming out of our kitchen. Luckily, as soon as I mentioned this to Cindy, she pointed me in the direction this recipe from Lucy at Nourish Me.

We're entirely on Lucy's side when it comes to coriander - both of us are huge fans of its sharp flavours. As an added bonus, we don't have any problem with tofu, so this was a sure-fire winner. I think the broth is the key to the whole thing - when I've made curries in the past, the bulk of this liquid would either have been water or some instant-stock. Instead, this recipe has you simmering down a broth of coriander stalks, ginger, lemongrass and kaffir lime-leaves (which are growing in huge plants in the communal areas of our flat complex!), until all you're left with is a citrusy, Thai-flavoured stock - the perfect base for a saucy curry.

We swapped the silken tofu for something a little firmer, and switched the red onions for shallots, but otherwise we followed Lucy's directions to the letter. In future I'd probably add in a few extra vegies - maybe some finely chopped carrot and capsicum. But that's a minor quibble - this was a wonderful evening meal - rich and subtle, with just enough spice to satisfy my chilli-cravings. The runny mixture soaked into our brown rice perfectly, making for a mushy, spicy feast. This is easily the best Thai curry sauce I've made - one that I'll come back to again and again.

For the full recipe, swing by Nourish Me.

April 6, 2008: Bean and cheese tomato quesadillas

Month by month we're working our way through our 'World in Your Kitchen' calendar. April threw up this delicious sounding Argentinian delight. Having spent a few hours on a fruitless search for lyrebirds in the Dandenongs (we couldn't even find the lyrebird track, let alone an actual lyrebird), we were pleased with the simplicity of this recipe - mush the fillings together in a frypan, whack them in some burritos and bake. Nothing to it.

I was given a free hand with the spices and, typically, over-chillied the mix slightly, leaving Cindy a bit lacking in enthusiasm for the meal. I found them much more amenable - even throwing on some jalepenos to liven things up a bit. The mix is a bit more veg-tastic than some of our previous burrito fillings, with capsicum and tomato adding some freshness to the general beaniness. I've decided I'm not a huge fan of the baked quesadilla style Mexican - I'd rather have had these tortillas soft and folded than rolled and covered in cheese, but this was still a relatively easy and satisfying weekend feast.

Bean and cheese tomato quesadillas

Tortillas (the recipe says 6 - we used up most of the mix in 4)
1 400g can red kidney beans, drained
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 green capsicum, chopped
1 onion, finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder (be conservative here if necessary!)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
oil
salt
pepper
~ 2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to about 190 degrees.

Cook the onion in the oil for about five minutes. Add in the tomatoes and capsicum, the spices, and seasonings and cook for another five minutes, stirring frequently.

Add in the beans and stir them through. Mash them up a bit with a fork or masher.

Plop the mixture onto each tortilla, roll them up, cover with cheese and bake for about 15 minutes.

April 6, 2008: The Commoner

Last week I felt rather cutting edge, visiting the Commoner just two days before the Age's Epicure recommended its pan-fried gingerbread in their article on modern Melbourne breakfasts. But I've been rather tardy in writing up my experience and anyway, the Commoner received mid-2007 reviews in the Age, the breakfast blog and Fitzroyalty. I guess I'm about as cutting edge as a boy band reunion.

Maybe I could instead pitch myself as clairvoyant? Because it was indeed the pan-fried gingerbread I chose to order ($14), in spite of stiff competition from the porridge (with rhubarb compote, pistachio nuts, honey and "Our Yoghurt"), the beignets (French doughnuts rolled in orange and cardamom sugar) and the Arabic pancake (with roasted black plums and yoghurt). I knew I'd be into the bananas and less enamoured of the honey, but it was the yoghurt that surprised me with its complementarity. The gingerbread itself was a funny thing, light in texture but with a dense crumb, and not heavily spiced. I wiped the plate clean, but felt it could have been executed a little better.

It's just as well the sweet side of the menu was so appetising, because all savoury options involve eggs. Still, half of those are vegetarian and Michael picked out baked free range eggs with sage, yoghurt and chilli ($16). Like me, Michael enjoyed his breakfast without being entirely wowed. In his opinion, Fitzroy rivals Julio and Min Lokal do baked eggs cheaper and better.

The Commoner has a smart and sophisticated look, but unfortunately group conversation tends to bounce off the bare floor and high ceiling, making it a noisy place even when only two thirds full. On this Sunday morning they seemed to be slightly understaffed, consistently mixing up coffee orders, though they were always friendly and apologetic. And the customers were, uh, very Fitzroy. I foresee a loyal and regular clientele for the Commoner, but you probably won't count me among them.

Address: 122 Johnston St, Fitzroy
Ph: 9415 6876
Price: veg breakfasts $10-16
Website: www.thecommoner.com.au

April 6, 2008: Leftover makeover - mocha cupcakes

One of the reasons I made the chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies was as a thank-you gift to Tracy and Lee for lending us camping gear for Golden Plains. But a lot of the cookies were just too hard and crunchy, and I left the gift-giving a little too late. Thankfully I did think fast enough to freeze the leftover cookies and icing to recycle them into mocha cupcakes.

The coffee cake is from Nigella's recipe for cappuccino cupcakes, topped with the leftover chocolate icing and sprinkled with cookie crumbs, which were ground up in the food processor. Up early and unadjusted to a world without daylight saving, I had plenty of time to bake and decorate these before meeting up with Tracy and Lee for a 9:30 breakfast!

A quick pre-breakfast taste test.

The 2008 Circus Pie Classic is coming!

The 2008 Good Shepherd Circus Pie Classic is coming to the Corner Hotel at 4pm on Sunday, May 4. RocKwiz collides with Iron Chef as Australian rockers cook to the clock in an effort to impress judge John Lethlean. All dishes will be served with a side of live music. The best bit of all? Proceeds go to Good Shepherd, a community agency that has been "helping people in Melbourne battle poverty and need for more than 140 years".

Tickets are $15 plus booking fee, and can be ordered at the Corner Hotel website. After the rockin' good time we had last year, you can bet Michael and I will be there.

April 5, 2008: Bloggers' banquet II

Like moths to a flame, it seems that food bloggers can't resist the glow of an outdoor wood-fired oven. Five months after we congregated around Vegout's hearth, we made the pilgrimage to Purple Goddess' kingdom (queendom? goddessdom?) Chez Fur du Mer. She and her faithful feller Furry provided the perfect setting (as well as last-minute kitchen implements and a whopping slab of emergency lamb) for us to set aside our keyboards and let our mouths do the talking, as well as the eating.

When Claire, Michael and I arrived, not so much fashionably as embarrassingly late, those present looked about ready to eat us alive! Would you believe they were too polite to beginning digging in without us? Thankfully I was able to get a tray of soy bombs in and out of the oven within minutes, and had Chinese style barbeque sauce at the ready for dipping.

Jon has since admitted that when the "Cindy's bringing tofu balls" story circulated earlier in the day, there was some skepticism. And worse, they were messy - crumbling over hands, shirts, and repeatedly into the sauce dish - but I'm confident the "mmm"s they elicited were the product of more than good manners, maybe even more than the relief they provided to empty stomachs. The saucy, salty, succulent reality of the SOY BOMB won out.

With this appetiser out of the way (as if anyone needed one!), we ventured in to the table heaving with food...

Michael contributed his now-signature cream cheese brownies. I must be getting complacent about their chocolatey charms because I failed to photograph them! However, you can drool over them (and perhaps even make them yourself) by going here.

These caramelised onion tartlets were a delicious introduction to Agnes from Off the Spork, since this was the first occasion that we've met her and her husband Alastair. She could not win my heart much quicker than by making her own pastry and sharing it around!

Thanh's version of poor man's potatoes, taken from the MoVida cookbook, was as good as our first taste of them at the restaurant last month. Head over to his food blog, I Eat Therefore I Am, and join us in nagging him to share the recipe!

Hostess PG provided the perfect bridge between sweet and savoury with a fig, blue cheese and caramelised onion tart. This was the dish Michael wished for more of after we'd returned home to an empty fridge.

Here is the free-form cheesecake that had us running so shamefully late. It was impossible to be annoyed at it or its creator Claire - look at those layers of mascarpone, sour cherries and macadamia praline!

Duncan (of Syrup and Tang) graciously gave the crowd what they were begging for - more macarons! This time he doubled the fun with two flavours - rose/lemon and violet. Once everyone had had their two, an evil game of darting eyes began as people monitored how many more each other person was going back for, and whether or not they might be building up a stash for later.

By contrast, the fabulously unconstrained Vida confounded expectation by bringing, not cupcakes, but oblatna! How did she make get those squares so neat and elegant? Is it possible to eat one elegantly, or are my teeth destined to reduce this to a squished mess of wafers, chocolate, caramel and walnuts?

No fan of sugary icing, I took on Thanh's cake with some reservations. But once I sunk my teeth in and discovered that this was white chocolate and not unadulterated sugar, there was no going back! With coconut and lemon also featuring, I still can't work out how it managed to be so buttery and light at the same time.

And my final indulgence was a chocolate tartlette from Jon, the Melbourne Foodie. I actually couldn't fit this in at lunch time and took it home with me. With a ganache made from milk and dark chocolate, a hint of orange zest, and a bittersweet raspberry on top, I'm glad I gave myself room to savour its rich and delicate flavours.

It may be difficult to imagine, but the company was even as good as the food! I would never have expected to feel this at ease with a group of people I've met only once before. Though we're an eclectic mix of ages, backgrounds and experiences, a shared love of cooking and eating is more than enough to fuel an afternoon of fun.

April 3-5, 2008: Coffee walnut splodges

The second Bloggers' Banquet was nigh, and we needed to get cooking. We brought a few tried and true recipes to the table, but I also wanted to take a little something special for our chauffeur, Claire the Melbourne Gastronome. It had to be cute and sweet, but also hardy enough to weather a couple of days at home before being dragged around in a bag through variable temperatures. Enter Nigella's coffee walnut splodges.

They were indeed suitably robust, with a slightly cakey texture and those softly crunching walnuts. And they were a doddle to put together. But as I tried a still-warm one on Thursday night, I said something I never thought I'd say about a Nigella recipe: "I wish these were sweeter". So, early on Saturday morning, I melted some leftover dark cooking chocolate and spread it generously on the splodges' flat surfaces. That did the trick.

The chocolate wasn't sufficient to mocha up the entire batch and I'm still eating some of the leftovers as Nigella intended them. They're really growing on me, actually. The bitterness of the coffee and walnuts is a great pick-me-up on a workday afternoon.

Coffee walnut splodge biscuits

250g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g unsalted butter, softened
75g castor sugar
60g brown sugar
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 large eggs, beaten
200g walnuts, roughly chopped
~200g dark cooking chocolate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Gradually mix in the coffee powder and then the eggs. Stir in the flour mixture and the walnuts by hand until just combined.

Line a baking tray (or two, if you have them) with paper and drop generous teaspoons of the dough onto them.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until they've just developed a firm crust. Let them cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack.

Optional chocolate layer: Gently melt the chocolate by your preferred method and spread it on the flat side of the cooled biscuits. Allow 30 minutes for the chocolate to set (or chuck 'em in the fridge for 10!) before storing the biscuits.

April 4, 2008: Friday Featre Food - Ten Ren's Tea Time II

Some comments banter over at She's a Screaming Suffragette had filled Cindy with enthusiasm for a return to Ten Ren's Tea Time. I'd got over the scary beefiness of their faux-beef rendang curry and decided that it worth trying their highly recommended vego fish dish. Cindy concurred and, for once, we both ordered the same main - the vegetarian lemon fish with rice ($8.80). I had visions of something saucy like the 2007 vego dish of the year at White Lotus. Instead, we got a bowl of plain rice, three small vegie accompaniment plates (some sort of cubed potato, cucumber and a cabbagey mush) and a serve of dry 'fish' slices. The 'fish' had a hint of lemon and some vaguely seafoody saltiness, but it was so dry that it really didn't go well with the rice - I had to spread the accompanying dishes pretty thinly to flavour up the rice enough for my tastes. To be honest, I can't really see the appeal of this fish-dish - it's dry, only lightly flavoured and not particularly fishy. Ah well, it was worth a shot.

Of course we couldn't visit Ten Ren's Tea Time without sampling some of their eighty million varieties of tea. We both went for ice teas - the lychee green tea for Cindy ($5.50, on the left) and the watermelon green tea ($5, on the right) for me. Mine was lightly sweetened with a hint of watermelon-y flavour, which didn't overwhelm the essential tea-ness of the drink. Cindy's lychee tea on the other hand was so strongly lychee flavoured that a couple of sugary sips were all I could handle. Cindy didn't seem to mind it too much though.

I think we've probably done our dash with Ten Ren now - there are too many other cheap CBD food options.

Read about our previous visit to Ten Ren's Tea Time here.

April 2, 2008: Stuffed white nut roast

With the arrival of autumn it's time to slip into some comfort food, I think. Pastry, potatoes and soup are our favourite ways of warming up, but Johanna has prompted me to start instead with a nut roast. We had some success last year with one of Johanna's recipes so it seemed most sensible to join in her current blog event, A Neb at Nutroast, and try a new recipe. Or, even more daringly, an old recipe.

As I mentioned in passing last time, my first nut roast experience a couple of years ago was not a very pleasant one. I had found the recipe on the website of the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland and decided to cook it for dinner while Michael was off playing sport. Grinding the breadcrumbs and nuts, zesting and chopping and frying took an awfully long time in our poky little kitchen, and then the roast had to bake for an hour! I barely had the energy to pull together some side veges and I was just about ready to cry when the golden, aromatic loaf came out of the oven and then would not separate from the baking paper. I knew, as I chewed and picked paper fragments out of my mouth, that the roast tasted great, but much time would have to pass before I attempted that again.

By now I felt about ready to conquer the stuffed white nut roast, and it proved much easier with Michael at home to assist. He chopped and sauteed while I operated the food processor, and we both mixed and layered and patted it all down. I took extra care to grease the baking paper well, and the roast slid out of it beautifully. It's a very nutty roast indeed, not too stodgy when sliced thinly, brightened with flavours of parsley and lemon. The golden, chewy crust is delicious when it's fresh from the oven but it softens later. Although it doesn't resemble meat at all, the crust and stuffing both reminded me of long distant roast chickens.

We ate this roast on that first night with fresh spinach, sauteed mushrooms and capsicum, and a generous splash of gravy. Since then I've been enjoying it on sandwiches with more spinach leaves and a dab of mayonnaise.

Stuffed white nut roast
(taken from the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland website, attributed there to Vegan Feasts by Rose Elliot)

3 onions, finely chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons plain flour
300mL water
450g of cashews, blanched almonds and/or macadamias, ground coarsely in a food processor
400g breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons lemon juice
grated zest of the lemon
salt and pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon mixed dried herbs
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. You will need a huge bread loaf tin or two smallish loaf tins. Line with baking paper and grease thoroughly.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucepan and fry 2 of the onions, covered, over low heat for about 10 minutes. Stir them occasionally. The recipe emphasises not allowing the onions to brown at all, but I can't see the harm! I think it's about keeping the roast white. Stir in the flour and then, once it's evenly distributed, the water. Keep cooking and stirring until the mixture thickens.

Take the mixture off the heat. Add the nuts, 225g of the breadcrumbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients: oil, onion, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, dried herbs and fresh parsley.

Pat about half of the nut mixture into the loaf tin(s) and smooth over the surface. Next, spoon over all of the stuffing mixture from the bowl. Finally, layer on the remaining nut mixture and flatten the top gently with the back of a spoon.

Bake the nut roast for about an hour, until lightly browned on the outside and firm in the middle.

April 1, 2008: Spicy cauliflower soup and braised mushrooms

With Melbourne turning wintry, I was nagging Cindy to dig me up some soup recipes. She pointed me in the direction of her del.icio.us bookmarks and told me to find my own. Luckily, I was sold by the very first item on her list: spicy cauliflower soup and braised lobster mushrooms, provided by the Amateur Gourmet. Our dinner wasn't quite as thrown together as Adam's - we shopped around for lobster mushrooms, but ended up settling for Swiss browns, which aren't even vaguely similar. Ah well, they're still mushroomy and delicious. We also didn't have a big pot of chicken stock on hand, instead making do with our relatively impressive Massel 'chicken' stock for the bulk of the soupy liquidness.

Still, these were minor changes. The soup was spicy from the chilli and just a little smoky from the paprika. We threw in a decent sized chunk of blue cheese, but it didn't really shine through - adding maybe a little creaminess, but not a lot of extra flavour. This wasn't a problem, the cauliflower and spices provided enough taste for our needs. The mushrooms were even more impressive - the vinegar and pepper contrasting with our slightly salty stock base. This was all pretty easy to throw together (particularly when you skip the hours of stock-making) and was a good start to my plans for a winter of creamy soups.

Check out the recipe in full here.