I really dislike terms like "Asian grocer" and "Indian shop," although I do use them. My family think I am oversensitive, but I don't like referring to the supermarket as the supermarket, the fish shop as the fish shop, while the place we buy our fish sauce and noodles from, and the other place we buy our lentils and spices from have ethnic tags, like they are somehow separate to us. I also grate at lazy, catch-all terms like "Asian" and "Indian," but the fact is, I can't detect the difference between a Chinese grocer and a Vietnamese one like ...
Archives for “shelf gleaning”
I saw an ad in a parenting publication a while ago that still irritates me to this day. It was an ad for a prepackaged cake mix, cookie dough, or something of the sort. The image was of a mother beatifically gazing upon her child drawing a picture, and the tag line was something like "Saves you time so you can do more important things in life". When I saw it, mother-guilt - that old companion - flared up. Am I a bad mother, I thought, because I make my own stock, bake my own bread and (shock) make my ...
Ethiopian cuisine - bright splots of spicy wats on round, tangy injera bread. As pretty as a painter's palette. For a while, though, it was a "restaurant-only" thing for me. I had it in the "do not attempt" pile, along with making filo pastry from scratch or deboning a chicken. There was no particular reason, only ignorance. The lovely Bianca changed all that by surprising me one day with my first tubs of berbere and niter kibbeh, from Mama Rosina's in Footscray. Now, Ethiopian is as easy as whipping out my trusty Old El Paso taco kit!Berbere is a brick-red ...
Until I went to India, I thought all Indian food was served in twee copper pots, perhaps warmed by a tea light underneath. A genuine Indian restaurant had to feature smoky glass, gold bas-relief pictures of elephants, and salmon-colored napery. Sitar music would jangle while we spooned heavy, creamy curries onto our cold plates, and the saloon-style door to the kitchen would swing open sporadically, revealing a turbaned, mustachioed chef plunging skewers of meat into the tandoor.Within a few days of arriving in Bangalore, south India, my preconceptions were happily turned on their head. We ate in cafes where the ...
If you are going to eat a packet of chips, make it Magic Masala! These are extra spicy and totally addictive. As the back of the packet says, they "make your heart go DHAK DHAK"!From India Impex, Irving St, Footscray (between Nicholson & Leeds)
Found these Black Russian tomatoes at Masters Fresh Fruit at the Footscray Market. $3.99 a kg! Farmers markets, eat your heart out. They are an heirloom variety which are dark olive in colour.To make Black Russian bruschetta, take some crusty bread, toast and rub with a cut garlic clove. Slice tomatoes and place on top. Season with plenty of good salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Scatter torn basil over the top, and drizzle with extra virgin. Oh yeah!! Tomato heaven! These little babies are really sweet, almost no acid. If only it were tomato season all year round, as ...
So I had the idea for Shelf Gleaning a while back - a new section in which I "demystify" ingredients I bought in Footscray (but that you too could buy from your local multicultural grocer) and show you what to do with them. Twice I cooked the same chana dal with fenugreek leaves, and twice I was thwarted in taking a pic of the finished dish by arsenic hour. Man - kids and elegant, food-bloggy photography just do not meld. So I present to you, the harried parent's guide to dinner, gleaned from the freezer of Yummie ...
