Naan Bread | White Teeth

'But what helps with the heat, Ravind? What will aid the gentleman with the burning sensation he is presently feeling?'
’More rice, Ardashir.'
'And? And?'
Ravind looked stumped and began to sweat, Samad, who had been belittled by Ardashir too many times to enjoy watching someone else play the victim, leant over to whisper the answer in Ravind's clammy ear.
Ravind's face lit up in gratitude.'More naan bread, Ardashir!'
White Teeth
Zadie Smith

So the world's going a bit crazy. Unfortunately in Australia we have also been affected, with cases growing in Melbourne very rapidly. It's amazing to see how the entire city has been affected, with trains and trams going empty, restaurants and cafes throughout the CBD bare and more and more companies bringing in mandatory work from home policies. Unfortunately, the hoarding mentality that many have adopted has also hit the supermarkets near me and being able to purchase flour (I just want to make cakes, people!) has been tricky.

I was able however, to get some Tipo00 flour so don't be surprised by the increase in bread related recipes coming up. White Teeth had been sitting in my shelf for the past six years, many friends of mine spoke of it as their assigned reading in high school - but I somehow had never come across it or even heard of it. I finally pulled it off the shelf around a week ago and practically inhaled the words. I think I finished it within the space of four days, taking every opportunity to sneak a few pages of reading in - desperate to know what was going to happen next. On that note - I do not recommend attempting to read while crossing train platforms on your way to work, you'll crash into people and they'll be super annoyed. Trust me.

There are numerous dishes mentioned throughout this book I want to eventually try (Jamaican dumplings, anyone?) but my attention was very firmly fixed upon an attempt at naan bread. Unfortunately, it's near impossible to find naan bread at any market that doesn't contain dairy and since going plant based I've had to miss out on it. I had a few attempts at this recipe - and unfortunately as I do not possess a cast iron pan, I don't believe I will ever get the perfect cook to them. However, using a non stick pan still resulted in delicious, fluffy naan breads - a perfect accompaniment to a meal.

*Note: You can use any plain yoghurt for this - I went with coconut though because it's just so delightfully tangy.

Naan Bread
Makes approx. 8
Ingredients
2 cups plain flour + 1 tbsp
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup lukewarm water
3 tbsp coconut yoghurt, *see note
3 tbsp butter, melted
3 cloves roasted garlic
Roughly chopped parsley, to garnish

1. In a largish bowl mix together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast.

2. In a seperate bowl, combine the yoghurt, olive oil and warm water. Add to the mixed dry ingredients and combine - once the dough has started coming together, bring it onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until the dough is soft and slightly sticky.

3. Put back into a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap or a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Bring your risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a sort of log, cut it into 8 equal pieces. If the pieces are quite sticky still, dust a little of the extra flour on it to stop it sticking.

5. Roll out each individual piece of dough into an oval shape, ensuring that it's no more than a cm thick (I made this mistake when making it for the first time and they sadly ended up quite doughy).

6. Bring a cast iron pan (if you have one!) to a very hot heat slowly. Remove any excess flour from the uncooked naan breads by tossing them between your hands lightly before placing them in the pan.

7. As they are cooking, air bubbles should appear on top - after about two minutes flip the naan breads so that the other side can cook for another two minutes. They should ideally be golden brown with dark spots where the air bubbles have appeared.

8. To keep the naan breads warm while each one is cooking, pop them into an oven proof dish and place into the oven at a low heat.

9. Remove the skins from the roasted garlic and crush into the melted butter, combining well.

10. When you're ready to eat, use a pastry brush to liberally spread the garlic butter mix onto each naan bread before sprinkling with the chopped parley to serve. Enjoy!

Victoria Sandwich | The Flatshare

'Hi Leon, I don't know - I've not really thought about it like that, actually. My knee-jerk reaction is yeah, he's good for me. But then, I don't know. We were very up and down, one of those couples everyone's always talking about (we've broken up and got back together a few times before). It's easy to remember the happy times - and there were tons of them, and they were awesome - But  guess since we broke up I've only remembered those. So I know that being with him was fun. But was it good for me? Ugh, I don't know.
Hence the Victoria sandwich with homemade jam.
Tiffy xx'
The Flatshare
Beth O'Leary

I think that everybody can appreciate what it’s like to have housemates. Coming home to a house that may already be full of people, the smell of dinner beginning to waft from the kitchen and the scattering of shoes that have to be kicked away from the front door. It’s always a delight when you manage to find housemates that you get along with, whether that be mutual ignorance of each other or a tentative friendship that can grow.

In Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare, main characters, Leon and Tiffy, have a seemingly ideal arrangement. Tiffy works days and has the flat and bed at nights. Leon works nights and has the flat and bed during the days. A somewhat ideal arrangement for a city as expensive as London. The Flatshare is a quirky and charming look into the lives of Leon and Tiffy, through the narration of both their personal lives and the multitude of notes they leave scattered about for each other.

One aspect of The Flatshare that I instantly connected with was Tiffy’s coping mechanisms of baking. Who doesn’t deal with any life issues that way? Had a bad day, bake a cake. It is possibly the best way to deal with any stressful situation. While Leon and Tiffy do tend to favour tiffin (a dessert I had never heard of until this read) I immediately jumped at the chance to try my hand at a Victoria sandwich.

Most of my memories associated with Victoria sandwiches are from my grandma. It was her go to cake - the lightest and fluffiest sponge you could ever imagine, layered with thick cream and fresh berries. Delicious. I may not have created something as good as my memories of my grandma’s version - but this one is pretty damn good.

*Notes: I always use Nuttelex as my butter replacement, but you can use whatever you have handy. Best to make the jam the day before or leave enough time to allow it to cool.

Victoria Sandwich
Ingredients
Cake
550g self-raising flour
350g butter *see note
350g golden caster sugar
400ml milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
70g vegetable shortening, softened
150g butter *see note
3 cups icing sugar
2 vanilla pods, scraped out
Homemade Strawberry Jam
400g frozen or fresh strawberries
2 cups white sugar
Juice of one lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
Decorations
Fresh strawberries (or any other berries you want, really)
1 tbsp icing sugar

Jam

1. If using fresh strawberries, mash up before placing them in a saucepan. If using frozen, just add straight into a medium saucepan with the sugar and lemon juice.

2. Keep the saucepan on a low heat, continuously stirring until the sugar is dissolved completely. If you’re using frozen strawberries, begin to mash them down with a fork during this time as they start to defrost.

3. Increase the heat until bubbling lightly. The jam will start to thick and become quite syrupy. Once it reaches the consistency you want, transfer it to a bowl and refrigerate until you’re ready to put the cake together.

Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and prepare two 8” cakes tins by greasing them well and placing a a square of baking paper on the bottom.

2. Stir together the apple cider vinegar and milk - leave to sit and curdle for a few moments.

3. In a large bowl cream together the butter and golden caster sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Sift in the flour, baking power and add in the vanilla extract and milk mixture. Mix until the batter is smooth with no lumps - but be careful not to over-mix. I did mine in my stand mixer and only mixed it for approx. 2 minutes.

5. Split the batter between the cake tins and place into the oven for 30 minutes. If a skewer inserted into the middle comes out wet, or the middle still looks a little wobbly, leave in for an additional 5 - 10 minutes.

6. After they’ve come out of the oven, leave them in the tins for at least 15 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack. Leave the cakes to cool completely before attempting to put them together, otherwise the heat will melt the jam and buttercream.

Buttercream

1. While the cake is cooling it’s a great time to make the buttercream. Beat together the shortening and butter until it’s lightly and fluffy, and well mixed.

2. Gradually add in the icing sugar, mixing as you go and the vanilla seeds scraped from the pod.

3. The end result should be a buttercream that’s firm enough to hold the two cakes in place but not so firm it’s hard to spread.

4. If your cakes are properly cooled, it’s time to put it all together. Spread a layer of jam on one cake, and a layer of buttercream before sandwiching them together. You can also put fresh berries between the layers if you like as well.

5. Finish the cake off with a sifting of icing sugar and some berries on top. Absolutely delightful with a cup of tea!

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs | Breakfast at Tiffany's

She patted him. ‘Tend to your chores, Rusty. And when I’m ready, we’ll go eat where you want.’
‘Chinatown?’
‘But that doesn’t mean sweet and sour spareribs. You know what the doctor said.’
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Truman Capote

It may not have been the moral of the story, but the entire time I was reading Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I was experience a deep longing to attend one of Holly Golightly’s fabulous parties. Everyone crammed into a tiny apartment, steadily getting drunker until the urge to go out and binge on Chinese food finally overpowers all others thoughts? Yes, please.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a book that conjures up a world of cravings - to live as Holly Golightly does (before all the bad stuff happens at least), or even to approach the world with the outlook that the character does. Her life, documented in the pages, becomes as fascinating to the reader as it does to the narrator whose point of view we experience throughout. I always imagined that some portion of my life when moving to a city would mimic perhaps a little of a book like that - probably for the best that it didn’t. Melbourne is amazing enough that parties and entertainment every night would soon tire even the most extroverted.

Another unfortunate side effect of living in a city like Melbourne, is that there really is a vegan substitute for every craving you may have. There’s one particular restaurant in the middle of the city, hidden away upstairs that dishes out an all-vegan Chinese smorgasbord of dishes. It’s become an unfortunate habit to hole myself away in a booth when I’ve had a hard day - drowning my sorrows in tea, dumplings and a book.

*Note: I used vegan ‘ribs’ that I found at a local asian grocery. You can honestly use this sauce with whatever faux meat you have, or even cauliflower perhaps, and it will be delicious. If you’re using real ribs, follow the recipe the same, just bake for additional 15 minutes or so.

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs
Ingredients
500g spare ribs *see note
1/2 cup soy sauce or tamari
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 rice vinegar
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Get an oven safe pan ready by layering the bottom with baking paper, placing your ribs in, side by side. Ensure that they don’t sit on top of each other. Put the pan to the side for now.

3. Combine soy sauce or tamari, brown sugar, rice vinegar, mustard seeds, and salt in a small saucepan. Put on a low heat.

4. Keep an eye on the sauce, stirring occasionally as it heats. It should begin to bubble and thicken. During this process, continue to taste and add more vinegar, sugar or soy where necessary. Remove from heat when consistency is alike to syrup.

5. Using a pastry brush, or just a spoon, brush the sauce over the ribs thoroughly, ensuring that all have a nice coating. You should still have quite a bit of sauce left over.

6. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes. During this time, remove from oven every 15 minutes or so to reapply the same over the ribs. They should always have a nice sticky sheen to them.

7. Remove and allow to cool a little before eating. Enjoy! (Another glaze of sauce here works wonders as well, just to note).

Bombe Alaska | The Bell Jar

'Oh-oh!' Betsy said sympathetically. She must have seen the tears that plopped down into my dessert dish of meringue and brandy ice cream, because she pushed over her own untouched dessert and I started absently on that when I'd finished my own. I felt a bit awkward about the tears, but they were real enough.
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath

It may be winter but my love for ice-cream, frozen yoghurt and generally any decadent frozen confectioner is not disappearing. A toasty on the outside, and chilly on the inside dessert seemed to be the perfect accompaniment for the vaguely dismal weather.

The Bell Jar is one of the first novels I read that seemed to stick with me - it was when I was sixteen and attempting to both embrace (what I thought) was my true nature via skinny jeans and lip piercings and still feel pretentious and somewhat arrogant by reading, what I deemed to be, books of consequence and feminist prose.

It was fascinating I think because of the somewhat new nature that the style of the book had. I was used to books with clear beginnings, middles and happy endings. Hobbits taking a ring to a volcano, Harry and the trio defeating Voldemort etc etc. This was one of my first looks at a book that didn’t feel the need to spell out every action that occurs, or to paint a traditional, in your face happy ending for the reader.

It’s an occasional re-read every now and then, sometimes when I’m feeling a little melodramatic and have the need to revisit a protagonist that captures that in a way. It was on one of my last reads that I began to take note of the food throughout - along with the stomach turning crab salad that is served during a luncheon, Esther also partakes of a dessert dish made from meringue and brandy ice-cream.

I am sure that the dessert served that night would have been a touch more elegant that what I made - I’m sure this recipe is just as delicious. I exchanged the brandy for rum because despite myself and my housemates have an extensive liquor cabinet, we did not have any brandy at the time.

*Note: I do not eat eggs, thus the chickpea meringue. Honestly, it’s delicious and probably tastes better than actual egg meringue. But if you really can’t bring yourself to it, just google a quick Italian meringue recipe and that’ll work just as well.

Chocolate Rum Bombe Alaskas
Makes approx. 8 - 10
Ingredients
Chocolate Rum Ice-cream
2 x 400ml can coconut milk (make sure it’s full fat)
2 tbsp corn starch
1.2 cup cocoa powder
1tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white sugar
Big pinch salt
60ml spiced rum (if you want to stay traditional, use brandy)
Italian Meringue *see note
1 x can of chickpea brine (aquafaba)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

1. Whisk together all your ingredients in a medium sized saucepan.

2. Heat on medium until warmed, stirring continuously as the mixture thickens (it is does not thicken add a little more corn starch in.)

3. Place the ice-cream mix into your pre chilled freezer bowl and leave to churn until the ice-cream thickens considerably (it took mine close to 40 minutes to thicken properly.)

4. Move bowl to the freezer once it has reached a good thickness - best to leave for a few hours to really freeze through at this stage.

1. Beat around 2/3 of the aquafaba in a mixer with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.

2. During this, heat the remaining aquafaba and the sugar together in a saucepan - bringing the temperature as high as possible before the mixture starts to caramelise.

3. While the mixer is still going, slowly drizzle in the heated aquafaba and sugar into the meringue mix.

4. Add in the vanilla and beat on high until stiff peaks form.

5. You can either use a piping bag at this stage to pipe the meringue around the ice-cream or just a spoon to sort of build it up - either way it’s going to be delicious.

1. I just used my coconut cream cake recipe for the cupcakes and omitted the coconut - but you can honestly use any cake recipe and it’s fine, the real star of the dish is going to be the marshmellow-y meringue and booze-laden ice-cream anyway.

2. Slice your cupcakes in half so you’ve got nice even circles to work with. Each of these needs a good, round scoop of ice-cream on it, making sure that you leave space around the sides for the meringue to be piped up.

3. Carefully pipe or spoon the meringue around the ice-cream, it should be thick enough to hold it’s shape so that you can complete all of them in one go.

4. Now it’s the fun part, using a blow torch carefully toast the meringue until all sides are a nice golden brown.

5. And the best part of the entire process, eating it! Make sure to serve straight away.

Chocolate Frogs

'What are these?' Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. 'They're not really frogs, are they?' He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.
'No,' said Ron, 'But see what the card is, I'm missing Agrippa.
'What?'
’Oh, of course you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - Famous Witches and Wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy.'
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
J.K Rowling

So, it's about that time of the year that I reread all the Harry Potter books. now I've started this little project as well, I'm paying a lot more attention to the absolutely delicious foods that appear within its pages. There's probably going to be a bit of an abundance of the foods that appear within the series pages appearing soon.

It's been a rushed few months, with the summer being sweltering hot every move seems slightly exhausting - not to mention working in both a busy bakery and an overheating restaurant. I'm in my last week of hospitality work currently before I switch to a corporate setting - something that I've never done before in my life. It's going to be an interesting change and I feel that my need to explore creativity through this blog will increase at a hurried pace.

*Note: you will need chocolate frog moulds for this recipe

Chocolate Frogs
Makes approximately 9 frogs
Ingredients
200g + 350g good quality dark chocolate, if not using chips make sure it's chopped roughly
1/2 cup cream (I used coconut but any will work)
1 tbsp butter

1. Heat the 1/2 cup of cream on the stove until it's lightly bubbling and very hot. Remove from the heat and add in the 200g dark chocolate.

2. Mix quickly as to melt the chocolate while the coconut milk is still hot. Once he chocolate has melted in with cream add in the tbsp of butter. Mix together until melted into the chocolate mix. Place in fridge for 2-3 hours or until solidified into a fudge-y ganache.

3. While the ganache is setting is a great time to start the coating of the frogs. Heat a pot of water on the stove until boiling and place a metal or glass bowl on top, ensuring that the water doesn't touch the bowl.

4. Place about 2/3rd of the 350g of chocolate into the bowl and make sure to continually stir it with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to stop the chocolate from burning.

5. In order to temper the chocolate and get a lovely shiny coat to it it's best to make sure the chocolate doesn't heat over 48C - if you don't have cooking thermometer the best way to tell the chocolate is ready is by the shininess it will appear to have as melting.

6. Remove from the heat once the temperature is reached and add in the remaining third of dark chocolate quickly, stirring to melt it from the heat of the already melted chocolate.

7. Drip the melted chocolate into your frog chocolate moulds, making sure to evenly coat the sides so there are no weak parts. It can be a little tricky to do this part without making the top super thick in chocolate - just do your best. There will be melted chocolate left over - keep this to the side in the bowl to remelt on the pot of boiling water for when you need to close over the frogs.

8. Leave to harden - about 2-3 hours. You can speed this along by placing it in the fridge but the chocolate will look better if left to harden not refrigerated.

9. When both the moulds and ganache filling are ready, press small spoonfuls of the ganache into the chocolate coating of the frogs, pressing down to fill up the crevices.

10. Now is when you want to remelt that leftover chocolate, once ready drip it over the top of the filled chocolate moulds, sealing the ganache inside. Leave to harden for at least 4 hours.

11. After about 4 hours have passed you can attempt to get the frogs out of the moulds - they should come out very easily, if not, they're not properly set - leave them for another hour or so.

Leek and Potato Stew | Coraline

Coraline was disgusted. 'Daddy,' she said, 'you've made a recipe again.' 'It's a leek and potato stew with a tarragon garnish and melted Gruyere cheese,' he admitted.
Coraline
Neil Gaiman

I don’t know how many times I’ve mentioned that I dislike summer but here’s another one; I dislike summer. I am not built for Australian summer’s, we’re currently on a 30+ heatwave in Melbourne this week and one day in and I’ve had enough. Also, hot weather means I can’t justify making soups and stews like this one - except I did because it’s delicious and I don’t care.

This particular stew was taken from the pages of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, a delightfully dark children’s book. Throughout Coraline laments the home made food that her father makes, stating with disgust that he’s made another recipe. As an adult I feel that most of the recipes mentioned throughout sound delicious, hand stretched pizza’s anyone? But memories of turning my nose up in disgust at the mere touch of ginger in any dish, or the weird texture of fish when I was younger definitely brings about a sense of relation to Coraline’s prospective.

This stew however is simply a bowl of deliciousness and comfort. You can add more stock and blend it up into a soup if you prefer, but personally, there’s some sort of cosy appeal to hugging a bowl of stew close while watching a movie or reading a book at night. Also! While I am aware that it is rosemary in the photo, not tarragon, however I forgot to buy tarragon but had rosemary growing in the garden - so, laziness prevailed. 

Note: I did not leave myself enough time to find a vegan gruyere cheese for this so I just used a vegan cheddar I had in the fridge. Still delicious!

Leek and Potato Stew with Tarragon and melted Gruyere Cheese
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
5-6 red potatoes, diced
2 leeks
4-5 cups of vegetable stock
2 tbsp tarragon, roughy chopped
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup gruyere cheese grated or crumbled *see note
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper

1. Slice the white part of the leek finely and then dice up (if you’d prefer not to discard the green parts you can save them and use them in a homemade veggie stock later).

2. Place the butter - it is a lot of butter but honestly the more you use the better it will taste - into a large saucepan on a medium heat until it is melted and bubbly. Add in the leek and cook for around 2-3 minutes while stirring to ensure they don’t stick and burn.

3. Add in the tarragon and diced potatoes and mix to coat with butter before adding in stock (reserve about a cup for later).

4. Leave on a medium heat for around thirty minutes so it’s bubbling just a little(it could take a little less time depending on how small you dice your potatoes). During this time you may want to add in the remaining cup of stock if the stew is reducing too much.

5. At this stage the potato should be well cooked and slightly mushy, I mixed my cheese through so it would melt in throughout the whole thing but simply melting it on top would also be super yum. Enjoy!