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
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
Preheat oven to 180C.
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.
Combine soy sauce or tamari, brown sugar, rice vinegar, mustard seeds, and salt in a small saucepan. Put on a low heat.
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.
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.
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.
Remove and allow to cool a little before eating. Enjoy! (Another glaze of sauce here works wonders as well, just to note).
Strawberry and Peanut Butter Ice-Cream | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
"Harry, Ron and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver and bronze jangling cheerfully in Harry's pocket was clamouring to be spent, so he bought three large strawberry and peanut-butter ice-creams which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows."- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J K. Rowling
Harry, Ron and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver and bronze jangling cheerfully in Harry's pocket was clamouring to be spent, so he bought three large strawberry and peanut-butter ice-creams which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
J.K Rowling
It was only a matter of time before I started on the absolute smorgasbord of food throughout the Harry Potter series. I’m sure that many other children, like myself, dreamed of getting to visit Florean Fortescue’s ice-cream parlour when first exploring the world of Harry Potter within the books. Everything within the pages always (and still does) seemed so magical - even the ice creams.
Even growing up in a coastal town of Australia, where ice-cream is practically mandatory in the summer months, I had never come across this particular flavour before. It seems so bizarre that, of course, it would only be available in a magical world. Looking at it more rationally now - peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches were very much a staple growing up, I just didn’t really seem to put the two together.
This recipe ended up being both delightfully fruity and refreshing (little benefit of having coconut milk instead of dairy) with hidden pockets of peanut butter throughout. It may be the beginning of winter in Melbourne, but it’s never going to be too cold for ice-cream.
*Note: I used coconut milk for this recipe, however you can sub with dairy cream/milk if you want
Strawberry and Peanut Butter Ice-cream
Makes approx. 550g
Ingredients
2 x 400ml can coconut milk (full fat) *see note
350g frozen or fresh strawberries
5 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white sugar
Big pinch salt
Place the container of the ice-cream maker into the freezer to pre-chill.
Put all ingredients into a saucepan, excluding the peanut butter, and heat gradually until it is simmering.
Stir thoroughly to ensure all sugar and cornstarch is dissolved and mixed in.
Remove from the heat and, using a fork or masher, squish all the strawberries roughly in the saucepan. It’s fine if there are chunks remaining - it’s more delicious in the ice-cream anyway.
Pour into the container of the pre-chilled ice-cream maker and follow the directions according to your particular machine.
Once it’s nice and thick (mine took around 30 minutes), remove from machine and begin transferring to a sealable container. While you’re doing this, you want to spread spoonfuls of the peanut butter throughout the ice-cream, ensuring an even distribution.
Freeze for around one hour before serving.
Chicken Noodle Soup | Little Fires Everywhere
“‘You slept a long time. That’s good. Do you think you can eat something?’ In the kitchen, Mia set a bowl of soup in front of her, and Lexie brought a spoonful to her lips: chicken noodle, salty, searingly hot. There was no sign of Peal, but the clock on the stove read 3:15. School had let out a little while ago. She must have told her mother everything, Lexie thought.” - Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
‘You slept a long time. That’s good. Do you think you can eat something?’ In the kitchen, Mia set a bowl of soup in front of her, and Lexie brought a spoonful to her lips: chicken noodle, salty, searingly hot. There was no sign of Peal, but the clock on the stove read 3:15. School had let out a little while ago. She must have told her mother everything, Lexie thought.
Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng
The concept of comfort food is fascinating, usually something high in carbs, sugar or salt. It can be eaten when all seems hopeless and the thought of that delicious, carby meal at the end of your day is all that will keep you going.
Or, it can a meal that brings about a nostalgic emotion, a sentimental feeling attached to a type of food that brings about memories of childhood and feeling safe. In Little Fires Everywhere
It’s interesting growing up in Australia - your main media exposure as a child is to movies and television shows that are American. You grow up seeing all these comfort foods in shows that you’ve never heard of real. Foods like tomato soup with grilled cheese or chicken noodle soup.
In Little Fires Everywhere chicken noodle soup is the dish that Mia serves to Lexie during a day that is particularly bad. The description of the soup: salty, searingly hot, is the perfect fix to her day. It doesn’t solve anything - but it helps. I recommend this soup whenever you need a meal that's a little more grounding and will let you disappear from any problems for a few hours at least.
Note: I used a soy based faux chicken I found at my local asian grocer - if you’re using real chicken, make sure you add another step of checking the chicken is cooked through at the end just to be safe.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Makes approx. 6 serves.
Ingredients
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 brown onion, diced finely
3 gloves garlic, minced
100g dried noodles/pasta
5 cups chicken stock
200g faux chicken, diced into large chunks *see note
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh pepper
Heat oil in a large saucepan and add in the onion, cooking until soft, around 3 - 4 minutes.
Add in the carrot, celery and garlic, cooking for another 5 minutes or so until they start to soften also. Remember to keep them moving during this time so they don’t stick and burn.
Add in the chicken stock, cover and bring to the boil. Leave to boil for around 10 minutes before adding in the diced chicken and dried noodles or pasta.
Leave on stove for another 10 minutes or until noodles have softened.
Season with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!
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
Whisk together all your ingredients in a medium sized saucepan.
Heat on medium until warmed, stirring continuously as the mixture thickens (it is does not thicken add a little more corn starch in.)
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.)
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.
Beat around 2/3 of the aquafaba in a mixer with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.
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.
While the mixer is still going, slowly drizzle in the heated aquafaba and sugar into the meringue mix.
Add in the vanilla and beat on high until stiff peaks form.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Now it’s the fun part, using a blow torch carefully toast the meringue until all sides are a nice golden brown.
And the best part of the entire process, eating it! Make sure to serve straight away.
Dutch Christmas Bread | The Goldfinch
“Lifting the tops of the trays with a flourish. ‘Special Dutch Christmas bread,’ he said, pointing it out ironically. ‘Just for today.’ I’d ordered the ‘Festive Champagne Breakfast’ which included a split of champagne, truffled eggs and caviar, a fruit salad, a plate of smoked salmon, a slab of pate, and half a dozen dishes of sauce, cornichons, capers, condiments, and pickled onions."
Lifting the tops of the trays with a flourish. ‘Special Dutch Christmas bread,’ he said, pointing it out ironically. ‘Just for today.’ I’d ordered the ‘Festive Champagne Breakfast’ which included a split of champagne, truffled eggs and caviar, a fruit salad, a plate of smoked salmon, a slab of pate, and half a dozen dishes of sauce, cornichons, capers, condiments, and pickled onions.
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
The Goldfinch is really an incredible book - it draws you into the narrative of the main character in a way that shouldn’t be so fascinating, but is. The author, Donna Tartt, entices you deeply into the life of the titular character Theo and his struggles with the direction his life takes.
Another great thing about The Goldfinch is the absolute smorgasbord of food that Theo partakes in throughout the pages of the novel. Form western omelettes and home fries to caviar, fruit salad and smoked salmon pate. With so many choices it became increasingly difficult to narrow down what I would make from it (though I am sure that more from it’s pages will appear on this blog at some point in time). I ended up deciding on Dutch Christmas bread, a component of the delightfully indulgent breakfast that Theo orders on what he believed may be his last free day.
Also, because I wanted to know what Dutch Christmas bread was. A little bit of googling later and I came across the delicious looking Kerststol - a Dutch version of the more well known German stollen. A yeast-based bread filled with rum soaked fruits and nuts with pockets of marzipan or almond paste hidden within. I combined a few recipes online to come up with a vegan version that worked well - my first batch turned into a rock hard mess, but the second came out light, fluffy and deliciously warm.
Dutch Christmas Bread
Ingredients
Dough
1 1/2 cups of plain flour + 1 cup (you may need a little extra if the dough is too sticky etc)
1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp melted coconut oil
2 tsp active yeast
3 1/2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp water - warm
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamon
1/4 tsp ground gloves
1 tsp vanilla
Icing sugar - for decorating
Fruit Filling
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup dried apricots
3 tbsp dark rum
Zest of one orange
Almond Paste
1 cup almond meal
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp maple syrup
3 tbsp cold water
1 tsp almond extract
Rough chop the dried apricots, walnuts and sultanas, combine with the zest and cover it all with the dark rum. Put it all in a sealable container and give it a good shake to make sure they’re all covered - these need to sit in the fridge for at least one night.
The almond paste should also, ideally, be made the day before. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until they all come together as a soft ball. You may need to add a little more powdered sugar if necessary. Wrap it up tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate.
Combine the active yeast, warm water and 1/2 tbsp of sugar in a mixing bowl. Leave for about ten minutes - until it goes quite frothy.
Add in 3/4 cup of plain flour to the yeast mixture, along with the remaining sugar, milk and oil.
Separately mix together 3/4 cup plain flour, all the spices, vanilla, salt and the soaked nuts and dried fruits (make sure you pat the excess liquid off these, otherwise they can make the dough too soggy).
Combine both mixes together and knead for 5 - 8 minutes, adding in additional flour if the dough feels too sticky. It shouldn’t be too dry - and should be able to be rolled into a ball easily.
Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean cloth - leave in a warm place to rise for around two hours.
Once the dough has doubled in size, place it back onto a lightly floured surface and give it a quick knead before pressing down into a rough rectangular shape - around 5cms thick.
Place chunks of the refrigerated almond paste over the dough - depending how much you want in there. Roll up the dough tightly from the side and press the seams together.
Place into an oiled bread tin and cover again, leaving to rise for another two hours.
Preheat oven to 170C.
Once the dough has doubled in size, bake it for around 30-40 minutes - checking to see if it’s done by how hollow the top sounds when tapping it.
Leave to cool for about 10 minutes, and decorated with a liberal sprinkle of icing sugar on top. Enjoy!
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.'"
'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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.