A culinary journey to old Blighty

And a few good + bad reviews.

Welcome to another week of this probably slightly weird bulletin. As promised, there is cooking this time. In this cooking-themed newsletter. Who would have thought it…

I’ve been really enjoying getting back into the swing of things in the kitchen, as nice as it is to eat out. I especially enjoy cooking in winter; there are so many options for what you can do! Casseroles! Pies! Roasts! Bakes! Soup! Lots of hearty stuff. I struggle a bit with figuring out what to cook in summer, especially as I’m the only seafood eater in the house (sob). Winter? Winter is easy.

Plus there’s the added bonus of heating up the house with the oven. Two birds and all that. Very important in this current climate of RISING INFLATION.

With all the bad news coming out of Europe weather wise, let’s stick our heads in the sand for a little while (breaks from the news are good), chuck on our aprons and get cooking.

What’s cooking around the world: England

Welcome to the first edition of our BRAND NEW SEGMENT (for the next few weeks): What’s Cooking Around the World. It seems like only yesterday we were wrapping up our lasagna special. What a whirlwind journey that was.

This fortnight, we’ll be cooking a dish with a surprisingly tame name – shepherd’s pie.

But. To mix it up. We’ll be making a vego version. Why? Because not everyone in my household eats lamb and I reckoned it would be more tasty this way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It seemed mandatory to don these particular leggings for this particular cooking adventure.

If only they still fit.

What you’ll need

For the ‘meaty’ mixture:

• 1 eggplant cut into 2cm squares

• Olive oil

• 250g button mushrooms

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 1 jalapeño, finely chopped

• 3 garlic cloves, diced

• 1 red capsicum, chopped

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• Diced fresh tomatoes (about three)

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• 300g firm tofu, chopped or crumbled

• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

For the baked potato goodness on top:

• 3 large potatoes, chopped into chunks

• 85g of butter

• 3 tablespoons of milk

What you’ll need to do

1. Grab a large frying pan and coat the bottom in olive oil. Add the eggplant and cook for around 4 minutes on medium heat, until soft.

2. While you’re waiting, skin and chop the potatoes. Then, preheat the oven to 180°C.

3. Remove the eggplant and add more oil. Throw in the mushrooms and some salt and pepper. Cook for 4 minutes, then chuck in the bowl with the eggplant.

4. Put a large saucepan of water on the hob and sprinkle in some salt. Once boiling, throw the potatoes in and boil for 10-15 minutes, until tender.

5. Throw the onion, jalapeño, garlic and capsicum into the frying pan, and sprinkle some salt on top. Cook for 4 mins, then add the tomato paste, cumin and oregano. Turn the heat down and cook for another minute.

6. Pop the eggplant and mushies back into the frying pan. Add the paprika, soy sauce, tofu, tomato, red wine vinegar and 60ml water. Season with salt and pepper. Then, let it cook on low heat for around 15 minutes.

7. In the meantime, remove your potatoes from the hob once ready. Drain and transfer them to a large bowl. Add the butter and milk and mash until they are, well, mashed.

8. Grease a large baking dish. Spread the meat out, pushing it to the corners. Then, top with the mash and ruffle with a fork. You can also mix some grated cheddar through the potato mash, for a bit of a cheesy texture.

9. Bake for around 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Let cool for five minutes, then serve with veggies.

And for afters? I don’t normally eat dessert at home, but I saw an apple and blackberry pie at out local farmers market and bought it, because blackberries are life. Delicious with some yogurt.

Apparently sweet pies may be an English thing? They’re European at least. And England is still a part of Europe geographically, no matter what anyone may say.

What’s cooking: good reviews

This newsletter has been running around roughly half a year (thanks if you’ve been reading from the start!). So it seems a good time to mix things up a bit.

I feel that these sections rather need better titles. However. That's the beauty of a newsletter. It can evolve. 

Here are the things that have been rocking my boat of late:

• Early mornings. As I mentioned in last fortnight’s newsletter, I’ve had rotten jet lag. But, I’ve been leaning into it, waking up well before sunrise to write, read, potter, or take the pooch to the park for fetch, which has the added bonus of making me feel like a good canine companion. It also helps that there has been some lovely sunny mornings here, that really set the tone for the day. I’m naturally an early riser anyway, but I spent about two weeks unable to stay awake past 930pm and for once, felt like I was actually getting the recommended amount of sleep.

• Knit kits. I was gifted one of Cardigang’s kits a couple of years ago and so far, I’ve pulled it apart twice, after knitting for awhile and then abandoning it for months. I’m trying to do a row a night at the moment, which seems achievable. It’s nice to have a guide to follow along, if anything.

• Bahn mi’s. Am on a real kick for them at the moment. If you’ve got any local to Melbourne recommends, please let me know in the comments.

My current fave bahn mi is from a cafe in Flemington, Melbourne.

• Annabelle from Galah magazine shared this gorgeous apron in her weekly newsletter and now, I too am coveting it.

• I recently read Delia Ephron's memoir Sister Mother Husband Dog etc which I’d ordered through eBay weeks ago and then completely forgot about until I recently checked my PO Box. Oops. But hooray for surprise books! Her first essay is all about losing her sister, Nora, fittingly and simply titled "Losing Nora". It's sad, as you'd expect it to be, but I love the way she describes her sister. "Nora had a great refrigerator." She goes on to say there was always something delicious in Nora’s fridge… half a turkey, a roast chicken. This has and will stay with me, because isn't it just a fantastic way to be remembered? This has become my new life's inspiration. Put it on my gravestone. "Here lies Celine. She had a great refrigerator."

What’s cooked: bad reviews

• The state of my Vegepod when I returned from Europe. Melbourne’s terrible winds meant the thing got strewn with the seeds of local weeds and it was like a jungle in there when I opened it up. Special shout out to the sow thistle that saw fit to grow THROUGH MY YARROW and effectively choke it to death. I think I‘ve saved some of it. We’ll see. Anyway, it has been cleansed of unwanted guests now and I’m planning what to put in there for August. Any recommendations, please holler at me.

• Speaking of weeds, the entire garden was full of them when I returned and I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying to purge them all. It feels like such a waste, as many are edible varieties that would normally be quite good for you, but I’ve had my garden soil tested and it is FULL OF LEAD, like much of the soil in Melbourne (seriously, if you’re thinking of growing anything in the ground there, please get it tested first. Macquarie University run a very affordable program). Plus if any weeds have the audacity to peek under the fence, the council sprays them with goodness knows what. I had planted some nasturtium in a strip by the side fence, just for a bit of friendly colour. It comes back every once in awhile, but always grows under the fence, meaning I have to rip it out. This all hurts my soul. What a waste.

• This is a bad review against, I guess, myself? As twice in the last fortnight, while cooking, I’ve failed to pay adequate attention to my kitchen timer, to catastrophic effects. I have a recipe for a particularly crunchy, delicious and HEALTHY granola, which bakes for 90 minutes and needs to be turned over every 15. I ignored the timer for probably about five minutes and did that granola get burnt to a crisp or what! The second, most devastating incident has been my attempt to make honey infused baked Camembert. Again, I sat on my butt when the timer went off and opened the oven to a sea of honey and cheese. I’m too embarrassed to share a photo. It still tasted great, thank goodness. I just smeared it on toast, added some rosemary from the garden and ate it for breakfast, all while feeling very bougie.

Thanks as always for reading and please feel free to ‘like’ this newsletter if you did, indeed, like it.

Join me in a fortnight’s time for the next stop on our culinary adventure around Europe… Greece.

-Celine