Funky Foodie Filum Friday

Funky Foodie Filum Friday has mainly to do with our 23 year old son playing with a new lens on his Canon 550d. The boy has a bit of an artistic bent (just like his Dad).  He's a real Melbourne bloke - a bit of a home body really - don't think we'll ever be empty nesters....
I really like what he's done at his first attempt with the new lens - maybe we can ask Mitch and Sue to do a Julia Childs kitchen thing.

Dinner@Home

I was out Saturday morning at our training session at the indoor velodrome and our son was taking his lady out to dinner. Sue I decided we would do the same, at home.
How come weekends become so busy. The boy's car was overheating and needed to be picked up and brought home and then Sue and I needed to do the weekly household shopping. It had been a long day.

Sue had the kitchen creatives and was thinking lamb. I was thinking wine. Since visiting France over the years, we still look for French wines to have with dinner, sometimes Italian and sometimes Spanish. We've never been to Spain but that's no reason to not try their wines, is it?

The wine I selected was a M. Chapoutier red -Chapoutier's wine labels are distinctive because of their inclusion of Braille writing on all labels since 1996.

Notice the Braille on the label.

From Wikipedia - naturally.....
The Chapoutier family can trace their history in the Rhône region back to 1808, but it was in 1879 that Polydor Chapoutier bought his first vineyards and started the actual business. In the mid-20th century Max Chapoutier led the business, until his retirement in 1977, after which his sons Michel Chapoutier and Marc Chapoutier took over. Some years later, during the 1980s, quality improved, under Michel Chapoutier's leadership over the vineyards and winemaking facilities. By the late 1980s, Chapoutier had started to receive considerable international attention for the wines' quality.
Chapoutier produces wines from a range of appellations in northern and southern Rhône, as well as from some Roussillon appellations, and from collaborative projects in Portugal and Australia.

I digress once again - we started with smoked trout.



Smoked trout from the supermarket is a local product.

SUE: This trout comes from the Goulburn River in Northern Victoria. A couple of hundred km from where we live, but for Australia, not that far. There is also a good selection  closer to home, but it just depends on what you see on the day. And on this day I bought from the supermarket and these looked great.:And then it was on to the preparation of our main course - It was my role as the apprentice to do the chop, chop stuff. 

Rack of lamb was our choice with rosemary and a red current glaze. Individual potato slices cooked in duck fat.
Add to the plate, spinach, garlic, pine nuts and why go out for dinner.



Sue sealed the racks first before putting in the oven.

I like to seal lemon halves in the pan with the meat and then chuck them in the oven and then serve them on the plate. They caramelise, you get a lot of juice and a heap of flavour. And they look great.

The finished result - Gee, it was scrumptious. What a lucky bloke I am.

Lamb always seems to me to be a very Australian dish. Individual racks of lamb are quite expensive in Australian terms for meat. I would never cook it for a family meal, but our older son moved out last week and our youngest was out for dinner, so....why not?  Two racks of 4 chops each cost slightly less than $AU20. That would be double what I would usually spend on meat for a family meat meal for 3 adult carnivores and me. Well worth it though.

To finish off, we enjoyed blue cheese and plum on crackers. Don't forget the biscotti.

We are in the middle of the stone fruit season here, and I really can't decide which sort I like the most.  The nectarines are always wonderful, I love poaching apricots, but at the moment it is the time for blood plums and they are fantastic. This is not counting the mangoes which are always wonderful. I have a tendency to over buy, and they don't last long in the heat...I have to do better with the shopping! There is only so much fruit you can eat!

That's a northern Victorian desert wine - a Buller's Tokay with an Nespresso.

FOODIE FRIDAY

No Funky Friday Foto today - replaced with Foodie Friday.
We went to an Italian Specialty shop on the other side of town on Thursday to buy some hard to get ingredients over our way. Well maybe not but its fun to shop in this predominately Italian community in Brunswick.
My father use to sell smallgoods up and down Sydney Road, Brunswick when I was a kid. Very few of us WASPS ate Italian food back in the 50s and 60s although during the 70s our eating habits were changing.
Mt father is still a meat and three veg man and is not a big fan of pasta or pizza.
In particular the University students would frequent the small Italian cafes in Lygon St, Carlton because they were cheap to eat at - not today. So eventually from those days, we became more adventurous with the influx of immigrants from Italy, Greece, Turkey, the UK and other parts of Europe who wanted to make a new life for themselves.

Sue talked me into the expedition to Mediterranean Wholesalers and while she bought the food, I bought the wine. What a partnership.


Both Montalcino and Montepulciano are areas of Tuscany we've written about before.
Love their wines.
We bought one of each on our buying spree.



But the Montipulciano above should not be confused with the Montipulciano d'Abruzzo. Montipulciano being the grape variety not the area. Abruzzo is a more southern region of Italy.
We tried one last night - it was a great bottle of red at under AUS$6.




I will be interested to try this. I haven't seen it before.



I always buy dried oregano in bunch, like this, but I hadn't seen dried sage before in bunches. They also had bunches of dried thyme and chillis. The cheese is some parmigianno and pecorino(mentioned later)



Pasta, yes just pasta but if Leon could have his way, he would have pasta every night.
True Sue

Italian Arborio rice and some Spanish rice for paella. (I feel paella coming on)

I first filled the par cooked shells with a  beef ragu.

Then a thick tomato sauce with some basil from the garden.

This is delicious. Its a sheep milk pecorino from Sardinia, which I used to make ..

A thick and cheesy sauce to go on the top.

A sprinkling of Parmesan and into the oven.

Twenty minutes later it's ready. It was very nice! 

I missed all of this as I had my first come back race since damaging my back six months ago. I'd arrived home to witness that lovely dish of pasta demolished and mine in a dish to whack in the micro wave. There was one glass of Montipulciano dÁbruzzo left in the bottle. Not too bad really for six bucks a bottle. I wish I had bought a dozen now.

I'll post a Saturday Song tomorrow night of an Australian Icon of the pop scene from the late sixties to current times. He's sung with many greats over the years and also been a member of an international renown band during the 80s. He multi-talented and if he wanted, he could have had an international career.

But no! He's home grown and prefers the home life here in Australia (and Melbourne). I think you'll like his boyish charm.

Childhood Memories

This weekend has brought some heavy rains to Melbourne and also most of the state of Victoria. Our water storages are now approaching 50% average with rainfall up to 115mm in some areas. That's a good thing.
The rainy weekend however has limited the opportunity to get out and about to take any photographs for the blog so I thought I might just post some old advertisements relating to products that I remember as a child.
I also searched out a few commercials from the past. The scary thing is that I remember most of them. Just click on the "youtube" links.


Sennitt's Ice Cream no longer exists however the odd faded sign can still be seen around Melbourne's suburban streets if you look hard enough. Usually they can be seen on an old closed down corner milk bar.





Peters Ice Cream still lives on today, possibly because, unlike Sennitts, they did much television advertising in the 50s and 60s, sometimes sponsoring whole programs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyghsBReB0U



 


And of course there's the iconic Australian spread, Vegemite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Cb4143p9E&feature=related

 It's interesting to note that many of these Australian iconic products are no longer Australian owned and only a few of the names remain - certainly Vegemite still sits in our pantry. It even travels with us in a new toothpaste style packaging.

The Four' N Twenty pie was founded in 1947 in Bendigo, Victoria and was the favored food while watching Aussie Rules Football. It was usually coated liberally with tomato sauce so that on the first bite, the sauce and meat within would spurt out onto one's clothing. The company was another that was sold off to a Multi-National company however it has returned to Australian ownership now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i_YNX6mXq4&feature=related



Arnotts Biscuits joined forces with Brockoff Biscuits to hold off overseas interests but eventually the names Brockoff, Arnotts and Guests were taken over and another Australian business was lost.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX3pGyOCTuo



Fags were sold in the local lunch shop across the road from my primary school in the 50s. They were made from (as the packet states) sugar, glucose, gelatine and other non-healthy ingredients but we did feel cool pretending we were smoking. Oh! I forgot to mention, Fags were in the shape of a cigarette.
I still don't understand the concept of two young children sprinting up what seems to be a yellow brick road, hungry for a packet of Fags.
I believe they are still sold today but under another name - Fads, I think.




The Hoadley's Violet Crumble bar was introduced in 1913. Hoadley's later became Rowntree Hoadley before being acquired by Nestles. As a teenager I remember going to watch the "Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds" a national pop band competition. The Violet Crumble is still sold today and I still enjoy them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF1t5qDwZcM&feature=related

  It's sad to see some of these products no longer Australian owned however the world has become smaller and many overseas products now sit on our supermarket shelves. Foods that many decades ago were only known to our "New Australians" are now common place on the dinner table.

Just as a side issue - hasn't advertising changed since then? Even our terminology has changed, words and themes that would not even be considered now.

It all started from a Filum night

Friday Night & the Filum Thing



I saw this when I was 14, didn't like the Beatles all that much (a bit of a Stones fan really) but the girlfriend at the time loved the Beatles - didn't they all???



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCVmUD3WfNM

Click on the link for a 10 minute clip.

Getting together with our cycling friends, we enjoyed an hilarious "Filum night". That's what our hosts, Perce (his nick name) and Miss Glenda (hers) call it, yes Filum. It comes from the Aussie accent for Film, but you guessed that already, didn't you?
They put on a regular Filum night every month or so and this one was the Beatles, Hard Day's Night. I was probably 14 when this came out and I still remember it well', having seen it several times now. A few of the people dressed up for it but had their decades mixed up. Dressed as hippies, they confused the 60s with the 70s. Poor young things.

Bob and Jenny had the era right, that's what we wore, thin ties and suits.

And the ladies really enjoyed themselves but openly admitted they had never seen the Filum before.

Saturday Night
Yes, you guessed it - cooking time.
Flicking through her Delicious magazines, Sue asked, "What will we have for dinner?" "Hmmmm", I said, "What about a pork thing".

It all starts with Sue flicking through cooking books and magazines.

My job is chopping stuff up - oh, yes and cleaning up the mess afterwards. Sue what are these herbs?
 Garlic, sage and rosemary.

Porcini mushrooms being reconstituted.
Lots of porcini mushrooms (about 15gms) and the water is used later in the dish.

The pork scotch fillet is browned all over in butter.

Whats this Sue?
 A cartouche of damp baking paper is placed over the pan to help keep it moist, but still allow the sauce to reduce. The sauce has about 600ml of red wine and 250ml of the mushroom water. The pork was seasoned well with salt and pepper before browning.

Yum.  Yep, yum and resting

The end result.
Took about 80 minutes all together. Very rich, and complemented well with creamy, soft polenta.

Mellow Yellow

This week has been a mellow yellow week with spring sprouting yellow every where I go.
It brought back memories of Donovan Lietch's Mellow Yellow. I was a bit of a Donovan fan back in the 60s. Think I might listen the Album again - now where is my turntable?

Donovan's 60s album cover - Mellow Yellow

As I came off the freeway I was hit with yellow flowers by the roadside.

And then as I drove to the office/warehouse the wattle trees were covered in yellow blossom.

Even the car park at work was yelling yellow at me.

And as I walked thru the front doors, I'm confronted by yellow again.

But it was Friday and we were about to embark on a weekend. What would our two days of rest offer. Sue is retired but she has recently employed as a relief teacher - it helps with our passion for travel.

Her form of relaxation is to invite friends for dinner and cook up a storm - mine is to ride my bike.

This weekend we both satisfied our passions. Sue invited friends Denise and Darren around for Pizza. They thought it would be "order in", but no, not with Sue. She loves to prepare her own from making the Pizza base to adding lots of great fillings.

Sue makes the pizza dough.

The ingredients - mushroom, pumpkin, peppers, zucchini and tomato with more to come.

Add some prosciutto, spinach, artichoke hearts covered with grated cheese.

And out of the oven ready to devour.

Sue's simple easy to prepare pizza with good company and good wine. Just a casual Saturday night.

My personal weekend was highlighted by being inducted into the Bayside Bandido, mid-life cycling gang's Lycra Legend select group. Now I need to say that this is a very select group of cyclist, we are all 60 plus.

My new Lycra Legends jersey.

http://baysidebandidos.blogspot.com/

This link to the Lycra Legend celebrations

And the close-up.

And that was our weekend - tell us about yours???

FITZROY the SPANISH SECTOR

Home alone this Saturday night, just Sue and I and she's in a cooking mood. Seems she would like to go to Spain for her 60th. I knew there was a catch to taking me to Paris for for my 60th. She starts by experimenting with food, then its off to wherever.
I did my usual Saturday morning ride with the "Bayside Bandidios - midlife cycling gang", a group of 100 members consisting of both genders ranging from their 30s to 60 plus. It was a balmy sort of morning with pink morning skies and a promise of high winds in the afternoon.

It was almost noon when we jumped in the car to trek across the other side of town to shop for ingredients for Saturday night's meal - Sue wanted to do Spanish and the shop she needed to buy from is in the inner northern suburb of Fitzroy.

I'm told that there is a soccer match on tonight but I'm watching Le Tour.

An indcation we just might be in the Spanish sector of Melbourne.

We are here, the Spanish Deli in Fitzroy and Sue is at the door ready to SHOP!!

Yes there were people in the shop but I found a people free view. It was very squishy-squashy in there with different nationalities shopping.

Fitzroy is home to many international culinary shops and restaurants. Several weeks back we ate at an African restaurant there. The Spanish sector is quite small but if Spain ( and they did - late getting this post out ) wins the World Cup, the area will share in the glory as the local council is going to close off the main street for the celebration festivities.
I remember this happening many years ago in Lygon Street, Carlton when Italy won the World Cup.

We are so fortunate in Melbourne to have so many international cuisines.

Back to the shopping in Fitzroy - we were lucky to find a parking spot close to the Spanish Deli, not an easy thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.
Maybe  I should ask Sue to tell you about the Deli.

It's called Casa Iberica, and it has not just Spanish food products, but also from many Sth American countries. No idea what a lot of it was!
Got  some good stuff and came home to play with Tapas. I have ordered a tapas book from my favourite online store, The Book Depository UK, but it hasn't come yet. It's worth having a look at their website, as they have free worldwide delivery and pretty good pricing. They also have a cool webpage with a map of the world that shows you what people are buying as it happens. I digress.
This is what we had.
Prawns cooked in garlic butter (absolutely evil I know, but once in a while...)
I egg washed artichoke quarters and coated them in polenta and parmesan before frying them golden. Layered them up with crispy charred slices of chorizo, garnished with mint and parsley and topped with lemon oil.(Straight from a TV show here)
Made a parsley salad with capers and olives and put lightly grilled slices of pork fillet on it and topped with a dressing make from sherry vinegar, eschallot, anchovies, lemon rind and olive oil.
Cooked up some lardons (sliced pancetta), tomatoes and white beans with a little smokey paprika and added lots of parsley at the end.
We had it all with stripey charred slices of baguette.
I had also bought some squid, but we were full before I got to it, so I cooked it the next day as salt and pepper squid.
Our 22 year old was most disappointed to be going out when he knew we were tapasing (?), but girlfriends beat tapas I understand. (As they should, don't you think?)
On Monday morning, after Spain won the world cup, the party in this Spanish quarter spilled out into the street, Johnston Street, a major road, and the police closed the street to traffic to let the party continue. Isn't that great?
Seeing we were going to eat Spanish, I thought we should also drink Spanish so we stopped in at Uncle Dan's (our effectionate name for the large wine merchant, Dan Murphy) on our way home to see what was on offer. We were surprised to see a dry sparkling at a reasonable cost and I have to say, every bit as good as I've had in the past - Sue like to have a sparkling to sip on as she cooks.
She also located a Spanish white in the "end of run" bin for AUS$8.00 - not bad at all.
My selection was a 2005 Spanish Cab/Sav @ $23.00 - really nice and I have to go back for a few more bottles.

The WINE

Not being a great Champagne drinker, I found this one to my liking.

The white was an end of bin special at $8.00

But this Cab/Sav was excellent.

The FOOD

 

Tonight was the first night of the Tour de France mountain stages and after this wonderful meal, I wondered how I could stay awake to watch. It started at 10 pm to 2 pm. Put on the PJs and settle into the couch. Bad mistake, I fell asleep instantly to awake at 12ish luckily to see the real action. Victory went to the Frenchman, Sylvian Chavanel, his second stage win and back in yellow. The French need another hero as their Grand Tour has been lacking a rider that they can worship for many years. Where have the Fignons and Hinaults of the past gone?

Chavanel's second victory at this year's TdF and back in Yellow. Good luck to the French.

From cyclingnews.com

I'm pleased to see Cadel Evans getting some good luck for a change. He may not win the TdF but he deserves to. He's a cool guy in my books. The sort of person that I would like to invite with his wife Chiara to our dinner table to discuss music, cars, wine and food. I feel I almost know him through his book on his life to date. He's an average Aussie sort of guy with an amazing talent.

Cadel on the pave - riding well on the cobbles of France.

From cyclingnews.com