Viva Italia! Parte Uno

I'Amo Italia. Ok my Italian is shocking. Can someone tell me how I say "I love Italy" in Italian? Thats what I want to say. I love everything about Italy. The people. The places. The coffee. Damn good coffee. And the food. I can't even begin to explain how much I LOVE Italian food. It goes oh so well with their fine wines. You name it, they do it, and brilliantly at that. So this piece is dedicated to MM - my lovely Italian neighbour - many thanks for the wonderful conversations had over a pot of freshly brewed Italian coffee. Cheers!

I finally went out and bought one!

And the result? Awesome espresso! And I definitely needed it for the task at hand: Lasagna! You may be sitting there thinking, what is so hard about that? Well let me tell you - for me, EVERYTHING! I've tried a few times, and its turned out all sorts of ways, except for the way its supposed to. So this time I enlisted the "Women's Weekly: Italian for Beginners" cookbook. SSSSHHHHH! No one knows I read WW cookbooks!

Easy peasey. Sort of.

I had to make a pit stop at the Italian Deli near my place. The stock a large range of Italian goods. Perfecto for yours truly.
Loads of chopping to be had. Loads.
And so we begin.

Garlic, onions, carrots - into the olive oil we go!
Bit of tomato paste, mince beef, beef stock, and dry white wine into the mix.

Now for the cheesy, creamy sauce!

Bit of butter and flour. I was amazed at the rate of coagulation happening before my eyes...

And then I added the milk in and hey presto! It resembled something like the stuff I see in lasagna!

So this is the first layer:

And then the second layer of the cheesy creamy sauce:
After repeating the process a couple of times, I finally got to the top layer that I could finish off with parmesan cheese:
After 2 hours of cooking and then about 40 mins of baking, I proudly produced this baby out of the oven:

The verdict? Hmmmm... it was great for a first attempt. Much improvements to be had. I will try it again, and next time I'll even make the pasta sheets from scratch!

Nonetheless, my loving family praised my efforts and ate it anyway!

The Location: My house
The Soundtrack: I was listening to a bit of everything. I started with Damien Rice and the albums O (2002) and 9 (2006) on my Ipod. Then I switched to She Will Have Her Way: The Songs of Tim & Neil Finn (2005). I was in a pensive state of mind...

Tamarind Duck Stir Fry

I know - it's been forever since I've done anything. I have no excuse. I got distracted. And then I procrastinated. But now I'm back! I decided to give this dish a try.

Tamarind Duck Stir Fry - Thai style of course. My sister makes this dish really well, so I thought, why not give it a go? And it was surprisingly quick to make. The recipe was from "Women's Weekly Thai Recipes" - SSSSHHHHH!! No one knows I read that stuff - well the food section at least!

The ingredients:

One whole duck
Green onions
Coriander
Bok Choy
Capsicum
Snow Peas
Ginger
Garlic
Chilli
Oyster Sauce
Tamarind
Palm Sugar

The Result:

The beauty of this dish - I made it in less than an hour - which in my books, is awesome!

Location: My house. The guinea pigs were, yep you guessed it, my loving family!
Soundtrack: VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Vampire Weekend 2008. This was on recommendation from Di. Ezra Koenig is goodlooking in a preppy sort of way and thats about it. I'm still unsure of the music. Since they're an indie group from NYC, their "cool factor" does increase x-fold.

Glebe Point Diner

Amazing! BL and I finally got a sitting. Every time we've tried to book for the last 4 months, they have either been closed (they close on Mondays and Tuesdays), or booked out, or either BL or myself could not get out of work in time - So to finally be able to go was really exciting!

We met Andrew John, the manager of GPD. Awesome fella! Lived all around the world. Was it worth the wait? A.B.S.O.L.U.T.E.L.Y! Everything is made from scratch. The produce is organic, biodynamic and downright brilliant!

In true ME-STYLE, I was too keen to dig in to actually write down what it was that we had ordered, and since it was a blackboard menu - well, there wasn't much hope. I'll put it down to being a blogging-beginners boo-boo. So use your imagination to your hearts content.

The paté is plated with a house-made organic bread

Organic chicken, marinated, then roasted whole with lemon. You get half, carved off the bone, with roast potato and garlic, plus wedges of lightly crumbed, deep-fried zucchini.

Roasted pork loin rubbed with fennel


Strawberry trifle

Location: Glebe Point Diner
407 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe NSW
(02) 9660 2646

Soundtrack: BECAUSE OF THE TIMES - Kings of Leon 2007. Many a great bands come from Nashville, Tennessee. And what better way to drive home completely stuffed from all that food than to the sound of Caleb Followil's raspy voice.

Jamie Oliver Anyone? Part II

Cupcake Time!

I was so inspired by actually making a yummy lamb roast, that I thought, hey I can bake too! So I actually pulled out the "Cook With Jamie" cook book and found something I felt confident I could tackle. Low and behold: Tea-Party Fairy Cakes. BRING-IT-ON!

You know how some people are entree people, and some people are dessert people? Well, I feel that I am both. I don't like to discriminate when it comes to food hehehe What can I say, we live in a very PC world these days!
As you can see, I have all the ingredients laid out ready to go. I feel that I should mention, my folks can bake. They make awesome cakes and biscuits, and are generally great cooks! Me? I'm... learning. Especially when it comes to baking! But this recipe from Jamie was so simple, even I couldn't get it wrong!

So here we are, mixing it up...
Opps... Can you see the experience oozing? hehe
To be honest with you, I didn't really expect this:To turn into this:
How excited was I to have the cupcakes rise, and not burn, and look the way they are supposed to!?! I was jumping for joy. So now comes the exciting part, decorating the cupcakes with icing! And if you're wondering, those are crushed blueberries in the icing.
I heart dessert.

Location: A house around the corner from mine

Soundtrack: I was listening to Funeral - Arcade Fire 2004. They are a rock band from Montreal, Quebec. The came to Sydney for the Big Day Out and had a side gig which I had tickets to. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it. They had no support band that night, so they played for over 2 hours! Ever since then, I've been kicking myself for not being better organised BOO!

Jamie Oliver Anyone? Part I

OK so my first actual attempt at a dining experience was whilst i was house sitting and it's not a recipe inspired by a meal I had at a restaurant. Rather, I felt like making a roast Jamie Oliver Style, and topping it off with cupcakes - but I'll save that for Part II!

The thing I love about Jamie Oliver is the simplicity of the cooking. This meal was created from memory from a Jamie Oliver show I had seen a while ago. For dinner, I went with:

• Sourdough baguette with olive oil and vinaigrette
  
• Simple lamb roast
• Sides of asparagus and snow peas
• Greek salad

So here is the lamb sirloin bought from my favourite butcher in Surry Hills, Hudson Meats. Loads of garlic, chilli and rosemary strategically slotted into the sirloin for maximum flavour (ok so I stuffed it in as many slots as I could without the lamb falling apart! Can you ever have too much garlic or chilli or rosemary?)

So here is the lamb before:
And here is the lamb after about 50min in the oven at 180 degrees celcius:Hmmmm... perhaps a little work on the presentation is required...

The veges before:
The veges while cooking in olive oil:
The Greek Salad:
Finally, Here is The Meal:
And yes folks, those are CHRISTMAS place mats! I know, I thought exactly the same, so don't ask...

I picked a bottle of Long Flat Destinations 2005 Pinot Noir (Yarra Valley) to go with the meal. I want to master the art of choosing a wine to suit a meal, but for now, I like Pinot Noirs and thats good enough for me!

My guinea pig, opps, i mean, guest, enjoyed the meal. So what do you think?

Location: A house around the corner from mine.

Soundtrack: SAWDUST - The Killers 2007. I absolutely LOVE The Killers. In fact, I think they are my all time favourite band. I saw them in the summer of 2007 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and they were incredible! Brandon Flowers *sigh* has such a capacity to engage the audience. It was amazing. I especially enjoyed the moment when he jumped on the grand piano and stood, arms outstretched, like he was offering the audience a sermon when he was singing "When You Were Young". And he is beautiful, but that's beside the point! hehe

The Inaugural Post

FINALLY - my blog is here! Thanks so much to a special friend who encouraged me (in subtle ways that even they probably weren't aware of!) to get this blog off the ground.

So here is my invitation to everyone: I am inviting you to see the world through the lens of Jade, my trusty Canon Camera. To dine with friends at home, and all around the world. And I am inviting you to watch me attempt to re-create those dining experiences. All the while, with a wide array of lyrics in the background.

Happy reading!

xx LA

Location: Cavour 313, 313 Via Cavour Rome 00184 Italy. This place is famous for their MASSIVE selection of wine. So to accompany the wine, KL and I had an assiette of Italian Proscuitto, Italian Cheese, Italian Olives, Italian Bread and dips and salads... you get my drift! Viva Italia!

Soundtrack: Move Along - All American Rejects 2005
I am not sure why this album, there was no thought process behind it really. I've never been a huge fan of EMO (The Cure aside), but this album really grew on me. It played on my iPod while I was exploring the streets of Rome in the summer of 2007.