Tag Archives: spicy

Escaping to the Blue Mountains: two soups and a spicy curry

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For the past few days we have been staying in an adorable cottage in the Blue Mountains. We’ll staying the entire week.

Reading a lot, writing a lot. And taking photos.

Today it’s about zero degrees (or so it feels to us, softies that we are), and drizzling rain.

We’ve been pottering around the house in flannelette shirts, red wine in hand, nibbling rum’n’raisin chocolate and playing rummy in front of the fireplace.

While confined to the house, I’ve had the luxury of simmering soup for hours, slow-cooking a curry, and generally appreciating all that is warm and comforting.

Today I’ll share with you the hot and sour soup I whipped up yesterday, a more traditional vegetable and bean soup that sat on the stove for a good two hours before making it’s way into our tummies at lunchtime, and a spicy, creamy, slow-cooked mushroom and eggplant vindaloo. Continue reading →

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Heat up that belly: an Indian dinner. And a giveaway!

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A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me whether Sydney winter gets much colder than what it was at that time, and I confidently reassured her that it didn’t. Never was I so wrong. This past week has been icy! And today has been ever so slightly rainy, so I walked home through chilling winds and tiny darts of freezing rain. Yuck. Curry time I say.

I had a difficult time coming to terms with the idea of a ‘dry curry’ when I started cooking. Maybe it’s the Aussie in me that expects everything Indian to look and taste like butter chicken, but I just thought curry should be swimming in a rich sauce. Not so, as it turns out. Paired with a saucier side of greens, this dry curry of sweet potato, cauliflower and edamame is spot on. Continue reading →

A simple mushroom soup

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One of the lovely things about serving a salad with every meal, is that it leaves freedom to simplify the ‘main’. Although personally I’m starting to think the salad is the main dish. The other night I did just that, simmering a mix of shiitake and oyster mushrooms in a simple broth of stock and garlic, punctuated with ginger and chilli. Continue reading →

Jabberwocky wombok soup

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I love the word wombok. It’s just so much fun to say! It seems to me that it should be a made-up word from Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem Jabberwocky. It’s fun replacing a word of a song with it, and it’s equally as fun to cook with.

Wombok is actually just Chinese cabbage. Delicate, crunchy, delicious cabbage, shredded finely into a curry and sweet corn soup. Continue reading →

There’s a man in my kitchen!

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As I was drawing names out of a hat for the chocolate giveaway (speaking of which, Fiona Andrews, please Facebook or email me to claim your prize, or I will have to redraw a new winner on Wednesday), Ash was proving once again that he is a capable and creative cook in his own right. Boys aren’t only good for doing the dishes you know. Continue reading →

Two cold days, two warming soups

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Summer is properly over. These last two days have been freezing (by Sydney standards). Today I wore a jumper and a scarf – all day – even inside the office! What a happy coincidence that this week we’re doing soups.

The first one we had last night, and Ash summed it up in one word, “restorative”. It’s a deep red, richly flavoured, chunky soup, and it had us each going back for seconds. Continue reading →

Chilli cinnamon relish

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So, as I’ve mentioned, we bought a rainbow chilli tree. First order, harissa!

I looked up a few recipes, and they all have carraway seeds – seems it’s an important part of the flavour or whatever. Well, I’m effort-adverse, I didn’t have any on my spice shelf and wasn’t about to go get some. So to hell with harissa, this is just a chilli sauce. And it’s good. Maybe next time I’ll make harissa… but this one is being made again for sure. Continue reading →