Biscuits for the Medici

On a windy Sunday recently I turned my hand to some Florentine biscuits, part of a life long search for biscuits which maintain the interest of both children and adults.

I remember these biscuits being rather popular in the 1970's and feeling quite grown up when I ate them as a child.

I adapted a Karen Martini recipe for these, and had to road test some of the ingredients on my daughter.  She didn't like the glace ginger so I took it out. 

A tip - this is sticky and messy to make, so much so that it is almost impossible to form a biscuit to put on the baking tin by hand.  I scooped spoonfuls into 10 cm metal rings, pressed down and then lifted the ring off.

Ingredients

395 ml condensed milk

250 g cornflakes

150 g unsalted peanuts coarsely chopped

100g dried cranberries coarsely chopped 

100g dried apricots coarsely chopped

finely grated zest of one lemon

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

250 g melted dark chocolate (I used milk to satisfy small children)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Line two or three baking trays with baking paper.
Combine all ingredients save the chocolate in a large bowl and mix well.
Press 1 to 2 tablespoons of mixture into 10 cm scone or biscuit cutters and place onto trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden and cooked.  Remove and when a bit cooler, cool on wire racks.
Spread melted chocolate on the flat back of each biscuit.  Leave to set.
They keep for about 7 days in an airtight container. 

So why Florentine biscuits?  Some say the biscuits are actually Austrian in origin. Another story has it that a master confectioner created them at Versailles, in the kitchens of King Louis XIV of France, in honour of the Medicis of Florence when they visited.   Those who are up on their Medici history will recall that Catherine de Medici married Henry, Duke d'Orleans who later became Henry II in 1547.  Louis XIV reigned between 1654 and 1715.  By this stage the Medici family had waned in power and I think they were quite unlikely to have been visiting Versailles.  

In any event, can you imagine that a little cornflakey biscuit would have impressed or delighted the likes of these people?  Somehow I just can't see it.   

Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492) by Bronzino

Giovanni (Lorenzo's son, later Pope Leo V) by Bronzino

Guilio (later Pope Clement VII)

One thing my European History studies taught me is that you do not mess with the Medici.  They would probably see conspiracies galore in such a frivolous biscuit  

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Restaurant Inspiration - Mr Wolf and Tree Wallpaper

Today - Mr Wolf, a pizza restaurant in Inkerman Street St Kilda.

But so much more than just a pizza joint.

It welcomes children and casts no frowny looks towards crumbs on the ground. And believe me, with little children, that attitude is worth its weight. They (generally) play wonderful jazz. Their pizzas are interesting and yet sufficiently authentic that I can imagine picking up a square in the Piazza Navona. Their grissini is divine. As are the marinated olives. The windows look out onto the street where we can see a blur of grimy, stylish pedestrians (take your pick).

And look at this wallpaper. I know I know, tree wallpaper is ubiquitous. But Mr Wolf did it 8 years ago.



I love the feeling of sitting in a forest. And I have a thing for birch trees. Perhaps to Swedes they are not particularly interesting, but to me, they evoke Peter and the Wolf and goblins, and elves, and picnics and hiking in the gentle sunshine.


And how I would love to own this LP - narrated by Boris Karloff himself. I can feel the wolf sniffing behind me as I type.

Anyway, perhaps the birch tree wallpaper thing is no longer a trend but becoming a permanent classic. To demonstrate, a quick purview threw up these examples which are readily available:









And if these are not realistic enough for you, what about a photographic wall mural complete with dappled light and patches of tufted emerald grass?


I suppose the real question about this type of wallpaper is where would you use it? A bathroom? I have seen it in kitchens in the backsplash \ splashback. Or maybe in a dining room?
On to today's recipes:

Pizza Dough (this recipe is from one of Karen Martini's cookbooks. I know it is pretty much what they use as she owns the restaurant)

400 g plain flour
110 g fine semolina
2 tsp table salt
1.5 cups warm water (375 ml)
3 table spoons olive oil
2 teaspoons (ie 7 grams) dried yeast

Combine flour, salt and semolina in the bowl of an electric mixer with dough hook. Mix water oil an dyeast in small bowl and stir to dissolve. Pour water mixture into flour and mix at low speed untl combined then on high speed for10 minutes until dough is smooth and elsatic but wet and sticky. Place dough in oiled bowl cover with plastic wrap and rest in warm place for 20 minutes. (Makes 4 pizza bases). Make sure you roll roll very thin.




Toppings

(1) Eggplant

I just list the toppings here - you can combine in anyway but remember, do as the Romans do: not too much topping.
Roasted cubes of eggplant
Roasted garlic, mashed.
Basil, torn
Ricotta, in small chunks
Fior di latte, sliced thinly

(2) Cauliflower

I can't recall all the ingredients but it is incredible. There is roasted caulflower, parsley, sliced green chilli and slices of Italian pork sausage of some sort. This is on a cheesy base only (not tomato). Fantastic.



(Images (1) Mr Wolf (3) Cole & Son (4) Flockedwallpaper.co.uk(5) Graham & Brown (6) Wallpapermurals.co.uk (7) maraquita.com)

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The Gods of Restoration have paid a visit to the George Hotel

My heart skipped a beat last week when a friend who lives in Elwood told me he drove down Fitzroy Street in St Kilda and saw scaffolding surrounding the George Hotel.

Here it is.


Here is a view of the George across Fitzroy Street with peeling facade.



The George was built in the 1860s. It fulfills all my requirements for any building - circular tower, which is very rare (tick), located in the most vibrant and bohemian suburb in Melbourne (tick), high ceilings (tick), plaster white walls (tick) and an excellent restaurant on the ground floor (Melbourne Wine Room, where Karen Martini is the chef and owner).



This is one of Melbourne's oldest hotels. It was originally named the Terminus Hotel to reflect its location opposite the original 1957 St Kilda railway station (now a light rail route). In the early part of the 19th century St Kilda was a popular holiday destination (which seems strange now as it is such an inner Melbourne suburb). It was a place to 'take the waters' as opposed to the current beach activity which can include 'avoiding the syringes'.

Various parts have been demolished over the years (including a three storey original building which was demolished in 1975 to make way for a drive through bottle shop). Various additions were made in 1873, 1889 and 1924. At one point the hotel had more than 250 rooms.

Those people who were young and out and about in the 1980s will recall a nightclub called the Seaview Ballroom which operated in the back of the building. Yes I was there (without my parent's permission) with all the punks and New Romantics listening to Duran Duran.

In the 1990s visionary St Kilda developer Donlevy Fitzpatrick redeveloped the George into residences, ranging from little studios to quite large apartments.

Why do I care about all this? Because we lived there for 3 years, in a little penthouse carved out of the roof space. Our bathroom was accessed through a hidden door and its walls and floor were completely covered with pale acqua mosaic tiles. An artist used the tower for his painting. We were kept awake by the thump of music for the weddings and barmitzvahs held in the old Seaview Ballroom behind the building. An art gallery in the ground floor held champagne openings and charity auctions. We could see the sea, and smell the Ferraris each March when the Grand Prix was run. We could watch the Gay Pride parade down Fitzroy Street each February. We would see the backpackers hostel behind us and hear Swedish tourists playing guitar on hot nights. We had to walk quickly up Grey Street because if you lingered you could be (a) picked up by a stranger looking for company (b) robbed or (c) bumped into by a local who had just obtained their methodone dose from the Amcal chemist on the corner. We could pop down to the Melbourne Wine Room for a glass of wine and some olives whenever we wanted.

And, sadly, there was no agreement amongst the body corporate members on how to fix the facade. The options were all expensive. Some people had money to put to the cause. Others didn't. So ultimately nothing happened.

It was a sad day when we left our home here. As anyone who has lived in St Kilda will tell you, it is addictive and hard to get out of your system. I am so pleased that something is being done to repair this dowager by the sea.

Here is my pastel drawing of our view from the back balcony. Yes, yes, this is my Fauvist period. Well spotted!


Images: (1) Dean Melbourne at Flickr (2) (4) Walking Melbourne (3) Lonely Planet (5) Jane
Other sources: Walking Melbourne.com

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Brussels Sprouts - not that bad after all

Soon it will be spring (yay!) and I won't be so interested in all these wintery vegetables. Before spring comes I want to share one of my favourite vegetables, which gets such a lot of bad press. And what is with that name? According to Wikiepedia:

Forerunners to modern Brussels sprouts were likely cultivated in ancient Rome. Brussels sprouts as we now know them were grown possibly as early as the 1200s in what is now Belgium. The first written reference dates to 1587. During the sixteenth century they enjoyed a popularity in the southern Netherlands that eventually spread throughout the cooler parts of Northern Europe.


If I had paused to think I would have assumed that a brussels sprout is plucked from the soil like a potato. But in fact they grow on a stalk.


Kind of bizarre isn't it?

Most of us have had a Bad Brussel Sprout Experience. Overcooking them turns them murky pond green (and chemically makes them release a kind of suphury chemical), and noone wants to eat that.

I think one of the problems is their creepy mini cabbage shape. The two recipes below bring out a slight bitter sweetness (if such a thing is possible). And also involve changing the shape of the sprout.

Sauteed Brussels sprouts

This is from Karen Martini's book Where the Heart is. It is the best way to eat brussels sprouts I am yet to discover.

Ingredients
Enough brussels sprouts for two (about 8 or 10)
One clove of garlic, sliced.
Three tbs olive oil
1/2 cup thickened cream
3 tbs butter
some chopped chervil
Salt and pepper

Method
Trim the sprouts and slice vertically (about 2 or 3 mm thin). Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and saute the sprouts, garlic and some sea salt for about three minutes. You may need longer. They should become shiny but retain their bright green colour. Add the cream, butter and chervil and cook for about 4 more minutes. The dish should be creamy and not dry.

Lovely with a roast.

Potage bruxellois

This is my mother's recipe, originally from Vivienne De Stoop a Melbourne cook from the 1960s.

Ingredients
3/4 kilo (about 1 pd) brussel sprouts
1 brown onion
50 g butter
1/2 litre chicken stock
1/2 litre water
salt and pepper
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
grated gruyere cheese
2 slices of ham
1/2 cup thickened cream

Method
Melt butter in large pot, dice onion and toss in the butter until opaque. Add prepared sprouts to pot (by which she means trimmed and cut in half or quarters) and keep tossing. Put in water, salt and peper and cover and cook for 40 minutes. Puree (I use a stick vitamiser). Check seasoning then add cream and warm gently. Just before serving add lemon juice, ham and sprinkle with cheese.

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Top 10 perfect Australian cookbooks Part II

So, this is my list. The criteria - it must be a cookbook I use all the time and must include one recipe which I have cooked at least five times. They must be cooks who put real thought into their books (read: don't rip off the book buying public) and have as their highest priority the use of appropriate in season ingredients with a minimum of pretension.

Oh and this is actually only numbers 1 to 5 because this post is so verbose I couldn't possibly get to 10. I will do 6 to 10 next week.

No 1 - Simply Asian by Neil Perry (2000)

Why: Neil Perry is the best cookbook writer in Australia bar none. I think this may have been his first or second book and it hasn't been bettered. His standards are high, he is proficient in French, Thai, Chinese and pan Australian technique, he writes clearly and he looks like a Good Bloke, as we say here. I have cooked everything in this cookbook many many times.

Favourite recipe: Braised belly pork with fungi and red dates. And Sichuan eggplant. And bok choy with chicken fat and proscuitto which is an attempt to recreate the flavour of Yunnan ham, sadly not available in Australia due to our squeaky clean quarantine laws!

No 2 - The Complete Asian Cookbook - Charmaine Solomon (1976) (reprinted 19 times)





Why: Charmaine is a national treasure type person whose knowledge of Asian food is encyclopedic. Got some noodles, pork and other pantry ingredients and need to cook something now? This is your book. This book covers all and I mean all Asian cuisines (except Bhutan) and is particularly good on Indian and Chinese food. I have cooked everything in the Indian section (except the egg curries which I don't like the sound of) many times. I saw her interviewed once recollecting that when she first came to Australia in the 1960s it was impossible to even buy coconut milk and fresh coriander was unheard of.

Favourite recipes: Kashmiri Rogan Josh (lamb in yoghurt and spices Kashmiri style), Char Kway Teoh (Malaysian fried rice noodles) and deep fried fish with hot and sour sauce.

No 3 - Spirit House Thai Cooking by Annette Fear and Helen Brierty (2004)





Why: This cookbook is unusual in that it was given to me by my friend Jodie AND I like it and I cook from it (I am hard to please in this respect). This is the cookbook of the eponymous restaurant in Yandina on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for which I had a reservation when we had a weekend in Coolum in 2005 but sadly had to cancel due to a sick child.

I hear the restaurant is great and they also run cooking classes. The recipes are pan Asian with a strong Thai influence. I cook a lot from this book in summer as there is an excellent section on salads and noodles.

Favourite recipes: warm salad of caramelised pumpkin, spinach and seared prawns with chilli jam lime dressing.

No 4 - Cooking at Home by Karen Martini (2008)

Why: Karen is the quintessential Melbourne chef. She is strongly influenced by her Meditteranean heritage and completely modern in her flavour combinations. She also cooks at the Melbourne Wine Room, the restaurant at the bottom of the building we lived in for 4 years in St Kilda. So soft spots all round. This is the book she wrote after having children when she realised that shopping and cooking needed to be focused and targetted and couldn't consist of daily leisurely wanders in the market looking for the very best produce.

Favourite recipes - There are so many. Risotto with tallegio and rosemary, spinach rice and yoghurt salad with almonds, chicken stuffed under the skin with walnut and cumin, pan fried scallops with cauliflower puree, Spanish white anchovies on bruschetta with fennel and cucumber pickle, Cannellini beans with rosemary prawn and lemon and (just discovered the other night) rainbow chard with fetta, eggs and dukka.

No 5 - Fire by Christine Manfield (2008)

Why: if Karen Martini is a Melbourne chef, Christine Manfield screams Sydney. She is full of personality and her food is both sculptural and dramatic. And my goodness this book is mind blowing. I have only had it since Christmas but here it is, at no 5. Christine has cooked in Sydney and London and travelled constantly for 30 years. This book contains her take on the cuisine of France, Italy, Mexico, China, Japan, Luang Prabang, Thailand, Morroco, Istanbul and more. Each section contains an overview of the cuisine, and her very definite opinions on where to stay and what to eat.

Make no mistake - this is a serious cookbook written by a perfectionist. Do not let the velvet cover put you off. It contains recipes you need to start the day before, recipes which use all the bits of an animal, recipes which require cooking at 70 degrees for 7 hours, recipes which require the use of a number of Essentials (caramelised pork belly, cucumber juice, red masala paste, XO sauce etc) which are contained in yet another section in the back of the book. Some recipes are however surprisingly straightforward to prepare, particularly those in the China and Singapore sections and really produce great results.


Favourite recipes: (from Sri Lanka) Fried turmeric fish and beetroot yoghurt relish, (from Istanbul) lamd and pistachio manti with pomegranite salad and garlic yoghurt sauce. Also oyster and cucumber yoghurt salad (India). And poached chicken with spiced turmeric lemongrass broth (Singapore). And watermelon sorbet (Sri Lanka). And under the heading I Am Never Cooking That Again Even Though It Tasted Great is braised rabbit with oranges and black olives (Andalucia) which involves deboning a rabbit, turning it into a wrapped stuffed sausage and poaching at low temperature for 2 hours.

Postscript - you cannot mention Australian cookbooks with mentioning Earl Carter, who must surely be one of the best food photographers in the world. He photographs the Karen Martini and Neil Perry books, and pretty much invented that glowing and evocative but simple style of food photography. He is also a specialist at the empty or just eaten plate of food photo. He has done a huge amount to raise Australian cookbooks to the high level they are at today.

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