EXCHANGE INTERFACE

( honeyed peaches in wine )

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( chicken in white wine sauce )

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I don't need black cocoa powder to make black icing with. I don't. Really.

I'm already buying a bunch of Asian-style pastes to go into mooncakes. (I don't think I'll make the paste again, it was tiring and time consuming and messy. Althoguh I wonder if it could be done with a Thermomix.)

Rose, Pistachio and Saffron Barfi (Fudge) from here

Ingredients
10g unsalted butter, divided
400g white chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar, divided
200g sweetened condensed milk, divided
1/2 cup pistachio, divided
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom seeds, divided
3 tablespoons of dried rose petals, reserve some for garnish
2 tablespoons of milk
10-15 saffron threads, reserve some for garnish
1 1/2 tablespoon of Rooh Afza (see above for alternative)

Method
Grease a container or tray you will let the fudge set in with butter, then line it with baking paper.
After, place two heavy bottom pans on low heat.
Add 5g of unsalted butter, 200g of white chocolate and 100g of sweetened condensed milk to each pan.
Stir frequently until fully homogenous, around 5 minutes. It should separate from the pan entirely and all come together like dough.
In a separate pot, heat 2 tablespoons of milk with saffron threads until it comes to a boil and slightly reduces. Set aside.
Going back to the fudge, add 1/4 cup of pistachio and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom seeds to each of the fudge mixes and stir until combined.
To one of the fudge mixtures, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of Rooh Afza, and 3 tablespoons of dried rose petals. Stir to combine. The pink fudge is ready.
To the other fudge mixture, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the warm saffron milk along with the saffron threads. Stir to combine. The yellow fudge is ready.
Place one layer into the container you prepared earlier, pressing it down with a spatula.
Then place the second layer on top of the first, gently spreading it with a spatula.
You can garnish the top layer with saffron, rose petals or more pistachio.
Place this into the fridge to set for 2 hours.
Once set, take it out of the fridge letting it rest for thirty minutes, then cut into desired size pieces.

The Woks Of Life: Cantonese-style Joong with Salted Duck Eggs

Other joong recipes:
Serious Eats
Red House Spice: zongzi two ways
Bread et Butter: grandma's zongzi

Mushroom Stilton galette: I only want this recipe for the pasty, because apparently it's a lovely flexible pastry and I was wondering if it would be any good if I just added sugar and tried to make hand pies out of it.

Original link went back to Unbendy Brisee which is not what one wants for pastry that's going to be nice and flexible around things like fruit hand pies. And I don't mind the sourcream/yoghurt that's going to be in the flexible pastry: a bit more richness, a slight tang, that all adds to the flavour IMO.

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Festive Green Beans: making it is simple, but apparently the flavour is next level up.

48 Seasonal Stone Fruit Recipes from delicious.com

My connection is shot and so is my attention span. This has been the case for the week. (The attention span has been shot for a number of weeks now.)

First bible study back in-person last night, we had dinner out on the porch (everyone double-vaxxed) and it was so good to be able to socialise again! I made a Russian honey cake, and it was a hit, and took along the nectarine wine I made with eggsbenedict and that was also a hit.

My permie group is trying to decide whether or not to try to push for some community recreational space to remain as a community space, with an eye to developing a community garden/commercial property rental duo. Don't know if we can - it seems like a rather large sized project, and the council is likely to want to just flog it off for the cash dollop from the sale of at least 4 properties worth $2mil AUD undeveloped - not to mention the yearly boost in local land rates! UGH.

I have spent the last month or so trying to tease out and order my thoughts regarding vaccination and the anti-vax movement within permaculture (which has a lot of line-up with anti-authority, anti-government, and health-and-wellness movements). It's been made more difficult by the refusal of one of the founders of the movement to get vaccinated, and by the open defiance of a well-known family within the permaculture/independence-from-government movement against government restrictions.

I wrote out my thoughts here, at the permaculture community. Largely on how the principle of Use and Value Diversity, backed up by the permaculture ethic of Set Limits to Allow For Fair Sharing Of Resources should be an encouragement for permies to be vaccinated.

Today, I'm probably going to start boiling the bones for another round of tonkotsu ramen.

But first I need a snack.

Okay, so it's not thin ice.

But I'm thinking about participating in an amateur cake decorating competition for the Threatened Species Bake-Off, with an attempt at a professional-looking cake with a mirror-glaze surface.

I'd like to do the focus on 'ecosystems engineers', or "any animal or plant that modifies, maintains, improves, or creates habitat".

Found a really interesting article mentioning the Great Southern Reef: a temperate reef ecosystem that stretches from Kulburra in WA through 8000km (5000-ish miles) of ocean up to northern NSW.

I mean, coral reefs would be easy, yeah? And I might still do that. If only because it'll be easier to make royal icing coral fans and stuff...

I haven't done royal icing decorations in decades. *rolls eyes at self*

Links to the cake, icing, glaze recipes.
Butter cake
buttercream and how to make a smooth finish
mirror glaze

I might try to make a tiny cake, though: like large-tuna-can size.

(Also: it turns out the author of this blog is one of my sisters' friends from school.)

From scratch!
It took forever to make, in several stages, including making the soup and freezing it two weeks ago. Also, I should have used pork belly instead of pork shoulder - shoulder isn't fatty or layered enough.

But it was delicious! And filling!

Luckily, I needed a filling lunch because I won't be eating anything big until after hockey, which finishes at 9pm. WHEW, though. It's large. LARGE.

The recipe I used (it's really an entire series - 'Ramen School' by Aussie cooking personality Adam Liaw) makes a salt-and-seafood flavoured tonkotsu, but it's very salty. I am thinking of adjusting it to a more sesame-garlic angle, with more complex overtones - a hakata tonkotsu like Ramen Kaonashi describes. Although I don't know if I have the sesame anymore.

Dukkah Roasted Cauliflower

Pinterest board: nommy
- baked parmesan zucchini
- chicken enchilada casserole
- breakfast skillet
- 7 layer dip

Maybe later in the year.

There's a lot of sweets and cakes and tarts and icing/frosting on that board, though. Going to have to limit that. Maybe stick with the donna hay/marie claire/delicious recipes which are a little more health conscious (but possibly also a bit more complicated).

Also, remember to check the recipes tag for options.

( soups and biscuits, yeasty rise things, and someone's recipe for meatballs )

Look, I just want people to cook for all day (and not have to clean up behind me).

A couple of biscuit recipe links:
ANZAC biscuits - nice and chewy

White Choc Chip Macadamia Peanut Butter Cookie: freezes beautifully, I think I'll use this as the base for some other freezer 'ball-cookies' - just defrost on a tray as you need them and bake for 12 minutes. Beautiful...

A couple of desserts:
Gin and Tonic Tart: haven't tried this, have heard that it's hard to get the flavour, though.

Salted Chocolate Caramel Tarts: mmm, salted chocolate caramel

Strawberry Pie With Frozen Strawberries: I have frozen strawberries so this seems like a logical conclusion...

That, or Fruit Jellies which I've been hankering after. Something fruity instead of the chocolate-chocolate-chocolate that's around right now.

Later today, I'll make a No Knead Bread which didn't work as well as I wanted last time, but I think that was because I didn't leave it enough time to do the second rise. The bread was heavy and not great.

It's my mother's birthday on Sunday and we're going over for afternoon tea (which I'm making). Since B1 should be dairy free and gluten light, I'll be making Mango Tapioca. If I can find some mangoes. I thought we had some frozen in the fridge, but I can't find them now.
Heavenly Mango Tapioca