A Few of My Favourite Things !

My 3.5 year old, EJ, is fairly happy to eat most foods but like most children, he seems to have an innate dislike for any *green* foods. Fortunately for me, he does like broccoli and cauliflower so I try to capitalise on this. I’ve bee cooking a lot of soups this season but had not really thought about serving him soup until he started at kindergarten two weeks ago and they served chicken and corn soup as part of lunch. So, why not make him a cauliflower soup and we can all enjoy it together?

I don’t always buy organic fruits and vegetables but I just feel that it’s more important to do so with broccoli and cauliflower, knowing through a friend who used to grow vegetables commercially that a lot of pesticide is used on these crops. It seems to be trickier to wash away any chemicals from the tight florets so I try to ensure these are organically grown.

I always cut the head of cauliflower into florets before cleaning. Then I simmer it in a pot of water until soft, season it with salt & pepper (I like using white for a bit more of a bite), then add a spoonful of bechamel (white sauce). Yesterday, instead of the bechamel, I added a cup full of sago which had been soaked in water for about 20 minutes and cooked until they became clear. EJ loves sago pudding and he was equally delighted when I told him this was a cauliflower and sago soup. It serves to thicken the soup slightly and also adds a lovely textural surprise to each mouthful. Last night, it was served with some cheesy cauliflower and leftover risotto.

Did anyone NOT watch the Masterchef Finale? And did anyone NOT love both the finalists, Adam & Callum – whom both have blogs now.

Seeing as we had not done a potluck since our Neil Perry special, I decided it was time for us to have a Masterchef cook-off, the idea being to cook a recipe from the Masterchef website and bring it along for all to try. As I didn’t bother asking what anyone was making, I was a little concerned that we would end up with four desserts and one entree and we’d have to order in pizza – not that there would have been anything wrong with eating four desserts for lunch. Fairytale ending…

We started with Adam’s Prawn Scotch Eggs with a Coconut, Chilli Sambal. So good.

This was followed by George’s Open Beef Kofta and George & Gary’s Chicken Winglets, Hummus and Raw Vegetable Salad (I took the photo before the winglets were placed!)

To end the meal, we had George’s Braised Tomatoes with Smoked Chocolate Mousse – my effort – and a Fruit & Cheese Platter.

LIVESTRONG Day, an event initiated by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, provides an opportunity for us to raise awareness about cancer issues in our local communities and on a national level.

There are many LIVESTRONG Day events open to the general public, however Barbara organised a food blogging event called A Taste of Yellow that requires participants to make a dish containing something yellow.

I had plans to bake something, cook something for this event but getting home late last night after watching the amazing Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai show, we wanted something comforting and easy. What better way to end the night than with a toasted cheese sandwich.

Very simply, place some slices of lovely pale, creamy French Comt̩ Рa cheese made from the unpastuerised milk of Montb̩liard cows Рbetween 2 slices of dark rye bread and toast until melted.

Just a quick photo-less update on our New Year’s Eve celebrations for today. We invited some close friends around for dinner and drinks to usher in 2007.

To start with, we dipped into smoky babaganoush flavoured with lemon juice, salt and pepper then lightened with a dollop or two of sheep’s yoghurt. This was accompanied by homemade pinenut and parmesan wafers that tasted actually better on their own than with the dip.

Unsure of how many would turn up early for dniner, I prepared the ever delicious chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine using our own preserved lemons, a lamb, nut and rice dish, stewed chickepeas, duck bisteeya and basmati rice scattered with jewel-like dried cherries, apricots, pistachios and slivered almonds.

I chose to replace pigeon with duck in the bisteeya so that I could purchase an already roasted duck from Chinatown instead of cooking the fowl from scratch – a useful time-saving measure. The chickpeas were stewed for over an hour with onions, garlic and cumin, rendering them exquisitely and meltingly tender.

For dessert, we enjoyed baclava, bought from our usual place on Sydney Road, and cheese from Simon Johnson, including a Roquefort, a pungent ewe’s milk blue cheese, Livarot, a soft washed-rind cheese made of cow’s milk, and my favourite, a Beaufort. The latter is a Gruyere-style, hard cheese made from cow’s milk and this one had a streak of blue mould running through.

We almost managed to see the fireworks from the living room but our plans were thwarted by the presence of a single tall building that managed to block most of the action. At least we had the television though…

Hope that you have all enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to a blessed New Year!