Oh wow, I can’t believe that today is the official launch date of The Sweet Swap.  Amanda from Chew Town and I have been working hard to bring this event to bloggers across Australia.  May 1 seemed so far away back in January when we first started to work in earnest on this project.

Last Friday we started to sneakily slip The Sweet Swap details into our social media.  Giving you guys a heads up that it was coming.  We couldn’t help it, both of us are just so excited about this event.

So what is The  Sweet Swap?

The Sweet Swap is an online event for Australian food bloggers which results in packages of sweets arriving on your doorstep and a few new friendships formed.

Each food blogger is matched with three other bloggers and sends off parcels of homemade lollies to their matches. In return three parcels of lollies arrive on your doorstep. Post about the experience and receive sweet inspiration from your fellow bloggers.

Registrations Open – Wednesday 1 May 2013 (TODAY!!)
Matches Sent – Monday 17 June 2013
Swapper Mail – by Wednesday 3 July 2013
Recipe and Experience Posts Live – Monday 15 July2013
The Sweet Swap Event Round Up – Friday 26 July 2013

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I have had a bit of a love affair with lemon myrtle for a few years now.  First discovered at a local growers’ market.  The stall holder had made up a cheesecake to showcase this Australian native herb.  Very clever marketing, It worked, I purchased a packet of dried ground lemon myrtle leaves from her without hesitation.  Lemon myrtle has been a staple amongst my dried herbs ever since.

Lemon myrtle would be Australia’s most popular native herb.  It has a creamy lemon/lime fragrance and taste.  I adore it.  Extremely versatile, can be used in both savoury and sweet dishes.

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Happy St Patrick’s Day for tomorrow.  May your glass be ever full of Guinness, may your stew be hearty and may you have an endless supply of potato bread to go with your Ulster Fry.

Potato bread can take on a few forms, but the stuff I am talking about here is common in Northern Ireland.  It is also known as potato farls or fadge.  Very common in Ulster and is a key ingredient in an Ulster Fry.  Which here in Australia we would call a ‘big breakfast’.

As much as I love Paddy The Baker’s bread, I do giggle to myself when I see people buying potato bread at a premium price.  To be honest here, we have been known to  buy a slice or two when at Marrickville Markets to nibble as we shop.  Mac and Sally munch away as I dart between stalls to pick up our supplies. Read more →

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It’s quite funny when you think about it.  I married into an Irish family but I don’t think Mac and I have ever celebrated St Patricks’ Day the entire time we have been together.  It has been talked about, but the day seems to come and go and we don’t do anything for it.  Generally I don’t even realise it is St Patrick’s Day unless I am in town and see a group of inebriated people in green.  Actually next Sunday, 17th March, is St Patrick’s Day.  In fact, I already know that once again this year I won’t be celebrating St Paddy’s Day.  Instead I’m heading out to enjoy lunch with a group of very un-Irish friends. Read more →

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If you have been watching MasterChef Professionals, you may have seen the Italian challenge earlier this week.  There was a restaurant challenge and the challengers had to ensure one of their dishes included Barilla pasta.

The lovely people at Barilla decided to challenge me as well.  I received the recipes under embargo before the episode aired, and was challenged to choose one to cook, but add my own twist.

I couldn’t help myself and ended up playing around with both recipes, Orecchiette Vongole and Casarecce with Rabbit, Cavolo Nero, Almonds and olives.  I hate to blow my own horn, but I love my twists on both recipes.  My version of the rabbit rocked, and I will share it with you guys shortly, but today I share the Orecchiette recipe. Read more →

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I don’t think my love for Japan, it’s people and especially the food is a secret.  Many years ago when I started to pursue my love of Japanese food, by learning how to prepare it for myself at home, it was a struggle to find the appropriate ingredients.  Luckily, there are now many Japanese grocery shops around Sydney and many basic staples are available in your local supermarket.  How far we have come.

Many years ago when I would originally see the word ‘sake’ in the ingredient list of recipes, I would run out and try and source a bottle of drinking sake (Nihonshu).  Then one day, in my lounge room, Tetsuya Wakuda shared something with me.  “This is cooking sake, you don’t use the sake you drink when cooking’.   Maeve O’Meara then turned to him, nodded her head, and said she didn’t realise there was a difference.  I do love Food Safari.   Like Maeve, I had no idea there was a difference until that moment either.

Ryorishu is the Japanese word for cooking sake and literally means ‘cuisine alcohol’.  You generally don’t drink ryorishu straight, it isn’t enjoyable as a drink.  It is milled differently to drinking sake, there is a lower milling rate of around  80-90%.  Milling removes fats, proteins and amino acids that lead to unwanted flavours and aromas in the brewing process.  A lower milling rate means it isn’t as refined in taste as a drinking sake, but the bolder flavour lends itself much better to cooking.  It doesn’t get lost amongst other ingredients like soy sauce, sugar etc.  Ryorishu does have an alcohol content, the one in my cupboard is rated at  14-15% alcohol.  Therefore salt is added to the ryorishu (usually about 2% to render it just undrinkable), which allows supermarkets to sell it. Read more →

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I will admit I am not into the commercialism of Valentine’s Day.  If you want to buy me roses, then please do any other day of the year, don’t waste your money on the 14th February.  Even though I don’t celebrate in a commercial way, in other words, paying big bucks for flowers, chocolates etc, I do like to play with the ‘Valentine’ concept in the kitchen.

Last year I made Robots bearing hearts biscuits.  So cute and quirky, who doesn’t love a robot with a love heart, all together now, aawwwwe.

This year I wanted to play with my new small love hearts cake tin.  Very cute and picked up at a steal.  With a nice supply of green tea powder from a recent visit to Tokyo Mart, left over almond meal from Christmas baking, financiers (or friands) seemed a logical baking move on my part. Read more →

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When I received an invite from GLAD to attend a sandwich masterclass with my ‘little one’, I initially thought ‘but my little one isn’t so little!’.  Then amusing visions of my 6’2″ ‘little one’ attending a sandwich masterclass with hip high kids filled my head.  The thought appealed to me no end, so much so I put it out there on my private Facebook profile to see what friends thought of the idea.  I received many a ‘LOL’ and ‘Do It!’ responses.  Which resulted in a ‘yes’ RSVP to GLAD’s kind invitation.

This is how my ‘little one’, Josh, and I ended up at Food, Wine & Dine surrounded by real little ones and a bunch of mummy bloggers.  Actually a first time experience for me with mummy bloggers and I was quite glad to have my 6’2″ security blanket with me for company, they all seemed to know each other, we were definitely the odd ones out. Read more →

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Zucchini is one of my favourite vegetables.  Actually, even though you will find the humble zucchini in the vegetable department of your green grocer, it is indeed a fruit.  Such a versatile fruit it is too.  It lends itself so easily to both savoury and sweet dishes.  Is used perfectly in a range of cuisines and you can even use the flowers.

I cook with zucchini quite a bit in my kitchen.  It always seems to make its way into a stir-fry, my green curry wouldn’t be the same without it and flowers are stuffed with cheeses or crab then deep fried.  Zucchini fitters with tzatziki and salad are the perfect summer dish.  I love them even just simply steamed.

I recently came across some old home economic notes from back in high school.  A big smile crossed my face when I spied the recipe for my first baking effort in class.  It was also the first time I had used a ‘vegetable’ in a sweet capacity.  The other dish being cooked on the day was carrot cake, but I wanted to do something I had never attempted before and chose the zucchini loaf. Read more →

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