March 11, 2007: Balzari

Edit 28/12/2011: Balzari has straightaway closed.

Balzari. If you lot didn't know better, Balzari would blend it to the strip of unremarkable Italian places that litter the Carlton cease of Lygon Street. We've withal to figure out which are the adept ones as well as which are the overpriced mediocrities. Luckily, Balzari was a adept one. The breakfast carte was fairly substantial, loaded upwards amongst eggy options, fruit salad, cheese toasties, muesli, toast and, Cindy's favourite, breakfast donuts.

Cindy's donuts came amongst mixture of ricotta cheese, dried apricots as well as milk chocolate, as well as were surrounded yesteryear orangish flower syrup. She realised pretty speedily that at that topographic point wasn't actually anything breakfasty most these breakfast donuts. They actually accept the consider of dessert-breakfast to a novel level. Still, they were equally adept equally they expect - crisp on the outside, fluffy as well as sugariness within. Unfortunately, I mean value the guilt Cindy felt at eating what was basically donuts as well as syrup for breakfast sapped roughly of her enjoyment.

Ray (not to advert Cindy's homemade effort), we've been on a pretty fine breakfast run lately.


Address: 130 Lygon Street, Carlton
Ph: 9639 9383
Licensed
Price: $4.50 - $15.50
Website: www.balzari.com.au

March 12, 2007: Ginger Driblet Biscuits

My paternal grandparents stimulate got spent their lives working their farm inwards the Lockyer Valley, westward of Brisbane. While it has been a demanding too unglamourous beingness for them, my family's weekend visits were a process for a suburban fry such every bit I. Playing on the dormant tractors, feeding the cows onetime pumpkins from the dorsum of the ute, riding a wheel unsupervised on the route with my cousin, eating Cocopops for breakfast. The biggest process of all was 'smoko': mid-morning too -afternoon breaks comprising home-made biscuits or slices, plates of pikelets amongst jam too cream (rosella jam, please!), pumpkin scones amongst plump sultanas too thick slabs of butter (Flo's ain recipe, of course of education - we're inwards Joh country) or perhaps, if nosotros were actually lucky, a freshly baked chocolate cake, iced neatly on altitude too sides. Dinner too tea were corned beef too veges boiled too salted beyond recognition. Pasta was 'ethnic' food. My adult vegetarian diet takes almost nix inspiration from her dinners, but Grandma excelled at homely baked treats too these are what a sweeth-toothed fry volition think best.

Ginger biscuits were 1 of the recurring offerings at my Grandma's table. Flat, dark-brown too chewy, they were known every bit 'cow pats'. It was exclusively in conclusion year, spell visiting my widowed grandmother inwards her unit of measurement inwards Town, that I finally copied downward her recipe for ginger drib biscuits (so that's what the civilised folk telephone outcry upwards them!). It was a piece of yellowed newsprint inwards a scrapbook, in all likelihood older than my dad. I'll give yous the recipe inwards its master copy form, though it won't surprise yous to know that I replaced the prescribed dripping amongst the equivalent mensurate of butter. I also substituted black-strap molasses for the treacle, since it was what I had on hand. My batch rose higher too were lighter than the biscuits I recall, but the intended serving of reminiscence was only correct (for me anyway - maybe you're feeling sick amongst sticky-sweetness past times now!). After all, I've been making these for Ellie's nostalgia-themed weblog event. The added bonus is a calendar week of packing a piece of my past times into a lunchbox for afternoon smoko.

Ginger drib biscuits/Cow pats
makes almost sixteen large biscuits

1 loving cup sugar
4 tablespoons dripping
2 eggs
2 tablespoons treacle
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder

Beat carbohydrate too dripping together until white, add together eggs too treacle. Sift inwards flour, ginger too baking powder. Mix thoroughly too drib onto a greased slide. Bake inwards moderate oven (mine took almost 10 minutes). Allow the biscuits to educate earlier removing them from the slide.

March 12, 2007: Punjab Spinach Vegetable Curry

Continuing our celebration of SBS's Hooray for Bollywood series, nosotros settled inwards on Mon nighttime alongside 'The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey' together with this curry. Again, the inspiration came from Camellia Panjabi's '50 Great Curries of India', a mass that is focussed predominantly on meaty curries. Luckily, the curry sauces all audio wonderful, together with tin easily hold upwards applied to vegetarian alternatives. The reason of tonight's curry was a lamb spinach curry, alongside a marinade together with a spinachy sauce. We swapped lamb for vegies, mainly potato, alongside a few mushrooms together with carrots for coloring together with variety. I mean value nosotros went a fight overboard on the spuds, therefore the marinade together with spices had likewise much locomote to produce to spread their flavours fully around, leaving the whole affair a niggling blander than I'd like. Luckily we're good stocked alongside chutneys together with pickles to liven things upwards - it would create got been difficult going to larn through dinner together with iii lunches of slightly tasteless curry. I mean value nosotros could likely become alongside something to a greater extent than suited to a marinade adjacent fourth dimension - tofu or seitan or something, together with pay a niggling to a greater extent than attending to the sauce-to-solids ratio to ensure the season at the destination justifies all the difficult work.

Punjab spinach vegetable curry

3 potatoes, peeled together with chopped
2 cups mushrooms, halved
2 carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic
2 light-green chillies
2 inch slice of fresh ginger
200ml yoghurt
2 teaspoons cumin
200g spinach leaves, washed
2 bay leaves
6 cardamom pods
2 cloves
2 medium onions, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander powder
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
3 tablespoons love apple tree paste
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil

To brand the marinade, puree the yoghurt, ginger, garlic together with chillies inwards a nutrient processor, along alongside i teaspoon of the cumin powder. Marinate the carrots, mushrooms together with potatoes inwards this mixture for equally long equally possible - nosotros gave it nearly an hour, but it could create got done alongside longer.

The adjacent footstep is to assort out the spinach - you'll postulate to launder your nutrient processor inwards betwixt these steps therefore y'all tin puree the spinach into a liquidy mush. First of all, blanch the spinach for a few seconds inwards roughly boiling H2O together with therefore drain it. Then zap inwards the nutrient processor together with you're fix to go.

Heat the stone oil inwards a large pot over medium heat. Throw inwards the bay leaves, cardamom together with cloves together with small-scale fry for a infinitesimal or two. Add inwards the onions together with small-scale fry for nearly xv minutes, until they're overnice together with soft.

Add the corainder pulverization together with the cumin pulverization together with a splash of water. Stir everything together together with fix for a few to a greater extent than minutes. Tip inwards the marinated vegetables together with fix for nearly 5 minutes, until everything is good combined. Add inwards the love apple tree glue together with the chopped tomatoes, along alongside a loving cup of hot H2O together with the salt.

Simmer for equally long equally it takes for the murphy to become overnice together with soft - nearly one-half an lx minutes or so. Add inwards the spinach puree together with stir everything together for a span to a greater extent than minutes of cooking. When it's all done, serve it upwards on freshly fried roti breadstuff alongside a few spoons of chilli together with lime pickle together with settle inwards for iii hours of Bollywood entertainment.

Endangered Species Chocolate

Dagoba chocolate, belike because the additions were barely detectable. But Dagoba is held inward high esteem elsewhere past times greater connoisseurs than I, too then these 2 brands may appeal to other chocolate-lovers: they're merely besides subtle for my vulgar tastes! It needs to last acknowledged that both Endangered Species too Dagoba brands are produced inward relatively ethical circumstances, too buying a cheaper too to a greater extent than enjoyable block of Lindt isn't just a straight trade. So, what tin a chocoholic scope with, say, $20?

March 13, 2007: Sugariness White Patato As Well As Adobo Pies

sausage rolls I was into the puff pastry again, for a recipe that I'd bookmarked from 101 cookbooks. The filling is a creamy but cheese-free concoction featuring diced sweetness murphy as well as corn kernels. But don't last fooled yesteryear its meek as well as mild appearance - the delicious smokey odor comes from the add-on of simply about fiery adobo sauce!