Eurovision 2013 - This is Witta Calling

Regular readers will know that the Eurovision Song Contest lives large on my social calendar.  Every year, a dedicated group of us gather in a lounge room somewhere in South East Qld to celebrate all that is so bad and yet, so good about Eurovision.

The Trophy

Over the years we have honed party planning of this major event down to a fine art.  There's the (un)lucky draw to see which countries you'll be supporting during the evening; score sheets to rate important aspects of the performance such as outfit, novelty value and choreography; drinking games (wind machine, pyrotechnics, costume reveal, key change) and of course, the trophy.   And then there's the food - well
known specialties and lesser known delicacies.  This year there was the added bonus of novelty catering by IKEA as the ultimate Eurovision country was hosting.  Sweden.

Anne & Richard accept their fate

It was Richard and Anne who had plucked Sweden out of the hat last year.  They've moved beyond the Brisbane city limits and have headed for the Sunshine Coast hinterland township of Witta (just near Maleny).  For those of you not familiar with Witta, it's a couple of hours drive from Brisbane and with far too many drinkies planned and Eurovision inevitably running over time, the only thing to do was have a sleep over. Typically we share out cooking responsibilities with everyone bringing a plate however this year, Eurovision coincided with the Noosa Food & Wine Festival.  This meant that we were already on the Sunshine Coast for the weekend with a lack of cooking or refrigeration facilities prior to the big party night.

A modest search on Google conjured up 'Swedish Icebox Cookies'.  They didn't sound very authentic but they did hit the bill as far as being able to be made in advance.  The two things that made them Swedish were the heritage of the person who posted the recipe on All Recipes and the fact that the cookies contained Caraway.  Caraway is actually the fruit of a plant though we think of it as a seed.  It has an anise like flavour and is a hugely popular ingredient in Scandinavian countries where it is used to flavour rye breads and the spirit (fire water) Akavit.

This is a very simple recipe that can be easily made by kids.  They are great at breakfast with a cup of hot coffee after a big night of celebrating - as we found out.

Swedish Icebox Cookies

 Ingredients

• 250g butter, softened
• 1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 - 3 cups plain flour, sifted (see note)
• 15g Caraway seeds (approx 3 tbsp)
• 2 cups walnuts, chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

• Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Stir in eggs and vanilla extract to combine
• Sift 2 1/2 cups of flour into bowl.  Add Caraway seeds and walnuts
• Stir ingredients well to form a stiff dough.  You may need more flour or 2 1/2 cups may be sufficient - this depends on the humidity, size of eggs etc
• Form dough into a long log, rolled in cling wrap or greaseproof paper.  Chill for at least 2 hours
• Remove dough from fridge and cut into 1 cm slices.
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes in oven pre-heated to 175c

Makes approx 45

Notes

• After adding first two + half cups of flour, the dough will be quite stiff so if you do add more flour, I suggest you mix it with your hands to make sure it's well incorporated
• I've selected 15g of Caraway seeds as this is the size of a standard bag of Hoyts Caraway available as most supermarkets.  The measurement does not need to be exact.
• This makes a lot of cookies (depending of their size) so I froze half of the dough to use another time. Just defrost and slice.

When you're watching Eurovision, you want your country to do well.  But not too well.  If your country wins, you end up having to host the party the following year.  And that's what happened to me...Denmark by a landslide!  So I'll see you back here in 12 months.

Romania were robbed I tell you!

 

Treats on a Stick

Earlier in the year I served an unusual dessert treat for the Gastronauts Supper Club.  As part of a South American themed evening, I made Roasted Sweetcorn Popsicles.  They were popular on the night so I decided to post and tweet my recipe.  As a result, I ended up chatting on Twitter to @mariapalitos_au, a paleta.
Brisbane business that specialises in a Latin American ice pop, called a

Paletas are ice blocks usually made with a juice or cream base that are a popular Latin American street food sold from carts called palateros.  It makes sense that Australia would have a Latin American population - we share a hemisphere after all.  Until recently though, many communities have kept to themselves and not made a big splash on local culture.  But, that's starting to change.  You may or may not be aware Latin and South America are hip right now.  Especially the cuisine.  It must be hip, Food Safari had an episode.  Enter mariaPalitos.

I've made the jump from cyber to real life and have met Natalia from mariaPalitos at a couple of different markets around town.   Whenever possible they avoid artificial colours and flavours and use organic ingredients in their products.  And the flavours!  The paletas in particular are unusual in their combos: White Chocolate & Basil; Pineapple, Beetroot & Peppermint; Almond, Malt & Cinnamon and, Blueberry Lemonade & Basil (hugely popular with kids) are a few.  The one I tried on a very hot Sunday was Tamarind & Lemongrass.  Tangy, fragrant and sharp, it was a proper grown up's ice block.  At $4 a pop, the price was right too.

MariaPalitos started out making Paletas and over time have evolved to also produce Hot Chocolate on a Stick and Gourmet Marshmallows.  Back at home, Chief Tester Anthony had a go of the hot chocolate with a Dark Chocolate & Coffee combo.  Simply heat a mug of milk, place your Chocolate on a Stick in the mug and stir!  In a few minutes, your good to go with a steaming cup of delicious real hot chocolate.  There's lots of great flavours in this range too: Dark Choc with Cloves, Coffee or Anise and, White Choc with Cookies & Cream or Cardamom.

I asked Natalia where the name mariaPalitos comes from and she told me that a palito is the stick inserted in the paletas and hot chocolates.  'Maria' is a tribute to the women in her family who are all named Maria, with the exception of Natalia, though they refer to her as Maria Natalia in jest.  Natalia is slowly building the business through a combination of markets and special orders for events (she provided marshmallows as part of the goodie bags at a recent book launch at Scrumptious Reads).  The attention taken in producing the products is evident in the ingredients and presentation and this flows through to the funky graphics on the stall and website.

Natalia from mariaPalitos

If your looking for something unusual as a gift or want to treat yourself to a little taste of Latin America, you could do worse than to swing past the website or market stall.   The Hot Chocolates on a Stick make nice thankyou gifts without being too showy and it's never too early to start thinking about catering for that office picnic or family re-union.  Take the pressure off and the heat out by ordering up an ice pop storm.  Natalia can talk with you about flavour combinations and come up with a signature flavour for your special event.

Find mariaPalitos at:
http://www.mariapalitos.com.au/
info@mariapalitos.com.au

Hawthorne Markets - Hawthorne Park, Hawthorne 4171.  2nd Sunday of every month
Latin Markets - Jubilee Hotel, Fortitude Valley  4006. Last Sunday of every month

* Win * Win * Win *

This competition is now closed

 

Would you like to win a Treat on a Stick?  TIFFIN has a great mariaPalitos prize pack of 4 mixed Hot Chocolates on a Stick to give away to a reader*. 

To enter:

• 1. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post, suggesting a new Paleta or Hot Choc on a Stick flavour you'd like to try.  It can be as simple or flavour packed as you like.  The sky's the limit.

and

• 2.  Subscribe to TIFFIN via email or join the TIFFIN fan club via Google Friends.

*Overseas readers are welcome to enter this competition however if you win, your prize will be an Amazon voucher equal to the value of the prize pack.

*** Good Luck! ***

This competition is now closed

Conditions:
* The competition opens 6pm Tuesday 14 May 2013 and closes 6pm Tuesday 21 May 2013
* Both parts of the entry must be completed to be eligible.
* New subscribers will need to activate their subscription via the confirmation email.
* Current email subscribers and Google Friends only need to complete part 1.
* The draw will be random from all eligible entries.  TIFFIN's decision is final.
* The winner will be notified by email and published on this blog during May 2013.

This is not a sponsored post.  Prizes are courtesy of TIFFIN.

How Does My Garden Grow?

I'm very excited to see the first flowers on my eggplant (aubergine) bush.  I lovingly tended this plant from seed, to seedling, to small bush.  Now, the first flowers!  Let's hope the fruit sets.  These eggplants are an heirloom variety that I bought when I went along to an Heirloom Vegetable workshop late last year.   Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of eggplant and have quite a few recipes on TIFFIN (type 'eggplant' into the search function on the side bar to find them).

It's going to be quite some time until I see some fruit on my plants so in the mean time, I've taken the opportunity to preserve some eggplants that I got cheap.  I've adapted a recipe from Karen Martini that I ripped out of a newspaper on a recent flight from somewhere to somewhere else.  In the 'olden days', preserving was used as a way of ensuring that the glut of Summer fruits and vegetables could be kept and made available during the long, lean Winter months.  Living in Brisbane means long growing seasons.  There's not really a winter as such, with warm sunny days and mild nights.  That's why I'm able to grow eggplant at this time of year - still plenty of insect activity, sunshine and warmth.

This is a very simple technique that even a novice can make.  The real thing you need is time.  You don't need to do much, there's just a lot of waiting around.  Start this process on a Friday night when you come home from work and you'll have jars of preserved eggplant by Sunday evening.  Use this eggplant on antipasto platters and to jazz up home made pizzas.  This is also an unusual gift for a housewarming or at Christmas.

Melanzane Sotto Aceto e Olio

Pickled Eggplant

Ingredients

• 8 x medium eggplants
• 200g salt
• 600ml white wine vinegar
• equal amounts vegetable and olive oil to top jars (approx 600ml - 800ml)
• 4 x garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 8 x fresh bay leaves (or 4 dried)
• 1 x peeled lemon skin (not pith)
• 12 x peppercorns, cracked

Method

• Slice the eggplant in half, place cut side down and slice each half into 1cm slices.  You can peel the eggplant but I leave the skin on.
• Cut the slices into 1 cm strips.

Stripped & ready to go

• Place eggplant into a bowl, toss well with salt and place into a colander.
• Weigh down eggplant with a plate and weight (800g tinned tomatoes works a treat) and leave overnight to drain.  The eggplant will lose quite a lot of water so sit the colander in the sink or a large bowl.
• The next morning, rinse the eggplant very well in cold water.  Give it a couple of changes of water so that most of the salt is washed away.

Post salt, pre vinegar

• Squeeze out excess moisture well and place in a bowl with vinegar. 
• Cover with a plate to keep eggplant submerged.  Soak for at least 12 hours or until the next morning.
• Drain the vinegar off and squeeze out the excess until the eggplant is quite compressed.
• Place garlic cloves, bay leaves, lemon peel and peppercorns in a saucepan with 600ml of blended oil and gently heat.  The oil does not to be boiling or even very hot.  Just warmed through to release some of the flavours from the botanicals.  Set aside
• Give the eggplant a shake and separate the strands.  Firmly pack into sterilised jars and pour warmed oil over the eggplant.
• Use a skewer of cake tester to wiggle the eggplant in the jar, allowing trapped air bubbles to be released.  Giving the jars a gentle tap on the bench will also assist in dislodging air bubbles.
• Use extra unheated oil to top up jars if necessary.
• Seal jars tightly and store in dark cupboard for two weeks.  Store in fridge after opening

Makes - 3 x 400g jars

Notes

• Whilst the vinegar has 'cooked' the eggplant, this is not a cooked or heat processed dish.  You can not store this indefinitely in the cupboard like you can with other chutneys and relishes.  Enjoy it sooner rather than later and make another batch!
• This seems like a lot of eggplant at the start but trust me, by the time you've salted and pickled them, it only makes 3 jars.  You may as well make a full batch if you're going to the trouble.
• The original recipe called for the addition of sliced banana peppers and a couple of split chillies but as I had none to hand, I substituted the bay and lemon peel.  Thyme would also make a good addition.
• The vinegar drained off the eggplant can be re-used in dressings or salads - there'll just be a few eggplant seeds floating about.

A Kitchen Angel

Coffee shops continue to spring up all over Newstead and Teneriffe as more apartments open and businesses move into the area.   If I feel like a bit of a leg stretch after a hard morning in the Service of the Public, I go a little further than my usual haunts and drop into Locale on Commercial Rd for coffee and a read of the newspaper.

Every time I visit I'm greeted with a smile and a friendly hello, no matter how busy it is.  Locale is a reasonable sized coffee shop with tables inside and out that seems to do most of it's business from the surrounding office and light industrial.  It has all the usual coffee, light breakfast and snack options as well as some clever takeaway treats such as homemade muesli in a nifty jar to enjoy back at the office.

There are lots of  little reasons to linger at Locale.  Order at the counter, and it's delivered to the table; a fresh rose; shelves filled with interesting kitchen nick nacks to browse; a bit of Bozz Scaggst; pleasant staff and, biscuits.  Did I mention the biscuits?  Not really biscuits.  More Italian Biscotti.  Loads of them.  Full of sugary, almondy, hazelnutty deliciousness.  Roasted Hazelnut & Chocolate Bacio d'Alassio, divine Almond Pasta Mandorla, unbelievably good Pralina di Nocciola.  The list goes on.

You see, Locale is also the home base for Kitchen Angel, an unique supplier of Italian style 'make and bake' biscotti mixes.  Now don't turn your nose up.  If you want to make something a little different as a decadent afternoon tea or celebration treat, you couldn't do much better.  All you do is add the egg white, shape and bake.  They're not cheap at around $18 a box but the ingredients are quality and the box is a supersize 1kg which makes around 24 x 40g biscuits that are very generous in size (40g is the size of an egg).   They are gluten and dairy free too (though clearly plenty of nuts).  As well as developing these great biscotti mixes, Kitchen Angel also offer Baking Parties and private lessons.  Locale is the showcase for these treats.

So, whilst I'm always happy to walk the extra distance for a relaxed coffee at Locale, there's more to this little cafe than meets the eye.  Take a tour of the website for a peek into what is on offer from big sister, Kitchen Angel.

Locale
50 Commercial Rd
Newstead   Qld 4006
http://www.kitchenangel.com.au/

Visited: various dates - morning service