/ DELICIOUS BITES

kyoto - northern higashiyama

17 Jun 2015

Much as I don't enjoy getting sick, it did give me some downtime. I spent my sick days languishing in bed with my laptop working on my photos of Kyoto. Kyoto is such a photogenic place I took loads of photos so narrowing the selection was a bit of a challenge. As there were so many photos, I'll split the images across a number of posts.

I spent Day 1 in the Northern Higashiyama area as that was where I was staying. I started the day early and arrived at my first destination, the Nanzen-Ji Temple, before opening hours.

This is the imposing main gate

with it's massive doors.

Nanzen-Ji is a Zen Buddhism temple. A service was taking place which we watched in silence and here are some of the participants leaving. The temple is surrounded by beautiful lush greenery.

There's an imposing aqueduct on site with some amazing light streaming through the trees.

I decided it was a vision worthy of a black and white image. From Nanzen-Ji I stumbled around searching for the Path of Philosophy.

It's a beautiful quiet tree lined walk, home to many cats.

It's where I found this elderly lady taking a stroll. The Path of Philosophy led me to the Honen-In Temple.

The Honen-In Temple is another of the lovely quiet contemplative green temples, my favourite kind.

So green!

The temple is set in lush greenery which manages to out lush the Nanzen-Ji Temple.

Time for reflection before returning to the Path of Philosophy for the short walk to the Gingkaku-Ji Temple.

Now this temple is a very popular one in Kyoto, which means it's also very crowded. I couldn't get a clear shot of the famous sand sculpture so I concentrated on a detail shot instead.

The Silver Temple is surrounded by beautiful gardens and a lake. I was too late for cherry blossoms but I was right on time for the azaleas.

Beautiful gardens require maintenance and I found this gardener hard at work.

Next time I blog about my trip to Kyoto I'll be posting photos from Arashiyama but I'll be back before then with some baking.

See you all again next week.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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marcella hazan's potato soup with split green peas.

15 Jun 2015

Last week was one of those weeks. I spent the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend in Brisbane and flew back to Sydney with a cold and no energy to cook or go shopping. The cupboard was pretty bare. I knew I wanted soup and I'd planned to make some lentil soup when I spied this recipe for potato soup with split green peas in 'The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' by Marcella Hazan. I checked the cupboard and the fridge and found I had all the ingredients I needed, so set to work making the soup.

When you read the recipe, the soup has hardly any ingredients and very few processes.

You know how I love to change things up, well I didn't with this recipe at all. I just added a garnish of fresh oregano and some green peas.

Here's the recipe for you.

Potato Soup with Split Green Peas - from Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes

250 g (8 oz) dried split green peas

1.25 litres (5 cups) homemade meat broth or 1 cup canned beef broth and 4 cups water

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

freshly grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them up into chunks. Rinse them under cold water and drain. Rinse the split peas under cold water and drain.

Put the potatoes and peas in a soup pot with 750 mls of broth, then cover and cook over medium heat, at a gentle boil, until the potatoes and peas are both tender (about 30 - 45 minutes). Turn off the heat. Purée the potatoes and peas with a stick blender or put through a food mill.

Warm the butter and oil in a small skillet, then cook the onions and until the onions are golden. Pour the contents of the skillet into the pot with the potatoes and peas, add the remaining broth, cover, and turn on the heat to medium. Adjust the heat so that the soup boils at a steady but slow boil. Cook until all of the butter and oil has become evenly distributed into the broth.

Before turning off the heat, swirl in the grated parmesan, then taste and correct for salt.

A steaming bowl of hot soup, served with bread and lashings of butter. Just what the doctor ordered!

See you all again next week,

Jillian

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pear ginger hazelnut crumble cake

8 Jun 2015

As you may have gathered by now I love baking with fruit and nuts and I love a good crumble. If you look through the archives, there are a fair few fruity crumble topped cake recipes and here is yet another one.

When I returned home from Japan is was pretty obvious the seasons had changed while I was out of the country. Plums, peaches and berrries had disappeared from the fruit shop and in their place were apples, pears, quince and citrus fruit.

As the temperature had also plummeted I decided to make a pear ginger hazelnut crumble cake which I served warm as a pudding one day and cold as a cake the following day. Don't you just love a versatile recipe?

I had most of the ingredients in the cupboard but I had to stock up on hazelnut meal and whole hazelnuts. Well that proved more challenging than I expected. I checked the local supermarket near work and there wasn't a hazelnut in sight, nor were there any in the local deli or the nut shop. I found hazelnut meal in Bondi Junction but those convenient roasted hazelnuts were nowhere to be found. I roasted what I had left in the freezer and now I'm back on the hunt for whole roasted hazelnuts. Is there some kind of hazelnut shortage in Sydney that I don't know about?

There is nothing delicate about this cake. It's jam packed filled with stuff and whilst I made it in my 17 cm tin it took so long to bake (1½ hours) I think it's better suited to a 20 cm/8 inch tin.

Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Pear Hazelnut Crumble Cake (makes a 20 cm/8 inch cake)

Crumble Topping
¼ cup (55 gm) brown sugar
¼ cup (35 gm) plain flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
30 grams (1 oz) cold unsalted butter cut into small chunks
½ cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
35 g (2 tbs) finely chopped glace or crystallised ginger

Crumble Topping
To make the crumble, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until just combined. Stir through the chopped nuts and ginger. Place the crumble topping in a small bowl and refrigerate while making the cake. This makes more crumble than required so you can store any leftover crumble in the freezer.

Cake
1½ cups (2 medium pears) diced peeled pear
1 (20 ml) tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup plain flour
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
¼ cup hazelnut meal
100 g (3½ oz) melted, unsalted butter
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup caster sugar
1 tbl ginger marmalade or apricot jam
1 egg
35 g (2 tbs) finely chopped glace or crystallised ginger
A few tbs milk

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (conventional). Grease and line the base of a 20 cm round tin with baking paper.

Combine 1¼ cup of the diced pear and the lemon juice in a small bowl. Set to one side for 20 minutes.

Sift the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl. Stir the hazelnut meal through the flour and set to one side.

In a medium size bowl combine the melted butter, the sugars and the ginger marmalade. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Add the flour and gently fold in the diced pear and juice and the finely chopped ginger. This should make a soft batter so if not then add a few tablespoons of milk.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Generously sprinkle the top of the cake with the crumble and stud with the remaining pieces of pear. Place the cake tin on a baking sheet to catch any drips and place on the middle shelf in the oven and bake for 50 - 60 minutes at 180°C/350°F or until the cake is cooked when tested.

If the cake is browning too quickly you may have to cover the top with a piece of greaseproof paper.

Place the tin on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool. When the cake is cool, remove it from the tin and carefully invert the cake discarding the lining paper, then turn right side up.

This can be served warm or cold. If serving warm, top with cream or custard or both.

In case you think my custard is something fancy made with egg yolks, you'd be wrong. I just love old fashioned custard made from custard powder. I used brown sugar when I made this batch and added some vanilla extract to the custard just before serving.

I hope you enjoy making this.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Hiroshima and miyajima

3 Jun 2015

I know what you're thinking, Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. Well yes, Hiroshima is never going to be able to escape it's past but really the bomb site is a very small part of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima is a lovely leafy city, compact, easy to get about on foot or by tram and quite attractive.

I stayed in a hotel not far from the Peace Park so as soon as I arrived I walked over to the park and the A-Bomb Dome.

The bombed out building is a pretty powerful symbol. I decided it needed to be captured in back and white film so I stopped by the next day with my film camera.

Hiroshima is not all gloom and doom though. This cafe is just a short walk from the A-Dome site.

You have to agree all those oranges are pretty jolly.

Memorials are dotted along the river front in addition to the Peace Park. One of the most moving monuments is the Children's Peace Monument in the shape of a crane.

I watched a crowd of school children present this bundle of cranes to the memorial.

The Peace Park Cenotaph was designed to frame the A-Bomb Dome.

From there it's a short walk to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is presently undergoing renovation.

Once I'd made a pilgrimage to these sites it started raining pretty heavily so I decided it was time for a change of pace. The following day I caught the ferry to Miyajima to see the famous Itsukushima Shrine and it's tori gate floating on water.

I timed my arrival with high tide so I could see the tori gate in all it's glory.

The shrine is a 10 minute walk from the ferry terminal and I enjoyed all the greenery on the island. There's a lot of concrete in Japan.

I made sure to visit the shrine only to find another Shinto wedding ceremony taking place.

May must be wedding month in Japan.

Another feature of Miyajima are the deer which roam the island freely. Take a look at this cheeky fellow getting into the school photo

This coming weekend is the Queens Birthday Long Weekend so I'm heading home to Brisbane. I've been back in the kitchen so next week I'll have something sweet to share with you. When I next post about Japan, I'll share some photos from my time in Kyoto. Kyoto was my favourite destination so I took loads of photos and I've yet to narrow down my selection.

See you all again next week,

Jillian

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fog linen work shopshoot

1 Jun 2015

When I decided to visit Japan, I knew there was one place I had to visit and that was Fog Linen Work in Tokyo. I have a few pieces of Fog linen in my own home and I could always use more.

I sent an email to Yumiko and I was thrilled when she agreed to let me photograph her store.

I got a little lost trying to navigate my way around Tokyo and I arrived late. As I'm unfailingly punctual that made me a little embarrassed.

So what did I find inside? A polished concrete interior highlighting the goods for which Fog Linen is known.

Lots of wire baskets, linen, wooden bowls, beautiful glassware and some brass pieces, which I loved.

Home wares are located on one side of the shop while the clothing is located on the other side of the store. I absolutely loved the wire light fittings in the shop.