‘the model child’ chocolate & pear tart

One of the things that I really love about cooking is that you always have to be on your toes. No matter how many times you’ve made a particular dish or carried out a particular technique, if you’re not paying attention things can go awry all too frequently. And while here at stonesoup, I tend to stick to the success stories when it comes to documenting the activity in my kitchen, I am far from immune when it comes to kitchen disasters. Read the rest of this entry »

kid kibbeh pies with cranberry & sumac sauce

In my little world, the month of May has proven to be anything but dull. It all began on a sunny Tuesday, May 1st to be exact. I rocked up to work expecting business as usual only to be greeted with a last minute company wide meeting in which the managing director announced that due to the poor performance of the Australian business, there were going to be cutbacks and restructuring. A few short hours later I was clearing my desk and leaving the building for the last time. Yes my friends, I was the lucky recipient of a golden handshake and on a day no less than International Worker’s Day, or Labour Day to others - nothing like a bit of irony. Read the rest of this entry »

banana tart tatin with vanilla icecream

Earlier this year I was foolish enough to begin and publicly announce on this very site, a quest to overcome my last remaining food dislike: the banana. And while I am still a long way from considering myself a banana fan, I have been making inroads into the land of monkey food since my last encounter with a super moist banana cake. Read the rest of this entry »

duck bangers with balsamic onions & mash  

For a person with not one but two science degrees, I really don’t think of myself as much of a scientist. I mean of all the jobs I’ve had over the years, apart from pruning vines, the ones that I’ve enjoyed the least have involved heavy duty time analysing samples in a winery laboratory. Fortunately the casual nature of winery work meant that I didn’t ever have to go as far as wearing a white coat and safety glasses, but even so, I never felt at ease in the lab. Regardless of how critical the results were to the winemaking process, or how interesting, I could never imagine myself spending the rest of my life holed up there. But every now and then my inner nerd raises its four-eyed head and I find myself with an uncontrollable urge. An uncontrollable urge to…experiment. Read the rest of this entry »