Hello!
A few things have gotten me through the subzero early weeks of winter: very cosy track pants, lots of peppermint tea, a heated blanket for the couch, and a trip to one of the jacket potato bars in town (thinking this must be a Tasmanian thing!).
Sharing nine favourite recipes this month, including a fun Sunday breakfast and the extremely warming udon soup I make any time I’m home alone.
P.S I’ve been a fan of
for years, so it was super fun to share a day in the life (full of links) for their newsletter. Thanks to Sophie Roberts and Sophie McComas-Williams for including me. I love your work!Chocolate chunk pancakes
I tried to recreate the chocolate chunk pancakes from my New York trip and managed to succeed first go! This is such an easy recipe and while I wasn’t sure about adding cinnamon to the batter, it really makes it! It gives each bite a hint of cinnamon doughnut. I didn’t have any choc chips, so I ended up chopping up a chocolate bar with salted caramel a work friend left on my desk.
Pumpkin, crème fraîche pasta with burnt butter
Heidi Sze has a knack for making simple and delicious pastas with roasted veggies. Her latest is a roast pumpkin and garlic pasta, which is blitzed with crème fraîche to make a silky, creamy pasta sauce. She recommends fresh pasta for this sauce, which happens to be Tony’s specialty. It’s topped with crispy, salty sage leaves, burnt butter and Parmesan. If it’s warmer where you are, check out her slow-roasted tomato linguini.
Yummy chickpea and pumpkin sandwich filling
I had enough leftover pumpkin to make Heidi’s chickpea smash with chunks of roasted pumpkin. The mayo, mustard, pickle combo is so addictive and reminds me of a tuna-melt style filling, only vegetarian. I make it with zucchini pickles instead of gherkin. Put it in a sandwich and eat it in the sun.
Bacon and egg don
I highly recommend this big bowl of comfort food for an ordinary Tuesday. The bacon gets super crispy, the scrambled eggs have a lovely subtle seasoning and the furikake brings it all together. It’s also really quick to make and comes from Eric Kim (NYT Cooking gift link).
Extremely warming udon soup
I wanted to get into Japanese claypot cooking this year and found this cute donabe at an op-shop for four bucks! My first dish was nabeyaki udon and the recipe ends with this note: “This dish can keep your body warm for a long time.” And it did! My glasses fogged up as I dug into this udon soup, with chicken pieces, slices of fish cake, an egg, mushrooms and spinach. It’s served while it’s still simmering so it’s piping hot.
This has become my go-to meal for solo nights because it’s so simple to make and clean up. I’ve made it without the chicken and using dried shiitake mushrooms, making it a mostly pantry meal.
Japanese braised pork
Every winter I become obsessed with a new slow cooked stew and this year it’s a Japanese braised pork by Julia Busuttil Nishimura. Pork belly chunks cook in a caramel sauce with star anise, sake and soy. I made it one Sunday night for the week ahead and got to do the extra step of skimming the fat the next day for a very clear broth. The daikon soaks up all the yummy broth and I love any stew with boiled eggs!
Apple and cinnamon fritters
My friend Sarah texted me this recipe one day and I saved it for the winter solstice. It’s really simple, you batter chunky apple rings, fry them and then dust them in cinnamon sugar. It reminds me of a McDonald’s apple pie!
Remembering lemon tofu
There are a bunch of meals I made so often in lockdown that I only feel ready to return to them now. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s lemon tofu is one of those dishes and it’s nice to be reacquainted! Inspired by lemon chicken, tofu cubes are coated in cornflour and fried until crispy, before they’re served in a sweet lemon, honey and ginger sauce over rice.
Alison Roman’s carrot cake
I was telling a friend at work about my plans to make Alison Roman’s ‘cold’ carrot cake for the weekend and she pointed out that carrot cake is always served cold 😅 The idea is to serve it fridge-cold, like you might leftover birthday cake. I have no notes, this cake was perfect! No stand mixer was involved and I did oil my knife to chop the many dates after seeing it in the vid.
Catch you next month!