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Kitchen Wench Kitchen Wench Learning about love, life and food, whilst feeding friends and family, one recipe at a time! Articles
Attack of the sweet tooth
2007-03-24 07:34:00 What on earth are these gooey, sticky little morsels? Read on to find out What a thing to have a sweet tooth. Anyone who has a sweet tooth knows what it’s like to have a craving for the sweet and sugary, to bite into something that clouds the senses in tooth-achingly luscious decadence. Unfortunately, ... More About: Sweet , Attack , Atta
My life, as told by a bowl of soup
2007-03-20 15:34:00 Every culture has it’s traditions, and though I may have grown up here in Australia, my mother brought many of these traditions over from Korea, and so they became a part of my life and identity. One of these traditions is the serving of ‘Mi-Yok Guk’ (seaweed soup). The soup is high in nutrients and ... More About: Life , My Life , Soup , Told , Bowl
Baby, I need your carb-lovin?
2007-03-15 11:34:00 “WHO THE HELL MOVED MY ARBORIO RICE?!” I growled as I continued pawing through the endless stream of plastic packages in the pantry, searching for the elusive bag which contained these short, stumpy, pearly, carb-a-licious grains. After one heckuva long day where nothing seemed to go my way, I had dreamt of making risotto all the ... More About: Baby , Your , Need , Carb
Smells like home
2007-03-11 13:33:00 There is something to be said for the act of baking your own loaf of bread. Sure, in this day and age when there are artisan bakeries and loaves enough to supply all (or a Baker’s Delight product if you’re used to that supermarket flavour), why would anyone bother going through the time-consuming motions of ... More About: Home , Smell , Like
The long-awaited dumpling post!
2007-03-05 00:32:01 There are many different kinds of dumplings, but here I’m going to concentrate solely on the Korean kind, called mandu. Here are some little tidbits of information regarding these treats: Wahng Mandu are ‘king’ dumplings about the size of your palm with a slightly thicker and fluffier skin (called ‘pi’) When served on their own, they are usually served either steamed or fried. Steamed dumplings are called ‘jjin mandu‘ and fried ones are called ‘goon mandu‘, but they are both still mandu. Another way these dumplings can be served is in a slightly thickened soup with rice cakes (dduk) called ‘dduk mandu gook‘. Whilst the fillings are usually similar/the same, there is a distinction drawn between regular mandu and kimchi mandu (mandu which has also got diced kimchi in the filling) This recipe is purely for the filling as we no longer make the skins ourselves - whilst my grandmother used to handroll hundreds of th... More About: Post , Long , Wait
Five minutes of fame!
2007-03-01 12:30:02 I got a message today from a mate of mine, with some completely unexpected news: Emma: Hey Elki Ellie: Hey Ems, what’s happening? Emma: dude your blog was in the herald sun on mon or tue about foodie blogs Ellie: WHAT THE FRUITCAKES? ARE YOU SERIOUS? *many more expletives* It may only be the URL featured in a little list of Australian food blogs at the bottom of the article, but still - my first ever mention in a print newspaper! *swoons* I’ve since tracked down a copy of the page and once I figure out how to keep the paper from dying, I’ll get to keep it forever and ever Technorati Tags: herald sun, newspaper, blogging Share This More About: Fame , Minutes , Minute , Five , Utes
Not-so-blackberry smacks!
2007-03-01 12:30:02 When I first saw the recipe for these brombeerbusserl by Nicky over at Delicious:Days, I knew that this was one recipe that needed to be made. How could something so tiny and cute and biscuitty possibly be denied? Now, though I’ve never really been much of a girly girl (you should’ve seen my childhood collection of matchbox cars!), I’m finding that as I get older, I’m really starting to dig cute things a whole lot more. This means that my collection of knee-length ‘flouncy’ skirts has exponentially increased and is threatening to take over my wardrobe, but also means that I’m wanting to make cute little biscuits and mignardises. What can I say about this recipe except that it is almost a walk in the park. If you’ve stronger hands than I am then you probably won’t as difficult a time as I did when piping out the cookies, but don’t worry too much as it’s not too stiff a batter, and after holding the piping bag for a few... More About: Mac , Blackberry , Black , Berry , Lack
This nostalgia tastes bittersweet - a once-off event
2007-02-24 12:27:01 “A feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain, and resembles the sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Nostalgia is a tricky beast - it is often the rose-tinted glasses through which we view events of the past, but sometimes is the genuine wistful longing we feel when thinking of people and times that are no more. These memories that are tied into past feelings of love, and I think that many people revisit them from time to time, losing themselves in their reverie. We’re nearing the end of our summer here in Australia, and perhaps it’s that my body feels Autumn slowly creeping around the corner, but lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the past - the friends I’ve gained and lost, the loves that have come and gone, and the way that time has ticked on relentlessly through it all. So many of the memories that we have are tied in with food. For example, bananas will forever remind me of the way I used t... More About: Event , Sweet , This , Bitter
Chocolate Confessions
2007-02-23 00:25:02 For someone who proclaims that they aren’t a chocaholic, I sure seem to post a lot of chocolate recipes! Am I just in denial? Perhaps somewhere under this hardened exterior lies a sweet, gooey, intense rush of chocolate love? Maybe I should just take a deep breath, step forward and admit it - my name is Ellie, and I’m a chocaholic. To be honest, I’m not the world’s biggest chocaholic. I don’t find myself constantly craving it’s cocoa kiss, nor am I driven to seek it out very often. However, when there’s a freshly baked chocolate cake (or a beautiful chocolate truffle) in my vicinity, the smell enters my nose and my eyes roll back into my head with pleasure as my senses are awakened. Anyone who knows what I’m talking about understands what I mean when I say that chocolate is a beautiful thing. This being my very last week at my workplace (and Friday being my last day ever), I decided to treat my coworkers by making them this very speci... More About: Confessions , Chocolate , Confession , Cola , Sion
Please stand by
2007-02-11 00:16:02 Sorry for the lack of posts folks, but there’s been a couple of things happen recently. The bigger thing is that after almost 30 months at my place of employment, I handed in my resignation and 2 weeks notice this week. No, I don’t have another job to go to, but with going back to Uni at the end of this month and my continuing health struggles, I need to cut down the stress in my life to a bare minimum. The second thing is that my computer has DIED IN THE ARSE. Now, for a food blogger, this presents the teeny tiniest of dilemmas - I have nothing to type out posts on! Sort of the last thing I needed as I dropped and broke the viewing screen on my digital camera in December which has made taking photos a royal pain in the derriere! It’s waiting to be taken to the shop (I don’t drive so I need my pops to find time to deliver it there) so it will be yet another week before I’m back online properly. xo Ellie Share This More About: Please , Lease , Ease , Stand
Hay Hay it?s Donna Day roundup!
2007-02-06 12:12:02 The final, fluffy round-up of Souffle Season has been put together over at Running With Tweezers - head on over, have a look and email Tami with who you think should win this edition of ‘Hay Hay it’s Donna Day’ I have a substantial post on making dumplings coming up…but there’s a heckuva lot of typing involved! Hopefully have something for you, my lovely readers, by tomorrow Share This More About: Roundup , Round
Swiss roll bliss
2007-02-03 12:10:02 With the success of this humble yet untried (by me) recipe, I get to mark yet another food-to-try off my list! The humble sponge roulade - otherwise known as a swiss or jam roll. It seems simple enough, nay, in it’s barest of forms it almost seems a bit plain-jane or boring! Nonetheless, I had put it down in my diary as another one of those recipes to try. The reason I wanted to try making one of these is that I have only eaten them once in my life - just once, when my mother tried making it when I was a little kid. I was only about 8 years old and the fact that ma had rolled this cake up seemed absolutely magical to me. As soon as the jam inside had set, she cut me a slice from the still warm cake, and I still remember staring at the swirl of ruby-red jam encased in the soft, fluffy cake. And then, for reasons unbeknownst to both my mother and myself, I proceeded to smush it into a mountain of sticky, jammy cake before devouring every crumb. Kids do the darndest things! At an... More About: Roll , Swiss
Tardiness, thy name is Ellie?
2007-01-30 18:07:01 I know what you’re thinking - that’s not a Valentines postcard. You’re darn tootin’ right it’s not a Valentines postcard! But, having hunted for one over the past 3 days, I gave up today and sent this card with a special message to my Blogging By Mail partner (don’t even get me started on trying to find a blank Valentines Day card…Hallmark, why does thou hate me so?) So, my mysterious BBM partner, I’m sorry that I couldn’t get you a V-day postcard, but I hope you appreciate the card anyway Technorati Tags: blogging by mail, bbm, valentines day Share This More About: Dine , Name , Ness , Ellie
Bittersweet beauty
2007-01-30 18:07:01 Dark, dusty, misshapen lumps - what secrets do these homely brown nuggets hide? Sometimes, you find that you come across something and you seriously understimate it. Like that Jamie Oliver recipe that you came across that seemed simple enough, but left you standing in the middle of an exploded kitchen asking “what went wrong?”. Or perhaps, more like the time you decided to post some homemade marshmallows to a friend, only to discover that the postage cost 4x the cost of actually making them, making them the most expensive marshmallows you’ve ever come across. Or perhaps it’s more like that time when you woke up with a hangover and a rumbling stomach, and went to fix a bowl of cereal for breakfast and since your eyes were blurry, you mistook the carton of buttermilk for regular milk, and after taking a big mouthful, you were left worshipping the porcelain gods for half an hour afterwards. Not that I’ve done any of the above, mind you. Ahem, moving onR... More About: Beauty , Sweet , Bitter , Beau , Bittersweet
Choc-a-riffic!
2007-01-27 06:04:01 Is this enough chocolate for ya? So, I may have missed the deadline for Sugar High Friday: The Chocolate Sessions, but that doesn’t mean I can’t post about this cake now, does it? Despite my numerous claims that I’m not a chocaholic (I’m not - promise!), I find myself drawn to cooking with it again and again. I prefer cooking with dark chocolate so even if the end result is something far too rich for my tastebuds, there is something to be said for the allure of creating a chocolate concoction - the glossy sheen as it melts, the warming scent that permeates the kitchen as it cooks, and finally, the intense flavour and sugar rush experienced as you devour a bite of your chocolatey friend. Mmmmmmm… This is by far one of the most intensely chocolatey things that I have ever made, bar none. Being flourless, it is a fairly compact cake and I think that just serves to make the chocolate flavour even stronger! I’d even contemplate calling it orgasmic, ... More About: Riff
The devil?s got a hold on me
2007-01-23 18:01:02 Cupcakes. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. You might be thinking “Awww, but they’re so cute - teensy tiny cakes with frosting that you can devour in a few bites - what’s not to love?” Long time readers of my blog will know that I used to have an almost unreasonable fear of these petite mounds of cuteness. I did eventually manage to turn out a pretty decent chocolate chai cupcake (with assistance from this book), but after that one success I put them to the back of my mind and forgot all about them - both the making and consuming. If you’ve been browsing other food blogs, you may have noticed the cupcakes suddenly springing up all over the place - all in honour of the cupcake round-up being hosted by Cheryl of Cupcake Bakeshop and Garret of Vanilla Garlic, two food bloggers united in their love of all things cupcake-y! I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try my hand at making these mini cakes again, so I turned to my cupcake ... More About: Evil , Devil , Hold , The D , The Devil
Or, alternative title: How I was seduced by Pierre Hermé
Ha
2007-01-14 17:54:02 Or, alternative title: How I was seduced by Pier re Herm é Have you ever had a recipe that you’ve looked at and gone “Nah, I couldn’t make that!”? Ever looked through a cookbook and marvelled at some gloriously delicious looking dish, and toyed with the idea of creating it, only to then laugh and put it away as something you could never recreate? To be honest with you, I’m easily phased from cooking certain things. After reading extensively about the difficulty of preparing artichokes, I cannot even bear to look at them at the greengrocers, and the thought of cooking eggplants (aubergines) makes me pale with fear. And, until recently, I was terrified at the thought of making muffins or working with yeast! There’s also the whole ‘home made pasta’ - I’d love to do it, but I’m terrified of ending up with a boiled lump of slimey dough. Many of these may sound like unsubstantiated fears to you, dear readers, but they are very rea... More About: Alternative , Title
So, this month’s edition of Does My Blog Look Good In
2007-01-14 17:54:02 So, this month’s edition of Does My Blog Look Good In This has started, and it’s time for me to decide on an entry! The only problem is…I don’t know which picture to put forth for the competition! I’ve made a short list of the photos that I took in December that I quite like and would love your help in helping me to pick the one I’ll enter! There’s a poll at the bottom of the post that you can make a selection at 1. chocolate truffle 2. Peanut Brittle 3. No-knead bread crust 4. Honeycomb 5. Choc nut cookies Which picture should I enter in this month’s DMBLGIT competition? 1, Chocolate truffle 2. Peanut brittle 3. No-knead bread crust 4. Honeycomb 5. Choc nut cookies Free polls from Pollhost.com Technorati Tags: DMBLGIT, photos, food More About: Edit
Confused? Let me explain…
Have you ever started cooki
2007-01-14 17:54:02 Confused? Let me explain… Have you ever started cooking something that you felt was doomed from the start? Every step you take (every move you make, hah!) you feel yourself becoming more and more frazzled as you miss ingredients, mix up the order of the instructions, and yet in the face of disaster you soldier on, wondering what the end result will be like. This is a story a bit like that. In the midst of all my candy-making, I thought it would be a marvelous idea to try and make some chewy caramels! So, I hunted down what I thought was a very simple recipe with very few ingredients, and I set to work. A few tips when working with sugar: 1. Don’t have a food-obsessed dog weaving in and out of your legs when working, this not only acts as a distraction, but a walking hazard that you could easily trip over. 2. Keep a keen eye on the pot of cooked sugar, especially if you happen to have a mother with a penchant for sticking fingers into mysterious pots. 3. Have your ingred... More About: Arte , Plain , Start , Star
Tell me you want my pizza-pie lovin?
2007-01-03 17:49:02 Without a doubt, this is the best pizza base I’ve ever tasted or made! Thin, crisp, chewy, perfectly aerated - we have a winner! To be honest, I was quite happy with the original pizza dough recipe that I’d been using - it was relatively easy, quick, resulted in a tasty end product which was quite enjoyed by those who’d tried it. However, it just didn’t measure up to the better pizza bases that I’d enjoyed at various pizzerias and restaurants, so the hunt was on to find something that would compare - nay, to blow my little toesies out of the water! What constitutes my ideal base and crust, you ask? Well, I’m a fan of thinner bases with some degree of crunch and chewiness. It can’t be too oily, and needs to be firm enough that it can be held by the outer edge and it won’t fall into my lap - and it needs to have a little softness otherwise it can be akin to chewing cardboard. Geezus, is that enough of a list? It feels a bit like I’... More About: Pizza , Want , Tell , Tell Me
Mr. Bear?s Teaparty
2006-12-29 11:45:01 Or, how to knock up an entry for Sugar High Friday in an hour! When I saw this post on Habeas Brulee last month for Sugar High Friday, I made a note that I’d prepare something elaborate, try my hand at spun sugar, toffee “glass windows” and all manner of other ideas that I had. And then it completely slipped my mind! With the ensuing madness of Christmas shopping and baking, I had all manner of sweet goods on my mind, but spun sugar creations were certainly nowhere to be found on the list. So, when I looked in my diary this afternoon and saw a bolded entry to “UPLOAD SHF: SUGAR ART” blog post, to say that I freaked out would be a bit of an understatement. What to do, what to do?? Well, I did the only thing I could do - grabbed what supplies I had in the fridge and went for it! I had seen a recipe for a free-form tart in Nigella Lawson’s “How To Be A Domestic Goddess” that was accompanied by a beautiful picture of a crisp, puffed pastr... More About: Party , Part , Bear
Don?t hate me ?cuz I?m beautiful
2006-12-28 17:43:01 These cookies aren’t the kind that will win any beauty pagents. No siree bob, these are the kind of cookies that would make the mirror crack as they groomed their warty selves in the morning whilst asking any available reflective surface if they were pretty - in the hopes that one would survive the ensuing crack to respond that they weren’t all that bad. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the cookies that, once they had been removed from the oven and viewed by my mother, were met with a distasteful wrinkling of the nose and a comment that they were “too damn ugly to eat, and certainly too ugly to give away to other people”. Listen to that sound. Can you hear it? That’s the sound of a broken-hearted cookie crying. It’s certainly not the cookies fault that it looks like a burnt saucer of lumpy porridge. They tried their hardest to appeal - what with it’s chunks of walnut and pecan, sultanas, nuts and chocolate, the range of goodness available wi... More About: Hate , Hat , Beautiful , Beau
Gimme a kiss, love!
2006-12-28 05:42:01 Or rather, a gold-dusted meringue kiss! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and got to spend lots of quality time with their loved ones Sorry for my absence, but after an insane week where I was baking in almost every spare moment that I had, I took some time off the blog to spend it with my family as we’ve all been so busy over the past year that we’ve had very little quality family time. All you christmas food-basket giving types will know what I mean when I say the time leading up to the silly season is a mad rush to bake - creating a short-list of goodies to be made, weighing up in what order they can be made and how long they’ll stay good for, shopping for ingredients as well as paper, ribbons and cellophane for the wrapping process - all in all, it’s a production line which is time and effort-consuming, though all is made up for it when your grateful recipients call you excitedly to let you know that they received the goodies and think... More About: Love , Kiss , Gimme
Willpower is the ability to eat one salted peanut?
2006-12-19 11:34:01 Or, in this case, just one piece of salted peanut brittle! After seeing Mooncrazy’s post about her peanut brittle, I started wondering - could I make this myself? Being a lover of both sugar and nuts, how could this combination not appeal to my sensibilities? So, being the neurotic little note taker that I am, I printed out Mooncrazy’s recipe, making sure to make note of all her notes…and then proceeded to google peanut brittle recipes for the next half hour trying to find out as much as I could about these sweet shards of pleasure. However, after making the honeycomb, I reread Mooncray’s recipe and my heart sank like a stone. They were both aerated with bi-carb, meaning that I’d get a similar flavours and sensations Everyone, repeat after me: Now, whilst I quite enjoyed the honeycomb I made, I had more than enough to keep me going for awhile so the idea of making another similar sugar mix didn’t exactly fill me with joy. The real problem was ... More About: Power , Peanut , Will , Salt , Bili
Some days, chocolate is all you need
2006-12-19 11:34:01 The females out there who read this blog know what I’m talking about. It’s that time of month, you’re grumpy and tired and just happened to get out of the wrong side of the bed that morning, and the day just isn’t going your way. And then you bite into a morsel of chocolate, close your eyes and enjoy that little rush of endorphins that run through your system giving you a little buzz. Now, I’m not much of a chocaholic, but there are times when I crave a tiny morsel to get me through a rough patch or a bit of a bad mood, the combination of sugar, caffeine and cocoa gives me a thrill that can help pull me out of a funk - especially when I’m in my ‘delicate’ time of the month. (Delicate = as bad tempered as a mongoose that’s being prodded with pointy electrified sticks) Last week I had one of those days - I was at work counting down the minutes till I could leave, and to say that I was a bad-tempered little beastie by the time I got... More About: Chocolate , Cola , Days , Need , Late
No knead to worry, this bread is a piece of cake
2006-12-11 17:31:01 This bread is a work in contrasts - the thin crust is crunchy, whilst the inside is dense, chewy and moist. This weekend was an absolute scorcher, with temperatures sitting around 40 degrees C on both Saturday and Sunday. Whilst I was able to fulfill my cooking desires with my boiled sugar treats, I was still aching to bake something, but didn’t want to turn the oven on in the middle of such scorching weather. What to do, what to do? Whilst pondering this question, I remembered reading about this no-knead bread recipe which had taken the blog world by storm last month - the super long proofing time required for the dough meant that I could feel like I was making bread but wouldn’t have to turn the oven on till the cool change struck at night, and the hot weather during the day was perfect for dough proofing! How could I lose? Now, I haven’t had the best luck with yeasted goods, so even though people reported this recipe as being almost foolproof, I still made sure... More About: Read , Cake , Worry , Bread
Oh honey, oh sugar sugar
2006-12-11 05:30:02 By the time it gets to Friday in the office, my coworkers and I are usually at our wit’s end with boredom, so eager for the weekend that we’re almost salivating with desire (eww, now there’s a mental image!) and shooting emails back and forth, desperate for some form of amusing distraction. Occasionally, when I know I’ll be baking on the weekend, I’ll run an event on the Friday afternoon known as “Friday Afternoon Shenanigans” - an event that invites my coworkers to prepare for the weekend by exercising the sillier sides of their brains, and generally sharing a laugh. After not having run the event for the past month, this Friday I shared the definitive guide on “How To: Smell Like A Fish“, which caused such confusion that I thought it the perfect opportunity to reinstate this event and make a triumphant come-back. The resulting request for people to submit the title of a “most unlikely ‘how to’ list” yiel... More About: Sugar , Honey
Leaning Tower of Marshmallows
2006-12-09 17:28:02 After seeing this post on Helen’s blog, I was absolutely enamoured with the idea of making actual sweets at home - not the baked kind. However, the recipe required the use of a sugar thermometer, and alas I had none… till now. My new favourite kitchen toy $20 later, I left the CakeDeco store in Flinders Arcade on Thursday afternoon with a brand new sugar thermometer and a desire to delve into the world of home-made marshmallows (or Chamallows, as Helen calls them), yet the opportunity didn’t arise till Saturday morning, when I bunkered down with grim determination to make something with this new toy of mine. My mallows are a lot less neat than Helen’s, but the flavour and texture of these home-made goodies makes up for any amount of wonkiness! Oh lordy - I’ve had hand-made marshmallows before, but in no way did they compare to these. I take no credit, the recipe is marvellous, forgiving and hard to muck up, and this is definetely something I’m g... More About: Mars , Marshmallow , Lean , Mall , Tower
Today, my world is on fire?
2006-12-09 11:27:01 I woke up this morning to grey skies and the smell of ash in the air, which confused me - the forecast for today is for almost 40 degrees C (about 104 degrees F) and every day this week when it’s gotten to around 8am I’ve had to wear my sunnies to avoid being blinded by the sun. Something wasn’t right. I stepped outside, and saw this ominous reminder, in case the blanket of smoke and the smell of burning wasn’t enough. This photo of the sun is untouched - all I have done is resize it. This is not a sunset, but a sun tinted by smoky skies at 8am in the morning. Today , 20% of Victoria is on fire. Please think about that for a second. Think of all the life that is at stake - all the birds, the animals, the insects, the people and their entire townships. Now, I am as safe as can be from these fires as they are happening in the country and I’m in middle suburbia, but every breath of dry wind that comes rolling past my face bears the signs of the fires it&#... More About: World , Fire
You swirl me right round, baby right round
More articles from this author:2006-12-05 23:24:02 I haven’t posted much in the way of food recently because I frankly haven’t been home before 9pm on most nights, and my wonderful mother has on most occassions put out some leftovers from the family dinner for my famished self. Why so late? Well, I’ve developed a bit of an addiction to going to the gym recently, visiting it between 3-6 times a week, one of those being a weekly pilates session. Unfortunately, the only time I have to go is after work, so by the time I’ve worked out and gotten my sorry ass back home it’s anywhere from 9-10pm. The pilates is doing wonders, I feel my core muscles strengthening already and I’m starting to feel muscles develop under the flab, and although I can’t complain about how much more flexible I’m feeling, some of the poses we have to pull and hold in class are…unflattering to say the least. For example, when you’re legs are spread apart, you’re lying on your back and your head is ab... More About: Baby , Right , Round 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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