Brown Onion Gravy

More than a month away from the blog

a month

a whole month

The usual excuses -- work work and more work

No time / no life / no play - or for cooking around the house
(ok - maybe a 'little' play - i did have time to buy a leather jacket .. and some shoes, and a couple more cookbooks, and mounds of haighs chocolates (why oh why don't they have a frequent shopper discount card??)

Multiple projects at the moment, and I find I'm actually doing the work of 3 people ... thank goodness for my little helper up in the NQ office - or I would be completely off the scale, and would most likely have had a total mental breakdown by now. I've just sent her a little box of haighs chocolates to cheer her up ... (haighs again!!)

After being told asked to cook dinner tonight for the household - and being supplied with the main ingredient - schnitzels (insert mental image here of lederhosen and great foaming steins of beer) - I decided to add something non-German ... brown onion gravy. Every so often, and at least twice per year, I manage to succumb to the craving for this simple little brown onion sauce. There is nothing particularly spectacular or mind blowing for that matter about this concoction - it seems to be just plain, and good hearty food.


Amongst my 200+ cookbooks, you would also think the recipe would be included in at least more then 1 ... and though I've searched a good 20-30 of the ones you would 'assume' would have the recipe - it's not to be.


For the record - cookbooks that 'do not' contain a recipe for this most simple of sauces:

. Day to Day cookery
. Donna Hay - Kitchen / Classics / Dinning / Food and Drink / Cooking
. Jamie Oliver - Cook with Jamie / the Naked Chef / the Naked Chef rides again / Jamies dinners
. Jane Grigsons' vegetable book
. Good Housekeeping World Cookery
. Nigella Lawson - How to Eat / Forever Summer / Nigella Bites
. Doubleday Cookbook - vol 1
. Stephanie Alexander - a cooks companion


the list goes on ...


The cookbook that 'does' contain this most simple of sauces:


Cookery the Australian Way - a 1990'ish publication ... with fantastic old style hand drawn images thrown into the mix - pg 233



Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter
1 small onion – chopped (slices)
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup stock (or water) * NB – use stock for more flavour.
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce



Method:

. Using a small saucepan – fry onion in butter until light brown
. Add flour & stir w/ wooden spoon – cooking until mixture is light brown
. Remove from heat. Add the liquid (stock or water) gradually – stirring continuously
. Return to heat and stir until boiling. Add Worcestershire sauce and some salt.
. Reduce Heat – simmer for approx 1 min (nb – cooked longer than 1 minute)
. Taste & season as required (salt & pepper)


Nb - using beef stock makes for a browner / richer sauce.


So very simple to make - but so much nicer (and possibly healthier) than the dehydrated and scary gravy and sauce mixes available in the stores.

Smoked Salmon Pasta (m)

Another crazy day - filled with stress and 27,000 phone calls (yes - a 'slight exagerration' - though I'm fairly sure I've managed to account for an entire monthly phone bill in one day)

With left over smoked salmon (which freezes relatively well I've discovered) - m turned the smoked salmon into a creamy pasta dish.





Ingredients:


smoked salmon
spring onions
cream
onion
a very little garlic
pasta
and quite possibly - some white wine...




delicious

no food - but a couple of big ships

Work has been taking over my life... just when i thought things were changing and that even though I'm looking after teams in two offices, I was 'sure' things were more under control ... ha.

Ok - so I'm still not really cooking - M has been looking after that in the house .. but then again - when stressed - I tend not to really cook much either.

On an up note - I 'finally' purchased a digital camera - so the images might improve.

Dinner consisted of: chicken rissoles, mixed salad (w/ beetroot, rocket, snow peas, carrots), bbq'd mushrooms, coleslaw, and some chilli watermelon.

To backtrack a little, the stresses this week resulted in my visiting the area around Circular Quay for work. As a result - I managed to take a few shots of the 'big' ships as I took my coffee break and walked down around the OPT.

The Oriana and the Amsterdam were visiting Sydney.

Risotto Spring Rolls & the Giant Purple Cupcake

What to do with left over risotto and the odd banana? Make spring rolls out of it...



M was pondering the left over risotto dilemna (over a few bourbons) - and by the time I eventually staggered in the door (one harrowing bus ride home) - she had already decided to 'trial' a few different recipes.



Ingredients:

. left over mushroom risotto
. banana & brown sugar
. various cheeses - jarlsberg / tasty / parmesan
. chocolate
. spring rolls wrappers


Mix 1:
Risotto - with some additional parmesan


Mix 2:
Banana - with sprinkling of brown sugar inside
. once cooked - sprinkled with cinnamon sugar


Mix 3:
Various cheeses - what ever combination .. generally harder cheeses.
. Be very careful with this roll - as the cheese tends to ooze out if you aren't careful - leaving you with a slightly oily - empty spring roll shell


Mix 4:
Chocolate - milk.
. Again - be careful with this roll mix. This selection was 'double' wrapped after the cheese experience.


Overall - not bad. All mixes worked .. granted - I'm a cheese fiend - so truth be told - the cheeese one was probably my favourite - though I wouldn't be able to eat too many.


=======================================================


And just finally - the giant purple cupcake


I had decided to be 'semi-healthy' for lunch - and headed down into the food court to navigate the crowds and purchase small 'noodle' selection. Unfortunately I made the misguided decision to 'quickly run through' the pattissierie section of DJ's ... and these little beauties caught my eye. All the pastel colours of the rainbow - lemon, peach, bluebell, and of course .. the violet ... the purple cupcake. Pure Evil.


And yes - it was tasty - though not fabulous. Possibly a 3 star rating. And yes - I felt horribly horrible ill afterwards.

Oh well ... what can i say - it "called" to me.

Garlic Prawns (m) / Mushroom Risotto (m) & a couple of books

The (m) or a (c) in any post title represents those dishes cooked by M or C at home.

M cooked Garlic Prawns & Red Wine mushroom risotto last night - to tide us over until C returns from Adelaide (a work trip)

Garlic Prawns:

. green prawns

. garlic

. spring onions

. brown onions

. cream

. white wine

. flat leaf parsley

- Served with Jasmine Rice

Mushroom Risotto:

. mushrooms (white & swiss brown)

. thyme - fresh

. garlic

. onion

. red wine

. parmesan

. chicken stock

. butter

. lemon juice

. arborio rice

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Today was also a retail therapy 'binge' day - in terms of new cookbook acquisitions.

The new purchases include:

Anthony Bourdain's - Les Halles Cookbook

Schneider - A New Way to Cook

Jamie Oliver - Cook with Jamie

Yes - I do have a problem - but I LOVE them.

Chinese New Year - Official Opening

Being in the city for work has it's pro's and con's. Trying for the more positive spin on things - I'm going with a positive being that it's close and convenient to events like this one : The 2007 Offical Opening of the Chinese New Year events.

Silverside

Dinner tonight was Silverside - good old fashioned - just like momma used to make - Silverside.

Semi-Celebrity Spotting

No cooking lately - and that's a sad & sorry state of affairs in itself. Busy with work - managing staff & site visitations, and issues at home.

Thursday night - the 3 of us in our new Sydney office were lucky enough to be invited along to the official re-launch of one of Sydney's restaurants (the relaunch comes after a bit of a face lift). I think that with the revamp - it looks fantastic - a very good transformation - granted they are limited in the level of retrofitting that's possible given the style and nature of the location - but I think the result speaks for itself - fresh / modern / schmick / and less likely to date. Only 2 of us ended up attending - as our other associate is away next week for consultations and is flack-stick. I have a similar amount of work due - but decided it might be lovely to attend something.

The 'finger food' was also excellent - and consisted of samples of food from the normal menu:
. little noodle boxes filled with Ceasar salad
. duck ravioli - fried *
. seasoned / marinated chicken skewers (at least I think they were chicken - they may have been crocodile ... oops - sorry - wasn't paying attention)
. prawns on some form of seasoned guacamole
. arancini (crumbed & fried risotto balls) *
. oysters with something or other (yes - I didn't pay attention to this at all .. not being an oyster fan from the restaurants' own 'oyster farm licence'.... I'll have to update the correct terminology here)
. some kangaroo that looked delicious - that unfortunately we didn't get to sample
. tuna carpacio on a watercress cracker *

Unfortunately - the other foodie bites escape me at the moment ... but it was wonderfully done - and the food was delicious. Drinks consisted of: Belini's / champagne / beer (for those so inclined). The evening was capped off with speeches by the minister for tourism / representative of Tourism NSW, and of course the restaurant group managing director. I have to admit though ... Thursday was a completely and utterly dreadful day - work & home life related -- and I only wish I had been in a slightly better frame of mind to mingle more and chat .. as it was - I could only really handle chatting to my co-worker who attended. It's a bit difficult to meet new people and be bright and cheery when inside you are a bit of a mess and ready to cry at a moments notice.


Overall - apart from the personal poor frame of mind - the event was excellent - and again - the restaurant looks fantastic - I only wish I could have stayed longer (sigh ... work & the inevitable long trek home called me away from the event -- which by all accounts kicked on until the wee hours of the morning). I'm loving Sydney - but the trek back home .. and lack of buses after a certain time period is perhaps one of the worst things to date.


which brings me to my 'semi-celebrity' posting as it were:


Joanna Savill ... of "The Food Lovers Guide to Australia" - an attendee.

On Saturday - with site visitation to one of Sydney ports - we discovered (read 'I' discovered) another semi-celebrity - :

'Ugly Dave Gray' .

By all accounts 'Dave' was in attendance, due to commence his stint as an entertainer on a recent cruise ship departing Sydney. I'm disgusted to report that 'none' of my staff know who 'Ugly Dave' is ... could this be perhaps that I"m showing my age??? I certainly hope not.

And yes - in both cases - I was dignified enough 'not' to interrupt their privacy - and gush over speaking to someone well known by the masses (rephrase - maybe some of the masses)...


Sunday - no -semi-celebs - though i did encounter a 'massive' cruise ship. The 'Pacific Princess' is in port at Sydney - to begin the next scheduled cruise.



Almost 2700 passengers. 16 restaurants - all the usual facilities - a casino - and an art gallery .. they even hold art auctions on board .. ART AUCTIONS !!

Apparently though - this one had a bit of a rough crossing in the Tasman Sea - 3 days of 'hurricane' weather - according to one passenger. Otherwise - the cruise was 'wonderful / fantastic / amazing / spectacular' .. the positive comments continue adinfinitum.

It was a beautiful day - not too hot - just pleasant with a nice breeze. Sunny enough though that I was sun burnt 'through' my shirt - but just a little on my shoulders - a good slathering of moisturiser should help.

The location in the photo here is the Overseas Passenger Terminal - the Rocks (Circular Quay). And yes - some of the other photos' did contain the obligatory 'Opera House' shot .. to remind me that I do actually live in Sydney now.

Mental note - a thank you to the shipping agent staff and overall port staff of yesterday and today that ensured our site-visit and reason for visit ended up being very smooth (after a small hick-up at the start today before we were able to meet with / liaise with the shipping agent) ... It's so very refreshing to come across people who are friendly and helpful and go above and beyond the call of duty - when they could infact be surly and rude and difficult (as was the experience in Townsville in 2006). These people don't actually realise how much of an impact they make upon other people - and that without them - our job is that much more difficult.

Dinner tonight - Guinness Pie mince [sans pastry - due to C & M being on the low-fat health kick] - with corn and tinned beans [bleaghhhh ... who ever invented tinned beans should be drawn & quartered]. Dinner was cooked by M and represents the most food I've now eaten in about 3 days. Stress (work & home) tend lately to completely and utterly remove my appetite .. I'm figuring that this may 'not' perhaps be such a bad thing ... since food is both the boon and bane of all foodies. Perhaps I'll view it as a stress-resultant 'fast' .. .....