The Laziest Pumpkin Scones

Making food for people is so nice, but sometimes you just don’t want to spend that long over something that is eaten in five minutes. This recipe was an experiment where I did everything as lazily as I could, to see if the finished product, pumpkin and cheese scones, would still work. It did. They’re not the tallest, fluffiest towering scones you’ll ever make, but my goodness they’re easy and lovely.

How To: Fried Onions

Much like caramelised onion, homemade fried onion can improve almost anything. Use it to fancy up your rice, instant ramen, soups, salads and lentil dishes. A million miles away from the dessicated fried onion you can buy from the grocery store (and without the guilt of palm oil, with which almost all those products are made), home fried onion is sweet, rich and immensely addictive.

Autumn Fig Upside Down Cake

Figs are in season (in Australia), which is the only time that they’re worth eating. Make this cake, it’s very easy. I added yogurt and lemon rind to David Lebovitz’s cake recipe because normally upside down cakes use tart fruit like pineapples or cherries or plums (as you would for a clafoutis), but figs are so rich and sweet, I figured I could balance them with a bit of tartness in the cake.

Skirt Steak Tacos

One of those dinners I could happily eat every night. Chili does that to you. I also have a passion for skirt steak, as a cheap and incredibly tasty cut that just needs a bit of love and affection to be ten times better than expensive eye fillet.

Kaprica, Carlton

I could tell you about how I used to work for Salesforce and how if I’d had Kaprica next door I probably would have stayed for ever and ever and ever, but I won’t because that would be a total lie. Salesforce sucks.

Fattoush

Recently I bought Jerusalem,  the fabulous collaboration between Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. It may well be the first cookbook I’ve ever bought for myself, and I’m thrilled, I think Tamimi and Ottolenghi really do hope that hummus can pave the way to peace in the Middle East. It is also full of salads, and as my current resolution is to eat all the salad, I made the fattoush recipe from this book (mind you, I ate it alongside their hummus shawarma).

Perfect Risoni Salad

Christmas happened and it was delicious and now I’m back at work and in Melbourne and committed to one thing; more salad in my life.

Therefore, this salad, which was recently brought to a picnic by a friend and I have now gussied up with more herbs because otherwise it’s mostly pasta, is brilliant. Sweet sultanas, crunchy almonds, and delicious DELICIOUS risoni. Make it for work lunches as it keeps well in the fridge overnight.