DIY dairy

I experimented with making yogurt once or twice, a few years ago, just for fun. But I never really got into the habit. Making yogurt didn’t seem that difficult, but I would have had to do it a lot, given my consumption rate; plus my favorite kind is Greek yogurt, which involves the extra step of straining the yogurt to make it nice and thick. At that time I was living in England, where I could easily get my Greek yogurt fix at even my crummy local Sainsbury’s. I went through a 500 g (1+ lb) pot a week without even trying.

Then I moved to Australia, where they sold the stuff in 1-kg (2+ lb) tubs that cost not much more than the ones half their size had in Oxford. I was in yogurt heaven, and used it in everything: pancakes and pan sauces, muffins and dips.

Then I moved here.

False advertising

If winter in Canberra is a much milder version of what I expected, winter in Sydney bears no resemblance to anything I’ve ever experienced by that name. We took my sister and niece there for the last weekend of their recent visit and spent the first weekend of August (the antipodean equivalent of February) sitting outside in cafes, admiring local landmarks gleaming in the blazing sunshine, and “wrapping up” (that means putting on a fleece) for a sunset ferry ride across the harbor. We capped off the weekend with a picnic in the Botanical Gardens that was pretty much identical to the last one we had, in December, except this time we had cold roast chicken instead of prawns, and I planned ahead a bit better for my contribution to the feast.

Hotel Kitchen Greek-ish Salad
The ingredients for this salad were pretty much determined by what I could find in the little market next door to where we stayed, and prepare with the minimal equipment on offer--hence the name.

1 medium cucumber
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 medium red onion
1 block feta cheese
1-2 tsp dried oregano
2 T lemon juice
5 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the cucumber, quarter lengthwise and chop into chunks. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Peel and slice the onion. Rinse the feta cheese and cut into cubes. Sprinkle oregano evenly over everything; mix lemon juice and olive oil and drizzle over. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Either serve immediately or lug to your destination. Keeps well.

Serves 8-10 as part of a picnic lunch spread.

Restaurant meals

I’ve written before about how, several years ago, I had a job that required travelling two weeks out of every four. This state of affairs lasted for about a year and a half, and during that time I ate a lot of restaurant meals. Hundreds of them. So many, in fact, that I think I’m forever jaded about eating out; even now, I don't care about eating out often, but I want maximum bang for my buck when I do. It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated; but it does have to be fresh, tasty, and creative. Otherwise I’d rather just stay home and cook my own dinner.

When I think back to that parade of long-ago restaurant meals, it’s amazing how few of them I can remember in any detail, if I can remember them at all; whole trips are just a blur in my memory at this point. And there is only one that I remember so vividly that I can still tell you exactly what I had for dinner after all this time. It was at a Greek restaurant in Adelaide, where DP and I were taken for dinner by a friend of my brother-in-law’s and her husband. We’d never met before (my BIL hadn’t even seen her in about 15 years), but they were warm, welcoming, and friendly. They took us to one of their favorite restaurants, a place we would never have found on our own, and we had delicious food, great wine, and interesting conversation—in other words, a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Not coincidentally, I think it was at around this point in the trip that DP and I began to say to each other that Australia might be a nice place to spend some more time someday, if we could figure out how to arrange such a thing….

Almost exactly seven years later, in Canberra, I finally got around to re-creating my main course from that memorable dinner.

Greek Shrimp in Tomato Sauce
I’ve found a couple of versions of this on the internet, but in the end I decided to wing it and try to make it from memory, without any guidance. I have no idea how authentically Greek it is, but it is flavorful, hearty, and satisfying, without being at all stodgy.

Ingredients250ml/10oz water
125g/5oz mangetout/snow peas, trimmed and cut in half
5 Tbsp olive oil, divided
125g/5oz white rice
1 clove garlic, minced
Sprinkle red pepper flakes
250g/10oz shrimp
2-3 cups plain tomato sauce (you can make a quick marinara; I had made an extra-big batch of Zesty Pizza Sauce the night before on purpose)
100g/3oz feta cheese, cut into small cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
I’m going to tell you exactly how I did it, which I think is the most efficient way in terms of water and pan usage. If you have to make the tomato sauce, that will add another step.

1. Put water on to heat up in a small saucepan. Put a medium saucepan and a large frying pan on the stove to heat on low.
2. When the water comes to a boil, add a pinch of salt and then put the mangetout in to cook very briefly—just for a minute or two. Put about 2 Tbsp of olive oil in the medium saucepan to heat up.
3. Remove the mangetout from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and put aside to drain for a few minutes. Let the water return to a boil.
4. Check the oil in the saucepan to see if it’s warm. If it is, before you do anything to it, add 3 Tbsp of oil to the frying pan to heat. Now dump the rice in the saucepan and turn in the oil several times to coat thoroughly. Add the boiling water and a teaspoon or two of salt and stir to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Put a lid on the saucepan, make sure that the rice is cooking at a fast simmer, and leave alone for 12 minutes.
5. Turn the heat under the frying pan to medium and add the garlic and red pepper. Cook very briefly, then add the shrimp. When the shrimp are starting to color, add the mangetout and let everything sauté, stirring regularly. (A splash of white wine would have been nice here too, but I didn’t have any.)
6. Add the tomato sauce to the frying pan and continue stirring regularly. (If you are using a thick sauce, as I did, you might also need to add a bit of liquid at this point.) When everything looks as though it’s cooked to your satisfaction (ie pink shrimp, al dente mangetout), stir in the feta cheese and taste for seasoning.
7. Serve immediately over rice, with some crusty bread alongside.

This served 1 adult and 1 child, with enough left over for at least 1 other adult meal.