Snownuts

K isn't the only one feeling pretty good about herself after discovering ghost tram. I'm feeling pretty special too. I don't want to brag, but guys, I've done it again. Two weeks ago it was apple pie toastie, now meet snownuts. And I'm not talking about Russeth's Friday night. 

A little while ago while talking about the prospect of buying donuts Baby started saying words that rhymed with donuts. "Are you buying brobutts? Snownuts?"

'Mmmmm, snownuts' I thought. I didn't know what a snownut would be, I just knew it would be delicious. White and pillowy like snow but fried and delicious like a donut. I tried to imagine how you could get something so lovely sounding. A donut covered in heaps of icing sugar. No that's just a sugary donut. I kept thinking about it going through different possibilities until it suddenly struck me. I'd make a meringue, fill it with something and deep fry it. SNOWNUT! First I thought I'd fill it with lemon curd but I felt like it needed something even more special than that and decided on raspberry curd. 

I knew I'd seen poached meringues before but I'd never seen deep fried meringues so naturally I googled it and found that Poh has a recipe for a fancier version of this using pandan creme patissiere and spun sugar. So I knew it would work and so I set to... work. 

First I made a raspberry curd which is just like making a lemon curd but I added some heated strained raspberries to it. 

Then I made my meringue. I noticed Poh included flour and corn flour in her recipe which I was a little wary of. But as a frequent pavlova maker I decided I'd add some corn flour for a little integrity. I used theee egg white about half a cup of castor sugar, about a tablespoon of corn flour and a little vanilla extract. Whipped it into some stiff snowy peaks and used Poh's technique to create the snownuts. This involved putting the meringue mixture into a ladle, making a well, adding the curd the covering that over with some meringue.

Then I fried the little bastards. Oh my god. Fucking snownuts! They are delicious. 

Snownut ripped open

They really are these lovely sweet pillows. I'd never really chose to eat a meringue, I don't like the crunchy chalky texture that they are often entirely made up of. I like that on the outside of a pav, but meringues tend to be all crunch, no softness. Snownuts are like the pillowy inside of a pavlova with a delightful deep-fried skin and a delicious tangy burst in the middle. In fact I think lemon curd would have worked pretty damn well here, like an inside out lemon meringue pie. But I guess I can try that next time!*

*As if. I have to stop inventing delicious sweet treats, especially of the deep-fried variety. I know where this is heading and it involves me not fitting into my jeans. And I love jeans even more than deep-fried things!

The 20/20 Experience (AM)

Here's what happened: all last week I was looking forward to seeing Justin Timberlake. It's not like I was super pumped or thinking about it constantly, it was just something I was looking forward to when I'd think about it. I mean, It's not a secret I kind of love Justin Timberlake. I know it, you know it, we all know it. And I was thinking it'd  also be great because it would give me some great content for today's post.

It was a weird scenario, I thought no one would want to go with me so I didn't bother asking around. But because I wanted to go and decided to go alone I bought the most expensive tickets. Which was great, because I was just metres from the stage, which is a pretty great way to see things, especially superstars. But although I clearly know how to see a superstar, Etihad Stadium do not. The house lights were up until a minute before JT came out which did not build anticipation at all and when he emerged from beneath the stage I felt pleased but not awed. He played 2 songs from The 20/20 Experience which was pretty good but slightly underwhelming and I wondered if it is was all worth it. But then... 

I expect some of you are not as intimate with JT's back catalogue as others so I will say the song Rock Your Body is a totally cheesy track from early in his solo career and when he played that and danced in unison with his back up dancers THAT is when magic happened. It was a total boy band moment and I effig loved it.  The whole show was like that first ten minute, mildly entertaining bits with some great bits thrown in. 

But that boy can dance and if there is one thing I love it is watching people dance. Preferably with back up dancers. Ideally while I can dance too. And it was three for three on that count. And I do love JT. 

The drag of it was there was absolutely no sense of spontaneity. My guess was that not a single word spoken on stage had not been spoken the night before. Some of the ballads were a drag too. Although I loved that a white grand piano emerged for him to sit at. I loved that he played Heartbreak Hotel but when he played Human Nature by Michael Jackson and sounded like the GooGoo Dolls I wondered why the eff he didn't play any single other MJ song. Like, one of the awesome ones?

Also there was an intermission, and although I appreciate that a guy needs a little rest or pick me up or whatever happens out there in those ten minutes I also think there's a way to accommodate that without bringing up those effing house lights again and totally killing the vibe. 

Having said that though it was pretty spectacular when the entire front of the stage came off, rose above the audience and travelled out to the back of the stadium with JT and singers and dancers so they could perform right in front of the seats at the back.

So you see what I'm saying guys? Awesome, meh, awesome, meh, that was the JT show. I like his old stuff better than his new stuff and it worked better in his show too. Everybody thinks so. 

Thanks Easter (AM)

The gift of a four day weekend is a precious, precious thing.  Thanks to Easter, I had time to confirm that:

slow cooking a lamb for five hours is the best way to eat lamb.

Pickle knows how to spilt and toast hot cross buns real nice

reviewing the yield from an easter egg hunt is enjoyable

riding the Capital City trail is ace, exhausting fun. 

Thanks Easter. Important lessons to learn, I think. 

Thermomix - is it all that and a bag of chips? (AM)

Remember a few months ago I told you that Primadonna went to a Thermomix demonstration and that machine sounded mindblowing and I desperately wanted to see one in action. Well I did! Finally Prima organised a demonstration in her home and K and I were lucky enough to go along.

Ok. So. Is Thermomix a total mindbender? It is pretty good. I think it would be a really excellent addition to the kitchen if you had a couple grand lying around. In case you don't know Thermomix can chop the shit out of things with its super high-power blades and it stirs and it heats. You see. It has very useful functions.

Here are some things I loved about it:

Our demonstrator, Natasha, showed us how Thermo can make raw sugar into icing sugar. You put those large crystals in and whizz. Then ICING SUGAR! WHOA! It pretty much blew my mind. Only buying one kind of sugar and just blending as appropriate! Awesome. I WANT THERMOMIX! Then a few days later on Facebook I saw G-Force had written this: Just discovered replacing caster with raw sugar. All you have to do is chuck it in the spice grinder for a coupla seconds.Presumably if caster sugar is possible in a spice grinder a few more seconds would make icing sugar possible. So maybe I don't need a Thermomix?

The next thing I loved was the delicious sorbet Natasha made with aforementioned icing sugar. Just that, frozen orange, egg white, mango, ice. It was smooth and very delicious. And I am pretty sure that I could really do some mindblowing icy treats with it. I WANT THERMOMIX! Then, a few days later my mum attempted a similar thing in her Magimix. The results were nowhere near as smooth and fancy, but it was still quite yum. Maybe I don't need a Thermomix?

There was a delicious Thermo-made hommus. It really was very, very good, but good hommus you can definitely do in a regular blender. But not in 20 seconds! I WANT THERMOMIX!

But the next thing really was the best. Natasha chucked quartered beetroot, apple, carrot, some mint and lemon juice into Thermo and that baby just chopped the crap out of everything and made one of the most delicious and labour-free salads I have ever eaten. I WANT THERMOMIX.




Then there was risotto. It was nice enough but I'm not a big risotto person. Too heavy for me. But a thing that stirs while cooking to give you a perfectly consistent foodstuff?! I WANT THERMOMIX. 

The lemon custard at the end demonstrated perfectly how perfectly consistent a cooked foodstuff Thermomix can make. I WANT THERMOMIX. 



But I guess I want $2000 more. Plus, it doesn't make chips.



 

Sounds like my Friday night (AM)

Oh, hi guys!

How was everyone's weekend? Great I hope! Mine wasn't. Sure it started out good, enjoying a beer with Mickey ‘Mikey Doubleword’ Blue Eyes while Biz played records but by the middle of Friday night I was sweating with a fever and aching in my bones. A nasty effing cold. Did something happen between the beer and the onset of a cold? Yep. Dinner at the RSL.

What? Yeah, it was weird. LB picked me up from the train station and we were going to get a burger from Grill'd. Which we don't even like that much, we were just being lazy. But we had to park the car around the corner, just past the RSL and as we walked past that RSL we had a glance and then another and then, then we just decided to walk in.

The weirdness started pretty much immediately. Of course you could argue it started with our decision to have dinner at the RSL. We were standing at the reception figuring out how to sign in when a young and friendly employee bounded up to help, he was so friendly and helpful. Weird. Then we went into the dining room and as we were deciding where to sit another young friendly guy bounded up, "Table for three?" he asked, "Sit anywhere you like." Hey, thanks for confirming guy.

The toilets had the reassuring smell of a side-of-the-road-motel room and David Bowie was playing on the sound system. I loved it!

There was not a single vegetarian thing on the menu so I ordered fish and chips. And 50 minutes later it came out. I tried to break off a small piece of fish for Baby but it was like trying to break a pencil. A thick frozen pencil. That isn't what fish should be like. It took a second or two for me to figure out that the fish was still frozen in the middle. It seemed so wrong with the deep fried batter and soft outer layer of fish, but there was no denying that fish was frozen solid. The waiter was pretty horrified when I told him. I don't know what I was more upset about. The fact that my dinner was frozen or when I told the guy "the fish is still frozen" that it seemed like a normal sentence. And let me tell you that when my dinner came out again cooked properly I had pretty much had no appetite.

As we were finishing up our "food" an old guy came over. Not super old. Like my Dad's age. He asked Baby "Can I draw you a train?" So he took my notebook and drew a picture for Baby. Turned out this guy was once a typographer but in 1979 when barcodes came in he moved into the barcode making business and had been doing it ever since. Also turned out this guy was secretary of the club. He was a nice guy. Told us they were really trying to establish the dining room, build up the clientele, asked us if we enjoyed our meal, hoped we'd be back. He was really nice, so we just told him we'd had a great time. Which was not entirely a lie.

An hour later I passed out. Two hours after that later I woke up sweating and in pain.

Frozen pencils and heavy sweating?! Sounds like my Friday night!