Category Archives: FISH & SHELLFISH

belly October 4 – loving and cooking in Italy

Victoria Cosford

For today’s belly radio show sister Tess had a lovely long chat with Victoria Cosford, author, restaurant reviewer, cooking teacher, and food writer for the Byron Shire Echo, about her book Amore and Amaretti. My movie-pitch description of the book is Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Anthony Bourdains Kitchen Confidential under the Tuscan Sun – but with much better recipes and more realistic descriptions of Italy. It covers a period of over 20 years of visits to central Italy, when Victoria was quickly swept up into cooking in various restaurants and tempestuous affairs with Italian cooks. Victoria isn’t 100% sure about my movie pitch description, but she did admit that she has Scarlet Johansen picked out for the lead role. A very good choice as you can see.

A few snippets :

– we are starting a campaign to get local butchers to cure pig cheeks – “guanciale” in Italian – join in and ask your butcher

– Victoria’s advice on finding good restaurants in Italy : if you are somewhere where you have eaten well, ask the waiters where they eat. In Perugia, just go to ‘Vecchia Perugia’, and tell them ‘la Veeky’ sent you

– the recipes in her book look like good home cooking because that was the specialty in most of the restaurants where Victoria worked, apart from the odd ‘amburger’, so they are well and truly tried and tested

– if you like the sardine recipe, try the same or a similar crumb mix on opened mussels and bake

Victoria shared a sardine recipe from her book (see below), on the grounds that it is extremely popular with friends so there must be something to it. Of course sardines are also very good for you and a good sustainable fish. Victoria was also today’s guest for the fresh report, some favourite veg at the moment are spinach and silverbeet – do as Italians do, and make the most of the delicate white stems of silverbeet, great steamed with a light dressing or pan cooked or baked with plenty of cream and parmesan. Just like asparagus, also in season. And I love Victoria’s way with artichokes. She trims and slices them, and sautes them in olive oil with chopped onions and garlic, then adds risotto rice and keeps going with a normal plain risotto recipe. but we both agree that it is hard to find good artichokes around here, let us know if you know of good sources. I’ve also just found a good info source for seafood in season on the Sydney Fish Market site. One of our favourite fish, Spanish mackerel, which can be expensive in Australia, is at peak availability in October. See here for more information. We have several mackerel recipes on belly, I fell in love with this fish in the U.K. (Yes I know, normal people fall for the culture, the green green hills…). I certainly did not fall for its pretty face though.

BELLY BULLETIN

Lots of foodie events coming up, so today’s bulletin is a bit of a what’s on, including more lovelorn women tasting their way around Italy.

Byron Bay Writers Festival are putting on a special premiere of Eat Pray Love with a screening at the Dendy Byron Bay cinema this Wednesday, 6 October. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love was a publishing phenomenon, as the cliche goes, the story of a woman’s quest to travel the world and rediscover herself. Mainly by going to beautiful places and making love to beautiful men in the movie version. Julia Roberts is in the lead role and the ‘eat’ part is set in Italy of course. According to reviews the food is beautiful too. Bookings advised. At Dendy box office or phone 6680 8555.

There will be Champagne which I suspect means lovely Aussie bubbles as we are still being very free with that word ‘champagne’ decades after our winemakers have stopped using it for our sparkling wine, and a theatre snack from 6pm, screening at 7pm and you get to meet Candida Baker the new writers festival director.

The 200th Octoberfest has just finished in Munich Bavaria, because of course it starts in september, but this saturday 9 October you can do octoberfest at the Lismore Workers Club

For more information Contact Lismore Workers Club

you get a 2 course German Oktoberfest Dinner * Fun German Entertainment * German Games & Competitions AUTHENTIC GERMAN BEER. In Munich someone was testing odour eating bacteria, because the event is now smoke free and they need to find new ways to get rid of the smell of sweat and stale beer that used to be covered up by cigarettes, but Octoberfest does last 2 weeks in Germany and attracts millions of people – probably better off with the Lismore version.

If you live in the Nimbin area, there is a Local Food Self Reliance Slide Show

on Thursday 14 October from 7.30pm at the Tuntable Falls Community Hall

Bookings are essential. For more information and to make bookings please contact the Nimbin Food Security Project Manager on (02) 6689 1692

They have received $50 000 funding through Northern Rivers Food Links for a village Showcase Project. International community development facilitator and trainer Robina McCurdy will show projects from around the world and help identify new ways that the Nimbin Community can work towards local food self reliance.

In a couple of weeks , on 21st to 23rd october there will be a Northern Rivers Food Celebration at the Lismore Showground.

Over three days, visitors can enjoy local produce, meet the growers and producers, and discover the great biodiversity of the region from macadamias, to tropical fruits, chocolate, coffee, organic meats, biodynamic muesli, fruit and vegetables, artisan breads, and cheese.The Food Celebration will be the largest regional show in Australia, and include a Sustainable Living Expo.

There will be demonstrations by local chefs, and schools will participate in a competition, cooking exclusively with local produce.

To book a site phone Leanne Clark on (02) 6621 3413

New Brighton Farmers Market will be staging a bake-off as part of the Sydney International Food Festival -this year they have encouraged Farmers Market and regional NSW involvement .

Get creative using market produce. Go to the market on Tuesday, October 5, 8-9.30am and purchase specified surprise seasonal products to create either a sweet or savoury dish. Entry is free, one entry per person.

Take your creation to the market the following Tuesday, October 12, for display and judging, 8-8.30am. Prize presentation at 10am.

There will be both chefs’ prizes judged by Manfred Rudolf from the ‘Yum Yum Tree Café’ New Brighton and Steve Tuckwell from ‘Contis’, Brunswick Heads and a peoples choice prize judged by a small panel of market regulars, all prizes are NBFM vouchers.

Enquiries and entry registration : 6677 1956 [ah] Tony Hinds

UPDATE – bake-off at New Brighton has been cancelled due to a lack of bake-offers, but will happen at the Mullumbimby Farmers Market (on every Friday morning). You will find the Mullumbimby details if you click on the New Brighton link above.

SARDE AL BECCAFICO – Baked Stuffed Sardines

2 slices day-old rustic bread

2 tablespoons sultanas

Australian sardines

2 tablespoons pine nuts

80 – 100 grams mortadella, as finely chopped as possible

(optional)[ndsis – you can use any cured pig bits or no pig,

but Victoria loves the unctuousness of mortadella]

2 tablespoons grana or parmesan, freshly grated

Grated rind 1 lemon

2 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped

2/3 bunch parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

750 grams fresh sardines, filleted and butterflied

Bay leaves

White wine

Olive oil

Milk

Preheat oven to 200 C. Soak bread in milk briefly, then squeeze dry. Place in a bowl together with sultanas, pine nuts, mortadella, cheese, lemon rind, garlic and parsley, season with salt and pepper and combine well. Place about a teaspoon of mixture in the middle of each sardine and arrange on baking tray with a bay leaf between each. Sprinkle wine over the top and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve as part of an antipasto.

This is a recipe from Victoria Cosford’s book ‘Amore and Amaretti’ – Wakefield Press 2010

available at Mary Ryan’s ABC Shop and Collins Books (used to be Book City) both in Byron Bay

EDIBLE QUOTES

We love a good food quote on belly and Amore and Amaretti is bristling with fabulous Italian sayings.

My fave:

“cio’ che si mangia con gusto non fa mai male “- whatever you eat with pleasure can never make you ill – which is basically my whole eating philosophy. Victoria’s is the much darker:

“non c’e’ amore senza amaro” – there is no love without bitterness

And speaking of amaro, the Italian for bitter, I love amaretti, Italian biscuits which literally mean ‘little bitter ones’, used a lot as ingredients – and I was looking forwards to amaretti recipes in “Amore and Amaretti”, but Vic says the title came from her publisher, and she doesn’t really like amaretti much – though she advises you to try pumpkin and amaretti ravioli. So look forwards to a big amaretti rave from me soon on belly, first I need to experiment with one of the weirdest recipes I’ve ever seen, chocolate, amaretti, ricotta and eggplant cake. And a few hours after first seeing that peculiar recipe from the Naples region, I ate a similar chocolate eggplant dish from a new Byron restaurant – oddly compelling, but no amaretti.

Sister T

seedsavers 2005 Byron Bay feast

Seedsavers is a wonderful organisation started in Byron Bay by Jude and Michel Fanton, in a suburban house and (bare) garden. Seedsavers now has projects around the world, supporting biodiversity and traditional farmers and home gardeners too.

And occasionally they have wonderful get-togethers in their garden (which now is a paradise of food plants from all over the world), talk and share wisdom and of course cook and eat. In 2005 sister T watched this being cooked over an open fire – right in Byron Bay, not on a small tropical island.

Solomon Fast Food! – Roots in Fire with Johnson of the Solomon Islands

Bamboo (we used Dendrocalamus latiflorus) cut between 2 nodes approx 45cm long
Cut up any root crops eg. Taro, cassava, yam, sweet potato, … & place in bamboo tubes according to type of root (don’t mix) & stuff open end with banana leaves.
Put bamboo in fire flames & cook, turning often, until bamboo is black
Transfer bamboo tubes to fire’s embers & wait until the tubes steam & smell cooked.
Bamboo wall thickness affects cooking times – thinner bamboo walls means the roots cook more quickly & different root crops take different times to cook
approx. 40mins on average.

Fish in Palm Leaf with Atai of East Timor

Make a fire and let it burn down to the coals.
Take: Any fresh fish
Herbs, eg. Fennel
Garlic
Salad: Lettuce, garlic & tomato
Stones that are hot from the fire
Put all in one parcel made of a big banana leaf & tie together.
Put on top of embers & cover with stones & more whole banana leaves for one to one and a half hours.

Fish Wing Parcel with Atai

Big fish wings marinaded in bush lime juice for 1/2 hour, garlic, onion, pepper, (curry powder can also be added), Lemon Grass, Salt, (Finely chopped Chilli can also be added)
Put all ingredients in Banana Palm Leaves & stitch up using palm fronds along the sides of the parcels.
Put parcels on the fire’s hot coals & cook for half to one hour.
Enjoy!

And there were more good things from the Fanton kitchen, which is a hungry alchemist’s dream of jars filled with strange preserved things – all from the garden of course.

Pickled Bamboo by Jude Fanton of Seed Savers

Dendrocalamus latiflorus & Bambusa oldhamii (which can grow in cool climates eg. NZ)
Harvest in hot months
Cut longitudinally then peel off husks
Boil 20mins (if still bitter then pour off & reboil)
Pickle in strong brine
LATER: Slice & soak to remove salt
Lime juice, fish sauce
Lemon, lime juice lemongrass Kaffir LIme leaves & young cinnamon leaves (+palm sugar or something to sweeten if desired)
Leave to marinate.

Yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia) by Jude Fanton of Seed Savers

“The Yacón is a perennial plant grown in the Andes for its crisp, sweet-tasting tubers. The texture and flavour have been described as a cross between a fresh apple and watermelon which is why it is sometimes referred to as the apple of the earth.” Thank you wikipedia!
Slice then marinade half an hour or so in orange, lime or mandarin juice

Curry Powder

In heavy frypan, put coriander, cumin and fennel seeds and dry roast.
Warm some mustard seeds towards the end.
Chilli if desired.

And it must have been lima bean season…

Lima Beans can be cooked in the following three ways:

Lemon/Lime Lima (Madagascar) Beans with Jude Fanton of Seed Savers

Fresh Madagascar Lima Beans (if green don’t need to soak ie. If they’re just been picked from vine. If dried, soak and boil until soft)
Add any citrus and any oil and any herbs (for example, you could use chervil)

Hommus

To make hommus, mix cooked lima beans with tahini and any citrus.

Fried Lima Beans

Soak and then boil lima beans until soft (with no salt) and then drain.
Refry with onion, garlic and curry powder (see above recipe).

And to finish, after all that healthy home-made vegetarian goodness, a healthy home made cake!

Johnson’s Birthday Cake

( also an excellent all-round cake mix) from Jude Fanton of Seed Savers

2 eggs – separates yolks from whites and beat egg whites with sugar
Add some liquid such as coconut milk, orange juice or any citrus
Could put some butter or oil in.
Add any dry ingredients, such as millet flour, wheat flour, linseed or almond meal plus a teaspoon of a raising agent, such as cake raising mix (1 teaspoon to every cup of flour)
Mix everything together and bake in a moderate oven.

Yummy Caramel Cake Topping from Mara of Puerto Rico

Mix together 1 – 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of lime/ lemon/ orange in a pan on the stove top and stir until sugar dissolves but don’t caramelise it (ie. Remove before it darkens)
At that point of caramelisation, add cream until it’s a bit runny.
You can also add a bit more citrus so it doesn’t harden too much.
Then mix cocoa from the seed and mix with macadamia, cardamon and cinnamon in a mortar and pestle.
Sprinkle over cake and caramel topping – bon appetit!

But wait there’s more recipes! Maybe this was the next day – they have fun on those Seedsavers conferences.

Pigeon Peas by Rob

Soak pigeon peas overnight in hot or boiling water and then drain off.
In a pan, fry some onions, curry powder, garlic, ginger.
Add soya sauce to deglaze (ie. To get the caramel off the pan).
Add hot water, bay leaf and thyme.
Cook for 1/2 hour on stove.

Chilli Guacamole (Guacamole Picante) by Pablo of Argentina

3 soft avocados, 5-6 cherry tomatoes, a little spoon of coriander, 1 chilli, 1/2 an onion, and juice of half an orange or lemon, pinch of salt, 3 soup spoons of olive oil.
Mix all ingredients in the blender to make a paste.

Golden Oven Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes (Papas Doradas) by Pablo of Argentina

Cut potatoes into cubes and put in a pan with olive oil and a little salt
Place in a hot oven of 230 – 250 degrees Celsius
Leave for approx. 45 mins
For sweet potato do the same as for potato and cook for 20 minutes.

BBQ Leg of Lamb (Pierna de Oveja Asada) by Pablo of Argentina

Can’t get any simpler than this…
Cook leg of lamb with sprinkled salt on bbq.

Green Salad (Ensalada Verde) by Pablo of Argentina

Lettuce, onions, fennel bulb with olive oil and salt.

Aussie Fish Cakes by June

Fresh fish (or tinned, eg. Mackerel, Salmon, or Fish Cutlets)
Mashed Potato (double the quantity of the fish)
1 egg
1 small onion
herbs (e.g. Parsley, thyme & oregano)

cook & mash potatoes
mix all ingredients together
make into patties
roll in flour
shallow fry for approx. 5 minutes on each side

Not enough? Here‘s a link to another feast (this a recent one in India)

belly 22 march 2010 – mullet, gotu kola, cucumbers

TOPICS : the mighty mullet, smokin’, eating your rampant pumpkin vine, healthy traditions – Sri Lanka (gotu kola), dr Siggi’s bad chef recipes – souffle’, Sister Rasela’s Morsels – odd uses for cucumbers

GUESTS/INTERVIEWS : Paul Van Reik, Sri Lankan born wonderful cook and food writer, and youthful father of many children
Dr Siggi Fried, bad cook freedom fighter
Sister Rasela – nutritionist and bellysister

PRESENTER : Sister T

FRESH REPORT

This week sr T is loving pineapples, sea mullet (extra fab to July as it goes North to spawn) and taming the pumpkin vines by shallow frying the flowers and marble size baby pumpkins (in a light flour and water batter).

The mighty Mullet

bake, pickle, smoke, bbq, make fish pastes and pate’, goes with tomatoes, oranges, fennel, mushrooms, onion, garlic, eggplant, all kinds of herbs, substitute for mackerel in Spanish and English recipes (much cheaper)

SMOKED MULLET OPEN SANDWICH – by Sr T

First, smoke yer mullet

1 wok, a metal cake rack, maybe foil, mullet fillets, skin on

Smoke mix :

1/2 cup each brown sugar, rice and tea leaves (I just used tea that was getting a bit old), a few leaves/sprigs of woody herbs, maybe a few fennel seeds, lemon myrtle – experiment

To smoke you need a wok, either an old one, or lined with foil, if you haven’t got a wok lid the foil has to be long enough to cover the fish.

Put the smoke mix in the wok, heaped in the middle. Then the metal rack, high enough to not touch the mix, the fish skin down on the rack. Cover with lid or crimp foil over so it seals the top but doesn’t touch the fish.

Cook on high until it starts to smoke, then 10 to 20 minutes on medium heat depending on size/your preference. If the mix goes out and you need to cook the fish a bit more, finish in a dry frypan, skin down.

Then you can use the mullet in many ways (lovely for pate’)

or make a herby garlicky green sauce – I whizzed olive oil, lemon juice, salt , pepper, garlic, parsley, mint, chives and fennel tops in a food processor

Made sourdough toast, thinly sliced tomatoes on top, then flaked mullet, then drizzled bright green sauce….mmm

And pretty too.

GUEST RECIPES:

HEALTHY TRADITIONS :

* is there a dish in your tradition that is supposed to be extra good for you? Please share it with the bellysisters, either on air or on the website.

In the Sri Lankan tradition, it is said that gotu kola keeps you youthful, and is good for your blood and rheumatism.

GOTU KOLA KANDA – from Paul

1 cup cooked rice (see below)

2 -3 tamped down cups of gotu kola leaves (1 bunch)

Boil rice in a lot of water until grains whole but mushy – a thick starchy soup/porridge consistency.

Pound leaves in a mortar, sieve out solids and keep juice or puree
with a little water in a blender and sieve out solids. Makes 2-4 tbs of bright green juice, add to cooked rice with a pinch of salt. It will have a minty/sharp/peppery flavour. Add jaggery to taste (or honey/plain sugar).

Have a bowl each morning, you can re-cook any leftover dry rice until it is mushy to make this.

The following recipe is from Paul’s website, where you will find many more delicious Sri Lankan recipes

LEAFY VEGETABLE MALLUNG

This is a standard preparation you can make with any leafy green – spinach, silver beet, kankun, amaranth, chrysanthemum, radish and turnip leaves, chickweed and so on. If you can get them, there are two Sri Lankan greens in particular that do well with this treatment – gotukola, also called pennywort, and often available in the growing season from good South East Asian suppliers; mukunawena, a quite specific Sri Lankan herb which you may find at Sri Lankan grocers.

Ingredients:
1 bunch leafy green vegetables
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp turmeric
pinch of salt
1 tbsp grated coconut (fresh is best, frozen is also fine, desiccated is a no-no)
1 tbsp Maldive fish ground fine (you can substitute dried prawns)
vegetable oil

Method:

Wash the leaves and shred them fine.

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan big enough to hold all the shredded leaves.

Put in the mustard seeds and fry till your hear them pop. Immediately add the leafy vegetables and stir rapidly. You want to try and coat all the leaves with oil and seed.

Add the turmeric, salt and Maldive fish, stirring all the time to prevent the leaves burning, like in a Chinese stir fry.

When the leaves have darkened and gone limp, add the coconut and mix it through for a minute or two at the most. You just want it to take on the colour of the turmeric and be thoroughly integrated with the leaves.

Taste, and adjust the seasoning. If you like, squeeze some lime juice over it. Take it off the stove. You don’t usually serve mallungs hot, so let it cool down a bit before eating.

DOKTOR SIGGI FRIED’S COOKBOOK FOR BAD COOKS

LEYTON’S SOUFFLE’

Look up any good cookbook for a souffle’ recipe. Prepare as suggested but don’t worry about using precise amounts as all souffles will collapse in the end. However, ther is a trick that Leyton Hewitt, the famous tennis player, uses to create perfect souffles (almost) every time…when the souffle is cooking, stare at it intensely and shout : ” Come On” at least 3 times.

EDIBLE QUOTES:

So much said about the poor cucumber (great for cleaning metal according to Sr Rasela – not sure if this is a compliment)

“A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.”
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer

“Raw cucumber makes the churchyards prosperous” – English Proverb

“He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summer.” Jonathan Swift (Irish writer)
“Cucumbers are like virgins, they do not keep long” – Dutch Proverb

CONTACTS/LINKS:

good mullet info :

http://www.sea-ex.com/fishphotos/seamullet.htm
http://www.australianseafood.com.au/species.php?f=78&v=f

wok smoking :

http://www.foodista.com/technique/CYZGZ2ZV/wok-smoking
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/cooking_tips/

http://www.buthkuddeh.com.au/ – Paul Van Reyk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centella_asiatica – lots of good gotu kola info and pictures

www.kopping.com – dr Siggi

belly 8.3.10 – glitter’s glorious grains and cooking with pisces

TOPICS : food labelling laws, tuna, website launch, quinoa, millet and buckwheat, autumn foods, cooking with the stars for pisces

GUESTS: Glitter Girl, bayfm presenter, poet and grain lover
Lilith, astrogourmet and hula dancer

PRESENTERS : Sister B and sister T

GUEST RECIPES:

MILLET AND MUSHROOM BAKE adapted by sister Glitter from: Food for the Seasons : Eat well and stay healthy the traditional Chinese way, by Professor Lun Wong and Kath Knapsey

Serves 4

Like all the grains, millet is fine for any season. But it is particularly good for autumn as it gets rid of heat (that maybe a summer leftover), moistens dryness(the most common autumn problem) and supports yin and kidneys for the upcoming winter. Mushrooms ease coughs and get rid of phlegm as well as strengthening the lungs. If you have a great deal of phlegm, swap the millet for rice.

3 cups millet
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil/ or avocado oil
1/2 cup of flour (unrefined) can be millet, rice, buckwheat
1/2 onion, chopped
200 gm mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons tamari
bunch parsley

Soak millet in water overnight. Drain. Add millet, fresh water (8 cups) and salt to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 35 minutes.

While you prepare other ingredients, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place millet in an oiled casserole dish. In a frying pan, saute onions and mushrooms
until soft. Then add flour, and stir in with the mushrooms and onions, before adding 1 1/2 cups of water. Stirring continuously. Bring almost to the boil, then
cover, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Add tamari and simmer for a further ten minutes. Pour contents of frying pan into the casserole dish and stir very lightly
with millet. Bake for 20 minutes. Cut into four slices, garnish with parsley and serve with lightly steamed spinach.

This could also be accompanied with steamed carrots, pumpkin, and asparagus

BUCKWHEAT NUT LOAF – a sister Glitter favourite from : The Australian and New Zealand Book of Wholemeals, by Marcea Weber

Serves 4-6

1 1/2 cups of buckwheat (roasted)
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon of himalayan pink salt
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 tbs minced ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup grated carrot
4 tablespoons of coconut oil/ avocado oil/ ricebran or olive oil (cold
pressed)
6 large cabbage leaves
1 cup roasted, ground almonds or walnuts
3 organic eggs, beaten
2 tbs miso (young)
1/2 teaspoon each thyme, basil, oregano (dried)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3/4 cup of LSA (linseed sunflower and almond) or millet meal

Firstly bake buckwheat kernels in 200 degree C preheated oven until lightly
browned.
Then bring 3 cups of water to the boil. Add buckwheat, salt, cover and lower
heat, simmer 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the rest of the vegetables. Heat the 2
tablespoons of chosen oil and saute mushrooms for 5 minutes. Remove from skillet or wok, set aside and add the 2 remaining tablespoons of oil to wok. Saute the rest of the vegetables in order listed above. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Now, bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add cabbage and blanch 1-2
minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Preheat oven to 190 degrees
Roast and grind nuts.
Oil bread tin. Line tin with cabbage leaves, covering the bottom and sides. Leave enough overhang to fold over and cover the top.

Combine half the buckwheat with the cooked vegetables and the roasted nuts.
Beat eggs and miso, combine with buckwheat mixture and add the rest of the ingredients.
Spoon into cabbage-lined loaf tin (9 1/2 cm x 23 cm) ( 4 x 9 inch), press down firmly and fold overhanging leaves over the mixture. Cover the pan with a double layer of oiled paper.
Reserve other half of buckwheat for another recipe ( e.g. stewed fruit and buckwheat )

Place the loaf pan in a baking dish and pour enough water into the
baking dish, so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Cool before slicing.

Serve with steamed spinach, bokchoy or kale and steamed squash and sliced
avocado..

LILITH’S COOKING WITH THE STARS – PISCES

Fish live in water and water sign PISCES more than any other sign need
to keep their fluids up, they’re notoriously fond of liquid refreshments
they drink like fish, and are usually partial to liquid rituals around food:
dipping chilled grapes in dessert wine in a pool strewn with rose petals,
sipping exotic liqueurs beside a moonlit sea or eating mangoes in the bath:
undeniably the most appropriate setting.

As you’d imagine they favour sensuous slithery food: oysters, rice noodles, the sexy texture of melting brie, the perfume of lusciously succulent, juicy fruits. Mood is as important as food to a Pisces. They need a feel-good ambience because romantic Pisces likes to feel the luuurve in the cooking,to eat with loved ones and yes, you can open that wine now.

Famous fish foodies include the exuberant “Dances with Saucepans” Ainsley
Harriott of the BBC cooking show More Nosh, Less Dosh among many others –
posh Swiss chef Anton Mossimann who runs his own exclusive private dining
club in London – and the photogenic Hell’s Kitchen gourmet spunk
Jean-Christophe Novelli who became personal chef to the Rothschilds at the
age of 20.

Other well known Fish are Mrs. Beeton, the most famous
cookery writer in British history, and the notorious and formidable Fanny
Craddock. Even though her only claim to culinary fame appears to be the creation of the prawn cocktail she was billed as the Queen Of The Kitchen, probably because she presented her TV shows in ballgowns, big jewels and mega-make up when nineteen-fifties housewifes all wore aprons. One of the pitfalls of being a fabulous Piscean is a constitutional vulnerability to substance abuse,and Fanny had a major amphetamine habit which made her so explosive and rude to her guests the BBC had to sack her.

And another Pisces foodie was Adelle Davis, the American health author who
pioneered the fledgling field of nutrition during the mid-20th century,
advocated whole unprocessed foods , recommended dietary supplements to prevent disease and was an outspoken critic of food additives, but also published in 1961,
under the pen name Jane Dunlap, a classic of psychedelic literature
called Exploring Inner Space: Personal Experiences Under LSD.

Being the sea creatures they are, Pisces are ruled by Neptune and I’ve
chosen one of my personal favorite recipes for the healthy protein of their
totems

GRAVLAX SALMON A Scandinavian recipe for raw salmon cold-cured with salt,
sugar, pepper, dill and alcohol. No cooking is required, but it does take
2-3 days to cure.

Ingredients:
1 fresh salmon, and it must be fresh
3 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 good-size bunch dill, roughly chopped, stems and all
1 tablespoon spirits: aquavit, lemon vodka, your choice..

Method:
Fillet the salmon, or have the fishmonger do it for you; it needn’t be
scaled, but leave skin on.

Lay both halves, skin side down, on a plate. Sprinkle with the salt, sugar
and pepper, spread with all of the dill, splash over all of the spirits.
Sandwich the fillets together, tail to tail, then wrap tightly in plastic
wrap. Cover with another plate and weigh down with something heavy on top.
Refrigerate.

Open the package every 6-12 hours and baste, inside and out, with the
accumulated juices. On the second or third day, when the flesh has lost its
translucence, remove skin and slice thinly on the bias, and serve as you
would smoked salmon – with rye bread or pumpernickel, potatoes and home made
mayo, anything really.

BY Lilith

EDIBLE QUOTE

we ran out of time to tell you our Pisces icon Mrs Beeton quote – we would have had to interrupt Lilith’s hula dance, unthinkable!

but just so good for international women’s day, so here it is:

“The rank which a people occupy in the grand scale may be measured by their way of taking their meals, as well as by their way of treating their women. The nation which knows how to dine has learnt the leading lesson of progress.”

CONTACTS:

http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/our-work/save-our-tuna
to find out more about the best brands of tinned tuna and sign the Greenpeace petition

http://www.foodlabellingreview.gov.au/internet/foodlabelling/publishing.nsf/Content/pubconsult
to contribute to the government review of all food labelling issues – submissions due by May 14 – or go to the food label review page of this site

[I have to close comments on this page as it is generating a ridiculous amount of comment spam]