A new bellysister joined Sister Tess for this belly show, the lovely Sister Robert.\u00a0 Sister Rob came to Byron from Sydney for the 2010 Byron Writers Festival.\u00a0 He went to several foodie events at the Festival, including a workshop by Vietnamese Australian chef Luke Nguyen and local writer Victoria Cosford\u2019s launch of her first book, \u201cAmore and Amaretti\u201d.\u00a0 As well as several non-food related events, just for balance.\u00a0 Sisters T and R agree that the foodies were by far the most charming and best behaved people at the Writers Festival.\u00a0 Victoria\u2019s launch was packed and very lively, there were tears, wine and delicious food, and a heartfelt introduction by Joanna Savill. Joanna and Victoria studied Italian together in Canberra, and Joanna\u00a0 first invited Victoria to join her in Bologna (and then tried unsuccessfully to stop Victoria from smiling back at the hordes of men who followed her around).\u00a0 Victoria read delicious extracts from her book, we played a snippet from her visit to Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence.\u00a0 The audience was in pain, you could hear the sighs.\u00a0 Luke Nguyen is a very charming man.\u00a0 One chairperson\u2019s researcher summed him up as \u201ccook, Vietnam, good guy\u201d.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Brett Eason Ellis decided to be a very naughty boy at his first ever writers festival.\u00a0 Ramona Koval from the ABC reminded us that she has 3 grandkids and she doesn\u2019t believe in letting naughty boys play too many silly games.\u00a0 It sounds like he was just after the Australian holiday.\u00a0 And Gretel Pinniger aka Madam Lash made photographers happy by pretending to burn her biography, and looking ready to eat her biographer – not in a good way.\u00a0 And various panellists were talking as usual about climate change, population and other environmental concerns, sounding desperate enough in the leadup to this Australian federal election to incite revolution. Or \u201ca social tipping point\u201d.\u00a0 Or at least a vote for the Greens, or anyone game enough to whisper that we need to change from a growth model to a steady state one.\u00a0 Look it up, to some of us belly sisters it sounds like the last chance to stop the veggie patch from going underwater.\u00a0 Meantime, the sun shone on the whole festival and it was easy to revel in the beauty of the North Beach site and all the wonderful brain food.\u00a0 There were even a few more panellists discussing their topics rather than just plugging their books, or we were just lucky to pick panels with good chairpeople.
\nMeantime, back in the kitchen, Luke\u2019s cooking workshop was very interesting and hands on. It was great to find out that we can get most of the ingredients for Vietnamese food locally.\u00a0 And who knew that soft shell crab is available frozen at the fish shop?\u00a0 A few good tips :<\/p>\n
Use a dusting of potato starch for deep frying for a light crunchy texture
\nUse a chopstick to check oil temperature (lots of bubbles=hot)
\nLess is more – food will keep cooking after you take it out
\nBuy the best, light, first press fish sauce you can find
\nRice paper rolls – don\u2019t leave them in water to soften, just a quick dip is enough
\nDon\u2019t overfill
\nAnd – lots of herbs is barely enough!<\/p>\n
Sister Rob did our first ever cookbook review, of Luke\u2019s \u201cThe songs of Sapa\u201d, even after hearing local writer Alan Close take to task reviewer Rosemarie Sorensen for a negative review 19 years ago!\u00a0 Rob says he sometimes forgets to actually read recipe books rather than just focus on the recipes,
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Luke\u2019s book also offers insights into Vietnamese culture e.g his father\u2019s story from fighting in the war.
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The recipes are good although some ingredients may be hard to find.<\/p>\n
Some of Luke Nguyen\u2019s recipes are online, see here<\/a><\/p>\n Sister Tess did an interview with Luke and his partner\/photographer, Susanna Boyd, and recorded several sessions of the festival, so listen up to belly for more – and remember our major subscriber drive\/radiothon is starting, subscribe online here<\/a>.\u00a0 Most of us bring you great radio for free, but the gear and rent have to be paid, so please help if you can.\u00a0 You can even nominate your favourite show (hint?)<\/p>\n Sister Rob was lucky enough to have a mother who was a skilful and enthusiastic cook.\u00a0 He was asked to bring his favourite cookbook on belly, and he turned up with a very well used (trashed!) Rob also made the best ever pickled olives – yes starting from raw olives – get in touch if you know where to get some in the Northern Rivers.<\/p>\n SISTER ROBERT’S HOME PICKLED OLIVES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n On a recent visit to sister R, sister T had the pleasure of tasting the best home pickled olives ever.\u00a0 Sister R has helped friends harvest olives both out in the country and in central Sydney, of all places, so he’s learned how to get them from bitter little fruits to delicious, long lasting snacks.\u00a0 This is a traditional home skill of Australians of Mediterranean descent, but somehow very Anglo sister Rob does a better job!\u00a0 He also focused on methods that use the mildest possible ingredients to remove the olive bitterness.\u00a0 And if you want to just remove excessive saltyness from shop-bought olives, or just improve their taste and keep them longer, jump straight to the oil steps.<\/p>\n “Well there are many, many methods for pickling olives but here I give the two methods that have worked well for me loosely based on my friend Paul\u2019s [see buthkuddeh link below] method:<\/p>\n 1.2. Give each olive a small slit with a sharp knife or bash with the bottom of a bottle to break the skin only Method 2<\/strong> \u2013 To end up with dry salted black olive<\/strong><\/span>s only<\/p>\n 1.Again, start with nice firm olives, but make these ones also nice and plump. EDIBLE QUOTE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Today’s came from Luke Nguyen’s cookbook\u00a0 The Songs of Sapa, which has lots of traditional Vietnames sayings and their meanings scattered among the recipes.<\/p>\n When drinking water, remember where it flowed from; when eating fruit, remember who planted the tree.<\/p>\n In life, always be thankful for how you got there, and remember who helped you get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new bellysister joined Sister Tess for this belly show, the lovely Sister Robert.\u00a0 Sister Rob came to Byron from Sydney for the 2010 Byron Writers Festival.\u00a0 He went to several foodie events at the Festival, including a workshop by Vietnamese Australian chef Luke Nguyen and local writer Victoria Cosford\u2019s launch of her first book, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,33,1],"tags":[126,124,125],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jams-n-pickles","category-radio-show-posts","category-uncategorized","tag-frying","tag-olives","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nscrapbook of recipes, the oldest were handwritten 70s gems from his mum (aww).\u00a0 Like many of us, Sisters T and R both discovered that not everybody knows what good food tastes like, let alone how it is made, when they had\u2026..(horror music)\u2026. flatmates!\u00a0\u00a0 A chance to share war stories : Rob\u2019s most memorable was hearing a squeak, opening the crumb tray under the toaster and finding a dead mouse.\u00a0 Sister T\u2019s was the special occasion roast chook a flatmete splurged on – but she didn\u2019t know that you take the chicken out of the plastic bag before you put it in the oven.\u00a0 We\u2019d love to share your best stories on air if you comment on this post, or email us
\nbelly@belly.net.au<\/p>\n
\nMethod 1<\/strong> \u2013 Good for green and for black firm olives<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n2. Soak olives in plain water changing the water fully each day.\u00a0 You need to do this long enough for the strong acid flavour to leach out. Taste an olive and see how bitter it is. Think about an olive you have liked and what degree of bitterness or otherwise it had. When the olives taste ok move to the next stage.
\n3.\u00a0 Prepare brine solution by placing a fresh egg into a bucket with water and keep adding salt and stirring it in slowly until the egg floats to the surface and shows a circle of shell about the size of a five cent coin.
\n4. Soak the olives in the brine until the olives taste salty enough for you. Don\u2019t change the brine solution until you are happy with the level of saltiness of the olive. Give the olives a bit of a tumble each day.\u00a0 Do not forget them in the brine otherwise they will undergo cellular collapse and go soft.
\n5. When they are ready for bottling, drain them and wash them to get excess brine off.
\n6. Sterilise some old bottles or preserving jars. Pop the olives in. As you do you can add whatever flavourings you like \u2013 thinly sliced garlic is always welcome, as is crushed dried oregano, or a split red chilli, , Sage and thyme go well, peppercorns too.\u00a0\u00a0 Fill the jar with a good quality olive oil. Don\u2019t fill it with brine like I did once as the olives will have that cellular collapse you don\u2019t want. Leave them in the pickling oil for at least 3 -4 weeks before eating.<\/p>\n
\n2. Get a white plastic bucket with tight fitting lid and make holes in the bottom and the lid.
\n3. Put a layer of salt on the bottom of the box.\u00a0 Toss the olives on top \u2013 don\u2019t slit them.\u00a0 Cover with another thick layer of salt and repeat the process.
\n6.Leave untouched for three or four days. Then, each day, mix the olives and salt together by turning the bucket over.
\n7. What should happen is that the salt will get wetter and go a nice mauve colour as it drains the moisture out of the olive.
\n8. As the moisture drains out, and put some new salt in and mix it with the olives.
\n9. When the olives have shriveled up and are nice and salty (check those olives!), take them out of the salt, wash them, dry them and store them in an airtight container in a little oil just coating the olives. You can at this stage put in some finely chopped garlic, crushed oregano, and maybe some chili flakes.
\nWebsites for further research:
\nwww.buthkuddeh.com.au<\/a> (look for \u2018olives\u2019 under recipe link)
\nwww.sbs.com.au\/food<\/a> (search on olives and Steve Manfredi)
\nwww.abc.net.au<\/a> (Gardening Australia factsheet on olives)<\/p>\n