Victoria Sandwich | The Flatshare

'Hi Leon, I don't know - I've not really thought about it like that, actually. My knee-jerk reaction is yeah, he's good for me. But then, I don't know. We were very up and down, one of those couples everyone's always talking about (we've broken up and got back together a few times before). It's easy to remember the happy times - and there were tons of them, and they were awesome - But  guess since we broke up I've only remembered those. So I know that being with him was fun. But was it good for me? Ugh, I don't know.
Hence the Victoria sandwich with homemade jam.
Tiffy xx'
The Flatshare
Beth O'Leary

I think that everybody can appreciate what it’s like to have housemates. Coming home to a house that may already be full of people, the smell of dinner beginning to waft from the kitchen and the scattering of shoes that have to be kicked away from the front door. It’s always a delight when you manage to find housemates that you get along with, whether that be mutual ignorance of each other or a tentative friendship that can grow.

In Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare, main characters, Leon and Tiffy, have a seemingly ideal arrangement. Tiffy works days and has the flat and bed at nights. Leon works nights and has the flat and bed during the days. A somewhat ideal arrangement for a city as expensive as London. The Flatshare is a quirky and charming look into the lives of Leon and Tiffy, through the narration of both their personal lives and the multitude of notes they leave scattered about for each other.

One aspect of The Flatshare that I instantly connected with was Tiffy’s coping mechanisms of baking. Who doesn’t deal with any life issues that way? Had a bad day, bake a cake. It is possibly the best way to deal with any stressful situation. While Leon and Tiffy do tend to favour tiffin (a dessert I had never heard of until this read) I immediately jumped at the chance to try my hand at a Victoria sandwich.

Most of my memories associated with Victoria sandwiches are from my grandma. It was her go to cake - the lightest and fluffiest sponge you could ever imagine, layered with thick cream and fresh berries. Delicious. I may not have created something as good as my memories of my grandma’s version - but this one is pretty damn good.

*Notes: I always use Nuttelex as my butter replacement, but you can use whatever you have handy. Best to make the jam the day before or leave enough time to allow it to cool.

Victoria Sandwich
Ingredients
Cake
550g self-raising flour
350g butter *see note
350g golden caster sugar
400ml milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
70g vegetable shortening, softened
150g butter *see note
3 cups icing sugar
2 vanilla pods, scraped out
Homemade Strawberry Jam
400g frozen or fresh strawberries
2 cups white sugar
Juice of one lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
Decorations
Fresh strawberries (or any other berries you want, really)
1 tbsp icing sugar

Jam

1. If using fresh strawberries, mash up before placing them in a saucepan. If using frozen, just add straight into a medium saucepan with the sugar and lemon juice.

2. Keep the saucepan on a low heat, continuously stirring until the sugar is dissolved completely. If you’re using frozen strawberries, begin to mash them down with a fork during this time as they start to defrost.

3. Increase the heat until bubbling lightly. The jam will start to thick and become quite syrupy. Once it reaches the consistency you want, transfer it to a bowl and refrigerate until you’re ready to put the cake together.

Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and prepare two 8” cakes tins by greasing them well and placing a a square of baking paper on the bottom.

2. Stir together the apple cider vinegar and milk - leave to sit and curdle for a few moments.

3. In a large bowl cream together the butter and golden caster sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Sift in the flour, baking power and add in the vanilla extract and milk mixture. Mix until the batter is smooth with no lumps - but be careful not to over-mix. I did mine in my stand mixer and only mixed it for approx. 2 minutes.

5. Split the batter between the cake tins and place into the oven for 30 minutes. If a skewer inserted into the middle comes out wet, or the middle still looks a little wobbly, leave in for an additional 5 - 10 minutes.

6. After they’ve come out of the oven, leave them in the tins for at least 15 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack. Leave the cakes to cool completely before attempting to put them together, otherwise the heat will melt the jam and buttercream.

Buttercream

1. While the cake is cooling it’s a great time to make the buttercream. Beat together the shortening and butter until it’s lightly and fluffy, and well mixed.

2. Gradually add in the icing sugar, mixing as you go and the vanilla seeds scraped from the pod.

3. The end result should be a buttercream that’s firm enough to hold the two cakes in place but not so firm it’s hard to spread.

4. If your cakes are properly cooled, it’s time to put it all together. Spread a layer of jam on one cake, and a layer of buttercream before sandwiching them together. You can also put fresh berries between the layers if you like as well.

5. Finish the cake off with a sifting of icing sugar and some berries on top. Absolutely delightful with a cup of tea!

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs | Breakfast at Tiffany's

She patted him. ‘Tend to your chores, Rusty. And when I’m ready, we’ll go eat where you want.’
‘Chinatown?’
‘But that doesn’t mean sweet and sour spareribs. You know what the doctor said.’
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Truman Capote

It may not have been the moral of the story, but the entire time I was reading Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I was experience a deep longing to attend one of Holly Golightly’s fabulous parties. Everyone crammed into a tiny apartment, steadily getting drunker until the urge to go out and binge on Chinese food finally overpowers all others thoughts? Yes, please.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a book that conjures up a world of cravings - to live as Holly Golightly does (before all the bad stuff happens at least), or even to approach the world with the outlook that the character does. Her life, documented in the pages, becomes as fascinating to the reader as it does to the narrator whose point of view we experience throughout. I always imagined that some portion of my life when moving to a city would mimic perhaps a little of a book like that - probably for the best that it didn’t. Melbourne is amazing enough that parties and entertainment every night would soon tire even the most extroverted.

Another unfortunate side effect of living in a city like Melbourne, is that there really is a vegan substitute for every craving you may have. There’s one particular restaurant in the middle of the city, hidden away upstairs that dishes out an all-vegan Chinese smorgasbord of dishes. It’s become an unfortunate habit to hole myself away in a booth when I’ve had a hard day - drowning my sorrows in tea, dumplings and a book.

*Note: I used vegan ‘ribs’ that I found at a local asian grocery. You can honestly use this sauce with whatever faux meat you have, or even cauliflower perhaps, and it will be delicious. If you’re using real ribs, follow the recipe the same, just bake for additional 15 minutes or so.

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs
Ingredients
500g spare ribs *see note
1/2 cup soy sauce or tamari
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 rice vinegar
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Get an oven safe pan ready by layering the bottom with baking paper, placing your ribs in, side by side. Ensure that they don’t sit on top of each other. Put the pan to the side for now.

3. Combine soy sauce or tamari, brown sugar, rice vinegar, mustard seeds, and salt in a small saucepan. Put on a low heat.

4. Keep an eye on the sauce, stirring occasionally as it heats. It should begin to bubble and thicken. During this process, continue to taste and add more vinegar, sugar or soy where necessary. Remove from heat when consistency is alike to syrup.

5. Using a pastry brush, or just a spoon, brush the sauce over the ribs thoroughly, ensuring that all have a nice coating. You should still have quite a bit of sauce left over.

6. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes. During this time, remove from oven every 15 minutes or so to reapply the same over the ribs. They should always have a nice sticky sheen to them.

7. Remove and allow to cool a little before eating. Enjoy! (Another glaze of sauce here works wonders as well, just to note).

Chicken Noodle Soup | Little Fires Everywhere

‘You slept a long time. That’s good. Do you think you can eat something?’ In the kitchen, Mia set a bowl of soup in front of her, and Lexie brought a spoonful to her lips: chicken noodle, salty, searingly hot. There was no sign of Peal, but the clock on the stove read 3:15. School had let out a little while ago. She must have told her mother everything, Lexie thought.
Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng

The concept of comfort food is fascinating, usually something high in carbs, sugar or salt. It can be eaten when all seems hopeless and the thought of that delicious, carby meal at the end of your day is all that will keep you going.

Or, it can a meal that brings about a nostalgic emotion, a sentimental feeling attached to a type of food that brings about memories of childhood and feeling safe. In Little Fires Everywhere

It’s interesting growing up in Australia - your main media exposure as a child is to movies and television shows that are American. You grow up seeing all these comfort foods in shows that you’ve never heard of real. Foods like tomato soup with grilled cheese or chicken noodle soup.

In Little Fires Everywhere chicken noodle soup is the dish that Mia serves to Lexie during a day that is particularly bad. The description of the soup: salty, searingly hot, is the perfect fix to her day. It doesn’t solve anything - but it helps. I recommend this soup whenever you need a meal that's a little more grounding and will let you disappear from any problems for a few hours at least. 

Note: I used a soy based faux chicken I found at my local asian grocer - if you’re using real chicken, make sure you add another step of checking the chicken is cooked through at the end just to be safe.

Chicken Noodle Soup
Makes approx. 6 serves.
Ingredients
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 brown onion, diced finely
3 gloves garlic, minced
100g dried noodles/pasta
5 cups chicken stock
200g faux chicken, diced into large chunks *see note
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh pepper

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan and add in the onion, cooking until soft, around 3 - 4 minutes.

2. Add in the carrot, celery and garlic, cooking for another 5 minutes or so until they start to soften also. Remember to keep them moving during this time so they don’t stick and burn.

3. Add in the chicken stock, cover and bring to the boil. Leave to boil for around 10 minutes before adding in the diced chicken and dried noodles or pasta.

4. Leave on stove for another 10 minutes or until noodles have softened.

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Bombe Alaska | The Bell Jar

'Oh-oh!' Betsy said sympathetically. She must have seen the tears that plopped down into my dessert dish of meringue and brandy ice cream, because she pushed over her own untouched dessert and I started absently on that when I'd finished my own. I felt a bit awkward about the tears, but they were real enough.
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath

It may be winter but my love for ice-cream, frozen yoghurt and generally any decadent frozen confectioner is not disappearing. A toasty on the outside, and chilly on the inside dessert seemed to be the perfect accompaniment for the vaguely dismal weather.

The Bell Jar is one of the first novels I read that seemed to stick with me - it was when I was sixteen and attempting to both embrace (what I thought) was my true nature via skinny jeans and lip piercings and still feel pretentious and somewhat arrogant by reading, what I deemed to be, books of consequence and feminist prose.

It was fascinating I think because of the somewhat new nature that the style of the book had. I was used to books with clear beginnings, middles and happy endings. Hobbits taking a ring to a volcano, Harry and the trio defeating Voldemort etc etc. This was one of my first looks at a book that didn’t feel the need to spell out every action that occurs, or to paint a traditional, in your face happy ending for the reader.

It’s an occasional re-read every now and then, sometimes when I’m feeling a little melodramatic and have the need to revisit a protagonist that captures that in a way. It was on one of my last reads that I began to take note of the food throughout - along with the stomach turning crab salad that is served during a luncheon, Esther also partakes of a dessert dish made from meringue and brandy ice-cream.

I am sure that the dessert served that night would have been a touch more elegant that what I made - I’m sure this recipe is just as delicious. I exchanged the brandy for rum because despite myself and my housemates have an extensive liquor cabinet, we did not have any brandy at the time.

*Note: I do not eat eggs, thus the chickpea meringue. Honestly, it’s delicious and probably tastes better than actual egg meringue. But if you really can’t bring yourself to it, just google a quick Italian meringue recipe and that’ll work just as well.

Chocolate Rum Bombe Alaskas
Makes approx. 8 - 10
Ingredients
Chocolate Rum Ice-cream
2 x 400ml can coconut milk (make sure it’s full fat)
2 tbsp corn starch
1.2 cup cocoa powder
1tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white sugar
Big pinch salt
60ml spiced rum (if you want to stay traditional, use brandy)
Italian Meringue *see note
1 x can of chickpea brine (aquafaba)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

1. Whisk together all your ingredients in a medium sized saucepan.

2. Heat on medium until warmed, stirring continuously as the mixture thickens (it is does not thicken add a little more corn starch in.)

3. Place the ice-cream mix into your pre chilled freezer bowl and leave to churn until the ice-cream thickens considerably (it took mine close to 40 minutes to thicken properly.)

4. Move bowl to the freezer once it has reached a good thickness - best to leave for a few hours to really freeze through at this stage.

1. Beat around 2/3 of the aquafaba in a mixer with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.

2. During this, heat the remaining aquafaba and the sugar together in a saucepan - bringing the temperature as high as possible before the mixture starts to caramelise.

3. While the mixer is still going, slowly drizzle in the heated aquafaba and sugar into the meringue mix.

4. Add in the vanilla and beat on high until stiff peaks form.

5. You can either use a piping bag at this stage to pipe the meringue around the ice-cream or just a spoon to sort of build it up - either way it’s going to be delicious.

1. I just used my coconut cream cake recipe for the cupcakes and omitted the coconut - but you can honestly use any cake recipe and it’s fine, the real star of the dish is going to be the marshmellow-y meringue and booze-laden ice-cream anyway.

2. Slice your cupcakes in half so you’ve got nice even circles to work with. Each of these needs a good, round scoop of ice-cream on it, making sure that you leave space around the sides for the meringue to be piped up.

3. Carefully pipe or spoon the meringue around the ice-cream, it should be thick enough to hold it’s shape so that you can complete all of them in one go.

4. Now it’s the fun part, using a blow torch carefully toast the meringue until all sides are a nice golden brown.

5. And the best part of the entire process, eating it! Make sure to serve straight away.

Dutch Christmas Bread | The Goldfinch

Lifting the tops of the trays with a flourish. ‘Special Dutch Christmas bread,’ he said, pointing it out ironically. ‘Just for today.’ I’d ordered the ‘Festive Champagne Breakfast’ which included a split of champagne, truffled eggs and caviar, a fruit salad, a plate of smoked salmon, a slab of pate, and half a dozen dishes of sauce, cornichons, capers, condiments, and pickled onions.
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch is really an incredible book - it draws you into the narrative of the main character in a way that shouldn’t be so fascinating, but is. The author, Donna Tartt, entices you deeply into the life of the titular character Theo and his struggles with the direction his life takes.

Another great thing about The Goldfinch is the absolute smorgasbord of food that Theo partakes in throughout the pages of the novel. Form western omelettes and home fries to caviar, fruit salad and smoked salmon pate. With so many choices it became increasingly difficult to narrow down what I would make from it (though I am sure that more from it’s pages will appear on this blog at some point in time). I ended up deciding on Dutch Christmas bread, a component of the delightfully indulgent breakfast that Theo orders on what he believed may be his last free day.

Also, because I wanted to know what Dutch Christmas bread was. A little bit of googling later and I came across the delicious looking Kerststol - a Dutch version of the more well known German stollen. A yeast-based bread filled with rum soaked fruits and nuts with pockets of marzipan or almond paste hidden within. I combined a few recipes online to come up with a vegan version that worked well - my first batch turned into a rock hard mess, but the second came out light, fluffy and deliciously warm.

Dutch Christmas Bread
Ingredients
Dough
1 1/2 cups of plain flour + 1 cup (you may need a little extra if the dough is too sticky etc)
1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp melted coconut oil
2 tsp active yeast
3 1/2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp water - warm
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamon
1/4 tsp ground gloves
1 tsp vanilla
Icing sugar - for decorating
Fruit Filling
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup dried apricots
3 tbsp dark rum
Zest of one orange
Almond Paste
1 cup almond meal
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp maple syrup
3 tbsp cold water
1 tsp almond extract

1. Rough chop the dried apricots, walnuts and sultanas, combine with the zest and cover it all with the dark rum. Put it all in a sealable container and give it a good shake to make sure they’re all covered - these need to sit in the fridge for at least one night.

2. The almond paste should also, ideally, be made the day before. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until they all come together as a soft ball. You may need to add a little more powdered sugar if necessary. Wrap it up tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate.

3. Combine the active yeast, warm water and 1/2 tbsp of sugar in a mixing bowl. Leave for about ten minutes - until it goes quite frothy.

4. Add in 3/4 cup of plain flour to the yeast mixture, along with the remaining sugar, milk and oil.

5. Separately mix together 3/4 cup plain flour, all the spices, vanilla, salt and the soaked nuts and dried fruits (make sure you pat the excess liquid off these, otherwise they can make the dough too soggy).

6. Combine both mixes together and knead for 5 - 8 minutes, adding in additional flour if the dough feels too sticky. It shouldn’t be too dry - and should be able to be rolled into a ball easily.

7. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean cloth - leave in a warm place to rise for around two hours.

8. Once the dough has doubled in size, place it back onto a lightly floured surface and give it a quick knead before pressing down into a rough rectangular shape - around 5cms thick.

9. Place chunks of the refrigerated almond paste over the dough - depending how much you want in there. Roll up the dough tightly from the side and press the seams together.

10. Place into an oiled bread tin and cover again, leaving to rise for another two hours.

11. Preheat oven to 170C.

12. Once the dough has doubled in size, bake it for around 30-40 minutes - checking to see if it’s done by how hollow the top sounds when tapping it.

13. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes, and decorated with a liberal sprinkle of icing sugar on top. Enjoy!

Baked Green Bean Macaroni and Cheese | The Secret Life of Bees

They got under way slicing ham, laying out fried chicken, shaking paprika on the deviled eggs. We had green beans, turnips, macaroni and cheese, caramel cake - all kinds of funeral food. We ate standing in the kitchen holding paper plates, saying how much May would have liked everything.
The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd

I absolutely tore through The Secret Life of Bees. I think it wouldn't have taken me more than three days to read it from start to finish. There's something just so comforting about the book, it encourages you to keep reading and at the end manages to practically wrap your mind in a layer of warmth. Not to mention - the food. Every type of southern style comfort food imaginable must be mentioned throughout this book, be warned, you will spent a good amount of time hungry while reading.

I felt torn on what to make from it's pages, and likely will go back to try more from it. It wasn't until I was wondering through the local farmer's market the other day and came across fresh green string beans that I decided on what would be my dinner that night. My life has been at a bit of standstill recently, after graduating last year I've been faced with that awkward in-between of being a recent graduate and trying to find work in an appropriate field. I have a bad habit of medicating that feeling of crawling anxiety with comfort food.

Within the book, a death occurs, and like with many funerals an attempt is made to comfort the family of the deceased with platters of comfort food. What better to draw inspiration for when I needed a sense of comfort myself?

*Note: if you are using dairy cheese/milk/butter for this, the nutritional yeast will not be totally necessary (though it is delicious). It's super useful when creating a dairy free cheese sauce as it has a incredible cheesy/savoury flavour to it. 

Baked Green Bean Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 1 very hungry person or 6-8 side dishes
Ingredients
350g dry macaroni pasta
20g + 60g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
1-2 cups milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast *see note
100g cheddar cheese, grated (I used Bio Cheese Cheddar, melts really nicely in this)
100g green beans, ends off and cut in half
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup breadcrumbs
Sea salt
Black pepper

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a baking dish - any size is really fine as long as it's not ridiculous huge. Common sense.

2. Place a medium sized pot of water with a inch of salt on the stove and leave to boil. When boiling add in pasta and cook until they are just about done - drain and leave to the side. You still want them to have a little firmness to it otherwise it'll go too mushy when baking.

3. Steam the green beans (anyway you want to it fine) until just soft. Heat the 20g of butter in a pan and wait till it is bubbling, when bubbling add in the steamed green beans and cook in butter for about 2-4 mins, adding in a pinch of salt and pepper. Remove from pan and put to the side.

4. Put the 60g of butter into a medium sized saucepan on a low heat until melted, add in the minced garlic and cook into the melted butter for 1-2 mins.

5. Add the flour into the butter, keeping it on a low heat - mix quickly, it should form a soft pasta.

6. Add in 1/2 cup of milk to the flour mix on the pan, whisking continuously as you do so. The mixture should thicken (make sure you keep it on the low heat) gradually. As it does continue to add half a cup of milk at a time - depending on how much sauce you want, you can use 1-2 cups of milk.

7. Take the sauce off the stove and add in both the nutritional year and grated cheese. Whisk together quickly until cheese melts in. It's fine if the sauce has some lumps - it'll just be bits of garlic or unmelted cheese. Add in a generous pinch of salt and pepper to the cheese sauce.

8. Mix the cooked macaroni, green beans, and cheese sauce together in the baking dish until the sauce covers everything nicely. Sprinkle the half cup of breadcrumbs on top with a little extra nutritional yeast if you have some.

9. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the top has lightly browned. Enjoy!