Sunday, April 21, 2013

Discovery XXXIV

Discovery XXXIV broke with tradition for the first time since the 2012 Olympics, with the event being held at home to celebrate the new kitchen.

As with all discoveries, no mobile devices were permitted; however we were allowed to watch the footy channel while eating our dessert of strawberry cake and Easter eggs. The strawberry and yoghurt cake is a recipe of Neil Perry's published in The Age. While mixing the ingredients I thought it must have been a mistake that there were no eggs; however I pressed on and the cake turned out very well, with a nice grainy texture from the polenta. But I certainly didn't believe it would take two hours to cook. In fact it was ready in about an hour, but maybe that's just thanks to our lovely new efficient oven.

The previous course was served at the dining table. Nothing too adventurous: dal (my favourite Anna Thomas recipe from her first book, The Vegetarian Epicure, 1972); cabbage dom (another 1970s favourite, copied onto catalogue cards from an unknown source); pilau rice from Jack Santamaria's Indian Vegetarian Cookery; and pappadams with brinjal pickle (Ferns, of course) with a few other condiments.

This is a picture of the preparation area near the new kitchen sink. This was taken before the tiling and painting were completed, but may give you an idea of the space and light that have been opened up by the renovation.

Kitchen sink
Kitchen sink

With the ban on mobile devices no photographs were permitted in the dining room, but here is a picture of the much splattered cabbage dom recipe. Don't be afraid to use too much chili. And if you can't be bothered with the 'curd', ie yoghurt, which in my experience needs mixing with a little arrowroot to prevent its curdling when you mix it with the curry, and may make the dish a little too sour, use coconut milk instead, which adds a nice creamy richness to the simplicity of the potato and cabbage.

Cabbage Dom recipe
Cabbage Dom recipe

You may notice that the cards are of different stock and written with different pens. The recipe was originally written on both sides of the first card (the recto and the verso?) but over the years I got so annoyed with having to turn the card over to check the ingredients that I finally had the bright idea of rewriting the second segment of the recipe onto a separate card. As a new librarian at the time of writing out the original recipe perhaps I should have known better, but my initiation into cataloguing was at St Kilda Library which boasted one of the earliest automated catalogues in Victoria, so I knew little of the technology of catalogue cards. My next job at the Victorian Railways technical library was to remedy this deficiency, but that's a whole 'nother' story, as they say.

 

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