Category: Icecream

Jan 2004 – Pretty in Pink?

Hello, retro food lovers and welcome to 2004!  This month the random number generator chose Pink as the theme for our menu via the pages of Good Taste Magazine. Before we start though, maybe let’s throw around some phrases usually more prevalent in corporate speak than around here…

  • Maybe we just need to redefine what success looks like
  • It was a learning experience
  • And fun.  Don’t forget how much fun it was.

All of this means if the success of this menu lies in its pinkness…this month was a disaster. 

If we redefine success to mean did it taste good?  We are not quite in the pink but certainly faring a bit better than colour alone.  

Gravlax Salsa1

So back in January 2004, we were all shaking it like a polaroid picture to Ooutkast’s Hey Ya, some of you were still watching The Return of the King and people on mass were still reading the Da Vinci Code.  Surely by January 2004 we had reached peak Da Vinci? 

So, in a new year, where pop culture looks very much like the old year, let’s take a look at a pink-inspired menu.  

The Menu – January 2004

Pink Menu - Jan 2003

 

Pretty Pink Drink

Well, how can this go wrong?  There’s pink in the title and for people doing dry January (or Feb fast), it’s non-alcoholic too.  It’s lovely and refreshing.  In fact the only thing wrong with it is…

Pretty Pink Drink

 

It’s not overly pink is it?  I mean on a scale of one to Barbie..I’d give it a 5 out of 10. The Pretty Pink drink looks like the liquid lovechild of the two candle holders behind it. It is a pretty colour though, if not as pink as I would have liked.  It was tasty although having to buy three drinks to make one seemed a little unnecessary.  

Pretty Pink Drink Recipe

zz Pretty Pink Drink

Open Ham Sandwich

Open Ham Sandwich

Is there a sufficient amount of actual pink in this?  Yes!  Is it weird to have an open sandwich as a starter?  Also yes. 

I thought this challenge would be an absolute lay down misère.  Apparently, I vastly underestimated the prevalence of pink foods! 

I was a bit worried about the combination of chutney and avocado in this sandwich but they worked well together.  This was a very nice sandwich. 

Open Ham Salmon Recipe

zz Open Ham Sandwich

Salmon Ravioli With Fresh Tomato Sauce

Salmon Ravioli

I may have used the wrong sort of wonton wrapper for these because, not only was the “pasta” rather thick it was also not nearly as translucent as the one in the picture.  This was not only not overly pink but also a bit meh…the ravioli were hard to make and bland.  The sauce is pretty accurate though!  I also liked that they used the same colour plate as my bowl!

I am certainly alone in not liking this though, the comments on the recipe are all highly complimentary

Salmon Ravioli Recipe

Salmon Ravioli Collage1

 

Peach and Rosewater Sorbet with Peach Schnapps

Peach.  I mean, the clue is right there in the name.  And we’ll leave it to the picture to show exactly how well this met the brief of pink.

Peach Sorbet

Having said that, the peach sorbet was delicious.  I almost wish I had made it back in 2004 so it could have been in my life for the last twenty years.  As a bonus though, last year my mum gave us a…what do you call a really tiny tree?  This was basically a knee-high-to-nothing stick in the dirt when we first got it.  This summer though, we had our first three peaches from it.  So I foresee many summers of peach sorbet in my future life.  And that can only be a good thing. 

It wasn’t anything like pink though!

Peach Sorbet Recipe

zz Peach Sorbet

My Nigella Moment  – Gravlax Salsa

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.  

I almost had this as the starter but I felt it was a bit cheaty in a pink challenge to have a salmon starter and main.  This, and the sorbet are the things I will take away from this month to be the things I make again and again.  The recipe for the gravlax salsa came with some caraway wafters – I don’t like the taste of caraway so I made my wafers with everything bagel seasoning.  I won’t make them again.  They were ok but for the time and effort they took I would rather buy some.  I haven’t included the recipe for the wafers.   You also do not need the mustard dill sauce for the salsa.

Gravlax Salsa Recipe

Gravlax Salsa2

 

Gravlax 1

Gravlax 2 (1)

So January 2004 was a total failure in terms of meeting the brief, but also gave me two amazing recipes!  And the drink wasn’t bad either.  Let’s see what February brings!

If you were making a pink menu, what would you include?

 

 

Dec 03 – Make Mine A Double

Hello, retro food lovers and Season’s Greetings from 2003!  This month I am using Delicious Magazine from December 2003 to prepare a menu where…well let’s see if you can guess…Hint..there’s a big clue in the title. 

The whole time I was cooking this month I also kept thinking back to my early twenties when we used to play a drinking game called “I’m going to the moon”.  The person who starts says “I’m going to the moon and I’m taking (for example) an apple”.  Then the next person says “I’m going to the moon and I’m taking a pear”.  The first person who is the game controller tells them if they can come to the moon or not.  If they can’t go, they need to stay on earth and have a drink.   There are many variations on this game but my personal favourite was based on the same theme as this month.  Let’s move away from my sozzled past to see what was happening in December 2003.  Although come to think about it, that was probably the same time as I was playing the game!

The Lord of The Rings:  Return of the King was the big movie of December 2003.  The Last Samurai was the next biggest.  And, quelle surprise, The Da Vinci Code was still the best-selling book.  Which all kind of explains why I was playing drinking games instead of partaking in pop culture.  Although the soundtrack to those drinking games would have been good with Here Without You and Hey Ya! being the number one songs that month!  

Moorish Champagne Cocktail1

The Menu – December 2003

Moorish Champagne Cocktail

Moorish Champagne Cocktail

I am always very happy to be able to start these menus with a cocktail.  The Moorish Champagne Cocktail was both easy to make and also very more-ish!  

Moorish Champagne Cocktail2

 

Moorish Champagne Tart Recipe

Dec 2003 - Moorish Champagne Cocktail Recipe

Salad of Dried Pears, Proscuitto, Blue Cheese and Walnuts

AKA a salad of a few of my favourite things!  If this hadn’t fit the theme, it would have surely been my Nigella item for this month!  And it was divine!

Salad of Dried Pears

Salad of Dried Pears, Proscuitto, Blue Cheese and Walnuts Recipe

Salad of Dried Pears recipe2

 

Salad of Dried Pears 2

Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto

I apologise for the photo of this which is not great.  Having said this, the photo from the mag (which follows the recipe) is also not great.  Neither photo does this dish, which was amazing any justice!  But, trust me, it is worth taking a punt on as it was delicious! Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto

 

Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto Recipe

Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto recipe (1)

 

Mulled Wine Sorbet With Clove Biscuits

This was so nice and refreshing.  It is summer in Australia so this is a nice nod to wintry flavours but adapted for summer.  The sorbet mixture was very soft, for me it was more like a slushie than a sorbet so my recommendation is either not to serve it on a very hot day or to eat it quickly as it melts in moments.  Speaking of melting, the clove biscuits just melt in your mouth!  I am usually a bit wary of cloves – I’ve bit into them accidentally when eating things like curries and find the flavour a bit too much!  So, for the first few biscuits, I ate, I picked the cloves off. Since then, I have eaten them with the clove in and the flavour of them seems to be less powerful in the biscuits than in say a curry.  So, even if you don’t love cloves, give these a try with them!

Mulled Wine Sorbet with Clove Biscuits

Mulled Wine Sorbet with Clove Biscuits Recipe

Mulled Wine Sorbet with Clove Biscuits recipe (1)

My Nigella Moment  – Crispy Herbed Potatoes

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.  

You had me at crispy potatoes!  And then when I saw how pretty these were, I knew they would be my Nigella item for this month.  If I hadn’t already bought what I needed to make Katrina Meynink’s Roasted Taters with Horseradish and Tapenade for Christmas Day, the Crispy Herbed Potatoes would have been on the menu.  (As an aside, I have just bought the aforementioned book From Salt to Jam and am absolutely loving it).  

Dec 2003 - Crispy Seared Potatoes3Crispy Seared Potatoes Recipe

Crispy Herbed Potatoes (1)

Overall a great month from Delicious December 2003.  If you have not yet guessed the theme, no going to the moon for you!  But in the interest of your liver, it was to find recipes with double letters.  Until I did this, I had never really thought about how many food items had these.  I was absolutely spoiled for choice with options:

(Update 6/1/24 – I had originally included links to items below that are still on the Delicious.com.au website.  Those links have been blocked but anything I have asterisked is available should you want to check them out.)

Starters

  • Baked eggs
  • Bruschetta with grilled artichokes and roasted garlic
  • B’stilla*
  • Cheese Crock
  • Chilled pea soup with lobster and risoni salad*
  • Goat’s curd in grappa*
  • Prawn and fattoush salad
  • Schiacciata*
  • Spanner crab chowder
  • Peppered Beef Salad
  • Smoked Salmon with clementines and cress
  • Terrine with microwave cranberry chutney

Mains and Sides

  • Beef fillet with spicy potatoes and horseradish
  • Butternut pumpkin with tasty stuffing
  • Cheeky Christmas turkey with braised leeks and the best wine gravy
  • Chicken noodle salad
  • Chicken with pepperoncini
  • Cinnamon and sultana couscous
  • Cold turkey salad with mango and honey dressing
  • Country chicken and mushroom pies
  • Chicken coconut curry pie
  • Crispy skin coral trout with roasted pineapple, coconut salad and rosti potato
  • Fillets of John Dory with olives, capers and rosemary
  • Flame grilled tuna with wasbi cake, bok choy and lime ponzu
  • Fricassee of chicken with mustard and grapes
  • Grilled coral trout with asparagus, red capsicum and sugar snap peas
  • Rice paper rolls with turkey
  • Seared barramundi with garlic skordalia, asparagus and creole salsa
  • Traditional Barossa ham in verjuice jelly
  • Turkey with saffron butter and preserved lemon and olive stuffing
  • Baked zucchini tarts with stuffed vegetables
  • Frisee, watercress and witlof salad
  • Goat’s cheese tarts with roast peaches and vincotto
  • Moroccan carrot salad
  • Open lasagne of asparagus with rocket tortellini
  • Roasted eggplant and tomato salad
  • Savoury Summer puddings
  • Sweet potato briks
  • Truffled potato mash

Sweets

  • Baked lime cheesecake
  • Boozy puddings with cheat’s custard*
  • Cherry clafoutis*
  • Choc-mint raspberry sundae
  • Chocolate and strawberry tartines*
  • Chocolate and brandied prune terrine*
  • Christmas morning muffins*
  • Christmas pudding ice cream with sweet cranberry sauce
  • Cinnamon ice cream with red wine poached figs*
  • Chocolate cake with plum pudding vodka*
  • Coconut and passionfruit slice
  • Eggnog custards*
  • Flourless Hazelnut roulade
  • Free-form berry trifles
  • Middle Eastern fruit cake*
  • Pannettone with berries and brandy sauce
  • Passionfruit panna cotta*
  • Raspberry ice cream sundae
  • Snowballs*
  • Starry night tarts*
  • Star-topped mince pies
  • Strawberry sundae*
  • Tutti Frutti ice cream*
  • Vanilla sponge with raspberries
  • White Chocolate and chilli ice cream with tropical fruit

Other

  • Hettie Potter’s suet-free mince meat
  • Easy cranberry sauce
  • Peanut Butter sauce
  • Raspberry sauce
  • Strawberry sauce
  • Irish coffee with orange rind and vanilla

 

Sorry for the massive laundry list but I really wanted to show how many items had double letters!  I was honestly astounded! 

So, my question to you lovely readers is – if you were making your own double-letter dinner, what would you choose? Either from the extensive list above or things that have not been mentioned – baguettes, beetroot, jelly, waffles, green beans, toffee, frittata, dill, mayonnaise, cabbage, spaghetti, mozzarella…the list goes on!

Couscous which is in the list above is the only thing I could think of with the same series of letters twice.  Can you think of any others?

And one last thing.  Thank you all for reading and commenting through the year!  Best wishes for an amazing 2024!

 

 

 

June 2003 – Gluten-Free

Hello, retro food lovers! Today we are taking a trip back to June 2003 for a gluten-free meal brought to us by Donna Hay Magazine, issue #x. Was gluten-free a thing back then? I know obviously people with Coeliacs and other conditions would have needed to be gluten-free but I am not sure it was as popular as it is now. However, before we see whether or not we could prepare a decent meal from a magazine in 2003, let’s see what was making headlines!

  • Europe launched it’s first mission to Mars

  • J.K Rowling released book 5 in the Harry Potter series, Happy Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.

  • Glastonbury was headlined by Radiohead, Moby and R.E.M

  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl premiered at Disneyland

Sugar Cane Prawns2

So, a pretty good month for pop culture!  And space exploration.  But was it as good a month if you had gluten free guests arriving and all you had for inspiration was the latest edition of Donna Hay Magazine?

The Menu – June 2003

 

Grapefruit Bianco

This was refreshing and quite savoury.  I used a bit less sugar than the recipe and I loved the combination of the slight bitterness from the grapefruit and the herby/citrussy Cinzano.  This really helped to set the tone for the rest of the meal!

Grapefruit Bianco

Grapefruit Bianco Recipé:

Grapefruit Bianco  Recipe

 

Sugar Cane Prawns

I loved these!  I didn’t use the rice paper as per the recipe but added some lettuce leaves to use as wraps.  Any leftover sticks are great the following day in a baguette with some more lettuce, some herbs, chilli and pickles, banh mi style!

Sugar Cane Prawns

 

Sugar Cane Prawns Recipe

Sugar Cane Prawns recipe

 

Pad Thai

Who knew this take-out favourite was so easy to make at home?  This was so tasty it had the fussiest eater in the world commenting on how good the tofu was!

 

pad thai

Pad Thai Recipé:

Pad Thai Recipe

Grown Up Spider

Just to explain for my non-Australian readers.  We are not about to eat arachnids.  We call a mix of soft drink and ice cream a spider.  This one mixes sorbet and Moscato into an adults-only version which was a lovely refreshing end to this meal.   I used mango sorbet in my Spider and it worked really well. 

Grown up Spider

Grown-Up Spider Recipe:

Grown Up Spider recipe

My Nigella Moment  – Crispy Skin Chicken

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!

There were a few contenders for my Nigella moment in this magazine.  There were some macarons…but hold fire as we will be making them next week.  If they work out!  Then there was a four-cheese toasted sandwich which sounded divine.  Cheese is my love language after all!  But a sandwich seemed a little contrary to the gluten-freeness of this post.    So, I went with this Crispy Skin Chicken because just looking at it makes my mouth water!

Crispy Skin Chicken Collage

 

I didn’t make the crispy skin chicken because:

1) I couldn’t find spatchcocks 

2) Deep frying is such a faff and,

3) I very doubt I could make something that looked that good!

I think the June 2003 Donna Hay Magazine gave me some fabulous inspiration for my gluten-free meal!  And it made someone enjoy tofu!!!  10/10 for this one! 

Have a great week!


 

 

White Lady

 I was inspired to make a White Lady by two things. In Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie, Bridget recalls a poem by Frances Darwin Cornford called To a Lady Seen From a Train which mentions a white woman. Simultaneously, I found a recipe for a dessert called a White Lady inthe March 2003 edition of Delicious Magazine.  This makes this post not only a Dining with The Dame adjacent post but also a Twenty Years Ago Today adjacent post. I do so love it when things come together!

White Lady 3

 

Part of the poem recalled by Bridget runs as follows:

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves

White Lady 1

Now, as you can tell from the fragment above, this is not a great poem.  But something about it roused the ire of other poets of the time.  And in what, I imagine to be some sort of precursor to a modern-day rap battle, the poet A.E Housman parodied To A Lady Seen From a Train as follows:

O why do you walk through the fields in boots,
     Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody shoots,
Why do you walk through the fields in boots,

And that was not the last word on the subject either.  Another poet, G.K Chesterton wrote his own poem called The Fat White Woman Speaks in response to Cornford

Why do you rush through the field in trains,
Guessing so much and so much.
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads 

Move over Ice Cube, your beef with N.W.A has nothing on Chesterton!  Also, this is not about to become a poetry blog, even though I seem to be talking about it a bit recently

White Lady 2

I mean really!  Little did that poor woman taking a shortcut through a local field realise that she was going to be weight shamed, accused of being utterly unloveable and have it lamented that she is not the target of a sniper!

In contrast, we are celebrating her with a White Lady or Dame Blanche which is a Belgian ice cream sundae.

White Lady  – The Recipe

White Lady 4
The White Lady was delicious!  But also serves as a warning. Ladies, if you are walking through fields, maybe take your gloves off so you don’t incur the wrath of battling poets!
 

Have a great week!

Millionaire’s Ice Cream

Hello, people of the internet, welcome and hear me out.  Because today I am making a bold statement.  If you ever have to make the choice of cooking just one recipe from this blog, then, this Millionaire’s Ice Cream is the one!  It’s seriously THAT good!!!!  And so easy to make as well!

Millionaire's Ice Cream

I first tasted Millionaire’s Ice Cream in Cornwall on holiday last year.  At the time, I commented on Instagram that I had just eaten the best ice cream I had ever tasted.  Of course, the setting helped.  It was the gorgeous coastal town of Port Isaac.

Port Isaac

If you are a fan of British TV shows about irascible doctors, Port Isaac may look familiar to you.  The TV series Doc Martin is filmed here.  The town is renamed Port Wenn in the series.

Port Isaac 2

I have circled the  Doc’s house in the above photo. And right down the road from the Doc’s house is Mrs Titchell’s pharmacy, which, in real life is the local sweet shop, Harbor Treats. I first tasted the delight that is Millionaire’s Ice Cream At Harbor Treats.  Right away, I knew I wanted to make my own version of Millionaire’s ice cream when I got home!  And here’s the thing, for something that tastes so luscious and decadent, Millonaire’s Ice Cream is one of the easiest things you can ever make.

 - Find & Share on GIPHY

That’s Bert Large, one of the locals of Port Wenn.  But, back to the ice cream.  Sure, you can make it more difficult by making all the components from scratch and I have added in links to each component to allow you to do just that if you so desire.  The only thing I made from scratch was the chocolate ganache.  And, to my mind,  mine was as delicious as the one from Port Isaac.

So let’s get started.

Start with a layer of crumbled shortbread biscuits.  Keep these a little bit chunky, you don’t want them to be as fine as if you were making a crumb crust.

Then a layer of vanilla ice cream.

Millionaire's Ice Cream 3

Then a layer of salted caramel sauce.  I used Bonne Maman but you can find a recipe here. Just splodge it on, it does not have to be perfect.

Millionaire's Ice Cream 4

Then, repeat each of these layers.  At any time during this process, if the icecream starts getting too runny, you can pop it into the freezer for about 10 minutes to allow it to firm up.

Finally, a layer of chocolate ganache over the top.  This is the ganache recipe I followed. Then back into the freezer to allow everything to set.  A little smattering of sea salt flakes over that ganache will not go astray either!

Millionaire's Ice Cream 6

Get ready for YUM!!!!

Millionaire's Ice Cream 5

This ice cream will make you feel like a million dollars!

And don’t worry, in case you get too excited by the ice cream, the good Doc is on hand to keep things in check

Have a great week!