Hello Friends, today we are indulging in a sweet treat called a White Lady. Hold up, I hear you say, haven’t we already done this recipe back in March? Well, apparently recipes for White Ladies are like busses. You wait for ages for one to come along and then, all of a sudden three come at once. Because, spoiler alert, there will be another White Lady recipe appearing soon! Last time, our white lady was a very yummy ice cream with chocolate sauce, this white lady is a delicious shortbread-style cookie.
But not just any shortbread cookie because these have white chocolate and rose water icing and then a dusting of icing sugar on top of that. Delicious. But sweet.
These need to be balanced out with a nice strong coffee. The recipe for these White Ladies comes from that bastion of posh food, Australian Gourmet Traveller, the May 1993 issue to be exact. This is the same mag that brought us a lovely Warm Chestnut Salad a while back. The recipe for White Ladies recipe comes from an article on chocolate and the powerful memories it can evoke in people.
“What is it about chocolate that makes us cherish the memory of certain occasions with such ecstacy?
And if you think that quote possibly goes a little bit too over the top, what about this one?
One friend’s most potent memory is of eating dark Arabian chocolate on a sultry night while being serenaded by eunuchs
I feel that night might have been memorable even without the chocolate….
My own favourite chocolate memory is of a bright cold day in winter a few years aog. My best friend and I were in the country celebrating my birthday on a girl’s weekend. After a morning spent at the Hepburn Spa we drove to nearby Daylesford for some afternoon tea. I had an Italian hot chocolate which I’m pretty sure was pure melted chocolate. It was warm and sweet and rich and made for the perfect end to the perfect weekend!
Happily, or possibly sadly for some of you, you don’t need a hot night in Arabia or a chorus of eunuchs to enjoy these white ladies. A cup of coffee and a few moments of peace are enough!
The Recipe – White Ladies
For those of you who like to gift cookies as part of the holiday season, White Ladies could become a perfect addition to your gifting regime If they last long enough for you to give any away that is!
Hello retro food lovers and welcome to October 2003 where today I am using Delicious magazine to create a white menu. White food has the double reputation of being 1) boring and 2) overly processed so my aim with this menu was to try to combat both of those. But first, let’s take a look at what was happening in pop-culture in October 2003.
School of Rock was #1 at the box office and The Five People You Meet In Heaven was the best-selling book. Number 1 on the pop charts was Where Is The Love by The Black Eyed Peas. Two weeks earlier it was White Flag by Dido which would have fit in perfectly with this menu! Let’s hope I won’t have to wave a white flag with my menu!
Now I also realise that this view of my cheesecake is not white, however it just looked so good, I couldn’t resist sharing it!
The Menu – October 2003
I found this menu template on Etsy. Isn’t it gorgeous? We’ll be seeing it a lot more from now on!
Mozzarella and Grilled Chilli Salad
This was AMAZING! So tasty and the perfect way to kick off a meal! I loved the simplicity/minimalism of this Jamie Oliver recipe. It also not only looked beautiful on the plate but tasted divine! Another recipe from this same article, a squid and cannellini bean salad nearly made the cut for the main dish in the menu and is something I am still very keen to try!
Mozzarella and Grilled Chilli Salad Recipe
Fish Stew With Lemongrass and Lime
This is an Ainsley Harriott recipe and was also divine! It was light and refreshing and, as he says in his intro, very different from the usual tomato-based fish stews. Like the mozzarella starter, this would be a perfect summer meal.
Lemongrass and Lime Fish Stew Recipe
Low Fat Cheesecake
I felt bad that I could not deliver a cheesecake for the Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom! menu. Because I LOVE cheesecake! So I was delighted to find one in this issue of Delicious. And this was a beauty too. It’s a pretty classic baked cheesecake. Even though it is low fat, it feels rich, The rest of this menu is light though so this seemingly decadent dessert won’t weigh you down too much!
Low Fat Cheesecake Recipe
My Nigella Moment – Beef with Lavender Mustard
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!
OMG, this beef just melted in my mouth! And if you’re thinking you don’t have any Lavender Mustard, come back next week. I’ll have a little treat for you. I added a spoonful of honey to my Lavender Mustard to give the required sweetness to this. Also, I misread the ingredients and I bought a rump roast and not rump steak for my version. I seared the meat as per the recipe and then roasted it until it reached 72C / 165F on my meat thermometer.
Well, Delicious Magazine from October 2003 really came through with a delicious white-themed menu for me! Certainly no Didoesque white flag moments for me!
“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane”…so begins the fabulous REM song, “It’s The End of The World As We Know It”. And for me, this year actually began with a 7.6 magnitude earthquake when we were holidaying in Darwin. Last month we celebrated my birthday in absolute chaos (more on that later) whilst on holiday in Port Douglas. And when I say chaos, I mean a total f*cking nightmare. So when the random number generator chose “Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom! I thought it might be a good chance to reset and have a little party to make up for the day that was ruined! The vehicle of choice for this month is Super Food Ideas, from September 2003 and I went in search of party food.
But first, let’s take a little wander down the memory lane to the heady days of September 2003. R Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) was #1. Less said about that the better I think. Finding Nemo was top of the box office and The Da Vinci Code was still the most popular book!
The Menu – September 2003
Margarita
Now, I can’t think of a much better way to kick of any birthday celebration than with a classic Margarita! And this one was perfection!!!!! I
The cocktail napkin you see in the above photo was one of a set of napkins I bought in Port Douglas. They are all super cute and also an inspiration to make the rest of the cocktails featured on them!
And as with the margarita, the first four days of our holiday were wonderful. Port Douglas is such an amazing place. Rainforest, reef and beach – great restaurants, perfect weather….the only downside is the crocodiles…and the murder birds!
Margarita Recipe
Seafood Pizza
As you may have noticed, I love my seafood! This nicely leads me to where our holiday turned paradise into a nightmare. Day 5 of our holiday, which was my actual birthday we had planned to move from our PD central apartment to a house around 10km out of Port Douglas. It was also the night of The Matildas v England final of the Women’s World Cup. We had been out for a lovely dinner the night before so the plan for my birthday was to grab a seafood platter from Port Douglas when we left and then enjoy the evening in our house. Dip in our private pool, , bit of football on the telly, champagne on ice, and our gourmet seafood platter…could life get any better?
Better? No. What we hadn’t figured was that it was about to get a whole lot worse!
We turned up at the house, for which we had a confirmed booking from one of the largest, if not the largest booking agencies in the world. The Fussiest Eater sends a text to the owner asking for the keypad number as the gate is locked. We are there for about 5 minutes when a woman comes out of the house. “Can I help you?” she asks. “Oh, yes, you probably just got our text. We’re here for our holiday”
Apparently we weren’t.
In the time that we had made our booking and our actual holiday, the house had been sold. It was no longer holiday accommodation.
It was now 3:00pm on a Saturday, we had no place to stay for the next four nights and we had a rapidly warming seafood platter on the back seat of the hire car.
Seafood Pizza Recipe
Party Pies
You know this is an Aussie Meat Pie because the secret ingredient is a spoonful of Vegemite! I made mini versions of this pie – in Australian we call these Party Pies so they were perfect for my Birthday Party Menu!
Now back to Port Douglas. The Fussiest Eater began calling the owner of the house. He confirmed that he had sold the house and had told the booking agency to cancel all future bookings. I started trying to find us accommodation. The first place I found wanted $15,000 for the four nights. The second $6000. Finally, we were able to find a studio room back in Port Douglas for the four nights for a price that we could actually afford. And that had a fridge in which we could put the seafood platter! From there we called the booking agency who offered to not only refund the cost of the house but also to pay for the emergency accommodation.
The following day we were also able to move into a one-bedroom apartment in the same complex which was a lot better than the studio but still how we had wanted to spend the last few days of our holiday.
As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment. We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the housetechnically we are not out of pocket.
Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected.
TechnicallyI could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference.
I didn’t want to be an arsehole.
I’ll leave that up to them.
Meat Pie Recipe
Chewy Almond Crescents
We now turn to the sweet part of our birthday party menu. These were great! Really tasty and not overly sweet. You couldn’t really taste the apricot jam which was a shame. When I make these again, I will maybe add some chopped-up dried apricots into the mix. Or maybe add a glaze with the jam. They were delicious regardless. These would be great with a cup of tea or coffee or equally with a little glass of Baileys! This was probably my favourite thing on the menu. I also loved the butterfly cakes but they were similar to cakes I had made before. These were all new and I was so happy to discover them!
Accomodation saga continued….As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment. We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the housetechnically we are not out of pocket.
Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected.
TechnicallyI could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference.
I didn’t want to be an arsehole.
I’ll leave that up to them.
Chewy Almond Crescents Recipe
Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes
These were so pretty and also delish. I loved the tanginess of the lemon curd with the sweetness of the cupcake!
The one-bedroom apartment was great. However, on the first night, I was woken at around 2 a.m. by the sound of what sounded like a woman screaming. Channelling my inner Nancy Drew, I got out of bed and looked out the window but the side street the room looked out on was deserted. I was just getting back into bed when I heard it again. This time I went to the main room to look out of the front windows but the main street which we overlooked was also quiet. I went back to bed. I heard the same noise once again at around 5 a.m. This time I wondered if maybe someone in the neighbouring rooms was having an argument as again there was no movement on either street.
There was no mention of any attack on the news the following day so I went about my business. As we were walking back to the apartment from dinner I heard the same noise. This time though I was able to see that it was coming from a bird that we had just walked past. A quick Google Search identified these murder birds as Bush Stone Curlews. Thankfully no Nancy Drewing needed for me on the second night. Or thereafter.
Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes Recipe
My Nigella Moment – Passionfruit Glazed Shortbread
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!
I love shortbread and passionfruit so these were high on my list of things to make. They would have also fit in nicely with my birthday party theme but I ran out of time and had to choose between the Almond Crescents and these. In the end, I have eaten Passionfruit Shortbreads before whilst the Almond Crescents were something new to me so I chose them. These though? High on my list of things to make! And believe me, when I do…I will definitely be popping back to the biscuit tin, Nigella Style, for just one more!
Super Food Ideas really came through for my birthday-themed menu! As did Port Douglas for my birthday holiday. Despite the…ahem…hiccup with the accomodation, PD remains one of my favourite holiday destinations!!!!
Welcome friends to Twenty Years Ago today, where we find out what the good people of 2003 were eating via a magazine of the time and a self-imposed challenge by which to deliver a menu. Today’s magazine was Super Food Ideas from May 2003 and the challenge was to build a menu that featured the letter P.
But first, let’s set the scene by having a quick peek at what was hot in May 2003. The Matrix Reloaded was number one at the office followed by X2: X Men United and Bruce Almighty. Topping the Australian music charts through that same month were “In Da Club” by 50 Cent, “Rock Your Body” by Justin Timberlake and “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence. Also, sneaking up on those charts was another favourite of mine, “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes so for my mind, May 2003 had some pretty good music and some fairy average films. In book sales for the month, The Da Vinci Code was #2 and The Devil Wears Prada was #8.
So, pop some JT on your speakers and open that bottle full of bub, because we are going to party like it’s your birthday with a menu featuring the letter P.
The Menu – May 2003
Chicken Liver Paté – To Wake You Up Inside
There were actually a few options for the starter – the paté which I chose, a prawn cocktail and some mini potato cakes with smoked salmon and creme fraiche. I literally eeny meeny miny mo’ed these three recipes to choose one. The pate was easy to make and was quite delicious. It was a little grainier than bought patés but that probably says more about my food processor than any real flaw in the recipe.
Chicken Liver Pate Recipé:
Pepper Steak – To Rock Your Body
The pepper steak main was delicious! And another classic to go with the very traditional starter! And although I am trying to limit my consumption of red meat, this is likely to go on high rotation!
Pepper Steak Recipe:
Pecan and Date Syrup Pudding
I was soooo disappointed that I didn’t have time to make this. I even bought all the ingredients but, the weekend I had planned to make it, I also realised we had most of a bag of apples that were getting a bit old…so apple pie it was. However, as I said I have all the ingredients so this pudding may make an appearance in the coming weeks.
Pecan and Date Syrup Pudding Recipe:
My Nigella Moment – Chilli Crab
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 the most appetising thing in the mag!
I mean…who does not love a Chilli Crab. I mean…who does not love Chilli Crab. We had the most memorable chilli crab in Malaysia. We went on a tour to see the fireflies where part of the tour was dinner. The restaurant looked pretty basic – plastic plates and cups, definitely catering to the tourists going to see the fireflies so we were not expecting much. Then they brought out the chilli crab!!! It was amazing. So fresh and tasty. It was divine. So expectations were high on this one. Could I do our memories of chilli crab justice?
I am not going to blow my own trumpet to say this was as good as our Malaysian meal. For a start, it was not followed by cruising down the river watching fireflies, it was followed by a night on the couch watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall which was this week’s film club choice! BUT…this was AMAZING!!!! A seven-nation army couldn’t hold me back from this one!
Chilli Crab Recipe:
Oh my gosh, Super Food Ideas delivered on the P recipes! This was a great month of eating for me culminating in that chilli crab…possibly the best month yet! And the pudding still to come!
So tell me, if you were making a menu featuring the letter P, what would you make?
Bonjour les amis et bienvenue dans mon déjeuner inspiré de la Provence et d’avril 2003. My inspiration for this menu came from the April 2003 issue of Delicious Magazine. Initially, the topic was “So Frenchy So Chic” but as the menu evolved, so did my interpretation of it. Not for us the hustle and bustle of a Parisian bistro. Today we are taking it slow and enjoying the fresh air and rustic pleasures of lunch in the countryside. With a tiny bit of Asian influence thrown in. It is not totally unfounded either, after all, back in the day, the French has colonies in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and parts of Thailand.
Let’s set the scene, shall we? Lunch is being served outside on a long table sheltered from the sun by the branches of the same olive trees that are providing your entree. The air is scented with lavender from a nearby farm and somewhere nearby a little brook is babbling away…
Maybe something a little like this!
Our April 2003 Menu
Eagle-Eyed readers will notice that for the first time ever in these 20 years ago today posts that we are not opening with some sort of beverage. Instead, we are closing out with one. This is because the starter I chose, the Braised Olives and Almonds was the most purely “French” course whilst the only cocktail in the book was very Asian in its ingredients. The two didn’t really work together so I thought moving the cocktail to the end of the meal would work better!
Braised Green Olives With Roasted Almonds
These were so more-ish! And so easy to do! I could happily munch on a bowl of these any day of the week! And I know we are holding out for the Sakitni at the end of the meal…but a glass of lovely French cider (Maybe a pear cider to match with the dessert) or some Provence Rosé would make this perfect drinking food!
Braised Green Olives and Roasted Almonds Recipe:
Glazed Salmon with Lime Beurre Blanc and Tomato, Ginger and Basil Salsa
This was really delicious and I liked the method of cooking the salmon in foil. I had not tried this before as normally I pan fry or grill my salmon. This was a more delicate way of cooking it. I also used salmon fillets which made this so much easier to cook as a weeknight meal. I simply placed the lime leaves under the salmon, the lemongrass by its side, and the lime on top. Whilst we’re at it…I used regular red sweet chilli sauce instead of the yellow one suggested in the recipe. I don’t think I have ever even seen yellow sweet chilli sauce!
Glazed Salmon with Lime Beurre Blanc and Tomato, Ginger and Basil Salsa Recipe:
Pear Tart with Ginger Custard
I did not make this one – the purpose of these Twenty Years Ago Today recipes is not for me to cook the whole menu, even though sometimes I wish I could! It is about seeing if a particular magazine from the past can fulfill a brief. I don’t love pears so this is not something I would make BUT, I felt the Pear Tart fit in nicely with the French Country theme and the ginger custard echoed the ginger in the salsa that went with the salmon
Pear Tart with Ginger Custard Recipe:
Sakitini
To close out our French country meal we have a very Asian-inspired martini – sake, a lychee instead of an olive, and ginger which has been present in the main and the dessert. This is a sweeter style of martini rather than the dry style most people would drink so it ,is a nice if somewhat unusual, way to round out a meal.
Sakitini recipe:
My Nigella Moment – Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake
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 the most appetising thing in the mag!
Again this month, this was a really tricky one. There were two recipes that I wanted to cook. In the end didn’t do either, possibly because I spent so long vacillating between the two that I ran out of time to do either!
The first was a Brownie, Raspberry and Drambuie Trifle. I mean…OMG…how good does that sound? BUT the second was a Chocolate Raspberry Pudding cake from the lady herself! And how could I resist not Nigella-ing Nigella? Plus, I have made this recipe from How To Eat several times and it has never failed me. It is my go-to recipe if I ever need to bake something that I know will turn out well!
This was certainly the most challenging menu to pull together as there was nothing in the magazine that seemed specifically French. I felt it came together pretty well even though I had to tweak the theme a little bit! We’ll save So Frenchy So Chic for another day and leave this one as So Frenchy So Rustique! Whatever we call it, April 2003 provided some delicious food which is what it’s all about!
