North and South America - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: North and South America

08
Jun
2020

Simply The Best Carrot Cake

categories: Cake, Carrot, Pineapple, United States of America

I don’t think I have mentioned this before but I absolutely hate cooked carrots. I don’t mind them chopped up really small in a Bolognese or Shepherd’s Pie but to this day, if I go to my mum’s for a family dinner I get raw carrots on my plate instead of cooked. This hatred of cooked carrots meant that I did not eat carrot cake until well into my thirties and even then, my first taste was by stealth!

I clearly remember my first taste of carrot cake. It was someone’s birthday at work and I was too busy to attend the celebration but one of my friends brought me back a piece of cake. Still concentrating on what I was doing, I took a bite.

“OMG…this is delicious!!!! What on earth is this?”

My friend looked rather non-plussed. “It’s carrot cake…”

“This is carrot cake?”

“Yes”

“Is there any more?”

Since then I have been making carrot cake on the reg so I was a little surprised when I mentioned that I was going to blog my “Classic” carrot cake recipe and the fussiest eat in the world said

“I don’t think you can call it classic”.

“Why not?”

“Well….it has pineapple in it…It’s delicious. But it’s not classic carrot cake”

“Carrot cake has pineapple in it”.

“No other carrot cake I ever ate had pineapple in it”

“It’s based on a recipe by Tina Turner”

“That doesn’t make it a classic”

Well, I beg to differ. I think that absolutely makes it a classic. And you can argue with me all you want. Try arguing with her!

She will kick your ass all the way to Nutbush City Limits! Anyway, I changed the name so it homaged Tina a bit more!

The Recipes

As mentioned my recipe for carrot cake is based on a recipe by Tina Turner from the book “Cool Cooking” by Roberta Ashley. I have adapted it in minor ways:

My version uses butter not margarine
I leave out the currants
I add some rum. Pineapple and rum is a great flavour combination and the rum works really nicely with the brown sugar and cinnamon too! Plus, now more than ever, what isn’t better with a little bit of booze!
I prefer cream cheese icing rather than the cream suggested by Tina

The OG Tina Version

Here are the original recipe and the front and back covers of the book it comes from.

My Tweaked Version

Simply The Best Carrot Cake

Print Recipe

A delicious cake, based on a recipe by Tina Turner. This cake is easy to make and keeps beautifully! This will last for a week if kept in the fridge – if you don’t eat it all first!

Author: Taryn Nicole
Category: Cakes
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale

For The Cake

120g butter
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs, well beaten
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 400g can crushed pineapple (drained)
2 cups grated raw carrots
3 tbsp dark rum
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp cinnamon

For The Icing

80g icing sugar
250 grams cream cheese
Zest of a lemon
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Additional walnuts, toasted and chopped to decorate

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For the cake – Preheat your oven to 170C (150 Fan forced).

Lightly grease a 20cm (base) round cake pan and line with non-stick baking paper.

Cream the butter with the sugar until pale. Add the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly between each addition.

Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon.

Mix again until all the ingredients are well combined.

Add the carrots, pineapple, walnuts, rum and vanilla.

Stir through so that all the ingredients are well combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Set aside for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely

For the icing – place the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Beat together unitl well combined.

Spread over the cooled cake.
Top with addtional chopped walnuts and lemon zest.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Stay safe!

20
May
2020

Going Brazilian

categories: Brazil, World Cooking

So, I did something a bit different last week. Cooking wise I assure you! One of our Melbourne restaurants, Atlas Dining is surviving lockdown by sending out food boxes based on a theme. Included in the price of the ingredients are a series of masterclasses with the chef, done via Youtube showing you how to cook each meal. There are also written instructions for those who prefer to read rather than watch. I chose the Brazilian Food box because I have never eaten Brazilian food and thought it would be a great way to introduce myself to that cuisine, learn something new and eat some delicious food along the way. Win, win, win!

I was so excited when the box was delivered! It was like food Christmas! The food was all of the highest quality and there was a LOT of it. I ordered the singles box because the Fussiest Eater in the World was working on most of the nights I intended to cook. However, there was enough left over each night for me to have for lunch the following day.

And, to be honest, I am still eating some of the veggies!

Sausage Feijoada

Meal one was a Sausage Feijoada (pronounced Fey-zwah-dah) for those like me who have no knowledge of Brazilian food! This is apparently one of the most common dishes in Brazil. It is a stew usually made from mixed meats and black beans. Our version was made from sausages and it was 👌. It was served with a little salsa made with the most delicious guava dressing!!! This was my favourite meal of the week. It was so tasty and only took about 20 minutes to cook.

I am sure that a traditional Feijoada would take hours to cook and so this was a “dumbed down” of it but TBH, I don’t care. I was looking for an entry into the food of Brazil and this provided the perfect way to dip my toe in without getting too overwhelmed! Atlas had also done a lot of the work by pre-preparing the black bean mix which was delicious!

Pumpkin Vatapa

This was meant to be the meal for the third night but I decided to move things around because the Fussiest Eater in the World was going to be home on night 3. He is not really one for vegetarian food in gen and pumpkin in particular! He does like a steak however so the switcheroo occurred.

Again, this was quick and easy and so delicious. It’s kind of a Brazilian curry. It is late autumn here and these meals were perfect comfort food for cold nights! The vapata was served with a little salsa and two mixes sprinkled over the top. The salsa brought some freshness, the mixes brought some crunch. All in all this was delicious!

Because I made these out of order, I did not realise that one of these mixes on the top was also meant to be used with the beef dish and I used it all on the Vatapa. My suggestion here would be that if you are doing something different, to watch all the videos before cooking anything just so you know exactly what to use and when!

Carne Churrasco

Night three was a gorgeous marinated steak with parmesan polenta and a corn salsa and more of that brilliant guava dressing! It was a bright, colourful and luxurious way to finish off a superb three nights of food!

I loved cooking out of the Brazilian box, so much so that I have already signed up for the American box which is coming out in a couple of weeks! As soon as lockdown is over I definitely want to try some more Brazilian food. And who knows, one day when all of this is over maybe even travel there to sample it in situ!

Tell me, have you eaten Brazilian food? If so what can you recommend? Are there any must-haves I need to try? What about the desserts? I might try to find some delivery options!

Also, for any Americans reading this what would you include in an American food box? Two meat meals and one vegetarian? I would like to see how close your ideas line up with what’s in the box!

All props to Atlas Dining for such an innovative solution to life in lockdown! The meal box could not have been more welcome! At a time when all the days seem the same it brought a bit of vibrance that made me feel a little like this!

Have a great week everyone! Stay safe!

06
May
2020

Tijuana Sunset and Buenos Noches – Two Evening Themed Cocktails

categories: Cocktail, Mexico, Tequila

Ola people of the internet! Today we are celebrating all things Mexican with a couple of cocktails, the Tijuana Sunset and the Buenos Noches both from Cantina. Regular readers would know what I have set myself a task to cook through this book by the end of the year. Readers from the way back would know that this book and I have a troubled past. Too cheffy, too complicated, too many hard to find ingredients have been my complaints of this book in the past.

Let’s kick things off early in the evening with..wait for it…we need some sort of fanfare…ah…here he is…

Da da dadada…TEQUILA!

The Tijuana Sunset

This is billed as “A sophisticated take on the tequila sunrise”.

Okay fine. But IMHO, the only thing that makes a tequila sunrise any good is that gorgeous ombre effect of the grenadine and the orange juice. And if you are going to call that drink a sunset then that ombre effect needs to run the opposite way to the sunrise right?

Well, it is totally missing from the Tijuana Sunset so I guess the way the gradient goes is immaterial right?

Now, bear in mind I made both of these drinks in iso at a time when even generally easy to come by ingredients were scarce on the ground. Blood orange juice was an impossibility. I decided to sub in Blood Orange Soda instead of Blood Orange Juice and Soda. Did this affect the colouring? Possibly. However, as there is no picture in the book I suspect that they also did not get that beautiful colour array.

Looks may be one thing but taste is another. And when it came to taste the Tijuana Sunset was OMG….100% delicious!!! 😍😍😍. Tangy from the lime, a little sweet from the soda, a nice kick from the tequila and the touch of salt was GENIUS. I loved this so much I immediately made another which I garnished with a little slice of jalapeno. This made it even better!

I loved the Tijuana Sunset. I just wish it had a different name so there weren’t those expectations of what it was going to look like!

Wait up. Hold on. Do you think that by making the claim that it is a “sophisticated” take on the Tequila Sunrise that the authors are trying to say that the beautiful orange to deep red shading is somehow unsophisticated? Are they making fun of my love for a drink that looks pretty as well as tasting delish?

OMG…see what this book does? It makes me crazy! Or maybe that’s life after what now…seven weeks in iso?

Buenos Noches

Now this one looked the biz! It is a Mexican take on an Irish Coffee which is a drink I hold dear. And on paper it sounds delicious. Chilli infused tequila, cinnamon infused coffee…sign me up!

Okay, so truth be told. This was one of the worst things I have ever put in my mouth. Particularly because I had to wait 3 days for the tequila to infuse with the chipotle.

I actually cried after tasting this. Which I admit is an extreme reaction. But, at the moment, when our lives are so restricted, something that I was looking forward to for THREE days and which turned out to be a bitter disappointment might actually be worth a tear or two.

I felt this was bitter and flat. It lacked any sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the coffee and the heat of the chilli and had no zestiness to bring the bitter and hot flavours together.

I’m calling Goodnight Irene on the Buenos Noches.

But here’s that recipe. Just in case you have really repressed emotions and need to cry over something dumb instead of the horror that is the world as we know it.

Have a great week! Stay safe!

22
Apr
2020

Name Plates: Steak Diane

categories: Name Plates, Steak, United States of America

Hello people of the internet and welcome to another edition of “Name Plates.” This is where we take a look at the real-life people behind our favourite meals. Today we are looking at the classic American dish of Steak Diane.

What is Steak Diane?

Steak Diane is a panfried steak served with a sauce made from the pan juices from the steak, cream, brandy and Worcestershire sauce. Of course there are thousands of variations on this but if we hone it down to it’s core, this is what makes a Steak Diane.

Back in the day, the steak was dramatically flambeed at the table! No wonder it became so popular. Who doesn’t love a bit of theatre with their meal! How many over zealous patrons ended the night with burnt off eyebrows do you think? But hey, nothing speaks of a good night out like first degree burns right?

I did not flambe my sauce because I am a total klutz and the world is already going to hell. I don’t need to be setting my kitchen on fire as the cherry on top of that particular pile of woe.

It tasted pretty good regardless!

Who Was Diane?

There are hundreds of theories on the Diane that inspired the sauce which inspired the steak. One is that it was named after the young daughter of Chef Beniamino Schiavon who “invented” the dish at the Drake Hotel in Manhattan in 1948.

Another theory has the dish evolving from the Roman times where plates of game meat were often given in honour to the Goddess of the Hunt, Diana. Over time and in France, these became known as dishes prepared “a la Diane”. Soldiers stationed in France in World War I took versions of these dishes home and over time, Venison a la Diane became good old Steak Diane.

I actually believe that, in all probability, this is the origin of Steak Diane.

My Preferred Origin Story

I wanted to raise a less familiar theory, one that I found on this website.

Let’s take a little trip in the Wayback machine to London in 1938, specifically Mayfair, and even more specifically to a restaurant called Tony’s Grill. Head chef at Tony’s was the eponymous Tony Clerici.

September 30 1938 was a dark day for Alfred Duff Cooper (yes, I know he has a dumbarse name but bear with me on this, he’s one of the good guys). The Munich Agreement which allowed Hitler to “annex” Czechoslovakia was signed that day. War was averted but for people like our boy Duff, this was only giving licence to that Nazi madman.

He and his friends gathered at Tony’s Grill for a dinner and some talk of doom and gloom. I can almost guarantee that the phrase “thin end of the wedge” was used. More than once. Ditto “slippery slope”.

Recognising that the group were not in their usual jovial (ie big eating, big drinking, big tipping) mood, Tony Clerici wanted to inject some joy into the evening. He did so by preparing a dish in honour of Duff’s beautiful and glamourous wife, Lady Diana Cooper.

And voila, Steak Diane was born!

Is this the face that launched a million steaks? I really hope so!

Can we all forget about the other origin stories and enjoy Steak Diane as a celebration of anti-fascism?

The Recipe

I used the Steak Diane Recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly Retro Cookbook. And I must say….I think I got a pretty close resemblance!

Here’s the recipe. I added a tsp of Dijon Mustard into my sauce as well as it appeared in a number of Sauce Diane recipes I looked at, even though it is not contained in the recipe below.

Variations

As with many of these classic recipes there are a millionty one recipes on the interwebs. Here are some variations to type not ingredients to the sauce:

Steak Diane Pie….ooh yeah, this is going on my winter bake list for sure!
Chicken Diane….just in case we want a change from steak!
And here’s one for the vegetarians…Mushrooms Diane

Modern Day Diane

As ever, I get to choose a modern-day person to whom I would dedicate a Steak Diane. This one was possibly the hardest one yet. The early runner was Diane Lane, who starred in one of the movies that shaped my childhood, The Outsiders. I ADORED the book of this film. Sodapop Curtis was one of the first loves of my life and I cried a river or two when (spoiler alert) Johnny died. Diane Lane is perfectly cast as the beautiful Cherry!

However, in the end, Diane Keaton pipped her at the post. What is not to love about Diane Keaton? She is an outstanding actress, a style icon, a director, producer, photographer, real estate developer…is there anything she cannot do? If anyone deserves an eponymous steak it is surely she.

The above picture is a scene from The Godfather which is our current film club pick. I am going to try to watch 1 (tonight) and 2 (tomorrow) before our meeting on Wednesday. Good thing I have my reduced working week day off on Wednesday in case that plan goes awry! I have never seen any of The Godfather films so this is a real knowledge gap for me. Such a knowledge gap that I had no idea that Diane Keaton was even in it! Okay, I have 6 and a half hours of movies to watch so I need to get moving.

Have a great week. Stay safe and stay gold!

09
Mar
2020

Name Plates: Caesar Salad

categories: Name Plates, Salad, United States of America

Today we are celebrating the Ides of March with, what else but, a Caesar Salad. The 15th of March may not have been a good day for old Julius C but, any day in my book is a good day to eat this classic American salad!

The Waldorf Salad may be the funniest American salad but the Caesar salad has to the most highly accoladed:

In the 1940’s Gourmet Magazine called it ‘the gastronomic highlight of the current moment’
In 1953 it was hailed as ‘the greatest recipe to originate in the Americas in 50 years’ by the International Society of Epicures.
Julia Childs called it “a sensation of a salad from coast to coast”

High praise for some dressed lettuce leaves!!!

What is Caesar Salad?

I feel like this is a little bit like trying to explain what is water. Caesar Salad is everywhere. And everyone “knows” what it is. And everyone has their own recipe. But let’s try to break it down a little bit….

Caesar Salad was created in 1924 by Caesar Cardini in his restaurant in Tijuana Mexico. The OG version was romaine (cos) lettuce leaves dressed in a mixture of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, egg yolk, Worchestershire sauce, anchovies and parmesan cheese, topped with a lone crostini, black pepper and more parmesan cheese.

No bacon
No poached eggs
No multiple croutons

I love this more austere version of what we have come to see as a “typical” Caesar Salad.

Although I am not averse to any of the above and, indeed I usually include all of them when I make a “Caesar Salad” my purist heart balks at adding

Chicken
Kale
Prawns
Avocado, or
Lobster

I love all of those things. And they all have their place. But that place is not in my Caesar Salad. And I will silently judge you if you choose to give them a place in yours.

But I will not be so quiet if you give me, or choose for yourself, a so-called Caesar salad that contains pasta, pesto, quinoa, is served in wonton cups or comes atop of pizza. Because, those things maybe something. But what they are not is the ingredients of a goddamn Caesar Salad!!!

You will need to beware the Ides O’ March if any of those ends up in my Caesar!

By the way, the Cardini restaurant still exists and if you so desire you can drop by and have one of the ensaladeros make you a Caesar salad at your table just like they did back in the day!

Which has made that restaurant in Tijuana top five in my bucket list of places to eat.

If this damn virus ever abates and we can all travel again.

I Digress

Skip over this bit if you are only interested in Caesar Salad

Can we just stop and talk about Covid-19 for a mo?

We haven’t formally been told that we have to, but my work is encouraging everyone to work from home. There was a really weird atmosphere on Friday as everyone was packing up their stuff before heading home. It was like it was Christmas in that we felt like it might be a while before we saw each other again. But like Christmas with all the joy sucked out of it.

They’ve cancelled the Grand Prix which was meant to be in Melbourne this weekend and the Comedy Festival. They cancelled the Robbie Williams concert on Saturday but not the New Order concert I went to on the same night. By the way, the icing on the cake for that show was, as the house lights came up at the end of the gig, the song ushering us all out of the venue was REM’s It’s The End of The World As We Know It.

You can’t buy hand sanitizer, toilet paper or tissues for love or money. The supermarket shelves are largely empty of all non-perishable items.

Because I will be working from home for the indefinite future I went online tonight to buy a monitor that I can plug my work laptop into so that whilst keeping myself safe from the coronavirus I am not giving myself massive eyestrain. At one point I was trying to log on to our biggest office supplies company on two different laptops and my phone and it took FOREVER to finally make my purchase. I’m sensing monitors may join toilet paper and Graham Gene Potter on Australia’s most-wanted list!

What is happening in all your countries in reaction to the virus? Are you scared? Worried? Bored?

I am about 1% worried for my personal safety. I am mildly asthmatic so I am already slightly compromised on a respiratory front I am more scared for my mother who is obvs older and massively asthmatic.

I am also really annoyed that people have responded to this in the way they have in relation to panic buying.

I have been listening to the wonderful podcast American Hysteria recently and so much of what I am seeing resonates with what I have heard on there. Can we please all just calm the farm down in this?

And just to lighten the tone? Mystery solved!

Who, Who Was Caesar?

Caesar Cardini was an Italian immigrant to the United States who, along with his brother Alex, opened restaurants in San Diego and Tijuana. If you recall, the United States was under Prohibition from 1920 through to 1933. Mexico was not. So many of the rich and famous, including many Hollywood stars, would cross the border to eat and, more particularly, drink. Caesar’s became a popular hangout for these people.

Legend has it, that the restaurant was particularly busy one Fourth of July weekend. Kitchen supplies were running out so Caesar had to make a salad from what was on hand…ecco! Caesar Salad was born.

Then, as now, the Caesar salad was made tableside for a little bit of dramatic flair.

Caesar Cardini died in 1956, but as they say, the candle burned out long before the legend ever did!

The Recipe

I used this recipe from Taste for my Caesar and I can heartily recommend it.

For a more austere version, probably close to the OG version, I can also recommend Grace Kelly’s Caesar Salad as featured in Silver Screen Suppers as featured in Recipes For Rebels by all-round internet good guy Greg Swenson.

Variations

There are probably a million recipes for Caesar salad on the internet. TBH, a lot of them, as mentioned in the intro above are not “Caesar” Salads.

Choose wisely!

Modern Day Caesar

There are not that many modern-day Caesar’s.

There’s the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan and of course, the original Joker, Cesar Romano. But, today of all days, there can only be one Caesar for us to celebrate!

Happy Ides of March everyone!