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Water. Air. Food. Sex. The essentials in life. The first two? Leave them in their natural state and they'll look after you just fine.. The later two? Fun to play with. Get a little creative with. And if the mood strikes you, mix the two... Food and sex have been linked throughout history. Think about it. I mean really think about it. Is there anything more sexy than good food? Chances are others think the same thing. These recipes are not just about seducing that special someone (or someones) but seducing yourself. Its easy to forget what a pleasure food can be. So take a knife, some nice ingredients, and get Seductive in the Kitchen.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Quote of the Moment


One of the very nicest things about life is the way we
must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing
and
devote our attention to eating.
~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Farmers Market Fantasy - Smokin' Salmon Sexiness



Almost every Wednesday I make a mission to my local farmers market to peruse, smell, talk, touch and buy.
It is very satisfying to my inner foodie voyeur.
Tables heaped high with heirloom tomatoes.




Trays of homemade marinated olives, fresh herbs and sexy little tubs of artichokes calling seductively to me.
I brace myself apon arriving to not spend all my money on the outrageously rich brownie stall handing out free samples. Damn them and their chocolatey goodness.
There is a man who sells fresh produce and goats cheese who always looks you straight in the eye and says, "These passion fruit are like sex. Try one. I never lie about food. Do you see this goats cheese? Award winning. You won't be disappointed.' And he somehow manages not to sound sleazy at all.
There is a spice stall where I buy my vanilla beans and dukka. Three sexy Tahitian vanilla beans for only $10. Its amazing.
If you walk past the mushroom stall and your nose doesn't become mesmerized by the smell of their simmering mushroom-soup-in-a-cup you clearly don't love mushrooms at all...
And bread!
I grew up eating locally-made wood-fired sourdough bread and for a long while it ruined me for other bread. But now! Now their is a plethora of amazing bread for me to peruse and buy.
I may look slightly strange walking down the street hugging a paper bag smelling my olive and rosemary sourdough, but do I care? I do not.
Unfortunately I have so far been too mesmerized by the food to take any photo's but I will get around to it soon, I swear!
So I woke up this morning and threw together myself a lunch using almost only ingredients I bought at the market yesterday.
Easier to prepare than buying Tim tams on special (well, almost) this tasted like it took a mob of chefs to prepare... I mean, just look at it.




1 bundle of organic dried udon noodles
salt, pepper and olive oil



50 gm of Camembert or Brie of your choice
Rocket, or some other peppery lettuce




Handful of heirloom cherry tomatoes
squeeze of lemon
50 gm of hot-smoked salmon (not to be confused with the cold-smoked salmon you normally buy)


Boil some water. Cook your udon. Flake the salmon apart with your fingers like so...



Roughly cut the tomatoes, tear the brie into little chunks and toss with the olive oil and rocket and salmon. Season well.
Strain the udon. Mix through.
Devour with gusto.



Notes;
- I do specify dried udon noodles here as the fresh ones work better in stir-fries. The dried ones have a lovely bite to it, a little like linguine or spaghetti. Both of these pasta types would go spiffingly here if you have some in your cupboard.
-The cheese I have used in these pictures is Tasmanian Heritage signature Camembert and it will make your insides go as gooey as its oozing loveliness.
The picture above is how soft it is straight out of the fridge. You should see it when you let it come to room temperature...
- If you have never tried hot-smoked salmon you are missing out. I love the cold smoked salmon you buy in the supermarket but this is a totally different beast. Same fish, different taste entirely.
Hot smoked salmon is smoked with heat and takes on a lovely campfire flavor and flaky texture. No words can fully evoke the sumptously complex rich smoky flavors of this wonderful ingredient.
Do yourself a favor. Go online, find someone near you who is making it and buy some. Here is the guys who made mine... They smoke it onsite, at the market. Yowza!
I do know how to make it myself. Ill blog about it someday.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Effortless Late Night berries with Sexy Apples, flirtacious spices and Cheap Vanilla Icecream





This isn't so much a recipe as an inspiration. In fact it takes about as long to make as reading the title of this blog. Ok, perhaps a little longer, but you get the point.
You may think that when you have cravings for something sexy and truly sweetly satisfying at two in the morning that only one thing will do.
But you would be wrong. And though we all love a good horizontal late night tango (if you know what i mean) there are other things that will satisfy you with little to no effort. And if you have used all your energy on previously mentioned sexy-good-times this might be exactly what you are looking for.
This was one of those things born of cravings for something sweet and warm and grew from the bits and pieces that were hanging around in the sometimes scary depths of my fridge...

So simply chop up two apples into bite size chunks (take the size of the mouths of your guests into consideration) and bung it in a pan with a tbls of butter.
Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and either 1 tsp of vanilla extract or, if you happen to have one on hand, half a vanilla bean, seeds scraped out into the pan. Throw the pod in right after it.
Tumble in 1-2 cups of frozen mixed berries and 2-3tbls of sugar, depending on how sweet your berries are.
I prefer it a little tart.
Next in goes one cup of water. Turn it down to simmer and cook till the apples are a little soft and you really cant wait any longer. It should only take about 5-6 minutes.




Thicken it with a little (1tsp) corn flour mixed into a some water to make a thin liquid and then stirred into your luscious berries. Thats it. Perhaps 10 minutes of almost no effort and your cravings will be satiated.
Lob a good hunk of vanilla icecream ontop and devour.
Sometimes fancy and fresh ingredients are required.. Here all thats required is a voracious appetite and and some odds and ends.

Note; Dont feel remotely guilty about eating this by yourself.


Monday, July 5, 2010

Luscious Lemon Tart


There is a dream.
Somewhere over the rainbow.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops. Away apon the chimney tops.
And although we cant always go there, and although I dont have a chimney, what we can do is bring a little of the dream into our kitchens.
Now I dont known about you, but when the weather is cold and rainy I want a little sunshine in my kitchen.
Luckily for me I have wonderful friends. I recieved a text last week proclaiming, 'We should get together soon and make something we have never made before.'
Without further ado I replied with,' How about Wednesday?' and a date was set.
A large baking extravaganza was had.
He wanted to make a lemon tart and although I have made lemon tarts before, its been some while.
And nothing brings sunshine into your kitchen quite like lemon tart.
There is something entirely sensual about making pastry by hand.
Its the feel of the thing.
It was, I must admit, a bit daunting to approach setting the filling in our atrocious oven. This is an oven that burns vegetables on the outside before they are cooked on the inside.. It hurts my soul a little. Would the tart curdle? Would the pastry burn before it set? Would it taste of eggs? Be too firm?
I should have trusted the melting-lemon-drop-dream. For a dream it was.
Gastranomique citrus porn.
Are you scintillated? Good. Because if I can make this tart in my monstrosity of a temperemental oven, anyone can. And with good faith...

For the pastry;

300 plain flour
pinch salt
115 gm icing sugar
225 gm of butter, cubed
1 egg yolk


For the Filling;

180ml lemon juice
190gm castor sugar
Zest of two lemons
Approx. 300 gm of whole eggs
285ml cream

To make the pastry;

Mix the salt flour and icing sugar.
Rub the butter into the flour until it resembes fine bread crumbs.





If you are in a hurry use cold butter and blitz the flour and butter in a food processor.
Add yolk and knead until it becomes shiny and smooth.
There really is something wonderfully sensual about this. The feel of the flour crumbling and forming is a beautiful thing.




If you have never kneaded before look up a video on youtube for some technique pointers.
It is really fairly self-explanatory though.
Give the dough some love and it will love you back.
Form into a block and wrap in glad wrap or a plastic bag. Place in the fridge to chill.

To make the filling;

Place eggs in a bowl and beat till smooth.
Place two small pans on the stove. Heat the cream in one and the sugar, lemon juice and zest in the other.
Bring the cream to a simmer. Don't let it boil over.
Pour the cream into the eggs, whisking as you go. Whisk till smooth.
Heat juice and sugar mix till sugar disolves. Whisk into cream mix.
Allow to cool while you make the base.
Roll out a round flate pancake with your dough. Try and keep it even. Lay it evenly over you tart dish and press into the corners.
If there are any broken bits or holes patch it up with some pastry trim.
Trim the edges.
Chill in the freezer for 10 min.
Poke holes all over with a fork and bake at 180 c till lightly golden.
Pour in filling. Turn down oven to 100 c .
Gently place your tart in the oven and cook for 1 hour.
If your oven is a dangerous beast, set the timer for 30 minutes and turn the tart around to ensure even ness of cooking. Then set the timer for a further 20 min.
It will be ready when you shake it gently Add Imageand the middle is no longer liquid.
Remove from the oven and cool on the bench till room temp.

Serve with cream, mascapone, ice cream or just devour as is.
Excuse my twee-ness when i say this but...
That's what sunshine tastes like.











Long Time No See!

I just realized how long it has been since i updated my blog!
Sorry everybody...
I have been doing some crazy hours at work, what with two people leaving and two people going on holiday and I have been busy, busy, busy. But there is light on the horizon. To be exact its actually already here and I got a pay rise!
Ameretto Sour's for everyone!
(They are my new favorite cocktail!)
The good news is that I have still been cooking and photographing for the blog I just haven't had a chance to update yet.. So I will be making up for my long absence with a veritable cornucopia of updates. Stay tuned...