Handful soup

Dinner tonight was a super quick and easy soup. I am dubbing it "handful soup" because it is assembled from handfuls of ingredients; no measurements, no fuss. 1 handful of dried mushrooms 1 handful of frozen peas 1 handful of snow peas torn in to pieces 1 handful of rice stick noodles 1 mushroom (or beef will do) stock cube about 2 cups of water 1/2 a star anise In a saucepan, bring the water to the boil. Add the dried mushrooms and star anise and simmer for about 15 minutes until the mushrooms are rehydrated and tender. Add the stock cube, rice stick, frozen peas and bring back to the boil. After about 3 minutes (when the rice stick has softened), add the snow peas and turn off the heat. Allow to sit for a minute, and serve. Easy eh? The star anise is the real secret to making this soup fragrant and irresistibly delicious.

Sushi Making Workshop

I ran a sushi making workshop the other day. As always we made vast amounts of sushi and gorged ourselves silly on rice and associated goodies.

I showed my students a sushi making book that my parents gave to me, and they got all inspired. So as well as the usual sushi:

They made a sushi empress:

and emperor:
Cute eh? The photos were taken by my friend Andrey.

What shall I make with these?

I bought some cherry tomatoes today. Then as I sat on the bus, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I was going to do with them. Hmmm... what to do with them? I have a basil plant, so that is an obvious match. I have some cheese in the fridge that has moved into the melted stage so really should be used.

The solution became very clear; risotto!

Firstly I quartered the cherry tomatoes and popped them in the oven to bake, having drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with Murray River salt flakes.


Then it was time to rummage out my rice, dried mushrooms, some white wine and a clove of garlic.

I fried the diced garlic in olive oil, added the rice and stirred it for a bit. Poured boiling water over the dried mushrooms to re-hydrate them, and added some to the rice. Allowed the rice to sizzle, and, stirring regularly, added water bit by bit as the water absorbed and rice cooked. A decent splash of wine and the re-hydrated mushrooms, as well as a spoonful of stockpowder and dinner was almost ready.


I broke up the cheese with my hands and stirred it into the pot, allowing it to melt. After stirring in the oven-baked tomatoes and fresh basil it was time to eat! Not bad at all.