My Favourite Things – A Weekend Away

I’ve been a bit slack on the blog recently, the Tour de France puts a bit of a dent in my ability to think straight and I’m not sure that writing blog posts in a state of sleep deprivation is a good idea. I had meant to post during the tour, tantalising you all with gorgeous photos of our annual TDF French Feast, however we were all starving and ate it before I could take photos!

However, this post does have its origins in this sleep deprived period as we were lucky enough to attend a big screen presentation of the stage where they went up Alpe d’huez twice! In honour of this big event (and because it doesn’t take much to talk me into trying a new restaurant) a group of us decided to make a night of it and have dinner at Marrakesh before. This was perhaps a mistake, not because the food was terrible – far from it, but because we were a bit too pressed for time. Marrakesh is a Moroccan restaurant that is not just about food, but atmosphere and culture and we did it a great disservice in having a time limit on our visit. Our host, Mohammed, was generous and entertaining and we have all promised that we will go back there for a far more leisurely meal soon.

So by now you are probably wondering when I will get to the point! Mohammed gifted us with a magazine that contained some of the recipes we sampled at his establishment. This past weekend I finally made a visit to my sister, to whom at some time previously I had given a tagine as a gift. She didn’t know how to use it, so armed with Mohammed’s recipe, I decided to teach her!

Sheer awesomeness and a couscous salad

For those of you wondering what a tagine is, it’s a clay cooking pot. It’s also awesome in that it has this magical ability to turn anything you put into it into the best tasting food ever. Or at least mine has, and all evidence points to my sisters having the same ability!

So I picked my favourite dish from Marrakesh, the Lamb Afrah Tagine, and convinced her that we were going to make it. I’m not going to share the recipe, since it’s not really mine to share, but feel free to go to Marrakesh and try it for yourselves. 

The banner says it all!

The gourmet weekend actually started before I left Adelaide, with a visit to Vege Velo and an investigation of the new "Cake Bike". Vege Velo is a wonderful bike propelled vegetarian food proprietor that has become an Adelaide favourite over the past year and the cake bike is a new addition featuring vegan desserts. Given that both CLP and I have difficulty making decisions, we decided to get two brownies and a slice of coconut cake to share between us. It's a good thing we ride a lot! CLP and I both agreed that the cake bike was a resounding success and vegan desserts were apparently awesome! 

Who knew vegan could be this good?

It tasted better than it looked

And it looked better on the inside

So after managing to leave Adelaide with a tummy full of cake (which was a good thing since the plane was delayed) I made it to Melbourne. After a good nights rest, my sister and I went out to collect the ingredients for the tagine. Because you can never have too much of a good thing, we acquired two cooking books while shopping for ingredients, which inspired us to cook an apple strudel for dessert.


We also threw together my staple couscous salad, which is loosely based on a recipe from "Made in Morocco” by Julie Le Clerc and John Bougen, however I thought I’d include it here (see bottom of blog post). The house filled with wonderful spicy cooking smells every time we opened the tagine and soon we were on our way to eating way too much! My sister was convinced that the tagine was capable of producing awesome food and was easy to use – success all round!

Adequately fortified from our evening meal and with the weather proving much more favourable (it had been blowing a gale and pouring in Melbourne), we set out the next day to pursue another of my favourite things – gardening! I know, not gourmet or gear related – though I’d argue that gardening is an extension of cooking.

Roadside adornment

Cati for CLP

Anyway, we had decided to wander across the other side of Melbourne to investigate the Diggers garden at Heronswood. This turned out to be an awesome drive, with the city soon giving way to rolling countryside and odd roadside sculpture, which I attempted to snap from a moving car! When we arrived we were treated to stunning views out to the sea as well as a beautiful, heritage style house surrounded by amazing gardens.
I think what I liked most was the amount of practical gardens, with food and medicinal plants seeming to dominate. These were often arranged in formal style gardens, which showed off the range of colours and diversity of plants that can be grown and eaten! 

The vege patch!

We treated ourselves to lunch at the café, with as much food as possible being sourced from the kitchen garden next door. I had an amazing salmon and kipfler potato salad that was full of herbs, followed by scones with jam made from local grown fruit. Truly enjoyable. 

Best photo of the day

With my time at my sisters drawing to a close, I (eventually) jumped on a plane and headed back to Adelaide. Not wanting to waste a glorious day, I had talked some friends into going for a “training” ride in the hills. The problem was they had an afternoon deadline so it was a bit of a scramble for me to get to the location in time. But I made it and soon completed my weekend with my other favourite thing – riding! 

I have to say, it wasn’t necessarily my favourite thing at the time, trying to keep up with three gentlemen that usually ride for a team called “Men of Steel” is hard work and they certainly gave me a good training ride. Still, managing to squeeze a hills ride in on beautiful sunny day in winter is always a bonus. Strava file below if you don’t believe how hard I worked!

http://www.strava.com/activities/73760905

More artwork - your guess is as good as mine!

Couscous salad

Equal quantities of chicken stock and couscous

• About 1 cup of both will feed about 6 people, but add an extra ½ cup if you’re feeding more
• Half a butternut pumpkin, cubed and roasted
• About a cup of roasted almonds, chopped
• About ½ a medium onion finely diced
• About a cup of chopped dates/raisins/sultanas (pick one, or substitute something you like)
• A good quantity of either chopped coriander or parsley

In a medium saucepan with a lid, sauté the chopped onion in some oil. When the onion is translucent, and the chopped dates (or whatever you chose to use) and the stock and bring to boil. When boiling, add couscous, stir once, then switch off heat and put lid on saucepan. Leave for at least 10 minutes until the couscous has absorbed all the stock, then using a fork, scrape the mixture into a bowl, fluffing it up as you go. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.