Grilled Eggplant with Yoghurt

I made this the other night as an attempt to redeem myself with my friend for forgetting her birthday.
It is based on a Claudia Roden recipe.

Grilled Eggplant and Zuchini with Yoghurt
Eggplant
zuchini
plain yoghurt
homemade tomato based pasta sauce
garlic
olive oil
mint
1.Slice the eggplant and zuchini length ways
2. Mash olive oil salt and garlic, if you do it vigorously enough the whole thing emulsifies and turns into a creamy, mayonnaise type sauce.
3.Rub the veges in the garlic mixture
4. cook the veges on a hot grill (I did mine on the bar-b-que)
5. Lay them out on a platter (with a huge hunk of deliciously charred meat done on the bbq at the same time)
6. Dollop generously with tomato sauce and then yoghurt.
7.Sprinkle with finely chopped mint and several good glugs of olive oil

This is one of those dishes that ascend far beyond the sum of their parts. It is very easy, totally delicious and, (I think) elegant in a rustic kind of way.
Shannon
Ps . my friend forgave me , but I also made Rosewater Meringues with Grand Marnier custard for dessert!

grandma's cups

My Day

I've been in the studio, listening to words of wisdom from some of the greats.

Here is an example of how cooking can get you into trouble

Oh tear my stillhouse down, let it go to rust
Don't leave no trace of the hiding place
Where I made that evil stuff
For all my time and money no profit did I see
That old copper kettle was the death of me

by Gillian Welch


and...how cooking can get you into TROUBLE by Nina Simone...

Somebody told me I made the best jelly roll in town,
I say in town
You must admit that I'm a jelly roll bakin' hound,
bakin' hound
Good jelly roll, jelly roll is so hard to find
We always get the other kind
Nobody in town can bake a sweet jelly roll like mine

Yes indeed, I'm a jelly roll baking hound! Cinnamon scrolls for Easter.

At the end of the day

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey mama rock me

By the Old Crow Medicine Show.

Contemporary cermicist loose in Sydney....

The Magnolia Project is now open at Salmon Galleries. It is so great to see your work in a beautiful gallery rather than the dingy old studio. Judith made a lovely and insightful speech and said that my work embodies a calmness and gentleness that people are attracted to as this is what most people strive for in themselves. Well... me too!



I guess what I'm searching for in ceramics is a little resting spot in this busy rushing world. A spot where you can take a breathe and consider the lilies and smell the metaphorical flowers. It is an interesting experience having others comment on your work, it makes you see it anew.



It was my birthday on Saturday and I spent the weekend with my fabulous brother and his partner. After the opening we had this...




and these ....




and these!




at the Malaya.

Elizabeth David's Table

"There are of course ways of making good food look especially beautiful. The colour, size, and shape of the serving dish is obviously important; food should never be crammed into too small a dish; serve rice and pilaffs on large shallow platters, not pressed into a deep glass casseroles. See that dishes are appropriate to the food. Peasant and country stews of beans or lentils, deep brown daubes of meat and game, onion and oil flavoured ragouts of pimentos or purple skinned aubergines lose some pf their particular charm (and also get cold) if transferred from the earthen pots in which they have been cooked..."
South Wind Through the Kitchen-pp49-50


Elizabeth David was an English food and writer. Born in 1913 she led a perapetetic life, living in Greece and traveling through the Mediterranean in her 20's. Depressed by the food of post-war Britain Elizabeth David began writing pieces on the fresh, produce driven food of the Mediterranean. She is one of my heroes (though I suspect that if you ever met her she would be difficult to get along with) Elizabeth David was a woman of strong opinions, and strong appetites. She is often praised for being responsible for inspiring British cooks to use fresh, untainted food, and quality French and Italian kitchen ware, which she sold in her shop in London.

Elizabeth David always wrote her books and cooked on a table she bought when she first settled down in London after the war. This table, along with the rest of her kitchen was sold at auction after her death. I'd love to have Elizabeth David's table. I feel as if somehow her courage, wit and creativity would have marinated this piece of furniture. Having a cup of tea at Elizabeth David's table would lead one's thoughts into unexplored byways bringing fresh, observations to the surface. But anyone's table could have been the scene of great inspiration, anyones old teacups the catalyst for exciting discovery. That is why I like second-hand things, and handmade things. It is important for me to be surrounded by the marks of others who have gone before. It connects me to my family, makes me part of a community both literal and metaphorical.

looking glass

Mason Jars, originally uploaded by Tinker*Tailor.

For a few years now I have been collecting glass jars- I guess vintage could be an exaggerated word for them but they are a great thing to collect as they are very cheap and very useful. The most ordinary things take on a strange beauty encased in glass.

(The lovely photo of the Mason Jars are unfortunately not mine, they are from Flickr)

autumn

pomgranate 2, originally uploaded by shannongarson.

Autumn, pomegranates, the leaves are finally changing colour......my favourite season.

3 Things Strangely Connected

"Mathematicians sometimes use the word "elegant" to describe the grace and felicity with which elements of a mathematical proposition connect. It may seem far-fetched to borrow the term and apply it to this most humble soup. But I believe it fits. It is certainly not elegant in the sense that it is fancy. It is elegant in the way the different properties of it's meager ingredients are explored, developed and exquisitely related...." from Marcella Hazan's "More Classic Italian Cooking"

This passage is not only an example of the wonderful, evocative cookery writing of Marcella Hazan but also a lesson for artists to take to their hearts. It is hard to describe what makes a successful piece of work and I have not found a better description than that "the meager ingredients are explored, developed, and exquisitely related"

Linking mathematicians and Broccoli Soup is the work of Australian potter Jane Sawyer. Sawyer's work perfectly illustrates the Broccoli Soup principle to me.


Jane Sawyer’s work is a contemporary interpretation of hakeme brushwork popularized through the Japanese mingei movement. She uses line in a loose gestural way which accentuates the soft form and also the very nature of creation of the pot.
The three "meager" elements, terracotta clay, white slip and clear glaze combine with the movement of the artists body and hands to create these powerful statements on the physical world. One thing I really admire about Jane Sawyer's work is that despite their abstract, sculptural quality these pots retain their original purpose by being usable tableware. In this way Sawyer’s pots are using form and brushwork to draw attention to the process of making but also in their tactility seduce the user to contemplate the process of using the pot. Carrying these pots to the table encourages one to consider the link between the human body and the inanimate object. In keeping a strong link to their usability Jane Sawyer's pots transcend the “mere” sculptural.

beads, babychinos and blood oranges

f
The Queen Victoria Markets, Melbourne. Boreks, fresh, flopppy yeast pastry wrapped around a sour, salty feta, parsley and spinach filling. Sausages, goats cheese and blood oranges.



Craft Victoria. A warm welcome from the staff for an out- of-towner. Counter, the retail space is stuffed with treasures from Sandra Bowketts wonderfully spotty wares.




..to Hammer and Daisy owls and Dani M beads so matt and tactile I feel like eating them- hmmm back to the Queen Vic Markets....


Books For Cooks. Two huge rooms of cookbooks and food writing, big wooden tables make it easy to pull out a dozen flick through deliscious pictures. Next door Enoteca is really a wine shop with a bar in the front- their hot chocolate took me back to Les Deux Maggots in Paris, an experience I am always chasing. Fizzy D approved thouroughly of the Babychino and even though I half feel it's unbearably prententious she has so much fun eating them I can't stop sharing the coffee shop experience with her.

When I first moved to Brisbane from my small country town at the age of 17 I remember thinking "If I have to live in the city I'm going to be right in the middle of it and gulp up all it has to offer." It was a hard but great experience and developed my lifelong love of bookshops, movies, and meeting friends at cafes.