......Bowl of Cherries: Lunching Ladies

Art Feast

The Vancouver Arts Centre sits stoically at the end of our street to the west of our house. It's a beautiful building, and used to be the Albany hospital. Now it is home to our many talented artists, artisans and musicians.

There's always something happening at the VAC ~ as it is affectionately known ~including opening events for the art exhibitions.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating arty food for these celebrations, and theming it to coincide with an aspect or subject of the art being shown.

Art Feast seemed to be a good working title, so that's what I called it!

Cube 30

One of the yearly art exhibitions is named 'Cube 30' in reference to all the art works on show being 30cm by 30cm.
All the surrounding publicity and invitations were in the form of a cube, and I started looking round cube~al inspiration for my food!
Sandwiches, squared and presented in a deep transparent cube were an easy ask. Tuna and almond slice measured and cut into cubes, cheeses, square plates and strategically placed rulers all kept to the theme. My family became puzzled d eventually weary when everything I prepared for them came cubed on the plate ~ experimentation!
The sweet component of the feast was inspired by the perfect cube of a liquorice allsort ~ thus, the Allsort Tree presided over the sweet table.
Looking over the photos now, I realise that the unlikely inclusion of several large round radishes was a small subconscious rebellion!

More Themes

Over time, I fed art lovers who came to view the Inhouse Exhibition and 'Take Me Home', displaying small desserts in doll houses and calling them 'House of Mint and House of Strawberry'.
A collection of photographic art works was accompanied by food set out on photo frames, and the Noongar Inspired feast was rustic and displayed on wood and colourful 'sound lines'.
Knowing the culture is rich in symbolism, I thought it would be fun to present the melon in its own skin and dressed with long 'spikes' to represent the Australian echidna.
Everything was gussied up with native blooms, and the response from the artists themselves was very complimentary ~ it was fun work!

Recipe

Whole Orange Cake
2 small (400g) oranges
125g butter, melted
1 cup milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
Orange zest, to decorate
Orange icing
1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
10g butter
2 tablespoons orange juice
　
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 24cm (base) fluted ring pan. Place oranges in a saucepan. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Drain. Return to saucepan. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Drain. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Roughly chop oranges. Remove and discard seeds. Process orange until smooth. Transfer to a bowl. Stir in butter, milk, eggs, flour, sugar and almond meal until combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in cake comes out clean. Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack over a tray. Cool.
Make icing Place sugar, butter and orange juice in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir for 5 minutes or until smooth. Set aside for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour over cake. Top with orange zest. Stand for 15 minutes or until set. Serve.
Bringing the oranges to the boil twice removes some of the bitterness and softens the peel and pith.

Ingredients
nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, or cashews)
1 bunch watercress
1 bunch rocket
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsps whole-grain mustard
¼ tsp salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
2 ripe pears,
1/2 cup of mild blue cheese
Method
Trim the stems of the watercress and rocket. Wash and dry the leaves.Meanwhile, whisk the vinegar and mustard together in a large salad bowl. Season with the ¼ tsp salt and some pepper. Gradually whisk in the olive oil, starting with a few drops and then adding the rest in a steady stream, to make a smooth, slightly thick dressing. Put all the lettuces in the bowl. Quarter and core the unpeeled pears and thinly slice; add to the salad. Scatter the cheese and nuts over the salad, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Toss the salad gently to evenly dress all the greens.

Palmiers with bitter Orange Butter

These little beauties are easy to make, and have the taste of expensive French patisserie.
I used ready rolled puff pastry. Brush a light coating of melted butter over each sheet.
Onto half the sheets I spread strawberry preserve, and on the others I sprinkled cinnamon, brown sugar and crushed walnuts.
Roll the pastry like a swiss roll from each side until the rolls meet in the middle, then cut into even little slices.
A quick egg wash and into a 200 degree oven until golden brown.(10 minutes)
Dredge with icing sugar.

The butter is simply a cup of icing, a tablespoon of cream and a tablespoon of softened butter, blended together with zest and juice of orange.

I serve this with a little knife to spread the butter onto the palmiers.

There's Something about...

..Rock cakes that is just so comforting. Essentially they look like the poor relation, yet when you bite in, all that crumbly buttery goodness with a hint of spice, tells you that this is an understated delicious delight of the cake family.

When we lived in Jersey, every morning I used to supply a quaint town corner store with a basket full of fresh rock cakes. ~ The area was undergoing smart development at the time, and there were many workman around.
I have warm and fuzzy memories of groups of tough looking men tucking into my sugar coated rock buns.
Maybe I should have donned a mop cap, filled my basket and sold direct to them ~ a la Nell Gwynn!

Writers Festival

I've loved being involved in the Albany Writers Festival ~ cleverly named 'Sprung! The Word Released' It is always a feast of literary talent.
The authors who come to the festival are 'buddied' with various members of the committee, which is great system because they get a bit of a bespoke experience of Albany.
Maggie Beer was a guest author, the same year as I was asked to provide the 'grazing' food for the Green Room.
Knowing how authors (inside info I suppose you could call it!) are drawn to the written word ~ I thought it'd be fun to wrap their fare in little pockets adorned with quotes about food by famous scribes of times past. The effect was sweet and got the nod of approval from the equally sweet Maggie ~ that's the kind of acknowledgment I'm talking about!

Talking about Buddies.....

This year at the Sprung Festival, one of the high profile celebrities was Emmanuel Mollois, he of the Choux Cafe in Swanbourne, and formerly of the famous Loose Box restuarant.
His appearances on Poh's kitchen have endeared him to the public, and his Macarons are legendary!
So it was with some excitement that I greeted the news that I was his Albany guide for the time he was here.
Vanessa and I duly arrived at the airport for his scheduled flight time, and watched as people filed out of the aircraft door.

We commented that we hoped we would recognise him, as he may look different in real life ~ Just then, a very obviously French man ~ beret, red trademark glasses, and even clutching a huge box of patisserie, descended the stairs, we laughed because clearly there could be no mistake!

The Main Event.....

....for Emmanuel's visit, was a long table lunch at Oranje Tractor Winery. After a little sightseeing tour of Albany, we were welcomed at the winery. Emmanuel talked about his life, career, new book, and love of food, and happily answered questions. It was informal, fun, and the food was fabulous ~ all dishes of his choosing ~ and those gorgeous macarons with our coffee.
Later that night, when I took him back to the airport,he expressed how welcome he had felt, and how he would ponder the idea of a Mollois establishment here in the Great Southern.
I, for one, wait with baited breath!

One of the Guests at the lunch was the outstanding photographer Krysta Guille. She agreed to let me put her images to this memory, so enjoy the refinement and artistry of her beautiful photographs.

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Friday, November 26, 2010

Lunching Ladies

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