Doctor "Fresh for you."

We invited Troy and Nadia to our place for a Doctor Who marathon (1st, 2nd and 3rd episode of the currently screening series with David Tennant as the Doctor) and a Japanese dinner. Ms Trouble seems to have taken a liking to cooking Japanese style since attending the cooking class with Jean and Rashi at the Bugsplat Family Centre the other night. Birthday gift of fiddly little table settings has also been inspiring.

So this is what we made, with Trouble nominally head chef for the afternoon.

We (again) attempted sushi and it was (again) a schmozzle that we tossed straight to bin. Don't want to talk about it. Hate it. Will never attempt it again. Until next time.

The sauces and condiments we put in the middle of the table and they included;
wasabi in a tube
tamari
soy sauce
two types of pickled ginger
grated raw ginger
mirren
rice wine vinegar
Hakubaku chilli soy noodle sauce

1st course: Things prettily arranged on a individual plates, each with a pretty little bowl for sauces.

Raw things included cucumber flowers, carrot flowers, capsicum flourishes and (smoked) salmon. Trouble was aiming for a winter budding kind of look. You know, like the as yet unidentified stone fruit trees out on the block are currently displaying - tidy little sleepy buds. Winter buds.

2nd course: Nori and mushroom soup. Again with the sauces for people to chose from, mix in their little bowls and add to their cups as they chose.

Angelata led a departure from the planned menu and came up with this one because *sigh* Bigsplat supermarket has not heard of miso.

Nori pieces steeped in hot water for a few hours, as did (seperately) saffron. She made a broth of rice grains, fine chopped mushroom and carrot with some nori pieces. The soup was made by straining the broth and then combining the three; rice broth, nori broth & saffron broth and serving. Waiting in each of the cups were paper thin slices of spring onion and finely sliverered dried mushroom.

At this point we watched (and it was FANTASTIC) the Christmas special.

3rd course. Tempura Vegetables

Cauliflower is our favourite tempura vegetable so there were two pieces each of that, and then one each of mushroom, spring onion and sweet potato. The tempura batter was just rice flour, baking power and very cold beer. It was perfect.

Again with the sauces. And lots and lots of very enthusiastic Doctor Who nostalgia and excitement. And, beer.

4th course. Soba noodles with steamed vegetables and steamed cod.

This is pretty obvious. The noodles were great - buckwheat is really yummy. The vegetables were carrots and sweet potato in one dish, snow peas and green beans in another. Keeping the colours together. The cod had been marinated in rice wine vinegar and smashed garlic.

It was great, and lots of fun.

Time for Episode 2. Never trust a cat!

Dessert. Strawberries and Kiwifruit in a bowl, looking beautiful, with yogurt on top and vanilla sauce attempts at Japanese writing. I expect it said "Fresh for you".

Storms. Tea cups. Sex war.

In the kitchen cupboard the saucepans have no particular home. Often their lids are on a different shelf. There aren't enough cupboards and all of them are low, and require agility. This used to be a smug little pleasure of ours. Dance made us so flexible we would squat in complete comfort and hunt around re-uniting pans with lids and discovering reclusive colanders in the far reaches. Now it's all just too much.

Reaching for the lid I found myself hit by a wave of irrational outrage. Husbands take the kitchen scissors from the draw and don't return them. The salt and pepper in this house are never in the same place twice. And, it made me really, really angry. It was as if I was suddenly Woman and he was Man, and instead of being two people who share a kitchen, usually very cosily, we were at war.

Lately, I've given up searching for things in the kitchen. I just can't.
This is how I decide what I'm cooking lately - I look at what's in the dishrack. If I see a colander, I'll consider pasta, but I'm not going looking for it. Nuh Uh. Not this little washerwoman. Not this old fishwife. "Right", I say, when I spot a big pot with no lid, 'we'll be cooking a one pot wonder again tonight'.

Reaching for the lid I found myself hit by a wave of irrational outrage. Husbands take the kitchen scissors from the draw and don't return them. The salt and pepper in this house are never in the same place twice. And, it made me really, really angry. It was as if I was suddenly Woman and he was Man, and instead of being two people who share a kitchen, usually very cosily, we were at war.

Note to readers: Be very polite to your knees. When offended, they are incredibly spiteful and boy do they know how to hold a grudge.

Very kawaii.

As we may have already gushed, for birthday our darling Gray gave us a boxed set of ornate wooden Japanese kitchenware - 6 itty bitty wooden bowls for single serves of sauce, 6 chopstick rests and 6 pairs of chopsticks. Very kawaii!

Tonight we're making steamed vegetables, noodles and salmon yakitori.

Washed up mermaids...

... enjoy smoked salmon and salad for lunch.

Pizza and a movie.

We went to the Bugsplat Film Club night last night.

It was just us and Troy and Nadia. The movie was wonderful. "Morocco", with Marlene Dietrich. Black and white. God she's beautiful in this movie. The story was ludicrous but she was so compelling that it didn't matter.

Gray made pizza. Tamarillo, roasted pumpkin and pine nut pizza.

Fragile. This Way Up.

Castenada's hosted our birthday brunch. The guests were;

Naomi & Pete & Ruby
Nadia and Troy
Megan & her son Howard
Lanie
Angela
Nell and Hank

And Gray, of course.

Nell & Hank are in a wine-making syndicate and gave us two bottles of delicious wine; a smooth and spicy cabernet; and a shoebox with holes in it tied up with a ribbon with the words;
Fragile. This Way Up.
written; a rather wobbly hand!; in thick black marker pen.

Aside (dungeon): We love Hank and Nell. They are just fabulous.
And Nell is the best cook I know.

When Trouble opened the box she found two fresh caught marron waving their claws.
Gray cooked the marron in the afternoon - grilled with garlic. Perfect.

When I grow up I want to be as good a cook as Nell.

It's always better on a stick.

Lilly, the Scrabble Mistress, came over yesterday afternoon.
While Thea was whipping her at Scrabble, I was plotting an impromptu dinner.

Jean and Rasha the new girls in town are both chefs and Jean gave a Japanese cooking class last week. I learnt;
that rice goes on the shiny side of sushi paper;
the never-fail Korean rice absorption method;
& how to make the Japanese dish "Yakitori".

Traditional Yakitori has chicken and spring onions - elegant simplicity. And I was planning on sticking to the recipe - I'd prepared the chicken and some purple onion pieces to make enough for two but when Lilly arrived (with Carrot-Mop) I got out extra skewers and made a pile of thin discs of sweet potato and a collection of mushroom halves.
It was fun arranging them on the skewers. It was fun listening to them sizzle as they cooked on the flat cast iron grill on the top of the wood stove. There's something sociable and festive and cheerful about food on sticks.

Abandoning any pretence at Japanese cooking, I made couscous with paprika and cream to go with. Coz it's quick!
(...and Thea had a Q to get rid of.)

Zil's dinner.

Zil came around last night and made dinner for us. Silverside, vegetables, white sauce. She steamed green beans and mushrooms. I've never steamed mushrooms. They're fabulous.
You're never to old to learn new tricks.