Yeast isn’t always my friend, but I love it. Fresh, quick action, or dried. It’s like seeing life in motion. Especially dried, which is also more handy to have around the house. Once those little dried granules hit the warm sugary water and start foaming, I transform into the mad professor or Dr. Frankenstein in my head, “Yes, rise, my pretties, riiiiiise!”

Ahem.

To celebrate Zorra’s first Bread Baking Day (a soon to be monthly event), I have made a batch of flatbreads following a Jamie Oliver recipe. The original recipe was for a chickpea moroccan flatbread, but I adapted it slightly with the addition of herbs and some dukkah that I had made a batch of recently. If you do not have dukkah lying around, you can follow the original by substituting with lightly crushed coriander and cumin seeds (these provide texture and flavour), or just add whatever else you might like – dried chilli for example.

These flatbreads are incredibly easy and fun to make. They only require a single prove and cook in a matter of minutes! The best part was watching the breads puff up in the oven and most satisfyingly, they were very very tasty. So it’s with great enthusiasm that I share with you the recipe for..

Dukkah and Rosemary Flatbread :
(makes 5 flatbreads)

10g dried yeast ( 1 1/2 sachets)
15g sugar
310ml warm water
500g bread flour (strong four)
15g Maldon salt
2 Tablespoons Dukkah
1 large sprig rosemary
1 x 125g tin beans of choice (four bean mix, chickpeas, etc), mashed lightly with a fork

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let stand for 5-10 minutes until yeast mixture is frothy.

In a bowl, weigh out the flour and salt. Add the Dukkah, rosemary leaves, mashed beans and yeast mixture. Stir to combine as much as possible, then start bringing the dough together with your hands.

Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Allow to prove in a covered bowl until double the size.

Preheat the oven to 230’C.

When proved, knock back the dough, divide into 5 balls and roll each one out to 1/2cm thick (or thinner, if you want it crispier). Place the rolled out dough directly on the bars of your oven rack and cook for 5 minutes. You should be able to cook 2 flatbreads at a time this way (one on each oven rack). Cool for a few minutes before eating (and try to stop at one!).

The thing about work is, I’m quite enjoying it at the moment. Mind you, as I write this, I’m in the middle of a week of R’n’R. But I can’t wait to get right back into it next week. I am one of those unfortunate people who can’t seem to switch off from work. A bit like Sergeant Nicholas Angel in Hot Fuzz, without the amazing track record to match.

Danishes for 200, chocolate tarts for 700, and upcoming, chocolate croissants for 200. Having never made anything in such big numbers before, some of these orders occasionally give me mild panic attacks. The chocolate tarts for example, which I eventually managed to pull off in 2 1/2 days. In retrospect, it was a breeze, but the week I started making them, I was a little unsure if they would be ready in time. Also, in a comedy of errors, someone managed to land a foot right into a tray of prepared tarts. The 10% extra we always make, covers for humorous incidences like that.

Prior to this current job, I had never ever made a danish or croissant. So it’s thanks in small part to my obssession with acquiring cookbooks that I had some recipes to reference from, and tweak to my satisfaction. This batch of croissants, a second and much more convincing attempt than my first go at making croissants, comes from Tartine. Straight from the oven, they were crispy and caramelised on the outside, and soft and buttery on the inside. “Darling, it’s just like being back in Paris, standing in front of Poujouran on rue Jean Nicot with a paper bagful of warm pastries!” B was less convinced, possibly because the croissant I eventually gave him to try was 3 days old and cold from having been fridged. That’s what you get for spending a week in Singapore without me! 😛

Still, the challenges keep coming. If you can picture it, I’m the one who, at the end of the week, can be found in a quiet corner, checking through the list of future orders. With knitted brows, I’d be muttering, “You’ve got to be kidding.. you want how many of what?”. Once, it was a ridiculous number of lamingtons; another time, “mixed berry flans”.. which thankfully turned out to be a typo, because I don’t know what the heck a flan is! “Sometimes, I think you guys just make these things up!”.

This week, I trialled little cheesecakes in shotglasses. Because of the large numbers involved, I thought setting the mix in a shotglass might be nicer and easier. I lightened the mix so that it still retains it’s flavour, but isn’t as dense as you’d expect from a slice of cheesecake. The juicy cherries in syrup on top provide a nice colour contrast and a balance between tartness and the rich and creamy, while a gingered biscuit base lends a bit of texture overall.

What lies ahead? Churros. Never made it before. Tested a couple of recipes out last week. Next week, frying for 300. Bring it on.

Despite the recent lack of dining posts, we actually have been eating out occasionally, mostly as a way of meeting up with friends.

On the weekend, we were at the Lindt Cafe in Darling Harbour to celebrate M’s birthday. I don’t know if it’s just the Darling Harbour outlet, but the novelty of this chocolate cafe is definitely wearing off for me. Bad service and lack of detail really doesn’t cut it when it’s this overpriced. Especially on a 10% surcharge Sunday. However, it was fun to meet up with this bunch of friends; some of whom I see maybe once a year if that, and kudos to M for almost making it through a chocolate degustation plate, at 11 in the morning!

Lunch at One Ocean in Castle Hill was another such meet-up. You wouldn’t normally consider Castle Hill as a food destination, and One Ocean isn’t about to change that. It serves OK food at high prices. M once saw Don Burke from Burke’s Backyard eating here, so that will probably be the only thing she ever remembers about this place. That, and the fact she accidentally ordered langoustines even though she hates having to deal with crustaceans.

A recent dinner at Lowenbrau was to celebrate B’s birthday. B had the biggest pork schnitzel I had ever seen. This Papa Bear portion of meat was at least the size of the plate it arrived on, and then some. My veal schnitzel was almost cowardly in comparison, but so delicious. My first ever visit to the Lowenbrau was with my high school German class. Hopefully Mrs. R. A will still be very proud that I could’ve ordered my schnitzel in German if I had to. And my name is Lieselotte; I have a dog called Lumpi, and I like eating Schwartzwalderkirschtorte.

I was hoping someone would order one of their signature dishes, such as the pork knuckle with sauerkraut. My brother did not disappoint. The knuckle arrived like a fistful of meat, wrapped in crispy, bubbly crackling. Awe-inspiring stuff. Being the very generous portioned mains that they were, this usually dessert-friendly group of eaters actually struggled through a shared dessert plate afterwards. After the last spoonful of custard was coaxed from the plate, we rolled out the door – past the oom-pah-pah band, the waiters in their lederhosen and the other groups of birthday diners, singing. It’s almost as if a birthday occurs every 5 minutes, somewhere, in the Lowenbrau…

On Sunday evening, we stopped at the Sushi Roll in World Square for a quick bite to eat before heading off across the road to the George Street Cinemas to watch Samuel L. Jackson sing the blues. Paring cream cheese with rice is a crime against humanity’s tastebuds, I’ve decided. Cream cheese and salmon, yes, .. on a bagel.

I don’t visit this part of George Street much these days. I remember when there were three cinemas operating on the strip, patrolled by an elderly man selling homemade bracelets, and it was Planet Hollywood, not Star Bar, across the road. It’s looking a lot better these days though. We also noticed that a Pepper Lunch has opened up on George Street. B visited one recently when he was in Singapore. Food comes to your table on hotplates where you proceed to cook your steak, fish etc to a desired doneness. Sounds like an interesting concept.

Lowenbrau Keller
Corner of Playfair & Argyle Streets
The Rocks, Sydney 2000

One Ocean Seafood
Castle Towers Piazza
Shop 18
Old Northern Rd
Castle Hill 2154

Sushi Roll
Shop 10. 19 World Square
644 George Street
Sydney 2000