Australian Cooks

Recently a South African friend asked me a question which really made me think. We were sitting on the front terrace enjoying the evening parade of animals on the ridge, my friend was flipping through my copy of Maggie Beer’s ‘Maggie’s Table’ when she looked up and asked ‘Why is it that all Australians can cook?’

Can we? Are we any better as a nation than any other who have an eclectic population contributing to their culinary experiences?

What made the question even more intriguing was that it came from someone who has a reputation as a cook and a son who is a professional chef.

 My initial answer was ‘because we have to be’. Not because we don’t have fantastic restaurants but simply because, from my experience Australians eat and entertain at home a lot more than I have found in other countries. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that unless you live in a city it is a long drive to the nearest restaurant (and there is so much of Australia that is not cities than I think most people realise). Maybe it has something to do with the social, caring, sharing aspect of eating together. I have several friends who would say they can’t cook, but put them in a kitchen and they may not be Michel Roux, but the results are better than average.    

Even as students in the 1980’s, we probably entertained at home, cooking for friends, more often than we ate out, although, my house mates and I did go through a stage of choosing an up-market restaurant about once a month and really treating ourselves.

When visiting friends living on a cattle station we had guests driving over 100kms for a dinner party invitation – you can’t take the kids or stay the night at a restaurant in town! 

 With some time to think I would also answer ‘How can we not be’.

Not only do we have access to amazing produce, we also have had available for many years, a wide range of authentic international, especially SE Asian, ingredients which of course makes it so much easier and more exciting to reproduce your restaurant favourites at home.  

I also think this skill has crept up on Australia quietly. The farmers markets and such like are, relatively speaking, a new development. We have also had some wonderful teachers and guides. I think the foundation stone was laid back in the 60’s and 70’s – much the same time as culinary developments were happening in Britain. Of course Australia drew the trump card with the Australian Women’s Weekly and the cookbooks that followed. Is there a kitchen in the world without at least one volume? You may challenge this, however, they are on sale even here in Kenya.

The other secret, linked to AWW, is Margaret Fulton. MF was the cooking editor of AWW for many years. Again, I am sure there is not a kitchen in Australia without ‘The Margaret Fulton Cookbook’. I am waiting to inherit my mother’s copy, the newer editions are just not the same. I have many of the recipes written out on scraps of paper and when I am home I love looking through it, the photographs glowing with retro brown and orange kitchen wallpaper and Pyrex dishes. The ‘exotic’ foreign dishes in the Entertaining section which, today, we take so much for granted.  

The magazine industry also gave us a helping hand at becoming competent cooks. Since the age of 15 when I used to baby sit and spent the evenings reading through volumes of Australian Vogue Entertaining (there was no travel section in those days). The difference between this and other food magazines available at the time was that it featured housewives showing what they cooked for their family and friends every day. I remember being very disappointed in the magazines available when I moved to London. There were professional food magazines which were very high brow, but nothing like AVE. I went through my collection several years ago when space was becoming an issue and as a compensation for having to put the magazines in the recycling (after copying out essential recipes, of course) I kept all the covers and am waiting for my new kitchen where I will have a AVE frieze rather than wall paper. I guess the 21^st Century equivalent is the television cook and I love watching whatever BBC Living has to dish up most evenings, but it is not the same; you can’t scribble in the margins, read in the bath or bed or in an airplane, or just flip through a few pages when deciding what to cook for dinner. Unless you sit in front of the tele with a paper and pen at hand it is not so easy to reproduce the dishes.

Of course there have been wonderful cooks since Margaret Fulton such as Maggie Beer and Donna Hay. Maybe, that is the secret; the Australian food revolution has featured cooks rather than professional chefs. We don’t see them as threatening, they are just wives and mothers, feeding their families everyday like the rest of us. Oh, and the men of course -  who could forget Bernard King!! 

Although I must pay homage to one of the great Australian chefs, Stephanie Alexander, who, since closing her restaurant, has taken on the mission of teaching Australian children about growing food and cooking through her Kitchen Garden Foundation where school are supported to set up kitchen gardens and the kids get to do all the hard work and learn to cook what they grow. I have been to visit a couple of these projects and they are amazing. One of the schools in Darwin even had cows. The kids are so proud of what they are doing and, even if they don’t all take on careers as chefs at least we can be assured they won’t be taking their kids to McDonald’s too often!!

But you know, having said all that, I think the real answer might simply be ‘because we want to be’. Because we love really good food, and most of the time we have great weather which is more conducive to enjoying being in our own backyard or packing a picnic, with friends rather than sitting in traffic to get to a restaurant. There is also pride in cooking for friends and family, and from the receivers’ side, knowing that someone cares enough to spend time producing a wonderful meal with you in mind.

So, all you Kenyan friends, next time you are invited out to the house for lunch or dinner, the answer you should give is not ‘oh you don’t need to go to so much effort, let all go out’ rather ‘thank you, what a privilege to be invited’ and come knowing it is a labour of love just for you!!

Most importantly, in Australia (and Kenya is fast catching up), we have really strict drink driving laws and who ever heard of having a really good feed with great friends that does not involve a few beers or a couple of bottles of good wine J even getting a taxi is sometimes just too much effort. It is so much easier to find a space on the couch or crash in the spare room. Anyway, if you stay the night you get breakfast as well!  

 

2014 Year of the Cake! and visitors from Australia - hurrah

Happy New Year to everyone! After much deliberation and many invitations Jim and I ended up having a very restful 10 days at home over Christmas and New Year.

I had a hot, humid and hectic dash to the north coast to deliver the wedding cake for a friend getting married in Watamu. I did all the baking ahead of time in the cool of Nairobi and packaged the tiers up in insulated cool boxes to transport them. Everything arrived in good order; cakes intact, equipment undamaged and fondant icing soft but solid! Now I have cooked in some pretty hot locations but putting together a wedding cake with butter cream and fondant in the December tropical heat nearly broke me! Everything was going well until I had to refrigerate layers in between putting them together – too hot outside the fridge and way too wet inside.  My wonderful friend Laurence and her son Simon, who were holidaying in Watamu drove up to Malindi to talk me through the final construction and decoration. They are still laughing at the fact that all I could utter was ‘it’s sweating, it wont stop sweating!’ But we got there in the end and the drive to Watamu was uneventful. It was a relief to had the sandcastle over to the responsibility of the lovely staff at Hemmingway’s who assured me they would look after it and I was finally able to relax with fish and chips and a G&T at Ocean Sports.





 

A couple of very exciting projects have resulted from this cake so it was worth all the worry.

Arriving home on the evening of 22^nd I still had to get dozens of mince pies delivered. I had several orders from the coast which I had intended to make down there but after trying to roll pastry 3 times I gave up! Anyway it was quite relaxing to do them with Christmas carols in the background and Air Kenya got them to their destination unharmed.

 

This is what 100 iced Christmas Tree biscuits looks like when laid out on your dining room table!

 Mince Pies waiting for their icing sugar 'snow'

Jim and I had all good intentions of going to midnight mass but in the end exhaustion prevailed but we did attend the carol singing at Talisman restaurant and had a lovely time with friends and mulled wine.

Christmas Day was actually relaxing. Lots of delicious food of course -  ham, duck, and pudding – but not too over indulgent and we both, surprisingly lost a few grams. I am not sure how but the scales don’t lie!

Our house all lit up for Christmas and Jim's present in its new home above the mantelshelf - a beautiful Kudu drawing by our good friend Beaver Shaw.

 

Car trouble saw us remaining at home for New Year. Our good friends Dave and Pam joined us for dinner on the terrace – mushroom tartlets, fillet mignon and my grandmother's ‘orange mist pudding’, a wonderful concoction of cream and orange juice. Maybe due to the champagne consumed (or just the fact that we are all getting older) after a very late breakfast I was straight back to sleep and found it quite difficult to do any sensible for the rest of the day.

 

So what does 2014 hold for the African Kitchen Table? Well, I have opened a new face book page – Akt baking – for those of you who are on facebook, please friend us. I will be putting up photos of all things cake and if you are in Kenya you can order directly through the page. As the experiment with sending the mince pies was a success I am happy to take orders from around the country. I will put up special events such as Valentines and Easter as well. I am already onto the next birthday cake and have several orders in the pipeline so hopefully the year will be a delicious and profitable one.

The garden is thriving after the late rains but the baboons are also enjoying the rewards of our labours bur that is a story for another day. In preparation for the arrival of friends and family later in the year I am having fun making new curtains and other interior decoration for our guest rooms. With the help of Bosco and Bernard we are revitalising the cactus rock garden area just outside the buffalo fence. This also includes clearing some of the undergrowth to make it safer for small people to play (Bosco and I found a lovely hidey hole where we could watch the birds go about their business, such a differenct view from feeding them on the terrace) and also make a definate path down to the lawn area by the river hopefully to encourage us and visitors to use this lovely space more frequently. I am also determined to get my goose /duck pond with occupants this year. 

 

 

  the planned pond site

 

I hope it is a great year for all of you, where ever you are and I hope you continue to enjoy reading  the Jottings.