Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

When winter strikes, I get lazy. I crave warm sticky puddings for dessert, and piping hot stews with mashed potatoes for dinner. And the less effort involved, the better... so I can go back to being snuggled up next to my heater.

One thing I particularly love is braised meat. I love how you can take tough, sinewy cuts of meat and chuck them in a pot - fast forward a few hours and you're rewarded with tender, gelatinous chunks of meat that fall apart with the poke of a fork. Since seeing Julie and Julia I've always wanted to try making the infamous Beef Bourguignon that Julie Powell burns in the oven since she falls asleep and doesn't hear the timer. It's not surprising that she did fall asleep because when I made it the first time it took nearly the whole day to make! I don't know if it was because I was slow or that it did actually require that much time but it was definitely time-consuming (but the flavour was fantastic!).

So when I decided to revisit Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon, I thought about what shortcuts I could take. Some of you are probably thinking that it is sacrilege to be changing Julia Child's original recipe, but seriously it saved me a lot of time and effort and the end result was just as tasty. The best thing about it is that it appeals to my lazy winter self - after the prep work all you have to do is leave it simmering away on the stove for a few hours, then reduce the liquid and skim off the fat and it's done! It's the lazy person's version of Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon.

Maggie Beer's Country Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Today is the first birthday of Penguin says Feed Me and we're celebrating with a new banner and PIE! It really does not feel like it's been a year since I started this humble blog of my eating adventures, and I still remember starting up this blog and writing up the very first post thinking that no one was going to read it anyway. I never in my dreams thought that anyone would even read my blog, let alone meeting new people through it, but probably one of the best parts about blogging is meeting and forging friendships with the other awesome Sydney food bloggers (I love you guys!).

I'd like to think that I've come a long way since that first post. Reading other blogs and marvelling at their photographs or cooking prowess has inspired me to improve my own photography and challenged me to further my cooking and baking skills. I've gone from simple apple crumbles to rainbow layered buttercakes, and although there's been a few disasters along the way, I think this blog is what gets me to push the limit of my abilities. Hopefully one day I will master the art of baking as I keep trying new things (why oh why did I choose to take on macarons?!)

One new thing that I've learnt to do is make pastry from scratch. When I first started this blog, making pastry from scratch seemed like the most daunting task - I mean, isn't pastry something you buy from the freezer aisle in the supermarket? But once you get the hang of it, it's not difficult at all, and it is truly satisfying when you can proudly present a pie or a tart and say that you made it all by yourself (or in this case, with the help of Sir D).

Since seeing Maggie Beer's pheasant pie on Masterchef, I've been wanting to make her sour cream pastry and it is so easy to work with and very forgiving. I didn't know where to get a pheasant from so I used another of Maggie Beer's recipes and made her Country Chicken and Mushroom pies with the same flaky and buttery pastry. It was so nice to be able to take a beautiful golden pie out of the oven and very satisfying to eat it, knowing that I had made it from scratch. This is what keeps me cooking and blogging :)

EDIT: Just realised this is also my 100th post!

Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes, Ricotta and Spinach

One of the very first cookbooks I received as a gift was from my sister for my 18th birthday. At the time, I had no idea who Bill Granger was or what he was well known for, but flipping through Simply Bill I could immediately tell that Bill Granger's approach to food was all about simplicity and a focus on fresh ingredients.

A while back I visited Bills in Surry Hills for dinner and my sister ordered this spaghetti dish which looked so minimalistic on the menu but was bursting with flavour. I remembered seeing the dish in Simply Bill so I tried out the recipe at home and was surprised at how simple it was to recreate.

The ricotta imparts a lovely creaminess to the pasta dish while roasting the vegetables brings out the natural sweetness from the onion and richness from the tomatoes. Toss it all into some cooked pasta with some baby spinach and you have yourself a quick and tasty dinner in no time!

Mussels poached in white wine, and how to keep your mussels alive!

Continuing our day of seafood-eating, we decided to buy some fresh mussels and cook them at home. We were at Sir D's place, and with his parents gone on holiday, we were at a bit of a loss what to do with said mussels. The friendly fishmongers at Claudio's Seafood at the Sydney Fish Markets had put them in a plastic bag for us - were we to store them in the bag? Store them in water? In the fridge or out?


As you can see, we were absolutely clueless, so after trawling the internet on what to do with them, Sir D compiled some points on how to prepare mussels for future reference. And so I present to you: Sir D's Guide to Keeping Those Babies Alive!

• Mussels and other shellfish such as oysters develop bacteria when they die, and you will get sick if you eat them! Sir D was quite taken aback by this news and thus made it his personal mission to keep his 'babies' alive - hence the name of this guide =P
• If you are not going to use them straight away, store your mussels in the bottom of your fridge, covered with a damp cloth. They're best eaten on the day you buy them, but will keep for a few days in the fridge if required.
• When preparing your mussels, look through them and chuck out any that have cracked or broken shells. If you see any that are slightly open, give them a squeeze and they should close if they're alive. If not, discard these as well.
• You probably want to get rid of the crap on the shells. To do this, grab a scrubbing brush and scrub the barnacles and other things off the surface of the shell under running water.
• You probably also want to get rid of the beards (those hairy looking things sticking out of the shell). To do this, grab hold of the beard and wiggle it from side to side, whilst pulling firmly. It should eventually break free from the mussel. If your mussel is being stubborn, you may have to cut it off with some scissors.
• Now that your mussels are clean on the outside, we have to get rid of any sand and other crap on the inside. To do this, soak the mussels in fresh water for about 10 minutes so that they can "breathe" and expel any sand. Remember to do this just before you cook them, otherwise they may die (and we don't want that happening!)
• Remove them from the water and check that the mussels with open shells are still alive by squeezing them again. Now you're ready to cook them!

Mussels poached in white wine

Admittedly our pot of white wine mussels didn't turn out to be the prettiest dish on the planet, but they sure tasted delicious with the briney taste of the mussels and the rich, creamy tomato sauce. And none of the sauce went to waste of course because we soaked it up with a fresh baguette ;)


We also had the 2nd dozen of oysters which we bought from the fish markets, which were still just as fresh and delicious as the dozen that we ate earlier in the day

Gratin Dauphinois

I have a friend who is obsessed with potatoes. I mean sure, I love potatoes but MB is on the brink of pathological obsession. And when I started this blog I promised I would post about some potato recipes in honour of that obsession - so here is yet another potato-based recipe for you, MB.


Potatoes are fantastic on their own - but combine them with cheese and cream and you've got a whole different story. I love potato gratin for the crunchy cheese layer on top and the creamy (and still cheesy!) layers hidden underneath. It gave me great satisfaction to pull this out of the oven to reveal a golden layer of cheese and potato... and suddenly all the pain from grating cheese and slicing potatoes with a knife disappeared.


I've tried a couple of different gratin recipes and this is the one that has been most consistently successful with just the right amount of cream and milk to be absorbed by the potatoes in the cooking process. This means that you don't get a puddle of liquid left at the bottom after you take the layers of potatoes out and instead you have nice creamy sauce to go with the potatoes. Delish!

Potato and Leek Soup

In winter, my idea of a perfect lunch would probably be a bowl of steaming hot noodles or a bowl of warm, creamy soup. Potato and Leek soup is definitely up there on the list as one of my (and Sir D's) favourite soups - full of creamy carb-y goodness =)


The recipe is my mum's recipe which I've grown up with, and I believe there is some inextricable link between a mother's cooking and comfort food. The thick, creamy soup never fails to warm and comfort me and always has me asking for seconds! If you're not keen on the cream content by all means decrease or omit the cream, but it's just not quite the same without it.