http://www.corridorkitchen.com Necessity is the mother of invention. Tue, 23 Feb 2021 23:46:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/05/eggplant-parma/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/05/eggplant-parma/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 02:06:04 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=5404 In case you were wondering, I have decidedly unexotic and Catholic heritage- generic Irish/English stock on my Dad’s side and on my Mum’s side, half Northern Italian and half more of the same. I am, as they say, an anglo mongrel, and the food I grew up on reflects that fact. I am sometimes accused, mostly jokingly but with a dash of truth thrown in, of growing up ‘without culture’ by my partner, his heritage being a mix of Portuguese and Iraqi Jew now considered exotic. In a way, I think as Australians we shortchange ourselves when we say we have ‘no culture’. We have every culture, that’s the point, and we can serve it all up on a plate and pretend for five minutes that we are all friends. It solves nothing, but it feeds everyone. And there are things that I think all of us who love food understand. Many of the conversations we had growing up centred on food. What did you have for lunch, what should we have for dinner, have you eaten? These are universal questions for perpetually hungry and food-obsessed families, whatever the nationality.]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/05/eggplant-parma/feed/ 14 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2011/05/senhor-r%e2%80%99s-pudim-flan/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2011/05/senhor-r%e2%80%99s-pudim-flan/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 20:53:49 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=1528 In my household, I do most of the cooking, because I’m speedy, pragmatic, and as absolute control freak. Everything I make is geared towards minimum effort for maximum results. As such I don’t prepare many of what I perceive to be ‘high risk’ foods. So on Sunday when my boyfriend, Senhor R, offered to whip up a Pudim Flan (Crème Caramel) this week, I was all for it, even though neither of us have ever attempted to make such a thing. It turned out to be remarkably simple, which is in no way a reflection on his culinary skills. And it was so delicious that he actually made another one on Wednesday! I could get used to this... Growing up, every Portuguese restaurant I ever went to had three staple deserts; Mousse Chocolate, Arroz Doce (Sweet Rice) and Pudim Flan (Crème Caramel), to be washed down with as many ‘bicas’ (espressos) as possible. Although there were occasional surprises such as Baba de Camelo or Molotov Pudding, you could always find these three.]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2011/05/senhor-r%e2%80%99s-pudim-flan/feed/ 7 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2010/12/mousse-chocolate/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2010/12/mousse-chocolate/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:13:19 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=398 Aren’t other peoples’ families zany? It always seems that way to me. When I was a kid, other peoples’ houses were just different; they looked different, smelled different, ran differently. To a six-year-old child, the familiar, their home, has no smell, no particular look, no discernible system of organisation. It just is. Our own environments are the very definitions of normality. To us...]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2010/12/mousse-chocolate/feed/ 7 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2010/11/rich-portuguese-custard/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2010/11/rich-portuguese-custard/#comments Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:28:00 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=179 Don’t tell my boyfriend, ‘cause he’ll just say ‘I told you so’- I didn’t really like custard until I went to Portugal. When it came to dessert, I was strictly a chocolate-something-served-with-lashings-of-whipped-cream kind of gal. I didn’t really understand the fascination with that sweet, thick, eggy goo. That was until I’d been to Belém and tried the famous tarts that have been made their since 1857. Fresh from the oven, rich, golden and irresistibly crunchy and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon. I still have dreams about them. Sigh.]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2010/11/rich-portuguese-custard/feed/ 3