I have had a super busy month with the move to Newcastle, end of the clinical year and the chamber music society annual camp. It has just flown past, how could it be February already?
A couple of gorgeous loaves from my sourdough Barney to start 2020
So many snake beans from my dad's garden
A few chocolates my friend brought back from Russia
The last of the local beer from a brewery in Orange.
Since the dumpling master (my dad's partner) has returned to town, we have been having so many dumplings. She is truly the master of making the perfect dough (with sourdough too), the perfect filling and beautiful crimp.
Onto the Food and Music series...
We ate these lovely fresh plum tarts with my piano duet buddy who said "Sometimes in life, you just need a plum tart!" She is an incredible lady, always with some wise and sanguine words for young restless me! We ate these with a serve of the arrangement of Beethoven's String quartet Op 18 No. 3 (string quartets arranged for piano 4 hand are super interesting), Ravel's Ma Mere L'Oye and a few of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances.
One evening for my string quartet, we decided to have tagine. The other violinist made from scratch a wonderfully herbaceous chermoula and cooked it into a rich chicken tagine with deliciously plump olives and the sauciest potatoes.
I discovered the trick to sourdough pitas. After rolling out the dough discs and letting them rest for 30min, blast them on full heat in the oven and the rapid rise creates the pocket!
A deliciously fresh fattoush salad which went so well with the tagine on this hot day.
Here is the tagine stuffed into the pita pocket. We ate these with the Mozart String quartet in D minor, Beethoven's String quartet Op 18 No.1 and the Clara Schumann piano trio.
Once a year, the Chamber Music Society runs a massive camp. About 110 people gather at the University of Wollongong for a 4 day extravaganza filled with music, food and wine. It truly is the highlight of the year. I stayed this year in a flat with my usual string quartet and Barney came along for the ride as well - freshly baked bread every day is a treat!
This cheese & tomato foccacia we enjoyed for one of our lunches. I think the sourdough at camp is going to become an annual feature.
The highlights of my camp were not 1, not 2 but 3 Dvorak sessions (his string quintet "American", string sextet in A and piano quintet); the Brahms string sextet no. 1, an all time favourite; Death and the Maiden while drunk and the Faure piano quartet. We had such a great time playing the Faure piano quartet that we had to play the slow movement another time and I decided this would be the piece I would like played at my funeral.
I'm sending this to Sherry who hosts the In My Kitchen series. Thanks for hosting Sherry!
A couple of gorgeous loaves from my sourdough Barney to start 2020
So many snake beans from my dad's garden
A few chocolates my friend brought back from Russia
The last of the local beer from a brewery in Orange.
Since the dumpling master (my dad's partner) has returned to town, we have been having so many dumplings. She is truly the master of making the perfect dough (with sourdough too), the perfect filling and beautiful crimp.
Onto the Food and Music series...
We ate these lovely fresh plum tarts with my piano duet buddy who said "Sometimes in life, you just need a plum tart!" She is an incredible lady, always with some wise and sanguine words for young restless me! We ate these with a serve of the arrangement of Beethoven's String quartet Op 18 No. 3 (string quartets arranged for piano 4 hand are super interesting), Ravel's Ma Mere L'Oye and a few of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances.
One evening for my string quartet, we decided to have tagine. The other violinist made from scratch a wonderfully herbaceous chermoula and cooked it into a rich chicken tagine with deliciously plump olives and the sauciest potatoes.
I discovered the trick to sourdough pitas. After rolling out the dough discs and letting them rest for 30min, blast them on full heat in the oven and the rapid rise creates the pocket!
A deliciously fresh fattoush salad which went so well with the tagine on this hot day.
Here is the tagine stuffed into the pita pocket. We ate these with the Mozart String quartet in D minor, Beethoven's String quartet Op 18 No.1 and the Clara Schumann piano trio.
Once a year, the Chamber Music Society runs a massive camp. About 110 people gather at the University of Wollongong for a 4 day extravaganza filled with music, food and wine. It truly is the highlight of the year. I stayed this year in a flat with my usual string quartet and Barney came along for the ride as well - freshly baked bread every day is a treat!
This cheese & tomato foccacia we enjoyed for one of our lunches. I think the sourdough at camp is going to become an annual feature.
The highlights of my camp were not 1, not 2 but 3 Dvorak sessions (his string quintet "American", string sextet in A and piano quintet); the Brahms string sextet no. 1, an all time favourite; Death and the Maiden while drunk and the Faure piano quartet. We had such a great time playing the Faure piano quartet that we had to play the slow movement another time and I decided this would be the piece I would like played at my funeral.
I'm sending this to Sherry who hosts the In My Kitchen series. Thanks for hosting Sherry!
I make bread but have never attempted sour dough. All your food photos are great. Love hearing about the music, I keep my SMX radio on the classical channel. Sadly I can’t play anything but I sure love listening.
ReplyDeleteOh, the plum tarts have inspired me to make those.
Hi Tina, listening to music is fantastic! Good luck with the plum tarts they really are the best combo of sweet and sour
DeleteYour food and music are always awesome. I would love to hear your quartet perform! I have a food and music story. We had a Japanese foreign student years ago, and we served her a fish for dinner. She said she didn't recognize what fish it was. We went over to the stereo and put on a record (yes, it was that long ago, we put on an LP). She said, "Oh, I know what fish it is." Of course we had put on Schubert's Trout Quintet.
ReplyDeletebest... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
What a story Mae! One of my favourite pieces. My string quartet often jokes about doing the trout with actual trout.. I have played it once but not with my usual group. Maybe this can be a 2020 goal!
Deletegorgeous breads, and gorgeous labels on the chocolate! oh that foccacia looks superb. the salad, the sourdough, the cute dumplings! it all has me drooling. thanks for joining in this month. cheers S
ReplyDeleteThanks Sherry for hosting! What an ode to carbs, I could never be paleo:)
DeleteWhat were the Russian sweets like? They look so interesting!
ReplyDeleteThey were mostly plain chocolates some with nuts, simple but delicious! I just loved the wrappers though
Delete