Foodie weekend

It was over dinner with Gloria at Peasant on Friday night that I realised how much I missed having her in my life. Gloria was only seconded in Brisbane for eight months in 2007, but we formed a solid friendship in that short time and, as she said, it has never changed; even when we haven’t spoken for a while.

Gloria’s family is Greek so she we’ve had similar upbringings and bond over understanding what it’s like to grow up in a Mediterranean family where food is a big part of your life. I have very few friends who have the food knowledge and enthusiasm that Gloria does. And any friend who is only too happy to order an espresso at 10.30pm and still not have it affect her sleep is good in my books.

Most of Saturday was spent at the James Street Cooking School, cashing in a gift voucher that friends of mine had given me for my 30^th birthday. One of the most enjoyable experience I’ve had in a long time, the hands-on class was a fun, relaxed atmosphere with all 15 of us there to learn some new skills.

The menu given to us on the day was:

·         pesto crusted swordfish with ratatouille and cannellini beans

·         nicoise salad with herb and lemon marinated chicken

·         poached pears in kataifi pastry with almond and mascarpone.

It started off with us sitting against one wall, each given the recipe of the dishes we would be cooking, and watching the chef demonstrate how to pick fresh seafood in the store. They also went through the usual OH&S, basic knife skills and a quick rundown of some of the more difficult components of our dishes.

Pesto crusted swordfish
with ratatouille

After that we shuffled off into three groups of five to begin, we decided to divvy up the workload and have everyone creating different dishes, helping each other when there was waiting time or if we had questions, while the two chefs shuttled back and forth giving us tips, answering our questions and generally keeping the atmosphere fun.

As someone who does not eat seafood and has never been a fan, I was interested to see how I’d go at cooking swordfish — a protein I knew very little about — and even more curious about whether I was going to like it. Turns out, I love it.

Once all our dishes were complete and neatly presented on service dishes, we put our pears in the oven and seated ourselves at the large dining table and enjoy the fruits of our labour. The swordfish didn’t taste fishy at all and practically melted in my mouth. I was converted. If I can find other fish that give equal enjoyment I’ll be ordering seafood more often.

Though, I still think the pears were my favourite. I absolutely adore poached pear, add some mascarpone to that and wrap it in some kataifi pastry and I was sold.

Nicoise salad with herb and
lemon marinated chicken

Inspired to do some more cooking (something that had waivered this week with only me at home), I went to pick up Gloria to come stay at our place for the rest of the weekend. After a quick tour of the Church, we collapsed in the lounge with cook books and discussed recipes for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually, my better half came home and put up with our further chatter about food through afternoon coffee; through evening wine; then later, through our vegetarian wood fired pizza and bottle of wine.

We gave him some respite the next day by going off to the movies (before which we had muffins, bagels and cream cheese which is, let’s face it, more cream than cheese).

Sadly, before I knew it the movie was over and I had to drive my friend out to the airport and say a sad farewell.  -sniff-

Poached pear in kataifi pastry
with almond and mascarpone

When I got home, I found the boy and his friend drinking beer out on the deck and, just in case I didn’t feel like I’d had enough food all weekend, we went to the pub for a Sunday session and big pub meal. This of course, called for a siesta at 4pm with me topping off the weekend by watching the semi-final of My Kitchen Rules with a chocolate Easter egg.

Possibly the most exciting part of the weekend was me jumping on the scales, against my better judgement, ready to face the music only to discover I’d lost 400 grams after my foodie weekend. Best diet ever.