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I made this, and it was wholly delicious. Substituted thin slices of round steak for the roast beef since that’s not really something you can procure at the deli in Australia. Even using store-bought frozen pizza crusts and “Pizza Perfecto” cheese instead of provolone, the final result was delectable. Original recipe was part of the Professional Pizza Guide, which also features a “Sunny Side Up” breakfast pizza that will have to be sampled one of these days.

Philly Cheesesteak Pizza

1 Medium Onion, sliced
1 Medium Green Pepper, sliced
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
8 oz. roast beef, shaved
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 batch Sicilian Thick Crust Dough
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
4 cups Provolone cheese
1/4 cups Parmesan cheese, grated

Saute vegetables in 1 Tbsp olive oil until limp; add roast beef. Cook for three more minutes. Add Worcestershire sauce and pepper; stir and remove from heat. Set aside. Brush prepared dough with 3 Tbsp olive oil and spread crushed garlic over entire surface of dough. Top with a light layer of shredded cheese, then meat/vegetable mixture. Top with remaining cheese, then Parmesan. Bake in preheated 500F oven until cheese is melted and bubbly. Let sit 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

In anticipation of my upcoming birthday, we celebrated in style at Onred. The restaurant is perched at the top of Red Hill — you can read more about it at their website, as well as get a look at why you should be jealous we ate there.

On My Plate:

smoked ocean trout with avocado and horseradish mousse, celery & mesclun salad & a poached quail egg

pan seared swordfish with lime mayonnaise, creamy mash, watercress, radish salad & smoked prawn butter

ginger poached pineapple with mint & almond pesto ice cream & crisp meringue

For Alex:

braised rabbit ravioli with pea puree, asparagus & bacon salad & ginger jus

wellington of venison with wilted spinach, caramelised shallots & sour cream dressing

chocolate brownie with red wine syrup, cookie dough ice cream & chocolate tuille

Let me start by noting that my parents are both avid gardeners, and regularly turn out fresh veggies by the bundle with each year’s harvest.  My most recent cause for jubilation may not seem like a very big deal to most, but I am absolutely thrilled that my cherry tomato (pronounced toe-mah-toe, with a soft ‘a’ in the middle) plant has started producing edibles!  This particular plant started out as the runt of the bunch, and now has branches laden with fleshy green globes that have begun ripening and turning brilliant red.  Delicious.

Reviewing my own blogging from the past few months, I have come to the realisation that I am without doubt a fat kid at heart.  I love food.  Whether I’m concocting in my own kitchen or looking for the next best place to nosh here in Canberra, I seem to be eternally preoccupied with stuffing my face.

Friday night was date night, and we trekked our way to Dickson for an evening of trendy dining at Firestone.

With the small space they’ve got, they’ve really done things right, with minimalist decor and furnishings complemented by a single wall decked out in geometrically patterned wallpaper.  We sipped a bottle of Funny Label Sauvignon Blanc and made quick work of devouring some pre-meal tapas.  The garlic prawns were a bit heavy on the butter and light on the bold flavors of chilli and garlic, but were cooked well so that the flesh was firm yet not chewy.  Crumbed and fried gorgonzola cheese was perfectly complemented by pumpkin parfait to lighten the flavor - the only thing missing was enough bread to spread the goodness on in order to steer it into our gaping maws.

Our perfectl thin and deliciously crunchy pizza was well constructed, so that each piece included each of the dish’s feature flavors.  While the menu boasts that the pizza has ‘black olives’ - of which I am a particular fan - the olives served up were kalamata, and I was surprised at the way they balanced the spice of the chorizo sausage.

Seizing the opportunity for a bit of indulgence, we rounded out our evening’s selection by ordering up a dessert pizza decked out in apricot, pear and vanilla bean ice cream.  Dessert pizzas can easily land themselves in the Sickly Sweet category, alongside those I remember ravenously devouring as a child, but Firestone’s creation was delectable and fruity without any unnecessary sugar.  The small scoop of ice cream was a bit awkward, and would have been better served as a vanilla bean cream drizzle over the entirety of the pizza instead of plopped into the middle.  It’s creamy flavor, however, matched the lightness of the fruit perfectly.

A flat white topped in a slick artful shooting-star design and delivered directly by the barista and an exquisitely bitter short black were a tasty finish to the wholly satisfying meal.

Thumbs up, Firestone.  We’ll be back for more.

The holidays are over by now, but I find myself having run-ins with one of the season’s most significant influences: food.

For Christmas Eve, Alex and I made the world’s tiniest baked ham, with a glaze of brown sugar and dijon mustard. The common Aussie tradition is to have an afternoon barbeque with the whole family, but with just the two of us, we decided that buying a barbie and heaps of seafood would be a mistake.

My grandmother managed to get a mini-ziplock of her delectable German pfeffernusse cookies through customs and inspired me to aspire to another of her culinary skills, that of making pickles. Being infatuated with the Homesick Texan’s tasty recipe blog, it was the first place I looked, and discovered this intoxicatingly zesty and cheerfully simple-to-make recipe.

Refrigerator dill pickles
Ingredients:
6 Kirby cucumbers, cleaned, stemmed and halved, lengthwise
1/2 cup of white vinegar
2 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of fresh dill

Method:
Place salt, peppercorns, coriander seeds, garlic and dill in a sterilized 1-quart Mason jar.
Layer sliced cucumbers in jar, leaving 1/2 inch at the top.
Pour in vinegar.
Fill jar with water, seal with lid and shake for about a minute.
Refrigerate for six days, shaking daily.

Makes 1-quart jar of dill pickles. This simple recipe, however, can easily be multiplied.

I’m not sure what difference using Kirby cucumbers makes, but I can tell you that using Lebanese cucumbers yields a crunchy and tangy slice of heaven. The only complaint I’ve got is that the dill and peppercorns stick to the pickles when you pull them out, but a little extra spice never hurt anyone.

On our recent weekend getaway to Malua Bay we had a spread that left me both a bit shocked at the things people are willing to dump into their gullets and with a blissfully full belly. A true Aussie experience, Friday night’s dinner was prawns with rice and Thai Tung Tong (otherwise known as Money Bags). Saturday brought freshly shucked oysters that came directly from the sea that very day. We had them fresh (uncooked) in a zingy sauce of lemon juice, coriander, garlic and pepper, as well as Mornay, Diablo and Kilpatrick style (click for recipes).

Having never eaten oysters before, I was extremely hesitant to be slurping something that looks like a broiled meat flower out of it’s own shell. After the first couple go down, I can tell you that oyster-fear is something that’s worth getting over.

To do my part with the weekend’s foodstuffs I whipped up an oversized batch of my sister-in-law’s salsa, which proved to be the perfect snack at any time of day. I’ve been modifying the original recipe each time I make a batch, and was short on time this go-round, so used canned diced tomatoes and jalapeños and still managed to get the taste just a few degrees from perfection. I also added a can of super-sweet corn kernels, which added a nice compliment to the spice of the sauce, as well as a burst of color.

Moore’s Super Easy Salsa
2 large cans whole peeled tomatoes, broken or cut up
4 small cans diced green chilies (I steam my own so I’ve got more seeds to add for heat)
8 - 10 whole green onions, chopped (I used 5 onions)
1 1/2 tsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 - 6 jalapeños, diced
3 white onions, diced
additional tomatoes, peeled and diced (add according to taste)

…and there’s more food to come! My uncle has graciously decided that he’ll take on the task of sending a parcel of American goodies that are inaccessible here on the big island, and we can’t wait for it to arrive! I can’t wait to make up a huge batch of homemade Chex Mix and take a break from our current favorite bagged snack, Red Rock Deli’s Thai Lime and Ginger chips (which are good enough I may just have to send some home!). I can even feel my stomach rumbling just now…

Really, after the sale of the 100 millionth iPod, I thought messages like this were a thing of the past…

… so instead of a delightful slideshow of our non-eventful Aussie Halloween, I’ll have to post the photos the standard way.

Here in OZ they generally dislike good ol’  Halloween, and began the day with North American Halloween Prevention Initiative’s song Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en on the radio.  We saw a couple of children walk past early in the evening and rushed out to buy some candy… those were the only children we saw all night.

… so we ate the candy ourselves.

While Australia is host to a whole myriad of delectable ethnic cuisine, one thing they’re missing here in Canberra is someplace to nosh on authentic Mexican fare.  While my good friends at Byron Bay Chilli Co. provide a store-bought option, I’ve found that the best way to get truly tasty salsa that’s worth having more than a few bites of is to make it myself.  Continuing with the do-it-yourself Mexican theme, yesterday I did a search for a homemade tortilla recipe, and found myself at the Homesick Texan’s site.  Her blogspot’s got heaps of downhome recipes, most recently featuring Grandma’s Peach Pie and Habañero Peach Salsa.

For a first attempt, this flour tortilla recipe yielded a deliciously crispy and chewy batch of deliciousness to wrap around some spiced steak, shreds of Tasty cheese and crisp lettuce.  They take a bit of time to make but the results are undeniably worth the effort.  Thanks again, Texan - I’ve just spied your recipe for refrigerator dill pickles and can’t wait to give them a shot : )

Texas Flour Tortillas (adapted from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison)
Ingredients:
Two cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Method:
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil.
Slowly add the warm milk.
Stir until a loose, sticky ball is formed.
Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.
Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls in your hands, place on a plate (make sure they aren’t touching) and then cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)
After dough has rested, one at a time place a dough ball on a floured surface, pat it out into a four-inch circle, and then roll with a rolling pin from the center until it’s thin and about eight inches in diameter. (If you roll out pie crusts you’ll have no problem with this.) Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.
In a dry iron skillet or comal heated on high, cook the tortilla about thirty seconds on each side. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.
Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.
Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil.
While you probably won’t have any leftovers, you can store in the fridge tightly wrapped in foil or plastic for a day or so.
Makes eight tortillas.