Apricot, pistachio & cardamom cake
Long time no see
I sound like a stuck record but I can’t believe its been three months since a recipe here! Life is busy etc etc. To sum up - Victoria emerged blinking from lockdown, life outside of home resumed, everyone got covid (myself included, very mildly) and it has been a strange summer of lots of hospital work, cancelled plans because of isolation requirements, retail and hospitality closures with staff furloughs and everyone trying to reach this elusive “new normal” (I know this is what the rest of the world probably went though a long time ago, but we are a little behind). It still beats lockdown. The last hurdle left is border closures - NZ and WA remain the last islands standing, having somehow (luckily for them, unluckily for us) kept out omicron.
Baking has been a little neglected in the interim, but I’ve prioritised a version of my favourite summer cake (basically anything involving stonefruit and nuts in combination). It’s a lemony apricot, pistachio and cardamom cake, moist with an almost caramelised exterior and not too sweet. The apricots roast and soften on the surface, the cake just sturdy enough to keep them afloat. It’s also low maintenance, which is all I can really tolerate currently - one (to two) bowls, no mixer, no creaming butter, no frosting - just a few lashings of lemon glaze to decorate. Rave reviews received all round. Find the recipe here.
This month
Currently making
Ottolenghi’s mushroom and peanut laab (from Flavour). Flavour has really converted me to using mushrooms - particularly good here as a vegetarian version of more traditional laab, soaking up all the fish sauce/lime/herbiness of the dish. Grilled tofu is a good addition.
Hetty Mckinnon’s grilled corn, mango and haloumi salad. The salad of the summer in our house - 10 minutes to throw together and perfect with the current flood of mangos and corn. Sometimes we add strips of zucchini and or pan fried asparagus.
Eden Grinshpan’s whole roast sweet potatoes with sunflower seed gremolata and lemony sour cream. So simple, so impressive. I never knew a sweet potato could taste quite this good out of my own oven. Big miznon vibes.
Currently consuming
Love and Virtue, Diana Reid. A capturing of the teenager in university experience: the competitive friendships, binge drinking, college living and murky relationships - but set in wealthy Sydney and with layers of consent, entitlement and privilege, rape culture and the grey areas between. Complex and relatable.
Wild Abandon, Emily Bitto. A beautifully painted novel of an Australian 20-something fleeing a breakup and longing for his Jack Kerouac-esque American adventure- coke-fuelled nights in New York transitioning into lions in Ohio - while his familiar longing to fit in, to be cool, is etched in every page.
Succession. I’ve reached season 2 and am suddenly hooked on the Roys, the dysfunctional hyper-elite owners of a New York media empire. The first few episodes were almost too ugly, too villainous, but would highly recommend if you need a new show.