Venice in summer (or any time of year, really) is touristy, crowded, and overpriced. But why let that stop you? It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, with gorgeous views, wonderful art galleries, local handicrafts and churches to hold your attention. I've been lucky enough to visit Venice twice now, and hope to return many...
The naschmarkt is a fabulous food market somewhere in Vienna, which sells an amazing variety of produce - they have Middle Eastern stalls, Italian stalls, bakeries, delicatessens, fresh fruit and vegetable stores, cafes, and sausage stalls - just to name a few.Daniel's Meat StoreMmm... cakesStallsThe most exciting stall we came across was this Wurst stall we saw, which...
Let me divert your attention away from my European adventures for the moment. Back in Oz, I'm finding myself quite busy settling back in, what with work, uni (heh!), catching up with my friends and that sort of thing. And seeing as both my brother and I do shift work, it's getting hard for the whole family to find time to spend together. However, earlier this week I realised that, miraculously, we were all going to be home on Saturday morning for a whole TWO HOURS! I decided to cook breakfast. Pancakes, of course.
I love pancakes in all shapes and forms, but for yesterday I decided to make ones that were a bit different and special - Nigella's pumpkin pancakes with sticky maple pecans. The recipe is featured in Nigella's article about pumpkins, in this month's Delicious.
These pancakes are like ordinary breakfast pancakes, with the addition of cooked and mashed pumpkin, and buttermilk. So in this way I suppose they're similar to Nigella's banana buttermilk pancakes, from Feast. I'm pleased to report that the pumpkin version is far, far superior.
The pancake batter is lovely and golden, thanks to the mashed pumpkin.
Yellow Batter
To transform pecans into sticky-maple pecans, you toast them in a pan, before adding a couple of spoonfuls of maple syrup, and slowly stirring them until they're "stickly, frostily coated". They are quite delicious and totally compulsive. Try not to eat them all before the pancakes are ready.
Maple Pecans
I decided to serve the pancakes with strawberries, so that they wouldn't feel so heavy. Plus, they were cheap at the supermarket. And they look so pretty in a bowl!
Strawberries
The Breakfast Table
The pumpkin pancakes are really lovely. They're soft and light, with a fab velvety texture. You can really taste the pumpkin, and I love the gratifyingly bright yellow colour! This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Pancake stack with extra maple syrup. Drool.
I love pancakes in all shapes and forms, but for yesterday I decided to make ones that were a bit different and special - Nigella's pumpkin pancakes with sticky maple pecans. The recipe is featured in Nigella's article about pumpkins, in this month's Delicious.
These pancakes are like ordinary breakfast pancakes, with the addition of cooked and mashed pumpkin, and buttermilk. So in this way I suppose they're similar to Nigella's banana buttermilk pancakes, from Feast. I'm pleased to report that the pumpkin version is far, far superior.
The pancake batter is lovely and golden, thanks to the mashed pumpkin.
Yellow Batter
To transform pecans into sticky-maple pecans, you toast them in a pan, before adding a couple of spoonfuls of maple syrup, and slowly stirring them until they're "stickly, frostily coated". They are quite delicious and totally compulsive. Try not to eat them all before the pancakes are ready.
Maple Pecans
I decided to serve the pancakes with strawberries, so that they wouldn't feel so heavy. Plus, they were cheap at the supermarket. And they look so pretty in a bowl!
Strawberries
The Breakfast Table
The pumpkin pancakes are really lovely. They're soft and light, with a fab velvety texture. You can really taste the pumpkin, and I love the gratifyingly bright yellow colour! This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Pancake stack with extra maple syrup. Drool.
You don’t really need me to tell you about teahouses in Vienna. Vienna is justifiably famous for its many wonderful teahouses; and our 2-night stay was not nearly enough time to learn about and experience them all. Any guidebook will give you the names and locations of the more famous teahouses, and my only advice is to start...
In her wonderful book, Old Food, Jill Dupleix includes her own recipe for Sachertorte, which has the merits of being "easier" and "faster", than the original, and most importantly, needing "no return airfare". This is obviously a different story when you're actually in Vienna. I do believe that it would be a culinary crime to visit Vienna without...