Eat Your Heart Out

Cake Sol-Lumière, beach rips, good trouble. Looks like it smells nice here.

Edition #16

On Our Table & On The Radar

The Way We Cook

I cook with flavours that make me feel something and this time, I was chasing something sweet, exotic, like jangling jewels in faraway bazaars.

It’s not often i’m wowed with sweets, I’m a savoury girl, but today, by mixing my favourite perfume notes together with a simple cake recipe I’ve just created flavours that blow my own trumpet, they’ve put a smile on my face and I’m excited.

“If James has the Crispy Duck Salad as a signature dish then I’ve now got Cake Sol-Lumière. I’m a one hit wonder and I’m ok with that”

Here’s what will have you licking the bowl like a kid, my new dish, Cake Sol-Lumière. Yes, I’ve named it. It means 'sunlight' just like the citrus, spice, and warmth in every bite. Sounds fancy. It is.

Orange, pistachio & cardamom - fragrant, nutty, and soaked in citrus syrup. Thank you very much. One hit wonder? I’ll take it.

The orange? Tastes like home for me, plus tis the season to eat them.

I like them even more when they’re peeled and suprēmed for me - James does it best.

Apples or Pears?

For James, it’s pears over apples. Beurré Bosc of course. For me, the simple orange trumps both.

This recipe is delicious, and then it got better.

Just wait until you see what James did next.

Set the Table

Cake Sol-Lumiere? A winner.

We made it again, this time adding dollops of homemade fig jam & raspberries. OMG this is sensational. Second time? Even better.

Fig and Raspberry Cake Sol-Lumière with a dollop of Greek yoghurt

Yoghurt’s having a moment. The good kind. We’re dolloping it on everything: savoury, sweet, straight from the tub. Mungalli. From Ramsgate markets. Organic, biodynamic, top shelf in our fridge at the mo.

Dinner tonight? A ragù with penne pasta & Pecorini. Our new Italian Olive Oil drizzled over the top. Here’s the Ragu Recipe click on Hungry For More: Food, Love and Revolution edition.

We’re all happy and quiet now. Not an easy feat in this house.

On The Radar

We picked up Olio Principe extra virgin olive oil from Nicholson & Saville (Taren Point), suppliers of the best products to the best restaurants in Sydney. We asked for their recommendation, and they pointed us straight to this one. When we unscrewed the lid, the fragrance & colour is beautiful - bright green with that perfect balance of bitterness and spice. Might go and get a couple more bottles of it at $14 a bottle - that’s pretty good.

Rewatched: My Octopus Teacher

We rewatched Craig Foster’s My Octopus Teacher.

The first time I saw it, I was captivated by the relationship between Foster and the octopus. This time, it was his connection to the ocean. His sense of place amongst the giant kelp is amazing, like another planet.

That line where he says making the film taught him to feel like he was part of the planet, not a visitor. That resonated. It reminded me of The Overstory. A book by Richard Powers, he makes you see, really see, every living, breathing thing. Trees, wow, how we’re all so deeply connected.

“There is a world alongside ours - vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us.”

Richard Powers, The Overstory

Highly recommend you read it. Yell out if you want my copy.

And then this morning.

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SHARK ISLAND RETURN SWIM

Image by Nick Mullen - an oldie but a goodie

6:30AM | HIGH TIDE | BIG SWELL | STRONG RIP | 22 DEGREES STILL WARM

We’re lucky to dive in before the surf life savers arrive to put up the beach closed signs.

Today’s all about the return swim, because the beach rip is pulling.

It’s easy swimming out, we ride the rip.

It’s coming back in that’s the worry.

I like chop and big swells. I like waves.

I can avoid the big waves by swimming wide.

But the beach rip? It guards your return to shore.

Still my nemesis.

The ocean’s churning, grey-blue like the dark, cloudy sky.

No visibility underwater. No sunrise to colour the sky.

We round the surfers at the Point.

From there, the swim back is a straight line from the Point to the clock tower.

That means hugging the shoulder of the wave, aiming for Nick’s head, his bright orange cap and GoPro act like a beacon, as it disappears under a massive set. I’ve got a smile on my face and I bet he has too.

He’s my marker. I aim for him.

We pass Mouse Trap a reef that usually needs avoiding but it’s high tide and there’s plenty of water underneath us today.

I stop for a quick chat, then realise I’ve landed a favourable rip that pushes me most of the way in.

The last 50 metres is messy, rippy, churning water.

I kick now too - that’s second gear, and don’t relax until my feet are planted on dry sand.

That’s the moment. That’s being “in.”

Ankle-deep in water means nothing.

You can still get dragged back out. I’ve learned that the hard way.

On days like this, the other swimmers are waiting for you.

We take a head count and…..

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