Episode 5 - Show notes and recipes
Where we decide to get into the festive spirit a little early and explore a cold, snowy Christmas read alongside celebrating bright, colourful Australian summer foods. The best of both hemispheres!
In Australia, we went into lockdown in the depths of winter and have emerged slowly as we come into summer, with Christmas around the corner. It’s not been the usual lead-up to the festive season so we thought we would find something to read to get into the spirit of the season to come and the possibility of being able to gather around the table again with family and friends. It worked for us and we hope this episode (and if you decide to read or listen to the book) also creates some childlike Christmas excitement for you too.
Click here to listen on Apple podcasts
Our thanks this episode goes to:
We are so happy to again thank Kitchen to Table for sponsoring this Christmas episode. This beautiful store is based in Yamba, Northern NSW (and online) and stocked with absolutely everything you need for cooking, entertaining and more. Meredith and her team are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful plus they run wonderful cooking classes in store and in non-Covid times all over the world.
Thanks as always to our podcast producer Kristy Reading
This episode’s book
Links to interviews we mention, books and articles we love;
"When I was putting this book together — because this is really a knit-your-own-Christmas book — the stories were straightforward enough, I thought, I'm going to have 12 stories. And then I suddenly remembered that so much of my life has been about either making meals or sharing meals with people that I've loved ... and so every recipe has a story around it." Click here to listen to Jeanette Winterson talk on NPR radio about Christmas and why she wrote this book.
For more of Jeanette’s food memories, listen to this interview on BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour
We also loved her Desert Island Discs episode too.
Curious about Jeanette’s favourite ‘something to reads’?! You might be after reading what she has to say about her bookshelves…
“A bookshelf isn’t an index — one of the many reasons why e-reading is so unsexy. Imagine a seduction; your bookshelves or their bookshelves are part of the foreplay, like music, food, talk. Our eyes run over bookshelves, not alphabetically or sequentially, because we’re looking to find old friends, memories from the past, and new pleasures. That’s the glory of a bookshelf. No one ever said, “Come up and see my Kindle Index.” Click here to read her Top 10 books.
Things to watch and listen to this Christmas
Watch: Nigella’s Christmas special
Listen: Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train, Food 52s Hipster Christmas Playlist, Kings College Choir Classic Christmas Carols.
Reading Christmas Days reminded me (Germaine) of the enjoyment of reading children’s Christmas books and a family favourite of ours is Richard Curtis’s The Empty Stocking. If you love any of his films, you will love this story too. Sadly it only seems to be available as an e-book now, however, on YouTube you can listen to Dawn French read it aloud!
This episode’s letter:
Good Morning Germaine and Sophie.
I adored your first episode! Thank you for bringing two of my favourite things together so beautifully all in one podcast.
My quandary is this:
I adore food. I love thinking about it, reading about it, watching it on tv, listening about it on podcasts, shopping for it, cooking it and of course EATING IT!
But I also love to share food. For me, sharing a meal is such an act of love. I am lucky to have some really wonderful friends, but most of them do not share this passion… within our friendship circle we also have a wide variety of food intolerances and dietary preferences, which makes getting together over a meal really difficult. We have two vegan’s, two coeliac’s, and one who is intolerant to refined sugar (it brings on migraines).
I’m thirty four and have three beautiful children and a truly lovely life. But I have this soft fuzzy hole in my heart that longs for company in my passion for food. It feels terribly silly to say it out loud, but I do.
Can you recommend a book that may soothe this aching heart and a recipe that might help bring all my friends together?
Kindest regards,
Sophie’s recipe recommendation
I really appreciated this letter and understand the letter writer’s desire to feed and nourish her friends but see that it isn’t always easy to meet everyone’s needs and expectations at once. So my thoughts are this; keep it simple, let the produce really shine and give lots of options!
I’d suggest a big colourful, joyful feast of vegetables, platters of salads and cold meat dishes for the meat eaters and my favourite, tomatoes with vanilla salt!
This pic below is from my book A Basket by the Door and the dish up front is Vitello Tonato, one of my favourite things, with the proscuitto-wrapped melon a close second!
Tomatoes with vanilla salt
I discovered this wondrous condiment thanks to Renee Erickson’s book A Boat, a Whale and a Walrus. Her approach to cooking and flavour combinations are a great source of inspiration to me and when she suggested making vanilla salt to sprinkle on fresh tomatoes, and poached fruits I was smitten. A little jar of this stuff makes a great present to say thanks for having us for dinner, thanks for teaching my angel all year, and so on and so on.
1 cup (225g) sea salt
2 vanilla beans
Place salt in a small bowl, split vanilla beans and scrape seeds into the salt. Using your fingers, work the vanilla seeds into the salt. Add the scraped vanilla pods (they’ll keep imparting flavour) and divide into small jars.
For a super delicious dessert idea, take another cue from Renee Erickson and serve fresh vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of vanilla salt and, a drizzle of olive oil. I know it sounds weird but it tastes amazing.
Sunshine dressing
This is such a great recipe, we love it drizzled over a crunchy green salad, roasted vegetables, tossed through a grain bowl, with boiled eggs and crunchy nuts, anything!
Take out your blender and add the juice and grated zest of 1 orange, 1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil, 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp white miso, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1/4 tsp ground turmeric (mostly for colour) and a 3 cm (1 1/4 inch) piece of ginger (peeled and roughly chopped). Blitz for about 30 seconds or until the dressing is well combined. Add some water if it’s a little too thick. Check and adjust the flavour so it’s the perfect mix of salty, tangy and a tiny bit sweet. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Germaine’s book recommendation
I’ve chosen this novel, written by food writer Ruth Reichl who has written memoirs about food and was Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet magazine for many years, as our letter writer loves food and wrote that she is always “thinking about it, reading about it, watching it on tv, listening about it on podcasts, shopping for it, cooking it and of course EATING IT”. A book written by someone who feels the same way about food seemed appropriate and even more appropriate is the story which uses food to connect to memories and moments for all the characters. It’s a complicated relationship, but a reminder that we don’t necessarily need to share the same food to be connected to one another.
“Her most treasured belief is that any problem can be solved with the right recipe.”
I hope our letter writer enjoys this light, holiday read about community and connection through food.
For anyone interested in reading more about Ruth Reichl’s career and other books, click here to her website which also includes a blog about food.
Meredith’s something to read
Meredith’s almond croissant recipe for Christmas morning.
And her amazing glazed ham with pineapple recipe!
Or this marmalade glazed ham that has just 3 ingredients in the glaze
Vanilla panna cotta with cranberry jelly and summer berries
And Meredith’s Christmas gift guide is chock full of great ideas!
Kristy’s something to read
Our wonderful producer Kristy Reading shares this book Dear Santa by Samuel Johnson OAM. We are so happy to have discovered it! Sounds just perfect pre-Christmas reading!
Write to us and we’ll send you wine!
If you would like a book and recipe recommendation to help navigate life’s twists and turns, please write to us. Each episode we choose a letter to read out (anonymously) and then prescribe something to eat and something to read that we think might help.
Thanks to Single Vineyards we have been able to gift a case of Highgate wine to each episode’s letter writer.
And it gets better! Single Vineyards have created a special offer for anyone (in Australia) who is subscribed to this newsletter. So, using the code STESTR20 you’ll receive a 20% discount on any wine purchase you make! So great hey!
Very handy for upcoming Christmas feasting and summertime reading! Click here to find out more about their wines on offer.
Email your letters to either Sophie at sophie_hansen@me.com or Germaine at newchaptersbibliotherapy@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you!
We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation and Wallumedegal people. These people are the Traditional Custodians of this land and form part of the wider Aboriginal nation known as the Eora Nation. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all First Nations people.