Well silly season is officially tipping into chaos mode over here, how about you? I’ve just emerged from a weekend double whammy of two Christmas lunches straight into a gastro bout - I’m going just great!
Though the beginning of this week was..grim..to say the least, I’m out the other side now and that holiday freedom is so close I can almost taste it. But before we set our out of offices, close our computers and run shrieking into the ocean, we’ve got one of our rec-rich rundowns to set you up for your break. Vamos.
Eat
I’ve been on a meatball kick lately. It’s not the sexiest sounding hyper-fixation is it? But they’ve been the solution to so many “I’m starving and I need to whip a meal up quickly and all I’ve got is a few pork sausages in the freezer” Wednesday night situations. Though many different recipes and sorta-recipes have passed through my kitchen, it is - how predictable - a Nigel Slater recipe that has won my heart. I found the recipe for these Pork and Lemon Polpettine in my battered copy of Kitchen Diaries AND my fresh new copy of A Cook’s Book - so even Nigel knows he’s on to a winner with these.
Loaded up with lemon - both the zest and juice - and a bold, punchy 8 - count them 8! - anchovy fillets, one of the joys of these is how light and bright they are. No stodgy mid-winter fare here. The other joy is that these are rolled small (that’s where the “tine” in Polpettine comes in) so you can eat even more of them in one sitting.
After you mix together the meatballs combo (don’t be shy, use your hands), roll them out, dust them in flour and then brown them in a little butter and oil. When they’ve browned all over, getting gloriously sticky, you finish cooking them in chicken stock, scraping up all the pan juices and spooning them over the meatballs to finish. Serve these with bread, noodles, potatoes, it doesn’t really matter. You’ll be making them again and again.
Read / Watch / Listen
I come before you a humbled woman. I, Sophie Roberts, am about to recommend to you a superhero show. I do not do this lightly.
The Watchmen (Binge) was created by Damon Lindehoff, the man behind Lost and one of my absolute favourite, weird, TV shows - The Leftovers. I have no idea how many of you trusted me on that recommendation when I shared it, but if you did, and if you liked it, then The Watchmen might be for you too.
Set thirty or so years after the ending of the original comic book series, it weaves together events from the 1930s, 1980s, and the close-to-present day in the slightly off kilter alternative universe of the comic books. It opens by launching us into the real life Tulsa Massacre that ocurred in Oklahoma in 1923. A horrific, white supremacist massacre on one of the then most prosperous Black communities in the US. That violent, racist past echoes through the rest of the show shaping the story in shocking and surprising ways.
There are also masked vigilantes, catapulting clones, raining alien squid, mysterious trillionaires and phone booths for calling Mars - it is still a superhero show! But as it’s only a single season long, with only 9 episodes at that, maybe you’re willing to trust me?
Buy / Do
Ok ok ok, this Botello Leather Mesh bag was a completely spontaneous, scrolling-insta impulse purchase that really came through! Made in the Southern Highlands by Mark Honore, these bags are absolutely BRILLIANT.
Each of them are made from just one piece of leather, ingeniously sliced and split, that then unfold into these gorgeous, open-weave bags. They come in a few sizes (I’m currently eyeing their market bag) but the wine bottle style is a steal at TWENTY TWO Australian dollars. I wish I’d found them sooner (they’d be a secret santa godsend) but I’m happy with the one I treated myself with and the spare one I’ve got stashed in our cupboard for any last minute forgotten gifting needs.
A fun bonus is, because they look like an intentional statement accessory - rather than you just trying to smuggle in booze - I successfully carried a bottle of wine around at a pub and nobody was worried about it! They also pack completely flat so you can slip it back into your chicly petite handbag once the bottle is done.
If you do need it for a last minute gift - Winona and NotWasted will deliver it same day in metro Sydney!
The Fast Five
A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month.