Even though we are newly-arrived, we thought it would be fun to make some Australian treats for Australia Day. We salivated over the idea of meat pies, sausage rolls, slices and pavlovas (one big one or mini?), but being budget-friendly settled on a sausage sizzle and lamingtons.
We bought some merguez sausages from our Islamic shop, cooked them on the grillpan and popped them between brown bread, caramalised onions and tomato sauce. The sausages were absolutely amazing - pure beef flavoured with paprika, fennel seeds and spices. We sat in our patio and enjoyed them in the sun (before running inside from the cold).
Thank you Dani's mum for the lamington recipe! The sponge turned out completely different to a normal lamington - we only had a large round cake tin to bake in, wholemeal flour instead of plain, and used a vanilla bean as there is no vanilla extract in Haarlem - but they were incredibly delicious. They were slightly chewy and nutty from the wholemeal flour and flecked with vanilla beans. The icing was just perfect, made with Droste Dutch cocoa. They were best the next day and day after - luckily they lasted that long!
In the evening we went out with Justin's friends (Dani's brother) who took us to some parts of Amsterdam we hadn't seen before, and had a great night. Went to a few bars and even found a place near Dam Square that sold olliebollen! Had dinner at a Dutch eethuis - truth be told the others thought it was great but we found it very average, a chicken salad with pesto for Dani and I got to try perhaps the national dish, kip sate (chicken satay), which was drenched in a thick sauce that was like a sweet curry. Expensive, too. But the company was great and they taught us some Dutch swear words, it's about time we knew some. They even kindly obliged with some stupid Dutch questions we had, such as:
+ Is Jensen married? Is he gay?
+ Why are there 15 lines on a strippenkaart, and not an even number?
+ Why are there so many Argentinian steakhouses?
And Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary to Kath and Jay! I hope you are having a wonderful time in Melbourne and I can't wait to hear all about it. You are beautiful people and a beautiful couple and I wish you the happiest of happiness for all your anniversaries to come x
1 comment:
I love those oval plates! They remind me of the ones we had growing up ... Mum used to serve salads in them for dinner parties
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