Jump straight to My Fridge Door or Creamy Pantry Vinaigrette

I would try to tell you how long it’s been since I have updated my blog, in general I do so every single week. But it’s definitely two if not three weeks since you have heard from me. Not just because we moved halfway around the world – quite literally – but also because I’m still not sure what time, or day, it is. But the thing I’m finding most disconcerting is that I don’t know what season it is. Melburnians will tell you that they have four seasons in one day. However, what only one of them has admitted to me so far, though, is that summer is the shortest of those seasons. Though it is meant to be summer here, I have the heating on and am wearing multiple layers; each of those layers is a sweater of some sort. My first purchase from Amazon was a throw blanket. I’m considering wearing it as a poncho.

But let’s not dwell on the weather too much as I fear it’s aging me. Let’s talk about the Melbourne Jewish community or at the very least the tiny slice I have been exposed to in the last perhaps it’s been a week – but it may have been more – time, like the weather around here, it’s all a bit of a mystery. If you are hoping for gossip, you will be deeply disappointed. People are just nice, and I don’t mean ‘nice’ in the “smile-say-hi-and-then-turn-around-and-let-the-person-next-to-you-know-what-you-really-think” nice; I mean genuinely nice. The uniqueness of the community is that it’s big enough that you don’t know everybody, but small enough that you actually do. Yesterday at perhaps the nicest care home I have ever been into, I was sitting between two women: one, a fifteen-year-old girl who was there with her classmates from a local Jewish school to entertain the residents, and the other a woman who would have been her grandmother’s age. Having just met them both, I introduced them to each other. No, they had never met, but just offering surnames they knew of each other’s families and who is connected to who. Aside from knowing everyone in some way or another, everyone is related to one another. How do I know that ‘everyone’ is? Because those that aren’t have let us know. So far we have met at least five families who informed us that they are the only ones who aren’t related to anyone!

Let’s move onto the kosher facilities and kosher shopping. There is Kosher Kingdom. As one of our hosts said: in comparison to the Kosher Kingdom back in London it’s more of a Kosher Kottage, but at least it’s not a Kosher Korner. But one look at the shelves had me racing home and looking up recipes for mango chutney as I couldn’t find a kosher version here. It’s an essential ingredient in my Chicken Curry Salad – which is in fact my best recipe and had been my plan all along in how I would win over the community – the secret ingredient is Geeta’s mango chutney. Now here is the dilemma: it’s approximately $18 for me to order a jar of chutney here as opposed to (£2.50 = $5 AUD) plus $18 approximately for shipping. Is it worth $36 AUD for one chicken salad – and that’s just for the chutney before the rest of the ingredients. And that’s also just for one meal, and this winning-over-the-community project may in fact take many meals. So do stay tuned while I figure out either a new winning recipe or I figure the cost analysis of my chicken salad vs. my buying popularity through food.

In Coles – the supermarket chain – the branch situated in the heart of the Jewish community, stocks kosher meat in their fridges, kosher fresh bread baked in their on-site bakery, and the kosher aisle is well stocked. All this was well and good, and in fact being able to buy kosher meat and bread in the regular supermarket is actually something that I could not have done in the UK, and I doubt that there are too many regular supermarkets in America where that is an option either. Where I felt a need to pull out a paper bag to hyperventilate into was when the kind friend who was showing me around the supermarket picked up a random item and said: “this was kosher last week, but it isn’t now…” and that can happen to pretty much any item… And breathe! What they are saying is that the potential to get kosher wrong here is super high! I don’t know that I have a day a week to walk up and down the aisles at Coles, breathing into a bag with one hand while placing items in and out of my cart with the other!

But in truth it’s all about the people. We have been hosted in different people’s homes every night for dinner. We have sat at their kitchen tables, at their dinner tables, and at the tables they have reserved in restaurants. We have been introduced to parents and children and friends and family. We have been embraced and thanked for coming all this way. And all I can think is how privileged we are to be here, to be welcomed and wanted and, let us not forget, to be fed! Despite the fact that I found Coles and Kosher Kingdom radically new kosher shopping experiences, it seems that others have figured it out and are producing amazing food from their kitchens. Is it possible that I don’t actually need to import Geeta’s famous mango chutney? Is it as simple as saying thank you and I’m happy to be here?

A side story because I just can’t resist. While we were at the Emmy Monash Care Home, I sat next to a woman named Leah (name has been changed to protect her anonymity). I told Leah who I was, and pointed out Daniel sitting on the other side of the room in his pink shirt. A few seconds later Leah introduced herself again, and before I could point out Daniel she pointed him out to me. “You see that man in the pink shirt?” said Leah, “I’m flirting with him.” I responded, “You don’t say.” Leah came back with, “I saw him first – hands off.” My response: “Have at him!”

My Fridge Door:

We had lived in London for the last twelve years, and in that time I have carefully curated my fridge door, the things I felt were essential — basically flavour bombs or just necessities to round out a recipe. I was glib about my fridge door, assuming it would always be with me, that the ingredients would be easy to find and I could count on them for all my dishes — my trusty little army of jars and bottles.

I think I may have even prided myself on the fact that I felt my recipes were universal for the kosher cook and these items were staples. My one point of awareness that not everyone has access to everything was homemade salad dressings — as something you could buy kosher if you wanted to, but isn’t it nice that this is something you can make at home.

Now I will need to reassess my fridge door and report back on what are going to be my flavour bombs and my easy fixes, or maybe just give up cooking altogether… is that even an option?!

One New Recipe: Creamy Pantry Vinaigrette

All things said, at the moment I’m not cooking; we have truly been invited out for dinner practically every night until the new year. It’s really an incredible thing — we feel so looked after and blessed, and cannot think of a better way to get to know the different members of our community.

That said, if unlike me you feel like making a salad anytime soon, this Creamy Pantry Vinaigrette is the dressing recipe you want in your back pocket. Adapted in large part from Samin Nosrat’s House Salad Dressing, I was lazy: I wanted to eliminate the fine dicing and whisking, as well as replace the sherry vinegar (let me know if you have ever found a kosher version — I haven’t, but who knows!?!?) with red wine vinegar. You will need a hand-held blender to achieve the creamy texture, but once you have this dressing to hand, even the most ardent salad naysayers will be converted.