On the topic of food

Thursday, 29 April 2010

I've been watching the new series of Masterchef. One of the challenges so far has been to make a 'childhood memories' dish.  i.e a favourite dish that your mum/dad may have made, or nanna, or even something that just takes you back to your childhood.. Contestants had 2 hours to whip something up and came up with all sorts of amazing things, from double cooked duck with dumplings, to lemon curd layer cake with fresh passion fruit, to sauteed mustard rabbit with spinach and pear puree. 

I would have aced this challenge... if it was judged on speed that is.  I would have just gone to the pantry, got out a tube of sweetened condensed milk, slammed it on the benchtop and yelled 'finished!'.   I have a very sweet tooth, so for me there was nothing better than illegally opening one of these tubes, and sucking down tablespoons of this stuff at a time.   If the judges wanted a two course meal I would have just gone and grabbed some Peters Sweetened Short Crust Pastry, which was sold by the block at the time.  We (and I say we as I'm sure it wasn't just me involved in the illegal consumption of this)  used to just take bites straight out of the blocks. (the fact that it was kept in the freezer was a bit of a pain, but who can wait for it these things to thaw!).