Nesting and nice things.
A little break from the travel diaries, instead, an apartment update and a few things that please me.
Bonjour mes amis. I’ve sat down to write about the rest of our travels through Morocco half a dozen times and while I am going to continue documenting our travels I think I need a break every now and again to tell you about things that are happening currently. It’s bizarre to think that that we’ve been home longer than we were away.
So, this week, a recipe, some beverages I’ve enjoyed recently, music, books, and some of my favourite things (basically, everything is a link).
In case you’re new here, hello. I am Isabelle. I’m a part time wine girl, writer and actor.
Substance™ is a place for me to use my words, a jumble of stories, reviews, recipes, recommendations and the odd curated playlist. If you’d like to hire me or collaborate you can email me here.
EAT
It’s been about a year since I blessed the internet with the pasta recipe that has long kept me alive. Sorry to keep you waiting, but here is the latest hyper-fixation meal :
Greek yoghurt and sumac chicken with green things.
Meat and marinade :
Chicken (I prefer the thigh cut, or tenderloins)
Greek yoghurt
Sumac
Green things :
Zucchini
Cabbage
Broccoli
Avocado
To serve :
Lemon
Sour cream or feta
For the dressing :
Lemon
Olive Oil*
Salt
Pepper
Garlic (fresh, crushed, or my favourite Costco purchase, Kirkland Granulated Californian Garlic)
Apple Cider Vinegar
*like the good millennial I am, I love a boujee kitchen product, and we have three olive oils currently. When we first started dating, Aidan bought me a bunch of fancy olive oils (ahh, the courtship stage), and we have nearly finished them all.
Partida Creus make wacky wild and wonderful wines in Spain, but they also make really good olive oil. Hug thanks to Liz Carey from Vivant Selections for making sure I always have my go-to favourite oil and being a favourite person, too. We also have the dregs of a bottle from Occhipinti, and one from Emidio Pepe which I got at CRU in Brisbane. Nice to have that one because there’s no way I can justify a $600 trebbiano. These oils are perfect for salad dressing and finishing, but also are incredible drizzled over really good vanilla ice cream.
Turn the oven on.
About 180 degrees seems to work for me, but I’m also still getting used to our new-old oven.
If you have the time / can be bothered, marinate 600 grams of chicken in a mixture of half a cup of yoghurt and a tablespoon of sumac. Best to leave it overnight to marinate. Or if you’re time poor / feel like making it easier on yourself, I like these skewers from Harris Farm. When they’re on sale I buy a couple of packets and freeze them.
Chicken goes into the frying pan with a few glugs of olive oil.
Meanwhile, slice a large zucchini into thick wheels, with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of sumac and chuck them into the oven on a baking tray lined with paper. I usually turn the zucc after about 15 minutes. I also have to turn the tray 180 degrees because our oven seems to be hotter on the right side (??).
While all of this is happening, chop up the broccoli and chuck it into a pot of water. I like to pull it off just a few minutes after the water has come to the boil, so the broccoli is still very crunchy. Drain, and toss with a bit of salt and lots of pepper.
Next, cabbage salad. Using a mandolin, shave cabbage into a bowl, or straight into a vegetable spinner, and rinse. The longer it sits in the dressing, the softer it will be (because the salt draws the liquid out of the cabbage), so I usually dress it at the last minute, and serve with some extra sauerkraut–this one, or, if I can find it and I feel like spending 20$, this one. It’s delicious soft too (and we eat it over a couple of days, usually) I just like as many different textures as possible.
Side note : I am obsessed with the Joseph and Joseph brand for kitchen things, everything is tastefully colourful, hardy, easy to clean, and well priced (also often on sale and David Jones price matches, if you didn’t know). They are not paying me to say this (gosh I wish they were) but all of this is to say that I have the mandolin (linked above) and I also recently bought a little gadget for slicing which I use to make the avocado into gorgeous little chunks.
If you’re so inclined, you could put a heap of rice in the bowl first but a) I am terrible at cooking rice and b) we’re trying to keep the nighttime carbs to a minimum. If I do try to cook rice I like to do the absorption method and add in some chicken or vegetable stock, and then I have a terrible time trying to clean the saucepan.
Then just put it all together in a big bowl, chicken on last, with a wedge of lemon and a dollop of sour cream or some crumbled feta (or both, idc I am not your mum).
If feta, I usually sprinkle a little sumac on top of that, too. I love sumac.
To pair :
With a meal like this, I want a rich white wine. Aidan and I first drank the Bodegas Luis Pérez La Escribana at Bisto Livi in Murwillumba in early 2023. Luckily for me, he managed to hunt down some bottles for the cellar. Palomino is traditionally used to make sherry, but it turns out it turns out a cracking table wine, too. I discovered in Tenerife that my beloved Listan Bianco is also Palomino, which in hindsight makes sense but at the time made me feel a bit stupid. Anyway, La Escribana is rich and golden in colour, textural, oily and warm with licks of salty ocean spray and dirty martini olive brine. Divine. Wealthy mermaid wine.
As you can see picture above, sometimes we have red wine. I’ve mentioned the Envinate wines from the Canaries before, this was a bottle of the infamous Taganan Margalagua. Savoury, bright and *buzzword-alert* crunchy. An emotional, sentimental wine for me, and always a 10/10.
.
DRINK
I recently rediscovered my love of the shandy. We’ve been experimenting with different combinations of lemonade and beer–always Schweppes, of course, with Peroni, James Boags, Beira Moretti and Pabst Blue Ribbon, so far–the latter being the current reigning champion. I’m a 50/50 girl but some days the 70/30 spilt (beer to lemonade) is appropriate. Depends if it’s assisting with a hangover or a tummy ache or acting as a mid-afternoon party starter.
Big treat alert ! Antipodes water. We sold this bottle at Debacle back in the day, as a sparkling water option. It was $5 a bottle then, at the pub. I now occasionally splurge about $8 for the 1L one from the Paddington QE Food or IGA. Is it worth it ? I think absolutely. It is an incredibly boujee thing to spend $8 on ? Yes. Like I said, it’s a treat.
An added bonus, the empty bottles are perfect for propagating plants.
Soda discovery for me this month : the Strangelove Lime & Jalapeño Soda which I bought to have on hand as an interesting 0ABV option, but also with the intention of also trying it with a splash of my favourite tequila or mezcal. I don’t see myself as a spicy margarita girl, I like my margaritas simple–no triple sec, Tommy’s style–although a bartender in Palm Springs made me a spicy marg when I requested a drink a la dealers choice, so maybe I am (basic) and I should just lean into it.
Rim a glass with lime, and crust with Tajin, 30ml of your agave spirit of choice, ice and top with lime and jalapeño soda. Garnish with lime, and or a pickled jalapeño if you’re feeling extra spicy. And of course you can omit the spirits if it’s a school night or you’re abstaining.
We drank this wine …
… twice in Paris, and once in London, mostly at my request. The wines of Dominique Belluard have long been wines I have coveted. But, Dominique died in June 2021, and I have been moved to take the opportunity to drink his wines whenever they’re available. Since his death, his wife Valérie has negotiated a new young wine maker to continue the legacy, renaming the Domaine ‘de Gringet’, to honour the grape variety Dominique helped to bring back into the collective wine drinking consciousness (even if it was mostly just us big wine nerds).
I’ve also revisited two of my favourite Italian white wines - the Foradori ‘Fontanasanta’ Manzoni Bianco and aforementioned Occhipinti–her SP68 Bianco. They’re just yum.
If you’d like more detailed notes on any of these wines, or indeed any wine, you can email me at isabellesarahwebster@gmail.com and I’ll send you some, and maybe even a pairing suggestion if you’re lucky / ask me nicely.
EAT
By now, a lot of people are obsessed with the French chips, Brets. When we were overseas, we came across a few favours I hadn’t seen in Australia, mozzarella pesto (decidedly unFrench perhaps, but perfectly delicious) and ‘tartiflette’ which is an Alpine dish made with potatoes, reblochon cheese, lardons and onion, aioli, and poulet braise. Of course, we now have all of these flavours at my work. It’s like they’re trying to keep me from running away back to Paris …
I might try my hand at an actual tartiflette when the weather cools down properly and if it works I shall regale you all with tales of my status as a domestic goddess / the recipe.
…
If you have a bottle of champagne, I’d like to recommend a very classic Isabelle snack.
The perfect pairing with a good grower champers is a toasted sandwich. Get some sliced white bread (or wholemeal, sourdough, whatever), some slices of tomato (I pre salt and pepper the slices on the cutting board) and a good hard cheese (like $8 worth of Jarlsberg if you know what’s good for you), butter the bread on the outside, fill ‘er up and fry in a pan until golden. Mayonnaise is also god tier on the outside of a toasted sandwich but somehow that feels even more decadent than butter to me.
A good toasted cheese makes me feel part Andy, part Simone.
We all know Andy, but ICYMI, Simone was my favourite character from the deliciously trashy TV show Sweetbitter, the problematic hospitality drama that came before The Bear. Based on the book by Stephanie Danler, it’s set in what is probably supported to be Eleven Madison Park in early 2000s New York. It’s very indie sleaze, Pinterest board, tumblr blah blah (absolutely why I love it), and the TV show has an excellent soundtrack.
Little Fu $ - under our apartment, delicious dumplings, closes at 8pm and BYO
Ursula’s Paddington - for a celebratory dinner (or just for the strawberry and champagne cream dessert)
Teta’s Deli $ - for Lebanese groceries and a lamb pliage for lunch
Small’s Deli $ - for a sandwich you’ll be thinking about weeks later
READ
By my bedside / in my tote bag :
Modern Manners - The Gentlewoman (an anthology)
Stay True - Hua Hsu
So Late In The Day - Claire Keegan
A Waiter in Paris - Edward Chisholm
Notes on Shapeshifting - Gabi Abrão
Blueberries - Ellena Savage
Nothing But My Body - Tilly Lawless
Train Lord - Oliver Mol
California Prose Directory 2015 (an anthology)
Special mention : Carter’s Cookbook which you can now download in a PDF which is handy if you need the recipe at the shops. My gorgeous friend Milly bought me both cookbooks and I treasure them. The recipes are simple but they’re fabulous if you’re like me (never use a recipe) but need to fact check things every now and again (do you pre-cook potatoes for a potato bake or not ?, etc.). Carter Were also has a delicious Substack called Carter’s Cooking which I highly recommend. Her instagram is also a really nice example of social media being wholesome and inspirational.
LISTEN
A new album–Frog In Boiling Water–coming soon from DIIV. The single Everyone Out is so beautiful, the first listen turned into having it play on repeat for half an hour because I just couldn’t get enough of it.
Also, a new album trip9love…??? from Tirzah came out in September 2023 that I completely missed at the time (although I always seem to come to her music a little late probably because I am deeply uncool) which is great for stormy, moody nights. Glass of wine, light some candles and have a little groove with your refection.
FIN
Okay that’ll do for now ! See you on the internet.
Bisou bisou, I’m off to cook rice, wish me luck !
Did I not teach you how to cook rice ! Maman x