Yumi gets misty-eyed about all the travel she's not doing ...but would like to, and shares her thoughts on how to react when your adult kid loses their passport. While overseas.

WALNUT PESTO!

100g walnuts

garlic oil

3 tbs chopped fresh rosemary

50g grated Pecorino Romano

4tbs walnut oil

Serve on Rana Pasta! (Which Yumi famously misspells out loud during this episode, lol. ) Or whatever filled pasta you can get your hands on.

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On this consistently top-rating food podcast, your hosts try not to cack themselves laughing while they explain a way to Trojan Horse good foods into your kids via a food they feel safe with: TOAST.

ELVIS TOAST

Butter a well toasted slice of sourdough.

Add a generous slathering of crunchy peanut butter...

then top generously with sliced banana.

Finish with a tiny amount of very dark chocolate, finely grated over the top!

MAGIC TOAST

Spread a well-toasted slice of sourdough bread with hummus.

Crumble over some fetta.

Season with salt and cracked pepper.

Serve.

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All the kids are finally back to school and those of us lucky enough to be gainfully employed are mostly back to work! Including Yumi, who has a new job!

To sweeten your work day, Yumi has a shortbread recipe from one of her favourite cookbooks, and another hack if you're a HOME-MADE GRANOLA OBSESSIVE.

The cookbook is PASS IT ON by Shobha Kalyan and Keryn Kalyan and it's out of print but you may be able to get a copy if you contact them via their website.

Cardamom Shortbread

110g ghee, at room temp

90g caster sugar

2tsp ground cardamom

50g pea flour

50g fine semolina

80g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

shelled pistachios or peeled almonds to decorate

Cream the ghee and sugar with the cardamom powder until light and fluffy. Sift everything else on top of the mixture and gently combine, taking care not to overmix.

Roll 22 heaped teaspoons into balls and space out on an oven tray. Lightly dot a pistachio or almond in the middle of each biscuit.

Bake in a pre-heated 160C oven for 20 minutes. Eat while driving!

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NOT ONE TO BRAG, our humble food expert Simon Davis has spent a number of days hanging out at Australia's Best Restaurant in his day job as a cookbook publisher.

You'll hear more about the restaurant on today's episode of the food fix but the link is here if you urgently need to make a booking!

We've also got the sauce he's inspired by. It's not the restaurant version, it's one us mere humans can probably get going on our home stoves.

Agrodolce sauce

Small saucepan, into 2 warmed tablespoons of olive oil, add 2 chopped garlic cloves, one chopped shallot, sautee them down for about 5 minutes until golden brown

1/2 cup red wine balsamic vinegar

1 tsp capers

1/4 raisins

1/4 cup pine nuts

stir to combine along with 3tbs honey, simmer down for 4 mins

To finish the sauce, add 2tbs butter and season with salt and pepper.

Serve on radiccio or grilled steak!

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What does Valentine's Day mean to you?

And how do you make your special person feel extra loved on this (sometimes tricky and weird) day?

Yumi and Simon have some experiences and advice to share - and a REALLY GREAT cake from the legendary Belinda Jefferey that would make the perfect gift cake - or just a treat for yourself.

Ingredients

• 300g (about 2 medium sized) tart apples, peeled, cored, chopped
• 200g pitted dates, finely chopped
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150g plain flour
• 75g self-raising flour
• 125g soft unsalted
• 220g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1½tsp vanilla extract
• 50g pecans and 50g slivered almonds

• TOPPING:
• 90g unsalted butter
• ½ cup milk
• 170g soft brown sugar
• 110g pecan nuts sliced and almonds if you love nuts like Yumi does
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter a 20cm springform cake tin. Line the base with baking paper.
2. Put the apple into a heatproof bowl with the dates. Add the Bicarbonate of soda and pour in 250ml boiling water. Thoroughly stir together then leave the mixture to cool to room temperature.
3. Sift both flours and ½tsp salt into a bowl ensuring they are well mixed or even go fastidious and run it through the food processor.
4. Put the butter and caster sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle. Beat. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract.
5. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture, alternatively with the apple and date mixture until both are incorporated. Take care not to over work the mixture or it could make for a tough cake. Lastly stir through the nuts.
6. Scrape the cake batter into the tin and bake for 1hr 15mins, aka, a lifetime.
7. About 15mins before the end of the cake cooking time make the topping
8. Heat the butter and milk in a small saucepan until the butter has melted. Stir in the sugar, pecan nuts (and almonds) and vanilla extract. Adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles steadily and cook stirring regularly for approximately 5 mins or until it slightly thickens. Keep warm until the cake is ready.
9. Remove cake from the oven and make sure you have an audience. Pour over the molten, nutty caramel. Some will run down the sides. Return the cake to the over for 10 to 15mins until the topping is a deep brown.
10. Sit the cake tin on a rack with baking paper underneath to catch the drips. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.
11. Serve whenever you want cos it's your cake. Good with cream, icecream, all the good things! Happy Valentine's Day!

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Yumi and Simon are excited to be back for another season of your Food Fix.

They share what went on with their respective Christmases, Simon has already been working on some incredible-sounding cookbooks including the forthcoming one from Masterchef Winner Natty Wolf, and it's time to get the SATAY recipe you've always needed!

SIMON'S EASY HOME SATAY

1/2 bunch coriander

1 fresh red chilli

1/2 clove garlic

3tbs crunchy peanut butter

lug of soy sauce

2cm nub of fresh ginger

juice and zest of 1 lime

WHIZZ IN THE BLENDER AND TASTE! What does it need more of? Taste and create! Thread chicken thigh fillet chunks onto skewers, coat well in the satay marinade, and bake in the oven at 180C until cooked through. Serve on rice. Yum!

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Providing a successful bowl of food for the class party, the swim carnival, the Welcome Back or the sad Farewell party - can sometimes be the only validation the home cook gets ALL WEEK! Ha! So here are some easy ways to make the most of it.

Personally, I LOVE being set the challenge to make something high-yield, high-praise, low-stress - at short notice. Like Craig David, I was Born To Do It. Lol.

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Where did you go for holidays this summer?

If it was Queensland, chances are you encountered Plantain as an ingredient!

This incredible, versatile and super delicious ingredient was previously not grown locally, was hard-to-find, and expensive. THAT'S ALL CHANGED, obvs. (Coming soon to a fancy restaurant near you!)

Plantain is Yumi's prediction for hitting the mainstream here in restaurants, cafes, cooking shows and at home - - so get onto it first!

TO MAKE SIMPLE PLANTAIN CHIPS YOU'LL NEED:

3 yellowish to black plantains

1 flat teaspoon cayenne pepper

generous pinch of salt

4mm sunflower oil for frying

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A FENNELLY CROUTON CELEBRATION

Because we all know Yumi won’t ever, ever leave her crouton era. Here’s another use for them and one that we can combine with one of Simon’s loves – raw fennel.  It’s zippy with acidity, fresh with crunchy anisey fennel and the perfect foil to serve next to a roast chicken, something meaty on the barbecue or a nice piece of poached salmon. If you’re making the croutons from scratch then toast the nuts in the oven on a tray at 200C with them instead of in a dry pan.  

Toast ½ cup walnuts or pecans in a dry frying pan until golden brown on all sides. (5–8 mins). Let cool, then coarsely chop nuts.

Combine 3 Tbsp. sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar, 1 garlic clove, finely grated, and ¼ tsp. Crushed Turkish red pepper or chilli flakes in a medium bowl. Leave for 10 minutes for the garlic to mellow and flavour the vinegar, then whisk in 3 tbsp olive oil. Add croutons (3 large handfuls) and chopped nuts. Season with salt and toss to coat and let croutons soften slightly; set aside.

Remove stalks and fronds from 2 fennel bulbs. Remove fronds from stalks and coarsely chop; thinly slice stalks. Place in a large bowl. Cut fennel bulbs in half and thinly slice on a mandoline (if you have one; if not, practice your knife skills). Add to same bowl along with ¾ cup torn fresh mint leaves. Zest ½ lemon over fennel, then squeeze in the juice. Add the croutons and nuts and toss to combine. Shave over a nice generous amount of parmesan and serve up.

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In this classic episode from the archives, Yumi asks questions about olive oil, Simon answers.

Sometimes foodies can take the basics for granted. Most of us are familiar with Olive Oil, but it's worth knowing why this is such an essential ingredient, how to get the most out of what you're paying for, and what to look for when purchasing.

Olive oil icing: 1 cup icing sugar + 1/3 cup of (good quality!) olive oil. Mix and pour over your carrot cake!

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