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	Dark chocolate & honey pear tart Highlights of lockdown Claudia Brick Aug 23 Unfortunately very little has changed since the last recipe here – Melbourne remains in hard lockdown, work remains work, life remains limited to takeaway coffee from down the road and runs within a 5km radius and regular house cooking adventures because these are the small things we have left (see below for our current cooking inspiration). While our worldview shrinks, the feeling of helplessness only increased this week as we watched Kabul fall to the Taliban in a massive backwards step for women’s rights and heard the catastrophic predictions of the latest IPCC climate report – only for our government to continue to pretend it doesn’t exist. The onslaught of COVID news overwhelms even this: vaccine targets (will they or won’t they work), case numbers (linked or mysterious), “freedom” protests in Melbourne (the most selfish super-spreader events we have seen yet). It’s hard to feel optimistic. I also have no answers to the above besides what we have all heard before and which many other people can articulate much better than me. For the moment I only have a dark chocolate & honey pear tart. Pears sliced and oven roasted until golden and sweet and fragrant with honey and vanilla; crisp pastry; a rich baked chocolate and almond filling, somewhere between a ganache and a flourless chocolate cake. It’ll do anything from a lockdown house to a fully fledged dinner party, depending where you are. Get the recipe here. This month Currently cooking Ixta Belfridge’s biang biang hand pulled noodles. A lockdown project if I ever saw one - flour and water transformed into thick bouncy noodles with just a bit of arm work. Coated in a homemade Sichuan numbing oil and tahini soy sauce, they’re addictive and also extremely therapeutic. You can find step-by-step instructions in her video highlights and written recipe here. A drawn out Sunday afternoon tea of blueberry buttermilk scones with lemon curd and buttermilk whipped cream. Scones are forever underrated but incredibly comforting and difficult to get wrong - these are light with a craggy, sugar crusted exterior and go perfectly with a giant cup of tea. For a quick winter night dinner- Ottolenghi’s spiced coconut and red lentil soup with a side of warm crusty bread and butter. Currently consuming Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid. Maybe everyone’s already heard of this short and sharp novel but I demolished it in a day and will now recommend it to all. A witty and incredibly relevant portrait of race, class, feminism, social media and motherhood in modern America - nuanced and relatable without ever feeling heavy handed. Sorrow & Bliss - Meg Mason. If you liked Normal People and Fleabag, this should be your next read. It’s a funny and cynical and sad debut novel by an NZ/Australian author and details the aftermath and events leading up to a marriage falling apart. One of the best books I’ve read this year. If you liked this post from the brick kitchen, why not share it? Share © 2021 Claudia Brick Unsubscribe Melbourne, Australia