Five-minute satay sauce. Srsly.

And, gentle reader, since I basically made it up, it is my gift to you.

• One cup of crunchy peanut butter
• Half a cup of water
• A tablespoon (or so) of sweet chilli sauce
• A teaspoon of curry powder

Put the peanut butter and water in a small saucepan and bring to the simmer so that the peanut butter dissolves in the water. Chuck in the sweet chilli and the curry powder, stir it in, and you're done. Literally five minutes. 

You could probably put a dash of coconut cream in at the end if you had it handy, but I'm not sure it's necessary. 

Enjoy! We'll be dipping Vietnamese rice paper rolls in ours.

Delicious discoveries.

Yesterday morning, cursed by an insomnia that is no longer funny or acceptable, I got up at 5.30am to go for a run. I figured it was early, the streets would be empty, I'd get to see the sun come up, and when I'm already up, the awakening world is a kind of groovy place to watch.

But I got more than I bargained for, because at about 6.20, just as I was nearing home, I came across a large thicket of blackberries. Now, in the Blue Mountains, blackberries are considered a weed, and as such Council sprays them. When they know they're there. These ones they clearly don't know about, because there are literally hundreds of berries that are ripe and plump and juicy and jet-black, and maybe three times as many as that red and ripening.

I have my reasons for loving wild blackberries, in addition to their obvious tasty merits. One is that they are so much tastier than those farmed hothouse hybrids which cost $5 a punnet. Second, they cost about $5 a punnet less than those farmed hothouse hybrids. Third, they remind me of my late grandfather, who used to come around to our place at Wyee Point, and disappear into the thickets that choked a number of the nearby vacant blocks. He'd emerge with scratches all over his arms, purple-black stains on his shirt and lips, and several ice-cream buckets full of these juicy little numbers.

But best of all, I love wild blackberries because eating wild fruit straight off the bush makes me feel all foragy. I feel like a resourceful nomad. I feel like Adam in the Garden of Eden, but with less nudity. And hopefully less snakes.

I'm going to head up there tomorrow with an ice cream container of my own, and I'm going to forage me several kilos of those bad boys, and I'm going to do it every two or three days until summer ends, or I get sick of blackberries, or Council realises they've missed a patch, whichever comes first.

Vietnamese spring rolls

Last night's dinner...

This is too easy. You'll need:

• the meat from a barbecued chook, shredded up with your fingers
  
• a couple of carrots, grated
• a cucumber, grated
• half a smallish capsicum, grated or chopped up very finely
• a couple of handfuls of sprouts (watercress, mung bean, snowpea, alfalfa, whatever you fancy)
• a good bowlful of thin rice noodles, soaked in boiling water until they go soft
• a small chili if you like a bit of zing, chopped super-fine
  
• a couple of glugs of soy sauce
• a generous handful of chopped mint
  

Mix it all up in a big bowl.
Now soak round rice paper sheets one at a time in hot water until they go soft. Lay the sheet out on a damp tea towel, or it'll stick to the table.
Plop a big pinch of your filling on one edge, fold in the sides and roll it up. Voila, a spring roll!
Make a big stack of these bad boys on a plate.
Grab your favourite sauces - soy, sweet chili, satay, whatever you think will go well.
(Note: now's not the time to get all precious about cultural authenticity - they're your tastebuds, after all. If you think barbecue or tomato sauce will work, go your hardest. I mean, I don't think they will, but if that's wh at you want to try, who am I to stop you?)
Finally, sit down with your big plate of rolls, your dipping sauces, a good friend and something crisp, like a James Boags Premium. Enjoy, guilt-free.