When I imagined living in Australia, I pictured kangaroos and sunshine and eucalyptus trees. Cooking never crossed my mind. If I had given it any thought at all, I probably would have expected endless, easy dinners of shrimp on the barbie. Instead, I found unexpected cooking challenges. Even simple recipes became complicated by substitutions and conversions.
For example, we have a recipe from my mother-in-law called “Million Dollar Chicken.” It’s about as easy as a recipe gets and my go-to comfort food here as we leave autumn, heading toward a chilly winter.
For example, we have a recipe from my mother-in-law called “Million Dollar Chicken.” It’s about as easy as a recipe gets and my go-to comfort food here as we leave autumn, heading toward a chilly winter.
The first four ingredients are no problem, once I've chosen from the five different kinds of paprika in the grocery store.
The one stick of butter? That’s a little harder. Butter comes in blocks here rather than sticks, and it’s measured in grams. (I knew I should have paid more attention in third grade when we spent maybe a whole day and a half on the metric system.) With some research, I discovered that one stick of butter as sold in the States is equivalent to 113 grams. My block of butter is 250 grams. Using my handy kitchen scale that will measure ounces or grams, I figured out what portion of my butter block equalled 113 grams.
The next three items are easy—no challenges there.
Now the cooking sherry. My local grocery store doesn't carry it. Or cooking wines, for that matter. If you want to cook with wine, you buy a bottle from the liquor store. I looked for something we had on hand instead and ended up substituting cognac for the sherry.
The next three items are easy—no challenges there.
Now the cooking sherry. My local grocery store doesn't carry it. Or cooking wines, for that matter. If you want to cook with wine, you buy a bottle from the liquor store. I looked for something we had on hand instead and ended up substituting cognac for the sherry.
The juice of one lemon? No problem. We have a lemon tree in our backyard, and the lemons continue to ripen, despite the colder weather.
Cans of condensed cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup? Time for another substitution since I couldn't find condensed cream of mushroom soup. I used a chicken and mushroom blend of ready-to-serve soup instead and combined a portion of it with cans of condensed cream of chicken soup, trying to achieve the approximate consistency I remembered.
The next step was to mix everything together in a casserole dish and bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. That required another conversion, because my oven here is fan-forced and heats by Celsius degrees. Luckily, I’ve downloaded a table to do temperature conversions.
Cans of condensed cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup? Time for another substitution since I couldn't find condensed cream of mushroom soup. I used a chicken and mushroom blend of ready-to-serve soup instead and combined a portion of it with cans of condensed cream of chicken soup, trying to achieve the approximate consistency I remembered.
The next step was to mix everything together in a casserole dish and bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. That required another conversion, because my oven here is fan-forced and heats by Celsius degrees. Luckily, I’ve downloaded a table to do temperature conversions.
And that's it: two conversions and two substitutions later, I've made a facsimile of Million Dollar Chicken. It doesn't taste exactly the same, but we still call it comfort food.
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