Occasional cooks: passionfruit vanilla slice

Here is your weekly thread to talk anything and everything food. 

Share what you're cooking this week, ask for tips or recipes for a dish, tell us about your meals out.

via Gourmet Traveller

Vanilla slice is an Australian classic. At its simplest, two sheets of puff pastry, custard in-between, and some icing on top. This passionfruit vanilla slice looks amazing - the added tang from the passionfruit would be perfect.

Vanilla slices are a country bakery and agricultural show staple; every second town advertises that their bakery has won best vanilla slice in some competition.

They are notoriously hard to eat with dignity - one bite and the pastry squeezes together and pushes the custard out everywhere. The fancy patisserie near me did one with caramelised sugar on the top - delish, but even messier.

The cheap ones we got in the school canteen, with a rubbery layer of custard and soggy pastry, were known as snot blocks.

This one is definitely a snot block, sorry Thompsons Pies

And in a reversal of both nutritional value and appeal, here's the saddest thing I spotted while browsing food this week - 8 Ways I Turn Broccoli Slaw Into Quick Healthy Meals.

via The Kitchn

Here's a good guide to the different egg-poaching methods - I'm definitely no-fuss, which appears to give the best results, but would be my choice anyway. I might attempt the straining - sounds a little wacky, but easy enough to test out.

What's happening in your kitchens?