Fruit Loaf

Now that I have sworn off baking & the making of all things sweet temporarily I managed to sneak in this lovely fruit loaf this weekend telling myself it was bread & not a cake so allowed. I don’t make bread very often but every now & again I get a hankering for it, especially after Megan dropped in for lunch the other day & brought along a fabulous loaf that her husband had baked that morning, very impressive & not something Michael would ever do or most husbands/boyfriends I know of for that matter! The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver Return of the Naked Chef & was delicious, its quite a heavy loaf as I find most fruit breads are, but slathered with a little butter it is perfect for breakfast or a snack & I can imagine in a couple of days will go well in the toaster too, it makes a massive loaf which will last for ages.

Fruit Loaf

30g fresh yeast or 3 x 7g sachets of dried yeast

30g sugar or honey

625ml tepid water

1kg strong bread flour

30g salt

extra flour for dusting

Fruit Mix

a pinch of ground cinnamon
1 clove, ground
200g dried apricots
100g dried dates
200g dried raisins

Firstly you need to get your fruit mix ready. Put all ingredients in a food processor & chop very finely.

Now to make the bread

Stage 1. Dissolve the yeast & sugar in half the tepid water.

Stage 2. On a large clean surface or in a large bowl, make a pile of the flour & salt. With one hand make a well in the centre & pour in all of the dissolved yeast & sugar mixture, with your fingers make circular movements, from the centre working outwards, slowly bringing in the dry ingredients until all yeast mixture is soaked up. Then pour the other half of the tepid water & the fruit mix into the centre & gradually incorporate all the flour to make a moist dough. If needed add a little extra water & also note that you may not need to use all of the water as the dried fruit retains water too, you will have to watch the dough carefully & be the judge. For mine I used the exact quantities.

Stage 3. Knead for 5 minutes & if any sticks to your hands just rub together with a little extra flour.

Stage 4. Flour both hands now & lightly flour the top of the dough. Make into a roundish shape & place on a baking tray. Score the dough with a knife. Leave the dough covered in glad wrap to prove in a warm, moist, draught free place, it needs to double in size, about 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200c.

Stage 5. Take the proved dough & bash the air out, then shape into a round & place on a floured baking tray to double in size again, about 40 minutes.

Stage 6. Bake in a preheated oven for 50 mins to 1 hour. Loaf will be cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before eating.

Gingerlee, East Brunsiwck

Sunday morning Michael & I took Chloe for an early morning walk to check out Gingerlee, a new café on Lygon street in East Brunswick. The breakfast menu had a few items on it with quite a Middle Eastern feel, it was quite interesting offering dishes from toasted apricot & walnut bread, poached eggs with slow braised field mushrooms, Persian feta, avocado & lemon to the home made baked bean tagine that Michael had & the Syrian style French toast, orange blossom syrup, honey labne, stewed rhubarb & pistachios that I ordered. Mine was sensational, I could have eaten 2 plates full, the toast on first impressions could have been too sweet but as soon as you team it with the yoghurt it was perfect, as I said, absolutely luscious & nice to have something different to the usual suspects that appear on most breakfast menus. Michael enjoyed his beans though not as much as I did my dish, he said there was a flavour in there (couldn’t name it) that didn’t quite sit right with him, it did look good though especially when they brought it out in the tagine, lid & all before uncovering at the table. All in all another great addition to this strip. Also I would like to note that on the way home I stopped at Sugardough for some bread & noticed they now sell bomboloni too, custard, jam, apricot jam & chocolate flavoured & I’ pleased to say that after tasting the custard filled variety it is even better than Dench’s – in my opinion only of course – I love this bakery.

Gingerlee
Ph: +613 9380 4430
Fax: +613 9380 4436
117 Lygon Street
East Brunswick
Email: rebeccadietrich@gingerlee.com.au
www.gingerlee.com.au

Chicken Tagine with Green Olives & Preserved Lemon

Every week my mum comes over to my place for a day to spend time with Chloe & to help me out. To thank her for her help I cook up a big dinner for both my mum & my dad & I try to cook up dishes that they have never tried & would not try without my prodding. This week was the fancy sounding tagine which is really quite simple, I served it with couscous, another ingredient they have never tried. This recipe is from Gourmet Traveller & was a big hit, I loved it as I usually love all tagines & surprisingly my parents both loved it too, even the couscous which they thought they would hate. Next week polenta has been requested so I hope they love that just as much.

Chicken Tagine with Green Olives & Preserved Lemon

2 tablespoons Ghee
6 chicken marylands, thighs & drumsticks separated
2 large onions, coarsely grated
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon (firmly packed) saffron threads
1 teaspoon ground ginger
4 black peppercorns
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
1 stick of cinnamon
2 cups chicken stock
50gm preserved lemon (about 3 pieces), flesh discarded & rind thinly sliced
150g queen green olives (about 12) pitted
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped coriander
Couscous & crusty bread to serve

Heat ghee in a tagine or heavy based casserole, add chicken pieces & cook over high heat, turning, until golden. Then add onion, garlic & spices, and cook over medium heat, stirring to coat chicken pieces for 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add stock & 1 ½ cups water, turning chicken pieces once during cooking, for 40 minutes or until chicken is tender & meat almost falling off the bone.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer chicken to an oven tray & discard cinnamon. Bring sauce to a boil, and simmer for 12 minutes or until reduced by a quarter. Return chicken to pan, add preserved lemon, olives & herbs, and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until chicken is heated through, then season to taste with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper. Serve with couscous & crusty flat bread.

Ribollita

This week’s soup is a classic Italian dish, Ribollita from the river Café Cook Book (Blue), I’ve never made or eaten this before so was looking forward to seeing what it is like. Note that I couldn’t find any Cavolo Nero & don’t know if you can even buy it here at all, so according to the book I have substituted with silverbeet but I am no longer authentic.
Also I used beans in a can so you can see I am a real cheat, sorry but I just cant be bothered with all of that soaking when the tins taste pretty good to me & can cater to my sometimes lazy streak. I halved the quantities & still got 6 good sized servings jam packed full of veggies – I left mine quite thick with not much liquid at all. Oh and one other thing, you will need a bloody big pot even if making only a half serve! In the end you have a good hearty soup for a cold Winters night, the silverbeet gives it a particular earthy flavour & the bread a nice and unusual texture.

Ribollita

Serves 10

250g cannellini or borlotti beans, soaked overnight with 2 tablespoons of bicarb of soda (or use a tin & cheat as I did)
1 large tomato
½ bulb garlic
a handful of fresh sage leaves

1 large bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped
2 whole heads celery, chopped
450g carrots, peeled & chopped
4 medium red onions, peeled & chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 x 800g tin peeled plum tomatoes, drained of their juices
2kg cavolo nero, stalks removed, leaves coarsely chopped (or sub with swiss chard/silverbeet, savoy cabbage, kale, broccoli or rape leaves)
2 loaves stale ciabatta bread, crusts removed, sliced or torn
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Drain the beans well (and rinse if from a tin), place in a saucepan, cover with fresh cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, then drain again. Pour in enough fresh water to cover by about 5cm, then add the tomato, garlic bulb & sage. Return to the boil & simmer, covered, occasionally removing any scum that comes to the surface, until tender, which can very from 40 minutes to 1 ½ hours (or considerably less if from a tin). Keep the beans in the water they’re cooked in.

In a large saucepan fry the parsley leaves, garlic, celery, carrot and onion in the oil for about 30 minutes until the flavours combine. Add the tomatoes & continue to cook on a gentle heat for a further 30 minutes, then add the cavolo nero and half the cannellini beans with enough of their liquid to cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.

In a food processor, puree the remaining beans and return to the soup with just enough boiling water to make the soup liquid. Add the bread, a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, and season well with salt & pepper. As exact amounts are not possible, you must balance the amount of liquid to bread so that the soup is very thick.

Steak Sandwich with Garlic Crème

A great Friday night dinner would have to be the steak sandwich, easy to put together & its almost like having take away (which keeps Michael happy) but of course much better, this is Bill Granger’s version from Sydney Food which apparently has been on the menu at his place from the start. It has all of the right ingredients for me, onions, a bit of salady stuff, crusty bread & the garlic crème for me is ever so much nicer than tomato sauce – a condiment I don’t have a very good relationship with as un Australian as that may sound.

Steak Sandwich with Garlic Crème

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely sliced onion
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
8 thick slices bread, such as ciabatta
1 bunch rocket
4 ripe tomatoes

Garlic Crème
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2cloves garlic, crushed
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup canola or other mild oil

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, add the onion & cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden. Add vinegar, salt & pepper & cook for a minute longer until caramelized. Remove onion from the pan & set aside.

Meanwhile make the garlic crème. Place egg yolks, vinegar, garlic, salt & pepper in a bowl & whisk until combined. Add the oil drop by drop, whisking constantly. When the sauce starts to thicken, add the oil in a steady stream until the oil is fully incorporated. If the crème is too thick, thin with a tablespoon of warm water.

Using the same pan as the onions, heat the remaining olive oil over high heat. Add steak to the pan and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Cook for 1 minute, turn & cook the other side for a further minute.

Spread the bread with the garlic crème. Place rocket on the 4 ‘bottom’ slices of bread & top with tomato. Place onions on top pf tomato, followed by streak. Cover with second slice of bread. Serves 4.

Puy Lentil Soup

Well with the cold weather setting in it’s time for me to start making my usual pot of soup per week. Today I felt like I needed some fiber so it was this very hearty soup from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. The soup was very tasty & didn’t require any extra seasoning, I think this is because my vege stock was very salty. It was also quite thick with almost no liquid remaining, bordering on a stew I guess, no complaints from me there, served with some crusty fresh bread it was the perfect lunch.

Puy Lentil Soup

50g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup chopped Spanish onion
½ cup sliced leek, white part only
½ cup chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
400g tin chopped Italian tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock, or water
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
½ cup lentils du Puy
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
½ cup finely chopped parsley

Melt butter and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion and leeks & cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add celery, garlic & chilli and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, stock (or water), bay leaves, oregano & lentils & bring to the boil. Reduce heat & simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper if needed & stir through parsley.

Garlic Prawns

One of my favourite ways to eat prawns is simply cooked with olive oil, garlic & a bit of chilli, nothing else needed, here is Bill Granger’s version from Bills Food.

Garlic Prawns

20 raw king prawns, peeled & deveined, tails left on
250ml (1 cup) olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 fresh small red chillies, split lengthways but intact at top
1 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

To serve
Lemon wedges
Crusty bread
Green salad

Preheat oven to 250c. Cut a slit down the back of each prawn & place the prawns in an ovenproof dish that will hold them snugly in a single layer.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add half the garlic and all the chillies & cook for 1 minute or until the garlic starts to change colour. Pour over the prawns, then sprinkle with the remaining garlic. Season with salt & pepper, cover with foil & bake for 10 minutes, or until the prawns are pink & cooked through. Don’t overcook – remember that the prawns will continue cooling after being removed from the oven. Sprinkle with parsley & serve with lemon wedges, crusty bread & a green salad. Serves 4.

Lynda’s Lemon-rub Steak with Charred Tomato Salsa

For my bbq on the weekend, as well as various snags, including some gorgeous kransky & some lamb chops I made some steaks with a gorgeous rub & salsa from Ainsley Harriott’s Ultimate Barbecue Bible. The rub was easy, just bash everything up in the mortar & pestle & it made the steaks lovely & tender & gave them a great flavour, they weren’t too hot either despite the extra hot cayenne pepper in the rub. The salsa went well alongside & the green chilly surprisingly packed quite a punch. I also made up some garlic bread to thrown on the Barbie after seeing a recipe for it in his book too, I know its daggy & old fashioned but what boy doesn’t like a bit of garlic bread & they all did, it was very well received indeed & the barbecue gave it a nice smoky flavour (and the house too, so much smoke came in that the smoke alarms even went crazy – Michael does it every time). We also had a few salads & as usual went way overboard with everything so guess what’s for dinner this week most nights?

Lynda’s Lemon-rub Steak with Charred Tomato Salsa

2 x 175g Sirloin Steaks ( I used Rump)
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Salsa
3 plum tomatoes
1 small bunch fresh coriander
1 small bunch fresh mint
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of half a lemon
rock salt & freshly ground black pepper

Using a mortar & pestle, grind the lemon rind, garlic, peppercorns & cumin seeds together until well blended. Add the oregano, cayenne & salt & grind again. Run the mixture into the meat & set aside for an hour or two.

Meanwhile, halve the tomatoes lengthways and place on the barbecue, cut side down, for 5-8 minutes until softened & a little charred. Slip off the skins & roughly chop the flesh. Finely chop the herbs & mix with the tomato, onion, chilli, olive oil & lemon juice. Season well to taste.

Barbecue the st4eaks for 3-4 minutes on each side for a nice medium to medium rare cooked steak. Serve with the salsa.

Traditional Garlic Butter Bread

1 long fat French stick
3 garlic cloves
75g slightly salted butter, softened
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cut the bread diagonally into 2.5cm thick slices without cutting right through. Peel the garlic& crush in a mortar & pestle with a little salt until you have a smooth paste. Mix the butter with the garlic, parsley & some pepper. Spread both sides of each slice of bread with the butter & place the loaf on some foil. Wrap well & place on the side of the barbecue for 1012 minutes, turning regularly until crisp & hot.

Hot Cross Buns & A Belated Happy Easter

Being Easter of course I had to make my first ever batch of hot cross buns & what better book to look to for the recipe but Nigella Lawson’s Feast of course. Traditionally they are meant to be eaten on Good Friday however I made them for Easter Sunday as that’s when the family was getting together for a picnic & I wanted to share them (read – not eat the whole batch myself). The fact that you make the dough the night before I loved as with little Missy on my hands these days, recipes done in stages are better than long drawn out sessions in the kitchen which would be interrupted by a hungry baby no doubt & of course the baby does come first! In the end the flavour was pretty darn good with all the extra’s, ie cardamom & cloves though due to my own stupidity (I misread & didn’t notice the ‘let come to room temperature first ‘ bit) I think my dough was a little on the hard & chewy side & possibly could have risen a bit more if I had followed the recipe correctly. They still rocked, especially when first out of the oven, later I tried them at room temp – nice & in the microwave – even better I think so all in all pretty good & much nicer than the store bought variety by far.

Hot Cross Buns

Dough
150ml milk
50g butter
zest of 1 orange
1 clove
2 cardamom pods
400g bread flour
1 packet easy blend yeast 97g)
125g mixed dried fruit
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg

Egg Wash
1 egg, beaten with a little milk

For the crosses
3 tablespoons plain flour
½ tablespoon caster sugar
2 tablespoons water

Sugar Glaze
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon boiling water

Heat the milk, butter, orange zest, clove & cardamom pods in a saucepan until the butter melts, then leave to infuse.

Measure the flour, yeast & dried fruit into a bowl & add the spices. When the infused milk has reached blood temperature take out the clove & cardamom pods & beat in the egg. Pour this liquid into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Knead the dough either by hand or with a machine with a dough hook. If it is too dry add a little more milk or water. Keep kneading until you have silky, elastic dough but bear in mind that the dried fruit will stop this from being exactly satin smooth. Form into a ball & place in a buttered bowl covered with cling film, & leave to prove overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 220c. Take the dough out of the fridge & let it come to room temperature.

Punch the dough down, and knead it again until it is smooth & elastic. Divide into 16 balls & shape into smooth round buns.

Sit the buns on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Make sure they are quite snug together but not touching. Using the back of an eating knife, score the tops of the buns with the imprint of a cross. Cover with a tea towel & leave to prove again for about 45 minutes – they should have risen & almost joined up.

Brush the buns with the egg wash, then mix the flour, sugar & water into a smooth thick paste. Using a teaspoon, dribble two lines over the buns in the indent to make a cross, then bake for 15-20 minutes.

When they come out of the oven, mix the sugar & boiling water, and brush each bun to make then sweet & shiny.

Apple Charlotte

For a lovely Valentines day dessert (using apples of course) I turned yet again to Nigella for this classic British recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Feast, it falls under the Wedding Feast chapter which is close enough to Valentines day for me. Now this is no ordinary Apple Charlotte & therefore I had to do a bit of shopping before I started this one. Firstly the recipe called for Calvados which I had never heard of before so looked it up using good old Google to learn that it is a fine apple brandy coming from the Normandy region in France, so off to Dan Murphy’s & now have a whole bottle of the stuff which is quite tasty by the way. Next I needed a brioche or challah loaf. Living in Brunswick I had no clue where to find a challah so instead went in search of a brioche. I tried 5 bakeries before I was successful, ended up buying it at Dench's Bakery Cafe, 109 Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy which by the way looks like a lovely place & think I will be back there for a coffee soon. Normally I would just substitute with the ingredients I had but wanted to make this special for a change & of course to see how good the original recipe is. The end result was nice though as you can see from my picture I didn’t quite get the bread to hold together, don’t think it impacted on the flavour though. The buttery goodness of the brioche definitely stood out over using ordinary bread too. I served this with a bit of double cream though don’t think it really needed anything with it, in fact I enjoyed it plain & cold the next day even better than warm out of the oven when freshly baked. So all in all it was nice to try something different though I found it quite fiddly & probably wouldn’t bother to go to the effort again.

Apple Charlotte

75g golden sultanas (or normal ones)
3 tablespoons Calvados
about 8 Cox’s apples-I used Granny Smiths from my tree (approx 1.35kg)
175-250g unsalted butter, (depending on the staleness of bread)
75g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 brioche or challah loaf, sliced as thinly as possible & left to become dry but not hard
3 egg yolks (retain the white separately of one of them)
2-3 tablespoons Demerara Sugar

Preheat oven to 180c and at the same time slip in a baking sheet to heat up – or wait to do this while the apples are cooling if you prefer. Put the sultanas and calvados into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat & leave the fruit to plump up in the liquid while you get on with the puree.

Peel & core the apples & cut each in half, then each half into 6. Put the apple into a pan with 30g of the butter, 60ml water, the caster sugar & the cinnamon stick. Cook over a fairly high heat with the lid on for about 10 minutes or until the apples are soft, then give a good beating with a wooden fork or spoon and transfer the rough puree to a bowl to cool.

Melt the remaining butter and paint the bottom & sides of a 21 or 23cm springform tin. Line the bottom & sides with dry sliced bread, painting it with butter first to mould into a neat jigsaw puzzle of pieces with no gaps, save some slices for the top. Paint the joins with the egg white to help it adhere well & stick together.

Beat the egg yolks and plump sultanas into the cooled apples & then fill the bread lined cake tin with them. Layer the top with buttered bread slices & then butter the top again, before sprinkling over the demerara sugar. Cook on the preheated baking sheet for about 30-40 minutes until the top & sides are crispy & brown.

Remove to a wire rack, and leave to reach the warmer end of room temperature before springing open. Or even safer, unclip in on your serving plate.

Nigella suggests to serve with custard or crème fraiche.

Spaghetti with Spicy Meatballs

To please my man on Valentines Day I made this hearty dish of spaghetti & meatballs, what man doesn’t like this dish? The recipe came from Bill Granger’s Bills Food and was a big hit with Michael. I used the oven method of cooking the meatballs & they held together perfectly as well as using less oil & being less fiddly, ie no turning, standing over the pan watching them cook.

Spaghetti with Spicy Meatballs

80ml (1/3 cup) milk
1 slice of bread, crust removed
500g beef mince (or pork or veal)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 egg, lightly beaten
25g freshly grated parmesan
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
60ml olive oil
2 x 400g cans chopped roma tomatoes
50g (1/2 cup) fresh basil leaves
500g spaghetti

To serve
A handful of fresh basil leaves
freshly grated parmesan cheese

Put the milk & bread in a small saucepan and place over a low heat. When the bread has absorbed the milk, remove from the heat & mash with a fork. Allow to cool.

Combine the meat, onion, parsley, thyme, egg, parmesan, garlic, half of the chilli, the bread mixture & lots of salt & pepper in a large bowl. Gently mix with your hands, then shape into small balls. I find wetting my hands makes this easier.

Heat the oil in large frying pan over a medium heat & when hot, add the meatballs. Brown the meatballs on all sides, turning carefully. Alternatively, you can toss the meatballs in oil in a roasting tin & bake them at 220c for 10-15 minutes. You may find this easier because the meatballs wont break up. Drain off any excess oil (if you’ve baked the meatballs transfer them to a frying pan) and add the tomatoes, remaining chilli, basil & salt & pepper. Stir the meatballs carefully to coat with the tomatoes, then simmer for 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are cooking, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over a high heat. Add the spaghetti & cook according to packet instructions.
Serve meatballs over drained spaghetti with extra basil leaves & freshly grated parmesan

Ricotta & Tomato Tart

For brunch with the girls the other day I made this tasty Tart from Bill Granger’s ‘Bill’s Sydney Food’. To save time I made the pastry the day before & even though when I took it out of the fridge the next day it was rock hard & I thought an absolute disaster, after leaving out for quite some time I was finally able to roll it out, it did break up a bit & needed some squishing back together but in the end it was light & buttery & fantastic, not bad for my first attempt at puff pastry I must say. As you can see mine was a very rustic looking pie indeed. The filling was really yum too & the tart made for a nice morning/afternoon with some salad, bread, prosciutto & cheese to accompany it.

Ricotta & Tomato Tart

Filling
2 ripe tomatoes, finely sliced
sea salt
2 cups ricotta
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup cream
¼ cup finely grated parmesan
a pinch of ground nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup finely shredded rocket
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten, for glazing
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Rough Puff Pastry
200g plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
200g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons chilled water

Place flour & salt in a bowl, add butter & rub through with fingertips until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water, cutting in with a knife, to form a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out dough into a 30 x 15 cm rectangle. Fold in the two short ends to meet in the centre, then fold in again. Roll the pastry into a 30 x 15cm rectangle again, then repeat folding process. Refrigerate as a small rectangle for a further 30 minutes before using.

Preheat oven to 200c. Place tomatoes in a colander, sprinkle with salt & leave to drain. Place pastry dough on a lightly floured surface & roll out to a circle about 35cm in diameter & 3mm thick. Place dough on a lightly floured baking tray.

Place ricotta, eggs, cream, parmesan, nutmeg, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix well. Add rocket & stir to combine. Place this mixture in the centre of the dough, and spread filling over the dough leaving a 5 cm border around the outside. Using your hand, lift & push the border onto the filling. Arrange tomato slices over the top of the filling. Brush pastry with egg yolk & bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until golden. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley & freshly ground black pepper. Serves 8

Fish Tagine

Michaels mid week cooking last week was this tagine from Marie Claire’s Zest. It was quite interesting, I’ve never had a potato based one before, normally I have had them served with couscous. A quick meal to knock up after work though be warned our potatoes took more like half an hour than ten minutes before soft. Also the preserved lemon as a garnish was a bit too strong for us when we got a bite so you might want to tone it down or leave it out all together.

Fish Tagine

4 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 large red onion, roughly chopped
10 saffron threads
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 large potatoes, sliced into bite size pieces (about 750g)
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 small cinnamon quill
600g tick snapper fillets, cut into 4 cm chunks
1 handful flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped preserved lemon

Heat the olive oil in a large deep based frying pan or casserole pot over medium heat. Add the onion, saffron & cumin and cook until the onion is soft & slightly caramelized. Add the potatoes, celery, tomatoes, cinnamon & 1 cup of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for a further 10 minutes. When the potatoes are soft, season the fish with sea salt & add them to the stew. Simmer for a further 10 minutes then season with freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with parsley & preserved lemon & serve with warm crusty bread.

Sails on the Bay, Elwood

On the weekend some girlfriends gathered together at Sails on the Bay in Elwood for a long lunch to celebrate the upcoming wedding of the lovely Megan. We had a table right by the window which was lovely, very nice looking out over the beach. The staff were very attentive though we found them to be very inflexible, any suggested menu variations we came up with were rejected totally, for example 2 of us were pregnant & really, really wanted the Seafood Melange yet being in the state we were in asked if we could swap the cold portion (all raw & on the forbidden list) for another entree. Given that this dish was $65.00 per person & the other entrees were all way under half this amount, we certainly wouldnt have been costing them any money yet they still refused, something that annoyed us a little but we moved on, made our selections & had a very enjoyable afternoon.

I started with the Antipasto selection which included Tabouleh & falafel, hummus, balsamic pumpkin, , lavosh, crumbed olives with fetta on chilli jam, pickled yellow beetroot, avacado mousse & a zuchini bread, all very good & the portions weren't too big so not too filling, I especially loved the yellow beetroot, it was beautifully sweet, I have never seen this before so wonder where you can buy it?

Next I had the crab ravioli as a main, it was served in a broth with some pickly type veggies on top - sorry cant remember exactly what they were, the dish was nice though a bit too much for a main course, the crab flavour ended up being a bit overwhelming & I think a stronger sauce/broth introducing some other flavours to the dish would have helped, someone else had this as an entree & thought it was perfect.

To finish off how could I resist the dark chocolate truffle torte,

with raspberry coulis & white chocolate sorbet, the top section was nice & light & almost moussy & of course the raspberry coulis was perfect with chocolate as berry flavours always are. The white chocolate sorbet was ok but I couldnt really taste the choc flavour in it.

All in all a nice setting to enjoy an afternoon with the girls

Sails on the Bay

15 Elwood Foreshore, Elwood
9525 6933

Gingery Hot Duck Salad

Last night for dinner we had one of my favourite Nigella Lawson dishes, Gingery Hot Duck Salad. The recipe comes from Nigella Bites & is under the chapter, temple food – what Nigella describes as ‘soothing, pure, would be restorative food I make for myself after one binge or late night too far. Temple as in ‘my body is a ‘’. Now obviously in my condition I haven’t been binge drinking though I did spend the day snacking on cheese, crackers, dips & bread & the like while watching the races so was definitely in need of something good & light.

I was a bit tired too after all that eating & race watching so Michael was kind enough to make this for me this time which also proves how easy peasy it is! Lovely flavours that work oh so well together & a lovely touch of chilli to add some spice aswell. You must try it

Gingery Hot Duck Salad

1 duck breast
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of half lime & juice of half orange
1 chilli, finely chopped
1cm ginger, grated
few drops of sesame oil
Baby spinach, mixed lettuce, etc to serve

Grill or fry the duck breast, fat side down, until cooked the way you like it.

Let it rest while you mix the fish sauce, lime & orange juice, chilli, ginger & sesame oil in a bowl. Pour any juices that the duck has made into a bowl, then carve the meat on the diagonal into thin slices. Toss the duck into the bowl & stir everything well. Serve on top of mixed leaves.

Coconut Bread

This morning for brekky carrying on with my sweet theme I made this recipe from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. It is described as ‘never to be replaced’ on the menu at Bills. It is a Jamacican bread intended to be served with salt-fish relisg. Lime marmalade goes well too & it keeps well sliced in the freezer. Can be served toasted, buttered & dusted with icing sugar. Sounds very different & was incredibly easy to prepare. The end result was delicious, though to me it is more of a cake then a bread, much in the same way banana bread is really a cake. I had a piece nice & warm from the oven which was perfect & then tried one buttered & dusted with icing sugar, this was good too but to be honest I don’t think it needed the extra’s. I’m yet to try it toasted, sure will be great too.

Coconut Bread

2 eggs
300ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 ½ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
150g shredded cocnut
75g unsalted butter, melted

To serve
Butter
Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add sugar & cocnut and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until mixture is just smooth, being careful not to overmix.

Pour into greased and floured 21 x 10cm loaf tin & bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave in the tin to cool for 5 minutes and remove to cool further on a wire rack. Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered & dusted withicing sugar. Makes 8-10 thick slices.

Fifteen Melbourne - Finally a look in!

A couple of weeks ago when I heard that Fifteen was opening for reservations I suggested to Michael that it would be great if he could get us a booking there, you know a nice surprise seeing as how I'm normally the one doing all of the organising for the 2 of us. I thought the booking line might be a bit busy but had no idea that within a matter of days they would be booked solid until the end of January next year, amazing what a tv show can do for you. Anyway Michael being the fantastic hubbie that he is, got on the line & waited for 1.5 hours (on speaker phone while he was working so it was bearable!) & got us a booking for a Saturday night no less, very impressive.

There have been a lot mof mixed feelings out there about Fifteen so I was quite curious to see exactly what it would be like. I love the idea of what Fifteen stands for, helping those in need but at the same time providing us with a (hopefully) great experience in oder to achieve that goal. At the same time I think that for $90.00 a head for the 6 course tasting menu which is your only option for dinner, the food has to be bloody good & stand up to other great Melbourne restaurants.

I had very high expectactions for the food, a few months ago I did a Queen Vic Market cooking night with Tobi Puttock & the food was to die for so I was hoping for more of the same.

Ok so now down to last night. On the decor, I loved it & it was totally different to the 'artist impressions' as seen on tv. The colorful bar area which Jamie knocked looked great & the colors were much more toned down, oranges, reds, very warm & filled with wine very subtle too. The place is split into 3 areas, the private dining room which I spied a corner of, looked very dark & gothic from what I could see, would be nice having a private party there with some friends, I believe it seats 10. Then onto the main area, on entering you walk down some stairs where you can see straight into the kitchen, then around the corner the bar area with more casual looking dining area in front, light wooden seats & tables, etc. this is split down the middle where you go into the second dining area which is where we were seated. I loved this area, all dark wood furniture, dark wood floors, black walls & ceilings, a purplish couch forming the back seat for the tables on the side & back walls & long mirrors along the walls too & some very funky globe light fittings hanging here & there. Ask Michael, I love black & the trend seems to be now to have everything all nice & light so this darkess worked well for me.

Now onto the food, as mentioned it is a six course set menu, soup, seafood, pasta, main, dessert & cheese platter with a choice of 2 dishes offered for the pasta & main course.


First course was Borlotti bean & pasta soup with fresh grated parmesan & Fifteen olive oil.

This was really nice, though needed a bit of salt, luckily there was a dish of Pink Murray River salt flakes on each table - nice touch - which did the job. As you can see it was a very thick, hearty, warm & homey soup which I would love to replicate at home.


Next was fried whitebait, sage salt, lemon & aioli.

As you can see a very small serve but dont be put off, by the end of the night we were well satisified & if the courses were any biggger we would have struggled to fit them in. The fish was cooked perfectly, nice & light & the salt/aioli combo went very well with it.

For the Pasta course I opted for the Fifteen ravioli with biodynamic riccotta, free-range egg yolk, served with white asparagus & butter broth.

Yummo, nothing beats home made pasta & the runy egg filling was quite unusual, quite a big ravioli too as you can see. Michael went for the Risotto of calamari, squid ink, celery, chilli & fifteen olive oil which he reallay enjoyed too.


For the main we both had the Slow roast Bachus Marsh grass fed beef, Nicola potato & fennel al forno, braised greens & salsa verde. The other choice was Tasmanian Salmon. The beef dish smelled divine which I think was mainly due to the whole clove of roast garlic hidden amongst the greens which I happily devoured. The beef was very tasty though mine was a bit on the cold side which is obviously a bit dissapointing. Mine pictured was cooked a little extra as I'm not supposed to be eating any raw or underdone meat at the moment, Michaels was as per the menu & pretty bloody which is a good thing, nothing worse than an overdone piece of cow.

Dessert was Vialono Nano Tiramasu, little twist on the traditional with crostoli.

The twist was rice instead of sponge/biscuits in the tiramasu, I have to say that this & the crostoli were fantastic & by far by favourite course of the night.


Lastly, the cheese course. pear, quince paste, muscatels, grissinei, some fruit bread & of course the cheeses, sorry have forgotten what they were except tto say that one was lovely & oozy & the other was as bitey spanish crumbly one, both fantastic, in fact the whole cheese course was really great.

Overall the whole experince was enjoyable, the staff were very friendly & helpful, extensive wine list to choose from, fast servce though not too fast that you had no time between courses & the food was good, presentation & tatse. For 2 weeks of opening & a bunch of kids that a couple of months ago had no idea it is pretty amazing to see how far they have come though I would like to see them improve some more & lift the food from being just pretty good to being fabulous!

Fifteen Melbourne
115-117 Collins Street
Melbourne
1300 799 415 www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

Banana and Date Bread

Last week the latest edition of Donna Hay Magazine was delivered to my door & flicking through I knew I just had to make of this luscious sounding bread which even sounded remotely healthy, I mean it did have fruit in it so it must be good for you right? After popping it in the oven to cook for a tantalizing 1 hour & 10 minutes of the most lovely aroma wafting through the house, I did a bit of spoon licking, let me tell you the raw mix was pretty damn good, lucky I tried it after starting the cooking or none might have made it into the pan! Also I have to mention that one and a half cups of bananas is a lot at today’s prices so I was very lucky to score a bag of lady fingers at Coles going for $4.00 a kilo, they weren’t even that brown but were just perfect for mashing up for the cake mixture. The end result was divine, dates and bananas are another perfect combination I’ve decided, the cake was nice & moist on the inside & had a crispy outer shell, Michael and I both scoffed heaps while it was still warm out of the oven.

Banana and Date Bread

125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups mashed banana
¼ cup maple syrup
1 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 160c. Place the butter & sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale & creamy. Gradually add the eggs & beat well. Fold through the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, nutmeg & cinnamon and stir well to combine. Stir in the banana, maple syrup & dates. Spoon the mixture into a 7 x 32cm lightly greased loaf tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tin & slice to serve.

5 things to eat before you die

Reb from Cucina Rebecca has tagged me for the latest meme which seems to be spreading like wild fire, 5 things to eat before you die. This all started not so long ago by Melissa at The Travellers Lunchbox. Here is my contribution which doesn’t contain quite as many fancy things as some, when I came to thinking about my favourite things, they all came back to pretty simple stuff!

1. Pierogi – Home made & Polish style the way my grandma used to make them. One of my best memories from childhood was visiting my Grandma when a fresh batch of pierogi were made, or even better making them with her, this was a whole day affair as when you make them you make 100's so you can give them out to the whole family to take home of course. I think the fact that they were made on this mammoth scale each time is what has deterred me from making my own so far. Pierogi are a European pastry, hers were filled with mashed potato mixed with loads of onion fried in butter. They are then boiled, drained, lots of butter applied until melted & then served with lashings of sour cream. The seconds were then pan fried a golden brown & again served with sour cream. So this simple fair is something I miss dearly & have vowed to stop being so lazy & make & perfect myself before I die. Now that I am about to start my own family hopefully this will inspire me so that my children can grow up with them as I did.

2. Cherries - these luscious beauties would have to be my favourite fruit of all time. I love them & eat them all on their own, they are so sweet & heavenly that I find they need no embellishment. The only downside to cherries is that the season is so short that from beginning to end I eat as many as I can before its all over for another year.

3. Chocolate - sorry to be so general but good chocolate in any shape, size or form is on my ultimate food group list for obvious reasons

4. A picnic of fresh local produce somewhere fabulous with the one you love. A couple of memorable ones for me would have to be a spring picnic in Paris in the botanical gardens with Michael, eating French cheese, bread & wine amongst other delights & the recent picnic I had in Lorne for my wedding anniversary which as well as some fantastic fresh food we topped off with a bottle of Dom Perignon which we had picked up in Champagne itself a few years ago, great food for me does not have to be fancy, the setting & company can play just as major a part & nothing beats eating fresh regional food where its made, ie Fresh bread, local cheeses, chutneys, jams, fruit, dips, chocolates

5. Grilled Haloumi on fresh bread. Something more specific for number 5. Haloumi grilled with a bit of oregano & drizzled with some lemon juice on top of some really good fresh bread would have to be one of my favourite ways to eat cheese, I do love all cheese however this is number one & is so good can pretty much eat enough so that it is a meal in itself

And before I go I will pass this on & tag (hope no one else has got to you first!)

Mellie at Tummy Rumbles
Sarah at Sarah Cooks
Niki at Esurientes
Kaylyn at Kaylns Kitchen
Ellie at Kitchen Wench

SOS

Yesterday for lunch I was lucky enough to be taken to SOS by some clients. Unfortunately for you I didn’t have my camera with me, thought that would be going too far on a business lunch! For those of you who haven’t heard of SOS it’s the new restaurant run by Paul Mathis, whose previous endeavours include Transport, Upper+Lower House and Soulmama. The menu features seafood that has been sustaibably produced & ethically harvested & seasonal produce, that’s right, no meat in sight. Don’t’ worry the wine isn’t all organic & quite a nice list to choose from.

The location might put you off but don’t let it, it’s on level 3 at Melbourne Central amongst the cinemas & other pretty average looking eating establishments, the whole floor has a bit of a fancy food court feel to it if you ask me. However SOS is neatly hidden away from all of this, in fact we walked right past the entrance & had to go back & search it out. It is a concealed door in a wall of dark brown panelling which when you stand in the right place magically opens & lets you into the oasis within. You then walk down a long dark, lowly lit hallway before you are led into the restaurant itself. The interior was quite funky & modern with some nice music streaming through the speakers. We chose to sit out on the balcony as it was a lovely sunny Melbourne Winters day & the balcony was heated & well protected from the wind. Its always great when the weather starts to cheer up & you can finally do the el fresco dining thing again, makes me believe that Summer might actually return one of these days after all.

The service was very attentive throughout with our waiter being very helpful & the sommelier even paying us a visit A great choice of bread was offered first, wholegrain, sourdough & corn bread from what I remember, I had the wholegrain which was superb, very fresh & we were regularly asked if we wanted more, that’s always a good sign for me, hate stingy bread givers! Next we had a complimentary taster of salmon tartare. After this we hopped straight to the main course, being 3 girls we thought we would forego entrees in favour of leaving room for dessert. I went with the special of the day which was Paradise Prawns (from new Caledonia) with homemade wholemeal tagliatelle & broccoli, think the sauce was some sort of foam concoction, frankly I can never remember the lengthy descriptions the waiters give you, regardless the dish tasted fantastic, the prawns were very good, pretty big & lots of them too, the pasta was oh so fresh & perfectly cooked, the wholemeal lending a lovely flavour too & of course nothing beats home made for flavour & texture. A nice size serve but luckily still some room for dessert which was absolutely luscious, I had the Zucotto Servito con sorbetto al cioccolato e salsa al vin Santo - Traditional Italian style zucotto served with chocolate sorbet & vin santo sauce. In English this is a trifley type dish though of course as you would expect here it was perfectly presented & exquisite, I’m still dreaming about it & wishing for more today.

All in all I really loved this place, there were heaps of dishes on the menu I would love to try & I do like the concept of where it is all coming from too. Will be back for more soon

SOS
Level 3, Melbourne Central
La Trobe street, Melbourne

9654 0808