Chicken & Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry

This is another dish from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners in his top ten. It’s a pretty good pie, I’m a pie fan loving any type of pastry dish so this was a winner for me, a good combination including lots of veggies & the filling was not too runny as I find a lot of pie recipes are. One note however, the recipe is to serve 4, once you add the mash & any other sides you will get at least 6 very generous serves out of it & that’s saying something as Michael & I are pretty big eaters (I hate to admit it but its true, can you tell?)

Chicken & Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry

Olive Oil
2 knobs of butter
1kg boned & skinned chicken legs (cut into pieces) – I used thigh fillets
2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed & sliced into 1cm pieces
2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
3 sticks of celery, finely sliced
a small handful of thyme, leaves picked
2 tablespoons flour
1 wineglass of white wine
285ml/1/2 pint milk
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
255g good pork sausages
1 x 500g pack of all butter puff pastry (or a couple of sheets of ready rolled as I used)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 220c. Take a large casserole pot & add a lug of olive oil & the butter. Add the chicken, leeks, carrots, celery & thyme & cook slowly on the hob for 15 minutes. Turn the heat right up, add the flour, and keep stirring for a couple of minutes before adding the wine, a wineglass of water & the milk. Season with a little salt & pepper, then cover with a tight fitting lid & simmer very slowly on the hob for about 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender. Stir it every so often so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. The sauce should be loose but quite thick. If it’s too liquid, just continue to simmer it with the lid off until it thickens slightly.

Pour the mixture into a pie dish. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins, roll it into balls, brown then in a little oil & sprinkle them over the stew. Roll out your pastry to about 0.5cm thick. Egg wash the rim of the dish & drape the pastry over the edges & trim. Egg wash the top, crimp the edges & cut criss crosses into the top to allow the pastry to go crisp & flaky. Cook in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden on top. Serve with sweetcorn & mash.

Pears baked in red wine and vanilla

After my wonderfully light & healthy tuna salad for dinner the other night I was left wanting more, can you blame me? So to not entirely spoil my good intentions I steered away from cakes or anything stodgy & instead tried out a new recipe for baked pears. These were sensational, the best I have ever made & maybe even eaten! The red wine sauce goes all sticky, sweet & syrupy which is perfect with the soft juicy pears & tiny dollop of cream on the side. The recipe also comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Pears baked in red wine and vanilla

4 ripe pears
55g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2 vanilla pods, split in half lengthways
grated zest of ¼ orange
500ml red wine (Cabernet)
4 tablespoons crème fraiche, cream or ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 150c.

Wash & dry the pears, then cut a small slice from the bottom so each can stand upright. Smear the butter all over them & sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the sugar.

Mix the remaining sugar with enough eater (1-1/2 tablespoons) to make a paste. Place in a heavy based flameproof pot large enough to hold the pears upright. Heat until the sugar paste turns a light golden color. Add the vanilla pods, zest & half the red wine. Place the pears upright in the pot & transfer to the oven.

Bake, spooning the red wine sauce over the pears at frequent intervals until the pear is soft and the syrup is reduced, about 45 minutes. Add more wine if the liquid reduces too much.

The pear is cooked when the flesh is soft & the outside slightly wrinkled. Remove from the oven & cool in the pot to room temperature. Serve drizzled with syrup & a dollop of crème fraiche, cream or ice cream.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Here is s simple marinade for tuna or any firm fish or even prawns, great for the bbq or grill. It’s healthy & the flavours are fresh & clean, serve it with a salad & do your insides some good. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Marinade
2 tablespoons chopped shallots (escahlots)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped chilli
2 tablespoons crushed lemongrass
zest & juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

4 tuna escalopes, weighing about 150g each
1 tablespoon olive oil
mixed salad leaves, to serve

To make the marinade, place all ingr4edients in a large bowl & mix well. Add the tuna & rub in the marinade. Cover & chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the barbecue or grill. Add the olive oil to the bowl & toss to coat. Cook on a hot barbecue or flat grill until cooked through. Serve on a bed of fresh salad leaves.

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.

Chocolate Berry Torte

To finish off the bbq on the weekend & to celebrate James birthday, of course I had to finish with a cake. Today I chose this wicked chocolate Torte from Green and Black’s Chocolate recipes. It was sensational, note the small amount of flour which resulted in a thin intense cake which was rich, smooth & a perfect blend of chocolate and berries, as well as the suggested whipped cream I also served it with a berry coulis but forgot to serve with the extra berries!

Chocolate Berry Torte

Torte
25g plain flour
5 teaspoons cocoa powder
75g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
25g unsalted butter
5 teaspoons double cream
4 egg whites
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons caster sugar
250g fresh blueberries or raspberries
125ml whipping cream, to serve

Icing
100g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
50g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons double cream
1 teaspoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 140c. Butter and line a 18-20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Sift together the flour & cocoa & set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over barley simmering water. Remove from the heat, add the butter & the cream, and stir well until the mixture is quite liquid.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, add the sugar & continue to whisk until thick & glossy. Beat together the egg yolks & then gently fold in the flour & cocoa mixture. Add the melted chocolate & mix well. Spoon a few dollops of egg white into the mixture, stir, then gently fold in the remainder of the egg whites.

Gently pour half the mixture into the prepared cake tin, dot half the berries evenly over it, then pour the rest of the mixture on top of the berries.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and unmould on to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, cream & icing sugar. Immediately pour over the cake to coat it completely, smoothing the icing using a palette knife. Leave for 1 hour to harden.

Serve with whipped cream & remaining berries.

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.

Not so Purple Potato Salad

Another potato salad from Jamie Oliver, this one from Jamie’s Kitchen. I made this for my Barbie on the weekend, it is supposed to use purple potatoes which of course I couldn’t find, if anyone has seen any in Melbourne please enlighten me & let me know where. The salad was nice though I have to say it wasn’t anything special, some of his others are much tastier. I think the trick is the purple potatoes, they would make it look great so next time I find some I will give them a go.

Purple Potato Salad

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1-2 lemons, to taste
255g crème fraiche or fromage frais
500g baby new potatoes
500g purple potatoes
sea salt 7 freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch radishes, finely sliced
1 handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 handful of chives, chopped

Make the dressing by mixing together the olive oil, lemon juice and crème fraiche. Cook the potatoes in plenty if boiling salted water for around 20 minutes until tender & drain well. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle rub off the skins with a knife and slice into bite size pieces. Mix with the dressing, then add the radishes and herbs & season well to taste.

Salmon with Horseradish & Beets

This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef, under the chapter, Quick Fixes which is exactly what I needed last night being busy prepping some stuff for the bbq we’re having today. It was very quick apart from boiling the beets, I had giant ones as no babies in the shops & they took quite a while so you need to get them started pretty early on. The beets were fantastic, this was a lovely way to serve them & I loved the marinade, the marjoram really stood out & has a lovely & unusual (to me) flavour, I have some growing on my herb shelf so nice to find good uses for it. If I had known how nice they would turn out I would have bought heaps & made a bowl for the Barbie today! Also the horseradish cream brought it all together, going very well with both the salmon & the beets.

Salmon with Horseradish & Beets

2 x 225g Salmon fillets, pin boned & scored ½ cm deep
salt & freshly ground black pepper
6-8 baby beetroots, cooked until tender then sliced
1 small handful of marjoram, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons crème fraiche
2 tablespoons creamed horseradish
juice of 1 lemon
a handful of rocket or watercress

Add your salmon fillets, skin side down, to a hot non-stick pan. Lightly press them with a spatula so they don’t curl up. After a minute they should be lightly golden. Turn the salmon over, sprinkle with salt & then place under a grill for 10-15 minutes until just cooked. While cooking, marinate your beetroots with the marjoram, a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar & seasoning. Mix the crème fraiche with the horseradish & season to taste, carefully, with salt, pepper & lemon juice. Place the beets & salmon on your serving plate, sprinkle over the rocket & drizzle with the horseradish sauce.

Madeira Cake

Here is a recipe for Madeira cake, a nice change from my usual rich offerings, this cake is beautiful in its lemony, buttery goodness, try some. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’

Madeira Cake

240g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
210g self raising flour
90g plain flour
23 x 13 x 7 cm loaf tin, buttered & lined

Preheat oven to 170c. Cream the butter & sugar, add the lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour for each. Then gently mix in the rest of the flour and, finally, the lemon juice. Sprinkle with caster sugar as it goes into the oven & bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack & let cool in the tin before turning out.

Alcoholic Hot Chocolate

Last night I had a chocolate craving but a) there was no ‘eating’ chocolate in the house & b) I didn’t feel like going all out & whipping up a cake or anything that elaborate. It was then that I remembered seeing a very wicked looking recipe for Hot Chocolate in Nigella Lawson’s Feast so I made a batch right away. I’m not much of a hot chocolate drinker, preferring tea or coffee when I want a hot drink, but this was so rich & full of good flavours & not too sickly sweet it was irresistible. The recipe makes two & I urge you try it, you wont regret it. Also I would be tempted to try it out with all sorts of different alcohol, Kahlua will be next I think.

Alcoholic Hot Chocolate

500ml milk
100g dark chocolate
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum or to taste

Put the milk into a saucepan. Break the chocolate into pieces & add to the milk along with the cinnamon, honey & sugar. Heat gently until the chocolates melted. Add the vanilla & mix with a small hand whisk and, still whisking, add a spoonful of rum first & taste to see if you want more & add more sugar if you want this sweeter, too. Take out the cinnamon stick & pour into two cappuccino cups or caffe latte mugs. Heaven!

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.

Crispy Duck with Spiced Plum sauce

Duck is one of my favourite meats, some hate it, I can’t get enough of it & whenever it’s on a menu when I’m out I find it hard to go past & usually end up ordering it with no regrets. This recipe from Allan Campion & Michele Curtis ‘Food with Friends’ is a winner, the aroma of the spices while cooking is amazing & the plum sauce is really good with its combination of sweet & sour flavours. Quite easy to put together too though there are a few steps & pots to use!

Crispy Duck with Spiced Plum Sauce

Master Stock (below)
4 duck breast fillets
110g caster sugar
2 star anise
2-3 cinnamon sticks
4-6 plums, halves, stones discarded
80ml (1/3 cup) fish sauce
80-125ml (1/3-1/2 cup) lime or lemon juice
oil for cooking

Bring Master stock to the boil. Add duck, cover & cook for 10 minutes at a gentle simmer. Remove from heat & allow duck to cool in master stock. Once cool, remove duck from master stock & refrigerate.

Make sauce by putting 2 cups of the master stock in a saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, add sugar, stir to dissolve, then add star anise & cinnamon & cook for 10 minutes or so to infuse the flavours. Add plums and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove saucepan from the heat.

Preheat oven to 180c. heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, add a splash of oil & cook duck filets for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown. Place on a tray, cook in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove, cover & rest for 5 minutes.

Reheat plum sauce, adding fish sauce & lemon or lime juice to taste, so the sauce is tart, sweet & sour. Carve each duck fillet into 6-7 slices. Arrange duck pieces on a platter and pour hot sauce & plums over.

Serve with steamed rice & garlic Stir Fried Greens (below)

Master Stock

1.5 litres (6 cups) water
250ml (1 cup) soy sauce
125ml (1/2 cup) Chinese rice wine
3-4 slices fresh ginger
1 lemongrass stem, sliced
2-3 pieces tangerine peel, optional
2 star anise
75g (1/3 cu) caster sugar

Put all ingredients in a large saucepan & bring to the boil.

Garlic Stir fried Greens

2 bunches gai laan (or bok choy, wonga bok, etc)
oil for cooking
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons grated ginger, optional
125ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

Wash greens well, discard big old leaves, thinly slice, chop up.

Heat a wok over high heat, add a splash of oil, the garlic & ginger and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often, making sure the garlic doesn’t burn. Add gai laan, toss for 1-2 minutes, add stock & cover with a lid. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes, tossing occasionally to ensure greens cook evenly. Remove lid & season with soy sauce.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

Over Easter I whipped up another fantabulous breakfast from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food to snack on over the break. More on the pancake theme which I have to say is my favourite breakfast item at the moment & the honeycomb butter is truly special.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

1 1/3 cups ricotta
¾ cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g butter

To serve
Banana
Honeycomb butter (below)
Icing sugar for dusting

Place ricotta, milk & egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder & salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture & mix until just combined.

Place egg whites in a dry clean bowl & beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop two tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan. Cook over low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden & cooked through. Transfer to a plate & quickly assemble with other ingredients.

Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack 3 hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar. Serves 6-8.

Note: Batter can be stored for 24 hours in the fridge covered with glad wrap before cooking.

Honeycomb butter

250g unsalted butter, softened
100g sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin
2 tablespoons honey

Place all ingredients in a food processor & blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal & chill in fridge for 2 hours. Store leftovers in the freezer, apparently its great on toast too!

Good Friday - Three Fishes with Three Herb Salsa

Dinner for Good Friday called for fish, not that I am religious (even though I was brought up a Catholic), it just seems to be the thing to do. So I tried out this simple dish from Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. The recipe feeds 6-8 so I reduced the quantities for the two of us. A very simple dish for when your feeling very lazy yet so much better & quicker than fast food any day, my favourite was the salmon.

Three Fishes with Three Herb Salsa

2 Salmon fillets, approx 150g each
2 swordfish fillets, approx 150g each
2 tuna fillets, approx 150g each
3 tablespoons olive oil for frying

Herb Sauce
125ml extra virgin olive oil
zest of 1 lemon, juice of half
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons capers preserved in vinegar, drained but not rinsed
half teaspoon dried oregano
half teaspoon dried mint
salt & pepper

Make your herb sauce by combining everything in a bowl, whisking together & leave to macerate for at least 15 minutes for the flavours to develop.

Cut each fillet of fish into three pieces so that you have longish strips. Fry them in the olive oil beginning with the salmon as it will need the longest, then the swordfish, then the tuna.

Arrange on a large flat plate so that the different fish intermingle, and drizzle the herb sauce over the top. Serve the remaining sauce in a bowl alongside.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

The other day I had people in and out so I baked this pleasing cake from Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie. Whilst it turned out very nice in the end it wasn’t without some drama. Firstly I have an electric fan forced oven that usually cooks perfectly as per recipe instructions or if anything faster so I was surprised when after cooking for a bit over the recommended 50 minutes and a skewer coming out clean, I left it for 10 minutes then went to turn it out & it started dripping out!!! Maybe I should have left for 5 seconds as recommended, I thought he was just being fussy in the recipe. I was not happy so I quickly turned the oven back on & stuck it in for another 20 minutes or so by which time it was finally cooked. After all of that fussing it did break in half when turning out but I managed to patch it back together with the very yummy icing which tasted just like cheesecake & a not too sweet one at that. I also had heaps of icing left over & I iced the sides too.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

285g unsalted butter, softened
285g light brown soft sugar
5 large eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 orange
170g self raising flour, sifted
1 slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder
115g ground almonds
115g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
285g carrots, peeled & coarsely grated
sea salt

Icing
115g Mascarpone cheese
225g full fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest & juice of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line a 22cm square or round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest & juice. Stir in the flour & baking powder & add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices & carrot & mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them in the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin & cook for about 50 minutes until golden & risen. Check to see if cooked by poking in a cocktail stick, remove after 5 seconds & if it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If sticky it needs a bit longer so put back in the oven. Once cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together & spread generously over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts & serve.

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with chickpeas)

This soup/pasta dish is a hearty warmer for those chilly autumn nights that we are now having, nice & thick & full of goodness yet still light enough not to be too much to handle. From Jamie Oliver’s Italy. Note that the recipe at the end says if the soup is a little thick add some boiling water, mine was so thick it needed heaps of water added & it still remained nice & thick.

Pasta e ceci (Pasta with chickpeas)

1 small onion, peeled & finely chopped
1 stick of celery, trimmed & finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled & finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
a sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves picked & finely chopped
2 x 400g tins of chickpeas
500ml chicken stock
100g ditalini or other small Italian ‘soup’ pasta
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
optional: a small handful of fresh basil or parsley, leaves picked & torn

Put the onion, celery & garlic into a saucepan with a little extra virgin olive oil & the rosemary & cook gently with the lid on for about 15 to 20 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft, without any color.

Drain your chickpeas well & rinse them in cold water. Then add them to the pan & cover with the stock. Cook gently for half an hour then using a slotted spoon, remove half the chickpeas & put them to one side in a bowl.

Puree the soup in the pan using a handheld blender. Add the reserved whole chickpeas & the pasta, season with salt & pepper, and simmer gently until the chickpeas are tender & the pasta is cooked.

At this point, if the soup is a little thick, pour in some boiling water from the kettle to thin it down & add more salt & pepper if needed. Serve drizzled with good quality extra virgin olive oil & sprinkled with some freshly torn basil.

Banana & Raspberry Loaf

A quick & healthy mid week snack, that’s right it has fruit which is good for you & brown sugar & anything brown is healthy right? Ok, well that is what I tell myself anyway & really it’s not as bad as some cakes. Delicious & you can really taste the raspberries which give the flavour a great zing. Note I don’t eat it with butter as I don’t find it’s needed at all. The recipe is from the September 2006 Australian Table magazine.

Banana & Raspberry Loaf

Butter, to grease & serve
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 large ripe bananas, peeled, mashed
¾ cup (165g) brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ cup (60ml) vegetable oil
1 ½ cups (225g) plain flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon bicarb of soda
1 ¼ cups (190g) frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 160c. Grease a 14 x 21cm loaf tin. Line base & sides with baking paper.

Combine egg whites, banana, sugar & oil in a bowl. Sift in dry ingredients & fold together until just combined. Fold through raspberries. Spoon mixture into prepared tn & bake for 1 ¼ hours or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice, toast if desired & serve with butter.

Ricotta Dumplings with Orecchiette, peas & prosciutto

For dinner the other night, we had visitors all afternoon & the as soon as they were out the door & I was about to start dinner, Missy wanted a feed so Michael was stuck cooking dinner again. I was a bit worried as the recipe I had chosen to attempt was a bit more complicated than his usual efforts so I thought I could step in and take over as soon as Chloe was done but Michael was happy to keep going so I left him to it & got some other stuff done in my few moments of freedom. The recipe comes from a recent Delicious Magazine & was delicious, a really tasty yet simple combination, it was so yum that I hadn’t even intended on blogging it yet after a couple of mouthfuls I felt I couldn’t not post about it so I tried to rearrange the dish & snap some photos. Great dish though not sure if I will make it again as it seemed a bit fiddly, quite a few dishes & a hell of a mess (Michael hasn’t yet learned the art of cooking & keeping the kitchen relatively clean as he goes!), anyway I have kept the recipe so will wait & see.

Ricotta Dumplings with Orecchiette, peas & prosciutto

2 cups Orecchiette pasta
¼ cup (60ml) olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 cup freshly podded or frozen peas
½ onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup (60ml) dry white wine
4 thin slices prosciutto or ham, sliced
2 tablespoons mint leaves

Ricotta Dumplings
250g fresh ricotta
2 tablespoons grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
1 egg, plus 1 extra yolk
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

For the ricotta dumplings, briefly process all the ingredients in a food processor with salt & pepper until smooth. Chill until needed.

Cook pasta in a pan of salted water according to packet instructions, adding peas for the final 2 minutes of cooking time, then drain. Rinse briefly in cold water to cool slightly, then drain again. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil.

Heat remaining oil in large pan over medium-low heat. Add onion & cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the wine, prosciutto, peas & pasta & lightly toss for 1 minute or until pasta is heated through. Strew the contents of the pan with its juices in a single layer over a large serving platter.

Meanwhile bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Drop the ricotta batter by the teaspoon into the boiling water, cooking 6 at a time, and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain on paper towel while you cook remaining dumplings, then scatter over the pasta. Season well with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, scatter with mint & a little extra parmesan, then drizzle with extra oil & serve warm.

Dench Bakers, North Fitzroy

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday that Michael & I ventured out for a walk along the Merri Creek path & emerged on St Georges road for a quick lunch with Chloe at Dench Bakers in North Fitzroy. This is a great bakery that also operates as a café which we hadn’t yet tried out. I have been inside before to purchase the brioche for my Apple Charlotte & I have tried the amazing bomboloni (sensational sugar coated, custard filled doughnut) as pointed out by a couple of local bloggers, Jamie at The Breakfast Blog & Niki at Esurientes, so I was really looking forward to having lunch here.

The place was rocking & of course there were no free tables though there were a couple of stools set up on the side walk so we sat down, had a coffee & waited our turn. A table was free in a few minutes which was great so we happily moved in. The menu was smallish but diverse with various breakfast options both hot & cold, sandwiches, paninis & a great specials board. We both went for the specials, Michael had the zucchini flower & pumpkin risotto which was great while I couldn’t go past the ricotta hotcakes with baked autumn plums even though it was lunch at 1.30 in the afternoon. My dish was sensational, the hotcakes were delicious & the simply baked plums were juicy & sweet & didn’t make the hotcakes go soggy at all which is always a good thing, and look at how huge the serve was! Anyway I love this place & it comes highly recommended, and as Jamie says, as well as eating your brekky or lunch or whatever you will end up walking out the door with a bag of goodies too, the baked goods on offer look too good not to bring some home for later.

Dench Bakers, Atrisan Sourdoughs
109 Scotchmer Street
North Fitzroy VIC 3068
Ph: 03 9486 3554
denchbakers@optusnet.com.au

Fifteen Chocolate Brownies

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve never made brownies before. These are such an intensely good chocolate hit & so easy to make, not even one electrical appliance needed, need I say more. The recipe is from Cook with Jamie, I skipped the nuts as Michael is a bit allergic & I need him to help me eat them or I’ll end up eating the entire tray myself. Also I used glace cherries as for the life of me I couldn’t find any type of dried cherry out there, if anyone knows where in Melbourne I can pick these up please help as I have a couple of recipes that call for them though the glace cherries seemed to work quite well & I didn’t want to go without as Michael loves a cherry ripe & therefore anything chocolaty that uses cherries too. Yum!

Fifteen Chocolate Brownies

250g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken up
optional: 150g dried sour cherries
optional: 150g chopped nuts
80g cocoa powder, sifted
65g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
350g caster sugar
4 large free range eggs
optional: zest of 1 orange
optional: 250ml crème fraiche

Preheat oven to 180c. Line a 30cm rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter & chocolate & mix until smooth. Add the cherries & nuts (if using) & stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa, flour, baking powder & sugar, then add this to the chocolate & stir well together. Beat the eggs & mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your mixture into the tray & place in the oven for around 25 minutes. Don’t overcook them, the skewer should not come out clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray then transfer to a large chopping board & cut into chunky squares. Serve with a dollop of crème fraiche mixed with orange zest or eat them as they are.

Spicy Roast Pumpkin, Feta & Olive Salad

This is a gorgeous salad to make for lunch or you could even stretch it to dinner as we did by adding a steak or the like on the side. It is another winner from Bill Grangers Bills Food. I know I’ve said it before but I really am loving everything I make from his books & this is no exception. The pumpkin is fantastic with the spices & the dressing really just makes the whole dish & pulls it all together.

Spicy Roast Pumpkin, Feta & Olive Salad

3 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
800g pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes
100g baby spinach leaves
150g marinated feta, drained & crumbled
20 Kalamata olives, pitted

Dressing
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
60ml extra virgin olive oil
1 French shallot, finely sliced (optional)

Preheat oven to 220c. Place olive oil, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper in a bowl & stir to combine. Add the pumpkin & stir to coat. Transfer to a roasting pan & bake for 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender & slightly caramelized.

Whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl until combined.

Divide the spinach between four serving plates & scatter pumpkin, feta & olives over the top. Drizzle each with dressing.

Roast Chicken with Lemon & Rosemary Roast Potatoes

Now that we are having some lovely cool autumn nights I thought it was the perfect time for a Sunday night roast. Jamie Oliver lists this as one of his top 10 recipes in Jamie’s Dinners, and who wouldn’t, a roast definitely has to be on everyone’s favorites lists, doesn’t it? This one differs from the norm in that the chicken is stuffed with lemon, garlic & herbs & the potatoes are parboiled with the lemon & garlic before roasting to make them nice & crisp. It was a beautiful roast, juicy & tender & the potatoes were gorgeous & crispy on the outside even though they didn’t brown up that much & they were fluffy & soft on the inside, as you can see I also added pumpkin which I cant go without when doing a roast & it was delicious also. Mmmm, looking forward to more roasts in the coming cooler months.

Roast Chicken with Lemon & Rosemary Roast Potatoes

1 x 2kg free range organic chicken
sea salt& freshly ground black pepper
2kg potatoes, peeled
1 large, preferably unwaxed lemon
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
a handful of thyme
olive oil
a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
optional: 8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

Rub the chicken inside & out with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Do this in the morning if possible, then cover the chicken & leave in the fridge until you’re ready to start cooking it.

Preheat oven to 190c. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cut the potatoes into golf sized pieces, put them in the water with the whole lemon & the garlic cloves, and cook for 12 minutes. Drain & allow to steam dry for 1 minute (this gives you crispier potatoes), then remove the lemon & garlic. Toss the potatoes in the pan while still hot so their outsides get chuffed up & fluffy – this will make them nice & crispy when roasted.

While the lemon is still hot, stab it about 10 times. Take the chicken out of the fridge, pat it with kitchen paper & rub it all over with olive oil. Push the garlic cloves, the whole lemon & the thyme into the cavity, then put the chicken into a roasting tray & cook in the oven for around 45 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate. Toss the potatoes in the pan with the rosemary in the fat that has cooked out of the chicken, then make a gap in the centre & put the chicken back in. If using the bacon, lay the rashers over the chicken breast & cook for a further 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked & the potatoes are nice & golden.
Remove the bacon & crumble over the potatoes. Remove the lemon & garlic from inside the chicken, squeeze the garlic flesh out of the skin, mush it up & smear over the chicken, discard the lemon & rosemary & serve

Barbecued Sweet Corn with Lime, Chilli & Parmesan Butter

To go with some leftovers I cooked up some corn cobs with a really tasty butter that I found in Ben O’Donoghue & Curtis Stone’s Surfing the Menu. I halved the quantities for 2 & still have heaps of butter leftover which I think will go nicely with some baked spuds. It was delicious & went fantastically with the grilled corn cobs which were tender & juicy yet not overdone at all cooked in this manner.

Barbecued Sweet Corn with Lime, Chilli & Parmesan Butter

4 whole corn cobs, in their husks
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g Parmesan cheese, grated
finely grated zest of 2 large limes
1-2 birds eye chillies, seeded & finely chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 lime, quartered

Place the corn cobs on a preheated hot grill and cook until golden brown, about 15 minutes, turning often. Peel off the husks when cool enough to handle.
While the corn is cooking, combine the butter, cheese, zest & chilli & beat until smooth. Season with salt & pepper. Smear each cob with the butter & serve with a wedge of lime

Upside-Down Cake with Apple & Cinnamon

Finally I have used the last of the Granny Smiths so all of my leftover apple recipes (of which I still have quite a few), can for the most part be put away until next years crop. The lucky recipe to score the last lot was this luscious & wicked (see butter & sugar content) cake from one of my favourite sweets men, Bill Granger of course, from Bills Sydney Food. It was delicious as usual, a few steps to get through so not quite as simple as some but well worth the effort. Looking fwd to making something wicked with chocolate next week now that the apples are gone….

Upside-Down Cake with Apple & Cinnamon

Topping
100g unsalted butter
100g large firm apples, peeled, cored & cut into 1cm slices
juice & zest of 1 lemon
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cake
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ¼ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pouring cream, to serve

To make the topping, place the butter in a non stick frying pan over medium heat & melt. Toss apples with lemon zest & juice in a bowl & add to butter. Cook apples gently for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar & vanilla & cook for 5 minutes longer.

Remove apples from the pan with a slotted spoon and arrange in the bottom of a greased & greaseproof paper lined 23cm spring form cake tin.

Increase heat & boil remaining liquid in the pan for 5 more minutes until a rich caramel forms. Pour caramel over apples in base of tin.

To make the cake, preheat oven to 180c. Place butter & sugar in a bowl & cream until light & fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla. Gently fold in the sifted flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamon.

In a small clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold through cake mixture with a large metal spoon. Spoon evenly over apples & caramel & smooth out with a spatula. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove cake from oven & leave in the tin for 5 minutes. Remove sides from the tin & place a large serving plate on top of cake. Turn cake over onto serving plate, remove base & greaseproof paper. Serve warm with cream.

Lamb with Quince Glaze

For a really quick & easy & very tasty mid week meal this week I turned to the Marie Claire ‘Food Fast’ book for inspiration & found this yummy lamb dish which seriously takes no time at all to put together. As you can see I served it with sweet mash potato & asparagus. Note - you could also make your own quince paste as Another outspoken female did this week but then it wouldnt be as quick would it, very impressed with the effort though?

Lamb with Quince Glaze

600g lamb backstrap or eye of loin
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons quince paste
2/3 cup dry white wine
cracked black pepper

Trim lamb of any fat or sinew. Heat oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add lamb & cook for 1-2 minutes on each side or until well sealed & browned. Remove lamb from pan & place on a plate. Reduce heat to medium and add quince paste, wine & pepper to pan and simmer for 2 minutes or until glaze has thickened slightly. Simmer lamb in the quince glaze for an extra minute on each side or until cooked to your liking. Slice lamb into large pieces & serve with the quince glaze.

Date scones

From the recent spring edition of Donna Hay edition these scones are quick & easy to whip up for the weekend visitors & a nice change from plain scones, especially if you love dates as I do.

Date Scones

1 4 cups plain flour, sifted
1 ¼ cups wholemeal flour, sifted
2 ½ teaspoons banking powder, sifted
50g unsalted butter, chopped
¼ cup caster sugar
250g chopped fresh dates
1 cup milk
butter to serve

Preheat oven to 200c. Place the flours & baking powder in a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar & dates & mix well to combine. Gradually add the milk and mix to form a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly. Press out to a 2cm thickness & use a 5 ½ cm cookie cutter to cut out rounds. Arrange on a greased baking tray lined with baking paper & bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Serve warm with butter.

Banana Maple Porridge with Buttered apples

Recently when I had Chloe I was lucky enough to be staying at Freemasons Hospital who have a ‘wing’ at the Park Hyatt which I stayed at for a couple of nights, much, much nicer than the hospital I can tell you, don’t get me wrong, Freemasons is nice but it is still a hospital as opposed to the Hyatt which had huge rooms, no one barging in whenever they felt like it, King size beds, a spa & lots of other luxuries including of course a fantastic menu to choose from! Michael & I also spent our wedding night there so it was nice & nostalgic for us to be staying there again (yes he stayed with me of course). Anyway the reason I’m telling you this is because while I was there I was hooked on there Banana Maple porridge on the menu which I had every day I was there, it was sensational so when I was flicking through Bill Granger’s Sydney Food book & saw a recipe for the same well of course I was dying to try out immediately. I’ve never made porridge from scratch before, normally I go the easy way & just add water & pop it into the microwave. This was a bit more time consuming but well worth the effort, it was sensational, I love it & cant wait to make it every weekend. It tasted exactly like the Hyatt’s so not sure who stole who’s recipe? The buttered apples on top were nice & of course I got to use up more Granny Smiths but next time I think I would just serve with some sultanas & extra banana a la Hyatt & save myself the extra effort & pan to wash up. Also I didn’t serve with extra milk as suggested as didn’t think it was necessary. Yet another winner from Bill’s brekky collection.

Banana Maple Porridge with Buttered apples

1 cup rolled oats
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 cup milk
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 banana, finely sliced

to serve
buttered apples (below)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
warm milk

Place oats and boiling water in a medium saucepan & stir to combine. Let oats sit for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients to oats in the saucepan & stir again. Bring slowly to the boil over medium heat. Reduce heat & bring mix to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. The banana should almost dissolve. Remove from heat & let the porridge stand, covered for 2-3 minutes before serving.

Spoon into bowls, top with apples & extra maple syrup & a jug of warm milk on the side. Serves 2.

Buttered Apples

30g unsalted butter
½ kg hard sweet apples, peeled, cored & thinly sliced
1 tablespoon caster sugar

Place butter in a frying pan and melt over medium heat. Add the apples & sprinkle with sugar. Cook gently until the undersides of the apples are pale golden. Turn very gently to avoid breaking & cook until golden & translucent. Serve warm.

El Mirage, East Brunswick

3.5 weeks in and I had my first sit down ‘meal’ out since the birth of baby Chloe. We put her in her sling & she was wonderful sleeping the whole way through her first dining out experience. It was a lovely day out if a bit windy on Saturday so I decided that instead of sitting around on our bums as we usually do with all of our visitors we would go for a walk & attempt to eat out. Michael’s sister Julie was the lucky one who got to try this out with us. We headed over to Lygon street (East Brunswick end of course) & decided to try out El Mirage, a relatively new café in the strip. We grabbed a seat at the bar on the outside side of the terrace where there was a nice corner to park the pram (we brought it along in case we had problems with the sling), we thought outside would be best in case we ended up with a screaming baby on our hands 7 needed to make a hasty escape. The terrace is nice & spacious with just a few tables & the bar to sit at & the inside looked pretty roomy too which is nice as that is the sort of thing I have to look out for now. Even though we were out for lunch I had breakfast as it’s been a while since I was allowed to eat proper runny poached eggs. I had the Eggs benedict which was served with prosciutto & hollandaise on what I think was a ciabatta roll instead of the usual ham & muffin combo. It worked very well for me, I’m not a traditionalist & I loved the changes, the roll was much nicer than a boring muffin & I love prosciutto, eggs were good & the sauce I had no complaints with. As well as breakfast which range from various egg combos including a Mexican one with beans & home fries that looked delicious when spied coming out on someone else’s plate, bircher muesli & pancakes amongst others, they do serve lunch dishes & the menu all up had quite a nice selection to choose from. Overall a welcome addition to Lygon street for me & sure it will be visited many times again on my walks with Chloe

El Mirage
349 Lygon Street
Brunswick East, VIC 3057
Ph: 9388 0966

Apple Pie

After all my apple recipes I’ve tried this season thks to the tree out the back I cant believe it has taken me so long to get to the good old classical apple pie. With nearly the last of my Granny Smiths I made this superb version from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners. The recipe suggests a mix of both cooking & eating apples however I stuck to the Granny Smiths & it was excellent, my mum proclaimed it was about the best she has eaten & was amazed at how easy the pastry was to make from scratch & of course the result no comparison to the frozen variety at all.

Apple Pie

Pastry
225g flour
140g butter
85g caster sugar
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks

Filling
A small knob of butter
Flour, for dusting
1 large Bramley cooking apple
4 eating apples
3 tablespoons Demerarra or muscovado sugar
zest of ½ a lemon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
a handful of sultanas or raisins
1 egg yolk mixed with a splash of milk

Preheat oven to 150c. To make the pastry, in a food processor, whiz up the flour, butter, caster sugar & lemon rind, then add the egg yolk & a tiny drop of water to bind the mix together. Butter a 20cm inch metal pie dish (metal is supposed to conduct heat better & cook the bottom at the same time as the top – I used a ceramic dish with no ill effects).

Divide your pastry dough into two & roll half of it out on a flour dusted surface until 0.5cm thick. Lay the pastry in the metal dish & gently push it down into the sides. Don’t worry if it tears or breaks, just patch it up. Pop the pie dish & remaining half of the pastry into the fridge, peel your apples, core & cut into eighths. Toss them into a pan with the sugar, lemon zest, ginger, sultanas or raisins & a tablespoon of water. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or until the apples are just tender. Remove from heat & allow to cool completely.

Remove the pie dish from the fridge & pack the apple mix tightly into the dish. Egg wash the pastry rim & then roll out the remaining pastry & drape over the top of the pie. Roughly pinch the edges together & trim any excess pastry. Egg wash the top, make a couple of small incisions & bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Serve hot with ice cream, cream, custard or whatever takes your fancy.

Lemon and parsley crusted fish with garlic mashed potatoes

Continuing my obsession with all things Bill Granger & wanting to cook every recipe in my two books of his, last nights dinner was this fantastically fresh fish recipe. The flavours in the coating were really good, especially the lemony tang & perfect with the mash & spinach, another easy winner, this time the recipe is from Bills Food. Also to tell you how easy this is, Michael did the cooking & a fantastic job at that, I had good intentions but went you have a screaming hungry baby the cooking has to be handed over unfortunately.

Lemon and parsley crusted fish with garlic mashed potatoes

80g (1 cup) fresh breadcrumbs
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
15g (1/2 cup) roughly chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 thick (about 3cm) white fish fillets such as mahi mahi or blue eye

to serve
50g English spinach leaves
4 lemon wedges
Preheat oven to 220c. Place the breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and half the olive oil in a food processor & pulse to just combine until you have pale green breadcrumbs.

Place the fish on a baking tray lined with baking paper & press some crumbs over the top of each piece of fish. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil & bake for 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden & the fish is just cooked.

Serve with baby spinach, lemon wedges & garlic mash.

Garlic Mash Potatoes

800g potatoes, suitable for mashing, such as Pontiac or desiree
250ml (1 cup) milk
75g butter
3 garlic cloves, bruised
1 teaspoon sea salt

Cut the potatoes into quarters & cook in boiling water until tender. Remove from heat, drain, then mash in the pan.

Meanwhile, heat the milk, butter & garlic in a small saucepan over a medium heat until hot, making sure you don’t let the mixture boil. Remove from heat.

Discard the garlic cloves & mix the milk mixture into the potatoes with a wooden spoon until smooth. Season with salt, to taste.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

After all the apple cooking I have done of late, I finally got sick of cooking with the one fruit & decided I needed an intense chocolate fix. Megan was coming over for lunch so I hit her with these Chocolate Truffle tarts. As the name suggests it is pretty much a truffle though in tart form & with the added bonus of an oreo base & lots of luscious raspberries hidden in the tart & the cream it is served with. Very rich & delicious though you would struggle to eat more than one without feeling sick! A quick note, the recipe was to serve four yet I made eight & still had some chocolate mix leftover which with extreme willpower I threw out instead of just eating up. The recipe comes from a recent Delicious magazine.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

150g chocolate cream biscuits (Oreo’s are what I used)
120g unsalted butter, melted
300ml thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
300g raspberries
1 tablespoon icing sugar
½ cup cocoa powder, to dust

Lightly grease the base & sides of eight 8cm x 2cm loose bottomed tart pans. Process biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add melted butter & process until well combined. Press biscuit mix firmly over bases of tart pans to cover. Chill while you make the filling.

Heat 200ml cream in a pan with the vanilla over low heat & bring to just below boiling point. Remove from heat, add chocolate & stir until melted. Transfer to a bowl & cool completely.

Using a fork, crush half the berries in a bowl. Spread over biscuit bases, then cover with chocolate mixture. Cover and freeze for 2-3 hours until firm. (Remove from freezer 30 minutes before serving.)

Combine icing sugar & remaining berries in a bowl. Crush with fork until sugar dissolves. Press mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl & discard seeds (I omitted this step being quite happy to have my berries seeds & all). Whip remaining 100ml cream & swirl through berry puree. Dust tarts with cocoa & top with berry cream

Amazing Potato and Horseradish Salad with fine herbs & Bresaola.

Having a Polish & Lithuanian background I absolutely love the humble potato salad & am always on the lookout for new recipes using them. This salad from Jamie Oliver’s new Book ‘Cook with Jamie’ took my fancy right away & the other night I got around to making it made it. I didn’t serve it with bresaola as per the recipe, instead I served it along side a nice juicy steak for a bit more substance. The salad was delicious, I also am a huge fan of horseradish & sour cream so it was the perfect combination for me & one that will definitely be made again & again. I have included the entire recipe for those of you that want to serve as suggested.

Amazing Potato and Horseradish Salad with fine herbs & Bresaola.

680g new potatoes, scrubbed
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
juice of 2 lemons
½ a celery heart, yellow leaves only reserved & rest finely sliced
a bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, leaves picked & chopped
2-3 teaspoons of grated horseradish
3 heaped tablespoons of crème fraiche or sour cream
24 slices or bresaola or cold roast beef
a bunch of fresh tarragon, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil

Boil the potatoes in a pot of salted water until nicely cooked. Drain them & allow to cool for 5 minutes while making the dressing.

Pour most of the lemon juice into a large bowl and add a good pinch of salt, some pepper, the celery, parsley & horseradish. Mix in the crème fraiche or sour cream. While they’re still hot, cut the potatoes in half or quarters & add to the bowl. Season carefully with more salt & pepper & toss everything together. Have a taste & add more lemon juice if needed.

In the meantime, overlap 6 slices of bresaola in a circle on each plate, pile the salad in the middle & then draw up the edges of the meat. Sprinkle over tarragon & celery leaves, drizzle with a little olive oil & serve.

Serves 4

Fruit Crumble

For a quick wholesome (nearly) snack, a fruit crumble is always nice, I followed Jamie Oliver’s version from The Naked Chef. I also replaced half the flour with oats & used brown sugar as suggested to make it all a bit healthier. I really like the flavour the oats & brown sugar give over the refined white sugar & flour combo any day anyway. As a bonus I also got to use up some more of my Granny Smiths as well as some peaches & nectarines that were getting a bit old sitting around in the fridge. Sorry the photo is not the best but I find it hard to make crumble look exciting – its all in the taste instead.

Fruit Crumble

Crumble
225g plain flour (or sub half with oats)
115g butter
90g sugar
pinch salt

Fruit
455g fruit, washed & prepared
3 tablespoons sugar (or sub with brown sugar)

Serve with custard, ice cream, cream, mascarpone

Just stick all the crumble ingredients in a food processor & blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (you can also do this by hand)

Put the fruit into a shallow ovenproof serving dish and sprinkle with the sugar. Spread the crumble mix over the prepared fruit. Give the dish a bit of a shake & bake in the oven at 200c for about 30 minutes or until the top is evenly golden.

Ravioli with fresh herb dressing

Another goodie & quickie for mid week no fuss dinners from Bill Granger, Bills Food
Hope to get back to more elaborate cooking with time but as you all keep pointing out, I do need some sleep time now too!

Ravioli with fresh herb dressing

A handful of green beans
1kg fresh ricotta ravioli
a handful of fresh basil leaves, for serving
shavings of parmesan, for serving

Fresh Herb Dressing
20g (1 cup) fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
30g (1 cup) fresh basil leaves
25g (1 cup) English spinach
1 garlic clove
125ml (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the beans & cook them for 2 minutes. Scoop them out, refresh in cold water & slice them all in half lengthways. Add the ravioli to the saucepan & when the ravioli float to the top, scoop them out with a slotted spoon & put them in a large bowl with the herb dressing. Stir lightly to combine, then divide among 4 serving bowls. Top with basil leaves & parmesan.

To make dressing, place all ingredients, except the salt & pepper, in a blender & pulse briefly until just combined & smooth. Season with salt & pepper.

Apple & Blueberry Shortcake

Yesterday to use up even more of the Granny Smith’s I tried out this recipe from Bill Granger, Bills Food. I love his recipes, especially breakfast & sweets, I find them a bit different to a lot of stuff in my other books & no matter how strange they sound or nervous they make me that they wont work so far I haven’t failed to bake a winner. This was no exception, delicious straight from the oven with some fresh whipped cream, very fruity & the shortcake was lovely & light, don’t worry if when you’re rolling it, it sort of falls apart as it all melts into place when cooked.

Apple & Blueberry Shortcake

4 large Granny Smith Apples
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
1 egg
185g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
155g (1 cup) blueberries
sugar, for sprinkling

To serve
Whipped cream

Peel the apples, remove the cores & cut each apple into about 16 slices. Put the apples, lemon zest, sugar & 2 tablespoons of water into a medium saucepan, then cover & stew over a low heat for about 10 minutes, until the apples are soft but not mushy. Allow to cool.

Cream the butter & caster sugar together in a bowl until fluffy & smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir until combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface & knead until smooth, Divide into two 7 refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180c. Roll each half of cake dough into a round approximately 22cm across. Press one round into a 24cm non-stick springform cake tin. Spread the apples over the dough, leaving a small border around the edge. Sprinkle with the blueberries. Place the other round of dough on top & press the edges together. Brush with water & sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, then allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before removing. Serve with whipped cream.

Lamb Cutlets & Greek Salad

This dinner is a week late, I had the lamb sitting in the fridge all nicely marinated when I went into labour last week. My mum suggested freezing them, marinade & all so that’s what Michael did & now we have finally cooked them up. From Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. The freezing did no harm & the lamb was beautifully tender & the marinade provided great flavour. The Greek salad on the side was yum too with a nice twist on the traditional.

Lamb Cutlets with Yoghurt & Cumin

450-500g Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large onion
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
20 lamb cutlets

Empty the yoghurt into a large shallow dish (big enough to fit all of the chops in) & then stir in the cumin. Peel & roughly chop the onion and add it. Break the head of garlic into cloves, peel them & squash them slightly just by pressing on them with the flat of a heavy

The Ultimate Greek Salad

1 red onion
1 tablespoon dried oregano
black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
200ml extra virgin olive oil
5 good tomatoes
1 teaspoon caster sugar
pinch of maldon salt
1 large cos lettuce
1 bulb fennel
125g pitted black olives
400g feta cheese
juice of half a lemon

Peel & finely slice the red onion then sprinkle over the oregano and grind over some black pepper. Pour in the vinegar & oil & toss well, cover with cling film & leave to step for at least 2 hours. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, then cut each quarter into quarters (always lengthwise) again, so that you have a collection of very fine segments. Sprinkle with the sugar & a pinch of salt & leave while you get on with the rest. Wash the lettuce, tear into large pieces & place in a salad bowl. Slice the fennel & add that, then the olives & feta cut or crumbled into large chunks & toss well. Now add the tomatoes, the red onion in its dressing & the lemon juice. Toss gently so that everything is well combined.

knife, then stir into the yoghurt along with the salt. Add the cutlets & stir well. Cover with cling film & put in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Heat a ridged grill pan & then take the cutlets out of the marinade, wipe with some kitchen towel. Fry for a few minutes each side until cooked to your liking.