Golden Cardamom Chicken with Crispy Onion Spiced Rice

The theme for this weeks Cookbook Challenge was Bird.  Now bird is a very broad theme, lots of different birds out there, chicken, duck, quail and pheasant just to name a few & cookbooks have hundreds of recipes for them.  Despite this I had a hard time deciding what to make.  I think when the theme is so broad and there is too much choice I have trouble making up my mind.  I nearly went for duck confit, a dish I am dying to make but due to the amount of duck I have consumed lately (out & home cooked) and the amount of fat involved I thought I would stick to some simple chicken.   I guess I consider chicken to be a very boring meat, in fact when I got married I didnt have any chicken on the menu for the same reason & the staff organizing totally agreed with me.  Dont get me wrong I eat a lot of chicken and enjoy it though it usually features in very simple dishes in this house.

In the end I found this very interesting sounding dish from Nigella Lawson's Feast cookbook.  It falls under the wedding chapter & serves lots as part of a banquet, I halved the ingredients & it fed us for 2 nights.  I normally tend to shy away from frying in so much oil but it was the weekend & it was for the good of the challenge so away I went.  I marinated the chicken for 2 days & it was extremely tender, the cardamom lent a lovely & very subtle flavour among all the other spices in the marinade.  The coating was nice & crispy & again had some beautiful flavour.  It also tasted great the next day straight from the fridge so it would be ideal picnic food to drag along as well.  The rice was tasty too & love the crispy onion, have always been a sucker for near burnt fried onion slices.  The icing on the cake would have been the sweet and crunchy pomegranate seeds but alas not in season.

Golden Cardamom Chicken with Crispy Onion Spiced Rice - Nigella Lawson - Feast

For the Chicken and the Marinade

zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds (from abt 5 pods)
2 fat garlic cloves
125ml olive oil
1/2 tablespoon Maldon Salt or 1 teaspoon table salt
1.5kg boned and skinned chicken thighs

For the coating

4 eggs
175g cornflour
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
vegetable oil for frying

For the Rice

1 onion
3 tablespoons oliv eoil
500g basmati rice
3 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 litre hot chicken stock
75g pine nuts, toasted
1-2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1-2 tablespoons chopped mint
1-2 tablespoons chopped coriander

To finish

1-2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds (if available)

To marinate the chicken, put the lemon juice, peeled & roughly chopped onion, allspice, pepper, cardamom seeds, peeled garlic, oil and salt into a processor and blitz to a pulp.  Chop the chicken pieces in half, add the marinade to coat & leave in the fridge overnight or for up to 2 days. 

let the chicken come to room temperature while you start the rice.  Peel the onion and slice into very thin half moons.  Heat the oil in a wide saucepan (one which has a lid) and cook the sliced onions in the oil over a fairly high heat until darkly golden and very crispy.  Remove to a plate and reserve for later.

Turn the heat down, add the rice and spices to the pan and turn in the oil until the rice is slicked and glossy.  Add the stock and let the pan come to the boil, then put the lid on & turn the heat down to the lowest setting.  Cook without peeking for 15 minutes by which time all the water should have been absorbed.  Take off the heat and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

While the rice is cooking you can get on with your chicken.  Beat the eggs together and in a separate bowl, combine the cornflour, allspice, paprika and salt.

Pour enough oil into a pan until it comes about 1cm up the sides & heat until sizzling.  Shake excess marinade off chicken, coat in flour mix, then eggs & place in the frypan.  Cook until golden and crispy (about 10 ,minutes - I did mine one side at a time for 5 mins each), cut into a piece to make sure it's cooked through - thicker pieces may need longer, then remove to a plate lined with paper towel.  Continue until all of the chicken is done.

When ready to serve, stir the pine nuts and most of the onion & herbs through the rice.  Tip onto a serving platter, top with the chicken & finish off  with the rest of the onion & herbs & pomegranate seeds if you have any.

A Very Brief Taste of Melbourne

Stokehouse Wagyu beef cigars, artichoke tapenade and horseradish

Friday night I was fortunate enough to attend A Taste of Melbourne for the first time with some friends thanks to SBS Food and Green & Blacks Organic Chocolate.  Unfortunately for me due to a sick little boy who needed a visit to the Dr I didn't arrive until 8.30pm & couldn't make it again due to a very busy weekend.  The doors close at 9.30pm & the bar closes at 9.15pm so 1 hour was really not that long to spend there.  Luckily I had printed out the menu and knew some of the dishes I wanted to try.  Thanks to the map I even managed to find these places though I only got to try 2 savoury dishes & one sweet & only managed to visit the Green & Blacks produce stall.  I have to say I was very disappointed as there was so much I wanted to try, maybe next year I will have better luck.

My first stop was The Stokehouse for the fabulous beef cigars, artichoke tapenade and horseradish.  Wow, I am so glad I tried these as they were luscious, crunchy pastry, moist & delicious filling & the tapenade was the perfect partner.

Next I dropped into Green and Vlacks to say i & thanks for the tickets & tried the chocolate and raspberry cheesecake brownies & butterscotch choc chip cookies, both were great & are from the upcoming new cookbook, I will be very interested to see the book when released, I already have one of their books & love it being a true chocoholic.

Longrain was next on my list so I headed upstairs only to be very disappointed to find EVERYTHING sold out, even the cocktails, not very happy!!!!!!   So it was off to Charcoal Lane for the  Seared Kingfish, Red Curry, Puffed Rice & Coconut.  I loved the flavours in this dish though I think the temperature put me off a bit.  It was quite cold & I think I would have preferred it warmer even though the guy dishing it up assured me this was the temperature it should be served at. 

By this stage I only had 6 crowns left out of my 60 (yes I managed to spend a lot in a short time without even getting much as there may have been some glasses of wine going down too).  I stopped by the Melbourne Wine Room & Mr Wolf stall and they were kind enough to let me sample the Vanilla pannacotta and blood orange jelly.  Nice though by this stage I was more interested in drinking more wine than sweets so headed out the door for a long night at the Brunswick Green and Retreat!

Apologies too for the lack of photos, I did take heaps more but they were completely crap, I really need that new camera  which current financial circumstances have had to put on hold again for now....

Green and Blacks samples

Looking forward to next year & hope I manage a bit more time next visit.

Celebration Cupcakes

When I think of any celebration I immediately think of cake.  Seriously, what cant be celebrated over a good piece of cake in any form?  When it comes to kids, cake is usually best appreciated in the form of cupcakes, and cupcakes with sprinkles or any type of bright decoration.  So for week 41 of The Cookbook Challenge I made up a batch of sticky toffee cupcakes for the celebration theme.  I didnt really have anything specific to celebrate so I tried to find a recipe that was a bit healthier & these had lots of fruit in them, sultanas, apricots & dates.  Chloe was my decorator & she chose a mix of blue, orange & green sprinkles this time.  Sadly while they looked cheery & bright the cakes in themselves were not that spectacular.  They were okay but didnt have much rise & the flavour was a bit on the ordinary side.  I also didnt like the choc topping so no I wont be making these again.

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes with Chocolate Topping - Jamie Oliver - Happy Days with the Naked Chef

30g sultanas
30g dried apricots
30g dates
1 teaspoon baking powder
140g self raising flour
30g muscovado sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 large egg
30g melted butter
140ml hot water

Icing

40g butter
40g caster sugar
40g plain chocolate
70ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 200c.  In a food processor, blitz the sultanas, apricots, dates, baking powder and a little of the flour (just enough to stop the fruit sticking to the blades).  Put this mixture into a bowl with the sugar, golden syrup, egg & butter & stir together.  Then add the very hot water and the remaining flour and mix well with a whisk.  Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake papers (note Jamie places the papers on a tray, I put them in a muffin tray).  Bake for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt all the icing ingredients together in a small saucepan and bubble for a while until darkened in color slightly.  Remove from the heat and let the sauce cool until it thickens.  Then ice each cupcake.

Taste of Melbourne - Last minute give away

I have a few last minute double double passes to give away to this weekends Taste of Melbourne Festival thanks to the lovely people at Green & Blacks Chocolate.  All passes also come with some free blocks of milk & dark chocolate to sample.  

As this is very last minute, the first people to contact me with their address and contact details will get the tickets, so email away & I will mail out tomorrow and hopefully the packages will arrive in time.  Please note all but 1 of the double passes are for Thursday or Friday sessions only so please indicate when you would like to go.

I'm very excited to be going to this years festival, I haven't been before & have heard both good & bad comments on previous years shows.  There is good food & wine and I'm going with fine friends so sure that no matter what I will enjoy myself, details will follow.

Apple & Rhubarb pie

I have been waiting for apple week in the Cookbook challenge for ages, I have been craving am apple pie like you wouldn't believe, cant actually remember the last time I ate one let alone made one.  I chose Bill Granger's Apple & Rhubarb pie recipe from Bill's Sydney Food as he is usually pretty good with his sweet recipes.    The pie recipe serves 6-8 and is supposed to be baked in a 23cm pie tin.  As I only had 2 smaller dishes I made 2 pies & froze one.  This was a brilliant move as the 1 smaller pie still kept us going for 2 days, so it would have been way too much to have the whole thing at once.   When I made the filling I was being bugged by little people & was a bit distracted, I forgot to add the sugar so added it after it was cooked, didnt seem to cause a problem though the filling was very sweet, dont know if that would have changed if the sugar had cooked down a bit?  Overall a delicious Winter pie that was definitely enjoyed by all!

Notes - The pastry was a little hard to work with though it tasted nice & short when cooked.  I did only need to bake mine for about 45 minutes & by then it was already a little too brown.  Strange as my oven usually cooks slower than a recipe so something to keep in mind.

Apple and Rhubarb Pie - Bills Sydney Food - Bill Granger

1kg Granny Smiths, peeled, cored and finely sliced
juice and zest of 1 lemon
50g butter, cut into small pieces
300g rhubarb, chopped
300g catser sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1 qty shortcrust pastry (recipe below)
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons caster sugar for sprinkling

Toss the apples with the lemon juice and zest.  Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add the apples and cook for 5   minutes, or until softened slightly.  Add the rhubarb and the sugar and cook for 1 minute further.  Add the flour and cinnamon, stir gently to combine.  Allow to cool.

Place half the pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll out until 4mm thick.  Lightly press into a 23cm pie tin and refrigerate while the filling is cooling.  Spread the apples & rhubarb evenly in the pie shell.

preheat the oven to 200c.  Moisten edges of pastry base with egg yolk.  Roll out remaining pastry on a lightly floured surface until 4mm thick.  Cover pie with rolled pastry.  Trim, press edges of the pie firmly together and crimp the outer rim with your fingertips.  make incisions in the top of the pie with a sharp knife.  Brush with remaining egg yolk and sprinkle with caster sugar.  Bake the pie for 1 hour until the crust is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes.  Serve with ice cream of cream as desired!  Serves 6-8.

Shortcrust pastry

4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
a pinch of salt
360g unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup cream

Place flour, sifted sugar and salt in a bowl.  Add butter and rub through the fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Add just enough cream for mixture to form a ball.  Divide pastry into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

The famous Gingerlee Grench toast made by me!

I love the Syrian French toast at Gingerlee in Lygon st, East Brunswick & it's possibly my favourite breakfast out, if I ever go there I find it impossible to order anything else & many others feel the same, so when Delicious recently published a recipe inspired by this dish I was very, very excited that I could finally reproduce this dish at home.  It's a bit fiddly in that there are a few different components to prepare so I needed to invite someone over for brunch to make it worth the effort, luckily Karen was the target & she has tried the dish so felt she could fully appreciate it.  Loved it & seriously think it was just as good as the original which is great news, go ahead & try it & you will have a very speical home cooked brekky.

Bill Granger = Quick Week Night Winners

TV Chefs, seems like every chef out there with a cookbook has their head on tv these days so it wasnt hard to find someone from my cookbook collection for this weeks cook book challenge theme.  Bill Granger, now I have never actually watched him on tv as he only appears on foxtel (as far as I know) and is not accessible to us poor folk who only get free to air tv!  However despite not watching him wow me on the screen I am a huge fan of his recipes for various reasons, he always has great breakfast sections in his books, his cakes & desserts are amazing & his lunch & dinner fare is perfect for simple mid week dining & generally doesnt include 10 pounds of butter or cream as do some other cookbook recipes.  I was originally trying to find some fancy pants recipe for the theme but really had a busy week so this was all I could fit in.  As you can see from the photo the chicken is a deep, rich golden & sticky brown & actually looks quite similar to the photo in the book.  Juicy and tender thanks to the cooking in liquid, the lovely caramel flavour of the chicken is pretty intense (I would probably add less fish sauce next time & keep it a bit sweeter), though it does all balance out welll with the steamed rice & greens on the side,

Caramel Chicken - Bill Granger - Bills Open Kitchen

8 chicken thigh fillets, skinless, chopped in half
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 red onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
freshly ground black pepper
60ml (1/4 cup) dark soy sauce
115g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
60ml (1/4 cup) fish sauce

Steamed rice & green vegetables such as broccoli & spinach to serve

Place the chicken and oil in a bowl and toss to combine.  Heat a large frying pan over a high heat until hot.  Add the chicken, in two batches, and cook for 2 minutes on one side until lightly brown, turn and cook for another minute.  Remove from the pan.  Reduce the heat to medium and add a little extra oil if needed. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Return the chicken to the pan, sprinkle liberally with black pepper, add the soy sauce & stir to combine.  Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase the heat to high, add the sugar and stir to combine.  Cook uncovered for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce is rich, dark & syrupy.  Add the fish sauce and stir to combine.  Place ina serving dish and serve with rice & greens.  Serves 4

Sugar & Spice and all things nice

Week 38 of the cookbook challenge was spice week.  Even though I love spice in all forms I had a difficult time deciding what to make.  I didn't want a curry as I'd done my Sri Lankan dish just recently & didn't want a cake as have been over doing it a bit lately.  When I found this recipe for duck it sounded perfect, love duck & the spice mix was a bit different to anything I usually cook with.  The mix actually gave the duck a really lovely sweet flavour that went perfectly with the parsnip puree.  My mum had dropped off some home grown beets which I made a nice salad with & did some roast spuds to keep the kiddies happy, fantastic meal & really quite special for a weeknight.

Sugar and spice crusted duck with parsnip puree - Jill Dupleix - Good Living Winter

4 duck breasts
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp juniper berries
1 tspn cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
Sea Salt and Pepper
600g parsnips, peeled and chopped
Brown sugar
1 tbspn butter
grated nutmeg
50ml milk

Preheat oven to 200c.  Score the skin of the duck in a diamond pattern.  Crush the peppercorns, juniper berries, cumin and caraway seeds and 1 tspn salt and place on a plate.  Gently press the skin into the spices.

Heat a dry, non-stick frying pan and cook the duck skin side down for 5-6 minutes over a gently heat until crisp.  Turn once & cook for 3 minutes.  Pour off the fat as it renders to prevent it burning.

Cook the parsnip in simmering salted water for 15 minutes until tender.

Transfer the duck to the oven, skin side up, scatter with brown sugar and bake for 10 minutes, then rest.  Drain the parsnip and puree with butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and sufficient milk to make it smooth.

Carve the duck thickly and serve on the puree.

A Well overdue dinner party

Last night I had my brother & his girlfriend over for a bit of a dinner party.  I realized I haven't had anyone over for a proper dinner (apart from parents and in laws every week after babysitting which doesn't count), since before our renovations which is at least 18 months.   There have been plenty of brunches, lunches, cake & coffees & even a couple of parties of mass catering but no good old dinner party.  I love a dinner party & am really a bit sad that no one (I know) seems to have them anymore or if they do they dont invite me!  Back in my late twenties before marriage and kids, a few of us would have them all the time but since most people have settled down with kids they seem to think it's too much effort.  Not me, I am now going to try & do a dinner a month or so as I love it & dont care if I dont get an invite back, people will just have to put up with me & my dinners.  It's a great excuse to cook dishes I wouldnt normally make for just us & the kids.

My entrée for dinner was a mushroom, spinach & goats cheese tart.  I love tarts & would eat them every day if the pastry & cheese, etc wasn't so bad for my cholesterol.  This pastry recipe actually cooked a bit quickly so ended up a bit on the very dark brown side (though not burnt) & so was a bit crumbly, a little disappointing but not a complete failure.  The filling was delicious & right now I am wishing I made a double batch for leftovers but looks like it's toast for lunch again!

The main course was pan fried veal with a balsamic, pine nut & currant sauce/jus, whatever you want to call it, with a pumpkin & rocket salad on the side.  This was a risky move as I had to pretty much cook it up fresh after the entrée and by that stage I'd already had a few glasses of wine, luckily I was still functioning ok and there were no disasters, in fact I loved this dish in all it's simplicity & will definitely make it again.

Dessert was pretty much ready to go.  I made a white chocolate, mint & dark choc chip ice cream the day before which I was a bit concerned about.  It was a sugar syrup rather than a custard based ice cream and the melted white chocolate didn't seem to blend very well with the syrup when mixing.  Then the mixture didn't set in the ice cream machine which might have had something to do with the creme de menthe & vodka in it.  I threw it all into the freezer & hoped for the best.  tasting it in the morning I thought it was delicious even if it was a bit grainy, almost granita like.  I bought some store bought ice cream as a back up in case I had any last minute reservations but turns out there was no need to worry.  The ice cream was served with some oozy chocolate fondants, after the last week of Master chef there was no question this was what I had to make.  A few hours in the fridge before cooking ensured that they didn't set right through & just imagine how well they went with the minty, chocolatey ice cream, heaven!

I was very happy with everything & cant wait to invite my next lot of guinea pigs over for some more feasting.

A hearty curry from Sri Lanka

The theme of hearty could have been right for just about every dish I am cooking these days, it's that cold weather & having to cook for 4 now and toddlers and pre-schoolers seem to like the hearty dishes best of all.

In the end I decided it's been ages since I cooked up a good curry (sadly need to stay away from chilli for the kids), so with not too much on I was ready to do the double dinner cook off, ie cook a spicy curry for Michael & I & a separate dinner for the kids (corn and zucchini fritters with chicken schnitzel if you are interested!).  I love Sri Lankan curries and really miss the old Village Curry House on Sydney road, what ever happened to it I wonder?  So I turned to my Food Safari book & the Sri Lankan chapter to find this classic chicken curry by Charmaine Solomon.  Despite the long list of ingredients, if you get all the spices measured up before you start and pretend you are a tv chef filming :), its a really simple curry to put together.  The flavours are delicious, spicy yet subtle & all rounded off nicely by the addition of the coconut milk at the end, one to make again & very close to the flavours of my old favourite.

The rest of the weeks hearty dishes include a chicken and leek pie, spaghetti and meatballs and beetroot soup, mmm 2 months in and still not sick of Winter cooking for 2010.



Notes - I used dried curry leaves as didn't have time to search out fresh ones.  Also didn't bother peeling my tomatoes as for a dish like this I dont notice the difference.  And sadly no pandan leaves to be found either so left out with no substitute.  And my biggest note, even though I asked for chicken on the bone, I unwrapped my parcel to find boneless thigh pieces, thankfully this didn't dry the dish out & it was still perfect.

Chicken Curry - Food Safari - Maeve O'Meara - Recipe by Charmaine Solomon in Sri Lanka Chapter

2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil (or a combination)
1/4 tspn fenugreek seeds
10 curry leaves on the stem
2 large onions, finely chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
6 cardamon pods, cracked
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
1 pandan leaf, folded
1.5kg chicken thighs on the bone
250ml thick coconut milk
lemon juice (optional)

Heat the ghee or oil and fry the fenugreek seeds and curry leaves until the leaves start to turn brown.  Add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry gently until the onion is soft and translucent.  Add the ground spices, salt and vinegar and stir well.  Add the tomato, whole spices, lemongrass and pandan leaf, then add the chicken.  Stir to coat the chicken in the spices, then cover and cook over a low heat for 40-50 minutes.  Stir in the coconut milk and taste for salt.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice if desired.  Serves 6.

Some Winter comforts, roast & pud

Friday night was freezing and I hadn't baked since the weekend so I had an irresistible urge to make a pudding.  As this weeks theme for the Cookbook challenge was comfort food I thought it was also necessary for the good of the challenge, so my excuses to myself made I whipped up a batch of very quick golden syrup puddings that then took an hour to bake.  Note that I did a session on my exercise bike while they were in the oven to prepare for my sins!   This recipe was from The Good Living Winter cookbook & features on the cover.  Note that the cover also looks much better than mine, they seemed to end up with a lot more sauce & a much richer syrupy color, think I added too much butter/not enough golden syrup.  Other than that, really tasty pudd without being too heavy.  Love the flavour of golden syrup so really it was bound to be good.

Note - I used baking paper topped with foil rather than buttering foil - it all seemed to messy for me.  I also didnt tie mine up & only one spilled out a little while cooking.

Little golden syrup puddings - Good Living Winter - recipe by Jill Dupleix

150g butter
150g soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
2 tbspn golden syrup
150g self raising flour, sifted
2 tbspn milk

Sauce

2 tbspn golden syrup
2 tbspn butter

Preheat oven to 180c.  Lightly butter 4 ovenproof 150ml ramekins or pots.

Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and golden syrup with an electric mixer for 4 minutes.  Fold in small amounts alternately of the flour and the milk until you have a fairly stiff batter.

Tip the mixture into the pots, cover each with a piece of buttered foil and tie foil with string.  place in a baking tray and pour in boiling water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  Bake for 1 hour or until the puddins spring back to the touch.

Sauce:  Gently heat the golden syrup and butter in a small pan.  Turn out the puddings and spoon the sauce over the top.  Serve with ice cream if desired.

And for my savoury comfort food of the week, I felt a nice roast pork was in order.  For something different I went for Bill Granger's roast pork with braised veggies on the side rather than roasted.  The idea being to cut down on the fat content a bit.  The pork had lovely flavours though I dried mine out a bit, cooked it a bit too long and took the baking paper off to try & get my crackle crisp (Bill's didnt have crackling).  I compensated by making some gravy to pour over the top.  The veggies were nice but I have to say it just wasn't quite the same without nice crunchy roast spuds, soft, caramelized pumpkin, etc so now I am still craving a roast, the proper way!

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Cumin and Coriander Seeds - Bill Granger - Holiday

Serves 6

1 tspn cumin seeds
1 tspn coriander seeds
2kg Pork Shoulder on the bone
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 240c.  Crush the cumin and coriander seeds with a mortar and pestle.  Put the pork in a large roasting tin, drizzle with olive oil and rub with the crushed spices.  Season well with salt and pepper.  Put in the oven and roast for 30 minutes or until the pork is browned, then remove from the oven.

Reduce the oven to 180c.  Moisten a large piece of baking paper with water and place over the pork, tucking the edges underneath.  Return to the oven and roast for 2 hours or until tender.  Rest for 10 minutes before carving. 

Braised Potatoes and Peppers with Bay

Serves 6

3 tblspns olive oil
2 red onions, sliced
750g yellow waxy potatoes, peeled, cut into wedges
1 large red capsicum, cut into thin strips
1 large green capsicum, cut into thin strips
3 garlic cloves
3 bay leaves
250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick deep frying pan over medium low heat.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.  Add the potatoes, capsicums, garlic and bay leaves and cook, stirring occasionally for another 10 minutes.  Add the stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  remove the lid, increase the heat to medium and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10-20 minutes until all the stock has evaporated and the potatoes are tender, coloured and starting to form a crust.  Season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Spanish Feasting

The theme for this weeks Cookbook challenge was Spanish & who doesn't love a good old Spanish feast?

The first dish I cooked was for my family, I had some egg yolks that needed using up & Bill Granger's Crema Catalana was calling my name.  I have never made one before but I guess its fairly similar to a brulee which I have had some success with & besides it meant I got to pull out & dust off my barely used blow torch - yay fun with fire!  The recipe was pretty good in that the end flavour was sensational, lovely spiced cream without being too sickly & the crackly top was a wonderful contrast even though I may have overdone the torching.  The only problem I had was that mine didn't seem to set in the oven even though I cooked them for a lot longer than the specified time.  A few hours in the fridge & they were pretty well set but I cant help feeling they were still a little on the soft side, not too worry as id didn't seem to effect the pleasure factor.  Oh and did I mention that I had this for breakfast as I knew there was no way I would have room after our potluck lunch (details to follow), very decadent breakfast!

Crema Catalana - Bill Granger - Simply Bill

625ml (2 1/2 cups) cream
170ml (2/3 cup) milk
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
2 cinnamon sticks
peel from 1 orange
peel from 1 lemon
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 140c.  Put the cream, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, orange and lemon peel in a saucepan over medium heat and bring just to boiling point, then remove from the heat. 

Whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar in a large bowl.  Strain the cream and pour slowly over the yolks and sugar mixture, whisking constantly.  Skim off any foam that rises to the top.

Put six 125ml ramekins in a large roasting tin and spoon the mixture into them.  Pour hot water into the tin to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins & cover with foil.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until just set.  Lift the ramekins out of the tin and leave to cool before chilling in the fridge for 2 hours.

Preheat the grill to its hottest temperature.  Put the ramekins on a baking tray, sprinkle brown sugar over the chilled creams and then place under the grill for a couple of minutes until the sugar is melted & dark golden (alternately if you have a chef's blowtorch this is the time to use it).  Leave for a few minutes for the sugar to cool & harden before serving.  Serves 6.

Next I had to cook a dish for the Cookbook Challengers potluck Spanish themed lunch, kindly hosted by Agnes at Off the Spork.  I thought there may be a lot of reheating going on so I brought along a dish I could serve straight up.  This 'Asadilo de Pimientos', basically a Roasted capsicum, tomato, garlic and onion salad is a recipe by Frank Camorra in the Food Safari cookbook.  Personally I loved the salad and thought it was nice and refreshing alongside some of the heavier dishes of the day, hope everyone else enjoyed it too.  I've also been eating it for lunch since then on some nicely toasted sourdough rye, it's like a bit like an Italian bruschetta that way. 

Note this recipe has 2 whole heads of garlic in it so beware!  Also to note, I didnt bother peeling or seeding my tomatoes as I really cant see the big deal about going to all the extra effort.  For the dressing, I used half quantities & the dish was still swimming on dressing so dont feel the need to add the whole cup of olive oil or half a cup of sherry vinegar, in my opinion it would be way too much.

Asadillo de Pimientos (Frank Camorra) - Maeve O'Meara - Food Safari

6 red capsicums
2 onions
2 heads garlic
250ml extra virgin olive oil (arbequina if possible)
sea salt
500g tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
125ml sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and crushed

Preheat oven to 180c.  Place the whole capsicums, onions and garlic in a baking dish.  Drizzle with some of the olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  Roast for 30 minutes or until the onion is soft.  Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (the steam will help loosen the skins) and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Put the tomato and parsley in a separate bowl.  Squeeze the onions from their skins, roughly chop them and add to tomatoes.  Cut the tops of the heads of garlic & squeeze the cloves into the bowl.  Peel the capsicums and discard the seeds.  Tear the flesh into strips and add to the bowl.  Pour over the remaining oil and the sherry vinegar.  Sprinkle with the cumin and add salt to taste.  Toss well with your hands.

And to end of Spanish week with a bang I give you the Cookbook Challengers Potluck lunch.  As I said before the lovely Agnes at Off the Spork hosted with other 'cooking' guests being Penny at Jeroxie (Addictive and Consuming,  April at My Food Trail, Cherrie at Sweet Cherrie Pie, and Leigh of Chit, Chat, Chomp, plus some partners and stomachs for good measure (you know who you are!).

The aim was to bring along your Spanish dish for everyone to share.  The picture above does no justice to the amount of food we consumed in the end, with some people cooking up to 4 dishes (I think that was the max). From memory this is what we had, Oxtail (beef) stew, wrinkly potatoes, deep fried custard & lemon tart all from Agnes,  octopus stew, sardines, mushrooms & toast from Penny, garlic prawns, breads & friands from April, beef roll ups from Cherrie, Chorizo, pea & filo parcels plus Spanish bickies from Leigh & the salad from myself.  A fantastic feast from all thanks very much.  For individual details and closer ups of all the other dishes, sure they will all be posted on the girls blogs soon.  Nice to meet some fellow lovers of food & share the love on a sunny Melbourne afternoon

Winter Favourite = Soup in any form

As I have said many a time before, I absolutely adore soup in pretty much any form and flavour so I was very happy with this weeks Cookbook challenge theme.  I decided on a classic Tuscan Ribollita from Skye Gyngell's My favourite ingredients.  I am really loving this book, there are not that many recipes, yet every one I have tried so far has turned out to be something special (apart from my panna cotta which didn't work!).

In Skye's version of this soup she replaces the stale bread with farro.  I couldnt find farro anywhere in Brunswick so in my version I replaced the farro with Greenwheat Freekeh.  I love trying new grains & this was a first for me.  From the back of the box 'Greenwheat Freekeh is 100% Australian grown wheat.  Picked and roasted when the grain is green, it retains a higher percentage of protein, dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals, in particular, calcium, potassium, iron and zinc than mature wheat.

I threw the freekah into the soup with the water & let it bubble away so it was very easy to prepare.  The soup was delicious & hearty & the freekah added a lovely texture, almost nutty in it's chewiness though definitely not tough, lovely all around.

Notes - I used canned beans instead of dried & just added them about half an hour before the end of cooking time.  I also substituted rainbow chard for cavolo nero as I have some growing out the back.  And as mentioned I used freekah instead of farro as I couldn't get my hands on any.

Ribollita - Skye Gyngell's My favourite Ingredients

Serves 6-8

400g dried cannellini beans, soaked in cold water overnight
About 3 litres water
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped
1 dried red chilli, crumbled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 small garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
small bunch of sage
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
150g farro, well rinsed under cold water
400g can peeled plum tomatoes
bunch of cavolo nero, thick stalks removed, roughly chopped
extra virgin olive oil, preferably Tuscan, to serve

Drain the beans and place them in a heavy based saucepan.  Pour on about 2 litres water to cover generously and cook over a low heat until the beans are soft, about 1 1/2 hours.  Drain and set aside.

Heat 3 tbsp of the olive oil in a seperate cooking pot (large enough to hold all the ingredients comfortably) over a low heat.  Add the onions, chilli and a pinch of salt.  Sweat gently until the onions are soft and translucent.

Now add the celery, carrots, garlic, sage, potatoes and farro.  Cook for a couple of minutes to allow the heat to begin to release the flavours of the vegetables, then add the tomatoes.  Cover and simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes.

Stir in the cooked beans, then cover with about 1 litre of water - just enough for a thick brothy base in which the vegetables can cook properly.  Add the cavolo nero and reduce the heat to low.  Cover and cook for a further hour until the vegetables are really soft.  Add a generous pinch of salt and a few good grindings of pepper.

Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.  Let the soup stand for a couple of hours - this will improve the flavour no end. 

When ready to serve, reheat the soup, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.  Turn up the heat to emulsify, then ladle into warm bowls.

Prawns & camera questions

Before I talk about this weeks challenge, I have a question for all of you food bloggers out there.  I am ready for a new camera (see photo above for why!), I really want to up the quality of my photos and the current camera just does not do the job.  I realize I need to spend more time on food styling too but lets face it with screaming kids at my heels half the time I'm lucky I get any photos at all.  So the first question is should I go digital slr or stick with a plain old compact digital.  As well as taking photos of food (yes I do have a life outside of cooking!), I love taking photos of people, my garden & holiday snaps too.  I believe an SLR gives a better photo though it's been 20 years since I have picked one up so dont know how much time I could devote to learning how to use one all over again, might just use the auto setting forever.  Also after a couple of questions it seems that SLR's do not have a macro function & I would need to buy another lens, starting at $500.00 thats more than I want to put out on top of the cost of a new camera.  What does everyone out there use, would love some advice on this one before I take the plunge & buy my next camera, thanks?

Back onto food, this weeks challenge was seafood, I had a hankering for prawns and wanted to find a nice comforting wintery way to cook them, George Calombaris' recipe in Greek Cookery from the Hellenic Heart seemed to be just what I was after.  The sauce the prawns were cooked in was delicious though I didnt get my pan close enough to the grill for the feta to brown up, I dont think this made much of an difference apart from in appearance.  Loved the sauce & the prawns were nice too yet I didnt really love the dish & didnt think the prawns went that well with the sauce even though the 2 elements on their own were great.  All in all an okay meal but one I wouldnt bother making again, a bit of a disappointment really considering all of the options I could have gone with for such a wonderful theme.

Prawn Saganaki (Baked prawns, tomato and feta) - George Calombaris - Greek Cookery from the Hellenic Heart.

600g whole green prawns
4 brown onions sliced
250g extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon thyme, chopped
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
1/2 bunch shredded parsley
100g feta, crumbled

In a heavy based saucepan, saute prawns in olive oil for 3 minutes.  Add onions and continue to cook for further 3 minutes.  Add the garlic and thyme, cook for 2 minutes, then add crushed tomatoes and 1 cup water and simmer for 5 minutes.  Season to taste.  Stir in shredded parsley, spoon into serving dish and sprinkle with feta.  Grill until golden and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil to serve.

Soup and Spanish Potato Week

Potatoes would have to be one of my favourite foods yet I was a little uninspired when it came to potato week in the challenge.  I guess mostly my love of potatoes is as a side, smooth and creamy mash, crispy roast potatoes, the humble chip done really well for example and not a star though they do star in some fabulous dishes all alone, one of favourites being the potato pancake/rosti/hash brown - whatever you choose to call it.  
I also found it funny that I chose a Spanish dish and a soup dish which after seafood week next week are the 2 themes for week 34 and 35, must be sub-consciously thinking ahead!  My soup dish wasn't actually meant to be for the challenge, I was just wanting a very quick meal to throw together for Friday night dinner & was looking through Nigella Express for inspiration where I found the recipe.  I wouldn't even call it a recipe, its more just a couple of ingredients thrown into a pot & cooked for a while then whizzed up.  That's what I love about soups really, the simplicity of some fresh ingredients cooked in the one pot, maybe a fresh slice of bread on the side & you have a fabulous warming winter meal.  This sweet potato and pumpkin soup was no exception, sweet and creamy with a lovely tang thanks to the sour cream I added at the end & everyone had a smile on their face.

Note the recipe calls for buttermilk which I substituted with sour cream as I love it in soups and I had some in the fridge just calling out to be stirred through.  Nigella also suggests buying pre-chopped veggies, I didn't go that far, really it's not that difficult to slice up some pumpkin and potato is it?

Butternut and sweet potato Soup - Nigella Lawson - Nigella Express

350g diced butternut pumpkin and sweet potato from a packet.  (I used one large sweet potato and half a pumpkin)
750ml hot chicken or vegetable stock ( I used 1 litre to make up for the extra veg I put in)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
Freshly ground black pepper
4 teaspoons buttermilk

Put the diced veggies and hot stock in a large saucepan with the stock and spices.  Bring to the boil and simmer for approx 15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.  Add some pepper to taste.

Puree the soup with a stick mixer or blender, stir through buttermilk (or sour cream) to serve.

For my second dish firstly I would like to apologize for the photo, it wasn't a pretty dish, which combined with the lack of good light & my poor food styling does not make it look very appetizing at all.  This was a quick spanish dinner from The Hungry Girls Cookbook Volume 2.  If you haven't heard of the book, it's a small collection (12) of recipes put together by 3 local girls, you can read all about it here.

Some typical Spanish ingredients such as , potatoes, capsicums, smoked paprika, chorizo all done in a bit of a fry up was perfect for me to knock up after work one night for the in laws, that's right, I am back working.  At this stage only 2 days a week from home so you wouldnt think it would be too much different to my old ways but those 2 days throw me about.  Josh is very clingy so when I finish at 5 he really bawls for me so even this quick meal is difficult, it breaks your heart when all they want is you & you cant go to them, he really is a mummy's boy which Chloe never was (girl that is!).  I think from now on on work nights I will try & cook the night before so all I have to do is reheat.  Anyway back to the dish, nothing spectacular but a nice comforting dinner all the same.  You really have to watch the salt & get your flavours balanced right, I found the potatoes needed lots of salt yet the chorizo didn't so it was hard to get it perfect.

Note that the recipe feeds 3-4 so I adjusted the quantities to feed more, extra spuds & chorizo

Quick Spanish dinner - The Hungry Girls Cookbook - Volume 2

4 medium potatoes (about 800g)
2 large red capsicums
1 medium onion
1 small semi-dried chorizo (about 125g)
2 garlic cloves
Big handful parsley leaves
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
3/4 teaspoon salt

Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the potatoes in their skins until just soft.

Meanwhile, get everything else ready, halve and seed the capsicums and cut the strips in half widthwise.  Finely slice the onion.  Cut the chorizo in half lengthwise then thinly slice it.  Finely chop the garlic and roughly chop the parsley.

When the potatoes are half cooked, heat a frying pan over high heat and add the oil and capsicums.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until the capsicum skins are starting to wrinkle.  Turn the heat back a little, add the inion and continue cooking for 8-10 minutes, until the onion and capsicum are collapsed and browning at the edges.  meanwhile, drain the potatoes and cut into bite sized chunks.

Add the chorizo, garlic and paprika to the pan and fry for another few minutes, until the chorizo has browned slightly.  Add the potatoes and salt and stir gently until the potatoes are covered in the rust coloured juices.  Stir in the parsley.  Taste & adjust the seasoning as required.

French feasting, Rick Stein Style

Week 31 of the Cookbook Challenge was French week which had me very excited.  Firstly I Loooovvvvee French food and secondly I have Rick Stein's French Odyssey sitting on my bookshelf being badly neglected.   Michael was very sweet and bought it for me after I fell in love with the food watching the tv series that went along with the book.  It has lots of great recipes though a lot of them are somewhat intimidating.  This week I had no excuses and I was determined to try out some recipes that were a bit out of my comfort zone.  Having said that I picked some fairly safe options, an apple tarte tatin which was actually very simple, Some duck that though a bit fiddly was pretty straightforward and a Pissaladiere, a dish I have seen made many times and loved the look of though was a bit hesitant over whether I would like these flavours or not.

To start with the Duck, the recipe for which was called, Vetou's magret de canard with red wine sauce and Sauteed potatoes on the side, basically duck breast with prunes and a red wine sauce.  This was absolutely fantastic, the duck was moist & tender, the sauce was rich & velvety smooth with a lovely taste & texture that had a lot to do with the small amount of chocolate added in at the end I suspect and the potatoes were lovely, nice and crunchy on the outside and smooth and soft on the inside.   Love duck & this is definitely a make again winner.

Notes.  I couldnt find dried Agen prunes so used the ordinary supermarket variety and also I forgot to pre-soak them so just soaked them in boiling water from the time I started the dish until they were needed in the sauce.  Also, having no French wine on my rack I used a Shiraz which in my opinion worked a treat.  Also I was prepared for huge leaping flames in my pan, sadly, I only managed a flutter before they died down so the fire is nothing to be scared of (which I was personally!)

Vetou's magret de canard with red wine sauce - Rick Stein's French Odyssey

Serves 4

8 dried Agen prunes
4 duck breasts
150g carrots, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 shallots, roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
600ml red wine, such as a Languedoc or Corbieres
3 cloves
Large srig thyme and 2 bay leaves
15g plain chocolate
Salt & freshly ground pepper

Put the prunes into a bowl and cover with cold water.  Leave to soak for 1-2 hours.

Season the duck breasts on both sides with salt and pepper.  Heat a large, heavy based frying pan over a high heat.  Add the duck breasts, skin side down, lower the heat slightly and fry for 2 minutes until the skin is nicely browned.  Turn over and brown them on the other side for 2 minutes, then lift onto a plate and set aside.

Add the carrots, onions, shallots and garlic to the duck fat left in the pan and fry over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and golden brown.  Add the wine, bring to a rapid boil, then light with a match and shake the pan for a few seconds until the flames have died down.  This burns off the alcohol.  Then lower the heat, add the cloves, thyme and bay leaves, and leave the sauce to simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Return the duck breasts to the pan, skin side down, cover and simmer for 2 minutes.  Turn the duck breasts over, recover and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.  This will give you duck that is still pink in the middle, if you prefer it better cooked, cook for up to 1 minute more on each side.

Lift the duck out of the sauce onto a plate, cover with foil and leave it to rest in a low oven (about 100c) while you finish the sauce.  Add the chocolate to the sauce and simmer for 2-3 minutes more.  Then pass through a fine sieve into a small pan, pressing out as much liquid as you can with the back of a ladle.  Drain the prunes, add them to the pan, and simmer over a medium heat until they have heated through and the sauce is nicely reduced and well flavoured.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, lift the duck onto a board and carve, on the diagonal, into long thin slices.  Lift each onto a plate and spoon 2 of the prunes alongside.  Spoon some of the sauce over and around the duck and serve with sauteed potatoes or mash.

Sauteed potatoes

Cut 750g peeled floury potatoes into 4cm pieces.  Put them into a pan of well salted water, bring to the boil and simmer until tender, about 7 minutes.  Drain well and leave until the steam has died down.  Heat 40g butter and 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large, heavy based frying pan.  Add the potatoes and fry them over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, turning them over as they brown, until they are crisp, golden brown & sandy - the outside of the potatoes should break off a little as you saute them, giving them a nice crumbly, crunchy crust.  Season with salt & pepper.

Next on the menu was a fabulous Tarte tatin.  For something so simple to put together this is one amazing dessert, apples fried in butter and sugar, topped with puff pastry & popped in the oven, who would have thought the magic that this would create?  I made this one day for no reason other than I wanted to, Jane was over for lunch the next day & was lucky there were some leftovers so she got to share the joy.

Note that I used ready rolled puff pastry and therefore made it even easier by eliminating one step, ie rolling out pastry and chilling for 20 minutes.

Tarte Tatin - Rick Stein's French Odyssey

250g puff pastry
75g softened butter
175g caster sugar
750g (about 5) large firm dessert apples (I used Granny Smith's)
Vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche, to serve

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut out a 26cm disc, slightly larger than the top of a 20cm tarte tatin dish or relaiably non-stick cast iron frying pan.  Transfer to a baking sheet and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Spread the butter over the base of the tarte tatin dish or frying pan, and sprinkle over the sugar in a thick, even layer.

Peel, core and halve the apples, trimming them very slightly if necessary to fit but keeping their nicely rounded shape, and then tightly pack them, rounded side down, on top of the sugar.  Place the pan over a medium heat and cook for 20-25 minutes, gently shaking the pan now and then, until the butter and sugar have amalgamated with the apple juices to produce a rich toffee coloured sauce and the apples are just tender.  Take care that the butter and sugar are not allowed to burn.

Preheat oven to 190c.  Lift the pastry on top of the apples and tuck in the edges down inside the pan.  Prick the pastry 5 or 6 times with the tip of a small knife.  Transfer to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is puffed, crisp and golden.

Remove the tart from the oven and leave it to rest for 5 minutes.  Then run a knife around the edges and invert it onto a round, flat serving plate.  Serve warm with ice cream or creme fraiche.

Last on my French menu for the week was a Pissaladiere (Nicoise onion tart).  I'm not a huge anchovy fan so I was a bit hesitant about this dish though it always looks so good anytime I see it cooked on tv so I thought what the hell, this is the perfect time to try it out.  As you can see it is a bit overcooked as Josh was having a mummy's boy mood & it was difficult to get to the oven to check on the cooking.  Despite the appearance it didnt really taste burned which was a good thing.  I liked the flavours though it was very intenese.  I think the onion mixture would have been a bit better spread a little thinner & it may have been a bit better balanced between the soft, chewy base, sweet onions & salty anchoves & olives.  Overall glad I tried this dish & enjoyed it but cant see it on the repeat menu anytime soon

Pissaladiere (Nicoise onion tart) - Rick Stein's French Odyssey

275g strong plain white flour
2 teaspoons easy-blend yeast
1 teaspoon salt
250ml hand-hot water
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Topping:

50ml extra virgin olive oil
1.5kg onions, halved and thinly sliced
A large bouquet of parsley, thyme, bay leaves, rosemary and oregani
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
6-8 anchovy fillers in oil, drained & halved lengthways
Handful of small, black Nicoise olives (I used kalamata as they're my faves)
Sea Salt & freshly ground black pepper

For the base, sift the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.  Add the warm water and olive oil and mix together into a soft dough.  Knead for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.  Return to the bowl, cover with clingfilm & leave in a warm place for approx 1 hour or until doubled in size.

meanwhile, for the topping, heat the oil in a large pan over low heat.  Add the onions, bouquet garni and some seasoning, cover and cook gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then uncover, increase the heat a little and continue to cook for 20 minutes or until all the moisture from the onions has evaporated and they are thick and pale brown.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knock out the air and knead briefly once more.  Then roll it out into a rectangle and lift onto an oiled 30 x 37.5 cm baking sheet.  (I actually made a round one & used a pizza stone).  Reshape with your fingers, then carefully spread with a thin layer of the anchovy paste.  Spread the onion mixture evenly over the top, leaving a 2.5cm border free around the edge.  Criss cross the top with the anchovies and dot with olives.  Season lightly & leave somewhere warm to rise for 10-15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 240c.  bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust has browned and the edges of the onions are starting to caramelize.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Happy 1st Birthday Josh

 A big Happy Birthday to my little man Joshua, cant believe he has turned 1 now!  To celebrate we had a big bash on the weekend as well as some cake on his birthday during the week.  Luckily it was baked theme for the Cookbook challenge this week as both ovens were working overtime.  I managed a couple of snaps of the cakes but didnt get any of the savoury dishes.  I had an Italian themed party & made huge trays of lasagna, cheese & spinach cannelloni, osso bucco & chicken cacciatore, with some salads & potatoes on the side including a yummy panzanella.   Desserts at the party were the big chocolate birthday cake plus some cup cakes, caramel slice & a lovely boozy tiramasu for the adults.

Cake number one on Joshie's actual birthday was a classic Victoria Sponge, I didnt want anything too rich as I knew how much chocolate would be going around at the party.  I used Nigella's recipe from Domestic Goddess, as always it was incredibly simplified, everything is pretty much bunged into the food processor before being baked.  The sponges are sandwiched with jam & berries, I chose strawberries & then they are glued together with lashings of whipped cream.  I used light cooking cream which despite the promise on the jar just would not whip properly, next time I will go the real deal.  The cake was lovely though I dont think it was as light as a sponge should be, this may have been the processor method's fault or it could have been mine, I will have to try another recipe & see what the difference is.

Victoria Sponge - Nigella Lawson - How to be a domestic goddess

Cake:

225g unsalted butter, very soft
225g caster sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
4 large eggs
200g self raising flour
25g cornflour
1 tspn baking powder
3-4 tablespoons milk

2 x 21cm sandwich tins (about 5cm deep), buttered

Filling:

2-4 tablespoons raspberry or other berry jam, depending on the berries
1 punnet raspberries or berries of choice
125ml double cream

Topping:

1-2 tablespoons caster sugar (I used icing sugar instead)

Preheat the oven to 180c.  If the tins are loose-bottomed you dont have to lone them, otherwise do.

Put all ingredients apart from the  milk into a food processor & pulse until you have a smooth batter.  Then pulse, pouring the milk gradually through the funnel till your cake mixture's a smooth, soft, dropping consistency.  Pour the batter into the 2 tins evenly and bake for about 25 minutes, until the cakes are beginning to come away at the edges, are springy to touch on top and a cake tester comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

When you'r ready to eat, put one layer on a plate, spread with jam and scatter the fruit on top.  Whip the cream til it's thickened but still soft, spread over the jammy fruit.  Put the other cake on top & sprinkle with the sugar of your choice.

Here is a photo of the cupcakes I made.  I used Jamie Oliver's Tea party fairy cake recipe from Cook with Jamie.  The recipe is pretty basic so I wont bother giving it, I then iced them with chocolate icing, lots of colored sprinkles & some minty green & jaffa orange m and m's. After having kids for 3 years now I have worked out this is what they want, cupcakes, chocolate icing & bright decorations, doesnt need to get any more fancy than that.  Although Chloe seemed to not care too much about the actual cake, she was just burying her face in the icing & coming up black refusing to eat any of the cake, was very funny!

And for the sing a long I made this cute chocolate cake with chocolate icing, again lots of sprinkles, some writing icing to help with the name & colored m and m's.  I thought it looked really cute.  The cake itself was light, fluffy & not too sweet with lovely choc-butter icing, I could have done with seconds however it didnt stretch quite that far.  I will give the recipe for this one as it was similar to Nigella's methods though everything was thrown into the trusty kitchen aid this time, no creaming, whipping, etc & I was really pleased with the result.  It also makes quite a large cake which is good for parties.

Never Fail Birthday chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing - Bill Granger - Holiday

Serves 16

250g unsalted butter, softened
440g/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
250ml/1 cup milk
310g/2 1/2 cups plain flour
5 tspns baking powder
4 tblspsns cocoa
1 tspn vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180c.  Grease and line a 20 x 30 cm cake tin.

Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, cocoa and vanilla with electric beaters for 8-10 minutes until the mixture is pale and well combined.  Pour into the tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.  Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, before turning out and transferring to a wire rack.  Ice with chocolate icing when completley cool.

Chocolate icing

300g Icing sugar
4 tblspns cocoa
2 tblspns softened unsalted butter

Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa.  Add the butter and 3-4 tablespoons of warm water and beat until smooth and fluffy, adding more water if neccessary.

A kinda blue week

When I first read of this weeks theme 'blue' I was really stumped and asked Michael for advice.  He quickly pointed out all of the obvious choices which I cant believe I didnt think of myself, blueberries - cant get much bluer, blue eye fish, blue grenadier, blue fin tuna, blue cocktails, and the list goes on.

With such a choice I decided I would do a savoury & a sweet, the savoury is the sensational blue-eye dish above which is only kinda blue as the fish monger had no blue eye and I had to settle for snapper instead, oh well it was all in the right spirit & anyway I love snapper so it was no problem for me to change.  This is a Curtis Stone recipe from 'Relaxed Cooking With Curtis Stone', even though everyone absolutely loved it, I know why & I will not be making it again.  The amount of butter & cream used was enough to cause a heart attack on the spot & I even reduced the quantities as I couldnt make myself use the full lot.  I know when you go out heaps is used but it's easier to turn a blind eye when out & pretend you dont know.  When you are actually cooking yourself & have to physically add the butter & cream, for me anyway I get scared & try to avoid dishes with these vast quantities.  Suprisingly the red wine reduction was probably the healthiest thing on the plate as it was simply pure red wine & isnt a glass or 2 supposed to be good for the old heart too?  Anyway, here is the recipe for those brave enough to take it on....By the way, the recipe is called 'oven roasted...' & the oven is not used at all so think the recipe may have changed somewhere along the way.

Oven roasted blue-eye with garlic mashed potatoes and pinot noir reduction - Curtis Stone - Relaxed cooking with Curtis Stone

Serves 4

One 750ml bottle Pinot Noir
2 large russet potatoes (abt 1 kg), peeled
6 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup cream
150g butter
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
Four 185-220g blu-eye trevalla fillets (preferably the thick end of the fillets)
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Pour the wine into a medium-sized heavy saucepan and bring to a boil.  Simmer over medium-high heat for 40 minutes or until reduced to 1/3 cup and slightly thick.

Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into 5cm chunks, and place them in a large saucepan of salted water.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes, or until tender.

While the potatoes are cooking, cook the garlic in a small saucepan of boiling water for 1 minute, then remove & dunk in a bowl of cold water.  Repeat this process 2 more times.  Peel off the skins and mash the garlic in a mortar and pestle.

Drain the potatoes well then return them to the pan and mash.  Mix the garlic into the potatoes.

Bring the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium high heat, then slowly stir it into the mashed potatoes.  Slowly stir in the cream to make a nice, velvety smooth puree.  Cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, and gradually beat in 75g of the butter.  Season the potatoes with salt & pepper to taste.  Cover with cling film & keep warm.

Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle the fish with salt & pepper.  Place the fish in the pan & cook for about 8 minutes on one side, turn, add the lemon juice & remaining butter to the pan.  Continue cooking, spooning the lemon-butter over the fish as it cooks, for about 4 minutes, until just cooked through.

Place some potato puree on each plate, top with fish & drizzle over the red wine reduction.

My second blue dish was a blueberry torta from Jamie Oliver's Italy.  I've had this book for ages and have hardly cooked any of the dishes even though every time I flick through there are tons of recipes I really want to try out.  The cake uses 600g of blueberries so it really packs in the fruit which is something I love, it's funny really, give me straight chocolate in any form & I'm in heaven yet with cakes/desserts I prefer fruity concoctions over chocolate.  It also contains olive oil & is mixed with melted butter rather than the more traditional creaming method, the result is a lovely moist, berry laden cake with a lovely crisp shell if you are lucky enough to get an edge piece.  Also it makes a huge cake, I used a 25cm square tin & it was still quite high so one for the crowds.  Perfect with a nice cup of afternoon tea!

Torta di nada / nada's cake - Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Italy

Serves 10 (very generously)

butter for preparing the cake tin
4 large eggs, at room temperature
270g sugar
180g unsalted butter, melted
115ml extra virgin olive oil
155ml milk
1 vanilla pod, sees removed or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tspns baking powder
a good pinch of sea salt
zest of 2 lemons, grated
zest of 2 oranges, grated
600g fresh blueberries or small sweet red grapes such as muscat or fragola

Preheat the oven to 175c.  Generously butter a 25cm cake tine, line the base with greaseproof paper and set aside.  Either by hand or in an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar for about 3 minutes until thick & pale yellow, then add the butter, oil, milk & vanilla.  Mix well, then sift in the flour, baking powder & salt. Add the lemon & orange zest & stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended.  Set aside for 10 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the liquid.

Stir about a quarter of the berries into the batter, spoon it into your prepared tin and smooth out the top.  Bake for 15 minutes then remove from the oven, scatter the remaining berries on top & gently push them down.  Return to the oven for another 30-40 minutes until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm.  Put the tin on a rack to cool.  After 10 minutes run a knife along the sides of the pan and turn out your cake.

Sunday Brekky Bill Granger Style - The Cookbook Challenge Week 28

When I first noticed that the theme for week 28 was breakfast I always knew that I would cook a Bill Granger dish, after all he is the king of breakfast isn't he?  Lately there have been a lot of sweet breakfasts, in particular pancakes of one form or another on my menu so I thought it was time for a savoury change.  This recipe for scrambled eggs mixed with golden fried chorizo all eaten in a soft fresh roll was delicious, and the tomato salad on the side was pretty good too.  A simple dish for a busy weekend when you still want a nice cooked start to the day.

Grab and Go breakfast Sandwich - Bill Granger - Feed Me Now

Serves 2

125g Cherry tomatoes
2 teaspoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon shredded coriander leaves
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 Spanish chorizo sausage, about 120g diced
2 spring onions, sliced
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
2 bread rolls

Halve the cherry tomatoes and place in a bowl with the lime juice, sugar, shredded coriander, salt & pepper.  Stir gently to combine.

Place a frying pan over a medium heat.  When hot, add the chorizo and fry until lightly browned.  Add the spring onions and stir for 30 seconds until softened.  Pour over the beaten eggs.  When they start to set around the edge of the pan, gently stir and turn the mixture with a spatula or wooden spoon until the eggs are just set.

Break open the bread rolls, divide the mixture between them & serve with the tomato salad.

What to do with an insect theme?

What to do with an insect theme for I certainly was not going to be cooking up the real thing, there are some  ingredients that I absolutely will not touch!  So for week 27 of the cookbook challenge, I scoured far in advance as I didnt want to be stuck coming up with a last minute recipe.  I found this 'Bee-Sting' cake in my Good Living 'Winter' cookbook that my mum bought be for Christmas, it's a collection of recipes from Stephanie Alexander, Brigitte Hafner & Jill Dupleix drawn from the Sydney Morning Herald's food and wine section.  This is a Brigitte Hafner recipe, there is no explanation of the cake in the book so a quick google & I have found that it's a traditional German cake so called Bee-Sting as it is topped with honey.  There seem to be many very different versions around, I have never even heard of it before, I think it may have been popular a while back.

 The cake is made of a batter & topped with a nut/butter/honey mixture, then baked, cooled, halved & filled with a custard butter.  It's a delicious, dense cake that is made a bit special with the rich custardy filling.   It is being thoroughly enjoyed by us & visitors who happen to be around this weekend, though I wouldnt make it again as there were a lot of steps & pots & pans used, for that much effort it has to be a 5 star recipe in this house.  It is something different though & worth trying at least once.

Bee-Sting Cake - Good Living Winter

Cake

75g unsaled butter, soft
75g caster sugar
1 egg
250g self-raising flour, sifted
6 tablespoons milk

Topping

50g whole almonds
50g whole hazelnuts
75g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 tspn milk
1 tablespoon honey

Custard

250ml milk
30g custard powder
50g sugar
100g butter, soft

For the cake.  Preheat oven to 170c.  Cream together the butter and sugar until pale & thick.  Beat in the egg, then gently fold in the flour and milk.  Combine until you have a soft dough.  Grease and line the bottom of a 26cm springform tin.  Spoon the mixture into the tin and level it out.

For the topping.  Grind the nuts until quite coarse.  In a frying pan, gently heat nuts with the butter, suagr and milk, stirring until the butter has melted.  Remove from heat and stir in the honey.  Allow to cool slightly then pour over the cake batter and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

For the custard.  In a small bowl, combine just enough milk to dissolve the custard powder & make a smooth paste.  Now combine the paste & the remainder of the milk and sugar in a small saucepan and cook, stirring, until it thickens and boils.  Cook for another minute, remove from heat and allow to cool a little.

Beat butter until creamy and, when the custard has become lukewarm (the custard should not be too warm, as it will melt the butter), whip butter and custard together until combined & fluffy.

When the cake has cooled, slice through the middle.  Fill with the custard, replace the top & serve.  Serves 10-12