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

Eggplant - My favourite ingredient at the moment

I'm in love with eggplant at the moment, I've always liked it though I haven't cooked it all that regularly.  My mum however has a glut of eggplants growing so I am cooking them up every week, searching for new & interesting ways in which to prepare them.  This has to be my favourite recipe yet, they are Eggplant & Port Patties from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion.  The ingredients sounded a bit odd, I have certainly never heard of a rissole of any type containing eggplant that's for sure,  but I trust this book & gave it them a go never to look back.  The patties are moist, didnt break up at all while cooking, the eggplant gives them a delightful creamy, nutty & smoky flavour, & the simple tomato sauce pulls it all together amazingly.  I ate mine alone & cooked up some pasta for the kids to eat theirs with, Chloe, who has been very fussy lately asked me right away to make them again one day & even ate by herself (her thing at the moment is to make us feed her to take the focus of Josh) & even Josh gobbled up every last mouthful of his though he is less hard to please seeming to devour anything I put before him.  I cant wait to make them again & will double the recipe next time.  Here it is with a couple of small changes of mine for those who want to have a go...

Eggplant & Pork Patties - adapted from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden companion

Makes 10

1 eggplant (about 400g)
200g baby spinach, washed
200g minced pork
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
100g fresh ricotta
30g breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (extra for crumbing)
olive oil, for frying
1 qty Fast Basic Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)

Heat a barbecue grill plate until hot.   Roast eggplant, turning it 2-3 times so it roasts evenly, it will take about 30 minutes fir skin to char and eggplant to feel quite soft.  Remove with tongs & cool a little.  Peel away charred skin.  Halve lengthways & put into a colander resting over a tray to catch any juices.  After 10 minutes, wrap eggplant in a clean tea towel and gently squeeze.  Chop flesh quite finely & place in a large mixing bowl. 

Place spinach in a non stick frypan over medium heat for a few minutes until wilted down (you will not need any oil as the water on the leaves from washing will be sufficient).  Place in a colander & press with the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.  Chop finely and add to eggplant.

Add pork, garlic, ricotta, breadcrumbs, parmesan, salt, pepper & egg to eggplant/spinach mixture & mix very well.  Cover with glad wrap & refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Divide mixture into 10 balls & slightly flatten each one.  Roll each patty into breadcrumbs.  Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large non stick frypan & gently fry each patty for 5 minutes on each side.  Add the tomato sauce to the pan & cook for an extra 10 minutes.  Tuck in!

Fast Basic Tomato Sauce

1/3 cup extra virgin oliv eoil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
500g ripe tomatos, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
8 sprigs basil
salt & black pepper

Heat oil in  a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add onion & bay leaf, then cover & cook for 5 minutes or until onion is well softened but hardly coloured.  Uncover & add tomato, garlic & herbs.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently for 10 minutes or until tomato has collapsed.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  Blend with a bamix to a smooth consistency.

Something wicked to do with leftover egg yolks

I have been keeping my eye out for recipes to use up a heap of egg yolks I have sitting in my freezer due to an uncommonly high amount of meringues being baked here lately.  This recipe for Chocolate Custard Tarts from Bill Granger's Open Kitchen caught my eye.  Oh My!  They are so delicious, the chocolate custard is heavenly & I really had to stop myself from eating it all up out of the pot before it even reached the shells.  Luckily I showed some restraint & made the tarts as it was even better once encased in golden puff pastry.  Bill is such a legend, sorry but I do drool over his books, breakfast king, divine sweets & gorgeous & usually pretty healthy lunches & dinners too, who can resist? 

Anyway I scoffed 2 tarts before they rest were ripped out of my hands and off to Michaels sisters 30th birthday party tonight, I promised a dessert yet in the end couldn't make it as I had to stay home with the boy who has had a bit of a cold (me too) & needed his sleep.  Oh well, secretly I am pleased with a whole night just to myself, no whining, no footy in the background, just silence & the freedom to do whatever I want (without leaving the house of course) for a few hours at least.  So here I am sitting at the computer, glass of champagne in reach, blogging away, doing online crosswords & looking forward to snuggling up with my book, currently reading The Slap & I am loving it.  Just finished cleaning the kitchen & had a gourmet dinner of a corn cob with salt & butter (hey, it's nice not to have to cook for a change!) & feeling very relaxed.

Oh yeah, I found the recipe for the tarts here if you want to give them a go.

Green Mothers Day 2 ways - Cookbook Challenge - Week 26

Wow, I cant believe we are halfway through the Cookbook Challenge, which translates to 6 months worth of it, I dont know where the time has gone & on another note that also means that Josh is turning one in less than a month, what happened to my baby?

I decided to make green week a Mothers Day feast.  For breakfast I made the family, yes that's right, I cooked my own Mothers Day breakfast as I really wouldnt want to see what Michael would do to pancakes, Nigella Lawson's Arabian Pancakes with Orange Flower Syrup & Pistachio's, that very green & beautiful nut.  The book was Forever Summer & with the weather Melbourne has been experiencing of late it does seem that we are sort of having our very own forever summer too, she also suggests serving them as pudding, ie dessert though I thought they were just fine for breakfast.  They were really dreamy, the orange flower syrup was so beautifully thick, sweet & orange scented & went perfectly over the light, fluffy pancakes & the contrast of the chewy nuts on top made the whole dish just perfect.  Josh had a bite or 2 though Chloe who normally loves a pancake like her mum decided she didnt even want to try them & insisted on wheat bix, oh well what could I say but more for us!  She had spent the previous night vomiting all over the place, her bed, our bed, the floor & finally the bucket when we got her close enough so I was hoping that pancakes would cheer her up but sadly she didnt have much of an appetite & pretty much didnt eat all day or night (dinner was also flat out refused even though it consisted of her favourite savoury components, potatoes & meat on the bone).   One thing to note was that my batter didnt seem nearly as thick as she suggested it would have been & there is no way it would serve the 8-10 people that she quotes, I would say max 4!

Arabian Pancakes with Orange-Flower Syrup - Nigella Lawson - Forever Summer

Orange Flower Syrup

225g caster sugar
150ml water
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon orange flower water

Pancakes
150g plain flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 and a quarter teaspoons baking powder

1/4 tspn bicarb of soda
pinch ground cardamon

3 tblspns Greek Yoghurt or labneh
approx 125ml semi-skimmed milk
1 large egg
50ml almond oil (or 50g butter, melted & cooled)

To serve

1-2 handfuls shelled pistachios, chopped

To make the syrup, bring the sugar & water gradually to the boil in a saucepan, swilling the pan to help the sugar dissolve, but on no account stirring it.  Once it's boiling, pour in the lemon juice and then turn down the heat a little & simmer for about 10-15 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon.  Add the orange-flower water and simmer for another 5 minutes, then cool the syrup and chill in the fridge.

To make the pancakes, measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl then spoon the yoghurt into a measuring jug and, stirring with a fork, pour in the milk until you hit the 250ml mark.  If you need to, add a little more than the 125ml specified to do so.  Whisk in the egg & then the almond oil, then stir this jugful of wet ingredients into the bowlful of dry ones.  Almost immediately the mixture will stiffen into a thick, fluffy batter.

Heat a dry griddle & when it is hot add about 2 tablespoons worth of batter for each pancake.  When the pancakes begin to bubble on top, flip them over & cook the other side to a golden brown.  Serve drizzled with syrup (brought back to room temperature if made in advance) & sprinkled with nuts.

Green dish number 2 was to be my Mother's Day dinner & Michael was going to cook it for me so I kept it pretty simple.  A lovely rack of lamb with a mint salsa & some fairly traditional veg, potatoes, pumpkin & peas.  This recipe came from the same book as the pancakes.  Michael did a great job considering he also had Josh hanging off his leg the whole time, the boy was sick & in a new take on things didnt want to know about Mummy, it was all Daddy this weekend I'm afraid so I got to relax for real while the cooking was taking place.  The salsa was fantastic, lively, vibrant & great to liven up the otherwise dull roast vegetables, no gracy needed.  The lamb was tasty & tender though I was a bit disappointed in my butcher who I normally love as the lamb had quite a high fat content & therefore not much of the good tender pink stuff.

Thanks Michael for a bright spot in my otherwise pretty average Mothers Day!!!!

Rack of Lamb with Mint Salsa - Nigella Lawson - Forever Summer

Serves 4-6 so adjust quantities as needed

2 racks of lamb, approx 8 cutlets on each rack

Mint Sauce

30g fresh mint
30g fresh flat leaf parsley
16 cornichons (baby gherkins)
4 teaspoons capers
200ml extra virgin olive oil
4 tspns white wine vinegar, or to taste
pinch caster sugar
ground black pepper
Maldon salt

Preheat oven to 210c.  Make sure the lamb is out of the fridge and well on its way to becoming room temperature.  If still fridge cold when they go in the oven add about 7 minutes extra cooking time.

Destalk the herbs & whiz them in a food processor until they are chopped, then add the cornichons and capers and whiz again.  Pour the oil down the funnel, and then add the vinegar and sugar to taste, season with salt & pepper.

Score the lamb fat, by using a sharp knife to draw diagonal lines, this way & that, about a couple of centimetres apart and using a pastry brush, paint the fat with a coating of the mint sauce, saving the rest to serve with the lamb.  Arrange the racks in an intertwining arch (if you can be bothered!) and put them into a tin & into the oven for about 20 minutes until cooked to your liking.

Chocolate Panna Cotta with Warm berries & Honey = Silky Challenge Fail

For this weeks Cookbook Challenge theme of silky I knew right from the very start that I wanted to make my first ever panna cotta.  I flicked through my books & found several recipes & they all seemed to be quite different, some using yoghurt, others coconut cream & then the more traditional (I think, though I am by no means an expert) cream based ones.  I chose a very decadent sounding chocolate panna cotta with berries & honey from Skye Gyngell's My Favourite Ingredients.  I love this book & I love Skye's recipes so I am positive the reason it didnt set properly must have been some fault of mine & not the recipe.  As I said I have never made one before so have no experience in the problems one might encounter.  I let the panna cotta's cool down before I put them in the fridge, they were in for well over the specified 2 hours, the gelatine seemed to dissolve okay so any tips on why one may not set?  They sort of half set & seemed to set more at the bottom (which strangely was the top in the moulds) so if I didnt mix them enough then I would have thought the gelatine would sit at the bottom rather than the top but maybe it is the other way around, am I confusing anyone?

Anyway apart from them not actually setting, the flavour was fantastic, the sauce was heaven as you can imagine, rich chocolate, sweet berries & lovely oozy honey to bring it all together, mmmm, if this had set correctly it would have been an absolute stunner.  Here is the recipe for anyone who is game to try it out & see what happens to theirs, please let me know

Chocolate Panna Cotta with Warm Berries & Honey - Skye Gyngell - My Favourite Ingredients

Serves 4

a little oil, to oil the moulds
200g good quality dark chocolate (minimum 64% cocoa solids)
2 sheets of leaf gelatine
190ml whole milk
250ml double cream
100g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways

Berries & Honey

180ml honey
200g blackberries (or any berries you fancy)

Lightly oil 4 individual panna cotta moulds or other pudding basins, 200ml capacity each.

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt slowly, without stirring, in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water.  Remove the bowl of melted chocolate from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.  Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water to cover for about 5 minutes to soften.

In the meantime, put the milk, cream and sugar in a heavy based pan.  Scrape the seeds form the vanilla pod and add these to the pan with the empty pod.  Place over a medium heat & bring to a gently simmer, stirring once or twice to help dissolve the sugar.  Remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve onto the melted chocolate, stirring well to combine.

If necessary, return the chocolate mixture to the pan & reheat gently - it needs to be very hot but not quite boiling.  ake off the heat.  Squeeze the gelatine to remove excess water & add to the hot cream, stirring to dissolve.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug, then pour into the prepared moulds.  Allow to cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

For the berries, warm the honey in a small saucepan.  Add 2/3 of the berries & cook gently until they have begun to bleed into the warm honey.  Remove from the heat and stir through the remaining berries.

To serve, quickly dip the base of each mould into hot water to loosen the base & the sides, then run a small sharp knife around the top & invert onto a plate.  Spoon the warm berries over the panna cotta & serve immediately with extra cream on the side if desired.

Happy Birthday Michael

Sunday was Michaels birthday & for a change I had him all to myself for the day.  Unfortunately The Mighty Pies were playing in the afternoon & the family wanted to go to the game so we had the family celebrations on Saturday, I was actually pleased we got to have a nice family day alone for something different. 

To start with we walked down nice & early to Hellenic Republic for breakfast, it's nice & quiet at opening (9am) with most people in the area preferring to sleep in & have a later start to the day, for us, 9am is a late breakfast.  Chloe & Josh were well behaved & shared some toast between them, Chloe also stole some of my eggs & Michaels amazing thick cut bacon.  It was a nice breakfast though I'm sure they have shortened the menu & my spanakopita & poached eggs wasn't as good as the first time I had it back closer to the date they opened.  Still it was great to be out & I love going for a nice early morning walk.  Now that Josh is getting a bit easier to be out with, ie we can feed him off a menu instead of having to drag along baby food, we will have to start heading out a lot more like in the good old days.

After a relaxing day for Michael, I decided to have a bit of a pizza party, boys love pizza & Michael is no exception.  I find them really simple to make at home & actually prefer it to the home delivered variety no matter what the brand/shop it is coming from. 

I used the base recipe from Jamie Oliver's Italy & made 3 different pizza toppings, margaritas with fresh basil from the garden, and a couple of his suggested toppings, potatoes, mozzarella, rosemary & tomatoes and for the last, egg, prosciutto, artichokes, olives, mozzarella, tomato sauce & basil.  I cut my potatoes a bit thick as I didnt allow enough time for them to cool & I think I overcooked them a bit, so they didnt crisp up at all though the flavours were still fantastic.  The margarita was really very good, it's usually my favourite , though this time the prosciutto won out, a fantastic marriage of flavours.  Luckily I made heaps so guess whats on for dinner tonight & lunch too, no doubt I will be sick of pizza very soon!

To finish off the night I made some apples stuffed with dates, sultanas, pine nuts, honey, cream, vanilla, cinnamon & lemon zest, they were then baked with some apple juice & served with the juice boiled down to a syrup.  I wanted to keep things relatively simple after all the pizza & we really didnt need any more cake after Saturdays celebrations (I made an orange torte with chocolate ganache).  Nice though really, really sweet so lots of yoghurt on the side was needed to cut trough the richness. 

My birthday is later this week, more celebrations & of course more food, look out for some sensational chocolate that I will make for this weeks challenge as well as for me!

Chocolate Souffle - Cookbook Challenge - Week 24

Out of the hundreds and possibly thousands of recipes I have featuring chocolate, I decided before even looking through my books that I wanted to have a go at a classic chocolate souffle for this weeks challenge, something I love to eat when out yet have never cooked myself.  I have attempted more complicated souffles and some simple fruit based souffles yet chocolate had somehow been missed.  I found a recipe in Relaxed cooking with Curtis Stone, the recipe mentions that normally only cocoa is used and the addition of chocolate in this one makes it even more rich & irresistible.  The recipe was pretty straightforward to put together.  As you can see from my photo, even though I tried my best to get the butter and sugar coating on evenly my souffles still managed to rise uneven, no effect on the flavour, purely a presentation issue so it didnt bother me too much.  Also, by the time the 12 minutes cooking time was up they hadnt risen all that much so I let them go a couple of extra & they rose well though there was no gooiness left.  They were still lovely & moist  and hadnt dried out at all, I just prefer them with that hint of goo in the middle.  All in all I was happy with the outcome, the flavour was nice & rich without being too over the top, though I didnt think they were that sensational & will probably stick to ordering them when out for now.  Now to find the perfect recipe to use up all of those egg yolks leftover.

Chocolate Souffles - Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone

Serves 6.

15g unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating the souffle dishes
125g good quality dark chocolate (60-70 % cacao), coarsley chopped
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
6 large egg whites
icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Coat the interiors of 6 240ml souffle dishes (mine were smaller so I made 8) completely with the butter, then coat them with sugar.  Place the dishes on a baking tray.

Stir the chopped chocolate in a large bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until it is melted and smooth.  Whisk in the cold water and the cocoa powder.  Remove from the heat & set aside.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites in a large bowl until they are soft peaks.  Gradually beat in the 1/3 cup sugar.  Continue beating until the egg whites are shiny and form soft peaks when the whisk is removed.  Fold a quarter of the mixture into hte warm chocolate mixture.  Fold in the remainin egg whire mixture.  Divide between the dishes & bake for about 12 minutes until puffed but still moist in the centre.  Lightly dust with ising sugar & serve immediatley.

Morning Tea with some mums, kids & bubs

 Another lovely, summery, autumn day in Melbourne, I invited a couple of the girls from mothers group over with their 3 yr olds, bubs & one due to arrive shortly.  We sat outside & tried to relax over these delicious passionfruit melting moments, the kids had other ideas & we mostly spent the time running around fetching things for them, keeping the crawler out of trouble, pushing the swings & lots of keeping the peace.

Oh well, it was still a nice way to spend the morning & surely soon they will amuse themselves & we can maybe even break out some wine to really relax!

Leaf - The Cookbook Challenge - Week 23

With a theme this week of leaf, for something different, instead of making a nice healthy salad or dish using lovely spinach or the like I thought I would make a creamy pasta dish that included lettuce, it sounded quite odd so I thought this was the perfect time to see how it tasted.  The recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen garden Companion, a book that I have used a bit in this challenge & a lot any other day of the week too, I love it & have so many recipes bookmarked to try, I hope I can get to them all soon. 

The lettuce has quite a distinct flavour that is obviously very lettucey (making up words here), wilted down in the pasta I actually found it quite odd though I did really enjoy it too.  The recipe itself I had picked out before last weeks Doctors appointment in which I was given 2 months to get my cholesterol down, so butter, prosciutto, cream, this may be the last I see of you for a while in such large quantities though I refuse to give all the good things in life up entirely & am definitely not giving up baking!  Will be very interesting to see how I go retesting in 2 months.  As such, I really enjoyed this bit of luxury, even if in such a simple dish.  W ho doesnt love a creamy pasta sauce full of beautiful prosciutto & balanced out by lovely fresh peas, worth a look even if only once in a while.  Note the recipe in the book also comes with fresh pasta instructions which I will leave out as I was in a hurry & went with a packet.

Lets see how healthy I can make chocolate next week, I think if I use good quality dark chocolate I can sneak in something really yummy!

Pasta with Peas, Lettuce & Prosciutto - Stephanie Alexander - Kitchen Garden Companion

Serves 4

40g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 slices prosciutto, cut widthways into 1cm wide strips
12 cos lettuce leaves, hard stalks cut away, leaves cut widthways into 3cm strips
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
salt
500gpeas in pod (to yield 1 cup shelled peas)
1 cup pouring cream
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
Dried fettucine, pappardelle, etc to serve 4
Grated parmesan, to serve.

Bring a large pan of salted water to boil.  Once boiling, cook pasta according to packet instructions.

Meantime, heat butter & Olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan or saute pan over low heat & gently saute prosciutto until the fat starts to run.  Add lettuce & garlic, then cover pan and cook gently over low heat for 5 minutes or until lettuce is limp.

Add peas & cream to prosciutto/lettuce mix, cover & cook for 5 minutes until peas are tender.  Uncover pan & increase heat to medium, then cook for 2-3 minutes or until cream starts to thicken & deepen in colour.  Toss in drained pasta & parsley, season with salt & pepper to taste, toss well & serve with grated cheese.

Red savoury & sweet - The Cookbook Challenge - Week 22

Red was an easy week for me, the dish that immediately sprang to mind was borscht.  My grandparents on my mum's side were Polish so I grew up eating this delicious soup that I used to actually call 'Red Soup' so how could I not make it, the name plus the wonderful memories it evokes were enough to get me scouring through my books for a recipe.  Would you believe I could only find one recipe and that was in my Bowl Food cookbook, a book I sometimes turn to if I need something quick & easy on the table.  I dont know how authentic the recipe is, I cant actually remember what my Gran put in apart from the obvious, BEETROOT.  Regardless it was sensational, even though I cooked it for about 3 times longer than required, with all the veggies added after the first hour, I think this was what made it, the beef was nice & tender & the veggies had cooked down enough that they were still whole but really took on the flavours of the soup, rather than being just cooked & not really melding if you know what I mean?  I was quite please with the red outcome too, after I chose the soup I was worried it would be too purple, as lets face it, beetroot has more of a pink/purple hue than red.  The tomato saved it though & everything looked quite the right color for the theme to me, definitely a keeper.

The second recipe I wanted to try this week was for some strawberry vacherins.  I picked up some super sweet Sunny Ridge strawberries from the Collingwood Children's farm farmers market last weekend & this seemed like a great way to showcase them.  They are pretty much a meringue with crushed strawberries mixed through before baking.  I served them with ice cream & fresh strawberries as suggested, loved them, crispy outer shells, gooey strawberry flavoured center & the aroma was pretty spectacular too.  I think I'd actually prefer them with a dollop of double cream than the ice cream though so something to keep in mind for next time.

The recipe for Borscht below is per the book, notes from me - I cooked it for 3 1/2 hours as mentioned, adding all of the veggies after the first hour of cooking & the finishing touches, ie lemon juice, sugar, herbs right before serving.  I also used a whole 400g can of tomatoes as couldnt see the point of only using half.

Beef and Beet Borscht - Bowl Food

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
500g beef chuck steak, cut into 2cm cubes
1 litre beef stock
2 small beetroot (abt 250g)
200g canned crushed tomatoes
1 carrot, diced
2 potatoes, diced
2 1/2 cups (190g) finely shredded cabbage
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Sour Cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 200c.  Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion & garlic over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.  Add the beef, stock & 1 litre water & bring to the boil.  Reduce heat & simmer, covered, for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the meat is tender.  Remove the meat.

Meantime, trim the beetroot just above the end of the leaf stalks.  Wrap in foil and bake for 30-40 minutes or until tender.  Unwrap & leave to cool.

Return the stock to the boil and add the tomato, carrot and potato and season with salt.  Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.  Add the cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.  Peel & dice the beetroot.  Return the meat to the pan & add the beetroot, lemon juice, sugar & 1 1/2 tablespoons each of parsley & dill.  Cook for 2 minutes or until heated through.  Season to taste.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream & garnish with remaining herbs.

Strawberry Vacherin - Bill Granger - Feed Me Now

Serves 8

250g ripe strawberries
250g caster sugar
4 medium egg whites
pinch of sea salt

Vanilla or strawberry ice cream or cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 120c.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.  Ina bowl, crush 4 or 5 of the berries with 1 tablespoon sugar, using the back of a fork.

Place the egg whites & salt in a clean, dry, large bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.  Add the rest of the sugar gradually, whisking continuously, until the mixture becomes stiff & glossy.  Add hte crushed strawberry mixture gradually and whisk through.

Spoon the meringue mixture into 8 mounds on the prepared baking tray and bake for 1 1/4 hours.  Remove from the oven & allow to cool.  (Meringues can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.)

To serve, top each meringue with a scoop of ice cream and scatter with the rest of the strawberries.

Thai Feast - Cook book Challenge - Week 21

Let me start by saying I love Thai food so I was very excited about choosing the menu for this weeks Cook Book Challenge theme.  Originally I planned on making some type of Thai curry then changed my mind as I thought that might be a bit boring, not boring to eat, just something I have done many times before & am quite comfortable with.  I ended up going with 3 recipes, a home made sweet chilli sauce & Gai Yang: Thai barbecued chicken, both from Ben O'Donoghue's Ben's Barbecue & on the side a Thai cucumber salad from Stephanie Alexander's the Cooks Companion.

The sweet chilli sauce was sensational, so much nicer than from a jar & pretty simple too, I halved the chilli quantity & it still had quite a bit of kick to it so very happy with that decision.  The chicken was really, really good too, I think basting the chicken in the leftover marinade mixed with coconut cream was the final touch that made this dish so delicious.  Note, I used chicken thigh fillets, my all time favourite chicken cut rather than jointing a whole chicken, basically I have no idea how to do it & am too lazy, would rather just slap the thighs in the marinade & I always find them so tender too.   The cucumber salad on the side was a nice refreshing touch, I left out the chilli as I was pretty sure between the chicken & the sauce we had enough & I was spot on, I also used cashews instead of peanuts as I have a no peanut house, cashews I find to tbe the best substitute & love them.  I wonder if you could make a satay sauce with cashews, I love a good satay & miss it o so much, anyone tried it with anything other than peanuts?

Overall, loved Thai week & found some recipes I will definitely use again

Sweet Chilli Sauce - Ben O'Donoghue - Ben's Barbecue

500g caster sugar
500ml white wine vinegar
500ml water
4 lemongrass stems, peeled & finely sliced
10 garlic cloves, peeled
15 long red chillies, chopped (feel free to halve this amount!!!) 
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the sugar, vinegar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Place the lemongrass, garlic, chillies and salt in a food processor & pulse to a fine texture.  Add the paste to the saucepan, then simmer and reduce by half.  Skim off any floating bits or any foam that forms.

Once thick, set aside to cool.  Will keep for up to 2 months in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Gai Yang: Thai Barbecued Chicken - Ben O'Donoghue - Ben's Barbecue

Serves 4.

1 x 1.5kg chicken, cut into 8 joints, trimmed of fat and excess skin (or sub with skinless chicken thigh fillets as I did)
1/4 cup coconut cream

Marinade

5 coriander roots, washed & chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled
5 Thai pink shallots, peeled
1 birdseye chilli
1 tblspn minced turmeric or turmeric powder
2 tblspns freshly ground white pepper
3-4 tblspns fish sauce to taste
2-3 tblspns palm sugar to taste

For the marinade, use a heavy mortar and pestle or food processor, and puree the coriander roots, garlic, shallots, chilli and turmeric.  Add the pepper, fish sauce and sugar to taste, and mix well.  Rub the marinade into and under the skin of the chicken and leave it to marinate in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

Remove from the fridge & allow to come to room temperature.

Cook the chicken in a frypan or griddle pan over high heat, turning & basting frequently with the leftover marinade mixed with the coconut cream, until cooked through.

Thai cucumber salad - Stephanie Alexander - The Cooks Companion

Serves 4

4 shallots, very finely sliced
1 tblspn vegetable oil
2 long cucumbers, peeled and seeded
1 tblspn brown sugar
2 tblspns rice or white wine vinegar
1 fresh chilli, seeded & finely chopped (optional)
50g peanuts, roasted & chopped (substitute with cashews)
2 tblsons freshly chopped coriander leaves & stems
fish sauce

Saute shallots gently and slowly in oil until brown but not burnt.  Drain on kitchen paper.  Cut cucumber into 1 cm cubes.  Dissolve sugar in vinegar.  Toss vinegar mixture through cucumber, then add all other ingredients, seasoning to taste with fish sauce.

Happy Easter and a healthy start to the day, all down here from there

For me these days Easter is all about family & eating.  This said, I felt I could get away with some cheesy pics of Chloe & Josh with their Easter Egg loot from the Bunny, though the photo shows the closest Josh will come to actually eating a chocolate for a couple more months at least, for now he just gets to enjoy the bright wrapping.

I started the day with some bircher muesli Hellenic Republic style.  Bircher muesli is a summer favourite of mine now in it's last days before I move on to warmer porridges.  This recipe differs to my usual with the addition of pureed strawberry & segmented oranges added to the mix.  Very nice though be warned the mixture says it serves 4, I think it could easily go 8!

After brekkie & ester eggs we were off to lunch at my mums for a tradional lunch of sauerkraut soup, roast & some chocolate/orange mousse & a pistachio, chocolate & pear cake baked by me.

What did everyone else do for Easter?  Off to the couch for me now I think....

Another Thai Beef Salad - Cookbook Challenge - Week 20 - Tangy

I had a rather difficult time coming up with a recipe for this weeks theme of Tangy.  I could easily have made a sweet recipe, a citrusy cake perhaps?  However I didnt have anyone to feed cake to this week & as I've been really good to myself lately & have stuck to 'the rules' I've imposed on myself I didnt want to bake just for the sake of a challenge.  So I set about trying to find a savoury recipe that sounded tangy to me, Thai was the best I could come up with, the lime juice, fish sauce & lemongrass dressing fit the bill even though the chilli might have made this dish more apt for a spicy theme. I also seriously cut down on the quantity of spring onions & shallots & added some lettuce instead as there is only so much onion I can eat in one sitting.

Conflicted as I was, I had no problem eating this dish.  I've recently discovered a great butcher & I swear whenever I cook a meal with his meat it is great, tender & full of flavour, so the simple dressing & bits & pieces of spring onions, shallots, coriander & the like lifted it to a fab weeknight dinner.  By the way, when I'm cooking something like this which Chloe who is only 3 will not eat, even the mildest of chillies hurt her tongue, (dont worry will keep trying her until she is a chilli trooper like the rest of us!), to avoid cooking 2 meals, I just make some veg & salad on the side & give her the meat minus the dressing, she does love a good piece of steak too. 

Anyhow, the recipe comes from Ben O'Donoghue's Ben's Barbecue, a book I recently acquired for free simply by purchasing 6 bottles of Penfolds wine in a recent Safeway promotion, having been known to enjoy the odd drop or two, this posed no problem I can tell you & hey presto, I have yet another cook book.  This is the second recipe I've tried from the book & let me tell you, the first was a major disaster that I did manage to salavage, the recipe for foccacia, the mixture was so soggy it was like soup, I had to add about a ton of flour to achieve a dough & of course by then it was more like bread in the end & didnt in any way resemble what it was supposed to.  On thinking about it but by no means being an expert I think the quantities were out, 1.5 litres of water to 1kg of flour all up, what does everyone else think?  Anyway luckily no 2 was a winner so dont have to toss the book just yet.  Will actually be using it next week for the Thai theme too, funny that I actually made Thai the week before for Tangy & now have to do it again, should really plan ahead a bit better.

Thai Beef Salad - Ben O'Donoghue - Ben's barbecue

Serves 4

2 bunches spring onions, washed, outer leaves removed, roots & tips trimmed
3 red chillies, finely sliced
10 Thai pink shallots, finely sliced
1 bunch coriander, washed & chopped
3 sticks lemongrass, peeled & thinly sliced
400g rump or sirloin steak
salt & freshly ground black pepper
juice of 3 limes
5 tablespoons fish sauce

Finely slice the spring onions on the diagonal and place in a bowl with the chillies, shallots, coriander & lemongrass.

Prepare your barbecue (or grill pan over the stove) for direct grilling  over a high heat.  Season the beef with a good amount of salt & pepper, then cook to your liking.  I prefer a medium-well-done as I think you get a more flavourful salad.  Allow the meat to rest while you dress the salad.

Squeeze the lime juice over the spring onion salad, followed by the fish sauce, then toss to combine.  Slice the meat finely, removing the fat.  Add to the salad & toss to combine, then serve.

Earth hour 2010 at the Zoo - Warning no photos of food to follow

For Earth Hour this year I was lucky enough to be given a couple of tickets to Earth Hour at the Melbourne Zoo thanks to Zoos Victoria.  The tickets included a behind the scenes tour of some of the reptiles where the lovely guide (pictured) brought out a Fijian crested iguana, Honduran milk snakes & biggest & best of all a Black Headed Python.  I hid behind my camera while Michael had a play.

After our tour, we had a wander around and saw the Lions who seem to sleep forever, get frisky for about a minute before resuming their laziness, the giraffes having a bit of a feed & a lonely meerkat or 2 wondering what all the upcoming noise was about.

We were then treated to a sit down barbecue dinner, a simple spread of veggie burgers, snags, potato salad, green salad, bread & lots of free booze - who can say no to that!  Too bad really as I brought along my own dinner not fully understanding that the offer of food to be proved meant an entire meal, thinking it would be more like a nibbly or 2 pre-show. Sadly my food had to be thrown out after being carted around & neglected all night.

Next was off to the vip seating area, where we snuggled up on the picnic rug with our one free rain poncho (I scored it), to brave the drizzle (which thankfully didnt last too long), to watch Wagons & Tim Rogers, missed the Blackchords entirely while eating, sorry.  Wagons were interesting, part comedy, some interesting language & a good strong voice, Tim Rogers I love from way back & was especially please to hear him sing Heavy Heart.  We also brought along our own booze so we were very merry by the end of festivities.

Despite the ignorance of the PR company who organised the event, in regards to a certain chocolate & the Zoos involvement i the 'Dont Palm us Off' campaign, you can read all about it here, we had a wonderful time, love the zoo & love their Twilight nights, as I say every year, I will have to get along more often!

Rice 2 ways - The Cookbook Challenge - Week 19

The theme for this week was rice.  I really wanted to make both a savoury & a sweet dish this week so I chose 2 recipes from the same book, Bill Granger's Holiday & both had an Asian feel to them.  It's funny how I thought the pudding would be sensational & the rice just ok yet things turned out completely the other way around.  I loved the simplicity of the rice with chicken yet the pudding didnt do it for me at all though I was quite partial to the gorgeous caramelized pineapple on top.

The chicken dish was quite interesting for me in that it was cooked a bit differently to my normal method, the rice had ginger, onion, garlic & sesame oil through it, I love the aroma of anything cooking with sesame oil in it?  Once this was simmered for a while the chicken was poached on top.  When I tried this before adding the soy, spring onions & chilli I was a little disappointed as it was a bit bland (as well as looking way too white!), however the addition of the last minute extras lifted the dish to one I was very happy to eat, a great simple combination.

Ginger & Sesame Rice with Poached Chicken - from Bill Granger, Holiday

Serves 4

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbspn freshly grated ginger
400g jasmine rice
750ml chicken stock
500g chicken breast fillets, cut into thin escalopes

To Serve

Finely sliced spring onions
Chopped red chilli
Soy Sauce

Heat the oils in a large deep frying pan over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes until soft.  Add the garlic and ginger & cook, stirring for 2 minutes more.

Add the rice and stir to coat the grains of rice with the oil.  Add the stock and bring to the boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.  Place the chicken in a single layer on top of the rice.  Cover again and simmer for a further 8-10 minutes, or until the rice is just tender and the chicken is cooked through.

Remove from the heat and set aside with the lid on, for a further 5 minutes.  Serve sprinkled with spring onions, chilli & drizzled with soy sauce

My second rice dish was a coconut rice pudding with caramelised pineapple.  Now I love anything flavoured with coconut or coconut milk so I thought this was a definite winner.  Wrong, it was ok though my version turned out a little dry, didnt really brown all that well on top & the flavour just didnt taste quite right to me.  Funny as I made a classic rice pudding for Josh yesterday & served it to him with some blackcurrant jam stirred through & this one was sensational!  As mentioned the pineapple got a big thumbs up, I guess anything coated in sugar & cinnamon & fried has to taste good right?

Coconut Rice Pudding with Caramelised Pineapple - from Bill Granger, Holiday

Serves 4

400ml coconut milk
500ml milk
225g arborio rice
3 tblsons caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170c and lightly grease a 1.5 litre capacity baking dish.  Put the coconut milk, milk, rice, sugar & vanilla in the dish & stir together well.  Cover with foil & bake for 1 1/4 hours, remove the foil & bake for a further 30-35 minutes until nicely browned on top.  Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving with pineapple.

Caramelised Pineapple

1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
2 tblspns brown sugar
3 thin slices fresh pineapple, cut into small triangles.

Mix together the cinnamon & sugar on a plate.  Toss the pineapple in the cinnamon sugar until coated on all sides.

Heat a large non stick frying pan over medium high heat & cook the pineapple for 1 minute on each side until caramelised.  Serve with the pudding.

Fantastic soup & another use for the rainbow chard in the garden

I know you probably wont think so when looking the the photo but this is one fantastic pot of Chick pea and chard soup.  In my opinion soup doesn't photograph well at the best of times so you have to take my word rather than go my fairly dubious looking photo above.  With the change of seasons and the weather supposedly cooling down I have moved into full 'make-a-pot-of-soup-a-week' mode.  Soup being one of my most loved foods, I love to make old favourites & am always on the lookout for new recipes.  This one caught my eye in my new ebay purchase of Skye Gyngell's My favourite ingredients.  It's a lovely book and I have tried a few of her recipes from Delicious so I was keen to start from the book, this recipe was perfect for me as I'm also on the lookout for recipes I can use my rainbow chard growing out the back in.

I cheated a bit when making the soup, I actually pretty much cooked it while playing out the back with both kids, just running inside every 10, 20 or 30 minutes to add the next ingredient, all of which I had lined up waiting to be thrown in, you cant get much easier than that.  So my cheats were, using tinned chickpeas instead of dried, ie no need to soak overnight or boil for 1 1/2 hours.  I just added the lemon juice when I threw them into the soup.  I also threw the chard straight into the soup rather than cooking it separately as suggested.  I wasnt expecting the soup to be so good, the ingredients are very simple yet all together they were amazing, one to add to my soup collection for sure.

Chickpea and chard soup - Skye Gyngell - My favourite ingredients

200g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or sub with a tin of chickpeas - no need to soak)
3 tblspn extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
juice of half a lemon
2 dried red chillies
5 garlic cloves, peeled & smashed with the back of a knife
3 rosemary sprigs
2 x 340g tins of good quality peeled plum tomatoes
sea salt & freshly black pepper
1 litre good quality chicken stock
300g swiss chard
2 thick slices day old chewy bread, ie sourdough, crusts removed
75-90g Parmesan - freshly grated

Drain the chickpeas, rinse & place in a large heavy-based pan.  Cover generously with cold water , but do not season.  Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then turn the heat down.  Simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours or until the chick peas are soft, skimming away any scum from the surface every now and then.  Drain & dress with 1 tblspn extra virgin olive oil & the lemon juice.  (Note as mentioned you could skip this step & just add a can of chickpeas with the lemon juice at the adding stage).

In the meantime, warm 2 tblspns extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Crumble in the chillies and add the garlic and rosemary.  Cook for a minute or so to release the flavours, then add the tomatoes & stir well to break them up, adding a good pinch of salt.  Cover & cook for 20 minutes, then pour in the stock & cook for a further 10 minutes.  Finally add the chick peas & simmer for 40 minutes.

Towards the end of cooking time, prepare the chard.  Wash and pat dry, then strip the leaves from teh pale central stalk, using a small sharp knife, set aside.  Trim the stalks & cut into 1cm chunks.  Add these to a pan of well salted boiling water and cook for 2 minutes, then add the soft green outer leaves & cook for a further minute.  Drain.  (Note I skipped this stage & simply added the torn leaves to the soup directly a few minutes before the end of cooking time.

Break the bread into small pieces and stir into the soup with the Parmesan, turning the heat to low.  Add the chard and a drizzle of olive oil.  Taste & adjust the seasoning before serving.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 18 - BBQ

This weeks cookbook challenge is BBQ and what Aussie doesnt just love them?  As you can see in my photo I actually 'barbecued' my Salmon on the griddle pan over the stove as I was cooking for my parents & Michael is never home in enough time to even contemplate waiting for him to get the real thing out.   I'm actually having a 'real' bbq on Saturday night so if I remember I may get some photos to post of the real deal.

The recipe I chose was from Jamie Oliver's Jamie at home, I really like this book & enjoyed the series too & seemed to remember a bbq chapter with a delicious salmon recipe.  The Salmon was fantastic & everyone apart from my Dad who peeled it off & left it to the side, loved the crispy skin, even Chloe, anything with crunch tickles her tastebuds.  I have to say though that I quite often griddle salmon with nothing more than a sprinkle of salt & pepper & brushed with some olive oil & feel it doesnt need anymore.  This recipe had herbs & lemon zest stuffed into the flesh & even though it was fantastic I dont really think I could taste the difference the herbs made.  The cucumber yoghurt on the side however was a great extra to serve with the salmon this way.  I used fresh mint in mine.  So even though I would make the cucumber yoghurt again I probably would bother adding the herbs.

Crispy barbecued side of Salmon with cucumber yoghurt - from Jamie Oliver - Jamie at home

Serves 4-6. 

1 x 1.5kg side of salmon, scaled & pinboned (I only used about 950g & it fed 4 adults & 1 3 yr old fine)
zest and juice of 1 lemon
a bunch of fresh herby fennel tops or basil, leaves picked & finely chopped (I used basil as that's whats in my garden right now, maybe fennel would have had a stronger flavour)
olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 cucumber, peeled lengthwise at intervals
300ml natural yoghurt
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded & finely chopped (omitted from mine so it was Chloe safe)
a small bunch of fresh mint or oregano, leaves picked & chopped
extra virgin olive oil

Brush the bars of the bbq clean to prevent the fish sticking, then light it & get the coals glowing hot.  (Or turn on the stove or gas bbq like I did).

Place the salmon skin side down on a board and, using a sharp knife, slash it evenly all over on the fleshy side, making the incisions about 1cm deep.  Scatter the lemon zest & fennel tops or basil over the salmon, then push into the incisions.  Rub the fish lightly all over with olive oil then season with salt & pepper.

When the barbie is ready, lay the salmon on the bars, skin side down.  Cook for about 4 minutes until golden brown then flip over, cook for a further 2-3 minutes.  While it's cooking, gently ease the skin away & put it alongside the fish to crisp up (I also omitted this step as I get great crispy skin on the griddle without removing it).  When the salmon is cooked to your liking, lift it off the bbq onto a serving platter, then break the skin into pieces & place on top.

Cut the cucumber in half lengthways, remove the seeds, chop it up & mix in a bowl with the yoghurt.  Balance the flavours with the lemon juice, half the chopped chilli and half the mint or oregano.  Season carefully with salt & pepper.

Break the Salmon into 6 chunks & serve with the cucumber yoghurt, some crispy skin & the remaining chilli & herbs.

If you have too many grapes...

Patrizia's Grape Fritters from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion, sensational!  Having masses of grapes ripening on the vine out the back all at the same time I thought it was high time I started experimenting with cooking grapes as I dont have enough to start making home brew just yet.  I've never actually cooked with grapes before as they are so sweet & delicious all on their own that I haven't felt the need up until now.

As pancakes are one of my favourite foods, this recipe immediately caught my eye.  The recipe suggests seedless grapes, mine have seeds so as the batter was resting for its required half an hour, I plopped myself down at the bench while everyone else was sleeping & de pipped the 500g, not such a big deal when you have time to spare & for me these sorts of jobs are always a labour of love anyway so I find them quite relaxing.  As for the cooking, I found it a bit tricky to get the temperature just right, you might be able to see in the photo that the batter isnt quite cooked all of the way through, after the first few when I realised this was happening, I slowed things down a bit, squashed them after flipping & problem solved.  A really sweet Sunday morning brekkie treat without too much added sugar, they didnt even need any syrup or ice cream on the side.

Does anyone else have any great grape recipes for me?

 Patrizia's Grape Fritters

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
1/4 tspn salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
500g black grapes, preferably seedless, stems removed
grapeseed oil or vegetable oil, for frying

Sift flour, sugar & salt into a large mixing bowl.  Lightly whisk egg with milk.  Make a well in the flour & stir in the egg/milk mixture, then whisk to form a smooth, thickish batter.  Leave to stand for 30 minutes. 

Cut the grapes in half & de-seed if necessary.  Stir through the batter.

Pour oil into a medium sized non stick frypan to a depth of 1cm & heat over medium heat until hot.  test the heat by dropping in a small blob of batter.  It should sizzle as it hits the oil & start to brown at once.  Drop in heaped tablespoons of batter & fry for 1 minute, then turn with an egg lifter.  Press down lightly on each fritter with the egg lifter.  Fry until golden brown on both sides.  Remove & drain on greaseproof paper.  Dust with extra sugar & serve.  Makes about 10.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 17 - Vietnamese

This weeks theme is Vietnamese.  Not only do I not own any Vietnamese cookbooks, I also have not really eaten in many Vietnamese restaurants & I've never been to the country itself though I hope to visit one of these days as I hear it is very beautiful.  So for my recipe this week I once again turned to trusty Bill Granger's version of things, a lovely light & refreshing chicken salad from Bill's Open Kitchen.  Note that I am almost embarassed by how much I am using Bill Granger's cookbooks but what can I say, they suit me to a T at the moment & I am really trying to get out all of my other books too I promise.

I was going for salad as the weather has been so hot lately though that all changed with the storms, if I'd known how chilly it would get maybe I would have found a pho recipe!  A bonus for me with this dish was that I actually got to use some Thai basil & Vietnamese mint from my garden which is great, they are thriving & dont get used as often as some of my other herbs so always nice to find a use for them before they die off.  The dressing was quite tangy & zingy, the overall salad being quite light & satisfying.  I think the flavours leant a bit too much towards the sour though so next time I would just add raw carrot rather than going to the trouble of pickling my own, I think that would keep it fresher.  Overall a nice, simple (though you have to start the carrots a couple of hours ahead if pickling) weeknight dish, though not sure I personally will be rushing back to try this one again, it just didnt wow me enough even though I love recipes like this that I  can do in stages, that way I can have most stuff prepped while the kiddies sleep & its just an assembly & quick cooking job at the end to bring it all together.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad - Bill Granger - Bill's Open Kitchen

3 x 200g chicken breasts
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
sea salt
pepper (Bill prefers white, I went with black)
90g (1 cup) bean sprouts
20g (1 cup) Vietnamese mint leaves
50g (1 cup) Asian basil leaves, or basil leaves
180g (4 cups) Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
Vietnamese dressing (below)
90g (1 cup) pickled carrots (below), or raw carrot, peeled & finely julienned

Preheat the oven to 220c.  heat a frying pan over high heat & while the pan is heating, brush the chicken with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Place the chicken skin side down (if skin on) & sear for 2 minutes, turn and sear for another minute.  Put the chicken on a baking tray & cook in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes.  Leave to rest for 20 minutes.  Shred the chicken into thin strips with your hands & place in a large bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients and toss to combine.  Serves 4.

Vietnamese dressing

60ml (1/4 cup) lime juice
60ml (1/4 cup) fish sauce
2 tblspns rice vinegar
1 tblspn caster sugar
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 red asian shallots, or 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
2 small red chillies, very finely chopped (seeds removed if you dont like too much heat)

Place all the ingredients in a small bowl & stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Pickled Carrot

250g carrots, peeled & finely julienned
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tblspns rice vinegar
1 tblspn caster sugar

Place the carrots in a colander, sprinkle with salt & toss to combine.  Leave for 20 minutes.  While the carrot is resting, place 185ml (3/4 cup) water with the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over a medium het & bring to the boil.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.  Rinse the carrot, squeezing out any excess water, and place in a bowl.  Pour over the pickling liquid and stand for 1 hour.  Strain before serving.