dolcidoll

roast potato and parsnip soup with parsley oil and crispy bacon

2010-07-13T11:32:00.006+01:00

More comfort food for a wintry day, made from what I had available in the fridge. This is a smooth yet hearty soup, and very easy to whip up. Worth taking the extra step of roasting the vegies, especially the garlic.

You will need:
4 small parsnips
4 medium potatoes
1 onion
1 bulb of garlic
1 litre vegetable stock
1 rasher of bacon per serve
a handful of flat leaf parsley
unsalted butter
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

bread and butter, to serve.

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 200'c. Dice the parsnip and potato, and slice the top off the garlic bulb. Spread evenly onto a baking tray and place into oven for approximately 20 minutes, then remove the garlic bulb and return the remaining vegetables to the oven for another 20 minutes.

Bring the stock to the boil. Dice the onion and then sautee in a large saucepan until just translucent. Add the roasted vegetables and vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth. Meanwhile, lay the bacon flat on a baking rack and cook in the 200'c oven for approximately 15 minutes, until just crisped.

Strain the soup back into the saucepan, removing any fibres or lumps. Leave over a very low heat to remain warm. Taste and adjust seasoning with freshly cracked salt and pepper.

Blend olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper until a coarse paste forms.

Portion the soup into individual bowls and serve, topped with a drizzle of the parsley oil and a rasher of crisped bacon (optional). Perfect with sourdough bread and butter. Enjoy!

sweet potato, parsley and walnut risotto

2010-07-12T10:16:00.006+01:00

I promised I'd be back quickly! This is a bastardization of risotto, a version that will get a delicious meal on your table with a minimum of fuss and effort. The dish takes less than half an hour from beginning to end and is really delicious.

You will need:

A small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
One small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons olive oil plus extra to finish the dish
2 cups arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine or verjuice
1 litre vegetable stock.
Freshly milled parmesan cheese
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/4 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley

What to do:

Place the vegetable stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce to lowest temp and leave to simmer. Meanwhile, put olive oil in a frying pan and, over moderately high heat, fry the onion and garlic until they begin to gain translucency. Add the cubes of sweet potato and stir, then the rice. Leave to fry for a minute or two, then add the white wine. Stir until it has halved in volume. Reduce the heat to low/medium and add half of the stock. Stir. Leave the risotto to cook for 9 minutes, then add the remaining stock. Stir, then leave to cook for 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Use the back of a wooden spoon to press down on the sweet potato, mashing half of it through the risotto. This will give it a rich colour and deep flavour.

Add most of the milled parmesan cheese, reserving enough to top the serves, and stir, then remove from heat. Continue to stir until all the liquid is absorbed. At the last moment, add the parsley, then portion into serving bowls. Top with a flourish of olive oil and the walnuts, and a little extra cheese. Serve immediately.

I think I used to cook

2010-07-12T09:12:00.006+01:00

I still love this blog. I still want to learn new recipes voraciously. I haven't forgotten, I promise. My bedside table is littered with cooking magazines, books and notepads filled with scrawled shopping lists and menu ideas. The other day, I got two new posts on different recipes I'd put up, and it gave me such pleasure to know that, though I've been remiss in my updates, what I've previously written is still being read. So I had to post again.

In the last year, I've moved countries, landed my dream job - working with a revered aussie cook who is so incredible it just blows my mind, got diabetes, got married, and now... got pregnant! Yes, lovely husband (aka my partner in culinary crime) and I have a little foodling munching its way into the world, due to make an appearance in October. How lucky are we?

Slightly less lucky is the constant morning sickness I've been plagued with, and the total food aversions. I'm only just managing to regain some semblance of a normal diet, though will admit with desperation that my post preg diet is foul when compared to the delicious and nutritious meals I previously devoured. For the first time since being a pimply teen, I find myself hankering for salt and vinegar crisps or choc coated liquorice, or worse, two minute noodles. gulp.

In three weeks time, I'm cutting my work back substantially, and hot on my agenda to fill the days is a resumption of cooking mayhem and marvelousness. I have a freezer to stock with ready to re-heat meals, after all... Any suggestions for challenges would be most welcome.
dd.x

diabeatit, a lengthy absence

2010-01-30T06:20:00.003Z

A lengthy absence has elapsed, even for me. There are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, I have landed my. dream. job. I found a job working with one of this country's most amazing foodie personalities and I am in heaven. It's not working with food, but it's just so incredibly inspirational. And fun.

The only downside is that it's about a 2 hour commute either direction, so I have very little free time. While the cooking continues like a freight train, the last thing I feel like doing at the end of a l-o-o-o-n-g day is plugging into the puta and blogging.

On top of that, about three months ago, I went to my GP for a routine check up. He ran a few tests and it turns out I have type 1 diabetes! While not the worst thing in the world, by any means, for someone like me who lives for food, it's been a steep learning curve. The need to monitor everything I eat has taken some of the joy out of the boundless cooking, but I'm pretty sure that I'm on top of it now. This, of course, means that any sweets I whip up are just for my sweet, so he would say that every cloud has a silver lining...!

Below are some dishes that I'll blog recipes for soon, and many more to come.

cooking challenge 28: chocolate and date brownies

2009-11-15T12:34:00.000Z

I absolutely love brownies, and always have. There's something about the rich, moist, melt in your mouth, crumbly sweetness that just knocks my socks off.

I made these as a gift, hence the wrapping, but I ended up eating all the ones that didn't fit in the box. Whoopsies. However, I can still thoroughly recommend these as a gift, or party treat, or just something to whip up and take into work for friends!

You will need:

240g good quality dark chocolate (70%)
1 cup caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
3 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2 cup dried dates, chopped
1 cup plain flour

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180'c and lightly grease a shallow baking tin.

Over a moderate heat in a small saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from heat and add 200g of the chocolate and stir constantly until it is a liquid. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate for a maximum of 10 minutes - do not allow the butter to set.

Remove from fridge and stir in sugar, eggs and flour until combined. Add dates and remaining 40g of chocolate. Pour into the prepared baking tin and use a spatula to smooth the surface.

Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing and serving. Dust with cocoa or icing sugar.

Next time I make these, I think I will add macadamia nuts, or ginger, or orange rind. Something to make them just a little more sophisticated. Of course, Baileys would also do the trick...!

challenge 27: tart lemon pie

2009-11-12T12:10:00.003Z

You will need:

For the lemon filling:

4 lemons (juice and zest)

130g caster sugar

5 eggs

150ml double cream

For the pastry:

250g good quality plain flour

140g unsalted butter - at room temp

60g icing sugar, sifted

3 egg yolks, room temperature

a little water

What to do:

To make the pastry, mix the butter and icing sugar to form a soft paste. Add 2 egg yolks and beat until combined. Sift the flour over the top and use your fingertips to rub it into the butter mix until it reaches the consistency of rolled oats. Add a little dribble of water (approximately a tablespoon - give or take) and use your hands to knead into a firm dough. Don't knead it for more than a few seconds - you really just want to get it to hold together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 170'c.

Meanwhile, to make the lemon filling, mix the eggs, juice from the lemons, zest and sugar and whisk until combined and a little frothy. Pour in the cream and continue whisking. Refrigerate.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and, on a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry to approximately 4mm thickness. Lay the pastry gently into a flan tin and prick the base with a fork all over. Blind bake for about 15 minutes, remove from the oven. Take out the rice/beans to expose the pastry base. Use the remaining egg yolk as an egg wash to coat the pastry base. Bake for a further 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, transfer the lemon curd mix to a deep saucepan and slowly warm it, on a low heat, stirring constantly to ensure the sugar doesn't catch and the eggs don't curdle. Pour the lemon mixture into the pastry case and bake for a further half hour or so. The tart will have the consistency of just-set jelly when ready. Leave to cool before serving - drift icing sugar and lemon zest over the top before serving with a thick dollop of cream.

Will I make this again - definitely. I haven't yet, because I know I will end up eating 75% of it, but I do think it makes such a great summery treat, and the buttery pastry is the perfect foil to the tartness of the filling. Enjoy!

bacon and leek pasta with mushrooms and spinach

2009-09-20T11:03:00.002+01:00

You will need:

3 rashers of rindless bacon

1 leek

a handful of baby spinach leaves

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

10 button mushrooms

1/2 cup single cream

1/4 cup white wine

Olive oil

Prepared Pasta

What to do:

Chop onions, leek, garlic and mushrooms. Julienne the bacon. Rinse the spinach.

In a large frying pan, heat your olive oil and then add the onions, leek, garlic and bacon. Fry for several minutes until the bacon is browned. Add the mushrooms and fry for another five minutes or so. Splash in the white wine and season with salt and pepper. Add spinach. Let the white wine reduce by half, then add the cream. Stir well.

Add to prepared pasta and serve immediately, topped with parmesan cheese.

ice-tastic!

2009-08-19T16:00:00.000+01:00

D's sister gave me these ice trays- aren't they sweet? From Ikea, I've got fish and starfishies which now decorate my drinks. Love 'em!

delicious scones

2009-08-18T00:00:00.000+01:00

You will need:

250g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

200ml milk

60g unsalted butter

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 200'c.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the self raising flour and salt. Use your fingertips to mix in the butter, until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.

Mix in the milk and stir with a wooden spoon until you have a dough. Knead it gently, then roll to the thickness of between 3 - 4 cm. Use a small cup to cut rounds and lay them on a non stick baking tray.

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until lightly golden.

Scones freeze beautifully - wrap them individually and then just microwave them for 30 seconds before serving with jam and cream. Yum yum!

blue cheese souffle

2009-08-16T11:57:00.004+01:00

You will need:

100g good quality blue cheese
30g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cornflour
300ml milk
2 free range eggs
a little extra flour for dusting
salt and pepper

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180'c - 200'c.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, over low heat. Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a paste. Slowly whisk in the milk and the seasonings and continue stirring until you have a sauce consistency. Remove from the heat and add the yolk from the eggs, and the blue cheese. Stir until combined.

Whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently stir the whisked egg whites into the blue cheese mixture, taking care not to lose the fluffy texture of the egg whites. Sprinkle the reserved flour into a couple of ramekins. Ladle the egg mixture in and bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Don't open the oven to check on their progress or they won't cook properly.

Would I make this again? Yes. I can't wait to keep working on this recipe. The flavour was just amazing. I used a very bitey blue, and with the fennel salad, it was a delicious entree.

cooking challenge twenty three: blue cheese souffle

2009-08-16T10:16:00.005+01:00

One of the reasons I started this challenge was to learn to make souffles, particularly savoury ones. I was so happy with the flavour of these but I have a fair way to go technically. What they lacked in beauty they made up in taste. Mmm. I served them with a fennel salad and little croutons.
For our main course, we had a salad nicoise with salmon instead of tuna.

And for dessert, we had a rich chocolate ganache cake, topped with hazelnuts and served with double cream and strawberry coulis.

cooking challenge twenty one: chocolate tart

2009-08-03T04:14:00.003+01:00

Here's the recipe for the deliciously gooey chocolate tart I made a few weeks ago, as a cooking challenge. This is so beautifully simple, and effective.

You will need:

300g dark cooking chocolate

250ml thick cream

60g unsalted butter, cubed

100g flour

1 egg

pinch of salt

pinch of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of cocoa

2 tablespoons icing sugar

What to do:

To make the pastry, beat the butter, icing sugar and egg together with an electric mixer until pale and well combined. Sift in the flour, cocoa, salt and cinnamon and gently combine using a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms. Knead gently on a bench until you have achieved the right consistency, then wrap firmly in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180'c.

Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough to approximately half a centimetre in thickness and drape into a shallow cake tin. Freeze for 10 minutes then blind bake the pastry shell for approximately 20 minutes, until cooked through, then set aside until back to room temperature.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a double boiler, whisking constantly. Add the thickened cream. Once the pastry has cooled, pour the melted chocolate mixture and refrigerate for 4 hours or until firmly set.

Just prior to serving, put it in the freezer for 5 - 10 minutes to firm the chocolate. Use a knife that you've dipped in hot water to slice. Delicious.

I would give this a 10/10. A sure fire hit, easy and quick to make. I have actually made a spare batch of pastry which is in the freezer, and as I always have dark chocolate in the pantry and cream in the fridge (!) I know that I can whip this up whenever I have guests coming on short notice. It is seriously delicious - the crunch of the pastry and the sweet, softness of the chocolate. Divine. Next time, I'm going to blend some crystallized ginger into the pastry mix and put some pistachios into the chocolate.

cooking challenge twenty two: coq au vin

2009-07-28T08:36:00.004+01:00

I think there's an air of romance that surrounds this classic French recipe. It's a meal that is said to have existed since Roman times, and immediately makes me think of convivial chatter, friends around a rustic table, crusty baguettes and tasty sauce. Well, friends, the reality was somewhat of a let down. It was nice, but for the amount of preparation fiddling, I can think of a heap of other dishes that are much more satisfying and tasty. I am going to keep tweaking the recipe and my technique, to see if I can make it more to my taste.

Here's the recipe, nonetheless.

(Just a few last tips: You need to start this at least 24 hours before serving. The chicken needs to be cut into 8 pieces. I did this without poultry scissors, but it was hard work. I'd recommend getting your butcher to do this, or buy the equivalent amount of chicken pieces - breast, thighs, wings, drummies etc).

You will need:

1 organic chicken.
4 spare drumsticks
2 tablespoons browned flour
1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper and stock powder.
4 bacon rashers, diced
2 cups button mushrooms, brushed clean
2 cups schallots, peeled
2 celery sticks, sliced into 1cm thick rounds
1 litre Merlot or Shiraz
Parsley

What to do:

Boil the red wine for about 20 minutes, until it has reduced and concentrated. Cool.
Mix all the vegetables except the mushrooms, the boquet garni (I used parsley, thyme and chives) and chicken pieces in a large bowl. Season with salt, pepper and stock. Add the cooled red wine and refigerate, covered, for at least 24 hours.

Strain through a colander, reserving the liquid, then separate the chicken from the other ingredients. Pat dry with paper towel. Discard the boquet garni and reserve the vegetables. Heat some butter in a large frying pan, over moderate heat. Fry the chicken pieces until slightly browned. Remove and set aside. Fry the vegetables off in the same pan, same juices.

Preheat the oven to 180'c.

Transfer the vegetables to a large flame proof, oven proof casserole and add the browned flour. Stir over moderate heat until it has a gluggy consistency. Add 1/3 of the reserved red wine mixture and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. It will thicken and bubble. Add the rest of the wine, and the chicken, and bring back to boil. Cover the casserole dish and transfer to the oven for half an hour or so.

Meanwhile, in the same saucepan you fried the chicken and vegetables, fry off the bacon and mushrooms until crispy and browned. Add to the coq au vin right before serving, as well as the parsley.

I served this with roasted vegetables and garlic bread, as well a beautiful rice pilaf that D's mum makes (I will blog that recipe soon, it's divine!). I'd give this an 6.5/10. I would make it again, but I'd thicken the sauce more, and add something else. Let me think about it... I'll get back to you.

an ode to mum

2009-07-17T03:07:00.004+01:00

I absolutely love my mum's style. When I last visited her, I took these snaps and, now that I have internet, I'm able to share them with you too, so you can see how homely and and country chic my mum's kitchen is.

Don't you just want to pull up a chair and have some pumpkin soup? :)

the challenges resume...

2009-07-16T05:42:00.003+01:00

I did a cooking challenge for the first time in a long time the other night.

The cooking challenge was a dark gooey chocolate tart with a choc orange crust. I served it with caramelised orange and almond essence.

For our main course, I made a cauliflower veloute with pea puree, crushed chats and crispy skinned atlantic salmon.

I made some savoury scrolls to snack on for entree - capers, tapenade, sundried tomato and goats cheese. Very nice. I served them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Recipes coming this afternoon!

dd.x

baked camembert

2009-07-13T13:45:00.003+01:00

This is one of the most delicious snacks ever. Clearly, it's a heart attack waiting to happen, so we don't have it too often, but when we do, we have to fight for every last scrape of the gooey cheese.

You will need:

1 wheel camembert (or brie if you prefer)

Rosemary

4 cloves garlic

100mL white wine

Coarse sea salt

Crackers or Turkish Bread

What to do:

Pre heat the oven to 100'c.

Stab about 12 slits in the cheese. Peel the garlic and slice each in half. Stab them into the slits. Put sprigs of rosemary in the other slits. Rub a teaspoon of sea salt into the surface of the cheese and put it into a small and shallow dish. Pour the wine over the cheese.

Bake the cheese, uncovered, for 10 minutes, then cover with a lid, or alfoil, for another 10 minutes. Serve with crackers or toasted bread. It should be gooey and smooth, as above.

Absolutely. Delicious.

pomodoro passata (tomato pasta sauce)

2009-07-12T23:56:00.005+01:00

A traditional passata would be strained through a fine sieve to remove the seeds, but I think this is a beautiful (and low fuss) way to make pasta sauce. It's hearty and robust and it lets the star of the dish really shine through. The quality of ingredients makes a difference - plump, juicy tomatoes, fresh from the vine, and cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Last time I made this, I tossed some salty olives through at the last minute.

You will need:

10 ripe tomatoes
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tblspoons olive oil
3 birdseye chillis (optional)
250 ml water
salt and pepper to season

What to do:

In a saucepan, over low heat, fry off the garlic and onion until slighty translucent. If using chilli, add here. Meanwhile, quarter the tomatoes. Add to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Add the water and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, checking every so often to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom. If necessary, add more water.

It will reduce down to a thick tomato paste, as below.

Serve with pasta and aged parmesan cheese, or as a pizza sauce.

perfect pikelets

2009-07-12T23:33:00.003+01:00

These brought back such beautiful memories from growing up. My nanna would always have made a heap of pikelets whenever I went to stay, and she'd serve them with fresh, creamy butter. They're one of my favourite breakfasty treats, and my nephew loves them too, so what better breakfast to make when he came to stay over?

You will need:

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
3 tblspoons caster sugar
1/2 cup skimmed milk
1 tblspoon butter, melted.

Butter to serve.

What to do:

Sift the baking powder, sugar and flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the egg in. Add the milk and melted butter and use a fork to slowly incorporate the mixture until smooth.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over moderate heat. Put a little bit of butter in the pan, then use a paper towel to wipe away any excess.

Drop the batter in with a tablespoon. After a few minutes, once small bubbles have started to form, flip them over and fry the other side. Best eaten fresh, otherwise, reheat gently in a microwave before serving.

vegetarian sausages

2009-06-16T05:22:00.003+01:00

I fell in love, properly, with cooking when I was about 12. My mum had this fabulous recipe book - the name escapes me at present, but I think it might have been Green Feasts? I would pour over it page by glorious page and taste the flavours with my eyes. The only recipe I ever actually produced from the pages of that book was a vegetarian sausage. It was a long time ago, so I've forgotten the exact recipe, but the essentials are unchanging and easily replicated.

You will need:

Approximately 3/4 of a standard size loaf of bread
1 free range organic egg
1 corn (on the cob)
1 small cooking onion
3 garlic cloves
1 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
1 small red bell pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated and loosely packed (optional)

Olive oil for frying.

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180'c.

In a food processor, wizz the bread until you have coarse breadcrumbs. Remove half of the mixture and put it in a mixing bowl. Quarter the onion and peel the garlic cloves. Add them to the processor and blitz until a moist mixture forms. Add the parsley and pulse for a few seconds. Transfer the wet bread and onion mixture to the large mixing bowl. Slice the corn from the cob and add to the mixing bowl, as well as the bell pepper, diced. If using, add cheddar cheese.

Whisk the egg in a small bowl and add to the bread mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Use your hands to form sausages - the above quantities should yield about 10 - 12 small and fat sausages.

Fry over moderate heat, rotating every few minutes until properly sealed. Transfer to an oven tray and finish off for about 15 minutes.

Yummy and healthy breakfast. dd.x

cooking challenge twenty: slow roast leg of lamb with crushed chickpeas

2009-06-11T06:26:00.003+01:00

As you can probably tell from the above, I seem to have leaped over the final hurdle in my meat eating quest with great gusto. Now, I have made friends with my local butcher and am working my way through the various cuts of meat at my disposal. Amazing.

This roast took ALL day. I modified a recipe from the most recent Australian Gourmet Food & Travel (aka, my bible).

You will need:

1 x leg of lamb (mine was about enough for 6 people)
3 lemons
2 x 400g chickpeas
1/4 cup olive oil
1 litre chicken stock
50g dried harissa
150ml Olive Oil
250ml water
1 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
1 spanish onion, roughly diced

What to do:

Mix about 100ml olive oil with the harissa, and the juice and zest from two lemons. Chop what is left of these lemons and scatter them over the base of a deep roasting pan. Rub the harissa mix over the skin, place the lamb on top of the sliced lemon and leave to absorb the flavours for around 3 hours. It's winter here, so I left it covered, on my bench top, but if you're cooking somwhere hot, refrigerate it for 2 hours then remove for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 150'c. Pour 250ml cold water into the base of the pan. Cover with foil. Roast for 3 hours, then turn the temp down to 120'c and continue to roast for 3 - 4 hours.

Ok, for the crushed chickpea side dish, strain and rinse the chickpeas, then add them to a deep saucepan with the litre of chicken stock. Simmer for 30 minutes. Ladle out 1 cup of stock, and then strain the chickpeas. Add them and the reserved stock to a food processor and "pulse" for a few seconds until they are slightly mashed.

Fry off the onion in a little oil. Add the chickpeas and parsley, and the juice from the final lemon. Drizzle with remaining olive oil before serving. Season with salt and pepper.

When this is done, the meat will literally fall from the bone. It is the most tender and succulent way to roast meat that I've ever tried. I can't wait to attempt this with pork belly, and I'm also going to try using red wine or ale instead of water.

Will I make this again? Oh, yes. I am going to be making this as often as time permits!!

long, lazy days

2009-06-05T13:34:00.003+01:00

Hi fellow foodies.

I apologise for my absence.

I haven't fallen into the abyss. Though for my northern hemisphere friends, Australia might well seem like it.

My internet access is patchy. My kitchen appliances even more so. I am a food loving blogger without access to all the things that make me tick most.

However, I have taken up a blissful lifestyle by the beach, and the regular recipes should resume within the week.

I haven't desserted my challenge. Just the opposite. This low-fi time has provided a great opportunity to peruse endless cook books and fantasise hungrily about what's to come, what's to learn.

love, dd.x

rosemary and sea salt focaccia

2009-05-21T01:57:00.004+01:00

This is one of my favourite baking tricks. It's so easy, always tastes great, and while it takes a-g-e-s, this is mostly because you have to keep leaving it to rise. In fact, the longer you can give it between kneads, the better the end result. And oil - lots and lots of good quality extra virgin olive oil. Don't try to make this without the right quantity of oil, or you'll just get a dry, powdery bread. Ick.

You will need:

2 sachets of dried yeast (14g)
600g strong white bread flower (type "00")
1 1/4 cups tepid water
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
3 tbs good sea salt (I use Maldon)
1/2 tsp cooking salt3 sprigs of rosemary

What to do:

Put the flour, yeast and cooking salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre. Pour in all of the olive oil except 2 tablespoons, and the tepid water. Combine first with a spoon and then knead, in the bowl, with your hands.

Sprinkle some flour onto a work surface and knead the dough until it is elastic (about 10 minutes). Sprinkle the reserved olive oil into the mixing bowl and return the dough. Cover with glad wrap and leave to rise for an hour, or until the dough is twice its original size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it to remove the air. Lightly oil a rectangular baking tray. Roll the dough out to roughly the size and then ease it into the tin. Use your fingers to push it into the corners.

Preheat the oven to 180'c (fan forced). You don't want the temp to be too hot so this may take a bit of experimenting to get it right. You don't want it to get too brown on top.

Make indents in the top surface with your finger tips. Sprinkle a little more olive oil and the maldon sea salt over the top, and add rosemary sprigs into each divet.

Bake for around 40 minutes. It should be lightly golden and soft and springy to the touch. Leave it to sit for 10 minutes and then serve with good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delicious!

cooking challenge week nineteen: jam doughnuts (yum yum)

2009-05-09T17:30:00.002+01:00

Growing up in Australia, warm jam doughnuts were a tuckshop regular. I went to a small school and in those days, the canteen only opened on Tuesdays and Fridays. You would staple your 45c into a corner of a paper bag, write your name and order on the front, and then five minutes before lunch, a designated canteen liaison would get to leave class and collect a cardboard box brimming with the treats of the day. Jam doughnuts, coated generously with cinnamon and caster sugar, were the most popular treat by far.

I used to bite into them, and let the jame ooze out, and my fingers would be sticky and pink with jam when I was finished.

And so I have learned to make them. They are not difficult, but they are time consuming and messy, and positively dreadful for you, so I am not going to be whipping these babies out too often. Having said that, the first batch I made was a gift for a friend. We packed as many as we could into a polka dot red box and ate any that couldn't fit in about two minutes.

You will need:

4 cups plain white flour

2 x 7g sachets fresh yeast

300ml full fat milk

2 organic, free-range eggs

1/2 teaspoon caster sugar plus extra for dusting

1/2 teaspoon salt

Really great strawberry or raspberry jam

Flavourless vegetable oil for deep frying

What to do:

Mix the yeast sachets with a 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1 tablespoon warm water. Stir well until you get a thick paste. Put it in a draft free place for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, put the flour, salt and butter in a large bowl and use your fingertips to rub them together, until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Put it in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Put the milk and eggs into a bowl and whisk until combined. Pour into a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Add the yeast paste. Mix to a dough. Add more flour if too wet, more milk if too dry. The dough should be elastic and stretchy.

Cover and put in a warm, draft free place for an hour. The dough should double in size.

Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll to about 2cm thickness. Put a teaspoon of jam in the centre of HALF of the circles. Put some water into a little bowl and use your fingertips to run water around the edge of the circles. Lay a dough circle on top of a jam covered circle and press down. Repeat with all the dough. Once you've done this, set them aside for another half hour until they've risen some more.

Meanwhile, put the vegetable oil into a deep sauce pan and bring up to around 180'c. Carefully deep fry the doughnuts in batches for around 2 minutes - they will become quite a dark brown. Don't overcrowd the oil. Lift them out into a paper lined colander.

Mix some sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and run the doughnuts through the mix. You're done! Enjoy whilst warm.

Will I make this again? yes, yes, yes! Already have!! So great, and such a lovely treat to give good friends. I want to try baking them instead of frying them, and also using different jams for fillings.

prawn toasts

2009-05-06T15:00:00.001+01:00

Believe it or not, this recipe and these quantities made 8 prawn toasts, which I think is more than enough for 2 - 3 people to share as a starter.

You will need:

4 medium - large prawns (uncooked)
2 tablespoons cornflour
1/2 tablespoon ground white pepper
a pinch of salt
1 egg white
Baguette, sliced into 8 rounds, approximately 1cm thick.
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 cup oil for frying

What to do:

Peel the prawns. Use a paring knife to run down their backs and remove the vein. Flush with cold water.

Use a very sharp knife and carefully mince the prawns. Put into a mixing bowl. Combine the pepper, egg white, cornflour and a pinch of salt and stir to make a thick paste. Some recipes advise you to fridge it here for a half hour or so, but I didn't, and they turned out brilliantly.

Spoon the mixture onto the toast, and press down gently. Use all the mixture. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan (non stick) over moderate heat.

Cook the toasts prawn side down for 1 - 2 minutes. Don't let them burn! Watch them very closely. As soon as the prawn mixture becomes opaque and the sesame seeds have started to darken, gently flip them over (watch out for the oil splattering). Brown the bread (30 seconds, max) and serve immediately, with some light soya sauce on the side.

O. M. G. These are seriously so, so, so goooood. Calorific. Yes. Carbtastic. Totally. Nutritious? Not really, no. But absolutely crave inducing. Your friends will love them. You will love them. You must make them.

cooking challenge week eighteen: thai green curry

2009-05-02T17:00:00.000+01:00

This challenge is technically easy - the trick is getting the balance of flavours right. I personally like curries that are fresh, robust but with only a kick of spice, rather than an overwhelming hit of heat.

You will need:

For the curry:

2 tins coconut milk
Selection of vegetables, including broccoli, mushrooms, tofu, bean sprouts, carrots, mangetout.
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons light soya sauce

For the paste:

6 small green birdseye chillis (whole)
3 cloves garlic
about 3cm length ginger, sliced
1 cup loosely chopped coriander, including stems
2 lemongrass stalks, sliced (just the soft core)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander

What to do:

Put all the ingredients for the paste into a food processor and blitz until the consistency of pesto. Leave for a few minutes whilst you prepare/chop/slice your vegetables.

Boil or steam your vegetables for around 3 minutes. You don't want them to be too al dente, as they will get a few extra minutes cooking time in the curry.

Fry off some oil in a large frying pan/wok over moderate heat. Add onion and garlic, and tofu/seafood/chicken (if using). Fry until browned. Add the curry paste and stir constantly over moderate heat until fragrant. Pour in the tins of coconut milk and stir thoroughly. Allow to heat until simmering, then add vegetables and season with fish sauce, sugar and soya sauce.

Cook for another two minutes. Serve with steamed rice.

thai-tastic

2009-05-02T16:58:00.000+01:00

As you know, the cooking challenges have been coming fast and furiously so that I can keep the recipes flowing whilst abroad, and this means we have been eating almost more than humanly possible. As an antedote to the rich, creamy European meals we both love, I decided to make a clean and spicy curry for this week's challenge. We both adore Thai food, and have lived within 100 metres of a thai restaurant in every one of our homes.

We started off with prawn toast - a real favourite, and another surprisingly simple dish to prepare. Keep in mind, I don't have a food processor, and only the most basic of kitchen appliances, but as long as you have a sharp knife, you'll be able to easily whip these up yourself. Recipe coming in the next few days!

The curry turned out really nicely. I worked with the vegies that were locally sourced, and I think any combination would have worked well. I really like loads of broccoli, cauliflower and potato in my curry.

For dessert, we had a coconut and strawberry cocktail. Why not combine our sweets with some vodka, at the end of the evening!?

Happy cooking!
dd.x

beetroot and goats cheese risotto

2009-04-28T18:00:00.001+01:00

A while ago, I made a beetroot and goats cheese risotto as the entree in one of my cooking challenges. It was really nice, and I particularly liked that the colour of the beetroots stained the dish, without over powering it. The flavours in this are earthy and robust, definitely a memorable dish.

Here's the recipe.

You will need:

2 fresh beetroots
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
Goats cheese - I used approx 150g
2 cups Arborio or Canarolli Risotto rice
500mL boiling vegetable/chicken stock
250mL white wine
Olive oil

What to do:

Peel your beetroots. You might want to wear gloves for this as otherwise your fingertips will be stained for days! Slice them into small cubes. Add to some rapidly boiling water and cook for 2 - 3 minutes. Strain and set aside. NB - this water makes a great stock if you want to save it. Turn into jelly, use to colour home made pasta, or as a (colourful) base for soup.

Bring the vegetable stock to the boil.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a large, deep frying pan over low - moderate heat. Add finely diced onion and garlic and fry until opaque. Add the rice and stir. Once the rice is coated in oil, add the white wine and stir. Keep the heat low.

When the liquid has almost all been absorbed, add a ladle of stock. Stir. Leave to absorb (about two minutes). Repeat this until all the stock has been used, stirring frequently. Check the rice - it should be soft, though not mushy (overdone risotto is not nice at all).

Once you are happy with the basic risotto, remove from the heat. Stir through the goats cheese, then the beetroot and gently incorporate it into the risotto. The more your stir, the more colour your rice will pick up. Add some finely chopped basil or parsley if you would like.

I served this with a balsamic reduction and chicory, and the flavours worked really nicely.

cooking challenge week seventeen: rich chocolate mousse

2009-04-25T20:00:00.004+01:00

You will need:

90g dark chocolate
70g milk chocolate

1/5 cup full fat milk

2 level tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons sherry

3 eggs, separated

pinch of salt

What to do:

Set a pot of water to a moderate simmer on the hot plate, and place a large, heat proof bowl over it. Put in the chocolate and mix until almost melted. Remove from heat. Add milk, sugar and sherry and stir constantly until melted and fully combined. Set aside to cool.

Put the egg whites and a pinch of salt in a large bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until trebled in volume and soft peaks form.

Return your attention to the chocolate mix. Add the egg yolks and stir thoroughly, and rapidly.

Scoop one third of the egg whites into the chocolate and fold gently through, using a sharp metal spoon or blade. Add another third of the egg whites, and repeat, then finish up with the remaining egg whites. Be kind - try not to pop too many bubbles.

Refrigerate, either in the bowl or transfer it to a deep cake dish, for at least 4 hours. Serve with cream and strawberries.

chocolate moussetakes

2009-04-25T19:55:00.003+01:00

This is the last weekend before a month away from home, and a kitchen.

In order to keep the challenge on track, I've stockpiled a few challenges, which means we've been eating like crazy for the last two weeks! The recipes will keep coming, as will lots of pics of delicious European food from each of the countries we visit.

For this week, we started our evening with pan seared scallops with chilli and parsley, served with a wasabi mayonnaise. The quality of the scallops was out of this world. Huge, sweet and succulent.

I made some french fries to go with them.

For main course, I made a wild mushroom lasagne. I made the pasta from scratch (really happy with this recipe now. So easy and much, much nicer than bought pasta!).

For this week's cooking challenge, I decided to try my hand at those delicious melting middle chocolate fondent cakes. As usual, I did quite a bit of research, and found a recipe that seemed good. But it didn't work! I tried it three times, just to be sure, and got the same result. Here's the thing - it was still so nice. Perfect flavour. Really chocolatey, and with the consistency of pudding, but I'm reluctant to publish the recipe until I work out exactly what I did wrong for melting cakes, and right for chocolate pudding.

D still ate it, all three unsuccessful batches (!), and with great gusto too! I served it with homemade chilli and orange cream, to balance the sweetness.

So, I've shelved that challenge for now, and instead made a chocolate mousse. I had a bit of a disaster with that as well (not sure what was happening this week) but managed to bring it back from the brink, with really surprising results. I totally embellished a traditional mousse recipe, but we loved it.

Will I make this again? Hmmm. Maybe. It's a nice recipe in that it can be made well in advance and it is quick, and easy and tastes amazing. I think I'm just more of a savoury girl than sweet tooth.

dd.x

pastry (as easy as pie).

2009-04-23T19:38:00.004+01:00

Finally - a great and easy pastry pie recipe that I will make again and again. I have always thought pastry was so complex, and would fret about getting the butter to just the right texture, not over handling it, getting air into the flour and all the rest. But this recipe has changed my pie making life! Donna Hay published it in one of her magazines, as a sweet dough, but I altered this so that it can be used for savoury or sweet pies. I don't have a food processor. I don't even have a rolling pin (a 1/2 pint budweiser glass does the job just as well!).

You will need:

250g plain white flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

180g unsalted butter, chopped into cubes

1/4 cup ice cold water

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg freshly grated

What to do:

Place flour, salt, nutmeg and baking powder in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the cubes of butter and use your fingers to rub the butter in until it's as close to bread crumb consistency as possibly. Don't over work it as you don't want the butter to get too melty. Slowly incorporate the water, a splash at a time, using a wooden spoon to bring it together. Once you have the consistency right, wrap it up tightly in glad wrap and fridge it for a half hour or so before using.

To make a savoury pie as I did, roll the pastry out thinly and prick the base with a fork. Cut out a circle of greaseproof paper, lay it on the base of the pie, and put enough grains of uncooked rice or dried beans on top to weigh down the paper. Cook for around 15 minutes on 160'c, then add your savoury fillings (I used sundried tomato, caramelised onion, goats cheese and fennel - fill in the gaps with beaten eggs) and finish off for another 10 minutes in the oven.

pad see juju

2009-04-20T21:28:00.004+01:00

A good friend of mine thinks that this blog is too girly for him to visit, so I'm blogging his favourite meal as an enticement. Except, with a twist. Pad See Ew is an absolute thai restaurant favourite - a dish with few ingredients and which packs a huge flavour punch. I decided to cook this for dinner tonight at the last minute, so had to source my ingredients from a local Tesco. Obviously, they didn't have everything so it's a bit of an improvised Pad See Ew. I can't believe how easy this is to make, from ingredients you would almost always have in the pantry.

You will need:

400g flat fat rice noodles (I used skinny pad thai type rice noodles), prepared to packet's instructions

3 tablespoons Kecap Manis (sweet, dark soy sauce)

6 tablespoons light soy sauce

3 tablespoons fish sauce

2 eggs, beaten lightly

3 schallots, chopped into 2cm pieces

6 cloves of garlic

Firm tofu (substitute your meat of choice)

Approximately 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1.5 cups loosely packed Chinese Broccoli, chopped in halves. I used long stem broccolini instead, and added 1/2 cup curly cale.

Ground white pepper

What to do:

Heat a wok with a couple of tablespoons of oil and add two cloves of garlic, finely chopped, then the broccolini. Fry for a few minutes. Season with fish sauce, fry for another thirty seconds, stirring constantly. Remove and set aside for now.

Use a paper towl to carefully wipe the inside of the wok, getting rid of any burned garlic. Reheat with another tablespoon of oil. Add the diced tofu (or meat), garlic, another tablespoon of fish sauce, and cook until browned. Remove from pan and set aside with the greens.

Once again, use a paper towel to wipe clean the wok. Reheat with another few tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add the noodles, another tablespoon of fish sauce and fry for a minute or two. Once it's started to brown slightly, add the 6 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons kecap manis and 2 tablespoons sugar and fry. Stir until the noodles are coated in sauce and reasonably well cooked. Separate the noodles to form a well in the centre of the wok. Add the 2 beaten eggs and stir fast and furiously for 30 seconds, until the eggs are nearly cooked. Tip the cooked greens, tofu (or meat) and raw curly cale into the noodle pan. Fry until combined. Check the seasoning. Add sugar or fish sauce (in lieu of salt) as required.

Serve with extra ground white pepper.

It's important to do this in stages. Most absolutely definitely do not fry everything off at once or you'll get soggy greens, smooshy noodles and overcooked eggs. It takes around ten minutes from wo to go. Line all your ingredients up before you start in nice little bowls, just like on one of those cooking programmes. Delicious.

gnocchi with blue cheese and fennel sauce

2009-04-19T23:35:00.000+01:00

I had to try a few different recipes to get this right, and ended up just sort of improvising. I LOVED the way this turned out. I served it with a fennel and blue cheese sauce which was so rich and creamy, and a great complementary flavour to the soft, potatoey dough.

You will need:

2 x potatoes (small - medium size)

1.5 cups plain white flour (approximately)

1 organic free range egg

Salt and Pepper

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

What to do:

Peel your potatoes and slice them into 2cm x 2cm cubes. Put in a pot of simmering water and cook until really, really soft. I cooked mine for about 25 minutes.

Strain through a colander. Put in a large bowl and mash until completely lump free, and nice and fluffy.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour the egg into the middle of the potato and stir quickly. Add the flour, a few tablespoons at a time, and keep stirring.

You want the dough to form a solid consistency. It will always be a little sticky, so don't expect it to get elastic like pizza or bread dough, but it should hold together and be malleable. Once you have achieved this, sprinkle some flour onto cling film, wrap the dough up tightly and refrigerate for 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, make your sauce. Some people like really simple sauces with gnocchi, such as sage butter or parmesan and garlic all'olio, but hey, for me, any excuse to add cream, cheese and garlic. Mmm. I fried off garlic, onion and fennel until translucent but not browned, then deglazed the pan with 1/2 glass of dry white wine. Turn the heat really low and simmer for 10 minutes, then add 1/2 cup cream and some blue cheese. Stir thoroughly. Season. Leave on the lowest heat possible until ready to serve.

Once your dough has rested in the fridge, chop it into quarters or thirds. Roll each section into a long snake, about 1.5 cm wide. Use a knife to slice it at 1.5cm length notches and transfer to a floured plate.

Bring a large saucepan to the boil and add the gnocchi in batches (don't over crowd the pan). The gnocchi need only a minute or two. Once they float to the top, they are good to go! Add to your sauce and garnish with strong parmesan cheese or vintage cheddar. Delicious!

Will I make this again? Absolutely. Cheap, cheerful, and bloody delicious. It tasted really, really great. Sure, it's comfort food but it's fresh and special. Next time I'll probably get adventurous and add some different cheeses and herbs to the gnocchi - like some finely chopped sage and perhaps a goats cheese. Delicious.

cooking challenge week sixteen: home made gnocchi

2009-04-19T19:19:00.003+01:00

This week's cooking challenge is something I've been wanting to make for a long time. Really Great Gnocchi. I rarely order this dish in restaurants because it's so simple, and yet, at the same time, I absolutely love it. Go figure. The few times I've attempted it in the past, my meal has ended up a gluggy mess. Urgh. So perhaps it's actually a deceptively simple dish?

The entree was also a challenge, in that my pastry for tarts and pies just never works. I either get it too crumbly or too buttery, and get so frightened by the prospect of another pastry failure that I just buy factory made. No longer, friends! I think I've finally hit on a recipe that's allowed me to master the art of pastry! It was a sweet pastry dough recipe from a Donna Hay magazine, so I just took out the sugar and vanilla and added salt, pepper and nutmeg, and it was good. We started with a tart of sundried tomato, caramelized onion and goats cheese, served with balsamic reduction and caramelized onions.

I served the lovely little gnocchi dumplings with a creamy fennel and blue cheese sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. So nice. I'm salivating just looking at the pictures. Would have been great with a few capers for some more "zing" but the blue cheese I had to hand - a Gorgonzola Dolce - has a mean kick to it so this worked well.

Make this, make this, make this!

cheesymite scrolls

2009-04-13T21:19:00.013+01:00

Australian food might just be a mish mash of international cuisine - you could say we take the best from every country of the world and put our own stamp on it - but there is one thing we are arguably all patriotic fans of. Vegemite. Ok, now Vegemite happens to be owned by an American company, but it is undeniably Aussie. Our parents grew up with, we grew up with it, our kids will grow up with it. My mum tells me stories of being a kid in Brisbane in the 60s and having vegemite soup - hot milk with a spoon of vegemite! Shudder.

A new-ish spin on this old favourite is the Cheesymite Scroll. These rolls of soft white pastry dough, filled with lashings of vegemite and creamy cheddar cheese are a delicious treat. My newly discovered love for all things bread-esque inspired me to try making these. I hope you enjoy.

You will need:

650g white bread flour

7g dried yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon salt

450mL warm water (approximately)

Vegemite

Cheddar cheese

What to do:

Put the bread, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add1/2 the warm water and stir to combine. Slowly trickle the remaining water, stirring constantly, until you get a dough that holds together well. You might need less or more than the specified water - I tend to go by feel.

Once you have a dough that holds together, knead it on a lightly floured surface for around 5 minutes, until you get an elastic consistency. Transfer it back to the deep mixing bowl and leave, covered, for around 1 - 2 hours. The dough should have doubled in size.

Punch the air out of the dough and briefly knead once more. Roll the dough into a long snake and chop it into 10 evenly sized pieces. Use a rolling pin to flatten this dough into a long, flat strip, approximately 5cm high. Use one hand to stretch the dough out as you roll.

Spread the vegemite over the dough strips, leaving 1cm clean at each end. I found it easiest to use my fingers for this job so as not to tear the dough.

Grate the cheese into a bowl and sprinkle this liberally over the vegemite.

Use some water and wet either end of the strips of dough. Tightly roll the bread to form scrolls, being careful not to spill too much cheese. Once you get to the end, press the wet lip of dough tightly against the side of the scroll to hold it in place.

Preheat the oven to 220'c. Line your scrolls up in a baking dish and leave to rise for a further 20 minutes. Transfer to a middle tray in the oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. When you remove them, the scrolls should make a hollow sound when tapped on the base, and the cheese should be golden and melted.

I hope these make you the happiest little vegemites possible!

cooking challenge week fifteen: gravad lax

2009-04-12T11:52:00.007+01:00

Like salty foods? Refreshing and flavoursome? This is the definition of all those things. Texturally gravad lax is not dissimilar to smoked salmon, and the flavours really exceeded my expectations.

It's important to note that various health bodies recommend that you freeze the salmon prior to curing it, as raw fish can carry various parasites, but the consensus in all the recipes I read during my research is that this will make the finished product watery. I think it's a personal choice. I am quite relaxed with these things: I figure if it was good enough for Norse fishermen in the middle ages, it's good enough for me.

The recipe I used was for the two of us (though again, technically, it would easily serve four. We are piggies, remember.) You can scale up the quantities as required, but probably would recommend that you don't scale them down too much further.

Allow 3 days to properly cure. Apparently it will then store for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, but I think - eat it as soon as possible, it's really too good to save!

You will need:

Side of Salmon, skin on. Buy this as fresh as you possibly can - sashimi grade. I got a piece about 15cm long, thoroughly deboned.

100g sea salt

80g caster sugar

1 cup loosely packed dill, finely chopped

2 tablespoons vodka (optional)

1 tablespoon white pepper, freshly milled

1 lemon

What to do:

Slice the salmon in half so you have two equally sized portions.

Slice the lemon into thin rings and place half of them on the base of a dish big enough to fit the salmon into. This will need to go in the fridge so choose your dish wisely ;)

Mix the sugar, salt, vodka and half the dill. Lay one piece of salmon in the dish, on top of the lemons, with the skin down. Layer the salt mixture over the salmon with your fingers, rub it in well. Sprinkle the pepper and add some more fresh dill.

Lay the other salmon fillet on top, skin side up (So you effectively have a salmon sandwich, with the skin visible on top and bottom). Sprinkle any leftover salt mix and dill on top, and the remaining lemon slices. Cover well with cling film and put in the fridge, with a weight on top. I used a bottle of wine!

The salmon will water A LOT (if it's fresh) and so approximately every eight hours, I took the salmon out of its dish, strained off the liquid and flipped the salmon so the top is now on the bottom. Some recipes say this is overkill - but I loved the excuse to touch, smell and admire my salmon!! It gets quite hard, as well, which I wasn't prepared for, but found oddly reassuring. Here was proof that my cure was a success!

To serve, rub off the salt mixture, or dampen your fingers and wipe it off carefully. Slice horizontally as thinly as possible (watch the fingers) and serve with the traditional mustard and dill sauce (Whisk 2 tbl spoons dijon mustard, 1 organic free range egg yolk, 1 tbl spoon caster sugar in a large bowl, then trickle in 150mL vegetable oil whisking constantly to make an emulsified sauce. Add 4 tablespoons finely chopped dill and combine.)

I am going to start grading my cooking challenges on one simple criteria: "Was it worth it?" You know, given the hassle and expense and stress, would I make these meals again. With gravadlax, the answer is a resounding YES, YES, YES! It's a really impressive looking dish, and is rare and uncommon, and packs a real flavour punch. The idea of being able to do everything but the slicing well in advance is great for dinner parties (and even the slicing could, I suppose, be done ahead of time..?).

I also served it as part of our breakfast, delicious!

Happy Easter to you and yours. dd.x

happy easter bunnies

2009-04-12T10:08:00.007+01:00

The weather in London this weekend is grey and overcast, but inside our flat the mood is bright, festive and foodtastic.

For this week's challenge, I wanted to do something that was traditional Easter fare, and something completely different for me. I did a load of research, and finally settled on Gravadlax. This is a traditional Scandinavian dish dating back to at least the middle ages, when Norsemen would bury salmon in holes in the sand, cover them with salt and leave them to cure. According to my friend Wiki, the term Gravadlax literally translates to "salmon dug into the ground".

It seems to be a food eaten traditionally at Easter, though presumably it's also enjoyed all year round. I know we'll be having it more regularly! The thing I love about it is the anticipation. It's a pretty easy recipe, to be honest, but the trick is in leaving it for three days. I flipped it faithfully every 8 hours, which despite some dispute seemed to be the general consensus, and kept wanting to try it.

I served the gravadlax two ways - just on its own with hovmästarsås (I read somewhere that this translates to Head Waiter sauce because traditionally the head waiter would mix the sauce in front of you, at your table). I also served it as part of our Easter Sunday brunch - with soft poached eggs, home made white bread and the mustard sauce. I also served some bircher muesli, fruit and hot cross buns.

After the gravadlax, I served a lamb roast, another traditional Easter dish, with all the trimmings.

For dessert, I made a bread and butter pudding out of hot cross buns, and gave it an orange chocolate twist in honour of Easter's chocolatey reputation.

hot cross buns

2009-04-09T21:36:00.006+01:00

It's not too late to make your own beautiful, fresh, spiced hot cross buns. And believe me, these are so, so, so much nicer than the plastic wrapped ones you pick up at the supermarket.

You will need:

1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons warm water

100ml warm milk

450g strong white flour

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 egg, beaten

100g mixed peel (I used currants, cranberries, apricot and blueberries)

1 teaspoon salt

What to do:

Mix the yeast, tepid water and sugar together in a coffee mug and cover with glad wrap. Leave for a few minutes until the yeast mixture has bubbled to twice its original volume. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl then add the salt, spices, sugar and fruit peel.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture, the warm milk and the beaten egg. Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms.

Sprinkle some flour onto your bench and knead the dough. You want it to get to the point where it is smooth and elastic. You should be able to push your finger into the dough and have it bounce back almost immediately. This will take between 5 - 10 minutes. If your dough is too sticky, slowly incorporate a little more flour, a tablespoon at a time.

Return the dough to your mixing bowl and cover with a tea towel or cling film. Leave to rise for an hour, or until it has doubled in size.

Remove from the bowl and knead again until the dough has returned to its original size. Roll it into a long, thick log. Slice evenly in 12 portions. Roll into balls and place on a pre-greased oven tray. Preheat the oven to 220'c. Leave to rise for a half hour. Once they've risen, make crosses on top.

You can score a cross in the top, if you'd like. This is a traditional way of making hot cross buns. To make a flour cross, as I did, make a flour paste: Mix flour and water until you get a thick paste. Pour it into a piping bag with a thin nozzle and stripe crosses over the top of the buns. Don't have a piping bag? Never fear! I didn't have a thin enough nozzle, but you can use thick carboard, wrapped and then taped to create your own piping bag.

Bake for 20 minutes. Combine 4 tablespoons of boiling water with 5 tablespoons caster sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved. Spoon over the hot hot hot buns and use your fingers to massage the sugar mix all over. Yum yum.

the stage is set

2009-04-09T19:10:00.008+01:00

Easter is another one of those holiday weekends that I absolutely love. I've spent the day stocking up on treats, sweets and delicious foods. I went to the Borough Markets first thing in the morning. It's a fantastic food market near London Bridge that has stood on its current site for over 250 years. There's a range of chocolates, cheeses, poultry, fish, regional specialties and fruits and veg, as well as home made products like jam and baked goods. The only thing the store holders have in common is a passion for food quality and local ingredients.

I picked up only those things too good to resist (particularly cheese, glorious cheese) and then came back to the little shops in my neighbourhood. I am really lucky to live in a little village on the outskirts of London. Our high street boasts a cheese shop, a fantastic fish monger, a butchery, a bakery, and a top notch fruit and veg shop which is always brimming with organic, seasonal produce.

There are so many benefits to shopping this way rather than in a supermarket, but one of the biggest advantages for me is the advice you can get from the store holders. Because they tend to be passionate about their particular trade, they have loads of knowledge and have always been really happy to help. This has been particularly useful at the butchery. "Hi. I'm a recovering vegetarian. What meats are good to roast?" And my florist is am.az.ing.

Once back at home base, I baked up a storm. Hot cross buns, Easter cookies and various other things... We will be indulging in an Easta Feasta all weekend. Stay tuned for pics!

dd.x

cooking challenge week fourteen: yasai katsu curry

2009-04-05T22:07:00.005+01:00

Katsu curry is a relatively new tradition in Japan, but is very popular. It's a Japanese take on an American/Indian curry sauce. The difference is that it is, bizarrely enough, sweetened with apple and banana, while the spice comes from Indian madras curry powder. So strange but really nice.

You will need:

For the curry sauce:

2 ripe bananas, sliced

1 small onion
3 cloves garlic

3 cox apples, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon ketchup

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons madras (hot) curry powder

2 tablespoons butter

4 cups water

2 cups vegie/chicken stock

3 tablespoons cornflour

For the vegetables:

1 egg

1/2 cup flour

1 cup PANKO breadcrumbs

Oil for deep frying

Vegetables

What to do:

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and fry off the finely diced onion, garlic, apple and banana. Stir constantly for two minutes, until softened. Add 3 cups of water, the ketchup, honey, turmeric and curry powder. Stir well. Simmer for ten minutes then add stock. Stir 3 tablespoons of cornflour into the remaining cup of water. Add this to the curry and simmer for 30 minutes until thickened and reduced.

Strain through a colander to remove solids and return to the saucepan. Continue to simmer and thicken until ready to serve.

For the vegetables:

Slice eggplant and sweet potato into 1cm thick rounds. Dip them in flour, then egg wash, then PANKO breadcrumbs. Deep fry. Once they float to the top, they are ready (the PANKO breadcrumbs will darken once you remove them from the oil).

Serve with steamed rice and some green salad (I used Japanese pickled cabbage and cucumber).

easy peasy japanesey

2009-04-04T23:01:00.008+01:00

A good friend of mine has just come back from a trip to Japan, and her photos were seriously amazing. So beautiful - what a country! She hit a snag though in ordering food. With a scant ten words of Japanese under her belt, garnered in grade ten LOTE classes, meal times were quite an adventure. Some slippery eel and other unrecognisable foods were consumed.

When I was vegan, Japanese was one of my favourite food types, as it's pretty easy to keep it meat and dairy free. Tonight's menu was a tribute to some of my favourite meals from that cuisine.

The challenge - a yasai katsu curry - is arguably most popular in the UK because of wagamamas. This restaurant chain specialises in Asian food - a menu that is a hybrid of thai, chinese, japanese, malaysian and indonesian, all served in an homogenised and westernised environment - fast, quick, clean and cheap, and very tasty. Their katsu curry is one of the most popular meals.

I love that Japanese meals often involve a lot of different dishes, served in dainty portions, so you get maximum flavour without feeling like you're going to burst at the end of the evening.

In this vein, we started with a selection of sushi - some cucumber maki as well as tempura prawn maki with wasabi and soya sauce.

Following this, we had some Japanese crumbed prawns.

After this, it was Nasu Misoyaki, one of my favourite meals ever. Imagine a soft roasted aubergine, sliced once cooked and topped with mild miso paste, soya sauce, sugar and vinegar, served with Japanese pickled vegetables. Absolutely delicious. Served soft, with cripsy skin, and steaming.
The katsu curry was absolutely delicious. It's quite a modern Japanese dish - a Japanese imitation of an Indian American curry that hits the mark beautifully. The curry is served with rice and crumbed chicken or vegetables. Seriously yumtastic.
Japanese cuisine isn't huge on dessert (shocking, I know), so I sort of improvised. I made a green tea, champagne and apple jelly, served with chocolate sauce. This is the first time I have ever made jelly from scratch. I used more gelatine than I probably needed, so it sure was firm. And really a nice combination of flavours. Anything with a chocolate is a winner for me though!

home made pasta, mark 2

2009-04-02T21:27:00.006+01:00

I made the pasta again tonight, with a few modifications, and it was great!

This time, I used all white flour, and only three eggs. Knead the pasta until it's springy and soft. Wrap in glad wrap and set aside for a half hour. When you push a finger into the dough it should bounce back to its original shape immediately.

Roll the dough really flat. I chopped the dough into long strands of varying widths- from 0.5cm to 3 cm. Then, I put them in boiling salted water for a couple of minutes.

I served them with creamy mushroom sauce and fresh organic spinach. This is definitely worth the effort, and is just in a different league to store bough pasta.

cooking challenge week thirteen: homemade pasta

2009-03-31T20:58:00.010+01:00

This was a great challenge. The kind of challenge I started this whole adventure to get to grips with. I am so pleased! I can't wait to whip up another batch of home made pasta. I made a ravioli with sweet potato, caramelised onion, goats cheese and basil. Honestly, one of the nicest things I've eaten. Certainly one of the nicest I've made. I topped it with a simple, rustic pesto - heavy on all the classic ingredients - loads of fresh basil, pine nuts, really hearty parmesan and good olive oil.

For the pasta:

You will need:

2.5 cups strong white flour (type "oo" if possible - and I actually used half whole grain flour)

4 organic free range eggs, at room temperature

A few tablespoons oil

A teaspoon of salt

What to do:

Sift your flour into a mound on the top of your work surface, and add a teaspoon of salt. Make a deep well in the centre. Crack one egg in and beat lightly to break the yolk. Incorporate some of the flour. Repeat with the next three eggs and then start to mix more and more of the flour until you have a crumbly dough. Add a tablespoon of oil, then a tablespoon of water, one at a time, until you have the consistency of a stretchy but firm dough.

Wrap in lightly oiled cling film and refrigerate for at least a half hour.

Lightly sprinkle flour on a clean work surface and roll the flour out, if you're working manually. You need to get the dough paper thin - about a milimetre, so you should be able to pick it up, hold it to the light and see through it. Obviously this is easier with a pasta maker but hey, let's go rustica! Because I was making ravioli, I did this in batches. The aim is to get two strips of dough that are roughly the same size.

Spoon your mixture equally along one strip then use an egg wash to cover the exposed pasta. Drape the other piece of dough over the top. You need to take your time to squeeze the air bubbles out of the ravioli. Work from the inside of the mix out. Use your fingertips to press the edges down. Use a cup to slice the pasta into rounds, or a knife to cut into squares.

Pasta should need to boil for around 2 minutes at the most. And it is GOOD. I am going to make a spaghetti tomorrow night, so stay tuned as I'll update with my success!

To make the ravioli filling, I peeled and sliced one small sweet potato until soft. Caramelised onion - One onion, finely chopped, mixed with 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and 1.5 tablespoons brown sugar. Mix well and simmer over a low heat for around 30 minutes. Keep stirring to ensure it doesn't stick to the bottom or burn. Mix with finely chopped basil, and a good quality goats cheese. Season to taste and mix all ingredients together until you get the consistency of chunky mash potato.

For the pesto - use a food processor or hand mixer to combine basil, pine nuts, organic garlic (my new love!), olive oil, parmesan cheese and salt until you get the right consistency.

If you love pasta, then make this! You'll never buy store bought filled pasta again.

foody weekend

2009-03-29T16:38:00.009+01:00

Well this week's challenge has been spread over Saturday and Sunday, as we caught up with some friends last night so I wasn't able to do my full three course meal!

I was, however, able to serve part of the enree as a snack for us to share. I made a loaf of bread, soft and white, which was to be turned into Bruschetta. I am learning, with this cooking challenge, to be more of a patient cook. There is no way you can rush baking, particularly not yeast based doughs, which need time to rise and prove. The longer you can leave the dough to rise, the softer and fluffier the bread.

Then, the main course (and cooking challenge) was a ravioli I made from scratch. I have tried this in the past but it didn't work out. I think this was because I didn't roll the pasta thin enough. Without a pasta machine you need to get the ravioli paper thin, which takes patience and arm muscles! I made a sweet potato, goats cheese, caramelised onion, basil and pine nut filling, and I served the ravioli with home made pesto and aged parmesan. To make the ravioli, I used a mix of wholegrain and white flour.

I don't think the photographs do this challenge justice but it was absolutely delicious. The combination of flavours was sooo good and the texture was perfect. I was really, really pleased. I think using a pasta maker would still give you a slightly thinner product though, but I'm going to make a heap of these and freeze them in portions. Delicious.

Finally, for dessert, sweet berries with rum sauce and home made ice cream. Delicious!

a day in belgium

2009-03-26T22:59:00.009Z

I spent a fantastic day in Brussels today, to help a good friend celebrate her birthday eve. It's my personal belief that birthdays should span a minimum of three days: birthday eve, birthday day and birthday boxing day, and ideally more if possible.

The food in certain cities in Europe is beyond compare, and Brussels is definitely in my top ten. It isn't any particular dish or flavour for me, but more the craftsmanship and attention to detail in the national specialties - chocolate, waffles, moules, beer. Of course, there are also the enterprising locals who, intent on making the most of the tourist trade, cast crude Manequin Pis knock offs out of chocolate and waffle batter!

In any event, we spent the day wandering the beautiful cobbled streets and eating as much of the food as possible, and souveniring anything we weren't able to make room for.

These treats consist of delicious chocolate flavours with a spoon embedded in the top, and in some cases, a plastic vial of liquor. You heat some full cream milk and then stir the chocolate in (squeeze the liquor as you go) and voila! a delicious belgian hot chocolate. I brought two home for us.

Great artisanal cheese shop off the Grand Place

All of the restaurants make these elaborate seafood displays to entice you in. Worked for us.

This sweets shop looked almost radioactive.

PAUL is a chain of patisserie/boulangerie all over Europe (well, specifically, France, Brussels and the UK, I think). Their cakes are to die for, their hot chocolate the most sinful creation ever and their savouries super yummy too. The first time we had food from PAUL was in Paris - it was a baguette sliced down the middle, filled with two long, skinny sausages and topped with gruyere cheese, then grilled, so it solidified into one melty cheese mess.

This chocolate shop was fantastic. They let us try so many samples - all delicious, of course - so we picked up around 800g of chocolates between us. Brussels is a great city to explore and the food is definitely a highlight!

cooking challenge week twelve: prawn laksa

2009-03-22T08:59:00.007Z

You will need:

For the Laksa Paste

1 red chilli, deseeded (add an extra chilli if you like it hot, hot, hot)
3 lemongrass stalks
3 cloves garlic
1 green shallot, trimmed
Ginger (3cm by 3cm piece, sliced)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
3 tbs vegetable oil

For the Laksa

The Laksa Paste (See above)
Noodles (egg, or thick rice - quantity to suit)
Prawns
Boiled eggs
Cucumber
Salad Onion
Mint
Braised tofu
Bean sprouts

What to do:

To make your paste, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you get a nice, textured paste. Add more oil or water as required.

Peel the prawns but leave the tails on. Put the heads and shells in a saucepan with 4 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil. Strain solids and keep the stock.

Tip the Laksa paste into a large saucepan over a low heat. Stir pretty constantly for around 15 minutes. Be careful to keep the heat low - I did my first batch too high and it burned the spices. You're aiming for the colour to darken quite a bit (from yellow to a really nice amber) and the spices to give off a beautiful aroma. Once your paste has reached this stage, pour in a can of coconut cream and 2 -3 cups of stock. Turn the heat up. Once the laksa starts to boil, return the heat to moderate and leave it to simmer and thicken for around 5 - 10 minutes. If it reduces too much, pour in anothe cup of stock. Check your seasoning. I added another tablespoon of fish sauce here, having come to appreciate that it is a really fantastic ingredient in Asian cooking. It's a great salt substitute and really brings out a great flavour in the dish.

Prepare your vegetables - julienne the cucumber, slice the onion finely and cut the tofu into 1cm pieces. Fry off your prawns in a bit of vegetable oil until they are just cooked (You could boil them with the noodles instead, which is quite traditional).

Boil your noodles in salted boiling water until they are just al dente. Strain them, then stir through the vegetables, mint, bean sprouts and tofu.

Place the noodles in the middle of the bowl, top with the prawns, add the boiled eggs then spoon the laksa in. Top with more mint (laksa leaf is preferred but mint is a fine substitute) and serve immediately. Delicious!

I hope you enjoy this. I wasn't sure I loved this, last night, but looking back at the photos this morning, I am already craving my next one...

a trip to south east asia

2009-03-21T22:25:00.009Z

Today was another absolutely fantastic day, weatherwise, but I have been fluey! So a good answer to this was lots of spice.

For entree, we started with Vietnamese cold rolls and Thai corn cakes, with lots of mint, lime and Indonesian kecap manis sauce.

I love the fresh flavours in cold rolls. Lots of onion, mint, coriander and cucumber. Delicious.

For main course, and my cooking challenge of the week, I made a prawn laksa. It was really nice, but not fantastic. We both gave it an 8/10, which makes it the lowest rated cooking challenge so far. ;) Don't get me wrong, the flavours were great, but I think there's room for improvement. I'm going to enjoy refining my technique though as it's such a fresh, vibrant and flavoursome dish.

For dessert, one of our favourite Thai desserts - banana coconut cream. It's really easy but you have to get it just right, in terms of cooking time and seasoning - and tonight it was great.

Will blog recipes tomorrow.

dd.x

Moules Mariniere

2009-03-21T14:40:00.002Z

As you know by now, this is one of my favourite meals.

You will need:

Fresh mussels. We usually use around 1kg for the two of us (but we are piggies when it comes to seafood!).
A cup of cream
A cup of dry white wine
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion, diced finely
A few springs of thyme
Some parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil

What to do:

Over medium high heat, fry off the garlic and onions until opaque and starting to brown. Don't let them burn. Add the wine, thyme and some salt and cook for a minute or two, until it's bubbling away. Add the prepared mussels (see notes below) and cover with a well fitting lid. Steam for up to five minutes - or until the mussels have opened.

Splash the cream and the finely chopped parsley over the top and stir. Discard any mussels that haven't opened. Serve immediately, best with crunchy french fries and a garlic baguette.

NB I think adding bay leaves (2) is quite traditional with this dish but I find the taste overpowering.

Some tips for preparing mussels.

* They are best eaten on the day of purchase, or at latest, the next day.
* Run some cold water into a clean sink, or a large bowl. One by one, dip the mussels in the water, pulling out the beard (stringy sea net) in one swift motion, like you are pulling a weed from the grass. Use a sharp paring knife to chip off any barnacles.
* Don't scrub the shells as this will wash away their colour and taint the colour of your sauce.
* If any mussels are open at this stage, press them shut. If they stay shut, they're fine, if they remain open, discard them.

after work dinner

2009-03-20T12:38:00.009Z

Yesterday was a gorgeous spring day in my little spot on the river Thames, with a clear blue sky, bright and shiny sun, the smell of daffodils and jasmine sweet in the air.

And to make a great day even better, I was having friends over for dinner - some of my favourite people on this side of the globe. My guests arrived laden with beautiful spring flowers (apparently my love for all things fresh, floral and fragrant is well known) which are now beautifying my little home. They were a delicious backdrop to a casual evening. Look! Don't you love them?

We started with drinks (New Zealand white wine, Spanish red wine and Mexican beers) and some home made foccacia, dipped into good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The main event was my old favourite - moules, frites and garlic bread. This never fails, you literally can't go wrong with it, and it's great to share with friends. I love the kind of food that you can all dig into, getting messy fingers and with sauce to be slurped. It's also good because it it's done alla'minute but doesn't require much time or attention so you can still relax and enjoy your night. I realised last night that I haven't yet blogged my recipe for moules mariniere - as it is really so simple and traditional - but will do so shortly.

Two of my friends had placed orders for dessert so we had a bit of a mini-buffet. Sticky date pudding with warm toffee sauce, as well as an apple, strawberry and walnut crumble.

So thank you for a great night, friends, and especially for being willing little guinea pigs in my little blogxploration. Mwah.

dd.x

cooking challenge week eleven: rich beef and guinness stew with creamy colcannon (st patrick's day!)

2009-03-15T11:54:00.008Z

As you know, I'm new to the meat thing so this is my first stew/casserole.

You will need:

For the Stew-

500g Shin (gravy) beef. Ask your butcher to dice it for you.

1.5 cups good quality beef stock

1.5 cups Guinness

1/4 cup Olive Oil

4 tablespoons flour

3 carrots, peeled and cubed into chunky squares

6 sprigs thyme

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

2 dried bay leaves

1/4 cup sliced flat leaf parsley

For the Colcannon

2 good size potatoes

1 cup (loosely packed) sliced Savoy cabbage

1/4 cup green shallots, sliced finely

1 clove garlic

1.5 cups milk

80g butter

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180'c.

Coat your beef pieces loosely in flour. Shake off any excess. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and fry the beef off in batches, adding more oil as required. Once the beef is browned, set aside.

Slice the onion and garlic and fry them in the oil with the diced carrtots (use the same pan as you used for the beef). Once the onion is softened, but not browned, turn the heat up to high and add the Guinnes and Beef stock, as well as the thyme and bay leaves. Bring to the boil.

Combine the beef with the stock mixture in a large oven proof dish and bake for approximately 2 hours. Prior to serving, mix the finely sliced flat leaf parsley through for a spot of colour.

When you are almost ready to serve, make the Colcannon.

Peel and cube your potato and put them in a saucepan with water. Bring to the boil and cook until tender. Strain, then return to the saucepan and mash until fluffy.

In a frying pan, heat the butter until it liquifies then fry off the cabbage, garlic and shallots. Stir over moderate heat until the cabbage is softened. Mix the cabbage mix and milk through the potatoes and stir over low heat until combined. Season as required.

I've just reheated leftovers for next day lunch and it looks even yummier today than last night. Next time, though, I think I might add bacon to the casserole.

great craic, to be sure, to be sure

2009-03-14T23:36:00.009Z

With St Patrick's Day just a few sleeps away, I decided to give this week's feast and cooking challenge an Irish flavour. My maternal grandfather was from Ireland (like many Aussies I proudly lay claim to this heritage). This was good, stodgy soul food.

I started with parmesan cheese soda bread (what we in Australia would know as a damper) with Cashel Blue cheese (from Ireland). Bicarb Soda is used as a raising agent instead of yeast and a deep cross is scored in the top.

For main course, I made Colcannon (absolutely delicious) and a really slow cooked Beef Stew with Guinness and organic garlic.

And for dessert, home made bailey's ice cream with mini (oh, so rich) irish coffees. Oh! And I tried to make a chocolate four leaf clover but it was a bit tricky for me...!

With food like that, I am proud to lay claim to my Irish heritage!!

dd.x

duck pizza

2009-03-13T17:02:00.004Z

I made this pizza the other night for dinner. I made the pizza base, then fried off a plump little duck breast (which I'd marinated in teriyaki and soy sauce) until the skin was crispy and the meat was rare. I sliced it thinly then returned to the frying pan (which was off the heat). Then, I topped the pizza with tomato paste, duck pieces, porcini mushrooms, blue gorgonzola cheese, rocket, and home made caramelison onion, and vintage cheddar. It smelled so good, I almost ate some!

risotteroles!

2009-03-08T15:27:00.009Z

A great way to use left over risotto the next day. Form into palm-sized patties and coat them with bread crumbs. Freeze them here, if you'd like, or fry them in a bit of butter over low heat until they're crispy then finish them in the oven (around 200'c). Serve with a spring salad.

NB - don't do this if you're risotto has chicken in it.

cooking challenge week ten: ginger and lemon cheesecake

2009-03-07T22:13:00.014Z

You will need:

For the base

300g digestive biscuits (I used ginger snap biscuits)

1 cup caster sugar

150g butter, melted

For the filling

400g Philadelphia cream cheese (low fat is fine)

250g Marscapone cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (essence, at a pinch)

2 thumb size nobs of ginger, peeled

1 cup caster sugar

2 large lemons

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

250mL pouring cream

What to do:

To make the base you need to turn the cookies into coarse crumbs. You can do this in a food processor, or stuff them in a freezer bag and bang them between a rolling pin and a chopping board. As I have a seriously rudimentary kitchen at the moment, I put the cookies in two plastic bags and rolled a Guiness pint glass over them until they were pulverised ! Put them in a large mixing bowl and add the sugar and melted butter. Use a spoon to combine thoroughly, then finish with your fingers to form a coarse, thick dough.

Preheat the oven to 220'c (fan forced).

Lightly grease a 22cm spring form tin and spoon the cookie crumbs into the tin. Use your fingers to mould it to the sides and base, and then a glass to pack it tightly. Keep it about a centimetre from the surface. Put it in your freezer for 20 minutes, then remove it and use a sharp bladed knife to trim the top so that it is perfectly straight (or as near to it as possible). Return the pie crust to the freezer.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, marscapone, sugar, lemon rind and the juice of both lemons, ginger and vanilla and beat with electric mixers. Once this has reached a just smooth consistency, add the egg yolk, then the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.

Liquid proof the cake tin. Everyone has their own way of doing this. You can wrap foil around the base. I wrap baking parchment and use twine to secure it, so that it covers the base and 1.5cm or so up the side.

Pour the cream into the mix and stir with a spoon until combined. Pour the cream cheese mix into the base and use a spoon to smooth the surface. Lightly bang it on the work surface so that it doesn't crack during cooking.

Bake the cheese cake at 220'c for 15 minutes, then turn the temperature to 150'c and bake for 40 minutes. Check the cake. It should be firm for 5cm or so on the edge, and wobbly in the middle. Don't worry about the wobbles - it sets further in the fridge. Turn the oven off, open the door a fraction and leave the cake to cool for an hour or two. Once it's near room temperature, cover it and put it in the refrigerator.

I served it with a sauce - made with sherry, butter, brown sugar, nutmeg and ginger (yummy), strawberries and cream.

Make this - it's great !!

oh, what a night!

2009-03-07T21:27:00.010Z

I am so excited by tonight's dinner.

I was talking to my sister yesterday. She mentioned that she had been to one of her favourite local cafes and enjoyed a beetroot and goats cheese risotto. I remember having attempted something like this in the past, and both my sister and I loved it, but weren't so fussed on the bright purple colour. It was almost as vibrant in colour as the time I made a raspberry and white chocolate risotto (that's another story). So tonight, for our entree, I made a goats cheese and beetroot risotto with balsamic reduction, but experimented a bit with the technique to keep the colour as normal as possible. We loved i it! I served it with finely sliced chicory, the bitterness of which was a good contrast to the richness of the goats cheese.

For main course, I made a seafood linguine with chilli, vodka, lemon zest and breadcrumbs. In Australia, we are spoiled for wonderful fresh seafood. That is not always the case in the UK, however, our local fishmonger has great stock on Fridays and Saturdays. Their king prawns and mussels are always particularly good, and this simple dish really shows off their salty, sweet flavour.

Finally, for the cooking challenge this week (week ten, can you believe it? where has this year gone?) I made a cheesecake. My first ever. Wagamama's does an awesome ginger and lime cheese cake and this is a variation on that. I couldn't find a perfect recipe for what I wanted so I sort of played around with a few until I was happy with the taste. And it was pretty delicious (but oh, so rich!). I will definitely be making it again another time. This is a real crowd pleaser. Everyone will love it.

Recipe coming shortly!

dd.x

cooking challenge week nine: roast duck leg with red cabbage

2009-02-28T20:27:00.010Z

You will need:

2 duck legs
1 red cabbage
1 onion
1 small apple
3 garlic cloves
5 bay leaves
A few raspberries
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoon olive oil
Vegetables for roasting (I used squash and potato)

What to do:

For the duck-
24 hours prior to roasting the duck, place the duck in a shallow dish. Slice the onion into chunky pieces and add to the dish. Add chopped garlic, olive oil, 3 bay leaves, fennel seeds, raspberries and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 175'c. Use a small paring knife to poke a few slits into the duck skin. Replace the duck legs into a large, shallow baking tray. Add the ingredients from the marinade and a touch more salt. Add to the oven, skin side up. Set the timer. After 20 minutes, remove from the oven. Spoon the rendered duck fat over the skin and return to the oven. Do this 3 times. After 1 hour, spoon some of the duck fat into a small frying pan and reserve for the gravy. Turn the heat up to 200'c and cook for a further 10 minutes, to crisp the skin.

Make a traditional gravy by adding cornflour and water to the reserved duck fat and whisk over low heat. However, I made a redcurrant sauce by adding a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly to the duck fat, with a tablespoon of flour, a few tablespoons of red wine and 1/4 cup water. Whisked constantly over very low heat until it had thickened and reduced.

For the cabbage -
This is a very traditional dish and I absolutely love it. There are a lot of different ways you can make it and I think everyone has their own method, but I find this easy and tasty. I love dishes that you can pop on the stove and leave to bubble away for a few hours, to get richer and richer.

Core the cabbage and rinse it well (there are always slugs and bugs in the outer leaves - just rinse them and check them well). Once you're sure the cabbage is sans pests, chop it finely.

Melt the butter in a large, deep saucepan over very low heat. Add one clove of garlic, the bay leaves, and then the cabbage. Grate the apple and then the white wine vinegar, half of the balsamic and half of the sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well. Leave to simmer for around 30 minutes, then check the seasoning. Add the balsamic and sugar as required, for flavour. I cooked this for around 2 hours. Once almost all the liquid has reduced, add the lid and turn the heat right down to the minimum setting.

To serve, plate up the vegetables and cabbage, top with the duck, and the onion and bay leaves from the roasting pan. Add gravy and serve.

That's it for this week. Enjoy!

saturday night feast

2009-02-28T20:05:00.011Z

Cooking meat is a skill most people take for granted, but I am struggling to get to grips with it. I've been vegetarian for around 13 years now, and was vegan for several of those years. While I've managed to get dairy and seafood back into my diet (and with great aplomb too!), I can't quite make the mental leap to eating meat. YET. I love the thought of hearty roasts and really rich cuts of meat, especially in winter. I'm not funny about cooking it or handling it, but I have a limited repertoire. So this week's cooking challenge might seem 'easy', but for me, it represented a great challenge.

I made a crispy duck leg with braised red cabbage, very crunchy roast potato and squash, all served with a redcurrant gravy. I had to take D's word for how it tasted, but there was nothing left except the bone!

In researching recipes for the cooking challenge, I found many varied schools of thought. Cook for 3 hours, cook for 45 minutes, cook under 200ml goose fat, crisp the skin in a pan first, don't fry it at all, bake then crisp. Very stressful! Finally, I decided to wing it (pardon the pun). I made my own marinade and checked the duck every 20 minutes or so.

For entree, we started with chilli prawns. I learned to make this when working at the restaurant. The chef (who I have already told you is one of the best chefs in the world, in my opinion) was kind enough to give me the recipe for her sauce, however she swore me to secrecy. I make the sauce often but keep the recipe to myself.

The main course (cooking challenge of the week):

For dessert, an English classic with a twist: banoffee meringue. So, so, so rich and sickly sweet but absolutely delicious.

This was a fun week and I am pleased to have made a start on learning to prepare duck. Next time, I think I will make a confit.

Happy cooking!dd.x

mushroom stroganoff (cheap and cheerful)

2009-02-27T09:45:00.004Z

This is a great recipe for anyone who likes hearty meals and is on a shoe string, and it's really low fuss as well.

You will need:

About 750g mushrooms
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup frozen peas
200mL cream
250 mL red wine
2 tablespoons paprika
spring onions/parsley for garnish
2 tablespoons butter
Salt

What to do:

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over moderate heat. Dice the onion and garlic into small cubes and fry them gently in the butter until they've started to brown slightly. Prepare the mushrooms - wipe off any soil and quarter large ones, halve medium ones and leave small ones whole. Add them to the softened onion and garlic mixture. Sprinkle all of the paprika over the top and stir well. Leave to fry for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through. Reduce the heat. The mushrooms should be coloured and softened.

Add 200mL of the red wine and leave to simmer for ten minutes. Add the cream and stir. Reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, for around 40 minutes (checking it every so often). The liquid should have thickened and reduced.

Five minutes before you're ready to serve, add the remainder of the red wine, and the frozen peas, and stir well. Simmer for another few minutes then serve!

Season to taste and serve topped with chopped onions or parsley and with basmati rice (and garlic bread, if feeling decadent!).

happy pancake tuesday!

2009-02-26T18:31:00.004Z

I hope you got your pancake fix...I did! What better way to serve light, fluffy pancakes than straight off the hotplate and with lemon, sugar and butter?

green soup

2009-02-23T11:04:00.006Z

After a weekend of over indulging in mayonnaise, frites, waffles, pofertjes and delicious indonesian food (in Amsterdam), I arrived home and wanted something as nutritious and virtuous as possible. I stopped off at the fruit & veg shop and got an armful of green things for this delicious, healthy soup.

You will need:

1 onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 small broccoli
1 bunch of asparagus (about 8 stalks)
1 cup of beans
1 zuchini
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup capers
1/4 cup loosely chopped basil (plus some for garnish)
2 tablespoons olive oil
About 500g fresh spinach (frozen substitutes fine)
500mL vegetable stock
150mL white wine
Parmesan, freshly grated, to serve.

What to do:

Fry off the onion and garlic until lightly browned, over low heat. Chop the vegetables into smallish slices and add to the saucepan. Cook for approximately five minutes. Add the white wine and leave to simmer and reduce, uncovered, for ten minutes. Add the hot vegetable stock, and reduce the heat to low. Cook, covered, for around 20 minutes.

Once the vegetables are completely softened, remove from heat and use a hand blender to process the soup. Pour it through a colander and return it to the saucepan. Cook for an extra few minutes. Add salt and pepper to season (needs quite a bit of salt, IMO).

Serve with basil and parmesan cheese - I also added truffle oil but obviously that's optional.

Enjoy!

cooking challenge week eight: seafood paella

2009-02-22T22:19:00.006Z

Paella is a very historic and traditional spanish peasant dish and can there are many, many conflicting recipes for the dish. I've made a pretty simple seafood paella and it was oh so yummy.

You will need:

3 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 large tomato
1 capsicum
1 spanish onion
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cups arborio rice (or other medium grain)
200mL dry white wine
1 litre boiling hot vegetable stock
1 tsp good saffron strands (I really think the quality of this dish is so dependant on the quality of the ingredients - use great saffron to get a really rich colour. I get mine from Carluccios and it's the best I've come across.)
2 tsp paprika
Seafood (I used: 8 king prawns, 10 mussels, 2 squid tubes)
Curly parsley
3 tbs olive oil

What to do:

Put the saffron and wine in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Set aside as soon as it starts to bubble. Meanwhile, deseed the tomato and capsicum, then finely dice all of the vegetables.

Get a large, flat frying pan going on moderate heat and add the oil. Gently fry off the capsicum, garlic and onion until softened (approximately ten minutes - onion should be translucent). Add the paprika and stir until the vegetables are coloured, then add the tomato and fry for another few minutes. Add the rice, wine, saffron and stock and bring the boil. Do not stir from this point onwards - paella is supposed to be "flat cooked". Bring the heat right down to low and leave it to simmer for around 10 - 15 minutes.

While this is happening, prepare your seafood. Slice the squid tubes into neat 1cm thick rings. Peel the prawn bodies but leave the heads and tails intact. Lightly rinse the mussels (don't scrub them or the colour will wash off and stain the paella), chip off any barnacles, pull out the beards. If any mussels are open, lightly press them shut and if they don't stay shut, discard them.

Arrange the seafood over the top of the rice and steam it (with a lid on) for five minutes. Add all the peas, some finely chopped parsley and steam for another minute or so. Serve immediately (check the mussels are opened and discard any that aren't. The prawns and calamari should be completely white). Serve with lemon wedges and more parsley to garnish.

a spanish fiesta

2009-02-22T21:57:00.006Z

Apologies for being a day late. I've just come back from the most amazing long weekend in Amsterdam, so whilst I undertook the cooking challenge on Thursday evening, this is the first chance I've had to upload the pics and recipe.

The recipe of the week is a seafood paella and we absolutely loved it. I've never even eaten a paella, but it's such a romantic and famous meal that I was looking forward to making it. I got great seafood from my local fishmonger and organic fruit and veg from the local grocer.

We started with crumbed spanish olives and a saffron mayonnaise:

Then, the paella (with prawns, mussels and squid):

Then, the Crema Catalana (which we didn't love):

Okee dokie, here's the recipe for the paella!
love,dd.x

fennel and asparagus veloute

2009-02-18T19:35:00.005Z

The first veloute I ever had was at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in the uber-deluxe Claridge's. It was an amuse bouche of "fennel veloute with apple". Basically, a very smooth, rich sauce, served as a dainty soup, with tiny cubes of diced apple in the bottom. The apple was very tart and this beautifully cut through the richness of the veloute.

The second veloute I had was also at Claridge's, and that is the sum of my experience. I loved both and wanted to learn to recreate the taste at home. Imagine my surprise, then, when I started researching recipes online and in cook books, and couldn't find a single Gordon recipe that followed a traditional recipe (Veloute is a "mother sauce" in French cooking and is historically a blonde roux mixed with a good quality stock for flavour). In any event, as the flavour I wanted to replicate was what I'd experienced at Claridge's, I opted for a recipe more akin to Gordon Ramsay or Heston Blumenthal.

You will need:

2 medium fennel bulbs
10 stalks of asparagus
3 cloves of garlic
A bouquet garni of fennel seeds, thyme and sage
A few extra thyme stalks
1 small onion
75g butter
200mL dry white wine
150mL double cream
500mL hot vegetable stock

What to do:

Finely slice all the vegetables.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables, boquet garni, garlic and thyme and season with salt and pepper. Sweat the vegetables for approximately 25 minutes, until softened and slightly golden. Turn the heat up and add the white wine. Once the liquid has evaporated by half, add the vegetable stock, a ladle at a time. Leave to simmer until again, reduced by half. The soup should be taking on a nice pale green colour by now.

Switch the heat right down and add the cream. After a few minutes, remove from heat and strain through a sieve (or even a colander). Press the vegetables with a spoon to squeeze as much liquid out as possible. Remove the boquet garni and the thyme. Pour the veloute into a saucepan and return to a medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes or so until slightly thickened and reduced.

Serve as a soup or a sauce (goes brilliantly with poultry or fish).

NB I couldn't handle the thought of tossing the vegetables, once I'd strained them. I added them back to the frying pan and made a delicious, delicious risotto (added blue cheese and spinach). I would never usually let cream touch a risotto but this was better than wasting it all!

cooking challenge week seven: croquembouche (french wedding cake)

2009-02-15T11:44:00.008Z

This cooking challenge was fantastic. I had a great time with the various phases involved. Although it sounds sort of complex, it's totally worth it, and for "wow" factor, you can't go past it. Plus, who doesn't love pastry puffs with sweet, sweet custard?!

Profiteroles.

You will need:

75g unsalted butter, cubed

3/4 cup water (room temp)

3/4 cup plain flour, sifted

a pinch of salt

3 eggs

What to do:

Preheat oven to 200'c.

Put the water, salt and butter into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove from the heat immediately and whisk until the butter has melted.

Return the water mix to a very low heat and add the sifted flour. Beat enthusiastically with a wooden spoon until it forms a thick dough and holds together.

Whisk one of the eggs in a small bowl and then add to the dough. Stir well. Repeat with the second, and then the third. This should form a glossy, moist dough.

Put the dough into a large piping bag with a neat nozzle and squeeze golf ball size portions onto a greased baking tray. If you don't have a piping bag, you can just use spoons. Space them evenly as they will swell in the cooking.

Bake for 25 minutes. The profiteroles should be puffed up and bronzed. Remove from heat and poke a tiny slit in the base of each profiterole to let the hot air escape. Store in an airtight container until ready to pipe the custard in.

The Custard

You will need:

2 cups full fat milk

6 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence or slit vanilla bean

1/2 teaspoon other flavour (optional - I used almond essence)

What to do:

Bring the milk and vanilla essence (or vanilla bean) to the boil in a large saucepan then remove from heat.

In the mean time, combine the sugar and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and whisk until doubled in volume (about 2 minutes). Sieve the flour over the top and stir until combined.

Pour the now warm milk into the egg mixture. Add additional flavour if using now. Return to the saucepan and over very low heat, whisk manually until the custard has thickened to your preferred consistency. Refridgerate until the day you're making the croquembouche.

The croquembouche:

Finally, to pull it all together, pipe the custard into the base of the profiteroles. This takes practice and can be a bit messy, but you'll get the hang of it. Each profiterole should "puff" up about .5cm as you fill it with custard. Yum yum.

To make the toffee, put a cup of caster sugar in a bone dry saucepan and set over low heat. don't stir, or add water, just leave it to sit until almost all the sugar has turned into bronze goo. Only then can you whisk any remaining caster sugar (it's a fine balance as you don't want to burn the sugar but if you stir the raw sugar into the melted too early then it will go lumpy). Be very, very careful when working with hot toffee. Set the saucepan onto a safe surface. Dip the base of each profiterole into the toffee and place on a comport or round cake board. After you've placed the first layer, use a spoon to drizzle some more toffee over the tops. Carry on until you've formed a pyramid. (It may become necessary to return the toffee to very low heat again if it gets too hard to work with).

Now, here's the fun part! Poke any decorations of your choosing in between the profiteroles (rose petals, blueberries, mint leaves, raspberries etc) or just leave plain. Using two forks twirl toffee around the outside of the croquembouche. It will form little toffee strands that give it a mystical look.

Just before serving, drift some icing sugar over the top. Delicious!

love, sweet love (happy valentine's day)

2009-02-14T22:29:00.013Z

Well, friends, this is Valentine's day and love hangs sweetly in air. When thinking about the cooking challenge for arguably the most romantic day on the calendar, I kept coming back to one thing. I wanted to make a dish perfect for lovers to share. Something light and fun yet somehow sensual too. And something traditional and really, really special. What better gift for my valentine then than a Croquembouche... for two. This is often times served as a french wedding cake, and is essentially a delicate pyramid of little pastry puffs stuffed with rich, silky custard, drizzled with sticky toffee to hold it in place. Some bakeries will pour the profiteroles into a cone, then drizzle the candy, however I much prefer a more higgledy piggledy look.

And by now, I suppose you must know that I can never stop at just one meal for a Saturday night. So, here's the photographic history of our foody Valentine's Day. Recipe for the croquembouche coming tomorrow (too much lovely champagne to try to type it accurately tonight!). Here's a hint though: If you're planning a wedding and are on a budget, you really can't go past a croquembouche as a low cost, super high effect wedding cake. The choux pastry (literally "cabbages" in French) is easy peasy and can be prepared in advance, and while the custard takes practice, once you've got the recipe under your belt I don't think you'll regret having it in your repertoire. The assembly needs to be done on the day but is the easiest part of the sweet. Remember, what I made tonight is seriously mini - for two to share. For a big wedding, you would use a cone, and frame the profiteroles around the exterior to make it really tall and elegant. Oh, and it tastes absolutely fantastic.

For lunch, we started with moules mariniere and frites. I love my le creusset love heart dish.

Our entree for dinner: Roast beetroot with goats cheese, caramelised endives and balsamic reduction. I love, love, love the choggia beetroots (the pretty candy stripe ones).

For main course, parsnip and potato gratin with a fennel and asparagus veloute and organic scottish salmon fillet. The veloute was really, really yummy.

And then came the croquembouche.....

To serve it, I broke the croquembouche into profiteroles and made a toffee sauce (used yoghurt instead of cream to break through the sweetness) and added fresh berries.

Finally, just when we thought we would never eat again.. for petit fours, I picked up this divine heart shaped camembert. Ironically, it's from France, and I'm pretty sure they're disdainful of valentine's day. Nonetheless, it was a cute gimick. I also made dark chocolate love heart "freckles" because dark chocolate is my valentine's favourite.

And that was it! Recipe for croquembouche coming tomorrow but if you want recipes for anything else, just email or message me.

Wishing you a very loving and lovely Valentine's day,

dd.x

cauliflower, parsnip and cheddar cheese pie

2009-02-08T16:05:00.005Z

You will need:

Head of 1 small cauliflower
2 medium parsnips, peeled

2 cloves of garlic

1 small onion

1 cup skimmed milk

2-3 tablespoons cornflour

2 heaped tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup loosely packed grated cheddar (NB you can substitute any grateable cheese - cheddar, parmesan, gruyere would all work great, pardon the pun)

A few gratings of fresh nutmeg

1 tablespoon mustard seeds (optional)

1 sheet of ready rolled puff pastry

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180'c.

Chop the cauliflower into small florets and slice the parsnip into slim rounds. Bring some water to the boil in a saucepan and add the vegetables. Boil for about 4 minutes, until just al dente. You don't want them to go mushy as they'll continue to cook in the oven. Strain once cooked and set aside.

Finely dice the onion and garlic. Put a small amount of butter in a frying pan and sweat the onion and garlic. If you are using mustard seeds, fry them off with the onion and garlic. Remove once translucent (about five minutes) and set aside. Return the frying pan to the hob, on low heat, and add the remaining butter. Once the butter is all melted, sieve the flower into the pan. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Slowly pour half the milk into the mix and stir. Add 1/2 the grated cheese. Stir. Add some more milk and continue stirring. Once your white sauce has achieved the consistency of thickened cream, add the strained vegetables, the onion and garlic mix, the remaining cheese and grated nutmeg, salt and pepper to season. Combine well.

Pour the mix into an oven proof dish and lay a sheet of pastry over the top. Decorate with leaves if you'd like. Cut a cross in the middle of the pastry to allow the vegetables to steam. Run an egg wash or some olive oil over the pastry to give it a nice gloss.

Bake at 180'c for approximately 30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and flaking. Serve with worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mustard, or any condiment of your choice. Great comfort food on a rainy day.

cooking challenge week six: pappa al pomodoro

2009-02-07T09:18:00.006Z

You will need:

2 kilos of ripe tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 handful of basil
1/4 cup olive oil plus extra for drizzle
Approx 4 - 5 slices of bread
Approx 1 litre boiled water
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated, plus extra for serving
Salt and Pepper to season

What to do:

Slice your tomatoes in half and deseed them (use a dessert spoon to scoop out the seeded flesh). Some recipes will tell you to use tinned tomatoes but I never have and wouldn't suggest it. This is a great fresh dish. Reserve the tomato pulp for another recipe. it will keep in the freezer.

In a large saucepan, over moderate temp, heat some olive oil and the finely chopped garlic cloves. Sizzle until just about to brown. Reduce the heat right down and add the halved tomatoes. Season with some salt and pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir well to mix. Add the lid and leave to reduce for approximately half an hour. You might want to check on it every five minutes or so and give it another stir... and it smells so good!

Once the tomatoes have mostly lost their shape, add enough boiling water to cover the tomato mix by abot 2cm. Return the heat to high and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes. If you're making this in advance, take it off the heat at this stage and leave it to rest.

Slice or tear the bread (remove any crusts from store bought bread) and add to the soup. Roughly tear the basil leaves (reserving some for extra garnish) and add them, with the parmesan cheese and olive oil. Stir well and leave to reduce for a further 20 minutes or so. The bread should have completely lost its shape and the soup should basically look like a thick gluggy red mess. Delizioso!! This is called a soup but it has more the consistency of a stew. If there is literally no moisture in your creation, feel free to add a little more water. Just don't go overboard; it's not meant to be runny.

Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if required. Serve garnished with an extra drizzle of oil, a grate of parmesan cheese and a few extra shreds of basil.

These quantities should serve four (or two generously!). Enjoy.

the night of the bread soup feast

2009-02-07T08:56:00.007Z

This week, I found it really hard to get out of Italy. There's something about the simple and fresh flavours of rustic Italian cooking that I absolutely love. And I'm a fiend for Olive Oil. So for this week's cooking challenge, I made a really traditional and simple Italian dish: Pappa al Pomodoro. Babylon online dictionary defines the soup as follows, "The quintessential country dish and one of Tuscany's most famous soups, pappa al pomodoro is made of stale bread and ripe tomatoes...". It's a quintessential Tuscan flavour and relies on the freshest of everything: ripe red tomoatoes (you know the ones, all plump and juicy, yum), garlic, good Olive Oil and fresh basil leaves. The one exception is the bread which can be dry and stale, or straight from the freezer. I used some week old focaccia to avoid wasteage.

To complete the Italian theme for the night, I made a starter of Aubergine Bruschetta. Believe it or not, the best Bruschetta I've ever had is in a French restaurant, in Australia. And it was Aubergine, not the more popular Tomato bruschetta.

For dessert, what else, but Zabaglione? This dessert is said to have originated in the court of the Medicis, in the 16th century, and is another Tuscan favourite. I first tasted Zabaglione when I was 15 and working at one of the most amazing restaurants in the world (imo). Except there it was called Sabayon - the French name. I was surprised by how simple this was to make, though quite the arm workout.

Now onto the recipes..

dd.x

sticky date pudding with hot butterscotch sauce

2009-02-04T20:10:00.005Z

This is one of my favourite pudding recipes. It's very quick and easy and the ingredients are usually on hand. Plus it stores so well. You can make it in a cake tin, or in muffin trays for individual puddings, and it freezes and reheats great (just wack it in the microwave and it actually gets better!). The sauce lasts really well too. This is a great dinner party dessert - I don't know anyone who doesn't absolutely love this recipe.

You will need:

300g dried dates
2 1/2 cups water
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
150g butter
140g caster sugar
Juice and zest of 1/2 an orange
4 eggs
300g self raising flour

What to do:

Put the dates and water in a deep saucepan and place it on a hob over high heat. Once it comes to the boil, remove from heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. This will fizz (and boil over if you haven't removed it from the heat). Put a lid on the saucepan and set aside.

Cream butter, sugar, orange zest and juice for 5 minutes, until pale in colour. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Sift the flour over the butter mix and gently fold in.

Make sure the bicarb soda has properly dissolved in the date mix, so that there aren't any lumps, then pour into the butter mix. Fold through until well mixed.

Pour into a greased cake tin and bake at 180'c for 40 minutes. Check it's done by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean, it's cooked. This is a pudding and is meant to be quite moist, so the skewer has always come out a little sticky for me.

For the butterscotch sauce, put equal portions each of cold cubed butter, double cream and soft brown sugar into a saucepan and whisk constantly over low heat. Serve with ice cream or cream.

rummy strawberries (perfect for a wintry night)

2009-02-01T21:52:00.004Z

One of my favourite recipes for a wintry dessert is rummy berries. It's quick and easy and oh so yummy.

You will need:

1 punnet of organic strawberries, or other.

2 tablespoons of vanilla scented caster sugar

1/4 cup rum

40g butter

cream, ice cream or custard to serve.

What to do:

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, over high heat. Rinse and quarter the strawberries. Once butter is sizzling, add the strawberries and then the sugar. Leave to sizzle for a few minutes, then shake the pan. Add 1/2 the rum and reduce the heat to moderate. After a few more minutes, add the rest of the rum (to taste).

I've served it with homemade vanilla bean ice cream, which I shaped in my very adorable new loveheart silicone muffin trays, and I've also served it with Fortnum & Mason lemon shortbread, but it goes very well with cream or custard as well.

cooking challenge week five: penne giardiniera

2009-01-31T22:12:00.011Z

This week the cooking challenge takes us back to continental Europe. To la bell'italia, to be specific. Everytime I go to Carluccio's (one of the best restaurant chains in the world!) I order penne giardiniera. No matter what else is on the menu, I always return to the old favourite. After four years of eating it in store, I've finally worked out how to make it at home. I've got to say, I was surprised at how close this was to the original.

You will need:

1kg English spinach leaves, rinsed

4 cloves garlic

1 nutmeg seed

300g parmesan cheese

100g butter

2 large courgettes

2 mild red chillis, deseeded and chopped into small pieces

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Large Penne Pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil + extra for shallow frying

What to do:

Put a little water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the spinach leaves, put a lid on it. Simmer for approximately two minutes, pour into a colander and strain over a bowl. Press with a wooden spoon until as much liquid is released as possible. Place 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped, into a large bowl. Add the spinach, the beaten egg, and 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese.

Grate a few lashings of nutmeg (approximately a teaspoon full) and add half of the breadcrumbs. Stir. Add more breadcrumbs if it's too moist.

Get some olive oil going on high heat, in a large frying pan. Form the spinach mix into loose, palm size balls and, once hot, add to the oil. Fry until lightly browned and then transfer to an oven tray. Set aside.

Bring some salted water to boiling point, in a large saucepan, and add the pasta. Cook until al dente according to packet instructions. Strain through a colander. Set aside.

Place the spinach balls in the oven on 150'c for 10 - 15 minutes, to crisp up and reheat.

In a large frying pan, over moderate heat, melt the butter. Add the rest of the garlic (finely chopped) and the chilli and stir until lightly browned. Grate the courgettes into the frying pan, and season with a few more gratings of nutmeg, salt and cracked pepper. Stir and fry for a few minutes - careful not to brown anything! Grate approximately 200g of parmesan cheese, reserving any extra. Immediately add the pasta, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Mix well, then serve. Place spinach balls on top of the pasta and garnish with extra parmesan. These quantities should comfortably serve four or five people.

a carluccio's feast, saturday night

2009-01-31T21:51:00.006Z

One of my favourite restaurants is Carluccios. When we first moved to the UK, we worshipped the window display of the South Kensington cafe for months, before a dear relative convinced us to join her for dinner inside. It was everything I'd hoped. From that date to this, we regularly eat in Carluccio's, and have celebrated many special events there. Tonight, I recreated my favourite three course meal from Carluccio's.

We started with sea salt and rosemary focaccia,

followed by one of Carluccio's most well known dishes: Penne Giardiniera (spinach balls with penne pasta and zuchini, and chili).

For dessert, what else but vanilla bean affogatto?

All in all.. .delicious.

ginger fish/pla jien

2009-01-25T10:51:00.013Z

There's an amazing Thai restaurant on the Gold Coast, in Australia, called Chiang Mai Thai. Ask any local and they'll have been there, and probably love it. It was a treasured obsession and indulgence of ours for a few years. I would call and say, "Hi, may I please place a take away order?" and at the sound of my voice, the receptionist would reply, "Ah, yes, let me guess, ginger fish?". This is another dish that I've tried to recreate a couple of times but never got quite right (fish sauce is my salvation - it's the key to both these dishes, I've discovered!). I've had a few requests for my ginger fish recipe so here tis (I think this recipe looks more complicated than it is - perservere, it's easy and worth it!).

You will need:

2 - 3 firm white fish fillets (depending on size)
Corn Flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil and 500mL for shallow frying
1/2 cup water
1 cup loosely packed julienned ginger
6 cloves garlic
1 onion thinly sliced
1 cup woodear mushrooms (I couldn't get any woodear mushrooms so substituted Enoki, which worked fine. I think at a pinch button mushrooms would even be okay, but woodear is by far the best).
1/2 cup mangetout, trimmed and washed
Handful of pea aubergines, washed
Eschallots, washed and sliced in 4 cm lengths (and extra dark green for garnish)
Sliced red chili (optional - quantity to taste)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 heaped tablespoon soybean paste (this is pretty crucial - any good asian grocer will stock it)

NB You can really use any variation on ingredients with this, the most important are for the sauce, obviously ginger, and the wood ear mushrooms. This can be done with chicken or tofu, instead of fish, and the shallow frying of the fish is optional. This recipe is as close to Chiang Mai's as I've been able to make it, and they use deep fried fish (so if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me!).

What to do:

Make the sauce: Mix oyster sauce, fish sauce, soya sauce and soy bean paste in a bowl and set aside. Heat 500ml vegetable oil in a deep frying pan or sauce pan. Don't use non-stick. Coat the fish fillets in cornflour. Check oil is hot enough by flicking a bit of leftover cornflour in. If it sizzles and floats you are good to go. Carefully place the fillets in (all at once if your saucepan is big enough, or in batches otherwise). Once golden, remove with a metal slotted spoon or metal tongs and set aside.

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a deep frying pan or wok and add the garlic, onion and pea aubergines. Fry for a few minutes until lightly browned. If you aren't doing deep fried fish, this is where you should add the chicken, or the tofu, or the unfried fish. Fry for several minutes until golden and cooked through. Add ginger, mushrooms and the sauce mix. Add chilli, if using, and the water. Bring to the boil for a minute or two, then add the scallions, mangetout and any other vegetables you're using.

There are two things you can do here. Either place a fillet of fish on a plate and spoon the sauce on top OR add the fish to the saucepan and stir to combine. Serve in a large dish, garnished with finely sliced eschallot and beansprouts and accompany with steamed jasmine or sticky coconut rice.

cooking challenge week four: pad thai

2009-01-24T21:53:00.013Z

With great trepidation I have made the pad thai! The day started with a run into the next town over, where there's a thai supermarket. After stocking up on a myriad of pastes and liquids and spices and sauces I was ready to begin. And I've got to say, it was pretty good. Maybe an 8/10. I think I've discovered the secret...fish sauce. I've always been a bit turned off by the idea of fish sauce and oyster sauce (something about them makes me wonder what kind of yucky fish organs have been squeezed...where...when...what...) but they really make a difference. So, without further ado, here's my recipe for really yummy pad thai.

You will need:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely

Approx 200g flat noodles
2 eggs, beaten

150g firm tofu

1/2 cup crushed peanuts
5 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 flat tablespoons caster sugar
3 heaped tablespoons pure tamarind paste
prawns (quantity to match your taste!) - deveined and butterflied
1/3 cup water
1 cup bean sprouts loosely packed
1/4 cup sliced eschallots loosely packed

What to do:

Place noodles in a large bowl and pour cold water over, to completely cover. Stand aside for ten minutes, or until softened.

Combine the soy sauce, fish sauce, tamarind and sugar in a bowl and stir thoroughly.

Heat oil in a large, deep frying pan. Once sizzling, add garlic, tofu and prawns. Fry for a few minutes until golden (but don't burn the garlic). Remove the prawns once cooked and set aside. Add the noodles to the frying pan and stir fry for a few minutes until all ingredients are well combined. Add water, continue to stir.

Pour the tamarind mix over the noodles and stir for several minutes, until the noodles are sizzling. Add the eggs and stiry fry constantly until eggs are hard. Turn heat right down to low. Add most of the eschallots (reserving some to garnish), most of the peanuts (reserving some to garnish), most of the beansprouts (you guessed it - leaving some to garnish!). Add the cooked prawns. Stir well and serve immediately, garnished with eschallots, peanuts, beansprouts and lemon or lime wedges to taste.

one month in and...

2009-01-21T16:25:00.005Z

...still going strong. Well, sort of. If you had asked me, before undertaking this adventure of recipexploration, what my favourite type of food is, I would have struggled to choose just one. I'd like to be virtous and say Japanese (hardly any dairy, low cholesterol, low saturated fats, steeped in family centred traditions and focussed on fresh produce) however, while I have brief flirtations with nasu dengaku and agadeshi tofu, and everything japanese inbetween, it has become clear to me that my soul mate, my real food love, the type of food I would foresake all others for, to have and to hold til death do me part, is French. The first three recipes of my challenge have been classically French, and sitting here now, I can pluck dozens from my mind that I'd like to try next. And of the recipes I've made, they've all become regulars in my weekly repertoire, much to my well-intentioned New Years Resolution Diet's disgust.

So. Here we are. On the verge of week four and I'm racking my brains for something as magnificently different from French cuisine as possible. Saganaki? Dashi? Goulash? Paella? Trifle? All tempting, but I have decided to try one of our favourite take away meals. Pad Thai.

It's a special meal for us, being one of the first we shared, and one we share often. I have tried to make pad thai in the past (say that ten times, fast) but never, ever succeeded. It's a cooking style so different to what comes instinctively to me, that I always seem to stumble. So. This week, I am determined! Wish me luck ;)
dd.x

cooking challenge week three: creme brulee

2009-01-17T23:51:00.010Z

This is such a great dessert. Whenever we are at a restaurant that has it on the menu, I order it. There's something about the rich and silky custard and the crackly sweet toffee on top that makes it irresistable. Unlike last week's creme caramel, this doesn't seem to be a recipe that lends itself well to slimming down so I made it in all its creamy egg yolk glory.

You will need:

6 free range organic egg yolks
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
600mL double cream
1/2 cup caster sugar (plus 8 tbs extra for dusting.

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 130'c.

Put the cream and vanilla extract in a saucepan and bring to the boil, over high heat. Once at scalding point, remove and set aside.

Use electric mixers to blend the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Do this for several minutes until well combined and pale in colour.

Slowly pour the cream over the egg mixture and whisk thoroughly until combined. Ladle off the top level of frothy bubbles, then ladle the mixture into the four ramekins. Thump each ramekin heavily onto the bench top to get rid of any excess froth. Place into a deep set baking dish (I used a large cake tin). Pour boiling water into the baking tray, halfway up the sides of the ramekin. Loosely cover with alfoil and bake for 65 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Caramels should have a slight wobble but be reasonably firmly set.

Cover and refridgerate for 3 hours or as long as possible.

Cover with approximately 2 tablespoons of caster sugar per ramekin, right to the edges. Place under a super hot grill when ready to serve, until crisped and golden on top. Alternatiely, use a domestic blow torch (with great care!) to crisp toffee.

monday night dinner: quick and easy pizza

2009-01-12T21:43:00.004Z

Home made pizza is so much better than take away or frozen pizza, and it's pretty quick and easy to make too. Using a combination of just about anything you happen to have in the fridge and pantry you can almost always rustle up a delicious meal.

Tonight, we had a thin and crispy pizza with wild mushrooms, spinach and walnuts, and a thick crust gourmet vego pizza (roasted sweet potato, caramelised onion, capers, basil and goats cheese).

To make the pizza base, you will need:

2 cups plain flour plus extra for dusting
3/4 cup tepid water
6g yeast (one sachet)
2 tablespoons of good olive oil (or truffle or chili oil if you're feeling adventurous!)
A pinch each of salt, pepper and sugar.

What to do:

I am seriously laid back in my pizza making. Pour all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir with a spatula until combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about ten minutes, until stretchy and soft. Don't over knead the dough. Once it's done, transfer it back to the bowl and cover with glad wrap. Leave to prove for ten minutes while you prepare the toppings.

Slice your toppings of choice - if you are in short supply, olive oil, garlic, rosemary and cheese (any cheese, every cheese!) makes a great simple combination!

Once the dough has proved, remove from the bowl and return to floured work surface. If it has risen too much, bash it once to flatten out extra air. I find the quantities above make 2 large pizzas. Slice the dough in half and roll each into a ball. Use a rolling pin to make the bases. For a really thin and crispy base, role it very thin and place onto lightly floured tray, top it and bake immediately (200'c for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden). For thicker pizza base, leave the pizzas a bit thicker when you shape them, and leave to rise for a further 10 minutes before adding the toppings and baking.

cooking challenge week two: creme caramels

2009-01-11T00:36:00.008Z

I have always loved creme caramel. It is so sweet, and the texture is like silk, unlike anything else in the world. I did a lot of research into various recipes and settled on the simplest and most traditional I could find. It worked out quite well, though I think I will continue to tweak the details over the next few months to perfect it to my liking. The recipe called for full fat milk and I used skimmed and, to be honest, this really was one of the nicest creme caramels I've ever eaten.

This recipe serves four, so you will need four oven-proof ramekins.

You will need:

250g caster sugar
4 tablespoons water
1/2 litre skimmed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
3 egg yolks

What to do:

Over very low heat, put water and 150g of sugar in a saucepan and stir gently. Leave to cook for approximately ten minutes, stirring every few minutes. It should turn a dark brown colour and the sugar crystals should be completely dissolved, giving the mixture almost the consistency of golden syrup.

Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, over low heat, bring the milk and vanilla essence to a slow simmer and leave to heat for approximately five minutes. Don't let it curdle nor burn.

Once the sugar mixture is ready, ladle a small amount into the ramekins. This is crucial - do this one by one! As the sugar mixture touches the cold ceramic of the ramekin, it will set very quickly. Carefully tilt the ramekins so that the base is completely covered in mixture. Do this to all four.

Preheat the oven to 160'c. In a deep mixing bowl, hand whisk the 2 eggs and 3 egg yolks with the remaining sugar until well combined. Slowly pour the warm milk in, whisking constantly. Don't overwhisk as you don't want the custard to be too aerated or frothy.

Bang the bowl a couple of times on the work surface to shake out any big bubbles. Use a soup ladle to distribute the custard evenly into the ramekins. You can fill them right to the very top if you have enough!

Once filled, carefully place the ramekins into a large, deep baking tray. Pour boiling hot water into the dish, bringing it to 2/3 of the way up the side of the ramekins. Using extreme care, as this can be tricky(!), transfer the baking tray to the oven. Cook for 60 minutes and then test their readiness. Creme Caramels should be lightly brown on top, and you should be able to tap the top of them and feel their springiness. They should not dip in the centre.

Remove from the oven and refridgerate for anywhere between 3 hours and overnight. Serve solo - they're delicious just as they are! To serve, run a small, sharp paring knife around the perimetre of the ramekin, place the creme caramel on a plate and ease the sweet out. It should slide out without too much encouragement.

birthday feast!

2009-01-11T00:14:00.006Z

It's my birthday eve so we are enjoying a nice feast to celebrate. We started off with chicory and roquefort salad:

And followed it with moules and frites. The first time we had this meal was in a cool little restaurant in Brussels, served mariniere style. Nice and traditional. We've been hooked ever since. It's a simple recipe undergoing constant tweaking and improvement though remaining the same in essentials. Lots of garlic, onion, white wine with a dash of cream and a sprinkle of parsley. Tonight I added some bay leaves which gave it an interesting earthy flavour.

The recipe of the week was Creme Caramel and I was really terrified to make it but it turned out to be absolutely delicious! Recipe coming...

dd.x

saffron and champagne risotto

2009-01-07T12:06:00.003Z

A girlfriend of mine has asked for the recipe for the saffron and champagne risotto I made on New Years so here goes.
You will need (to serve 4 people)

4 generous handfulls of arborio rice (or any short, round grain rice)
Approximately 1.5 Litres of boiling stock (I use vegetable but chicken would work great too)
300 mL of Champagne (you can substitute white wine if you don't have any champas handy)
10 strands of saffron
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Parmesan Cheese

What to do:

Add some saffron strands to the boiling stock - this will colour and flavour the water quickly.

Over high heat, add oil to a large, deep frying pan and add finely diced onion and garlic. Immediately reduce heat and stir. Add the rice and stir so that the rice is coated in oil and garlic and starts to squeal. Salt lightly. After a couple of minutes, add a ladle of stock and all the champagne and stir. Add the reserved saffron strands. Once most of the liquid has been absorbed, ladle more of the stock. I prefer my risotto to be a little al dente, but just taste the rice to get it to the consistency you like.

Once you have put the last ladle of stock into the risotto, grate parmesan cheese (quantity to suit your tastes) over risotto and stir. Remove from heat and cover with a lid for 10 minutes, then serve.

what next?

2009-01-07T11:33:00.001Z

For the second week of my recipe challenge I am going to attempt to make Creme Caramel. This is one of my favourite desserts ever but for some reason I am always nervous about baking them at home. I think it might be the idea of a water bath in the oven which confuses me. Nonetheless, it is my birthday weekend and so I will be preparing a three course meal of all my favourite things (before you start feeling sorry for me, having to cook my own birthday feast, remember that cooking is one of my favourite things and I am looking forward to some me time in my kitchen!).

We will start with roquefort and chicory salad, followed by moules mariniere and crispy french fries, and then, of course, barring any major disasters, the creme caramels and irish coffees.

If you have any suggestions for other recipes I can try throughout the year, please let me know as I am excited about getting to grips with as many different types of food as possible.

As for how this cooking challenge will affect our health, we're starting our running again this week so hopefully we won't arrive in 2010 with an extra 10kg of weight apiece..!

dd.x

cooking challenge week one: french onion soup

2009-01-03T23:11:00.001Z

For my first week of the cooking challenge, I decided to try making French Onion Soup because, well, I love it, and I've never made it before. However, I didn't think it would be enough for us for dinner on a Saturday night so I framed a three course meal around it. Here's the recipe for the soup but if you want information on any of the other meals, email me.

You will need:

4 big onions, chopped in half then into small slices
60g salted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Approximately 1.5 litres boiling water
200 mL white wine
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 slices of baguette per serving
Approximately 100g gruyere or masdaam cheese
Salt and Pepper to season

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180'c. Put the butter and oil in a large saucepan, over medium - high heat. Once sizzling, add thinly sliced onions and stir until coated in the fat. Turn heat down to medium and continue to cook for a further 30 - 40 minutes. The onions should brown and soften but not burn nor crisp. Meanwhile, sprinkle the flour on to an oven tray and bake for 15 minutes, or until slightly golden on top. Add to the caramelized onions and mix thoroughly - make sure there are no flour lumps.

Put the white wine in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Leave bubbling for up to 1 minute, to boil off the alcohol content. Add to the onion mix and stir well. Add 1/2 of the boiled water and combine, then the rest of the water gradually until the consistency is as you like it. Turn the heat up to max and simmer for at least 10 minutes (If you accidentally simmer it too long, just add a bit more water).

To serve, put grated cheese on top of the baguette slices and grill until melted and brown. Float two baguette slices on top of each serve of soup. Season to taste.

For main course we had gratin dauphinois, which is another favourite, with grilled halibut, spinach and a beurre blanc (300g of butter for a sauce...ouch).

For dessert, I made apricot ice cream (following my mum's recipe which is both easy and absolutely delicious - no ice cream maker necessary!) and sugar shapes, and for virtue I added mangoes and kiwi fruit.

All in all, a delicious Saturday night in.
Love,dd.x

roast vegetable stack

2009-01-02T23:32:00.001Z

Aubergine, sweet potato, spinach, mushrooms, onion, parmesan cheese with parsnip crisps and pesto dressing. Yum yum.

Tomorrow is the first day of the cooking challenge so I'm off early to pick up ingredients from our local farmers' market.

happy new year!

2009-01-01T14:48:00.002Z

Our new years feast consisted of lobster, crispy chilli squid and prawn cocktails

Avocado, mango and prawn salads

Saffron and champagne risotto with scallops in a balsamic and truffle reduction

Followed by home made apricot pie with whipped cream and coulis

The morning after the night before - the perfect stodgy breakfast to clean up any new years hangovers! Roast potato and parsnips, fried onion, tomato, mushroom and sausages, spinach, egg and cheese bake, toast, ham and avocado. Oh, yeah. Happy new year x

spiced fruit cake

2008-12-31T10:36:00.001Z

This cake happened slightly by accident but turned out to be a really light and fresh take on an old favourite. Last night, D and I were craving something sweet after dinner, and our pantry is literally bursting at the hinges at the moment, filled with Christmas dinner ingredient leftovers. So rather than buying yet another box of Lindt Balls I set to making a Sticky Date Pudding, from one of my favourite Gabriel Gateaux recipes. It's quick and easy and really delicious. However, once I'd started, I realised we didn't have dates, or oranges and I messed up the first stage (not so easy after all, ha!). My courage refused to be dimmed and, improvisation being the name of the game, I pushed on. The result was actually really, really nice. I still served it with hot toffee sauce, as I would a sticky date pudd. And it was good. good. good.

You'll need:

300g self raising flour

1 tablespoon bicarb soda

250g - 300g dried fruits (I used loads of apricots, then sultannas, cherries and prunes)

4 organic, free range eggs (very important. no one wants angry chickens. peck. peck.)

2 tablespoons vanilla essence

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups of water

4 tablespoons orange juice, or apple juice, I actually used mandarin juice!

120 grams butter

What to do:

Boil the water, 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence and fruit together. Once they come to the boil, add the bicarb of soda and stir quickly. It will start to bubble and froth. Remove from heat and cover.

Meanwhile, mix sugar, flour, butter, fruit juice and eggs with electric beaters until combined. Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence and the spices, mix well. Add the fruit and mix until just combined.

Pour into a ready greased cake tin and bake at 180'c for approximately 35 minutes (in a fan forced oven). It should be golden brown and a metal blade, once inserted, should come away clean.

Remove from oven once finished and leave to rest for a few minutes. Run a blade around the perimetre of the cake and flip onto a plate. Serve (as pictured) with rasberry coulis and cream, or for something really decadent, hot toffee sauce. (Mix 1/3 each of cream, butter and brown sugar over low heat until pale and the consistency of thick pouring cream.)

This cake comes out with quite a puddingish consistency, which I personally really like. It's perfect for winter nights and rainy days.

a culinary journey

2008-12-26T19:47:00.001Z

I am passionate about food. It is one of the things that most enriches my life. I start each day wondering what I'll cook, and my happiest hours are spent flicking through recipe books, food markets, and kitchen appliance shops. I feel cheated if I have to grab "a sandwich on the run", as if one of the meal quotas for the day has been robbed from me and replaced with a hasty and inferior substitute. I believe in cooking with love and cherish days and nights when I am able to cook and bake for my family and friends. Christmas is a giddy day for me! I believe that if you can glean one really great recipe, one that you will recreate regularly, from any cook book then it is worth the purchase. The best present I can ever receive is a beautiful meal with friends.

So then, the purpose of adding to the already cluttered blogsphere is really to give me somewhere to store up all my recipes. I'm kicking off 2009 with a culinary self challenge. To master 52 new recipes in the year - one a week. Or, if I'm busy, two the following week. It's easy to get stuck in a cooking rut but I'm going to travel the world with my taste buds this year - from Asia to India to France, to Rustic Italy and all over Europe, to deep America, South America, and everywhere in between. Along with me for the ride will be my other half, who never complains at a cooking challenge, and is most accomplished at complimenting even my worst kitchen misadventures. And you, I hope!

Thanks for stopping by and happy cooking. dd.x