Book 23 : Pasta Every Way for Every Day - Eric Treuille & Anna Del Conte

I have been extremely slack with my blogging of late, I could pretend that I've been flat out busy (kinda have) but really its just me being a slack arse!  I've written a couple of intros but got distracted by other things.  I'm like a small child when I start to lose interest in something, I start typing and notice crumbs on the floor (not something I'm normally concerned about!), better clean them up, oh look an Aldi catalogue, whats that smell, better check the veggie garden, do we have any chocolate? (stupid question we always have chocolate!).   So instead of sitting down and finishing a blog, I'm farting around with everything else.  Don't get me wrong I've still been cooking but just not frantic blog food, cinnamon buns and desserts have been getting a great work out.  I must apologise for my slackness and will try to be a bit more enthusiastic in future... If it helps I'm still buying recipe books, can't wait to actually make some recipes out of some of them...  But not Sweet Studio by Darren Purchase cos that book is terrifying!!! :)

Recipe - Red Pesto with Basil

60g sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 1/2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
1/2 tsp chili flakes
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 - 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 hand full fresh basil
black pepper
500g dried pasta

Place tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts, chili flakes, basil and oil in a food processor.  Pulse to a smooth paste.  Add the vinegar and pepper to taste.  Set aside or store.  Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water, until firm to the bite if serving hot or just firm to the bite if serving as a salad.  Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water.  Return pasta with pesto to the warm pasta pot.   Toss well to coat, adding reserved water as needed.  Serve immediately or at room temp.

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So Pasta Every Way for Every Day...... ho hum.  I don't like this book, I can't really tell you why I don't like it, it just rubs me the wrong way.  (yes, I know its a recipe book, not a person)  I think its the fact that every recipe has dried pasta, there is a section on fresh pasta, but its right at the back and seems like an afterthought.   I would have thought this book would have oodles on fresh pasta, how to make it, tips and tricks and trouble shooting, but no.  Instead it has a great selection of dried pastas and how to use them...  Me being a snob?  Possibly, but I've already explained that I'm fairly high maintenance when it comes to my recipe books, so really you shouldn't be surprised :)

The recipe, firstly let me say SALT!!!!  Put salt in the recipe, season it to taste (which I always think is a poncy thing to say) and then when you have finished salting, add some Parmesan and maybe some kalamata olives.  Seriously go nuts, because this was fairly bland.  I'm not sure if its my taste buds or the recipe, but add extra stuff and taste as you go.  It may also be that this is an awesome recipe and I just have a issue with a recipe book putting three recipes to a page..... (seriously a stupid, stupid thing for recipe books to do!!) 

Thanks
Kate
xx

I'm going to share a beautiful photo of my cheeky kids by the amazingly wonderful Bibo Photography (https://www.facebook.com/#!/ballarat.melbourne.wedding.photography?fref=ts)
I'm slightly chuffed about the amazing photos Rebecca took and have turned into one of those people who randomly shows everyone photos :)  But its my blog and I can do what I want :)

Book 22: Miette - Meg Ray

I've been fairly slack with my blogging of late, so I will make this as quick as possible.  I have a number of cookbooks that terrify me, I don't mean scary pictures etc, but with recipes that are so complicated or spiffy that I have no idea how I could possibly pull them off.  Zumbo and SugarBaby are two issues, both are impressive and exciting but with so many steps and explanations that my brain shuts down and I start to drool uncontrollably.  So it was with some trepidation (and a bit of panicky wee) that I removed Miette from my bookshelf.  Miette is one of those beautiful, spiffy recipe books that I feel quiet happy to leave on the coffee table, but avoid where possible when it comes to cooking.  Why?  Quite simply, there is a recipe in this book that recommends you sieve the mixture to avoid over mixing in cakes.  That alone is enough to have me shrieking like a girl and running away.  I know sieving the mixture doesn't sound like much, but its a step I would never have considered and seems so serious.  I hate to think what the results will be if I don't have a sieve and what if its not the right sieve?  So ignore my sieve paranoia and enjoy Miette...... arrrgghhh (just realised that makes me sound like a pirate)

Recipe - Gingerbread

1 1/4 cups Plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbls plus 2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tbls stout beer, such as Guinness
3/4 cup Molasses
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs, at room temp
3/4 sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar. packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Cream cheese frosting (method and ingredients below)

1.  Grease two 7 by 2 inch cake pans and dust with flour.

2.  Preheat the oven to 170c.

3.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

4.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the stout and molasses and bring to a boil.  Whisk in the baking soda.  Be careful and whisk constantly, as the mixture will foam up when you add the soda.  Immediately remove from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temp.

5.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the eggs and sugars and whisk on medium speed until well combined and lightened in colour, 3 to 4 minutes.  Slowly drizzle in the oil and beat until combined.  Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the stout mixture.  Stop the mixture and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then return to low speed and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating until just combined.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape down the sides with a  rubber spatula.  Strain the batter through a medium-mesh sieve into a clean bowl.  Divide it between the prepared pans.

7.  Bake until nicely risen and lightly browned at the edges, about 5-50 minutes.  Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for 20 minutes.  Run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans, then invert the cakes onto the racks and let cool for about 20 minutes longer.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate to ensure that the interiors are completely cooled before decorating, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.  To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer for up to 2 months.

8.  To decorate the gingerbread, fit a pastry bag with a medium star tip and fill the bag with the frosting.  Pull up the cuff and twist it to seal and tighten the frosting down into a cone.  Starting at the centre of each cake, pipe frosting in a tight spiral over the surface.  Use an offset spatula to slightly smooth the surface of the frosting.  Garnish with a pink sugar flower or two, if you like.  Serve at room temp.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pound (2 cups) cream cheese (softened)
5.5 ozs unsalted butter, at room temp
5.5 ozs sifted pure icing sugar

1.  In a bowl of  stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat until completely smooth and glossy.
2.  Add the cream cheese to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly.

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Miette is a beautiful book, its the type of book that the publishers/author have put an amazing amount of effort into the presentation.  Everything about it is fancy, from the scalloped edges to the pristinely set out pages.  This is not the type of book you spill cake mixture on!  Beauty aside, this book details recipes from San Francisco's most charming pastry shop (its claim, not mine) and is full of interesting recipes like Hot Milk Cake, Bumblebee Cake and Chocolate Orange Scones.  But it is all terribly intimidating!  I'm not sure if the book itself is the issue (you have read of my messiness) or the often complicated recipes, or it could possibly be the steps that require lots of time?  Which ever it is, I love looking at this book but I've never thought about cooking from it.  Making this recipe hasn't altered my opinion much.

 A very bad photo, but my icing job isn't much better

When the recipe says gingerbread, don't think ginger bread mean with royal icing and smarties!  This is old fashioned dense and rich gingerbread.  Its actually not to bad to make, but does take a bit of time with cooling etc.  I wasn't a massive fan of the cake itself, although its smells amazing whilst cooking, but Matty seemed to love it and polished off both cakes.  If you love the dark richness of  molasses, I would totally recommend this cake, be warned though it is very heavy and you will only need a small slice.  I think next time I make something from this book I'll give the Hot Milk cake ago, the unfortunate thing is I most likely won't cook from this again.  It has a massive section of instructions at the front which they tell you to read through before every recipe, this kind of annoys me so I didn't do it.... I'm a rebel that way!..... :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

Book 21: Fast Meals - The Australian Women's Weekly

I'm having a bit of a Women's Weekly run at the moment, strangely I've been sticking to the random number draw and it obviously likes them.  Normally if the random number draw picks something I'm unsure about or just don't like, I accidentally miscount and pick something I do like.  The problem with this (god I say that allot!) is I can see myself getting to the last 30 books and them all being ones I don't really want to cook from.  I don't know why I don't like some cook books, but I seem to have a stack of books that I'm not really sure how they got on my bookshelf, let alone where they came from.  Because of this and the influx of newer books (really trying to restrict myself), the books I don't like tend to be pushed to the side, where I can easily ignore them.  So in attempt to be fair I have made a point of picking a few that I've been avoiding.  You know how they say don't judge a book by its cover?  I totally ignore that.  If a cover doesn't grab me, nothing will make me look inside (of cookbooks!! I'm not totally shallow!).  The unfortunate thing about this book is they have decided to go with Rissoles for the front cover, why the hell would you put risoles on a front cover???  When I'm looking to sell a cookbook (cos I've sold so many!!) rissoles would not be the first thing that came to mind cover wise, there is nothing wrong with rissoles!  But have you ever picked up a cookbook with Rissoles on the front cover (pretty sure this is the only one!) and thought "Holy smokes Batman!!  They have a recipe for Rissoles, I must have it!!"?  I haven't and I have a cookbook addiction!  (I also have no idea where this book came from)  So my cookbook issues aside, please enjoy Fast Meals..... how well have a sold this!! :)

Recipe - Moroccan Lamb with Lemony Couscous

8 lamb fillets (800g)
1 tbls ground cumin
1 tbls ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
200g low-fat yogurt
300g couscous
375ml boiling water
1 tsp peanut oil
50g currants
2  tsp finely granted lemon rind
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh coriander

1.  Combine lamb, spices and 1/3 cup of the yogurt in a medium bowl, cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight

2.  Cook lamb on a heated oiled grill plate until cooked as desired.  Cover and stand for 5 minutes, slice thinly.

3.  Meanwhile, combine couscous, the water and oil in a large heatproof bowl, cover and stand for 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed, fluffing with a fork occasionally.  Sit in currants, rind, juice and coriander.

4.  Serve lamb with couscous, drizzle with remaining yogurt.

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So ranting aside, everything in this book is fast!  (shocking considering the title) And to be honest, if I put my dislike (totally unwarranted) aside, the book is perfectly fine.  There are heaps of quick and easy recipes to make and some of them look quite delicious.  The reason this book doesn't appeal to may have something to do with Jamie Oliver (and the Rissoles), Jamie's 30 Minute Meal's is something of a cooking crush of mine at the moment.  Unfortunately because of this Fast Meals looks second best... but it may also be that the above recipe tainted my view.... (Rissoles!!)

The recipe, sounds delicious!  Moroccan Lamb with Lemony Couscous, I love lamb and I love couscous, brilliant in theory.  Unfortunately its quite horrid,  the couscous especially is not good.  I'm not sure why exactly it doesn't work, but although it looks and sounds like it will be fantastic, the lemon, coriander etc just work against each other.  Granted I was making it quickly and had some assistance, but even my inattention couldn't stuff it up that badly that most of it was left on the plate.  Maybe there is a reason Rissoles are on the front cover?.....

Thanks
Kate
xx

This was a French Apple Tart I was going to feature in an upcoming book, but unfortunately its so good I'm not sharing it :P

 

Book 20: Pressure Cooking - The Australian Women's Weekly

I love the lead up to Christmas (yes I'm aware its September), not only do I lurve the holiday season, presents, trees etc.  But its the time of year when all the new cookbooks are released!  May not sound very exciting and most normal people probably won't even notice it, but seriously everyone releases new cookbooks before Christmas and I'm like a kid in a candy store...  Or me in a book store?  There is something so magical about brand new cookbooks,  especially when you didn't know about it.  I love randomly coming across a unknown book, especially good dessert books, whilst browsing through book stores.  You can always tell if I find something good I don't have, I tend to do a really embarrassing squeal and a small amount of dancing.  I know its ridiculous that I get so excited about new cookbooks, I really shouldn't be looking at them at all, but I just love them so much.  I love that someone has found the time and motivation to knuckle down in the kitchen and invent some food.  Cos that's what cookbooks are, invented or reimagined food.  Now I'm fairly competent in the kitchen (ignoring choux pastry, scones and lasagna) but its a very rare occasion I come across something that would be worth putting in a book.  When I say 'very rare' I really mean never, if I'd ever stumbled across anything remotely book worthy I'd be on here quicker than you could say "Wow! I invented a cheesecake".  That's not true.... I'd eat it all first, whilst bragging to everyone I know and then I'd forget how to make it and what I actually made...  Damn you imaginary cheesecake!!!  (This comes with me shaking my fist at the sky, Basil Faulty style) :)

Recipe - Greek-Style Lamb Shanks

1 tblsp olive oil
4 French-trimmed lamb shanks  (I used regular)
1 medium brown onion, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
410g canned crushed tomatoes
125mls dry red wine
1 sprig fresh rosemary

1.  Heat half the oil in a 6-litre pressure cooker, cook lamb in batches, until browned.  Remove from cooker.

2.  Heat remaining oil in cooker, cook onion and garlic until onion softens.  Add spices, cook until fragrant.  Return lamb to cooker with undrained tomatoes, wine and rosemary, secure lid.  Bring cooker to high pressure.  Reduce heat to stabilise pressure and cook for 30 minutes.

3.  Release pressure using the quick release method and remove lid.  Season to taste.

___________________________________

This book was purchased in what I like to call my pressure cooker phase.  The problem with this pressure cooker book is that almost everything in it has meat.  Apart from a small section of desserts, the other chapters are almost exclusively meat dishes, chicken, beef, lamb etc.  Which is perfectly fine but is kinda annoying when you may not be a huge meat eater.  I have another pressure cooker book which is brilliant and includes heaps of vegetarian meals.  But if you are a meat eater and really like stewy like things, this may be the book for you!

To talk about the recipe, I need to first explain my aversion to lamb shanks.  My first experience of lamb shanks was having them boiled, have you ever had boiled lamb shanks?  The come out grey and sludgy and horrid.  So when other people drool over lamb shanks, I feel vaguely ill.  Matty on the other and adores lamb shanks, so I put aside my dislike and gave them a go.  I've got to say that they were fairly awesome.  I was a bit concerned that 30 minutes wouldn't be long enough to have them falling off the bone, I shouldn't of worried.  I actually had trouble getting them out of the pot they were falling apart that much.  This recipe recommends that you serve them with mashed potatoes, I'd also add some green veggies for colour.  The recipe is delicious and even though I'm not completely sold on shanks, they didn't make me feel sick at all :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

Book 19: Cookies - The Australian Women's Weekly

Thursday is the day I get all my jobs done, by jobs I mean shopping. Charli goes to kinder and Sam and I head off to throw some money away (at the supermarket, my life is boring!). Sam and I have one main rule whilst shopping, No Touching the Things! Its fairly simple, you could say straight forward even? Before we walk into a store we repeat the rule and then  just as quickly, it gets discarded. I must clarify that this rule is not discarded by me, but by the very angelic terror who shares my shopping time. The instant we go somewhere the hands go out and the fingers start twinkling, I've come to the conclusion Sam thinks that if his hand accidentally come in contact with something its not touching!  Shopping time also seems to be Sam's visiting time with the toys he thinks he shares custody with, luckily its supervised visits.  Target in particular has a very set routine, first we visit Elmo (the one with the singing and drums), the Dinosaurs (fingers get a great workout here) and finally Lightning McQueen, lets ignore the slight detour we sometimes (always) make to the recipe books.  The problem with these visits is we can never move quickly through Target, every toy gets its special time of singing and dancing, Elmo in particular has to sing two or three times and god help me if we don't see him!  Now it may seem like bad parenting on my behalf to allow this to happen, especially when I get annoyed with the tantrums... but, my rational is that we don't go home with any of the toys, we only visit them, plus it keeps my giant 2 year old (he is big for his age) from screaming the shop down.  I cannot stand my children screaming and I find I can't discipline them the same way I would at home, while we are out and about (mixed signals much?).   Nothing screams bad parenting more, than my loud threats to take his Baxter (very, VERY, loved soft toy) and throw him out the car window if he doesn't stop carrying on.  So instead I pretend to be a good parent and confuse the little bugger by visiting toys he will probably never get to have (I'm not having stupid singing Elmo anywhere near my lounge room!) all the while avoiding tantrums and promising donuts....  Aren't you glad you come here for the recipes and not the parenting advise?

 Recipe - Praline Custard Creams
150g Plain flour
90g almond meal
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbls icing sugar

Custard filling
75g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
250ml milk
125g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
80g icing sugar

Almond Praline
40g flaked almonds
110g caster sugar
2 tbls water

Custard Filling
Combine sugar and flour in a small saucepan;  Gradually stir in combined yolks and milk until smooth.  Cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens.  Simmer, stirring, over low heat, 1 minute;  remove from the heat.  Cover surface of custard with plastic wrap, refrigerate until cold.  Beat butter and extract until mixture is as white as possible, beat in the sifted icing sugar.  Beat in the cooled custard in four batches, until smooth.

Almond Praline
Place nuts on a baking-paper lined oven tray.  Combine sugar and the water in a small frying pan, stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a boil and boil, uncovered, without stirring until golden brown. Pour toffee over nuts and leave to set at room temperature.  Crush praline finely in a food processor.

1.  Make custard filling and almond praline.
2.  Preheat oven to 160c/140c fan-forced.  Grease oven trays, line with baking paper.
3.  Process flour, meal and butter until crumbly.  Add egg yolk and extract, pulse until combined.
4.  Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth.  Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick.
5.  Using 3.5cm round cutter, cut 72 rounds from dough.  Place about 2cm apart on oven trays and bake for about 12 minutes.  Cool on trays.
6.  Sandwich cookies with custard filling.  Spread a little more custard filling around side of cookies.  Roll cookies in praline then dust with sifted icing sugar.

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This is a very cute little book!  Along with Cookies, you can also get Sweet, Chocolate, Cupcakes by Colour and Cheesecake, shockingly I have all of them.  It has a fantastic range of cookies in this book, from basic Tropical Florentines and Chocolate Brownies to the truly awesome Rhubarb Custard Melting Moments and Double Choc Chip Chili Cookies.  It really appeals to this snobby baking phase I'm going through, "Why these are my hand-made Wholemeal Rosemary Butter Rounds  Mrs Nesbit, surely you've heard of them?" <--- said in a very snobby voice with extremely rounded vowels! I have a stack of pink sticky notes, marking things I want to make from it, sticking out of the top.

No idea why I put these on a red plate??

The recipe itself has some great parts, the custard cream is a revelation (I'm going to use it to fill macaroons), the praline gives it a fantastic bitter bite and the biscuits aren't overly sweet.  The down side is, they are fiddly to put together and they don't last long.  When I say don't last long I don't mean eating wise.  It makes 36 biscuits which is great if you're having 40 people for morning tea, but is kinda hard to polish off quickly, even for me.  The reason speed is an issue is because as soon as you roll the cookies in praline it starts to soften, then melt.  You can't store these, well you can but they look sloppy and kinda horrid after a day in the fridge.  So while I like these cookies and they taste delicious, for the amount of farting around you have to do to make them, its kinda not worth it.  What I would suggest, if you feel like having a go, is halve the recipe and make a more realistic amount.  Alternatively get some profiteroles from the Vietnamese bakery and save yourself the hassle of stuffing around with cookies that no-one will realise how much work you have put into.... :)

Aren't you glad I'm here to take all these recipe bullets for you, I only have this many recipe books because I'm trying to be helpful  :P  

Thanks
Kate
xx

On a side note, Matty actually asked me to make the Mudcake Sandwiches, so I put aside my dislike of all things chocolate flavoured and knocked some out :)

Book 18 : Collected Recipes - Belinda Jeffery's

I don't know why, but I get really annoyed with snobby recipe ingredients. Like most things that shit me it doesn't make much sense, but I get really annoyed when basic recipes require something that isn't available at the local supermarket.  A good example of a shit me ingredient is 'Free range organic chicken', seriously!  The reason this irritates me, is because I can't always get frochicken (I've shortened it) and sometimes I don't want to.  Don't get me wrong I'm all for chickens running around in the sunshine and I'd prefer the food I feed my children not to be filled with chemicals, but I don't want to feel guilty about not having enough time to hunt for them and for the price that makes my wallet hurt.   Another mega annoyance is sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Because iodised table salt is soooo crap and how dare you grind your pepper before you need it!  It might be hypocritical of me to dislike the sea salt request, considering I've got three types of spiffy sea salts in my pantry.  But I really don't think when you eat the below eggs you are going to comment on how the Muldon sea salt bring out the flavour of the tomatoes....  I also feel slightly better commenting on this knowing I've never opened my smoked and black sea salt, mainly cos I have no idea what to do with them!  I better go my frochicken, with Muldon sea salt and freshly ground pepper needs turning....  just kidding, I making cinnamon buns with iodised table salt :)

 Recipe - Sunday Night Eggs

2 tbls extra virgin olive
2 medium-sized red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 large red capsicums in thumbnail-sized chunks
1 tbls tomato paste
2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3/4 tsp sugar
1-2 tbls red or white wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
about 55g slivered black olives
4 fresh free-range eggs
2 chorizo sausages, sliced into rounds (optional)

Garnish
basil or parsley leaves
To Serve
crusty bread

1.  Heat the oil in a small frying pan over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook them, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook them for 1 minute more.

2. Increase the heat to high and tip in the capsicum.  Cook it, tossing regularly, for 5 minutes.  Now add the tomato pesto  or paste, tomatoes, sugar and a good splash of vinegar.  Cook everything for 2-3 minutes more, giving it a stir occasionally.  Then reduce the heat to a low, cover the an and cook everything until capsicum is just tender, about 15 minutes.

3.  At this stage you want the mixture to be quite thick.  If it looks a bit watery, remove the lid, increase the heat and cook off any excess liquid (just be careful it doesn't catch on the base of the frying pan).  With the heat on low, stir in the salt, pepper and olives, if you're using them.  Taste the mixture and add a little ore vinegar if you think it need it.

4.  Now use the back of a spoon to make four little hollows in the capsicum mixture.  If you can, pile up the sides around the hollows a bit to help hold the eggs.  Break 1 egg at a time into a cup.  (If the eggs are really big, tip out a little of the white; it will overflow its hollow otherwise and look a bit messy.)  Slide an egg into each of the hollows.  Cover the pan and leave the eggs until they're just cooked how you like them.  The cooking time can vary quite a bit but the usually take 8-10 minutes.

5.  While the eggs are coking, saute the chorizo slices in a non-stick frying pan for 2-3 minutes, or until the are lightly coloured on both sides.

6.  When the eggs are ready, remove the pan from the heat.  Tuck the chorizo slices down into the mixture and sprinkle some basil  or parsley leaves over the top.  Make sure you have lots of crusty bread to mop up the juices.

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This book was one of my more recent acquisitions, I got over excited at Myer's 40% off cookbooks sale and purchased this and another book.  I really like the look of this book, its got large pictures and separate recipes, which as you know is a favourite of mine.  There is also a great selection of recipes, from the basics to spiffy.  I actually was going to feature a lemon slice recipe that was more like a lemon tart, but it was rather sickly (because of the type of lemons I used), so I made the eggs instead.  (nothing like cracking the shits with a recipe).

The recipe itself is interesting (tasty interesting not blurk interesting) its the sort of thing you really could add anything to.  I wouldn't add the chorizo next time, I love chorizo but it made this a tad greasy.  I also wouldn't be to concerned about using only 4 eggs, I stuck a stack in ours and it looked and tasted fine.  Go nuts with the basil, I even added a little bit of grated Parmesan at the end.  Very delicious and fairly quick to make  so I think it will go on our slack night menu :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

Book 17 : Picnic Hamper - Jane Price

I'm slightly obsessive (just in case the number of cookbooks didn't tip you off!), so last year when Matt and the kids brought me a apple tree for mothers day I got slightly (read massively) over excited and went a bit tree nuts. Before you could say nice tree, I had 6 apples, 3 pears, 3 olives, 2 plums, 2 figs and 8 other various fruit trees, not including the 3 citrus trees. I'm pretty sure the only thing that slowed me down was the end of bare rooted season (always makes me laugh) and that Matt point blank refused to dig anymore holes until we had a house to go with the trees. The problem with me having a brief fruit tree obsession (there was also a short vegie garden bit) was that everyone assumes I like gardening, I don't! Because I don't like gardening you can almost set your watch to when things will start to die. Strangely my fruit trees seem to be holding up, mainly because its survival of the fittest, if any die I'll leave them there to show the others what will happen if they don't pull their weight. I know that makes no sense, but I planted (supervised) the damn things, my work here is done. Unfortunately my Mum, Grandmother, Sister and Mother-in-law,seem to think that having fruit trees also means I'll do other gardening. They keep asking me when I'll be putting in garden beds and plants etc. I assumed really tall weeds could be feature plants? Mum keeps dropping hints about weeding, I assumed that's what Round-up is for? I can honestly say I would rather staple my eyelids to my forehead than garden. Usually when we have a gardening day I make up some kind of excuse to go inside (glass of water?) and accidentally start making Cinnamon buns. Hopefully I'll come home one day and my front lawn will have a few garden beds, selectively planted with plants that required no maintenance at all (hint, hint Mum/Shirl)..... I spose I can dream.

I've stopped trying to tie my intros into the book I've been cooking from, so from now on sit back and enjoy some random, confused, waffling without trying to work out how it applies to Paella (or what ever else I'm cooking). Cos as usual I have no idea either :)

Recipe - Chicken and Chorizo Paella

60ml Olive Oil
1 large Red Capsicum, 5mm cut into strips
600g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 3cm cubes
200g mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbls grated lemon zest
700g ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
200g green beans, trimmed and cut into 3cm lengths
1tbls chopped rosemary
2 tbls chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 tsp saffron threads dissolved in 60ml hot water
440g short-grain white rice
750ml hot chicken stock
6 lemon wedges, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan or in a large, heavy-based, deep frying pan over medium heat. Add the red capsicum strips and cook, stirring for about 6 minutes, or until softened, then remove from the pan.
  Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, or until browned.  Remove from the pan.  Add the chorizo to the pan and cook for 5 minutes, or until golden.  Remove from the pan.  Add the mushrooms, garlic and lemon zest to the pan, and cook over medium for 5 minutes.
  Stir in the tomatoes and capsicum, and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the tomato is soft.
Add the beans, rosemary, parsley, saffron mixture, rice, chicken and chorizo.  Stir briefly and add the stock.  Do not stir at this point.  Reduce the heat ad simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from the heat, cover and leave to stand for 10 minutes.  Serve with lemon wedges.

_____________________________________________

I brought this book when we were planning a trip to the zoo and it was an excuse to get another book (very poor excuse).  Not really sure taking a full dinner set and cutlery to the zoo is overly practical, but there are some nice recipes in here.  There are stacks of little finger foods, rolls, quiches etc along with a huge range of salads.  It also has some more impractical items like the above Paella and seafood's that I wouldn't want sitting in a picnic basket while I farted around looking at the gorillas.   On the other hand it has a really good desert section (always a winner for me) with a Apple Custard Slice that looks awesome.  Although its not a ground breaking book, it is fairly good with a wide range of picnicy recipes.

Be warned the recipe takes a while to cook, its messy (if you're me) and has a stack of steps, so its easy to forget something.  Luckily I didn't this time, but I did have issues with my paella pan, I picked mine up for $5.99 at Aldi, sadly it doesn't conduct heat very well so took ages to get going.  The paella itself seems fairly bland, although that might of been my annoyance with how long it took to cook, I'm sure there are better recipes around.  Next time I think I'd make the custard slice... mmm

Thanks
Kate
xx

Ps:  Did you notice how I pretended that all my previous intros had something to do with the books :)

Book 16: Cakes - Country Women's Association

I'm a compulsory volunteerer (not a word?), whenever anyone is asking for volunteers for committees or anything remotely similar, I seem to get helium in my hand and is raises itself!..  The stupid thing is I like helping out, but I also have a memory like a siv.  I will quite often volunteer for things and then forget what I'm suppose to do.  Last year was a prime example when I put my hand up for the communications coordinator position at my daughters kinder.  Massively over-excited I headed off to my first meeting where I was told that the job wasn't required, so I could be a regular committee member instead.  I was a bit disappointed at first because I had grand plans for my position, facebook etc (facebook was pretty much it, but I'm sure it would have been awesome).   When they finally asked me (I volunteered) to organise a girls night out for the women at the kinder, I organised the time, date and venue to book and then promptly forgot everything about it.  So when someone reminded me 3 days before the night I panicked a tad and half-arsely organised something which no-one could attend.  I also forgot to do minutes, the monthly newsletter (every time), plates for a fundraiser and a few other things that I've forgotten.  So you will imagine my surprise when I rocked up to the final meeting and they had volunteered me (not me this time) for the vice-presidents job this year.  The vice-presidents job sucks, you have to fill in for everyone when they aren't there and considering there are only 4 of us that ever turn up its kinda horrid.  I still have 3 sets of minutes I needs to type up and people expect me to know what I'm talking about.   I have to tell you, I have no idea what I'm doing!  I'm horrible at taking minutes, I tend to take over any conversations, forget what we were talking about and waffle on for 10 minutes about something stupid I've done (there are lots of options).  I also forget to write anything down and can never remember anyones names.  Strangely they don't appreciate me taking minutes how interesting I find Aldi catalogues.........

Recipe - Apple Kuchen
1\2 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
salt
sugar, to taste
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup yogurt
2 eggs

Topping
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tblsp butter
2 medium apples, peeled and sliced

Preheat oven to 175c.  Grease a 23-cm square baking pan (line it to or you won't get it out!!)
  To make streusel topping, place flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and process until crumbly.  Transfer to a bowl and add apple slices, stirring to coat.
  For the cake, add all ingredients to the food processor and process briefly.  Scrape down the sides, the process for a few more seconds.
  Spread batter in prepared pan.  Neatly arrange the apple-streusel mixture on top.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.

_______________________________________________

This is a typical CWA cookbook, there are about eight different fruit cake recipes and its all measured in volume (which I hate!).  There are some lovely looking recipes, Custard cake, Hawaiian Tea cake and Orange Tea cake.  There are also the standard Carrot cake, Pavlova and 15 types of Fruit cake, I'm not a fan of fruit cake so this seemed a tad excessive to me.  But fruit cake aside, it is a very nicely set out book, with clear pictures and very stripped back recipes.  My biggest draw back is the measurements in volume (cups) and not weight.  I love my scales so I'd prefer everything to be in weight, plus the kids are always stealing my measuring cups.

The recipe itself looks really delicious, in reality its really bland.  The apple is soft and so is the rest of the cake, next time I would cut the apples chunkier and add cinnamon and macadamia nuts to the topping.  On the bright side, it takes about 20 minutes to make from start to oven and is really easy to put together.  But if you make it as is be prepared for nice, add the extra stuff and it should be awesome.  Next thing you know I'll be calling myself the recipe whisperer..... I'll go now

Thanks
Kate
xx

Have you noticed my introductions are getting slightly more random?  I'd like to pretend I'll stay on track, but we all know that's not going to happen  :)

Book 15: Easy Kids' Party Food - Woman's Day

I think the funniest thing we do in my household is to cook together.  I say funniest and not fun because its only afterwards that I can look at it in a funny way.  The problem with anyone cooking with me, is my territorial control freak comes rearing to the surface.  Don't get me wrong its never far from the surface but when ever anyone steps into my kitchen it rears its ugly head more than usual.  I try really hard not to be a control freak (so lying!), but when it comes to my kitchen (and most other things) I'm like a crocodile in a pond, I come out snapping!  Its really not intentional, I do like having people in my kitchen, feel free to come and watch me cook anytime (although I do get distracted) just don't give me advise and don't try to help!  If you ask if you can help me and I say no, I seriously mean no (in the nicest possible way)!  I'm not just trying to be nice, I have everything under control and even if the stove is on fire, I've got it.  So when the kids step into the kitchen (metaphorically, they are on stools on the other side of the bench) it tends to go down hill quickly.  I love cooking with my children, they are the biggest joy in my life (queue the violins) and such brilliant kids that doing anything with them is fun (except going to the supermarket, don't do that!).  The problem is I'm set in my ways, what ever I'm cooking I have it in my head how we are going to make it and what its going to look like.  Unfortunately children in their 2's and 4's have their own ideas on how its going to go down, these don't always mesh with mine.  Our biggest issue seems to lie with the quantity of ingredients, I want to use it in the recipe, Sam and Charli on the other hand think it should be eaten now.  Today's recipe is a great example, we had twice the amount of ingredients required, in some cases like cheese we had four times the required amount.  Still, at the end of the cooking process we had no cheese left, noses missing on most pizzas and the hair had disappeared.  I think its hilarious that Sam yells at Charli for eating anything, apparently its for the cooking, whilst managing to shovel handfuls of cheese into his gob.  Poor Charli loves cooking, she gets so excited whenever she gets to help and generally she is quite helpful.  She can crack eggs like its nobodies business and its very good at cutting things up.  But she also likes to do everything and know exactly what we are doing every step of the way, sometimes I can only say I'm folding the ingredients so many times before my head rotates 360c and explodes...  One awesome thing with cooking with kids is that if something doesn't turn out right or is a bit messy I just explain that the kids helped...  even if they haven't!!  :)


I found my camera, YAY!!

Recipe - Pizza Faces
makes 4

2 small prepared pizza bases
1/2 cup tomato pasta sauce
1 cup grated pizza cheese
8 stuffed olives (for eyes)
4 slices kabana (for noses)
4 slices of red capsicum (for mouths)
8 slices button mushrooms (for ears)
1/3 cup chopped rindless bacon (for hair)

Preheat oven to hot, 200c.  Line an oven tray with baking paper.  Cut 2 x 12cm rounds for each   pizza bases.
Spread each round with pasta sauce.  Place on prepared tray.  Sprinkle with cheese.
Arrange ingredients on bases to make faces.  Bake for 5-10 minutes until golden and the bases are crisp.

__________________________________________

Charli making her first pizza

This is a fun little book, as the title suggests its full of kids party food ideas and some of them are brilliant.  There are so many kids party books around now, that you tend to find duplicate recipes in all of them.  This book is quite original and the recipes are easy to follow and make.


This recipe is ok, we used WAY to much cheese on ours (I was trying to beat Sam) and some of the topping slid off the sides.  But they are very cute and when they weren't eating the ingredients the kids had a great time putting them together.  I would recommend cooking them longer than suggested as they were still a bit soft.  But otherwise, we will make them again, although I'll make my own bases next time as paying $6.99 for 2 medium bases annoyed me (I've been living with Matt to long).  All in all this is the simplest thing I've cooked so far in my challenge and its been kinda nice...... now on to something a little more complicated :P
Thanks
Kate
xx

If you are having trouble commenting, make sure you preview your comment before posting otherwise it doesn't seem to work.... feel free to comment when ever you like, bad, good I'm happy to hear from you and would love to know if making any sense cos have no idea what I'm doing :)

Not much pizza making going on!

Book 14: Dinner at Matt's - Matt Moran

I love deserts, I may have mentioned  it before? Knowing me, a number of times.  I don't so much like the deserts themselves, if I made it myself, but i love the preparation and planning that goes into deserts.  At the moment I'm going through a snobby desert phase, which involves me scouring my recipe books to find something I've never cooked before but looks spectacular.  This sometimes ends badly, recently for my sister Kristy's birthday she asked for Creme Brulees.  I was in luck when she left it up to me to decide what sort of creme brulee to make.  On a side note if I ever ask you what you want for desert (or anything else) I've already got it in my head what I want to make, your opinion is not really required but as I'm fairly (not always) polite I'll ask for you thoughts, for future reference you response should be "I don't mind, you decide!".  Anyway back to the Creme Brulee, I decide on a spiced creme brulee and it was delicious!  The problem was the recipe called for the egg yolks to be whisked in a stand mixer, which is brilliant unless you forget they are mixing and come back to mega fluffy yolks (I'm easily distracted).  Not sound to up myself, but I rock at custards!  You know how you hear about custards splitting and going clotty?  Well that doesn't happen to me.. I'm the custard whisperer.  So, custard whisperer aside, I added the hot cream mixture to my fluffy yolks, confident that all was well.  The custard was smooth and silky, but is was also mega bubbly.  I didn't think much about it until the brulees all sank in their molds.  I cannot tell you how hard it is to brulee (melt sugar) whilst your custard catches on fire because of all the weird bubble mess on the sides.  To make a long, waffley, slightly incoherent story short, the Spicy Creme Brulees looked like gungy crud but tasted great.  Needless to say I'll never be able to make a good custard again after my 'custard whisperer" comment, it will be the damn Choux pastry all over again (see earlier blogs)... 

Recipe - Chocolate and Earl Gray Tea Tart

750ml pouring cream
5 Earl Grey tea tarts
50g good-quality dark chocolate
420g good-quality milk chocolate
50g unsalted butter, softened
good-quality cocoa powder, for dusting

Chocolate sponge
50g good-quality dark chocolate
5 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
1 1/2 tblsp good-quality cocoa powder
4 egg whites

Creme Chantilly
150ml cream
1 tblsp icing sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped and reserved pot set aside for another use

Firstly, make the chocolate sponge.  Preheat the oven to 190c and  lightly grease a 30cm x 40cm baking tray, then line with non-stick baking paper.
  Melt the 50g dark chocolate in a dry heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that you don't let any water come into contact with the chocolate.  Once the chocolate has melted, transfer it to a mixing bowl and set aside to cool slightly.
  In a electric mixer, whisk the egg yolks with half the caster sugar until thick and pale.  Fold this in the melted chocolate, then fold in the cocoa.
  Whisk the egg whites in the electric mixer until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold this into the chocolate mixture until combined.  Spread the mixture evenly onto the prepared tray to a thickness of 1cm and top with another sheet of non-stick baking paper.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until the sponge is just cooked and springy to the touch.
  Meanwhile, bring the 750mls of cream to a simmer in a saucepan, then remove from the heat and add the tea bags, leaving to infuse while the cream cools to room temp.
  Lightly grease 23 cm x 24cm x 2.5cm depth lamington or swiss roll tin.
Remove the sponge from the oven and, when cool enough to handle, take a rolling pin and firmly roll it over the top sheet of non-stick baking paper.  This will flatten the sponge and make it denser (you want it about 3mm thick).  Remove and discard the top layer of non-stick baking paper and then trim the sponge to fit the prepared tin.  Pick up the ends of the bottom layer of non-stick baking paper and transfer the sponge to the tin - it should fit snugly.  Fold the excess non-stick baking paper over the sides of the tin.
  Melt the dark chocolate in a dry heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that you don't let any water come into contact with the chocolate.  Once melted, brush the chocolate evenly over the sponge and place the tin in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set.
  Melt the milk chocolate in a dry heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (don't get water in it).  Once melted, pour the chocolate into a bowl of a electric mixer, then pour over the infused cream, discarding the tea bags.  Mixing slowly, add the butter, a little at a time, and continue mixing until the chocolate cools, then pour this mixture evenly over a sponge and place the tin back in the fridge to set overnight.
  To make the creme chantilly, place the cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds into a large bowl and whip until firm.
  Just prior to serving, remove the tart from the fridge, cut into rectangles about 6cm x 9cm and dust with a thick layer of cocoa powder.  Serve with a generous dollop of creme chantilly.

___________________________________________

This is an interesting book, it looks amazing and its got Matt Moran in it, which is never bad ( I like Matt Moran).  I got this book from the kids for Christmas and its very fancy.  It has all sorts of recipes in it that would be perfect if you had people coming for dinner and heaps of time on your hands.  Sadly I don't have heaps of time on my hands, I'm way to busy writing blogs and planning for zombie invasion (I'm kidding!).  But I do like this book, its fancy and nice to look at and has a fairly wide selection of recipes from meat, fish and deserts etc. 

The recipe itself is delicious, it may look like a lot of work but its fairly straight forward.  Next time I would tip the tea leave into the cream so it infuses better, you could hardly taste the tea at all.  But the tart was creamy and very tasty!  The layer of dark chocolate on the sponge added some delicious texture.  Normally I'm not a fan of chocolate deserts, I like chocolate not chocolate flavoured deserts (yes, i know it doesn't make sense), but considering the amount of chocolate in this its really nice...  But I would leave it over night in the fridge as it advises, I left mine in for about 6 hours and it was still really soft, edible but soft...

Thanks
Kate
xx

Oh, I'm sorry about the extra crappy photos this week, I've misplaced my camera so I'm using my phone.. never good..

Book 13: The Primrose Bakery Book

So this week I've had a few issues, firstly my computer has given up the ghost (or at least it will if the constantly dieing turd comes home again, there is a wall withs its name on it!!!) and I've had the flu!  Now I know that the term "flu" gets used way to often, but I've got to say these past 7 days are the sickest I have ever been.  Not only did I burst into tears at a local medical centre (which if you know me, is saying something!) but there were six straight days where I didn't go anywhere near a computer let alone buy a recipe book.  So because of me being sick and feeling sorry for myself, I'm dragging out something I made a few weeks ago.  Hopefully this will make sense when you read it, if not tune in next week when I'm hopefully feeling better :)

Recipe - Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

For the loaf
155g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
155g golden caster sugar
20g cornflour
155g unsalted butter, at room temp, plus more for greasing tin
3 large eggs
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

For the drizzle
160g granulated sugar
juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease 1 x 900g loaf tin and line with baking paper.
  Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and cornflour into the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse the mixture for about 4 seconds until evenly mixed.  Add the butter, eggs and lemon zest and juice and process briefly until evenly blended (about 10 seconds).
  Pour the mixture into a loaf tin and level the top with a spatula.  Bake in the centre of the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Let the loaf cool in its tin.
  Make up the drizzle by stirring the sugar into the lemon juice in a jug and mixing well.  Prick the surface of the loaf all over with a fork.  Pour the drizzle over the loaf and allow it to set, before removing the loaf from the tin and serving.  Keep any uneaten loaf in an airtight container at room temp for 3-4 days.

________________________________________________

So the Primrose Bakery Book, never heard of them before?  I hadn't either, but it has quickly become one of my all time favourite baking books!  There is a recipe in this book for Cinnamon Buns, may not sound like much but I think they would have to be the best thing I have ever made!  I love this book, I want to start from the first recipe and work my way through it!

If you like citrus this cake is the one for you!  The cake is delicious and moist and the drizzle while being very tart is fantastic!  The juice soaks into the cake and makes all deliciously syrupy!
So in the interests of making it quick, get this book!  Its awesome and easy to follow, with enough of a challenge to make it interesting! :)  They also have a cupcake book which I have yet to cook from, think I might make a point of it :)

Yours in tissues and copious medication
Thanks
Kate
xx

PS: here's a really bad photo of the most awesome Cinnamon Buns.... yum!!

Book 12: Delicious. Simply the Best - Valli Little (ABC)

I am bringing out the nerd in me this week by purchasing a bit of nerdy artwork (I always feel like a total nob when I say that, I feel like I need to roll my R's!).  Much to Matt's horror I'm getting a print that simply says "Beware Zombies" and I'm hanging it the entrance of my house (depending on the size it may go in the kitchen).  I lurve B grade horror, nothing in hell could make me watch a Saw movie, but give me zombies, werewolves or vampires and I'm there.  I have a bit of a soft spot for George A. Romero, if you don't know him he's pretty much the pioneer of zombie films, with his long hair and giant glasses I find what he puts on screen fascinating.  The problem with watching a stack of horror, no matter how cheesy, is that I always have in the back of my mind "what will I do if zombies take over the world?".  Its massively stupid and kind of insane but I will often go into buildings and assess their zombie hideout potential.  I don't want to sound like a mega loon but I think if zombies ever do take over the world, I'm your go to person!  And if I ever pull up out the front of your house in a bus, gun in hand and tell you to get in the bus, get in the bus!!  You might remember that I'm raising two small children, sadly their Mum will for ever be known as a bit of a nutter, but at least they should survive a zombie apocalypse :P 

I also make nice cakes :)

Recipe - Smoky Spanish Chicken

80g unsalted butter
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chili flakes
105g fresh breadcrumbs
60g pitted black olives, chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 x 170g skinless chicken breast fillets
60 mls olive oil
1 chorizo sausage, casing removed, finely chopped
Rocket leaves and orange wedges, to serve

Melt 50g butter and cool slightly.  Combine the orange zest, garlic, paprika, chili, breadcrumbs and olives with the melted butter and 2 tbsp parsley.  Season.  Place the chicken on a clean board and carefully make a deep incision in the side of each fillet horizontally, being careful not to cut all the way through.
  Stuff each fillet with the breadcrumb filling.  Secure the fillets in four places with kitchen string.  Enclose each one individually in plastic wrap, twisting the end so its tightly sealed, then secure the ends with kitchen string.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.
  Remove the chicken from the fridge and place in a steamer.  Steam for 20 minutes or until almost cooked through.
  Melt remaing 30 g butter with the oil in a fry pan oven medium heat.  Remove the chicken from the plastic wrap, season, then cook, turning, for 4-5 minutes until golden on all sides.  Remove from the fry pan, loosely cover with foil, then set aside to rest.
  Return the fry pan to medium heat and cook the chopped chorizo for 1-2 minutes until crispy.  Set aside.
  On a clean board, roll the chicken in the remaining 1 tbsp parsley, then slice.  Divide chicken among plates, sprinkle with the chorizo and drizzle with any pan juices.  Serve with the rocket and orange wedges.  Serves 4

__________________________________________

This is a lovely book, from what I can gather its the best recipes from Delicious magazine, not sure over what period of time.  Its a great selection of savoury and sweet, with an equal mix of simple and complicated dishes.  It also has, my favourite, one picture and one recipe per turn of the page.  The most awesome thing about this is that at the moment you can pick up the books from Aldi for only $12.99 each, I on the other hand paid full price for this (but I did manage to sneak in 2 other additions I didn't have).

What I would recommend with this dish, if you decide to cook it, is to complete the whole recipe and use all the ingredients.... unlike me!  I got a little bit distracted whilst cooking this and forgot to do the bottom half of it.  The chicken was spot on but while I was eating it (I served it with smashed potatoes and over steamed greens) I couldn't work out why there was no sauce.  Eventually I realised it was because I didn't finish the dish.  I think with every element completed this dish would be awesome and next time I wouldn't bother with the potatoes or the bok-choy I forget was in the steamer.  Book wise this is highly recommended, I had a discussion with an old lady in Aldi about a couple of the recipes I really like in it, not sure if she wanted that discussion but she brought the book and didn't give me any weird looks.  She probably hasn't read my bit about zombies?...

Thanks

Kate

xx

Book 11: Sunday Lunch - Gordon Ramsey

I've been massively motivated, cooking wise, this weekend. Usually when I get motivated I pick a stack of recipes I'm going to make, purchase everything and then get distracted and only make part of one... The part recipe is very reluctantly done, usually in a half-arse manner! The stupid thing is its never anything awesome that I get distracted by. It could be anything, bright lights, butterflies, page 43 on the book I'm reading. If I'm not in a cooking zone, we are having 2 minute noodles or canned spaghetti for tea and nothing will change my mind (although I will usually pretend I'm going to cook something and then fake tiredness). Happily one of the bonus' of having so many books (novels and cookbooks) is I can always make it look like I'm going to cook something fabulous, while having no intention of doing so. A few times now I've had the family convinced that any second I'm getting up to create a culinary masterpiece for us to dine like kings. Only to sadly realize that the recipe I was going to cook takes way longer than I anticipated (I like to allow 1 hour more than I've got) and we better order fish and chips. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking, apart from going to the movies its sadly my only hobby. But sometimes I think I want to cook something fabulous like roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, when really its noodle omelet time (noodle omelets are awesome!). I try not to do this too often (Matty might pick up on it otherwise) but its a great way of me getting out of cooking tea and still look like I'm not a mega slacker. This weekend wasn't like that (it surprises me to!) I managed to get two things baked on Saturday afternoon and one sweet and one savoury today, all without the help of redbull! Granted my floor looks like a herd of goats live here (not really sure what a goats house looks like?) but I got almost everything I wanted accomplished. Which means for the next few weeks I can concentrate on slacking off and the things I'm going to buy when I take a road trip to the Dubois Boutique in Warrnambool (they have a huge sale on!).   Woo Hoo :)

On a side note, probably not my best idea to put my number one excuse (reason?) up here, I may have to put it in retirement or at least send it on holiday for a while.....  Time to break out number two, which you will not be hearing about, at least until the heat cools down on number one.  :)

Recipe - Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

4 large racks of lamb, cut in half (3-4 bones in each)
olive oil, for cooking
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp English mustard

Herb Crust
4 slices of day old bread, crusts removed
large hand full of parsley
small hand full of coriander
small hand full of thyme
few rosemary sprigs
50g Parmesan, freshly grated
Heat the oven to 200c.  Score the lamb fat in a criss-cross pattern and season well.  Seal the racks in a hot ovenproof pan with a little olive oil until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side.  Transfer the pan to the oven for 10-15 minutes to finish cooking the lamb.  It should feel springy when pressed.  Leave to rest while you prepare the herd crust.

Tear the bread into pieces and put into a food processor. Roughly chop the herb leaves and add to the processor. Roughly chop the herb leaves and add to the processor with the Parmesan and a little seasoning. Whiz to fine crumbs, which will take on a bright green colour. Brush the lamb with mustard and coat with the herb crust, patting it on firmly. Return the lamb to the pan and warm through in the oven for 5 minutes

Slice the lamb int individual chops and serve three per person, with the Pommes boulangere and Courgettes provencale.
(I didn't include the recipe for the pommes or courgettes)

_________________________________________________

I actually think of this recipe as Steph Pridham's rack of lamb, more so than Gordan's. Steph (my best mate) has made this before(and has this book) and I can still remember being jealous about not being invited to try them! She's also spoken about how awesome it is and I've been killing to try it for ages. Anyway, the book itself is good, got a good selection of different things although they all tend to be a little bit spiffy. There is a recipe for a Mocha Mouse which is awesome!!

The lamb racks them selves were delicious!! I cooked mine for a few minutes more than Gordan, only because although I like my meat pink I hate it when its running around the plate :). The crust is very fresh and doesn't take over but compliments the lamb. The potatoes were full of flavour but a little bit sloppy so they didn't work as well as they should of with the lamb. (that wont bother you cos I haven't included the recipe for them). All in all this is a delicious recipe, although I wouldn't make it if people were coming over cos its a lot of farting around in a short amount of time! I love lamb so I will definitely be cooking it again....
 
Please excuse my plating, I really should practice that because I can spend hours on a meal only for it to end up like slop on a plate... still tastes good though :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

Book 10 : Decadent Desserts - Beverley Sutherland Smith

A few years ago (I'm lying I still do it!) you couldn't let me near a cookbook without me spilling something on it.  Mum has numerous books that you can't open all the pages because my old (current) style of cooking involved me splattering myself and everything around me with food.  I would like to pretend that I have got much better as I've gotten older, but the truth is I now rely on a cookbook holder which keeps my books out of harms way.  The problem with this holder is that it has trouble with heavy, hard covered books, so quite often my precious cookbooks get splattered.  This is often accompanied by softly spoken swear words (the softly depends on how far away the kids are), various items being thrown out of the kitchen and a frantic search for the elusive dish cloth (usually hiding somewhere stupid, like the sink!).  But no matter how quickly I get to the pages, they always stain, sometimes they stick together (I'm still hoping Mum doesn't notice a chapter of one of her books doesn't open any more :) ) and no matter how hard I try, I always look down at these books.  Its not their fault, quiet obviously its mine.  But if they really wanted to remain clean, they would a: not be too heavy to fit in the holder and b: be made of pages that can stand up to a bit of splatter!  For God's sake, (well not really I'm pretty sure he/she has bigger issues) recipes involve all sorts of liquid, wouldn't you think they would be washable? or at least wipeable?  So, with my logic all askew and the blame/your attention  diverted from my messiness, I introduce Decadent Desserts.  This is one of the few books I've been able to swap with Mum, new for old (Mum selfishly wants the clean ones).  My copy sadly has pages that stick together and are smeared with chocolate, so naturally I look down upon it and am kind of reluctant to cook from it, I never said I was rational......

Recipe:   Orange and Date Sticky Pudding

Pudding
185g Dates, pitted and cut into small pieces
1 tsp bicarb soda
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp grated orange rind
1/4 cup orange juice
45g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup SR flour

Sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
45g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp orange rind
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup cream

Butter a 20cm square cake tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper.
Put the dates into a bowl with the bicarb and pour boiling water over the top.  Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then add the orange rind and juice.
Preheat the oven to moderate, 180c
Cream the butter until soft and then mix in the sugar until light.  One at a time, beat in the eggs and then sift the flour over the top.  Stir through and add the dates and their liquid.  Pour into the cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for about 30-35 mins or until cooked through.  While the pudding is cooking make up the sauce.
Sauce
Mix the sugar with the butter and heat until the butter has melted.  Add the remaining ingredients and cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes or until lightly thickened.  Leave to stand a minute, it will thicken a little more.
To serve, cut the pudding into squares and spoon the sauce over the top.

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I have had this book for a long time, actually that's not true, Mum has had this book for a long time, I have merely cooked out of it :).  Its been a while since I've glanced at Decadent Deserts, mainly because of the volume of books I have, but also because (if you have read above you might understand) I've cooked out of it a few times and there are quite a few stains on the pages.  Its a great book, although the recipes are getting a bit old fashioned now, with the best lemon cake recipe I've ever made/had! 

I'm not a huge fan of sticky date pudding, but the orange in this cuts through some of the richness.  Its also very easy to make and really tasty.  One tip for this recipe, double the sauce, its not dry by any means but you can never have enough sauce.  You may notice in my photo the white blob next to the pudding?  That's fresh ice cream from my new ice cream machine, not a very good representation as I pulled it out 20 minutes before it was suppose to finish, but very delicious with the pudding :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

Book 9 : The AWW Cooking School for Kids - Australian Women's Weekly

My daughter started kinder this year and the lunches are freaking me out!  The reason for my ridiculous freak out can be firmly laid at the feet of both the kinder and my 4 year old daughter.  The kinder has freaked me out by advising parents, that the government is doing a survey of the children's lunches to see how healthily they are being fed, we are advised to not give the kids chips and chocolate etc in lunch boxes.  Along with nut and dairy warnings I am terrified I'll walk into kinder and be greeted at the door by government officials, there to take me away for packing to many bad things in my daughters lunch box.  Because of this paranoia I get overly cautious and end up packing the lunch box with nothing but fruit.  Don't get me wrong, I love fruit, but a few times now Charli has opened her lunch box to be greeted with nothing but fruit.  And when your lunch consists of two apples, a mandarin, fruit cup, dates, sultanas and grapes you can get a bit sick of it.  But every kinder morning, after a week spent thinking up a stack of brilliant lunch ideas that don't come to fruition (ie. I forget and make things like Chocolate eclairs instead!), I run around frantically trying to balance Charli's fruit to non-fruit ratio...  Charli also doesn't help that every week she decides she doesn't want an integral part of her lunch (for me, not her!).  I buy a slab of two fruit cups, she doesn't like them anymore!  I get 2kgs of mandarins, she gives up eating them! I give her cheese and biscuits, she won't eat the cheese, or the biscuits or anything.. ARRGGHHH!  Sometimes I feel like coating her lunchbox in chocolate, rolling it in peanuts, filling it with sugar and chips and sending her off to kinder.  Annoyingly, someone might die and then I would get looks in the waiting room....

Sorry about the flash..

When I tell you what recipe I'm featuring you might be confused about why I have been waffling on about kinder lunches.  The reason for the above waffle (as confused as usual) is because originally I was going to tell you about the Muesli Slice (which is seriously tasty!).  Instead I noticed the Sang Choy Bow and as I had (for once in my life) been slightly organised and pre-written a big chuck of my introduction, I decided to forge ahead and hope you would be confused enough by the above that you wouldn't noticed a completely unrelated recipe, and here it is :)

Recipe - Sang Choy Bow

2 tsp sesame oil
1 small brown onion. peeled and chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
500g minced pork
2 tbs water
125g fresh shiitake mushrooms, chopped finely
2 tbs light soy sauce
2 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs lime juice
160g bean sprouts
4 green onions (spring), sliced thinly
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
12 large iceberg lettuce leaves, white parts cut off

Put the oil in a wok.  Turn the stove on to med-high and heat the wok.  Add the brown onion, garlic and ginger; use a wooden spoon to stir-fry until the onion is soft.  Add the pork; stir-fry until the pork is browned, breaking up any large lumps with the back of the spoon.

Add the water, mushrooms, soy sauce, oyster sauce and lime juice; stir-fry until mushrooms are tender.  Take the wok off the heat.  Stir in the bean sprouts, green onion and coriander.

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a large platter.  Spoon the pork mixture into the lettuce leaf "cups".

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I love the method for all of these recipes,  they have been designed with kids in mind, so everything is fairly simple with explanations for everything.  Along with the delicious muesli bar, there is also a pizza dough recipe that we use whenever we are making pizzas.  It has heaps of photos and a great mixture of sweet and savoury that are not just for the kids to make.

The Sang Choy Bow recipe is great, simple and easy to make while being extremely tasty.  Be careful with the bean spouts, I brought a pack of 250g and chucked the whole lot in, I think that was way to many bean sprouts.  I would also maybe put half as much again of the sauce (maybe) and more coriander (I always put more coriander).  I think this may become a regular mainstay in my weekly cooking roster, not only does it have hidden veggies, it also looks fresh and tastes scrumptious! As a added bonus the kids will actually eat it, although they also agreed with me about the extra bean shoots, apparently they look like worms!

Thanks

Kate

xx

Sam eating tea

Book 8 : Merle's Kitchen - Merle Parrish

Choux pastry and I have a history.  Its not an exciting history, in any way, shape or form, but it is a history.  The story begins in high school, I made my first ever batch of choux pastry in home ec. and it rocked!  Seriously it was a damn good choux pastry (and by extension chocolate eclair) it was crisp and light, and best of all it didn't need the doughy middle scraped out with a spoon.  It was awesome and considering that our teachers had told us it was hard to make, I was feeling pretty cocky. It went down hill from there.  After bragging about being the worlds best choux pastry cook, I went home to once again astound the world with my choux pastry making prowess... it didn't work!  And so choux pastry and I have been apart ever since.  What...?  I told you it wasn't a exciting story!  What you need to understand about me (if you don't already) is that I am a tad competitive.  When I say tad, I mean extremely, terrifyingly, horribly competitive!  I'm also a slight control freak with mild anger issues.  To sum it up, if I can't win, I don't play.  My grade six sports teacher kindly took me aside after netball once and gently explained to me that maybe playing netball wasn't for me!  (then told me, much less gently, that competitive sport was something I should sit out in future!.. pfft) He was quiet obviously sexist and didn't like short people with glasses, hopefully he has worked through his issues!  Unlike me, my way of dealing with my issues is to avoid them all together.  Its been roughly 18 years and I have managed to avoid making Choux pastry (not as dramatic or as hard as I'm trying to make it sound!), until now......... :)

Terrible photo!

Recipe - Chocolate Eclairs

1tbsp butter
1 cup Water
1 cup SR flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten
150ml cream, whipped

Chocolate Icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
Combine the butter and water in a large saucepan, and heat until the butter melts and the comes to the boil.  Sift the flour into the pan, and stir with a wooden spoon over the heat for about 1 minute, until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan in a lump.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cool slightly, stirring to release the heat.  Add the eggs a little bit at a time, beating well with electric beaters between each addition, until the mixture is very thick and glossy

Place the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain 1.5cm nozzle.  Pipe into 8cm lengths, leaving room for rising and spreading.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Split the eclairs lengthways, and fill with whipped cream.

For the icing, sift the dry ingredients together, then mix in the butter, vanilla and enough boiling water to make a smooth paste.  Spread over the top of the eclairs and leave to set.

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I really like this cookbook, Merle is gorgeous.  The book has a lovely introduction and every recipe has a page for the recipe and a page for a photo.  Also most of the recipes have a little explanation of why they have been included and/or the history of the recipe.  Its a great book, I brought it because I've always wanted to make nice scones and I thought Merle could help.  Sadly she hasn't, I still can't cook scones (well I can, but a better description for them would be hard, lumpy flour rocks!)  but that's not Merle's fault, I'm pretty sure it's a genetic abnormality.  But there are plenty of great recipes in here, that even I with my scone and choux pastry issues can make :)

The chocolate eclairs themselves are simple to make, I did try to get tricky and make mini ones.  I wouldn't do that again, they were fiddly and a pain in the arse to ice...  BUT, the pastry was good (not brilliant, but good), and the cream and icing make them delicious!  All in all, I think choux and I have come to a agreement, I won't make it too often and it won't make me look too stupid!  Now I better finish off those eclairs because I would hate for the kids to make themselves sick ..... I'm taking one for the team :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

Oh by the way, if you like to cheat like I do, use disposable piping bags!  I use them for everything and you just chuck them out afterwards...
Also Myer have 40% off cookbooks this week (target has 20% for this weekend only!), don't these places know I have a problem?  So to teach them a lesson, I only purchased two new cookbooks.... What?  I'd normally buy 5 or 6.....  :)