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)

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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.....  :)