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.

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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