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.

________________________________________________

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.

__________________________________________

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.

__________________________________________________

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.

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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  :)