Book 29 : World Menus - Delicious.

I have to tell you something (oooh this makes it seem all sercrety!), its obviously something about myself and it makes me seem a little bit irrational. (because ranting about rissoles doesn't!).  You may not think its a big deal and if you disagree with me, I kinda apologise.  (When I say kinda, I mean not at all).  Its because of this irrational issue that I've managed to insult/upset a few people over the years.  So what is it, you may be asking?  Well here it is, my biggest pet hate ......... Nickelback!  Yep, that's right, I hate Nickelback!  Its not just a regular Taylor Swift dislike (not a big fan of Taylor Swift), but a full blown fiery vengeance hate with them and all things associated with them!  Unfortunately the things most associated with Nickelback that I tend to stumble across tends to be their fans.  This is where I tend to get a bit irrational and if you are a Dickelback (not a misspell) fan you may want to stop reading.  The reason I cannot stand them is very simple, devil horns!  Not sure what devil horns are?  Its when you are at a concert and you put your two middle fingers and thumb down and stick you hand in the air.  Nickelback concert goers do this, like they are at a rock or metal concert.  They are not!  Rock bands are Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Tenacious D and Black Sabbath.(Matt's horrified I put the 'D' in there, but he likes romantic comedies and James Blunt!)  Bands that make you proud to be a fan, to stick your fist in the air and pop up the horns.  Nickelback on the other hand, are wankers.  If I was to drop them in any sort of rock category it would be soft cock rock!  They just shit me!  They are not rockers, they try way to hard to be cool, to be rockers.  Do you think Brian Johnson gets up in the morning and trims his nostril hairs?  NO!  Do you think Billie Joe Armstrong worries about what product to put in his hair? Shit NO, he sculpts his rock do with unwashed hair grease.  Do you honestly think Jimmy Page's favourite food is a hamburger?  NO!  He doesn't eat he just drinks spirits! (I have no facts to base any of this on!) 

  If you haven't picked up on it I'm talking to you, Chad Kroeger!  What a knob, granted I'm basing this opinion on the fact he is in Nickelback, and I don't like them :)  But just have a look at their website, could they be wearing more makeup?  I also made the mistake of looking at the photo gallery of meet and greets (I was looking for the awesome Craig Coombes from http://nakedtuesday.me/) and that just made me dislike them more!  Put the devil horns down manscaper, you're embarrassing yourself!!!

It has been pointed out to me that different people have different tastes (my Dad, who sadly likes Nickelback, so I'm only pretending to listen to him!!!)  and also that as this is a food blog (sometimes) I should write a bit more about food....  Both of these are probably right, but I'm having a Nickelback disliking kind of day, so Nickelback bashing it is.... on the upside if you do like Nickelback and are feeling a bit offended,  here's a Tim Tam Tart recipe to make you feel better :)

Recipe - Tim Tam Tarts with Raspberries and Tim Tam Soil
makes 4

200g packet Tim Tams
30g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
200ml pure (thin) cream
200g dark chocolate, chopped
1tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
Raspberries, cocoa and vanilla ice cream, to serve

 Grease four 8cm loose- bottomed tart pans.  Place Tim Tams in a food processor and wiz to fine crumbs.  Remove 3 tbs crumbs for the soil and set aside.  Add melted butter to the processor and pulse to combine.  Press crumb mixture into the bases and sides of the prepared pans and chill for 15 minutes. 
  Preheat the oven to 160c.  Place cream in a pan over low heat and bring to just below boiling point.  Remove from heat.  Add chocolate and stand for 1 minute to melt a little, then stir until smooth.  Cool the chocolate mixture, then add vanilla and yolks and stir to combine.  Pour chocolate filling into tart cases.  Bake for 15 minutes or until just set.  Cool tarts completely in pans. 
  When ready to serve, remove tarts from pans, then top with berries and dust with cocoa.  Serve with vanilla ice-cream and Tim Tam soil.

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I'm a bit of a fan of Delicious magazine (unlike Nickelback!), by fan I mean I have a stack of the recipe books and get all giggly when the magazine comes out.  This book is almost a extension of the magazine in that the recipes all come from previous issues.  Its a great book!  Seriously, its awesome!!  If I was to pick one of my favourite books of the last month this would be fairly high on top, the bonus is its only about $15.00! 

The recipe itself is the most kick arse tart, EVER!  I'm not usually a chocolate flavoured dessert fan but this is amazing, plus it looks really fancy and you can pretend its really hard to make, its not!  Its also not sickly at all, which I was very afraid of!  I was actually thinking of keeping this recipe to myself, but its too good not to share!  Its also the reason I now stock Tim Tams in my pantry all the time! (granted allot don't make it to the tarts but you get the idea!)  Make it!  Make it now!!!

On a small side note, I tend to make this as one large tart and cut it into slices (double the recipe!), just cook it a bit longer!  Also I'm sorry about the blogging delay, I've been distracted by hosting my own High tea for the McGrath Foundation and sleeping, I'll try and not let it happen again! :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

PS: Should I apologise to Nickelback fans? Probably!  Will I...... shit no!!! :P

Book 28 : Sugar Cube - Kir Jensen

As a parent I am a liar, a massive 'in your face' liar!  What am I talking about I hear you ask? (obviously I don't really but you get the idea) Well firstly I lie to my children.... all the time!!  If anyone ever asks me I will deny all knowledge of this blog update, but my children are stubborn, little control freaks with memory's like a steal trap (I have no idea where they get it from!).  I should clarify that when I say children I really mean child, my daughter Charli apart from the odd smart comment is everything that is good and wonderful in the world, my son Sam on the other hand... How do I put this delicately? Well, he is an angel faced turd burger!  So when he asks me questions I know are going to get a bad reaction, I lie through my teeth.  Am I going to day care today?  No, sweet heart we are going for a drive (to daycare).  Mum is this mushrooms?  No, darling heart its cheese (flavoured mushrooms).  Where's my lollipop (that's three days old and covered with hair)?  I don't know honey buns, maybe the lolly pop fairy took it away (to the bin!).  Bad parenting? Possibly, but when its a choice between full blown tantrum and blissful silence, I'll take lying every time!!  I figure by the time my children realise that Santa isn't making weekly phone calls, Santa will no longer be visiting. 

  But I've actually realised in the last few days that I've also started lying to people around me about my parenting.  I'm a terrible parent!  I forget the tooth fairy is visiting (she had a really busy night), we have frozen pizzas for tea more often than we should and once I ACCIDENTALLY jammed Charli's fingers in a drawer (I obviously didn't realise she had her fingers in there!).  But I also like to pretend that I'm an ok mother and that my children are turning out ok!  I'm fairly sure I'm on the right track with Charli, I take no credit for this, despite my influence she is a kind, outgoing little girl.  Sam on the other hand has me pulling out my hair by the fist full, whilst pretending everything is perfectly fine.  So when people ask me questions about how he is going, I'm generally making it up as I go along (much like my parenting style!). 

  Toilet training is non existent, he will wear jocks at daycare but also hold on all day to avoid having to use the toilet!.  The way Sam is going, he will be wearing pull ups at his 21st.  Please don't give me advise on how to encourage him to use the toilet, because it wont work.  Chocolate, new cars, lolly pops.. nothing works!  As I said he would rather hold his bladder for 8 hours, than wee in the shower (I gave him the option, don't judge me!).  Then he has the worlds biggest tantrum at a local shopping centre, which ended spectacularly in me carrying him from one side to the other over my shoulder while he screamed that he loved me.... which was why he thinks he should've got an ice cream (no way in hell!!).  I was one of those parents! The parent that people with kids feel sorry for and childless people judge like buggery!  The joys of parenting!  So when one of my good mates asked me I shook my head and told her he was really tired.... (and a turd burger!!) Not really sure if I've stayed on topic, but the bald spot on my scalp is itchy so hopefully you'll forgive me :)

Recipe - Twisted Toll House

220g plain flour
1/2 cup Hazelnut flour  (hazelnut meal, processed until fine)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp sea salt
225g Unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
10 ozs finely chopped dark chocolate
Fleur de sel for sprinkling

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnut flour, baking soda and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, granulated sugar and the brown sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined.  Stir in the chopped chocolate, using more chocolate if you're a chocolate fanatic.  Chill the dough for at least several hours, or, if you can resist, overnight to give the flavors a chance to mature.

   Preheat the oven to 175c, line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.  Drop the dough by 2 tablespoon portions about 2 inches apart (they spread)  onto the baking sheets.

  Bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the sheets from front to back and between upper and lower racks after about 10 minutes.  Sprinkle the cookies with fleur de sel while still warm and let cool on the baking sheets for a minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.  The cookies will keep in an air-tight container for several days.

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  I really want to like this book, I really do!  Its everything that I want to be as a home cook, a home cook with a food van (to be specific a desert food van!).  But to be honest this book is a pain in the arse!  Its an American book written for Americans, so everything in it is set up for American super markets!  Cups or sticks of butter, all-purpose flour, blackstrap molasses, graham crackers.. Have you ever tried to get a cup of butter?  I can tell you now its a pain in the arse!  If it wasn't for the wonders of the Internet I would of cracked shits long ago and possibly used this book as a Frisbee.    Don't get me wrong, the book itself is fine, but I begrudge spending 30 minutes converting everything into measurements I can actually use.  A writer at one of my favourite food blogs is fond of saying 'friends don't let friends bake by volume"... and it is so true.  I don't care if its in oz or grams but measuring something on the scales is so much easier than washing my 1 cup measuring cup between ingredients.  I know I'm having a rant but as I said above, its a pain in the arse.  You better believe when I write a cook book (won't even happen) there will be no butter conversion websites needed!  On the other hand the book has nice pages and some really interesting recipes, although there isn't a picture for every recipe, the author obviously doesn't read my blog!!

  The biscuits themselves are quite nice!  Apparently Toll House biscuits are fairly well known as chocolate chip cookies in America, I've never heard of them before.  They have a really interesting flavour that's rich and complex, with the chocolate and salt topping, without being overly sweet (surprising considering how much sugar they have in them!).  They are also fairly light and crispy!  Just be careful of how much salt you sprinkle on them, I tend to get over excited with sprinkling and they were a bit salty.   Plus you have to leave them in the fridge for a few hours before you cook them (appeals to me for some reason?).  All in all its a nice recipe, the uncooked dough is awesome!!!  So if you're after something a bit different give them a go :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

The beautiful Turd Burger :)

Book 27 : Jamie's Great Britain - Jamie Oliver

My brother and I once brought our Dad a t-shirt that read "It's not a bald spot, its a solar panel for a sex machine".... we thought it was hilarious!  We also got him a cup and I'm pretty sure a hat with the same phrase.  I think I was 11 and my brother 13, obviously we didn't realise how inappropriate it was.  I'm not sure how Dad felt about it?  Must be kinda weird getting a t-shirt from your kids proclaiming you to be a sex machine!  Possibly as awkward as when I realised just what went in the truck of Dad's elephant G-string!  Thankfully by that stage my brother and I had stopped wearing it on our heads!  I had a few (read a lot) of those sort of moments as a kid and a adult (not involving G-strings!), but moments when I've had a moment of clarity that pretty much went "Oh shit, I...".  For years I thought my spike was extremely cool, until I really looked at the photos and realised that a spike is at the front of your hair, not the top of your head.  Just incase you can't picture it... I had a mullet! Rocking out underage at 21 arms, not realising I've not only tucked my skirt into my jocks, but I've also made a tail from some toilet paper (still very grateful to my mates at letting me dance around for at least 1 hour!).  Another skirt one involved me exiting Hot Gossip with a very cute mate, slipping on a access panel and falling on my arse, only to have my skirt fall off when I stood up,  I was wearing Bridget Jones undies ( not that that would have been any better had I been rocking a elephant G-string).  Honestly my list is endless!  My semi-see through fluoro green bike shorts (I wore them everywhere!!), my glasses falling off my head whilst roller blading and running over the top of them (Mum stuck them up with sticky tape!),  Hyper-colour overalls (they change colour with heat, betcha never noticed how warm your crouch gets in summer!).  They probably all contribute to me not being a clothes fan!  Its probably kinda lucky that I'm not overly sensitive, cos otherwise you would never get to read about the time I walked around a local shopping centre with my 3 week old daughter, only to realise she had vomited milk all down my back, hours ago.... :)  Luckily I'm keeping an eye on my kids, hair cuts are strictly managed and bike shorts of any description are off limits!  I do have to thank my Mum though, because for years I used to harass her to let me get my hair permed and then later I wanted an undercut.... She must of learnt her lesson with the mullet, err I mean spike! :)

 

Recipe -  Jerk-Dressed Bristol Pork

Serves 12 with leftovers
5kg shoulder of Pork, skin on
Sea Salt and ground black pepper
A generous pinch each of dried rosemary and thyme
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
olive oil
2 x 500ml bottles of quality cider

For the Jerk Salsa
1-2 fresh chillies (to taste)
2 bunches of spring onions, trimmed
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp ground cloves
2 level tsp ground allspice
3 limes
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled
a few fresh bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1-2 tblsp honey
extra virgin olive oil
a large bunch of fresh coriander

Preheat the oven to full whack (about 240c).  Carefully score the skin and fat on the shoulder into zigzags about 1cm deep, using a very sharp knife or a clean Stanley knife.  Sprinkle and rub in a good pinch of salt, pepper, dried rosemary, thyme and a few good gratings of nutmeg.  Add a lug of olive oil, then rub those flavours all over the meat and into the scores.  Place the pork, skin side up, in your largest roasting pan.  Pour one of the bottles of cider into the bottom of the tray, put into the hot oven for 30 minutes so the crackling gets going, then turn the heat down to 130c.

After the pork has been in for an hour, add the rest of the cider and cook for a further 6 to 7 hours, or until the meat pulls apart easily.  Halfway through the cooking time cover with a double layer of tin foil.

Once the pork is perfectly cooked, move it to a large serving board or platter.  Carefully pour any fat from the roasting tray into a jar for some lucky roast potatoes some day, but leave the wonderful flavourful cooking juices in the pan.  Then add the chilli's to a blender with the spring onions, spices, the juice from the limes, ginger, bay leaves, garlic, a squeeze of honey and 2 lugs of extra virgin olive oil.  Pulse together until you get a salsa consistency, then mix the salsa into the juices in the roasting tray, have a taste and balance out the salt and acid if needed.  It should have a attitude and loads of personality.  Pour that salsa on to a platter, then pull the crispy crackling off the shoulder, get rid of any flobbery fat underneath, and use two forks to roughly pull the meat apart.  Pile the meat on top of the salsa and toss together quickly.  Tear over the coriander leaves and snap those wonderful zigzags of crackling on top of the meat and serve next to apple sauce.

_______________________________________________

Its no secret I have a bit of a chef crush on Jamie Oliver and all of his books are great (except for 15 Minute Meals, 15 minutes my arse!),!  This book as usual is lovely, my sister Kristy and I brought it at the same time and I'm fairly sure she is in love with it as I am.  Granted the above recipe is the first thing I've made from the book but I can tell about these things (God I'm full of shit!).  So if you like British recipes and want a lovely book full of them, get this!  It looks great, the recipes are easy to follow and you get the excuse of a new Jamie Oliver book :).

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for a while, ever since I watched Jamie cooking it on the tv series of the same name.  I do need to let you know that I'm not a slow cooker!  I just don't understand getting everything organised and putting tea on at the start of the day so its ready when you get home.  I did have a slow cooker, but it now happily resides at my mother in laws after only being used twice in 3 years.  So when this recipe called for slow cooking I may have groaned slightly with a small eye roll thrown in.  I also got massively over excited (so not like me at all!) and decided to have this for Lunch instead of dinner, I  wouldn't recommend that!  I put my shoulder on at 1.00 am and I cooked in until 12.30 the next day.... and seriously it was AWESOME!!!  I tested a bit of meat at 10.30am and it literally slid out of the roast!  The salsa itself is delicious and the whole thing in rolls is brilliant!  Be warned though this recipe makes a shit load of food, so don't make it if its just you and the kids for tea (unless you have 15 kids and they all really like pork!).  We had 9 for lunch on Mother's day and Matty still had cold meat for a week!  Jamie Oliver aside, this is a great recipe, totally recommended! :)


The Mum's and Dad's on Mother's Day

On a side note, the crackling won't be crunchy (I'm assuming yours won't be cos mine wasn't)!  So when you remove it from the shoulder, stick it under a hot grill for a few minutes and then brag about how you are the worlds best slow cooker of pork shoulder and the crackle queen (or maybe that's just me who does that?) :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

I was trying to find a photo of my mullet and I but haven't located one yet, but I'll let you know when I do :)

This is Dad :) (Sorry for telling everyone you had an elephant G-string Dad!  but at least I didn't mention the other ones!) :)

 

Book 26: Vintage Cakes - Julie Richardson

Nothing makes me more angry than self important wankers preaching their stupid food ideas and trends (except crickets.... I hate crickets!!).  Usually (read always) its the so called healthy ideas that I have an issue with.  I can tell you now that when macaroons started getting popular I wasn't concerned, nor did I have an issue with cake pops :).  Anyway back to my original rant, stupid wanky food ideas.  My latest wank alarm has gone off in regards to a new cookbook on the market called "I Quit Sugar".  Seriously, I QUIT SUGAR, does anyone else see this as wrong in so many ways??  Don't get me wrong, I understand removing added sugar from your diet (no, I really don't) and eating healthy (once again I'm lying!) but the woman who wrote this book has eliminated all sugar from her diet, including fruit.  What a dumbass!  The book shouldn't be called I Quit Sugar it should be called "Welcome to Bland" (and constipation).  Why on earth would you want to go through your life without sugar or fruit?  I honestly cannot see how you would be able to function every day without at least a bit of sugar, even if it does come in the form of a banana.  You will be able to tell if I ever decide to quit sugar, be prepared for me to crack after to many "Morning Kate's", by jumping on my desk and screaming something hysterical like "It's not morning and its not good, don't look at me I'm MELTING!!!!!!".. I'm not sure why I'm melting but, but I can guarantee I'm freakin out big time. 

  I've never been a fan of fad dieting (or dieting in general),  a few years ago my best mate and I thought it might be a great idea to give the soup diet a try.  If you have never heard of it, the soup diet is a soup made up of crushed tomatoes, celery and possibly onion (I've blocked it out), that you consume non-stop for 7 days straight before adding in some steak (I may have made up the steak).  I can't remember if I lost any weight but I do know I spent a lot of time on the toilet.  So I kinda have issue with any extreme dieting, Dukan, Soup etc.  So when I first glimpsed the sugar quitting book, without any research at all I had a slight tantrum.  I have since only done a very small amount of research (I read her recipe for brownies, blurk! and heard about her on Sunrise) and shockingly my opinion has not changed.  You may think my opinion is horribly unjustified and how can I judge something without ever trying it?  I've also never been hit by a bus, but I'm pretty sure I won't feel like a macaron afterwards. 
 
  So in conclusion, I may have no idea what I am talking about but if you tell me you have brought the 'I Quit Sugar" book be prepared for me to rant uncontrollably with hand gestures galore and quite a few f-bombs.. (sorry Dan).  Just like this blog, my rant may not make a lot of sense, but at least you'll know not to share your sugar free, dairy free, chocolate free (I know its dairy but it should seriously have its own food group) brownies with me without the risk of a slight brain fart on my behalf.... usually in public (once again sorry Dan).. :)

Oh to celebrate the I Quit Sugar rant, here's a recipe for a pistachio cake... with lots of sugar!

Recipe - Watergate Cake with Impeachment Frosting

Pistachio Pudding
1 cup (5 ozs) shelled unsalted pistachio nuts
2/3 cup (4 2/3 ozs) sugar
1 1/2 cup half and half (I used half milk half cream)
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 tblsp corn powder

Cake
2 cups (10 ozs) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup (4 ozs) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ozs) sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tblsp pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

Pistachio Cream (Impeachment Frosting)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup mascarpone
2 tblsp sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Caramelized Pistachios
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tblsps water
1/3 cup shelled unsalted pistachios
Small pinch sea salt

Pistachio pudding:  In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, grind the pistachios with 1/3 cup of the sugar until finely ground but not a paste.  In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat the half and half and the ground pistachio mixture until the half and half is hot but not boiling.  Meanwhile, thoroughly whisk together in a small bowl the egg yolks, the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar and the salt, then whisk in the corn flour.  Slowly whisk about a third of the hot pistachio cream into the yolk mixture.  Pour the resulting mixture back into the saucepan with the hot half and half and gently cook over medium-low heat whisking steadily, until the mixture begins to thicken and has been bubbling for roughly 1 minute (you will need to stop whisking for a moment to check if it is bubbling).  The mixture will get thick quickly.  Strain the mixture through a medium mesh sieve into a shallow bowl or pie pan.  Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding and refrigerate until cook, about 1 hour.  The pudding can made 1 day ahead.

Centre an oven rack and preheat the oven to 176c

To make the cake, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and then whisk the ingredients by hand to ensure they are well mixed.
Measure out 1 scant cup (almost full) of the pudding and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, blend the butter and sugar together on a low speed until the ingredients are well blended.  With the mixer on low speed, drizzle the oil and the vanilla into the mixture until combined.  Kick up the speed to medium high and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes.  As you make the batter, stop the mixture frequently and scrape the paddle and the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  With the mixer on low speed, blend in the eggs one at a time, adding the next one as soon as the previous one has disappeared into the batter.  Ad the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk mixture in two parts, beginning and ending with the flour.  After each addition, mix until just barely blended and stop and scrape the bowl.  Stop the mixer before the last of the flour has been incorporated.  Stir in the scant cup of pistachio pudding and complete the blending by hand with a rubber spatula to ensure you do not overbeat the batter.

Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans (there will be approximately 1 pound per pan) and smooth the tops.  Bake in the middle of the oven until the cakes are very lightly golden and spring back when touched, 22 to 25 minutes.  Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes.  Invert the cakes onto the rack (you will leave on the parchment paper until you assemble the cake) then turn them so they are top side up and continue to cool them on the rack until they reach room temperature.

While the cake is cooling, make the pistachio cream (aka Impeachment Frosting).  Place the bowl of a stand mixer and its whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill.  Measure out 1 cup of the pistachio pudding into a medium size bowl and set aside.  Place the cream, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla in the cold bowl and mix on low speed until the mixture has come together.  Gradually increase the mixer's speed to high and whip until peaks just begin to form.  It is important to stop beating once the firm peaks form: mascarpone is a fragile cream and tends to become grainy if it is over whipped.  Gently fold one third of the mascarpone cream into the pistachio pudding to lighten it up.  Continue gently folding the mascarpone cream into the mixture in thirds until fully combined.

  To make the caramelized pistachios, grease a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray and set aside.  Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.  Bring this syrup to a boil and cook without stirring until it turns light amber in colour (you can swirl the pan instead of stirring to distribute the colour and the heat).  Add the pistachios and swirl to coat the nuts completely in caramel.  Continue cooking until the syrup turns a dark amber.  Quickly dump the nuts onto the greased baking sheet and lightly dust with salt.  Using you hands, clump the nuts into small clusters or separate the individual nuts before the mixture cools, but do this with caution as the sugar holds onto the heat and could burn your fingertips!  Cool the nuts and store in an airtight container at room temp for up to 2 days.

To assemble the cake, remove the parchment from the cake layers.  Lay one of the cakes on a serving plate, top side up.  Spread a generous cup of pistachio cream over the cake, spreading the filling out and slightly over the edge of the cake.  Set the next cake layer (again top side up) on top of the filling and spread another layer of pistachio cream over it like you did with the first. Repeat with the last layer and top with the remaining cream on top.

Decorate with the caramelized pistachios.

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This is a fabulous book!  Seriously fabulous!  I wouldn't say these are vintage cakes in Australian terms, but if you were from America you would certainly get a kick out of it.  There are very few cookbooks that I am very tempted to start with the first recipe and work my way back, this is one of them.  Not only is this a beautiful looking book, everything in it looks delicious and the names are awesome! Shoo-fly Cake, Honey Bee Cake, Blackberry Chocolate Cream Icebox Cake and (my favourite name) Goober Cake...  Just picking the names out, I've found a cake I'm going to make this week, only because it looks awesome!  A friend of mine* put me onto this book and so I'm passing on the same information, if you like making cakes that take a little bit more concentration and often a few extra steps, get this book!  Even if you don't like making cakes but you like cookbooks, get this book!  One of these days I'm going to take 6 months off work and make every cake in this book!.. The only thing you will need is possibly a ingredient convertor for the American ingredients, but worst case scenario, wing it.... much more exciting if you aren't sure what you will get :)



Terrible photo but I was impatient to start eating! :)

This recipe is awesome!  If you like pistachios like I do you will love this cake!  BUT, double the pistachio custard (pudding is such an American term), because by the time I had finished tasting the stuff you need more, also without tasting I think it needs more.  The recipe goes into painstaking detail (believe me I typed it) so if you are unsure if your baking skills are up to it, it gives you everything step by step!  Even if you don't feel like going the whole hog with this cake, just make the caramelized pistachios.  Seriously make the pistachios....... 

Thanks
Kate
xx

MAKE THE PICSTACHIOS!!!!!!!...... :P

*My friend Dan(ielle) was a bit put out that I blamed her for I Quit Sugar but didn't mention that she also recommended Vintage Cakes.... So thankyou Dan, but its still doesn't make up for I Quit Sugar, unless of course you burnt it??  :P

Book 25: Eating In - Niki Brezzant

You may be shocked to learn that I'm in a bit of a recipe book slump at the moment.  I have only brought 4 recipe books in the last month.... FOUR!!! and I haven't even looked at what Book Depository has coming out.  Looking at it, four recipe books in as many weeks seems fairly excessive (for a normal person), but considering these were all unplanned, its a bloody miracle for me.  Before my Christmas mayhem kicked in, I would quite often scroll through up and coming recipe books with a haze of cooking excitement, wish listing and purchasing left right and centre..  But lately the only books I've purchased have been some Donna Hay (massive sale at Aldi) and a double pack of Women's Weekly books.  The only reason I brought the Donna Hay books was that I felt a bit guilty combing through them and then not taking one home (doesn't make sense to me either).  Now to you, not purchasing copious amounts of recipe books is probably a good thing, but I'm slightly (read massively) obsessive and I'm currently without an obsession..... that is not good!  I've had some good obsessions, some not so good obsessions and some "what the bloody hell was I thinking" obsessions.  Good, Tupperware Modula mates, Wustoff knives and fruit trees, by good these are things that are actually useful and have continued to be used after the obsessions burnt out.  Not so good, shoes.... lots and lots of shoes... on paper seems fine, but really its awesome (I love shoes).  But the other obsessions, the ones I don't really talk about much (mainly because I look like a massive nerd/idiot) are the other sort of obsessions.  The ones though usually short, that end up with me driving all over the country looking for Lord of the Rings figurines.... (seriously I have a massive collection that I have no idea what to do with!!).  There was also the time when I fell in love with chicken nuggets, luckily it was when I was younger because if I tried to eat that many chicken nuggets now I'm pretty sure I would have a heart attack!  So me without an obsession can be a pretty dangerous (read expensive/fattening) thing.  At the moment I'm avoiding anything with obsession potential, footwear, JB hifi, toy stores, pretzels (did you know they make fresh pretzels at Cold Rock?  the cinnamon one is awesome)........

Recipe - Laab Chicken

Canola oil spray
400g chicken mince
4 cups finely sliced veges such as cabbage, red cabbage, carrot etc
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
1 stalk lemongrass, finely sliced
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1 spring onion, finely sliced

dressing:
1/2 cup fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
juice of 1-2 limes
pinch of dried chillies (optional)

Spray a little oil into a non-stick saucepan and cook the chicken mince over a medium heat, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks.  When well cooked, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
To make the dressing, combine the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice, and the dried chilli if using.  Taste and adjust until you get a flavour that suits you.  Everyone's taste is different and it's fine to play around with this to get it how you like it.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the chicken and mix well.  Add the dressing and stir to combine.
Serve the salad with steamed jasmine rice.
Serves 4

 

__________________________________________________

I was given this book as a gift a few years ago and apart from looking through it, like so many of my books, I've never cooked from it.  To be honest, I'm not sure of it, on one hand it has a recipe for Forgotten cookies that is AMAZING!!!  On the other its full of salads, salads are not something I think to hard about for anything.  When we have BBQ's I ask people to bring a salad because in general, I don't make salad. To me a salad is lettuce (iceberg, none of this fancy stuff), cucumber and anything else I can be bothered adding before I make up some pannacotta. I can say this isn't a book I would normally buy, as I said its very salad based, but if you are into light salady dishes you may enjoy this book. 

The recipe, this is horrible!  HORRIBLE!!!  I don't think I can honestly get across just how disgusting this recipe is!  For something so simple it is horrendously bad.  I've had and made Laab before and I've always found it to be really light and tasty.  This recipe is both bland and horrid at the same time and I'm not really sure how it does that when it ticks every horrible recipe box I've got and still manages to be bland.  I think what ruins it is the fish sauce, I like fish sauce, it can give great flavour to some fantastic recipes.  But when you have a sauce that is mainly fish sauce, well its kinda fishy and not in a good way!  I'm really sorry I typed this recipe up and even more sorry to share it with you.  I really should have made something else, but I figure I'm testing the books and you always have some crappy ones..  Hopefully you won't be like me and you read the whole blog before you start cooking.  I didn't really look at the quantity's before I made this and I paid the price, unfortunately so did Charli who I used as a guinea pig when I wasn't sure if the horrible taste was in my head.... it wasn't!

Thanks
Kate
xx

Ps:  Sorry about the massive delay, I'm been having some camera issues that have slowed me down a bit..... also My Kitchen Rules is on and I've been a bit busy yelling at the TV :)

Book 24 : The Birthday Book - Fiona Cairns

You may be shocked to learn that I get massively overexcited at Christmas time.  This year was slightly worse than usual, as I had Christmas at my house for the first time.  Because of this I had an explosion of Christmas themed cooking going on, I had written huge lists of ingredients, recipe locations and the order that I was going to cook everything. Its probably a good thing I have boarder line OCD because my love of lists has had a brilliant run the last few weeks.  Unfortunately when I say overexcited I'm probably underestimating how over excited I got!  At the last count (it should really read final count because anything I make now isn't Christmas food) I made 12 batches of various biscuits, a Yuletide Log (I snigger a bit every time I say that!!), 2 Gingerbread houses, Chocolate toffee bark, Sugared twists (massive disaster, lets never speak of them again!), Chocolate bon bons (up itself rocky road), a Lemon tart, 2 x White chocolate cheesecakes (delicious!), 2 x Spiced chocolate cakes (will be burning this recipe, it was crap!),  2 x Chocolate Terrines with Mandarin oil and spiced praline and a Girdle buster pie.  See what I mean by over excited?  This is not taking into consideration any of the savoury dishes I completed including baking a 10.5kg ham on the bone (which was magnificent, even if I do say so myself), the 5 batches of vanilla custard ice cream and the best creme anglaise I've ever made!.  The stupid thing about me making all this food isn't the ridiculous variety (what the hell was I thinking!), its that I forgot to put most of it out!  We had 36 people for lunch and 38 for tea and of the four types of shortbread I made, none was consumed because I forgot to put any of it out for people to eat!  I doubled most of the desserts, not thinking that I also allowed 5 roast potatoes per person, probably because even if I stuff myself with potatoes and gravy, if I sit quietly for 10 minutes I can usually fit in two or three servings of dessert (its a special gift!).  Unfortunately this gift seems to have skipped everyone else in my extended family, so I have been left with copious amounts of desserts and no real desire to eat them (slightly over everything by the time I got to it!).  So I've learnt three things this Christmas:

1.  Pick two deserts and kick their arse, don't make 200 different cookies and then forget them!
2.  Whilst the Girdle buster pie is AWESOME!!  People will look at you strangely when you offer it and it makes a huge mess in the freezer when you put it in to set at on a angle! (Chocolaty biscuit base, coffee ice cream and caramel top, so good it makes me want to burst into song)
3.  Make sure your brain filter is firmly in place before responding to your Grandma's request to talk about gardening with "No point Grandma, I don't listen cos I really don't care!", its not her fault she interrupted cheesecake time and she gets slightly upset when she realises your ignoring everything she is saying.

Oh, make that 4! 

4.  Take photos of everything cos you've just spent 2 weeks cooking up a storm and have nothing to put on your blog!... except this :)

Recipe - Cinnamon-Orange Gingerbread Cottage

700g plain flour, plus more to dust
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp bicarb soda
250g salted butter, very slightly softened and diced
3 egg yolks
200g light muscovado sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
6 tbsp golden sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange

-  Sift the flour, spices and bicarb of soda into a large bowl and add the butter.  Rub together with your fingertips - or tip into a food processor and blend - until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
-  Add the eggs yolks, sugar, syrup and orange zest and mix until the dough comes together.  If its too sticky, add a little more flour.
-  Wrap in cling film and chill for at least an hour to rest the dough.  Line two or three baking trays with baking paper.
-  Divide the dough in half.  Roll out one half on a well-floured surface into a large rectangle about 5mm thick.  (If you roll it out between to large sheets on baking paper it doesn't make a mess and doesn't dry out with the extra flour!)  Cut out desired shape.
-  Re-roll any offcuts with the remaining dough  and use until desired shapes all cut (this makes a triangle house but make what ever shape you want, we cheated and made it with house shape cutters!)
-  Cut out any doors, chimneys etc and rest in the fridge for half an hour.  Preheat the oven to 180c.  Bake in batches for 15-20 minutes.  Retrim straight away as the dough may have spread a bit.

Assemble this house with what ever lollies etc you want, along with royal icing or chocolate... (yell out if you need the recipe for royal icing).

_______________________________________________

I may have mentioned before that I go through phases?  Well if not, I tend to go through phases, buying birthday cake books was one.  This book was purchased in the middle of that phase (I'm now over cake books.. and cakes) and the only reason I have included it in this blog is because as I said above I forgot to take photos of the other recipes.  But saying that its a good cake book, lots of interesting cakes.. but as I said I'm so sick of birthday cakes, that the next time someone asks me to make one for them there is a good chance I'll spit on them (that's so not true, I would never intentionally spit on anyone, probably a good thing I don't drink often, because I'm pretty sure then I become a unintentional sprinkler!)  anyway (after that slightly awkward rant), on to the recipe!

This is a great gingerbread recipe!  Its really tasty, although I would add extra cinnamon and orange zest.  Also when rolling out the dough, do it between two sheets of baking paper, your dough wont dry out and it makes less mess.  I haven't given you the decorating details, mainly because you can figure that out for yourself and also because I'm lazy :P.  I made two small houses with the above dough that I had the kids decorate, which was awesome fun although more lollies got eaten than made it to the houses..  I also have it on very good authority that Charli's house may have been licked whilst my back was turned :).  My theory with licking whilst cooking is if I don't see it (or no-one saw me), it didn't happen!  Doesn't that just encourage you to eat my short bread?? :) 

Thanks
Kate
xx

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.

_____________________________________________

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.

______________________________________________

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.

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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