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.

__________________________________________

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