Ukrainian Easter

This year, we hosted Easter Saturday dinner with Pete's family in our little apartment. It was very cosy, but a lovely night. I don't really remember much about last years Easter festivities and I certainly wasn't as involved as this year, so im calling this my first Ukrainian Easter.

A basket is prepared containing a range of food such as Polish sausage, speck, eggs cheese, butter, salt and pepper and a special Easter cake/bread called paska. The basket of foodis taken to church to be blessed before the contents of each basket is cooked and eaten together.

 Dying the eggs - There's a first time for everything...

Success!

Easter egg hunt for the little girls!

Another cooking first time experiment lie in my Easter Sunday dessert - baked cheesecake. Everything went well until I took it out of the oven and discovered that it had cracked right down the middle. Nothing that raspberries couldnt cover up though!

Baked cheesecake

Ingredients
Melted butter, for greasing
1x 250g pkt plain sweet biscuits (like Arnott's Nice)
125g butter, melted, cooled Icing sugar,to serve

Filling
2x 250g packets cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla essence
1/2 lemon, rind finely grated and juiced
4 eggs separated
1/2 xup thin cream

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a 20cm springform pan with the melted butter to lightly grease.
2. Place the biscuits in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the butter and process until well combined.
3. Use the back of a spoon to press the biscuit mixture over the inside of the greased pan to evenly cover the base and come 2/3 of the way up the sides. Place in the fridge while making the filling.
4. To make the filling, use electric beaters to beat the cream cheese, caster sugar and vanilla essence in a medium bowl until the mixture is light and creamy. Add the lemon rind, lemon juice, egg yolks and cream. Beat until well combined and the mixture is light and fluffy.
5. Use clean electric beaters or a hand whisk to whisk the egg whites in a medium mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Add to the cream cheese mixture and use a large metal spoon to fold until just combined.
6. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until golden and just set in the centre. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

7. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to firm.
8. Remove from the fridge 10 minutes before serving. Cut into slices and dust with the icing sugar to serve.

Source: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/10828/luscious+baked+cheesecake

 

Orange & Almond Cake

Pete hasn't been eating gluten for a while now and started to feel very left out when he couldn't eat delicious desserts anymore. We had to find something that didn't compromise taste with weird flours....that's where almond meal steps in. And there we found orange and almond cake.

I remember mum making it on numerous occasions as a youngster and it didn't come with positive memories. So when Pete suggested I make it, I hesitantly obliged. WOW is it good. Amazing infact. Heavenly moist (I hate that word but it's so fitting for this cake) and a small(ish) slice doesn't leave me feeling too guilty. This cake seems to be regularly appearing on our bench, not only because of its deliciousness, but also because of how easy it is! A must try!

Orange and almond cake

Method

2 large navel oranges, (choose oranges with unblemished skins as the whole fruit is used in this recipe)

5 eggs

1 1/4 cups (250g) caster sugar
2 1/2 cups (250g) ground almonds
1 tsp gluten-free baking powder*
Pure icing sugar to serve

Ingredients

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line the base of a heart-shaped pan.

2. Place the two whole oranges in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for 1 hour, ensuring that the oranges remain covered with water. Drain and cool.

3. Chop the oranges into quarters, discard any seeds, then place the chunks into a blender and puree until smooth.

4. Beat the eggs with the sugar until thick, then add the orange puree, ground almonds and baking powder and mix well.

5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

6. Leave the cake to firm up in the pan for 20 minutes then turn out, remove the baking paper and turn over to finish cooling right way up. This cake definitely mellows with a little time and can be prepared up to 48 hours in advance.

7. To serve, sift icing sugar on top and decorate with orange zest and almonds.

Source: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/13538/orange+almond+cake

Anniversary dinner

Since I discovered the deliciousness of paella, I have always wanted to make it myself. Looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary to create to celebrate two years together, this was it. And it worked out great. I followed a recipe card for paella that I found walking through Coles one day which I have obviously since thrown out, but Donna Hay's version looks just as delicious, if not better than mine!

Donna Hay's simple paella

Ingredients
1 red onion, sliced
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon dried paprika
3 chorizo, slicedd
4x 125g chicken thich fillets, trimmed and chopped
1 1/4 cups short grain rice
1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock
12 green (raw) king prawns peeled, with tails intact
3/4 cup coriander leaves
250g cherry tomatoes, quartered
lemon wedges, to serve

Method
1. Heat a large, deep non-stick frying pan over high heat.
2. Add the onion, chilli, paprika and chorizo and cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden.
3. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes or until sealed.
4. Add the rice and stir until coated.
5. Add the stock, bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes.
6. Add the prawns and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the rice is tender.
7. Divide between plates and top with coriander, tomatoes and a lemon wedge on the side.
Serves 4.

Source: Hay, D 2011 Simple Dinners, Harper Collins, Australia. 

These are little lemon curd tarts that I made for dessert. I didnt have a lot of time to make the dinner so I totally cheated with these...and I somewhat paid for it. The biscuit base was from a packet. Just had to add butter or something. This was yummy. The lemon curd was from a jar and was far, far too sweet for my liking. I ended up spooning most of it out and eating the base with a scraping of lemon curd. They at least looked good and deserved a mention!

Lamb cutlets & green beans

To celebrate my first day at university in Melbourne (such a long time ago now), we made these delicious marinated lamb cutlets; with 3 types of peas and beans...and my favourite: fetta! Absolutely delicious.

Herb-rubbed lamb cutlets with pea and fetta salad

Ingredients
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 garlic cloves
2 long red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons thyme leaves
2 tablespoons chopped sage leaves
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup olive oil
12 french trimmed lamb cutlets
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pea and fetta salad
250g snow peas, trimmed
250g sugar snap peas, trimmed
200g frozen baby peas
2 cups mint leaves
200g fetta

Method
1. Place peppercorns, garlic, half the chilli and 1 teaspoon of salt into a mortar and pestle and pound until coarsley ground. Add herbs and pound into a coarse paste. Stir in the olive oil and transfer to a large bowl.

2. Add the lamb, turning to coat well in the herb marinade. Cover, then stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat a chargrill pan or barbeque to medium-high heat. Cook the lamb for 2-3 minutes on each side for medium rare or until cooked to your liking. Rest, loosely covered with foil for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, for the pea and fetta salad, blanch the snow peas, sugar snap peas and baby peas in boiling salted water for 3 minutes or until just tender. Drain and refresh in cold water. Transfer to a serving platter and top with mint leaves and fetta.

5. Combine dijon mustard, honey, lemon zest and juice and remaining chilli, then slowly whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Arrange the lamb cutlets on top of the pea and fetta salad and drizzle with the honey dressing.
Serves 4.

 Source: Little, V 2011 Delicious: Simply The Best, Harper Collins, Australia.

Easy Favourites

Getting home after a long day, and feeling rather exhausted, all I want is a yummy dinner that is quick to prepare but definately not lacking flavour.

Two recipes that we have been consuming a lot of lately are:

- Chicken and mushroom risotto, and

- Stirfry - adding and subtracting different vegetables and either using beef (recipe below) or chicken (marinating the chicken in honey, soy sauce and crushed garlic). One thing that I have discovered about stirfrys lately, is that minimal vegetables work better than overloading.

Garlic peper beef stir-fry with snow or sugar snap peas.

Donna Hay's Garlic Pepper Beef Stir-Fry

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
750g rump steak, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 long red chilli, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
250g green beans, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons beef or chicken stock
steamed jasmine rice, to serve

Method
1. Heat half the oil in a non-stick frying pan or wok over high heat.
2. Add the beef and cook in batches for 4-5 minutes or until browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Heat the remaining oil over high heat, add the pepper, chilli and garlic and cook for one minute or until fragrant.
4. Return the beef to the pan with the green beans, oyster sauce and stock and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until warmed through.
5. Serve with steamed rice.
Serves 4.

Source: Hay, D 2011 Simple Dinners, Harper Collins, Australia.

Donna Hay's baked chicken risotto could not be easier! And for someone who doesnt particularly like mushrooms, this is pretty great. I added peas for a bit of green too.

Throw it all into a baking dish and the oven does the rest!

Amazing!

Donna Hay's Baked Chicken and Porcini Risotto

Ingredients

25g dried porcini mushrooms

3/4 cup boiling water

4x 125g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and chopped

2 cups aborio rice

1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed

50g butter, chopped

1 cup finely grated parmesan

sea salt and cracked pepper

finely grated parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid.

3. Chop the mushrooms and place in a 3-litre capacity ovenproof dish with the mushroom soaking water, chicken, rice, stock, thyme and garlic.

5. Stir to combine, cover tightly with aluminium foil and bake for 35-40 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven and add butter, parmesan, salt and pepper and stir for 3-4 minutes or until risotto thickens.

7. Divide and top with parmesan to serve.

Serves 4.

Source: Hay, D 2011 Simple Dinners, Harper Collins, Australia.