Home alone

Pete went back to Adelaide to watch cricket for four days - not exactly my idea of fun! So I opted to stay home and grasp the opportunity to test some recipes that I love the sound of (and Pete, not so much) with both hands!

One of my favourite snacks - plain greek yoghurt with frozen raspberries!

Bill Granger's sweetcorn chowder - perfect bowl of comfort food for my sore tummy. So quick and simple to make using only a handful of ingredients. Mine didn't end up looking quite as nice as the recipe (but when do they?!) but it still tasted deeelish!

Bill Granger's sweetcorn chowder

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 bacon rashes, chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

1.5 litres chicken stock

500g potatoes, peeled and diced

600g corn kernels, cut from the cob

To serve

Coriander leaves

2 tablespoons thinly sliced spring onions

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add the bacon and cook for about 5 minutes until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan.

2. Add the onion, salt and pepper to the pan and cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the stock and potatoes and bring to the boil. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the corn and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the potatoes and corn are tender.

4. Puree half the soup and return to the pan. Bring back to the boil before serving. Scatter with bacon, coriander and spring onion.

Serves 4-6

Source: Granger, B Everyday, Murdoch Books Pty Limited, New South Wales, 2006, p 246.

Prawn fettuccini - something I just put together myself.

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 ripe tomatoes, skinned and crushed
• 1 clove of crushed garlic
• 1/4 red onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Sprinkle of mixed herbs
• Sprinkle of sugar
• Prawns, tails off

Donna Hay's chickpea, fetta and carrot fritters. I was really excited to make these and as I was about to cook them, I had a frightening feeling that I was going to be let down. Fortunately not! Crispy outer with a moist centre, and complimentary tang with a squeeze of lemon on top.

Chickpea, fetta and carrot fritters

Ingredients

2x440g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

4 carrots, peeled and grated

1 cup chopped coriander leaves

300g firm fetta, crumbled

4 eggs

1/2 cup rice flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

sea salt and cracked pepper, to taste

vegetable oil, for shallow frying

Method

1. Place the chickpeass in a bowl and roughly mash with a fork. Add the carrot, coriander and fetta and mix to combine.

2. Add the eggs, rice flour, baking powder, salt and pepper and mix well.

3. Heat 1cm of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add large spoonfuls of the mixture to the pan and cook, in batches, for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden.

4. Drain on absorbant paper.

5. Serve the warm fritters with lemon wedges, minted yoghurt and baby spinach leaves.

Serves 4.

Source: Hay, D Simple dinners, Harper Collins Publishers Australia Pty Limited, New South Wales, p 68.

Ukrainian Christmas

Christmas number two for me: a weekend filled with copious amounts of food, wine and lots of talking! Everything about it is delicious, maybe with the exception of the cabbage and mushroom rolls!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Friday night (Christmas eve) is a 13 course feast of traditional Ukrainian foods. I don't think Australia has much traditon to share, so I am very happy to adopt! 

As I sat down to the beautifully decorated table, I recalled the previous year. Attending the celebrations for the first time, I was terrified that I wouldn't like any of the traditional food. Yet, I was excited to be experiencing a tradition different to my own. Needless to say, the food was delicious and left me feeling like I would explode with any sudden movement.

Pickled herring and onion on pumpernickel bread. I need to remember for next year that this is the first of many courses and I should perhaps have just one (or two) piece of this so I have room for everything else!

White fish with a tomato and carrot reduction. So delicious. I had some the day after (there is an abundance of leftovers!) and I could have happily eaten bowls of the carrots!

Not a great photo but any how, this is white fish with a delicious herb crust created by Pete's sister.

Borsch (beetroot soup) with mushroom dumplings. For someone who doesnt like, what i define as, the dirty taste of beetroots, borsch is rather delicious. Mushroom dumplings on the other hand, they find themselves in Pete's bowl rather quickly.

Without a doubt, these little bundles of carby goodness are what I look forward to devouring the most! Varenyky - a type of dumpling which I think is traditionally of the potato variety, (above photo) but they come in all sorts of flavours - potato and cabbage, cabbage, potato and cheese, even sweet flavours such as cherry. They are cooked in butter and onions so probably not that great for the hips, but it is Christmas, so who cares!?

Holapchi - a rice and mushroom mixture wrapped in a cabbage leaf and baked. For someone who doesnt like mushrooms, (this was about 80% mushroom) I didnt find it all that appealing. I am one to try new things though, so I gave it one bite. Nope, sorry, I found the one thing that I dont like.

A very traditional dessert consisting of cracked wheat (I think it was), nuts, dried fruit and poppy seeds. Im a big fan, and im told it makes a delicious breakfast for days after.

CHRISTMAS DAY

 

The entree -

I love salmon but my continuous baking of it and sprinkling with sea salt saw me get tired of the flavour very quickly. This salmon on the other hand, was amazing. Marinated in a soy mixture and cooked in the webber, served on lettuce leaves with lemon juice. Bravo, Roman!

The main -

As much food as I could shove on a plate! The variety of food on Christmas day is much similar to what the Australian culture has to offer. Ham and turkey, salads, roasted vegetables, a delicious mango and coriander salad and those little onion tarts that I can never only have one of.

A lovely weekend with beautiful company.

щасливого Різдва

New Years!

Like us, all our friends are from interstate so went back to their respective home states for new years. Pete and I decided to take advantage of the quiet time and spend the night outside in the garden, it was a lovely warm night, with delicious food and delicious chilled wines and champagne.

I got home from work and the preparations began. Setting the table and chairs into the garden, plating up the selection antipasto yummies and getting the first celebratory drinks poured.

Setting the scene...

Our delicious antipasto selection: dips, bbq grilled pittas, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, cheese stuffed bell peppers, ham, salami and grain waves of course!

This kept us very full for the remainder of the night, so the decadent, creamy pasta was definately put on hold for our first dinner of 2012!

***

First day of 2012, and I woke up craving a delicious fruit salad and Jamie Oliver's eggy crumpets that I had watched him create on tv just days before. So up I got to shower and run off to the shops. Then here is what evolved...

Fruit salad of apricots, mango (my love has re-ignited!), grapes, blueberries and strawberries, topped with passionfruit pulp. I swear the passionfruit pulp makes fruit salad so much better.

Warm, comforting amazingness!

Breakfast eggy crumpets

Ingredients

2 eggs

2 crumpets

Sprinkle of chilli flakes or fresh chopped chilli

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon butter

Method

1. Crack your eggs into a bowl and give them a little whisk with a small pinch of salt and pepper and most of the chilli.

2.  Push the crumpets into the egg and chilli mixture. Turn them a few times – they’ll soak it up like a sponge.

3. Heat a large pan over a medium heat and add butter. Add the crumpets to the pan and fry them for a few minutes until golden, then turn them over and fry them on the other side.
Serving hints: Serve the eggy crumpets topped with the crispy bacon, with a dollop of brown sauce or a drizzle of maple syrup. To finish, you can sprinkle over any extra chopped chilli, if you’re a chilli freak like me. Perfect – heaven on a plate.

Serves 1

Source: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/egg-recipes/breakfast-eggy-crumpets

Dinner was pretty delicious; actually, REALLY delicious. Creamy pasta with bacon, mushrooms and spring onions. Such a guilty pleasure, but it is the indulgence period of the year, so it allowed! Pete had been asking to try a creamy pasta of sorts for a while, so I thought I would allow us the treat, and a new cooking experiment for me!

A little piece of creamy heaven!

Creamy boscaiola

Ingredients

500g pasta

6 bacon rashers, trimmed of rind, roughly chopped

200g button mushrooms, sliced
600mL cream
2 spring onions, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped flat parsley

Method

1. Cook the pasta in a large pan of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente. Drain return to the pan and keep warm.

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, add the bacon and mushroom and cook, stirring for 5 minutes or until golden brown

3. Stir in a little of the cream and scrape the wooden spoon on the bottom of the pan to dislodge any bacon that has stuck

4. Add the remaining cream, bring to the boil and cook over high heat for 15 minutes or until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon .

5. Stir the spring onion through the mixture. Pour the sauce over the pasta and toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with the chopped flesh parsley.

Source: http://www.pasta-recipes-online.com/boscaiola-sauce.html

Christmas lunch

I had a very quick trip home to Adelaide this year. Because I had to fly home Christmas Day afternoon (to work the dreaded boxing day sales), we had family Christmas lunch instead of dinner this year which was a very pleasant change up! I dont think anything beats food on Christmas. Its such a happy time and everything just seems to taste so much better!

We started our day with cups of tea and present giving, followed by our breakfast tradition of english muffins with baby spinach leaves, smoked salmon and creamy scrambled eggs. SO DELICIOUS! I was obviously so eager to eat that it didnt cross my mind to take a photo!

Christmas lunch Linda (my mum) style!

Modern prawn cocktail: lettuce and avocado with barbequed prawns, a dollop of cocktail scauce and a squeeze of lemon.

Probably one of my favourite foods ever: mum's baked ham with lime jam glaze.

My first experience with duck fat potatoes. They came with a truck load of guilt, but it was Christmas Day after all and they were just SO good. And the delicious baby baked carrots - also worth a mention!

Lunch is served! :)

I had to run to the airport soon after I had consumed the above and them some more; so no dessert for me.

Stained glass stars

My christmas baking wish list sadly wasnt completed this year. But I did try something I have always been a little bit facinated with. Stained glass stars. They look too pretty to eat and i've always wondered how they got that stained glass effect in the middle.

They are a little but time consuming - waiting for the dough to chill in the fridge and then rolling and cutting over and over - but they taste delicious with their different flavoured centres.

Pre-baking: Two different sized star cutters are used so you end up with both a small shortbread star and a large star with a fruit drop in the middle.

Post-baking: golden shortbreads and melted, transparent fruit drops.

Enough to feed an army, but so pretty!

Stained glass biscuits

Ingredients

125 g butter

2/3 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups plain flour

1 egg  

Fruit flavoured boiled lollies

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 °C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Using electric beaters, beat butter and icing sugar until light and creamy. Beat in vanilla and egg.

2. Mix in flour with a knife until evenly combined. Gather dough into a ball. Turn out onto a sheet of non-stick baking paper. Press out dough, then roll to 5mm thickness.                                                     3. Use larger star biscuit cutter to cut star shapes from dough (cut the shapes close together to get as many as you can first time around). Pile scraps together (don't knead them) and gently roll out again. Cut more shapes. Repeat to use as much dough as possible.                                                    

4. Place onto the prepared trays. Use smaller star cutter to cut out the centre of the biscuits and set aside.                                                       

5. Place one boiled lolly in the middle of each larger star and bake for 10-15 minutes or until lolly has completely melted and shortbread is just started to turn golden.

6. Cool on trays for 15 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

My first risotto.

I have fond memories of a delicious risotto that my mum used to make every now and then. Ever since I moved out of home, it's something that i've been dying to try!

I found Jamie Oliver's basic risotto recipe online that I used as a base, adding and omiting ingredients.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the outcome. It could have been a complete disaster seeing as it was my first experience! It was quite flavoursome, but I still think it was missing something...mushrooms maybe?

Jamie's basic risotto

Ingredients

1 litres chicken stock
1 knob of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
½ a head of celery, finely chopped (I omitted)
400g aborio (risotto) rice
2 wine glasses of dry white vermouth or dry white wine
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
70g butter
115g freshly grated Parmesan cheese     

Method

stage 1Heat the stock. In a separate pan, heat the olive oil and butter, add the onions, garlic and celery, and fry very slowly for about 15 minutes without colouring. When the vegetables have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat.

stage 2
The rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the vermouth or wine and keep stirring — it will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence.

stage 3
Once the vermouth or wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice — is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water.

stage 4
Remove from the heat and add the butter and Parmesan. Stir well. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minutes. This is the most important part of making the perfect risotto, as this is when it becomes outrageously creamy and oozy like it should be. Eat it as soon as possible, while the risotto retains its beautiful texture.

 

Source: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/risotto/basic-risotto-recipe

My additions:

* I added one chopped onion in with the onion.

* I used 600g chopped chicken breast to the risotto. Cook chicken in a pan until it is just cooked through and add to the risotto at the last minute to ensure it stays moist and tender.

* I added peas when I added the chicken - just because that's what mum used to do!

Hot chicken stock and onion and leek mixture

Adding spoonfuls of chicken stock to the rice

Delicious!

Our Christmas tree! 18 days and counting!

 

Chicken on a stick.

This is a very easy and very delicious midweek meal idea. I adapted it from a recipe I saw while, once again, flicking through cook books in bed!

Marinated chicken and onion skewers with couscous

Ingredients

600g chicken breast

Jar of marinade (I used Masterfoods honey, soy and garlic)

1 red onion

10-12 wooden skewers

1 1/2 cups couscous

1 chicken stock cube

Handful of saltanas

Handful of slivered almonds

1 bunch of baby broccolini

Method

1. Cut chicken into small cubes and place in bowl. Add marinade and coat chicken well. Chicken can be placed into the fridge for just 20 minutes to marinate but I prefer to leave it overnight.

2. Chop onion into large pieces and thread onto skewers in between pieces of marinated chicken. If you wish to barbeque skewers, make sure to soak you skewers for one hour before adding food to prevent burning.

3. Place skewers into a grill pan and cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes. To ensure they are cooked, I cut the largest piece of chicken in half after around 20 minutes. Don't be too concerned if they start to burn on the outside. It is often just the marinade and it just adds to the flavour!

4. When the skewers are about three quarters cooked, cook the couscous as per packet instructions. A trick that I learned from a friend recently is to add a cube of chicken stock to the couscous for added flavour. Also, add the broccolini to the steamer. I like the broccolini to still be quite crunchy so I leave it until almost the last minute.

5. Once the couscous is cooked, mix it carefully with a fork to separate the grains. Add the saltanas and almonds and spoon into the middle of the plate.

6. Add the skewers to the top of the couscous pile and the broccolini to the side.

Serves 2. - possibly with lunch leftovers for someone lucky!