Baked Risotto

I have no idea what I was reading that made me want to make risotto, but I had written on my shopping list:

• risotto rice
• shallots
• chicken stock

so apparently it was really convincing. I am still in quite a bit of pain from my back injury, so I wasn't really wanting to stand and stir, so I tried for a baked risotto. I couldn't find a recipe that I liked, so I made it up as I went along. This is quite unusual for me, so I'm so glad it turned out!

I wanted to use sage and I thought about proscuitto, but our flatmate doesn't like ham or pork-related products, so instead I went with chorizo. In a frypan with some butter I fried the sage leaves until crisp and then removed them. Then, I added the shallots and chorizo and cooked until the shallots were tender and the chorizo was cooked through. I also added a splash of white wine.

Meanwhile I put 1 1/2 cups of carnaroli rice into a baking dish with just under 4 cups of chicken stock and baked in a 180 degree celcius oven until the chicken stock is fully absorbed. It took just under an hour.

After everything was cooked I put the rice into the frying pan with the chorizo and shallots and added the rest of the chicken stock so everything could be fused together. Once the final lot of chicken stock absorbed, the heat was turned off and I stirred through some butter, parmesan and the sage leaves.

Desperately seeking salt

I've been to quite a few delis and gourmet food shops recently. I've picked up some delightful things (like the above truffle salt), but haven't been able to find a particular kind of kosher salt I've become addicted to. I have been using David's kosher salt which I normally buy from Pennisi Cuisine, but Pennisi's don't have it now.

So I appeal to the foodies of Brisbane. Has anyone seen David's kosher salt???

December 2008 Update:

It appears that the salt fairies heard my pleas, and you can find David's Kosher Salt at Pennisi's at Woolloongabba and at the IGA at Westfield Carindale. I'm sure there's more places too, but I stocked up and don't need salt for a long time.

Goodies from today's Farmers Market and The Deli Bulimba

Today was another Jan Power's Farmers Markets at the Powerhouse in New Farm. It seemed to be quite difficult to get to them this week, I have hurt my back rather severely and find walking (among most other things) really painful, DD had a sore throat and felt fluey, we planned to go early (at 6:15) to try and beat the predicted 36 degree heat and DD found it hard to wake up after a late night AND the council have closed off most of New Farm Park due to trees dropping limbs so parking there is quite a commodity. I love these markets though, and despite everything, we were going. So I gave DD some cold and flu tablets, and off we went.

Despite the early hour, the markets were packed. According to the lovely lady manning the Auswana coffee stall, eager market-goers were arriving while they were setting up at 4:30!!! Along with the people were all the dogs. The markets end right next to the dog park and it's a beautiful dog-friendly place, so there are always lots of dogs around. DD and I would love to get a dog (except we rent) and we love to see all the different breeds.

Unfortunately, I was too excited to take note of the names of most of the stalls I visited, but they were all top quality. We bought some more lovely petits fours, below is a sample - double chocolate, gluten free chocolate and passionfruit. I also bought some beautiful organic free range eggs. These eggs are the heaviest eggs I have ever seen! I can't wait to boil one and have it with some lightly toasted sourdough soldiers.


I finally found (or noticed) the Gympie Farm stall. I must have walked past it countless times and just never made the connection between it and the butter I wanted to try. They had their famous butter, some cheese and chocolate croissonts. I bought some luxurious unsalted butter mainly for baking, but after tasting some, I wish I had bought a tub of salted butter for eating too. I also want to try their crème fraîche, but I forgot while I was there, so it will have to wait until next time. It was at this stage that my bag got too heavy for me to carry, so DD nicely volunteered to take it off my hands.

Next up was the Pasta Riviera stall, where we bought some roast beef, red wine and caramelised onion ravioli and some spicy arrabiata pasta sauce (I know that "spicy arrabiata" is a bit redundant, but that's what it said on the packet!). These were put to good use in tonight's dinner (see top) and were absolutely divine.

The pasta also took a pretty good picture. I was quite proud. I'm getting to a point with my photography that the photos that make me proud are getting more and more frequent. I really need to get a nice background so you don't have to keep looking at my kitchen table or my chopping board.

My final purchase was from my favourite herb stall. For anyone who knows the Farmers Markets, he is the one on the corner opposite the seafood trailer. He has the most beautiful bunches of fresh herbs and leafy greens and most are only $2.50 for huge bunches. DD let me take in $10 and I came back with some wonderful fresh basil (which garnished our pasta tonight) and some sage, coriander and oregano.

Somewhere along the way I also picked up a packet of black sesame seeds. I had placed an order with Herbie's Spices earlier in the week and had to take the black sesame seeds out of the order because I was only allowed to spend a certain amount. I have found a wonderful recipe for soba noodles that I've been taking to work for lunches and I've been wanting some black sesame seeds to toss through, so I was very excited to see some at the markets.

After all this it was 7:45 and starting to get very hot and sweaty so it was time to go home.

I hadn't had quite enough of food yet, however, so a little bit later I dragged DD out to check out the latest offering from The New Farm Deli - The Deli Bulimba. The Deli Bulimba doesn't have a dining section like its New Farm and Mt Gravatt cousins, just a shop front that offers coffee. I don't go for the coffee though, I go for the deli. Inside it is smaller than New Farm, but it's more open and airy with the gourmet pantry goods on shelves along the wall rather the in aisles like in New Farm. Along the other side of the shop is the deli. One half deli meats and the other half full of glorious cheeses. Many things caught my eye, but I did restrain myself (that $20 block of Callebaut couverture chocolate was extremely tempting) and only bought some YEA crème fraîche and some feta marinated in roasted garlic and herbs.


What a way to start the day - a market breakfast. My beautiful organic free range eggs soft boiled, some white sourdough toast from The Flour Shop spready with Gympie Farm butter.

Spice Cake

I found this recipe while wandering around the America's Test Kitchen website and I was intrigued. I love the idea of a spice cake, but the only other similiar cake I have tasted was one I made when I was still finding my cooking feet. It was a honey cake, and I'm not sure what I did, but I remember it wasn't a very big success.

The ATK recipe has quite an impressive list of ingredients and a detailed method, which is handy when you are not too sure what you are doing, but not as handy when you tend to be the kind of person who skims over the recipe and misses things. I was very careful this time though. I only made one mistake, and it wasn't a big one and it certainly didn't detract from the final product.

Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
from America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated

ATK note: To save time, let the eggs, buttermilk, and butter come up to temperature while the browned butter and spice mixture cools. To prevent unsightly air holes in the finished cake, be sure to follow the instructions for removing air bubbles in the batter (see illustrations below). Leftover cake can be stored, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. The cake should be brought to room temperature before serving.

Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting pans
1 tbs ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
16 tbs unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tbs light molasses
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Frosting
5 tbs unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces, softened
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
8 oz cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Combine spices in small bowl; reserve 1/2 teaspoon for frosting.

2. Heat 4 tablespoons butter in 8-inch skillet over medium heat until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly, until butter is light brown and has faint nutty aroma, 2 to 4 minutes. Add spices and continue to cook, stirring constantly, 15 seconds. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. In small bowl, gently whisk eggs, yolks, and vanilla to combine. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream remaining 12 tablespoons butter with sugar and molasses at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl twice with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium speed and add cooled butter and spice mixture, ginger, and half of egg mixture; mix until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining egg mixture; scrape down bowl again. Reduce to low speed; add about one-third flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk, mixing until just incorporated after each addition, about 5 seconds. Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at medium speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour.

4. Transfer batter to prepared pan; following illustrations at left, zigzag tip of metal spatula through batter, pulling it to pan edges. Lightly tap pan against counter 3 or 4 times to dislodge any large air bubbles; smooth surface with spatula.

5. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 32 to 37 minutes. Cool cake to room temperature in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours.

6. For the frosting: In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and reserved 1/2 teaspoon spice mixture at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add cream cheese one piece at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until no lumps remain, about 30 seconds.

7. Run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen from pan. Using spatula, spread frosting evenly over surface of cake. Sprinkle cake with walnuts, if using. Cut into squares and serve.


I didn't pay that much attention to the mixer speed suggestions and I had to grind my own cloves in a mortar and pestle, otherwise I followed everything to the letter. My one mistake was that the 1/2 tsp of spice mix you are supposed to keep for the icing I sprinkled over the top of the cake. I like it this way though. I also added more icing sugar to the frosting (a scary amount) because it still had that awful Philadelphia taste. I like it on toast, not in icing.

I used a glass casserole dish because I did not have a baking pan of the proper size. This meant the cake didn't cook in the time specified. I think it took just over and hour. I have also left the cake in the dish because I haven't got a cake plate and I have a dinner plate deficiency, and it's easier to keep. I'll find out how soggy it makes the cake later.

The cake turned out wonderfully. I was so surprised at how light the crumb was. I was expecting something dense and heavy, but this was airy and gentle - almost sponge like. I loved the cream cheese icing too but I have to keep picturing how much icing sugar I had to add to get it to taste that good and hoping that stops any naughty thoughts. The recipe did require quite a few bowls and pans though. There was the saucepan for the butter and the bowl for the eggs and the bowl for the flour and the mixer bowl plus the bowls I use in prep... It made me realise how much I love one-bowl cakes.

Why can't our butter come in sticks?

I am conversion-challenged. I am terrible when it comes to making conversions, and I can't do any of them in my head (apart from inches to centimetres, but that's a different story). So I really rely heavily on my trusty favourite conversion website by World Wide Metric.

It didn't help me today while I was cooking a recipe from America's Test Kitchen which had me doing lots of strange things with 2 sticks of butter. I learned that 2 sticks of butter was 16 tablespoons, which was a nice useful fact, but I'm no better at measuring tablespoons of butter as I am at converting stuff.

Thanks to Google, I found the website: O Chef and their handy guide on How to measure butter and margarine. It has an excellent table which was quite handy when my recipe told me to take 2 tsp of my 2 sticks and do one thing and do something else with the other 14 tsp.

Pasta Bake

I am a little bit tender today after my appointment with the physiotherapist yesterday. Since it was to do with my back, I wasn't any good at work today and had to come home. On the way I stopped at the chemist for some painkillers and then I had a very strange craving for tuna pasta bake. I picked up some pasta and some lovely tins of tuna in olive oil and was on my way out when the lady who was stacking some shelves nearby reminded me to get some sauce. I told her "oh no, I will make it myself", but then a jar of Leggo's Garlic and Spinach Tuna Bake caught my eye. I waited until she turned a corner, then grabbed the jar and hurried (hobbled quickly) off.

So, in the style of Sandra Lee, my pasta bake recipe:

Cook 200g of pasta and drain, then put into a 1.5L casserole dish. Add the tuna, some grated mozzarella and the jar of sauce and mix. Top with more cheese (cheddar this time, I was saving the rest of my mozzarella) and bake for 15m in a preheated 190 degree oven (I used 175 degrees fan forced)

I had to try and stop myself from eating too much of the pasta and tuna when it was just those two ingredients in the dish - they were lovely just on their own!!!!

I was very impressed with my little jar experiment, but there was a time when I was addicted to McCains tuna pasta bake frozen meals so I am probably not the best authority on the subject :-)

The little basil plant that could

I was given a little herb garden for Christmas. Unfortunately, as I posted before, most of the plants didn't make it and I had left what was left to its own devices out in the courtyard. We have been getting quite frequent rain recently (yay!!!!) and the basil plant has thrived. There's also a tiny bit of thyme making hesitant little movements towards the sun...

I do love watching things grow. I just wish I was better at helping them do so.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

Apologies for the dark picture, the light is very subdued today.

Our flatmate's girlfriend has been visiting us from Sydney this past week and on Wednesday we decided to try our hands at making a cheesecake. I'm not really a big cheesecake fan, but I have been wanting to try cooking with cream cheese because I really want to make a cake with a cream cheese frosting, but I haven't been brave enough to try it because I think the Philadephia cheese has a funny taste to it.

This recipe uses Philadelphia cream cheese, and I was hoping it would assuage my fears. To be honest, I'm not sure it has. The frosting of my dreams is light and airy and doesn't really taste like cream cheese. This kindof did. Would I be adding more sugar to a frosting? Could that be my problem? I don't know. If anyone is reading this and can tell me what brand of cream cheese one uses to make a cream cheese frosting (that is available in Australia), please do!!!

Anyway, back to the cheesecake. This was not a baked cheesecake. The household voted, and it was 3 to 1 against a baked one. I was the solitary one, but I think I only wanted to do the baked one because I think it's really cool when you bake things in a water bath.


Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Slice
from Kraft.com.au

350g Oreo Original Cookies
80g butter melted
375g block Philadelphia Cream Cheese, cubed and softened.
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup thickened cream
3 tsp powdered gelatine, dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
200g white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

Place 250g of the cookies into a food processor and process into fine crumbs. Add the butter and process to combine. Press the mixture into an 18cm x 28cm lamington tin lined with cling wrap or baking paper and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth, then beat in the cream. Stir through the gelatine mixture and white chocolate.

Roughly chop the remaining cookies and stir through the cream cheese mixture then pour over the cookie base. Cover and refrigerate until set. Cut into slices or squares to serve.

Sounds easy, right? Well, that's what we thought, except my wonderful talent for not reading recipes got us into a little bit of trouble. I hadn't seen the part in the recipe where it says to process only 250g of cookies, so I thought we were processing the whole 350g. We had bought two packets of cookies, which only just added up to 300g once the cream inside had been removed, so I had the great idea that we should scale the recipe to suit. So we reduced the amount of butter. So, our cookie base ended up with more cookie and less butter and is pretty crumbly in the finished product. Still tastes good, it's just a little messy. Plus, since we had processed all the cookies, we didn't have any to mix through. We used some chocolate chips instead.

It turned out quite well otherwise, except I still am a bit iffy about the cream cheese taste. I am going to forever be trying to achieve the same taste as the frosting on a carrot cake I received as a gift once - I hope that I'm not doomed to chase after it forever!

Elio's Osteria

Last night we visited Elio's Osteria at Carina Heights. Elio's is a lovely little Italian restaurant serving exquisite pizza and pasta and is tucked away on Winstanley St in Carina. There is seating inside and outside and they do takeaway. If you dine in, remember they are fully BYO. They also get very busy, so booking are highly recommended.

By the time we arrived at 7:30 on a Friday night, Elio's was pretty much full. We were lucky to be seated at a table on its own between the main store front and their new dining room, so we had no tables near us, and we got to see all the lovely meals go past.

The menu is a delightfully long list of delicious sounding pizzas, pastas and risotti along with a selection of Italian mains. Entrees start at $7.50 for dine in and go up to $18 for prawns or mussels. Mains start at $16.50 and go up to $29 for a family sized specialty pizza. They have a nice dessert list with dishes starting at $6.

Elio's is very well known for their calzone garlic breads, so we chose that for an entree. The dish didn't disappoint. It was perfectly cooked and the cheese oozed out when you cut into it. We had two relatively large calzones between the 6 of us, and while I'm sure we probably could have eaten more, given the size of the rest of the meals I'm glad we practiced a little restraint.

DD had been through the menu online quite thoroughly before we arrived, and he was set on having the penne matriciana. When the time came to order, he was torn between his pasta and trying a pizza. In the end, he decided to order a entree sized penne matriciana and a small (6 slice) pizza. I agreed to order an entree sized pasta too, and have a piece of his pizza so he could share. We chose to have half Supreme and half Magherita. I chose to have Penne San Paulo. Our dining partners had fettucine chicken pesto, chicken risotto, ricotta ravioli alfredo and a Mexicana calzone.

The interior of the restaurant is very dark, so there are no photos and unfortunately I did not get to taste any of DD's pasta, so you will just have to take him at his word that it was really good. Everyone said that their dish was delicious. The main sized pasta looked huge, and even without a side of pizza I think I would be happy to just have an entree.

My Penne San Paulo was calamari, prawns, scallops, fish and mussels with an Alfredo sauce. Did I mention I like seafood pasta? It was lovely. It was a much more subtly flavoured dish than Thursday night's fettucine del mare. The Alfredo sauce was smoothly creamy, it was almost soothing in its gentleness. The seafood mix was lightly flavoured and really worked well with the sauce. The calamari was wonderfully tender and everything was just amazing.

The pizza was just as good as the pasta. My ideal pizza is very saucy and very cheesy and has an abundance of herbs. This one had all of that. It was one of the best pizzas I have ever had. I could only eat one and a bit slices, but every bite was a delight.

I had wanted to try their tiramisu for dessert, but unfortunately they had run out so DD and I chose to have their homemade traditional chocolate mudcake. Unfortunately again, they only had one of those left so I gave it to DD and had a hot chocolate instead. I did manage a bite or two when it arrived and it was so good it transported you off to chocolate heaven. The mudcake was covered in a divine chocolate sauce with a side of cream and a small bowl of ice cream, topped with a toffee wafer. When you take a bite, the cake almost dissolves into a molten chocolate mouthful. After a taste of that cake, I did not miss the tiramisu at all.

The service was good, and it was as you would expect on a busy Friday night. Sometimes we had trouble catching the attention of our waitress, but when we did she was happy to help. She knew the menu well and made suggestions as to how to get the best out of the dishes.

We all really enjoyed the night, and we are all eager to return. I highly recommend Elio's to anyone who is looking for extremely high quality, well priced Italian cuisine. Also, check out the disclaimer on their website - you have to love a sense of humour.

Elio's Osteria
119 Winstanley St
Carina Heights
Ph 07 3843 1333
www.elios.com.au

Here is a picture of one of their fabulously indulgent pizzas that we had for dinner the following night.

Pepe's Mexican Restaurant

For Valentine's Day, DD and I went to dinner at Pepe's Mexican Restaurant at Coorparoo (their website is currently under construction). Pepe's is located on Old Cleveland Rd in Coorparoo. It has both inside and outside seating and does offer a takeaway menu. They are licenced and carry a wide range of imported beers, but they do allow BYO bottled wine (corkage fee applies).

Since it was a work night, we made our booking for an inside table at 6pm and arrived to an empty restaurant so we seated and provided with water and menus nice and quickly. The menu has all your typical Mexican dishes with some dishes which seem to have a bit of an Italian influence.

We chose to start with some garlic bread, then DD ordered the sizzling fajitas and I chose the fettucine del mare. Our bread arrived nice and quickly - four small baguette slices with a nicely flavoured garlic butter. It is hard to make bad garlic bread, and my only complaint about these was that they were toasted a fraction too long.

We did have a small wait between finishing our entree and our mains arriving, but while we were eating our bread, three other parties arrived and I imagine that was the reason for the delay.


DD's fajitas were indeed sizzling! The beef was cooked with a hefty dose of onions and capsicum, which made it absolute heaven for DD, who will ask for anything to be cooked with onions and capsicum. The rest of the meal was served on a very very big square plate, with four tortillas, a line of shredded iceberg lettuce topped with grated cheddar cheese and four dishes of condiments - sour cream, quacamole, salsa and a spicy tomato sauce.

My fettucine is poorly pictured above (I only had my phone with me). I love seafood pasta and this dish had the most beautifully flavoured prawns and scallops that I've had for a long time. There were lots of them too, which was refreshing. The pesto, cream and white wine sauce was lovely. The pesto was not blended fine, and still had little bits of pine nut throughout the dish. I know that some people would not agree, but I loved the texture that it added. The pesto flavour also was the star of the dish and kept it exciting, it didn't get stodgy or heavy as some cream-based pasta sauces do. I really enjoyed it, however, it was quite filling and I didn't finish it. Our server was quite concerned that I hadn't liked it and it was nice to see them take such pride in what they served.

Our meals and a jug of Coke cost us all of $50. We were nicely full and the meal was very enjoyable. The only thing that was a little off-putting was that the restaurant was fully booked for Valentine's, and they had seated all the early bookings in one corner. I guess this is so they can easily seat people as they arrive? However, this meant that there were four tables (us, another couple and two six-person parties) all crammed into a corner to the point that the people next to us could not pull out there chairs without hitting us while the rest of the restaurant was empty. Next time, we'll book an outside table.

There are quite a few pretty bad reviews about Pepe's on the internet, although these tend to be more about the Milton and Jindalee restaurants. We found that the service was prompt, friendly and helpful. The meals arrived at a nice temperature and were well presented, everything was cooked properly and was not swimming in fat or anything else unacceptable and did not taste microwaved.

Pepe's is a good choice if you're looking for a casual dinner with a Mexican flair.

Pepe's Mexican Restaurant
3/433 Old Cleveland Rd
Coorparoo
Ph 07 3395 1328
www.pepesmexican.com.au

Valentine's Day

DD surprised me on Thursday with this beautiful arrangement delivered to work. I collect stuffed animals, so the bear was a lovely surprise. I have called him Frankie (as suggested by his tag). He also bought me a lovely little box of Kikki-K stationery which included some beautiful sticky notes for my recipes. He got a copy of a video game that he wanted to play.

My favourite scone recipe

please excuse the bad light

Basic Scone Recipe
(I have no idea where this came from - I got it from one of Mum's recipe books. Mum calls it "the white book that's falling apart". I will find out though.)

2 cups self raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
30g (1 oz) butter
approx 3/4 cup milk and water (mixed together)

Sift four and salt into basin, stir in sugar. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Pour nearly all the liquid in at once and mix to a soft dough (flours vary in the way the absorb liquid; if mixture is not soft enough, add remaining liquid).

Place on a floured surgace and knead lightly.

Pat dough out to approx. 2cm (3/4") in thickness. Using a 5cm (2") cutter, cut into rounds.

Place on a greased oven tray (or baking paper) or into a a lightly greased 20cm x 18cm (11" x 7") laminton tin and glaze with a little milk. Bake in a very hot (270-290 degrees celcius) oven for 10-12 minutes until golden.

These scones are my most favourite scones ever - perfectly light and they have a beautiful texture.

Playing with my food (photography)

DD has been teaching me a little bit on how to use our Canon SD110 compact digital camera, so I can take better pictures of my food. I was practicing this morning on a Classic Belgium Chocolate brownies from Dello Mano which DD bought from the markets yesterday.


This one was pretty much a point and shoot job, using manual macro mode and no flash.


For this one and the top photo I played with my focus. I like the top one the best because it shows the detail of the brownie, but I like the positioning of the one above. If I could have gotten the level of detail in the picture above, it would have been perfect. I think the little bit of distance between the box and the brownie really ensured that the brownie had centre stage in the picture, and allowed me to get the ribbon in too.

It was fun!! The pictures can only get better! My next task - not that I'm even close to mastering this one yet - is to find or make somewhere I can take my pictures or set up for my pictures that doesn't have a miscellaneous background. Do you like my bookcase and pedestal fan?


And here's a grilled cheese sandwich for more practice

Petits fours

We went to the farmer's markets at New Farm Park this morning and bought these beautiful petits fours. The top one was passionfruit cheesecake and the second was double chocolate.

Saturday BBQ

We had a few friends over this afternoon for a Saturday afternoon BBQ. We tried to have a picnic last weekend, but the rain meant we all ended up picnic-ing in the living room. This week, we tried for a BBQ after we went to the park so the guys could have a few turns in the batting cages. Unfortunately, it was 34 degrees celcius outside and since our BBQ is in full sun, it was a little hot. So we ended up in the living room again, playing SingStar and Guitar Hero on the PS2.
Lunch was three types of sausages: beef and guiness, beef and bacon and regular BBQ sausage and beautiful rump steak kebabs. Our two salads were a simple Caesar and Binny's Pumpkin and Asparagus salad (minus the asparagus) with some store bought pasta salad and tabouli.

Spice rack makeover, part two

My spice rack makeover is complete!! My extra tins arrived and I moved them over today. I was surrounded in a wonderful scented cloud of spice. Each one is so individual in its texture and composition and colour - they were beautiful.

Paprikash

Chicken paprikash with buttered pasta

mise en place

bubbling

Chicken Paprikash
Courtesy of Brent Bowser of Recipezaar

1 whole chicken (cut into pieces) - My note: I used four breast fillets, cut into pieces
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tbs paprika
4 tbs butter
1 can chicken broth - My note: I used a 500ml carton
4 tbs sour cream
1/2 cup flour (optional) - My note: I only needed a tablespoon

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven

2. Stir paprika into the melted butter

3. Add the onions and saute until softened, remove onions from pan. You may need to add an extra tbs of butter (My note: I had heaps - almost too much)

4. Add the chicken to the pan and brown in the butter/paprika mix.

5. Add the chicken broth and onions and simmer for 1 hour, covered (My note: my chicken breasts did not need this long, and I removed the lid and turned up the heat for the last 10 minutes to try and reduce the sauce)

6. Once the chicken is cooked through, stir through the sour cream and flour (if using). (My note: I removed the chicken from the pan before adding the sour cream and flour so I could stir the sauce without having to move chicken pieces around, and then brought the sauce back to the boil whisking gently to combine and thicken)

I served this over pasta. It was very nice, but not very diet friendly - that was a lot of butter! The flavour was beautiful though - very deep and almost soothing in its creaminess. I don't use paprika very often and I enjoyed this so much I might have to look at using it more.

Nick Nairn's Bang Bang Chicken

bang bang chicken

We bought a lot of chicken this week, and I found that I was bored with what I normally do with chicken and I really wanted to do something different with it. I initially had a craving for a lemony chicken dish and I was sure that I'd seen a nice one in the Australian Healthy Food Guide magazine, but I went through all of the ones I have and couldn't find it. While I was looking I pulled out a few of my neglected cookbooks for inspiration.

I didn't find a lemon chicken recipe that was what I wanted, which was probably a good thing as I didn't have any lemons. I did have limes, quite a few limes, which were starting to get towards the end of their life. So, I asked the internet. Recipezaar had quite a few suggestions, which I was surprised about, because it was a flavour combination I'd never considered. I ended up trying this one: Grilled Mexican Lime Chicken.

It was really good. It had a mellower citrus flavour than a lemon chicken dish and it suited the soy based marinade really well. It was also really light and easy - a perfect summer dish to be served with salad or as a filling in a wrap. The only thing I would change next time is that I would brine the chicken first or use smaller cuts as it was edging on dry chicken territory. I used full chicken breasts for this and I'm not used to cooking such thick pieces of chicken - I normally slice them smaller - so that may have had something to do with it.

Tonight I found a recipe for Bang Bang Chicken in Nick Nairn's Top 100 Chicken Recipes. I liked the look of it and I was eager to try it. In the beginning of the recipe he mentions that this is a famous Sichuan dish, but I've never heard of it so I had no idea how it would turn out.

It was another easy dish - poach the chicken, mix up the dressing, give the chicken a bang, and then toss the chicken in the dressing! Simple.

I poached the chicken in water with half a chicken stock cube because I didn't have light soy sauce to put in the dressing and I was hoping this would offset any saltiness from using regular soy. I also added a splash of white wine, some peppercorns and a few bay leaves. As you can see, I like to follow a recipe. I used peanut paste rather than tahini and omitted the cayenne/chilli because I don't really like hot things. At first taste I felt that the peanut flavour was very pronounced and I thought that the next time I make this I would try a half peanut paste/half tahini mix to make the peanut a bit more subtle. However, once I added the chicken it was a really nice balance, so I think I might stick with the peanut paste only approach. I had the chicken served over a crisp garden salad. The dressing gave the chicken a lovely creamy texture. I loved it!

Bang Bang Chicken Salad
from Nick Nairn's Top 100 Chicken Recipes

450g boneless, skinless chicken breasts
chicken stock or cold water
seasonings, to taste (see method)

For the peanut dressing

3-4 tablespoons smooth peanut butter or tahini
2 tbs light soy sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs sake or dry sherry
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns
a good pinch of cayenne pepper or chilli powder
a small knob of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated

To serve

1 large cucumber
1/2 bunch spring onions, thinly shredded diagonally

1. Lay the chicken breasts, former skin sides up, in a shallow wide pan and cover with stock or cold water (at this stage you can add all sorts of seasonsing if you want - peppercorns, bay leaves, herbs, wine). Bring up to just under boiling point and then turn the heat down to a bare simmer. Poach the chicken breasts for 10-12 minutes depending on size. Lift them out with a slitted spoon and transfer to a plate to cool completely.

2. To make the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together and set aside.

3. Scrub the cucumber under hot water to remove any waxy deposits. Chop off the ends, cut in half and scrape out the seeds. Slice as thinly as you can or cut into long shreds, cover and set aside.

4. Lay the chicken breasts on a chopping board, cover with cling film, and give them a light bash all over with a rolling prin to loosen the fibres. Pull and tear the chicken into long strips. Dump this into the dressing and toass well to coat.

5. Arrange the chicken with the cucumber on a big plate and scatter over the spring onions.