Nigella's Roast Potatoes

I tried making Nigella's Roast Potatoes for Christmas lunch but I had a little bit of a failure. To make up for it, I promised DD I would make them again.

This time I made sure I didn't over cook the potatoes and I made sure I had some semolina in the pantry before I started. The only problem with them is that our oven tends to heat unevenly and the bottoms of the potatoes were more on the browned side rather than golden. They still tasted fantastic though, even if a bit crunchier than I intended them to be.

They are, without question, the best roast potatoes ever.

Perfect Roast Potatoes
from Feast by Nigella Lawson as published here

2 x 320g jars goose fat
2.5kg potatoes, such as King Edward's
2 x 15ml tbsp semolina

Preheat the oven to 250C. Put the fat into a large roasting tin and then into the oven to heat up for about 20-30 minutes.

Peel the potatoes, and cut each one into 3 by cutting off each end at a slant so that
you are left with a wedge or triangle in the middle.

Put the potatoes into salted, cold water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil, letting them cook for 4 minutes.

Drain the potatoes in a colander, then tip them back into the empty, dry saucepan, and sprinkle the semolina over.

Shake the potatoes around in the saucepan to coat them well and, with the lid clamped on, give the pan a good rotate and the potatoes a proper bashing so that their edges fuzz and blur a little: this facilitates the crunch effect later. I leave them to rest at this stage. If you don't, you'll need to have preheated the oven earlier!

When the fat is as hot as it can be, tip the semolina-coated potatoes carefully into it (they splutter terrifically as you put them in) and roast in the oven for an hour or until they are darkly golden and crispy, turning them over halfway through cooking.

If the oven's hot enough, they may well not need more than about 25 minutes a side; but it's better to let them sit in the oven (you can always pour off most of the fat) till the very last minute.

When everything else is served up, transfer the potatoes to a large (warmed if possible) serving dish and bring to the table with pride in your heart.

Valentine's Day Dinner at the Roman Empire Restaurant, Carindale

We had heard great things about the Roman Empire Restaurant at Carindale, but we had only managed to visit them for some takeaway recently. We loved the quality of the pastas and sauces and decided that it would be a lovely place to visit for Valentine's Day.

We booked for 6pm, thinking that it would be too early for most people and we wouldn't have to fight crowds. It was wishful thinking, with every table in sight taken by the time our entree arrived.

The restaurant itself is lovely and bright, and to celebrate the day there was a beautiful long-stemmed red rose on every table which we could take with us. It was a nice touch and, according to DD, meant that DD didn't have to buy me any flowers.

I mentioned that the restuarant was very busy, however this really didn't impact our service. In fact, except for a small delay in getting our first drink order and we never received our bill after asking for it (we had to go up to the counter to get it), the service was attentive and prompt. I was delighted to see that they took care to refill our water glasses. I have never been to a restaurant before where that much attention was paid to each table. It was very nice.

On to the food...

Trio of dips served with grilled pizza bread: (from top) hummus, caramelised onion and creamy pesto.

The grilled pizza bread was served warm and was lovely and tasty on its own, even without the dips. It was lightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. My favourite dip was the hummus, which was so full of flavour. I don't usually like hummus, but this was amazing. DD loved the caramelised onion which was creamy and sweet. The creamy pesto was nice, but sadly it was overshadowed by the other two.

Fettucine al pollo: chicken tenders, macadamia nuts, avocado, semidried tomato, sauted in a light lemon cream sauce with cracked pepper, topped with bocconcini cheese

This was my main and it was just divine. Creamy and light and lemony. The semidried tomatoes were sweet and juicy and the chicken was moist and tender. I felt that the macadamias were a little bit unneccessary, but everything was very enjoyable. I wished I had some bread to soak up the rest of the sauce.

We weren't given spoons to help with the pasta eating, which was a little unfortunate as I am slightly uncoordinated when eating a creamy pasta with a knife and fork. It was a small annoyance.

Wild Herb Gnocchi: served with roast pumpkin, mushrooms, semidried tomato, carmelised onion in a creamy garlic sauce.

DD loves this dish. I don't like gnocci, so I didn't taste much of it. The sauce I did taste was sweet from the roasted pumpkin and caramelised onion.

Cannoli filled with vanilla and chocolate custard

Apologies for the slightly blurry photograph, but the cannoli was very nice. It was very well done . DD's only complaint were the blueberries (he's not a fruit fan) and that the cannoli was a little difficult to eat with his spoon.

Tiramisu

My dessert was the Tiramisu. It had a beautiful rich coffee flavour and the mascarpone cream was delicious. It was a perfect end to the meal.

We both enjoyed our visit very much. The service was generally great and the food spectacular. The price wasn't too bad either.

As I said before, DD and I have ordered takeaway from the Roman Empire and the quality of the takeaway is as good as we received in the restaurant. DD will always prefer to takeaway and eat at home rather than going out for dinner and it's fantastic to know that we can get restaurant quality meals from here regardless of whether we eat in or takeaway.

The Roman Empire Restaurant
Shop 1, 742 Creek Road
Carindale QLD 4152
Ph 3420 0969
www.theromanempire.com.au

Green Bean and Fennel Salad

When we visited the Good Food and Wine Show, we stopped off at the Show Restaurant for lunch and I had Alastair McLeod's Roasted Flinders Island lamb with green bean and fennel salad, and a tomato and chilli jam. I really enjoyed the dish, I thought the flavours went so well together so I tried to find a recipe that would let me recreate the green bean and fennel salad at home.

It was surprisingly difficult, because most of the recipes had more ingredients than the fennel, beans and parmesan I remembered. The ones that didn't tended towards a lemony dressing when I remembered a more balsamic flavour.

I ended up finding one similar recipe (only one!) on Epicurious. I left out the mushrooms, parsley, chives and lemon peel and it was awesome!

The lemony balsamic dressing is a perfect match for the aniseed flavour of the fennel, the sweetness of the beans and the sharpness of the parmesan. Now I need to find a nice tomato and chilli jam recipe so I can recreate the rest of the meal.

Green Bean and Fennel Salad
adapted from Bon Appétit (April 1998) as posted on Epicurious

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons water
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
2 large fennel bulbs, trimmed, quartered lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise (about 4 cups)
shaved parmesan, to serve

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook green beans in large pot of boiling water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Drain. Transfer to large bowl of ice water. Drain beans. Pat dry. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill dressing. Wrap green beans in paper towels and chill.)

Place beans in large bowl and add fennel and parmesan. Drizzle dressing over; toss. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Toss again and serve.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope that wherever you are, you are with your loved ones.


DD surprised me with some foodie gifts for Valentine's Day. He chose Nigella's Nigella Express DVD, some Simon Johnston pasta sauce which we never buy because it's so expensive and the most amazing balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted. It's so good that it's going to get its own post.

I was slightly less imaginative, and he got a CD :-)

Burgers at home

DD and I went through a phase where we were taste-testing a variety of different burger places around Brisbane. It was fun, but a new job and a smaller pay packet has meant that we are trying to cut back and be good, so we haven't had burgers for a little while.

DD suggested we try making our own. We figure that we can watch the budget and make burgers the way we like them. DD was even willing to try turkey mince to make the burger patties, which is great because we could buy 500g of turkey mince for $4.00.

We guessed our way through making the patties. We added an egg, some ground cumin, paprika, cayenne, cracked pepper, some breadcrumbs and some spring onions. We made six patties out of the 500g of mince.

To make the burger we lightly toasted some Turkish bread rolls and topped them with some roasted tomato chutney and tasty cheese. We used some gorgeous Green Zebra heritage tomatoes, some fresh baby spinach leaves and some thinly sliced red onion.

They were far better than any burger we've had out recently. It was fresh and juicy and tasty. The only thing I would fix next time is to add some salt to the mince as I felt it was a little under-seasoned.

Coffee and Chocolate Meringue Cake

I've made this cake a few times before but it's always been a hit when I do. This time it was DD's choice for his birthday cake. It's deceptive in that it's actually really easy to make and in that it looks really light and gentle when it's really really rich.

My biggest problem with this cake is the meringue layer. I always seem to make them too thin or uneven. This time, I didn't cook it quite enough. I am blaming this on our oven, I've never made a meringue in this oven before and it's a little temperamental. I also always manage to break the meringue layer when assembling the cake. Luckily, the cream can hide a multitude of sins.

The cream is fantastic on it's own - even without the cake it is amazing. I found that this time I had way too much cream, but I still slathered it all on the cake regardless.

DD loved his cake, but unfortunately it's not much of a keeper as the meringue tends to get soggy.

See here for the recipe.

Sweet Potato and Feta Pies

At my last job, the wonderful A brought in some absolutely divine Roast Pumpkin and Feta Pies for one of our food days. Everyone devoured them, and she kindly sent me the link for the recipe.

I've made them once since then, substituting sweet potato for the pumpkin. They didn't quite match up to A's as she didn't take the shortcut of using pre-made tart cases like I did and she cooked them properly, unlike me who took them out of the oven too early. I tried again for New Year's Eve, again taking the shortcut of using pre-made tart cases but I cooked them properly this time.

They were much more successful this time, and they tasted pretty good. A's were still much better. They were very well received and they looked really impressive too.

I enjoyed making these, as they remind me of A. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to catch up since I left my previous job and I miss her :-)

See my previous post for the recipe.

Cauliflower Gratin

It may not look pretty, unlike its inspiration from Smitten Kitchen, but it tasted oh-so-good. I love Cauliflower Gratin or even just cauliflower with a plain white sauce. Cheese makes everything better though.

DD, unfortunately for my waistline, won't touch this because there is cauliflower in it, and he doesn't like vegetables (except for onions, capsicums and potatoes). I, however, do like cauliflower and am pretty open to anything covered in a creamy cheesy bechamel sauce. It's absolutely fantastic.

I made it on the weekend intending on having it for lunches the following week, but it didn't last that long.

I used a combination of Gruyere, Parmigiano and Pecorino cheese.

See Smitten Kitchen for the recipe.

Donburi

I've had this recipe for tri-colour donburi in my favourites for a long time, and I think about it often - whenever we have minced beef, actually, but normally it's after I've already cooked the mince another way. Finally I did manage to have a night where I had some minced beef ready to go and nothing planned AND I remembered to check del.icio.us, so I gave this a go.

It's very very easy, except I only had one non-stick pan so have to do a quick clean-out between the minced beef and eggs.

I found the flavours in the meat a little unusual to start with, but then my tastebuds worked out they really liked them and I found the mince to be completely moreish. It's very good.

I didn't like the sweetened eggs, however. I'm a little picky with eggs though and there's is only a few ways that I like them. DD thought they were great and wants to have this again.

The mince was definately the star for me, yum!

The recipe for this Tri Colour Donburi can be found here on Cooking Cute.

Beard Papa

Little cream puffs, how lovely you are...

Try as I might, I can't seem to go past the classic cream filled puffs from Beard Papa. They have cool daily flavours, but nothing is enough to tempt me to stray.

Flame Pizza

DD loves pizzas from Flame Pizza for lunch and he makes me jealous every time he tells me about them. During our Christmas leave we went out to the State Library of Queensland to see the exhibits and he had the great idea of picking up some pizzas for lunch. To avoid the hassle of parking in the city for 15 minutes of pizza-getting, I dropped him off across the road from Wintergarden and then circled the block a few times. It worked quite well.

Above we have their Pumpkin Feta and Pesto and Pepperoni pizzas. I liked the pepperoni, but loved the pumpkin feta and pesto. They were very nice. Not as good as Earth 'n' Sea, but still very good.