Mid-Week Pasta

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10 slices of pancetta
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 lemon (juice and zest)
4 tomatoes, diced
Mushrooms, sliced
Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
Small handful grated parmesan
Pasta

Put the slices of pancetta under a hot grill allow to get crispy (this should only take a minute or 2). Once completed allow to sit on some paper towel and once cool, roughly chop.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to instructions.

Meanwhile, heat a glug of olive oil in a large fry pan and gently fry the onion, garlic and the zest of half a lemon until soft. Add the mushrooms and fry for a further 5 minutes.

When the pasta is cooked and drained, put it back in the pan and add the lemon juice, crispy pancetta, the mushrooms etc from the fry pan, basil, parmesan and salt and pepper and stir well.

S

Mostaccioli

Something rather odd occurred yesterday. I was released from the office early. This is the type of news I don’t need to be told twice, so I scurried out the door and was home 2 hours earlier than usual. I decided to bake and found this wonderful recipe for chocolate cookies in my pile of “to do” recipes. Everyone who’s tasted them loves them and they weren’t difficult to make. I’d never done glazed cookies before, I think it’s a nice touch.

This recipe came from The Canadian Baker website, and called for walnuts, which I didn’t have, so I used hazelnuts instead, which worked great.

¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 ¼ cups plain flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts

Glaze
1 ¼ cups icing sugar
¼ cup brewed coffee
½ tsp vanilla

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add the egg.

In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, cloves and salt.

Add this half of this dry mix to the butter mix with a little milk and beat well. Add the rest of the dry mix and milk and mix again.

Add the chocolate chips and hazelnuts and cover and pop into the fridge for 2 hours till firm.

After 2 hours preheat the oven to 180C and line your baking sheets with baking paper.

Roll 1 tbsp of the mixture into balls and place onto the tray an inch apart.

Bake for about 12 minutes (until tops begin to crack). If you used 2 trays, and remember swap the trays from top to bottom of the oven at the half way point.

Allow the cookies too completely before glazing.

For the glaze whisk together sugar, coffee and vanilla and drizzle 1 tablespoon on each cooled cookie and allow to set.
S

Pad Thai (my 1st attempt)

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Our local Thai restaurant (Thairiffic - great name, huh?) is probably our most frequented restaurant. Whenever we go there, or any other Thai restaurant, I always order Pad Thai. Personally, I think I'm quite the expert after eating many versions of this dish and spending some time with a Thai chef years ago in London.

I don't recall attempting my own before, so when I saw this Nook and Pantry's attempt, I thought it was time. I gathered all the ingredients and tried it last night. It wasn't too hard, and the taste wasn't bad at all, but it didn't taste like my favourite one at Thairiffic. I will be attempting Pad Thai again, playing around with this recipe. If anyone has any hot tips, please, please let me know.

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Sauce

1/2 cup tamarind concentrate

1/2 cup fish sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

Chili powder to taste

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1 pack rice noodles

Firm tofu (you can use chicken or prawns or whatever you like really)

2 eggs

Vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finally chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
2 Tbsp minced dried shrimp or pounded until fluffy with a mortar and pestle
Garnish with garlic chives or coriander

1/2 cup bean sprouts

4 tbsp ground peanuts

Soak the rice noodles in warm water. Don't soak too long as you want them just under done, as they will continue cooking in the pan. If you're using dried shrimp, soak them in hot water for a few minutes and drain. Put all your sauce ingredients in a small pan and and simmer until dissolved.

Next, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok. Add your tofu (or whatever you're using) and pan fry for a few minutes. Add about 2 tablespoons of the sauce and fry for a second and remove from the wok just and set aside.

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Add some more oil to your wok (you'll need to be generous as you don't want the noodles to stick). Fry the the garlic, dried shrimp and onions for a short moment and add the drained noodles. Then add about 1/2 cup of the sauce and stir fry until the noodles are the edible. If the pan is getting dry, add some water.

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Add your eggs in the middle of the wok or skillet and let it set a bit before tossing it with the noodles. Add some of the bean sprouts and your tofu (or whatever you're using) back to the noodles and stir fry until everything is warmed through.

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To serve, sprinkle with ground peanuts, coriander/garlic chives, bean sprouts as a garnish and serve with extra chilli and a wedge of lime.

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Grilled Salmon with Cucumber and Lime Salsa

Salmon is my favourite, and its Tony's too. Yum. We don't seem to buy it often though, as its hard to get decent, fresh salmon near us. I managed to get some for this past weekend to barbeque on our long weekend at the beach. It was delicious and I was very pleased with how I prepared it.

Salmon:
1 tbs fresh lime juice
1 tsp honey
1 tsp vegetable oil plus additional for brushing pan
1 tsp ground coriander
2 salmon fillets

Salsa:
1 lime
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
1 tbs finely chopped fresh coriander
1 tbs finely chopped spring onions
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
¼ tsp salt

First you need to marinate the salmon. Stir together lime juice, honey, oil, and coriander in a shallow dish.

Add salmon and rub with the marinade all over and allow to sit and marinate at room temperature, turning over once, 15 minutes. (Do not marinate longer).

While salmon marinates prepare the salsa by combining all the ingredient in a bowl and set aside.

Heat up the bbq or the grill pan till hot. Remove the salmon from marinade grill the fish until just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Serve topped with salsa and whatever else you like.

S

Potato Wedges

I've made these babies a few times now, and they are a huge hit. The original recipe, from Chocolate and Zucchini uses flour, but they work much better with breadcrumbs. It makes them even crunchier!

Please make them, they're well worth the effort and I promise you will love them. I've been serving them with this fantastic new mayonnaise I discovered - Doodles Creek Wasabi Mayonnaise. Wow, my mouth is watering just writing this. This range of mayo's is perfect, its creamy and not sweet like the usual Australian mayonnaise. I guess that is the Dutchie in me.

PS. Today we hit the 10,000 hits on BCM. It took us 3 and a half months! Not bad huh?

Oil (I used vege, you can use whatever you like or butter)
approx 15 potatoes scrubbed but not peeled and cut into wedges
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
3 tbs parmesan, finely grated
2 tsp mustard seeds, crushed in a mortar
1 1/2 tsp chicken salt
1 tbs paprika
1/2 tsp chilli powder, to taste
Fresh black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

Oil a large baking sheet and place in the oven to warm it up.

In a freezer bag mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan, mustard seeds, chicken salt, paprika, chilli and pepper.

Cut the potatoes into wedges and add to the bag and shake well to cover all the potatoes in the seasoning.

Next, remove the hot tray from the oven, put the wedges on the tray and bake for 30 minutes. After half an hour, turn the potatoes and bake for another 20-30 minute until nice and golden. Serve with whatever your heart desires or with a small bowl of sour cream and sweet chilli sauce or mayonnaise works great too.

S

Easy, tasty, tender BBQ Chicken

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We were a pair of lucky ducks who got to go away for 2 long weekends at the beach in a row! Knowing what I did I planned ahead and found a couple of recipes to try out on the barbeque. One was this ‘foolproof grilled chicken’ recipe from Epicurious.

This meal was perfect. I had never brined chicken and was new to the whole experience. I thought of skipping it but in the end, I had enough time so I made the brine and put the chicken in overnight. Let me tell you, it was well worth the effort! Wow, it made the meat so tender. Yum.

There were only 2 of us, so I cut the recipe down a fair bit as the original serves 6. Heres what I did.

1 litre cold water
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tsp salt
3 chicken breasts, each cut into 3 pieces
4 limes,
2 tbs fish sauce
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
I handful fresh mint, finely chopped
1 handful fresh coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 cup vegetable oil

First you need to brine the chicken, up to 6 hours in advance. To start with Bring water, sugar, and salt to the boil in a large pot, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Cool completely. When cool add the chicken and pop this in the fridge with a lid for 6 hours or more (I did it overnight).

Remove chicken from the brine and pat dry.

Whisk together lime juice (3 limes), fish sauce, garlic, mint, coriander, chilli flakes, and remaining teaspoon salt in a large bowl, then add oil in a stream, whisking until combined.
Turn on the bbq and let it get nice and hot for 10 minutes or so and then turn down the heat to moderately high.

Sear chicken on the bbq and close or covered with lid, turning over once, until well browned for about 5 - 10 minutes (depending on the size and thickness of your chicken). Turn off 1 burner to let the chicken cook through, approx another 10 - 20 minutes.

Transfer chicken to bowl with vinaigrette and turn to coat, then transfer to platter to keep warm, loosely covered with foil.

While the chicken is resting in the vinaigrette, grill lime halves, cut sides down, uncovered, over lit burner until grill marks appear, about 3 minutes, then transfer to platter with chicken. Serve limes with chicken and serve remaining vinaigrette on the side.

Next time, I want to try the Mediterranean vinaigrette for chicken by whisking together 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 minced large garlic clove, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, 1 tsp dried chilli flakes, and 1 tsp salt, then add 1/3 cup olive oil in a slow stream, whisking.

S

Amaretti

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Amaretti are one of my favourite cookies to enjoy when I’m out for a coffee. I always thought there was something complicated about making them and never thought twice about making them. I have now discovered there’s nothing to them, they’re quick and easy to make. This is not a good thing. I think I ate almost the whole batch (um, it’s a small batch but) in one evening apart from the few I let Tony have. They’re so good!! My Dad would love these, almonds are his favourite, they’re crisp and crunchy on the outside and soft inside, and not overly sweet.

(makes 12 cookies)
100 grams ground almonds
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
1 egg white
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract

Preheat over to 180C.

Whisk together almonds, sugar and flour in a bowl to combine. Then mix in egg white and both extracts until well combined.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on a parchment line cookie sheet. Flatten the balls of dough slightly. (Note: I like my amaretti soft so I don't flatten the balls of dough too much. If you want the cookies to be less soft, flatten the balls more.)

Bake at 180C for 13-14 minutes or until lightly golden.

S

Oven Baked Sausage Ragu

Jamie Oliver made this one of his recent series when he was doing a special on tomatoes. He made it outside in the garden, in a wood oven and assorted tomatoes and it looked wonderful.

I have made this several times and its delicious, especially when tomatoes are plentiful. It takes a bit of time, but not a lot of work. This is a really “boys” recipe I find. Crusty bread, sausages and loads of flavour.

Here's what I cam up with after watching this Jamie episode and making it a few times now.

Olive oil
6 strips Pancetta/bacon
About 15 - 20 small tomatoes
6 bay leaves
Thyme
8 thick sausages
Balsamic vinegar and crusty bread to serve

Preheat oven to 180C.

In a large, deep tray put the bacon/pancetta with some oil and put in the oven for a few minutes till crispy.

Once its crispy, remove from the oven, add the bay leaves and thyme (rosemary or oregano work well too, or all 3) and toss them in the and let them sizzle.

Cut the stalks from the top of the tomatoes and put them in the tray, with the open stalk part facing down to soak up the oil and let juices flow into tray. Drizzle with olive oil and put them back in the oven for 10-20 minutes.

Rub olive oil lightly all over the sausages.

Take the tray out of the oven and pinch off the skins of the tomato. (I have skipped this step and no one seems to mind).

Add the the sausages to the pan and push them in between the tomatoes.

Place about 4 whole pieces of garlic unpeeled through the mix. Add more olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper.

Put the tray back in oven for an hour, turning the sausages once or twice throughout.

After an hour, remove the tray from the oven and serve by tearing up a big crusty roll, spoon the sausages and tomato with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to finish.

As there is only 2 of us at home, we usually have a fair bit left over. What I usually do is, slice the sausages and then roughly chop the rest of it the next day. Add all this to a pan and allow to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes while you cook some pasta and mix them together, the flavours are sensational!

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Toffee Apple Tart

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I came across this recipe on Jamie Oliver’s website and decided our weekend away at the beach, with a couple of friends, was a good time to have a go.

I didn’t read the recipe properly, so if you’re going to make this, be aware that you need to start a few hours before you plan to serve it.

It wasn’t a difficult tart to make, however there were several different steps during the preparation. The end result was a rich oozing caramel with tart apples and soft crumbly pastry. I could not finish my slice, others did though… If I was to make this again, which I think I will, I would only use one tin of condensed milk and use a deeper tart pan, a couple more apples, and push the apple slices into the caramel, and maybe even a lattice of pastry on top.

On a side note, we were all very excited about the end result of the condensed milk boiled for 3 hours, it was the perfect caramel and oh, so easy!

Pastry:
125g butter
100g icing sugar
a small pinch of salt
255g/9oz flour
zest of ½ a lemon
2 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cold milk

Filling:
2 x 397g tins of condensed milk
4 granny smith apples
2 tablespoons icing sugar

Start this tart at least 3 hours before you want to serve. Firstly you need to pop the unopened tins of condensed milk in a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, and reduce the heat and simmer constantly for 3 hours with the lid on. Keep in mind the liquid will evaporate so keep an eye on the water level always covering the tins ‘cos they’ll explode. After 3 hours, switch the heat off, drain the water and set them aside to cool.

Next comes the pastry. This also needs 2 hours. I just put all the ingredients in the food processor and it produced a ball of dough that I floured lightly. Don’t play with it too much as it will ruin the texture. Roll it into a large sausage shape and wrap in clingfilm. Put it in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.

After an hour, take it out of the fridge and slice it up and line a 28cm tart mould with the slivers. Push them together to form the case and tidy up the sides by trimming off any excess. Place into the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Take the pastry case out of the freezer and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Peel and slice the apples and toss in the icing sugar.

Take the pastry out of the oven and smear the caramel you produced from the condensed milk over the pastry.

Scatter the apples on top and pour any remaining juices over.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes and serve with vanilla ice cream.

S

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

I recently had a gorgeous and very pregnant friend of mine over for dinner with some others. I wanted to make something comforting, easy and not complicated or overly expensive. I decided on cannelloni. I then thought maybe I should check if there are things she cannot or will not eat. The answer was ricotta. I'd already bought everything for the cannelloni, so I invited some friends over later in the week and we enjoyed this meal with a nice bottle of Barossa Shiraz, salad and garlic bread.

1 onion, chopped
Zest of half a lemon
3 bunches English spinach, trimmed, shredded
300g ricotta cheese
250g packet cannelloni pasta
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
Sauce
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 440g can peeled whole tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Preheat oven to 200°C. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes. Add spinach. Cook for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Process in a food processor with ricotta and oregano until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and stir thru the egg and lemon zest.

Make sauce by heating the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes. Add remaining sauce ingredients. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer until sauce thickens.

Lightly grease a 2-litre capacity casserole dish. and spread 1/3 of the sauce over base of dish. Spoon spinach and ricotta mixture into cannelloni tubes. Place into dish. Spoon over remaining sauce. Sprinkle with cheeses. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and tender.

S

Gobi Manchurian – Cauliflower Curry

I have 2 gorgeous younger sisters. One, Surya seems to be an avid fan of The Baker and the Curry Maker, which is fantastic. Occasionally she sends me ideas, recipes, subtle hints etc and I love it.

Surya sent me an email recently that she had been meaning to mention this dish, it was amazing, yummy and something we might like. This is the link she sent me. http://kitchenwonders.blogspot.com/2006/07/gobi-manchurian_02.html

Ever obliging, Tony and I made this dish. He loved it, I wasn’t as excited. Don’t get me wrong, it was tasty, I think I built it up a little too much. Its an Indian cross Chinese dish I believe.
Next time, I wouldn’t fry the cauliflower; I’d just steam them and add more ginger, garlic and chilli to the mix.

250g (approx) cauliflower, cut into florets
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp chilli powder
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 onion, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
1 green chilli, finely sliced
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
5 to 8 curry leaves
Oil, to deep fry
Salt to taste
Bi-carb soda

Make a slightly thick batter with cornflour and flour dissolved in water, add the ginger and garlic, ½ tsp red chilli powder, salt and a pinch of bi-carb soda to it.

Heat the oil till hot.

Coat the florets with the batter and then deep fry till it turns golden brown (lower the heat so as to cook them through).

Drain and set aside

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan. the ginger and garlic and fry a little. Add the onions, green chillies and capsicum and saute till onions are soft and shiny but not brown.

Add the chilli powder, roughly torn curry leaves, tomato sauce and soy sauce.

Dissolve 1 tablespoon cornflour with half a cup of water and add to the pan.

Add the fried cauliflower florets and mix well.

Serve immediately with chopped spring onions or coriander leaves.

S

Hummingbird Cupcakes

I thought I’d make some cupcakes to make a few people at work smile, as it’s been miserable lately. Mary over at Alpineberry made these a few months ago and I thought they’d work well plus there is a crazy woman I work with who claims I always bring in chocolate stuff. Firstly, ah no, I don’t and secondly, what would be the problem if I did? Like I said, crazy.

I got a gorgeous sparkly red Kitchen Aid for my birthday recently and want to give that thing a run for its money, but something is going on…. Every time I think – ooo I can use my Kitchen Aid this time, seems to not really need it once I get into the thick of things.

Anyway, once I was in the thick of this recipe I realised this was going to produce a LOT of cupcakes! In the end I think it was 46, although I’m not sure as a few were eaten before the count. They were small cupcakes though. Australian patty-pans. Maybe America has bigger cupcakes? I think next time I’d do them as muffins. And I’d add more cinnamon and mixed spice. My sister Surya tells me I’m heavy handed with spices so I talked myself out of adding more while mixing, but wish I had as it was way too subtle.

Sorry, I’m rambling. The point is everyone loved them, everyone ate several of these pineapple-y, banana-ery cakes.

3 cups plain flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp allspice3
40g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups diced banana, chopped
1 ¼ cups diced fresh pineapple, chopped

Preheat oven to 180C.

Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice into a large mixing bowl.

Stir in melted butter, eggs and vanilla until just combined. Gently fold in pineapple and banana.

Fill the patty-pans about 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, about 20 – 25 minutes.

Allow cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
250g cream cheese, softened at room temp
115 grams unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups icing sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and vanilla until light and creamy. Beat in the icing sugar until well combined.

S

Roast Tomato, Mushroom, Haloumi Salad

We had gorgeous weather on the weekend and after a day out and about I whipped together a hearty but summery salad that went down quite a treat. It was late in the afternoon and we were going out for dinner so I didn’t want anything too much, yet we were really hungry.

It was a taste sensation, with sweet rich tomatoes, salty hot cheese, tangy soft mushrooms and peppery rocket.

Oven-dried tomatoes
Portobello mushrooms
Balsamic vinegar
Seeded mustard
Haloumi
Olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
Rocket

I had an excess of tomatoes and for the first time tried oven-dried tomatoes, which I popped into the oven before we went out. Oven-drying tomatoes brings out their flavour and sweetness ten-fold.

Heres how I did it:

Preheat oven to 100°C.

Remove core from tomatoes and halve or quarter lengthwise (this depends on the look that you want - halved tomatoes will take longer to dry). Sprinkle cut surfaces with salt and pepper.

Place tomatoes, cut side up on wire racks over baking trays; bake in preheated oven 1 - 4 hours. Check tomatoes to test their dryness. If necessary bake further until dried as desired.

I worked at a fancy Indian restaurant some years ago, and one of my favourite things on the menu were Tandoori Mushrooms. I stayed on at this restaurant much longer than I should have as I loved the team we had there, but also in the naive hope that I would gain some of secrets to their famous recipes. I always asked questions and tried to pick up what the cooks were up too, but didn’t have too much luck. The mushrooms are probably the closest I can get to anything they made. I have attempted those mushrooms often, and although they’re not perfectly like the ones at my old work place, they’re fantastic.

What I do is, combine some balsamic vinegar, seeded mustard, and salt and pepper and a splash of water and let the mushrooms seep up this mixture. Next, I remove them from the marinade and put them under a hot grill for 5-10 minutes. You can serve these as a great appetiser or on bruschetta with fresh coriander or basil.

Next I sliced up the haloumi, heated up a little olive oil in a fry and pan added the slices of haloumi cheese. After a minute or less, I turned them to cook the other side. I removed them from the frypan and allowed the cheese to drain on paper towels.

Now combine it all, add the washed rocket leaves, fried haloumi, mushrooms, tomatoes, and dress with a little olive oil, lemon and salt and pepper and serve with some nice bread.

S

Chicken Marengo

AI’m sure many of us have a stash of recipes we’ve put aside to make, and never made them? My pile keeps getting bigger, it’s quite silly really. This is one of those recipes. No idea where it came from, but my it was worthwhile making it as Tony said it’s his favourite of all the meals I’ve cooked him. What the! I’ve put a lot of time, attention and detail into other meals and haven’t even heard a grunt.

The story goes that this dish was Napoleon’s must-have meal when he went to battle. His cook threw it together after Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1800 in the Italian town of Marengo. It’s said that Napoleon enjoyed it so much, he declared that the dish should be served after every battle. I’m not sure whether to leave this story in with the link to Tony. He’ll think he’s Napoleonic now.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 chicken breast, cut into chunks
flour
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
400 rams crushed tomatoes
250ml chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter
2 portobello mushrooms, diced
juice of 1 lemon
extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup basil, torn

Fry the onions and garlic in vegetable oil until soft.

Coat the chicken with flour, salt and red pepper flakes. Add the pieces of chicken to the pan with the oil and fry until browned on all sides.

Add the tomatoes and chicken stock and allow to simmer, covered, for 45 minutes.

Separately, melt butter in a saucepan and fry the mushrooms until tender. Sprinkle the mushrooms with lemon juice.

Add the mushrooms and the basil to the tomato sauce and mix well.

I served this with spinach and cheese tortellini which was a great combination or you could serve with bread.

S