The picnic that wasn’t

I had such wonderful intentions of having a picnic on New Year’s Day. So much so that I spent most of NYE chopping, stirring and baking in preparation. The weather report was most encouraging for the three days before new year’s – sunny and 29 degrees. Perfect!

So imagine my annoyance when the temperature soared to 35 degrees – not so perfect. Needless to say, it was too hot to venture out, so the picnic lunch I’d prepared sat waiting in the fridge.

The recipes are from Gordon Ramsay, specifically for alfresco dining. We had the chilled soup that day anyway, as it was absolutely perfect for the hot weather, served straight from the fridge rather than a Thermos flask.

We had the chicken and couscous a day later, microwaved in the plastic containers I’d put them in, then transferred to a civilised plate for eating in front of the TV.

Here is the recipe for the soup – it is a real winner; give it a try on the next hot day!


Chilled cucumber and dill soup

Serves 4

Make this soup a day ahead, transport it to your picnic (ha!) in a flask and serve in small teacup-sized bowls or punch glasses.

Ingredients

1 litre (4 cups) good-quality chicken stock
2 baby leeks or 1 regular leek (white part only), finely chopped
2 eschalots, finely chopped
8 whole white peppercorns
2-3 parsley stalks
2 ¼ large telegraph cucumbers
2 tsp arrowroot (I used cornflour)
1 tbs finely chopped fresh dill
200ml crème fraiche
¼ small red onion
1 tsp lemon juice


Method

Bring stock to boil in a saucepan. Add leeks, eschalots, peppercorns and parsley stalks, and simmer for 15 minutes over medium-low heat.

Peel 2 of the cucumbers. Halve them lengthways and remove seeds with a teaspoon. Cut flesh into 1 cm slices, then place in a colander and season with freshly ground salt. Stand for 10 minutes to draw out any excess water or bitterness from the cucumber.

Rinse in plenty of cold water and drain well. Add the cucumber to the stock and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. Transfer to a blender, process until smooth, then return soup to the pan.

Mix arrowroot with 1 tablespoon water and add to the soup. Heat gently over low heat, stirring until soup begins to thicken – do not allow to boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add dill and crème fraiche, mixing well – you may wish to use a handheld blender.

Chill in fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight.

For the salsa, finely dice remaining cucumber, place in a bowl with the onion and lemon juice, and season well. Cover and chill.

Pour the soup into a flask. At the picnic, serve soup topped with the salsa.


Recipe from delicious. November 2005

So who’s been Nice this year?

Being good all year has its advantages, namely, Santa gets wind of your goodness and grants you three wishes – oh wait, that’s the Genie – you only get one wish from Santa…

My wish (apart from health for my family, and peace for all), was for a Weber Baby Q, and Santy Claus delivered! Here is the new baby, with Electronic Ignition, no less!


Naturally, we had to give it a test run. First up, some lamb and mint, beef, and tomato and onion sausages. They came up beautifully. The bbq flavour permeates the snags even though it is a gas model.

Next was the traditional steak, cut as thick as possible. It was perfectly cooked and moist, and will you look at those wonderful grill marks!

The baby eggplant was okay – I should have salted them to remove some of the bitterness. They were actually accompanied by marinated pork chops, which were delicious. Unfortunately, my camera has carked, hence no photos of the chops.

Now, hopefully, I will find that Genie in a magic lamp sometime soon – I really need a new camera. Any suggestions on which one?

And here is something for the ladies – I got these lovelies at the post-Christmas sales. Gold strappy heels, ON SALE – the best kind of shoes, evah!

Summer holiday salad

Here is a Grilled haloumi and fennel salad from Donna Hay’s ‘no time to cook’. It’s perfect when you don’t want to be weighed down by a heavy meal at night. Or it makes a perfect summer lunch as well.

I’d never used fennel before this recipe, and bought two fennel bulbs (weighing 480g). However, after I chopped off the tops and leaves and peeled off the outer layer, I was left with 2 rather small bulbs that were a bit less than the required 500g. Never mind, I just bulked it up with more haloumi. You can never have enough salty, squeaky haloumi…yum!

To feed two people:
Place ¼ cup olive oil and 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper in a bowl. Add 500g sliced fennel and 250g sliced haloumi and turn to coat. Cook fennel in a frypan over medium-high heat until lightly brown and tender (2-3 minutes). Add haloumi and cook 1-2 mins each side until browned.

Layer fennel and haloumi with 1 sliced brown pear (I used a nashi pear) and rocket leaves.

Make a dressing from 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, ½ cup chopped walnuts and 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives. Pour over the salad and serve.

Inspirational chicken and tomatoes

Since seeing Donna Hay at David Jones and buying her latest book, I’ve been inspired to whip up dinner nearly every night (it helps that I’ve been on holidays from work and have had time to think and shop for it).

So, I’ll be posting some of the things I’ve made. I hesitate to say that I’ve actually ‘cooked’, as it has mainly involved the chopping and throwing of ingredients together on a plate. But that’s what’s made it so easy and fun!

First up, Crunchy Parmesan-crumbed Chicken (from Donna Hay’s ‘no time to cook’) served with ‘gratined’ tomatoes (Pomodori gratinati, adapted from recipe from RossoPomodoro pizza restaurant).

To feed two people:

The chicken breasts are coated with 1 cup of fresh breadcrumbs that is mixed with ¼ cup grated parmesan, 30g melted butter, 1 tablespoon chopped thyme and cracked black pepper. It’s then baked at 200 deg C for 10 minutes. Easy!

The tomatoes mimic the parmesan/breadcrumbs on the chicken: Squeeze the juice and seeds from 3 halved tomatoes into a bowl. Add 50g dried breadcrumbs, 25g grated parmesan, ½ clove chopped garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Stir well. The mixture should be firm, so add more breadcrumbs or parmesan if necessary.
Place tomato halves in an ovenproof dish, season with salt and drizzle with olive oil. Fill tomato halves with the breadcrumb mixture and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in 200 deg C oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Hey, the Donna Hay bandwagon rolls into town

It may be a bit unfashionable, but I’m into Donna Hay’s recipes, stylings and magazines. Sure, her instructions are getting brief to the point of being ‘cook ingredients’ and ‘serve on a plate’, but the recipes are good when you are out of ideas or time.

Which is the point of her latest book, ‘no time to cook’. DH was spruiking the book and launching a new range of cake/cookie mixes at David Jones and demo-ing some of the recipes. Surrounded by a posse of assistants, she was entertaining and efficient, whipping up 4 dishes from the new book and doing a good job of being a walking talking advert for all things DH. And it was all done in 3-inch heels and no apron (apparently, aprons are ‘so Mrs Doubtfire’).

She was ably assisted on stage by the dishy Steven, which prompted ladies in the audience to wonder if he came with a copy of the book (unfortunately, no).

We got a taste of the chocolate brownies at the end of the demo (‘it’s like I am in the kitchen with you’, DH kept saying). They were pretty good for a packet mix, so I bought a box, to be evaluated at a later date. I also got a copy of the signed book. Okay, so, I’ve fallen for the hype…

Not to let the inspiration go to waste, I made one of the recipes that night for dinner. It happened to be the one DH demoed as well, Shredded Rocket and Prawn Linguine. I have to say, it was not bad at all, though it took me longer to make because I didn’t have cute Steven to help peel the prawns. And as with all Donna Hay, it’s all in the presentation. Here is my take on it – what do you think?

So the cookbook gets a thumb up from me – a preponderance of chicken dishes, and mostly, they serve 2 (it’s easier to double the recipes, I suppose). I can’t wait to try the brownie mix next.

the 'I can't be bothered' salad

I don’t know about you, but with the warmer weather comes the ‘I can’t be bothered’ mantra. “I can’t be bothered making dinner, let’s eat out”, “I can’t be bothered eating out again, let’s get takeaway”, “Oh, not takeaway again, I may as well make something”.

This is the type of ‘something’ that usually ends up on the dinner table – light, not too many ingredients, and easily flung together on a warm day. It’s basically requires some shopping and chopping.

When making this, I modified the original recipe below to replace the capsicum with celery (as I didn’t have any capsicum), and I omitted the coriander and mint (as I hate coriander – some mint would have been nice, though). And the dressing is very tasty – make more!


Vietnamese noodle and smoked chicken salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

125g glass noodles (bean thread vermicelli or rice vermicelli)
2 skinless smoked chicken breast fillets (250g total), shredded
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 red capsicum, cut into matchsticks
1 long red chilli, seeds removed, thinly sliced
1 ½ cups (90 g) bean sprouts
½ cup each coriander and mint leaves

Dressing
1/3 cup (80 ml) lime juice
2 tbs caster sugar
2 tbs fish sauce


Method

Soak the noodles in a bowl of boiling water for about 5 min. Drain, refresh under cold water and drain again.
Place noodles in a large bowl with the chicken, carrot, capsicum, chilli, bean sprouts and herbs.

In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, sugar and fish sauce, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the dressing over the salad, then toss well to combine and serve immediately.


Recipe from delicious. November 2008.

Do I need another tea towel?

This is not an ad for a magazine! However, I am a bit of a mag hag (fash mags, cooking mags, home mags, scrapbook mags), and this issue of Donna Hay (Oct/Nov 2008) comes with a rather nice tea towel and a 2009 calendar. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve bought a magazine because it had free sticky notes, magazine holder, eco bag, tea towel, t-shirt, sunglasses or umbrella attached to it…

This copy of Donna Hay has a feature on risoni, a rice-shaped pasta. I’ve always wanted to try it, and there are a couple of tasty-sounding recipes. I’ve adapted one for a risoni salad by adding some chorizo, as I had one (ie. chorizo) in the fridge, and some cherry tomatoes.

Chorizo and zucchini risoni salad
Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 cup (220g) risoni
2 tbls olive oil
2 small zucchini, sliced
1 chorizo, sliced
8 cherry tomatoes, sliced

Red wine vinegar dressing
2 tbls olive oil
¼ cup (60ml) red wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper

Method

To make the red wine vinegar dressing, whisk together the oil, vinegar and salt and pepper.
Cook risoni in a saucepan of salted boiling water for 8-10 minutes until al dente. Drain the risoni (use a colander with small holes, or a sieve).

Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan over high heat and add chorizo. Cook until slightly brown, turning to cook each side.
Add zucchini and cherry tomatoes, and cook for about 3 minutes until softened.
Add risoni and dressing and toss to combine.

it's a pissaladiere pizza!

What is this!? It's a pizza, it's a pissaladiere, it's a pizzaladiere. And it's a completely made up name. Just my interpretation of the classic French tart of onions and anchovies.

For the base, I like to use a souvlaki bread. Fry up some sliced onion in olive oil until soft and brown. Spread on the base. Top with chargrilled capsicum and anchovies. Maybe add some goat's cheese if you have it.
Bake in a 200 deg C oven for about 5 mins or until golden. Slice and serve.

Ooh la la, grazie mille!

Lamb balls

Sometimes, I get a hankerin’ for some lamb but couldn’t be bothered cooking up a roast. I mean, that would take hours and the entire house ends up a bit pong-y with the fragrance of lamb, if you get my drift.

So, a quick alternative is … lamb kofta. It actually is nothing like roast lamb, but it’s pretty tasty, especially if you serve it with all the condiments such as tzatziki or sour cream.

I can’t remember where this recipe is from since it’s written on a piece of paper in my recipes folder. And I don’t like coriander, so I leave it out, and using tomato sauce instead of paste makes the kofta nice and moist.


Lamb Kofta
makes approx 16

Ingredients
500g lamb mince
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs tomato paste
½ cup fresh breadcrums
1 egg, whisked
½ cup plain flour
2 tbs olive oil

Method
1. Line baking tray with plastic wrap. Combine lamb, onion, parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and tomato paste in a large bowl.
2. Add the breadcrumbs and egg and stir until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Divide mixture into 16 portions and shape each into a pointy ball (oval). Place on prepared tray and cover with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 15 minutes to chill.
4. Place flour on a plate. Roll kofta in flour and shake off excess.
5. Heat half the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add half the kofta and cook, turning occasionally for 8 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel.
6. Repeat with the remaining oil and kofta.

Can be prepared up to end of step 3 up to 1 day ahead.

Serve with tzatziki or wrap in tortilla with salad.

Healthy Caramel sauce!

This is a wonderful sauce to serve with bananas or drizzled (or poured) on ice cream. Make sure you keep stirring and use low heat, as it is sugar-based and it can stick to the pan.
And I've tried it using salted butter, but found that unsalted butter tastes better. This recipe serves 4.

If served with bananas, then the healthiness of the fruit cancels out the butter/sugar/cream-iness of the sauce (caveat: not medically proven!).

Tangy or sweet - you decide

This is one of my favourite cookie recipes, as the result is a very shortbread-y, sweet biscuit with the fantastic tang of craisins and lemon. In fact, I like to add some lemon juice to the mix, to make it even tangier. It is from the ‘Slice and Bake’ section of the AWW Cookies cookbook.


Lemon Craisin Cookies
makes approx 40

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest, finely grated (plus about 1 tbls lemon juice if you like)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour, sifted
½ cup rice flour, sifted
¼ cup cornflour, sifted
¾ cup coarsely chopped craisins
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method
Beat butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Stir in sifted flours. Then add the egg.
Stir until the egg is incorporated and divide the mixture in half.
Knead each half on a lightly floured surface until smooth.
Roll each half into a log and wrap in baking paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Slice the logs into 1cm discs and place on a baking tray about 3cm apart.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until light golden in colour.
Cool on wire rack. Can be kept in an airtight container for about 4 days.

Recipe from ‘Cookies’ (The Australian Women's Weekly mini book 2007)

If kids can do it, so can I

I don’t know what it says about me that I sometimes prefer recipes that have been written by/for children. Maybe it’s the simplicity of the recipes, or the fewer ingredients. Or maybe it’s because I feel so bleah after a day at work that simple is best?

In any case, this zucchini slice was adapted (via delicious magazine) from the Artarmon Public School 2002 Cookbook. Those kids are onto something, because this is a very tasty, easy slice that is quick to make. The bacon can be omitted and other veges such as corn kernels, capsicum pieces or chopped mushrooms added to make it healthier. And the leftovers are scrumptious the next day.


Zucchini Slice

5 eggs
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour, sifted (I used about ¾ cup for a less floury taste)
375g (about 3 smallish) zucchini, grated
1 onion, finely chopped
200 rindless bacon, chopped
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil


Method
1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Grease and line a 30 x 20cm lamington pan.
2. Beat the egg in a large bowl until combined.
3. Add the flour and beat until smooth.
4. Add zucchini, onion, bacon, cheese and oil and stir to combine.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in oven for 30 mins or until cooked through.

Makes about 10 slices (depends on the size of the baking pan).

Recipe from delicious. February 2003

And check out the old copy of delicious that it is from (remember when it used to be $4.95 a copy!).

Thai green chicken curry (spicy!)

Recipe time!

This is for a Thai green curry with chicken. The recipe was originally for 4, but I’ve halved it for a cosy 2. And having made a similar recipe before, I can vouch that the heat in the curry depends on the type of curry paste you use (assuming that you use a pre-made packet one like me!). For this one, I used Trident’s green curry paste, and it is very hot. There was another (real Thai) one at the shop last time that was fantastic but it’s not there anymore (darn) and I can’t remember its name (double darn!).

Thai Green Chicken Curry
(serves 2)

Ingredients

1 tbls vegetable oil
25g green curry paste
2 chicken thigh fillets, cubed
200ml light coconut milk
1 tbls fish sauce
1 tbls lemon juice
½ tbls brown sugar
20 snow peas, sliced
Steamed rice, to serve

Method
1. Heat oil in wok over medium heat and fry the green curry paste for about 1 minute.
2. Add chicken and stir fry until sealed.
3. Add coconut milk, fish sauce, lemon juice and sugar.
4. Bring mixture to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minute.
5. Add snow peas and simmer further 3-4 mins.
6. Serve with steamed rice.

Spicy (sub-continental) pasta

Don’t you just love haloumi cheese? I do – there’s something about the salty squeakiness that makes it too delicious. And speaking of delicious, I found this recipe in an old issue of delicious magazine.
It is an unusual combination, the Indian-style spices with haloumi and pasta. I added some zucchini because I wanted more vegetables in the dish, and also increased the amount of chilli, mainly because I don’t like coriander, so didn’t put it in. And I didn't have the curry leaves, either, but it still tasted great.

Here is the recipe.

Spicy Haloumi Pasta

Ingredients (serves 4)
400g haloumi cheese
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala*
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
10 fresh curry leaves*
400g can chopped tomatoes
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
300g cooked spiral pasta
3 tbs chopped coriander
Naan bread and mango chutney, to serve

Method
1. Cut the haloumi into 1cm cubes. Toss in 1 tablespoon oil and all the dry spices.
2. Heat the remaining oil in a large frypan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until softened. Add the haloumi and curry leaves, and cook until haloumi is golden. Add the tomato and chilli flakes, then bring to the boil. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in the pasta and cook until heated through.
3. Remove from the heat and stir through the coriander. Divide among bowls and serve with naan and chutney.


Recipe from delicious. June 2006

What to do with leftover buttermilk

I always have precisely 375 mls of buttermilk left over when I make Stephanie Alexander’s Carrot Muffins (from her children’s cooking and gardening book). And about 2 weeks later, just when the buttermilk is due to expire, I make buttermilk pancakes. The recipe is:

Buttermilk pancakes

375 ml buttermilk
1 ½ cups self-raising flour, sifted
2 tblsp caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tblsp melted butter


Mix all ingredients together until smooth.
Cook in non-stick frypan over medium heat, turning when bubbles appear on the uncooked side.
Flip and cook further 1-2 mins.

Spread with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Or add blueberries, etc.

The recipe is adapted from the one on the buttermilk carton. They always turn out light and fluffy and they reheat well the next day (microwave).

And I took a picture of the pancakes because the top one sort of looks like a heart…