Have cookbook, will travel.

This weekend I headed interstate to Adelaide to visit my god-daughter Anna and her mum and dad, my dear friends Sarah and Aido. They’ve been following my progress with the experiment and have a copy of COOK with Jamie, so putting two and two together, we planned a feast for Sunday before I headed back to Sydney.

Pot-Roasted Poussins agro dolce

Minted Peas Under Oil

Creamy Butternut Squash

Good Old Bread & Butter Pudding with a Marmalade Glaze & Cinnamon & Orange Butter

In the absence of some poussins (we did try a few butchers, but no dice), we substituted with one large chicken. Jamie says to eat this roast in the colder months, which at the end of November, you would think was a badly timed decision, but funnily enough it was actually freezing in Adelaide this weekend and in the end, with the smells from the oven, the flavours on the plate and the weather outside, this late lunch almost felt like a Christmas lunch.

I started by making a sauce with sautéed red onions, celery, rosemary, sultanas, red wine vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes and red wine. I sat the chicken (stuffed with oranges and cinnamon – yep, very Christmassy) on top of the sauce, covered and put it in the oven for an hour. After an hour, I took the lid off, sprinkled with pine nuts then laid slices of prosciutto across the chicken, to cover it like a second skin. It went back in the oven til the prosciutto crisped up.

Meanwhile, I tossed the sliced butternut pumpkin in dried chilli, nutmeg, ground coriander seeds, S&P and olive oil and popped them in the oven, covered tightly in a baking paper pocket. After half an hour, I took the paper off and poured over cream and parmesan cheese, then back in the oven til creamy and brown.

Lastly, while all this was going on, I boiled peas with fresh mint leaves, drained them, poured over a good slug of olive oil and a bit of red wine vinegar. I was actually supposed to completely drown the peas in the olive oil, but in my opinion, this was simply not necessary – there was enough richness and fat going on elsewhere in this meal – so I made an executive decision to ignore Jamie on this particular occasion. He would be particularly pissed off about this rebellion, I think, because he specifically makes a point about the quantity of oil and says “trust me”. Nope, sorry Jamie. Not today.

And so, we served up our imitation Christmas dinner. The flavours were rich and intense, but incredibly well matched together. Agro dolce means sweet and sour and there was definitely an element of that in the chicken, complimented by the creamy and crowd-pleasing pumpkin bake, topped off with the minty/oily peas. All we needed was a mountain of prezzies, paper crowns and bad cracker jokes and I would have believed that Santa was going to walk in the door at any second.

Along the way, I’d been preparing the B&B pudding for dessert. White bread, buttered with a butter flavoured by orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg, then sliced diagonally in half and stacked pointy end up in a baking dish. The custard, made very distractedly, seemed to pass the test – just – and was poured over the top of the bread and left to soak for 20 minutes while we ate our lunch. After a good soaking, it went into the oven in a bain-marie style tray, for 40 minutes. Plenty of time for us to digest the main course or go back for seconds…

About 10 minutes before serving up, I quickly pulled the B&B pud out of the oven and brushed it with marmalade, before putting it back in for a last minute blast. Served with a scoop of ice cream, I have to say I was pretty damn happy with the crispy glaze of marmalade on top and the creamy, sweet, custardy, mushy, bready pud under the surface. Do you think I could describe myself in that way – crispy glazed outside, mushy pud underneath? Dating classifieds eat your heart out. Pardon the pun…

My weekend and the faux-Chrissy lunch was fabulous. I had a lovely time with Sarah, Aido & Anna and the food was sensational. I think the pumpkin bake will get a second run in a certain Adelaide household.

Plus, I hit a milestone over the weekend. With the four recipes cooked for Sunday lunch, I’ve now done 59 recipes. Leaving me with 99 recipes to go. Woohoo! I’m under 100 – bring on the countdown.

Xx

Tools of the trade.

I thought about saving tonight’s recipe for a group dinner – ie, more than just myself – but I felt like a change from my usual solo dinner choices – pasta or salad – so thought I’d spoil myself and in the end I really kinda did. It was yum.

Schnitzel with Watercress and Spiced Apple Sauce

I nipped down to the butcher and grabbed a pork fillet which then needed to be bashed and tenderised. I was thinking I was going to have the pull the hammer out of the tool box, but Jamie had a much simpler suggestion. A saucepan. Yep, I lay my pork on a chopping board, covered it with a piece of baking paper and then gave it a damn good bashing with the bottom of the saucepan. So easy and really rather good for stress relief after a long and relatively crappy day at work!

But before I continued with the pork, I got the apple sauce on the go. Butter, orange zest and juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar, all melted together and bubbling away then I added the chopped apple. Only after the apples were well and truly coated with the yummy sauce and simmering away, softening up, did I realise that I was actually supposed to peel the apples… Oh well. It might not have been quite as smooth as Jamie’s apple sauce, but it was more colourful.

Back to the pork and sprinkled with S&P, I popped it into a bowl of flour, both sides, then into egg wash, then into the bread crumbs. Then into a pan of hot oil. You know the drill.

Served up with a bit of cous cous, some steamed pak choy (I couldn’t get watercress unfortunately) and the colourful apple sauce, it was an absolutely delicious schnitty.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, especially after I’ve lived with Becko who was the schnitty Queen, but I’ve never actually crumbed my own schnitzel before. I’ve always thought it would be quite difficult (which is a total cop out coz I definitely saw Becko do it a million times and it never actually looked difficult) so I am pleased that yet again, Jamie has forced me to do something that I’d put off doing previously. And of course it was easy and tasty and certainly something I can do again.

So I dedicate my dinner tonight to the schnitty Queen. Cheers Becko.

Xx

A little bit of green goes a long, long way.

I’d had my eye on tonight’s recipe for a while and after last night’s kitchen nightmare, I thought it was a good time to go for a sure thing.

Greek Salad

I’ve made Greek salads before – who hasn’t? – always just based on what we all know (including the local chicken shop!) as the traditional Greek salad.

The most obvious thing in Jamie’s recipe is that he swaps cucumber for avocado. Happy days. I’ve never been a big fan of the cuke.

In a bowl, I combined roma tomatoes, chopped “erratically”, black olives, avocado chunks, a sliced shallot, a good sprinkling of oregano, a splash of red wine vinegar & olive oil, some lemon juice, S&P, ripped cos lettuce leaves and crumbled chunks of feta. Tossed together and served (with steak on this occasion).

And the best thing about this salad – which was definitely the best Greek salad I’ve ever eaten, better even than the ones I ate in Greece – was the oregano. It absolutely made it. And I would never have thought of putting dried herbs into a really fresh salad. But it so worked.

Xx

PS – sorry about the weird formatting that’s been going on with the last few posts. I am struggling to fix it…

Bunny in his hole? No, fire in the hole.

Last night I had an absolute kitchen disaster. It had to happen eventually.


Pappardelle with Wild Rabbit, Olives and Marjoram


I was super organised and remembered to go to the butcher on Saturday and then decided to continue my organisation and marinate the rabbit on Saturday afternoon so that it would be soaking up the flavours for 24 hours before cooking. All going well so far. So on Sunday night I set about my slow cooking.


Please keep in mind here that the temperature outside, even by 8pm when I started cooking (madness I realise!), was still in the high 30’s, so having the oven on for a few hours was not exactly the greatest decision of my life, but I couldn’t leave the bunny marinating forever. So into my favourite French casserole pot Thumper went, browned a little in butter, accompanied by some garlic cloves, fresh thyme and rosemary and ¾ of a bottle of wine. Into the oven for supposedly 2 hours or until the meat falls easily of the bones.


While the temperature in my apartment continued to rise, I sat like a beached whale on my couch, huffing and puffing in the heat and waiting for the hours to tick by. The smells from the kitchen were good, so I thought I hadn’t a worry in the world. After a while (1.5 hours) I thought I’d check out how things were looking in the oven and didn’t I just get the surprise of my life.


Now readers, because I love you and appreciate that you follow my progress day in and day out, I will below post the picture of the disaster that greeted me in my oven. Please laugh quickly and get it out of your system, then move on. Nothing to see here.




Yep, devastated. If I wasn’t sweating buckets, I would’ve cried.


So instead of having rabbit that fell easily off the bone, I hacked at the bones and tried to salvage some of the meat that wasn’t charcoal black. It was slim pickings. I tossed what I could into a fry pan with some water, a dash of white wine, some orange juice and rind, a bit of pasta water (oh yeah, like I was going to make pappardelle from scratch in the heat – sorry team, but I bought it from Woollies this time!), grated parmesan and the green olives. Let it be known that the only actual ingredients that Jamie listed for this part were the olives, orange zest and the cheese, but I had to get liquid from somewhere seeing as there wasn’t any in the baron landscape that was my blackened French casserole pot…


At the end of it all, I popped it into plastic containers and into the fridge for my lunch. Yep, I couldn’t even bring myself to taste it last night, so it was a risk when I reheated it for lunch at work today, but apart from being unsurprisingly dry and crispy, it was actually rather tasty.


The response from friends was not a positive one when I said I was cooking rabbit, but I have rules to follow and a goal to reach. I will say though, that I felt damn sorry for the little bunny that met a fiery end in my oven last night.


Xx

A watched pot never boils…

I had Mum for dinner tonight and whipped up a bursting with flavour dinner, then got her to help me do some baking in prep for tomorrow night.

Steamed Thai-Style Sea Bass & Rice

Pear Tarte Tartin

I really had no idea that there would be so many fish that are English fish but not Australian fish. Well, they might not actually be of English heritage, but they aren’t swimming in the seas Down Under. And just like monkfish, when I asked for sea bass, the FSM looked at me like I was a crazy. Then he asked the guy next to me (on the customer side of the counter) what he’d recommend as a substitute. Turns out the guy next to me was a chef and together we all decided that ling would be the best substitute.

Once home, in the food processor I whizzed coriander, ginger, garlic, chilli, lime zest & juice, sesame oil, soy sauce and coconut milk to make a spicy Thai paste. I then stirred this through almost cooked rice and spread it flat in a baking dish. I sat the ling fillets on top with a few snow peas and covered it in foil for 20 minutes in a hot oven.

Served simply with a wedge of lime, it was pretty damn impressive. Mum’s verdict – absolutely delicious. I can’t really do it justice, to describe the flavours. All I can say is that it just worked. Fragrant and spicy, if you thought about it, you could actually taste every single ingredient.

Tomorrow night I’m off to a small dinner party and in an attempt to keep on keeping on, I offered to bring dessert. Wanting to keep it simple, I went with the tarte tatin.

I’ve made caramel sauce before, but tonight I learnt something useful. When you are boiling sugar and water to make caramel, you’re not supposed to stir it. You just let it simmer away until it turns into a deep brown caramel. And why not stir? Coz it makes it go grainy and fudgy.

I’ll admit that it’s probably just me and my control-freak nature, but it took a huge amount of will power to stand and watch and wait – without a single lift of the spoon – watching and waiting and not stirring. Laugh all you like, but I’d like to see you try! It seemed to take FOREVER for the caramel to actually caramelise. Eventually though, it all happened – and in the end quite quickly – so I tossed through the pear wedges, then added some butter and let it simmer into a thick buttery sauce. Into a dish, covered with a sheet of puff pastry and into the oven.

The pear tarte tatin is currently sitting, cooked, in my kitchen. Tomorrow night, just before we serve it up, I have to flip it out. Yep. Coz that doesn’t have disaster written all over it… I’ll try to remember to take a photo, but I fear it might be one of those dishes where it looks horrendous but tastes fantastic. We shall see…

Xx

PS – I had my lunch with MasterChef winner Julie Goodwin yesterday and I have to say that she is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Genuinely excited to be on this après-MasterChef journey and loving every minute of it, she is still just a Mum, wife and food lover at heart. Except for a few burn scars on her hands…

PPS - here is the finished product tarte tatin. Surprisingly successful. Yay!

Super Dooper Curls & Squiggles

It’s becoming harder to find simple recipes in the book that I can pull together on a week night, just for me. They need to be quick, cheap and easy. Tonight I found a good one.

Super Squid Linguine

Before heading off to softball after work, I made a mad dash to the fish shop to grab a squid tube. Everything else for tonight’s dinner was in the pantry or in the fridge at home – it’s not often that happens, so I was a bit pleased with myself. I felt like a proper cook with her stocked larder. It’s the small things…

I made a quick marinade – chilli, parsley, lemon juice and zest, garlic and oil – for the scored and thinly sliced squid, left to sit for 10 minutes, then thrown into a hot frying pan until the squid starts to curl up into squiggles. Add some white wine and a handful of peas, let simmer for a few minutes while the pasta cooks. Drain the pasta and add it to the squid sauce with another squeeze of lemon, a slurp of olive oil and some chopped mint leaves.

And as Jamie says: “Serve! Eat!”

Xx

PS – I’m off to lunch with MasterChef winner Julie Goodwin tomorrow. Can’t wait.

Spring Fling heats up the kitchen.

On Friday, I spent the night in my kitchen. Well, except for the part where I had a quick glass of vino with Jules and Luke while they hung the amazing creation-decoration-sensation above my door for the Spring Fling. But other than that brief interlude, it was a big cooking night.

Whole Baked Cauliflower with Tomato & Olive Sauce
Fifteen Chocolate Brownies

I’ll start at the beginning with my trip to the fish shop. Let me just say that I didn’t want to go back to THE fish shop (yes, you know the one), but unfortunately it’s convenient and on this occasion convenience won out over taking a stand. So I turned up, trying to remain calm and positive and luckily for her the Fish Shop Lady didn’t serve me. It was the friendly Fish Shop Man though.

Me: (after I’d ordered my prawns and octopus) Do you remember me?

FSM: Ummm…?

Me: I ordered the lobster. The whole lobster. The alive one.

FSM: Oh yeah. Of course. How did that go?

Me: I’ve got my camera here. Let me show you a photo.

FSM: (looking at picture on camera) Wow, that looks amazing. There’s nothing better than a lobster cooked from scratch is there? So much better than just using the tails or an already cooked one.

Me: (incredulous – is he serious!) You’re so right. So right.

FSM: So, what are you? Some sort of amateur chef in your spare time?

Me: No, I’m just doing this thing where I cook every recipe in one cookbook in one year and blog about it.

FSM: Blog about it? Really? Well did you write about us? Did you say in your blog that you bought the lobster from “..... Seafood”?

Me: (nearly choking trying to control my laughter/horror/laughter/horror) Ah no. I didn’t write about you. Should have though.

FSM: You can go back and edit those blogs though can’t you? You could add our name in.

Me: Maybe. I don’t know if I know how to do that…

FSM: Well if you need anything, you come to us and we’ll sort you out. Any seafood you need throughout the experiment. We’ll look after you.

Me: (in a high pitched, slightly strangled voice as I turned and walked away) OK. Thanks. So helpful.


So that was where Friday started. Oh dear. If only the FSM knew that he did feature in the blog. If only he knew…

Once home, I whipped up Jamie’s brownies. These are the brownies they serve at his restaurant Fifteen and apparently are quite a hit. I’d never actually made brownies before this point and I’m quite fussy when it comes to brownies, so I was keen to find out if this recipe would be a keeper. The nuts & dried fruit were optional, so I pretty quickly decided to leave them out. Not a huge fan of nuts in baked goods actually. The recipe was so easy – just a whole lot of chocolate, some cocoa too (just for good measure) butter, flour, sugar and eggs and into the oven for 30 minutes. Jamie says that when you stick the skewer in to check if their cooked, the skewer should actually come out dirty. Not clearly-uncooked-dirty, but clearly gooey-brownie-dirty. A simple distinction no? Well, the skewer came out dirty and not only that, but once I’d let them cool and then sliced them into bite size pieces, the knife was coming out pretty dirty as well. I think I had achieved my ultimate brownie. Crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle. Yum!

I took a short break from party cooking, to cook myself dinner. The humble cauliflower reigns again and slow cooked in a saucepan with onion, garlic, tomato, parsley, anchovies and olives, it was a soggy and delicious mess.




Dinner out of the way and I was back in the kitchen, but not with Jamie this time. The rest of my party food menu was from several other sauces – delicious magazine, The Complete Book of Modern Entertaining and AWW COOK.

First up was the arancini. Now, I’ve made arancini before, not from a recipe, but simply using trial and error. They tasted good and the risotto itself was good, but as balls they weren’t great. They fell apart and didn’t crisp up. Tasty but not picturesque. But the love that went into the arancini on Friday night was enough to make me feel pretty good about how they were going to turn out. The moment where I fell asleep standing up, one hand dipped in the flour bowl, the other in the egg-wash bowl, was the moment I knew I have real issues. Who falls asleep on their feet in the kitchen? Go to bed woman. They’re just risotto balls for god’s sake.

Well rested and ready to go, Saturday began with marinating the beef fillet and popping it in the oven. This was later sliced thinly and served with mustard béarnaise and baguette. Next up were the Vietnamese Rice Paper rolls – crunchy and fresh, they are a favourite. Later in the day, I made the sausage rolls (sausage meat bought from the cute butcher, who wished me a happy weekend. Back at you Mr Cute Butcher!), followed by deep frying the arancini. I had another little moment. I can’t tell you how sensational they were and how damn excited I was by their success (especially upon tasting). I was very proud. It was worth the quick nap in the kitchen the night before – the oohs and aahs from the crowd when the arancini were served, made me supper-dooper happy.

The party overall = a great success. There was not a leftover to be had on Sunday. Let’s just not talk about the pinwheels OK?

Xx

PS – I apologise to everyone that I forced to try the Potted Crab. I myself was not game, but apparently it simply tasted like crab and butter. Now there’s a surprise.

Would you like some crab with your butter?

I’m having a bit of a get together with friends this weekend, but not the three-course-feast style get together, more of a drinks-and-canapés do. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find anything suitably nibble-ish in Jamie, but I came across a few that fit the bill.

Old-Fashioned Potted Crab

When I read through this recipe, Jamie suggested that it be served in individual pots, to serve 4 to 6 people. I measured my pudding pots against the measurements Jamie had given and found they matched, then realised that 4 to 6 of those, would be a hell of a lot of potted crab (or crab paté as I’ve been calling it) to serve as part of antipasto platter. So I halved the recipe.

Then, when I was at Woollies doing the shop and holding the crab meat, I was thinking this doesn’t seem like much crab… Then I thought that it’s probably all the other ingredients that bulk it up. It’ll be fine. I trust Jamie. No, really. I do. Really.

Well, what do I discover when I get home and start making the crab paté – the two main ingredients are crab meat (which there really wasn’t much of) and butter. Yep, that’s it. Well, that’s basically it – there’s some ground up fennel seeds, dried chilli and lemon zest too. All mixed in with the crab. And butter. Then into the pots. Oh no hang, the pot. Just one.

Yes friends and followers, Jamie lied. Even if I had made the full recipe, it was never going to fill 4 to 6 pots. Not. Ever.

So, on top of the crab and butter potted mixture, you spoon over some melted butter (yes yes, I know), sprinkle with chopped parsley and pop it in the fridge to set. Simple as that.

I’ll just have to ration it out to the party-goers. Or at the very least forgo my own sliver. I think I’m OK with that. Not sure that I’m too sad about missing out on crab & butter…

Xx

PS – I’ll let you know the verdict after the party.

PPS – I’m making brownies from Jamie tonight, for the sweeter-toothed attendees to enjoy.

Kill two birds with one sausage. I mean stone.

Seeing as it’s not everyday that I have a huge blood sausage in my fridge, I figured I may as well finish off the black pudding recipes in the book.

All Day Breakfast Salad

I rinsed a curly endive and chopped it up into bite size chunks, then fried up slices of black pudding, matchsticks of bacon and more chunks of stale bread, until crispy. Fried bits on top of the curly endive, a dressing of oil, vinegar & mustard, with a poached egg on top, yolk oozing and chopped chives sprinkled as the garnish.

Not exactly what I’d eat for breakfast, but a satisfying dinner for sure. It was a wee bit gritty – I rinsed and shook the endive, but the curls really hide the dirt. Still, nothing wrong with a bit of earth in your dinner right?

Xx

A gift from the home countries…

On Sunday, I had an old friend for lunch. And by old I mean, someone who’s been in my life for a long time, not an actual elderly person, which was what Trent took offence to when I called him my old friend. Seriously?

Squid with Black Pudding Stuffing & Sticky Tomato Sauce


So yes, I had my “old” friend Trent and his mum for lunch. I knew that when it came to the two black pudding recipes in the book that I would have to be cooking for someone who was of strong character and stomach, coz a good blood sausage can often turn people green, but I checked before hand and got the go-ahead on the sauso, which you can pick up in the deli section at Woollies. Very handy.


To make the stuffing, I pan fried chopped pancetta, with diced red onion, fresh thyme, and the black pudding finely chopped. Once it was nice and crispy, I threw it into the food processor with some lemon zest and stale bread chunks and whizzed it into a paste, then stuffed it into the squid tubes.




While I then made the sticky tomato sauce by simmering chopped garlic, some dried chilli and a heap of cherry tomatoes sliced in half, Trent cooked the squid on the BBQ.

It was a sort of surf and turf, but a sort of Scottish-haggis-Irish-fry-up combo at the same time. Interesting. And lovely to have been shared with my elderly friend…

Xx

Outside My Kitchen #4 – The Victoria Room

I went to a Hen’s Day on Saturday – High Tea at The Victoria Room in Darlinghurst.

I had the standard high tea, but there was the option to upgrade to either the Royal Tea (with a glass of Sparkling Rosé) or the Majestic Tea (with a glass of Piper-Heidsieck). Mind you, the standard package offered a choice of around a dozen teas. I went with the Chai, which blew me away with its aroma. Such an amazing fragrance and creamy tastiness.

The high tea top layer was sandwiches – chicken, goats curd, cucumber (which I avoided) and smoked salmon. All very dainty and delicious.

The next layer was THE layer. The one that excited me the most. It was the “Assorted Sweeties” layer. Sounds good doesn’t it? There was a chocolate cup with choccy mousse & a raspberry in the middle, a teeny tiny lemon & passionfruit tart, a stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth melting moment and the piece de resistance, a Hummingbird cupcake with bright pink icing!

However, the bottom layer was the scones layer and who can go past a still-warm scone with homemade jam and Chantilly cream. In the end it was quite a tough decision trying to decide what to save til last. But the Hummingbird cupcake won out and I savoured every last bite.

The Victoria Room is a beautiful venue and their dinner menu and cocktail menu are sensational, but I’d recommend the High Tea to anyone, especially if you’re after an afternoon with your best girls. Fun and frivolous and lots of pink icing!

Xx

Cheater eater.

Some of you will have heard me stressing about the “whole fish” chapter – it’s just not really exciting me. It was one of the few untouched chapters so I decided I better make a start.

Granddad Ken’s Crispy Grilled Trout with Parsley & Lemon

Oh the irony.

I went to the fish shop (Don’t worry, not THE fish shop. I’m in no rush to go back there!), and apparently if I want a whole trout, I have to order it. Warning bells ring. At least I know for sure I don’t want the fish alive, so that’s one communication barrier we don’t need to break down.

So my lovely readers, I apologise for this, but I cheated. I couldn’t not cook as part of the experiment tonight and everything on my shopping list was for Granddad Ken’s trout, so I bought a fillet instead. Outrageous.

The whole fish was supposed to be stuffed with lemon slices and chopped parsley, skin scored and rubbed with S&P, oil & (shock horror) lemon zest, so my fillet didn’t quite look the part, but after 10 minutes under the grill, I’d say it tasted just as good.

Apologies for the short cut taken, but you know I set out with good intentions. And let’s be fair, I just couldn’t bear to face another fish shop drama.

Xx