Eggsellent fast food.

On Friday night I farewelled a follower. Well actually, she’s not officially following the experiment (even after repeated sessions of begging - rude!), but has been a reader from the start and I can only hope that the lovely Yae will continue to be a reader once she arrives in London for her big European adventure.

After a few farewell drinks after work, I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a big cook-up, so I went for a quick option in the salad chapter.

Return of the Egg Salad

The thing is, I don’t really like eggs. Don’t get me wrong, a fried or scrambled egg on a Sunday morning is lovely, but that’s because they’re hot. The moment a cooked egg drops below hot in the temperature stakes, I’m out. Egg sandwiches? You could not pay me to eat them. Egg salad? It’s not exactly up there. But if it’s in the book…

However, I could control the temp of the eggs when I turned them into Jamie’s egg salad, so my speedy late night dinner was not too rotten (get it?!).

I boiled the eggs aiming for soft in the middle. Cooked, peeled and cut in half. Success – the eggs were just the right amount of runny. And still hot when served up with toast and ham.

I’ve never been one of those people who eats breakfast cereal for dinner, but maybe Jamie’s egg salad can be my breakfast-for-dinner of choice.

Xx

PS – I’ve done 101 recipes!

The eyes have it. Except they don’t…

Sneaky, so so sneaky.

So you know how I told you that I was being grown up and biting the bullet and getting stuck into the difficult chapters? Well I sort of, maybe, might have taken a cheeky short cut, accidentally on purpose.

Grilled & Roasted Red Mullet with Pancetta & Thyme

I chose the red mullet because I really did just want to get it out of the way. The photo in the book shows crazy red fish, with beady eyes. Ick. But deep down, I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t be able to get a whole red mullet from the FSL. And as dedicated to the experiment as I am – and you know that I am – I was not going to do a ring around Sydney fish shops trying to track down a red fish. With eyes.

So when I arrived at THE fish shop, I placed my order with the teenage-fish-shop-boy (like a teenage mutant ninja turtle!):

Me: Can I please get a mullet? A red mullet?

FSB: Um… We don’t have those.

Me: I thought you’d say that. Got something similar you can recommend?

FSB: But that’s a whole fish. We don’t really have any whole fish.


In my head: Yeah, like you don’t have any whole lobster.


Me: OK. That’s OK. It just needs to go well with thyme and pancetta…

FSB: Wait! What about sardines? They’re a whole fish. And they’re really fishy!

Me: Um… No… That’s OK. I’ll just take a piece of ling.

Pay and run. Pay and run.


Yeah yeah, I know. Really mature.

Next time, I promise there really will be eyes.

Anyhow, I got my ling home, pan fried it quickly on either side, sat two slices of lemon & a couple of sprigs of thyme on top, wrapped it with pancetta and whacked it in the oven for 10 minutes, then served it up with some cous cous and rocket.

Delicious. And no ick factor. Or eyes.

Next time, I promise…

Xx

PS – I’m planning to make ice cream on Sunday and am feeling a little nervous about the whole thing. Am I supposed to wait til the custard is completely cool, before I put it in the freezer for the first time? What kind of container do I put it in? Does it need to have a lid? Will it expand? So many unanswered questions. I’ll keep you posted.

Blowing a BIG trumpet.

Last night I entered the kitchen in what could only be described as a disinterested state of mind. But I left the kitchen singing my own praises. Singing them to myself in my solo apartment, but still singing nonetheless.

You see, I’ve long been in denial about two specific chapters in the cookbook. Whole fish. And fresh pasta. The whole fish chapter (there’s also a filleted fish chapter, which doesn’t rate highly either, but it’s not dire) has lots of pictures of fish that still have their eyes. Enough said. The fresh pasta chapter just spells hard work and eating dinner late.

So in order to avoid a glut of mediocre and uninspiring recipes in the final stages of my experiment, I am forcing myself to grow up and get started and am this week attempting to do one recipe from each of these two chapters.

Open Stained-Glass Lasagne with Roasted Squash

The first thing to do was get the pumpkin on the go, so I sprinkled it with ground up fennel seeds, coriander seeds & dried chilli, some cinnamon, S&P and a drizzle of oil, covered with foil and into the oven for 40 minutes til really soft.

Then I made the pasta. I halved the pasta recipe this time, because I always end up wasting loads of pasta dough. Good decision. As was the decision to take things easy and follow instructions. I think on the two previous occasions I’ve made the pasta, I’ve always been in a bit of a rush and didn’t quite give it the love it clearly needs. Well not this time. There was so much love.

Once I’d rolled out the pasta to the perfect thin-ness and cut it into lasagne size sheets, I placed sage leaves and flat-leaf parsley leaves on half of each sheet. Then folded over the other half of the sheet and pressed down to seal in the leaves.

Then I worked it through the pasta maker one last time, to create the best looking stained glass lasagne sheets you’ve ever bloody seen!

It was amazing. I was convinced that it would be a total disaster (and I will admit a few sheets hit the skids) but it actually worked perfectly. I was also pretty impressed with how much the herb leaves stretched! Giant sage leaves, oh my!

So I threw the pasta sheets (gently) into a pot of boiling salted water, mashed the squishy baked pumpkin and layered them onto the plate – pumpkin mash, amazing stained glass lasagne, pumpkin mash, amazing stained glass lasagne. You get the idea.

What a sensation. And yes I am blowing my own trumpet, but I don’t care. I absolutely rocked the kitchen last night. Sadly there was no one there to see it. Oh wait – yes you all are!

Xx

PS – have you been watching My Kitchen Rules? I’ll only admit this here, but it makes me feel pretty smug. But I suppose they are cooking under a lot of pressure…

PPS – Yes, I know I’ve gone OTT with the photos. But toot toot. James Morrison eat your heart out.

An untimely season but reason to be jolly.

Christmas in February doesn’t have a catchy ring to it, but I think I could grow to like it.

Fifteen Christmas Salad

Sicilian Dressing

Jamie says he usually serves this salad in December, when clementines are at their sweetest, hence the seasonal name. But when you see the finished product, it actually kind of looks Christmassy, so I figured I could use a bit of cheer mid-week.

I started the layering with ripped up pieces of buffalo mozzarella, then lemon zest and sliced clementines (I was just going to use oranges, but Woollies actually had clementines – result). In a bowl, I dressed some rocket, witlof leaves and fresh mint with the Sicilian dressing then used two slices of prosciutto to wrap bundles of the dressed leaves. They then sat on top, sprinkled with shaved parmesan.

Don’t you think it looks festive and Christmassy? It sure tasted festive! And I was so happy that t looked so like the picture in the book (you’ll just have to trust me on this!) that it felt like I was celebrating something!.

Xx

PS – I have a favour to ask you all. I’d love to see those of you who read my blog, but are not officially signed up as followers, to actually sign up and follow. It’s always a bit sad to answer the oft-asked question of “how many followers do you have?” with “less than 10”. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all the followers I’ve got, but I think there are more of you reading, and I’d love to know for sure. Thanks!

PPS – feel free to post comments too!!

Surprise me happy.

Last night I had Ash for dinner. It was Ash’s copy of COOK with Jamie that became the reason I chose it for my experiment. And yet, it had taken this long for me to get around to cooking for her. At least I was cooking something she’d requested.

Southern Indian Crab Curry

Have I mentioned that I’m taking requests? I have started tagging recipes with a name when requests come in, so that way people who are used as taste testers are at least getting things they enjoy!

Anyway, Ash had requested the crab curry and to be honest, I wasn’t overly excited. It wasn’t that it was tricky or boring or required the purchase of loads of weird ingredients. It was just that it was a crab curry. When I think of curry, I think of beef or chicken, not crab. But, alas, again it appears I have had my eyes opened.

Thrown into a hot pan were olive oil, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, the seeds from a few cardamom pods, cumin seeds, sliced ginger, garlic, onion and chilli. They fried on a medium heat for a few minutes, then I added turmeric, butter and half the crabmeat.

(Apologies that I can’t provide another outrageous FSL story for you here, but I took the easy option and bought crab meat ready to go. Sometimes it’s just not worth the fight, y’know?)

After a minute or so, I added a tin of coconut milk and some lemon juice. It simmered away for a few minutes then I added the remaining crab meat and some chopped coriander. Simmering until thick and creamy, I served it up with steamed rice and snow peas.

Well I know Ash liked it! She was full of praise (which I was thrilled about, seeing as it was a special request!). And you know what, I loved it too. It wasn’t too crabby, but it did hold it’s own among all the strong Indian flavours. And it was yellow. Which is a happy colour.

Xx

PS – for the record, I actually hate surprises, but a yellow and tasty curry was a nice surprise!

PPS – thought I’d give you an ambience shot. Hope you like.

Oozy sponge and belly in my belly.

I was at Mum’s farm on the weekend and in between taking bets on how much rain we were getting (and boy did it just keep on coming!), doing a puzzle, playing trivia and enjoying the serenity, I cooked.

Classic Victoria Sponge with all the Trimmings

Slow-Roasted Pork Belly with the Sweetest Braised Fennel

Dinner Lady Carrots

We had the four J’s – Jen, James, John and Jacqui – arriving on Saturday, bringing prawns straight from the fish markets with them for lunch, so I thought I’d cook up Jamie’s sponge for a mid-afternoon snack.

I’ll get my whinge out of the way early and say that Jamie’s doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Harsh you say? Perhaps. But this so called sponge was not spongey. Don’t get me wrong, the end product was an absolute arvo tea delight, but the cake was not a sponge. I was more like a butter cake. There. Rant over.

So, I made the “sponge” or rather two of them – standard butter, sugar, eggs, flour and lemon zest, in the oven for 20 minutes – and left them to cool. For the strawberry filling, I gently heated some strawberry jam til it thinned a little then stirred through chopped fresh strawberries. For the cream filling, I whipped cream with caster sugar, lemon juice (more on that shortly) and the seeds from a vanilla pod. So lemon juice in cream eh? I mean really - Mr Oliver just cannot get enough of the stuff. He loves his lemons. I was convinced the cream would curdle or not thicken when whipped because of the lemon, let alone taste any good, but I did as I was told and in the end both Mum (who it turns out was dying to say how weird she thought the lemon juice in cream step was, but kept it to herself) were pleasantly surprised. It was completely fine and actually cut through the sweetness of the strawberry filling. When I layered the whole thing up, it pretty much started oozing immediately! Classic. Then when I went to cut it to serve it, the top layer virtually slipped right off! Who cares they said! It was a completely indulgent and over the top arvo tea, but it worked. So good.

After a few hours of relaxing indoors, avoiding the rain, I got started on dinner. I rubbed fennel seeds and salt into the scored skin of the pork belly, sat it on a bed of chopped fresh fennel, thyme, garlic and oil and whacked it in a hot oven for 15 minutes to crackle the crackle, then turned it right down for the next 3 hours (adding a bottle of wine to the mix about half way through).

Then I chopped carrots for what seemed like forever. Finely slicing two bags full of carrots takes some time, let me tell you. I love that Jamie calls them Dinner Lady Carrots, coz in all my years at boarding school, I never had carrots quite like this! Baking dish rubbed with butter, then sprinkled with a combo of chopped parsley, garlic & orange zest, S&P, then a layer of carrots and repeat. Drizzle with olive oil, white wine, orange juice and vegetable stock, cover with a sheet of baking paper and bake for half an hour.

I served up the pork belly with the carrots, some roast potatoes and some mixed steamed greens. The pork belly was cooked to perfection. Tender and tasty and crackled on top. The carrots – orange in colour and flavour – earned high praise from the crowds.

A rainy weekend, spent indoors with tasty winter food.

That’s it.

Xx

Better than your average spaghetti.

Last week, I went to the movies with Evans to see Valentine’s Day (terribly disappointing movie) and then afterwards came back to my place for a quick and easy dinner.

Real Quick Mussels Spaghetti in a White Wine & Basil Oil Broth

It was as simple as pounding fresh basil leaves, a couple of anchovy fillets and some salt in a pestle and mortar to make a green paste, then adding lemon juice and olive oil to thin it out to an flavoured oil.

I cooked the spaghetti (and drained it) and cooked the mussels in a covered pot with a glass of white wine.

Then I combined them all together with some fresh chilli and another squeeze of lemon juice.

The flavours were brilliant – the basil with the mussels was a great combo. And the oily broth was light and fresh. I’d actually eat this even without the mussels. It’d be the ultimate simple dinner.

Xx

PS – sorry it’s brief, but I’ve fallen behind with my writing, so I’m trying to catch up and make sure you’re all up to date.

Bush birthday round two.

I escaped the torrential rain in Sydney on the weekend, by heading to the farm. It was another weekend of birthday celebrations. After hearing about the birthday feasting at the farm that we had for Stu late last year, my friend Marcus did not want to be left out and it all just went from there.

I emailed Marcus my suggested menu from Jamie, he approved it, I wrote a shopping list, Mel went shopping (bless her), we jumped in the car, we sat in the traffic, it rained a lot and eventually we got to the farm!

Roast Fore Rib of Beef with Beetroot & Horseradish
The Best Onion Gratin
The Ultimate Fruit Meringue with Vanilla Cream, Hazelnuts & Caramel

In a pestle and mortar, we bashed garlic cloves, lemon rind, thyme leaves, anchovy fillets, S&P and olive oil to make a paste, which I then rubbed all over the two fore ribs of beef and popped them into a warm oven.




I boiled beetroot and kumera (separately) until they were soft, peeled the beetroot and after an hour in the oven, added the beetroot and kumera to the beef, then put them all back in the oven for an hour.

For the onion gratin, we peeled and quartered a stack of red onions, then pulled them apart into “petals”, spread out in a large baking dish and drizzled with olive oil, some S&P, some sliced garlic and thyme leaves, plus a large glass of wine. Covered with foil and into the oven.

By this stage, Mel and I had had a few large glasses of wine ourselves and I was starting to wilt a little in the kitchen. So while everything was roasting away, I had a small sit and chat with the rest of the gang. Feeling revived, I headed back into the kitchen for the final preps, which basically involved adding crème fraîche and grated parmesan and gruyere cheeses to the onions and then putting them under the grill to brown and melt.

Beef rested and carved, we served it all up with roasted potatoes, sugar-snap peas and an amazing creamy accompaniment of crème fraîche mixed with horseradish, lemon juice and finely chopped parsley.

The whole thing was sensational and it was quite good that it wasn’t a scorching February day and rather a drizzly one instead. Marcus sat at the head of the table, toasted himself and the chefs and we all enjoyed our lunch and a few more glasses of wine!

Then came dessert!

I’d made the meringue earlier. A long, thin-ish meringue, taken out of the oven and squished in the middle to create a dip. We then filled the dip with layers of cream (mixed with the seeds from a vanilla pod and icing sugar – completely decadent), roasted & crushed hazelnuts and fresh raspberries and blackberries. And then, the pièce de resistance was the toffee. Yep, toffee. Because there wasn’t enough sugar in the pav already… It took us some time to get the consistency right, but then we drizzled it voer the top and the whole thing kind of formed a gooey shell over the berries etc. Quite a sight.

And what a triumph. I’ve never seen people go so silent when eating. Literally no-one talked. They just sat back and inhaled the sweet and sticky goodness. I was pretty chuffed.

Birthday in the bush part two = a success. Who’s birthday is next?!!!

xx

Don’t judge a risotto by it’s colour…

Tonight I cooked yet another risotto and even though I know that I really love risotto, even this one was a whole new taste experience.

Squash, Sage and Amaretti Risotto

The first step was getting the butternut pumpkin in the oven, sprinkled with cinnamon, dried chilli and salt. Unfortunately I seemed to misread (or skim read!) a few points in tonight’s recipe including the part where I was supposed to leave the pumpkin skin on and bake it in large wedges. Not a matter. By the time I realised, the peeled pieces of pumpkin were roasting away and I was cooking the basic risotto.

The next step was supposed to be me scooping the soft and caramelised pumpkin flesh from the skin, but that wasn’t necessary, so instead I mashed the roasted pumpkin and stirred it through the risotto with a spoonful of sour cream, a knob of butter and some grated parmesan.

It basically ended up looking like baby food, but I think the flavours would be lost on a child! The pumpkin and cinnamon were a perfect compliment to each other and because of the pumpkin mash, the consistency of the risotto was actually really creamy and less sticky that my usual risotto.

It might have looked like an orange mess but it ate like a pumpkin risotto.

Xx

Mind the kick-back. Pow!

After a fortnight of (sort of) unexpected and (fun but) unnecessary boozing and gluttony, I’m trying to make this week a bit healthier. With a weekend away planned, I don’t think it will last past Friday, but I’m giving it a red hot go. Literally.

Proper Tomato Salad

The most challenging thing about this salad, was trying to find some wacky tomatoes. The picture in COOK with Jamie has multi-coloured tomatoes – green, yellow & red – of all different shapes and sizes, so I set out to see what I could find. In the end I had red roma tomatoes, mini red grape tomatoes and rosso bruno (browny tomatoes), so it was a good combo of colour, size and shape. Jamie also instructs cutting them up pretty willy-nilly, so it’s even more random, so I just chopped away while I chatted to Becko in the kitchen. Then I put the chopped tomatoes into a sieve over a bowl and sprinkled them with salt. This draws the water out. After 20 minutes, I put them into a clean bowl, added a glug of olive, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a finely chopped red chilli, half a clove of garlic finely chopped, some fresh oregano (or marjoram) finely chopped, pepper and finely chopped basil leaves.

Served up with a tender sirloin steak and some roast potatoes, it was the perfectly light and easy meal I wanted. We weren’t quite prepared for the kick the chilli provided though. Nearly blew our heads off. But maybe that will help to get rid of the toxins!

Xx