A sad farewell to giant beasts. I mean feasts.

I’m filled with mixed emotions at the moment. It’s all coming to an end. On the weekend I went to the farm with Marcus and Mel and the girls again. And I cooked a Jamie feast again. But that’s it. There will be no more giant farm feasts from Jamie. Which makes a little bit sad, but also makes me leap with joy that I can finally get back to farm tradition and cook spag bol. Bog rolls. Mmmmmmmm…

Ultimate Rib of Beef with Rosemary & Garlic Roast Potatoes

And so it was that I cooked meet and potatoes. Again.

Mel had kindly accepted my shopping list and gone to the butcher for me, requesting a rib of beef to be cut into chops/steaks. We had seven adults and five kids, so it was a pretty giant bag of beef that I pulled from the fridge on Saturday and then I got to work.

I marinated the steaks with smashed up garlic cloves, lemon zest, rosemary and olive oil and left it to sit for an hour.

Mel and I had a small production line going for the potatoes – Mel peeled, sipped wine, handed to me, I chopped into cubes, sipped wine and put into a pot of salted water. Easy.

Once the water with the potatoes in it came to the boil, I transferred the tayties into a baking dish that I’d heated over the stove with some duck fat (left over from the duck earlier in the week – clever huh? Forward thinking – yeah!) and tossed them with smashed garlic cloves, rosemary and S&P. They then went into the oven for about 30 minutes or basically until they were crispy and we were ready to eat.

Then I heated oil in a big and very hot pan and quickly pan fried the beef on either side, just to seal it, then popped them all into the oven for 25 minutes.

So we each had a giant piece of beef, with some very fatty and delicious potatoes and then a very healthy salad of rocket, pear and parmesan on the side. Ah lovely.




It all went down a treat, as usual. They are an eager and easy to please crowd those Wests and friends. And I love cooking in the kitchen at the farm coz it’s big and accessible.

No, I’ve decided, it’s going to have to be spag bol AND giant feasts at the farm from now on.

Xx

PS – would you believe I have only TEN recipes to go!
PPS – yes, correct. That means I will finish next week.
PPPS – which means I will finish exactly 2 months early!
PPPPS – eat your heart Julie Powell – you took a full year!!!
PPPPPS – I know I know, her cookbook was about 3 times the length of mine, but who’s caring!
PPPPPPS – sad but excited. Mostly excited though!!!

Slow and steady wins the race.

I started cooking for Tuesday on Sunday. But don’t freak – Jamie doesn’t have a 48 hour slow cook recipe. But cool if he did huh?

Gnocchi with Braised Oxtail

I browned some oxtail (which is pretty much the same as osso bucco meat) in my oven proof pot then added finely chopped & diced celery, onion, carrot and leek and sweated til soft then added ½ bottle of white wine, some crushed fennel seeds, finely chopped dried cranberries (which were a substitute for juniper berries, which I could not find anywhere), some cinnamon, dried chilli, S&P, tomato puree and two tins of plum tomatoes, stirred it all together, put the lid and put it into the oven for 3.5 hours.

Then I put it in the fridge til Tuesday night and when I got home from work, I put it back in the oven for an hour to reheat it and soften it all up, then I pulled the meat of the bones (well it had kind of all fallen off anyway – perfection - so I was really just making sure I’d removed all the bones from the stew), then I added a sprinkling of oregano and kept it on a low heat, bubbling away while I made the gnocchi.

So with the gnocchi, I decided I would use the mouli this time and it definitely worked a lot better than it did last time, but I have to say my gnocchi overall has got worse. They don’t fall apart or explode when I put them in the water, but they don’t really hold their shape once they hit the plate. But I guess that doesn’t really matter, coz they’re just going straight into to my tummy anyway… I did decide to make them smaller this time thought, so they were kind of mini gnocchi, which I think looked better.

Once the gnocchi was done spooned the stew into a bowl, put the gnocchi on top then garnished with some burnt butter sage leaves and parmesan. It was the richest stew I’ve eaten in a while. Not in a bad way at all, but I could just taste the richness of the meat. But tender? You bet. The meat was so soft and juicy it was sensational. Slow and steady definitely wins this race.

Xx

Duck, duck, pheasant. What a goose?

On Monday night I cooked duck again. The second in my final three ducks. As you can imagine, I was hardly excited about it. Especially after another bird experience I’d had on the weekend.

Mum and I had a mother/daughter weekend in the Southern Highlands and on Saturday night we went to Josh’s Café in Berrima and shared a pheasant. There were loads of interesting things – with a sort of Mediterranean twist – on the menu, but the waiter did the hard sell on the pheasant. Mum was sold straight away and I was happy to give it a try, so away we went. It was cooked to order, so took 50 minutes to arrive and was served with brussel sprouts (yum – love Brussels), chestnuts, pancetta and creamy polenta, it looked superb. Mum LOVED it and was chatting away with the waiter and chef about cooking techniques, so she can head over to the UK and cook a pheasant feast. Me, not so much. Apparently I don’t like game. I love games. But not game. Solitaire, Trivial Pursuit, netball, Taboo, tennis – love those games. But birds that are not chicken and I’m not really a fan. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s just something about them that I don’t like.

So as I say, jumping for joy that two nights later I had a duck in my oven…

Gorgeous Slow-Cooked Duck Pasta

The duck was rubbed with S&P and olive oil, stuffed with four quarters of an orange and popped in the oven at 150 degrees for 2 hours, turned every half hour, so the skin goes crispy all over.

Then I made the sweet and sour sauce – with red onion, pancetta, carrot, celery and garlic all finely sliced and diced and softened in a big pot. To that I added a cinnamon stick, some fresh thyme leaves (a substitute for rosemary, which I forgot to buy), two tins of tomatoes and half a bottle of red wine and left to simmer for half an hour.

Once the duck was done, Mum very kindly pulled all the meat off and then I shredded it and added it to the S&S sauce, leaving it to simmer for another half hour before adding raisins (a substitute for sultanas, which I forgot to buy…) and pine nuts.

While that was all going on, I cooked some really funky semolina pasta that I’d found at Woollies. The packet didn’t have a name for them, so let’s just called them twisty bits.

Finally, to the duck sauce, I added finely chopped parsley, the juice and rind of an orange, two knobs of butter, a glug of red wine vinegar, some grated parmesan cheese and the drained twisty pasta.



Sorry about the photo – it was the steam. Cool huh?

The verdict? Cheers all round. Mum and Evans (who I’d asked in the hope that at least a second person would hopefully enjoy the duck with Mum) absolutely loved it. And you know what? So did I. Apparently, if a duck is hidden in amongst all those other amazing flavours, it’s not half bad. And the flavours were amazing. You could taste them all – the orange, cinnamon, red wine vinegar. All working together to hide a duck and play games with me. The test will be when I cook the final duck recipe next week – a simple roast duck with plum chutney. I don’t know what kind of bird thinks it can hide behind a damn chutney. Just try me Daffy!

Xx

A squash by any other name would taste as sweet…

If there’s one thing I’ve learned while cooking with Jamie, it’s that just coz we’re part of the colonies, doesn’t mean we speak the same language.

Incredible Boiled Butternut Squash with Squash Seed & Parmesan Pangrattato

You know that I’ve struggled to match Jamie’s fish, I’ve had a few issues with seasonal produce and getting my timing right and have moved Wikipedia to my favourites as I look up ingredients that have a different name down under.

Well, we know that a squash is a pumpkin, but why? It’s coz the Poms think that pumpkins are pig food, so if they call it a squash instead, they can eat it without feeling like a pig…

Did I wiki that? Nah, just made it up. But I don’t think I’m too far off.

Well, I love pumpkin and so does Mum, so we made the last vegie recipe in the book the centrepiece of a simple Sunday night dinner. The recipe says to boil a whole pumpkin for an hour, so I thought I’d done really well when I found a mini butternut pumpkin – a whole pumpkin, but just enough for two.

Whole pumpkin, into a saucepan of boiling salted water, lid on, turned down to a simmer and left to it’s own devices for an hour. Meanwhile, I pan fried breadcrumbs, fresh thyme, dried chilli and S&P with oil to make the pangrattato. Once the pumpkin was done (super soft and squashy – pardon the pun…), I drained it and sliced it in half. This was the bit where the mini pumpkin turned out to be not so great. Once in half, I was supposed to scoop out the seeds, wash them and then fry them up with the pangrattato. But… THERE WERE NO SEEDS. Mum tells me that this is because it was a mini (a baby) and therefore hadn’t developed enough to have grown it’s own seeds yet. Poor little fella.

So I had to skip the seeds and just add the parmesan and some chopped parsley to the breadcrumbs to finish off the pangrattato. I chopped the pumpkin (still with it’s skin on) into chunks, drizzled it (from a height, as directed – though I’m not sure exactly why it had to be from a height) with olive oil and balsamic vinegar then sprinkled the pangrattato on top.

We had sausages and peas with it, so it was in the end, a sort of a fancy mash and it was in the end very squashy, but it is still a pumpkin, no matter what they say…

Xx

Better than the best. Better than the rest.

I’m a little delayed with my posting this week, but on Monday night, I had a very successful night in the kitchen and the success has lived on through the week.

Pan-Fried Lemon Sole Fillets with Salsa Verde
Ultimate Gingerbread

I ducked into the fish shop near my house on the way home from the bus stop and yet again I couldn’t get a UK fish. I was prepared for this and had wikipedia’d sole and discovered that the best substitute in Down Under is flounder or plaice. Unfortunately my local fish shop (what is with my range of fish shops!) didn’t have either of these, so I was sent off on my merry way with a fillet of baby snapper.

First up I made the salsa verde by finely chopping a bunch of parsley, half a bunch of mint & half a bunch of basil, a clove of garlic, some polski orgorki (pickled cucumbers!) & a couple of anchovies and mixing the with capers, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil and S&P. I did a taste test and added some more salt and red wine vinegar then sat it aside.

I shook the baby snapper fillet in a bag of seasoned flour and pan fried it quickly on both sides in a hot pan, then served it all up with some steamed potatoes and broccoli.




It was so good. The salsa verde was delicious and easily and something that I would make again and serve with fish or even a beautiful piece of rare roast beef. The crispy fish was perfectly done and went beautifully with the salsa v. Loved it.

Dinner done and cleaned up, I went back into the kitchen to make the gingerbread. It seemed like it would be a fiddly recipe, as there quite a few ingredients, but with the shortbread made the night before, it actually ended up being really simple and really worth it.

In a food processor, I whizzed up the shortbread with some brown sugar and ground ginger, until it was a massive amount of breadcrumbs (I almost had an eruption out the top of the food processor…). I set aside 100g of the crumbs then added mixed peel, uncrystallised ginger, flour, baking powder and more ground ginger to the food processor and whizzed some more. In a saucepan I melted golden syrup with butter, then stirred through the crumbs til it was a big brown paste-y-kinda-dough-thing. You know what I mean. I spread it thinly into a large flat baking pan and popped it into a warm oven for 15 minutes. As soon as I took it out of the oven, I sprinkled the reserved crumbs over the top and pressed them down with the back of a spatula, waited five minutes til it cooled slightly, sliced it and left it to cool completely in the pan.

On Tuesday, I took it to work. On Tuesday I also experienced a type of office stampede. I didn’t even let anyone know that I’d put a cake tin of gingerbread in the kitchen, I just sat it there with a note that said “eat me”. But I could hear them all scurrying about, whispering that there was food in the kitchen and when I went back 2 minutes later to make myself a cup of tea to have with my piece of gingerbread (thankfully reserved before I put the tin down!), it was all gone. Just like that.

A couple of the girls in my pod had a piece and I am very proud to say they loved it. These girls are seasoned bakers. They know their cakes, their biscuits and their slices and I was told by more than one of them, that it was the best gingerbread they’d ever eaten! One of them said it was better than the gingerbread from Grassmere. Apparently that’s a big compliment, so I looked up Grasmere and it’s famous for it’s gingerbread.

http://www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk/index.htm

Get outta town eh? I beat those Grasmerians at their own game! Go Jamie and me!

Needless to say, the recipe makes quite a lot of gingerbread and my pod-mates and I have happily been munching away on gingerbread all week long. Lovely.

Xx

Long, green and mean to be seen.

I’ve been proved wrong many times, in life and by Jamie in the last 10 months, and tonight I was again happily proved wrong.

Baked & Dressed Courgettes

The picture for this recipe of whole baked zucchini’s was not an attractive one. It’s a row of greeny/brown zucchini’s. I know it doesn’t sound bad, but I’ve showed it to a few people and the reaction has never been one of “wow, they look amazing, can I come over for that recipe”, it’s been more like “wow, that looks pretty bad, bags not coming for that one!” Nice.

So I saved it for a night of dinner for one and rinsed the zucchini’s to make sure they were clean, then dry, rolled them in oil and S&P and put them in the oven for 15 minutes. While still hot, I splashed them with some red wine vinegar and sprinkled with finely chopped mint and parsley.

Served up with lamb and cous cous, I eat my words (and those of all you nay-sayers out there) and say it was delicious. I mean it’s not surprising it was tasty, I love zuch’s, but you’ve seen the photo - they don’t look that bad. I think for once my food photography was superior to Jamie’s. Go me!

Xx

PS – I’ve just pulled some shortbread out of the oven. It forms the basis for Jamie’s gingerbread, which I’ll make tomorrow night. It’s not your typical gingerbread, but it sounds like it’s going to be pretty tasty.

You take the high (moral) road and I’ll take the low road.

I’m sorry, but I cheated. And this close to the end. I feel ashamed.

OK, no I don’t. But I am sorry for that. It’s just, you know the situation with the leftovers and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy more red fish when I already had red fish in my fridge. A red fish is a red fish is a red fish right? Right?

Pan-Fried Red Mullet with Crispy Breadcrumbs & a Herby Tomato Salad

When I wikipedia’d red mullet, the picture of the fish was very similar to the picture when I wiki’d salmon, so I figured I was OK. Plus, I wasn’t sure I could go into battle with the FSL again. I’ve still got about seven seafood recipes to go, so she’s still got plenty of opportunity to disappoint me. What’s one little short cut to save face?

Anyhoot, enough with the excuses. What’s done is done and to be quite honest, I was happy with the result.
For the herby tomato salad, I combined some roughly chopped tomatoes (big red and cherry grape) with olive oil, red wine vinegar, S&P, finely chopped fennel and torn up basil (fresh from Mum’s garden). Tossed and left to sit.

The salmon – a.k.a. red mullet – was tossed lightly in seasoned flour then quickly pan fried in hot oil, til brown and crispy.

The breadcrumbs were then fried in the same pan with dried chilli, lemon zest (back on form!) and thyme leaves.

I tossed everything together, served and tucked in.



It was absolutely sensational. Fresh and crispy. Probably more suited to a Summer lunch than a winter dinner, but no complaints from me.

And, shock horror, after making spicy Thai fish cakes the day before, I have now finished with my friend Sammy the Salmon. And without any wastage. Very proud.

Xx

Pretty vanilla. A tribute.

Last night I made gnocchi. Fine, you say. Nothing new there. Well, yes that’s true enough, I’ve done it a couple of times before. But I made gnocchi for the biggest gnocchi lover I know. What does this mean? It means pressure, that’s what.

Gnocchi with Mushrooms & Sage

Jules knows gnocchi. I would say that of the many many times we’ve eaten out together, she would have ordered gnocchi about 72% of the time. OK, I made that up, but the point is that if there was gnocchi on the menu, Jules would order it.

Pressure, I tell you.

It’s been a while since my last two forays into gnocchi, so I had to work at a snail’s pace to make sure I got things right. I simmered the potatoes slowly, checking every five minutes or so and finally they were done. I peeled them and mashed them. No mouli this time. I’m way bitter about my bad mouli purchase. I don’t want to talk about it OK? To the mash I added a sprinkling of nutmeg, an egg and some 00 flour and worked it into a dough ball. I had to keep adding flour until I got the consistency right, then divided it into three, rolled out three sausages on a floured surface, sliced them into 2.5cm gnocchis and popped them into the fridge to rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I heated some oil in a frying pan and added a selection of mushrooms – enoki, shitake and sliced buttons – quickly frying them before adding finely sliced garlic and chilli and a dash of water. I turned the heat right down and left them to simmer while I added the gnocchi to the boiling salted water and waited for it to float to the surface. While all this was going on, I fried some sage leaves in burnt butter, til crispy.

When it was time, I quickly tossed the cooked gnocchi with the mushrooms and some chopped parsley, then sprinkled with parmesan to serve.

I felt like I was being judged on MasterChef! I cowered under Jules’ gaze, waiting for her verdict.

Kidding! Jules just laughed at me then tucked straight in. It might not have been the best gnocchi she’s ever eaten, but I’m OK with that. However, I will just say that the overall meal was kinda dull. It looked good – good colours and textures - but there wasn’t enough flavour. The mushies were really boring. It’s partly my fault coz I should have tasted them along the way and added some salt, but if truth be told (and I can’t believe I’m saying this!), what would have improved it out of sight was a squeeze of lemon juice! Heaven help me, I’m turning into Jamie!

As for the title of this post? Two of my treasured followers once used the expression “pretty vanilla” to describe a meal that was dull. Boring. Nondescript. Unexciting. Vanilla. You geddit? And I promised that when the time was right, I would pay tribute to their hilarious and absolutely perfect expression, by using it in my blog. And last night’s dinner was exactly that: pretty vanilla, man.

Xx

When Sammy overstays his welcome, turn to layers.

You already know part one of using up the salmon leftovers. Salmon dip. Part two was an unplanned but happy coincidence – a recipe from the dry pasta chapter.

Fantastic Fish Lasagne

A few people thought the idea of a fish lasagne seemed pretty strange, but I quite liked it and once I’d read the recipe, decided it was actually a very good idea. I love lasagne, I love a fish pie, I love to have a use for leftovers and avoid wastage and I love to be pleasantly surprised. Tick to all of the above. This was basically a Sammy fish pie lasagne that blew me away.

I started by making a milky broth – sweating finely chopped carrot, celery, fennel and onion then adding the prawn heads from some whole green prawns, a small bundle of herbs (bay leaves and parsley) wrapped in bacon and a dash of wine, simmering until the prawn heads turned pink, then adding two cups of milk and bringing to the boil. As soon as it reached boiling point, I took the milky broth off the heat, plucked out the prawn heads (& any stray whiskers!) and the herby bacon parcel and then used it to make a béchamel sauce with butter and flour. So in the end I had creamy white sauce with small chunks of vegies.

I spread half this mixture in the bottom of a baking dish, covered it with a sprinkling of chopped prawn bits and chopped pieces of cod, plus a good amount of leftover salmon, some halved cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley and grated parmesan. Then a layer of lasagne sheets, more fish, prawns, tomato and parsley another layer of lasagne sheets then the remaining béchamel sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Into the oven for 45 minutes, covered with foil for the first 30 and free to crisp up for the last 15, I have to admit I expected a small overflow disaster (my baking dish could really have been a little larger for this project!), but was surprised to find a perfectly contained and very creamy and colourful work of fishy art!




Served up with some rocket drizzled with balsamic glaze, I couldn’t fault this dish. Except for the fact that I had leftovers of the lasagne, on top of the already cumbersome leftovers from the Sammy luncheon on the weekend. Part three of the leftover challenge is fish cakes, which I’m planning to make tonight. Who knows, there could even be a part four…

Xx

Sammy & the Leftovers – the rent-a-crowd went crazy!

On Saturday, I cooked for Gemene. Well, not just for Gem, but the lunch was at her request and she requested a whole salmon.

Roast Salmon with Fennel, Parsley and Tomato

Floating Islands

So I started the day with a trip to the fish markets, to buy my friend Sammy the Salmon. And lets just say that the fish markets are a far superior and much less painful experience than a trip to the FSL. I am now planning a seafood weekend, very near to the end of the experiment, starting with a trip to the fish markets and ending with a giant seafood feast. Quite excited.

But back to Sammy – all 3.3kgs of him. Yep, that’s pretty much the smallest whole salmon you can get. And that feeds 10 people. And I only had five coming for lunch. So I was gearing up for the leftovers. What was unexpected was a last minute drop in numbers for lunch (for very good reason, mind you), bringing us down to three people. That’s an awful lot of leftovers. And one sad salmon. So I did what any self-respecting cook would do… I begged. I rang Ween and Evans, who had planned a low-key lunch for two and begged them to come to my lunch party. It went something like this: “PLEEEEAAAASE be my rent-a-crowd.” Subtle. But it worked. And we were back at five again.

For Sammy’s stuffing (is it weirding you out that I gave him a name yet?!!!) I tossed finely sliced fennel bulbs & lemons with roughly chopped tomatoes and parsley with olive oil and S&P then stuffed as much as I could into the salmon. The rest I placed in a baking and tray then sat Sammy on top.

And here he is:

Handsome huh? And very long. Too long for my oven in fact, so I had to curl him around and slide him in carefully.

Snug as a bug in a rug right?

And then 50 minutes later, Sammy came out looking splendid.

Well, except for the eye. Ick. And those creepy teeth. Eew. But other than that, splendid. And when I sliced him up into fillets to serve him to the girls, Sammy the Salmon continued to impress. Tender, juicy salmon, served with a salad of rocket, pear and parmesan and a glass of lovely savvy b. Delish.

Our carb-free lunch had been planned because of the dessert. Floating islands use more eggs than an Irish Breakfast. Not to mention the sugar, milk and cream. But I’m jumping ahead.

Floating Islands are poached snow eggs (or poached meringues) floating on a sea of creamy custard. As far as the desserts in Jamie go, this one seemed to me to be the hardest, but once that I really wanted to get right. So I started by making the custard. It’s Jamie’s standard custard recipe, that I’ve done twice before and both times managed to slightly scramble, so this time, I really wanted to create a lovely creamy custard. Oh the sweet success. Sort of… It didn’t scramble, it looked and tasted creamy and amazing, but it didn’t really thicken up. Not to worry. I’ve eaten runny custard before…

Next up was the spun sugar, that was to be used as a sweet garnish on the top of the islands. While the caster sugar and water were boiling away and turning to toffee, I oiled a sheet of baking paper and a rolling pin and once the toffee was down and slightly cooled and thickened, I used a fork to shake the toffee over the rolling pin, creating a nest of spider-webby, sparkly toffee. I was seriously excited that it worked without me ruining any saucepans or burning any fingers. I luckily remembered Jamie’s tip not to touch the toffee to test its thickness or sweetness. Well, only just…

And lastly the islands were a simple meringue mixture of egg whites and sugar, which I then poached in simmering full-cream milk. Weird, but simple and effective.

Fluffy white islands, floating on a creamy sea of yellow custard with a sparkly toffee nest on top. I actually took a photo of the page in the book, so here is a comparison:

Not too bad eh? And the girls loved them. Though not unlike last weekend with the doughnuts, floating islands are not something that should be eaten in haste or in servings of more than one! VERY rich is an understatement.

And just so you know, I used some of the leftover salmon to create a salmon dip to take on a Mother’s Day picnic.

And the rest of the meringue mixture to make meringues, which I took to work and left to be devoured in the office kitchen.

Xx

Slightly green and on the nose…

Another chapter down. I’ve been marking off chapters as I complete the final recipe in each and last night, as planned, I finished off the fresh pasta chapter.

Raviolini of Celeriac and Thyme

It was quite a good one to finish on – I had to make green pasta. GREEN pasta. So cool.

All I had to do was add some pureed steamed spinach to the first step of the pasta dough. Piece of cake.

Oh. Maybe not.

There was no mention of having to add a little more flour to the dough, to compensate for the added liquid, but I did anyway. Well, even my attempts to out-smart Jamie were not enough. Excess liquid there was and my usually superior pasta-making skills were put to the test. It was a gooey, green mess and it was sticking to my bench, to my hands, to the spoon I was using to scoop more flour. Kermit was right, it’s not easy being green.

But I got there in the end. A lovely ball of green silky pasta dough. Into the fridge it went. And while I made an attempt to de-slime my kitchen, I simmered the celeriac with thyme leaves, S&P and garlic and chilli, til soft. The smell of the celeriac was quite a surprise. It’s really earthy. Kind of like Jerusalem artichokes. It smelt like I was making mud pies.

Once the celeriac was cooked, I mashed it all up to a puree, ready to fill the raviolini.

Then I rolled my pasta out. Again, I hit a bit of a snag. But I guess, what would be the fun in making fresh pasta for the very last time (I really feel no need to ever make fresh pasta again, but I do need to be clear and say that I actually have enjoyed making it for the experiment, I just don’t feel the need to do it any more. It’s no longer a necessity, so to speak). So even though I had put silky smooth pasta dough into the fridge, half an hour later, it came out a little bit sticky. And even though I floured it up some more as I rolled it through the machine, I had a few tearing issues and a few holes that needed to be patched along the way. But thankfully, there were no explosions when the ravioli hit the water and that was all I was worried about. I would not have been pleased if I’d made it through the whole chapter only to have an explosion at the end.

I quickly sautéed the cooked raviolini in melted butter, then served up sprinkled with parmesan. The green pasta was good. The celeriac filling, not so much. Funnily enough, it was a little too earthy for my liking. But it’s done. And so is the homemade-fresh-pasta chapter of my life.

Xx

Getting cushy on a Sunday night.

I made the most of an early return from the farm on Sunday and decided to do some slow cooking.

The Best Stew with Potato & Rocket Pasta Cushions

Into my heavy bottomed casserole pot, I threw seasoned diced veal, let it brown lightly, then added diced carrot, chopped celery, red onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Once the veggies were softened, I added a tablespoon of flour, a tin of tomatoes and glass of white wine, stirred, put the lid on, turned it right down and left the stew to simmer for two and a bit hours.

Meanwhile I made the filling for the pasta cushions – mashed potato, finely chopped rocket, nutmeg, grated parmesan and lemon juice – and then the pasta. They were giant cushions, stuffed full with fluffy potato. And as strange as pasta and stew sounds as a combo, really the potato stuffing in the pasta cushions, was all that was needed to soak up the tender and tasty stew.

It was an ideal Sunday night dinner. Maybe not quite as simple as eggs on toast, but for a night of star spotting at the Logies, I think the extra effort was worth it!

Xx

PS – only one more fresh pasta recipe to go, so I’ve decided to do it this week and return the borrowed pasta-maker back to Sarah and Craig this weekend. As much as I love to give my guns a workout, I’ve made an informed choice to go back to buying my pasta at the end of the experiment!

By My Side - In Excess…

On the weekend, I headed out of town for a girls weekend at the farm. It had been in the diary for months and by the time we hit the road on Friday, we were all ready for some time out and fresh air. Not to mention a menu fit for a gaggle of ladies.

Incredible Baked Lamb Shanks

Braised Peas with Spring Onion and Lettuce

Doughnuts with Old English Spiced Sugar

I love lamb. I grew up on lamb. So I always enjoy a good session of lamb when I head to the farm. The lamb shanks recipe had been set aside for a farm weekend and when I mentioned it as an option to the girls, they jumped on the bandwagon. So that was easy. Pease and lamb. It just makes sense (well maybe not for Gem, but for the rest of us…). And the doughnuts. Well once the girls got word that they were on the menu, there was no going back…

After a day in the sunshine my “Farm-Sous-Chef” Tils and I headed into the kitchen. Starting with the doughnut dough, we mixed yeast with flour, caster sugar and warm milk, covered it and left it by the fire for 15 minutes, til it thickened and frothed. Then we added it to a mixture of flour, sugar, butter and lemon & orange zest. I got stuck in with my hands and used my Italian-Mama pasta-bred-guns to knead the crap out of it, til it was smooth and silky. It then sat in a bowl, covered with a damp cloth for about an hour, while we started on the shanks.

The best thing about the shank recipe was the simplicity of it – we were making shank parcels. No sautéing veggies, no slow cooking, so pots and pans, just lamb shank pockets. While Tils prepped the vegies – chopped leek, carrots & onion and whole garlic cloves – I made a herb butter (sage leaves and thyme, finely chopped and mixed with softened butter) and stuffed into the heart of the shanks. Then we made the parcels – sheets of foil topped with vegies, a shank, some more herbs, oil, S&P and a glug of white wine, all sealed up tightly like a sack, sat in a baking dish and popped in the oven for 2.5 hours.

Then before sitting down to a “friendly” game of Spicks & Specks, I rolled out the seriously risen dough. Did you know that you have to knock back dough? Nope? Me neither. It means I got to punch it. Yep, I gave that damn dough a good king hit and it really does knock the air out of it. Some people vent their anger in boxercise classes, I do it in the kitchen… And the other cool thing about this KO? The smell of the yeast. I’ve never used yeast before, so I was quite shocked at how powerful the smell was. Not a bad smell. Just a bread smell. So obviously bread smells mostly of yeast. Funny that. So after knocking it back and rolling it out, I cute circles (32 in total) of dough, spread them out on greased trays, covered them again with damp tea towels and left them to rise again.

As the time for shanks drew near, we did our mashed potatoes and our peas. Into hot butter, I stirred through a spoonful of plain flour, then chicken stock and finely chopped spring onions & lettuce and a bag of frozen peas. Left to simmer for 5 minutes and a squeeze of lemon later, they were possibly the best looking peas I’ve served up.

As were the shanks. Who doesn’t love a little prezzie on their plate? And that’s what we had. Lovely little parcels of juicy lamb shanks with creamy mash and peas.

So Jamie mentions in the blurb for the peas with lettuce recipe, that people who may turn their nose up at the idea of the lettuce, will be pleasantly surprised. Well, we had a room full or turned-up noses pre-dinner and Jamie was right – lettuce in peas is good! I’m not sure it was actually the lettuce, but overall the peas got a warm reception.

After a short break, it was time to doughy. Tils and I had quite a production line going – I made the holes in the middle, dropped them into the hot oil, Tils flipped them over and when done dropped them onto paper towel, then I tossed them through the spiced sugar (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, vanilla seeds & lemon zest). We were in our own little world – a world like Wendy’s or Donut King. A world where Homer Simpson sometimes lives. And at the end of the production line, we presented a huge bowl (yes, 32 doughnuts is rather a lot) of pretty impressive doughnuts.

And so the challenge began. Could we eat them all? Well, goddamit, we gave it our best shot. Some of us fell short of our quota, but I won’t name names. Others smashed their doughnuts-eaten-in-one-sitting record. And one of us was heard to say they once ate a dozen doughnuts in one sitting…

So with the girls by my side, the following morning, we pushed through the pain of sore tummies and headed back to Sydney. It was worth every cramp and rumble.

Xx

PS – We didn’t finish the full 32.

PPS – I swear!!