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