my dinner, let me show you it

Sunday night, I volunteered to make a pasta dish for dinner (an old favourite I had up on the previous blog). But after binging on recipes on the internet that afternoon, I ended up making three courses. It was fun, but I think I overdid it and I've had a sore back since then.

Yes, I am a useless weakling. But a well-fed useless weakling.

Roasted garlic and pumpkin soup


recipe adapted from soup, soup glorious soup

1 kg butternut or Jap pumpkin, seeded and roughly chopped
2 garlic gloves, peeled, whole
1 large brown onion, peeled and quartered
4 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Put pumpkin, garlic and onion in a roasting tray, drizzle with oil and roast 50 minutes to an hour, or until pumpkin is golden and cooked through.
2. Scoop pumpkin from skins. Add hot stock, 1 cup at a time, and blend until smooth.
3. Transfer to saucepan over medium heat. Add remaining stock, cream and nutmeg and cook until soup is heated through.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with bread (I sprinkled parmesan on mine and put it under the grill until it melted).

Smoked Salmon pasta


recipe

Lime soufflés


recipe adapted from Taste for Adventure

3 large limes
2 large egg, yolk and white separated
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Trim the tip off each lime so the fruit sits flat. (I accidentally cut too deep, but I had so much trouble with the innards - see below - that this turned out not to be a problem.)
3. Slice off the top of each lime, making cut parallel with the bottom, for a little lid.
4. Place a fine sieve over a bowl. Using whatever implements you can make work (I struggled with a paring knife and a tea spoon - not recommended!), try to get as much of the pulp and juice out of the lime and into sieve, the reserve the juice in the bowl.

Aside: This part will likely drive you nuts and make your fingers all wrinkly - you're soaking them in acid for ages after all! At this point, I was seriously hoping this freaking dessert would be worth all the trouble.

5. Place hollowed-out lime shells on prepared baking sheet.
6. In a heat-proof bowl, whisk egg yolk, half the sugar, 1/4 cup lime juice and flour until pale yellow.
7. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water, whisking mixture constantly until thick and curd-like, about 7-8 minutes.

Second aside: Use a bowl that can sit in the pot without touching the water, and so steam doesn't rise up and burn your hand. Just a tip.

8. Remove from heat and whisk until cooled, scraping down sides of bowl. Set aside.
9. In a clean bowl, combine egg white and remaining sugar in bowl. Place the bowl over the pot of simmering water and stir quickly until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch. Remove from heat and whisk until frothy. Gradually increase speed until mixture holds soft peaks. Be careful not to over-beat.
10. Whisk 1/3 of the egg-white mixture into the lime batter. Carefully and slowly fold in remaining mix, then carefully fill each lime cup with the mixture to just below the rim. I had enough to fill two 3/4 cup ramekins too, so I guess this recipe serves up to 6.
11. Bake lime cups for 12-15 minutes, until meringue is lightly golden and has risen about an inch above the rim. Remove from oven.
12. Take photos - I mean, serve immediately. (But seriously, I threw those babies onto the table and started snapping away madly because I needed to capture the success of making my first ever soufflé!)

i made some foods

So I've been cooking my way steadily through a bunch of recipes this month and while almost all of them have been delicious (I have discovered that I'm not a big fan of polenta), I keep forgetting to take photos of them before I eat.

But I remembered this weekend! \o/


Pea risotto with salmon

1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
150g arborio rice
50mL white wine
350mL low-salt chicken stock, hot
70g frozen peas
2 salmon fillets (about 400g)
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp cream

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Fry onion in oil on high heat. Stir in the rice to coat in oil. Add the wine and stock and season (I added a little dash of chilli flakes at this point). Simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Meanwhile, place salmon on a baking sheet and pour over the lemon juice. Season and roast 10-12 minutes until cooked through. (I also roasted some pumpkin tossed in honey at the same time).

Once the rice is tender, stir peas into the risotto with the cream. (I added 1/3 cup grated cheese too).

Serve salmon on a bed risotto. Makes enough for two.

**

This next one's not as pretty, but it did make for a satisfying dinner tonight while I watched young kids who could trounce me in cooking skills AND presentation on Junior Masterchef. :P


Chicken noodle soup

300mL low-salt chicken stock
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 nest of noodles
shredded, cooked children
beansprouts
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp spicy sesame oil
lettuce, shredded

Bring chicken stock to boil with 5-spice powder and carrots. Lower heat to simmer and add noodles (I used udon). Cook until noodles are tender.

Stir in soy sauce and sesame oil. Add chicken (I had some chicken I'd roasted and frozen earlier in the week), beansprouts and lettuce.

Serves one.

Foodie week

So I was pretty sick for most of this week and there were some other RL problems, but I was determined to make it through a gamut of food-related fun things. In the end, I fine dined, enjoyed a workplace Christmas dinner, and on the weekend I baked, cooked and ate some more. All with tonsellitis, hah.

You can see some evidence of the fine dining above. :) It was nice, which seems a very anaemic word to use about such a meal, but I kinda knew going in that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to be ultra-excited. I couldn't smell a thing due to being sick, and between that and having to socialise I just felt so buggered by the end of the night.

Work Christmas dinner at Rhodes Phoenix was fun and relaxed. We did have chilli lobster, which is a nervewracking thing to eat in front of company anyway since it's so messy and fussy, and then on top of Joey (of FoodiePop started analysing my work practices through the way I tackled the lobster, heh. (I was told I was "logical" in the way I removed all the shell from the pieces of meat before me before I started eating, just like how I sort all the medicines from our daily suppliers alphabetically before I put them away. Logical, or obsessive-compulsive? You decide...)

And then I spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen over the weekend. I made choc chip cookies for a fundraiser at church, and then dinner on Sunday night for my parents.



This recipe made about 50 cookies. And my favourite comment was "These are even better than Subway cookies!" Yes, yes they are.

Choc Chip Cookies
originally from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook, via Baking Bites

2 1/3 cups plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
225g butter, , chilled and cut into small pieces and divided equally in two portions
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g chocolate (mix of dark and milk), chopped

Preheat over to 180 Celcius. Grease and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and baking soda and salt.

In a big bowl, beat half the butter with an electric mixer until softened. (Because the day was so hot, I kept the other half of the butter in the freezer just to keep it chilled in the meantime.)

Add in the brown sugar (original recipe called for dark, which I'd run out of - but I think it would make an even more delicious, chewy cookie so I'd love to try it again with the dark brown sugar) and the white sugar and cream with the butter.

Beat in eggs, one at a time. (We had a near-miss at this point as it turned out the first egg I cracked was a bad one!)

Add in the vanilla extract, then beat in the remaining butter at a med-high speed until well incorporated. It's quite a fluffy mixture at this point.

Mix in the flour mixture at low speed on the mixture (or if you want strong arm muscles, fold in by hand).

Stir in the chocolate chunks. (I lessened the amount of chocolate from the original recipe, but was still told by appreciative eaters that there was plenty of chocolate in each cookie.)

Use a tablespoon to drop rougly 1 inch balls (about 1 rounded tablespoon) onto the baking sheet, leaving about an inch and a half between for spreading.

Bake for 13 minutes until cookies are set, matte-looking and lightly golden brown.

Cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to cool on a wire rack.



Tonight's dinner was spaghetti with seafood ragu, herbed mushrooms stuffed with mozarella, and a simple garden salad with a honey-balsamic dressing. The critics at home declared the pasta the hit of the night but rejected the mushrooms completely (I screwed up on that one as I substituted too many things because I didn't have half the ingredients).

But the ragu...oh, the briny, tomato-y deliciousness. Would definitely make again!

Ragù di Pesce
originally from The Wednesday Chef

1 kg seafood/marinara mix, roughly chopped
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup minced herbs (I used basil and parsley)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 can canned tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine
450g spaghetti
Chilli flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Finely dice the onion and garlic. In a wide, deep pan, cook over medium heat in olive oil, along with several spoonfuls of the minced herbs. Keep stirring to make sure the mixture doesn't burn.

About 7 minutes later, add the seafood mix and stir well to coat the seafood in the oil, onion, garlic and herb mix. Cook for a few minutes until the seafood takes on colour around the edges.

Add the wine and let it cook down for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes (fresh and canned) to the pan and stir. Throw in a good amount of salt (I used a teaspoon). And a nice pinch of chilli flakes if you want it a little spicy (mmm, spicy).

Let the sauce come to boil, then let it simmer away for about 10-15 minutes until it has reduced and is a little thick. Then turn off the heat, stir in the rest of the herbs and add cracked black pepper for seasoning (and salt if necessary).

Cook your spaghetti until al dente, then drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce and mix well before serving.

donuts and muffins and blondies, oh my!

A semi-successes, and a success from a previous failure. Yes, it's time for more baking adventures!

The last time I tried to make snickerdoodles - said to be some of the easiest to make cookies ever - I failed big time. They didn't rise, they were flat and hard and horrible. I still don't know where I went wrong. :( And I've been resisting them since. But then I got a square baking pan (finally!) and read this very simple recipe and took a punt on another snickerdoodle related baking attempt...

Snickerdoodle Blondies
originally from Baking Bites

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

1 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 8×8-inch baking pan (I forgot to do this and it turned out okay).

Cream softened butter and sugar together until light. Add in salt, egg and vanilla extract and combine well. Stir in the flour, mix well, and stir in the choc chips evenly through the batter.

Pour (or push - it's quite a thick dough) into the pan and smooth out the top.

Mix together the extra sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle this topping evenly over the dough.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the edges are lightly brown. Cool in the pan before slicing into bars.

I added the choc chips on a whim, and I should've compensated by dialing back the amount of sugar (which I have done in the quantities listed above).

But I guess these turned out okay as I took them to church for morning tea, and didn't even get to try a piece as it all went quite quickly!

**

And these I made this afternoon. It was ridiculously easy, just a straight combination of ingredients, but they don't really taste like donuts. :(

It made for a decent, quick afternoon snack at least.

Muffins That Taste Like Donuts
originally from tasty kitchen

1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 whole egg
3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Prepare a 12-cup muffin tray. Preheat oven to 180C.

Mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon).

Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Pour into dry mix, and stir until just combined.

Pour batter into muffin holes until just below the rim.

Bake for 20-30 minutes until tops are just lightly brown.

Melt the butter in a bowl (I just microwaved it). Combine the sugar with cinnamon in a separate bowl. Dip the still hot muffin in the butter to coat its top, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix.

Let the muffins cool on a rack.

baking adventures in June(ish)

It's been brownie-central here! :)

Black and White Brownie Bars
originally from Baking Bites

1 1/2 cups milk and/or dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp Kahlua
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 180C, Grease and line a baking pan with aluminium foil.

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in the egs one at a time, then add Kahlua (or vanilla essence), salt and flour, mixing until there are no streaks of flour, and it is just combined. Take 2 cups of this batter and put it in a separate bowl.

Melt 1 cup of white chocolate in the microwave (in 30s intervals) and stir until all chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour into one of the batter bowls and mix in well. Do this quickly since the chocolate will set again quite quickly and then it's really hard to mix it into the batter!! (says she who FAILED at this step)
Pour this white choc batter into the pan. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of both milk/dark and white chocolate evenly over the surface.

Now melt 1 cup of dark or milk chocolate and add that to the other batter bowl, mixing well. Drop small dollops of this chocolate batter on top of the chocolate chip layer, then use a spatula to gently spread the chocolate batter into an even layer.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in pan, then lift the brownies out with the foil and slice into long, thin slices.

I deviated from the original recipe only because I discovered too late that I didn't have any semi-sweet chocolate, only blocks of milk chocolate; nor did I have any vanilla extract. So I made do. I still got told they were delicious. :)

Turtle brownies
originally from Technicolor Kitchen

Brownies:
55g unsalted butter
90g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup (70g) plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk
1 tbsp Kahlua

Topping:
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) heavy cream
1 teaspoon Kahlua
¼ teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a buttered 20cm baking pan with foil.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter and chocolate together and mix until smooth. Let cool slightly. Whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture, milk and vanilla to the egg mix, and combine. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a skewer/toothpick inserted into the centre of brownies comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet (~30 minutes). Let cool on a wire rack.

While brownies are baking, boil 1/3 cup (80ml) water and the sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. When mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring, and brush the sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to cook, swirling pan occasionally, until medium amber, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove from heat, and immediately add cream in a slow pour (if you're too quick it clumps up!). Add vanilla (or Kahlua) and salt. Gently stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until caramel begins to cool and thickens slightly, about 1 minute.
Pour caramel over cool brownies. Refrigerate until cold, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

The caramel will still be quite runny. I had a hell of a time trying to cut these up. But they were so delicious; soft, almost fudgy batter plus sticky salted caramel - om nom nom!