Real or Fake?

This was my breakfast egg today. It looks like plastic. But it tasted great!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Blueberry Sour Cream Icecream

I was really excited to make icecream this week, despite the fact that it's the middle of winter here. I felt a little ridiculous actually, preparing icecream while wearing jeans, thick socks, ugg boots and 3 layers on top including a big woolly jumper. Brrrr!

This week's recipe was chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity.

I have to say I loved this recipe. I tasted the blueberry/sugar/lime mix as it was simmering and it tasted like the perfect base for a cocktail! It made for a beautiful colour too.

The taste test ...

Delicious. I thought it was like frozen blueberry cheesecake which can never be a bad thing! I ended up adding the juice of a whole lime and I'm glad I did because it needed that extra zing. Overall more like frozen yoghurt than icecream but big thumbs up all round.


Next week we have ... Granola Grabbers (??) No idea. Will have to wait and see what that is!

Sesame Chicken with Ginger Rice

This is one our favourite chicken dishes and the bonus is that it's light, healthy and full of flavour. But be warned, if you don't like ginger, DO NOT make this recipe! Or at least cut down the amount of fresh ginger. The ginger beer sounds strange but it creates beautifully sticky, fragrant rice that is tasty enough to eat on its own. We always make double the recipe so there is enough for lunch the next day.

Sesame Chicken with Ginger Rice
Adapted from Simply Healthy, 1999, p82

500g chicken breast
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon rice wine
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce (I leave this out because it contains MSG)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, chopped finely
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 cup short grain rice
330ml ginger beer
1 teaspoon diced pickled ginger ( I leave this out because it is full of artificial colours etc)
1 tablespoon finely chopped spring onions

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan for 2-3 minutes.Combine sesame seeds, rice wine, honey, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil together in a large bowl to create the marinade. Cut the chicken into large strips and place in the marinade for 1 hour or overnight.

For the rice, place the fresh ginger and sesame oil in a large saucepan over a low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes and then add the rice. Stir for 2 minutes. Stir in the ginger beer and the pickled ginger. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. (We always make ours in a rice cooker and it works perfectly. Just remember to follow the recommendations given in the manual - usually 1:1 rice to liquid for white rice).

While the rice is cooking, thread the chicken onto skewers and then BBQ or grill for 10-15 minutes, brushing with the marinade as they cook. (We don't normally skewer the chicken, just cook it in a large fry pan in batches).

To serve, spoon rice into serving bowls and top with chicken pieces. Sprinkle over sliced spring onions and tasted sesame seeds. Serve with greens. Yum!

Serves 4.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I woke up this morning feeling hot and absolutely starving. Most mornings I don't eat breakfast for at least an hour or 2 after I get up but there's something about Sunday mornings. Possibly the fact I ate too much rubbish the night before?

These are my favourite basic muffins. You can easily switch the main flavours and make banana or rhubarb or blueberry or anything else you can think of.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Recipe from Taste.com.au

300g (2 cups) plain flour
1 tbs baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
150g (3/4 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
2 medium (about 375g) Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled, chopped
125g (3/4 cup) seedless raisins (optional - I left these out purely because we didn't have any)
125g butter, melted, cooled
2 eggs, lightly whisked
185mls (3/4 cup) milk

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease or line 12 muffin pans.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together into a large bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, apples and raisins until well combined.

Whisk together the butter, eggs and milk until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a large metal spoon until only just combined. Be careful not to over-mix or the muffins will be tough.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin pans. Sprinkle some raw or demerara sugar over the top for extra crunch. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden and cooked through (when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean). Remove from oven and stand for 2-3 minutes before turning onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12.

Fettuccine with Mushrooms and Camembert

I love cheese. In fact I can't think of anything that can't be improved by the addition of cheese in one form or another! This pasta dish is incredibly rich and flavoursome, and yes, filled with cheese. It was absolutely divine!

Fettuccine with Mushrooms and Camembert
A Food.Baby original

500g fettuccine (we used curly fettucini which I think captures the sauce better - and for some reason it tastes better too!)
500g mushrooms of any variety you like, chopped
1 red onion, sliced finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
500ml vegetable stock
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 x 250g pack of camembert, as ripe as possible, chopped into small chunks
Olive oil

Cook the fettuccine according to packet instructions. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.

Add a glug of olive oil to a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic and thyme leaves and fry until fragrant and the onion is translucent. Add the mushrooms and toss to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms collapse. Add the stock a little at a time. It will deglaze the pan and form the bulk of the sauce.

Reduce heat to medium-low and add the camembert. Stir until the camembert has melted. It will thicken the stock slightly.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the cooking pot. Add the liquid from the sauce mixture, either dishing it out with a large spoon or straining the mixture into the pot. Toss the pasta with the sauce and divide into serving bowls. Top each serve with a generous spoonful of the mushroom mix. Scatter with thyme leaves.

Serves 6.

French Onion Soup

I'm becoming a soup-aholic! I could happily eat it every night of the week but I think the other members of this household might have a problem with that!

Apart from the fact that I love anything and everything French, to me this soup is pure comfort food. It's dark, rich and warming and served with cheese ... what could be better? :)

French Onion Soup
Recipe from Taste.com.au

80g butter
4 large brown onions, sliced crossways into rings (I used 5 onions)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp plain flour (I used 3 tsp)
1.5L (6 cups) beef stock
125ml (1/2 cup) dry red wine (I left this out and used all beef stock)
1 bouquet garni sachet
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 x 30cm baguette (French stick), cut crossways into 12 slices (I used the remnants of a ciabatta from the freezer which toasted up beautifully)
55g (1 cup) finely shredded gruyere cheese

Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and light golden. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until flour bubbles and comes away from the side of the pan. Add the stock, wine and bouquet garni and bring to the boil

Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until soup thickens slightly. Remove bouquet garni. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat grill on high. Place baguette slices on a baking tray. Place under preheated grill and cook for 2 minutes each side or until light golden. Remove from grill and sprinkle each slice evenly with the cheese. Place under grill and cook for a further 2 minutes or until the cheese melts.

To serve, ladle soup into serving bowls and top with the bread.

Serves 4-6.

Wordle

Tuesdays with Dorie: Black and White Banana Loaf

Chocolate and bananas. One of the most perfect flavour combinations ever don't you think? This week Ashlee from A Year in the Kitchen chose Dorie's Black and White Banana Loaf.

The only change I made was to leave out the rum and use maple syrup instead (which probably added a little too much sweetness). I also found it was cooked a lot earlier than the recipe said - 70 minutes instead of 90.

The taste test ...

Wow. Seriously. This cake is moist and packed with flavour. The banana and chocolate are complemented by a hum of lemon and nutmeg in the background. Perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea (which is exactly what i'm doing as I type!) I can see this becoming a regular.

Next week: Blueberry Sour Cream Icecream. The bowl from our icecream maker is in the freezer and ready to go!

He's my brother

Too cute!

Sunday Brunch at Home

We've been going out for breakfast a bit lately and as nice as it is, it's becoming a bit expensive. This week we decided to do our own version of a 'big breakfast' at home and invited N's mum and my dad to share it with us.

The menu:

• Eggy crumpets with crispy bacon and real maple syrup
• Waffles with strawberry compote and icecream
• Fresh juice

Jungle Juice
Any combination of tropical fruits you like! We used:

1 large pineapple
4 pink grapefruits
1 lime
2 cm piece of ginger

Eggy Breakfast Crumpets
adapted from Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver, p30

This is essentially french toast made with crumpets instead of bread and it's absolutely brilliant! Because of all the air bubbles, the crumpets soak up the egg mixture like a sponge so the end result is incredibly light and fluffy.

3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 round crumpets
6 rashers of bacon
olive oil or butter
maple syrup, to serve

Lay out the crumpets in a single layer in a large baking dish. Whisk together the eggs and milk and season with salt and pepper. I usually add 1/2 ts vanilla and a glug of maple syrup as well. Pour the egg mixture over the crumpets and leave to soak, overnight if possible, or as long as you can (we always do ours the night before and by morning they have absorbed virtually all the liquid). If you are using them immediately make sure you turn them several times and really push them into the egg mix.

Heat a frypan over medium heat and fry the bacon until crispy. You shouldn't need to add any fat here. Remove and keep warm. Add a blob of butter and swirl the pan to coat.

Add the crumpets to the pan (we need to do 2 batches because of the size of the pan) and fry them for a few minutes until they are golden brown. Turn and fry on the other side until cooked through.

Serve topped with bacon and a genererous drizzle of maple syrup.

Crispy Waffles

We received our waffle maker as a wedding present just a few months ago and haven't gotten very adventurous with the recipe. We're still using the one that came with the instruction manual! Thank you Breville.

2 x 60g eggs, separated
2 ts sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 ts vanilla
1/4 ts salt
2 cups (300g) self raising flour
2 tbs cornflour
80g g butter, melted

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the milk, water and vanilla and mix well.

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, add the egg mixture and melted butter. Beat mixture well into a smooth batter.

Beat the eggwhites until stiff and fold into the batter.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes before use.

Use 1/2 cup of batter per waffle. Makes 6.

Strawberry Compote
recipe from Taste.com.au

250g strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
1 tbs icing sugar (I used caster sugar)
1 ts balsamic vinegar (I used a delicious caramalised balsamic from Flaschengeist)

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until pulpy and syrupy. Remove from heat and cover until required. Perfect with waffles, french toast or just over ice cream.

After eating all that we went to the movies and saw The X-Files. I loved it when it was on tv and have seen every episode. Despite not being very hungry we then went to lunch at Chill on Oxford St. Now i'm absolutely stuffed!

All in all a lovely Sunday.

Summer Fruit Galette Round 2

So I still had half a quantity of pastry left from Tuesday and decided to make a proper galette following the original recipe. Unfortunately ... i burnt it! But here's the thing, even slightly singed around the edges this pastry is still fantastic. Thanks Dorie!

Smothered in cream and ready to eat ... yummy!