The Cookbook Challenge - Week 1 - Citrus

I decided to join in The Cookbook Challenge that Rilsta is holding over at My Food Trail.  The Challenge is to cook a recipe from your cookbooks each week, each week has a new theme, week 1's theme is citrus.  I usually use my cookbooks each week so I think the challenge for me will be the theme as it will force me to cook recipes from my books that I've previously ignored, it will also be good for me to have a project to concentrate on.  I've really been enjoying cooking lately so I am looking forward to getting stuck right in.

This weeks recipe comes from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer, a book I have had for quite a while & therefore tend to forget about, seeing that we are having a crazy hot November in Melbourne I thought it was appropriate to drag it off the shelf.  I decided to join in the challenge at the last minute so didnt have a lot of time to ponder this weeks theme.  Flicking through the book I came across this lemon rice which is suggested to go with a curry, as next weeks theme is Indian I thought I could be one step ahead & cook the rice now & also have some for next weeks curry, it will also be a test to see how well it freezes.  I like spiced rices & this one is very tasty, I love the crunch of the toasted mustard seeds thrown in at the end.

Lemon Rice

1 tblspn vegetable oil
250g basmati rice
1/2 tspn tumeric
1/2 tspn dried mint
juice & zest of 1 lemon
approx 500ml water
1/2 tspn salt (or more to taste)
1 tblspn black mustard seeds

Heat the oil gently in a saucepan with a tight fitting lid before adding the rice.  Stir until well coated with oil & add the turmeric & mint, stir to mix.  Squeeze in the lemon juice & add the water, so that it covers the rice by a good couple of centimeters.  Stir in the salt, put the lid on tightly, bring to the boil, then reduce & simmer until all of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.  While the rice is cooking, toast the mustard seeds by heating them for a couple of minutes in a dry frying pan.  Sprinkle over the rice with the lemon zest to serve.

Frozen Chocolate & Nougat Tartufo

Saturday night I had a couple of girlfriends over for dinner & with the threat of another stinking hot night I planned well in advance to make a frozen dessert, that way it was all done the morning before & no need to sweat or heat up the kitchen on Saturday. As it turned out it didnt up being that hot though no matter as this dessert was a stunner in my eyes & one to keep for the long hot summer ahead.

It's a frozen chocolate & nougat tarufo from the May 2008 issue of delicious & the recipe can be found here. Soft Italian Nougat was called for & what better place to source the best than Mediterranean Wholesalers on Sydney Rd where they had a whole display of different varieties, I chose pistachio which would have to be one of my favourite nuts. To assemble, there was lots of melting, whipping & blending, nothing too difficult & no ice cream maker to churn required, though I do have one of course! To serve a simple unmoulding & rolling in toasted coconut & you're done. Once again a lovely dessert for a hot night.

Accidental tomato patch

As well as my veggie patch out the back I have this incredible accidental patch out the front, as you can see it's already nearly as high as Chloe. What I mean by accidental is that all of these plants grew out of my compost. They are all thriving & we have so many little tomato's already starting to grow & they appear to be all different shapes & sizes so lets hope they do well & I have a bumper crop. Will be interesting to see what does better, the bought plants out the back or my self starters out the front.

Pasta

This is a pasta dish I made the other night. It is orecchiette with cauliflower, mint, peas & breadcrumbs (panko) & the recipe can be found here. The recipe featured in a recent Delicious magazine & it came from Matt Moran. I liked the look of it's simplicity as well as the fact that it was a bit different from the usual pasta recipes I cook up. I didnt use any panko as I couldnt get my hands on any in the time I needed. I love orecchiete pasta, it's chewiness is really very tasty & it feels more substantial than say spaghetti or penne therefore I tend to eat less in a serve which is a great thing. A great dish for that occasional pasta indulgence.

Fabulous Broad Beans

The last few weeks I have been busy trying out new recipes with my fabulous broad bean patch. My firm favourite is still smashed beans on toast, where you smash them in a mortar & pestle with parmesan, oilive oil, salt & pepper & then heap them on top of grilled sourdough rubbed with garlic. The crop is dwindling & the bush looks a bit mangy so not many more beans for this season which is sad, I love them & in particular I love the shelling process, I find it quite relaxing & this year I've had a very interested little helper in Chloe which makes it even more fun. We sit at the bench with a big bowl in front of us & just go for it, it doesn't seem like a chore that way at all.

Anyway last night I made the above salad which I didnt have high hopes for yet it turned out a treat. It is a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners - Moroccan Broad Bean salad with yoghurt & crunchy bits. It's basically beans double podded dressed with lemoin juice, olive oil, mint & salt & Pepper. These sit on a bed of yoghurt & are topped with fried red onion, cumin & breadcrumbs. Sounds a bit weird but the flavour combo was delicious. I served this along side some simple grilled chicken which I had marinated in olive oil, lemon juice & oregano. A fantastic meal for a warm pre-summers night.

Masterchef Masterclass at Home

Above is George Calombaris Open Beef Kofta from Season 1 of Masterchef. I made it for dinner a couple of weeks ago & loved it even though I now have a bit of an aversion to George himself thanks to his thoughts on food bloggers which I'm sure you are all aware of.

Not being a food stylist myself, you will note that my photo looks nothing like the photo on the website, the only thing I left out were the deep fried shallots to serve, let's face it who could be bothered when cooking a quick dinner after a hard days work in the garden.

Anyway as I said, this was delicious, light, tangy & yet enough to satisfy not just myself but Michael with the mans appetite & it will be made again. I will however pick on the recipe a bit. To start with the recipe states that it serves 2 & makes 1 kofta. It suggests using a 22cm round flat bread which then has 500g of mince loaded on top plus all the other bits & pieces & is only cooked briefly in the frying pan & then grilled for 4-5 minutes. Now if you ask me all of that mince piled on 1 pita bread would be mighty thick & unappealing to me & I cant see it cooking sufficiently in the time given. I actually made 5 pitta's with the above quantities & they fed the 2 of us for 2 nights & were perfect that way.

So tell me, has anyone else tried this recipe or what do you think of the recipe as is?

Court Jester Cafe Brunswick

A visit from Michael's sister Julie called for a visit to my favourite new cafe, Court Jester's in Breese st in Brunswick. The place can be found in a back street behind Sydney Rd opposite a huge construction site. In a warehouse you will find a big open space with one long communal table down the middle with old couches & computer ports scattered around the edges. As well as being a cafe serving fantastic Polish cuisine, the place doubles as an Art Gallery. The guys running the place use recipes handed down in their families to make delicious dishes such as pierogi which I absolutey love & miss oh so much since my Gran died (I am way too lazy to make them myself even though I watched her a thousand times), cabbage rolls, borscht & many others. They do brunch all day & lunch from 11am. I just love the fact that they are so close to me & serve food that is very rare to find out, especially around my area.

This weekend I fancied some eggs so had the poached eggs with marinated avocado, horseradish mayonaise, dench toast & a side of Polish sausgae, another old favourite - fantabulous! Coffee is great, prices are good & they seem to tolerate Chloe running around like a lunatic, there are even old colouring books & jars of textas to amuse the littlies.

Look the place up & pay them a visit, you wont be disappointed I promise.

Happy Birthday Maya

Saturday was Maya's 4th birthday party which was held at Quarries Park in Clifton Hill which I had never even heard of let alone been to before. Great park, HUGE playground that we will be visiting again very soon, Chloe loved it so much that she cried all the way home as she wanted to go back.

Took along some treats for the kids, cupcakes with a rosewater icing & sugar stars & chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing & smarties. Chloe did the smartie decorating & had an excellent time, apparently I am now 'the best' mum. Good fun in the kitchen now that she is interested & wants to help out all the time, let's hope she loves cooking as much as her mum. Anyway I thought all the little girls would go for the cute pink girly cakes but no, everyone pounced on the chocolate, in the end the pink ones were eaten mostly by adults, will keep in mind for the next kids party.

Chocolate Ginger Chews & Strawberry Picking

Here is a photo of the lovely chocolate ginger chews from the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine, minus the sugar coating which I figured they would not need being sweet enough for my taste already. For anyone who loves a choc/ginger combo, these are a hit though the ginger is not all that strong which has some advantages in that little people like them too, disadvantage, little people like them too so less for me. Below is a pic of Chloe after eating a chew picking some fresh strawberries to wash it down with. You cant see our first 2 luscious red stawberries as they are hidden under the foliage, fingers crossed lots more to come. Actually my mum has just built me a strawberry patch by the back french doors with 7 strawberry plants, if that flourishes I will be very happy indeed.