A 50/50 success on the biscuit front

I bought some new kitchenalia this week - two cookie cutters (a dog bone and a foot), a rolling pin and some measuring cups - so I was looking for a new-old recipe to try them out on. I figured biscuits were the way to go, and found a recipe for Vanilla Glaze biscuits in Nana's recipes. I stayed true to the biscuit recipe, but did do a small modification to the glaze... adding pure orange essence just because I hadn't used it in a while.

The baking part was easy, but when it came to the glaze things came a little unstuck with the first batch. As you can see, the glaze cracked while it was firming in the oven. I put too much faith in the timer and wandered off instead of watching their progress... ooops. The second batch went a lot better, with the glaze firming in two minutes (rather than the four that made the other lot ugly). The taste test (still warm from the oven... the only way I'll eat biscuits) was passed and I was forced to go in for a second - just to check the cracked ones were edible of course.

Banana-na Cake

Nana's a prolific banana cake baker. Every time I stayed at nana's she'd always have one sitting on the bench to be taken home to Auckland. Most of the time it made it back intact, but once or twice we'd get hungry on the way home and eat a slice. Work lunches that next week were the best! I delved through Nana's recipes positive I'd come up with at least one banana cake recipe, but on my first pass I came up empty handed. Then... success! I'd put a pile of recipes aside in my 'to try' pile and 'Bella's Favourite Banana Cake' was among them.
Our hopeless oven did cause a few problems, with the cake taking 1hr 15 rather than 45 minutes to cook. I was a bit worried about the result, but it turned out perfectly! It was a high, moist cake that wasn't 'soggy' in the middle or on the bottom.
I had a few limes left over from dinner the night before (mmm Frangelico and lime on ice), so made a tart lime icing with the zest and juice of two limes.

Delish!

Cooking a "decent dinner" for the twits

The twits (aka my beloved sisters Amy & Lee) made the mammoth journey from Manly into 'unsafe' Surry Hills just to eat my food today. I was touched... really!

I was told it had to be a 'decent meal otherwise we're not coming'. With such expectations to live up to I got up early and hit the Pyrmont Growers Market with Sarah & Joh. The menu came together pretty easily as we explored the stands. A big bag of the most summery tasting vine-ripened tomatoes and a large bunch of basil were quickly earmarked for bruschetta.
A few stalls along I found some green beans and bright, firm capsicums, so they were put down for the veg part of the meal. A huge ciabatta loaf and some creme fraiche also went into my bags. Neil scored some beautiful smoked shortcut bacon, and I also got a huge bag of broccoli and some Lemon Myrtle pasta. Yum! Breakfast was a hard choice, but I managed to narrow it down to a large, sultana-filled snail from the patisserie.

A trip to the fishmonger with the cripple (aka Neil) in the afternoon yielded four nice red snapper fillets which would be steamed with lime wedges and a basil leaf for the main.

I wanted dessert to be something a bit special that I hadn't tried before, so I decided on a chocolate and apricot tart that Sarah had made for Andre's birthday dinner in June (pic below). We hunted high and low for the recipe in her vast collection of mags, and finally found it in Delicious.

So the menu in the end was...
Tomato bruschetta (ciabatta brushed with leftover roasted garlic, diced tomatoes, shredded basil and Horopito oil)
Red snapper with capsicum sauce
Green beans, red & yellow capsicum and cherry tomatoes
Chocolate & apricot tart with creme fraiche

And the twits ate every bite!

The pasta disaster that turned into a winning dinner!

We've had a packet of Barbushco Lemon Myrtle Fettuccine sitting in the cupboard awaiting the perfect sauce since our June excursion to the Good Food and Wine Show. This weekend I searched high and low for the perfect sauce recipe that would show off the flavour of the lemon myrtle, but everything I found was either heavily oil or cream based.

This pasta called for a light sauce and just a few veges to let the subtle lemon myrtle flavour shine through.

So here's what I came up with....

Lemon Myrtle Fettuccine with Broccoli & Mushrooms
250g lemon myrtle fettuccine
1/2 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 medium head of broccoli, chopped
4 large mushrooms, sliced
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup white wine
100ml cream
Salt & pepper to season

• Saute onions and garlic in a large frying pan until soft. Add broccoli and mushrooms and cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
• Add stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Sprinkle over zest and add wine. Stir to combine and leave to simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the liquid reduces by half.
• Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente.
• Add cream to the sauce and simmer for 2-3 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Season to taste.
• Drain pasta and return to the pasta pot. Pour over the broccoli and mushroom sauce and stir to combine.

To be honest, I thought it was going to be a disaster, but it was REALLY, really good. So try it...

Leek and black pepper risotto

We had a pile of leeks in the fridge and I was itching to turn them into something tasty. Leek and potato soup was out because I'd just made a big pot of red lentil soup... so the next thing to come to mind was - surprise - risotto!
I wanted to keep it simple, so sauteed up a huge pan of leeks in some butter, then got onto the risotto. I used white wine and decided to spice things up a bit with coarsely ground black peppercorns.

The result was an extremely tasty leek and black pepper risotto which was topped with parmesan and some delicious truffle oil from our trip to Italy last year.

Spicy apple cake

A pile of apples in the fruit bowl resulted in another excuse to delve into my trove from Nana's Recipe Drawer - and the winning recipe was a Spicy Apple Cake from Woman's Day.

The recipe was very quick and easy, but the cooking time was blown out to 1 hour 20 mins by my cursed oven! Damn you landlord and your ancient cooking device.

The result was a slightly dry cake (slightly saved by the fresh apple). Next time I think I'll pre-cook the apples to compensate, but Neil had no complaints so it can't have been too bad.

The Russians are coming!

After having it in practically every lunchbox from the age of about 10 to 17, I never thought I'd ever eat Russian Slice again... let alone bake it myself!

Looking for something a bit different for Neil's 'elevenses' and 'fourses' this week I found myself thinking back to the baked treats that Mum used to make. Coconut Rough was out because Neil doesn't like coconut, chocolate chip biscuits have been done to death, and he had birthday cake the other week, so that left the Russian!

Surprisingly it came out exactly as I remembered it... kinda cakey and full of juicy sultanas. I'll have to check with Mum what sort of icing she used to use, because the thin layer of vanilla just seemed too sweet.

I can see this one returning to my repertoire.