Get Stuffed!

Any meal that includes steak and bacon on the same plate makes for a very happy Neil, which is why this week's Nana's Recipe Drawer creation had to be her Stuffed Scotch Fillet.

Handwritten (and slightly hard to read), the recipe was fairly quick and easy to recreate. We teamed it with some golden polenta batons (made with plenty of parmesan) and sauteed green beans.

For me, it was another version of mushroom ragout (spot the mushie freak!) with fresh shitakes, oyster mushrooms, dried Chinese mushrooms and good ol' buttons from our trip to Norton Street Grocer. I added some nice peppery rocket rocket too.
Next time we'll probably cook the meat for a little less than the hour recommended as Neil prefers his cow medium-rare, whereas way-back-when the preference for meat was well done.

Roll on next time (and I may even try some).

Birthday High Tea at The Observatory

The Oliver sisters are on a quest to sample every High Tea offering in Sydney. This month it was the turn of The Observatory Hotel's Globe Bar. We even had an occasion this time - Lee's 24th birthday - so we ordered champagne... a glass each of Moet Rose. Mmmm.

We'd been looking forward to High Tea at The Observatory for a long time, and they didn't disappoint. We started with mini sandwiches - cucumber & mayo, salmon & mayo, egg and wholegrain mustard and cheddar & tomato.

Next up were the scones, and thank God they weren't anything like the solid hockey pucks we had at the Stamford Circular Quay! Creamy, soft and still warm from the oven, we covered them with lashings of double cream and strawberry conserve (with real chunks of strawberry). The conserve was so tasty Amy took to it with her spoon and finished the bowl... classy!

Saving the sweets till last, we were very excited about the mini creme brulee, chocolate mousse with gold leaf, mini fruit tart, almond florentine and mixed berry cake. The almond florentine was crunchy with a rich toffee centre and definitely my highlight, followed closely by the creme brulee.

Being the good sister, I sent the sisters home with a birthday cake (not that they needed anything else to eat), this time a carrot cake with lime cream cheese icing. The recipe was a combination of two I found online - on taste.com.au and the other on epicurious.com

Unfortunately it wouldn't all fit in the container, so I did manage a small taste test. The verdict? Moist, crunchy from the walnuts, the sharp tang of the lime icing... delish!

Neil's Birthday

Neil's birthday was on June 26 and this year's cake was a Devil's Food Cake. Unfortunately I couldn't find my regular recipe so I turned to epicurious.com for help.

I was a little concerned at the amount of sugar listed in the recipe, but I trusted the authors and the result was a very large food cake that was rich without being sickly. I decorated it with chocolate icing and Maltesers a'la Nigella Lawson. Despite the fact we were heading to a friend's for a pot luck dinner an hour later, we did the candles and wish thing and shared a slice as we got ready.

Dinner at Andre and Pierre's was a combined birthday for Andre (who was off overseas to celebrate) and Neil. The usual suspects were there and we were each responsible for a course (and several bottles of red wine.

On the menu:
Tomato and basil risotto (Me)
Warm roasted winter vegetable salad (Jackie)
Roast ram (Joh & Pierre)
Followed by Chocolate and apricot tart with rhubarb ice cream and marscapone (Sarah)

Boy was I feeling rotund after that meal!

The day I ate chicken and other food tales...

Well, Sunday June 17 will be a day my parents rejoice and I feel kinda weird about. After 7 years as a vege I ate chicken. Two mouthfuls and yes it was premeditated.

The recipe was Parmesan Chicken - torn by Nana from the March 1995 issue of Australian Women's Weekly. The making of this dish has been several weeks in the planning (or is that psyching) and a wet, rainy day was the decider.
Neil made mash (being English he's something of an expert) and I made some Mushroom Ragout to supplement my foray into cannibalism.
And the verdict? Chicken tastes like... well, nothing really. The crust was tasty though.

It was a perfect end to a day in the kitchen in which Ginger Kisses (so-so) and Red Lentil Soup (a new regular) played the role of amuse buche.

Everyone has a specialty... mine is:

Risotto!
This incarnation is a Trio of Tomato Risotto with King Prawns & Basil (I ate it sans prawns). Yum.

A Gluttonous Sunday

Today started off badly and turned out to be one of the best Sunday's I've had for a while. I was rather hungover after a night out at the football so started the day with a big bowl of my homemade muesli topped with kiwifruit. From there it was off to Primo Italiano 2007, a food festival which was part of the Sydney Italian Festival. It was really busy and a bit of an assault on my still-recovering senses, but a trip to the Beppi's stand for a plate of polenta with wild mushrooms and parmesan and a bottle of San Pellegrino Aranciata sorted me out. (Tamzin had the eggplant parmigiana which was also delish!).

Next up was a chocolate, almond and ginger filled sweet shortcrust pastry (started with s...). It was melt in the mouth heaven! Feeling more than a little stuffed, we moved on to the second part of the day's activities... rollerblading! Tamzin is a bit of a pro these days but I'm a complete novice again after many years with my feet firmly planted on the ground.

We did a couple of laps of Centennial Park and despite a few hiccups with stopping (i.e: I couldn't) I managed to finish the afternoon without stacking once. Well done me... Dinner was a rather boring affair (soup) so I decided to whip up an old family favourite - Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding. As if I needed any more food today!









Mum's Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding
1 c flour
1 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
Topping:
3/4 c brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 3/4 c hot water

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
• Sift flour, baking powder, salt sugar and cocoa together into a large ovenproof dish.
• Add milk, vanilla and butter and beat until smooth.
• Sift over combined cocoa and brown sugar and gently pour over hot water.
• Bake for 55-60 minutes or until spongey.
• Serve with a dollop of organic unsweetened yoghurt.

Mmm cookies

I know the way to a man's heart is through his stomach because my early attempts to woo Neil (baked goodies for his lunches every day) obviously succeeded. An unfortunate side effect of this is having to drag myself into the kitchen every weekend to whip up a new batch of treats for 'elevenses' and 'fourses'. Pfft, who am I trying to kid... I LOVE those hours spent baking.

The latest treat was bill granger's Chocolate Peanut Chunk cookies. Now, after not one but two bill granger scone recipe disasters I was ready to avoid his baking recipes and just stick to the savoury meals... but I gave him one more chance. Glad I did... these were so good I even took some for my lunch.