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.

The Biggest Morning Tea

Work held its Biggest Morning Tea cancer fundraiser on Wednesday 31 May and after the success of my cupcakes at my bosses bbq earlier this year, I couldn't resist whipping up another batch. I use the Magnolia Bakery recipe with a few slight adjustments as the originals are just too sweet for this side of the world.

Bored and Baking

I've had a hankering for a good hunk of ginger crunch for a while. Auntie Pauline used to do a good crunchy GC, but since then every piece I've come across has looked the part, but has ended up too base-y, not ginger-y enough or just plain disappointing.

During my trawl through the contents of Nana's Recipe Drawer I found this little gem of a recipe that ticked all the boxes.

GINGER CRUNCH
Base:
125g butter
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 c plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger

Icing:
2 tbsp butter
3 tsp ground ginger
2 rounded tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp water
2 c icing sugar

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line an 18x28cm slice tin with baking paper making sure to have enough at the sides so you can pull the slice out when it's cooled.
• For the base: Cut the cold butter into cubes and place in a food processor with the flour, baking powder and ginger. Pulse until the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. Press the crumbly mixture into the slice tin firmly and evenly.
• Bake for about 10 minutes or until evenly and lightly browned. While hot, it will still feel hot. While the base cooks, prepare the icing.
• For the icing: Place the butter, ginger, golden syrup and water in a saucepan and heat without boiling until melted. Take off the heat and stir in sifted icing sugar. Beat until smooth.
• When the base is cooked, take it from the oven and pour the warm icing over the hot base. Spread evenly over the base.
• Leave the slice in the tin to cool and set.
• When it has cooled completely, remove from the tin. Slice into large squares and store in an airtight container. Do not refrigerate!