kitchen love

We've not done much house-hunting since we sold this house, mainly due to the shortage of houses on the market. Estate agents assure us this will change once spring arrives. Meanwhile I've started thinking about how much stuff I'm going to have to get rid of. When we extended the house14 years ago I designed the kitchen myself, and my intent was to make it not just functional but with as much storage space as possible. So I'm so spoiled for cupboards and drawers that some things are seldom used but kept just because I've got the space, or they're behind glass and just for show.

I have two big pantries...

plus these...

plus this...plus these...

Now I'm not sentimental about houses and am looking forward to moving and living in a new neighbourhood, but there's no doubt I'm going to miss my kitchen dreadfully.

Meanwhile for the next few months we're making the most of it while we can.

We had this for dinner the other night...snapper with spicy yogurt marinade...cooked by Georgie. It was one of Jeremy and Jane Strode's recipes from this week's Good Living. It took no time to prepare and tasted fantastic. The recipe is here.

spring risotto

I love love love broad beans. They're my absolute favourite vegetable. They have such a short season - maybe I wouldn't love them so much if they were available all year round - so we tend to have them several times a week in spring.

My new delicious turned up yesterday. Ben O'Donoghue's spring risotto starring broad beans and asparagus (my second favourite vegetable) was my obvious pick for dinner last night and it was great. Here's how I made it - I altered the method slightly as I didn't fancy peeling the broad beans raw as the recipe stated.

Risotto Primavera (serves 4-6)

120g unsalted butter

1 white onion, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

2 cups (400g) carnaroli rice (I used arborio)

1 cup (250ml) dry white wine

5 cloves garlic

1/2 cup (80g) frozen peas

1 cup (120g) podded fresh broad beans, cooked and peeled

2L chicken stock, kept at a simmer

1/2 bunch asparagus (I used a whole bunch) thinly sliced at an angle - tips intact

1 cup (80g) grated parmesan

4 T mascarpone ( I omitted this)

1 T finely shredded mint leaves

Cook the broad beans in boiling water for a minute or two, drain, peel when cool enough to handle and set aside. Cook the asparagus slices in the simmering stock for a couple of minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Melt 80g of the butter in a wide pan over med heat. Cook the onion and celery, stirring, for 10 mins or until softened, adding the garlic for the final minute. Add the rice and stir for a further minute to coat the grains. Add the wine and cook, stirring, for 3 mins until absorbed. Add a ladleful of hot stock, stirring until almost all the liquid is absorbed. Continue to add stock, a ladleful at a time, gently stirring and making sure each is absorbed before adding the next, until the rice is al dente. This will take 20-25 minutes (you may not need all the stock). Add the last ladleful of stock, turn off the heat, and gently stir in the remaining butter, parmesan, peas, beans and asparagus. Cover and let stand for 10 mins. Serve topped with mascarpone and mint.

chickpea & tuna patties

A Sydney friend sends me the Good Living section out of Sydney Morning Herald on a Tuesday. I prefer it to Epicure in the Melbourne Age - there are more recipes and the articles are better, though some are a bit irrelevant when we don't live in Sydney. Jeremy and Jane Strode - co-owners of Bistrode in Surry Hills - have a weekly column. These chickpea and tuna patties were one of their recipe's from this week and they were delicious. I reckon they taste even better than the ones I usually make with mashed potato, with the added bonus that they're much quicker to make. The recipe is here. I made the slight alteration of rolling the patties in cornflake crumbs before frying for a bit of crunch.

winter comfort food

I'm back! This is my first post for weeks. With the house auction in mid-July I've been flat out keeping the place spotless for the twice-weekly Open-for-inspections. The house was sold - yay - so it's no longer pristine but all back to normal! What a relief being able to leave tea towels out on the rack, put the calendar back behind the kitchen door, not having to keep fresh flowers everywhere, and most importantly, being able to plan meals without worrying about whether there'll be any cooking smells.

We had our usual Sunday night family dinner last night. There's no way I'm cleaning the still-gleaming oven again before we move, which means no more roasts. So last night I made my new favourite winter recipe - Chicken and Chorizo Hotpot, which is really a sort of chicken cacciatore. It's a cinch to make - you just put everything in a roasting tin and bake it. The recipe is here.

There were 6 of us so I doubled everything. I've found the shallower the baking dish the crisper the chicken turns out. There might be too much liquid at the end of the cooking time, in which case you just drain it off and reduce it in a saucepan for a few minutes.

I served it with little fried potatoes, but mashed is good too. I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish but here are the leftovers....


For dessert I made Jill Dupleix's version of Sticky Date pudding. It's not only every one's favourite (even date-haters), it's perfect to make ahead and reheat. Here's the recipe.

I usually blitz the cooled date and water mixture for a few seconds with a stick mixer so that it resembles a lumpy batter, before adding it.

I reckon individual puddings look nicer than a slice so instead of baking it in one big tin I used a muffin tin, filling only 9 of the holes. Also this way any leftovers are easily frozen.

I've found the amount of sauce in the recipe is only enough for 6 serves as the pud soaks it all up, so make half as much again if you're using all the puddings.

fish in a bag

For dinner the other night I cooked Jamie Oliver's Steamed Fish in a Bag which was very quick and easy and tasted really good - definitely a keeper! I altered the method slightly as I went along. Jamie's recipe started by mashing up the lime leaves with a pestle and mortar. I tried that but only succeeded in tearing them slightly. So I just blitzed all the ingredients into a paste with the stick blender and poured it over the raw fish.

Jude's Jamie's Steamed fish in a bag (serves 2)

6 kaffir lime leaves, cut up roughly
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 large red chilli, seeds removed and roughly chopped
3 cm piece ginger, roughly sliced
handful coriander leaves plus extra for garnish
grated rind and juice of a lime
1 T soy sauce
2 T dry sherry
2 T olive oil
2 thick pieces of snapper

Preheat oven to 220C. Place a large oven tray on the centre rack. Tear off a metre of foil (I used the wide one), fold in half, then open out and turn up 5cm all round to create a shallow "tray". Spray or lightly smear with cooking oil. Place fish on one side.

With a stick blender, puree all the ingredients except the fish together to form a thickish sauce. Pour evenly over the fish. Fold over top half of foil and seal the 3 open sides securely with a double fold. Don't fold the foil right up to the edge of the fish - leave a 5cm or so space so that the steam can circulate.

Place the parcel carefully on the hot tray and bake for about 12 mins. until cooked through. Garnish with coriander and serve over steamed rice.

no-stir risotto

I love risotto, and never minded making it on the stove top with all that stirring. But after I discovered this recipe in delicious a couple of years ago I realised I had never really cooked it properly. Mine had always been slightly al dente, whereas with this method the rice is really creamy. Now I always adapt different risotto recipes to use this oven method.

I lashed out and bought this gorgeous Le Creuset pot especially, and it's perfect for risotto-for-two.

This recipe makes a creamy but fairly dry risotto, so if you prefer yours sloppier (and more authentically Italian?) then you'll need to add more liquid.

And there's only one pot and one baking tray to wash up afterwards.

fabulous fish

This was dinner last night - Tandoori salmon with cucumber & coconut sambal. It was another recipe from my stash cut out of past issues of food mags (in this case delicious), and it's definitely a keeper. It was quick and easy and tasted fantastic. The recipe is here

I must admit I omitted the saffron from the rice - I thought I had some in the pantry but I didn't - so I added a little turmeric for colour.

yellow rules!

I realised when I was cooking it that I could have entered last night's dinner in the Taste of yellow event instead of the lemon slice. This is my favourite home-made curry of all time. I've had the recipe for years - well before Thai-style curries were commonplace. I can't remember where it came from but there's a person's name and address at the bottom so it was obviously cut from a daggy women's mag. I've added a couple more ingredients over the years so it tastes even better than when I used to make it. Don't be tempted to buy chicken breast fillets. It's definitely worth the extra time and effort to cut all the fatty bits off chicken thighs - they have much more flavour and won't toughen however long you cook them.

Chicken coconut curry

1 small onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 red chilli, seeded and roughly chopped

grated rind and juice of 1 lime

1 T fish sauce

1 t turmeric

1 t ground cumin

2 t paprika

3cm piece of ginger, grated

1 T coriander roots (generally roots from 1 bunch)

handful coriander leaves

2 lime leaves, roughly torn (optional)

1 T peanut oil

800g chicken thigh fillets, fat removed and cut into strips (will weigh less after fat is removed)

3/4 cup coconut milk or cream

Process the first 12 ingredients, ideally with a stick blender but a food processor is fine, until you have a fairly runny smooth paste. Heat the oil in a heavy based pan over medium heat, add the paste and fry for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Increase heat, add the chicken and fry until it has changed colour. Add coconut milk/cream, bring to the boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 mins. If there is too much liquid, remove chicken with a slotted spoon and increase heat. Cook liquid until reduced a little, then put back chicken to reheat. Serve with rice and top with extra coriander leaves.

zucchini and feta tart

I made this very simple but delicious tart last night. I stayed pretty close the original recipe, which is from Gourmet Traveller magazine and is here, but I substituted goat's cheese for the feta. It was the perfect easy Sunday meal for a cool night.

pasta weather

A major heatwave in Melbourne last week, a wintry 11 degrees last night! A warming dish of high-carb pasta was definitely appropriate. This is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe from....??. The thing is, when you work in a public library (or used to), you see all the lovely new cookbooks come in. You rush out and buy the ones you just have to have, but the rest you photocopy a few dishes from and stash the pages away with the rest of your (enormous collection of) loose recipes. This one might be from his latest book Jamie at home but I'm not sure...

Zucchini carbonara (serves 4)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 small zucchini
500g penne
4 large free-range egg yolks
100ml cream
2 good handfuls grated Parmesan cheese
12 thick slices pancetta or bacon
small bunch thyme, leaves picked

Place egg yolks in a bowl with the cream and half the parmesan and mix together with a fork.

Add bacon to a large cold non-stick frying pan, place over high heat and cook until brown and crisp. Remove, drain on paper towels and roughly chop.

Wash and dry zucchini and slice thinly. Add to the hot pan containing the bacon fat with 2 large pinches of black pepper and sprinkle in the thyme leaves. Fry until golden on both sides and slightly softened.

Meanwhile cook pasta in plenty of salted boiling water and drain, reserving a little of the cooking liquid. Tip pasta back into the pot with the zucchini and bacon and stir over the heat for a few seconds to reheat the bacon. Remove from the heat (no more cooking or the eggs will scramble)and add the egg yolk mixture together with a little of the reserved pasta water. Stir together quickly and serve topped with remaining parmesan.

good friday birthday dinner

Georgie cooked a fantastic dinner for the 6 of us last night for Jeff's birthday. First course was king prawns with chilli and oregano :

Main course was baked flathead with roast potatoes and oregano :

and for dessert, strawberry granita with double cream :

It was the usual restaurant-standard fare we are used to since G. came to stay. All the recipes were adapted from Karen Martini's new book Cooking at home.

King prawns with chilli and oregano

16 very large raw king prawns

sea salt and pepper

150ml extra virgin olive oil

1-2 small red chillies, chopped

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 bunch oregano, leaves only

1/2 bunch flat-leafed parsley, leaves only

2 t grated lemon zest

lemon wedges to serve

Preheat oven to 220C or the grill to high. Cut prawns in half lengthwise leaving heads and tails intact, and devein. Place on a baking tray, season with s. and p. and drizzle with a little olive oil. Combine chilli, garlic, oregano, parsley, lemon zest and remaining olive oil in a food processor, season well and process to a paste. Bake or grill prawns for 6-7 mins. or until just changed colour. Top with the herb paste and serve with lemon wedges.

Baked flathead with roast potatoes, lemon and oregano (serves 6)

18 kipfler potatoes, very thinly sliced

9 golden shallots, finely sliced

9 cloves garlic, finely sliced

salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper to taste

6 T olive oil

300ml white wine

juice of 2 lemons

6 flathead fillets

Oregano dressing :

finely grated zest of 3 lemons

bunch oregano, leaves picked

1/2 bunch flat-leafed parsley

6 small red chillies, finely chopped (or to taste)

100 ml olive oil

2 cloves garlic

pinch sea salt

lemon juice to taste

Preheat oven to 185C and line a large baking dish with baking paper. To make the oregano dressing, combine all the ingredients exept the lemon juice in a food processor until a smooth paste. Stir in lemon juice. Combine the potatoes, shallots, garlic, salt and pepper and 3 T olive oil and arrange in the baking dish. Pour over the wine and bake for 20 mins. Rub the lemon juice and remaining olive oil over the fish, then season with salt and pepper. Place fish on top of potatoes and bake for 20-30 mins or until fish is just cooked. Serve drzzled with oregano dressing.

Strawberry granita with double cream

130g caster sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split

350 ml water

handful basil leaves

400g strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 lemon, juiced

125 ml double cream

6 large strawberries extra, hulled and sliced

Combine sugar, vanilla bean and water over heat in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then boil for 5 mins. Add the basil leaves, remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Strain, discarding the solids. Puree the strawberries and lemon juice in a blender then strain through a fine seive. Add to the cooled syrup, mix well and pour into a shallow wide metal tray. Freeze for 2 hours, remove from freezer and drag the frozen ice crystals from the edges with a fork. Return to freezer for about 1 1/2 hours until set. Remove and scrape/smash the crystals again. Divide the cream among serving dishes, then spoon in granita. Top with a layer of sliced strawberries to serve.

early donna v recent donna

We had this great Donna stir-fry for dinner the other night. The recipe's from Marie Claire flavours which was published in 2000. I've had this book since it came out and I reckon practically every recipe in it is really good.

Last night we had a Donna beef stir-fry that was in the H/S on Sunday and it was pretty ordinary. And a few things I've cooked from the mag lately haven't been that good either. So I'm thinking the early Donna recipes were much better than her recent ones.

Here's the yummy pork recipe :

Donna Hay's Pork ginger and lime stir-fry

1 T peanut oil
2 T shredded ginger
1 t cracked black pepper
6 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
2 cloves garlic, sliced
600g pork fillet, trimmed and sliced
3 T lime juice
2 T brown sugar
3 T sweet chilli sauce
bunch bok choy

Heat oil in a frying pan or wok. Add ginger, pepper, lime leaves and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add pork and stir-fry for 5 mins. or till well browned. Add lime juice, sugar and sweet chilli sauce and fry further 3 mins. or until sauce has thickened slightly. Toss through the bok choy and cook 1 min. Serve with steamed rice.

lazy sunday afternoon

We had a bit of a walk around St Kilda on this glorious sunny afternoon and stopped for coffee at Il Fornaio . We shared one of their yummy lemon meringue pies so I thought we should be good and have a light dinner. The recipe had to be one I've cut from delicious (and I'm feeling pretty smug as this weekend I've done lots more culling...there's only 12 months' worth left) so I chose a light and healthy Jill Dupleix salad.

I'd guess it's probably from her last book Lighten Up although it doesn't say. It was very good, but no wonder poor old Terry's lost all that weight. The recipe says it serves 4, but when I'd dished up two medium sized bowls for our dinner there was only a bit left over for my lunch tomorrow. Here's the (slightly altered) recipe:

Glass noodles with chicken, lime and mint (serves 4?)

4-5 chicken tenderloins

200g rice vermicelli

10 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/2 small cucumber, thinly sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

1 large red chilli, thinly sliced

100g bean sprouts, rinsed

handful mint, basil and coriander

2 T unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped

Dressing:

2 T lime juice

2 T fish sauce

2 T sweet chilli sauce

1 T olive oil

1 tspn caster sugar

Fry chicken in non-stick pan until cooked through. Slice against the grain. Cook noodles according to packet instructions, drain and snip through once or twice with scissors. Whisk together the dressing ingredients and toss through all ingredients except the peanuts. Divide amongst bowls and scatter with peanuts.

coconut chilli chicken

I loved to cook when I was young, especially sweet stuff. I can remember making endless batches of chocolate eclairs when one of the Girls' Annuals I used to be given every Xmas featured the recipe. So when my kids were growing up I kind of expected them to start hanging around the kitchen wanting to help. It didn't happen, but sometime between leaving home and now, they both turned into great cooks. Nick is a bit of a curry expert, while Georgie likes cooking modern style food, especially with Thai flavours, and rarely makes anything twice.

Here's the absolutely scrumptious dinner she cooked tonight .....

coconut, lime & chilli chicken (serves 4)

1Tab peanut oil

2 red chillies, seeded and chopped

finely grated rind of 2 limes

1Tab sugar

12 chicken tenderloins

100g baby spinach

300g beans, blanched

dressing

1 red chilli, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup coriander leaves

juice of 3 limes

1 Tab fish sauce

Heat oil in pan. Fry chillies, rind and sugar for 1 minute. Add chicken and cook 2 mins each side until golden. Mix dressing ingredients to combine. Place spinach leaves and beans in serving dish, top with chicken and pour over dressing.

I said it looked far too much for the three of us but we polished off the lot.

delicious fish

Georgie is staying with us temporarily and I am happy to step aside when she insists on cooking dinner. Last night she made a yummy fish recipe from an old delicious mag. Unlike me who has been stockpiling every issue ever published, she clips the recipes she likes the look of every month and then throws the cut-up mag away. I should do the same...wonder how long it would take to go through five (?) years of them. I'd have to have another lot of LSL. And I'd end up with a big messy pile of loose recipes. Any suggestions welcome.


Fried Fish with Tahini Sauce (serves 4)

3 bunches English spinach, stalks trimmed
1 Tab extra virgin olive oil
1 Tab lemon juice
2 Tabs plain flour
1 tspn dried mint
8 small skinless whiting fillets
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tabs vegetable oil
1 tspn butter
mild paprika to dust
lemon wedges to serve

tahini sauce
1 Tab tahini
1/3 cup low-fat yoghurt
1/2 tspn ground cumin

For the tahini sauce, mix the tahini with 2 Tbs water, then whisk in yoghurt and cumin until smooth.
Wash spinach and cook in a large pan over med heat for 1 -2 mins. until wilted. Drain well. Toss in olive oil and lemon juice and keep warm while cooking the fish. Season flour with mint, salt and pepper. Coat the fish with flour mixture, then in egg. Heat the vegetable oil and butter in a frypan and fry the fish in batches over medium heat for 1-2 mins. each side until golden and cooked through. Arrange spinach on plates, top with fish, drizzle with tahini sauce and dust with paprika. Serve with lemon wedges.

New Year's Eve

New Years Eve always means dinner for 8 at our place. Everyone brings a course so I just have to cook the main. I decided to do lamb in the outdoor electric kettle barbecue, using Karen Martini's recipe for roasted boned leg of lamb with basil, lemon, almond, oregano and garlic from her Where the heart is. I hadn't made it before but everything from the book has turned out really well so I was confident it would be ok.

I marinated the lamb legs overnight in zip-lock bags and let them come to room temperature before roasting. They took about 1 1/2 hours to cook, and the result was delicious and meltingly tender.

I've been wanting to try roast potatoes in duck fat a la Nigella for ages, but couldn't find duck fat anywhere. I finally found some at the local poultry shop and made little roast potato cubes. Maybe not so healthy but they were crispier than done in oil and had a lovely flavour. (Note: I later remembered Nigella uses goose fat. It's Nigel Slater who uses duck fat. I'll keep a lookout for goose fat to try.)

I've just reread Julian Barnes' The pedant in the kitchen. This hilarious book is perfect for anyone who loves to cook, and particularly for those who, like me, collect and read cookbooks with a passion. One of the funniest chapters "No, I won't do that" is about the River Cafe Cook Book's (extravagant - 10 eggs!) Chocolate Nemesis, and the disasters that ensued when it was made by amateur cooks. This, says Julian Barnes, lead to the "paranoid explanation ...that some key element of the recipe had deliberately been omitted, thereby driving customers back to the (River Cafe) restaurant for the authentic item."

I made a version of Chocolate Nemesis for a NYE dinner a few years ago from a recipe in a delicious magazine. From what I can remember it was pretty straight forward and turned out fine, so perhaps it was not exactly the same as the original recipe. In the book Julian Barnes goes on to say that when River Cafe Easy was published, the Chocolate Nemesis recipe was halved and the cooking time altered considerably. I wanted to try out this "easy" version, but as our dessert was being brought by someone else, Georgie and I thought we'd make it for her own NYE dinner party. Here's the recipe .

I didn't get to try it but Georgie's guests apparently loved it. No-one took a photo of it once it was cut...hopefully it looked something like this picture of the delicious version!

New Year's Eve was a double celebration as it was the Beautiful Bridesmaid's 60th birthday on Christmas day. So of course, a good excuse for cupcakes! Happy birthday Jen.

And a very, very Happy New Year to all!

pasta sunday

Georgie came over and made this for dinner tonight. There are only a few ingredients so it can be rustled up in no time. It was delicious...not surprising as she's a great cook.

Asparagus and Rocket Spaghettini

80ml extra virgin olive oil
8 asparagus spears cut into 5cm lengths
400g spaghettini
120g rocket (shredded)
2 long red chillies, chopped finely
2 tspns grated lemon rind
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 cup grated Parmesan
2 tabs lemon juice
salt + ground black pepper to taste

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Blanch asparagus for 4 mins. Remove with a slotted spoon, refresh under cold water, drain and place in a bowl. Return water to the boil and add spaghettini. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and return to the pan.

Meanwhile add the rocket, chilli, lemon rind, garlic and 2/3 cup of the Parmesan to the asparagus and mix well. Add to the pasta, pour on the lemon juice and olive oil and season with salt and ground black pepper. Stir well to evenly coat the pasta with the mixture. Serve and top with remaining Parmesan.

Serves 4

salad days

It's been too hot to cook so the last couple of nights we've had a salad for dinner. Last night it was a variation on a Karen Martini recipe from a recent Sunday Life mag. It was very fast and easy to prepare, and like everything I've made from Karen's book Where the heart is it was very good.

Chicken, Couscous and Spinach Salad

50g couscous
50 ml chicken stock or water
1/2 tspn mixed spice
1 Tab extra virgin olive oil
4 Tabs plain yoghurt
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 Tab red wine vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper
handful shredded basil leaves
2 Tabs pinenuts, toasted
1/2 bought cooked chicken, shredded
few large handfuls coarsely shredded baby spinach
few baby cos leaves

Add boiling water or stock to couscous and stand 2 mins. Separate grains with fork. Whisk together spice, oil, yoghurt, onion, vinegar, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Toss together with chicken, leaves and couscous. Scatter with pinenuts. Serves 2.

Tonight I made a Thai beef salad based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. This is very flexible - you can add or subtract ingredients and/or vary the amounts according to your taste.

Thai Beef Salad

Mixture of shredded salad greens (I used Chinese cabbage and baby spinach)

1 carrot, julienned or coarsely shredded

large handful bean sprouts

1/2 cup coriander leaves

1/4 cup shredded basil leaves

2 spring onions chopped

1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, lightly crushed

2 small medallions eye fillet

dressing:

1 Tab lime juice (or lemon)

1 Tab fish sauce

2 tspns olive oil

1 tspn sesame oil

1/2 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped

2 tspns brown sugar

Char-grill or pan-fry meat to your preferred degree of 'doneness' and rest for 10 mins. Slice thinly. Whisk the dressing ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Toss lightly with remaining ingredients, divide between two plates and scatter beef on top. Garnish with a few extra coriander leaves. Serves 2.