warm winter salads

i hate winter. i really do. i hate rugging up in five layers of clothing before i go out. i hate jumping out of a hot shower into ice cold air. i hate getting into bed and flapping my arms and legs around to warm the bed up. ...

the ONLY thing i love about winter, is the yummy food that warms your tummy up. now, normally for me, this would be hearty soups and casseroles but last night, i thought i would try a warm salad. now, it doesn't bring the same sort of comfort as soup does, but it's a really nice change. i found this one in the latest donna hay mag....

warm potatoes, beetroot, watercress and ocean trout salad

ingredients

*800g chat potatoes

*400g broad beans (blanched and shelled)

* bunch baby beetroot (i just used normal beetroot, peeled them and cut them into chunks)

* bunch watercress (leave picked and washed)

*400g smoked ocean trout, flaked

dressing

*half cup of egg mayonaise

* 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

* 1 tablespoon horseradish (i left this out as i'm not a horseradish fan)

* 1 cloved garlic - diced/minced

* sea salt and cracked black pepper

*boil potatoes in salted water till tender (15mins)

* put beetroot into bowl and coat with a little olive oil

* when tender, drain and cool slightly, then press each one with back of a spoon to 'smash' them a little

*put 2 tablespoon oil into pan and put into over (220 degrees) for 5 mins

* take pan out and put potatoes and beetroot in it and return to overn for 20min or until beetroot are cooked and potatoes crispy

* in a bowl, put watercress, broad beans, flaked ocean trout

* take potatoes and beetroot out of oven and cool slightly before putting into bowl with rest of stuff

* toss gently, then plate up and drizzle dressing on top

level of difficulty: can watch tv at the same time

time: light from sydney to melbourne

end result:good but more like the back up singers than the main star

Fondant that masterchef!!

Now i'm a fan, i really am, of most cooking shows including masterchef - Australia and UK version. But anyone watching either show or a number of other such cooking show could easily be fooled into believing that chocolate fondant is difficult to master and likely to be a disaster! Well fondant to that i say!! This is a myth, similar to the "souffle is difficult to master" myth as well.. (hmm wonder what that is all about??).. well i found a gordon ramsey chocolate fondant recipe- one that is destined for my definately to call upon over and over again section of my extensive recipe collection. This recipe is- even if i say so myself.. to die for!! It's cake like exterior ever so protectively holds inside the yummy chocolatey goodness that spills forth when you break into it... served with vanilla ice cream.. not much else is needed!!

Chocolate Fondant (makes 9)

*50g melted butter *cocoa powder for dusting

*200g good quality dark chocolate chopped small pieces *200g butter, small pieces

*200g golden caster sugar *4eggs and 4 yolks

*200g plain flour.

# Get moulds ready (i used ramekins). Heavily brush moulds with butter, place in fridge/freezer. Take out, brush more melted butter over chilled butter, add spoonful cocoa into mould to coat, tap out any excess.

# Melt butter and chocolate together, stir till smooth, cool for 10mins

#Whisk eggs and yolks together with sugar till thick and pale. Sift flour into eggs, beat together.

#Pour melted chocolate into egg mixture in thirds, beat well between each addition.

#Divide mixture evenly between moulds. Chill for min of 20mins or up to night before.

#Heat oven to 200C. Palce fondants on baking tray, cook 12 mins. Remove from oven and sit 1/2 mins before turning out.

#plate up with ice cream or cream!!

Enjoy! Ange xx

Lvl Difficulty - can watch tv at same time

Time- Flight syd-Melb

End Result - DROP EVERYTHING!!! MUST TRY THIS NOW!!!!!

Nutella Nutella Nutella

Can there be such a thing as too much nutella?.. i think perhaps not. Nutella, it's like a faithful friend, consistent and always just the right thing! Nutella is sacred to the Italians, you find it everywhere you go anywhere in Italy, and really who can blame them. There is always a jar in my cupboard. So you can imagine the delight when i happened across a nutella tart recipe. Yum just the dessert for easter!!

The recipe comes from Pierre Herme.. Thank you Pierre!! Thank you Italia!!

Nutella Tart - The crust

*285g unsalted butter, room temp. *150g sifted confectioner's sugar

*1/2 c almond meal *1/2 tsp salt

*1/2 tsp vanilla extract *2lge eggs, room temp, lightly beaten

*3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.

Put butter in mixer bowl with paddle attachment. Beat low speed till creamy. Add sugar, almond meal, salt, vanilla, and eggs. On low speed continue to beat ingredients. Add flour in 3/4 batches until mix comes together to form moist dough. Gather it into a ball, divide into 3/4 pieces (3 pieces for 3 26cm tarts..) Wrap in cling film. Allow dough to rest for 4 hours in fridge or up to 2 days, before rolling and baking (you can freeze this dough for one month).

When ready, roll dough out on lightly floured surface 2-4cm thick. Fit dough into tart pan, base and sides. prick dough all over with fork, chill 30mins in fridge. Preheat oven to 180C, blind bake crust 18-20mins, remove paper bake for further 5 mins. Remove from oven and completely cool.

For Filling

*200g nutella *140g good quality chocolate (70%) finely chopped

*200g unsalted butter *1 lge egg rom temp. stirred with fork

*3 lgr egg yolks, room temp, stirred with fork *2T sugar

*1 cup Hazelnuts toasted, skinned chopped in large pieces.

Preheat oven to 190C, spread nutella evenly over bottom of crust and set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter in seperate bowls, allow to cool.

Using small whisk stir egg into chocolate, little by little stir in egg yolks, then the sugar. Finally stir in the melted butter. Pour ganache over nutella in tart shell, scatter hazelnuts on top.

Bake tart for 11mins. Remove from oven, allow to cool... enjoy! Ange xx

Lvl Difficulty - Can watch tv at same time

Time - Aside from dough resting - flight syd-melb

End result - High fives all 'round

gathering of friends... Easter style!! or was it Xmas catch up?...

It's always going to a good night when we gather at Patty and Jeff's place. Their home is so warm and inviting, and the guests present are good friends who enjoy a good laugh with and warmly at each other... So this happened way back in early April.. perhaps even end of March.

Patty took on the main with the assistance fo his first assistant Brendan.. My contribution was an entree- Stuffed mushrooms, and the dessert, carmel cheesecake. Of course there is always room for that wonderful delight of rocky road! To the food..

The mushrooms and cheesecake both came from the delicious magazine (April 2010).

Stuffed mushrooms with gorgonzola dressing

*2T unsalted butter *1/4c olive oil

*1 onion, finely chopped *2 cloves garlic finely chopped

*8 anchovies, roughly chopped *3 cups fresh breadcrumbs

*1 cup grated parmesan * 2T finely chopped parsley

*4 large flat mushrooms *250g roman beans trimmed

* 1 Radicchio, leaves separated

Gorgonzola Dressing

*1 egg yolk *1 garlic clove roughly chopped

*2t hot english mustard *1T white wine vinegar

*1ooml sunflower oil *20g gorgonzola piccante, plus extra

*1T rosemary finely chopped

Preheat oven 200C. For dressing whiz egg yolk, garlic, mustard & vinegar in food processor. With motor running add oil slowly drop by drop first then steady stream til thick. transfer this to bowl. In clean processor, blend gorgonzola and rosemary with 2T lukewarm water until smooth. Fold into egg mix, season, Fridge till needed.

Heat butter and 1T oil in pan medium heat. Add onion, garlic, anchovies, cook, stirring 8 minutes. Onions should be soft, anchovies dissolved. Remove from heat, stir in breadcrumbs, parmesan and parsley, season. Remove stalks from mushrooms, lay flat on oiled baking tray. Fill with crumb mix, drizzle with oil, bake 15min till topping golden.

Meanwhile blanch beans in salted water 1/2 mins. Drain. Divide beans, radicchio, extra cheese amonge plates top with mushrooms. drizzle with dressing.

Note- ok so the first time i made this for this feast, i did use packaged breadcrumbs.. meant it was quite a dry dish.. next time i used day old sourdough, that i put in oven and processed.. much better result!

Lvl Difficulty - Can watch tv at same time

Time - Flight Syd-Melb

End Result- More like back singers at this event, but hi fives second attempt!

Baked dulce de leche cheesecake with toffee shards

*300g digestive biscuits *90g unsalted butter, melted

*750g cream cheese chopped *2T cornflour

*3 eggs *340g caster sugar
*2tsp vanilla extract *2x450g dulce de leche
*600ml sour cream

Preheat oven 200C & grease 23cm springform pan. Finely crush biscuits in food processor, pour in mleted butter, pulse to combine. Press into base of pan. Bake 8mins, remove from oven, reduce oven to 160C. Meanwhile place cream cheese in processor with cornflour, eggs, 100g sugar, 1Tsp vanilla. Process till smooth. Add one jar Dulche de leche, process till smooth. Pour over biscuit base. Bake 45mins. Meanwhile place sour cream in bowl, add 20g sugar and 1tsp vanilla. Beat with wooden spoon to combine. Remove cheesecake from oven. Top with sour cream bake for another 15mins till set. Leave in switched off oven with door ajar till compltely cooled, chill overnight.

To make toffee shards, line tray with foil. Stir 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in pan, low heat till sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, cook till golden. Pour onto foil, swirling to spread toffee. Set aside, cool, break into shards.

When ready to serve add, 2/3 T boiling water to dulche de leche till you have smooth sauce consistency. Top cake with shards, drizzle with sauce..Enjoy!!

Lvl Difficulty- Can watch tv at same time

Time - Lord of rings trilogy

End results - Drop everything, must try this now!

green tea tiramisu

soooooooo......... on the flight home from japan, gareth's meal came with a green tea tiramisu but because i have the vegetarian meal, i get boring stuff. airlines assume that cause you're a vego it automatically means you're a vegan and that means no dairy and no eggs grrrrr! so, ate half of gareth's green tea tiramisu and was pleasantly surprised at how much i liked. so much so that i came home and googled the recipe!

so, i found this recipe off this woman's blog "http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2007/01/green-tea-ramisu.html" however i didn't find it as easy to make as she had made out but it was still delicious...

ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 cups of strongly brewed green tea (i used 3 teabags but next time i think i'll use 4)

2 - 3 packets of ladyfinger biscuits depending on whether you want to do the fence

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

250g mascarpone cheese

1 cup heavy cream (i didn't know what heavy cream was so i used thickened cream but next time will use 1 1/2 cups instead)

1 tspn vanilla extract

2 tspns matcha (green tea powder)

* beat the egg yolks and sugar in stainless steel bowl over pot of simmering water until the mixture is pale and double in size (now i had a little trouble with this trying to figure out when it was ready)

*cool the mixture in an ice water bath (i didn't do this, i just left it to cool whilst doing the other stuff)

*in a mixer, beat the mascarpone cheese until smooth and creamy

* add the match powder small amounts at a time. mix to blend well but don't over beat

* fold the mascarpone cheese into the egg yolk mixture

* in a seperate bowl, whip the cream till soft peaks form. add vanilla.

* fold the marscarpone mixture into the whipped cream and gently mix.

* dip each ladyfinger quickly into the brewed green tea and line the base of a cheesecake tin (if you want to do the fences, then line the side of the tin with ladyfingers that haven't been dipped)

* spread a layer of the cream over the top and then repeat with soaking and layering the ladyfingers (be careful not to soak them too much, dip them quickly so they get moist but that's it)

* the recipe said 3 layers of biscuits and 3 layers of cream but i only got 2 layers (however that could be cause i used thickened cream or cause i didn't beat the egg yolks enough - who knows)

* refrigerate overnight.

level of difficulty: read a few times and make notes before you try

time: free parking in shopping centre almost up

end result: hi fives all 'round

enjoy! we did!

ky xx

s

let's talk eggs

Well there went easter!! so many posts to put up yet, however my internet connection refuses to co-operate! so hopefully in the not too distant future you will see the nutella tart, stuffed mushrooms, caramel cheesecake and yes the divine rocky road!!!
Till then, lets talk eggs- easter eggs...

So many different ones to choose from, from the coloured greek kind - pretty to look at, not really fabulous eating choice.. i mean really it's a boiled egg.. and usually some food colouring has seeped through so that don't look too appetising and then you start to think.. wow i wonder how many days ago this egg was boiled and coloured.. see what i mean?..
then you have those fully foul candy/sugar eggs, those, they are just plain WRONG!!! -
So give me a lindt bunny, an egg with m&ms in it or a fruit and nut cadbury's egg (very hard to come by) and that works... Oh and i did come across those small cadbury solid eggs with strawberry filling.. yum they were good as well!!
Well have to dash off to kill myself running up hills twenty times all for the pleasure of having had all those chocolate eggs... it was worth it though!
Hope you had a nice easter!
Ange
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