Sunday cooking is fun-day cooking

It seems like I have been in the kitchen all day today and I really do not have a great deal to show for my efforts, unless of course your taking a look at my ever growing girth!

I have had a craving to try making choux pastry, I do not know why, maybe I am afraid I will one day be fool enough to enter a cooking competition and be handed the task to cook profiteroles, or perhaps it is just wanting to replicate the food I grew up with, my Mum makes awesome chocolate éclairs, I ate so many of them on one occasion it made me sick, perhaps that is why I don’t seek them out nowadays.

Whatever the reason I found myself boiling water and butter together this morning and then adding some flour, which is whisked as quickly as you can, I loved it the way the dough formed, very similar to making rue for a white sauce.  Even more interesting was piping out the creamy dough and then watching it puff up whilst cooking in the oven, I was like a big kid I got so excited, and I am really developing a love for baking!

It seemed to turn into a marathon effort to get the bloody things finished though and I in fact left them to first make lunch and then dinner before going bake to make custard for the filling and a chocolate sauce to go on top, and they ended up looking pretty ordinary, so it seems I have still a bit of work to do to get them to a point that I am going to be satisfied with them.

Somewhere between making lunch, custard and a chocolate sauce I got started on a simple tomato sauce for dinner to go with some pasta, I like to cook tomato sauce for as long as I can and to I had the opportunity to do just that.

I made some pasta dough with a fifty-fifty mix of 00 flour and semolina and used 1 egg and five yolks I had left over from another dish, the dough was a lot harder than I am used too, but once I had it through the rollers it worked out alright.  Once it was rolled out I made some little pasta pillows stuffed full of a ricotta, mozzarella and prosciutto mixture.  

Originally I started out making ravioli, but actually ended up with some half moon shapes, but I wasn’t too worried, especially when I got to eat it, as it tasted great and had a nice little bite to it.  I dished Jo up three of the flavour packed pasta pillows with some tomato sauce and a couple of slices of garlic bread, she obviously like them as she came back for some more, but then to be honest, so did I, they were delicious!

Jack's Seafood Spaghetti with Asparagus

Ingredients:
2 tbl spn olive oil, I used chilli infused EVOO YUM YUM
1 onion, diced
small red capsicum, diced
3 - 4 anchovy fillets
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bunch asparagus, chopped
3/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 fillet fish, diced
200g prawn flesh
100g scallops
250g spaghetti
salt and pepper

Method:

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil, once boiling add the pasta and cook as per packet directions  

Heat oil in heavy based pan on low to medium heat, once oil is hot add onions, capsicum and anchovies, sauté slowly for 8 minutes, adding garlic half way through

Add asparagus, cook for a couple of minutes, increasing heat to medium-hot

Then add wine and cook off until evaporated by about half

Add the fish and parsley, stir through and cook for about two minutes, season with pepper, test for saltiness, add some if required 

Add the prawn flesh, stir through cooking for a minute 

Add the scallops, stir through the sauce for about thirty seconds

Cover and turn the heat off, leave sitting until pasta is ready there will be enough heat in the pan to cook the scallops perfectly

Once pasta is cooked add to the pan

Combine with the sauce, put the lid back on whilst you cut some crusty bread and open a bottle of wine

Bon appetto

Wanted something quick and tasty for dinner tonight, this pasta dish filled the bill nicely, it took about 40 minutes from start to finish and it was scrumptious, I had to call into the veggie shop to pick up some fresh parsley and spotted the asparagus as I was at the check out, so glad I picked some up it went fantastic with the seafood pasta.

I loved the colours of this dish through the cooking process, hence the numerous photo's!!  Now whilst I am talking about photo's, if you click on a photo, it should open up to full size and you can easily scroll through all photo's posted, have noticed this works on most blog sites I visit.

Creamy chicken and herb fettuccine

Driving home from work tonight when I asked Jo what she would like for dinner, she replied she wasn’t sure, but then after I said I was thinking something with chicken, she muttered something about a dish I had not cooked for a long time, I knew immediately what she wanted even though she had no idea what to call it, nor had time to describe it.

The dish she was thinking about is a long time favourite for both of us, one I first saw being cooked on a television daytime show by Colette Mann, the blond girl that used to be on Prisoner, ye God’s how long ago was that? Prisoner I mean, not the daytime show!

I remember I was taken by the dish for what was in it as much as the way it looked on the plate and it looked awesome.  I had tried to write the recipe down as Colette cooked the meal on the show, but was not so successful, however I was lucky enough to find it in a woman’s magazine a little time latter in a doctors surgery and I ripped the page from the book and shoved it in my pocket.  

I still have the page, not that I need it anymore, I shopped on my way home for the ingredients and it is over two years since I cooked it last, I had everything I needed when I got home, including mushrooms which I had picked up thinking I was going to add something new to the dish, only to find on checking the ingredients list that mushrooms have always been on the list!

The hardest part of cooking this dish is the drive home from the shopping centre as the core ingredient is a BBQ'd chook, where the hard part comes, is smelling the lovely aroma of it all the way home whilst you are hanging out to rip a drumstick off and to get stuck in, Jo suffered tonight more than I though, such was her hunger!

 Creamy Chicken and herb fettuccini

Ingredients to serve 4
400g fettuccini	1 tbl spn Dijon mustard
2 tb spn EVOO	1/3 cup semi dried tomatoes, chopped
1 leek, finely sliced	½ BBQ chicken, boned and shredded
1 clove garlic, crushed	2 tbl spns oregano, chopped
300g button mushrooms, sliced	1/3 cup parsley, chopped
2 cups chicken stock	120g English spinach
1 cup thickened cream	1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Method

Cook pasta according to instructions

Heat oil in large pan, add leeks and garlic, sauté until softened. Add mushrooms, stock, cream, mustard, tomatoes, chicken, oregano and parsley, cook uncovered for ten minutes or until reduced by half, then add pasta to the pan and stir through sauce

Serve on a bed of spinach, with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and hot garlic bread.

A truly yummy dish and one we have and will enjoy again from time to time, there are so many great flavours as you eat this meal, though I think the best is when you get some of the BBQ'd skin, YUM YUM!!

Spaghetti con polpette

As we were pulling out of our driveway to head down South for the Easter break, Jo noticed something sticking out of the letterbox.  I stop the car to retrieve it and it turned out to be some fine reading for the weekend, it was my May issue of the Gourmet traveller magazine.

The Shack

This magazine turned out to be very popular among the many nieces I spent that weekend with, it had a very eye catching dish on the cover and better still it was backed up by a sensational sounding recipe for a pasta dish.  In fact one niece asked if she could borrow the mag whilst she copied it down, she was so taken with it, I told her not to bother because all she needed to do was go online and download it.
I am not sure if Mel’s has cooked the dish yet, but the other day when Jo asked I cook pasta for her, I did not have to give it another thought as I knew exactly what I was cooking for dinner!

Cooking with love!

Spaghetti con polpette, a fancy name for plain a old spag and meatballs you might think, but to tell you the truth this dish was anything but plain, it was totally awesome, packed full of good homely flavours, the kind that have you going back for a little bit more, even though you know you have eaten a little bit more than you should.  It was just as good the next day when reheated for lunch, just should have done a bigger bowl so I could have a go at it the next day too!

These were so easy to make! Yet full of flavour.

When you come across the recipe in the magazine, it looks a bit like one of those advertisement styled recipes, as there is an ad for Italian Passata at the bottom of the page, one of the ingredients in the recipe.  I did not notice this until tonight, when I took a quick look at it to check some spelling, the funny part about that is, I did not use shop brought passata, did not even consider it when I shopped on my way home without the full list of ingredients, because I had decided I would be making my own passata.
To make the salsa al pomodoro, I first baked eight large vine ripened tomatoes in my oven for an hour, I just sliced them in half through the equator, laid them out on baking paper then drizzled some oil and sprinkled thyme, oregano, basil and salt and pepper over the top.  Once they have baked for the hour, take them out remove the skin, mash or puree and they go into a saucepan with  200ml of chicken stock (homemade of course), bring this to a boil then simmer for 45 minutes.  Don’t forget though to follow the recipe with the frying of a little garlic and chilli before adding the baked tomato sauce and add the extra herbs, it will only intensify the flavours.

Delicious!

Ok, yes the shop brought stuff would have been easier, quicker too, but he flavour of doing it this way is second to none, shop brought stuff just ain’t cooked with that much love!   Check out the recipe at Gourmet Traveller, just click back there on Gourmet Traveller!

The meatball element of the dish, were so easy to make and the fact I could buy a veal and pork combined mince pack from Woollies helped too, these meatballs were so good, I think I ave convinced myself to make it this dish again this weekend, I know it will be coming to the camp next year, only this time it won’t be on the cover of a magazine!

Now whilst I am on the subject of cooking favoured dishes again, and in this house at least and again!  I pleased Jo no end last night when I suggested I cook her Beef Eye Fillet in the same manner I had a week before, not much change to it really just varied the veg marginally.  The interesting thing to me was how different two very similar dishes can look, to see what I mean compare this photo below of last night’s effort with what I produced for my last blog!  Jo's efforts to get me thinking about how I am plating up, is at work here, she is if nothing else, very persistent!

Beef eye fillet with Roasted Pumpkin Mash, Roast Potato and Carrot finished with Mushroom Dijon Sauce and Caper Berries

Rigatoni, pork sausage, sage, tomato, garlic and chilli

Playing catch up today, after a week of not feeling on top of the world, thanks to my Sydney flu!

 I loved making this dish, the flavours whilst cooking had my mouth watering from start to finish, and it was so awesome to sit down and eat.
It always seems the simpler the pasta sauce recipe the better the pasta sauce, and this one makes no exception, the flavours from the sauce are incredible and very it is very hard to say no to a second serving.

I made a slight adjustment to the recipe, pulling back a little on the chilli flakes, I only added about ¾ teaspoon, instead of the 2 listed in the ingredients, and am glad I did as it was quite spicy and had it been any hotter, would have been too hot for our liking.

The pork sausages come from our local IGA store and they are the best, we will often have them just panned fried on a weekend with a light salad, they are very good tasting sausages, put them in a fantastic sauce like this one and you have to end up with a great meal, just be sure there is plenty of crusty bread on hand

Chicken and Pasta

It was nice to be home again tonight after having a lovely weekend away in Sydney for a wedding.   For the past four days it seemed like all I did was eat food, read about food and eat some more, and the food at the wedding was amazing, plenty of it and very well done from start to finish.

We started off with a huge antipasto plate, followed up by a very tasty mushroom tortellini and for the main it was either a rack of lamb or a chicken breast with camembert cheese.  

I had the lamb and it was so tender, table etiquette went out the window a little though when I picked up and chewed the bones, it was very nice.  Jo had the chicken, which she enjoyed very much, the dessert included spearmint ice-cream, chocolate mousse, a chocolate coated strawberry and a little lemon curd tart, to say we were full after all that would an understatement.

We stayed with our friend Princess Mary’s, at her place in Willoughby, which is a great location being close to the city and surrounded by fantastic cafes and restaurants.  Mary has a library full of cook books, which kept me busy and I was able to nick a few recipes from the wonderful collection of books, just hope I can read my writing ok now!

As nice as it is eating out and being waited on is, it was great to get home tonight and prepare dinner for Jo and myself, it was nothing to fancy though, as we have not shopped and there is little in the house.  I made a very simple tomato sauce, following a recipe I pinched out of an Italian cookbook, unfortunately I cannot remember what it was called, but the recipe looked simple but tasty and that is exactly what we got.  I crumbed some chicken to go with it, using fresh breadcrumbs and adding a tablespoon of fresh lemon thyme, salt and pepper, a ¼ cup of grated pecorino cheese, a tablespoon of dried Italian herds.  For the sauce I minced a small onion and cooked it in oil over a moderate heat until it was translucent, then added a minced stick of celery, a handful of chopped parsley and a crushed clove of garlic, mixed in with the onion and cooked slowly for 10-15 minutes.  Whilst the celery was cooking I dice up ten very ripe tomatoes, these where added to the pan along with a generous sprinkling of salt and cracked pepper, after mixing the tomatoes in with the other ingredients, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the sauce is cooked remove from the heat and stir through a handful of freshly torn basil. I cooked up some spaghetti and once cooked drain the water off then stirred through half the sauce, then placed the chicken on the pasta and spooned more sauce over the top.  A very simple but tasty dinner!

Thanks for having us Mary, and for the fantastic recipes, can't wait to try them out!

Nona’s meatballs in tomato sauce with fried aubergine

Love this recipe, it is extremely easy to throw together and always tastes fantastic, the meatballs are the yummiest I have ever tasted and the fresh home grown aubergines went so nice with them too, thanks MIL for the aubergines.  Ha ha heard a funny story whilst cooking them aubergines, apparently Jo texted her Mum last night to thank her for them, she texted back and said "you’re welcome darling", as she usually does, then this morning Jo rang her and thanked her again, Mother dearest laughed and asked “what are aubergines”, good on ya Mum,  v funny!

Start out by getting your big mixing bowl out for this one and throw 750g premium beef mince into it, followed a good handful of grated tasty cheese, a cup of grated parmesan cheese, 4 eggs, a couple of garlic cloves crushed, 1 ½ cups of fresh breadcrumbs, 2 tbsp mixed Italian herbs, a decent cranking of black pepper and a shake of salt.  Now wash your hands and mix all that together until well combined, then with wet hands grab half a handful and roll into a ball, about the size of a squash ball, repeat until you have about 20 balls ready to cook all nicely lined up on a tray.  Now heat some vegetable oil in a heavy based frying pan, you want it about 2-3 ml deep, when the oil is nice and hot add the meatballs, turning often whilst they cook for 8-10 minutes. When they are cooked remove to your tray that is now lined with paper towel and bung them in the oven to keep warm, have oven at about 120C.  Now using the same pan and oil fry the aubergine, which I dusted lightly with rice flour, salt and pepper, cook until golden both sides, remove from pan add put with the meatballs in the oven.  Drain off the oil from the pan and remove any meat crumbs, now using the same pan, add a tbsp olive oil, let that heat a little then add a finely diced onion, a fine diced green capsicum, a crushed garlic clove or two and a tbsp mixed Italian herbs, stir whist cooking.  Cook until onions are softened then add 1 cup stock, stir pan to remove stuck bits, then add two cans of crushed tomatoes, if you have whole tomatoes like I did, you get to have fun squishing them between your fingers.  Bring sauce to the boil, and then reduce to simmer with the lid on.  Now cook your pasta, bring water to the boil, once it is boiled add your pasta, then take meatballs from the oven and add them to the sauce, spoon sauce all over them and let them simmer whilst the pasta cooks, about 8-11 minutes depending on the pasta you have chosen.  Serve meatballs with sauce over the pasta and add aubergines to the side, bon appétit.

Sausage and capsicum pappardelle

Found this recipe on Gourmet Traveller and it is a rather good one. I was especially attracted to this recipe because of the ingredients, firstly the pork sausage and then the roasted capsicum. I love anything with roasted capsicum in it and matching it with pork sausages was a big plus. I have not had pappardelle before, it is what I would call ribbon pasta, it is a bit like fettuccini but about twice as thick, apparently Pappardelle pasta origins are in the Tuscany region of Italy. I used the thick Italian sausages, I get them from our local IGA in Cedric St and they are the nicest sausages I have ever eaten, the flavour is awesome but not over the top as many seem to be, they went fantastic in this.  Will be looking forward to my lunch tomorrow!



You can find the recipe here http://gourmettraveller.com.au/sausage_and_capsicum_pappardelle.htm

Veal parmigiana with pasta and salad

Saturday, August 14 2010

Was fortunate enough to be at the footy today thanks to Jo’s gorgeous cousin, we had great seats out of the sun and the game was entertaining, though we did lose it in the last few minutes we enjoyed the outing, so thanks Son and Rob for thinking of us.

I have not been feeling so well the past few days, though Friday I thought I was better and tucked into a yummy pizza which had oodles of blue cheese all over it, I am thinking it was not the brightest thing to have done now and I suffered a little during the day because of it.

Was unsure about the start time for the game @ 1:10 it was unusual time to start, I think it affected the crowd numbers too as there were lots of empty seats, but later when we were home and I had started preparing dinner by 4:30 I really appreciated that early start.

I love eating parmigiana, always have always will, I remember when I was a young fella having a meal at the pub meant having parmigiana, and it did not matter if it were chicken or veal or a tough bit of old shoe leather, so long as it had had the life pounded out of it and was then crumbed and fried, laden with tomato sauce and cheese I was happy. It is funny too, that on many of those nights when I was enjoying parmigiana I was out celebrating another win by the Mighty Royals, so you could almost say it was a traditional meal we enjoyed tonight.

Saying I enjoyed it may be pushing it a little too far though, I ate because I had too, but it was a struggle and I ate a lot less than I would normally when having parmigiana, that may have been a good thing though! Gorgeous enjoyed the meal, which was the most important thing, hopefully my stomach will be a little more accepting of food when I tuck into the leftovers later in the day!

As you can tell this post is appearing the morning after!

Bitter greens and ricotta cannelloni

I was busy working away today at my desk when all of a sudden about a dozen emails came through from my sister Monica. Moonie I call her and she is the baby of the family, and hence the biggest attention seeker, so I thought what’s this all about this time then?

On opening the first email it became evident, Moonie had been perusing my favourite WebPages at the Gourmet Traveller site and she had decided to send through some of the ones she found to be interesting to her. Moonie loves her tucker, so much so in fact that when she eats we call her MMMMMMMMMMMMoonica, because MMMMMMMMMMM is the noise she makes with each bite of her food!

I chose to try bitter greens and ricotta cannelloni, simply because it had Cavolo Nero in it, something I have been wanting to try since getting Maggie Beers book “Maggies Harvest”, Maggie puts in a couple of pages about her love of the stuff. Unfortunately when Princess went shopping it was the only ingredient she could not find, no matter I pushed on and substituted it with purple cabbage. It actually turned out a very nice dish, especially given it is a vegetarian dish, it was very tasty, though I would have preferred to leave it to the weekend as it took a bit of time to prepare, but that aside it was a great dish and now an hour after eating, I feel it is time for some apple pie and I think it is gonna fit!

Now if you would like to try this recipe, it is a very easy one to do just follow the instructions as I did and you’ll be fine, I actually cut the recipe in half as it is for six people, that means I have one serve left over more than usual, so Moonie there is one here for you, if you’d like to come and get it!!
Ps Mon, when I cook I like to dress like a winner, that way the food comes out like a winner every time!!!

Moonie's lunch, Com N Getit

Now here’s that link for the recipe http://gourmettraveller.com.au/bitter-greens-and-ricotta-cannelloni.htm

Italian sausage cacciatore with spaghetti

One of our favourite meals both for the wonderful flavours and simplicity is my Italian Sausage Cacciatore with Spaghetti, it is such an easy dish to prepare starting with your basic onion, capsicum and tomatoes for a sauce and some egg pasta and crusty bread to serve, and it really is a pleasurable dish. Add in a few olives and some garlic and fresh herbs to ramp the flavours up in the sauce, and let it cook away gently whilst you boil the water and then cook the pasta. Once you have served up, top it off with more fresh herbs, Basil and Parsley a couple of crunchy strips of baked Prosciutto and freshly grated Parmesan, now knock the top of a bottle of your favourite red and you are ready to mangiare mangiare! Enjoy!

Jacks second best lasagne

Well I came home tonight with no real plans for dinner, I had actually pencilled something in on Sunday, but with a busy day at work and running a little later than usual I did not get to speak with Princess, so I went with what we had on hand. I have never made a meat and béchamel sauce lasagne before, that is something I have always left to my gorgeous wife as she makes the best lasagne ever, though she has not made it for me since I broke a golden rule in her book when I made my 3 cheese lasagne.

My argument has always been that it is a different type of lasagne therefore no rules had been broken, well that was until tonight, and hopefully she will now realise she still makes the best ever lasagne and will make one for me soon!

I received a box of wine today, I had ordered on-line as I was given a $50 gift voucher for filling in some survey. To retrieve the offer, I had to order some wine on-line, the box I chose was already on special and with the voucher it was so cheap, so the wine rack is nice and full for a change and at a great price!

In fact the wine rack was so full that there was no room for an Adelaide Hills wine I had not had, nor heard of before, it is a Nova Vita “Mad Russian” Cabernet Merlot, it says on the label it is a hand crafted wine, not sure what that means but it went beautifully with the pasta, in fact there is half a chance the second bottle will be cracked very soon!

The lasagne was made to my own recipe, ha ha that’s funny because there is no recipe yet!! In case there is some poor soul out there left to defend for himself I will scribble it down and post it to my recipes pages, in the meantime Sláinte Gaelach

Chicken cacciatore with penne

July 7th 2010

My first blog, wow amazing where will this lead me?

Home from work tonight to find a pack of chicken tenderloins waiting to be cooked for dinner. My first instinct was to knock up a Chicken Parmigiana with Mashed Potatoes and Grean Beans, but once I started in on the sauce I noticed some Kalamata Olives and Sun Dried Tomatoes and suddenly I was creating my take on Chicken Cacciatore with Penne.

Starting with a sliced onion and a little olive oil in my heavy based frying pan, then adding red and green capsicum, whilst they were cooking on a low heat I diced some crushed garlic, slice a red chilli which I added along with the kalamata olives, sun dried tomato's and a teaspoon of dried italian herbs mix. The aromas are building nicely now, after a couple of minutes I added the sliced chicken tenderloins, letting them rest in the middle of the pan to brown for a minute then turning to do the other side and then mixing in with the other ingredients, stirring occassionally. I let this cook for 2 - 3 minutes, then add a cup of dry white wine, deglazing the pan and getting any bits stuck to the pan into the sauce with my wooden spoon. I then add 3 very ripe fresh tomatoes, mix them in and top it off with 2 cans (440 grams) diced tomatoes.

I like to add the fresh tomatoes so as there are some chunky bits in the finished sauce. Now I place the lid on the pan and turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes whilst I cook the penne.

Once the penne is cooked, it is drained, I make the final adjustments to the sauce seasoning with salt and pepper and add the pasta to the sauce, mix in well, turn the heat off and let it sit for a few minutes whilst I set the table.

Served up with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and garlic bread, mmm Bon Appetit, oh and a glass of Jo's favorite red, of course!!