Pollo al limeno (Mamma Agata's Lemon Chicken)

Wow I cannot believe it is so long since I last blogged, July 29 is a while ago, no wonder I have been getting the hurry up from so many followers.

Jo and I started researching for a trip to Europe a couple of years ago, early on in her digging for things to do, Jo came across a cooking school on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, she has nagged me to take her there since.

Mamma Agata

Cooking Courses in Amalfi Coast

We don't go on our trip until May 2013, so when I saw Mamma Agata had released a cookbook, I thought we'd save some time and I would just buy the book and enjoy the food straight away, if it was as good as the many recommendations suggested.

The book arrived not long after ordering, personally signed by Mamma and her family, I cooked Jo a three course meal from the book in May this year, celebrating a year to our journey begins, you can see that blog here http://dinnerwithjack.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/mama-agata-simple-and-genuine.html

Pollo al limeno

Last week Chiara posted a photo of a Lemon Chicken dish from the book, it looked 
Last week Chiara posted a photo of a Lemon Chicken dish from the book, it looked
amazing and after making comment, Chiara suggested I could make as it was on page 121 of the book, I took her advise and prepared this for Jo's dinner tonight, accompanied by roasted potato and baby carrots, and steamed Brocolini.

Happy to say it was as delicious as it looked, absolutely delicious in fact, now of course Jo want's more and has suggested I could cook it for her parents when we visit Geraldton over Christmas, might just have to do that.

If you are not planing a trip to Italy any time soon, you can buy a copy of the book from Mamma  Agata's webpages, it might not make it in time for Christmas, but then do you really need a reason to buy a quality cook book?

http://www.mammaagata.com/

By the way, cooking great food with this book is a breeze, thanks to the step by step guide, photo's and Mama Agata's secret tips scattered throughout the book, which makes it a terrific book whether you are a seasoned cook or a beginner.

Boun Apetito

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!

Beef Vindaloo with Dry Potato and Pea Curry

Feasting on Indian food tonight!

Whilst tidying up in my kitchen, Jo came across a recipe for Roti Bread, I had downloaded from the net.  My intention was to have roti with some left over bolognese sauce  when I downloaded it, however that night, by the time I reached home, I had become more adventurous and I made a quick lasagne instead.  On reading the roti recipe, Jo exclaimed "YUM", then said "when you make this can you do a brown gravy curry to go with it", how could I resist to give her what she wanted?

Given I had a day off, I decide it as time to deliver, so out came my favourite little curry cookbook to look for a brown gravy curry, I did not have to go far before coming across a Beef Vindaloo, as Jo loves anything beef it was an easy choice and one I knew she would love.

Beef Vindaloo

When I have Indian food I like a little bit of variety, so to compliment the beef I made my favourite potato and pea curry, it is so full of flavour and the brown mustard seeds with the peas give the dish both an interesting look and great texture.

Dry Potato and Pea Curry

Great combination of flavours

I was so pleased with the way the roti turned out, I made the flat bread version, the recipe is very simple, the hardest part of making the bread is the 10 minutes of kneading to get the dough to the right consistency before rolling out, once it is rolled it is a minute each side on a hot pan and it is ready to eat.

Bon appetite 

I added a cucumber yoghurt sauce as an accompaniment as I love to have the coolness and the crunch of it with my curry, this along with beautifully steamed rice, completed the Indian feast I prepared for my beautiful wife, on a cold winters night, it proved to be just what she needed after a hard day at the office!