Anna's Lamb Rack with Ratatouille

Honestly I have cooked so many recipes of Anna Gare. 

They are amazing simple recipes packed full of flavour and fresh ingredients, her cookbook homemade is a must.

This recipe for Lamb Rack with Ratatouille was no exception.

The fresh eggplant, capsicum, tomato, onion, whole garlic, herbs.....whatever you like really.....are cubed up, seasoned and tossed in olive oil, then baked.

I baked mine for about an hour as I love them getting all soft and caramelised. 

The lamb rack is trimmed and rubbed with a paste of garlic, rosemary, thyme, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then simple, just pop it in the oven with the veges and bake for about half an hour.

Be sure to let the lamb rest. 

What a beautiful meal of roasted vegetables and beautifully moist succulent lamb.

The 'muppy' house could not have been happier!

Whole Snapper stuffed with Olives and Anchovies served with duck fat potatoes

I scored in my work 'secret santa' this year with a cook book!!! Gordon Ramsay's World Kitchen - sounds like my sort of recipes hey :)

Well my daughter has chosen the first recipe that we should cook, Stuffed Red Mullet. It looked delicious but Red Mullet is a Mediterranean fish and so we used snapper. 

Olives, anchovies, sundried tomatoes and garlic are pureed. 

The potatoes I parcooked before tossing in warm duck fat and baking with rosemary, whole garlic cloves and lemon wedges.

The snapper was seasoned and stuffed with the delicious puree.

Then baked for 20 minutes.

Served with the crisp and incredibly tasty potatoes.

The soft moist fish was perfect with the rich olive puree.

After eating this meal I was looking at Australia's Sustainable Seafood guide. Did you know that snapper is not a better choice when it comes to seafood? 

In the muppy household we try to make sensible ethical and environmental choices.

So from now on I am going to check before buying my seafood that I am making an appropriate choice by looking up this guide and chatting to my local fish monger.

Slow baked Bloody Mary Lamb

Hope you all have had a great start to the New Year, lets hope its a good one.

I spent my New Years Eve wandering the aisles of a bottle shop with many others, but unlike everyone else I was only interested in buying vodka to cook my lamb.

And to make raspberry, rose and vodka jelly I must add (it was delicious!).

Most of you would know I am a huge fan of Anna Gare's recipes, many of them favourites in my home.

I finally have her book 'homemade' now, it is almost shocking how many recipes I have cooked (and loved!).

This Bloody Mary Lamb recipe, named of course after the drink, is a slow cooked lamb dish served with rigatoni.

The lamb is slow cooked with leeks, carrots and celery, topped with a sauce made up from passata, chicken stock and vodka. The recipe I linked to is slightly different to the one in her book.

Considering this was a rather wintery dish, it really was quite light to eat. 

The flavours were refreshing but did not offer as much depth and guts as I usually find in Anna's recipes. We did really enjoy eating it but I probably wont cook it again, not sure it was worth that much vodka!

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

I hope you all had a lovely christmas that was filled with lots of love and food!

And I'm hoping you are looking forward to the new year to come.

If you feel anything like me and have over-indulged the past two weeks you probably should look away.

This was a delicious chocolate cake I made for one of the many christmas celebrations we went to this year.

A fudgy dark chocolate cake topped with delicious milk and white chocolate mousse.

I was inspired by this recipe I found at Annie Eats where the bottom layer of the mousse cake was indeed cake rather then a classic mousse.

Egg whites are beaten with brown sugar.

Egg yolks are whisked with vanilla and then the melted chocolate and butter.

The eggs are from my parents chooks - such yellow yolks!

The thick ganache is folded with the egg whites and a little flour.

The cake once removed from the oven looked glorious, but way too big for my bottom layer.

It didn't take long to sink to a thick fudgy chocolate cake.

Once it was cooled I prepared the mousse layers.

For the mousse I based it on a recipe found at Fiona Likes Food.

A custard is prepared with egg yolks, cream and a little sugar.

You also dissolve some gelatin that is mixed through the completed custard which is then poured over the chocolates. They are stirred until smooth.

Meanwhile some cream is whipped and folded through the cooled smooth chocolate mixes.

The milk chocolate mousse was poured over the cake and popped in the freezer for fifteen minutes. Then the white chocolate mousse is poured on top. 

I refrigerated overnight making it a great prepare ahead dessert. 

A delicious chocolate cake for any chocolate lover.

The mousse was beautiful and soft, the fudgy chocolate cake on the bottom a perfect platform.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

Dark Chocolate Cake Base (adapted from Annie Eats)

6 tbsp butter

150g dark chocolate

4 large eggs separated

1 tsp vanilla paste

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 23cm springform tin.

Melt butter and chocolate gently in bowl over saucepan of simmering water until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

Partially beat the egg whites and slowly incorporate the brown sugar before beating to stiff peaks.

Whisk the egg yolks with the vanilla, then whisk in the melted chocolate and butter.

Whisk through about a 1/3 of the stiff egg whites and the carefully fold through the remainder with the flour.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes or until springs back when gently touched in the centre.

Leave cake to cool in the tin.

Mousse Layers (adapted from Fiona Likes Food)

2 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp hot water

100g white chocolate, broken

100g milk chocolate, broken

4 egg yolks 

2 tbsp castor sugar

500 ml thickened cream

Dissolve gelatin in the water.

Beat the egg yolks with sugar until pale and thick.

Heat half the cream in a saucepan until hot and then remove from heat and whisk in egg yolk mixture.

Return saucepan to low heat and whisk the custard until it just starts to thicken. 

Remove from heat, whisk in gelatin and then strain the custard. Pour half the custard over the white chocolate and half over the milk chocolate.

Mix until smooth.

Beat the remaining cream until thick and then divide evenly between the chocolates, carefully folding through.

Pour the milk chocolate custard over the dark chocolate base. 

Put in freezer for fifteen minutes or until firm.

Pour the white chocolate mousse over the top, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Flying Fish Degustation & One year of blogging!

Can you believe it, muppys is one!

It has been an incredible journey so far. I started my blog while on maternity leave to record all the many different recipes I had been cooking. Little did I know that I was joining a whole new community of amazing people sharing their food and lives.

And now I am back at work part time and my posts have slowed down but I still am here, alive and well, and still loving this little place I can escape to. Thanks to everyone for joining me.

Now I wanted to do a special post, and what more special then to share my 10th Wedding Anniversary lunch at Flying Fish.

The meal went for four hours, and I did have matching wines with every course. 

Our young children really enjoyed themselves and we were complimented by fellow diners on their behaviour.

We loved every single course.

Crostini with salmon mousse

Ocean Trout with apple and pear vinaigrette.

Soft shell crab sushi

After the waiter had read us the specials and disappeared my daughter lent over 'mummy, i heard that man say sushi'. So yes we obliged and our daughter was very happy with her soft shell crab sushi.

Heirloom tomatoes with tomato cloud, sheep's milk labneh and olive

This was our official first course and it was so refreshing and light. 

The tomatoes were just incredible.

Seared yellow fin tuna with ruby red grapefruit, sweet pork crackling and black pepper caramel

This was my husbands favourite course, it really was a delicious combination of flavours and a very popular dish, we saw many plates of it being brought out.

Of course we had the most beautiful view of Sydney harbour right next to our table.

The boats brought much joy to my little boy.

Confit of Petuna ocean trout with pea mousse, whey, puffed skin, trout roe, nori and pea crumb 

This course was heavenly, the trout melted in your mouth and the roe was magnificent.

The pea mousse was full of air and the pea flavour balanced perfectly.

Crispy soft shell crab with black pepper curry leaf sauce and crispy shallot and coconut  salad

I really loved the way each course brought you something different but yet was in harmony with the rest of your meal. We were pleased this one included the Sri Lankan flavours.

The crab was amazing, so succulent. 

Ruby red grapefruit and orange palate cleanser

Ice cream!

My daughter with her delicious ice cream, I did sneak a mouthful :)

Wagyu sirloin with miso braised short rib, pickled shitake, radish, edamame beans and yuzu butter

This was my favourite course (I think, it was all SO good), which is surprising as I would probably not have ordered it from a menu. 

The short rib was bursting with flavour, the steak so so tender, the whole dish was just divine.

Holy goat, Brigid's well, white peach

This was our cheese course. 

My daughter loves goats cheese so we very kindly shared some with her but I didn't want to!

Peanut butter parfait, lime curd, banana mousse

This was not actually on the degustation menu but I am so pleased we were fortunate enough for the kitchen to offer it.

Urban Garden

Our dessert was really alot of fun. We were quite amused when we were given this 'ash tray', our waiter almost seemed embarrassed.

It was passionfruit brulee on the bottom, topped with a watermelon rockmelon layer, and a crumb.

It was really delicious, and not too sweet.

Urban Garden

As you can see my little boy probably ate half of mine, he loved it!

Petit fours!

We were given a beautiful tray of petit fours with coffee but we all jumped in and gobbled them up so quick. 

It really was a beautiful day to spend on the harbour enjoying the most amazing lunch with my family.

Flying Fish


Jones Bay Wharf
19-21 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont


http://flyingfish.com.au/