Neil's Moroccan Snapper (Poh's Kitchen)

 Yesterday for lunch I cooked Neil Perry's moroccan snapper recipe from Poh's Kitchen recipe book. Instead of using snapper fillets we chose to use a whole snapper. I have to admit whole fish erks me a little (not eating but preparing) so I got my husband to put slits in the side so the chermoula could flavour the fish.

The chermoula was easy to make and delicious. The fish was marinated in it for an hour before placing in some foil and pouring over a mix of lemon juice and honey, followed by finely sliced preserved lemon (this I found at The Essential Ingredient - but I might have a go at making my own). I sealed up the foil and my lovely husband cooked it on our baby weber Q. It took longer then expected, say 40 minutes, but once cooked the fish was so moist and perfectly cooked. Perfect for an outdoor lunch on a lovely summer day.

 I served the dish with pearl couscous (also known as israeli couscous) and steamed broccolini.

I really enjoyed this dish. My husband also enjoyed the dish besides finding the preserved lemon overpowering and my daughter who is a lemon lover said 'its a bit strong'. I personally loved the preserved lemon. So I guess it depends on your taste. The couscous was great, my daughter especially liked it.

The Essential Ingredient and AboutLife, Rozelle, Sydney

There are many recipes that I have been hoping to cook but there has been an essential ingredient that I just haven't been able to find. Well The Essential Ingredient is where I found almost everything I needed and a whole lot more i wanted.....i was in foodie heaven!

A sneak peek of some of the ingredients i am going to cook....

I dragged my family across town to experience this amazing shop and i will definitely be back. My gorgeous girl pushed her little shopping trolley around carrying my 'finds'. She also found many 'little' items she was keen to buy herself. It was amazing and sold much more then I realised. And it has a cooking school including kids classes, something i would love to take my daughter too when she is older.



The staff (which were amazingly helpful) also directed me to aboutlife for the ingredients they did not have. It is an amazing organic/health food supermarket. Wow, i loved it.

We finished off our saturday morning adventure with the Organic markets at Lilyfield to purchase all our fruit and veges for the week. It was also fantastic, so many 'farm' stalls selling their wonderfully fresh produce. And my daughter even had a pony ride.

We had to cook tiny pancakes for my daughter to test our her new mini flipper!

Mini Kiwifruit Muffins

We bought a tray of kiwifruits as my daughter loves them. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, they were over ripe (i know, i know, thats what you get when you buy a tray).
I was already planning to cook some muffins with my daughter so i decided instead to make kiwifruit muffins. I did a quick online search and actually there are quite a few recipes out there so I perused and decided what ingredients I would use.
I wanted to make them on the healthy side so i used part wholemeal flour and natural yoghurt.

The final product I thought was delicious, they didn't rise much so the muffin was quite dense but very moist and still soft. My only criticism is the sugar - i used 1/2 cup as often kiwifruit is on the tart side but in this case 1/4 cup would have been sufficient.
My husband took them to work (so that i didn't eat too many!) and he said he had a mixed response, some loved them but they were not to every ones taste.


Mini Kiwifruit Muffins Recipe (makes 36 mini muffins)


 50g margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup pureed ripe kiwifruit (about 4) 


- Cream butter and sugar
- Beat in the egg well, followed by yoghurt and vanilla until just combined
- Mix dry ingredients and fold through
- Fold through the kiwifruit
- Bake at 180 degrees C for 25 mins

Nigella's Teriyaki chicken

Firstly - this was delicious.
This recipe for Teriyaki chicken is another from Nigella kitchen.
And i would say the hardest part is chopping up the chicken - although i did use Nigella's suggestion of using meat scissors instead of a knife - and yes made my (not so hard) life easier!
Just a few ingredients mixed for the brief marinating of the chicken thighs, followed by an easy stove stop cooking. Remove the chicken (with slotted spoon) and bring the sauce up to a boil. I cooked it until it was sticky. Then you put the chicken back in for a decent coating of the sticky goodness.
To top it off serve with sushi rice (which i cooked in the rice cooker) - i loved it, perfect to mix with the sticky sauce and chicken. I even liked the use of chicken thighs in this recipe - i don't think chicken breast would work as well.

Shame on me for forgetting to use chopsticks.....although i do love my splayd

This is a definite keeper. Easy weekday dinner or even for a Japanese themed dinner party. It was as good as I have eaten in Japanese restaurants.

Gary's Malay Satay Beef

We had a great Australia day. It was HOT HOT HOT but lucky for us we have a pool, and great friends to share it with! Pretty easy to picture - drinks all round (i enjoyed pimms ;) - very english), hottest 100 countdown (how can you not listen on australia day), bbq all fired up, delicious lamingtons (brought by our lovely friends - even had jam and cream YUM), i also made tropical nougat glacee..... the good life i tell ya!

So as you can see for lunch we bbq'd up some beef skewers. This recipe is Gary Mehigans from Good Chef Bad Chef. I love a satay and although I often make chicken ones using a super simple nigella recipe I thought i'd like to try something different. I marinated the beef the day before, cutting into strips which I though was a great idea. It meant you could skewer them on 'caterpillar' style.


For the sauce, i made it in the morning but I think it would have been better to make  the day before - let the flavours develop. I also chickened on using 10 dry chillis and only used 5. But next time I will be braver as although it had a nice bite of spice it wouldn't have hurt with more. My only criticism of the sauce was the level of sourness was slighty off balance, i would reduce the tamarind next time.

Overall they were great, delicious on a hot day.

Please note if you wish to make this the web link for the recipe failed to mention ingredients added on the tv show - The recipe says cumin but actually he used coriander. both the marinade and the sauce contain a drizzle of kecap manis, and the sauce also has the spices (a teaspoon of ground fennel, coriander and tumeric).

Janella's Sumac Herb Salad

This salad recipe is by Janella Purcell from Good chef Bad chef. It is quite interesting in that the main flavour is sumac, a spice i have used before and really like so i was pleased to find another recipe to use it in.
If you have never tried Sumac it is a flavour hard to describe, kind of zesty! I believe it is middle eastern in origin?
Another fantastic component is the fried bread, you thinly slice up a piece of wholemeal lebanese bread and put in a hot pan with a little oil. It crisps up beautifully.
I did use a normal feta and not goats feta. Actually, when eating the feta i felt a bit overwhelmed by the end of the plate. Maybe if i had used goats feta this may have complimented the dish better.

Whilst preparing all the components for this dish i was seriously doubting how it would possibly be satisfying to eat. I was also questioning how the flavours would all come together - parsley, coriander and watercress leaves. But somehow all three herbs managed to shine through, it was such a delicate salad and yet wholesome. And I did not need anything to eat after, it was completely satisfying.

Happy Australia day.....(today i am going malay!)

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Our lovely friends recently had a new bub so i wanted to cook them a meal. This is great dish as you can make it to refrigerate or freeze, and then it can be put in the oven to bake when required. Much nicer then reheating a meal that has already been cooked then frozen.

I love spinach and ricotta cannelloni, its one of those dishes i would always order for lunch in a cafe. And was something i could not quite get right when baking myself. But now i have found a recipe i love.
I have adapted from this recipe i found online Spinach and Cheese Cannelloni. Of course i made a double batch - some for us to enjoy as well.

I replaced the frozen spinach with fresh English spinach - one bunch - which i wilt in a pan with some butter, squeeze out excess liquid and the chop finely.
For the tomato sauce i make my own with the classic ingredients of onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomato puree and tinned tomatoes. Plus fresh herbs and seasoning of course.
And to top the dish off i make a classic cheese sauce made the usual way with butter, cornflour, milk and cheese.

Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake (gluten free)

This weekend i made Nigella's Lemon Polenta cake, and I am so pleased i did! A friend of mine made a polenta cake last year and i really enjoyed it so when i saw this recipe in Nigella kitchen i knew i would try it.

The mixture is very simple to make and contains no flour instead polenta and almond meal. The cake mix has lemon zest but its the syrup made from lemon juice and sugar that you pour over the cake once cooked that make this cake so moist, lemony and divine.

I am a lemon freak, so needless to say i loved it. You would have to love lemon to love it. The cake itself was very soft and crumbly.

I also served with natural yoghurt (vaalia is the brand i love) which was the perfect accompaniment for such a cake.

Anna's Beef, Bean and Soba Noodles

I have to firstly confess - i didn't cook this - my lovely husband did! I did however cook the delicious dessert - blog to come.

This is another recipe from Quickies in my kitchen  
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/12845/beef-bean-and-soba-noodles

Anna does not let me down with this dish, the flavours are big and amazing, very asian. And soba noodles are delicious, anyone who has not tried them must! We used a lovely big piece of good quality rump steak for the beef component, cooked perfectly (thankyou my lovely).

And my husband says the making of the dish is 'easy peasy'! It is on the list of dishes that will be made again and again and loved for many years to come :)

Gary's Pumpkin and Lentil Curry with Homemade flatbread

This is the most flavoursome curry i have ever made.
The recipe Pumpkin and Lentil Curry is from Good Chef Bad Chef. If you haven't seen it - Gary is the 'bad' chef as he doesn't worry about the healthy side of food where as Janella is the 'good' chef as she is very focused on eating healthy ingredients. Actually I love both their styles and have cooked some recipes from each. Janella has introduced me to some fantastic ingredients such as quinoa.
Janella would be pleased as in this recipe I leave the skin on my pumpkin! It is also my first lentil recipe that actually resulted in lovely lentils, not a mush. And the flatbread is a revelation. So simple and diverse, I have used oil or butter or yoghurt to make it. Just don't use extra virgin olive oil, it has too much flavour.

The final product is a little on the spicy side for me, serving with rice is must. Definitely recommend, its a keeper. The curry paste recipe makes heaps - freeze some for next time.

Nigella's Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Last night i cooked Nigella's version of chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. I love roasted garlic so when i saw this recipe in Nigella Kitchen i knew i should try it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chicken-with-40-cloves-of-garlic-recipe/index.html
I did take the lid off for the last 15 minutes of baking to brown the skin up a bit more. I served with toasted turkish bread and greens. (I did plan to pick up some sourdough - sold out, I had one of  those days really, also burnt my pan filling the house with acrid smoke).

The most delicious part for me was the roasted garlic, squeezing it out on to my bread, yum. I must recommend the garlic bread at Wildwater grill Deewhy. The toasted bread is oozing with roasted caramalized garlic. My version really was not even close!
Otherwise the dish was (what i thought) ordinary. I'm not a big chicken thigh fan, i know everyone says it more flavoursome but i still like the breast best. My husband polished off a few - he liked it, my daughter and her new eating-like-an-indian-with-her-hands habit liked it.

I always buy free range chicken but in this case the recipe requiring chicken thigh with skin and bone i had to buy an alternate source (i'm not quite up to butchering a few whole chickens - maybe next time?). So i think that is a major problem with the chicken tasting ordinary.
I also avoided the delicious chicken juices (i.e. fat) in the pan since i really really need to lose weight ;(

I think i will cook Nigella's 'sweet potato supper' again to fulfill my need for roasted garlic.

Roasted Beetroot dip

I went to a party recently and tasted a homemade beetroot dip - yum - that is my inspiration. I 'googled' a recipe and found one that sounded like it would be full of flavour. http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Roasted-Beetroot-Dip-L972.html
Roasting beetroots is something that scared me for some unknown reason - maybe just because it is unknown! But so easy, and they come out looking so delicious!
I roasted the beetroots one day and made the dip the next.

The final product was vibrant in colour and had a gentle sweet taste. The problem was the aftertaste. "Earthy" is how my gracious husband described it, otherwise known as tasting like 'dirt'!
I think maybe it is because the beetroot i bought wasn't freshly rooted from the garden? (i'm pretty sure it would have hung around for a while in our small local fruit and vege shop)
I will try this again now i know if i grow my own beetroot i will be able to cook them :)


Beet

Nigella's Buttermilk Scones

I made these a couple of weeks ago and thought they were just delightful. http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/14915/buttermilk-scones
I was inspired as i saw Wattle Valley clotted cream in the supermarket. Sadly after i made the scones i could not find the cream....
This time i was inspired by notquitenigella and her splendid afternoon tea http://www.notquitenigella.com/2011/01/17/healthy-afternoon-tea/
I made a big batch of heart shaped scones and froze some to pull out for a spontaneous afternoon tea.

Then in Anna Olson 'switch up' style i recreated my scones into a scone style bread and butter pudding.

I halved the scones, lay them in a little baking dish and sprinkled with a little cinnamon and caster sugar. I whisked up an egg, a little caster sugar and some milk. Poured over my scones and baked for about 20 mins. It was delicious, although i could have been more generous on the sugar (next time i really should measure how much i used!).

Nigella's Pappardelle with Butternut Pumpkin and Blue Cheese

Last night i made this pasta dish from Nigella kitchen. Once again in Nigella style it was an easy weekday dinner.
I fried the finely chopped onion in a little olive oil until golden. Then added a teaspoon of paprika followed by the cubed butternut squash and a tablespoon of butter. Being sure that everything was coated i then added 1/2 cup of water and 3 tablespoons of chinese cooking wine (recipe says marsala - i don't have and i have no idea if cooking wine was an ok substitute!). Lid was put on and this simmered away for 20 minutes. I cooked my pasta and then tossed through the pumpkin with finally chopped sage, toasted pine nuts and soft blue cheese.
It was a lovely looking dish and tasted nice too. It lacked some green veges - so next time i might add some spinach?

I used tasmanian blue brie as not being a cheese expert when the recipe says 'soft blue cheese' i thought brie was appropriate. In hindsight since the recipe also calls to crumble the cheese i would not choose brie again but a much stronger saltier and of course crumblier cheese! Overall thought the dish was good even though pumpkin is not one of my favourite things.

Poh's Pandan and Coconut Crepes

On our little camping trip on the weekend i also decided to make Poh's 'green' crepes, since only stove top (or in our case camping stove was required). I thought it would be fun!
I found this link for the recipe but i used it from Poh's kitchen recipe book http://ten.com.au/24._Apple_Cinnamon_and_Pandan_Coconut_Crepes_28.10.10.pdf
This time i was able to head to an asian shop on the way and buy pandan paste - 95 cents! I love asian shops. I can't believe how green it is - does it have food colouring as well??

First i made the coconut filling just on the stove with less palm sugar then the recipe suggested. Mixed up my crepe batter according to recipe. It was a great idea, easy to cook, lots of laughs attempting to flip the crepes, and my daughter (along with passers by) were amused at the green coloured 'pancakes'.

I thought they were yummy, and very appropriate to eat camping actually. I didn't make the salted sauce as Poh suggested it was optional, next time i might try it.

Yesterday my daughter wanted pancakes for lunch "white ones please mummy"!

Nigella's Wholegrain Mustard and Ginger Sausages

We went camping on the weekend, just for one night, to see how we went. Something we have not done since having our little ones. Actually it was quite enjoyable (besides lack of sleep) and really cheap.

For dinner i pulled some sausages out of the freezer and put in Nigella's ginger mustard marinade with them.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/14834/wholegrain-mustard-and-ginger-cocktail-sausages

Prior to cooking i made sure they were well coated with the mix and we put them on our baby Q weber to bbq. Unfortunately this way we lost most of the sauce into the bottom of the bbq and although what managed to cling to the sausages was very tasty there wasn't enough of it. We also used Nigella's suggestion and put them in a sourdough loaf after they were cooked. Again, even though it was yummy and fun, the lack of sauce meant not much lovely juices in the bread. I think this would be great on a hot plate rather then an open griddle bbq.

Praline Custard Creams

This is a recipe i have made before - when i want to cook something a little special.
It is from the Women's Weekly Cookies recipe book.
http://www.cook-books.com.au/ccp0-prodshow/cookies-recipe-book-australian-womens-weekly-new-cookboo.html
We have some friends who were back from Ireland for a short time and we travelled up to newcastle to have lunch with them. So i made these delightful little sweets to take.

The recipe is made up of three components, the custard, the almond praline and the biscuit. No step is hard but each takes time and the final assembly is quite tricky, mine really don't look as pretty as a picture! (especially the picture in the book)
The custard step involves making a simple stove top custard which you chill and then later mix in butter, vanilla and icing sugar. I have done this in the past but this time i actually just made the custard, chilled overnight and used to assemble biscuit. This means they were a little less sweet then previous times i've made it (which is a good thing). The actual biscuit has almond meal and no sugar, the texture is crispy and the almond flavour complements the lovely crispy outer praline.
I also cooked the biscuits at a mere 3cm diameter, so you can imagine how petite and delicious each mouthful is.
They are assembled by adding a little custard in the middle of two biscuits and rolling the rim in crushed praline. Sounds simple but not really. Of course a dusting of icing sugar helps !

I love these biscuits and think they are a mouthful of heaven. I would recommend anyone to buy the book and cook them. Its worth the effort.

Nigella's Asian braised shin of beef

This recipe was on the 'don't knock it until you try it' episode of Nigella kitchen.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/14754/asian-braised-shin-of-beef
It is also served with her hot and sour shredded salad and potato, ginger and parsnip mash. So last night i recreated the whole thing - you should have seen the kitchen.
One exciting thing about trying new things is going out of your comfort zone to buy different cuts of meat. And for me that was shin bone (actually my husband asks our local butcher - who i highly recommend - Steve at Bungaree road Toongabbie (NOT pendle hill meat market)).

The cooking was quite simple. Although i attempted to use my large stove-top-to-oven scanpan casserole dish - it wasn't big enough - so i had to transfer the entire contents to a large baking tray with lid!
So the final product was interesting. The very flavoursome beef that has subtle asian flavours was lovely and tender. The crispy salad was great and refreshing - worked perfectly against the soft meat. The mash i was quite dubious about but actually, somehow (how do you do it Nigella???), it all came together quite nicely.

I didn't love the dish, i might make it again if i have the appropriate occasion. But i was impressed at how the flavours go together and it was exciting cooking shin of beef. I am very glad i cooked it.

Poh's melting moments

I visited a friend yesterday and hence wanted to take something. My plan was Poh's pandan and coconut crepes, but with no pandan that wasn't going to happen. So i opted for the simpler melting moments.
They are a reasonable basic recipe (250g butter, 1/3cup icing sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 1/2cups plain flour, 1/2 cup cornflour) but the final mix felt quite dense. Possibly i didn't mix enough but i have learnt to not over mix biscuit doughs. I hoped to make them pretty by using a fluted piping nozzle as Poh did but unfortunately my fluted nozzle was too small. So after piping with a normal nozzle i thought they were just asking to be turned into jam drops....

And once baked (for a lot longer then Poh's - my oven is so so unreliable) they were a really lovely bite size snack. I thought a little on the firm side. I already have a similar recipe from my grandmother that i have adapted and i can't help but like my one more. The dough if far less versatile - you need to be gentle - but the result is a truly melting quite crumbly biscuit.
So you gently cream together 125g butter and 1/2 cup icing sugar. Sift cornflour (1/2cup), s.r.four (1/2cup) and custard powder (3tbsp). Carefully fold in, spoon on trays and bake for 15 min at 180. They are my favourite biscuit recipe and i have tried heaps of variation with nuts, chocolate, jam etc. All delicious.

Nigella's Tomato Curry with Coconut Rice

Tonight i cooked another recipe from my new favourite cook book, Nigella Kitchen. I don't seem to be able to find a link so i will have to tell you how its done!
I didn't think the recipe looked that appealing at all - i'm not a big fan of fresh tomatoes or peas. The only reason i cooked it was because of our vege garden bulging with ripe tomatoes.

So i chopped a huge white onion and cooked on medium heat in large saucepan heated with canola oil for about 10 min. Next went in 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 1kg of chopped tomatoes (skin and seeds included) and 2 teaspoons tumeric, 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon mustard powder and 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes. This was then covered and cooked over low heat for 20 mins, for the last 5 mins my husband kindly added 200g of frozen peas he had cooked in the microwave.
Please note this is slightly different to Nigella's  - she used cherry tomatoes and she used 1 teaspoon of chilli powder.

For the rice - i sliced 4 spring onions and cooked in a little canola oil with 2 teaspoons of black mustard seeds for about a minute before adding 300g of basmati rice. After mixing i poured in 400ml of coconut milk and 600ml of freshly boiled water. Lid was put on and left on low for 15 mins at which point the water was all absorbed and rice broken up with fork and fresh juice of a lime added.

Now the amazing part - eating it. I loved it, the flavours of the rice and the curry all went together so well. It was also very filling. I am just so surprised, i looked at the ingredients and just didn't expect such vibrant fresh flavours. It is a keeper!
Note - my 3 year old wasn't impressed, she did like the rice though.

Squid ink

I would really like to cook Nigella's squink risotto, does some one know where i can buy squid ink (in sachet or jar) in Sydney???
I'm feeling disappointed as i was hoping my indian grocer who claims it is an asian grocer (i think because he sells soy sauce) would sell me pandan paste to make poh's crepes. Why would i be so optimistic? And catching the train or bus to a suburb with an asian grocer on a muggy and possibly wet day with my 4 month old is just not going to happen.
Oh well, just got me thinking about the squid ink i still need to find.

Nigella's Crustless Pizza

I had some leftover pesto so for lunch yesterday i decided to cook myself Nigella's crustless pizza recipe.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/crustless-pizza-recipe/index.html

Well first things first i definitely wouldn't describe it as crustless as mine had a a beautiful crust that made for easy holding and eating. The simplicity was fantastic - like a crepe mix but baked in a greased pie dish. The texture was strange, or maybe unexpected is a better word. Soft but dense, kinda of like a fat crepe, yet very tasty. I think i will cook again especially for an easy lunch that can be jazzed up with any topping.

Nigella's Pasta alla Genovese

Ok this is my last one and then i've caught up!
I'm a big fan of pesto and thought this looked like a great quick dinner option.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/14858/pasta-alla-genovese
Whilst looking for frozen spinach at the supermarket (sold out?!? - i always buy fresh but decided it was time to try frozen) i stumbled across frozen basil! So frozen basil is what i used. I do have basil in my garden but then none would be left if i picked enough and i was planning on buying a couple of bunches in the fruit shop until i saw this.
Maybe it wasn't the best choice - although it was still green it had lost that vibrancy you see with fresh basil. And the flavour was nice but i think the fresh basil would be better.

This was also an unusual dish in that you added potato to the water first. This results in the end texture being quite strange. Once the initial reaction i did begin to enjoy the texture, overall quite a wholesome tasting vegetarian dish. Please note my husband served up (i was feeding our bub) and decided to "pretty" the dishes up for a photo!

Nigella's Sweet Potato Supper

I would say sweet potato has to be one of my favourite ingredients, so if i ever see a recipe based around it i have to cook it!
This is another one out of Nigella Kitchen book, don't seem to find a link to it.
Though so simple.

2 sweet potatoes cut in thick slices (skin on) into a baking tray.
Add 200g lardons (or in my aussie case a chunk of pancetta cut into lardon size pieces), 6 garlic cloves (skin on), a bunch of asparagus and a few sprigs of time.
Drizzle over some olive oil, season, and put in oven for 30 min, turn sweet potato and put back in oven for 30 min.
I also added a few mushrooms quartered (had a few extra in the fridge i needed to use).

I served with some penne pasta so that i wouldn't be starving too soon and pig out on something i shouldn't eat!

Sadly i only remembered to take a precooked shot (another reason i am not very good a blogging!)

As a sweet potato lover i really loved this dish. It was very similar to a dish my husband cooks with caramelised sweet potato, mushroom, bacon and pasta.

Anna's Moroccan green fish curry

I am not very good at this blogging thing i have decided. My writing skills aren't great, my photography is poor, and i don't seem to find the time. I have three recipes i've cooked still not published!
But i do love to cook new things and thats what i'm here for, mainly to remind myself what went right and what went wrong!
So a couple of nights ago i cooked Anna's Moroccan green fish curry with snapper from Quickies in the Kitchen
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/12365/moroccan-green-fish-curry-with-snapper
It was yet another simple recipe to chuck together. I was able to burn my capsicum skin, something i have only done for the second time (and i have improved). I used my little blow torch (a lovely present from my wonderful husband for our anniversary) and then my gas stove top. I then wrapped in cling wrap and allowed to sweat before removing skin.
That was probably the most complex part of the recipe. I only used 3 small snapper fillets and so i reduced the cooking times at every step. I also only used one tin of coconut cream.
The final dish was lovely, a very mild, even subtle curry that complemented the soft flavoursome fish.

Nigella's maple pecan bundt cake

I was given Nigella Kitchen (the book) for christmas. I really love it, you can't help but read every word, i love her style. I have already cooked many of the recipes just from watching the show on lifestyle. My first glance at the book had this recipe stand out to me straight away.
I had my cousins coming over today so i cooked it. I have not seen the recipe cooked on the show and could not find a web link to it except for another blog http://purelyfood.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/nigellas-maple-pecan-bundt-cake/
It was lovely, a nice afternoon tea cake. My oven once again let me down, i overcooked on one side and undercooked on the other. Otherwise it was quite a dense cake but well suited the delicious moist filling.