Some snippets of food!

You could say I am obsessed with cooking and there is many dishes that have never even made it my blog. Since my dinner was not all that successful last night I decided to put up some photos of some of those dishes.....

Nigella's mirin glazed salmon 

Fig frangipane tart

 it was not really green - that was a special affect added by my iphone camera!

Olive and Thyme bread 

This was made with olive tapenade, absolutely loved it.

Peach, Praline and Nougat Glacee with brandy snaps

These need to melt a little before they were really enjoyable, the peach cut through the sweetness of the glacee

Lime Curd and Basil Tarts

YUM! - it really works

Hazelnut Baklava 

This was very good indeed for those supersweet lovers 

(and I didn't use anywhere near as much butter as suggested!)

Fig and Soft Pecorino salad

Lentil Curry with Wholemeal Naan

This was last nights not so successful dinner - doesn't taste as nice as it looks!

Mini Apple Pies with Cheddar Crusts

These were really interesting to eat, savoury and sweet at the same time!

Kind of like a cheese and fruit platter :)

Recipe at Willow Bird Baking

Mexican Hamburger Bake with Nigella's bbq mince

Not a big fan of this dish, the mince had the wrong texture

Fatayer Bes-Sabanekh

These were absolutely delicious, recipe here

Also if your interested Willow Bird Baking posted her cheesecake challenge results today,

 check it out here

Nigella's Spring Chicken

Last night I cooked up another of Nigella's easy recipes from Kitchen, Spring Chicken. Its a take on a classic dish that usually uses rabbit. I am not quite up to cooking rabbit as yet and thankfully Nigella called for chicken anyway! I will cook rabbit soon though, just need to find a good recipe that I can handle :)

The exciting thing about this dish was the dry cider the chicken is cooked in, it makes an amazing depth of flavour, something that you normally only get after cooking a stock up for hours. The pancetta is browned, followed by the chicken. Leek, celery and garlic is added before adding dried tarragon and simmering in dry cider (i used strongbow). The final additions are dijon mustard, peas and lettuce.

I served with quinoa, which went really well with the saucy dish. I really liked the meal, it had so much flavour. My tip would be to serve it in a bowl, what was I thinking?!

Pork, Apple and Fennel Pizza

After we roasted our pork the other week we had a decent size piece leftover so we froze it. Yesterday I thawed it out to make pizza, and I was so pleased that when I sliced the pork it was still deliciously moist, tasty and tender.
I made a pizza base using wholemeal flour. It was just a basic pizza dough recipe and only rises for an hour so with a bit of organisation anyone should be able to make one! I topped the base with a paste I made from rosemary, garlic, fennel seeds, salt and olive oil (this is similar to the rub used on the pork for roasting).

I prepared the apple by slicing and caramelising in pan with sugar, balsamic and butter. I thinly sliced the fennel bulb and popped it in the pan for the last couple of minutes as well. The apple and fennel were next to go on the pizza followed by the sliced pork. I sprinkled with some sliced sage leaves and baked. Once the pizza was cooked I topped it with some fresh rocket.

I was really pleased with my pizza, it was really delicious. I don't like licorice and was nervous that by using fennel it would ruin it for me but I loved it. The flavours all worked together perfectly. It would of benefited with another couple of minutes in the oven, I was just nervous about drying out that perfect pork.

Nigella's RedCurrant Jelly and Mint Lamb with Rapid Roastini

Last night my lovely husband cooked this for us!

The lamb is simply pan fried and the juices incorporated into the sauce of redcurrant jelly, worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, mint and juice of a clementine (or in our case, orange).
Honestly the sauce was delicious and went perfectly with the lamb.

Since I had made the gnocchi I decide to save some and refrigerate hoping they would last until the next night to make Nigella's rapid roastini. Well they were a bit shrivelled and the wholemeal flour I had used made them turn an interesting murky colour. But they were fried and still tasted delicious, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside - it is a great idea!

Overall a really satisfying delicious dinner. We added toasted pieces of our remaining focaccia.

Gnocchi and Pesto with Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia

Last night I made focaccia and gnocchi for dinner.

I used the recipe for Gnocchi in Poh's Kitchen recipe book. Firstly potatoes are boiled with skin on, and while still hot, skin removed and mashed with a fork. I then pushed it through a very fine sieve (very hard work - i had to call on reinforcements!). The potato is mixed with flour (i used 75% wholemeal 25% plain), an egg, finely grated parmesan and seasoning. I only mixed until everything came together and it was lovely and soft.

The mix is then rolled out on a floured bench and cut into pieces. I boiled salted water and added the gnocchi in batches, as soon as they floated (about a minute I would say) I moved them straight to a bowl containing the pesto sauce.

I used the recipe for the pesto and focaccia from Delicieux. The pesto is pretty straight forward with blended basil (loads in our garden - if anyone needs some.....), parmesan, toasted walnuts and pinenuts, garlic (I boiled in skin with the potatoes) and oil. Because I added the hot gnocchi to the pesto sauce it did brown very quickly. But it was so delicious, and the gnocchi was melt-in-your-mouth soft. The generous amount of pesto also worked well with the gnocchi.

The focaccia I could not have been more pleased with. I only made a quarter of the recipe (so one small focaccia) and instead of adding rosemary I topped with sliced sun-dried tomatoes. I also used half wholemeal flour and half plain flour. It worked perfectly. The best bread I made yet - I think I'm getting addicted!

Cincinnati Chili

I saw this recipe for Cincinnati Chili on Sweet Pea's Kitchen. It looked delicious and was something I had never tried before. The beef mince is cooked with interesting flavours - cocoa, cinnamon, allspice and cayenne pepper. And don't forget chilli of course! I have to admit I didn't add the amount of chilli powder the recipe suggested.

I really liked this dish, it was quite sweet but not too much so. The initial flavours you came across in a mouthful were the mellow cinnamon, cocoa and allspice, then the heat of the chilli slowly built up at the end. My husband pointed out how nice it would taste in the middle of a whole roasted potato - and I agree!

I had to add this photo that my three year old took of her lunch yesterday!! She wants to join in with my blogging hobby :)
Can you believe it? - she is a better photographer then me! 

Aaloo Paratha and Paneer Tikka Masala

I really love indian food and I find it is a cuisine that I can not really master. My curries never quite match the ones you can order at an indian restaurant.

When I saw the recipe for these two dishes of Aaloo Paratha (bread stuffed with potato) and Paneer Tikka Masala (cheese with a spicy tomato sauce) on Taste of Pearl City I was inspired to give them a go.
Fortunately the suburb I live in has many indian spice shops and all the ingredients are readily available. I was even able to question the local customers on which paneer is the best to buy!

Both dishes were reasonably simple to prepare but you do need to leave time for the bread to rest and the paneer to marinate. The only real difficulty I had was rolling the bread with the potato filling, I really had very little idea. My bread turned out much thicker then the original but it was really delicious with the soft potato filling, i did add mustard seeds as an extra addition.

The paneer curry turned out quite delicious but it still was lacking in some way. But it was close and I have been inspired to continue on my curry cooking expeditions. Besides, you have to once you start stocking your pantry with all the ingredients :) It had a nice amount of spice although I did choose to serve it with a cucumber raita. It went really well with the bread which had the beautiful soft filling and crispy outside. Overall I was quite happy with the results.