Winter weekend warmer

I know I've been a bit slack with the blogging lately. It's been for the usual reasons - someone did not create enough hours in the day!!!  

In the last two weeks, Fleur and Dave's wedding has come and gone, I've managed to finish a major project at work, and we're finally on the path to getting the new kitchen. There's actually been a lot of good cooking and eating along the way, but just no time to share and even less sleep. In fact, I think I'm now over-tired because it's 1 am and I can't sleep. Why not blog?

This is one of my new favourites - chunky chorizo pasta sauce. It's warm, it's chunky, it's comforting and it's really easy to do. And it's gluten free. It's all good. Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients. Once you've washed & chopped, it takes very little time to throw it all together. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days and goes well with rice, although I really enjoyed this on toast as well. 

More from me soon, but for now, here's a recipe.

Ingredients

2x raw Spanish chorizo (about 250g), sliced

3 cups skinned & diced eggplant (about 1 medium sized eggplant)

400g can pureed tomatoes

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 1/4 cup diced zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp hot chilli powder (optional)

salt to taste

1 packet of linguine pasta

Pour about a third of the olive oil into a pan and over a medium heat, fry the chorizo slices until brown. Sprinkle the paprika in during this process. Put the chorizo aside in a bowl when cooked. 

Pour the rest of the olive oil into the pan and soften the onion. Add the garlic and eggplant and fry until the eggplant starts to soften and brown. This won’t take long. Add the zucchini and diced fresh tomatoes and fry for another couple of minutes, moving around the pan with a wooden spoon. 

Add the remaining ingredients, except for the salt and chilli, and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Don’t overcook or the vegetables will go mushy. Stir the cooked chorizo through. 

At this point, have a taste and add some salt if needed and the chilli powder if you’re using it. Serve sauce on pasta with parmesan if you like it, although you really don't need it. There's so much flavour going on in this one without it.

OK. Probably time to try sleeping again. 

Say it with pie

Tim travelled most of this week which meant lots of plane food, conference centre food and possibly one decent dinner. I knew after days on the road (or in the air) he'd like to walk up the driveway,  interest piqued by the smell of dinner wafting out into the night, before stepping into a warm house to be greeted by wife and dog. 

I also knew that he'd be after something simple, comforting and substantial, so I presented him with a proper meat pie. You know the type I mean? The kind with actual meat in them, thoughtfully marinated in red wine & herbs, gently cooked with choice vegetables and finally married to puff pastry in a brilliant combination which makes the meat pie a national food icon (sadly). Well this is what he got, and judging by the empty pie dish left in the sink afterwards, I think he enjoyed it. 

Go the leftover pastry!

Chocolate tart

The memories of my weekend of excesses has not died away just yet. I've been caught looking wistfully through my window at work, thinking of three pleasant days spent going to markets, eating, and chilling out with friends we hardly ever see. Chocolate plays a big part in these memories.

The chocolate tart I made really takes the cake. (Does that even make sense???) I got the recipe for the filling from  'The Naked Chef' by Jamie Oliver. He calls it Simple Chocolate Tart. It is simple. Simple but effective if you're after that slightly stunned silence as people take the first bite and don't know quite what alternate universe they've fallen into where creamy chocolate rules the world and nobody worries about desserts being fattening. The awed expressions of your guests alone should make this one worthwhile. Not to mention the satisfaction of melting mouthful after mouthful until you feel like you shouldn't eat any more but can't help yourself because it's just so damned good...

Ingredients

1 tart shell, baked blind (or just go buy one)

315 ml double cream

2 level teaspoons caster sugar

smallest pinch of salt

115g butter, softened

455g best quality cooking chocolate

110ml milk

cocoa powder for dusting

Place the double cream, sugar and pinch of salt in a pan and bring to the boil. As soon as it has boiled, remove from the heat and add the butter and chocolate. Stir until it has completely melted. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, stirring in the cold milk until smooth and shiny. Sometimes this mixture looks like it has split. Allow to cool down a bit more and whisk in a little extra cold milk until smooth. Scrape all the mixture into the cooked and cooled pastry shell with a spatula. Shake the tart to even it out and allow to cool for around 1-2 hours until it is at room temperature. Dust with cocoa powder. The filling should be smooth and cut like butter. 

And it did... 

Now I made the pastry shell but not using Jamie's recipe. The filling is what makes this amazing. Definitely a sometimes food, and totally worth it. 

Another fabulous weekend

What a super-cool weekend! Unfortunately it's over. Our UK friends Jayne, Darren & Lucie are on their way to Sydney and it's Sunday night which means it's time to iron shirts, polish shoes and decide what to eat this week. (Not that eating has been an issue this weekend. Frankly, I've eaten for the nation and with Fleur and Dave's wedding less than two weeks away, and me wearing satin for the occasion (bridesmaid duty) I could be in trouble! Nothing is so unforgiving as satin.)

This morning we went off to the Bus Depot markets in Kingston and I walked away with free range eggs, spelt bread, finger-puppets for the nephews in England and a plant I can't remember the name of. There's plenty of new stuff there since we last went (probably over a year ago) and quite a nice vibe with live music on the top level. It was busy and lots of fun, but you can feel that winter really is here now so rug up if you're heading down there. 

Anyway, it has been a wonderful weekend full of good food, company and conversation. Inspired and well-fed, I've finally tried using the Flickr mosaic tool for something different. Little Lucie has been the star of the show, and what a great baby she is. Ladybug has been very nice about it all. And now it's back to reality...

1. Chocolate scrolls 2. Lucie helps Nathan with dinner 3. Hand made biscuits 4. Beautiful yarns 5. Hand made pasta 6. Bread 7. Ladybug is over it 8. 'World Wide Knit in Public Day' advertisement in Civic 9. Felt finger puppets 10. Olives 11. Jayne & Lucie shop 12. Chocolate tart 13. Bagels 14. Free range eggs 15. Lucie before her babychino arrived

Sometimes Food

This really has been a 'sometimes food' weekend. As I sit here blogging and ebaying, I've polished off a lunch of leftovers, including half a chocolate twister bread roll, a sliver of chocolate tart and some cold arancini with dip. YUM! 

To put this into context, I spent a lot of yesterday cooking. Tim and I both had the day off to await the arrival of our good friends Darren and Jayne from the UK. Oh, and let's not forget little Lucy who Ladybug just doesn't quite get. We think she thinks Lucy isn't exactly a person like mum and dad are, but more like some weird kind of hairless dog complete with her own cool toys that she doesn't like to share. All at once the new kong isn't cutting it. But I digress...

Besides the usual pre-houseguest cleaning and shopping, I made a whole lot of food for the weekend. Last night we also had the lovely Penny and Nathan over. The following was served: antipasto plate of char grilled artichokes, baked ricotta, baba ganouch and arancini, followed by a pot roast and baked veg. If that wasn't enough food, we had chocolate tart and vanilla ice cream to finish up.. Even the blokes were struggling so I consider it a job well done. 

This was after I'd made chocolate twister bread from Jamie Oliver's 'Return of the Naked Chef' recipe book, for afternoon tea. Another 'sometimes food' that has gone down extremely well. The premise is to take a basic bread dough recipe, roll it out, spread it with butter and then sprinkle chopped up chocolate and nuts. It's then rolled into one big sausage-like roll, and carefully chopped into rounds. These are baked to perfection. The result is heaven. 

I won't go through the basic bread recipe because it's quite long. It's a great recipe all on it's own, and I used spelt as usual too. Here are the ingredients for the chocolate part.

200g soft butter (although I used slightly less)

200g hazelnuts (although I only had 150g almond meal available)

310 g dark chocolate

I put the chocolate and almond meal in the food processor and whazzed it up pretty well. It was just out of sheer laziness but it worked. 

See pages 222-3 and 226 of The Return of the Naked Chef if you want Jamie's instructions.

Morning Tea Alert!!!

Last week was so full-on work wise that I didn't have a lot of time for creativity. Even the prospect of the big staff morning tea on Friday morning didn't raise my interest and I felt a bit underwhelmed by the thought of baking of Thursday night. So, I found myself doing something I rarely do - I reached for a packet of store bought muffin mix. You know the kind - one of those big packs with several varieties of muffin in it. In my defence, I'd bought it months ago, on special, for just such an emergency situation.  Imagine my surprise when I found only one lonely, small packet of plain dry mix left inside the box! No chocolate chips, chocolate batter mix or icing in sight. I turned to Tim, speechless. He had the decency to blush.

I work in one of those offices that has an 'all-staff' do once every month or so, I think. I can't keep up to be honest, and usually just show up to hear the boss say a few words before leaving the obligatory supermarket lamingtons, french onion dip and  cheezles for the I.T. boys and anyone else desperate enough to go there. That sounds a bit snobby I suppose, but really it's just self-preservation. Mostly there isn't anything gluten free and I'm not going to be sick for two days for the sake of networking with people I already know. 

On this occasion it was my branch's turn to provide the nosh. Thankfully we have some excellent cooks among us including an ex-caterer. No pressure at all.  I kept it simple - mini cupcakes and date loaf. The abundance of home-made fare was, for the first time in my history of the office, noted during aforesaid boss's speech. We all felt pretty proud of ourselves. There were several home-made cheese cakes, key lime pie, hot and cold dips, cupcakes, loafs, fresh spring rolls, brownies and more. Altogether a fantastic spread and barely a shop-bought item in sight.

Where does that leave things now, recipe wise? Well yesterday I came up with a recipe for gluten-free, roast vegetable lasagna that I'm quite proud of. But that's a recipe for later this week. Right now I have to get back to erasing any evidence of one of the all-time worst home paint jobs in the history of mankind. I think the previous owner laboured under the mistaken belief that one coat of the cheapest paint they could lay their hands on, in a shade that can only be described as homicidal-pink, applied haphazardly from ceiling to floor (including skirting board!!!) would make a classy feature wall and significantly raise the value of the house. Sigh...

Poached mandarins

Mandarins are in season and boy are they nice at the moment! They're sweet, compact and smell gorgeous. They're also such a convenient fruit - no need for a washing or a knife, no drips or spills even with a juicy one, and each little segment always comes away so beautifully in a bite-sized piece. Altogether a satisfying design.

We've been eating a lot of them au naturale of late, but I thought I'd try something different for dessert and poach them. Now these worked really well and are so simple to make, but I learned two important things in the process:  first, star anise may be small but it packs a punch in the flavour and aroma departments so go easy on it; second, mandarins can be surprisingly delicate creatures. 

My solution is not to use more than one star anise at a time, and not to poach mandarins for longer than about 15-20 minutes, at a gentle simmer only. They can sit in the warm syrup for a while and infuse longer that way. Also handle with care when serving. 

Now about the spice in this - star anise is that little bit edgier and different and lends a whole other dimension to a dish, but I  appreciate that it is an acquired taste. Even the fragrance is quite strong and can be overwhelming. If you're definitely not a star anise fan, cinnamon would go just as well with these flavours. If you don't know, just try it. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

Ingredients:

4 whole mandarins, skins off

3/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup dry vermouth

1/4 cup orange blossom water*

1 star anise (or one cinnamon stick if you hate star anise)

tiny pinch of saffron threads

In a pan that's big enough to hold four mandarins without cramping them, but not too big, place all of the ingredients except the mandarins. Stir for a minute or two over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. 

When the sugar is dissolved, or mostly so, turn the heat right down, place the mandarins in and pour over enough water to just cover. Very gently simmer for no more than about 20 minutes. The fruit should be soft, but not the mushy consistency of baby food or in danger of falling apart when you lift it out.

Gingerly remove the mandarins and star anise and set aside. (Actually, you can thrown the star anise out unless you want to use it as a decoration and photograph your efforts.) Bring the liquid to a boil and boil it rapidly until it reduces and thickens into a decent syrup. 

Serve mandarins cold or hot with syrup poured over the top, and a dollop of double-cream or scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or on their own if you like.

*You can find orange blossom water at Middle Eastern grocers. There's a good one in Mawson if you're in Canberra.