Bananas and Lemons

Good morning! I have been baking this last week, however, I continue to forget to take photos of my work. I have made a cake this morning which I remembered to take pics of, it's a banana cake. But first, last week I made a cake for a lovely friend at work who had a birthday yesterday and has a penchant for lemon cakes. I found an interesting one on the Best Recipes site which can be found here. It's a great basic recipe that I was able to make in only 45 minutes, including cooking time! That's the best thing about it. As usual, I did change one thing, I just can't help myself! Instead of measuring out 2 tsp of lemon zest, I added the zest of a whole lemon and a whole orange. It turned out really moist with a lovely subtle citrus flavour and the crusty crunch of the sugary top was fab. Sorry, it went before I could take photos :)

Last Thursday was the day I had my interview for patisserie school. I was pretty nervous, but happy to see that I seemed to be the only one who took some examples of home-cooked treaties. I made the mixed-berry bundt cake posted earlier and I also made a shortbread, which I found on Rachel Ray's site and which only has 3 ingredients!! I couldn't believe how easy it was; I used to be one of those peeps who feared making something like that but no longer! Unfortunately the interviewer would not taste the cakes I made, but I hope they liked it anyway.

This afternoon my Dad is flying into Melbs after visiting my sister Joey on the Gold Coast so I thought it would be lovely if we had some cakey goodness to eat. I have a wonderful vegan cookbook called Veganomicon which has some lovely cake recipes in it. I love experimenting with different ingredients and making animal-friendly cakes that taste great too. It doesn't always have to be about eggs and butter and by trying different methods and foods, I think you're just increasing your mad skillz. Word. The original recipe is actually a Vanilla-Yoghurt Pound Cake, but I have turned into a Banana Cake and changed up a few things. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3 tbs corn flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups soy yoghurt
1 1/2 cups Tofutti sour cream
1 large or 2 small ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup rice, soy, oat, almond milk.

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C fan-forced
   
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
   
3. Make a well in the centre, add wet ingredients, mix until well combined
   
4. Grease a 22 cm round or loaf tin, pour mixture into tin, bake for about 45 mins, taking care to check regularly after the 30 mins mark. Cooking time may depend on your oven

The recipe can be substituted with regular yoghurt and sour cream, if that is easier or preferred.

Ok, so mine didn't rise so much, it may be because the banana causes the batter to be quite heavy; however, it's probably because I forgot to add the cornflour! Oops. I'm sure it will still taste noice!

That's it for now, I'm off to get tattooed by the lovely Kate at 166 Tattoos in Richmond. I'll post some pics once I'm done!!

Renee

sorry for the delay

I know I haven't posted in a wee while, and whilst I have been cooking (and eating), I have not been taking photos - I keep forgetting to until the meal is pretty much over. I know what your thinking, and I agree - that behaviour is quite tardish. But I do apologise. And I have my interview for cooking school coming up this week, so the night before will give me ample opportunity to take pics and show you what my interview pieces are. I'm thinking of making the mixed-berry bundt cake I posted the other day as it was rather a success and maybe meringue too. Anywhoo, last night we did have a little dinner party and it was lovely. Friends Warren and Andrew came over for a curry night. Mmmmm. Leon made his mum's beef curry and I made a chickpea and spinach dish and also a biryani with broccoli and peas. I substituted the cauliflower and beans for the broccoli and peas and I left out the mushrooms and flaked almonds. I also didn't have cinnamon sticks so I just added a tsp of ground cinnamon. The curries were all goood. Sorry about the lack of pics though. Also been avidly researching the tattoos that I'm getting and I guess thinking about having cupcakes tattooed onto me has stopped me from actually baking them! Weird how that happens, but I digress. I did bake yesterday - a batch of orange and poppy seed cakes, 3 different sizes - mini, medium and jumbo! the recipe is here and it is so easy, throw it together in about 10 minutes and I halved the recipe and it still made 12 cakes. The only thing you need to watch is if you do like me and make cupcakes instead of one big cake, the cooking time will change, so you need to keep an eye on them and check them every 15 mins or so.

That's all for now, I will be posting more tomorrow with lots of pictures!

Have a lovely day :)

i love pastry but it's a tumultuous relationship

This morning I decided to make some pastry, maybe a tart, I thought. So, I got to making Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry. Ok, that went well. It came together in about 2 minutes, popped it in the back of the fridge to chill for a bit and decided to use up the organic asparagus trying not to die in the bottom of the fridge. Went and got some eggs and stuff from the shop found a great recipe for the filling here. I do love Delia. But I must confess, I didn't really follow the recipe, I just used it as a base for my own (Frankenstein) creation, as I didn't want to use so much cream and cheese. The things I changed were that I used only 1/3 cup of cream, didn't add cheddar (I didn't have any) and I used pecorino instead of parmesan. I also added half a red capsicum, sliced lengthways and also added about 1/2 a tsp of allspice to the egg and cream mix. Oh and I used heaps of asparagus, probably too much in fact. I had 2 bunches so I didn't want to waste any, but I think just 1 bunch would work much better. I also sauteed half a sliced red onion in butter for the filling too. But back to the pastry. You would think that I have stuffed pastry up enough to remember that you must blind-bake before you add the filling and also that pastry shrinks!! It would appear that I, the pastry novice, failed to remember these important things, and thus, my pastry was all bubbly and shrinky! Oh well, I guess when you're going to top it with other goodies, it shouldn't matter so much. But if anyone can offer some advice regarding shrinkage, I would really appreciate it.


Some time later: the tart is out of the oven after cooking for about 15 or 20 mins, and it doesn't taste too bad!! Hooray!! Even my pastry tastes good. I'm just not going to examine the pastry too much, that's all.

I was just talking to my mama and she wants me to find a recipe for a cheesy sauce that she can serve over steamed cauliflower and broccoli. So, mother dearest, please find a recipe here from Delia but if you want something a wee bit easier, check out this one.

Ooh, also props to my friend Jess, she has her own website, which can be found here.

I just decided that I am also going to bake a cake today. Mmm, but it has to be boozy I think. I just bought some mixed berries from the supermarket so I searched for a fab recipe, and managed to find one at Kats Kitchen Talk here, after only about 2 minutes! I heart the intertubes.

I followed the recipe and the only change I made was to add more than 2 tbs of booze, I added about 1/3 of a cup! And I used sherry. I know, I'm a total grandma, but it's cool. I baked la cake for about an hour and when it was ready it looked like this:

The thing is though, brown cakes are really hard to make look awesome, and my photog skills aren't that mad. Oh well, at least it smells good! That's it for now, I'm not sure what's next on the menu, but no doubt there will be inspiration a-plenty over the next few days.

Happy eating x

good morning, sunshine

Last night set the scene for an Italian feast starring such greats as gnocchi, melty cheese, prosciutto, rocket, fennel, pecorino and zabaglione....mmmmm. It was lovely and we got to share it with our friends Justin and Ana.
We started with an olive pizza bread, the same recipe from the previous pizza I made, but this time I didn't add any onions or cheese, I just studded it with halved kalamata olives. We served that with more kalamata olives, prosciuttio and some beautiful cherry tomatoes Leon made with an adapted recipe from Shannon Bennett's wonderful cook book on home french cooking, My French Vue. The tomatoes were blanched then had the skins taken off. A thin slice of garlic was then put into cross cuts in the top. Leon also made a thyme salt, made by combining 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp dried thyme in a mortar and pestle and bashing until well mixed. He then sprinkled the salt mix on each tomato and left them in a warm but switched off oven for about an hour or so.

To serve, he removed the garlic slices and nestled the tomatoes in the prosciutto with the olives and drizzled over some olive oil. They were delicious; soft and juicy, the garlic left a lingering aroma and the thyme salt added a lovely warmth. We drank a bottle of Yarra Burn pinot noir chardonnay vintage 2006 with this dish.







For the main part of the meal, which is stock standard for us as it's easier, we just put 4 dishes on the table for everyone to share and help themselves. We served 3 salads and a gnocchi dish.

Caprese Salad: the traditional salad from Caprese calls for tomato, bocconcini and basil. All I did was serve a slice of tomato topped with the cheese and the basil and drizzle olive oil on the top. There are myriad of serving styles that can be seen here, but the key ingredients remain unchanged.

Rocket, fennel and pecorino: I love this combo; the buttery crunch of the fennel, the bite of the rocket and the creamy salty hit of cheese. I used one bulb of fennel and a big handful of rocket and I guess about 30 or 40 gms pecorino I shaved with a potato peeler. You can use parmesan if you prefer, or any other hard bitey cheese. As always, the ubiquitous olive oil was scattered sparingly.
Rocket, red onion and orange: Another classic, the key to this one is getting the dressing spot on, although the marriage of onion and orange is indeed a happy one. We used 2 oranges for the segments, 1/4 of a large red onion and a bid handful of rocket. The dressing was the juices of 1/2 an orange and 1/2 a lemon, 1 tsp sugar and 2 tbs olive oil. Whisk together. The taste can be adjusted to your own preference.
Gnocchi with taleggio, pear and walnut: This dish is one that I ate at Melbourne restaurant Bottega a few weeks ago and I think it is now my favourite dish. Yes, it is. I couldn't find a recipe online that gave me the definitive amounts for the gnocchi and the taleggio topping together so I made the dish by cobbling together a couple of different recipes.

I made the gnocchi using a really easy recipe from Justin North's French Lessons. I used the morel and parmesan gnocchi recipe, but I omitted the morels. I have made gnocchi before but I found this recipe to be really quick and easy and there are also instructions on the best way to store it, if you need to make it in advance.


For the taleggio sauce, I once again visited my newest find, Italian Food Forever.
I adapted the recipe for Chestnut Gnocchetti With Creamy Cheese Sauce. I followed Deb's sauce recipe but I halved the cream amount to 1/2 a cup and I used 100gms taleggio. I just melted the cheese into the cream and once it had reduced by a third, I added a chopped pear, 150 gms toasted chopped walnuts and the gnocchi. Once combined, I left it in the pan and just served it straight onto the table.

Dessert, I feel, is something close to most people's hearts. For the finish, I went with the easiest Italian dessert I know: Zabaglione. This recipe came from a stalwart in our home: Everyday in the Kitchen by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis. Leon has owned this book for years and it saved him when he went to live in the States as a post-grad student. When we met, he introduced me to this handy kitchen dictionary and together we have made many of the lovely, homely recipes that the authors do so well. Zabaglione is so simple that it only uses 3 ingredients. I know!! So, as long as you have some egg yolks, sugar and a sweet booze (I used sherry but the original calls for marsala), you can make it too. The following will comfortably serve 4 people.

Zabaglione: 8 egg yolks
130 gms caster sugar
76 gms sherry (ok, I know how that sounds, but at the time I'd a few wines and didn't think to rummage around and find the liquid measuring thing. It was the perfect amount though, so, HA!)

Add the ingredients together and combine. In a saucepan, bring some water to a low simmer. On top of the saucepan, place your bowl with the mixture. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water. Whisk together until the mixture has thickened and doubled in size. That's it. Serve with cream. (Alas! I forgot to take photos before we finished the dessert sorry!)

So that was the dinner party. We ate, drank and laughed. It's the life really:)

Oh and when I got up this morning, I made some muffins. They're called Morning Glory Muffins (!) and they are delicioso! The recipe came from Everyday in the Kitchen again!

Have a lovely sunny Sunday.

Dexter Diamond Rulz! plus foooooooood

Hey y'all! My friend Eddy has a cool online comic, Dexter Diamond. Check it oot cos it's pretty rad. Eddy also wants to add that his favourite haunts to eat in Melbs is Cutler and Co, Gigi Baba, Hellenic Republic (yeah, George is fab) and Vegie Bar.

I'm actually going to be adding details of Melbs eateries I adore too, because I love eating out and in this li'l town, we have so many great places. I'm gonna start taking pics at restaurants too :)

Awesome Foods in Melbs:

Awash Cafe - Ethiopian (Footscray)
Cutler & Co - Contemporary (Gerturde St)
Gills Diner - Contemporary (Gills Alley, off Little Collins St)
Benitos - Italian (Little Collins St)
Sud - Italian (King St)
City Wine Shop - Contemporary (Spring St)
Bottega - Italian (Bourke St)
Gopals - Hare Krishna (Swanston St)
Mo Vida - Spanish (Hosier Lane)
Gaylord - Indian (Tattersals Lane)
Bok Choy Tang - Chinese (Fed Square)
Taxi - Contemporary Asian (Fed Square)
Comme - Modern French (Alfred Place, off Collins St)
Bar Lourinha - Spanish (Little Collins)
Becco - Italian (Crossley St)
Tuscan Bar - Contemporary (Bourke St)
Pizza Verde - Contemporary + Pizza (Kyneton)
Star Anise - Contemporary (Kyneton)
Frangos & Frangos - Contemporary (Daylesford)
Balthazar - Contemporary (Perth)
Mecca Bah - Middle Eastern (Docklands)
Bhoj - Indian (Docklands)
Longrain - Thai (Little Bourke St)

Hmmm, that's all I can think of right now but the list will be expanded upon, I promise!

Re: Hummingbird Cake

Hey I forgot to say; when you're checking the cake, the edges should be slightly pulling away from the edge of the tin, the cake should spring back slightly when you press lightly on it and of course, a clean skewer, poked deep into the centre, should come out clean. If none of things happen, keep cooking and check about every 5 minutes or so until it's ready.

Bye bye :)

Hummingbird Cake

On my way home from work today, I treated myself to a little something from the baking accessories shop. I grabbed a flan tin and a fluted bundt tin. Goodies! Very excited about baking a lovely hummingbird cake, I set to it. The following is not my recipe, but I can't remember which intertubes site I got it from so I can't link it to a site or a blog. I did however, adapt what I wrote down as I was throwing it together tonight, just like to personalise things, you know.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
  
• 1/2 cup of nuts (walnuts,almonds,hazelnuts,pecan,macadamia,etc), roughly chopped
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
  
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup neutral oil (canola,grapeseed,vegetable)
• 2 eggs
  
• 1/2 cup chopped pineapple, including some juice
• 1 very ripe banana, mashed

Preheat the oven to 180C. Add all the ingredients together, mix well and pour into a greased cake tin. I used a 24cm fluted bundt tin, but I think that was a bit big, so you can go definitely go for a smaller tin. And any shape is fine. Cook for about 20 mins, but make sure to check after about 15 mins.
Mixin it up
My new tin is too big for the mixture!!!
Straight out of the oven, it rose a wee bit!
TA DAAAA!

That's it for now, until next time, bon apetit!

Returning after a haitus, sabbatical, extended leave but actually it's laziness

Hello! I was just thinking the other day that I really wanted to get back to the blog and post some of my adventures in cooking, so here I am. I'm currently sweating the onions on the very first dish that I will blog about. I'm not sure if it's a recipe, per se, I'm kind of just throwing together what I've got in the fridge. But I did make some some pasta from scratch. It's an easy peasy recipe from ABC's The Cook and The Chef website. Simple. I actually halved it because I'm just cooking for me and Leon. Once I rested the dough for about 30 mins, I rolled out 4 really thin pieces because I want to serve it like a giant free-form ravioli, of a sort. Also, I just used a rolling pin to roll my "ravioli" but it's easier if you're making fettucine, spaghetti, etc to use a pasta machine. Actually, it's a real stretch to name it ravioli, but at least it gives you an idea of what it will look like! Please bear in mind that my list of ingredients caters for 2 people without leftovers.

Ingredients: Pasta as per The Cook and The Chef website

half a large onion, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, diced
1 medium of head broccoli, cut into small florets
1/4 to 1/2 cup veg stock*
1/3 to 2/3 cup cream*
pinch nutmeg
handful of almonds, either flaked or chopped
*with regards to the liquid measurements, I just kind of chucked it in without measuring! I think the ones I've listed is about right, but just play around with it and don't add it all at once.

Method:

• Toast the almonds on a dry pan until fragrant and not too brown, set aside.
• Sweat the onions over a med-low heat with a lid for about 5 mins. Remove lid, add garlic, continue cooking for another few minutes, stir frequently so that you don't burn the garlic.
• Once the onions and garlic are translucent and fragrant, add the broccoli. Add stock, cover, cook for about 5 mins.
• Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Once boiling rapidly, cook the pasta, 2 pieces at a time, or if you have a small pot, 1 at a time. They should only take a few mins each so keep an eye on them. Once ready, simply keep them on the plates you will serve them on. I didn't drain them because I wanted the cooking water to add moisture.
• Remove lid from the broccoli, the stock should be steaming and the broccoli bright green. I didn't let the stock reduce so I could add only a little cream, but you could adjust that if you want to. Add cream and nutmeg and stir for a few minutes until well combined. Remove from heat and stir through almonds.
• I served mine as a giant ravioli, albeit free-form. It turned our pretty yum!

Photos:





So, hopefully the photos give you an idea of how it should look, if you want to make it like I did, but of course, you can do whatever you want!!!

I also want to show you a couple of pics of other things that I've cooked in the past few days......
- the photo of the top is a recipe from the fabulous foodie blog Italian Food Forever, the Cannara Onion Pizza and I added to that potatos, pecorino and mozzarella added. El gorgeouiso!
- the photo below is blueberry tart with creme patisserie from a recipe on The Cook and The Chef. It also uses Maggie Beer's Sour Cream Pastry, with 2 tbs of sugar added instead of the tart base that is part of the original recipe. I also folded through a punnet of blueberries instead of piling them on the top and I omitted the step that folds in whipped cream. In hindsight though, I would recommend cutting in the cream as it would make it less sweet.
Well, that's about it for now, I have some yummy hummingbird cake coming up and am planning an Italian feast very soon!