180/656 - Sautéd silverbeet with olive oil, pine nuts and currants

This recipe is a perfect example of what The Cook's Companion is all about. 

A simple stir fry of silverbeet, pine nuts and currants and a basic vegetable is turned into a very tasty side dish. We ate this as a part of a simple mid-week meal with sausages and mash. A definite upgrade on the three veg that might have accompanied our meal otherwise.

Something to watch is that after a bit of a stint in the fridge I found the currants had grown some decent flavour legs and had increased the overall sweetness a bit too much for my liking. Of course flavour is a very personal thing and I was overwhelmingly outvoted when I mentioned this to my family who were loving the unexpected sugar hit! On the day it was made however the balance was perfect.

For anybody with fussy children who won't eat their greens, I can highly recommend this as a great way of sweetening them up! Just don't forget to plan a day or so ahead to let the currants do their thing. 

179/656 - Pine nut and meat pastries

I love cooking and it is a rare thing to hear me complain about a cooking process, no matter how time consuming or complicated it may be. But I must confess I have a particularly negative attitude when it comes to working with filo.

Filo has never been my friend. I am either busy ripping the sheets in half (not on purpose), or I get distracted while working and forget to cover it, letting piles go dry on the bench. My other filo party trick is to pull out a frozen pack of this evil pastry, and then unfold the sheets before they are ready, ripping the entire packs worth down the middle. And usually not even in a straight line. I realise that with more care I could avoid these issues. I am generally a very careful person, but for whatever reason filo continues to be my nemesis.   

Refusing to be beaten by a packet of paper thin pastry, I outsmarted my filo demons and made sure I had double the required quantity on hand before making this recipe. As I rolled up my little meaty triangles I smiled to myself each time I ripped a filo sheet in half, calmly selecting a new sheet from the massive pile I had on hand. Jules my little pastry monster was happy to assist with the digestive disposal of some of my accidents, and the happy chickens ended up with the rest. 

This cooking challenge will see me making shortcrust, lard and puff pastry but thankfully not filo. No doubt the challenge will throw up a few hurdles along the way but I am not sure I would have made it over that one unscathed. 

178/656 - Gazpacho

I realise tomatoes are technically no longer in season, but the beautiful red truss tomatoes I bought for this recipe looked so gorgeous I could not go past them! 

Even though it is winter and the weather is not anywhere near warm, my family have all enjoyed this fresh, vibrant cold soup. It has been such a lovely change from the heavy food we have been eating lately. One batch provided us with several nights of healthy entrée, made even more so because the ingredients have remained lovely and raw. 

As well as enjoying the taste, our colds (but probably not our friends) have been loving the amount of raw garlic this soup has had us consume this week. In the words of Lisa Simpson, "I made enough gazpacho for all!" 

177/656 - Patafla from Provence

Patafla from Provence (try saying that quickly three times!) is a lovely little picnic basket filler made by slicing a baguette in two, pulling out the insides, mixing it with all sorts of brightly coloured bits and then trying to stuff it all back in!  

I realise the job of stuffing would have been much simpler had I purchased a baguette of decent width (or indeed made it myself!) however sometimes we just need to work with what we have. 

Once full, the two pieces were put back together and bound tightly with cling film.  

Of course I took pictures before I wrapped mine up, knowing that it was entirely possible I would have nothing decent to photograph at the other end if it fell apart on opening!

The patafla is supposed to be refrigerated overnight, however for various reasons mine remained in the fridge, unloved and uncut for two nights. I don't think the extra night did it too much harm but there was definitely an extra sogginess to the bread which was probably not ideal. 

It was very edible and incredibly tasty but I will definitely stick to the recipe and make sure it is eaten the day after wrapping if I make this again. 

176/656 - Sweet marjoram and mozzarella fritters

Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen! 

Deep frying little balls of cheese is not something I would do on a regular basis, but my oh my what a decadent beer snack these turned out to be. The boys descended like a little pack of vultures on the finished product, each letting out a contented sigh after their first bite. Their excitement may well have been based on the fact that I never usually deep fry anything, however these fritters were so good I do believe they were worthy of said happy noises.

Crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside, I will be making these fritters again for both party snacks and also as straight out bribes for my children when I have some particularly dirty jobs that need doing around the house. 

175/656 - Pea shoots with crab meat

Fried pea shoots. Definitely not a concept I would have thought of on my own.    

I found this little recipe in the pea chapter and was very keen to see what fried pea shoots tasted like, but was also interested in the gorgeous sounding crab concoction that was to be served on top.  

The fried shoots were great, the heat really bringing out their lovely flavour. And the crab...oh the crab. I think my eyeballs may have rolled back into my head just a little bit as I was eating this. The flavour was amazing with a capital A, and if anybody out there is planning to make this dish I have a very important amendment to make to this recipe. White pepper is not optional. If you have any on hand, don't even consider leaving it out.  

I promise you won't regret it.  

174/656 - Spicy hazelnut fingers

It was my sister's birthday last week. My sister is one of those people who not only remembers the birthday of every person she has ever met, but she also backs this up with well thought out presents and a birthday card that has been obviously hand-picked.   

I would like to say this attention to birthdays and special occasions runs in the family but sadly this is not the case.  I have been known to let the birthdays of my children sail by present-less when they were too small to know the difference (I can practically hear the gasps from new mothers), and regularly get caught out missing the birthdays of people that are close to me (again, sorry Emily). Luckily my friends and family are aware that this is entirely due to my drifting brain and nothing at all to do with how much I actually love them. Receiving a text from my brother reading, "Happy birthday to me" is now something of an expected event come August.  

So this year I made sure I was on the ball for my sister's birthday. We went to see Annie (fifth row from the front!) and ate a wonderful meal together complete with our mum for company and pink champagne to make it a perfect girls night out. The only problem with my plan was that this wonderful evening occurred four weeks before Jane's actual birthday. 

Hence this recipe! I decided that since I had delivered on a well thought out (although very early) birthday present, it was only fitting that my supplementary gift should be lovingly hand-made. Of course now I am a week late given the drawn out saga that was my candied lemon rind, but I know my efforts will be well received once Jane takes a bite of these glorious biscuits.  

I didn't use an icing piper to shape these little fingers as my mixture turned out a bit thicker than expected and I was able to simply roll the mixture into little sausages. The thick mixture was due to my double-dipped lemon rind that was so incredibly hard it would have taken me all day to chop it finely with a knife. Enter the thermomix and say hello to chopped, but also slightly ground candied rind.

Yummy home-made biscuits and a blog post dedicated to my lovely sister; I think I may have redeemed myself in the birthday stakes even if I am a week late. 

173/656 - Candied peel

I have a love/hate relationship with lemons. 

I love everything about the way lemons taste. I love their versatility and of course I love the ridiculous amount of ways in which lemons can enhance a dish. What I don't like about lemons is that I often have them given to me in large quantities and, whilst I do use a good number of them, the last handful always seem to go off and I am left pulling dusty green balls from the bottom of my crisper. Never a pleasant experience. 

My gorgeous friend Emily, who has an enormous lemon tree of which I am extremely envious, bestowed upon me a bulging bag of fruit and I made a vow to put every last lemon to good use. So last weekend I propped myself at the bench and juiced, zested and candied until I was spent. I now have a freezer stuffed with frozen blocks of juice and pre-grated zest and am feeling mighty organised and ever so pleased that no lemon was wasted in the process. 

The candied lemons were on the stove at the same time as my lovely gumbo, and so being slightly distracted and a bit dizzy due to hunger (see previous post) I think I took them off the heat a bit too soon.  After a day or two on the rack they had dried nicely but were nowhere near as sweet as I had hoped. Luckily I had kept the lemony sugar syrup they were cooked in (it was great on pancakes too!) and used it to give my rind a lovely, sugary second dip. 

A few days in the dehydrator later and my candied rind is finally dried, very sweet and ready to be baked inside something amazing. 

172/656 - Southern chicken, ham and okra gumbo

I love the word gumbo. And now that I have made this wonderful winter warmer I am pleased to say that it is not only the word with which I am besotted.  

The first step of making this amazing meal is to make a roux. I have made many a roux in my time, usually in the creation of a creamy béchamel, but never before has one taken me more than two hours to complete! This roux was made with vegetable oil rather than butter, as oil has a higher smoke point and can be taken to a much, much darker place. Even so, what should have taken an hour took more than double that in my kitchen. Worried I would burn my lovely silky sauce, I kept the heat down very, very low and stirred until I thought my arm would drop off....but got there in the end.   

I have mentioned before that I am a slow cook, but at this point it is worth noting that I am also an extremely patient cook. A match made in heaven to be sure.

Once the roux was complete, and the ingredients were all given their turn of being fried and yummified in the pan, it was time to put it all together and create a gumbo. At this stage we realised there would be another hour and a half of cooking and so the kids gave up, ate toasted sandwiches and went to bed.  

I don't know if this gumbo was really the best thing to pass my lips this winter or if we were just so hungry that we would have eaten our own offspring had we been forced to wait any longer. Either way, Trev and I were both impressed. 

Definitely, definitely worth the effort. 

171/656 - Jamaican sweet potato pudding

Life is now busy, busy, busy in our house and so it has been a whole two weeks since my last post. I have had so much on my plate in the last fortnight there has been absolutely no time to feel guilty about my lack of culinary achievement. Guilt being a rather useless emotion anyway, I have decided to do away with it entirely, and instead applaud myself for any recipes I do complete in amongst my rather hectic new schedule. 

The length of this little pudding recipe gave good indication as to how simple tonight's dessert was going to be. With barely six lines of instruction, the most complicated step was grating the sweet potato. I had a fairly good idea that we were going to like this pudding given how much we adored the sweet potato cornbread and also the old-fashioned gramma pie. 

As we had hoped, this pudding was incredibly sweet and tasty, with wonderful flavours coming through from the cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger. 

I have always loved my vegetables but this just took my love affair to a whole new level. 

170/656 - Sardines in vine leaves

I am a very tactile cook. I like recipes that require me to be up to my armpits in things gooey or sticky, or even things that are downright disgusting. So I was happier than a pig in the proverbial today, standing over the sink covered in sardine guts.  

Given that a picture of my fish cleaning skills would turn many people off coming back to my blog, I opted instead for a progress picture of my lovely sardines once they had been stuffed with coriander, pine nuts and garlic, but before they had been neatly rolled in vine leaves. 

I thought myself quite clever, not needing to use toothpicks to secure my little parcels. I have made dolmades so many times I am now adept at turning any little morsel and a vine leaf into a tightly packed  cigar.  

I was not expecting much from this recipe. I like sardines and I like vine leaves but I was completely blown away by how fabulously tasty these little parcels were! I took the plate upstairs and demanded that my boys try at least one each and I loved the fact that Henry chased me downstairs wanting more! 

I can definitely see this becoming a favourite little entrée of mine, because I love a dish that can be prepared in advance and has a grilling time of less than 10 minutes.  

169/656 - Yabby bisque

Keen not to waste the enormous pile of heads and claws that were left over after our yabby lunch, I thought I would whip up this bisque tonight not quite anticipating how long it would take! 

The step that fascinated me was the crushing of the cooked heads and shells in the food processor. Once processed I was left with a pile of yabby mush that looked a bit like canned tuna. Obviously this mush was sieved from the final soup and I can not wait to watch my chickens go crazy when I serve it up to them for breakfast. 

I did not add any cream to the bisque, deciding instead to serve the soup as is, with the addition of some chunky claw meat. The soup was really lovely; pure liquid yabby, but beautifully enhanced. 

Now if only I could go to bed and ignore the war zone that is my kitchen... 

168/656 - Yabbies with Thai-style dipping sauce

The boys and I went on a trek down Victoria Street in Richmond on Thursday in search of a crayfish for our dinner. Unfortunately the best we could find was a half-dead specimen floating lethargically in an otherwise empty tank.  

Undeterred and keen for a crustacean meal, I headed in to the Queen Victoria Market on Friday. I was tickled pink when I came across a lovely pile of freshly cooked yabbies at my favourite seafood stall and proceeded to buy almost all that they had. 

Being a long weekend and having a crazy amount of cooking already planned, I decided we would eat our little yabbies as naturally as possible. I made this Thai-style dipping sauce to go with our tasty, shell-cracking lunch. The sauce only took around 2 minutes to make which was handy given how long it took us to fish all of the lovely yabby meat out of the shells. 

Like Stephanie I cannot bear to waste good food (or good scraps!), and so stay tuned for a lovely yabby bisque coming later today.

167/656 - Potato frittata

Things have slowed down somewhat in the Cook's Companion Challenge kitchen.

No longer churning out recipes by the truckload, I seem to have hit an unexpected slow patch. I have decided to run with this new languid pace for a while, holding myself to only one recipe per week. Given this distinct lack of recent achievement I am currently patting myself on the back for achieving two posts over the last two days!

I made a very clever decision to photograph this little frittata BEFORE I flipped it tonight, thinking that the other side might not be quite as attractive. I was absolutely right! The frittata tasted wonderful, full of fresh tasting parsley, spinach and chives, but was a little lacking in attractiveness once flipped.

Being the slowest cook on the planet I was pleased that I made this in record time...even if I did have to put Trev on meat and veg duty to make it happen. 

166/656 - Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern orange cake

It's another orange cake! This time sans flour and full of almondy goodness.

This is another one of those recipes I have already made, right back at the beginning of this challenge, uncaptured and unphotographed. I actually think I did a better job of it this time, with the cake ending up nice and heavy but not too moist. 

I narrowly avoided a cooking disaster when I checked on the cake halfway through and realised it was browning a little too quickly on top. I turned the oven down a notch and covered the cake in foil for the last half hour. I recently learned (the hard way) that when covering something in foil in a fan-forced oven, it is important to secure the foil tightly, lest it wind up blown off and clinging to the rear wall of said oven. 

Although the top of the cake was quite brown it was not burnt at all, and created an almost crispy, surprisingly sweet topping. Sometimes I love my little kitchen accidents!

165/656 - Australian old-fashioned gramma pie

I love pumpkin pie!   

This is the first time I have tried making pumpkin pie myself and I really liked this version which is beautifully spicy and has a lovely lemony after taste. The currants were also a very nice addition which I think enhanced the presentation of what can be a dessert that is visually a bit bland. I decided to blend my pumpkin mixture to ensure a smooth consistency which, kitchen mess aside, I have decided was a very good idea. 

The pie was lovely but very sweet and so apart from Henry who is currently in eating mode (and doing a wonderful impersonation of a human vacuum cleaner), we managed only a small piece each. 

164/656 - Labna - yoghurt cheese

It may look simple but this recipe has been more than a few days in the making!

Labna is simply yoghurt that has been drained of excess fluid and rolled into lovely little cheesy balls. I used Greek yoghurt and found that I needed to hang it in muslin for a couple of extra days as it was still a bit wet in the centre after only two. It doesn't appear to have done my little labna any harm, and the balls are still soaking in oil, garlic and rosemary which means the flavour has been getting stronger and tastier each day. 

The labna balls have turned out to be a great little snack to have in the fridge, but I am also thinking they would be a lovely addition to a cheese platter or as an extra little bit of protein on the dinner plate alongside some roast lamb.   

163/656 - Roasted rosemary potatoes

These lovely potatoes were roasted in a hot oven covered in rosemary and olive oil and surrounded by smashed garlic.

They turned out just as you would hope, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Something I don't normally do is completely dry the potatoes before rolling them in the oil and I do believe I will keep up this practice to ensure crunchy skins in the future.  

I had six hungry eyes watching and waiting for me to take this picture and so the sea salt  and pepper were added post capture. I had thought that 750g of potatoes was a very large amount that would create some lovely leftovers, but was foiled yet again by a family who constantly surprise me with the amount they can put away.

162/656 - French onion soup from Stephanie's with home-made sourdough

Standing out in the cold this morning supporting my eldest in his sporting endeavours, I spent most of my time cheering his efforts, and the remainder of the time imagining how good this soup was going to taste when I got home.

I had cooked the onions yesterday and so all there was left to do was to stack two layers of sourdough, onions and gruyère in a bowl, cover it with stock and then toss it in the oven until bubbling.

And did I mention I made the sourdough myself?

I took Stephanie's advice (of course!) on how to make a simple sourdough, tearing a piece of dough from Wednesday's loaf and allowing it to "mellow" for a few days in a bowl covered with a damp cloth. I then incorporated the dough into yesterday's loaf and voilà! Simple sourdough.

I was a bit concerned at the thickness of the bread that was stuffed into my tiny little bowl, but after consuming my fare in record time I have decided I would not change a thing. The onions, bread, cheese and probably also the cognac all contributed to the wonderful finished product.

This is definitely a dish that will impress! My verdict? Superb.

161/656 - Rabbit baked with thyme and mustard

It was rabbit for dinner again tonight which means our freezer is now officially devoid of bunnies. This rabbit was supposed to be served up last night, but as per usual I didn't read the recipe until I started, and then cursed the fact that my little Bugs needed to be marinated in oil, garlic and thyme overnight.  

It was worth it though! After rubbing the marinated meat with dijon mustard (and squealing all the while because the rabbit pieces were so cold!) it was baked in the oven for 40 minutes. The result was a lovely tender rabbit with the most gorgeous tasty juices, which I happily poured over my entire meal. 

A little bunny is the perfect size to feed our family of four and so disappointingly there were no leftovers. If I were a terrible mother I might start cooking the extra special meals when the boys are not here. But of course only a terrible mother would think of doing that...

160/656 - Chocolate sorbet

It will be of no surprise to my friends that less than a quarter of the way through this challenge, I am already more than halfway through the chapter on chocolate.  There are eleven recipes of chocolate deliciousness in The Cook's Companion and this sorbet was effort number seven.   

Unlike any other chocolate sorbet I have tasted, this version tastes of chocolate (of course) but there are also subtle traces of coffee and cinnamon coming through which complement the chocolate flavour beautifully. 

I actually made this last night but my ice cream maker does not always play ball and so I had to pop the semi-frozen mixture into the freezer overnight to harden. It's a shame because the result is probably icier than it should be, but I don't think I will be hearing any complaints from my chocolate loving family.  

159/656 - Atlantic salmon with parsley and breadcrumb crust

Presenting yet more of our wonderful bounty from the Yarra Valley! This time some superb Atlantic salmon caught by a very patient Trev at Marysville trout and salmon ponds. This salmon was enormous, weighing in at 2.6kg and tasted absolutely amazing. Even after it had been frozen (we couldn't eat it all at once!) the flesh was still oily and fresh tasting.

The parsley and breadcrumb crust was simple to put together, with the parsley, olive oil, bread and garlic being whizzed up together in the Thermomix. Have I mentioned that I am in love with my Thermomix? It was an insanely expensive addition to my kitchen but the hours it has saved me have made the purchase worth it, time and time again.

I don't think I would have looked at this recipe twice had it not been for this challenge. In fact in my life pre-challenge I don't think I gave the parsley chapter a second glance. Little gems like these then, are surely what this challenge is all about. 

157&158/656 - Osso Buco & Gremolata

Osso Buco and Gremolata. What a lovely Italian meal they make!  

Many years ago I ordered Osso Buco at an Italian restaurant and was served a plate of quite tasteless, tough meat. After that experience I found myself looking at people strangely when they ordered this dish, wondering why on earth they would want to eat such a horrible meal. Only a few months ago I had my second experience of Osso Buco at my friend Lydia's house. Her version was absolutely wonderful and I finally understood what all the fuss was about!  

So tonight I ate my third Osso Buco and thanks to Stephanie's guidance, it was superb. The meat was so tender it fell off the bone as I was serving it up and we absolutely loved the sauce which was course enhanced by the lovely fresh gremolata. 

Thanks to Lydia and Stephanie, I am now officially an Osso Buco convert. 

156/656 - Salsa of mixed peppers

What a lovely simple way to make fish taste great!   

This little salsa of peppers was chopped up and left to marinate, or as Stephanie says, it was left to "mellow". I like this turn of phrase and think I may use it both in and out of the kitchen. "Boys can you please be like the salsa and go and mellow for 30 minutes?" Not sure how well that will work but at least I will get a kick out of saying it. 

A choice between cider vinegar and red wine vinegar was given for this recipe, and I decided to use a little of each. The truth is that I had a slurp of apple cider vinegar left in the cupboard that I feared might live there forever if I didn't use it up tonight.  Red wine vinegar I go through like it is going out of fashion. Apple cider vinegar not so much.

All going well this is looking like being quite a productive week in my little kitchen so watch this space! 

155/656 - Maggie Beer's barbecued kangaroo with anchovy vinaigrette and soft polenta

What an impressive name for a Sunday night dinner at home! I usually leave the kangaroo cooking to Trev, but thoroughly enjoyed doing it myself tonight using Stephanie's directions and my trusty stopwatch. 45 seconds each side in a hot pan, 2 minutes each side in a raging hot oven and then 5 minutes rest. 

The meat turned out beautifully, very rare, which is how we like to eat our kangaroo. The polenta was magically smooth and wonderfully cheesy and the vinaigrette added the most incredible flavour to the meat. It was a sour and salty little dressing which included my two favourite salty things; anchovies and capers.

I realise it's not a very humble thing to do, but when my plate had been wiped clean, I declared this meal to be one of the best I had eaten in a long time. 

Lucky for me the family agreed.

154/656 - Garlic prawns

I experienced mixed emotions when I first realised that our eldest child had developed a love of seafood to match my own. On one hand I was proud that he was adventurous enough to eat virtually anything that came out of the ocean, regardless of its appearance. On the other hand I became acutely aware of the extra little pair of hands grabbing for the last crayfish leg or marinated octopus.

Needless to say, Henry was at the table, sleeves pulled up and fork at the ready when these garlicky little babies came out of the oven. It might seem amazing that I have only just cooked this simple recipe. The truth is I have gone to cook this many times and am always gazumped at the first step, which is to marinate the garlic in oil overnight. I can never wait that long!

We enjoyed the marinade on this dish so much we threw it over the chicken that is busily barbecuing itself for our main course enjoyment. 

153/656 - Washday pudding

Oh what a fabulous way to end the week!

I bought myself a pudding tin a few weeks ago and have been dying to try it out. Imagine my disappointment when I tried to drop it into my largest saucepan tonight, only to find it didn't fit! In the end I managed to tip it in sideways with one of the pesky wide handles pointing downwards, deep in the water. 

I assumed that the pudding would only cook on one side due to my lopsided steaming effort and so was very pleased to find the pudding evenly steamed. Learning for the day; puddings are foolproof!

The honey sauce I made earlier was nice and thick by the time the pudding was steamed, and turned out to be a lovely topping, teamed with a few dollops of thick cream for good measure. 

152/656 - Simple coconut-milk fish curry

It has been an enormous day of cooking in my kitchen today! Pancakes, dinner rolls, honey sauce, pudding and this little gem I found hiding in the fish chapter.  

As the title of this recipe states, this is a wonderfully simple dish to make. The fish is poached in coconut milk spiced up with spring onions, SIX cloves of garlic (yes six!), lemongrass, chillies, kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce. We ate this on rice with piles of carrots and beans and the very tasty dinner rolls I created today which were fabulous for soaking up the extra juices.

151/656 - Honey sauce

I made this sauce in readiness for tonight's pudding. Made from honey, vanilla, cream and butter, this sauce will be at it's best when cooled and thickened. Pudding post to come!

150/656 - Mary's rabbit pie

It's a rabbit-fest at our house!

Another wild rabbit from our Yarra Valley food tour was consumed tonight in this wonderful, although very time consuming, pie. I have mentioned before that I am not a fast cook, but four hours to prepare a mid-week dinner has to be a record even for me. 

The first step was to poach the rabbit. For two hours. Damn. I didn't start cooking until 3:30 having spent the afternoon chatting to my Dad, but having promised rabbit pie to my boys for dinner, rabbit pie it was going to be.  

Step 2 - Make shortcrust pastry. I realise that making pastry is not for everybody but I am completely hooked on the taste and I am getting good at it too! Stephanie would have been VERY proud of tonight's effort. My best yet by a mile. As my friend Emma would say, I am getting my pastry hands!

Step 3 - Sauté bacon and mushrooms, then sear liver and kidneys. My little rabbit came sans liver, but I was amused frying my first kidneys to find that they bounce like superballs. 

Step 4 - Toast almonds and mix with everything else cooked so far to make the filling. Add parsley for lovely green colour and as it turns out, fantastic flavour. 

Step 5 - Make decadent, creamy white sauce mixed with rabbit stock, lemon juice and cream. Mix with rabbit and other bits. 

Step 6 - Roll out pastry and bake blind. 

Step 7 - Make breadcrumbs. Thank you Thermomix. 

Step 8 - Put it all together and bake until lovely and brown. 

Looking back I am not as embarrassed at the four hour cooking time as I thought I might be. As well as being a fantastic dinner, tonight's effort also represented recipe number 150 (hooray!) and also my first completed chapter. Only 506 recipes and 113 chapters to go. 

It's OK, even I think I'm mad.  

149/656 - Rabbit with prunes

When we cook wild rabbit I always feel like we are doing our bit for the environment, supporting the eradication of the little pests. That is until I read that rabbit shooters would need to snare approximately 150 million rabbits each year to begin to reduce the size of the population. Not sure that my thrice annual wild rabbit purchase is going to make a whole lot of difference there!

This revelation, however, does not change the amount I enjoy eating a well cooked Flopsy. I loved this recipe, the generous amount of bacon, the meat of course, but most of all the prunes which were always going to taste divine after soaking in French brandy and a hefty glug of Shiraz. 

I did not serve this on mashed potato as was suggested, but all the better for my family. I reserved rather than served most of the juices which means rabbit risotto for Sunday lunch. 

148/656 - Grilled spiced Indian quail with fried coconut

So I have finally had a go at grilling dainty little quail.

I was quite surprised at how robust these little birds were, finding it easier than expected to separate the skin from the breast. The lovely smelling spice paste was rubbed under the skin, all over the fleshy side and finally over the wee little legs. 

The birds took only 9 minutes to grill, talk about fast food! I skipped the boning step because we were really hungry and scattered some of my lovely fried coconut over the toasty birds. Ten minutes later we had devoured this tasty little entrée. 

In my opinion the meat tasted a bit like duck but nowhere near as fatty. This of course means that quail has now jumped to a very lofty position on my list of favourite things to eat. Cooked the Stephanie way of course!

147/656 - Quail eggs in coconut sauce

How cute are quail eggs! 

We picked up these little beauties on the weekend at Yarra Valley Game Meats who have the most amazing range of products. The minimum purchase was two dozen eggs so apart from the few that we could not resist eating, I decided to dramatically increase the egg to sauce ratio in this recipe. 

The first step was to boil the eggs and interestingly I could not find cooking times for quail eggs in my Cook's Companion. Of course I found the info on the web (5min boiling compared to 8min for a chook egg) but am wondering if this information might have been included in the new "rainbow" version of the book. It is of course possible that I just missed it so would be happy to hear from anybody who can find it in either one. 

I used some of my lovely fried coconut in this sauce, along with onion, tomato (seeded and peeled), a very Indian array of spices (heaven) and coconut milk. The smell of the sauce cooking took me back to the early days of my marriage when I went through an extraordinarily long spell of preparing Indian food on an almost daily basis. I am still quite partial to Indian food but prefer a wider variety in my diet nowadays. 

I will definitely make this again and think I might even give it a go with chicken eggs given that we have them on tap at our place. Whether it be a disaster or a success I will be sure to add a post script to share the result.

146/1038 - Fried coconut

I am preparing to embark on a journey filled with all things quail. In preparation, I have made this incredible smelling concoction which will adorn both my quail eggs and my first ever grilled quail. 

Who knew coconut could smell so good? And I am not even hungry after stuffing myself silly with fat, juicy goat sausages from the lovely Ken at Yarra Valley Game Meats who we visited yesterday as a part of our family foodie day trip.   

This gorgeous smelling pile of coconut was fried with garlic, spring onion, coriander and freshly ground cumin and should last for about a week. I have already boiled and peeled my quail eggs ready for the next recipe but after a day of egg hunting (Easter eggs that is) I am wondering if it might be time to test out some of our wine purchases instead. 

145/1038 - Popcorn

Popcorn means several things to me; going to the movies, lolly gobble bliss bombs (which I actually haven't eaten in years) and a really cool song that was big when I was small. Tonight I made popcorn the Stephanie way and it was quite a different experience. There were two choices to be made when making this recipe and it was all about the seasoning. Olive oil or butter? Cayenne pepper or cumin seeds? 

I chose the oil and the seeds.

The olive oil was lovely and of course healthier than butter in it's raw form, and I liked the cumin seed flavour, although more would have been nice. The boys absolutely loved popcorn done this way which was not at all a part of my late night snacking plan.

Sadly for them their pilfering has left me hungry and I have spent the last half hour searching for their Easter eggs. I am not sure what is worse, stealing Easter presents from my children* or the fact that my husband knows well enough to hide them from me.

*Fortunately for my children my searching proved fruitless. And eggless. 

144/1038 - Leeks à la grecque

I love to find new ways of cooking my vegetables and these leeks were the highlight of our dinner tonight. Apparently they were cooked in the Greek way with olive oil, tomato paste, herbs, garlic and lemon juice. The finished product was beautifully tender and well flavoured. 

Apparently this method of cooking also works well for other vegetables such as mushrooms, zucchini and okra. I particularly like the sound of cooking mushrooms this way and will be trying it out with my breakfast eggs in the morning.

Yum.

143/1038 - Kangaroo tail soup

It has been a gamey week in our house. Venison pie, venison steaks and now roo tail soup. 

The kangaroo tail was easy enough to find at the Queen Vic market (in the deli section if you are interested) but the venison was a different story. I don't have a problem with being a meat eater, but as we travelled down the very long driveway of the Venison Farm in Bass I was trying desperately not to catch the eye of any of the beautiful deer that ran to the fence to have a look as we passed. The thought that we might be taking home one of their parents in our esky was almost too much for me.

Almost, but not quite. The pie and the steaks were delicious and I am quite keen to tuck into the venison roast currently residing in our freezer.

Needless to say I was pleased I did not have to eyeball a kangaroo in order to obtain my tail. The soup needed to simmer for four hours and stupidly I decided to cook this on an evening when a better decision would have been to curl up in bed with a good book. I dutifully simmered and skimmed for about an hour, and then my energy flagged and I ended up on the couch with a glass of wine.

Unbeknownst to me, my soup started to boil and a good amount of it boiled away before I finally came back to do another skim. So what we ended up with was a lovely rich soup with deep flavours, but much less of it than there should have been. I am so glad I caught it when I did and saved enough of the soup to make Skippy losing his tail worthwhile.

142/1038 - Fennel-seed breadsticks

I have recently taken to making our bread from scratch on an almost daily basis (industrious I know!) and stumbled across this recipe whilst reading up on fennel. Very sneaky to hide additional bread recipes in a herb chapter!

I have a little pot of saffron threads which largely sits unused on my shelf and so I was excited that a pinch was required for this recipe. I actually love saffron but most of the time I forget it is there. A bit like my tin of moghrabieh. I love it but it’s not an ingredient that springs to mind when I am planning a meal.

Stephanie advised that this recipe would work equally well fashioned into either four breadsticks or 20 dainty grissini. I was very tempted to make grissini but just knew they would be a diet disaster waiting to happen. I would most certainly have polished off a mountain of them, convincing myself each time that “they are only small and so another one will not hurt”.

So breadsticks it had to be. Stumpy little breadsticks in this case.

We had a late night taste and the fennel seed has been declared a winner. And I thought I would be in trouble with grissini in the house...

141/1038 - Sponge topping

My eldest was particularly helpful around the house last week which meant he was granted the opportunity to choose a special dinner or dessert. Completely out of the blue he requested sponge cake. 

Given I have only completed five out of twenty two recipes in the basics chapter (now six) I was pleased to be handed the opportunity to knock off another one. This sponge was supposed to be a topping for either poached or puréed fruit but having neither on hand, I decided to use freshly diced peaches and plums instead.

The result? A lovely, light dessert that would have been even better with a dollop of cream or ice cream. Or if I had been more organised, some lovely home-made custard.

140/1038 - Fast red-wine sauce

My husband looked after the roast for dinner tonight while I whipped up this lovely little sauce.

Somehow between us we overlooked the steaming of the greens and so it was a decidedly red, brown and orange dinner tonight. My children are hardly on the brink of scurvy given the amount of vegetables we regularly force into them so I will forgive us both this oversight on this occasion.

The roast was extra tasty tonight, covered in basil, oil and oregano. My little sauce went down very well, although I probably could have reduced it a bit further. I tend to rush things when the family look as if they are about to chew their arms off from hunger. 

Thankfully I was not in such a rush that I forgot to add the rather large knob of butter to the finished sauce. What a lovely shine! What a lovely taste...

139/1038 - Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise, simple right? Not in my kitchen.

I have decided there is one thing that has taken me from being a cook who creates regular disasters to one who can accomplish almost anything in the kitchen given enough time. That thing is the ability to rescue a failed dish.

I decided to third this recipe and so began using only one egg yolk, a waft of salt and a dash of champagne vinegar. In went the olive oil, but only half the recommended amount as I have found this recipe to be rather oily on past attempts. No disrespect to Stephanie intended, I am sure this comes down to personal taste. With the oil added, my mayonnaise seemed a tad runny so I decided to add an extra egg yolk. The result was very, very yellow but the consistency was much better.

I opted for white pepper to pep up the taste and also added more salt, some pepper and an extra dash of champagne vinegar to reduce the oily taste that I abhor in a mayonnaise. I was very pleased with the final result and my curried eggs tasted better than they ever have before.

Added bonus - I somehow managed to ignore the lovely bread I made last night and ate my eggs wrapped in lettuce leaves so a double win for me today!

138/1038 - Mietta's chocolate cake

We had dinner at my mum's place tonight which in my opinion is always cause for celebration!

Mum loves to cook for people as much as I do and has bunches of people over what seems like every other week. It's fairly obvious where I inherited my love of entertaining! Tonight we were lucky enough to be treated to leftovers from yet another big lunch she hosted on Saturday.

Party leftovers/dinner tonight started with fried halloumi, figs cooked in red wine syrup and a drizzle of fig balsamic. Next were gorgeous garlic and herb toasts topped with buttery, herby chicken and home grown silverbeet on the side. If that was not fattening enough, I brought out this wonderful cake to finish with which was topped with chocolate and brandy butter cream. 

The cake needed something special to finish it off and the lovely Chas came through with some dried rose petals. Eaten with whipped cream (and in my case an extra handful of rose petals) this cake was rich and amazing. I think I had it in the oven for just a couple of minutes too long but I am a huge fan of a crusty edge on a cake so I was very happy.

137/1038 - Vietnamese Mang Cua soup

I have a child who is obsessed with seafood. We were recently dining at Bokchoy Tang (which is fabulous by the way) and it took quite some effort to convince him that he could not order the live lobster. Apart from the astronomical price, we had a show to attend and did not have time to sit around while a lobster was killed for his gastronomic enjoyment. 

So when he spied some lovely looking crab at the market, he asked if we might buy some to make up for the lack of lobster in his recent diet. First word problem #34...really, sometimes I wish my children would understand what it really means to be deprived!

So tonight it was “so good you want to lick the bowl” Vietnamese Mang Cua soup. I was going to make the crab cakes but to be honest they sounded like slightly more effort than the soup and being a Sunday night I went for what appeared to be the easier option.

Being the slow cook that I am I was pleased that this really was a 10 minute "throw it all together and you are finished" kind of soup. The picking of the crab meat was another story of course and I will be pleased if I do not look at another crab leg in a very long time. 

Even better than satisfying my son's seafood craving, I was able to use a perfect little chilli from my garden tonight which I have been saving for something special. Warm fuzzies all 'round.