599/1038 - Zabaglione with mascarpone

Italian desserts really are the bomb! 

We had some beautiful figs gifted to us from another neighbour of my husband's work and I just knew this recipe would be the perfect accompaniment to what is one of my very favourite fruits. As well as needing something to go with the fruit, I had opened a tub of marscapone to make icing for a cake (a green one for St Patrick's day no less!) and needed a way to use the rest of it up. I believe this is what is called a win-win scenario.

I made the amaretti myself and they were absolutely beautiful. If anybody needs a recipe, I used this one. Two of my boys don't like figs and so they ate this with extra crumbled amaretti instead. Personally, I thought the figs were what tipped this over into sensational territory and highly recommend their addition to this dish.

I halved the zabaglione recipe which not only turned out to be the perfect amount for four, but it meant that I used four yolks in the zabaglione and four whites in the amaretti mix. Perfect, no?

My oldest is off to camp today and so we ate this as his farewell dessert last night. Celebrate with food...who me?

I have assignments coming out of my ears and so I can't guarantee when the next recipe will happen but am assuming we will hit this wonderful milestone sometime in April. Exciting! x

598/1038 - Prawn (in lieu of rock lobster) oil

Where has this fabulous concoction been all my life?

Loving this prawn oil so much has had me lamenting all of the prawn heads I have discarded over the years. Making it was so very easy and the number of meals we have eaten with the oil is still growing! My favourite was spaghetti, well coated with prawn oil and topped with loads of fresh tomato, rocket and freshly cracked black pepper. So very good. 

Of course this recipe actually comes from the rock lobster chapter but given how difficult it is to obtain green rock lobster heads, I opted to take Stephanie's suggestion of using prawn heads in their stead. 

As the heads cooked, my house was filled with the most incredible smell, which continued to make me hungry until the next day with the oil sitting out overnight to marinate. 

Quite simply, an absolutely wonderful recipe and very highly recommended! 

Simmering with the vegetables

597/1038 - Prawns with ginger, spring onion and tomato

Look who found another prawn recipe hiding in the ginger chapter! 

We love seafood in our house and we especially love it fresh from the market. My youngest and I have swapped our weekly market day to Saturdays and so yesterday we happily brought home a kilo of prawns to enjoy. 

This is an interesting recipe in that the prawns, apart from the head & intestinal tract, are left intact. What I didn't expect is how fabulous they would taste, shell, legs, tail and all! The frying process (shallow, not deep-fried) makes the whole prawn edible which of course has the added bonus of reducing the smell in our bin the next day. Less shells, less smell...

The only change I made to the recipe was to fry in sesame rather than vegetable oil and also to use more prawns than was recommended. In hindsight I should probably also have increased the amount of topping, but the prawns were still flavourful so no harm done. We ate them with rocket and plain rice which meant minimal preparation and clean up. Perfect for a Saturday night! 

The motivation for our purchase was actually the prawn heads, which I will be turning into prawn oil today. I do love the smell of prawns cooking in the morning... 

596/1038 - Chocolate macarons

The reason for making this lovely dessert was twofold; they will serve as a thank you present for the beautiful people who have been looking after my bonsai since December and will also be one of the dishes I am sharing with friends at a long overdue get together tomorrow.

I am not a huge chocolate fan myself (although I will clarify this unusual stance in a moment) so I would not have thought to make this flavour for myself. Give me a good salted caramel macaron any day or anything fruity (raspberry, lemon, strawberry...)

My dislike of chocolate desserts is a weird one. I adore chocolate but don't love it when it is served in other forms. Chocolate cake - bleugh. French pastries or churros dipped in chocolate - double bleugh. Death by chocolate desserts - kill me now. It is a heaviness issue that I have. If a chocolate dessert is paired with a fruity parfait or sauce I am good to go. I also quite like chocolate with something crunchy such as cannoli or lightened with lemon zest. Fussy I know. But it's OK because I am generally the maker of the dessert, so I can afford to be fussy!

I love making macarons but have generally opted to use the Italian meringue method. After cooking Stephanie's version, I am a convert! These were really easy to put together and came out beautifully smooth. The trick to the smoother mixture was to blitz the sugars and almond meal in the Thermomix which made them insanely easy to sift. Quite frankly, I can't believe I hadn't done that before. 

I haven't actually eaten one yet (partly self control and partly because they are chocolate) but I am told they are fabulous by my little family who couldn't wait. I personally think they are better the next day (or even two days after being put together) and straight out of the fridge so I will relent and test one out tomorrow.

Stephanie's macarons for the win! x