289/984 - Pikelets

As a child I only knew of pikelets that came in a packet. They were sweet and I loved them, but now that I think back they had an unusually fake, rubbery feel to them that makes me wonder just how many preservatives and nasty things I was consuming as an added bonus!

The basics chapter in the Cook's Companion contains thirty seven recipes and so I am always quite keen to tick another one off the list. I was very pleased to see that the pikelet mixture did not need to rest and so before we knew it I had whipped them up and watched them disappear into the mouths of my ever hungry family. 

I was left with only one pikelet (honestly the boys inhaled these so quickly I was thrilled they left me one!) and I enjoyed it with grated apple and a spoonful of full fat natural yoghurt which was delicious. I obviously made them a little bigger than I should have because the recipe advised that we would have twenty four pikelets and we ended up with around eight. Apparently I made mega-pikelets!

A quick family breakfast that made me popular for a good couple of hours.

288/984 - Bircher muesli

I still remember the first time I discovered bircher muesli in the spread of a hotel buffet, and wondering where that little bowl of deliciousness had been all my life. 

Every time we stay at a hotel, my family run straight for the sausages and hash browns and I find myself drawn to my own hotel buffet staple, each time swearing I will make some for myself when I get home. 

Fast forward many years, and I have finally made my own bircher muesli! Stephanie's version is absolutely beautiful, with still enough crunch and texture to be interesting, and so full of slivered almonds it's like my own little bowl of heaven. 

Having been wiped out all week with fluey aches and pains I threw this together hoping it would speed my recovery. Two bowls later I am sure it is starting to work its magic, no doubt helped by the wonderful pot set natural yoghurt that my family devours by the truckload. 

For something different I am thinking that next time I might replace the strawberries with slices of poached pear. In fact I can see the bircher being included in a dessert medley very soon. Imagine this with a ginger ice-cream and some rhubarb compote...

287/984 - Baghdad eggs

Our chooks are in fine form at the moment and we have more eggs than we can poke a stick at. So in order to reduce the stockpile, Baghdad eggs were on the menu for my lunch the other day. I cooked them as the chefs do on TV; preparing all of my ingredients beforehand and then making my lunch in a matter of minutes.

I always find it easier to break my eggs into a glass before tipping them into a pan as it is much easier to spot stray pieces of shell when done this way.

Even though my boys said they were not hungry when I was cooking, the two of them were like a pair of baby birds with their mouths open as I ate this. They liked these so much I had to make a second batch for Henry, although I did instruct him to grind his own cumin. Even slaves have limits!

I was disappointed to discover that my mint in the garden had died and so will have to make these again when I resurrect the plant, just to see what these decadent eggs taste like with something green on top. With more butter than was strictly necessary, a good amount of garlic, a dash of lemon juice and finished with cumin, salt and pepper, I give this dish two thumbs up.

My tip for maximum enjoyment however, is to eat it far away from ravenous children. Or simply triple the recipe just in case.

My beautiful Slovenian salt

286/984 - Brain salad with celery and mustard cream sauce

Look away now if you do not like brains!

I have committed to cooking every recipe in the book and this dish, while it was not my favourite, was loved by the family. I was not particularly well on the day I made this and so was more squeamish than usual. Having to handle and prepare the brains when I was not well meant that by the time we sat down to lunch I struggled to look at the brains, let alone eat them. Lucky for me I have three boys who will eat ANYTHING and so nothing was wasted.

Earlier in this challenge, when I was still cooking from the orange edition, I was proud to have completed three chapters. Since the upgrade I do not have any chapters complete, but amusingly, the brain chapter is one of the few with only a single recipe remaining. 

For the sake of the squeamish readers, I will hold off on attacking the last brain recipe for a little while. 

285/984 - Sticky toffee pudding

My blogging is all over the place at the moment! This is the dessert I served up to my offal crowd a couple of weeks ago. 

I left the dates to soak while we ate the main course and then threw everything together at the last minute for baking. In my opinion, the reason this pudding tasted so good was because it was put back in the oven once the sauce had been poured on top, and it came out soaked through and bubbling. The double cream spooned over the top didn't hurt either.  

My guests were equally impressed and I was feeling quite proud of myself until we headed out to Josie Bones a week later and the boys informed me, in very serious tones, that while my sticky date pudding was lovely, Josie Bones made a better one. I was offended until I tasted theirs and realised the boys were right. I think mine came in at a very close second though. 

I absolutely LOVED this dessert and it was made doubly special with the Pedro Ximenez sherry brought along by Trev's very generous Uncle. 

A match made in heaven to be sure.

284/984 - Harira

I made this lovely soup for a group of colleagues recently. I don't know what went wrong, but my harira was a bit watery and lacking in flavour. After throwing in some additional bits and pieces including a tin of tomatoes and some coriander root, the soup was absolutely lovely and ready to serve!

This soup was served with chopped, boiled eggs which I sprinkled with salt and roasted cumin. A lovely, and quite traditional, accompaniment. I also served some individual flat breads because they are so easy to make and I love them! Of course I feel spoiled that my thermomix kneads the dough for me but I still have to roll and cook them. 

So here we are, I can't believe there are only 700 recipes to go. It sounds like a lot, but with 284 behind me I am confident I will make it through. 

Eventually. 

283/984 - Lamb shanks with couscous

What better way to say goodbye to winter than with a meal of slow cooked lamb shanks?

I messed about with the recipe a bit and used Lebanese couscous, or moghrabieh, which is a much larger version and very much loved by my family. Rather than cooking it separately, I threw in my moghrabieh at the beginning of the recipe so that it could soak up the lovely juices. 

Rather than using 400g as directed, I think I should have reduced the amount because my moghrabieh swelled beautifully and we ended up eating this dish for days, both for lunch and dinner! Not the lamb shanks of course, they were inhaled at the first sitting. I will admit that by the final night of eating the stew, we needed a change and so added chorizo and a pile of extra vegetables so that we could pretend we were tasting something new.

Goodbye winter and hello spring!

282/984 - Pesto

Stephanie's pesto is quite light on pine nuts and I know that every time my Mum makes this she increases the quantity.

I always follow Stephanie's recipes, only adjusting if I feel it is absolutely necessary. In this case I did not feel the need to adjust anything; the pesto was tasty and smelled amazing, if a little garlicky! I was very careful not to eat too much of this on the nights before heading in to the office. 

We ate this pesto several ways, on pasta, on toast, on vegetables. We often added extra parmesan, which I grate by blitzing in the thermomix. It doesn't look as pretty as if we grated it by hand, but we eat so much parmesan in this house I would be forever grating if I didn't break it down the industrial way.

I was going to freeze the last of this lovely little basily treat, but in the end we managed to get through it all. Just another menu staple contained in my rainbow bible. 

280&281/984 - Mum's steak and kidney pie with home-made lard pastry

This was my first experience of cooking with ox kidney and I must say the smell did not thrill me at all. 

Stephanie suggested that soaking the kidney in warm water with either lemon juice or vinegar would reduce the smell and so in desperation I used both. I was not on my own, Trev kept walking through the kitchen with his nose screwed up and a pained look on his face. Not a good start for the kidney chapter!

Trimming and chopping the kidney didn't thrill me either and I was seriously worried that there was finally a chapter that was going to beat me. While the steak and kidney were cooking I kept tentatively lifting the lid, hoping that I would finally enjoy the aroma, but alas I was consistently disappointed. Needless to say, when the pies were cooked, I was thrilled that I actually enjoyed the taste. The terrible smell was worth it! 

The lard pastry was a revelation, coming together easily, although I did need to add a handful of flour because the mixture was so sticky it was difficult to work with. I ended up with a beautiful silky ball of pastry that was easy to roll after chilling for a spell in the fridge.

I decided to hang the pastry over the edge of my ramekins to allow for shrinkage, and was surprised to see that this pastry did not shrink at all. I think I love lard pastry! 

Another lovely dish, and not too challenging for my party of offal lovers.

279/984 - Brain, mushroom and chicken croquettes

It was a brainy entrée for my guests last night.

These lovely little croquettes took a bit of preparation and I am glad I pre-read this recipe or I would have been in all sorts of trouble! There was a lot of peeling, trimming, soaking, poaching, blending, chilling and crumbing required which I am pleased to report was all done in plenty of time before people arrived. 

I decided that one croquette per person was sufficient for a first course, but cooked some extras so that I could test the centre to ensure the chicken was cooked correctly. Once plates had been cleaned, my guests were sniffing around for more so I was happy I had made extra! It's always a lovely compliment when a second serve is requested. 

I am a huge brain fan so absolutely loved these. The inclusion of the brains ensured the croquettes remained soft inside, and the lemon zest, porcini mushrooms and marsala all added to the wonderful flavour. 

Two courses in, I was feeling very happy about this offal night!

278/984 - Hungarian chopped chicken liver

What do you think this is, chopped liver? 

Last night was the occasion of the big offal dinner party and what an absolutely amazing, fabulous night it was!

Officially the third Cook's Companion mystery guest dinner, last night's table was made up of Trev's uncle and partner, my eldest son's teacher and lovely Rachael who I met on Twitter a couple of months ago. Inviting strangers to dine at my house might seem a little crazy, but meeting lovely people like Rachael and Wendy have been incredible experiences, and let's face it, 99% of the people in the world are interesting, friendly and worth meeting.

One of the intentions of last night's event was to dispel the myth that eating offal is disgusting. While the amazing people around my table were certainly not afraid to partake in nose-to-tail dining, it is my wider readership I am seeking to convince.

The plan for the amuse-bouche was originally Chinese-style glazed livers, but as I was preparing the dish I changed my mind and made chopped liver instead, mainly because I had already made the glazed livers and I was keen to try out something new. Even before I added the boiled egg and mustard, this liver fried in onion was amazing. For thermomix owners out there, you will be pleased to know that instead of passing this through a food mill I simply pulsed the mixture on speed four for a few seconds, careful not to turn it into a paste. 

Trev's uncle Gerry brought along a sweet wine to drink with this course and we all agreed that the combination was a good one. Thank you Gerry for enhancing our courses with your amazing wine knowledge! Sweet wine to start with, that's my kind of drinking style. 

A wonderful start to a wonderful night. 

277/984 - Coconut and caramel sauce

It's been a banana dessert kind of month! 

I often talk to my boys about the science in cooking, and the first step in this recipe fascinated me! Who knew that castor sugar in a saucepan over a moderate heat would turn into a gooey, yummy caramel? 

Stephanie was not kidding when she wrote that the caramel would "contort into solid lumps" when the coconut milk was added. Mine immediately went hard and spiky although melted again nicely when put back on the heat. I had some trouble getting my sauce to thicken and ended up just putting it in the fridge and hoping it would thicken as it cooled. It did.

As I prepared this dessert I was amused to watch my sister's face as I performed a trick I learned many years ago on the Curiosity Show. Poking my finger into the top of the banana I was able to divide it into neat thirds, and of course make the presentation more interesting! 

I tried grilling the skinned bananas but found that they simply went a bit hard and unappealing so I threw them in a pan with butter and loved the result! 

To finish off the plate I lightly toasted slivered almonds in a pan with some soft brown sugar for crunch; my version of a cheat's praline. So simple and ridiculously yummy.

Another dessert that made me very, very happy.

276/984 - Potato galettes

I decided to serve these galettes, which are really just very fancy hash browns, as an entrée to my guests last week, in the style recommended by Stephanie.

The galettes were cooked in advance, which made the serving of them relatively simple. It is such a wonderful thing to have a dish almost ready to go, rather than having to mess about too much once guests arrive. Once each of my guests had champagne in hand, I popped the galettes under the griller to reheat them and then added some blobs of goat's cheese to each one. Back under the griller they went until they were bubbling and smelling amazing. 

I topped the finished product with a mash of Spanish anchovies, garlic, parsley, butter and lemon. Guests were encouraged to spread the bubbling, soft goat's cheese all over the galette before eating and it was a recommendation I took on myself! 

I really liked this dish, and I especially loved the topping which Henry and I have since replicated on home-made seed bread. Not quite as fancy but still a tasty afternoon snack. 

275/984 - Satay marinade and sauce

When my sister came for dinner I tried to think of dishes that were yummy, but also a little bit healthy. Satay sauce was the decadent element of this Bang Bang chicken which I found as a margin recipe on page 300.

The satay sauce was a little thick, but I wasn't sure of the correct way to thin it: water? Coconut milk? Oil? I was enjoying my time with my sister too much and so didn't want to excuse myself to google the solution. Also it tasted good so I was not too concerned. I did google it the next day and found that hot water was the solution I was seeking. I heated the leftovers in a saucepan and drizzled in some boiling water which worked perfectly and even lightened the colour to where I think it should have been in the first place. 

I will admit I did use peanut butter instead of peanuts in the satay, due to being a bit tired from a very long day interstate the previous day. I wonder if this served to thicken the sauce more than it would have done if I had used peanuts. I guess I will find out next time I make this!

We have a friend that we know affectionately as the satay king. I am pleased to report that I think I gave the king a run for his money on this occasion and that we no longer have to wait for a visit from Arie to enjoy good satay at home. 

The following day I also made the other half of the recipe which was a satay marinade. The flavour of the marinade was incredible, and with some satay sauce on the side it was a dinner absolutely packed with flavour. My colleagues were not thrilled about the delightful smell that emanated when I heated the leftovers for my lunch and I was told that next time I brought something that smelled that good I was obligated to share. 

Fair enough too.  

Chicken cooked in the satay marinade, with a side of satay sauce. Oh yum.

274/984 - Baked flaming bananas with butterscotch sauce

I am a bit behind on my blogging, with six recipes made that I am still to blog. I would normally blog my cooking in roughly the order in which it was made, but last night's dessert was such a revelation that I just could not wait to share it!

I had some colleagues over for dinner and thought I would try this dessert for the first time, even though there were elements that made me nervous. The butterscotch sauce was simple enough; cooking the sugar in the pan until it was runny and golden and then adding some water, more sugar and some cream. Possibly the yummiest sauce I have ever made, this one is destined to be remade and swirled through home made vanilla ice-cream.

As dessert time approached I lined the bananas up under the griller still in their skins. I left them in until they were quite black on both sides. It was amazing to slit the skins and discover the wonderfully soft banana inside, much easier than frying them in a pan! We quickly slit all of the bananas open and then lit the warm rum with a match. Once flamed (which was very dramatic!) the rum was poured over the bananas and then followed by the amazing butterscotch sauce.

The table went very quiet as my guests began to eat. My favourite moment of the night was when one of my guests took her first bite and said, "Oh Kate....mmm...there are no words!"

I think that says it all really. 

273/984 - Tomato and lemongrass broth

I had a very special dinner party with my sister on the weekend. With families of our own and busy jobs, it's hard to find the time to catch up for a quiet chat. Luckily for me my husband agreed to babysit her children so that Jane and I could have an evening together. What a nice man he is!

This broth was a lovely, light way to start the meal and once my sister reminded me to add the garnish of spring onions and coriander it looked very pretty! There were prawns in there too but they sank to the bottom and so unfortunately did not add any additional colour to the dish.

My youngest sat beside me quietly as we were eating and sipped happily at his own small bowl of soup. I was thrilled to hear that he loved it too.

I used the leftovers as a base for dinner tonight, throwing in prawns, gyoza and piles of vegetables. A completely different dish but what a beautiful base to work with. 

272/984 - Slow-roasted tomatoes

Last weekend I decided to try out a margin recipe: lamb burgers on page 534. 

The burger assembly was simple enough but there certainly was a bit of prep involved! As well as the lamb burgers, there were slow-roasted tomatoes and caramelised onions to be made, and of course never wanting to keep things simple, I decided to make my own Turkish bread too. 

The caramelised onions I have made before, to top Stephanie's famous steak sandwich no less, but the tomatoes were a recipe I was yet to try. Now that I have made them, and know how unbelievably good they are, I do believe they will become a common occurence in our house! 

The tomatoes are simply brushed with oil and topped with basil before being thrown in a slow oven. I cooked mine fan-forced and found that they were beautifully cooked in under three hours. 

The Turkish bread, sadly, was another story entirely. I used Greg Malouf's recipe which I found on the SBS website, and while the recipe was fabulous and the result exactly as I had hoped for, the length of the kneading and resting time involved meant that my Turkish bread was not finished until hours after dinner had been eaten. It was my fault of course, having not read the recipe through before I started. I think this is going to be my own self-mandated performance goal for this challenge; start pre-reading recipes!

I cooked more tomatoes than we needed and so have been enjoying them on toast, in sandwiches, straight from the jar...

My beautiful, but delayed,
Turkish bread

Lamb burger with caramelised onions,
slow-roasted tomatoes and
store bought Turkish bread

271/984 - Chocolate chip biscuits

I love a good chocolate chip biscuit as much as the next person and I especially love them home-made and straight out of the oven.

I think the best thing about this recipe was the roasted nuts which added an incredible flavour and meant that even with a stack of chocolate chips in there, the biscuits were not overly sweet. I used lots of walnuts and also some macadamias and almonds in this batch. For anybody planning to make these I recommend you do not skip the nut roasting step! 

Knowing how much my family love chocolate chip biscuits I doubled the recipe, and in fact still have two rolls in the fridge ready to be sliced and baked. I am not sure what happened measurement-wise, but rather than getting 15-18 biscuits from each roll I got around nine. Admittedly the biscuits were of a generous size but I thought I had roughly followed the directions for diameter and thickness of slices. 

Learning: Always double this recipe! The family will certainly not be complaining. 

270/984 - Poached pears in a pear puff tart

In an attempt to get ahead of the fruit-we-are-not-good-at-eating issue, I decided to end a wonderful week with my very first attempt at poached pears. To make things even more interesting, I noticed a margin recipe for this simple pear puff tart and thought (quite rightly as it turned out!) that it might make the boys more excited about eating a pear for dessert.

Getting my pears to stand up in the sugar syrup was a challenge, and given that I halved the recipe I also found the syrup not quite deep enough to cover the pears. I decided that if I added other things to the water the level would rise sufficiently, and so in went three empty egg coddlers. The water level was nicely raised and even better, the coddlers provided a cosy little resting place for my pears which were now standing up nicely. 

I would have liked to share the details of how long my pears took to poach, but I fear I forgot to look at the clock. I am fairly sure it was about one hour and the pears were perfect; not too soft, not too hard. 

The fruit was supposed to cool in the syrup and of course being a Sunday night I was impatient for this to occur naturally! Half filling the sink with cold water, and standing the saucepan in it, sped the process up nicely. Turning the sweet, sweet pears into tarts was as simple as cutting some pastry to size and baking for ten minutes. In the short time the tarts took to cook, I made a simple custard in my thermomix. Honestly seven minute custard from scratch, how impressive is that?

To my delight the family adored this simple dessert and for the first time in ages we cleared our fruit bowl of pears within days of them arriving. I had to giggle as last night I mourned the lack of a crisp pear while finishing off a particularly lovely Danish Blue. Oh the irony! 

269/984 - Seville marmalade from Finca Listonera

I have finally made marmalade!

I have mentioned before that we sometimes have trouble keeping up with our fruit delivery and last week we seemed to have oranges coming out of our ears. The marmalade recipe is a two day event and so I wisely started making it on Saturday - look at me pre-reading a recipe for once!

The first step was to peel the oranges and lemons and then to julienne the peel. Good lord that's a lot of chopping. My mum came over for a cup of tea as I was in the midst of turning a pile of peel into neat little strips, and so I did what any good daughter would do. I handed her a knife and asked her to chop while we chatted. Lucky for me I have a lovely mum who likes cooking as much as I do and so she didn't mind a bit. 

The next step was to juice the fruit and I decided to try out a tip that was given to me recently (thanks Wendy!) and after cutting all of the pith from the fruit, threw them into the thermomix and had a pulpy juice in seconds. Not only was it a super fast way of juicing, but it also meant that not a scrap was wasted. When you pay top dollar for organic produce, waste is not your friend. 

So it turns out that the special trick to making sure your marmalade sets correctly is to tie your pith inside a square of muslin and add it to the cooking pot. Once your marmalade has reduced by half, the pith and the pot stay on the stove top over night and the next day your soggy little bag of pith is squeezed out and discarded. 

Before adding the sugar to the liquid it was warmed in the oven, which I assume is to prevent the liquid from cooling down when the sugar is added. The final step was to boil the marmalade for 5-10 minutes until the setting stage had been reached. I was waiting for my liquid to reach 104 degrees which seemed to take forever, and so in the end I tipped a spoonful on to a cold plate and after a few minutes realised that my gooey mess had turned into marmalade! 

I am thrilled with the result, which is just as well because I ended up with six full jars of the stuff. My mum took one and we eagerly opened the second, pleased that it did not run all over the place (if anything it is a little thick!) and that it tastes just as it is supposed to.

I do feel a bit like a grandma now that I make my own preserves...next I will be potting meat and pickling my vegies...oh wait, too late...

My little challenge turns two!

Happy 2nd birthday to my little challenge!

Sometimes it feels as if I have been doing this cooking/blogging thing forever. Two years in, the challenge continues to bring me enjoyment, an expanded social circle and of course plenty of great food.

To celebrate this special birthday milestone I thought it must be stats time again! In the last two years I have;

• cooked at least one recipe from 90 of 123 chapters
• managed to cook an average of more than one recipe every three days
• upgraded from my beloved orange bible to one that is rainbow coloured (and loving it!)
• kicked off the CCC mystery guest dinner parties, hosting two already and with a third booked for August
• Had more than 27,000 hits to the blog (wow!)
• Eaten things I thought I never would, including tongue, trotters, glazed livers and raw lamb
• Had more fun than I could ever have imagined!

A highlight in the journey has definitely been the launch of the CCC mystery guest dinner parties. Meeting new people is always fun and quite frankly, I think people should invite strangers into their homes more often. Life is too short to stay inside your comfort zone. 

Thank you to everybody who is still on this journey with me. As interesting as the challenge is, it is ten times more enjoyable getting feedback from people outside of my little family as I progress through the chapters.

Here's to another two years!

268/984 - Pear and walnut salad

Oh my! If only every salad tasted this good...

We have our fruit and vegetables delivered each week, largely to remove just one from the list of regular jobs a busy family must tick off in order to keep a household running. I love receiving my delivery each Tuesday, but have noticed there are a couple of things we are slow to eat. It turns out we are not much of a pear eating family and so I decided, for the first time, to take a look through the pear chapter to see how we might use up the two that were still lingering from last week's box.

Unfortunately I did not have any witlof, but was lucky enough to have the rest of the ingredients on hand for this AMAZING salad. Pears, stinky blue cheese, toasted walnuts...an incredible combination. To make it even better, the toast served alongside was sour dough, painted with walnut oil and toasted under the grill.

I am thrilled that there is enough left over that I will be taking it, along with some leftover steak, to work for my lunch tomorrow. Bring on next week's pears! 

267/984 - Chocolate brioche

The dessert I made for my chocolate loving friend was chocolate brioche with mini baked custard rounds and berry sauce. My original intention was to make sultana brioche with a chocolate sauce but came to my senses and realised that a gooey chocolate inside would be much more fun. 

Rising, rising...

Brioche dough was easy enough to make, although now that I am aware of how much butter is in there I don't think I will be eating brioche very often! I decided to cook mine in a muffin tin to ensure a lovely golden exterior, which meant that I needed to reduce the final stage in the oven from five minutes to two as I felt they were already beautifully brown and in danger of being overcooked.

The plated dessert was very awkward looking but tasted quite nice. The custard rounds were made with a chinese egg tart filling which can be found here but instead of making the pastry I simply poured the custard into a mini muffin tin and baked the rounds for about 15 minutes. The tray was oiled and so with a bit of teasing with toothpicks the custard rounds popped out quite easily. 

And the very best thing about this recipe was finding a leftover brioche this morning which I enjoyed with a coffee. Not very healthy but a lovely and decadent way to start a Sunday!

An awkward looking,
but yummy dessert