316/984 - Rosemary 'pesto'

We are lucky enough to have a very substantial rosemary bush that serves us all year round. Tonight's pizzas featured Stephanie's rosemary 'pesto' which was a lovely base for my topping of mushroom, capsicum, apple and fetta. It was simple enough to make, with my Thermomix doing all of the work combining the garlic, pine nuts, rosemary and oil. 

I used Stephanie's buttermilk pizza crust recipe tonight but replaced the buttermilk with a mixture of milk and natural yoghurt which seemed to work quite well. For every cup, I used about two tablespoons of milk and the remainder of yoghurt. To ensure the pizzas did not stick as I slid them into the oven, I sat the dough on a dusting of flour and semolina, which I also used on my pizza stone. 

The boys both requested Margherita pizzas (extra cheesy!) and so avoided the pesto altogether, using oregano as their herb of choice. Of course this means lovely leftovers so I will be looking for another use for this tomorrow!

315/984 - Ratatouille

When I piled the first half of the vegetables into the pan to cook, I was a bit shocked at the amount and seriously questioned whether I should have halved this recipe. When the dish was cooked and I had my first taste, I was glad I hadn't!

I was in a bit of a rush to get dinner on the table by the time the tomatoes were to be added to the pan and so I threw them in unpeeled. As if to keep the universe in balance, I peeled the zucchini instead! This is not something I would normally do but the enormous zucchini I had picked from the garden was lovely inside but had unfortunately turned a bit woody on the outside and down one end. My chickens were thrilled with the extra scraps so I didn't feel too guilty throwing some away. 

I can highly recommend cooking the onions for a long enough time that they start to caramelise, convinced that this was the reason my ratatouille was so wonderfully sweet. 

Being the resourceful person that I am, and also because this recipe makes an ENORMOUS pile of ratatouille, we ate this three ways over three nights. The first night we ate it as is, alongside slices of barbecued chicken. The second night was tipped over pasta as a simple sauce, and day number three saw the remainder baked in the oven with eggs, chorizo and leftover pasta. 

I am still not sure which version I preferred!

Ratatouille, chorizo and pasta bake. 

314/984 - Tony's crunchy fruit and nut granola

This is one of those foods I would like to munch by the handful, but where instead I have learned to show some restraint.  

I have always adored granola, or toasted muesli, and I especially like the home-made variety. Not only is it a million times cheaper than store-bought, but I also get to choose all of the ingredients. Of particular importance to me is the oil in which the oats and flakes are baked. I decided to substitute the grapeseed oil in this recipe for coconut oil, while I believe to be healthier and quite frankly I always have it in the cupboard and it tastes wonderful. 

Instead of buying bran flakes especially for this recipe, I simply used sultana bran minus the sultanas. Yes, I did stand there and pick the sultanas out one by one; really is anybody surprised by that? I also meticulously cut all of the raisins in half as I am not a huge fan and do not fancy the idea of getting a mouthful of dried fruit that overpowers the deliciousness that is the toasted oats and flakes. 

The boys have already tried this out as a snack, sprinkled over natural yoghurt and have given it a big thumbs up. I was not terribly surprised; I imagine I could probably bake cardboard in honey and coconut oil and it would taste fabulous.

313/984 - Sauce ravigote

The Cook's Companion certainly contains a lot of fabulous recipes, but most importantly there are just so many very simple sauces and sides that can be prepared in a matter of minutes.

I know I say this a lot, but I adored this sauce and will definitely be making it again to top cold meat, eggs or vegetables. Wanting to reduce the clean up afterwards, I didn't push the egg yolks through a sieve, but simply mashed them with a fork. Also instead of using red wine vinegar I used the beautiful Australian Harvest organic red wine jus that I bought at the Royal Melbourne Show late last year. Jules was thrilled as he was the one who nagged me to buy it, little gourmand that he is. 

Made the day before we ate it, with salty capers, tarragon that smelled sensational, chives (I used garlic chives), parsley and a crack of black pepper, this sauce perfectly complemented the meat we had also cooked the day before. 

Add some raw vegetables and this was fast food at its best. 

312/984 - Chinese stir-fry of garlic chives and bean sprouts

This may not look like much but wait until you taste it! 

As ever I was keen to use up some of our beautiful garlic chives which is why this recipe caught my eye. At Stephanie's suggestion I planned to serve this with chicken and rice and organised for Trev to barbecue the chicken as only he knows how.

I had no idea how absolutely fabulous this would be, and when it was made I idly scooped some up for a taste. More excited than I am willing to admit, I dashed into the other room to give Trev a taste and we both agreed that it was amazing and also that there was not nearly enough on the plate to satisfy our family! Given that it only took seconds to make I decided to make it again, double the amount this time! 

Later that day when the rice and chicken were ready, I threw my now tripled amount of chives and sprouts (and delicious sauce) into the pan to reheat, along with some carrots and mushrooms. 

If you own this book and would like a ridiculously fast way of livening up a meal, you must try this!

Post script: I just realised that I forgot to share a very important substitution that I made! I replaced the oil with coconut oil, which I use like it is going out of fashion. I have no doubt this decadence enhanced the loveliness of this dish. 

311/984 - Grape gratin

We were all a bit sceptical about this dish. Heating grapes and yoghurt, in my mind, is a bit odd and I expected to be a bit underwhelmed by the taste. My oh my, how wrong I was! 

I got a bit impatient waiting for the sugar/ginger combination to caramelise under the griller given that I had already waited a day since I packed my ramekins with grapes and yoghurt. I whipped out my blowtorch to hurry things along and was temporarily elevated toward hero status as the boys sat by, mesmerised by my handy flame-work. 

The only disappointing thing about this dessert was the amount; I could have eaten twice this much! Which would have been completely gluttonous of course, and so one ramekin per person is actually the quantity I will stick with when I make this again. The ground ginger in the sugar was unbelievably good and I think I will add some to the topping of my next crumble. 

If you are looking for a dessert that takes five minutes to make and is fairly healthy, this is the one! 

310/984 - Banana muffins

It's a hot, hot day in Melbourne today and if I had any sense I would be leaving the oven well alone. But we are stuck inside escaping the heat, and so what is a girl to do but cook?

I decided to make banana muffins, given the pile of bananas that were beginning to go black in my fruit bowl. In the margin on page 119 Stephanie advised that 150g of mashed banana could be added to the muffin recipe along with the other wet ingredients. I had around twice that (which I really wanted to use up!) and so decided to see what would happen if I threw it all in. What a maverick!

I was a bit concerned as I spooned the batter into the muffin tins, given that it looked like a big pile of mashed banana with a little bit of flour in it. My fears were unfounded however, and out of the oven came slightly wobbly muffins that cooled perfectly and are so full of banana it is fabulous! 

Muffins are definitely not the healthiest snack, but if you are looking for a sweet treat or an occasional sweet thing for lunchboxes (adult and child alike!) at least homemade muffins are made with natural ingredients and not a load of scary sounding chemicals and preservatives. 

309/984 - Sue's meringues

So to round out our Australia Day, I thought I would make a dessert that was in some way related to the pavlova, less the cream.

My meringues turned out a little more tanned than I expected, but most importantly they were still chewy on the inside (hooray)!

The boys were immersed in a Disney movie by the time my meringues had cooked and so decided they would like to eat their meringues straight, sans topping. Of course I was still keen to make mine into a pretty dessert and proceeded to add mango, strawberries, mint and a drizzle of De Bortoli Botrytis Semillon to my bowl.

Crazy simple, healthier than eating piles of cream, deliciously tasty and pretty too. I declare my pavlova alternative a winner!

308/984 - Warm bean salad with a bacon garnish

Driving back from the shops this Australia Day I noticed sausage sizzles going on outside a couple of venues. Of course this made me yearn for a sausage and I decided to make this salad when we got home to respond to the craving.

Rather than a bean salad with a bacon garnish, this was rather more like a bacon salad with a bean garnish! Not that anybody was complaining, it was absolutely sensational and maybe just a touch decadent. I suspect the reason for the balance reversal was that my rashers were particularly large...and perhaps my beans a little small.

It's a quiet little Australia Day for my family and this was probably the highlight so far. All going well dinner and dessert should also excite the family's taste buds today.

307/984 - Bagna càuda

It was an eventful night when I took this recipe on!

The day had been a hot one, more than 40°C, and I decided to make this once the sun had gone down to keep the house as cool as possible in the hot part of the day. As I was standing by the stove stirring and melting the anchovies, the power went out. I have an electric stovetop and so my first worry was for my bagna càuda, wondering how on earth I was going to finish the recipe without power. Then I realised that my much loved fish (a recent addition to our household!) could soon be without oxygen and mild panic set in. 

The power did not come back on as expected and the next six hours saw me teetering on a stepladder scooping water out of our fish tank with a jug and pouring it back in to aerate the water. We had not prepared ourselves for a power outage and did not have any form of battery powered back up which I was kicking myself about mid-task! Thanks to our valiant rescue effort the fish survived, but sadly the power did not come back on until 4am so the bagna càuda was thrown in the fridge to be completed at a later stage.

Two power cuts later (yes we had battery back up by the second outage!) I dragged my oily little concoction back out of the fridge and threw it in a pan with the butter to finish it off. My mum came to visit and so for lunch we dipped carrot sticks and small pieces of toast in warmed up bagna càuda which was decadent but oh so lovely!

I have also been using this as a lovely salad dressing (see above) and as a topping for steamed vegetables, warmed up each time. Anchovy fans will love this and I am thinking that it would also be lovely drizzled over a vegetable pizza...Mmmm...

A happy survivor of our
power outage.

306/984 - Elizabeth Schneider's steamed garlic chives with ginger

This crazy weather has been very kind to our herb and vegetable gardens. With loads of rain and sun, we have lovely fresh produce bursting out of our little garden beds. In fact the garlic chives have grown so big I thought it was high time I entered the chive chapter! 

Trev kindly cooked the chicken breasts on the barbecue while I tied the garlic chives into little bundles and put them on to steam. I absolutely love the way these smell and am still aware of the aroma lingering on my hands after grappling with the knots on my little bundles. 

The sauce was lovely and simple, made up of fresh ginger, butter and a dash of soy. Conscious of not consuming too much butter, I divided this recipe by three and found the amount to be fabulous for my family of four. 

Served with steamed vegetables, this meal was light enough for a hot day with just enough sauce to make it feel lovely and decadent. 

305/984 - Fast chocolate sauce

Last night's special little guest requested a banana split for dessert. Of course banana splits can take many forms and this one came complete with;

Banana (of course!)

French vanilla ice-cream (sadly not home-made)

Pink and white marshmallows

Chopped nuts

Salted caramel (my special secret recipe which I will share if pushed) 

Stephanie's fast chocolate sauce

Sadly I had to miss out on this special treat as I am recovering from a particularly traumatic root canal and am nervous to eat anything that doesn't dissolve in my mouth. 

The fast chocolate sauce really was that; you throw the ingredients into a saucepan and heat. That's it! I didn't even need to grate the chocolate as I buy bittersweet chocolate in bud form which melted in no time. 

The pièce de résistance was my lovely home-made salted caramel and there were squeaks of delight as the kids discovered it draped over their bananas. 

There it was. Dessert made in five minutes...and eaten in about three.

304/984 - Bocconcini, tomato and basil salad

When our little guest requested salad to go with dinner I felt fairly comfortable that the range of options available to me were quite broad. My boys LOVE bocconcini and the herb garden is going bananas at the moment so this salad, found in the basil chapter, ticked a couple of important boxes for me. 

This is a tasty and wonderfully healthy salad. The recipe includes a fair bit of olive oil which can be easily reduced if required (I didn't). I enjoyed using a mixture of tomatoes in my version which kept the taste interesting and also made the plate look very pretty, which is important!

This is a salad that is very easy to put together and according to my family and one special little guest, definitely a winner. 

Yet another photo of my beautiful
lasagna, loosely based on the one found
in The Cook's Companion. It's the
home-made pasta (and the bacon) that
makes it good. 

303/984 - Garlic butter

We have all been dying for it to be holiday time and I promised Jules he could have a friend over to stay once we had all had a moment to catch our breath after a fabulous, but quite busy year. Tonight was the night of the play date and I absolutely loved the menu selected by our little guest; 

lasagne

garlic bread

 salad

banana split.

Not bad choices for a 10 year old! 

Of course I took the opportunity to make this a Stephanie based menu and was pleased to find a garlic butter recipe ready and waiting to be road tested. I started to pound this in the mortar and pestle but very quickly realised that the thermomix would do a much better job. 

I would have loved to have made the baguette myself but on this occasion I thought my energy was best spent focusing on the lasagne which always takes a bit of time to put together. 

The garlic bread was really lovely, only 12 minutes in the oven and the crust was crunchy and the butter beautifully melted. I halved the recipe which was exactly the amount I needed for one baguette. 

We may all be stinky tomorrow but it was absolutely worth it! 

302/984 - Bread sauce to serve with roast chicken

I have always been fascinated by the sound of this recipe, having never before eaten a sauce containing bread. I was not alone it seems; a couple of days after I made this I heard two radio presenters discussing the fact that they had not heard of it before and wondering how it was made.

We had another Yapunyah chicken to roast and so I made this beautiful sauce to serve with it (as per the recipe title!) It was very easy to make, simmering milk with a load of beautiful spices (including mace which I had not used before), a bay leaf and a shallot and then adding freshly made bread crumbs to soak up the liquid. The cream added at the end of course made this even more delicious! 

We had some left over sauce (it makes quite a lot!) and so the next night I fried up onion and garlic and then added leftover chicken, broccoli and capsicum. In went the rest of the bread sauce and a dash of extra cream to make a lovely pasta sauce for an easy dinner.

Wonderful leftovers!

301/984 - Passionfruit shortbread biscuits

I joined the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap for the second time this year, which is an American run event run by Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen. Each cookie swap participant is provided with three sets of contact details and commits to baking three dozen biscuits to distribute. On the 11th December, participating bloggers around the world will be posting their cookie recipes and a round up of all pictures and blog posts will be posted on the websites of the administrators mentioned above. The event is a fundraiser for Cookies for kids cancer which means that the event is great fun and also doing great things!

My boys were less than thrilled to see my lovely spotty biscuits laid out, only to be told that they were about to be shipped away. However disappointment turned to glee as my three gorgeous packages arrived! 

From Giulia at Love at Every Bite

I have been lucky twice now, in both years receiving the most beautiful biscuits and also some lovely notes and messages too. The first biscuits I received were from the lovely Giulia from Love at Every Bite. There were two types of biscuits in the beautiful Christmas tin and the kids loved them both. I will definitely be heading to the websites of these lovely ladies to get the recipes and start replicating! 

The Kitchen & the Camera

Alicia from The Kitchen and the Camera sent some amazing shortbread which were so good I will not share how many of these I ate! And lastly, I received a beautiful Christmas case filled with individually wrapped gingerbread men, ladies, reindeer and candy canes from Traci at Cookie Queen Kitsch'n. I have saved a couple of these to share with my nieces and nephew on Christmas day because they were too cute to gobble up all at once!   

Cookie Queen Kitsch'n

The biscuits I decided to send this year were Stephanie's passionfruit shortbread biscuits. My tip for participants of the swap is to always make at least 37 so you can taste one before you send them! The recipe can be found in the traditional hard copy of The Cook's Companion or indeed in the recently launched Cook's Companion app. 

The only change I made was to halve the amount of icing. I have listed the full amount below just in case I am in the minority and people prefer a generous amount of icing!

Passionfruit Shortbread Biscuits

180g softened butter

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2/3 cup pure icing sugar

pulp of 3 passionfruit

100g cornflour, sifted

180g self-raising flour, sifted

Icing

50g butter

1 cup pure icing sugar

pulp of 2 passionfruit

1. Cream butter, zest and icing sugar
2. Mix in passionfruit pulp, cornflour and flour
3. Chill for 20 minutes
4. Preheat oven to 220°C (430°F)
5. Pipe rounds or fingers of batter onto trays lined with baking paper (or make balls and flatten them as I did!)
6. Bake until golden brown, approximately 5-8 minutes
7. Cool on a wire rack before icing
8. Melt butter and put icing sugar into a small bowl
9. Add pulp to melted butter then stir into icing sugar
10. Beat hard for 1-2 minutes over hot water until icing is really shiny.
11. Dip or ice biscuits and dry on a wire rack. There will be less drips if you choose to halve the icing mixture as I did. 

And there we have it! Another completely enjoyable cookie swap done and dusted. Thanks again to Giulia, Alicia and Traci.

I am looking forward to next year already! 

300/984 - Black-eyed beans with coriander and capers

It is Thanksgiving time of year at the moment, which of course does not mean much to many Australians. We on the other hand, are privileged to be friends with a beautiful Australian-American family who celebrate Thanksgiving each year. No doubt I share this sentiment every November, but the Thanksgiving celebration is by far my favourite holiday. It is an amazing get together filled with food, laughter and games. The lack of presents means that the children are completely focused on having fun and not on what they are going to get from the incoming guests. 

Em puts on the meats (biggest turkey I have ever seen!) and desserts (pumpkin and pecan pies are staples) and each guest brings along a side dish. This year my contribution was this beautiful salad, complete with parsley and coriander from our thriving little herb garden. We served this with natural yoghurt and I am pleased to report that the feedback was unanimously positive. 

It was a wonderful day which was celebrated well into the night. And of course the most fabulous thing to report is that my side dish represented recipe number 300 of this challenge!

Wowser.

299/984 - Double chocolate brownies

My little boys participated in a swimming carnival this week. To congratulate them on a job well done I whipped up these ridiculously simple double chocolate brownies. 

This brownie recipe was quite different to the rum and macadamia brownies found in the original version of the Cook's Companion. It was quite a complicated task combining the recipes from both books and I was pleased to have a second brownie recipe to attempt! My creation of the original version can be found here.

Even the smallest piece of this would satisfy a sweet craving and so I am confident these will last for at least a couple of days. The "double chocolate" refers to the cocoa and also the very large pile of chopped chocolate that was stirred through just prior to baking.

Oh my. 

298/984 - Olive oil crispbread

I made an interesting soup for dinner tonight; pumpkin, bacon and pigs trotter. A bit random I know, but we like a bit of trotter action in our house and what better way to introduce even more piggy flavour into a soup! 

These crispbreads are lovely for dunking and made the soup just that little bit more fun to eat. And it took the boys' minds off the fact that they had to sift through their soup looking for the little porky bones that got missed in the first sift. 

I have also tried these crispbreads with cheese and dip and can confirm that they are fabulous eaten all three ways. I chose fennel seeds as the topping for this batch but am thinking it would be lovely to try them again with rosemary.

Yes, definitely a recipe worth repeating. 

Little raw crispbreads

With pumpkin, bacon and trotter soup

297/984 - Mushrooms à la grecque

Hit by a nasty little bug this week, I decided I needed to find a recipe that was ridiculously easy (energy stores are low!) and also vegetable based.

I had every intention of poaching myself an egg to eat with these lovely little mushrooms, but unfortunately my energy did not quite extend that far. Proud of myself for not eating yet another corn thin with peanut butter (that home-made stuff is really addictive!) I found this dish a warm and comforting snack after a third day of being wiped out and confined to the couch. 

I will confess to eating the entire 250g of mushrooms myself, although I did donate the last bit of the sauce to the thermomix chilli con carne being put together for dinner by my lovely little boys. 

296/984 - Waldorf salad

A waldorf salad with orange!

My mum used to make waldorf salad in the seventies and I remember loving the fact that it contained mayonnaise; one of my favourite things to eat! Stephanie's addition of orange segments worked beautifully with the other ingredients and I think I will continue to include it in this salad when I make it in future. 

We had a meat free dinner tonight and the halloumi skewers that Trev put together were lovely as usual. It is a simple recipe that we use, marinating the halloumi in lemon juice and olive oil and sprinkling it with dried basil. We used cherry tomatoes as the gap fillers tonight, but there is usually some zucchini wedged in there too. A quick barbecue dish that is ready in minutes.

Meat-free Tuesday. It doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it?

295/984 - Buttermilk pizza crust

We promised the kids pizza tonight and so I thought I would try out Stephanie's super quick buttermilk crust.

In the past I have used a simple bread recipe to make my bases, which turns out a little thick but is still very tasty. At the other end of the thickness spectrum, we sometimes use pita or mountain bread as bases when we are looking for a thinner crust and a much quicker meal! 

This base was kneaded in the thermomix and then left to rest for half an hour. There is no yeast in the dough and so it didn't appear to rise, but when it was stretched out and cooked the result was incredibly pizza-like. I didn't have any buttermilk and instead used milk combined with a teaspoon of lemon juice. 

The first pizza I made was Henry's choice; a thin crust margherita, with tomato paste, basil, cheese and olive oil. So simple, but really, really good!

The second pizza with the thicker crust had a more unusual topping; tomato paste, zucchini, apple (yes apple!), cheese, basil, and mushrooms. 

I am actually not sure which one I liked better. They disappeared rather quickly and so I think the family agreed that they were equally good. 

294/984 - Gratin of artichokes

I have eaten many artichokes in my time, but have never before been inspired to cook one myself. Cruising the aisles of my local organic store recently, I saw these lovely artichokes and decided it was time I gave it a go.

Braving the art of artichoke preparation for the first time, I decided to third the recipe and cook just two rather than six. We like our vegetables baked, and quite frankly anything that includes oil and breadcrumbs is usually going to be enjoyed by my family, so I was fairly sure this would be a success. Even so, I reasoned that half an artichoke each was a reasonable starting point when asking the boys to try something new.

I made some acidulated water (water with vinegar) to sit the artichokes in once they had been cut, although I had some trouble keeping the artichokes under water! 

I really liked the finished product (including the trimmed stems!), although wondered if the artichokes could have done with a light boiling before they were baked. The boys were very excited about the fact that these looked more like aliens than vegetables and so were happy to give them a try.  

Another chapter discovered! There are five more artichoke and cardoon recipes so watch this space for more on this little thistle. 

Now where to find a cardoon??

293/984 - Baked kale with potato, olives and garlic

I made this dish to serve alongside our Sunday night lasagne (which I have not started yet, must get on to that!) but it looked and smelled so amazing I have just polished off two bowls of it for my lunch.

I wasn't able to find curly kale but I found two bunches of the most beautiful cavolo nero which I was happy to use as a substitute. I have decided that the easiest way to remove the thickest part of the stem is to strip the leaves away with my hands, which allows me to feel when the stem is becoming less firm and to retain the softer thinner pieces towards the top of the leaf. As suggested I selected Nicola potatoes, which are waxy and a beautiful yellow colour.

The most difficult thing about this recipe turned out to be pitting the olives! I bought a jar of beautiful organic black olives and finally got the knack of pitting them neatly as I reached the end of the little pile I was working through. Of course it took a bit longer than expected due to the amount that were eaten as I pitted. 

I didn't add all of the olive oil at the end, maybe half of what the recipe suggested, and also left out the salt. I did add a big crack of pepper though which my family love! 

Another great dish and I am sure it will do my Sunday night lasagne proud. 

292/984 - Broccoli frittata

When I started this challenge I owned (and loved) the original orange version of The Cook's Companion. I was excited to share the news each time I completed a chapter of cooking, which occurred three times in the first 16 months, having cooked all of the bread, spinach and rabbit recipes. Upgrading to the new rainbow version of the book meant new and fabulous recipes, and the fact that I no longer had any completed chapters under my belt.

So today I am excited to announce (again!) that I have completed my first chapter of cooking!

The broccoli chapter has only three recipes and so it might not seem much of an achievement to some, but I am a firm believer of celebrating every milestone, no matter how small. Just ask my children who are often on the receiving end of high fives and whoops of excitement when they walk home from school for the first time or make a simple meal unassisted. 

We absolutely loved this frittata, which included kangaroo chorizo and ham as our chosen meats. I don't know why, but I was surprised to find pasta as an ingredient in this recipe. It was a fabulous addition and I think I may include pasta in my frittatas more often.

I promised to share a learning each time I complete a chapter and so here goes; Broccoli is notorious for harbouring small caterpillars and so it is recommended that the broccoli be soaked in salted water for ten minutes. I have never done this, which means my little family are likely to have consumed quite a bit of additional protein over the years!

So here we are again, one chapter down, only 122 to go.

My beloved and still treasured
original version of
The Cook's Companion