The challenge of getting through August

It's been a bit of a struggle this month, a lot of pre-wedding conflicts and issues to sort out so I've been disorganised in the kitchen. Things like dropping my mobile phone and wiping a lot of photos didn't help, I had made a second batch of periogi's with a steak and mushroom filling and fried them off in the pan at the end and they were yummy but my photos of them are lost forever courtesy of a knock on the technological head. Time was swallowed into black holes in the middle of things and slipped very much away from me. 

So what do I have to show for Augusts daring challenges. 

For the Daring Cooks Periogi challenge the first flavour I tried to make was prawns with coriander and tomato. I took some green prawns and simmered them in the pan with some diced tomatoes (a little larger than cherry tomatoes but not as big as your average one), chopped fresh coriander stems and olive oil. I only really got one or two successful dumplings out of this first batch as I didn't let my prawns and sauce cool down sufficiently before making them and I had a few issues with the heat melting holes in my dumplings.

Sticking with seafood for my Aussie periogi my second flavour was some slice golden shallots with more of the large cherry tomatoes simmered together with a tiny splash of marsala for sweetness and ras el hanout for a warm spiced note. Added to this was small little pieces of flathead fillet and then some fresh diced chives added at the end when wrapping the up. This time I waited for the mix to cool and didn't roll the dough out as thinly as before and pulled these ones up into more of a Chinese Dumpling style presentation that will need some more practice for sure.

For Daring Bakers I made my brown butter cake and caramel pear ice-cream sandwiched into little petit-fours. I tried making some chocolate fondant but had some issues working with it so only got one covered whilst the others waited in the freezer. I wasn't very organised and with the headaches of spans of time evaporating infront of me I didn't have much idea of what to do with my freezer abandoned petite fours which I wasn't sure would still be very tasty after three + weeks so I whacked on some leftover moscavado cream from another dessert and piped some icing over them without much thought really but its past the deadline and I just need to get something up however poorly styled it is. Hopefully I can revist something like this when things calm down.

I did however enjoy a nice big bowl of caramel pear ice-cream

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The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Daring to tackle the Swiss Alps of baking

My first Daring Bakers Challenge and the challenge laid at my feet is to scale the seemingly steep climbs of an ice-cream bombe. I would not only have to make two icecreams when I have never attempted ice-cream before it would also require a swiss roll - again something I've not tried to do before and construct it all together... anyway... it seemed daunting but once I started bit by bit I got there and it tasted yummy and I think it would make it a good celebration cake for certain occasions so its good to have it in my repertoire of skills now. 

I tackeld the unknown frontier of ice-cream first with a salted butter caramel from the following site (http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/04/salted_butter_c.html) and then filled with confidence after this success I adlibbed a pear ice-cream flavour. I softly caramelised the pears and mashed them up a little but not too finely so that it retained a nice chunky texture before blending in my custard and extra milk to make my icecream gelato creation. The pear is absolutely yummy and my favourite of the two.

Saturday was hectic, I tried to make the swiss rolls and put it all together ready for evening serving, My chocolate swiss rolls were filled with a condensed milk and moscavado sugar based chocolate mousse which helped to carry across the light caramel theme throughout the bombe. When I rolled the final roll I thought it would never set in time but I whacked it in the freezer and it helped make it much easier to slice into neat rolls to line my mould. The rolls were a lot easier than I predicted and I had no issues with cracking which was good.

My fudgy caramel bits kind of ran everywhere else spilling out of the sides and centre once cut but it tasted good and my fiancee preferred to dig into this over the box of zumbo cakes purchased that day also (please don't ask why he thought it was a good idea to line up on the first weekend after a masterchef appearance by the pasty maestro particularly considering I had made a whole ice-cream cake to serve for tour de france watching time but I don't pretend to entirely understand the male psyche)

Finally I would like to give thanks to my Japser Conran Waterford Crystal Bowl for bravely making the dangerous journey into the freezer to make my bombe the arcing conical pyramid it is. Thankfully you survived the ordeal and are safely back in your box with leftovers relegated to assorted tupperware containers

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The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.-

Queens Birthday Weekend - Hunter Valley Sketches

Whilst I've logged in to update everyone on whats happening in the kitchen I should also take a moment to mention the Queens Birthday long weekend which we spent in the Hunter Valley at a very relaxing pace, we only visited a couple of wineries over the weekend and spent most of the time just sitting and eating at times or sitting and sketching. 

So to share two sketches with you,

The first is sketched whilst enjoying a wine and cheese matching taste session at Robyn Drayton Wines.

The second is a panorama of the view from out table whilst enjoying a long lunch at Amandas on the Edge 

Daring to tackle a new challenge – Daring Cooks July

Well I've decided to tackle a new challenge and join the group over at the daring kitchen, there are two challenges a month, a cooking one and a baking one and I've signed up for both. 

My first challenge was a nut butter which had me raising an eyebrow at first considering I am severly allergic to brazil nuts and mildly allergic to walnuts and pecans and generally suspicious of some other nuts out there. 

I do however love pine nuts so I got blending and they made a lovely rich dense creamy sauce. 

Of the recommended recipes I adapted the one of chicken and mushrooms with fettucine for some beautiful autumn mixed mushrooms and soba noodles.

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"The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online."

Recently - From the kitchen

First up we have a dinner party I forgot to post up at the time... the main was a lemoncello poached chicken with zucchini spaghetti. I was really pleased with this dish the flavours were really well developed, the chicken succulent and the whole thing was pretty easy and impreessive. 

Next I present the entree for the same meal (dessert was local gelato for our ice-cream loving friends).

So basically we have a tart of spiced salmon and mango salsa. I started with my own home made pastry which I flecked with some fennel and coriander seeds for some added interest and flavour.

Next in comes a layer of creme fraiche. On the side is served some watercress and a candied cherry tomato.

Now we add the mango salsa made with spanish onions, cucumber and mango with a lime dressing. Just a note with the spanish onions I lightly poached these for just a minute or two in some sugared water just to take a little of the sharpness off them as my fiancee hates raw onion and I'm not that keen on it either, remember to just do this very lightly as you still what the crispy zest of the onion and its just to take the edge off.

Next comes the flaked salmon, this was cooked in a spice crust which gives it a dark very smokey flavour to contrast with the sweet zestyness of the salsa and the softness of the cream. Final touch is to top it with some salmon roe and one or two pieces of salsa to give it a nice mixed feel. 

Now for another party contribution... some mini lamb pies, they don't look like that much from the outside as their fillings were very rich with slow cooked lamb in red wine sauce, some mushrooms, onions etcetera and kept leaking out of corners but they were a massive hit and went far too quickly. 

A meal for Geoff and I with the beautiful salmon fillet from the farmers markets... not much to do for this other than cooking some quinoa, quails eggs and some caramalised soy braised green beans and fennel slivers.

some baked creamy leeks

Mushrooms on toast with a touch of goats cheese and coriander

A very warming and cosy bowl of soup thats a blend of celeriac, fennel, potato and leek. A touch of milk at the end and careful seasoning and I was devouring this very happily. 

And whilst I had the blender out I made an entree of a persimmon, pear and custard apple smoothie - yum

Whilst we're in the winter spirit of things I made a Queen Pudding for Geoff and I. Always a family favourite.

Finally lunch the other week which was the perfect balance of simplicity and good taste. Some fresh zesty guacamole, corn chips and some fish cooked with a light sprinkling of ras-el-hanout, salt and pepper with fresh coriander. Dig your chip into the guacamole then pile some fish on top and its healthy and fun without any cheese or cream in sight. 

A south coast weekend sketching

I've been rather lapse in updating this with all the stress of planning the wedding and work commitments and just generally getting into a disorganised mess...

Anyway I wanted to make sure I shared this before I forget... A lovely weekend away back in March (yes time really has run away from me). We stayed in Mollymook with dinner at Rick Stein's place at Bannisters which was beautiful food but very expensive. Plenty of time to drive from beach to beach sketch and explore...

Happy New Year of the Tiger

Well Feb 14 heralded the Chinese New Year which this year is the Year of the Tiger. 

Since I was invited to my first Chinese New Years Dinner I have been making paper cut outs of the animal from this lovely copper card I have piles of. I make two at a time, one  for his family and one for me to keep. The first year was the pig and since then there has been a rat a cow and now a tiger.

In the first year I just traced over a papercut out from a reference book I had but since then I have been slowly adapting the designs. This year is my most original piece. I took from the book the basic outline of the tiger though changed the bottom of it to grasses as I didn't like the original design of wheels. I also didn't like the way the original design just had lots of flowers and odd circular cuts. I threw all of that out and went for a striking zigzag style instead. 

Lots of fine cutting with a scalpel later and I have my brand new tiger to add to the collection...

The other tradition is that everyone must bring a plate and I've designated myself quite firmly now amongst the dessert ranks (I don't dare compete with the chinese dishes). This year it was a lemon yoghurt sponge cake with marsala poached prunes, morello cherries and fresh berries.