Saturday 17th November 2012

I have always wanted to make chicken liver pate.

I have always been too lazy to commit to actually doing it.

Until tonight.

A few days ago, the boss at work bought some chicken livers and only need a few tiny pieces for work, so instead of wasting the rest of the livers, I put my hand up to take them home and make pate.

That was a few days ago. I have been procrastinating since!

But, tonight I needed to get it done or else the livers would be wasted.

So...I googled a few recipes and settled on one that was inspired by Maggie Beer's Pates. Surely I can't go wrong with that!? Here's the link.

I began by trimming any remaining bits of gristle off the livers. Fortunately, these livers from IGA were actually really neatly trimmed already.

Next step, fry them in some butter.

Next, throw them in the food processor with a whole block of butter and puree.

Yes, more butter. How do you say 'quadruple bypass' in French?

I don't have a food processor or blender so I was really crossing my fingers that my stick mixer would work. I really didn't want chunks of buttery liver hurling around my kitchen.

Aah, the puree. The colour of it was totally disgusting, I have to admit.

I poured the puree into some ramekins and the last step was to make the gelee cap and pour that over the top of the pate and then let it all set in the fridge.

You need to allow the flavours to develop overnight - I'll take them to work tomorrow! I must say, they look absolutely gorgeous!!

Tuesday 14th August 2012

Lunch
Homemade Char Siew with fresh Cucumber slices

Dinner
Spring Vegetable Soup with Chicken and Pasta
I've been invited to my neighbours' place for dinner tomorrow night and I've insisted that I bring dessert. I've been racking my brains for the last few days thinking what I can make that will look like I slaved away in the kitchen to prepare, yet also taste fantastic with no chance of failure? With my busy work schedule, I don't have time for a second attempt...and I would rather not have to resort to buying a tub of ice cream!

Inspired by Ling's efforts at poaching a pear at my place last week in the spur of the moment, I was struck with an idea when I saw an entire bag of the new season's Buerre Bosc pears for only $2.99 at my Cannington Fresh. I am going to poach pears!

I set to work peeling the pears and then realised I don't have a corer utensil. I ended up trying the handle of a teaspoon and amazingly, it worked! I was able to scrape the cores of the pears out without too much trouble.

Brown sugar, cinnamon quill, cardamom pods, star anise ans saffron threads.

I brought the poaching syrup up to the boil and then placed my pears in.

I placed a piece of baking paper over the surface of the liquid to keep the pears immersed in the syrup. This will stop them from drying out and to also make sure that they cook evenly and absorb all those gorgeous flavours!
The verdict? We'll find out at dinner tomorrow night!

Tuesday 14th February 2012

PUMPKIN & RICOTTA CANNELLONI
San Remo's fresh cannelloni pasta sheets were reduced for quick sale at Woolworths and I thought it would be a nice change from using instant cannelloni tubes.

I roasted some pumpkin with some sea salt and olive oil in the oven last night. Tonight I mashed it up with a fork and added some ricotta and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I rolled the cannelloni sheets up and lined a baking dish with them.

I made the tomato sauce with onion, garlic, tomato puree, basil and parsley to slather on top.

A sprinkle of grated cheese on top and into the oven.

Serve with a simple salad. And a glass of red!

Tuesday 23rd August 2011

PUMPKIN & RICOTTA CANNELLONI
I usually make spinach and ricotta cannelloni but last night I wanted to try something different. I roasted some pumpkin the night before and then last night I mashed it up and combined it with some ricotta and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

I half cooked the cannelloni tubes before filling them and they can finish cooking in the oven.

I made the sauce a few nights ago and spread some of it between the layers of cannelloni.


I topped it off with grated cheese and into the oven!

I got the nod of approval from the folks at work when I brought it in for lunch.

Friday 19th August 2011

Supper
Hokkien Noodles with Seafood

I'm having a little party tomorrow night despite having to work all day so I thought I'd better do as much preparation tonight as I could. Here is the recipe for Alice's awesome oyster roll that she brought to my High Tea recently.

OYSTER ROLL

Ingredients:

3 x tins smoked oysters

A squeeze of lemon juice

250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1 Tbn chives, finely chopped

1 Tbn parsley, finely chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

Method:

1. Roll the cheese out between two sheets of aluminium foil to about the size of an A4 sheet of paper.
   
   
2. Remove the top sheet of foil.
   
3. In a bowl, drain the oysters and mash with a fork.
   
4. To the oysters, add the lemon juice, chives, parsley and onion. Mix.
   
   
5. Place the oyster mixture along one end of the sheet of cheese and roll it up like a sausage roll.
   
6. Score the top of the roll or garnish with some parsley and chives.

Sunday 31st July 2011

I woke up early today and sent messages out to a few friends to see if they were free. I was in the mood for dim sum and some company. I really didn't think anyone would be free at such late notice but I was in luck! Pretty soon they came over and we decided to stay in and have steamboat for lunch!

We've never done steamboat for lunch together before. It's always been a dinner thing for us so it was a nice change. Instead of eating too much and then rolling onto the couch, we ate too much and then decided to head to Bunnings.


SPAGHETTI VONGOLE WITH CAPERS

Ingredients:

1 Tbsn olive oil

1 Tbsn butter

1/4 large brown onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, finely diced or crushed

2 tspn dried chilli flakes

splash of dry white wine

1/4 cup cooking cream

1 cup vongole (clam) meat

1 Tbsn capers

al dente spaghetti

Method:

1. Heat oil and butter in pan.
   
2. Sautee onion, garlic and chilli flakes until softened.
   
3. Add white wine to deglaze and then stir in cream.
   
4. Throw in clams and cook for a few minutes.
   
5. Add spaghetti and capers and toss until coated in sauce.

I also threw in a handful of sliced mushrooms to top up my daily vegetable intake!

I also made some Bacon & Cheese Stuffed Potatoes

Monday 11th July 2011

Tonight I used the leftover rice from Saturday night's Korean dinner to make fried rice.

Firstly, sautee some diced onion and garlic in some oil in a pan.

Then add some sliced celery and diced carrots and fry these for several minutes with some soy sauce, shitake sauce, sesame oil and chilli sauce.

Once the carrots are softened, throw in some seafood. I used a prepackaged mixture containing baby squid, clams, mussels and octopus that were cut into roughly the same size.

Meanwhile, break up the leftover rice.

When the seafood is just about cooked through, add some thawed peas from the freezer and the rice. Stir until all combined.

After scooping the fried rice out of the pan, I made a very thin egg omelette with two eggs beaten with a bit of water. In the pan, you carefully roll the omelette up to form a roll and then thinly slice it to garnish the fried rice.

Monday 9th May 2011

SPINACH AND RICOTTA STUFFED PASTA SHELLS

Ingredients:

Giant pasta shells or canneloni tubes

Ricotta

Spinach, chopped fine

pinch of ground nutmeg

salt and pepper to season

rich tomato sauce



Method:

1. Cook pasta shells or canneloni tubes until al dente in salted water. Drain.
   
   
2. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, chopped spinach and nutmeg in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
3. Spread some tomato sauce over the base of a baking dish.
   
   
4. Stuff the ricotta and spinach mixture into the shells/canneloni and layer in the baking dish.
   
   
5. Pour more tomato sauce over the pasta.
   
   
6. Bake in oven for about fifteen minutes at 180C.

Serve with fresh grated parmesan or pecorino.

Tuesday 12th April 2011

SPINACH, MUSHROOM & RICOTTA CANNELONI
In a bowl, I combined some ricotta, finely diced mushroom and
some chopped spinach cubes from the freezer that I thawed out.
Salt and pepper to season.

I made a rich tomato sauce with diced onion, crushed garlic, chopped parsley,
basil, a can of crushed tomatos and a dash of worcestershire sauce.

I cooked some canneloni tubes in salted boiling water
and then stuffed them with the filling.

Laid the canneloni tubes in a baking dish, poured the tomato
sauce over and baked in the oven for about fifteen minutes.

One word. Delicious.

I bought a bag of tomatos for only $1.99 so Mum was inspired to cook one of my favourites for my dinner. I found a bottle of Tobasco in the pantry that I forgot about and poured a generous amount over dinner. Gosh, I love Tobasco. Tobasco and eggs. Match made in heaven.

Mum's Bacon & Tomato Omelette

Wednesday 22nd December 2010

Breakfast
Mum's Lor Mai Kai

Lunch
Marissa's Chicken Nuggets with Salad
I took home some of these chicken nuggets that Marissa made for our feast yesterday. I rummaged around in the fridge for whatever nibbles I could find to throw together this plate of leftovers for lunch.

In the evening I busied myself making cupcakes to take to work tomorrow for everyone. I used the prepackaged White Wings chocolate cake mixture but instead of using milk, I used buttermilk.

I also added chocolate chips into the mixture.
To decorate, I made a butter cream frosting.

By adding drops of green food colouring, I transformed some of the frosting to green and piped little 'christmas trees' on some of the cupcakes.

I crushed a candy cane to sprinkle onto some of the cupcakes.

I tried to pipe a 'wreath'. I think I need to work on my piping skills!

I didn't have time to find a cutter to make holly leaves, so I had another idea. Here's how to make holly leaves from green musk sticks:

Slice the musk stick.

As you can see, one side gets flattened against the chopping board when you slice it. Using a blunt utensil, make an indentation into the flattened side and this should reshape the musk stick slice to look like a holly leaf!

Voila! I used red mini M&Ms for the holly berries.

Dinner
Prawn Salad with a Tangy Dressing
I made the dressing with mayonnaise, tomato sauce and fresh squeezed lemon juice.

At a recent party I went to, they had this gorgeous new drink that I instantly fell in love with.

Smirnoff Vodka with Blood Orange