Wet Weather, Weekends and Slow Cook Sundays

Weather.  It is starting to drive me a little crazy.  It really shouldn't though.  I have lived here for 10 plus years and I should be used to the whole monsoon-type weather we experience here in Queensland.  I can't complain too much, we get lots of sunshine, our winters are mild and our summers really are delicious, even if they can get a little hot and humid.

I escaped the mild Australian Winter last year for the most part, enjoying a warm New York Summer.  Then I escaped the harsh Australian summer for a cool but mild New York Winter.  So I not only swap hemispheres, I swap seasons as well.  Cheeky!

I love cold weather, I love New York in the Wintertime (apart from trying to get about when it is snowing and it is hard to fall with style and grace on black ice...) though to compare it Winter in Queensland it is like night and day.

Still, I always joke that the mercury only needs to drop half a degree for me to put the soup pot on.  Rainy weekends like this inspire me to get into the kitchen.

When the weather is cold and wet I crave big, hearty food.  I love rich, thick soups and stews, slow cooked veal shin and lamb shanks, served with thick buttery polenta or mashed potato.

There is nothing like slow cooked meat on the bone, yielding its sweet and sticky marrow.  Delicious!

Slow cook weather is my favourite kind of cooking weather, next to baking.  If I were married to baking, I would cheat on it with slow cooking.  It is uncomplicated and looks after itself with minimal effort or fuss.  Even though Autumn has only just begun here, I have started early, my tradition of  'Slow Cook Sundays'.  Sunday is a great day for me to kick back and unwind.  To do a little work in my patio garden, to hang out with my dogs or to read books and magazines or work with my hands.  (I love designing and making things from wood and recycled materials but that could be another blog in itself).

The things I love to cook most are the ones that you can just put on the stove on a low heat and forget about, like Osso Bucco, Lamb Shanks, Slow Roasted Pork and tonight's offering, Corned Beef.

I am really looking forward to my dinner tonight.  I mean what could be simpler?  Take beef out of bag, put in a dutch oven with a few peppercorns, a splash of vinegar, a bay leaf and a tsp of sugar.  Cover with water, bring to boil, simmer away for a couple of hours, serve with mashed potato and cabbage.  In two hours I'm a happy girl.  Plus there is the extra goodness of corned beef sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.  Mmmm... with lots of mustard pickles on fresh bread.  Yum-o.  I am almost looking more forward to my lunch tomorrow!

Enjoy your weekend!  I hope I have inspired you.

Until next time...

Kitty xx

A Gentle Prod...

A prod, a boost, whatever.  Yes!  Sit at the laptop and enjoy seeing the words magically appear on the screen again.

Oh how good it feels!

I have been so very busy of late, holidaying over Christmas and settling back into work for the new school year.  I even had my first attempt at catering, baking cupcakes for a Wedding!  How exciting!

I spent December and January in my adopted 'homeland', America.  Enjoying time in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Christmas and New Year in New York.  Oh bliss!  And my yearning for all things buttery, maple-ey, hot-doggery and pretzel-y will likely see my return in September this year.

But enough about my summertime antics, lets talk about the absolutely gorgeous cupcakes I made for the Wedding last month... 

Bless you Larissa Lindsay for asking me to bake the sweet morsels for your nuptials.  It indeed was a pleasure. 

Also many many many thanks to The Hummingbird Bakery.  I have no affiliation with you (or anyone in the bakery world for that matter) but it is your cookbook that provided me with the recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes.  In my opinion, this is the best Red Velvet recipe I have ever baked and I have tried a few.  I doubled the mixture and baked it 6 times and it worked out perfect each time, producing a whopping 85 large cupcakes.

I was a little nervous to start with as I had never really 'catered' for anyone before.  I turned my nerves into confidence and made sure I had everything at hand on the day of baking.  I even did a test batch of the cupcakes for the Bride and Groom beforehand so I knew for certain that they were going to be happy.  I mean, you do want things to be perfect on your wedding day, right? 

I am happy to report there are no tales of dropped cake pans, faulty ovens, broken mix masters or tantrums.  I was super-organised and started early.  I baked all morning up until lunchtime with Def Leppard playing in the background.  I was rocking out old school and having a wonderful time. 

The following day, after coming home from work, it was time to pipe on the cream cheese frosting.

Frosting the cupcakes was a little more of a challenge.  With there being so many cupcakes and such a large quantity of cream cheese frosting, I knew I would need a little help.  I enlisted in the help of friend (and the Bride's Maid of Honour) Kellie and her beautiful 9 year old daughter, Chloe to gild each cream cheese frosted cake with gold dust as I piped on the frosting.  It was like a little production line!

I delivered the cupcakes, all 7 boxes of them to the restaurant, with my car air conditioner pumping overtime and felt the biggest sense of relief as the cakes were taken from my hands and placed into the restaurant's cold room.  Be free my little babies!

So for two days work, (including me going to my day job) a lot of love, rock music and over-heating electric hand beaters, I got the cakes baked, iced and delivered.  I even got to attend the Wedding and Reception!  I was very nervous as dessert was served, but I was worried over nothing.  The cakes were a success!  *Phew!*

The whole experience was a very positive one for me.  I really love baking.  Most of all it is lovely to hear from others that my efforts are both delicious as well as visually appealing.  Maybe if I had a bigger oven and a mixer with a little more oomph I might even consider doing this more often.  Who knows!  At this stage, my biggest aspirations are to buy a stand mixer.  I still love my dinky little hand beater, even if at times it feels and smells like it is going to blow up. 

Would I do this again?  Absolutely!  I really enjoyed the whole experience.  I truly feel that I have a calling for baking.  It is something that really does make me happy.  If I could make a living out of it and still be happy?  Well that remains to be seen.  Wish me luck anyway!

Until next time...

Kitty xx

Rainy Days and Cookies

I think I live in Queensland's rain capital.  Northern Queensland would like to say that it has the state's greatest rainfall, but I believe where I live on the Sunshine Coast trumps what falls out of the sky up North. 

It is Saturday and I had so many plans for the weekend.  It is early Autumn and I have been re-acquainting myself with my garden again, after a summer of neglect, making myself busy moving around the garden furniture, mulching my fruit trees and adding a few pops of colour with some potted flowers.  For the afternoons after work where I have had the opportunity to be outside, I have been enjoying pottering about and loving my space again.

And then the rain came tumbling down...

Well it has been raining for weeks, with a day of respite here and there, well enough to get the sheets almost dry or make you wish you hadn't washed at all. 

Good weather for baking!  Which is exactly what I did today.  I baked and I watched the rain fall outside and it was lovely.  As much as I enjoyed myself, it is now evening and the rain is still heavily falling, tomorrow is Sunday and I think I may develop morbid obesity if this weather keeps up, plus a scorching case of cabin fever.


Chewy Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies (Recipe from Real Living Magazine, March 2012)

180g dark chocolate
140g butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs whisked
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups plain flour
pinch salt

140g cream cheese @ room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 180C.  Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Place chocolate, butter and sugar into a saucepan over low heat, stirring regularly until chocolate and butter have melted.  Remove the pan from heat and add vanilla and eggs.  Stir to combine, making sure the eggs are well mixed into the chocolate mixture to ensure they do not scramble.  Sift in cocoa, flour and salt and mix well to combine.

Place dough in the fridge for about 10 mins, this will firm it up a little and make it easier to work with.

In a separate bowl, place cream cheese and icing sugar and mix with a hand held mixer or by hand until smooth.

Remove dough from fridge and roll tblsps of dough into balls.  Place on lined trays, ensuring you leave space for spreading (I put about 8 per tray but this will depend on the size of your tray).  Make an indent in each cookie with your thumb and fill centre with a dollop (about a teaspoon) of the cream cheese mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until you notice the cookies are cracked on the outside but soft in the centre.  Swap trays after 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

The cookies should keep for about 5 days in an airtight container if they don't get eaten beforehand!  Makes approximately 24.


I will say this, I did manage to get up very early this morning and go for a jog before it started raining, so I believe eating one or two cookies on a rainy day like today is perfectly acceptable.  (That's my story and I am sticking to it!)

Until next time...

Kitty xx

Love for Love Apples

Even though I ran away to New York for the summer, I came home to a good yield of my home grown Heirloom tomatoes.  I have to admit, I didn't have so much luck with the larger Beefsteak and Moneymaker varieties, but the small cherry and plum tomatoes proved to be more successful, abundant and less prone to their skins splitting.  (If anyone knows what causes this, I would love to know).

I have planted out some Roma tomatoes which will hopefully give me a crop for early Summer so this is something to look forward to!

I just finished reading a lovely book, 'A Homemade Life' by Molly Wizenberg.  Anyone who likes food, or likes to eat should read this memoir.  I won't give the story away, I happened upon it through a recommendation in my Amazon.com list so purchased it blindly without knowing anything about the story and I must say, loved it.

What made me mention the book in this blog entry is because Molly includes a recipe for Tomato and Fennel soup.  I had never cooked a fennel bulb before in my life until a few nights ago when I decided to make this soup, so I approached it with a little trepidation.  My father is not a fan of fennel, in fact he is very vocal about how much he dislikes it!  Needless to say, he was in the back of my mind whilst making it.  The flavour is mild and not at all over powering of aniseed like I was expecting.  (Ha Dad!)  Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and will certainly make it again.  The soup is good for a cool wintry night.  It is very hearty.  The tomato, onion and fennel are chunky, so be sure to have a hunk of good sourdough, or grilled cheese alongside for dunking (or a hunk to eat it with, I mean, what's better on a cold night?)

I was in a celebratory mood for no particular reason, (maybe a tomato high?  Who knows?) so made Insalata Caprese for a starter - Just because.  Even though I am a little lactose intolerant, what harm could a little fresh mozzarella do?  (Don't ask!)

Tomato Soup with Two Fennels - Molly Wizenberg, A Homemade Life

In this recipe, Molly uses 2 medium fennel bulbs, 4 cloves of garlic and 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds.  I tweaked it as I was a little scared of these amounts but if you would like to stay true to her recipe, go by those quantities, otherwise go with mine.

1 tbs olive oil
1 medium brown onion, thinly sliced
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 cans whole peeled tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
pinch of sugar (to cut the acidity of the tomatoes)

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, warm oil.  Add onion and fennel and cook until the onion begins to soften.  Add garlic and cook, being careful that it doesn't burn for about 5 minutes over a medium heat.  Add thyme and fennel seeds and cook for around 2 minutes or until fragrant.  Add tomatoes, and crush them with the back of a wooden spoon (or alternatively a potato masher).  Add a cans worth of water and bring the soup to the boil.  Bring down the heat to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for about 45 minutes.  If it seems a little thick, add more water.

You will know the soup is cooked when the fennel is nice and tender.  Season to taste. Adding a pinch of sugar will cut the acidity and add a nice sweetness.  Molly says to add a splash of red wine vinegar if the soup tastes a little bland, but I didn't find this necessary.

Remember this dish is more like a vegetarian stew, rather than a soup and makes enough to serve four. 


Insalata Caprese - by Me and a bazillion Italian Nonna's who I wish were mine :)

2 large, vine ripened tomatoes (at room temperature)
1 tub baby bocconcini cheese or 1 large ball of Buffalo Mozzarella
Olive Oil
Balsamic vinegar (this time I used white balsamic)
A small handful of fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper

Slice tomatoes and cheese into thick rounds and arrange on your serving platter of choice.  Season liberally with salt and pepper (the tomatoes especially) and anoint with a good slug of good olive oil.  Add balsamic vinegar (I pour into a teaspoon and add it this way, so I have more control, otherwise it tends to just flow out of the bottle and everywhere you don't want it).  Scatter with basil leaves.  I like to let this salad sit for about 15 minutes before eating so that all the ingredients are at room temperature and soak up all the delicious oil and vinegar.  Serve with a nice crusty bread (or hunk as discussed previously)...

Do check out 'A Homemade Life'.  I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.  Come over for a cup of tea and a slice of cake and you can borrow it from me if you like :)

Until next time...

Kitty xx

Feel the Love...

I adore Dorie Greenspan's French Apple Tea Cake.  I make it often and it never disappoints.  It is my all time favourite, 'hand on my heart' cake recipe and I wonder how I ever got along in life as a home baker before I found Dorie. 

Yesterday I decided to give it a couple of tweaks -  I know it is almost blasphemous to mess with perfection, but I like experimenting and believe that if you have a fair idea of what you are doing, you can always adapt a recipe/substitute like ingredients to a degree.  I mean, isn't imitation the finest form of flattery?

Results are thus - I just want to shout from the rooftops how wonderful my new cake is.  By swapping apples for ripe pears , decreasing the original amount of rum and adding a little fresh grated nutmeg, the cake is elevated from really good to extraordinary - well in my humble opinion anyway!


Pear and Nutmeg Tea Cake (Recipe tweaked and inspired by Dorie Greenspan's French Apple Tea Cake - and borrowed from David Lebovitz.com)

Makes One 8 inch (20cm) cake

3/4 cup (110g) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
5 ripe pears (don't use pears that are over ripe as they won't hold their shape in the cake)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven.
Heavily butter and line an 8 inch (20cm) spring form pan and place it on a baking sheet.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt.
Peel, core and dice the pears into 1 inch chunks.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs until pale and thick (they should double in size) then beat in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Fold in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter.
Fold in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter.
Gently fold in the pears until they well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan.  
Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no pears are stuck to it.

This cake is delicious with a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream or a lazy dollop of creme fraiche. 

Until next time,

Buon appetit!

Kitty xx

Eggplant Parmigiana

Eggplant is a vegetable which I have fallen for hard the past few years.  However I would treat it with much restraint, using it only for stock standard Eggplant recipes such as Baba Ghanoush.  This was until a friend introduced me to the delicacy that is deep fried, crumbed eggplant.  Done right, you get a wonderful crisp crumb, and a lovely creamy middle which is snacking bliss!

To make this joyous snack into a delicious meal, I combine layers of crumbed shallow fried eggplant with lots of mozzarella cheese, my home made sugo, bake it for half and hour and voila! - Eggplant Parmigiana. 

It is so simple I hardly need to give you a recipe, but I will just so you can add it to your repertoire.

Parmigiana di Melanzane (Recipe by Rosa Matto from the book 'Italian Food Safari')

3 large eggplants
salt
plain flour
4 eggs, beaten
1-2 cups dry breadcrumbs (I add this step to the recipe as I like to crumb my eggplant.  If you are avoiding too much wheat, you can omit the crumb).
Olive Oil

Sugo
80ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
750ml Passatta (or 2 tins Italian tomatoes)
salt and pepper
1/2 bunch basil leaves

250g bocconcini or fresh mozzarella, sliced
100g Parmesan, grated

Slice the eggplant no thicker than 1cm.  Sprinkle the slices with salt.  Stack in a colander and weigh down with a heavy object.  Leave for 1 hour.  This step is really important as you want to get as much moisture out of the eggplant.  The salt will help draw out the moisture, along with any bitterness that the eggplant may have. 

Pat the slices dry and lightly coat in seasoned flour.  Dip into the beaten egg and then into your breadcrumbs.  (If you are not using breadcrumbs, leave out this step and just dip in the egg).  Shake off the excess and fry in hot oil until golden brown on each side.  Drain well on paper towel.

To make the sugo, heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic until soft.  Add tomato and bring to the boil.  Cook until slightly reduced.  Season to taste and add half of the basil.

Preheat oven to 180c.  Smear the bottom of a baking dish with sugo and add a layer of eggplant.  Dot with slices of bocconcini, a sprinkle of Parmesan and a few basil leaves.  Keep layering until you have used up all the eggplant.  Finish with a layer of sugo, and top with more cheese.

Bake for around 30 minutes, until the top is golden.  When cooked, allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

This dish is delicious with zucchini sauteed in olive oil and thinly sliced garlic, or steamed vegetables or if you are being really good, a nice green salad.  It is a great vegetarian alternative to meat lasagna.  I have served this to die-hard carnivores and no one has ever asked 'Where's the beef?'

Until next time...

Kitty xx

Tomato Update (For those who have been following their progress)

My Tomato plants are sprouting and fruiting and right now are taller than me!  I am having trouble reaching the stakes to tie them off as they are getting out of my reach! (Must be all the singing of 'Tintarella di Luna' and 'Mambo Italiano' that they get from me daily).

I have 7 different varieties of Heirloom growing, having added a few extra varieties (Tigerella, Green and Amish) to my collection, which are all doing rather well.  My Siberian tomato plant unfortunately perished.  (It was a very sad day).  I am not sure what went wrong, but it yielded 2 small fruits which I am going to try and seed save for next season.

The plants I have growing look so green and lush and impressive.  I have to hold myself back from the vegetable seedling section of the hardware store as I was becoming rather obsessive over the tomato varieties.  I am out of patio space and pots! 
  

Along with my tomato grove, I have also added Lebanese eggplant, Strawberries and Rhubarb to complete my little backyard Market Garden.  Where possible I have selected Heirloom varieties, for their taste and the pure feeling of nostalgia they give me.

To see my beautiful plants looking so happy and strong has me really excited about cooking.  I mean, who wouldn't want to cook with their own home grown produce?

Apple and Rhubarb pie anyone?  (Stay tuned...) 

I am also very pleased to report that I am growing my veggies without pesticides (my fish is enjoying the grasshopper diet) and I am fertilizing with an organic fertilizer.  I can't wait to tell you how good they taste!

As you can see I am patiently waiting for the fruits of my love and labour to ripen.

Until next time...

Kitty xx