Christmas Round-up

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs is our December Pot Luck week - an opportunity to choose any recipe we like from our current chef (the fabulous Donna Hay), or from any one of previous eight IHCC chefs.

Turns out, time has been a bit precious for me this week, and cooking, photographing and writing about a new dish just didn't happen.  So instead I thought I would share with you a round-up of my favourite dishes from each of our chefs.

My very first post for I Heart Cooking Clubs was just as the group was winding up a six month spell with Nigella Lawson, and I shared these Chocolate Caramel Crispy Cakes ...

Despite the fact that these might seem like "kiddy" food, I can promise you that grown-ups love them too, and to this day this is one of the most viewed posts on the blog.  On a recent trip to San Francisco I made a batch of these for my 4 year old granddaughter - poor wee dot only got one of them, and the adults downed the rest!

This dish of Sauteed Chicken with Green Olives and White Wine from Mark Bittman is probably my "go-to" chicken dish.

I said it back then, and I'll say it again - this is probably the best chicken dish I've ever made.  It has great flavour, colour and texture;  is very easy to put together from ingredients you most likely already have on hand;  requires minimal preparation;  and would be a great dish to feed a crowd.

I loved so many of the dishes I made with Giada de Laurentiis, but these Espresso Caramel Bars were a real favourite.

These were pretty easy for even a reluctant baker to make - crispy, biscuit crumb base;  ooey, gooey, slightly chewy caramel centre;  fudgy, espresso, chocolate topping;  finished with a sprinkling of smoked sea salt ... I defy anyone to stop at just one!

For a variety of reasons, I didn't get to cook along with Jamie Oliver too often ...

... but this warm Salad of Cannelini Beans, Chorizo & Tomatoes is one that I've returned to over and over again.

Of all the chefs we've cooked with at IHCC, one of my absolute favourites (second only to Yotam Ottolenghi) was Tessa Kiros.  I loved so many of Tessa's dishes that picking a favourite was quite a challenge ...

but I think this Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Olives, Lemon & Yoghurt might be it.  This was one of the first recipes I bookmarked when I bought her book Falling Cloudberries, and with its thick, velvety texture, and bold, robust flavour it certainly didn't disappoint.  Lots of opportunity here to change up the toppings on this one too.

I didn't get a chance to cook too many dishes with Rick Bayless, but I know he was a big favourite with many of our other participants.

Choosing a favourite from the dishes I did make was easy ... it was hands down this Nieve de Limon (Lemon-Lime Sorbet).  I couldn't tell you how often I've made this now.  The bright, tangy citrus flavours are a refreshing treat any time of year.

Madhur Jaffrey has long been a favourite chef of mine, and a spell of cooking with her gave me the opportunity to dip into some of those cookbooks which had been gathering dust on the shelf for quite a while.  For many of our participants, exploring Indian food was a totally new experience, and I know that Madhur proved to be very popular with so many in the group.

This dish of Prawns in a Dark Sauce was simple to make, and the flavours rekindled so many childhood memories for me that I've since revisited this dish several times.

Those of you who visit here regularly won't be surprised to learn that my absolute favourite chef was Yotam Ottolenghi - I don't think I've cooked an Ottolenghi dish that I didn't like, and I find his food truly inspirational.  Trying to choose a "favourite" from the Ottolenghi dishes I've made is virtually impossible - I've loved every single one of them ...

... but I figured this Shakshuka should take first place, since it is by far one of the most frequently cooked dishes in my kitchen.

And, lastly, we come to our current chef - Donna Hay.  Our journey with Donna is still young, but this dish of Green Tea Soba Noodles with Soy-Roasted Salmon and Broad Bean & Radish Salad is already a favourite.

Quick, simple, healthy and absolutely delicious - this is definitely going to be a perennial favourite in my house.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the wonderful Pot Luck dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

Lastly, I want to thank each and every one of you for your visits, lovely comments, and most of all your friendship over the year, and I wish you and all your loved ones a very happy Christmas.  xo

Pasta with Sardines

This week is Pot Luck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, and this means that we get carte blanche to choose any recipe we like either from our current chef, who as I'm sure you know by now, happens to be the incredibly inspiring Yotam Ottolenghi, or any one of the seven other chefs we have previously featured at IHCC.

I actually had an Ottolenghi dish picked out weeks ago that I was going to make for this week's challenge, but somehow that didn't come to pass and I decided that today was the day to get this post out of draft.  This dish is ever so slightly adapted from a Mark Bitman recipe, and is one of my favourite pasta dishes.  Mark Bitman was actually the featured chef when I first joined the IHCC community, and I loved cooking his dishes.  This recipe was one that I made way back then, with all good intentions for publishing it as my "Farewell to Bitman" post.  Somehow, that didn't happen, and although I've made this dish several times since, the post has continued to languish in draft.  Time for that to change.

This is one of those great "pantry raid" dishes, perfect for using up a few of those store cupboard ingredients - pasta, raisins (original recipe uses currants, but I prefer raisins), pine nuts and tinned sardines.  On the subject of sardines, I actually prefer to use fresh, and I have included a video from YouTube here which shows just how easy they are to clean - I promise that it is totally worth the little bit of effort if you are able to get them fresh.  However, the original recipe calls for tinned sardines, and they will work perfectly well if you either can't lay your hands on fresh ones or can't be bothered to clean them.

Other changes I like to make to this dish, are replacing onion with fennel - I think the "aniseed" flavour is a great complement to the fish and the raisins, and I also like to add in some chopped preserved lemon for its intensely lemony-salty hit.

This dish is incredibly quick to make - once you've prepared the fish (which is itself the work of moments), the rest of the dish pretty much comes together in the amount of time it takes to boil pasta, making it perfect for a quick, mid-week dinner.

Add to this the fact that, from both an ethical point of view and a healthy one, sardines are a great choice, and you have a win:win dish.  Hope you'll try it.

Pasta with Sardines Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Mark Bitman from

How to Cook Everything iPhone App

Makes 2 generous servings

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

6x fresh sardines

1/4 cup flour

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

250g pasta ( I used De Cecco casareccia)

salt

handful of raisins, soaked in warm water while you prepare the sardines

handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted

olive oil

1x fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1/2 a preserved lemon (discard the flesh, and slice the skin thinly)

grated zest of 1x lemon

large handful fresh parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

freshly ground black pepper

Put a large pot of water over high heat and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, prepare the sardines as per the video above.  Wash thoroughly and use a paper towel to pat completely dry.

Spread flour, seasoned with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, on a plate.  Dredge the sardines in the flour, shaking off any excess, and set aside.

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a shallow frying pan over medium heat.  As soon as the oil is hot, add the sardines to the pan, and continue to cook until the fish is golden brown and almost cooked through.  Remove from pan to a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb any surplus oil.  Break into slightly bigger than bite-sized pieces.

Now liberally salt the boiling water, and add the pasta to the water.  Cook according to the packet instructions until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat another tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  When hot, add the sliced fennel and saute until the fennel has softened - about 6 to 8 minutes.  Add the drained raisins, most of the pine nuts, preserved lemon skin, sardines, and a generous grind of black pepper.  (Because the preserved lemon is salty, you may find that you don't need any additional salt.)  Stirring gently, combine everything well, and cook until everything is heated through and fish is cooked through.

Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking water.  Add the pasta to the pan containing the fish, and add most of the chopped parsely.  Toss carefully to combine and add a little of the reserved pasta water if necessary.  Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking

Transfer to a warm serving bowl, and sprinkle over the remaining pine nuts and parsley, and the grated lemon zest.

Delicious served immediately or at room temperature. 

If you would like to get to know Mark Bitman a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

or check out some of these great Mark Bitman cookbooks:

     

Available from Amazon, Book Depository UK, and Fishpond NZ

I'm also sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo, hosted by the very lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace.

Chewy Cherry Chunky Chocolate Cookies

When I was a kid, Mum would have regular baking days, filling the tins with all sorts of heavenly treats - cakes and slices, her scones and pikelets were legendary, and biscuits. Now biscuits as I know them are not to be confused with what those of you in North America call biscuits, which are rather more like our scones. No, our biscuits are more akin to what you would call cookies, except that generally speaking biscuits are never really of the chewy variety. They tend more towards the crispy end of the spectrum, and include such delights as peanut brownies, afghans, Anzac biscuits, gingernuts, and hokey pokey biscuits. They can also be sandwiched together with a filling of jam or icing (or both) - for example, Belgian biscuits, yo-yos, monte carlos and shrewbury biscuits.  As for cookies, how I wonder did I manage to get through the first 30 or so years of my life without ever becoming acquainted with these over-sized, chewy bits of heaven?

These cookies are a variation on the Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

They are about as far removed from a dainty little biscuit as you can get, but chewy and chocolatey and utterly addictive. For all their chewiness, they do have a hint of crunch around the edges on the day they are made, and, if by chance you don't manage to polish them all off on the first day, they are wonderful turned into ice-cream sandwiches and stashed in the freezer. Simply smear a liberal scoop of your favourite ice cream between two cookies, wrap in cling film, pop all your cling film wrapped packages in a snaplock bag, and stow in the freezer. Eat direct from the freezer - heavenly!!

I adjusted the ratio of white sugar to brown sugar, to get more of the rich, caramel flavour that comes through from the brown sugar.  Also, the original recipe called for the inclusion of 2 cups of chopped chocolate (any kind) - I actually subbed one cup out for a cup of dried cherries.  You could alternatively use raisins, cranberries, dried apricots, and/or any kind of nuts - walnuts, almonds, macadamias, or pistachios would all be great. Really the combination of ingredients is limited only by your imagination. I used Whittaker's Dark Ghana chocolate in mine, but white chocolate and dairy milk are also fine if that is your preference.  Do use block chocolate though and chop it so that you get some decent sized chunks of chocolate, instead of using packs of little chocolate chips.

Chewy Cherry Chunky Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Mark Bittman from

How to Cook Everything

Makes 18 to 20 large cookies

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

230g (8 oz) butter, room temperature

130g (4.5 oz) sugar

160g (5.6 oz) brown sugar

2 large eggs

250g (8.8 oz) flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup good quality chopped chocolate

1 cup dried cherries

Begin by preheating your oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F).

Using an electric beater, cream together the butter and both sugars.  Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition to make sure they are well blended.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together in another bowl.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar and egg mixture, beat for a moment to combine.  Lastly add the vanilla extract, and stir in the chunks of chocolate and dried cherries.

Line a baking sheet with non-stick parchment paper, and drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto the baking sheet.  They will spread a lot, so make sure they are spaced well apart.

Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, about 10 minutes, and then cool on the baking sheet for a further 2 minutes, before transferring to a rack to finish cooling.

Store in an airtight container or, as suggested above, wrap a pair of these babies around some of your favourite ice cream and store in the freezer.

Alternatively, you can drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet and freeze immediately.  Then drop your balls of frozen cookie dough into a freezer bag to take out and bake any time you feel like a fresh, warm cookie - simply add another couple of minutes to the baking time.

"How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman is definitely one of those books that should grace the shelves of every cook, and is available in New Zealand from Fishpond, Amazon in the US, or from Amazon UK.

I am sharing these cookies this week at Cookbook Sundays, where my friends are delving into their cookbooks and sharing their recipes.  Hope you'll stop by and see what they've been cooking this week - maybe you'll even feel inspired to link up a recipe from one of your own cookbooks.

I'm also sharing this post at Food on Friday: Chocolate hosted by Carole at Carole's Chatter.

I am also sharing this post with Sweet New Zealand, a monthly blog event created by the very lovely Alessandra Zecchini, and which this month is hosted by After Taste. This is an opportunity for all Kiwi bloggers (whether you are living in New Zealand or overseas), as well as for non-Kiwi bloggers living in New Zealand, to connect and share some of those sweet treats from your kitchen.  So, head on over and share something sweet.

Bacon, Booze and other Bits and Bobs

It's been a funny old week really.  I don't really seem to have done too much cooking this week, more a case of just assembling a few salads really, but I have had several "cooking projects" on the go.

First of all has been my first attempt at curing my own bacon, the first project in which I'm participating for the Charcutepalooza group, hosted by Mrs Wheelbarrow's Kitchen and The Yummy Mummy.  I would have liked to start last month, but last month's challenge was duck prosciutto - sounds amazing right, and I so want to try this.  Problem is you need a cool humid place to hang your breasts (yes I did just say that), and that's just not happening in a hot, dry Canterbury summer - so keep watching this space for duck prosciutto when winter comes around.  In the meantime here's a first glimpse of my bacon - today's lunch in fact - about which you will be hearing much more next week.

Project # 2 - my dear friend Clare, who has just started a lovely blog called Arnold River Ramblings (where she shares great recipes and tales from their home on the banks of the Arnold River on the South Island west coast), dropped me off a few pounds of damsons.  These are not something I had ever used before, so I turned to a book I've had for years called Jams and Preserves by Olive Odell for inspiration.  The moment my eyes rested on Damson Gin in the index, I knew this would have a place in my future. Looks beautiful, doesn't it ...

Now I'm supposed to let this mature for a minimum of 3 months.  Other recipes I found for Damson Gin suggest leaving it for 6, 12 or even 18 months.  I'm thinking that 9-10 months would be perfect, in which case it would be ready just in time for Christmas, and all those glorious summer cocktails to enjoy on long, warm summer evenings.  I question, however, my ability to wait that long, so I'm thinking I may need to make a back up bottle just in case!

Once my Damson Gin was made, I got so ridiculously excited about my ability to make liquor, that I decided to make what I imagine will turn into a kind of coffee/orange liqueur.  This is a recipe from Laura Calder called "44" that I had been wanting to make for many months.  You simply take an orange and poke 44 holes in it, then push a coffee bean into each one of those holes - got that so far? 44 coffee beans pushed into an orange.  Then put the coffee bean studded orange into a large glass jar, and add 44 sugar cubes.  Fill with one litre of vodka, seal jar, and store in a cool, dark place, giving it a shake every day for 44 days.  Not that I'm counting or anything, but only 43 days to go!

Now, to those "bits and bobs" I mentioned.  Quite a while back (about October actually - I know, I'm pretty slack) two of my favourite bloggers Veronica at The Enchanted Cook and Michele at The Fit Foodista tagged me.  To cut a long story short, I was supposed to answer a few questions that each of them asked and pass it on to a few more bloggers and ask them to do the same.  Well, I just didn't get around to it.  Not long after I was given the "One Lovely Blog" Award by two more lovely bloggers - Louanne's Kitchen and Kitchen Flavours - similar deal, answer some questions and pass it on - did I get around to it?  In short - no.  Then more recently I was given the "Stylish Blogger" Award again by Louanne's Kitchen (she must really like me), by Melynda at Mom's Sunday Cafe, by Daniel at The Haggis & The Herring, by Ms Enplace, and by Annie at Second Helpings.  So I thought it was high time I got my act together and did a bit of sharing.

Firstly, let me say that I am deeply humbled by the kind thoughts and high praise these bloggers have bestowed on me.  The open-heartedness with which fellow bloggers reach out to each other across continents, making connections with people they've never met, never ceases to amaze and inspire me and is what makes this whole thing worthwhile for me.  So, now to share a bit about me, I selected several of the questions from those that were asked from different sources - read on ...

 

If you had to narrow down your diet to just one cuisine, what would you choose and why?

I love so many different cuisines that narrowing it down to just one is tough - I think it would probably be Italian (but it would only be nudging out Spanish or Greek by a nose).  I love pretty much all of the ingredients that we associate with Mediterranean style food;  I love the often very simple and rustic way in which dishes come together, relying on nothing more than outstanding, seasonal ingredients rather than a lot of fancy or "chefy" techniques to pull off a great dish.

What has been your most memorable meal to this point in your life?

Don't even have to think about this one.  It was a rabbit dish that I had at a little restaurant in Barcelona called The Grill Room.  It was quite a simple little restaurant as I recall, but the rabbit was outstanding.  Half a rabbit was placed on a long skewer, carried through the restaurant and plunged into an open wood-fired oven at the back of of the restaurant.  I could see the rabbit cooking from our table, and half an hour later it was brought out of the oven and set before me.  It had been given only the simplest of treatment - a brushing of olive oil, some fresh rosemary, and plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper - but it tasted sublime.  Proof once again that good food doesn't need to be messed with.

What’s your funniest kitchen/cooking disaster?

One time when we were kids (me about 7, my little brother about 5), my brother fell out of a tree and badly gashed his knee.  My mother rushed him off to the doctor to get it stitched up and, anticipating that Dad would be home from work soon, left me home alone.  While I was waiting for Dad to get home, I got to thinking that there had been a lot of blood "coming out of my brother" and he might die.  Well, even though I found a little brother enormously irritating at that stage of my life, I really didn't want him to die.  Just on the off chance that he might live, however, I decided to bake him a jam tart.  So, I duly got out my play dough, found a pretty plastic bowl in the cupboard, lined it with a play dough crust, filled it to the brim with jam, turned the oven onto high and popped my "pie" into the oven.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to imagine the mess that made!!

What's your favourite kitchen/cooking success?

A week ago, I think I would have said the first time I made mayonnaise and discovered how easy it is.  However, as of today, I think it would have to be the first time I cured my own bacon (see above) - I'm loving myself sick I think I'm so clever right now.

What are your three “go to ingredients” that are always on hand in your kitchen?

Lemons, good extra virgin olive oil, and garlic.

What's your earliest food memory?

Spending a childhood Saturday afternoon in my grandparents kitchen while they made preparations for Sunday lunch.  Nana grinding spices, rolling little balls of lamb, while Grandad grated fresh coconut, for Kofta Curry;  Nana rolling balls of dough for parantha;  and Grandad rolling balls of "cottage cheese", deep frying them and bathing them in rose water, making galub jamun.

Why do you like to cook – what about it makes you head back into the kitchen again and again?

The opportunity to cook for others is an opportunity to show them how much I care for them - it is an expression of love.  Time in the kitchen is always a time of real peacefulness for me - a kind of meditation in a way, and a time in which I feel connected with my "food memories" and the cooks who came before me.

So, now we get to the hard part, and I guess this is why I've been avoiding this for so long.  I am supposed to pass this on to several other bloggers.  My difficulty with that is that I am reluctant to bestow an obligation on anyone who doesn't want to play along, and secondly there are so many of you out there that I love I just can't whittle my list down to a dozen or so "worthy recipients".  So I've decided on another way of playing it forward.  I frequently cook dishes that I come across on your blogs, and when I do I try to make a point of stopping by and leaving a comment on your post letting you know that I made it.  But it occurs to me that it would be even better to let my readers know that I made it, and make a regular feature of the things I make from your blogs - a real Forward Friday, if you like.

So kicking that off this week I want to tell you about this Lentil & Potato Curry ...

This is actually a Mark Bittman recipe from How to Cook Everything, but I first came across it over at girlichef, a blog that never fails to inspire me.  Heather has a way with words that literally pulls you into the kitchen alongside her, and takes photos that would pretty much make a bowl of dirt look appealing.  So the moment I saw this Lentils and Potatoes with Curry I knew I wanted to make it.  Heather did not let me down - the dish did not disappoint, and it has become a regular favourite in my kitchen.  Thanks so much for the inspiration Heather.

Lastly, thank you to all of you who take the time to read my blog, to leave your thoughtful comments and offer your encouragement and support - it means more to me than I could ever say.

I'm also submitting this post to the Hearth and Soul blog hop, a place where you'll find lots of wonderful people who are passionate about great food and cooking from the heart - do go and have a look at what they're all cooking this week.

Bittman's Simplest & Best Shrimp Dish

The dish I'm sharing with you today comes from Mark Bittman's weighty tome, "How to Cook Everything" (though I actually referenced it on the HTCE iPhone application), and is another contribution to Make it with ..... Mondays, challenge paprika as well as to the latest Tackling Bittman Recipe Hop.

"The Simplest & Best Shrimp Dish" is Bittman's own title for this dish and, to be honest, it is so good and so deliciously simple that it is hard to imagine a more fitting name for it.  If you buy shrimp which have already been peeled and cleaned, then the only work involved is a bit of garlic preparation and parsley chopping - hardly what you would call labour intensive.  The actual cooking is even less demanding.  I served this dish with some saffron rice, and the shrimps can basically be prepped and cooked in the time it takes to cook the rice, which is what I call perfect timing.

The sauce is gloriously garlicky and redolent with the smoky aroma of the paprika, and was beautiful served over rice, but would be equally good with some pasta or fresh crusty bread to mop up all that wonderful sauce.  This dish would also be perfect served with a variety of other dishes as part of a selection of tapas.

Of one thing you can be certain - no matter which way you serve this, you will be asked for it over and over again.

The Simplest & Best Shrimp Dish Recipe

Adapted from Mark Bittman's

How to Cook Everything

Makes 2 generous servings

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

extra virgin olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, chopped

300g shrimp, peeled and deveined

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 teaspoon hot paprika

chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Pour enough extra virgin olive oil into a large skillet to liberally cover the bottom of the pan.  Set the pan over low heat, warm the oil, add the garlic, and cook until it turns golden.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the shrimp.  Sprinkle over some flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper;  add the cumin, and the paprika.  Stir to blend and continue to cook, shaking the pan occasionally and turning the shrimp over a couple of times, until they are pink and the mixture is bubbly - about 5 minutes.

Garnish with the parsley and serve immediately.

Interested in cooking some more with Mark Bittman?  I highly recommend any of these Mark Bittman books:

     

Available from Amazon, Book Depository UK, and Fishpond NZ

This post is submitted to "Making it with ..... Mondays" # 4, challenge paprika (there's still time to join in - linky will be open until 11.59 am, Monday 7 February) and the Tackling Bittman Recipe Hop Volume 4 (linky will be open until 11.59 pm, Thursday 10 February).  I'd love you to get cooking either with some paprika or Bittman, or maybe a combination of both, then come on over and join in the fun.

     

This post is also linked to "Let's Do Brunch" at My Sweet & Savory and Food on Friday hosted by Carole at Carole's Chatter.