The Kitchen Playground

The Bread Winner has headed for distant shores (with the camera).

Son and Heir is distraught without his Daddy and not sleeping.

Lil Miss has conjunctivitis and is not sleeping.

Consequently I am not sleeping.

Too tired to blog.

Its been a while coming but here are the recipes from our recent dinner party.

chorizo in potatoes
I read about these in a Gourmet Traveller whilst sitting in a cafe in Sydney recently. I didn’t copy the recipe but it’s pretty simple so I probably did the same thing as the original recipe specified.

2 chorizo
1 large potato
rice bran or grapeseed oil
1. Cut chorizo into chunky matchsticks
2. Thinly sliced unpeeled potatoes (very thinly, they need to bend, use a mandolin if you don’t think you can manage it with a knife)
3. Wrap each piece of chorizo in a slice of potato, secure with toothpick
4. Heat oil in wok or saucepan
5. Fry each piece until golden.
6. Drain on a cloth, remove toothpick and serve.

prawns in bloody mary
I garnished these with lumpfish caviar

garlic soup
I made a very small portion of this. Roughly 1/4 of the recipe. The slow simmering of the garlic in oil lends this recipe perfectly to thermomix cookery. I made it in the thermomix thusly;

1. Cook oil and garlic for 25 minutes at 90 degrees on reverse speed 1
2. Add stock, thyme and stock
3. Cook for 20 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 2
4. Slowly turn to sped 9 over 30 seconds to puree
5. Strain and serve with grated parmesan

fried cheese stick salad with warm caper and olive dressing
this was adapted from a clipping I saved from a long lost Super Food Ideas
370g edam cut into logs
1/2 cup plain flour
rice bran or grapeseed oil for deep frying
Italian salad mix
dressing
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons drained capers
3 tablespoons drained, sliced, stuffed green olives
3 tablespoons lemon juice
seasoning
1. At least an hour before serving, dust cheese with flour and place in freezer
2. When ready to serve, drop cheese in hot oil and fry until golden. Drain.
3. Dressing - pan fry capers for 1 minute and then quickly combine with all other dressing ingredients.
4. Arrange cheese on salad leaves, dress and serve.

mini baguettes
from World Breads by Paul Gayler

300g bread flour
200g plain flour
2 teaspoon fine salt
15g yeast
300ml warm water
1. To prepare starter, sift flours and salt together. In a separate bowl, mis yeast with water, stir to dissolve and leave 10 minutes.
2. Beat in half the flour to the yeast to make a thick batter. Cover with cling wrap and leave at room temperature for 4 hours. During this time the batter will collapse.
3. Add the rest of the flour, beating in with one hand. Turn onto floured board and knead for 8 - 10 minutes to form a moist dough. Place in a clean bowl, cover and leave to rest in a warm place for 1 hour.
4. Turn dough out on to floured board, knock back to expel air. Roll into baguettes. Snip with scissors at intervals to form mini baguettes with pointed ends. Make slashes across top of each baguette. Leave to prove for another hour.
5. Preheat oven to 230 degrees C, placing a baking dish filled with boiling water on the bottom of the oven.
6. Bake on top shelf for 25 - 30 minutes until golden and crusty. Transfer to cooling rack.

lemon vodka sorbet
I think this can be improved in terms of the texture so it would be worth fiddling with the quantity of vodka. I was guessing and trying not to keep my guests waiting. If you follow this to the letter, you will get a good sorbet, just not a mind blowing one. I infused my vodka with lemon zest for about 4 days.
1/2 cup vodka
zest one lemon
700g ice cubes
150g sugar
1 egg white
1. Place vodka and lemon zest in a jar. Leave for at least three days.
2. Place sugar in thermomix and mill for 20 seconds on speed 9.
3. Add everything else and slowly turn the dial to speed 10. Use the spatula to help move everything around. Sorbet will be ready in approximately minute

lemon and mascarpone stuffed pan fried spatchcock on bed of wilted spinach
I simply blanched the spinach immediately before serving. My only other deviation from the original recipe was to pan fry earlier in the day. Then I refrigerated. I let the spatchcock rise to room temperature before putting in the oven. It took longer for the birds to cook through that way but meant I could spend my time with my guests and not in the kitchen.

White chocolate panna cotta
from a thermomix/Nico Moretti class I attended recently. The recipe is Nico’s. Start this one early the day before serving.

100g mlk
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 x 150 full whipping cream
150g fair trade white chocolate, chopped
2 gelatine leaves
30g icing sugar
1. Place milk, vanilla essence and paste and 150ml cream in thermomix and cook for 8 minutes at 80 degrees on speed 3
2. Add chocolate and cook for 2 minutes at 80 degrees on speed 3 or until dissolved.
3. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 3 minutes then drain. Add soaked leaves into the mixture and mi for 20 seconds on speed 5 until dissolved. Remove and set aside to cool, then place in the fridge, stirring occasionally until mixture is starting to set (approx. 3 - 4 hours).
4. Place sugar and cream in thermomix and attach butterfly. Whip for 20 seconds on speed 4 until whipped. Do not over whip.
5. Pour cooled chocolate mixture into cream and mix for 20 seconds on speed 3, scraping down sides if necessary.
6. Divide into 6 serving bowls. Cover and chill for 24 hours. Serve with berry coulis

Berry Coulis
from Thermomix Everyday Cooking For Every Family
100g frozen strawberries
100g frozen raspberries
100g sugar
juice 1/2 lemon
1. Add all ingredients and cook for 4 minutes at 90 degrees, speed 4.

Tags: canapes, coulis, fried cheese, garlic soup, mascarpone, panna cotta, Salads & Vegetables, Soup, spatchcock, thermomix, Vegetarian

The pay offs for getting it right are soooo darn good.

ciabatta dough proving for the second time.

ciabatta loaves proving prior to baking

two freshly baked ciabtta loaves

nothing beats fresh bread

except maybe a blue cheese and salad sandwich on freshly baked bread

Ciabatta
from World Breads by Paul Gayler

For the Biga Starter
350g bread flour
10g yeast
200ml warm water
For the Dough
15g yeast
400ml warm water
500g bread flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
30ml olive oil

1. Sift starter flour. Ina asmall bwl, dissolve yeast in 100ml warm water. Leave for 10 minutes until frothy.
2. Gradualy mix dissolved yeast and remaining water into flour to form a soft but firmish dough. Turn on to lightly floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes until pliable.
3. Return to bowl, cover with cling wrap, leave in a warm place to prove for 10 - 12 hours by which time the dough will begin to collapse.
4. For the dough, mix the yeast with 100ml of warm water, leave to stand 5 minutes then add remaining water.
5. Add yeast mixture into biga starter and beat in with one hand. The beat in flour to form a wet mix. Finally add salt and oil. Cover with cling wrap and leave in warm place for 1 1/2 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C
7. Spoon dough on to a floured baking sheet. Shape, with floured hands, into ovals, 1 inch thick. Leave to prove for another 25 minutes.
8. Place in centre of oven and bake for 25 - 30 minutes until golden and cooked. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Tags: Baking, bread, ciabatta

the first peach blossom of the year

Tags: spring

Barking Mad have come up with the fabulous idea of having a blogger dinner party. Because I’m not already obsessed with reading a gazilion blogs on a daily basis (or as updated), I think everyone should join in so I can find some more blog gold. I am going to completely ignore food bloggers for the purpose of this dinner party on the grounds that I would be too completely intimidated to cook for such people. Maybe I’ll throw a second virtual dinner party for food bloggers after this one.

So here is the deal;
Create a post telling us who you are inviting and what about that person’s writing makes you think they’d be an intriguing/funny/interesting person to share a meal with. What have you learned about these people through reading their blogs and what would you hope to learn about them through breaking bread with them?
And of course when you’re done, let me know AND link back to Barking Mad.

Lucky this is a virtual dinner party as my list will undoubtedly surpass my stores of flatware!
1. Pioneer Woman - who is number one on my list because I’m still tickled pink she liked my recipe.
2. Penni from Eglantine’s Cake - as well as being a fabulous writer, I already know her so I wouldn’t be too shy to talk to her.
3. Em from the Dance of Small Things - because she’s clever and makes me think harder (and I already know her so I wouldn’t be too shy to talk to her).
4. Rhonda from Down To Earth - because she’s wise and content and lives the way I try to live. She’s inspiring.
5. Danny from Dad Gone Mad - because he’s hilarious and full of brilliant euphemisms for genitalia. While on that topic, he introduced me to the term “junk which still makes me giggle uncontrollably.
6. Bossy - if only to see if she refers to herself in the third person in real life
7. The Bloggess - not only is she funny and crass but she’d be sure to get good and drunk with me.
8. Stephen Fry - sheer idolatry on my behalf. I heart Stephen Fry majorly. I really truly do. He uses language in ways I can only dream of.
9. Docwitch of Dark Side of the Broom - because she often reminds me of myself and I’d love to see if that holds true in the flesh
10. Jaywalker of Belgian Waffle - because I adore that particular brand of Brit humour. And quirky village fetes
11. Antonia of Whoopee - for much the same reasons as 10.
12. Tanis of Redneck Mommy - she can make me howl with laughter or tears as the mood takes her. So much passion, so much humour. So much everything.

I’m stopping there. Not because I’m done per se. Because I believe that 12 is the perfect setting size.

Tags: blogs, memes

Challenge number 2 from Brazen is all about cook books. I’m going to cheat and use the same photo I used for challenge number 1 about pantrys. Because that’s where my cook books live. See them upon the top shelf?

So, the rest of the challenge…

1. how many do you have? (rough is fine!) I have roughly 60 cook books. All my recipes are ruthlessly decimated into clippings and filed in the green and red binders you may be able to spot up there on the book shelf.
2. do you use them much? and if so how? Most of them rarely get looked at. I use the binders for inspiration reasonably often. I use World Breads, anything by Charmaine Solomon, Jacques Pepin and an old home economics text (which I never took in school) the most.
3. share your favourites. Shared my favourites above. I use my books for either inspiration or precise technique. Sometimes I even use them for actual recipes.
4. and if you have a favourite online site that isn’t a blog please share that too!!! taste.com.au is great. I also like forums like egullet. I read a gazillion food blogs.

Thanks for another fun challenge Brazen!

Tags: cook books

I consider myself very lucky to have Ankle Biters with quite adult palates. Well there is both luck and good management involved in that. However, I have lately been overcome by a burning desire to throw a good old fashioned grown up dinner party. The Bread Winner is about to vanish to far away ports for a month and I decided that it had to be done before he deserted me went. Besides, I’ve had my thermomix for twelve months now and that’s how long I’ve really been wanting to have a bit of a do for. Its the perfect machine for rolling out a big menu with minimal effort and maximum time enjoying our guests.

So. The Menu.

Canapes
chorizo in potatoes
prawns in bloody mary
Amuse Bouche
garlic soup
First
fried cheese stick salad with warm caper and olive dressing
mini baguettes
Second
lemon vodka sorbet
Third
lemon and mascarpone stuffed pan fried spatchcock on bed of wilted spinach
Dessert
White chocolate panna cotta
coffee/tea/cheese platter
King Island Black Label Blue; Gippsland Blue, Victoria, Jindi Vintage Cheddar, Victoria; Udder Delights Goat’s Brie, Adelaide Hills; Mauri Taleggio, Lombardy, Italy; Arla Havarti, Denmark; Tamar Valley Apple Paste, Tasmania; Tamar Valley Blackcurrant Paste, Tasmania; Victorian walnuts

The wines - Seppelt Fleur de Lys Chardonnay Pinot Noir NV, The Yarra Hill Shiraz 1999, Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora 2006

The trick with a menu this big is, of course, getting it all made. And still dealing with the Ankle Biters, getting the house clean and so on and so forth. I’m a born organiser so I like the planning stage. Deciding on the guest list. The menu. Writing the shopping list. Allocating days to various parts of the shopping. Dividing up the steps in each recipe and allocating a time in which to do them. Now that’s my idea of fun!

With the exception of last minute fresh greens and the like, the shopping was complete by Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, I placed 2 cups of vodka in two glass jars. To one I added a small handful of peppercorns. To the other, the zest of half a lemon.

vodka

Wednesday I made the mascarpone (super quick and easy in the thermomix). I also removed my sewing and knitting detritus from the dining room. Not to mention the piles of crap very useful items waiting to be listed on ebay.

Thursday. Things are hotting up. Clean the silver and stemware. Polish cutlery and flat ware. Start setting the table. Place ice trays in freezer to prepare ice. Make berry coulis. Print menu. Prepare garlic soup. Pick up organic chocolate.

menu in placeholder

rapunzel organic white chocolate

By Friday, I’m in a frenzy. The house gets cleaned from top to toe, with of course, the depressing knowledge that much of it will need re-cleaning by tomorrow afternoon. The starter for the baguettes is prepared and refrigerated after after for hours proving. The panna cotta is made. Somewhere in there I managed to get the Ankle Biters to swimming and do the last minute shopping. All is going swimmingly.

Saturday arrives. Fist task is to take the bread starter out of the fridge. It will need three hours to bring it to room temperature so I can continue to work it. The greater part of Saturday was spent in the kitchen. The goal being to prepare each course to the point that come evening, I can spend my time with my friends. Not in the kitchen.

What I love the most, other than the food and feeding of course, are the little touches. Attention to detail. The bud vase of flowers in the loo (and the dining room).

Fresh candles. Some floating. In blue water. I’m considering adding a drop of red to that to soften it a little. Must check with the Bread Winner, he’s good with colour. OK, I asked, he hadn’t noticed the water. Its not very nice to call your wife anal is it? I added the red anyway.

Nicely cut pats of butter for the bread.

Can you tell I’m in my element here?

Our guests were due to arrive at 7.00, by which time all was ready and I was just finishing the last minute cooking of the canapes. Perfect. We started the evening with bubbles and the canapes. The bloody Mary prawns exceeded my expectations and the potato and chorizo were everything I’d hoped for. Both platters vanished in a trice.

(excuse the worse than usual photos to come, the lighting is awful at Chez KP at the best of times, evening is just impossible)

A quick trip to the kitchen to warm the soup and we moved to the dining room where the mini baguettes were waiting. The soup was truly amazing. Truly. I will be making this again and probably within the next week. The baguettes were good but great. I wasn’t overwhelmingly thrilled with the last rise. Something I need to work on. And I will.

The salad was a well balanced blend of flavours but messy as all buggery to put together. The last minute frying of the cheese was my longest imprisonment in the kitchen. I’m not sure I’d bother with this one again. Not that it didn’t taste great, I just think that similar can be achieved with far easier clean up! You’ll have to take my word for it because the oil splattered all over the stove top drive photography from my mind. It didn’t reenter my mind until long after the sorbet was consumed. Ah, the sorbet. The flavour hit the perfect balance between the sugar, vodka and lemon. The texture could have been fluffier (for want of a better word). I need to fiddle with the quantities there.

The spatchcock were moist and succulent. The creaminess of the marscarpone, the lemon and the spinach perfectly complementing the tender morsels of meat. Definitely a dish to make again. It was at roughly this point of the evening that the star performer appeared. The Yarra Hill ‘99 Shiraz. Words fail me. I could weep, it was the last bottle and it’s hit perfection. Why oh why don’t I have more stashed away? Why? I don’t recall ever tasting a more perfect shiraz. Seriously.

The white chocolate panna cotta with berry coulis was next. Accompanied by the muscat (served chilled). The flavour was divine but texturally there was room for improvement. It really needed a good stir right when I had Son and Heir at his swimming lesson on Friday. C’est la vie. Here are the happy diners, minus the Bread Winner with their panna cotta before them.

After all that, there was room left for cheese. Be still my beating heart. If stinky is your thing, check out that little round number bottom right. Udder Delight’s goat brie. Get yourself some.

And after all the splendour, the fun, the companionship, the good times, the happy bellies. After all the good …

come the dishes.

Recipes to follow in a separate post

Tags: baguette, canapes, Cheese, dinner party, Entertaining, garlic soup, panna cotta, Salads & Vegetables, sorbet, spatchcock, thermomix, wine

The Omnivore’s Hundred is an eclectic and entirely subjective list of 100 items that Andrew Wheeler, co-author of the British food blog Very Good Taste, thinks every omnivore should try at least once in his life.

He offered this list as the starting point for a game, along the following rules:
1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: post a comment on Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

And of course, if you don’t have a blog, you can still play along, with a good old pencil and some paper — care to share your results? And/or items you think should be added to, or removed from that list?

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans_
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper!
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone Pau fritter is a national icon
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini Can’t stand gin, vodka’s another story though
58. Beer above 8%
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare still had some pellets in it too
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Tags: meme, omnivores hundred

It’s totally freaky when you feel yourself actually morphing into your own mother. In fact I think I actually turned into a cariacture of her today.

Dear ol’ Mum loved to throw a dinner party. She was jolly good at it too. The house would be scrubbed. Scrubbed! Ceiling to skirting board, the house would be gleaming. We would be banned from using the toilet until after the event so it would stay clean, luckily we lived a short walk from the train station. Scrumptious food would be prepared and the table set. Not with everyday settings of course, the good china (Countrware by Colaport) would come out, the silvery cutlery and flatware polished, the stemware shining. There would be vase of flowers in every room. The woman knew how to entertain. Not only was her presentation immaculate, she was a great hostess, a fabulous time was had by all, every time.

Well I’m still in preparation mode for tomorrow night but the house is gleaming, flowers in vases, good dinner set out, silver polished and so on and so forth. Let’s just hope the evening is as much fun as Mum’s dinner parties always were!

In the meantime, I threw baked eggs at the family tonight, I’ve got more important fish to fry than mundane meals right now. Thanks to AOF for the inspiration.

baked eggs with tomato, spinach, feta, olives and prosciutto

Tags: baked eggs, Quick and easy, standby supper

Every night this week I’ve had all the good posting intentions in the world. Life keeps getting in the way though in one form or another. Today has been no different. I will however assuage my non-posting guilt with a series of random images of things we have been eating this week.

Son and Heir has been wanting to try star fruit for ages. He liked it.

Organic beef and sundried tomato sausages on parsnip and pumpkin fries.

Pumpkin and olive bread

Pumpkin, parsnip and fetta pizza

Mexican lasagne

Eggplant and zucchini bake

Recipes available up on request! Stay tuned, BIG dinner party post coming, hopefully sometime Sunday.

Tags: bread, eggplant bake, mexican lasage, parsnip, Pizza, pumpkin, star fruit, Vegetarian