Smokin’ Risotto

Here is the recipe for the risotto I mentioned, that I made the IKEA bread to go with. It is adapted from a recipe in Woman’s Day magazine, that I came across whilst flicking through mags at the hairdresser recently. I still had the Huon hot smoked salmon from Tasmania that I won on Valentine’s Day, so the recipe caught my eye.

If you haven’t got access to hot smoked salmon, just poach/steam some fresh salmon fillets in the microwave instead, and flake them into the rice mixture.

This risotto is amazing! I mean it. Complete and utter melt-in-your-mouth perfection that just comes together in a moment of pure food delight.

Salmon & Pea Risotto

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 small red chillies, finely chopped

2 cups arborio rice

½ cup white wine

5 cups chicken stock

¾ cup frozen peas, thawed

¾ cup fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed

3 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

1 lemon – zest and juice of

250 gms hot smoked salmon fillet (or equivalent cooked fresh salmon fillet, skinless)

cracked pepper, to taste

optional – shaved fresh parmesan cheese

In a large, deep pan (a wok is good), heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and chillies and saute, stirring, for 2 minutes until softened.

Add rice, stirring to coat, and saute for 1 minute.

Add the wine and then the chicken stock, gradually, stirring constantly as the liquid absorbs into the rice. When all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked (15-20 minutes), add remaining ingredients and fold through until gently heated.

Top with a sprinkling of shaved parmesan if desired, and serve with fresh bread.

Serves 4-6 depending on what you have with it – it is quite filling.

Happy Fooding!

Anyone For Bröd?

I went to IKEA last week. This was a momentous occasion for me, because despite 4.5 years living here in Perth, and driving it past it frequently, this was my Very First Visit at the only WA IKEA store. I have been to IKEA in Victoria and South Australia, but many years ago.

Although I didn’t actually buy any furnishings, we did take a lot of photos with our phones, of things we want to go back and get when we move in to the new apartment shortly. It was exciting! Also very, very crowded – 5 minutes before opening time when we arrived, there were about 200 people waiting outside for the doors to open. Lots of people with kids too. Ugh. Once the place opened, however the crowds thinned out pretty quickly (yay for childminding and a ball pit!), and moving through the store was actually fairly painless.

I bought a silicone pot stand thing, a jar of herring roe (mmmmmmm) and at the last minute picked up a carton of Brödmix Flerkorn to try. I am a sucker for all things bread-related, especially dense, dark, chewy, thick, grainy chunks of bread, that have soooo much more flavour than dreary white bread.

I can’t believe how simple this bread was to make! It’s like pancake mix – just add water, shake it all up, pour, let it rise and then pop it into the oven. I really expected it to be a bit of a flop, although online searching turned up a LOT of big fans of this bread mix, all over the world.

The loaf came out quite heavy, and the edges were very crunchy – I thought it might taste very dry – possibly I left it in the oven for 5 minutes too long I think – a lesson for next time but of course it depends on the oven, and shortly I will be trying to get used to my lovely new one 🙂 Inside, however it was perfect – nutty, moist and VERY moreish!  It was perfectly suited as an accompaniment to risotto, made with the Huon hot smoked salmon that I won on Valentine’s Day 🙂

I have to go back to IKEA soon (yes, I HAVE to, right???) to buy a couple of the things that we earmarked the other day……I shall definitely be going back to the Swedish food market section, for more delicious Brödmix.

Happy Fooding!

Damper / Soda Bread

I felt like soda bread one day this week, and decided to see if the recipe I’ve had for years worked in the bread machine, because things are so easy that way. It did work, really well, and made great open sandwiches with olive/feta dip, jarslberg cheese, roast beef & alfalfa sprouts on top.

For something different I added a small can of corn kernels and some caraway seeds – you can add lots of things to bread recipes to jazz them up a bit – sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives, walnuts, poppy seeds, herbs etc.

Soda Bread

3 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bi-carbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp caraway seeds (optional)

125 gm can corn kernels, drained (optional)

1 1/2 cups buttermilk or low-fat Greek yoghurt

Regular Method:

Mix dry ingredients, seeds & corn (if using) together with a whisk.  Make well in the centre and add 1 cup of buttermilk/yoghurt.  Mix with a fork then gradually add more of the remaining buttermilk/yoghurt until a soft dough is formed.

Knead dough lightly on floured surface for 1 minute. Form into an oval shape and place in a greased/lined loaf tin or on a greased/lined baking tray.

Bake at 190C (170C fan forced) for 45 minutes.

Bread Machine Method:

Place all ingredients in machine. Cook on Damper setting. After the first five minutes, scrape down the sides of the mixture with a spatula to make sure it all gets mixed in properly.

Yummy Lunch!

As with all quick breads, this is best eaten on the day of baking. Use leftovers for great toast!

Happy Fooding!

Zucchini Bread (Cake?)

It’s interesting that carrot cake is always cake, but banana cake and zucchini cake are often called breads. The ingredients for all of these are very similar, but we never say carrot bread (or beetroot bread!) do we! I think they’re all really cake, because bread in my view is generally a savoury thing. But who am I to argue with the masses…….

Anyway I came across this great looking zucchini “bread” recipe a couple of weeks ago via a Food.com e-newsletter, and decided to make it for morning tea at work, last week. As I had successfully made my usual carrot cake in the bread machine the week before, I looked at the zucchini bread ingredients and thought hmmmmm they’re very similar in quantity etc. so I’ll do this one in the bread machine too.

It worked, but it was not as moist as the carrot cake, so I think this one would be better eaten straight after cooking (I made it the night before taking it to work). Also it didn’t rise quite as much and I think would have been better on the medium crust setting, which would have baked it about 8 minutes longer. It was good enough to be a “keeper” though, so I will change the baking time slightly next time.

Below is my bread machine version for 1 cake – if you want to do it the original, oven way, here is the website I got it from – which is in fact quantities for 2 loaves.

The Ultimate Zucchini Bread (CAKE!!)

In order, place the following ingredients in bread machine bowl:

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 1/4 cups grated zucchini

1 tbsp orange zest, grated

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bi-carb soda

1/2 tsp salt

Bake on bread machine’s Cake setting, with Medium crust and 750gm loaf settings.

If you’re feeling like a more savoury bread, try this lemon & dill bread, also in the bread machine. I made this again recently and we had it at work with apricot & almond cream cheese on top – a great combination with the bread flavours.

Happy Fooding!

Sunday at Sittella

On the weekend I went with a small group of other winos to Sittella Winery in the Swan Valley. The weather was pretty awful – cold and windy with the occasional sprinkling of rain – but that didn’t stop us.

Following a few wine tastings in the cellar door (I particularly liked their Sparkling Chenin and a divine wooded Chardonnay), we moved into the restaurant itself, and spent a leisurely 2.5 hours sitting on the enclosed verandah (outdoor heaters on thankfully), with delicious food and a bit more wine.

I say delicious because it absolutely was. Three of us chose the Winemaker’s Taste Plate, which is supposedly designed to share as a starter – but we each wanted one as a main dish so why not! It contained lots of tiny portions but of a variety of things, and in the end was quite filling. I didn’t eat the chorizo/salami parts as I am still not really eating meat, although there was a tiny bit of chicken liver pate and some terrine thing – only 2 bites so hard to tell exactly what it was, but I think probably chicken again. A highlight was the wasabi-dressed smoked salmon, and the port-soaked figs, both unbelievably good. As well as the bread that came with it, we shared a serving of warm breads as well and this was sooooooo warm and soft, it really was melt-in-your-mouth bread at its best.

Top notch food (at top notch prices however……no bargains here), great service, and a lovely view over the Winter-coloured vines. A lovely way to waste a few lazy hours on a Sunday.

Happy Fooding!

Tower of Taste!

I have had the most delicious baguette I’ve ever had in my life! This was at the Tower of London, in their New Armouries Cafe, which only opened a year or so ago and is much, much more gourmet than the usual fast food rubbish you get at tourist venues – but with very reasonable prices.

I’m having all sorts of trouble pasting links into their usual place on my iPad, and in fact am finding the app very un-user-friendly, but if you search for Tower of London you’ll have no trouble finding the restaurant details.

This baguette was called a Wensleydale Waldorf, and contained: Wensleydale cheese, walnuts, celery, cranberries and apple. All but the cheese, was bound into a spreadable mixture with creme fraiche. It worked brilliantly and I am taking this combination home as something to definitely try for myself. It helped that the baguette was super fresh and soft, as I am having a lot of teeth problems and can’t cope with crunchy, hard bread at the moment!

I’ve done absolutely no cooking whilst here, but I have eaten a lot! In particular I have had some wonderful cheeses – too much really!

Happy Holiday Fooding!

 

Ploughing Away….

I’ve been quiet this week as I am in England at the moment, hence 1) not doing any cooking and 2) I’m busy seeing sights and travelling around. I am, of course, doing my best to eat lots of yummy food, and am doing my usual hunt for new & better Ploughman’s Lunches!

There is something sooooo satisfying about a platter of cheeses, crusty bread, pickled onions, ham and chutney. No two places serve it in the same way, although some are better than others!

I’ve had two so far on this trip. One was at a pub in Covent Garden, part of a franchise, so you can get this particular platter all over the country. Included was ham pork quiche, a pie really, with beautifully crumbly pastry. Everything on this dish was delicious and I certainly couldn’t get through it!

The other one I had was whilst on a day out to Ightham Mote in Kent with a dear friend I was staying with. After a lovely morning wandering around the beautiful gardens and medieval house, we went for lunch at a quiet looking pub at the tiny village of Ivy Hatch, called The Plough Inn. Inside it was ultra modern, not quaint and cosy like we expected, and the service was downright poor as they were very understaffed. The food was lovely though, we both had the Ploughman’s, ate every scrap! The cheeses were so good, and the bread was nutty, fruity and fresh, a perfect accompaniment.

I’m having an amazing time and have loads of gorgeous food photos to make your mouth water. I love food.

 

Happy Holiday Fooding!

 

Restaurant Review: Fantastic Pub Fare

Last week I was in Melbourne for a few days, visiting my awesome kiddies and parents, and I had several yummy meals, including a family bbq at my mum’s (where I stay when I’m there), scrambled eggs for brekky at Geo’s Cafe (complete with champagne, because it’s always 3pm somewhere!), and lunch with my mum Kaye and good friend Linda, at Kelly’s Motor Club Hotel in Cranbourne.

I’d been to this pub once before, several years ago, and I don’t really remember what the food was like, so it can’t have been too memorable, but the pub itself is an historic icon in Cranbourne and has been owned by the same family (the Kellys, strangely enough!!!) since 1923.

I felt like a salad, so decided to have a Caesar – but there was the option of paying a bit extra for either chicken or salt & pepper calamari with it. I love calamari so thought that would be good, and was expecting really just a ‘garnish’ of a few pieces on top of my salad.

WELL, as you can see from the photo above, there was actually more calamari than salad! It is rare that you get such generous portions (the prices were very good – but then I tend to compare with Perth which is more expensive than Melbourne anyway). There was a substantial amount of salad to begin with (and the poached egg was cooked to perfection and actually still HOT, which is rare by the time it comes out to your table lol), which is not that obvious in the photo, but believe me this was a humungous meal. I couldn’t eat it all and ended up wrapping half of the calamari up in a serviette and taking it home – I had it cold in a bread roll with Greek yoghurt, for lunch the next day (yes, I am strange, but you already know this).

Kaye and Linda both had “Seniors meals”, which are smaller servings, priced accordingly, and include dessert. Kaye had the battered fish & chips, which as you can see is still a reasonable size, and Linda had porterhouse steak with mushroom sauce – and they made a gluten-free sauce for her, as she can’t eat wheat. They also brought out a special serving of gluten-free bread, without being asked for it, which Linda said it was delicious (often GF breads are pretty disgusting!).

Even though the fish and steak were smaller sized options, neither of the ladies could fit in their free dessert, which was a shame as the choice was a massive mixed berry cheesecake or a very large serving of chocolate mousse.

The menu choices were really great, so much choice that in fact it was really hard to decide what to have. Service was great and staff very friendly. We were all very impressed and I will definitely go back there.

Happy Fooding!

Dill & Lemon Loaf

Straight out of the machine

Small but delicious, this bread machine recipe is from a new cookbook that crossed my path at work recently, Brilliant Breadmaking in Your Bread Machine, by Catherine Atkinson. The quantities are for a smaller loaf than I usually make, in fact it was less than half the size, but the flavours were really good – the lemon & dill was definitely present, but not overpowering – and the texture was light and fluffy.

I made sandwiches for lunch with some of the slices, but this would make an idea nibbles platter – cut the slices in half so that they are small squares, and top with cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers and a garnish of fresh dill.

To make, just place the ingredients in the bread machine in the following order:

325 mls water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup white bread flour (or plain flour if you can’t get bread flour – if the flour is good quality it shouldn’t make a difference)

3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped finely

grated zest of 1 large lemon

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 1/4 tsp dried yeast

cracked pepper, to taste

Cook on a basic white loaf setting.

Slices of lemon fluffiness

If you don’t have a bread machine, you should invest in one as they’re awesome!!

Happy Fooding!

Pizza Perfection!

I thought I’d show you some examples of the pizzas I love to make. I use my bread machine (omg I love that thing SO much), on the pizza dough setting. Each batch makes 2 large pizzas – I divide the risen dough in half, roll it out on a floured board and place each on a pizza tray (sprayed with olive oil spray).

Next is the tomato paste spread over the bases, and then I top with whatever takes my fancy (I am very partial to prawns these days, whole cloves of garlic, and lots of vegetarian toppings – asparagus, broccoli, baby spinach, haloumi and part-cooked cubes of pumpkin).

On top I sprinkle a mixture of grated mozzarella and tasty cheeses, but I don’t like TOO much cheese – I like to taste the toppings properly, and if there’s too much cheese it just tastes of oil (not to mention being serious heart attack material, especially if you also have high-fat meats like salami, on the pizza). Fresh basil leaves are awesome sprinkled on top too 🙂

The oven must be hot, as the pizza needs to cook quickly and be hot enough for the dough to puff up and rise properly – I usually do 10 minutes at 220C and then turn the trays around and also switch them over from top to bottom, to ensure even cooking. With my current oven I do have to be very careful not to burn them though.

Making 2 in one batch is good as you can make one with meat and one without, hence suiting all eating styles. Leftovers are good for lunch (or cold, first thing in the morning, if you need a post-booze-carbs-hit….).

Happy Fooding!