final installment of a simple life

What do you do when your uncle buys you a 1.5kg bag of Craisins for Christmas?
My solution, is adapting Jamie Oliver's 'rosemary rasin' bread.
refer to this recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/rosemary-and-raisin-bread-recipe/index.html




The only problem/ concern I had was the cook time, so I just let it cool completely in the oven to do a little extra passive cooking.

My favourite combo for this was served with Saint Agur french cheese (not cheap at $90+ a kg).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Agur_Blue

the simple things in life part 2

Continuing on my Alain Ducasse adventure comes 'light pesto' pasta.
This is an astonishingly simple recipe, it takes no time at all.
All you need is 4 peeled cloves of garlic, 20g of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, 30g of pine nuts, 2 bunches of basil, 6 tbsp of water, 6 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
Cut the garlic cloves in half and remove the little green sprouty bit from the centre.

• Place 3 of the cloves (6 halves) into boiling water for 2 minutes.
• Put the remaining fresh garlic clove along with the blanched cloves, pine nuts, Parmesan and basil (I would recommend tearing the basil into pieces before bashing) into a mortar and pestle and combine to a traditional pesto consistency. (I cheated a little, I wasn't achieving the required consistency and so I abandoned the pestle and mortar in favour of my handy Cuisinart moulie).

• Add the water and olive oil, continuing to bash or blitz, as is your preference.
• season with salt and pepper, then put in a jar in the fridge to keep the flavours fresh. If you leave it on the bench the basil can loose it's 'ozone' (thanks Rick) freshness.

Meanwhile, put a pot of water on to boil, once boiling add plenty of salt then the pasta of choice (Alain uses pappardelle, but fettuccine or whatever) cooking according to the packet instructions.
While the pasta is boiling, toast 40g of pine nuts and then place on paper towel to cool.
Grate 20g of fresh Parmesan and set aside.
Drain the pasta and then put in in a large fry pan over medium heat and add a couple tbsp of the pest along with the extra Parmesan and pine nuts to heat the pesto through.
That's it, serve in the pan or on a platter.
yummo.

I served this pasta with a little salad of home grown mignonette lettuce, home grown cucumbers, and a little red onion, dressed with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a splash of olive oil.

the simple things in life

After Christmas and days of over indulgence, and more left overs than you can poke a stick at I'm yearning for some simple pleasures.

Thus we welcome Alain Ducasse, and his amazing cookbook 'Nature. Simple, Healthy and Good'.
From this philosophy I have made a Caprese salad from my home grown tomatoes, a mixture of heirlooms and cherry toms, a ball of buffalo mozzarella, basil from the garden and a balsamic glaze, with the obligatory swirl of extra virgin olive oil.
My tip for a sensational Caprese is texture.

This is the first of my heirlooms to ripen, not the prettiest, but she sure is tasty.

 

 

This is heirloom number 2.

Don't just dice your tomatoes into indenticate cubes, halve your cherry toms and chunky slice your larger toms.
This is a celebration of seasonal produce, home grown veggies and the scent of summer in the air.
perhaps the other important piece of advice, which should go without saying is seasoning.
Use salt and pepper. Salt and tomatoes are like potatoes and duck fat, an unbeatable combination.

Enjoy, because I certainly will.

LOW FAT, GUILT FREE TIRAMISU

INGREDIENTS:
1 & and, 1/2 cups of strong black coffee (I usually add a few tbsps of hot choc powder to the coffee)
2 tbsp of Frangelico
2 egg whites
1 cup of low fat (light/ diet/ reduced fat) custard
350g low-fat ricotta cheese
1/4 cup of icing sugar, sieved
250g savoiardi/ sponge finger biscuits
garnish with grated chocolate or 2 tbsp of cocoa powder

Questo è Come Noi Lo Facciamo (this is how we do it)....

1. Combine the coffee and Frangelico (+ hot choc mix) and set aside to cool.
2. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks using an electric beater.
3. In a separate bowl beat together the custard, icing sugar and ricotta until smooth and creamy.
4. Fold the egg whites into the custard mixture, be careful not to knock all the air out of the eggs, you want to keep the mixture light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the tiramisu, use a round or rectangle dish about 6cm deep and 18cm square or 18ch diameter.
6. My method is to place half the biscuits on the base of the dish and ladle over half of the coffee mixture 
7. Follow by pouring over half of the ricotta mixture.
8. Repeat the process, laying down the biscuits, ladle over the coffee and smooth over the remaining ricotta mixture.
9. Finish off the tiramisu by grating over some white or milk chocolate (just a smidgen, this is meant to be low fat) or cocoa powder.

Lei può mangiarlo tutto, well, I definitely could :)

SICHUAN PORK RIBS WITH EGGPLANT, GINGER AND BLACK VINEGAR

INGREDIENTS:

100 ml olive oil
1 brown onion, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 eggplants, sliced into 2cm-thick disks
6 slices of pork belly, 2cm thick
1 daikon, peeled and sliced, 2cm thick (you know what: when you slow cook daikon, esp with pork, it goes all sweet and weirdly delicious, give it a go, smells a bit odd, but tasty)
6cm piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2tsp of ginger powder
1/2 tsp five-spice powder
2 tbsp pepper
3 small chillies, split
3 tbsp black vinegar
200ml oyster sauce
2 tbsp raw sugar
100ml light soy sauce'
250 ml chinese cooking wine (xiao xing)
200 ml water

HOW DO YOU MAKE THIS DELICIOUSNESS A REALITY?..

1. preheat the oven to 160 fan-forced
2. use a big, wide (shallow) pot or la chausseur (with a lid) and heat the olive oil over high heat and fry the onion, garlic stir frying for 1 minute, or until aromatic.
3. add the egglant and stir fry for 2 mins (I actually prefer, to cut the eggplant into 2cm sticks rather than rounds, but as always recipes are guides, not gospel).
4. add the pork, daikon, dried spices and all the other ingredients and bring to a simmer
5. place the lid on the pot and out in the oven for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. and the ribs will be amazingly fall-aparty and tender.
6. serve with steamed rice.

Recipe thanks to Karen Martini.