February Delicious 2011

So I know I complained about how lame I thought the Dec/Jan Delicious was... and I totally standby my comments.  However, that doesn't mean that I was sad when G was gifted a subscription for this year.  In reality all it means is that he gets to tear open the plastic packaging and look through the mag first!  To my mind even a cursory flip counts as a "look" and after that it's fair game.

The February cover looks great.  So summery.  But it looks like the recipe is so much work.

That's right - prawn party pies in scallop shells.  Are you serious???

Anyway, there are other recipes that I do want to make (or G wants me to make) - though the list is dessert heavy so I probably won't get through it all!

The list:

• orange and yoghurt pancakes
• catalan fig tapas (savoury, served with jamon and manchego cheese)
• soup saint-sulpice (not sure how I feel about a creamy cold soup)
• pumpkin and sage crepe ravioli
• real strawberry jelly (when the strawberries are affordable enough for me to stuff this up as it will be my first use of gelatine)
• mango framingtons (assuming I want to buy a friand tin, or change the recipe to make it cupcake tin friendly)
• tim tam tarts
• french style fruit tart
• lemon myrtle roast chicken
• macadamia crusted fish
• chicken and pumpkin salad
• frozen lamingtons (if I decide to buy an ice cream machine, or can be bothered babysitting the mixture and rebeating every 2 hours at least 3 times)
• milo ice cream slice

So many desserts...

Smoked salmon pasta salad

While I was searching through Delicious 2010 I found a recipe for Smoked Salmon pasta that I though was worth a try!

At the same time I also gave the Atlantic smoked salmon for cooking (not its official name) a go - this is a pack of smoked salmon in similar sized pieces, definitely not sliced evenly though.  It is a fair bit cheaper than regular smoked salmon, and when you want to tear it up to cook it seems sensible to buy the cheaper, pre-torn smoked salmon.

Basically I cooked some spagetti and tossed it through rocket, smoked salmon, lemon, sour cream, capers and seasoning.  Tasted pretty good and I only found one tiny little bone in the smoked salmon.

No longer a hoarder

In my younger days I kept everything - all ticket stubs, receipts, photos of everything (when you needed to actually develop film).  I hung onto everything long past its use-by-date.  Now I have changed.  I get rid of things ruthlessly.  Prior to my most recent move I cleared out any clothes that no longer fit right, that I couldn't remember wearing, or I would never wear again.  I culled my cookbook collection, my fiction, CDs (who uses those anyway) and G was good enough to get rid of many of his 'participation' trophys.

So after receiving what I then thought was my final Delicious (Dec/Jan), prior to G being gifted a subscription for 2011, I had to figure out what I was going to do with all those magazines.  I have seen piles at op shops for $1ea, or even less if they are really old.  But I wanted to keep some of the recipes, and a couple of the stories (stories about foreign cities I intend to visit this year mainly).  So rather than generously sharing them with other people who can't afford the subscription I chose to tear my copies apart.

I started by going through this blog - where I generally don't put recipes because I don't understand the laws of copyright for magazine recipes - but is nonetheless a good record of recipes that worked for me (most of the recipes that I documented here worked, but not all worked for me).

So after tearing my copies of Delcious 2010 apart, G also went through them because he does have slightly different taste than me (chocolate bread cake for example).  Then I purchased a thin journal - because I didn't tear out that many recipes, and I started to stick the recipes down, mostly with copies of the pictures I took - far more realistic than the magazine pictures in some instances - and with some of my notes about what to do with leftovers, herbs to use instead and other useful tips that correlate with my tastes.

Eggplant, fusilli and raw tomato salad

This was a simple meal, and pretty delicious - it all comes down to good quality ingredients.

We used some really creamy and delicious full fat ricotta, as specifed by the recipe.  Mixed together with some raw tomatoes and grilled eggplant, and I freestyled on the dressing - a little parsley pesto and some extra olive oil to thin it out.

Doesn't that combination of tomatoes and parsley positively make your mouth water?

Rosette cookies

After purchasing the moulds, and the sugar thermometer a long time ago, I finally got around to making the rosette cookies.

I think I am a little scared of deep frying - I assume that I will end up with oily, sodden food and an oily kitchen.  What I need to remember is that when you have the oil hot enough the mixture will be sealed quickly and just cook without soaking up extra oil.  Also, good drainage afterwards is important, though these didn't give off much oil.

Somewhat surprisingly the first one worked - contrary to the general rule that the first thing, often a pancake, fails.

The flower mould seemed to work just fine, and each time I put the mould into the oil it bubbled beautifully.

 

Then I tried to use the circle mould, which did not work as well. 

I dipped the mould into the batter and it cooked almost straight away, and peeled straight off.

I still ended up with a pile of rosette cookies, and had a great time making them.  The kitchen didn't end up that messy either!

Want to make your own?  Recipe can be found here, and you will need the moulds and a sugar thermometer.

Asparagus, Avacado and Red Pepper salad

Super simple - a salad of roasted red peppers, blanched asparagus and avacado.  The dressing was nothing special - just some oil, vinegar and seasoning.

Topped with crunchy fried onion coated chicken

Sometimes the simple meals are the best. 

Summer on a plate

For what feels like forever, but in reality probably has only been a week, it has been raining and humid in Melbourne.  It really feels like the wet season in Singapore, or Indonesia, or even worse.  It has definitely been worse than the humidity of an early Japanese summer, which I lived through in 2008.

Today the sun is shining, and the stone fruit at the market looked delicious (and was reasonably priced) so I couldn't resist buying some summer on a plate.

The plate is a beautiful coral colour which makes the fruit look even more delicious.