Roasted red onions, Maggie Beer style

Those of you who live in Melbourne may be familiar with "the mini cookbook collection" that came with the Herald Sun in 2010 - perhaps it was also released in other cities in Australia too.

There were 9 books, and a little case for them - I managed to collect 8 of the books (missed the Stephanie Alexander one).   Each book is a small collection of recipes that truly reflect each chef.

The first recipe I made from this collection was Maggie's whole roasted red onions. 

These were simply wonderful - onions tossed with seasoning, roasted and then topped with mozzarella and bread!

Del Posto's Asparagus and Fried Egg Salad

G likes his fried egg sunny side up and very runny - I do not!  But it certainly looks more attractive perched on top of the salad rather than my egg that has been flipped and cooked through.

I threw in some potatoes (to make this more of a substantial meal) and left out the fennel (because I don't really like it) and served this up for dinner.

Crispy skinned salmon

The salmon was absolutely delicious - super crispy skin and just a little rare in the centre, topped with a super yum sauce over the noodles and vegetables!

The dressing for 4 serves:
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tbs balsamoc vinegar
2 tbs caster sugar
1/4 cup lime juice
2 finely chopped chillis

Shake together until the sugar dissolves.

It looks a lot like Bill's did and you know how I love it when my recipes look like the recipes do in the book.

Salades

I bought a lovely cookbook all about salad - Salades by Damien Pignolet.

Those who know me, know I love salad.  I believe that salad can be served with practically every meal at any time of the day.  I was particularly excited to see a book dedicated to salads with a similar philosophy - the book is divided into salads of different categories.

This book is the perfect book to buy at the start of summer - there will undoubtedly be some cool days when you will want a warm salad, although the winter salads may not get a look in over the next few months.

A minor criticism - there aren't enough pictures.  I like at least one picture per recipe, preferably more if there is a tricky technique involved, but in this book not all the salads are pictured.  Those that have been photographed look positively mouthwatering...

December Delicious

A bit of a let down really.   This issue contained a lot of different recipes to try on Christmas Day - assuming you have a family that is keen to try new things.

However, I don't want to eat Christmas lunch multiple times in the lead up to Christmas - nor do I host Christmas, so I won't have any leftovers to make the recipes aimed at that.

All in all, disappointing issue, beautiful cover.

G was given a subscription to Delicious for 2011 as a Christmas gift - he has told me that I can use it, as long as he gets to open the package!

A burger?

Sometimes I get real cravings for a burger and chips.   When G and I lived in Canberra we would go to Edgar's Inn in Ainslie and I would get a steak sandwich and ask them not to put on the top piece of bread (and I would give my bacon to G) because if I ate both pieces of bread I would get too full to eat the delicious, salty chips - an essential part of the burger experience!

The other night I wanted a burger and chips but didn't have bread - so instead we made big chips and used them to serve the burger on - home made lamb patties, caramelised onion, cheese and salad.

Of course, with a smear of good quality tomato sauce on the side of the plate!

Congratulations cupcakes

I love how simple things can make cakes look more complicated.  I took some simple vanilla cupcakes iced with chocolate ganache to work, to celebrate a milestone.  All I did was dye some fondant greeny blue, rolled it out and cut out the letters to spell "Congratulations"

That's just some icing sugar underneath to stop it from sticking to the bench, and you can see the 2 jars of the gel food colouring I used.

I let the letters dry and dropped them on top of the ganache.  Result - compliments on how much trouble I must have gone to!