Christmas 'foodie' gifts

This Christmas G and I were given a variety of 'foodie' presents:

To go with the Weber Q 200 (BBQ) we received a vegie plate and a cover - for info about the Weber Q barbeques.

To go with the KitchenAid stand mixer we received a spare bowl (3 litre capacity), a cover for the machine and lids for the bowls.

On the cookbook front: Fairy Cakes, published by Hamlyn; Masterchef Australia cookbook vol 1; Australian Women's Weekly Simply Seafood; Australian Women's Weekly Biscuits, Brownies and Biscotti; Australian Gourmet Traveller Annual Cookbook and a copy of the UK Women's Weekly cookery special. We also were given a subscription to Delicious magazine (Delicious is the magazine where Valli Little, Faking It, is the food editor - click here to have a look at the subscription)

On the 'miscellaneous' front we received tongs, choc coated coffee beans (a pack each to avoid arguments) and some chocolate chai tea which we will taste test tonight!

Received - M Cups

You may recall that I have previously said I loved the m-cups - Matryoshka measuring cups.

Lucky me - I was given them for Christmas by my friend X and his gf. 

Chicken meatball tomato soup

The name for the recipe makes it sound far more complicated than it really is.  You make the 'meatballs' by squeezing sausage meat into meatballs. 

The receipe then calls for a multitude of saucepans - to cook the soup, to cook the meatballs and to cook the pasta.  I don't like to use that many pots and pans unless the recipe is crazily complicated so I didn't.  (It's not even that I do the washing; when I cook, G washes).

So I did the tomato soup - using a combination of passata and fresh tomatoes as we didn't have any canned tomatoes.  I cooked the pasta in the soup, and fried the meatballs in a pan, before serving them on top of the soup. 

Lesson - add more liquid to the soup than is called for in the recipe if you are going to cook the pasta in it - the pasta really soaks up the liquid!

My Cupacake

Do you have the problem of taking a cupcake to work (or school) and opening up your bag to find the cupcake squished?  The solution is Cupacake. 

I originally bought one for my friend K who is a queen cupcake baker - an appropriate birthday present.  Then I was jealous, so I bought one each for G and I.

Surprisingly, although they are an American product, the cupacake does not fit a giant cupcake and is useful for the size (regular) that I tend to make!

Stuffed field mushrooms with pesto

I accidentally bought green olive tapenade, rather than basil pesto.  Other than that, the only modification was that I used panko breadcrumbs (japanese) rather than the sourdough ones (a function of what was available in the pantry).  I did add the chopped up mushroom stems into the filling; my philosophy is the more mushrooms the better!

It was super easy to make - the filling is entirely done in the food processor, so if you don't have one then doing it by hand would be time consuming.  Then you just pile it in to the mushrooms and bake the mushrooms in a pan with some cherry tomatoes.  I ended up baking the mushrooms for a little longer than the recipe calls for (8 - 10 minutes, I gave them 12 minutes). 

Also, mine did not look anywhere near as pretty as the spread in Faking It, but tasted pretty good.

One lesson I learned from this one - you can't put a regular serve on a plate and make it look good - I added another mushroom (the recipe calls for 2 per person as a main) once I had taken the photo so I could get a somewhat decent photo for the blog!

The new beef stroganoff

I have never really enjoyed beef stroganoff, but I love mushrooms so I thought the recipe in Faking It would be worth a try.  It was fantastic, the peppery beef was great, and the mushroom sauce was amazing. 

My modifications: I used a collection of mushrooms (oysters, shitake and buttons, not just swiss brown) and use more than the recipe called for (did I mention that I love mushrooms???). I also used porcini fettucine, not plain egg noodles.  Finally, I used some of the liquid from rehydrating the shitake mushrooms in place of some of the beef stock. 

The recipe was pretty simple to follow, and I did follow it almost exactly. I would definitely make this again - am keen to make the mushroom sauce part for some pasta tonight.

Currently craving: Silpat

Everytime I watch Martha (Stewart) bake biscuits she always has her trays lined with a silpat. Click here to see the silpat

It's basically a baking sheet liner, made out of silicone and fibreglass.  It's super easy to use (just lay it on your baking sheet), fine for high temperatures (up to 250 degrees C), easy to clean (wipe with a damp sponge, NEVER use a brush or scraper) and is good for up to 3000 uses.

I really want one... and I have found an Australian stockist! Australian stockist of Silpat - now I just have to go home and measure my baking sheets.