LMP

Deliciously evil.... mmm.: lemon meringue pies .

Apprentice pastry chef. Amateur blogger.: From cakes to pastry.

Apprentice pastry chef. Amateur blogger.: From cakes to pastry.: We changed topics and finished off cakes with a bang. Now onto pastry and starting with the basics. Prepare and produce pastries 101: Shor...

15 steps to a more successful Easter.

Not sure if everyone remembers my hot cross buns or should I say hot cross rock cakes from last year...

But this year I had much more success... yes a little early but with all these delicious smells in bakery's I couldn't help myself. I used a different recipe and they turned out 100 times better.

And don't they look delicious and fluffy?

The recipe I used was based on one from taste.com.au but changed it slightly as not sure if you know but the one thing I HATE is sultanas... so I used craisins instead which did make the buns not as sweet and less spicy but my alterations have fixed this.

Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

1 1/2 cups of warm (body temp) milk

2 tsp (7g) dried yeast

1/4 cup caster sugar (plus extra one tbs of caster sugar)

60g melted butter

1 egg, slightly beaten

4 1/2 cups of strong bakers flour (plus extra for kneading)

1 tsp salt

4 tsp mixed spice

1 cup of dried cranberries

1/3 cup cold water

1/2 cup apricot jam

1. Combine milk, yeast and the one tbs of caster sugar in a bowl and then set the bowl in another bowl which is filled with warm water (hotter then the milk). This helps active the yeast.
2. Put flour (only 4 cups), salt, mixed spice and sugar in a bowl and add your dried cranberries. Stir to combine.
3. Once the yeast has started to bubbly or change appearance in the milk add the melted butter (not piping hot) and egg and whisk to combine. 
4. Make a well in your flour mixture and pour in milk mixture stirring to combine.
5. Bring together with your hands and turn out onto a dusted surface and knead for 10-15min.
6. Keep warm for 1 hour in a floured bowl covered with a tea towel. Using the same method as in step 1 by placing the bowl with the dough in it in another bowl with warm water in it.
7. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius and grease a 23cm cake tin.
8. Punch dough down and knead for 2-3 min.
9. Divide into 16 pieces and shape into balls.
10. Arrange dough in the cake tin side by side and then set aside for half an hour to rise again.
11. Mix the 1/2 cup of flour and water together to form a paste and pipe down the centre of each row and back the other way to make crosses on each bun.
12. Bake in the oven for 10min then reduce the heat to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for a further 20min. The buns will sound hollow when they are done.
13. Turn out on a cooling rack.
14. Place jam in a saucepan until it melts (approx. 2min). Strain and brush over hot buns.
15. Serve warm with butter or toasted.

Serves 16

Quick heads up.

I have been a busy girl recently with college and not had huge amounts of time to cook through my bookshelf. More cooking through my text books for college instead. This isn't to say I have totally neglected being a bookshelf cook at all, it means I have chosen a few recipes from Jamie's 30min meals book which has taken me no time at all since I have bailed on the desserts and extra sides some of the time. One of my favourite which seriously (no joke) took no time at all was the 'Pregnant Jool's favourite pasta' a sausage ragu. It tastes like it had been stewing for hours but really only cooking for maybe 20min.

You start off by blending in your magi-mix or in my case two batching in osca, spring onions, a carrot, a stick of celery, sausages (any you like), fennel seeds, chilli's (I used dried chilli flakes) and dried oregano until its a mushy mess. Throw it in a large frying pan on high heat with some olive oil and break up while cooking.

Meanwhile add your (penne) pasta to some boiling salted water. Crush garlic cloves into the sausage mixture and add some balsamic vinegar (this is to add sweetness to the dish which cannot be achieved in the short cooking time) and tinned tomatoes, bring to a simmer.

Your pasta should be cooked by now and as always save some cooking water before you drain the pasta. Add your pasta to your sausage ragu. Mix through and add a little of the cooking water if needed. Stir some fresh basil through and serve with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Jamie serves this pasta dish with a crunchy chicory and watercress salad and little frangipane tarts for dessert. I only cooked the pasta dish this time as we had a green salad with mum's dressing on top.

Can't beat that dressing with any!!

AA: Trick of the hand.

Apprentice chef (to be). Amateur blogger.: Trick of the hand.: "Bit late on my post about College last week but I've been a busy bee with to be honest, goodness knows what. The job search is still happeni..."

Apprentice chef (to be). Amateur blogger.: Buttery goodness.

Apprentice chef (to be). Amateur blogger.: Buttery goodness.: "Week 3 at college was delicious. The morning started out by collecting our goodies on a large gastronome for boiled rice, Tomato C..."

Check it out! New blog.

Apprentice chef. Amateur blogger.

Not sure if my average reader knows but I am no longer '21 with no direction'. I have started cooking school and I guess will not only be a Bookshelf Cook as my collection is still overflowing but also an apprentice chef. Looking for a job this week so just school at the moment.

Its all very exciting. Check out my first day on my new blog;

Apprentice chef. Amateur blogger.

Vancouver love 2

In Vancouver again and not long to go before I head home to start cooking school (eeek how exciting!). Sad to go as I've made new friends, seen old friends and now have to say good bye again.

Just left Whistler for the 2nd and last time for the trip and much of that was zog's & maccas at early hours of the morning. So I thought I'd post a few pictures of Van city's food which is where we are now.

We've found it hard to find good lunch and breakfast places & thought we'd go for a few suggestions that we're made to us; one from the trusty lonely planet book and the other from Fizzy-pops.

Templeton on Grandville street is a small diner where they serve vegan organic foods. Each booth has it's own mini jukebox and it's all set out like it's an old school diner. Brunch was great! Breakfast bean burrito with Rosemary potatoes... So full after! Thankyou lonely planet.

Fizzy-pops suggestion was Medina cafe on Beatie street. They serve lavender coffee and waffles with raspberry caramel. As we were there for brunch and missed their breakfast menu I had the les mergez which was home made flat bread with a paprika sausage, roast eggplant, haloumi cheese with fresh salsa. Lip smacking yum :) of course we had a waffle with chocolate lavender sauce but that didn't last long enough for a photo.

I have been cooking too not just living in cafe's and diners on this trip. Last night the girls and I cooked two Thai curries for our family dinner party of six. Green curry chicken and a vegetarian red curry AND had the left overs for dinner tonight :) curry always tastes better the next day.

Cannot wait to go to Books to Cooks again and tip my credit card and hand luggage over the edge!! Will keep you up to date on my purchases.

NY

I'm in NY at the moment and it's freezing! Just had a snow storm last night which was so much fun, I've never seen snow fall like that. It was crazy!

It is perfect weather to duck into cafe's and have hot tea and great food. (don't worry trusty followers... I have also done the traditional diner but was too hungry and impatient to wait and take a pic!)

Or cupcakes and cosmopolitan's are also a good way of keeping warm too! :)

Starstruck. Completely.

Me with Donna Hay at MasterChef Live.

My blog. My mission. My rules.

Thats right faithful readers. Since this is my blog I will be re-writing my rules of my 'book of the year'. I am cutting, dismissing, skipping, even tearing out the page on porridge. I'm not Julie... I'm Danielle and I am not interested in cooking four types of porridge. This is my version of aspic & I'm manning up and putting my foot down. I HATE porridge.

I also don't like baked apples or sultanas but alas I am not completely destroying my cook book. I will make the baked apples with sultanas. I feel one for one is a good motto!

And one more thing... 10 min until the last day of 2010 and I still have over 50 recipes to cook! So here is the deal... I can take as long as I like :) plus i'm holiday-ing soon and will be eating my way through New York, Whistler and Vancouver!

Even after my Christmas belly I can still think of food. And they say it is the way to a man's stomach... What's my excuse?

I will try and post pics of lovely and probably some hideous foods on here but need to also find a local maccas while I'm away to use free wifi.

A belated Merry Christmas to my readers where ever you are out there, I hope Santa was kind and you all ate your selves silly during the silly season!

Happy New year everyone!

Lots of love x

The best thing about Summer: Tomatoes.

Woke up and had breakie which was greek yoghurt, oats, honey and strawberries. No this is not a diet breakfast as I had full fat delicious creamy greek yoghurt :) My diet lasted about 2 weeks which I think is pretty good for me. I did loose a little weight but over the past couple of weeks I've eaten and drank my fair share at Christmas events that its all back on... hopefully not all but I'm too scared to attempt any scales unless their kitchen scales. 

I'm a bit of a Nigel no friends today. Everyone is busy so I got out my trusty friend the mix master and baked a cake. I chose a Karen Martini recipe from her new book 'Feasting'. I have to say that this book would probably be one of my favourites at the moment. I chose the coconut butter cake with passionfruit icing out of the 'High Tea' chapter. I want to cook everything out of this book and have platters and platters of food! Everything looks so delicious. 


I cannot wait to move out of home purely to have dinner parties and weekend feasts! note: house (haha I'm dreaming! More like studio apartment) must have a good outdoor area for entertaining :) If its got a good oven and a working stove thats a start.


Probably fish and chips at the beach tonight with the bf. Yay Nigel has at least one friend.


You want to know something extra exciting? I am going to MasterchefLive tomorrow! Wahooo! Thanks Clo :) I am pumped! don't really know what to expect but still soooo excited! 

Weekend fail.

Failed epically over the weekend. Started really well on Saturday and made Mari and I breakie beans which were delish and then packed us tuna tabbouleh salad for the beach. Dinner came and I had every sort of deep fried finger food available!

Wedges, samosas, spring rolls, fried fish, hot chips... And a few too many champagnes!

Sunday morning and breakfast included bacon, corn fritters and hashbrowns.

I have started again with a positive attitude as I felt really good on sat morning. Today is a brand new day to start again & why not? :)

Had my cereal for breakie and now eating a tuna, bean and potato salad (yum). Chilli con carne for dinner.

Fell off the band wagon.

Yes 2 days gone and I've already fallen guiltily into taco's and dessert.

That was last night, today is a new day and I am feeling motivated again! I had my delicious cereal with dried cranberries for breakie and for lunch I had a celery, dill & tuna sandwich. I went by all the measurements and there was seriously soooo much of the filling. I am full and sufficed but yes still thinking of dinner.

Ok maybe having a slight sugar craving but it's breast cancer cupcake day today so I am surrounded my sugar but I resisted in the cupcakes and just donated instead!

Day three and fingers crossed I can hold out this afternoon before breaking into my sugar stash in my draw.

Wish me luck!

New found appreciation

Day two on the 21 DWD. Just had breakfast and YUM! I was very hesitant about the cereal mix your meant to make as it has dried cranberries in it. Just to note I dislike dried fruit ALOT but I was pleasantly surprised this morning.

I poured my serving out into a bowl and it looked way to many craisans so I picked a few out and put them back into the jar. After the first mouthful I had my hand in the jar fishing them back out!

So far so good :)

Everything crossed!

I have to apologise to my huge fan base that Mr Oliver will be MIA for the next 21 days... well I hope I can last that long. I have recently put on a few unwanted kilo's and since its summer here in Sunny Sydney (Ok well it’s been rainy and stormy the past few days but I am still motivated to look good in swimmers) I am doing the AWW 21 Day Wonder Diet. 

I was going to give the Dukan Diet ago but the book was $29.95 in Borders and to be honest the novel kind of scared me with all its stages. I love reading don’t get me wrong but reading about foods you can't eat gets me down in the dumps. All I do is think about the foods I want to eat which are big no no's and 2 hours into that sort of diet I lapse & gorge myself on melted cheese, breads thick with salty butter and bowls and bowls of pasta. So when I walked over to the AWW book it caught my eye straight away. I loved the look of the pictures and food, loved the look of how the diet was planned out and LOVED that they based the diet on foods you can eat and don’t go heavy on foods you can't. 


They give you lots of options and snack of foods which ARE allowed. This looks like my kind of diet book. The give you a different breakfast, lunch and dinner for the 21 days...love the recipes. Plus it was only $12.95 so I saved money too and probably my boyfriend’s sanity in the process. 


I tried the French Women don’t get Fat book, read half way through and the croissant and chocolate soufflé caught my eyes but I know my self all too well and it is all portion size and that is my weakness. 2nd's! Oh how I love 2nds of everything. Plus one of the soups in the book I made and it left me so hungry I gave in and ate like a pig for dinner. This undid all the good work I had done. Plus it made me pee constantly and feel weak.


So here I am, Day 1 of my 21 day Wonder Diet. 6 hours in and going strong. I fell motivated, excited and already have the next few meals planned out. I did have my own breakfast today as I have yet to go to the shops. Plus this Diet kind of fits my blog... it is a book on my bookshelf and that’s what I do; Bookshelf Cook.


You can go through the book from day 1 to day 21 but I picked a day in the middle somewhere and am doing that today. Its a little hard when I’ve began mid week and we have some things in the cupboard and not other things. So I will try and go through them in order but they say you don’t have to as long as you stick to their lunch and dinner on the same day and your fine to have their cereal mix everyday if you are lazy like me and can't get out of bed every morning to make a full breakfast of corn fritters etc. I might save those days for the weekend.


Sesame Stir-Fry for dinner. Looking forward to it :)


I also have to make my sandwich filling tonight for tomorrow and mix up my cereal mix. There are dried cranberries in it which I am not sure about but am going to give it a go as I know they are very good for you.


Fingers, arms, toes and legs are crossed that I stick to this for 21 the days.

A day with my ladies.

I'm a bit late in posting this but couldn't help myself and had to. Last Tuesday was Melbourne Cup; The race that stops the nation. I took the day off from work as naturally my options weighed each other out. A glass of warm white wine watching the race for 15min on a tiny TV in a under-airconditioned or a day out with my girls eating and drinking and watching the race. Hmmm I took the later option for very good reasons I think we can all agree on.

My ladies and I went to one of the local pubs who were putting on an event where you got a three course meal, dressed to impress, placed a bet and watched the races. I wore a huge white flower in my hair and bet on the horse that had the highest amount to win per $ in place. Some pay think its silly but to be honest I had about 10 people telling me who to choose so I decided to go with how old I was and I guess I lost. Maybe I should have a next birthday, maybe number 22 will be lucky next year.

Our meals for the day were a seafood plate for entree which consisted of smoked salmon, Balmain bug, prawns with aioli and bloody mary oysters. For main it was a choice between chicken wrapped in bacon with a mushroom and cream sauce with mash potatoes or beef fillet with beef cheek ravioli, truffle oil mash and broccoli. I tried both but had the chicken, yum. For dessert there was chocolate mouse in between slices of chocolate mud cake in a box of tempered chocolate or lemon tart with vanilla ice cream. The chocolate was very very rich, maybe a little too rich after a entrée, main and lots of sparkling wine. I loved the tart though, still am craving the delicious taste of it. Mmmm maybe I'll make one this arvo.

The night ended with plenty of water and panadol. Overall the day was delicious and I had a lovely day with my ladies. Already thinking of where to go next year.

Not a first timer.

Christmas Count down: 2 months.


Tonight was Recipe #62: Mini Shell Pasta with a Creamy Smoked Bacon & Pea Sauce. I think a very fitting dish since its nearly Christmas and it makes a great left over dish. 


I do have to admit this was not the first time I have made this pasta dish. I love it! The first time I made it was at the beginning of this year with Christmas ham left overs instead of bacon. A very versatile dish. Leave out the parmesan for a lighter dinner which suited greedy me tonight or keep it in for a heavier dinner when you haven't finished of the weekends leftovers for afternoon tea.


So here it is. Very simple and scrumptious.
I finely sliced the bacon and chopped the fresh mint. Add a little olive oil because the bacon was not very fatty and fried it until golden and crispy. My pasta water was boiling and the pasta was added while the bacon was frying and spitting and popping all over mums kitchen top. I used bow-ties instead of little shells as we had them already at home. Next I added a large handful of peas, a dash of light cream (you are meant to use creme fraiche but all we had was light cream which worked well and made me feel like my bum might stay the same size tonight and not enlarge itself after eating) and some of the mint. Cooked the peas for a couple of min, drained the pasta, added the cream to the peas, added the pasta to the pea and bacon sauce reserving some of the cooking water and squeezed in half a lemon. Served it with a sprinkle of parmesan and dug in. 


Mmmm YUM! 
Mum had seconds :)

Quick, Easy and Tasty...

What more can you ask for?


Recipe #61: Broccoli and Pesto Tagliatelle

First things first, I hate jared pesto and when I saw that this recipe asked for jared pesto I immediately turned my nose up and thought Ew!! but knew I had to give it a go. Now a few weeks ago my friend Katie had the girls over for dinner and a movie and called me to tell me what she wanted to cook for dinner and if it sounded ok, it sounded delicious apart from the pesto she mentioned that she was not going to make from scratch but buy jared. I instantly held my tongue well aware it gets me in trouble at the best of times and said it still sounded delicious even with my silent fears of jared pesto ringing in my head. But as I helped her cook the dinner I sampled the jared pesto and there must have been a revolution in jared pesto world since the last time I tried it because this one was delicious. I instantly took a shine to this jared pesto and would say its the only one to buy. EVER. Its doesn't tastes the same as home made as it lacks the potent punch home made pesto has but with a but of extra cheese, garlic butter and S&P it was so yummy it has made an appearance at home a couple of weeks later. I have named it 'Katie's Pasta'.


But on to the dish I cooked the other night; Broccoli and Pesto Tagliatelle. It was yum but I do prefer Katie's Pasta... I think I over cooked the pasta slightly and under cooked the potatoes. I didn't have a choice though... either cooked pasta and slightly underdone potatoes or cooked potatoes and mushy pasta. I couldn't win.

So to start with Jamie asks you to cut the florets off your broccoli then slice the stalk in half (discarding the  very end bit) and finely slice. I used two small bits of broccoli but I think one would have been plenty like he says but I got greedy as usual and slice your potato using a speed peeler. The pasta (I used spaghetti as we didn't have tagliatelle at home) goes into salted boiling water with the sliced broccoli stalks. 2min before the pasta is done you are meant to add the broccoli florets and the shaved potato and cook for 2 min. Drain it all, reserving some of the cooking water and return everything to the pan. Stir through the pesto and halved baby cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes are my little touch as I know they go well with this jared pesto. Add a little extra parmesan cheese, a good amount of seasoning of S&P and a slosh of the reserved pasta water if it looks to dry. 

We served this with fresh sourdough bread smothered in butter. Mmm I love real salty butter :)

Converted.

You know when somebody finds out that there is anchovies in the dish you can see their noses turn up? well I used to be one of those people. I was even worse. When I read a recipe and saw anchovies in it I would quickly turn the page and never read the recipe again and pretty much skip over the page when I flicked through the book. Hmmm how things can change with a little trust. 


I was watching an episode of 'The Naked Chef' and Jamie mentions anchovies and how he never really liked them but now does. How you have to try them in dishes even if just a small bit the first time and that they are not fishy (like they smell...ew). So that is exactly what I did. I tried them, didn't dodge on them and you know what. I loved it. It gave the dish a subtle flavour with a different kind of salty-ness. Delicious!

I cooked them in one of Jamie's new recipes in his new book. I know I should be sticking to the book I chose to cook all the way through but I just couldn't help my self when I just walked... yes, I say just walked its because thats all I went to Borders for in my lunch break but before I knew it I was at the cash register with my shiny blue credit card in one hand and Jamie's 30 Minute meals in the other. I call it fate :)


Naturally, I was keen to see if his method of cooking in this new book was really revolutionary as he claims it to be. I had one problem... to complete these recipes you require a food processor, you all know that the only food processor my mum owns is tiny Oscar which doesn't slice and dice, only blends one cup at a time. Pft! I thought as I requested all the ingredients I required to make 'Spaghetti alla Puttanesca, crunchy salad and garlic bread'; a whole meal in 30 minutes (minus the dessert because I am getting fat as it is and don't need to add Silky Chocolate ganache to my already expanding bum). I got home after a sweltering day wearing way to many clothes for what the weather asked for and striped off into Tristan's sexy Hawaiian board shorts. I looked a tread in the kitchen I can tell you that much, unfortunately no pictures to show you though.


First things first, Jamie asks you to pre-heat your oven and get some water on the boil for your pasta. Done and Done, So far so good. Remember that I bailed on dessert so this probably should have taken me a little quicker but I blame the lack of food processor and the fact I had to use a crappy slicer which totally didn't work for me so I had the lovely boy do some manual labor in the kitchen and get it to work.


Half a loaf of half sliced thought ciabatta was smothered in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley and S&P and wrapped up in baking paper. It then went into the oven (no butter in the recipe so I think it should be rename as Cholesterol healthy GB) almost to be forgotten about, the best kind of recipe so far. The pasta went in the salted water and then the goodies for the pasta sauce went in a frying pan. The ten minutes it takes the pasta to cook completely disappeared and suddenly the pasta was done but I was still trying to get the stupid slicer to work. Stuff it, overcooked pasta tastes like shit so the fennel salad could wait. (This is when my lovely boy came and took over)


The pasta was mixed with the sauce and directed to the table, the fennel and radish salad was dressed and seasoned and also directed to the table and finally the almost forgotten garlic bread came out of the oven looking delicious and golden. 


A total success, Thank-you Jamie!


I cannot wait to try the other meal plans in this new book, maybe even with a dessert if my jeans allow it :)