I will never buy packet pasta again

The real, rich, soft, lightness of home made pasta cannot be compared to the dried factory product.  I can hardly believe the two share a name.  Even the supposed 'fresh' pasta product from the refrigerated section in the supermarket is real pastas uglier second cousin.

The fifties have got a lot to answer for when it decided that convenience was the way to go and proceeded to pre-make and package as many foods as possible.

My first batch of pasta probably took maybe an hour tops to make.  And the recipe I used gave enough for 3-4 good servings. I used a smaller recipe to start incase I made a big mess and wasted the ingredients.

Most recipes used lots o eggs, including one using seven eggs by my beloved Jamie.  I found one from online blog smitten kitchen, which I then halved. It uses just two and a cup and half or so of flour. I used high grade from the super market.  Plus I used my food processor.

Fresh Pasta from Smitten Kitchen and adapted from Gourmet Magazine

3 cups all-purpose flour
 

4 large eggs
 

1 teaspoon salt
 

4 tablespoons water 

To make pasta dough in a food processor: 

Blend flour, eggs, salt, and water in processor until mixture just begins to form a ball, adding more water, drop by drop, if dough is too dry (dough should be firm and not sticky). Process dough for 15 seconds more to knead it. Transfer to a floured surface and let stand, covered with an inverted bowl, 1 hour to let the gluten relax and make rolling easier.

 















Also being the first time I had used my food processor to make dough.  The result was fast easy and fabulous.  After letting the dough sit for an hour I divided it into 3 and started using my new fav piece of equipment, my pasta machine, rolling the dough through each of the nine settings.  The key through out the whole process to keep everything well dusted with flour.  I then dried mine over night on clothes hangers.    
I ate with the following sauce.

Zucchini and prosciutto sauce (it has meat I know but it was an end of the fridge thing...)

Chop up roughly some prosciutto, or bacon or parma ham.

Fry in a saucepan with some onion

Add some halved cherry tomatoes and a knob of butter

Grate two zucchini and toss in the pan

Stir around a bit and glug in some olive oil.

Toss through somr of you fresh pasta which has been cooked in boiling water for a couple of minutes

Delicious  : )

The cupcakes are being made

Basic vanilla cupcake recipe

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Zest of 1 large lemon(optional)

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoonsbaking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

I also added 1/2 cup toasted coconut

 













Preheat oven to 180 and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.

Meringue Icing (this is easier than it looks!, plus I made a half mixture to start and this was enough for my 12 cup cakes)

4 large egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Pinch cream of tartar

Pinch fine salt

Drop of red food colouring (I might use beetroot juice next time)

Bring a few cm's of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a mixing bowl above the water. (I used a glass bowl) Whisk the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice and zest, cream of tarter and salt in the bowl by hand. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat at medium-high speed until meringue is cool and holds a soft peak, about 5 minutes. Add a few drops of desired food coloring and continue beating until it holds stiff peaks.

To decorate: Using a spoon, offset spatula or piping bag, dollop, spread or pipe meringue on top of each cupcake. Use the back of a spoon to create peaks and valleys in the cupcake as desired.

Makes yummy marshmellow style topping.  I'm gonna try chocolate next time.

Giving in to cupcakes

Yeah so cupcakes are the ultimate cool thing and everybody loves them and they are so creative etc etc. New York is brimming with kitschy cup cake shops on every corner, and people are having cup cake cakes for their weddings (why?) Nestle Hottest Home Baker had a whole episode about decorating them, and I'm finally giving in. 

I found this picture (on the foodnetwork.com site), its simple architectural meringue quiff so avant garde juxtaposed with the delicate girly pink colour (i'll make, green and blue, maybe swirls and others too) has inspired me. I want to eat - NOW!



Gorge



Plus loving this secret strawberry one. With lime icing.

Ummm. Yup well I'll report back with my own pics, once I have baked : )

Teriyaki tofu

Yum teriyaki.  I love japanese food so much.  Tofu prepared in Japanese ways is the best, and I always order tofu when I'm eating Japanese out.

Here's my recipe for Teriyaki tofu

1 package medium tofu

Teriyaki sauce (I used store bought stuff, but to make your own is also really simple)

panko crumbs

egg

cornflour

Grapeseed oil for frying

Cha noodles (green tea noodles)

Avocado 

Garnishes

Chop your tofu up and marinate for a couple of hours in the teriyaki sauce.

Boil water for the noodles and chop your avocado (dress with lemon juice)

When you're ready to go heat your oil in a pan.  You need enough oil so that when you lie your tofu in, it will come halfway up.  A good test for the heat of the oil is to pop the end of a wooden chopstick in, if bubbles appear around it quickly, you know the oil is hot enough.

Start cooking your noodles

Remove your tofu from the marinade, dust in cornflour, then egg, then panko crumbs and fry quickly.  You will need to do this in two batches.

Drain noodles, place in bowls, add avocado, then tofu on top.

Garnish, I used red capsicum and toasted sesame seeds.
The textures in this dish complement each other well, creamy tofu, crunchy crumbs, silken tofu.  

Yumz.

Latest cake

A belated birthday cake for Evelyn.

Chocolate cake covered in vanilla fondant with a sugarpaste flower decoration.

Should you want one for yourself let me know  : )

xx

Lamb Shanks with roasted beetroot

The surprise in this dish was how well the beetroot and lamb went together. I also experimented - using some of the Asian spices I found while learning how to make Beef Redang curry, the outcome was fragrant and lightly spiced.

I made this quite a long time ago, so this is from memory.

Lamb Shanks with roast beetroot

4 lamb shanks

1 Onion chopped

2 celery sticks chopped

Garlic to taste squashed and chopped

2 cans tomatoes in juice

A couple of tablespoons tomato paste (if you open a can save the rest by freezing in ice cube trays)

1 L stock - chicken, beef, whatever you have

Ginger - a good thumb grated (straight from the freezer)

Galangal - as above. this is alight fragrant ginger type spice.  mmz

Cinnamon - 1 T

Paprika - 1 T

Bay leaves

Beetroot, one per person, skin on chopped and boiled for 10mins.

Potatoes, prepped as usual for mash

Pre-heat over to 180.  Fry off the lamb shanks in a large pot with oil, to get some colour on them. Place in a cassarole dish that will comfortably hold them.

 Using the same pot, add some more oil, onion, garlic, celery, ginger, galangal,  paprika and cinnamon fry off over a low heat for a good 5-10mins.  We want the spices to be cooked.  Add the tomatoes and bayleaves and cook till the mixture is simmering.  Check your seasoning. Pour over the shanks and top up with the stock and then boiling water if needed.

Cook for a good 1.5 hours.

At this point toss your beetroot in oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and place in the oven on a baking dish for an hour next to the shanks.

Twenty minutes out cook your potatoes and make mash to your tastes. My fav is a roughly mashed chunky style with butter and oil.

Serve.

Steak dinner

Had mega cravings today.  I love that, when you know exactly what you want, and you get to eat it and it's good.  So today it was for hot juicy steak and lentils.  No idea why I wanted those things so badly but anyway who am I to deny myself.
It was amazing.  Haven't eaten a lot of lentils, and these were Delmaine brand canned ones, but they were delicious and creamy and so tasty.
Again pic is from my computer's camera, but I think quite well captures the deliciousness of the arrangement.

Steak Dinner
Rump steak - a great cut, full of flavour and very well priced
Potatoes
Rocket
1 x can of Delmaine lentils, or cook your own from scratch
For the lentils you will also need:
A sliced onion
Garlic cloves
Rosemary
Parsley
Splash of red wine vinegar
Splash maple syrup, or sugar whatever you have on hand.


Get the potatoes boiling.
Melt onions, rosemary and garlic in a small pot with some butter.  Season this and once the onions are transparent add the lentils and cook.  Splash in your vinegar and sugar.
At this stage get a fry pan going for your steak.  Make sure both sides of the raw meat is properly seasoned with salt and pepper - it really does make a difference to the final flavour.
Fry steak to your preferred level of doneness.
While this is frying get your plates ready with a dollop of the lentils topped with parsley, pop on the rocket and the potatoes.  Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.  Once the meat is ready pile on top and pour over any cooking juices.


Eat up.