Breakfast in - Eggs and tea

Which tea to have today.........

I am always a fan of a decent breakfast and eating out for breakfasts is a pretty regular occurrence on any given weekend. Great way to kick start your day and catch up with friends. Years ago a worked in a kitchen for a part time job making basic breakfasts for the punters and through this got plenty of practice making scrambled eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes etc. the basics for breakfasts but the menu was fairly limited there are so many other options. To me the mark of a good breakfast venue is interesting items on the menu and a decent range, turns out not everyone feels like eggs for breakfast all the time. Variety is also the key word for me when it comes to tea as well why simply have an English breakfast all the time when there are so many other more interesting teas out there depending on your mood on any given day - strong, mild, semifermented, green.

Poached Eggs and Orange Pekoe brewing

Friday was a day off and a decent morning trip to the gym was in order. Following in my workout I wanted something packed with protein to keep me going for a while so decided on poached eggs on toast. Poached eggs are probably one of my favourite ways of having eggs but not necessarily something I cook very often. One thing that makes a massive difference to your eggs though is the freshness of the eggs - the fresher they are the more they stay together when you crack them in to that gently simmering water with a dash of vinegar. Matched with a leaf tea - Orange Pekoe probably my favourite black tea - a perfect start to the day.

 Inspired by my poached eggs and wanting to catch up with a friend KJ I decided to have her over for breakfast the next day. This time something slightly more exotic - though not necessarily more difficult - Shakshuka eggs with Chorizo and toast. Realising that I had forgotten to buy parsley and coriander it was the perfect excuse to head down into the cafe strip and pick up a take away coffee (flat white of course) to drink while getting the breakfast ready. Have to say it was a bit of a cheats Shakshuka using good quality tinned tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes and marinated roasted capsicums and chilli flakes instead of charred green banana chillis. However the substitutions worked out fine. I served it with a hot chorizo sliced and fried up and multigrain toast. A cup of tea along side to temper the heat of the meal - only hard bit is choosing which tea to have. Thumbs up from me and the girls - just like shop brought! One of those breakfasts where you get to about 4pm in the afternoon and realise that you never had lunch because you hadn't noticed you were hungry.

SLs cheats Shakshuka - why would you go out!

Spanish Tapas Fiesta

Well having talked up a tapas night with friends for around 19 months since I got home from and extended trip to Europe I figured that it was about time to come through with the goods and actually make a date for a tapas night at my place. Luckily the weekend was pretty free as I certainly ended up spending a great deal of time prepping for the meal. I spent lots of time reading through various Spanish recipe books and Spanish editions of food magazines. Probably the most challenging of these was the Pintxos book Pintxos de Vanguardia a la Donostriarra that I picked up in San Sebastian on the trip mentioned above. After staring longingly at the pictures in this book and spending a bit of time looking for a half decent translator I determined that a recipe book written in the Basque language was possibly adding an additional and unnecessary level of difficulty - a challenge for another day.

Spoils of the shopping trip

The menu set it was time for a trip to the Re store to pick up some specialty items: Spanish dulce smokey paprika, Sherry vinegar, Pedro Ximenez, chorizo, manchego. Then on to various supermarkets, butchers and supermarkets to pick up the rest. Then let the cooking begin.

The Menu:

Marinated mixed olives

Olives - marinated with chilli, fennel seeds, fennel fronds, garlic, rosemary, thyme, lemon and orange - I used a mix of Sicilian green, pimento stuffed green spanish, kalamata, black roasted and wild olives. The mix gave a good look and the marinade strong enough to infuse flavour into the olives over night. The roasted olives were quite strong and bitter in flavour so certainly not to everyone’s liking so I would probably leave these out next time. 

Roasted capsicums - marinated with sweet smoked paprika, garlic, sherry vinegar, olive oil and flat leaf parsley. Delicious!!! Again marinated over night. Smoked paprika is quite a strong flavour so should be used with restraint.

PX and salted spiced almonds

Salted and spiced roasted almonds – easy delicious though I would probably cut back on the amount of salt used. I combined a number of recipes for this one so included sweet smoked paprika and cumin in the egg white mixture used to coat the almonds then tossed with coarse sea salt and baked in the oven.

Cooking - meatballs and chorizo and chickpeas

Meatballs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce – pork and beef mince with a variety of spices in a tomato sauced spiked with cayenne pepper and peas – didn’t look the most gourmet but tasted perfect.

Chickpea with Chorizo – Often with chickpea recipes I will cheat and use tinned chickpeas rather than dried but this is one recipe where you can’t really afford to do that – the chickpeas are cooked for and hour in stock with herbs and garlic which imparts lots of flavour to the humble chickpea. Plus who doesn’t love Chorizo – had to keep a sharp eye on my brother when he arrived to check he wasn’t picking it all out of the dish…..

Tortilla – potato of course a Spanish classic – can’t count the number of these eaten whilst in Spain.

Ajillo Mushrooms – Shitake, portebello, button, field, shimiji and cooked in sherry with fresh flat leaf parsley.

Rocket, serrano ham, manchego and roast hazelnut salad – to lighten up the tapas. Dressing including wholegrain mustard, garlic, finely chopped shallots.



Crumbing the fritters with Panko crumbs

Duende's Manchego and Corn Fritters with Capsicum Jam – I have eaten these before at Duende and let me say they are pure gold! The recipe is true though and although time consuming I was extremely happy with how they turned out – just like the real thing. If you are interested here is the link - Manchego and Corn Fritters Though as a note make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to make these and be aware that it takes at least 5 pots to make them



Manchego and Corn Fritters with Capsicum Jam 



PX trifle

Dark Chocolate Pedro Ximenez trifle – this was based on a recipe from the 2009 Spanish gourmet traveler – in the GT the recipe had a chocolate ganache as the top layer – I felt this would be too heavy after a meal of tapas so substituted a Donna Hay chocolate mousse which I spiked with cinnamon. Think this would have been better served as an amuse or in a much smaller portion size as even as a lover of PX I have to admit the PX jelly was pretty full on.

When the friends and family were asked which were there favourite dishes just about everyone had a different favourite which always a win – different strokes for different folks and no real losers out of the recipes tried. Props to my brother for his help on some of the photos for this blog and a massive thanks to my beautiful assistant SJ – for her tireless work washing every bowl, pot, knife and frying pan in the kitchen at least twice!

The spread

Let me finally say that any one who thinks tapas is over priced should spend a weekend in the kitchen preparing the stuff – you may find a new respect for that small plate of meatballs, fritters or chickpeas that turn up at your table.

 

Fajitas y salsa with post dinner cocktails

Tomato, Cucumber and Mint Salsa

Finding a balance between getting enough protein in your diet, getting your serves of fruit and vegetables whilst making something quick and yet tasty can some times seem a bit of a challenge. This is where modern variations on traditional Mexican food can come into play. Salsas of various types can allow for a wide variety of vegetables to be incorporated easily into one meal. This is my take on Fajitas.


Lime and chilli steak fajitas with Barbecued Peppers, and 2 salsas.


Lime and Chilli steak -  Rump steak was marinated for an hour or so in lime juice, chilli powder and smokey paprika. This was based on an idea that I got from the www.taste.com.au website with the addition of the smoked paprika to add a hint of that smokiness that is synonymous with steak Fajitas. The steaks were then barbecued on the grill plate until medium rare and sliced thinly for the Fajitas.

Peppers on the BBQ

Barbecued Peppers - Having worked in construction for several years I have attended many barbecues with our multicultural work crew. One thing that was ever present was a mix of red and green capsicums with wedges of onion all cooked up on the BBQ - this is an addition that I try to incorporate into many of my own BBQs these days. It is also a great accompaniment to Fajitas which are often served with Capsicum and onion sizzling on the hot plate along side the steak.


 Tomato, Cucumber and Mint Salsa - No Mexican meal would be complete with out a salsa and why stop at one I say. This salsa incorporates tomatoes probably one of the most common salsa ingredients. The combination with the cucumber and mint makes a spectacular looking fresh salsa of reds, whites and greens. Moving away from the more traditional salsa condiments I dressed the salsa in White wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar.

 

Corn, Avocado and Coriander Salsa

Corn, Avocado and Coriander Salsa -  This yellow and green salsa is a little more about taste than looks as a beautifully ripe avocado can only result in a degree so smushiness when mixed through a salsa. All the ingredients are pretty typical Mexican style ingredients - dressed with freshly squeezed lime juice, salt and pepper. 

The Fajitas were wrapped in flour tortillas in a make your own arrangement - that way people could add as much or as little of any of the ingredients to their fajitas as they liked. Now just need to talk my neighbour into making me tortillas with his new tortilla maker and reckon they will be perfect. My brother, sister and friend all gave these the thumbs up so will be making these again no doubt.  

Fajitas

Cucumber and Mint Martini

Mike's Bar - The evening was finished off beautifully with a trip to my brother's house where he and Mike the cocktail extraordinaire mixed up and made up a number of killer cocktails. Highlights included the Cucumber and Mint martini - amazing colour and fabulously refreshing flavour. Campari spritzers, espresso martinis, nectarine spritzers, old fashions, classic martinis and pear and elderflower martini were also on the menu. Definitely plans for a trip back to Mike's bar some time soon.  

Summer Salads and Stone Fruit

Summer Peach Salad (Delicious Dec 10)

With summer comes the inevitable and happily welcomed appearance of summer fruit into the markets and shops. No type more happily welcomed by me than stone fruit. The peaches at the moment have been sensational and have been inspiring a few peach based salads. In Ottelinghi the cookbook there is a great Peach and speck salad that is dressed with a dressing of orange blossom water.  Also recently in the December 2010 (my pick of the December food magazines that I brought) was a great peach salad with coriander and chilli - a great hit each time I have made it.  A variation of this recipe is pictured to the left - with added rocket.

Peach, Prosciutto and Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

Super Summer Salad - Peach Prosciutto and Buffalo Mozzarella. This salad was born through the inspiration of some of the other peach salads that I love and a trip to the shops to have a good look around at what produce looked good and what I felt like eating. Peach, prosciutto and torn buffalo mozzarella on a base of rocket with shredded basil to get in my serve of greens and add a peppery tang. I dressed the salad with a white balsamic and a tangy extra virgin olive oil, good grind of both salt and pepper and served it with a fresh Ciabatta. Perfect for a summer night!

Summer slaw

Variations on some old classics - Summer Slaw - The bright colours of red cabbage, carrot, spring onions and parsley along with regular cabbage make this variation of the classic coleslaw a feast for your eyes as well as your mouth. I have forgone the traditional mayonnaise based dressing and opted instead to dress it with white balsamic vinegar and a dash of olive oil. Seasoned with salt and pepper of course. Seasoned in this way this slaw is a lot lighter but doesn't compromise flavour and is full of crunch.

Lemon, chilli and mint potato salad

Lemon, Chilli and Mint Potato Salad - looking for a lighter healthier option to the traditional potato salad or just want to try something a bit different? This is a slightly different take on potato salad. I am a skins on the potato person as why waste time peeling the potatoes for potato salad simply to lose the nutrients and texture that the skins add. The dressing in this salad is made from a mix of light sour cream, yoghurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, finely chopped chilli, mint, chives and S&P. I love lemons and mint so it is no surprise to see these making an appearance in this salad.

Whether it is a casual BBQ with friends or a quick meal at home in there is no reason that salads should be boring or tasteless. Salads are one of my favourite things to experiment with - probably due to years of salad making for a job whilst going through uni.  It is amazing how successful something quite quick and simple but slightly different to normal can be - so go on live a little. Contrary to pop-culture beliefs You can make friends with salad!  

Eating in - Fresh Herbs

I have to say that if there is one thing that I think has significantly improved my cooking it is the use of fresh herbs. The flavour that they bring to dishes really can't be rivalled. That's not to say that dried herbs don't have their place many a stew has been improved by a sprinkling of dried herbs and in the Cooks Companion Stephanie Alexander calls for dried mint in her Tzatziki over fresh herbs. However when it comes to a great flavoursome salad - it is fresh herbs all the way. Sadly due to my ability to kill most of the herbs that I grown in the garden or in pots this can mean a bit of extra cash but the benefits to the flavour in my opinion are well worth it.
Also important to flavour is the crushing / grinding /pounding of spices and other ingredients - so it was with much excitement on Wednesday that I got to pull out and use my brand new mortar and pestle.

On the menu was something relatively light and simple to be made after sport - from the Tossed cookbook Crab and green mango salad. The dressing was made from dried shrimp pounded with chilli, garlic and salt mixed with fish sauce and palm sugar - a strong salty counter point to the fresh herbs coriander and mint.

Sticking by my call of how work much cracking crabs is. Used left over legs from Tuesdays dinner. This recipe has a large proportion of my favourite ingredients so I was surprised when I wasn't overly happy with the outcome however that may be more to do with still being thirsty from sport and tired by the time I ate it as much as any other reason. Would be great with a nice sharp Riesling.

This was the first time I had used green mangos in such a recipe and on reflection I think the mangos I used were slightly too ripe - the recipe called for the mangos to be shredded but I didn't feel that was an option with the ripe green mangos I had.

Still it was pretty tasty and would be keen to try it again perhaps with a different type of seafood - something less fiddly perhaps like squid or possibly would be good with some crunch skin on salmon.

Eating In - Picking crab meat

It is an unwritten rule between my cooking friends that if you are going to buy a food magazine then you really need to commit to making a minimum of three recipes to get your moneys worth. Having received a subscription to Australian Gourmet Traveller for my birthday I should get plenty of monthly inspiration for cooking and will be making sure I get my friends money's worth. Well tonight the aim was for a quick meal between sporting commitments so a flick through the Gourmet Traveller and I had come up with a potential dinner idea. Tuesday night is often pasta night at my Zia's so settled on Spaghettini with crab, garlic, chilli, lemon and parsley - don't you just love these explicit recipe titles - no mistaking what was going to go into this recipe. The recipe called for a live Hawkesbury mud crab but given this was unlike to meet my time restraints or my ability to pick up the ingredients I opted instead to substitute in Pre-cooked blue swimmer crabs - 4 crabs were 1kg in the shell.

Well there is nothing like having to pick the meat from a small 250gm swimmer crab to remind you just how good value it is to order crab dishes out - the 4 crabs yielded enough for the 4 serves that I made but it wasn't heavy on crab meat, that is for sure. I also went for the cheating option of serving the legs and claws separately for my Eatees to pick at. 

I always feel the key with dishes of this type is to embrace the flavours and and the simplicity - dishes like this really serve as a reminder of how simple can be just as tasty as something complex. This would be one of my favourite styles of pasta dishes. The olive oil infused with chilli, garlic, lemon rind and seasoned with salt and pepper was light but full of flavour. The toasted panko crumbs on the top added a delicious texture. The contrast of the sweet crab meat just delicious. The recipe calls for coriander cress for garnish though I am yet to find a place to source these - maybe I just need to raise my own corriander seedlings. Anyway instead I opted to garnish with picked coriander leaves just a few added a bit of extra zing to the flavour as well as improving the presentation.

The finished product 

Call of the day from my sister on arriving at sport after eating our meal  I knew that second bowl was going to be a bad idea but it was just so delicious I had to. This recipe gets the thumbs up from me (and the other eatees) if you want to try it you can get the recipe here: Spaghettini with Hawksbury Mud Crab Recipe

Getting Started

As I write this my first post I have just sat down with a delicious bowl of Kylie Kwong's Stir-Fried Pork Fillets with Honey and Ginger - Recipe from Simple Chinese Cooking. What a fitting thing to be doing while creating my first blog. I love this cookbook though possibly I should return the copy to my brother at some stage.

At Christmas time I was the excited recipient of David Thompson's Thai Food as well as Larousse Gastronomique. Some new exciting reading to add to my cooking inspirtation. So hopefully soon I will be posting on some amazing Thai recipes that I have tried. Fresh zesty tangy Thai - is there anything better on a warm summers night? Any tips on favourite recipes from Thai Food

Bare with me - I am a first time blogger - but hope that you will come on a culinary journey with me as I post on what I am Eating on Ox, where I am getting inspiration from and where I am eating and drinking out when it is not a night to cook in at home.