Morning tea with Appliances Online plus Monday Morning Cooking Club plus Recipe!

If I ever needed a reason to praise this blogging caper, this would be it.

I was kindly invited by Carla  and Annabelle from Appliances Online to attend a pre-Mother’s Day morning tea and cooking demo at Appliances Online headquarters, with food by the Monday Morning Cooking Club.

MMCC is a group of ladies who have compiled a book of recipes and anecdotes inspired by their Jewish community. They have tested all the recipes and the lucky attendees of the morning tea got to watch them prepare some sweet treats. And sample them, too, of course.

Here are 3 members of MMCC: Lisa, Natanya and Merelyn demonstrate how to make almond kifli. To mix the pastry, they are using the Breville All-in-One as a sort of mini food processor.

These ladies are passionate about their food culture, honouring the traditional recipes and passing the knowledge on to their families, and now, us. I enjoy watching recipes being demonstrated, you get to pick up tips and stuff that you don’t always get from a cookbook.

Some of the beautiful morning tea: on a sunny balcony at the Appliances Online offices, we admired and ate gravalax and mini bagels, with a moreish egg and onion spread.

And chiffon cake. More on that later…

These are the 3 dishes made during the demo: light and crisp honey macadamia wafers, almond kifli, and kindlech, made from super-thin sour cream pastry rolled with Nutella, raspberry jam and sultanas. Kindlech is my new favourite pastry!

This is one of the 3 chiffon cakes they brought (orange, custard and chocolate versions). Gosh, these were as light as air and definitely well worth the effort needed to make them (I say ‘definitely’ because I will ‘definitely’ never be able to make one myself).

After enjoying the sunshine and the gorgeous food, we were presented with a copy of the Monday Morning Cooking Club book, and… a Breville All-in-One!  

Thanks to the following for a wonderful morning:

Appliances Online: The place for whitegoods and home appliances. Most recently, I bought a washer/dryer and microwave from them. Can recommend them for great prices and service.

Breville: Love the new All-in-One. Lots of power but compact, it also has its own stand for its attachments and is ideal when you don’t want to drag out your big food processor. And a great gift for Mother's Day...

Monday Morning Cooking Club: The MMCC cookbook is simply fab. So many dishes I want to make from it. Let’s start with something tasty….

Armed with a super-duper appliance and tried-and-true recipes, I decided to make peri-peri chicken livers with gnocchi. The ‘gnocchi’ recipe is actually for pelushki in the cookbook, but I omitted the usual onions that go in the dish and turned them into gnocchi.

Ingredients for the peri-peri sauce: peri-peri powder, paprika, chilli flakes, red wine, tomato sauce, onion. Peri-peri powder is a mix of cumin, turmeric, paprika, chilli, mustard, ginger, etc.

The sauce is simmered together, then the browned chicken livers are added.

Making the gnocchi (aka pelushki): mashed potato, flour and egg are rolled out and cut into small pillows. They do fluff up quite a bit when cooked, so make them smaller if you like.
And the brilliant Breville All-in-One even has a mashing attachment with THREE texture variations (finest setting was used for this mash)

The sauce and livers were amazing - sweet and rich. The perfect accompaniment to the light and soft gnocchi.

Jamie's Mushroom soup - sans croûtes

Here is another quick soup that I made using my Cuisinart stick blender from Kitchenware Direct. Don’t forget that you could win one of these brilliant appliances for yourself, just enter HERE.

Now, back to this Mushroom Soup. I actually have my own mushroom soup recipe that I always use, but this version is from Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals cookbook.

If you are Jamie, or if you have seen this on his television series, you should be able to whip up this soup – together with some Stilton, apple and walnut croûtes (toasty breads) – in just 15 minutes.

But I am not Jamie Oliver, and I do not have the ’15-minute mindset’. Heck, I can barely even remember that it’s been a week since I last blogged! So, as usual, this recipe took longer than specified. For me, slow and steady wins the taste race, and what’s the hurry, anyway?

Truth be told, I was not that keen on the use of basmati rice in this soup. Usually, a cubed potato does a better job of thickening the soup, and gives a nicer flavour. Just as well the stick blender was able to churn through the rice to make it amalgamate more smoothly with the mushrooms.

Mushroom Soup

serves 4

Ingredients

2 onions, finely sliced

2 tblsp olive oil

1 chicken or vegetable stock cube

¼ tsp dried thyme

2 tsp crushed garlic

6 medium-large portobello mushrooms, trimmed and sliced

½ cup basmati rice (uncooked)

1 litre boiling water

Cream and truffle oil or truffle salt (optional), to serve

Method

1. Place the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.

2. Crumble the stock cube into the pan, and add the thyme and garlic and stir again.

3. Add the sliced mushrooms and rice and stir to coat with the oil mixture.

4. Pour in the boiling water and bring the soup to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes.

5. Remove soup from the heat and use a stick blender to puree the soup until it is smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

6. To serve, pour into bowls and swirl some cream and truffle oil (or salt) on top.

Tip: This soup can be cooled, then frozen, in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver 15 Minute Meals

Ingredients, including portobello mushrooms, onions and rice.

And some truffle oil for later.

Didn't have time to make Jamie's croûtes, so made do with some bought garlic bread instead.

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Giveaway! - Enter to win

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win this fantastically useful Cuisinart stick blender, thanks to Kitchenware Direct.

Just click HERE to enter.

Zucchini Soup with Giveaway Cuisinart Stick Blender

Ah, Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

With a nip in the night air comes a hankering for a bowl of something warming.
And this zucchini soup really fits the bill - it's not too heavy, chock full of healthy vegetables, and best of all, extremely tasty.

Well, actually, that's not all. It's also supremely simple to make. So, let's get straight into the recipe. I know the real reason you are here is for the GIVEAWAY.

Just promise me you'll try this soup first. *pretty please? you won't regret it!*


Easy Zucchini Soup

serves 2***

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil

2 zucchini, halved and sliced

½ tsp crushed garlic

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 tblsp cream (optional)

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

2. Add the zucchini and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes, or until zucchini softens (don’t let the garlic burn).

3. Pour in the stock and cream and simmer for 8 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat and puree in the saucepan using a stick blender, until smooth.
Alternatively, cool slightly and transfer the soup to a blender and process until smooth.

5. Return to the saucepan and reheat, if desired.

6. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

***Double the ingredients to serve 4

As long as you have some lovely fresh vegetables, a mug of delicious soup is not far away.

In the past week, I've made zucchini soup, broccoli soup and potato and leek soup.

The tastiness of your soup also depends on the stock that you use.

No time for homemade stock, though. Here, I used 1½ cubes of Massel chicken stock in 2 cups of boiling water. Fantastic flavour.

A stick blender is a wonderful tool for soup - win one further on!

This really is a quick and easy soup to make. Very versatile, it can also be served cold.

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Kitchenware Direct Giveaway!

Thanks to Kitchenware Direct, you could this fab prize!

When Brad from Kitchenware Direct offered to provide a giveaway on this blog, I spent a wonderful time on the Kitchenware Direct site, browsing the beautiful products, trying to decide on a prize (if they were a bricks-and-mortar store, I would have been kicked out for taking so long to decide).

So, just for you: One lucky reader could win a gorgeous new Cuisinart stick blender.
I chose it especially, because it comes with a chopper attachment that is so useful for chopping and blending small amounts of herbs or spices, even mayonnaise; great when you don't want to drag out your large food processor.
And the stick blender and attachments are very easy to clean - the stainless steel finish looks good and it's easily kept that way.
 

To enter, just tell me what your favourite soup is, and why. Did you make it yourself, or did you enjoy it during a special meal? I'd love to know!


 Enter by leaving a comment on this post, or email (details below). Entries close midnight 5^th May 2013. Prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses. Other conditions are below. Good luck!
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Update
This contest is now Closed.

The winner is Tina@bitemeshowme

Thanks for all your lovely entries!

Conditions of Entry

1. Entry to this contest is by a comment on this post, describing your favourite soup and why. Alternatively, enter by sending an email to oohlookbel2000 [at] gmail [dot] com

2. Entries close at midnight 5 May 2013.

3. The prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses. Prize will be supplied and delivered by Kitchenware Direct.

4. Please include an email address or your blog URL in your entry so I can contact you if you win.

Spiced chicken with tabouli and straying into Fashion

Recently, I realised (very late, too late) that this blog of mine has been online for over 5 years. Maybe I should have made something to celebrate this milestone, but I forgot. Ho hum, so blasé…

During those years, I’ve been fairly consistently (exclusively?) reading food blogs. Sure, there have been a couple of forays into the ‘lifestyle’ and craft blog scenes, but I’ve always bookmarked more food blogs than any other type. Until now.

For I have discovered fashion blogs. Oh, they are so envy-making! I’d list some for you, but there are so many, and not a week goes by where I don’t discover yet another site dedicated to pictures of a slim pretty young thing smiling coyly at the ground, with an outfit credit underneath, like: Dress: Tibi. Jacket: Zara. Bag: Celine. Shoes: Gianvitto Rossi. Sunglasses: Prada. Bracelets: Hermes, Gorjana. It's like another world, and it is, a world where a slight breeze is always flicking your perfect hairdo and your blog photos look like a spread in Vogue. 

But you can’t eat fashion, can you? What I am trying to say, I suppose, is that even though we might stray from our committed blog path in life, we will always come back to it, eventually. So food blogs will always be on my reading list. (Though, if you want to see a wonderful combination of fashion, food, photos and writing, check out this)

And thank you to you, if you have Ooh, Look… in your reader. I’m sorry that I’m sometimes a bit slack with the updates, but I do appreciate your patronage and hope to welcome you to this site for another 5 years, at least.

Here’s a recipe to say Yay!


Spiced Chicken with Tabouli
serves 4

Ingredients
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground turmeric
pinch of dried chilli flakes
zest of 1 lemon finely grated
4 x 200g chicken breast fillets, flattened slightly

Minted yoghurt:
3 tsp crushed garlic
2 tblsp chopped mint leaves
1 cup Greek yoghurt
Salt and pepper

Tabouli:
50g burghul (cracked wheat)
Bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
½ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
2 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, finely diced
1 Lebanese cucumber, halved lengthways, seeds removed, finely diced
Juice of ½ a lemon
40ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method

1. For the chicken: In a large bowl, combine half the olive oil with the oregano, cumin, turmeric, chilli and lemon zest. Add the chicken breast fillets, stirring to coat. Marinate in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

2. For the minted yoghurt: Stir together the garlic, mint and yoghurt in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

3. For the tabouli: Place burghul in a bowl and cover with hot water and stand for 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Cool. Then, combine the burghul with the parsley, mint, garlic, tomatoes and cucumber and mix well. Stir in the lemon juice and olive oil and season to taste.

4. To cook the chicken: Preheat oven to 180C/360F. Put the remaining oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the marinated chicken breast and sear until golden on both sides. Season with salt and pepper, then place on a baking tray and cook in the oven for another 5-6 minutes, until cooked through.

5. To serve: Place the tabouli on a plate and top with chicken. Serve with minted yoghurt.

recipe adapted from Good Weekend (Neil Perry).

Ingredients: (top) for the tabouli: mint, parsley, cucumber, tomato, burghul

(bottom) marinade for the chicken:olive oil, turmeric, cumin, orgeano, chilli flakes

Serve the chicken on a bed of tabouli, with minted yoghurt to dollop over

Meat-free Vegetable Bolognese Linguini

 

Hands up if you’ve been observing ‘Meatless Mondays’ or 'Meat-free Week’ and generally trying to eat less meat.

*my hand is tentatively half-raised*

My efforts to reduce the amount of processed food I eat has - sort of - extended to eating less meat and less white potatoes, and more leafy greens and vegetables. It’s been a bit of a failure so far, but it has also emphasised to me just how much meat and processed gunk I do consume.

It’s not my fault, she whines. It’s just that most of the ‘good’ food is pretty boring when compared to a juicy chargrilled steak with some little roast potatoes with truffle salt… (I dare you to deny this!).

That was, until I tried this most excellent Vegetable Bolognese. Admittedly, it doesn’t sound too exciting, but please believe me when I tell you that this is one of the most flavoursome pasta dishes I’ve ever had.

The intensely flavoured porcini, sweet carrot and capsicum and a good glug of red wine are all concentrated into this amazingly luscious sauce that looks like meaty bolognese but tastes so much better. You must give it a try, even if you aren’t planning on going meat-free.

Vegetable Bolognese
serves 2

Ingredients
¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms
200g linguini
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 small brown onion, roughly chopped
1 red or yellow capsicum, roughly chopped
100g Swiss brown mushrooms, roughly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tblsp olive oil
½ tblsp chopped thyme leaves
2 tblsp sundried tomato pesto
¼ cup red wine
¾ cup vegetable stock
¼ cup mascarpone
Grated parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Soak porcini in ½ cup boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid, and roughly chop the porcini.

2. Place the carrot, onion, capsicum, Swiss brown mushrooms and garlic in a food processor and process until finely chopped but not mushy.

3. Meanwhile, cook linguine in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water until al dente.

4. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and add the finely chopped vegetables. Cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes, until softened. Add the thyme, pesto and porcini and cook for another minute.

5. Add the wine, stock and half the reserved porcini liquid. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir through the mascarpone, then season with salt and pepper.

6. Drain the linguine. Add the vegetable sauce to the pasta and gently toss to combine. Sprinkle parmesan on top and serve.

recipe adapted from delicious (March 2013).

Lovely veg, including yellow capsicum, onion, carrot, dried porcini and Swiss brown mushrooms

The rest of the ingredients: mascarpone, red wine, sundried tomato pesto and linguini

A rich, flavourful meat-free dish

I don't like my pasta to be too 'wet', but you can add more liquid to the serving, if you like.

A challenging Key Lime Tart

One of the the first ‘grown-up’ books I read as a young teenager was Nora Ephron’s Heartburn. It was grown-up to me because it dealt with adult themes of neurotic Americans in therapy, relationships and divorce.  Believe me, coming from a rich diet of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, Heartburn was quite an eye-opener.

I haven’t read Heartburn at all since then (can’t say the same about ‘Trixie Belden and the Mystery of...’, heehee), but there were 2 memorable things I got out of Heartburn : how to boil the perfect egg, and Key Lime Pie.

Firstly, the boiled egg: place an egg in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and leave for 4 minutes. Rinse under cold water and you have a perfect soft-boiled egg. So, since I was 13, I’ve boiled eggs this way and they are always just right.

Secondly, Key Lime Pie. Oh how I wished I lived in America so that I could experience Key Lime Pie. Just the description of it, all tangy and creamy and lime green, evoked images of Florida and sunshine and graham crackers, whatever they were. And would you believe, I’ve always been too intimidated to make it, even now that I am a ‘food blogger’. Well, I, too, have grown up and I won’t let a dessert scare me no more. This is a lovely pie/tart, I really should not have waited decades to try it. This recipe is not from Heartburn, but I’m sure Nora Ephron would have liked it as well.

By the way, this effort is being entered in Our Growing Edge, a great concept from bunny eats design that showcases learning and experimenting and meeting challenges, like key lime pie. Check it out here.

Key Lime Tart

serves 10

Ingredients
300g plain biscuits (I used Nice biscuits)
50g unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs, lightly beaten
395g can condensed milk
2/3 cup (160ml) cream
Finely grated zest and juice of 4 limes
Whipped cream, to serve
Candied lime
1 lime, sliced 1-2mm thick
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup water

Method

1. Use a food processor to crush biscuits to fine crumbs. Add melted butter and pulse to combine. Press the mixture into the base and sides of a 25cm-wide loose-bottomed tart pan. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 170C/340F. Whisk the eggs, condensed milk, cream, lime zest and jice in a bowl until combined. Pour into tart pan and bake for 40 minutes or until filling is just set. Cool completely in the pan.

3. For the candied lime: Blanch lime slices in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add the lime slices and cook for 10-15 minutes until white pith looks translucent. Drain, then dry on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

4. To serve, decorate the tart with whipped cream and candied lime.

recipe adapted from delicious (April 2011)

 

Speckled eggs and limes (not Key Limes, but suitable nonetheless)

I used my 22cm tart tin, so had lots of crust and filling left over to fill 2 small (8cm) tins as well.

Even though this was quite an exciting effort for me, Tabitha cat finds desserts quite boring.

My candied lime slices looked pretty but were very bitter to taste, so next time I will just use raw lime to decorate.

A wonderful treat for grown-ups and little ones (not cats, though).

Le fancie: Smoked Salmon Rillettes

Recently, I had lunch at a French-style pub. Yes, there is such a thing. I mean, it’s called ‘Le Pub’, after all.
PS: One day, I’d love to eat at a restaurant called ‘Le Pantalons Fancie’, like on American Dad.

 

For starters (les hors d'oeuvres), we shared a well-stocked charcuterie plate that featured a luscious duck rillette.

I just love rillettes, it’s such a French dish, so richly textured and usually swimming in delicious graisse (that’s French for fat). So it’s not a dish that you want to have too often if you value your health.

 Duck rillette in a tin, with accompaniments.

But how about these salmon rillettes, with no duck fat to be seen, just tangy crème fraiche to tie all the flavours together? Don’t mind if I do!

Not much to say about this recipe, except that it looks super-swish, is super easy to make, and it’s the perfect dish to impress, well, anyone. It’s bound to be on the menu at Les Pantalons Fancie.

 

Smoked salmon rillettes

serves 8

Ingredients

300g piece of skinless salmon fillet, pin-boned

200g smoked salmon, chopped

2 tblsp finely chopped cornichons

1 eschalot, finely chopped

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

1 tblsp finely chopped dill

¼ cup finely chopped chives

200ml crème fraiche

Toasted baguette slices and cornichons, to serve

Method

1. Place the salmon fillet in a saucepan and cover with 4 cups of boiling water. Cover with a lid and stand for 30 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked.

2. Remove poached salmon from the water and pat dry with paper towels.  Flake the flesh into a large bowl and cool completely.

3. Add smoked salmon to the cooled poached salmon, together with the chopped cornichons, eschalot, lemon zest, dill, chives and crème fraiche. Season with salt and black pepper, then stir until just combined.

4. Serve the rillettes with toasted baguette and cornichons.

Rillettes can be stored in a covered container in refrigerator for up to 2 days. Serve at room temperature.

recipe adapted from delicious (February 2013) 

Salmon, before and after poaching, with eschalot, chives, lemon and chopped cornichons

Add smoked salmon to the poached salmon, together with lemon zest and crème fraiche

Serve with crusty bread

Très fancie!

And please pardon the imperfect French in this blog post!.