Cooking up a storm

I finally managed to have a weekend at home and what's my favourite thing to do? Well if you know me well you would have guessed correctly......

cooking!

After a night in Sydney on Friday and a fabulous dinner at Neil Perry's Spice Temple  (where the great man himself was having dinner with his 2 girls) it was good to get back to the country and after a foray at Harris Farm markets for some ingredients it was time to hit the kitchen and make..........

Chicken, Fetta, Rocket and Pistachio ravioli with a truffle butter white wine cream sauce.

(what a mouthful, if I say so myself) anyway here's the steps in case you would like to try this at home.

What you need to make the pasta

400 grams of Plain Flour
2 eggs
Water  about 100 ml
15 ml of Olive Oil

I put all this into my Thermomix but if you don't have one you can do it with a food processor, kitchen aid or with your hands. I 'm not really good on measuring things, I sort of go with the flow and the feel, so you might need a bit more flour or a bit more or less of the old water, you want it to be a solid dough consistency, see pic below

my pasta dough after a couple of minutes kneading

Now if you have a pasta machine you can put it through that, but if you don't it's not an issue you can use the old fashioned method of rolling it out with a rolling pin 

rolling out the old fashioned way

My pasta machine (shush, its from Aldi, don't tell anyone!)

So once you get it rolled out to about the thickness of a sheet of prepared lasagna then you can put it all together...

I love my gadgets.. and I got this fancy ancy pasta hanging thingy from our local cookshop with a voucher my lovely mother in law gave me for my birthday! In the old days I used to hang the pasta on our indoor drying rack, so it's ok anyway you do it!

so now to quote Heston this is where the magic happens!

I bet you thought I was going to make the filling from scratch ? Well I'm here to tell you that although I love to cook there are somethings that you can take advantage of, like using lovely prepared sausages for your fillings! And the beauty of it is that your fillings are only limited by your imagination (or what you can find in sausages!)

so this is what I used this time

I got these from my local Harris Farm Markets. I really love sausages and it's on my list to do a sausage making course.

Anyway open the sausages and get the filling out, discard the cases.

Whack it in the frypan and cook it off.

while its doing that ( keep an eye on it, you don't want it to be overcooked or burnt) you can make your ravioli.

After you have rolled out the pasta, you have to have two flat pieces of dough one for the bottom and the filling and the top one to seal it.

I've have this little roller thing but you can just use a knife to cut them into shape.

Here is my finished product!

I made enough pasta dough for 5 meals plus 3 lasagnas

Put into a saucepan of boiling water and when they rise to the top they are cooked!

Here they are waiting for their sauce!

start with a  bit of butter in a saucepan, if you want to use flavoured butter like Lurpack garlic butter it's good. I'm using  both Lurpack and my own truffle butter
then I add some white wine, dried porcini mushrooms and then some cream

 and then you have your dinner, it might seem complicated but believe me, its really easy to make your own pasta, and its great fun! Especially with some great music on and some wine to help the creative juices flow!

Making up for lost time.....

Once upon a time, there was a woman who did everything she was expected to do: got an education, got a qualification, got married, ( maybe not in that exact order) had a family, worked hard and raised that family and then.....

what happened to her?.......  ( ...insert thoughts here)

 I think I need to go there!

Well, it's not going to be me!








NO!

Because I've made a decision to take a GRAY GAP YEAR ( although I'm not gray, but if I said a blonde gap year what would people make of that? You'd all think I'd gone all Paris Hilton etc, etc....)
and spend some time, doing nothing much, .... ( insert pregnant pause here)


and then something I've always wanted to do and never thought I could/would do *

(* you have to read to the end to find out).

My significant other found out about my decision on Facebook (as we do these days), when I decided to quit my very well paying corporate job and swan around at home.

To his credit he did not question my decision and fully supported it  (might be due to the fact that he gets to partake in my gap year as well)



I seem to have missed out  on a of a lot of things, that are now considered a right of passage.



like schoolies, (wasn't invented when I left school)

The swanning around  university doing nothing much or being involved in student politics, (I went as  mature student with 4 children)  so,  I was not doing much swanning around or drinking free beer with the student association. Plus I hate the smell of beer.

Free tertiary education, (I got an education and a  HECS debt too!)  paid now!

Baby bonus.
I thought that was the baby you got to take home from hospital!  Not the money for a flat screen TV, so you watch TV and don't have the time or inclination to make more babies!

Family tax credits, (I credit my family with staying together and providing 4 new taxpayers for the economy)

Child Care Subsidy, when the aforementioned flat screen TV fails to work and you have another child, just old enough to mind the younger one!


so you can get my drift...
so

now the big news... ( insert drum roll...)

Glenquarry Goddess is going global!

I'm off the Europe in 6 weeks time for some sister time  (my sister had moved to Amsterdam for work, she is the  BIG TIME corporate gal!)  and to spend some time with my sister in law whose daughter is going to have a baby in mid/late September and then do some free time travel to check out my gap year haunt*

For those who do not know, (and there is only a handful of you left)  I'm going to live in Paris for 4 months next year and study at  Le Cordon Bleu,

if you're not aware of it,   you might have seen the film "Julie and Julia"  well I am studying at the same place Julia Child did!

So I will be a post modern version of Julia Child with an Australian accent!

so, my new blog is going to be all about

Minding the Gap! (Year)

So please mind the gap, and stay tuned.....

Smokin...!

Last Saturday we had our local farmers markets in Bowral.  Now I confess I am not a regular attender (never out of bed and ready in time!) but this weekend I wanted to go and have a look see what was on offer.

We became Weber BBQ owners about a month ago and been keenly testing it out, with our rotisserie, the pizza stone and this Saturday it was time for us to smoke!  (But we did not inhale, :-)  )

I went a bit crazy on the meat side, and bought a standing rib roast, a wonderful piece of free range pork, a free range chook and the piece de resistance was a Thirlmere Duck breast. For those of you who do not know about these, check it out  Thirlmere Duck  is featured in some of the best restaurants in Australia, indeed I remember a wonderful dinner with had a few years ago with my sister  in law and brother in law at Grossi Florenti in Melbourne  see here  where I if I recall correctly everyone had Thirlemere Duck except me!  And the man selling it at the farmers market told me that if I was flying Qantas First Class I would have Thirlmere Duck on the menu ( a bargain at $16,000 a ticket!) I settled on the $17 double breast alternative.

 Anyway I digress. I though it would be good to try smoking the duck breast and doing the chicken as well on the rotisserie.

So here's what I did to make Kate's Smoked Thirlmere Duck Breast with truffled honey and orange.

I patted the duck breast dry with some kitchen paper towel, and then put some truffle salt on the skin side.

Thirlmere Duck Breast

One of my goodies from the Truffle hunt, I just sprinkled it over the duck breast

Duck Breast with truffle salt on the skin side

Another one of the goodies I bought home! It is also wonderful served over goats cheese.

mixed the truffle honey, about 2 teaspoons  with the juice of 1/2 an orange

I marinated the duck breast for about 1 hour, but you could do it overnight if you had time,  Then placed it on the Weber with the hickory wood smoking and this is my final result, a lovely smokey flavour, with sweetness from the honey truffle and  still pink on the inside. Overall cooking time in the Weber was about 90min, but I was watching it like a mother hen ( forgive the pun!)

The final result!

The chook was great as well, but I didn't do anything special with that, but it makes a great cold meat for salad or as I did today a toasted sandwich.

I felt quite proud of myself, as I have never been a "duck" person, but really feel that going out of my comfort level ( food wise that is!) was worth the effort, and I am planning to offer this dish to my friends in the future.

Have you ever challenged yourself in the food arena, either by trying something new or cooking something out of your comfort zone?

Globetrotters in Harlem

Well, we are in the house. The neighbourhood is very nice, a lot of old town homes which are being done up. There are a lot of good food places, cafes, delis and markets we ventured out yesterday and went to our local market and stocked up for a big old family cook up last night. It was really nice not to have to go out to a restaurant and just cook and relax in our house.

Anyway there  is so much to do haven't go much time to blog, Amy and I are about to go out to the gourmet deli and look for some inspiration for our Christmas lunch.

Play Dough for grown-ups!

I love cooking, no, make that  I adore cooking! It's the most relaxing thing I can do. After having a family of 4 children I still find it a challenge to cook for only 2 of us, luckily my mother in law and sister in law are grateful recipients of my over catering!

Anyway while my hubby is busy getting ready for his final week of his diploma  study, I have had plenty of free time to while away in the kitchen. So I thought I would share with you my way of making gnocchi.

I must confess up front that I am not that fussed about measuring ingredients, I work more on the look and feel of things.

Ingredients: This will serve about 4 - 6 people.

6- 8 Sebago potato's
2 eggs
Plain flour
pinch of salt

I like to boil the potato's the day before with their skin on and then let them cool and the next day you can just peel off the skin really easily. After they are peeled I put them through a mouli or food mill. DON'T USE A FOOD PROCESSOR ( JUST TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!) I find it better to sift the flour and put some on the bench before the potato, and then as the pile of potato builds up I just add more sifted flour until all the potato's are gone.

Then make a well and add 2 eggs ( best to have them at room temperature) and then mix with your hands, add a pinch of salt and more flour as you need to:  the goal is for the mixture to  become like a dough.

Now the fun bit :-) you get to play with the dough just like in kindergarten. Take a handful at a time of dough and roll out into a long sausage shape ( see, I told you it was fun!)
when you  have it rolled out I pinch a portion of the dough and cut it with a sharp knife. You can make the gnocchi as big or little as you wish. Then place on a floured surface.

 

Here's how much I made today: 2 trays this size.

then in a large saucepan boil the water and when boiling place the gnocchi a handful at a time ( not too many or they may stick together) they will rise to the surface and sit there when they are cooked

I like to baste them after they are all done in a little EVOO and butter to add some extra flavour and then you can serve with any type of sauce you like, my favourites are: a simple tomato, basil and garlic home made sauce, burnt butter and sage and quattro formaggi! Ah Delicious!

Well I don't know about you but this looks too good to just leave sitting there so bon appetit!