winosandfoodies

World Blog Day 2007

Blog Day  was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.

Here are my five recommended blogs.

My Marrakesh  I discovered Maryam's blog after another favourite blogger Jennifer gave her a mention.  Maryam leads a busy life with writing assignments, while also building a guest house in Morocco.

Patricia Gray - Patricia is an award winning interior designer based in Vancouver. I discovered her  blog on Mayam's site.

Le Petit Cabinet De Curiosites - I discovered Melanie after she left a comment on my blog. Melanie has a shop in the south of France selling a mix of antiques, curiosites and decorations. 

Mayogi @ Home - Mayogi visited my blog after Maryam mentioned Winos and Foodies on  My Marrakesh. She also lives in Morocco and I'm enjoying following her house renovations.

I'm going to mention two other non food blogs I've been reading for a while. Some of you will already know them as Sam's  Mum ChrisB , and sister Beccy.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart

I am now a Daring Baker and I have the scars to prove it.  My first challenge was this Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart chosen by  Veronica and Patricia .  The first thing was to make the pastry case. Which I did in my removable base tart pan. All was going smoothly until I removed the pan from the oven. Somewhere between oven and bench my hand ended up in the wrong place and I saw the middle of the pastry case rise up in the air. I could cope with picking up the beans used in the blind baking but there was no way I wanted pastry crumbs all over the kitchen floor. In my attempt to catch the pastry, which I did successfully, the outer ring ended up halfway down my arm between wrist and elbow, leaving a long double lined burn on  my inner arm.

The pastry case was rescued with a couple of cracks in the crust. I knew if I used it for the caramel layer I would end up with most of the caramel on the bottom of my oven. Luckily there was plenty of pastry and certainly enough for a second pastry case, this time in a ceramic dish.

Reading the others comments on the special Daring Bakers website, who had been there ahead of me on the caramel making front, I was a bit nervous about the dry caramel method.  Using a heavy based  saucepan on a heat mat placed over the gas flame I melted the sugar very slowly. I looked away for a moment and it went a little darker than planned.  Not a bad thing though as I liked the end result of the caramel layer.

Then wearing my rubber washing up gloves and a long wooden spoon I added the cream which I had heated first. It didn't spit or hiss but quietly blended itself into the caramel. There were a few lumps but they dissolves as I stirred.

The chocolate mousse layer looks a little dark because although the packet said milk chocolate it was more dark than milk.

Finally the toffee layer on the top. This time I watched it carefully as the sugar melted slowly  and bubbled to hard caramel perfection.

Personally I didn't like the  tart. Far too sweet for me, too many flavours clashing in the pastry, and I didn't like the texture of  the chocolate mousse. The men in the house couldn't get enough of it, the nieghbours enjoyed it and I've been craving savoury ever since I ate my slice.  I did enjoy the left over toffee though.

The Daring Bakers is the brainchild of Ivonne  and Lisa . Thank you  Ivonne for inviting me to join this lovely bunch of baking bloggers. And a big thank you to Veronica and Patricia  for hosting the August challenge. 

Hay Hay The Gnocchi Roundup

Lynn has posted the Hay Hay Its Donna Day Gnocchi round up .  There are all sorts of gnocchi beginning with Lynn's Basil Ricotta Gnocchi to my Gnudi Gnocchi with several dessert gnocchi in between. Head on over and read the round up and vote .

Send an e-mail with your vote to staranise.ld [at] gmail [dot] com by September 1, 2007. The lucky winner will have the opportunity of hosting the next Hay Hay It's Donna Day.

Rosemary Honeyed Oranges

Ivonne   and Lis  are celebrating   la festa al fresco again and have asked us to bring a dish for the table using a seasonal ingredient.  I'm taking along some orange slices steeped in rosemary and honey for the dessert table.

For each serving use one orange, one table spoon of honey and a little chopped rosemary.
Peel and slice oranges removing all the white pith. Slice through into circles.
Warm honey and add crushed rosemary leaves and steep for 15 minutes.
Pour over the orange slices and serve.

See you at the party.

Moroccan Inspired Muffins For Maryam

Thanks to Jennifer  I recently discovered My Marrakesh  and came to know Maryam.  We exchanged a few emails, mostly about food.  When Maryam said she couldn't buy blueberries in Marrakesh I decided to create a muffin she could make with local ingredients.  When I think of Morocco I think of tangines  with dried fruits, couscous, preserved  lemons, pine nuts  and  mint tea. These are my blueberry muffins gone Moroccan.

MOROCCAN MUFFINS
1  3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup natural yogurt
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped dates
Topping
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(I meant to include a few slivers of preserved lemon in the topping but forgot. I think it would work quite well)

Preheat oven to 200C
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder together.
Add apricots and dates and mix in.
Blend butter, sugar, yogurt, eggs.
Add to dry ingredients.
Spoon into muffin pans lined with paper cases.
Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle over muffins
Bake at 200C for 20 minutes or until cooked.

Serve warm with butter.

Vanilla Braised Lamb

Casseroles don't make the prettiest pictures even though they can taste sensational. As did this lamb casserole we had for dinner this week.  The original recipe from Valli Little in Delicious  magazine calls for beef cheeks and suggests ordering them from your butcher. Not wanting to wait for beef cheeks I  decided to go ahead using lamb neck chops.  Never having eaten beef cheeks I have no idea what they are like. I suspected they would produce a gelatinous casserole and a neck chops were a meat on the bone that could take long slow cooking.

VANILLA BRAISED LAMB
6 lamb neck chops
2 tablespoons plain flour, seasoned
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion and 1 carrot,chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup (250ml) dry red wine
2 cups (500ml) good quality beef stock
1 vanilla bean, split
1/4 cup (50g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 each of thyme sprigs and bay leaves

Preheat oven to 180C.
Pat lamb dry with with paper towels, then toss in seasoned flour.
Heat oil in large flameproof casserole.
Cook lamb in batches, over medium heat for 2 minutes each side or until sealed.Remove meat from casserole and stir in onion, carrot and garlic for 1 minute.
Add wine, stock, vanilla, sugar and herbs. Bring to the boil and return lamb to the pan.
Place a circle of baking paper on the surface and cover with a lid.
Cook in oven for 2 hours.
Remove lamb and reduce sauce over high heat for 2 - 3 minutes until slightly reduced. (Mine didn't need reducing.)
Check seasoning and return lamb to pan.
Serve with mashed potatoes.

Could Valli Little, food editor of Delicious Magazine, be the new Donna?   This is the second  Valli recipe I've made this week. And I have bookmarked a couple more of her recipes to try soon.

Coffee With George - Quoi d'autre

I first heard about the Nespresso  when Melissa once mentioned how much she loved her Nespresso machine.  I've wanted one ever since. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking seriously about purchasing one.  I started to do a little research on the web, then I saw an advert  with George and decided that was the machine  I wanted. 

Two weeks ago, there they were - at the Auckland Food Show . I sampled a coffee, chatted with the salesman, rang Bryan for his opinion, took Marina  over to get her opinion and finally came home with one.  It probably wouldn't suit the super serious coffee drinker who likes to grind there own beans,  but I'm more than happy.  I just turn it on, pop the capsule in and press start. No measuring or grinding beans....and it looks so cool sitting on my bench without taking up too much space. They have smaller ones for really tiny kitchens. It comes with a little jug that plugs in and heats the milk for either a flat white or cappuccino .  The jug only heats enough milk for one so when there is more than just me for coffee I heat the  milk  in  a saucepan on the  stove.

This is a great example of the power of blogging -  I read about the Nespresso on a blog written by an American living in Paris and yet the Nespresso has been available in New Zealand for 12 months. I didn't know about the What Else add until I saw it on  Youtube .  And here I am giving them even more free publicity.  Seriously though, I love my Nespresso.

Chocolate Shortbread....and an Award

From the August 2007 edition of Delicious this Chocolate Shortbread is a little like a biscuit and a little like a brownie. I served them after dinner with espresso coffee and small glass of Grand Marnier du cent cinquantenaire .

CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD

300g unsalted butter
220g ( 1cup) caster sugar
375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
5 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
11/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
icing sugar, to dust

Grease and line base and sides of a 18cm x 28cm lamington pan.
Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters until pale.
Sift in flour, cocoa and soda and beat slowly until just combined.
Spread in pan and smooth with a spatula. Prick all over with a fork. Chill for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180C. Cook shortbread for 25 minutes or until firm to the touch.
While still hot use a knife to score into 12 pieces. Cool slightly, then remove from the pan and cut into 12 pieces. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Shortbread will keep for 3 - 4 days in an airtight container.

Thank you to the lovely Helene at Tartlette who thinks I deserve to receive the Schmooze award.  I'm honoured to be included with Helen's other recipients.

I'll take a few days to think about who I'd like to pass it on to.

Happy Birthday Bron

What would an Aussie  living in New Zealand  give to a New Zealand blogger on her birthday? 

Dan  was far too busy training for the World Cup. .........and anyway Bron is happily married to a lovely man.

So Bron,  here's a pav  made by an Aussie with love.  Have a great day.

Wine Blog Discoveries

I've just discovered a  wine  blog using pictures instead of words to describe wine.

CHATEAU PETROGASM

No Knead Chicken

If you have ever cooked chicken by the Zuni Café  method in your regular oven you will know how it can really make a mess of your oven.  We don't all have wood fired pizza ovens in our back yard and after all that oven cleaning I was about to give up eating chicken cooked this way. Then I got to wondering if the no no knead bread baking method might work with chicken.

I salted the chicken and left it sitting on the bench while I heated the cast iron pan in the oven  set at  250 Celsius.  I put the chicken in breast side down, top on and baked it for 1 hour. After 1 hour I removed the lid and turned it over and with the lid off put it back in the oven for a further 15 minutes.  The skin is not as crisp as the Zuni Café method but the taste is as good.  Next time I'll even make the Bread Salad. to go with it.

UPDATE:  the cooking time will depend on the size of the chicken. I've been experimenting a little since my original post.  Today I cooked a 1.5 kg chicken breast side up for 50 minutes, then 10 minutes with lid off pot. It was perfect.

The original No Knead Bread recipe can be found here .

Hay Hay Donna Its Gnudi Gnocchi.

It's not quite  a gnudi as I used the original Donna Hay basic gnocchi recipe which contains flour. Gnudi traditionally contain little or no flour.  Read more about the difference  here .

I started with  the basic gnocchi recipe from Donna

500 grams(1 lb) fresh ricotta cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup plain all-purpose flour
sea salt and cracked black pepper

Place the ricotta, Parmesan, eggs, flour, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well to combine.
Turn out the mixture on a lightly floured surface and roll into 4 15cm (6 in)long ropes. Cut into 2cm (3/4 in) lengths and press lightly with the back of a fork.

Then I switched to my adaptation of the gnudi method from the Spotted Pig which is in the latest Delicious magazine.

Pour a thin layer of semolina flour in a shallow baking dish.  Roll  teaspoonsful of dough into  balls and drop onto the flour. Refrigerate for several hours uncovered. (True gnudi are tablespoon size)

Place 60 grams butter in  a fry pan over medium heat and cook for two minutes or until foaming. Add sage leaves and fry until crisp and butter is golden brown and nutty smelling. Remove from the heat, use a slotted spoon to transfer the leaves to a paper towel and reserve the brown butter in a bowl.

Place in a large saucepan of salted water over high heat. Bring to a boil and cook the gnocchi in batches for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through.  They will rise to the top when cooked. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. 

Reserve a half cup water and place in a large fry pan with another 60 grams butter.

Gently transfer the cooked  gnocchi to the fry pan and cook for 1 - 2 minutes or until liquid reduces a little. Add a tablespoon grated Parmesan to pan and shake pan to combine and cook for 30 seconds or until sauce is a coating consistency.

Transfer gnocchi to plates and drizzle with sauce. Drizzle reserved brown butter over and top with the sage leaves. I was unable to get sage leaves so used garlic chives.

They were sensational. The gnocchi were as light as a feather. This is a much easier way to make gnocchi than rolling dough into ropes and cutting off lengths. I didn't bother marking them with a fork.

The Day I Met Tetsuya

I had decided I wouldn't go to the Auckland Food Show  this year.  The exhibitors are always the same with nothing new or exciting to offer and they never have interesting chefs on Preview Day. Preview Day is the first day of the show, tickets are more expensive and the numbers  limited.  It is less crowded than the other days.  Although this  Preview Day felt like there were too many people. 

Then I heard Tetsuya  would be appearing at the Preview Day.  So there I was on the day, lined up with all the other Tetsuya fans  waiting for the gates to open.  He was scheduled to present at 2.30 in the afternoon.   Marina  and I made plans to meet in the theatre at 10.30AM to watch the Bill Grainger presentation.  I arrived a few minutes early and sat in an empty row  at the back waiting for the current show to finish.  Sitting in the empty row in front of me was a man looking remarkably like Tetsuya.  Yep it was Tets himself.   Here was my chance to chat with the great chef.   I'm sure I  babbled like a starstruck teenager as I told him how much I admired him and how I'd enjoyed dining  in his restaurant.  Then I grabbed someone and had them take a photo of me and Tetsuya.  I don't look so good in it so it's one I'll only share with family.

Along with all the other hundreds of Tetsuya fans I arrived early to get a front row seat.  We all  sat through the preceding wine presentation and 5 minutes before Tetsuya was due to begin, the compere announced the two front rows were reserved for the management and staff of Electrolux, the sponsors of the theatre, and would we please all move.  I looked at the people either side of me. One guy, an apprentice chef, said "I've driven three hours to be here for this and I have to drive three hours home after". The guy on the other side said "I've been sitting in this seat for two hours and there is no way I'm moving".  Not one person in the two front rows moved and the Electrolux staff sat elsewhere.

I haven't quite come to terms with my new point and shoot  camera and I'm not happy with any photos I took on the day. I did want to share one of Tetsuya's dishes - these are the  New Zealand Scampi tails.

 

Awards Week

It feels a little like the Grammys around here this week.

Thank you  to Ed at Wino Sapien who thinks I deserve a  Thinking Blogger Award.  He writes great wine reviews and you should visit his blog and check them out. I won't tag anyone for this as I was first tagged back in April and have already passed it on.

I'm honoured to have been nominated twice as a Rocking Girl Blogger. Two very special bloggers, one in Japan and one in the Philippines, think I rock.  Thank you Joey at 80 Breakfasts and Kat at Our Adventures In Japan .  I think they rock and I would nominate them if they weren't already Rocking Girl Bloggers.

The rules are to nominate 5 other girl bloggers.  I'm going to break the rules and nominate just one as many of my favourite bloggers are already wearing the Rock Chick badge.

The Old Foodie - Janet is great fun. We spent a wonderful afternoon together last year when I was in Brisbane (scroll down to see us) drinking wine and eating cheese..... and after one to many wines, trying to make coffee with her husbands very sophisticated espresso machine .  This month she is off to London to attend the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery .  And as if that wasn't enough she has also landed herself a book deal .  I'm so looking forward to hearing about the Oxford Symposium when we meet up again later this year.