Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Interruptus ... more on the love affair ... can I call it an early F-F-F-Friday?

Once again, I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled program due to my own excitement over this ... You will recall from my previous F-F-F-Friday post when I talked about my love affair. Well now, The Boy has contributed to this love affair and taken it to a-whole-nother level by giving me the most wonderful Christmas gift. I'm telling you, it's crazy geeky.

Instead of explaining though, let me show you first ...


See what I mean? A thing of beauty, right? The coffee cup (from Nespresso) matches the capsule of the coffee that I drink all the time. If you turn the cup upside down, then the cup and the coffee capsule are the same shape!!!


And as you can see, they come in a whole range of colors for all the various flavored capsules that are available. I think the two above are the Finezzo Lungo (green) and the Vivalto Lungo (blue). Mine is the Decaffeinato Lungo, which is a muted peach pink color. But wait ... there's more ...


There is an entire range of cups for the Decaf range, from the regular Decaf (red - centre back) to the Decaf Lungo (muted peach - front left) and Decaf Intenso (burgundy - front right).

How's that for branding, marketing and just plain ol' catering to people's coffee drinking obsession? And for those of you who don't know, Nespresso is doing really, really well right now. They even have George Clooney as their spokesperson and there are some rather good ads out there featuring him.


Right now, I'm thinking that my coffee tastes even better in my matching cup, but let's face it ... that's likely just a figment of my imagination. That said, I'm enjoying the experience immensely.

So I ask you ... have I managed to convey the extent to which I love my coffee drinking experience and just how much I love my Christmas gift?




© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Potatoes ... all sorts - Part 2 of 2

Hello and welcome to part 2 of my potato world ... oh yes, and if you're still in that timezone where it's still Boxing Day - Happy Boxing Day and I hope you took advantage of the Boxing Day sales and got some fabulous bargains.

Anyhow, back to the potatoes ... I'm sure my potato world would expand since I'm rather keen on making some potato au gratin but need to come up with a suitable menu that would justify that dish.

So without further ado, here are the other recipes.

My RECIPE for crispy golden potatoes. A favorite of mine because it is super tasty. Since I've already posted this recipe previously, you can find it here.



I like to get the potatoes super, super crispy, so they are a very golden brown (just don't burn them). The crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, along with the herbs adding flavors to the potatoes make them super yummy and a great side dish.

The other potato dish that I particularly like is the hasselback potato. This one's pretty funky looking, which might be part of the reason I really like it, aside from the fact that it's mucho tasty too. Here's the RECIPE for it.



Ingredients (serves 12):
  • 24 (about 6kg) desiree potatoes
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 tbs coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
  • Salt & freshly ground black pepper
  • Grated parmessan cheese

Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 200°C
  • Wash potatoes and put in cold water, bring to boil and cook potatoes until soft but still firm
  • Take potatoes out of water
  • Place 1 potato on a board and cut into half lengthways.
  • Place the potato half between two chopsticks and slice evenly at 3mm to 5mm intervals (depending on how thin you want the intervals) all the way across the potato.
  • Repeat for all the potatoes.
  • Add oil, garlic and rosemary to potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Top potatoes with parmessan cheese.
  • Place in a greased roasting pan. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until golden brown and crisp.
  • Transfer to a serving bowl to serve.

This is a pretty big recipe since it serves 12, but of course, you can adjust the portions to the number of people you are serving. My rule of thumb again, one medium sized potato per person, but then, we don't eat a lot of potato. A friend of mine said that whenever they cooked potatoes in their house, they had to allow for 6 potatoes per person, which to me seems to be a whole lot of potatoes.

All these potatoes! Are you a potato lover? What's your favorite way of cooking potatoes? More importantly, what's your favorite way of eating your potatoes? 

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Monday, December 26, 2011

Merry Christmas!!!

Just wanted to stop in very quickly to say "Merry Christmas". I hope you had a wonderful day with your family, friends and loved ones.

We had a big day with the family, lots of food, lots of drink and lots of laughter ... and at the end of the day ... Turkey Coma!!! ~ That's Uncle Alfred after having too much to eat at lunch. :-)



© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Saturday, December 24, 2011

F-F-F-Friday (Part Deux) - Reading list

I wanted to write about my reading for the year since we're on the theme of reading with my last post but mostly, I'm doing this because I wanted to post all the pretty pictures of the covers of the books that I've read throughout the year.

I set myself a goal of reading 100 books this year and I have as of today exceeded it by 59 books. I'm expecting that by December 31st, I'll like go over by a few more. Goodreads keeps suggesting that I up my reading goal but I haven't done that so I'm sitting at 159% out of 100% which is actually quite nice. I suppose I could have upped my goal, but the reality was I wanted to see how I exceeded my original goal. Last year, I only read 101 books. This year I had started out very strong, reading an average of about 25 to 30 books a month, but that fell off in the middle of the year as life got busy and we traveled a bit.

My reading consists mostly of romances (I'm a sucker for a happy ending) in most of it's sub-genres (except possibly Westerns) with a few thrillers, suspense, humour and non fiction thrown in. I'm not counting the cookbooks that I read either 'cos that's just research.

Before I add all the pretty pictures of the book covers of books I've read, here are some of the highlights of my reading year: (not in any particular order, these books are all ones that have made an impact on my reading life - taken my breath away, made me laugh, made me cry, gave me characters that I cared about and made me want the book to last forever) ...






And now ... here are all the books I read this year ... (oooo ... pretty pictures ... ) *me making googly eyes*









Okay, I admit, this post has been rather self-indulgent. I'm rolling around in one of my great loves - reading. I'm also cheating by having two F-F-F-Friday posts so that I can indulge but WTH ... it's my blog and it's coming on Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone because that's tomorrow. I hope you have a wonderful time with family and loved ones.



© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

F-F-F-Friday - Judging...

This is a non cooking post ... of course, it's F-F-F-Friday. It's also the day before I have to make 20 creme brulees for Christmas Day dessert but more on that in another post.

So, I've committed to doing something rather huge right now. Not something that I'm very good at ... this whole committing to something thing. I'm always rather careful when I commit to something because I want to make sure I follow through.

What is this that I've committed to, you ask?

Answer: I'm judging a writing contest. It's for the Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) Emerald contest.


I've committed to judging 5 manuscripts in Round 1 which is December / January, and then judging 5 or 7 (I can't remember which) manuscripts in Round 2 which is January / February. This, of course, is going to keep me quite busy and to be honest, I'm rather excited about the whole thing since I just love reading.

I also feel quite honored that they would allow me to judge their writing contest. I'm getting to see manuscripts of books written by authors before they get published. Who knows, there might be a gem that I discover that will become the next Nora Roberts or Julia Quinn.

I haven't actually started the reading of the manuscripts yet, although, today, I did get organized. I'm up in The House, so I've been installing Microsoft Office onto the new 'puter so that I can use the scoring sheets that I've been provided. I've actually got the manuscripts sitting right here on my desk staring at me saying "Read me! Read me!" I plan on getting started tomorrow and reading at least two of them and scoring them. I'm hoping to get through this lot for Round 1 before the New Year starts.


For those of you who can't tell from the list of books that I've recently read in the sidebar of this blog, I read a lot of romance. Recently, I've been particularly fond of reading paranormal romance. It's a phase I'm going through. Anyhow, it looks like I've been sent quite a variety in the romance sub-genre. There's paranormal (current favorite), historical (oldie but goodie), erotic romance (hawt!), a fantasy / futuristic one (spaceships and robots!) and one on time travel (please don't let this be another Highlander trapped in a time capsule!). This is going to be FUN!

I'm going to have some fun now and post some covers of an example of books that are in the romance sub-genre of the manuscripts that I'm judging. It's just going to be fun to look for the book covers.

Note: the following book covers are for books of PUBLISHED authors and all of them darn good!!

Paranormal Romance

Historical Romance

Erotic Romance

Futuristic Romance

Time Travel Romance
Some other random things happening in my world right now:
  • We just installed Internet into The House. The House now feels less like a holiday home because I'm now CONNECTED!
  • We have a brand new phone number to The House for above-mentioned Internet. This brand new number has not been given out to anyone. No one at all besides me and The Boy have this number. Have already received several scam calls on it from random Indian person asking to speak to the Windows Operating System User. I hung up.
  • Christmas presents are all wrapped and Christmas letters sent. Presents did not exceed $50 per person (we're keeping it simple) and we sent out 125 letters. Postage costs a fortune!
  • One Christmas letter went to Iceland. Another went to Germany. Those were the two most exotic countries on the Christmas letter list.
  • I had a job interview yesterday, so the New Year may see me gainfully employed. Saying a prayer that I do get this job.

Well, tomorrow's Christmas Eve. I hope you have some fun things planned with family and loved ones. We're spending Christmas Eve with the best bud, his wife and his parents. We're going to gorge ourselves on food because the best bud being Italian, will OVER-feed us.

Christmas Day will see us with the parents and some relatives we haven't seen in donkey's years. It will be good to reconnect. I'm hoping the 20 creme brulees will go down well.

Then it's on to NYE, but I'm hoping to check in again before that. If I don't though ... have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.



© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Potatoes ... all sorts - Part 1 of 2

Okay, so I fibbed a little bit. I've found some time to do a bit more blogging and I'm posting something ... and it's about cooking! Fancy that!

So, how do you feel about potatoes? I have to say, I'm not a big fan. All that starch and carbs! I don't eat a lot of carbs, so unless it's a special dinner, potatoes don't make much of an appearance on my kitchen or on the dining room table. I always have onions, carrots and celery in the kitchen, along with garlic, parsley, thyme, broccoli and a few other things, but no potatoes. Right now though, there are potatoes in my kitchen, waiting on a dinner party for the boys tomorrow night. Six humongous unwashed (or brushed as they call it) potatoes.

I'm going to be making a mash to top the shepherd's pie I'm cooking. I think I might have too many potatoes and I'm still having trouble gauging quantity. Usually, my rule of thumb is one potato per person, medium sized of course, but since this goes on top of a dish and the dish is slightly larger than the recipe proportions, I'm guessing.

I have three ways that I like to cook my potatoes - mashed, hasselback or crispy, which tends to be a side dish or an accompaniment to the mains I'm cooking. I don't think I've ever cooked potatoes as the main dish, maybe I will at some point but again ... back to the starch and carb thing.

I know I harp on the starch and carb thing, but really, the more starch, the more carb and for me too much carbs = bad! However, ... and here's the good news - there's a way around that. It is possible not to activate the starch when cooking potatoes, so you end up with at least 2/3 less starch, hence less carbs. Hooray!! The trick? Keep as little water / liquid hitting the potato as possible when cooking it, and if you really need the water (like boiling it) then make sure you find a way to get rid of the water and dry out the potato before serving it. Who knew?

I'm going to provide 3 recipes today, which I don't often do, because it makes for a long post, so I'm splitting this into 2 posts.

Here's how to make the best mashed potatoes ever. I call it my RECIPE for restaurant mashed potatoes. You will experience the lightest, fluffiest, smoothest mashed potatoes every, just like in the restaurants.


Ingredients:
  • Potatoes (unwashed) – however many to be eaten based on number of people, usually one potato per person is plenty
  • Milk (about 1 cup, maybe a bit more if there are a lot of potatoes)
  • Butter (lots of it)
  • Herbs (to infuse into milk) – can use any herb of choice, rosemary, thyme, etc.
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Rock Salt  (for cooking)

Instructions:
  • Put a thick (1 cm) layer of rock salt at the bottom of a roasting pan (the rock salt can be re-used).
  • Put potatoes on pan, evenly spaced, on top of rock salt
  • Put into oven at 180 degrees C and roast for 1.5 hours
  • When potatoes are about ready, heat milk and put in herbs to infuse herb flavor into milk
  • Let potatoes cool a little (or keep in the oven at around 80 or 90 degrees C until ready to make)
  • Cut potatoes into half and scoop out insides into a mixing bowl
  • Add milk and butter and whisk gently until mashed
  • Add salt and pepper to taste and serve
I know it sounds weird but the bed of rock salt is important. It absorbs the liquid so that the starch in the potatoes does not get activated. Remember, no starch activated = less carbs = good.


This is what the potatoes look like when it's on the bed of rock salt and in the oven.






And after you've scooped all the potato out, this is what's left of the skins that you will toss away.



The Boy likes truffle mash, so instead of the herbs, I use truffle oil. I do everything the same as the above, except I do not add herbs into the milk when heating. What I do is while whisking the potatoes, I drizzle some truffle oil into the mix and whisk in. You don't need a lot, particularly if you get a good brand of truffle oil and you have strong flavor. It should be a subtle flavor and smell. If it's strong, you've used too much truffle oil.

I'll write about the hasselbacks and the crispies in my next post.

If you do make the mashed potatoes, do tell me about it. How did it go? Did you love it? Did it work for you? What did you add to it? 

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Merry Christmas 2011 and Happy New Year!!!

First off, apologies for being rather lax in my posting this week. It's heading into Christmas and hence, busy, busy. Presents, food, cooking, etc., etc. I know, I know, plenty of excuses, but truly, it's been hectic and will stay that way till after the New Year. I might not get many more posts up until the New Year. For today, I'm here to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Also posting our annual Christmas letter that we're sending out to friends and family .... oh yes ... in case you're wondering 'cos I haven't changed the names in the letter ... I'm "Deanna" and "Steve" = "The Boy". :-)


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

It’s hard to believe it’s that time of the year already. It was a year filled with the best of intentions, starting with the fact that since we missed sending out Christmas and New Year greetings last year, thinking to make up for it with sending out Easter greetings instead. As you are well aware, that did not happen. Well, better late than never, and hopefully, this has reached you in time or almost in time of the festive season.

We’ve had a rather busy year for 2011 with some significant events. Deanna turned 40. We celebrated out 10th wedding anniversary. Steve turned one year shy of the big Six-Oh at 59. 2012 will have another significant event in our lives.

Our year has been spent with some travel to the US to visit Steve’s family. Unfortunately, Steve’s dad suffered a severe stroke but we have been blessed with his miraculous recovery and he’s doing incredibly well now. Life is almost back to normal in the Shipley home in Minnesota as Steve’s dad’s recovery has been stupendous. We made two trips back to the US to visit and enjoyed the time a great deal.

We’ve also spent a lot of time in our home in the Hunter Valley. We’ve put some effort into setting it up into a proper home and now it feels like “our home”. We’ve been enjoying some significant time up there and splitting our time between the Hunter Valley and the city. Still loving living in the city but the Hunter is always a lovely time away and a nice break from the hustle and bustle of downtown Sydney living.

Aside from that, this year has been spent focusing on the relationships around us - spending lots of time with friends and family. We’ve started a Singles and Strays dinner several times a month, inviting friends who are on their own, either single or without their significant others to our home for a home cooked meal. There is usually lots of leftovers to be had for the boys too. We just had out last Singles and Strays dinner for the year which saw us enjoying a prawn and gorgonzola risotto, roasted pork belly with vegetables and salad, finished with a crème brulee. Deanna’s taken to and really loving cooking and Steve’s taken some cooking lessons too, so he’s helping out in the kitchen as well.

A very generous friend gave Steve a BBQ for his birthday this year and that’s making its home in the Hunter Valley. The BBQ is Steve’s domain and for the first meal, he cooked up ginger and soy tofu steaks, prosciutto wrapped asparagus and honey marinated chicken drumsticks. It was a very delicious dinner.

Speaking of relationships, we want you to know that you are remembered fondly this holiday season. We wish you and your family good health and happiness, and hope to be able to catch up with you in the New Year. God Bless.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

F-F-F-Friday - More girly stuff

I'm posting this early because I'm not going to be around tomorrow. 

Remember when I talked about my nails and that fabulous nail system that I found called Shellac? I want to be girly again and talk about my nails some more. I could also talk about makeup but that would be some seriously girly stuff and I don't know that I have that much girly in me to even have enough content for a blog post ... but I will work on it! *grin*

So, back to the nails ... I had tried the Shellac system out for the first time and the nails looked great. I then went back a second time to have them re-done after exactly 13 days (one day shy of the advertised 14 days that the nail polish would last). I could have held out a few days longer but the polish on one of the nails had lifted at the bottom. (See, I told you this would be very girly).


I chose to go for a nice clean, classic look - the French Manicure. It turned out beautifully and looked wonderful. Everything I wanted it to be ... except ... for someone who cooks, white tips are a disaster.


On the first night that I had them, I was wrestling with a blue swimmer crab. Crab-1, my nails-0. I chipped the tip of one of the nails. It was not pretty, at least to the OCD perfectionist in me. I went back in and had the nail touched up the next day, only to run the tip of another nail over the edge of a cast iron pot as I was cooking, leaving a dull brown smudge on top of the white tip. Pot-1, my nails-0.At that point, my nails were running on a losing streak.

After putting up with the smudge on my nail for a few days and getting increasingly annoyed with it (yes, I'm easily annoyed at times!) I decided that I just could not put up with the white tips any longer and booked myself in to get my nails re-done, even though they didn't need them, because for the most part, and that part is about 99.98%, they were perfect. I did it anyway. The girl at the manicurist's even commented on how soon I was back to get my nails re-done.

See my pretty nails?

This time, being older and wiser (by all of 4 days!), I picked a lovely nude color with a shimmer on top, which was very similar to the color that I had on previously, which had weathered all the cooking without a scratch or smudge. It's a very practical color and quite pretty, but very understated. The Boy doesn't like it very much 'cos he likes the clean lines of the French Manicure, otherwise, he prefers the brighter colors, like a lovely fire engine red or a bright coral. All that said, I'm sticking with practical.


The point of all this? When cooking a lot and using your hands in what you do, white tips are not practical. I like practical. I like things that work properly. I like not having smudges on my nails. That's the whole reason I'm getting my nails done in the first place.

Comment from The Boy, " I'm not fussed about you getting your nails done, but I have to say, your nails are looking fantastic since you've started getting them done though." *happy dance* The Boy actually NOTICED the nails. *smile*

Anyhow, thanks for bearing with me and all my girly-ness. And if you're wanting to get your nails done, do check out the Shellac system.

Do you like getting your nails done? Or even a manicure or a pedicure? Is it something you consider a necessity or a luxury? What's your favorite color to put onto your nails?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Spaghetti aglio, olio e pepperoncino and another dinner party

I'm planning another dinner party ... there's a surprise! It's of course with my two favorite boys, Ramtin and Andrew, but this time I'm also adding two more boys, Angelo (an ex-colleague of The Boy's) and Rohan (our realtor).

I asked Ramtin and Andrew to choose the menu for the dinner party, since I thought it might be nice to revisit some of their favorites from past dinners.

This is what they picked:

For a starter - spaghetti aglio, olio e pepperoncino, which is a lovely spaghetti tossed in olive oil, garlic, chili and parsley. A super simple dish and amazingly tasty.


For the main - crustless quiche with bacon and tomato and shepherd's pie. I'm going to match that with a big bowl of green leafy salad with different types of lettuce, cucumber, Spanish onion, fennel and grape tomatoes, tossed in a plum vinegar dressing.

For dessert - I've made a caramel ice cream and I'm going to match that with a sticky date pudding and caramel sauce.

So that's it. A pretty simple dinner menu for the most part. Timing is going to be simple too. I can cook the shepherd's pie earlier in the afternoon and have it all ready to pop in the oven when the time comes. The quiche is a very quick mix and pop into the oven and the salad would only take a few minutes to toss together. Not much needs to be done beforehand, so unlike the French themed dinner party, I don't think I will be spending the entire day cooking.

Here's my favorite way to eat spaghetti, the RECIPE to the spaghetti aglio, olio e pepperoncino:

Ingredients:
  • 1 bunch fresh Continental parsley
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • A pinch of chilli
  • A pinch of salt
  • Olive oil
  • Spaghetti
  • Parmesan cheese to garnish

Instructions:
  • In a separate pot, cook spaghetti until al dente until almost ready, then
  • Chop parsley very finely
  • Mince garlic with pinch of salt
  • In a heated frying pan, pour in olive oil and heat
  • Put in parsley and garlic and brown garlic gently in pan, throw in pinch of chilli
  • When spaghetti is ready, ladle into frying pan and mix with garlic, parsley and chilli
  • Add a little water (about ½ cup) to the pan while mixing spaghetti with garlic, parsley and chilli
  • Serve in plates straight from pan and garnish with parmesan cheese
  • Eat hot

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do.


Is there a particular type of pasta that you always lean towards? Creamy sauce? Tomato sauce? Tossed in olive oil? What's your favorite way of eating your pasta?

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Friday, December 2, 2011

F-F-F-Friday - Gadgets

When it comes to cooking, I have to admit that I'm a traditionalist. Now don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean I'm stuck in the mud about things or anything like that, but I do believe that if I can do it with a knife and a minimum of gadgets, I'd do it. That said, I've recently come to realise that some gadgets are good.

My Global knives. I *LOVE* them.
You can't go wrong with a good set of knives.

For example, ever tried to whisk eggs into a meringue by hand? Or mayonnaise? Slow and not to mention tiring! Or having to finely chop and mince an entire bulb of garlic or two by hand? Also slow and the arm starts to get a little tired after a while. Oh, hang on! I've already mentioned slow and tiring!


Anyhow, I love my stick blender, especially when it comes to making soups. I do not need to pour out hot soup or wait for it to cool before processing it. It does a fine job. Just need to make sure that whatever stick blender you get, make sure it has the most powerful motor you can find. Trust me on this one, you'll thank me later.


I also think a mixer is fabulous. For whisking egg whites, mixing cake batter, and all things associated with baking and making assorted desserts. Doing any of that by hand is not a fun thing. Also, for making your own mayonnaise (which tastes heaps better than bought stuff, by the way!) it's much easier to dribble the oil into the eggs if the mixer is doing the whisking for you, and it's much more consistent. There you have it, gadget number two.


Recently, I had to mince a whole lot of garlic. An entire bulb of garlic which is equals at least 10 cloves. Now, one clove of garlic is kinda fun to mince by hand and I like keeping the knife skills sharp but 10 cloves just starts to get tedious. This is where one does not poo-poo a gadget, not at all! I used the mini food processor attachment that came with my stick blender. Stuck the peeled garlic cloves into it, pressed the "turbo" button and it took about 3 seconds. It was so fast, I was surprised! An excellent use of a gadget as a productivity tool.


A note on garlic: forget the garlic mincer or garlic press thingy. Seriously, when it's just one clove of garlic, use a knife! It's quicker and much easier to clean. I've been told that a garlic press is a bitch to clean. The Boy bought a garlic press for me. It's still in its packaging!

Aside from those gadgets, there are not many other gadgets I use in the kitchen when cooking, except for one thing - the latest addition into my kitchen ... a Thermomix.


It's supposed to be a food processor, blender, mixer, mincer, chopper, cooking, kneading, one-stop shop wonder machine for your kitchen. It does all of the following for you - chop, beat, mix, whip, grind, knead, mince, grate, juice, blend, heat, stir, steam and weigh food.

It was sold to me as a "this will do all your cooking for you and you will never have to cook the traditional way again" gadget, but you know what? I like cooking - cooking the old fashioned way. It took me MONTHS of hemming and hawing before I finally decided I would get the gadget. Of course, since it was expensive, more consideration had to go into the decision making process. I did not want another gadget that would sit in the cupboard not being used.

When I finally decided to get the Thermomix, it was because I wanted it for the following reasons - baking, food processor, blender, mincer, some mixing, possibly some chopping but NOT cooking. It was also because I was considering getting a food processor and I would be getting quite a few additional gadgets (if I decided to get additional gadgets) on top of the food processor. The Thermomix is an incredible food processor, with a motor you just cannot kill.

The Thermomix arrived and I have tried cooking with it. I did NOT like it at all. It did not feel like cooking. I felt cheated of the whole cooking experience, which I really enjoyed. The thing I love about cooking is the cooking itself. Having a machine do my cooking for me just was not right.

I tried a salad for lunch, that took about 3 minutes to prepare and then 5 seconds in the Thermomix to make. That was it! Lunch was done. Needless to say, I felt cheated. I can't even say I made lunch.

Then I tried it again for dinner and decided to make a chicken curry using a Thermomix recipe I found (I will convert the recipe for regular cooking in another post, since it was a pretty tasty curry). Again, very unsatisfying. It tasted good enough, but that's 'cos I know how to adjust my spices to make it tasty, but I think it required more cooking time to give it more depth of flavor (something that slow cooking would give it). It was cooked, but it was not cooked enough, if that makes sense. How long did that take me to make? The prep was about 7 minutes and the process with the Thermomix was about 30 minutes, including each step with the different stages, chopping, mixing, heating, cooking. It would have been done in 20 but I extended the cooking time another 10 minutes, just to give the spices some time in the "pot" to develop.

At least now I have given "cooking" with the Thermomix a try and can say that I've done it and it didn't grab me. I'll stick to the reasons that I bought it for - which is to help me with my baking, making ice creams and sorbets and for The Boy, he's excited about it crushing ice. We've killed a few blenders crushing ice in the past.

Don't get me wrong - these are NOT the only gadgets in my kitchen, but these are the ones that I use the most of. There are others, of course, that I've accumulated from the past that still take up space in my cupboards that I don't use quite as often. There's my egg boiler / cooker - which I love, my rice cooker, muffin maker, juicer, old blender, sandwich maker, electric wok ... and possibly a few others I've forgotten. They are going to get turfed pretty soon, to make more room. It all depends on how ruthless I'm going to be when I clean up the kitchen.

Do you have any kitchen gadgets that you particularly love? What do you use the most often? Do you have a gadget that you could not live without? Why limit it to the kitchen? What other gadgets are there in your life that you love and could not live without?



© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

Monday, November 28, 2011

Risotto, risotto, risotto

Hands up the people who love risotto! I can't say that I am one of them, mostly because I don't eat a lot of carbs, and hence I do not cook a lot of carbs. This led to The Boy saying the other day: "I walked down the pasta aisle at Coles the other day and had pasta envy". Bottomline, he wanted me to cook more pasta. Risotto is not pasta, but it's Italian and it's carbs. And The Boy does like risotto.

A common myth about risotto - which I would like to dispel right away. You DO NOT stir risotto. Stirring aggravates the starch, which leads to carbs, which leads to all those things they say you should not have carbs for. Instead, you should just agitate (or flip) the pan you are cooking the risotto in (not a pot) and only stir (very gently) occasionally in order to make sure that all the rice is coated in stock. Repeat after me, "stirring, bad!". If you cook pasta or rice al dente, and do not stir or beat it around roughly, you do not activate the carbs. Result? 2/3 less carbs in the pasta or rice you are eating. Much better for you.

I'm not strong enough to flip the pan, so I agitate it, which basically means shaking it back and forth on the burner. I shudder to think that that shaking back and forth, metal on metal, on the burner will do to the bottom of my pan, but that's the point of using the pan the correct way, I guess.

In case you are wondering what I mean by agitating, flipping or shaking back and forth, here's a video that will show you how to do it, courtesy of someone who has uploaded the vid. Note the shaking back and forth before the flipping. The flipping is pretty impressive, but I'm not strong enough to do that, so I just shake it. This vid is shot using a wok. It doesn't matter wok or fry pan.


Okay, so onto making the risotto. Here's the RECIPE for making a base risotto. From this base, you can pretty much make any type of risotto.


Ingredients:
  • 1 onion diced
  • 2 or 3 garlic cloves, finely minced (more garlic, if you like it)
  • 1 litre stock (type depends on the risotto you are making, either chicken or vegetable) per 2 cups of rice
  • 2 cups of Arborio rice
  • 75g of unsalted butter
  • Olive oil
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of Parmesan cheese for texture

Instructions:
  • Heat stock and bring to boil. Turn off heat but make sure that stock stays hot
  • Put frying pan (large enough for the amount of risotto you are making) on medium heat and add olive oil
  • Put onions and garlic into pan and saute till onions are translucent
  • Melt butter into pan and when butter is melted add rice
  • Coat rice in butter by flipping pan (do not stir - you don't want to activate the starch) and brown over heat for a few minutes
  • When rice starts to turn a lovely yellow color, add one 3/4 ladle of stock to the pan
  • Simmer stock in pan, flipping pan occasionally, until stock is absorbed
  • Add more stock and repeat until rice is al dente. This means the rice needs to be firm but not hard (and the rice does not crunch).

Note: you can occasionally use a spatula and gently scrape along the sides of the pan or turn over the rice from bottom to top, to make sure all the rice is covered by stock and absorbing

I learned that while doing this, my pan was a little too hot at the beginning and I had to turn the heat down. The result of the pan being too hot was that all my stock was evaporating and it was not being absorbed into the rice. That is not good.

So that's the base risotto. What happens next is that you add whatever flavoring you want to make it a risotto of your choice.

For a mushroom risotto:


Ingredients:
  • A whole bunch of different types of mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped

Instructions:
  • About 2/3 way through the stock absorption process of the rice, add in the mushrooms and fold through mushrooms to make sure the mushrooms are mixed through the rice
  • Continue to add stock until risotto is al dente.
  • When risotto is al dente, add Parmesan cheese for texture
  • After Parmesan cheese is mixed in, just before serving, gently fold through parsley to add a bit of color to the dish
  • Top the risotto with a small handful of rocket salad in a white wine vinegar and dijon mustard dressing

    Note: The mushrooms will release liquid, so watch this to determine how much more stock to add. Also, you want the risotto to have enough liquid in it yet, so that it falls off individually from the spoon when scooped up, instead of being clumpy.  You can add a bit more stock for this.

    For a pumpkin and goat cheese risotto:


    Ingredients:
    • 4 cups grated pumpkin
    • 1 packet goat cheese fetta crumbled

    Instructions:
    • Grate the pumpkin
    • About 2/3 way through the stock absorption process of the rice, add in the grated pumpkin and fold through to make sure the pumpkin are mixed through the rice
    • Continue to add stock until risotto is al dente.
    • When risotto is al dente, add Parmesan cheese for texture
    • After Parmesan cheese is mixed in, serve into plates
    • Sprinkle a small amount of the crumbled goat cheese on top of the risotto
    • Top the risotto with a small handful of rocket salad in a white wine vinegar and dijon mustard dressing

    For the rocket salad:


    Ingredients:
    • Packet of rocket, whatever amount is needed to serve the number of people you are serving
    • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
    • Pinch of salt and pepper

    Instructions:
    • Mix white wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon, salt and pepper together to make dressing
    • Pour over rocket and mix through
    • Serve

    Note: do not mix dressing into salad until just before serving, otherwise the rocket will wilt.

    There you have it, 2 variations of risotto from that one base. Of course, there are lots of different variations that you can concoct now that you know that base risotto.

    Chicken and chorizo sausage is a very tasty variation and works great as a main meal. With the chorizo though, while frying it in a pan with the onions and garlic, it will release oil, because of the fat in the sausage. You want that oil to coat the rice along with the butter because that will give you all that lovely smoked chorizo flavor.

    Another one that I like is chicken and green peas. It's a very clean simple dish and the peas add a lovely dash of color to the pale chicken risotto.

    The sky's the limit. Enjoy!

    So, are you going to try these risotto dishes? How do you like the variations? What would you like to add to the basic risotto recipe to make it essentially your own? 

    © This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny’s Fortunes Pty Ltd

    Friday, November 25, 2011

    F-F-F-Friday - Helping My Girl Cook

    I've got The Boy back to write my F-F-F-Friday post for me because he did such a fabulous job the last time. Plus, I just love hearing from him. So .... here's The Boy ....

    After a year of being the beneficiary of my wonderful wife’s delicious cooking, I decided to take some cooking lessons myself.

    I did this for three primary reasons:
    • I realised what a large chore it was for her to do on her own, and I felt I could help her out when needing to take some of the pressure off,
    • I remembered how cooking (I used to do a lot of Chinese cooking 25 years ago, but was self-taught) concentrated my attention on cooking and pushed work to the background and felt I would benefit from that again,
    • And I felt that better understanding and participating in the cooking process would provide healthier and better tasting foods and also help me to better select matching wines for the meal

    Most importantly, since my dad’s massive stroke (and remarkable recovery, thank God), I have taken to making my occupation the one of living and not working (of course, one still needs to work to make a living, but it is a matter of setting the right priorities). There is nothing more basic than preparing and eating meals and relating to others, so the focus on cooking has helped me to achieve that goal. It does take some time to learn and practice and also the time to prepare the meals, but it has been a fulfilling experience and as with most things, it is not a matter of time, but rather one of priority. Once I placed cooking, health and socialising with great friends higher on the list, I made the time and you can too.

    Christmas cooking class, which involves drinking
    with friends too

    I have had six lessons so far, including three lessons from Cooking for Blokes, a great program in North Sydney, a special Christmas cooking lesson and special knife skills lesson from Cooking for Blokes, and recently a How to Cook Pasta lesson from Sandalyns in the Hunter Valley. I have loved the experience as it has provided me with a deeper understanding and more confidence to take on more myself.

    My Girl still plans the meals when we have guests over and controls the kitchen, but I participate more. Additionally, I have been doing a few meals on my own for us, including making a cauliflower soup and a chicken risotto and tonight will be preparing a mushroom and sausage risotto. Additionally, in two weeks’ time, we will congregate with close friends at our place in the Hunter Valley to have a cooking, eating and drinking weekend among great friends – kind of like The Big Chill, but without the funeral and neuroticism! Each couple will lead the preparation of a meal, we will all cook, sit around and eat, drink and socialise and have a great time of it.


    Resources available to help you get started are this blog, which provides a number of recipes and instructional material and here is the link for Cooking for Blokes which is a great way to learn and improve. It is for blokes, but also for women (this is where DAZ first trained!) and they have a six lesson Level 1 course followed by numerous Level 2 courses, provided by one of the Masterchef finalists.
    I have learned to cook and have more confidence and fun doing so and so can you. It is not as intimidating as it might appear!

    Wednesday, November 23, 2011

    Hamming it up

    Well in my previous post, I talked about turkey, not done the traditional way. :-)

    Today, I'm going to talk about ham, done the traditional way :-) but with a super delicious glaze (which is not so traditional after all *grin*). Plus I love ham in all it's various incarnations - ham and cheese croissant, ham and cheese sandwich, sliced ham on it's own, honey baked sliced ham, ham off the bone ... you name it, I'm a ham lover, so I'm super excited about this post.


    The only thing I would say in warning about ham is to make sure that it is not too large, so that it fits into your oven. Of course, if you have a super large oven, then you can have a super large ham, but if you're like me and have a dinky oven, just be mindful of the size of the ham. I always like a super big ham, but I'm constrained by the size of my oven. Argh!

    Anyhow, enough of the chit chat ... on to the ham ...

    Preparing the ham:


    Ingredients:
    • 1 leg of ham
    • 20 - 30 whole cloves
    • Ham glaze (I'll put the RECIPE below)


    Instructions:
    • Take the leg of ham out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature
    • Remove the skin off the ham but leave the layer of fat using a ham slicing knife
    • Using a paring knife or a chef's knife if you prefer, lighting cut into the fat of the ham to create a cross-hatch pattern in about 1.5cm diamonds
    • Using whole cloves, stick them into the diamonds on the fat of the ham, scattering them evenly around the surface of the ham
    • Once the cloves are in, turn the oven onto 180dC
    • Place the ham into a roasting pan
    • Pour all of the glaze over the ham, making sure that it's evenly coated all over the ham
    • Put the ham into the oven and roast for 1 to 1.5 hours depending on the size of the ham. You want the ham to cook through to about 65dC, so use a meat thermometer and check the core temp of your ham before removing it from the oven
    • When your ham is done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for about 30 minutes, carve and serve


    RECIPE for the glaze:

    Ingredients:
    • 250g mango chutney
    • 75g dijon mustard
    • 150g brown sugar
    • 250ml orange juice
    • Zest of 1 orange
    • Bunch of cloves

    Instructions:
    • Mix all ingredients throughly together

    And that's it. That's how you make a rather yummy Christmas ham. Of course, it doesn't have to be Christmas for you to enjoy a ham. You can always get a smaller leg to cook for just everyday use. A leg of ham usually keeps quite well in the fridge wrapped up in some paper towels to absorb any excess moisture. You can get a good 10 days out of the ham that way, I have found. Much better staying power than sliced ham from the deli.