Good dish in the restaurant gets my imagination going and my creative juices flowing. Perfect meal out is the one I want to replicate at home. Here is the example. Steamed snapper with ginger, scallions and soy sauce. Had to use the oven with a bowl of boiling water instead of a proper steamer and snapper instead of barramundi. It works.
Sunday Breakfast
Strange wishes overcome my common sense sometimes. I wanted to try my hand at Danish pastry for a while. Now when I did, the desire to improve my first experiment gives me an itch. One question though remains, who is going to eat my unsuccessful attempts if I give it another go.
Abalone crawling
Last week went to the market for some fish. Nice shop with a lot of fresh and frozen seafood. At the checkout was a container with lively abalone . First time I’ve seen them like this. They will have to go second in my things to try list, right after the pig’s ears soup.
Two Birthdays, Two Cakes
Two birthdays in one month. It’s a cake eating time.
My first
Why? No reason, just did. Kids when younger (much younger) liked to colour in mandalas. I used to print out tonnes of them. Never had time to make my own, until yesterday that is. Feel free to print it, helps to keep little ones busy for a bit. I’m past that time myself.
Frozen Cheesecake
Not exactly the weather for the frozen desserts, but I promised for so long. It was quick, easy and tasted ten times better then ready made, but I still prefer a baked cheesecake. As a base I used this recipe but exchanged cream cheese to the ricotta. Overall I’m pleased with my first no-bake cheesecake. E helped a lot; I am not in the cooking mood lately at all. Even a basic salad is an effort to toss. May be it is the weather, may be the end of the term or may be a flu is trying to get me.
Autumn Delights
Someone told me that leaving the skin on makes jam more fragrant. More flavour less work – my kind of experiment. To core a quince is job enough. The woody structure imperils the fingers, and I’m not fond of finger jam at all. Not to peel… with all my pleasure… Small brush and warm water rids of all the fluff quite efficient.
My Gran always said that caterpillars don’t like chemically treated fruit, if so, than that particular batch might be considered organic.
One part of chopped quince + one part of sugar left to stand for a day. The sugar should draw the juice leaving the fruit slightly shrunk. The goal is not to allow the pieces go soft when cooked. We’ll see. It is not my usual way, but I don’t want the normal type and reluctant to miss another quince season at the same time.
Cook in 3-4 goes , letting it boil no more then five minuets at a time.
Here is a result. Very pleasant one, too. The texture reminds me of a candied peel, only with a quince flavour.
Lamb and Polenta
… cooked polenta for the first time, very similar to South African maize. (no wonder)
Holidays are over…
… kids are off to school. Empty house, sleeping cat. Feels lonely. It rains outside. Let it be a good luck sign for the new year, especially for E , she starts High School today.
Trifle
First time in my life I had to salvage a pound cake. No one needs to know how the wreck looked.
Lavender Bread
Used this recipe as a base, but with just a teaspoon of lavender buds and a whole lot of seeds (poppy and linseed). No more than nice.
First time baked with lavender.
Link doesn’t work. Recipe copied from food.com
