Thai Beef Salad

Summer is coming….which, as Game of Thrones has taught me, indicates that the weather will be warm, people will be prosperous and the snow loving walking dead will stay on their side of the wall. It also signals the time of year when salads are an acceptable dinner option. For many people I'm sure salads are an all year round affair but we consistently fall into the pasta, pastry, potato slump of winter. Which is amazing, but also has to come to an end. So salads. This is a thing now.

Thai Beef Salad
Beef
Sliced beef
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon soy suace
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
splash olive oil

Combine all ingredients and allow to marinate. Cook over a low heat until sauce has reduced and beef has browned slightly. Rest and let cool.

Salad
Capsicum, thinly sliced and lightly cooked
Spinach/kale, shredded
Carrot, thinly shredded
Zucchini, thinly shredded
1/2 red chilli, thinly sliced
Cashews, crushed
Edamame

Lightly boil the edamame let cool then shell the beans. Combine all the ingredients apart from the cashews in a large bowl.

Dressing
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon water
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ginger
splash olive oil
splash lemon juice

Process all ingredients until combined.

When ready to serve, layer the salad into a bowl and mix through the cashews, top with the beef and dressing.

Tiramisu

Earlier this year, on our "Italian Adventure" we visited beautiful Venice. It was only an overnight stay because Venice is expensive and after you've visited the main square and the Doge's Palace there are only so many shop filled, tourist crammed, cobbled stoned alleys you can handle before your feet fall off and you find you've eaten 12 different flavours of gelato in one day…..what?

We arrived on some kind of environmental day so none of the ferries were operating. Somehow, we (husband) decided it would be best to embark the 40 minute trek across San Marco to drop off our bags then head out on to the tourist packed streets. We visited a few sights and did some people watching. As the sun began to set we purchased a big bag of strawberries from a market and sat on a pier to watch the gondolas and the sun dance on the water. 

After sunset we walked by the main canal and examined the overpriced menus of several waterfront restaurants overflowing with loud tourists. Uninspired, we walked two streets back from the water down a random alley that, as we so often found in Italy, opened into a beautiful courtyard that housed a lovely little restaurant. It was just us. According to all Australian restaurant logic, minimal occupancy indicates that the restaurant serves poison as a main but this, thankfully, was not the case. We were served large jugs of wine and ate lashings of spinach and ricotta cannelloni. 

And then came dessert. Throughout our trip we tried to make a point of eating dishes that were traditional to the region. There is some debate regarding the origins of Tiramisu. Some say Tuscany, others Veneto but I have read enough convincing accounts that Tiramisu originated in Venice and that was where I ate it and loved it.  

It sure wasn't pretty but I have no regrets about eating at a non-mainstream, non-waterfront, non-tourist hotspot restaurant.  

During our trip we made many promises that when we came home we would recreate the delicious, regional flavours of Italy and this is one promise I came good on.  This is a cheats version as I chose not to make my own sponge but that will be a challenge for next time 

Tiramisu

3 eggs, separated

3/4 cup white sugar

250g mascarpone cheese

250ml espresso coffee, cooled

3 tablespoons sherry (or any sweet fortified wine or even brandy)

pre-made sponge cut into fingers 

thickened cream, whipped to serve

80g dark chocolate, finely grated to serve

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is a light yellow and fluffy then beat in the mascarpone until smooth.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form then fold into the mascarpone mixture. 

In a shallow bowl combine the espresso and sherry, then dip the sponge into the liquid until it is just wet but not falling to pieces (try to do this as evenly as possible so you don't end up with some saturated sponge and other dry sponge). After dipping each sponge finger place it into a dish, pack them quite tightly. 

After the base layer of sponge is formed, top with the mascarpone mixture then make another sponge layer and top with mascarpone. This is best left to sit in the fridge and allow the flavours to develop for a few hours (or overnight if you can wait that long). Before serving top with whipped cream and dark chocolate. 

Chocolate Smothered Banana Bread

It's been quite a while since I've been on/seen my blog. Of course lots of things have been happening, the biggest and most time consuming of which has been the building of and moving into our new home. It's amazing how many weekend hours are gobbled up visiting furniture stores and deciding on colour schemes and towels and cutlery and…everything that fits in a house. 

When I reflect on my posts of 2014 I see this: fish, marshmallows, yoghurt cake and mango trifle. Perhaps the only positive to come out of this is the fact that it is almost mango season again. Clearly, time has been fragile. When I reflect on my life of 2014, the last weekend I remember enjoying was spent watching 2 entire seasons of Game of Thrones (yep, discovered!). Also we went to Europe at some point for 3 weeks and backpacked (ate our way) through Italy and a bit of France. Then there is just a crazy blur of house building related……bits and pieces (of astronomical proportions). 2014 has been a time vortex. 

So, this sounds like I'm having a very big whinge "my new house means I didn't do anything on my blog whaa" and this is really not what it is about at all. I love my house. I love every painstakingly selected item within my house. I love the fact that when I was a kid I used to dream of living in a fancy house and the house that I now live in infinitely surpasses those dreams. In short: I love it and….I la-OVE the kitchen, which is really what it's always been about. Let's talk about that. 

Today is not about whinging, today is about two things - banana bread and Nutino - and the excessive amount of joy these two things (and my new kitchen) bring to my life. 

Let's start with banana bread. I don't remember when banana bread became part of my life. It is so integral to my overall wellbeing that I feel like it has just always been there….at least from the time I started regularly frequenting coffee shops so let's say 14 or 15. It's my go to breakfast, morning tea and afternoon tea and all the other small meals that fit in-between those meals - you have those too right? The only deal breaker is when it lacks walnuts. It also has to be toasted and if you let it go just a little bit, almost to the point of burning, you can create the most amazing caramelised flavour. Are you drooling on your keyboard too? 

I have had a shot at a few different banana bread recipes but this is it for me now. I have gone back to this one all year. 

Let's talk about Jamie Oliver. Love him or hate him? I enjoy his t.v. programs. I find his cookbooks have over stuffed ingredient lists and too much reading. I find his website difficult to navigate. I find many of his recipes are either epic win or epic fail. This one is epic win. An additional bonus, it can be made as a half loaf and still tastes amazing and is still a reasonable size. This is just sugary, nutty, banana goodness and it only gets better with the addition of Nutino.

As a kid I did not grow up in a Nutella household. I remember having tiny snack pack Nutella in my lunch box on very rare occasions, that I'm pretty sure I often switched or threw away. Of course when my husband hears these stories he almost goes into a fit of rage, "WASTING NUTELLA??? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU??". I just never really understood it. Then we went to Italy, where everything comes smothered in Nutella or the Italian version - Nutino. 

On our European vacation we booked all of our accommodation through Air BnB, which meant we spent three weeks living in family homes, most of the time with the family themselves. Without sounding like a total hipster, it was very authentic. It's fine, I hate how I sound when I say that as well. 

We spent out first few days in Rome. We stayed in a little apartment which, according the the Air BnB website profile, belonged to an Italian adonis named Dario. I swear even my husband thought he was dreamy. Of course when we arrived, Dario was in Milan at Fashion Week and (after a gruelling 34 hour fight through Brisbane-Singapore-Frankfurt-Rome, a train ride, a walk from Roma Termini and 5 flights of stairs) we were greeted by a woman who spoke zero English and simply introduced herself as "Dario Mama". 

We loved Rome. We loved Dario's place. We loved Dario Mama. We especially loved the flaky, buttery croissants she fed us each morning that were smothered in Nutino. 

So the rest is history right? It just makes sense. And I'm totally fine with never wearing a two piece again, there are just more important things in life.

Fish Tacos

 When we were in Hawaii we stayed across the street from the Cheesecake Factory or, as it is commonly understood in Australia, "the place where Penny works". Obviously this place rated highly on my list of holiday must dos. 

Suffering a severe case of jetlag we headed out to dinner around 8pm. After a 45 minute wait outside to get a table we were greeted by a stressed out and busy waiter. He left us to peruse the tome they call "menu" and eventually returned to take my order of chicken tacos and something covered in cheese for my husband. Perhaps another 45 minutes later he reappeared more stressed than ever and full of apologies that our food would still be some time. We were on holidays, we had another fancy multi-coloured drink and continued to people watch. Some time later a manager appeared with our waiter, equally full of apologies. At this point, in normal world, we would no doubt be fuming but, we were on holidays...in Hawaii....at the Cheesecake Factory...with chicken tacos pending. What could go wrong? 

Fish Tacos.

Of course, by this time, we had been lavished with praise. We had been told we were the "coolest customers ever" (a rarity for us). We had been gifted a multi-coloured drink. There was no way I could now turn my nose up, point a finger in the waiter's face and demand a chicken be murdered, smothered in salsa, wrapped in a tortilla and arrive at my table immediately.

As the waiter rushed away I looked at the husband and tentatively said, "I think it's fish"....at this point I was hoping he would say, “Oh so it is! I know you hate fish so here, you have my cheese covered cheese with cheese and I’ll have the dregs of the ocean that have been served up in front of you.”  Naturally, through a mouthful of cheese, my husband said, “That’s hilarious, you hate fish!”

So that is where this post originates. Six months on I decided to give the fish tacos another go because fish is actually pretty good for you …or something to that affect. I headed to this website for inspiration.

Slightly Edible Fish Tacos

1 cod fillet cut into 6 small pieces

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

corn tortilla wraps

salsa

coleslaw with herb dressing

Rub the spices onto both sides of the fish pieces and grill until cooked through.

On a tortilla layer salsa, fish, coleslaw and serve with rice combined with black beans, parsley, coriander and lime juice. 

Smores Slice

These bad boys have been sitting in the back of my mind for a while now. Being an Australian, I feel like I've really missed out on the "smores culture". Apparently smores is an integral part of a North American upbringing......I can totally see why. Take your kid into the wild outdoors, light a fire and fill them full of sugar. What could go wrong? Ummm.....no really, what could go wrong? My future children will not be deprived of smores. This is a cheats version that does not require a camp fire, or the great outdoors, it's probably not half as good as a real smore but for an Australian version it'll do.

Smores Slice
I used a very small baking tray for these as I reasoned that smores would be quite decadent. My reasoning was confirmed once my mouth was coated in sticky marshmallow goodness.
90g Biscuit crumbs
30g Butter
Chocolate drops - milk and dark
Large marshmallows

Combine the biscuit crumbs and the butter and press into the base of a baking tray. Bake in a 180 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and scatter the chocolate drops over the base (I used only one layer of chocolate, being new to smores I figured it was mostly about the marshmallow and less about the chocolate?) The chocolate will begin to melt on the hot base, top the melted chocolate with marshmallows and return the tray to the oven. Change the oven setting to "grill" to allow the top of the marshmallows to become brown and crisp (obviously, watch this intently). Allow to cool slightly before cutting otherwise you will end up with a (delicious) mess.

Yoghurt & Raspberry Cake

Time is flying by so quickly. My blog reflects that my kitchen has been experiencing sever neglect. In truth, I'm still operating at full swing (over swing?) in the kitchen....but also in many other areas so it's just not transposing on to here. After 3 flat out weeks at work and 3 full weekends (of more work), this cake was the perfect way to unwind with a cup of tea on Sunday afternoon.

Yoghurt & Raspberry Cake
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup natural yoghurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup frozen raspberries (slightly thawed)

In a mixer combine the eggs, sugar, yoghurt and oil. Mix until well combined then add the flour and continue to mix until combined. Gently stir in the raspberries. Then bake in a 180 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Icing
This cake would work soooo well with a white chocolate ganche - however, none of those ingredients existed in my home so I settled for lemon icing which was still awesome! 
3/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon butter
cold water
1/4 teaspoon lemon essence

Melt the butter in a small microwave bowl then add the water and the lemon essence. Add the icing sugar to a mixing bowl. Spoon about 1 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon of the butter-water mixture into the icing sugar mixing well after each addition until the icing mixture is at desired consistency (as always, do this super slow - it's worth it in the end for spreadable icing that doesn't drip off the top)

Passionfruit & Mango Trifle

It is feeling very summery at the moment. I'm loving the last few weeks of my summer holidays and trying to get the most out of every day....and every meal. This trifle was served up by a friend late in 2013 and it has been on my mind ever since. It happened in my kitchen today.

* Note: to me, trifle is a personal thing - some prefer it more cakey, others more custardy, so I have left out measurements for somethings because the best trifle is made in just the right proportions that you like.

Passionfruit & Mango Trifle
85g passionfruit jelly crystals
passionfruit pulp
sponge cake/jam filled sponge roll (400g should be plenty, I used 200g to make 3 mini trifles)
1/4 cup malibu white rum
vanilla custard
mangoes (cubed)
250ml thickened cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar mix

Make the jelly in a shallow tray according to the instructions (add 250ml boiling water, mix until dissolved then add 200ml cold water).  Put into the fridge for about 2 hours until partially set then add the passionfruit pulp and mix through.

cut the sponge cake into small squares and lay on the bottle of the trifle dish. Drizzle the malibu over the sponge then spoon the jelly mixture over the sponge cake. Top with mango and custard. Extra layers can be added but finish with a mango layer.

In a small bowl whip the cream and icing sugar until firm peaks form in the cream. Top the trifle with the whipped cream and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or over night.