tagliatelle with prawns & chilli

The boy and I have been doing a lot of cooking lately; it helps us save a little money and means we're eating a bit healthier so win-win. Some days it's a bit of a struggle, especially after work and we're both tired but getting past that barrier and just making that effort to cook goes a long way. If you were to ask me for my top three cookbooks for the home-cook, these would be Hamlyn's '200 Thai favourites', Annabel Langbein's ' Free Range in the city' and Nigella's 'Nigella Express'.  For a quick, wholesome and plate-licking delicious pasta dish, look no further than Nigella's taglietelle with prawns and chilli.

Defrost 200g frozen uncooked peeled prawns. Cook 250g tagliatelle according to packet instructions. Heat 2 heads of chopped garlic and 20mL oil in a large pan and fry 4 spring onions and 1/2 tsp crushed chilli flakes for a couple of minutes, then tip in 200g sundried tomatoes (including the oil), and then add the defrosted prawns. When both have warmed through, add 125mL white wine and let to bubble up. Add in 50g spinach leaves and stir until wilted a little. Drain the pasta when ready, reserving 125mL or so of the cooking liquid, and toss the drained pasta in the chilli-prawn pan.

Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve. And if you're hungry, you'll be like the boy and me and gobble all this up.

One word - amazing! We used up our bag of frozen prawns which mum had given us when we moved out. She'd bought them from Costco and I can certainly vouch for them. Have been hunting down for a replacement bag but all the other supermarkets seem to be selling frozen cooked prawns; perfect excuse for a trip to Costco methinks.

banana caramel muffins

When I was younger, I loved shopping with mum at the supermarket and discovering what new products were on offer. If there's one thing Mum and I share, it's that we both love trying new products and giving things a go. Though sometimes I have to admit, writing a list is probably the best way that the two of us shop; otherwise more often than not, we'll come home with a bagful of that day's specials rather than the things we actually need. And well after all these years, neither of us have really changed one bit!

A recent trip to Coles saw me come home with a bag of Nestle Caramel bits. They say they're new but I swear Nestle have sold and marketed these in the States for ages (as usual, it's taken Australia a little more time to catch on).

And it just happened to be that I had my copy of Nigella Express out and about that I found the recipe for Banana Butterscotch Muffins which was perfect to accommodate these caramel bits. I've rejigged the recipe a little to accommodate the ingredients I had at home. Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line 6 holes of a muffin tin. Mash together 2 bananas. In a jug, combine 70mL vegetable oil and 1 egg. Place 125g flour, 50g caster sugar, 1/4 tsp bicarb soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder in a large bowl. Add in the beaten egg and oil mixture followed by the mashed bananas. As Nigella would put it, fold in 75g caramel morsels and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

I made 6 out of this recipe; which works out perfect for the boy and I to chomp over for a few days. Found that when I bake a full dozen, we just don't get through them all.

It's a rather good looking muffin but unfortunately didn't keep so well in the fridge. The texture seemed to harden despite reheating in the microwave (which usually softens most muffins). 

The caramel bits actually weren't quite what I'd expected. In a way, I was expecting them to be a little bit sweeter and hold their shape a bit more. Biting in to them when the muffins were straight out of the oven, they were molten on the inside but didn't really have that caramel bite to them.  Good to see though that Nestle are releasing a few more baking goods to their portfolio; picked up a bag of mini dark chocolate melts which were also new so will no doubt have a little bit of fun with those!

coconut & cherry banana bread

I remember when I was a teenager, my mum used to tell me that I didn't need so many clothes and that I should save my money for other things; that no one is really going to remember what you wore the other day or last week. It took me awhile to see the point in her logic and to this day, I'm still guilty of splurging on extra clothes that I don't need but well, that's all part of being a girl! Over time though, I have gotten a lot better and yes I might be looking a bit daggy in my reworn clothes but hey, like mum said, no one has actually commented or said a thing!

Now with books, that's a completely different matter. It's actually only been in the recent couple of years that I've started hoarding my cookbooks and now they are overspilling off the bookshelf and onto the floors. All my bookshelves are full now and I've taken to arranging them in neat 'big' piles and well, I tried to stop myself from buying them but unlike clothes, each and every cookbook is so very unique that it's really quite hard to say no. Well as I'm struggling to stop myself from buying them, the only other solution is to use them and hey presto, that's exactly what I'm doing!

My go to recipe book at the moment is Nigella's 'Kitchen'. Here's an extremely easy recipe for coconut & cherry banana bread.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line a loaf pan with baking paper. Melt 125g unsalted butter in a saucepan and take it off the heat. Peel and mash 3 medium sized bananas in a small bowl. Beat 150g caster sugar into the cooled, melted butter, then beat in the mashed bananas and 2 eggs. Fold in 175g plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp bicarb soda. Finally, add in 100g dried cherries and 100g dessicated coconut. Fold well so that everything is incorporated, then pour into the lined loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes, check with a skewer to see if the loaf has cooked through (the skewer should come out of the cake clean).

Once out of the oven, leave it in the tin for 10 minutes. Then carefully slip the cake out of the tin onto a wire rack to cool. Slice away and eat!

I mentioned I was in love with frozen cherries, well I'm quite the bit in love with dried cherries (this was the bag I picked up at Sweetness the other week after a lengthy trawl through Sydney looking for them). Used in the loaf, the dried cherries don't taste the least bit dry at all. Through the baking process, they seem to plump up and absorb a bit of water (sort of like when you soak raisins/currants in water and they come up rather juicy). Great thing is that I hardly made a dent to the bag of cherries so I have plenty more to experiment with, the cherry chocolate cookies I was thinking of the other day might just be it!

marmalade pudding cake

I'm sure all cooks far and wide will agree with me that making any dessert recipe by Nigella Lawson is likely to make you feel a tad guilty (if not really guilty). The guilt comes from several counts; guilty for how rich the recipes taste, guilty for using mostly full-fat ingredients (but honestly, why make a dessert from anything short of full fat?) and finally guilty from the highly addictive consumption of the dessert until there's no more of it. Well amongst our busy lives, I think the opportunity to feel guilty once in awhile is healthy for you and I think this Marmalade Pudding Cake is a good form of guilty!

This recipe was the first recipe I made out of Nigella's new cookbook, 'Kitchen' which came ever so promptly on Bookdepository after pre-ordering at a bargain of $20! It's an extra thick volume full of everyday recipes that I'm struggling to decide where to start but the marmalade pudding cake stood out amongst them all. The recipe below has been slightly abridged for the cooking time as it took a bit longer than the 40 minutes which the recipe suggest.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and butter an ovenproof dish. In small saucepan, combine 75g marmalade and juice of 1/2 orange and set aside to make the glaze later.

In a large bowl, cream together 250g softened unsalted butter, 75g caster sugar and 75g rich brown sugar. 

Beat in 150g marmalade, then sift in 225g plain flour, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda and 1 tsp baking powder. Stir to combine. Add in 4 eggs, zest and juice of 1/2 orange. Fold together.

Place mix in the greased ovenproof dish and cook for about 50-55 minutes. Test the mixture with a cake tester to ensure that it has cooked through. Remove from the oven and leave in the dish.

Warm the glaze mixture in the pan until melted together, then paint the top of the pudding.

Use a large spoon to serve.

In true Nigella fashion, this cake was gorgeously delicious and did make me feel a tad guilty as after finishing my first serve I was quickly digging into my second. The pudding cake keeps rather well in the fridge and can be enjoyed over the next couple of days; just ping in the microwave for about 20 seconds and to make it a real treat, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream otherwise Nigella does recommend it served with custard or cream (but I think vanilla ice cream is a bit more of a staple at home). 

chocolate cheesecake

When I made my last Japanese cheesecake, my cousin B requested for a chocolate version of it and with his birthday coming up, it was only fitting that I make one for his birthday. Unfortunately Harumi (the last recipe I used) didn't have a chocolate version of it and well given that recipe was for a Japanese cheesecake (which is by nature light and fluffy), changing the recipe didn't seem like a particularly good idea. Chocolate is unquestionably rich and without too much more thinking , I knew which recipe I'd use - Nigella's 'Chocolate Cheesecake' from her book 'Feast'.

Start by making the base. Process 125g digestive biscuits to make rough crumbs and then add 60g melted butter and 1 tbsp cocoa. Combine till you form rough crumbs and then tip them into a 23cm springform tin. Press the biscuit crumbs into the bottom of the tin to make an even base and put into the fridge while you make the filling.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put the kettle on to boil. Melt 175g chopped dark chocolate and set aside to cool.

Beat 500g cream cheese to soften it, and then add 150g caster sugar and 1 tbsp custard powder and then beat again to combine. Beat in 3 whole eggs and then 3 egg yolks, and 150ml sour cream. Finally add 1/2 tsp cocoa (dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water) and the melted chocolate, and mix to a smooth batter.

Take the springform tin out of the fridge and line the outside of the tin with aluminium foil. Sit the springform tin in a roasting pan and pour in the cheesecake filling. Fill the roasting pan with just boiled water to come about halfway up the cake tin.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

The top of the cheesecake should be set, but the underneath should have a slight wobble to it.

Peel away the aluminium foil and sit the cheesecake in its tin on a rack to cool. Put it the fridge once it's no longer hot, and leave to set, covered with clingform over night.

Let it lose its chill before unspringing the cheesecake to serve.

To make the cheesecake a little bit more fancy, you can make a chocolate glaze. Melt 75g chopped dark chocolate , with 125ml cream and 1 tsp golden syrup. When the chocolate has nearly melted, take off the heat and whisk it to a smooth sauce. Let it cool a little and then drizzle over the chocolate cheesecake on its serving plate. You can use the remaining glaze as an accompanying sauce.

Cake innards!

This cheesecake is probably not one that you'll eat a huge chunk of in one sitting but one that you'll addictively eat in slivers over multiple sittings. The birthday boy was no doubt ecstatic about his chocolate cheesecake but it seems most were in agreement that a good job was done with this one. The one boo boo I made was chilling the cheesecake when it hadn't quite cooled down so I had condensation marks on top of the cake which thankfully, that chocolate glaze can very cleverly cover. To be honest, the cake can do without the sauce and most of the cake was eaten with most of the sauce left over. Hmm...what cheesecake to make next?!

the ultimate greek salad

I've never been a big fan of greek salad (largely the olives) but will nonetheless eat it if it's in front of me. Surprisingly, it ended up being the recipe that I chose to bring to Jo's dinner get together. She'd asked if I could bring a salad and well, being quite the Nigella addict at the moment, my first point of call was flick through 'Forever Summer' and pull out this recipe. And well, I had a block of feta in the fridge and it seemed like I had most of the other ingredients that the recipe required.

This recipe substitutes cucumber with fennel. Nigella claims that the usual cucumber causes this salad to become a soggy mess - the fennel was interesting; it was crisp although I can't say that I'm most fond of the taste, I still prefer cucumber. 

The red onions were left to soak in the olive oil dressing for about 2 hours in the fridge. And Nigella is absolutely right, after about 2 hours, the red onion has lost it's sharpness and is much easier on the palate.

The three of us that were at dinner gobbled our way through the salad. I don't think any of us had a preference for Greek salad (again the olives) but the recipe itself seems to work wonders - once all the flavours are combined, you seem to just eat it all together. Anyway, adding this one to my tried and tested recipes; definitely one to make again.

lunch date @ char's

Char is a good friend of J&I and also a food blogger (you can find her food musings at charpost.blogspot.com). She got married last year and since the year started and she & A started getting their place together, they've started to have guests over. We were there for our second time a couple of Saturdays ago for a lunch date. We were in the area (I was buying a printer) and J had promised Char an aloe vera plant - J will discuss with you at length the benefits and merits of having an aloe vera plant. J also claims that I can't keep plants and continues to tell everyone the story that I killed the aloe vera plant that he gave me (and apparently aloe vera is classified as a cactus). Point is - me and plants don't seem to get along.

Anyway, after the dramas of J being stuck in lift for a good 20 minutes (he forgot to bring the aloe vera plant and went down to get it), we made a start on lunch. Char had said she'd do pizza, I'd been watching way to much Nigella and decided on one of her midnight feast recipes - Spaghetti Alla Carbonara.

It was actually the first time I'd cooked Carbonara - it was very different to the other Carbonara's I've ever tasted  - it was heavy and actually quite eggy. After discussing this at length with one of our Italian Art Directors at work - I believe that the Carbonara's you find here in Australia are midway between a true Carbonara (containing egg) and a Bosciaola (containing cream and mushrooms). Anyway, in his words, saying that a carbonara and a bosciaola is the same thing is almost the same as saying apples and oranges are the same thing.

Char's homemade pizza on  Lebanese Bread. Ingenious and tasty too! The 4 of us gobbled up 2 of these.

The table is set for lunch!

Some hour or so later, our bellies were full from both food and wine. As I got back into the car later that afternoon, I tell J, 'I really need to close my eyes and sleep' and pretty much did so without opening my eyes until the car took us back to my place. As soon as J got out of the car, it was his turn to sleep. What a nice and relaxing way to spend a weekend!

Thanks Char for having us over!