Tag: Dishiest Dish

05
Feb
2016

Dishiest Dish – Apricot and Rhubarb Frangipane Tarts

categories: Apricots, Books, Dish of The Week, Dishiest Dish, Pastry, Rhubarb, Tarts, TV

It’s been a while since we have had a dishiest dish – I thought it was timely that we had look at some I had cooked successfully! I made these Apricot and Rhubarb Frangipane Tarts over the break. They were pretty easy to make and tasted delicious!

And who says you can’t play with your food? These are perfect for a little game of tic-tac-toe!

Or you can give them to people you like as little kisses and hugs. Valentine’s day’s a-coming. Why give someone flowers when you can give them some delicious almondy fruity deliciousness?

Who doesn’t love

Crisp buttery pastry – no soggy bottoms here!
A lovely sweet almond filling
The apricots and rhubarb, both of which have a natural tanginess help to make the tarts not too cloying or heavy.
An amaretto and apricot glaze

Never mind saying it with flowers. Proclaim your love with pastry!

My Six Week Challenges

This year, instead of setting a series of resolutions, I was inspired by my friend Ali to try a series of smaller challenges over the course of the year. I started mid-January with 6 weeks of no alcohol. The start of February sees me trying to build a meditation practice! I am aiming for 42 days straight of meditation. I haven’t figured out what I will pick up in mid-Feb but that’s half the fun – deciding what to do next! Hopefully some things I will stick with and some things I may do another six weeks later in the year!

Reading

I have been on a reading binge – I have had a real spurt of books I have enjoyed.

Disclaimer by Renée Knight

Imagine if you started reading a book that had mysteriously appeared in your house only to find out the book was about you. Specifically about you and an incident from your past which you have kept hidden from everyone – and the only other person who knew about it is a long time dead….

I would give this one a 7/10. The plot required a hefty suspension of belief on a couple of major points but all up, a fast paced enjoyable read.

All These Perfect Strangers – Aiofe Clifford

I loved this. But I am a big fan of the mystery set in academia. The Secret History is one of my favorite books and there are some similar themes here. This is not released until March – I was given a free copy for review but it is certainly one I can heartily recommend.

Funnily enough, the book in Disclaimer was called The Perfect Stranger. It was a really weird but totally cool coincidence!

9/10

The Grown Up – Gillian Flynn

This short story (it’s just over 6O pages on my Kindle) has more twists and turns than a spiral staircase. I loved it. And you can read it from start to finish in about an hour!

9/10

Luckiest Girl Alive – Jessica Knoll

Another outsider goes to posh school – mayhem ensues book. I did tell you I had a thing for them. Do not read this if you are one of those (annoying) people who has to like the main character in a book. Tifani/Ani in Luckiest Girl Alive is awful! She’s shallow and self obsessed, snarky and mean. I am about three quarters of the way through this and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I hope the end is not a let down.

I just noticed three out of the four of them mention Gone Girl. And have black, white and yellow covers. I’m sensing a zeitgeist.

Watching

Come Dine With Me

I started watching old episodes of the British Come Dine with Me on the telly over the break and am now utterly obsessed with it. I soon exhausted all the episodes available and am now mainlining episodes on You Tube.

The best part is the narrator. He is hilarious.

Oh and there was a series of episodes with my girl-crush Sabrina Ghayour of Persiana fame.

Pointless

Another British show. This is like a reverse Family Feud where people try to guess the least popular answers to a question, the goal being trying to get an answer that whilst correct, no one in the studio audience chose. It would be a fairly run of the mill quiz show if not for the hosts – host and co host who are just delightful. Charming, witty. Smart. I could watch the two of them banter all day!

The XFiles

So excited about this. We were a week behind the States so are only two episodes in. And it’s been great. Even though I have been watching the classic episodes, when I heard that theme music and saw that they had kept the old intro I got almost a little teary….

Other Stuff

Nigella

And speaking of getting a little teary, I went to see Nigella Lawson in conversation. She was brilliant. There a not many people for whom I would stand in line for and hour and a half just to get a book signed by she was worth every minute.

Now, how about a recipe for these babies?

This week I am looking forward to cooking:

Chicken, Feta and Zucchini Meatballs from my latest Tasty Reads Choice, Life in Balance by Donna Hay. We have our meeting in a few weeks and I feel I have not done this book justice. Time to get cracking!
A Biscotten Torte from the A-Z of Cooking
Tomato, Peach, Proscuitto and Mozzarella Salad. I am the only person in my family who likes fruit mixed in with salads that are not fruit salads. Does that make me weird? Or them?

Time to share. What are you enjoying reading / watching / doing?

What was the best thing you cooked this week?

Whats top of your list to cook next?

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09
Dec
2015

Fruit & Nut Gingerbread Loaf

categories: Books, Cake, Dishiest Dish, Movies

This post for Fruit and Nut Gingerbread loaf was originally written and published in Dec 2015. It is one of many of my older posts, which due to some unknown technical hitch ended up being put back into draft. I am trying to repost them all but please excuse any references that seem odd or out of date!

What a week! Some weeks are diamonds and this week everything I made turned out really well and there was not much to choose between them. So I thought I would talk to you about them all.

First up there was a mash up of this recipe from Donna at A Cookbook Collection which is a super blog that I read all the time:

https://acookbookcollection.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/roasted-grapes-with-feta-and-walnuts/

And Niki Sengit’s entry for Goat Cheese and Walnut from The Flavour Thesaurus where she says:

“Paneer is a white tablet of feta as smooth as a bar of Ivory Soap and usually scattered with crisp walnuts. It’s generally accompanied by sabzi, a thicket of fresh herbs, to offset it’s richness. There will be plenty of mint, plus tarragon and dill, bulbous scallions and, nestled somewhere in among the sprigs and leaves, little radishes like baby robins in their next”

This OMG, I want to eat it right NOW delight is on the menu at a restaurant called Patogh on the Edgeware Road in London. And next time I’m there? I’m there!

Not being there, I made my own and I threw in a heap of roasted grapes à la Donna too! And it was so good! I love being able to nibble food from a platter and this recipe will feature on my Friday night grazing platter all grape season!

Crab and Corn FrittersFor a delicious main meal I made some Crab and Corn Fritters from this recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller.

I also made a toasted marshmallow pavlova which was A-MAZING – even if I do say so myself.

The Gingerbread Loaf

Also in the sweet realm but at the opposite end of the spectrum was a fruit and nut gingerbread loaf with lemon icing. The pavlova was light as air and so pretty. The gingerbread loaf was not nearly so pretty but wow! It was kind of like a linebacker against the pavlova’s ballerina, in the best possible way. So full of flavour. And quite right for the time of year! Also, like a good wine, this baby just gets better with age. And it lasts. It kept for about a week in the fridge. It probably would have kept for longer, we just ate it all.

This week, I am looking forward to cooking

Lunch, Starter or Salad: Italian Stuffed Deli Loaf

The Main Event: Chicken, Mushroom and Walnut Cannelloni from Katie Quinn Davies for the Cookbook Guru

Sweet Dreams: Honey Pots

In Other News, I Have Been

Shopping

Another bit of a cookbook binge – I bought the next two Tasty Reads book club books. And as my Christmas present to myself, the new Nigella:

Reading

I gave up on The Reckoning. Life’s too short for a book you don’t enjoy. I have started the December t book club selection, The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks. Personally, I would not have chosen to read this in a billion years – the fictional lives of Biblical characters not being high on my list of interests but I am finding myself increasingly drawn into this story. Which is exactly why I joined the book club – to widen my reading horizons.

I also gave up on The Last Werewolf and am now listening to Time and Time Again by Ben Elton on audio which so far has been great. And I do love a bit o’ time travelling! The only problem with this is that I keep thinking it is called Time After Time and I have had that Cyndi Lauper song in my head for DAYS!!!!

Books Collage3

Watching

Along with time travelling, I am also very fond of a conspiracy theory and I happened to catch the last half of Room 237 on the telly the other night. It blew my mind! How I have missed this up to now I do not know A film about all the hidden meanings in a film I love? I loved it!!! I’m watching it again this weekend. From the start. Possibly several times.

Danny’s jumper is apparently one of the many clues hidden in The Shining that point to Stanley Kubrick having staged the moon landings. For the rest and many more theories about the movie, watch Room 237. It’s mad and awesome and cuckoo lala.

For something else that is nutty in all the right ways, you could try making this Fruit and Nut Gingerbread Loaf!

I adapted my recipe from this one:

Sticky apple and gingerbread pecan loaf cake

Fruit and Nut Gingerbread Loaf

Print Recipe

A delicious fruity gingerbread – perfect for this festive time of year!

Ingredients

Scale

150g salted butter plus extra to grease
200ml milk
150g brown sugar
150g golden syrup
250g plain flour
11/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
50g dried apricots, chopped
75g pecans roughly chopped (plus more whole to garnish)
50g crystalised ginger, roughly chopped (plus more to garnish)
2 green apples, peeled, cored, cut into a 1 cm dice
50g sultanas
1 tbsp lemon juice
250g icing sugar

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180C. Grease and line a 1.5L loaf pan with baking paper.
Place the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar into a small saucepan and stir until the sugar has melted and the mixture is smooth and has thickened slightly.
Stir in the milk.
Set aside to cool.
Sift the flour, cinnamon, ground ginger and baking powder into a bowl.
Make a well into the centre and pour in the cooled milk mixture.
Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined, then fold in the apples, ginger, pecans, sultanas and apricots.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a wire rack.
Mix the lemon juice and icing sugar. The mixture should be a thick liquid.
Once the cake is completely cooled, pour the lemon icing over the top.
Top with reserved pecans and ginger.
Enjoy!

Question Time

This week, I want to know your answers to the questions posed on the front of ~~Time After Time~~ Time and Time Again:

“If you had one chance to change history

Where would you go?

What would you do?

Who would you kill?

I can’t wait to hear what you come back with!

Have a great week!

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25
Oct
2015

The Dishiest Dish – Black and Blueberry Crumble

categories: Apples, Berries, Desserts, Dishiest Dish

Black berries, blueberries, dots of marzipan, almonds, choc chips, a splash of amaretto and, of course some custard? How could the Black and Blueberry Crumble not be the dish of the week?

Close second was Karen Martini’s Sausage, Ham & Egg Pizza.

Fail of the week? The Broccoli con Anchovy from The River Cafe Cookbook. I’m not sure what it is with me and this book. Last week the rotolo was a fail. This week, I didn’t even get to cook anything.

Here’s the thing. I put broccoli on my shopping list. I ticked it off my list meaning it had gone from shelf to basket. I should have had broccoli in my fridge. BUT I tootled off to twilight yoga on Sunday afternoon planning to have a healthy broccoli con anchovy supper on my return. Got home, had my aromatherapy bath, got into my jamies. And no broccoli. Not in the fridge, not misplaced in the cupboard. Not in the car. Just a black hole of broccoli.

And yes, I could have gone and bought some but I was already in my pyjamas and Doctor Who was about to start.

This week I am looking forward to cooking:

Tasty Reads is coming up, I am going to make the Chicken, Cheese and Corn meatballs and the Raw Tuna Meatballs from the meatball cookbook. I found the Turkey Cran meatballs I made a little too sweet for my taste. I will try these again but instead of the dried sweetened cranberries required by the recipe I will use fresh (frozen) cranberries. They will bring a much needed touch of tartness. Also place the balls in the freezer for maybe 15 minutes so the cheese doesn’t ooze out everywhere.