The bodum empire

Bodum makes such cool products. Especially the double wall glasses. They can take cold or hot drinks but what's really cool is when you have a hot drink you can touch the sides without ending up with third degree burns. The drink is hot, while the sides are cool - awesome!


Earl Grey tea pot



Can't remember the name of this one



Pavina double wall glasses



More awesome stuff can be found on their website http://www.bodum.com

Sunday Lunch

One of my favourite thing to do is Sunday lunch. People are relaxed, there's no 'I've got to do something/go somewhere after' and it gives me Saturday to prepare.








Roast Chicken

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
1 bunch rosemary
1 bunch thyme
1 head of garlic
1/2 a lemon
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Make a slit where the legs start from the body and where the wings start. Put the chicken into a roasting pan.

2. Break the garlic into cloves, there's no need to peel. Take the leaves off 2 springs of the rosemary and thyme.

3. Stuff the cavity with lemon, rosemary, thyme and garlic, reserving a few garlic cloves. Rub salt, pepper, rosemary leaves and thyme leaves onto the chicken. Brush with olive oil.

4. Bake for 1 1/2 - 2hrs. Checking and basting with the juices from the pan every 30mins.

5. In the last 20mins of baking, brush the chicken with balsamic vinegar - this will give it colour. Brush again in the last 10mins.

Velvet Cupcakes

This cake is very dense but not sweet. Due to the high cocoa powder content if you can, use high quality cocoa powder as you can taste the difference. To paraphrase my colleague when I told her I bought 300g of cocoa powder for $15, "The normal stuff is gritty. You can taste this is good quality.". I hope she wasn't trying to make me feel better but I'll have to agree because this stuff gave more of a 'cocoa' flavour than the supermarket stuff. I've tasted this stuff and sadly for my wallet I can never go back. The chili powder gives it an extra something and the red colouring (using cake decorating gels) enhances the cocoa colour.

Unfortunately there are no pictures as the ones on the camera turned out really crappy.

Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
8 tbsp cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 cup milk
150g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
1/2 tsp chili powder (optional)
1 tsp red food colouring (optional)

Method
1. Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Beat until smooth.

2. Add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

3. Dissolve the colouring into the milk. Add in milk a bit at a time. Mix until smooth.

4. Bake for 20mins. The result should be dense and has a velvety texture.

Icing
75g dark cooking chocolate
2 tsp icing sugar
sprinkle of chili powder (optional)
1 tsp red gel colouring*
Hot water, as needed

Melt the chocolate then add the colouring and chili powder. Add hot water, a teaspoon at a time until runny and smooth. Mix in icing sugar. If it is too runny add more sugar, if it is too hard add more hot water.

*You can get gel colouring from speciality food stores and cake decorating shops. If you use basic good colouring it will be very runny. If you omit to use the gel colouring, omit the water as well.

Chicken, Mushroom and Pea Pie

It's cold, it's rainy and I want pie! Hmm .. I wonder what's in the fridge.

Mmm ... the warm glow of the TV

Chicken, Mushroom and Pea Pie

Ingredients

1 chicken breast diced

1 cup peas

1 cup button mushroom, quartered

1/2 an onion, chopped finely

1 sprig rosemary

2 tbsp plain flour

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

1 cup chicken stock

1 small can of light evaporated milk

25g butter

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. In a large pot, brown the chicken. Set aside.

2. In the same pot on a low heat, add butter and onion. When the onion is transparent (don't brown them) very quickly add flour and stir vigorously until the mixture forms a ball. Cook, stirring for another 2 mins. Add the chicken stock little by little stirring quickly each time and until the flour mixture is Incorporated in each addition. You will notice the mixture will become thick (that's what you want). Stir in the evaporated milk and add rosemary. Turn the heat to medium and simmer for 5 mins.

Err side on view..

3. Add mushrooms, peas and chicken. Keep on stirring until to boil and it thickens (approx 10mins). Season to taste and remove rosemary.

4. Pour mixture into a baking dish and cover with puff pastry ensure you prick the pastry with a fork. Trim the edges and decorate as desired. Bake in a 180c oven for 30-40mins or until pastry is golden.