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.

Caramelised apples and pancakes

An avid watcher of Masterchef Australia, I was initially puzzled to the different format from Masterchef UK but as the 'real competition' began I was excited to find it is more like Top Chef on Bravo/Arena. Top Chef is one of my most favourite-ist shows. Sadly I don't have Foxtel anymore and the network is regulating YouTube - which means I don't get to see the show legally and illegally. Boo hoo!

Each Friday on Masterchef the contestants have a 'Masterclass' where George and the other guy teach them tips and show them how to cook several meals that 'every cook should know and get spot on.'. I along with the contestants always sit there and go "Ohh, so that how you are suppose to cook so-and-so.".

There was a bit of ohh-ing and ahh-ing this week but overall, I was most amused by George's over use of the words 'sexy' and 'agitate'. Put it in a sentence? As in: "That's a sexy piece of steak." and "You want to agitate the rice.". Now George, I know you are known as one of Australia's best chefs and yes I can see you have a love of food. Personally I think there's a bit too much love going on here and frankly I don't want to know what you do with your food when no one's looking. Thanks to you I am never going to look at a piece of steak the same again.

What I did learn was its extremely easy to caramelise, so easy I make pancakes with caramelised apples for breakfast this morning.



Apples agitating



So sexy...

New Toy

Shiny and new

Ohh new toy, new toy! Tres excitement!

We bought a Nespresso machine last Sunday. Eager ol' me fascinated by anything new and shiny had to unpack and read the instruction manual straight away. It came with a sample of blends to try, I was intrigued by the 'menu' of coffees - there are so many varieties. The 'pods' or as the Nespresso people call it 'grands crus' came in; Ristretto, Arpeggio, Roma, Livanto, Capriccio, Volluto and Cosi blends to name a few, each with its own intensity and tasting suggestions. Some blends are better for cappuccinos and some are better for espressos. There are also decaf blends, ones to be enjoyed in a long glass and limited editions on the website. Did I mention the pods came in pretty colours?

Pretty colours

The box came with an Aeroccino machine to make your hot milk/froth for your cappuccino, latte and hot chocolate. It even makes cold milk froth for iced coffees.

Pre-froth , Froth and Livanto in process

So sit back, relax and let it take you away to Clooney's villa in Lake Como....

Friends for lunch

I'm glad the rain held out for the planned outdoor lunch, the breeze (wind) was refreshing (cold). I knew what I wanted to make and I knew I had to start prepping the night before.

Dessert first. I wanted to do layers in glass, merely for visual effects. In order to use up the muscato in the fridge I could either drink it or poach something. I ended up doing both. Drinking while poaching pears (something seasonal). Being a novice at using gelatine leaves (much easier to use than powder, I always get clumps.) I didn't put in as many leaves as required to set the jelly - I put in 2 my guess is 3-4 for 1 1/2 cups. So I had to change the recipe slightly. Initially it was: cake, pink jelly, pears folded in cream. The result: cake, muscato pear jelly and lemon cream.

Main course. I was going to stuff the chicken breast with roasted tomato but decided it was too much work. Hey, I could buy semi-dried tomatoes instead! As I opened the fridge to fetch the semi-dried tomatoes, I thought "Oh, I better use up the baby spinach." let's stuff some in there too. Yes, most of my cooking process consists of "Let's use x ingredient up before it rots." but it's not like I would randomly use ingredients. Now where was I ... yes, stuffing... So tomatoes and spinach got stuffed and chicken is now wrapped in prosciutto, which is wrapped in cling wrap and put away. Time to do the potatoes. Made wedges and par boiled. Easy! I'm still drinking the muscato at this stage... and realised how I love poaching in muscato (the pears not me). Muscato contains less alcohol so you don't get that cooked winey smell and sugar = you use less sugar.

For nibbles (seriously, no time to make entree and its lunch for 4 for god's sake!) I toasted pita bread, found proper hummus dip (with the paprika and sesame on top) and tried a harissa dip (err, ok). I forgot to take photos amongst all the excitement but there were left overs, so that'll have to do.

Layers of lemon victorian sponge, muscato pear jelly and lemon cream

(make the night before)

Lemon Victorian Sponge

Ingredients

175g butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

zest of 1 lemon

Method

1. Cream the butter and caster sugar until light in colour and creamy in texture. Add lemon zest.
2. Gradually beat in eggs, one at a time until combined.

3. Add the flour and mix to combine.

4. Bake in a 180c oven for 20-25mins in a rectangular cake tin.

Muscato Pear Jelly and Lemon Cream

Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
2 cups muscato

5 pears. Peeled, cored and halved.
2 leaves gelatine, gold strength
300ml whipping/thick cream

zest of half lemon

Method
1. Bring the water, sugar and muscato to the boil.

2. Put pears in the liquid and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduced to a low simmer for 30mins.

3. In the last 5mins of poaching, soak the gelatine in cold water for 5-7mins, take out and squeeze out excess liquid. Take the pears out and stir the gelatine leaves into the hot liquid until dissolved. Pour into a bowl and set a side to cool.

4. Dice the pears once they have cool and put the cooled muscato jelly into the fridge to set.

To assemble

1. Whip cream and fold in lemon zest.

2. Take 4 glass tumblers. Using the glass, press into the cake to 'cut' a perfect shape. Gently push cake into the bottom of the glass.

3. Layer the pears on top of the cake and spoon the jelly on top. The jelly will have a runny consistency and will not sit on top of the peas - it will slide itself in between the empty pockets of pears.

4. Top with cream and decorate with a sprinkling of lemon zest.

Rosemary and Lemon Potatoes
Ingredients

1kg Potatoes

2-3 sprigs of rosemary, soaked in water for 10mins

Leave of 2 additional springs

half a lemon, cut into chunks

Salt

Oil

Method

1. Par boil the potatoes for 15mins in salted water. Drain and cool.

2. In a baking tray, combine oil and potatoes. Place lemon and rosemary sprigs around the potatoes. Bake for 45mins until golden. Soaking the sprigs in water will prevent burning.

3. For the rosemary salt. In a mortar and pestle, pound salt and rosemary leaves until fine powder. Sprinkle onto cooked potatoes.

Chicken in prosciutto wrap stuffed with semi-dried tomato and baby spinach

Ingredients

2 single chicken breast, halved and butterflied

8 slices of semi-dried tomatoes

1/2 packet baby spinach, wilted

10 slices prosciutto

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 190C.

2. In each butterflied breast, put 2 slices of tomatoes and baby spinach in the middle.

3. Fold back a butterflied side and wrap chicken with 2 slices of prosciutto.

4. In a frying pan, heat a small amount of oil. Sear the chicken (until prosciutto look crisp). Repeat until all the chicken is seared.

5. Put in a baking dish and bake for 30mins.

Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients
Large tomatoes, halved horizontally
Salt
Pepper
Oregano

Method
Combine ingredients in a baking dish or en papillot. Bake in a moderate oven for 20mins.

Peas with Fetta
Ingredients
Peas, half a small packet of frozen peas
Fetta to taste
Butter

Method
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add peas. Once the peas are hot, drain immediately.

2. Combine peas with a knob of butter and crumble fetta on top.