Food Styling - Choice Magazine
http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=102996&catId=100406&tid=100008&p=1

It is such a good birthday so far, It's only 7:30 AM and I've already had breakfast in bed (ham, tomato, avocado & cheese crossaints with OJ.. YUM) and got a whole bunch of great gifts. Michael got me four new cookbooks! The new women's weekly xmas and the new donna hay xmas, a new bill granger that I hadn't seen before - Sydney Food - and the new Jamie Oliver Jamie's Italy! So pleased! That will keep me going for a long time. Michael also got me a great button necklace and a box of my favourite chocolates rafaellos! so great!

I must have done something really amazing for Michael's mum in another life because she totally went to town on the best present ever for me, a hand knitted scarf and beaded pin.

The scarf is amazing and perfect for me, It is in a chunky, variagated, soft yarn with all kinds of colours through it - a really autumnal pallette, in a boxy openwork kind of stitch.. I'll have to ask her what the stitch pattern is. It's really wide how I like my scarves, and a medium kind of length with really long decadent fringe. The colours will go terrifically with my often choice of an all black wardrobe, and in fact since it's not going to be tooo hot today I am going to wear it, along with a black top, skirt, and boots.

The beaded pin is basically a family heirloom! In the center is a beautiful brown stone passed down to S, and she has surrounded it with other beautiful beadwork. It is the sister pin to one S made for her daughter, my sister in law, D, and is exactly as beautiful as hers! It is delicious holding the scarf around my neck at the moment, slightly off center just how I like it.

I don't have photos yet cos I have leant out the digital camera for the weekend (for the precious new arrival of baby Julia V, congratulations Jen and Frank..) but I will very soon!

I guess because of my knitting and crafting I have an elevated appreciation of the hand made, but really, it's just so fabulous and perfect for me, who would have thunk that someone else could have picked and made and it come out so right! I am most impressed.

Also she didn't stop there and gave me some great other things like the bergamot essential oil I have been hankering for since my last massage about two months ago, a bath fizzer that I was tempted to use this morning since I"m going in late to work, a face mask and foot soak/lotion, and more of my favourite rafaellos!

I have bought myself a new silver bracelet and earrings which I will be wearing today, and baked myself a rasberry baked cheesecake which is in the fridge waiting to go along to work with me (I also have a pecan pie coming into work from the cheesecake shop). Fingers crossed the cheesecake is great - I picked a really well rating recipe from epicurious.com but I'm a little concerned the base may have become waterlogged - it was cooked in a springform pan in a water bath in a roasting tin, and I wrapped four layers of foil around the pan to stop the water penetrating, but there seems to have been some leakage. So fingers crossed!

We had a dinner party on the weekend and I finally made panna cotta which I have been wanting to do for ages. It was really festive, looked and tasted great - I made it in cocktail glasses with rasberries and sugar in the bottom, then the panna cotta, and on the top I piped a kind of lattice of dark chocolate mixed with cream.. Really visually effective and easy to make ahead and yum. We also had a kind of antipasto platter to start with little toasts spread with garlic, persian fetta, and marinated tomatoes, plus marinated asparagus with parmesan cheese wrapped in prosciutto, and some (off the shelf) marinated mushrooms. On of our guests M plated it all, she used to be a chef and made it look outstanding! The main was gnocchi baked in a spicy tomato and cream sauce in individual ramekins with salad. It all worked out really yum and best of all it was great company and a great night. Tonight is out to dinner for my birthday with just M and I and should be lovely!

Anyway I must go and get ready for work. It's been lovely taking an extended lazy morning - It is 7.45 and this is when I usually arrive at work!

Note to self: I have been looking for a while for a recipe for Romanini or Rome Biscuits after tasting the great ones at a local cafe.. Well there is a jam filled shortbread in the new bills that I think I could use and susbstitute dark choc mixed with cream and a little orange zest for the jam, and add a little orange zest to the basic mix.

As I was serving it I reflected that if I had any kecap manis to drizzle around the edges of the plate, and some spring onion garnish, it would have been real restaurant quality fare! as it was it was delicious and I will definitely serve the nasi this way again.

The lentil and onion type dhal thing was not very good. After being doctored at the end with oodles of coriander, salt, lime juice, and extra chilli, it wasn't bad, but it still wasn't good. Using the rice cooker worked out well though.. But, overall, a disappointment! I tried to take a photo but the camera batteries were dead, ho hum.

However the pineapple upside down cake came out brilliantly. Fantastically. It is one hell of a keeper of a recipe in fact. I charged the camera batteries and took a photo the following morning, which I'll upload and post on the weekend. The recipe was a bit of an effort but still fun, heaps of ingredients.. I even remembered when making the recipe that being a US recipe the tablespoon measures were 15ml not 20ml as I'm used to, and modified accordingly.

When the cake came out of the tin to cool, it looked perfect.. just like the picture on Simply Recipes. I was so excited about how good it looked and then started to feel paranoid about could it's taste live up to its excellent looks. But it did. It is hard to describe, it was sweet but not too sweet, had a mild citrusy taste, the almond and vanilla combination was delicious, the texture was lovely (I had been worried it would be too dense), the only change I would make was to serve a dollop of cream on the side!

The birthday boy was surprised and really liked it, I was pleased with myself all day. I am not much of a cake baker so this is easily my best effort yet and tempts me to keep trying.. I received a women's weekly celebration cakes cookbook free with another cook book some time ago and am quite keen to try one of their "professional" type cakes.. Maybe the carrot cake.

Anyhoo, lets pretend no time has passed and skip to my plans for tonight. If I blog about them in advance, I might remember to document how I go and photograph the results! For I am trying two new recipes tonight.. A lentil and onion dhal type shindig from my "wok it" recipe book and Simply Recipes' Pineapple Upside Down Cake for a pal at work's birthday tomorrow.

Here's hoping there both excellent. I'm going to make some mods to the lentil recipe, after the first few steps you simmer it in a lidded pan for ages.. This always puts the fear of burning in me, so I am going to try doing this step in the rice cooker after spraying it with some non stick spray. I reckon it's going to work a treat.

I have never ever ever had success cooking lentils before, but this time I've even gone out and bought ghee (clarified butter) instead of just substituting oil like every other indian recipe I've ever made.

So the odds are surely in my favour!

And the cake, well, it looks so good and my peep is a real pinapple lover so I am not worried at all. Plus, it's a surprise, so if it doesn't work out - well I just won't give it to him! Gee I'm all heart..

red cooked chicken - make with thighs
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultryrecpz/r/redcookchicken.htm

spicy soy sauce chicekn - is it the same as above
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultryrecpz/r/spicysoychicken.htm

bourbon chicken marinade
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chickenrecipes/r/bourbonchicken.htm

bang bang chicken
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/szechuanpoultryrecipes/r/bangbangchicken.htm

beef with tomatoes
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/beef/r/beeftomatoes.htm

Four Happiness Pork
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/pork/r/boiledpork.htm

mushu pork
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/pork/r/mushupork.htm

Asian-Style Roast Pork Tenderloin
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/pork/r/asianroastpork.htm
Update: I tried this, with some modifications. I used the sauce ingredients as a marinade for some pork and veg that I stir fried. I added two teaspoons of minced chilli and salt and pepper. It was good, I will make it again, I overcooked the pork though and may use chicken thighs next time.

This great and easy recipe for garlic mushrooms comes from my brother-in-law-to-be Ahron.

Add a little butter to a medium -hot fry pan, swoosh it around for 30 seconds or so. Throw in heaps of onion flakes and herb and garlic salt (I use masterfoods for both). I just do lots of shakes but if I had to measure I'd say about two teaspoons of each, and between two teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of butter for about 400g of mushrooms.

Let this fry nicely for 2-3 minutes. I prefer not to let it brown too much but it's fine if you do. If you desire you can add an extra clove of very finely diced mushrooms, but if doing so just put that in for the last 30 seconds to prevent it burning. You could also add some finely grated lemon rind, yum.

Add your mushrooms, roughly chopped (just quarter them if they are small to medium). A prefers to do small batches at a time, I am lazy and do about 400g-500g of mushrooms at once which is enough for two big breakfasts on toast, or enough for a side dish for 4 people.

It will look like heaps of mushrooms but they will shrink down substancially.

Stir the mushrooms around to coat them evenly in the seasonings.

After about 10 minutes, they are going to be nicely cooked. I will sometimes add a few squirts of lemon juice after about five minutes.

When they are cooked to your liking, season with black pepper and stir in some chopped parsley if you have it on hand. You could stir in some cream and cook for another minute or two if you were feeling expansive (I don't do this but may one day!), or a little extra butter.

Yum. Serve on grilled toast or sourdough, if you are a real garlic lover like me, then rub it with a cut clove of garlic first.

I have used these mushrooms to fill an omelette with great success, and also adapted the recipe to make delicious stir fried greens - I blanched the greens in boiling water and cooled them in ice water, then followed the recipe as if they were mushrooms (the cooking time was only about three minutes though). Very yummy.

These appeared in delicious mag march 05 as "chocolate & macadamia biscuits". The picture was so ugly, I theorized, that they must be seriously good.

And, they are. Here is the recipe with some slight adaptions.

Preheat oven to 140 degrees. Fan forced or not doesn't seem to matter.

Melt 100g unsalted butter, 160g caster sugar, 60g honey over a low heat till everything is melted and its nicely combined.

Meanwhile, measure out 1/2 cup plain flour and 2 large egg whites. Add the heated mixture to the flour, stir till combined, then add egg whites.

On a baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with baking paper, pour out one third of the mixture and by using a spatula or spoon or pasty scraper (or whatever you can get to work!) spread the mixture really thin, all the way out to each edge.

Now sprinkle on your toppings. I tried almonds on one, white chocolate and macadamia on another, and toblerone broken up on the third. The mix itself is very sweet, so my favourite result was the almonds. Next time If I use a sweet topping I will try replacing 40g of the sugar with flour (I'll let you know how that turns out). Anyway, innovate. Whatever tastes good. These are delicious plain, too, so whatever you like.

Bake for about 35 minutes or until a rich golden brown. If you cook two trays at once, swap them halfway during cooking.

Remove from oven, let cool on tray for 10 minutes, then use your hands to break them into large pieces. Then, enjoy! Store in airtight container.

If you don't want to bake it all at once, leftover mix can go in the frige and be reheated in the microwave, and will keep for a few days.

These are great with coffee or desert wine or on their own. I will definitely make them again.

Adapted from "Pork Chops Peking Style" in Women's Weekly Cookbook "Best recipes from the weekly"

peanut oil

500g beef fillet (eg rump) sliced for stir fry
desired vegetables (eg 2 - 3 cups of celery, onion, carrot, capsicum, champignons all sliced for stir fry)

1 TB cornflour
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil

2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)

diced pineapple (tinned is fine), optional.

sauce:
1 clove finely chopped garlic

3 TB rice vinegar (or other white vinegar)
3 TB tomato sauce
2 TB sugar

1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp sherry
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chilli sauce, or to taste

Method:

Combine sauce ingredients and simmer in wok till thickened (about 10 minutes), then set aside

Meanwhile, toss beef fillet in cornflour and then stir in soy and sesame oil

Put a little peanut oil into hot pan and pan fry beef in batches for 2-3 minutes or until just cooked, then set aside

Pan fry vegetables for 2-3 minutes or until just cooked, then set aside.

Add a little more peanut oil into the pan and add in garlic and ginger. Swirl around for 30 seconds but don't let it burn. Add the beef, vegetables, pineapple, and sauce and combine for a minute, then you're done.

My scarf swap clapotis is finished. This is my third clapotis but my first altering the dimensions - it's just a skinny one. Done with a soft fuzzy novelty nylon blend held together with a 4ply black wool.

It is for my scarf swap recipient and I will post sometime this week!

It is a bit hard to see any detail from the photograph. I hope she likes it! It has a long way to travel, that is all I will say so as not to give anything away.

I enjoyed knitting it but will not do clapotis in a clingy or novelty yarn again as it is just too hard to drop the stitches! I kinda wished I'd used some of the lovely wendy dennis hand dyed wool I got from the bendigo sheep show, but too late now.

Chicken Tonight Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

Ahron's Easy Garlic Mushrooms

I also tried a wafer thin yet very rich cookie from delicious magazine, which I also photographed.. This was a big hit and I'll definitely make it again.

So, will post those things shortly!

For 10 chicken skewers I used approximately 600g chicken tenderloins.

After I diced the tenderloins and threaded them onto wooden skewers which I had soaked in water for an hour, I marinated the skewers in this mix (recipe sourced here):

Mix together
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
2 teaspoons of brown sugar

If you wanted to make more skewers, or baste them while cooking, you could easily make 1.5x or 2x the marinade.

I grilled these on my george foreman grill until just cooked (avoid overcooking tenderloins, though you can get away with it with chicken thighs) and served with this lovely peanut and hoisin sauce I'd sampled a few weeks earlier at A, A, and O's.. (Thanks to A for the recipe). I have tried making peanut sauce a few times before and it has always been really gross but this one was lovely!

Peanut and Hoi-Sin Sauce:

4 Tbsp Water
4 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
7 Tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter
8 Tbsp Hoi-Sin Sauce
1 Tbsp Hot Chilli Sauce
1 Tbsp Unsalted Peanuts, roasted and finely chopped.

Over low heat, warm the water, vinegar and peanut butter until blended.
Stir in the hoi-sin and hot chilli sauces.
Finish off by stirring in the chopped peanuts.

My modifications for next time: I think it was a little heavy on the hoi-sin so I might start with 4 tablespoons next time and then add to taste. It is a great recipe though, it's very close to my all time favourite peanut sauce you can buy which is the one that comes in the wraps of the world malaysian satay wrap kit, so I may do a taste test one day and see if I can figure out what I need to add to get it even closer, as it is very impractical to buy the wrap kit just for the little sauce sachet inside!