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Good Food and Wine Show

Today I went to the show and oh what a day it was.

Number 1. Ben O’Donoghue has moved to Brisbane and will be opening a restaurant sometime next year, currently looking for a location. Let me repeat that. Ben O’Donoghue now lives in Brisbane (though he is south sider ….) and will be opening his own place next year. Helen excited much?

Number 2. Matt Moran will open his new restaurant at Eagle St Pier in the Pier 9 space next March. Note to self, could be very very good.

Number 3. Helen somehow managed to win not one but two give aways at the cooking theatre. I won a I.O. Shen 21cm Cooks knife in the Alister Mcleod session and then I won a bottle of heavenly Kailis Extra Virgin Olive Oil during the Ben O’Donoghue session.

Number 4. Dairy, Chocolate and other dry groceries are the things that ended up in my bag. I was also so impressed with the Kailis EVOO that after some serious tasting I picked up a bottle of their Dolce oil which is infused with Blood Oranges – so so yummy, I could just about inhale that stuff.

Number 5. I picked up some PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur. Quite tasty

Number 6. I now have a pair of Crocs – Black Prima ballet shoes. I was looking at the strappy sandals but then I tried on the Primas and I can see them getting a work out at Woodford this year.

Number 7. I ran into a handful of people I know which was great.

Number 8. Tasted lots of yummy things, some not so yummy things, would have liked to have tasted a whole lot more but I still don’t have that whole biting/chewing hard things going with the braces yet.

Number 9. I wished that Karl was already here so he could have come and tasted the various beers/wines and picked the good ones.

Number 10. I did enjoy the show more last year – there were a few producers missing this year which was a bummer – no Zone Fresh stand, no Gympie Goats Cheese, no Curtis Stone….

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Stuffed Eggplants

I picked up a bag of eggplants for a steal at the fruit barn on the weekend and for the last day or two I have have the idea of stuffed eggplants running through my head. We were given an early mark at work today and on the train home all I could think about was that bag of eggplants. Dinner was great tonight and I am so looking forward to leftovers for lunch the next two days.

Stuffed Eggplants

Stuffed Eggplants
4-6 medium eggplants
olive oil
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 anchovies
1 carrot
2 eschallots
1 capsicum
100g diced pancetta
1 large field mushroom
1 large tsp pesto
6 sage leaves, torn
3 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
2-4 tbsp tomato passata
1/2 cup white wine
breadcrumbs and a cheese of your choice to top (my choice was pecorino)

Slice the eggplants in half lengthwise. Using a paring knife, slice/scoop the flesh out and dice into 1cm cubes. Finley dice the onion, carrot, garlic, capsicum and mushroom. Slice the eschallots. In a large pot, heat the olive oil and sweat the onion and garlic. Then add the carrot, capsicum, eschallots and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Finely chop the anchovies and with the pancetta add to the pot and continue to cook for a few minutes before adding the mushrooms, pesto and herbs. Cook for a few minutes before adding the wine, allow the wine to cook off for a moments before adding the passata. Allow to cook for a few more minutes. Spoon the filling into the eggplant halves, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. In a moderate oven bake the eggplants for roughly 30 minutes, serve with polenta and salad or just by themselves.

After stuffing the eggplants I had a good amount of filling left over so I roughly chopped up another capsicum, carrot, mushroom, more pancetta and a zucchini and added them to the pot with more wine and pasaata. Season to taste. I brought the pot to a simmer and allowed to cook for a good 30 minutes before freezing into portions to be used for a quick pasta dish.

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Chickpea Mash

Getting braces has meant that I have eaten a lot of sop/mashed foods the last week or so, one of my favourites was this Chickpea Mash I made. Not only was it packed full of goodness but it was a a good dish to use up veggies in the fridge.

Chickpea Mash

Chickpea Mash
2 handfuls chickpeas, rinsed, soaked overnight and rinsed again
1 onion, diced
few cloves of garlic, crushed
olive oil
1/2 capsicum, diced
3 eschallots, diced
1/4 eggplant, cubed
2tsp tumeric
1/2tsp cinnamon
1tsp cumin
1tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ginger
vegetable stock and/or water to cover
natural yoghurt and chives to serve

Sweat the onions and garlic in the oil, add the capsicum and eschallots and sauté for a few minutes, add the spices and stir through. Add the chickpeas and stir over medium heat for a few minutes. The chickpeas should take on a fantastic yellow colour. Add the stock/water and simmer for 35mins stirring every so often. Add the diced eggplant and return to simmer for 20mins. Using a stick blender, blend the chickpea mixture until about 90% of the chickpeas are mashed. Serve with a generous dollop of natural yoghurt and some diced chives.

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Caramel Chocolate Baked Cheesecake

For my birthday at work I had a few requests for the cheesecake I had made before for other birthdays. Yes I am blogging about my birthday oh almost a month after it. Oh it was so delightful.

Gone!
This is the photo of the wind. I had the photo all planned out in my head. My cake stand on an upturned vase covered by a scarf. It all looked so good through the lens and then as I pressed my finger on the shutter, the wind lifted up the scarf and the cake stand went over the balcony, the cake went onto the table and I just sighed. After nipping down stairs to pick up the broken cake stand, I took the photo again in a slightly more simple manner.

Birthday Cheese Cake

The recipe is almost exactly the same as the cheesecake recipe I have posted before but I added a tin of caramel (either Top’n’Fill or Caramel or a tin of condensed milk converted to caramel)

Caramel Chocolate Baked Cheesecake
Crumb Base
1 250g packet scotch fingers
bit of all spice
50g butter/marg
50g copha
2 tbsps or so of cocoa if desired

Melt the butter/marg and copha together.
Crumb scotch fingers till they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Stir through the all spice and cocoa if using. Stir in the melted fat mixture. The mixture of dairy and vegetable fat is used to give a better “crumb” and how it holds together. Press in to the bottom (and sides if desired) of a greased 20cm spring form pan (line the bottom with foil) and chill in the fridge whilst making the filling.

Filling
500g cream cheese
1 x 380g tin caramel
bit of lemon juice
bit of vanilla
4 eggs
2/3C sugar

Cream the cream cheese and caramel till smooth. Add in the vanilla and lemon juice. Beat in the sugar till smooth and then beat in eggs one at a time till mixture is smooth. Pour on top of the base and cook in 160deg oven for 40 mins or until cooked. Run knife round edge of spring form pan and cool overnight.

Topping
idea very loved from Smitten Kitchen
50g butter
100g+ chocolate – dark or Cadbury Energy or Lindt 70% etc – Mix it up with a few different chocolates, increase the flavour or use up those half used blocks…
2 tsp honey
You could also very easily add some flavours here such as peppermint extract, mmmm.

Melt all ingredients together in a bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Pour over top of cooled cheesecake and place in fridge for 30mins to set the chocolate topping.

When cutting this cake (due to the chocolate topping) if you want a clean cut you must dip the knife in a glass of hot water after each and every cut.

Enjoy!

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Pasta with Broccoli and Silverbeet

A few weekends ago I went to a Pasta Master class as part of the Taste of the Gold Coast Festival at Beaudesert with Desley and Pietro Agnoletto.

Pasta Class

Whilst I didn’t learn anything in the making of pasta section, I have a reasonable understanding of that (though I would like to learn a lot more in terms of hand shaped pasta), I did pick up a few tasty and fast pasta dishes and this one is based on that.

Pasta with Broccoli and Silverbeet

Pasta with Broccoli and Silverbeet
Ingredients
Pasta
Broccoli (cut into fingertip size pieces)
Silverbeet (sliced into thin ribbons)
(this should be enough of each to serve the number of mouths you are feeding)
a few cloves sliced garlic
Olive Oil (a very generous amount – this is essentially an oil sauce)
a green herb to finish with eg. Parsley or Basil
Parmesan

Bring the pasta water to the boil, add pasta and broccoli. After a few minutes heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the garlic, then remove from the heat. Add the silverbeet to the pasta and continue to cook for a few more minutes till the pasta, broccoli and silverbeet are cooked. Drain, reserving a little bit of the water and pour in the garlic and oil mix.

Serve topped with some of the green herbs, parmesan and a little bit of salt sprinkled over the top.

So so so quick to make and damm so tasty, especially as broccoli is everywhere at the shops right now

That’s it. A few ingredients, a meal that takes as long to make as it does to cook the pasta and it is finger licking good!

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Birthday Eve

I had a bit of flex time up my sleeve so I had a Birthday Eve day off (also because I was taking cake to work for my birthday and I wanted cake on my birthday not on the day before or after). I slept in till 7am!!! I did some washing, took care of the 1.8kg hunk of Pancetta I picked up last week, replied to some emails and then I headed off into the city. First off I collected my ticket for the Brandenburg concert and then I went to GOMA and checked out the Picasso exhibit at last (it closes on Sunday), that was everything I thought it was going to be and more. It was a really well presented exhibit. Getting a chance to see the works of Matisse, Cézanne, Rousseau, Renoir and all the other pieces that Picasso had collected presented alongside his own work was really good. At the GOMA shop I picked up one of the spilt pain teacup sets, it looks so good (I will take a photo of it later)

GOMA

Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!

After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.

Birthday Flowers Birthday Flowers

Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies 😀 Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some 🙂 After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.

Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed 😀 so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today 😀