Week 8 - Chicken Breasts in Almond Sauce

So, I have a confession, week 8 happened back in February, and I am only blogging it now on Easter Sunday. Poor form, I know. Week 8 was an attempt at Italian meat and 3 veg, with Chicken in Almond Sauce served with steamed garlic potatoes and steamed broccoli. Ok you busted me, meat and 2 veg. It was made for a couple of friends who joined us for dinner.

Let's face it, it's not an overly complicated dish. The chicken is seared and then cooked in the pan with lemon juice and a cover for 20 minutes. You then remove the chicken and in the juices you add almonds, butter, onion and garlic and cook until brown then add the white wine and cook until the wine has evaporated. I probably took the "until the wine has evaporated" a little too seriously and it ended up a little drier than I think it is intended, by that's why I'm an amateur!

On the whole this is an easy way to prepare chicken that it very tasty and combining with your favorite vegetables is a nice meal to serve to friends, but certainly won't knock their socks off. From this week forward I will be using a new system for scoring based on the below catergories and a score out of 10.

• Difficulty Rating - How difficult is the dish to make?


• Time - How long did it take to make?


• Taste - How did it taste?


• Skill - How well did I make it?

So based on this here is my score for week 9...

Difficulty Rating - 5
Time - 5
Taste - 7
Skill - 7

J

Week 8 - Pancakes

Hi all,

I’m running a little behind in my blog posts… so time to catch up! I made this dish a few weeks ago now, but it’s still fresh in my mind! In fact, I’ve made it again since my original because it was such a success. Blow your own trumpet you say… don’t mind if I do.

So the big dish in question is simply put… Pancakes! I have made pancakes about a gazillion times in my life, so I was keen to give the Silver Spoon recipe a go. I have to admit, I was a little surprised by the recipe as it called for olive oil, which I don’t think I’ve ever put into a pancake recipe before. However, my job here is to simply follow the recipe, so on with the show.

All of the usual suspects are added into the pancake batter, flour, baking powder, sugar, egg, milk with the unusual suspect of the olive oil now also included. The batter is then left to stand for 2 hours… it’s as simple as that.

After a quick nap on the couch, it’s onto the cooking section of the dish. A little bit of butter is added to the pan, and then the pancake mixture is poured in so that it makes a nice circle. As I was trying to make each of the pancakes the same size, I used a ladle to measure and pour the mixture, which has since become my best friend. The pancakes were left to cook for a couple of minutes, and turned when little bubbles started to appear. This process was repeated until all the mixture was used up.

The Silver Spoon recipe calls for a basic syrup to be poured on top of the pancakes to serve, however I wanted something a little more exciting. I heaped on fresh strawberries and raspberries, put on a dollop of ricotta and drizzled plenty of honey over it all.

The result = damn tasty. The pancakes were actually quite thin, which worked out well for the overall dish. It felt like you had a good portion of fruit and the toppings, not just pancakes. I can certainly recommend this dish as an (almost) healthy dessert or weekend breakfast. I did say almost people… almost.

Until next time… S.

Week 7 – Risotto Yum Yum

Week 7 sees me bring out the big guns… Risotto. I have made many Risotto’s before and I’d say all of them have never quite been as good as you get in some restaurants (I’m thinking Spago, LA 2006 mmmm!) so I was really keen to see how the making a Risotto from the Silver Spoon would go, I chose the Risotto Con I Gamberi or Prawn Risotto. Very Simple ingredients, Prawns, Onions, Cloves, Celery heart and Carrot. The first step was to boil the raw prawns, then devein and reserve the shells. The Shells were then crushed in the mortar and pestle. You then add the Onion, celery and carrot with the cloves to the Prawn cooking water and simmer for 30 minutess. Then into the processor to use this as our liquid for the Risotto. I then added a ladle at a time for nearly 20 mins until all the liquid was absorbed into the Rice and seared the prawns again in pan with butter and serve them on top of the Risotto.

I thought that the prawns turned out to be way too cooked and as a result not very appealing, however the Risotto itself was quite a success. I loved the flavors of the Risotto with Parmesan and Cracked Pepper to my taste it was lovely. If I was being a little critical the Risotto was a bit drier than it should be, I just always cook it that 2-3 minutes too long. All in all a great dish and very nice the next day too!

J

Week 6 - I love Pie!

Anyone who know me knows I love a pie... Apple Pie, Steak Pie, Pumpkin Pie... it's all good. So this week I chose to make a Chicken Pie. Now I’ve made pies before, but this was not like any pie I’ve made before. The bottom layer of the pie was completely made of smoked bacon, then you throw all of the ingredients in, including the chicken (uncooked), hard boiled eggs, parsley, mushrooms and onion and top with puff pastry. Then you cook in the oven for 75 mins.

I was sure this was going to be one of the disaster recipe’s and that there was something lost in translation, but it worked out quite well. This definitely was not my favorite dish, but it was quite tasty and simple considering it’s “set and forget”. This also was one of the most fascinating translations of a recipe name, Chicken Pie in Italian is Chicken Pie… amazing!

J

Week 7 - Gnocchi di Ricotta e Spinaci

Hi everyone,

Well week 7 almost brought about a disaster in my attempt to make Gnocchi di Ricotta e Spinaci, or Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi. To kick us off this week I have to point out that this is not an overly attractive dish to cook! However, I thought it would be tasty and was keen to give it a go.

So to start off I had to cook 1kg of spinach, which was an interesting task! I actually had to cook it in 4 batches as I couldn’t fit it all into the pot! Once the spinach was all cooked I had to drain all the excess water out of it, which appears to be quite a skill. I tried pushing it into a sieve, and whilst this worked, I still thought the spinach was quite wet. I then chopped it up finely and mixed it in a bowl with ricotta, parmesan, two egg yolks and seasoned it with some S&P. The mixture was then shaped into balls and set aside for cooking. The mixture was really quite wet, and was only just holding together. The recipe suggested that you dust the gnocchi lightly with flour, although this was absorbed quite quickly.

Next step was to cook the gnocchi in batches of 4 or 5 pieces at a time in some boiling water. At this point I could tell that the gnocchi was not going to hold together, but thought I should try it and see what happened. As I suspected, once placed in the water the gnocchi totally disintegrated and turned the water into a dodgy spinach and ricotta soup. Not so tasty…

So plan B was put into action pretty quickly, after some consideration was given to invoking the pizza clause. As the gnocchi was simply not holding together, I rolled each piece in flour and coated it thoroughly. I tested a couple of these pieces in the boiling water, and they held together perfectly. So I cooked up the rest using this process and got the dish back on track… crisis averted!

Once all the pieces were cooked I plated them up, sprinkled them with some fresh parmesan, and used melted butter as the sauce. I was actually quite impressed with the taste in the end. I think this dish would be best served as an entrée, with just 4 or 5 pieces of gnocchi per serve. I would also make the size of each piece a bit smaller, as they ended up quite large once all the flour was added towards the end of the process.

However, all in all, this was a tasty dish, and pretty simple to make. I’d be happy to have this one again.

Until next time…

S.

Week 6 – Bruschetta al Pomodoro & Asparagi alla Parmigiana

Hi everyone,

I’m a little late in posting this update, but better late than never! For week 6 I was put in charge of making an entrée as we had a guest coming over for dinner, and J was cooking mains. I chose to make Bruschetta al Pomodoro, or Tomato Bruschetta. I have made Bruschetta many times, which is why I was keen to use the recipe from The Silver Spoon, to see how our modern interpretation of Bruschetta holds up against a classic Italian recipe. I was very surprised to learn that the ingredients did not call for basil, onion or balsamic vinegar, all of which are in a typical recipe for this dish. So, as I am following the exact recipe as outlined in The Silver Spoon, I went ahead with just some bread, garlic and tomatoes!

I cut some think slices off a big loaf of bread, and toasted these on a grill pan. Once the bread was toasted, I rubbed some garlic over it, which almost melted and spread like butter. I put the bread back on the grill for just a minute more, and then put it aside. Once all the bread had been toasted, it was time to load up the diced tomatoes. After each serve had been plated up, I then added plenty of S&P, and drizzled over some olive oil.

As you would expect, the Bruschettta tasted pretty good, as it was almost impossible to stuff it up! However, I really think it was missing the extra flavor of the basil in particular, so I’m not likely to use this recipe again in a hurry! Sorry to the editors of The Silver Spoon, this one is not a winner!

As making a Bruschetta dish was not an overly taxing task, I also made a side dish to go with J’s main course. I made Asparagi alla Parmigiana, or Parmesan Asparagus. This is simply an asparagus side dish, whereby the asparagus is boiled for 15 minutes, and then sprinkled with some parmesan and melted butter. As I expected, the asparagus was way too soggy after cooking for 15 minutes, even though it still tasted okay. I will certainly make this side dish again, although will only cook the asparagus for a couple of minutes. I’m sure that will make a much nicer dish next time.

Until next time…

S

Week 5 – Frittata Cake

Well I’m late again on my blog post, so here it is. Week 5 was a move into the wonderful world of eggs, and so I was looking for a recipe that was based on eggs, but could be taken into dinner, what I found was the Frittata Cake, it’s 3 layers of frittata, with simply parsley and parmesan in the egg mixture with layers roasted red peppers and grilled aubergine. On each of the layers it was covered with cheese, the recipe called for Fontina cheese, however after going to 3 separate stores the closest I could find was Emmental which by all reports (Google) was a good replacement.

I have to say this was an easy one to make, though a little time consuming with the preparation of the vegetables. The peppers and aubergine make this very tasty and make this more of a hearty meal. The recipe said it could be served warm or cold, so I proceeded on the next day to have it cold and I think I preferred it as lunchtime cold meal than a dinner time warm meal. Good to know!

Until next week.

J

Week 5 – Frittata Cake

Well I’m late again on my blog post, so here it is. Week 5 was a move into the wonderful world of eggs, and so I was looking for a recipe that was based on eggs, but could be taken into dinner, what I found was the Frittata Cake, it’s 3 layers of frittata, with simply parsley and parmesan in the egg mixture with layers roasted red peppers and grilled aubergine. On each of the layers it was covered with cheese, the recipe called for Fontina cheese, however after going to 3 separate stores the closest I could find was Emmental which by all reports (Google) was a good replacement.

I have to say this was an easy one to make, though a little time consuming with the preparation of the vegetables. The peppers and aubergine make this very tasty and make this more of a hearty meal. The recipe said it could be served warm or cold, so I proceeded on the next day to have it cold and I think I preferred it as lunchtime cold meal than a dinner time warm meal. Good to know!

Until next week.

J

Week 5 - 2 for 1 Tartines!

My addiction to entrees and mini food got the better of me this week, when I served up two appetizers to a guest for dinner. However, the expectation was set early that a dish was being cooked for The Bronze Spoon, and that the need to cook a “bookmarked” dish would take precedence over logic or preference.

So I prepared two dishes for this week’s challenge, both from the Entrée section of The Silver Spoon. I made Pizzaiola and Avocado Tartines, found on pages 135 and 137 respectively.

The Pizzaiola Tartines, or Tartine alla Pizzaiola are essentially a combination of tomatoes, green olives, spring onions and parsley on a toasted bread. I removed the seeds from the tomatoes, sprinkled them with salt and left them to drain for 5 minutes before chopping up. The tomatoes were then simply mixed with the olives, spring onion and parsley, and drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with some S&P. The bread was cut into rounds and toasted, then spread with butter. Each round was then topped with the tomato mixture, with a slice of buffalo mozzarella placed on top. Some oregano and olive oil was then added to garnish the dish.

The Avocado Tartines, or Tartine all’Avocado was a bit of a group effort. Two avocados were chopped up and placed into a food processor with some cream cheese, half a lemon, more lemon juice, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and some chives. The crusts were removed from the bread, and then cut into squares. The avocado mixture was simply spread onto the bread, with half a cherry tomato placed on top. Some basil, S&P and olive oil was then added to garnish.

Both Tartines turned out to be very tasty, however silly it may have been to serve them in the first place. I made two serves of the Pizzaiola Tartines, and added more salt to the tomato mixture in the second batch. This gave it a better flavor and was tastier than the first round. With the Avocado Tartines, I would definitely toast the bread next time. The mixture was too heavy for the little squares, so toasting it would give it more stability! I would also pipe the avocado mixture onto the bread, purely for presentation.

This is me done for another week. Until next time…

S.

Week 4 - Tortiglioni con Funghi e Melanzane

Hi everyone,

So for week 4 I didn’t have much time to plan my dish (blame the tennis), so I went for a last minute, run around the supermarket in a frenzy, dried pasta dish. My choice was Tortiglioni con Funghi e Melanzane, or in a language we can actually understand, Tortiglioni with Mushroom and Aubergine. It can be found on page 304 of The Silver Spoon.

So just as it sounds, this is a simple pasta dish that uses mushrooms and aubergine as the base for the sauce. I started making the sauce by finely slicing an onion and letting it fry with some garlic in oil for a few minutes. Once the garlic started to brown, I removed it and added some sliced mushrooms and diced aubergine. As the mushroom and aubergine turned golden brown, it was time to add the double cream (woo hoo!) and some S&P. The sauce was left to simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes, whilst the Tortiglioni cooked.

Once the pasta was ready, it was drained and then added to the sauce for just one minute. Once it was all combined, it was turned out into a large pasta bowl and topped with fresh parmesan.

This pasta dish actually tasted quite nice, but it was much richer than what I expected. It is a dish I would recommend for a cold winters day, when some comfort food is in order! There was a decent portion left for leftovers the next day, which I polished off with no trouble at all. I would be happy to have this dish again, but perhaps not on a hot summers day!

Until next time…

S.

Week 4, A Guests Request

Well I’ve made another pasta dish. This week was a request made by a guest in our home who was provided the Fresh Pasta section of the Silver Spoon to choose a dish from. The request… Taglietelle with Cream, Peas and Ham or in Italian, Taglietelle Panna, Pisella E Prosciutto. This is quite involved making taglietelle from scratch. Flour and eggs kneaded into a dough, rested and put through the pasta machine making sheets of very yummy pasta. This was a bit difficult in that it required resting of the pasta after each stage and I admit I got distracted for the last part and left it longer than it needed, which meant it was dry and then hard to get through the machine, however 3 women in the kitchen and we got the problem resolved!

Onto making the sauce. I used 200g of fresh shelled peas(I outsourced the shelling of peas..win!), ham, double cream(again!) and an onion. Once the Onion was soft in the Butter and Olive Oil, the peas were cooked for 20 mins on a low heat in the pan. You add the cream for 5 minutes and finally the ham just as you are ready to finish. With the pasta cooked al dente in salted boiling water and mixed together in bowl and there it is… Dinner.

The pasta itself can be tricky, but I suspect as I do it more I will get better and knowing the timing of what is required. The sauce is simple to prepare, and I have to say I am loving the Italian sauces in general, all of them tasty and I have learnt so much from how they prepare them compared to how I would have thought to prepare them before the Silver Spoon. They don’t need all the ingredients I used to use like garlic, basil and even onion in most dishes which really makes it all the more tasy when they are used. It is official in my opinion that the Italians have the sauce thing absolutely worked out and I love it!

Week 3 and... we have a winner!

I’m a little late in writing this blog, it might be the Vodka stupor from the dish itself, Penne Rigate in Vodka. Yes that’s right I found a dish that included alcohol, and I suspect throughout the year this will be quite regular. The reality is alcohol is added to my meals anyway… at the point of eating usually, but in the food is equally fun!

Doing the Penne Rigate felt like a bit of a cheat, like all the pasta should be fresh made and done on the day, however to make it as authentic as possible I bought an Italian brand of pasta to use in the dish. The first point I’d like to make in regards to the sauce is that it was NOT healthy. Butter and Double cream were involved, along with tomato puree and parsley and Vodka. It started with melting the butter in a pan, adding the ham, tomato puree and parsley to sizzle for 10 mins, followed by double cream and Vodka cooked until the Vodka had evaporated. From there it is a matter of drizzling it over the al dente cooked pasta and eaten with an enourmous amout of satisfaction. I would have to say this is seriously easy to make and quite possibly the tastiest pasta I have eaten, certainly the best I have ever made.

Pure simplicity in a wonderful dish.

Week 3 - Sugar Crepes

Hi everyone,

So week 3 is upon us, and I couldn’t wait any longer to make one of my favourite foods… Crepes! The Silver Spoon has many different Crepe recipes to choose from, but I decided to go with very plain and simple Sugar Crepes for my dish this week. I am certainly going to make some savory crepes down the track, and also some other sweet crepes like Crepes Suzette, but I didn’t really feel like setting the kitchen on fire today, so thought I’d best leave that for another time.

A couple of months ago I bought a new crepe pan, which surprisingly enough is the first crepe pan I’ve ever owned. I used to eat pancakes like they were going out of fashion, and would also try crepes from time to time. However, I always did this with a normal frying pan, and was happy enough with the results. But… enough is enough! I have always wanted a crepe pan, so I finally went out and got one… I just knew I had crepes in my future!

So the Crepe recipe in the Silver Spoon is fairly straightforward. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, whisk away and leave it to rest for an hour. The one thing that always surprises me with a crepe batter is just how thin the batter actually is. It’s almost like the consistency of milk, which is a little funny if you are more used to making pancakes (which I am). Once the batter has had a chance to rest, it’s time for the fun and games to begin. There is a fair bit of skill and technique in getting your crepes to cook properly. They need to be cooked on a low heat, spread evenly (and quickly) in the pan, and of course… flipped without folding or ruining each crepe. I am happy to report that no crepes were harmed during the making of this dish.

Once the crepes were cooked and ready to serve, they were topped with a little sugar, folded over and topped with a lemon wedge.

The outcome?

I think they were pretty good! The main thing I struggle with is getting the crepes thin enough, but still holding together. The recipe says that you can make 12 crepes from this batter, but I only got 7. However, I think they were pretty good, and I don’t think I would change anything when using this recipe in the future.

It should also be noted that I “had” to go back for seconds, and for round two the crepes were spread with Nutella, and then topped with banana and maple syrup. Not necessarily very Italian… but very tasty!

Now before you say it… yes… I realize that at some point I am going to have to go on a diet. I also realize that it is not going to be this week.

Until next time….

S.

We meet again...in week 2.

Well week 2 is upon me and after deciding I was going with a hearty Cacciatore or maybe a Risotto to really get into some Italian favorites, I was put off by the fact it was 43 degrees in Melbourne today and hence I went searching for Summer…. Well a Summer Salad which found me very close to the back of The Silver Spoon reading a recipe from a Melbourne chef, Karen Martini. I decided to use this recipe and make Insalata Di Gamberetti E Fagioli Biancho, Condita Con Olio Di Tartufo… You got all of that? Ok the simpler way to say it would be a Prawn and Cannellini Bean salad with a Truffle dressing.

This is actually quite a simple recipe and quick to put together once you have the ingredients, and there is the hard part. Truffles are not in season and Truffle Paste is hard to come by… Truffle oil seems to be easy enough to get, but here’s the kicker… you need all three. Well the truffle itself was optional and as it’s out of season I opted to not have it. The recipe calls for you to cook the raw king prawns, then add the beans with oil and lemon juice. You then remove it from the heat and stir through the fennel, yellow leaves from a celery heart and half of a bunch of chives. The dressing is a mixture of olive oil, truffle oil, truffle paste and lemon juice and is spooned over the salad once prepared.

The flavors were quite intense, with the fennel and truffles, however the prawns, chives and lemon really balanced it to make it a very tasty dish. I suspect in the future I would prepare it as more of a side dish, however it worked for a summer salad also. I will definitely be having this one again and my taste tester went back for seconds so I consider that a glowing endorsement!

Until next week, Ciao.

J

Week 2 - Pomodori alla Mousse di Cetrioli

Hi everyone,

So for Week 2 I have chosen a strange but summery salad dish, Pomodori alla Mousse di Cetrioli, or Tomatoes with Cucumber Mousse! As the weather has been so hot lately, I didn’t think it was time to cook a pasta, risotto etc, so I went looking for something light, summery and fresh. I found this dish on page 541 and thought I’d give it a crack.

So, what exactly is it? This dish could be served as an entrée, side or even as the salad to accompany a main dish. You start with scooping out the seeds and flesh from the tomatoes, whilst reserving the tops (or lids as I’ve been calling them) for presentation. You lightly salt the tomatoes, and leave them upside down for an hour to drain.

For the cucumber mousse, you simply put all the ingredients (cucumber, ricotta, milk and mint) into a food processor and puree. You then fold in some egg whites to form the cucumber mousse. The mousse is then spooned into the tomatoes, topped with some chives, lid popped back on, and whacked in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

How did it taste? Better than I expected! I was a little concerned that the mousse was going to turn into sludge, so was pleasantly surprised when it held most of its shape when the tomatoes were cut. Next time however, I would use less cucumber, as I simply think there was too much in the overall recipe, and it made the mousse a little too watery. I also had a lot of mousse left over that just hit the bin. All in all though, quite a nice little salad dish, that I would happily make again.

So that’s week 2 down… and I haven’t killed anyone yet! Until next time…

S

Let the games begin... Week 1

Hi everyone,

So here is my first dish for the 2010 Bronze Spoon Cooking Challenge. To get things off and running I have chosen a dish that I thought was very Italian and typical of the food I want to cook during this challenge. So... I present you with Week 1 - Margherita Pizza, or as the Italian's would say, Pizza Margherita!

Now this just couldn't possibly go wrong. Margarita or Margherita I don't care. I like to drink them, I like to eat them... before I've even started, I'm confident I'm on to a good thing. And yes, for all you smarta@#'s out there, I realise I could have had about 15 pizza's delivered in the time it took me to make one from scratch... but that's not the point is it! Moving right along...

So... to start with I had to make the pizza dough. It seems that this is quite an art, and something that will take some trial and error to perfect. I had to knead the dough and leave it for 3 hours, which seriously interupted my cricket viewing time, but thems the breaks. I also only covered the dough with a teatowel while it was resting, which left it sligthly crusty on top. No biggie, but next time I will cover it with glad wrap or a damp cloth. I'm a gumby remember, and don't know these things. The Silver Spoon is also pretty light on for instructions and details, so what you don't know... you make up as you go along.

Once the dough was ready to go, I simply rolled it out and put some peeled and diced tomatoes on top with some olive oil. This then went in the oven for about 15 minutes. Then I added the mozzarella and basil, added some S&P with a dash of oil and put it back in the oven for 7 minutes. That's it!

The outcome...

Well I thought it was pretty tasty! I think the dough could use some work, but I suspect that will come with experience and time. The flavours were good, but to be honest, I would probably lick tomato, mozzarella and basil off the floor and be happy about it.

That's me done for week 1. Come back next week, same bat time, same bat channel.

S.

On the first day...

So today begins a 12 month journey with 52 dishes ahead. For my first dish it would be safe to say I have started easy. No complicated meat dish with long instructions, just a simple Potato Gnocci with Tomato Sauce, or as the Italians would say Gnocci Salsa Di Pomodoro. This consisted of two parts, the Gnocci and the sauce.

The sauce was pretty simple, tinned italian tomatoes simmering for 45 mins with Garlic and salt, and after it is cooled you add Olive Oil and Basil. The Difficult part was the Gnocci. I was able to outsource the peeling of the Potatoes, which in itself constituted a win, then you steam them (not boil) to make them light and fluffy. Once the Potatoes are tender they are mashed with flour and a lightly beaten egg and then boiled a handful at a time. All sounds so easy doesn't it... well in theory it was simple, except my potato mash was lumpy and I was very edgy about the amount of flour to mash ratio as too much flour and they are hard and too little they would fall apart when cooked. I also did not expect that only doing a small number of gnocci pieces at a time would take so long, but we were hungry and this would need more peices and more time. The Gnocci really would have been served as starter in Italy so I suppose if I had done a starter size then it would be quite quick.

The Result:
I was reliably informed that the dish was very good, this leaves room for improvement. My own critique would be that the size and shape of the Gnocci was difficult to maintain and although hidden by the sauce would be an area for improvement and also as it took so long to do the serving tempertaure was a bit cool. Overall though for taste it was pretty good. I added Parmesan and fresh cut chilli to mine and that really defintely added it a bit more fun.

All in all a safe start, but a succesful one.

Cheers

J