We love chicken at our place. So any variation that sounds good, and looks good in the cookbook, I flag and hope to try one day.

Bill Granger came off the bookshelf this time around, and we tried the combination of lime, paprika and honey. It was a very simple recipe to follow, and because it's baked, I could get on with more important things, like catching up on blogging whilst it baked away. The wafts from the oven did have me wishing it would hurry up cooking so we could eat!

Served with steamed white rice and Asian greens (broccolini in our case), was just a simple but tasty meal. I love the sourness of the lime, with the sweetness of the honey. 

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I have wanted to make this recipe since I got Bill Granger's, Simply Bill cookbook many years ago. The picture looked like something I could happily live on, and a good variation from the tradition beef bolognese.

The recipe is really quite easy, you could easily make it after a day at the office. Once you have done the basics and everything is in the pan simmering away; just cook the pasta and you'll have dinner in no time.
I found I had to add a bit of sugar to the sauce as it was quite salty. The parsley really cuts through and adds a lovely freshness to the sauce. Be sure to add the parsley in at the end to ensure the fresh flavour.

We now have a rule in our house; no seconds. With summer on it's way, it's time to shed some of the winter fat we have accumulated for hibernation. So we can only have the seconds as another meal the day after or later on in the week. We were both really wanting seconds of this pasta, but the best thing is we are looking forward to the leftovers tonight for dinner!

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To answer your question; yes, it does taste as good as it looks.... perhaps even better!

Lately on a Sunday, I've been waking up not wanting the usual toast, cereal or hot cross bun. Sunday breakfast is meant to be special, a day when you wake up and not worry about your calorie intake. So bring on the bacon if that's what you feel like!

Whilst looking for a recipe for the last cookbook challenge, I stumbled upon this recipe for breakfast. It looked easy enough, and something Hamsley and I would both enjoy when we crawled out of bed. I chucked everything in the oven; including the bread as I bought a "bake at home" Turkish bread loaf as it was nice and cheap. In about 10 minutes we had breakfast with a nice hot cuppa coffee for Sir Hamsely, and a nice cuppa chai for moi.

Breakfast BLT
Bill Granger

Get your hands on:
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
4 short-cut bacon rashers
2 teaspoons olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 avocado
2 tablespoons creme fraiche (or sour cream)
1 tablespoon snipped chives
Dash of Tabasco sauce
4 slices sourdough bread
4 small cos lettuce leaves


1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Put the tomato halves and bacon on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and bake for 10 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp and tomatoes are slightly wilted.


2. Mash the avocado, creme fraiche, lemon juice and chives together and season with salt and pepper. Add Tabasco, to taste. Toast the bread and spread two of the slices with avocado mixture. Top with lettuce leaves, some bacon and tomato halves and then sandwich with the other slices of bread.


Serves 2.

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It's the first meatballs of 2010!
As many of you may know, I have a meatball obsession. So when I was in the mood for meatballs just recently, I decided to pull Bill Granger off the shelf to see if he had the goods.

This recipe is a fantastic mid-week meal. I thought it was a little strange that there was no egg in the mixture to keep it all together. I also found it weird that I baked the meatballs instead of pan frying them. This in fact made it super easy as most of the recipe is just bunged in the oven, then finished off on the stove.

I added more pancetta than required, but no one complained. I would easily make these again.

Check out my new cookbook stand. It has a splash cover so I don't make a mess of my cookbook! Not bad for $20 from the General Trader!


3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teasponn ground coriander
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
500g (1 lb 2 oz) minced (ground) chicken
3 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
50g (1 3/4 oz) pancetta, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
Sea salt
500g (1 lb 2 oz) cherry tomatoes, halved
Freshly ground black pepper
125ml (4 fl oz / 1/2 cup) chicken stock

500g (1 lb 2 oz) wholewheat fusilli, cooked
Parmesan shavings

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F / Gas 6). Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the coriander and chilli and cook for 1 minute.

2. Put the chicken in a bowl with the breadcrumbs, pancetta, parsley and salt. Add the spiced onion and mix well with your hands. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm the mixture. Wet your hands with cold water to stop the mixture sticking and roll into small meatballs.

3. Put the cherry tomatoes on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle with 1 tablspoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the meatballs on a second lined tray and drizzle with the remaining oil. Roast the tomatoes and meatballs in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the meatballs are golden and the tomatoes start to pucker.

4. Put the stock and tomatoes in a saucepan and add the the meatballs. Simmer for 5 mintues and season to taste before spooning over pasta and serving with parmesan shavings.

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And so it begins! The first week of The Cookbook Challenge.
Having a sweet tooth, I have a feeling most of my recipes are going to be dessert orientated. But I have been trying to plan a few weeks in advance, as I look through my ever growing collection of cookbooks and magazines, and I assure you; there are going to be some surprises along the way. Some that will have you scratching your head, just like that smoked chicken cheesecake I showed you not that long ago!

So Bill Granger came off the shelf this week. I own all of his cookbooks. They have gorgeous pictures, and delicious recipes. I am hanging out for the day when I can go to Sydney to try his famous ricotta hotcakes. I have the recipe in one of the books to keep me going until then.

With the theme of citrus, I had many options to choose from. I went for a lemon mousse as I have never heard of one before. I had always made chocolate mousse, so lemon seemed like a refreshing option. With Melbourne's recent heat wave, it was EXTREMELY refreshing whilst trying to keep cool in front of the overworked fan.

The only problem with the mousse was my zest wasn't grated finely enough, so it was a bit grainy. I think a microplane zester is on my Christmas list, along with the Bourke St Bakery cookbook... for anyone listening *wink wink, nudge nudge*.

The madeleines were fantastic. Although I nearly burnt the first batch. They were rescued in time, and I didn't walk away whilst the other batches cooked.

And that's my recipe/s for the first round of The Cookbook Challenge!

Lemon Mousse

finely grated zest from 3 lemons
60ml (1/4 cup) lemon juice
185g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
4 eggs, seperated
150g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1. Put the lemon zest and juice, sugar and egg yolks in a double boiler and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly for about 10 minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Whisk in small amounts of butter at a time. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

2. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form.

3. Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the lemon mixture with a metal spoon, then fold in the remaining egg whites. Divide among four serving glasses and refrigerate until firm.

Serve with lemon madeleines.
Serves 4.

Lemon Madeleines

5 eggs
200g caster sugar
finely grated zest from 1 lemon
200g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
180g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas6).

2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy, then mix in the lemon zest. Add the flour, baking powder and butter, and fold everything together. Leave the mixture to rest for 5 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a greased madeleine tray, and bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or a little longer, depending on the size of the holes in your madeleine tray.

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ANOTHER ricotta recipe? Yes. And trust me, there will be at least 1 more after this one! Using Perfect Italiano Ricotta!

Look in the background of this cheese photo and you will see what my crepes were meant to look like. Look below and you can see some not so photogenic crepes. However, they were still delicious! The delicious creamy ricotta filling with sultanas, lemon zest and vanilla, goes extremely well with the crepe and bitter orange sauce. I would definitely makes these again, but make them better looking!

Crepes with Ricotta Filling & Bitter Orange Sauce
Bill Granger

Crepes:
90g (3/4 cup) plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
250ml (1 cup) milk
20g butter, melted
a pinch of salt
extra butter, for greasing the pan

Filling:
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons sultanas
250g (1 cup) ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bitter Orange Sauce:
80g (1/4 cup) good-quality orange marmalade
60ml (1/4 cup) orange juice
1 tablespoon brandy, or Grand Marnier (optional)

1. To prepare the crepes, put the flour in a large bowl, add the egg, milk, melted butter and salt and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate for 2 hours before cooking.

2. While the crepe batter is resting, prepare the filling by heating the milk and sultanas in a small saucepan over a low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 4 minutes. Transfer the milk and sultanas to a bowl, add the ricotta, lemon zest, icing sugar and vanilla extract and stir to combine.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush a little butter over the base. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan and tip the pan slightly to quickly and evenly spread the batter. After a minute, lift the outer edge of the crepe and flip it over and cook for a couple of seconds on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

4. Make the bitter orange sauce: put the marmalade, orange juice and brandy or Grand Marnier, if using, in a small saucepan over a low heat and stir until the marmalade has melted.

5. Place a heaped tablespoon of filling in the centre of each crepe. Fold the crepe into quarters (crepes can be made in advance to this stage). Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush with butter. Put the filled and folded crepes into the pan and cook for about 30 seconds on each side. Place two crepes on each serving plate, dust with icing sugar and drizzle with sauce.

Serves 4.

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My favorite fruit would have to be mango. Although coming in close behind are now lychees.
Mum bought some good looking mangoes last week, but when we ate one we were rather disappointed. The texture felt funny, and it wasn't that sweet. So I did what I usually do with fruit that isn't that fantastic to eat anymore... I baked with it!

I remember seeing this recipe in Bill Granger's book quite a while ago and knew I wanted to try it because it had mango in it.
The mango chunks are really nice and help keep the cake moist. The lime icing has a nice zing, adding a much needed sourness to the sweet cake. The use of yoghurt instead of milk also helps to keep the cake moist. Although the yoghurt taste isn't that prominent. Perhaps it would be more yoghurt tasting if you used a vanilla flavour, but I used a plain variety as the recipe stipulates.

Yes, I'd definitely make it again, but I do prefer to eat my mangoes on their own, it's less calories that way!

Lime & Mango Cake
Bill Granger

300g plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
180g unsalted butter, softened and roughly diced
250g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
4 eggs
200ml plain yoghurt
1 large mango, diced

Lime Icing
185g icing sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
shredded lime zest

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease a 26cm ring tin.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Beat together the butter, sugar and lime zest until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour, alternating with the yoghurt, in two batches.

3. Gently fold the mango through the batter and pour into the tin, smoothing the surface. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4. To make the icing, beat together all the ingredients for 30 seconds, or until smooth. The icing should be of a pouring consistency, if it's too thick, add a touch more lime juice.

5. Drizzle the cake generously with the lime icing and decorate with the shredded lime zest.

Serves 8-10.

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I've been wanting to try using a miso marinade since I saw Tetsuya do one on Japanese Food Safari some time ago. Not Quite Nigella inspired me to get the new Bill Granger book, and once I had a flick through, I knew I really wanted to try this recipe.

It was a really nice, healthy option. If you love the taste of miso soup, you will definitely love miso fish. The lemon and the sugar along with the miso help to give the flavour a bit more depth. It was SO incredibly easy to make, just made the marinade, spread it on the fish and grill! Too easy. Great for those of us watching our weight and not wanting to put on an extra layer over winter.

Miso Fish with Spring Onions & Sesame Seeds
Bill Granger

4 x 180g pieces firm white fish fillet, such as snapper or blue eye, skinned
2 tablespoons white miso paste
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teapsoons extra virgin olive oil

to serve:
finely shredded spring onions
sesame seeds
steamed rice
steamed green vegetables, such as baby Asian leafy greens and asparagus

1. Place the fish on a lightly oiled baking tray. Preheat the grill to high.

2. Stir miso paste, sugar, lemon juice and olive oil together in a bowl to combine. Brush the fish with the miso mixture and place the tray under the grill for 5-7 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.

3. Serve at once, sprinkled with shredded spring onions and sesame seeds. Accompany with steamed rice and green vegetables.

Serves 4.

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Since I hadn't baked for about a week I was starting to feel the need to get into the kitchen and make something tasty. I found this recipe in my "to try" folder. I had all the ingredients in the cupboard so I didn't need to venture down to the shops... which was great cos I really couldn't be bothered battling people down at the supermarket.


This recipe is super easy to make, I didn't even have to get the electric mixer dirty!
This bread recipe didn't even require yeast, which for some reason I'm a bit scared of using. But I'm going to have to get over my "yeast phobia" soon because I plan to make some hot cross buns since it's Easter soon!

The coconut bread is so nice you don't even need to have it with butter. I always love cinnamon in cakes and slices, and this was no exception.
Delicious for breakfast, or even morning/afternoon tea.

Coconut Bread
Bill Granger

2 eggs
300ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
150g shredded coconut
75g unsalted butter, melted

to serve:
butter
icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add sugar and coconut, and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth, being careful not to over-mix.

3. Pour into a greased and floured 21 x 10cm loaf tin and bake for 1 hour, or until bread is cooked when tested with a skewer.

4. Leave in the tin to coll for 5 minutes, and remove to cool further on a wire rack. Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered and dusted with icing sugar.

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Mid-week cooking is back, and it's healthy for those of you looking for quick, healthy dinner options.
I also gave my Donna Hay recipe collection a brief rest and got out a recipe from another famous Aussie chef, Bill Granger.

To be honest, I found this dish to taste a little "fishy". However the marinade was very nice with the rice and bok choy. I think this dish would go excellent with chicken if you are not into seafood. I will be trying this with chicken next time so I don't get the "fishy" taste.


Glazed Salmon with Brown Rice
Bill Granger

2 tablespoons julienned fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
700g salmon fillet
200g bok choy (pak choy)
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon soy sauce

to serve:
steamed brown rice

1. Stir together the ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce in a large bowl. Cut the salmon fillet into large chunks, add to the bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to up to 1 hour.

2. Preheat the grill (broiler). Arrange the salmon chunks in a single layer on a large baking tray and cook under the hot grill for 7 minutes (the fish should still be pink in the centre).

3. Meanwhile, halve the bok choy and steam or blanch for 1 minute, or until tender but still bright green and crisp. Spoon the brown rice into serving bowls, top with slamon and pan juices and serve with bok choy. Mix together the mirin and soy sauce and drizzle over the bok choy.

Serves 4.

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Is it bad that in August I still have an chocolate easter bunny looking at me, mocking me with it's thoughts..."eat me.... eat me!!!".... ok maybe I'm starting to sound like a psycho patient!
So anyway, I showed him who's boss!
So I had to find a recipe that I hadn't made before using milk chocolate. It proved a bit of a challenge as most recipes want you to use dark chocolate, including this one from the blog Butter, Flour, Sugar.
So I thought milk chocolate would be fine instead of dark chocolate, and it was. No more easter chocolate until next year!! woot!

Oaty Chocolate Cookies
(adapted from a recipe found in ‘Bills Food’ by Bill Granger)
From Butter, Flour Sugar

150g unsalted butter, softened
230g brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
125g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
200g rolled oats
180g dark chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Cream the butter and brown sugar with a hand-held beater until light and fluffy

3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat well.

4. Fold in the flour, oats and chocolate. Roll tablespoonful sized balls and place them on your lined tray/s. Flatten them slightly with your fingers.

5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until they become pale golden brown.

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