Le Relais secret sauce

Our adaption of a recipe from the internet:

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup minced shallots

6 anchovy fillets, chopped

1 cup low-sodium beef broth 

100 gms unsalted butter

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup chopped fresh chervil

1/2 cup chopped fresh tarragon

(and any other herbs you like)

2 tablespoons mustard

Either using the pan the steaks were cooked in, or another pan:

Add the wine to pan and deglaze all

the nice brown bits, dislodging them with a wooden spoon if necessary. 

Add the beef stock, shallots, anchovies, and cook until the liquid reduces to a glaze.  Make sure you reduce the sauce sufficiently at this point to around one cup (but its not too salty).

Remove from heat, whisk in the butter a couple of cubes at a time, then add the mustard and finally add the herbs.  

For the next recipe, we'd probably try adding some green peppercorns at the start and possibly even some bone marrow for more depth of flavor! 

Shanghainese sweet & sour porks ribs (糖醋排骨）

I've always loved these sweet & sour pork ribs, with their sticky molassy brown sauce and the meat meltingly tender just about pulling away from the bone.

I found a recipe from Meishi.com Chinese website, which is surprisingly quick.  I would have thought it takes hours to get the ribs tender and sticky but you could get this dish sorted within an hour.  The original recipe is here in Chinese, and I've posted my English translation below with a few of my own additions.

Ingredients:

• pork spare ribs - 1 kg
• salt - 3 grams
• spring onions - 6 stalks, sliced into 5-6 cm lengths
• ginger - 6 slices
• rice wine - 2 tbspn
• light soy sauce (生抽) - 3 tbspn
• dark soy sauce (老抽) - 2 tbspn
• rice vinegar - 5 tbspn
• white sugar - 45 grams
• white sesame seeds - 1/2 tspn
• springs of coriander (as much as you like)

As with most Chinese cooking, the above quantities are suggestions and while it works well, you can definitely adapt it to your own taste buds.

Method:

1. Cut the pork ribs into 4 cm lengths.  I use a large cleaver for this and swing it down heavily to get a clean cut.  Place ribs in a bowl with the rice wine and 1 tbpsn of the light soy sauce.  Mix well and leave to marinate for 20 mins. 
2. Heat up a saucepan, then add around 2-3 tbspn of oil and heat using a high flame.  When the oil is hot, turn the heat to medium and pan fry the ribs until they are half cooked, moving the pieces about when they are frying.  Remove the ribs from the pan.
3. Add a little more oil to the pan.  Once the oil is hot, add the spring onion and ginger and cook for a minute or two until fragrant.  Add the half cooked ribs, the remainder of the soy sauce and sufficient hot water to just cover the ribs.  Then add the white sugar and rice vinegar.  Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes, check the flavour of the sauce.  If its not salty enough, add a little bit more sauce.  Afterwards, turn up the heat to high to reduce the sauce. Keep on high heat until the sauce has reduced and thickened to a nice sticky gravy.  This may take 5-15 mins depending on how hot your high heat is! 
5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and coriander. 
6. Serve with plain white rice & lots of Chinese greens like baby bok choi (these are so rich you'd want something quite light).

I've found that this sweet & sour sauce is also great for coating a crispy pork belly (I'll post the recipe to that next time!).

Banana "bruffins"

We were recently left with a lot of ripe bananas and I couldn't quite face another banana in my morning cereal so A decided to make a banana loaf from Mary Berry's "Baking Bible".  Unfortunately we realised we didn't have any bread tins in the house so these "bruffins" (bread muffins) were born.

You'll need:

100 g softened butter
175 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas
225 self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk

(Makes 12 muffins)

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Line a 12 x muffin tray with muffin paper cups.

2.  Place all the measured ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat for about 2 minutes until the mixture is just evenly combined.  Be careful not to overbeat the muffin mixture otherwise they will taste a little tough.  Divide the mixture up into the 12 muffin cups evenly.

3.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 mins until the tops of the muffins are just golden and they are well risen.  A fine skewer inserted should come out clean.  Leave to cool in the muffin trays.

You can serve these with vanilla ice-cream as a dessert or have a couple for breakfast with a tall glass of milk. 

Enjoy! :)

Macadamia nut & white chocolate brownies - recipe

 

This recipe is from Ottolenghi's first cookbook "The Cookbook".  So far I'm really loving the cookbook as the recipes are really spot on.  Apparently the key with baking brownies is not to overbake them.  This means you have to take it out earlier than you think it will be done to avoid it turning into into a cake. 


Ingredients:

• 300g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 200g unsalted butter, plus some extra for greasing the pan
• 280g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 free-range eggs
• 230g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 200g macadamia nuts, toasted for 5 mins
• 200g white chocolate chips (or chocolate broken into pieces)

Steps:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees celcius. 
2. Brush a 20 cm tin square pan or similar sized round pan with melted butter and line with baking paper.
3. Melt the dark chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water until fully melted.  The bowl should not touch the water, and take the chocolate butter mixture off the heat once it has melted.  If it get too hot, then the brownies can get a bit greasy when it is baked. 
4. Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl until just combined.
5. Add the melted chocolate butter mixture and mix lightly.
6. Fold in the sifted flour.
7. Add the macadamia nuts and chocolate chips.
8. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out with gooey crumbs (not completely dry).  The top of the brownies should be completely dry.

These were my first batch of brownies and when they came out, they were a bit on the greasy side.  But I let them rest overnight and they firmed up very nicely to a rather dense fudgy texture on the next day.  They were so rich I had to cut them into small squares as I was worried people would OD on chocolate. 

For my next batch I'm thinking of adding raspberries, and maybe almonds or hazelnuts.

What's your favourite flavour of brownies?  Let me know!

Macadamia nut & white chocolate brownies

I'm not sure whether I've never made brownies before yesterday.  After reading a couple of my baking books I discovered that the recipe wasn't as complex as other seemingly simple cakes, like sponges!  Recipe to follow soon.  I promise.  

(Source of recipe: Ottolenghi - The Cookbook)

Stack of brownies, which disappeared pretty quickly. Into my tummy.

Creamy mushroom puffs

Mushroom puffs with quail egg & thyme

"I think we have a winner!" declared my friend D as he munched his way through this little bite sized canape.  This was the same afternoon tea that I made the prawns with garlic aioli.  "Yes", he nodded, "this is my favourite".

I'd made this mushroom canape many years ago but using short crust pastry as a base.  We already had a strawberry tart on the menu so I decided to use puff pastry instead, which makes this recipe quite similar to the mushroom vol au vents that had their heydays in the 80s.  The good thing is that this version is simpler to make. I like simple.

This recipe makes you about 12 of these little puffs. 

You will need:

• read made puff pastry, one large sheet (around 30 cm x 30 cm)
• cookie cutter, around 5-6 cm.  You can use larger puffs of course but
• regular sized muffin tray
• 10 large brown mushrooms, sliced
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 large sprig of parsley
• 1 small sprig of thyme 
• 6 quail eggs
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 2 tablespoons milk
•  salt & pepper to taste

Puff pastry shells

You can find the frozen puff pastry in the frozen section of most supermarkets.  It's either rolled up so it comes like cling wrap which you can unroll or flat sheets.  I find that London has the rolled up ones, whereas in Australia they tend to come as flat packs.  Both work fine but with the rolled up variety the important thing is to wait until it's defrosted before you unroll otherwise they will break pretty easily.  I usually let them sit out for about 10-15 mins before I need to use it.  That said, if you leave it too long they will completely defrost and getting a bit soggy which can be hard to handle.

To make the puff pastry shells, cut out the round shapes of the puff pastry with your cookie cutter.  You can use a plain round one or a "scalloped" one shown below.  I had no idea the curly edged ones were called "scalloped" until A looked it up for me but there you go.  Brush the muffin trays with some of the olive oil and place your round puff pastry into each muffin hole, pushing down so it makes a nice little cup shape.  Brush the puff pastry with a little milk.  This will give it the nice golden colour as it bakes.

[Note: At this stage, you can either place the mushroom mixture on top of the puffy pastry (which will help weigh the pastry down, but means your pastry won't be as crisp), or line the pastry with baking paper and baking beans/rice and "blind bake".  I tried the latter but the puff pastry was too strong and puffed up anyway!  I would just let the puff pastry puff up which is kinda fun, and then press it down as described below to create the cavity you need to add the mixture. ]

Place in a pre-heated oven (170 degrees celcius) and bake for 10 mins or until light golden brown.  Now you'll find that it has completely puffed up.  We want to create a hole in the middle of the puff where you want to place the mushroom mixture. So using a spoon or other round heavy object which will leave about half to one cm rim around the pastry shell (I used the top of my wine stopper), push down the middle so that you create a bowl shape.

Mushroom filling

Pan fry the sliced onions in hot olive oil with the chopped garlic and parsley until the mushrooms are nice and golden brown.  Add the cream and cook for another 10 mins until you get a thick consistency, add the salt & pepper to taste.

Boil the quail eggs for 3 mins and peel like normal hard boiled eggs, or 1 mins for a soft runny yolk. Slice in half.  Be careful to spoon the quail eggs gently into the pan of boiling water and not to cook them for too long otherwise they will implode, the shells are incredibly thin.  You'll see in the picture below that I had that accident with a few of my eggs!

Putting it all together

This is my favourite part.  Spoon the mushroom mixture into the puff pastry shell until it is just full.  Top with the halved quail egg and a sprig of thyme.  Voila!  Ready to be served.

What I like about this canape is that the puff pastry is incredibly light but when you bite into it you get this burst of creamy herby mushrooms.  The quail egg on top adds an extra richness and luxe factor as a canape.

King prawn toast with whole grain mustard aioli

Perfect for afternoon tea or canapes

This was a bit of an experiment for an afternoon tea we had at our place recently.  The whole recipe is very simple though, and will only take about 20 mins to put together.

Ingredients:
(makes 12)

• 6 pieces of sliced bread (I used white but you could use wholemeal)
• a scalloped cookie cutter around 5-6 cm
• 12 pieces of cooked king prawn (they came pre-cooked from my supermarket but you can gently cook them until they are pink if you can't find the cooked variety)
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced into 3-4 mm slices
• sprigs of fresh parsley to decorate

For the aioli: 

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
• 2 table spoons lemon juice
• salt & pepper to taste

Aioli is basically garlic mayonnaise.  I first discovered it in Spain when it was served on top of a tortilla, and then together with fiduea, which I call the noodle version of paella.  Fiduea is deserving of its own post some other day when I manage to make it!  Anyway back to aioli, the creamy mayo with the garlic kick just brings out the flavour of foods, particularly seafood, so well.  Now I find it hard to have tortilla without it.  Aioli goes really well with prawns but I didn't have time to make the aioli from scratch so I experimented a bit with the store bought mayo.

1. 

   Scalloped cookie cutter

   Using the cookie cutter, cut two rings of bread from each slice of bread.
2. Toast the bread in the oven at around 180 degrees celcius until just golden brown, which should take around 5-10 mins.
3. While the bread is toasting, you can make your aioli.  Chop your garlic as finely as possible, using a food processor if possible.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly - it should be a nice thick consistency.  You can vary the quantities of the ingredients depending on your taste, e.g. whether you like it more tangy (more lemon) or garlicky! 
4. Place a slice of cucumber on the toast, topped by a small spoonful of aioli and then the king prawn.  The aioli will help keep the prawn in place.
5. Add a sprig of parsley.
6. Serve within 2-3 hours. 

Pear, chocolate and hazelnut cake

L Mama made an awesome apple cake over Xmas last year in Pittsburgh. She kindly sent through the recipe and I'd been meaning to make it for a while.

I dug it out tonight and made a few change, swapping it for ingredients I had in the kitchen which turned out quite well. It's amazing that this cake which has no butter tastes so moist.

Here's the original recipe

1973 Teddie's Apple Cake

All purpose flour, 3 cup plus more for dusting cake-pan & butter for greasing pan
veg oil, 1 cup
sugar, 2 cup
eggs, 3 large
salt, 1 tsp
cinnamon, 1 tsp

baking soda, 1 tsp
vanilla, 1 tsp
apples, 3 cup peeled, cored & thickly sliced tart apples [ like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith]
walnuts,1 cup chopped
raisins, 1 cup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter and flour a 9-inch bundt/ring pan.
3. Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer
4. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy.
5. Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir into the batter.
6. Add the vanilla, apples, walnuts and raisins and stir.
7. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.
8. Bake for 1 h 15 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Cool in the pan before turning out.
10. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.

To make my variation, simply substitute the pear for the apple, 1/2 cup hazelhuts for the walnuts and 1/2 cup chocolate pieces for the raisins. It's quite sweet so you can also reduce the amount of sugar, say by half a cup.

Mother of all curry cookbooks?

A's mates invited us over for a very yummy Spanish dinner and had this book by Madhur Jeffrey on their shelves.  Browsing through it it looks like the mother of all curry bibles.  I couldn't bring myself to buy this copy seeing as I still have so many bookcooks which are unused, but it did inspire us to buy a couple of (cheaper) curry recipe paperbacks including the Curry Secret and An Indian Housewive's Recipe Book.  Really looking forward to trying these out!

Tomatoes with garlic breadcrumbs

Simple tasty addition to any main course dinner

Ingredients:

- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 large sprig of parsley
- half cup olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 4 medium size tomatoes, halved
- one tea spoon sea salt

Pulse all ingredients together until it is a light mixture, then scoop a large spoonful onto the tomatoes.  Grill for 20 mins or until tops of breadcrumbs are browned.

Earl Grey Tea Macaroons

I'd always read about macaroons in Enid Blyton's books but it wasn't until Le Gouter Bernerdaud opened up in IFC, Hong Kong that I fell in love with them. I'm not sure whether it's the beautiful crisp shell that bursts into the light chewy centre or the stunning display of macaroons in full range of colours. I thought I'd try to make it with one of my favourite dessert flavours of late, which is Earl Grey tea. I was hoping that I can replicate the delicate Earl Grey tea chocolate from Pierre Marcolini.

There are many variations of the basic macaroon recipe but I decided to use the one from Ottolenghi’s cookbook. They always have these amazing giant meringues in the window and I figure they can’t go too wrong with their macaroons, and its worked out pretty well for me.

Base recipe for macaroons

110g icing super
60g ground almonds (or almond meal)
2 free range egg whites (60 g)
40g caster sugar
2 tablespoons of ground earl grey tea leaves

Chocolate ganache

250g double cream
250g Greenbecks chocolate 66% cocoa (dark chocolate) chopped roughly
50g unsalted cold butter
4 tablespoons earl grey tea leaves

1. Heat up the oven until 170 degrees Celsius. (If your oven tends to overheat a bit, I would take it down a notch to 150 or 160 degrees Celsius because you don’t want your macaroons to burn without the inside cooking.)
2. Sift the icing sugar and almond meal together. You can either use the almond meal, or grind it down finer so that it gives the macaroons a finer texture.
3. Place the egg whites and caster sugar in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer (that is, not a handheld one) and start whisking at full speed until the whites have formed a thick, aerated meringue. Don’t overbeat the egg whites, you want soft peaks rather than stiff peaks.
   
4. Take a third of the meringue and fold it gently into the sift almond and icing sugar mix. Once incorporated, add another third of the meringue and continue similarly until all the meringue has been added and the mix appears smooth and glossy. Don’t worry if you have knocked some of the air out of the batter, that’s the way it should be, it should be deflated by this point.
   
5. Take a sheet of baking parchment and “glue” it onto a baking tray by dotting the tray in a few places with a tiny amount of macaroon mix. Using a piping bag and a nozzle around 1 cm, pipe small rounds of macaroons mixture onto the tray spaced apart.
6. The macaroon mixture will spread a little, and then rise as well. You can make them as little or as big as you like. Mini ones are actually pretty cute! Ottolenghi has a good tip which is to draw circles onto paper to help keep the sizes consistent.
7. Now hold the tray firmly and tap the underside vigorously. This step is quite important - it should help to spread and smooth out the biscuits.
   
8. Leave the macaroons out and uncovered at least 15 mins before baking. This is apparently to give it a nice “skin” on the macaroon which will be the nice glossy shell.
9. To bake, place the macaroons in the pre-heated oven and leave for about 12 minutes. They may take a bit longer, depending on your oven. The macaroons are ready when they come freely off the paper when lifted with a palette knife. Remove from the oven as soon as they reach this stage, so you don’t overbake them and leave aside to cool completely. Don’t remove the macaroons from the paper until it has fully cooled, otherwise it will break easily.

While the macaroons are cooling, you can make the Earl Grey tea chocolate ganache.

1. Place the chocolate in a metal bowl which is large enough to sit comfortably over a saucepan of simmering water without the base touching the water. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring steadily.
2. In another saucepan (preferably at the same time) heat up the double cream with the Earl Grey tea leaves over medium heat.
3. Let the tea leaves infuse into the cream until the cream is a lovely milky tea colour. The cream will taste quite bitter but it will be balanced by the chocolate and the macaroon.
4. Strain the double cream and slowly mix into the melted chocolate. Stir until the cream has been mixed into the chocolate.
5. Add in the butter and stir, you can either use a hand blender or mix by hand. Apparently using a hand blender you end up with a more glossy ganache!
6. Pop it into the fridge to cool until it firms up a little so that it is easier to pipe into your macaroons.
7. To assemble the macaroons, pipe the ganache onto the flat side of half the biscuits. Sandwich them with the other half, squeezing them together. Leave at room tempeture to set within a couple of hours.
   

Macaroons are best served at room temperature.

Deep pan pear tarte tatin

Chocci's Bouillinade (fish and potato bake)

I first visited the "most romantic city in the world" when I was 16. We were in Paris for a week after the end of our big family tour of Europe. The tour was run by Trafalgar so we ended up sprinting through 17 european cities in 21 days. My parents loved tours and still do: they are attracted to the fact that you can pay someone to deal with the headache of choosing and booking hotels, researching the best travel routes and mode of transport, the places of interest to visit and where to eat. I think that trip was instrumental in shaping the way I travel now (in the opposite direction): firstly, I would never go on tour so that I can organise all the parts of the trip and secondly I try always to spend as much time as possible in each city. Though I suppose I may rethink it if we ever end up with 4 kids, 2 of whom are going through difficult teenage years at the time.

Back then, I was not impressed by Paris. Grubby, rude locals and expensive was how I would have described this city. My family and I tried our first escargots and I remember squirming them down, thinking, gosh I don't think I ever want to have them again, garlic butter or not.

Since then I have to say my tastebuds and travelling habits have changed. I now eat things that would have made my skin crawl. I like wandering around cities by myself and chatting to locals in my broken French. I like finding little nooks and crannies to eat in, though where time is short, preferably with prior verification that the food is good. Time is precious so are calories!

So in May last year I wandered into a small rustic Parisian bistro by myself. I'd read about the bistro in a local restaurant guide and it sounded lovely. (I now want to kick myself because I didn't keep a copy of the guide and simply cannot remember the name of this place). What I do remember really well is this fish and potato casserole which was so amazing that I've been wondering since then what was in it. So last Saturday I set out to find out, with the help of Le Cordon Bleu cooking, a cookbook and best of all google, I found that the following comes pretty close:

Serves:- 4, Preparation time:- 10 mins, Cooking time:- 30 mins

Ingredients

• 20-30 gm of butter
• 1 large handful of parsley and 1 large handfull dill, chopped thickly
• 3 medium sized potatoes, sliced around 5 mm thick
• 500-600 gm sea bass, cut into thick chunks
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• two large shallots, chopped finely
• cayenne pepper or cracked black peppercorns (I used a hammer)
• 1/2 cup of pancetta, diced
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 cup white wine

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large pan gently

2. Add the garlic and shallots and sauteed until golden brown.

3. Add the parsley, dill, salt, peppers and pancetta and fry for another 1-2 mins.

4. Add a layer of potato, fish, and then finish with potatoes into the pan

5. Just cover with the white wine and cold water and bring to the boil

6. Add the olive oil, when boiling, then cover and simmer for about 20 mins or until the potatoes are just done.

The making of a chocolate ripple cake

Ingredients:

• 1 pack chocolate ripple cookies from Australia
• 1.5 litre of cream, whipped until stiff
• 200 ml of XO
• blueberries & strawberries to decorate

Spread a layer of whipped cream on the plate. Dip one side of the cookie into XO, then whip cream on the other side and stand in layer of whipped cream. Keep adding cookies, try to keep them as tightly packed as everyone likes the cookie, but enough cream so that the cookies can absorb the moisture of the cream and soften overnight.

Keep overnight, decorate with strawberries and blueberries on top before serving.

(Many thanks to Steph for the recipe about 12 years ago)

Creamy chicken, avocado and mushroom penne

This is a vey simple dish to make, which is why I made this on a lazy Thursday evening.

Serves 2

You'll need:
2 large pieces chicken breast, sliced
1 large ripe avocado
200 gm mushrooms, sliced thickly
2 large cloves garlic, diced
2 shallots, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
250 ml cream

1. Heat up a frying pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat.


2. Pan fry garlic and shallots until slightly coloured (don't allow them to burn).


3. Turn up the flame to high heat and add the sliced chicken. Pan fry until chicken is slighly golden brown but not completely cooked through.
   


4. Add the sliced mushrooms and drizzle it with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
   


5. Pan fry for another 2-3 mins, then cover with a lid for another 5 mins.
   


6. Add the diced avocado and cream to the mixture. Mix well and then let the cream bubble away for another 2-3 mins.
   


7. Season with salt and pepper.


8. Place about two cups penne pasta into a pot of hot boiling water. Boil for around 8-10 mins or until it is al dente. Drain thoroughly - toss it a bit because penne tends to hold a bit of water inside.


9. Serve penne with a generous portion of sauce.
   

Yum!

Chocci’s chicken casserole

True to its four seasons in one day reputation, Melbourne has been spring t-shirt warm in the day time, dipping to thick coat and mittens required temperatures in the evening.

I thought a nice hot chicken casserole would help warm our tooties. I was in a lazy mood today, so this recipe is perfect for anyone with who’s got a couple of hours to spare to before dinner needs to be served but doesn’t want to spend more than 20 mins in the kitchen. You can prep everything, chuck it in the oven and simply put your feet up with a mag or book for an hour and half.

You’ll need:

• A whole chicken for roasting, divided into 8 portions. Usually you can pick up these roasting portions at the supermarket, if not, it works equally well to use 4 large drumsticks and 4 chicken thigh pieces, on the bone
• 100-150 gms of kalamata olives, with stones to keep the flavour in
• 4 medium sticks of carrots, cut into small pieces (2-3 cm pieces)
• 4 small potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 small onion (or ½ large one), sliced thinly
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 10-12 basil leaves
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Preparation: Pan fry the chicken pieces in a pan (with a little olive oil) until golden brown on both sides. Transfer to a large casserole dish which has been oiled with olive oil, making sure you also pour over any juices. Pour over the can of diced tomatoes, mixed with about 2 cups of water (or stock if you want it to be extra tasty - I’ve done without in my cooking and it tastes fine without). Arrange the pieces of onions, potatoes and carrots around the pieces of chicken. Make sure all the ingredients are covered by the tomato sauce so that it cooks properly - if not, add a little extra water. Scatter the olives and cherry tomatoes on top. Finally, top the dish with basil leaves, and salt & pepper.

Cooking:

1. Seal the caCookingsserole firmly with foil and bake in oven at around 180 degrees for 1 hour or so until the chicken, carrots and potatoes are tender.
2. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 mins to give some bits of the casserole (e.g. the sliced onions and chicken pieces) a nice browning. Note: Take care that the sauce doesn’t dry out too much when the foil’s off.

How to make 24 burger patties in half hour

Burger patties,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Firstly, find two mates (preferably guys) who don't cook all that often. Get them to bring their diving or snowboarding goggles. While they're on route to your place, get about 2 kgs of minced beef, half a box of breadcrumbs, 1 whole glove garlic, maybe 2-3 onions, heaps of fresh or dried herbs and lots of salt and pepper. When they arrive, get one friend started on the onion chopping - which needs to be very fine. Get the peeling the garlic, then either chop or use a barmix to chop it up. For the fresh herbs - use anything you like - thyme, rosemary all go down well, as does oregano.

Take a massive bowl, chuck in all the ingredients and get the boys to dig their (clean) hands in mixing it all up until it forms a big doughy mixture. Make the first burger pattie about the size of a cricket ball, then slightly flatten.

Keep an eye as your mates compete to see who can make more patties more quickly. Intervention required when competition turns to who can make bigger patties.

Cooking: grill in the oven for 20 mins. Serve with hot fresh bread with thickly sliced tomatoes, big dollop of ketchup and dijon mustard.

James' potato, bacon and leek soup

My mate J used to live about a street away from me, about equal distance from the fabulous Victoria Market, choc full of all the fresh fruit, vegs, meat or seafood you could possibly need for a big cooking session. Together with the rest of the Carlton gang, we used to rotate home cooking sessions - great of us kids living away from home. I still remember when J taught me and Y how to make a creamy brocolli and potato soup and Chinese steamed fish. I'd forgotten what a good cook he was until our home cooked meal on New Year's Eve in Les Houches.

It started off with Y making a lamb stew and me with my coq au vin. I had started chopping up some shallots and streaky bacon for my coq au vin when we realised that s the whole chicken probably had better days. What to do with all that bacon and shallots? As he was cutting a leek for Y, J thought of a cosy potato and leek soup to warm our tootsies.

And that's how it began with J guiding me through this recipe.

We had:

• 2 large rashers of bacon, diced
• 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• stalks of 1 large leek, thinly sliced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup cream
• dried italian herbs, parsley and oregano (whatever herbs you like)
• vegetable stock

Cooking the soup itself is quite simple. Pan fry the bacon until lightly browned and remove from pan. Remove most oil except a good coating to fry the leek, shallots and onions. Add the potatoes and gently stir fry for a few minutes. Add about 2 litres of water (refilling every now and then) and let it gently simmer for about an hour. Add stock and pan fried bacon and simmer for another 10 mins.

Stir in cream and butter (J's special ingredient - you can leave this out if you want this to be a healthy soup) and serve immediately.

Antipasto pasta

I used to make grilled vegetables a lot in my old pad back in Melbourne. The vegs were all so big and fleshy and fresh ... eggplant, capsicums, zucchini, huge portobello mushies. Tried it for the first time today, but decided to put my George Foreman griller to use instead. The result? Hmm not bad!

Pasta,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Start with:

• 1 red capsicum
• 1 green capscium
• 2 rashers bacon
• 1 eggplant
• 1/2 onion
• 1 can peeled whole tomatoes
• good lug of olive oil (around 1 cup)
• good lug of vinega (around 1/2 cup)
• salt & pepper
• 100 gm spagetti or fettucine pasta

1. Mix olive oil (reserve 1 tablespoon) with olive oil and salt * pepper to taste.

2. Core and cut the capsicum into quarters.

3. Slice eggplant into 1 cm pieces.

4. Marinate eggplant and capsicum with olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture for about 10 mins.

5. Place on hot grill and grill until skin of capsicum is blistery, and grill the eggplants until there are dark grill lines on eggplant, which is soft (and not crispy).

6. Cut capsicum and eggplants into large chunks and reserve.

7. Slice bacon and onion into thin strips.

8. Pan fry onion for a couple of minutes, then add the bacon, frying both until onion is slightly browned.

9. Add cans of tomatoes and tomato paste.

10. Add sugar to taste.

11. Boil pasta with ½ tablespoon of olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt until al dente. Drain and leave aside.

12. Add sauce to pasta, toss with grilled vegetables.

13. Serve.

Little pots of comfort: potato gratin

This dish is a warm welcome on any cold winter day or served as a hearty side dish to any meal. The best part is that it is so easy to make!

You'll need:

• 2 large baking potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 200 ml cream
• olive oil
• 150-200 g finely shaved parmesan cheese
• 4 ramekins (about 10 cm in diameter)

Peel and thinly slice the potatoes (the thinner you slice them the faster they will cook) and the onion. Brush the ramekin with generous dose of olive oil. Start layering the ramekin with the slices of potatoes and slices of onion, pouring a little cream after every few layers. If you like your potato gratin cheesy you can also drizzle some parmesan cheese through the layers.

Bake in oven for around 30-40 mins or until potatoes are nice and soft. Drizzle more parmesan on top and grill for another 5 mins until cheese is golden.