Lex Culinaria

Cool grown up lunch

Since Cakes has gone back to school, we've really noticed how expensive it can get when we're both eating lunches away from home. Not to mention that the temptation to eat stuff that's maybe not too good for you kind of goes hand in hand with the daily buying of lunch. Well it does for us anyway. And I really loathe the idea of paying 8 or 9 dollars for things that frankly aren't very tasty. So this weekend, while I was baking some whole wheat kaiser buns for Cakes to make sandwiches with, I dug out some nice salami, provalone cheese, red capsicum (bell peppers) and a jar of marinated wild mushrooms in olive oil. I pinched some of the dough meant for the buns and made him a few calzones. We ended up sharing one straight out of the oven they looked that good. They pack super well in a baggie to go to school and they are really tasty unheated or zapped for a few minuted in a microwave. Also they are way healthier that what you buy at your avergae campus cafeterias. Also, they don't fall apart the way sandwiches do. Cakes mates at school were all jealous when he took one of these for lunch.

The bread dough I make is from a 1947s Robin Hood Flour cookbook that belonged to my great grandmother and always makes the best bread. As you can see from the photo, it rose beautifully despite having quite a bit of filling inside! This will make 2 loaves or 8 huge kaisers or calzones. The milk in the bread dough really does improve its consistency, just like the Robin Hood cookbook says.

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cold water
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 pkt yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tasblespoons canola oil
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 + 1/2 cups bread flour

Scald the milk and then add the cold water to bring the temperature down. Stir in the sugar and when the milk has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast. Allow yeast to dissolve and bubble for 10 minutes.

Stir the salt and oil into the milk. Combine the flours. mix the liquid with the flour. I just chuck both into my kitchenaid with the dough hook fitted and put it on medium low speed (4) and let it go until it is all in a smooth ball.

Knead until silky and then oil, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. I usually just turn my oven on to 150F for a few minutes and then turn it off and let my dough rise in the oven.

Punch the dough down and form into loaves or 8 buns. If you're doing calzones separate into 8 parts and roll each part out into a circle about 6" in diameter. Place filling on one half of the circle and fold the other half over, pinching the edges well shut to seal.

Place on a baking tray in the oven to rise a second time.  Once risen, remove from oven and heat oven to 450F- reduce heat after 5 minutes to 375F. Bake loaves for about 35 miniutes, buns and calzones for 15- 20. Test buns and loaves for doneness by knocking on them with your knuckeles. A cooked loaf will make a hollow sound.

Simple fresh tomato, cheese and proscuitto pappardelle

I realise there has not been a lot of recipe posting on Lex Culinaria lately. I've been so busy at work that I really have not had time to do a bunch of cooking.

I've been feeling badly about the lack of cooking so I was pretty happy to get home in time tonight to make supper, even if it was just something basic like this pasta dish. Sometimes the simplest, most basic things are the best-tasting anyway...

If you're like me and you love very noodl-y tasing noodles, then you can't really beat pappardelle. They are so wide they are alomst a meaty noodle. Becuase I had managed to score soke fantastic tomatoes and fresh basil over the weekend and had also scored some great proscuitto, parmagiano reggiano and a packet or two of pappardelle at the Italian Centre Shop, I reckoned I had everything I needed for a great supper, and I was right. There's nothing I like better on a sunny spring night than to prepare a nice light and fresh meal and share it with my adrobale husband. Even better, he cleans the kitchen after I've cooked!

This is dead easy to whip up - easier even than spag bol, as you hardly cook anything - you can prepare all the topping ingredites in the time it takes to cook the pasta - about 10 minutes - and it tastes like summer!

Serves 2-3

• 200 gm dried Papardelle noodles
• 12 thin slices proscuitto
• 3 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 Tablespoons cabernet Sauvignon vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup loosely rolled fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 1/3 cup grated good parmesan (plus a bit for garnish)
• fresh ground black pepper

Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling, salted water according to the package directions.

Meanwhile, fry proscuitto slices in a single layer over high heat until well browned. You may have to do 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of your pan. Remove them to a plate and set aside.

Reduce heat under the frying pan to medium.  Saute the garlic briefly until it just barely starts to change to a golden colour, about 1 minute. Add roughly chopped tomatoes in a single layer. Stir and cook for 30 seconds and then remove from heat. Drizzle over the cabernet or balsamic vinegar. Tear proscuitto slices into pieces and add to the tomatoes. Chop up the basil and parsely very roughly. Stir the chopped herbs and the grated cheese through the hot tomatoes.

Drain pasta and toss into pan with tomato mixture. Combine well using tongs and serve with a dusting of fresh cracked black pepper a litte more parmesan sprinkled over.

IMBB 25: Italian Bread Salad

I love the tomatoes at the Strathcona Farmer's Market. We buy probably 3 pounds every weekend from April to September. They look so nice and taste so fresh, I have such trouble resisting. What better to complement these gorgeous fresh tomatoes, than some tender, fresh basil, also from the Farmer's Market?

It is precisely because I love these tomatoes (and the basil is SO fantastic looking right now) that decided to make the Pappa Al Pomodoro - a Tuscan cooked tomato and bread soup for the "stale bread" edition of IMBB. I'd been contemplating making it since I received a copy of the Silver Spoon for Christmas, so we went off this morning to buy some of those gorgeous tomatoes and basil. When I got them home, I couldn't bear the thought of cooking them - I much prefer the tart flavour of these perfect fresh tomatoes to cooked. Besides, I bought gorgeous yellow, orange and red ones and cooking them would have blended their beautiful bright colours beyond recognition.

So I ended up using the ingredients one would usually use for Pappa Al Pomodoro to make a salad instead. Of course I added a couple of special touches, which I think worked pretty darn well. I had to stop Cakes licking the bowl. I can see this becoming a favourite in our house. It's light and tangy and refreshing. The fried ciabatta soaks up the gorgeous tomato juices without getting mushy or falling apart, lending it a meatier texture than most Panzanellas. This makes a great lunch all on its own. It'd be great for company because you can make it in advance and just let it marinate away for a few hours. It would also make an excellent starter for a meal of roasted or grilled beef.

Because this isn't really a Panzanella or a Pappa Al Pomodoro, I don't really know what to call it, other than ...

Lex's really good Italian bread and tomato salad

Serves 4 as a light main

80 ml (1/3 cup) good quality olive oil

3 large cloves garlic minced

300 grams day-old ciabatta, sliced into large cubes (I used 1 + 1/2 individual sized ciabattas from the Italian Centre Shop)

650 -700 grams (1 + 1/2 pounds) ripe red, orange and yellow tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or other good quality grey sea salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

juice of 1/2 lemon (about 50 ml)

1 teaspoon minced lemon rind

3/4 loosely-packed cup fresh basil

30 grams parmigianno reggiano, shaved

In a large stir-fry pan, heat the oil over medium - low heat. Toss in 2/3 of the garlic and slowly cook in the oil until golden. With a slotted spoon, transfer the golden garlic to a large mixing bowl. Increase the heat under the oil to just shy of high. When the oil is quit hot but not smoking, add the bread. Turn the heat down to medium-high and stir-fry the bread until it is well browned and the oil has been absorbed, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes coarsely and add to the bowl with the cooked garlic. Add the remaining fresh garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice and rind. Stir the mixture gently to encourage the salt to draw juice from the tomatoes. When the bread is nicely browned, stir it through as well. Allow it to marinate for 30 minutes to several hours. 10 minuted before serving, chop the basil up very roughly and stir it through. Stir through all but a few (reserved for garnish) of the Parmesan shavings.

Spoon into 4 low soup plates and top with reserved Parmesan shavings.

Paper Chef 14: Roasted baby beet, labanya and quinoa salad

Yay Paper Chef! You've done it once again. You've caused me to step outside my comfort zone and try something new, which (I am very happy to say) was a resounding success. Quinoa will henceforth be a new staple in our house.

For those of you who have no idea what Paper Chef is all about, let me explain very briefly. Owen Linderholm, of Tomatilla, thought it would be a great idea to do a blog-based version of (sort of) Iron Chef.  Once a month, on a Friday, Owen draws four random ingredients out of his magic chef's hat. The food blogging community then has until noon on Monday to come up with their own interpretation of the ingredients. Sometimes the ingredients are pretty easy to make into something. Other times they are a bit more challenging. What never fails to amaze me though, is the very different concoctions Paper Chef participants come up with. You'll never see the same thing twice, and you'll certainly see a whole lot of things that astound you. You'll also likely think, "why didn't I think of that?"

The thing I like most about Paper chef is that it makes me try new ingredients, or new ways of thinking about familiar ingredients, that I wouldn't otherwise try. I think the once monthly kick in the pants to trey something new makes me a better cook.

This month Paper Chef is being hosted by Belly Timber, so get on over there and check out the roundup of entries!

Now, the quandary. What to do with this months 4 ingredients? Quinoa, yogurt, cashews and "baby" (as in small not gerbers) food?

Before I tell you what I did, a word about Labanya. For those of you that have been reading Lex Culinaria since the beginning will now that labanya's nothing new in our house. It's a Middle Eastern soft cheese made from hung yogurt. Depending on the yogurt you use, it can be very mild and tastes like a cross between goats cheese (with a slight acid note) and cream cheese. It has a texture very similar to soft cream cheese. In our house we spread it on toasted bagels instead of cream cheese.

Okay. That said, this is where I ended up after pacing my kitchen deep in thought:

Roasted baby beet, Labanya and quinoa salad - serves 4

• 600 gm whole baby beets (about 6-8)

• 1 L full fat Greek style yogurt
• salt, pepper

• 2/3 c quinoa
• 1 Litre water
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup cashews, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
• salt, pepper

• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 olive oil
• 1 egg yolk
• salt, pepper

• 3 cups baby salad greens

For the Labanya: Line a 2 litre mixing bowl with cheesecloth. Empty the whole 1 Litre of yogurt into the middle of the cheesecloth. Gather up the ends and sides of the cloth and twist until cloth is just taut over yogurt. Tie yogurt filled cloth so that it is suspended over your counter (I tie mine to the knob of the upper cupboard). Place the 2 litre bowl underneath to catch drips. Leave yogurt suspended overnight, up to 15 hours. After 12-15 hours, the yogurt should be reduced in volume by at least half. Untie bag and place stiff ball of cheese into a small mixing bowl. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

This is what your labanya should look like when you unwrap it!

To roast the beets: Wrap beets in foil. Roast in a 425F oven for one hour. Allow to cool until you can handle them easily. Unwrap the beets and use your fingers to rub the skins off. Do this under cool running water, or you'll never get the pink out of your skin! Pat beets dry with paper towel. Slice beets very thinly. Set aside.

To cook the quinoa: rinse 2/3 cup of quinoa under cold running water in a fine mesh sieve. Place in small saucepan with a pinch or two of salt and 1 litre of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain cooked quinoa in sieve. Saute minced garlic cloves in butter over medium heat, when garlic is golden, add cooked, drained quinoa. Cook and stir for 3 minutes to evaporate any excess water from the quinoa. remove from heat, add salt and pepper, chopped parsley and all but 1 Tablespoon of the cashew nuts. Gently stir through 1 heaping tablespoon of labanya. Set aside.

To make the dressing: combine lemon juice, garlic, oil and egg in a small, tall sided container. Whip with an immersion blender until well blended and slightly frothy. Season with salt and pepper. If you don't have an immersion blended with a whip attachment, you could blend it on high in a jug-style blender.

To assemble: grease the inside of a biscuit cutter, or large round cookie cutter. Place greased cutter on plate. Layer several slices of beet inside cutter on plate, making sure the beet slices overlap so that the bottom of the circle is completely covered. dollop 1/4 cup of the labanya on top of the beet layer. Use the wetted back of a tablespoon to smooth the labanya layer out evenly to the edges of the ring. Fill the ring loosely to the top with the quinoa mixture. Press down gently on the quinoa with the back of a wetted spoon to compress. Cover the quinoa layer with another layer of overlapping beets. Press down to compress.

While pressing gently on the top layer of beets, gently slide the biscuit ring up and off. Scatter some baby greens over the top of the salad stack and sprinkle with a pinch of the reserved cashews. Drizzle dressing over.

I know there's a lot of prep work involved here, but it's not really labour intensive prep work at all. It's just waiting time. You could easily roast the beets, prepare the quinoa mixture and dressing while your yogurt is hanging. If you did this all the day before, you could assemble all four salads in 10 or 15 minutes.

This dish covers the entire taste and texture range and does it beautifully. The sweet and earthy beets, tangy garlicky dressing, springy quinoa and creamy labanya - Cakes kept asking if he could have another. This is definitely a keeper. Now if only I could figure out how to stop the beet juice from bleeding into the labanya!

I told Y'all, but would you listen?

Last night I cracked open the January edition of Bon Appetit magazine and flipped to the "10 best dishes of the year" section (starts on page 76) and felt vindicated. All year long, I've been extolling the virtues of grits. While my posts about cookies and chocolate always draw plenty of comments, the posts about grits just sort of languished there, commented upon by only a few die hard grits fans (obviously discriminating and excellent people).

I imagine, however, that most of Lex Culinaria's other visitors just skipped past the unfamiliar stuff, which is fair enough. But now, vindication comes in the form of a grits and cheese souffle courtesy of Bon Appetit. Ironic that just as grits are being touted (by someone other than me) as a great food, I am now down to the last dregs of my super fine grits with no reliable way to obtain more. Sigh.

As always, I have modified the recipe to my own taste, and the contents of my fridge. This would make a great lunch or brunch dish served with a green salad. A nice break from the more traditional quiche. The Bon Appetit recipe called for instant grits whereas I prefer to use "quick grits", which are just as fine, but less processed and more flavourful.

For four individual souffles you will need:

• 2 cups milk
• 3 cloves garlic, well bruised, but not minced
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar
• 2/3 cup quick (not instant) grits
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 375F

Simmer the milk and garlic and thyme together for 10-15 minutes. I just put mine in a 5 litre pyrex casserole in the microwave and zapped it for a few minutes until it started to bubble, let it sit for several minutes and then zapped it again and let it sit for a few more minutes. 

Fish out the garlic and thyme and stir in the salt, pepper, grits and cheese. replace lid on casserole (if using the microwave, or on the saucepan (if using the stove) and cook the grits for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft. Remove the grits from the heat source and allow to cool slightly. I transferred mine to a metal bowl and put it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Whip egg whites until firm, but not dry, peaks form.

Stir egg yolks through the grits until throroughly combined. Fold the egg whites into the grits.

Spray 4 individual (400ml) souffle dishes (I use these) with oil and divide batter evenly between the dishes, filling as close to the top as you can. Place filled dishes in a roasting pan and add enough water into the pan to come half way up the sides of the souffle dishes.

Bake souffles until tops are puffed and brown and centres are set, about 30 minutes.

Either serve them in their dishes, or allow to cool for 5 minutes, run a knife around the egde of the dish, and invert onto a plate, turning them gently right side up. If you serve them this way, they will fall a little, but they are still lovely.

Clearly, Lex Culinaria is on the cutting edge of culinary innovation. ;-) Not only did grits make Bon Appetit's list of the years best foods, but braised short ribs did too! I think in 2006, I'll try to balze a new culinary trail with the Cheese in a Can my sister gave me for Christmas.

Thyme and Mushroom Soup

This recipe was inspired by the simply yummy soup Cakes and I had at the Wharfside in Victoria last week. Cakes had the soup, mostly, as I ordered something else, although he did offer me his last spoonful. That's true love.

It's really healthy too, creamy without the use of any cream at all, only a small knob of butter. It wouldn't hurt to chuck some cream in though if you were so inclined. I'd just increase the salt a smidgen to compensate.

Serves 6

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, sliced
5 fat cloves garlic, chopped
3 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves (removed from the stems)
10 cups sliced assorted mushrooms (One very full brown paper mushroom bag will slice up into about 10 cups)
1 cup white wine
1 litre chicken stock
1 teaspoon sea salt (depending on how salty your stock is)
1 teaspoon cracked pepper

Melt butter in the bottom of a large stockpot. Cook and stir onions, garlic and thyme over medium heat for 5 or so minutes, until onions begin to brown and the scent of thyme fills your kitchen. Add mushrooms and cook, over med-high, heat stirring only occasionally, to brown the  mushrooms a bit before they start giving off too much water. Continue to cook, stirring for 6 to 8 minutes. Add in remaining ingredientsand simmer for 20 minutes. ladle off 1/2 the mixture into a bowl to cool slightly. Once it is cool enough that it won't blow the top off your blender, whizz it in the blender at high speed until smooth. Return to the pot and heat through.

Serve this with lots of crusty bread and room-temperature goats cheese.

Best frigging sandwich in the whole world

I don't know about you, but I tend to assign catchy names to my (and my girlfriends') ex-boyfriends. Let's see.... There's Gold Card Gord, who thought everything in the world, including respect, could be bought with a gold card. Crapping Chris, who used my bathroom when he came to pick me up for our first (and last) date and left a surprise for me floating in my toilet. How romantic. There was also Clingy Swiss Guy who, on our second (also last) date, burst into tears because he didn't know "where this is going".

Clearly charmers, the whole lot of them. Especially Gold Card Gord, who asked me very kindly to collect his drycleaning for him on my way home from the hospital from my chemotherapy injection. What a gentleman.

None of them, however, were anything compared to Vanilla Blinds Gary. Yep. Gary's his real name. I feel no need to protect Vanilla Blinds Gary's  identity.

Vanilla Blinds Gary and I had a whirlwind romance. Spent every waking (non-working) moment together. Never mind that Gary was a little rough around the edges. Never mind that he had an offensively chauvinistic older brother and father, both of whom treated their wives like crap ... He was nothing like them of course. He was sweet. He was charming.

Then we moved in together.

And I found out that VBG was a lazy chauvinistic 27-year old buffoon who called his mummy for money when he'd spent all his.

Why was he calling his mummy for money? Because he wanted spending money for booze and fun when he went on his 10-day sailing trip around the Whitsunday islands on the Great Barrier Reef. Why did he have no beer money of his own? I haven't the foggiest, because, you see, I'd paid all the rent and all the bills and bought all the furniture and groceries. I have no idea what he spent his money on. You can tell where this is going, I'm sure. Why I couldn't at the time is beyond me.

On one particularly hot summer afternoon, during the last days of our relationship, Vanilla Blinds Gary and I lay sprawled on our two sofas in our underwear. It was a scorcher of a Melbourne summer day - close to 40 degrees. The back wall of our condo unit was all glass, and the apartment building next door looked right down into our living room. Next door guy was washing his dishes under the kitchen window, which looked directly into our suite.

Vanilla Blinds Gary, upon seeing that we were being watched, rolled on his side, opened his mouth and killed what was left of our relationship...

Vanilla Blinds Gary: "I suppose we should close the vanilla blinds."

Lex: "the what?"

Vanilla Blinds Gary: "The vanilla blinds. We should close them."

Lex: "I'm sorry... Did you say, "vanilla blinds"?"

Vanilla Blinds Gary: "Yeah. That guy next door is doing his dishes and he can see right in."

Lex: "Um. I think you might have meant "venetian"?"

Vanilla Blinds Gary: "You just think you're so smart. I'm sick of you thinking you're smarter than me. Just because you're a lawyer and you make more money than me doesn't mean you're smarter than me, you know."

Lex: "???"

That's why he's called Vanilla Blinds Gary. Other possible names were Gary the Leech or That Angry Wanker.

Lest you think I have nothing but criticism and derision to offer as regards Gary I will relate to you the one and only good thing that came of our relationship.

He made me The Sandwich once.

The Sandwich involves:

• good crusty bread
• mashed avocado (poss. with a squeeze of lemon)
• mayonnaise
• smoked Cheddar (VGB's wasn't smoked...I made the sandwich better!)
• cold roasted chicken

Even better if you lightly toast the bread with the cheese perched on top to get all melty.

Trust me. There is no other sandwich. Just like there's no other Vanilla Blinds Gary. Unless you count Cheap-Ass Rossy. But that's another story.

Three-Tomato and Edam Tart

I still love tomatoes today. I finished the tomato jam on the last piece of crusty French bread for supper, so I had to satisfy my tomato craving with something else. The theme for this month's Sugar High Friday has me thinking about tarts - so I indulged myself while Cakes was out with the boys tonight.

I reckon a nicely made, simple tart looks far more difficult than it is. To me it is the perfect stay at home supper as it involves baking, the home-iest kind of cooking you can engage in.

When I bake, whether it's bread, or sweets or, like tonight, a tart, I feel the strongest possible connection to the women in my family.

For generations, my mother, and aunties and grandmother and their aunties and grandmothers, have fed their familes well, and with love. Their whole raison d'etre was the home they kept and the food they made for their families.

When Mum would leave me at Gram's house for an afternoon off, I'd sit on the floor of Gram's kitchen, blue melamine countertop miles above me, sunlight streaming in the sheer white and pale blue polka-dot curtains. Gram sewed those curtains herself and they were still pristine after 30 years when Gramps died and she sold the house.

Gram would let me help with the weekend baking and I'd sit cross-legged on her floor kneading bread dough in her enormous steel mixing bowl. I'm sure I could have sat in the bowl, it was that big. When my five-year-old arms got tired, Gram would take my little fists in her hands and knead with me. That was how I learned to make bread, how I learned to tell whether the dough was kneaded enough, how I learned that baking was more about my Gram's love for us than anything else.

That is why, when I was feeling a little blue tonight (all that rain and dark sky), and wanting to do something with the beautiful bright tomatoes on my table, I chose to make a tart. Gram taught me so much more than how to tell if dough is properly kneaded. She taught me it's okay to feel a little blue and that baking, anything, with love is the cure for all that ails you.

I adapted this tart recipe from one I found at Epicurious.

Tomato and Edam Tart for Gram

Enough for a 30 cm tart pan

for the Pastry
180 grams flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
90 grams butter
2 Tablespoons cold buttermilk (or more, depending on the flour you use)

Sift first three ingredients together. Cut cold, cubed butter into flour with a pastry cutter until it resembles crumbs. Slowly add the cold buttermilk until the dough sticks together into a ball. Refrigerate until well chilled. Sandwich the dough ball between two layers of cling film and roll out to the desired shape. Peel away one layer of the cling film and place the pastry gently over the tart tin, remaining cling film facing up. Remove the cling film from the top of the dough and press dough firmly, but gently into the tin, trimming the edges even with the top of the pan. Set lined tart tin aside in the refrigerator until required.

For the Filling:
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tablesoon butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
200 grams edam cheese, shredded
5 ripe, firm juicy tomatoes, ends discarded and sliced into four or five slices each

Cook and stir onions, garlic and butter in a non-stick frying pan until golden and soft, (about 10 minutes) over medium heat, add salt. Arrange cooked onions in bottom of tart shell, covering the base evenly. Sprinkle shredded cheese evenly over the onion. Top onion with overlapping tomato slices. Bake tart in a 350F/190C oven for 60 minutes. Feed it to someone you love. Or me. Yes, feed it to me.

Three tomato and cripsy prosciutto lasagne

Every once in a while I manage to bang together something for supper or lunch that I think would be perfect for the little cafe I dream about running. My cafe would be small. Ten tables at the most. The blackboard menu would rotate weekly and there would be no more than 4 perfect choices per course. And it would be accompanied by a small, but lovingly planned wine list.

This is one of those recipes that I would serve in my cafe....

I wanted a nice light, springtime supper for Cakes and me, and I`d been to the Italian Centre Shop so had nice lasagna noodles, beautiful tomatoes and 7 amazing cheeses.

This dish really is heaven, the textures are all there: crispy bacon, creamy ricotta, noodle-y noodles and fresh, juicy tomato... the flavours combine beautifully as well - no competition here: salty bacon, milky ricotta, sharp asiago, noodle-y noodles and fresh juicy, acid-sweet tomato....funny how my descriptions for noodles and tomato are so similar as between texture and taste...

This is fresh, light and the basic, refreshing flavours of the ingredients really shine through...it's definitely a keeper.

Ingredients:

• one each medium fresh gorgeous, organic yellow, red and orange tomatoes, cubed.
• smallest splash of good balsamic
• one crushed and minced clove of garlic
• scant tablespoon best quality pesto
• 75 grams fresh fresh fresh sweet ricotta
• 3 best quality approx. 4" by 5" lasagna sheets (not "oven-ready", not the kind with frilly edges)
• 4 slices prosciutto
• 50 grams asiago cheese, in slivers

Boil lasagna sheets in salted water until al dente. Leave in hot water, but remove from heat.

Saute garlic in small amount of olive oil, add tomatoes and saute until just heated through. leave in pan to keep warm. I also removed the cooked tomatoes to one side of the pan and reduced the juice they gave off into a coulis consistency. Add a small splash of balsamic to bring out the flavour of the tomatoes.

Fry prosciutto at med-high heat until golden and crispy. Remove it from heat, break each slice into 2 or 3 pieces, and leave to cool in a rumpled fashion, maybe draped over some tablespoons, or similar so as the slices dry and harden they take on an interesting curvy shape.

Combine ricotta and pesto with a bit of cracked pepper and salt. Warm gently in a pot or, *gasp*, in the microwave for a minute to two.

Drain pasta and cut each sheet into four square quarters.

Stack pasta squares on plate with alternating fillings: i.e. pasta, tomatoes, pasta, ricotta, pasta prosciutto, pasta tomatoes...etc. until all the filling and pasta is used up. Your stacks will have less chance of falling over if you keep the filling portions small and in the centre of the noodle square. Press down gently onto noodle surface after each filling has been added and topped with noodle, as this will also help to stabilize the stack.

Top with slivers of asiago and a twist of ground pepper.

Non-Stop Sunday Cookfest Extravaganza in Seven Chapters

After so many weekends where I have hardly had time to make toast, I finally had a chance to redeem myself this weekend.

Whenever I can spend a whole weekend cooking, I feel like I've accomplished something worthwhile. Not that the other things I do aren't worthwhile...I just get a deep feeling of satisfaction from cooking.

This weekend's inventory included:

Chapter One: Mystery cupcakes with mystery icing (coming to an IMBB near you on 24 March)

Chapter Two: Whole wheat bread - From my mother's recipe that she wrote out on a 4x6 index card for me when I went away for my first year of uni in 1990.

Chapter Three: Banana bread - From straight out of my head. I basically chucked some stuff into a bowl. One of Cake's stock jobs in the kitchen involves mashing bananas with the potato masher as he knows it will lead to hot banana bread within an hour. I've never been a big fan of bananas in any form, but this is one of Cake's favourites, so it gets made a fair bit in our house. My recipe, if it can be called such, involves 3 to 6 riperiperipe bananas, 2 eggs, a splash of oil (I'm guessing somewhere between 1/4 and a 1/3 of a cup), a hefty dose of vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg (all fresh ground), brown sugar (a cup and a half or so, sometimes split half and half with white sugar), orange blossom water, toasted pistachio nuts or hazelnuts or pecans, a chopped soft pear, baking soda (4 teaspoons), baking powder (1 teaspoon) and enough whole wheat cake flour to make a dough that is marginally wetter than a drop-scone consistency.

I bake it at around 350 until it's brown on top and a knife comes out clean. I pull it from the oven, cut 2 thick slices, lavish them with butter and present them to Cakes. Although this recipe makes an enormous loaf (I use oversize pans) it's usually gone within 12 hours.

Chapter Four: homemade chicken stock - Having  learnt my lesson about stock on the stove (which is that I am too scattered to be trusted with a $300 stockpot a duck carcass and a stove)...plus I don't have a stockpot anymore (also part of learning that particular lesson). I bunged two roasted chicken carcasses with plenty of meat left on and the onion wedges caramelized from roasting still shoved up their bottoms, a handful of organic baby carrots, a few ribs celery, lots of garlic, fresh parsley, a bay leaf, sea salt, cracked pepper, an additional onion, halved in my slow cooker on high with water to cover and left to cook for the better part of 18 hours, adding water as necessary. Amazing. It has been magically transformed into cubes in my freezer and awaits its next incarnation.

Chapter Five: Three onion and Merlot soup - Another slow cooker success. 3 huge sweet onions, 1 purple onion and one sharp yellow onion plus a giant knob of butter in my slow cooker on high for 4 hours, stirring occasionally, after which I added the better part of half the contents of a bottle of nice Merlot and a bit of beef broth. I let is burble away in the cooker for 10 hours. How simple is that? There's no need to watch it the way you have to on the stove (especially if you're like me and you get impatient and try to turn the heat up in an effort to get it done faster!) and the onions are gently caramelized and lovely by the end.

Chapter Six: Roast beef - As an example of how food-oriented my family is, I got a gorgeous big roast of beef in my Christmas stocking. My mum made these enormous stockings for us one Christmas, and this roast damn near filled it up. Well, that and the little farting Santa doll. 

I always use Nigella Lawson's cooking times for roasts, because they are fool-proof. Although, this time, I increased the heat a little (see above re: impatience) and the beef came out a little less moo-ey than I normally like. Cakes and I are rare meat eaters, so unless it still moos when prodded firmly, it's too well done for us. That said, it was nice anyway. I cut little pockets in the meat and slid in some cloves of garlic, which always helps. Otherwise, I rubbed it with a little oil and left it alone. I poured the rest of the Merlot in the pan with a bit of beef broth and left some garlic cloves to roast in there. It made the nicest, darkest richest gravy. I caught Cakes drinking it from the gravy bowl after he offered to clean up the kitchen. Sneaky Cakes. When he left the kitchen in disgrace, I had a drink too.

Chapter Seven: Smashed potatoes - Need I say more? gorgeous yellowy, skin-on potatoes with cream, buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper. Nothing else. Yum. I used a fair bit more liquid than I usually would, and the potatoes came out beautifully light and mouss-ey. I think that had partly to do with my use of Yukon gold rather than my traditional russet. I may just have switched potato teams for good!!

 

Chapter Eight: A really nice salad of creeeeaaaaamy Bulgarian feta, crisp romaine, red onion, campari tomato, a squeeze of lemon and the tiniest splash of balsamic. And cracked pepper.

Phew.

I need to go lie down.