Recipe - Donna Hay's lemony peach cake - with a punnet of raspberries added

Donna Hay's lemony peach cake - with a punnet of raspberries added

• 175g butter, softened and chopped
• ¾ cup (165g) caster (superfine) sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
• ¼ cup (70g) natural yoghurt
• 3 peaches, sliced
• icing (confectioner's) sugar, for dusting
• double (thick) cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Place the butter, sugar and lemon rind in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6–8 minutes or until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the flour, baking powder and yoghurt and beat until just combined.
Spoon into a lightly greased 25cm-round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Top with the peaches and bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve with cream. Serves 6.

Recipe - Steak with 2 Sauces (That takes 15 minutes to cook - total)

Recipe – The Perfect Steak

I don’t think I’ve actually cooked a steak before, not being a non-red meat eater myself, but I did for my partner tonight and apparently I nailed it! N.B I did repeatedly ask if he was just being polite …

Ingredients

·         steak

·         salt and pepper

·         Olive oil

·         Butter

·         4 sprigs of fresh thyme

·         2 cloves garlic, cut in half and in half again

·         ¼ of a cup stock (can use beef or chicken)

·         1 tsp of seeded mustard

·         a handful of parsley

·         juice of ½  a lime (could have used lemon)

·         a whole chilli

The Steak

1.       The steak was about 3cm thick so I took it out of the fridge approx. 30 mins before cooking, as it helps when the meat is room temperature

2.       I seasoned it with salt and pepper (both sides)

3.       Heated enough of a 50/50 oil/butter mix to ensure the fry pan was coated in a  thin layer

4.       Sautéed thyme and garlic till fragrant then threw out the thyme but kept the garlic

5.       Placed the steak on the oil and worked with a 3:1 ratio. In this case, because of the thickness it wasn’t quite 3:1 – rather 8 minutes on one side then 3 minutes on the other – this achieved medium- rare

6.       Took steak off the heat onto a plate and covered in with alfoil, resting it for 3 minutes while I did the following …

Steak sauce

7.       Poured in stock (can use beef or chicken) – approx. ¼ of a cup

8.       Added 1 tsp of seeded mustard

9.       Deglazed the frypan on high heat till sauce thickened slightly

Extra flavour

10.   Into a small food processor added

·          garlic (from the first stage)

·         a handful of parsley

·         juice of ½  a lime (could have used lemon)

·         a whole chilli

·         salt

·         pepper

·         just enough olive oil to moisten the ingredients

To serve

·         alfoil came off the plate

·         I spooned the sauce (mustard and sauce) over the steak ensuring that as it cascaded over the edges, the base of the plate was coated with a thin layer

·         I spooned the garlic and parsley flavour on top (just a little) and popped the remains in a small service dish so he could use as much or as little as he pleased.

Review - Glebe Point Diner

We were a party of 8 celebrating a birthday. The restaurant was kind enough to do a set menu for us and on it was a great selection – we were really happy.

I had the pate to start with. It tasted like it was 50% butter and 50% pate – you’ll see from the picture how unusual the texture was. It also had a funny after taste – when the 3 of us (one of which is a chef) explained we weren’t happy with it there was no hesitation to take it back so either their customer service is exemplary or there had been other issues.

Main was Mulloway – it was wonderful and dessert was nougat – also terrific!

It was a great restaurant to try – if someone suggested to go back there I’d happily tag along but I wouldn’t initiate to others that it’s a “must go to”

Recipe - Slow Cooker Chicken with Tomato, Spinach and Chick Peas

 

Ingredients

·         1 bunch of English Spinach, chopped

·         2 garlic cloves, crushed

·         1 onion, diced

·         1 bunch of shallots, chopped

·         2 ripe tomatoes or 400g tomato passata

·         1 small red chilli (seed removed), thinly chopped

·         1 cups of chicken stock

·         400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed

·         1kg chicken – combination of thigh fillets and skinless legs

 

Method

1.       Preheat slow cooker on high

2.       Add to slow cooker the garlic, onion, shallots and chilli and leave it for 20 minutes (i.e. when these ingredients have softened)

3.       Add spinach and leave it for 10 minutes (i.e. when the spinach has wilted)

4.       Add tomatoes, stock and chickpeas (in their juice) and leave for 20 minutes (i.e. when the mixture is warm)

5.       Immerse chicken pieces in the liquid

6.       Pending on your slow cooker the cooking time will be anywhere from 4 hours – 6 hours. So, allow maybe 7 hours cook time as you can switch the slow cooker off at any time beforehand and resting (for even multiple hours) won’t affect it. In fact, it will make it better J

7.       Serve with rice or even risoni