Mother's Day Breakfast

This mornings breakfast was a Mother's Day breakfast.
Unfortunately, I had to cook it :/

We had French toast (also known as pain perdu or eggy bread), and bacon.
Of course, Miss Fussy (Katharine) decided she didn't like French toast, so she had egg and bacon sandwiches.

So, here's what you do. You need to grill (as in, broil) the bacon. When you're about half way through, you need to mix together 2 eggs per person, with a good dollop of cream, a dash of milk, and salt and pepper to taste.
Dip in a slice of bread. Good bread is best for this, but any bread will do - as long as it isn't starting to grow. By the French name for it, I'd say stale bread works well, though I wouldn't know, because bread never gets a chance to go stale in our house :/
Fry the bread in a lightly greased frying pan, over a low heat, until golden.

Katherine's breakfast, btw, was boiled eggs, mashed with a little cheese, and some cream. This, with bacon on a sandwich, was as close as she gets to French toast.

And voila! A meal fit for Mum!

Salmon, risotto, and snow peas

We'll start with preparing the salmon, shall we?

• Finely slice a fennel bulb. Fennel has a slightly aniseed-y flavour, which complements fish very well.
• Julienne a 1 inch (2.5 cm) long piece of ginger. Fresh really is best here.
• Also, slice a lemon. This doesn't need to be finely sliced. Thick slices are probably better.
• Place a decent piece of aluminium foil on the bench. Line it with baking paper. Place a thin layer of fennel on the baking paper, cover with 3 slices of lemon. Evenly divide the ginger in half. Place the salmon on the lemon slices, and sprinkle the ginger over the salmon.
• Wrap the baking paper around the salmon, and then wrap that parcel in the foil, making sure its sealed well.
• Place in an oven proof tray, and into a preheated, moderate oven. Ignore the oven for now.

Next is the risotto. Risotto is easy to make. It's just time consuming.

• Finely dice an onion. If you're not going to cheat like I did tonight (I used a carton of creamy mushroom soup instead of actual mushrooms and cream), finely dice the dried mushrooms, and soak in boiling water. Also finely dice some normal mushrooms. This will bring your price down considerably.
• Now, start with a good tablespoon of olive oil. Add around a tablespoon of butter. ** Melt these together, then add the onion. When that is transparent, add around half a cup of arborio rice. Stir this around until the rice is covered with the oil/butter mixture, and cook it for a bit longer. While its cooking off, add a tea spoon of minced garlic. If you add it when you're cooking off just the onions, it will burn, and make it taste bitter.
• Now, add a cup of dry sherry, or vermouth. If you don't drink, or have neither, a cup of boiling water will have to do.
• Once that is almost absorbed (you need to stir it constantly), you add the stock from the mushrooms, or half the carton of soup, which ever way you went. Keep stirring and absorbing until the rice is cooked. If you run out of stock or the soup carton before the rice is done, top it up with boiling water.
• If you're using mushrooms instead of packet soup, add half a cup of cream, and a good grating of parmesan cheese at the end.

• While you're doing all of that, bring a saucepan of water to the boil. When its boiling, add a good pinch (okay, several pinches) of salt. Now add the snow peas (also known as mange tout, and bring back up to the boil.
• Drain it. Do this right before the risotto is almost done.

When the risotto is ready, the salmon will be ready. Plate up the salmon, with the fennel, lemon and ginger, a good dollop of risotto, and a handful of blanched snow peas.



This meal is tasty enough that even my kids eat it, but fancy enough that you can also serve it for a dinner party.
Oh, and the risotto will freeze well if you happen to have any left overs ;)





** Yes, it must be butter. You want it for the taste.

Good Friday Dinner

I was going to do salmon mornay (that recipe will come later, I think), but suddenly realised my kids hate it.
So, I'll be doing salmon cheesey pasta.

Pasta is a regular side dish in our family, and cheesey pasta is the "default" way to eat it.

• So, anyways, cook the pasta al dente, but just before it is, add a good handful of frozen peas and corn. When it comes up to the boil, drain well.
• Add as much grated cheese as you want/can, and then add a can of red salmon. Make sure its chunky, has no bones, and the skin is also gone.

I'll let you know how it went later :)

EDIT: The kids loved it. I'll have to do this one again.

Chicken in lemon butter sauce

Tonight, we had paillard of chicken fried in lemon and then thickened with butter.
We also had my world famous chunky mediterranean pasta as a side.
Anyways, recipe follows.

• paillard of chicken
• a few good tablespoons of butter
• juice of 2 large lemons

1. Heat a large frying pan, spray on enough oil to lubricate.
2. Place the paillards in gently, and seal well on both sides.
3. Pour lemon juice over, and after bringing the lemon juice to the boil, add the butter. Reduce heat.
4. Simmer for 2 minutes.

Serve the chicken with the sauce over the top, and some kind of mediterranean side dish (pasta, risotto, etc)

Beef Stroganoff

• Slice one large onion finely
  
• Slice 1 kg mushrooms thinly
• Slice 500g beef thinly
• Combine 2 tabs sugar with 1 tab mustard powder. Mix with just enough water to make into thick paste

Cook onions off in a deep, heavy based pan (okay. I cheat. I use an electric frying pan. shoot me, and get it done with?)
Add sliced beef. Stir this around until all is browned on the outside.
Cook down until almost no liquid remains.
Add sliced mushrooms.
Cook down until almost no liquid remains.
Add mustard and sugar paste.
Cook down until almost no liquid remains. (It should now be a dark, thick, sticky brown goop coating the meat, onions and mushrooms)
Slowly add 500 mL sour cream. (Add it 1 tablespoon at a time, or it will curdle)
Stir through 5(ish) cups of cooked pasta (1 cup when uncooked. DO NOT add uncooked pasta to this. Please cook that one cup uncooked pasta first)

Serve with warm crusty bread, and freshly blanched snow peas .

Katharine's 6th birthday party, and gift cake

So. Katharine's 6th birthday party today.
I had originally organised to hold it at a park, but with the severe storms, and now the heat and humidity, we changed it to Hungry Jacks.
There's a pic (above) of the cake. It's a 2 layered sponge, with whipped cream inside. The frosting is just a simple vanilla frosting, the straps are a sour strawberry strap, and thats Smarties for polka dots. Oh. And the curly ribbon is inedible ;)

Hibiscus tea

Its Spring here, now, so iced tea season.
This one is super simple, and "magic".


Get a few (I used around a dozen) hibiscus flowers.
Take the stamens out, and remove the green bits.
Put them into a tea pot.
Pour boiling water over, and add almost too much sugar (I use raw. Much nicer taste)
Allow to brew for a short while.
Pour into glasses with lots of ice.

And now the magic bit...
It looks a dark brown purple now.
Add a squeeze of lemon juice, and it'll go bright red!