Holiday Food!

Roasted Cauliflower, Sage and Almond Risotto

Ahhh, I love risotto. Just thinking about risotto makes me feel all warm inside, like you have just eaten a huge bowl of... risotto.

There is nothing more delicious after a cold winters day.

The photo of this recipe in the magazine actually never appealed to me. The risotto looks watery, the food looks a little too rustic, almost comfort food (which is good), yet almost some overcooked slop of questionable origin, you might be served at a friends house, who is an equally questionable cook (which is bad).

I had a cauliflower and was looking up recipes on Donna Hay's recipe index online (which is quite helpful by the way, I'll post the link bellow).

The name of this recipe got me and when I looked it up in my mag I thought 'Augh, it's that horrible looking risotto' but I gave it a chance.

And, wow, did it impress. I am officially in love! As soon as cauliflowers drop again to a decent price I will certainly make this again!

So... tips.

I added the sherry at the end, because I didn't read the recipe right and that is what Donna usually does with her risotto recipes, but it worked fine.

If you have never made risotto before, I must mention that you basically have to stir it the whole time it is cooking. quite tiring. My friend and I took turns stirring.

Oh, and I couldn't find taleggio cheese at my local Deli, which is odd because it is a very well stocked deli. The risotto was still delicious.

We enjoyed our risotto after a long, beautiful, Autumns day at Seal Rocks, down near Forster, New South Wales.

The water was crystal clear, the breeze cool and the sun scrumptiously warm. We even went swimming (well some of us did! It takes blazing temperatures and lukewarm water to get Sweetyboy in!). There's Sweetyboy on the beach with the darling, building sand castle cars. :)

Issue 44, page 106.

Oh, Donna

So I have this friend, right, who is a nanny, and her boss's son is in the same class at school as Donna's son! Haha! Talk about 6 degrees of separation! I really am a sad case!

I have to admit, though I don't get star struck very easily, if I ever met Donna Hay, I think I might be a little excited.

So, who have you always dreamed of meeting? Ever had an awesome encounter with someone famous? Any crazy coincidental 6-degrees-of-separation type stories?

After spending most of our Sunday at the football fields, watching some friends play, I was feeling particularly unmotivated as it drew nearer to dinner time.I announced to my friends as I was leaving, I was going home to make a 'pancake dinner', as that was all I had the motivation for.

On arriving home, I realised I had defrosted the chicken for this dish the day before, and due to work schedules and family dinner at my parents, it HAD to be made TONIGHT.

We were also due to go out again after dinner, which gave me approximately an hour and a quarter to cook dinner AND eat it.

I do this to myself all to often :|

Well, this meal was surprisingly quick and easy to make. Besides the one tantrum, when I over 'softened' the butter in the microwave, and then had to put it in the freezer to re-set it a little, it went off without a hitch.

My husband bolted it down, mostly due to time constraints, but MOSTLY because it was so delicious! He did comment that he felt like he was eating 'possibly the most unhealthy bread in the world', as he happily chowed down the crispy, butter soaked sourdough from under the chicken. Haha!

I will definitely make this again!

I Just wanted to add, I was super stoked that I actually had all the herbs I needed for this recipe growing in my sad little garden! They look pretty, so I took a photo :)

Herbs are so expensive, so it is always great when you don't have to buy them.

Issue 44, page 116.

The Night of the Donna Feast

I had people over for dinner last night and thought I would show off my Donna skills and do a whole Donna feast!

Here's what I made;

• Pumpkin and goat's cheese crumbles. Issue 54, page 140.
• Roasted potatoes with green beans and speck. Issue 54, page 142.
• Butterscotch walnut tarts with homemade Basic vanilla pastry. Issue 32, page 81. and the pastry from, Issue 38, page 118.
• Mint, vinegar and honey-glazed roast lamb. Issue 26, page 119.

Yes it was quite hectic, but not as stressful as I had imagined.

Tips:

Use the cooking time for the roast leg of lamb (on the same page) if that is what you are using! The recipe I used was for smaller cuts of meat, and my meat didn't cook in time.

We ended up having the roast veggies for entree and the meat for main. This might have been a little bit embarrassing if they weren't such close friends (all you can do is laugh!). You might also like to ask your butcher about cooking times when you purchase your meat.

Use nice sweet moist pumpkin. Mine was a bit dry and didn't do the dish justice.

Donna doesn't say how to make the sourdough bread crumbs. I just put our grill on low a couple of hours before, and slowly dried out slices of sourdough, turning occasionally.

Besides the homemade pastry (which I wouldn't change for anything!) These butterscotch walnut tarts were super easy!

Besides a few little hiccups I think it all went quite well, and our friends were sufficiently impressed :)

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

I only discovered cauliflower soup recently (how embarrassing!) but I now love it! Cauliflowers just feel so nutritious :)

Anyway, I made this soup the day before I wanted to eat it so I would have a quick dinner for after work the next day, so I made it with none of the frills and garnish (the parmesan cauliflower crumbs). It was just a yummy, simple, meal.

My only tip is DO NOT blend the bay leaf into the soup. I know this is really a no brainer by I forgot, and was picking woody, leafy bits out the whole meal :(

Issue 51, page 102.

Red Wine and Tomato Lamb Shanks

Man I am a sucker for comfort food! That is why I spend all summer working off the excess fat I put on in winter, only to put it all back on again :/

This is a super easy and super yummy winter dish.

I never know what to serve casserole-type dished with, as my mother was never a big casserole maker. I guess it would be great with classic mashed potatoes or soft polenta, but I chose to serve mine with couscous, because I LOVE couscous.

As with most of Donna's 'simmer until thickened' recipe's this one did not. Who puts a tight lid on something to reduce/thicken it?! Plus, I think that the flour you use to coat the lamb shanks, is suppose to stay in the bottom of the pan to create a base for a gravy, but there was so little flour in the bottom of the pan when I removed the lamb shanks. I added a table spoon extra to the pot but it still didn't thicken like Donna's appears to have in the picture :(

It still tasted divine though and I guess that is where the couscous came in handy; it soaked up all the excess liquid.

I give this an 8/10 and I will certainly make it again.

Issue 33, page. 144

Lemon Cake with Passionfruit Syrup

I decided to make this cake since I had been given some delicious passion fruits from a dear friend with the charge, 'make something magnificent!'

I'm not sure if this cake could really be classed as magnificent, but it is quite yummy.

Now, as things usually go, when I finally decided to cook something with these yummy passion fruits, certain members of my family had eaten almost every last one. There were 3 left.

Having already started making the batter I sent Sweetyboy to the supermarket to bring back some passion fruits. From the amount I scraped out of the ones I had I guessed I probably still needed about 8 passion fruits. Passion fruits were $1.69 at IGA. Woah!

So I ended up buying the passion fruit in syrup that comes in a can. not as classy, but it did the job.

After the allocated time, I checked it with a skewer. The skewer came out covered in batter so I put the cake back in the oven, and promptly forgot about it :(

The verdict: Be careful not to overcook this cake. I did and it was a little dry. I am sure if cooked for the correct time it should have been lovely and moist.

It is still yummy though.

Issue 2, Page 30

Basic Vanilla Pastry

Here is the pastry recipe, as promised!

Before this recipe, I was always afraid of making my own pastry. I had heard that it was finicky, time consuming, and really not that much nicer than store bought pastry.

I tried several times to make my own pastry the 'old fashioned way' (without a food processor) and failed miserably.

This recipe is quick, easy and so delicious you will never want to buy store bought pastry again!

Just a few important tips: (Most of these points are mentioned in the recipe, but I think they are so super important I am going to mention them all again :)

• Use iced water (just as she says!). My friend showed me the easy way, small jug, water, ice cubes. simple. This advice after several attempts at partially freezing the water in the jug and it taking FOREVER and then forgetting about it so it was rock hard. Haha!

• Make sure your butter is straight out of the fridge

• Don't put in all the water Donna says. I just slowly add water until the dough in the food processor forms a ball and then I stop adding water immediately.

• This is just me, and I know people have been making pastry for years without modern technology, but save yourself the tears and don't even think of making this pastry without a food processor. If you have and it was a success, good for you, you are a far better cook than I.

• I roll my pastry out between two sheets of glad wrap. It is so easy to work with this way.

Happy pastry making!

P.s. A special shout out must go to my good friend Megan, who without her faithful support I would never have even attempted to make pastry ever again! She walked me through every step that first successful time and I owe her a debt of delicious gratitude <3

Issue 38, Page 118

Rhubarb Tart

Ok, so I go into this post with mixed feelings. This tart, which I made for the first time two weeks ago, and I, have a short but messy history.

So, to the technicalities for a moment,

Everything about this tart is simple and delicious. I use the Pastry recipe found in Issue 38, Page 118. This was the first from-scratch pastry I attempted and it is so wonderful and easy, I don't see the point changing (I will post my thoughts on the pastry recipe later).

Besides baking the final tart a little longer than Donna says (as usual), Everything else is as the recipe states, and it is delicious. Kind of cheesecakey with the scrumptious tartness of the rhubarb. As for where you can find the rhubarb, I'm not sure. I am lucky enough to have a mother who grows rhubarb, which is why I decided to make this recipe in the first place.

Anyhoo, back to our messy history.

I was so impressed with this yummy tart I wanted to share it with everyone I could.

After it being almost demolished at a friends going-away party, I decided to take some to my parents-in-law, who were staying at a local caravan park. Impress the in-laws.

In the car park I dropped the tart, contained in my favourite, vintage, stoneware, tart dish. Right onto my big toe.

While hopping around the car park yelling faux expletives (Miss Three was present) Sweetyboy collected the miraculously unbroken tart dish and the amazingly preserved tart (Thank you glad wrap!).

Three and a half hours at emergency proved that the toe was not, in-fact broken, just crazy sore. A hot needle was inserted to relive a hematoma that had formed under the nail.

The nail is slowly (and painfully) in the process of falling off as we speak.

I ate the remainder of the tart and enjoyed every bite.

So... Make this tart. You wont regret it. Unless of course you drop it on your toe and the baking dish smashes and the tart is ruined.

I just noticed that most of the photos of my finished creations show them partially eaten. This is because 1) I have no self control, and 2) am very forgetful. Usually we have already begun digging in when I remember 'Ahhhh! I was going to take a photo of this for the blog!'

Issue 2, Page. 30

Spiced Snowflake Doughnuts

Well this is a post on behalf of my husband, who likes to try his hand at the occasional Donna recipe (usually the sickly sweet ones!).

He is a prolific Doughnut eater and so was super excited to see these little morsels of sugary goodness get a feature in the Autumn 2011 issue.

I personally would have gone for the Italian Doughnuts, but he wanted to try something a little simpler for his first time.

The majority of the recipe was quite easy, though a little time consuming, definitely for a rainy weekend with lots of time on your hands, which are frequent where we live.

After lovingly and painstakingly, kneading for 10 minutes, and cutting precisely and rising for what seemed an infinite amount of time, they were almost ready to fry.

Then tragedy struck.

I am mostly to blame (as Sweetyboy kindly pointed out) as I had placed them down on a low table since I was making dinner, and there was no room on the bench.

They had risen beautifully, and looking oh so delicious, when Miss Three spied them.

Over half were promptly squashed flat, and I am sad to say, did not rise again.

If grown men cried over doughnuts, I have no doubt Sweetyboy would have shed more than his share of tears.

They did puff a little in the frying, but were no where near the puffy deliciousness of the other non-squashed.

These doughnuts have a very yeasty flavour, which is not unpleasant with cinnamon and sugar, but a little over powering when combined with the ginger and sugar.

I am sure we will make these Doughnuts again but maybe not this variation.

The finished product!

They did taste better than they look (and excuse my messy house in the background!)

Issue 56, Page. 158

High-Top Apple and Sultana Pie

Everyone loves this version of the classic apple pie!

So yummy!

My only tips are, pile up the apple (it will condense a little while cooking) and cook it until it is nice and golden (a little longer than she says, as usual!).

The first time i made it, I made it with half red apples and half green (out of necessity). Everyone who tried it (even seasoned pie makers) said it was the yummiest apple pie they had ever eaten. I think it must have been the extra sweetness from the red apples.

Issue 38, Page 120.

Caramel Pear Pie

The pie special in Donna hay magazine issue 38, is my go-to for a warm winter desert at the moment. I have made quite a few of them now and this one is definitely a stand out.

I must say it does generally turn out looking just like Donna's, though I always cook it longer than she says, until the top of mine is all lovely and brown like Donna's is in the picture.

Due to recipes failing in the past I have been to nervous to take it out of the oven at the time she says because it looks a little sloppy and not set. I am quite notorious for over cooking things though!

I haven't deviated from the recipe too much. A friend tried to make hers cook faster and added almond meal. I thought it was delicious, but I will let her tell you about it!

She also gave me the idea to add Black Strap Molasses. Just 2 Tbsp added to the golden syrup because it is super strong!

I loved it! But others preferred it the regular way, so each to their own.

I used a heart shaped cookie cutter for the decoration around the edge and just cut the hearts in half long-ways.

Donna Hay Magazine

Issue 38, Page 124.