Pesto, Mushroom & Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta - 1 - $ - V

Tomorrow is a very special day because my friend Wonder Matt is flying down from Brisvegas, just for the day, to celebrate his 40th birthday! How rock'n'roll is that! What he doesn't know is that we are going to kidnap him and his lovely lady and never let them leave the state again, so shhhhhhh.

Due to celebration shenanigans I have the day off tomorrow, so I left work quite late tonight after clearing the decks to ensure smooth sailing for those that will be in. Short on time, I had to come up with something toot sweet for dinner while driving home. I devised this super quick, slightly cheating pasta (it won't be cheating if you use homemade pesto) that literally took 15 minutes from pot to plate. Too easy!

Happy Birthday Wonder Matt!

Ingredients

Pasta - enough for enough of you
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
mushrooms
Kalamata olives
pesto
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 200C degrees and pop the water on to boil for the pasta.
Put the tomatoes in a baking dish, give a tiny spray with olive oil and place in the oven while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Slice the mushrooms and sautee in a bit of the pesto.
Cook the past according the packet directions and then drain and put back in the pot you cooked it in.
Stir through the mushrooms, olives and as much or as little pesto as you fancy.
Divide the pasta between the bowls, top with the cherry tomatoes and shave on some Parmesan.

Enjoy!

Mushroom Lasagne - 2 - $ - V

I have taken a leaf out of the brave and fabulous Iron Chef Shellie's book in order to bring you a recipe that didn't quite work.

I figure that the sharing element of this blog should extend to what not to do, as well as what works well. So I hope you will please indulge me whilst I tell you how this recipe didn't work; in order to bring you one that will.

Porcinis before...

It's probably best to start at the beginning, and that would be that I have been quite disappointed with the last few issues of a certain Australian food magazine. They seem really repetitive, uninspiring and at times, down right boring. It's a real shame because I have often used the recipes from past issues in the Cookbook Challenge.
Today I attempted two recipes from the June and May issues, because for the first time this year I felt inspired to give some of the mag's recipes a try. Unfortunately, one was an epic fail and one was OK - only because I managed to rescue it. As I was yelling in the kitchen with only the pets for an audience, I really did wonder if anyone at said magazine has actually been testing the recipes before publication?

Porcinis after

The following ingredients and method are minus the water that the original recipe says to use for the sauce. Against my better judgement I did add it, and then strained the mushies afterward when I realised what a wrong turn I had taken following the instructions to the letter. I also don't think you need the litre of milk suggested for the bechamel sauce, 500ml is well enough.
I've taken the liberty of changing loads of quantities without mentioning them at all, in order for you to not even go there - ergo your lasagne should be perfection!
(Also, don't burn your tea towel like I did trying to cook two brand new, pear-shaped-headed-meals, at the same time.)

Another tea towel bites the dust

Ingredients - will make one 30cm square baking dish

10gm dried porcini mushrooms
2tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
500gm Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
500ml passata
1 large ball of buffalo mozzarella, finely sliced
fresh lasagne sheets - I bought two from the market, just tell you pasta person you need two sheets and the size of your dish
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
Parmesan cheese

Whole lotta 'shrooms

You need to make a bechamel sauce to go with, so you can read how to do that over here. You need about 1 1/2 times the quantity of that recipe. Add a pinch of nutmeg just to jazz it up a little bit.

Better luck next time...

Preheat oven to 180C degrees and grease the baking dish.
Soak the dried porcinis in 1/2 cup of boiling water for at least 10 minutes. If they are very big, you can chop them up once they are rehydrated.
At the same time, heat the oil in a large pan and fry off the onion for 5-6 minutes over a medium heat. Once they are soft add the garlic and the Swiss brown mushies and cook stirring for 10 minutes until they are soft.
Add the porcinis and the water they were soaking in and cook for a few more minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Stir in the passata, reduce a little and set aside.
Make the bechamel according to these instructions (remembering to increase the amount as mentioned above).
To construct the lasagne, use half the mushroom sauce to cover the bottom of the baking dish, (don't forget to remove the herbs) then top with some bechamel and then add a layer of half the mozzarella. Cover with one sheet of pasta. Repeat the process and then for the final layer just use bechamel and grate parmesan over the top.
Cover the lasagne loosely with aluminium foil and cook for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and then cook for a further 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let the lasagne rest for a few minutes before attempting to cut and serve.

Enjoy!

The Cookbook Challenge Week 6 - Christmas!

In the lead-up to the silly season I have spent the last week eating, drinking, cooking, eating, baking, eating, drinking and eating some more. To top it off I then spent all of Christmas day with my nearest dearest and ate and drank with them. I feel very fortunate to live somewhere where this is not only possible, but the norm.

This what my day looked like...



You can find the shortbread recipe here; cointreau balls here; stuffed, baked snapper here; and tomato salad here.

Even though Christmas is officially over I am gifting you this stuffing recipe from a stupormarket cookbook. It was a Christmas discovery and not necessarily a Christmas recipe, so feel free to use it all year round. The following quantities will stuff a turkey or two chooks, so halve it if need be.

Ingredients

50gms butter, chopped
500gms button mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
4 rashers rindless bacon, chopped
7 cups bread crumbs, from day old bread
1/2 cup roasted macadamia nuts, chopped
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley
8 spring onions, finely sliced
salt and pepper to season

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the mushrooms, cook stirring for 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and place in a large bowl. Add the raisins and then let cool.
In the meantime, cook the bacon until golden, do not let it go crispy.
Add the bacon and all other ingredients to the bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Mix well to combine and so it starts to clump together, if it's a little dry add some more butter.
Stuff your poultry and roast as usual.



Enjoy!

The Cookbook Challenge Week 3 - Hors D'oeuvres

I find it virtually impossible not to pronounce Hors D'oeuvres as horses doov-rahs. I don't know where this comes from, I am guessing some long forgotten television reference passed down through the generations.

Hors D'oeuvres themselves also seem long forgotten. In the 21st century they are more likely to be referred to as starters or canapes I think. I can't remember the last time I saw the words printed on a menu.
Sticking with this weeks Cookbook Challenge theme, I decided to consult an old-school cookbook to whip an old-school kind of Hor D'oeurves. Suzanne Dixon-Hudson's The Boozy Chef - Recipes for drinkers who love to cook (picked up at the op-shop for the princely sum of $2), brings us Absolutely Stuffed Mushrooms.

I have halved the amounts that were in the book as I found the filling was enough to do about 1kg of mushrooms! The following will fill around 500gms of mushies.

Ingredients

500gms mushrooms, stalks removed (keep them to add to the filling)
1/2 cup grated cheese
125gm cottage cheese (who knew this still existed? You could do ricotta instead for sure)
2 rashers bacon, rinds removed and lightly cooked
1 1/2 celery stalks
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/4 dry white wine (you could omit this, I guess because it's a boozy cookbook there has to be some booze)
1/2 tbs Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 180C degrees.
Combine all the filling ingredients, including the mushroom stalks, in a food processor and whizz to combine.
Fill each mushroom with a tablespoon of filling. The recipe says to bake them for 5 minutes, but this is nowhere near long enough, I would give them 12-15 minutes.


I added some grated cheese on top too, which made them a little oily, but the filling was quite oozy so I think you need something on top to keep it inside the mushrooms.


I wasn't expecting the filling to end up being such a paste. The flavour of the celery really cuts through, but apart from that, there are not super tasty. If I was going to do stuffed mushrooms again, I would probably use my mum's recipe which is just as old-school, but twice as good.
These are a good base for an Hors D'oeuvres though, so I would say go for the 'shrooms as a starter, but come up with something better to stuff them with.

Enjoy!