March 2014 - Mint & yoghurt ice cream

Okay, so I said that I was going to blog about Jamie Oliver's rhubarb sorbet. I don't know what happened. I did everything just as the recipe but Jamie's was a perfect pink colour and was almost translucent. Even allowing for photo retouching it looked awesome. Well, mine turned into a hideous purple/grey/dark red mass. It was so thick that it didn't really churn and it didn't really taste all that good. I mean if something tastes good, like really good, you can forgive the aesthetics of it but when the taste isn't there well, yes it is just a mass. I have no idea what went wrong. I am rather unhappy about the whole thing as rhubarb is expensive and there are so many other things I could have done with it that I would have loved. 

Anyway, at the same time that I was mixing up the rhubarb sorbet I also did the mix for Debbie Major's Mint & yoghurt ice cream and it was awesome. I basically did the whole thing in the thermomix, which yay me for using it more. I couldn't wait to serve it up so it is still rather soft. I used my cookie scoop to dish it up. It was so refreshing. I had never really thought of using either fresh mint or yoghurt in an ice cream but it was really very good. I have found that after further freezer it that it seems to be a little crumbly it doesn't want to scoop nicely. However, it still tastes wonderful so I am forgive the crumbliness. It still has a lovely mouth feel so I am happy. 

Bake Club - Brownies

This month over on Taste.com.au Bake Club Challenge one of the recipe options is brownies. I was going to a friends place for a bbq one evening so I decided that I would whip up the brownies to take with me. Due to the number of people I made a double batch. It worked really well although too quite a while to cook and wasn't as done as I would have liked in the middle but still pretty good. Everyone at the bbq thought that they were pretty good. I did have some leftover but slowly ate them without taking a photo so, unfortunately, I just had to make them again. lol 

The second time I made them I used my individual brownie pan which is awesome as you get that lovely brownie edge the whole way around. These are wonderful dense, rich and fudgy brownies and destined to be my new favourite brownie recipe. As long as you use a good quality chocolate they are just perfect. I served them with some frozen raspberries that I had thawed and mashed with a little caster sugar and some double cream. 

March 2014 - Lamb & Mint meatball tagine with chermoula

The last couple of issues I have struggled to find something that I have really wanted to make from the issues. Initially I wondered if it was because of changes with delicious magazine however I realised it was more about my apathy for cooking. I have mainly been doing sustenance cooking, mainly pretty boring food that keeps me going. There has also been quite a bit of snackish meals and take away. All in all I had lost my desire to cook. Not surprisingly it has happened at a time when I am quite anxious and stressed in life. The stress and anxiety are still hanging around but I decided that I need to start doing the good things that will make it all easier, eat/sleep/exercise. So, I have been swimming again over the past week. I finally cooked a good meal tonight. Sleep...well... it is usually my downfall but I am trying. 

When looking at this delicious magazine I decided to focus exactly on what was in it. To focus on stuff that is full of flavour and colour or something a bit different. A number of recipes really caught my eye. The first is Jamie Oliver's Rhurbarb sorbet with pistachio brittle. It is just such an unusual combination. I have the mix for the sorbet chilling in the fridge to be churned tomorrow. I am not going to make the brittle. I really hate making toffee things I always burn myself with the bloody stuff. Plus pistachios are insanely expensive. 

I am also really keen on making the Pork belly with caramelised pears and pickled kohlrabi. Now when I first saw this recipe I thought that it would be awesome to make but didn't think that I had any chance of getting kohlrabi here so had pretty much decided that I wouldn't get to make that one. However I walked into the supermarket the other day and there was some kohlrabi and I grabbed on and will make this one on the weekend. 

I decided to start with making the Lamb & mint meatball tagine with chermoula. It was very easy and so very good. It was such a complex meld of flavours but it was just balanced perfectly. I did manage to cook the meatballs a bit long as I didn't get the rice on soon enough but there was enough sauce that it didn't matter. My lamb mince was very lean so I think that they may have been a little dry from that as well. I used my thermomix to make the chermoula. I really haven't been using it very much. Perhaps getting back into cooking can also mean starting to use my thermomix more. I am finding myself forgetting just how easily it can do things and that it is easy to clean. So time to start doing more with it.