December 2004 - Hot dogs with fiery onion relish

Oh dear, I am really tired. It was a really big day a work today. So many people that want everything done before Christmas but there is only so much that you can do and some people's expectation are pretty unreasonable. I am also not really sure why people are so desperate to get things done before Christmas, yes we will be closed for a week after Christmas but it is only a week. I could understand if it was a month but seriously, a week. Another thing, I have moved around. I couldn't think of anything worse to do a day or two before Christmas. Oh well, to each their own. 

I think that the last time I looked at this issue I was keen to try the Chicken baked in Limoncello with zucchini 'spaghetti'. It really does look wonderful. However limoncello is so expensive. Although I do have a recipe to make my own but I have never gotten around to making it. There are a few recipes that I would like to try out that have limoncello in them so perhaps I should just bite the bullet and by myself a bottle especially at the moment when zucchini is in season and so nice. 

I was intrigued by Valli's Pineapple wafers with ice cream and chocolate sauce. The wafers include blended pineapple in the batter and once cooked moulded over dariole moulds to form a little basket. This is then filled with a couple of scoops of coconut ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. I would have loved to make this but I had another dessert lined up for the month. Plus since it is the lead up to Christmas there are little nibblies at parties and big meals and desserts still to come so I don't really need to add extra desserts into the mix. 

I ended up making another lunch dish from this issue, Silvana Franco's Hot dogs with fiery onion relish. Serving the hot dogs on pita bread was a really good idea. It is filling but I think they are better for you than the hot dog rolls that you buy in stores. The fiery onion relish that is really the only actual cooking part of the recipe and it is really worth making. It has a nice little kick to it and went nicely with the salsa sausages that I bought from my butcher to use as I couldn't come at the idea of frankfurts. I really enjoy this and it was so quick and easy to do too. 

March 2005 - Vineyard Sausages with grapes

This time of year it is difficult to know what to make from one day to the next as the weather is so changeable. One day it is cool and it is hot meals all-round and then the next it blistering hot again and salads are the order of the day. This can be quite frustrating when planning a menu ahead of time.

There are some wonderful features and recipes in this issue. Jamie Oliver's New York diner food recipes looked pretty good, the Reuben-ish sandwich in particular. I wasn't quite as taken with the Corned beef hash with fried egg that called for canned corned beef. I just cannot bring myself to purchase that stuff, shudder. Valli Little's Last of the Summer Wine feature had some great options, watercress & potato salad, fillet of beef with horseradish cream and roast capsicum. I considered making these as part of a meal however the fillet of beef is very simmer to one that I have already done and I was unable to find any watercress so that ruled out the salad.

I ended up making a recipe from Jill Dupleix's feature Tutti Fruitti where all the recipes used fruit. On first looking through this issue I marked this recipe, Vineyard Sausages with Grapes, as a possible one to make. I had never used grapes in a savoury dish and I was intrigued as to what it would be like. I was impressed with it. The sausages were nice and spicy and the grapes were sweet not too sickly sweet. I served it with some char-grilled parmesan polenta and steamed spinach. It was a good meal and filled me nicely.

Vineyard Sausages with grapes

Ingredients:

• 750g firm, ripe green grapes
• 8 Italian-style coarse pork sausages
• 1tbsp olive oil
• sea salt
• pepper
• 2tbsp flat parsley leaves

Method:

• Prick the sausages.
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the sausages. Pan-fry slowly, turning every couple of minutes, until firm and golden-brown.
  
• Add the grapes, sea salt and pepper. Cook gently for a few minutes.
• Pile the sausages on to a warm serving platter and top with the warmed grapes. Drizzle with any pan juices and scatter with parsley leaves.

February 2006 - Chicken Sausages with Nectarines, Chickpeas and Redcurrant Sauce

The picture of the Easy Paella on the front cover of Issue #46 looks so very enticing. I would have loved to have made it but the recipe was for 4 - 6 servings and from initial appearances it looked a bit difficult to divide up. I would have been possible of course but I would have been left with half a can of this and half a can of that and bits and pieces of a bunch of other stuff. Sometimes it is just better to resign yourself to the fact that it will be easier to make something else so that you are not eating the same thing for a week.

There was a few other recipes that I considered, the Mykonos Fruit Cup caught my eye as basically fruit salad with boozy yoghurt topped with a berry puree. I had picked out another dessert to make from a later magazine. Although with this one full of fruit and yoghurt I did think long and hard about it since it wasn't full of sugar, fat and cream. My next consideration was Creamy Lemon Curd Mousse, this was full of sugar, fat and creme fraiche so it too was discarded. The next option was tomato & sweet pickled pepper salad however I couldn't find any sweet pickled peppers (the available at selected supermarkets apparently doesn't include mine.) I settled on Nancy Duran's Chicken Sausages with Nectarines, Chickpeas and Redcurrant Sauce. This was oh so simple but so very good. I baked the sausages instead of bbqing but I followed the rest of the recipe. The redcurrant sauce was great and I will use the rest of it on some thing else. I did soak and boil my own chickpeas instead of using tinned.

Chicken Sausages with Nectarines, Chickpeas and Redcurrant Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 750 g thin reduced-fat chicken sausages
• 400 g canned chickpeas, rinsed, drained
  
• 3 small nectarines, cut into wedges
• 1 1/2 c. loosely packed cups baby basil leaves
  
• 1 loosely packed cup parsley leaves

Redcurrant sauce

• 1 small eschalot, finely chopped
• 1/3 c (80 ml) red wine vinegar
• 2/3 c (160 ml) chicken stock
  
• 1/4 c redcurrant jam (I used Baxter's Redcurrant Jelly)
  

Method

• Bake sausages in the oven on a rack in a roasting pan at 190 C for 40 minutes or until cooked through then slice into pieces.
  
• For sauce: put eschalot and red wine vinegar into a small saucepan and bring to a boil and simmer until vinegar is almost gone.
  
• Add stock and simmer until reduced by half.
  
• Add jam and stir until melted and boil until reduced and thickened.
  
• Combine chickpeas, nectarines and herbs. Place on plates, top with sliced sausages and drizzle with the sauce.