December 2013 - Crumbed chicken burger with cabbage slaw and coconut mayo

I has been a very long year and I am so very tired at the moment. It seems like there was no slowing down this year. I have a number of goals for the coming new year. The first is to continue on with my swimming and keep losing weight. I also want to start cooking more and eating better than I have the last couple of months. So with the increase in cooking I hope to increase my posting on here. No guarantees but it is certainly something that I am looking to achieve. I do have a heap of stuff that I have cooked over the past few months that I have just never gotten around to posting so I will post those interspersed with new stuff. 

I was a bit let down by this issue. To be honest I didn't really want to make much out of it. The cover recipe does look awesome. There are quite a few steps involved but since this is a December/January issue I will have some time to make all the components. I may get it done for the January posting.

I decided to make the Crumbed whiting burgers with cabbage slaw and coconut mayo. I couldn't get whiting and decided that instead of trying another fish, which I don't really like, I would just do it with chicken. I wasn't super impressed with the mayo. The coconut flavour didn't really seem to come through. It was just a standard egg mayo with coconut cream and toasted desiccated coconut added to it. I think a plain mayo would have been just as good. 

The recipe had the fish done in flour/egg/crumbs and then deep fried. The flour was seasoned with lemon pepper seasoning, I added this to the crumbs. I prefer to coat in natural yoghurt and then crumbs. I find it much better taste wise. Although if deep frying the yoghurt may not work. I shallow fried so it didn't really matter. 

The coleslaw was just cabbage, it was supposed to be red & green but I didn't have any red, carrot and some of the mayo. It was rather boring and as I said before the mayo didn't have any real spark to it.

Overall it was okay but I won't be rushing off to make it again any time soon. 

November 2013 - Tapas

I am not going to post any of the recipes for this tapas "feast" as I didn't really think they were that great. The romesco sauce was nice but I have had better. The patas bravas was good but really how could shallow-fried potatoes with a tomato sauce be bad? This whole thing too me ages to prepare and a lot of multi-tasking while cooking. It also cost quite a bit for all the ingredients and it really wasn't worth it. 

Served was sherry-glazed chorizo and chickpeas, squid with romesco sauce, grilled spring onions with jamon, broad beans and artichokes and patatas bravas. 

Cat

 I have a new cat, gorgeous isn't she?

Ham Glazes

The forums over on Taste.com.au are down at the moment and have been for some time. I know one person looking for one of these glazes so thought that it would be easiest to post them on here. The lovely members over at Taste forums have some fabulous recipes, fingers crossed we can get back on there one day. I will be a bit more diligent about saving after this. I will link both of these recipes back to the sources as soon as it is up and running again. 

 The first recipe is by forum member ParisLady.

PL’s Ham Glaze

Half a cup of brown sugar
Quarter of a cup of brandy (or whatever spirit you have - I used Gentleman Jack bourbon)
Third of a cup of honey
One tablespoon of seeded mustard
One tablespoon of Dijon mustard
Combine all ingredients well
Use a sharp knife to cut (in a zig zag fashion) around the shank of your ham, about 8 -10cm from the end. Run a knife under the rind around edge of ham, easing the rind off but trying to leave as much smooth fat on the ham as possible.
Score the fat in a diamond pattern and baste ham well. I don't use cloves for my ham - after one Christmas when I bit into a full clove with my mouthful of ham and I don't want to repeat the experience. (I don't think it needs the cloves or that they add anything.)
Cook in a 160 degree oven for two hours, basting every 20 minutes.

The second one is from forum member Traveller. 

Traveller’s Ham Glaze

My Christmas ham Glaze is always Coopers Oxford Seville Orange Marmalade* (1 Jar) and (Beauforts) extra strong Dijon mustard (5 generous Tablespoons, or 4 tablespoons of any Dijon Mustard and 1 of Hot English Mustard).
Combine and stir together over low heat until amalgamated, remove the skin of the ham leaving a thin layer of fat and score it in a diamond pattern, spike the interstices with a clove, then generously brush over the marinade; baste by brushing with additional glaze every 15 minutes while you "bake" the ham. 

*Forum member didn't have access to that particular marmalade and just used a regular one. 

To anyone who tries them, enjoy and let me know what they are like or pop on over to the forum when they are back online to let all of us know. 

 

Baked cinnamon ricotta drizzled with honey and berries

This was super easy to make and very tasty. Lovely little morning or afternoon tea dish. The ricotta would also be fabulous for breakfast served on toast. I made half the recipe and I easily got four servings out of it. I have noticed this a lot lately, that the suggested serving sizes are massive. Most of the time I can halve a recipe and still get plenty of food out of it. If it wasn't that bit more difficult I would start quartering recipes but it takes that bit extra work and sometimes when I have taken the time to work it out the end result isn't that great. Some recipes just aren't meant to be made in such small quantities. This one probably wouldn't have been too bad. I find that recipes with eggs are the hardest. 

I would recommend making this one. I really enjoyed it and will make it again.