Pronto - Marcella Hazan's Minestrone alla Romagnola

Pronto - Marcella Hazan's Minestrone alla Romagnola

14 May 2011

It's suddenly become very cold in Sydney and as the temperature drops the need for warm and hearty food rises. What could be more warming than a steaming bowl of soup?

Cavolo nero started appearing in my fruit shop a few weeks ago so I bought a bunch to use in a minestrone. I turned to an old favourite cookbook, the Australian Women's Weekly Italian Cooking Class cookbook for my minestrone recipe, which on closer inspection appears to be much the same as Marcella Hazan's recipe for Minestrone alla Romagnola without the parmesan rind. I bought a slab of parmesan on Saturday so I cut off the rind and put it into the soup.

I enjoyed the soup so much, I made another batch the other night, this time using barley instead of the white beans. It was equally delicious.

I also spent part of the weekend working on some new blog lay-outs with bigger images. What do you think?

Sorry for the delay in posting but blogger has been a bit ornery all this week. Happy weekend to you all,

Jillian

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amsterdam

amsterdam

11 May 2011

I'm pretty excited because it's just 5 weeks now until I fly to Amsterdam to attend a conference followed by a holiday in Europe. I'll be in Amsterdam for 6 days then I'll be spending time in Edinburgh, London, Paris and Berlin as well as 10 days in Croatia. Last year some of my very kind readers offered suggestions for things to see and do when I was in Helsinki and I'd love it if you could help me again. This week, let's start with Amsterdam.



Although I've been to Amsterdam before, it was many years ago and in the midst of winter. I do have Pia's book to guide me but if you have any ideas for some summery things to do and suggestions for places to eat I'd love to hear them and no, to my great shame I do not know how to ride a bike. Please email me with your suggestions or if you prefer, you can post a comment in the comments section.

Next week I'll be asking for up to the minute suggestions for both Edinburgh and London so please put on your thinking caps for me. 

P.S There is a full brownie post on the blog that some of my Google readers would have missed.

See you all again on Friday,

Jillian

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passover chocolate mint brownies

passover chocolate mint brownies

8 May 2011

I was living in Canada when I made brownies for the first time. I was invited to a bbq and made the brownies from a recipe I'd brought with me from Australia. I'd never even tasted one before but I must have made a squillion since then. I've been using and adapting the same recipe for years now and I think it's just about perfect. 

I decided to try adapting the recipe so I could use it during Passover. I wasn't quite sure the best way to substitute the flour though. Those of you that have done Passover baking know that superfine matzo meal is much more absorbent than regular flour and I was a bit worried the brownies would be a disaster. The first batch I made were chocolate raspberry brownies and I used superfine matzo meal.

If you look really carefully you can see how grainy the mixture looks.

I covered the bottom layer of brownie mixture with a punnet of raspberries and the mixture was so thick it was impossible to spread it over the raspberries. I did the best I could, put the brownies in the oven and kept my fingers crossed.

I took them into work and they were a roaring success. I took 2 home with me to try. Firstly, they were very squidgy which is what you want in a brownie but the combination of chocolate and raspberries made them taste quite sinful.

I needed to take something with me when I visited Farmer Andrew during the Anzac Day/Easter weekend so inspired by this post I decided to make a batch of mint brownies. Just reading the quantity of sugar in the recipe made me lapse into a diabetic coma, so I hunted down a more suitable recipe for chocolate mint brownies. I was taking a quick look at smitten kitchen and one of Deb's readers (comment 66) mentioned using half potato flour/half superfine matzo meal as a flour substitute, so that's what I did.



Now growing up I always loved the combination of chocolate and mint so I was eager to taste these.



The chocolate mints you get here in Australia are much smaller than specified in the recipe, so they melted during the cooking process.

How did they taste - incredible! There is just a subtle taste of mint and as you can't see the mint inside, every-one asks how you get them to taste that way. I may have unlocked the secret of perfect brownies - just make them with superfine matzo meal and potato flour. Who knew?



I hope you enjoyed the mega brownie post. See you all again on Wednesday.

P.S A belated Happy Mother's Day every-one. 

Jillian

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pronto - stuffed tomatoes

pronto - stuffed tomatoes

6 May 2011

Have you heard of Manu Feildel, the French chef and co-star of My Kitchen Rules? He released his first cookbook this year, Manu's French Table, featuring the food served at his mother's table. I don't have the book but I found this recipe for stuffed tomatoes in the March 2011 issue of the Australian Women's Weekly.

Looking through the ingredients I knew it would be pretty easy to adapt the recipe for Passover. I soaked some coarse matzo meal in water and used it instead of the breadcrumbs and of course used minced beef instead of pork.

The tomatoes were delicious served hot with mashed potatoes and a side of greens for dinner and probably tasted even better the next day heated up and served with salad for lunch.

The weather has become a bit brisk the last day or two, so I'm planning a weekend of comfort food. I've just bought a few vine ripened tomatoes and I know I have some mince in the freezer, so it might be time to whip up another batch this coming weekend.

Many thanks to Holly of decor8 for featuring my photos of david met nicole and mud australia on her blog this week.

Have a great weekend,

Jillian

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six degrees of pia jane

six degrees of pia jane

4 May 2011

Do you know the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Well I think I may have discovered my own version at Ariel Books on Friday night at the launch of Pia Jane Bijkerk's book, My Heart Wanders.

It was the evening of the Royal Wedding and it was an awfully wet night but undaunted, quite a throng gathered for some bubbles and a chance to meet Pia.

The lovely Pia.



Quite a queue formed for Pia to sign copies of her book, My Heart Wanders.



Champagne flowed and goodies were served by 2 charming French boys.

Once the speeches were over we left Ariel for some dinner at our favourite fish cafe, seacow. We recognised 2 of the ladies who'd been at the book launch and stopped for a chat. This is where I discovered the 6 degrees of Pia Jane Bijkerk.

I discovered Pia's blog about 18 months ago. She showed photos of Kylie Johnson's ceramics on her blog and I purchased some items online. When I learned Kylie was soming to Sydney Finders Keepers last year, I decided to visit. Kyle was a delight and when I asked if I could take photos of Paperboat Press, she agreed. From those photos I was asked to photograph Sydney Finders Keepers summer markets, where I photographed the elkhorn store run by Monique and her mother. How funny that I should connect with them through Pia?

Congratulations to Pia on the launch of her book. If Friday night was anything to go by, the book should be a raging success.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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blackberry macaroon tarts

blackberry macaroon tarts

2 May 2011

I did so much baking for Passover and haven't had the chance to share any of it, so that's what I'll be posting for the next few weeks. I found this Heidi Swanson recipe a few weeks ago and thought it would be perfect for Passover without the crust - the first of many mistakes I made.

For those of you who do bake, you'll notice there's often a glossary of terms in cookbooks translating words or substituting ingredients. I stumbled on the concept of unsweetened finely shredded coconut. In Australia shredded coconut means long strands of coconut, which is what I used. I think they meant to use what we'd call desiccated coconut.

There wasn't enough coconut to hold the tart together so when I tried to take it out of the tin, it crumbled into a gazillion pieces. No matter, I just ate it from the tin with a spoon like a dessert.

Would I make it again? Maybe but I think it's more of a slice than a tart, so I'd bake it in a different tin, because it needs baking paper to prevent the macaroon filling from sticking. Or I could make it into a proper tart using a sweet shortcrust pastry with the blackberry macaroon filling. Any thoughts on which version I should make?

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. Apart from a much needed haircut I did a bit of shopping as I have no winter clothes to speak of. I didn't come home with much but I'm very pleased with a cute pair of Midas black granny boots I purchased. I can tell I won't take them off all winter.

I'll be back Wednesday with some photos from the Sydney launch of My Heart Wanders, so until then,

Jillian

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