Nine Lives

This week's meal could not have been more perfect. For those who don't know, today is the very last day of summer (and also happens to be Leap Day!) but the weather was anything but summery. It has been bucketing rain all day (all summer, really...there's been far more rain than shine!), there is a distinct chill in the air and a noticeable gloom hanging over the day. So coming home this evening and getting to cook up a lovely, warming and wintery Oozy Mushroom Risotto was a total treat.

It actually feels like winter in here right now. That lovely winter time feeling where you rug up in comfy knitted clothes and the warm lighting inside the house contrasts with the bitter cold greys of outdoors. So a big, warm bowl of risotto, with the rich taste of the Spinach Salad and followed up with the Quick Lemon & Raspberry Cheesecake was basically weather porn for me. Tonight I got to fastforward a few months and land right smack bang in the middle of my favourite season.

I really looked forward to making this week's meal, because all of it seemed so easy and tasty. And it was! Dear Housemate commented on the simplicity of the meal and we discussed the fact that, in terms of technical skill, it was probably the simplest meal so far. If you've made one risotto, you've made them all so cooking the main was a piece of cake for me. Just keep stirring! Due to the large volume of mushrooms involved in the meal I was a little bit concerned that Dear Housemate might not enjoy it. So for that reason I actually chopped up all of the mushrooms that were going into the risotto so that they were nice and small. The taste was perfect and the advantage was that the risotto was easily consumed by a non-mushroom-lover. And she actually liked it! And went back for more!

The salad was a bit of a disaster at first, but I think I managed to save it. For starters, I made the decision to ditch the mint leaves. After much experimentation and use in Jamie's other meals I have come to the conclusion that for me, mint must be reserved for beverages and desserts. I just can't handle the strength of it in my meals and I find it really difficult to enjoy anything it is added to. The salad worked really well without it, but I think the richness of the salad was due partly to the lack of a refreshing ingredient like mint. Then there was the cucumber... I bought a lovely green, firm healthy looking cucumber yesterday and popped it in the crisper overnight for use today. but today when I went to use it... It had basically turned to mush. So the cucumber was left out as well. But hey, the salad worked and it tasted great - not to mention how appropriate it was in the seasonal sense!

The dessert was the true winner here though (or tied for first with the risotto!). I had to leave out the hazelnuts due to an unfortunate allergy situation, but it didn't spoil the dish at all. I picked up some tumblers to serve dessert in from the local dollar shop (set of 6 glasses for $7? Thank you very much!) and that was basically half the presentation done! The only error I made here was that I prepared the dessert earlier in the night and popped them into the fridge to make sure they stayed fresh for when we were ready to eat. Unfortunately I didn't even remember they were in there until just as we were serving up dessert so the base had set and become quite difficult to crack through with a spoon. I think making sure it was out of the fridge ten minutes earlier would have made all the difference. I will definitely remember that for next time! Otherwise it was fresh, light, satisfying and just sweet enough.

So there it is - an awesome wintery meal for an awesome wintery day! The risotto is going on rotation I think. I love a good risotto and this was a really good one! Not too heavy and not too complicated. Meanwhile, the dessert is definitely going to be a dinner party favourite because it looks super impressive and it tastes awesome. Plus I need to get some use out of those tumblers!

Til next time - Bon Appetit!

Eight Legged Freaks

Sorry this one is a little late - had some issues with posting!!

This week’s meal is quite possibly my favourite yet. It ticks all the right boxes – fast, easy, cheap, tasty and satisfying. I can’t get over how much I enjoyed this meal, and it is probably one of the simpler and least impressive of them all. We took on Cheat’s Pizza, 3 Delish Salads and Squashed Cherries with Vanilla Mascarpone Cream. I am a huge fan of all these dishes now and I can tell you right now I will definitely be making this food again!!

This week we had the company of my sister and her boyfriend, both of whom are big fans of good food and good company. Most times when my sister’s boyfriend is invited to a meal you can bet on there being few leftovers, which is one of the reasons we love him so much in our family! But that is no reason not to bring the A-game when cooking for him. So because this week was their first Challenge Night experience, I wanted to make sure it was a good one!

Now it is absolutely no secret that I am a pizza lover. I mean really…. I’ll have it any way it comes. Wood-fired pizza, English muffin pizza, pizza pocket, take-away shop pizza, chain store pizza, homemade pizza…. You name it, I’m on it. But I can honestly say that this is one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. When you weigh up the hidden ingredients and addatives that often come with store-bought pizzas (and not to mention the potential for hygiene issues), homemade pizza is often better for you anyway. But this pizza is so simple and easily put together that it saves you loads of time, as well as giving you the advantage of knowing just what is going into it and allowing a degree of control. You could put as much or as little cheese as you like (I love a cheesy pizza, Dear Housemate not so much), how much spice or flavor, how heavy on the toppings and how thick the base. Basically its winning all round – and who can honestly say they don’t like pizza? Seriously? Who??

The salads were so simple that at first I felt a little bit jipped. I wondered why they weren’t all just thrown in the one bowl together, instead of being three separate salads (Rocket, Tomato and Mozzarella salads, for those wondering). But partway through eating the meal, I realized why they were separate…because as you eat, you get to build the flavours on top of each other. A bit of the Mozzarella with the Tomato tasted really great, a bit of the Rocket with the pizza was divine, a bit of each salad and a bite of pizza together was like heaven on a fork. And the advantage of having them separate to each other is that you could exclude what you weren’t a fan of or avoid a flavor altogether. Dear Housemate’s aversion to cheese meant she could happily avoid the Mozzarella salad but still enjoy the rocket flavours with the other parts of the meal. My love of spice meant that I could load up on the tomato salad and take the bite out with a bit of the cheese. It was good all round, something for everyone!

And dessert – this was again super easy. I don’t think I will ever grow tired of just how super easy these meals are to make. Every week I am still surprised by how little effort is required of me! It was as simple as chilling some cherries, mixing a couple of ingredients in a bowl and then throwing it all together with some biscuits at the last minute. I think the mascarpone cream would work well with just about any fruit or biscuit, so it is a great recipe to have on hand if you decide to throw a last minute dinner party. Its dead easy, it tastes great, its completely versatile and you can just use what you have on hand. Win!

So there were pretty much no leftovers this week, which is awesome. The pizza easily feeds four, but it could also feed two grownups and several little mouths also. It was super cheap, super tasty and super easy to tweak to your own tastes and preferences. This is by far the most versatile meal we have made so far and is officially going on the list as my number one favourite so far!

And that concludes another week! Til next time, Bon Appetit!

Seventh Heaven

And we're back for another week! We did far better this time than we have in previous weeks - the food all came out great, the bill was minimal and it was happy faces all round! We conquered Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca, Crunchy Salad, Garlic Bread and Silky Chocolate Ganache. And to sum it up in a single word - yuuuuuuum!

After last weeks dismal results we were ready for something fresh and new. This week was the perfect remedy for our cooking fatigue. Absolutely everything was located at the supermarket and again the bill came to less than $60. Each week I am more and more surprised by just how much food you can actually get out of such little effort and simple ingredients.

Our special guest this week was a very good friend of ours, who both Dear Housemate and I have known since our wee years at school. And she also happens to be one of the most food-appreciative people that we know, so we felt it was about time that we introduced her to Challange Night and what it's all about. From the sounds of things she enjoyed herself immensely (and has also flipped through the book to pick out her options for the next few weeks). I really am going to have to sort out bookings for these things, I can't keep track of what everyone wants to it. The pictures alone are drawing people in, so props to you Mr Oliver, and your photographer!

The crunchy salad was probably the more interesting component of the meal this week. As someone who openly loathes and despises fennel, I was somewhat surprised at how good the salad tasted. A mixture of raw chopped fennel and radishes mixed with a few seasonings - simple, fresh, crunchy and delicious. I am not familiar with radishes at all. In fact I suspect that this evening may have been my first encounter with them...that or my mother was really good at hiding them in food while I was growing up. So there was a brief moment where I stood in the kitched, bunch of radishes in one hand, scratching my head with the other, trying to figure out whether or not to use the stalks/leaves and if there was any other preparation needed that would be glaringly obvious to anyone else. But I got there in the end! It wasn't much to look at, but it was a nice salad that lifted the dish up and brought in an extra bit of freshness to liven everything up.

The garlic bread was delicious. I also loathe and despise parsley but somehow I think the roasting really takes away the sharpness. I didn't do it exactly to Jamie Oliver's specifications - I bought a white vienna loaf from the supermarket, sliced it 3/4 of the way down in 2cm slices, and basically just slapped all of the garlic, parsley and olive oil on top and smooshed it between the slices. Not as artful or careful as the book's instructions, but it worked! This one is a really simple twist on regular garlic bread, it was super easy and it looked awesome. When that thing comes out of the oven you can't help but swoon over it a little bit. Ahhh....bread.

The pasta was a suprise all it's own - from the photographs in the book you wouldn't expect it to have as much in the sauce as it does. I maintain that Jamie Oliver is the master of sneaking food into other food. You'd never know half of it was there if you didn't read the recipe, but you'd surely notice the difference in taste and texture if it was gone. The pasta is super easy to put together and contains all sorts of things you may not have been expecting - tuna, capers, olives, anchovies... The long and the short of it is that it is tasty and delicious. It doesn't take on a fishy flavour so it isn't overwhelming, but the tomato doesn't become too rich either. Again, there was parsley.... but it seems to work. You don't feel as though you're getting mouthfuls of leaves and I think if I had left it out of the recipe it wouldn't have tasted as great.

And dessert... prepare yourself for this one. It is fairly rich so you don't feel as though you need to stuff yourself full of it. But then again, as soon as you put down the spoon you have the urge to pick it back up again. It is essentially a beautiful, fresh, tangy chocolate sauce that is completely irresistable. The recipe recommends to serve it with some nice bikkies and oranges on the side, so I did just that. I bought some sugared pastry biscuits and served up the ganache in little teacups with the biscuits on the side. I also did up a plate with extra biscuits and orange slices. The three of us sat there for a good half hour or so just casually picking and dipping the biscuits and fruit as we chatted away - it was heavenly.  It was just like sharing a nice coffee after dinner, but far more decadent. Definitely one for the chocolate lovers! I think it would work well with any fruit, really. It could almost be an individual-serve chocolate fondue. This one is a winner!

And that's a wrap for another week! This one really breathed life back into the challenge and I can't wait for next week - Cheat's Pizza, 3 Delish Salads and Squashed Cherries & Vanilla Mascarpone Cream! So until we get to sink our teeth into that one - Bon Appetit!

Six Six Six

This week was another interesting one. There have been a few changes and events in the house this week, not least of them being a new healthy eating plan, a stomach flu and various dramas of the personal life variety. Therefore the leadup to tonight's meal was not as jovial and exciting as it would usually be. But we powered through none the less, and this week we bring you Summer Veg Lasagne, Tuscan Tomato Salad and Quick Mango Frozen Yoghurt in Baby Cornets.

Again this week it was really easy to get hold of all of the ingredients - a big plus! I have to say for the last couple of weeks I have missed the experience of wandering through the delis and fresh food markets to scout out the fancier ingredients, but that being said, it is so awesome to be able to waltz into a supermarket and just grab everything I need in one shop. Dear Housemate was in charge of the shopping this week and as far as I can tell everything was collected from the supermarket. So that's big points for convenience! And extra points for again being around $60 in total for a 6-8 serve meal  (less than $10 a serve!).

As mentioned before, a bout of stomach flu has made things a little difficult this week. Therefore a lot less care was put into preparing the meal than I would ordinarily like. (A lot less eating of it, too, for that matter). And at the same time, the household is in the grips of a brand new healthy eating kick, so it is interesting to pay closer attention to what is actually going into our foods (and into our bodies as a result). For the most part, I would rate the meals pretty highly on the healthy food scale. Yes, they mostly consist of a pasta dish and some of them are a little heavy on the cheese - but the fresh ingredients used far outweigh the less-healthy ones. The dessert servings are always petite, and there is always a gorgeous fresh salad or veg dish to accompany it. So for a brain that is going mad analysing calories and portions and ingredients, I can still say that I would eat most of these meals again, but I would be sure to invite plenty of friends to share with so as to avoid overeating!

So, on to the actual cooking. I made the mango frozen yoghurt first because it was easiest and was only going to be stored in the freezer anyway! We were unable to find frozen mango at the supermarket so compromised by chopping up three fresh mangos last night and chucking them in the freezer overnight. I took them out today and let them thaw just enough to loosen up from the sides of the dish and then whipped up the dessert. It was dead easy, tasted amazing and is actually a lot healthier than most desserts! I will definitely be making this one again - I love mango and it was so fresh and delicious that I can see it being a great after dinner treat or sunny afternoon snack. Our presentation wasn't as good as Jamie's - we opted to have it scooped into a bowl with the cone on the side. I tried to break it up and make it artful and pretty, but honestly, I didn't feel well enough to care too much. Still tasted good though!

The lasagne ended up being... interesting. I think I must have gone wrong with it somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure where. Just put it down to me being under the weather and therefore my cooking skills at a weaker state than usual! It was all going very well for a while, I love how many fresh greens were used (broad beans, shallots, peas, asparagus) and I think that it is probably a lot healthier than your average lasagne. It was looking a bit pale when I pulled it out of the oven, but otherwise okay... Until I tried to serve it up. It was literally soup. Again, I'm not sure where I went wrong. I think it must have been somewhere around the boiling of the sauce (I couldn't look at it for long, it sent my stomach crashing into waves of nausea as it is not a particularly pretty sight!) or maybe it needed longer in the oven.... The taste was okay but sadly I could only get down two mouthfuls before my stomach objected to the cheese and cream. Dad had two servings though, to make up for it!

The salad was probably the best part of this week's meal - it had crunch and tang and was filling without being too heavy. I really can't think of anything about it that I didn't like or would have changed. We had trouble tracking down variety in the tomatoes so we stuck with the basics from the supermarket, but this worked really well anyway. The toasted bits of crusty bread soaked up just enough of the red wine vinegar and olive oil to be softened without going soggy. The whole salad tasted fresh and rich and had a distinct mediterranean flavour - yummm!! (Also highly enjoyable for its ability to get into my stomach without drama or nausea. Winner!)

So that was this week - a bit all over the shop, really. The salad and dessert were great, the lasagne would have been great with a bit more attention, I believe, and all in all the meal was a success. I wish I could have enjoyed it more!

Next week looks absolutely amazing and I can't wait to whip it up! We've basically started taking bookings from people who have flipped through the book and decided what they want to try and what they want to miss. I'm glad that other people are getting as much enjoyment out of our challenge as we are, it really makes all the extra effort worth it.

Til next week, wishing you good food (and good health!!!) - Bon Appetit!

The Fifth Leg

Well here we are, in February already! One month of the challenge done and dusted, and we're launching into the fifth meal already!

After a break last week and a much needed holiday, we were back and ready to get into the swing of things. Jamie Oliver Challenge night has become somewhat of a treat in our household - it is something to look forward to and it brings a bit of excitement into what would otherwise be an utterly average, completely unspectacular and mundane week of nine-to-fives and meat-with-three. (Not that either of those things are bad, afterall we benefit from having a job and nobody would argue the fact that a well-balanced diet is good for you. But you know how it gets....snore!).

This week we tackled Wonky Summer Pasta, Herby Salad and Pear Drop Tartlets - and it was by far the most relaxed week we've had. The ingredients were dead easy to find, we used far fewer dishes than we have in the past and once all of the prep work was done it was just a matter of tossing everything together. I have to wonder if the ease in finding everything is simply because I've come to know the layout of my local grocers and delis like they were my own personal playground, or if the ingredients required this week were just not as exotic or far-out as they have been in recent recipes. Either way, the grocery trip was basically a stress free affair and all up cost about $50.

I have to mention here that I am somewhat impressed with the cost of things. Each week we've spent between $50 and $80 on ingredients and each week we've fed four to five people at the dinner table, and always had leftovers. In the case of the Cauliflower Macaroni, we actually divvied up about twelve decent portions and it would have been dead easy and inexpensive to whip up enough salad to accompany that had we wished to. So easily, in fact, that I used the recipe to feed the starving masses (aka my extended family) with it a couple of weeks ago. So each meal is working out to be less than or equal to about $10 a serve.

Anyway, back to this week's challenge!!

Dear Housemate had her family in attendence this time, which was really nice. They treated us to a holiday with them last week and it was nice to offer a small token of thanks by way of a nice home cooked meal. Any dietician or nutritionist worth their salt will tell you that food should be regarded as fuel for the body, and nothing more, but as a proud half-european I would have to disagree. Food is a way to bring people together, it is a way to nourish and feed not just the body but the soul, and nothing beats the feeling of having a beautiful meal with beautiful people in a beautiful setting. Good quality food is needed for a healthy body and mind, so who says we can't indulge every now and then?

Now I have to say that I loved the salad this week, and I am always a bit dubious when it comes to strong fresh herbs. I must admit that I was a little bit put off by the idea of having a 'herby' salad, but all of the flavours seem to work together and it really beats having a regular garden salad. The salad dressing with this one is super easy (olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice, salt and pepper) but it tastes amazing. I particularly loved watching Dear Housemate's family pick between the leaves in order to figure out of I'd filled the salad with olives, or if they were grapes. (They were grapes, by the way, thus the confusion). It was fairly easy to put together but you would have to be careful what you pair it with - the flavours are quite strong.

The pasta was really fresh and had a lot of kick to it. It is definitely one you would have to eat fresh (as Jamie Points out in the book) and I don't think it would fare too well if it had to be reheated. There is a fairly strong tang of lemon in this one, so if you aren't a fan of citrus then you probably won't enjoy this very much. Chopping up the lasagne sheets to make the pasta itself was a really interesting twist on our fifth pasta meal in a row - the texture is different to regular pasta, it cooks almost instantly and it has a different flavour. I can't say I'd get into doing that every week, but it was nice to shake things up (and to know that if there is a mass pasta shortage at my house, lasagne sheets will suffice!)

And finally, the tartlets. Yum. Like the tarlets that have come before them, these were dead easy to make and they came up amazing. They looked gorgeous and decadent and special, but they took all of five minutes to construct and they come in a serving size small enough to avoid that awful post-dessert unbuttoning of the pants and gentle roll off the side of the chair. They were just sweet enough to satisfy without being sickly, and there were no complaints at the table (no leftovers either!). These are definitely going on the repeat menu, simply because they are easy, well-sized, look really impressive and you could mass produce them in case of crowds.

And that rounds out another week of the challenge!! It is pretty crazy to think that we are only one-tenth of the way into the challenge, because it feels like we've been doing this forever. I am concerned about getting complacent or bored with things, but the more I think about it the more I realise that each week brings about the opportunity to learn something new, to try something different and to step outside of the comfort zone. This was a less exciting week than usual - whether through the lack of exotic ingredients or simply because the actual style of cooking and structure of the meals has settled in with me and is no longer a novelty. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter - what does matter is that I know I'm serving up good, fresh, healthy and quality food to the people that I love, and we get to catch up and try something different.

So until next week (Summer Veg Lasagne, Tuscan Tomato Salad and Quick Mango Frozen Yoghurt in Baby Cornets - YUM!),
Bon Appetit!