33 and 1/3

Welcome back for another week! We had the pleasure of creating Asian-Style Salmon, Noodle Broth, Beansprout Salad and Lychee Dessert for this week's meal. We're cruising steadly towards the end of the fish dishes now, with beef just around the corner. Only one more fish meal to go! This week's dinner was delicious but subtle, the flavours weren't too overpowering or offensive and it made for a really filling, warm winter dish.

The fish was beyond simple to make - disappointingly simple, really! I love to try a bit of new technique or skill when we're preparing these meals, so I was a little bit miffed that the star of the meal was the easiest part to make! That is, aside from having to carefully remove all of the fish bones so nobody ended up with a pierced cheek - I don't understand why a fish market wouldn't do this? Its just common courtesy! Anyway, once the bones are removed, you blend up a yummy seasoning/slush to go in the bottom of the roasting tray, then throw the fish on top of it and send it to the oven! And then that is it! You just leave it in there to cook, no prodding or poking required. No fancy chopping of anything or delicately dressing something. Nothing! It is too easy if you ask me... I keep checking the book just to be sure I didn't miss a crucial step. But on the upside, it was really delicious, really fresh and plenty filling - nothing like an enormous salmon steak to bring you up to your protein quota!

The noodle broth was yummy, and probably my favourite part of the meal. It was another one of those "throw it in the pot and leave it alone" dishes, which left the overly keen budding chef in me a bit put out. I know the whole idea of 30 Minute Meals is that the food is fresh, fast and simple to make, so that anyone with any level of skill can create a brilliant meal. Sometimes I just wish they were a little more complex so I could have a bit more of a challenge and really test my ability. Maybe I'll have to graduate to the next cookbook (Jamie's Great Britain?).  But I digress. The broth was delicious, though  ours turned out far less brothy than I had hoped. The noodles absorbed almost all of the liquid, so ours doesn't quite look like the pictures in the book (but when does it ever?). Getting the balance of flavours right was a bit of a struggle - we didn't want to go too far into the salty or sweet or spicy realms, but it was really difficult to get the perfect amount of soy sauce and chilli and stock in there too! We made it in the end and it came up rather nice, though I think we might have benefited from a splash more soy sauce. So if you make this one, don't be shy on the Kikkoman! 

The salad was simple as well - a bit of a strange mix of flavours from the outset. Coriander meets mango meets chilli meets bean sprouts meets soy sauce....and a few other bits and pieces tossed in there as well. It was strange, and if I'm being honest I wasn't that big of a fan. I don't really dig bean sprouts as it is and this salad didn't do anything for me. If you're keen on the bean sprouts, give it a go but otherwise I didn't think it was worth it.

And finally, dessert. I think I might have been the only person at the table who actually liked it, but I thought it was really nice. There is a cool mix up of flavours and textures, between the ice cream, the berries, the lychees and the sesame snaps. It all somehow works really well and was a really light, refreshing, different take on dessert. And as with everything else on the menu for the night, it was dead easy to make. It was as simple as constructing it at the table! 

So there it is - another easy, breezy week. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much about the meals being simple, or I'll be surprised by a nightmarishly difficult one somewhere down the track and all anyone will say is "be careful what you wish for!". Next week is the final fishy dish - Crispy Salmon, Jazzed up Rice, Baby Courgette Salad, Gorgeous Guacamole and Berry Spritzer, Can't wait! 

Til next time - Bon Appetit!

A Balmy 32 Degrees in Paradise

Week 32 has come on quite quickly after a late-week session of week 31. Tonight we had the pleasure of cooking and devouring Sea Bass & Crispy Pancetta, Sweet Potato Mash, Asian Greens, 1-Minute Berry Ice Cream and Sparkling Lemon Ginger Drink. No complaints about this meal, in fact I even managed to tolerate a small amount of coriander (cue the shock and horror!!). Here’s how we did it…

The fish was interesting from the start. Sea Bass isn’t as readily available here in the southern hemisphere as I assume it to be in the north, so I substituted it with a bit of barramundi. I suggested to the fish monger that this might be the best possible trade-off and after staring at me blankly for a moment he shrugged and offered me a non-committal “um…yeah” and went about picking out fillets for me. Naturally I was filled with confidence at my selection.  But as it turns out, I was right and it tasted delicious. That’s one point to Head Chef!

After getting the fillets home we had a variety of adventures in cooking them, including the skin crisping up so deliciously that it decided to become a single entity with the pan. Not ideal, but a bit of scraping with a spatula sorted that out. Then came the smoke, pouring out of the fish which clearly objected to being gently separated from the pan. But hey, by the end of it we had lovely fish, with fantastic flavour and some yummy pancetta to go with it!

The sweet potato mash was deliciously easy to make, as we were once again amazed by Mr Oliver’s microwave tricks. Just throw sweet potato into a dish with some lime, wrap it up tight in cling wrap and let the microwave do its thing! Super simple, and when you mixed it on a board dressed with coriander, mango chutney, chilli and a couple of other bits and pieces you get a really fresh, zesty, yummy mash to compliment your fish. Delish!

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of greens, and in particular dressed greens. So I think I’ll just scoot right over that dish this week (it was yum, until you cook it yourself that is all you need to know!) and settle right into dessert. When the book says it is 1 Minute ice cream, that is not a joke. You throw all the ingredients into a food processer, whizz it, then serve. Dead easy, super light and tasty, and to top it off it is pretty much the best homemade ice cream I have ever had. So if that isn’t incentive enough to give this recipe a go, I don’t know what will be!

Next week I’m going to have my mind blown (well, I hope I will) by Asian-Style Salmon, Noodle Broth, Beansprout Salad and Lychee Dessert! And to make things extra special, the meal will be held in honour of Dear Housemate’s birthday. So I think next week, the magical number 33, will be one to look forward to!

Until then – Bon Appetit!

...all the rest have 31.

Week 31 was a really awesome adventure for us, as we took on Bloody Mary Mussels, Herby Salad and Gorgeous Rhubarb Millefeuille. For the record, I don't even know how to pronounce the name of the dessert, but luckily for me you don't have to be able to say it to eat it. It was delicious, by the way. This was a pretty chilled out meal, aside from a bit of prep work (lots of chopping and mixing!) the actual cooking process is a breeze.

The mussels were awesome. Having had little experience with how to cook them and what to pair them with I wasn't sure how they would go, and I've never prepared/consumed a Bloody Mary either so I wasn't sure if I had the flavour balance right. Its a fairly simple process, you just whip up the cocktail and then add it to a hot pan full of fresh mussels. Easy! And they worked out to be totally delicious too. The smell of it bubbling away on the stove is enough to drive you mad, it smells lovely and you can't wait to hook into it. Definitely worth the torturous wait! This dish has even managed to convert Dear Housemate to the mussel-eating side.

The herby salad is really fresh and fairly simple. Mr Oliver wasn't joking when he said herby. The herbs probably make up about 1/3 of the final salad, with just a little bit of tomato, celery and rocket to break it up. It is suprisingly tasty and really fresh and light, I can see this one working really nicely for a summer bbq or just as a quick side salad with a difference. Along with the salad we also had some bread, warmed up nicely in the oven, and our guests provided a nice drop of wine.

Dessert was the real treat this week. I can't recall ever cooking with or eating rhubarb so I was really pleasantly surprised by how the dish worked out. It was almost too easy to make. You really just cook a bit of puff pastry, drop some stewed rhubarb onto it (cooked down with some sugar, vanilla and a bit of orange) and pour over some vanilla custard and crème frache. Dead easy, looks really cool and tastes awesome! It is quite a thin dessert in terms of its actual presentation, so I think this one would be awesome if it was served stacked up on itself, if you had the time and a decent sized cookie cutter or egg ring to set to work on it. It isn't overly sweet, but is the perfect little treat at the end of the meal. I'll make this one again, it is super simple and could easily look so impressive. And there were no complaints at the table!

So there you go. I really enjoyed this week, there were a few elements I hadn't had the chance to try before and aside from a bit of prep work the actual construction and cooking of the meal was dead easy. And there wasn't a single uneaten mussel left at the end of the meal, which is always a good sign! Next week (this week, really) we're having Sea Bass & Crispy Pancetta, Sweet Potato Mash, Asian Greens, 1-Minute Berry Ice Cream,and Sparkling Lemon Ginger Drink. Sounds yummy, I can't wait!

Til then - Bon Appetit!

30 is the new 20

Welcome to round thirty of The Grove Cook-Off 2012! This week we had the great delight of making Fish Tray-Bake, Jersey Royals, Salsa Verde, Simple Spinach Salad and Cheat's Banoffee Pie! Three words to sum up this week's meal - Yum. Yummier. Yummiest!! This one is shooting straight up the list to be a contender as one of the favourites from the cookbook. It was fresh, it was satisfying, it was super tasty and it was definitely worth the effort! So here is how this week played out...

Let's start with the fish. Dead easy to get a hold of the key ingredients at the fish market (if your local fish market doesn't have fresh salmon or fresh prawns, you seriously need to reconsider your patronage there), and thanks to the way our local market is set up the deli and the green grocers are right next door! It looks like there is a lot of stuff crammed into the roasting tray, and indeed my creation did have to fit in a bit more snugly than Mr Oliver's super-sized roasting tray, but it just makes the fish taste that much better when it is ready. Super simple deal with this dish - you take all the ingredients and you throw them in a roasting tray, toss them about a bit and then arrange them as neatly as you can so it will cook evenly, then throw it in the oven and wait, while your kitchen fills with delicious aromas and sends you just a little bit crazy with hunger and anticipation. Its that easy!

The jersey royals and the simple spinach salad were both parked comfortably in the 'ridiculously simple' camp, taking very little effort to put together but getting the maximum effect! The jersey royals really only took a couple of simple steps - boil the potatoes, drain them, dress them, eat them! I'm a bit of a potato fan and I always love coming across fresh new ideas for serving them up (you can get a little tired of plain old mash after a while!), so this one was great. A combination of fresh mint and lemon just made them a bit zingier and fresher than the usual and was the perfect addition to the table for this meal. And the spinach salad was just as easy - you make up a quick dressing in the bowl, throw on the leaves, give them a quick stir about and you're ready to go!

The salsa verde was completely awesome and if you haven't had the chance to make some up before I recommend you start doing it now! You really only have to throw a bunch of stuff into a blender (mint, parsley, anchovies, garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil and a couple of other bits and pieces) and after a quick spin its ready to be served up. This one in particular tastes fantastic smeared over the potatoes, paired with the salad or even scraped over the fish. It is pretty potent on its own but somehow it just draws out all of the awesome flavours from the other parts of the meal. I highly recommend this one! It isn't much to look at, but woah does it taste good!

And finally, the banoffee pie. The combination of banana and coffee (i.e. banoffee) is an interesting one, but somehow it works. Again this one is fairly easy to put together, but you have to be really careful when you're preparing the caramel portion of the pie - if you're not careful you could end up with a nasty burn, or even worse, you could burn the caramel!! You really need to pay your full attention to the first few steps of making the pie, so if you're not attempting a 30 Minute Time Trial I would suggest getting the pie out of the way before you try to take on the rest of the recipe, just to avoid any mishaps or injuries. But as it happens, mine turned out pretty good!

So there you go, another fabulous week at The Grove and another set of very full, very happy tummies. Next week we're having another crack at mussels (a few weeks of seafood dishes are left yet, but beef is on the way soon!), this time taking on Bloody Mary Mussels, Herby Salad and Gorgeous Rhubarb Millefeuille. Looks delicious, can't wait to give it a try!

Til next time - Bon Appetit!