I made a decision this year to be even more adventurous than I have been in recent times and decided that I was going to try as many new flavours as I can and  to go back and try things that I hadn’t liked in the past. Its been working out well so far, I havn’t tried anything recently that was a new taste but I have revisited a few oldies.

A while back  at school I tried and enjoyed seafood chowder which is something I have never really been a fan of, and actually found that I enjoyed the recipe we made. (you can see the pictures over in the link called food from school)

At the food show that Bruce and I went to a while back  I tried an anchovy stuffed queen olive which I actually enjoyed and I also tried a whitebait fritter ( the little eyes always put me off in the past) I felt it was nice , it just needed a little more taste. Anchovies are something I have been able to cope with if it was in a sauce but always found a bit too salty for my tastes if I were actually to eat one

Today at school we were doing classic salads ,I will post pictures of those in the next day or so

one of the salads that we  did was Caesar Salad , which was just gorgous btw. Normally I would pick the anchovy fillet garnish off and leave that on the side but I made a conscious decision to actually eat the Anchovy.

It was just unfortunate that I happened to grab the Anchovy and a peice of crispy bacon in the same mouthful. I got this tasty mouthful that was just a little bit too salty together but absolutely delicious. And the texture of the Anchovy was a little surprise in that it was salty and soft and unctious on the tongue. For some reason I wasnt expecting that texture thing.

Beware little Anchovies Im coming back for more of your tasty little friends.

600gms standard flour

2 eggs

4 oven roasted tomatoes left to go cold

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a couple grinds of black pepper

Method:

blitz up tomatoes and thyme and season with black pepper

place flour on to bench (or bowl) mix in eggs and tomato mix untill a nice dough is formed

it should be clean against the bench or bowl Knead for about 5-10 mins and let rest in a plastic wrap for at least 30 mins

then reknead for another 5-10 mins roll out hinly and either cut in to strips or in to shapes for filling.

I turned this in to a mushroom and cream cheese ravioli and served it with a bacon and cream reduction sauce

for the ravioli

it was 3 spoonfuls of cream cheese,

1 crushed garlic clove

salt and pepper to season

4 button mushrooms finely chopped

1tbs finely chopped parsely

3 strips of bacon finely chopped

100 mls cream

1 dessertspoon of white wine

Method:

mix mushrooms, cream cheese, garlic, parsely and seasoning together

place in to ravioli shapes , seal edges with water and cook in a pot of boiling salted water for about 4 minutes and then drain.

in a nonstick hot pan fry off chopped bacon add white wine and let reduce slightly , add cream and let reduce down till

thick, add drained pasta to sauce and toss so that pasta is covered in sauce , serve immediatly garnished with chopped parsely

this amount of mix made 1 serving I had plenty of pasta dough left over for other things

We went to a Potluck dinner last night and I provided dessert

this was a lemon lime meringue pie , but when it was sitting on the stove after the meringue was cooked it looked like a giant cupcake .

I also made coffee profiteroles, and tuttifruitti vanilla kisses. I was so pleased with my choux paste it came out absolutly perfect in texture , evenly cooked and beautiful . The kisses were a tutti fruitti cookie with a rich vanilla buttercream in the middle, the flavour combo was really gorgous

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Tomorrow is ANZAC DAY 25 April

Its the day we here in New Zealand and Australia remember our fallen soldiers originally from WW I who fell at Galipoli giving their lives to keep us all free. It now encompasses all soldiers who have given their lives in all the wars that have followed

We will remember them.

I have made some cookies to represent Poppies the symbol of eternal life and the ANZAC flower

they are tutti fruitti flavour with royal icing

ohh my gosh I just adore these fabulous fruit , to the rest of the world they can be known as pineapple guavas to Every single New Zealander they are the humble feijoa. A true sign of Autumn is this fruit, along with passionfruit, tamarillos, persimmons, are gracing our tables right now.

Feijoas grow really prolifically in Auckland ,. You travel around and you can see so many of them lying on the ground just going to waste which is so sad and to see people actually willing to pay for them at $10.00/kg I think is just criminal.

And they have the most delicious slightly floral fragrance and flavour, you can eat them straight out of the skin, orhave them cooked . They make a great marriage with so many other fruits and flavours, especially apples, pears and apricots, and they go lovely with nutmeg and cardamon. These are my most favourite fruit in winter

If ever you get the chance to try them you must ,. I would put it on one of the must dos in your life time

so tonight Matthew its going to be a turn on the oven and heat up the house dinner.

I felt like having chicken but doing something different for dinner tonight , so I had a chicken thigh and drumstick and seasoned it with salt and lemon pepper, sat it on a small bed of curly parsley and added lime juice and fresh pizza thyme and baked it in the oven , at 180 degrees then 20 mins before it was cooked added brown button mushrooms and some whole tomatoes and roasted them off and rounded it off with fresh bread and butter.

I felt like being a bit decadent and have made a vanillary rice pudding with sultanas for later . a rich milky warming comfort dish mmmm yum

My Classmate Sesilia had an end of semester party for our class at her house on friday night and She had been wanting to learn how to make cold cheesecake so I said I would show her how

2/3 of the class are from Asia mainly China and Korea and so their tastebuds are much different from mine and I didnt want to make the cheesecakes too sweet. My freind Qi lin had her birthday during the week and I offered to make her a birthday cake , She said she really liked European style cheese cake , so I offered to make her a green tea cheesecake which she thought was fabulous

I made a Green tea cheesecake and an Apricot Swirl cheesecake

both of which went down very well, I will post the recipes in the recipe section

here are some photos.

Green tea cheesecake recipe 

Ingrediants :

1 packet of store bought biscuits (cookies) I used arnotts malt biscuits

150 grams butter

300 mls regular cream

250 grms mascapone

250 grms cream cheese

3 dessertspoons of powdered green tea

3 dessertspoons of white sugar

Method:

crush up cookies in the food processor

melt butter and mix in with cookies then put in to base of a 8 inch tin pressing firmly in to shape of tin

and bringing up around the sides of the tin

place in to fridge to firm up , at least 15 minutes

While base is firming up, beat cream cheese, sugar and green tea together , set aside

beat cream till thick but still will slide off the spoon slowly

add to cream cheese mix and then fold in the mascapone

pour in to base and cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours

nb: you can add a little more sugar if this not sweet enough for you

when ready to eat take out of dish ( a spring form tin is good for this ) and serve in wedges

We had a family lunch with Bruces family this weekend , great nz favourites such as succulent roast lamb with roasted veges and green peas and gravy , followed up with my dessert

I made lemon and passionfruit mousse and then added it to sweet tart shells and served fresh passionfruit with it, along with a selection of nuts, apples and pears ensuring that everybody got things they all liked

here is the recipe for the lemon passionfruit mousse

300 mls cream

2 egg whites

1/2 cup of sugar

juice and zest of 3 lemons

2 passionfruit

Method:

mix juice, zest, passionfruit pulp all together and set aside.

whip cream till fairly firm

in a clean bowl whip egg whites to soft peaks

fold all ingrediants together and place in fridge to set

serve with extra passionfruit pulp

Its a beautiful very light tangy mousse

Dont go there if you’re vegetarian or have a small appetite. The meals are absolutly huge ,but incredibly tasty. Its definatly a carnivore/manly restaurant with giant size slabs of good looking steak. The Angus is an Auckland institution that has been around forever, which has not long moved from its long term home on the corners of Swanson Street and Albert Street right in the heart of the city to its 8 Fort lane which is off Fort street. Its gone from being a bit squashed and cozy to big and open and roomy in a great old brick building with high ceilings… just gorgous building. The Service was incredible and the food matched. There was a great selection of salads, loved the israeli couscous and the potato salad was plain but excellent.I had a scotch fillet with garlic mmmmmmmmmmmm perfectly cooked and delicious.

You can contact them on (09)3797-815 or by going to their website

www.angussteakhouse.co.nz

We all had to do a stint of at least one day at restaurant service in the training restaurant this week as part of our course module

I was in charge of the patissierie section , over 2 days, and got to teach some things to my helpers that they didnt know as they had never done restaurant service before. I had a blast and really enjoyed it.

On the first day we did a Lemon meringue pie with a raspberry couli and a white chocolate mousse with vanilla tuilles and cinnamon marscapone on the side.(go to the schoolwork link on the blogroll and have a look at the pictures)
The second day we did profiteroles with grande marnier pastry cream and white chocolate and orange ganache with orange blossom jelly and the second dessert we did was a hot pear, apple and ginger steam pudding with a caramel custard and roasted nectarine, here are  the pictures of these last two desserts