Pork Belly

Well been AGES since my last post, since then moved and moved again and now back living in town, but the kitchens not so crap anymore, I wonder if I should change the name of this blog, good food in an average kitchen?

So a quickie for my latest post, excuse the photo, my camera died so I had to use my phone to take these (apparently canon used faulty parts in my model, so hopefully they'll play nice)

Aioli

I think the greatest condiment invention is aioli, so simple to make and alter the flavour and perfect on roast potatoes, french fries well just about anything.
I had an odd experience the other day though, when whisking the oil into the egg yolk it plain out refused to thicken at all, it was quite a humid day, anyone know why this could of happened?

salty coffee....

I came across an interesting post on ideasinfood the other day about adding salt to your coffee beans before you grind them, so I decided to try the experiment using the same beans one lot with salt and one without. All I can say is try it for yourself it makes a huge difference to the flavour (just don't add too much otherwise it will taste salty, just a few granules makes the difference)

Brown Butter & Sage Gnocchi

I thought I'd try my hand at making Gnocchi for the first time. A little research and found a simple recipe, and then decided to add to it.

I got a pan on a medium heat and put a decent lump of butter in there and let it sit, spit and bubble until it had turned a deep hazelnut colour (I can not say enough about brown butter, it's delish great with pasta and the aroma is amazing). Then added a handful of sage leaves and 2 eggs and pureed it.I had about 600 grams of (floury) potatoes peeled and cubed and boiling until nice and soft.

Next time I'll have to remember the post from Ideas in Food and what they did to their potato skins, and the byproduct sounds like fun to play with.

Wrap up

Haven't bought grapefruit for a long time, but I saw a couple with my name on them at the supermarket, very juicy and very tasty.

Sun Sun Sun

Our crazy cat...

lazy....

I've been a little lazy posting on here, and also a bit more kicked out of the kitchen as the better half has taken over. We've had some nice spicy coated chicken drums, a noodle broth with a dose of Thai mint and coriander and at the moment, she's working on an Asian themed meatball/noodle combo.

Pumpkin Curry?!

Well, I don't know if I should call this a curry, it may not be, perhaps I should call it a aromatic spicy pumpkin stew. It's pretty quick and easy to whip together, and is great comfort food.

Apple Shortcake

I don't normally bake sweet things at home (I'll buy them tho). But feeling the need for something sweet...

Apple Shortcake
So so easy to make, preheat oven to 180C

220 grams flour
1 tsp baking powder
125 grams butter (cold and diced)
1 egg
2 Tbsp Milk
1 tsp sugar

Put the flour, sugar, butter and baking powder in a blender or rub in by hand until similar to breadcrumbs.

Mix the egg and a little milk in to the flour mixture to form a dough. Cut in half and roll out each half to the same size. Place one layer down and then place sliced (and cored) apples on top, so they overlap each other a little, sprinkle with sugar (I use brown with some nutmeg and cinnamon), place 2nd layer of dough on top, brush with milk, trim and bake for 25 minutes.

Cut while it's still hot and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Catch-up

Well I've been a little lazy about getting my posts up here, Internet is dreadfully slow at home at the moment, so am "borrowing" works bandwidth. I thought I'd do a little photo essay type thing over a couple of post, so enjoy...