Thursday February 16, 2012

Dinner for 4

Bacon Wrapped Pork with Jezebel Sauce

Stir Fried Asparagus, Broccoli, Sugar Snap Peas and Capsicum

Smashed Potatoes

Berries with Cheesecake Cream

So it is not technically a Friday night dinner but my parents are in town this week visiting and I am going out of town Friday so I moved dinner to Thursday this week.  It was a little simpler as it was not the big late night festivities we usually have.  Kids have school and adults have work the next day.  I made the bacon wrapped pork with jezebel sauce again.  It is pretty simple to do and very tasty.  This time I pared it with some brighter sides.  The veggies are just stir fried with a little minced garlic in a hot wok with a little sesame oil.  I add just a splash of soy and lemon juice just as they about to come off the heat to season them and brighten the flavours.  The smashed potatoes are pretty simple too.  Just boil some small potatoes until tender.  Place on a lightly oiled  baking sheet and press.  I use a drinking glass.  Drizzle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (You can also add rosemary, thyme or garlic depending on what you plan to serve them along side)  Bake in 210C oven until crispy, about 25 minutes. 

Dessert was the berries with cheesecake cream again, but it is the first time I have served it to my parents.

Sources for the menu: Bacon Wrapped Pork with Jezebel Sauce was adapted from a Cuisine for Two magazine , Stir Fried Vegetables & Smashed Potatoes are both made without following any recipe and Berries and Cheesecake Cream is a recipe by Matt Tebbutt  that I found in the Jamie Magazine 2011/12 Yearbook.

Tuesday February 14, 2012

Dinner for 4

Heart Shaped Cheese Pizza

Yes I am that mum.  My valentine was out of town today so no romantic dinner for two at home instead it was home made heart shaped pizza for myself and my three children.

  

The kids loved it.  Pizza dough made with my bread maker topped with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese.  

 

Friday February 10, 2012

Dinner for 2

Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Nuoc Cham

Pho Bo (Beef and Noodle Soup)

Went for Vietnamese this week.  Only myself and my Husband tonight so I kept it simple. A starter and main course no dessert or extras.  Shared some Spring Rolls with our son.

Like any spring roll these ones take some time to make but I am getting pretty good at rolling and folding items of this type and can do it in a timely manner.  The sauce that went with the spring rolls was very tasty.  I love homemade dipping sauces, they always have a crisper, fresher taste profile.  I did find my spring rolls didn't come out as crisp as I would have liked.  Perhaps my oil wasn't hot enough.  

I have never had Pho so I am not exactly sure how it is suppose to taste authentically.  The recipe I used called for making your own beef broth.  I used store bought and added the spices and cooked it down for a while but I found it was lacking some body and depth.  I think the next time I will try to make my own broth or jazz up the store bought even more.  The meat was beautiful, so tender.  Definitely going to try this again.

Sources for the menu: Spring rolls and sauce Good Taste Magazine (from Australia) and Good Taste Magazine   Pho Bo Good Taste Magazine as well.

Friday February 3, 2012

Dinner for 6

Deep Fried Spring Roll
Pad Thai

 Thai Beef Salad
 Kao Mok Gai (Chicken Braised in Rice with Turmeric & Spices) Served with Sweet Chilli Sauce
Wine Poached Pears with Yoghurt and Berries and Vanilla-Cinnamon Sauce

Thai food again.  I loved the deep fried spring rolls so much I just had to make them again and share them with others.  This time I had all the ingredients.  I didn't get a picture of them before they were gobbled up by the guest though.

I served three main dishes. Pad Thai.  This is a really easy recipe and was quite tasty.

Thai beef salad.  The beef may seem a little rare to some but it is the way we like it.  I use this recipe often but I used a little less beef and more salad than called for this time.  It is from a meal plan that is heavy on protein and I find it a little much when serving it along side other dishes.   

Chicken braised in rice with turmeric and spices needed a little tweaking.  I couldn't find Cassia bark so I used Cinnamon stick instead and I decided to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of the legs and thighs cut into pieces it called for.  The chicken tasted delicious but unfortunately some of the rice was still hard.  It needed more liquid than was called for.  Not that I could have fit any more in my pan.  This dish was to big for my biggest fry pan.  

This dessert is another of my favourites.  I have made these a few times. The recipe is for two but it is easy to alter for more. I love the combination of yoghurt, berries and almonds with the poached pears and sauce.  Plus it is easy, not to filling, rich or sweet and looks fancy. 

Sources for the menu: Deep Fried Spring Rolls and Pad Thai are from Simply Thai Cooking . Thai Beef Salad is from The CSIRO Total Well Being Diet  by Dr. Manny Noakes & Dr. Peter Clifton. The Kao Mok Gai is out if a beautiful cookbook full of fantastic pictures and authentic recipes called Thai Street Food by David Thompson.  It is like a coffee table book filled with great recipes.  The Wine Poached Pears is out of Cuisine Tonight For Two  (the actual one in the photo with the 101 new recipes).

Friday January 27, 2012

Dinner for 2

Handmade Deep Fried Spring Rolls
Thai Spicy Noodles
Berries with Cheesecake Cream 

The key to making Thai food, as with most Asian cuisine, is preparation.  If you have everything chopped and measured then when it comes time to cook you can rapidly add things.  Some ingredients for the filling of the spring rolls was to be added while cooking only 30 seconds after the last. 

I loved the filling in these spring rolls.  I actually could have ate it on it's own.  I used egg roll wrappers, mostly because I couldn't find spring roll wrappers, but I also like egg roll wrappers.  I also left out the optional dried black fungus.  It isn't that I don't like it it is just that I didn't have any in the pantry.  I might have had my oil a touch too hot so they got a little darker than I would have liked.  Please excuse the paper towel in the photo, I was just felt they would become soggy while sitting if I left them on the plate.

The Thai Spicy Noodle dish was very tasty but a bit of a disaster.  My noodles were over cooked (I didn't pay attention to the time) so they became a big blob.  We ended up leaving them on the serving plate and eating everything else.

Both of the sauces were also made from scratch.

Desert was the Berries with Cheesecake Cream again.  This has become a favourite in our house hold.

  

Sources for the menu: The starter, main and sauces were all out of Simply Thai Cooking by Wandee Young and Byron Ayanoglu (I have the Third Edition) and the Berries and Cheesecake Cream is a recipe by Matt Tebbutt  that I found in the Jamie Magazine 2011/12 Yearbook.

Friday January 20, 2012

Dinner for 2

Clam Fideos with Kielbasa & Smoked Paprika
Spinach-Fennel Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

This is the second dinner I made for my blog and I totally forgot to take a picture.  It looked fantastic too, trust me.  This was my first time cooking clams.  I have prepared a lot of oysters and I have cooked mussels once but never clams.  I substituted the fideos pasta with a short thin pasta (like cut angel hair) I found at the grocery store.  It must be significantly thinner because the first time I went to toast it before cooking it burn completely.  Good thing I had a whole bag.  I adjusted the time of toasting and it worked out nicely.  I also substituted kielbasa for the linguica as I couldn't find it anywhere.  It was a lovely rustic one pan dish.  

The spinach-fennel salad was a wonderful fresh side to this dish.  I also served it with some fresh thick bread.  

Dessert tonight was a bakery bought chocolate cake that we shared with the kids as it was just the two of us for dinner this week.

Sources for the menu:  This one was again out of my Cuisine Tonight for Two Magazine.

Friday January 13, 2012

Dinner for 4

Balsamic Mushrooms with Goat Cheese Toasts
Bacon Wrapped Pork with Jezebel Sauce
Pan-Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Brown Butter Mashed Celery Root
Berries with Cheesecake Cream

As this was my first Friday night dinner blog I am sorry I forgot to take a photo of the starter.  They were tasty and easy to make.
 

The dinner was very tasty but the first thing I noticed when I looked at the photos for this blog was how bland the plate looked.  For the sake of the photo I should have had some more Brussel Sprouts green side up and for the sake of the plate maybe I should have done Sweet Potato Mash instead of the Celery Root Mash for more colour.  Jezebel sauce is easy and has become a new favourite with roast pork at my house.  Everything was fairly straight forward and all came together nicely.

The Berries and Cheesecake Cream has also become a new favourite easy dessert.  I am not a big fan of fussy many stepped deserts.  I served it with a Chocolate Marshmallow from Bobbette & Belle Artisanal Pastries in Toronto  and a Shortbread Cookie.

Sources for the menu:  Balsamic Mushrooms with Goat Cheese toast was adapted from a recipe from Iain Hewitson, Huey's Bloody Good Recipes , Bacon Wrapped Pork with Jezebel Sauce and Pan-Roasted Brussel Sprouts was adapted from a Cuisine for Two magazine (I love these magazines for proper portion sizes when cooking for 2.  I doubled the recipe in this case to serve 4), Brown Butter Mashed Celery Root is from Micheal Smith's cookbook The Best of Chef at Home,and Berries and Cheesecake cream is a recipe by Matt Tebbutt  that I found in the Jamie Magazine 2011/12 Yearbook.