Blondie's Recipes | Finding Feasts

Warm Sticky Date Puddings w/ Butterscotch Sauce

Finding Feasts - Sticky Date Pudding_ (1) — Click image for recipe

A lesson learned… Please don’t try this at home!

It’s amazing how things can change from normal to absolute dire panic in a split second. This is what happened to me two weeks ago… Happily preparing spaghetti at about 6:30pm on a Sunday evening, I dropped a pot of boiling water on the floor. I had a loose top on, the saucepan’s handle was sticking out and the pot must have been off balance on the stove top. As I threw in some pasta, I spun around to get some more and that was it… That was the moment. That was exactly when Sunday night took a turn for the worse.

Frantic calls to the hospital, to my sister (a nurse) and to Bella (to take Seb who was in shock not quite knowing what was going on) and I was whisked away with feet and hands in a large bucket of water to the hospital, husband in tow. To say the pain was extraordinary is an understatement, it was just insane… several of doses of morphine was needed to get through that night!

Anyway, with mid to deep level burns (they no longer grade a burn in degrees) on my foot and burns to my knee and hand, I was told not to be on my feet for more than 15 minutes at a time. Cooking was left to hubby, which fortunately didn’t require much more than reheating as I had made 3 kg of spaghetti sauce and a big batch of Thai green curry paste the weekend prior. All sitting in the freezer, and unbeknownst to me at the time, ready for the two weeks off my feet… almost too funny how things work out.

So, now I’m getting back into the swing of things I wanted to cook something soul warming, something that will soothe and sate the cooking void I had just been in, and what’s better than a traditional Warm Stick Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce.

Please take care in the kitchen, an accident is really only a micro second away.

Blondie 🙂

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Coq au Chardonnay

Coq au Chardonnay… Autumn is officially here and with the change of season comes a change in cooking. Long, slow, labour intensive meals start rolling around in your mind. Maybe a moussaka with it’s silky bechamel sauce, seasoned lamb mince and salted and grilled eggplant slices or wild mushroom arancini with a well rounded risotto base using homemade stock, letting it cool and lovingly forming balls to fry up the next day… ahhh, the joy of cooking.

As opposed to the above paragraph this Coq au Chardonnay is a relatively quick dish because you are using chicken (you can’t let it cook too long or you loose all the texture of the meat) but enjoy the process of chopping your vegetables, browning the chicken pieces and letting all the flavours develop together.

Coq Au Chardonnay is not unlike the French coq au vin, which is traditionally done with a red wine, but this version is a little lighter, maybe a little more autumn than the heavier red wine dish that has it’s place on my winter table.

Enjoy the cook 🙂

Blondie

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Homemade Hommus

Homemade Hommus… Continuing on with my year long challenge, here is Homemade Hommus from Jan-Feb 2014’s Nourish magazine.

Although a basic recipe it really is one that everyone should have under their belts as it’s great as a snack with flat bread or vegetable batons or used in a meal – like the one I will be making from the new Feast magazine… Can’t wait for that one! Hummus B’lahmeh (Israeli hummus with spiced lamb)

Blondie 🙂

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How To Poach Eggs In Cling Film

One of my favourite ways to eat eggs is poached… How good does that look? Spicy chorizo, mushroom and feta with poached eggs

The problem is a lot of people are afraid to try their hand at poaching thinking it’s too difficult a method. This is where the cling film method comes in, but before you say something about the rubbish left from such a cooking method, yes I agree but the benefit of poaching eggs using this method is you can use older eggs.

The traditional method of poaching requires you to have the freshest eggs so that the egg white is a firm ball surrounding the yolk. This is important because you need the white to hold form in the water. Using an older egg will mean the egg white is looser and you will just have egg white ‘ghosts’ floating around in your saucepan. Not very appealing at all!

Poaching in cling film means you can use older eggs – not everybody has chickens on hand and not every carton of eggs you buy are as fresh as you need them for traditional ‘free fall’ cooking, so having this method on hand is very helpful when the craving for poached eggs hits.

How To Poach Eggs In Cling Film instructional…

Happy brunching! Blondie 🙂

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Smoked Sweet Chilli Sauce

So what can you do to improve on the pantry staple, sweet chilli sauce? Smoke it of course!

Smoked Sweet Chilli Sauce is an amazing accompaniment to all the dishes you have your standard with but with a unique smokey flavour… and you know how much Bella and I love things smoked.

Serve it with seafood or baste chicken kebabs or pour it over a big dollop of sour cream.

Hot and smokey… Blondie

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Warm Thai Style Beef Noodle Salad w/ Poached Egg

Warm Thai Style Beef Noodle Salad w/ Poached Egg came about with the influx of meat that hubby was winning at the Sunday meat raffle over the Christmas period.

So how do you make sure none of it goes to waste? Prep it first! I love preparing the meat in appropriate meal sizes and in different marinades and pastes prior to freezing, this way you can pull out a baggy in the morning and leave it to defrost while you are at work. It’s then ready to be cooked up at dinner time. Just keep some basics in your pantry like different types of noodles and some nice pre made dressings if need be, combine with fresh vegetables and leaves and you have a quick, healthy dinner.

Tip: Write the ingredients on the bag so you remember which marinade is which – I like to start with a base such as soy and honey for example and then divide that into 3, adding different ingredients to each batch.

Enjoy the ease! Blondie 🙂

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Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu

Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu… As with my below post – Teriyaki Mustard Chicken, this is the second dish, Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu I’ve made as part of my New Year’s resolution… that being, that any cookbook or magazine that enters my house during 2014 will have a recipe made from it.

This is from Feast magazine No.28 Moroccan Fish – Chut b’chi zyu

It’s a lightly spiced fish dish, which is gorgeous served over simple steamed rice…I did puree half of the ingredients and sliced the rest just to add a bit more oomph but it’s basically as written in the magazine. Oh and I added baby spinach, only because I like baby spinach – and I need to build up my iron stores so anything with vitamin c (carrots, capsicum) I add greenery.

Blondie 🙂

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