Weekend Cooking - In My Kitchen - July

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. After barely doing any baking during June because I was sick, I started July with a lot of baking and it continued from there. What I wasn't good at was taking pictures of said baking before it got eaten

Lemon Poppyseed Crinkle Cookies - I have made these before but they are so good so I made them again. This is a recipe from Emelia Jackson's Some of my Best Friends are Cookies cookbook. (pictured bottom right)

Dutch Pancakes with Salted Caramel Pears - This is a recipe from the Coles magazine. I was impressed with the pancake part. Not so much with the pears which needed a lot more cooking. 

Brownies  - We had family come around for dinner so I made brownies using my trusted Bill Granger recipe which can be found here. 

Mixed Berry Clafoutis - This is what I chose to make for my Cook the Books post which you can find here. (pictured at the top)

Banana bread - we had bananas so I made banana bread. Whilst I quite like adding icing, or choc chips into the batter or other variations, my husband just likes plain banana bread that he can add a lot of butter to when it is sliced up, so that's what I made. This is the recipe I used, without the banana on top.

I picked up a couple of bits and pieces this month. The first is from the magical world of the middle aisle of Aldi. I went looking for a sheet set and came home with new pot holders. I love the colours so couldn't resist.

The second thing is a plate from the Reject Shop. They have had some really fun pieces come into their home wares range over the last year or so. 

I go back to work next week after several months off so have to work out what my new normal looks like when it comes to baking, books and blogging. To celebrate/commiserate my last day as a lady of leisure we went for a drive to the Yarra Valley which is around 90 minutes away from us and had a lovely lunch at a winery and then went to the nearby Yarra Valley Chocolaterie. Needless to say we did not need dinner that night.  And we most certainly didn't need to eat the Dubai chocolate that we bought that day either. Maybe we will get to it this weekend.

One of the other fun things we did this month was to visit the French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibition which is currently on at the National Gallery of Victoria. You can read more about the exhibition here.

There was a room filled with still life paintings. Some were flower and some were fruit and vegetables. This quote from Cezanne made me smile so I though I would share it here. 

As to flowers, I have given them up. They wilt immediately. Fruits are more reliable.They love having their portraits done.

The painting below isn't by Cezanne but it was in the same room so it fits!

52 Recipes Challenge

Here are the new recipes we tried this month.

Dutch Pancakes with Salted Caramel Pears

Clafoutis

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

Weekly Meals

Saturday -  Out for dinner
Sunday - Bacon, vegetable and risoni soup with mini meatballs
Monday - Lasagne
Tuesday - Lasagne
Wednesday - Out
Thursday - Nothing
Friday - Nothing

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - May

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. It has been a busy month in our kitchen with lots of baking and new recipes tries!

However, before we talk about this, I shamelessly stole the above pic from Jackie at Junkboat Travel because I feel seen! Often if I am baking I say to my husband that I am creating lots of washing up and the side outcome is something delicious to eat!

Speaking of baking here's what I did make this month

Raspberry Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate - I made this after reading The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer. I reviewed the book and shared the recipe, which is a family recipe,  here.

Chocolate Eclairs - My husband had been asking me to make eclairs for a while but I kept on putting it off as I was a bit intimidated by it! However, once I decided to make it, it is doable. The recipe, which I shared as part of my Cook the Books contribution a couple of weeks ago, makes a lot so I still have some in the freezer. When I first filled the eclairs, I made it with a chocolate glaze and chantilly cream filling. The next time, I refreshed the shells in the oven, and then used the passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache from the macarons as the glaze and chocolate cream

Curry sausage rolls - Yes, this is a rare savoury bake, and it was delicious! The recipe comes from Justin Narayan's Everything in Indian. 

Passionfruit and Milk Chocolate Macarons - My friend and I went and did a class to learn how to make macarons! It was such a great day. I shared about this experience here. 

Chocolate Brownie - It's been an age since I made my favourite chocolate brownie recipe by Bill Granger! It went down a treat!

I haven't bought many cook books this year. When this book, Everything is Indian, was announced as the cook book for Lambs Ear Cook Book Club, I borrowed it from the library. After cooking a few things from it, we agreed that we needed to own it! I am planning to share something about this book in the next couple of weeks. I also got Taverna by Georgina Hayden out from the library. We really liked her book Greekish, so I need to find some time to look through the book before it has to go back to the library!

My most useful purchase this month was two storage containers which are the perfect shape for sheets of premade pastry and things like wraps or rotis. I don't know how I lived without them! I keep on finding new ways to use it, but at this stage, I am resisting the urge to buy any more. 

We did have a very nice French dinner a couple of weeks ago. In fact, we had a very French weekend. I had already made eclairs, then we had the dinner before we went to see the arena version of Les Miserables which was amazing, and then I made macarons the next day. I wasn't sure what to expect of the dinner. It was a fixed price menu in the restaurant at the arena, and to be honest I kind of expected to walk away thinking that it was an okay dinner, potentially overpriced but worth it for the convenience of already being in the stadium. It turned out the dinner was delicious, the portions were generous and it was well worth doing! 

I had crab tart, mushroom pithivier and potato gratin. In theory, the dessert came boxed up so that you could take it into the show with you to eat later, but we ate it in the restaurant. It was a gingernut base with layers of strawberry and rhubarb.

 

52 Recipes Challenge

Here are the new recipes we tried this month.

Raspberry and white chocolate shortbread cookies

Curry Roast Chicken, Masala roast potatoes and Raita - from Everything in Indian

Curry Sausage rolls - Another recipe from Everything in Indian. This one got rave reviews from Robert.

Spicy Prawn Noodles - My son was away for a few days so we had prawns. We don't cook these when he is home. 

Spicy Beef Noodles - This came from Dominique's Kitchen and we tried this because it was a two person recipes

Chocolate eclairs

Potato Gratin - I had a craving for potato bake. This recipe came from RecipeTin Eats

Cottage Pie - Another recipe from the RecipeTin Eats site.

Sausage and veggie gravy traybake  - And yes, another RecipeTin Eats recipe.

Before next month I should check to see what the tally is and how close I am 

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

In My Kitchen - April 

The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer

Afternoon Tea Diaries - Red at Oxitea Rooms

Cook the Books: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson

Macarons class

Tucci in Italy/Nonnas - Italian Food

Weekly Meals

Saturday - Schnitzel, chips, broccoli, mushroom sauce
Sunday - Sausages and potato gratin
Monday - Beef and broccoli noodles
Tuesday - Cottage Pie
Wednesday - Sausage, vegetable and gravy traybake
Thursday - Chilli Con Carne
Friday - Out for dinner

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Vale Bill Granger

Shortly after Christmas we awoke to the news that Australian chef Bill Granger passed away in London on  Christmas Day. When my husband said that he had died, I recognised the name. It was only when he said the chef that it clicked for me.  Bill Granger was famous for being the founder of several cafes both in Australia and in other locations around the world, as well as being the author of a number of cookbooks and associated TV shows.

In the announcement of his passing, he was referred to as the King of Breakfast and is credited with making smashed avocado on toast a brunch institution nationwide. Interestingly, smashed avo has become a measure of economic security in recent years.  A couple of years ago a millionaire basically said if you can afford to have smashed avo on toast every weekend at brunch, then you can afford to save up for a deposit for a house, and now this gets rolled out on a semi regular basis during conversations about the economy.

The one time that I went to one of Bill's establishments was when we visited Sydney back in 2018 and we went for breakfast at Bills in Surrey Hills. Aside from smashed avo, the quintessential Granger breakfast dish is probably ricotta pancakes so I had to choose that! And it was delicious!

My instant reaction to hearing the news was that my go to brownies recipe is from Bill Granger, and then when I thought it about more I realised that we actually eat several of his recipes on a regular basis, and I have posted about several of them previously

Roast chicken - This is my go to roast chicken recipe. I think I have maybe made it exactly as it is in the book once which includes the roasted potatoes and tomatoes. I most recently made this when I was in America and my friends and I hosted dinner for a favourite author. My son used to also make this quite regularly when he was in his loving cooking phase. So easy and so delicious! I shared this recipe here.

Chocolate Brownies - Speaking of go to recipes, this is my go to chocolate brownies recipe. 

Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto - We like that it is a baked risotto which makes it very easy! I shared this recipe here.

Chocolate Banana Bread - this was actually the second post I ever did for Weekend Cooking way back in 2010. I haven't made this for a while! 

I took the opportunity to look through the two Bill books I have on my shelf and have decided I wouldn't mind trying Caramel Chicken and Fish with Potato Salad, although not sure when we will make it as there are some people in our house who don't like fish!

If I had to pick the one recipe that we make on a very regular basis, then it would be the Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto so I though I would reshare that recipe today.

Baked risotto with zucchini, tomato and parmesan


Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
180 g (1 cup) arborio rice
375 ml (11/2 cups) chicken stock or water
400 g (14 oz) can chopped Roma (plum) tomatoes
3 zucchini (courgettes), finely sliced
60 g (21/4 oz) freshly grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
Shavings of Parmesan, for serving (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Heat a 3 litre (12 cup) capacity ovenproof dish (with a lid) over a medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion and sea salt and stir for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the rice to the dish and stir for another minute.

Add the stock or water and the chopped tomatoes and bring to simmering point. Stir in the zucchini and sprinkle with Parmesan and black pepper. Cover the dish and bake the risotto for 30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Scatter parsley over the top, sprinkle with Parmesan shavings if desired, and serve in the dish.

Serves 4

Weekly meals

Saturday -  Out for dinner

Sunday -  Nothing

Monday - Mac and Cheese.

Tuesday - Beef and Broccoli noodles

Wednesday - Sausages, mash and cabbage

Thursday - Chicken Shwarma

Friday - Family Dinner

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Top Ten Tuesday: Kitchen, Bakes and Cakes - Yum!

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This 

week the theme is Favourite Words.  I thought that I would tie this theme into the fact that it is National Cookbook Month so I have been focussing on cookbooks during this month as part of Weekend Cooking.  I am therefore choosing words like bake, cake, kitchen and associated words as my words!

I recently joined a Facebook group which is a monthly cookbook group. This month they are cooking from any Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks. These are just two of the AWWC cookbooks I have. I posted about the Birthday Cakes one here.

Nadiya Hussein come to prominence as a result of winning Great British Bake Off and has gone from strength to strenght. I have shared recipes from Nadiya Bakes here and from Bake Australia Great here.

Donna Hay is one of Australia's best known celebrity cooks! I have shared several of her recipes over the years. Marian Keyes is a really well known author. She shared how baking helped her with mental health issues. Here's my review.

I currently have Beatrix Bakes out of the library! 

Moving now to the word kitchen because this is where all the bakes and cakes happen! My review of Kitchen Counter Cooking School can be found here.

I just posted about In Bibi's Kitchen a couple of weeks ago, whereas Bill Granger was one of the earliest cooks that I posted about here on my blog!

Vintage Weekend Cooking: Chocolate Brownies

After Tuesday's post all about books with chocolate on the cover and the post I have planned for tomorrow, it appears that I am having a chocolate flavoured week here at The Intrepid Reader.

This seemed to be a great opportunity to roll out a Vintage Weekend Cooking post. I originally shared this post back in 2014, and this is still my go to brownie recipe.

I still haven't actually had it with the sauce. One day I might try it that way. Today is not that day!

Do you have a recipe that you know as soon as you try it will always be your go to recipe. The one that everyone loves? And that you are asked for the recipe for all the time? For me, this is one of those recipes, along with the Lemon Syrup Cakes recipe I have posted previously. A couple of months ago I made a batch of these to take to work and my son was very disappointed that he didn't get to have more than a couple so then I had to make more!

Last year, I posted a couple of brownie recipes, one of which was a Triple Choc Brownie. That recipe was a perfectly serviceable recipe, and I made it several times and each time it was well received. One day I thought I would try this recipe instead, and I basically have never even thought about going back to the other recipe. It is just that good.

Part of what I like about this recipe is that it is very moist but it has a really crusty top which is just delicious although to get that effect I need to cook it for much longer than the 40 minutes mentione but I think that is because of my oven more than anything. I should also mention that I have never actually made the chocolate sauce that is recommended to go with these brownies. I also don't use the dark chocolate buttons. The first time I made this I didn't have any of those so I used milk chocolate melts that I had broken up into pieces and because it was so good I have just made it the same way ever since.

Chocolate Brownies

345g (1 1/2 cups) caster (superfine) sugar
85g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder
60g (1/2 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
200g (7 oz) unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g (7 oz) dark chocolate button

Preheat the oven to 160°C (315F/Gas 2-3). Stir the sugar, cocoa powder, flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Add the eggs, melted butter and vanilla and mix until combined. Mix in the chocolate buttons. Pour into a lined 22cm (9 inch) square tin and bake for 40-45mins

Allow the brownie block to slightly cool then cut into eight pieces. Place on serving plates with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Dust with extra cocoa powder if you like, then serve with the chocolate sauce.  Serves 8


Warm Chocolate Sauce

125g (4 1/2 oz) dark chocolate
185ml (3/4 cup) cream

Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and place the bowl over a saucepan of just simmering water. Whisk occasionally until a thick sauce forms. Cool sightly before serving. 

Weekend Cooking: Chocolate Brownies

Do you have a recipe that you know as soon as you try it will always be your go to recipe. The one that everyone loves? And that you are asked for the recipe for all the time? For me, this is one of those recipes, along with the Lemon Syrup Cakes recipe I have posted previously. A couple of months ago I made a batch of these to take to work and my son was very disappointed that he didn't get to have more than a couple so then I had to make more!

Last year, I posted a couple of brownie recipes, one of which was a Triple Choc Brownie. That recipe was a perfectly serviceable recipe, and I made it several times and each time it was well received. One day I thought I would try this recipe instead, and I basically have never even thought about going back to the other recipe. It is just that good.

Part of what I like about this recipe is that it is very moist but it has a really crusty top which is just delicious although to get that effect I need to cook it for much longer than the 40 minutes mentione but I think that is because of my oven more than anything. I should also mention that I have never actually made the chocolate sauce that is recommended to go with these brownies. I also don't use the dark chocolate buttons. The first time I made this I didn't have any of those so I used milk chocolate melts that I had broken up into pieces and because it was so good I have just made it the same way ever since.

Chocolate Brownies

345g (1 1/2 cups) caster (superfine) sugar
85g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder
60g (1/2 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
200g (7 oz) unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g (7 oz) dark chocolate button

Preheat the oven to 160°C (315F/Gas 2-3). Stir the sugar, cocoa powder, flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Add the eggs, melted butter and vanilla and mix until combined. Mix in the chocolate buttons. Pour into a lined 22cm (9 inch) square tin and bake for 40-45mins

Allow the brownie block to slightly cool then cut into eight pieces. Place on serving plates with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Dust with extra cocoa powder if you like, then serve with the chocolate sauce.  Serves 8


Warm Chocolate Sauce

125g (4 1/2 oz) dark chocolate
185ml (3/4 cup) cream

Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and place the bowl over a saucepan of just simmering water. Whisk occasionally until a thick sauce forms. Cool sightly before serving. 

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Roast Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Tomatoes

I haven't talked very much about the little chef's cooking for some time now. He has gone off cooking as much as he was, but every now and again he will surprise me and want to cook something. I guess I shouldn't really be calling him the little chef any more. He is now at least 6-8 inches taller than I am!

One thing that he does like to cook is Bill Granger's roast chicken. It is a pretty basic recipe but one that always tastes good, is really juicy and is easy in terms of preparation. He doesn't even mind the drying of the inside and outside of the chicken which kind of surprised me the first couple of times. The other thing is that the recipe is easily adaptable. The recipe specifies to use oregano but I tend to use whatever herbs I have available. For example, this week I used sage and previously I have used other herbs. One day I will do the potatoes and tomatoes the way it specifies.

I also tend to buy a bigger chicken than that specified and then we have plenty of leftovers. This week I ended up making an all-in-one quiche, which I think we will probably be eating for a few days yet!

I did have to laugh at the boy though. He did all the preparation and was doing all the checking so I only had to go in to chop up the chicken when it was ready to serve. I kept on asking if the skin was crisping up and he was very pleased that it was. Only problem was that he had the chicken upside down n the so the skin on the back was very crispy but not so much on the top! He had also sprinkled sage around the potatoes. When I asked him why he just said to infuse some flavour into the potatoes. I think we might have been watching too much food TV!

Today I was talking to a friend and she talked about being impressed by the little chef cooking because her son, who is the same age, can't even cook frozen pizza! I volunteered to send the little chef around to cook for them.

Roasted Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Tomatoes

Chicken

1 lemon, rinsed and dried
1.5 kg (3lb 5oz) free-range chicken, rinsed and dried
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh sprigs of oregano
lemon halves for serving
fresh bay leaves for serving

Preheat the oven to 220C (425F/Gas 7). Roll the lemon over a hard surface, pressing down on it, then prick it all over with a fork or skewer.

Season the chicken inside and out with the salt and pepper. Place the lemon and oregano in the cavity, then truss the chicken using kitchen string. (I actually never do the trussing!)

Place the chicken with the breast side up in a baking dish and roast for 15 minutes. Pop the potatoes in the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 200C (400F/Gas 6) and cook for another hour, or until the juices running from the chicken re clear. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve, garnished with bay leave and lemon halves, with the roasted potatoes

Potatoes and Tomatoes

1 kg (2lb 4oz) potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
4 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 red onion, cut into wedges
50g (1/2 cup) finely grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons olive oil
125ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock or water
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves


Toss everything together, then put in an ovenproof dish and bake at the same time as the chicken for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto

A couple of months ago I decide to borrow a cookbook from the library which, according to the cover, showcased the best of Bill Granger's recipes. It was only once I started looking for an online version of one of the recipes that I realised that there had been a bit of drama around the release of this cookbook and that it was basically repackaging recipes from existing cookbooks and putting them out in this new book. There was a big court case about it all. In short ...  lots of drama.

What having this book out from the library did do is encourage me to get the two Bill Granger cookbooks that I do already own off of the dusty bookshelf and take a look through them. There were a number of recipes that I had marked in the best of collection as recipes I might try, but it was only once I took the time to look at the recipes closely that I realised that I already had that recipe in one of my existing cookbooks.

Since that time I have tried a couple of the recipes.  Previous to this rediscovery the only recipe I had cooked of Bill's was for his Choc Banana Bread, but over the last couple of months I have tried White Bean and Chorizo Soup, his chocolate brownie recipe, scones and just last week a recipe for Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto which I am sharing today.

There are also a number of other recipes that I found both in the library book and the books that I already own including a Chorizo, Potato and Red Capsicum Frittata, Beef and Asian Greens stir fry and Herbed Chicken Schnitzel! Have to love it when the recipes are for food that sound tasty and achievable!

I think I am going to have to borrow some more of Bill's books from the library to see what else I can find to cook!

Baked risotto with zucchini, tomato and parmesan


Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
180 g (1 cup) arborio rice
375 ml (11/2 cups) chicken stock or water
400 g (14 oz) can chopped Roma (plum) tomatoes
3 zucchini (courgettes), finely sliced
60 g (21/4 oz) freshly grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
Shavings of Parmesan, for serving (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Heat a 3 litre (12 cup) capacity ovenproof dish (with a lid) over a medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion and sea salt and stir for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the rice to the dish and stir for another minute.

Add the stock or water and the chopped tomatoes and bring to simmering point. Stir in the zucchini and sprinkle with Parmesan and black pepper. Cover the dish and bake the risotto for 30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Scatter parsley over the top, sprinkle with Parmesan shavings if desired, and serve in the dish.

Serves 4

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: White Bean and Chorizo soup

I have owned a couple of Bill Granger's books for years now, but I have actually ever cooked one recipe out of them - Choc Banana Bread. I have made that so many times, and it was one of the first recipes I shared for Weekend Cooking. I am not really sure why I haven't cooked more as so many of his recipes look relatively easy and tasty. 

After borrowing Best of Bill from the library I actually sat down and bookmarked a few recipes, and I also looked back through the books that I already owned and found several more recipes to try too. 

Given that it is now soup weather here, this recipe was one of the first that I tried and it will be on regular rotation through this winter and probably next winter too! I have also made the chocolate brownie recipe out of this book, and I think it now is my favourite chocolate brownie recipe...until I find another good one!

White Bean and Chorizo soup

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 chorizo sausage, diced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
2 diced tomatoes
1 l chicken stock
800g tinned cannellini beans, rinsed
Sea salt
Ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over high heat and cook the chorizo for 3–4 minutes until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.

2. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the onion and celery to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6–7 minutes until softened. Add the garlic, thyme and paprika and cook, stirring, for 1–2 minutes until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute.

3. Return the chorizo to the pan with the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Easy, quick and tasty!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Choc Banana Bread

This is my second week of participating in Weekend Cooking which is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

One of the things that surprised me a little last week is the fact many of the ingredients that are pretty much common ingredients here are either called something else, or have only limited availability in other places. I was thinking about doing something about ingredients that we use in different ways, but then I mentioned that I was making Choc Banana Bread, and I had a request to share that one, so if I remember I will do the other one next week.

I don't know about you, but despite the fact that everyone in my house likes bananas every time I buy more than a couple at a time, they end up sitting in the fruit bowl until they have to be thrown out. The alternative is to use them in baking! Now I enjoy baking, and my son enjoys helping me, but I don't do it often simply because he really doesn't like to eat anything that we make. If I do make cakes, I inevitably end up taking them to work, or eatting them all myself which isn't good (well it is, but it isn't really if you know what I mean).

One of my favourite cakes is banana cake. This is actually more of a bread, and in fact is in the breaksfast section of Bill's Food by Bill Granger, but it works for me as a cake as well. Bill Granger is a celebrity chef here with several cafes in Sydney and also a couple in Japan.I have two of Bill Granger's cookbooks, but this is the only recipe that I have tried from them. I have been trying quite a few new recipes lately, so maybe I should have a look through and see if something else catches my eye

I actually have a loaf of this in the oven as we speak. If I remember I will take a photo when we start eating it!

Choc Banana Bread

250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
125g (4 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
250g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g (1 cup) good-quality dark or milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (350F/Gas 4). Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.

Mix the butter, sugar, banana, eggs, vanilla extract and chocolate chips in a separate bowl. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine, being careful not to overmix.

Pour the batter into a non-stick, or lightly greased and floured, 19 x 11 cm (7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch) loaf tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the bread is cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. Serve in thick slices iwth butter. Makes 8 to 10 slices.



PS - Forgive the photography! I am definitely not a food stylist or photographer!

PPS - True to form the boy didn't like this although how he could tell from the crumb that he tried I have no idea.

PPSS - This has the most delicious crust when it just comes out of the oven! Yum. Need to be careful not to overdose on it tonight!