The perfect italiano pasta..!

I love this, just wanted to share.

Sticky Date Pudding: i-Vefa & Master Chef

http://www.masterchef.com.au/

Well truth be told that it was Master Chef season 1, who sparked the chef within and that famous Sticky Date Pudding I’ve now done a number of times (see pics below)

It's finally back on our TVs and luckily for me it's the athletics off season, otherwise with all that food I might be in trouble from my coach.

Well tune in for the premiere tonight on Channel 10 @ 7.30, fun times ahead!

My Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce & Almond Praline pics [[see pics below]]:
For the recipe on this visit the Master Chef website or click here.

  

Chocolate Soufflé a.k.a. the ultimate test...

Chocolate Soufflé. So many people claim to know how to do it perfectly (I’m not one), others always 'think' they know what it should taste like, some even make the bold claim that a Max Brenner chocolate soufflé if the best soufflé...um, I don't think so. This one's for you Johnny boy ;)

For the record and just to cap off my previous point, what Max Brenner serves is barely even a soufflé. I mean don't get me wrong, it tastes amazing and I love nothing more then to stuff my face with it, while chatting with friends and sipping on a hot chocolate, but don't insult me and say it's soufflé! I'd put this in the 'pudding' category (you'll see a later post that tackles my now famous chocy pudding).

Soufflé is meant to be light, fluffy on the tongue, not overpoweringly rich and of course airy.

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Total prep-time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
- Canola spray or melted butter (for brushing)
- 1/5 cup caster sugar (will also need a little for dusting)
- about 180g dark chocolate (chopped)
- about 1/4 cup cocoa powder (try LivingEarth, their products rock!)
- 1/3 cup cream
- 7 egg whites (rest these in a bowl prior to working the magic)

How to work the magic:
1. Preheat the oven to 170º C and then spray 6 ramekins with canola spray (welcome to use melted butter)
2. Lightly dust the ramekins with caster sugar and place the ramekins on a baking tray
3. Melt all the cocoa, cream and chocolate in a saucepan on low heat, stir until smooth.
4. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
5. Slowly add the caster sugar until it all becomes thick and nice & glossy.
6. Now add the chocolate mixture (in a separate bowl) with half the whisked egg whites and fold through.
7. Then nice and easily fold through the remaining egg whites and when it all looks relatively consistent add the mixture to the ramekins.
8. Bake for about 20mins then serve the immediately, with ice-cream (or cream) of choice to top it off.
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HINT: when placing in the oven, be sure to put the tray on the middle shelf of the oven, these guys raise like nothing you've seen before; but deflate within hours..

The first time I attempted these I had then in the oven at near the top shelf in the oven and they ended up touching the roof of the oven! It was well worth the laugh considering guests weren't waiting on them...despite them not looking great, that first time they didn't taste too badly.

I've since nailed them and the rising hasn't posed any problems since :) .

Presenting....my Soufflé!

Chilli Chocolate Truffles

Ok, these babies look simple, sounds simple, but looking at them from beginning to end, are not that simple in regard to time required to finally indulge within them…but worth mild time required :)

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Total prep-time: 15 minutes (plus a few hours for setting in fridge)

Ingredients
- 400g dark chocolate (chopped) – try not choose more than 50% cocoa dark chocolate otherwise they’ll end up too rich
- 180ml cream Bulla works perfectly
- Cocoa powder (sifted for dusting) this might make it a little bitter when they first touch your tongue so if you’re not into that, use drinking chocolate (sifted) instead
- 1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder (10 drops of Tabasco has the same effect)

How to work the magic:
1. Mix through the chocolate, Tabasco and cream over low heat until smooth
2. Poor the mixture into a dish lined with non-stick baking paper.
3. Place in the fridge and allow to set for 2-3 hours or until set.
4. Use a spoon and your hands to roll the mixture into balls, dust with cocoa to serve
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The look fantastic when done and they always impress the guests!

Enjoy!

Not only a winding road, but a rocky one...

Tonight was one rocky road; though the sweet itself only took about 20 odd minutes to prepare, the chef & prep'er (me on this occasion) were on a different sort of rocky road...Ok, before continuing and just to clear things up, it was nothing more then 2 horrible days at work colliding with one another, expected and normal.

A learning curve was indeed created though, which is always a silver lining. Rocky road is probably the only (or one of few) sweets that you can make successfully whilst in the midst of argument.

The chopping of the marshmallows, raspberry candy and peanuts all lend a hand. The marshmallows symbolise the love that gets mushed about when arguing, the raspberry candy are oh so satisfying to chop and symbolise the perfect amount of resistance the argument should have and the peanuts are the momentary regrets, i.e. no satisfaction in the chop and one misguided chop could see blood drawn, meaning something you wish you hadn’t said.

Then mixing it all together is what the make-up should be, because sometimes a bunch of mismatching ingredients just work.

In the end all you need is to place the mixture in a tray lined with baking paper and pop it in the fridge until it sets and vuala.

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Total prep-time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
- 500g chocolate (melted)
- 200g marshmallows (chopped)
- 150g Allens raspberry soft candy (chopped)
- a handful and a half of peanuts - I have large hands and thus used 1 handful (also chopped, but be careful, when doing this!)
- Optional: grated coconut (add this is for the Kapiris special rocky road)

How to work the magic:
1. Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl
2. Place in a as deep as required tray lined with baking paper
3. Place in the fridge to set for at least an hour or so.
4. Cut into pieces and shove a piece in you gob!
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I saw on TV once, they put the knife under hot water before cutting the finished product into pieces so it would make it easier, didn’t look as easy as they made it out to be, I think just a sharp bloody kitchen knife is the way to go :)

Note: I obviously didn’t mean the knife had to be bloody…=P

Another note is that this sweet was maid so as to take away camping, well actually, duck hunting I hate to say. The good news is that I myself have a bag limit of only one, which I have every intention of cooking stuffed with feta, couscous and a range of other wonderful ingredients.

So for now have a wonderful weekend and a safe one, hopefully my camping is an enlightening journey that I can share with you next week. For now kalinixta!

Crunchy Croutons - My new favourite

Well these are truly the easiest little babies to make. They’ll give that sexy touch to a salad or fill the void of that ‘missing something’ in those scrambled eggs, they can even give balance to some couscous.

Ok so get 2 slices of bread of your choice. Using a nice’en sharp knife, chop the slices of bread up into little cubes.

Put 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a frypan (I don’t really even know the difference between extra virgin and your normal virgin olive oil, I just like saying extra virgin) and on super low heat, throw in the chopped bits of bread.

Move the bread bits around until toasted and crispy, now just before you turn the heat off, sprinkle a bunch of parmesan cheese over the top and let them sit for about 35seconds. AND YOU’RE DONE!

Now feel free to put them on salad, soup, rice, omelette and anything you so desire, the first time I made these, I actually had them on their own they tasted so good, the olive oil and parmesan really give them that extra flavour. My wife actually yelled at me when I said I was going to try put parmesan on the bread bits, but she stuffed her face with them and her words were “now that is amazing!” how can someone swing so quickly…I’ll tell you how, olive oil and bread they key to everything...everything female that is ;)

Simple Lemonade Scones

What you'll need
If you want to impress with these super easy to make scones all you have to do is wake up 30mins before your partner and serve them with either a nice tea or coffee in bed.


A little hint for all the chocolate lovers is to add a few choc bits into the mixture and yummo!! I'd suggest trying the standard style below, but if you're game, go for it.


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Total prep-time: 25 minutes

Ingredients


- 4 cups flour (plain is ok, self raising is better)
- a can of lemonade (375ml)
- 300ml Thickened Cream

How to work the magic:

1. In a nice big bowl, mix in the flour, lemonade and cream to form a soft dough (If mixture still feels wet, add more flour)
2. Flour a flat bench or table top, place the dough on the floured surface and flatten it so it's about 4cm in thickness
3. Use a glass (flour the rim) to cut out nice circled dough blobs, now place the little circle blobs on baking paper on a tray and cook for approx. 15 mins at about 170 degrees4. Whip some cream up and serve them with jam as well :):)


This will make about 10-12.
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HANDY HINTS:1. To know if they are ready simply stab one with a skewer, if it comes out clean they're good to shove down your gob..!2. Feel free to add choc bits to the mixture, i like a few white ones, but then again, i'm a bit of a pig :)3. They might be simple but don't bloody burn'em, you want them to be nice and moist4. For guilt free eating, use wholemeal flour, they're actually just as tasty.5. Serve with some peppermint tea so you don't feel as bad when you're scoffining'em down ;)

Good luck and let me know how you go!