Breakfast with bills II

What is the first thing that comes to your mind, when you think about breakfast?

I said the first thing, so don’t ponder to long over it. For me, always the sentence ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’ comes to my mind. Now I don’t want to argue over it, saying anything for or against it.

The second thing that comes to my mind is … eh … wait, I just asked about the first thing, so there is no point in talking about the second.

Whatsoever, there are many ways to have a great breakfast. Some, though, require going the extra mile. This for sure applies for the three things I want to show you today in my … eh … series ‘… with Bills’ which I started due to ...

Anyway, let’s have a closer look at number one: Coconut Bread:

As is mentioned in ‘Bills Sydney Food’ it is good to ‘Keep slices in the freezer for workdays when you’d rather be in the Caribbean.’ Well, to this I can only say: My freezer isn’t that big. However, I tried it as far as possible in my case.

Having breakfast alone, you’ll never need one loaf in one go. No, you even don’t need it when having breakfast with two persons. I was fine settling with two slices, leaving some to be put into the freezer for one of those days or for any day. Did I say both could be the same in my case? Nah, anyway …

You could enjoy this bread with salt-fish relish. Fine, I don’t have any and I don’t get any, but you can also enjoy it in other ways. Just some icing sugar on it is lovely. On the other hand, putting something else on it might give it that extra kick, but that I yet have to find out.

The bread contains eggs, milk, vanilla essence, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, shredded coconut and butter, just to give you an idea what to expect.

Well, I enjoyed it very much and by this I remind myself now to make one again soon for my freezer isn’t really that big. Oh, I don’t even have a real freezer, just a small freezer compartment in the fridge and since I just can’t … eh, but could … fill it all the way with coconut bread, I have to take another approach here.

So, have two slices of coconut bread and a cuppa with it. At least once I also had a Mango and Banana Sunrise Drink together with it. That’s lovely, too. It’s a mixture of orange juice, mango, banana and a bit of yoghurt. You can’t go wrong with that.

On to the next splendid breakfast. I can tell you, it’s not a light one. For that one you need peaches and … eh … although I know, I might earn myself a comment for this … eh … I will mention it nevertheless: you have to get those peaches naked …

Whatever the case, we want to do something with those peaches apart from slicing them up and putting them in a bowl with lemon juice and sugar for 30 minutes. Eh … you see, again you need some time, so you have to carefully think about it when you want to have it for breakfast.

Right, what do we want to do with those lucky peaches?

Basically, it’s French Toast Stuffed with Peaches. Well, there is additionally to some eggs, milk, cream vanilla, more sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg involved.

Bread?

Right, I especially went to the bakery next door to get some lovely white bread, although Bill said to use brioche bread. I didn’t see any at that time, but found some later … and bought it … and just ate it plain as it was. Putting things in mind together … that would have been really gorgeous using that brioche for the French Toast, although it was already great the way it was, topped with some vanilla yoghurt and maple syrup.

Definitely a wonderful start into the day, you just need to have sufficient time in the morning. After all you can’t just pull that pre-arranged French Toast thingy from your freezer – that is if you have one – as you could do with the coconut bread just mentioned above.

Along that line, just shift to something you could pull from your freezer – that is if … eh … forget it. The whole process starts somehow like this …

No, that is actually wrong, this isn’t really the start of it, it’s just the first photo I took in the course of preparing Iced Cinnamon Snail Rolls … and I already crave some. I have to come to the conclusion, this post is a tad dangerous for me. However, I also can’t stop right now. We have to go on.

At the point of the photo, we already have prepared a dough with yeast having aloud it an hour to double in size. You see, you definitely don’t want to make it fresh in the morning you want to enjoy some for breakfast.

We have brushed the dough with melted butter and sprinkled it with brown sugar and cinnamon.

After that it’s rolling up to make a log. Guess what, then it’s time to slice the log up into thick slices to place on a baking tray and leave once more to double in size. Yes, it really takes some time with all this rising business.

You can already see where this is getting to. At one point then you have to get the heat on in your oven and … yes, bake and wait even more while the baked goods are cooling down on a rack. All this is really a job of patience, but since you will be able to fr…. eh … it will be absolutely worth it. Trust me, just this once. I know what I’m doing … do I?

For the most part they already look great, maybe apart from the second from the left in the middle row. Fine, at least we have one, we can just much away on as soon as we feel the temperature of the rolls is suitable for not hurting any parts of your mouth.

Right, don’t forget the icing consisting of icing sugar, warm water and vanilla. I really tried my best to drizzle it on.

To draw a conclusion from this … those three recipes are something lovely I would not just take for breakfast. In fact, I would be happy with any of it right now. It’s only too bad I can’t right now.

Dinner with Bills

Here we go with another part in the bill-series before the month of May comes to its end. It was long due anyway. While I have had at least one more dinner dish from Bills Sydney Food before I already wrote about it under different circumstances. There was for example the dish: Prawn and Chilli Linguine …

Well, if you follow the link, of course you find the old post. However, we like to go on with something more current, although it is pasta again.

The dish is called Fresh Tomato Pasta. The aim was to get as much taste out of the tomatoes as possible. So best it would be to have as best tomatoes as you can get.

There is not much fuss about it. Apart from the tomatoes and the pasta, you have just some sea salt, olive oil, red wine vinegar, juice and zest of a lemon, red chilli, black pepper and some basil leaves. It tasted fresh indeed.

For sure I will make that one again … well, I have all the ingredients at home most of the time, although the tomatoes could be a bit better, since they are not in full swing yet.

The other dinner dish I tried is not for the main course, but rather for pudding: Pavlova. I will not start this background discussion regarding the origin of pavlova again. After all, that is not what this is about.

Well, that looks already lovely and … was not that difficult to accomplish. However, it still has to go into the oven. The challenge is to have it over one hour in the oven at 120 °C, get it firm on the outside and don’t let it brown. Hm, eh, well, judge for yourself …

That was the best I could do. Maybe you can notice the colour difference in comparison with the whipped cream. Whatever the case, it tasted delicious with the pulp of the passionfruit.

Now that was the dinner part I tried so far, now I could start again with breakfast thing. Besides that, I should get cooking again.

If I remember it right, I kind of challenged myself to try as many recipes from Bills Sydney Food as possible. Eh, that doesn’t sound like a challenge at all. Ah, no worries, I don’t need a challenge, it’s just about having a bit of fun …

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Lunch with Bills

Now, it is time again to go on with some more food from Bills Sydney Food by Bill Granger with you. You might remember my post Breakfast with bills. After having had breakfast, it’s the only natural step to have lunch.

What do we have on offer today?

Ricotta and Tomato tart. Delicious! Since I like ricotta anyway, that’s a good one for me. The recipe had all the guidelines you needed to make your own puff pastry … I used a package from the shop anyway. Maybe next time! 

Have a look again …

Apart from the ricotta, the tomatoes and the puff pastry there is also some rocket involved. I never would want to argue with that. Another thing, to me it seems Bill used some more tomatoes on his tart. At least that’s how it looks like in his book. I am pleased anyway.

Let’s go with another one …

Maybe I should have known from the start, it wouldn’t work out properly. The recipe I tried was Coconut and Passionfruit slice. It was just because passionfruit was on offer in the supermarket. Sadly the girl at the check-out couldn’t recognise passionfruit and made me pay for figs (obviously she doesn’t know that one either). Or was the problem on my side.

Anyway, the recipe didn’t work 100 % with those ‘figs’ … eh … right, it was passionfruit. I reckon, though, the oven was the problem and the whole thing could have used a bit more time in it. While the taste was fine, there was no way in getting a half-delicious photo of it.

No worries! We don’t want to dwell to long on failure or negative things, but rather go on with something else … good the butcher knew about steak … Fine Steak Sandwich with Garlic Crème …

Obviously you need some kind of bread … ciabatta in this case, but the main heroes are the steak and the garlic crème.

The butcher did a good job and preparing the steak correctly in the pan was no big deal either. The real work here is the garlic crème. I didn’t take the same approach as with the puff pastry from the Ricotta and Tomato Tart.

I really went for it and had some food exercise again with all that whisking of the egg yolks and oil. As I’m not a sissy, I didn’t use a food processor for it either.

It was all worth it!

For sure you would find other fine uses for that crème! Well, we had already something in mind for it. I don’t want to say too much about it, though. Just watch …

Do I have to mention it was very delicious? You might have reckoned that already by yourself.

I hoped you enjoyed your lunch with bills and of course me. Yes, I know, you would enjoy it even more, if it was for real, but … hey … who am I? I can’t be everywhere and do everything and make everyone happy (it’s a great relief to recognise that and stop trying).

Oh, that brings me back to the pickle I’ve got. I can’t go everywhere. So, if you have any ideas (because you know something) feel free to give any suggestions for travelling Australia.

Now …

Keep smiling … 

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Breakfast with bills

I really don’t know how I ended up with the great obsession with Australia. Honestly, I don’t know, but just because I have it I bought this cookbook by Bill Granger some time ago.

It features recipes from Bill’s cafe in Darlinghurst. Well, I had never heard about it before. That also means consequently, I had never been there myself. You, know, it’s just that Australia obsession again.

The book says on the back cover: “The only bills cookbook you’ll ever need.” Well, I’m not so sure whether this is a good strategy. How are they ever supposed to do a Bills Sydney Food 2? Then maybe, they never wanted to anyway.

Again, I don’t know. What I am sure about is, I had plans to go to that place myself, once I get to Sydney. In fact that is what I did ... and I also enjoyed it very much.

Just before that, I wanted to make sure, I tried as many recipes from the book as time, motivation, health(?) and ingredients permit.

For sure it will bring some great variations in the breakfast, lunch and dinner department, especially the breakfast department, which is usually quite limited … cereals or a few slices of bread. That doesn’t have to be like that.

Along that line I tried a few recipes from the book …

That’s an Open-faced omelette with fresh tomato, emmenthal and rocket. So, it wouldn’t be too hard, to put that up once in a while for breakfast.

Next we have …

… we have Banana maple porridge with buttere apples. Delicious, although I didn’t manage to make it look so good on the photo. Maybe I should have used a similar perspective as in the book.

Finally, for today I have tried this one …

… Pan-toasted sandwich with tomato & fontina. That was my favourite one so far. Honestly, I didn’t use fontina cheese in this one, but another creamy and tasty one. In fact, the lady at the cheese counter couldn’t even make something of the name Fontina.

Well, that’s the way it is.

If you want to have this for breakfast, though, you have to get up early. The recipe says, you have to mix 100 ml olive oil, 4 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 chopped red chilli, salt and pepper together and then marinate slices of tomatoes for two hours in it. So you have to get up ahead … or have someone else do it for you. Sorry, I had no chance for that.

After that time, you brush one side of the bread slices with some of the oil from the tomatoes, put slices of cheese on that. Then come basil leaves, the tomatoes and another slice of bread.

Now you only have to melt butter in a pan and … of course … toast the bread in it. Why else would you call it pan-toasted sandwiches.

Finally you can eat the hot sandwiches.

Those don’t look too different than in the book. There only the cheese oozes a bit more. Maybe because it is fontina? Or maybe due to other unknown reasons? Whatever, no worries.

I reckon, the stage is set. Roughly, you have an idea of what still is to come. 

If you liked this post, keep on the lookout for more breakfast with bills or even lunch or dinner with bills.

Hm … what is this … I smell … baked goods, I smell coconut … I catch you later then …

Welcome Back - Spinach, Goat's Cheese and Ham Pasta Roulade

Welcome back! I reckon I have to do it and welcome myself back to the kitchen, since no one else is going to do it. Eh, well, how could possibly anyone else but me do this without knowing that I  am actually back in my new flat cooking? I haven't told anyone, have I?
Of course, I mentioned that I am going to move to a new flat and that I didn't have a kitchen to do some proper cooking anymore. Anyway, everything went well with the moving, just two dead and one injured. A friend, who helped, kept on knocking some pieces of furniture against his shinbone. So he had a little bit pain there afterwards, but nothing serious. As to the two dead one ... a clock went to the bin, because I was split in two halves. Then the plastic sign "Maltese on board" in my car broke to pieces. In fact the latter happened after the actual moving day - two days later - when I decided, for what reasons whatsoever, I needed a new bed. So I had no other choice as to transport it in my small sized car. Imagine for yourself ...
Otherwise, things went so well, that actually I didn't need to take a day off from work. However, I  already did. So, apart from getting a dentist appointment at the new dentist, acquainting myself with a new doctor and doing some shopping, I had ample of time to do some proper cooking again ...



For that we are going to make some fresh pasta dough, a spinach, goat's cheese and ham filling, a tomato salsa and a béchamel sauce ...

The End, Random Recipes and a Roasted Chicken

I think I might have mentioned it already at some point. I am moving to a new flat. Well, that is only one side to the story, but ... anyway ... there are other things, too. Already I have spent some time for getting rid of things, putting things into boxes, and carrying things away. Since the beginning of November, the whole thing moved to phase two. That means I am able to drop things in the new flat. So things are really hot and I work a lot after work.
However, there was one more thing. The kitchen in my present flat had to get a new owner elsewhere. The plan was, to do it next week, quite close to the actual move. Things went different ...

Bills Sydney Food - Prawn and Chilli Linguine

I have a dream, again and again. I run through the jungle and someone or something is hunting me. I run and run as fast as I can, which is surprisingly fast in that dream. The thing nearly gets me, it's freaking close. Suddenly I come to the edge of the cliff, which is dropping quite a way down. I just jump and ... wake up.
Oops, no, really, I'm not having that dream. I'd rather say that is the beginning of Star Trek - Into Darkness.
My dream is slightly different. It's there since school and it has to do with Australia. I dream of moving there or at least visiting there once. The latter seems more realistic. 
Anyway, that's also why I tend to buy books about Australia, watch Australian movies or TV series and lately above that buy cookbooks.
One of the latest example is Bills Sydney Food by Bill Granger. After all it would be nice to visit Sydney. Here an example of what came from it ...

Catch my Drift - Surfer Cake

Have you seen the 2012 Australian movie Drift? Well, it's about surfing and ... hm ... also about courage and the will to survive against all odds.
Hm, at least the last part is fitting: "survive against all odds". So far I am doing good. About surfing, no I can't do it. No matter which direction I choose, there is no coast nearby, where I could even think about learning to surf. No, not the internet, that's not so much fun.
Anyway, doing some kind of sports in the water would be good for me, I suppose. Unless ...

Maybe I really should think about a change of location some day ... at least one can dream. Yes, it has been there for already quite some time. That could be a reason, why I watch such movies.
Anyway, we are not here for surfing today, but for baking. I hope, you catch my drift on that cake ...

Don't make a mess ... Strawberry Pavlova

I simply couldn't resist! While being on the local farmers market, strawberries were smiling at me. When strawberries smile at you, the only thing a man can do is ... go and buy them. Said and done! It was just a spur of the moment thing. I didn't have much in mind to do with them, apart from eating, which of course would be sufficient in itself.
However, as soon as the strawberries were in my possession, the mind started working. What do I still have at home and what do I fancy? Oh, I could do a simple cake with the strawberries on top. You could enjoy that with a dollop of cream.
"No", I said to myself "you are not going to bake anything!"
Well, then, I could make a mess, an Eton Mess. That would be lovely. Fine, you need meringue for that. I don't have any on stock and I don't want to go and buy some anyway.
What now? I could do a dish with courgettes and egg yolks at another time, which would leave me with some unused egg whites.

Accordingly I took myself a medium sized bowl and another one for storing and separated three eggs. The yolks went into the fridge for later use.

Here we are with those innocent egg whites. "You are not going to bake anything!" Right? So I turned the oven to 160 °C. The egg whites got one or two teaspoons of vanilla sugar and - who knows how much - maybe 200 g of plain white sugar. Then I took my handheld electric mixer and went on working the ingredients together.
If you would try to make meringues properly, you would go and first stiffen the egg whites until they form soft peaks and then add the sugar bit by bit and make things shiny. I couldn't be bothered at that time.

I prepared a baking sheet with baking parchment and just poured the content of my bowl on it. The tray went into the oven for 1 hour. That can be quite some time if you have some strawberries smiling at you. There is only one thing a man can do, when strawberries are smiling at him ... as a result I worked myself through the strawberries ... bit by bit.
At one point I restrained myself and did something else.

The large meringue was ready and I put it out to cool. Of course, you could leave it in the oven with the oven door slightly open and leave it to cool there. I couldn't be bothered.

I had some cream in the oven waiting eagerly to be put to great use. A bowl ... cream poured in it ... some more vanilla sugar ... and the mixer again. 
Now, if you are as skilled as I am, you manage some of the cream to spill out of the bowl before it is completely whipped. Whatever!
I squeezed a few strawberries and mixed them with the cream.

The cream in that state came over the meringue and then ... what was left of the strawberries, cut into quarters.

That didn't look that bad.  After all that, there were still enough strawberries left. Normally I would just eat it and don't think further about it, but in blog world, things need names.
To make a short story long, I can't dance. What does this have to do wit it? Here we are. Pavlova came to my mind. As far as I remembered it is some kind of dessert with meringue. So I checked it on Wikipedia just to make sure my mind was working correctly. It was.
According to Wikipedia, "Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova." Right, I still can't dance and if I could, it would for sure be far from called ballet. Ah, maybe I can dance a tiny bit after all, But how could I know.
So just one more fact I found out during my research. Pavlova (not the dancer), at least that is what is believed, was first created after or during on of Pavlova's (yes, the dancer) tour to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. This dessert was created in honour to the ballet dancer Anna Pavlova.

Anyway, this particular dessert was not created in honour of her, but rather in honour of the strawberries that smiled at me and in honour to my stomach, which needs some delicious treats from time to time.
Another interesting thought, I could have made a mess - Eton Mess - using the very same ingredients. Just a thought. Simply five simple ingredients and you can even make different things out of it. Have a look again ...

With that now, I can't claim anymore, I never made a Pavlova. After all, that must be a Strawberry Pavlova. However, I still can claim, I can't dance.
Now I go and continue to make a mess (NOT an Eton Mess) ...

Christine & Christian - Episode 1: Welcome Home

They say, never judge a book by its cover. What about judging it by the weight?
On Monday, in a kind of a spur of the moment thing, while browsing on the Internet, I ordered a new cookbook. I expected it to be ready for picking up on Thursday after I got the confirmation it had been send out. Today, being at work the whole day, I wouldn't be able to receive it personally. However, a friendly neighbour stepped in and took the package from the delivery service.
Well, I didn't expect the package to be so big and it turned out the book was over 3 kg in weight. Judging by the weight? Let me show you the cover first.

Every journey has a beginning ... but not necessarily an ending. This is supposed to be the beginning. For as to where this will be going, who knows!
It may all have sound like me having a plan about cooking through a complete book, blogging about it and all that like. However, I'm not that planning kind of person, although that would help a lot at times, I reckon.
Now, here we are with a copy of Tasting India by Christine Manfield. I've set my mind on completely going through this book ... over 250 recipes and over 450 pages. A first glance inside revealed, that it will not all be about cooking.
Why that book? Who knows!
By the way, do you know Christine Manfield? So far, I only know, she has written a few other cookbooks, is from Australia and has a restaurant there in Sydney, and apparently, has written the very cookbook you see on that picture and that I'm going to work through.
Why that book? You might know, that I have mentioned it before, I wanted to do such a thing. I didn't want to go with a book I already have or that already has been done quite popular or from a person, I've cooked a lot from already. So my mind was blank and I asked around on the net.
Strangely, there was not so much of a suggesting mood around there, but one person, which name is not to be mentioned at this point, suggested this book and ... eh ... well, since I have a whoever knows what relationship with Australia, I thought by myself ... go for it.
Fine, the book is not about Australia, but about India ... and there are a lot of people out there, who love a good Indian meal. What more reason do I need? Right, the name of the author would make a fine title for this project: Christine & Christian.

"Welcome Home!"

That's what I can say to this book, since it finally arrived. Here is its new home and now it's the time to work with it.
For now I can say, watch out for more episodes from Christine & Christian. As time goes by I will write more about it, while I continue doing the normal things around here on the blog as I used to do so before.