Saturday, June 26, 2010

Red cabbage salad

Hello everyone, this week's recipe is something that I have copied from one of my favourite Italian restaurants. It's very simple and you can work out the quantities to suit your tastes.

Combine finely shredded red cabbage with raisins (which you may wish to plump up ahead of time in some verjuice), walnuts and chunks of gorgonzola dolce. Dress with your best extra virgin olive oil and balsamic. Toss together the ingredients, transfer to a deep bowl and serve with pizza, pasta, lamb, fish...whatever you are having for dinner.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Gnocchi with gorgonzola, spinach and walnuts

Hello everyone, I had such a piece of luck today. About six months ago I was out shopping with my friend Anne in Lane Cove and we spent some time in a small local art and craft gallery. A gorgeous brood of crackled pottery hens had just arrived and I was enormously tempted to buy them. I resisted at the time, although I really loved them, as there was something about the chickens that made me keep picking them up and stroking them. Today we went in there again and guess what, there were two chickens left, sitting on a shelf as if they were waiting for me! Of course I snapped them up straight away this time and they are now happily adorning my home.

This week's recipe is one of my favourite combinations of ingredients. It's a recipe from Good Living from a few years back, a good one for winter. It's definitely time for me to cook it again as I happen to have all of the necessary ingredients laid in, to be used in a couple of other dishes.

Have a lovely week! Love from Jane xx

Gnocchi with gorgonzola, spinach and walnuts

Serves four

What you need:
  • 500g good quality gnocchi
  • 100ml chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 100g gorgonzola, crumbled
  • 75g baby spinach
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1/3 cup fresh walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped
  • Freshly chopped flat leaf parsley, to serve (which is code for optional)

What you do:

  1. Cook the gnocchi in a large saucepan of boiling water until tender. Drain well.
  2. Place the chicken stock and butter in a large pan over a medium-high heat.
  3. Stir the stock until the butter has melted, then simmer for 2-3 minutes or until reduced by half.
  4. Add the gorgonzola and stir until the cheese has just melted.
  5. Toss the gnocchi with the gorgonzola sauce and baby spinach, and season with pepper.
  6. Serve sprinkled with the walnuts and parsley if using.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Herb baked fish on saffron and tomato potatoes

Hello everyone, well, my annual Sydney Film Festival immersion finished on Saturday with three films. The absolute highlight of the Festival for me was the first one I saw that day, a documentary called Bill Cunningham New York http://billcunninghamnewyork.com/, which was an absolutely charming and fascinating film about this man who cycles around the city, documenting New York fashion, both on the street and at charity galas. It was funny and moving and visually captivating. If you saw the Valentino film last year, or The September Issue, it's a film in the vein of those ones. If it gets a general release, it's another one I highly recommend. The snippets with some obscure diplomat who has a wardrobe full of custom made suits in the most bizarre designs and fabrics is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen.

This week's recipe is another dish combining two of my favourite things - fish and potato. It is from the June 2010 edition of delicious magazine. In it they use blue-eye. I substituted salmon as I am not huge on blue-eye, but I'm sure you could use whatever fish takes your fancy. I'm not convinced that the inclusion of the tomatoes adds anything so if you can't be bothered with the peeling and seeding, you won't lose anything by leaving them out. The potatoes work really well done this way - they are luscious!

Have a great week.

Love from Jane xx

Herb baked fish on saffron and tomato potatoes

Serves four

What you need:
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 250g vine ripened tomatoes, peeled, quartered and seeds removed
  • 900g floury potatoes (such as coliban), peeled and cut into 1cm slices
  • 300ml vegetable stock
  • A good pinch of saffron threads
  • 50g unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 teaspoon chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
  • 4 x 200g thick fish fillets

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
  2. Heat the oil in a deep frypan over a medium heat.
  3. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for one minute, then add tomato if using, and cook for two minutes until the tomato starts to soften.
  4. Reduce the heat to low and add the potato slices, stock, saffron and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
  5. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potato is almost tender.
  6. Transfer the potatoes and tomatoes to a baking dish, with the liquid, and season.
  7. Stir together the melted butter and chopped herbs, then coat the fish with the herb butter.
  8. Place the fish on top of the potatoes and pour over any remaining herb butter.
  9. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the fish is cooked to your liking and the potatoes are tender.
  10. Spoon the potatoes into warmed bowls and carefully arrange the fish on top and serve.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Apple crisp

Hello everyone, this week I launched into the Sydney Film Festival on Opening Night with a really, really beautiful film called South Solitary. It stars Miranda Otto and I highly recommend it when it has its general release. It was a great story, very funny at times, and the location, scenery, clothes and settings were gorgeous.

Thankfully it was such a great film as the opening night speeches were endless and boring. I really don't know why they had to be inflicted on those of us at the public event - they should have been confined to the opening night party afterwards. The Minister for the Arts and the Lord Mayor both gave blatantly political speeches, so I enjoyed the irony of the Minister who received a completely irrelevant and inappropriate special acknowledgement from the Minister for the Arts being sacked two days later!

Anyway, to calm me down, another fruit crumble, as this is just the right time of year for them. This one is a really simple one that comes from my beloved book Heart Of The Home.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Apple Crisp

Serves four to six

What you need:
  • About 4 Granny Smith apples
  • 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3/4 teapoon nutmeg
  • 1/3 cup softened butter

What you do:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  2. Butter a baking dish.
  3. Peel and slice the apples.
  4. Arrange the apple slices in the baking dish.
  5. Mix together the remaining ingredients and sprinkle over the apples.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender and the topping is golden brown.
  7. Serve it hot or cold with thick cream and/or icecream.