The Long and the Shortbread of it

9th August 2011 - Margaret Young's Shortbread

Back in the kitchen again and decided to give Margaret Young’s Shortbread a go. This was one of the first recipes that Dad gave me and I’ve been putting off trying it for ages (partly because the concept of Berry Sugar and Rice Flour was just weird).

Anyway, it wasn’t too difficult really. Berry Sugar is apparently just Caster Sugar so once I found the right size bowl and got the mixer sorted out, it was essentially just chucking everything together and watching it mix. That was until I realised I had to knead the mixture for 20 minutes!

Firstly, I have no idea what the point of this was, secondly it was a really sticky mixture so it wasn’t the easiest kneading I’ve ever done and thirdly 20 minutes is a long time to be kneading! I noticed that in the ingredients list that it says ‘3 cups flour + extra to knead into dough’ so I kept chucking in chunks of flour trying to see if it was going to change texture or look like a biscuit mixture in any way. It didn’t really change at all. It was seriously strange since I had no idea what it was meant to look like so had no concept of whether it was good or not.

I lay the mixture out on the bench and cut it into rectangles and then put them on the trays and into the oven. They were really hard to shape! It wasn’t a doughy texture so I’d put it into shape and then try to move it and they’d just sort of blob everywhere. Oh well, I won’t worry about presentation!

(The only photo I have is this one of the piece I was halfway through eating when I realised it was the last piece and I’d forgotten to take pictures)

The other slight issue I faced is that the oven needs to be on 135 degrees, and then increased to 150. Seems reasonable enough, except that our oven doesn’t have any numbers lower than 200. We can pretty much assume where 180 is, but don’t have much to go off apart from that. So whether or not the oven was at the right temperature I would not have a clue, but I trust my guessing skills! Luckily I’m an impatient s.o.b so I continually checked them and was able to move the trays so the ones at the back of the oven wouldn’t go too brown.

When they came out of the oven I was slightly confused about the texture, I think I forgot what shortbread was, but they weren’t really solid even after they’d been in the oven for an hour. They looked like they were the right colour so I took them out and just had to hope that they would firm up as they cooled down.

I had been pigging out all night, but couldn’t resist it any longer so had a sneaky taste of one straight off the tray. When I put it in my mouth, I heard this weird sizzling noise and was looking around trying to figure out what I’d sat the trays on that was burning – before realising that I could hear the shortbread burning my tongue! Such an idiot. I didn’t know what to do so just swallowed it so it would stop burning! Haha.

There was a shit load so I took it all to work and people seemed to go crazy for them. I saw number of people coming back for seconds and thirds (one person told me she had five!) so I’d say it was a pretty good attempt. I got some really great compliments which was nice – some people even preferred the slightly burnt ones so that worked out well. My boss was telling me that she tried it. She said she hates Shortbread so didn’t want to try it, but did after everyone was raving about it. I figured the end of the story was going to be “but it was really good, well done”. Turns out the end was “it tasted like shortbread and I don’t like shortbread” oh well, that’s something I guess!?

Tips: Wait for them to cool before eating them.

Music: Lowrider, Round the World

Since I’m such a cooking genius these days, I decided that I’d cook Pan Fried Perch with Tomato Olive and Caper Salsa (not a catchy name!) at the same time. This wasn’t particularly interesting or difficult, but was OK tasting. Here’s the recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14520/pan+fried+perch+with+tomato+olive+caper+salsa

Fishing for Compliments

15 may 2011 - Donna's Thai fish

Another Sunday night attempt at cooking after a nice weekend. I went out on Friday night and then literally didn't do anything else interesting the whole weekend - honestly I read an entire book, watched some movies (classics like 17 Again) went for an epic walk... Nothing.

Anyway, we had some fish in the freezer so i decided on Donna's Thai Fish. I had to buy "bottled sliced lemon grass" which I'd never even heard of before, but I found it without too much hassle. It all seemed to go really well, I didn't do anything stupid which was nice. I blended the sauce up with what Dad refers to as the "kitchen vibrater" and tipped it over the fish that was only slightly cooked from the microwave defrosting process. I didn't have as much fish as it said, but I just made the same amount of sauce anyway.

It turned out really well. I don't know how to tell if fish is cooked, but I just left it in for the 30minutes it says in the recipe and hoped for the best.

It smelt really weird but tasted nice. It was so effing spicy though as I have no tolerance for spice. It was full on! I complained up a storm and said dramatic things like "I'll never be able to taste anything ever again". Sian and 180 were having spaghetti bolognese, but they both tasted it and were impressed. Ange said it was "amazeballs" as she scoffed it off the serving spoon and Sian said "if i bought this in a restaurant I'd be happy" - best compliment ever!

She ate it again the next night and said, "holy fuck this is the best thing you've ever cooked. If I cooked it I'd think it was a triumph... It's sort of arrogant but it's the truth."

I'm calling it a success.

Tips: I'd pop in a bit less sweet chilli as it was so god damned spicy!

Music: Blues Brothers 2000 Soundtrack.

Flapping around like a fish out of... wine?

9^th March 2011 - Dad’s Fish in Foil

I am on fire at the moment, I’m cooking even when I don’t need to be! I cooked enchiladas one night and schnitzel and vegies and mushroom gravy (from scratch, even though I hate mushrooms and particularly the smell of mushrooms cooking) another night – just cos! Sian is getting spoiled rotten lately! The schnitzel episode was quite strange, I burnt myself in three different ways and on three different parts of my hand. Then I stopped concentrating and ruined the gravy (Sian still loved it sick even though it was kind of in a big lump) and I burnt the carrots... On second thoughts, maybe she’s not so spoiled.

Anyway, I decided to cook Dad’s Fish in Foil as I don’t think we eat enough fish, and we had some in the freezer. It went OK I think. I forgot to take the fish out of the freezer in the morning so accidentally cooked the ends in the defrosting process which wasn’t great. The herbs I used were coriander, basil and chives and I chucked in some onion and garlic (the best finely chopped garlic in the world! It was meant to be crushed, but we don’t have a garlic crusher... I blame Adam). The fish was Bassa and the wine was a Rosemont Sauvignon Blanc we had in the fridge.

It really was as easy as Dad said it would be! Sian told me I should oil spray the foil before I put the fish in, which I did, but that was the only real change I made. I cooked it in the oven for a bit less than 20 minutes and it was perfect.

We ate it with Sweet Potato Chips that I made (seasoned them with sweet paprika) and salad.

I think it looked and smelled better than it tasted. I don’t think I like Bassa because last time Sian cooked it I had the same issue. I think it’s one of my weird texture issues. I liked the combination of stuff on top though and it would have gone well with the chips and salad if it was a nicer fish. Sian seemed to love it though and hoovered it up (Conehead style).

Tips: I mixed all the herbs and stuff together in a bowl, so the garlic wouldn’t be on clumps on top of the fish. I thought it was a genius idea, but in reality I think most of the garlic ended up on the sides of the bowl, so it was perhaps slightly counter-productive.

Music: Dave Matthews Band