Prawns with lemon butter sauce and tagliatelle

I have been a little remiss with my postings lately. Although I have cooked and experienced wonderful food of late, I've not found the time to share them with you. Not good enough I know, but there you are.
The past month or so has been more than a little distracting. Firstly, our dowager Sadie dog has been very unwell, actually on 'deaths door'.  It has been very, very upsetting to see our faithful companion stop eating and slowly lose weight. After many trips to the vet, antibiotics and much tempting with tasty morsels, she has finally turned the corner - thanks to (would you believe) freshly cooked, London Pride sausages! Our vet tells us that although this is good news, we still may only have limited months with her, due to the state of her kidneys etc. In the meantime we take good care of her, and make sure she rests in the sunshine. She will see her final days, in as much comfort as possible. Long walks with Sadie are no longer on our daily to do list. So the man and I have taken to going for walks on our own, just to get used to the idea of life without our dog!
Secondly I made a trip to Christchurch to spend time with family and to attend an Asian cooking class at the luxurious Otahuna Lodge in Tai Tapu http://www.otahuna.co.nz/?gclid=CNS32s3Wy8ACFZd7vQod6FYAYQ. This wonderful opportunity was a fantastic treat from my dear friend Deb, actually a birthday present she shared with lucky old me!
We had a gorgeous day eating, drinking and learning new techniques. An experience I will never forget. The staff at Otahuna Lodge are world class! And should I ever win Lotto I plan to book the whole place and invite all my family and friends to enjoy a weekend of Jimmy's cooking and the Otahuna experience.
I also managed to get along to a 'Wellington on a Plate' dining moment at the Ortega Fish Shack and Bar http://ortega.co.nz/  It is such a great place, decor rustic with very classy food. Our first course was Prawns in lemon butter sauce on fresh tagliatelle. I could have picked up the bowl and licked it. A gorgeous dish that begged to be wiped clean with my piece of bread. (I made apologies for my lack of table manners but then noted everyone else followed suit!)
On a Friday night I had a go at making my own version of this dish. The result was superb if I say so myself. It is not a recipe for any one with fish allergies, or on a dairy free, carbo free, low fat diet. No sir ree!

Sauce just before it was served

Get everything ready before you start the pasta

So, so delicious

Prawn and lemon butter sauce on fresh tagliatelle (serves 2)
Ingredients
Prawns 6-8 for each person - depending on your appetite
Lemon - cut into 8ths (skins on)
Butter - about 2tbsp
Cream  - about 1/4 cup
Parsley - a small handful, finely chopped
Garlic - 1-2 cloves - finely chopped
Method
Remove shells from prawns and de-vein (leave the tails on if you so wish) and set aside.
Boil a pot of lightly salted water, add the amount of tagliatelle you need for two. Cook to al dente.
Note: The quantities for the following sauce will depend on how many you are cooking for. 
While the pasta is cooking, make your sauce.
On a low heat, heat a medium size non-stick fry pan with about 2tbsp of butter (or more if you like more richness). Be careful not over cook or burn, it will spoil the final result.
Add the garlic and 4 pieces of lemon, squashing them to obtain the juice as the garlic cooks. You need the lemon, it cuts through the richness of the butter and gives your sauce a lovely flavour.
After a few minutes, add about 1/4 cup cream, add a pinch of parsley and warm through,.
Remove from heat and strain into a bowl.
Clean the pan, add a little olive oil and more butter if you wish. Toss in the prawns and cook for a few minutes until just done.
Remove from heat and set aside. Pour your butter sauce back into the pan, add a little salt to taste.
Add remaining parsley and warm through.
Serve pasta in a warm bowl, pile on cooked prawns and drizzle your sauce on top.
This is one of those decadent dishes you can save up for a celebration dinner for two. It is perfect with a lovely little chardonnay!

Pumpkin and Spinach pasta Rotolo

  I watched Jamie Oliver make this a week or so ago. I love his new TV programme, 'Saving with Jamie', in fact I have always liked his casual style of cooking and have quite a few of his recipe books in my library. I have never considered myself a 'fancy' cook, I am more aligned to his style of cooking than Julia Childs!
  His new 'cooking demo place' is in an old rustic looking warehouse type building. You see the odd train sliding past.... And so I find myself checking out the 'bibs and bobs' hanging around in the background - and lose touch with whats going on in his demo, thank goodness for the rewind button!
  This recipe is my kind of dish. Easy to make, using inexpensive ingredients, and very impressive looking to plonk on the table for the family.
  I made it exactly to his specifications, but just added a little water to the tomato sauce the rotolo sat in. Quite rightly I thought it might dry out if the sauce did not come up more than half way.
  I also roasted the pumpkin in  big chunks, so much easier to handle for your filling.
  While aimed at vegetarians, I'm sure you could easily adapt the ingredients to include a bolognaise sauce in the 'roll ups'.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/squash-spinach-pasta-rotolo
   At Jamie's suggestion, I used frozen spinach ( a first for me ) and at about $5.00 a packet it seemed an easier and quicker way to use spinach. Saves all that washing and 'destalking'. I will have it on hand in my freezer from now on.
This dish is easy to reheat the next day too.

I added a little more water and sauce, to come up two thirds of the pasta 'roll ups'

The fried sage on top is an especially nice touch, I love the stuff!

Brown bread, walnut and golden syrup steamed pudding

 For a recent dinner party I received a special request to make a golden syrup steamed pudding. I found this Ray McVinnie recipe after a search on the Cuisine website. It is just the ticket to cheer you up on a cold winters night. Trust me, they are divine! So easy to make if you have a kitchen whizz, some stale brown bread and a cup of walnuts on hand.
  As suggested, I used my (almost) redundant electric fry pan. (You can also use a bamboo dumpling steamer for the job). Using the fry pan, I had to keep a close eye on the water level and temperature in the pan. And I cooked my puddings a little longer than his 45 minutes. When checking with a skewer they were not quite done so I replaced the foil tightly and cooked them for about 10-15 minutes until I got that 'doneness'. (Is there such a word?).
  This recipe is fine for one large pudding. Steam for about 1 1/2 hours in a well covered bowl in a large saucepan with enough water to come 3/4 of the way up the bowl.
Making individual ones is a bit more of a fiddle. But when you serve these hot little gems onto a plate, they look gorgeous with all that lovely golden syrup ooooooozing over them. And they smell wonderful!
  I made the Chantilly cream to accompany my puddings, and in spite of serving six people I had a large bowl of cream left over. The good news is, the cream seems to go with anything remotely like a dessert!! Picture a banana smeared with Chantilly cream, so simple, and so lovely as a morning tea treat. Be great on a scone with raspberry jam too. Nothing gets wasted in this house!
 You can make the puddings beforehand. Leave the foil on the puddings and when required place them in a roasting dish with hot water (about half way up) and heat them in the oven for about 20 minutes on 160C.
Please try this recipe, it will take you back and remind you of your childhood and family winter puddings.

This was a pudding left over, and reheated the syrup has soaked in a bit

Ready to dig in, mmmmmmm......

Brown bread, walnuts and golden syrup steamed pudding – Ray McVinnie –Cuisine 
1 cup golden syrup
180g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped New Zealand walnut pieces
1 ½  cups fresh brown breadcrumbs, made by blitzing good-quality day-old brown sourdough in a food processor
175ml milk

Butter 6 x 250ml-capacity bowls or tea cups. Divide the golden syrup evenly among the bowls. Set aside.

Beat the butter and brown sugar together until pale and creamy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir the zest, flour, baking powder, walnuts, breadcrumbs and milk into the butter mix. Spoon this mixture evenly into the bowls, on top of the golden syrup.

Cover each bowl tightly with a double layer of foil then place in a large steamer or side by side in a large frying pan with a lid.

Fill the frying pan with hot water until it comes three-quarters of the way up the sides of the bowls. Cover and bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a pudding comes out clean.

Remove the puddings from the steamer then unmould on to serving plates. Serve with Chantilly cream.

Chantilly cream
200ml cream
150g mascarpone
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the cream, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla in a bowl then beat until the mixture holds soft peaks. Serve with the puddings.

Chocolate Anzac cookies

  Sometimes you have to give into something, and I am not talking about these delicious biscuits. I am referring to the fact that I have not been very well over the last week or so. It started with a sore throat that went away, came back and morphed into a thick throat and a voice that made me sound I was on my last legs!
  It was probably the sleep deprivation that really got to me in the end. On going to bed I couldn't decide if I was hot or cold. Or if I wanted to lie down or sit up. Or creep out of bed so as to not disturb the man. Or stand beside the bed wailing (to wake the man up, with the aim of getting some sympathetic, soothing words!). The only upside to all of this night time activity was that I finished two books in record time.
  I did not have time to be sick. I had a couple of events I wanted to attend during the week, so I 'soldiered' on, swallowing Panadol, immune boosters, lemon drinks etc etc. (You get the picture). Which actually ended up making me feel a bit queezy in the tummy as well. Honestly, give me a break!
  In the end I just gave up, and succumbed to it all!
  I stayed in my dressing gown most of the day, and went to bed for nice Nana naps in the afternoon when I felt a little drowsy. For some reason I rose early most mornings. Perhaps because I decided it felt better standing up, with all the 'toxins' draining downwards my feet. It is now a week later, and I am feeling a lot better. With more energy and enthusiasm for life.....
  During this awful time, I turned to my batch of Chocolate Anzac cookies I had made a few days before all of the above started. They tasted pretty good, no matter what the hour!
  I have posted my best Anzac biscuit recipe before, but this one is lovely with chunks of chocolate and a nice texture. You would have heard of Alice Arndell, she appeared in the NZ Hottest Home Baker series last year. She has since published a cookbook called 'Alice in Baking Land'. Her recipe appeared in the 'Life' supplement of the Dom Post a few weeks ago.
Note: I didn't have the orange infused oil on hand so I just used the zest of an orange stirred into my oil. I also topped up the dark chocolate (I had already eaten over half of it!), with chocolate bits.
My mixture was a little dry and didn't form balls very well, not sure why. But I just added a little more oil to the mixture and they turned out well.

Early morning, nice cuppa and Anzac biscuits (not one but two) while reading the paper

Orange olive oil and chocolate Anzac biscuits 

 Makes about 24

1 ½ c self-raising flour

1 c brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 c rolled oats

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp golden syrup

125g butter

1 tsp Baking Soda

250g dark chocolate (Whittaker’s is best) roughly chopped

 

Preheat oven to 180°C and line baking trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together, flour. Sugar, oats and salt. Set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat golden syrup and butter until butter is melted.

Stir well, stir in baking soda.

Make well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in melted butter and orange oil.

Stir until combined, stir in chocolate pieces.

Take a generous spoonful and roll into a ball.

Flatten slightly onto prepared trays, leaving about 3cm of space between biscuits.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.