So this night a couple of weeks ago, we started with homemade bread with oil, garlic and oregano drizzled over the top and served hot. We then had homemade fettucini with a basic tomato sauce. As you have probably already gathered I absolutely LOVE homemade pasta! Then came the rabbit stew. Poor little fella was prancing around the backyard probably two days earlier. However, they dont waste any of the animal (which I am sure he would be glad to know). When my Nonno started sucking on the head of the rabbit skull though, I was quite glad I was sitting at the other side of the table. Beef and chicken cutlets were also served with a simple lettuce salad. My Nonno’s homemade wine was on the table. I really enjoy homemade wine, you feel so much better after drinking it then you normally would. The tiny little fruit flies really make the experience authentic!

Dessert was a delicious fig pie with figs from my aunty and uncle’s backyard.

I also tried prickly pear for the first time. Tastes like a sweet, pippy version of watermelon. Same, same but different!

What I love about these kind of meals is that the evening completely revolves around the food and eating. We sat at the table from 6 till 10pm enjoying the different flavours and filling up till there was no more room. The rest of the family capped it off with a quick espresso (if I had I would be up till 4am) and then it was all over. Once again I didn’t take enough pics. Next time I will be sure to! A x

3 skinned and boned chicken thighs

3 cloves of garlic

1 red capsicum

2 tomatoes

handful of black olives

olive oil

salt, pepper and paprika

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Slice the fat off the thighs and cut each into three pieces. Place them in an oven dish. Chop the garlic very coarsely. Slice capsicum thinly and dice tomatoes. Add them to the dish with the olives and garlic. Pour a splash of oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of paprika. Mix throughly and place in the oven. In 20 mins, take it out and squash down the tomatoes so that the juice oozes out. Put back in the oven for 10-15 mins or until the chicken is cooked. Serve it with mashed potatoes, or corn, or brocolli (or whatever other vegetables you have handy). Yum… A x

Tonight it was chicken thighs, red capsicum, garlic, black turkish olives, tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. Its so easy. It is in the oven in 10-15 mins and cooks for about 30-40 mins. Tonight we had a small tray of home made pasta in the freezer so we had that with a bit of the sauce. Oh my goodness!!! It was soooo good.

  I am now watching Feasts on SBS. Tonight it features a Baby Sumo festival and a naked man eating convention. How intriguing. Anyway I will post the recipe for the chicken dish. It is simple. Perfect after a busy day. A x

I just felt like adding to the post about our first Feast Night. The main problem that has arisen, is trying to organise when our friends and family will be able to attend. We are holding one every few weeks, and the list of guests we hope to host is oh so long. But don’t worry, we will keep on going till we have invited everyone we can…. even if it takes us 70 years.

Next Feast Night we will have more photos. We were so caught up with the cooking and hosting that we forgot to take more snaps. It was a lovely evening! So nice to be dressed up at home in such a gorgeous setting. Since it was an italian theme, we asked guests to dress apprpropriately. One of my good friends, the character that he is, showed up in a matching tracksuit with a big gold earring…. truly Italian he thought!

I will post the recipes soon as promised. Please let us know if you try any!!

A

Did we have any mishaps?  Well … yes.  We actually started cooking on the Friday.  We thought we would be clever and make the cake and biscotti so that Saturday we would be able to relax and enjoy ourselves in the kitchen.  Ha!!  Well things don’t always go to plan. 

After making the wonderful mandarin, macadamia and polenta cake, I put it on the counter to cool.  So far so good.  Then as I tried to turn the cake out of the tin … DISASTER!  The cake tin slipped out of my hand and the cake fell on the counter in a crumpled mess!  I was so upset that I slumped to the floor.  It was 5pm at this stage and we hadn’t even started on the biscotti.  I just looked up at A and her husband, Ryan, in defeat.  R sweetly suggested that we could still eat it.  Lol.

Well, we were not going to be defeated.  Even though we were going to have to go out Saturday to get the ingredients again for the cake, we were determined to go on.  What we did do was the biscotti and ciabatta bread instead.  They turned out beautiful!

The biscotti has wonderful dark chocolate chunks which melted into the dough and crushed almonds. Delicious!!  A soaked and roasted the almonds, so every ingredient we used was fresh and tasty. 

The ciabatta bread turned out absolutely wonderful.  So much so that we have made several more since that night.  Using the bread maker to prepare the dough makes life a little easier and then it is just a matter of letting the dough rest and then popping into the oven.  And presto you have fresh ciabatta bread.  I think bread in the oven is one of the most tantalising smells, the aroma just fills your nose and your mouth starts to water, yum!

We made sure that we bought good quality bread flour from a quality store that only supplies flours and accessories for bread/pasta making.  We believe that it is the ingredients that make all the difference. 

On the Saturday, the first thing we did was re-make the cake.  This time there were no disasters and the cake turned out perfect.  Yay!  I think the blend of mandarin, macadamia and polenta is just wonderful.  Every mouthful is not only stimulating to your taste buds, but textually it is wonderful too.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of cream.  Just try not to lick your lips.

Once the cake was in the oven we set about making the dough for the ravioli.  Again, we used quality flours and once again I have to say – wow – what a different.  The pasta was soft and creamy and just melted in your mouth.  It didn’t have that dry, packaged taste to it.  As for the colour, once cooked it was milky and fresh.  For feast night we decided to make the dough from hand, but you could put all the ingredients into a bread maker to save time and energy.  For authenticity, we wanted to do this all from scratch. 

Once the dough was ready, we placed it in the fridge to rest and set about making the filling, which was potato, mint and pecorino cheese. 

Once the dough was ready we rolled the pasta out and filled.  This was fun and we really enjoyed doing this. 

We decided to try a couple, just to be sure that they were good.  The ravioli was creamy and the taste of the mint, with a hint of lemon, just blended perfectly together.  Everyone absolutely loved this dish. It was A’s favourite! As we started the evening with a lovely antipasto of prosciutto, salami, eggplant and olives served with our ciabatta bread; we decided to the ravioli for entrée, but you could quite easily have eaten as a main.  Fantastic. 

When we finished making the pasta, we prepared the mushrooms and veal involtini.  Both were great hits with everyone.  They were not difficult to prepare, in fact the veal was the easiest of the dishes to prepare. 

Once cooked, the juices from the mushroom just oozed out.  One of our guests is a vegetarian so she loved this dish.  Mushrooms are meaty and filling, so make a fantastic food for vegetarians.

We bought the veal from a very good butcher, who sliced the meat in front of us.  The veal was pink and soft and simply mouth-watering.  They were filled with asparagus, prosciutto and jarlsberg (we couldn’t find the bel paese cheese so substituted with the jarlsberg).  We then added the Marsala into a hot pan with butter and poured it over the veal. The combination was to die for. 

To cut the meatiness of the main; we served a fresh crisp salad of baby spinach, walnuts, feta (made from goats milk) and pomegranate.  I have to say I really loved this salad, the sweetness of the pomegranate combined with the crunchy nuts and salty, creamy feta was amazing.  Everything just tied well together.  We served an aperitif of sparkling wine with pomegranate juice and fresh seeds with the antipasto; and this theme carried into the main.  It was lovely.

All in all, we would have to say that our first ever feast night was a rip-roaring success.  Just two girls in a normal kitchen and this is what we produced.  Both our husbands were very happy, as were our guests and my five-year old just though everything was splendid. 

We will be posting the recipes for you all to try, and when we have settled on a theme for our next feast night, we will post the menu.  In the meantime, keep cooking and enjoying feasting with friends. F & A

You are going to laugh when I tell you were I got this recipe from; the back of a tin of nestle baking cocoa.  LOL.  Told you.  But seriously, it is such a simple recipe and has never failed me!  I substituted the chocolate bits for walnuts as I am a bit of a nut. Lol.  So here it is.

chocolate walnut brownies

150 g butter (melted)

1 cup baking cocoa

4 eggs

2 cups sugar (I tend to use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and it still works)

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

190 g walnuts (or chocolate bits – what you fancy)

Preheat oven to 160°c.  Line base of a 27cm x 18cm x 3cm tin with baking paper.

Melt butter and stir in with baking cocoa.  Once cooled beat in eggs, then sugar and vanilla.

Sift in to the mixture the  flour and baking powder together. Mix thoroughly and then add the walnuts and mix.  Pour mixture into tin.

Bake in the oven for 45-50 mins or until ‘just’ firm.  Leave in tin to cool and then turn out onto a rack.  When cold (if you have the patience to get to this stage) cut.

Enjoy F x

Minestrone Soup

1 x large carrot, peeled and diced

3 x celery stalks, diced

1 x potato, diced

1 broccoli, cut into small pieces

1 x medium onion, finely diced

3 x cloves garlic, finely diced or minced

1 x tin red kidney beans

1/2 x tin crushed tomato

1 x whole green lentils, washed

1 x cup of small pasta shells (any small pasta really)

1 x tablespoon of capsicum paste (can find in Turkish shops) or tomato  paste

Olive oil, enough to saute onions and vegetables

Water to cover

Salt/Pepper to taste

Helim/Haloumi or Parmesan, grated

Pour oil in pot.  Saute onions until they start to go slightly clear and then throw in garlic and veggies.  Cook until still slightly crispy.  

Add lentils and tomatoes, cook for a couple of minutes and then add beans.  Cover with water, make sure you leave enough for evaporation (lentils will expand).  Stir in capsicum paste and put on lid.  Cook for at least 30 mins.

Once lentils look like they are cooked add pasta.

I had some lovely Turkish Helim (Haloumi) in fridge so I grated that over the top instead of the usual parmesan.  But please DO NOT USE CHEDDAR CHEESE!! 

It really makes all the difference when you use a lovely textured cheese and it isn’t expensive now to pick up a lovely parmesan or romano at the supermarket.  And if you grate it fresh yourself, well all the better!!

This pot feed my hungry husband (who always has two large bowls!!), daughter and I for two nights.  F xx

Sorry for not posting this week.  It has been crazy!!!  Started a new job working from home – now I know that sounds great but it can actually be quite dangerous.  I thought I would still have time to do other things, but I find myself sitting in front of the computer all day and still rushing around to get everything else done.   

But I really shouldn’t complain, I get to work from home and still drop my daughter off the school and be there to pick her up in afternoon. 

So this week I have had to make rushed, quick meals.  I made a lovely minestrone the other night (which was enough for two nights) and both hubby and five-year old were very happy.  Will post the recipe next. 

As to the feast night.  Well that update is coming up.  All I can say is that we will definitely be having another one!!

Keep you all posted. F

Peynirli Pogaca (Cheese Pastry)

1 x bunch of parsley (washed and finely chopped)

1 x teaspoon of yeast

100g  natural yoghurt

2 eggs

200g feta (white cheese)

300g butter (melted)

600g plain flour

juice of half a lemon

Make a hollow in the flour, pour in melted butter and yoghurt and mix.  Add lemon juice, yeast and make a dough.  Cover with a damp cloth and let stand for 20 min. 

Prepare filling by mixing feta, parsley and 1 egg.

Cut off a piece of dough, roughly the size of an egg, and flatten to 1cm disc.  Place teaspoon of filling on one half and fold over.  Continue process until all dough and filling is gone.  Makes about 18.

Place pasties on buttered tray with baking paper.  Brush with egg yolk and bake in a medium oven for about 35 minutes until the top becomes golden. 

tip. you can sprinkle sesame seeds on before baking.

As you see there is a lot of butter in this recipe.  The recipe didn’t specify whether the butter should be hot or cold, I just waited for a few seconds just to cool slightly before pouring it in.

The dough was easy to manage and I put it aside for 20 min, covered with a damp tea towel. 

My five-year old helped me with this recipe.  She had a ball, mixing and getting her hands dirty.

The feta, parsley and egg in a bowl ready to be mixed.  Please forgive the poor photographs, hopefully this will improve with time and a better camera. Lol. 

My discs were far from perfect. I started off putting in smaller amounts as the filling didn’t look like there would be enough for dough.  But trust me, there is.

As you can see my daughter’s tray of pasties were very creative.   On the other hand, my attempt was slightly boring.    I think my daughter’s were far more imaginative.

I then put in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees (gas oven) for 35 minutes.

Final result.  They smelt delicious.  I like things a like bit sour, but found this was just a bit too tart for my taste.  My husband liked them, he devoured the lot.

I decided to give this one another go, this time tweaking the recipe slightly. 

I took out the yeast (wasn’t really sure why it was there to begin with, as it didn’t rise) and reduced the lemon juice to 1 teaspoon, also reduced butter to 270g.  I also made the pasties smaller. 

To be honest, I think they tasted better.  So did my daughter and husband.  Let me know what you guys think. 

In Turkey, they enjoy these pastries for breakfast or as a snack with a hot cup of tea.    I am thinking of giving this recipe another tweak and trying other fillings. 

If anyone does attempt this recipe, please let me know if you adjusted anything, and how it all turned out. 

Enjoy. F

ps. I did notice that the dough was a little more difficult to handle with the second batch – not sure if this is because of the yeast being removed.  If anyone knows the answer, could they please let me know.  thanks