Tortellini 'cheese' with roasted tomatoes

SERVES: 4 - 6
PREPARATION: 15 MINUTES
COOKING: 23 MINUTES

Ingredients 
2 punnets grape or cherry tomatoes
1 tbs olive oil
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
500g cheese & spinach tortellini
70g unsalted butter 
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
800ml milk
3 cups (360g) grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/3 cup (80ml) thickened cream
Green salad, to serve (optional) 

Method
Preheat oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and lightly grease a shallow 30cm x 22cm baking dish.


Place the tomatoes on the lined baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic and some sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss the tomatoes to coat in the oil, then roast in the oven for 5 - 6 minutes until just tender but still holding their shape. Set aside.


Cook the tortellini in a saucepan of boiling salted water according to packet instructions, drain. 


Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large saucepan over low heat, then add the flour and cook gently, stirring for 1 minute until well combined. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Return the pan to medium heat, and slowly bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Simmer very gently over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is smooth & thick. Remove from the heat, then stir in 2 cups (240g) grated cheese, cayenne and some salt to taste. Once the cheese has melted gently stir in the cream, then add the cooked tortellini and roasted tomatoes and stir to combine. 


Spoon the tortellini mixture into the prepared baking dish. Scatter over the remaining cheese and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until golden and bubbling. 


Divide the pasta among plates and serve with a green salad if desired. 

My Notes

This was a really yummy and warming winter dish which came from the terrific Delicious Magazine


I went a bit over board with the cayenne.....

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

SERVES: 8 
PREPARATION: 10 MINUTES
COOKING: 35 - 40 MINUTES

Ingredients 
440g can pineapple slices in juice
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
90g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups self raising flower, sifted 

Method
Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Grease a 6cm deep, 20cm (base) round ring pan. Line base with baking paper. 


Drain pineapple, reserving 2 tablespoons juice. Cut pineapple in half. 


Sprinkle brown sugar over base of prepared pan. Arrange pineapple, just touching, over sugar.


Using an electric mixer, beat butter and caster sugar for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.


Add flour and reserved pineapple juice. Stir to combine. Spread mixture over pineapple. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Serve 


My Notes 
Well as you can see as usual I did not have the right cake tin :) so I just used a normal one, and to pretty it up I put some glace cherries into the pineapple ring holes. 


As for the mixture, I added ALL the pineapple juice from the tin as the batter was really really thick. It was an OK cake but not one that I would make again, it was very dry. 

This recipe also came from Super Food Ideas Magazine which is a cheap & cheery mag for home cooks. But it has had a run in this house lately :) 

Maple Glazed Pear Meat Loaf

SERVES: 4
PREPARATION: 20 MINUTES 
COOKING: 45 MINUTES + 8 MINUTES FOR CARAMELISED ONIONS

Ingredients


Meatloaf
500g Pork Mince 
500g Veal Mince 
1 1/2 cup cooked couscous +
2 tablespoons thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
sea salt and cracked black pepper
1/2 cup (150g) caramelised onion (see recipe below) 
2 firm pears, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons maple syrup


Caramelised Onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 brown onions, sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Method
Caramelised Onion


Heat a large non stick frying pan over medium heat, add the oil and onions cook for 10 minutes, stirring or until onion is golden and soft.


Add sugar and vinegar and stir until sugar has dissolved.


Cook for 5 to 8 minutes until thick and caramelised.


Spoon into a sterilised glass jar and seal. Store in the fridge for up to one week. Makes 1 cup.


Meatloaf


Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Place the pork and veal mince, couscous, thyme, garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well to combine.


Press into a lightly greased 1.5 litre capacity (6 cups) baking dish.


Spread with caramelised onion, top with pear and brush with maple syrup.


Bake for 45 minutes or until cooked through and golden. 

My Notes 


I used the full 1 cup of caramelised onion for this dish, 1/2 cup was no where near enough.


One cup uncooked couscous makes 2 cups cooked couscous. 


I would say this amount serves 6 rather than 4! 

This was a really nice one pot dish again from the lovely Donna Hay Magazine. I thought it could have done with quite a bit more salt, but hard to taste the raw meatloaf mix for seasoning :) 


I served this with a rocket and pear salad which was nice and lightened the dish up. 


I would make this again and it would be nice with pear chopped up into the meat mixture, it would add little bursts of sweetness. 

Potato Soup with Crispy Bacon

SERVES: 4 
PREPARATION: 20 MINUTES
COOKING: 20 MINUTES


Ingredients 


4 teaspoons oil
4 rashers bacon, chopped
1 brown onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1.5 kg sebago (starchy) potatoes, peeled & chopped
2 sprigs thyme
2 litres chicken stock
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup cream

Method


Heat 2 teaspoons oil over high heat, add the chopped bacon and cook for 2 - 3 minutes until crisp. Set aside


Heat another 2 teaspoons of oil in the pan, add chopped onion, and garlic, cook for 1 minute.


Add potatoes, thyme, chicken stock & water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes.


Blend with a hand held blender until smooth and stir through cream. 


Top with bacon to serve.

My Notes


When I mentioned that I was going to make this soup there was a turned up nose! I know it looks and sounds fairly bland, but WOW this soup was really, really delicious and next time I make it there will be a race to the table and definitely no turned up noses :) 

This recipe is from Donna Hay Magazine.....I just love it! And there is many more recipes yet to come from it :) 


I haven't bought a cooking mag at all this month! the ones I have have some great stuff in them that I want to make...mind you I HAVE got to have the new Masterchef mag, it has macarons on the front YUM 

Caramelised Fennel Tarts

SERVES: 4
PREPARATION: 25 MINUTES
COOKING: 20 MINUTES


Ingredients 


50g butter
4 baby fennel bulbs (520g), trimmed, halved lengthways 
1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
1/2 cup (125ml) orange juice
1 sheet puff pasty
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme 

Method


Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan-forced. Grease and line 2 oven trays. 


Melt butter in large frying pan; cook fennel until browned lightly. Add rind and juice; bring to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until fennel is caramelised and tender. 


Cut pastry sheet into 4 squares; place on oven trays. Remove fennel from pan, leaving behind the pan juices; divide among pastry squares. 


Bake tarts about 20 minutes or until pastry is browned.


Meanwhile, return pan juices to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens slightly.


Serve tarts drizzled with sauce and sprinkled with thyme. 

My Notes

As you can probably tell from the photos I made this recipe for lunch for 2 people and made 2 long tarts instead of the 4. Looked quite stylish and they were a really yummy vegetarian lunch! 


This recipe came from the cook book Daniel gave me for my birthday. Women's Weekly The Complete Cook. 



This is a great book which lists recipes by ingredients, which comes in handy when there is something in the fridge that needs to get used :) 

Lemon & Sugar Pancakes

SERVES: 4
PREPARATION: 10 MINUTES
COOKING: 15 MINUTES


Well Pancakes are not something that we have a lot of around here...but it has been SO cold and miserable food has been all about warmth and comfort :) 

Ingredients 

• 2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
• 2 tbs caster sugar
• 2 1/3 cups (580ml) milk
• 80g butter, melted, cooled
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• Extra melted butter
• Extra sugar, to serve (caster or brown) 
• Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

Sift flour into a bowl. Add sugar and stir well. Add milk, butter and egg. Whisk until well combined.

Brush two small non-stick frying pans with a little of the extra melted butter. Heat over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup of mixture to each pan. Cook for 2 minutes, or until bubbles appear on the surface. Carefully turn over and cook fro 1 minute.

Transfer pancakes to a plate and wrap loosely in a clean tea towel to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter, greasing pan between each batch. If you find the pan is getting too hot, reduce heat slightly.

Serve pancakes with lemon and sugar.

My Notes 

Originally we were going to have pancakes with home made honeycomb that Daniel was making which   

Gary Mehgan from Masterchef made on the show, but it was a bit of a disaster :) and we were hungry and didn't want to wait 45 minutes for the honeycomb to set! 

see how to make honeycomb here  on Daniel's link :)    

Jimmy's Butter Chicken

SERVES: 4
PREPARATION: 20 MINUTES
COOK: 40 MINUTES

Ingredients
140g (1/2 cup) Greek style yoghurt
3cm piece ginger, peeled finely grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2tbs garam masala
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbs olive oil, plus extra, to grease
1/4 cup roughly chopped coriander, plus extra leaves to serve
800g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3cm wide strips
2 tbs ghee (clarified butter) (see my notes)
2 onions thinly sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 tbs tomato paste
2 long red chillies, seeded, finely chopped
260g (1 cup) passata (sieved pureed tomatoes)
300ml pouring cream
1 bunch mint, leaves picked, finely chopped


Basmati rice and pappadams, to serve

Method
Combine yoghurt, ginger, garlic, 1tbs garam masala, lemon juice, oil and half the coriander in a large bowl, then season with salt and pepper. Add chicken and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours. 


Preheat a lightly greased barbecue or char-grill pan over medium - high heat. Remove chicken from marinade and cook, in 2 batches, turning for 6 minutes or until almost cooked through.


Heat ghee in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, turmeric, tomato paste, chillies and remaining garam masala, and cook stirring for 5 minutes or until onions are soft. Add passata and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Reduce heat to low, add cream, mint and remaining coriander, and cook stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken and simmer stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until sauce thickens. Scatter with extra coriander and serve with rice and pappadums.

My Notes
This was a absolute screamer of a great dish! really tasty!!! The recipe comes from one of 2010 Australian Master Chef contestants Jimmy Seervai and was published in the 2nd edition of Masterchef Magazine. 

I must say at first look at this magazine I was disappointed....it just does not overflow with fabulous recipes like the 1st one, but on the second look I did find a few things that I wouldn't mind making. 


Really the only note I would differ on in this recipe is that the sauce doesn't need to thicken, the consistency is really good right from the start! so keep an eye on it to make sure the sauce doesn't reduce too much. 


Oh and don't go looking for ghee in the fridge section of the supermarket! It's not in the butter section..."who knew?" It is in the ethnic food section, we had a really helpful young girl at woolies go hunting for it :) 

Maple and Date Syrup Cake

SERVES: 8 - 10
COOK: 50 MINUTES
PREPARATION: 20 MINUTES 

Ingredients
1 cup (230g) fresh pitted dates, chopped
1/2 cup (80g) chopped sultanas
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda
3/4 cup (180ml) boiling water
1 1/2 cups (225g) self raising (self rising) flour, sifted
3/4 cup (130g) brown sugar
150g butter, melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups (500ml) maple syrup extra

Method
Preheat oven to 160C (325F). Place the dates, sultanas, bicarbonate of soda and water in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Using a hand held blender, blend the date mixture until smooth. Set aside. 


Place the flour and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter, maple syrup, vanilla, eggs and date mixture and mix well to combine. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 20cm round tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 50 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Place the extra maple syrup in a saucepan over high heat and cook for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Allow to cool slightly. Pour warm syrup over the cake to serve. 

My Notes
This cake could easily have been cooked in a bigger say 22cm cake tin as it rose really high! and it probably would have cooked in the recommended 50 minutes. I needed to cook for a further 20 minutes as the cake was still runny in the middle. 


It looks like an awful amount of Maple Syrup around this cake! I wonder if it will soak up...It cost a fortune! 

This recipe was from Donna Hay Magazine June/July 2010 issue, wow what a great magazine! (and to be honest I am surprised...I have never been a fan of hers, mainly from seeing her on the TV where she just leaves me cold!) but I have tagged just about every second page with recipes that I just HAVE to make! and all the photos are really gorgeous! I wish I could take them like that :)  I think I will be buying this magazine again:) even though Daniel has put me on a magazine buying ban.......we shall see... *evil twinkle in my eye*

Rich Choc-Caramel Self Saucing Pudding

SERVES: 6 
PREPARATION: 10 MINUTES 
COOK: 40 MINUTES

Ingredients 
220g block caramello chocolate
1 1/3 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder 
1 cup caster sugar
125g butter, melted
1 cup milk 
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups boiling water
frozen raspberries, thawed
icing sugar 
vanilla ice cream to serve

Method
Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Grease a 3cm deep, 19cm x 30cm (base) lamington pan. Place chocolate block in freezer for 20 minutes.


Sift flour and 2 tbs cocoa powder into a bowl. Add caster sugar, butter and milk. Whisk until smooth and combined. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Break chocolate into squares. Press into flour mixture. Using a spatula, smooth mixture over the top. Place on a baking tray. 


Sprinkle brown sugar over mixture. Sift over remaining cocoa. Carefully pour boiling water, over the back of a large metal spoon, over mixture. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until top is just set. Stand for 5 minutes. Top with raspberries and icing sugar. Serve with icecream. 

My Notes 
I have the misfortune of not having a lamington tray, and as I am not fond of lamingtons I can't see myself rushing out to buy one any time soon, so I used the closest thing I have to it which was a pyrex glass baking dish, which worked fine.


This was a really delicious warm dessert....mmmmmm, we hardly ever eat icecream, and I didn't want to buy a whole big tub that would end up being thrown out, so I found just a little single serve tub did the trick!  Only trouble is that this serves 6 and I only got enough icecream for 2 serves lol.

The magazine that this recipe comes from Super Food Ideas is an absolute little ripper of a mag and for $2.95 it's a bargain with lots of other recipes worth a try :) 


Oh and look at that! the recipe I cooked is on the cover :) and there was a free berry tea bag as well, which I am drinking as I write this. Also very yummy and smells great! 

Mussels with Tomato, Chorizo & Sherry

SERVES: 4 
PREPARATION: 20 MINS
COOK: 25 MINS 

Ingredients
1kg fresh mussels
2tbs olive oil
1 red onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 tbs dry sherry
400g can chopped tomatoes
300ml fish or chicken stock
1tbs fresh thyme leaves, plus extra to serve
1 chorizo sausage, cut into 1cm cubes




Method
Soak mussels in cold water for 1 hour, changing water twice (this helps remove any grit). Drain mussels, discarding any broken shells. Scrub and remove beards. 


Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion for 5 minutes to soften. Add sherry and bubble for 30 seconds, then add tomato, stock and thyme and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes, then add mussels and cover with a lid. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes, removing mussels as they open (discard any mussels that haven't opened after this time). Keep mussels warm while you simmer the sauce over medium high for 20 minutes until reduced to a thick relish.


Meanwhile, cook chorizo in a pan over medium heat for 2 - 3 minutes until crisp and browned. Drain on a paper towel.


Remove and discard 'top' shells from shells. Serve mussels with the relish, chorizo & thyme.

My Notes
Wow this was a really gutsy dish! full of flavour and really moorish :) 


I decided to leave the relish as a bit more of a thick sauce consistency as we had this dish with really yummy crispy garlic bread which we dipped into the sauce. 


I also added the chorizo to the sauce as it was reducing, the sausage really added to the flavour. 


A really easy dish to make, a really messy one to eat too! we will be eating this one again!

 This recipe comes from one of my favourite magazines Delicious June 2010 edition. Isn't the picture on the cover just gorgeous?! I have some pears in the fridge but I don't think I am game to attempt this :) 


The recipe is by Jill Dupleix, funny I just mentioned her in an earlier blog on about my Smashed Rosemary Potatoes Jill would have been one of my earliest influences when I first took an interest in cooking. 


I have a few recipes tagged to make from this magazine....now I just need the time to make them and eat them too!