Raspberry Sorbet

 

I can't remember whether I mentioned it, and I'm inclined to say that perhaps I didn't, but last year I was given a brand spankin' new Kenwood mixer for my 30th birthday by some super-duper-awesome-wonderful people in my life. I admit I was torn between getting a shiny Kitchen Aid, preferably in Rasberry Ice, or a Kenwood. But I grew up on Kenwood mixers, and this puppy has a massive 1500W of power versus the insipid 300W of a Kitchenaid. No contest.

 

So although this is beautiful, this is what I ended up with. Which is also beautiful, but in a different way. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get quite a bit of pleasure out of polishing it yesterday! #whyimsingle

From Kenwoodworld.com. To purchase visit "shop" at top of page

Not only does it have a 1500W motor but it also has a mixing bowl that is 2L bigger than does the Kitchenaid, so in theory I can now make quadruple batches of pavlova in one bowl without it exploding. And, oh, the batches of cake I could make! And the cream I could whip! I have such lofty ambitions :)

 

Anyway, for Christmas, my parents (independently, because they're divorced) gave me cash to put towards attachments for the Kenwood. I had enough for two attachments which are actually quite decent value for money. For example, the Kenwood stand-alone food processor is worth about $400, but the food processor attchment for the mixer was about $130. I guess the theory is that once you have the machine, the money you save on the attachments is about equal to the money (and space) you would save on all the other kitchen gadgetes. 

 

So I counted my little wad of cash and ordered the ice cream maker and a food processor attachments, and they arrived last week. And on the weekend, I used both to make raspberry sorbet, and it was amaaaaazing. You know, presuming you love raspberries just as much as I do! It was more tart than sweet, and made around four servings of two scoops each. I imagine next time I may consider straining the seeds out, but not for sure. I'm probably too lazy to bother, truth be told ;)

 

First, I used the food processor to puree the raspberries.

 

And then I used the ice cream maker to make the sorbet (duh). With this particular unit you put the ice cream maker insert in the freezer for 24 hours before you want to make the ice cream, so it requires a little forward planning, but honestly, if you can't predict that you're going to want ice cream then you're a moron. You could probably just keep it in the freezer all the time, and because it's a bowl you can put your frozen peas in the middle and you won't be losing a whole lot of space in your freezer to it. 

 

Sorry there's not a good shot of it (there are sure to be many more opportunities to take a picture of me making ice cream!), but imagine a plastic-on-the-outside, metal-on-the-inside bowl with a flat bottom and straight sides that sits within your mixer bowl. The cavity between the plastic bit and the metal bit contains what I assume is the same fluid you get in those plastic freezer bricks you put in your esky (as we call it. For those playing in New Zulund an esky is also known as a chully bun (=chilly bin), and for everyone else in the world I think it's known as a cooler or possibly an ice box). The ice cream maker has a clear polycarbonate lid, and that white plastic bit you can see in the middle has a shaft that goes down to the bottom, then splits into two paddles. The two paddles make their way in opposite directions to the side of the bowl where they make a 90 degree turn and move up the sides of the bowl. You can juuust see the top of one of the paddles poking out on the left of the bowl, at about the five-minutes-past-nine position.

 

INGREDIENTS:

350g of fresh or frozen raspberries, pureed

3/8c castor sugar (that's half of 3/4, if you're having trouble picturing it)

1/2c water

1/8c lime juice

 

Dissolve sugar in water in saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Once dissolved, bring it to the boil and boil for one minute. Set aside to cool.

 

Once cooled, mix through pureed rapberries. Add lime juice and mix (I had left the raspberries in the food processor and added both the sugar syrup and lime juice and turned it on quickly to mix them through).

 

Put in ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. In this case, the brief is to assemble the (pre-frozen) bowl, make sure it all lines up, then turn it on low and THEN pour the mix in. If you do it the other way around it will freeze to the side of the bowl and you will have problems!

 

In my case, it took half an hour for it to become a scoop-able but slightly wet sorbet. Being impatient, I was fine with that. The instructions say most things take half an hour, but to leave it going for up to 45 minutes if it's a little soft, and then if it's still not hard enough then you scoop it out and put it in the freezer. I know that the half of the batch we didn't eat on the first night hardened significantly in the freezer, so I had to let it sit on the bench for a while (the fridge might have been smarter) before scooping it out.

 

Easy peasy! I have to say, I was a little turned off ice cream making by my sort-of-disasterous vanilla ice cream, but I think I'm back in the game. And sorbet is a good place to start because there's no mucking around with eggs making a custard first.

 

What an excellent Christmas present. I look forward to many more interesting ice creams and sorbets! (I have my eye on a honey-walnut ice cream. Mmm...)

 

 

 

Michelle Bridges' Salmon with Char-Grilled Asparagus and Tomato Salad

I thought I'd share a savoury recipe for once. Normally it's all about cupcakes here, but since I have had increasing difficulty buttoning my pants I thought it might be wise to limit my cupcake intake for a time. Don't panic, it's not forever, just until I can fit back into a pair of pants (in the Australian sense, not the British sense!) other than the only two things left in my wardrobe that fit me!

 

So a while ago (hah probably nearly a year ago. Well done, Past Vanessa, for using your new cookbook so much) I bought myself a copy of the Michelle Bridges Crunch Time Cookbook. For the Americans out there, Michelle Bridges is Australia's answer to Jillian Michaels, although probably not quite as hardcore and mean.

 

But she still says some vastly unpopular things that make some women very angry, and there seems to be quite a polarised opinion on her methods, but she's right about a lot of things, and she definitely doesn't sugar coat it (because sugar is the devil. Duh.) - we're not going to lose weight by cuddling puppies or making daisy chains or through positive affirmations about ourselves, and we're certainly not going to do it by eating cheese (mmm, cheese... *undoes jeans button*). But as anyone who read her book knows, she actually does give a damn about the psychology behind weight gain, and does try to address it. So she's mean AND sensible ;) I don't agree with her brand of rapid weight loss because to me it's unsustainable, but it obviously works well for some people.

 

Anyway, to her recipes - last year I wrote a less-than-complimentary review about her Lentil Shepherd's Pie, probably because it was kind of watery, unfilling and a little bit low on taste. That could easily be fixed with some spices, and, as I said, you could probably add a little sweet potato to it in order to thicken it up and bulk it out. Last night's recipe was a bit higher on flavour thanks to the addition of basil and balsamic vinegar, although I suspect it may not have filled me up had I not added the zucchini and snow peas. That's not saying much, though, given what a bottomless pit I have been lately!

 

I'm sorry there are no photos - I was too hungry! - but I think we all know what a piece of grilled salmon sitting on top of a salad looks like.

 

The link to the original recipe is here, but I had to wing it a little because the supermarket was out of asparagus, and we were out of spray oil at home. And also because I feel superior in knowing that you get more flavour out of tearing herbs than chopping them!

 

The original calorie content is 269cal per serve (recipe serves two), but I'm guessing my version was probably closer to 300-325cal thanks to the oil and the fact I used beans (and a larger number of them) plus snow peas and zucchini rather than just a few spears of asparagus.

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

Two handfuls mixed salad greens, washed and drained

Handful of green beans, topped, tailed, halved across, washed

Smaller handful of snow peas, topped, tailed, halved across, washed

1 small zucchini, washed, topped, tailed, sliced down the middle then in diagonal, 1.5-2cm chunks

1 250g punnet of cherry tomatoes, washed

Handful of basil leaves, torn

2tsp balsamic vinegar

2tsp olive oil

2 150g salmon steaks

 

Put salad greens and torn basil in two large bowls.

 

Heat half the oil in a grill pan (I used our old family cast iron frypan instead. It's an amaaaazing piece of kitchenware to have, it's not even the schmancy enamelled type, and it probably cost about $20 from a camping shop). Put the beans in and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally so that they get a little bit of charring but don't burn.

 

Next, add snow peas and cook for about 30 seconds to a minute before adding the zucchini and tomatoes. Stir occasionally for another minute or two until everything is a little bit brown and heated through. I recommend tasting the zucchini at this point as uncooked zucchini is quite bitter.

 

Remove from heat and divide evenly between two bowls. Drizzle evenly with balsamic vinegar.

 

Return pan to heat with remaining oil. When pan is hot, grill salmon on both sides until lightly browned but still pink in the middle. Serve atop salad. Enjoy! (and I can say it wholeheartedly this time!)

 

Broccoli Salad

One of my 101 Things challenges that I've been surprisingly lax on is having a dinner party with a theme every six months. So just before Christmas I decided to hold a "red and green" themed dinner party in honour of the traditional Christmas colours.

 

Okay, so it was more "shades of red and green", which meant that pink and burgandy and purple and very pale green were all acceptable colours.

 

I'll eventually post a couple of other recipes, including a beetroot and goat cheese salad, a roasted vegetable salad, and an orange polenta cake covered in pink rose-flavoured buttercream and sprinkled with pistachios. Such pretty colours!

 

In the meantime, here is a salad that sounds utterly revolting, but which I promise is not. It really, really isn't. In fact, I could eat rather a lot of this and not get sick of it. I think. But it's red and green (sort of) and I made it for this red-and-green dinner party as well as for another Christmas potluck lunch.

 

It's adapted from a recipe on Simply Recipes and I have basically played around with the quantities, including eliminating half the dressing (because it was absolutely drowning in it the first time I made it for a pre-Christmas BBQ the weekend before the dinner party). I can't really claim it as my own, but I have added a couple of steps that I think were quite important for the success of the salad.

 

2 medium-large heads of broccoli

1/2c toasted slivered almonds

3 middle rashers of bacon (i.e. the full length, not the short cuts), rind & outer fat removed

A little oil

1/3 red onion, diced

1c frozen peas, thawed

1/2c mayonnaise (I used whole egg mayo - much nicer than that 97% fat free garbage)

1tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp honey

 

Thaw peas on paper towel and pat dry. You will want to use fairly new peas and not the ones from the back of your freezer, otherwise they'll be all wrinkly and manky.

 

Chop onion and set aside.

 

Dice bacon into 1-1.5cm pieces and fry in a little oil (you won't need much as the bacon releases fat) until lightly browned. Remove from heat and drain on paper towel. Set aside.

 

In the same pan, toast the slivered almonds and keep them moving until lightly browned. Remove them from the pan immediately that this happens, otherwise they will keep cooking and burn. Set aside.

 

Remove florets from broccoli heads. If you wish, you can also chop some of the stalk up and use that (I didn't). Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and prepare a large bowl with iced water. Place broccoli florets in water that is at a rolling boil and leave them only until they turn green (no more than 1-1.5 minutes) then lift out with a slotted spoon and plunge them into the iced water to arrest cooking. They should be bright green and still crunchy, but not repulsively so. You just don't want them to be soggy. You may need to do this in two batches. Drain broccoli thoroughly then pop in the refrigerator until you're ready to dress and serve it.

 

Mix the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar and honey until thoroughly and evenly combined. Keep refrigerated until ready to use it.

 

Shortly before serving, combine broccoli, almonds, onions and bacon in a large bowl. Pour dressing evenly over salad and toss to combine.

This is a shot without my favourite ingredient - bacon - because I am an awesome friend and didn't put it in until after the vegetarians had taken a serving. And bacon is why I will never be a vegetarian!