Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream

This is an easy cheat's way to produce a lovely tasting chocolate ice cream.  You just scoop some vanilla ice cream into a container and allow it to soften slightly.

Then put 2 teaspoons of a good quality drinking chocolate – mine was Belgian and came in a gift hamper -  into a teensy bit of hot water and mix – swirl this through your vanilla ice cream. 

Pop it back into the freezer and in a few hours you have your treat ready to eat.

Hungry by Darlene Barnes

 

 
Hungry by Darlene Barnes was an unusual book for me.  It's written by a feisty woman who was the cook at a Fraternity House for several years.

Early in the book, I wasn't sure it was good enough to post about but all that changed.  I ended up being really touched several times.  And there are also a few good recipes in the book – no food pics though.

As a non-American I knew next to nothing about the fraternity/sorority system so that was interesting to me in itself.

The other reason I decided to tell you about the book is that it developed as an offshoot of a blog Darlene did about her experiences. (BTW is Darlene a common US name?  It makes me think of the Aussie soap Neighbours for some reason)

I'm glad I read this even though I can't honestly say it was the best book of the year so far!

My father was a huge believer in the power of positivity!

 

Veggie green curry – Thai Style

 

I used a bought Thai curry paste for this Veggie green curry and it worked out just fine. 

Ingredients:

Zucchini – sprinkle lemon juice over it to stop it browning

Red capsicum (bell pepper)

½ a diced red onion

½ sliced carrot

1 clove of garlic, finely sliced 

Green curry paste

Fish sauce (you will need to find a substitute for this if you are vegetarian)

Golden syrup (or palm sugar)

Lemon juice

Vegetable oil

Tiny can of coconut milk 

For garnish – a small amount of sliced chilli and chopped herbs

How to do it:

Just fry off your sliced garlic until it is a bit golden and remove the garlic and set aside to add back in at the end.

Then add your green curry paste and a small amount of coconut milk and fry off so that it gets all fragrant.  Add your onion and cook for a few minutes, then add all the rest of the vegetables including the rest of the coconut milk and cook until just tender.

Taste your curry and add amounts of the fish sauce, golden syrup and lemon juice so that your curry has that essential Thai balance between hot, sour, sweet and salty.

Capital City of the Week – Reykjavik

 

Reykjavik would be a great word to play Hangman with – all those consonants!

This city (and country) used to be controlled by Denmark.  It became an independent country in 1944.

 

Reykjavik hosted the famous World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.

It is the world's most northerly capital – there's a clue!

 

There are geothermal hot pools in the locality – this country is seismically active just like New Zealand.

So where in the world is Reykjavik?

  

Reykjavik is the capital of: 

Katie Melua

 

Katie Melua is a British singer.  Her most well-known song is  Nine Million Bicycles (click here for a YouTube clip of it) – which is a really catchy little number.  But I got the album, Piece by Piece,  and found that it had heaps of great songs on it.  Don't you find that some albums only have 1 or 2 great tracks and you feel a bit cheated having bought the whole album?  Mind you the young people these days just download individual tracks so the concept of an album that hangs together as a body of work may end up disappearing.

But, back to Katie – I realised I hardly knew what she looked like even though I've listened to her tons of times.  She turns 30 in September – good luck with that!

Katie was born in the old USSR but moved to Britain when she was 9.  According to Wikipedia, Melua is an adrenaline junkie – enjoying things like paragliding and roller coasters – I'll leave that to her, thank you very much!

Not too sure about this... I seem to be getting older without doing anything....

Potato pancakes

 

I've called this dish potato pancakes but they are more of a cross between pancakes and blinis.  

They make a tasty big or little platform for putting things on linke sour cream, chilli, salmon caviar etc. 

 

First you need to bake your potatoes on a bed of rock or other coarse salt.  This dries out the potatoes and helps them combine better with the other ingredients.  I used roasting potatoes (Agria).

You bake your potatoes whole and unpeeled for an hour and a half in a moderately hot oven.  When done let them cool so you can handle them without burning yourself.

You scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl and mash the potato (it would be even better if you had a ricer but I don't)

Beat into the mixture 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks using a wooden spoon. Stir in ¼ cup of normal flour and then ¼ cup of hot cream (or milk) followed by another ¼ cup of flour.  Season with heaps of salt and ground white pepper.

Beat the 2 egg whites with a pinch of salt until they get to firm peaks stage.  Stir a spoonful into your batter first and then fold the rest of the egg whites in. 

 

I made this in advance so covered the mix and put it in the fridge for a few hours.

 

 

This makes quite a lot of potato pancakes but you can freeze the leftovers in air tight containers with wax paper between layers of the pancakes.

That was a lovely jaunty song, too!

 

Dinan in Brittany

 

Dinan is a fabulous medieval hilltop town to visit.  But it became spectacular when we happened to walk around to the other side of the St Saviour's Basilica and found a panoramic view down to the river Rance and the port section of Dinan.  The sea is 15k away. 

How do you like that bridge!  I must say that both ancient and modern French engineering has much to be admired! 

In the town itself there is quite a Celtic influence and many of the locals have red hair too! 

If you are lucky enough to visit Brittany, don't for goodness sake skip Dinan!

Galettes (both savoury and sweet crepes) are a local specialty as is apple cider.

 

A very solemn day for New Zealand and Australia

Food on Friday: Lentils & dried pulses

 

ON

I really need help with how to use Lentils and other dried pulses.  About the only way I use them is in hearty winter soups.

To add your dishes to the collection, please put the name of the dish (plus your name/blog name if you like) into the first Mr Linky box and then paste the url for your post about it into the second one.

I know Mr Linky is a bit clunky but I'm sticking with it for sentimental reasons.  To help you see the dishes at a glance I'll be pinning them all to this Pinboard.

 

They do say it's the most important meal of the day - I skipped it for years and years!

 

Need Some Inspiration? Try Middle Eastern Dishes



Buttered Apricots with Almonds

What a delight Food on Friday: Middle Eastern turned out to be!  We did have a little confusion over what was Middle Eastern – but that just made it even more fun.

I've selected 6 dishes to feature out of the many great dishes (over 100).  To see more inspirational dishes just head on over to this Pinboard.

The pic at the top is of Buttered Apricots with Almonds by My Style of Recipes.

 

Milk and Honey brought this Moroccan Orange Blossom and Cardomom Yoghurt Cake 

 

Menemen (Turkish Scrambled Eggs) by Rachel Cotterill

Buffalo Wing Hummus by I Sing in the Kitchen

Ginger Honey Cheesecake by Phong Hong Bakes

 

Iranian Sugar-Pickled Garlic by Gormandize

A punny sign - are you a chocoholic???

Bonkers by Jennifer Saunders

 

Bonkers is the perfect title for this memoir by Jennifer Saunders.  The book is delightfully bonkers in almost every way.  The quirky photos.  The hilarious self-deprecating humour.  The wayward chronology.  Breaking all the normal rules of memoirs.

But if you are a fan of either Saunders (Edina in AbFab) or Dawn French, you should read this as well as Dear Fatty by Dawn French 

Here are a couple of tiny extracts:

'So, dear reader, I will tell you all I remember, and embellish all that I don't.  For my publisher's sake I shall name-drop regularly and mention royalty as much as possible'

'I DON'T WANT TO BE LINKEDIN.  I have spent my whole life trying to be linked out.

I don't want to have to get there first, see it first, be the first to have it, know about it before anyone else.  It's like the news nowadays.  Why are they always reporting what people might be saying, what decisions might be made?  Why can't we wait?  We're not babies who need to be told that supper is nearly ready, or what' going to be on the next page of the book.  Shall we guess, children?

Everybody's leaking these days.

I know I certainly am, but maybe that's just my time of life.' 

Jennifer's humour shines through the book – including when she talks about being treated for breast cancer.  And she includes some enjoyable rants about stuff.

 

I was using an e-reader the other day and kept trying to tap the screen expecting something to happen....

 

Mustard Chicken Salad

 

This is a salad I made using the leftovers of Dijon Chicken Breasts. 

I started with a large platter and put a bed of shredded lettuce onto it.  As you can see I put a rough circle of thinly sliced zucchini (courgette) around the edge of the platter.  We quite like raw zucchini – do you use it that way too?

To the platter I added, chopped up chicken leftovers, tomato, cucumber, a lobe of a yellow bell pepper (capsicum), some croutons I had roughly chopped a bit, and a small amount of finely chopped shallot.

I sprinkled some scallions (spring onions) over the top as well as some finely chopped chilli for garnish.

The dressing was simple – I just warmed the leftover mustard sauce from the Dijon Chicken Breasts and drizzled it over the salad at the very last minute before serving.

Capital City of the Week – Hamilton

 

There is a city called Hamilton in New Zealand – but it is not the capital.  And nor is it Hamilton in Ontario.   Or one of the 6 Hamilton's in Australia.  And the more than 20 of them in the USA.  Talk about a common name!

This Hamilton is a special little town.  The colour schemes and styles of housing are quite distinctive, as you can see. 

 

The headquarters of Bacardi is in Hamilton. 

 

There are restrictions on the size and number of cars in Hamilton so you see lots of business people on scooters. 

 

And how about these dress shorts!  Note that long socks are de rigeur!

So where is Hamilton? 

 

Hamilton is the capital of:

And, no, it's not in the Caribbean!

Renoir

Renoir - Girl with a Watering Can

If it was possible to judge an artist's character solely by his work, I would have to say that Renoir was a very jolly, happy and nice man.  His works are not at all tortured or dark. 

Renoir was one of the first group of artists who created Impressionism so his legacy is undoubted.  He lived until he was almost 80 (although he was very badly affected by arthritis in his last years).  He was famous in his own lifetime and was able to go to the Louvre and see his own work hung there.  He died the year after WWI ended – in 1919. 

Renoir - The Boat House Lunch Party

While I have seen the many Renoirs at the Museé d'Orsay in Paris, I have now found out that the largest collection of Renoirs is in fact at the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania. 

Renoir - Dance in the City

Renoir didn't paint fine art from early on.  In fact he worked as a porcelain painter.  He started on fine arts in his 20's. 

Renoir - Dance in the Country

Two of Renoir's sons became famous in the French film industry.  Clearly an artistic streak in that gene pool.

Wishing everyone a lovely Easter Sunday!

Broccoli Polonaise

 

As part of my seemingly never ending quest to make broccoli more interesting I tried doing it with a Polonaise sauce.  It was reasonably simple to make and did end up looking quite pretty so I'll probably do it again.

All that was involved was:

Lightly cook your broccoli – leaving quite a lot of the stem on

Hard boil link  some eggs – scoop the yolk out (reserve the whites for another use), and chop the yolk up.

Add salt, white pepper, and chopped parsley (keeping some aside for last minute garnish)

Sautee some breadcrumbs in butter.

Scatter your egg mix over the broccoli and pour over the breadcrumbs/butter.

Enjoy!

I sure used to be and I know someone who still is!

 

Honfleur

When visiting Honfleur in Normandy it is compulsory to take a picture across the little harbour in the middle of town.  I promise you – absolutely everyone does.  The pic up top is my own effort.

As you can see it is unbelievably picturesque – almost hurt your eyes beautiful.

 

It is worth visiting Normandy just to experience this.  But we also managed to get ourselves lost in the little old town and ended up driving down the weeniest streets (in a much too big rental car) and finding ourselves seemingly hopelessly enmeshed in a one way street system.  A little stressful but one way to see the old town I suppose.

 

According to Google Maps, Honfleur is a 2 hour drive west of Paris.  The town is full of restaurants – we chose one not right on the waterfront – trying to go for one frequented by locals and therefore less pricey.  One of the challenges for me in French restaurants is managing to avoid eating the bread (which is yummy) while waiting for you meal.  Kills the appetite.  I am not sure why bread before meals is so popular.

Au revoir!