Project Saucepan

Admits the chilly winter my sister and my two cousins decided to have a four-state (QLD, NSW, Vic and Tas) weekly cooking challenge.
The Task? Have a roster of choosing recipes every week and the four of us need to have them cooked by the following Monday.

Last week was the Paella that was chosen by myself and was a great success. Tonight was Challenge Two, Strawberry Shortcake.

The Recipe link can be found here


The Outcome: Tasted great and was a good learning experience (have never encountered a dough quite like it as cream is its major wet ingredient) I rate it a 7/10 as the preparation was totally worth the outcome

Swedes Do it Better

Swedish people just seem to do everything better. Maybe it has something to do with spending so much time indoors and in the dark.

Just a quick note about two fantastic Swedish things I stumbled upon this week.

först - Rekorderlig Cider


This is actually a party in your mouth. I can honestly say this is the best tasting cider I have ever tasted. The two berry varieties are so fresh and have the perfect balance between fruitiness and sweetness. The apple and pear varieties give a great fruit taste without the aciditity

näst - IKEA

Arguably Sweden's greatest export is, well, IKEA. I was seriously suprised when I stopped by their showroom the other day as to how stylish some of their new products actually are. Gone are the foil wrapped particle board standard issue items and they have been replaced with some items of great design merit.

This IKEA Stockholm console table is really quite striking. It would look perfectly in place with some mid-century design classics and its danish teak counterparts.

Kudos to you Sweden.

Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento!

I was entertaining some friends this weekend and wanted to try out this recipe that a friend of mine brought to work one day. I first tried Paella when I was 16 at the Taste of Tasmania festival. I have loved it since then and this was my first attempt at making it from scratch.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic, sliced
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Chorizo Sausage, sliced
1 cup (200g) medium grain rice
2 cups (500ml) Chicken Stock
1x 400g Tin of Crushed Tomatos
1/2 Cup Coriander Leaves
100g Feta, Crumbled
1/2 Tsp Paprika
1/2 Tsp Chilli Flakes
500g Mussels

Method
Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan over high heat. Add the garlic, chilli, onion and chorizo and cook for 4-5 minutes or until browned. Add the rice, stock, mussels and tomato, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for a further 15 minutes or until stock is absorbed and rice is al dente. Stir through the paprika, corriander and feta to serve. Serves 2.


This recipe was relatively easy to make. Total prep time for both sides and main was one and a half hours. I made baguette slices with mushroom jam and ricotta for starters along with roasted beetroot with danish fetta.

The mushroom jam was sauted mushrooms in butter with two tablespoons of flour and one of honey.


Roasted beetroot roughly chopped, tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with rosemary.


Olé!

Trays of Our Lives

Just a quick post about a cheap tray that I had eBay regret about.
Made the best of bad situation by staining the cheap wood and painting the interior canary yellow.

Before:

After: