Let the diet begin

Goodbye cheese.  Missing you already!

Ah how we can kid ourselves.  I think of myself as being moderately overweight, a tad chubby - you know just 5 or so kgs.  Boo hoo - I did a little survey on the Dukan diet website and find I am more like 12 kg or more!  No wonder my clothes don't fit very well anymore.  Ah well next Monday is the start of the wondrous Dukan diet.  Protein, protein and more protein. My brother-in-law has just lost 12 kgs on the diet so I reckon I can do it too.  The not drinking wine might be the hardest part!!
But before I begin here is a recipe for the enviably slim Mandy:

Lamb cutlets with curried roast pumpkin mash 

(I made this for the first time on my brother's 50th birthday. It was a fab occasion at Mandala on Bruny Island.  The recipe is from Delcious magazine July 2004)

Serves 6
18 lamb cutlets
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
2 tbs fresh rosemary leaves roughly chopped

800 g butternut pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
2 tbs good-quality curry powder

Place lamb cutlets in shallow dish.  Drizzle with 1 tbs of olive oil, season with salt and sprinkle with rosemary.  Cover and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160o C.  Place pumpkin pieces in bowl with remaining oil and curry powder.  Place in large baking dish, cover with foil and roast for 40 minutes. Remove foil and roast for further 10 minutes.  Cool a bit, process in food processor until smooth, then season with salt and pepper.

Preheat barbecue or chargrill to high and cook lamb for 2-3 minutes on each side.  Transfer to a tray and cover loosely with foil.  Rest for 4 minutes in warm spot while you reheat the pumpkin mash over the low heat in a saucepan.

Serve the lamb cutlets with the pumpkin and a nice green salad. Yum.

NZ bach life

There really is something special about swimming in freshwater lakes.  No need to worry about sharks or other nasties, the water in Lake Taupo is clear and a nice temperature at 22 degrees.  Johno takes us all out in the boat and we zoom around to a deserted little cove where Alan and I jump off and swim leisurely around a little headland to another long thin strip of beach.  Cicadas sing from the vegetation on the land which is dense and tangled above us as we swim.  All alone on the pebbly beach we lie like lizards soaking in the sun recovering before swimming back. It is one of those magical swims I feel I will remember for a long time.

Another day we walk in Tongariro National Park, a walk from the chateaux on a circuit past a waterfall.  We cross open tundra land with a snow-capped peak in the background and walk beyond the waterfall beside a rushing stream through shady glens. Clean fresh air, wonderful native vegetation - all very invigorating.  I love the way John and Kerry take all the kids on regular walks.  Maia at 20 months enchants other walkers as she ambles along on her chubby little legs singing Eee-I Eee-I Oh.  

Other great bach moments include lazy times in the hammocks on the back porch, later afternoon swims to the pontoon below the bach, walks around Kuratua, ice cream stops near the jetty, a visit to the local vineyard and olive grove, drinking Esk Valley chardonnay while the barby is on, laughing with the kids, afternoon snoozes...life doesn't get too much better than this!  Thank you for a wonderful stay dear John and Kerry, James, Zach and Maia. 

Oh my giddy aunt

West Otago NZ visiting Alan's family on the farm - step one of our visiting-rellie-trip to the shaky isles.

We have been here four days doing lots of eating (a cookathon from our Christmas present: 'Speight's Southern Man cookbook'), plus drinking nice wines, walking country roads looking through flax plants at noisy sheep with daggy bottoms, counting hay bales, walking quickly away from cranky bulls, and driving for hours to the coast - Kaka Point to see the seals and spectacular lighthouse scenery and to Curio Bay to see dozy penguins and petrified forests on the rock platform by the sea. 

There have been lots of laughs generated by cheeky Hans, mother-in-law's risque calendar gift, plus all the usual recounting of stories that go on in these family reunions. I love listening to the Kiwis talk - stories punctuated with phrases like 'the weather turned to custard' and 'Oh my giddy aunt'.  I sleep soundly at night here and my only stress at present is whether the pav I have in the oven will be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside just like the picture in the cookbook...

Just so I have it on record here is Liz's Fruity Nut Balls recipe

1 cup each of sultanas, walnuts, dates and cornflakes
Orange juice, sherry or brandy to moisten
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 tsp cinnamon

Pour boiling water over sultanas, then drain well, roughly chop in food processor, add walnuts and roughly chopped dates and process briefly.  Add cornflakes - process again and moisten with liquid of choice until mixture is soft enough to form into balls.  

Roll into small balls with wet hands and drop into bag of coconut and cinnamon. Shake to coat.  Can freeze. 

Hey pav is looking good!  I think I have a winner.

Tried and true festive recipes

At work I am collecting recipes from staff to produce a recipe e-book to raise money for a charity this Christmas - the ABC Giving Tree.  Rather than write up the recipes I am going to contribute I thought hey ho I will put them up on my blog and then just copy and paste them from the web at work.  There is method in my madness. So here's two recipes that seem to have become Christmas/family-gathering staples for me. Hope you like them.

Christmas dip

So called because it's green, white and red layers look very festive served in a glass bowl.  It is a big hit with teenagers and young people in particular. The recipe originally came from 'Good Taste' December 2003.

2 ripe avocadoes
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 small red chilli finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper

1 x 300g carton sour cream or greek yoghurt
1 tbsp taco seasoning

1 or 2 ripe tomato, quartered, deseeded, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped coriander

For the guacamole - mash avocado flesh, add lime juice and chilli.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.  Spoon into 2 small glass serving bowls or one larger one. 

Combine the sour cream or greek yoghurt and taco seasoning and spread over the guacamole layer.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 2 hours to firm up. 

Combine the tomato and chopped coriander and sprikle over the sour cream mixture to cover.

Serve immediately with corn chips.

Baked ham with fabulous ginger marmalade and port glaze

Every few years I try a new ham glaze but nothing so far has been as good so I always return to this one.  The original recipe was in 'Good Taste' December 2001.

1 x 8kg leg of ham on the bone
1 x 480 g jar ginger marmalade
1/2 cup port
Cloves to decorate
2 tbsp drained green peppercorns

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place oven shelf on the lowest position and remove the other shelves.

Unwrap ham, rinse briefly under cold water and pat dry with paper towel.

Use a small sharp knife to cut around ham shank in a zig zag pattern about 10 cm from end.  Carefully run knife under the rind around edge of ham, gently lift rind in one piece, running your fingers between rind and fat where still joined. Lift rind off in one piece, wrap in damp tea towel and place in the fridge.  Use for covering leftover ham.

Trim excess fat from ham, leaving a 1cm thick covering all over. Use a knife to score fat in diamond pattern, 5 mm deep. Pour a small amount of water in the roasing pan. Place ham on a wire rack in the pan. Wrap overhanging shank in foil to prevent juices dripping in the oven.

To make the glaze heat the ginger marmalade in a saucepan over medium heat for 5 - 7 minutes. Add port and mix until combined. Pour half the glaze over the ham, using a spatula to spread evenly over the surface. Stud each diamond with a clove. Add peppercorns to remaining glaze and put aside.

Bake ham in preheated oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven, increase heat to 220 degrees celcius.  Pour over remaining glaze and spread evenly.  Turn oven back to 180 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes until well browned.  Remove from oven, rest 15 minutes before carving or can carve later when cold.  Either way it is delicious.  Smells and tastes amazing.

The photos are from the Botanical Gardens in Hobart yesterday.  Lovely day with Pru and Kez!

Limoncello Take One

Over the last week I have had a go at making limoncello, the Italian liquer we enjoyed so much in Italy.  Limoncello is wonderful because it has such an intense lemon flavour and a real kick - its alcohol content is around 35%.  It's best served after a meal in small chilled shot glases, from a bottle that is kept in the freezer.

My first attempt went okay but I don't think the lemon flavour is intense enough and the colour isn't a strong enough yellow so I am going to put some more lemon rind in my bottles for another week and next time will use at least twice as much lemon rind as the 'tea towel' recipe below prescribes and probably use only about 3/4 of a litre of sugar or less as a kilo seems a lot.

Here is the recipe though from the tea towel we bought in Levanto in the Cinque Terre, Italy.  The recipe made two 750 ml bottles and a couple of smaller ones.  Whilst not there yet, it still tastes pretty good!

Limoncello

8 lemons (I will use twice this amount next time - as you can see from pic below the colour in my bottles looks a bit insipid)
1 kilo sugar (maybe half a kilo would be okay)

1 litre alcohol (I used 750 ml cheap vodka)

1 litre water (I probably should have only used 750 mls as less alcohol)

Peel lemons and remove all white pith as this can make the limoncello bitter.  Place in the alcohol in a hermetically sealed container for at least four days.  Then make a syrup of the water and sugar allow to cool and add to the alcohol, which you have drained from the lemon rind (discard these).  Filtrate and bottle.  Keep in freezer.

We've become francophiles

The roof of the farmhouse we stayed in at Hautefort
France - photo by Sue

Yes we have gone a bit potty over all things French.

Alan is reading Balzac's book 'Old Goriot'.  He is enjoying it because it is set not far from where we stayed in the Latin Quarter of Paris. 

I am trying to find a suitable recipe for a French entree to go with the fabulous Coq au Vin recipe I made on Staurday night and will make again for a dinner party we have planned.  When we came home from our trip I found I had won a prize - the wondrous big book 'Tasmania's Table' which had arrived in the mail for me. It is a culinary guide to Tasmanian produce and Tasmania's best restaurants and includes recipes from Tasmania's top chefs.  Of course I sought out the French recipes. 

I hope to find some nice French red wine to accompany our meal on the night.  French wine is so much nicer than most of our Australian red wine because apart from tasting amazing it is also lighter with less alcohol content - which means you can drink more of it without going silly.  Our Australian wines are way too high in alcohol content.  I feel like writing to someone about it but who? 

So here's the Coq au vin recipe for you.  It's from Jean-Pascal of New Town.

Coq au Vin


1.5 kg Nichols free range chicken pieces (I used chicken marylands)
1/2 bottle good red wine
12 small white onions
2 carrots, peeled and quartered
Bouquet of herbs; 2 sprigs of thyme and 1 bay leaf
6 slices of bacon
250 grams button mushrooms
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
Sunflower oil (I used olive)
Unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Parsley, chopped

A day in advance marinate chicken in red wine, add the small white onions, carrots and herbs.  Cover and put in the fridge.  The next day, remove and drain the chicken and vegetables, discard herbs.  Put the wine aside for later use.

Brown the chicken pieces with oil and remove the pieces and put aside.  Using the same pan, add garlic, onions and carrots and cook for a couple of minutes.  Return chicken to pan and pour in the wine. Bring to a boil, cover and cook on a low heat for 1 to 1.5 hours.  (We only did one hour as the chicken looked like it might break up with more.)

Heat bacon, onion and mushrooms in butter in a pan and cook until brown (5-10 minutes).  Add bacon, onion and mushrooms to chicken and wine etc and cook for 2 or 3 minutes.  Taste and correct the seasonings.  Add parsley and serve.

We had it with small boiled potatoes and some spinach but think next time mashed potatoes would be better to soak up the beautiful coq au vin sauce.

Enjoy!

Home again and thinking about the next trip

It is nice to be home. Our bed is so comfortable!  The garden looks splendid, if a little overgrown. We are full of ideas and energy to do up the house. And of course it is lovely to catch up with family...

This morning as we walked through the reserve (we are on a  health kick to try and get rid of the extra weight we have gained) Alan and I debriefed on the the highlights and best memories from the trip.  We are keen to do another big trip in a year or so.  I feel I will be much better prepared for the next trip based on what we learnt from this one.

Next time:

• I will take less clothes
• I will buy some of those special quick drying travel trousers (much as I don't like the look of them) and quick drying underwear
• I will be realistic and take some clothes in a bigger size to accommodate a bit of weight gain
• I will stick with Shauna's excellent travel tip of having clothes sorted in the suitcase in plastic bags for tops, underwear, extras etc. to avoid having to pull everything out all the time
• I will take a small hairdryer - not so much for the hair but for quick drying of washed underwear
• We will definitely take a compass - having got lost at least once a day, this would have definitely helped
• We will take a fork, knife and spoon and plastic plate each and a corkscrew
• Preplanning of travel and accommodation really saves time and energy
• Location in a city is the number one priority for accommodation
• Booking tours in advance is a good idea - some of our best days ended up being on the tours we took - Amalfi and Pompeii, Countryside Provence etc.
• Good walking shoes and bandaids are essential
• Posting things home worked well and everything arrived okay
• High capacity memory stick or hard drive for backing up the photos on the laptop
• Take several universal adapters in case you lose one or more
• Hold on to small change and notes for tips
• When driving on the right hand side of the road, remind yourself particularly at the start of a journey to keep to the right!
• Download photos every day and remove from camera - keep in separate folders for each day on the computer as it is easier to organise them all later.  Backup regularly.

That's all for now - time to get out in the garden again.