When chocolate’s not an option

Triumph

Lemony-coconut makes a great, tropical substitution for chocolate

When chocolate’s not an option

Many of you will know from previous cakes I’ve blogged about that my office has a birthday cake tradition; someone in the office has a birthday, someone else makes a cake and we all spring out from behind our desks at some point during the day, thrusting cake with lit candles underneath the embarrassed, but inevitably unsurprised, person’s nose, half-heartedly singing an out of time and out of tune rendition of Happy Birthday. Bad singing over, candles blown out and cake cut, we stand around together for 10 or 15 minutes discussing the cake – home made, of course (no-one dares dreams of doing a shop-bought job these days) – and anything else not related to work.

Incidentally, it was my birthday the first year I joined the office, that was somehow the catalyst for the compulsory birthday cake. I’m not sure why it came about, but I still remember the first cake made by my friend and colleague Julia, a chocolate concoction with Toblerone chocolate pieces and icing sugar dusted over it, to signify the Alps. I was touched. Not surprised though, because although Julia had hid the cake around the corner from my desk, she blew it by posting it to Facebook and tagging me in the photo five minutes before they actually gave it to me. Still, I remember it being rich and chocolatey.

Fast forward two and a half years, and there’s been good cakes and bad ones, but everyone gets a cake for their birthday and the baking load is shared by most of the office. But since the first chocolate cake for my birthday, we’ve had to change tack and try not to have cakes with chocolate in them as one of my friends and colleagues, Amelia, is allergic to it. How anyone could be allergic to chocolate and still be as calm, rational, friendly and funny as she always is, defies logic. Because of her allergy, Amelia’s birthday or not, chocolate cake is out. It’s been hard.

But also rewarding. Chocolate cake is the natural default one for birthday cakes, but the no chocolate rule has broadened the flavour horizons. Teri, a good friend and colleague of mine, had her birthday approaching and I put my hand up to bake it. Searching through my multitude of recipe volumes and books, anything chocolate or with chocolate in it was instantly vetoed. Amongst my own collection, the amount of non-chocolate recipes was decidedly small.

One stood out, however. Lemon and coconut cake was something I found on goodfood.com.au, through the Fairfax Australian news sites, a website I’ve increasingly turned to for inspiration. And it was an inspired choice, given lemon is one of Teri’s favourite flavours, so not only was it something that suited the taste of the person whose birthday it was, its non-chocolate status meant it was a winner for Amelia as well. It was easy to make, always a plus on a school night - a simple place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon - and the cake itself was light, moist and packed full of lemon punch. The icing – while made in a strange way – was the perfect balance between the sweet icing sugar and a fair amount of tart lemon juice. I think I would've preferred a butter cream icing, but the taste really did complete the taste of a cake that had a fair amount sweetness balanced by zing.

In the end, having to think about flavours other than chocolate has been inspiring and refreshing. Although I'm still partial to the good old chocolate cake, and will go on making them when possible, exploring new flavours can open up your tastebuds to a whole new world they may not previously have encountered. And that's no bad thing.

The impossible made possible

Triumph
Super easy - not impossible - quiche makes for a tasty meal


The impossible made possible
 
Awhile back - and yes, it has been awhile given my tendency not to cook and post during summer - I hit upon the need to broaden the repertoire a bit and find a recipe that was easy enough, with few, uncomplicated ingredients, to do on a lazy Sunday or during the week.

I seem to have more recipes now - in cook books, in my own collection - than I'd ever be able to make, but that doesn't stop me from getting ideas for new things to try from Taste.com.au. It was while reading the email that drops into my inbox from Taste that I saw the recipe for impossible quiche.

Impossible quiche is one of those recipes that seems to hark back to the 70s and 80s - the daggy type of thing your mother would make. In fact, I think my mum did have a recipe for impossible quiche when I was growing up, but I don't ever remember eating it, fussy child that I was. For me, eggs stopped and started with scrambled eggs on toast.

Impossible quiche al fresco

So coming across this recipe, I was curious enough to give it a try. It was easy enough; mix dry ingredients of chopped ham, grated cheddar, flour, baking powder and onion - spread over base of shallow pie dish - and pour beaten egg and milk over the top.

The quiche sorts itself out while baking. The flour and baking powder form a thin crust on the bottom, while the cheese melts, ham cooks and eggs and milk becomes light and fluffy.

The result? A simple, easy-to-make, tasty quiche, that is light enough for a summer dinner or a picnic. In fact, I did make it for a picnic over summer and the whole thing was polished off in minutes. Which just goes to show the impossible is possible...

Betty now makes pasta

Tragedy
While the pasta was great, nothing could save the bland, soggy lasagne

Betty now makes pasta

I've had my Betty for awhile now. She's great at making cakes, slices, even pizza. But I thought it was time Betty expanded her range of tricks a little, so being a pasta fanatic, I recently invested in a Kitchenaid pasta attachment for her.

Feeding pasta through the attachment

I've made pasta by hand before. It's actually pretty easy and there's something satisfying about eating pasta that you've made yourself. Before I bought the attachment, I used to borrow my mother-in-law's hand cranked pasta machine. Those pasta machines are fine, but there's a little bit more fiddling around - you need to clamp them to a table top, then hand crank the pasta through the machine while feeding it through with one hand, and then needing a third hand at the same time to catch it.

Having a pasta attachment on Betty though is so much easier. The pasta is fed through the rollers automatically using the stand mixer's motor. Without having to hand crank the machine, it allows me the free use of both hands to feed the pasta into the rollers and catch it on the other side at the same time. Good thing too, as rolling some of these pasta sheets out, they were getting pretty long - a couple of metres in length at least.

Loooong pasta sheets rolled out

The recipe for the pasta itself is pretty simple - flour (I used Tipo 00, found in my local Italian grocer), eggs, a splash of water and some salt. Allowing me to be virtually hands off, Betty mixed the ingredients together in a bowl to form dough, briefly kneaded it with the dough hook and I then left it to rest.

Next was the question of what to do with the pasta. The attachment set I bought included tagliatelle and spaghetti cutters, so I had planned to make tagliatelle with a basic chilli, garlic and tomato sauce. But the day before, I spotted some butternut pumpkin, and - it being scarcely ever available - picked some up, decided I could make a vegetarian lasagne with it, especially since Emperor D has been asking me to make one for awhile. I also picked up some sweet potato, another of Emperor D's favourites. So after some research with what I could make with the pumpkin and the sweet potato, I decided to make Lorraine Pascale's Butternut and Sweet Potato Lasagne.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly to plan - I didn't have any sage leaves and didn't use the breadcrumb topping, plus I'm not a fan of ricotta, so used my own much more simple béchamel sauce - but it shouldn't made so much of a difference to turn out to be so bland as it was.

Pumpkin and sweet potato lasagne

The other problem was the lasagne sheets. I'd made fresh lasagne once before, but swore never to do so again. They're of course easy to make, but when I made them the first time, I thought I had to pre boil them, and did so. They became extremely difficult to handle, becoming stuck together, and tore once cooked - it ended up being so hard that I decided I wouldn't do it again. That was a few years ago, and making lasagne this time around I quickly remembered why I said back then I would never do so again. I had the same issues again this time and it turned into a disaster. This time I swear I definitely won't make fresh lasagne again.

The end result was a lasagne that was soggy from too much water, and rather flavourless. I was lucky to eat half a piece. Utter tragedy.

On the upside, I had so much pasta that I was able to make tagliatelle and freeze it, so I'll find a sauce to go with it and make that soon. But with the attachment, I can't wait to make lots of fresh tagliatelle, spaghetti, ravioli - and blog about it.

Cooking for one made easy with Nigellissima

Triumph
Super easy, super quick and tasty cheat's risotto takes the pain out of cooking for one

Cooking for one made easy with Nigellissima

Welcome to 2013! It's winter again in Switzerland - my favourite time of year, food-wise. But I have had a burst of summer - I spent the last couple of weeks in warmer climes, spending a week in Hong Kong, before heading home to Perth, for the first time in nearly 18 months, just before Christmas. I spent two weeks at home, catching up with family and friends and remembering just how hot Perth gets - it was 41C on Christmas Day.

Having left an empty house in Perth all this time, the Emperor and I decided it was time to clean it out and rent it out. But two weeks isn't enough time to deal with ten years' worth of accumulated possessions, so leaving Emperor D behind to sort the rest of the house out, and with work back in Switzerland calling, I headed back a week into the new year. Where I've been, ever since, arriving home, often late at night, to a dark and empty apartment and having to cook for myself.

Eighteen months ago I discovered my distaste for having to cook for one. That was during summer; I confess it doesn't get much better in winter. At least I can make soup during winter, which is easy enough to freeze for another night. And pasta is easy to make in quantities for one. But I never thought I'd say this - since it's my favourite food group - but during the week, I got heartily sick of pasta. To the point where I put fish fingers and chips in the oven for dinner one night. Oh dear. Confessions of a food blogger.

Nevertheless, this recipe is a pasta dish that's masquerading as a risotto. But it's super quick. And super easy. And no problem to make for one. It's Nigella Lawson's pasta risotto with peas and pancetta from her latest, the Italian-inspired Nigellissima.

I've always enjoyed watching Nigella on TV, but never really cooked her food because it always seemed, well, rather trashy. I paid a little more attention to this series though as it does fall somewhat under my favourite cuisine, Italian. While she does include some trashy recipes - like this meatzza (seriously) - she does have some gems like the pasta risotto.

The pasta risotto is basically a pea and pancetta risotto, but substitutes annoying, you-have-to-stir-it-all-the-time arborio or carnaroli rice for risoni, a tiny, rice-shaped pasta that doesn't require stirring and cooks in just 10 minutes. Much quicker than the 25 minutes or longer that ordinary risotto takes. Adding a small knob of butter and some grated parmasean at the end - as you would normal risotto - gives this dish it's risotto-like creamy consistency. It tastes good, too - the salty pancetta offsets the sweet baby peas. Best of all, it takes about 15 minutes to make from go to whoa, and can be made in small quantities - including for someone eating da solo.

I still don't like cooking for one - and will be heartily glad when Emperor D returns in a few days' time - but Nigella's risotto-that-isn't does make it a little less painful.