Cooking for one is harder than it looks

Triumph

Asparagus risotto, classic tomato spaghetti and aglio, olio e peperoncino all simple recipes that are really quick and tasty – whether for one or six.

Cooking for one is harder than it looks

I picked up Emperor D a couple of days ago after his flight landed back in Switzerland from spending several weeks back in Australia. I myself was abroad for work for three of the seven weeks he was away, but the remaining four weeks left me plenty of time to observe that cooking for one person is not as easy as I thought it would be.

That last statement might sound a little strange, so let me explain. I moved out of home at 20 with Emperor D and we’ve lived together ever since. I’ve never lived on my own or even in a share house, so I’ve never had to cook for just myself. So after Emperor D left, I had to work out what on earth I would cook just for me. It wasn’t that simple; for a start, I don’t have a microwave here, so I couldn’t really cook in bulk to freeze and reheat later.

I’m ashamed to admit that the nights when I just couldn’t be bothered I would resort to sticking fish fingers and chips in the oven. Yes, truly shameful from the Empress. Other nights I would grill some chicken or a shishkebab to have with salad. But more often than not I’d resort to pasta or risotto.

Leek and asparagus risotto - this time minus the leek

Not long before I left Australia, you might remember I made a fantastic porcini mushroom risotto, which I wrote about. I hadn’t made risotto since then, so I decided to try an asparagus risotto, using some fantastic fresh asparagus. The recipe I used was a leek and asparagus risotto that I’d made many times back home, but this time I forgot the leeks, so just used onions instead.

I’ve discovered a couple of culinary challenges in Switzerland, mostly with finding ingredients either at all or of equal quality to what I’m used to back home. A good example of this is liquid stock. Good quality, ready-to-use liquid stock – like the Campbells Real stock in a tetra pack I get back home – just doesn’t seem to exist in Switzerland; or if it does, I’m yet to find it. Here it’s all cubes – which I hate using – or the closest thing I’ve seen to liquid, a congealed gel-like stock that still needs dissolving in water. Usually in winter I make my own stock for all the soups I make, but it’s summer here and I otherwise won’t get the use out of it.

But no matter – this risotto was just for me, and while not the standout of my last attempt at risotto, was perfectly fine. The rice was nice and al dente, the asparagus crisp without being undercooked. The good thing about risotto – and pasta – is that you can control how much of it you make.

Which is why I made a lot of spaghetti while Emperor D was away. When I was having a lazy night but couldn’t bear the thought of fish fingers again, I would put some spaghetti on the boil and simply stir through some good quality pesto from a jar. Or I’d make some simple sauces, like aglio, olio e peperoncino (that’s garlic, olive oil and chilli), or Jamie Oliver’s classic tomato spaghetti.

Aglio, olio e peperoncino is an Italian classic which, when done well, is spectacular. It’s so simple, but it’s the simplicity of the ingredients that make it great. Hot pasta, mixed through with gently fried garlic and chilli in oil, sprinkled with fresh parsley is a delight to eat. Plus it's so easy to make with ingredients most people already have in their pantries.

Jamie Oliver's classic tomato spaghetti

Jamie Oliver’s classic tomato spaghetti is another recipe that can be made using just the ingredients from the pantry. In the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta, it’s quick and easy to fry garlic and chilli, and throw in some tinned diced tomatoes and fresh basil, gently simmer for a few minutes and toss with al dente spaghetti for something so tasty. And don’t forget the cheese on top either – for me, it has to be pecorino.

So while I adapted these recipes to cook just for me, they’re easy enough to cook for as many or as little people as you need. In the meantime, I’m glad that Emperor D is back so I can cook for two again.

Douze points for Italian Eurovision feast

Triumph

Great flavours and textures make the Italians a winner in my kitchen

Douze points for Italian Eurovision feast

I did promise in my last post that I would get cooking soon. I had my first opportunity last night, when I hosted a Eurovision Song Contest party. I love Eurovision; it’s broadcast in Australia every year, but the day after, so by the time I get to watch it, I know who’s won. It doesn’t matter though, as it’s so kitsch and tacky that it’s loads of fun. Although in the last couple of years Australia has sent its own commentators over, I’ve heard the rather witty BBC commentator before and it was amusing to listen to him again last night.

Tomato and basil crostini

I’d invited some friends over who hadn’t seen Eurovision before, so I thought I would cook dinner. I decided on a bit of an Italian feast, which was rather appropriate as it turned out, as Italy returned to Eurovision for the first time since 1997 and, having entered with a great jazz-pop song (which I voted for), ended up coming second (to Azerbaijan!). I settled on crostini with three different toppings from Jamie Oliver’s Italy and paper bag seafood linguine from Donna Hay, which I’ve made and blogged about before.

Fig, prosciutto and mint crostini

Buffalo mozzarella and chilli

For the crostini, I decided on three different toppings; traditional tomato and basil; fig, prosciutto and mint; and mozzarella and chilli. It’s pretty easy – simply grill the bread, rub with a piece of cut garlic and place your toppings on top. The tomato and basil speaks for itself – just drizzle with a little good quality olive oil and season with salt and pepper. The fig, prosciutto and mint one I had to slightly deviate with as I accidentally bought dried figs, not fresh (with fresh figs apparently not in season at the moment). But they still turned out great, with the salty prosciutto contrasting nicely with the sweetness of the figs. And the mozzarella and chilli was a slice of texture heaven, with the crunchiness of the bread a nice contrast to the soft squidgyness of the buffalo mozzarella.

The last time I made Donna Hay’s paper bag seafood linguine, I had issues getting the right ingredients. I used calamari instead of vongole (clams) that time, but it still turned out good. This time around I used vongole and it turned out great. I think the saltiness of the vongole adds to the flavour and there’s something fun about using your fingers to pick the vongole up while you pull out the meat.

Paper bag seafood linguine

A real highlight of the night was what I did with all the dirty dishes afterwards – put them in the dishwasher. Usually after a dinner party, I leave the awful task of washing all the dishes until the next morning. This time I could just put the dishes in the dishwasher as we finished with plates and cutlery, and the entire lot was done before my friends even left. Now that’s the way to end a dinner party on a clean note.

New kitchen, new beginnings

So it's been quite awhile since my last post, but without a decent kitchen (and my last post will explain why), I haven't cooked much lately. That's about to change. About a month ago, Emperor D and I moved into our new apartment. I should clarify and say brand new apartment. With a brand new apartment, comes a brand new kitchen, and with a brand new kitchen comes brand new appliances!

A brand new kitchen! Hooray!

And joy of joys, the new appliances include a dishwasher! Most people will be baffled by my excitement, until I explain that in the 30 years of my existance, I have never lived in a house with a dishwasher. Unless of course the dishwasher was me. I started washing up as a child and have been doing it ever since, so it's a real luxury for me to come home, cook dinner, and then let the dishwasher clean everything while I relax on the couch.

My boxes from Australia have also arrived, along with my cookbooks in them, but I'm yet to unpack most of them, so I still think it will be a couple of weeks before I can start properly cooking and posting again. But I hope to do so soon; unfortunately I missed cooking during winter and making all my favourite winter foods, but the produce here is amazing and summer really can throw up some great ideas for recipes.

So watch this space! Most of my Scanpan pots have made it over, along with Betty, so time to start putting them to good use.

I have a closet for a kitchen… but I can cook rice in a pot

Trusty

Because, well, it’s just rice.

I have a closet for a kitchen… but I can cook rice in a pot

Yes, that is the doorway in the bottom left and right!

So I’ve moved to Switzerland. Their idea of what a kitchen is, er, interesting. My current kitchen is a closet. Have a look at the pics. You can see it’s tiny. There is enough room for one person – so no getting in and helping with the washing up. The stove tops – electric – are ridiculously slow to heat up, and aren’t really that hot on the highest setting. I have no kettle; to make myself a cup of tea, I need to boil water in a saucepan. I hate it. Thankfully, this is temporary. Emperor D and I are moving to a more permanent place – with a much bigger, newer, better kitchen – in a few weeks. I’ll post pictures of that kitchen once we’ve moved in.

Having such a small kitchen – and no room to put appliances – has forced me to go back to basics on some things, like cooking rice. I’ve always cooked rice in a rice cooker and I realise now that I completely took it for granted. Pour in rice; pour in water; put lid on; turn on; set and forget. 30 minutes later, white, fluffy cooked rice.

With no rice cooker, I’ve had to learn to cook rice the more traditional way – in a pot. I had done this once before, several years ago, when I cooked rice in a pot while house-sitting my grandparents’ place. It was a disaster. The rice was gluggy and it stuck to the bottom of the pan, which was subsequently a bitch to clean. I hadn’t done it since. So I was naturally a little apprehensive of trying it again.

There are a couple of different ways you can cook rice in a pot; the best and most common method is the absorption method. As the rice cooks, holes or funnels form. It’s not completely fool proof, but it is quite easy to do. As you can see from the picture, it comes out pretty good.

So, with a closet for a kitchen, you can see that I can’t really afford to be adventurous in the cooking stakes at the moment. But at least I know I can do the basics. It’s back to the more challenging stuff as soon as I have a decent kitchen, so watch this space.

Porcini perfection

Transcendent

I’ve finally done it; the perfect risotto!

Porcini perfection

Regular readers will know that I recently moved to Switzerland, and that the last few weeks were madly chaotic. One thing I tried to do before I left was to clear out the contents of my pantry. So a few days before I left, I used the last of the caster sugar to re-do the chocolate and raspberry pavlova and the last of the Arborio rice, chicken stock and some dried porcini mushrooms for this week’s porcini risotto.

This is one of my favourites and this version was hands down the best risotto I’ve ever made. I certainly learnt my lessons after the seafood risotto debacle earlier.

Perfect porcini risotto

You might remember that in my post on seafood risotto, I saw an episode of Jamie Does where he visited ‘the risotto king’ in Venice and described the consistency of the perfect risotto as like being molten lava. This time I was determined to get the consistency perfect – and I did. By putting in extra stock at the end to make it slightly wetter than normal, and allowing the stock to soak up a little after taking the risotto off the heat, the consistency was not gluggy nor wet, but perfect ‘molten lava’. I was delighted to have made the perfect risotto at last.

I think having accidentally used my sauté pan might have helped – I usually use my saucepan. This time I grabbed my Scanpan sauté pan in a moment of abstraction and I think that might have contributed to helping with the good consistency. Having much more room in the pan allowed the rice to absorb the stock more evenly, allowing it to cook quicker than when I usually do it and it turns gluggy.

Hard to tell from this shot, but molten lava consistency

As for the taste, porcini mushrooms have an intense flavour, especially when they’re dried, which is the only the way I’ve found you can purchase them in Perth. By soaking the dried mushrooms in hot water, they soften enough to be able to chop them. Plus the water they’ve soaked can be added in place of stock for a richer, more concentrated flavour.

It all adds to a risotto that I will continue to make time and time again for something relatively quick, easy, simple and – most importantly – tasty.

N.B – until I find a house with a kitchen, I can’t make anything else, so this will be the last of the posts for a few weeks. But keep cooking!

Raspberry pavlova redux

Transcendent

A picture is worth a thousand words. I have four of them. Truly flawless food.

Raspberry pavlova redux

You might remember that in my post back in October, Grand Final fever – part deux, I made a chocolate and raspberry pavlova from Nigella Lawson. Back then I gave it a rating of trusty, saying that I had to turn down the oven temperature and also use fresh raspberries. I promised to make it again in summer when the fresh raspberries were out.

Start with a flawless meringue base...

Well, it’s now summer (with a vengeance – they’re forecasting 38C, or 100F, for Christmas Day), and fresh raspberries are in stock, but at $8 for a small punnet, they’re a bit pricey. However, they’re only in season for a few weeks a year, so I thought that morning tea for my last day at work would be a great occasion to make it again. This pavlova screams Christmas – well, an Australian one, at least – but Christmas Day at my mother-in-law’s is just too full of food to do this justice, so I thought I would make this for an appreciative crowd, my now ex-work colleagues.

...top with raspberries, cream and chocolate...

Wow. They were blown away. So was I. Things were looking good the night before when I made the meringue base – and learning from last time, I turned the oven down. Everyone’s oven is different, so I really recommend a bit of trial and error when it comes to oven temps. My oven is a fan-forced one, so it’s really hot, and Nigella’s temps of 180C and 150C were far too hot – you’ll see I burnt the last one (and also the first time I made it before that). Looking at other recipes, I noted that Donna Hay cooks her pavlovas at 150C, turning down to 120C, so I did that, and – meringue perfection. I was really proud of myself when it came out of the oven crisp but not burnt!

...consume gorgeous crispy shell, with chewy centre...

Then this morning, I brought in the cream and raspberries, but forgot to bring beaters to whip the cream with. It was looming as a disaster, when the day was saved by my boss Ros and teammate Ben, who came to the rescue by beating the cream by hand with a fork. Thanks guys! The cream is now perfect, too.

Top with the raspberries, sprinkle chocolate on top – and stand back and let the crowd devour. The last image (taken by Ben, thanks again) of the last piece was taken just before someone came and ate it – so once again, a clean plate.

...and watch the crowd devour for an instant hit!
(Photo by Ben J.)

But, my goodness. This is easily one of the best desserts I have ever made. And I make a lot of desserts, so this is saying something. The chocolate meringue was lovely, light and crisp on the outside; gorgeous and chewy on the inside, just like a meringue should be. The combination of chocolate meringue, double cream and fresh, tart raspberries made for an unbelievably amazing flavour combination. I really recommend you give this a go. It’s not hard either. The tricky part is the meringue and once that’s perfected, it’s just cream and raspberries on top.

I used Betty to whip the egg whites; that was her last job for the year and, in fact, here in Australia for a while, as I’m packing her up and taking her to Switzerland when I move in two weeks’ time. I look forward to more cooking adventures with her then!

Sauces galore

Tragedy

Don’t blame this cheesy disaster on the recipe though – it’s my fault

Triumph

Greeks provide a tasty zing to lamb cutlets

Sauces galore

So I’m having a slightly lazy week this week when it comes to cooking. Some weeks I just don’t feel very inventive. This week I decided to use sauces as an example of how to provide a bit of jazz to ordinary food. First was gnocchi with creamy Castello and spinach. Castello is a type of soft, cow’s milk cheese. It comes in a blue variety, but I’m not a fan of blue cheeses, so I use the white variety, which has a mild, subtle taste.

Gnocchi with creamy Castello and spinach

I won’t say where exactly this recipe is from, as it’s actually from a local guy who runs food classes. The food class I attended was great, and so is this recipe usually, so I don’t think it’s fair to name the chef given the poor rating is based on my mistake. I’ve provided the recipe on how to make the gnocchi as well, but wanting dinner to be quick, this time I simply used good quality homemade gnocchi from my local Italian grocer. I have made gnocchi before, but for me it was a bit of a disaster. I’ll readily concede that Emperor D has the upper hand here, expertly making gnocchi a couple of times.

But back to the sauce; it was tragic. It’s actually my fault though. I’ve made this a couple of times before and it’s usually pretty good. This time I think I over seasoned it. It was very salty; I seasoned with salt once the cheese had melted, and then again when the dish was complete, just before serving. Add to that the pecorino I use has a slightly salty taste to it, and the whole thing was salty to the point of being almost unbearable. I couldn’t finish it.

Seriously though, I hope you give this a shot and do better justice to it than I did this time around. It’s ridiculously easy and super quick (well, if you’re using store-bought gnocchi); you can plate this up in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the gnocchi.

Lamb cutlets that have been marinated in Greek marinade

I had much better luck with Greek marinade on my frenched lamb cutlets. I can’t tell you where I got this recipe from either, simply because I don’t remember. But this is a great, simple marinade recipe with some fantastic, zingy flavours. The rosemary, thyme, and oregano work really well with the garlic and olive oil, and of course the lemon gives it that amazing Greek tang that I love.

Try and marinate meats for at least 30 minutes before cooking; and of course, there’s no need to add extra oil to the fry pan or barbeque. You’ll add more flavour during the cooking process if you baste with the leftover marinade using a pastry brush or baster. I’ve only ever tried this with lamb – as Greek marinade seems to cry out for lamb – but give it a try with chicken as well.

Lastly, just some advance notice that I may not be posting as often over the next couple of months. Christmas is a busy time anyway (although I do hope to post a few recipes I plan on making over Christmas), but it will be even busier for Emperor D and I as we pack up our house and move overseas. I’ve been fortunate enough to score an amazing job opportunity in Geneva, Switzerland, where I’ll be headed very soon after New Year. I’m really looking forward to posting from Geneva – no doubt I’ll have to try some Swiss recipes. Fondue, anyone?