Stew

Because we didn't put a picture of the stew in the previous post:

St Patrick's Day

So.....been a while.....

Yes, while we had the best of intentions to keep this blog going, unfortunately change of house, change of people, general life chaos intervened and now here we are, 2 and a half years later.

But this time it will continue!!!

Anyway, its a great day to restart because its St Patrick's Day (well ok, it's the day after, but close enough, right?), and there is almost no better excuse to make awesome food than a day that gives you a theme. Green!

Because we have crazy sweet-tooths (sweet-teeth??) we are going to present dessert first.

Four leaf clover cupcakes

 

We may have cheated slightly and used a packet mix for the cupcakes. But it was Donna Hay, so at least it was a classy packet mix. But feel free to use your own favourite cupcake recipe. The cupcakes are plain vanilla with vanilla icing, but we added green food dye. And then we made marshmallow four leaf clovers! These took a few practice goes, but here's the final procedure:

Ingredients
 - lime jelly crystals
 - white marshmallows
 - green food dye
 - fine paint brush
 - kitchen scissors

Cut marshmallows into four circular cross-sections using the kitchen scissors. The pressure of doing this will turn the slices into slightly leaf shaped slices. Cut each slice in half, so you now have 8 almost triangular pieces. Since at this point the exposed sections of the marshmallow were sticky, I found it easier to cut as I needed the slices, rather than cut up a whole marshmallow first. Then place four marshmallow pieces on the cupcake, like in the pictures. Sprinkle with jelly crystals and paint with green food dye. The jelly crystals absorb the food dye and make the painting work better.

And ta-dah!

Main course - which we did manage to eat first, despite the delicious looking cupcakes - was Irish stew, made with Guiness. We used this recipe --> http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/690/beef+and+guinness+stew
Taste.com is our first online go-to for most of our recipes, and it didn't fail us this time either. Yum!

Since we had a vegetarian guest, we made a second stew without beef but with potatoes (cos you can't be Irish without potatoes!)

We served our stew with yummy fresh bread, but you could easily serve with rice or mashed instead.

And here are some more pretty green things that were at Sunday dinner tonight for St Patrick's Day.

See you next week!

Gnocching on Heaven's Door

Our first cooking adventure consisted of Gnocchi with tomato vodka cream sauce and decadent chocolate cupcakes (OMFG so good - Tim). Below is the gnocchi recipe. The cupcake recipe is from a cookbook, details to come later (the book is downstairs and we are too lazy to go down and get it).




So essentially KtP came over to drag us all to the beach so she could introduce it to TCA. But it was cold and windy and there was some sort of crazy marathon on which was screwing up the traffic. So we decided to stay home instead and since TCA had been bragging all week about his special gnocchi recipe (less flour = more potato flavour, blah blah blah - TCA)  we convinced him to show us how it is done. KtP and TCA made the sauce while Xt translated the Iliad from Ancient Greek and Tim was doing actual work, most definitely not playing computer games, or Halo. Then Xt and Tim joined in for the gnocchi making and the gnocchi eating.
The Deserter left us for a month to go housesitting. She missed out on gnocchi, rightly so, stinky pants.


While we ate this The Outcast Vegetarian (TOV) Magee had gnocchi with bottled pasta sauce.

Gnocchi

1.5kg potatoes, roasted, peeled, and mashed

1 egg, beaten

300g all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp unsalted butter

2 strips thick-cut bacon, small dice

¼-½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 small brown onion, small dice

6-8 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and roughly chopped

1 800g can peeled whole tomatoes, cores removed and roughly crushed

¼- ½ cup vodka

½ tsp lemon zest, grated

Dash lemon juice

¾ cup heavy whipping cream

3 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped and divided in half

TT S and P

¾ cup parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated. Plus more for garnish

For the gnocchi:

Mix salt into riced potatoes. On a floured board, place a large handful of riced potatoes and make a small indentation in the top. Pour a small amount of egg into the indentation. Take a handful of flour roughly 1/5 the amount of the potatoes and place over the top of potatoes and egg. Gently kneed just until the flour is completely incorporated and a tender dough is formed. Roll dough into a thin log ~1/2 inch in diameter. Cut log into ¾ inch pieces and place in one layer on a sheet pan.

For the sauce:

Place olive oil, butter and bacon into a cold sauterne. Cook over low heat until bacon is crisp. Add onion and sauté until soft, then add garlic and red pepper flakes. Once garlic and pepper become fragrant, add crushed tomatoes and stir to incorporate. Cook over medium heat until most of tomato juice has evaporated. Add vodka, lemon zest, and juice, and allow to cook for a minute or two. Add whipping cream and increase heat to bring sauce to a fast simmer, until sauce is thickened. Add half of the parsley, and the cheese.

 This gnocchi is amazing, so much better than any I've ever had in a restaurant! BACON and ALCOHOL FTW!!! - Xt 

 Gnocchi was quite enjoyable...sauce could have been better - TOV Magee

In my head gnocchi was fantastic - Anncy

The Adventure Begins!

Well....began 3 weeks ago really.

The Crazy American (TCA) moved in 3 weeks ago. Turns out he can cook. Thus begins our adventures into the culinary delights that is food.

On his first weekend here, TCA taught KtP, Xt and Tim to cook Gnocchi with a vodka tomato cream sauce, and yes it did have bacon. Deliciousness ensued.
From these humble beginnings the idea for Sunday foodery began. We plan to get a group of people over every week and bake and cook new recipes every Sunday.

And we have been making cupcakes.

In this blog we will detail our dinner adventures from every Sunday night, including those of the outcast vegetarian Magee.

The Housemates