Yogurt Pancakes with Banana Berry Sauce.

These pancakes were a bit of a fluke really. Gambled that yogurt can replace buttermilk in Bill's pancake recipe - and after a bit of a struggle to get the lumps out...these were awesome!

Hannah whipped up a great hot sauce by heating mixed berries in pan with a bit of water and then added banana. So good!

Pan Roast Duck with red wine gravy and Roast Pumpkin

I Have found duck breasts in the supermarket lately at a more affordable price than free range chicken and these were great.

Very easy to cook. Browned the duck - skin side down til nice and crisp in a pan with olive oil, then threw in some chunks of onion, garlic and thyme til roast with the duck in the oven (for about 15min for medium).

Also roasted some jap pumpkin earlier - skin on with fennel seeds.

When the duck was resting - drained off the fat, but held onto the stickyness and roasted onions, garlic and thyme - through in some red wine to make a gravy and thickened it up a little with flour.

This was a great simple but special dinners because it was duck - that really took no time at all...well just a little thyme.

2010 A Bread Odyssey.

2010 has definitely been the year for bread baking and I must say I am loving it. Here are some samples of the regular loaves being baked. A spelt fruit loaf - using mixed spices (cinnamon, allspice, clove and nutmeg) dried apple, fig, cranberry and walnuts. Delicious and a great museli replacement for brekky!


Tried Pizza dough and few times and it has come out great! Kept the base on the thin, but not to thin size as I like a bit of crust. These were great!


Also tried baguettes - which were great. I think the dough recipe I am using (Jamie's Basic) is most suited to these actually.

This herbed knotted roll and dinner rolls were made with some left over dough and they were great!

We haven't bought bread in months now! Nothing beats fresh bread!

Spelt Loaf

Have really been getting into baking bread. This was my first go at a spelt loaf. I went 50/50 white strong flour and spelt. Following the bourke st bakery rolling technique - it came out beautifully! The thing with baking your own bread fresh - you gotta eat it quick! as it will turn into a rock after a day or two! But it usually does disappear pretty fast.

Potbelly Brekky!

We love a good healthy yet hearty hot breakfast. This one was extra special - as it was on homemade spelt bread with homemade hummos.

An egg fried with just a little olive oil...topped with some whole smoked salmon that we flaked onto the egg.

I've also started lightly frying tomatoes at the last minute that I drizzle with balsamic while they fry.

Delicious....




and don't forget the atomic coffee!!

Somerset Salad

We love a great salad for lunch in summer and this was amazing! Just a mix of everything on hand - grape tomatoes, cos, tuna, including some fuji apples and a quick herbed crouton by pan-grilling a herbed and oiled slice of stale baguette.

Also - quickly pan frying some zucchini and pin-nuts added some extra interest too. Plus a good mustardy dressing!

Nothing too fancy - but a hearty and satisfying big salad!

Rolled Roast Chicken Breast with Caramalised Pear

This was an exciting surprise I put together for Marco one coolish evening! The colder it gets, the more I want to slow-cook and make stews... must be my Irish blood, I love winter food.
I am slightly ashamed to say I found this recipe in an unmentionable woman's magazine I was flicking through at the doctors. But their version was pretty bland so I worked my own effect on it. They had no marinade or herbs, and it sounded like it would dry out to me, so here's the variation.
I marinated four free-range chicken breasts in white wine, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper. The longer the better for this, but I left it for about four hours.
Once I was feeling crafty and nible-fingered, I gathered our kitchen string and prepared to roll. I cut the string to 40cm lengths and laid four out across a chopping board, perpendicular to the board itself (sorry, hard to explain without showing you!). We had some left over pancetta, so I used this, but you could also use prosciutto (and it would probably roll better). I placed three slices of the pancetta over the top of the string, with the slices overlapping slightly. Then I placed a chicken breast on top of this, and another breast on top of that. Lastly, I placed two or three more slices of pancetta on top, ready to tie the string. (So, by now, you should have a pile of the following layers: string on the bottom, then pancetta, two chicken breasts, more pancetta). A little bit fiddly, but now bring the string up to tie it all together, the pancetta should almost completely cover the breast and hold it all together. Because I did four breasts, I did this process twice.
That's the difficult part, I promise - the rest is super easy.
Preheat the oven to 200 deg. cel. Put some olive oil in the bottom of a good baking tray. Slice one onion and scatter this across the bottom in a thin covering. Sit the chicken rolls on top of these.
Now prepare your pears. I used about 6 not-quite-ripe pears, knowing they'd get soft and quishy in the oven anyway. Cut the pears into quarters and remove the core. In a bowl, coat the pears in 1-2 table spoons of sugar and give them a good stir.
Now, place the pears around your chicken in the baking tray. You're ready to put it in the oven!
Cook in the hot oven for about 20mins then turn down to 180 and cook for another 20mins, or until you're confident the chicken is cooked (this will all depend on how big your breasts are... tee hee).
Then voila! It's ready to serve. I cut it into slices, as shown here, and it made it easy to eat and serve. The brown stuff on top is the caramelised onion, and the golden potatoey looking things are actually pear. I served this with steamed snowpeas and with pine nut and lemon dressing. YUM!!! (if I do say so myself).

Cheers, Hannah