Tagliatele with Rabbit & Artichoke Ragu

A delicious slow cooked dinner to go with some fresh tagliatele from Haberfield and a few heads of fresh artichoke.

Browned some rabbit pieces, seasoned with fennel seeds, chilli, salt and pepper in a caserole dish. Took out the browned rabbit, then threw in diced carrot, onion, celery and fennel and cooked off slowly in the sticky pan after the rabbit browning.

Added some garlic and the rabbit pieces and cooked together for a bit. Then added a good lug of white wine and about a few cups of stock. While the wine cooked off a bit, I prepped the artichoke, by removing the outer leaves and cutting the hearts in half. Through these in...put the lid on, then placed in a oven (about 150 degress) to slow cook for a few hours, giving it a stir every hour.

By the end, the rabbit fell of the bone and the artichokes were all soft and mushy creating a delicious thick artichoke flavoured sauce...with enough leaves for texture. Shredded the rabbit meat while the water boiled.

Stirred a few ladels of the ragu with the cooked tagliatele with a heap of parmesan and chopped parsely, drizzled generously with extra virgin olive oil. A lighter ragu that was delicious! An addition of pancetta or bacon in the frying would have added a good kick!

Berlotti Beans in Tomato Sauce with Flatbread

My dad had picked a heap of fresh berlotti beans and I had never cooked this dish before, but was one of my favourite dishes my mum cooks up.

Very simple, a simply browning of onions, carrotts, celery and bacon, then added the beans and cooked for a bit. Then added diced tomatoes and some passata and a touch of chicken stock and cooked for a few hours.

This was some leftovers we re-heated and simply at with some warmed Greek pita bread and freshened with coriander. Delicious!

Salmon Brocolini and Red Pepper Quiche

This was my first go at a quiche...for a quick saturday lunch. Hannah prepped the base, blind baking some short crust pastry. And the filling was just what I usual do for a fritata. I cooked off some red peppers, then sliced stalks of brocolini, then left to cool for a bit while the base cooked.

Then I whisked eggs, parmasen cheese and a splash of milk and a few tablespoons of self raising flour and added some tinned salmon slices and dill. When the base was ready I scattered with the veggies and the brocollini tops (reserving some for the top) then poured over the egg mix which filled it too the brim. Then I placed the remaining veg on top with some extra salmon slices and dill.

Wasn't quite sure how this would turn out, thought it might just all overflow in the oven, but it puffed up beautifully and tasted great. Had this with a raddichio, quinoa, orange, cranberry and walnut salad & and some green beans with slow roasted tomatoes and pine nuts.













All this done with what was on hand in the pantry and fridge!

Strawberry stuffed Brioche French Toast

Saw Bill Grainger do this with nectarines and thought strawberries would be a great subsitute in winter.

So I headed around the corner to Sweet Belem who have brioche and fresh portugese bread on weekends. Hannah stuffed the thick brioche slices with sliced strawberry and left them to coat and soak in the egg, milk and a dash of vanilla extract.

Slowly fried off with a lid on, then left to cook in an oven for about 10 minutes to really cook through and the strawberry to stew a bit.
This was amazing! served with fresh strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. More a dessert than a breakfast...but who's complaining!

Paella!

I have been cooking a few paella's this year and am loving it. It's not as hard as I thought and actually much quicker and easier than risotto.

This was the first I tried in a new paella pan...so I had never cooked one this big before, so the rice got a bit burnt in the middle. But the flavours were fantastic!

This was with chicken, chorizo, and topped with fresh prawns. I can't wait to try this again and get it right!

Served this with a side of grilled haloumi with pear and mint!

Pan Roasted Rabbit in Red Wine with Prunes and Cinnamon

With my sister visiting for work in Paris we wanted to cook up something special for this rare occassion to meet up in Paris.

So we let our morning trip to the markets guide the way. A rabbit called out, and a great fruit and nut stand inspired the middle eastern spin on the dish.


Rabbit marinated in red wine, rosemary, orange rind and cinnamon...fried off briefly then roasted with the marinade with prunes til tender. This was absolutely delicious, the rabbit so tender and tasty and the cinnamon and prune combination added great flavour. A very memorable dish that would be amazing in a tagine. Food for thought.

We simply had this with some fresh baguette, some mushrooms and asparagus on the side, and a fantastic endive, fennel, strawberry and rochfort salad!

The Parisian Cooking Files: Jamie Inspired Breakfast

We saw Jamie Oliver do this with black pudding, so we couldn't resist cooking this up for breakfast one morning, after we had bought some fresh quail eggs from the markets and had that declicious salami on hand.


Simply fried quail eggs, served on sliced fresh baguette with a slice of salami. We resisted frying the salami but I'm sure that would be seriously good! This may look like pint sized, but it hits the spot! You have to leave room for a pan chocolat after all!