Gingerbread Biscuits

I am feeling slightly daunted about the amount of time I have and the amount of recipes I still need to do. So today I had some time, and I baked a batch of gingerbread biscuits.
Who doesn't like tea and biscuits?

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.westernstarbutter.com.au/products-recipes/gingerbread-biscuits

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 7
Difficulty: 4

Lemon Sponge Pudding

Not the healthiest choice but delicious! Possibly a bit heavy after rich lamb shanks, but what the hell? in for a penny in for a pound as they say in the UK! This seemed a very old fashioned dessert and stodgy (in a good way), but the lemon cut through the sponge beautifully. I made the pudding in my Great Grandmother's ceramic christmas pudding bowl, she would have been so proud. It would have gone beautifully with custard, but there is a limit to how much a person can consume in one evening, so we opted for ice-cream!

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/self-saucing-lemon-sponge

Ratings:

Taste: 8

Appearance: 7

Difficulty: 5

Lamb Shanks in Red Wine

Despite this taking quite a long time to marinade (24 hours) and cook, it was worth it. Absolutely delicious, melt off the bone, lamb shanks with a deliciously rich sauce.
Since there were a lot of vegetables in the sauce, I decided to keep it simple by only serving the shanks with mashed potatoes and green beans. The remainder was the base for a great Mamma Capon 'stoup' (half stew, half soup!)

This is #1 of the 5 recipes DK publishers have allowed me to quote from the cookbook (next time I'm photographing it!):

Ingredients:
- 6 lamb shanks, approx. 1.8 kg in total, excess fat and sinew removed.
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 30g plain flour
- 750 ml beef stock, plus more if needed
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 30g butter
-  1 celeriac, approx. 500g, trimmed and peeled, cut into 1 cm cubes
- 250g mushrooms quartered
- 3 tbsp redcurrant jelly
- bunch of watercress, to garnish (optional)

For the marinade:
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 tsp juniper berries
- 4 shallots, roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 onions, quartered
- 2 carrots, roughly sliced
- 1 bouquet garni, made with 5-6 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, 2-3 sprigs of thyme and 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 750 ml dry red wine

1. For the marinade, coarsely crush the peppercorns and juniper berries, then tip them into a saucepan. Add the remaining marinade ingredients, bring to boil, and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour into a large dish and cool. Add the shanks, cover, and leave in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, turning occasionally. 
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/ Gas 4). Remove the lamb shanks and pat dry with kitchen paper. Strain the marinade; reserve the vegetables and liquid separately. 
3. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole and brown the shanks all over. Remove. Add the marinade vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, for 5-7 minutes or until they start to brown. Sprinkle with the flour and cook, stirring, for 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in the marinade liquid, scraping the bottom of the pot well.
4. Return the lamb with any juices and add the bouquet garni from the marinade, the stock, and some salt and pepper. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook the shanks, turning them occasionally, for 2-2 1/4 hours or until tender.
5. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the celeriac, and season. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until tender. Transfer to a bowl. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated and they are tender. Add to the celeriac.
6. Transfer the lamb shanks to a plate and keep warm. Reserve some of the shallots and carrots, then press the sauce through a sieve into a large pan. Whisk in the redcurrant jelly with plenty of pepper. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until reduced by half. 
7. Add the mushrooms, celeriac and reserved carrots and shallots. Check the seasoning. Return the lamb shanks to the sauce and reheat for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot.

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 7
Difficulty: 8

Yellow Passion Fruit Cordial

Our lovely gardener, Maurice, gave us a bag of yellow passion fruit from his garden. We haven't seen them before, and now we know that they are the same flavour but much more bitter than their purple sisters! This recipe wasn't in the MasterChef cookbook, I went off piste and found a Donna Hay recipe!
This was delicious, fresh and light, perfect for the Perth summer. I may try using the syrup drizzled over the cheesecake or pavlova recipes later in the book.

For recipe go to:
https://www.donnahay.com.au/recipes/passionfruit-cordial

Ratings:

Taste: 10

Appearance: 6

Difficulty: 2

Trout en Papillote

This recipe must have been a success because my 13 year old brother, Archie actually said "yum"! Trout en Papillote means 'trout in paper' in French. Although this was a great success, I'm still learning time management and organization skills, it's a work in progress!

Received a reply to my email from DK books, sadly I am not allowed to print more than 5 recipes from the MasterChef cookbook, hmmmmm, which recipes to choose? Guess I will just have to substitute from my Mother's Good Housekeeping! Such a shame, from now on I will provide a link to a similar recipe online if you are interested?

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/3074/ocean+trout+en+papillote

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 8 
Difficulty: 3

Guacamole & Brownies

Odd combination admittedly! My parent's decided to invite 2 families over with young children for an early Saturday dinner party, and this was the perfect opportunity to tick 2 kid friendly recipes off the list. Guacamole is very easy, very tasty, and very green when spilt on white sofas! The perfect pre-BBQ nibble with nachos, added more lime than indicated.

Ratings

Taste: 10

Appearance: 9

Difficulty: 1

Who doesn't like brownies? These had toasted hazelnuts in them, and obviously I used minimum 70% chocolate. Served with strawberries and ice-cream, small kids and big kids liked them equally! Considering everyone was full after the main course, there were only a couple left at the end of the evening. 

Ratings

Taste: 10

Appearance: 7

Difficulty: 4

Macaroni Cheese

With hindsight cooking in the middle of the week whilst doing homework, wasn't the best idea. May need to reconsider my time options from now on. I don't find the recipes difficult to cook, just time consuming.
The recipe called for penne instead of macaroni, used brown bread crumbs instead of white, liked the addition of garlicky mushrooms, a good midweek children's tea. This was never destined to be a MasterChef beauty, but whilst the weather is still cool, trying to cook as many winter meals as I can.

Still waiting to hear back from MasterChef about the book's copyright, so that I can write the recipes.

Ratings

Taste:  6

Appearance: 4

Difficulty: 6

Irish Stew

The Irish Stew was delicious. It was more like a soup and was very easy to make and nutritious. My Mother calls these "enthusiasm stoups", because they are half way between a stew and a soup and she chucks everything from the fridge in it! Today was my brother, Henry's 10th birthday party, so it was a busy day with 14 young boys running around the garden in zorb balls- not much time for cooking, so an appropriate recipe for the occasion.

Ratings
Taste: 9
Appearance: 4
Difficulty: 2