Smoked Cod and Herb Fishcakes followed by Summer Pudding and Homemade Vanilla Icecream

The recipe in the Masterchef Cookbook calls for Haddock - how very British! Smoked cod is readily available and sustainable here and conveniently was on special offer in Coles at $7 per kg - unheard of! When I looked at this recipe, I thought "this looks easy", and technically speaking, it was. However, once completing the preparation, I realised that I had used almost every utensil in the kitchen! A pan for the potatoes, a roasting tin to cook the fish, colander, a chopping board for the potatoes, spring onions and parsley. Various measuring spoons for mustard, salt, pepper etc. Numerous knives, spoons, potato peeler, lemon squeezer, zester, potato masher, mixing bowl, 2 bowls for egg and breadcrumbs, 2 baking trays (I am baking them rather than frying them) and a tea cup......for my tea break! The cleaners came this morning and you would never know! I served the fishcakes with coleslaw and a homemade tartare sauce. They were a great success and delicious.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/smoked-haddock-and-herb-fishcakes

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 10
Difficulty: 5

I am really enjoying my personal project, but am finding that it is taking a lot of time out of my at the moment. I am about half way through my recipes so far. I have to plan what to cook, buy the ingredients, or get my mother to! prepare, cook, photograph and serve the food, then blog it. For this reason, I prepared the easiest dish so far for dessert. Summer Pudding used very few utensils and mercifully doesn't need to be cooked. I only had to use my ingenuity once, by trying to fit it into the fridge with all the weights on top of it! I think if I had left it overnight the juices would have absorbed more and wouldn't look like a brain.
For similar recipe go to: Summer Pudding
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4516/summer-pudding

I made the ice-cream mixture and put it into our ice-cream machine. All was going well, so we went for a family expedition to Fremantle Prison and left it churning away! We returned to find that the paddle had stopped turning and in the WA summer heat, the mixture had melted oops! The ice cream tasted nice, but was slightly more icy than it would have been if I had put it in the freezer immediately after it had stopped turning.
For similar recipe go to: Vanilla Ice Cream
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1881/ultimate-vanilla-ice-cream

Ratings: Summer Pudding
Taste: 10
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 3

Ratings: Ice Cream
Taste: 9
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 5