Pâté de Campagne

'Pâté de Campagne', also sometimes called a 'Terrine' is a coarse ground pâté that is baked in a loaf pan inside a water bath. Terrines normally incorporate two types of meats and use dried fruits in the center, such as figs, apricots or cherries. This terrine used pork and veal minces, with chunks of ham in the middle. It was wrapped in streaky bacon and was not difficult to make, but did require a certain amount of pre-planning, as with all these recipes. In my opinion, the terrine was not seasoned enough, it needed more salt than the recipe asked for. I am starting to realize that the MasterChef cookbook often underestimates how much seasoning and herbs are needed in their dishes as this was a little bland. We had this for alfresco lunch on Sunday, accompanied by crusty sourdough ciabatta, a tomato and basil salad and pickled onions & cornichon. It's still summer, yay!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/gallery/2010/jul/30/how-make-pate-de-campagne

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 7

Soda Bread with Pumpkin accompanied by Feta Filo Pie for lunch and Sausages with Onions for dinner

Yesterday I called a photographer called Jay Heifetz, a professional photographer from Fremantle, WA, for some advice on how to take pictures of food. He gave me some valuable advice regarding taking photographs and how I should use lighting and staging to get the most of out of the dishes. He takes wonderful photographs, not just of food, have a look at his website www.heifetzphotography.com.au. I hope my pictures from here on can be half as good as his!

Soda bread is an easy bread to make, which doesn't need too much kneading. It doesn't rise, so goes in and comes out of the oven the same shape. I seriously underestimated the amount of flour needed to made the bread. Cleaning my hands was a very difficult process, because the mixture was so sticky. I had to call for help numerous times and add lots more flour! I got very frustrated with the whole process and was told by my mother to "take my anger out on the bread"! We ate the pumpkin bread for lunch accompanied by feta filo pie and salad. The bread was slightly sweet and I served it with butter, which made it taste similar to scones!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.hungrycouplenyc.com/2014/09/pumpkin-soda-bread.html

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 6

Making feta filo pie is quite challenging and I found out the hard way. You have to squeeze all the water out of the spinach otherwise when it is cooked it will make the bottom all soggy. I made the recipe in a hurry, forgot to squeeze out all the spinach and got a soggy bottom! The flavours were nice, particularly the pine nuts and raisins, but the texture was not. As I say with some of my dishes, unfortunately, "this wasn't my favourite".
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.aww.com.au/food/recipes/2007/5/spinach-and-feta-filo-pie/

Ratings:
Taste: 4
Appearance: 4
Difficulty: 7

Last night was a reverse Cinderella story, my parent's went out to the ball and I was stuck at home, cooking for my ugly "step"-brothers! For dinner I made sausages, onion gravy and mashed potatoes, but to put it more appropriately, bangers and mash. I substituted this recipe for the liver and onions in the MasterChef Cookbook, because apart from my father, nobody else likes Calves liver. Sausages and onion gravy is the perfect comfort food, too bad that I have to finish my project at the end of this term before it the weather turns colder. A delicious meal, but where was Prince Charming?! Sorry, Jay, even with all your fabulous advice, nothing could make this meal look attractive!
For similar recipe go to:

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 3
Difficulty: 4

Courgette Quiches for lunch and Orange Glazed Gammon with Endives for dinner

I just realized that the tea party post was my 50th blog entry! Now I have completed 98 recipes and counting! Instead of making 'little pastry cases' (as it says in the book), I made a couple of big quiches, one for lunch today and one for lunches during the week. With the quiches, I added bacon into them and Mummy's home grown mini courgettes. Delicious!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1132640/courgette-quiche

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 6

Before searching, I didn't know that Australia sold un-cooked ham joints, they all seem to come conveniently sealed, on the bone and cured! So, I cooked a gammon for the first time! It was a simple recipe, where ham is boiled in a couple of bottles of diluted Apple Cider. The skin is then scored and glazed (with my Mother's homemade orange, lemon and grapefruit marmalade) and the gammon is roasted in the oven. I put endives and potatoes in the roasting tin and tossed them in lemon juice (as I didn't have any oranges). Having looked on wikipedia, it says that endives are a member of the chicory family, which includes radicchio, escarole, frisee and curly endive. I found them to be a bit too bitter, which is presumably why they were included in this recipe, because the orange glaze was very sweet and the meat was salty.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/honeyandmarmaladegla_93186

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 5

Pea, Courgette Quiche for lunch and Orange Glazed Gammon for Dinner

I just realized that the tea party post was my 50th blog entry! Now I have completed over 100 recipes and counting! Sorry it's been a while since my last post, I was working on the essay behind the project, which is due next week. For this recipe instead of making 'little pastry cases' (as it says in the book), I made a couple of big quiches, one for lunch today and one for lunches during the week. With the quiches, I added bacon into them and Mummy's home grown mini courgettes. Delicious!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15308/mini+ham+cheese+quiches

Ratings:
Taste: 7
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 6

Before searching, I didn't know that Australia sold un-cooked ham joints, they all seem to come conveniently sealed, on the bone and cured! So, I cooked a gammon for the first time! It was a simple recipe, where ham is boiled in a couple of bottles of diluted Apple Cider. The skin is then scored and glazed (with my Mother's homemade orange, lemon and grapefruit marmalade) and the gammon is roasted in the oven. I put endives and potatoes in the roasting tin and tossed them in lemon juice (as I didn't have any oranges). Having looked on wikipedia, it says that endives are a member of the chicory family, which includes radicchio, escarole, frisee and curly endive. I found them to be a bit too bitter, which is presumably why they were included in this recipe, because the orange glaze was very sweet and the meat was salty.
For similar recipe go to:
https://www.wheelandbarrow.com.au/blog/recipes/mains/honey-orange-glazed-ham

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 5