Monty's 1st Birthday Party; Sausage Rolls, Lemon and Lime Tart, Fruit Cake and Banana, Cranberry and Walnut Loaf

Gosh, it was a week ago since our baby's first birthday! I've been a bit slack in blogging - well it is the summer holidays! We invited over Monty's best dog friends; Josh (his English Setter kennel cousin) and Rosie (his gorgeous Golden Retriever girlfriend). I catered a tea for the dogs and their families, and made; 'Sausage Rolls', 'Lemon and Lime Tart', 'Banana, Cranberry and Walnut Loaf', 'Fruit Cake' and for the dogs I made 'Pupcakes' (dog cupcakes!) My mother made egg sandwiches and I brought out a couple of frozen boxes of profiteroles which I made for the Christmas party and filled them with whipped cream.
Unfortunately I cooked the fruit cake for too long and the top went brown, this meant that no human wanted a piece, Josh, however, licked a slice and claimed it for his own! he also swiped an egg sandwich off of the table when he thought no one was looking! The banana bread was delicious and moist and the nuts made it crunchy. We froze the remainder to save it from spoiling. The lemon and lime tart was.......interesting, with a chocolate base and a lovely, tart, lemon and lime filling, it should have been great, but I over stretched the pastry base to fit a larger dish than required, which resulted in a very thin topping, delicious but not overly attractive! The sausage rolls were easy to make, but time consuming - needless to say, there were none left at the end of the party, which was due to the 11 children and 7 adults, rather than the 3 dogs! 

For similar recipe go to: Sausage Rolls
http://today.ninemsn.com.au/foodandwine/1030764/homemade-sausage-rolls

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 5

For same recipe go to: Lemon and Lime Tart
http://www.lovefood.com/guide/recipes/19541/lemon-and-lime-tart-recipe

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 6
Difficulty: 6

For similar recipe go to: Banana, Cranberry and Walnut Loaf
http://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/banana-cranberry-walnut-loaf.html

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 6

For similar recipe go to: Fruit Cake
http://www.joyofbaking.com/FruitCake.html

Ratings:
Taste: 5 - too dry
Appearance: 5 - burnt
Difficulty: 6

Pork Chops

Given that the temperature outside is now consistently above 30C, it seems too hot to be roasting a whole leg of pork in the oven. I adapted yet another recipe, so that the glaze for the joint of meat was used as a marinade and the leg was converted to chops, which went on the barbie!
I marinated the chops in orange juice, white wine, mustard, brown sugar and cloves for approximately 3 hours. I served this with potatoes tossed in olive oil and baby courgettes (zucchini) from my Mother's garden, roasted on the barbeque. It doesn't look great in the photograph but it tasted very nice.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/orange-mustard-pork-chops

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 5
Difficulty: 5

Steak and Mushroom Pie(s)

I got the idea to make Steak and Mushroom pies when I went to Claremont Quarter (shopping mall) and they were giving out samples of steak pie from a stall there. We were going to buy one for dinner, when I had my brainwave and remembered this recipe in the MasterChef cookbook. The book (which has become my Bible!) says that 'the filling for the pies is easy to make - everything goes into the pot, with no initial browning - but it turns out to be rich and savoury.' For once, I totally agree with them!
We didn't have a pie dish big enough or a pie funnel, which I found out is a 'hollow ceramic device, shaped like a funnel, chimney or upstretched bird with open beak used for supporting or venting a pie' - do I detect the need for another kitchen gadget that my parents don't own?! shock horror! So to improvise, I made 4 small pies in large ramekins, each a perfect size for one portion.
I served the dish with roasted cauliflower - although it looks like popcorn in my photo!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/member-recipes/recipe-detail/3889/#0HsZVlgZ1oFgoLAU.97

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 7

Barramundi Fish Burgers with a Spinach and Pine Nut Salad

This is another Australian ingredient-swap, the original recipe called for 'pollock with spinach and pine nuts', but it is nearly impossible to find pollock here. I substituted Barramundi for the Pollock. For anyone that doesn't know, Pollock, is a fish in the cod family, and is found in the North-East Atlantic (not in the Indian Ocean!) Barramundi is a firm white fish that is readily available and found in Australian waters, otherwise known as 'The Asian Sea Bass'.
We decided to go to the beach at twilight and have some prawns and dip whilst watching the sun set prior to dinner. Cooking the barramundi fillets was quite easy on the barbeque and gave them a nice chargrilled flavour. I served them in white buns with homemade mayonnaise. It's amazing how my brothers will eat anything if it is sandwiched between 2 slices of bread!
The spinach salad was simple to make; I lightly fried some onion, added the pine nuts and raisins to the pan, and once they were cooled, tossed them with the spinach in a bowl.
For similar recipe go to:
http://leitesculinaria.com/17580/recipes-spinach-raisins-pine-nuts.html

Ratings: Fish Burger
Taste: 8
Appearance: 6
Difficulty: 5

Ratings: Salad
Taste: 9
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 3

'Crab' Ravioli accompanied by Caesar Salad

I am learning that a big part of cooking isn't about following every recipe to the 'T', but to follow the recipe and changing it to cater to your likes, dislikes and what you have available; be it in your fridge or the local supermarket. This is what I have done with the ravioli. I followed the original crab recipe, tasted it, really disliked it, fed it to the dog and improvised! I checked out the fridge, raided the 'left overs' and came up with a sweet potato, sun-dried tomato and red pesto filling.
My Mother warned me before I started making the pasta, that it takes a ridiculously long time and is very frustrating. Now I know what she means! It took my Father and I nearly 3 hours to roll out, fill and make a small amount of ravioli. I used 2 different methods to make it; an attachment for the pasta roller machine (which ended up as a total waste of time and money and we chucked it in the bin!) and a ravioli mold, where you put one rolled out piece of pasta on the bottom, small dollops of filling in each square and roll a second piece of pasta on the top. They were both pretty disastrous and the shapes were massively irregular! Thank goodness that it tasted nice!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.thefirstmess.com/2012/01/02/sweet-potato-ravioli-with-kale-pesto/

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 6
Difficulty: 10

Caesar salad has to be on every bistro menu that I've ever seen, so it is a good recipe to learn. Essentially it is just lettuce, croutons and a dressing with parmesan. With hindsight, I probably didn't crush the anchovies and garlic enough, nor whisk the egg, oil, lemon juice and mustard together for long enough either. However, the taste was very nice, albeit rustically strong! I loved the taste of the garlic croûtons, which were easy to make, but I forgot to take out the cloves of garlic, which made for an interesting experience for my brothers when they bit unsuspectingly into them! The salad went very well with the ravioli for a great summer holiday lunch.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.curtisstone.com/recipe/caesar-salad

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 4

Pasta with Rocket Pesto for Lunch and Oven Baked Sea Bream (Skippy) for Dinner

Pasta and pesto has always been a staple children's tea time meal in our family, so when I was given the opportunity to make a rocket pesto, I didn't think it was very inventive. WRONG! It appears there is a wonderful earthy difference between the shop bought and homemade. Pesto is traditionally made with basil, but rocket is a good substitute, giving the pesto a fresh peppery flavour. Making the pesto was really easy, I used shop bought rocket salad because my Mother's home grown rocket tends to blow a hole through the roof of my mouth! When tasting the pesto I felt it needed a bit of a bite, so I added a squeeze of lemon juice, which did the trick. We used fettuccine pasta and accompanied with a dressed spinach salad.
For similar recipe go to:
http://eatdrinkpaleo.com.au/perfect-rocket-basil-pesto-recipe/

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 3

The baked fish was a bit of a disaster. The sauce, made of onion, celery, garlic and tomatoes tasted nice, but Skippy (no not a small kangaroo) was not a great success. Having looked up 'Skippy' online, I have discovered that its real name is 'Silver Trevally'. It seems these fish are great fishing sport, but not overly popular for their taste. We found it to be very fishy, off white with a slightly odd texture and phenomenally sharp, small bones. We were wowed into buying them because they had only just arrived at the fishmongers an hour before. Served with new boiled potatoes and steamed asparagus. No amount of photography could make this look attractive!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/sea-bream-with-mediterranean-sauce.html

Ratings:
Taste: 2
Appearance: 4
Difficulty: 6

Ceviche and (Australian Adapted) Dressed Crab

My Grandmother Buchanan will be so jealous when she finds out that we had crab, ceviche and prawns in one meal. She loves fish and as you can see, we had a seafood themed dinner, delicious! Ceviche briefly pickles raw fish and conserves its freshness. The acid in the pickle whitens the fish flesh and stiffens the texture, making it seem "cooked". All the recipes I found online for reference, told me different ingredients to add and times to 'cook'. So I compromised and made my own version. We visited a fabulous fishmonger in Inaloo (yes this really is a place that exists!) called 'Seafresh' and the choice was amazing, I chose very fresh pink snapper fillets for my ceviche. Jamie Oliver said to cut the fish into 1cm cubes, so I did, BBC Goodfood said to add peppers, onion, sugar and coriander, so I did! Last but not least, the Master Chef recipe said to marinade the fish for 20-60 minutes, so I did and drained the lemon juice after an hour.
Because The Masterchef cookbook is British, the ingredients are often different to Australia, especially when it comes to meat and fish. The original recipe called for brown crabs to dress, but at the moment the crabs that are available here are smallish blue crabs from Mandurah (pronounced 'Mandra') WA. The very knowledgeable fishmonger from 'Seafresh', gave me valuable advice as to how to prepare, cook and eat the crabs. 5 minutes in salted boiling water, take the top shell off and clean inside, removing the gills and gunk! and eat covered in chilli and garlic oil with "a decent french loaf and real butter!"
The shrimp looked too good to refuse and I learnt that apparently when the skins are shinier, they tend to be fresher and sweeter inside. With all this variety, we had a veritable fishy feast! I served everything with a simple spinach salad and plenty of french bread! 
For similar recipes go to:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/seafood-recipes/peruvian-ceviche/#FJoFU7tc6IkDzFu3.97
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1853678/ceviche

Ratings: Ceviche
Taste: 10
Appearance: 10
Difficulty: 5

Ratings: Crab
Taste: 10
Appearance: 10
Difficulty: 6