Parmesan Crusted Fish With Braised Vegetables

The most common question I get about this blog is: "What do I make for a family dinner that everyone (ie kids and parents) will eat?" Tough question. The whole issue of a family dinner is a little vexed, especially if your kids are still in that tricky eating phase where they seem to subsist on a very limited rotation of two or three different meals. This leaves the rest of the family with two choices - either eat spaghetti bolognaise every second night for years, or slowly try and expand the boundaries a little.

About a year ago, I decided that I had spent enough time as a short order cook making different meals for kids and adults. It was time for us all to start eating the same food i.e. it was time for the kids to move beyond the spag bol / schnitzel / sausage / pasta rotation, and start enjoying meals that the darling husband and I also wanted to eat. When I discovered this dish, it felt like a personal gift from Bill Granger (thanks Bill!), via his Bill's Food cookbook. It seemed familiar enough to the kids for them to try it, while also delicious for the adults. It also opened the kids up to different soups. This fish and vegetable braise now makes regular appearances at our place. It feels like the sort of homemade comforting food that everyone wants to eat, regardless of whether it has been a tough day at the office or the playground. Incidentally, Bill's Food has at least six or eight recipes that worked for us while bridging that kids' food / adults food divide. In some cases you need to modify seasonings or drop the parsley or adapt the vegetables, but for me, it was a good starting point on the road to single meals at night.

Parmesan-Crusted Blue-Eye and Braised Potatoes With Peas
from "Bill's Food" by Bill Granger
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
45g grated parmesan
2 eggs
1 cup flour
4 blue eye fillets or other firm white fish
2 tbls olive oil
25g butter
4 potatoes, steamed or boiled until tender
1 onion sliced into thin rings
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups chicken stock

Slice potatoes. Heat 1 tbl olive oil in a pan, and fry onions until they are translucent not brown (about 5 mins). Add the peas and toss well. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 5 mins. Add the potatoes and cook for another two mins. Set aside, keeping vegies warm.

Meanwhile, mix breadcrumbs and parmesan in a bowl and season to taste. Crack the eggs into another bowl and beat lightly with a fork. Place the flour in a third bowl. Dip a fish fillet in the flour then the eggs then the breadcrumb mix. Repeat until all the fish are coated (you can do this up to two hours ahead, just keep the fish in the fridge once it is crumbed.

Heat 1 tbl olive oil and butter in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the fish and cook gently for about 2 mins on each side or until the fish is golden and cooked through (do it in batches if your pan is small). Divide the vegetables among the serving bowls, and serve the fish on top.

Mushroom Soup

I love this time of year. The air in the mornings and evenings is quite crisp and fresh, but the days are still gloriously warm. And the sea is still a wonderful temperature for swimming. It is also the last week of daylight saving, and I know that in a week we will start on the downhill slide to winter. So it is definitely the time to really savour the last remnants of summer (even though we are officially in autumn already). However I am already moving from cold soups to warm.

This mushroom soup was very quick and easy for a Sunday night. Simply simmer mushrooms in chicken stock with a slice of sourdough. Season, blend and viola. It comes from one of the great ideas you find in the margins of Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. If you are not familiar with it, this book is stuffed with detailed recipes, organised by key ingredient, as well as mini-recipes in the margins. The mushroom chapter for example offers major recipes like:

- mushroom caps stuffed with goat's cheese on vine leaves or

- mushrooms en papillote

as well as mini-recipes in the margins eg

- morel pasta sauce

- pepper mushrooms, and this week's pick

- mushroom bread soup

So many good ideas, and even though I have had it for years, I still feel there are unexplored chapters in my book. Something to look forward to in winter perhaps? If you are in the mood for soup - drop in on Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday.

Mushroom Bread Soup

adapted from "The Cook's Companion" by Stephanie Alexander

500g mushrooms

4 cups chicken stock

2 slices sourdough bread, crusts removed

Simmer sliced mushrooms in stock with bread for 10 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Blend soup and season to taste. Garnish with chives and creme fraiche.

Goats Cheese, Potato and Rosemary Tortilla

Among the myriad of cooking blog events is the Blog Party run monthly by Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness. She is a very welcoming hostess - anyone happy to cook an appetizer and arrange some drinks is welcome to drop in. This month's theme was Brunch: Worth Getting Up Late For...Again, and I decided to turn up with this goat's cheese tortilla. For me, brunch = eggs, so it wasn't too hard to decide what to make. And as for drinks, I took the easy way out with a nice crisp glass of French champagne. Thanks for having me Stephanie.

This recipe is easy and endlessly variable depending on what mix-ins you want. Goat's cheese and rosemary were the perfect choice for a night at home alone (which was all the more reason to head along to a cyber party.) Husband would have found the rosemary a bit much, but I thought it was fabulous - judge for yourself where your preferences lie and adjust the recipe accordingly. And in case you slept really late today - this recipe isn't just a brunch - it is just as good as a supper.


Goat's Cheese, Potato and Rosemary Tortilla
adapted from Alex Kearns of Glebe Point Diner in Vogue Entertaining

2 tbl olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
350 g potatoes cooked, peeled and sliced
3 sprigs of rosemary, chopped
6 large eggs
100g goats cheese fetta

Preheat oven to 190C. Heat oil in a 22cm oven proof fry pan, then add onion. Cook onion over medium heat until it becomes translucent. Add garlic and continue cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in potatoes and rosemary. Crack eggs into a bowl without stirring, then tip into the pan. Use a wooden spoon to break the yolks and fold the eggs into the mixture. Press cheese into the tortilla. Transfer to the oven for 5-8 minutes or until the egg is set (if you are using a cast iron pan this will take longer). Cool for five minutes then remove and serve.

Sauteed Broccolini

Its been a busy month for the Barefoot Bloggers, with four recipes to complete in March instead of the usual three. Bless those doing the choosing for the recipes, because it has been a lovely and varied selection. We started this month with Chicken Piccata, today we have both a Chocolate Brownie Pudding and sauteed Broccolini, and then next week we will round out the month with Tomato and Goats Cheese Tarts. And we definitely needed the Broccolini to increase our vitamin and anti oxidant levels around here.

I enjoyed this recipe although it was not universally acclaimed in this house. My favourite part of the recipe was the two stage cooking process, which I think makes this a good choice for entertaining - blanch your greens ahead of time and then reheat in the lemon garlic butter. I think this would work just as well for beans or snow peas as for broccolini. Sadly husband and children are not very fond of broccolini, and would prefer standard issue broccoli most days of the week. I will probably use the recipe again but for different greens. Thanks to Mary of Meet Me In the Kitchen for her choice - I'm sure one day I will convince the family about broccolini (or not).

Sauteed Broccolini
from Ina Garten

1 bunch broccolini
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 lemon, zested
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Blanch the broccolini in a large pot of boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain immediately and immerse in a bowl of ice water.

Melt the butter in a large saute pan. Add the lemon zest and garlic and stir. Drain the broccolini and add it to the garlic mixture and heat for 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the pepper, and toss well before serving.

Chocolate Brownie Pudding - Can You Imagine Anything Better?

My youngest daughter was a terrible sleeper from birth, and remained that way for two years. For those of you who do not have children or were blessed with a baby that slept through from the first few weeks, pause to think about the poor tortured souls who for years (yes years) at a time do not get an unbroken night's sleep. Eventually, having tried every other approach known to man, I gave up on worrying about whether she slept and made a deal with her: "If you don't wake up Mummy during the night, you get to have chocolate for breakfast." I know that no parenting book on earth would recommend this (and I'm not sure I am entirely comfortable with it either) but, miracle of miracles, at more than two years old, she slept through the night for the first time. We had three chocolate breakfasts before the pattern was broken and she started sleeping through the night.

All of which helps you understand why this month's Barefoot Bonus recipe challenge was such a hit in our house. We all enjoyed it, but it was the little one who kept coming back for more (and incidentally it reheats well in a low oven - it lasted us three dinners). The pudding was just like a real brownie: underneath was fudgy and rich with the crunchier cake on top. We will definitely make this again (probably for the little one's birthday in a couple of weeks.) It is also quite forgiving - I overfilled my water bath, and some slopped into the pudding on its way into the oven, and it didn't seem to matter too much. The Barefoot Blogger Bonus Recipe is chosen by the blogger who directs the most traffic to the Barefoot Blogger site - congratulations and thanks for the great choice from Tia of Southern Eh.

Brownie Pudding

from "Back to Basics" by Ina Garten

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
1 tablespoon framboise liqueur, optional (we left this out)
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions
Preheat the oven to 160C. Lightly butter a 2 litre (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. Melt the 250g of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla seeds, framboise, if using, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined. With mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan. Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean. The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding.
Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Marinated BBQ Prawns

Australia seems to be doing its level best to live up to all the cliches about it at the moment. We have been through a summer of horrendous bushfires and destructive floods, that have mostly brought out the best in people. Generosity, bravery, mateship and an indomitable spirit are easily found every time I pick up a newspaper at the moment. But at the same time, some not so attractive traits are also on display: relentless undermining of our tall poppies, small mindedness and various governments that could not run a bath. And in case you missed the news, the sharks and crocodiles are also doing their bit to hold up our international reputation as a wild and dangerous place.

So just to make sure that all cliches were cemented into place, we threw some prawns (or as Paul Hogan would say, shrimp) on the barbie last weekend. Marinated for about 10 minutes before being served with thai chilli jam, they were really delicious. The marinade recipe comes from The Spirit House restaurant at Yandina in Queensland - if you are ever travelling in the Sunshine Coast, their cooking classes are wonderful. If you have never cooked with prawns here are some tips:
- green prawns should be kept in a box filled with ice and water in the fridge, to keep them as cold as possible.
- if you are not eating them the same day, make sure you ask your fish monger whether they will still be OK when you want to serve them (he will know how long since they came from the fish market)
- to peel, pull off the head, then pulling at the legs, remove the shell from the body of the prawn, leaving the tail in place. Devein by gently slicing about 1mm into the back of the prawn - you will see the vein and can pull it out.
- do not marinated for too long as the marinade will "cook" the prawns
- it is worth skewering prawns if you are barbecuing them - it helps them cook a bit more evenly, and makes them more manageable for whoever is holding the tongs. Push a skewer through the prawn starting in the middle of the tail.
- washing your hands with soda water helps remove the prawn smell
- if you get rubbish collections only once a week, double bag the prawn head and shells and keep in your freezer until it is collection day, or your bin will stink (trust me on this one)

Barbecued Garlic Prawns
adapted from "Hot Plate" from Spirit House Restaurant and Cooking School

1 kg green medium king prawns
2 cloves garlic, crushed
50ml olive oil
juice 1/2 lemon
2 tbls sea salt

Peel and devein the prawns leaving the tail. Skewer the prawns. Comine marinade ingredients and mix well. Drizzle over prawns making sure each one is coated. Allow prawns to sit for 5-10 mins. Grill on a barbecue until prawns are pink and cooked through (a couple of minutes).
Serve with chilli jam, aioli or any other sauce that appeals.

Oreos DIY

I was killing a little time the other day before an appointment, browsing through a local bookshop's selection of food magazines (as you do...), looking for something to thumb for half an hour before an appointment. Local Australian magazines often dominate this area: Gourmet Traveller, Vogue Entertaining, Delicious, Donna Hay, alongside Kiwi imports Cuisine and Dish. American magazines appear and disappear a little more sporadically. Martha is usually available, but Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Saveur are much more hit and miss. Some editions seem to make it through to Australia; some don't. Last week I came across a new arrival: the Food Network Magazine, and while skimming through it, found a recipe that made me buy the magazine: do-it-yourself oreos.

For a long time in Australia, oreos were an exotic and unknown biscuit (cookie), mentioned enticingly on TV shows like the Brady Bunch, but completely unavailable. About five years ago, they turned up in supermarkets here, and were taken straight to the same place in my children's hearts where TimTams, Montes and Choc Wheatens also live. The chocolate wafers and creamy centre are a winning flavour combination, which has been widely adopted as cookies and cream for everything from ice cream to kitkats. This do-it-yourself recipe comes from chef Emily Isaac at Trois Pommes Patisserie. It is absolutely fantastic and makes an enormous number of biscuits. We had so many that I was sending friends away with boxes of them just to get them eaten before they had a chance to go stale. And how good were they? Fantastic - the biscuit more chocolatey than the original and the cream more vanilla-y. No surprises then that the grown ups liked them just as much as children did.

Do It Yourself Oreos from Emily Isaac in The Food Network Magazine

For the Dough:
1 1/3 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Filling:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (copha), melted and then allowed to cool
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the dough: Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a large bowl.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, incorporating each ingredient before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place one piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment paper and roll into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the parchment sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to several days.

Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut the dough into circles. (You can reroll the scraps.) Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the cookies until they are set and slightly darker around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with 1 level tablespoon of filling. Press the remaining cookies on top to make sandwiches.