Blueberry and Lemon Trifle

From Trifle: Heavenly Layers, Michelle Keogh, Penguin Books, 2012.

After Christmas I began thinking about the trifle that was made. I always seem to make the same one, with just a few variations. It was time to try something else.

I took 300g macaroons and spread them with blueberry jam. They were then broken into pieces and dropped into the trifle bowl.

It was now time to make the jelly. I squeezed juice from 4 lemons, making 240ml juice. I poured half of this into a small bowl and sprinkled on 10g gelatine. I let it stand while I made sugar syrup.

The syrup was made with 160g caster sugar in 240ml water. This was brought to the boil to dissolve the sugar. It was removed from the heat and the juice with the gelatine in it added. It was stirred until the gelatine had dissolved. The remainder of the lemon juice was added.

I now sprinkled over the macaroons a little over 100ml limoncello. They did not readily absorb the liquid. I let it stand for a few minutes but there was still limoncello at the bottom of the bowl. The jelly meanwhile had cooled so I poured it into the bowl. Now I had a bowl with the bottom filled with a lemon jelly mixed with limoncello and a lot of floating macaroons. I sprinkled a couple of handfuls of blueberries over the jelly. I covered the bowl and placed it in the refrigerator. I hoped that this was how it was meant to be and that it would all set properly.

It did set well so I now made mascarpone cream to go on top of this. I placed 300g mascarpone, 140g lemon curd and 60g caster sugar in the mixer and whisked it until the sugar had dissolved and all was well mixed. Separately I whisked 240ml cream until it had soft peaks. This was folded into the mascarpone mixture and the whole was placed over the lemon jelly and smoothed out. It went back into the refrigerator over night.

Naturally I compared this with the standard one that I usually make. While this one was very acceptable with its wonderful lemon tang, I think I still prefer the more standard trifle.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking ✔✔

Broccolini with Lemon, Parmesan and Pine Nuts

From Coles Magazine, June 2014.

Broccolini is in season at the moment and it is just wonderful.

For this recipe I steamed a bunch of broccolini until it was tender. While it was steaming I dry roasted a good handful of pine nuts. The broccolini then went onto a serving plate. It was drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice was added. It was then topped with shavings of parmesan cheese and pine nuts were sprinkled over. A pinch of salt and some freshly grated black pepper added to this favourite vegetable.

This could become my favourite way to serve this vegetable.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔            Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Tunisian Carrot Salad

From Gourmet Vegetarian, Jane Price, Murdoch Books, 2007.

I always enjoy meals with the flavours of the Middle East.

I peeled and sliced three carrots and put them in a pot of salted water to bring them to the boil and cook them until they were just done. They were drained.

Meanwhile a dressing was made of a garlic clove crushed in a mortar and pestle with a little salt, a little ground cumin and a few grindings of black pepper. This paste was mixed with a ¼ teaspoon harissa, a touch of red wine vinegar and some olive oil. After tasting to see that it worked well it was poured over the carrots.

About a tablespoon of chopped parsley was added together with 6 black kalamata olives. At serving time a boiled egg was sliced into quarters and added to the dish.

A pleasing salad.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔ 

Cheesy Spinach Mash

From Coles Magazine, June 2014.

There are heaps of variations to potato mash and I generally like to try them all. This one began with a normal boiling of 300g potatoes while I prepared the other ingredients.

I grated 35g cheddar and sliced 35g baby spinach leaves.

Once the potatoes were cooked I drained them and mashed them with about a tablespoon butter. I quickly added the spinach as I wanted it to wilt in the hot potatoes. The cheese went in next while the mash was still hot so that it could melt in. Lastly I added a little milk to make the mash creamier. A little salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper went in.

This was an acceptable variation. I don’t expect it’s one that I will use that often but one to keep in mind in case.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Broccoli and Sesame Seed Salad

From Smart Food, Gabriel Gaté, Anne O’Donovan Pty Ltd, 1992.

 What do you do with just a small amount of both broccoli and cauliflower? Well, I made a salad.

The recipe called for just broccoli but I added cauliflower to the mix. The two vegetables were broken into small pieces and boiled until just tender. They were then let cool under some running cold water.

When cool they were added to a dressing of a tablespoon red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, a teaspoon soya sauce and a couple of drops of sesame oil. After gently turning the vegetables around in the dressing they were ready to serve, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

These were surprisingly tasty done in this manner and worth repeating with odd bits of vegetables waiting in the refrigerator.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔