Great Excitement

After two years of baking in this benchtop oven......

...which was too small to accommodate many of our baking pans (imagine no muffins, cup-cakes or slices, alarming!!), we've finally had a new kitchen installed in our little patch of paradise.  It's not quite finished (I will post some pictures when it is) but the ovens (yes, that is two ovens) and cooktop are both up and running.  

Why two ovens I hear you ask?  So we have more flexibility and don't have to heat up a large space when we don't need it.

It's fair to say that after two years of constrained baking we went a wee bit silly with all this new space.  Our freezer is now stuffed full of baked goods because we baked way more than we can actually eat or share with others. Between us we baked stuffed chicken thighs, gingerbread cup-cakes, mango muffins, buttermilk scones, sourdough bread, bread rolls, an apricot cheesecake, puddings and a pear and brie tart.  

The first thing I made was chicken thighs stuffed with pistachios and apricots.  This was for a a dinner party we had with our good friends, J and G on NYE.  I served it with a couple of salads. The asparagus and avocado salad was definitely the star of the entire meal but the chicken thighs were pretty good too.  Many of the recipes are from Dish magazine (I love their recipes, you'll see a theme) like this one for the chicken:  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/chicken-thighs-pistachio-and-apricot-stuffing.  

The asparagus salad is also from Dish but I couldn't find it online, probably because it's in their latest magazine. Being a retired person I have a bit of time on my hands, so I've typed it out for you. It's a seriously good salad and worth the effort to share.

Asparagus and Avocado with Sesame Dressing

2 bunches of slim asparagus, stem ends snapped off

1-2 avocadoes, thinly sliced (I used two)

2 tablespoons kewpie mayo (I didn't have this and used a whole egg mayonnaise instead)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes (I used 1/4....it wasn't enough if you like chili)

1/4 -1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in a jar and shake well.

Cook the asparagus in a well salted pot of boiling water for one minute. Drain and immediately place into iced water (this will keep them nice and green) then dry on paper towel. Layer the asparagus and avocado on a nice platter. Drizzle generously with the dressing.  Mix the mayonnaise with the sesame oil.  Place in a small plastic bag (or you could use an icing syringe if you have one), snip off the corner and drizzle over the salad. Then....enjoy!! 

The brie and pear tart is one of Belinda Jefferie's recipes.  If you've not already discovered Belinda's recipes I recommend you give them a go.  They're all really easy to follow, always work and taste amazing.  My lovely Mum loved this tart.  I miss being able to share it with her but it is lovely having the memory of having done so.  I've not included a link to the recipe but it's pretty easy to find online, albeit not on Belinda's own site.  It hasn't photographed all that well and was way tastier than it looks. 

R has had his sourdough starter for at least ten years now. It was gifted to him by our good Scottish friend, E.  The starter definitely improved when we moved from the city to the country and sometimes blows the lid of its container because it is so active.  The bread has also improved.  Plus, R has been tweaking his recipe along the way, seeking that perfect loaf.  He was able to bake a loaf in the benchtop oven, but the temperature wasn't reliable so the results were a bit mixed.  His first loaf out of the new oven was a corker.  I love a slice of bread from a still warm loaf with lashings of butter and sometimes some homemade jam.   

 

These are Walnut, Herb and Parmesan Brioche rolls I made using a recipe I found in Dish Magazine:  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/walnut-herb-and-parmesan-brioche-wreath-pull-aparts.  This recipe included a technique called tangzhong which I'd not heard of before.  So naturally I had to try it.  Basically, tangzhong is cooking a flour paste which gets added to the dough when you start kneading.  Pretty easy.  You'll see in the recipe that the balls of dough are rolled in olive oil and then dukkah before the final proof. I didn't have any dukkah on hand so I made my own.  These rolls are seriously tasty and reheat from frozen really well.  

I had some leftover fruit mince from Christmas and didn't want to make another batch of fruit mince pies.  So I made Chocolate Fruit Mince Puddings using this recipe which I found online:   https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/chocolate-fruit-mince-puddings-custard-strawberries-recipe/n9wabpvp?r=baking/ig340uqk&h=baking.  I did have to tweak the recipe a wee bit because my fruit mince was already made and the recipe uses dried fruit that gets soaked.  They turned out very tasty but rich. Oh, and they stuck to the non-stick muffin pan even though I greased it really well before hand. So not the prettiest but hey, it all goes down the same way right.  Oh, and as it's mandatory in our household to do so, I served these with custard and ice-cream.

There are plenty of butter milk scone recipes online and we've found this one from Taste to be pretty reliable:  https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/buttermilk-scones/fe8b5646-f2f5-4443-98f1-09709ad5d163.  We had these with butter and homemade mulberry jam.  When we lived in Greenmount, we had a fantastic mulberry tree that produced kilos and kilos of fruit.  This is our last jar of the jam I made using the fruit from that tree.  We sure do miss that tree.  We have planted a cutting from the Greenmount tree here but it is likely to take a good ten to fifteen years to be as productive.   The one in Greenmount was about 25 years old when we moved down here.

We picked about twenty kilos of apricots this year, which was very exciting, and I wanted to make a nice dessert for R's Mum using them.  I know she loves cheesecake so I found this recipe in Dish Magazine :  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/mascarpone-apricot-tart.  The filling is really light and not too sweet and the apricots are a little tart.  A really nice, balanced dessert that J really enjoyed. 

We're still not over the excitement of the new oven and no doubt will be trying out lots more new recipes and some old, cherished ones as well.  Roll on winter when we can do some slow roasting!!