Month: September 2021

Sundried Tomato Pesto Pasta with Chicken, Spinach, & Tomatoes

Source: http://www.onceuponacuttingboard.com/2014/07/sundried-tomato-pesto-pasta-with.html

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 85g sundried tomatoes – dry in a bag (not oil packed)
  • 350g package of whole wheat pasta – I used fettucine
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 250g grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 cup sundried tomato pesto
  • 150g baby spinach
  • Parmesan cheese for topping

Method

  1. Season chicken breasts, if desired (I used salt, pepper, and dried basil) and cook however you prefer. I saute mine in a skillet over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes per side, let rest, then slice.
  2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  3. Add sundried tomatoes and blanch for 2 minutes.
  4. Remove with a slotted spoon, let dry, and thinly slice.
  5. Use the same boiling water to add your pasta and cook according to package directions.
  6. Reserve 1 cup cooking water then drain pasta. While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
  7. Add garlic and grape tomatoes and sautee until softened, about 5 minutes.
  8. Toss together the pasta, reserved cooking water, pesto, chicken slices, garlic & tomatoes, and sundried tomatoes.
  9. Stir in the spinach so it gets slightly wilted. Season the dish with salt and pepper if desired.
  10. Serve hot, topped with parmesan cheese.

Low Hassle Brunch Feast

Source: The Guardian

There is a rule when hosting brunch: avoid cooking on the day. Prep these recipes for eggs baked in spinach, salted caramel bread pudding and yoghurt panna cotta in advance, and your Easter weekend will be off to a winning start …
For someone who has no belief-based obligation to host an Easter brunch this weekend, I sure have a lot of strong opinions on how to best cook one, and that’s mostly because brunch parties are much more fun than dinner parties. From late morning to midday, we are all bright-eyed and better-rested, our homes are filled with sunlight, the coffee is free-flowing and no matter how long it goes on, even if everyone overstays, you’re still going to have an empty home by dinnertime.
My essential rule for hosting brunches is to sleep in, and barely to cook at all on the day. By focusing on recipes that can either be prepped the day before or become better after some time to rest, hosting a brunch becomes almost as luxurious as attending one. My favourite breakfast casserole bakes a dozen eggs in nests of creamed spinach, mushrooms and parmesan that looks, coincidentally, a lot like an Easter basket. It’s also gluten-, grain- and meat-free, so it accommodates all sorts of diets, and I get everything done the night before so all I have to do is crack in some eggs and turn on the oven in the morning. A panna cotta made with Greek yoghurt and finished with walnuts and honey is just a little sweet, but still decadent. You can serve it in wedges or individual cups and you can make it even two days in advance. Finally, the icing on the cake (or, forgive me, the sauce on the pudding) is a stunning upside-down salted caramel bread pudding that’s basically like the lovechild of french toast and a tarte tatin., which you will have no choice but to make for every brunch you ever host after this, because your friends and family will insist. Please, consider yourself warned.

Baked eggs with spinach and mushrooms

Serves 6-12

Ingredients

  • 1kg spinach, washed
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 500g mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 225g whipping cream
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg, grated (optional)
  • 12 large eggs
  • 6 tbsp parmesan, finely grated

Method

  1. Bring 7mm water to a boil in a large ovenproof frying pan. Add half the spinach and cook, turning, until wilted – about 30 seconds. Add the remaining spinach and wilt. Cook, covered, over a moderately high heat until tender – just 1-2 minutes. Drain and cool under cold running water. Gently squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible, then coarsely chop.
  2. Wipe the pan dry, then melt the butter over a medium-low heat. Cook the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes, or until softened. Add the mushrooms, raise the heat to medium-high, for about 5 minutes or until softened.
  3. Stir in the cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg (if using), and the chopped spinach and bring back to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat.
  4. When you’re ready to bake, about 30 minutes before serving, heat the oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8.
  5. Put the spinach mix in a baking dish – or use your pan if ovenproof – and make 12 wells in it. Crack an egg into each. Bake at the top of the oven until the whites are firm and yolks are still runny – 15-30 minutes depending on ovens and baking vessel. It’s better to have to check more often than to let them overcook. It is nearly impossible to get all 12 eggs to cook evenly. The ones in the centre will be more runny; at the edges, they’ll be more firm. But don’t fret. I’ve found that almost all people have an egg preference (more runny vs. more firm) and each egg manages to find the right home. Just ask people their preference as you serve them.)
  6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grated parmesan before serving.

Morning bread pudding with salted caramel

Serves 6-10

This recipe is from none other than Food52 co-founder Amanda Hesser. It is an overnight dish, ideally. Set it up before you go to bed and all you have to do when you wake up is bake it and invert it on to a serving dish. The longer it soaks, the more the bread and custard become one, but I think as long as it has an hour to soak, it will be good enough.

Ingredients

  • 170g sugar plus 2 tbsp extra (optional)
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2-3 pinches salt
  • 300-350g brioche loaf or challah bread (cut into 7mm-thick, 8cm-wide slices)
  • 8 large eggs
  • 60g mascarpone, plus more for serving
  • 250ml milk
  • ¼ tsp almond extract

Method

  1. Combine the sugar, butter and salt over a medium heat for 7-10 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and begins to brown. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir with a spatula so that it browns evenly. You will find that the butter separates from the melting sugar and this is just fine. Your caramel is done when it reaches a copper colour.
  2. Pour over the base of a 2-litre oval gratin/roasting dish, or deep-dish pie pan. Transfer to the fridge until the caramel is cold and solid – about 30 minutes. Once chilled, arrange the bread slices around the dish with the heels in the centre and overlapping slightly.
  3. Whisk together the eggs, 2 tbsp sugar (if using) and the mascarpone until very smooth. Add the milk and almond extract. Pour over the bread; saturate all of it. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill overnight. If your bread seems too high in the vessel to get a good soak, you can weight it with a plate in the fridge.
  4. Take your dish from the fridge 1 hour before you want to bake it. Set the oven to 190C. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until moist, but not wet in the centre.
  5. Run a knife around the edge of the dish, to loosen. Place a serving plate over the top of the dish and flip. Serve, cutting it into wedges at the table and spooning a healthy dollop of mascarpone on to each plate.

Yoghurt panna cotta with honey and walnuts

As far as panna cottas go, this is on the soft side but will still slice or hold form.
Serves 7-8

Ingredients

  • Flavourless oil, such as sunflower
  • 4 tbsp water
  • 2 ½ tsp plain gelatin (or vegetarian equivalent)
  • 460g Greek yoghurt
  • 475ml milk or whipping cream (or a mix of the two)
  • 50-100g granulated sugar
  • Juice of ½ a lemon
  • Honey, to serve
  • A big handful of walnuts, toasted,cooled and coarsely chopped

Method

  1. If you plan to unmould the panna cotta, coat a 25cm round cake pan or smaller dessert cups with a little oil.
  2. Put the water in a small bowl. Stir in the gelatin and set aside until it has softened – about 15 minutes.
  3. Whisk together all of the yoghurt and 250ml of the milk, cream or mixture thereof. Bring the remaining milk or cream and sugar to a simmer. Stir in the water-gelatin mixture (it will dissolve immediately) and remove from heat. Whisk this mixture into the yoghurt mixture, then stir in the lemon juice at the end.
  4. Pour the mixture into the cake pan or smaller cups, then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours for small cups and up to 8 for a large pan. It’s best to do this the night before you need it, to be safe.
  5. To unmould the cake pan, fill a larger baking dish with 3cm boiling water. Dip the pan in it for 10 seconds, then flip it out on to a flat, round plate. (A curved one will cause the panna cotta to appear sunken in the middle.)To unmold smaller dishes, bring a small saucepan of water to a simmer and dip the bottom of a small panna cotta cup in one for five seconds, then invert it on to a plate. Repeat with remaining cups.
  6. Right before you serving, sprinkle the panna cotta with walnuts and drizzle it with honey. This needs to be done right before you serve it, because the honey will (unfortunately) become liquidy and roll off if it, should it sit on the panna cotta for too long.

Scones

Ingredients

  • Plain flour, for dusting
  • 3 cups self-raising flour
  • 80g butter, cubed
  • 1-1 1/4 cups milk
  • Jam and whipped cream, to serve

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 200deg c.
  2. Lightly dust a flat baking tray with plain flour.
  3. Sift self-raising flour into a large bowl.
  4. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  5. Make a well in the centre. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix with a flat-bladed knife until mixture forms a soft dough, adding more milk if required. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth (don’t knead dough too much or scones will be tough).
  6. Pat dough into a 2cm-thick round. Using a 5cm (diameter) round cutter, cut out 12 rounds. Press dough together and cut out remaining 4 rounds. Place scones onto prepared baking tray, 1cm apart.
  7. Sprinkle tops with a little plain flour.
  8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and well risen.
  9. Transfer to a wire rack.
  10. Serve warm with jam and cream.

Hollandaise Sauce

From: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/hollandaise-sauce-recipe.html

Ingredients

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
  • Pinch cayenne
  • Pinch salt

Method

  1. Vigorously whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a stainless steel bowl and until the mixture is thickened and doubled in volume.
  2. Place the bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water (or use a double boiler,) the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Continue to whisk rapidly.
  3. Be careful not to let the eggs get too hot or they will scramble.
  4. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume.
  5. Remove from heat, whisk in cayenne and salt.
  6. Cover and place in a warm spot until ready to use for the eggs benedict.

If the sauce gets too thick, whisk in a few drops of warm water before serving.

Best Banana Muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 large or 3 small bananas
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1 cup mashed banana
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1/2 cup All Bran (Kellogg’s)
  • 1/3 cup chopped raisins/choc chips
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup plain wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarb soda

Method

  1. Spray or grease 12 muffin pan
  2. Heat oven (180 C)
  3. Combine sugar, oil, banana, egg, vanilla and All Bran. Let it stand for 5 mins
  4. Add raisins/choc chips, sifted flour, baking powder, & soda to wet mixture
  5. Stir with fork until ingredients are just combined (don’t over-stir)
  6. Spoon into prepared muffin trays
  7. Bake approx 20 mins or until golder brown
  8. Sprinkle with icing sugar

Fritters

Corn Fritters

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 1cup creamed corn
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Pepper to taste
  • Chopped parsley or chives (optional)

Method

  1. Beat the egg and mix in the corn and seasoning. Stir in the flour and BP sifted together. Stir just enough to mix the ingredients (The mixture should have the consistency of batter. Add a little milk if too thick).
  2. Fry in 1 to 2 tablespoon amounts in hot (as for pan cakes) oiled pan 2 mm of oil till golden then flip and cook the other side. Test for doneness. Nice served with bacon and /or tomato relish.

Potato & Corn Fritters

Lunch for 4 hungry people

Ingredients

  • 1kg potatoes grated
  • Chopped herbs (optional)
  • 3-4 large eggs
  • 1 cup grated cheese
  • 1 can creamed corn
  • half an onion, finely chopped (optional)
  • 3 tablespoons of S/R flour

Method

  1. Squeeze any liquid from grated potato and pour off. Place in bowl with chopped herbs.
  2. Add all other ingredients and combine.
  3. Season with the salt and pepper
  4. Heat oil in frying pan. Drop tablespoons of mixture into frying pan flattening slightly to even thickness.
  5. Cook each side 2-3 minutes till golden brown and crisp.
  6. Place on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Feta Muffins

INGREDIENTS

  • Canola oil, to grease
  • 375g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
  • 250g (about 1/2 bunch) English spinach,trimmed, washed, dried, shredded
  • 150g feta, crumbled
  • 110g (1/2 cup) chopped semi-dried tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan or vegetarian hard cheese
  • 330ml (1 1/3 cups) milk
  • 90g butter, melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan or vegetarian hard cheese, extra

METHOD

  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush twelve 80ml (1/3-cup) muffin pans with canola oil to lightly grease.
  • Step 2 Sift flour into a bowl. Add shredded spinach, feta, tomatoes and parmesan, and stir to combine. Use a fork to whisk together milk, butter, egg and dill until well combined. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and use a metal spoon to stir until just combined (do not over mix).
  • Step 3 Spoon mixture into prepared pans. Sprinkle with extra parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Derin’s One-Year Review

Seen by nurse: 25/2/2013

Weight: 9.5kg

Length: 77.5cm

Age: 50 weeks

  • Seen for developmental review 8-12 months.
  • Seen with mum and friend.
  • Sitting unaided, able to walk unassisted.
  • Good hand-eye co-ordination.
  • Inquisitive and alert baby.
  • MMR given yesterday.
  • Appetite returning well after recent illness of flu and SVT.
  • Being seen by cardiologist tomorrow.
  • Moving to Australia in 2 months time.
  • No squint observed.
  • Babbling well.
  • Understanding commands.
  • Drinkng from baby beaker.
  • Bookstart pack given.
  • Weight progressing really well.
  • Sociable and happy baby. [Birthmark] on left arm reducing in size.

Derin’s Heart Drama

Emails sent by us to family (including typos)
To: Ann & Murray MacDonald
Date: Sun 17 Feb 2013, 07:30am
Hi there, don’t think there’s going to be a chat this morning unfortunately: we’ve spent the entire night in hospital with Derin.
He has had a nasty virus for the last four days and has not been reading well etc, buy last night we called NHS. They said to come in immediately. Found he had a heart rate of around 260bpm! Ie too fast to count.
Managed to bring it down but it switches back.
That was seven hours ago. They’re now trying to figure out how to get Derin to a hospital with a paediatric cardiology unit.
I’m too tired to write any more.
 
To: Murray & Ann, Richard, Ross, Hulya
Date: Sun 17 Feb 2013, 14:32
Now at Great Ormond Street (GOS) children’s hospital-Derin’s first ambulance trip. Just spoken to the cardiologist.
Long term the doc thinks there is no problem. Probably Derin has a predisposition for his heart to go crazy but it’s not uncommon and in his case seems to be only when he has a fever or something.
They want to put him on beta blocker drugs right now to settle the system but will first do a bunch of scans to make sure that the drug won’t be a little too effective at slowing his heart.
Right now he’s sleeping with a tiny bit of chemical help. He’s absolutely exhausted. He hardly slept last night or yesterday and whenever he did get to sleep he was woken about 5 minutes later, traumatic time in hospital being treated as a pin cushion (took them more than 8 attempts to get a tube in his vein – no fault of theirs; just couldn’t find the veins, with him crying the whole time and his heart rate going up to 260+ , highest I saw was 286). Now he is very suspicious of everyone. Very nice hospital we are at now. GOS is a world leading hospital and is totally dedicated to children, so I guess there aren’t many better places to be under the circumstances.
Attached photos of him sleeping are right now. The monitor is a few hours ago at Royal London Hospital.
I’m sure that Derin and Sheb will be staying here tonight. I’m looking forward to going home soon and getting some zzz. No sleep last night and only four hours the night before.
Sheb also exhausted. Of course most important thing is that he gets better soon. In this respect the cardiologist’s assessment makes us feel better than we’ve felt for several hours.
 
To: MacDs and Tuncels
Date: Tues 19 Feb 2013, 19:15

Hi there,
We're now waiting for a taxi to go home.
Derin is on beta blockers (can't remember if I've said this already) which seem to make him a bit drowsy. This will need to be checked as they think that he will be on some sort of drug until he is big enough (20kg, 5 years old) to do some "minor"surgery on - cauterise the extra nerve pathway he has in his heart. Apparently that is day surgery, not overnight!
So for the next couple of days we will probably have a sleepy boy, but in 48 hours we will have a phone consultation with the doc. If he is still sleepy they will review the medication: type and quantity.
We've got an appointment with the cardiologist on 1st march to discuss everything in our minds. This is only four days before Sheb and Derin head to Turkey. We have told them about our plans. The consultant cardiologist said that the Melbourne cardiologist (he knew him by name, Andrew Jones) is truly excellent.
We're ready for home now and looking forward to having a shower.

To: MacDs and Tuncels
Date: Sat 23 Feb 2013 11:14
Hi there.
Saturday Morning status update:
Still in hospital for observation. Derin started a new medicine (Flecainide?) on Friday evening. This is as well as his beta blockers; not instead of. Unfortunately the BBs are given to him every 8 hours, and the new one every 12, so we have 4 medicine sessions per day; inevitably when he's asleep.
Without wanting to be overly optimistic, things look fairly settled right now. His heart rate hasn't done anything interesting since Friday afternoon. It's now Saturday late morning.
Docs have said that we should expect he'll be in for the whole weeekend but there is just a chance that, if they can all agree, he/we will be released this evening.
Since Thursday we've been at Royal London Hospital, not Great Ormond Street. The difference is spectacular. How best to describe it: When we were at GOSH one of the nurses there explained to me that it is a "tertiary" care provider. I think what she meant was that e.g. your GP is primary care, hospital is secondary care, the GOSH is where you go from the hospital. She said that the ward we were on (cardiac) isn't used to having patients as well as Derin; most of the patients there are either open-heart surgery or transplants, but apparently they don't do transplants during the weekend so things were _reasonably_ quiet. Derin was classified not as a "critical care" case, but as "high care", and this was very much what it was. There was _always_ a nurse available, and they _all_ knew everything. Probably more than one nurse for every patient, so while we didn't have our own personal nurse, there were 4-5 floating around and one of them was _always_ there. It was clear that everyone had read all the notes. No-one asked stupid questions.
We arrived there on Sunday afternoon and in the evening they arranged accommodation for Sheb and me in apartments just across the road and owned by the hospital. At some point one of the nurses told Sheb and me to go and find ourselves some dinner. She recommended a restaurant, and said not to rush back; it was obvious we needed a break and she'd look after Derin. We stayed late with Derin that night, but did eventually go to our (very basic) accommodation and left Derin with probably the world's most over-qualified baby sitters.
On Monday test results came back showing he had the flu virus, so he went out of the ward (only had one other patient) to a private room for quarantine. Initially I thought that this meant we had kind of lost the immediate access to nurses (they weren't always in the room with us) but then I realised that there was one sitting at a desk just outside the room, looking through the window at Derin's heart monitor and taking notes. This was VERY high care!
Now we're at RLH. I suppose on the positive side, they're still in regular contact with GOSH, and GOSH has decided they don't need us in there, so that's got to be a good sign. However the standard of care - not just the number of nurses - is dramatically different. Sheb and Derin arrived here on Thursday afternoon. When I got there in the early evening she was going crazy - no one had given her even a cup of tea. She asked one of the nurses where she could get a tea and was told to go down to the canteen on the ground floor (we're on the 7th). When she said "And leave my baby crying here?" the nurse just shrugged. On Friday afternoon someone came round and told Sheb that mothers that are breast-feeding are given meals, and showed her where to get tea on the ward, etc etc. The staff here just seem to be incredibly badly trained/informed.
In another incident one of the nurses wanted to check Derin's readings using a different monitor, so wanted to put more sensor-stickers on his chest. She insisted on taking off the ones he had on first. He's a baby; he's got very sensitive, delicate skin. We really don't want to be pulling things off his skin if we're just going to re-stick them later. Anyway, once she'd got him thoroughly distressed by pulling all these things off, Sheb asked if she could breast-feed him or hold him to calm him down while the readings were being taken. The nurse said she couldn't because that would interfere with the readings, so Derin was left screaming in his cot, while the nurse struggled to organise everything and in a memorable quote while trying to get the machine working said "I don't know what I'm doing here". Predictably the readings she got were garbage. Fortunately at that point a doctor came along and set the machine up properly and told Sheb she could feed Derin and that it wouldn't interfere with the readings.
Now we're here for "observation". I suppose that means they want us to be in the hospital for 24 hours after starting the new drug just in case it does anything too exciting like actually stopping his heart. I hope so, because the actual amount of observation he's getting apart from by us is pretty minimal. He's attached to an ECG so he can't walk around or go anywhere other than his cot and high chair, but the ECG doesn't record anything - it only displays. So it is up to Sheb and me to note anything interesting. It seems a little inadequate in this day and age! Surely we can have a machine that records everything internally then it can be sent for analysis.
Oh, by the way, the problem Derin was having last weekend is called supraventricular tachycardia - or SVT. There's a good explanation at this wikipedia link; you google SVT Heart. Note, this is not the problem he was having on Thursday, which was much more benign tachycardia. The difference is fairly easy to see after a crash course in cardiology: If you look at an ECG chart for a healthy pulse you'll see that there are three signals in the cycle: 
1. Signal to pulse (very small), 
2. Pulse (very big), 
3. Signal to reset (quite small). 
With SVT the heart is racing because there is a short circuit in the wiring so the signal to pulse is doing multiple laps. In the chart on the wikipedia page you can see that there is no pulse signal.
Right, must post this now or it'll never happen.
Love B, S(leeping), and d.