baked potato gnocchi with mixed mushrooms

Jamie and I went to Amsterdam a few weeks ago, and rented a little apartment to stay in.  Great idea, as we could use ingredients we don't find so often in cooking :D

Headed off to the stoopermarket and found a variety of mushrooms, so thought we'd make something with them.  I really felt like potato something, and gnocchi sprung to mind <3

And so was the birth of the baked gnocchi mushroom dish :)

The finished product. melty, golden mushroomy potato goodness.

Lala's lasagne

This recipe is pretty much my mum's recipe.. although we always manage to make it taste completely different.  To be honest mine tastes different every time. but i must say, I do like my own (and my family's) lasagne.  There are a few other people's lasagne dishes I've enjoyed, I can literally count them on 1 hand (my Uncle Kiki's, and my Aunt Isabel's, and my best friend's mum Pat).  I'm sure there are plenty of delicious lasagnas out there but i haven't had the pleasure, and frankly, I don't even really want to try cos there's not much I abhor tasting more than a bad lasagne. 

anyway here goes:

the tea party - post 2 - Gill's Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

This cake recipe was given to my mum from Gill, an australian friend and ex colleague of hers.  When we were leaving australia in 1995, Gill made an incredible little book, full of delicious hand-me-down recipes, things she'd discovered, and little tidbits of australian memorabilia, including photos, and pressed eucalypt leaves.  It is a lovely book, full of love and written with true friendship in mind:)

Gills carrot cake recipe is delicious :D

As you can see, i don't always follow the "loaf" tin suggestion.  i've used round, i've made a giant double one, i've even made em as a sort of cupcake/muffin style and it's always pretty much worked out.  this is an almost failsafe cake recipe! :D

the tea party - post 1 - The lemon cupcake

My birthday is coming up, and to celebrate had a tea party at Sarah's house yesterday!

I was sick on Friday, so spent the day indoors, and the evening baking away :)

The menu (at least the part that i made) was:

Lemon cupcakes
Carrot cake
Scones
Mini Quiches

Sandwiches were lovingly made by becky, mc and alison :)  and deliciousness they were too!! :)

Ok so when looking for a lemon cupcake recipe, my demands were simple.  They must be LEMONY.  by lemony i mean lots of fresh lemon flavour bursting out of each cupcake.  2nd demand was nothing too complicated.  Apart from that, thanks to my mother's trusty Kenwood it was all good :)  Oh and they had to look like they would be soft and delicate :)

Spinach and Ricotta Canneloni

Canneloni is a baked pasta dish that i love doing, now that i've found how easy it is piping the filling into the pasta tubes, rather than trying to spoon it in :P  Love my practical mate and old housemate Becky, who walked past the kitchen once when I was making them and just said "why don't you use a bag to pipe it in?".... :D

Oops!!

I've just realised that i've failed to post so many recipes recently! None at all in October!  terrible! Been hugely busy at my day job, but have some tasty "getting colder" weather dishes to post.

Just finished making spinach and ricotta canneloni, made lasagna a couple of weeks ago, and an awesome baked gnocchi dish with mixed mushies! :D

Also have been away, went to greece and amsterdam this month... so not much time for cooking :S

Pumpkins, beetroots, spinach and the entire brassica family will also be featuring in dishes this month :D 

Recipes to follow from tomorrow :D

Mushroom risotto

I've totally got the risotto bug again... happens as soon as I make one, then i make one at least once a week, then summer rolls around, and i stop making it again...until the weather cools down slightly, then it's back to risotto time :D 

Oven Poached Dentici

Dentici is a fish I think my mum would like.  For some reason she's not into the fishier side of fish anymore... i guess tastes change..  So no lampuki for now (unless they're in pikkanti sauce or aljotta, and we dont' actually cook it when she's home hehehe).  I'm totally going back to my bugibba flat in a coming weekend if that means i get to eat lampuki hehehe :)

seasoned and ready to wrap and poach/bake

Aljotta (Maltese fish soup) made with lampuki aka mahimahi

This is a broth based soup, and has 2 distinct parts to making it.  The first is the stock, which is a very simple fish stock.  The second is where this actually gets its name from, which is the soup base consisting of lots of garlic (aglio!) onions, tomatoes and very importantly, marjoram.

Don't be fooled, all that delicious rice and bits of fish are in the bottom.  this is a delicious soup!! :)

Lampuki with Salsa Pikkanti

The title translates to "Dolphinfish with a piquant sauce" - this is one of my favourite Lampuki/mahi mahi dishes :)


It's a dish traditionally served cold, as far as i know.  I've always eaten it cold anyway, it's a great way to use up leftover lampuki (or as mum/nanna used to do, deliberately buy extra so we could have this the next day).

Roast Butternut pumpkin/squash risotto

This is one of my favourite dishes to make, especially when the weather starts getting shitty...And most people seem to love it also :)  bonus!

Photo by jamie aka http://backseatchef.wordpress.com/

lampuki!!

They are in season, my beloved fresh caught fishies :D

Also known as mahi mahi (hawaii), dorado (in spanish), dolphin fish (as they jump out of the water like dolphins), and well loved all over the planet for great recreational fishin and eating....

I love these fishies, and hopefully will be having a few recipes featuring them in the next month or so.  They are high in the omega fats (as are all oily fish), great seasonal eating, and have very sustainable stocks, unlike much of the fish on the market nowadays.  Also.. CHEAP!  They are amongst the fasted growing fish in the sea, sometimes growing 7 cm in a week! :O  they are also short lived, and are reproducing constantly.  This really helps them in the "sustainable fishing" argument, as a fish that doesn't take long to reach edible size, reproducing in great numbers, and don't live past 2 or so years anyway.... :D  yay!  OH and the fishing methods around malta haven't really changed since roman times (palm fronds to attract the fish to the shade, and nets to catch them)..  win :D

Tonight we're having some of the leftover fish (from last night's bbq) with "zalza pikkanti", which is essentially a thick tomato sauce loaded with marjoram, mint, olives and capers, and of course... garlic.  this is served at room temperature, not warm, and is great to cut through the oiliness of the fish.  I would recommend it to anyone who doens't like the oiliness of lampuki :)

Mmmm :D

Plans of what to make with them:

Lampuki pie.  my favourite!! :D

Plain floured and fried, served with lemon.. aweosme.

aljotta (to follow!)

With Zalza Pikkanti (recipe and pics to follow also!)

and... i think i'll try something completely different, maybe look up how they eat it in hawaii/caribbean and try it like that.  i reckon it would be nice with some kind of tart fruit, or a recipe with coriander... possibly even a dry curry based thing.. we'll see....  :)

Pretty fishie also - when we see them in the market, most of the yellow golden hue has left, as this only happens when they are alive.

pic courtesy of http://www.interklasa.pl/portal/dokumenty/ue013/jedzenie/smaki.htm

Spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, herbs and ricotta

This is one of those simple sauces that i love! When we started making it, it was going to be an "olio aglio" but found a small amount of ricotta in the fridge so in it went, along with some of the basil we have growing in the courtyard :)

So simple, so good! :)

PENKEJKZ...or Pancakes hehe

Went to Gozo for the weekend with a bunch of ladies, and we decided on pancakes for brekky on the Saturday morning :D

One of my good mates Michael has my favourite pancake recipe, so i asked him for it.  in 2 minutes he just rattled it off and voila!  in my hand it was! :D  hoolay!  These are american style pancakes, so the mixture is thicker than crepes, and also it's best to cook them on the lower heat so that they don't burn on the outside before they cook in the middle.  nice and fluffeh!

Not my photo - courtesy of http://www.prevention.com

Pasta with Eggplant and tomato sauce

As far as saucy pasta sauces go, this has got to be one of my absolute favourites :)  It's quite similar to Pasta a la Norma, but this version has no Chilli and we use whatever cheese we have available, not specifically Ricotta Salata.  Eggplant is known as Aubergines in many places, which is the French word for them.