strawberry swirl semifreddo

I actually got up the courage to make this incredible dessert the other afternoon!

I have to admit that I was putting it off a bit. I was nervous about wrecking the whole thing and because the ingredients in it are rather precious and in short supply here, I didn’t want to have to throw it all down the drain. But it turns out that semifreddo isn’t as scary as I first thought. It is in fact quite simple to make and incredibly delicious, I dare you to give it a go, you won’t regret it.

This recipe is in an earlier issue of DH mag, issue 49, page 146. This is the dish featured on the cover and it is as scrumptious as it looks.

What you will need are; lots of eggs, not a problem as the box of 12 egg cartons arrived safely on the plane and the fridge, in which they are stored was working, so they were fine.

Vanilla extract is next. Now I was a bit naughty on this one, I used vanilla bean. I know that vanilla bean is the strongest type of vanilla and extract is the weakest, but it turned out great, so I don’t really understand why the recipe only called for extract. Plus, here I can get vanilla bean for way cheaper then vanilla extract (shocking I know) so I was being economical.

Next on the list is caster sugar, I of course don’t have any, but raw sugar worked just as well as it is dissolved anyway.

You pop all these ingredients into a bowl over simmering water and then beat it for what seems like forever, until it’s all thick and creamy. And then you take it off the heat and whip it up again for another eon, until the mix has cooled down.

The next step is whisking the cream, this is really hard to get fresh here, so instead I used UHT. With UHT cream you have to pop it in the fridge 24 hours before you use it or else it won’t whip up and sometimes even after it’s been refrigerated it still won’t whip up, so it’s a bit of a gamble but mine worked a treat. You then fold the cream into the incredibly whipped up vanilla mixture.

Now I didn’t have any redcurrants but they are just a garnish, so not really that big of a deal.

The really easy part of making this icy, creamy dessert comes next and that includes strawberries, which if you have read my other posts will know what a nightmare those were to get, and icing sugar. Puree those two ingredients together and then swirl it through the cream mixture. Last but not least, pop it into the freezer.

One thing I learned from this experience is that if you aren’t careful all the strawberries will go straight to the bottom and the cream will sit on top. I’m not sure how to rectify this situation but my advice to you and what I am going to do next time, because there for sure will be a next time with this baby, is to freeze the mixture for a couple hours and then swirl it again. I think that should help to get an even spread of strawberries and semifreddo quite nicely.

As most people know strawberries and chocolate make an incredible combination. I recommend that this semifreddo be consumed with copious amounts of chocolate or by itself.

Enjoy, this one is a winner.

PARMESAN SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH PROSCIUTTO TOAST

Well I have been on a journey of learning how to cook scrambled eggs. In the past I never really thought much about my scrambled eggs. I just whisked up eggs with milk and maybe herbs, vegies, cheese and whatever else took my fancy at the time. Plonked it all in the fry pan and cooked it up. Usually, I over cook my scrambled eggs and I never really minded well-done scrambled eggs. That is, until I watched Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant cooking scrambled eggs in and episode of “The Cook and The Chef.” I know, I know, I am mixing my cooking media’s now. Ah well, I love cooking; recipes, cooking shows, magazines etc. etc. And I reckon, if it makes you cook better, it doesn’t matter what it is.

So Maggie and Simon were very insistent that one does not overcook ones scrambled eggs and it was very helpful to actually watch them cook the eggs. With DHM, the only drawback is you can’t actually watch them cook the recipe, so one misses out on the details. Maggie and Simon helped me make Donna’s recipe correctly. Thanks guys my scrambled eggs are changed forever.

So what one needs for this recipe is sliced baguette, well since the only bread available in my kitchen is what I bake in the bread-maker, I used wholemeal toast slices.

Prosciutto, I was non-existent, but I did have some bacon, which worked a treat.

No cherry tomatoes, I’m afraid and I couldn’t even use a normal tomato as it was my last one and hubby suggested I keep it for something else and it made a good lunch today, so that was a good idea. Thanks love.

I also skipped drizzling with olive oil and salt and peppering it obviously as I didn’t have the tomatoes. However, the bread topped with bacon did go in the oven to crisp up.

Now for the infamous scrambled eggs.

A whopping five eggs for two people!! Whoa, talk about decadent.

Cream, which I have never in my life used on scrambled eggs and, which Maggie reckons she never uses anything else.

Parmesan cheese, woo hoo I did have some and it was even mainland Parmesan and not just the Kraft powdered stuff. No can do for the fresh stuff I’m afraid.

Now, this next ingredient is rather an interesting one. Sea salt flakes seem to be all the rage now a days but I have heard, that because they don’t have iodine people are starting to have iodine deficiencies. Interesting huh. So I used normal iodized salt instead, mostly because I have no sea salt flakes but also because I am a bit concerned with my iodine intake, don’t really want to end up with a goitre.

I have to admit that I didn’t cook the eggs in butter, as I didn’t have any, but I used margarine instead, seemed to turn out ok.

So I cooked them Maggie and Simon style, well it was probably more my interpretation of what they did. They probably would have cringed, and served up the eggs with my crispy toast and bacon.

It was incredibly yummy, incredibly rich and incredibly filling. I have to admit, I felt a bit sick afterwards. The recipe says it is to serve two, but really I think it could have done four very nicely.

No picture of this meal unfortunately, as it just didn’t really look that great, but it tasted sensational.

Yay, for learning how to cook great scrambled eggs!! Though I think I’ll stick with cooking mine with milk and not cream. It was a bit too rich for my poor tummy.

sticky beef noodles with bok choy

Well this meal was actually cooked last week, which is a testament to how incredibly run off my feet I feel at the present, and my husband cooked it as well. He is a wonderful cook and the meal was delicious.

We have found though, that sometimes food, which is styled a certain way for photo’s isn’t really that easy to eat. So we had to modify the recipe instructions a little bit and next time I think we’ll modify it even more for easy eating. If you are able to see the picture of this particular dish on page 70 of DHM issue 50, you’ll see what I mean. The dish does look incredibly yummy, very aesthetically pleasing in the, hence we made it but actually trying to chomp down on half a bok choy is not really that easy and cutting up a beef steak while trying to avoid eviscerating the noodles is a bit of a nightmare. So next time the steak will be cut into strips and bok choy likewise distributed into bite size portions.

So for this recipe, one needs: soy sauce, tick; brown sugar, grated ginger and vegetable oil, all not a problem. Sirloin steak was not available in our freezer stock of beef cuts so we just used some rump steak. Udon noodles were also in short supply, we only had maggie noodles in stock. Which is what happens when every other type of noodle in the store costs twice the price we are willing to pay for it. Anyway we have found maggie noodles to be an adequate replacement for our stir-fry requirements. Onions and chilli were not a problem, however, I did not have roasted peanuts and no fresh coriander leaves but thanks so a very generous friend from Australia I did have dried coriander leaves, which work quite well as a substitute.

All in all I think we did exceptionally well with ratio of ingredients that we did have in comparison to what we were lacking and the dish turned out fantastically, it was incredibly tasty and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good stir-fry recipe. I even have a picture of it. This is a first for me and I’m not sure how we’ll go putting the photo on the page but we’ll give it a shot.