One Pot French Onion Pasta Bake

It doesn't look like much, but this is a super yummy pasta bake with a nice balance of flavours.  I prepoed the recipe half way and refrigerated the onion and mushroom mixture.  All it took was 30 minutes to finished it off for a weekday dinner.

I made a half recipe and substituted a few ingredients to make 2 to 3 Serves.

Slice then sautee two brown onions in 2 tablespoons of butter and half a tablespoon of brown sugar. Use a pot that will be able to go under the grill if you want to save washing up.  Cook at medium high for about 8 minutes or until onions are softened.  Add a bay leaf, a pinch of thyme, half a tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce and half a cup of white wine.    Cook until liquid is evaporated.  Add 200g of sliced button mushrooms and one crushed clove of garlic and cook for 3 minutes (until mushroom are soft).  At this point you can let the mixture cool and refrigerate until you are ready to finish the dish off.

To finish off the dish I added 2 cups of chicken stock and 230g of short pasta.  Mix well and bring to boil.  Allow to simmer for 8 minutes or until pasta is al dente.  Add half a cup of cream, a pinch of cayenne pepper (so good!) and three quarters of a cup of grated lactose free cheese.  Heat and stir until combined then add another half cup of grated cheese to the top and grill to melt.  You could probably top with parsley so it doesn't look so monotone, but I'm not a fan of parsley.

Original Recipe Here

Mango and White Chocolate Cheesecake

I feel like a fraud when I tag "baking" on this post.  Most cheesecakes don't go near an oven!  Recipe from Women's Weekly Christmas edition.

The whipped cream in this cheesecake makes it light and fluffy.  The chocolate makes the mixture nicely sweet and not sour at all.

Crush 100g of sweet biscuits (I used Arnott's Nice) in a food processor and combine with 60g of melted butter.  Alternatively put the biscuits in a bag and bash it with a saucepan or rolling pin or frypan.  You get the idea. Press the crumbs into the base of a springform pan with the back of a tablespoon. Melt 200g of white chocolate buttons in the microwave by heating on high for 30 seconds at a time and stirring.  Whip 300ml of cream and set aside.  Beat 500g of cream cheese with 110g of caster sugar.  Fold in whipped cream and melted white chocolate.  Dissolve 1 sachet or 3 tsp of gelatine powder in hot water and add to the cream cheese mixture.  Pour into springform tin and refrigerate overnight.  Add 2 mangoes to the top of the cake before serving.

Pumpkin Salad

Roast chucks of pumpkin and quartered brown onion with olive oil, thyme and rosemary at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes.  Dress half a bag of baby spinach leaves and cubes of baked Margaret River herb and garlic baked ricotta with one tablespoon of Pakora Caramelised balsalmic vinegar and half a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.  Top with roasted vegetables.

Cheese and Onion Muffins

To make 12 muffins start by preheating oven to 180 degrees fan forced.  Melt 60g of butter in a measuring jug then add 1 cup of milk and 1 egg. Whisk with a fork to mix.  In a medium mixing bowl mix 250g plain flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of dried rosemary and 1 tablespoon of baking powder until evenly distributed.   Add to this 1 packet (200g) of Kraft's Italian Cheese blend, 1 finely diced onion and 2 cloves of crushed garlic.  Mix again.  Make a well in the middle of the dry mix and add wet mixture. Mix until just combined; about 15 strokes.  Grease a muffin tray with olive oil spray and distribute the mix evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until brown on top and muffin springs back when poked.

Pasta Carbonara

Pan fry some bacon pieces and put 80g of pasta onto the boil.  Whisk up a mixture of 1 egg, a splash of cream, cracked black pepper and grated parmesan/pecorino.  When pasta is ready, turn the bacon down to low heat and add 2 tablespoon of pasta water to the bacon.  Add the hot drained pasta and egg mixture and stir for no more than 30 seconds.  Pour into bowl and add more grated cheese and serve immediately.

Oldfashioned Cheesecake

This is my attempt at Nigella Lawson's "Old Fashioned Cheesecake" recipe. It's a tad fiddly if you ask me as you have to pre-bake a biscuit base then whip cream and egg whites to mix into the cream cheese. I guess that is what you'd do in days before powdered gelatine. I also found the quantities for the biscuit base were insufficient to properly cover the baking pan she specified. I might stick to Mum's cheesecake recipe which calls for crushed Scotch finger biscuits and powdered jelly mix.

The finished cake is quite nice, but not quite sweet nor lemony enough for my taste. The cheesecake has a lovely soft marshmallowy texture and the biscuit base is soft and chewy which is quite nice.

Macaroni Cheese

Fast and rich......Nigella Lawson style! Egg, cheese and evaporated milk put through a food processor and then mixed with freshly boiled pasta then baked.

Grass is greener on the other side...

In an attempt to be healthier I opted for a chicken salad for dinner. I used mint from my garden and liberated a lemon from the neighbour's overhanging lemon tree (sssshhhh!) to make the dressing. I didn't think W would be down with a salad so made him a chicken breast parcel filled with bacon and cheese, then wrapped in puff pastry.



So which dinner would you pick? My vote is the chicken parcel with the molten cheese filling. :( Stupid diet.