She cooks

We both love cooking, and love fresh food, so we decided about a year ago to grow some of our own food, to try and save money, and also have fresh herbs on hand.

Pity that neither of us really have a clue on gardening, or much of a green thumb! The other problem we had was living in an apartment, with only a balcony to grow things on. After a bit of research, we came across a site that delivers prepared half wine barrels (http://winebarrelgardens.com.au). They delivered us a half wine barrel fitted with caster wheels and all we had to do was visit the nursery and choose some plants!

We started small with herbs and agreed that if they worked, we would try something a bit more adventurous.

We planted out basil, parsley, coriander, thyme and rosemary (will leave he cooks to tell the story about finding ‘broad leaf’ basil!) in our new barrel, watered them every day (well HC did anyway!), and surprisingly we were successful in growing plants!

The biggest success of the experiment was definitely the basil. Whilst everything else did well, we had so much basil we didn’t know what to do with it all, and every time we cut some for a recipe it grew back even stronger!

So, we made basil pesto, put basil into pasta sauces, pizza sauce, and even sprinkled finely chopped basil into salads.

The experiment has gone so well that we have had another barrel delivered and are trying out lettuce and mini tomatoes.

He cooks

SC loves to get me to tell the story of the ‘broad leaf’ basil, because she thinks it is hilarious. It’s not really… I didn’t know any better!

HC junior and I leave SC at home and go hunting and gathering to find some herbs to plant in our new wine barrel. When we get to the nursery, we manage to find the parsley, coriander, thyme and rosemary, but can only see these ‘mini leaf’ varieties of basil.

I’ve seen basil before, so I know that it doesn’t look like that and try and find someone to help out. I show her the ‘mini leaf’ basil plants I have found, and ask if they stock any broad leaf basil. She looks at me strangely, and says, that no, these are the only basil plants they have. They are… seedlings. Of course! Seedlings… that grow into ‘broad leaf’ basil!

Junior HC rolls his eyes, slinks off and is very embarrassed to be seen with me! Anyway we take home the ‘mini leaf’ basil, and Junior HC very excitedly tells SC of my ‘problems‘ trying to find the ‘broad leaf’ basil!

Needless to say, I give all of the plants plenty of TLC and we end up with huge amounts of ‘broad leaf’ basil!

Click here to try our basil pesto recipe!

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He cooks

As a child growing up in the country, seafood was a bit on the scarce side.

Every country town has the local fish and chip shop, but it could hardly be considered ‘gourmet’. Some are better than others of course; but I’ve been to some where you honestly don’t know what had been deep fried in batter and whether or not it actually came from the sea.

After being in the city (Sydney) for just under 20 years I have become a bit of a seafood-a-holic, I love the stuff. At first it was in restaurants; trying all the (to me) weird and wonderful things was a lot of fun and very tasty.

However, even after a number of years of eating it out, I still didn’t let it venture much into my domestic diet. Sure there was the odd pan fried fish but nothing with antennae, shells or claws.

Then I met she cooks (SC), and we started doing the mussels. They are amazing and you really do feel a bit special turning out these kinds of things at home.

Suffice to say SC does most of the hard work (read: peeling the prawns & debearding the mussels) so I am usually on the chopping board or similar.

We turn the mussels out really quickly and enjoy them with a glass of crisp sauvignon blanc. I know SC is going to enlighten you on the ‘where are the eggs’ incident, whereas I am going to stick to encouraging you to try this yourself. How was I supposed to know that you need eggs to make mayonnaise!?!

She cooks

‘I thought the eggs were optional’, he cooks (HC) says with a dejected look on his face.

HC was so proud that he had done all of the food shopping and had done it under budget, even if it meant not getting the ‘essentials’, like eggs. Eggs, of course, that are one of the main ingredients in mayonnaise mussels!

‘Can’t we just use the jar stuff?’ HC asks.

No HC, we can’t use the ‘jar stuff’ because it just doesn’t taste the same as making your own, and as mayonnaise is the main ingredient in this recipe, it is important to get the base right.

We’re not really off to a great start with our mayonnaise mussel dinner but at least HC knows (now anyway) that eggs are definitely not optional when making mayonnaise!

So off to the shops we go and pick up the eggs, with a hungry growling tummy and a stroppy HC. Good thing these mayonnaise mussels are quick to make and can be eaten out of the pot, in front of the telly, perfect for a decadent night in.

HC chops the spring onions and parsley, then the bread. I make the mayonnaise that forms the base of the sauce, whilst he dips his finger in it and declares it delicious!

We whip up the mussels in 15 minutes and then feel quite proud sitting on the lounge eating the delicious mussels straight from the pan whilst dipping our bread in the sauce.

And, it only cost us $10 for the mussels, and a few dollars for the other ingredients (less if you already have the shallots, parsley and other staples on hand).

Click here to try out our mayonnaise mussels recipe!

Related posts:

1. Quick & Easy Mayonnaise Mussels
2. Seafood Bouillebaisse Soup Recipe

Here at TheCookBook.com.au we have lots of plans for 2010 to improve the site to make it even better for our readers.

We had an amazing Christmas period, visitors to the site went through the roof, with our fabulous Rum Balls Recipe the absolute clear favourite. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, literally thousands of users a day were googling rum balls and coming to our recipe. So hopefully loads of people made some great Christmas food using our recipes.

Which brings us to the point “Show us your cooking successes”! We  had many readers commenting on our site, asking questions etc, which was terrific, and we’d like to encourage readers to share some of their cooking successes with us.

So if you’ve got a photo of something you’ve cooked, either from our recipes or others on flickr, photobucket, your own web site etc.. it’s time to share!

Please send a comment on this post, linking to your photo or video and show off We would love to hear from you.

Happy New Year!

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Over the weekend, we held our annual Christmas drinks, with over 40 of our friends and family, and we had a ball. This year catering for all of these people was much, much easier than in years before, and I have to say that it is all due to my lovely PS and Z both pitching in.

One thing that I have learnt this year (after 15 years cooking, doesn’t take me long to work things out!!) is that by getting other people involved, you halve your workload, and stress! In previous years, I would have shouldered the burden of catering for everyone, and become some kind of cooking matyr, and would inevitably be so stressed out that I couldn’t really relax and socialise with everyone, which kind of defeats the purpose of having friends and family around.

This year PS said that he was going to help organise the food, and to his credit he did, and he did an amazing job (as did Z). The best part of it is that we all worked as a team and had a great time preparing all of the food for the party. By involving everyone and giving them little job to do, we were well prepared (and dare I say it, even relaxed) by the time everyone arrived on Sunday afternoon.

So, the key to holding stress free Christmas parties and drinks is to get everyone involved to give you a hand, so it becomes a group effort!

If you are interested, I have listed our simple, stress free Christmas party menu below (full of food that can be prepared well in advance and then simply reheated on the day). In addition to the below some friends brought a hot olive & tomato dish, a fruit platter and another dip, so get friends to bring along a plate if you don’t want to do it all yourself.

Stress Free Christmas Party Menu

• Smoked Trout & Avocado Salad
  Double the recipe and serve on a big platter with small disposable noodle boxes & forks next to the platter so everyone can serve themselves. You can order disposable noodle boxes online from The Party People (delivery anywhere in Australia).
• Homemade Mini Pizzas
  Double the dough recipe. Roll out the dough to 1/2 cm thick, then cut out small circles (approximately 2 inch diametre) using a biscuit cutter or glass. Re-roll the scraps until you have used all dough. Place the mini pizzas on baking trays lined with baking paper, then top with whatever toppings you like. We used tomato paste, red wine & fresh garlic for the pizza sauce, then topped with fresh basil, mozzarella, thin slices of fresh tomato and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Bake for 5-10 minutes in a hot oven (approximately 200ºC) until just cooked. Allow to cool then refrigerate (lasts 2-3 days) or freeze until needed, then reheat in a 180ºC oven for 5 minutes.
• Marinated Chicken Pieces
  We used 4 single chicken breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces, then marinated in a mixture of 1/3 cup olive oil, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 3 cloves garlic and 3 tbsp honey overnight. Bake at 180ºC on a baking tray lined with baking paper for 5-10 minutes until just cooked (these can go in at the same time as the pizzas). Serve with toothpicks for everyone to spear.
• Meatballs
  We made meatballs using 2kg pork mince, 2kg veal mince, 1 large bunch fresh parsley very finely chopped, 6 eggs, 6 cloves of garlic (pressed or finely chopped), 6 tbsp soy sauce, 6 tsp sesame oil and 2 large handfuls fresh breadcrumbs all mixed together thoroughly (use your hands as it is much easier). Roll into small balls, then refrigerate (lasts 2-3 days) or freeze until needed. When ready to serve, bake at 180ºC on a baking tray lined with baking paper for 10-15 minutes until brown and just cooked through (these can go in the same time as the pizzas and the chicken). Serve with toothpicks for everyone to spear alongside sweet chilli sauce for dipping.
• Mini Christmas Cakes
  Using my grandmothers recipe, we made 24 mini Christmas cakes in standard sized muffin tins. Can be made the day before you need them and then stored in an airtight container.
• Rum Balls
  Everyone loves rum balls, and as these can be frozen, you can make them a couple of weeks in advance.
• Cheese Plate
  This is a very easy way to feed a quite a number of people, simply take your favourite hard and soft cheese (one of each) and serve on a cheese board with some grapes. Provide a basket of bread and crackers, along with some dips and carrot and celery sticks on a platter and you have instant party food.

There is a bit of preparation work involved in the above menu, however all of it can be done in advance, making it a bit easier for you and your family on the day.

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Recently I went to see the movie Julie & Julia with my mum. For those of you that haven’t seen the movie or read a review, it is all about how one woman, Julie, starts a blog that chronicles cooking her way through all the recipes in Julia Child’s “How To Master French Cooking”. In 365 days. There are over 500 recipes in the book, all quite complex with traditional French techniques, so this would have been quite a feat.

It was a lovely movie, and showed that no matter what happened each day, whether work tested her or her relationship was going through a difficult patch, Julie would start cooking, and Julia Child, through her cookbook, became the one person who made everything better. Cooking can do that.

The movie resonated deeply with me. I love cooking and find it very therapeutic, and throughout the years have come across quite a few men and women who, through their cookbooks, tv shows, newspaper and magazine articles and websites have influenced my cooking and helped improve it.

People like Margaret Fulton, who taught me to cook my first dish (pikelets at age six), Stephanie Alexander, who provided an invaluable resource through her food bible ‘The Cooks Companion’ when I first moved out of home, and of course the wonderful Maggie Beer, the woman who can cook anything and make it look easy, have all had a huge influence on what I cook, and the way I cook it. The woman who has had the biggest influence on my cooking though is my mother. She has always had a passion for great food, and showed me that fresh produce matched with good cooking skills can produce spectacular meals (and she has produced plenty!!).

Working in IT, I understand how technology can help people stumble across things that they may have never tried previously and perhaps even give them a go. Through thecookbook.com.au I hope to instil a passion for food and provide inspiration, tips and tricks and things that I have learnt through all of the people that have inspired me, to a whole new generation of ‘could be’ cooks.

I would love to know who or what inspires you in the kitchen; is it your family, friends, ‘celebrity’ cooks or chefs, or even a trip to the market to find good ingredients? Please leave your comments to share with others!

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