Baking Challenge 3 - Traditional British Pudding

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.


The pudding concoction I made was flavoured with raisins, grated apple and lemon zest... pretty tasty. I had originally wanted to make steak and kidney pudding, but didn't take into account that most of the butchers would be shut for the ANZAC day weekend. The lady at AC butchery seemed fairly insulted when I asked for suet and ox kidney - she informed me in no uncertain terms that they do not sell offal there!

Cooking Challenge 2 - Brunswick Stew

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.


This one was a tad disappointing... I added the full amount of stock called for in the recipe and it ended up more like a soup than a stew. It tasted pretty exciting up until adding the vinegar and lemon juice at the last stage, which seemed to erase a lot of the depth of flavour.

Baking Challenge 2 - Orange Tian

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

Here it is...


Once again a bit too sweet for Mark and my tastes. I think I may cut down on the sugar in future challenges, two too sweet in a row.

Cooking Challenge 1 - Risotto

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

I have a soft spot for risotto, something to do with the almost hypnotic stirring of the pot I think. So, in a very unlike Leanne moment, I leapt into this challenge way before the due date. It also helped that I had the perfect quantity of left over snapper & kingfish fish stock waiting in the freezer, ready and raring for action. The risotto flavour I chose was preserved lemon with loads of herbs (greek basil, parsley, chervil, lemon thyme). I served it with a moat of pea puree (cooked from baby peas, onion, butter, white wine and fish stock) and a pan fried fillet of kingfish, all inspired by Luke Mangan... it was pretty yum, if I do say so myself!

Baking Challenge 1 - Tiramisu

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.


The tiramisu is made and waiting in the fridge... every bit made from scratch. I'll try to upload a more appetising photo tomorrow when it gets it's big unveiling. I'm only half looking forward to it, from what I tasted as I went along it seems like it's going to be extremely sweet, a lot sweeter than the one I usually make... though it was fun to make my own marscapone and ladyfinger biscuits!

This is it... I may need to work a little on my presentation skills!