27 March, 2010

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.

14 March, 2010

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!