Bill says,
"Ricotta Hotcakes for Breakfast and;
"Seafood Stew for Dinner"
I had a big 'Bill weekend' the weekend before. Bill for Breakfast and Bill for Dinner. The only reason why we didn't have Bill for lunch was because we went out :)
I've had my two Bill Granger books for a while now and have barely used them because we usually eat out on the weekends and there's not really much point trying to cooking something from a cook book on a weekday when all you want to do after work is go "home, eat, shower and vege-out."
Although I suppose his recipes are so simple that you can do it on a weekday too.
Anyway, stayed home Friday, Saturday and Sunday and decided that I would make use of all these books that I have bought but never really used unless an occasion arises.
Breakfast on Saturday
Surprisingly, I woke up early. (Early by my standards is before 11am. hahah) So since I had intended to make breakfast I chose to make these Ricotta Hotcakes w/ Honey Comb butter that are in Bill's Sydney Food for me and Wholemeal pancakes from Simply Bill for Alv. With a twist, I didn't do the Honey Comb butter because I didn't have any ingredients for them (kinda forgot about it when I went shopping) and I substituted the wholemeal flour with plain flour because we didn't have any and Alv (being the fussy eater that he is) doesn't like wholemeal anyway.
Ricotta Hotcakes
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups ricotta
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs separated
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50g of butter
1. Combine ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a bowl (mix well).
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt until just combined.
3. Beat eggs white in another bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Combine flour mix and ricotta mix.
5. Fold in egg white into batter in two separate lots.
6. Heat some butter in the pan and place 2 tbsp of batter onto the pan.
7. Cook until the top of the mix starts to bubble and flip over gently.
*Should make about 8 or 9 hotcakes depending on the size.
*I halved the recipe and got 4 hotcakes of about 2 1/2 tbsp per hotcake.
Serve w/ Honey Comb butter and banana slices or if you're lazy like me, just serve with maple syrup
Bill's version
The verdict: Yummy.. light, fluffy and delicious w/ the maple syrup. (Note to self: Buy some better quality maple syrup)
Monday Night Dinner
Monday night, the non-prawn-eating-housemate wasn't having dinner. Great opportunity to indulge in my favourite seafood.. PRAWNS yumm... Decided to make this seafood stew that we saw in Bill's Sydney Food.
Seafood Stew
Ingredients:
12 Prawns
24 Mussels
24 Scallops
24 Pipis
--
*I estimate that it's about 250g - 300g if you think it's weird asking the fish shop to count it for you. Pipi's aren't in season at the moment so I just doubled the scallops and prawns instead.
--
1 - 400g can of chopped Tomatoes
4 vine-rippened tomatoes chopped
1 tsp of orange zests
1/4 cup of white wine
2 - 3 cloves garlic crushed
2 small chillis chopped
1 medium onion diced
2 tbsp chopped Parsley
1 tbsp sliced Spring onions for garnish
*EVOO for frying onions
*S&P to taste
1. Clean seafood and set aside
2. Heat oil in a medium sized stock pot and fry onions, garlic and chilli until fragrant.
3. Add wine and let it boil before adding in tomatoes (can and fresh), parsley and orange zest.
4. Season to taste and simmer in a medium fire for 25-30mins
5. Add in mussells and stir to combine, cover and simmer for approximately 5mins.
6. Then add in the pipis, prawns and scallops and stir until their cooked.
7. Remove any mussells or pipis that are still closed.
8. Serve with spring onions and garlic toast.
^For garlic toast, simply blend 1/4 cup of EVOO w/ 1 or 2 cloves of garlic and slather onto bread slices. Sprinkle with salt before toasting/baking until crisp or to your liking.
The simmering pot of sauce.. mmm
<>
The garlic toast
<>
The end result
I've had my two Bill Granger books for a while now and have barely used them because we usually eat out on the weekends and there's not really much point trying to cooking something from a cook book on a weekday when all you want to do after work is go "home, eat, shower and vege-out."
Although I suppose his recipes are so simple that you can do it on a weekday too.
Anyway, stayed home Friday, Saturday and Sunday and decided that I would make use of all these books that I have bought but never really used unless an occasion arises.
Breakfast on Saturday
Surprisingly, I woke up early. (Early by my standards is before 11am. hahah) So since I had intended to make breakfast I chose to make these Ricotta Hotcakes w/ Honey Comb butter that are in Bill's Sydney Food for me and Wholemeal pancakes from Simply Bill for Alv. With a twist, I didn't do the Honey Comb butter because I didn't have any ingredients for them (kinda forgot about it when I went shopping) and I substituted the wholemeal flour with plain flour because we didn't have any and Alv (being the fussy eater that he is) doesn't like wholemeal anyway.
Ricotta Hotcakes
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups ricotta
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs separated
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50g of butter
1. Combine ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a bowl (mix well).
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt until just combined.
3. Beat eggs white in another bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Combine flour mix and ricotta mix.
5. Fold in egg white into batter in two separate lots.
6. Heat some butter in the pan and place 2 tbsp of batter onto the pan.
7. Cook until the top of the mix starts to bubble and flip over gently.
*Should make about 8 or 9 hotcakes depending on the size.
*I halved the recipe and got 4 hotcakes of about 2 1/2 tbsp per hotcake.
Serve w/ Honey Comb butter and banana slices or if you're lazy like me, just serve with maple syrup
Bill's version
<>
My lazy version. :)
The verdict: Yummy.. light, fluffy and delicious w/ the maple syrup. (Note to self: Buy some better quality maple syrup)
Monday Night Dinner
Monday night, the non-prawn-eating-housemate wasn't having dinner. Great opportunity to indulge in my favourite seafood.. PRAWNS yumm... Decided to make this seafood stew that we saw in Bill's Sydney Food.
Seafood Stew
Ingredients:
12 Prawns
24 Mussels
24 Scallops
24 Pipis
--
*I estimate that it's about 250g - 300g if you think it's weird asking the fish shop to count it for you. Pipi's aren't in season at the moment so I just doubled the scallops and prawns instead.
--
1 - 400g can of chopped Tomatoes
4 vine-rippened tomatoes chopped
1 tsp of orange zests
1/4 cup of white wine
2 - 3 cloves garlic crushed
2 small chillis chopped
1 medium onion diced
2 tbsp chopped Parsley
1 tbsp sliced Spring onions for garnish
*EVOO for frying onions
*S&P to taste
1. Clean seafood and set aside
2. Heat oil in a medium sized stock pot and fry onions, garlic and chilli until fragrant.
3. Add wine and let it boil before adding in tomatoes (can and fresh), parsley and orange zest.
4. Season to taste and simmer in a medium fire for 25-30mins
5. Add in mussells and stir to combine, cover and simmer for approximately 5mins.
6. Then add in the pipis, prawns and scallops and stir until their cooked.
7. Remove any mussells or pipis that are still closed.
8. Serve with spring onions and garlic toast.
^For garlic toast, simply blend 1/4 cup of EVOO w/ 1 or 2 cloves of garlic and slather onto bread slices. Sprinkle with salt before toasting/baking until crisp or to your liking.
The simmering pot of sauce.. mmm<>
The garlic toast<>
The end resultThe verdict: It was nyeh... nice. Don't get me wrong, it tasted good, but it felt more like Tomato soup with Seafood than a Seafood Stew. But still nice and hearty for a winter soup. Too bad about the pipis.
My only gripe with this recipe is that if I was a real amateur-by-the-book-cook when it comes to cooking (ok, I'm still an amateur, but living away from home for last 3 1/2 years have thought me something) I would be wondering why list salt in the ingredients for the soup when you didn't specify what it was for? and what about pepper??
Ok, I'm being stupidly critical, but I just thought it was a little poorly written and I was just a tiny bit disappointed in the instructions because I know that if I told Alv to make it and just follow the instructions, he would forget about seasoning it.
A&A: I hope you don't criticise me for the lack of clear instructions. LOL. It's a bit hard since I'm doing this from the top of my head and it was two weeks ago that I cooked this. Then again, I doubt you guys will make this anyway. But Ali, just in case you're really hanging out for something 'Bill' you can always start with this. Heheh..
I actually made two other things: one from Simply Bill and one from Bill's Sydney Food but unfortunately they were so "normal" in the scale of 'wowness' I didn't bother taking any photos and am not even going to bother mentioning it now that I think about it.
- Ji endo -
My only gripe with this recipe is that if I was a real amateur-by-the-book-cook when it comes to cooking (ok, I'm still an amateur, but living away from home for last 3 1/2 years have thought me something) I would be wondering why list salt in the ingredients for the soup when you didn't specify what it was for? and what about pepper??
Ok, I'm being stupidly critical, but I just thought it was a little poorly written and I was just a tiny bit disappointed in the instructions because I know that if I told Alv to make it and just follow the instructions, he would forget about seasoning it.
A&A: I hope you don't criticise me for the lack of clear instructions. LOL. It's a bit hard since I'm doing this from the top of my head and it was two weeks ago that I cooked this. Then again, I doubt you guys will make this anyway. But Ali, just in case you're really hanging out for something 'Bill' you can always start with this. Heheh..
I actually made two other things: one from Simply Bill and one from Bill's Sydney Food but unfortunately they were so "normal" in the scale of 'wowness' I didn't bother taking any photos and am not even going to bother mentioning it now that I think about it.
- Ji endo -
2 comments:
Hi illingc - this looks great, I've got the books so must try it soon :) The one with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce looks irresistible too!
Hi Keiko,
I think I know which ones you mean. They look decadent! The one I'm really interested in is the ginger ice cream and chocolate sauce. yumm.. I will have to make that in summer, if I can steal my friend's ice cream machine :)
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