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Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4

Simone (junglefrog) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:00:56 +0000

Sage and corn cake

Are you all excitedly waiting for the new challenge to see if it is any better then the last one?? Well I can assure you it IS better then the last one, although it doesn’t take a lot to make it better. I thought about which recipe to pick a lot before choosing. It is the time right before Christmas after all and a lot of people are stressed and feeling the pressure of performing for Christmas dinner. So I am giving you a real easy recipe this time. A real easy one that you can also use for the actual Christmas dinner itself. Now what more do you want?

The challenge recipe by Ben Dearley or William Meppem

The challenge recipe this month comes from Donna Hay issue 48 and the photo is either by Ben Dearley or William Meppem. It was a Christmas feature with various menu’s and it didn’t specify which photographer took which photo, so I’ll just name them both. Having learned from the previous challenge I tested the recipe this time beforehand and I am glad to tell you that it is correct and works. I couldn’t find instant polenta which the recipes calls for so I used semolina instead. That worked fine. I also did a batch with cornflour. Those were drier and slightly less fluffy so I would advice to go with either polenta or semolina, but if you have nothing else, you can use cornflour and add a little bit more sour cream to make it moist enough. That should work too. I’ll first give you the recipe

Sage and prosciutto corn cakes

Print recipe

Serves	12
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	25 minutes
Total time	35 minutes
Meal type	Side Dish
From magazine	Donna Hay Magazine

Ingredients

170g instant polenta
75g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sage leaves (chopped)
sea salt
black pepper
360g sour cream
2 eggs
12 sage leaves (extra)
12 slices prosciutto

Directions


Preaheat oven to 180. Place the polenta, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), sage, salt, pepper, cream and eggs in a bowl and mix well to combine. Place extra sage in the bases of 12 lightly greased 1/2 cup capacity (125 ml) muffin tins. Line each tin with prosciutto and fill with polenta mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked. Turn out to serve. Makes 12

Note

I could not find instant polenta so I used semolina flour instead. That worked fine, so if you have no polenta use that. I also made a batch with cornflour and that worked as well although the batter and the final cakes were a littl drier then the one with semolina. I would use a bit more fluids if you bake with the cornflour.

Now… you can see that the first photo here is by me, so I can also post this to foodgawker and the likes.. I’m not entirely satisfied with my result and I am sure you can do a better job. Couple of notes to remember; while the light is coming from roughly behind and a little from the right it is not extremely bright light. As you can see in my photo I was too close to the light source (south facing window) so it is too bright in the background. I also noticed that they actually wrap the prosciutto around the bottom of the cakes giving it a different look. Keep that in mind when following the recipe. I will try and redo them too since I finally found polenta too. I am curious to see the difference in taste.

We ate these pretties together with our red lentil soup and it was quite good. I can see this work really well with some good gravy (as that is what they’re intended to be for.. as a side dish to your Christmas turkey.)

You can find all the rules for the Donna Hay Styling and Photography Challenge on the special page here. Deadline for this entry is December 30th. Due to Newyears it’s gonna be one day early so I can actually post it before the new year. (Can you believe it is almost 2012??)

If you’ve completed your entry please fill in the details through the below list. You will only be able to see it once it is approved. Like an image? Click below! Clicking on the image will bring you to the blogpost of the entry!

Gnocchi with garden peas

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:00:53 +0000

Only a few more days before I’m off to London for Foodblogger Connect and I’m not sure if it is me, but what is all that chaos in London right now… ?? I mean seriously; first I was supposed to go to Japan and we all know what happened there, then I was supposed to have a wedding in Italy and that got cancelled due to whatever reason and now I’m gonna go to London and all hell breaks loose there too… Am I jinxed or what? I hope everyone I know in London is allright, because by the looks of the news this evening it’s been pretty bad in certain neighborhoods. What is wrong with the world? Seriously… I get depressed looking at the news these days. If it’s not one natural disaster after the other, then it’s crashing economics or people killing eachother… Not good. Not good at all. I find that it disturbs me more lately. Up to the point where I seriously start to wonder what will become of the world. Will we all be blown away by some major crashing natural disaster or will we “simply” ruin ourselves by war, viruses or the like? I’m normally a fairly optimistic person but it starts to become hard to see the light of day with all that is going on at the moment.

In light of all of the above my quest to loose weight is a simple one, but still one that can occupy my thoughts for a large part of the day. Well, let’s face it; my thoughts are already occupied with food for a big part and now there is just the added complexity of making good dishes a little leaner. One case in point was my lunch of today. I came home after working in the studio and felt like cooking something simple and quick. I had no idea what to make so I just went to the store and then saw one of their recipe cards with a recipe for gnocchi with bacon and garden peas. I liked the look of it and figured I could make that dish but then in a leaner version. And so I did! And it was delicious!

The original version had bacon, creme fraiche and a lot more cheese but my version made me feel better… I’m normally not a big fan of store bought gnocchi and I’m still not but whipping up freshly made gnocchi for this afternoons lunch felt like a little bit too much hard work, so I did opt for the store bought and with all the other ingredients added it was good. But I’m sure will be much better if you do decide to make your own gnocchi. And why not go for it?

O and I have to tell you too that I had THE best salmon hamburger tonight for dinner too!! I didn’t take any photos but I will definitely be making this again and share! Soooo good!

Gnocchi with garden peas

5.0 from 2 reviews

Recipe type: Lunch or light main

Author: Simone van den Berg

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 1

Light and fresh dish that is literally done within 15 minutes

Ingredients

75 gr garden peas, frozen (or fresh if they are to be found)
150 gr gnocchi con patate (freshly made or storebought)
1 tbsp creme fraiche light
50 gr ham, cut into thin slices
25 gr rocket
1 sjalot, sliced
salt
pepper
olive oil
parmesan cheese for grating over the top

Instructions

Put your water with salt on to boil the gnocchi. Pay attention that they only need about 2 minutes to cook so do this at the end.
Heat the olive oil in a small pan and fry your onions until soft and golden. Add your ham and fry till they become a little crispy. Turn the heat down a bit and add your frozen garden peas and let it simmer slowly for about 5-6 minutes until your peas are soft and tender.
Cook your gnocchi at the same time.
Add 1 tbsp of creme fraiche to the peas and add salt and pepper to taste.
Once the gnocchi are cooked, drain and add them to your pea mixture. Plate up and finish with some rocket and some freshly grated Parmesan on top.

And who is here trying to dip her nose in and stealing a little bit of that ham??

Another halloumi salad…

Simone (junglefrog) — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:00:10 +0000

Halloumi salad with rocket and bacon

Remember I had that delicious lentil salad a while ago with halloumi? For those of you that have never heard of Halloumi; it is traditionally a Cypriot cheese and it made from a mixture of goat’s and sheeps milk although apparently some have cow’s milk in there as well. It can be heated far higher then regular cheese due to a higher melting point which makes it perfect for frying.

And that is exactly what I did with the remainder of my halloumi cheese; before I opened the package it could keep for months or even up to a year, but once opened; well, you all know the drill right? So once the package was opened I had to make something else out of it. I will buy another package soon, as I really like the salty taste and frying it gives it a lovely crunch. But because it was lunchtime and I had some leftover ingredients I needed to use I made another salad and fried the remaining bit of halloumi. One word of warning though; if you do fry it in oil (I used sunflower oil) it spatters enormously which makes it hard to turn the cheese to brown it evenly. I hate spattering oil! The salad was absolutely lovely again; I tossed in rocket, mint, smoked chicken and the halloumi and as a dressing I used a bottle of some kind of balsamic vinegar spray that I bought a while ago but hadn’t used. It’s perfect for salads as you really just mist it over the leaves and it gives a lovely taste. Not as outspoken as regular balsamic as it is white, but it’s really good. I’ve got to look up the name of it as I am not sure what it is called. I have never seen it in a regular store and have only been able to find it in the wholesale store I come once in a while.

Rocket, haloumi and bacon salad

I think I originally saw this recipe somewhere forgot about it and then changed it to my liking. Haha, I think the only resemblance to the original is probably the rocket and the halloumi!

Whatever the case; if you have not tried halloumi before; give it a go if you can find it.

Then I have to apologize (again) for not visiting your blogs as often as I want to. I have been busy redesigning my other blog, working, trying to keep up with sports and family things. Not good family things either… Tom’s parents were gone on holiday to Curacao, lucky enough to be able to leave just after the airspace was declared good to go again, but his mom has been admitted to the hospital in Curacao for kidney failure and lung problems. Overall, really not good and she is not allowed back until her lungs are cleared again, so they will be there longer then the planned 10 days. Which really sucks given the circumstances, but there is not much we can do. Communication is really hard as they have a prepaid phone, plus calling with the hospital is hard as it is not always allowed (for logical reasons of course) so we really hope that she will recover soon and be able to fly back home. In the meantime we are taking care of their two cats, who are getting seriously annoyed – as only cats can do – for being on their own and not being allowed outside. Even though we spend some time with them every day! Ungrateful little creatures they are…

I really hope that they will be back here soon, as everyone is really concerned..

In any case; as you can probably imagine: it’s been hectic here and when it wasn’t I don’t always feel like being behind the computer anymore then for regular work stuff. So apologies for not spending as much time on all your lovely blogs as I should but I will try and catch up and be better at it. I even missed Daring Cooks AND Daring Bakers challenges this month. Hope they don’t kick me out!!

But… if you’re in need of a lovely quick salad just put some rocket, smoked chicken, bacon, halloumi and a dressing of your liking together and enjoy. I really don’t have any measurements, so just throw in whatever you have. I would have loved some fresh tomatoes in here as well. Would have been good too!

And hey; I did promise you a good salad today, didn’t I?

Halloumi salad with rocket, chicken and bacon

Print recipe

Serves	1
Prep time	10 minutes
Meal type	Lunch, Salad

Ingredients

50g halloumi
3 slices bacon
50g rocket
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
few leavesmint

Directions

Cut your halloumi into small cubes. Heat some sunflower oil in a frying pan and quickly brown the halloumi cubes. Be careful as the oil tends to spatter when frying halloumi.
Toss the rocket and shredded mint together with a bit of white balsamic vinegar (or other dressing of your liking) and put on a plate.
Fry the bacon slices crisp and leave to drain on a bit of kitchen towel. Crumble above the salad and add the fried halloumi too.

Note

This is not really a very difficult salad to put together and basically use your common sense when adding things to the salad.

Pasta with bacon, peas and ricotta

Simone (junglefrog) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:41:46 +0000

Macaroni with peas, bacon and ricotta

After working today I figured I wanted something tasty and quick. Quick these days seems to be the major keyword…. Tom is out tonight, which meant I get to make things he doesn’t like and he doesn’t like ricotta, so when I saw this recipe in the Good Food of this month, that seemed like the perfect choice. The original recipe calls for mint, but they didn’t have it in the supermarket and to be quite honest; for some reason I don’t really think that mint and pasta are such a fabulous combination anyway. I was willing to try it, but the supermarket got in the way.. (o excuses, excuses…)

It was really quick. The cooking of the pasta was really the part that took the longest (5 minutes) so fabulously tasty and ridiculously fast for something so good. Now I will tell you the recipe a little later. I have to share one more secret today and that is that I am addicted…. Yes, ladies and gentlemen… I am addicted. You can guess to what if you have a look at the next photo:

I’m addicted to Grey’s Anatomy!! Now unfortunately I have run out of seasons. I never watch it on tv, as I always miss loads of episodes and then forget to tape it, but I buy the complete seasons on dvd… But as I said; they’ve run out of new seasons for Grey’s Anatomy, so imagine the joy when I found this two days ago! Spin-off Private practice; the complete first season… Now I am sure there are many people out there who now think I am a lunatic. Quite frankly Tom always makes sure he is far away when I am about to watch one of the series, as I usually end up crying anyway. Haha, what is the fun in watching a series that makes you cry? I guess that cannot be explained. You either get it or you don’t. Period… I just watched the first episode (and yes, I cried!!) during my dinner. Gotta do some more work, but I will for sure watch another episode before the night is over!

And now over to the recipe:

400 gr pasta (any shape)

250 gr. frozen peas

125 gr ricotta

bacon

olive oil

mint (I used basil instead)

parmezan

Cook the pasta. In the meantime fry the bacon in another pan untill it turns golden. Add the peas and about 4 tablespoons of water. Bring to a boil untill the peas start to soften and the water is evaporated. Add the pasta and stir in the ricotta. If the pasta seems to dry add a bit of the cooking water of the pasta. Season to taste and scatter with basil leaves and parmezan shavings. And voila done!

Monkfish wrapped in pancetta with asparagus

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:07:45 +0000

What I try to do each week is to plan our meals a bit so that we at least have some decent food. The reality is that our lives are quite hectic so it is sometimes just not feasible to prepare a good meal and still do all the things we want. In my line of work it is sometimes necessary to work evenings, weekends or other hours, while Tom loves to go fishing with friends. Fishing is apparently essential to do as early as possible in the evening (after he comes home from work, which has fairly normal working hours)
So if you look at a typical evening such as we had yesterday, that means that he comes home around 6 pm and this particular case I had to leave at 6.30 since I had a family photoshoot in the studio at 7.30. Leaves precious little time for a normal meal!

I had set my mind to make a recipe of Jamie Oliver’s book “Cook” wit involved pancetta, asparagus and monk fish. Tom had promised to be home early, so I figured I could still make the dish… Taking a photo of it would be nice, but if I could find the time… was doubtful.
I bought the fish in the afternoon which was incredibly expensive by the way (18 euro’s for about 500 gr. of monk fish-fillet. It still had to be made into a fillet which meant I had to pay for the entire fish and not just the fillet)

The recipe calls for pancetta, which of course I could not find anywhere around here, so had to do with regular smoked bacon.
All in all Tom was still quite late or at least later then he said the day before so it was a bit hurried but at least we still had a lovely meal. I did take three photos in a hurry so the styling is not exactly how I had wanted it but still half decent…:) The recipe is definitely worth a try and you can choose cheaper fish such as haddock, whiting or hake, which funnily enough my fish market didn’t have yesterday.

Monkfish with lemon mayonaise and asparagus

Recipe (for four persons, from Jamie Oliver’s Cook):

Monkfish wrapped in pancetta with asparagus

5.0 from 1 reviews

Recipe type: Main

Author: Jamie Oliver (from Cook)

Serves: 4

Easy and delicious and with that lemon mayonaise it gives it a lovely tang

Ingredients

4 fish fillets, 2,5 cm thick each around 200 gr each. without skin and bones. I used monk fish
2 sticks of fresh rosemary, only the leaves, finely chopped
grated lemonzest of two lemons
black pepper
16 thin slices of pancetta or bacon
4 tablespoons mayonaise
2 large bunches of asparagus, cleaned

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Sprinkle your fishfillets with the lemonzest (without the bitter white stuff!), rosemary and fresh pepper. No salt is needed because they are going to be wrapped in delicious salt pancetta. Put the slices of pancetta on a chopping board and flatten them extra with the side of knife. Put four slices together on the board, put a fishfillet on top and roll the package closed.
Heat a large, ovenproof frying pan, put a little oil in and add the pieces of fish with the good side up. Fry them for about a minute and after that put the pan in the oven, for about 10-12 minutes depending on the thickness of the filet, untill the pancetta is crispy and nice golden brown.
While the fish is in the oven you have time to make the lemon mayonaise with either fresh mayonaise or mayonaise from a jar. Add enough lemonjuice as the intention is for the mayonaise to be a little bit too sour. In combination with the fish and asparagus that will be less. It’s ok if the mayonaise is a little thinner then usual.
Cook or steam the asparagus and serve them with the fish and the lemon mayonaise.

Junglefrog Cooking » bacon

Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4

Sage and prosciutto corn cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Note

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Gnocchi with garden peas

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Another halloumi salad…

Halloumi salad with rocket, chicken and bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Note

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Pasta with bacon, peas and ricotta

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Monkfish wrapped in pancetta with asparagus

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