UPDATE!
Due to the slightly more complicated challenge this month the deadline is extended for one whole month. Get your entries in before end of May now! And remember; it’s not all about having the same props. Mood and atmosphere is more important. I don’t think anyone would have such a lovely rack to place the potatoes in but that is all good! Just be creative!

A meaty challenge! Photo by Ben Dearnley

I realized that after having done 7 Donna Hay challenges; we’ve done vegetarian, we’ve done sweets and we’ve done sandwiches but what we have not done before is anything really meaty. So when the latest issue of Donna Hay’s magazine arrived and I started drooling over the Argentinian pages I figured it would be perfect for this time of year! Ok, depending on where you live it might still be a little too cold for doing a full barbecue but maybe the weather is kind and we can eat outside. Fire up the grill and make this gorgeous salted rump steak. In the magazine these steaks are served with delicious roasted potatoes with chimichurri sauce and since it’s always good to have a vegetarian alternative you actually get to pick this month from two different recipes!

Roasted potatoes. Photo by Ben Dearnley

Now is that a luxury or what? Both photos are quite stylish and will probably give you some challenge in terms of props, lighting and placement but that is what this is all about. Last month was fairly straight forward, so I thought to mix it up with something a little more challenging for the more seasoned photographers out there but if you’re just starting out, don’t be afraid to tackle this too. Whatever happens, it will definitely teach you something.

The photography on both these shots is done by one of my favorites; Ben Dearnley, styling is done by Steve Pearce. I love the styling in both these shots as it give me a sense of summer but in a rustic kind of way. The colors are dark but still vibrant and the food jumps out at you. I can’t wait to make both of these (you don’t have to choose, you can make them both if you want!) but since I am currently without kitchen I could not taste test either of these recipes but I have the feeling they will be all right!

Enter your link below!

Since there had been some complaints about the quality of  my scans (rightfuly so!) I have found the originals on Ben Dearnley’s site so that looks a whole lot better! I’ll try to make sure the quality of the photos is good enough for you to be able to see what you need to do.

You can find all the rules for the Donna Hay Challenge on the special DHSPC page on top of the menu.

As usual the rules are very straightforward;

• recreate the original images to the best of your ability
• write a blog post about your experience and showcase the photos that you took
• Include some notes on how you took the photos and how you tackled the styling
• link back to this post
• Deadline for entry if April 30th.
• Read the rest of the rules on the DHSPC page
• Judging will be done by Jenn from jenncuisine, Meeta from What’s for Lunch Honey, Kay from KayoticKitchen and myself

Entries are open for everyone. No need to let me know if you want to join. Once you’ve made your post include the link in the linkytool below. It will need to be approved by me first so you will not see it before that.

Salted rump steak

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Serves	4
Prep time	1 hour, 10 minutes
Cook time	7 minutes
Total time	1 hour, 17 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish
From magazine	Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients

• 1kg rump steak (cut into large pieces)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup rocksalt (300 gr)
• cracked black pepper

Directions

Thread the steak onto metal skewers and rub with olive oil. Place on a baking tray and cover completely with the rock salt. Place in the fridge for 1 hour. Wipe with absorbent paper to remove the rock salt and sprinkle with pepper. Heat a char-grill pan or BBQ over high heat. Add the skewers and cook for 7 minutes each side for medium rare or until cooked to your liking. Serve with the chimichurri saue (see below)

Roasted potatoes with chimichurri sauce

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	45 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 5 minutes
Meal type	Side Dish
From magazine	Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients

• 1,5kg large sebago (starchy) potatoes (peeled and chopped)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• sea salt
• cracked black pepper
• 100g wild rocket (arugula) leaves (to serve)

Chimichurri sauce

• 1/3 cup flat leaf parsley (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon oregano (chopped)
• 2 teaspoons rosemary (chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 1 clove garlic (crushed)
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• sea salt
• cracked black pepper

Directions

To make the chimichurri sauce, place the parsley, oregano, rosemary, paprika, chilli flakes, garlic, bay leaf, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 220 C (425 F). Place the potato in a large saucepan of salted cold water over high heat and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes or until the potato is just tender. Drain, return the potato to the pan and cook for 1 minte to remove excess moisture. Shake the pan to fluff the potato. Place on a baking tray, drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 40-45 minutes or until crisp and golden. Serve the potatoes with the chimichurri sauce and rocket leaves.

Related Posts:

• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Artichoke and feta tarts – DHSP challenge #7
• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• DHSPC #6 – results and exciting news!
• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4

Pumpkin beef stew

There is something so comforting about typical fall food. It’s the smell, the colors but above all the taste that make it so. When I read about the three ingredients for the Royal Foodie Joust I just had to participate. It’s my first time in the Joust and I am not a star in making up my own recipes, so I figured that this would be a perfect opportunity to start practicing!

The three ingredients for this months joust where in the colors of Halloween; black and orange and the ingredients itself would be pumpkin, beer and sugar. So sitting with Tom in bed on our regular weekend ‘breakfast in bed’ we started brainstorming on what we could make with those three ingredients and it was Tom who actually came up with the idea to make a stew out of it (see honey, I promised I would give you all the credits!!) and the rest was really fairly simple.

I had never before used pumpkin to cook or bake anything, so the first thing we had to do was buy a pumpkin. We went to the Noordermarkt in Amsterdam where they have a lovely organic market, so that is where we bought pumpkins (yes, I bought two different ones, so expect at least one more pumpkin recipe soon!) and organically produced beef for our stew. For the beer  wanted to use stout as that is dark and lovely and all the other ingredients I still had in the kitchen so here is the recipe that we made:

Beefstew with beer and pumpkin (serves 2 or 3)

350 gr. beef

30 gr butter

4 small onions

Half a medium sized pumpkin

200 gr round carrots or another vegetable you like

1 bottle of Stout or another dark beer

5 cloves

1 pcs of mace

2 bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

sugar to taste

Serve with mashed potatoes or rice (we picked the mashed potatoes)

Cut the beef in chunks of about 2 cm and put pepper and salt on them. Put the butter in a casserole pan and once the butter stops foaming add the meat. Bake the meat for about 10 minutes on medium high till it is browned.

2. Cut up 3 onions in rough pieces and add them to the meat. Bake for another 5 minutes. Add the bottle of beer.

3. Stick the cloves into the remaining onion (you can leave it whole, it will fall apart anyway) and add this together with the mace, bayleave and cinnamon stick to the meat. Bring to a boil, add pepper and salt and sugar to taste. You don’t want it to be overly sweet. Put a lid on the pan and simmer for approx. 2 hours. Add the carrots in and simmer for another half hour before you add the pumpkin. Simmer for another half hour and check if the meat is fall apart tender and the pumpkin well done.

You can add potatoes to the mix together with the pumpkin and have a one pot meal or you can make mashed potatoes and serve those on the site. Sprinkle some freshly grated nutmeg over the mashed potatoes!

You can easily make this dish the day before as the flavors will only get better after a day.

I could see endless variations of this dish really and the pumpkin and sugar give it a nice little bit of sweetness. While simmering on the stove the smells that came of it where delicious!! Especially the cinnamon was very noticeable. I did detect a very slight bitter aftertaste to the dish, which I somehow feel might be because of the cinnamon but not sure.

In any way, we were both really really pleased with this lovely stew and will definitely be making this again! Perfect for a rainy and stormy autumn day (well, it’s sunny here today… ) but you know what I mean.

So this is my official entry for the Royal Foodie Joust, hosted every month by the Leftover Queen. You can vote for me here after november 1st! Ofcourse you can always join as well in this fun event!

Related Posts:

• Pumpkin carrot stew -living leaner
• Italian sausage stew
• Roasted butternut squash salad
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Apple sauce