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

My version

While I think some of the last couple of challenges where… well quite challenging… I think I may have picked a very easy one this time..:) So I would almost say that there is no reason not to participate this month!

For the new Donna Hay styling and photography challenge, number 7 already, I picked a recipe from the most recent Donna Hay magazine nr. 61. Photography is by William Meppem and Styling by Steve Pearce. For the past couple of months I have gone for dark and moody shots (to fit the season), rather then the signature Donna Hay style which is light and airy. I was in the mood for spring however and when I saw this gorgeous shot I could not resist.

The original by Wiliam Meppem ; the colors should be more like mine though. Blame it on the scan!

Smaller but better version of the original by William Meppem

So this is a fairly simple challenge, certainly compared to the ones we had previously but maybe it’s good to throw in an easy one for a change, to give you all some room to breath. It does not use a lot of props other then baking paper and a baking tray so in terms of prop shopping it’s easy too. I’ll show you a shot of my setup as well, so you have an idea on how I lighted the scene. Basically I had daylight coming from behind the subject and from the left with fill in with a large silver reflector from the right.

Setup for the shot

The light on this particular day was soft and cloudy so perfect really for a shadowless (more or less) photo. You could even go as far and place all the peas on the same spot but that was maybe a bit stretching it, so I left it the way I liked it. I also did have yellow tomatoes but for me that is not a huge difference so use whatever tomatoes you have.

Left mine, right the original

Now on to more pressing matters; we have a fantastic judging panel in place for the new challenge! I’m proudly presenting the following three awesome foodbloggers and awesome photographers/foodstylists.

Kay from the famous Kayotic Kitchen and a fellow Dutchie is a great photographer and has the amazing ability to do step by step shots for each and every single dish she makes. Hats of from me there!

Meeta from the equally famous What’s for Lunch Honey needs no further introduction if you come here more often. She’s not only a dear friend but also a very talented food photographer and foodstylist.

Then last but not least we have Jenn from Jenncuisine. Jenn has been participating regularly already from the first challenge and has won three times! So to avoid her winning anything else I thought I’d ask her to be on the judging panel..lol.. . She’s a great photographer and stylist as well.

So with that our judging panel is complete. The judges themselves are allowed to take part in the challenge as well, but they cannot win obviously. But it’s still fun to participate so didn’t want to take that away from anyone. Enter your links via the below Linky Tool!

Hungry yet?

You can find all the rules for the challenge on the special DHSPC page. As for the logo; I previously used the official Donna Hay logo but I was kindly notified that that is not allowed, so I changed it a bit. If you have the old logo, please use the new one from now on..

The Donna Hay team has kindly offered to share some wonderful prizes with us so the winner of the new challenge will receive a beautiful Donna Hay cookbook. it’s one of the two latest ones. I haven’t received them yet but will share that later as well.

Once the winner is decided upon  by the judges I will ask the winner for his or her homeaddress to ship the book to.

So now all that leaves me is to share the recipe with you here and it’s a delicious recipe for sure, so if all else fails you still have these delicious tarts!

As usual; dietary changes are allowed!

Artichoke and feta tarts with tomato salad

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Serves	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Meal type	Appetizer, Lunch, Side Dish
From magazine	Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients

• 1 sheet store bought puff pastry (thawed)
• 250g feta (crumbled)
• 4 artichoke hearts (marinated and halved)
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 100g mixed cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 120g frozen peas (thawed)
• 1/4 cup mint leaves
• olive oil (for drizzling)
• white balsamic vinegar (for drizzling)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 C. Cut the pastry into 4 squares and score a 1 cm border around each square. Place the square on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper and top with feta and artichoke. Brush the pastry borers with the egg and bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden

Place the tomato, peas and mint in a medium bowl, drizzle with olive oil and white balsamic and toss to combine. Top the tarts with the tomatoe salad to serve. Serves 4

Note

This is  really simple and delicious recipes that - at least it does for me - gives me a spring feeling!

Related Posts:

• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Lemon Sour Bundt Cake – DHSPC #2
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Greek salad

My fav entryby Jenncuisine

That was a bit more tricky this challenge then you would think based on the photo right? Lol… This months challenge has been a pretty good one and while the recipe itself was simple enough the execution turned out to be a little more challenging then anticipated. I think ultimately most people struggled with the same thing; the angle of the various props (and the right props too) and the way those look in size compared to the bruschetta.

Another of my favorites from Kankana

I love all the creative solutions that people came up with and I think everyone has done a great job. Check out all the entries below!

Now on to more exciting announcements; I have two…

First; I was contacted by the Donna Hay team that they noticed our challenge and were really pleased with our efforts and results. To support the challenge they have graciously offered to supply us with a couple of the latest books from Donna. They will be shipped to me soon so that means from next month onwards we will have an actual price to share for whoever did the best!

Secondly; sofar I’ve been either relying on my own opinion or on the likes an image got, but I think both are flawed. Even though this challenge is all about the exercise and not about the winning, it makes sense to ask a couple of people to do the judging together with me. Just so it becomes a little less subjective! The judges will be communicated hopefully when I reveal the 7th challenge.

And third; the new challenge is an awesome one with a spring feeling and possibly more of a traditional Donna look. That to me would be brilliant for the beginning of spring. I’m making it on Friday so the post should be up as usual on the 3rd of the month!

Thanks again for everyone who has entered in the challenge this month! You’re all winners to me!

Related Posts:

• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Artichoke and feta tarts – DHSP challenge #7
• DHSPC #4 december results

My version...

Let’s just do another easy one, I thought to myself when going through one of Donna Hay’s cookbooks. It should be a simple recipe but enough of a challenge in getting it right. Well… if only I had thought about that a little better.. I failed, I failed miserably in recreating the original that you will see below. It seemed fairly straightforward but the trick in this particular image is not so much the recipe as that is real simple, but the angle of the photo.. You’ll see what I mean soon! In the meantime we are already on the 6th version of the Donna Hay Styling and Photography Challenge and I loved all the entries from last month! I would say spread the word..

Photo; Con Poulos

Above you can find the challenge recipe photograph by Con Poulos. it’s from the cookbook Seasons and let’s face it; it doesn’t scare you just by looking at it, does it?  But wait until you analyze this a little further. First of all there is the issue of the size of the props. If you compare the size of the bottle with the size of the bruschetta then it can’t be very big and they appear fairly close together. The tricky part for me however is that the bread in the foreground is big. There is a lot of focus on that plate of food so it is prominently featured in the frame. However I tried to place it and however I changed my lenses I could not – for the life of me – get it right. I’ve tried a wide angle and going in really close but that didn’t give me any blurred background. I tried placing the plate in front and the bottle in the back and using a telelens (which makes objects appear closer together) but then I only got a small piece of the bottle in the frame. I tried so many things I forgot to pay attention to the actual position of the bruschetta but ok…

Plate is too small in the frame here

My plate is probably bigger too or maybe the bread in the original is bigger. It’s shot on a round table and I didn’t have a round table obviously but still I just failed completely in getting it right. I know you are all eagerly awaiting the next challenge so postponing it until I got it right was not an option so you’ll have to do with my failed attempt. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! And please, please let me know how you did it.

Wrong again

I tried it with a smaller plate above (only had a little christmas plate at hand..lol) but again not good! The light in the original is coming from above right and is mildly strong. I had a beautiful clear day and so much light that it was a bit too much but I gave up and just did my own version, which you see as the first picture. Rather different but still with the same elements mostly.

I will try again but also curious what you come up with! Good luck on the challenge! You’re gonna need it (or maybe it is really simple and it is just me..lol)

Feel free to change the recipe to suit your needs and/or allergies/preferences. If you’re vegetarian you can use maybe some slices of eggplant or courgette and if you’re glutenfree, change the bread etc. All options are allowed! The rules are below the recipe.

Bruschetta with mozarella, prosciutto and rocketpesto

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Serves	4
Meal type	Appetizer, Bread
From book	Seasons

Ingredients

• 8 slices bread
• 1 clove garlic (halved)
• extra virgin olive oil (for sprinkling)
• 3-4 pieces bocconcini (in small slices or you can use regular mozarella)
• 8 slices prosciutto
• black pepper (coarsely ground)

Arugulapesto

• 1 handful basil
• 2 handfuls arugula (rocket)
• 1 handful basil
• 40g pine nuts (roasted)
• 20g grated parmesan
• 1/4 garlic clove
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil

Directions

For making the arugula (rocket) pesto put arugula, basil, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic into a foodprocessor and puree roughly. While the motor is running add the olive oil and mix until it is a thick, rough substance. Don't make it too fine. Chunks are ok to have.

Heat a gridlepan and bake both sides of the bread golden brown and crispy. Rub this with half a clove of garlic and sprinkle with some olive oil.

Put some of the slices of mozarella on the toast and liberally cover with the pesto. Top this with a slice of prosciutto and finish with some salt and pepper.

• Once a month (on the 3rd of the month) I will give you a recipe plus the accompanying photo out of the Donna Hay magazine. I will try to make it seasonal but can’t promise anything.
• You have that same month to produce your post. You can post it any day you like just as long as you finish it before the end of that month at the latest.
• You have to  produce that recipe, alterations to the recipe are allowed to make sure any dietary restrictions are met. But only minor changes!
• You have to cook and STYLE the recipe trying to replicate the photo as best as you can. If you think you can do a better job then the original photo, by all means feel free to make your own changes to the styling.
• Shoot the dish and then write a blog post about it. It would be great to add notes on how you took the photo and how you styled the dish,  so that other people can learn too.
• Link back to this months blog post about the challenge and link back to the Donna Hay Challenge page here
• Leave a message on the post that is up here for that month, saying that you completed the challenge and link to the post on your site so others can find it too.
• If you want to use the original photo in your blog post as well as the recipe be sure to link back to the Donna Hay website plus the photographers website. They will both always be mentioned in the monthly challenge posts.

Each month a winner will be picked who will be featured in the Hall of Fame page. If you like you can add a badge to your site saying that you are taking part in this competition. The badge is featured below and should link back to this page.

Above all this challenge is about having fun styling and photographing a dish by taking Donna Hay as our great example. You can join all months or whenever you feel like joining in. Using an example of the great photographers that Donna works with, I always find that it is a good learning experience to see how did they light the scene, where does the light come from and how did they manage to make it look so beautiful. Try and analyze all of that and then come up with your own version.

While taking food photos is all about finding your own style and certainly not copying anyone else, it does help to analyze how your hero’s do their job. It’s about learning to light and style a scene properly. In no way am I trying to suggest you copy another person style. Find your own unique style! This challenge is just a tool to help you along the way..

Related Posts:

• DHSPC #6 – results and exciting news!
• Sourdough bruschetta
• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1

Yes, well, what can you expect of a month such as December where everyone is running around and trying to get things organized and done before Christmas and new years.. So I realize that.. And despite all that we even have four entries for the Donna Hay Styling and Photography Challenge so hey, that’s not so bad.. I did extend the deadline a tiny bit just to allow two more late entries in.

Photo by Jenn from jenncuisine

Four of my dear foodie friends participated this month and if you haven’t tried the recipe you’re sure missing out as it is delicious, quick and would have been perfect for your Christmas table! (or you can always bookmark it for next year or use it for something else as it would fit a lot of different meals!)
Below you can find the 4 entries plus mine too. Clicking on the photo will take you to the respective entries. As you can see all of these are pretty awesome compared to the original! I think one of the most interesting things about this challenge is that by quick glance all of the photos look pretty similar. The difference is really in the details and how each interpreted the lighting and styling of the setting.

If I had to pick a winner then I think Jenn’s entry is closest to the original in terms of light and styling, even though she chose to add a few cakes in the background. I actually like that better then the empty plate in the original, so great choice.

The challenge recipe by Ben Dearley or William Meppem

You can see the original photo on the left. Ofcourse Jenn made hers glutenfree so check out her post for more details. She also gives a great description of the thought process in getting to the photo which is always helpful.

I’m already preparing for the next challenge so come along and check back on the 3rd for the new recipe. I’m going to be making it tomorrow first, just to be sure the recipe is correct.

Related Posts:

• DHSPC #6 – results and exciting news!
• Donna Hay #3 – the results
• Donna Hay challenge #1 the results!
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Artichoke and feta tarts – DHSP challenge #7