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

Print recipe

• Print with main photo
• Print text only

Serves:	4
Prep time:	None
Cook time:	None
Total time:	None
Meal type:	Appetizer, Bread
Region:	Worldwide
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:

• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Apple and caramel dumplings, I think
• Gnocchi with garden peas
• Trapani rigatoni and limoncello trifle

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

Print

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Cook your gnocchi at the same time.
4. Add 1 tbsp of creme fraiche to the peas and add salt and pepper to taste.
5. 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.

Google Recipe View Microformatting by Easy Recipe

1.2.4

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

Related Posts:

• Moo Shu – Daring Cooks October 2011
• Greek salad
• Roasted carrots with goatcheese
• Tarly salad with orange hazelnut dressing – living leaner
• Goatcheese salad with walnuts and pear

Sticky marmalade ham

In the quest for a good christmas dinner we ended up with wanting to have a large piece of meat as the center piece of the evening. Obviously, we also didn’t want to spend hours in the kitchen on the day itself so it would have to be possible to prepare for the largest part upfront. Initially we talked about Beef Wellington or maybe a large roast but then last week we started thinking of taking a ham and then quickly it became a glazed ham. Ofcourse the option was to either do a raw ham and cook it from scratch for probably somewhere around 5 hours or be a little bit lazy and go with the precooked version… (That is not lazy, that is just common sense around christmas, right?) So ham it was gonna be! Yesterday I went to the store in Amsterdam and asked the butcher for a nice piece of ham. The ham itself was small (or so I thought) but it still ended up being an entire kilo of meat!! Wow… It didn’t look that big.. ahum. Ofcourse I could not look inside of the ham but in retrospect I should have asked for a bit fattier piece of ham. As you can see from the slices above the meat itself is slightly on the dry side at the top of the piece. It was good and moist under that. To achieve the right glazing effect and warm through I needed to have it in the oven for 40-50 minutes and I did opt for the shorter so 40 minutes, but stil a bit too dry, so I am hoping to find a ham with a little bit more fat on top. Actually now that I think about it; he had a beautiful ham with bone and rind still in tact. That would be perfect! I can remove the rind and then glaze on the fat side. That should do the trick!

For the lovely cranberry sauce I used Jamie’s recipe which you can find here. Initially we thought the taste of the cranberry was a little bit bitter, but as Jamie had already stated in her recipe it needs to be chilled properly before the bitterness changes back to being sweet and tart. And that is what it did. I think we tasted the first bit after about maybe two cooling hours of the cranberry at most, as we were just being impatient ofcourse to taste the ham and sauce together. The ham was still warm too. But after having had the ham in the fridge for a while and the cranberries also for a couple more hours it did work out fine. The sweetness of the hamglaze worked perfectly with the tartness of the cranberries. I did add a little bit of sugar afterwards as it was a bit too tart to complement the ham.

The ham itself was very tasty and gorgeous, apart from the slightly dry upper part. The funny thing was that after being in the fridge for a couple of hours the dryness of the ham had disappeared. I have no idea if that was due to it being in the fridge or that it was just the thicker and therefore juicier part of the ham? Really don’t know!

Now the bubble and squeak croquettes that I made were an entirely different story…but all about that tomorrow. Need to keep the suspense going! We’re having fancy dinner the entire week already, haha… Today we’re changing the amuse to be a little bit of puff pastry with mushrooms, blue cheese and a tiny quail egg on top. How does that sound? So our dinner for tonight is that amuse, the ham and the croquettes (those are vegetables and potatoes, so yes, yes, very healthy…lol..)

The verdict of the puff pastry/mushroom/cheese amuse was that – while delicious – far too heavy as a starter, so we’ll stick to the filodough/guacamole starter which has a lovely freshness which is perfect I think.

I am loving all the cooking and baking I am doing. It’s just that I found out that I am a very messy cook (well, ok, I knew that already ofcourse!) so all that cooking involves also a lot of cleaning. Our kitchen is not big enough to be able to leave all the chaos to the very end, so in between meals/courses; lots of cleaning is required. NOT my favorite thing to do!

Anyway, here is the recipe for the glazing of the ham!

Sticky Marmalade Ham (adapted from Good Food)

1 gammon ham, smoked and/or cooked, approx. 5-6 kg, with bone in

454 gr jar good quality orange marmalade (I used Chivers extra fruity marmalade)

300 gr light muscovado sugar

jar whole cloves

Heat oven to 200C. Put the ham in a roasting tin on a trivet. If you don’t have one, a few halved carrots will do the trick as well. Mix the marmalade with the sugar and 50 ml of water in a small pan, bring to the boil and then set aside and leave to cool.

Score lines into the fat of the ham with a knife to make large diamond shapes, with the lines about 4 cm apart. Brush a third of the marmalade glaze over the joint, really pushing it into the creases and cuts. Now stud the ham with the cloves by poking a clove into the corner of each diamond.

Roast the ham, uncovered, for 45-50 minutes, brushing with the remaining glaze a few times during cooking, until caramelised and delicious. Carve  hot or cold.

Now what I have to show you is a closeup of one of the cloves after also being caramelized!! Doesn’t it look like a little alien?

Closeup of glazed clove

Related Posts:

• Cranberry sauce
• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• Pavlova with pomegranate and cranberry sauce
• Gnocchi with garden peas
• Tartelette with peas, ham and cheese

Hmmm, maybe my plan on eating healthy is not exactly eating anything with puff pastry now is it? Lovely buttery and slightly unhealthy puff pastry… O well, on the plus side; I ate only one of these little darlings! Yesterday I finally received my brand new Macbook pro so I love new toys and I have been playing around with it, transferring files from one computer to the other etc. It’s always amazing to me how fast time flies when you’re behind the computer!! Ooo and in addition to the new laptop I also bought a Apple Cinema LED display 24″. Can I just say…. wow… what a difference!! Now my ‘old’ display is really quite old, so colors were not that vibrant anymore and it really was in need of replacement. And I totally love it. And how big is 24″ compaired to the ‘old’ 19″… VERY big!!

Anyway, I will not bore you any longer with tales of my new computer stuff, so instead I would like to share my lunch of today. After being behind the computer yesterday for most of the day I was really in need of a lovely little indulgence for lunch. Tonight is already our very last cooking lesson… so sad… The last lesson is about venison and other game, so I am little scared of what we are going to find when we enter the kookstudio. I hope that it’s not an entire deer!! There are limits to what I can take!

Anyway, for lunch I made little savoury tartelettes using storebought puff pastry. I love those little things as it is so easy and you can basically throw in whatever you want and still have a lovely little pie. In these I used (frozen) peas, ham, egg, cherry tomatoes and some leftover cheeses I had such as gorgonzola and brie. In terms of looks; the brie looked better, but in terms of taste the gorgonzola had a little more punch, so if you can’t decide and pretty looks are not important, go for the gorgonzola!

Oooo and I got to share something as well; Tom had a cooking workshop with some colleagues from work yesterday and he ate something (I can’t even remember what it was that he ate) containing gorgonzola and he actually liked it!!! Maybe I should not cheer too soon as I know that gorgonzola can loose quite some flavor when warm, but maybe there is still hope for my cheese-hating husband… (in case you didn’t know; Tom and I are not married, but we have been living together for 18 years so instead of calling him boyfriend all the time, I like to just call him my husband to make life a little simpler.. Boyfriend somehow always feel like someone you’ve only recently met… That’s probably silly but now you know!)

Ok, so what is in these little darlings:

Qty’s for 4 people

Puff pastry sheets, defrosted

150 gr of frozen peas

100 gr of hamslices

100 gr of cherry tomatoes

2 eggs

gorgonzola or another cheese to your liking

Preheat the oven to 200C. Use little tartelette forms with bottoms that can be taken out as those are easiest to use. Whisk the two eggs together in a bowl and add the peas and ham to it. Stir until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Line each pie form with a puff pastry sheet and press into the form. Once done, dock the bottom by pricking it with a fork.

Distribute the egg mixture into the four forms and put the cherry tomatoes on top (cut in half). Add little blobs of cheese in and around the tomatoes and put in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Related Posts:

• Gnocchi with garden peas
• Scallops two different ways; Christmas cooking!!
• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• Punjabi chicken curry
• Plum & almond crumble slice

Mozarella, pesto and prosciutto sandwich

It’s funny how autumn seems to have sneaked up on us without us being here. When we left the country only four weeks ago it was still middle of summer. Bright and hard light, but now that we’ve come back the light is all of a sudden so much softer and has that autumn quality to it. What is it really that makes you realize that autumn is upon us? What is it exactly in the light that changes? Yes, the sun is going lower in the sky, but I don’t think that is the only thing that really changes, is it? It feels different, it smells different too!

I love autumn; I truly do. I love autumn storms and rain and cold weather and snuggling up on the couch indoors… Ok, after a few weeks of bad weather I do long for sunshine again, don’t get me wrong, but I am truly an “all-weather” girl. And an “all seasons” girl too. Although, maybe they could make the seasons a little shorter. Three months is really too long for bad weather, so maybe we should have seasons that last – mmm – let’s say 1,5 to 2 months max. O, we could have a slightly longer summer, that’s no problem, but for the colder seasons 1,5 months would be sufficient. And while we’re on the subject; can I then also please have a real winter? The ones where you have ice and snow and not just boring rain and grey skies? (because that I do NOT like!)

O well, I guess so much for wistful thinking…

I have nothing fancy for you today, just a little snack to enjoy with delicious ingredients. A good piece of bread, some homemade pesto on top, add some chunks of buffalo mozarella and top with a slice of prosciutto ham and a bit of basil. Now that is a good lunch anytime of the year!

Related Posts:

• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• Roasted ricotta with honey tomatoes
• Mozzarella & tomato sandwich with homemade pesto
• Pretty soft buns
• Chipotle bread – Living leaner