The Ultimate Banana Cake

This is a delicious cake!  I am sitting with a cuppa and a piece right now!  Easy as pie to make and the addition of the honey makes it really moist with a yummy caramel flavour.  My only tip with this recipe?  Annabel asks you to dissolve the baking soda in the milk after heating it, I worked out the hard way not to heat the milk with the the baking soda already in the pan - big mess!

The passionfruit honey frosting finishes off the cake beautifully and the family have all loved it.  Another winner!

Chicken Prosciutto Parcels

Yum, yum, yum!  These little parcels are a gem!  I love prosciutto on an antipasti platter or in a pasta sauce and using it like this, wrapped around a chicken thigh fillet is delicious.

The fillets have only some lemon zest and a basil leave inside them before they are wrapped and secured with a toothpick.  

Making a sauce of just the pan juices, some wine and good quality Passata couldn't be easier and the result is a really flavoursome dish.  Adding some fresh basil at the end and serving the chicken with some crunchy roast potatoes and a nice green salad - this is a real winner.  

Thanks again Annabel!

Pork Rillettes with Prune Topping

These little rillettes were beautiful!  I haven't cooked much with pork belly but this recipe is brilliant.  Quite a few steps involved making it a bit time consuming but it's definitely worth it!  The prune topping was a simple combination of prunes, red wine, sugar and cloves and made the rillettes sweet, sticky and so delicious!  This is a winner, will make it again and again.

Mexican Pulled Pork

Yum!  This was amazing!  Great mix of spices in the Mexican rub although the flavour wasn't overly strong.  I think next time I'll make more of the rub and coat the pork a bit thicker.  The tip of rubbing vinegar over the skin before cooking created a beautiful dry crunchy crackling - delicious!

Chocolate Orange Creams with Choc-Dipped Oranges

The fist recipe I've done from Annabel's new book "Through the Seasons".  What a way to start!  Orange and chocolate are two of my favourite combinations and when I saw this recipe I had to make it first off.  Making the Choc-Dipped Oranges was an easier process than I imagined and they turned out beautifully.  A gorgeous accompaniment to the Chocolate Orange Creams I did for a dinner party dessert.  As they were quite rich, I made little ones in small disposable square containers, added a little silver plastic spoon before they set and they were ready to eat straight from the fridge.  I made them the morning of my dinner party and thought that would give them plenty of time to set, but I was surprised they were quite soft, not runny, but not as firm as other chocolate moose's I've made.  There were some left over and I think after another night in the fridge they had set much better, so my advice would be to make them at least 24 hours in advance.  Enjoy, they are truly decadent!

Through the Seasons

Oh my goodness!  What a thrill....again!  My beautiful "Village" friends and I were so lucky to again meet Annabel at Readings in Hawthorn at the book signing of her latest masterpiece...."Through the Seasons".  This is such a beautiful book and one that I am thoroughly enjoying looking through and cooking from!  Already I have made the Chicken Prosciutto Parcels, Chocolate Orange Creams with Chocolate-dipped Orange Peel and the beautiful Brandy Snap Baskets from this book!

We chatted freely with Annabel as she asked us about our friendship and our cooking.  She is truly such a natural and generous person, she made us feel so special for just being her admirers.

When we told Annabel that one of our "bucket list" places to visit was her beautiful part of the world at Lake Wanaka, she was so lovely to say that she'd love to catch up for coffee or a wander through her garden if she was there!  How special.

So, thank you Annabel for making us all feel so comfortable in your company, you are such a delight and we were all so elated to meet you again!  Now I've got some serious blogging to do!

Hazelnut Butter

This Hazelnut Butter was easy to make and although I really like the taste of hazelnuts on their own, I wasn't too sure about this recipe.  It certainly worked well as part of a dressing for chicken salad when combined with orange juice that Annabel suggests, but as a paste on bread or in a tart I think it was a little over-powering.  It kept in the fridge for a long time and eventually got used, but I have to admit, this wasn't one of my favourites!

Corn and Israeli Couscous Salad

If I had to pick a favourite vegetable I think it would be corn.  I love it when you go to a market or a carnival and you can buy corn on the cob on a stick, they'll drip it in butter and add some freshly ground black pepper, oh heaven!  This salad is delicious, the corn combined with the couscous and the crunch of the almonds makes it simple and so yum!

Provencal Crust

This Provencal Crust is so tasty, as a topping for Annabel's Chicken and Leek Gratin it is perfect, but Annabel has other suggestions for it's use as well.  I've tried it as a topping for cauliflower cheese and it's amazing!  Other suggestions include crust for a roast lamb, a topping for braised vegetables or spooned into mushrooms and baked.  I don't know about you, but I always seem to be left with a few slices of bread and crusts in bread bags in my freezer, why doesn't everyone in my house just finish off a loaf before starting a new one?!  When I find these bags with a couple of slices in them, I lay them out on a baking tray and leave them for a day or so to dry out before turning them into bread crumbs, so it wasn't a problem finding enough pieces of day old bread in my house for this recipe!
Now, as my friends will tell you, I am not a huge anchovy fan but decided to be true to Annabel by including them in this recipe, and I am glad I did.  They certainly add flavour to this delicious crumby mixture without tasting fishy at all.  My kids loved Annabel's Chicken and Leek Gratin but if I had told them there were anchovies in the crust, they wouldn't have gone near it.  So I didn't say a word and they ate every mouthful - I love that!

Chicken & Leek Gratin

I have actually made this dish a few times now as it is so easy and so delicious!  I used to always cook with chicken fillets but am now a converted thigh girl!  They have so much more favour and are often cheaper so why wouldn't you use them?   I think the combination of chicken and leek is just perfect in lots of recipes, in fact I make a chicken and leek lasagne which has been my boy's favourite meal for a while, but Annabel's Chicken and Leek Gratin now comes pretty close!  The Provencal Crust recipe which is the topping for the chicken will follow this one.