Lemon thyme roasted chicken & quinoa with greens and almond pesto

I love this time of year.  The crisp air of autumn has arrived bringing with it snugly mornings, clear blue skies and the distinct need to cook nourishing cosy foods every day.  I’m not sure what I adore more, the changing of seasons or the rituals that surround them.  When the temperature starts to drop and the market is full of apples, pears and oranges I love to signal the seasonal change by pulling out the cashmere throws, retrieving my mighty pots and pans ready for some braising and slow cooking and dotting the house with vanilla cinnamon spiced candles. 

Festive Rocky Road

 

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without rocky road.  Thanks to my father’s obsession, rocky road has been a Christmas necessity in my family since I can remember.  And it’s usually one of the first festive delights I make to get me into the Christmas spirit.  Opening the fridge to see a platter stacked high with large shards of deep dark chocolate studded with squishy marshmallows, roasted nuts and glace ruby red cherries lets me instantly know the season of joyful overindulgence has certainly begun.  

This year’s rocky road recipe comes from the queen of fabulous overindulgence herself, the beautiful Nigella Lawson.  You won’t be surprised to hear that one of my many loves in watching the wonderful cooking programs offered up by the food channel and this year’s Nigella Christmas special featured this gorgeous and incredibly decadent rocky road recipe. 

A little touch of Christmas & white chocolate, honey & macadamia panforte

I adore this time of year, I absolutely love it!  All year I long for my opportunity to truly wallow in the Christmas spirit and even though many of the carols claim Christmas involves sipping eggnog, roasting chestnuts by the fire and dashing through the snow, for me Christmas is the smell of sunscreen, mangoes and watermelon, hot sand dashes to the ocean and fighting for prime position in front of the air conditioner. 

With that being said I still hold a very special place in my heart for traditional Christmas cookery...there is something so magical about the merry aromas of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves and their ability to instantly transform your mood from one that resembles the grouchy Grinch to jolly old Saint Nic.  One Christmas classic that I adore has to be fruit cake, however on a scorching summer’s day fruit cake filled with its plump, juicy, boozy dried and candied fruits and heavy Christmas spices no matter how wonderfully Christmassy is completely out of place.  So for me, Christmas cookery is all about finding a balance between honouring tradition and celebrating the beautiful Australian summer.  And this white chocolate, honey & macadamia panforte is a delicious example.

Heavenly Vanilla Bean and Buttermilk Cake

Ah to be back in the kitchen!!  Although 2012 didn’t involve much baking in my kitchen, I certainly had a bun in the oven!  After nine months of vegemite sandwiches, dry cereal, toast and crackers I am very overjoyed, happy and proud to introduce our beautiful little baby girl, Graziella.  And I feel so fantastic to see the return of my appetite and to be back in my lovely kitchen!

A drizzly afternoon and my very rustic banana bread

The weather has yet again taken another cool turn with the past couple of days consisting of overcast, cloudy, gloomy and constantly drizzly weather.   So I figure with days like these I have no other choice but to grab my cardigan, switch the oven on and bake!

Not that I need an excuse to bake but I just find that when the weather is anything but welcoming outside I tend to gravitate home towards the reassuring allure of a comforting warm oven and the smell of wonderfully nurturing baked goods that emerge from it.  There really is no better way to spend a brisk, breezy, rainy afternoon than nestled aside the kitchen bench, serenely stirring a mixture that will soon become a gorgeously fragrant, comforting and very rustic banana bread.

Pistachio Sandies

 I’ve been meaning to share these wonderfully delicious, delicate, melt in your mouth and buttery pistachio sandies with you for a while however each and every time I bake a batch they seem to disappear before I’ve even had a chance to photograph them.  It seems they really are that delicious. 

These little green speckled buttery babies are very much like shortbread.  They possess the same wonderful melt in the mouth qualities of shortbread however are spiked with tiny pieces of wonderfully green pistachio that provides a gorgeous texture making them a fantastic biscuit in their own right.

These sandies are a delight to prepare and in a matter of mere minutes the sweet buttery dough is ready to be rolled and placed into a hot oven.  Fifteen minutes later wonderfully golden sandies emerge smelling of sweet vanilla, all that’s left is for the sandies to be rolled in icing sugar and dipped in an espresso. Enjoy K x

Pistachio Sandies

Adapted from Cannelle et Vanille

INGREDIENTS
115 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of one lemon
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped
pinch of salt
icing sugar, for rolling

METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C.  Cream the butter and icing sugar together until creamy, light and pale.  Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and beat to combine.   Add the plain flour, salt and chopped pistachios and mix until combined and dough is formed.  Take tablespoon portions of the dough and form into balls.  Place balls on a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving a 3 centimetre space between each ball.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden.  Allow to cool slightly and roll sandies in icing sugar while still warm.

My latest obsession & another heirloom tomato tart

Pistachios have long been one of my favourite ingredients, I adore them.  Another obsession I have, baked fruit crumbles.  I hold a very special place in my heart for a vintage ceramic dish filled with sticky, bubbling, gooey, caramelised fruit baked in a piping hot oven covered in a thick layer of golden, nutty, crunchy crumble topping.  That said a problem I’ve been grappling with of late is how to incorporate my beloved crumble into a steamy, scorching hot summer’s day.  The thought of jammy, sticky, piping hot fruit being retrieved from the oven is completely unappealing, especially considering there are days where the stinking hot temperatures have me believing I in fact live in an oven.  In truth there are days I purposely do not bake because the thought of turning on the inferno oven is utterly unbearable and would resemble a form of torture handed out in Guantanamo bay.