Matzah Monday. Hot Cross Buns Friday.

Hello Mr Matzah.

Dave Lebovitz, you're my man. While most Pesach recipes taste like balls, you give us sugary, buttery, chocolaty joy. I love you.

Ravioli Funghi? Anyone?

Tutti Frutti. Love!

My salmon rollies remind me of hermit crabs.

Smoked Salmon and Dill Roulades (Delicious Magazine Dec '10/Jan'11)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 1/4 cups (310ml) milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbs finely chopped dill + extra to garnish
20g unsalted butter chopped into 8 pieces
250g fresh ricotta
300g smoked salmon slices
1/3 cup ocean trout or salmon roe

METHOD
1. Sift flour and 1 tsp of salt into bowl.
2. Add milk and eggs
3. Stir until smooth
4. Pour through a sieve to remove lumps and add chopped dill
5. Heat Swiss diamond fry pan and melt butter and cook crepes
6. Stir remaining dill into ricotta and add plenty salt/pepper
7. Spread heaped tablespoon of ricotta mix onto crepe
8. Cover cheese with layer of salmon and roll tightly
9. Cut in half then slice each half on the diagonal (gives 4 pieces)
10. Stand on platter and top with dill and row
 

They were staring at me with their little eyes.

 

Not usually a fan of anything deep-fried but this salad kind of talked to me and i figured how much oil can these suckers really absorb?

We had a small hiccup to start with as green mangoes appeared not to be in season and the perfect replacement the Asian Grocery man so confidently sold us, which resembled a fat, short cucumber with elephantiasis, tasted like bark. Coles saved the day with a bright yellow paw-paw, which although not ideal for julienne-ing, made the salad one of our best yet.

While i was out on the rescue mission, Don took it upon himself to mortar and pestle the dressing ingredients (using his large & in charge biceps to assist our pov mortar and pestle), inadvertently using Thai basil in place of mint. Oh oh. Not cool. I cannot deal with straying from any recipe. So we had a  small disagreement (we only ever have disagreements about over-ambitious cooking when guests are around and being drunk and playing Zombie computer games in the middle of the night), which resulted in Don begrudgingly starting the dressing from scratch because he feared i wouldn't talk to him for the rest of the weekend if he didn't

The flavours were so unbelievable, that after about the second mouthful, i was able to ignore the eyes staring blankly at me and even enjoy the crunch of the deep-fried fishies with their tiny skeletons and funny little guts. And by the end of the course, my resentment of the 1kg pack of Whitebait (smallest size i could find) consuming precious space in our freezer had all but gone.

Twitch.

My eye twitch climaxed last week. (I just watched Black Swan and have lesbian sex and self mutilation on my brain). I'd thought it was a work-related stress thing, but given it went berserk on my day off, perusing flower shops on the north side, I suspect it's more serious than i thought. Don thinks I should get a dose of botox, but dad says i might be stuck with a droopy eye for the wedding (Dad also says we could just Photoshop all photos of me). He suggested acupuncture as an alternative. Quite frankly, neither option is particularly appealing. I thought cooking like a crazy Ottolenghi mo-fo would at least distract me for a bit.

Carrot, apple and pecan muffins (p.212)

 

Fennel and feta with pomegranate seeds and sumac (p.17)

 

Radish and broad bean salad (p.16)

Courgette-wrapped lam kebabs (p.108)