So I’ve realised that one of the most fundamental components of being a blogger is actually writing a blog! Who would have thunk right?

Un-finishing things is something I actually have a long and tenuous history with. Started with the violin in primary school – two very musically unappealing weeks and I was done with that. This then spurred a short term love affair with the piano, followed by the flute, tennis, swimming – you name it, I’ve tried it for 5 minutes. Even writing a diary is something I could never commit too; looking over past entries they all started with “Dear Diary, sorry I haven’t written in a while…” One might even say that I am a professional un-finisher (I don’t know why they would, but they might).

I don’t know whether it’s that I have a lack of discipline, or that I just get too easily distracted but I have to admit that my hiatus from my blog is not entirely out of character.

Here is a mantra that I need to adhere too (thanks Miyazaki):

The thing is, as much as I’ve been absent from my webpage, I’ve still been cooking like a mad woman. It’s the one thing in my life I’ve consistently never stopped – that has to mean something right? So in light of this revelation, I have decided to become a CHEF! I start a course in Commercial Cookery at William Angliss in the next few weeks and couldn’t be more excited to share my journey with you.

Anyway more excitement to come, but to tide us over here is a really quick, easy recipe I whipped up the other day that I think you will all enjoy:

ALL IN THE ONE PAN CHORIZO FRITTATA

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 eggs
• 1 chorizo sausage (sliced thinly)
• 1 spanish onion, chopped finely
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• A handful of baby spinach
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup grated cheese (parmesan worked well)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

METHOD

1. First thing is first you want to brown off that chorizo and get it nice and crispy (I don’t even use oil for this as all the fat renders out of the meat). Once chorizo is brown, remove from pan and set aside.
2. Leaving that delicious chorizo fat in the pan you will then need to sautee your onions until they because nice and translucent. Once this occurs add your garlic and cook for a further 30-40 seconds (you don’t want your garlic to burn. Remove the onion and garlic mixture and add to the chorizo.
3. Next you want to vigorously whisk your eggs along with your parsley, cheese, salt and pepper (feel free to add some chilli here too if you like).
4. Now you want to add your olive oil to the pan and arrange your chorizo mix, spinach and tomatoes until their nicely distributed. Add your egg mix to the pan and fry for approx 5 minutes (don’t stir or shake the pan).
5. Finish your frittata off in the oven for appox 10 minutes to allow the top to brown and the tomatoes to cook all the way through.
6. Voila your done! Looks impressive but is super easy, goes nice with a side salad and a glass of sav blanc.

** To make this dish more vegetarian friendly I would sub out the chorizo with thyme buttered sauteed mushrooms, and maybe add some goats cheese right at the end **

Yes there’s nothing like an Mc Hammered themed pun to get me in the mood for baking. Even more than that though is experimenting with an ingredient I’ve never used before. I picked up some lemon thyme last week as it was super cheap and something I’ve never played with. I’m semi-proficient with ordinary thyme – but what’s this lemon business? The first thing I decided to try was incorporating the herb with some plain all butter biscuits – which I decided to jazz up with some whipped vanilla cream. The outcome was a delicious one – and here is the proof… What this picture doesn’t show is that moments after me and nick tried one each the whole batch was knocked on the floor. It was a massacre of vanilla cream, the likes of which our kitchen had never seen. The only one happy about it was Jeremiah,  it was like all his kitty Christmas’s had come at once. Anyway here is the recipe:

Lemon Thyme Buttered Delights
(Serves 10) INGREDIENTS

• 125g unsalted butter (at room temp)
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 2/3 cup plain flour
• 1 tbs lemon thyme
• 2 tbs milk

VANILLA BEAN CREAM

• 2/3 cup cream
• 1 tbs caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper
2. Cream together with an electric mixer butter, sugar & vanilla bean paste until light and creamy.
3. Sift in combined flours and add lemon thyme and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
4. Add in milk and stir until a stiff dry dough is formed (if it is too dry add a little more milk).
5. For the last bit of mixing, use your hands to knead the dough
6. When combined roll out small balls of dough and place onto a baking tray
7. Use the back of a form to squash each biscuit down and bake in oven for approx 18-20 minutes until biscuits are slightly browned on top
8. While your biscuits are cooking, whip together cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Keep cool in fridge.
9. When biscuits are cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool completely. When biscuits are cooled assemble with whipped cream.

So it turns out lemon thyme is pretty delicious so my next experiment was to incorporate it into a savoury  dish.

Lemon Thyme Pork Cutlets – with sauteed cabbage & bacon (Serves 2) INGREDIENTS

• 2 pork cutlets (free range Otway are fantastic)
• 3 tbs plain flour
• 1 egg
• 2 tbs milk
• 2/3 cup panko breadcrumbs (much crunchier than regular breadcrumbs)
• 1 tbs parmesan cheese
• 3 tbs lemon thyme
• 1/2 a savoy cabbage
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 rashes of middle bacoon – chopped roughy
• 1/3 cup frozen baby peas
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 3 desiree potatoes – quartered
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs butter
• salt & pepper to taste

METHOD

1. First thing’s first you want to schnitzel your pork. To do this make 3 bowls one with flour, the other egg & milk combined and the third panko crumbs, lemon thyme & parmesan. Coat each cutlet with flour, egg mix and panko mix – making sure to shake off the excess as you go.
2. Set aside and boil your potatoes until just tender – set aside.
3. To make your cabbage mix, saute garlic and bacon in butter, add cabbage and cook down with some apple cider vinegar. Taste and season accordingly – keep warm.
4. To cook your schnitzels you will want to shallow fry your cutlets for approx 5 minutes each side until they’re cooked through and crispy.
5. While resting your schnitzels use the residual oil in the pan to fry up your semi boiled potatoes with some salt and lemon thyme until crisped up.
6. Serve all together with a nice glass of apple cider!

METHOD 1.