Some Sexy Buns on a Monday night

As promised! Some long overdue photos! I have so much to update you all on, Venetian steaks, fabulous salsas and guacamole and an impressive dessert. Plus a guest appearance from Gordon's trifle!

Be back soon! xx 

The Monday in question was a scorcher! With Marty determined to make these Swedish buns - they looked amazing on the Jamie does..Sweden episode of the series, I decided I would preserve lemons. No that's not a funny way of saying 'I'll believe it when I see it'. In the Moroccan chapter there was recipe for Preserved Lemons and so I picked up some lemons on special with all intentions of doing it while Marty had a few beers in the sun with the boys!

The lemons didn't make it into the jar until a week later and I'll post some pics of the process soon. I've got a month to find out whether that was a success or not! I followed Marty's adaptation of the original recipe and if it turns out good, bad or otherwise I'm going to make it the Jamie-way as well! Just waiting on another lemon special!

I digress. So super hot day, it was decided the barbeque needed to be lit and some friends popped over for butterflied lamb, new potatoes with loads of parsley (out of the garden!) and butter and a fresh garden salad. Before dinner he'd made the dough up so it could prove and double in size, and once it had cooled down outside he set to making these tasty morsels up.

It has got to be one of the messiest recipes to make, BUT they were worth it. These were the kind of buns I"ve only ever seen in a bakery and would never have imagined they'd be possible at home! Quite simply follow the recipe and instructions completely and you'll end up with Sexy Swedish Buns that look just like they're supposed to!

Heres the recipe http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/sexy-swedish-buns tell us how you went! I enjoyed mine warm and actually had some ice-cream with it, and the next day I warmed up the leftover half and popped a little butter on it.

Pictures to follow! I still need to put them on the computer :)

The Beef Tagine

The 1st recipe we decided to tackle was the Beef Tagine http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-tagine. We pulled our beautiful tagine pot out - a wedding present that hadn't been used yet - and got to it! We'd hit the supermarket just before and had hopefully picked up all the bits and pieces we needed. The recipe was easy to follow and do, with Marty making adjustments - as you do when you're a chef ;) and spicing it up as he saw fit!

We served it with Israeli couscous instead of Moroccan couscous for a change. The difference between these 2 is not just size. You cook the larger Israeli couscous as you would pasta and the flavour and texture is really tasty. As with any couscous - season!season!season! I popped open a bottle of Ante Barbera - yes it had an actual cork - and we hooked into it! It was as tasty and gorgeous as it looks and will definitely be done again! It would have fed 4 people, but it was so delicious that we went back for seconds and devoured the rest for lunch the next day!



And there you have the Beef Tagine. Give it a go, you don't need a tagine pot to do it, just a good casserole dish. I'd love to hear what you did and how it went. Especially if you tried something different and it worked! This is definitely a recipe that can be tweaked and played with for something different every time!

The next week Marty wanted to make the Sexy Swedish Buns! Not as rude as it sounds, but definitely something different. Stay tuned..

An Introduction!

After thinking about this for days, I have begun! Armed with a glass of Rose, of course, I am prepared to let you all in on what's been cooking at chez Haines! And why you ask, and how did this come about?

It started with a simple episode of  Jamie Does... and we just had to watch another and another 1 after the other - the beauty of Foxtel iQ and recording multiple episodes! We rushed out to Essential Ingredient - a must-visit for all foodies, amateur chefs and people who eat - and bought a copy of the book!

After going through it a hundred times, we decided it might be a great idea to make something out of the book each week so that it wasn't relegated to the shelf with the other cookbooks! And maybe even to post the photos on Facebook for everyone to see! And then the bright spark that I am - wiling away hours at work - thought a blog may be a good idea! And so 'What's for dinner?' was born!

On our 1st week we opened the book to Morocco, definitely my favourite episode and chapter, and started with the Beef Tagine. And just wait till you see the glorious masterpiece that was born!