Something fishy

Yesterday's roast butternut turned out so well that I decided to try more roast vegetable dishes. I also wanted to try my hand at fish seeing as I have already made chicken and meat (yes I know it was only one time each but I get bored easily!)

Today's menu: Baked fish and roast sweet potato

I love Woolworths. If I could marry Woolworths I would

The Complete South African Cookbook gave a very simple recipe. Essentially the recipe is: 1) season, 2) bake. South Africa - 3, Greece - 1. This cooking story is actually so easy, why did it take me this long to get into it??

First the fish: I greased the baking tin (although I'm fairly certain I don't need to because it is Le Creuset *snob face*, but I'm not taking any chances), then I drizzled some olive oil over the fish and topped it with salt & pepper and some origanum.

Hey look at that, I remembered the garlic! Dammit I'm getting good at this cooking story!

Then I covered it in foil. The rule for foil and all shiny stuff (like carbon paper) is hou die blink kant bo.

Then I put it in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 mins, flipped the fish, added more of the seasoning and left it for another 20 mins. I took the foil off and put the fish back in the oven for 10 mins on each side. Voila one hour later, baked fish! Super simple and really yummy. Yay me!

Let's go back to when I first put the fish in the oven. That's when I started with the sweet potatoes.

Am I the only one obsessed with what a pretty colour they are?

I decided not the grease the pan (such a daredevil I know!) Then I stared at the sweet potatoes. I didn't know what to do with them.

My recipe books are very limited when it comes to sweet potato options. Magdaleen's recipe included mace. Mace? The stuff you scare a potential attacker with? *googles* oh, okay mace is kinda like nutmeg, but not, you can substitute nutmeg to your recipe instead of mace but if you do it will change the flavour, eeeerrrrr. I'm confused. And I'm getting bored. I'm gonna wing this one (living on the edge here people!)...... I drizzled olive oil over them, aaaaand done! I say drizzle because that's what the recipe books say, in real life it's me trying to carefully and evenly pour the olive oil but it just lands up pouring out way too fast and not looking drizzly at all. I assume I will get better at this with practice.

That was it. No other seasoning at all. I figured sweet potatoes taste good no matter how they are made. I put them into the oven at 180 degrees, uncovered. At 4o mins they started smelling really good but were still a bit hard. At 60 mins they were perfection on  a plate!

And look, I got much better at not poking hundreds of holes into them!

After the fish and sweet potatoes were done I switched the ovens off and left them inside (we have two ovens, one on top of the other, awesome because I can cook both dishes at the same time and not spend my entire day in the kitchen). When I dished up about 20 minutes later the sweet potato skins had started getting a bit crispy, I thought they were perfection before, but NOW they really were perfection!

This meal was done in an hour and the preparation time was a few minutes. Adding this to the regular menu for sure!

Sucker for punishment - more bread!

Yes I might seem a bit bread obsessed, but I swear if it doesn't work out this time I will hang up my baking gloves. What seemed like a simple task is turning out to be a huge pain in my big fat greek bum.

Okay, here goes, one last try at making bread...here's another big fat 'but'....this time I am going to make my own recipe *waits for the gasps of horror*, technically it's not my recipe, it's the parts of the previous two recipes that I think worked. Who said there were rules when it comes to cooking?? Look at me crossing the line and hop scotching on it!

Recipe 1:
          - good parts: bread was a nice colour and nice size (nice? nice? Mrs Brown down the road is nice)
          - bad part: omg the overpowering taste of bicarbonate of soda and ensuing stomach ache!

Recipe 2:
          - good parts: bread tasted good
          - bad parts: shortest bread ever!! very hard crust, pale in colour

Recipe 1 + Recipe 2 - all the yucky parts = my recipe!

First to go was the bicarbonate of soda from recipe 1, I replaced it with yeast from recipe 2.
I added 100g of cake flour from recipe 1, I decided I didn't need the extra 20g as I was still using 600g of wholewheat flour from recipe 2.
I replaced the water from recipe 2 with the milk from recipe1.

I kept the yoghurt from recipe 1

I added a splash of oil from recipe 1

Because I'm a girl I can multitask and decided to toast the seeds at the same time  as I was warming the milk mixture

Feeling like such a pro!

 Side note about the seeds: the poppy seeds keep falling to the bottom, you need to keep shaking the pan to get an even distribution of the seeds

Can't see the poppy seeds right?

There they are, sneaky buggers!

I was so distracted by the disappearing poppy seeds that I didn't realise I had put the tub of yoghurt right onto the hot stove! DOH! Damn but melted plastic is really smokey! So much for multitasking...

Once the milk was mixed into the seed and flour mixture I decided to be brave and add 100ml of water. Both the recipes imply that the dough is fairly soft, but my results have been clumps of sticky dough. So I added the water.....

...and was pleased with the result

I used one bread tin and the dough filled it nicely. No more dwarf loaves!

I left it to rise for an hour, with no interfering Greek mother in sight!

I know I've said this before (twice) but it looks like this is working!

While the bread was rising I started preparing the butternut. Of course I am too scared to cut the butternut with my history of self mutilation so I roped my uncle in to cut it for me

It seems this problem with not being able to use knives like an adult is genetic -_-

Google is your friend..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roastedbutternutsqua_89911

Who woulda thunk! Long live BBC! That recipe is shorter than my bread! 4 simple instructions,  that is exactly what I did:

And they turned out exactly as promised! Except it took an hour and a half to get them like that, not 45 - 50 mins, all recipe books lie. I might have gone a bit overboard with the poking and checking, whoops.

Erm sorry about the multiple stab wounds!

While the butternut was roasting I prepped the lamb chops. I was going to follow The Complete South African Cookbook's recipe but step 4 needs you to turn to page 175 and start making a whole complicated sauce then come back to page 124 to finish the recipe. No. I won't. Culinaria Greece wasn't much help either. So I winged it (winged? wung? *shrug*)

Drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled some dried Rosemary, then a generous splash of lemon juice

While we're at it let's throw some dry white wine over them (Magdaleen's idea)

Hello Patra! See you in August

Oh for fucks sake! THE GARLIC! Forgot it, again. What is wrong with me?? Just tear up my Greek passport, I am not worthy

Magdaleen said to cover them and bake them at 180 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once. I turned them at 20 minutes and again at 40 minutes, then I uncovered them and gave them another 10 minutes on each side. They looked good but I grilled them for a minute or two just to give them that lovely golden brown colour

To recap and deconfuse: Prep bread dough, leave it to rise. While bread dough is rising, prep butternut. Butternut goes in the oven, prep lamb chops. I put the bread and lamb chops into the oven at the same time while the butternut was in the bottom oven (is it frowned upon to mix different dishes in the same oven? oh well, rookie mistake, OR pro tip!)

Once the lamb chops were done I took the bread out of the tin and popped it in the oven with the butternut for 10 minutes, just in case.

Haaaaallelujah!

Lo and behold, bread that looks AND tastes good!

The Great Bread Struggle is finally over. Quite proud of myself for modifying the recipes and getting it to work! Yay me

Roast Chicken 101

I stood in the Le Creuset store and marvelled at all the colour options. I wanted to buy everything. But again, that damned voice of reason screamed at me.
Me: "What is the best thing to buy for someone who is completely retarded when it comes to cooking?"
Saleslady: "A roasting pan. You put the food in it and stick it in the oven, that's all!"
Me: "That sounds super easy, I can definitely manage that! One roasting pan please"

Fast forward to the night before the big cooking debut. I decided to be really organised and whipped out my recipe books (I bought them last year, apparently I was on some mission to learn how to cook). My friend Hidie (who is probably the best cook I know) swears by The Complete South African Cookbook by Magdaleen van Wyk. The book was first published in the 70's so there are so frills, just plain black text with basic sketches, the cover really is no indication of the inside - speaking of which, is that pile of food supposed to be the most South African meal they could come up with?

Of course I also had to have a Greek cookbook. I chose this one because it is more like a storybook of Greece and food, with recipes casually thrown in. Very glossy, very pretty.

I searched for the Roast Chicken recipes. The first book said 'cook for 2 - 3 hours', so did the second one. WTF?? it's either 2 hours or it's 3 hours, or it's 2 and a half hours, or 2 hours and 45 minutes. For this cooking story to work I need EXACT instructions. People have been cooking since the discovery of fire, how is this not an exact science yet??

The Greek book has less steps and less ingredients. Greece - 1, South Africa - 0.

The next day, armed with two conflicting recipe books and a not-so-higher-grade diagram from a friend, I was making roast chicken!

Apparently I needed a diagram to understand this. Ye of little faith!

The recipe book said I needed 1.5kgs of potatoes. Of course I added way more, and of course it still wasn't enough. Hungry Greeks. I was thrilled to put my new roasting pan and not-new-but-never-been-used-before scale to use (why I have this stuff I don't know!)

Of course it's pink

A good tip I got from a friend was to cut a lemon and an onion into quarters and stuff them into the chicken. Let me tell you, sticking my hand inside a dead chicken's bum was nearly the end of all this cooking malarkey for me! So gross.

It all came together and I was chuffed! It really didn't take much effort to prepare but it looked like I knew what I was doing!

WHOOOAAAA! Hold the oven door!! I forgot the garlic! I shouldn't be allowed to call myself Greek.

 Muuuuuch better! My apologies in advance to anyone whose direction I breathe into tomorrow.

I tasted a potato at 2 hours. Still crunchy. So gross. At 3 hours the potatoes were perfection but the chicken wasn't as brown as I wanted it to be, so I took the foil off and popped it back in the oven. At 3 hours and 19 minutes (and no change in the colour of the chicken) I told the chicken I can't spend my entire day cooking, I have other things to do you know, and decided to grill the motherfucker. Damn the grill gets hot fast! It must have been a minute and the potatoes were already starting to burn around the edges! I declare this chicken cooked. I've done all I could.

You noticed the missing leg? Super sleuth!

The recipe books fail to mention that you will be left with a whole lot of oil in the pan.

I wasn't sure if that was supposed to stay there (told you I was a newbie!). Friend says chuck it out.

Can I cook after all? The chicken tasted good but was a tad dry. Roast potatoes may very well become my specialty, they were to die for!

Hey Saleslady, you were right. Once I get the timing right this meal is gonna cook itself. Now sell me something else so I can choose what to cook next.