A bit of this and that....

WELL GIRLS...

...seeing as it's Feb 29th - for any of you brave enough to 'pop the question' 

today to your beloved, I think you deserve a BIG pat on the back... and load of chocolate... :)

Images © Katie Quinn Davies

Black forest butterscotch trifle with mascarpone cream

Note: Recipe below at end of post

WHAT KATIE ATE AND PENGUIN AUSTRALIA /LANTERN MONTHLY BOOK GIVEAWAY!

So I have great news! A few weeks ago when I was chatting to Julie Gibbs at Lantern/Penguin Book Australia, we were discussing the fabulous feedback offered by you all on the Barbecue Book giveaway (well done again Susan, the book is on it's way to you as I type) and Julie mentioned to me they would love to give away some of their stunning books on What Katie ate. We chatted about it and have decided to offer one lucky reader a copy of a different new Lantern release every month. Also, and excitingly, Penguin will try their best where they can, to have the book personally signed to the winner, by the author. 

So to kick things off, for March and the start of this ongoing feature, the book we're giving away is a copy of:

TASTING INDIA by Christine Manfield.

It is a story of India, a story gathered across many visits, connecting with people in various walks of life. The recipes Christine has collected along the way reflecting the stories of countless mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sons of daughters, brothers, sisters and aunts, as told to Christine during her travels.

It contains More than 250 authentic recipes for traditional and contemporary Indian dishes. Includes India's iconic destinations and remotest corners brought to life by Anson Smart's beautifully evocative photography, and serves as an extensive directory of recommended places to stay, eat and shop.

Christine Manfield is one of Australia's most celebrated chefs - a perfectionist inspired by strong flavours, and a writer whose successful books; Fire, Spice, Stir, Christine Manfield Originals and Christine Manfield Desserts have spiced up the lives of keen cooks everywhere.

Her professional culinary life has culminated to date in three ground-breaking restaurants: Paramount in Sydney from 1993 to 2000, East@West in London from 2003 to early 2005, and now back in Sydney with Universal, which continues to win accolades from critics and diners alike.

An inveterate traveller, Christine regularly works alongside respected chefs around the world and hosts gastronomic tours to exotic destinations including India, Morocco, Spain and Turkey. Having eaten her way around India for more than two decades, she is a passionate and erudite guide to the food of this endlessly fascinating land.

The photography is utterly stunning and I discovered a great link here showing the contents of the book.

To be in with a chance to win a copy simply add a comment below mentioning what feature you're most like to see on a new, updated What Katie ate ~ see section below* re. blog update.

All images © Anson Smart and Penguin/Lantern Books Australia

USA MAGAZINE-STYLE FEATURE

Thanks again for the continuing submissions for the America feature. I am bowled over by the amount of emails I am receiving, believe it or not, so much so, I am actually going to have to hire some one to go through all the mails for me and work with me to compile the pics - there are THAT many! 

On that front, since I mentioned the feature, I have had word that I am now travelling to the US for 2 weeks in mid-April. A very exciting opportunity has arisen for me to shoot at an incredibly cool location (I am beside myself at the possibility) just about 1 hour North of Los Angeles which will be an incredible fit for this American Food/American Photography feature. Therefore - as it only seems fitting, I am going to push back the publication time for this magazine (note - I am looking into costs to actually get a hard copy, printed magazine' to be sold on the blog of this feature and will - if successful look at doing a quarterly magazine-style piece on various foods from all over the world or different topics each time). Please note too - if I haven't personally replied to each of your mails, I apologise and it's only due to me just being choc-a-block with work and getting the book finished. I have received them all and am very grateful, I will get back to you all individually in time.

BTW please feel free to keep sending photos, but from now on if you could add 'USA Photo Submissions' in the subject line that would be fab - thanks.

A few little tasters....

 

Images © Valery Rizzo

Image © Fiona Gohari

Image © Roséline @ This is Glamorous

WHAT KATIE ATE BOOK VOL 1 UPDATE AND BLOG UPDATE*

On the book front, well WooHooo! It is done - well at least from my end it is **PHEW** what an undertaking, I can assure you, writing, styling, shooting and designing a 300 page book isn't to be taken lightly. I spent the past 2 weeks designing the publication from start to finish, lots of late nights and early starts but I got there in the end for my deadline which last last Sunday just gone. So it is now in the hands of the wonderful guys at Penguin who are doing all the final tweaks and it's great to be on the final home stretch now. 

This obviously also means I can find more time to update the blog, on a more regular basis, I was a little thrown there over the past few months how all-consuming the book was when you are responsible for so much of it as a single entity, I literally was working 7 days per week up to 16 or 17 hours per day between the book and regular photo work. My plan going forward is to get more regular posts up and am now working with a designer to re-vamp the blog; take is off a blogging platform and make it much easier to navigate. You'll be able to search for recipes and posts with the click of a finger; recipes will be indexed and there 'may' - ahem note may, even be a new video section *eeeek!* All in all I really want to make the blog very user friendly and almost like a photo-journal cookbook online. I'll be looking for one or two regular contributors too. So stay tuned on that front.

Please feel very free to add any comments you'd like to see, I'll be aiming to get the new site up and running by July or August (just in time for the book launch a month or two later). I am very keen to hear what the readers of WKA want from the site from a functionality point of view. I am always interested to hear what sort of food you like to see listed but please keep in mind I can't write about food I have little or no knowledge about - aka by this I mean, I am not a Vegan, so the chances are I won't be posting Vegan recipes, or say Moroccan food as again, I have really no knowledge of this cuisine ~ some day maybe, but for the moment my recipes are based on good, home cooking with a leaning towards dinner parties and entertaining for friends etc.

Actually on that note, I'll introduce a feature, most importantly where I can reply directly to each of your comments and keen to know too if you would like a 'forum' feature for some good discussion and a bit of casual chit chat?


So please, comment away folks and on March 30th, announce a winner for the Christine Manfield Tasting India book.

REAL LIVING RECIPES ~ WEEK'S WORTH OF DINNERS ALL FOR UNDER $100

I still shoot on a regular basis for Real Living Magazine, we shoot 3 months in advance of each issue going on sale, which is pretty much the norm for most magazine editorials. These are a few shots I took a few months back featuring Food Editor, Ali Irvine's great ideas for meals @ $20 a pop! That is seriously no mean feat here in Oz as food is so expensive so hat's off to Ali, as she continues to muster up fantastic ideas on a budget. All the recipes can be found here on the Real Living food section.

All recipes Ali Irvine @ Real Living. Photos © Katie Quinn Davies.

CHOC RECIPES FROM START OF POST

Black forest butterscotch trifle with mascarpone cream

1 kg cherries, pitted

1/4 cup (55 g) caster sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

Handful chocolate shavings, to serve

Chocolate sponge

3 free-range eggs

1/2 cup (110 g) caster sugar

100 g good-quality dark chocolate,

(60–70 per cent cocoa solids), broken into small pieces

3 tablespoons plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur

Butterscotch sauce

3/4 cup (180 ml) pure cream

3/4 cup (165 g) brown sugar

50 g unsalted butter, cubed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur

Mascarpone cream

3 free-range egg yolks

3 tablespoons caster sugar

1 tablespoon kirsch liqueur

200 g mascarpone

1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped

2 tablespoons low-fat milk

Preheat the oven to 180˚c fan-forced. Line the base of a 20 cm cake tin with baking paper.

To make the chocolate sponge, use an electric mixer to whisk the eggs for 5 minutes or until well beaten and a little frothy, then add the caster sugar and continue to whisk on medium speed until thickened and pale.

Half-fill a small saucepan with water and bring to a simmer. Place the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl that fits snugly over the pan without touching the water, and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is melted. Carefully remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.

Add the flour and cocoa to the egg and sugar mixture, then the melted chocolate, and combine. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 30–40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the sponge comes out clean. Allow to cool, then prick the top of the sponge with a fork a couple of times and drizzle with the amaretto.

While the chocolate sponge is baking, place the cherries, sugar, lemon juice and 2 cups (500 ml) cold water in a medium-sized saucepan. Simmer over medium heat for 25–30 minutes until the cherries are soft, then strain them, reserving the juice, and set aside. Pour the cherry juice back into the pan and add the amaretto. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the juice has reduced by a third and is very syrupy.

To make the butterscotch sauce, place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5–8 minutes or until slightly thickened, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 15 minutes.

Divide the cooked cherries among your serving dishes and add a tablespoon of the cherry syrup to each one. Break the chocolate sponge into small pieces and scatter over the cherries, pressing the sponge right out to the edge of the dish. Pour a thin layer of butterscotch sauce over the chocolate sponge.

Place the dishes in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.

To make the cream topping, use an electric mixer to whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar together until smooth, then add all remaining ingredients and beat together to form a smooth cream. Spoon the cream topping over the chilled desserts and serve topped with chocolate shavings.

- - - - - - - - - -

AND FINALLY ;) ...

THE HOMIES 2012!!

It's ironic that the first book I'm giving away is based on India as last night I received word from a wonderful reader in India (Hi Bijay!) that my blog had been nominated for The Homies 2012' in the Best Food Photography Category, which was very exciting news to hear :) I'd love a vote from all you guys (and yep, I know how annoying it is to have to register on a website in order to do so but it only takes a second and it's all pretty straight-forward), it would be really, really appreciated :) Thanks! 

An exciting announcement - or two! :)

A few spreads from the first feature.
All images © Katie Quinn Davies and Delicious Magazines/New Life Media

© Katie Quinn Davies

A quick little blog post today to make an exciting announcement, strike that actually it'll be two announcements, but I'll be back in the morning with the second, which is the winner of the Barbecue Book  (along with one or two extra goodies thrown in), I just need to print out all the amazing replies, cut them out and stick them in a hat!

On that note thanks so, so much for all the great comments, I found them very insightful to read through and was very touched at how much effort a lot of you put into each one. It's a particularly interesting read for me at the moment as I had the momentous occasion yesterday of taking the very last shot for my book. I shot most of them back in October last year, but over the past while I got to looking at one or two of them and decided to re-shoot about 10 shots (being the eternal (annoyingly) perfectionist that I am. Anyway they are now all shot (WooHoo!) and I am currently head down in the design stage which will last 2 weeks and I am back into 'normal' shooting again.

Which on that latter note leads me to the purpose of this post in the first place! **Drumroll** so I am thrilled to announce that last year I was asked by Valli Little – the one and only amazing food editor at Delicious Magazine, if I would like to become a regular monthly contributor to the magazine? and I said, well "Ahem… let me think about it… Yes!" So going forward as of this Wednesday (when the March edition officially goes one sale – contributors will have their copy by now) I'll be doing an eight page feature every month, featuring 5-7 recipes based around a specific theme. First off it's 'Brunch for Friends'. The magazine goes on sale this Wednesday (15th) but you can order copies of Delicious here and follow their Facebook page here. http://www.facebook.com/delicious magazine

Another thing I wanted to mention is thanks too for all the amazing image submissions I have and am currently receiving for my USA feature. It'll be going up around the end of March (sadly book and work commitments prevent me from getting it up any earlier) but please keep sending me images. I have a load of Coney Island ones so best off to maybe not send any with that subject matter, any West Coast or Mid West shots would be great or Southern ones would be fab too. Keep em' coming, deadline for submissions will be the end of Feb.

Finally the sun shone for a few hours in Sydney yesterday ~ we are having a DREADFUL Summer :( as part of the book re-shoots, I shot a pizza recipe I wasn't happy with first time round, so to celebrate the final shot being taken we decided to crack open a bottle of the good stuff and enjoy it over lunch in the sun whilst it hung around for about 2 hours before the rain came again. This is a very simple recipe for a Tomato Bruschetta I made using the remaining pizza dough I had left over. There is nothing nicer that beautiful, flavoursome ripe tomatoes salted, and served with good balsamic on a crispy, thin pizza base. A great simple Summer lunch.

Seeing as it's Valentines Day tomorrow (ahhhhhh smooch smooch xxxxx) I thought too I'd post up a recipe for my Mum's Lemon Cheesecake (I ate this by the bucket load when I was a kid). BTW you'll need to make it the night before impressing your loved one with your amazing baking skills ;) 

I'll be back tomorrow with the book winner! :)

Cheers

K

Tomato bruschetta

  

For the pizza base:

1 kg (2.2lbs) 7 cups pizza flour

(Caputo Molino Tipo 00 if you can get your hands on it)

Pinch caster sugar

Pinch salt

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups (500ml) water

1 tablespoon & 1 teaspoon powdered, dry yeast

For the topping:

6 large vine-ripened tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into half then quarters

Good pinch sea salt flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Handful fresh basil

Top quality, aged balsamic vinegar 

Sift flour into a large bowl, make a well in the centre into which add all the other ingredients in the order listed above, using a spoon or fork whisk gently the wet ingredients in the centre then gradually incorporate the outer flour into the centre, then using clean hands continue to form a dough. Knead firmly for 5 minutes, stretching dough as you go and ensuring all flour is incorporated. Place kneaded dough into a lightly floured large bowl, cover with a damp tea-towel and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.

Meanwhile to prepare the tomatoes, place cut tomatoes into a medium-sized bowl and drizzle with a good glug of EVOO, season with a decent pinch of sea salt flakes (I use probably about 1/2 teaspoon, maybe a little more) and coat tomatoes thoroughly. Transfer to the fridge for 1 hour to macerate.

After 1 hour dough should have doubled or tripled in size. Turn out onto a floured surface and cut into 6 or 8 equal-sized pieces, gently form into balls. Place pieces you want to freeze for a later date in individual freezer bags and store in the freezer for up to one month.

Roll out dough on a floured surface – this dough is super elastic and generally very easy to work with so it makes the thinnest pizza base. Roll out to your desired thickness and top with the half tomatoes.

Cook in a pizza oven or on a pizza stone in the oven. To create you own pizza stone, grab a piece of 3mm granite stone from a tile shop and use this in place of a conventional shop-bought pizza stone.

Scatter the remaining tomatoes over the cooked bruschetta, season well with freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with best quality aged balsamic

Note - This makes enough dough for 12 individual 20cm bases. I normally make this quantity every few weeks and freeze what I have left over so it's ready to go the next time I want to make pizza bases.

- - - - - - - - - 

Mum’s old-fashioned lemon cheesecake with
macerated strawberries

  

For the cheesecake

200g  (1¾ cups) digestive biscuits

100g butter, melted

1 standard packet lemon jelly granules

2 lemons

150g (2/3 cup) cream cheese, sieved

150g (2/3 cup) cottage cheese

100g caster sugar

150ml (½ cup) whipped cream

For the macerated strawberries:

1 punnet fresh strawberries, hulled, washed and sliced into quarters

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Small handful fresh mint leaves.

METHOD

Place digestive biscuits into a heavy freezer bag (double up if you like to avoid ripping) and using a rolling pin bash the biscuits up to a fine texture resembling fine crumbs – you can do this in a food processor if you prefer. Melt butter in a microwave or in a small pot over medium heat and mix with the biscuit crumbs.

Press biscuit/butter mix into a non-stick, fluted loose-bottomed tin measuring 28cm/2cm deep (11”/1.5”), or into 8-10cm (3.5-4”) individual tins and place in fridge to chill for 1 hour.

Meanwhile add ½ cup boiling water into jug, add the jelly granules and dissolve, then add the lemon juice, stir and chill in the fridge for 1.5-2 hours until almost set.

Place cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, beat on high speed for 10 minutes to soften and whip up the cheese until soft. Add the sieved cottage cheese and caster sugar and continue to beat for a further few minutes. The mixture should be soft with a few tiny lumps from the texture of the 2 combines cheeses.

Add the lemon jelly liquid from the fridge and whisk together lightly to combine before pouring into the pre-chilled biscuit base/s.

Return to the fridge to chill overnight or until the top is set and just firm to the touch.

To macerate the strawberries; add all ingredients to a small bowl and stir to combine, chill for 2 hours in fridge before severing alongside the pre-prepared cheesecake.

Note: in the pic above, I have cut individual cakes out of the one larger one, to do this just use a round cooking cutter.

Toot toot!!!! after lots of tearing up pieces of paper and scrunching them up before sticking them in a hat, my hubby Mick pulled out the winner tonight - which is: *Drumroll*.... Susan in the Boonies 
Susan, please send me a mail with your details and I'll get the book and other goodies out to you asap. Thanks again to everyone of the 100 comments, fab food for thought there, really wonderful feedback. xx