Marinated Steak with Roast Tomatoes and Thyme Polenta

I have been a bit slow in posting recipes lately. For anyone checking this blog every so often (I hope someone is!), I have a lot that I intend on posting (there is slow cooked lamb in the oven as I type). Mark and I just bought a house and preparing the house to move in, and also preparing for the move itself, means I have a lot less time for cooking. But very soon I should not only have a new house, but a new kitchen with a huge oven and cook top that will let me experiment for hours!

As for this recipe, I generally like to have steak for dinner at least once a week, but I don't like to always serve it the same way. On this occasion I also felt like polenta - it is so creamy and also easy to make. And roast tomatoes are the perfect side dish.

It is always best to bring steak to room temperature before cooking. This ensures that it cooks more evenly. I like to take the opportunity to marinate my steak while bringing it to room temperature. Often I use soy sauce, red wine vinegar and Worcheshire sauce to marinate the steak, but this time decided to do something different and used lemon, thyme and garlic instead.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 tomatoes cut in half

Drizzle olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper and salt

2 steaks

1/2 bunch thyme

2 cloves garlic

1 lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cop polenta

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon butter

Drizzle olive oil

Steamed green beans to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the tomatoes cut side up in a baking dish, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for about 40 minutes.

Combine the steak, thyme and garlic in a thick plastic bag. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the bag, followed by the lemon skin. Add the olive oil and freshly ground pepper. Set aside for at least half an hour.

To make the polenta, heat the milk in a medium saucepan until boiling. Add the polenta in a thin, slow stream and whisk until the mixture has thickened and the polenta starts to pull away from the sides of the pan (check the packet instructions). I found this took about 10 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the heat and add the thyme, parmesan, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Before serving, cook the steak to your liking and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with polenta, roast tomatoes and steamed green beans. I drizzled some of the roasting juices from the tomatoes over the beans for extra flavour.

Vanilla, Coconut and Cinnamon Cake with Fragrant Icing

I guess I got a bit excited yesterday when the first baking recipe I created worked well. So, I decided to try out some different flavours and use the fragrant sweet spices I love so much for the icing. (I also made a bit more icing than last time. Feel free to make less if you prefer.)

I think I will take these to work to share around - Mark and I cannot possibly eat so much cake without help!

I'm really enjoying experimenting with baking, so I am going to try some different methods and combinations. One combination I really want to work with is chocolate and raspberry as it is one of my favourites.

Ingredients
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup self raising flour sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup milk
40g butter melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
120g butter at room temperature
1-4 teapsoons fragrant sweet spices

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Grease and flour a cake loaf tin. Place the coconut, flour, sugar and cinnamon and baking powder in a bowl and mix to combine. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and mix in the milk. Add the butter and then the eggs and vanilla, stirring well after each new addition.

The mixture is fairly wet - this is fine. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and then turn onto a plate.

To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar together until thick and creamy (use a large bowl as it will fly everywhere). Mix the fragrant sweet spices through and spread on to the cooled cake.

Lemon, Coconut and Cardemom Cake with Passionfruit Icing

I guess that not being a huge dessert fan, I am also not one to bake a lot of cakes. But there is a cake from my childhood that I always remember. The recipe came from an old Woman's Weekly recipe book of Mum's - it was a lemon, orange and coconut cake and I loved it.

I'll have to see if Mum still has that recipe, but in the meantime I decided to experiment with a recipe of my own.

Even though I don't do it that often, there is something really relaxing about baking. I love stirring the ingredients together - mixing feel very therapeutic. And this particular cake filled the house with such a delicious aroma. I think I will have to try out a few more baking recipes.

Ingredients

1 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup self raising flour sifted

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Finely grated zest of one lemon

1 cup milk

40g butter melted

2 eggs

1 cup icing sugar

80g butter at room temperature

Pulp of two passionfruit

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Grease and flour a cake loaf tin. Place the coconut, flour, sugar, cardamom and zest in a bowl and mix to combine. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and mix in the milk. Add the butter and then the eggs, stirring well after each new addition.

The mixture is fairly wet - this is fine. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and then turn onto a plate.

To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar together until thick and creamy (use a large bowl as it will fly everywhere). Mix the passionfruit through and spread on to cooled cake.

Tomato and Chorizo Risotto

Okay, so normally I would make this recipe with chorizo. On this occasion I thought I would try using a different type of sausage. This experiment did not really work. I chose a spicy Italian sausage, which tasted overbearingly like fennel. And cooking it in a fry pan on my stove top made the biggest mess with fat splattering everywhere.

So, the moral of the story is that I will continue to use chorizo when cooking this dish. In the past I have substituted the chorizo with crispy, baked prosciutto. This works well.

I first made this recipe while I was living with my girlfriends Renee and Erica. It became a bit of a regular meal in our house. Now I make it for Mark as he loves risotto. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients (serves 2)

3-4 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 brown onion diced

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 cup arborio rice

1 tin crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano

2 chorizo sausages sliced thinly

Salt and pepper

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese and extra to serve

Handful fresh herbs finely chopped (I think I used parsley, basil and oregano)

Method

Heat the chicken stock in a small saucepan until simmering. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add the arborio rice and cook until translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes. Use a soup ladle to add the chicken stock one ladle full at a time, stirring well, and adding more stock once the last ladle full has been absorbed. Stir in the dried basil and oregano with the first ladle of stock.

While the risotto is cooking, cook the chorzio in a fry pan with a little oil until crispy. Set aside.

You may not need all the chicken stock. When about 2/3 of the stock has been absorbed, taste the risotto. It should be creamy on the outside but still with a bit of a "bite" in the centre.

Once cooked, season with salt and pepper and stir through the egg yolk, parmesan, fresh herbs and chorizo. Serve topped with extra parmesan.