#34 and #7 Food

Status: In Progress

You can keep tabs on my progress with 101 recipes here, but I thought a little more detail might be in order. Generally the recipes are doing well - exploring new ingredients, making use of the recipe book cupboard. On the photography front, I'm mixing it up between the iPhone 3GS and a Canon P&S. So, many would argue this doesn't even really rate as 'photography' per se. But hey. The Canon has better macro focus, but the iPhone has cool inbuilt lomo effect through Instagram. Tips welcome!

#34. 11/101 Panna Cotta

#34. 12/101 Jamie Oliver tomato pasta

#34. 101 recipes

Status: underway

To stay on theme, here's another 101 within a 101.

This one's pretty ambitious - I'm a creature of habit - I like to cook the things I like... But I do have some nice cookbooks, and I think this might make me a better cook.

1. Vietnamese pork - A win up front - a cup of sugar and big slosh of fish sauce had me dubious, but it's awesome and will be repeated.
2. Mum's caramel slice - Burned the base first time round, but second batch was great. Scored big brownie points in the office.
3. Orange soy beef casserole - Fail. Super super salty and the orange soy combo just didn't really fly.
4. Beet salad - Win. Took me back to favourite NY cafes. And used garden-grown rocket.
5. Creamy mushroom fettucine - Win. Replaced the cream with evaporated milk. Ate a little too much of it, but that's ok.
6. Egg and Bacon mini frittatas - Win. Made on Sunday night, makes for a quick weekday breakfast. 
7. Coriander dip - Win. Risk overdosing soon. Coriander, ginger, garlic, soy, lime juice, brown sugar, cream cheese.
8. Roast chicken and veggies - Win. Ok, I think technically I made this once before. But it was a really long time ago and I don't think there were veggies involved.
9. Jamie Oliver curry - Meh. I used half the suggested water and thought it tasted watery. But the recipe was in French, so points for effort, right?
10. Beef with Pak Choy and Oyster sauce - Not entirely new, but had never really explored Asian greens before. Success. Less soy next time.
11. Panna Cotta w vanilla beans - More new ingredients - vanilla beans and gelatin. Delicious. Wanted to try the first time with everything by the book. Next time reduced fat cream or evap milk... Vanilla beans were fascinating - tiny and moist - still have 2/3 left.
12. Jamie Oliver tomato pasta - Excellent. Think is more prime Jamie territory. Home grown basil, tomato, garlic, a quarter the recommended olive oil and that much made my eyes bulge. But very good...
13. Sweet potato, beet, fetta salad - An attempt to mimic a cafe salad. The dressing's not quite right and it could probably use some chicken. And maybe less beetroot. But not bad.
14. Thai vermicelli salad - Pretty good. Maybe a few tweaks to the dressing, but good. Chicken mince, vermicelli noodles, mint, coriander, ginger, snow peas, soy/fish sauce/lemon/sugar/garlic dressing. Maybe cashews and/or sesame seeds on top...
15. Gnocchi - big win. May be beginners' luck but seemed pretty straight-forward.
16. Pea pesto - not sure. Too much garlic for my liking.