#9: Homemade mini tortillas with chicken and pico de gallo

The hardest thing about starting and blogging this 52 dishes challenge was always going to be honesty. In particular, honesty about failure. Having made the commitment to cook each week and write a post about it here tied me in to sharing even some of the dishes which went a little bit awry. On a good week I get in the kitchen more than once, giving me a bit of margin for error, while during busier periods I've got no leeway. This last week was one such week.

The weather is turning here in Perth. Autumn (or at least, what passes for autumn here) is around the corner, and before long I'll be able to bust out my casserole dish and eat out of that for the brief period that can loosely be described as 'winter' in Perth. The days are getting shorter, I have to wear a jumper on my trips to the beach, and we've put the duvet back on the bed. All this means one thing - I've got to make the most of light summer cooking while I still can.

That was the driving force behind these tortillas, or 'faux tortillas', since I'm being honest. I've never made tortillas before, and as a result I made the amateur mistake of thinking cornflour is an adequate substitute for masa harina . It's not. It wasn't a complete disaster; I supplemented the dough with plain flour until I could had something malleable and workable (cornflour plus water makes a great, and messy, game for a little child, it doesn't make tortillas). These were then grilled for around 1 -2 minutes on each side. They puffed out slightly (hello cornflour!)  but this made them sturdy enough to be eaten flat with food piled up on top. Messy finger food - perfect for a night in with someone who loves you even when you've got food down your front!

If you'd like to make tortillas, I recommend you follow this recipe from Gourmet Traveller, and learn from my mistakes. The chicken marinade, however, was pretty lovely, so I'll just share that instead.

I'm nothing if not honest.

2 Chicken thighs

1 lime

1-2 small red chillies 

1 tsp paprika

Black pepper

Dice the chicken, chop the chillies finely and add to chicken. Add the juice from the lime, paprika and pepper and leave to marinade for an hour or so.

#8: French toast with caramelised pears

I'm playing catch up at the moment, having been away from my kitchen for three weeks in February. So now I'm trying to make up for lost time, which I suppose can only be a good thing. I collected a few recipe ideas I'm keen to try out after eating in some great cafes while I was away. This is one such recipe - I had breakfast at the Tricycle Cafe in the Salamanca Arts Centre while I was staying in Hobart. It was a lovely and relaxed cafe, and a nice hideaway from the busy market in Salamanca Place on a Saturday morning. The poached pear french toast they served was enormous, dished up with a vanilla syrup, cream and currants - it was beautiful but a little too rich for me to be able to finish. I therefore tried a simpler version for a sunny Saturday morning brunch.

I used a soft ciabatta loaf from a local bakery for this recipe, and it was perfect. I'd steer away from anything harder, like sourdough or crusty broad bread, but that's my personal preference. I also used Packham pears, as they're in season in my area, but I'll be playing around with differen varieties and different fruit in future.

serves 2
20 minutes



For the pears:
1 large pear, cored and sliced
1 tablespoon of honey
A generous splash of rum (amaretto might also be lovely)
A teaspoon of vanilla essence

For the toast:
4-6 thick slices of soft white bread (depending on the size of the loaf)
6 eggs
A teaspoon of vanilla essence

Over a low heat, mix the honey, rum and vanilla essence in a pan.

When you have a smooth mixture, add the pear slices and put the lid on.

Check the pears regularly, turning them as required. They should become noticeably soft. The sugary rum mixture will also become tacky.

When soft, remove the pears from the pan and place on a plate at the side.

Melt some butter in the pan with the remnants of the sugary rum mix.

Crack and mix together the eggs and another teaspoon of vanilla essence

Cover each slice of bread in egg and place in the pan. The bread should be turned once or twice, and served up when the egg is cooked.

Place the pears on the french toast, and serve with icing sugar and maple syrup