I'm not a fan of cream, so in the past this would have lead me to foolishly pass over recipes requiring cream, when really it's the flavour of straight cream that I don't like. My aversion to cream as an ingredient has fallen away thanks to Nigella's Tarragon Chicken from Kitchen.

Tarragon Chicken with Garlic Roasted Broccoli

adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe in Kitchen

For the tarragon chicken you will need:

• olive for frying
• 2 spring onions thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• slightly less than 1/2 cup cream
• 1 tsp dried tarragon

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a casserole dish with a lid and then fry spring onions and 1/2 tsp dried tarragon for a minute or so.
2. While that fries, remove any visible fat from the chicken breasts and use the flat side of the knife to bash the breasts to thin them out.
3. Put the chicken into the pan and cook for 5 minutes without turning. You want them to develop a bit of a golden tinge.
4. Turn over the breasts and add the white wine. Let it bubble up and then add the salt.
5. Put the lid on and leave to simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
6. Remove the chicken breasts and set aside.
7. Bring the liquid to the boil, add the cream and more dried tarragon, and stir until thickened.
8. At this point I add the chicken back to the casserole and coat it in the sauce, but you could just pour it over the top as Nigella does.

For the Garlic Roasted Broccoli you will need:

• 1 head of broccoli, washed
• 3 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

1. Chop the broccoli into bite sized pieces, discarding the stalk.
2. In a casserole dish, combine the broccoli, garlic, sugar and oil. I do this with my hands, making sure the broccoli is thoroughly coated.
3. Roast in a 180 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until broccoli is slightly blackened on the ends and is slightly crispy.

The sugar combined with the garlic gives the broccoli a savoury caramelised flavour, which complements the creamy chicken nicely.

I'm still on holiday from work (starting back next Monday) but my boyfriend is already back. I wanted to take some time this week to stock the freezer with some meals for when we are both back to the the daily routine of adulthood. To that end I intended to make a pie today and portion it before freezing to make 3 nights of meals. I made the pie filling (recipe to come later) but that is as far as I got because due to my other exertions today, I ran out of butter so couldn't make the dough. It was also so hot today, and so hot in the kitchen, that I couldn't face more time in front of the oven. That will be a task for tomorrow.

The reason I ran out of butter? Nigella Lawson's Devil's Food Cake from Kitchen. I think Kitchen is my favourite book of hers. It was sort of gifted to me by a friend at the end of second year law as a thank you (and I say sort of, because she actually gave me How to be a Domestic Goddess, which I already had but she suspected I might and gave me an exchange card with which I gratefully got Kitchen) and is probably the cookbook I use the most.

Devil's Food Cake

adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe in Kitchen

For the cake you will need:

• 50g cocoa powder
• 100g dark cane sugar (Nigella says dark muscovado sugar - this was the closest I could get)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 125g soft butter
• 225g high grade flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 size 8 eggs

For the icing you will need:

• 1/2 cup water
• 30g dark cane sugar
• 125g butter
• 300g dark chocolate buttons
• 100g icing sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Mix the cocoa powder and 100g dark cane sugar in a bowl. Pour in boiling water, mix and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl (everything will eventually end up in this bowl).
4. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder.
5. Add the vanilla essence to the creamed butter and sugar and mix lightly.
6. Crack one egg into the bowl with the butter and mix, before adding some flour and mixing then cracking the second egg into the bowl.
7. Mix in the remaining flour.
8. Fold the cocoa/sugar/water mixture into the butter and flour.
9. Distribute the mixture evenly between two sandwich cake tins. The type I have can't be lined with baking paper so I greased them with cooking oil first, but if you are using ordinary tins then do line with baking paper.
10. Nigella's recipe says to bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clear. I checked at 20 minutes and the cakes were already getting toward well done so any longer would have been a disaster for me.
11. While the cakes are baking, put the water, cane sugar and butter in a small pot on low heat, stirring occasionally.
12. When butter is melted, take the pot off the heat, add the chocolate buttons and stir until all the chocolate is melted and the icing is smooth.
13. When the cakes have cooled enough for icing, mix the icing sugar into the cooled icing. Spread icing over the top of one cake (not quite to the edge as the compression from the top cake will spread the icing out), place the other cake on top and spread icing over the top of that cake too.

I added in the icing sugar because, although Nigella said the icing was meant to be runny and never quite set, it was really too thin for my liking and I couldn't see how I could use it to ice the cakes (particularly as a filling) without it all flowing away. I also wanted it to set because my boyfriend wouldn't be able to take any to work with him if the icing was sticking to everything. This might be because I used less butter than she suggested due to running out. However, I really liked the result after adding the icing sugar. The icing was still runny so that it flowed down the sides of the cake giving me a nice effect, but once I refrigerated it, it set and became fudgey.

The cake itself was rich but not overpoweringly so. It didn't rise as much as I expected it to, making it quite dense.

Yesterday's dinner was Once Upon a Chef's Asian Slaw with Ginger-Peanut Dressing with sliced minute steak. I used white vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar and didn't add carrots or coriander. It reminded me of the Little Tokyo salad at the Food Truck Garage. It was such a hot day yesterday I wanted something cool and crunchy for dinner. Shelby, however, heated his up. Boys.

The leftover salad accompanied tonight's dinner.

Silver Fern Lamb Steaks with Yoghurt Marinade

Adapted from a Silver Fern Farms recipe.

• 2 lamb steaks
• zest and juice of a lemon
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 125 g natural yoghurt (small individual pottle)
• olive oil for frying

Serve with:

• store bought garlic bread
• Asian Slaw with Ginger-Peanut Dressing

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except lamb steaks in a bowl.
2. Immerse steaks in the marinade liquid, leave for 15 minutes.
3. Wipe excess marinade from steaks and fry in a hot pan. The recipe recommends 4 minutes a side, but I would go for longer.
4. Remove steaks from pan and set aside. Add the marinade to the pan and let it bubble up.
5. Slice the steaks across the grain. At this point I realised they weren't as cooked as I would have liked them to be (preference for medium/well done meat rather than medium/rare) so added the slices in with the marinade, but otherwise just drizzle the thickened marinade over the steak slices.
6. Serve with thick wedges of garlic bread and leftover coleslaw.

This morning we went to La Cigale in Parnell. By the time we got there most of the fruit and vegetables were gone, though I did get a rather large broccoli and some plums which when tried later turned out to be far too tart. This was the second time I've been to La Cigale, but the first time after going to Taste of Auckland, where we sampled some of Top Shelf's products (more on that here). They may have been there last time and I just didn't notice, but after the garlic and herb marinated feta from Taste, I couldn't pass up a chance to try more of Top Shelf's products. I tried a kalamata olive tapenade and bought some spicy mango marinated feta for $7. We also got a turkish bread from Pukeko Bakery (developing a pattern with the feta + turkish bread...).

From La Cigale we walked to the Domain. We found an adequately leafy and shaded patch of grass to sit on for a makeshift picnic with our Market purchases, spreading oozing feta on wedges of bread:

The feta was good, and I wouldn't hesitate to get it again, but I preferred the garlic and herb version. The Spicy Mango was sharper with a chilli bite, but I wouldn't have known it was supposed to be mango if the label didn't say so. Apart from chilli the other main flavour was thyme.