Amazing Feast

No Bake Cheesecake

2013-09-03T23:39:00.000+08:00

Cheesecake. Yum. That completely sums up my long-standing love affair with no-bake cheesecake. But I'm fussy about my cheesecake. Don't give me those stodgy baked varieties, I have no time or taste for them. It's got to be the refrigerated variety every time - despite my intense dislike of gelatine (I rarely eat jelly and look for yoghurts that don't contain gelatine).

Refrigerated cheesecake is unbelievably simple, but can be dressed up to look sophisticated and impressive. With very little effort (and preferably a functioning refrigerator) you can wow your guests.

This weekend was a long weekend in the US for the Labor Day holiday. We duly had guests over and I decided to make cheesecake for dessert. Something I haven't done for about 15 years. I don't know why. It's a dessert I love, but rarely make. It was also the weekend that we had FRIDGE TROUBLE [cue dramatic music]. So, on Wednesday of last week I decided that our fridge, that was easily 10 years old, that we'd discussed replacing before it died on us, that came with the house when we bought it, needed to be retired. I duly went out and bought a new fridge (and dishwasher too) and organised for them both to be delivered and installed on Friday. They were. In a timely and efficient manner.

My new, gleaming, brushed stainless steel, French door, pull-out-freezer-drawer fridge took up pride of place in the kitchen. It shone, announcing its newness to the world. It set off my electric kettle, my stand mixer and my espresso machine beautifully. All stainless steel, all shiny and new, letting the world know how much I love to cook, how much my kitchen is a source of joy for me. Everything looked great. I loaded up my shiny new fridge with all the fresh and frozen produce from the old fridge (all of which had been carefully packed on ice until then) and I smiled beatifically and my glorious new appliance. Then I went about doing all the things the installers had recommended - ditching the first 3 gallons of water from the dispenser, turning on the ice machine and waiting for it to produce happy little rectangles of frozen goodness, and generally fussing about.

I started to get suspicious when that evening the fridge still hadn't cooled. By the time I went to bed, I had worked myself into a fair state of worry. But we decided to give it overnight and see how it went. Saturday morning came around. Still nothing. Not a puff of cold. No icy fingers gently caressing all the things we'd stored in there. Naturally, I turned quickly to Google for the answers. "The compressor" it shouted, "No, the gasses have to settle and that can take 3 to 5 days" it debated, "Rubbish! There's a blockage" it equivocated. All the while, my mind screamed "YOU GOT A DUD!". My beautiful, brand new, expensive fridge had suddenly become a costly meat safe. We checked on theory 1 and 3 and decided to give it a little more time for theory 2. Meanwhile, I marinated meat and made cheesecake.

Sunday morning rolled around and still nothing. The meat in the freezer had defrosted, the food in the fridge was starting to go off. There was nothing for it. I rang the store I bought it from, explained the problem and asked for a replacement asap. They were actually very good about it, but couldn't organise a delivery for the same day. Still, Monday we would have a new fridge. Yes ma'am, the situation had been escalated to the manager's attention. Yes ma'am, they would be happy to reimburse me for all the food losses. Yes ma'am, they would bring the new fridge on Monday and wouldn't leave until they were sure that it actually was working. Umm…ok. But where was I supposed to store the marinated meat and the cheesecake (the REFRIGERATED cheesecake) in the meantime?

Thank goodness for two large coolers (eskies) and a quick-thinking husband who trotted off to buy a small bar fridge. So disaster averted, the defrosted meat had to be cooked up or thrown out. So began my day of cooking every last bit of meat we had in the house. With only two people joining us for dinner, needless to say we were very well stocked. So at the end of that very long story, here's my recipe for cheesecake.

Ingredients:
Base/crust:
2 cups crushed graham crackers
2 tbsp sugar
125g butter (melted)

Filling:
3 pkgs (8oz/226g each) cream cheese (softened)
1 pkt gelatine (7g)
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1-2 tsp orange essence (or vanilla)
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime

Method:
Line the base of a round spring form cake tin with parchment paper. I cut off a square piece, larger than the base of the tin, placed it over the base then put the wall belt on and closed it, securing the parchment paper onto the base. This will make removing the cheesecake from the base much easier later (and that will stop any scratching up of your cake tin from cutting cheesecake on it!).

Mix the graham cracker crumbs, the sugar and the butter well. Firmly pack it into the cake tin and place in the fridge (hopefully you have a functioning fridge at the time).

In a stand mixer, place the cream cheese and sugar and beat until soft and mixed through.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, place the water and gelatine. Allow to sit for a minute, then place over medium heat. Stir constantly until gelatine is dissolved. Remove from heat and beat into cream cheese mix in the stand mixer.

Add lime zest and juice and continue to mix on medium-low speed. Gradually add cream and orange essence, continuing to beat the mixture. The mixture will be of pouring consistency and you'll think it's a little too runny, but don't panic. The gelatine will set it well.

Pour over the refrigerated base and return to the fridge for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight).

When you're ready to serve, run a warm palette knife, butter knife or thin plastic spatula around the inside edge of the wall belt to separate the cheesecake from the tin. Open up the spring and remove the wall belt. Carefully slide the cheesecake off the base of the tin and onto a serving plate using the parchment paper. Decorate with whatever fruits you like and serve.

And Give Us Our Daily Bread...

2013-08-01T20:45:00.002+08:00

Bread has been my Everest for some time now. I've experimented with numerous recipes over the years and have had countless unsatisfactory loaves. About 5 years ago, when I managed to pin down an excellent pizza dough recipe (that I now use as a standard), I thought it could double as a bread recipe. And it did for a long time. But (and there's that ubiquitous but), it was never quite right. Never quite fluffy or light enough, and never strong enough to handle being sliced very thin. So naturally, more experimentation followed.

I now have a recipe that consistently produces beautifully light and fluffy loaves as well as rolls. The thing to keep in mind with bread (as with most dough recipes) is that the amounts of the ingredients vary each time you make it. Humidity, heat, consistency of the flour and the fat content of the milk all make a difference to the dough. Humid days require more flour, dry days require less (or more liquids). And my final tip: use bread flour. Regular plain or all purpose flour doesn't have enough gluten to hold the rise required for bread.

Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour
1 tbsp (roughly 16g) instant yeast
2 tsp sugar (caster/super fine)
2 tsp salt
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
30g/2tbsp butter
350 ml milk

Plus:
1 egg
2 tbsp milk or cream
whisk together for glazing bread

Method:
Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Heat milk and butter together in microwave for 2 minutes.

Place flour, yeast, sugar, salt and eggs in bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment (or you can mix by hand, but this takes longer). Mix till combined.

Add milk and butter and mix until dough starts to come together and away from the sides of the bowl. Change attachments to the dough hook and mix for 2 − 3 minutes.

Turn dough out and form into a ball. Place upside down into a lightly greased/oiled bowl (I use olive oil) then turn the right way up so the dough is coated with a little oil on all sides. Cover bowl with plastic wrap (glad wrap/cling wrap) and leave in a warm place to rise for at least 1 hour (or until dough is doubled in size).

Turn dough out and knead lightly for a few minutes. This helps to redistribute the carbon dioxide released by the yeast and will give you a lighter and fluffier bread.

Lightly grease the pan you're using to bake the bread in (loaf tin for a loaf or tray for rolls), shape bread and place in pan. Cover lightly with cling wrap (I use the same one I used earlier, but turned the other way round so there's no condensation. The condensation built up on the cling wrap will affect your bread and lead to less rise. Leave in a warm place to rise again for at least 1 hour (or until doubled in size).

Again, remove the dough and punch down and knead. Reshape, place in tin and liberally brush on egg and milk/cream mixture. Sprinkle bread with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, or leave plain. Place in preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes. When properly cooked, the bread should make a hollow sound when tapped.

Turn oven off and remove bread. Take bread out of tin, wrap in clean tea towel (this will catch the moisture coming off the bread and avoid soggy bread).

If you're making rolls, you can stuff them with cheese, meat, veggies or whatever you like. This recipe has been the most consistently reliable I've come up with. But remember, amounts of flour and liquids will vary according to the ambient temperature and humidity.

The Bells of St Clements

2013-02-28T07:55:00.001+08:00

Orange Cake with Lemon-lime Icing

Moving to a new country brings with it a whole raft of issues to contend with. For me, moving to the USA from Australia has meant learning a whole new language for food. I spend extraordinary amounts of time standing in grocery stores reading. No, not reading books. Reading labels. Trying to figure out what the composition of different items are, trying to figure out what's similar to the ingredients I'm used to working with. These aren't automatically the things you think of as troublesome or issues to overcome when you move from one first-world, English-speaking country to another. Especially when those countries are so culturally similar; at least at first glance.

But here I am. Living in Texas. Standing in supermarkets, grocery stores, specialty stores and fresh markets, and reading. I go in with enthusiasm. Determined to find ingredients and overcome the differences. I usually leave exhausted and often defeated by the variety. Each time, I stand in front of an array of flours and baking sodas and remember Barry Schwartz's TED Talk on The Paradox of Choice.

Today was my first foray into cake baking since we arrived and thankfully, it worked. I have no electric mixer (hand-held or stand), no food processor and no baking pans apart from a roasting pan that came with the apartment we're staying in, and I'm working with an oven (and temperatures measured in Fahrenheit not Celsius) that I'm not entirely familiar or comfortable with. Add to that, the fact that I was converting from Australian measurements and recipes to US measures. A rose may well be a rose by any other name, but a cup is clearly not the same measure across nations. It was a daunting prospect having to cream butter and sugar by hand. I haven't done that in years and remember it as being labour intensive and arm-aching. But I was determined. So here's the recipe for a moist, tart orange cake with lemon and lime icing.

Orange Cake
(this is not a super sweet cake, in fact it's quite tart, but works very well with the icing and is delicious warm or cold)
1 US cup unsalted butter, softened (I put it in the microwave for 10 seconds to really soften it since I was creaming by hand)
1/4 tsp salt
1 US cup extra fine sugar
3 large (free range/cage free) eggs at room temperature (around 60g each - large but not jumbo)
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 1/2 US cups unbleached self-raising flour (I used King Arthur)
juice from 6 small-medium oranges (not navels, they're too big)

Method
Preheat oven to 340F.

Grease the sides and base of your roasting pan.

Microwave butter in mixing bowl for 10 seconds. Add salt. Using a whisk, begin creaming butter. Add extra fine sugar and cream butter and sugar together till light and fluffy (this takes about 10 − 15 minutes).

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well for a few minutes after each egg. Don't rush the addition of the eggs as the mixture will be more likely to separate and develop a curdled appearance. Add the zest with the last egg.

Add half the flour and stir until just combined. Repeat with remaining flour. Mix in juice and aerate by whisking.

Spoon mixture into pan and smooth over so it's evenly spread.

Bake for 35 minutes. A skewer inserted should come out clean and the cake should spring back when lightly pressed in the centre.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan (it will come away from the sides on its own). I left the cake in the pan and poured the icing over the top.

Lemon-lime Icing
1 1/2 US cups icing/powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon and 3 limes
1 tbsp butter

Method
Put a plug in the kitchen sink and fill with very hot water. Place your mixing bowl with all ingredients into the water bath (sink) and whisk ingredients together. The icing will be quite runny. Let sit for 5 minutes or so and it will thicken. Pour over the cake and spread evenly.

Slice and enjoy!

A Tale of Stormy Weather and Root Vegetables

2012-06-13T13:28:00.002+08:00

It's Winter in my part of the world and we've just had a category 2 cyclone hit the coast. Up here in the hills, it was wet and windy, but not much worse than that. We've been fortunate to not have lost power or had any storm damage, but the weather does turn one's mind to thoughts of warm and stodgy food. Root vegetables are gloriously in season now and we're getting some delicious beetroots, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and the rest.

I'm purposely leaving swedes (rutabagas) out of this collection. They're a vegetable that have resisted my many overtures at friendship. Bitter and distasteful, they do their best to shun my tastebuds, while taunting my eyes with their rotund, yellowy-puple forms displayed so temptingly at the grocer's. We have a tenuous relationship on which I'm choosing not to dwell.

Beetroot, on the other hand, is a firm favourite of mine. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that I must have eaten a lot of dirt as a child and that is why I love the deep earthy taste of beetroot. To me they really do taste like soil; sweetened and glorified. I'm not talking about the over-processed, over-sweetened variety found in tins and plastic bottles. I'm talking about the fresh, dirt-covered variety you find in the fresh food market. The kind you have to wash, peel and cook before you can eat them. The kind that stain your hands the deepest ruby red for days on end. The kind you wear dark colours near even when you're only looking at them... just in case. Real beetroot.

So now you know my dirty secret. My deep and abiding love for the earthiness of beetroot. Given the season, the weather and the availability of my ruby treasures, I thought it was time to venture into some uncharted and politically fraught territory (uncharted for me). I decided to slide down the slippery slope of attempting to make borscht. Let me say from the outset, there are as many ways to make borscht as there are families in Eastern Europe. I must have scanned 50 recipes for it, each one with a detractor commenting at the bottom of the page that "this is not how you make borsch/borscht" (they can't even agree on the final consonant!). In the end, I got the gist of the various recipes and decided to make my own version.

This is NOT a traditional borsch/borscht recipe from anywhere, but I'm hoping it will become a tradition in our house.

Ingredients:
Vegetable Stock
3L water
1 carrot
2 stalks of rosemary
4 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 French shallots or 1/2 a medium sized red onion
salt to taste

Soup
8 - 10 beetroots
1 large nadine potato
2 - 3tsp raw sugar
pepper to taste
150g salted butter

cream to serve

Method:
Make a stock as you would for any soup (if you have chicken or beef stock on hand, you can use that). Allow the stock to simmer and flavours to infuse for at least an hour (the longer you leave it, the richer the flavours - top up the water as you need to).

Peel and chop the potato (large pieces is fine). Add to the stock. Top and tail, peel and quarter the beetroot and add to the stock. Add sugar (I use raw sugar because I like the richer, slightly molasses flavour of it).

Cook for at least an hour (make sure all the vegetables are very soft and easy to mash).

Remove bay leaves and rosemary sticks (the leaves will have fallen off by this stage). Blend the soup with a stick blender (or do in small batches in a blender).

Taste for salt and add if necessary. Add freshly ground pepper and butter. Stir through and taste. Serve warm with a dollop of cream.

NOTE: A chilled version of this soup would be wonderful in Summer.

Doughnuts and a Patch of Warmth

2012-05-27T08:13:00.000+08:00

Fresh doughnuts: golden puffs of sweet doughy goodness

It's not yet winter but nobody bothered to let Mother Nature know. We're waking up to mornings of 1C or less. Since I'm no fan of bitter cold days, a little patch of warmth inside my marvellous kitchen is a joy devoutly to be wished. And nothing says warmth like baking.

When my eldest son complained of feeling hard done by because he missed out on eating the last of the store-bought doughnuts to his younger brother, I promised him I'd make some. I've made doughnuts before and it's something that fills me with both dread and joy. The dread comes from the anticipation of getting the mix right, of not knowing whether it will rise enough, or puff the way it should when fried.

And the joy? Well, there is nothing as sumptuous as the smell of a kitchen filled with the aroma of freshly cooking doughnuts. It's a unique smell. It's not the deep, earthy aroma of a bread dough, or the sweet vanilla, chocolate or flavour-of-your-choice aroma of a cake. It's not the half-way-inbetween sweet earthiness of brioche. It is an unmistakable, uplifting, heart-lightening, worry-dissipating aroma all of its own. It has the power to entrance and delight. The power to carry the soul to another plane.

And there's nothing quite so close to unadulterated bliss as the taste of that first hot doughnut, drained, and dusted in cinnamon sugar. Feeling the slight crunch as your teeth break the crust then sink slowly into the light, fluffy fried dough, the smell of cinnamon wafting up to your nose, sugar coating your lips and spreading gently across your tongue. The burst and pop of tastebuds all across your tongue, as the flavours combine and your salivary glands spring into action.

There are things to remember and rules to follow when making doughnuts. They require yeast so, like bread, they need to be double proven to really work well. It means spending a little more time, but it's definitely worth it. I can't emphasise enough how important it is to double prove the dough (for breads and for doughnuts). This batch are probably my best to date. They rose beautifully and the gluten in the flour stretched its cobwebby fingers across pockets of nothingness, giving the doughnuts an ethereal lightness. Like all baking and bread recipes, you need to stick to the recipe as much as humanly possible.

I like deviating wildly from recipes and seeing what happens. In the kitchen, I'm a veritable mad-scientist tossing together ingredients like volatile chemicals, playing fast and loose with timings and temperatures to see what emerges, but I've learned along the way that breads and baked desserts are not to be messed with. They are the starched, Victorian, stiff-lipped, highly rule-governed great aunts of the baking world. They work according to ratios, so don't fiddle with the quantities, temperatures or timings. This, of course, comes with its own caveat. You can always fiddle with the quantities of flour and milk. In fact, it's necessary to do so according to the ambient humidity. The more moisture in the air, the more flour you'll need. The hotter and drier the day, the more liquid you'll need. The cooler the weather... well, you get the idea. Use your best judgement to get a firm, pliable and soft dough that's easy to knead.

...and don't forget the "holes"!

Doughnuts
(makes 30 doughnuts plus 30 holes - depending on size of cookie cutter)
Ingredients:
110g butter, cubed
375g plain flour
5 egg yolks
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp caster sugar
20g yeast
3/4 cup warm milk

oil for deep frying
caster sugar and ground cinnamon for dredging

Method:
Place milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl and stir until dissolved. Whisk in egg yolks.

Add flour to bowl of food processor. With motor on low speed, slowly pour in egg mixture and knead for 5 minutes.

Increase speed to medium, then add butter in 3 batches and beat until dough comes together. Remove dough and knead on a clean, dry surface until dough becomes shiny and smooth.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap (Glad Wrap/Cling Wrap etc.) and stand in a draught-free, warm place for at least 1 hour or until mixture doubles in volume.

Knock down dough, then roll out on a work surface until 2 cm thick (don't roll it too thin or you'll get flat doughnuts!). Use a cookie or pastry cutter to cut out your doughnuts. Remember that doughnuts will expand in the second proving, so don't worry if they look a little small when you cut them out. Use a smaller cookie cutter (I used the large end of an icing/frosting nozzle) to cut out the "holes" in the middle of the doughnut. Place doughnuts and holes around 4cm apart (to allow for expansion) on lightly oiled baking sheets (or you can cover your baking sheets in parchment/baking paper). Cover the trays and stand in a draught-free place for 1hour or until risen [I cheated a little here. I turned on the oven to around 200C while I was kneading, rolling and cutting the dough, then turned it off. I placed the doughnuts on the baking sheets in the warm oven with the door ajar to rise. It's much quicker and you get an even proofing].

Heat oil in a deep-fryer or deep saucepan to 180C [if you don't have a thermometer, it should take 10 seconds for a cube of bread to spin and brown. The temperature is important] and cook doughnuts in batches until golden on both sides. Drain well on absorbent paper [this step is important. Don't be tempted to dredge the doughnuts while still covered in oil. It makes them sweat and become sticky, and they won't last as long].

Dredge with combined caster sugar and ground cinnamon. Serve while still warm or wait till they cool down (these don't keep well and are best eaten within a couple of days).

NOTE: If you want jam-filled doughnuts, don't cut out the "holes". Proceed with the recipe otherwise and once dredged, use a long, thin piping nozzle and icing bag filled with jelly or conserve (use something with no pieces of fruit, which will get stuck in the end of the nozzle) to pierce and fill the doughnuts.

Hippety Hoppity!

2012-04-08T08:13:00.000+08:00

It's Easter! Time for chocolate hangovers and hot cross buns coming out the wahzoo. So here's an easy recipe for hot cross buns (guess what we're having for breakfast??).

Hot Cross Buns
(makes 12)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup sugar (I use raw sugar)
4 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg
50g melted butter

Method:
In a large bowl add the sugar, flour, yeast, mixed spice, cinnamon and dried fruit. Mix until combined.

Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter, egg and milk.

Use a butter knife to mix then tip out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic (add more flour or milk if dough is too sticky or dry).

Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (I left mine overnight so the dough would be ready to bake for breakfast).

Take dough out and knead lightly then portion into 12 segments of roughly equal size.

Roll into balls with your hands and arrange on a greased baking tin (I prefer a tin for buns and rolls as the heat up the sides gives a more even cooking).

Allow to rise in a warm place for another 40 minutes. Use this time to preheat the oven to about 200C and make up a mixture for the crosses.

Crosses: mix flour and water till it is a wet paste and pipe over the buns.

Glaze mixture: 1/4 cup hot water, 3 tbsp of caster sugar.

Bake for 10 mins then turn oven down to 180C and cook for another 20-25 mins or until springy to touch.

Brush glaze over them as soon as they are out of the oven. Eat hot or allow to cool!

Baking Butter Biscuits

2012-04-08T07:35:00.002+08:00

A bit of alliteration and some delicious basic biscuits are the result!

Butter Biscuits
(makes 30)
Ingredients:
125g butter, softened (I used salted butter to cut down on the sweetness of the biscuit)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking parchment/paper.

Using a food processor or electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix well until combined.

Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk and stir/mix until just combined.

Using 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls. Place on lined baking trays. Using a lightly floured fork, flatten biscuits slightly (remember to allow room for spreading).

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, swapping trays over in the oven after 10 minutes, or until light golden. Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar. Biscuits will keep up to a week in an airtight container.

Pop goes the... well... popcorn

2012-03-10T17:04:00.000+08:00

There's something so exciting about popcorn. I suppose it's the uncertainty of whether it will actually pop, and then how much of it will pop. Will you be left with only a few singed kernels at the end, or will their be an inch thick layer of unpopped kernels?

And then there's the smell... that delicious, heady mix of oil and butter, simmering gently, acquiring a nuttiness. The succulent mix coaxes the subtle aromas from the corn kernels as they go in, and the kitchen smells divine. Like warmth and sunshine, the smell of happiness and laughter and adventure.

The sound of popcorn, the gentle pfut pfut as each kernel springs into its new life; white, fluffy and inviting. It warms the cockles of my heart.

Blueberry Breakfast

2012-01-28T07:57:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd make French Toast Cups this morning and fill them with blueberries and maple yoghurt for breakfast. I thought that's what I'd do.... till I discovered that all the bread in the house had gone mouldy! The unexpectedly humid weather we've been having recently has taken it's toll. So with PlanA so obviously dashed against a mouldy wall, I had to come up with a PlanB. So here it is...

Blueberry Muffins with Maple Yoghurt and Mango:

(makes 12)
Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
1 tbsp sugar
4 eggs
2 - 3 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 punnet blueberries

Yoghurt Dressing:
1 1/2 cups plain yoghurt
1 - 2 tbsp maple syrup (use the good stuff not the maple flavoured syrup... you don't need much)

Mango diced
Spray oil for greasing muffin tin

Method:
Preheat oven to 190C. Grease muffin tin.

Beat eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the flour a little at a time and mix. You should have the consistency of pancake/hotcake mix.

Pour into muffin tins (only fill to 3/4). Add blueberries (I added about 8 to each muffin... the more blueberries, the juicier!). Bake for 20 minutes (or until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out dry).

While the muffins are cooking, peel and dice the mango (I used one R2E2 which was more than enough) and mix the yoghurt and maple syrup.

When muffins are done, allow to rest 5 minutes (this makes it much easier to remove from the muffin tin - remember there are no liners or patty pans).

Arrange muffins in bowls, pour over maple yoghurt and sprinkle with mango. Yum.

Cupcakes Sweet and Cupcakes Savoury

2011-11-20T17:02:00.001+08:00

Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes with a Gingerbread Men toppers!

I've been reading an extraordinary blog over the last few days called the Cupcake Project. It's a wonderfully creative exploration of one woman's cupcake adventures. I love the fact that Stef (who writes the blog) freely admits that she embarked on her amazing adventure having never baked a cupcake before but volunteering to make cupcakes for a friend's wedding. Now there's a spirit of get-up-and-go to emulate - I love her gumption!

So having been inspired by her blog, I decided to make some of her Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes with some Butter Icing and Gingerbread Men as toppers. I'll admit, it was partly because DS2 has a class party coming up in a couple of weeks for the end of the year and I thought I might make some cupcakes for the occasion. I did make one alteration to her recipe though. I didn't use a vanilla pod, instead I used 1 1/2 tsps of vanilla paste added to the sugar and butter during the creaming stage.

Dapper looking Gingerbread man with bow tie

The butter icing recipe I used was from here, and I used raspberry essence to flavour it. It's a nice alternative to the standard vanilla and gives the final product a really gentle almost floral flavour. Finally, the gingerbread recipe came from here. This is a really easy and quick gingerbread recipe and one I'll use often. It's much simpler than the one I normally use (which includes treacle) and the kids loved it. I ended up with loads of left over little gingerbread men, so they got iced and stored for munching on during the week.

Having spent the morning in a frenzy of sugary baking, I decided there had to be a savoury alternative. After all, if you can make a sweet cupcake, why can't you make a savoury one? With that thought in mind, I trawled a variety of websites in an attempt to find a good recipe for a savoury cupcake - one that wasn't a muffin, but also one that didn't include a cup of sugar. Most of the sites I found had recipes that were really sweet cupcakes with meat and vegetables added. That definitely wasn't what I was looking for. One site had a gorgeous alternative, but no recipe.

The creative process at work

In the end, I made up my own. I love making up recipes. It's a creative process that requires me to work with ratios and think about how ingredients will work with each other. Chemistry, math and food all in one exciting process (with a bit of artistry thrown in) - joy! I jot down possible ingredients, figure out possible amounts and then work on what temperature to set the oven and how long to cook for. I read through the recipe 3 or 4 times and then I jot the steps down in pictorial form. I can't draw more than poor squiggles, but these little scribbles help me during the hectic cooking process when I'm rushing from one step to the next, often without reading the steps properly. The pictures jog my memory. Here's the recipe I came up with (using some tinned Spam I had in the pantry). The results were really pretty good. A bit doughy, but I'll work on that - it might be a little less so if I'd used minced meat instead (Note to Self: that's something worth pursuing for the next batch).

Spammy Cupcakes
Ingredients:

223g plain flour
80g unsalted butter
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda (bicarb soda)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 - 3 tsp mixed herbs
230 ml milk
100g cheddar cheese, cubed
1 tin Spam
50g fresh tomato, diced
1 medium red onion or 1/2 a large one, chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp non-iodised salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

In food processor, cream together butter and sugar.

Add egg and mix well.

Add Spam, onion and cheese and mix until onion and cheese are well incorporated (indistinguishable).

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and herbs and mix.

Slowly add milk. When milk is incorporated, add tomato and pulse (you want to keep some of the chunky pieces of tomato).

1/2 fill patty pans and bake for 25 - 30 mins.

Potato, Sweet Potato, Garlic and Blue Cheese Icing:

Ingredients:

4 medium potatoes
1 -2 sweet potatoes (depending on size)
butter
milk
2 cloves garlic
50g Blue cheese
salt to taste

Method:

Peel and boil potatoes, sweet potatoes and garlic together. Drain and mash well (I used a Bamix), adding butter and milk.

While potato mash is still warm, blend in the blue cheese and salt to taste. Allow to cool a little then fill in piping bag.

Pipe onto savoury cupcakes and garnish with a sliver of cherry tomato.

These can be eaten hot or cold (we had them for breakfast the next day too!).

Quick Snack Fixes

2011-10-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

Dinner tonight was marinated chicken wings, stuffed tomatoes, salad and garlic bread. They're quick to make, taste delicious and look pretty impressive. Plus, it's another way to use up some eggs from our Bantam chickens!

Stuffed Tomatoes:
Ingredients

4 vine-ripened tomatoes
4 Bantam eggs
Malden sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
sharp Cheddar cheese (tasty is good)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cut the tops off the tomatoes (so you have little lids). You can discard these (our chickens are getting them).

Cut through the segments inside the tomato very carefully, trying not to break through the tomato. Scoop out the flesh, leaving behind a tomato case. Reserve the scoopings for another recipe or blend and make into tomato paste.

Sprinkle salt and cracked pepper on the inside.

Add a paper-thin slice of cheese (or grate cheese).

Crack one Bantam egg into each tomato. These little eggs are just perfect for the tomato cases. Sprinkle with salt and pepper again.

Arrange your tomatoes on the lined baking tray and bake for 15 - 20 minutes till eggs are set. Serve immediately.

Garlic Bread:

You can make this with pretty much any kind of loaf you like. I usually use a ciabatta or other crusty Italian loaf, or a baguette. It also makes a great after school snack.

Ingredients

125g butter (salted butter is good)
1 tsp Malden sea salt
1 sprig basil leaves
4 cloves garlic
bread of choice

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

Use chop sticks as a guide when slicing

Now this is a handy trick that will ensure you never cut all the way through your bread again when making garlic bread. Take two wooden chop sticks (use the normal sized ones, not the take-away variety that you have to separate). Place one on either side of your loaf of bread. Cut slices into the bread until your knife hits the chop sticks (this ensures that you don't cut all the way through, but cut enough to allow you to spread the butter onto each slice).

In a food processor, blend the butter, garlic, salt and basil leaves. If the butter is too hard and won't cream, add olive oil to loosen it.

When your garlic butter is ready, spread it liberally in each slice you've cut in your bread.

Finally, spread a good amount on the top of your loaf too. This helps to keep the crust crunchy.

Cover your bread in baking paper and then in baking foil (Alfoil/tinfoil) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Serve hot.

Cheese Soufflé

2011-10-13T20:48:00.004+08:00

Soufflé is one of those dishes that seems to strike terror into the heart of home cooks, but I'm not really sure why. It's an extremely easy dish that tastes sublime and looks spectacular. The last time I made soufflé, I was newly married, entertaining like mad and desperate to impress all and sundry. I was thrilled that my first soufflé worked and then proceeded to make them so regularly that my husband and I both grew to dread the sight of them. But after 15 years, it was definitely time to have another go at it. This recipe makes a delightfully light and fluffy soufflé.

This single soufflé alone would have been more than enough for dinner, but I'm not known for doing things by halves, so dinner included soufflé, scotch eggs and salad followed by creme brûlée for dessert.

Cheese souffle

Ingredients:

14 slices white bread
450g sharp/tasty Cheddar cheese
3 cups full fat milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
10 eggs
salt and pepper to taste (I use freshly ground pepper corns and Malden sea salt)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Trim edges of 14 slices of whet bread (I gave the crusts to my chickens as a "thank you" for their lovely eggs, but you could save yours to make breadcrumbs for another time), then cube/quarter each slice.

Grate the cheese using the large side of the grater or a microplane for soft cheese.

Beat the eggs and milk with salt and pepper until just smooth (don't over beat).

Butter a casserole dish and alternately layer the bread and cheese (two layers of each) evenly along the bottom.

Pour the milk and egg mixture over. Melt the butter and drizzle over the top.

The longer you can allow the bread to soak up the milk mixture, the better the soufflé will be.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The soufflé will rise and brown nicely. Serve as soon as possible or it will deflate and that is such a sad sight.

It didn't take long for the family to get stuck in!

Creme Brulee

2011-10-13T20:00:00.001+08:00

Creme Brûlée

We've recently acquired chickens all of whom seem to have decided to lay eggs at once. So we're inundated with eggs and I've been steadily increasing the levels of cholesterol we're consuming. In an attempt to use up the eggs in a timely fashion (seriously, between 2 and 6 eggs a day is more than we can be expected to cope with) I've been trawling recipes for egg-rich foods.

Trusty creme brûlée is one of the easiest desserts you can make but it always looks stunning at the table. This recipe is a really simple one and pretty much fool proof. I've added a few tips along the way which make all the difference. You can make this in individual ramekins (if you have them) or in a single casserole dish. I doubled the quantities for my casserole dish and it worked well.

Creme Brulee
Ingredients:

6 egg yolks, chilled
6 tablespoons caster sugar
1 1/2 cups thickened (or whipping) cream, chilled
4 tablespoons caster sugar for topping

Method:

Butter and sugar the casserole dish

Preheat oven to 170C/275F and adjust oven rack to centre position.

Butter and sugar ramekins or casserole dish (tip out excess sugar).

Place ramekins/casserole dish in a baking pan (you will need the baking pan to be deeper than the dish containing your creme brûlée - remember you're cooking the custard in a bain-marie).

Boil water in a kettle for the bain-marie/water bath. Take it off the boil and allow it to cool a little until required.

In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until they are slightly thickened.

Add sugar and mix until dissolved.

Mix in cream, then pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins/casserole dish.

Baking pan bain marie

Carefully pour the hot water from the kettle into the baking pan so that it comes (at least) halfway up the sides of the ramekins/casserole dish. One of the biggest mistakes in baking creme brûlée is not using enough water in the water bath. The water should be at the same level as the custard inside the ramekins/casserole dish. It is meant to protect the custard from getting too hot and over-cooking.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes (up to 50 minutes in casserole dish) or until set around the edges but still loose in the centre. The cooking time will vary according to the size of the dish you are using. Check after 30 minutes and then in 10 minute increments until the desired consistency is reached. It should jiggle a little when shaken gently.

Allow to cool in the water bath, then remove the ramekins/casserole dish, cover with plastic wrap (glad wrap, cling film etc) and refrigerate until required.

When ready to serve, uncover and sprinkle with sugar. Use a blow-torch to caramelise the sugar - stop just before the desired result because the sugar will keep cooking in its own heat.

This dish can be served cold from the fridge or slightly warm (especially if you're pressed for time).

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-06-02T00:31:00.000+08:00

So here's the story behind these cookies.... my youngest son is doing a project at school where they have to work in groups to make and sell cookies. He and his group have been working hard on market research, planning, budgeting and advertising.

For weeks now, he and I have been in deep discussions about chocolate chip cookies; whether he should crush up left over Easter eggs (which is what I've been doing) or use packaged chocolate chips, what kind of chocolate chips he should use (milk, white or dark), whether he should use cocoa or real chocolate in the dough. Tonight, at the last minute, he tells me that his group has decided that the cookies should be mint chocolate chip now. Oh, and he needs the recipe by tomorrow. He bats his eyes at me, smiles and then skips off to bed, leaving me with my laptop on my lap desperately scouring every foodie site I can find for a good recipe for mint chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, it occurs to me I could just modify my chocolate chip recipe fairly simply (I'm tired... it was a late night last night and an early morning this morning... and now my brain's not working so well). So here's the (rather delicious) result. This recipe makes around 28 cookies (depending on how big you make them).

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter (softened)
180g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp peppermint essence
150g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
40g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
pinch salt (not iodised salt)
150g chocolate chips (dark, milk or white)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes until pale and creamy (I do the whole of this step in the food processor). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the peppermint essence, then sift in the flours, cocoa, bicarb. soda and salt. Mix on low speed until combined. Transfer dough to bowl, add chocolate chips and stir well.

Wash your hands, but don't dry them, then roll the mixture into 50g balls (about the size of a golf ball or a teaspoon full of the dough) and place on the prepared trays. Press the dough balls down gently to flatten a little.

Bake the cookies for 15 - 18 minutes, until lightly golden and slightly firm to the touch.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then cool thoroughly on wire rack. Store in airtight container (will last up to a week).

Tips:

Keeping your hands wet when you're rolling the cookie dough stops the dough from sticking to your hands and keeps it in a nice round ball.
You can store this dough in the freezer by rolling it into a cylinder shape and covering with plastic wrap (Glad wrap/Cling wrap). The cookies can be cut off the roll and baked straight from the freezer. Just add 3 - 5 minutes to the cooking time.
Cookie dough can be frozen for up to 1 month before needed.

Mango Muffins

2010-11-04T11:59:00.007+08:00

I've been reading Julia Child's autobiography/biography My Life in France on my newly acquired Kindle and it just confirms for me how much I love her. It's her openness and willingness to throw herself wholeheartedly into her new life with husband Paul in France that I find so enchanting. That, and of course, her absolute fascination with food, particularly French cuisine. I fully intend to wax lyrical about the book and about Julia herself, but not here.

This blog is purely for the fruits of such inspiration. So, duly inspired by Julia Childs and the fact that I bought two crates of mangoes yesterday and am casting around for what to do with them before they spoil, I've come up with a recipe for Mango Muffins.

Mango Muffins
Ingredients

1/4 cup (65ml) vegetable oil - don't use olive oil, the flavour is too strong
1/2 cup (125ml) milk - a little extra if the mix is too dry
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (110g) white sugar
1 3/4 cups (220g) plain flour
1 cup (or 1 large) mango, peeled and diced - be adventurous and liberal with the mango
spray oil

Method

Preheat oven to 190C. Oil a 12 cup muffin tin or use paper liners.

In a small bowl, combine oil, milk and egg. Beat lightly.

In a large bowl, mix flour, salt baking powder and sugar. Toss in diced mango and stir to coat with flour. This is an important step and is often missed out. When you add fresh fruit to cake or muffin mix, it's important to coat it in the dry ingredients/flour mix to stop the fruit from disintegrating when cooking.

Pour in milk mixture and fold together trying not to crush the mango too much.

Spoon mixture into muffin cups. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the tops bounce back from the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes and remove from the tin.

These are deliciously light, soft and fluffy muffins. They can be stored in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days or frozen...if they last that long!

More to come...

2010-10-05T00:27:00.000+08:00

The absence of posts doesn't indicate any lack of cooking going on in my house. In fact, I have been feverishly cooking for DH's 40th birthday celebrations with 65 guests. So recipes will be forthcoming shortly, but as you can imagine, the pressures of organising and cooking for said birthday function has kept me away from my other love... writing.

Fear not, dear reader, I'm baaaack...and will be posting with pics again very soon.

Easy Cheesey Snacks

2010-07-29T11:05:00.000+08:00

This super-simple recipe was inspired by the fact that I ran out of packaged lunch box snacks to put in my boys' lunch boxes today and couldn't quite muster the courage required to brave the supermarket. Cheese straws; much maligned, much forgotten, but such a quick, easy snack that's delicious. You can make them a bit more posh by using different cheeses, as I've done here, or keep them simple with reliable cheddar or Colby (for those who like their cheese creamy but essentially flavourless).

Cheese Straws
Ingredients

2 sheets ready-made frozen puff pastry (you could go to the trouble of making your own, but really, why bother when there are great quality puff pastries available?)
Red Leicester cheese
Parmesan cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 200C.

Slice very finely or grate cheese over pastry sheet (one cheese on one pastry sheet).

Press the cheese into the pastry sheet. The pastry should have thawed sufficiently in the time it took you to grate/shred the cheese for you to press the cheese firmly into it.

Cut the pastry into long, thin strips (straws). Yes, I do this after I put the cheese on top and it works well.

Line a biscuit tin or flat baking sheet with baking paper. Arrange the straws on the tin with 2 - 5 cm between straws to allow for expansion.

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes (mine took 13 minutes). Allow to cool completely on baking tin out of oven. Store in an airtight container.

A few final notes:

Remember that firmer cheeses will work better in this recipe. The soft cheeses melt too quickly and tend to run all over the place causing a mess!
You can dress these straws up by sprinkling herbs (rosemary chopped up very fine works well, as does sage) or paprika for more adult tastes.
If you're using a blue cheese, go for the firm blue cheeses rather than the blue castello.

Something's Fishy

2010-07-29T01:13:00.000+08:00

As part of the "no red meat during the week" campaign, we've been increasing our intake of seafood. Bouillabaisse seemed like the perfect fit.

I've wanted to have a go at this scrumptious seafood soup for a long time, but have avoided it largely because my youngest son hasn't coped well with seafood. His intolerance seems to be improving now and, more importantly, he's keen to try more.

I was afraid this was going to be a complicated dish with lots of obscure ingredients, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy.

So here's my version of a perennial favourite.

Cheat's Bouillabaisse
Ingredients:

2tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 red onions, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tin diced tomatoes
4 bay leaves
generous pinch of saffron
salt and pepper
orange peel from 1 orange (use a zester)
1 cup good white wine
750ml fish stock, warmed
500g clams
250g prawns (shelled and deveined)
250g scallops
500g Spanish mackerel, cubed
1 smoked trout, skinned, filleted and shredded
1/2 cup coriander /cilantro leaves (leaves only)

Rouille:

2tbsps hot fish stock
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup white bread, crusts cut off
1 red chilli
1/2tsp salt

Method:

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a heavy based pan. Add onions, garlic and bay leaves and fry till onions are translucent.

Add tomatoes, saffron and orange peel and cook gently for around 5 minutes.

Add white wine and fish stock and bring to the boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 20 minutes.

This is a good time to make the rouille if you're using it. Put fish stock in the bottom of a blender or food processor. Add garlic, chilli, salt and bread. Blend until very smooth. With the food processor still running, add the olive oil in a slow drizzle (it's like making mayonnaise). Stop blending when the oil is incorporated. Place the rouille in a bowl ready to serve with the soup - use sparingly like you would Tabasco sauce.

When the soup has simmered for 20 minutes, raise the heat and add clams. When clams pop open (this is fun, it's a bit like watching popcorn - use a glass lid on your pot so you can see it), add the mackerel. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add scallops and prawns and cook for a further 5 minutes.

To serve, place the bouillabaisse in a bowl, sprinkle the shredded smoked trout and the coriander leaves over the top. Allow each person to add their own rouille.

Serves 4 - 6

What's Up Doc?

2010-07-28T11:51:00.000+08:00

I've been wanting to try my hand at cooking rabbit for some time now. As a meat, it completely intrigues me. Not quite red meat in a beef kind of way, but not white meat like chicken or pork either. So today, I decided to get some from my lovely local butcher (the trip there is always fun since he flirts like mad with all the customers!). He very kindly chopped it up for me and gave me lots of encouragement.

I trawled both recipe books and the internet for recipes and in the end, came up with a mish-mash that I'm pretty happy with. It's a bit reminiscent Coq au vin, but here it is...

Rabbit Stew
Ingredients:

1 rabbit (chopped into small pieces by the lovely butcher)
2 brown onions, finely sliced
2 large cloves garlic, whole
3 strips pancetta, finely sliced
3 medium carrots, cubed
3 bay leaves
4 - 5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
8 medium-sized button mushrooms, halved
1/2 small fennel bulb, finely sliced
1/3 cup good red wine
2 tbsps good quality balsamic vinegar
1 litre water or chicken stock

Flour for dredging:

1/2 cup plain flour
2 tsps salt
2 tsps smoked paprika (Spanish paprika is really good)

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C.

Mix flour, salt and paprika. Dredge rabbit in flour and keep aside.

Heat oil in heavy based pan and fry pancetta strips till crispy. Remove and reserve for the end.

Brown garlic pods gently. Remove and reserve.

Brown rabbit pieces, a few at a time. Remove and reserve.

Fry onions and mushrooms. Add a little salt (a pinch is plenty) as this helps to soften the onions quickly. When the onions are translucent, add the browned garlic, fennel, carrot and bay leaves. Fry for a few minutes until fennel softens.

Arrange rabbit pieces on top. Add water/stock, red wine and balsamic vinegar. Taste for seasoning and add salt if required.

Bring to the boil then transfer to the oven. Cook in oven for 1 1/2 hours or until rabbit is tender and comes easily off the bone.

Sprinkle the reserved pancetta on top just before serving. Serve hot.

Ebony and Ivory....

2010-07-24T17:30:00.000+08:00

Brownies seem to be making a come back and this weekend, I offered to make brownies for my godson's birthday party. Never one to take the road most travelled, I wondered what brownies would be like with white chocolate instead.

Let me tell you, they're delicious. That's a huge admission coming from someone who divides the world into "those who like white chocolate" and "those with taste". This particular use of white chocolate has even me admitting that it may have its uses.

Needless to say, they don't come out a rich brown colour, but they are a satisfying caramel colour. My youngest son has decided that they also deserve a name change, so in our house, we're calling them "Whities".

Whities
Ingredients

125g white chocolate (roughly chopped or use "melts")
125g butter, cubed
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups caster (superfine) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (get the best quality)
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1/4 tsp baking powder, sifted
100g peanuts, roughly chopped

Method
Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease a 20 x 30cm baking tin and line base and sides with baking paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of hot water, stirring until smooth. Allow to cool a little.

In an electric mixer or food processor, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla for 3 - 4 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Add the sifted flour and baking powder and beat until smooth. Stir in the nuts.

Spoon the misture into the prepared baking tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until caramel coloured and the top has formed a crust. DO NOT OVERCOOK - this isn't a cake and should be soft and moist in the middle.

Allow to cool in the tin. Remove and cut into squares or rectangles. Dust with icing sugar. Whities can be stored in an airtight container for 3 - 4 days or frozen for longer.

For the regular Brownies, substitute the same amount of dark chocolate.

Deviation from the Theme!

2010-06-22T08:51:00.000+08:00

So after making the claim that I'm returning to my roots and becoming a river to my people, I completely deviated from the theme last night. It was bruschetta made with a ceviche of Tasmanian salmon for entrée, Tandoori Red Snapper, rice and roasted brussel sprouts for mains and pumpkin pie with a biscuit crust for dessert.

So here's the Ceviche Bruschetta recipe...

Tasmanian Salmon Ceviche Bruschetta (this is NOT a weight-watcher's recipe!)

2 medium sized Tasmanian salmon fillets (skin off)
1 red onion
1 red chilli
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 - 2 limes
salt to taste
fresh basil leaves
fresh corriander (cilantro) leaves
1 - 2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
2 tbsp olive oil
100g butter
Ciabatta or similar bread, sliced

Dice the onion and chilli finely and place in a glass/ceramic bowl. Chiffonade the herbs and add them with the zest of one lime to the onion and chilli. Slice the salmon into 2 inch long pieces that are so thin they're almost translucent. Mix with the onion mix and squeeze the limes over. Add salt to taste and mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for around 4 hours.

Just before you're ready to serve, heat a heavy-based pan with the oil and butter in it. Add the garlic and fry gently. Add the bread slices and fry until golden brown and crispy. Remove from pan and drain. Discard the garlic.

Dice the tomatoes very finely and mix through the ceviche at the last minute when you're ready to serve. Pile the ceviche on top of the bread and serve.

Serves = 12 slices of bread

I'll post the Tandoori fish, brussel sprouts and pumpkin pie recipes by and by...

Home-land cooking

2010-06-21T08:29:00.000+08:00

Recently I've been exploring a few new avenues for food. Well, one old avenue and one new one.

The New...
We're aiming, as a family, to eat less meat...at least during the weekdays. The ultimate goal is to not eat anything with a face during the week, and paint the town red (meat) at the weekends if we feel like it. Even this small adjustment to our diet should have some nice pay-offs.

It should improve the state of our health (and waistlines) for a start and then there's the additional benefit to the environment. So how did this all come about? From watching another episode of TED talks, of course. Graham Hill makes a good case for weekday vegetarianism, but we're not game enough to go the whole-hog just yet (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html). So we're doing this in small increments. We figure we can manage not eating red meat during the week. We could even manage without poultry or pork, but we need something. So what's our solution? Seafood.

Seems simple, doesn't it? The problem is, I have one child who doesn't like shellfish particularly (I'm convinced there's probably a food intolerance at play there). That limits the seafood options. So faced with the prospect of fish every week night for dinner, I've been plumbing the depths of my, admittedly shallow, repertoire of culinary knowledge. So what's my epiphany? Return to my roots.

And the Old...
My father's family comes from Ponani, one of the oldest ports in Kerala, a tiny town and an important fishing centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponnani). They lived and breathed fish. My memories of holidays at his home include eating fish at every meal... every meal...even breakfast. We're not talking smoked kippers here, we're talking serious fish curries...and hot. My sister remembers eating a fish curry for breakfast on the first day of her six week stay at my Grandmother's house and then having a stomach upset as a result of the chilli for the remainder of the six weeks! This is not cooking for the faint-hearted, or tender-stomached.

It is, however, a tidy solution to my week-day meat-free dilemma - eat fish and introduce the children to an important part of their cultural heritage and my childhood at the same time. It also doesn't hurt that it's a good way to acclimatise them to higher levels of chilli before an impending trip to India. So the recipes I'll be posting for the next little while will draw on my rich cultural heritage and reflect the cuisine of my father's family. I hope I do them justice...

Kedgeree - a hearty start to the day

2010-04-19T14:15:00.000+08:00

Kedgeree is a terrific way to start the day. The version of kedgeree that's popularly made is a British dish. It's thought to have originated from kitcherie or kitchiri - an Indian vegetarian dish made with rice and lentils.

The story goes that the British brought a version of this dish back during colonial times. The British version incorporates fish (usually a smoked variety). My version uses beautiful fresh fillets and was made mild enough for the kids to enjoy.

It's filling, delicious and a brilliant way to start the day.

Ingredients
2 cups (160ml cup) Basmati rice
4 x 160ml cups water
200 - 250g Tasmanian salmon fillet
200 - 250g blue groper fillet
200 - 250g pink snapper fillet
6 - 8 spring onions
1 red onion
1 inch piece ginger diced
1 red chilli (more if you like it hot) diced
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
200ml cream
5 eggs hard boiled and diced

Method

Wash the rice in cold tap water to remove as much starch as possible. You can skip this process if you like, but it will make the final product more stodgey and less fluffy.
Cook the rice in the 4 cups of water as you normally would (I like to use either a rice cooker or cook it in the microwave).
While the rice is cooking, slice the fish very finely, dice the eggs, onions, chilli and ginger and chop the spring onion.
Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and fry the onion until translucent.
Add the chilli and ginger and fry for another minute or two.
Add the fish and turmeric and stir gently until the fish is just cooked. This will only take a few minutes.
Add the cream and diced eggs and mix through.
Add salt to your tastes. Turn off the heat.
Once the rice is cooked, fluff it with a fork, mix it in and add the chopped spring onion.

This is a really quick and easy recipe. The real secret to the flavour lies in using really fresh firm fish.

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

2010-04-02T17:07:00.000+08:00

So I woke up this morning and thought "it's Good Friday...and I feel like making hot cross buns". I knew I had a recipe somewhere that I could tweak. Since I've found a brilliant pizza dough recipe, I tend to use it as the basis for pretty much everything - including these hot cross buns.

Ingredients

50g castor sugar (plus 1 level teaspoon)
1 tbsp yeast
450g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp mixed spice
75g currants
50g chocolate buttons or melts
50 ml warmed milk
1 egg beaten
50g softened butter
150ml warm water

For the Glaze

2 tbsps sugar
2 tbsps water

Method

Preheat oven to 220C.
Mix milk and water and heat in microwave for 1.5 - 2 mins.
Put all ingredients except egg, milk and water into a food processor and mix. Add egg while mixing.
Gradually add milk and water while while running the food processor. Mix until dough comes together.
Mix for a further 2 minutes.
Place dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until at least doubled in size.
Beat down to original size, shape into 12 buns and place on baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Allow to rise.
While this is happening, make the dough for the crosses.
Mix 110g plain flour and 2 tbsps of water into a dough. Roll out thinly and cut into strips.
Dampen the buns and place the strips over in a cross pattern (tuck them just under the bun).
Bake for 25 minutes until golden. Place a tray of hot water into the oven (this helps to keep the buns moist).
While baking, make the glaze.
Melt the sugar and water over a gentle heat.
When the buns are cooked, take them out of the oven and brush with the glaze while still hot (this helps the glaze to be absorbed).
Allow to cool thoroughly and store in an airtight container.

This recipe is very simple and quick. It's a great last-minute recipe.

Happy Easter!

Scrumptious Sweet Scrolls

2010-03-31T20:49:00.000+08:00

Sweet scrolls make a perfect tea time treat!

I had made a Vegemite and cheese version of these delicious scrolls first and they had proved to be such a hit that I thought I'd try the sweet version. The basic dough recipe comes from an adaptation of the pizza dough recipe I use (which was from Larousse Gastronomique).

Ingredients

3 cups plain flour
2 1/2 tsps yeast
1 1/2 tbsps sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsps olive oil
300 - 350 ml warm water (I microwave for 1.5 - 2 mins)
3 cups mixed sultanas, raisins, cranberries (dried) and candied peel
2 tbsps brown sugar (Muscovado sugar adds a really rich flavour)
Strawberry or apricot jam (for glazing)

Method

Preheat oven to 200C.
Place flour, yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil into food processor with dough hook and mix.
Add warm water slowly while mixing (don't turn the machine off) till dough comes together and is smooth.
Continue to mix for a minute or two longer (this means you won't have to knead it afterwards).
Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
Leave in a warm spot for an hour or until at least doubled in size.
While dough is rising, mix the brown (or Muscovado) sugar and fruit and allow to macerate.
When dough has risen, divide in half and roll each half very thin into a rectangle - I find rolling between two sheets of baking paper works well.
Sprinkle the fruit-sugar mix over the dough and roll the rectangle into a log from the long end. You should end up with a long log of dough.
Seal the edge and cut into 4cm pieces.
Arrange the pieces close together (not touching) on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake for 20 - 22 mins until scrolls are puffed and nicely browned.
Remove from the oven. Heat the jam and brush onto the scrolls while warm (not hot - DON'T BOIL THE JAM).
Allow the scrolls to cool thoroughly, store in an airtight container and enjoy!

Here's a tip about the bowl you place your dough in - if it's too wide, your dough won't rise nicely. Aim for a deep bowl instead, this will allow your dough to rise beautifully.