Cooking Journal

Impromptu Apple Pie

2020-07-04T18:51:00.002+10:00

One night I felt like making an impromptu dessert after dinner. I looked in the pantry and spied a can of apple pie slices.

Then I opened the freezer and found a packet of butter puff pastry. I left it on the bench to defrost a little to become pliable.

I opened the 800g tin of apple pie slices.

Then my eldest son mixed 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 2 TBS brown sugar, 2 TBS white sugar, and a squeeze of lemon into the pie filling.

This boy loves helping me in the kitchen

Then I greased a pie dish with butter and lined it with one square of butter puff pastry, stretching and pulling the pastry (which was now soft) up the edges of the dish.

Then I filled the lined pie dish with 3/4 apple pie filling (I reserved the rest to make a strudel with the left over sheet of puff pastry in the packet).

Then I topped it all with another square of butter puff pastry. I had to stretch the pastry a little to cover the gaps. And then trim the edges to make it look nicer.

My husband who was curiously watching me make the pie decided to make a little apple out of left over pastry to decorate the top of the pie while I made a little strudel with the left over sheet of pastry in the packet, and left over pie filling.

We brushed it with an egg wash (one egg beaten).

And put it in the oven at 200 degrees Celcius for about 20-25 minutes until it was golden and cooked through.

I dusted icing sugar on it and sat it in the now switched off oven for a few minutes to settle.

Once it came out of the oven again and was resting on the stove top, the kids walked past and my youngest ran over.

I spy apple pie

It looked so good.

And it was absolutely delicious.

Yes it was.

And it was so easy and quick to make.

It went BEAUTIFULLY with vanilla ice-cream.

And a few nights later I just had to make it again.

Bye 👩

Sourdough Focaccia (with Onion, Olives, and Rosemary)

2020-06-22T14:31:00.002+10:00

The other day I could smell a wonderful aroma coming from the kitchen. And there was my husband sauteing onions.

'What are you making?'

'Sourdough focaccia'.

He really likes to cook complicated things, whereas I like easy meals. He finds cooking pleasurable, but I find it a nuisance at times because my kids distract me from it. And I feel rushed and stressed.

If my husband is cooking, I know that the outcome will be good. And it was. The sourdough focaccia was amazing.

It was a lovely lunchtime treat thoroughly enjoyed with my lunchtime coffee.
The photo does not do it justice.

Below is his recipe.

He's had a decade experience in hospitality which can be a good or bad thing. Good because he knows what he's doing when he's in the kitchen. Bad because I don't know what I'm doing in the kitchen- and I'm the one mostly in it churning out meals for the family. And every now and then I make a flop. But he never makes a flop.

You do need sourdough starter, but there are plenty of websites that explain how to make your own. It's pretty easy.

Start the evening before.

Ingredients
500g Flour
300g Water
150g Starter
Big pinch of salt
Sauteed onions (sliced onions fried in oil)
Fresh rosemary for sprinkling on
Olives (pitted and sliced. About a handful)
Olive oil
Brine solution (salt/water mixture. A little bit of water mixed with 1/2 tsp salt)

Combine the flour, water, starter. and salt in a greased bowl.
Every hour turn the bowl and fold the dough in on itself.
After a few turns and folds, pop the bowl in the fridge overnight.
The next day take the bowl out of the fridge and let it sit out at room temp for about 2 hours.
After it rests, punch down the dough and spread it out into it a greased pyrex dish. We used a 19 X 13 inch rectangular dish.
Drizzle olive oil on the spread-out dough.
Then gently spoon the onions on top, and sprinkle the olives and rosemary on top of the focaccia.
Then sprinkle the saline solution over the focaccia and lightly press your fingertip all over the bread, making indentations.
Let the bread rise for about 2 hours.
Bake in pre-heated oven at 210 degrees Celcius for 30-35 minutes.
Cool on wire rack when it's finished baking so the base does not get soggy.

Enjoy 👩

Pressure Cooker Rice Pudding- really good!

2020-06-21T16:47:00.000+10:00

Rice pudding with apricot jam

One day I felt like a rice pudding. My mum and grandparents make rice pudding on the stove top.
But on this day I felt a little ~~lazy~~ time-poor and wondered what would happen if I used their recipe and cooked it in the pressure cooker.

It did work out, the flavor was there- although the consistency was really stodgy! And as it cooled down it became even stodgier. No one liked it. I decided to tell Elizabeth.

(If you are curious to see this mistake, scroll down to the bottom of this post).

So I added more milk and sugar the next time I made it, and it turned out great!

(So great that from now on I will only make this in the pressure cooker).

I love making it like this because I just have to put the ingredients in, hit a button, walk away, and within 20 minutes it is ready to be eaten.

Here's how I make it.

Serves 4-6 (depending on age and appetite)

Ingredients.
1 cup of medium grain rice
1 cup of sugar
6 cups full cream milk
Optional- Jam, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate powder.

Put the rice, sugar, and milk in the pressure cooker bowl. Stir.
Close and lock the lid.
Follow your pressure cookers instruction guide.
For my machine I set it to its preset 'rice setting'. (My pressure cookers rice setting is 50 kPa/ 10 minutes).
Let it depressurize.
When finished, unlock and open lid.
Decant rice pudding into bowls.

The rice pudding is milky when you first put it in bowls. But as it cools down it will thicken and become creamy.

Here are some photos.

What it looks like warm

After being chilled in the fridge.

I love serving this with cinnamon.

But my all time favorite topping is Apricot Jam.😋

And I like my rice pudding warm.

Enjoy 👩

P.S

(Here's a pic of a stodgy rice pudding made with only 4 cups of milk...)

This is what it looked like as soon as I opened the lid. A very stodgy rice pudding. By the time it cooled down it was beyond stodge and was on its way to become cement.

There's no point buying fancy dinnerware when all your kids are under 10.

Saturday Sushi Night (buying it is easier)

2020-06-20T21:20:00.004+10:00

Tonight we my husband decided to make sushi at home.

He went out during the day and bought the ingredients. He even bought a little bamboo mat.

After making the vinegared sushi-rice, he peeled and sliced avocado, drained some tuna.

All the kids came flocking to the kitchen bench. (They absolutely love sushi).

Out came the Japanese mayonnaise, soy sauce, wasabi paste, and mat.

Very patiently he rolled up seven individual rolls and sliced them.

He gave the kids a turn at making their own roll too.

'Do you want to make your roll?' He asked me.

'You can make it for me.' I replied.

And it turned out nice.

Try it one day 👩

Palestinian Lentil Soup (My iPhone fell into the soup🙉)

2020-06-13T12:24:00.001+10:00

I love this. It's a popular Palestinian soup, easy and economical. It can be made with basic pantry staples, and it tastes great. The kids love it.

A few nights ago I wasn't sure what to cook. I didn't feel like last minute grocery shopping, neither did I feel like take-away.

Peering into the pantry I could see a bag of red lentils...

So I decided to make a Palestinian lentil soup.

Everything went well until I dropped my iPhone into the bowl of hot soup. This happened when I took the photo of the soup...Time seemed to move in slow motion as I saw my phone ever-so slowly leave my hands and gently plop into the bowl followed by a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach...

Then time burst into action as I yelled out 'Oh ****! I dropped my phone!'
'Pull it out,' my husband very patiently replied.
'I can't, it's too hot!'
And my wonderful husband (God bless him for containing himself) got up and fished the phone out with a spoon. Then he placed my phone in a bowl of uncooked rice where it sat for a few days.

Miraculously my phone works pretty fine. Except when I make phone-calls the audio is quite faint, like I'm calling someone from a submarine...but all things considering, I'm lucky that it pretty much still works.

Ingredients.

500g red lentils (washed in a sieve under running water until the water runs clear)
1 large brown onion (peeled and finely chopped)
1/4 C olive oil
2 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Litres water
Salt and Pepper
Lemon wedges for serving
Bread (for serving)

Fry the chopped onion in a large saucepan in the olive oil on medium high heat until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant.
Add the washed lentils to the pot with the onions and stir. Add the spices, salt and pepper, and stir again.
Add the 2 litres of water to the pot.
Bring to a boil but keep an eye on the pot while you are bringing the water to the boil as you do not want the water to boil over the pot. (Choose a pot where the water will come up to the pot half way).
Lower the heat to a simmer.
Cook for 45 minutes until the lentils are soft, thickened and creamy.
If the lentils are too thick, add water to your liking.
Serve with lemon wedges, bread, and a salad.

Nonetheless, it was nice meal.

Enjoy 👩

Easy Apricot Strudel

2020-06-12T14:29:00.001+10:00

On the night I made the Cheeseburger Casserole, I also made Apricot Strudel for dessert. The kids loved this. They ate so much. Thankfully this recipe yields 6 strudels. So we had plenty of leftovers to eat the next night for dessert.

I used to make this when I was living with my parents. This recipe was adapted from a little Austrian cookbook that mum owned: 'Austrian Cooking' by Gretel Beer. The recipe called for fresh apricots and homemade puff pastry. But because I was a full-time shift-worker I made some changes to the recipe as I didn't have much time. Come to think of it I still don't have much time.

Recipe

820g tin of apricot halves, drained.
Apricot jam (about a cup, but you may need more)
Frozen shop bought puff pastry (Pack of 6 sheets)
White sugar
1 egg (for egg wash- beaten with a fork)
Icing sugar (optional)
Whipped cream (for serving). Not optional.

Peel the puff pastry sheets apart and set on work bench to defrost a little so it's pliable and not hard. But don't wait too long, otherwise it'll get too soft and difficult to work with.
Make a rectangle by cutting an inch strip off one side of the square sheet. Set aside this strip to use for decorating the strudel later.
Spread with apricot jam down the center of the rectangle.
Place apricots on top of the jam.
Sprinkle the apricots with sugar. I also like to sprinkle extra sugar all over the rectangle.
An easy recipe that the kids can help with
Tuck one side of the pastry over the apricots and jam, brush with egg, and then fold over the other side of the pastry.
Tuck the ends in and seal the edges by gently pressing them together. If you want you could use a fork to push the ends down.
With the left over pastry strips, I like to make a 'kind-of lattice' design on the strudel log.
Place the strudel on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.
Brush the beaten egg on the strudel. Avoid brushing the egg on the cut edge of the pastry.
'Kind-of lattice' design.
I had 6 people talking to me at once whilst shaping and brushing these. So I was a bit distracted.
Repeat steps for the next strudel. Keep the strudels about 1 cm apart on the baking tray.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius until golden. About 20-25 minutes. Don't burn them or the jam (that oozes out of the strudel) will burn and will taste a bit bitter. Keep an eye on your strudels.
When the strudels are baked, you can dust with icing sugar. But I don't always use icing sugar for mine, especially if I've sprinkled sugar all over the pastry rectangle before folding and shaping the strudels.
After dusting with icing sugar, return the strudels to the switched-off oven for a few minutes.

Jam will ooze out of the strudels no matter how hard you try to seal the pastry.

This makes 6 strudels.

SERVE WITH WHIPPED CREAM or vanilla ice-cream. But I prefer whipped cream for this.

Cheeseburger Casserole

2020-06-10T22:08:00.001+10:00

The kids love cheeseburgers.
Buying take-away for all seven of us can be quite expensive. Gone are the days when buying McDonalds was a cheap dinner. For all of us it usually costs 60-70 dollars.

Then I stumbled across heaps of recipes on the internet for 'Cheeseburger Casserole'. And the recipes looked so yummy and convenient that I thought I'd give it a go.

The recipe I was inspired by tonight was from the website 12 Tomatoes.

Here's how I made it (adapted from 12 Tomatoes)

500g beef mince
1 brown onion finely chopped
2 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp mustard powder
200g tinned chopped tomatoes
salt
pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
12 vintage cheddar cheese slices
12 soft round bread rolls (cut in half)
Sesame seeds for sprinkling on top

Glaze

125g butter
1 heaped tbs brown sugar
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs mustard (I used 'Australian mustard' because I saw it at the shops today and thought I'd try it)

So I browned the mince on each side (without breaking it up) in a non-stick fry-pan on medium high heat, and then added the onions, garlic paste, the spices, mustard powder, salt and pepper. I then stirred and broke up the mince until the meat was cooked through and the onions were soft.

Then I added the tinned tomatoes, stirred it through and lowered the heat.
In the meantime I lined a large tray with aluminum and baking paper and placed the bottom half of the rolls in the tray neatly next to one another in rows.
Then I spooned the meat mixture onto each bread roll bottom evenly.

Then a slice of cheese was placed on top of each roll.

Followed by the bread roll tops.

Then I made the glaze which was really straight forward. I melted the butter in a small saucepan on medium heat with the sugar, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. I'm not sure if it's because I used Australian mustard, but the glaze was a bit grainy. So I whisked it for a bit and that made it smoother.
Then I brushed the glaze on the top of the buns. There was a lot of glaze, so after each bun was brushed, I then slowly poured out the remains of the glaze onto each bun. I didn't want dry burgers.

Once the buns were glazed and in the oven, my three year old proceeded to gleefully glaze the rest of the house

Then we sprinkled sesame seeds on top.
Then I baked the tray in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius until the buns turned a nice golden brown and the cheese was bubbling. This took about 25 minutes.

They looked great!

I served them with chips (a bag of frozen fries) and a green salad with red onion, avocado and pickles.

We like pickles in our burgers but some of our kids do not. Strangely they will eat pickles from the jar but they won't eat them in burgers. Therefore I put the pickles in the salad. It was a nice salad.

And there you go: a cheap and convenient cheeseburger fix. Everybody really enjoyed it. And the cheeseburger was so filling- I could only eat one.

For dessert we had apricot strudel with whipped cream which I will post tomorrow.

Ciao 👩

Custard Flan

2020-06-09T09:50:00.001+10:00

This recipe came from the Irish Times. The flan is supposed to have a blackened wrinkled top.

It was my husband who made the flan and he would have left it in the oven longer to blacken the top of it but since I was dancing anxiously in front of the oven constantly screaming 'it's burning!' he decided to spare himself the headache and just took it out.

So it came out of the oven early.

The blackened pastry was trimmed, which is a good thing as those burnt bits were hard and bitter.

Trimmed of the burnt pastry

Overall the custard flan was ok. The custard was not too eggy nor sweet and it had a smooth texture. It was not rubbery but it was firm.The pastry was crisp and light.

The kids ate a small piece but didn't ask for seconds. They prefer chocolate cake or ice-cream. So we had a lot of left over flan. In fact, it is now two days later and I am eating a piece with my morning coffee while typing this up.

Bye for now 👩

Quick Pumpkin Soup and My Favorite Bread Recipe.

2020-06-07T10:51:00.001+10:00

It was nearing 3pm on Saturday and I wasn't sure what to cook for dinner. I had some left-overs from last night, but not enough to feed seven of us. I was tempted to ask husband to pick up some take-away but we are budgeting at the moment. And then I spotted a lonesome butternut pumpkin sitting on the counter.

Now because I know my kids are fussy and probably would not like pumpkin soup, I thought I would make a loaf of bread to accessorize the meal a bit. This is my go-to bread recipe. It has never failed.

The bread was started late in the afternoon and since it was quite chilly, I had the bread rising and proving in a lightly pre-warmed (not too warm) oven. It worked quite well.

My six year old jumped into the photo

The soup was easy to make. I didn't refer to a recipe but just peeled and chopped the pumpkin, popped it into a large saucepan, covered the pumpkin with water, and added chicken stock powder, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Then I had it simmering for a bit until the pumpkin was soft. Finally my husband whizzed it all with a stick blender.

Only my husband, my nine year old son, and I ate the soup. I added some cheese to my soup and stirred it through. It was nice.

The others ate the warm bread with lots of butter and last night's left-overs.

It used to irk me when no one ate my dinner. But now it doesn't bother me. If anyone complains, they can eat toast.

Here is my bread recipe:

3C of flour
1 1/4 C warm (not hot) water
1 sachet of yeast
2 TBS sugar or honey
2 TBS oil (I usually use sunflower)
1 tsp salt.
Sesame seeds (optional)

Mix the yeast with the warm water, sugar, salt, oil in a large bowl.
Slowly add the flour to the bowl, and combine until it comes together.
Knead the bread on a lightly floured surface until stretchy and elastic. If it's too sticky add flour. If it's too dry, add water. But you shouldn't have to. A lightly floured surface and hands dusted with flour should be enough if you have measured everything correctly.
Roll the dough into a ball and rest it until it doubles in size.
Punch down the dough ball.
Shape into desired loaf. If you use a loaf tin, make sure you grease it first.
Let the dough rise until it doubles in size again.
I like to brush a little oil on the top of the loaf and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

Enjoy. 👩