Dave's Home Cooking

Chilli Mayonaise

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000+10:00

I tried making my own mayonnaise before I bought a food processor without much luck. Using just a whisk I was never able to get the right consistency (it was always very runny). Now that I have a food processor though, it's really easy to make mayonnaise and it comes out thick and creamy!

This is the chilli version that Teena and I both like, but we also make plain one with Dijon mustard and a garlic mayonnaise that I like. I hear people talking about ranch dressing all the time but have yet to attempt that ( I don't think it's as popular in Australia as it is in America).

Chilli Mayonnaise

Ingredients
1 egg yolk
150ml canola oil
1 tbs hot chilli sauce
salt

Place egg yolk and 1 tsp oil in food processor.
Blend for 20 seconds. With processor turned on, slowly drizzle oil into the top funnel.
Start with a very thin stream and increase as the mixture thickens.
After half the oil has been added, add a pinch of salt (to taste). Add remaining oil slowly.
Once all the oil has been added, add the chilli and continue mixing until it is mixed through.

A jar of Chilli Mayonnaise

Beef Casserole with Rosemary Dumplings

2012-02-09T09:00:00.000+10:00

Lots of vegies!

There's nothing like a nice casserole or stew to warm you up in winter. But it's not winter in Australia at the moment, it's actually quite hot. That didn't stop us from making this delicious dish the other night. We love the dumplings, they really make the dish in our opinion. The best thing about a dish like this is that you can add just about anything you have on hand.

Ingredients

500g casserole steak, cut into small chunks
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 large Clove garlic, sliced
1 red capsicum, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 can red kidney beans
1 cup frozen green beans
1 sweet potato, roughly chopped
1 potato, roughly chopped
1 cup pumpkin, roughly chopped
2 tbs plain flour
4 cups vegetable stock (or beef stock)
1/4 cup wine

Rosemary Dumplings

(2/3 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
25g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbs rosemary leaves
2 tbs milk

Sponsered by... ???

Heat oil in pan. Add steak and stir until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
Heat some more oil. Add onion, capsicum and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes on high.
Add carrots, kidney beans, green beans, potato, sweet potato and pumpkin. Cook for 5 minutes stirring often.
Stir in flour and cook for a few more minutes. Add stock and wine. Bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

The dumplings soak up the delicious stew.

To make the dumplings, sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add butter and rub until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in rosemary, salt and pepper. Add milk and mix until you have a soft dough. Add the dumplings into the casserole and cook a further 20-30 minutes until dumplings are cooked through (test with a skewer).

Ready to eat!

The Rosemary was dried from the plants in our potted garden. You can read more about our rosemary on my wife Teena's blog, flushedwithrosycolour.

Hot chilli sauce

2012-02-06T09:00:00.000+10:00

I love chillies. I've grown them for years and often make my own chilli relish with fresh chillies Straight from the garden. Sometimes I dry them as well and make my own dried chilli flakes.

A bowl of chillies fresh from the garden.

Today I noticed there was a nice crop of chillies on my plants when I looked out the window, but I already have a jar of chilli relish in the fridge. So I decided to make some hot chilli sauce instead.
I found a simple recipe that popped up a couple of times when I was searching for recipes and added some extra ingredients to add to the flavour.

Chopped chillies, ready to go.

Ingredients
200g chilli peppers, ends removed and roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tsp lime juice

Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly for 8 minutes.
Transfer the sauce to a blender and blitz it for a minute or so until you have a nice consistency.
Pour into clean sterilised jars.

A jar of chilli sauce ready for tasting.

It turned out really good. It's very hot but that's how I like it. You can always blend it together with some tomato sauce or something if it turns out to be too hot, or replace some of the chillies with capsicums. I think I might use some of this to make some chilli mayonaise tomorrow...

Hint: If you get chilli on your hands while chopping them and it starts to burn, rub your hands on something made from stainless steel (like your kitchen sink or a large spoon). Sounds weird but it works!

I think these are jalapeño peppers

Visit Teena's blog for more about our chilli garden.

Macaroni and Cheese

2012-02-05T06:57:00.000+10:00

Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon

There are some foods that Thomas seems to like more then others. Macaroni is one of his favourites as it's easy for him to pick up and eat. Last night we decided to make a simple Macaroni and Cheese and it was a hit! The recipe is adapted from the Classic Macaroni and Cheese receipe at Taste.com.au, the only variation being that I added bacon.

Ingredients

400g macaroni
50g butter
2 tbs plain flour
2 cups milk
2 cups grated cheese (I used Tasty Cheese)

Cook the macaroni in a large pot of boiling water until al dente.
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add bacon and fry for a few minutes until the bacon is cooked.
Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute on a medium heat.
Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth and the mixture comes to the boil.
Remove from heat and add the cheese, stirring until melted and smooth.
Drain pasta and add to sauce mixture, stir until well mixed and pasta is coated with the cheese mixture.

Best eaten with your fingers.

Thomas prefers foods that he can pick up and eat himself as he doesn't like to be spoon fed (unless it's home made custard). The Macaroni and Cheese was easy for him to eat as it sticks together nicely.

That was yummy!

As always, it's not a proper meal unless you get it everywhere. Luckily he got most of it in his mouth this time and not too much in his hair or on the floor. I think that means he really likes it!

Thomas

2012-02-04T17:11:00.002+10:00

It's hard to believe that it has been over a year since I have posted to this blog. How time flies when you're having... fun? Well mostly fun anyway. Our son Thomas was born in December 2010, two months premature due to a condition called HELLP syndrome.

Thomas in his humidicrib.

Thomas spent 7 weeks in the special care nursery at the hospital before he could come home. He weighed only 1.25 kg's when he was born and spent most of his time sleeping. To begin with he had to be fed through the nose with a tube and syringe. If only we could do that now... it would make feeding time so much easier (and cleaner!).

So small...

Home at last... and still sleepy.

Eventually he was allowed to come home. It was difficult at first and a huge adjustment to our peaceful lives. It's been great watching him grow and develop though. Every week there was something new he was doing.

Starting to lift his head.

Smiling.

Wearing his beanie.

Feeding time...

Feeding him has been a challenge sometimes. He started out on milk of course, but when he started on solids we made our own puree vegetables and froze them in ice cube trays for convenience. Then we started giving him meats and other dishes. Some of his favourites were roast chicken dinner puree, sausage and vegie mash and vegie bake puree. All home made of course. Thomas did not like the store bought puree's at all, except for the pure fruit puree's.

Toe sucking. An important milestone?

And now he's 1 year old. He only has two teeth and he's not quite walking yet but that doesn't stop him from getting into everything he shouldn't be touching. He mostly eats what we eat now and we've taken him to Yum Cha several times and he loves it! His favourite food at Yum Cha is Coconut Ice, he can't get enough of it. Which reminds me... I need to find a recipe and try making some for him.

He's not usually so happy to be in his cot...

Asleep on a rug his mum made him.

Playing with a toy on his birthday.

Eating an ice block for the first time. Home made of course...

1st Birthday cake.

So that's where I've been and hopefully I can find some time here and there to make a few more blog posts. Who knew a baby would be so time consuming? :)

Choc Chip Cookies

2010-10-26T21:07:00.002+10:00

I'd never made choc chip cookies before but thought I would give it a go. After a quick search I found a pretty simple recipe over at Best Recipes. It also gave me a good excuse to use my new electric mixer!

Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup choc chips

Preheat oven to 160°C. Cream butter and sugars. Mix in vanilla essence and egg. Sift in flour until well combined, then add choc chips.

As always, you never know what's going to happen the first time you try a new cookie recipe. The first batch I used too much mixture for each cookie and they flattened out more then I thought they would. So I ended up with some giant cookies!

The next batch I used about a teaspoon of filling and they turned out just right. They only take about 10 minutes to cook and were very tasty!

Steamed Buns

2010-09-04T12:10:00.000+10:00

Here is the recipe for the Steamed Buns I made for my Birthday Feast. Normally these are made with pork as Char Siu Bau at Yum Cha (Dim Sum). As soon as I saw the recipe in my The Food of the World - A Journey for Food Lovers book, I knew I had to make them! We just love going to Yum Cha and this is possibly my favourite dish, though there are so many yummy foods it is hard to choose a favourite. I was very pleased that these worked so well and tasted just like the real thing. I think they may become a regular item on our menu! The dough does take some time to prepare, but once it is ready they are very easy to make and well worth it.

Basic Chinese Yeast Dough
3 tbsp Sugar
1 Cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
400g plain flour
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Place the water, sugar and oil in an electric mixer bowl. Add flour, make a small well on top and add yeast. Mix with dough hook attachment until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. If you don't have an electric mixer you can mix with a wooden spoon, then knead dough on a lightly floured surface. Lightly grease a bowl with some oil, place the dough in the bowl and turn it so that all sides are coated. Cover with a cloth and set aside to rise in a draught free place for 3 hours.

Uncover the dough, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. If you are not ready to use the dough, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and place in fridge until ready. When you are ready to use the it, flatten the dough and make a well in the center. Place the baking powder in the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder. Pinch the edges to seal. Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to evenly incorporate the baking powder. It is not ready to use.

Red Bean Filling
1 tsp oil
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed.
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, finely chopped
3 button mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
3 tsp sugar

Heat the oil in a wok or large frypan. Add the beans and stir fry for about 3 minutes until the beans are soft and breaking up a little. Add the onion, mushrooms and zucchini and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar, cook for a further minute, then leave to cool.

Steamed Buns
Divide the dough into 24 portions. Press a portion into a circle and place 1-2 tsps of the red bean filling into the middle of the dough. Fold the sides up to enclose the filling, pinching the top to seal them completely. Repeat with remaining portions. Place the buns well apart into a steamer. Normally this would be done in a bamboo steamer over a wok but as we didn't have any, I just used a vegetable steamer insert over a saucepan of boiling water. Steam the buns over simmering water for 15 minutes or until the buns are well risen and a skewer inserted into the center comes out hot.

A Birthday Feast

2010-09-03T07:33:00.001+10:00

For my Birthday this year, I decided to cook my own special Birthday feast! As Teena and I both love going to Yum Cha, I wanted to try cooking some myself at home. I'd found a recipe for Sweet Pork Buns in a book... It looked easy enough and I wanted to try it as soon as I saw it, so this was a good opportunity to try it out. So in the end I came up with the following menu:

Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Steamed Sweet Buns, Fried Rice and Hot and Honeyed Chicken Wings

The Vegetarian Spring Rolls were very tasty. Teena doesn't usually like spring rolls, but she did like these one. I found the recipe at Taste.com.au. They were fairly easy to make, but I ended up using all the wrappers and still having a bowl full of vegetables and noodles left over. We just fried that up for dinner though so it wasn't wasted. We froze the leftover spring rolls and they cook up just fine after defrosting them.

The original recipe for these Sweet buns were with a pork filling. As Teena is 16 weeks pregnant, we are being careful with the food she is eating. So I made the filling with red beans instead of pork. I wasn't sure how these would turn out but I was hopeful as i really love these when we go to Yum Cha! I'm happy to say they were delicious! A bit involved as it takes a while to prepare the dough, but once that's done it was fairly easy. They may not look so great in the picture, I should have taken one opened up... But they do taste great, the bun is so sweet and soft, and the filling turned out great as well. You can see the recipe for these here.

I also love fried rice. This one was a little different then usual with some ginger and shredded Chinese cabbage in it. It was nice but I prefer the type you get in a restaurant, something I've never really been able to recreate...

These chicken wings are so tasty! It's really hard to stop eating them... I've made them before though, so you can see the recipe here.

So needless to say, I had a good birthday :)

Baked Cheesecake with Passionfruit Topping

2010-07-24T07:14:00.001+10:00

Teena loves cheesecake, so for her Birthday this year, I made her this Baked Cheesecake with Passionfruit Topping. We've decided to only make one cheesecake per year because after a week of eating a whole cheesecake between the two of us... it felt like we put on a few kgs. Luckily, this year Teena's parents visited her for her Birthday and helped us eat it, so it wasn't so bad. I had meant to get a few more pictures of the cake after it had been sliced, but it just didn't last long enough :) This recipe is based on a recipe found here.

Ingredients
Crust
2 cups ground Arnotts Choc Ripple Biscuits
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling
900g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
Juice from 1/2 lemon, strained
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup heavy cream

Passionfruit Topping
1 tbs cornflour
1/3 cup water
4-5 Passionfruit
1/4 cup caster sugar, extra

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch (20cm) springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

To Make the Crust:
In a mixing bowl, combine the biscuit crumbs and the melted butter with a fork until evenly moistened. Spoon the biscuit mixture into the prepared pan and, using the bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Chill crust in refrigerator until ready to fill.

To Make the Filling:
Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute, until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined, then beat in cream. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the strained lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. Beat until well combined and the mixture is light and fluffy (the batter should be well combined but not overmixed).

Using clean electric beaters or a balloon whisk, whisk the egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, fold beaten egg whites into cream cheese mixture until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the chilled crust. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until just set in the center. Loosen the cheesecake from the sides of the pan by running a thin metal spatula around the inside rim. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours to overnight to set.

To Make the Passionfruit Topping:
Combine the cornflour and water in a small bowl. Transfer to a saucepan. Add the passionfruit and extra sugar. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens. Set aside to cool slightly. Pour over cheesecake. Place in fridge until set.

Moussaka

2010-07-15T13:35:00.001+10:00

I'd never even heard of Moussaka until after I met Teena. She told me her dad had made it all the time and that it was delicious. So she bought me some eggplant, found me a recipe and asked me to make her some. The recipe I use is from Taste.com.au. I've since made Moussaka several times and Teena was right, it is delicious! I have also discovered recently that there are several versions of Moussaka. This one that I make is the Greek version with layered egg plant and white sauce, although I use beef mince instead of lamb mince. There is also a Turkish version which is not layered, but sautéed instead. And other versions which use zucchini or potatoes instead of eggplant.

Ingredients

2 large eggplants
1/4 cup olive oil
500g beef mince
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp allspice
400g can tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chopped parsley
50g butter
2 tbs plain flour
1 1/2 cups milk
pinch of nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup grated cheese

Preheat oven to 180°C. Thinly slice eggplants, then cook in olive oil until golden brown.

Brown mince and onion. Add allspice, tomatoes and water. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in chopped parsley. Layer eggplant on the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Top with a layer of mince. Repeat until you have used up all your ingredients, finishing with a layer of eggplant.

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour, stir for 1 minute. Whisk in milk and stir over medium heat until it boils. Add nutmeg and egg, stir well. Pour mixture over the top of your layered eggplant dish and top with cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

The only thing I would do differently next time is perhaps bake the sliced eggplant as it really absorbs a lot of olive oil when you try to fry it. I'll have to it with lamb mince one day as well.

See more great recipes at Foodie Friday.

Passionfruit Kisses

2010-07-08T06:37:00.002+10:00

We had a handful of passionfruit to use up, and came across this recipe for Passionfruit Melting Moments, although we prefer to call them Passionfruit Kisses. They looked so good we just had to try them!

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cornflour

Passionfruit filling
60g butter
1 large passionfruit
1 cup pure icing sugar

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line two trays with baking paper.
Cream butter, vanilla and icing sugar with an electric mixer (or a hand mixer like the one above if you're feeling energetic!). Once mixture is light and fluffy, add flours and continue to mix until it forms a soft dough.

Roll small teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on trays. Use a fork to flatten each biscuit. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm. They don't change colour much so don't go off that. Cool them completely before adding icing.

To make the passionfruit filling, beat butter until light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp and icing sugar. Spoon 1 tsp of the filling onto the flat side of a biscuit and top with another biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits. Dust with icing sugar.

For us the icing texture was not quite right. It wasn't fluffy enough, perhaps I didn't beat it enough or something. It still worked ok and tasted great, but it should have been thicker and creamier. We will make these again for sure, but I'll try something different with the icing. The biscuits could have been a bit thinner as well, as when you put them together they can be quite thick.

See more great recipes at Foodie Friday.

Missing Comments

2010-07-07T11:42:00.000+10:00

Apparently Blogger is having issues at the moment with comments. I've noticed some comments have gone missing on my blog and some other blogs today. Hopefully they can fix it soon.

Margherita Pizza

2010-07-06T06:52:00.000+10:00

It's the middle of winter here in Australia. The nights and morning can get fairly cold, but when the sun comes out, the days can be quite warm. On the weekend, Teena and I spent a lot of time sitting out in the courtyard in the sun to warm up a bit. Teena did some crocheting, as I looked through some cookbooks for ideas. I came across a page about pizza and it's history. The Margherita pizza's history in particular caught my eye.

"The Margherita, topped with modest amounts of tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil is widely attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito. Esposito worked at the pizzeria "Pietro... e basta così" (literally "Peter... and that's enough") which was established in 1880 and is still operating under the name "Pizzeria Brandi." In 1889, he baked three different pizzas for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen's favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag — green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). This combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor." - Wikipedia.

As Teena was feeling a bit queasy, she requested some simple food (i.e. no fancy ingredients). So I decided to make her a Margherita pizza. We didn't have mozzarella, so I just used tasty cheese. Normally when I make a pizza I load it with onion, capsicum, mushrooms, and other yummy ingredients. So making a pizza with only three toppings was unusual for me. The base was covered with tomato paste, then topped with cheese and basil leaves. So simple.

I have to admit though, it was very good. You can really taste the basil, which was picked fresh from our garden, and it's always nice to be able to use fresh ingredients you've grown yourself. I ended up making four pizzas, eating two and freezing the other two, ready to be cooked next time we feel like pizza.

What's your favourite pizza topping?

Baked Apple Chips

2010-07-05T07:27:00.000+10:00

Whilst looking at other blogs I came across a method of baking slices of apple to make apple chips. It was so easy that I thought I would give it a go. Teena also commented that she liked apple chips and I was curious to see what they tasted like. You can see the original recipe from Patricia at ButterYum.

Step 1.
Preheat Oven to 200°C / 400°F.
Slice and core apples. I wanted to do a heart shape in the middle but was having trouble carving it out with a knife. Then Teena came along showed me the easy way to do it using the apple corer.

Step 2.
Arrange apples on a lightly greased baking tray.

Step 3.
Pop the tray in the oven, reduce heat to 75°C / 170°F.
Bake for 2 hours.

Our chips came out very crunchy. You should be able to make them chewier by taking them out of the oven sooner. I used a sweet apple, Pink Lady, and it was very tasty. You could really taste the flavour of the apple still. We might try it again sometime with a different type of apple, probably baking it a little less to make them a bit more chewier and a little less crunchy.

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

2010-07-03T07:11:00.000+10:00

What do you do when you have too many potatoes? Well, there's a lot of things you could do actually, but we decided to stuff them and bake them!

Most recipes for stuffed baked potatoes have you wrap the potatoes in foil and bake them for an hour before scooping out the flesh and stuffing them. I didn't have that much time though, so I steamed my potatoes for 10 minutes, let them cool slightly and then scooped the flesh out. You could also microwave them if you wanted.

For the filling, I just fried up some onion and garlic, added some white butter beans and smushed them up a little. Spooned the filling into the scooped out potato, added some shredded cheese and baked them for another 20 minutes until the cheese was melted and browned. They were really tasty too. Will have to try them again with some different fillings.

Cauliflower Soup

2010-07-01T07:28:00.000+10:00

When out shopping one day we visited a little cafe and ordered some soup. Teena had Cauliflower and Chilli soup and I had Pumpkin and Coconut soup. Or maybe it was the other way around... either way they were both delicious. Of course we found some recipes to make our own and these are now two of our favourite soups! So when Teena bought a lovely big head of Cauliflower the other day, she requested I make some soup with it. The original recipe for this was a Cream of Cauliflower soup, but we rarely have any cream as it's not something we use very often. We prefer our soups to be chunky and cream free anyway. There should be some dried chilli flakes in there as well but I had run out of those and didn't have any fresh chillies handy.

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil
1 brown onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 large head of cauliflower
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water

Heat oil in a large stockpot or saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft.

Add cumin and coriander, cook stirring for 2 minutes. Add the cauliflower, stock and water. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until cauliflower is soft and breaks apart.

Use a potato masher to break up the cauliflower slightly. This gives it a nice chunky but soft texture, but you can blend it if you prefer it smooth and creamy.

Lime and Ginger Cookies

2010-06-30T07:16:00.002+10:00

Tati over at Polka Dot Pantry Sweets described these cookies as amazing, and I have to agree. Teena and I both love them! Visit Tati's blog if you would like the recipe.

I used a lime from our potted Patio Lime. It was only a small lime though and I think the cookies could have used a bit more lime flavour.

I wouldn't recommend using a hand mixer like this one for making cookies and cakes though... I think I need to get myself a proper electric mixer.

Raspberry Spiced Muffins

2010-06-27T10:45:00.000+10:00

This is our favourite spicy muffin recipe, I just love the combination of spices and the muffins are just delicious! I've made a few different variations by changing the type of berries and nuts. This one uses raspberries and sunflower seeds rather then nuts. The original recipe was for Cranberry Spiced Muffins which I found while trying to find a way to use up some leftover cranberries. I use frozen raspberries as that's how we buy them, but you could use fresh if you prefer.

Ingredients

1 cup frozen raspberries
1 tbs white sugar
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly whisked
1 tbs sunflower seeds, extra
1 tbs brown sugar, extra

Put the frozen berries into a bowl, sprinkle a little white sugar over the top and add 1 tbs boiling water.

Mix the flour, brown sugar, sunflower seeds, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil and egg.

Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and stir until just combined.

Spoon the mix into a 12 cup muffin tray which has been sprayed with cooking oil.

Put the extra sunflower seeds and brown sugar into a mortar and pestle and mix until the seeds are crushed slightly.

Sprinkle the crushed seed mix on top of the muffins and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Try to let them cool just a little before tasting :) What's your favourite muffin flavours?

Pumpkin, Spinach and Eggplant Lasagna

2010-06-25T18:48:00.001+10:00

I had planned to make some Moussaka, but I'd used some of the ingredients the night before, so I looked around for a lasagna recipe with pumpkin and spinach in it. I didn't really find one that I liked, but I had a good idea of how I wanted to do it and I've made traditional lasagna heaps of times. So I just made a lasagna with layers of all the ingredients I wanted to use, pumpkin, spinach and eggplant.

I was also trying some dried wholemeal lasagna sheets which I soaked briefly in some boiling water before using, but you can use any type. I like using fresh lasagna sheets as you don't get any uncooked bits in your lasagna.

Ingredients

Lasagna Sheets
400g Pumpkin
1 bunch Spinach
2 Eggplant
Salt
Olive Oil
2 Brown Onions
400g Tin Diced Tomatoes
2 tbspn Tomato Paste
100g Button Mushrooms
1 tbpsn fresh Oregano
1 qty of Bechamel Sauce

Heat some Olive Oil in a frypan and cook onion and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms and oregano, cook for another minute. Add tomato paste and tomatoes, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Slice eggplant in thin slices and sprinkle with salt. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and fry eggplant in batches until brown on both sides. Transfer to some paper towel. Peel and slice pumpkin thickly. Steam or boil pumpkin for about 5 minutes to soften slightly. Chop Spinach roughly and toss it in some boiling water for a few minutes. Transfer to some paper towel to drain. Squeeze out extra moisture before using.

In a large dish, spoon a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom. Add a layer of lasagna sheets then top with a layer of eggplant, a layer of spinach, followed by a layer of pumpkin. You don't have to fill each layer, just scatter evenly. Add another layer of lasagna sheets, followed by the tomato sauce and then eggplant, spinach and pumpkin. Repeat like this until you have used up all your ingredients. I managed to build three layers with mine.

Top with a layer of lasagna sheets and finish by pouring the bechamel sauce over the whole lasagna. Cook in oven at 180°C for 30-40 minutes, or until the lasagna sheets are soft when tested with a skewer. I forgot to put any cheese into my bechamel sauce... and if I had remembered I probably would have scattered some on top as well. It was still very tasty though!

Differences

2010-06-23T13:40:00.001+10:00

I love the internet. Mostly because you can get information about anything with the click of a button, but also because it allows people from all over the world to share their lives with each other. It allows us to share ideas and discover new ways of doing things.

For example, I used to play online games with friends who live in America (I live in Australia). During this time, one of my friends, Chris, would often say he was going to make some PnJ on toast. I had no idea what he was talking about and when I asked him what PnJ was, he was amazed that I didn't know and was quite happy to share something that appears to be a part of American culture. Of course most of you probably know that PnJ is Peanut Butter and Jelly.

In Australia, Jelly is a crystalised powder that, when mixed with hot water and then chilled, turns into a gelatin dessert (something like this). Something which I believe is referred to as Jello in the US? You can imagine my thoughts at the time as I pictured a peanut butter and jello sandwich... until I worked out that jelly in the US is what we call jam in Australia. I have since tried PnJ many times and agree that it is rather tasty!

Another difference that came up was with pumpkin. I would often tell the guys that I was cooking a roast dinner with roast potato and pumpkin. Pumpkin as a main course?? Pumpkin is a dessert they would tell me. A dessert?? No way, you guys are weird! Afterwards, Chris told me all about pumpkin pie and said I had to try it. In Australia, we traditionally boil, steam or roast pumpkin and eat it as a vegetable with our main course, so the concept of pumpkin as a dessert is a little strange and unfortunately I have yet to try one. So if anyone has a good recipe they would like to share, let me know :)

So thank you internet, and thanks to all the blog writers out there for sharing just a little bit of their lives.

Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

2010-06-22T11:51:00.002+10:00

This is our favourite Meatballs and Spaghetti recipe. The meatballs are just so tasty and it's very easy to make. The recipe is adapted from one I found at Taste.

Ingredients

500g beef mince
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons hot chilli sauce
1 tbspn lemon juice
1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
1/3 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans diced Italian tomatoes
1 cup vegetable stock
1 tbspn sweet chilli sauce
cooked pasta and extra basil, to serve

Combine beef mince, onion, chilli sauce, lemon juice, breadcrumbs, basil and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Roll small handfuls of mince mixture into balls. Place meatballs on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes or until firm.

Combine tomatoes, sweet chilli sauce and stock in a deep frying pan. Try to use something that will fit all meatballs in a single layer and allow the sauce to cover them easily. Bring slowly to the boil over medium heat. Drop meatballs into tomato mixture. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

Serve meatballs on top of freshly cooked spaghetti. Enjoy!

Apple Dumplings

2010-06-21T22:21:00.002+10:00

I saw these Apple Dumplings while flicking through Australia The Beautiful Cookbook. They just looked so interesting that I had to try them. They were really tasty too. The apples just seem to melt inside their crust and hidden inside somewhere was the sweet pile of honey and walnuts. The original recipe used golden syrup instead of honey and made a quantity of 4. I reduced the ingredients to only make 2.

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tbspn sugar
60g butter
2 tablespoons iced water
2 Granny Smith apples
1 tbspn honey
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 egg, beaten
Extra sugar

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, stir in sugar. Rub in butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Sprinkle water over the top and mix with a knife to a firm dough, adding extra water if it's too dry. Wrap in plastic film and chill for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into two pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a large circle large enough to wrap around the apples. Peel and core apples. Mix honey and walnuts together and use to stuff apples. Place an apple on each pastry square, dampen edges of pastry and wrap around apple.

Place dumplings seam side down on a greased baking tray. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven for 20 minutes at 200°C. Reduce heat to 180°C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until apples are soft when tested with a skewer. Serve dumplings warm with custard or ice-cream.

We really liked these, they were really yummy and not that hard to make either. We'll be making them again for sure, perhaps with some different nuts next time.

Eggs Benedict

2010-06-20T08:55:00.001+10:00

Whenever we go out for breakfast to our favourite Coffee Club, Teena usually gets the Eggs Benedict. She absolutely loves it! So yesterday morning, I decide to make her some as a special treat.

To make the Hollandaise Sauce, I use a recipe from www.Taste.com.au. I follow the recipe exactly and the sauce always seems to work perfectly. I've had it go bad once when I was busy trying to cook other things at the same time. It was easy to fix though with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the bad mix in a different bowl, then adding the bad mix back gradually.

I made some Turkish Bread to go with the breakfast as that's how it's served at the Coffee Club. They usually have ham or salmon as well but we didn't have any. It still tastes great with just eggs and Turkish Bread anyway.

It's a little bit time consuming to make Eggs Benedict, especially when you're hungry. I think it's worth the effort though! Here you can see Teena couldn't wait for me to finish taking pictures and had to taste it straight away.

Nothing goes to waste either as Teena scrapes every last drop into a jar to store in the fridge. It makes a really tasty spread on bread or toast later on.

Turkish Bread

2010-06-19T16:13:00.005+10:00

Our bread machine got another work out this morning. Just before breakfast I popped downstairs, quickly threw all the ingredients in the machine and started it up.

Just over an hour later it beeped several times to let me know it had finished. So later when I came downstairs, there was my dough ready to use.

Teena and I both like Turkish Bread, but it's not something we have very often. Probably because it's expensive compared to other bread. I had planned to make Teena Eggs Benedict this morning because it's her favourite breakfast dish, and thought some Turkish Bread would go really nicely with it.

Ingredients
180 ml water
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbspn sugar
1 tspn salt
300g flour
2 tspn dried yeast

That's the ingredients for my machine anyway. It may differ for others I suppose. Anyway, once the dough is ready, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide it into three equal quantities, then shape each one into an oval and place them onto some backing paper. Using your finger, poke holes in the top of each one. Cover with a tea towel and place in a warm spot for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 230°C. Place baking trays in oven to heat them up.

Now... this part I had a little bit of trouble with. Supposedly, after the 15 minutes, you are supposed to carefully pick each one up and stretch it out to 30-35cm. Mine was a bit too sticky though and I had trouble getting it off the baking paper. The recipe said not to add extra flour as it should be nice and soft. I had even sprinkled some flour under each one before I put it onto the baking paper. Part of the problem may have been the cheap baking paper we have as I've had problems with it before. Teena has promised to get some better quality paper for next time.

I managed to stretch it out in the end, though one of the portions was way too sticky and I had to reshape it once I got it off the paper. It still came out ok though. Once stretched, brush or spray with some olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Place the bread and baking paper onto the hot oven trays and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I baked each one separately as I was also making Eggs Benedict at the time. For the last one I sprinkled some dried basil leaves on it for some extra flavour.

They turned out really nice, very soft and tasty. It was really nice with the Eggs Benedict, but I will post about that later! We had some for lunch later on as well as it makes a really nice sandwich.

Anzac Biscuits

2010-06-18T19:36:00.003+10:00

We love these Anzac Biscuits. This recipe is a little different to the usual recipe, using honey instead of golden syrup as we don’t usually have any golden syrup and some added ginger which gives them a really nice flavour. This batch I made with cashew nuts, but you can use any type of nut really. They are especially tasty with Macadamia nuts.

Ingredients

75g cashew nuts
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
2 tbspn boiling water
1 tbspn honey
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125g butter

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line two baking trays with baking paper. You can roast the nuts for about 5 minutes if you want, I didn’t bother with this batch though. Chop the nuts roughly into smaller pieces.
Combine flour, ginger, oats, sugar, coconut and nuts in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the boiling water, honey and bicarb. The mixture should froth a little, then add the melted butter. Pour into the flour mixture and stir well with a wooden spoon.

Place a small handful of the mixture onto the prepared trays and flatten them slightly with a fork. They will flatten more during cooking and spread out a little, so give them plenty of room.
Bake in oven for about 15 minutes. If you take them out a little bit earlier they will be chewier and if you leave them in for a bit longer they will be crunchier.

Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. There’s usually a few missing by the time they have cooled in our house though! Enjoy.