Cook Republic

Chocolate Beetroot Pudding Cake

Sneh — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:29:39 +0000

A few weeks ago I bought a big, vibrant bunch of beetroot from the farmer’s market. I was lucky to find them the day I decided I wanted to make a red dessert for Valentine’s Day. I wasn’t cooking a special lunch or dinner, just dessert and I wanted it to be different, indulgent and totally wicked. A quick search on the fantastic and uber useful Eat Your Books, revealed a Beetroot Cake recipe in the Australian Gourmet Traveller’s June 2010 issue. In an interesting and beautiful spread called Red Hot Beetroot Recipes, this humble looking tray cake was an adaptation of Neil Perry’s cake in his book The Food I Love.

When I was little, I remember staring at my beet red stained fingers in absolute awe after I had just eaten a slice from the salad plate. I remember tracing my little fingers over the faint rings in each slice and then rubbing the crimson stain over my lips and pretending I was all grown up and wearing lipstick. Beetroot is a marvellous vegetable. It is a testament of how contrasting nature is and full of surprises. The gnarly, woody skin of a beetroot totally contradicts the gorgeous splash of colour it contains within. It is a joy to photograph and an even greater pleasure to consume.

The cake had a simple ingredient list but a slightly over done method. So I decided to adapt the adaptation. This is not your ordinary tea cake. It is a fantastic dessert cake, moist and rich to the hilt. It is trying to be a lot of things, part cake, part pudding, part brownie and part fudge. And it excels on each and every front. The combination of chocolate and beetroot although rarely used is very enticing. It made me want to keep slicing tiny bits off the cake with my splayd and eating it, one dainty bite at a time. Very akin to a flourless chocolate cake, this dense dessert is a lavish affair. Make it glamorous with a dollop of chantilly cream and chocolate shavings, dress it up with ice cream and a sprinkling of dark cocoa or dress it down and eat it plain, unadorned. It is a delight every single way. Make sure it is chilled and you are good as gold. This cake which yields a serving of 10, not only sufficed our Valentine’s night sweet cravings but ended up spoiling us for the rest of the week.

Food Styling And Prop Alert : Trudeau Board – $90 Peters Of Kensington. Vintage Metal Grater By Kande – $1 Thrift Store. Glass Bowl – $2 Kmart. Metal Bowl – $5 Kmart. Black floral painted board – $2 Thrift Store. Black wood handle paring knife – $10 Thomas Dux. Square Cake Platter by Alex Liddy – $34.95 at OO. Antique Scallop Plate in Linen – $4 at Target. White Ornate Handle Spoon by Robert Gordon – $14.95 for a set of 12 at OO. Bone handle cake knife – $1 at Thrift Store.

Chocolate Beetroot Pudding Cake

Adapted from Gourmet Traveller & Neil Perry’s The Food I Love

Preparation Time – 20 minutes
Baking Time – 1 hour 20 minutes
Chilling Time – 3 hours
Serves – 10

Ingredients

500g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
6 eggs
100g caster sugar
50g brown sugar
1 large beetroot, finely grated (mine weighed 200g)
100ml pouring cream
1/2 cup raw almonds, crushed fine in a food procesor

Method

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. Make sure the cake tin is completely sealed and water tight.

Melt chocolate in a heavy bottomed pan on very low heat or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside when melted and glossy. Cool for 10 minutes

Combine eggs, sugar, cream and almonds in a large bowl and beat with an electric beater for 3 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate and beat for another minute. Fold through the grated beetroot and mix well. Pour into prepared tin. Place tin in a roating pan filled with water so that the water comes up halfway to the square cake tin. Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 50 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 150C and bake for 30 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back if lightly pressed. It will look almost like a brownie, moist and dense.

Remove from oven and cool completely before covering tin with cling foil and chilling in the fridge for 3 hours. Serve with ice cream or boozy whipped cream and a sprinkling of dark cocoa.

Vegetable Fritter Salad

Sneh — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:04:52 +0000

I have never been much of a salad person. There, I admitted it! But something has changed. I seem to like them now. Maybe I am all grown up. Maybe it is a phase. I am but a puppet to my whims and fancies. And my whim of the moment are salads. Not regular salads, mind you. Quirky ones! Really really quirky ones!

I love fritters. Vegetable fritters are my favourite. Crunchy, textural little beauties. I don’t make them as often as I would like to on account of the deep frying that I like to steer clear of. But when I do, especially on chilly afternoons, it is a joyous thing. The inspiration for this salad came from my need to indulge in a fritter fest one weekend and the self-induced pressure to take something nice for a dinner we were invited to. The recipe by Valli Little in Delicious More Please was perfect for what I had in mind. The Bhaji salad that she writes about is based on the Indian fritter called bhaji and is served with micro herbs.

What I really love about this dish is how it can be easily adapted to anything you might have in the fridge or pantry. There are at least a dozen variations you could make of this dish. Mine is a vegetarian version cooked especially for my vegetarian friend, who I might add enjoyed it a lot. But you can make it with prawns, shredded chicken and even tofu. You can use seasonal vegetables and change the garnish. You can change the accompanying dressing and serve it up with a spicy sauce or a chunky dip. Endless possibilities!

Vegetable Fritter Salad

Adapted from Delicious More Please – Valli Little

Preparation Time – 20 minutes

Cooking Time – 20 minutes

Serves – 8

Ingredients

batter

2 cups chickpea flour (besan)

10 curry leaves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon red chili flakes

1/4 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon garam masala (optional)

1 tablespoon raw sugar

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

salt to taste

vegetables

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1 large carrot, cut into thin matchsticks

15 snow peas, cut into thin strips

dressing

1/2 cup sour cream

juice if 1 lemon

freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

oil for deep frying (I used Canola oil)

assortment of salad greens to serve

Method

Combine all ingredients for the batter in a large bowl with enough cold water to form a thick batter. Consistency wise you hould be looking for something that is looser than cake batter and thicker than pancake batter. You can add more chickpea flour to get the right consistency. I always do this step by feel rather than measurements. Rest batter for 10 minutes. Add the vegetables and stir well to coat.

Half fill a deep fryer or large saucepan with canola oil. Heat to 180C. You can use a cooking thermometer to guage the temperature of the oil or test it by dropping a cube of bread in it. If it sizzles, rises to the top and turns golden in 30 seconds, your oil is ready.

Working carefully and in batches, drop a heaped tablespoon of batter using either a spoon or your hand in the hot oil. (I find scooping batter with my fingertips and thumb much easier than a spoon). Cook for 2 minutes on each side, until golden and nicely browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining batter until all fritters are cooked.

Mix ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl to form a loose sauce. Arrange salad leaves on a large platter, top with vegetable fritters and drizzle with the dressing.

My Notes

I amp up the amount of chili when I am cooking just for Nick and me as we are both chili fiends. If you find the amount of chili too much, reduce it. The sugar in the recipe cuts through some of the spice and the flavours work really well together. Skipping the garam masala will also make these less spicy as really fresh garam masala can pack a punch. The dressing also helps tame some of the spices.

Chickpea Bhel Salad

Sneh — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:21:26 +0000

On the streets of Mumbai, especially around a large water body like the curve of a beach or a lake are colourful gypsy like carts selling bhelpuri (bh-ail-poo-ree) and panipuri (p-aa-nee-poo-ree). Bhelpuri is a very popular street snack made up of puffed rice, tomatoes, onions, coriander, very fine noodles called sev, chili, coriander, lemon, black salt and tamarind chutney amongst other things. It is sweet, sour, tangy and totally addictive. The bhelpuri often called bhel, is my inspiration for today’s recipe.

Instead of puffed rice, I used chickpeas as the base of my recipe. One of the main reasons I chose to go with chickpeas is that I wanted the salad to be crisp and crunchy for a barbecue we were invited to. This salad can be made ahead and it stays fresh even after a good few hours. It tastes great warm or cold. The hefty dose of lime gets the tastebuds going and the protein in the chickpeas thoroughly satisfies. Healthy and perfect as an appetizer or a meal by itself, this salad is easily customised to include more texture, more bite, more greens – you name it! I have made a version of this with kale and almonds and it is as delicious as this one.

Chickpea Bhel Salad

Preparation Time – 15 minutes

Serves – 4

Ingredients

1 400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 green capsicum, diced

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 cucumber, diced

1 carrot, grated

1/4 cup toasted peanuts

bhel dressing

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground red chili

1/4 teaspoon rock salt

1 tablespoon raw sugar

1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

a handful of mint leaves

juice of 1 lime + lime wedges to serve

Method

Combine all ingredients except the lime wedges in a large bowl and gently toss to combine and coat. Garnish with lime wedges and serve at a barbecue or on grilled bread with a dollop of tomato chutney.

My Notes

It might not always be easy to get your hands on rock salt (I usually find it at Indian grocery stores or at organic greengrocers. The Indian rock salt is called kaala namak or black salt), but the addition of rock salt is what makes this salad truly tangy and marvellous. Rock salt has a pungent smell and a delightful salty/tangy flavour. It is one of the key ingredients in bhel and other savoury snacks. It is known to be cooling in nature and aids in digestion.

If you can’t find rock salt, you can substitute with pink or regular salt to taste.

For a picnic or potluck, you can mix the bhel dressing ingredients and carry the dressing in a small mason jar. Simply mix through with the other ingredients and toss for a lovely fresh sald.

Daisy Cake

Sneh — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:26:21 +0000

This gorgeous cake oozes retro charm. It tells me what old fashioned cakes would be all about. Mind you, I am not that old. But this is how I imagine cakes in an old kitchen with yellow countertops and lace doilies to be like. Simple, unpretentious, golden and crumbly. Textural, pretty and brave enough on its own without needing the support of icing or fancy trimmings.

"There was always a cake in the oven on Sunday mornings!" waxes Margaret Dunn in her cookbook Mrs. Harvey’s Sister-In-Law And Other Tasty Dishes (read cookbook review). She later goes on to wonder in amazement how a cake managed to get in the oven on a Sunday amidst a flurry of roasts, vegetables and puddings that were also cooked in there. I would like to think that ours is one of those households where there is a cake in the oven every Sunday morning. Nothing beats the smell of a cake warming up and swelling beautifully in a hot oven.

Daisy Cake features in this beautiful cookbook. It gets its name from the combination of white and yellow. Just like a daisy, the top is white and the insides are yellow. It is a very pretty cake. It is what home-made cakes are supposed to be. It is what I bake every other Sunday come rain or shine. It is lovely if topped with warm butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. It is even better unadorned – simple.

DAISY CAKE

Recipe adapted from Margaret Dunn’s Mrs. Harvey’s Sister-In-Law And Other Tasty Dishes

Preparation Time – 15 minutes

Baking Time – 45 minutes

Serves – 8

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup raw sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 cup self-raising flour

3 tablespoons skim milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract/paste

grated rind of 1 orange

juice of 1 orange

1 extra tablespoon caster sugar (for topping)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut (for topping)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease and dust with flour an 8 inch round springform tin.

Beat the butter and raw sugar until creamy. Add the egg yolks and beat for a minute. Add the flour, milk, vanilla, rind and juice. Beat until combined and smooth. Spoon batter into prepared tin.

Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth. Add 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and beat again until foamy. Fold through the coconut. Spread this mixture over the top of the cake batter and bake for approximately 45 minutes until golden and cooked through.

Cookbook Review – Mrs. Harvey’s Sister-In-Law And Other Tasty Dishes By Margaret Dunn

Sneh — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:17:04 +0000

Last year, I came a cross a dear little cookbook with a dust jacket designed to mimic a leather bound, hand stitched journal. It was simply called Heirloom Recipes – Dishes and stories from the family cookbook. The real surprise came when I took off the dust jacket to reveal a gorgeous letter pressed and illustrated book cover that proclaimed the book’s name to be Mrs. Harvey’s Sister-In-Law And Other Tasty Dishes. Cheeky and old fashioned. I had to be buy it.

"A nostalgic recreation of a 1970s classic which embraces the time honoured practice of collecting and exchanging recipes, Mrs Harvey’s "Sister in Law and Other Tasty Dishes" is a social history of food. Writer, historian, diplomat’s wife and hostess, Margaret Dunn has travelled the world with her handmade recipe journal, and it is brought to life in this beautifully presented recipe book." (excerpt from Amazon UK)

This cookbook has no pictures which formed part of the appeal for me. In the past, I couldn’t stand cookbooks without photos. Now, I can’t get enough of them. I love the idea of not knowing what the finished dish is going to look like. I love the build-up and excitement that comes as you near the end of the cooking process. It is a thrill I now strive for in the kitchen. The cookbook is beautifully designed with cross-stitch typography and cross-stitch illustrations used throughout. The book is liberally dotted with names of people who were meaningful to the author’s life and cooking. There are recipes for Mrs. Oodnadatta Jones’ Cream Puffs, Mrs. Miller’s Monk Pie, Fanny’s Rhubarb Souffle, Reg’s Dundee Cake, Pearl’s Tasmanian Rocks, Mr. Cutlack’s Tomato Pie, Madame Bossard’s Fondue, Lyle’s Rum And Walnut Cake, Diona’s Shrimp Creole, Mrs. Longbottom’s Shortbread, Jock’s Spinach Pancakes, Mrs. Dark’s Fig Jam and of course Mrs. Harvey’s Sister-In-Law (yes, that is a recipe!). Old fashioned! I told you!

The recipes and stories are divided in eight parts, each named as follows

First Things First
The Middle Course
Meat And Right
Eggs, Cheese Ann Salad
Afters
Other Things To Do
High Days And Holidays
And Oh, Those Christmases!

The chapter on Afters being the longest, I surmised that the author had a bit of a sweet tooth. Don’t we all? There are some amazing sweet recipes for delightful little cakes, puddings, biscuits, fritters, tarts, pancakes and pies. My most favourite is the Daisy Cake which I come back to time and time again. Besides complete recipes for a dish, the cookbook offers loads of tidbits and part recipes to make your own self-raising flour, tutti frutti, stuffings, preserves, sauces and dressings.

It is an Australian cookbook but includes recipes from the author’s travels and life in England, France, Greece, Switzerland, India and America as well. It was put together from a handwritten journal of recipes the author carried with her everywhere she went. With a melting pot of anecdotes and recipes, Mrs. Harvey’s Sister-In-Law is a timeless cookbook that sits cheerily on my shelf and ocassionally takes me back to the days that were.

Apricot Fig And Goji Berry Powerballs

Sneh — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:22:53 +0000

You put a group of women together and you could publish a cookbook. I say this because when women with even the slightest inclination towards food come together recipes are created, shared, swapped, evolved and adapted. It always happens to me when I get together with my friends for a cup of tea. Maybe, we should collectively write a cookbook??

The inspiration for this particular recipe comes from my friend Julie who brought a round container of perfectly shaped apricot balls to tea last week. They sounded healthy and most importantly, my first born had a crack at them and loved them. So I decided to adapt her recipe to make one of my own.

Lately, I have been playing with dried goji berries in my cooking and these little powerballs as I like to call them were a perfect excuse to use more of those antioxidant packed little red berries. The recipe is simple, no cook and ready in about 10 minutes. You can easily swap ingredients, keeping the quantities the same. My version is nut-free so I can easily include it in the school lunchbox. I am striving to have a box of these fruity balls handy for those occasional snacking bouts. And I am having goji berries everyday. That thought alone makes me happy.

APRICOT FIG AND GOJI BERRY POWERBALLS

Preparation Time – 10 minutes

Makes – 30

Ingredients

1/2 cup semi-dried apricots

1/2 cup semi-dried figs

1/2 cup skim milk powder

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

2 tablespoons wheatgerm

1 tablespoon dried goji berries

extra desiccated coconut to roll the powerballs in

Method

Combine apricots, figs, goji berries, wheatgerm, milk powder and coconut in a food processor. Process on high for 2 minutes until the dried fruit is finely crushed. Add orange juice and process on low for 3 to 5 minutes until mixture is well combined and looks like a stiff dough ball.

Roll mixture into little balls the size of large grapes in the palm of your hands. Scatter extra desiccated coconut in a shallow plate and roll the balls in it to coat evenly with the coconut. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for a healthy snack.

Brown Mushroom Tortano

Sneh — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:15:20 +0000

Mushrooms are delicious. They are robust, meaty and have a flavour unlike any ingredient you will ever encounter. From simple white button mushrooms to the delightfully cheery chanterelles and the prized porcini, they make you swoon. I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t appreciate a plump mushroom cooked to perfection glazed in balsamic or a light herb sauce. They taste even better slightly charred, either on the pan or on a barbecue.

When I was approached by the Australian Mushroom Growers Association to develop a recipe for their Summer Mushroom campaign, I decided to approach it in a very different manner. I wanted to look beyond the trendy mushroom salads and mushroom kebabs. I wanted to create a make-ahead dish that would taste great hot or cold. January is peak summer in Australia. There are barbies (BBQs) being fired up every other weekend especially on Australia Day and games of backyard cricket being played, the smell of Aerogard permeating your skin as you try to keep the mozzies at bay. But this year, we have virtually had no summer. We have had 4 hot days at best and the muggy afternoons have traded places with cool breezes and a night time chill. There are less barbies being fired and it is such a shame!

A typical Aussie barbie will have lots of meat – prime cuts and sausages galore. It will have a steady, neverending supply of beer and a variety of salads prepared by the host as well as guests. There will be bread rolls, fruit platters and icy poles for the kids. When we have a barbie, I like to make a huge wok of stir fried noodles. It is our thing. And yes, it has mushrooms. But the next time we are invited to one, I am baking a Brown Mushroom Tortano. It is a gorgeous yeast Napolitan bread, stuffed with balsamic glazed Swiss mushrooms and golden stringy cheese. Drooling much? I hope so. Because there is nothing like "too hot!" or "too cold!" a day to enjoy a slice of good crusty bread.

I decided to try baking a Tortano with mushrooms stuffed in it after being inspired by a series of Tortano breads in Leila Lindholm’s One More Slice cookbook. A Tortano is a yeast bread from the Naples region in Italy. The dough is laid out flat, filled with a stuffing of your choice (read proscuitto, portobello mushrooms, ricotta, ham, olives, roasted vegetables), rolled into a log and then shaped into a wreath. When you cut it into wedges like a pizza or cake, the stuffing sits gloriously in the middle while the soft white of the bread encases it and the crackling crust drives you to your knees. This would be perfect for picnics or any kind of outdoor gathering where a slice of cold bread and a lashing of butter would balance excessive amounts of meat.

BROWN MUSHROOM TORTANO

Inspired by the Tortano series in Leila Lindholm’s One More Slice

Preparation Time – 30 minutes for dough and filling + 90 minutes rising time + 10 minutes assembly time + 40 minutes baking time

Makes – 1 round loaf to serve 10

Ingredients

15g yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

300ml lukewarm water

175g fine semolina

225g strong white bread flour

1 cup Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced

3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup fresh thyme

1 tablespoon olive oil for mushrooms

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup grated mozzarella

extra flour for dusting

Method

In a large bowl combine lukewarm water, honey, salt and olive oil. Add the yeast, give it one quick stir and set aside for 10 minutes. When the mixture has become bubbly and frothy, add the semolina and bread flour.

At this stage either knead by hand on a flour dusted surface for 10 minutes until dough is elastic or mix it using the dough hook attachment in a Kitchenaid (or similar processor) at speed 2 for 10 minutes. The dough should be soft, pliable and elastic. It should be slightly wet and sticky. Leave it in the bowl covered with a cloth for about 30 minutes until it rises and doubles in size.

While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute. Add the mushrooms, thyme and balsamic vinegar. Sauté for 3-4 minutes until golden but still firm. Remove from heat and set aside.

Line a flat rimless cookie sheet with baking paper and dust the top of the baking paper with flour. Press the dough into a rectangle on the baking paper to about 1/2 inch thickness. Don’t roll it. Press it.

Fill the dough with the mushroom filling in a straight line towards one of the longer edges of the rectangle. Top it with the cheese. Roll the edge closest to the filling over the filling. Then gently fold the other long edge over the first edge to get a long sausage shaped parcel. Using the baking paper, roll the the sausage shaped dough once or twice, backwards and forwards, to loosen the dough that might have stuck to the paper. Gently, shape the dough into a wreath and seal the edges of the wreath with a little water. Cover with cloth and leave to rise for a second time, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200C (400F). After the second rise, place the bread dough in the oven to bake for 35 to 45 minutes (depending on your oven). The bread should be nicely browned.

Serve warm from the oven by cutting into wedges and serving with tomato chutney or pesto.

My Notes

Next time, I would double the amount of filling I have given here as I felt the bread needed more stuffing.

I was making this to cater to vegetarians, hence I left out some proscuitto. Mushrooms are neither vegetable nor animal, but funghi. They are suitable for vegetarians and are often classified under them.

Note : You can find more delicious mushroom recipes at My Mushrooms, BBQ Mushrooms and Cooking With Mushrooms. What is your favourite mushroom recipe dear reader? I am quite partial to this bread recipe I have shared and my favourite Swiss Glazed Mushrooms.

Cook Republic Files – Favourites List January 2012

Sneh — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:51:18 +0000

I am back to work today after a month and a half long holiday. Although I found myself working as much during the holidays if not more. Things like organizing, sorting, planning, gardening and my favourite – moving furniture around. These are the other things I enjoy in life besides cooking, writing, photographing and designing. So in actuality it was a holiday filled with work I enjoy, family and friends I love, food I crave and places that feed my creativity. It was nice and eerily like my regular day to day life.

Today is one of the most beautiful Mondays I have encountered recently. The air is crisp and cool with a breath of warmth from the bright sun shining through the fluffy white clouds. There is a lot to love about this sun kissed weather in Sydney as I am sure there is much to love about places all over the world right now. I have a list of some of my recent favourite things to share today. The first for 2012. Hope you like it.

———- * * * * * ———-

The intro photo to this post. I shot this picture of Nick as we queued up to get our tickets at Luna Park, Sydney. The noise level was amazing. There were squeals of laughter, babies wailing, carousel music on in full swing and the incessant chatter of revelers. I watched Nick as he continued reading something on a wall nearby and the whole world just fell off, the noise ceased and all I saw was him.

The ECCO Essence Boat Shoe in Lion. Love the colour, love how they hug my feet.

Paprika App for iPad.

This delightful story of the Rule Of Threes with a clever use for disastrous macarons.

This bag.

This website.

This magazine.

These photos.

This blog.

This recipe.

Apple Drane – A Food & Photography Blog.

This kettle and toaster in coconut by Kenwood. Adding some retro chic to my freshly painted sunroom.

Quirky cake toppers for your everyday cakes. Speaking of quirky, how about a Focaccia cake?

Happy Lab packaging and goodies.

Illustrations by Clare Owen.

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

Sneh — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:48:55 +0000

A jar of peanut butter is a wondrous thing. It has the power to reduce grown men and women into little children, greedily poking their fingers in the jar to scoop out and lick a creamy dollop of buttery, crunchy goodness. Everyone has their favourite peanut butter combination. Mine is crunchy peanut butter and manuka honey on stone milled wholemeal bread. Food of the Gods!

Peanut butter is good for many other things than just big greedy finger licking and cookie baking, as I have discovered lately. It makes a great satay sauce for dips. It makes for delicious curry in Asian cooking. It adds a depth to savoury puff pastry and cheesecakes. But my most favourite discovery is a frozen peanut butter pie that needs no cooking or baking and is just right for a gathering of sweet toothed friends.

The crumbly golden crust, topped with cheesecake like chilled peanut butter goodness, garnished with Maltesers and served with a drizzle of good old dark chocolate sauce is my vice of the moment. I have made this pie several times during our socialising jaunts in the past couple of weeks and everyone seems to love it immensely. I never have leftovers and I have yet to make it just for us. I think I might do that today.

FROZEN PEANUT BUTTER PIE

Preparation Time – 30 minutes

Chilling Time – 4 hours

Serves – 8

Ingredients

For The Base

250g Nice biscuits

1/4 cup choc chip bits

50g butter, melted

1 tablespoon milk

For The Filling

3/4 cup(210g) crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup(125ml) cream

250g cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup(110g) caster sugar

maltesers to decorate

Method

For The Base

Grease a 24cm round or 38cmx12cm rectangular loose based tart tin. Process biscuits, choc chips, butter and milk in a processor until combined. Press mixture over base and side of the tin. Freeze 30 minutes.

For The Filling

Make filling by combining peanut butter and cream in a saucepan over low heat. Stir and cook for a few minutes until smooth. Remove from heat and cool. Beat cream cheese and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer. Stir in peanut butter mixture.

Spread filling over crust. Decorate with maltesers, cover with foil and freeze for 3 hours. Thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.

Cookbook Review – Super Natural Every Day. Win A Copy!

Sneh — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Super Natural Every Day is not a cookbook. Heidi Swanson’s latest offering is a private journal of a person who embraces food in its truest form, smattered with photos that make you want to experience and recipes that make you want to cook. I first leafed through a copy at a local bookstore last year. A couple of flicks down the line, I had mentally bookmarked at least 10 recipes I wanted to cook straight away. That, for me was an indication that the book would go on my bookshelf. So I bought it and got inspired. I cooked from it a couple of times and loved the fresh surge of inspiration it brought to my cooking. Months later, I was sent a review copy by Hardie Grant Publishers. Because this cookbook (well, it is a cookbook even though my opening line said otherwise) had inspired so many recipes of my own, I decided to cook from it for a whole month and explore it to the fullest.

Heidi Swanson has revelled food enthusiasts and connoisseurs for years through her blog 101 Cookbooks. It was one of the first food blogs I came across way back in 2003 when I was working on a recipe database. And I am as inspired by her love of good wholesome, less processed and nutrient rich food today as I was then.Everything about Heidi’s style is muted and washed in a soft milky light. From the photographs of fog kissed rolling hills to modern typographic swirls marking the pages and excerpts, Super Natural Every Day is Heidi’s engaging commentary interspersed with recipes, handy hints, tricks and ideas. The book is conveniently divided into breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, drinks, treats and accompaniments. The recipes are ones you would invent from things in the pantry or fridge. They feel personal and not made up. They are also shot that way. Au Naturale. The feeling that Heidi cooked and ate everyday and recorded her experiments and put them in a book as an after thought is very strong. These recipes came first and not the book. I also like that the recipes are an extension of what she talks about on her blog. The connection is there and it works well.

Most of the recipes in the book can be adapted and made your own without any dramas. Heidi has a running dialogue before each recipe and after some of them. The wealth of information in the form of serving ideas, possible variations and her own experience while cooking it at different times is a delight to read. She manages to make everything look approachable and easy. And it is. You realise that once you start cooking from it.

During my month long exploration of Super Natural Every Day, I learnt to Cook Quinoa the right way. I then used that quinoa to make some beautiful Garlic And Thyme Quinoa Patties for dinner. I baked a Sugarplum Buttermilk Cake with sugar plums fresh off a farm in Dural. I thoroughly enjoyed munching through a box of Carnival Cookies that had popped corn in them. And these were just some of the recipes I wrote about. A few nights ago we had the Spinach Strata. Earlier today inspired by the book, I baked a batch of Citrus Quinoa Muffins. My dog eared copy has little post-it bookmarks for the Yogurt Biscuits I am attempting next, followed by Membrillo Cake, Broccoli Gribiche, Wild Rice Casserole, Chanterelle Tacos and Macaroon Tart. When each recipe takes you on a journey and introduces you to ingredients that nourish your body and soul, how can you resist not cooking?

Note – All photos for the review were shot on my iPhone 4S. Some with my left hand, which was not a piece of cake, I tell you!

Super Natural Every Day is published by Hardie Grant Publishers in Australia. They are also kindly giving away one copy of this beautiful book to one very lucky reader of Cook Republic. If you would like to be in the running to win a copy, here is what you need to do.

Super Natural Every Day Giveaway

1. Make sure you have an Australia mailing address for when you win. This giveaway is for Australian residents only.

2. Leave me a comment below and tell me "What is the healthiest food habit/ingredient/resolution you have adapted most recently?"

The giveaway will close on January 31, 2012 and ONE winner will be picked by me based on the answer to the above question. Good luck!

********** | WINNER ANNOUNCED | **********

Congratulations Bea!! You have won yourself a copy of Heidi’s Super Natural Every Day, courtesy of Hardie Grant.

You will be contacted for your prize shortly. Thanks everyone for your lovely answers!

January 2012 Spotlight – Heidi Swanson

Every month on Cook Republic a food hero will be featured. It could be a celebrity chef, food blogger, cookbook author, a cuisine, an ingredient or a trend. In January 2012 the spotlight is on food blogger and writer Heidi Swanson of the 101 Cookbooks fame. With one of the oldest and most original voices in the ever burgeoning world of food blogs and photography, Heidi is a much celebrated cookbook author. Join me as I explore Heidi’s food philosophy to the fullest and cook from her most recent offering, Super Natural Every Day which is published by Hardie Grant in Australia.