An English Yo-yo

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have been house sitting here in England. We had been shopping for  the staples... milk, eggs, bacon, bread, vegemite, chocolate ... but I neglected to buy butter for baking - what on earth was I thinking?
As a result, when I baked yo-yos to take up the hill for another afternoon tea, I had to use the 'low fat, olive oil based spread' I had here in the fridge. Mmmmm?!

The yo-yos baked well but as one might expect, they weren't yellow, and had a very bland taste! I think they were saved by the very lemon-y icing I stuck them together with!

Still, we all ate them. We did have to explain to the 12 yr old English friend what a yo-yo was, but once she gathered they were a little like a shortbread, she too ate hers with gusto!

Scones

I've been making some scones here in England lately as my sister 'T' claims I make the best scones ever... but it seems, to keep getting the compliments, one has to keep making the scones ;-)


On the snow days when school was closed I made some scones for the wet, cold hungry troops to eat after a long day tobogganing down the slope. It seems the most popular scone in 'T's' house is the 'plain scone' with the obligatory jam and whipped cream - we are in England after all :-) 
Just because I love them though, I made 'sultana scones' too, which also were eaten quite quickly.


Yesterday I asked the family down to our house for afternoon tea - well actually 'T' rang me and asked me to invite them down for afternoon tea ;-)
 As we're house sitting at the moment, and I don't have a full range of ingredients at hand, I was a little constrained with my choices for afternoon tea, but of course scones had to be on the agenda. I baked the popular 'plain scone' but for a change, I also did a 'cheese scone' and an 'apple roll' too.  


As far as the children were concerned, the 'plain scones' still won out, but there was one eater of the 'cheese ones' and he even took the left overs home. 


Sadly, the 'apple rolls' weren't the most successful, but still eminently edible.


I have no photos, but I do have the recipes! 

'Plain scones'

2 cups plain flour

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

skim milk

Preheat oven to 200°C. 

Sift the flour and a large pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. 

Add the spread and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. 

Stir just enough milk into the scone mixture to make a soft, dough. Turn onto a surface sprinkled with a little flour and knead lightly for a few moments

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2.5 cm. Use a biscuit cutter to stamp out rounds. Place the scones on a baking sheet, brush with the remaining milk mixture. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden brown. 

'Cheese scones'

225 g self-raising white flour 

2 tbs butter or margarine

40 g Grated Tasty Cheese

2 teaspoons of mixed dried Italian herbs 

25 g grated parmesan cheese 

skim milk 

Preheat oven to 200°C. Sift the flour, baking powder and a large pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the spread and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Stir the cheese into the rubbed-in mixture.

Stir just enough milk into the scone mixture to make a soft, dough. Turn onto a surface sprinkled with a little flour and knead lightly for a few moments.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2.5 cm. Use a biscuit cutter to stamp out rounds. Avoid twisting the cutter as this prevents the scones from rising well. 

Place the scones on a baking sheet, brush with the remaining milk mixture and sprinkle with the reserved cheese. 

Bake for about 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden brown. 

European trip

The great trip to Europe began a couple of weeks ago and I have been far too busy or far too tired to consider blogging about where I've been and what I've eaten. Today I am changing that! ;-)

We flew Australia's favourite airline to England and so I thought as this is ostensibly a 'foodie blog' I'd blog the food we ate on the long haul flight. It's been a while since we've chosen to fly this airline as, to be honest, the service and food was fairly abysmal the last time we were on this carrier. On this trip however I thought they had improved no end!

We left Melbourne at a strange time  - 11:55pm - so were fed at 4 stages and at slightly bizzare times too!  Although I hasten to add we were both ready to eat each time the 'hosties' came around with the food (and drinks) trolley ;-)

Our first meal was supper on the leg from Melbourne to Hong Kong. This tray was laden with 'cucumber and cherry tomato salad with a lemon and chardonnay vinaigrette',  the main dish - which was  a choice of 'sage roasted chicken with a pearl barley and mushroom risotto' or twice cooked pork in a spiced master stock with fragrant rice'. Both H'o'M and I chose the chicken - because who would order pork on the plane????
The dessert was a hideous though a 'white chocolate mousse' which tasted of nothing but whipped cream! Not even a hint of chocolate! Blah!

We were supposed to sleep now, but I didn't get too much shut eye...we tried to watch movies instead, but I just couldn't concentrate.

So next was another meal....breakfast! Just a light one this time. OJ, fresh melon salad, cereal, date pain de mie (whatever that is).

No photo of these meals!

After a hideous sleep - again - we were woken with breakfast. It consisted of a 'potato and egg frittata, with bacon and oven roasted tomato'. On the side there was fresh fruit salad, yoghurt and orange juice ... for dessert there was even a banana muffin. It all sounds quite fancy when described like that but of course was just the usual airline fare really.

It was tasty though and I ate the majority of the frittata, but left the yoghurt as it was strawberry - clearly not my favourite ;-)

At some stage just before we landed at Heathrow, we were served with lunch. I guess this got us into the time zone of England as we were landing at 12:30pm.
Lunch was very tasty and the tray was absolutely laden with food! There was the obligatory salad - this time a 'vegetable salad marinated with sesame dressing' and I chose the 'steamed fish with cantonese rice wine sauce, rice and choy sum'. The big draw card for me was the choy sum actually. I ate most of the fish and the vegetables, but H'o'M ate my rice after he had eaten  his own 'braised beef with mash and green peas'!

As you can see, there was also 'Tim Tams' - which H'o'M ate both packets of - bread, biscuits and cheese.

We were very definitely well fed!

Christmas Part 2

We had another family Christmas celebration last week. It's been lovely to have several days of celebration - especially so early in the season!
As I had organised a turkey for the last time, I decided to create a more modern menu this week and serve beef with salads and roast potatoes.
H'o'M fired up the BBQ and we roasted a rib of beef - think lamb rack but much much bigger! To prepare the beef I simply seasoned the whole cut with salt and pepper and that was that! So easy, but with a 'good' cut of beef there is very little that it needs to enhance the flavours.

I made a 'roast pumpkin and spinach' salad. I've made this salad before and it's very tasty. Next time though I think a handful of toasted pine nuts would add to the dish - a little extra crunch ;-)
I also made my own balsamic dressing rather than buy it from the market. I mixed a little extra virgin olive oil with some red wine as well as the obligatory balsamic vinegar in a jar and shook it until they all emulsified! I didn't make very much of it to be honest because I'm actually not a big fan of the dressed salads. I find that dressings tend to make everything soggy!

1½kg pumpkin, peeled and cubed
2 punnets cherry tomatoes, halved
garlic cooking spray
200g green beans, trimmed and halved
150g baby spinach leaves
350g feta cheese, crumbled
4 tbs Balsamic Dressing

Preheat oven to 200°C. Place the pumpkin and tomatoes in two separate baking dishes and spray both with garlic spray (tomatoes should be cut side up). Bake the pumpkin for 15 minutes, then add the tomatoes to the oven and bake both for a further 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin is golden and tender. Set aside to cool.Cook the beans in boiling water until tender, drain and cool under cold water. Drain.
To serve, arrange the spinach leaves on a platter and top with the pumpkin, tomatoes, beans and feta cheese. Drizzle with the balsamic dressing.

Mum bought over a salad too. Hers was a green salad made of lettuce, avocado, spring onions, avocado and for a dash of colour she sliced up some red capsicum and added it to the top! A very pretty dish!

Last celebration I made some Pancetta stuffing and didn't get to eat it because - well I forgot about it! So, this week I decided to make some more but this time remember to eat them! 

I know you're not supposed to have stuffing with beef, but 'it's my party and I"ll have stuffing if I want to' ;-)
They were a huge success and I could have made twice as many and they would have all been eaten! Thanks to you Donna Hay! 

individual pancetta stuffing

2½ cups (175g) fresh breadcrumbs
1 brown onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ cup (40g) toasted pine nuts
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
100g butter
sea salt and cracked black pepper
12 slices pancetta, halved

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, pine nuts, parsley, lemon rind, butter, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well to combine. 
Line 2 x 12-hole lightly greased mini-muffin tins with pancetta and fill with the breadcrumb mixture. Press down and smooth the top. 
Bake for 6−8 minutes or until the pancetta is crispy and the stuffing is cooked through.

Next time I made these bit sized morsels - after all I still have one more Christmas celebration this year - I would definitely mince the parsley a little smaller and as it seemed that every pine nut made it's way to the top of the stuffing and got a little burnt when cooking, I would mix it more evenly before cooking!

It was a lovely day outside for this celebration day, so we had had our nibbles and present opening on the back veranda. The boys played cricket, jumped on the trampoline and after the present opening even got to throw some water balloons at each other! 

The adults meanwhile, drank champagne, chatted and opened presents while nibbling on Turkish bread dipped in lime infused olive oil and my dukkah!

 Clearly the kids enjoyed the dukkah too :-) 


I made a non-alcoholic punch for us all to share too. There was once a recipe I followed, but now it's just a matter of tasting the mixture and blindly trusting that 'The Force' has been with me! It's always different and always disappears, so I think it usually tastes good. It's a mix of 

• orange juice
• pineapple juice
• dry ginger ale
• passionfruit pulp
• apple cider
• lemon juice
• soda water and loads of ice - often in the shape of stars, hearts or snowmen! 

After lunch we also had a birthday cake as there are two birthdays fast approaching which we won't be together to share. A flourless chocolate cake was the cake of preference this year. I made  a raspberry coulis to pour over the top and with some double cream and/or ice cream, we were all set for the dessert!

A lovely day! 

Cornbread!

It was MFM again - I know I know it's Thursday already but I've been busy!

This week I made the vegetarian chilli again because it was really good last time, but for a bit of excitement I made my first ever corn bread! We used to eat this a bit in restaurants when we lived in California - mainly with Mexican food - but I had never baked it myself.

H'o'M and I had been shopping recently at a funky little grocer/deli/provedore in Geelong and found some 'proper' polenta, not the instant kind, but real polenta!!! I have been wanting to try baking cornbread myself for a while now and Monday seemed like the perfect time.

All the stars were aligned and clearly I was meant to make cornbread!

The results were good!!

It even tasted good today when I toasted it and had it with the left over chilli for lunch! 

Christmas

We have already had a few get togethers for Christmas so far this year - with a few more to come -  before we head overseas for another northern hemisphere festive season 


Saturday was the first family one and I have spend many hours thinking of, rejecting and finally deciding on various recipes for the menu. I finally came up with what I thought could be a workable menu - a mix of recipes I knew and recipes I wanted to make. Of course family members contributed their specialities and all in all it worked out a treat.


For the meat, we roasted a whole turkey - This was my second time - the first one being when we had visitors for a Thanksgiving dinner in America. 
It always seems a little daunting to roast a turkey, I think it's because it's just so big and the amount of time it needs to cook is also quite intimidating. There is also a tendency for turkey to get very dry and tough very quickly, as it's such a lean meat, which also adds a layer of pressure when cooking it that no-one really needs ;-)


However regardless of all that there is something quite satisfying when one takes the cooked turkey out of the oven to rest. It's so big and browned and smells really good! 


Here are some strategies I have adopted to counter the intimidation factor of a roast turkey:

• place the turkey in a roasting rack and pour water in the base of the tray. This helps with the moisture and also creates some juices for the gravy! 
• baste, baste, baste. Every 30-40 minutes I basted with the water in the base of the pan and also with some melted butter to keep as much moisture in the bird as possible...I'd like to thank my 8 year old niece here for her invaluable help as wielder of the basting brush! 
• stuffing - don't use it! Bake the stuffing in a separate bowl
• place cut up lemon, and onion in the cavity of the turkey to aid in moisture retention and to add a little flavour
• watch the time carefully and don't over cook or you'll suffer the dryness factor! 

Everyone was seeemingly happy with the results and there was very little left over.  


I also made some 'individual pancetta stuffings'. Very cute little numbers that I made last week and froze. They thawed beautifully and were very tasty. Unfortunately we forgot about them, so the crew ate them for supper that night. 


I baked some individual Christmas cakes too. Little muffin sized cakes.

The recipe called for the cakes to be baked in a Bain-marie once they were mixed and placed in the  muffin tins. Problem here ... our beach house doesn't have a baking tin big enough to fit the muffin tray! Almost a disaster til I remembered I had some of those individual silicon muffin cups. They could be placed in the Bain-marie easily. 
Phew - disaster averted again! 

I would defnitely make these cakes again as they were fun to make but as I don't actually like Christmas cake, I can't tell you with any first hand knowledge how successful they were. H'o'M says they were tasty but quite dense - supposedly not a bad thing in a Christmas cake. 
They did look pretty on the plate as my 8 yr old helper and I dusted them with icing sugar to create a star and then she arranged them on the tray as a flower ;-)




A dukkah was made for the nibbling part of the day too. Once again I thank the kitchen gods for the food processer here at the beach house as it makes such short work of pulsing up nuts. 


Dukkah:

150g sesame seeds

55g whole blanched almonds

50g shelled pistachio nuts

1/3 cup ground coriander

¼ cup ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 220C

Roast sesame, almonds and pistachios separately for 10 minutes or until browned lightly. Cool

Process almonds and pistachios until fine.

Transfer to a bowl and add sesame, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix well


I do love dipping Turkish bread into dukkah. 




With the amazing decorations, the salads, potato skewers and desserts provided by the rest of the family, we had quite the meal! 

Now, what will I cook for the next one ;-)

Spinach

It's Meat Free Monday again (or as H'o'M has taken to calling it - Muck Monday) - man it comes around quickly ;-)

I have a recipe in my trusty laptop called 'spinach quiche with quinoa base', which sounded just perfect for tonight's meal! I have wanted to cook it for ages because of the quinoa base. It's such a funky grain!

So, I duly cooked my quinoa, added it to flour, LSA and some fresh basil to make a crust. I pureed my tofu and spinach together with various other spices, put them together and baked it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Mmmmm, well it was not great to be honest. We both ate it, but there were no rave reviews, and as you can see in the photo below, neither the top or the bottom crust set very well at all!

But, as we all know ....

 'It's not easy being green'

'Messert'

Off to dinner over at mum's house tonight and I said I'd make dessert or as our nephew Loch used to say 'messert'! 


After trawling through the recipes I have at hand on my faithful little white laptop and thinking about the ingredients here in the cupboard/fridge - who wants to go to the market unnecessarily after all - I decided on a crumble! Always a favourite with H'o'M... regularly asked for and rarely produced ;-)


I have loads of apples here - have I told you of my obsession with apples? - while the last time we were at the farm we came home with a bag of rhubarb that I have only just remembered. 
With such amazing ingredients at hand, clearly it'll be an apple/rhubarb crumble tonight! 


This is the crumble recipe I have decided to use tonight

• 1 bunch rhubarb, cut into 2cm pieces
• 3 Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• finely grated rind and juice of 1 orange
• 
  
• 3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
• 3/4 cup homemade granola - see here for recipe
• 100g butter, chilled, cubed
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 
  
• A few changes are being made to the recipe that I originally looked at. It asked for Granny Smith apples but as I only ever buy Pink Lady apples, that is all there is to use. I know most baking asks for Granny Smiths as they keep their shape so well when baking, but I'm happy with the taste of Pink Lady and less defined shapes!
• I also swapped the muesli dictated for my own homemade granola and finally ... just because I'm me... I definitely won't be using 100g of butter! I'll add just what feels comfortable at the time. 

Now that I'm reading it properly too, there is a slight issue with making this or in fact any sort of crumble tonight at all ... I have no brown sugar left! Mmmmm!? 
I do have plenty of raw caster sugar though, and seeing as that is golden and not white, I'll just use that and see how it all turns out!

So sorry...

... it's been a while between blogs!

It seems the kitchen gods have had their backs to me recently. Now, I have been cooking - don't get me wrong - but there has just been nothing of interest as a result of that cooking! Hence no blogging! I guess - like most things - the cooking muse arrives in cycles!

Over the past few weeks I have cooked and baked meals and treats as required;

• lemon meringue cupcakes and chocolate chip biscuits for a studying yr 12 student
• three different types of curry for a 'we'll bring dinner' night with some friends
• kangaroo sausages (kanga banga) on the BBQ
• various curries both Thai and Indian for our dinners
• tagines
• pasta sauces both vegetarian and full of various types of meat
• yo yo biscuits 
• frittatas
• quesadillas

but no new and interesting recipes!

So sorry dear blog readers - if indeed there are any of you out there! I do solemnly swear that I will do better!! 

I promise! 

Moroccan

A fancy for fish led me to my next recipe. I looked in the 'fish' folder in the 'recipes folder' on my trusty laptop and came up with 'fish tagine' for dinner tonight.
And...... wonder of wonders ......  I have actually written down where this recipe came from, so thanks to Neil Perry - Australian wonder chef ;-)

Firstly one has to make a chermoula, thereby creating all the flavours in the gravy and making a fish stir-fry into a tagine. I roughly chopped some flat leaf parsley, fresh coriander, red onion and garlic. Added some spices to the mix; cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika, ras-el-hanout and chilli, then blitzed away with a stab mixer using some lemon juice and olive oil until a thick paste was formed.


You can see from the photo it actually doesn't look so appetising, but believe me when I say it is an amazingly flavourful taste. Really got my tastebuds a-singing!

Next step onto the tagine itself. It's a fish tagine, so nothing wants to be cooking too long or it will get all tough and nasty to eat. The sweet potato I diced quite small and steamed for a few minutes, I roasted the red capsicum halves in the oven for 35 minutes, the cherry tomatoes and dates I chopped in half, and the olives I used whole. Once all the preparation is done it seems a quick cook!


To create the tagine spread the fish - I used Barramundi as there was no snapper today - with a tablespoon of chermoula each (see photo). Brown the fish in a pan for a few minutes before adding the other ingredients, another tablespoon of chermoula and some chicken stock. Simmer away for 5 minutes or so until the fish starts to flake and is therefore cooked. This timing would totally depend on the fish you have.


This is the step of course where one would use one's tagine if one had all one's belongings out of storage. Sadly that is not the case for me currently, so an everyday frypan will just have to suffice ;-)


Apparently the cover of a tagine is so designed to promote the return of all condensation to the bottom, then with the cover removed, the base can be taken to the table for serving.


I served the tagine with the obligatory couscous and some steamed asparagus and beans. 

Ya gotta have some greens with every meal - right?

MFM and sweet things

Today I have learnt to collage my photos in Picasa - well actually I always knew I could do it, but this is the first time I have actually done it. Just a guess, but I think you can expect quite a few more collages from me in the future ;-)

Yesterday was Meat Free Monday again and I made some falafels. Now I love falafel balls and have made these quite a few times but never as a main meal, more often as simply part of an antipasti type lunch. The challenge became making it enough of a meal for H'o'M. Just serving it with pita bread and some tahini sauce as directed in the recipe just didn't cut it for me, but by the same token I didn't want a heavy meal loaded with calories..... compromise.... a salad.

I chopped up some lettuce, and added the regular suspects - tomato, capsicum, cucumber, mushroom and  spring onions, then added extras like avocado, cheese for H'o'M and beetroot for me.  I toasted a large pita bread under the grill and chopped it up to serve with a couple of tablespoons of hummus. I think it worked out just fine. I'm sure H'o'M could have eaten a steak as well, but he didn't complain ;-)

The falafel balls are really easy when one has a tried and true food processor in the house. Just bung all the ingredients in, whizz briefly and you're good to go. The balls are made of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tahini, cumin, coriander, pepper, salt, fresh coriander (cilantro) and a little plain flour to bind them all together. I pan fried them quickly to get a slight crunch, then baked them in the oven for another 10 minutes.

As you can see from the photo collage I made a few other tidbits too.... a couscous tabouleh type salad for lunch in Ballas on Saturday. Loads of parsely, lemon juice, tomato and spring onions all mixed with the couscous.
For a treat I also baked Nigella Lawson's 'totally chocolate choc chip cookies'. They are too chocolatey for me - using real dark choc makes them far too rich. I prefer my chocolate milkier! Not so all the kids though - I think they were a hit ;-)

While down on the farm I baked some more yo-yos. This time I iced them 2 different ways. I added lemon juice to half the mixture and orange juice to the other half. I liked the tangy lemon one much more than the sweet orange one.

For lunch one day I also made another foccaccia. I do like this recipe. We ate one loaf for lunch on Friday with some chicken noodle soup I made, and the other one for lunch on Monday - toasted - with a vegetable frittatta.

Gardening *Updated with Photos*

Well spring is definitely here - although one could be forgiven for doubting it today as the rain is pouring down and it is so windy and grey. However the garden tells the story!

I have been puttering away out in the garden for months trying to teach myself how to prune shrubs,  keeping up with the weeding, and mastering the art of lawn mowing and now, finally, the results are showing! We have some new growth on nearly all the bushes along the driveway, the daffodils and bluebells - kindly donated from Mary next door - have bloomed, the kangaroo paw, the wattle trees and the banksia have flowered too - along with all the other plants, the names of which I just don't know!
There is something so satisfying in looking over ones domain and seeing the new growth and being able to bring some of the flowers inside!

Last weekend though, H'o'M and I decided it was time to add some vegetables to the mix. I have been wanting my own vegie patch for years! The issues in our garden here at the beach house are that long term, there won't be anyone here to tend to said garden and also that we don't want to take up too much of the lawn as that is the play area for 2 very active young men!

So, we did what people have always done in this situation.... we used pots!  A trip to our own garage proved to be a veritable gold mine of pots.... clearly they somehow made their way here from various households over the years. We were good to go.

A trip to the nursery ensued.... don't you love walking around a nursery on a warm day in spring. There are blooms everywhere and butterflies and warmth in the air and the promises of what your own garden could look like one one day if only you had a green thumb :-)

After much discussion H'o'M and I decided on some lettuce, spinach, basil, Italian parlsey and just one tomato plant as a good start. All of these are reasonably quick growing - a girl's gotta see some results right? - and are all produce we will use regularly over the summer months.

Well we potted away happily and now have some waiting to do before the harvesting can begin.

I'll take some photos and update this post when it stops raining!

Which one???

    



People are outraged/horrified/disgusted or even all three when we tell them we like to eat kangaroo steaks. Well really.... what's the difference between the lamb/beef/pork/fish we all eat and kangaroo? They all taste good, they can all be farmed and they are all animal meats. Well I have to tell you that for Australia the difference is actually enormous and here's why:

• kangaroos - for reasons unclear to me - produce very little methane gas. Something to do with a bacteria in the gut I think. They therefore have very little impact on the ozone layer! How 'green' is that?!
• kangaroos are native to Australia and do not have cloven hooves like the imported animals - again creating less impact on our environment 
• kangaroo meat is very lean - always a bonus from my point of view!  ;-)

Having said all that I was still a little dubious when H'o'M announced he wanted to swap all red meat for  kangaroo meat exclusively. I was sure this would create some issues with some of my recipes. I knew there would be no real issues with the quick cook dishes like stir fry but I wasn't too confident how it would stand up to the slow cooking. As it is such a lean meat I thought it might go all stringy and tough if left to simmer away for hours on end. The only way to answer this vexing question was to give it a go ...

so

...

I cooked 'cinnamon beef balti' a slow cooked Indian curry (recipe kindly donated by my little sis) which I have made many times.  I guess in this instance it should actually be called 'cinnamon kangaroo balti' right?

I'll let you know straight away that this dish was a success in that the kangaroo cooked beautifully in the sauce and tasted just fine!

This recipe calls for lots of spices, in particular garlic - 10 cloves in all - along with cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, paprika, ginger, chilli flakes, cloves and cumin! With a gravy base of whole chillies, red wine vinegar, tomatoes and water, the curry is simmered for 1-2 hours. Then to serve I sprinkled a stir fry of chopped tomatoes, red onion and fresh coriander over the curry and added some Naan bread to each bowl!


It tasted great and although I didn't take a photo - I have to get better at remembering I know - I think H'o'M might have something with this kangaroo idea! 

Souvlaki

The days are getting longer now that we've put forward our clocks, spring is definitely here and summer is definitely acoming, so a salad type dinner was a perfect end to a long sunny day!

There are many ways to cook lamb and we love them all - especially in the spring - but one of my favourites is to make a souvlaki!

The lamb sat marinating in a mix of yoghurt, lemon juice, cumin and garlic for an hour or so - the longer the better clearly - then I pan fried it quickly to sear the marinade onto the lamb!

I served the sliced lamb over a bed of rocket layered with tomato, cucumber, spring onion, and sprinkled with a little of the reserved marinade that I had added some mint to.

Of course it just screamed out for some bread so I toasted a couple of small pita breads and we were good to go!

MFM again!

It must be about the 5th one by now - I seem to have lost count.

Coming back from our weekend on the farm I was figuring out a menu for the week - well it is one way to fill in the 2.5 hour drive - and came up with burgers for dinner on Monday night. Mmmm, then I remembered it was a meat free day, so decided to make our burgers with Portobello mushrooms instead of your everyday mince. Just for a little twist I gave them a Moroccan inspired rub on top too!

I mixed together some ground cinnamon, chili flakes, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and some salt & pepper and after spraying the mushrooms with some olive oil, I rubbed the top of the mushrooms with said rub.  H'o'M then took them outside and BBQ'd them - absolutely perfectly I might add!

While he was outside getting the BBQ hot and then cooking the mushies, I got some fillings ready for the burgers. To make some sort of dressing/sauce, I mixed yoghurt, lemon juice and mint together, and left them to merge all the flavours as long as possible.

For the burger fixin's, I chopped up a few baby beets, two tomatoes, a cucumber and half a red capsicum. As we love onion in our house, I also caramelised a couple of brown onions using Donna's quick caramelising technique - see I did learn a few things from my Winter challenge.

Then to complete the burger, I grilled a couple of Turkish rolls! Actually the chain market here in our resort town, sells these rolls partially baked, so I first had to bake them in the oven for a few minutes, then I grilled each side for a couple of minutes. I'm not sure they'd taste any good the next day - or indeed even a few hours later -  but for an immediate use, they were terrific!

Of course, I had to add basil pesto to my burger - not so for H'o'M who simply tolerates my slight obsession with pesto. Seriously though what's not to love??? ;-)
I enjoyed these burgers and have to say that although I didn't serve them with curly fries, (which would have definitely put them into the realm of *awesome*) this Portobello burger was better than the one I had at the famous  'Barney's Burgers'  in Rockridge in Oakland CA! 

Unfortunately though, although we've had a few attempts already, it seems H'o'M hasn't totally got the whole point of Meat Free Monday. While outside BBQing the mushrooms, he trickily BBQ'd a sasusage too!!! His theory being that

• it's only a side dish, so doesn't really count 

and

• as it's a sausage there is every chance that there really isn't any meat in it anyway ;-)

Dubious rationalisations at best I'd say! 

Yo Yos

After my totally rustic looking yo-yos last week I thought I'd try again this weekend while relaxing down at the farm!
Last week I used a Donna Hay recipe which tastes perfectly satisfactory, but seemed to be very crumbly and didn't form very regular circular shapes. This week I used a different recipe from the internet allrecipes.com.au and the results were much better. The dough rolled very nicely into a ball that was then easy to squish with the fork to make pretty lines on top. My m-i-l has the teaspoon size scoop too with which to make balls that were more similar in size

It's interesting to note that some recipes for YoYos require the use of cornflour while others use custard powder. I wonder if that's what made the difference with my 2 batches as generally the other ingredients in each recipe are exactly the same. To add an extra dimension to the dough next time, I think I'd add a few drops of vanilla. You know me, I can't help myself with the tweaking of the recipes ;-)


I stuck the biscuits together with some very tangy lemon icing, and, although as you can see they are still quite rustic and not particularly uniform in shape, I think they taste OK!

Another thought for next time is to use the pulp of a passionfruit in both the icing and the dough, or perhaps a little lemon zest or orange zest in both icing and dough....my goodness the possibilities go on and on!

Clearly I'll be practising yo-yo recipes for quite some time!

Honeycomb

I made another batch - I tell you I love this stuff ;-)

Some of the girls from Ballas were with us this week and although we did make the necessary stop off at the 'lolly shop' for supplies, when I suggested it, making some of Donna's honeycomb was greeted with a resounding yes! Now admittedly these girls have never tasted said honeycomb before so all understandable really – especially after hearing me talk about it!

 

This iteration I think was the best yet – even H'o'M, previously not a big fan, enjoyed this batch! My strategy was a little more particular this time I think. Deciding when the sugar was completely dissolved into the butter, honey and maple syrup is clearly a crucial step and one I have been a tad cavalier about in the past! Also, once the bi-carb is added – making a fantastic chemical reaction – I was more precise when I stirred them all together, and mixed for a longer time.

End result – more even and crunchier honeycomb

Sadly I forgot to take a photo and have sent the results back to Ballas with the girls. Sorry!

The sweetness of spring!

I'm back at the farm revelling in the large kitchen again ;-)

Last night I made a 'free form apple pie' for dessert. This is a fantastic recipe because it really doesn't matter what it looks like as a final result.... it's supposed to be like that!

Just make the pastry - gotta love those food processors which make a mockery of all pastry techniques ;-) - then roll it out, pile all the apples on top and fold/pleat/stretch the pastry over the apples to make the free form part of the pie! So easy and it looks pretty too!

Served with ice cream or cream or indeed whatever dairy product takes your fancy, it's perfect ;-)

We're having some more teenage visitors for a couple of days this week, so I thought I'd make some of the necessary sweet things today - won't have time tomorrow as am being 'a lady who lunches' with friends ;-)

It's always nice to have some biscuits in the house, so I decided to make some ANZAC biscuits. I love the crispiness of these biscuits and I also love the story behind them. They were a favourite of my friend D in America too ;-)
I have taken to making quite small biscuits these days. Instead of a large tablespoon of mixture I'm now using a small teaspoon of mixture. I like the bite size-ness of them, plus it means you can have more ;-)
I have an ice-cream scoop about the size of a teaspoon which is perfect for this job. So much simpler than scooping with a traditional spoon shaped implement. Just scoop, squeeze and drop ;-)

To satisfy the chocolate cravings of said visitors - and I know there will be a need for chocolate - I thought a 'raspberry brownie' would be nice. This is a favourite of the mob in Ballas.
It's a very very chocolatey, gooey brownie studded with the rich red jewels of raspberry. I'm not sure what makes it so rich....could be all the butter or the 250g of dark chocolate or could it be the sour cream?

It's really good!

Pilaf

We were having dinner with mum the night before her big trip to Africa, so I wanted something light, quick and filling. Pilaf!

For those who don't know, pilaf is basically a rice dish cooked in a flavoured broth - hence its ability to be transformed according to what flavours one adds to it! A pilaf can be made in so many different varieties, with so many different tastes, but we have a couple of favourites. This one, first cooked many many years ago when we lived up in the big smoke, is not a regular one, but it is tasty.

To make this pilaf I simply browned a red onion with carrot and chorizo sausage for several minutes. To that, I added garlic, chilli, ground cumin and chopped coriander root and cooked this mix for several more minutes. In goes the rice, which is stirred to make sure that all the rice grains are covered in the seasonings, then hot stock is poured in. Boil it, then bake it for 30 minutes and you're good to go! 

As is my wont I served it with some steamed broccoli and steamed green beans 

lunch w Ms Maxam

My friend came for lunch on Thursday. It was quite a treat as we don't get too many visitors down in our resort town, and also I haven't seen Ms Maxam for quite a while! She has been a keen follower of this blog and comments regularly, so I felt like I wanted to cook something for her.

A light lunch was in order because we're both fairly conscious of fat content, and also we were planning a beach walk after lunch! Mmmmm, so many factors to consider.

Well firstly I made some focaccia again! The last bake was such a success that I felt sure I could replicate it. So.... I made them (I didn't halve the recipe this time so ended up with 2 loaves),  but as I was kneading the dough I realized I had forgotten to add the small amount of sugar required to the yeast. No wonder it wasn't bubbling like last time, those poor little yeast molecules had nothing to feast upon!
I had to keep going as it was far too late to do anything about it now. I left the dough to prove for an hour and it did rise, so I was thinking it all might be OK! It *was* OK too!
As last time, I sprinkled some salt, basil, oregano & chili flakes on top of the uncooked bread to add a touch of pizazz to the finished bread!
The bread cooked beautifully and the only thing I noticed was that there weren't as many focaccia type bubbles in the bread this time. It was more loaf than focaccia perhaps.

We ate both loaves though ;-)

I whipped up a 'tomato and ricotta tart' for the lunch too. I made a few renovations to this recipe... I had a little feta left in the fridge so I mixed it in with a low fat ricotta. Also the recipe asked for puff pastry, but I used a few sheets of filo instead. I know one is supposed to layer filo pastry with melted butter, but I just gave each layer a quick spray of canola oil instead. It clearly was a bit crunchier than it should be, but far less oily!
Next time I make this tart though, I would add a little more zing to the ricotta mix. I felt it lacked a little something, although Ms Maxam and H'o'M disagreed with me.
I served the tart with a green salad consisting of lettuce mix, avocado, cucumber and broccoli drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and lime oil mix.

I think we ate well ;-)

Mussel Soup

I did it, I finally made the ginger and mussel soup from Donna's Magazine!

A few issues along the way...
         firstly I had or remember how to clean mussels properly - it's clearly been a long time since that seafood course in London ;-) Once I had all the beards pulled out - remember people, it's a quick tug down, not up or the whole mussel comes out too - I scrubbed those little suckers well and they were ready for the stock pot!

I sautéd me some ginger, garlic and onion then added the mussels to steam in some fish stock and coconut milk. Add some chili and coriander and served 'em up!

Sadly, as with many of these quick soups of Donna's, it was not a resounding success. The stock just hadn't had time to develop any flavours and so tastes like a nonblended mix of the various ingredients! The mussels were good though - very fresh from the local area - and we ate them all!

 but the broth.... not so much!

No photos

I did make a quite a few meals this weekend - it's amazing just how hungry study can make a person ;-)


Breakfasts were easy, we had pancakes for two of the three mornings - these were eaten with strawberries for those who like them, maple syrup and ice cream. Perfect! The other morning cereal, porridge and toast were on the menu!


For lunch one day I served scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, my home made baked beans, and chopped tomato. Served with lots of toasted baguette!
Another day we had 'Jo's Mediterranean chicken wraps'. These consisted of some chicken breast cut into strips and dredged in flour and some dried herbs...basil, oregano, thyme... and pepper and salt. There was a variety of fixin's on the table to add to the chicken, including lettuce, cheese, tomato, cucumber, mayo, and beetroot.
For lunch today I made some of 'Jo's minestrone soup'. This is the easiest and often the tastiest of soups really. It is just a matter of chopping up every left over vegetable in the bottom of the fridge and cooking it in some stock, tinned tomatoes, dried herbs, and throwing in some pasta towards the end. Today's variation had zucchini, capsicum, onion, garlic, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, leek, sweet potato, tinned lentils and pumpkin. Basically everything in the fridge!
I served it with some dense wholemeal, seeded bread and a dollop of pesto on the top for those interested!


Along with the paella, for dinners we ate homemade pizza one night, and the other was a really tasty spagheti and meatballs. The taste of this meal was really all in the meatballs as the sauce was very basic - the only ingredients being tomatoes, fresh basil and chilli.
To make the meatballs though I mixed the beef with dried red chillies, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, garlic salt, black pepper, egg, Parmesan and lemon zest. It all worked out really well and of course I got the fun of squishing all the ingredients together with my hands. So tasty was this dish in fact that my S-i-l wants the recipe! 


Of course what would a weekend away be if there were no sweet thing on hand. I made the 'never fail chocolate cake' again - but this time in muffin size. I also made some choc chip biscuits using both dark and white choc chips, and an apple crumble!  


There was a request for yo-yos this morning. Mmmmm, the last time I made these biscuits 6 years ago they were a disaster and I clearly am still bearing the scars as I have never tried them again! What else can one do though...can't disappoint a niece! 
I went straight to Donna - not the winter magazine - and she didn't let me down! My yo-yos were *very* rustic looking, but they tasted fine! 

Alright I do have one photo. These are the left over sweet things I was taking over to mum after the visitors left. Sorry ;-)