I'm actually recycling this ... recipe ... from a previous incarnation.
Obviously I haven't done this one in over 5 years.
_______________
As I'm planning to do away with part of MY traditional pudding recipe, I thought I'd pass it on for posterity. If you plan to use this recipe, you should start about a month in advance (I've given the timelines, don't panic).
So here's the traditional recipe.
About halfway through November, when you see the decorative lights going up on the houses along your street, suddenly realise it's getting close to Christmas. Vaguely recall a promise you made to your stepsister that you'd make the Christmas pudding.
Buy a paper.
Listen to the Christmas carols on the radio as you idly thumb through the paper.
See a house/unit for rent.
Go have a look at it, sign the papers.
Beg your boss for some leave. Get two weeks holidays, beginning the middle of November and ending the first of December. (This part is not compulsory.)
Relax, as that's plenty of time to move house. A whole two weeks.
Book your trip to Sydney for a week and a half, coming back the day before you're due back from holidays.
Relax some more, knowing that your first 1/2 a week of leave you can easily pack your house.
Realise that you're leaving for Sydney in an hours time, and forget about packing the house, you haven't even packed your suitcase. Throw some things into a suitcase, go visit your friends interstate.
Have fun with them for a week and a half. Fly back. Go to work.
Ring your removalist, who, for some reason, is the only programmed speed dial in your phone. Find out when he's available. Mid December? Great. That gives you almost two weeks to pack, and you're not doing any overtime at work, so you've plenty of time during the day to pack.
Realise it's the 10th of December, and your removalist is coming at 9.30 on Thursday the 12th. Have a look around your current unit. Calculate how many boxes you'll need. Count how many you still have left over from the last move. Subtract the ones that you still haven't unpacked from the last move. Realise you'll need about 20 more boxes - your supply seems to have evaporated over the year.
Go and start packing books into the boxes you have. (This is the only organised part of the moving process. You shouldn't be using a car during this time, public transport just adds to the fun. You know that your books are the heaviest thing you have, so your removalists should be lugging them around, not you.)
Wonder why you feel the need to keep at least 20 boxes of books. Ring your stepmother while packing, find out what she wants for Christmas. When she asks you what you want, answer "books". Hang up, go back to packing.
Finish packing your books, start on anything else that looks good. Go to work that night.
The day before the removalist arrives, go to your local store. Ask them for free boxes. End up buying two packs of archive boxes at a store miles away from your unit. Realise you can't get them on the bus, call a cab.
Go to your unit. Continue packing. Go to work, come home, have a coffee, pack for a little while longer, have a snooze for an hour, get up, do some more packing.
At 7:30 am find yourself chanting under your breath "Gettin' there, gettin' there" as you run around the house, frantically shoving things in boxes.
At 9:00 find your chant has changed to "Never say die, never say die" as you gulp down your last coffee whilst simultaneously packing your kettle, microwave, and anything else in the kitchen.
9:15 have the removalists arrive. Show them what they've got to move. Listen to the howls of protest. Watch them do their utmost to destroy anything that wasn't destroyed in the packing process.
After the removalists have left (around 3 pm), find the boxes of food that you asked them to put in the kitchen. Move them from underneath 8 boxes of books in the study to said kitchen. Find broken bottle of something smelly, throw it out.
Nap for 10 minutes, get up, have a shower, go to work.
Come home, push a path through boxes to your bed, collapse in exhaustion. Have a moment of lucidity where you remember you told your boss you could do some extra hours the next day. Get up again, set alarm for some godforsaken hour.
In the next three days, do extra hours at work, ponder your Christmas shopping, clean unit so you can have the inspection. On day of inspection, run around like a headless chook once more.
So by now you should be up to about 10 days before Christmas. Work is picking up, and you have to pay for that removalist somehow, so agree to do extra hours at work, ignoring the boxes that you trip over every morning on your way to the shower. Continue this through the Summer heatwave that has struck.
Realise it's the weekend before Christmas, and you haven't done any Christmas shopping. Once again, recall promise to stepsister to make pudding. Surf on the net for a pudding recipe. Then filter so it takes out all references to suet because you've got no clue what that's good for.
Filter it again so you no longer have the recipes that require "hanging the pudding for 4 weeks". Realise you haven't unpacked your printer, and buggered if you can find a pen.
Give up on finding a recipe, go to the newsagency. Buy the last magazine there with a Christmas pudding in it. Do that first, so you have the recipe to shop from.
Put magazine in trolley, trundle off to the grocery store. Now, this is the most important bit. REMEMBER THIS STEP! Buy 10 litres of long life milk, put them in the trolley. Add a few jars of coffee, and anything else that you require that's heavy. (So your fruit and veg won't end up squashed underneath heavy stuff.)
Right, now if you've done that step correctly, your magazine with recipe should be well and truly buried.
Ponder unpacking trolley to get to recipe. Look at crowds, decide against it. Try and remember what you put in the pudding last year, ignoring the fact you have a different recipe this year.
Go to nut shop. Charlesworth, by choice. Buy 500g of cashews, 200g of macadamias, 250g blanched almonds, 100g almond flakes, 500g pudding mix. Figure that looks pretty good, ponder what else to put in your pudding. Walk past alcohol shop, walk back, grab a bottle of port. Think about it for a moment, remember that this recipe said rum or brandy. Put bottle of port back, grab bottle of rum flavoured port. Also buy a six pack of cider for yourself to drink whilst cooking, because it's too hot to drink port. Look at your reasonably full trolley, head back into supermarket, buy all different kinds of mixed fruit.
Walk past bookshop. Applaud yourself for not going inside... Spot a book that looks just right for someone on your Christmas list. Get out your Christmas list... "right, Sheila wants eggcups... she can have a book. Dad wants a belt... here's a good book for him." End up doing 90% of your Christmas shopping there. Be very proud that you didn't buy a SINGLE book for yourself. Put a couple on layby, just in case you don't get them from someone else for Christmas.
By now your trolley is overflowing, as is your backpack, and you've got 2 bags of books in your hand. Give up on shopping, head towards the train station. Stop off at your coffee shop and get a take away cappucino. Wonder how on earth you're going to get all of this back to the train station with only one hand free. Have a slurp of coffee. When you're waiting for the pedestrian crossing, have another slurp of coffee. As the lights turn green for you to walk, realise you're standing in front of a chocolate shop. Duck in there, put your bags down, grab a box of chocolates for that person you know you're going to forget.. Go to pay, realise you're out of money. Go to autoteller, leaving bags & trolley in the shop. Come back, pay for chocolate, realise this hasn't helped you towards the hands free trolley pushing expedition.
Manage to get on the train somehow. Get off at your station, walk from train station to home in 37C heat. Remember now why you were going to get up early to do your shopping.
Unpack the fruit & nuts, and alcohol. Go to your box of food, look at the dried fruit you have in there left over from last year. Look at the expiry date, realise it's use by date was 6 months ago, idly wonder why you've kept it, put it back in box.
Put all the fruit (the new stuff, not the old stuff) and 3/4 of the nuts in a big mixing bowl. Pour in some rum AND port. Have a look. Pour in some more. Mix it all up. Munch on a few cashews whilst doing this. Leave to soak overnight.
Go have a look at the weather report. Find the day where it's going to be cooler weather, so you're not boiling yourself and the pudding at the same day. Decide to make it that day. Think about this a bit more, realise the day you've chosen as your perfect pudding day is 4 days after Christmas. Decide to make it the next day, even though it's going to be 40+.
Decide you'd be better off staying up all night to boil it, when it's only going to be 30C. Set the alarm to go off every hour to wake you up to add more water to the pot.
Get up on Christmas day, feeling more tired than if you'd had no sleep, wrap Christmas presents. Look at all the nicely wrapped presents, realise that whilst wrapping them all in one go is very logical in theory, putting tags on the presents as you wrapped them instead of doing that last might have been a better idea. Open all presents to see what's in them, as books all seem to look the same once their wrapped.
Run for the train! It's Christmas day!!!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Another White Choc/Raspberry post
Although this time I'm cheating, and just using the link directly from the other webpage.
cool, huh?
You'll notice in the reviews (because I couldn't ramble on in the recipe...) that I said if you bake it too long it comes out like a macaroon, too short and it's all gooey and yummy. It's a great recipe, I should make it again soon.
cool, huh?
You'll notice in the reviews (because I couldn't ramble on in the recipe...) that I said if you bake it too long it comes out like a macaroon, too short and it's all gooey and yummy. It's a great recipe, I should make it again soon.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies (Mk I)
So, as some know, I tried a Raspberry Cheesecake cookie from Subway, and I've been raving about it since.
And, obviously, searching for recipes. I found a site that reverse engineers recipes (how cool!) but I've obviously closed and lost that link. I found a LOT of people raving about the recipe, and one person who's spread her version of the recipe all over the net, to a lot of positive reviews.
So, of course, I didn't use that recipe either.
The problem was both cream cheese (in a cookie? How weird! Except, if you google cream cheese cookie recipes, there are thousands of them) and the raspberries. Which have a tendency to bleed.
I discovered a very cool company (erm, I think I found it from the reverse engineer site) that makes raspberry bits - but only ships to the states. I pondered trying the old "coat them in flour first" trick, but I decided, for first time cooking, I'd just randomly put it together and tweak it later. Especially considering half the recipes had stuff like shortening, and gelatine, and other things that I don't have in my cupboard/fridge right now.
So. Without further ado, (though I am quite good at ado, I feel):
Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies, Mk I
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
250g cream cheese*, softened
250g unsalted butter, softened
3/4C packed brown sugar
3/4C white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g white chocolate chips
1C frozen raspberries** (leave these in the freezer until last minute)
Preheat oven to 180C
Line at least 2 trays with baking paper. Yes, even if they're non stick. Trust me. I didn't line them..
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
I was lazy, so I used the blender to cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla, mix until combined.
Add flour, stir until combined, then add in choc chips, mix.
Carefully mix in still frozen raspberries. I tried cutting them up a bit before adding, wouldn't bother next time.
Drop spoonfuls on to the prepared sheet. They don't spread/bake like normal cookies, so you could try to get them a little more circular than I did, I just dumped them like I do with normal cookies.
Bake for 12-15 mins - makes about 48, depending on how big you make the cookies.
*I only had a tub of spreadable cream cheese in the fridge, it worked.
**I don't really know how many raspberries I put in, I think it was actually about 1.5C, but it was too many. Next time I would also do all the trays at once, while the raspberries are still frozen, as the last batch have swirls through them - looks cool though! I should take a photo, I know... I baked the first batch as a trial run, so the raspberries were defrosting in the mix while I was waiting to see how they turned out.
They're not the same as the subway cookies. I'll work on that. But for now, they're good enough, and they can go to work on Monday.
You can tell this is a recipe I cobbled together - as the amounts are given in what comes in a packet *laughs*
And, obviously, searching for recipes. I found a site that reverse engineers recipes (how cool!) but I've obviously closed and lost that link. I found a LOT of people raving about the recipe, and one person who's spread her version of the recipe all over the net, to a lot of positive reviews.
So, of course, I didn't use that recipe either.
The problem was both cream cheese (in a cookie? How weird! Except, if you google cream cheese cookie recipes, there are thousands of them) and the raspberries. Which have a tendency to bleed.
I discovered a very cool company (erm, I think I found it from the reverse engineer site) that makes raspberry bits - but only ships to the states. I pondered trying the old "coat them in flour first" trick, but I decided, for first time cooking, I'd just randomly put it together and tweak it later. Especially considering half the recipes had stuff like shortening, and gelatine, and other things that I don't have in my cupboard/fridge right now.
So. Without further ado, (though I am quite good at ado, I feel):
Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies, Mk I
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
250g cream cheese*, softened
250g unsalted butter, softened
3/4C packed brown sugar
3/4C white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g white chocolate chips
1C frozen raspberries** (leave these in the freezer until last minute)
Preheat oven to 180C
Line at least 2 trays with baking paper. Yes, even if they're non stick. Trust me. I didn't line them..
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
I was lazy, so I used the blender to cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla, mix until combined.
Add flour, stir until combined, then add in choc chips, mix.
Carefully mix in still frozen raspberries. I tried cutting them up a bit before adding, wouldn't bother next time.
Drop spoonfuls on to the prepared sheet. They don't spread/bake like normal cookies, so you could try to get them a little more circular than I did, I just dumped them like I do with normal cookies.
Bake for 12-15 mins - makes about 48, depending on how big you make the cookies.
*I only had a tub of spreadable cream cheese in the fridge, it worked.
**I don't really know how many raspberries I put in, I think it was actually about 1.5C, but it was too many. Next time I would also do all the trays at once, while the raspberries are still frozen, as the last batch have swirls through them - looks cool though! I should take a photo, I know... I baked the first batch as a trial run, so the raspberries were defrosting in the mix while I was waiting to see how they turned out.
They're not the same as the subway cookies. I'll work on that. But for now, they're good enough, and they can go to work on Monday.
You can tell this is a recipe I cobbled together - as the amounts are given in what comes in a packet *laughs*
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Pumpkin scones
But no herb butter. I'm still grouchy about that *laughs*.
Ok, so to make pumpkin scones, I start with the green and gold cookbook, circa 1932. It's a little battered by now. Ok, I lie. It's so battered, I bought a new copy. But the theory remains. So my battered copy continues having pride of place on the shelf, but the new one gets used.
It's a lovely light recipe, and sweet, rather than savoury.
57g (2 oz) of butter
57g of sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1C mashed cooked pumpkin (it's easier to mash after it's been cooked. I'm not sure why I bothered to say "mashed, cooked pumpkin")
1 beaten egg
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2C milk (possibly, I tend to use about 1/4C)
Preheat fan forced oven to 230C
Cream butter and sugar with lemon rind.
Add the pumpkin, and beat well. You can cheat here, if you had issues with creaming the sugar and butter together, if the pumpkin is still slightly warm it makes it really easy to mix in.
Add the egg, then fold in sifted flour, spice and salt. At this point you check to see what the consistency is like - if the pumpkin was quite dry, then you'll need all the milk. I've found that with well drained butternut pumpkin, I tend to use about 1/4C of milk to get it to the right consistency. You need it to be a soft dough.
Put it on to a floured board, and knead lightly to about 2cm thickness. Cut in to rounds (cut straight down, don't twist the cutter as you press down, or they won't rise evenly), and place on greased tray.
Brush some beaten egg or milk over the top of each scone, then place in oven.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Serve hot with butter. Noms.
Sorry, still no pictures guys - the camera battery is STILL flat. I should do something about that.
Ok, so to make pumpkin scones, I start with the green and gold cookbook, circa 1932. It's a little battered by now. Ok, I lie. It's so battered, I bought a new copy. But the theory remains. So my battered copy continues having pride of place on the shelf, but the new one gets used.
It's a lovely light recipe, and sweet, rather than savoury.
57g (2 oz) of butter
57g of sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1C mashed cooked pumpkin (it's easier to mash after it's been cooked. I'm not sure why I bothered to say "mashed, cooked pumpkin")
1 beaten egg
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2C milk (possibly, I tend to use about 1/4C)
Preheat fan forced oven to 230C
Cream butter and sugar with lemon rind.
Add the pumpkin, and beat well. You can cheat here, if you had issues with creaming the sugar and butter together, if the pumpkin is still slightly warm it makes it really easy to mix in.
Add the egg, then fold in sifted flour, spice and salt. At this point you check to see what the consistency is like - if the pumpkin was quite dry, then you'll need all the milk. I've found that with well drained butternut pumpkin, I tend to use about 1/4C of milk to get it to the right consistency. You need it to be a soft dough.
Put it on to a floured board, and knead lightly to about 2cm thickness. Cut in to rounds (cut straight down, don't twist the cutter as you press down, or they won't rise evenly), and place on greased tray.
Brush some beaten egg or milk over the top of each scone, then place in oven.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Serve hot with butter. Noms.
Sorry, still no pictures guys - the camera battery is STILL flat. I should do something about that.
Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies
I can't think of what to blog this week, so seeing as this was Friday night's project, here's the breakdown.
I originally stole the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (love her stuff!) but tweaked it by adding peanuts and peanut butter. She adapted it from one in all recipes, who probably got it somewhere else... When you find a good choc chip cookie recipe, it's good to keep and share it.
It's also got a mini ethics lesson in it! Gosh, cooking AND ethics in one post! No, you don't need to debate the ethics in the comments. Really, you don't.
Also, random factoids and links for the win this post.
I've Australianised (aka, metric!) the measurements.
270G of plain flour - which is just under 2 cups
1/2 teaspoon of bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (or a bit less depending on your peanut butter, we'll get to this shortly)
170g unsalted butter, melted
225g brown sugar (a cup, pressed down slightly)
112g white sugar (smidge less than 1/2 a cup)
3 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
1 egg
350g dark choc chips (if you're feeling lazy and/or decadent, just put in 2 packets of Cadbury's* choc chips. It's about 460g, but hey, you only live once, right?)
1/2 a jar of pure peanut butter**. 1/2 a jar is approximately 190g, but I just scoop.
if you like, you can also add some peanuts, which I did this time.
Preheat oven to 165C. I have a fan forced oven, you may need to adjust for yours if not.
While your butter is melting in the microwave*** (ok, you can melt it elsewhere, but seriously, who does that nowadays?), sift together the flour, salt and bicarb soda in to a small bowl. By sifting, it not only mixes them together, it gets rid of the lumps, and aerates the flour. You can skip sifting, but I don't offer any guarantees. I prefer using one of the old OLD fashioned sifters, that has the wheel in the middle. More work, but I feel I have the moral superiority edge. See next tip for further moral superiority.
Cream together melted butter (that will have cooled while you were basking in the glow of previous superiority), brown sugar, white sugar. I use a pump whisk (Avanti brand, but they don't seem to sell them any more) so again, moral superiority, because instead of using an electric blender, I'm at least burning SOME energy that I'm sure I'm going to replace by eating cookies... Ahem, back on track. The mixture should be fairly light at this point.
Add in your vanilla essence, egg yolk and egg. I add the egg yolk first, because if the first egg breaks the yolk, I can still add the egg yolk after that. Another thing I do: break the egg in to a small cup before adding to mix. That way if you have to pick out bits of shell because you're really unco when breaking eggs (aka, ME), you're not trying to pick it out of the mix, only the cup.
Stir in your morally sound peanut butter - I'm still using the whisk at this point to make sure I don't get just one huge lump of peanut butter in the mixture.
Fold in the flour mix. At this point I'm swapping to a normal wooden spoon. You don't want to over mix it at this point, or you lose all the air that you've beaten in previously. It should be just mixed.
Add in your choc chips, gently stir them through. If you're adding peanuts, add them now. (I used my trusty mortar and pestle to give a different consistency this time. Before I had a mortar and pestle, I used to wrap the peanuts up in a clean tea towel and hit them with the base of a pot. It's good for getting rid of any pent up aggression, too.)
I use a soup spoon to scoop out the batter. They do have a tendency to spread in the oven, so space them well apart. It usually takes me 2 cookie trays and 2 batches to get them all cooked. I tend to leave about 5cm between cookies.
Bake for 10-15 minutes. Get them out of the oven after the outsides start going brown. Let them cool on the tray for about 5 minutes (this is important if you don't want folded cookies, because they are VERY soft at this point) and then fully cool on racks.
Once cool, pack them up in to Anzac cookie tins, and take to work.
I've also made this recipe and swapped out peanut butter (no peanuts either) for 2 shots of espresso. They looked completely different. It worked, too, but wasn't as popular at work as the peanut butter batch.
*Nestle is the evil empire in my house. Just sayin'.
**You can get this in the health food aisle, Coles sells the Sanitarium one, or you can get it in a health food shop. By buying the 100% peanut butter, it means no salt/sugar, but also means no added oil, which is why I started buying it. What I wasn't aware of until my friend (who is passionate about improving the plight of animals everywhere) told me, is that peanut butter's added oil is usually palm oil, which not only horrifically bad for you, but also for the orangutan habitat. Won't someone think of the orangutans? The only issue for me is that it's not made in Australia, which is something I believe in. Health food store for the win.
*** I read this really cool article online about melting butter and the science behind it and why you use different types of butter (cold, softened, melted etc), and how each one affects the outcome of the dish. Needless to say, I can't find it again.
I originally stole the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (love her stuff!) but tweaked it by adding peanuts and peanut butter. She adapted it from one in all recipes, who probably got it somewhere else... When you find a good choc chip cookie recipe, it's good to keep and share it.
It's also got a mini ethics lesson in it! Gosh, cooking AND ethics in one post! No, you don't need to debate the ethics in the comments. Really, you don't.
Also, random factoids and links for the win this post.
I've Australianised (aka, metric!) the measurements.
270G of plain flour - which is just under 2 cups
1/2 teaspoon of bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (or a bit less depending on your peanut butter, we'll get to this shortly)
170g unsalted butter, melted
225g brown sugar (a cup, pressed down slightly)
112g white sugar (smidge less than 1/2 a cup)
3 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
1 egg
350g dark choc chips (if you're feeling lazy and/or decadent, just put in 2 packets of Cadbury's* choc chips. It's about 460g, but hey, you only live once, right?)
1/2 a jar of pure peanut butter**. 1/2 a jar is approximately 190g, but I just scoop.
if you like, you can also add some peanuts, which I did this time.
Preheat oven to 165C. I have a fan forced oven, you may need to adjust for yours if not.
While your butter is melting in the microwave*** (ok, you can melt it elsewhere, but seriously, who does that nowadays?), sift together the flour, salt and bicarb soda in to a small bowl. By sifting, it not only mixes them together, it gets rid of the lumps, and aerates the flour. You can skip sifting, but I don't offer any guarantees. I prefer using one of the old OLD fashioned sifters, that has the wheel in the middle. More work, but I feel I have the moral superiority edge. See next tip for further moral superiority.
Cream together melted butter (that will have cooled while you were basking in the glow of previous superiority), brown sugar, white sugar. I use a pump whisk (Avanti brand, but they don't seem to sell them any more) so again, moral superiority, because instead of using an electric blender, I'm at least burning SOME energy that I'm sure I'm going to replace by eating cookies... Ahem, back on track. The mixture should be fairly light at this point.
Add in your vanilla essence, egg yolk and egg. I add the egg yolk first, because if the first egg breaks the yolk, I can still add the egg yolk after that. Another thing I do: break the egg in to a small cup before adding to mix. That way if you have to pick out bits of shell because you're really unco when breaking eggs (aka, ME), you're not trying to pick it out of the mix, only the cup.
Stir in your morally sound peanut butter - I'm still using the whisk at this point to make sure I don't get just one huge lump of peanut butter in the mixture.
Fold in the flour mix. At this point I'm swapping to a normal wooden spoon. You don't want to over mix it at this point, or you lose all the air that you've beaten in previously. It should be just mixed.
Add in your choc chips, gently stir them through. If you're adding peanuts, add them now. (I used my trusty mortar and pestle to give a different consistency this time. Before I had a mortar and pestle, I used to wrap the peanuts up in a clean tea towel and hit them with the base of a pot. It's good for getting rid of any pent up aggression, too.)
I use a soup spoon to scoop out the batter. They do have a tendency to spread in the oven, so space them well apart. It usually takes me 2 cookie trays and 2 batches to get them all cooked. I tend to leave about 5cm between cookies.
Bake for 10-15 minutes. Get them out of the oven after the outsides start going brown. Let them cool on the tray for about 5 minutes (this is important if you don't want folded cookies, because they are VERY soft at this point) and then fully cool on racks.
Once cool, pack them up in to Anzac cookie tins, and take to work.
I've also made this recipe and swapped out peanut butter (no peanuts either) for 2 shots of espresso. They looked completely different. It worked, too, but wasn't as popular at work as the peanut butter batch.
*Nestle is the evil empire in my house. Just sayin'.
**You can get this in the health food aisle, Coles sells the Sanitarium one, or you can get it in a health food shop. By buying the 100% peanut butter, it means no salt/sugar, but also means no added oil, which is why I started buying it. What I wasn't aware of until my friend (who is passionate about improving the plight of animals everywhere) told me, is that peanut butter's added oil is usually palm oil, which not only horrifically bad for you, but also for the orangutan habitat. Won't someone think of the orangutans? The only issue for me is that it's not made in Australia, which is something I believe in. Health food store for the win.
*** I read this really cool article online about melting butter and the science behind it and why you use different types of butter (cold, softened, melted etc), and how each one affects the outcome of the dish. Needless to say, I can't find it again.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Gran's Spaghetti Sauce
Not my Gran, though I did feel adopted by her. I never had a Gran until I met Lincoln, I had Oma and Nanna (and later, after Nanna died, Betty). The first time before I met her, I asked Lincoln "what shall I call her?" "Gran" he says, without hesitation. And Gran she was, and always will be.
We went to Gran & Grandpas for lunch one day. Gran was making us spaghetti bolognaise, and apple crumble. I found out later (ok, in fact, the other night) that Lincoln used to get care packages of this when he was younger and his folks were away... And when he'd just moved out of home.
And the spaghetti bolognaise was GOOD. I'd never made anything with that kind of complexity of herbs and spices in the mix, and I'd been making it from scratch for years, trying to perfect it. Of course, I begged for the recipe from her.
So without further ado, I present to you:
Gran's Bolognaise Sauce.
500g Mince
1C sliced mushrooms
1 diced onion
dash of Worstershire sauce
dash of teriyaki marinade (we now use the hot teriyaki marinade)
2 jars of whatever tomato pasta sauce was on special this week.
Brown onions in a large frypan.
Add the mince, fry until cooked through.
Add the mushrooms, worstershire sauce, teriyaki marinade and tomato sauce.
Bring to a simmer, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Serve with spaghetti or pasta of choice.
We've adapted the recipe a bit, we now add chilli and garlic to the mix, but every time we make this recipe, Gran lives on in our memories.
We went to Gran & Grandpas for lunch one day. Gran was making us spaghetti bolognaise, and apple crumble. I found out later (ok, in fact, the other night) that Lincoln used to get care packages of this when he was younger and his folks were away... And when he'd just moved out of home.
And the spaghetti bolognaise was GOOD. I'd never made anything with that kind of complexity of herbs and spices in the mix, and I'd been making it from scratch for years, trying to perfect it. Of course, I begged for the recipe from her.
So without further ado, I present to you:
Gran's Bolognaise Sauce.
500g Mince
1C sliced mushrooms
1 diced onion
dash of Worstershire sauce
dash of teriyaki marinade (we now use the hot teriyaki marinade)
2 jars of whatever tomato pasta sauce was on special this week.
Brown onions in a large frypan.
Add the mince, fry until cooked through.
Add the mushrooms, worstershire sauce, teriyaki marinade and tomato sauce.
Bring to a simmer, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Serve with spaghetti or pasta of choice.
We've adapted the recipe a bit, we now add chilli and garlic to the mix, but every time we make this recipe, Gran lives on in our memories.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
At Lincoln's request - Pepper Cottage Pie
I wasn't planning to blog this one, as it was an experiment, but Lincoln has requested I do. I think part of the reason why he made this request is because then he gets to find out all the vegetables I'm sneaking him.
When you live with someone who won't eat any vegetables aside from: mushrooms; onions; tomatoes; potatoes; and corn, you tend to be somewhat creative when cooking.
And a grater will be your best friend.
So, this recipe was originally going to be my version of shepherds/cottage pie, which involves lots of garlic and chilli (common theme in most of my savoury cooking), then 2 pots, one gets vegetables and the other doesn't, potato on top, in the oven.
But Lincoln wasn't home...
This probably makes enough for 4 - 6 people?
So, ingredients:
500G mince (Barossa Fine Foods organic mince)
2 onions, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
2C sliced mushrooms (ish? I just kept slicing till I had what looked to be enough, then after they were in the pot realised not enough, so sliced more...)
1T whole mixed peppercorns
2 cloves of garlic
1/2C hot & spicy V8 juice
1 sachet McCormicks pepper gravy
5 large potatoes
butter/milk/garlic salt/onion salt to taste, for mashing the above
cheese to go on top
bacon/pancetta to go on top (this was new for me, as were pepper corns, but hey...)
Fry the onions & garlic in a large pan, till the onions are translucent.
Crush peppercorns with mortar & pestle until cracked but not powder (yes, you could use a pepper grinder for this, if you happened to have one spare. Mine is full of normal pepper).
Add mince & peppercorns, continue stirring until mince is brown.
Add grated vegetables, v8 juice and mushrooms. Place lid on pot & allow to simmer for approximately 10 minutes (this was the point I realised I needed more mushrooms).
Add pepper gravy sachet + 1C water, and continue simmering until you can no longer see that there's grated carrot & zucchini in there (about 15 minutes).
While that's simmering, cut up potatoes & boil them for about 5-10 minutes (I don't really know time frames, I just keep poking them until they fall apart).
Drain potatoes, return to heat so the last bit of water evaporates - no more than a couple of minutes.
Mash potatoes, then add some milk (or cream, but hey, milk) and butter. I hide the butter in the mashed potatoes, so it melts while I'm adding onion salt & garlic salt. Normally I'd add white pepper as well, but I was a little hesitant, considering the amount of pepper in meat dish.
Get out whisk & whisk potatoes until smooth. I'm a mashed potato addict, though I haven't found any meetings for it yet. If you don't like mashed potatoes, or haven't yet garnered an addiction to them, you can use less potatoes.
Pour meat mixture in to large dish, add the mashed potatoes on top of that, spreading it fairly evenly. If you're concerned about whether it will spread properly, I've found that leaving the meat mixture to cool for a bit generally gets it to thicken up, so potatoes don't fall in to the liquid. Sprinkle grated cheese & bacon or pancetta bits on top.
Put in oven @ 140 for 30 minutes (ok, all right, you could do a higher temperature for shorter, but I'd misjudged timeframes and it was going to be ready before Lincoln got home, if I cooked it at a higher temperature).
When cheese is melted, it's done.
Next time: I'd probably add a little bit of beef stock powder, and 1T(ish) of cornflour, as the mixture was a smidge runny/watery. I'd probably use more pepper, too, and a whole red chilli, but I understand that not everyone has the same pepper addiction I do.
If I were making it for just me, I'd have peas and green beans in there as well.
So, voila, hidden veges in a pepper cottage pie.
Lincoln will probably never forgive me *laughs*
When you live with someone who won't eat any vegetables aside from: mushrooms; onions; tomatoes; potatoes; and corn, you tend to be somewhat creative when cooking.
And a grater will be your best friend.
So, this recipe was originally going to be my version of shepherds/cottage pie, which involves lots of garlic and chilli (common theme in most of my savoury cooking), then 2 pots, one gets vegetables and the other doesn't, potato on top, in the oven.
But Lincoln wasn't home...
This probably makes enough for 4 - 6 people?
So, ingredients:
500G mince (Barossa Fine Foods organic mince)
2 onions, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
2C sliced mushrooms (ish? I just kept slicing till I had what looked to be enough, then after they were in the pot realised not enough, so sliced more...)
1T whole mixed peppercorns
2 cloves of garlic
1/2C hot & spicy V8 juice
1 sachet McCormicks pepper gravy
5 large potatoes
butter/milk/garlic salt/onion salt to taste, for mashing the above
cheese to go on top
bacon/pancetta to go on top (this was new for me, as were pepper corns, but hey...)
Fry the onions & garlic in a large pan, till the onions are translucent.
Crush peppercorns with mortar & pestle until cracked but not powder (yes, you could use a pepper grinder for this, if you happened to have one spare. Mine is full of normal pepper).
Add mince & peppercorns, continue stirring until mince is brown.
Add grated vegetables, v8 juice and mushrooms. Place lid on pot & allow to simmer for approximately 10 minutes (this was the point I realised I needed more mushrooms).
Add pepper gravy sachet + 1C water, and continue simmering until you can no longer see that there's grated carrot & zucchini in there (about 15 minutes).
While that's simmering, cut up potatoes & boil them for about 5-10 minutes (I don't really know time frames, I just keep poking them until they fall apart).
Drain potatoes, return to heat so the last bit of water evaporates - no more than a couple of minutes.
Mash potatoes, then add some milk (or cream, but hey, milk) and butter. I hide the butter in the mashed potatoes, so it melts while I'm adding onion salt & garlic salt. Normally I'd add white pepper as well, but I was a little hesitant, considering the amount of pepper in meat dish.
Get out whisk & whisk potatoes until smooth. I'm a mashed potato addict, though I haven't found any meetings for it yet. If you don't like mashed potatoes, or haven't yet garnered an addiction to them, you can use less potatoes.
Pour meat mixture in to large dish, add the mashed potatoes on top of that, spreading it fairly evenly. If you're concerned about whether it will spread properly, I've found that leaving the meat mixture to cool for a bit generally gets it to thicken up, so potatoes don't fall in to the liquid. Sprinkle grated cheese & bacon or pancetta bits on top.
Put in oven @ 140 for 30 minutes (ok, all right, you could do a higher temperature for shorter, but I'd misjudged timeframes and it was going to be ready before Lincoln got home, if I cooked it at a higher temperature).
When cheese is melted, it's done.
Next time: I'd probably add a little bit of beef stock powder, and 1T(ish) of cornflour, as the mixture was a smidge runny/watery. I'd probably use more pepper, too, and a whole red chilli, but I understand that not everyone has the same pepper addiction I do.
If I were making it for just me, I'd have peas and green beans in there as well.
So, voila, hidden veges in a pepper cottage pie.
Lincoln will probably never forgive me *laughs*
Sunday, July 24, 2011
My first post! Sunday morning spicy brunch
So, now I've set this up, I probably should use it, right?
Just made breakfast, thought I'd share, minus the pictures (hey, I was making MY breakfast, I didn't think of it until after I'd made it!)
It doesn't really have a name. And until I was thinking of writing it down, it didn't occur to me how much chilli there is in it. Relax, if you don't like chilli, you can always leave it out.
I think this recipe stems from not liking fried eggs, and then trying to cook them on top of the fried tomatoes that I do like, and so on. It keeps evolving.
So, it's eggs poached in tomato juice/tinned tomatoes, with hot pancetta and mushrooms. And toast.
Man, I so need a better name for it than that.
I know! It's a breakfast THING! Bugger. Michelle is probably the only person who would get that joke.
Onwards...
Ingredients:
Tinned crushed or diced tomatoes (I like the coles home brand organic ones)
Hot V8 juice
Mushrooms
Eggs
Hot Pancetta from Barossa Fine Foods (though I suppose you could use bacon or normal pancetta)
Piri piri seasoning (or you can use pepper steak seasoning, too)
Garlic (I used dried, I'm lazy, I admit it)
Spring onions
Parsley
Bread. For making of toast therein. Butter if you want it.
I like to use as few dishes/implements as possible. That, and I don't have a toaster.
So, to start with, slice your mushrooms (as many as you want to eat, I'm a mushroom addict, so this takes some time), and a couple of spring onions.
Heat up a small saucepan (for one person, I use a saucepan about 15cmish across). Make sure it's one with a lid. Put your mushrooms, a drop of oil if you want, the spring onions, some chopped parsley, some garlic and some piri piri seasoning in. Stir, put lid on, let it almost cook through. You can do some washing up now, or cleaning, while you're waiting. Or go post on facebook. Or, you know, take a photo of what you're doing so that when you think about posting it to a food blog, you have pictures.
Once your mushrooms are mostly done to your satisfaction, put them on some alfoil under the grill. Include the little bit of moisture at the bottom of the pan. It's pretty much a tip & pour movement. If you like your toast well done, put that under the grill as well, and turn on. If you don't like well done toast, don't turn the grill on (hey, I used logic!).
Pour 1/2 a tin of crushed or diced tomatoes, some hot & spicy v8 juice (I use about 1/4 of a cup? Ish? I don't tend to measure. It doesn't matter if you use too much, as you can just boil some of the liquid off), more piri piri, more garlic, more spring onions if you want in to the saucepan. Bring to boil until it's the consistency you like.
Turn grill on if you didn't earlier. Also now put your hot pancetta under grill. Which should now be keeping your mushrooms warm, grilling your pancetta and toasting your bread.
Crack 2 eggs in to the saucepan. They'll pretty much be swallowed up by the tomato mixture. Turn saucepan heat off, and cover with lid. (If you're making this for just 1 person, you end up with a bit too much sauce for 1 person. But you need the depth to make sure the eggs are poached).
Probably a wise idea to turn over your bread now, and have a go at the pancetta to make sure it's cooked on both sides. You can also give the mushrooms a quick stir.
By the time your toast & pancetta are done, your eggs should be poached to a slightly runny consistency (runnyish yolk, not runny whites).
Serve by trying not to splatter too much everywhere. If it lands on the plate, you have succeeded.
Just made breakfast, thought I'd share, minus the pictures (hey, I was making MY breakfast, I didn't think of it until after I'd made it!)
It doesn't really have a name. And until I was thinking of writing it down, it didn't occur to me how much chilli there is in it. Relax, if you don't like chilli, you can always leave it out.
I think this recipe stems from not liking fried eggs, and then trying to cook them on top of the fried tomatoes that I do like, and so on. It keeps evolving.
So, it's eggs poached in tomato juice/tinned tomatoes, with hot pancetta and mushrooms. And toast.
Man, I so need a better name for it than that.
I know! It's a breakfast THING! Bugger. Michelle is probably the only person who would get that joke.
Onwards...
Ingredients:
Tinned crushed or diced tomatoes (I like the coles home brand organic ones)
Hot V8 juice
Mushrooms
Eggs
Hot Pancetta from Barossa Fine Foods (though I suppose you could use bacon or normal pancetta)
Piri piri seasoning (or you can use pepper steak seasoning, too)
Garlic (I used dried, I'm lazy, I admit it)
Spring onions
Parsley
Bread. For making of toast therein. Butter if you want it.
I like to use as few dishes/implements as possible. That, and I don't have a toaster.
So, to start with, slice your mushrooms (as many as you want to eat, I'm a mushroom addict, so this takes some time), and a couple of spring onions.
Heat up a small saucepan (for one person, I use a saucepan about 15cmish across). Make sure it's one with a lid. Put your mushrooms, a drop of oil if you want, the spring onions, some chopped parsley, some garlic and some piri piri seasoning in. Stir, put lid on, let it almost cook through. You can do some washing up now, or cleaning, while you're waiting. Or go post on facebook. Or, you know, take a photo of what you're doing so that when you think about posting it to a food blog, you have pictures.
Once your mushrooms are mostly done to your satisfaction, put them on some alfoil under the grill. Include the little bit of moisture at the bottom of the pan. It's pretty much a tip & pour movement. If you like your toast well done, put that under the grill as well, and turn on. If you don't like well done toast, don't turn the grill on (hey, I used logic!).
Pour 1/2 a tin of crushed or diced tomatoes, some hot & spicy v8 juice (I use about 1/4 of a cup? Ish? I don't tend to measure. It doesn't matter if you use too much, as you can just boil some of the liquid off), more piri piri, more garlic, more spring onions if you want in to the saucepan. Bring to boil until it's the consistency you like.
Turn grill on if you didn't earlier. Also now put your hot pancetta under grill. Which should now be keeping your mushrooms warm, grilling your pancetta and toasting your bread.
Crack 2 eggs in to the saucepan. They'll pretty much be swallowed up by the tomato mixture. Turn saucepan heat off, and cover with lid. (If you're making this for just 1 person, you end up with a bit too much sauce for 1 person. But you need the depth to make sure the eggs are poached).
Probably a wise idea to turn over your bread now, and have a go at the pancetta to make sure it's cooked on both sides. You can also give the mushrooms a quick stir.
By the time your toast & pancetta are done, your eggs should be poached to a slightly runny consistency (runnyish yolk, not runny whites).
Serve by trying not to splatter too much everywhere. If it lands on the plate, you have succeeded.
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