Sunday Hotpants

Kids in the Kitchen - Milk Painted Toast

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:33:12 +1200

It’s been a while since I’ve done a kids in the kitchen post, so for all you mums and dads out there here is a quick and fun idea. If you have trouble getting your kids to eat breakfast this might be your answer! It’s so easy and yet the result is such fun. You can combine art with cooking and hopefully follow it with consumption of the creation.

Isaac jumped at the chance to make this, these days it seems a little more difficult to get him into the kitchen since he’s getting terribly grown up at five and a half - gotta make sure you mention the half. It also seems though that adults like to do this too. I could not resist having a go myself and Kit moseyed into the kitchen to make his own toast masterpiece.

Milk Painted Toast

White toast sliced bread
milk
food colourings
paint brush

Pour a small amount of milk into a container and add food colouring for your desired shades.

Paint on to white bread and toast in the toaster.

Eat.

You really cannot get any easier than that! Remember to have some fun in the kitchen with your kids, it’s a fantastic learning opportunity in so many ways.

Tip from Isaac: Don’t paint too much milk on or your bread will get wet and fall to bits.

Brown Sugar cookies with Walnuts

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:17:45 +1200

This recipe came from one of my local library forays. I modified a recipe from Carole Walters book - Great Cookies. In a moment of desperation with hardly anything in the cupboard I was looking for a cookie recipe that used the ingredients that I had on hand. In the winter I find myself prone to hibernating and not wanting to take trips to the supermarket unless I have to. Staying in my slippers and turning on the heater and hardly wanting to poke my nose outside the door. But we all do that, don’t we?

I think I see it as a kind of challenge, looking in the cupboards and seeing what I can come up with without buying anything. I often think of women who had to cook in the depression at times like this, and I imagine them with only the absolute basics and still having to come up with something to feed their families. I have a number of depression years cookbooks including a very special one that I was sent recently by a friend. I’m going to be cooking and sharing some of the recipes from it with you all soon. There are all sorts of exciting chapters like “Father carves the fowl” and “Coffee at the bridge table”, it’s a real treat! Sorry I seem to have wandered away from my topic - but I just had to share that with you.

I really only had the most basic of ingredients and no white sugar. So brown sugar cookies with a handful of walnuts seemed like the obvious choice. That was pretty much all I could make with the selection in the pantry. I also had no eggs, so the ones you see pictured here are made with egg replacer. These are a nice little bite with a hot cuppa, and Isaac seemed to enjoy them tucked into his lunch box. Walnuts are more prolific here than pecans, but if you prefer you could add pecans to these. You can chocolate dip them as I have (I did this the following day with half the batch when I was forced to go outside and take a trip to the supermarket) or just roll the edges in some chopped nuts or demerara sugar.

I gave some of the cookie dough to my mother to bake when she was ready. Cookie dough can make a nice little “I’m thinking about you” gift for someone and lets face it, there is nothing quite like cookies fresh and warm right from the oven. Just bundle up the dough with the cooking instructions written down and you have an instant and tasty gift.

Brown Sugar Cookies with Walnuts

3 1/4 cups of flour
1 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
1 cup of walnuts finely chopped
200g/8oz butter (softened)
2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tspns vanilla extract

For decorating: (optional)

1 egg lightly beaten with a tbspn of water
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped nuts
200g chocolate for dipping

Blend butter and brown sugar together until light in colour, then add in eggs one at a time, finally adding in the vanilla extract stirring until combined. I use vanilla paste - if you can get this, it’s fantastic, look at all those little seeds in that glorious amber syrup.

Sift in your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) and add in the finely chopped walnuts. Mix until well combined.

Shape into three 20cm/8 inch logs roughly 4cm /1 1/2 inches in diameter, wrap in plastic and chill until firm. This dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days or 1 month in the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Using a sharp knife slice the logs into cookies roughly 1/8th of an inch/1cm thick. Obviously you can make these slightly thicker or thinner depending on your personal taste, but cook time will need to be adjusted.

Decorate with nuts before baking, using the egg wash to help the nuts adhere to the cookie. If you wish to chocolate dip them you will need to do this once the cookie is cooked and cooled.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. These cookies may be frozen.

English Crumpets

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:00:00 +1200

Crumpets - you cannot get more English than that. The word itself conjures up ladies with fine bone china cups of fragrant tea balanced delicately on saucers with their ankles demurely crossed. Quiet and polite conversation ensues while Thomas and Edward play croquet on the lawn.

Well .. not in our house. I mentioned quietly, I’m going to make crumpets. A very loud YUM was the response. They were not eaten with tea in china cups, but hot out of the pan at the bench with golden syrup drizzled from the bottle. In fact I think Kit ate his over the sink so he would not have to bother with a plate. Isaac actually contemplated no golden syrup for a moment so he would not have to wash his hands afterwards. Yes, we’re a rather uncouth lot our family.

The origin of crumpets has been dated back as far as the 1300’s, with something called crompid cake, which food historians seem to think was the humble crumpets first appearance. Crumpets are not the same as an English muffin. They are quite different and have a totally different cooking method and texture. Some crumpet recipes have eggs in them, while others do not. The one I’ve given here is a recipe without eggs, and easily made vegan with the use of soy milk.

I had a bit of an interesting time making these. I weighed and measured out my ingredients carefully - but I had a feeling that my batter was too thick. It had been a while since I’d made them and I could not quite remember what the batter was supposed to be like. I went ahead anyway. Once I started to cook them I decided the batter was definitely too thick and added extra liquid. I realised at that point that my kitchen scale had been resting on the lid of the cookie jar and consequently I had measured way too much flour into the mix. Easily rectified though with the extra liquid.

Lesson learned. Your batter needs to be thick, but should spread to the edges of the rings that you use to mould your crumpets in on it’s own and the little bubbles on top should appear within the first minute or so of cooking. If you are not getting many little holes in your crumpets add a little extra water to your crumpet batter. Also as the batter stands while you cook you may need to add additional water since it thickens a little.

If you don’t have special crumpet rings you can still make these. Try using high sided cookie cutters, tuna cans with the bottom and top cut out (be careful on sharp edges), egg poaching rings or food moulds. I used a combination of egg poaching rings and food moulds for these. If you can, choose something that is 2-3 inches across that is roughly the right size for a crumpet. Make sure you grease your pan and your rings after each crumpet. This is important or they will stick to the rings. You can use a little cooking spray or butter.

English Crumpets

(recipe from Bill Granger - Sydney Food)

Makes 16-25 crumpets depending on your mould size)

1 1/2 cups of milk
1 1/2 tspns sugar
7g (1/4 oz)sachet of dried instant yeast
375g/12 oz flour
1/2 tspn baking soda
200ml/6 1/2 fl oz water
pinch of salt

Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat until just warm. Transfer into a bowl and add the sugar and yeast. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until the milk starts to bubble.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the milk/yeast mixture to the flour and beat with an electric beater until completely smooth.

Cover in plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for 1- 1 1/2 hours until doubled in volume and full of air bubbles.

Mix the baking soda with the water and use your electric beater to combine this with the batter.

Heat a heavy based frying pan or griddle over a medium heat and grease with a little butter.

Grease your crumpet moulds also - keep them greased throughout the cooking. Place your moulds on the hot surface and place 2-3 Tblspns of mixture inside the mould. Your first 2-3 crumpets will be a little trial and error to get your desired thickness. Your mixture will rise in the moulds.

Within a short period of time your crumpets should get small bubbles all over the surface that begin to break. It will look like this.

Once the surface is covered in broken bubbles and a light skin has formed you can remove your crumpet from the mould, turn gently and cook on the other side.

Remove from the pan and snuggle your crumpets in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest.

The crumpets can be eaten fresh or toasted.

Some ideas for topping your crumpets:

Crumpets are great used for either sweet or savoury toppings

Honey
Golden syrup
Jams
Nutella
Top with cheese and bacon and grill
Tomato and fresh mozzarella
spaghetti and cheese
meatballs and cheese
refried beans and salsa
sloppy Joe toppings.

This is not the kind of thing that I envisage people making regularly unless you have a lot of time at home. But to make now and then on a lazy weekend, they are perfect.

Jamaican Coconut Bread

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:47:17 +1200

I seem to be making a lot of loaves lately. I guess I am going through a phase. I do that, I have temporary obsessions - I do it with books, crafts, TV shows, computer games, and various other grand ideas but most especially with food. Indulge my loaf obsession just for a little longer.

This is one of Bill Grangers recipes. For those of you that are not familiar with him, he’s a very handsome Australian self taught cook that makes simple but incredibly delicious food. He has a family and he shares the recipes that he likes to make for both his family and his restaurants. No garnished within an inch of it’s life and smothered in thick sauces food here. This recipe has come from his Sydney Food book.

This coconut bread recipe has been cooked countless times in our house. It’s quite substantial, after you’ve eaten a slice you know you’ve eaten it. This is not a light loaf, this is dense and slightly chewy with the shreds of coconut adding texture.

The reason I made this loaf this week is because of this:

It’s a new toaster! My old one finally died and I had to trundle off down to the store and buy this shiny little number. It was a month for appliance deaths in our house. The electric jug also came to an untimely end, as did a bedside light, an electric blanket, and the television.

This toaster can fit extra wide and large pieces of toast. In the recipe for the coconut bread it mentions that the loaf is very good toasted for breakfast. I’ve always wanted to try it toasted but I’ve never had a toaster that would fit a nice thick slice of this loaf. Making this loaf was the first thing on the agenda when this toaster took up residence in our kitchen.

What actually happened of course was that we ate all the loaf while it was warm from the oven and there was none left to toast because I have a ~~very greedy~~ family that appreciates home baking.

If anyone actually manages to get a slice of this into their toaster please let me know what it’s like, I’m pretty sure none of it will ever last long enough to make it into our toaster.

Jamaican Coconut Bread

2 eggs
300mls milk
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tspns baking powder
2 tspns cinnamon
1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
150 g shredded unsweetened coconut
75 g butter melted

Preheat oven to 180c/350F and line a loaf pan with baking paper.

Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and add the coconut and sugar. Make a well in the centre and stir in the egg mixture until well combined. Add in your melted butter and stir until just smooth.

Pour into your loaf pan and bake for roughly 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Serve in thick slices with a light dusting of icing sugar, with butter and lime marmalade. Or toast it when it’s completely cool if your family have not eaten it all.

Girdle Scones - a Rustic Scottish Scone

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:20:00 +1200

My home town is called Dunedin which means “little Edinburgh”, there’s a very strong Scottish influence and heritage in this little town of ours. We have a statue of the Scottish poet Robbie Burns in the town centre, a castle called Larnach castle, haggis served now and then, and Octagonal Day once a year where all the pipe bands from all over the country come to compete. It’s not at all uncommon to see a piper on a street corner busking, or hear the hurl of the pipes drifting out over the city. A man in a kilt walking down the street will not even get a second glance here, unless he has particularly nice legs of course!

Scones are Scottish in origin and very much a part of our cultural heritage, including girdle scones. An interesting fact for you - Did you know that Scone Palace is the place where Scottish kings were crowned?

Why are they called girdle scones? Apparently the Scots refer to a griddle as a girdle and these little scones are not cooked in the oven they are cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan with a little salted butter.

If you are sweltering in the heat in the northern hemisphere and don’t want to turn on that oven, this is the perfect way to make scones. If you are freezing in the southern hemisphere, then treat yourself to some hot scones. See? Perfect, no matter where you live.

Unlike an oven baked scone, these are ever so slightly crisp on the outside, with the gentle flavour of brown butter. They are super fast to make and of course you can use any of the flavour variations that you would with an oven baked scone. Currant, cranberry, sultanas, or cheese would all work well. You could cut them into wedges before you cook them as I have, or make one giant girdle scone and cut into wedges after it’s cooked if you wish. This recipe is easily doubled. Fast to make, great to eat, what more could you ask from a wee bit ‘o bread.

Girdle Scones

- variation from the Edmonds cookbook.

Note: this is not a sweet scone - the mix is plain, if you like a sweet scone you may add 3 Tblspns sugar in the dry ingredients stage.

1 cup flour
2 tspns baking powder
1 Tblspn of butter
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of currants
aprox 1/2 cup of milk

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl

Cut or rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

Add enough milk to make a soft dough and shape into a circle on a lightly floured board. Roll out to roughly 1.5 cm (1/2 an inch) thick and cut into eight wedges.

Cook on a hot greased girdle, hotplate or frying pan until golden and cooked in the centre - this will be roughly 5 minutes on each side.

Snuggle them up on the girdle arranged in the same way you cut them.

When you turn your scone wedges place them gently on the hot surface and only turn once.

Serve hot from the pan, slathered in your favourite jam.

I Can Haz Giraffes?

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:21:00 +1200

I know this is not my usual topic but I thought I might diverge just this once. You see, I felt sorry for the one million giraffes guy - he’s getting desperate to prove to his friend Jorgen that the people of the internet can in fact produce one million Giraffes before 2011.

Being of a slightly geeky nature, from time to time I feel compelled to help him get his one million giraffes. I’ve submitted several already, including one made out of macaroni. Why? Because I can. I like to do my bit for internet culture. So without further ado here is my Giraffe for the week. Yes I know it’s a pretty poor excuse for a Giraffe, but hey, it’s drawn on the back of a scrap of paper with ball point pen, not exactly great art materials!

If you too would like to be a part of the Giraffe movement you can send them into him here at his blog One Million Giraffes and check out the Giraffe of the day!

Mmmmm Cinnamon rolls!

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:14:51 +1200

I have a confession to make. I’ve made these a lot, and I’ve never shared them with you. I actually always feel guilty about making these cinnamon rolls, because they are simply amazingly good but not really that good for you. I always eat far too many of them, and invariably make a second batch after the first one has vanished in about 2 minutes flat. I’m not sure why I don’t just make a double batch in the first place. I love these, and I feel very guilty about it.

I don’t think they should be meddled with though, no low fat margarine, sugar substitutes, or lite cream cheese, these cinnamon rolls deserve only the best butter, sugar and full fat cream cheese you can find. It’s what makes them SO luscious, spicy and delicious. You cannot be in the same house as these cinnamon rolls and stop with just one. Grown adults have been known to lick the pan and scrape the last smears of icing from the bowl!

I know, I’m raving, gushing and pouring on the praise rather thickly. But what can I say? These are one of my all time favourite things to eat, and everyone in my house seems to feel the same way. If you’ve been looking for a delicious cinnamon roll recipe, this is probably the one you’ve been looking for. The recipe is slightly modified from a very talented bread baker Linda Stadley from What’s cooking America. Thank you Linda for sharing this recipe. I’ve just given directions for making by hand here, but if you would like bread machine, food processor or stand mixer instructions please refer to Linda’s website.

Harvest Cinnamon Rolls

Linda Stadley

Makes 15 Cinnamon rolls.

1 cup milk (heated approximately 1 minute in microwave)
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F.)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature and beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons instant active dry yeast

Cinnamon Filling
1/2 cup butter, melted or softened
1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
5 heaped tspns ground cinnamon
3/4 to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Make cinnamon filling and set aside.

Soften the butter; set aside. In a bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon; stir in chopped nuts (optional). You might like to sift the brown sugar and cinnamon to make sure you don’t have any large lumps.

Make Cream Cheese Icing and set aside.

Cream Cheese Icing
2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add icing sugar, vanilla extract, until well mixed and creamy. Use the icing at room temperature.

Make the Cinnamon rolls.

Put dry mixture in a large bowl Add the liquid ingredients, butter, and egg. Mix with a knife until it starts to come together into a rough dough. Turn out on to a lightly oiled bench top and knead until elastic - roughly 10 minutes.

Place back into the large bowl - cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes.

After dough has rested, roll and stretch the dough into approximately a 15 x 24-inch rectangle. I haul out the measuring tape for this and try to make the edges as even and straight as possible, this makes it easier when you come to roll it up.

Brush the 1/2 cup softened butter (in the Cinnamon Filling) over the top of the dough with a rubber spatula or a pastry brush. Sprinkle Cinnamon Filling over the butter on the prepared dough. Starting with long edge, roll up dough; pinch seams to seal. NOTE: Rolling the log too tightly will result in cinnamon rolls whose centres pop up above the rest of them as they bake.

With a knife, lightly mark roll into 1 1/2-inch section and then slide a 12-inch piece of dental floss or heavy thread underneath. By bringing the ends of the floss up and criss-crossing them at the top of each mark, you can cut through the roll by pulling the strings in opposite directions. Kit likened it to a garotte! I like to make mine slightly smaller than this and get 17 rolls, I bake 12 in a rectangular pan and 5 in a small square pan.

Place cut side up in prepared baking pan, flattening them only slightly. The unbaked cinnamon rolls should not touch each other before rising and baking. Do not pack the unbaked cinnamon rolls closely together.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for approximately 45 to 60 minutes or until doubled in size (after rising, rolls should be touching each other and the sides of the pan).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 180C and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Spread icing while still warm - they’re best served at this point. They are still fine at room temperature though if there are any left to cool down that long!

Linda gives more detailed instructions on freezing and storing these. This is the version I like to make with my low tech approach in the kitchen.

I know you’ll love these cinnamon rolls. The smell of cinnamon rolls baking at home is just incredible, when I make these everyone in the house keeps checking the oven timer to see when they’ll be ready. I dare you to stop at just one!

Ravioli for Winter Solstice

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 21:22:00 +1200

Just to let you all know, this is a photo heavy post.

I have so many things I want to tell you about today, so you’d better grab a coffee before you start reading, get comfortable, put your feet up, and try to imagine a chilly winter’s day in the south of the South Island in New Zealand. If you live here you won’t have to try hard at all! The leaves have mostly fallen from the trees except for a few stubborn ones that won’t stop clinging, and the mornings and evenings are so cold you can see your breath. It’s mid winter and it really feels like it.

Last week my darling Leah turned 22 years old! Two days later it was my birthday and I turned .. well I got older! We delayed our birthday dinner until the weekend until we had more time to make a nice meal to share.

It just so happens that Kit gave me a pasta machine for my birthday, I told him not to buy it for me, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Not that I am complaining too much! It turns out a pasta machine is a gift for everyone, even small boys! Isaac could not wait to pull all the bits out of the box and try to assemble it.

Pasta for the birthday dinner at the weekend was a must of course! Ravioli, three different varieties. Butternut and Almond, Mushroom and Ham, and Spinach and Feta. It was only when I thought about it that I realised that I would be making ravioli for seven people. That’s a LOT of ravioli to make. Then was reminded of those lovely Italian grandmothers making ravioli for their families and knew if they could do it, I could do it too.

The plan for Saturday was to spend the day making pasta and to have it all ready to cook while we went down to the Mid Winter Carnival Lantern Festival. Next year perhaps we will be organised enough to make a lantern to carry.

Leah and I started to make the pasta fillings and the dough, with Isaac doing his best to assemble the pasta machine and turn the handle on the crank as fast as he could. He’s been completely fascinated with it since he first peeked in the box.

We had to work on the table, since my bench space in the kitchen is not that great, and we needed plenty of room to move and spread out those beautiful ribbons of pasta dough.

Leah is wearing a superfast hat that I made that I’ll share with you in another post

After a few minor hiccups - dough sticking to the table, dough too sticky, too much filling, pasta bike not cutting, air bubbles, and Isaac turning the handle in the opposite direction half way through rolling a sheet and cat jumping on the table we finally felt we had the technique perfected. I have a whole new respect for those Italian grandmothers I can tell you!

We turned out wonderful silky lengths of pasta, cut, filled and carefully dusted so they would not stick, before long we had a big pile of plump ravioli ready to be dropped into bubbling water when we got home.

If you’ve never made pasta at home before you will honestly wonder why you haven’t before. It’s so simple. You do need to take a little time for rolling and shaping your pasta, but really, there is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a pile of homemade pasta and the velvety texture is nothing like pasta you would buy in a shop. Besides I think it’s fun! I’ve given you two methods here for mixing the dough, food processor and by hand. Apologies there is no “cooked” photo it was way too dark by then, but I assure you they were excellent!

Basic Pasta

Serves 6-8

500 grams of flour (Tipo 00 if you can manage it - this is very fine ground flour but all purpose is ok to use.)
5 free range eggs
semolina flour for dusting

The ratio is 100 grams of flour to one large egg.

Variation:

If you wish to make a butternut or spinach flavoured pasta omit two eggs and replace with puréed butternut or spinach in the same amount. Cooked and pureed beetroot works well also. We coloured our butternut and almond ravioli dough with butternut, so it is a little more orange than the others. Make sure if you are adding puréed vegetables to the dough that as much moisture as possible has been removed from the veges. If you find your dough a little wet, add more flour.

This is the butternut pasta dough above, it was the most beautiful rich golden colour.

Method: Mixing by hand

Place the flour on the bench top in a mound, make a well in the centre - crack your eggs into the well. Stir with a fork initially to combine your eggs into the flour slowly mixing in a circle towards the outside, once your dough starts to form switch to using your hands to bring in the remaining flour and knead gently until your dough comes together into a smooth dough that is not sticky. Use additional flour if needed. Wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge to chill for one hour.

Method: Food Processor

Place all ingredients into a food processor, pulse until it comes together into a ball of dough. Remove and knead gently by hand for a few moments, ensuring your dough is not sticky and using additional flour if needed. Wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for one hour to chill.

Now that you have your dough you can either roll it by hand or you can use your brand new pasta machine that your husband gave you to roll it out.

There are various methods for filling and making ravioli we decided to do it this way, which on reflection was perhaps not the best method, since there was a lot of dough wasted, but it did work.

Roll out a strip of pasta dough to about 1.5 mm thick and about 14 cm wide Cut it in half down the centre - longways to make two strips 7 cm wide each.
NB:For larger sized ravioli do not cut down the centre, you will need to roll out an identical piece.

Place teaspoonfuls of your filling on one half at regular intervals along the dough.
Brush the dough around the filling with a little water and then place the other strip dough carefully over the top pressing from the edge of the filling in an outwards direction so that you do not trap air bubbles in your filling and sealing your ravioli.
Then cut your ravioli to size, ensuring there are no holes in your pasta.
Dust lightly with semolina flour to stop from sticking to each other.

You can cook them at this point or freeze them. They will be fine covered in the fridge for a couple of hours also.

Butternut, Almond & Sage

1 medium butternut - roasted, flesh scooped out and drained.
75 grams ground almonds
4-5 fresh sage leaves finely chopped (or 1/2 tspn dried sage)
freshly grated nutmeg to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together

Spinach and Feta

400 grams of Fresh spinach - steamed, drained and all moisture pressed out.
100 grams Feta cheese patted dry and crumbled

Mix all together - this is enough for half a batch of dough, double the quantity if you wish to make the whole batch the same flavour.

Mushroom and Ham

200 grams finely chopped mushrooms
half a small onion finely chopped
2 Tbspns sherry
50 grams of ham finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook all together until most moisture is gone and drain in a sieve. May use a few breadcrumbs to bind if you wish. This quantity is enough for half a batch of dough - double it if you wish to make the whole batch the same flavour.

Serve your ravioli with a sauce that compliments your choice of filling. We had a classic Alfredo sauce with the fillings above since it worked well with all of them.

We made ours various sizes and shapes, depending on the filling so people could choose the ravioli they wanted easily.

One tray of finished ravioli, organised by type by Isaac. You can see they are less than perfect in shape, but as long as they don’t have holes in them and no air bubbles, they will be just fine.

Once we’d assembled the ravioli we set out for the Octagon to watch the Lantern Festival and fireworks. I really want to share this with you, Isaac loved it. One of the joys of being a parent is getting to see your children look in absolute wonder at things they are seeing for the first time.

The trees in the Octagon (our town centre) were all strung with fairy lights, set up in the centre there was a small stage with a band playing. There were waffles, sausages and hot coffee for sale close by, the aroma’s mingling and wafting slowly in the still night. The roads were all blocked off, small children ran around slightly terrified and excited about being out, in the dark and walking on the road!

The photos are all somewhat blurry because of the movement of the lanterns as people walked and danced along, but I like them, they convey a sense of action and movement in the dark. The lanterns are all made from tissue paper, cane and glue. They are lit from the inside with candles which flicker and jump in the dark. The theme this year was the ocean.

Stilt walkers were dressed as hermit crabs (at least that’s what I thought they were!) Drummers with little hats like sea anemones and dancers a swirl of colour.

Giant shells and pointed strands of seaweed marched past, bobbing in the dark.

For something that is just made from tissue and cane, they look pretty amazing.

Seahorses drifted past, starfish, blue waves emerged and small children and adults wrapped up warmly walked along with dolphins bobbing on the end of sticks. In the dark it looked like they might be swimming through the air.

Fireworks boomed and made Isaac laugh loudly with genuine excitement as we walked up the hill to the car. Then it was home with cold noses and fingers to warm up with piping hot ravioli, thick chunks of sweet rye bread, green salad and old fashioned Lime Pie for dessert.

Happy mid year everyone!

White Chocolate, Pepita & Apricot Slice

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:33:00 +1200

Kit hates apricots. I love apricots. Kit hates white chocolate, so do Isaac and Leah. I like white chocolate. Ryan and Leah hate fudge type slices. I love fudge type slices. This easy, no bake slice has all of those features. Chunks of white chocolate dotted through a fudge slice and scattered with clumps of sunny apricot pieces and green pepitas for crunch.

I figured that in making this I might actually get to eat most of it myself and have some to offer to people that happened to call in. Well, it turns out that despite having features that everyone in my house finds completely abhorrent except for me - this slice is absolutely delicious and everyone likes it. They’re all eating it!

My secret plan of actually getting to consume more than one or two pieces of it failed utterly. The rather large container filled to the brim with this moreish creation seems to be emptying at the usual rate, that’s because this is very, very, good.

Don’t let the simple list of ingredients fool you, there is something about this combination that just works.

White Chocolate, Pepita & Apricot Slice

Line a 24cm slice pan with baking paper and set aside.

250 grams of butter
175 grams of brown sugar
375 grams of sweetened condensed milk
500 grams plain cookies - crushed (I used one plain package and one malt flavoured)
2 cups of roughly chopped dried apricots
1 cup of green pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
200 grams of chopped white chocolate plus extra for drizzling

In a large saucepan place the brown sugar, condensed milk and butter. Heat gently stirring continuously until thick like caramel sauce - remove from the heat.

Add in the crushed cookies, chopped apricots and pepitas, mix well. Cool slightly and add in the chopped white chocolate and mix again.

Press into your lined pan and refrigerate for one hour.

Cut into slices and drizzled with a little melted white chocolate if desired.

Store in an airtight container.

Do cut this after roughly an hour, it does not need to be stored in the fridge after it’s cooled. If you keep it in the fridge for longer than an hour before cutting it will be a little too hard to cut.

Also don’t count on getting more than a couple of slices for yourself if you live with other people!

Apple and Plum Muffins with Crumble Topping

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:56:00 +1200

I first made these muffins not all that long ago, but I was quite taken with their texture and flavour. They have yoghurt added to the mix which gives a beautiful crumb. Muffins are one of those week day standbys, 5 minutes to mix and 15 minutes to cook and you have a tray full of muffins ready to be eaten.

I always think muffins are best the day they are made. They do keep of course, but there is nothing quite like a muffin right out of the oven, still warm with the smell of fruit and spices wafting through the house.

My first version of these muffins contained big fat pieces of golden peach and teeny cubes of cream cheese. I gotta tell you they were delicious! This particular muffin base goes well with just about any fruit combo you desire. For those of you with strawberries and raspberries in season, try using fruit flavoured yoghurts to compliment your choice of fruit. Southern hemisphere folk try plums, apples and pears, even open a can of fruit from the pantry if it’s too cold to go to the shop - you won’t be disappointed.

This mix also stands up well to the addition of wholemeal flour, try substituting half wholemeal and bump up the fibre content. These really don’t need a whole lot more explanation, just trust me, these are good! It’s a fun recipe to play around with and experiment a little. These tasty little morsels had a mixture of poached plums and apples dotted through them.

Fresh Fruit Muffins with Crumble Topping

2 cups flour
2 tspns baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of yoghurt (plain or flavoured)
1/2 cup of oil ( canola or grapeseed is good)
1 tspn vanilla
1 cup of fruit of your choice chopped into chunks

Crumble Topping

1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 heaped Tbslpns rolled oats
2 tblspns chopped nuts (almonds/pecans or walnuts are good)
1 tspn cinnamon
3 Tblspns softened butter

Preheat oven to 180C/350F Grease and line muffin pans

Make your crumble mix first in a small bowl mixing everything together well.

In a large bowl beat together sugar and eggs until pale

Add yoghurt, vanilla and oil and mix well.

In another bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the wet mix and stir gently until just incorporated. Do NOT overmix this will make your muffins tough.

Gently fold in your fruit until just mixed through. Spoon into muffin pans filling them 3/4 full.

Bake roughly 20 minutes or so until top springs back nicely when pressed slightly.

These muffins are fantastic warm but keep well for a couple of days also IF there are any left.

Butter & Orange Roasted Oca

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:06:00 +1200

These lovely little pink beauties are called Yams by New Zealanders. Silly New Zealanders, they are actually called Oca! Well…. I just found that out recently myself so I needed to share… Yams are …. well that’s a whole different story.

Their biological name is Oxalis Tuberosa and they arrived in New Zealand all the way from South America. They were grown by the Incas and there are literally thousands of varieties. Most are varieties of pink, red and yellow.

They’ve been grown in NZ since the 1860’s but how did they travel from South America to the bottom of the planet I hear you asking?

In 1869 Mr W. Jameson, the great-grandfather of Mr Peter Halford, came out from England to join the colonial police force. During a layover in Chile he picked up some yam tubers and brought them with him to New Zealand, planting them in Wanganui. The Halfords have been growing them ever since.

All because one gentleman decided to bring a handful here - we now have this wonderful and unusual vegetable growing in gardens and readily available in supermarkets.

As a child when my birthday rolled around each year my mother would ask me what I wanted to eat for my birthday dinner. Oca were always at the top of my request list. Sweet and slightly tangy with a texture a little like sweet potatoes they are the ultimate vegetable in my book. They look a little unusual, but don’t you think they’re pretty? Roasted is the best way to eat these, as a hot side dish or cooled after roasting and combined with other vegetables to make a superb roasted vege salad.

Butter and Orange Roasted Oca

Preheat oven to 180C/350F

400 grams Oca
50 grams butter
2 Tbspns of olive oil
1/4 cup of Orange Juice
sprinkle of fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Place the Oca in a medium sized roasting pan and add the other ingredients. Toss to coat well.

Roast for roughly 45 minutes to an hour stirring gently occasionally. Eat with a sprinkling of salt as a hot side dish. You’ll know when they are done when they are golden in colour and easily squashed with a fork.

My garden is well and truely hibernating now with the ferns even curling up to take their winter sleep. Frost is on the ground in the mornings and the baby blanket that I’m knitting is almost done. Which is just as well because the baby that it’s for is almost due!

Just as an aside - these make me happy - I have a house full of beautiful flowers at the moment from people reminding me that they care about and are thinking about our family. There are some really wonderful people in the world you know.

No cooking this weekend, I’m going to be travelling to Christchurch for a long weekend to have a small change of scene for a couple of days. Isaac is most excited about the prospect of a “continental breakfast” at the Motel - which I have not had the heart to tell him is cereal and toast! I promise I’ll tell you all about my trip when I come back and share photos. Have a nice Queens Birthday Weekend Kiwis!

English Muffins

Sat, 29 May 2010 09:45:00 +1200

I took the plunge and made English muffins at home, for me they fall into the same group as crumpets. More delicious than store bought when they are made at home and after taking that first buttery bite you wish that you had more time so that you never had to buy them from the shop again.

I love to make things at home the way they used to be made before we had large companies to make everything for us. The thing is, normally homemade is so much better and we’ve been duped over the years into thinking that store bought is the superior product. This could not be further from the truth.

They are a little more involved than most breads to cook since they are cooked in a pan initially and then followed by oven baking. But the whole process was very simple and the results worth the effort required. Making these again I think I would make a double quantity and perhaps freeze half of them.

I read somewhere online that English muffins were invented by an American, but on further reading I find this not to be the case at all. They were made from the leftover bread scraps and mashed potato in the ” big houses” in England and were originally only for the staff of the house. Something this delicious cannot stay secret for long though and of course they became commonplace for people of all walks of life, often being sold on the street from trays hung around the bakers neck. There is even an old traditional rhyme about the Muffin Man -

“Oh Do you know the muffin man,
the muffin man, the muffin man,
oh do you know the muffin man,
who lives on Drury lane oh!”

English Muffins are usually served split and toasted and a perfect base for savoury or sweet toppings. We had ours as a part of Eggs Benedict, but I am just as happy to eat these lavished with homemade jam in the mornings. This recipe is from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.. I first saw it on The Brown Eyed Baker

Traditional English Muffins

2¼ cups (10 ounces) unbleached bread flour
    ½ tablespoon (.25 ounce) granulated sugar
    ¾ teaspoon (.19 ounce) salt
    1¼ teaspoons (.14 ounce) instant yeast
    1 tablespoon (.5 ounce) shortening or unsalted butter, at room temperature
    ¾ to 1 cup (6 to 8 ounces) milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
    Cornmeal for dusting
Makes 6 Muffins

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). Stir in (or mix in on low speed with the paddle attachment) the shortening and ¾ cup milk until the ingredients form a ball. If there is still loose flour in the bowl, dribble in some of the remaining ¼ cup milk. The dough should be soft and pliable, not stiff.

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing on medium speed with the dough hook). Knead the dough for about 10 minutes (or mix for about 8 minutes), sprinkling in more flour if needed to make a tacky, but not sticky, dough. It should pass the windowpane test and register 77° to 81° degrees F. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size.

    4. Wipe the counter with a damp cloth and transfer the dough to the counter. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces of 3 ounces each. Shape the pieces into boules (or round rolls). Line a sheet pan with baking parchment, mist the parchment lightly with spray oil, and dust with cornmeal. Transfer the balls of dough to the sheet pan, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Mist them lightly with spray oil, sprinkle them loosely with cornmeal, and cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or a towel.

    5. Proof at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the pieces nearly double in size and swell both up and out.

    6. Heat a skillet or flat griddle to medium (350°F if you have a thermometer setting). Also, preheat the oven to 350°F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

    7. Brush the pan or griddle with vegetable oil or mist with spray oil. Uncover the muffin rounds and gently transfer them to the pan, sliding a metal spatula under them and lifting them to the pan. Fill the pan so that the pieces are at least 1 inch apart, not touching. Cover the pieces still on the sheet pan with the plastic wrap or a towel to prevent them from developing a skin. The dough that is being cooked will flatten in the pan and spread slightly, then the pieces will puff somewhat. Cook them for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the bottom of the dough cannot cook any longer without burning. The bottoms should be a rich golden brown; they will brown quickly but will not burn for awhile, so resist the temptation to turn them prematurely or they will fall when you flip them over. Carefully flip the pieces over with the metal spatula and cook on the other side for 5 to 8 minutes in the same manner. Both sides will now be flat.

When the dough seems as if it cannot endure any further cooking without burning, transfer the pieces to a sheet pan and place the pan in the oven (don’t wait for the still uncooked pieces, or the ones just out of the pan will cool down and will not respond to the oven stage). Bake for 5 to 8 minutes on the middle shelf in the oven to ensure that the center is baked. Meanwhile, return to the uncooked pieces and cook them, then bake them, as you did the first round.

8. Transfer the baked muffins to a cooling rack and cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing or serving.

(From The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

I do want to let you know that although my frequency of posts has slowed I am very definately still here.

I have issues you see, issues with winter arriving. I have no lighting available to me other than daylight, and that is getting very scarce these days. By the time I arrive home at the end of the day the light is already waning. Wintry sky with clouds and rain pattering on the roof are not ideal for photos, but perfect for staying in and warming up my toes by the fire.

Walnut, Cherry & Apple Quickbread

Sun, 23 May 2010 20:22:00 +1200

Apples - lovely sweet windfalls and small tart apples from trees that grace backyards and are rarely pruned, mostly forgotten until their fruit drops to the ground. Boxes and crates of rosy eating apples, piled in mountains at the farmers market on saturdays. It’s the perfect time to be buying and eating apples, now when they are at their crisp and juicy best. I never tire of eating apples in all their shapes and sizes.

I’ve had a couple of large boxes of apples given to me so I’ve been keeping my eyes open for things that use apples. Apples pair well with so many things, cinnamon, brown sugar, quince, pears, ginger, blackberries and plums.

I took a stack of cook books out of the library and was thumbing through the copy of Every Day by Bill Granger when I saw this loaf. It looked like just the thing to make over an autumn weekend. I had to adapt it somewhat for the ingredients I had on hand, but I was more than happy with the result. He suggests it toasted, and I can see how this would toast well. Today we had it still slightly warm from the oven as part of a lunch to meet Ryan’s gorgeous new girlfriend.

A simple loaf to make with homey flavours of cinnamon and honey as a background to the fruit, there is oatmeal in the loaf - which honestly you would never know was there, except that it adds a moistness to it. I love oatmeal in baked goods. This is fast to make and smells amazing when it cooks.

Walnut, Cherry & Apple Quickbread

1/2 cup of rolled oats
300 mls/10 1/2 fl oz milk
2 cups self raising flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/4 cup of dried or glace cherries chopped
1 large apple peeled and finely diced
1/2 cup of sultanas
1/3 cup of soft brown sugar (plus extra for the top)
1 tspn cinnamon (plus extra for the top)
3 Tbspns honey
1 egg
3 Tblspns of roughly chopped walnuts plus extra 2 Tblspns for the top.

Place the oats in a bowl with the milk, leave to soak while you prepare the other ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a 1 kg (2 lbs) loaf tin with baking paper

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and whisk together to mix.

Add into the bowl with the oats - the cherries, walnuts, honey, brown sugar, apple, sultanas and egg whisk together to mix well and then add to the dry ingredients.

Stir together well to form quite a wet mix and pour into the loaf tin.

Sprinkle the remaining walnuts over the top and a little brown sugar and cinnamon.

Bake the loaf for 45-50 minutes until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin before removing carefully to finish cooling on a wire rack.

This loaf can be toasted and served with ricotta or yoghurt and honey, or sliced and spread with butter.

When you slice into the loaf you are greeted with the warm scent of cinnamon, the top of the loaf is slightly crunchy and caramelised.

Although it’s autumn here I can imagine this loaf being tucked into a basket for a picnic, it would transport well I think.

While those of you in the northern hemisphere are watching blossoms on trees and daffodils poke their heads out of the ground, here in the southern hemisphere the earth is entering it’s sleep.

Leaves are falling from trees

Flowers changing from vibrant shades to greens and browns.

The view out my window in the morning shrouded in mist.

Kererū coming close to the house, close enough to touch - they’re looking for the berries on the native trees close to our house.

Slippers, knitting, pinecones, hot chocolate, fruit toast, vanilla oatmeal, rustling leaves and frosty mornings - I love this time of year. There are so many people that love summer, the colder seasons - autumn and winter are the ones I wait for.

Time to knit, time to bake and fill the house with delicious kitchen scents.

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes

Sun, 16 May 2010 09:44:00 +1200

Many years ago I aquired a copy of Café@Home, this is a fantastic recipe book written by Julie Le Clerc. She’s a well known chef and author here in New Zealand. Her food is always stylish and delicious and often surprisingly easy and practical to make. With a family to feed I don’t often have time for a lot of fiddling about with food (although when I get the chance I relish it!) and her recipes are often exactly what I’m looking for. My copy of her book is well worn.

I’m not the kind of person that leaps out of bed in the morning to make cooked breakfasts. Generally a piece of toast or a bowl of cereal are my breakfast staples. Having said that, breakfast is my absolute favourite meal of the day. On weekends I like to make breakfasts and brunch when I can.

My days of early rising are well gone - I used to get up at 4.30 am for rowing practice down on the Otago harbour and then run to school - all before 7 am! I have no idea what possessed me to do that.

Now I haul myself out of bed quite bleary eyed and stagger around the house in a dream for at least 30 minutes when I get up. So I am not up for anything that requires thought in the morning. The beauty of these is that the mixture can be completely made up the night before, stored in the fridge and then all you need to do is pour these and flip them in the morning. With oatmeal, milk, and fruit they are a sustaining breakfast.

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes with Bananas & Bacon

Julie Le Clerc

1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of milk
3 Tbspns sugar
2 Tblspns fruity olive oil
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 cup of plain flour
2 tspns baking powder
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn salt
1-2 Tblspns extra milk if required
bananas, maple syrup, yoghurt and bacon for serving.

Place the oats in a bowl, cover with milk and set aside to soak for 10 minutes.

Add sugar, oil and egg and stir to combine

Add remaining dry ingredients, and stir to combine. If you need to, add a little extra milk.

At this point you can put the whole lot covered in the fridge until the morning if you are making these the night before.

Cook in large spoonfuls over medium heat. Just turn once. These are small pancakes of roughly 5- 6 inches in diameter when cooked.

Serve pancakes with bananas stacked in-between, maple syrup poured over, yoghurt and bacon on the side. Dust with a little icing sugar if wished.

This recipe will serve 4.

Oh- incidentally these got nicknamed mancakes in our house - I forgot the baking powder in the first batch I did and they were rather umm .. hearty - Still Ryan ate the lot without complaint!

Salame di Cioccolata - Chocolate Salami

Mon, 10 May 2010 20:17:00 +1200

Mothers Day caught me by surprise this year, and I found myself with a very sad looking bank balance just before Mothers Day. I love to give and receive home made gifts, so I just needed to be slightly creative to come up with something for my lovely Mum. Salame di Cioccolata was the solution to my problems! Exotic, fudgey, delicious and it gave Isaac an opportunity to tell my mother she had salami for a mother’s day gift- he thought that was hilarious.

Mothers Day for me, means breakfast in bed and home made cards from my children. I remember very clearly when Leah and Ryan were little, two little beaming faces presenting me with a breakfast tray on Mothers Day. A pile of toast that was inevitably cold, with holes torn in the bread, an inch or so of butter in chunks and about the same thickness of jam. A cup of tea that was lukewarm, with a layer of sugar sitting in the bottom of the cup and the other half of the cup filled with large amounts of milk. I’m pretty sure they subscribed to the theory that if something is good, then more must be better.

Home-made cards would be propped on the tray and the look of absolute satisfaction on their faces was priceless. They would crawl into bed and poke their little elbows in my ribs. I still have every mothers day card they’ve made over the years. This year, I look like this apparently, slightly crazed, amazing hair and plenty of teeth! This is Isaac’s rendition.

This year it was Isaac’s turn to make me breakfast in bed, he must have taken lessons off his siblings, there it was.. toast - cold- with lumps of margarine hanging off the edge and about an inch of marmalade on the top. He’d picked some flowers for me and he had ice cold feet from running outside with no slippers on, which he pressed against me to warm up.

He told me with such pride and a huge grin, ” I made it all by myself Mummy!”Check out my card this year .. I just love it!

Those are the best Mothers Day breakfasts!

Of course if you are no longer cute and little - you’d better come up with something that is at least edible! Not that I am suggesting Chocolate Salami for breakfast mind you!

Happy Mothers Day Mum.. love you!

Salame di Cioccolata

Makes one large Chocolate Salami or two smaller ones.

100g butter softened
100g cocoa
250g plain cookies (Nice biscuits, graham crackers, digestives etc)
100g sugar
1/2 cup of hazelnuts chopped with some texture.
1/4 to 1/2 cup of dried fruit of your choice.
2 egg whites
1 Tbspn Rum (optional)

Crush your cookies making sure that you leave some pieces - don’t turn it all into crumbs! Place in a medium sized bowl.

Add in your chopped dried fruit, sugar, cocoa and nuts

Mix through your butter - I used my hands for this - honestly it seemed like the best way to get things well mixed.

Lastly mix in your egg whites, the original recipe says fold.. but really there is no way on the planet you can fold these through.

Make sure it’s well mixed and that there are no dry bits in your mixture.

Place a large piece of foil on the countertop and tip the mixture in a line down the centre. Roll up the foil and squeeze and roll the mixture into a salami shape, twisting the ends of the foil. Make sure it’s pressed firmly together. Or you can divide the mixture in half for two smaller logs.

Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours, when completely chilled rub the outside with icing sugar/powdered sugar, cut slices to your desired thickness and eat!

The kids loved the novelty value of this and honestly so did I, it’s surprising how much this actually looks like salami! It’s a lovely one for little children to make with you since there is no cooking involved.

For something so simple it tastes great, when sliced the little flecks of biscuit and fruit make for such an interesting mouthful. It took just a few minutes to put together.

“Mother’s Day
is a thank-you
to every woman who has ever
hugged a baby,
kissed a boo-boo,
taught a lesson,
listened closely,
cared deeply…

and passed on
her love
and wisdom
to someone
in the world
who needed her.”

NB: One of my children was missing for the first time this mother’s day. My third child, Fynn. Fynn I remember all your mothers day kisses too sweetheart. I’ve posted a photo of Fynn and myself on the About Me page for the first time, perhaps you would like to see the little boy that was the reason I started this blog. Happy Mothers Day to all those mothers that have their children with them and warm thoughts to all the mothers who are missing their children on this day.

Torta Gianduja - Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake

Fri, 07 May 2010 22:18:00 +1200

This beautiful cake is a flourless hazelnut and chocolate cake. I was rushing through the supermarket and the latest issue of dish caught my eye. I noticed they had an Italian food feature and I just adore Italian food, so of course I grabbed it. Flicking through it quickly before I purchased it, this cake was the stand out recipe. I went back around the aisles to toss the ingredients in the shopping trolley.

Once home I accidently ate the chocolate intended for the cake by mistake …… so I had to go back to the supermarket and buy some more.

Regular readers might have noticed, I always try to buy fair trade chocolate, this time I bought Green & Blacks fair trade dark chocolate. I always feel like it’s a small thing that I can do that can help someone that could use a fair deal in life. I try to be a consumer with a conscience.

I did make the cake after the second trip to the supermarket for the chocolate! Like all flourless cakes, this was soft and velvety, the cake almost melting in your mouth .. wow.. thinking about it now makes me want to make it again!

It really was a wonderful cake, everything a cake should be - completely sinful and when you eat it you just know it’s incredibly bad for you, but you head back for another slice and then make sure you get every crumb off the plate, and contemplate a third slice and wonder if anyone will notice if you just take another teeny sliver. You look at it on the plate and each time you pass.. you just pinch a tiny corner and eat it .. am I making my eating habits obvious here?

This is a recipe worth making - it’s a truly luxurious cake.. If you try one new chocolate cake recipe this year, try this one, I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

Torta Gianduja

200g Hazelnuts roasted - skins rubbed off
200 grams butter chopped
200 grams dark chocolate 70% cocoa - chopped
5 eggs separated
200 grams caster/superfine sugar
finely grated zest 1 orange OR 1 tspn vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F Grease and line a 24 cm loose bottom tin with baking parchment

Chop the nuts finely but leave a little texture.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over warm water and then set aside to cool

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.

In another bowl beat the egg whites until soft peaks form

Using a large metal spoon fold the chocolate mixture, hazelnuts and orange zest (or vanilla) into the egg yolk mixture

Fold in the egg whites

Pour into your prepared tin, the well mixed but still nicely aerated.

Bake for roughly 30 minutes until a crust forms and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Cool completely before removing from the tin.

This recipe serves 8-12 people depending on how thinly you slice the wedges of cake, it does not need a lot of gussying up, just a simple sprinkle of powdered sugar or a small scoop of masarpone.

I do feel a need to apologise for the photo quality, my camera and I are having difficulty adjusting to the autumn light. But no doubt I will get the hang of it eventually - most likely by the time spring arrives!

Do try this cake if you are a chocolate lover, it will be your new best friend.

Roasted Garlic Puree with Rosemary and Sea Salt

Tue, 04 May 2010 20:23:53 +1200

It’s been cold here lately, with autumn weather really putting a nip in the air. When the weather turns cold I head to the library - what happens when I go to the library ?
This.

Cookbooks .. I can’t help myself. I try to restrict myself to one or two, but I always end up taking as many as I can possibly carry. This particular day I did not have a bag, so this was as many as my arms could hold without giving myself a hernia.

I’m having an Italian fling at the moment, with food at least. I’ve recently been picturing myself on the back of a Vespa whizzing past curved doorways with attractively aged paint, and eating warm Roma tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with fresh summer basil .. but .. back to reality!

We followed the trip to the library with an afternoon tea at one of our regular haunts. I noticed they had garlic purée with olive and rosemary bread on the menu for roughly $8.00, which honestly I think is horrendously expensive. But despite the price I ordered it anyway to see what could possibly deserve that price tag. It was pretty good - but not $8.00 worth as far as I could work out. A tiny pot of garlic purée and three slices of bread. I decided to go home and make it myself for a whole lot less and satisfy some of my cravings for something Italian.

Normally we grow our own garlic - but last year we did not get the garlic into the garden, it should be planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest, but I had this wonderful pink local garlic to roast instead, almost as good.

If you are going to roast garlic at home choose a strongly flavoured garlic to get the most flavour from it. Some garlics are stronger than others, I’m sure you’ll know what your best local variety is.

For those of you thinking this looks like it might be a little strong I want to reassure you that roasted garlic is a completely different kettle of fish to garlic cooked any other way. It undergoes a miraculous transformation, a little like Cinderella when she’s dressed for the ball, even her step sisters don’t know who she is, she looks so different.

It’s sweet and sticky with a mellow flavour, and once you start eating it. it’s very hard to stop! It can be eaten as is, or stirred into dressings and added to sauces and dishes to add a whole new dimension.

This might be very simple, but this is real evidence that simple can be completely amazing.

Roasted Garlic Purée with Rosemary and Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 180C/350C

4 whole heads of good garlic
a little olive oil
fresh rosemary
flaked sea salt
Ciabatta sliced and toasted

Slice the garlic across the middle and drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the cut side, rub it across the surface of the garlic.

Place the cut garlic on a sheet of foil and seal into a parcel with the cut sides up.

Poke a few holes into the package to release the steam.

Bake for roughly 45 minutes to an hour until the garlic is very soft. Cook time will depend on the size of the heads of garlic.

Cool the garlic and then squeeze the cloves out gently. Mash to a paste on it’s own or purée with a little olive oil.

Toast your Ciabatta and spread your garlic purée over the top, sprinkle with a little sea salt and chopped fresh rosemary - devour hungrily.

JS Indian Market - Field Trip

Tue, 04 May 2010 19:15:00 +1200

This is a new store in my home town. Today I went there for the first time and wow, I wish I had been there a whole lot sooner. Such an amazing selection of spices and ingredients that I have not been able to find easily and things I had never seen before. Shelves upon shelves of lentils and dahl of so many varieties. Beautiful little purple eggplant and beans piled high in the fridge and the walls strung with all kinds of spices in bags. Flours of different kinds and more types of rice than you could shake a stick at.

I love to try new things and offer my children a variety of food experiences. I like to think that no matter whose table they sat down at to eat there would be things on there that looked familiar to them and new things that they were willing to try, so when I spot things like this I snap them up!

This is Green Mukhwas. If you’ve been out to an Indian restaurant you might have seen small dishes of this presented at the end of the meal or sitting on the counter. It’s used to freshen the breath and aid digestion after a meal. It’s a mixture of sugar coated fennel, aniseed, coconut, mint leaves, small red candies, peppermint oil and sesame seeds.

Once you have taken a small pinch of it between your fingers - it’s very hard to stop eating it. I bought a large bag of it, tipped most of it into a dish on the table - a couple of hours later it was almost all gone. The kids could not help having some each time they passed the dish.

I also wanted to show you this, since I had never seen it before, at least not in this form. I got quite excited about it. I added it to my growing pile of packages that were literally falling out of my arms.

This is Turmeric - not all packaged in a plastic jar, not ground up into fine yellow powder, this is dried turmeric root. It’s hard almost like a little petrified piece of wood, but warm smelling turmeric rubs off on your hands when you touch it. It’s related to ginger. It does not feel soft like wood, it’s really very hard like a stone.

I never really thought about where that rich powder came from until I saw it in the store - then I remembered that it was indeed a root. Turmeric used to be called poor man’s saffron and was used as a substitute. I will make you something with that another day when I figure out how to grind it.

I have no recipes to share just yet with these, but I did want to show you these, I know I get quite excited over little finds like this, so I am sure some of you will too.

Golden Fruit Slice

Sat, 01 May 2010 19:30:38 +1200

This is another one of those recipes that I’ve had for years, made for years and is a weekday standby. If I need to make something quickly this is one I turn to. It takes 5 minutes to put the mixture together and only 15 minutes to cook.

Today we were rushing out the door so I made this in a huge hurry just before we went to stand out in the autumn cold to watch Ryan run at an athletics meet. He was running around in shorts and T-shirt and I was snuggled up with a pair of gloves a coat and an umbrella.

It’s made with pantry staples so there is no special trip to the shop involved. I noticed about half of it had mysteriously vanished about an hour after we got home.

It’s lovely with a cup of tea, or snuggled into a lunch box. The fruit can be as simple as a few raisins, or you can use a veritable cornucopia of fruits and nuts. The one I made today has little gems of dried pear, papaya, cashews, almonds and raisins scattered through it.

The cook time is short, but just long enough to make the fruit slightly chewy and moreish. It has cornflakes in it, which add a nice occasional crunch as you munch through it.

The other huge plus as far as I’m concerned is that it’s all made in one pot, not mountains of bowls and dishes so clean up is a breeze.

It’s a littlechewy and has a warm slightly syrupy taste, the recipe specifies golden syrup, but maple syrup will do just as well. This one was made with half and half.

Golden Fruit Slice

Preheat oven to 180C/350F

Melt together in a large pot:

100g/4oz butter
1/2 cup of sugar
2 Tblspns of golden or maple syrup

Add to it:

1 lightly beaten egg
1 tspn of vanilla

Then add:

1 cup of coconut
1 cup of sifted flour
1 tspn baking powder
1 cup of dried fruit
five handfuls of cornflakes (love this measurement!)

Mix it all well together and spread in a sponge roll pan, wet your hands and press down lightly on the mixture to make sure there are no gaps.

Bake 15 minutes or until the cake is golden all over and starts to leave the sides of the pan - watch the edges don’t burn!

Do let this cool before you cut it and try to lift the pieces out, or it will be very fragile and fall to bits.

It’s a great everyday type of slice, and keeps well too. I know you’ll enjoy this one.

I’m going to go settle by the fire with my book and have a piece with my cup of Belgian hot chocolate! I’m wading my way through the Wheel of Time series - for those of you that have slightly geeky tendencies you’ll know that it’s 14 books loooooong. Plenty of opportunity to sit, relax, read and munch on delicious things.

I’d really like to make some other readers favourites - if you would like to see your favourite cookie or slice on the blog, either drop me some mail or add a comment down the bottom with a link to your recipe. I’m looking forward to trying out a few favourites, so send em on in!

Daring Bakers Challenge - Traditional English Pudding

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:42:00 +1200

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

If you have a pudding bowl like the one above, it’s helpful. You can manage though with a ceramic bowl that has a decent lip around the top.

Unfortunately being somewhat true to form I left my challenge until the last minute, although suet is readily available in the stores here I completely forgot about it until today. So I decided to make a pudding with the ingredients that I had on hand.

This is one of the wonderful things about an old fashioned pudding, you can whip one up very quickly with the ingredients that you happen to have in the cupboard.

They’re from a time when people often had to make things from what they had on hand, a handful of raisins, a glob of golden syrup or a little bit of fresh fruit. They are not as heavy as many people think they are, they are often light but filling and satisfying.

There is nothing quite like a british style pudding on a cold wintery day, or in my case a chilly autumn day. They are always best served with a custard, cream or icecream unless they have created a sauce of their own while cooking.

My pudding caused me almost as many problems as this one! Not because there was anything difficult about it at all - read on to find out why.

I modified this recipe from the NZ classic, The Edmonds cookbook. If you look at past versions of the cookbook it’s interesting to see how puddings have taken more of a back seat in more recent years. The majority of the dessert recipes were steamed puddings or custards in the older versions. I’ve made many steamed puddings before, so I decided to go with a recipe I had always looked at, but never actually tried.

Puddings can be savoury with steak and onions packed into a suet crust, or they can be sweet like this one and served with custards and icecream. A suet pudding will keep for months, and these butter versions will keep well in the freezer. They reheat fantastically and they are very quick to throw together. With names like Sussex Pond, Spotted Dick, Roly Poly Pudding and Sticky Date and Toffee Pudding - who could resist?

Harlequin Pudding

A chocolate and custard flavoured marbled pudding, just the ticket for a spiffing end to a jolly good english supper!

This needs to be served with a custard or sauce - it is a fairly plain dessert without it.

Serves 6-8

Grease a 4 cup capacity pudding basin well with butter.

1 1/2 cups of flour
4 Tblspns custard powder
2 Tblspns cocoa
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tspns baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of chopped chocolate
1 cup of raisins
100 grams of butter

Cream the butter and sugar together until light. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix throughly.

Sift in the custard powder, flour and baking powder. Stir together and add the milk.

Place the raisins in the bottom of your pudding basin or bowl and put half of the mixture in spoonfuls on top of the raisins. Add the cocoa to the other half of the mixture along with the chopped chocolate and stir well, drop this in spoonfuls on top of the plain mixture in the pudding basin.

Place a sheet of baking paper over the top of the basin and tie on tightly with string. Do the same with another layer and place the lid of your basin on the top. If you are using a bowl that has no lid place two layers of baking paper followed by a layer of foil on the top and tie tightly.

To steam your pudding place it in a larger pot with water that comes roughly 1/3 of the way up the sides of the basin, this way you are not in any danger of getting water into your basin. Put the lid on the larger pot to contain the steam and check from time to time to make sure the water has not boiled away.

Steam for roughly one hour - you can check on the pudding - make sure there is no uncooked mixture and that the centre springs back when touched.

I had an issue with running out of time with this challenge, and being autumn here light was fading, the clouds were brewing and it was looking very dark!

I had to actually take the pudding out to photograph before it was as cooked to take the photo. For some reason the pudding decided to take it’s sweet time steaming, and I had about 10 minutes before I had to race out the door to collect kit from work. So you might notice the most beautiful shape of my pudding with the curve in the middle .. that’s because the centre is still uncooked!

But these are very forgiving puddings - I took it out - photographed it and then popped it back in it’s pudding basin and continued to steam it until it was done. I would not recommend this though! It was somewhat traumatic for both me and the pudding.

Overall I have to say the pudding was fine, but not something that I would make again unless I bumped up the flavour a lot. I have better pudding recipes than this particular one that I made today. It’s a nice base recipe though if you are thinking about adding some different flavours to it, maybe coffee in the chocolate part and smothered in a hot fudge sauce!

If you have children and fancy a pudding story - check out The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay at the gutenberg project.

“Because they are after our Puddin,” said Bill

“They’re after our Puddin explained Sam, ” Because they are Professional Puddin-thieves”

“And as we’re Professional Puddin-owners,” said Bill we have to fight them on principle”….. “The trouble is, what’s to be done with the Puddin?”