Recipe 24: Lemon Meringue Pie

Recipe 24- a favourite in our household, although the first time I made this the lemon's I used was so sweet (or sour) that literally, you had to let the slice of pie to "air" before eating, otherwise your face would suck in! So a note- if you do decide to make this, make sure you taste your lemons and if they are exceptionally sour, don't use the full amount stated in the ingredients, instead replace it with a bit more water e.g. instead use 1/4 cup of lemon juice and a cup of water.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Base: 
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (previous recipe)

Filling:
1/4 cup cornflour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon rind
1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup of water
3 egg yolks (put the egg whites in a separate bowl for the topping)
1 tbsp butter


Topping:
3 egg whites
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence


METHOD

1. On a lightly floured board roll out the pastry (if not already done so) to a 6mm thickness. Use to line  20cm flan ring. Trim off any extra pastry
2. Bake blind (see techniques) at 190c for 20 minutes.During this time do steps 4,5,6. after 20 minutes proceed to 3 (then go to 7).
3. Remove the bake blind material and return to the oven for 1 minute to dry out pastry base. While pastry is cooking make the filling.
4. Filling: Blend cornflour, sugar, lemon rind and juice together until smooth. Add water then cook ovr medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat stir in yolks and butter.
6. To make the topping: Beat eggs whites until stiff but not dry, beat in sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until very thick and glossy. Stir in vanilla. You know when the meringue is ready when pulling out the beater it forms peaks that do not fall over.
7. When the 1 minute is up, add the lemon filling and pile on top the meringue.
8. Return to the oven and bake again for 10 minutes or until golden.

A shot at pastries

Mad or completely bonkers, well, that's what I thought when deciding to make my Lemon Meringue Pie from scratch. But when you have guests in a few hours and packing up your child to then unpack him to go to the grocers, the idea of 1) getting an extra recipe for my blog and 2) not moving a sleeping baby, won out.

Firstly- a technique called "cutting in" is something you need to know about when making pastry. To "Cut in" use a knife or food processor to combine butter with flour to get a crumb-like consistency.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

1 cup standard plain flour
75g butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water


METHOD

1. Sift flour, cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
2. Stir in sugar. 
3. Add egg yolk and water. Mix to a stiff dough. 
4. Roll out into sheets and chill for 30 minutes before using.

You can also add 2 tsps of mixed spice to the flour for a Spice Pastry or 1/2 cup of chopped walnut or nuts of your choice before mixing to a stiff dough to make a Nut Pastry.

Recipe 21 & 22: Greek Salad with Lemon dressing

I love summer, nothing like vitamin D, a tan and summer fruit and vegetables. I also seem to be ok with dealing with greens.

Recipe number twenty one, (187 to go!) is one of the quickest salads ever and still is quite filling, so can be used as a main. Although Jamie Oliver deems it "Greek Salad"  I don't believe its exactly kosher.... it has Greek feta and olives- that's about it.

I have made this now twice and slightly different both times. Word of warning though, do not make it 1hr advance of your dinner party, otherwise it turns everything soggy :(

Avocado and Feta Salad

2 tomatoes
1 avocado
1 spanish onion
1 tsp dried oregano
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil
Handful of pitted olives
1 lemon
about 200g Feta Cheese
Lettuce mix (or Cos lettuce)
1/4 Ciabatta loaf *optional see step 5*

METHOD

1. Peel, stone and avocado. Cut into wedges and place in a bowl with squeezed half of a lemon. Cut the tomatoes erratically into 1cm shapes, finely dice the shallot.
2. Put the tomatoes, shallot, oregano with the avocado, splash with vinegar, a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside for 5 minutes
3. Rinse the lettuce mix and either put on separate plates or on one platter. Sprinkle the pitted olives onto the salad, spoon the avocado and tomato mix on, crumb feta cheese over. Toss the salad lightly.
4. Just prior to serving, drizzle the vinegar mix over the salad and with the second half of the lemon spritz the salad. Or alternatively serve with the lemon dressing (recipe 22)
5. *To add a little bit of carbs, grill slices of ciabatta with olive oil and either serve on the side or, wait till cool and then crumb over the salad (if you decide to crumb the bread, I would recommend preparing it just after step 1.)

Lemon Dressing

1 Lemon

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

METHOD

1. squeeze a whole lemon into a jug and then add olive oil - double that of what was squeezed from the lemon. e.g. if you squeeze 50ml of lemon juice, use 100ml of olive oil.
2. Taste and then add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Note: it will separate after a few hours, just shake before serving.

Technique: Blind Baking - useful for pies.

I had never heard of this until the other day when I had to make a lemon meringue pie (next post). Stupidly the first thing that went through my head was 'where do I get a blind man from to bake' and 'surely that means baking by feel not by calculations and time etc.'... Suppose this is the reason why I am doing this challenge, as I was wrong on both accounts.

Blind Baking or "Bake Blind": 

 Blind baking is the technique cooks and chefs use to pre cook a pastry, when the filling it will be used for:

• needs little cooking itself so pre-cooking the pastry shell is important so as not to serve a raw pastry
• is wet or a liquid, so pre-cooking or blind baking is required to stop the pastry absorbing the moisture and being a wet mess
• is dense, so we pre cook the pastry to ensure it is cooked

METHOD

Loosely cover an unbaked pastry case with a sheet of baking paper larger than the size of the tin. Fill with dried beans, pasta or rice and bake. This ensures the pastry base is cooked sufficiently for holding moist fillings. Baking blind beans or rice can be stored and re-used.

It took a couple of goes to get this right- the first time I did it, there was not enough rice weighing the baking paper down and the pastry rose- which is not very good if you need to actually put something in your so called "pie"! The second time was better, I also pricked the pastry with a fork before putting more rice on the baking paper. 

Recipe 20: Potato and Horseradish Salad

I got stuck into cleaning out the pantry today. Its been a mess for so long, full of bits and pieces that are in no particular order and so much so that we have doubled even tripled some ingredients like gravox (seriously, who needs 3 packets of the stuff? We make gravy only once every 3 months or so!). After doing that, I turned to our fridge and was not surprised to find so many bottles of pickled ingredients right at the back, but also resting amongst the piles of pickled onions, chargrilled capsicums was none other than 1/4 of a jar of horseradish cream- something that I had become somewhat addicted to during my pregnancy.
Being 30c, I realised that there was no way I could cook something hot.
With untold bags of new potatoes and Jamie Oliver behind me I set out to make a potato salad that would go with the beef roast strips that were resting in the fridge.

Potato and Horseradish Salad

680g new potatoes (I used 8 new potatoes)
salt and pepper
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 a celery heart, keep the small yellow leaves but with the stalks chopped finely
a bunch of flat leaved parsley, leaves picked and chopped
2-3 tsp grated horseradish (I used 1/4 jar of horse radish cream- which worked well instead)
3 heaped tblsp sourcream
a bunch of fresh tarragon leaves
extra virgin olive oil


METHOD

1. Chop the new potatoes into small pieces, boil the new potatoes in a pot of salted water until nicely cooked. Drain them and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Pour most of the lemon juice into a large bowl and add a good pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper, the chopped celery, parsley and horseradish.
3. Mix in the sour cream into the mixture, have a taste and if needed add more lemon juice.
4. Add the potatoes and mix well.

Serve with the roast beef, spoon on the potato salad and then for looks, garnish with the celery and tarragon leaves and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Nom, Nom, Nom, Best Potato salad I have ever made (but then again the first one I have made!)

Pineapple Relish?

My husband loves antipasto. When we first got together, we were poor students at the time and the likelihood of going out on a 5 star fine dining experience was non-existent. Instead we would hire a video/DVD and spend the night watching that whilst eating antipasto or what we deemed it "munchie food".

As a Christmas present, my mother gave him a recipe book - "Digby Law's Pickle and chutney cookbook - a New Zealand Classic" on how to preserve and make your own chutneys and relishes. Fatal mistake really, as this book has not left the kitchen since christmas day and now all we are eating is chutneys, relishes and sauces! Luckily enough over half of the recipes call for us to wait 6-8 weeks before eating.The author has long since passed away, but like the Edmond's cookbook which I have been living off for the past few years, is a staple in all New Zealand homes.

Whilst we were sitting outside one night with the evening glass of wine, our son long since been put to bed, my husband made the joke that as far as he could see anything could be made into a relish. Scoffing I rambled off a couple of vegetables and fruit to find that not only was there a relish, but a chutney, a way to preserve it and a sauce. Then I realised from our last shipment from Aussie Farmers Direct I had received a Pineapple, which was going to go to waste. (It would only be used to make Pina Colada's if only I had not drunk all the rum in a prior sitting.) To my surprise when I shouted from the kitchen "what about Pineapple" my husband flicked me the book resting on "Pineapple Relish".
Here was my new test, can I, the person who burns water, makes scones that birds won't eat as 1) they can't peck into them or 2) if they do eat them they will end up unable to fly and thus prey to our cat,  make a relish?? I was game enough and you know what, I think I did ok!

I strongly recommend that if you are making this, just prior to it being taken off the heat, to have a quick taste to see if you like it. The cool thing with relishes is that you can manipulate the quantity of the ingredients to your tasting.

Pineapple Relish

makes about 1 litre

1 Large Pineapple
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Curry Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

METHOD

1. Peel and core the Pineapple. Cut into small (tiny!) pieces and place into a large saucepan.
2. Barely cover the Pineapple with water, bring to boil and then simmer for 10 minutes
3. Drain all the water out of the saucepan. Then add the remaining ingredients to the pineapple
4. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then simmer, stirring often for 10 minutes.
5. Spoon into hot, clean jars and seal

So I didn't do the last step as I only had a small pineapple and ended up halving the recipe, but I was amazed at how nice this tasted! It goes well with cold pork or ham, or my personal favourite tasty cheese!

Recipe 18: Maple-glazed chicken

I am so gutted I gave the Donna Hay recipe book to my mates husband for Christmas, there were so many awesome recipes to try out! I am starting to feel bad as when I am over there I end up just sitting in the kitchen going through their recipe books! This serves two as well, so there is no waste- something that is now become so important as finances are getting tighter.

Maple-Glazed Chicken

1/4 cup Maple syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tsp seasalt flakes
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 x 200g skinless chicken breast fillets
roasted parsnips and steamed sugar-snap peas, to serve.

METHOD

1. Place the maple syrup, water, chilli, salt and pepper in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
2. Bring to a simmer and add the chicken.
3. Cook for 4-5 minutes each side or until chicken is cooked through. 
4. Serve the chicken with the pan sauce, roasted parsnips and sugar snap peas.

Recipe 17: Rustic Summer Crumb Pasta

I love this recipe, all the ingredients are general stock standard items in our cupboards and after creating my vegetable patch, I have tonnes of herbs available. The only thing we don't have is buffalo mozzarella, so I generally replace this with either, grated mozzarella or parmesan. Even better, (as we tend not to eat leftovers very often) the recipe serves 2.

Rustic Summer Crumb Pasta

200g Spaghetti
100g sourdough or crusty bread
8 sun-dried tomato halves
2 tsps of crushed garlic
salt and pepper
11/2 tblsp Olive Oil
1/3 cup small basil leaves
1 small buffalo mozzarella, halved
2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
extra olive oil and grated parmesan to serve.

METHOD

1. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 8-10 minutes
2. Drain and return to pan to keep warm. While the pasta is cooking, place the bread, tomato, garlic, salt and pepper and oil in a bowl of a food processer (I used the stick blender again) and process in short bursts until the mixture resembles small crumbs.
3. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the crumb mixture and cook, stirring for 4-5 minutes or until the crumbs are golden. Toss the crumbs and basil with the pasta.
4. Divide between serving bowls and top with the mozzarella. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and extra olive oil.

Friday night- pizza night

Before our son was born, Friday night was pizza night... Dominoes, Pizza Hut even local pizza stores, all on speed dial and menu's on the fridge ready for ordering.
For the last few weeks, we have been doing well with our one "takeout" meal a month.  Although tonight all I wanted was to call my friend Mr Dominoes- however, there was no chance of him taking an 'IOU'.

Recently after cleaning out our cupboard I found a packet of yeast, so what better way but to recreate our Friday night treats but with homemade pizza. I made this base in the bread maker, but I am sure you can also do it by hand.

Cranberry, Chicken and Mozzarella Pizza

Base

200ml Water
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups Bread flour
1 3/4 tsp yeast

Topping

Chopped roast chicken (I used left overs from the previous night)
3 cups grated Mozzarella
4 tbsp Cranberry jelly (I used Ocean Spray- Jellied Cranberry)

METHOD:

1. To make the base, add all items in the order stated above, water, oil, salt, flour and yeast into the breadpan and using the dough setting on your bread maker press start
2. I took my dough out 30 minutes prior to it being finished to make it more pliable (an hour in the bread maker) and on a floured board, rolled out/kneaded the dough into the pizza shape.
3. Preheat oven to 200c
4. On a lightly oiled tray place the pizza base. lightly oil the top of the base, then spread the cranberry jelly, 2 cups of mozzarella, the chicken and then sprinkle the remaining cheese.
5. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the base and crust is brown and the cheese is melted.

Amazingly enough, finally a main dish that my husband and I loved! Next week I will try a different flavour, it was also good to have used leftovers instead of spending money. Starting to feel a bit more confident on this challenge -Grassroots all the way!

Recipe 15: Greek inspired meatballs

My best friend and her husband are huge cooking fanatics. Her husband especially makes the most divine dinners and love cookbooks, so whilst over there a couple of weeks ago I went rummaging through his books and found this recipe by Donna Hay, a well known Australian cook.

Greek inspired Meatballs

1/3 cup couscous
2/3 cup chicken stock
300g mince
1 tblsp honey
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 tsp chopped rosemary
salt and pepper
80g feta chopped coarsely
Flatbread, hummus, baby spinach leaves,mint leaves and halved cherry tomatoes to serve.

METHOD

1. Place the couscous in a bowl and pour over the hot stock. Cover with plastic wrap and stand until the stock has been absorbed. 
2. Combine the couscous, mince, honey, lemon rind, rosemary, salt and pepper and mix well. Stir in the feta.
3. Shape the mixture into 1/3 cup flat patties
4. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the pattie and cook for 4-5 minutes each side until cooked through
5. to serve, place flat-bread on serving plates and spread with hummus. Top with spinach leaves, mint, tomato and the meatballs.

 

Recipe 14: Lemon Sour Cream Cake

I readily admit that sometimes I give blondes a bad name and  today might be one of those days. For the past fortnight I have been wondering why my husband has been sitting there saying that perhaps I should only do one recipe a week, other than the fact that he is one who dreads coming home to see what concoction I have come up with that day. I seem to be okay at making sweets and cakes, but the main dishes are failing me - something I clearly need to work on.

So what do I do for recipe number 14? I go back to a tried and true cake recipe I use numerous times, because a) it lasts in the fridge for weeks as well as freezes beautifully and b) its citrus so my husband actually eats it.

This is another adaptation from the Edmonds Cookbook  I add more sour cream than the original recipe, as well as use the whole lemon (original recipe calls for only 2 tsps of lemon rind), as I hate wastage.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

125g softened butter

1 lemon

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup sour cream (approx 250ml)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 160c (I use 140-150c on bake, as I find that my cakes tend to get a burnt bottom when left for a while to cook at greater temperatures, no matter how high I put the cake in the oven!)
2. Grate half the lemon finely, beat butter, lemon rind, sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy. 
3. Squeeze all of the lemon into the egg mixture stirring quickly to avoid any curdling.
4. Sift baking powder and flour together and fold the ingredients into the egg mixture alternately with the sour cream so you get a nice smooth mixture.
5. Pour mixture into a greased and lined 20cm round cake tin. Bake at 160c for 45 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
6. Leave in tin for 5 to 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

The cookbook recommends for this cake to just be dusted with icing sugar, but I like to ice it with Cream Cheese Icing (Recipe for that can be found on the 3rd of January).

Now I should really start focusing on Main dishes again, as much as my husband dreads it, I really need to learn how to cook!

Technique: Blanching vs. Boiling… one in the same? ahhh, No!

All this time I had been making recipe number 10 – the Cream of Broccoli Soup by what I deemed was blanching, only to find out just yesterday that in fact I had been boiling the crap out of the broccoli instead of doing what the recipe said. 

The only reason why I picked up on this was due to yesterday’s relish recipe (will feature sometime this week) which required for the tomatoes to be skinned.
'How does one skin a tomato?' I asked myself. Luckily, the trusty web is full of information on cooking techniques and  I find that I should blanch them so the skin comes off easily and quickly. Well, this was something I can do!  So I thought anyway, when what I deemed as blanching successfully gave me slop. Yep, the skins were “easy” to get off, you just picked them out of the bottom of the saucepan after going through the mush.

So back to the drawing board to learn what the difference is.

The term "blanching" refers to the technique of plunging a food, usually a vegetable or fruit, into boiling water until either its color has set or the food has softened slightly. This takes anywhere from a few seconds (30 seconds for a tomato- so I found) to several minutes, depending on what is being blanched.
The food is then removed from the boiling water to an ice bath to "shock," or stop the cooking process and to set color.

Why do you use this technique?

Peeling:  It makes it easier to peel the skin of fruits like tomatoes and peaches.
Colour:  It also enhances the color of vegetables like green beans or broccoli. That is why the blanched green beans shown here look so vivid.
Storage:  It's also a good idea to blanch vegetables you intend to freeze, because blanching inactivates the enzymes that promote spoilage.

Other "boiling water techniques"

Parboiling:  Parboiling is a technique that is similar to blanching, but takes a bit longer. Parboiled food is actually partially cooked. This technique is especially useful when you are stir-frying foods that take different amounts of time to cook. If you parboil a dense food, such as broccoli, you can add it to your wok at the last minute to cook along with a quicker-cooking food, such as shrimp.
Boiling: Well, I think everyone knows this one… food is cooked in boiling water and then served.

I have learnt my lesson- from now on, even if I think I know what the recipe terminology is, I am going to look it up.

Christmas gifts- COOKIES!

I thought last Christmas that instead of spending $$$$ and losing my patience on trying to find some materialistic object for my mates in the crowded shopping malls, that I would spend some time in the kitchen and bake gifts.
This recipe I got from "Apples for Jam" by Tessa Kiros. The biscuits have a shortbread type texture, which personally are my favourite- am not too keen on the soft cookies as they tend not to last very long in containers and as I am the only one in the household who eats sweets, am "forced" to eat them all.
After so many failings since the start of this project, so much so that my husband is excited if I haven't cooked dinner! I went back to this recipe to see if it still worked and it did. Its nice to know that finally something has come out okay this week- I don't feel like a complete failure...  just someone who needs more practice!
Originally these were called Chocolate and Vanilla biscuits in Tessa's book, but I added a tsp of cinnamon to the vanilla batch so the name became invalid. I have renamed them to striped biscuits as this recipe was found in Tessa's "striped" section (the recipe book is based on colour- which is very different!).

Chocolate and Cinnamon Striped Biscuits

180g softened butter

3/4 cup  caster sugar

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup plain Flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

METHOD

1. Mash together the butter and the sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Add a pinch of salt and 1 and 1/4 cup of flour (leaving a 1/4 cup) and work it in.
2. Whisk the egg with the vanilla and add to the bowl, mixing it all well. knead it quickly, gently and thoroughly (I found that you may need to add just a little bit more flour - so don't be afraid to, but remember we are adding another 1/4 cup in the next step- so not too much!)
3. Divide the dough into half. Add the tsp of cinnamon to one half, as well as the remaining 1/4 cup and to the other add the cocoa. Knead the ingredients in thoroughly.
4. Pat both dough out into flattish discs, cover separately with plastic wrap (aka glad wrap) and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 180c (I used 150c as I have a fan forced oven)
6. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough and create your masterpieces, either combining the two doughs together to form wreath like biscuits or  making separate ones. 
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are crisp.

The amount made depends on how big you make the cookies, but I managed to get about 25 biscuits out of one batch. I also made a couple of batches into single flavour donut shapes and then added melted chocolate in the middle- yummy!

 

Recipe 11 & 12: Citrus baked Fish with Mint salsa

Another Citrus recipe (perhaps I should try and do 208 citrus recipes!), which is a staple meal in our household. Although a grassroot recipe, it tastes fabulous and makes me look like a pro! I use Hoki  or blue cod fish fillets, as it is my favourite tasting fish but you could use any white fish fillets. This recipe is good at home or if your out camping. Whenever we go out bush,  I always make sure I have a few Oranges and Lemons handy for any fish we may catch.

Citrus Fish

1 Orange
1 Lemon
2 tblsp Oil
Tin foil
2 Fish fillets

METHOD

1. Half the Orange and Lemon, Zest one half of the lemon and orange and add to a small bowl with the oil. On the tin foil place the 2 fish fillets, pour the citrus marinade over the fillets.
2. With the remaining halves of orange and lemon, cut into segments and place on top of the fish fillets.
3. Wrap the fish fillets, with the marinade and orange in the tin foil. Leave for 30 minutes, then put into the oven (or bbq) and bake at 120c until cooked.

Can be served with rice, or salad, but generally I serve with recipe 12- Mint Salsa and a simple green salad.

Mint Salsa

1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and chopped.
1 Spring Onion finely chopped.
4 tsp of lemon (if I am making both of these recipes at once- I use the remaining lemon after the 4 tsp in the baking of the fish, so its not wasted.)
4 tblsp Olive oil
1 cup shredded mint leaves
1 Orange segment (again saved from the above recipe) for garnish

METHOD

1. After chopping everything, gently toss altogether (except the orange).chop the orange segment into smaller segments.
2. Place salsa on plate and garnish with the orange segments.

Recipe 10: Cream of Broccoli Soup

In my days of trying to lose weight I relied heavily on carb-free meals or more correctly light carb meals to get me through. In trying to avoid as much potato, pasta and bread as possible I fell in love with a number of recipes from the SureSlim collection. I particularly love this one, as my husband never eats broccoli and so whenever we get it in my "vege surprise box" I know exactly what I am going to do with it and I know that it freezes and thaws brilliantly, meaning I can make a huge batch and freeze it out when I need it. Sometimes as well, I also add cauliflower for a different taste.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

500g blanched broccoli
4 cups vegetable stock

pinch nutmeg

300g cream cheese

salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Place all ingredients into blender, process until smooth.
2. Pour soup into large saucepan and heat before serving. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper

Serve with toasted mountain bread for a low-carb option.

Recipe 9: Grassroot Irish Stew

Its hard to believe its summer. Another chilly day of 18c, when usually at this time of year average temperatures usually are about 31c!
Was completely stumped as to what I should make for dinner tonight, with the little one being grizzly I just didn't have time to sit around cooking something complex- I needed something fast.
So I hit the library in my study where all the recipe books I have collected over the years, but have done nothing with, lie gathering cobwebs. Rummaging through I found a couple of recipe books which I am sure will come in handy in the coming months- nothing like a one pot recipe which I can put in the slow-cooker and leave for a few hours whilst dealing with the little man!
I found this recipe through "Slow Cooker" by Sally Wise 

Grassroot Irish Stew

700g potatoes

2 onions

500g lean diced lamb

1 tsp salt

3 tsp cornflour (optional)

METHOD

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into 3cm chunks (although mine are slightly larger) Peel and dice onion. Put both into slowcooker
2. Place the lamb on top of the potatoes and sprinkle with salt. Add also 3/4 cup of water
3. Cook on high for 5 hours or on low for 8/9 hours
4. When ready for serving, add 3 tsp of cornflour (have worked out that if you add cornflour with a bit of water to make a paste and then add to the slowcooker so the cornflour doesn't become lumpy) to thicken up the stew juices.

The Result: My husband has asked for me to please stop cooking from this recipe book! Although I followed the recipe exactly, it was bland and tasteless "ruined really good lamb" as my husband says. If I am ever to do this recipe again, I need to add a bit of stock, or a tsp of vegemite to add a bit of flavour. Perhaps even half the amount of potatoes so we can have some mashed on the side. A really depressing outcome, considering how beautiful the lamb was cooked. : (

Recipe 7 & 8 - Tomato & Basil Sauce and Meahini Pasta

I am definitely enjoying finding grassroot recipes. Its amazing to know that most of the recipes I do find, I have a majority of the ingredients here in my pantry or in the vegetable patch that I have just started growing. At the moment I am using dried herbs instead of fresh as my basil is a bit too small to be ransacked. But hopefully in coming weeks I will be able to use it. Also looking forward to using my lettuces, capsicums, chilli's and tomatoes by end of February.
Hitting two birds with one stone today. Firstly am going to try to make a Tomato and Basil Sauce adapted from the Edmonds Cookbook again and then incorporate it with an adapted Italian Skillet Supper Recipe that I found on ifood.tv . IF the sauce works out! Hopefully this will hide the Zucchini enough that my husband won't notice at all.

Tomato and Basil Sauce

2 tblsp Oil

1 tsp of crushed Garlic (I used garlic from jar- however if fresh add it straight away with the onion)

1 Onion, chopped

400g can Tomatoes

1 1/2 tblsp Cornflour

1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup of water

1 tsp sugar

salt

pepper

1 tblsp freshly chopped Basil

METHOD

1. Heat oil in a saucepan. Add Onion, cook until onion is clear.
2. Puree tomatoes and juice in a blender (I used a stick blender)
3. Combine cornflour and tomato paste in the water.
4. Add the tomato paste combination, pureed tomatoes, garlic and sugar to the saucepan. Bring to the boil. Season with sale and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and stir in Basil.

Meahini Pasta 

(Creative name huh? Meahini -Meat crossed with Zucchini - to hide from my husband!)

500g lean ground Beef
1 Onion, chopped

2 tsps of crushed Garlic

1 tsp dried Basil or Oregano

1 cup Pasta

1 medium Zucchini, peeled and chopped (I used the stick blender for half of it)

To make a sauce for this:

1 1/2 cups tomato pasta sauce

1 1/2 cups chicken stock or beef stock 

(I used the Tomato & Basil Sauce instead)

METHOD

1. In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef, breaking up with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until no longer pink. Add onion, garlic and basil or oregano; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
2. Add tomato pasta sauce and stock; bring to a boil. (In my case I added 2 cups of the Tomato & Basil sauce I created.)  Stir in pasta; reduce heat, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini; cook, covered, stirring occasionally, adding more stock (or adding more sauce) if needed, for 5 to 7 minutes or until pasta and zucchini are tender.

RESULTS:
The Tomato & Basil Sauce came out lovely- but not a deep red that I expected from all other tomato sauces I have brought in the past, maybe due to the amount of preservatives and colour they add .... I used more water than stated in the recipe (about a cup) and so it did get a bit runny, but that's because I was planning to use it for my Meahini. I wouldn't have added the extra water and I am sure it would have been awesome for normal tomato sauce- although not sure how long it would keep for in the fridge...
The Meahini Pasta came out nice enough, although even with all the herbs and my awesome sauce it was quite bland in flavour. I added a bit of Parmesan for a little bit more bang.

Recipe 6: Zucchini Provencal

As per one of my previous posts, I am completely stock piled up on Zucchinis. Worse off, my husband hates eating them and so the challenge is to try and make it into something yummy that he will eat. I found this recipe in the Edmonds Cookbook (my lifeline) but for courgettes. So another adaptation...

Zucchini Provencal

1 tblsp Oil

1 Onion
2 tsp of crushed Garlic
1 Zucchini, thinly sliced
1 tin of crushed Tomato (approx 400g)


METHOD

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, Add onion and cook until the onion is clear. 
2. Add Zucchini witha pinch of salt and a grind of pepper
3. Add tin of tomato and crushed garlic (If using freshly crushed garlic- not one from a jar, add at the beginning with the onion), Stir, Cover and cook over a low heat until tender (approx 15-20 minutes)

Recipe 5: Stopping the hunger pangs - light snack

Driving home today from a Doctors appointment with the little one, a sudden pang of hunger coarsed through my body and the yellow arches of my nemesis shone brightly luring me to have a snack of fatty chips or a cheeseburger. If I hadn't put my wallet in the boot of the car then I may have caved, but I made it home for a quick bite- which turns out, was all I needed!

Tomato & Mozzarella Cruskits

50g grated Mozzarella

1  fresh Tomato

2 Arnotts Cruskits

fresh Basil

1/2 tsp of crushed Garlic 

METHOD

1. Sprinkle a 1/4 tsp of Crushed Garlic on the Cruskits.
2. Add 25g of grated Mozzarella (which is about a small handful) on each Cruskit.
3. Chop up the Tomato and place on the Cruskit
4. Top with Fresh Basil and a touch of salt and pepper

So many Carrots... Recipe 3&4

Every week, due to my inability to leave the house and go grocery shopping with a 3 month old, I get the local milkman from Aussie Farmers Direct to deliver fresh veges, milk, bread and sometimes meat to my house. Aussie Farmers Direct is a free home delivery service providing fresh products that are 100% Australian owned and produced. Their main goal is to help the Australian farmer win the battle against the large multinationals by delivering a broad range of products direct to the consumer, cutting out the middle man like Coles and Woolworths, means products are delivered faster, fresher and straight to me making the humble farmer win in the long run.

It's the best decision I have ever made and now there is absolutely no excuse now not to cook food everyday.

Every Thursday and Friday I receive my deliveries. Friday is generally milk, cheese and meat, but Thursday, well, I am always excited for Thursday deliveries as I get a box of seasonal vegetables.

Carrots and Zucchini's apparently must be in season at the moment! As the last few weeks I have received so many of both that literally its the first thing I see when I open my fridge door, leading to inspiration for my first recipe for 2011 - Carrot Cake.

The below recipe is adapted from the Edmonds Cook Book - a Classic New Zealand recipe book that has been around for 90 years. There are some quantities I have changed and ingredients I have added and omitted after a bit of research. The original recipe stated you needed pineapple as well, but I did not have it in the house.

Jossy's Carrot Cake

3 Eggs
1 cup of Oil (I used virgin olive oil- nothing too pungent)
2 cups of Flour (NOT self-raising)
1 cup Sugar
3 tsps Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
3 cups of Carrots
1/2 cup chopped Walnuts
1 tblsp grated Orange rind

I used more than 3 cups of carrots- as I had so many... grated 6 big carrots- which would have been most probably been 5 cups, so I had to add more oil into the mixture (the original recipe states only 1/2 a cup).

METHOD
First of all, peel and grate the carrots so you have them on hand, Grease and/or line a tin approximately 23cm round AND Pre-heat oven to 160 C (They say 180 C in the recipe, but my oven seems to run a bit hotter as its fanforced)

1. Beat eggs until thick, stir in half a cup of the oil.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into the egg mixture and combine.
   
3. Fold in carrots, walnuts and orange rind. Add the rest of the oil if the batter is really stiff, the batter shouldn't be runny, but shouldn't be so dry that its powdery either.
4. Spoon mixture into tin
5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tin for 10-15 minutes (take it OUT of the oven!) before turning out into a wire rack .

The recipe recommends to ice with cream cheese icing... so already I am off to a flying start for the week! 2 recipes in one day.

Cream Cheese Icing

Direct from the Edmonds Cook Book

2 Tblsp butter, softened
1/4 cup Cream cheese
1 cup Icing sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind

METHOD

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Mix in icing sugar and lemon ring, beating well to combine.

I'm a huge fan of citrus and so is my family, so I also added a bit of lemon juice into the icing mixture and then added a bit more icing sugar. I worked out that you can't have it too runny otherwise it falls off the cake!

So the final result

- Jossy's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing -

The cream cheese icing is a bit yellow due to the amount of lemon rind and juice I put in!

Recipe 2: Revolutionary Rocky Road

This Rocky Road is amazing and so quick to do! I adapted the recipe from "Christmas" By Susan Tomnay & The Australian Women's Weekly

Revolutionary Rocky Road

100g Marshmallows
200g Turkish Delight
1/4 cup of shredded and dried coconut
450g white cooking chocolate
1/2 cup of chopped, roasted pistachio nuts (put the shelled pistachio's in a shallow pan in the oven and bake for 5 to 10 minutes until golden then chop them - if I can do it, anyone can!)

METHOD
You will need a tin, tray or I used cupcake tin for the setting process.

1. Chop the Marshmallows, turkish delight and pistachio nuts (if not already chopped)
2. In a microwave safe bowl, put the white chocolate in and then heat on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir and then repeat if all the chocolate has not melted.
3. Add the pistachio, marshmallows and turkish delights to the bowl which contains the white chocolate.
4. Spoon out into tin, tray or whatever you decided to put it in, pop it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to set (or longer depending on how thick you have made it)

These make an awesome gift and is seriously so easy that within a few hours I had churned out 100 of them. I adjusted the quantities of marshmallows etc to each batch to see how they turned out- the best ones had quite large marshmallow peices and not so many pistachio's. Although, that is my preference as I dislike nuts.

I also tried dark chocolate, but it didn't come out quite as nice.

Recipe 1: Orange and Sesame Salad

First Recipe of 2011 and what better than a nice summer salad- It is also one thing I seem to be OK at. Unfortunately no photo of this one, I am sure I will make it again soon, so perhaps I can update it at a later date.

This is one of the husbands favourites, due to him being a complete citrus freak!I have a feeling there will be a few citrus recipes in this blog... but who knows, perhaps there will be another common denominator. I am excited about this challenge, although I am not sure whether I am going to be able to knock off 208 recipes this year. It's almost impossible, considering I will be back full time at work in less than 3 months and when at home will have my son to look after. All I can do is see how it pans out.

Orange and Sesame Salad 

serves approximately 6 depending on the amount of lettuce

Salad:

2 Lebanese Cucumbers

200g Snow Peas (ends removed and blanched)

200g Capsicum

2 Spring onions

1/2 Red Onion

2 Oranges

20 Black Olives, pitted.

Lettuce

1 tblsp Sesame seeds, toasted

Dressing

2 tblsp virgin Olive oil

2 tsp crushed Ginger 

1 tsp crushed Garlic

Zest and juice of 1 Orange

METHOD 

1. Chop Capsicum, Red and Spring Onion, Cucumber and Snow peas. Toss all items in to bowl with lettuce and olives. Peel and segment two Oranges and add these to the bowl lightly toss again. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top.
2. Combine the ingredients of the Dressing together, mix well

Add the dressing to the salad just prior to serving. 

When I am just making this for me and my husband I use the same amount in the dressing, but I half the salad ingredients.