Melbourne Food Geek

Roast Pork for Easter

2011-04-23T13:25:00.001+10:00

Being a good Catholic is not high on my family's priority list. We tend to use this weekend as an opportunity to get together and have something different for dinner.

Tonight's adventure is roast pork.

We're not normally a pork family as my dad isn't a fan but, for some reason he suggested it the other night. So the menu tonight is roasted pork with an apple mustard sauce, twice baked potatoes and veg.

Fig and Blueberry Hot Cross Buns

2011-04-23T13:15:00.000+10:00

I had the urge to do some serious baking yesterday and I wanted fruit toast for this morning's breakfast. After searching through the latest editions of my food magazines I settled on one for fruit bread but I didn't like their bread component. I have not had the best luck with different bread recipes lately so I went to a tried and fabulous favourite of mine, Ree's cinnamon bread. Once you've mastered a basic white bread so many other delicious things can be made from it like hot cross buns.

The reason I've make my buns using figs and blueberries is because that's all we had in the house.

Ingredients

250g mixed dried fruit (I used dried blueberries and figs)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter
2 packets yeast
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 heaped teaspoon mixed spice
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs

Method

Chop the fruit so it is all the same size. I chopped my figs to the size of the blueberries. Soak in the orange juice and leave for 30 or so minutes. The fruit needs to have absorbed most of the liquid and be nice and soft. Drain off the liquid and set the fruit aside.

In a saucepan heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Do not let it boil. When the butter has melted, turn the heat off and let it cool until skin hot. Too hot or too cold and your yeast won't work! When it's cool enough to stick your finger in sprinkle the yeast over the top and let it sit for 10 minutes. This will activate the yeast.

In a separate bowl mix together then flour, salt and spices. Set aside.
Beat the eggs and sugar together in another bowl until combined. Add the milk and yeast mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed.
Add in half the flour and mix until the flour is incorporated. At this point it is best to switch to a wooden spoon if you haven't already.
Beat in the remaining flour and stir until a soft dough has formed.

Tip dough out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is a ball. Flatten the dough into a rectangle and spread the fruit down one edge. Fold up the dough around the fruit and knead until the fruit is evenly distributed and the dough itself is elastic. I found that at this point the blueberries were popping out of the dough.

Stick the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. I partly fill a sink with tap hot water and stick the bowl in there covered with a bread board and tea towel.

Knock the dough down and divide into 12 even pieces. Roll each into balls and slash the top in a cross. Place on a tray and let them rise again for about 30 minutes.

Mix together enough flour and water to form a paste and pipe crosses on each bun.

Pop them into a preheated 180-200C oven for 20-30 minutes until the bottoms are sound hollow when tapped.

If you like the tops sticky then whilst they are still warm brush the tops with water that has had 2 tsp of sugar dissolved in it.

Daring Bakers rising to the occassion

2011-03-27T17:51:00.000+11:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This month I got to play with yeast, egg whites, chocolate and cardamom. All things I love to eat and work with. My eaters this month were Monucs and the Vic. Chorale. Joint concerts mean joint rehearsals which means that snacks are required. I'm also planning on taking a batch of cheesecake brownies.

Below is the recipe I used. I noticed on the first one that I had spread the filling too close to the edge and it leaked out when rolling. Yum! The second one I didn't fill as close to the edge and it rolled up much cleaner. You can see the difference in the pictures below. The top one has the cleaner roll.

FILLED MERINGUE COFFEE CAKE

Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients

For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour

1⁄4 cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar

3⁄4 teaspoon (5 g / 1⁄4 oz.) salt

1 package (2 1⁄4 teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast

1 tsp ground cardamom

3⁄4 cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk

1⁄4 cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)

1⁄2 cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature

2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla

1⁄2 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) chopped walnuts

2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar

1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup (170 g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Egg wash: 1 beaten egg

Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

Directions:

Prepare the dough: In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 1⁄2 cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt, cardamom and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes.

Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 1⁄2 cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Prepare your filling. In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue: In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the 1⁄2 cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes: Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 1⁄2 cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 1⁄2 cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner’s sugar as well as cocoa powder if using chocolate in the filling. These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

Peekaboo I see you

2011-03-14T19:24:00.000+11:00

Any guess what lies under the tea towels?

Beef Wellington

2011-03-07T19:16:00.000+11:00

When I made this last year you could smell it halfway round the building. As my old job required working shifts, I liked to get creative in what I ate. Reheated pasta only goes so far with me. So when the new season of Masterchef started I was ecstatic. New recipes to try. New takes on old recipes.

One of the challenges when they were going from the top 50 to the top 20 was beef wellington. Having always wanted to make it but never getting up the guts to actually do it, I put my Daring Cook hat on and decided to give it a try. This was actually a challenge for the Daring Cooks over a year ago but I never got around to making it.... This recipe is taken from the Masterchef Australia website.

Here we go!

Ingredients

Crepes
2 cups (300g) plain flour
2 eggs
2½ cups (625ml) milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon
50g butter, chopped

Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
500g small beef bones
2 eschallots, thinly sliced
6 black peppercorns
4 sprigs thyme
1 clove garlic, bruised
1 bay leaf
80ml port
200ml red wine
500ml veal stock
80ml veal glace
40g chopped butter
Mushroom filling80g dried porcini mushrooms
2 tlbs (40ml) olive oil
30g butter, chopped
2 eschallots, finely chopped
200g swiss brown mushrooms, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoons finely chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Beef Fillet
500g beef fillet
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 large sheet puff pastry approx (30 X 32cm)
Eggwash: 3 egg yolks mixed with a pinch of salt
4-5 slices Iberico Ham

Method

For the crepes, sift flour into a bowl, add a pinch of salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the eggs and a quarter of the milk. Whisk vigorously from the middle incorporating the flour, add a little more milk and continue to whisk to form a smooth thick batter, whisk in the remaining milk and melted butter to form a loose smooth batter the consistency of thick cream. Set aside to rest for 15 minutes. Stir in herbs.

Heat a little chopped butter in a large non-stick frying pan, Ladle some of the crepe batter into the pan and quickly swirl around to cover the base to make a crepe about 25cm in diameter. Cook until the crepe is a slight golden brown, turn over and cook until golden. Remove from the pan and set aside. Repeat using the remaining mixture. You must have at least 4 crepes.

Meanwhile, start the sauce. Preheat the oven to 200C. Place a non stick roasting pan onto the stove top over a moderate heat, add oil and the beef bones, colour evenly, place into the oven for 20 minutes until caramelized and golden. Remove from the oven and tip the bones into a colander to drain away excess fat.

For the mushroom filling. Place dried mushrooms in a bowl and add just enough boiling water to cover, stand 15 minutes, drain. Rinse under running water to remove grit.
Meanwhile, heat oil and butter in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add eschallots, fresh mushrooms and garlic, cook until soft and golden. Stir in re-hydrated mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. Tip the mushrooms into a colander allow to cool to room temperature. Process mushroom mixture, parsley, tarragon and mustard in a food processor until finely chopped but not a paste.

For the beef fillet. Season the beef fillet with salt and pepper. Heat a lightly greased large frying pan, add beef and cook until all sides are well browned. Set aside to cool. Brush with the Dijon mustard.

To assemble the Beef Wellington. Preheat oven to 200C.
Place a 40cm length of baking paper on bench top. Lay the Iberico ham slices slightly overlapping onto paper. Place an even layer of mushroom mixture over the ham slices, then place the beef fillet on top. Roll over to encase the beef tightly. Square off two sides of each crepe. Lay crepes, slightly overlapping on bench top, top with beef roll and roll to encase tightly. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Rest in the freezer for 10 minutes, making sure it is cool and firm making it easier to handle. Remove plastic wrap from beef roll, place beef roll in the centre of the pastry sheet. Cut four small corners out of the pastry so it creates a large thick cross shape, ensuring it is long enough on all sides to enclose the fillet completely. Carefully lift side flaps of pastry up over the beef roll so they just overlap, trimming as necessary. Seal with egg wash. Carefully lift remaining pastry flaps, so they just overlap, trimming as necessary. Seal with egg wash. Place on a baking paper-lined non stick roasting tray, making sure that the seam is at the bottom. With extra pastry, cut a 6cm disc and place in center of beef roll. Cut a 1cm whole in top of pastry for air.. Egg wash the top and sides evenly removing excess egg wash with the pastry brush, place in freezer for 10 minutes to cool the pastry. Repeat eggwash and freezer process. Bake for about 35 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the fillet inside. It should be around 46-52C or just warm to the top lip for a perfect medium rare. Allow the beef wellington to rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Meanwhile finish the sauce. Place the drained bones into a large saucepan add the sliced eschallots, peppercorns, thyme, garlic, bay leaf and season with salt. Cook, stirring until eschallots are golden. Add the port and red wine and reduce by two thirds. Add the veal stock and glace. Bring to the boil and skim away any scum or impurities that rise to the surface. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes or until reduced to a sauce consistency; season to taste. Strain the sauce through a muslin-lined sieve into a clean saucepan to remove any sediment. The sauce should be viscous enough to sit on the plate well without being too runny but not too thick to be sticky, you may need to reduce it further after straining. Then slowly whisk in enough small cubes of butter to add shine.

To serve, carve beef wellington and serve with the sauce.

Wibbly with just enough wobble to not fall over

2011-02-27T15:38:00.001+11:00

Not only have I completed a challenge but I've also remember to post it! Go me :D

This month was panna cotta and florentines. It was divine and all things nommy. I didn't use the florentine recipe provided as proper Aussie florentines involve cornflakes, nuts and glace cherries. The panna cotta made it all the way to Birchip in my tupperware snack cups. The perfect size! So here we go.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk *I used skim
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat) *2 cups full cream 1 cup light cream
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey * replaced with sugar and 2 decent tsps of vanilla bean paste
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar
pinch of salt

Directions:

Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes. *I used the cup of light cream and a cup of full cream here. The remaining cup I whipped to soft-stiff peaks.
Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. *Fold through the whipped cream Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

The florentine recipe came from taste.com.au

1/2 cup sultanas
2 cups cornflakes
100g slivered almonds
100g chopped glace cherries
2 tbs mixed peel
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
250g good-quality dark chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
Combine the sultanas, cornflakes, almonds, glace cherries, mixed peel and sweetened condensed milk in a bowl. Place spoonfuls of the mixture on baking trays, leaving enough room between each for biscuits to spread. Bake for 10 minutes until light golden brown, then set aside on a wire rack to cool.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly then spread over the underside of the florentines. Use a fork to make wiggly lines in the chocolate, then place, chocolate-side up, on a wire rack until set.

I served mine with fresh mango puree

Watch this space.

2011-02-26T22:05:00.000+11:00

I'm still here. Honours is over and I start my new course on Monday.

Monday will also involve new posts. I have a few Daring Kitchen posts lurking around as well as other things.

Oh yeah, my new course is education. I'm going to be a secondary school teacher. Maths and Physics!!! Yes, I turned down patisserie but only because I couldn't afford it.

The great brownie challenge

2011-01-24T10:00:00.000+11:00

Today's thesis distraction is a brownie challenge. Which is better cocoa or chocolate?

Cocoa batch is in the oven now. It split. I'm hoping that baking can save it otherwise I'm off to the shop for more cocoa.

New challenges!

2010-11-24T18:28:00.000+11:00

Aside from the Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks challenges that have been going on I've also entered a challenge with someone I've met through the Daring Kitchen. It turns out that we live down the road from each other and both of us bought the same cookbook recently.

So last week we picked a section and the challenge was to back 2-4 recipes from it and post on Sunday. At the moment it looks like I'll be doing it all on the weekend and stocking up my freezer.

I generally need to stock up my freezer anyway. What to add other then pasta and curry?

The other news is that my partner and I split up last week and all I want to do is eat my weight in pomegranate frozen yoghurt.

This is so gross

2010-10-23T06:45:00.000+11:00

I've been put onto a tv show called solitary. So I'm watching season 1 episode 3 and they have just had to eat a crap load of food. Watching them eat it all made me want to chuck. Thankfully someone on the show did.

Recap of the last week

2010-10-13T19:09:00.000+11:00

The housewarming went swimmingly. Everyone loved my potatoes and the random bean salad I made. I haven't tasted it yet but it looks good.
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tin borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
2 tomatoes, diced
1 carrot diced
chives, diced
olive oil.

Stick everything in a bowl and drizzle olive oil over the top.

My potatoes were the twice baked potatoes from PW. The changes I made were to omit the cheese and milk from the filling and to flavour it with chives and thyme. I've made it before with everything in there and they came out very soupy. I also made my favourite coconut cake recipe, omitting the lemon curd filling and whipped cream. I just made sure that the coconut was very toasted for maximum flavour. It still tasted great 3 days later.
Unfortunately I have no photos.

I do have photos of cake though. Lots of cake.

Housewarming 3.1

2010-10-02T11:33:00.000+10:00

Okay so third house in 2.5 years so it's time for the third housewarming. If you're wondering why it's version 3.1 then listen whilst I explain.

3.1 is friends
3.2 is one set of family
3.3 is the other set of family

C's family housewarming will consist of parents, siblings, grandparents and uncles. Mine will be parents and maybe my sister. Hence 2 different parties.

We specified byo grog and meat for the bbq so hopefully this will mean that we only have to provide salads and our own protein. I'm expecting to have to provide basic snags anyway as there are always people who forget. The best part is salads!!!! I love a good salad.

At the moment I'm thinking the veg version of twice baked potatoes from PW. I use thyme instead of bacon. As well as a basic green salad and a chickpea/bean with roasted capsicum and greenery of some kind. I'm hoping to avoid providing bread as C doesn't eat it and I don't want it in the house. I'm trying to avoid it. Sweets will most likely be a fruit platter of some sort or some cupcakes. Depends on what I can whip up after my nap. I'm making a lot of cake that week.

Friday is a going away bbq at work for someone I actually like and seeing as work is funding the bbq I asked him if he would like cake as well. I got an astounding YES! Seeing as I don't really know how many people will be going I think I'm going to supply a coconut and lemon slab cake, cupcakes and possibly choc dipped strawberries or brownies. I am known for my brownies at work. The issues is that I'm taking my car in to be serviced on friday morning so transporting everything to work is going to be difficult unless I drop it all off on thursday or really early friday morning. Really early Friday morning might be best I think. Then I can drop my car off early as well before hopping on the bus back to work/uni. Looks like I will be spending most of thursday morning baking. 6am start here I come!

Where I've been.

2010-09-02T17:31:00.000+10:00

I know that I promised to update regularly but it seems that this has fallen by the wayside. Depression does that. Turns out that my hectic lifestyle of full time shift work and part time study has left me stress, anxious and depressed. We're trying to fix this.

In the mean time I have a new project for Monday. My partner and I are moving in together in a couple of weeks and his current housemates are throwing him a farewell dinner. I'm making the cake. This cake to be precise

I can't remember the site I stole this picture from but the design is from a book called cartoon cakes. I should probably start making some of it this weekend so that it has enough time to dry, namely the flag. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Will let you know how it turns out.

Baking plans for this week

2010-08-02T06:13:00.000+10:00

It seems that I am incredibly slack at blogging. I haven't given up baking, I just haven't blogged about it yet. The list so far involves my shiny new kitchen aid mixer. I can't remember if I've posted photos of her yet. her name is Toffee

here is a photo

Yes. She is the 90th anniversary edition Candy Apple red artisan mixer and my new baby. So far we have found made many things

This is my first birthday cake. It's a chocolate mud cake with banana flavoured swiss meringue icing. The mud cake is from a womans weekly book and the icing is from howtoeatcupake. It's completely fructose friendly, made with spelt flour instead of wheat, and was well accepted by the band.

Birthday cake number two is a butter cake with a chocolate cream cheese mousse filling and a chocolate swiss meringue icing. The sprinkles were the best bit and I made myself sick on the mousse filling the night before.

Two weeks later my man C celebrated his birthday. At his request I made my chocolate raspberry mud cake and took it into band so we weren't left with butt loads of cake.

I made him out of marzipan and he was delicious. C did complain about having a skewer up his bum but he would have fallen off otherwise. Yes, my man is a redhead.

What else has happened....

Well there's this

MY GODSON HAS ARRIVED!!!!

He's so cute and adorable.

Back to the point of this post. I've got a couple of things to bake this week. Firstly is my favourite cherry pie. The only issue is that the book that has my go to recipe for pie crust and cherry filling is sitting in in someone else's house. I loaned it to a friend and he hasn't returned it yet. Thankfully I managed to find the recipe online. I'm also planning on making a blueberry cobbler/crumble fructose friendly so that C can eat it.

Then for Thursday night I said I would provide dessert for a bbq. There's meant to be 20-30 people so I was planning cupcakes and brownies. Or I might just churn out a couple of batches of different cupcakes. So far I'm planning on bringing back my lamington cupcakes or maybe turning them into coconut with lemon icing and then having a separate chocolate thing. To make sure that I get everything baked and ready in time I may have to do some of the baking on Tuesday.

Will post photos of things as I go.

I promise I'm still here!!

2010-07-08T15:29:00.000+10:00

So the last few months has lead to me being pretty absent from my baking blog. I've completed the last few Daring Cooks/Bakers challenges but just haven't gotten around to blogging them yet.

The biggest news is that I went out and bought myself a new shiny kitchen aid stand mixer last week. She's the 90th anniversary candy apple red edition and so called Toffee as here in Australia we have Toffee apples, not candy apples.

I have so far made 2 cakes, 2 frostings and a chocolate mousse in her. Next week will mean another cake gets whipped up, providing I can find my 6 inch cake tin, otherwise I'll have to use the 3 inch tins and they will take forever! The reason I finally splurged is that it was my birthday on Monday and every year I normally treat myself to some kind of baking/cooking course. However, I didn't get my arse into gear early enough and missed out on what I wanted so I spent the money on a mixer instead. She's perfect and takes the hard work out of beating butter and sugar together. My electric hand mixer will still be used. What else will I take with me when I go to other peoples houses.

exam pain

2010-06-28T14:16:00.001+10:00

Doing a take home exam at the moment and its painful!

thankfully I never have to look at quantum field theory again after this.

Vindicated!

2010-06-27T08:39:00.000+10:00

I feel vindicated!

I just read about a need David Lebovitz has to collect jars. You can read about it here. Reading it made my heart sing with joy as there is someone else out there who like to reuse jars as much as I do.

Growing up there were always spare empty jars in the pantry. They were either for shaking up gravy bases or for drinking out of. Since moving out however, my collection seems to have dwindled due to C insisting that I throw empty jars out. Hence anytime my need to jam has arisen, it has failed due to not having enough jars to store the products in. This year however I'm thinking of starting my collection earlier in the year so I can start jamming in spring.

Yes, you're all getting homemade ham for christmas this year!

2010-06-25T18:07:00.000+10:00

I seem to be getting the hang of the whole low gi thing very slowly. It seems that the essence is no more white flour or highly processed foods and more whole grains, fruit, veg and protein. I think if I can stick to the recommendation of 1/4 carbs, 1/4 protein and 1/2 veg I should be fine. Or was it 30/30/40?

Either way, less refined carbs and more fruit and veg.

Tonight's dinner is pumpernickel with low fat cream cheese and turkey breast. Nutritious.

best and simplest dish ever

2010-06-22T20:17:00.001+10:00

ice cream with sprinkles.

NOM!

The whole low GI thing

2010-06-22T10:51:00.000+10:00

I found out just over a week ago that I have PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. To me it's rather depressing as it means that I'm going to struggle losing weight and its confirmation that I really am overweight and have health issues. The good part is that I have a blood test to prove the I'm not diabetic or likely to become so anytime soon and PCOS is treatable, but not curable.

One of the first things I need to do is lose some weight (already doing) and start switching to a low gi diet. I prefer things like brown rice and bread anyway so its not going to be that hard except when we combine it with a fructose intolerant partner, meals are going to become tricky.

First things first though, I am now armed with books and I'm not afraid to read them.
I was thinking that my first steps are no more white bread and I need to cut down on the pasta unless its with a very healthy sauce. I think this may involve cleaning out my freezer....

erm...yes...

2010-06-15T18:55:00.000+10:00

I've been a bit misplaced lately in terms of blogging. I've missed the last few Daring Bakers challenges not due to a lack of confidence but due to lack of time and the last Daring cooks also due to lack of time but, I'm aiming to get this months challenge out tomorrow as well as this months Cooks challenge when it gets announced.

I've also joined the aus_cookie_swap on livejournal and will be making that batch of bikkies tomorrow. I'm thinking my fool proof choc chip but I'm not keen to part with it. Maybe some oatmeal choc chip...

Cakes

2010-06-09T18:20:00.000+10:00

Turns out that I haven't uploaded all my cakes into the one spot yet. I realised this whilst talking to a dear friend in the UK and he said that he has never seen my cakes.

This is for you Smittens!

We start with a gluten free chocolate raspberry mud cake for a halloween themed 21st. The birthday girl was told that if she didn't pick her own cake then I would decide and she would end up with a hot pink spider. She loved the idea. So instead of hot pink, she got a sprinkle-back spider. Everything on that cake is edible and gf except the legs and eyes. There is also a lime jelly center but that didn't work so well. It was meant to ooze when cut into but I think the cake soaked up most of it... here is another view

The next cake was due the same day for a wedding in Bendigo. It was at the China gardens and was also a chocolate raspberry mudcake. The only issue we had was that it was over 30C and the icing melted slightly. So the first shot is the nice one from before it left my house and the second one is the slightly melted version that arrived at the reception venue. They loved every bit of it.

before the 90min car ride in stinking hot heat

and afterwards

Next we have a cake that I did not bake. I only covered and delivered it. This fruit cake was for my housemates mother's 2nd marriage. The florist arrived after I delivered it to add the flowers.

Cake number four I again did not bake, only iced and decorated. This was for friends I met at uni. Someone else did the bride and groom on top. I did the flowers and butterflies though.

And now we come to the last cake. Please note that these 5 cakes all happened between Oct 31st 2009 and Feb 27th 2010.

The last cake was for another friends 21st. It was a chocolate cinnamon swirl with chocolate ganache. The cake and icing are both fructose free, some of the decorations aren't. She requested a purple sparkly chocolate dragon that wasn't too rich and fructose friendly.

The small purple candles on the sides were the best $2 I have ever spent. Magic candles are entertaining for all!

Dark Days Challenge

2010-05-30T21:04:00.000+10:00

So I came across this thing today called the Dark Days Challenge. It's all about eating locally and sustainably at least once a week during the winter months and I thought what a great idea.

The only issue I have is that I live in the city and there isn't much near me in the way of farmland so my spin will be to make a meal each week that comes out of both my Aussie farmers direct box and something I find at the farmers market. If I can find something from the supermarket that also fits the bill then why not but ideally it won't.

Tonight's meal just happens to fit that perfectly. I made beef rissoles with mashed potato. The only things that did not come out of my AFD box were the zuchinni and the cheese.

Rissoles
makes 8 large rissoles

500g Beef mince
1 onion, grated
1 zuchinni, grated
3-4 small carrots, grated

mix everything together in a bowl until well combined and it starts to resemble sausage mix. divide into 8 mounds and pan fry until cooked.

Mashed potato

3-4 potatoes, peeled
1-2 tbsp butter
chunk of cheese, grated (I used devondale vintage chedder
splash of milk

steam potatoes until tender. Add butter and crush with a fork/potatoe masher. Add milk and cheese and stir until the consistency you like.

LIfe changing events

2010-05-29T18:09:00.000+10:00

The last week has been seriously awful. It started with my giving an appalling talk and then handing in an equally appalling essay and it got worse from there until Thursday.

On Thursday I was offered a job that I hadn't even applied for. Someone asked me to come and bake the cakes at their cafe. If it worked out then I would leave my science career behind and start working 3 days a week in a cafe as baker and general kitchen hand. It would mean quitting my current job and picking up some extra shifts during the semester in the first year labs at uni.

The pros are:
- no more evening shift work.
- I'd be doing something I enjoy
- All work is during the day
- Lots of extra skills being learnt

Cons
- Huuge pay cut
- having to work every weekend
- possibly not having enough time to work on my honours project

I am also scared silly about screwing up and not being as good as they think I am.

That being said I think I'm going to take it.

Woe!

2010-05-17T13:22:00.001+10:00

My tops are now starting to feel loose and the jeans are becoming more loose too. This means I will probably have to go shopping in a few weeks.

I hate clothes shopping. Nothing fits right.

Just another tequila sunrise..

2010-05-15T09:59:00.000+10:00

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Foodhave chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found onwww.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

So its that time again. It was incredibly tasty but it got demolished or in the freezer before I remembered to take a photo.... So here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) 24 ounces 678 grams - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely. Other green chiles (NOT bell peppers) could probably be substituted but be conscious of heat and size!)
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium)212 grams - peel, remove stems
4 cups Chicken broth (32 ounces/920 grams)
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)
Hot sauce, your favorite, optional
2 Boneless chicken breasts (you can also use bone-in chicken breasts or thighs)
3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)
Kosher salt and pepper
12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps)
6 ounces grated Monterey Jack, 170 grams (other cheeses (cheddar, pepper jack, Mexican cheeses) can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling)
Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled optional

Directions:

Roasting Fresh Chiles

1. Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.
2. Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.
3. As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.
4. Pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out (it rarely does for me). Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.
5. DO NOT RINSE!

Green Chile Sauce

1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft.
2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor.
3. Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.
6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas

1. Heat a gas grill to medium high or build a medium-hot charcoal Coat the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4-5 minutes a side for boneless chicken breasts.
3. Cool and then slice into thin strips or shred.
4. In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.
5. Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).
6. Drain on paper towels.
7. Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.
8. In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
9. Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.
10. Divide half the chicken among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
11. Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the chicken, more sauce and another third of the cheese.
12. Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.
13. Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
14. To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

Corn Tortillas (from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen)
Makes about 15

1 3/4 cups masa harina
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot water

Pour hot water over masa harina, cover and let sit 30 minutes. Add (additional) cool water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into 15 balls and cover with plastic wrap.

Heat a large (two burner) ungreased griddle or two large skillets, one on medium-low and one on medium-high.

Put a ball of dough between two sheets of plastic. If you don’t have a tortilla press, press to a 5-6” circle using a heavy frying pan or bread board or other heavy, flat object. Put the tortilla into the cooler pan or cooler end of the griddle. The tortilla will probably stick, but within 15 seconds, if the temperature is correct, it will release. Flip it at that point onto the hotter skillet/griddle section. In 30-45 seconds, it should be dotted with brown underneath. Flip it over, still on the hot surface and brown another 30 seconds or so. A good tortilla will balloon up at this point. Remove from heat and let them rest while cooking the remaining tortillas. Use quickly.

Plan for today

2010-05-13T13:32:00.001+10:00

So I need to write this down some where so it will actually get done.

The plan for before I head to work is this: stick all the data from December through excel and make sure its graphed and averaged so I can peak fit at work tonight. Ideally I'd like to have the stuff from feb done as well. This is so I can spend tomorrow on my other assignments.

Wish me luck.

Oh and there will be this months Daring Cooks post up in the next few days. Just bare with me!

Daring Bakers April

2010-05-03T12:49:00.000+10:00

I'm late with this one but better late then never right?!

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.

I've never made steamed pudding before and the thought of having to use suet grossed me out. I don't know why it does. I have no issues with lard, butter or dripping but suet grossed me out. Be proud though, I actually went to the butcher and asked for it. They didn't have any though so I had to use the Suet pudding mix from the supermarket. I halved the recipe on the back of the box and then played around a little as I wanted banana pudding!

Suet Banana Pudding
Ingredients
60 grams of suet mix

2 Tbsp plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup semolina
1 eggs, lighten beaten

2 bananas, mashed

Method
1. Mix dry ingredients together then add wet.
2.Spoon into a lightly greased 600ml pudding streamer. Cover securely with lightly greased, pleated greaseproof paper, aluminum foil and twine.
3.Immerse in pan of boiling water. Ensure water comes half way up the sides of the pudding bowl.
4.Steam 2 hours.

Daring Cooks April

2010-04-19T22:18:00.000+10:00

I'm on a role at the moment. Not only did I get out last months daring cooks challenge but I also got out this months daring bakers AND cooks challenge on the same day! :D

More on the Darign bakers later in the month.

This months challenge was Brunswick Stew. A classic dish from America. Cue blog checking lines now:

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club

My first impressions were 'Easy, I'll knock this out in no time once I get past my aversion for stew this month'. I had already knocked out one or two for the freezer and the thought of having to find another one did not fill me with joy. Luckily it got to the end of the month and I needed food for the freezer at work. I decided to do the short version as I could prepare most of it over a few nights and then just bung it all together at the last minute. The only changes I would possibly make would be to not use pork. It ended up being a little two sweet for me and I didn't add the extra sugar. I made half a batch and forgot the beans.

My chicken chops and pork sparerib. There were 3 spareribs but the other two got eaten....

Rather then make my stock completely from scratch, I semi cheated. The meat was cooked in premade stock with a bay leaf and some peppercorns added for extra flavour.

Once done, the meat gets fished out and the stock goes in the fridge to cool so all the fat will scrap off easily

After sticking everything in the pot and cooking for a while you end up with something like this. I added extra veg from the steam fresh range because I like veg.

Recipe Two, The Short Way

Serves about 10

2 ½ lb TOTAL diced stewed chicken, turkey, and ham, with broth - yes, all three meats
3 medium diced potatoes
2 medium ripe crushed tomatoes
2 medium diced onions
3 cups/ 689.76 grams / 24.228oz frozen corn
1 ½ cups / 344.88 grams / 12.114oz frozen lima beans
4-5 strips crumbled bacon
½ stick / 4 tablespoons / ¼ cup / 56.94 grams / 2oz of butter
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / .5 oz sugar
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / .5 oz ‘Poultry Seasoning’
Dash of red pepper
2 diced carrots (optional)
Tomato juice

In large stock pot or Dutch Oven, mix all ingredients, heat until bubbly and hot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato juice as desired. Cook until all vegetables are tender. Serve hot.

Masterchef season 2 episode 1

2010-04-19T21:46:00.000+10:00

!!!!!

It's back! I looove masterchef with a passion. I had some friends demand that I enter in season 2 but I steadfastly refused as I still had another year of honours ahead and as much as I could deal with my life being broadcast on national television, I was not comfortable with my loved ones having their lives invaded.

Today was the top 50 who were about to be whittled down to 24 by the end of the week. Their challenge was to create a nommy bbq dish in 90 minutes. Some looked very tasty. I especially wanted Marian's bbq prawn salad.

The 10 worst dishes had to face elimination where 5 would stay and 5 would go. As their pressure test, they had to make Donna Hay's pavlova. A dish that every Australian has eaten but surprisingly few have attempted. Personally I have only made a chocolate version and even then not very often.

The recipe can be found here.
The tips given were to make sure that the egg whites were stiff before adding the sugar and to add the sugar gradually.

I enjoyed watching this at work whilst communicating with A via sms. We couldn't be in the same room and watch so we smsed instead. It was fun.

Our plan now is to make fructose friendly pizza and pav on saturday night. I think we're using the Donna Hay recipe and maybe the Daring Bakers pizza challenge from a year ago.

Alas

2010-04-10T01:25:00.000+10:00

Girls lunch has been cancelled as one of the girls can't make it. Oh well, we will all see each other at choir camp in a few weeks time. I am head chef. It's all meant to be vegetarian so this is the menu so far.

Morning tea - fruit and biscuits
lunch - tomato and bean/lentil soup and a pumpkin and eggplant tagine. (something exciting and not so exciting) with sandwiches
afternoon tea - antipasto things
dinner - baked potatoes with bean topping, carrot salad, roasted cauliflower and roast veg salad.
dessert - either birthday cake or a fruit cobbler/crumble

morning tea - either PW's cinnamon buns or birthday cake
lunch - leftovers!
afternoon tea - find your own!

I also found out that they would like me to do something special for their next concerts supper. I normally whip up large amounts of choc chip bikkies. This time they are thinking of doing something a bit more professional and have asked for a selection of things. I'm thinking 2 types of biscuits, a slice and some cupcakes. Not sure about normal sized cupcakes or smaller yet but I'll figure it out.

Otherwise, something in my house is making me itch.

Remind me at some point that I have more cake photos to put up from the last wedding and 21st.

Girls lunch. What to make...

2010-03-22T18:19:00.000+11:00

So, I've invited the girls around for lunch in a couple of weeks and I'm a little stuck as to what to make. I think I'll start with the savoury pumpkin and feta parcels I made for Christmas and then some kind of simple, light yet filling and autumn friendly pasta for main. There needs to be fruit somewhere.

The other option is to go back through the Daring Bakers Challenges and try my hand at either savoury strudel or the danish braid. I can also go through my own books and come up with some sort of pie too.

Only issue will be the need to churn out a cake that same day for a birthday lunch on the sunday

Oh and these are the other girls in the bridal party for next years wedding.

Any ideas on what to make??

Last resort, RISOTTO!

What to do.

2010-03-21T23:56:00.000+11:00

So it seems that I need a new housemate.

The current one has decided that she will be moving in with her boyfriend in early May. This means I say farewell to the blender, washing machine and fridge as well as most of the furniture in the house.

It will mean less of her clutter and I get to go shopping at Ikea for furniture.

I am rather angry about it as our lease is up in September and to me this is something you wait until the end of the lease to do.

More on this later when I'm not so angry. She was my best friend in the later years of high school and I am sad that things are ending this way. I doubt we will see each other much after this.

More Risotto and my first hosting challenge!

2010-03-18T20:48:00.000+11:00

If you were wondering why there was an abundance of risotto here over the last few months it was because my pal Jess and I hosted our first Daring Cooks challenge! We decided to challenge everyone to make risotto and stock from scratch. The recipes are below.
If you scan through the last few entries you can see some of my past results. I'll post the other photos when I find the disk......

It was great to see so many different takes on this challenge, both sweet and savoury. There was also lots of Arancini being made with leftovers too!

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

Chicken Stock
Ingredients:
1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice
Directions:

Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be.  The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Risotto Base
Ingredients:
olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml
1 small onion, quatered
rice 14 oz 400g
Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.
white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml
chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L
Directions:

Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don't actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.

Pumpkin Risotto (OPTIONAL recipe)
Ingredients:
pumpkin, grated 7oz 200g Don't use butternut, the taste will be too watery
thyme, chopped 1 Tbsp
unsalted butter 3.5 oz 100g chilled and cut into small cubes
parmesan cheese, grated 2 oz 60g
Directions:

Melt half the butter in a saucepan. Add pumpkin and cook until tender. Set aside (optional - blend for a smoother texture)
Make the base up until the end of step 8.
Stir through the pumpkin mixture and thyme
Add the final 100ml of stock and hte remaining butter and stir until both are completely absorbed. Stir through the parmesan, stick the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes.

Preserved Lemon Risotto (OPTIONAL recipe)
Serves 4 as a starter or light lunch
Ingredients:
1 preserved lemon, peel only, finely diced. (The lemons from last months challenge should be perfect by now, otherwise you can buy them. Regular lemon zest will work as well.)
celery leaves, from the heart, finely chopped 1 Tbsp
unsalted butter 3.5 oz 100g chilled and cut into small cubes
parmesan cheese, grated 2 oz 60g
Directions:

Make the base until the end of step 8.
Stir through the preserved lemon
Add the final 100ml of stock and butter and stir until both are completely absorbed. Stir through the parmesan, stick the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes.

This one has a very strong taste, it is best served as a base with something else. We stirred through goats cheese. It was delicious.
Enjoy!
Resources:
For Stock recipes other than Chicken:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vegetable-Stock-105762
For preserved lemon recipes:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moroccan-Style-Preserved-Le...
Videos of risotto-making:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgX3_3JYDFk

2010-03-01T11:31:00.000+11:00

Being sick sucks.

On the upside, before I got sick I managed to turn out a fantastic cake for a friends 21st. Pictures will appear at some point.

Have I mentioned that being sick sucks?

God and Chocolate

2010-02-17T21:33:00.000+11:00

So apparently yesterday was Shrove Tuesday. This means that today is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. A few months ago I was thinking about how I could reaffirm my faith. The general overview is that I believe that there is a God, I just have issues with some of the things that the Catholic Church teaches. Anyway, so my thoughts went along the lines of starting with Lent and doing it properly with the whole fasting thing. After some research, I remembered that the fasting part of Lent is essentially no meat or dairy until Easter Sunday. This would be fine except that I'm a shift worker as well as a student and if I don't eat properly, things just don't happen. Part of me eating properly is eating a balance of protein, calcium and vegies so no vegetarian diet for me.

I then thought about doing something along the lines of no chocolate or no takeaway. Until I was sitting in the car park at McDonald's with my dinner and remembered all this. I thought that I could just start it a day late and see if I could go the 40 days with no take away and then thought of something better.

Instead of improving myself by giving up something, I am going to make myself do something instead.

My aim is to do some form of exercise at least 3 times a week. It started with a Pilates class this evening and will end with a 5 day, 4 night hike over the Easter long weekend at Wilson's Promontory. It also includes the Herald Sun Run for the Kids in 4 weeks. If my heel is up for it then I'm going to walk the long course, otherwise I'm walking the short course.

Now onto the chocolate, I made a half batch of brownie biscuits (recipe on hteac) and only baked a dozen or so. the rest has been sitting in the fridge being snacked on as the week goes by.... Now I need to bake a batch of my special brownies for the open rehearsal tomorrow, sit and watch whip it as I make more sugar roses for a birthday cake.

Risotto again.......

2010-02-14T17:03:00.004+11:00

For the past month I've been experimenting with different types of risotto and I think I've found my go to base recipe. White wine, chicken stock, rice, onion (depending on who I'm feeding) and garlic. Lots of garlic.

I've been wanting to experiment with dessert risotto for a while now and I made an awesome one tonight. Instead of a savoury stock I used hot mi

lk with a little sugar and a stick of cinnamon as my spic

e. Served with some fresh raspberries to cut through the richness and it was amazing. And the thing that made it so rich.....CHOCOLATE!!!!

So here it is.

Chocolate risotto

serves 2

Stock

2 cups milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa, sifted

1 stick of cinnamon

In a saucepan combine sugar, milk, cinnamon and cocoa. Stir over medium heat until combined, then bring to a simmer and leave for 5 minutes.

Keep stirring occasionally so the sugar doesn't

burn. Turn the heat off and cover for about 20 minutes to let the heat infuse.

Risotto

2 knobs of butter

3/4-1 cup risotto rice

1/4 cup rum

cinnamon stick ( I just fished out the one in the stock and threw it in)

2 cups stock

1 punnet raspberries

Melt 1 knob of butter in a saucepan over medium heat, when melted throw in rice.

Let it get nice and toasty, then stand back and throw in the rum.

Notice the smudgy fingerprints on the side of this bottle? It's from all the cake decorating I've been doing. Soaking fruit cakes in rum so that they stay happy and fresh. mmmm rum.

When that's evapourated, add the hot stock in 3-4 batches and lower the heat slightly. Keep adding the stock gradually whilst stirring until all the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked.

If you run out of stock, either add more hot milk or some hot water in small amounts until the rice is cooked. It should be soft with a little bite. Stir through the second knob of butter.

Divide amongst 2 plates and serve with 1/4 punnet raspberries on top of each. I'm assuming that you ate the other half punnet whilst you were cooking.

Enjoy

Daring Bakers January

2010-01-27T17:37:00.004+11:00

So I finally made it back on track and here we have the later challenge. Cue blog checking lines .......... now.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

So I made these late in the month and after reading all the advice from everyone else in the forums, doubled the amount of chocolate topping. I also cheated. The challenge said to make the graham crackers gluten free and from scratch, however due to time constraints I bought the digestive biscuits instead..... Give me a break I've been working the graveyard shift. recipe to follow!

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

I also chopped them up into tiny squares a centimetre or two square. Little mouthfuls of deliciousness.

Baking days are back!

2010-01-25T02:24:00.004+11:00

So Australia Day is just around the corner (24 hours to be precise) which means marathon day is getting closer. Marathon day consists of an 8 hour shift at work followed by a street parade in teh city and then a drive out to the country for a lunchtime picnic and gig. The marathon part consists of doing this on very little sleep. Needless to say, I'm not driving that day!

I offered to do the sweets course for lunch and have finally decided on a menu.

This months Daring Bakers Challenge (haven't yet decided if its going to the picnic or work yet)

Australia Day cupcakes - lamingtons!

brownies

The lamington cupcakes are an experiment that I'm hoping will work out awesomely.

After work today (9am) I plan on making the cupcakes, making brownies, finishing touches on the challenge and some laundry.

awesome risotto

2010-01-22T07:06:00.003+11:00

The best risotto in the world has been made, eaten, frozen, reheated and still devoured. And it was all made with random things from my fridge and freezer!

Chicken

Mushrooms

Semi sundried tomatoes

Basil

Parmesan cheese

essentially making a chicken and mushroom pesto risotto.

tastes fantastic!

I promise I'm still alive!

2010-01-20T03:25:00.010+11:00

So there is a backlog of posts that are waiting to be uploaded. The only issue is that I have no time at the moment.

I'm also trying to figure out what to serve for Australia Day. One of the bands I play in has 2 gigs on Australia Day, the city parade and then an afternoon gig in the country complete with picnic lunch. I volunteered to do the sweets part. I'm thinking this months challenge, cheesecake brownies and possibly the danish pastry challenge if I can find it.

I've also had a revelation as to my career.

I'm going to be a teacher

Shocked?

After 3 years of working full time I've decided that I'm really not happy in my profession. I'm bored, unenthusiastic and really just don't care anymore. So my fan is to finish off my honours degree this year and save like crazy so that next year I can quit my job and go back to uni full time to do a Grad Dip Ed.

Oh and I'm also moving out of my current house when the lease is up at the end of the year. Love the house, hate the situation. My housemate and I have known each other for over 10 years but in the last 6-12 months things have gone down hill. The main issue I have is that she is never home. She still pays rent but has essentially moved in with her boyfriend and his family. I hate living alone. More on that later.

Just a taste of what has happened in the last few months

Biscuit disaster averted!

2009-09-12T10:19:00.003+10:00

I almost had a biscuit disaster yesterday. Every season so far this year, I do the supper for the Monucs concert. Last season involved 2 days of making cakes, macaroons and choc chip bikkies. This season is just choc chip bikkies, some with nuts and some without.

The disaster began when I realised that I couldn't find my recipe. It's one I stole of a friend and tweaked slightly. Last season I ended up with flat, chewy biscuits of awesome addictiveness. When I couldn't find it, I started the search for another recipe. The only thing I had an issue remembering was how much flour was needed. So I turned to Baked. The differences between the Baked choc chip cookies and mine is in the flour and sugar content. They use 2 cups, I use 3.5 of flour, sugar they use 1 cup brown, 1/2 white, I use 2 cups dark brown.

Then resulting cookies were cakey. I really don't like cakey cookies. So I ended up on the internet trawling through facebook trying to find the recipe again and success!

For future reference
(double batch)

3.5 cups plain flour
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
vanilla
250g choc chips
2tsp baking powder

more cook books

2009-09-04T15:37:00.002+10:00

So I just did a very naughty thing. I spent money I don't have on more cookbooks event though I have a pile sitting at home that still needs to be worked through.

I will soon be the proud owner of a Field Guide to Cookies, a Field Guide to Candy and Pioneer Woman Cooks. Books by 2 of my favourite bloggers.

The ones still to work through are
Baked (which I found in Borders here in Australia for the first time but, I"m happier with my signed copy direct from the store itself!)
Saha
3x Donna Hay books

and many many more.

Oh well, I'll work my way through them all eventually

2009-08-31T12:06:00.002+10:00

So it seems that my complete lack of posting and baking in the last few months can be put down to a few things.
- work
- uni
- life
- housemate
- boy

Everything has now been sorted and things are good. I have found that my need to bake and consume sweet things has decreased in the last few weeks. This is most likely due to the new boy in my life who I am spending most of my free time with. I'm not much of a snacker when with other people.

It's also interesting that according to the spell check, snacker, isn't actually a word. Then again, it doesn't recognise contractions and the non-US spelling of words either so I'm going to assume its wrong.

happy things from last night's christmas in july

2009-07-26T11:20:00.003+10:00

having a "who fits into my tuba case best" competition

the lamb being oh so rare and just cooked
hanging with friends all day, both new and old

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

evil chocolate mousse (taken directly from a gchat with satan herself

250g chocolate
500ml cream
1 egg
2Tb golden syrup
2 Tb butter

add the egg butter golden syrup and half the cream to a saucepan whisk while heating and continue to whisk for a couple of minutes after the butter has melted

remove from heat add teh broken up chocolate misx til smooth
evil: while that is cooling to room temp beat the rest of the cream til it is stiff peaks sweeten to taste

oh also vanilla

1/2 a teaspoon
evil: when the chocolatey part is cool to room temp gradually add to the cream (or vice versa it doesnt really matter i have found) and mix gently til all mixed in

stick in fridge for at least 4 hours

eat and enjoy!

The last month or so

2009-07-20T09:55:00.002+10:00

The last month or so has been pretty hectic.
Exams are now over and its onto the research part of my course. It looks like I won't actually start the experiment side of it for another few months as the lab hasn't been set up properly. Other then that there has been lots of baking and cooking happening. I have a back log of things to post.
Some of the items are birthday cake and muffins of awesomeness.

The latest in baking news is that we're having Christmas in July this year! The 25th falls on a Saturday. I'm not working that night so we can party. It's pot luck as usual and all I need to do now that I've sorted out what I'm making is to hire the bulldozer and cleaning fairies to clean the house.
I considered taking before and after pictures last night to document just how bad things can get. The only issue is that I did do a bit of a clean last week so things aren't looking too bad at the moment, compared to normal that is....

More on that when there are photos

3 weeks to go!

2009-06-02T22:24:00.003+10:00

Well, it was last Friday.

Panic stage hasn't set in just yet but worry stage sure has. First exam I thought went fine. Turns out I didn't do as well as I had hoped. Still got a Distinction but I wanted more.

This weeks holds a lot in store. I have major exams to start studying for as well as some cooking/baking to do. I missed the inaugural Daring Cooks challenge (ricotta gnocchi) and I'm not missing this one!

Still writing the lit review and pining over kitchen aid mixers. Whilst I don't need one, they do come in handy. Being able to set something beating and walk off would be most welcome.

Ta Da!!

2009-05-19T13:26:00.003+10:00

I just handed in an assignment worth 30% of my grade, 4 days early!!

The rest of the work load looks like this

23/5 Supper for 300 (coconut macaroons, choc chip biscuits and some kind of slice)

25/5 8am - X-ray Diffraction exam
12pm - practice talk in front of entire research group

27/5 10am Honours talk (for real this time)
1pm Electron Diffraction lab (5 hours)

29/5 Electron Diffraction assignment due

5/6 Lit review Due

11/6 Quantum Mechanics exam

19/6 Electron Diffraction Exam

At some point I need to write up and hand in my lab report.

Then I can sleep

Hmm...

2009-05-10T06:17:00.003+10:00

So it seems that writing a Lit review at the last minute properly with references and such, only works when you remember to bring the file with you to work.

It seems that I have left the file along with my ipod (aka, usb stick) at home. This has left me with the option of handwriting my draft and then typing it up tomorrow.

Yes, there is a copy of it in my uni inbox. This is only useful when the text editor you're using opens properly without crashing. Word has decided to die on my laptop, hence the handwriting.

It other news, it seems that my shoulder is still hurting. It's been almost a week and there's a good chance that yesterdays massage made it worse. Pain is annoying as its the type that makes me queasy.

Oh well, back to it.

Xxx

My mission tonight

2009-05-06T12:59:00.002+10:00

Tonight I intend on doing some serious baking as well as cleaning out the freezer.

The plan is to make more chocolate raspberry cake and possible a repeat of the caramel cupackes.
There may even be a visit to the gym if I get home in time. Otherwise its chicken salad, baking and more study for me.

Oh the pain of my huge work load!

mmm tacos and exams

2009-05-02T01:42:00.003+10:00

It there was one spice combination I love, it would be mexican. That elusive blend of onion, garlic, cumin, paprika and chilli that makes my taste buds sing.

I discovered the spice mix by reading the back of a packet. Yet getting the quantities right still eludes me. At the moment I deal with it by using a packet of taco seasoning and then adding extra cumin, paprika and chilli powder. The onion and garlic just get added anyway.

So the latest creation has no photos as I left the camera at uni. It's a take on beef and bean taco fillings. I'm not the biggest fan of tortilla bread or taco shells. I'll eat them but I do prefer to mix all the fillings together on my plate and eat it that way :D

500g minced beef
onion
garlic
taco seasoning
cumin
paprika
ground chilli
1 can refried beans
2 cans crushed tomato.

chop onion and garlic. Fry until golden. Add the mince and brown.
Stir in spices, seasoning, beans and tomatos. Add a few cans of water and stir to combine.
Simmer for 30ish minutes until think and tasty. Make sure you stir frequently as the beans have a tendency to stick to the pan!

I've been eating this straight the last few days. Tonight however, I jazzed it up with some mashed potato, cheese and sour cream. I found extra light sour cream at the shops which is devine. Most dairy products (cheese, icecream, milk, yogurt, etc) I prefer the full fat stuff. Sour cream however, I prefer the light. Full cream sour cream makes me ill if I have more then a tablespoon. It's also too think to properly melt over everything.

My other news is that I have my first exam in 3 weeks. In the second last week of semester. A 2 hour exam at 8am Monday morning. The good part about this is that it gets it out of the way so I can concentrate on my other two exams which will be nastier then this one. I have the advantage with this subject that its on synchrotron optics and xray diffraction which is what I work with. So I can make a connection between the theory I'm being taught and the reality of what's actually being used.

Hopefully things will turn out well.

The tally so far is 4 assignments, 1 lab and 1 exam in 4 weeks. Then 2 exams afterwards. By the end of June I will be less stressed.

Ideally I will get a chunk done this week as I'm taking 3 days off work to spend on study.

Pretzels that failed

2009-04-27T14:18:00.006+10:00

I tried my hand at pretzels on Easter Monday and I think I failed. The recipe is the original Daring Bakers pretzel recipe and mine came out nothing like everyone elses.

No crusty brown tops or intricate weaves of goodness.

Instead I ended up with incredibly yummy, butter drenched rolls.

What have I done??!!

This the recipe I used:

Hot Buttered Pretzels

Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion.

For the dough:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 package (2-1/4 tsp.) instant yeast
1 cup warm water (you may need a little more)

For the pretzel topping:

1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
kosher salt
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Combine all the dough ingredients in a large bowl with your hands. Work the ingredients together until you can form a ball. If the dough is very dry, add a bit more warm water until it comes together. The dough will look messy, but don’t worry about it.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading by pushing the dough away with the heel of your hand, and then folding it back in onto itself. Push the dough away again and then fold back in. Continue this motion, working the dough until it’s smooth. This should take anywhere from 8 to 10 minutes. (Alternatively, you can knead the dough in a mixer with your dough hook for 5 to 6 minutes).
Once the dough is done, sprinkle some flour on the dough and put it in a large, oiled bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 30 minutes to an hour. It will rise considerably.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and set aside.

Divide your dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into a long rope that’s roughly 24 inches in length. (Don’t make it too long or your pretzels will be too thin.)

Taking hold of the ends of the rope, cross the rope over itself to form a circle with about 4 to 5 inches on each end that are sticking out. Twist the ends over themselves and secure each end on either side of the pretzel.
Carefully dip the pretzel in the water and then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other pieces of dough.
Sprinkle the pretzels with the kosher salt and let them rest for about 15 minutes.
Put the pretzels in the oven for 6 minutes, then rotate the trays and bake for an additional 6 minutes. Keep an eye on the pretzels so that they don’t burn.
Remove the pretzels from the oven and immediately brush them with the butter. Keep brushing them with butter until you’ve used it all.
Serve the pretzels warm with plenty of mustard or another condiment of your choice.
Enjoy!

I'm currently deciding which logo to use on the site. So be prepared for random images

How to add zest to your life

2009-04-27T13:50:00.007+10:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

That's right its Daring Bakers time again!!! This month was cheesecake. Oh how I lurve cheesecake. My only issue is that it is too rich for me to consume it in the quantities that make my taste buds sing. We were allowed to flavour it however we wanted provided it was still cheesecake. You'll find the recipe below as well as my adaptations. This months target audience were Choristers. We spent Easter Sunday watching movies, eating a fantastic roast veal lunch (direct from the farmers market) and devouring this gooey lime cheesecake with a chocolate crust. It took 2 days to eat and was well worth the urge to hurl (yes, I ate that much of it and no, I did not hurl. the 4kgs I put on that weekend can attest to it.)
The only thing I would do differently would be to alter the cooking time. Mine was still runny in the middle. I think if I raise the temp to 200C and keep the time the same it should fair better.
My kitchen now owns a new scan pan 32cm (read gigantic and just fits into my oven) pot for waterbath and a new 9 inch springform tin to match. It fills a 9inch perfectly too.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (digestive biscuits work just as well)
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup cocoa (add in with crumbs)

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

Replace last three wth the following

zest of 3 limes

juice of 2

2Tbsp lemoncello

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Excuse me whilst I drown until a pile of work

2009-04-18T01:57:00.005+10:00

I've become a very bad blogger.

It's been almost 2 months since I got back and all I have to show for it is that one measly post. Anyone would think that I've been incredibly unproductive. Well I haven't. Since I've been back I've done quite a bit of baking/cooking. Unfortunately there are no photos to show for it so you'll have to deal with descriptions instead.

The list so far

- Daring Bakers Valentino Cake flavoured with blood oranges
- Gluten Free Chocolate Raspberry Marbled Mud Cake (still needs tweaking)
- uber mac and cheese (realising that my cheese sauce always splits and I never know why)
- This months Daring Bakers challenge
- Coconut and Lemon Chiffon Cake (have I mentioned how much I lurve chiffon cake?!)
- uber mashed potato (add caramelised onion and fresh tomato and I'm in heaven
- Easter Sunday lunch roast veal Om nom nom nom nom nom
- Pretzels (they didn't brown at all but still tasted good)

To come

- This months Daring Cooks challenge
- last months daring bakers challenge (I really need to make the lasagna!)
- the oatmeal raisin cookies from Baked
- beef/lamb stew

and soo much more.

The chiffon cake is currently in the fridge getting nice and cold so when I slather it with coconut cream I don't end up with crumbs in my crust. Then again it would serve me right considering I hopped in the shower and forgot it was in the oven. Luckily I remembered just as the shampoo washed out so I was able to jump out, rescue it from the oven and jump back into the shower :D

below are more photos of my trip.

I'm back!

2009-03-10T22:09:00.007+11:00

See it really did break!

It's been ages since I was last here. The main reason is that I went on a fantastic overseas holiday. I hit New York for a week, London for a day then hopped over to Italy for two weeks. As a result I have a lot of trouble eating Australian cheese now. The mozzarella in Italy was amazing, so good in fact that I went to the Vic Market on Saturday and ordered some. Whilst waiting for it to arrive I tried buffalo mozzarella. It lasted less then 12 hours........

Any way time to spam you with my latest creation. This is a recipe from Jess and her mother. I highly advise eating it with rice or pasta to soak up the sauce.

Directly pasted from my inbox as typing it all out required patience.

Calderada

How much of ingredients you get kind of depends on how big your pan is. I could only fit two layers of stuff in my pan. But here are the basic ingredients.

Basically you need:

Lamb

White wine (Yalumba unwooded chardonnay works well but whatevs, just make sure it's dry and doesn't taste like piss)

Vinegar

Paprika

Dried Bay Leaves

Olive Oil

Parsely

Tomatoes, or a tin of tomatoes

Capsicum

Potatoes

Onions

Garlic

Salt

Cloves

Marinate the meat (I used two chump chops) in vinegar, salt and paprika, with just enough marinade to coat the meat and a little left over. Marinate for the time it takes to chop everything else (big slices, not diced, except for the onions and garlic)

Fry off the onions and garlic in a heavy-based pot (like a casserole, or in my case, a bessamer pot) until soft. Switch off the heat.

Cut the meat into bite-sized chunks.

In the pan, layer like this:

Meat

Potatoes

Capsicum

(if you remember) Tomato

Bay leaves

2 cloves

If you fail like me and forget the tomato, just layer everything else, say "Oh crappy crap" and pour a tin of chopped tomatoes over the top.

Fill to about 3/4 (if in doubt, a little more rather than less) with white wine, and then pop a handful of parsely in on top (don't bother chopping it, just the whole bit, stalks and everything). Grab the olive oil and pour some on so there's a thin film of it.

Put back on the stove and bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 or so hours (at least an hour and a half) until the meat falls apart and the potatoes are hard on the outside but nice and fluffy on the inside :)

Serve with rice and modafila (which is for another day, i.e when I've asked my mum for the recipe...it's basically spinach but interesting).

Hope you enjoy :)

Jess

Now for the photos!!

I went, I ate, I drank, I bought the book and never wanted to leave

The bestest salad in the entire world

Light, Crisp and a broken whisk

2009-01-29T06:26:00.009+11:00

It's that time of the month again!!

That's right. Daring Baker challenge time. For once I was prepared and got this done weeks ago. It was so simple that if it wasn't for work, I would have made them several times over.
This months challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of Ix umruehren aka Kochtpf. They have chosen Tuilles from The Chocolate Book by Angelique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
The challenge involved making one of the above recipes and matching it with something light. I chose to bake classic Tuilles, as it was my first time, and paired them with the mango mousse from last months challenge. This month was bake off month! Last October the challenge was Pizza which happened to coincide with a friends birthday. So we had a pizza night. It was on this night that my good friend Jess decided that she wanted to be a Daring Baker too! It's taken a few months, admittedly live got in the way, but Jess and I have finally had a challenge bake off.. The organisation was done very professionally. We didn't once refer to what we were doing as 'nudge nudge, wink wink' or 'uber top secret flute things'............we're both flautists............No. Not at all...

So we decided to team up this month and have a crazy night of baking. The result. Many, many, many tuilles, giggles and confusing online conversations with other friends.
You'll find the recipe we used below. I decided not to make butterflies, instead I just grabbed and offset spatula and started spreading. From memory, I used limes, lemons, rolling pins, egg cartons and there were attempts at cones.

The are definitely only so many tuilles one can eat at midnight. The rest were left until the next day where they became much chewier after absorbing moisture over night. Chewy but still good.

I won't spoil what Jess filled hers with however, some of it did end up in my tum tum.

The broken whisk mentioned in the last post was the direct result of trying to make the mango mouse. Sometimes, good old fashioned muscle just doesn't work! There's a photo lurking somewhere....

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

My trip

2009-01-28T02:30:00.004+11:00

Its been mentioned before but here it is again.

I'm going on my first overseas holiday!!! :D

Although I've been overseas before, I was 6 and it wasn't a holiday. We moved house. This time around I'll be in New York for a week and then its straight to Italy for another 2. The only down side is that I'll be getting back a day or two after honours starts. I miss all the orientation stuff, which can be made up another time so who cares!

If anyone has any must see places at either of my destinations, please let me know.
Whilst in Italy I'm hitting, Naples, Venice, Trieste, Florence, Pisa, Rome and Orvieto (hopefully).

I'll try to keep things updated as I go but no guarantees. Facebook and lj are your best bet.

Things I've done in 2009

2009-01-17T10:50:00.003+11:00

So far in 2009 I have made new friends, tried real Portuguese food thanks to Jess and broken my whisk.

The new friends were found on Beach Trip! I went away with a group of people primarily from Monucs (Monash Uni Choral Society). The rest of the posse was made up of people from the Sydney, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide equivalents with a few non choristers thrown in the mix. I was one of the non-choristers.

Cooking for 50 people each night was an interesting experience.

Some people don't seem to understand that there are many ways of helping the cook. Chopping is one way. Hanging around, talking and keeping her company is another way. All 4 methods will get you on her good side and off the dish duty list.

The whisk died during a battle with egg yolks and corn flour.

Woe!

Caramel Cupcakes of Goodness

2008-12-03T12:41:00.002+11:00

Its that time of the month again! Challenge time!!!!

Firstly I must apologise for being late. I had them baked, iced and even eaten by the due date but, with all the hectic rushing around I completely forgot to post! So here I am 4 days late. But hey, better late then never right?

This months challenge was Caramel Cake with Caramelised Butter icing from Shauna Fish Lyndon of Eggbeater. It was chosen by our lovely hosts Dolores, Alex and Jenny.

I decided to make mine gluten free and in cupcake form as they are easier to eat and hold their shape better sans gluten. If you wish to make these using wheat flour, just substitute the gf flour for g flour. These ones came out quite dense which everyone loved. Once of our coeliacs took one home to her sister, who then proceeded to lick the icing off in front of their mum, who was quite jealous.

Many other Daring Bakers said that the icing was way too sweet for them. As I'm really not a big fan of super sweet icings I started with the lower amount of caramel and added more cream for consistency. So I probably ended up with 30ml of Caramel and closer to 90ml of cream. Mine were possibly quite dense because I did everything except the icing by hand. Using electric beaters for the cake would have resulted in a lighter texture.

Still tasted pretty damn good though!

What to do with all that left over syrup.......

CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

142g unsalted butter at room temperature
280g granulated sugar
½ tsp/2.5 ml kosher salt
80ml Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
286g gluten free all-purpose flour (my preferred mix is store bought)
1/2 teaspoon/2.5ml baking powder
240ml milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F/176c/gas mark 4

Butter one tall (5-6/2 – 2.5 inch deep) 23cm/9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

450g cups sugar
120ml cup water
240ml cup water (for "stopping")
In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
454g confectioner’s sugar/icing sugar, sifted
60-90 ml heavy/double cream
10ml vanilla extract
30-60 ml caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light

Cupcake advise needed

2008-11-17T16:04:00.001+11:00

I've been toying with the idea for a while now of starting my own catering business. Most likely specialising in allergy friendly cakes and bakes as there seems to be a lack of people dealing with this specifically. I noticed this when helping with the catering for an engagement party and Mum's 50th earlier this year. There seem to be plenty of people who deal with wheat cupcakes but not that many who understand or a wiling to do gluten free, for example. We also found that the gluten free packet mixes are fine if eaten the day their baked but dry out really easily. They also don't come in a variety of flavours.

After having many lengthy discussions with friends who have allergies, and those that don't, we pretty much decided that I'd first need a definite product to market.

So my questions are this:

Is there actually a market an allergy friendly cupcakery?

What kinds of cupcakes do people enjoy? (flavours, size, etc)

Christmas Lunch

2008-11-10T18:57:00.002+11:00

So, I possibly did a stupid thing about an hour ago. I sent a massed email to a large group of friends advertising Christmas lunch at my place in a few weeks.

Why you ask?

For the last few years, a few friends have had a Christmas do. One group does a brunch, another spends the entire day together cooking and then we eat everything, and a third just doesn't do anything. As I'm working most weekends in December, and the one weekend I have off is filled with gigs, I decided to host my own.

Its going to be a very casual affair, eating outside (if the weather permits) byo lawn chair, as we have 4 chairs in the entire house, and everyone brings a plate to share. I'm not cooking for hoards in my little oven.

So its going to be a paper and plastic affair, there may even be a picnic rug spread out for some to sit on. Now to decide on what I'm going to bring.....

Damn, now I'm really going to have to clean the house properly!!

The great chicken soup debacle

2008-11-09T09:14:00.002+11:00

I went back to work last Wednesday with a sore throat and no voice. Thursday was spent at work putting the finishing touches on my presentation, giving the presentation, then lying on my office floor waiting for the headache to subside.

That's right, I had the flu/massive cold.

Now, I am the first person to admit that I don't do sick very well. If I really don't feel well and I'm left to my own devices, I tend to mope and sook. Distraction is the key to surviving.

Well that, Coldral and Chicken Soup.

The quest started on Thursday morning when I woke up, after dozing for 8 hours in 2 hour blocks, and left for work early with the intention of stopping at the supermarket and picking up some Coldral and Chicken Soup for lunch. I get there and there is NO Coldral to be found anywhere. Turns out its now pharmacy only. This left me with Ease a Cold. Turns out this stuff is all herbal. I had a presentation to give and needed the drugs!! As it was pretty much the only thing on offer, I took it and moved onto the soup.

Firstly, I HATE tinned soup. There's always this slightly metallic taste and its always way to salty for my liking. Luckily I knew I could get better in the pre-prepared section of the fridge. WRONG!! There was no soup to be found. In the end it was salad for lunch as the smell of anything else made me quite queasy.

Now I know what you're all about to say. Why didn't I just go to the pharmacy and make my own soup?? The answer is, it was 6:30am!!!

So after battling through a day at work, I went home at 7pm via a pharmacy, band (to drop of much needed paperwork) and another supermarket. I arrived home with Coldral and still no soup. Skipped tea that night and went to bed around 930pm.

Friday was a sick day.
I still really wanted chicken soup and a pot or tea. Preferably premade or someone else made, as I really wasn't up to doing anything other then lying on the couch and waiting for a kettle to boil and microwave to go ding. Somehow I ended up at the shopping centre, which has 3 supermarkets and numerous other food places, searching for chicken soup. I ended up with homemade stock from the poultry place, thigh fillets, corn on the cob, broccolli and noodles in order to make my own. There was also a visit to T2 for a teapot and green tea when I realised that I didnt actually own a teapot.

Not being able to find plain chicken, chicken and corn or chicken and noodle soup was very upsetting. I didn't realise how upsetting until I almost burst into tears in the tea shop.

Why is it that in a world where everything edible comes frozen, tinned, dried or pre-packaged into single/family sized portions where you just add water or reheat, you can no longer find a staple such a chicken soup!!!!!

My homemade soup was very tasty and there was enough for dinner tonight too!!

* 500mL liquid chicken stock
* 2 cloves garlic
* 2 chicken thigh fillets, diced
* peppercorns
* 1 corn on the cob
* half a head of broccoli
* udon noodles

Brown chicken and garlic. Add stock, a little more water, peppercorns and anyother seasonings you wish.. Bring this to a very slow simmer and leave until the chicken is cooked. In the meantime, dekernel the corn and chop the broccoli.
About 3 minutes before serving, add the corn, broccoli and noodles to the pot and slowly simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Serve

Cup day Cupcakes

2008-11-05T12:01:00.004+11:00

Cup Eve, Monday, was meant to be spent at the gym before attending the Russian Film Festival with D. Instead I got a phone call from D to say that his work was having a cup day cupcake competition and he needed help with the baking part of it. So because I am the awesome friend I am, I supervised his baking in my kitchen before the movie. He baked cupcakes whilst I cooked tea.

It was a very scrummy tea, easily made gluten free. Essentially a chicken, pasta and pesto salad. There are no photos but from memory it involved the following

grated carrot
avocado
capsicum
semi sundried tomatoes
olives
cucumber
pesto
lemon juice
wholemeal pasta
chicken

Cook pasta and chicken. I pan fry my chicken.
Every thing gets chopped and mixed together. Serve hot-warm.

The cupcake recipe is below. To make both these gluten free just use the gluten free versions of pasta and flour where needed!!

2 3/4 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
200g softened butter
1 3/4 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 170C. Line two 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake papers

Sift together the flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar had almost dissolved. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half the milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined. Do not overbeat as this will toughen the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake papers, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before frosting.

Unfortunately we didn't win on looks but they tasted fantastic!!!

Daring Bakers October Challenge and cake

2008-10-31T11:14:00.004+11:00

Last Friday we celebrated a friends birthday by having a gluten free pizza night followed by a trip to the Spiegeltent. The pizza recipe used was this months Daring Bakers Challenge. The recipe can be found here. Seeing as it was a birthday party there had to be cake. The birthday girl's favourite cake is apparently a lemon cake with a lemon curd filling and whilst I have a recipe for a similar cake, coconut cake with lemon curd filling, she can't have coconut. So I did some googling and adapted the following from one found on insert random website here.

2 cups Gluten Free flour – make sure it isn't too heavy, otherwise it won't rise as well
1 ½ cups sugar
1 Tb baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ vegetable oil
7 eggs, separated
¾ cups lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon rind
½ tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 170ºC.

In a mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and add the oil, unbeaten egg yolks, lemon juice and zest. Beat on low speed until blended then turn the mixer to high and beat for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar until stiff.

Gently fold the batter into the egg whites until just blended

Pour into a large ungreased ring tin. If yours doesn't have feet then make sure you have a bottle around when it comes out of the oven. Ideally the tin would also have a removable base.

Bake for at least 65 minutes. Do NOT open the oven door until 55 minutes has past otherwise it will deflate. Mine too an hour and a half, turned after an hour and 10 minutes. My oven is old and fanless :-(

Remove from oven and immediately invert onto the feet. If using the bottle method, put the bottle through the hole. This is so the cake doesn't deflate whilst cooling. Let it cool until completely cold then run a knife around the edges to loosen it.

Dust with copious amounts of icing sugar and serve!!

Apparently, this gluten free cake tastes like real cake.

The pizza tasted fantastic!!! There were concerns about ending up with hockey pucks so some bases were obtained for a pizza shop as well as the phone number of the local gf pizza place. I left the dough in the fridge for two and a half days and was concerned that it wasn't rising like everyone elses was. This is possible due to there being no gluten in the bases.
Tossing was not an option. Instead they got pushed and prodded into a rough circle before being topped with everything from the traditional to the dessert. The dessert pizza was served before cake and was a base of nutella with sliced bananas and slivered almonds. After a trip to the oven they were topped with freshly sliced strawberries. Om nom nom nom.

Brownies

2008-10-31T10:52:00.002+11:00

I have this habit. Some consider it a good habit, my waistline considers it a bad habit. Whenever I do a show, I bake. This time I managed to contain myself to only one lot of baked goods. Brownies. This has become my fall back, use over anything else, recipe. It transforms easily into gluten free, dairy free and nut free. If you're not a fan of banana, replace the banana with an equal amount of butter, and melt it in with the chocolate.

250g mashed banana
180g dark chocolate, melted
1 ¾ cups (385g) castor sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup (150g) flour
100g roasted walnuts
100g dark chocolate buttons or chunks

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Butter a 23 cm square cake tin and line it tightly with foil, making sure to push it right down into the corners. Butter the foil lightly, then line the base with baking paper. Set aside.

Add the sugar, vanilla and banana to the chocolate and use a balloon whisk to mix them well for 20 seconds or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one so it is completely incorporated before you add the next. Tip in the flour and stir until its well combined. Don't overdo the mixing once the flour is in otherwise the brownies will toughen up as it cooks. Gently fold in the walnuts and chocolate buttons. Scrape batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top by shaking gently.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden skewer or toothpick comes out very moist. Not wet, but with moist crumbs clinging to it. When I last tried this recipe I was still getting used to my oven so mine too just over an hour and had to be rotated part way through.

Cool the brownies completely in the tin on a wire rack. If the middle sinks then press down lightly on the sides as it cools to even the top up.

Apparently this is easier to slice if you stick it in the fridge for 20 minutes before slicing and use a hot dry knife.

Apron of Goodness part 2

2008-10-31T10:40:00.002+11:00

This is what I decided on as my apron print and I am very happy with it. the colour doesn't come out that well but its a cream background with cupcakes all over it. Very appropriate

Sticky Date Cupcakes - finally!!

2008-10-31T10:15:00.003+11:00

Last I checked this one hadn't been posted yet so here it is.

These were made for my bands agm. The leftovers ended up being fed to mums coworkers and my friends. Very dense and have I mentioned yummy??

Sticky Date Cupcakes

450g dates, pitted and diced
2 ¼ cups water
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
2 tsp bicarb soda
2 ½ cups gluten free flour
¼ tsp ground cloves
¾ tsp mixed spice
120g softened butter
1 1/3 cups castor sugar
4 eggs

Put the dates and water into a heavy-based saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium to high heat, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and add ginger and bicarb of soda. Sir until well combined. Cover saucepan with plastic film and let mixture cool to room temperature. This is best left over night to allow the dates to absorb more of the water.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with 26 cupcake cases.

Sift together self-raising flour, ground cloves and mixed spice.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add half the castor sugar and beat for 2 minutes. Add the remaining sugar and beat for another 2 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar had almost dissolved.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the four mixture until well combined. Fold in the cooled date mixture until thoroughly combined.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake papers, filling each about ¾ s full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before frosting.

Caramel Sauce Icing

100g butter
2/3 cup soft brown sugar
¼ cup golden syrup
½ cream
8 cups icing sugar

Makes 4 cups icing – enough for 24 cupcakes

Combine the butter, sugar, golden syrup and cream in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat up to high and boil for at least 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Add half the sifted icing sugar and beat on medium speed for 3 min until light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat for a further 3 min until light, fluffy and a spreadable consistency. If too dry then add a little extra cream or extra icing sugar is too wet.

Apron of goodness

2008-10-22T19:54:00.002+11:00

Apron was acquired!!
I am now the proud owner of a cloth apron, neutral beige background with cupcakes all over it!!!

Photos will be posted tomorrow hopefully as well as the recipe for my new favourite brownie. It is dairy free, gluten free and can even be nut free!!!

Not giving away anything except everyone loved them!!!

What I lack as a baker

2008-10-14T08:31:00.002+11:00

A decent apron.

I own one at the moment. It's a plasticy one that I'm not the biggest fan of. My favourite ones are cotton and have cute prints on them. There is always the option of buying the fabric and making one myself or finding one in the shop and buying it.

Decisions, decisions.

I'm baack!!

2008-10-10T11:30:00.007+11:00

This is late going up due to actually having stuff to do at work this week. Blogging wasn't really an option. So here is life a few weeks (over a month in the first case) late.

This first one wasn't actually one of my creations. My only contribution was adding the blue icing after a few drinks. A good friend of mine was going to the UK for a few months. This called for a going away bash. The hostess of the evening decided that a plane cake was in order. The very quickly became a map of the world with a plane pointing to his destination. A very simple butter cake with a standard buttercream icing. The only problem in cake creation was icing it after a few drinks...... We went with the standard green for and and blue for water. The land tasted quite minty and the ocean had a hint of strawberry to it. That caused a bit of taste bud eye confusion but it worked.

Below are photos of the finished product.......

As some are probably already aware, I'm a shift worker who regularly works the graveyard shift. The main problem I have is that if I don't prepare fo

r these shifts, it more often then not it means take out. My wallet does not enjoy this whilst tryi

ng to save for a Europe/USA trip at the same time. So I spent the last week Tuesday preparing for my 7 days or 12 hour shifts by cooking up a storm of buttermilk banana pancakes, chicken balls and potato frittata ala Eleanor. The banana buttermilk pancakes were taken straight from my favourite (read only) gluten free cookbook 'More gluten free and easy' by Robyn Russell. I purposely made them smaller then normal, this makes them easier to fit into the toaster for reheating. I ate these with the strawberry compote fro

m the same book. It was essentially strawberries and rosewater. The compote tastes best warm. Unfortunately, I left the leftovers at work. Luckily, my coworkers won't realise that they're there. I also baked the banana and coconut cake from this book. I can make savoury gluten free food, but struggle with sweet things that don't involve just substituting gf flour for wheat. The cake rose nicely in the oven, but sunk when I removed it. It had been in the for about 10-15 minutes more then the recipe said, my oven is annoyingly slow, and probably could have done with another 5-10min. This did have the advantage that it the cake stayed moist for a few days longer then normal. A few coworkers were lucky enough to taste this one and they all loved it!! Not as much crumble as I expected but still enough to identify it as gf.

These recipes won't be posted as they are directly from the book with the only alteration being leaving out the xanthum gum. This was done as there was already gum in the gf flour from the shop.

Next we have the chicken balls and potato frittata. Both recipes are new inventions, quite basic and still need some tweaking but tasty and gf all the same.

Chicken balls

500g chicken breast mince

minced garlic 1 Tbsp heaped

minced ginger 1 tsp heaped

4-6 mushrooms

4 shallots

1 ½ cups of frozen mixed vegies.

Fish sauce * make sure to buy a gf one if you need it, not sure if they are all gf by default

The mushrooms, onions and frozen vegies went through the food processor until finally chopped. Then just put everything into a bowl and mix. I found it a little too much ginger for my tastebuds but nothing too unbearable.

Put heaped teaspoons of the mix onto an oven tray and bake in preheated 200C oven for 15-20 minutes. These reheat nicely in the microwave too in only a minute or two!!

The amount of vegies in this can be adjusted, I didn't really measure anything, just started pouring.

The potato frittata didn't turn out how I'd like and it started from the beginning. (and I forgot to take photos....)

Potatos, sliced

spring onions

garlic

peppercorns

mushrooms

carrot

red capsicum

milk

white wine

water

eggs

red onion

The potatoes were sliced thinly and poached in a stock of garlic, spring onion, milk, white wine and peppercorns. The milk curdled when it started to heat but I kept going. Cook until tender. Strain the potatoes and place them into a baking dish. If you get a bit of the garlic, peppercorns and spring onions as well they provide bursts of flavour. Over the top arrange the other vegies, making sure you have finely sliced/diced them so they cook evenly and quickly. Over this, pour lightly beaten eggs. Bake in a preheated 200C oven for about 30-40 min, or until the egg is set and the vegies cooked to your liking.

I think the next time, the vegies will be sliced rather then diced and layered between the potato. Also thinking of using the potato as a crust, giving the filling more of a quiche feel. Not sure how it would work and if the potato would need to be mashed or just sliced..... Time will tell.

This also reheated nicely in the microwave.

The next updates will be some baking for and agm. The leftovers are being handed over to mum for afternoon tea on Friday. She got rather excited when I mentioned it. Currently thinking Sticky Date Cupcakes........ which requires starting the night before....

Oh well, time to start the dates soaking!

oops I did it again.......

2008-08-08T15:09:00.004+10:00

Once again I prove true why you should never let me near anything hot. I burnt myself again on the oven :( This time though, I wasn't making pizza with friends, I was trying out a new cupcake recipe. I took a white chocolate mud cupcake recipe and turned it into double white chocolate, strawberry and cointreau cake. I halved the original recipe, stupidly thinking that I'd get a smaller then usual sized mixture. Stupid once again. When a recipe goes from 4 cups of flour down to 2, you know that it will be smaller then the original, but its still going to be a normal sized cake. My plan was to bake it in these really cute mini cake pans I got. There are stars and love hearts, as well as 2 mini spring form. So a bowl of cake batter later I have 2 stars, 2 hearts, 2 rounds as well as 6 cupcakes in the oven and then the leaking happens. I had forgotten to line the bottom of the springforms so the batter was leaking through the bottom as it heated up. Nothing a layer of foil can't fix! Now I have to clean the oven. Have I mentioned that I have no white sugar in the house either so my lovely white cake with now be a shade called raw sugar.

The upside is that the batter tasted fantastic, they aren't gluten free or vegan which means I get to see what the recipe is like before I start tinkering.

White Chocolate Mud Cake with Cointreau Strawberries

handful dried strawberries chopped

cointreau

2 cups plain flour

¾ tsp baking powder

250g butter, chopped

150ishg white chocolate, chopped

1c milk

2c caster sugar

2 eggs (I used 3 as mine were tiny)

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g white chocolate chopped, extra

cointreau extra

Put strawberries in a small bowl and cover with cointreau, leave over night or until the strawberries have absorbed most of the cointreau.

Preheat oven to 155°C and grease cake tins.

Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, whisk to create a hole in the middle and set aside.

In a medium saucepan over low heat melt, butter, white chocolate, milk and sugar until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk eggs one at a time into the chocolate mixture the add vanilla and beat until well combined.

Add chocolate mixture to the flour and mix until combined. Add in the strawberry and cointreau mixture then the extra chopped chocolate. Mix until combined. Have a taste and add more cointeau if needed. Taste should be there but not overpowering everything else.

Divide evenly among cake tins and bake for ~ 40 min

If you've made cupcakes start checking around 30 min

So, my oven is slow, the cupcakes too about 40 min and were still a little under done, the hearts took the same. Stars and circles took just over an hour. Photos are below

Birthday cupcakes of yuminess

2008-08-06T18:27:00.004+10:00

At the start of June my parents abandoned me to spend 6 weeks traveling in Europe. Normally I wouldn't have minded this, seeing as how I don't live with them anymore anyway, except once again I would be alone for my birthday. All immediate family would be in Europe.

As it turned out I got a birthday breakfast of French pastries and coffee, organised by me as housemate was still snoozing (see left). Then there was a show and drinks that night. Yet in all the excitement of house hunting that day, there was no birthday cake for me :(

So on the monday I decided to bake birthday cupcakes and force them on the people at band. Keep in mind that I'd only been playing with them for a few weeks. At this point I thought the only dietary concern was gluten free. So I made the Coconut Marshmallow Clouds from 'The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook' by Jennifer Graham.

3/4 c shredded coconut
2 1/3 c plain flour
1/4 salt
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 egg whites, extra
200g softened, unsalted butter
1 3/4 c caster sugar
1 Tb vanilla extract
1 c coconut milk

Coconut cakes
makes 24

Preheat oven to 170C. Line two 12-hole muffin tins with cupcake papers.

Using an electric food processor, process coconut until very fine - about 3 or 4 minutes. Add coconut to a bowl with sifted flour, salt and baking powder. Mix until evenly combined.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs and egg whites. Do not beat.

In another bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar is almost dissolved.

Add the eggs a quarter at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Add a third of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half the coconut milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour mixture and beat until thoroughly combined; do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.

Spoon mixture into the cupcake papers, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake for 18 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 3 minutes before icing.

Pipe the icing in a circular motion starting around the edge of the cupcake, to form a soft-serve ice-cream effect.

Marshmallow Icing

3 egg whites
480g white sugar
3 tsp glucose syrup
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
150ml water
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
pink food colouring

In a metal bowl, combine the egg whites, sugar, glucose syrup, cream of tartar and water. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water) and beat continuously with a hand held mixer until light, fluffy and forms soft peaks. Take the bowl off the heat and add the vanilla extract and a few drops of pink food colouring. Whisk the mixture until it forms stiff peaks.

When I made these, I think my peaks weren't stiff enough as the icing was a little runny. Not as it in oozed off the cake but, if the cupcake wasn't kept horizontal, things moved.

Update

2008-08-06T18:23:00.000+10:00

5/8/2008

So, I did my grocery shop this morning and once again spent way too much on things that aren't really needed at the moment. There is now a bottle each of pomegranate molasses, rose water and orange blossom water in my pantry, as well as copious amounts of olive oil. There are also a couple of block of dairy free white chocolate, normal milk chocolate, 4L of juice (the joys of shopping specials), fruit, vegies and so much more.

I also have yoghurt and long live cream. The number of times I wish I had cream only to be disappointed when I opened the fridge.

Tonights dinner/breakfast, the joys of being a shift worker coming off graveyard, was very yummy rack of lamb with roast vegies. The only issue was when I was still feeling peckish an hour later so I had leftover pizza . Tasted fantastic cold.

I also found dried strawberries and dried raspberries. These will most likely end up in white chocolate cupcakes or in scones. The Barefoot Contessa has a recipe for Strawberry Scones that sound yum. Then there are also the mini cake pans I now own, 2 stars, 2 hearts and 2 mini spring form. I've found that whilst I love cake, there is no point in baking a whole one. It just doesn't get eaten quick enough. Now I can make mini cake!!!!! Assuming it will take a half batch of cake, I can try lots of recipes now and not have to worry about having stale cake in the house for weeks!!

Way to excited about mini cake tins.

Other good news is that we will soon be internet enabled at home. Housemate is investigating getting ADSL2 with a wireless router so we can both be online at the same time. Currently I'm typing this as a word document for uploading at a later date.

Below you will find the recipes for both my gluten free, vegan chocolate brownies and my über self-saucing chocolate pudding.

Oh dear, it seems I need to plug myself in.......

6/8/2008

Ok so I've been plugged in and am all charged up now. It's 1:14am and I'm still awake. Why did I sleep so long today. Turns out that setting the alarm clock also involves turning it on. Oh well, some valerian root and I should be right.

This weekend is a going away party for a good friend out bush. The plan is to head down early and help out with the prep. I think I'm going to take some stuff down with me so we won't have as much prep to do. There are several recipes that I want to try and this weekend is a good excuse to do that. The following come out of Belinda Jeffery's Mix and Bake. There are some fantastic recipes in here. The brownies are to die for, all four recipes! So there's a Vanilla and Polenta shortbread, Buttery Almond and Coconut Cake, Chewy Coconut Macaroon Cake, Classic Fourless Orange and Almond Cake, A Very Delicious Cheese and Apple Tart and the Brie and Pear Tart. As you can probably tell, I love nutty citrus cakes, delicate flavoured biscuits and cheesey tarts. There are many more in the book but I think I'll have to limit what I make. The shortbread is a must and I'll have to think of something else. Otherwise its just shortbread.

Currently watching the final of Popstars. This show has to be at least 5 years old. Its the season where they announce the first solo Popstar. Never really liked that show much. I liked the first season or so of Idol as well but, it gets to the point where there is so much hype about the shows and people in them that I just don't care anymore. And I'm not just talking about the general public. Sunday night at my parents house when all four of us were there was unbearable some nights. Everyone had a different favourite but, we were all pretty much in agreement over who wasn't that great.

Dinner with parents tomorrow. Dad has been wanting me to come round for dinner for the last 2 and a bit weeks, since they got back from holiday, but has never actually asked me. Just rung me up, told me to come round and collect the rest of my washing and to let them know if I'm staying for dinner. So of course, I went round during the day when they were both at work and collected my things then. I also need to do some laundry. We don't have a dryer and trying to get bedding to dry sans dryer in the weather we've been having is not fun.

Hopefully its bed time now. Going to hop into bed and see what happens.

Can you say allergy friendly???

2008-08-06T18:20:00.003+10:00

I discovered when I baked birthday cupcakes to take to band on monday night, that if I want to make them edible for everyone then things have to be gluten free, lactose free and vegan. Occasionally fructose free as well. The last batch I took were chocolate brownies. They didn't turn out exactly how I'd planned but they still tasted fantastic 4 days after baking.

Gluten Free, Vegan, Chocolate Brownies.

125ml olive oil
200g dark eating chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
3 Tb no egg replacer
6 Tb water
1 ¼ cup (185g) plain flour
200g chocolate, chopped coarsely

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease deep 19cm square cake pan, line with baking paper, extending paper 2cm over side.
Stir butter and dark chocolate in a medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Cool 10min.
Stir sugar into chocolate mixture, then flour, no egg replacer, water and chopped chocolate. Spread mixture into pan.
Bake brownies about 35 min. Cool in pan before cutting

Uber Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

2008-08-06T18:14:00.003+10:00

At long last, what everyone has been asking for, my recipe for the amazing pudding from a few weeks ago. It started out as an ordinary self saucing pudding, but I had some strawberries that needed to be eaten and then there was the half packet of frozen raspberries and the balsamic vinegar and you get the drift of what happened. Needless to say it was very rich and very yum. My housemate and I were the only ones who couldn't finish it. This is meant to serve four.

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

60g butter
½ cup (125ml) milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
1 cup (150g) self raising flour
1Tbsp cocoa powder
¾ cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
1Tbsp cocoa powder, extra
2 cups (500ml) boiling water
extras*

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 1.5litre (6 cup) ovenproof dish.
Melt butter with milk in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in extract and caster sugar, then sifted flour, cocoa and extras. Spread mixture into dish.
Sift brown sugar and extra cocoa over mixture. Spread mixture into dish.
Bake pudding about 40 min or until centre is firm. Stand for 5 min before serving.

· The extras are a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries (fresh are acceptable also, we just didn't have any on hand) and a handful or so of chopped chocolate.

· We served it with a raspberry and strawberry coulis. Just stick berries in a pot with sugar, balsamic vinegar and a bit of water. Cook down until a thick sauce, squishing the berries as you go.

No photos this time, we devoured them before it was even cooled. That whole stand for 5 minute thing we ignored and burnt ourselves as a result.

Things to do

2008-08-05T05:53:00.004+10:00

So the 7 days of work comes to an end in an hour and I'm reminded of all the things I need to do in my coming week off work.

The big one is to eat my way through the freezer. I have a couple of weeks to do this in, but it needs to be done. The need has come about because as much as I love cooking, I love my sleep even more and when I'm working graveyard shifts, depriving myself of sleep because I need to cook a meal is not an option. So the freezer gets eaten so I can make room for one person portions of pasta sauce, curry, risottos, etc. I may find quiche in there too at some point!

So my list of things to do this week are the following

- do a grocery shop! Whilst we are stocked up on dry staples (rice, pasta, etc) I'm missing some things in the fresh food department such as potatoes, yoghurt, beans, tomoatos, avocado etc
- hit the gym
- email people the recipes they have been asking for, then post them here for everyone else to read. Or I can just post them and send them the link.
- do some baking. I have a hankering for macaroons, the american version with coconut rather then almonds in them.
- finish unpacking. There is a pile of clothing on my floor that is screaming to be put away. Funny how the clean clothes end up on teh floor and the dirty ones end up in that basket. Speaking of which..
- do some laundry!!
- write my post about the amazing experience that is Maha

So the grocery list at the moment looks like this:
potatoes
bananas
tomatoes
avocado
pomegranate
grapefruit
corn pasta
yoghurt
salad greens
juice
dried legumes
butter
olives
Chocolate
roo fillet
cream
kiwi fruit

My plan for eating out of the freezer is to have roast turkey tonight. I have a maryland cut that should be nice with some roast vegies. My favourite combo is parboiled potato, carrot, mushroom, pumkins, onion and garlic. I might put hte garlic and onion in with the turkey leg to help with flavours, along with a good squeeze of lemon over the meat.
The other plan is to polish of the baby spinach in either a spinach pesto pasta or in my yummy frittata. If I haven't posted it earlier then I will later. I should test it in quiche form too.

There's also so baking to be done for a going away party on Saturday out bush. Whilst technically they are at the end of the metropolitan train line so could be classified as outer suburb, there are cows at the end of their street. Enough said. i think the plan is for nibble type things as the main focus will be nice drinks rather then an amazing meal. Whats the point of an amazing meal if we're all too drunk to enjoy it.

The housewarming decision has been made as well. it's going to be an evening thing. People have been invited round for a sticky beak with cocktail "hour" to follow. So the menu needs to be finger food with options for gluten and fructose free, vegetarian, meatetarian, sweet and savoury. Also need to devise a cocktail of some sort. I'm thinking of trying out the one that was served at Wicked the Musical on saturday. Melon, Kiwi and Pear, called an Ozmapolitan. It involved vodka and came in slushy form. This one will require a few taste tests. I think a base of vodka and midori with pureed kiwi and pear should work. I also need to play around with the fig, vanilla and cinnamon mojito I had at Maha a few months ago.

menu ideas

2008-07-20T12:05:00.004+10:00

So we've moved into our new house and after the unpacking has finished it will be time to plan the housewarming!

Seeing as neither of us have a weekend off together for a while (possibly until christmas) we're thinking of having two.

Either way, I'm having people over for a meal in our new place.

Brunch is sounding good at the moment. I can have a variety or light breakfast and light lunch options. Depending on the group there will have to be vegetarian, gluten free and fructose free options. Luckily I can do this in my sleep.

So possible ideas are as follows

Brunch
frittata - pumpkin and fetta
roast chicken
scones/waffles/bagels - some kind of bready thing
fruit platter
cheese/tomato/avacado plate
yogurt
tea/coffee
juice
champagne - can't have a brunch without champagne and orange juice

This could also double as a lunch menu, The difference would be bagels as the bready product and a salad.

Afternoon Tea
finger sandwiches - cucumber, chicken, egg, roast beef
savoury pastries - sausage rolls, spinach and fetta,
macaroons
fruit
cupcakes/brownies
biscuits
tea/coffee
juice
champagne
punch - had a really nice one the other day that had strawberries, mint, lychees, pineapple and orange juice, and a bit of ginger beer. The alcohol base was vodka and rum.

Dinner
roast of come kind
frittata
roast potatoes/carrots
salad
dried fruit and cheese plate
tea/coffee
champagne/dessert wine
juice

I tend to enjoy a hot and a cold component in most of my meals and these menus are thigns I also enjoy eating. Its just difficult to cook frittata for one.

As you've probably noticed, I'm not big on fizzy drinks, the preference being juice. Although I do enjoy the waterfords flavoured mineral water.
All dishes can be made gluten free and fructose intolerant friendly. With the fructose issue, it does help to know exactly what they can and can't have. For example, onion is bad but small amounts of tomato or coconut with other things is okay.

The other things that could be added or substituted are garlic prawns, crab cakes, pasta, risotto or curry. I'd probably go for crab cakes or some other type of fish as I do actually like fish, just no in big doses.

More updates when the meal has been cooked.

Oops

2008-06-18T20:32:00.000+10:00

Brief update as to the happenings since the last post.

- The show was amazing. It all came together and just worked. The only down side to the show is that my list of people I won't work with again has grown slightly. If you're going to flake on me, at least tell me, don't just not show up.

- I have enjoyed several nice week long breaks from work due to the marvels of shift work.

- Although I haven't made the powder puffs yet, I did score a heap of frozen egg yolks after baking a huge batch of friands for an all day show rehearsal followed by an evening band concert. There was coffee, lime, and mandarin and poppyseed. my personal favourite was the lime. I baked them in mini muffin tins so you just got this burst of flavour and didn't have to worry about finishing the entire thing. I also baked some crunchy chocolate biscuits, which were also a hit. All leftovers made it to work and didn't last very long after that.

Currently I'm delving into the world of fresh pasta and learning to cook for one. I'm really not the biggest fan of eating leftovers for 3 days. I can handle eating it the next day but not for much longer and the freezer isn't very big so it doesn't hold much.

Last weeks trip to the Vic market resulted in some fresh lasagna sheets as well as goats cheese, basil and pesto agnolottis and rabbit and red wine agnolottis. The rabbit ones are still in the freezer, awaiting for sauce inspiration. The lasagna had a 4 layers of pasta in the following order, sauce, pasta, fresh baby spinach (don't bother blanching it, just give it a quick rinse and stick it in) pasta, sauce, pasta, mushroom and garlic mix (this was meant to be a layer of caramelised onion and mushroom ut the fry pan fell of the stove so I had to improvise) pasta, sauce then sprinklings of goats chevre, cheddar and parmesan. Baked for ~20 minutes at 180 C. Very, very tasty.

The goats cheese angolotti was consumed the other day in the same base sauce as the lasagna, just spritzed up a little. The base sauce was just shallots, garlic, red wine, basil, sage, rosemary and tomato passata. Seasoned with freshly ground black pepper and a little salt. So the spritzing consisted of more garlic and shallots sauteed with some minced lamb, more fresh rosemary, red wine. This is one dish where you really don't need any extra cheese on top and there is enough cheesy flavour in the pasta already.

Last night magical meal was duck fried rice.

1 duck breast with fat trimmed
3 mushrooms
1 shallot
garlic
ginger
soy sauce
mirin
1 lime
2/3 red capsicum
rice - I like a mix of basmanti and wild rice

fry the duck in a hot ungreased pan, skin side down until crispy, then turn it over and continue until tender. As the duck will be slightly recooked with the rice, its important to not over cook (especially if you're intending on reheating this later like I am).
In the mean time, cook the rice, I normally say ~ 1/2 cup uncooked, for 2 people if I'm adding stuff to it.

Then its really just a case of stir frying the garlic, ginger, shallots, mushrooms and capsicum together, add about a tablespoon of soy, splog of mirin then the duck that has been finely sliced. Add the rice and finish up with the juice of the lime.

The predominant flavour was lime, could have backed off on that quite a bit. It reheated nicely at work ~2min on high, stir part way through.

Tonights was a very special meal, I made risotto again!!!

100g minced chicken breast
3 chipolatas
shallots
garlic
2 mushrooms
risotto rice
red wine
more pasta sauce, warmed with some warm water.

The chicken and chipolatas were fried in pan with a little olive oil. You'll want to break up the chipolatas so it resembles the chicken mince. this way they not only cook quicker but you don't actually want huge chunks.

In a saucepan, sautee the garlic, shallots and mushrooms together.
Add the rice and fry for about 3 minutes
Add about 1 glass of red wine and stir until absorbed. Then add the sauce/water mix in small additions, stirring constantly. Don't add the next lot of liquid until the previous lot has been absorbed. Just before the last lot of liquid, add the meat and all the pan juices.

Lastly, stir in a knob of butter and some parmesan cheese

Powder Puffs

2008-04-24T18:18:00.004+10:00

The Chocolate Balls were a hit, though a few people were disappointed that there was no rum in them. You can add grog to them quite nicely, I just didn't have anything suitable at the time.

Monday involved one of the best massages in the world. As a result of this $30 massage I have slept right through the last two nights, only stirring in the early hours to roll over when my body thinks its time to get up when really it just needs a few more hours. To celebrate the joyous massage and to kill sometime before hopping in the car, I went shopping. One of the stores was having a special, spend over $60 on shoes and get a free $60 handbag. So I bought these

My house mate finds the image of me in a bathrobe and these heels whilst cooking breakfast absolutely hilarious. My comment was 'Well, I have to break them in somehow..'

The next challenge is to do something with all the lemons I have lying around the house. I think its time to break out the lemon curd as well as finally learning how to make lemon butter. A few months ago I found a recipe for these things called powder puffs. Little sponge kisses with whipped cream and lemon curd sandwiched between them. That then leaves me with egg whites to use or freeze so maybe some meringues as well. I found the recipe in the Epicure (the F&B guide in The Age on Tuesdays)

You can find the article here

2008-04-18T13:06:00.002+10:00

So, rehearsals officially start on Sunday for the orchestra. Whilst I'm excited about rehearsing at last there is also some worry. I've worked with most of them before so I'm not worried about that. Just the usual, 'This is going to be a disaster' feeling I get before every show.

I think this time I'm going to stick to my usual method of dealing by baking for rehearsal. Currently of the opinion that Chocolate Balls is the best option.

1 cup desiccated coconut
2 -3tbs cocoa powder
1 pack Marie Biscuits
375mls condensed milk (about a can)
Extra coconut for dusting

Essentially combine everything except the extra coconut in a bowl and combine. Then roll into balls, dust with coconut and stick in the fridge until set. I recommend using wet hands to do teh rolling otherwise you will end up covered in the mix.

A variation on this is Apricot balls
replace the cocoa powder with chopped dried apricots.