Category Archives: Food Glorious Food

In my kitchen…

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This week in my kitchen…

There is a whole lot of wonderful limes from my dad’s backyard tree. I’ve mentioned my love of the humble lime quite a few times, I never get tired of them. I’m thinking Coconut Lime Pie, Chicken Lime Pasta, Lime Cupcakes, Lime Marmalade… limes, limes, limes. (I’m trying not to think about caipiroska’s.)

Dark Almond chocolate for strength, patience and clarity. Works a treat… well for a little while anyway.

A new Italian cookbook. Won over at Not Quite Nigella, (which was a rather lovely surprise.)

Organic, spray free, local, seasonal fruit and vegetable box delivered to my kitchen door. Making life a little easier until I can get back to my farmers market lady.

Baking hotcross buns with a sleeping babe attached. It’s how all the bakers are doing it these days, (well ones with new babies anyway.)

Last year I did a few batches of hot cross buns. Trying to find the right recipe that worked for me. I still wanted to tweak it though, as didn’t feel it was quite ‘right’. This time I did part sourdough, part dried yeast… I’m getting there I think.

Hot Cross Buns

200g currants/raisins

200mls hot water

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp dark malt flour

1 tsp dried yeast

250g sourdough starter

100g sugar (2/3 cup, more if you like them sweeter)

250mls milk

100g softened butter

11/2-2 tsp salt

4 1/2 cups flour (675g)

Soak the fruit in the hot water, leave for a couple of hours/ over night.  Mix all ingredients together, except for the salt. Autolyse period 20-45 minutes. Add the salt and mix again, then turn out on to a lightly floured bench to knead until you get a lovely smooth ball of dough. Pop the dough back into the bowl, plastic bag over the top and leave to prove.  A couple of proves and folds over the next few hours. Then out onto lightly floured surface again and divide into 16 or so portions. Roll into balls, or simply divide to get a more square shape. Pop them on a lined baking tray, cover and leave for another prove.

Crosses

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 water

Mix together and spoon into a piping bag just before they hit the oven.

Then bake at 210C for approximately 15-25 minutes, (until golden.)

******

What’s happening in your kitchen this week?

Have a look over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for other kitchen happenings.

biscuits, cookies and things to nibble

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I hadn’t realised I had baked quite so many biscuits over bloggin’ time…

Custard Biscuits

Gingerbread Men

Anzac Biscuits

Lemon Vanilla Stars

Coconut Jam Drops

Everyday Chocolate Mint Biscuits

honey biscuits

Chewy Coconut Biscuits

speculaas

Chocolate Honey Biscuits

Parmesan Crackers

super easy chocolate chip biscuits

Passionfruit Shortbread

Kettles boiled… anyone want to join me for afternoon tea?

Tea or Coffee?

Plum Shortcakes

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A good bakery is a wonderous thing. You’ll quite often find me, nose pressed against the glass, eyeballs widened, and probably just the hint of drool coming from the side of my mouth. I don’t usually go in, I don’t need to. I like just looking. Seeing what’s on offer, how they have presented different things, and getting ideas for my own baking efforts.

Many moons ago, I lived for awhile in Germany. Twice a week I would head off, cold crisp air on my cheeks. Hands wedged into pockets and music wedged into ears, I would set forth on my two buses to get to a German language class. I loved this time. I loved the German winter, I loved the alone time, I loved being in a different country, I loved learning the language… and I really loved stopping off at a bakery afterwards.

Germany bakeries are a thing of wonderous beauty. So many different types of wonderful breads, and enough sweet goodies for a young Australian gal to do more than a little drooling. Everything I ever ate was delicious. Really delicious. Sure I probably headed for the same kind of things time and time again, but when you are on to a good thing, why stop eh?

So what did I go for? Anthing vaguely fruity/ sour related. Cherry strudel? You betcha. Plum struesel? Yes indeed. They all had my name well and truly written all over them.

So with a German bakery in mind, Plum Shortcakes it was.

Fruity, not crazy sweet, but enough of sugar kick just to say … ja bitte, das ist lecker.

Plum Shortcakes

200g plain flour

100g self raising flour

150g softened butter

150g sugar

2 tsps vanilla

zest of one lemon

2 beaten eggs

plums

Cream the butter and sugar together, add vanilla, eggs and lemon zest. Then fold through flour. Into your tray/s and add halved plums. Bake at 180C until risen, slightly golden, and smells like you can’t wait to eat it any longer (cooking time will depend on the tray you use.)

Fetta Pumpkin sausage rolls

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Fetta Pumpkin sausage rolls. They weren’t shifting out of my head until I made them. A few pumpkins came and went, fetta went into other dishes, and then finally the planets had aligned and voila… there was fetta and pumpkin in the fridge at the same time.

Time to get roasting.

There aren’t too many ingredients in here, so the key to getting it to taste great, is using great ingredients. A very sweet, seasonal pumpkin, some tasty Greek fetta, local whole garlic cloves and pastry.

It’s not often you’ll find packaged pastry in my recipes. I hadn’t had any in my freezer for a really long time. So long in fact that, the pastry and I just sort sat there, eyeing each other off for awhile. In the end though, pastry won. I wasn’t about to expand my culinary skills on making puff pastry just yet, (give me another 15 years perhaps) and a shorter crust pastry just wasn’t going to cut it for this one. So I slit the plastic, and funnily enough the world didn’t end.

Fetta Pumpkin Sausage Rolls

pumpkin

garlic

fetta

salt and pepper

olive oil

puff pastry

Cut your pumpkin into wedges and lay on a tray

add a couple of whole cloves of garlic

drizzle with olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

roast until soft and smelling delicious

All into a bowl, and mash with a fork, cool

add crumbled fetta, stir through.

Spoon mixture into middle of pastry sheet, and roll up

cut into sizes you want, bake on tray at 200C

until golden and smells delicious

a roast tomato tart… or four

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I could have eaten four of these

I didn’t… but I could have

Oh, I so could have…

*****

Pastry

200gms butter

2 cups plain flour (300gms)

110gms natural yogurt

1 tsp vinegar

In a food processor pulse flour and butter until resembles bread crumbs. Tip out into a bowl and add yogurt and vinegar. Mix through, a quick knead until a smooth consistency and then pop into the fridge for awhile. Take out and roll to the thickness you want. I did individual tarts, but it could easily be done as one big one.

Tart

A layer of sliced fresh mozzarella

A couple of strips of free range bacon

Roasted tomatoes

Into the oven at 200C until the pastry is golden.

Slow Living February 2012

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First up, a huge thank you to all the lovely, lovely well wishes from my last post. We are still taking things nice and slow, and really enjoying this precious babymoon time. I’m still around, quietly reading your blogs and really appreciate any comments thrown my way as well.

I will be posting here and there with a few posts I have up my sleeve until I get used to our new family rhythm. For now though, here’s what was happening round these parts slow living style in Feb.

Slow Living February 2012

(an awesome concept created by the lovely Christine over at Slow Living Essentials)

NOURISH: Mr Chocolate has taken over the kitchen in the last two weeks, which I have to say has been fantastic. There has been a steady supply of chocolate chip biscuits, (now perfected) lots of tasty healthy meals for a hungry mama and a few well timed containers of deliciousness from awesome friends. Perfect.

PREPARE: I had been stocking up my freezer with ready to go meals, or little things that can be easily cooked up quickly. A few rolls of biscuit dough can make things a whole lot easier when there are school lunch boxes that still need to be filled and hungry little hands being held out. Now if only that freezer was twice as big, THEN I would be sorted.

REDUCE: Making use of my mum’s rather hefty sized stash of retro terry towelling. A new change table cover, and some little wipes sewn up. So much more interesting than standard bought ones.

GREEN: I’m still using the bicarb to wash my hair. So easy, and I really love not having to rely on shampoo to get my hair clean.

GROW:  My little pots still continue to struggle on. Too wet, too dry, not enough sun… the usual cityhippyfarmgirl garden goings on. I still like having some sort of greenery to look out to though. A little rosemary to rub between my fingers, a chilli or two to pluck… a caterpillar or three to squash under my shoe. I’m also still thinking about an olive tree in a pot, or perhaps a gardenia… or a bay. It’s for our placental planting, so if anyone has any tips or has done this before with good results in a pot I would love to hear from you.

CREATE: I’ve been hooking a cowl. After putting it over Mr Chocolate’s head 53 times, (to get an idea of what on earth I’m doing) I’m still not sure about the over all look. But I am loving the colours, and the rhythm of crocheting has been really relaxing…hook, hook, hook.

ENHANCE: I was the lucky recipient of this bag full of garden goodness from my lovely midwife. Home grown… just tastes so much better.

ENJOY: New life… yep, I’m completely smitten.

Sunday musings and banana crumble muffins

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There is nothing quite as enjoyable as some long weekend musings over a deep cup of coffee, and a muffin or two. Mr Chocolate even indulged me by having a decaf coffee with me, while pretending it was the real deal.

Once we had world politics sorted, discussed the plight of Australian farmers versus big corporations, the annoying-ness of facebook, a spot of fracking thrown in and what we should have for dinner. My mind was let loose on to other matters.

Olive tree in a pot. They look good, but can I make it work given my minimal sun, teeny tiny space and very pale green thumb? It wouldn’t be for ever, but could I keep it happy until we found sunnier pastures down the track?

When does a night time snack turn into an early breakfast?… Just how early can breakfast be?

Tattoos, could you, would you, should you? Is it a pregnancy induced want of mine? I think I’m keen… but then again, maybe it will pass?

Talking birth is a bit like talking religion or politics. Everyone has an opinion and things can get rather heated… aren’t people funny?

How about you? Been musing on anything lately?

******

As for the muffins to go with your musings, I saw these delectable little goodies- Cranberry and Crumb Top Muffins, and I wanted to play. Actually most of the things Greg and Katherine make, I want to have a crack at. But the muffins were calling, not in a cranberry kind a way, but in a banana kind a way. Actually the bananas had developed quite a tone on them, noisy buggers. Help, my skin is turning brown, and I really need a focus! Cook with me!

Who am I to ignore a helpless banana on a bench, Banana Crumble Muffins they were to be, (and just quietly… they were kind of  delicious.)

Banana Crumble Muffins

125g softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

2 tbls honey

1 beaten egg

3 mashed bananas

2 cups self raising flour (300g)

Mix all ingredients together except flour, then fold that through too. Spoon mixture into lined muffin tray.

Crumble Topping

2 tbsp melted butter

2 tbsp dark muscavado sugar (or regular brown sugar)

2 tbsp plain flour

Mix together and spoon mixture 1/2 tsp at a time over muffins.

Bake at 180C for approximately 30 minutes or until light golden.

capsicum sweet chilli sauce

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I wanted to make this chilli sauce, but then realised I didn’t have enough vinegar, and also wanted to use up the eight long capsicums I had, (bull horn’s.) So I fiddled a bit, a little tweak, a whispered please let it work and hey presto… capsicum chilli sauce. I think I actually like this one even more than the other as it’s a little less sweet, leaves the taste of the capsicums and still gives a dish the kick I want it to.

Capsicum Chilli Sauce

8 long thin capsicums

100g small hot chillis

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

5 cloves garlic

2 tsp salt

black pepper

2 good slurps of balsamic vinegar

In a food processor, blitz the capsicum, chilli, garlic and ginger. In a pot add add the remaining ingredients, add chilli combination and bring to a rolling boil. Keep at the same temperature, stirring until sauce thickens. Poor in to sterilised glass jars/ bottles or in to a clean jar and store in the fridge.

summer salad- Frugal Friday

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This is my standby summer salad at the moment. It’s finding itself teamed up with a whole heap of dishes, as you can make a big batch of it and it’s not going to go soggy when left in the fridge for a few days.

Summer salad

Chopped up raw kale leaves, (don’t worry about the stalks, too chewy)

Steamed and diced carrots

Steamed corn cut off the cob

Sliced capsicum (peppers)

Pecans

If you have any other seasonal goodies hanging around, pop them in too.

Dress with your favourite dressing.

the kitchen fairy

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In the black of the night,

the kitchen fairy is up.

Sleep hides from her, skulking like a shadow, somewhere near by, but not close enough.

Tiptoed footsteps to the kitchen, careful to avoid the creaks in the floorboards.

outside is silence, the black of night is at its most silent.

The household sleeps on,

as the kitchen fairy begins to weigh and chop. Silent in her cutting and quartering.

her thoughts scamper from one to another, but even they eventually stop and pause, once the rhythm of cooking has taken over.

A match is struck, pots turned on.

Her breath held, while a pot lid slips from her grasp. She needn’t worry, the household slumbers on.

With the smells of plums and vanilla teasing the sleeping nostrils, she knows only good dreams can come of that.

Outside, the night continues on in black.

The kitchen fairy’s eyes grow weary,

sleep has stepped out of her shadows, beckoning to her once again.

The pots are turned off, her work now is done.

The slowly greying dawn will show lined jars of vivid plum jam, and cooling racks of sourdough bread,

time for the kitchen fairy to rest.

Plum Jam

2.3 kilos of plums

500mls water

2 kilos of sugar

juice of 1 lime

Summer Roasted Tomatoes- Frugal Friday

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Roasted Summer

some summery heirloom tomatoes chopped in half

a small roughly chopped eggplant

a few cloves of seasonal local garlic

some great local olive oil drizzled all over

pop in a few potatoes/ sweet potatoes if you feel like it

then roast at about 200C until it smells wonderful and looks how you want it.

Just before you finish the roasting add some

ripped up basil leaves

and sliced soft fresh mozzarella (not the salty waxy yellow type)

Eat with some chunks of sourdough for mopping up those juices.

Simple, seasonal, locally produced, frugal… oh and tasty.