Category Archives: Food Glorious Food

Nana’s Fruit Cake

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My Nana. If you think of a little old lady with grey blue hair, hard of hearing, and a taste of milky tea. Well that’s not my nana. It may well be someone elses though.

Always impeccably dressed, wouldn’t wear a track suit to the super market, with a soft spot for chocolates and coffee, and likes her sport. Sorry did I say likes her sport? Mad keen on sports would better describe dear Nana. Will happily sit up on and watch, AFL, rugby, tour de France, soccer…anything that involves a ball, tight shorts, and moving quickly. She’ll watch it. Also a  mad golfer, and rather competitive when it comes to playing board games. If by chance you need to go to the toilet while playing chess, make sure you take a good look at where all your men are before you get up…like I said she can be QUITE competitive.

Nana always has three important cooking tips for me in the kitchen.

1/ If you make a mistake in a savoury dish, cover it in gravy and no one will ever know the difference.

2/ If you make a mistake in a dessert, cover it in whipped cream and no one will ever know the difference.

3/ *this one has to be whispered* When giving someone a recipe for one of your famous dishes…always leave out an ingredient. You always want your dish to taste that bit better, (…did I mention competitive?)

Nana’s Fruit Cake- my version

(with all the ingredients in it…maybe)

250g mixed fruit

125g butter

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

2 beaten eggs

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self raising flour

50g chopped up uncrystallised ginger

2 tbls maramalade

In a pot add the dried fruit, sugar, butter, spices, water bring to the boil. Allow to cool slightly, then add the beaten eggs. Add the flours, chopped ginger, and marmalade. Pop it into a greased pan, and bake at 150C until cooked, and skewer comes out clean.

This a dead easy recipe that you can alter to taste buds and things you have on hand. Nuts, other dried fruit, more spices etc. Freezes well too.

sourdough hoppers- Frugal Friday

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For people reading you’re probably thinking one of two things…

1/ what is a hopper?

or

2/ THAT is not a hopper!

To answer Number 1/ A hopper is a cup shaped rice flour pancake basically. There a few different types, (string, egg, plain…) A staple from Sri Lanka quite often eaten for breakfast. Nothing tastier than dipping a freshly cooked hopper into some curry with attitude.

hoppers photo from ‘lanka.com’

In answer to Number 2/ I don’t have a hopper pan, or anything remotely like it. Which is why my little hoppers look like plain old pancakes. If you had a deep enough wok, it would work just as well, (I have a flat bottomed one.) A traditional hopper pan is like a mini wok, and I am on the look out, yes I am…

This recipe is my take on the delicious hopper. So maybe not traditionally correct, but they still work.

I even got my mum’s vote of approval.

Sourdough Hoppers

1 cup sourdough starter

1 cup rice flour

1 tps salt

1 cup coconut milk/ or coconut cream

1/2 cup water

Add all ingredients together, and let sit for approximately 5 hours. Mixture is a like a pancake consistency, and should be bubbling away happily, when the time is up and they are ready to cook. Pop some of the mixture into the pan, if you are doing it in a rounded pan, let the edges get a little crispy and then popping a lid over the top to enable the steam to cook the inside. (The middle part will be thicker.) For egg hoppers, drop an egg into the middle, just before the lid goes on to steam.

Serve with a great curry, ripping off bits of the hopper and dunking it in.

Or, easy thing to have on Frugal Friday. Make the batch up in the morning, forget about it, then they will ready to cook up by dinner. Serve with some lightly cooked vegetables in some vegetable oil, garam masala, salt and pepper…and maybe a dollop of natural yoghurt on the side.

pumpkin pie

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When I was about 10 years old I tasted pumpkin pie. I thought it was delicious and it went down in my memory bank as one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten. It remained at the back of that cluttered old mind of mine, occasionally popping out long enough for me to think mmm, pumpkin pie, and then pop back in.  Since starting a blog, I have been inundated with delicious looking foods around the blogasphere and one that kept catching my attention was this pumpkin pie again. Perhaps it was time to give it a crack?

A traditional Thanksgiving pie eaten in American it doesn’t seem to get much of a look in many other countries. There always seems to be other desserts to be made first. After consulting a friend from the US, pouring through my own cookbooks and scrutinizing any one that blogged a pie. (Like the lovely Joanna’s and Kimberley’s.) The day was set. Pie was to be made and let no one stand in my way.

Verdict?

….Actually I’m not sure there is a verdict. As I haven’t had a pumpkin pie since I was about 10 to compare it to it makes it a bit tricky. The recipe I had seemed a little bland. So I doubled the spices, (or was that tripled?) most American recipes call for canned pumpkins, and that just wasn’t going to happen here, (I’m pretty sure, no one would sell it in Australia.) So using a butternut pumpkin, egg yolks only (I needed the whites for something else), and condensed milk not evaporated or fresh, it was made. My grandmother rang just as I was making the mixture up and after complaining it tasted a little bland, she suggested some lemon zest. Brilliant, that lifted it up a notch. In the oven and away.

The American taste test, declared not bad. A little heavier than a traditional one, but not bad at all. (Lovely polite friends I have :-))

Not crazy sweet, (despite a whole can of condensed milk in there) and filling enough to let you know, yep I just ate pumpkin pie. I think next time I want to play around with the flavours a bit more. I may have some American readers yelling at the computer screen about now, you did it wrong. What is she thinking?…but I am thinking some muscavado sugar to give a more complex flavour in the pumpkin mixture and maybe a little caramalised toasted macadamia nuts on top to give it an Aussie twist and a little texture.

I think to be continued…

Pumpkin Pie

your favourite shortcrust pastry

desired pie dish sizes (I did individual ones and mini)

2 cups of mashed cooked pumpkin (I used butternut)

1 can condensed milk

2 tps cinnamon

1 tps ground ginger

1/2 tps nutmeg

1/2 tps salt

1 tps cardamom (I couldn’t resist, my hand naturally falls on it)

1 tps lemon zest

2 egg yolks.

Mixed it all in together. Divide into pastry lined pie dish/es, and bake at 180C until golden (approx 40 mins).

 

Spiced Banana Syrup Pudding and a nice slap back into reality

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You know when something speaks to you? I mean really speaks to you?

Whether it be a person’s conversation, a song, a documentary, a book, a simple quote written on a wall. Something that really resonates in your mind. Something that that has the potential to question everything you held dear, change your perspective, lift your mood or simply make you smile and think.

I know I’m not the only one to have been moved by a simple song. (Thankfully times have moved on from when they first did. Although as a early teenager I really did believe that Roxette and Bryan Adams knew my pain and lofty love ideals. They ‘spoke’ to me. THEY understood.)

In more recent times it was a song from John Butler. I was having a woe is me, poor us living in a 2 bedroom flat in the city- whatever are we to do? No room, blah, blah, blah. ‘Better Than’ comes on and suddenly the lyrics make sense  to me…..”life’s not about whats better than..” A nice slap back into reality that was. That two bedroom flat was just fine.

Watching a documentary awhile back of a young couple. Her terribly effected from a stroke, him being forced from the job he loved, to try his hand at something completely foreign in order to care for his disabled wife and two young children. All I could think about was, jeez, we had it so easy. This couple came across as so happy and yet to me their life seemed so incredibly hard.

A couple of  weeks ago, watching the second part of a Kevin Mc Cloud documentary on living in a slum in India. Watching this has made me question, really question things that I hold dear once more. In comparision we are so well off. So well off it’s almost difficult to comprehend. Honestly, I felt guilt at ever complaining of lack of space. Here these people were living 20 family members to a tiny dwelling with no indoor plumping and yet they were clean, happy looking, beautifully dressed. What on earth did I have to complain about?…(and perhaps it was time to get out of the yoga pants, baggy t’shirt and ugg boots- it’s not a particularly attractive look for me.)

Gavin (from Greening of Gavin) had a documentary ‘speak’ to him. He had a green moment that changed his whole lifestyle. A suburban family man now living a wonderfully inspiring sustainable life.

Running through the park recently, feeling pleased with my running, I paused to catch my breath. Two people over took me. Casually chatting, decked out in their uber cool running gear, going at a cracking pace. Gazelles would have had trouble keeping up. This was also another nice slap back into reality for me.

Reality was, that if I wanted to keep making things like Spiced Banana Syrup Pudding, I really had to run a lot further.

Spiced Banana Syrup Pudding

125gms softened butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 ripe mashed bananas

125mls cream

1 tps vanilla

1tps cinnamon

1 tps cardmom

1/2 tps nutmeg

1 1/2 cups s/r flour

Add all ingredients in order, bake in a spring form pan at 180C until golden. While that is cooking add 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1 tps cinnamon, 1/2 tps cardamom, and bring to a slow boil. Turn down slightly and keep at simmer until the mixture thickens just slightly (you don’t want toffee!) When it has thickened slightly turn off and add 1 tbs of dark rum. Allow to cool a little. When banana pudding is cooked through, place on serving plate and carefully pour spiced syrup over the pudding. Best served warm with perhaps a dollop of your favourite vanilla icecream.

 

a rather tall birthday cake

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Birthday cake. It’s funny how as I’ve gotten older my taste buds have changed. No more would dry old chocolate cake with chocolate icing do for my birthday. As a kid though, you couldn’t hold me back. There would be months of mental planning of what type of cake to ask mum to make for me. Much flicking through the always dependable Womens Weekly cookbooks. There were so many things to be considered, it was the one day of the year where you could pick what ever you wanted to eat, followed by what ever cake you desired. For a couple of years running I quite liked a chocolate cake with lemon icing. Nothing flash, just slapped on and a couple of candles. Yes please…

Now though. I’m a little over chocolate cake. I still have to make them for Mr Chocolate (obviously) and the The Monkeys are rather keen too. However for my own, I wanted to play with something different. I still ponder for far too long on what cake to make, (but that’s half the fun isn’t it? The pondering and the wondering?) I had the image in my head, and I think I had the right sort of taste on my tongue. Now I just had to get it to work…

A rather tall birthday cake

 

Three layers of meringue

9 egg whites

500 gms sugar

In a mixer beat egg whites until they are stiff and then slowly add sugar in small amounts. Mixture should become stiff, sugar disolved, with lovely peaks. On some parchment paper lay 3 disks of meringue. Large, medium and small. The smaller one with peaks and the other two, flattened. Now bake at 120C for approx 1hour 45 minutes. Allow to cool.

Creamy mixture in between…

250gms mascarpone

300mls cream

1 tps rose water

scraping of 1 vanilla pod

1 tps vanilla extract (you might not need it, depends on your vanilla pod.)

1/2 cup sugar

In bowl add mascarpone, scrapped vanilla pod, rose water, sugar and whip. In a seperate bowl whip the cream up and then carefully fold through the mascarpone mixture.

Blueberries and Strawberries…

Time to get those layers happening. Meringue, mascarpone, berries, and then again. With the peaked meringue at the top.

Verdict?…Actually pretty good. I still love the combination of mascarpone and vanilla, I’ve used it a few times now and I think there just may be a few more times to come. The meringue, I hadn’t made before, but it was actually pretty fun to make. I really like the fact that it is so light, and the berries were just a good addition. A contrasting fresh flavour with the sweetness of the other two.

An easy cake that speaks of summer.

So will I be making it again? Yes, I think I just might.

M’hanncha

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M’hanncha. A traditional Moroccan dessert, meaning “the snake”. I’m not sure I quite got to the snake… but I gave it a red hot go.

I had seen Jamie Oliver make this dessert on his latest TV series and thought it looked delicious. After I was given his lovely cookbook as a present a little while ago, the delicious recipe again beckoned to me. Whispering its moroccan song from the books pages. The recipe needed to be made. Now I just needed a kitchen with more bench space than mine (you need two metres of rolling room). A visit to my mums kitchen and I had the bench space I needed.

Time to get cracking.

Mixture looks good, and it comes to the pastry part and rolling….oophh!

He made it look so easy! Was my pastry no good? Was I too slow? Were my arms too Neanderthal? Was my technique decidedly lacking when it came to putting the thing in the tin?… Probably yes to all the above. After much huffing, puffing and sighing, it was plonked in the oven and resigned myself to the fact it wasn’t going to be the standout dish I had hoped for.

However…It was delicious!

Didn’t look a thing like the book. Not a tooting thing, but the taste got me by. Thanks Jamie.

foodconnect

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For quite awhile now I’ve been frustrated with my vegetable eating options. Actually…no. It’s not the eating options, it’s the buying options. Ideally, I’d love to be growing them. However living in a flat in the city with a designated area that’s not optimum for growing, my growing in pot choices are limited. So what are some other choices available to the average city dweller?

* Super market bought fruit and vegetables- big business

* Independent green grocer- small business

* Farmers Markets

* Wholesale Markets

* Box schemes- quite often delivered to your door

* Community gardens- add your name to the waiting list and grow your own

* Food Co-ops- member owned and operated, bulk goods

* CSA- Community Supported Agriculture

Choosing how you get your fruit and vegetables depends on many things, so it feels like it’s been a long time coming that I’m finally happy with a fruit and vegetable scheme that works for us.

Four weeks into my new CSA fruit and vegetable box and I couldn’t be happier. It suits our family, the quality is fantastic and it works for me. Hoorah!… I found it in Foodconnect.

Foodconnect uses local sustainable farmers, bringing their produce to city folks like me. Box gets dropped off at a local drop off point, where you pick it up once a week, and go home happily munching on the seasonal goodness. All boxed and ready to go, all you have to do is pick it up from a local ‘city cousin’.

So it’s local, organic, seasonal, easily pay from 4 weeks- to a year, it’s not the same fruit and veges each week, supports regional growers, farmers get a good price, super super fresh, has got us eating different vegetables, (I was in a vegetable rut and didn’t even know it) if I don’t like something there is a swap box and I don’t have to do anything but pick up the box. Pretty good deal I think.

* I’m always happy to see a caterpillar or slug in my organic produce. To me, it means it was pretty darn happy just to hang out in the leafy goodness, and also shows that it’s really fresh. Saying that, I would prefer to find them before I eat the leafy greens and not after, wiggling out of the kitchen sink. All this does to me is question my washing skills and did I just inadvertently eat its sluggy cousin?

Now there’s a cheery thought…

Sydney Foodconnect

Adelaide Foodconnect

Brisbane Foodconnect

Chocolate Cherry Biscuits

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For Christmas I’m thinking of getting three t’shirts printed. One for Mr Chocolate and two for The Monkeys. What would the T’shirt have on it?…

I Love Biscuits

Seriously, the love those three have for their biscuits is quite strong. A biscuitless household is not very often. This recipe The Monkeys and I whipped up, (as I had seen a ‘Cherry Ripe’ ad, and the chocolate had embedded itself in my mind- who said advertising doesn’t work…sort of.)

With pudgy toes standing on a chair, and sticky fingers eager to help. An egg was cracked, flour was strewn, butter was softened, biscuit dough wedged in to floor boards, chocolate chips were nibbled upon and biscuits were eventually made. Watching both their faces as they tasted and tested, grinning from ear to ear as they discover the wonders of a new biscuit.

Choc Cherry Biscuits

125 grams softened butter

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 beaten egg

1 tps vanilla

3 tbls glace cherries

1/2 cup choc chips

1/2 cup desicated coconut

3/4 cup s/r flour

3/4 cup plain flour

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla together. Add the egg, and mix in. Add rest of ingredients. Mix well. Roll in to balls and slightly flatten. Bake until light golden at 180C.

Kangaroo Valley

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A recent weekend away with friends was just what I needed. A chance to inhale, exhale…and return to centre.

A beautiful sunrise.

a misty morning in the valley

and a spot of cat chasing in a winery while parents are wine tasting.

The winery, Yarrawa Estate is nuzzled into some beautiful looking hills. Their view was quite simply…stunning. While wine tasting with 4 little kids isn’t the most relaxing way to spend your afternoon, I can certainly think of worse things to do. It did give just enough time to demolish a cheese platter, sample a few drops, chase two cats, plunder the chicken coop, and tease the family dog with a nut or two. Bottles bought and onwards we went, (Chambourcin and Verdelho some delicious stand outs.)

Kangaroo Valley is a picturesque little valley that sits a 2hour plus drive from Sydney. East of the Southern Highlands and just a little further west than the Sourdough Bakery at Berry. Famous for it’s locally made fudge, and lush fertile land. The areas dairies produce some great local milk, South Coast Dairy. While fudge, wine and milk doesn’t sound like much if eating as a locavore.

It’s certainly not a bad way to start if you are in the area.

****

 

Strawberry and Black Pepper Jam Tarts

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The queen of Hearts she made some tarts

All on a summers day

The knave of Hearts he stole those tarts

And took them clean away.

****

The humble jam tart is always an easy one to whip up for when people come over, an easy little dessert, or an afternoon treat. If you have some pastry already in your freezer it makes it even easier.

First roll out your pastry and cut out to your desired shape. (Really you can use what ever you have at hand. A big long tray can also look great. Just cut the pieces to suit then.) For a pastry recipe, you also try here.

Grease tray, and place strips of baking paper down. All this does is makes it super easy to flip out when they are cooked. Rather than baking blind, I pricked the pastry with a fork and baked until golden at 180C. When the pastry shells are cooled, you can add ANY jam you want. It all tastes good. For these little numbers. I melted a little dark chocolate and then drizzled a small amount on the inside of the shell. This just gives a thin layer of chocolate underneath the jam mixture. Then spooned a strawberry jam mixed with freshly ground pepper. The pepper isn’t overwhelming just gives a gentle hint of… ooohh, whats that?

The King of Hearts called for the tarts

And beat the Knave full sore

The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts

And vowed he’d steal no more!

****

it’s all gone a rye

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When I was a little kid all I wanted for lunch was a white sliced sandwich in triangles. Ideally with devon, tomato sauce and slapped together with so much butter it would make even a French chef frown. Why did I want that? Because that’s what I didn’t have. That’s what other kids had.

I had the sensible bread with grains or wholemeal, with nutritious things inside. Up until about 9 years old I could potentially have a cheese, chutney and sprouts sandwich. This was my mum’s idea of a delicious sandwich, and perfect for a healthy growing-at- a-cracking-rate young girls lunch. At 9 years old though, enough was enough. My palate wasn’t that developed yet. Not developed enough for chutney and sprouts anyway.  Although I never threw my sandwich out, I did hastily eat it hoping it would just quickly fill me up and no one would see it and say ….ewww whats that? On the odd occasion it may have found itself under my bed…where it may have sat there, next to a book (The Secret Seven) and slowly grow its own penicillin…

Alright that only happened the once, but at 9 years old I decided that I would take over the reins of making my own sandwiches. No more chutney and sprouts thanks. Salami and cheese would be fine. Salami and tomato. Tomato and cheese. They were the three combinations I had pretty much throughout my school career. Until I got to my final year of highschool and I stepped it up a notch and had capsicum and cheese. They were certainly exciting sandwich times.

How things have changed now though. As an adult…phew. Bread and all its loveliness. All the wonderful concoctions you can have for a simple sanga. Since embracing the heady world of sourdough, those concoctions have got even more enticing. This Apple Walnut Rye included…

* So will The Monkeys be having white sliced bread with devon and tomato sauce for their school lunches? Hell no! Do you know what’s in that stuff?!

Apple Walnut Rye Sourdough

200gms starter

225gms of rye flour

225gms of plain flour

200mls water (approx)

1 1/2 tps salt

1/2 chopped apple

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

a shake of cinnamon

Mix up rye dough as usual, when it’s time for the first fold, add apple and nuts. Folding them carefully in. I did an over night ferment, then baked at 250C until top was golden looking. Then popped it out of the tin and baked a further 10 minutes, while turning the oven down to 200C.

The top came out a little messy, but I was happy with the consistency and it just feels so healthy when you eat it. I’m loving this one for breakfast at the moment. And to totally cancel out the health factor, slap some peanut butter on there- so thick you could walk on it…mmmm.

Light Rye Sourdough

350gms starter

300gms rye meal

300gms bakers flour

480 mls water

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 tps salt

Mix ingredients. Wait for 20 minutes, then add salt and mix again. Let it prove for 1 1/2 hours. First fold. Prove for another 1hour. 2nd fold. In oiled tin, rise for another hour. 11 hour ferment in fridge. Out for 1/2 an hour on the bench. Slash. Then baked at 250C for 20mins top shelf, (steam) then a further 15 mins on the second shelf.


*This post submitted to Yeast Spotting

Banana Chocolate Pecan Cake

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Hello…what have we here?

Banana Chocolate Pecan Cake

Oh Mama…delicious

How about a little more?

*****

Banana Chocolate Pecan Slice

50gms dark melted chocolate

75gms melted butter

3  bananas

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 1/2 cups s/r flour

Bake at 180C for approx 20-25 minutes.

A surprisingly tasty and simple cake. I had left over melted chocolate, and bananas that needed attention. Not too showy. The honey, banana and chocolate all seemed to harmonize well together. Not one of them jumping up and and vying for attention. Little Monkey approved.