red food dye? I don’t think so

Posted on by
40

He was scampering that was for sure. Up and down the hall with an obvious focus to those little feet. He caught me watching him and seemed to push away the raised eyebrow look and what are you up to question on my lips. I couldn’t hear anything that I shouldn’t be and he really was quite busy. So I left him to it. Back and forth, back and forth. Scurrying like a little bug, taking huge bundles 4 times his body size and wrangling it to his chosen destination.

Little Monkey was building a castle. He called out, declaring he was ready now, and in I went to inspect the wall building. Foundations looked a little shonky, brick work was a little sloppy, but there he was sitting on top of his castle, pleased as a 3 year old would be…sitting on top of his castle. Every cushion, pillow, blanket, soft anything had been dragged in and utilised. Just perfect for a mama to make a flying leap on to….

Now if you are the kind of person that likes looking into what you are eating or what your kids maybe eating, you may have looked up red food dye before. You may have also heard, that just like my little cushion carrying bug of a son, red food dye can be made from a certain bug… Or it could also be made from a coal tar derivative. Either way, these days I don’t particularly want to ingest anything that is fire engine red unless there is a really good reason to.

So with that in mind I was mighty annoyed to get a jar of tandoori paste home a while back. Only to find out, that one of the main ingredients was red food dye!

Not a tomato ingredient in there. All that lovely red was thanks to some good old red food dye. I was annoyed, as I would never normally buy a jar like this but was feeling generous as I had been at some great farmers markets and was seduced by all the lovely food stuffs around me… the seduction however, had not carried over to the tandoori paste I had just bought home.

Surely I could make something that wouldn’t give me the heebie-jeebies just looking at the colour?

Let’s give it a crack…

Tandoori Paste

In a pan add

a couple of slurps of vegetable oil

diced onion, knob of ginger, and a couple of cloves of garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

2 tbls tomato paste

salt to taste

chilli to taste

fry it all off for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Then whizz to a smooth paste with a hand held mixer.

*******

Now authentic? Perhaps not, but I think a whole more so than a jar full of red food dye, and salt.

 I cooked this up with the obligatory chicken and yogurt dish, but I also had some left over and sourdough on the go. So Tandoori Flat Bread it was.

Just the thing to go and snack on while sitting on top of a castle.

cannoli time

Posted on by
21

 Cannoli had been on my ‘to do’ list for a couple of years now. Those tasty little Sicilian pastry desserts, with a crispy outer shell and sweet soft goodness inside. Ricotta, mascarpone, custard fillings…mmm, there is a lot to like about cannoli. A whole lot.

Now when the lovely Joanna from Zeb Bakes sent me some cannoli moulds, well it was a sign, wasn’t it.

It was time….it was cannoli time.

But which recipe to try? On the internet there were so many to choose from, I couldn’t decide, so after reading about twenty different recipes, it was back to hack baking again. I played. Maybe not the wisest choice considering they were supposed to be a little tricky, but my choice none the less. So, below is how I did it. These are not perfect. They’re good, but not perfect. They need tweaking, so they will definitely be made again.

The pastry was good, (smelt fantastic with the marsala in it) but I didn’t get that complete crispness that I was after. I’m not sure if it’s because I didn’t deep fry them, only shallow fried them, and I did have a bit of trouble getting the right temperature of the oil to cook them in. Or it was the pastry after all?

I liked the mixture inside, (it’s mascarpone right, and we’re friends from waaaay back.) The jam added was a little taste tweak, which worked. I would have added some lemon zest as well, but was all out.

Next time though.  And yes, there most assuredly will be a next, cannoli time.

 

Cannoli

Cannoli dough

400g plain flour

125g butter

85g (1/2 cup) icing sugar

125mls marsala

1 egg

In a food processor, pulse icing sugar, butter and flour. Until it looks like bread crumbs. Tip out to a bowl and add marsala and beaten egg. Mix, and bring together quickly with one hand. Form a ball, cover in cling wrap and pop in the fridge over night.

Next day, roll out in circles as thin as you can get without tearing, cutting circle sizes to fit cannoli molds.

Lightly oil cannoli molds with vegetable oil, (just the once is all that is needed.) Wrap the dough around and cook in oil until golden. Pull mould out while still hot/warm, (as if it’s cold it will get stuck.) Allow to cool on a rack.

Ricotta mixture

250g ricotta

250g mascarpone

85g (1/2 cup) icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 heaped tbls strawberry jam

Whip it all up, for a minute or two and then pipe. One side and then the other.

Only pipe the mixture just before serving. Dust with icing sugar.

Unfilled cannoli shells will last for about a week in an air tight container.

how to make butter and yogurt- Frugal Friday

Posted on by
46

I think every blogger who ever dabbles in food posts, has done a how- to- make- yogurt and/ or butter at one time or another. Just to add to the lovely collection- here’s my way.

How To Make Yogurt 

What you will need-

kettle, yogurt thermos, yogurt container, powdered milk, 2 heaped tablespoons old yogurt, water, measuring cup.

Time it takes- do it in the time it takes to boil the kettle.

Fill your kettle up and turn it on. Take 2 heaped spoonfuls of bought yogurt (like the end of the tub), add a little water to mix it, it’s now runny and set aside.

 Fill your yogurt container half full with water.

 Add one and a half cups of powdered milk. No need to shake it down and fit as much as you can, just roughly 1 1/2 cups. Mix it with a spoon and add your runny yogurt mixture. Mix again and fill the rest of the container up with water. Lid on, give it a good shake.

 Kettles boiled. Fill it up to the top of the plastic thingy inside. Place your yogurt container in with the lid on, add the thermos lid and leave it (don’t peak) for 8-12 hours. The longer you leave it the tartier it will taste. (I’ve forgotten it for 24 hours and it’s still fine.)

*******

Once, about every six weeks I refresh the batch with a packet of the ready to go yogurt mix you can buy (which is just add water and shake.) I find it keeps the cultures stronger, and more likely to keep it at a thicker Greek style yogurt consistency, (which is what we all like.)

$20 for the yogurt maker, and each litre of yogurt I make, works out to be about $1.50 a batch. I then add any of our homemade seasonal jams to sweeten the yogurt. Dead easy. You are saving a whole bundle of money, no more plastic tubs and you don’t have the usual paragraph of ingredients that’s in a lot of yogurt today.

How To Make Butter

In a mixer, pour in a carton of cream. The best you can buy, (not thickened cream). Whip it….and keep whipping…

 Keep it whipping until it starts to look like this. The liquid will start to separate, which is then able to be drained off. Add a pinch of salt (to taste) and keep squeezing out that excess moisture using a spatula against the side of the bowl. You don’t want any of that moisture in there. Once it is all drained off it can be shaped into what ever shape you need.

Next time you see one of those fancy pancy butters imported from countries far far away, you can have a little chuckle at the thought of spending that much money on butter and then go home and make it yourself. Again, dead easy.

Now where’s the bread to go with it?…

Purple Carrot Bread

Posted on by
45

Now if I had a back yard garden I would have rows and rows of heirloom carrots growing. Not because I have an over whelming taste for carrots all the time, (although I do quite like them.) But because there are so many different colours you can grow. Orange, yellow, white, pink and for todays bread, the lovely purple.

I don’t often see them for sale, however my local farmers market has been stocking them the last few weeks so I’ve been stocking up. The Monkeys needed a little convincing they were indeed still carrots. A raised eyebrow and a sceptical look that only a 3 and 5 year old can give on being told, ‘of course they were carrots, taste them’.

So why should you eat an heirloom variety carrot?

* They taste fantastic. If you are comparing it to an insipid supermarket pale old orange carrot- well, there is no comparison.

* Encouraging genetic diversity. 

 * The purple carrots are full of antioxidants, and… they make things a pretty purple colour, (like this bread.)

Purple Carrot Bread

150g sourdough starter

150g purple carrots- steamed/ mashed

25g wheat bran

125mls water + purple carrot water from cooking

225g strong bakers flour

1 tsp salt

I did an over night prove in the fridge for this one. Baked at 240C with steam.

The result is a soft, chewy crumb similar to adding oats in a dough. The purple cooking water from the carrots adds to the intensity of the colour. The next lot of bread I made was just with the carrots, and no cooking water- resulting in a slightly less intense colour.

Next stop, Purple Carrot Cake…

This post submitted to yeastspotting.

rolling weekend

Posted on by
19

  

rolling weekend
slow mornings
start
bubbling ideas of making and creating
for me and also
Monkey craft projects
that bring a smile
that centres and stills
listening to rain
drop
on little plants growing
simple food delights
remembering to breathe
dipping hands in dough
preserving the season
giggles with hide and seek
a kids party
causing
tired little feet
which brings on
afternoon snuggly siestas
holding that moment
and
dreaming

********

* Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my reconnecting with nature, city style post. Every comment was truly appreciated, thank you for taking that time. Some reminded me of things, some inspired me and some just prompted me to do more.

Illumination, disgrace and some Chocolate Honey biscuits

Posted on by
35

I can’t go in to my kitchen around two o’clock in the afternoon.

Far too scary.

At that time all I find is filth and disgrace. Twelve o’clock is fine, three thirty is fine too, but two o’clock…uh uhh.

You see, that’s when the afternoon light hits everything. Hit’s the bench tops, the stove top, the top of the fridge, the cupboard doors, it even fills up the tiny crack between the oven and the benches. So what does it show? It doesn’t show, it illuminates every crumb, finger print, and sloppage humanly possible.

At 9am, when the shadows are still discreet, I think I have a clean kitchen. I think I have a lovely clean kitchen. But come two o’clock and the thruth is revealed. The bare and honest truth.

If I have the unfortunate task of going in to said kitchen at this time, I usually do two things.

One, walk briskly out, muttering that’s disgusting, (obviously too disgusting to do anything about it.) Or two, I start cleaning.  Not enough to actually fix the problem, (because that clearly, would take hours and hours) but just enough to take away the time from what ever else I should have been doing.

So that’s why there can’t be any kitchen happenings at that time. Three thirty I can go back in there, and start hauling food around again.

(Which is well timed actually… as from three thirty onwards it’s the bathroom I have to avoid. Shocking illumination in there then.)

Chocolate Honey Biscuits

150g softened butter

150mls honey

150g melted chocolate

450g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all together. put through a piping bag with a wide nozzel, (or simply roll them.) Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes.

(See here for my original honey biscuits)

Golden light rye rolls

Posted on by
41

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal of the day.

Travelling overseas, it was always breakfast time that excited me the most. What did the locals eat? How did they start their day?

Germany was always my favourite. A substantial rye bread, cheese, meat and muesli. I read once that the German breakfast was the best way to start the day in terms of low GI and giving lasting energy through out the day. Compared to their neighbouring companions in Italy, who often start the day with a strong coffee and some sweet biscuits to dunk in. Not that I didn’t like that breakfast as well, however I would quite often be hungry two hours later. By lunch time I would be chasing my tail, eyes looking vague and softly muttering oh please feed me.

Malaysia I was also happy with. Eggs and roti (roti telur) being readily available, a little sambal on the side with some tea laced with condensed milk to wash it all down. There’s quite a lot to like of condensed milk early in the morning.

Bagni di Lucca had posted recently on eating breakfast in Finland. While smoked salmon and I are not friends, the picture of the rye bread rolls, remained at the fore front of my brain until I just had to have a go at baking the little fellas.

I enjoyed them so much, there have been at least four batches since. Just the thing to start your day with. It’s not a bowl of cafe au lait, or a straight off the hot plate roti telur. But teamed up with some tarty marmalade and cheese or some avocado/black pepper and tomato and I’m a happy mama. Giving me lots of energy to think about my next meal…


Golden light rye rolls

200g starter (100%)

250g strong bakers flour

100g rye flour

50g golden flaxseed

200mls+ water (approx, may need more.)

1 tsp dark malt flour

1 tsp salt

extra

1 tbls rye flour

80mls boiling water

Mixing ingredients together. Resting period of about 40 minutes before adding the salt, mix again plus a quick fold. Prove. Shape. Now make up the rye water mixture. (I first did this for this 100% rye, and wanted a similar soft top.) Slowly adding your boiling water, while quickly whisking your rye flour. Once mixed together just leave it until the bread is finished the final prove. Just before the bread rolls go in to bake add a good spoonful of the rye mixture to the top, smoothing it over. Squirt with water and pop in the oven at 240 with steam.

This post submitted to yeastspotting.

reconnecting with nature…city style

Posted on by
56

How much of a part of being human, is it to want to reconnect with nature in some way?

Is that reconnection slowly being bumped off and ignored for noisier, flashier city lifestyle options?

These questions have been rolling around my head for a while now, and I don’t think they have rolled to a conclusion. More rolled on, created conversations and sat still on pondered thoughts.

It seems rather funny to be typing this post at the moment as all I can hear from outside my apartment windows, is the sound of a revved up chainsaw, slowly but surely taking down a well established tree in the back of a neighbour’s yard… Fitting.

This reconnection that I’m thinking of, could be as simple as having an indoor plant in your kitchen, while living in a 40 story city apartment building. A tiny corner of green that requires very little attention, but is there in the background in all it’s greenness.

For someone else, it could be growing your own vegetables in the back yard. Bushwalking, or swimming in the sea…

I’m still working out how exactly I fit in with this one and how I like to reconnect with nature. I know I feel better for it when I do. Calmer, more at peace, and a lot less likely for worry about the smaller things to take hold. I also know I would like to do more, and am aiming for that down the track. While I love living where I do, and think there are some truly wonderful benefits to living where I do. I also want my children to know more of the different aspects of nature there can be. To not feel totally engulfed by a consumeristic-lights flashing, plastic driven kind of lifestyle. I don’t want to feel I have a boxed in life, without any aspects of greenery around me. Those moments of reconnecting with nature make me feel more grounded.

Is that faster, fluorescent lighting lifestyle in some ways just inevitable to living in a large city?…Or does everyone in some way, still yearn for that tiny piece of nature that reconnects them? Maybe they are not even aware of it?

Sitting under a tree in the park…. cooking up freshly plucked homegrown fruit.

A trying afternoon recently, and all I wanted to do was go out to my backyard and lay on the grass looking up at the night sky. I needed to feel the earth beneath me, reconnect. Breathe in, breathe out… 5 minutes later and I could have righted myself. However I didn’t have that back yard, and I didn’t have that grass. So I sat on the kitchen floor… I invited Mr Chocolate to take a seat too. We talked, I felt a bit better, but it wasn’t a backyard with grass beneath me and I can’t help but wonder whether it would have helped a bit more if it had been.

How many people would say they have no connection with nature what so ever and have no desire to? I wonder, I really do… Is this a number that will keep on growing?

I was excited for a friend once, to find that her newly bought tiny apartment was directly opposite a community garden. She was disgusted at the thought of sticking her fingers in dirt, so no, she wouldn’t be signing up for a small patch. Instead, her down time was to spend hours upon hours window shopping in the city at any given opportunity. I would rather fork my eyeballs then spend a whole day doing that.

Restoring weekends away out of the city used to help keep the balance. These seem to be getting less and less as time goes by and various family members take on more weekly commitments. When we are out of the city though, time slows down. My breathing becomes deeper. Mind more focussed… or is that simply less distractions. Less need to multi task, and fit 100 things in to the day?

As the noisy chainsaw continues I’m musing here, and I’m curious…

If you live in the city do you feel a need to reconnect with nature in some way? Do you feel better for it?

I would think it would be slightly unlikely someone who felt no need what so ever to feel drawn to some aspects of living with nature to be reading cityhippyfarmgirl, but on the off chance there is or you know someone who is like that. I would love to know your thoughts.

If you don’t live in an urban area what are your favourite things to do? Tease me.

Almond pesto- Frugal Friday

Posted on by
34

 

Pesto is one of those dead easy, whiz it up and away you go kind of meals. The only thing that stops me is pine nuts. Yes, I love them, they are delicious. However I can’t source any local ones and they are really quite expensive. Swapping the pine nuts to a cheaper and more local nut works just as well though.

I’ve made it with pecans, walnuts before and for this one it was almonds. Blitzing whole almonds in a blender (skins on) then adding 2 bunches of fresh basil, some grated parmesan and some great local olive oil. It’s an accompaniment to lots of dishes. It never lasts long in this house, but this amount will give a good sized jar, which I just top up with some extra olive oil, and then keep it in the fridge.

Eat it stirred through pasta, a little chopped up chilli and extra parmesan.

Mixed with rice, baby spinach, and crumbled fetta.

Or simply on some toasted sourdough, bruschetta style.

guilty pleasure

Posted on by
45

I have a guilty confession. It plagues me a little, it taunts me too.

Others taunt me because of it.

You see I….

Oh maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe it would be unwise to announce to the world my guilty confession. No, guilty pleasure. A secret best kept in the dark and only to be known and enjoyed by me. Sometimes I force my guilty pleasure on to Mr Chocolate. He endures, through gritted teeth and a dozey eye, he even musters a word or two directed at me in relation to it. But really, he would much rather do….most anything, then join me in my guilty pleasure.

I haven’t tried to stop, I haven’t gone without for a while. I still actively seek it out. I am truly loyal to this guilty pleasure.

But what is it? What could it be, that sits silently with me, and makes people raise their eyebrows in shock and followed by just a little scorn.

What could this colossal special guilty pleasure be? What could be enough to purse people’s lips, and harden people’s hearts at the mere mention of it? That’s right, some people’s hearts harden at just the mere mention of it. You what?!

You see, I like….

Survivor.

No. I love Survivor. Yes, I mean the American Reality Tv show based on Outwitting, Outlasting and Outplaying other competitors while living in an isolated location. Yes, it’s a little cheesy, a little staged, a little way too coordinated and I thoroughly enjoy it.

Every. Little. Bit!

I don’t read trashy magazines. I don’t smoke. I don’t go out clubbing all night. I don’t spend whole days shoe shopping. I don’t watch day time tv, I barely watch night time tv. I don’t guzzle soft drink. I don’t eat chocolate bars lying in bed at night. I don’t watch Neighbours, Days of our Lives, Eastenders painting my toenails. I don’t collect mugs with fluffy cats in pink ribbons.

I don’t… well, you get the picture.

But… I do watch Survivor, And this week a new season starts and I CAN’T wait.

************

Wikipedia– A guilty pleasure is something one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. The “guilt” involved is sometimes simply fear of others discovering one’s lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes. Fashion, video games, music, movies, and can be examples of guilty pleasures.

Come on, cough it up….. what’s your guilty pleasure?

Dark Chocolate Espresso Brownie Parfaits

Posted on by
40

Something odd happened recently. I had read a post from the delightful Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide on brownie parfaits, and how there had been some brownie lurking in their freezer to make these up. They certainly looked delicious, but I have NEVER had brownie in my freezer, and probably wouldn’t be having any in there in the near future. Idea pushed aside….

Several days later and I wanted to bake something to take to an important meeting full of important people, as a little thank you. What to bake?….How about brownie? (See the brownie seed had been planted.)

I wanted to make dark chocolate espresso ones, and started baking the afternoon before…. Oh snap, crackle, pop. No eggs! But it’s too late, I’d already done everything except for add the eggs.

Bugger…

Hmmm, ok, eggless brownie seems to work (after a quick scan of the internet) let’s cross eyes and hope for the best. Baked, cooled, cut….and crumble. Loads of crumbles. I think with the high cocoa content I was using with the chocolate (72%) combined with the no eggs, it just wasn’t going to happen.

But, said crumbly brownies would be perfect for say…parfait? Which is how I came to have brownies in my freezer.

A frantic call out to Mr Chocolate for eggs on the way home from work and I made up the brownies again in the evening. This time lowering the cocoa solids percentage (50%) and adding the eggs….ahhh, much better. No crumbles, and everyone at the meeting the next day happily emptied the brownie container, leaving a smattering of satisfied crumbs.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Brownie Parfaits

Layer your glass with brownie (eggless and 72% chocolate or otherwise)

Add mascarpone layer (250g mascarpone, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup icing sugar, a splash of milk- whisked together)

Thinly sliced strawberries

Eat with enthusiasm and a small spoon.

* I’m not sure that this actually fits in to the definition of parfait, but the alternative was to name the Dark Chocolate Espresso Brownie, layered Mascarpone and Strawberry Thing….

…parfait it is.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Brownie

250g dark chocolate (50%)

250 butter

60mls espresso coffee

2 tso vanilla

200g brown sugar

150g plain flour

50g s/r flour

4 beaten eggs

In a pot, gently melt the butter and chocolate. Turn off and add the vanilla, coffee and brown sugar. Cool a little, then add beaten eggs and fold through flour. Mixture is runny. Pour into a greased, lined baking tray, (23cm-ish) Bake at 180C for approximately 30 minutes.


Red Lantern

Posted on by
28

Can you guess where I had lunch?

My belly is full, my mind content and my taste buds happily reliving each dish…

Red Lantern.

Now I don’t do restaurant reviews, so this is a plead. Please go there, the food is truly wonderful.

I was really happy with going to Aria last year, but I have to say Red Lantern, you have taken my heart. A restaurant that has two feet firmly planted in the ethical, sustainable, organic eating arena while staying within their Vietnamese origins.

A cosy table for two tucked away in the corner. Let me have one eye on the other customers, seeing what they were ordering. While keeping the other eye on Mr Chocolate making sure he didn’t take any more of the melt in your mouth chilli salted squid than he should be.

It was also really lovely to see Luke Nguyen taking plates out to tables and explaining dishes to customers. Taking the time out to explain one particular dish to me and then coming back to show what he had meant about the cooking process, with said dish in hand.

Food was beautifully presented, tasted wonderful and I’ll be thinking about those dishes for a good while to come.

 Muc Rang Muoi- chilli salted squid

 Banh Tom- rice cakes with tiger prawns, caramelized pork and pork floss

 Goat Curry

 Dessert tasting plate- Coconut Creme Caramel with Strawberries, Sesame dumpling with Black Sesame Icecream, Black Sticky Rice with Caramelized Pumpkin and Coconut Cream.

Table for two next week?….Yes please.

******

Red Lantern

545 Crown Street

Surry Hills, Sydney

(o2) 96984355