Merry

Candied spiced almonds and cashews, exactly like what they sell at German Christmas markets, that I made and wrapped for Christmas presents.
I hope everyone is having a great Christmas, mine certainly has been. Tomorrow I'm off to Melbourne for a few days, then to Lismore/ Byron Bay for New Year's Eve + a few days. Please let me know of any must visit places (cafes, shops, sights) that you might know in either Melbourne or Byron!

SWEET #2

These are really yummy, easy and both are no-bake; perfect, old-fashioned summery petit fours.

SWEET

I turned 21 on the weekend. On Saturday night I had a big party (more on that soon), and on Sunday afternoon a high tea.
These are two things I made for it:

SALAD I

I realise the pumpkin/ feta/ rocket combination is nothing new, but try adding broccoli and honey and wait for joyous thanks from your taste buds. 

Pumpkin: peel, cut, drizzle with olive oil & roast for around 30 minutes
Red onion, sliced
Broccoli, small pieces
Rocket
Feta, crumbed
Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey & wholegrain mustard

Sautee onions and broccoli in a saucepan for a few minutes (broccoli should still be crunchy), remove from the pan, turn off the heat and in the still-warm pan add about a teaspoon of honey, a generous glug of olive oil, balsamic & mustard, and stir to combine. Assemble the salad and add dressing from the pan. 

BREAKFAST

BIRCHER MUESLI: Mix all ingredients together and let soak overnight. Serve with extra yoghurt & honey/ fresh fruit.

STRAYA

CHEESE & VEGEMITE BISCUITS

NEED:

125 grams chilled butter, cubed

120 grams (½ cup) cheddar cheese, grated

150 grams (1¼ cups) plain flour

2-3 teaspoons vegemite (depending how much you can handle) (I only put the tiniest bit on bread)

1 teaspoon cold water

DO:

Place all ingredients in a food processor and using the pulse action, process until the ingredients just come together.

Remove the dough, form it into a disc shape, wrap in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180C, roll dough out on baking paper to about 5mm, cut shapes out and bake for about 15 minutes.

Happy Australia Day folks! I'm not one for themed posts but with my new cookie cutters I couldn't resist. Have fun (everyone who resides Down Under at least) drinking VB, eating lamb and listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 (which I very sadly was too late getting my vote in for). It's been 9 very happy years that I've been in the Lucky Country and I'm very thankful to Australia for opening it's doors to my family and I.

TACK

PEANUT BUTTER & ALMOND COOKIES

NEED:
100g butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 plain all purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
whole almonds, for decorating

DO:
Preheat oven to 180C.

Place the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and brown sugar in an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until well combined.

Add egg and beat for 2-3 minutes or until pale and fluffy.

Add flour and bicarbonate of soda and beat until smooth dough forms.

Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to about 5mm thick.

Use a cookie cutter to cut rounds (7cm cutter makes about 22), leaving room to spread.

Place on baking trays and press almonds into the rounds to decorate.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are golden & allow to cool.

Before you judge, it's done tacky on purpose! When my brother's girlfriend brought these gems over in that great, bright 80's Tupperware container I couldn't resist keeping with the theme and photographing them on that equally 80's tablecloth. These were my comfort food tonight as I have been struggling with assembling an IKEA shelf that I really underestminated the difficulty of building. Have (mostly) kept with my mini resolution of not eating any chocolate for the month of January in an attempt to lessen my addiction. (Yes, it's actually an addiction. I shamefully wouldn't be able to go to sleep at night if I hadn't had any chocolate that day.) Anyway, these are good.Do try if you have the chance.

Thanks Madi for the recipe & cookies!

WHAT TO DO WITH...

What do you do with two huge crates of zucchini varieties from your friend who is on holiday's vegetable garden? After much googling (and thinking the light green variety might actually be butternut pumpkin that wasn't ripe yet), I found out that the yellow one is called 'golden globe squash' and the light green one 'marrow'. I cooked them the same way I would cook a regular zucchini.

STUFFED ZUCCHINIS

For about 16 halves (quite a lot):

NEED:

8 zucchinis

½ cup couscous

½ cup boiling water

1 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

1 cup peas

2-3 rashers of bacon, chopped

½ red onion, diced

tomato, chopped into small pieces

1-2 tsp ground cumin

egg

basil (chopped leaves or dried)

oil, salt & pepper

DO:

In a sealable container, add couscous, boiling water, large pinch of salt and a dash of oil and let stand, covered, for 30mins, using a fork to separate the grains after about 20 mins.

Sauté onions in oil in a large pan, then add bacon, after a minute or so add chickpeas, peas and cumin and fry.

Add couscous and tomato, stir in, then add whisked egg to bind mixture.

Meanwhile, bring large pot of water to the boil then add zucchinis, parboiling for about 5 minutes (be careful not to overcook as they still need to go in the oven).

Take zucchinis out of the water, slice each lengthways, then scoop out seeds (I used an apple corer which worked quite well).

Put the stuffing in the zucchinis (can also sprinkle parmesan over if you wish) and bake in 180°C oven for about 15 minutes.

PULLED ZUCCHINI BUNS

NEED/DO:

Slice 1 zucchini using a vegetable peeler and fry in a pan with ¼ of a finely sliced red onion, chopped small clove of garlic, salt & pepper. Spread both sides of toasted bun with basil pesto, add half the zucchini slices and top with shaved pecorino or parmesan. Makes 2.

Any other suggestions what I could do with the remaining box? Rattatouille first came to mind but after reading this recently, the idea of using tinned tomatoes didn't seem all that appealing.

Hope 2012 has been kind to you so far!

ONE PERCENT

A few months ago, we used to joke that if you were seen eating a banana you were part of the richest 1% since they were so expensive for a while as a result of the Queensland floods (that is, if you live in Australia). Now they're back to normal prices, the rest of us 99% can enjoy them, especially in classic favourite recipes such as banana bread (who are we kidding, really it's cake). Not exaggerating, this is one of my favourite foods.

CINNAMON BANANA BREAD

NEED:

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

500ml plain flour

250ml sugar

1tsp ground cinnamon

125g butter

2 eggs

60ml water

1tsp (heaped) baking powder

1tsp bicarb soda

pinch salt

DO:

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy

Stir the mashed banana in and beat for a few seconds

Add the eggs one by one and beat until thoroughly mixed

Stir into the mixture the flour, cinnamon and salt

Dissolve the bicarb soda in the water and stir into the mix, then add the baking powder and mix

Pour the batter into a well-greased loaf bread pan and bake for about 45 mins in oven at 180C

Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes before taking out

RICORDO

I had this pasta for the first time whilst travelling in Sardinia last year. Sardinia is a fairly large island off the coast of Italy which often gets overshadowed its slightly-more-famous sibling island, Sicily. This sauce is delicious and very quick to make.

Mediterranean Pesto:

(serves one)

NEED:

100g spaghetti

50g sun dried tomatoes

50g pitted marinated olives

handful grated parmesan

small handful basil leaves

olive oil

lemon juice

DO:

Cook spaghetti until al dente (12ish minutes)

Pop sun dried tomatoes, olives (make sure they're all pitted), basil leaves, dash olive oil and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds (but not too long) until ingredients are finely chopped.

Stir pesto mixture and parmesan through warm pasta & serve.

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS

First of all, I just want to apologise for the horrible post title. I couldn't resist.

Secondly, welcome to summer! (if you live in the Southern Hemisphere at least). This is my grandma's recipe for lemon cordial, which when mixed with soda water makes an excellent, all natural, super refreshing lemonade. If you're going to try any recipe I've posted on this blog so far, try this one. It might seem like a bit of work to juice 7 lemons, but the end result is totally worth it, plus it makes a huge amount (considering you mix it with 5 parts water), so it will definitely last you for the whole summer, depending on how many lemonade stands you want to set up outside your house!

Lemon Cordial for Lemonade

NEED:

zest of 5 lemons

juice of 7 lemons (around 500ml)

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

DO:

Cook sugar and water in a pot until sugar is dissolved, bring to the boil and cook until a thin syrup forms (around 15 mins)

Remove from heat, add lemon juice and zest, and leave to stand for 5+ hours

Strain the cordial and pour into sterilised bottles. Mix 1 part cordial to 5 parts water/ soda water and serve over ice and mint leaves for ultimate Summer refreshment.

Note: Unless the bottles are completely sealed & airtight, I find it is best to keep it in the fridge. Alternatively, you can add half a teaspoon of citric acid when adding the lemon zest but I find that this changes the flavour slightly & makes it not completely ‘all natural’- but it does mean you don’t have to store it in the fridge.

RELISH

Sonoma Kalamata sourdough, red onion relish, leg ham, blue vein cheese, walnuts & thyme.

This ^ is my ultimate favourite home-made pizza combination, but as it has been quite hot this week I tried it on some nice sourdough & turns out it is definitely just as delicious on a sandwich. I love chutneys/ relishes & this one definitely does not disappoint.

Red Onion Chutney

NEED:

3 red onions

1 green apple

5-10 dried apricots

100ml red wine

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp honey

2 tbsp brown sugar

salt to taste

DO:

In a food processor, chop onions, apple & apricots until fine but not mushy.

Heat some olive oil in a medium saucepan and lightly fry onion mixture for 5 minutes

Add all other ingredients, stir to combine and simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for around 1 hour.

The chutney will keep in a sterilised jar for a few months but is definitely too yummy to last that long!

AUTUMN IN SPRING

CINNAMON & RED WINE POACHED PEARS

NEED:

• 4 brown (beurre bosc) pears
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup red wine
• 1.5 cups sugar (brown or white)
• 1 cinnamon quill/ 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• plain yoghurt
• nuts (any kind)

DO:

• Add water, wine and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves
• Meanwhile, peel pears, leaving stem on ('cause it looks pretty)
• Place pears and cinnamon in the pot and cover with a square of baking paper (or half-cover with lid) and let simmer for about 30 minutes, turning pears occasionally
• Serve warm with some of the liquid, as well as a few spoons of yoghurt & sprinkled with chopped nuts.

Taken with a Canon 600D

The weather in Sydney has been pretty miserable for the past few days and it's hard to believe that summer is only a week away. Suitably, this recipe is very Autumny and perfect for days like today. As a dessert it's very healthy (I may or may not have had this for breakfast). I find the yoghurt balances the sweetness of the poaching liquid out nicely and the nuts add interesting texture. The taste reminds me of drinking mulled wine at some of the amazing German Christmas markets last year.