Recently in Food and Recipes Category

Christmas Cookies

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Actually made in late November.  Have been too lazy to make anything else since then.

Christmas cookies


More foodie goodness

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Saturday morning we went to Black Pepper for breakfast then did our food shopping.

Dessert Saturday night was pretty simple and wheat-free - strawberries dipped in white chocolate, and mandarin pieces and raspberries dipped in dark chocolate.  The strawberries especially were nommmm!!!

Fruit Chocolate

Sunday was mostly a quiet day at home, although I did go down to Tony's to do a plant swap - some fish tank plants for a big bunch of rosemary for the night's lamb roast.  As well as delicious lamb, we did a whole heap of vegetables - garlic, pumpkin, sweet potato, swede, zucchini, carrot, red onion, mushroom and capsicum.  So yummy!  And so simple, and apart from a good sloshing of oil, amazingly healthy (well maybe not the lamb so much hehe).

Roast veggie goodness


Rice

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The sweetie and I went to Rice Asian Tapas Bar in Civic for dinner tonight.  We just got five "tapas" - really just entrees you'd get at any Asian restaurant.

Fish cakes
Rice - Fish cakes

Peking duck
Rice - Peking duck

Curry puffs
Rice - Curry puffs

Money bags
Rice - Money bags

Satay chicken sticks
Rice - Satay chicken sticks


It was all pretty tasty, and we had the place entirely to ourselves heh.

Melting Moments

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My dessert challenge this weekend was "Melting Moments".  They turned out pretty well, although the shortbread is pretty dry/floury, I've never been a huge fan of shortbread.  Still, they were liked so that's the main thing.

Melting Moments


Melting Moments

Ingredients

Method

Biscuits:

250g butter, cubed, at room temperature

1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1/3 cup cornflour

 

Filling:

60g butter, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 orange, rind finely grated

2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

 

Beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence in a medium bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy.

Sift together the flour and cornflour, add to the butter mixture and mix with the beaters on low speed until just combined and a soft dough forms.

Lightly flour hands then roll the mixture into small balls. Place on the prepared baking tray about 5cm apart. Use a fork that has been dipped in flour to flatten each ball to about 3cm in diameter and 1 cm thick.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Repeat with the remaining mixture.

 

Beat the butter, vanilla essence and orange rind in a small bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy.

Add the icing sugar and beat until combined.

 

To assemble biscuits, spread the base of a biscuit with filling and then join with another biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits and filling.

 

 

Options and Notes

From http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/10246/melting+moments

Makes twenty completed biscuits

 

 

 

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Ingredients in stock

Butter

Orange

 

 

 

 

Icing sugar

Vanilla essence

Plain flour

Corn flour

 


Apple Pie!

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I spent about four hours tonight making this.  (Four hours from when I started to when I served it).

Yep.

But on a lighter note, it did actually turn out pretty impressively.  Nice filling, and a decent crust.  I thought when I had made it that the crust was far too powdery/flakey to work, but it actually turned out rather well.  And was able to flop the whole thing out without it disintegrating.

I'd say I'd happily make it again, but it was such a lot of work that I just don't know....  Maybe it'd be a bit easier with a food processor.. not so much fiddling with the flour and butter..

Apple Pie


I happened across this recipe for Violet Crumble Cheesecake Slice during the week and was inspired to make it this weekend.

Violet Crumble cheesecake slice

I decided to make a traditional cheesecake base rather than using the waffles.  And I probably added a bit too much "Violet Crumble" on top (I couldn't actually find any real Violet Crumble - I haven't seen the bags of it in forever.  I ended up using a brand I'd never heard of, as Crunchie just isn't the same.  It was ok, better than Crunchie, but not as good as "real" Violet Crumble).

It turned out well enough, could maybe have been a little firmer.  But I did hack the original recipe a bit - I used 500g cream cheese because that was the sized tubs it comes in.  Maybe should have used a bit more gelatine?

Unfortunately I won't be able to take this one to work for morning teas.  Will just have to work our way through it at home during the week :)



Violet Crumble Cheesecake Slice

 

Ingredients

Method

Biscuit base:

250g pack Arnotts Nice biscuits, crushed

125g butter, melted

 

 

Crush a whole pack of Arnotts Nice biscuits to breadcrumb size

Melt 125g butter

Mix butter into biscuit crumbs

Spread mix onto a lined large baking tray

Refrigerate to set

 

Filling:

2x 250g packs cream cheese, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla essence

½ cup caster sugar

300mL thickened cream

3tsp gelatine powder

300g Violet Crumble, roughly crushed

 

Sprinkle the gelatine over 1/4 cup (60ml) of water in a heatproof bowl. Place in a saucepan over simmering water and stir until the gelatine has dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.

Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, vanilla essence and sugar until smooth.

Use clean electric beaters to beat the cream in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Fold the cream into the cream cheese mixture with the gelatine and half the Violet Crumble.

Spoon the cheese mixture into the pan and smooth the surface. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Scatter with the remaining Violet Crumble to serve.

 

 

 

Options and Notes

Adapted from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/13453/violet%20crumble%20cheesecake%20slice

and http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/23428/kims+cheesecake

 

 

 

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Ingredients in stock

Butter

2x 250g tubs cream cheese

300mL thickened cream

 

 

250g Nice Biscuits

Violet crumble

Caster sugar

Vanilla essence

Gelatine powder

 


Anzac Biscuits

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I should have made these on Anzac Day, but didn't actually think of it.  Then Lisa posted a pic of hers from last year. So last weekend I had a go at making some.

Anzac biscuits

They were awesome!!  Most of them didn't last the weekend.  I did hide a few, which I took to work to eat as morning teas all week.

So this was dinner tonight.  And here's what I've been working on for a recipe template.  The idea is it has the actual recipe, as well as a section for variations and notes, and finally a shopping list to make it easy for menu planning.

Not that I ever follow recipes like this directly, I tend to improvise somewhat and tend not to measure out things (except when baking cakes etc).

This is Alan's recipe for beef stew (he didn't include the paprika or sour cream so technically his isn't a stroganoff), with the variations added to make it a stroganoff.  He also always does his in a big electric fry-pan.  Until tonight that's always how I did mine too.  But thought would try it tonight in the slow cooker - better surface so doesn't need as much stirring and easier cleanup.

Pretty much my favourite recipe of his.  Just the other day marked ten years since his heart attack, and apparently he's still going strong...


Alan’s Beef Stroganoff

 

Ingredients

Method

1kg chuck steak, diced

500g bacon, diced

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 bag mushrooms, sliced

1 tin diced tomatoes

1 pack cream of mushroom soup

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp mixed herbs

2 tbsp paprika

150g sour cream

200mL red wine

1L beef stock

 

 


 

Brown bacon and add to slow cooker

Brown onions and garlic and add to slow cooker

Brown mushrooms and add to slow cooker

Put flour, soup packet mix, herbs and paprika into a plastic bag with no holes and mix

Add chuck steak to bag and coat in the mix

Brown the steak and add to slow cooker

Deglaze the pan with some red wine and add to slow cooker with a goodly amount of wine

Add the remainder of the flour mix to the slow cooker

Add tin of tomatoes to slow cooker

Cover with stock

Cook on high for four hours or low all day

 

At the end, add the sour cream to lighten the stew

 

Serve with rice and/or peas and corn

 

 

Options and Notes

Red wine is optional, as are several of the ingredients, including the bacon and the tomatoes.  Use garlic to your taste.

It doesn’t matter too much what order you brown the ingredients

You can do this in an electric fry pan too – brown everything then turn the heat down to simmer, stirring every so often

 

 

 

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Ingredients in stock

1kg chuck steak

500g packet bacon

Onion

Garlic

Mushrooms

Sour cream

 

Tin diced tomatoes

Cream of mushroom soup

Red wine (eg Shiraz)

Flour

Mixed herbs

Paprika

Beef stock

 

I like to call this my "Christmas" red curry, because the ingredients are red (bull capsicum and red curry paste), green (buk choi) and white (mushroom, garlic, rice and coconut cream).  I suppose the cashews on top kind of spoil that..

Christmas red curry

Yeup.

Grumpy with the jigsaw.  Only 354 pieces left to put in, but it's taking an eternity.  It's going to take weeks at the rate I'm going to finish it :(

Dinners this week

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Firstly, excuse the crappy crappy photos :(

Sunday I made a fairly simple massaman curry.  All I knew was that it was supposed to have beef and potato, and I could use some massaman curry paste I had in the pantry.

So the recipe went along the lines of:
Cut up a bunch of chuck steak and potatoes and stick em in a slow cooker with three or four dollops of massaman curry paste and a little stock to cover.
Come back after doing fish stuff and some housework and add in a chopped up onion and carrot.
Stir occasionally over the course of the afternoon to make sure everything gets covered and cooked properly.
Add in a tin of light coconut cream at the end.

Yummy yum yum!  The sweetie went back for seconds (not unusual, but if he doesn't like it he won't) :)
And the onion was the softest onion I have ever eaten!
Slow cooked chuck steak I think is one of my favourite meats, I love how it disintegrates when you eat it.  I really should do more slow cooker recipes with it.

Massaman Curry


Tonight I decided to surprise the sweetie with okonomiyaki as seen on Bike Bake Blog.  I've been wanting to make this for weeks, and finally got around to doing it.

I used a little more flour and water than suggested, as it didn't seem batterey enough, and half a capsicum that was getting old and needed using up.  I should have cut up the cabbage finer, it was a bit rough.  Also made the okonomiyaki sauce which turned out really well as well.

The sweetie raved about this one, he said we should have it every week lol
I'm still full, I think two pancakes was a little too much for me!  We still have a heap of the mixture left so put that in the fridge for another night this week :)

Okonomiyaki


Welcome to my little piece of the Blogosphere!

I am a recent Canberra resident after having spent the first 34 years of my life in Sydney. I am married to my beautiful husband Stu, and we live with several computers and a lot of fish.

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