thermomix focaccia

last night i made the focaccia from the thermomix everyday cookbook, and it ain't half bad. the dough has a higher proportion of water compared to the basic bread recipe, so the dough is stickier, but it makes for a lighter bread. the outside is crisp, and the inside is light and fluffy. the next day, it's chewier, but still good (i quite like some of my breads chewy).

my tip when making this dough would be to make sure the thermomix bread mat is floured before tipping the dough onto it, and a little more flour sprinkled over the dough so as to prevent it from sticking. after proving, just tip the dough onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. you'll find the dough very easy to press out to cover the baking sheet. once that's done, scatter the salt and herbs over the top and drizzle with olive oil. if you chose to bake the focaccia immediately, the bread will be denser, and to my taste, more traditional italian in texture. left for a longer prove, lighter and fluffier!

i can see this dough would make lovely, light grissini and bacon and cheese rolls not unlike those from bakers' delight.

inspiration from masterchef

this season's masterchef seems to be using the sous vide technique a bit more than the last season.....george's meatloaf burger, peter gilmore's poached chicken and truffles...while the thermomix hasn't got the capacity of a commercial immersion water bath (it is a domestic machine after all), one can enjoy restaurant quality sous vide with a bit of imagination. i figured that i'm going to try george's meatloaf burger, but mine will be more like scotch eggs, and i'll make peter's chicken much the same way - they'll be chicken balls. there's a definite plus there - the chicken skin won't have to be so big because my parcels will be smaller.
i remember when i got my thermomix, i really wanted it because it could cook and stir. little did i know i was going to get so many bonus appliances.....and that i would use it so many times a day....much better to get bonuses rather than be dissappointed.

vegetable medley

one of my favourite ways of cooking vegetables is to "steam" them in the pot. rather then boil them in a large pot of water, i prepare the vegetables, place them in a saucepan, add half a cup of salted water and a knob of butter. let the vegetables half poach and half steam on full boil.

to serve, add some freshly chopped herbs. use any combination of vegetables you like - i like carrots, zuchinni, squash, asparagus, beans, brocolli, cauliflower.....and a knob of butter, if you like!

morrocan carrot salad....my way....revisited....

bb invited me over for dinner a few nights ago and asked me to make a few things; one was salad. after some thought, i decided to refine it - i'm not mad about the one i posted earlier. to me, it was a bit boring and i wanted something with more ooomph. so this is my new version.

the leaves of half a bunch of parsley
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 spanish onion, peeled and quartered
1 red apple, quartered and cored
1 green apple, quartered and cored
1 rib celery, cut into 5cm lengths
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
a few drops orange flower water
a good few sploshes of extra virgin olive oil
the juice of a lemon
3 tablespoons hommus (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons currants
toasted slivered almonds

place everything except the currants into the thermomix bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 5. add the currants and almonds and reverse stir the salad on speed 3 for 10 seconds.

thank you for anzacs

i'd like to say thank you for the anzacs; without them, where would we be today?

a big, heartfelt thank you.

we will remeber them today with our favourite anzac biscuits.

almond chews

miss k was needing something to take to school for her tutor group's morning tea, and i decided that i wanted to try a new recipe. if it worked, well and good, and if it didn't, it was going to be cut into little pieces and i doubt any of the girls would knock it back, so it would at least get eaten. miss k oroginally wanted to do the mini cupcake thing but got lazy, hence my opportunity to make this, if you must know....i seize opportunities as they present themselves.

2 eggs
1 1/4 cups (310g) sugar
1/4 cup (45g) brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
160g butter, softened
250g self raising flour
150g white chocolate bits
200g flaked almonds

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

line a 20cm x 30cm shallow baking tin with baking paper, leaving the papr hanging over the sides to assist in lifting the cooked slice out of the tin.

whisk the eggs, sugars and vanilla until thick. add the butter and beat until well combined. fold in the flour, white chocolate and 75g the almonds.

sprinkle 35g of the almonds over the base of the tin and spoon the mixture into the tin. sprinkle the remaining almonds over the top of the batter and press gently to spread the batter out evenly.

bake for 30 minutes or until golden. the slice, whilst cooked, will be soft and chewy in the centre.

allow the slice to cool in the tin. lift out of the tin and cut as desired.

hokey pokey

the first time i ever had hokey pokey icecream was when i went to new zealand....north island....pokono....i think that's how it's spelt. this was quite a long time ago. a tiny little place, but famous (well, it was back when i was there) for their icecream. their icecream was the same as everyone elses', but it was the way they scooped it. they were big scoops of icecream which supported other big scoops of icecream. from memory, the double cone had 2 scoops of icecream, one in each cavity, then another scoop on top.

today, i sit here chomping on my cornetto hokey poke cone. typical cornetto size and should be greatful it doesn't contain the calories a pokono icecream cone has, but still reminiscing about the pokono icecream.......

minty things

let me tell you how anal i was when i was in primary school (that was in the seventies)...remember perkin's paste (you really have to be my vintage to appreciate this)? in the magenta coloured container? the paste was all nice and smooth on top, and when i used it, i never disturbed the nice smoothness, and would just carefully use the paste next to the paddle thing so as not to mess it up.....i'm the only person i know who kept their paste like that....it was so traumatic when someone borrowed it and messed it up, and you know what? it still is. i lent my copy of bridget jones' diary to someone once and it came back so battered (it was like new - the spine didn't even have a crease....)....sad...i know....i really have to lighten up...i am much better these days.

morrocan carrot salad....my way

this is the thermomix morrocan carrot salad (a taste of vegetarian, page 56), but done my way. instead of three process steps in the themomix, i've chosen to condense it to two, partly because i'm a lazy sorta girl, and partly because i like how it looks - the herbs are less pastey looking, and look like they're more part of the salad when it's done my way. naturally, if anyone is allergic to almonds or pistachios, omit them, but they add such a nice crunch to the salad.

mint
italian parsley
3 large carrots, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
a few drops orange flower water
30 grams extra virgin olive oil
the juice of one lemon
salt, pepper, sugar to taste
2 tablespoons currants
2 tablespoons toasted slivered almonds or pistachios

place the herbs, carrots, spices, orange flower water, oil, juice and seasonings into the thermomix bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 5. add the currants and nuts and combine on reverse speed 3 for 5 seconds.

another reason why i like my thermomix...

not only is it fast, but flour doesn't fly all over the place when i use the thermomix when i make cake. this is actually a big plus for me when i make cake.

nutty pumpkin salad

i love this salad. the original came from the austalian womens' weekly's great barbeque cookbook, but as with so many things, i can't leave them well enough alone.

1 kilogram pumpkin, cubed (i like jap/kent pumpkins best)
2 bacon rashers, chopped
3/4 cup pepitas
1 apple, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teasoopn ground nutmeg

microwave the pumpkin until just tender. cool.
cook bacon until crisp. drain and cool.
gently combine the pumpkin, apple, celery, mayonnaise, sour cream and nutmeg together. place in serving bowl and sprinkle the pepitas and bacon over before serving.

to thermomix or not to thermomix

tomi expressed to me that all the recipes i've posted requiring the thermomix don't apply to her...well....yes and no. most of them can be made without a thermomix except for the sous vide cooking. the thermomix just makes things easy - one doesn't have to cook the stock concentrate in a saucepan, then blend it with a food processor or blender and have all the washing up to do. the same applies for making soup...then it comes into its own where sauces and risottos are concerned.

then, there was someone i met whose friend bought one. the friend said she had to use it everyday to justify having purchased it, so is always wondering what to make with it. i simply said i don't do things with that mind set - i was more of a person who thinks about what i want to make and then thinking the thermomix can do it. the thermomix has to fit in with me, and not the other way round....and so far it has.

poached chicken revisited

miss c went to canberra earlier this year and off she went not knowing how to cook. i had no reservations about her going, after all, i knew she wouldn't starve - in this day and age, there are so many places to procure food - take away joints, supermarkets have preprepared meals etc...so i knew she wouldn't starve. however, whether she would be eating well would be up to her. enter the odd recipe here and there, and this is one of them. tomi drew my attention to the fact that i hadn't posted this ...and she came here just to try and find it (she must have found other things).

1 whole chicken breast
water
vegetable stock concentrate

get yourself a saucepan which your chicken breast will fit in comfortably. fill it half way with water and set it on the stove and bring the water to the boil. you should aim to have sufficient water in your saucepan to cover your chicken once you place it into the pot.

while you are waiting for the water to boil, give your piece of chicken a rinse. place a spoonful or two of stock concentrate into the water, and once the liquid boils, gently place (you don't want the liquid to splash) the chicken into the liquid and simmer gently for 5 minutes*. switch off the heat and leave the chicken in the liquid to finish cooking. once the liquid has cooled, your chicken should be cooked through and nice and moist. now you have some chicken to add to sandwiches, salads, pie fillings...and you also have a well flavoured stock with which you can make soup.

*if you have an electric stove which takes time for the element to cool, switch the power off after adding the chicken as there will be plenty of stored heat in the element - you don't want to overcook your chicken - overcooking chicken breast dries the meat out and makes it less palatable.

irony number 3974

i'm overweight, but not fat enough for liposuction....

call me lazy....

i find that i am always making stock concentrate whenever i can just so i have it on hand...so i made some today. not one to waste anything, i usually make a soup in the thermomix bowl after bottling the concentrate. it serves a dual purpose - the little bit of concentrate in the bowl isn't wasted, and the bowl gets a washed out with soup.

today, i changed things a little and made bread/pizza dough. it's slightly pale green, but i'm sure it's going to be flavoursome. because the dough is kneaded so well in the thermomix, the bowl is virtually cleaned of concentrate so i can clean as usual. i do it my favourite way and heat about a litre of water up in the thermomix and let it clean itself on full speed when the water is hot. nothing could be simpler.

eggs...cooked sous vide...sort of....

a couple of weeks ago, wenty took me sean's kitchen to have tapas. the most delicious dish was the simplest..sort of....it was called eggs and chips. the chips were slices of parcooked potatoes fried, and the eggs were "cooked at 60 degrees celcius for an hour". i asked the waitress about it and she said the eggs were cooked very soft and formed the sauce for the chips. i ventured further to ask if the eggs had been cooked in the thermomix....she said they were cooked in a thermo something.....

well, today, i tried cooking my eggs like that, and they were the best soft boiled eggs i have ever had. the egg white was all opaque, but soft, runny soft. i then tried cooking the eggs a bit more at 70. these were also very good. i set the thermomix on for an hour and left it to go and ice some cupcakes. i think this is really the way to go if you want to do lots of reliable soft boiled eggs, and i don't think i'd mind doing them this way in future - by the time i finished mucking around doing things in the morning, the eggs would be done to my liking.

fruit and nut pretend truffles

last week at jan's, we decided to go through her cupboard and use up all the scraps of dried fruit, nuts and seeds...we even used up all the honey making these.

300 grams nut and seeds (we used a combination of brazils, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds)
150 grams dried fruit (we used cranberries, apricots and pears)
100 grams honey
extra sesame seeds to roll the truffles in


pop everything into the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 7 until the desired consistency is acheived.

form into balls, roll in the extra sesame seeds and refrigerate until firm before serving.

chef laurent vancam's cooking tips

last night, i went to chef laurent vancam's cooking class, and these were a few words of wisdom:

mayonnaise lasts 3-6 months...did you know that? i always would only keep my mayonnaise a week, max. laurent used the thermomix to make the mayonnaise, and it was really thick.

pesto should be made with half basil and half parsley - that way it stays nice and green; if it's made with just basil, it goes black.

if you whip cream in the thermomix and it starts to turn to butter, throw in an ice cube to return it to cream

when making mousse, don't whip the cream stiff, just a light whip is good - it stops the mousse from becoming grainy - mixing the cream with the egg and chocolate mixture whips the cream more and gives it a grainy texture if the cream was whipped too stiff before folding through.

the healthiest way to prepare chicken is to poach it and have it when it is just done - the worst thing to do is to overcook it. he even said that chicken could be cooked at 80 degrees in the thermomix! he said people tended to overcook chicken, which dries it out - the trick is to stop cooking once it is done.

when using herbs, use the asparagus test - if the herb stalk snaps easily, you can use it; stalks contain lots of flavour, and if the final product is pureed (eg, pesto), it will be fine.

despite what all the books and experts tell us, it isn't necessary to brown meat when cooking a casserole. chef laurent said he did a side by side taste test with his cheffy pals and they couldn't tell the difference.

whisks' chicken and sweetcorn soup

since there was sweetcorn and chicken in the fridge i thought it might be nice to have some chicken and sweetcorn soup made from scratch. obvious choice, eh?

the potatoes thicken the soup nicely and whilst the soup looks and tastes nice and creamy, there isn't any cream. very comforting.

3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 cobs sweetcorn, shucked
vegetable stock concentrate to taste
1 litre water
1 double breat of chicken, cut in small cubes

place the potatoes and sweetcorn kernels in the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 10 for 10 seconds. add the stock concentrate and water and cook the soup on speed 3 at 100 degrees for 17 minutes. add the chicken and continue cooking for another 2 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 3.

vegetable stock concentrate revisited.

i feel like i've been making this by the bucketload. everyone wants it even though i give them the recipe. it's all a matter of proportions. i use a kilo of aromatic vegetables and herbs. the combination is endless. vegetables i like using are onions, garlic, celery, swedes, parsnips, leeks. the herbs i use are whatever i can get from the garden: parsley, rosemary, basil, sage, tarragon, marjoram, thyme and bay leaves. to this, i add 200 grams of sea salt and a really generous amount of oil. i whack it all into the thermomix and blitz until chopped. cook it for 20-30 minutes at 100 degrees celcius on speed 3, blitz until smooth and pour into clean containers. this keeps in the fridge for 6 months as the salt acts as a preservative (this is what i've been told, but i wouldn't know because mine gets all used up before i get to the expiry date).

it's so much better than a stock cube because you know what goes into it and there isn't any msg, but mind you, it give such a kick to the things you cook you'd think it was.

su-lynn's lime cheesecakes

this is a great recipe of su-lynn's. you can make them ahead, in fact, you have to, and the are make nice, neat servings.

su-lynn's lime cheesecakes

500 grams cream cheese
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup cream
rind and juice of 1 1/2 limes
butternut cookies

place the butternut cookies at the base of the serving 12 cups.
beat the sugar and lime rind together. this releases the lime oil.
add the cream cheese and beat to combine.
add the cream and beat until smooth.
add the lime juice and beat again.
spoon into the mixture over the butternut cookies.
refrigerate for several hours. this softens the cookies.

goat milk soap with honey

since i started making soap, i've been on a quest to find an easy, fail proof method way of making it. to date, my favourite way is to make room temperature cold process soap. it is cold process soap without all the temperature checking and can be done in stages. there are 2 types of room temperature cold process methods. i've tried both and like both; each has their own application. one method uses the heat of lye mixture to melt the solid oils and the other needs the solids to be melted on the stove. the one i find more reliable is the one where the solid oils are melted independantly of the lye, especially when i use something like palm kernel oil.

i've received recipe requests for this soap, and have decided to post it here for everyone.

before soaping, prepare your work surface and protect it with newspaper. wear suitable protective clothing, including goggles and rubber gloves. lye (sodium hydroxide is highly caustic and can cause damage to work surfaces, and serious burns to skin and other bodily parts).

100 grams purified water
2 tablespoons honey
132 grams sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)
280 grams goat milk
250 grams coconut oil
750 grams olive oil

get your moulds ready. you can use empty milk containers, plastic containers, lined cardboard boxes....just don't use anything aluminium or of an unknown metal. lye doesn't react well with any metal other than stainless steel.

place the water in a heatproof glass or stainless steel container. add the honey and dissolve completely. add the sodium hydroxide very slowly to the honey water and stir to dissolve. this mixture will be very hot. set aside to cool. add the goat milk (straight from the fridge is fine) to the cold lye mixture slowly.

melt the coconut oil gently in a stainless steel stockpot, remove from the heat, and add the olive oil.

when both mixtures are no longer warm, pour the lye into the oil and stir to combine. i have an old handheld mixer i use solely for soapmaking to do this. i stop the mixer every so often and use it to stir the mixture around while switched off. the mixture will thicken and once it does so, your soap is nearly ready to pour. i tend to like to pour at what they call light trace. trace is the stage where the oils and lye are combining and thickening and if you lift the beaters from the batter, it will leave a trail behind.

pour the soap into the prepared containers once you have reached trace and set aside to solidify. because this soap contains honey and goat milk, it is best to set it aside somewhere cool and not to wrap the soap to insulate. you may find the soap might generate some heat on its own and it's best not to let it overheat.

leave the soap a day or two and cut it with a sharp knife or wire, if necessary, once it has set. place your soap pieces on a rack or box lined with some paper towel and leave to cure for 4-6 weeks.

all in the soap pot

having not made any soap for nearly 2 months, i got back into it a few days ago and made 2 batches. in the 2 months break, i didn't stop reading about soaping, and didn't stop getting things for soap making either.

a very nice person in victoria sent me some clay to try in the soap (supposed to give it better "slip", a creamy lather and act as a fragrance fixative) and another lovely person in queensland sent me some silk to use (to lend the soap a silky texture). in addition to the silk and clay, i had read that salt and sugar are supposed to have value in soaping as well.....so i added all 4 new things to my soap. i know i should do a batch of soap to test each variable, but i didn't know which one i wanted to try first, so threw it all in. i can't help myself.

i then fragranced them. both batches smell so nice, and if i didn't know better, i'd say they were the best fragrances i've used thus far. i swirled lilac ultramarine and a plain base for the red currant, and used green clay and a plain base for the vera wang signature frangrance. the green also had imbedding, and rather than a swirl, i just blobbed it all in. what is really nice is that both fragrances are not overpowering, but just strong enough. i'm hoping they don't morph into something unpleasant. at the moment, i really like the way they look and smell, but only time will tell whether they are good soaps. i hope they are.

creamy salmon soup

whilst this isn't really soup weather, i wanted to try this soup out. it's delicious and almost a meal in itself. quick and easy, i made this in the thermomix, and as such, it would be really good for those times when i really didn't feel like cooking.

500 grams milk
200 grams cream
150 grams water (or part wine, part water)
20 grams tomato paste
1 large potato, cubed
1 tablespoon vegetable stock concentrate
200 grams fresh salmon, cut in 1 centimetre cubes
finely diced tomatoes and dill, to garnish

place the milk, cream, water, wine (if using), tomato paste, potato and stock concentrate in the thermomix bowl.
blend on speed 9 for 15 seconds.
cook for 10 minutes at 100 degrees celcius on speed 3.
add the salmon and combine for 30 seconds on reverse speed 1. there is sufficient retained heat to cook the salmon through and not over cook it.

chocolate sorbet

i though i should post this since lulu asked for it especially.

100 grams sugar
50 grams glucose syrup
50 grams cocoa
80 grams water
1 small tin coconut cream
2x350 grams ice cubes
1 egg white (optional)

place the sugar, syrup, cocoa and water into the thermomix bowl and combine for 3 minutes at 50 degrees celcius on speed 3.
add coconut cream and the first lot of ice and blend for 10 seconds on speed 10.
add the remaining ice and egg white and blend for 1 minute on speed 9, using the spatula to assist the ice cubes combine with the mixture.
serve immediately.

pistachio and craisin shortbread

i had this a week ago and it was delicious. this recipe comes from the thermomix festive season 2008 cookbook.

40 grams white rice
60 grams sugar
300 grams plain flour
250 grams butter
100 grams pistachio kernels
100 grams craisins (dried cranberries)
150 grams white chocolate melts

line a baking tray with baking paper.
preheat oven to 150° celcius.
place the rice and sugar into the bowl and pulverise 1 minute on speed 10. don’t be tempted to shortcut this, you need 1 minute for the texture of the shortbread.
add the flour and the butter (chopped) into the bowl, mix for 5 seconds on Speed 5.
knead the mixture for 40 seconds on interval setting.
add nuts and cranberries and with lid in closed position, pulse with the turbo button 4-5 times. this will chop the fruit and nuts a little, but that is fine.
if the mixture is crumbly, bring the dough together using reverse on speed 1 for about 30 seconds.
roll the mix into a log shape with baking paper. slice into oval shapes and lay on lined tray. place into a preheated oven and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes.
once baked allow the shortbread to sit for 10 minutes before moving.
melt white chocolate in TM bowl at 50˚ celcius for 5 minutes on speed 1.
dip one end of each cooled shortbread into the melted chocolate and place on baking paper to set.

my gluten free yummy thing

originally, my intention was to make a salad, along the lines of a waldorf salad....

juice of one orange
rind of one orange
30 mls rice bran oil

blitz together on speed 10 until emulsified.

throw the following into the thermomix bowl

1 apple, cored and quartered
200 grams red seedles grapes
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pistachio nuts

and i blitzed on speed 7.....for just a bit too long (like 3 seconds) and i ended up with something that looked somewhat like bircher muesli, but gluten free.... i wondered what i was going to do...use it as a dressing for a still to be made salad? no...i ate it instead as it was, and it was very nice.......

champagne cocktails

last night, salli and i went out, and the evening started with a champagne cocktail....and it was good.....

using the thermomix, pulverise 60 grams of sugar on speed 9 until the sound changes, about 7 seconds. add 500 grams of berries (strawberries or raspberries would be perfect for the upcoming christmas). place a little in each champagne flute and top up with very well chilled champagne. you can use frozen fruit if you like, this will keep the cocktail nice and cold.

so easy to drink and get drunk on.....

vanilla icecream

after making 3 sorbets yesterday, i was faced with 3 egg yolks....what to do? make icecream, what else? i guess i could have made custard, but that's better when the weather is a bit cooler - it's hot now, isn't it boys and girls?? (not you guys not in sydney....i'm not talking to you....)

3 egg yolks
600 mls full cream milk
120 grams sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
a tablespoon or 2 or vanilla

pop everything into your trusty thermomix bowl and let it do its thing for 8 minutes at 80 degrees on speed 4.

pour this custard into a container which will fit into your freezer (i don't know what your freezer is like, but that's how i have to do it because mine is chockers) and freeze. you can stir it around a bit to break up the crystals. when it's frozen (i just leave mine overnight), scrape it all into the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 10 until smooth. scrape this all out of the bowl to serve or put back in the freezer. this is seriously good.....if you like sara lee/connossieur icecream, you will like this.

pretend truffles

these are pretend truffles, and purists will scoff and say worse, but i think they aren't half bad considering they have pretty healthy ingredients. again, i made these with the thermomix...it was there, and when it's there, it's easy to use.

250 grams almonds, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds.....whatever nut/seed you have on hand
75 grams sesame seeds
100 grams honey
40 grams cocoa

place everything in the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 10 for 5-10 seconds, depending on the texture you like. form the mixture into balls, roll in coconut and refrigerate to firm up before serving.

on a hot day, all i think of is sorbet.

it's quite hot in sydney today and miss c's friend hik asked if i could help with the food for her birthday party. after some thought, that sorbet might be fun thing to bring to the party. people don't usually bring iced confections along, so this can be the novelty. since i only have 2 thermoserves, that would be the limiting factor; i would be able to bring close to 5 litres of sorbet and that would have to be enough.

i decided that i would make the sorbet with what i had to save myself a trip to the supermarket unnecessarily, so i went with 3 flavours - lemon, orange and apple. i made them separately so the flavours could remain pure or mixed if desired.

i used my thermomix to make them, and it didn't take much time at all.

150 grams raw sugar
2 lemons/oranges/apples (peeled and cored)
1 egg white
700 grams ice

pulverise the citrus rinds (if using) with the sugar on speed 9 until you hear a change in the sound of the thermomix (this takes several seconds).

add the fruit, egg white and half the ice and slowly turn the speed dial up to 10 and process until there is another change in sound. use the spatula to help any ice cubes into the mixture to grind up. add the remaining cubes gradually and again use the the spatula to help any ice cubes into the mixture so they can be ground. continueon speed 10 until all the ice cubes have been ground. serve immediately or place into the thermoserve for later.

tomato and cashew dip

this is a really easy dip which takes next to no time in the thermomix. this is one of a medley of dips i have been making; they make a really good snack without too much effort.

1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 clove garlic
a good slurp of olive oil (or the oil from the sundried tomatoes
1 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
50 grams sundried tomatoes
2 medium tomatoes, quartered
pepper to taste

place the onion and garlic into the thermomix bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 6.
add the oil and cook for 3 minutes at varoma temperature on speed 1.
add the nuts, tomatoes and pepper and blitz for 20 seconds on speed 6.
cook for 5 minute at 80 degrees celcius on speed 4.

this thickens as it cools and spreads nicely on a nice sturdy slice of bread. this recipe makes enough to fill 2 dip bowls, so i usually pop one in the fridge or pass it onto my neighbour or the next person who comes over.

what's in a name?

just recently, a friend from highschool found me on facebook. jj is a psychologist and as far as i know, i know four psychologists. of those four, three of them have sons named jack, or variations of jack. the other psychologist i know who hasn't got a son called jack hasn't got any children.

jj reckons it's a coincidence. i know four psychologists....how many psychologists do you know, and do they have sons called jack?

whisks' housekeeping tip #89365

with christmas fast approaching, take advantage of all the help you can get - be like snow white and let your little friends help you. if spiders decide to leave their signature webs on your window sills, use them to decorate your windows for christmas and sprinkle with a little white pretend snow - it will stick, and when you finally decide to clean your windows, the stuff will wipe off effortlessly.

you probably wonder how i come upon my little nuggets of wisdom, well, you only have to thank my very gorgeous friend, lulu, who hails from down near geelong. last night, i sent her an urgent message to go and quickly watch something on telly, which was important to her, and she missed my message...why??? because she was cleaning her windows because guests were coming for dinner. next time, she should tell them she is getting ready for christmas.

for those of you in the northern hemisphere who don't know what i'm yabbering about, i live in sydney, as if you need reminding, and as such, we don't have snow, and our christmas is usually swelteringly hot or unpredictable, but never snow....

he's so smart

i mentioned in an earlier post that salli's son harry is developmentally delayed. i don't know what his mental age is, but he never ceases to amaze me with how clever he really is. several weeks ago, when i went over to visit, sal was carrying on about how harry came home from care with someone else's cardigan - i don't know whose daggy cardigan he's come home with, but it isn't his. he must've been cold, so he just found something to put on. after a split second of thought, i simply told sal that he's a lot smarter than a lot of other people who are supposedly not mentally challenged. i can think of lots of people who may feel the cold yet refuse to put something on. so who's smater? i know miss k refuses to carry more clothes than what she might think she needs and come home with chills.
yesterday when salli and i were on out way to woollahra, her phone rang. it was the man who sold trampolines. salli has a trampoline for harry - one of those old fashioned rectangle ones which doesn't have a barrier around them to stop anyone from falling off the trampoline; she trying to find a replacement something or other for harry's trampoline and do you think she can find one? not on your life because these days, there are no rectangular trampolines to be found. this sent salli off on a tirade of how sick she was of how children these days are so wrapped in cotton wool because they are so protected, which is very true. harry, who is developmentally delayed...did i tell you that?..... has had a trampoline since he's been 5 (he's 22 now, i think) and has only ever fallen off it once; he fell off once and was smart enough to know not to fall off it again. it's really uplifting knowing harry and knowing he's so smart....but worrying that there are some others out there who aren't.

prudence

just lately, i've had a few blasts from the past, and after reading through my post on singing at the top of my lungs with anonymity, i suddenly remembered a girl i went to school with....prudence. a couple of years ago, i was minding my own business, doing my grocery shop at woollies, when i heard someone singing....opera style; it wasn't exactly opera, but that la la la style associated with opera. when i walk over to the deli section, isaw who it was...it was someone i knew.... i realised that it was prudence. not straight away, it had been some 20 years since i last saw her. now you have to give prudence credit - she was singing, in public, and in a recognisable mode. i couldn't do that....i'm too self conscience...besides, i wouldn't want everyone to think i was some mad woman....

moral support

james bond gives me moral support...well, his theme does. having only discovered the joys of snowploughing late in life, i have utilised little devices to help me along. one is singing the james bond theme as i slide down a slope. it distracts me enough to not think about going downhill and lets me relax a bit so i go with the flow; if things get a bit hairy, i sing a bit louder. the beauty of going to the snow and singing at the top of my lungs in a public place is that with all the gear on, no one recognises me or knows who i am. the snow's good like that - i can look as dishevelled as i like and not have to worry about it - it is so liberating. i can look like a slob and sing at the top of my lungs; where else can anyone do something like that?

snowploughing

i had to fill in a form the other day which required me to list my interests/activities. i listed the usual, and added skiing. since i only came to skiing realtively late in life, i claim no proficiency in it and thought it perhaps presumptuous on my part to say skiing was one of my interests, since i couldn't really ski. then i realised i should say that i snowploughed - far more accurate.

something worthwhile

last night while we were watching television, i noticed miss k's zit situation had improved and i told her so.
it's because i'm using your soap.
really?
yes.
i suggested that miss k tried my soap on her face because i was using it and noticed my face wasn't tight after using it like with regular soap. i never liked using soap on my face because of this tight feeling, but i do use the soap i make myself because i like how it feels. while making soap involves dangerous procedures, is messy and requires patience, i think it has been worthwhile; anything which helps one's child to clear up a teenage hiccup has to be worthwhile.

a new beginning

miss c had her valedictory dinner on wednesday night and it was lovely to see all the girls in her year looking all grown up and beautiful. parents and teachers caught up with each other and i even gave miss c's biology teacher a chemistry lesson. i explained soap making for him. as a scientist, it's interesting that he knew the theory, but not the practical. i guess there's so much in the science course they have to absorb when studying that not all experiments can be given justice.
there were the usual speeches and the head girl from 2004 came along to give her speech. her speech, for me, was memorable. there were 10 points she went through with the girls. i will mention a few.
never wear uncomfortable shoes; if they are uncomfortable at the shop, be assured that they will hurt even more when you wear them where you are going. i would have added that you can't take them off if they hurt - once they come off, your feet will hurt even more and you will never get the shoes back on. keeping the shoes on just keeps the feet numb; once the blood rushes back to them is when you will regret it. i speak from experience.
travel. i never understood fully the importance of travelling when i was younger, but really appreciate it now. travel give you an opportunity to broaden your mind. it doesn't matter where you go - it can be within your own city, state or country - you will see something different and get a new perspective on things. our lives, for the most part are comfortable and it's good to see how other people live.
listen to what your mother says. that goes without saying. i have to say i'm lucky in that miss c and i can discuss things, but mostly because i very rarely advise miss c, it counts for something when i do...i hope....
don't fear a broken heart. don't stay with someone who doesn't appeciate how wonderful you are. as a parent, that to me was such a wise thing to say to teenage girls who are just starting out into adulthood.

ulterior motives

miss k asked me about new year's eve tonight. she/we like to plan early. she had ulterior motives. she wanted to know if we would do new year's eve this year in lavender bay...and who we would have join us. i figured i'd let miss c and miss k decide on who they wanted to join us. no doubt, their core group of friends would be there - ohno, beanstalk, tomi......can osh kosh come?....aha - ulterior motive uncovered within seconds. yes, yes...you can ask him, but will he be in sydney then? yes, he's not going away. okay. i suspect miss k has probably already mentioned this to osh kosh.....and she's probably already asked him....
i actually thought i might let their friends stay a couple of nights this time. the last time, they just stayed overnight, but i think they'd have lots to do if they stayed a few days. they'd be able to go on walks around the harbour, and if beanstalk brought a boat, he could use the jetty, and that would be fun for them. another thing i just realised - they're going to be able to toast in the new year with champagne this year - how about that?
so...you already know miss k's motives...what about mine? i have a whole pile of things i want to cook...what else? what could be better than a group of teenagers to do some serious eating?

mint

at last i have a mint plant, and it's growing really well. my mint in the past never seemed to do that well. i put it down to planting it in the wrong place. i remember being told to plant it under a leaky tap, but that didn't work. i have it under a tap again this time, but in a bucket, and the soil is saturated. it's sitting in an artificial bog, of sorts. it's right next to the house against a hot wall (my backyard is north facing) and gets full sun. i guess it's still a bit premature yet, but i'm going to have to have a look around and see if i can find myself some great recipes which use mint.....

now that i have the mint going, i'm going to have to work on getting some waterdress going - after all, i have a pretend bog going.

internet chicken

this is one of the first dishes i cooked from the internet. it was a novelty for me. i wasn't a can of this and that cook....i cooked things from scratch....i made cake from distinguishable ingredients....this was a first for me. mind you, i have never been able to leave well enough alone with recipes and like to add my own touch, so this is now a bit different to the original which had chipped beef in it. no quantities - i just roll with what i have at the time. simple as.

chicken
bacon
mushrooms
1 carton sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup

lay the chicken in casserole dish and strew the sliced mushrooms and bacon over the chicken. combine the sour cream and soup together and pour over everything in the dish. bake at 180 degrees celcius for 45 minutes to an hour. serve with noodles or rice.

homemade granola

a couple of years ago, miss c went camping with a group of friends and they had to rough it (read: bring their own food and cook it). by chance, i made a batch of this truly delicious concoction and insisted that she bring a couple of snaplock bags of it along. she wasn't keen to bring it, not because it wasn't yum, but because she felt it might have defeated the purpose of the camp, but brought 2 packets along.
on her return to civilisation, she expressed her regret. everyone wanted some of her precious snack, and not only that, they wanted the recipe!!!!
take this recipe as a base and add to and subtract, so you can customise it to your own liking - i like adding my fruits and nuts to the granola just before serving so i can vary it to what i'm feeling like having on the day. if you like your nuts toasted, add them while the granola is being toasted.
no need to say, this also makes a fine snack and a good trail mix substitute.

4 cups rolled oats
2 cups shredded or dessicated coconut
2 cups sliced almonds
3/4 cup light olive oil
1/2 cup honey
6 cups of your favourite dried fruits and nuts - i like cherries, cranberries (craisins), apricots, pears, cashews, pepitas, raw almonds

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
toss the oats, coconut, and almonds together in a large bowl.
whisk together the oil and honey in a small bowl and pour over the oat mixture and mix it around with a wooden spoon until well combined and all the oats and nuts are coated. pour onto the baking sheet and spread evenly and lightly - you don't want the clumps of granola to be dense because they'll be rock hard after baking. *
bake, stirring every now and then, until the mixture becomes golden and toasty, about 45 minutes. make sure your granola dries completely because any dampness will cause it to go stale quickly.
remove the granola from the oven and allow to cool, stirring occasionally. if you wish, add your dried fruits and nuts of choice at this stage and combine well.
store the cooled granola in an airtight container.

*these days, i use my thermomix to do a lot of the work; i melt the honey and oil together in the thermomix and toss the oats, coconut and almonds into the bowl and let the machine do all the stirring before tipping everything out onto the baking sheets for baking.

getting better with age

while i was up at the mountains, wenty and i watched food dvds after everyone had retired for the evening, and one of them was about preserved lemons and cumquats. the lemons and cumquats were salted like how we are told to do in those middle eastern recipes, but the person was saying that you keep them as long as you can (like decades) and they will darken and become very mellow. to illustrate her case in point, she had jars of cumquats of different ages - 1 year, 2 years, 10 years and 50 years (her grandmother pickled that one). she illustrated by taking one cumquat out of each jar, except the 50 year old one, and showed how each one was different and how much nicer the 10 year old one was compared to the 1 year old one.....so (have i lost you yet?)...i've started pickling my cumquats. i want to do the lemons too, but have to wait until i can get some home grown ones.
the 50 year old pickled cumquat, she says is so mellow and mature that not only the flesh melts, the seeds become indistinct, too....my cumquat pickle is less than a day old.....
what was funny about all of this was what wenty told me. after his grandmother died, he had to clean her apartment and her fridge.....there was a jar of something dark which looked like it was lemon slices in a past life. he threw it in the bin, naturally, as one does, but little did he know he was throwing away what could well have been part of his inheritance.

murky pinkness

salli is a really good friend and i like to drop by her place every so often. it's actually more i drop by if i've been baking madly, and think she'd like something baked, or if harry would like some. harry's salli's son. he had a bad reaction to an injection when he was six months or so and is now developmentally delayed. i like to make harry the occasional treat. i'd spoil him more often, but salli does a good job as a mother and spoils him adequately. as she does her two daughters. she's a great mother.


when i see salli (or anyone else), i like giving them something, if i can. since my latest thing is soap, i gave her a piece of soap. the piece i gave her was from my second batch. my second batch of soap had the usual olive oil, coconut oil and goat's milk. my intention was to add some lavender oil to it, but it turned a caramel colour, so i put pomegranate oil in it. i also thought it would be good to sprinkle in some paprika to give it some warmth (that's what i'm told - paprika is warming, good for winter, i guess). salli's wonderful. she receives my soap with good grace and uses it straight away and declares her hands feel good. awww....


a few days later, i drop by with a tray of cupcakes and while she's happy to see the cupcakes, she raves about the soap and tells me she brought it into work to show her colleagues. bless her. salli took that opportunity and told me that she was partial to rose scented soap. that was a hint...a suggestion for the next time i made soap. i've already made three batches of soap, and had been thinking that i might just stick to unscented and uncoloured soap, but how could i refuse salli's request? i also figured that if i coloured it pink, i could send it to a friend who loves pink. my soap isn't pure white because i use olive oil, so the pink wasn't a really pure pink...it's murky looking; i guess it adds to its natural look. i hope it improves with age.

pretzels

i was wondering if you have ever had pretzels? i love them, but find them quite pricey.....so i have made them.....next time you make some regular white bread, steal a little bit of dough to try it out. roll the bit you've taken out into a long sausage and twist it into a pretzel shape. get some hot water and dissolve some bicarb in it and dip the pretzel in the hot water, lift it out and put it on a tray lined with baking paper. sprinkle it with some salt flakes and bake until done/golden. voila! a pretzel. you can sprinkle them with sesame or poppy seeds, and if you like, they can be sprinkled with cheese, or left plain. if you want to have them sweet, they can be coated in sliced almonds or streusel and served with a dipping sauce (caramel sauce is really good).

soap couture

all the bits and pieces i was able to read about soap making emphasised that all care had to be exercised when making soap. lye was a dangerous chemical and would burn on contact. rubber gloves, goggles, long sleeves and pants were highly recommended. i took this further and ensured i wore something i wouldn't worry about if ruined.

i wore my goggles and made sure i had my gloves on as i poured the lye in. having been prewarned that this action could be dangerous, i did what i was told and exercised all care. there wasn't any bubbling or any toil and trouble. in fact, it was very dull, much like pouring a cup of salt into a pot of water really, but i don't think i would never be blaise about pouring lye into a pot of anything - it does get really, really hot, and there are no reasons to take unnecessary risks. gloves and goggles are always on.

anyway, i've got all this gear one, even after i've cut the soap and all.....then the doorbell rings....sigh.....of course the doorbell rings; i'm dressed like a slob. i look like i'm a mad scientist...of course the doorbell rings.

chemical reactions

golden one's dad is a plastic surgeon with beautiful skin. as such, i have always told blutsie to pay close attention if he should so much as reveal his beauty secrets (oh, lol, a man with beauty secrets). miss c had already found out that he used neutrogena moisturiser with spf 15....then more recently, blutsie found out that her father in law used goat's milk soap. he bought her a few bars of it and told her that it was very good and that she should use it.

now, i have possessed a desire to make soap for a very long time, and thought that this would provide the opportunity i have been waiting for. i looked at several recipes for soap and found that even though they expressedly tell you to weigh everything carefully because soapmaking was a very exact science, i found none of them to have an identical recipe....can't be that exacting then, i thought.

because i'm me, i thought i could easily replace the water needed with goat's milk and honey, after all, measurements looked approximate when comparing soap making recipes. measuring was not the issue here. it was the goat's milk and honey. i had to add sodium hydroxide to the liquid, and i did. i knew there would be a chemical reaction which would make the liquid very hot. what i didn't know was that it would be so hot that the sugars in the honey and goat's milk would burn. then there was the fat in the goat's milk i didn't consider. this fat would start the saponification process. but that didn't stop me....i persevered. i carried on as if there was nothing wrong. i heated the coconut and olive oils (i used extra virgin olive oil, no less - that was all i had) as instructed and combined the two liquids together. once the lye and fats have been combined, the mixture has to be stirred until "trace" is achieved. this is a state where the lye and fats have combined sufficiently for saponification to occur and develop the mixture into soap. the favoured method of mixing is to use a stick blender; this speeds thing up - mixing by hand using a spoon/stick would take anywhere in the vicinity of an hour or more, especially if olive oil is used; a stick blender would help the mix achieve trace within minutes. i used an old (i think about 40-50 years old) sunbeam mixmaster. my mixture achieved trace soon enough after mixing, but me being me thought that it would be better to keep beating. big mistake. the mixture separated. %##&*$!^%*%$..... i felt the bowl....ahhh....maybe it's not hot enough....so i stuck it into the microwave and beat it some more.....hmmmm..... heat it again......beat it again.....and keep beating. finally, i get this mixture that looks like thick, gluggy custard, but a caramel colour. oooh...better pour it into the moulds...now.....

i notice the soap is solid really quickly which wasn't what i expected. i thought i'd have to wait until the next day, but since it was so obliging, i went with it.....no problems there.....i'm impatient, and if the soap wants to set quickly, i'm good with that.

when i think it's solid enough (and this was only an hour or so after pouring it into the mould), i unmould it....and i cut it. soap is the loveliest thing to cut. it's so smooth and firm and the knife just glides through. nothing as smooth to cut.

i lay out all the bars of soap. it's rustic looking, and it looks like fudge. and it has a distinctive smell which i can't put my finger on. it's probably the mixture of olive oil and honey.

i've used it since, and it is lovely. i don't think i could go back to using regular bought soap anymore; there's no comparison.

spinach and salmon roulade

a long, long time ago, there was a wonderful little cheese shop in eastwood. i forget the name...could it have been granny smith's? the granny smith who grew the apples called granny smith used to live in eastwood, did you know that? this little cheese shop also served very nice light meals. one memorable item on the menu was a spinach and salmon roulade. we'd go along and be faced with the difficult decision of what to choose for lunch. they also made a sublime pumpkin soup....then there were the sweet things.....but i digress. this spinach and salmon roulade was something i thought i would like to add to my repertoire. it looked nice, had to have some sort of keeping property and was pretty tasty.

i don't know about everyone else, but i used to like having collections of things, and cookbooks became something i liked collecting. so when the australian women's weekly started its home library of cookbooks, i collected those. and wasn't that a good thing? because if i hadn't, i wouldn't have found this recipe; it's from the barbeque cookbook.

60 grams butter
1/3 cup plain flour
1 cup milk
4 eggs, separated

filling
2 x 220 gram cans red salmon, drained
4 shallots
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped chives

place frozen spinach in pan, cook over moderate heat until all liquid has evaporated. melt butter in separate pan, add flour, stir 1 minute. add milk gradually, stir until mixture boils and thickens.
quickly stir in egg yolks and spinach, transfer mixture to a large bowl. beat egg whites until soft peaks form, fold lightly into spinach mixture. pour mixture into a swiss roll tin lined with baking paper. bake in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. remove from oven, turn onto wire rack covered with tea towel. carefully remove lining paper, spread evenly with filling. holding tea towel with both hands, gently roll roulade.

filling
combine salmon, shallots, mayonnaise and chives, mix well.

i use fresh salmon, which i poach lightly, instead of canned and fresh spinach instead of frozen. that's just me. if you do, you'll have to check for seasoning. the other thing i do differently is to season it with freshly ground pepper.
i use the thermomix to cook the spinach and chop it, then continue on to make the white sauce in the thermomix; i just throw the butter, flour and milk into the bowl and let it do its thing while i prepare the filling.

pasta

i went and got my pasta machine out of storage a couple of weeks ago because i thought it was about time to give it a whirl. it's over thirty years old and never seems to get much of a work out. i believe it was originally bought to make noodles, but my mother has never been much of a cook, it got used maybe once? she passed it onto her sister, but i don't think much happened there either. i thought that now i had the thermomix, there was really no excuse to at least try it out. the thermomix did a beautiful job of mixing the dough, and i believe cranking the dough through the rollers of the pasta machine several times.made the texture of the fettucine we made exceptional. i used continental sharps flour - i remember yuyah's mother saying she liked using a coarser flour for making fresh pasta and who better than an italian lady to advise on such a matter?

allow 100 grams of flour per person.

400 grams continental sharps flour
4 eggs
a splash of olive oil
a little water, if necessary

mix the flour, eggs and oil together until combined. if you are unable to press bits of the mixture to form a dough, just add a little water. knead the dough until smooth. cover it and set aside so it can rest. if you use the thermomix, knead the dough for 3 or 4 minutes on interval speed.
once rested, take off a handful of the dough and put it through the machine, rolling and folding it on the thickest setting until it becomes very smooth and strong. once you're happy with it, roll it thinner progressively and use it as you wish.

another awkward silence

i was just reading about how to make labneh cheese and it reminded me of a lunch i went to at mingay and paul's place. i got a call from wenty saying that he was going to the markets with mingay and paul to buy lobster for lunch and if i wanted to join them.

can i bring a friend?

of course you can.

i rang salli.

salli had never met mingay and paul before, and for some strange reason, i told salli about mingay's yoghurt. the first time i encountered this yoghurt was on a hot summer's day. mingay excitedly showed me the yoghurt saying that they made their own yoghurt and had it for breakfast everyday with fruit. it smelt.....ummmm.....not very nice.....not a pleasant sour smell, but a vomitty smell (sorry....that's what it smelt like). then, not only that....it had fruit flies flying inside the jug; the jug was loosely covered with cling film that had seen better days. wenty, always blunt and rude said simply that he was surprised that mingay hadn't killed paul with food poisoning.

and so onto the lunch we go. they bought ten lobsters so we could have two each (they weren't big); one we had cold and one we had with mornay sauce. we had a fig and soft cheese starter, the lobsters and salad to finish off. when mingay brought out the salad, we eagerly looked into the bowl and he told us happily about what was in it. homegrown radishes, herbs, olives...a little of this and that. then he tells us about the dressing. a bit of oil, vinegar, seasonings and......his homemade yoghurt. dead silence.....then wenty breaks it by saying "and why is it suddenly so quiet after you say you put in your yoghurt?"

i can laugh about it now, but eating mingay's food is a bit like playing russian roulette.

ambrosia

ambrosia is food of the gods or the heavens, depending on which definition you find.
in the food world, it's the name they give to a fancy fruit salad normally made with canned pineapple and canned mandains with sour cream and marshmallows. sometimes it's sprinkled with marachino cherries and or shredded coconut.
mine's a bit different. i like to put all the different fresh fruits i can lay my hands on in mine.

this is a list of fruits i'd put in:
apple
pear
banana
orange
lychees
grapes
peach
nectarine
pineapple
apricots
blueberries
strawberries
plums
cherries
mango
watermelon
rockmelon
and whatever other fruits you can think of.
sour cream
marshmallows

wash and prepare the fruit and cut into pieces. spoon over the sour cream and add the marshmallows. mix very lightly so as not to bruise the fruit.
chill in the refrigerator until required.

brioche

while i'm waiting for my sourdough starter to mature, i thought i'd make brioche. and i'm glad i did. the dough was easy to use, silky smooth and nice and elastic. i use my thermomix to help with the kneading and only very roughly followed the recipe. i think it must be very forgiving.

3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 sachet yeast
1 teaspoon salt
100 grams butter
650 grams strong baker's flour
1 egg

warm the milk and add the rest of the ingredients. mix everything around and once it has combined, knead the dough until it becomes elastic and is no longer sticky.
shape as desired and bake for 30 minutes at 200 degress celcius.

this dough os also good for making smaller rolls, such as clover leaf rolls, and to be really indulgent, could be made into rhum babas with the simple addition of rum syrup! absolute yumness.

something wild

my lovely friend julie is an inspiration and has inspired me to explore the world of wild yeast. julie shared a great recipe with me for a seeded bread, and i caught the bread making bug. while i'm enjoying her seeded bread, i wondered if i could take things a bit further and make my own sourdough. not content to just buy a bread mix for sourdough bread, i've decided to make a sourdough bread from scratch and make my own starter. this involves "capturing" the wild yeasts in the air .....
after a bit of reading, i decided to go with the simplest method which was to combine a cup of water with a cup of flour. technically, filtered water should be used, but i just used regular tap water. because i bought a 12.5 kilo bag of strong baker's flour, i went with that. other types of flour can be used such as spelt or rye. the mix is covered with a fine muslin cloth to allow the wild yeasts in and keep larger particles out. i admit that this went against the grain for me, but i'm going to go with it. it isn't as if i was making a mouldy cheese, and the bread will be cooked before eating.
so far, i'm onto day three, and have fed the starter twice. so that i don't end up with masses of starter, i've only fed the starter with quarter cups of flour and water, and yes....i am seeing some action. yesterday saw some bubbles and today, more bubbles. it isn't smelling off, so i hope things go well. from what i understand, i'm going to have to wait a week before i can use it....stay tuned.

anniversary

today is blutsie and golden one's ninth anniversary.....yes....their ninth anniversary is on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year.....and what do they have to show for this time together? four boys....wiggy, sly, engine and ack dack. i'm baby sitting tonight so blutsie and golden one can go out. naturally, engine's was the one still up - he was put on this earth to make my life interesting...and he does...he does....

awkward silences

wenty first started driving me around when i was in my first year at university. i had seen him before when i had been to his parent's holiday place in narrabeen, but had never acknowledged each other, until one day, my mother came home and told me wenty was going to drive me to uni. i was horrified. and mortified. it was awful.
the morning came around, soon enough; i got into the car and probably said hello and that it wasn't necessary to drive me. i remember him saying it wasn't any trouble...and that was it...silence.....for the rest of the trip..... to give you an idea of how long the silence was - it took a good hour to get to uni, that's how long our silence was. i was so shy, and i didn't know what to say or do, never mind wenty not having anything to say either.
i got out of the car, thanked him, slammed the car door and thought that that was that. no such luck.
somehow or rather, wenty was back the following week. the same thing happened. we were totally silent. i don't know how long this went on for, but somehow we got through it and ended up had lots to talk about. eventually, wenty drove me to and from uni every day we had in common.

amnesia

people always ask wenty and me about our history together...always. i don't know how mingay and paul got together, but they know all about us. it was on one such delving occasion that i realised that i had an amenesia moment with wenty.
one of the first times we went to dinner together was to the double bay steak house in st leonards. wenty and i barely knew each other at the time, and i was terribly shy. because the place we were going to was called the double bay steak house, wenty automatically assumed that it was in double bay and suggested that we could go to the french riviera for ice cream after dinner. alas, it was in st leonards, but he had already committed himself to ice cream, as he kept his word on that count.
but i'm going off on a tangent....back to the amenesia. apparently there was some dancing involved with the dinner. while i remember a lot of what happened between the two of us back then, i didn't remember the dancing. wenty was telling our eager audience about how we were on the dance floor and he was spinning me around and then suddenly realised that everyone else was dancing much more slowly. that, he said was the one thing that has stuck in his mind after all these years. i don't remember it; i put it down to being so traumatised that i had temporary amnesia. yes, it was traumatic for me. wenty has traumatised me no end.

pumpkin soup

as we were driving up to the mountains last week, wenty was telling me about how he made pumpkin soup every now and again, based on MY instructions. i asked what he meant, considering that i hadn't i hadn't made pumpkin soup for a very long time.
"you always told me to place everything into the pot in layers"
"i did?"
"you did. onion and garlic sauteed in oil, then topped with peeled and cubed pumpkin. then put the lid on and allow the pumpkin to steam over the sauteed onions and garlic until very soft before adding stock and blending. it gives the soup a depth of flavour."
that was probably over a decade ago. fancy wenty remembering after all these years. and he always tells me i have a good memory....i guess between the two of us, we can piece together our memories and missing pieces.

blue mountains

i've just returned from a fews days away in the mountains. wenty rented his sister's holiday place in wentworth falls for jurgen's 80th birthday. the first night, there was just the six of us - jurgen, mingay, paul, tina (jurgen's neighbour), wenty and myself. the following day, alan and ross arrived and we went to dinner at lillianfels. it was one of the nicest dinners i have ever been to, not that the food was fantastic or anything, but because i had such a nice time with wenty. it was the first time i have realised that wenty has always spoilt me so much...and he's been spoiling me from the moment we met 30 years ago...fancy that.....
the following day, we sent five of them sightseeing and mingay, wenty and i hung around for most of the morning in the house, chatting and it was really pleasant....i have to admit that i was amazed at how pleasant it was; normally, the three of us fight, and if mingay isn't in the picture, wenty and i fight....we always fight, and always have done soon after we met, so if you do the maths, we have been fighting a mighty long time. anyway, in the late morning, wenty and i left mingay to the house and went into katoomba and checked out the shops along the main street. i think wenty must have got in touch with his feminine side or something because not once did he complain as i looked through all the shops...omg...this is sappy.....all i can say is that it's taken me three decades to realise that apart from our constant bickering, he's looked after me all the time; best not to let him know though - he's not the sentimental type.

cyber friends

i've been using the internet for years, but it was only recently that i've become better acquainted with other cybernauts.
miss c and miss k have had cyber friends for years now and miss c actually arranged to meet some a few years ago. i went with her to ensure her safety, naturally. we met in the city and of all things, one girl actually lived a few streets away from us. miss c sees her occasionally and they have been quite friendly over the years.
miss k has wanted to meet her cyber friend in person as well, but has not, to date. they did try to arrange something, but her friend's mother exclaimed, "what if she's a dirty old man?". she's a sensible woman. i wouldn't be any different. this girl lives in a different part of sydney to us. if miss k and this girl ever cross paths, it will interesting for them.
me? much as i love the internet, i hadn't made any friends until now. just a couple. we email back and forth, and they're interesting people to chat to. i try to chat in the same style as i talk because when and if i ever meet them, i'd like to think that they would recognise me. my friend, poppelle, thinks i type just like i talk, and i think that's important - i don't want to sound like someone i'm not.

gula melaka

this has been one of the best desserts i have ever unwittingly made. following on from the sago dessert i had in kowloon, i found this to be really versatile. how do i know this? i made it to take down to tze's place in bulli, and it was hugely popular, and not only that, it was allergy people friendly. richard's a coeliac, and christopher is allergic to dairy, peanuts and eggs (could be more, but i don't remember)....so everyone could eat it. it's super easy too.


4 litres water
1 cup sago


150 grams palm sugar, chopped
150 grams coconut sugar, chopped
1/2 cup water


200 ml coconut cream, to serve


bring the water to a rapid boil. while stirring the boiling water, slowly sprinkle the cup of sago into the water. make sure none of the sago sticks to the bottom of the pan by stirring. once you have poured in all of sago continue stirring and let it boil for 1 minute. turn off the heat and put the lid on and let it sit for 5 minutes. stir the sago and turn the heat back on full for 1 more minute then turn the heat off and let it sit until the pearls are translucent, about 10 minutes. don't worry if you have a few pearls that are still white in the middle. pour the sago into a sieve and rinse under runnng water until the pearls have cooled. scoop into either moulds or little ramekins. cover and set in the fridge.

to make the gula melaka, place the sugars and water in a small pot over a medium flame and stir until dissolved. bring to the boil and set aside to cool.

when ready to serve, unmould the sago, if necessary, and pour over the syrup and coconut cream to one's liking.

sago is usually best served within several hours of making.

wiggy's penguin cake

this is wiggy's penguin cake. i don't know whatever possessed him to make such a request, but he did. and it had lots of black icing...an obscene amount. everytime i make a cake with black icing i find that i have to use masses of black food colouring to get it anywhere near black...and this is starting with really dark chocolate icing. all the other colours don't need anywhere near the same amount, and i'm thinking strong colours here...red...forest green....

it smells like spring

i just stepped into my backyard and had a "smell"....it smells like spring. i know that it's still winter officially, but it was so warm today, and tonight, the backyard smells lovely. i don't plant anything special in the garden on account of the ground being infertile and all, but it's better than what it was when i first moved here.
i remember when we lived in lindfield, the smell of each season was quite distinct until the charcoal chicken shop opened up at the station; lindfield just never smelt the same again. now that we're in killara, and far enough from the highway, the seasons smell like they should again, although not quite the same as when i was a child. people are no longer able to burn the autumn leaves anymore. i do miss it a bit, but we're supposed to use our green bins now. i think it also helps that we're so close to the garrigal forest.....i love the way the air smells....

quick apricot mousse

remember my strawberry mousse from last year? i thought that was pretty effortless. this is even more so. and three ingredients, to boot.
this is another offering from the same australian women's weekly menu planner i got the cream cheese flan from; this one's from page 54.

825 gram can apricot halves
2 teaspoons gelatine
300 grams sour cream

drain the apricots and reserve 1/2 cup syrup. sprinkle the gelatine over the syrup and allow to soften over a bowl of hot water.
puree the apricots, add the sour cream and gelatine mixture and mix until combined throughly.
pour into individual dishes and refrigerate until set.

isn't that easy? i'd suspect that it might be diabetic friendly if you used apricots in natural juice, but you should check that out with a dietician just to make sure.

roasted capsicums

on the tail of my post about convenience foods, i like finding easier ways of doing things without sacrificing taste. roasted capsicums have always been one of those things which finds itself in the "fiddly" basket....much loved, but fiddly.......gone in a blink, but forever to prepare...sort of...
so......i did a bit of a taste test thing with roasted capsicums: capsicums roasted whole and sliced off the core.
roasted whole requires the capsicum to spend more time "cooking" and as such, the fruit releases a lot of juice. slices spend less time being grilled and are firmer than their whole counterparts and retain their juices.
another consideration is capacity. one capsicum, sliced, takes up more tray space, but doesn't take so much time to get to the point of being peelable. more whole capsicums can be placed on a tray, but has to be turned until blackened all around, and by that stage has collapsed and is mushier in texture.
slicing the capsicum also enables the bottom of the capsicum to be blackened easily (when left whole, i always think it's that awkward spot) and there is also not the problem of having capsicum seeds scattered throughout.
so were the capsicums sliced off the core and roasted able to meet the deliciousness of whole roasted capsicums? i loved them. this is a personal opinion. i loved them because they still had a bit of chewiness and bite...they weren't as messy to prepare...and i like how they quicker to prepare, getting them closer to instant gratification.
i used capsicums which had nice thick flesh, so the resulting roasted capsicums were nice and meaty.

convenience foods

i'm always weary of some convenience foods because they taste "funny"..... processed....not natural...like they've had something done to them. one food/recipe author once said that the roasted capsicums one could buy in jars were "just as good as" those done at home from scratch. against my better judgement, i bought a jar and there was no way those jarred "pepper" could cut the mustard. i should know better. this author also wrote that she would go around the table when she had dinner parties and collect the bones off her guests plates, bag and freeze them for use in stock at a later stage.....eugh.
after this capsicum episode, i still maintained my faith in human nature and bought a jar of grilled eggplants. these were quite different from all the others i had seen on the market. i carefully read the label. so far, so good. no weird ingredients or preservatives. it was also made in australia - a great big plus there. they looked really good...and so i bought them and can report back that they were really good. no weirdness and a really good addition to salad. i suspect alot of it has to do with it not having citric acid in its composition. at last, grilled eggplant which i don't have to grill myself. so worth it. now i have to hope the people who make it (norton street grocer) don't stop.....i wonder if they make roasted capsicums?

exfoliating sea salt scrub

i was rummaging through all my things today, trying to find some light olive oil i had infused with essentials oil. instead, i stumble on some salt scrub we made a little while back. it was wonderfully fragrant with all the lovely things we put in it - orange peel, rosemary, lavender.... to make it, use a light oil; sweet almond oil is a favourite, but light olive oil is fine. olive oil is very warming on the skin and can be "thickish" - choose what you think you might like to use.
with the salt, don't use something too coarse. rock salt is too coarse - find a finer crystal of sea salt because it will feel much coarser on the skin.
i already mentioned that we used orange peel, rosemary and lavender. other things you can use to add to your mix include:
rose petals; use fragrant dark red rose petals which have been grown naturally without pesticides.
mint would be nice and refreshing. there are many varieties of mint, so choose the one you like if you want to use mint.
one you may not have thought of is pineapple sage. pineapple sage has lovely red flowers and velvety fragrant leaves.
lightly mix half a cup of salt with a handful of your herbs or flowers of choice, then start to add your oil. stir the mixture around gently with a stainless steel spoon while you add the oil until you get a consistency you are happy with - you can use as little or as much oil as you like - both are good. use your spoon to fill sterilised containers with the mix and seal them. the salt acts as a preservative, so the leaves and flowers will not rot (as long as you don't stir it around with your hands - your hands have lots of germs on them no mtter how clean you may think they are).
whenyou are ready to use the scrub, scoop a little out of a jar and place it on your wet hands and scrub away and the salt will exfoliate while the oil moisturises. rinse and pat your skin dry.

cream cheese flan

every so often, i like to flip through my australian women's weekly menu planners. i don't have the whole set and would love to complete it if it is at all possible. anyway, this recipe is from the third book of the first series and was printed in 1987....page 58, if you must know. i love these little books - they hark to a different time and the recipes in them have that quaint quality to them, retro, if you like, but definitely not mainstream.
a gluten free version of this flan can be made if gluten free biscuits are used for the base.

this flan can be made up to 1 day ahead; store, covered, in the refrigerator. recipe unsuitable to freeze.

1 1/2 cups (185grams) sweet biscuit crumbs
90 grams butter, melted
250 grams cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons lemon rind
300 grams sour cream

combine the biscuit crumbs and butter and press over the base of a 23 cm flan tin; refrigerate until firm.
beat the cream cheese and sugar until soft, add the eggs and lemon rind and mix well.
add the sour cream and beat to combine.
pour the mixture into a saucepan and whisk over heat without boiling until slightly thickened (or microwave on high 8 minutes, stopping every 2 minute to whisk mixture).
pour mixture over biscuit base, cool and refirgerate several hours or overnight.

decorate with whipped cream, drizzled chocolate and strawberries if you'd like.

a candle...sort of...

for as long as i can remember, i've always wanted to make candles. today, i did...sort of. i remember my auntie have these lamp things which she fuelled with cooking oil...yes...cooking oil, and had a wick burning out of it. i'd been burning the odd tea light lately and wondered if the aluminium casing and little thing left after burning (i've since found out that it's the thing that holds the wick by clamping the wick firmly to the base) were recyclable. so i decided to see if i could make a lampy/candly thing.
i found a tag from a jacket i bought for miss c the other day had a cotton stringy cord atached to it and decided to recycle that as the wick. it was short for a piece of string, but long for a wick. gives new meaning to waste not want not. at that stage, i only had a aluminium casing without the wick anchor, so used a mangled paper clip to act as the anchor for my first attempt. it wasn't fabulous, but it worked. i poured in extra virgin olive oil (that's what i had on hand...ideally, it should be the cheap non food grade olive oil, but i was on a roll and did not want to wait), waited for the wick to become saturated with oil and then lit it...and it burned properly! like a real candle! if i didn't know better, i'd say it actually burns with a nicer flame than a candle....the flame seems smoother. of course, i could be biased, but you should try it yourself.
having done one was not enough; i wanted to make another one. at this stage, i found another casing, and this casing had one of those wick anchors. this was when i paid more regard to the wick anchor. it had a hole in the middle, for the wick to go through, and it also had something to hold the wick so it wouldn't loosen. the anchor made the second candle thingy easy and faster to assemble. i used one of my pointy tweezers to poke the wick through the hole in the anchor and pressed the clampy thing together to hold the wick securely. put it in the casing and poured oil into the casing, again waiting for the wick to absorb some oil, then lit it.
i've got both candle thingies burning smoothly now....my next attempt will be to make lampy thingies....watch out world, here i come.....oh yeah, i think i'm going to have to get me some of that there cheap olive oil.....

chinese flavoured stock concentrate

i thought i'd take yesterday's vegetable stock concentrate a step further and make a chinese version. i realise mine is not authentic by any stretch of the imagination, but it works for me, and that's what matters.

1/2 cup rice bran oil
250 grams garlic, peeled
500 grams ginger, peeled and sliced
some spring onions, chopped
100 grams salt

place everything into a blender and blitz until everything is pureed.
scrape it all out of the blender jug into a non stick saucepan and heat gently until everything is bubbling away, and allow to do so for a good five to ten minutes. stir the pot every so often to make sure the mixture doesn't catch.
decant into sterelised jars and put the lids on immediately and invert the jars so a vacuum will be created once the puree cools. refrigerate and use within six months.

one tablespoon will flavour up to a litre of water and would make a good poaching stock for chicken. this is also pretty good stirred through noodles and can be used as a dipping sauce for the poached chicken (a la hainanese chicken). a bit of sesame oil mixed in wouldn't go astray either.

vegetable stock concentrate

this is a new thing for me, and a new favourite. i've always made my own stock because i've always felt a bit odd opening a tetra pak stock, or using a cube. making my own stock has also taken precious time and effort....this stock concentrate has revolutionalised my thinking about stock. let me get on with the recipe and you can make your own judgement. the vegetables only need to be chopped roughly as they will be pureed once cooked.

1/2 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 turnip, peeled and chopped
2-3 stalks of celery (i used several of the inside stalks, including the leaves), chopped
a good handful of parsley, chopped
150 grams salt (yes, you read that correctly. it preserves the mix and provides an accent to the mix)

heat the oil in a saucepan large enough to contain the vegetables (which should weigh about a kilogram altogether).
sweat the onion and garlic until soft and slightly coloured.
add the parsnip, turnip, celery, parsley and salt and continue to gently cook the vegetables. the salt will draw out moisture, so the vegetables can soften in their own liquid.
give everything a good stir, lower the heat and place the lid on the pot and allow everything to cook slowly. check every now and then to ensure the vegetables don't catch; once everything is very tender, use the bamix to puree it all.
have some sterilised jars ready and decant the puree into them. place the lids on immediately and invert. once cooled, the jars should be vacuum sealed. store the jars in the refrigerator and use within six months.

that's it. a tablespoon is equivalent to a stock cube. use the mix as you would salt - sparingly and carefully. mixing a spoonful in water will give you instant vegetable stock. in some cases, i've found that i will use it to season food instead of salt and it's just that bit more interesting than seasoning with plain salt. remember not to overdo things because there's alot of salt in the mix, and if you go overboard, whatever you're cooking is going to be mighty salty.
for those of you with a thermomix, you'll recognise it as a thermomix recipe, but i don't see why it should be made exclusively by those with a thermomix; everyone else should try it too.

something simply garlicky

the last few days i've been going through a garlic phase and have been making things with lots of it, and have no doubt been very pongy. since i don't want to be pongy on my own, i'm sharing this recipe, so we can reek together.

hommous

2 cloves garlic, crushed
400g can chick peas, drained, liquid set aside
rind and juice of 1 lemon
a good splash of olive oil
handful of parsley
2 tablespoons tahini

i used to make this with my bamix - i'd throw everything together in a large vegemite or peanut butter jar and blitz away, adding a little of the reserved chick pea liquid if required.
since i now have a thermomix, i put the garlic in first to blitz, then add the other ingredients and blitz until i get the texture i like - it can be as chunky or smooth as you like.

essentially, this is quite a healthy dip and it makes eating raw vegetables very easy.

mayonnaise

i like making mayonnaise with my bamix - it is so easy, it's almost instant.

get hold of a 2 cup capacity container. i have been known to make mayonnaise in peanut butter jars - it's convenient - after the mayonnaise is made, you don't have to tip it into another jar or container, you just put the peanut butter jar lid on, and it's covered. one less thing to wash and isn't that the way to go? so environmentally friendly.
pop 2 egg yolks or a whole egg into the jar and blitz until the egg is nice and frothy.
keeping the motor running, start drizzling your favourite oil into the jar (your favourite oil might be olive, canola, rice bran...although i do find using all extra virgin olive oil very strong - i just use a combination sometimes). keep drizzling until the mayonnaise becomes nice and thick and luscious.....that egg will absorb about a cup of oil, so be prepared. i admit the first time i made mayonnaise, i found it really difficult to keep adding oil, but believe me, you have to do it...you have to go all the way, otherwise what you've started will be wasted.....if you can't handle it, don't start at all....
once your mayonnaise is how i've described it (nice and thick and luscious), you can stop adding oil. you can now drizzle in a tablespoon or 2 of lemon juice or tarragon vinegar.
season with a little salt, if you like.

if you want to make aioli, put a peeled clove of garlic into the jar when you're blitzing the egg and continue from there.

my personal favourite is mayonnaise with some sundried tomato in it. i just chop some up and fold it through the mayonnaise. i don't bother with either the lemon juice or vinegar in this case.

apricot chicken

yes, i'm going to post this recipe, and what's wrong with that? i know there are fancy versions of apricot chicken, but wrong with the good old original? it's comforting, and sometimes this just hits the spot.

1.5 kilograms of you favourite chicken pieces
35 gram packet of french onion soup mix
425 ml can apricot nectar

combine the chicken, soup mix and apricot nectar together and place in a baking dish. place in an oven set to 180 degrees celcius and bake, covered for 30 minutes. remove cover and bake a further 20 minutes.

my first solo thermomix cooking session

i got my thermomix yesterday and as soon it had been put throught the dishwasher, i got cracking. i confess that i show no imagination - i made a risotto. i'm on a learning curve and i have to start somewhere. and because i'm me, i did some things different to what the recipe book said. i used masses of vintage tasty cheese, which i didn't grate and put into the bowl in chunks as the thermomix was going. it coped very well and the cheese melted and distributed itself through the unctiousness, i used wine to make up what i was short of in stock....but the one thing i did differently to the thermomix bible was to use hot stock and fry the onions, garlic and rice in a regular pan. i had the stock bubbling away in the thermomix bowl, and once i thought the aromatics had released their fragrance, and the rice was adequately toasted and coated in an abundance of butter and olive oil, i added them to the thermomix bowl to party with the bubbly stock. also joining the party, was the aforementioned cheese. it was a little clunky and awkward at first, but in next to no time it joined in and was a pretty smooth mingler.
do i like it? yes, but i need to have some time with it. i need to get to know it better - i'm looking forward to a productive working relationship. does that sum it all up?

kumera and lentil soup

this is one of the easiest soups i know...almost as easy as opening up a can of cambell's soup; it's just fresher tasting, that's all.

1 kilogram kumera, cubed
3/4 cup red lentils, rinsed
stock to cover
salt and pepper to taste

pop everything into a pot, bring it to the boil and simmer until the kumera is tender. blend until smooth (or however you like it) and serve.

wasn't that the easiest? i'm not a big lentil person, but the addition of lentils with this really works well, so much so that if it is omitted, the soup just doesn't taste as good.

peanut butter cookies...with extras...

i'm not a big peanut butter eater, but tend to buy too much of it thinking we might be out of it. enter peanut butter cookies - a hero in the "using heaps of peanut butter" world.

1 cup (260 grams) peanut butter (use your favourite - smooth or crunchy)
1 cup sugar (220 grams) sugar
1 egg

extras
m and ms
chocolate chips (again use your favourite - white, milk or dark)
dried fruit (your favourites, again - pears, apricots, cranberries)
nuts (cashews, walnuts, macadamias)

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
combine the peanut butter, sugar and egg in a mixing bowl. add your desired extras, just keeping in mind that if you like putting lots of stuff in, you will have to have enough cookie dough to hold it all together. all the bits you put in can be chopped as finely as you like or left as rustic as you like.
form the dough into balls and place the on the baking sheet. pressthem down a little to flatten and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.

banana caramel tart

the first time i had this was in a little cheese shop in eastwood...granny smith's? i'm embarrassed to say i don't remember the name, but that was probably about 20 years ago. i can't remember exactly what theirs was like either, but this one is pretty good - especially the pastry...at least i think so. don't get me wrong, theirs must have been good enough for it to be memorable.

2 -3 bananas
300 mls thichened cream.

pate sucree
60 grams icing sugar
125 grams plain flour
pinch of salt
60 grams butter, softened
1 egg yolk

caramel filling
200 grams brown sugar
125 grams butter
35 grams cornflour
250 ml milk
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

make the pastry by placing the icing sugar, flour butter and egg yolk in to the bowl of a food processor and process until a dough is formed. refrigerate for 30 minutes.
preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
roll out the pastry to fit a 24 centimetre loose bottomed flan tin. place a 23 centimetre disc over the the base (or bake blind, if you prefer) and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden. set aside to cool.
prepare the caramel filling by combining the brown sugar and butter in a medium pan over low heat to melt the butter. blend together the cornflour and milk and add to the butter mixture. whisk while heating until the mixture boils and thickens. remove from heat and quickly whisk in the egg yolks and vanilla essence. cover and set aside to cool.
spread the caramel filling into the pastry case and cover with a layer of sliced bananas. whip the cream and dollop over the bananas to completely cover. refrigerate and serve.

lemon cream in the style of pierre herme in pate sucree tartlet shells‏

1 cup sugar
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
280 grams unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature
salt flakes to fold through the emulsion to provide bursts of saltiness

things you'll need: a thermometer, a strainer and a blender.
bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.
put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water.
macerate the sugar and zest together until the sugar takes on the lemoniness of the zest.
whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.
set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. cook the lemon cream until it reaches 82 degrees celcius. as you whisk—you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 82 degrees celcius, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. start to take great care at this point—the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.as soon as it reaches 82 degrees celcius, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender; discard the zest. let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 68 degrees celcius, about 10 minutes.
turn the blender to high and, with the machine going, add the butter a piece or two at a time. scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. fold salt flakes through the cream.

pate sucree
120 grams icing sugar
250 grams plain flour
pinch of salt
125 grams butter, softened
1 egg
place the icing suagr, flour butter and egg in to the bowl of a food processor and process until a dough is formed.
dust a work surface lightly with flour. roll dough out and cut rounds to fit tartlet moulds; you should get 36 tartlet cases about 10-12cm in diameter.
prick well and bake for 14 minutes at 180 degrees celcius.
assemble the tarts with a dollop of lemon cream in each tart and top with shards of toffee.
do not attempt to blowtorch sugar sprinkled on the lemon cream as the cream will collapse.

mork from the philippines

wenty and i went to yum cha today. after the bill was paid and i was waiting for him, i overheard the guy behind me answer his phone, "hello? hello?" "nanoo, nanoo" "nanoo" "nanoo nanoo".
i related this to wenty, who just replied that the guy was from the philippines. am i missing something? mork from ork used to say "nanoo nanoo" on the mork and mindy show and we were told that he spoke orkish (or whatever). well, now i've been told otherwise. mork is really from the philippines.

choclate crackles

miss c had her party on saturday, and she made specific requests; she wanted fairy bread and chocolate crackles. can you believe it? she's nearly 18 (we had the party early) and she wanted children's party food. beanstalk did voice his disdain by asking if i had to listen to her, but then, i had already worked out what i was hoping to do.
the fairy bread was a real hit. it was gone...
chocolate crackles were popular too, but the time they were brought out, most of the crowd had had their fill.

250 grams copha
5 cups rice bubbles
1 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa

melt the copha.
combine the rice bubbles, coconut, icing sugar and cocoa in a large bowl and pour over the copha and mix thoroughly.
spoon into 24 paper patty pans and leave to set.

that's it.

involved

engine has a tendency to be sooky at times, and the day we had his party was no exception. never one to take that nonsense, i asked eddie to take wiggy and sly up to the local woollies and buy a bag of smarties.
the smarties served two purposes; i used them to lured engine away from his dad and to decorate his cake. i really believe in always having a more involved approach to cake making/decorating - it makes eveything more personal and memorable. never mind if you don't make the cake yourself, but if you can just do a little something, it's nice.
so, after i made and iced engine's cake, i left it quite plain. and i left it to him and his brothers and cousins to help adorn it. engine was quite absorbed and made sure the smarties didn't fall off the cake by pressing them deep into the cake. if he's too young to remember doing this, i'm sure there will be those who will remember...and remind him of how he added his personal touch to his birthday cake....and forgot about being clingy and sooky.