potato wedges with rosemary and garlic

i'm finding that all potatoes i've been buying lately have been sprouting in no time, so i really have to buy them and cook them straight away. problem is, at the moment, there seem to be some wonderful varieties available, they are irresistable.
since the potatoes in the roasted greek vegetables were very delicious, i thought i would apply the same principle to potato wedges.

1 kilogram potatoes, cut in wedges
2 cloves garlic, crushed
several sprigs rosemary
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 cup olive oil

combine everything together and place it into a large baking dish.
bake for 1 hour at 200 degrees celcius, stirring around every 15 minutes. this will rough the potatoes a bit and provide extra crunchiness.

cinnamon toast crusts and dyslexia

i was reading about someone's love for cinnamon toast crunch and mistakenly read it as cinnamon toast crusts. in my mind, i was imagining what i thought this cinnamon toast crusts thing should look like and taste like. i imagined thick buttery white bread crusts heavily dredged in cinnamon and sugar, toasted to golden perfection. you can imagine my disappointment when i reread what was written and googled cinnamon toast crunch.
boy, was i disappointed. cinnamon toast crunch was a breakfast cereal. imagine, i was thinking crunchy with a moistish interior, slightly chewy, warm out of the oven, fresh.....not some dry, packaged breakfast cereal (i'm sure it's delicious, but it wasn't how i imagined it to be). at that point, i decided that i would stay dyslexic just for this one thing. think about it, buttery toasted crusts of bread with loads of cinnamon and sugar......
after some experimentation, this is how i achieved what i imagined.

preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
butter thick strips of white bread - 2 centimetre batons if possible, on all surfaces.
roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar - 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to every half cup of sugar; pressing it on firmly doesn't hurt.
place the strips on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

they shouldn't be at all dry, but crunchy outside and light and fluffy within. they should also be buttery, but not dripping in it. the sugar should also be slightly caramelised......yummm..... i don't know if this was a freudian slip of the junk food kind, food dyslexia or just wishful thinking, but i'm glad of it because cinnamon toast crusts ain't half bad....to eat, that is.....i'm sure that on another level, they'd be classified as something totally lacking in nutritional value, but hey, it isn't everyday i'm dyslexic.

apple pie

i've been making apple pie like this ever since i was in high school. it's not the traditional looking pie we are accustomed to with a crust on the bottom and top. it starts life with a crust on top with when cooked forms the base, much like a tarte tatin. i don't call it tarte tatin because i don't think it is a tarte tatin, not authentically, anyway.

1 cup plain flour
a pinch of salt
60 grams butter
1/8 cup sugar
1 egg yolk

2 quantities cooked apples

place the flour, salt, butter, sugar and yolk in a medium sized bowl and use a hand mixer to combine together to form a soft dough (if you like, you can use a food processor).
wrap the dough and place it in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.
preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
place the apples in a 20 centimetre oven safe dish.
roll out the pastry to fit over the apples and tuck the edges of the pastry.
place the apple pie into the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden.
once golden, remove from the oven and set aside for 10 minutes.
place a dish larger than the pie dish over the pie dish and invert.
serve with cream and/or icecream

apple crumble

i like my crumble quite plain, not oaty, not coconutty, not nutty ....... i like it made just with flour, brown sugar and butter. and i like lots of it and lumpy. very often, i've seen it dry and not at all generous. if you're going to have crumble, have it.

160 grams butter
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cups brown sugar

a quantity cooked apples

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
for the crumble, place the butter, flour and sugar in a medium sized basin and use a hand mixer to combine them (you could use your fingers to rub the butter throught the flour, but i don't like to dirty my hands).
place the cooked apples in an oven safe dish and sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
bake the apple crumble in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
serve with cream and/or icecream.

cooked apples

wenty got carried away on saturday when he went shopping with mingay and paul at flemington markets. their mission was to buy some lobsters for lunch but wenty obviously couldn't resist all the cases of fruits and vegetables around him. after several exchanges on the phone, he not only came home with 10 lobsters, but also figs, apples, pears, sweetcorn, and limes. the limes were beautiful, the pears were nice and firm, but the apples needed attending to ....... immediately.
whenever there's a glut of anything, the temptation is often to make jam and preserves so we can enjoy the bounty through the year. however, i decided that i should cook the apples and go from there.
i realise that there are different apples out there which are better for some things than others, but very often, when i make cook apples, i never worry about the apples i use as the apples i use tend to be past their prime. this has never posed any problems as we just love the apples cooked this way.

1 kilogram apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
1/4 cup sugar
30 grams butter

place the apples, sugar and butter into a frypan over medium heat. the butter will melt, the sugar will dissolve and the apples will release their juices.
increase the heat and stir the apples around so the apples don't catch.
continue cooking until the apples are cooked to your liking; we like the apples soft, but still retaining their shape, with most of the liquid evaporated.
at this stage, the apples can be eaten as they are, made into a pie, made into a crumble, eaten with icecream, used as an accompaniment....getting the drift?

roasted greek vegetables

wenty took me to a greek restaurant on valentine's day and i had my favourite roast lamb and vegetables. i love how the greeks cook their meat and vegetables - such an easy way to eat vegetables and get the five vegetables (and more) the way they cook it. tasty, comforting....

i am just going to list the vegetables which can be used - the list is endless.

okra
tomatoes
carrots
potatoes
kumera (probably not authentic, but i liked it)
pumpkin
onions
zucchini
capsicum
beans - all sorts - green, white, borlotti
celery
mushrooms
eggplant
peas
you can see i'm listing anything and everything i can think of - it's for my benefit more than anything
cauliflower
broccoli
silverbeet

in addition to vegetables, you will also need
olive oil
garlic - tons is good - i use half a head of garlic, but this depends on the amount of the vegetables,of course.
greek basil
oregano
sage
thyme
parsley
salt and pepper

decide what you want to use, prepare it (ie, wash, peel, chop etc) and place it all into a large baking dish. make sure you put in more than you think you'll need because the vegetables collapse and there is significantly less bulk than what you started with; i always cook much more because it's delicious the next day as well.
drizzle a liberal amount of olive oil over the vegetables, not so much so as to drown them, but enough to coat them all over.
strip the leaves of the herbs off and toss them over the vegetables. i like to use masses of herbs and eat them as a green after the vegetables have finished roasting (this has nothing to do with the fact that i have masses of herbs in the garden at the moment.....of course).
crush the garlic and toss that in as well.
season with some salt and lots of pepper.
pour in about 1/2 a cup of water, and give everything a good tumble around.
pop it into the oven at 200 degrees celcius.
give it a stir every 20-30 minutes and leave it in the oven for 2 or 3 hours.
this can be served as a main vegetarian course or as a side dish.

my dad's version of satay

having given you a version of pretend satay sauce yesterday, i thought i'd give you a version of pretend satay today.
my dad never cooked much. this isn't to say he didn't know how, but he just never did. this was something he concocted when he did. for me, this is comfort food because it has memories of my dad with it. i love my dad.

a splash of oil
1 onion, cut into eight wedges
a piece of skirt steak, sliced across the grain, sprinkled with a little salt
1 or 2 tomatoes cut into wedges
pineapple pieces
some satay sauce, according to your liking

heat the oil in a frypan over high heat.
throw in the onions and give them a good toss around every so often. you want them to have a little colour here and there. set aside.
put in another splash of oil in the frypan, again over high heat. pop in the slices of meat to cover the pan evenly and allow to colour on one side for about a minute. flip it over and brown the other side. set aside. the meat should be golden outside, but undercooked.
in the same frypan, again over high heat, return the onions and add the tomatoes, pineapple and satay sauce. once fully heated and boiling (and no doubt splattering, so have a lid handy), add the meat, give it a good stir and remove from the heat and serve with plain rice and vegetables.

satay sauce - the non authentic version

this is not the real thing and i am not going to try and pass it off as such. it's just a spicy, peanutty sauce i like to have with the thai meatballs, cold roast meat, eggs, salad, as a dip....whatever.....i'm sure you'll find your own niche for it too.

1/4 cup oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 clove, crushed
1 red chilli, chopped, with or without seeds - your choice
3 tablespoons curry powder
3/4 cup super crunchy peanut butter
440 gram tin crushed pineapple

heat the oil in a medium saucepan and soften the onions.
add the garlic and chilli; be careful not to brown the garlic - you just want it to perfume (yes, that's right, i said perfume) the oil.
add the curry powder and do not let it catch - you just want to let it lose any rawness it may have.
add the peanut butter, followed by the crushed pineapple.
give it a good stir and thin it to the consistency of your liking with the juice from the crushed pineapples. if you poured the whole tin, that's okay - that's what i do - the sauce will be saucier, but still quite thick - peanut butter has that effect - it's thick.
now serve it the way YOU want to.

thai dipping sauce

this is yummy. it has those elements which make thai food popular - it's sweet, sour, salty, spicy - it possesses the four Ss and it's tasty. let me get on with it before i get myself into a pavlov's dog situation.

1/2 cup lime
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon finely ground lemon grass (grind it in a mortar and pestle; ignore any recipe which tells you finely chop lemon grass, nobody worth their salt in thailand finely chops lemon grass, they use a mortar and pestle)
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 clove crushed garlic
1 chopped red chilli

combine well. taste and adjust to your liking.

i was very tempted to just give a list of ingredients for this sauce because you really want to get it to taste the way you like it.

thai chicken meatballs

many, many moons ago, i used to make tons of these; there was always something on which i could take these to, and they were easy to eat, being savoury, spicy and a finger food.....finger food is always popular - people just open their mouths and these meatballs just pop in.

1 kilogram chicken mince
2 tablespoons green or red curry paste
1 bunch coriander, chopped finely
1 bunch basil, chopped finely
1 cup breadcrumbs (this may seem like alot, but the meatballs stay moist and tender, not dry and woody)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup sweet thai chilli sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar, or if you want to be authentic, gula melaka
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

place everything except the sesame seeds in a large bowl and mix it all until it's well combined; i like using my handheld mixer to do this - it mixes things better than i ever do and my hands don't get smelly.
at this point, i like to don a pair of disposable gloves and form the mix into balls. i do this sometimes by rolling, other times by extruding it, but a favourite is to use two spoons - the meatballs aren't perfectly round, but they aren't bad considering that you don't get mince all over your hands and because you don't get mince all over your hands, you know the phone won't ring (that's the real reason why i don't like to dirty my hands - the phone always rings when i'm in no position to pick it up).
once all the mince has been formed into balls, you can cover them and pop them in the fridge and cook them at your leisure, or cook them straight away.
here, i give you choice again!! you can pan fry, deep fry, grill or do as i do - microwave them. since everyone's microwave is different, you have to work out the intricacies of your appliance yourself. i place the meatballs around the edge a of a microwave friendly plate and nuke them until their done - make sure they are fully cooked - raw chicken is a definite no no (read food poisoning, and we don't want that). if you want to pan fry, deep fry or grill, do so, and again, make sure the meatballs are full cooked.
choice here again - once all the meatballs are cooked, you can cool them and refrigerate them to heat and serve later, or serve immediately with a sauce of your own choice - sweet thai chilli sauce is a popular choice. (other sauce choices to follow in later posts)
if the meatballs are microwaved, you can brown them a little under a grill to give them a bit of colour just before serving or use some of the optional sesame seeds to sprinkle on them - that makes them look special.....

steamed minced pork with salted eggs

whenever i want something comforting and i'm feeling somewhat jaded with cooking, i turn to the simple things in life. this is one of them. i don't really have a proper recipe for this, but i used these approximate quantities the other day.

3 or 4 salted eggs
500g minced pork (i usually buy the lean mince, but it is really good with the fatty mince)
a little stock or water
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 or 2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
grated ginger
spring onions to garnish

separate the egg whites from the yolk - this is easy because the yolks are solid. set the yolks aside and place the egg whites in a large bowl.
place the pork, stock/water, cornflour, sesame oil, pepper and ginger in the bowl with the egg whites and stir together until well combined - i like using the hand held electric mixer to do this - less elbow grease. pour into a shallow bowl large enough to contain the mixture. place the egg yolks on top and steam for 20 minutes or until done.
sprinkle with spring onions and serve with rice or congee and vegetables.

some recipes also add in a fresh egg or two while mixing the mince and also add soya sauce; i do sometimes, but i didn't this time because i had so many salted eggs of my own.

the thrills are alive - singalong sound of music

two saturdays ago, wenty, brrr, gazza and i went to the sound of music singalong....and it was alot of fun. being my first singalong, i wasn't sure about what to expect. wenty was under the impression that it might have been an alternative gay mardi gras thing, since it was on the night of the mardi gras. well, it wasn't. all sorts were there - families, older couples, younger couples and there were some gay guys dressed up as nuns. apparently, there is quite a gay following with the sound of music that i didn't know about (is nothing sacred?). whatever..... what i did find interesting was that there were the 20something year old (straight) guys (or i assume), who were sitting with their girlfriends, singing along. this was an all out dagfest and these otherwise cool dudes were indulging in something ....well....daggy....
anyway, some of the people dress up, children, adults and gays alike, and to get the ball rolling, the hostess invites them all on stage so we can have a look at them and have a chuckle. some are clever costumes - two ladies dressed up as mountains - climb ev'ry mountain.....two girls dressed up as girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes and when asked who they were, broke out into song - they'd obviously come prepared. in case you're wondering, no, i didn't get dressed up, but if i were to go again, i'd probably go as the baroness. i've always love the simplicity of the dress she wore to the ball.
before the movie commences (yes, it is THE movie), the hostess goes through our props bag with us and the the actions and sounds we are to make through the movie. i'm sorry if i make this sound hideous.
in our props bag we find flash cards to flash as we sing how do you solve a problem like maria? there's also a piece of curtain to wave you know when, and a piece of plastic edelwiess to also wave you know when. we boo at the nazis and hiss at the baroness. and when it's time for the captain and maria to kiss, we pop our party poppers....exactly at the moment they kiss....not before, not after.....exactly at that exact moment. needless to say, there were premature poppers and late poppers. and of course, we get an invitation to THE ball.
naturally, there are words on the screen to sing along to the music, but there isn't a bouncing ball to follow.
it was a good night and it's nice to see how well the movie has stood up to the test of time and has brought joy to so many generations and different walks of life.
unfortunately, miss k was out for the weekend and miss c had to study, otherwise they too could have joined in and had themselves a ball as well.

sweet and sour sauce

yesterday, i my post was about making wontons...and there were no specific quantities given, but now i give specific quantities for sweet and sour sauce. i know people who eyeball this, but i like my sweet and sour sauce consistent.
i love deep fried wontons with this. i really do.....

1/3 cup vinegar (i use apple cider vinegar)
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
3 tablespoons tomato sauce

2 tablespoons cornflour/1 tablespoon wheaten cornflour
2 tablespoons water

place the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper and tomato sauce in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil.
meanwhile, dissolve the cornflour in the water and pour into the boiling vinegar, whisking the whole time. once the sauce has come to the boil, it is ready to serve with the deep fried wontons....or whatever you like.

if you want the sweet and sour sauce they have with pork, just add some stir fried capsicum, onion, carrots and pineapple to the sauce. if you decide to do this, don't waste the syrup from the pineapple (if you're using canned pineapple) and use it to replace the water whilst making the sauce.

wontons

there was a time i was making these all the time because i'd be buying the 2 kilogram packets of wonton wrappers because they were so cheap. so everytime there was something on, i'd turn up with a huge basket of deep fried wontons and sweet and sour sauce. my friends don't associate me with wontons, but i do wonder if miss k and miss c's freinds do....maybe not, because i haven't done them for a while.
anyway, i thought i'd better post an entry today, and why not this?
i'm only going to give a list of ingredients and leave it to your own discretion as to the quantities. i do use more greens (garlic chives, spring onions and coriander) than meat (minced pork/chicken/beef/lamb) - i had dumplings in hong kong once from the roadside and there was hardly any meat! the greens i use are usually treated as herbs, but i use them by the bunch as vegetables in wontons. in fact, i use bunches of each to very little meat.
i also add eggs, fried eggs....eggs fried in tons of oil.... i was watching this girl from china make the filling once, and she used eggs fried in tons of oil. if i wasn't mistaken, i'd say that there was half the quantity in oil in the frypan to the quantity of eggs. need i spell it out? one cupful of eggs is fried in half a cupful of oil. the eggs are beaten lightly, stirred into the hot oil to cook, left to cool in the oil, chopped up and placed, oil and all, into the mixing bowl with everything else.
so what's everything else? i better list them:

mince (your choice)
soya sauce, both light and dark
sesame oil
chinese rice wine
pepper
salt (if you use tons of soya sauce, this is optional, of course)
spring onions
garlic chives
coriander
chopped, fried egg
chinese mushrooms
chopped spinach
water chestnuts
cornflour, 1 or 2 tablespoons per kilogram of meat
wonton wrappers

for some reason, i don't measure anything for this, even the cornflour is a bit hit and miss.
i use an electric handheld mixer to combine everything together because i don't like getting my hands dirty and smelly, and also, because i think it does a much more thorough job and quicker than i could ever dream to do it.
at this stage, it's really useful to have a large area to work on and a friend or two - that really speeds thing up, especially if you want to make tons like i always do. yes, i like to make a ton of wonton.......sorry.
layout the wrappers on the work bench and place a small amount of filling in the centre of each one; don't try to use to much filling because that will only lead to tears of despair when the filling cannot be enclosed properly and falls out either before or during the cooking process. you have been warned....try to be a little frugal here.
brush the edges of the wonton wrapper with a smidge of water and seal the filling in the wrapper. you can be fancy with the wrapping and put little pleats in the edge, as miss k does, or do as i do and simple fold the wonton wrapper in half to form a triangle and roughly squish to make pretend pleats, or just put the wrapper in your palm and squeeze, as i have seen some people do.
once an adequate number of dumplings have been made, it's up to you to decide as to whether you want to boil or deep fry the dumplings. that's it.

hazelnut rosettes

the big book of beautiful biscuits by the australian women's weekly was the first book i bought from the weekly library, and for all i know, it may well have been their first book (i'd love to know if anyone does know) from that collection. after buying this book (some nearly 30 years ago), i was hooked and now have a good number of books from the collection. i'm sure i don't have the entire library, but pretty close. there were some things which didn't interest me, believe it or not.
i'm not sure whether i'm stuck in a time warp, but i find the books from this collection a joy to own; the newer ones, while slick and stylish don't have the same appeal. i have many of the newer ones, but cannot say i have used them to the extent i have used the older ones...they're just nice to look at, but don't inspire me to get up and make something from them. to be really honest, i don't think i've cooked anything out of them....there, i've said it.....major confession, major sin.
but this biscuit book is my redemption. there are many biscuits i have made out of it and each one delicious. i haven't made all the biscuits, yet, but given the opportunity (read: finding people outside this household to help eat them) and the time, i intend to at least give it a try. other people's ambitions in life are to conquer mountains; mine, to conquer recipes (i'd really like to have the opportunity to travel more, especially america and europe, but making something out of a cookbook is more within my reach).
the recipe i offer today is a favourite. as a beginner cook all those years ago, this gave me the confidence to continue cooking and baking.

hazelnut rosettes
from the big book of beautiful biscuits by the australian women's weekly

250 g butter
1/3 cup sugar
60 g ground hazelnuts
1 2/3 cups plain flour
choc bits to decorate

beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
add ground hazelnuts, beat until combined.
add sifted flour.
mix well.
put mixture into a piping bag fitted with a fluted tube. pipe small stars into small paper patty cases and top each biscuit with a choc bit.
bake in a moderate oven approximately 15 minutes or until biscuits are light brown.
makes about 50.
note: the small paper patty cases used for confectionary are an ideal size for these delicious biscuits.

salted eggs

i remember making salted eggs a couple of decades ago (it's so funny that i can talk in decades now....) where i used to dissolve salt in boiling water, wait (very patiently, unlike maggie, who put the eggs in when the water was still warm .....) until the brine was well and truly cold, season it with some rice wine and immerse the eggs and allow them to do their thing for a couple of weeks.
because this was some decades ago, i thought i should refresh my memory and see what people had to say about salting eggs on the net. there were 2 methods. the first was same as what i did all those years ago; the second, involved dipping the eggs in rice wine and coating the eggs with salt and leaving them to do their thing. because i wanted to be different (read: lazy), i thought i would put the eggs in a glass jar, pour in a pile of sea salt to totally bury the eggs and then pour
in bottles of rice wine to fill in the gaps. i felt this was easier than coating the eggs with wine and salt, you see.....
well, i am happily able to report that this method works and the eggs are deliciously ready after three weeks and very fragrant from so much rice wine. i think, to date, this is my preferred method of making salted eggs. i used very fresh, very extra large hens eggs. the yolk is totally delicious mooshed on toast......the whole egg is great for steamed mince pork, one of my very favourite comfort foods.

pasta carbonara

much as i love pasta carbonara, i have never made a point of working out how i wanted my version of the dish to turn out...until now. miss c loves pasta with all the different sauces, but not miss k, so i don't often have pasta on the menu in our household. a few days ago, miss c was craving pasta and let me know on no uncertain terms that she was missing it. so i thought that i had better sort something out for miss k, lest she had another bowl of pasta unadorned. miss k doesn't like tomatoes. period. since most pasta sauce is derived from the tomato, it was a no go zone. but then miss k more recently let it be known that she did actually like pasta and wouldn't mind it with a sauce...perhaps a cream sauce... nothing with mushrooms....bacon would be good. ahhhh. carbonara, perhaps? sounds good (read: acceptable), mum.
so after some thought, i decided that if i ate carbonara, i'd want the sauce to be hot, but i wouldn't want my eggs dry and over cooked. so this is what i came up with.

2 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup cream
dry fried bacon, to taste
freshly ground pepper
butter
sufficient pasta for one person, just cooked and drained

place the eggs, cream, bacon and pepper in a bowl a lightly mix together.
place the butter in a hot place and when bubbling, pour the eggs into the pan, followed by the very hot pasta. remove from the heat immediately.
stir the eggs through the pasta very quickly and into the serving dish.

for me, the essence of this dish is split second timing. have the pasta al dente the minute the eggs are in the pan and remove the pan off the heat immediately, so the eggs stay creamy and don't over cook. it's easy to get it wrong, but then by the same token, it's also easy to get it right. timing...timing...timing....

jill dupleix's crash hot potatoes

jill is really on the pulse of things. she knows people crave delicious food, are time poor, may not all possess michelin star expertise and simply want ..... simple food..... so she gives it to us with two volumes - simple food and very simple food. she satisfies us on different levels and make us feel good about ourselves...that we can cook so we can have something good for us, which is delicious, which is simple. i feel like i'm raving. forgive me. i can't help it.
let me now rave on about the potatoes. these are a wonderful way to prepare potatoes. wonderful because they are simple and delicious. and on the night i made them, they also fitted in with someone's aversion to dairy. and they can be preboiled, ready to be roasted just before dinner is served....and....and..... i'm sure you'll be able to add to the list of great things this potato dish is about.

small potatoes
sea salt
olive oil
freshly ground pepper
your herbs of choice, eg, thyme, rosemary, sage

preheat the oven to 250 degrees celcius.
boil the unpeeled potatoes in salted water until tender.
place the drained potatoes on a oiled baking sheet and squash each potato with a potato masher until it is about 1-2 centimetres thick.
drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs.
roast the potatoes in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and crispy.

my current meat sauce for pasta

i daren't call this bolognese because i'm sure it isn't authentic. however, this is one meat sauce for pasta that i have been very happy with, so i thought i should put it down lest i forget.

1/2 cup olive oil
2 onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
oregano, parsley
500 grams minced beef
500 grams italian sausage, casings removed
2 glasses wine, plus more to rinse out the passata jar
1 large jar passata
zucchini, capsicum, mushroom...whatever takes your fancy
freshly cooked pasta
fresh basil

heat the oil in a large stockpot. i like to use a large stockpot because it makes everything nice and easy to stir; this sauce will not fill the pot in any way.
add the onions and garlic and stir around to coat with oil and allow to soften. add the oregano and parsley, if using. add the mince and italian sausage and stir to break up the meat. stir in the wine and allow to bubble away for about 15 minutes to half an hour.
add the passata, rinse out the jar with more wine (you don't want to waste any passata...heh heh), stir and allow to bubble away. at this stage i also add the vegetables and allow to bubble away for as long as possible (up to 2 hours). remember to stir the pot every now and then to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom. if for some reason the sauce does catch (forget to stir, flame too high), quickly tip the sauce into another saucepan so the burnt flavour doesn't contaminate the whole batch of sauce. you'll get away with a little smokiness in the sauce...in fact, some people will think it make the sauce even more delicious because it adds another dimension.
at this stage, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. seasoning with pepper and nutmeg earlier is fine, but because there's so much bubbling and evaporation going on, it's much safer to salt at the end. very often i don't add salt because the passata and sausage are already plenty salty, as is the pasta, which should be cooked in well salted water.
that's about it. serve it with al dente pasta (please don't overcook the pasta if at all possible) and fresh basil.
buon appetito!

salted water for boiling

i confess....this is not one of my recipes (to possess such genius, sheer bliss), but have found it invaluable. i first stumbled across it on epicurious, a veritable trasure trove of recipes and all things food. imagine my delight as i trawled through their archives and fell upon this. admittedly, it wasn't too hard to find as it was one of their highest rated recipes back when they had such a category (they don't have it anymore, i wonder why...).
without further ado, here it is.

when salting water for cooking, use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 4 quarts of water.

that's it. eloquent in its simplicity.

ps. i did review it, but i'm not trawling through the hundreds of reviews just to find what i wrote, but don't let me stop you....you might get a bit of a chuckle out of it.

deprived

several years ago, mrs muntz was telling me that they would be going to the snow in july and i simply said, "oh, my poor deprived children have never seen snow, and i don't know when they ever will." she was very kind and invited us along, and we have been grateful ever since because there's nothing like it. we love it.

more recently, i have had the opportunity to make a barbie cake. when my children were little, i was very deprived. they weren't into barbies, so there were no barbie cakes to be made. until now, that is.
barbie cakes are actually quite a good cake to make - not only does the birthday girl get a cake, but a doll at the end of the party, as well.
now, all i need is the opportunity to make some cakes for boys......the wigs? are you reading this? hint, hint?

AGSM's potato salad

back in the days when i was a uni student, i used to go to the AGSM's cafeteria for lunch and one of the vegetables served with one's meal was a potato salad. it was different to any of the other potato salads i had eaten in the past because it didn't have any mayonnaise.
to date, that was one of the best cafeterias i have ever been to - the chef there was genuinely a great cook with a fabulous repetoir. i guess the council at the AGSM felt they needed a cafeteria which matched the calibre of the students - AGSM at the time was the first of its kind, but others have since popped up - sydney university started their own graduate school not long after and macquarie uni has one as well.

1 kilogram potatoes
8 rashers bacon
2 green onions
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil

boil, steam or microwave the potatoes until tender and cut into 2cm cubes.
take the rind off the bacon and slice the bacon into strips and dry fry them until crisp.
slice the green onions.
place everything in a large bowl and toss gently so the potatoes are coated with the lemon juice and oil.

french onion dip

i can't believe i'm adding this recipe, but add it i must because miss c went to nooms' place and had it and thought it was soooo good. miss c needs to know how to make it in case she has a craving for it one day and doesn't know what to do. isn't it ironic how miss k knows how to make this, but doesn't eat it (she's not into sour cream), while miss c has absolutely no idea about what's in it, let alone make it, but loves it?
this recipe is for the dried packet soup mix, as opposed to the french onion dip which requires onions to be cooked from scratch - i'll post that another day when i am inclined to do so.
laugh away, but this isn't bad for those occasions when you really only want junk, and you really don't want to buy ready made french onion dip, do you, when this is so easy to make yourself?
(hint: this might not be a bad addition to ones repertoire for when schoolies comes around)

1 packet french onion soup (salt reduced, because it's already soooo salty)
1 carton sour cream

combine both ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl with a small whisk until everything is nicely married together. pour into a serving dish, cover and chill until required.
serve with crackers, vegetable sticks or chippies (it's not too bad on baked potatoes either).

twentyfive

ok, i give in.

one
the searing heat and drenching rain we have had lately has been good - at least you know your alive. however, the recent tragedy in victoria was not.

two
i've found that it's almost impossible to plan one's life too much - a spanner always comes along to muck things up. it's much better to go with the flow.

three
i really like my children; they're nice people to talk to, as are their friends.

four
i always expected to have children taller than me. that said, i always accepted that you didn't have any control over their level of intelligence or their looks, but i thought they would be taller than me, at the very least.....

five
i love children....and i guess, people, in general.

six
i love feeding children....and people....and animals, in general.

seven
i have a facination with retro food...maybe it's a facination with retro per se. i love having warm food ready to feed my children when they come home from school. i know they and their friends humour me by eating all the daggy things i dish up. none of that nouvelle cuisine nonsense in our house.

eight
i have an ulterior motive when i feed people....it's so that i can cook/prepare more food.

nine
i have trouble with "favourites"; i don't have a favourite child, i don't have a favourite nephew, i won't know what to order for my last meal because i love it all. i am amazed some people can so easily name the people who they will have at their last meal and what they want to eat.

ten
the saddest thing to happen to me was to lose my dad. i miss him very much and think of him all the time. he was really good to talk to and i often still talk to him.

eleven
people don't change much, they just reveal more of themselves as they get older. the nice ones stay nice, and the awful ones get worse.

twelve
my life isn't perfect, but neither is anyone elses. i'm just content with my lot.

thirteen
i would like to downsize but if i did, i'd have to get storage for all my bits and pieces (useless to everyone else, but all a part of me....)

fourteen
i remember alot of things, mostly trivial, but sometimes useful.

fifteen
i lived in the same street for over 30 years.

sixteen
i'm actually quite shy.

seventeen
i love things which have been handed down from mothers to their children, probably because my mother has never handed anything to me; she prefers to give it to other people.

eighteen
i never understood why some people loved buying crockery so much, but i'm starting to understand why now.

nineteen
some old things are just beautiful, especially when there are signs of wear and tear. i like to think they are signs of having been useful and loved.

twenty
i think it's important for people to do what they really want to do because you never know where it will lead.

twentyone
i wish i could spoil my children the way my dad spoilt me. this is not to say my children aren't spoilt, but they do hear me say "no" more often than i ever heard it said.

twentytwo
i am a perfectionist in some areas. i will persevere with some things until i get it just the way i want them to be. i am grateful that i am not a perfectionist with everything.

twentythree
i like to trust my gut feeling on alot of things now, and it's a good feeling.

twentyfour
family is important. some members you bond with well and know you can rely on them.

twentyfive
friends are important. i'm lucky have some very good ones.

béchamel sauce

béchamel sauce is the posh name for good old white sauce. it's very useful and has many applications. lasagne, moussaka, mornays and croque monsieur include it in their composition....then, it also lends itself as a base for other sauces. one friend, doctor stewart, loves white sauce and its versatility, advised that i could change white sauce to pink sauce very simply by adding some tomato sauce. i haven't tried that yet, but, hey, there's got to be a first.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup plain flour
3 cups milk
a litlle freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground white pepper

in a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and whisk in the flour until blended but not coloured. gradually whisk in the milk and cook, whisking the whole time, until thickened, about 10 minutes. season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

that's it. very simple, but i can't emphasise enough that you have to whisk the whole time, that way, the sauce is silky smooth without any lumps. one friend swears by using the flat whisk; me? the balloon whisk is my thing. either way, just keep stirring with the whiskand make sure you get into the corners of the pot so everything mixes in.


Set aside. (May be made up to 24 hours ahead of time and stored, refrigerated, with a layer of plastic wrap placed directly on surface of sauce; gently reheat before serving.)

corn dogs

my earlier post about lemonade, i mentioned corn dogs....well, this is the recipe. i don't make this often, less than once a year, but when we do have it, it's a bit of fun. it's much nicer than battered savs which are frankfurts dipped in regular batter like that use for the fish in fish and chips beacuse the batter isn't as greasy; just make sure your oil is hot so the batter seals and cooks rather than absorbs the oil, which happens when it isn't the right temperature.
an alternative we also like is cheese dipped in the batter instead of the frankfurt. very junky, but the grittiness of the cornmeal is what tempts miss k - ahhhh....less than once a year.....

2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup corn meal
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 3/4 cups milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
10 regular sized frankfurts, or 20 cocoktail frankfurts
vegetable oil for deep frying

preheat oil 240 degrees celcius.
combine the flour, corn meal, sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.
combine the milk and egg with the dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until batter is smooth.
dry the frankfurts with a paper towel.
when the oil is hot, tilt the bowl of batter so that you can completely coat each frankfurt with the batter.
place the battered frankfurt in the hot oil and cook for 5-6 minutes or until coating is golden brown, turning them so they cook evenly.

dry "frying" bacon

dry frying bacon is really useful for a lazy cook such as myself; i trim the bacon of visible fat and cut it into cubes or thin strips, pop it in a pan and into the oven, very often whilst something else is in there or after something has finished baking to take advantage of the residual heat. i check it every 10 minutes or so to give it a bit of a stir and remove it when it has been done to my liking.
i find the bacon is much nicer than if i were to pan fry it, as in the oven, whatever fat not removed from the bacon renders out and the bacon cooks quite happily and evenly.
this is how i like to cook the bacon for my layered garden salad and stuffed potatoes. it's also handy to have some to already prepared in the refrigerator to sprinkle on anything you want to make a little special.

chicken salad

i loved chicken salad with fruit in it and a creamy dressing and this is the variation i made for miss c to bring to school.

2 cups cooked chicken, cut in 2cm dice; i used free range breast because i had it
1/2 cup dried cranberries or craisins - dried cranberries look more plump than craisins
1/2 cup raw almonds
1 apple, cut into 1cm dice
1/2 cup eggplant relish
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cream
3 hard boiled eggs

place everything except the eggs into a large bowl and toss gently to combine. try not to overdo it because you don't want the chicken to disintergrate.
halve the eggs and place on top of each serving.
refrigerate any leftovers, if there are any.

creamy pasta marinara

shirlene has been going on about seafood pasta everytime she sees my basil. she goes on about it, but we all have yet to see it materialise.....and if she wants to make it, she had better make it while there is still basil in the garden.
nevertheless, i should thank her for her suggestion, without which i might not have thought to cook this.
just a warning, this dish is mega rich and not for the fainthearted.

30 grams butter
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup cream
300 grams peeled, uncooked prawns
300 grams scallops
300 grams salmon, sliced
salt and pepper
500 grams pasta
chopped fresh herbs, such as, parsley or basil

heat butter in a large pan and cook the onion and garlic until soft. gradually stir in the wine and cream. allow to boil and thicken. add rinsed seafood and simmer uncovered until cooked through.
cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente; drain.
pour the pasta into the pan of sauce and coat the pasta in the sauce. place in serving bowls and pour any remaining sauce over the pasta. sprinkle with the herbs.
serve 4

stuffed potatoes

if you think you're going to be having a baking day or that the oven will be on for a while, why not bake some potatoes? and stuff them....
these are seriously delicious comfort food, and you can make them as simple or as fancy as you like.

8 large potatoes
100 grams butter
1 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped, cooked bacon (you can pop the bacon into the oven to cook with the potatoes - i do)
1 onion diced and sweated (again, this can be cooked in the oven), or
1 cup of sliced green onions, which you can leave raw
1 cup grated cheese
freshly ground pepper
1 cup grated cheese, extra - optional

bake the potatoes for an hour at 200 degrees celcius or so until they are easily pierced with a skewer.
slice the potatoes in half when they are done and scoop out their centres into a large mixing bowl.
add the butter, bacon, sour cream,onion/green onion, cheese and pepper. and stir around with a knife. the potatoes will break up into chunks and blend with the other ingredients. if you want your potatoes smooth, go ahead and mash them smooth, but i like mine with chunks. the butter will also melt and be absorbed by the mixture.
when mixed to your liking, pile the mixture into the potato skins and sprinkle over extra cheese, if liked. return the potatoes to the oven to warm through and serve.
if you'd like the potatoes to be fancier, you can add celery seeds, capsicum, mushrooms, sweetcorn, chicken, leeks etc to the mixture. the world's your oyster.

not a conventional steak sandwich

paul, the carpenter, has been jack hammering and sawing and generally ripping out my old laundry, so i thought it was important that he was fed meat - there used to be a commercial on television when i was young which encouraged people to feed the man meat.

600 grams rump steak, cut at least 2 1/2 centimetres thick, a generous 3 centimetres is better
seasoned salt
lemon pepper
butter
1 large onion, sliced
more butter
250 grams mushrooms, sliced
more butter
more seasoned salt
4 large slices of sourdough bread
yes yes....more butter...again...
a few rocket leaves (i used home grown because i had it in the garden)
slices of tomato

sprinkle seasoned salt lightly over the rump steak on both sides, then sprinkle the lemon pepper over the steak a little more generously, again on both sides. set aside.
place 2 tablespoons of butter in a cast iron pan or non stick pan and heat until bubbling and add the onions leave the onions a little while to colour before flippling them over. repeat until the onions are soft. remove them from the pan and set aside.
place another 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan and heat until bubbling and add the mushrooms. sprinkle lightly with seasoned salt and leave them for a litlle while to colour before flipping over. repeat until the mushrooms are done to your liking. remove them from the pan and set aside with the onions.
place 2 tablespoons again of butter in the pan and heat until bubbling and ensure the pan is well and truly heated and add the steak. leave the steak alone in the pan for 3 minutes. don't be tempted to fiddle with it. once the three minutes has elapsed, turn the steak over and leave it alone for another 2-3 minutes, depending on the thickness of the steak. if the steak is thin, 1 1/2 minutes might be best. remove the steak from the pan and allow it to rest.
butter the soughdough bread and toast the bread in the pan until golden.
slice the steak thinly, and hopefully, it will be rare, or at least rarish.
pile the steak onto 2 slices of bread generously. top with onions, mushrooms, rocket and tomato. place the 2 slices of bread remaining on top and serve.

pei mei's green onion pies revisited

i'm a very itchy person....sometimes. there are some recipes i will use over and over and not even want to change it at all. then there are some where i will tweak here and there and not be content to leave alone. pei mei's green onion pies is such a recipe that i have not been able to leave alone......i've been tweaking.....
to date, i have tried different combinations of flour and water and the combination which has yielded a dough which is easy to work with is one which uses 9 cups of continental sharps flour to 5 cups of boiling water. continental sharps flour is a textured flour which is higher in protein than that popularly found on the supermarket shelves. i have found it in supermarkets, but you have to look for it - sometimes it's found in the deli section, other times, in the flour sections. probably the easiest is to ask a deli if they stock it.
all the other instructions are the same as for the original.

sausage rolls

i don't think of this as a bona fide sausage roll recipe, and you probably won't either once you read through this, but everyone asks me for the "recipe". i suspect that it's because in their simplicity, these sausage rolls are very good. and very easy.

2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
6 thin sausages

preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
cut the pastry into nine squares.
cut each of the sausages into three.
wrap each sausage third with a square of pastry and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, with the join at the bottom.
when you've finished wrapping all the sausages with pastry, bake them for 20 minutes, or until golden.
serve with tomato sauce.

i have tried using posh sausages to make these, but really, if your butcher makes nice regular sausages, they'll be very good already. at any rate, they be tons better than anything you'd find ready made at the shops, fresh or frozen, and much less fatty.

minced pork with salted fish

this is a homey chinese dish blutsie and i enjoy when we want something comforting. salted fish can be found in asian shops and can come dried, dried and soaked in oil or frozen. the dried variety from malaysia is my favourite, but difficult to come by. the salted fish soaked in oil is much more easily available and is from hong kong.
serve with steamed rice and blanched bok choy.

500g minced pork
2 eggs
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornflour
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 inch piece ginger, shredded finely
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 palm sized pieces salted fish
a few stalks spring onions and coriander

stir together the pork, eggs, sesame oil, cornflour, soy sauce, half the ginger, pepper and salt.
transfer to a serving dish large enough to contain the mixture. sprinkle the remaining ginger over the pork and place the 2 pieces of fish on top.
steam for 15 minutes.
serve scattered with chopped spring onions and coriander.

eggplant relish

i call this eggplant relish very loosely. i put tons of things in it, eggplant being one of them. i have always loved chutneys, relishes and pickles, especially when they are homemade; very often, bought ones have something lacking, although there are good ones around. this one is one of my very favourites because i've put in all the flavours i so adore in chutneys. i admit to not using the recipe faithfully - sometimes one has to wing it with whatever is on hand - approximations are fine as long as there's enough vinegar and sugar.
we love this with cheese, sliced meats and sandwiches.

1 kg eggplant, cut into 1cm cubes
1 cup olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 chillies, seeded and sliced
1 red capsicum, diced
1/2 head garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons curry powder
1 orange, sliced thinly and chopped
1 cup dried apricots, diced
1 cup dates
1/2 cup crystalised ginger, diced
1/2 sultanas
1/2 cup currants
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups brown sugar
salt to taste

commence preparations the day before by soaking the diced eggplant in well salted water.
next day, rinse the eggplant well and squeeze and much moisture from them as possible.
heat oil in a large stockpot and add the onions, garlic, capsicum and chillies. stir over a low flame and allow the onions to soften. add the eggplant and stir to coat with the oil. allow to simmer until the eggplant has fully cooked. add the curry powder, orange, apricots, dates, ginger, sultanas and currants. stir well to combine. add the vinegar and sugar and allow to simmer over low heat for about half an hour. stir occasionally to prevent the mixture from catching. add salt if neccesary.
bottle in sterilised jars and seal immediately.

about pei mei

yesterday, i posted a recipe from pei mei. today, i thought it would be nice to include some background on this famous pei mei person.

Miss Fu Pei-Mei is a famous Chinese culinary artist with the most distinguished background. Born in Foo-Shan County of Shantung Province. During the 2nd World War, she studied in a Japanese high school for girls in Dairen, Manchuria. After V-J Day, she went to Peiping and attended the National Girl's Normal University to further her study. Not too long after coming to Taiwan, she married Mr. Ch'eng Shao-ch'ing. At present, they have two lovely daughters and one son. Miss Fu has boon interested in culinary arts since her childhood. She had studied from many top-grade chefs from all parts of China for several years. She also went to Japan for advanced study on food nutrition. Through endless practice and eager research, she has perfected numerous Chinese recipes in line with the trend of the modern cuisine development in the world. In 1955, she established the Chinese Cooking Institute in Taipei. During the last two decades, more than ten thousand students have studied cooking under her direct guidance. In 1982 when television was first introduced to Taiwan, she started a Chinese cooking demonstration program at the invitation and sponsorship of Taiwan Television Company. This once a week culinary teaching program, which continues up to this day, has been deeply appreciated by countless housewife audiences. Later on, she assumed a membership in a committee, established by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Com- mission, for selecting qualified chefs to be employed overseas. She had acted as a judge of the Hong Kong Amateur Cooking Contest Committee. She was also asked by various governmental agencies to improve their mess services. Invitations from Japan, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian nations to demonstrate Chinese cuisine have been frequent and she has conducted video taped programs to explain and popularize Chinese dishes of Taiwan. Miss Fu Pei-Mei, Taiwan's celebrated television chef, has had about fifteen years' experience in demonstrating the art of Chinese cookery. Her association with ladies of many other countries, who have shown interest in her art, has encouraged her to present this most comprehensive book in English and Chinese. She has skillfully compiled and up-dated recipes for more than one hundred traditional dishes which will appeal to both western and eastern tastes. Hopefully, the ease with which these dishes can be prepared will increase interest in Oriental cuisine and encourage further research by young and old cooks alike.

http://santabarbara.craigslist.org/bks/940612942.html

pei mei's green onion pies

pei mei is this famous chinese cookbook writer. i have her three volume cookbook set, and i have to say that it is pretty comprehensive and covers just about all the authentic chinese dishes i have had or heard about.
her green onion pies are known by many other names: spring onion pancakes and scallion pancakes are just two.
this is one of those chinese snacks everyone tells me is easy to make but i confess that i still find them to be quite time consuming. i did do a cheat version earlier, but with some things, it's nice to have the real thing.
this isn't a bad recipe; i'm still trying out the different types of flour to see if there are any significant differences between them. i also intend to try making them using my pasta machine for rolling the dough to see if i can speed things up a bit.

3 cups wheat flour (this is a chinese cookbook, so there has to be a distinction between flours)
1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup cold water
6 tablespoons lard or oil (we used oil because we don't have lard...i don't don't know whether we would use lard if we had it though)
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
3 teaspoons salt
1 cup oil

place flour in bowl. add the boiling water and mix with chopsticks immediately. let cool. after three minutes add cold water and knead the dough thoroughly until it is smooth. cover and let rest a while.
remove the dough to a floured board, divide dough into 6 even pieces (or more than 6), knead and roll each piece of dough into 10" round as in making pie crust. rub 1/2 tablespoon lard on dough and sprinkle the whole top with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 tablespoon chopped green onion. roll up as for jell roll making sure the ends are tightly closed now form into a round snail shape tucking in the final end into the centre of the bun, then press down and roll out until 1/4" thick.
heat 2 tablespoons oil in frying pan, place the pie in and fry about 2 minutes. use low heat and cover this pan. flip over and splash 1 tablespoon oil down side. continue frying until this side is golden and crispy, shake and juggle the pan often while frying as this action make a flaky pastry.
cut into small pieces to serve.
note: these may be kept in a barely warm oven until all are prepared.

a trip back to 2002

miss c was a very early reader. she started reading long before she was old enough to go to preschool. naturally, this had to be encouraged. mind you, i had ulterior motives - if she knew how to read, it would definitely negate the amount of time i would have to spend reading to her. i know, i should be ashamed of myself....i'm a bad parent. but i digress. this is a post about miss c and not me.
miss c was a voratious reader. these days, i believe more time is spent on other activities. in the days of voracious reading, she actually she actually did very well in the ms readathon, so much so, she appeared in the paper.....but that was quite a while back.
you realise that i'm adding this post to even things out, since it seems that miss k has been on the receiving end of alot of attention lately.

another souvenir

miss k has another souvenir. remember how she was on the speech day invitations? well, they (the school) took it one step further. she's right smack in the middle of the speech day program cover. i picked up two copies of the programs, but the friends i was with thought it was funny to pick up a whole pile of copies for me.
when i met miss k after the conclusion of speech day, she greeted me with "how emabarrassing is that?" looking directly at the pile of programs i was holding. explained that she must thank the muntzes personally for the programs the next opportunity she got.
pity the muntzes didn't see miss k in the papers in october - we only have one copy of that, and that was quite by chance - the hole in the wall gang saw it and saved it for us. lucky, huh? otherwise, we would never have been any the wiser.

poached chicken

miss k has been perfecting her chicken and leek pie and as such we have been tearing through masses of chicken and leek. to assist her in her pursuit of the perfect chicken and leek pie, i've been trying different methods of poaching for the chicken and this is my favourite, at the moment. the chicken is quite well flavoured and the resulting stock is strongly flavoured. i do stress that this is my poached chicken of the moment - i also like a simple poaching liquid which is flavoured with nothing other than salt - simplicity itself; it just depends on the mood and what's available.

1 chicken
celery tops
2 carrots, diced
a few cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons salt or to taste

place everything in a stockpot just big enough so the chicken fits snugly. cover the chicken with water.

bring everything to the boil and lower the heat to a bare simmer. allow to simmer for 20 minutes and remove from the heat. allow the chicken to cool in the liquid - this keeps the flesh moist.

use as required - i like using chicken cooked this way for anything requiring precooked chicken, such as salads and sandwiches.

another variation

i just realised that there was something else which we like to make with the my basic bread dough - hong kong style frankfurt rolls. if you haven't had them before, they are like a hot dog, but frankfurt is baked inside, rather than added after the bread has been baked. it doesn't have any nutritive value, but is quite conforting to eat, like a regular hot dog. if you don't like hot dogs, chances are that you probably won't like this. miss k likes them for lunch on those days when i'm not bothered to go to the shops to buy a loaf of bread for her sandwiches for school and would rather make my own bread.

to make these frankfurt rolls, get yourself a piece of dough the size of a small tennis ball and wrap it around half a frankfurt (or use cocktail frankfurts) and pop it into a grease loaf tin. a loaf tin looks like this:


once you've filled the pan with the frankfurt rolls, set it aside in a warm place for an one or so, so the dough can rise.
preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and pop the risen rolls in the oven for 20 minutes to bake.
when golden and ready, remove the rolls from the pan and place them on a wire rack so they don't go soggy in the pan.

pineapple carrot cake

this is a recipe from the australian women's weekly.....august 15, 1979......
this first time i made this was a couple of years after that (it is rare for me to make something really soon after i see the recipe; it does happen, but it is rare). at the time, i wasn't a very experienced cake maker and just wanted something i could make that was at the very least half decent. and this helped me on my way. it was easy and moist. moist was important to me; i had spent a large part of my formative cake making years making cakes based on recipes from margaret fulton, and the butter cake recipe she had in her cookbook wasn't very encouraging because it was very dry. then, i came upon this recipe, and here was a cake that was moist and would stay moist for a couple of days. i was on my way.
i also love this cake because it's so quick and easy to mix - all you need is a bowl and a wooden spoon; there's no need for a mixer, so washing up is easy, too.
to test to see if a cake is done, you can either insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and if the cake is done, the skewer will come out clean, that is, without any batter or cake stuck to it; the other way to test a cake for doneness is to lightly press the centre of the cake and if it springs back, it's done; it will stay depressed if the cake is not yet done.

3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup finely grated carrot, lightly packed (about 1 large carrot)
450 can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line two 25cm x 8cm bar tins with baking paper.
combine the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl.
add the carrot, pineapple oil and lighty beaten eggs and mix well.
pour the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 45 minute or until done when tested with a skewer.

apple and sultana scrolls

these are essentially a glorified scone, with yummy things rolled inside and drizzled on top to make them interesting. and irresistable. feel free to vary the filling and icing - think chocolate chips instead of sultanas....caramel icing instead of chocolate icing.....berries instead of apples....get the drift?
the first time i made these scrolls was in august 2004, just before i went to pick miss c and miss k up from school. the weather hadn't quite warmed up and the air was still a little nippy in the afternoon. they were just out of the oven and i made lots of chocolate icing to drizzle over them. to be really honest, the temptation is to drizzle them with chocolate icing the minute they come out of the oven. however, if you let them cool a bit before pouring the icing over, the icing will look better, so it will depend on whether you want them to look more aesthetically pleasing, or whether you want them super gooey and sticky. your call.
try not to overhandle the dough - once it is just mixed, go onto the next step of gently rolling it; there is no need to knead the dough. just think of it as toughening the dough each time you knead. this is a scone dough, remember?

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp mixed spice
60g butter
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sultanas
extra flour, for dusting
1 large granny smith apple, peeled, cored, finely diced

chocolate icing
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tbs cocoa powder
3 tbs milk

preheat oven to 200°C. line a baking tray with baking paper.
place flour, sugar and mixed spice in a large bowl.
melt the butter and combine it with the milk.
make a well in the centre of the flour and add the milk mixture. use a round-bladed knife in a cutting motion to mix until evenly incorporated and the mixture just comes together. turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out dough into a 25 x 30cm rectangle.
sprinkle with apple and sultanas. starting from the long side, firmly roll dough into a log. cut the log into twelve 2cm thick slices. arrange scrolls cut-side up, side by side on prepared tray.
bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack.
set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
meanwhile, make the chocolate icing; combine the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a small bowl. add the milk and stir until combined and smooth.
drizzle scrolls with chocolate icing and serve.

backyard visitors

we have been in this house for just over a year now and its taken these kookaburras a year before they decided they would pay us a visit. so just out of the blue one day, they lined up, waiting. then they surprised me again. they let me hand feed them.
they don't come around for a feed everyday, but have been more regular visitors lately. i suspect that they have young to feed as some fly off after a couple of mouthfuls of meat, rather than have their fill.

sunrise

one morning i woke up unexpectedly early, and for some reason, i went outside and noticed an unusual glow on the wall of the house. i thought this glow was from some light from the neighbours' house. it was the sun. it hadn't quite broken through and i thought that i should snap it before the opportunity no longer existed. it wasn't as if i would have this opportunity again seeing that it wasn't a habit of mine to wake so early.

chocolate ripple cake

i finally had a chance to make this in september for will's birthday. i say finally because we have been meaning to get around to trying out the recipe for years now. sounds silly, doesn't it? you'd think that we would just make it and that would be that. well, it took some time because i didn't want to make it for no reason at all and have to eat it all by myself - in circumstances such as these miss c and miss k are absolutely no help whatsoever. and like i need to eat a whole chocolate ripple cake all by myself and make myself more jiggly than i already am.....ugh....let's get on with the recipe....

1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits (these are a plain chocolate biscuit without a chocolate coating)
600 millilitres thickened cream, whipped, with a little sugar
sherry

dip a biscuit into the sherry and spread with some cream. place on plate. repeat with another biscuit and sandwich the two biscuits and stand them on the plate sideways. repeat with all the biscuits and place the biscuits next to each other on the plate until you get a log. cover the entire log with cream and cover with cling wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

i made the one for will's birthday without the sherry and from what i've heard, it was fine. instead of the log, i arranged the biscuits so they resulting cake looked like a round cake with little bits of the biscuits just peeking out from the cream. another way of arranging the biscuits is to curve them around as the log is forming to make a ring cake. the ring cake needs to be made with double quantities of biscuits and cream and looks fabulous with mixed berries overflowing out of the centre.

sage flowers

these are sage flowers. i like to grow sage, not for its flowers, but for its leaves, because it is after all a herb and i like to use it as such. but this spring, my sage flowered. the photo doesn't do it justice - some of its violet is lost and it looks just pale (i haven't mastered photoshop to enhance a photo yet), but you can see that it is quite delicate and beautiful. whether i get to progress further than this and have the flowers set seed, i don't know. but i love how the plant decided to flower for me. and i'm glad i captured the moment (even though it isn't a kodak moment).

in the background, there are some reddish coloured stalks - that's my rhubarb. last year, i bought two crowns and three seedlings. the crowns produced red stalks and the seedlings produced green stalks. this year, only four of the five plants came up - two red and two green. i'm not too upset, in fact i'm amazed that they have gotten this far. i say this beacuse i put the crowns and seedling in pots and i wasn't sure if they would be okay in pots. the pots require replenishing with potting mix as the soil level has fallen, but i think i have to wait until the plants are dormant again before disturbing them.

lyn's spiced fruit compote

my friend, lyn, and i go back some 22 years now. i met her in april, 1986, so in a way, more than 22 years. when i was first getting to know her, she made this for dessert when i had her over to my place. i've enjoyed it over the years, with lashings of cream. make sure you also eat the orange slices, rind and all. that and cream.....yum.
more recently, in 1996 (march 28, to be precise), i made this, and in an effort to give the impression of being "healthy", i bought yoghurt from harris farm fruit markets. at the time, really thick, heavy yoghurt was new on the scene and the selling point was that it only had 4% fat and it still had a rich and wicked mouthfeel. so there i was flogging this fantastic, low fat, good for you yoghurt to people at the table - "have this with the compote; it's low fat".

1 cup dried apricots
1 cup prunes
1 orange cut in thin slices
1 cooking apple, peeled and sliced
1 stick cinnmon
3 whole cloves
1 cup red wine (not too heavy or dry)(i often use 1/2 cup muscat or port)
2 cups water
1/3 cup honey

microwave on high for 15 minutes and stand for 15 minutes.
remove cloves and cinnamon before serving.

cut pumpkin

this is what my pumpkin looked like when i cut it open. the funny looking stand is just a mug, and yes, the photo was taken when the kitchen was still being renovated. the doorbell cover is in the background and the glass splashback hadn't been fixed in and the walls were stripped.....and i could still take a photo of my pumpkin.

lemon cream cheese slice

this recipe come from the australian women's weekly's simple slices cookbook. this is a handy little A5 sized book which seems to contain alot of the favourites from over the years.

2x150g packets coconut macaroons, crushed
140g butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey


filling
3 teaspoons gelatine
1/4 cup (60ml) water
500g packaged cream cheese softened, chopped
280g jar lemon butter
1/2 cup (125ml) sour cream


grease 20cm x 30cm lamington pan; line base and two long sides with baking paper, extending paper 2cm above edge of pan.
combine macaroons, butter and honey in medium bowl; mix well. press into prepared pan, roughen surface using a fork. pour filling over macaroon base; refrigarate until firm.


filling
sprinkle gelatine over water in cup. stand in small pan of simmering water, stir until dissolved. beat cheese in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. add gelatine mixture and remaining ingrediants, beat until smooth.


makes about 10


tip this recipe can be made three days ahead and kept, covered, in the refrigerator.

quantum of solace

kirsten suggested quantum of solace this weekend and it was an excellent bond. yay for kirsten!
with daniel craig, the broccolis have veered off in another direction, and it certainly gives bond depth. bond doesn't say much, well, he never says much really, but in this one, his dialogue has been pared right down to very few words, and it suits him well. in fact, i don't think i'm mistaken if the impression i got was they were very economical in the dialogue overall. it was succinct and economical. they spent it all on the action scenes. even there, there was none of the in your face expense they spent on the brosnan bonds. even the product placement was subtle.
moneypenny doesn't feature, nor does Q (or R or whatever), but this is a serious bond, and i didn't feel like they were missing; in casino royale, however, i found that i really missed the bond theme music because they only used it in the end. this was addressed right at the beginning where they used the theme enough to satisfy me and make me feel like it we were really watching a james bond movie. it's a bit like the sense of smell or whatever, the theme music ties everything together for me and lets me get into my james bond comfort zone.
homage was paid to the scene in goldfinger where shirley eaton was painted in gold. in solace, miss fields (named in true bond style) is similarly gilded, but this time, in black gold.
i'm glad the broccolis have given each of the actors portraying bond their own niche; daniel craig is quite different to the others who have portrayed him, and that's good. overall, i thought it was a great bond movie, but sean's still my favourite.

i couldn't agree more

graham sent this to me and i couldn't agree more.

love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this!

bill gates recently gave a speech at a high school about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. he talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

rule 1: life is not fair - get used to it!
rule 2: the world won't care about your self-esteem. the world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
rule 3: you will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. you won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
rule 4: if you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss..
rule 5: flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
rule 6: if you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
rule 7: before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. they got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. so before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
rule 8: your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. in some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. this doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
rule 9: life is not divided into semesters. you don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. do that on your own time.
rule 10: television is NOT real life. in real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
rule 11: be nice to nerds. chances are you'll end up working for one.

omurice

last school holidays, miss c went out with a group of new friends to do new things (kareoke) and eat new things (omurice). omurice is a KOREAN concoction. omelette with a rice filling. anyway, she must have told miss k about it because miss k has created her own version based on her own preferences and on what little she may have gleaned from her sister.
miss k firstly prepares the rice and adds some chopped cooked chicken and sesame oil and soy sauce. this is heated in the microwave. she then prepares the pan with a nob of butter and beats the eggs with some cream or milk. the eggs go in the pan followed by the the prepared rice filling. once almost set, the egg is folded around the rice as is a regular omelette.
i don't know what authentic omurice is supposed to be like, but considering miss k hasn't had it before either, her omurice is pretty good...outstandingly delicious, actually.

a pocket monster

this is a pocket monster. pocket monsters were at the height of their popularity in the 90s last century. from japan, they were more commonly known as pokemon. the most well known of the pokemons was a pocket monster called pikachu. let me introduce you to the pocket monster called pikachu:


this plush toy is miss k's, and because of its size, she chose to christen it king pikachu. my nephew, sly, had taken a liking to king pikachu all in time for his birthday, so you can guess what he wanted for his birthday cake. by the way, that's his precious little hand on the right.

so several weeks ago, i got a phone call from sly requesting a pikachu cake. an important part of making a novelty cake, for me, is working out what i'm going to base the cake on. at the very least i need a picture. my ideal is to have a line drawing which will translate into a cake easily. in the case of pikachu, i needed a colour picture so i could get his colours as well. this, i left to blutsie, sly's mum and my sister. that's the least she could do as far as i was concerned, since she wasn't making the cake. that sounds fair, eh? i think it's good to be involved even just a little with one's child's birthaday cake - it makes it more personal. anyway, after mucking around trying to get a line drawing of pikachu and getting his colours, i ended up copying the plush toy. plush toys aren't my favourite medium to copy, but in this case, it worked.

sly's pikachu cake

cheesy bacon and egg slice

this is from AWW's Best Recipes from the Weekly. i love this cookbook. actually, i love lots of the old cookbooks. they have recipes which are comforting and reflect a slower pace of life. if you look at the cookbook shelves in bookshops these days, a considerable amount of space is devoted to speed - you know - dinner in 30 minutes, fast food at home...you know what i mean - there's even fast eddy on telly. i'm sure i could cook as fast as he does if i had everything at the ready for me too. but do i want to? whatever happened to cooking being relaxing? all this speed just sounds like a stressful finish to a stressful day. surely something slow helps one wind down? this is a slow recipe. the people at the weekly even tell you that it's better if you take your time about it (i copied the introduction to this recipe verbatim from them - not my words), and qualify it by saying that it's even better that way.
instead of making a casserole for a slow meal, try this. it's a different slow, one which you can stick in the fridge and forget until the next day and won't tempt you with cooking smells hours before you can eat it.

this is one of the tastiest and handiest recipes we have created in the kitchen. the whole dish is prepared, covered, refrigerated overnight and baked when you are ready the next day. it can be baked on the same day, but the flavor is not quite as good.

1/2 loaf unsliced white bread
125g grated cheddar cheese
5 rashers bacon
2 shallots
1 small green pepper
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mayonnaise pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 small red pepper

trim crusts from bread, cut bread into 2.5 cm cubes, place bread in single layer in ovenproof dish. sprinkle with cheese. cut bacon in 2.5cm pieces, fry until crisp and brown, drain, place over cheese, top with chopped shallots and chopped green pepper.
whisk eggs with fork, add milk, mustard, worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, pepper and basil. pour over bread mixture, top with chopped red pepper, cover with plastic food wrap, refrigerate overnight. next day bake uncovered in moderate oven for 50 - 60 minutes. serves 6

trivia

miss k, who has a notoriously bad memory, was reading my post about sponge cake and couldn't believe i could remember the date, let alone the rest of it. well, it's something i don't understand myself. i don't keep a diary (i have tried, but lose interest - i'm sure it has something to do with my boringness)(is that a word? boringness....never mind), and these ramblings are probably as close to a diary as i'll ever get.
but this memory of mine is quite scary, useless, but scary. i can remember people from my childhood. i realise people age, but some people do look like what they did decades ago. i remember once i took miss c to a birthday party and one of the mothers had her best friend with her - jane e. as she was introducing jane e, i blurted out "you're jane e - we went to school together. i don't think we were in the same class, though". jane e told me she was only at that school for a little while, which meant i only knew her for one term. third term. third grade. and here we were, in our mid 30s. i didn't mean to scare her, but she hadn't changed. she has to take that as a compliment.
earlier, i did say my memory was useless too. useless for doing some exams, i say some because some exams were fine - it just depends on how much the subject grabs me. if there's trivia involved, i'm usually not too bad, so i was pretty good at the law subjects at uni and trivial pursuit (i'm sure there's something there...law=trivia?? i'm not going to pursue this any further).
these days, my mind is so occupied with miss c and miss k's comings and goings i don't remember things like i used to - just ask miss c - she has to remind me of her and miss k's daily schedules, even having to go so far as to write everything down on a list. i'm not sure whether this is leading to alzheimer's, but one day when i look at miss c's list and not know what to do with it, i'll know alzheimer's has got me....or will i? i'll stop now.

clean hat selection

it suddenly occurred to me after looking at miss k's speech day invitation that she may have been selected based not upon her looks. i say this after having a good look at the picture. the girls (there were 4 girls in the picture) were wearing hats. i think the girls were selected on the condition of their hats....as well as their whiteness. you see, every school holiday, i like to clean miss c and miss k's hats to bring them back to their original colour, white. it's to be expected that the hats get grubby with natural wear and tear through the term, but some girls' hats honestly look like they have been dragged along the dirt and dust. unfortunately for my girls, i like their hats as close to new looking as i can humanly make them, short of buying new hats. i did venture so far as to ask them if their hats were embarrassing to wear. miss k only answered to say that her friends say her hat just looks abnormal.
anyway, every holiday, i put their hats (they have 4, 2 each, one to wear and a spare) in this basin (big enough to contain them), pour in the drive and hot tap water and let them soak a little (until the water cools). when i come back to them, the hats are clean and the water has much to be desired - it's dark and murky. i pour that off and rinse until there aren't any suds left in the rinsing water and leave them to drip dry. when i finish, they look brand spanking new. i love it.
i did ask miss k if she might have been chosen on the basis of her hat and she offered that she didn't think so - "mum, if they wanted white hats, they could've photoshopped".
pity there isn't photoshop for cleaning the house and laundry and doing the garden. the hats i can handle, the rest of the house has to fend for itself - it always looks like a bomb has hit, and hit it bad. my house is chronic.

three star butter cake

remember the pound cake recipe from 1977? i had misplaced it for a while and was in a wilderness trying to find it. i remembered it was from the SCC, however my attempts to find the recipe were in vain. i scoured second hand book shops for any cookbooks i could find put out by the SCC, but none of the books i found had that pound cake recipe, and it is because of this that i tried this recipe. in 1991.
this was in one of the pamplets the electricity company (by this stage, the sydney county council had gone name changes which i was losing track of) sent out with their bills - kind aren't they? here's your bill, and by the way, here are more ideas on how you can use more elecrticity. now that i think of it, i made the SCC pound cake in a gas oven. ironic, huh?

2¼ cups self raising flour
½ cup custard powder
2 cups caster sugar
1 cup milk
4 eggs
250g butter
2 tspns vanilla

line a 23cm square deep cake tin with baking paper.
combine all ingredients in a large mixer bowl, beat on medium speed 8 minutes.
pour mixture into prepared pan.
bake in a moderately slow oven 160°C for 1-1¼ hours or till cooked when tested.
stand cake 5 minutes in pan before turning out.


variations

coconut cake

heat the 1 cup milk (from the ingredients above), pour onto 1/4 cup coconut, stir well.

stand aside till cold.

follow method as above.

chocolate cake
sift 1/3 cup cocoa with the flour, custard powder and 1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.
follow method as above.


orange/lemon cake
beat 1½ tablespoons grated orange or lemon rind with other ingredients, complete mixing.
follow method as above.

eggs mollet

i first came across eggs mollet in an elizabeth david cookbook. she described them as a boiled egg with hard boiled whites and a liquid yolk. what facinated me was the way she used them - they were set in an aspic, and when eaten, the fork would slice through the jellied egg and have a liquid yolk sauce in the centre - a bit like a chocolate molten pudding, if you like.

to cook the eggs mollet, water is brought to the boil in a saucepan and the room temperature eggs are lowered into the simmering water gently and simmered for six minutes after which the eggs would be plunged into cold water to arrest the cooking. once cool, the eggs would be peeled carefully, carefully because the yolk would still be soft and it would be a nuisance to puncture an egg.

because a jellied egg, whilst facinating, isn't something i'd bother with, i offer you some words from jane grigson to provide inspiration:

‘There are few nicer lunches’, writes Jane Grigson, ‘than asparagus, the new potatoes that shared their pan, and eggs mollet (soft boiled), with melted butter and home-made bread. Add a glass of white Loire wine...’

simon

simon is my nephew. and being someone i love, he has a nickname, sly. he is thus named not because he is sly - that would be too obvious, not to mention boring. as a baby, he was a dribbler and as such was a little slimey - get it? sly.
little sly has given me much joy over the course of his life. when he was a little over a year old, rather than read him a story book before going to bed, i introduced him to the joys of looking at a cookbook. we'd sit in bed together and flip throught the pages and enjoy the food porn together. we'd see pictures of vegetables and pick it up off the page to have little "tastes". then we would naturally get to the dessert section and pick berries off the page and "eat" those as well. we would have a fabulous time together.
at that time, sly was also learning to talk, and anyone familiar with children learning to talk, that, too, is a great source of amusement.
"isn't that yummy?" i'd ask.
"mummy" he'd say.
"no, yummy"
"mummy"
another time, i looked after sly so blutsie and the golden one could go out. when it got closer to them coming home, sly started running around calling out "daddy". i thought how cute, he wants his dad. so when bluts and golden one got home, golden one asked if sly was okay.
"yeah, he just started asking for you a short time ago. he was running around calling out "daddy"."
golden one smiled and that was that.
until, sly ran up to his mum, cuddled her and patted her on the back, saying over and over again, "daddy...daddy..".
i love sly.