Choc mini muffins

This recipe is out of The Age's "epicure chocolate" cookbook. And these little muffins are very easy and just delicious!

Ingredients:
1 cup cold water
1 cup sugar
125g butter
2 generous tbsp cocoa
3/4 tsp bi-carb soda
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180c.

Combine water, sugar, butter, cocoa and soda in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil slowly. Simmer for 5 mins and cool. Add the eggs and sifted flour and mix well. Place mixture in prepared mini muffin trays (I use paper patties to more easily remove the muffins afterwards). Cook for 10-15 mins.

When they've cooled, I dip them in a chocolate ganache. For this I use 100g dark cooking choc, 1 cup cream and a tsp of butter. Melt over a saucepan of water.



Enjoy!

Gnocchi

Hello, I'm back....maybe....

About two weeks ago I made gnocchi for the first time in my life. Today I thought I would improve on my first performance and make some to put in the freezer.

The ingredients couldn't be simpler

Potatoes (desiree)
Plain flour
Salt
1 egg

Today I used about 8 potatoes. Boil them until they are cooked through (I peel them before boiling, and add the salt to the water). Strain and then put them through a potato press. While the potatoes are still warm add the egg and integrate to the potatoes (use your hand). Then slowly add plain flour by the hand full until the mixture forms a dough that you can start to manipulate and its not too sticky. Be careful not to add too much flour. The softer the dough the lighter the gnocchi.

Break off small chunks of the dough and roll into long logs/strips, and cut into short pieces (about 2 or 3 cms long). Repeating until the dough is finished. Then each piece of dough has to be pressed/rolled into gnocchi board (use a fork if you don't have one). This bit takes a bit of practice.





Enjoy!

Lemon Curd

Well it's been a while between drinks, and I must say I thought this blog had died. But I've been off work a few days now, I've had some quiet time, and bugger me if I haven't had a couple of opportunities to get back into the kitchen. Not dead yet! And I needed somewhere to store this recipe.

Lemons have been falling off my tree, and unfortunately a lot of them have just ended up in the bin, but tonight I made some lemon curd as I'm on the hunt for the perfect lemon curd recipe. I posted one to this site back in July this year when I made some lemon cupcakes, but I think the method was a bit strange - you had to add the egg after the mixture had already been on the heat which I didn't like.

The following recipe is based on the recipe from the television show MasterChef. I had tried it once before and thought it was pretty good, but tonight I adapted it further myself. I think it's better now!

You will need:

3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
3/4s cup caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 3 lemons (or 4 if they're small)
125gm butter, chopped

Mix the egg and sugar together until dissolved (I used the stand mixer). Add the zest, mix further. Add the juice and mix again.

Transfer mixture to a saucepan and add the butter. Stir over medium/low heat until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken.

Lemon cupcakes with lemon curd

I made some lemon cupcakes last night. Somehow I forgot to put the milk in, so today they are a bit dry, but boy are they tasty! Lemon is such a great flavour.

I got the recipe from an old Donna Hay magazine whilst searching for a Chocolate Cheesecake recipe (which I still haven't found...). You will need:

125gm butter, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 tspns finely grated lemon rind
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1 and 1/2 tspns baking powder
1/4 cup of milk

For the lemon curd you will need:
45gm butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 egg

Now the recipe is actually for "lemon meringue cupcakes", so if you want to do that step you will also need:
2 egg whites
1/3 cup caster sugar


Preheat the oven to 180c.

I made the lemon curd first because it needs to cool. Melt the butter over low heat. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and egg, and stir until smooth. Continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly for about 5-7 mins or until thickened. Refrigerate.

Beat the butter, sugar, lemon rind, eggs, flour, baking powder and milk with an electric mixer until smooth.

Spoon into muffin pan lined with patty cases, and bake for 20 mins (test with a skewer). Cool.

To make the meringe, beat the egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the meringue is thick and glossy.

Cut 2cm diameter holes in the centre of the cooled cakes and fill with the lemon curd.

Pipe a swirl of meringue over the lemon curd and place the cakes under a preheated hot grill for 1 minute or until golden. Makes 12.


I actually topped the cupcakes with a lemon cream cheese topping. I just mixed some cream cheese, icing sugar and 2 tspns lemon juice together til smooth.



Enjoy!

Rocky Road

The only Rocky Road worth eating is the one you make yourself. That way you can put the best quality ingredients into it. Authentic Turkish Delight, your favourite nuts (macadamia for me), and the best marshmallows.

I'm going to Belinda's house tonight for a BBQ and she asked that I bring along my Rocky Road. So I made a batch last night. You don't really need a recipe... I just chop up the ingredients, melt the chocolate, (I also added some rice bubbles to this lot) mix it up and pour into a slice tray that has been lined with glad wrap. Refrigerate.



Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter everyone.

I am a fan of Hot Cross Buns so thought I would try making my own. I have a bread machine so I used a recipe that came with that, of course with a few minor adjustments. You will need:

340ml water
2 tblspn oil
2 tspns salt
3 tblspn brown sugar
4 cups bread flour
3 tblspn milk powder
1 tblspn ground mixed spice
1 tblspn ground cinnamon
2 1/4 tspns dried yeast
1 1/4 cups sultanas
1/4 cup mixed peel

Batter for crosses:
2 tblspn water
1/4 cup plain flour

I made two batches, the first only had sultanas and I didn't add the mixed spice. The second batch I added half a tblspn of mixed spice, and some chocolate chips!

Now, because I cheated and used the bread machine to make the dough, these were really simple, because you just throw everything in (and add the fruit at the beep), and out comes the dough. Then:

Divide the dough into 18 pieces (I only got 15) and shape into rounds. Place close together on a lightly greased baking tray.



Cover loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap and leave to stand in a warm area for 20 mins.

Blend 'cross' batter until smooth. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small piping nozzle. Remove wrap and pipe a cross onto each bun. (I actually rolled the batter by hand.)

Bake in preheated oven at 190 c for 15 to 20 mins.

Enjoy!

Grated Chocolate Roll

I have been making this cake for nearly 20 years, and it is still a hit. The first time I made it was for an amateur cake cooking competition. I won! The recipe is from the Women's Weekly "Cakes and Slices" cookbook. You will need:

4 eggs separated
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 tbspns hot water
60 gm dark chocolate, grated
1/2 cup self raising flour
extra castor sugar

Filling:
thick cream
icing sugar
vanilla essence

Grease a Swiss roll pan, line and grease paper well.

Beat egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until thick and creamy. Fold in hot water and chocolate, then fold in sifted flour.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, fold into mixture. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in moderate oven for 12 mins.

Turn immediately on to paper which has been sprinkled with extra sugar. Trim crisp edges from sides of cake. Roll up in paper to form the 'rolled' shape and stand for 2 mins, unroll and cool.

Beat the cream, icing sugar and essence. Spread onto the cake and roll up. Serve topped with extra whipped cream and chocolate curls as you like.



Enjoy!

Coffee Panna Cotta

I am hosting a dinner party tonight to celebrate Paolo's 30th Birthday, and afterwards we're going to some late night comedy as his gift. For dessert I decided to try and make panna cotta. It is such a luscious and light dessert. I hope he likes it. I made it last night, and it was really simple, and very quick to make. I used Lucullian's recipe at http://lucullian.blogspot.com/, with some very minor adjustments.

500ml cup fresh cream, I used thick cream (which probably accounts for needing more gelatin)
100ml milk
100ml very strong coffee
75ml cup caster sugar
10-12g gelatin leaves, I used the lesser amount but I think it probably needed the extra
Dark chocolate for decoration

Put the gelatin leaves to soak in cold water.

Mix cream, milk and coffee in a small pan, add sugar and bring to boil.

Squeeze the water out of the gelatin leaves and melt them in the hot coffee cream, stir really well and leave it to cool down a bit.

Pass through some muslin before pouring the cream into cocktail glasses. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours.

Decorate as you wish.



Enjoy!

Pasta Sauce

Well I've finally made another batch of pasta sauce, and have taken the time to take a couple of shots to blog it. This is how I make it, which is very similar to how my mum makes it. Of course we use mum's home made tomato sauce where we (or she, depending on who can help), takes a day or two out in January to make anywhere from 100 - 150 bottles of the stuff.



You can buy 'pasata' in most shops to make a reasonable sauce yourself (although I do find it slightly runnier, so needs more simmering time). This recipe uses 2 bottles, but that's because I make a large batch and then freeze it in smaller batches for when I need something fast.

You need:

2 bottles of sauce
garlic
onion
chuck steak (or something similar)
chilli
basil
olive oil

Generously coat the bottom of a large saucepan with olive oil and add the chopped onion. Soften the onion then add your meat.





Seal the meat before adding the tomato sauce. Add basil, garlic (whole), chilli and of course salt to flavour.



Cook at med/high heat until it comes to the boil, but keep it boiling for a good 10 or 15 mins before reducing the heat to simmer it. Stop cooking when you feel you have a good consistency and flavour (could be up to 2 hours). You want the meat to be falling off the bone by the end of it.



Add to your pasta and serve (with parmesan cheese of course).

Enjoy!

New York Brownie Cheesecake

I have never made a cheesecake before yesterday, but I was in the mood for trying something new, so cheesecake it was! I found this recipe in Janelle Bloom's "fast fresh & fabulous". I don't know how fast it was, and given I made a batch of biscuits in between layers, it took a fair while. But it is pretty fabulous.

You will need:

100gm dark chocolate, chopped
100gm butter, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup of plain flour
2 tablespoons SR flour

Filling:
750gm cream cheese, at room temp, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, at room temp
2 tablespoons plain flour
300gm sour cream

To serve:
300 ml double cream
2 tablespoons limoncello liqueur
cocoa powder

Preheat over to 180c no fan. Grease and line 23cm springform pan.

Combine chocolate and butter - now Janelle says to microwave on high for 2 mins, then stir til smooth. But I think I prefer to do this the old-fashioned way in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Stir in sugar, egg and flours. Spread mixture over base of prepared pan. Bake brownie base 15 mins. Set aside and reduce over to 160c no fan.

For the filling, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until just combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour and sour cream until just combined. Pour over warm base and place on a baking tray.

Bake cheesecake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (the centre should still wobble slightly). Turn oven off, leave the door ajar, and allow to cool completely in the oven. Refrigerate until chilled.

Place the cream and limoncello in a bowl, whisk gently until combined. Cut the cheesecake into wedges with a warm knife, dust with cocoa powder and serve with the cream.



Enjoy!

Pesto Sauce

My kitchen hasn't seen a lot of cooking going on in recent times, hence the lack of posts of late. And I might have mentioned before, but work really cripples the way I ultimately want to live my life. I don't feel I have time for anything between work, gym, household chores and the odd social occasion (ok lots of social events recently, but that is not the norm).

Anyway I do feel I have neglected the blog and today I actually had some time, so despite the heat I hit the kitchen. I made some chocolate mini muffins which were lovely, but it was a debacle getting them out of the tray and they look a mess so I might try them again some other time. I also have basil in my little herb garden so I thought I would make some pesto.

Pesto is not traditionally a sauce that mum ever made. In fact she made it herself for the first time only a week ago. I've always used a Jamie Oliver recipe and when mum told me how she made hers last week (relayed to her by a friend of hers), I think it is exactly the same. I do like Jamie because I think he has a good appreciation and understanding for the way Italians like to cook. Now Jamie's recipe talks about doing certain things in steps, but I have to admit I just chuck everything into the food processor and just add oil at the end until I have the right consistency. You need:

1/4 clove of garlic (I actually use a whole clove)
3 good handfuls of fresh basil
1 handful of lightly roasted pine nuts
1 good handful of grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper
small squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

Like I said, chuck it all into the food processor and just drizzle extra olive oil into the mixture until you have a semi-wet but firm consistency.

I also have a confession to make, I forgot to take a photo before I ate my pasta with pesto sauce...oops...I even walked straight past the camera and tripod to sit down and eat it. (I blame the heat - I'm sure you've heard about it.)

Enjoy!

Custard

There seems to be hundreds of ways to make custard but recently I nagged mum to show me how she does hers...

4 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp white sugar
600 mls milk
3 egg yolks

In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, eggs and some of the milk, stirring until there are no lumps in the mixture. Gradually add the rest of the milk, stirring the whole time.

Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and stir over a high heat initially, but reduce it to low when the mixture starts to bubble.

Tip - wash a lemon and cut off one end, pierce a fork through the other end and stir the mixture with the lemon for the essence.


When the mixture starts to get quite thick, take it off the heat.

If you just want vanilla custard then you can add some vanilla essence to the mixture.

For chocolate custard, put 3-4 tbsp of cocoa in a bowl and add a few scoops of the custard. Have the bowl in the sink with some cold water. Stir the mixture then gradually add the rest of the custard.

I made this custard to make cream puffs (which I bought, but can make if I have the time) to take to my niece's birthday party. I made both chocolate and vanilla, and filled the profiteroles with half vanilla and half chocolate custard. Sprinkle with icing sugar.


NB. If you need a larger portion you add more eggs and more milk only (i.e. with 6 eggs you would need 1 litre of milk).

Chocolate Pavlova

Yesterday for dad's birthday I made a pavlova that I had eaten over at the Hope's house a couple of times. It is truly delicious so I hope that Carol (or Nigella Lawson for that matter) won't mind me publishing it here. And apologies because I don't have a photo of the finished plate because I decorated it at mums.

Meringue base:
6 egg whites
300 gm caster sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
50 gm dark chocolate, finely chopped

Topping:
500 ml thick cream
Punnet of your favourite fresh berries (I used a frozen berry mix)
2 - 3 tbsp coarsely grated dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180c but turn oven down to 150c when the pavlova goes in!

Beat eggs whites to satiny peaks, then add 1 spoon full of the sugar at a time while beating constantly. Stop beating when all sugar is dissolved and mixture is shiny. This can take up to 15 mins.

Sprinkle in sifted cocoa powder, add vinegar and chocolate and gently fold through the mixture.

Scrape mixture onto a sheet of baking paper on tray and make a disc with the mixture approx. 23 cm in diameter. Don't spread it too much or it will be a flat pavlova.

Bake in the oven for 1 to 1.5 hours. Turn oven off but leave the pavlova in there to cool completely.

NB. Nigella says that when it is ready, it should be crisp on the sides and dry on top, and when you prod the centre you should feel the promise of 'squidginess' beneath your fingers.

You can invert the pavlova. Whisk cream and pile on top of meringue then scatter berries over the cream and sprinkle with remaining dark chocolate.

Enjoy!

Maggot cheese or mussels in coconut broth?

I am having withdrawal symptoms from not baking, but lately I have been either too tired or too busy. So tonight to alleviate the yearning, I thought I would watch another episode of Season 4 of Hell's Kitchen. But after watching that I was as bright as a button so I thought I would check out some Gordon snippets on you tube (it's 11.30pm and too late to get into the kitchen).

Unfortunately the video I wanted to post had embedding disabled, so do yourself a favour and search for "Gordon Ramsey maggot cheese" on you tube. (But only if you think you can handle it. Personally it is one cheese I won't be trying in this lifetime.)

Then I found this video, and this dish looks so good to me I reckon I would eat every last morsel.

Fettucini

Today I made my first ever home made pasta (solo effort). I know, I know, I should be ashamed, I'm a wog... how did I get to this age without having made my own pasta before? I'm not sure I know the answer to that question myself, so I won't even bother trying to analyse that here.

I used the Kitchen Aid (of course), which made light work of it, and made the whole process a lot quicker. I also nearly stuffed it up by adding too much water too soon, but quickly just added more flour. I think the dough did end up being too soft, so I will take things slower next time.

There are hundreds of different recipes for pasta, but mum uses one egg for every kilo of flour. And besides flour and egg, you only need tepid water and salt.

I obviously didn't want to make a kilo's flour worth of pasta, so I measured out about 5 'handfulls' of flour (I used 00, but plain flour is fine), and used one egg to this amount of flour. At a guess, this made me about 4 servings.

Most recipes you will see have at least 3 eggs. The more eggs you use, the heavier the pasta will be. And you can even make pasta without any egg at all.

Cinnamon meringues

I don't seem to be coping well with working this time round... coupled with an unusually busy social life at the moment, I don't seem to have any time for myself. And of course what is suffering is the number of opportunities to get into the kitchen.

Tonight I got home from work, completely exhausted after a fitful night's sleep and decided that I had neglected my Kitchen Aid for too long, and that I should take some of my own advice and 'just get on with it'.

So I found a meringue recipe for no reason other than I wanted to test out how the Kitchen Aid handled the egg whites and sugar!

The actual recipe is for cinnamon meringues with orange curd cream, but I am only posting the meringue portion (unless someone specifically requests the whole recipe), because I really am too tired to type it all out, and I won't be making the rest of it myself tonight. The recipe has been ripped out of a Home Beautiful magazine.

3 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 100C. Place six large muffin paper cases onto an oven tray, but flatten them out slightly.

Place the ingredients into the mixer bowl and beat for 12-15 mins until thick.

Now, after I did this I suddenly thought 'this is not going to work'. I mean, since when does one make a meringue and just chuck the sugar in with the eggs? All the recipes always instruct to 'gradually add'. Anyway I thought, too late now and I turned the mixer on and just left it running for 12 mins. I kid you not - I didn't even check and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

The result is that I actually got a great meringue mixture:


It is baking as I type, but to finish off the recipe...

Place the mixture into a piping bag with a 1cm plain tube (although I used the star). Start from the centre and pipe a spiral almost to the edges of the cases. Pipe around top edge to form a nest. Bake for 1 and 1/2 hours. Allow to cool in oven with door ajar.

Tomorrow night I might whip some cream and dollop it onto the meringues, add some fruit and have myself a mini pavlova for dessert.

Enjoy!

Salmon with coriander and lime sauce and blanched zucchini

I am growing coriander in my garden so I am seeking out different ways to use it. I found this coriander and lime sauce recipe on the Internet which I figured would go well with the salmon I bought at the market. I was right.

Coriander and Lime sauce

3 bunches coriander, cleaned and chopped roughly
Juice of 3 limes
3 bunches spring onions, green part only, chopped roughly
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 1/2 cups yogurt
2 tbsps water, cold
1/2 tsp honey
3 tbsps canola oil (I used olive oil)

Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Thin out with water if too thick. Keep refrigerated.

I cooked the salmon using my grill press for about 4 mins.

I blanched some zucchini and dressed it with oil, salt, vinegar and oregano.

And I had one of the best meals I have ever cooked for myself. I wonder what Gordon Ramsey would have thought of it?



Apologies for the bad photo - it was dark and you know how much I love taking photos in bad light. Not to mention I just wanted to get stuck into the food!

Cauliflower Soup

I think my favourite vegetable would have to be the cauliflower. So I recently thought I would try making cauliflower soup. I searched through my recipe books for what I thought would be a good recipe, and ended up using two recipes to come up with my own version.

Butter (about 50 or 80g depending on how much you're making)
Onion
Oregano
Garlic
Cauliflower
Stock (relative to the amount of cauli you will use)
Milk (about 1 cup)
Parsley

Melt butter in heavy-based saucepan, add onion, garlic and oregano. Stir over medium heat until onion is soft.

Add cauliflower, parsley and stock and cook until cauliflower is tender. Add milk (and some cream if you like) and reduce heat and cook until just heated through.



Blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

Gordon Ramsey and scrambled eggs

I haven't been doing much baking or cooking lately so I thought I would find some cooking on YouTube to show you instead. I found Gordon Ramsey making simple scrambled eggs. I thought I had personally started to master scrambled eggs, but I'm now going to have to try it the way the Three Star Michelin man makes them. God what I would give to try this man's cooking.



For a great interview with Gordon, go to YouTube and search for Gordon being interviewed by Michael Parkinson. I saw this and just loved him even more. Sorry, I couldn't embed the video as it wasn't permitted.

More shortbread anyone?

I bought a new cookbook the other day - Cookies, Muffins & Cakes! So even though I already have two types of home-made shortbread in the cookie jar, I decided to try another recipe from this cookbook. And, the result is that they are pretty damn good actually.

125 gm butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp cream
1/2 cup cornflour
1/2 cup plain flour
60 gm chocolate melts

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the vanilla essence, rind and cream and beat until combined.

Add the sifted flours and beat until the mixture is smooth enough for piping (I found I had to finish off using my hands).

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5 cm star nozzle. Pipe 4 cm lengths onto (greased and papered) trays. Bake for 15 mins or until lightly golden (I needed only about 12 mins). Cool the biscuits before transferring to a wire rack.

Melt the chocolate and place it in a small glad bag, seal, then snip one of the bottom corners (only a tiny snip). Drizzle diagonally over the biscuits. Allow to set.

Tip make sure you have some paper under the wire rack, then you can just throw it away after you've finished drizzling. It will save on the cleaning.




On a separate note. I find food photography so challenging, and using that macro lens requires skill I tell ya! But sometimes, just sometimes, it all falls into place. I had so many good photos of this shortbread, that I had to post two. And this second one looks awesome on the full LCD screen - I think it will be one that I print and frame I just love it so much. I hope it looks half decent at low-res on a blog... just checked, no it doesn't so you'll have to just trust me. But it is photos like these that just bring out the passion and make me work through the pain of taking so many duds.