Cooking from the books - Annabel Langbein

We have a lot of pork mince at the moment as we grew a pig on Aaron's Aunties Farm. So when Aaron gave me Annabel Langbein's latest Celebrate Summer magazine while I was in hospital, I noticed this recipe: Banh Mi Burgers. We love Asian flavours and I had all the ingredients.

I did not want to do burgers so I chose one of her "go free range" options on the page - turn the meat into meatballs.

As it was going to be a meal on rice I made a slightly larger quantity of the salad and added some finely shredded cabbage to the veges when marinating them. 

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It made a gorgeous meal which Aaron and I loved. One of the boys like the salad but not the meatballs and the other boy liked the meatballs but not the salad. I would definitely make this again.

My new go to dinner after a work day

Wow the most scrumptious meal we have had in ages and so quick to make. Now after a busy work day, this will be it. This recipe was in our local paper Northern Outlook and is a recipe from Nadia Lim in association with My Food Bag. We love salmon here and so to have a different recipe was great. The marinade was delicious and brown rice with broccoli, peas and beans (was meant to be spinach but I did not have any).

While making it we were mucking around with a new voice activated selfie app!!

LEMON AND SWEET CHILLI GRILLED SALMON WITH PEA AND BROCCOLI RICE
Pea and broccoli rice:
3 cups steamed brown rice
1 head broccoli
4–5 handfuls baby spinach leaves
1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Lemon and sweet chilli grilled salmon:
600g salmon fillets, cut into 4–5 pieces
3 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ a lemon

To serve
¼ cup chopped coriander leaves and stalks
½ a lemon, cut into wedges

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Bring a full kettle to the boil.
 
Start by cooking the rice to go with the meal. While rice is cooking prepare vegetables; finely dice broccoli florets and about half the stalk; roughly chop spinach leaves. Set both aside.

Pat salmon dry, remove any remaining pin-bones and arrange on prepared tray, skin side down. In a small bowl, mix sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice together and spoon over salmon. Roast for 7–8 minutes or until just cooked through, depending on thickness (salmon is best served medium-rare).

Place broccoli and peas in a medium, heat-proof bowl. Pour over boiling water and set aside for 4–5 minutes until bright green and just tender. Drain and add to steamed rice, along with spinach and sesame oil. Fluff up with a fork until spinach has wilted slightly. Season to taste.

To serve, divide pea and broccoli rice and salmon between plates and spoon over any remaining sauce from oven tray. Garnish with coriander and serve with a lemon wedge to squeeze over just
before eating.

Recipe courtesy of My Food Bag. via stuff.

Thankful for an abundance of lemons

At our new house we have two citrus. One had only just been identified as a Kaffir lime, taller than me, when the first frost -6 deg C hit it and it has just kept dying ever since. But the other - the lemon tree - is doing stunningly well and we have masses of fruit that make you feel healthier just looking at them.
Well I have needed that health. I have been struck by a gale force cold. It came on fast and it hit hard. I should be under the bulldozer by now. I even had to have some days off work.

Divinely restorative Lemon ginger hot drink.
Three of those lemons, a thumb of chopped fresh ginger and some honey from the hives of our friends. Added four cups of water and muddled it all with a wooden spoon. Oh the heavenly aroma (if I could smell!!), but boy I can taste. The pungent heat of the ginger cuts through my cold and I sit in front of the fire (Yes finally permitted) and sip this restorative drink.

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Amazing, easy Cheesy Garlicky bread

Going around Facebook at the moment is a post on cheesy garlic bread. How simple I thought. But then I needed to NZ -a-fy the recipe. As the cheese they recommended is expensive and the whole thing was not quite to my taste.

Cheesy garlicky bread.
1 big vienna style loaf - cut it into thick 2inch (5cm) slices but on an angle not straight. Turn the loaf and cut it into 2inch thick slices the opposite way - DO NOT cut through the bottom crust.
Grate 1 cup of standard cheddar cheese and open the cuts and sprinkle the cheese in.
melt 1/2 cup butter and grate in 4-5 garlic cloves then drizzle this all over the bread, some into the gaps and some on top.

Put into the oven in a dish covered in tin foil on 180oC for 15 mins. Take the foil off the top and bake another 10-15 mins.

Eat while hot!!! - yummy

I made it on Saturday night and it was wolfed down before dinner.

Annabel Langbein - Rhubarb tart

Eli and I have been watching the latest series of Annabel Langbein - Free range through the Seasons.  She had made an amazingly easy pastry case and then just stood up fruit in it. If you wanted this could be sugar free but would be very tart. Just change the fruit.

She served it with Orange scented cream which was a mixture of yogurt and sour cream, but I just made it with normal cream. The pastry held together but had texture and then melted in your mouth.

Annabel Langbein Fruit Tart

Pastry  - into a kitchen whiz put 

1 3/4 cup plain flour

200g chilled diced butter 

whiz until it looks like bread crumb and then add

1/2 cup sour cream.

whiz until it combines. Put it on the bench and bring all the pastry together. Wrap in cling film and put in fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Cut pastry into 8 pieces. Roll each out on floured board and then turn it in all the way around to make an edge. Place your fruit in the middle and sprinkle on 1 tablespoon sugar per tart.

Bake at 180 for 20 minutes (I had to bake it about 30 minutes to get colour and make sure it was cooked)

Orange Cream

Whip 150ml of cream which has the fine zest of 1/2 orange and 3 tablespoons sugar.

Serve

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Friands

I had no idea how easy they were (well that is if you remember to put all the ingredients in!!).

Recently I went to see my Dad as he was recovering from an Operation. While there I noticed a friand tin in the cupboards. My mother had thought it was a muffin tin. So she handed it over on the promise of Friands when they next visit.

I finally plucked the courage to make them. I had put it off as the ingredients are not cheap. The first batch I was too busy and after they came out of the oven and looked right etc, but did not taste as delicious as I thought they should, I found the melted butter in the microwave!!!

So second attempt  - much more successful. A total hit in our house. Everyone had two and wanted more.

I went through heaps of recipes that are on the internet and in the end this was what I did:

Friand
160g butter - melt in microwave

into bowl sift
1 3/4 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup flour

add in 1 cup Almond meal and stir well.

Fork beat 6 eggwhites until just fluffy and add 1 teaspoon vanilla paste.

use a pastry brush and the melted butter to grease the friand tin (or use a muffin tin or silicon), then use a little flour to dust the tins. I used a friand tin and a tupperware silicon muffin tin and greased and floured them both.

Add all the remaining butter into the mixture and stir well. It will be the consistency of a thick batter. Half fill 12 tins. If the mixture has not all been used then put more into each container. Do not make more than 12.

Bake 180 20-23minutes.
cool in tin for 5 minutes after taking them out of the oven.

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Barry's beetroot

I adore good beetroot but a lot that you buy are really high in sugars as well as salt. When Barry and Kerryn were getting ready for their wedding Barry did a BBQ for us, with the most amazing yummy beetroot as a side dish.

On my way home from Akaroa on Monday I bought some beetroot and hunted for Barry's recipe. So here (in my opinion) is the best beetroot ever. Click on this link to get the recipe.

In the recipe link there is a nice photo of the finished product. But I was so busy doing my blog and catching up on emails that today my beetroot cooking looked like this.......

Taking time out for tea

Every so often we like to have a proper afternoon tea on the weekends. This weekend was one such time.  We had Earl Grey tea and Ginger Gems.

Out comes the pretty china, the silver cutlery and the tiered cake stand.

All set and ready for us.

The boys getting stuck in. 

Ginger Gems and family time. A happy recipe.

My gem irons are really heavy cast iron ones. They are at least 80 years old. My Nana married when she was 16 and they were given to her as a "must have in the kitchen". If my Nana was alive she would now be coming up 100. So every time I make gems I think of her. It was her legacy to me when she died - along with an amazing gridle.

Ginger Gems

Preheat your gem irons in an oven at 200oC. This mixture will fill the irons 1 1/2 times.

50g butter and 1/4 cup sugar - cream well.

Add - 1 egg and 2 tablespoons golden syrup.

Then add - 1 cup plain flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger and mix in.

mix together 1/2 cup milk and 1 teaspoon baking soda then stir it into the gem mix.

Take gem irons out of the oven. Put a dot of butter into each cavity and place 1 tablespoon of mixture in. Do this quickly as mixture starts cooking. Put into the oven for approx 10 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

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Oh the deliciousness...

Drop one in your mouth and the explosion of flavour makes you immediately want another.

I decided to use my big pick of tomatoes in an experiment. I made semi dried tomatoes and they are to die for. Before I could put them in the container Aaron and I had munched our way through a tray full. But that's OK as it is healthy.

How to: Cut piles of tomatoes in half and put them in a tray cut side up (where the juice cannot flow over). grind on black pepper, be really generous with fresh thyme from the garden, grind on salt to taste and sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar per tray.

Put in a normal (preferably not fan) oven at 180 deg C for an hour and half. Turn down to 120 deg C and leave in the oven 3 hours. Turn the oven off and allow to cool inside. Pop into a container and keep in the fridge. These will only keep for about two weeks.

Eat at room temperature. Ooooh yum. Put into a salad roll, eat by themselves with a pre dinner drink. They are so moorish that it is hard to stop eating them.

I made this recipe after looking at HEAPS of different recipes. I did not peel the skin off the tomatoes as that is too much work and low ovens for 8 hours or overnight just drive me mad.

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No matter what you call it - it's scrumptious

 
Chocolate Pots, Chocolate Volcano, Chocolate fondants... no matter the name it is a delicious dessert. Until this weekend I had always made Rachel Khoo from the Little Paris Kitchen recipe. Hers had a caramel in the middle. But on the weekend our friends made Nigella Lawson's recipe. This is simple and straightforward. I do have to admit that I have made it a bit more simple and straightforward than she has it. BUT... Made in 5 minutes and cooked in 10. Lip smackingly good.

Nigella Chocolate Pots - Karen's Method
4 1/2 oz bittersweet choc (I used 70% cocoa solid)
4 oz butter
3 large eggs ( I used 4 as I only just now realised I read the recipe wrong)
3/4 Cup white sugar
1/4 Cup normal flour

Nigella says this makes four but it is very rich and my friends made it go around 8 - I made it today as 5, only because I had 5 dishes.

Turn oven on to get it up to heat - this is important - 400oF, 200oC (I used my fan function)

Prepare your ramekins 4-6 , by buttering and flouring them so the mixture does not stick.

In a microwave bowl put the chocolate and butter. Microwave on 60% power for 1.5 minutes until melted.

Out of the oven looking like this

In another bowl whisk together eggs, sugar and flour until just blended (again I did not read that and gave it a good beat). Gradually add the chocolate mixture to the eggs - I did it in two lots.

Pour into the greased ramekins and put on a tray and place in the oven for 10-13 minutes. It is ready when the tops are firm and cracking slightly around the edges.

Turn onto individual dishes and serve with runny cream. Eat while warm, do not delay!!!

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What is in my Trug today?

A String of garlic I plaited after drying for a few days, butter beans,
french green beans, baby carrots and Jersey Benne potatoes.

I picked all these delicious things from the garden intending to make a Salad Nicoise as I had some fresh salmon. Then Aaron rang to say he was late so the dinner kept the same ingredients but swapped out the salmon for chickpeas and berlotti beans (for me) and sausage for the boys.

The tomatoes were hiding underneath

They became my standby curry. I made a vegetarian version and a meat version so we could have what we wanted.

Standard Curry recipe.
This recipe comes from a lovely Indian lady I worked with in 2008. It was her family's go to curry recipe and she made it for us all on her last day at work.
1 medium onion chopped
2 fresh green chilli (optional and can be substituted with capsicum if you do not like hot)
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1tsp ground tumeric
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander
2tsp chilli powder (depending on how hot you like it - I use curry powder instead )
1tsp crushed ginger
1tsp crushed garlic
60nl oil
salt to taste
2 potatoes - cooked and cut up into bit sizes
1 cup peas ( or as much vege as you want to add - I add about 4 cups veges)
500g meat (diced chicken, lamb or beef) or beans as you choose

Put oil in large pot followed by oinions and chilli/ capsicum on medium heat. Stir occasionally - do not brown the onions just sweat them. Add ginger, ginger and all the ground spices.Leave to cook for about a minute and then add the tomato. Stir well and add the meat (or beans) - raise the heat. Once meat is cooked add the potatoes and any vegetables. Add a cup of vege stock or the water from cooking the potatoes and allow all to simmer until cooked and ready. Serve on rice.

Tip - I buy chick peas in bulk and cook them all at once in a huge pot. Then I put them into meal sizes zip lock bags and freeze. Anytime I want them I can just pull them out of the freezer. 6 meals cost me $5 versus one tin of cooked chick peas at $2.89 per tin!

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Barry's Brilliant Beetroot

Today I have made my cousin-in-law beetroot recipe. It is so quick and easy and tastes yummy. I don't seem to be able to grow beetroot - I try every year and just don't get roots - sigh. So resorted to buying some. So beetroot with a roast vege and feta salad. (Yet another cousins recipe - Yes I have stacks of cousins which makes sense as my mother was from a family of 10!!).

Pickled Beetroot

Preparation time: more than 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 large beetroot

¾ cup water

1½ cups white vinegar or ¾ cup apple cider vinegar with ¾ cup malt vinigar

¾ cup sugar

½ teaspoon peppercorns

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

½ cinnamon stick

¼ teaspoon salt

Method

1. Wash beetroot thoroughly and cook in water until tender.

2. Cool and remove skin. (either by hand or use a knife)

3. Cut beetroot into slices or julienne strips.

4. Place all other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

5. Simmer for 5 minutes and then strain.

6. Pack beetroot into hot sterilised jars and top up with vinegar mixture.

7. Seal and store in a cool place.

This can be eaten on the day you make it, unlike some recipes that are better if left to mature. So no bottling for me - straight into my tupperware drain and serve!!!

The best Christmas fruit mince pie pastry

Today I made my first (and probably last) batch of Christmas mince pies. They are always so successful, this pastry is short, crispy but melts in your mouth. There is a long story to how I got the recipe as it had been a closely guarded secret by one of Aaron's aunties. My MIL was very put out when I got the recipe as she had been trying to get it for about 30 years!!!

I made my Christmas fruit mince on Tuesday as it is so easy to whip up in the food processor. Today I made one lot of pastry which resulted in 3 1/2 dozen fruit mince pies. yum.

So I have decided to share the recipe:

Aunty Lorraine's Christmas fruit mince pie pastry

3 Cups flour
1 Cup icing sugar
2 Tablespoons custard powder
1 large egg yolk (today I used two yolks just because I felt like it)
375g soft butter

Put all into the food processor and process until it starts forming balls of dough. NB this dough is very soft. Do not add any more flour but flour the bench and rolling pin well.

Roll out fairly thin and cut etc. Bake 180oC for 15-18 minutes. It should be turning golden but NOT brown.

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Belgium Biscuits - the fast and easy way

Our whole family love Belgium biscuits but they take so long to make. Rolling out, cutting, baking, sticking back together ......

So I tackle it a different way and make it in a slice tin. Just as yummy but four times as fast to do.

I use the Edmonds recipe but double it. This will then make a slice in a sponge roll tin. (this has already been doubled)

First cream the butter and sugar well, then add the eggs one at a time. Sift the dry ingredients into this and mix until the crumbs are sticking together and looking chunky - like this

Press just over half the mixture into a baking paper lined tray (I use an old fashioned sponge roll tin)

Soften the jam in the microwave with a good squirt of lemon juice. This should make it runny enough to just pour on and have it easy to move around the slice. If you don't do that the jam is very hard to spread on the biscuit base. Traditionally the jam is raspberry jam - but we ran out of the homemade stuff months ago. What I do still have in the cupboard is blackcurrant jam and that makes a gorgeous tasting slice. Use what jam you like. Pour the rest of the biscuit crumble onto the jam.

Smooth out the crumble and press gently. You want it setting together but not so hard that the jam oozes up through this layer. Bake at 180C for approx 20-25 minutes. Until slightly golden and looking cooked all over.

It is important to add a runny icing as soon as you take it out of the oven. I then sprinkle a packet of jelly crystals on top - just because this is how I have always made it. But you could do hundreds and thousands. Or nothing at all. Once cooled but not cold, cut into slices. 

Belgium slice
250G butter
1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
4 C plain flour
2tsp baking powder
2tsp cinnamon
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp mixed spice

3/4 cup of jam and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Pink icing made how you like to make icing.
Packet of blackberry jelly (optional)

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3 Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Devine Chocolate Mousse

This recipe takes all of 5 minutes to make. It is my favourite chocolate mousse as it is quite creamy and smooth. This is not a dark chocolate flavour.

I have no idea where the recipe came from as I have been making it since I was 17 and have never had a written recipe.

Chocolate Mousse
150g of dark chocolate - I used 70% cocoa solids
200ml whipping cream
3 eggs.

Melt the chocolate (if doing it in the microwave you can put a wee knob of butter in and it will stop the chocolate getting overcooked).

While chocolate is melting use a bowl to whip the egg WHITES to stiff peaks. Once chocolate is melted add the egg YOLKs to the chocolate and stir well. Then add 3 tablespoons of the egg whites and mix to soften the chocolate. Add the rest of the egg whites and carefully fold them in. Use the egg white bowl to put the cream in and whip the cream. Add this to the chocolate mixture and fold carefully.

Put into pretty glasses and refridgerate for four hours or more (will keep in the fridge for up to four days and be lovely).

3 ingredients

enjoy it.

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Plum Cake

What to do with that ever increasing pile of plums? Make cake of course.
When we were urban foraging the other day we almost had to physically pull him off the plum trees. He just could not stop picking. Now I love plum jam but not too many in my family do so I still have some from last year. Then I had a brainwave - make plum cake.

I pulled out recipes but could not find what I wanted so here is what I made. (I made four mini cakes as I am doing dinner for Alison and Richard as we are visiting their new baby Lucas today.)

Plum Cake  (recipe by me)
Put oven onto 180oC. Line your cake tin as the plums are sticky. I used non stick tins but still butter and floured them.
150g butter
3/4 Cup sugar
3 eggs
1.5 Cup flour
2t Baking Powder
1/4 Cup milk

cream butter and sugar and add eggs. Sift in flour and BP, stir in milk. Put mixture into your tin in blobs - this is important. Do not put mixture in and smooth it around the tin or the plums will only sit on top.

Cut plum flesh of stones. Just roughly until you have 400g fruit. Add 1T flour, 1tsp cinamon and 1/4cup sugar. Note that as soon as sugar is added to plums the juice runs. So do this at the last minute. Stir and sprinkle over the cake mixture. Some should sink in. Do not use the juice that could be at the bottom of your plum bowl.

Bake approx 40-50 minutes.

The plums are quite sharp on this cake so I served with Chantilly cream (whipped cream with icing sugar and real vanilla)

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Gorgeous simple raspberry jam

Well inspite of all the Mayhem going on around here, some things just don't stop. The major thing that you cannot halt unless you are God is the garden growing. I have cauliflowers being prolific, strawberries and raspberries almost falling off their plants. And today I think we are going to have to have a good pick of the blackcurrants.

Anyway this week as you know I have had no stove, no washing machine, no kitchen at times while the floor is drying but I had raspberries. Now this could have all been a step too far, I fluctuated between making jam and putting the raspberries in the freezer. So I decided to make it- at least it would not be a job I had to do later.

put bottles in boiling water to sterilise

Weigh your raspberries

Put raspberries in pot and put in the same weight in sugar. Warm at low temperature until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to the boil and as soon as it is a rolling boil let boil for 4 minutes, Stir as this occurs. Add zest and juice of 1 lemon. Turn off heat and stir every minute for 15 minutes (this keeps the raspberries evenly distributed around the jar). Put into jars and seal well. EAT

I boiled water and put all the jars and lids into the boiling water to sterilise them. Normally I would just put them all in the oven. Then I used my camp stove to make the jam. I used my recipe (and have realised that I have not blogged it before.) It is all bottled, finished and washed up only 20 minutes later, so I was really pleased that I did it.

Super Easy Rhubarb Dessert

This dessert is sooo simple and easy. Tasty tasty and healthy. Egg, Dairy, Gluten, Fat free (fantastic for you Kerryn).

Take 500g rhubarb stalks and wash and cut them to the length of the container you are going to bake them in.

Lay them in rows (putting the little bits in the bottom so they can't be seen

Grate on the zest of two oranges

Squeeze the juice from the oranges onto the rhubarb

Add 5 teaspoons of honey (I have used the honey from the hives of our friend Dirk)

Put into the oven at 180oC for 20-30 minutes until the stalks seem soft to touch. Turn oven off and allow to cool. Serve as is - Gorgeous

If you want you can make some nut brittle and sprinkle on top. Or this is gorgeous for breakfast with some homemade muesli sprinked on and a bit of Greek Yogurt (so long as you can eat dairy!)

Cake for House Blessing

Yesterday we were priviledged to go to the house blessing for the new Habitat for Humanity houses in Kaiapoi. A family from our church have been working incredibly hard as they have been accepted as one family for a house.

My goodness they do work too!! Not only do they have to contend with moving all the time while waiting for  the house to be finished. The earthquakes have put such pressure on housing. They have to do 500 hours work on the house. Richard is working in his paid job as many hours as he can and then all weekend and some weeknights he is plastering and painting etc on his house. But the awesome thing is that they will never have to move again and this is their house. I am so thrilled for them. Thanks Habitat - you do an amazing job.

So they had the house dedication with the local Mayor there, the MP Kate Wilkinson was meant to be there,  lots of the volunteers were there. So all we took a plate for afternoon tea, listened to speeches and prayed blessing over their new house.

I met a few people and we talked gardening and food, the took my blog details - so if you have logged on - welcome to my blog I hope you like it. Do follow if it interests you.

The cake I took was the one that was on TV the night before on the new Annabel Langbien programme - The Free Range Cook, simple pleasures.

I made two cakes. The round one is cranberry and walnut, the square is apricot and no nuts. Well I preferred the first. Interestingly it was all the ladies that liked the cake. My boys did not and Aaron did not particularly. A great cake to have with a cup of tea. Relatively low fat, easy to make diary free by substituting oil for butter (use slightly less). It does have an old fashioned taste about it and I think that is due to using Baking Soda as the rising agent.



But here is the recipe:

Annabel Langbein - Orange lightning Cake - so called as it is quick as lightening to make.

1 whole organic orange - cut it into quarters, put into the food processor and whizz to paste.
add
1/2 Cup water with 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in it
2 eggs
1 Cup Sugar
2 Cups plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( I use my homemade one)
125g softened butter - NOT melted.
Whizz together.

add - 1 Cup dried fruit, 1/2 cup walnuts and just pulse to mix in. Do not get it chopped up.

Into lined tin. Bake 1 hour 160oC

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