Cinnamon Scrolls

I used to be quite overwhelmed at the ideal of baking with yeast but I've had a bit of a play and I'm quite enjoying it. I think it's quite magical really. I would love to do it more, but I'm frankly not quite organised enough to fit in 2-3 hours of proving into my schedule. Anyway, in honour of the arrival of my dear relatives from Sydney I baked some cinnamon buns. This is the recipe:

Cinnamon Buns (yields 12 big ones)
Recipe by (you guessed it) Annabel Langbein:

Melt ½ cup butter in a saucepan then turn off the heat. Add 2 cups of milk and wait until the mixture is blood warm then add 3 tsp of yeast and ¾ cup sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. In a large bowl mix 6 cups of plain flour with 1 tsp of salt. Add the liquid and knead for 30-40 strokes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Leave it to prove under a wet tea towel until double in size (took me 2-3 hours). Roll into a rectangle about ½ cm thick. Spread a layer of softened butter on top and sprinkle over a mixture of 1 tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup of sugar. Roll up and cut in 3 cm segments. Arrange into baking tray and let it rise for a bit (20 min) then bake for 10-12 min at 240 degrees C.

Pork Roast with Sides

Hello hello! Long time no post. I've had a busy few months and was too distracted for recreational cooking. But I've just had a refreshing 2 weeks overseas and I'm back at it.

This is Annabel Langheim's pork roast from The Free Range Cook. Belly pork served on wilted red cabbage with cheesy polenta, roasted apples, carrots and onion.

Swedish English Fusion

Swedish meatballs in the Toad in a Hole batter. A Swedish English fusion born out of desperation because I had run out of snags (Aussie for sausages). It's actually darn tasty and definitely gives a healthier meat to batter ratio. As usual I added thyme, rosemary and onions for extra flavour.

But now I'm stumped. Do I serve it with

a) Gravy?
b) Ikea Gradasas Cream Sauce?

Gravy won in the end but I was also reminded that I could have gone with c) lingonberry jam or d) vegetables. Must keep that in mind for next time.

Pandan Cake

Aka... that green sponge cake you see at Asian grocers.

In her cleaning frenzy, my Mum gifted me her baba cake tin which got me really excited. I've been sitting on a Pandan Cake recipe for a while because I didn't have the special donut shaped, loose-bottomed baking tin you need to make the traditional cake. According to Poh from Masterchef you need to cool the cake with the tin inverted so it doesn't deflate so you should definitely use the proper tin.

Best Recipe Ever. I had the cake up and ready in under 2 hours which is fricking awesome if you ask me. Only 25 minutes to bake and you dont' even have to grease the tin. In fact if doesn't work as well if you do. Score.

Pandan Cake
Preaheat oven to 160 degrees C and seperate 5 eggs. Whisk egg whites with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar and add 75g white sugar gradually until stiff peaks formed. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks, 75g white sugar, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 5 tbs vegetable oil and enough pandan extract to turn it all bright green (I think I used about 1/2 tsp). Sift in 150g SR flour and fold in. Also fold in egg white mixture. Bake in a 23cm baba tin for 25 minutes or until golden brown and skewer comes out clean. Invert over a cooling rack and let it cool. Run a knife around the tin when ready to invert.

Pie Day Again

Mince Meat Pie
Not a pretty photo. Sorry.

Bacon and Egg Pie

I love making pies. If only there were more of us living here so I can get rid of it all. Mum and Dad are often the recipients of the stuff I make, but I'm not sure their doctors would approve with the first pie. I might have to inflict my cooking on the girls at work.

Bacon and Egg Pie (recipe by Annabel Langbein)
It's layers of bacon and potato with herbs and eggs on top. Wrapped in buttery soft crust pastry. Really easy to make and looks pretty good too.

Family Meat Pie (recipe in some Pie Book I bought at Planet Books at 11pm on a Friday night.. werhoo!)
Filled with 750g of organic beef mince.

Chocolate Mud Cake with Ganache

This is a very easy cake, made to to serve 8-12. You don't need a beater or mixer if you cut your softened butter into 1 inch cubes or zap it in the microwave first.

Put 3 eggs, 3 cups of SR, 2 cups of sugar, 1.5 tsp vanilla extract, ¾ cup of cocoa powder, 2 tsp of baking soda, 200g softened butter and 1 cup milk in a bowl and pour 1 cup of boiling hot coffee over it. Stir for 2-3 minutes until smooth and the butter has melted. Pour into prepared tin and bake at 160 degrees for 1 hour. Cool the cake completely and refrigerate for a few hours if possible. Ice with chocolate ganache (hot cream poured over equal part grated/chopped dark chocolate, stir until smooth).

Recipe by Annabel Langbein

Rosemary and Sea Salt Foccacia

This is the foccacia bread I baked for appetisers for our weekly family dinner. I served it with olive oil and basalmic vinegar for dipping. Italian meatballs and egg pasta was served with a bolognese sauce for mains. Hmm carbs makes Suebie happy....

Foccacia Bread recipe
Place half a tablespoon of sugar and three quarters of a tablespoon of dry yeast in three quarters of a cup of blood warm water. Leave for 10 minutes to activate. Mix one and a half cups of plain flour with half a tablespoon of salt and create a well in the middle. Add yeast mixture to flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return dough to bowl and spray with olive oil then cover with cling film. Let it prove in a warm spot (ie oven that is on a very low setting eg 50 degrees) for at least an hour. Punch it down when it has doubled in size and knead it for another minute or so. Line a cooking tray with baking paper and form a foccacia shaped dough that is 1 cm thick. Let it prove for another 30 minutes. Push your fingers into the dough to create dimples and spray with olive oil again. Sprinkle on fresh rosemary and sea salt flakes. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius until the top is golden and sounds hollow when you tap it.

Souffle experiment

The idea of a souffle seems scary, but I've done a bit of research and decided I'd give it a go. This is Annabel Langbein's Souffle from my new favourite cooking show; The Free Range Cook. Annabel makes everything look so easy and I love the beautiful NZ scenery. Of course, I couldn't help myself and fiddled with the recipe a bit. I added some tasty cheese and took the option of replacing whitebait with smoked salmon. The souffle was a bit cracked. But still yummy. I wonder if it's all the solid bits that made it rise unevenly. I think I'll have to make a chocolate one to compare next.

Hainan Chicken Rice

Bloody good. Too full to type.

Donuts Ahoy!

Best three donut holes

mmm fluffy...

Mum generously gifted me her Russell Hobbs deep fryer (circa 1975). I love my Mum's kitchen gadgets; older appliances seem a lot sturdier than modern ones. Plus, I am reminded of my childhood whenever I use it.

The Chip Connoisseur (Mr W) was obviously delighted at the introduction of the deep fryer. But I managed to convince him to cook donuts with me instead. Yeah, that was hard ... not! I love having W in the kitchen with me. Usually he's happy to steer clear and leave me be, but tonight he's happily setting timers, holding thermometers and ...... standing by with the fire extinguisher. Sigh.

This is The Recipe. Thank you again Mr Gary Mehigan. I must get your cookbook, all your recipes really hit the spot. Your donut squeezing technique produced a much nicer and rounder product compared to the chicken nuggets shapes from the spoon technique.

"chicken nuggets"

Chocolate Ganache Tartlets

Inspired by Fiona from Masterchef.

Sue got impatient .....

Drunken, Bruised and Boiled.

We're back to weekly family dinners and tonight's menu was Alvin's Drunken and Bruised consisting of a liquor poached chicken with a thai-inspired salad. I also made Bak Kut Teh soup which is a peppery Chinese herbal soup with tender pork ribs. The Drunken Chicken was a bit of a let down for me. The chicken was weird and sweet but it was incredibly tender though. The salad however was pretty amazing. I think the hero of the meal for me was the Bak Kut Teh soup. I can't really take credit for it; I used a Prima Taste packet mix. Shame ;)

Leftovers

Roast Chicken, potato and leek Pie

Frangipane Tart

Sundays at my place is a time to try out new recipes and do my housework. I am so lucky to have such a considerate partner in W who is more than happy to help out with laundry and vacuuming to free me to bake a few goodies for Sunday dinner.

Today's theme in the kitchen is leftovers. My challenge is to use up left over bolognaise sauce, fried chicken, fruit and roast chicken. My first dish was a KFC chicken fried rice with chinese sausage, frozen vege and egg. That'll be lunch for the next few days.

Next I made a lasagne to use up the bolognaise sauce. I already had some lasagna sheets so I whipped up a white sauce and dumped in half a cup of left over pecorino cheese. That'll be dinner for tomorrow.

Then I decided to dice up the roast chicken breast and roast potatoes and turn it into a Chicken and Leek pie. I had a spare leek which I fried up and then added flour and stock to form a sauce and dumped in the chicken and potatoes. Defrosted a piece of puff pastry and that was dinner for tonight.

Lastly, I decided to try Matt Moran's Frangipane Tart recipe to use up some strawberries left over from my second attempt at pavlova. This will be dessert tonight.

Pavlova Fail

My first attempt was a bit sad. I think I must have overwhipped my eggs or something coz I didn't end up with stiff peaks. It was more of a syrupy slop. The slop rose in the oven, but it also cracked. Good thing I had heaps of whipped cream to hide the cracks. To fix the lack of height I opted for a double decker pavlova.

Chocolate Cake

I was reminded of this cake recipe when thinking of my London cousins. They mentioned this cake when I visited in 2008. Must have been a good cake because I made it for them over 10 years ago! I hadn't baked it in quite a while so I thought it was the ideal recipe to test out my new flour sieve toy (thanks ebay).

Before I forget, congrats to J2 who aced his piano exams and shout outs to J1 for the entertaining photos on FB on college life in Cambridge. This one is for you.

200g dark cooking chocolate
1 tbsp instant coffee mixed in 1 tbsp hot water
200g butter
200g sugar
5 eggs
150g SR flour

Preheat oven to 170° C and grease and line a cake tin. Melt chocolate. The microwave always works well. Let the chocolate cool slightly. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy and beat in eggs. Add the coffee then chocolate. Sieve flour and fold into mixture. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 50-55 min.

Pie Day

Apple Pie: this is what happens to old apples in my house

I was so inspired by my new pie and tart recipe book that I decided to make today Pie Day. Also, we have a bucketload of slightly old apples I want to get rid off. I made an apple pie with a traditional sweet shortcrust pastry. Followed by a Chicken, Mushroom and Leek pie with puff pastry.

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

Then I made a vegetarian Spinach and Ricotta pie. The Spinach pie had an olive oil pastry which I've never made before. It was pretty easy but when I baked it the pie kinda shrunk away from the side of the pan and "rose". Not sure if this is normal. Perhaps I confused the self-raising flour for the plain flour! Hehe... whatever the reason it was very cool; much easier to serve the pie!

My pie rose!

Spinach and Ricotta Pie : no butter in the pastry! Health benefits cancelled out by all the cheese :)

Risotto with Sausage, Red Wine and Peas

You know, the inaccuracies in online recipes published by TV channels are starting to really Cheese Me Off. This one takes the cake. Not only are the ingredients RATHER different but if you watch the video of the guy cooking the method is quite different too! Argh. >:(

Anyway this is my imitation of what the guy did on screen. The result was delicious but had an anaemic pallor coz I chickened out and halved the amount of red wine. Might also benefit from a bit more saffron.

Recipe to fit 4 small tummies or 3 large ones:
400g Arborio Rice
olive oil
1 onion, diced
125ml Red wine
10 strands of saffron
2L chicken stock
2-3 fat Italian sausages, cut into 1 inch segments
50g frozen baby peas
45g butter
50 grated parmesan (the real stuff! from the FRIDGE section)

Brown sausage in olive oil and set aside. Heat wine and saffron in one saucepan and stock in another. Dice your onion and fry until translucent in olive oil using same pan as sausage. Your pan needs to be at least 2.5L coz the rice will expand. Chuck in your rice and turn up the heat and fry until the edge of the rice grain is translucent. Chuck in your wine and turn down the heat to the lowest setting until the liquid is mostly evaporated. Start a countdown timer for 35 minutes and add 2 ladles of stock. Wait for it to mostly evaporate then add some more. Give the bottom of the pan a stir when you add the stock so the rice doesn't stick. Repeat, repeat, repeat you get the idea. When there's 15 minutes left on your timer, throw in your peas and sausages and increase to medium heat until it's simmering again. When the grains are al dente but not hard in the middle you are done! Take it off the heat and stir in your parmesan and butter. Dress with olive oil before you serve.

White Bread

A weekend treat for W. It was time consuming but worth the wait. There is nothing like slicing into a loaf of bread that is still steamy from the oven. Drool. The recipe is at Taste.com.

Amaretto Pistachio Biscotti

This is the recipe from the Italian Food Safari website. I didn't have pernod so I subsituted it with Amaretto (Almond liqueur). By the way, I'm sure the recipe is mistyped as that seems like WAY too much baking powder (perhaps 2 tsp instead of 2 tbsp) and I think if I were to make it again I'd reduce the sugar. Otherwise a very nice recipe.

Japanese Fried Food

I love Masterchef. Not only is there lots of food porn, they also give you very tasty recipes that actually work (unlike the sucky MKR website). A few weeks ago this guy gave a very nice tutorial on how to make my favourite Japanese entree; Agedashi Tofu! And even though I hate frying (the spitting oil hurts!) I just had to give it a go.

So since I got the oil out, I figured I'd also try to make tempura and tori-karaage. Tempura was pretty easy, but the tori-karaage was a mess. Must try to get a proper recipe instead of winging it. The agedashi however was DIVINE. The sauce was spot on!

Fresh Pasta Experiment

So I finally used my birthday voucher and bought a pasta machine from Kitchenware Direct. I decided to have a go at tortellini. I made a filling from leftover roast chicken, spinach, herbs and 3 cheeses in the food processor which was easy peasy. However the pasta dough was a bit more challenging! For one, I think I'm too unco to crank the handle, feed the pasta and pull the pasta at the same time. I also had a bit of difficulty clamping the machines to my kitchen counter so I had to improvise with a few heavy cook books. Anyway this was the result. Not sure it's worth all the trouble but it was quite fun.

Cornish Pasties for M

My dear friend D who I have known for many many years too me out for a belated birthday treat and spoilt me with many gifts including yummy nougat and truffle oil! But my favourite gift was a Gordon Ramsay cook book "Great British Pub Food". In it I found a recipe for authentic cornish pasties! I remembered that W's dad M is really keen on them so I decided to give it go.

I made a shortcrust pastry and a potato, swede and beef filling. I had one fresh out of the oven and the pastry was SO GOOD! Much better than the puff pastry in an Aussie pasty. Anyway, according to plan I nervously fed one to my Cornish Pasty Expert the next day for lunch on his run. Apparently it's authentic, but I need to use More Pepper! I'm happy with that :)

Pyrolytic Oven

Ok, due to popular demand I have cleaned my oven and taken before and after photos. Not bad for 4 hours and a flick of the switch I must say. As you can see the rails and trays can't be left in coz the clever bugger heats up to 500 degress Celsius to turn the grime to ash. So the idea is you just sweep the ash out and tada... clean oven without use of chemicals.

At the moment the racks are soaking in my bathrub with a Finish Powerball which the internet claims is the easiest way to clean them. The alternative method is to seal them in a garbage bag with ammonia over night but that just sounds bloody dangerous. Knowing me, I'd end up with chemical burns trying to get them out, so bathtub it is.

Roast Chicken with 40 cloves of Garlic!

My co-worker K recommended this recipe to me. The amount of garlic kind of scared me and but I was assured that it would not be overpowering. In the end I compromised and only used 20 cloves of garlic, but I did serve it up with garlic bread because I was out of oven chips.

Yet Another Roast Beef Dinner

I'd like to say I was inspired by watching the latest Masterclass on Masterchef, but in reality I was motivated by an unbelievable craving for yorkshire puddings. I didn't find it hard to talk W into a Yet Another Roast Beef Dinner.

I was delighted to see my butcher had one standing rib roast left. It was pre-tied so I didn't get to play with twine. Darn. I also decided to use Gravox too, to save bawling my eyes out over onions.

I tried to follow Gary Mehigan's tips and they definitely paid off. Double egg and lard makes for a "nommier" Yorkshire Pudding!

Asian food Phase

I went on a bit of an Asian Food phase recently. Unfortunately it was a Lazy Phase so I'm afraid these posts are a bit overdue and I don't have many photos to show.

I dished out some Malaysian Satay for a BBQ and made BBQ Wonton Noodle soup for my folks. For W, I made a dry noodle Wonton Noodle coz he's not a huge fan of soup. I also made a good quick Curry Laksa meal using the Delimas packets and pre-made Yong Tau Fu from my local Chinese Grocer.

Eggplant Parmagiana

This is my version of Rosa Matto's Eggplant Pargiana recipe I saw on Italian Food Safari. I couldn't be bothered with bocconcini or fresh basil leaves so I left them out. Anyone who knows me well knows how boring I find vegetables but this dish is absolutely delicious!

Lasagne

I've never actually made a lasagne before but I had a craving and a fridge full of cheese so I thought I'd give it a go.

This a modified version of the Women's Weekly Lasagne with Four Cheeses. I didn't have enough ricotta so I made a white sauce and melted some cheddar in it for the 2nd layer of cheese sauce.

Post me if you want the recipe. I'd post it up but it's long and I cant' be stuffed...