Edibles in the Garden

I love gardening. It's pretty amazing when you plonk something into the ground and return a month later to eat it. And with automatic reticulation and slow release fertiliser it's literally that easy. I've had a few failures such as my onions and lettuce. Perhaps they don't take kindly to being utterly ignored. But my chillis and spring onions have been lovely.

Asian Rice Pudding

1/4 cup black glutinous rice

1/4 cup glutinous rice

2 and a half cup of water

1/4 cup palm sugar

1-2 pandan leaves

1/4 cup coconut cream to serve

Put rice, water, pandan and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer on low heat for 40 minutes and serve warm with coconut cream.

Curry Laksa with Egg and Prawn

Ok I cheated. I used good old Prima Taste packet mix. I actually prefer the Delimas brand as it is spicer, but it's pretty hard to come by.

Macaroni Cheese

Fast and rich......Nigella Lawson style! Egg, cheese and evaporated milk put through a food processor and then mixed with freshly boiled pasta then baked.

Homemade Muesli bar

I can't believe how easy it is to make muesli bars. I've taken to putting a container of these in my car to eat on my 60 minute drive to work. Oh, by the way, I finally quit my job and made the move to hospital pharmacy. Werhoo! Should have done this years ago. But back to food... this is a variation of a Nigella Lawson recipe. My reasons for the variation? I didn't have 75g of shredded coconut in my pantry and didn't want to spend any more time in a car.

1 can sweetened condensed milk

250g rolled oats

100g chopped dried fruit (eg apricot and pear)

100g nuts (eg peanuts)

100g pumpkin seeds

50g sesame seeds

Mix it all around, press into a greased and lined disposable foil baking tray. Bake for an hour at 130 degrees C.

Boobie, er I mean Suji Biscuits

Is it me or do they look like boobs? ;)

These delicate biscuits are essentially a super-short shortbread. Very morish and crumbly. The recipe is here and is by Poh from Masterchef.

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.