Choccie caramel slice

Mmmmmmmm yum a good sticky gooey caramel is always a winner in my books. I made this a few weeks ago and have thought about making it just about every day since. I haven't yet, mainly because Arj has demanded to be involved in other baking projects but I'm not sure another week will pass without a new batch

Ingredients
1 cup sr flour
1 cup of coconut
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats (this is optional, I didn't have any last time I made this and it was absolutely fine)
150g butter melted
395g can of sweetened condensed milk
2 tbs golden syrup
30g butter extra
200g dark chocolate
Method
• preheat oven to 180 deg
• combine flour, coconut, brown sugar, oats and butter press into baking paper lined slice tray
• Bake for 10 mins
• To make caramel, add s.c. milk, golden syrup and extra butter in pan bring to the boil stirring, reduce heat simmer for five minutes, stirring until a light brown colour
• Pour caramel over cooked base and bake for another 10 mins, let cool
• Spread melted choc over caramel filling


Enjoy with a lovely cuppa to cure three-thirtyitis.

Lamb cutlets, mint salsa and roast pumpkin mash

So for the past couple of weeks John has been making 'joke' comments about wanting a crown roast. You know the type of thing,
Sal "what should we eat?"
John "a crown roast with thrice baked potatoes, truffles and greens tossed in verjuice" (said in his poshest 'Pru & Trude' voice)

So yesterday I saw these lovely organic lamb racks at the supermarket and I couldn't go past them. I didn't really know what to do with them then and there, so just made up this dish with what we had at home. Well John was well impressed, declaring it to be perhaps the best meal I had ever made, high praise indeed! Personally I think he just has a short food memory, but it was pretty tasty, the minty salsa was much better than I expected.

Ingredients

* Lamb rack (size will depend on how many you are cooking for I had just under 500g for 2 peeps)
* Olive oil, salt and pepper to season
* Butternut pumpkin chopped (again, amount depends on peeps)
* splosh of cream
Salsa
* 1 lebanese cucumber (diced finely)
* almost a cup of mint leaves
* 2 spring onions
* 1/2 an avocado
* 1 tbs olive oil
* 2 tbs balsamic
* 1 tsp sugar

Method
* Start with pumpkin by tossing in olive oil and season with salt and pepper, place in moderately hot oven (200deg) to roast for about 45 mins
* After about half and hour turn the oven down to 170-180 so it is not too hot for the lamb
* With the lamb rack just trim it of any big obvious fatty bits, rub olive oil into it then season with salt and pepper.
* When the pumpkin is roasted and soft, take from oven but keep warm, before serving mash with fork and add a splash of cream if you need a bit more moisture, but you may not need anything.
* Place lamb in (now slightly cooler)oven, and you'll need to cook it for about half and hour for each 500g of meat to have it lovely and moist

Salsa-as I said was a bit of an experiment but lovely, and this is what I did
* Chopped cucumber finely, added finely chopped spring onion
* Stir through olive oil and balsamic (I have pretty good olive oil and divine balsamic and seriously think this is the most important thing for these kind of cold dishes)
* As I was chopping the mint I sprinkled a pinch of sugar over the leaves, then stirred them through the rest of the mixture (adding a leeeetle more sugar at the same time)
* The finely diced avocado was a bit of an after thought so that went in at the very end, but a fine addition

A surprise little bit of gourmet for a thursday night in the burbs. Easy and tasty, Enjoy!

It's a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll

When we were in Sweden, sometimes I craved a good old Aussie sausage roll. Not sure why really, but maybe it was the fact that the sausages, or 'korv' as they are known there were disappointing. Really.....so close to Germany but so far from wurst it was unbelievable. When I got back here, the craving was well and truly stifled, what with all the other great food to get back into, so I'm not sure that I have actually had a sausage roll until now. We all know the slight worry of what we might be consuming with store bought meaty products like sausage rolls and pies, so as I'm not that into pre-packaged/made/processed food and my herb garden is doing pretty well, I thought I'd give it a go myself and the results were pretty darn good. I did cheat a little this time with frozen puff pastry, but that is easily rectified and will be the next thing to try with this recipe.

Ingredients
300-400g beef (I had some cheapish steak)
1 egg
handful of breadcrumbs
7-8 sage leaves
5-6 sprigs of dried oregano (I had dried a bunch from the garden and just shook it into the mixture but fresh would be good too- just use more if it)
2 tbs parsley chopped
squirt of tomato sauce
1 egg whisked extra for basting
1 or 2 sheets of puff pastry

Method
* Preheat oven at about 180 degrees
* I have some beef left over from the day before so I put it in the food processor to mince
* Mix minced meat with chopped herbs, egg, breadcrumbs and tomato sauce
* Cut sheet of pastry into thirds then place meat mixture in a long sausage down the length of each third and roll up
* Brush top with egg and bake for about half an hour

Chickpea salad

This has proven to be a BBQ staple for me, as well as an easy meal to whip together when you have very little time but dinner guests so still need something which is semi presentable. There are so so many incarnations of it - this is one that I made last week for my firend Alex who lives in rural Laos and rarely gets western ingredients.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
2 small japanese eggplants, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced
5 roma tomotoes, diced
handful of green beans, cut into 3cm pieces
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed
100g feta cheese
4 gourmet sausages, any nice sounding variety, although I think chorizo is hard to beat here, chopped into 1 cm pieces
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Method

In a large saucepan or wok, fry onions in a good lug of olive oil until transparent. Add eggplant and fry until cooked. Add sausage and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until they collapse and are mushy. If the pan gets dry then add small amounts of water to moisten.

Add beans and cook for further 2 minutes. Add chickpeas, stir through. Take off heat. Add feta and red wine vinegar and mix through. Season with salt and pepper - it should have a little bite from the vinegar but it should not be overpowering. Add parsley, mix up and serve.

Variations

I have usually used the same onion, eggplant and tomato base but made many variations.

• Use brown lentils not chickpeas
• Add rocket or English spinach at at the end - just stir it through
  
• Vary the cheeses - a goat feta works well, as does ricotta
• If you have time, roast the tomatoes first for a stronger flavour

Noodle salad with duck

Things are how they should be in Asia, fresh seasonal produce is cheap and prepackaged foods are expensive. I bought all the ingredients for this dish at the local market for $3 (except the duck because at 37 degrees i was unsure about how safe this would be). Back home this salad would cost far more to make because for some reason the cost of wonderful fresh produce like herbs is ridiculous. That should not stop you making it though, cause its super yummy and fresh.

You could replace the duck with any kind of meat or with tofu. This is an adaption from a recipe for beef salad in the wonderful Vietnamese book Secrets of the Red Lantern.

Marinade for meat

1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed

For the salad

1 cucumber, sliced in half and then into 2mm slices
3 red eshallots, halved and then thinly sliced
2 long red chillis, juliened
1 handful of mint leaves
1 handful of asian basil leaves
1 handful of corriander leaves
2 spring onions, green part only, sliced into 2 cm batons
2 kaffir lime leaves thinly sliced (to do this roll them up with the stem in the middle and then cut thinly across the roll on either side of the stem)
1 tbsp roasted rice powder ( to make this dry roast rice in a frypan until golden brown and then pound in a morter and pestle)
2 tbsp fried eshallots (can make your own but its fiddlly or buy from the asian grocer)
100g dry vermicelli noodles
2 duck breasts

For the dressing

45g (1/3 cup) grated palm sugar (leave this out to warm to room temp before use)
4 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp soy sauce
1 cl garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sliced lemongrass, white only
1 small handful corriander leaves
2 tbsp olive oil

To prepare

Mix all marinade ingredients together and marinate duck, covered in the fridge for 2 hours. Turn duck every so often to ensure it marinates evenly.

Soak vermicelli noodles in hot water for at least 20 min, strain and dry with tea towel. Use kitchen scissors to cut into short lengths. Put into bowl with all other salad ingredients except peanuts and fried eshallots.

Mix all salad dressing ingredients in food processor (or very labour intensively with a morter and pestle). Cook duck either on BBQ or in frypan, skin side down first until it is cooked to your liking, about 10 min to ensure its not pink. Let it rest for 5 monutes and then finely slice each breat into 5mm thick slices. Add to the salad mix along with dressing and toss well. Add the peanuts and fried eshalots to the top and wahala, you have yourself a damm impressive tasty salad.

I'm back and snapping!

We've all had a lot of time off updating familypies, but I'm not going to offer up any personal excuses. But don't go away again for too long, we are back! All of us....promise

Ginger Snaps
A friend of mine, one particular supermum of two beautiful kids just let me know she is expecting number 3. Poor love has been feeling pretty unwell with it too, so I thought I'd try making some ginger snaps for her. For those of you who don't know ginger is supposed to be really good for pregnancy related nausea.



The recipe is a hybrid of a few found online

* 1 cup self-raising flour
* 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon mixed spice
* 1/4 cup rice flour
* 60 g butter
* 1/4 cup caster sugar
* 125 g golden syrup
Method
* Preheat the oven to 180°C.
* Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, ginger and spice into a bowl.
* Stir in the rice flour, rub in the butter and mix in the sugar.
* Warm the syrup and stir it in, then knead lightly in the bowl to form a smooth dough.
* Shape the dough into small walnut-size balls and space well apart on greased baking trays.
*Bake each batch for 10–12 minutes, or until they are golden.

sneaky brownies

i have been subscribing to this blog for a very long time. heidi swanson is an amazing cook, she has a wholefood approach and cooks with mostly natural ingredients. i came across this recipe when searching for gluten and wheat free baking recipes. i have been meaning to try it for a very long time....and now i wish i tried it a very long time ago..as it is amazing! i don't think i'll ever make brownies any other way..why bother? protein in a brownie? gzzeeesh????

black bean brownies

i found it hard to get agave nectar so i used an organic raw honey 1:1 -raw is much sweeter than processed honey and contains both fructose and sucrose, plus it still has its enzymes intact. although when heated some are destroyed.
i also used hazelnuts instead of walnuts....i just prefer a hazelnut in a brownie. the baking notes also suggested keeping these brownies in the refrigerator and to do so for several hours before slicing. i couldn't wait several hours so i stuck my in the freezer for about 30mins. i also substituted cocoa for coffee 1:1.
for kids and anytime these brownies are perfect but i did find for a brownie recipe the chocolate amount was quite modest... i would probably up this amount the next time i make these to 150 gms.
i soaked my beans overnight and cooked them in a large saucepan for 1.5hrs till i could smoosh them in between my fingers.

110gms unsweetened chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups soft-cooked black beans, drained well (hs: canned is fine)
1 cup walnuts, chopped *hazelnuts
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (granulated) natural coffee substitute (or instant coffee, for gluten-sensitive) *cocoa
¼ teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs
1½ cups light agave nectar *raw honey

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line an 11- by 18-inch (rimmed) baking pan (hs note: or jellyroll pan) with parchment paper and lightly oil.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over simmering water. Stir with a spoon to melt the chocolate completely. Place the beans, 1/2 cup of the nuts, the vanilla extract, and a couple of spoonfuls of the melted chocolate mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Blend about 2 minutes, [i at least did 5 mins] or until smooth. The batter should be thick and the beans smooth. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup nuts, remaining melted chocolate mixture, coffee [cocoa], and salt. Mix well and set aside. [next time i will omit the nuts and dot them into mixture when its in the baking pan]

In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer beat the eggs until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the agave nectar and beat well [approx. 7 mins till doubled in size and light and fluffly]. Set aside.

Add the bean/nut mixture to the coffee [cocoa]/chocolate mixture. Stir until blended well.

Add the egg mixture, reserving about 1/2 cup. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1/2 cup egg mixture until light and fluffy. Drizzle over the brownie batter. Use a wooden toothpick to pull the egg mixture through the batter, creating a marbled effect. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the brownies are set. Let cool in the pan completely before cutting into squares. (They will be soft until refrigerated.)

Makes 45 (2-inch) brownies.

photos will be posted soon.