Sorry I’ve been so absent folks – between work and taking care of my family, I’m so exhausted that I feel pretty drained of the will to live…UGH!

Okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the honest truth is that spare time to blog is a bit of a rare commodity at the moment, which is why it’s been so long since my last blog post.

This particular recipe is one of those that you can literally whip up from beginning to end in less than 30 minutes, thus making it absolutely perfect for my current busy schedule – the added bonus that it is wonderfully tasty just gives you another reason why you should give it a try!

So, with thanks to Nigella Lawson, I present you with her Strawberry Shortcakes

Strawberry Shortcakes
(adapted from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a domestic goddess‘)

Ingredients
325g AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
5 tbsp caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, frozen
1 large egg, beaten
125mL single cream

300g strawberries, sliced
1 tbsp caster sugar
250mL double cream

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C, and line a cookie tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and 3 tbsp of sugar in a bowl, then grate the butter into the same bowl and use your fingertips to rub it in till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Whisk the egg into the cream, then set aside 2-3 tbsp and pour the remaining mixture into the flour mixture while mixing with a fork till mostly combined into a scraggly dough. Tip out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and lightly knead to bring it together, then roll out to a thickness of 2-2.5cm (1 inch).

4. Using a floured 5-6.5cm round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place them on the baking sheet 2.5cm apart. Roll up the remaining dough and continue to cut out rounds – you should get roughly between 8-10.

5. Brush the tops with the reserved eggy cream mixture, then sprinkle the tops with the leftover caster sugar then bake for 10-15mins, or till almost doubled in height and golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and cool slightly on a wire rack.

6. These are best when warm, so whilst they are still warm, combine the sliced strawberries and caster sugar, crushing slightly to get a little juice running. Slice the shortcakes, top the bottom half with the strawberries, a dollop of lightly whipped cream, then top with the top half and plate up to enjoy

NOTE: These can get a little dry/firm once they cooled, but can be brought back to their original glory by warming slightly in the microwave Just be warned – if you heat them too much, they will become ridiculously crumbly…not that it makes them taste bad, but you’ll have to resort to mixing the crumbling

Technorati Tags: strawberry, Nigella Lawson, strawberry shortcake, recipe, sweets, baking

As most of you readers are well, my ethnic background is South Korean, and I’ve spent most of my life growing up here in Australia. What that means is that my cooking and eating habits are a strange mish-mash of cultures – for example, I eat kimchi with almost anything, and I find it difficult to eat rich foods without its clean, sharp, spicy acidity to cut through the richness. While I love a good barbeque, alongside the sausages, lamb chops and coleslaw are galbi (sweet soy marinated short ribs), bulgogi and a variety of Korean sides and sauces. However, despite being open to trying new foods and cuisines, one thing that I’m very unfamiliar with is the American palate, particularly the Southern and Tex-Mex stuff which I’ve had absolutely no exposure to.

Nachos, fajitas, burritos, tacos, chili, refried beans, biscuits and gravy, the list of things that are new or unknown to me could go on for quite awhile. Accepted, this stuff is not for everyday eating as much of it counts as hearty but hardly healthy fare, but it’s still stuff that I’m eager to find out about, along with other cuisines that I don’t know very well. So, when I was approached with an offer to have a cornbread cookbook ‘The Cornbread Gospels‘ sent out to me to review, I was both confused and pleased. Confused, because as a Korean-Australian lass, I knew pretty much nothing about cornbread as it was, but pleased because I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn about a foodstuff that seems to be very much an American obsession.

I was, I have to admit, just a little bit hesitant when I tore open the package that had flown halfway across the world to me. Being a bit of a cookbook junkie, my bookshelf boasts an impressive collection of big, bold books with glossy pages and mouthwatering pictures, so this small little paperback number with the odd clipart image seemed different to me. And then, of course, there was the name of the author to contend with – Crescent Dragonwagon. With a little apprehension and an equal amount of curiosity, I sat down with the book and a pen and paper to take notes and prepared to read my way from front to back of this little curiosity I had received.

Well, it took me two days to work through, but by the time I’d reached the end, I was eager as all heck to roll up my sleeves and get my cornbread mojo on! Crescent is a wonderful writer, and all the recipes come with little anecdotes or notes, and the whole book is peppered with quotes and facts about cornbread, its history and just why it’s such a well-loved part of mealtimes in the U.S. Wonderfully organized and easy to read, it spells out the differences between Southern and Northern styles of cornbread, as well as providing possible menu ideas to serve particular cornbread recipes as a part of, and even a chapter dedicated to ‘tried, tested and true’ cornbread accompaniments, which I found extremely helpful!

During the course of my reading, I had earmarked 10 recipes that I definitely wanted to try (as well as another 5 that were probables), and proceeded to slowly work my way through them, at one stage madly emailing all my friends in the area to come and take some free cornbread as I had just tried three recipes in one day and there was only so much cornbread that one could eat at a time! As I tried the recipes in the book, I began to develop a fondness for the stuff – the dense, crumbly texture, the almost unbelievable moistness, the heft and texture that was unlike anything I’d ever had before. Sweet, savoury, breads, muffins, pancakes – who would’ve thought that something as innocent as cornbread could encompass ever so much?This book, while humble in appearance, hides an absolute wealth of information and gave me quite an education into the world of cornbread! So, if you’re a cornbread fan or just curious about it and would like to get your hands on all the cornbread information and recipes you could possibly need, I highly recommend that you give Crescent Dragonwagon’s ‘The Cornbread Gospels‘ a try!

FOR MY AUSTRALIAN READERSHIP:

As part of my trying out recipes for this review, I had to order some white cornmeal from the US, an ingredient that I could not track down here by any means! So, I ordered a spare bag and so now I’m offering up a free 5lb (2.27kg) bag of white cornmeal which I am going to randomly give away – I’ll pay for postage to anywhere in Australia! All you have to do is leave a comment and say you’d like to be in the draw and let me know of your experiences with cornbread (a memory, an experiment, a favourite recipe, anything at all!), and I’ll be putting all the names of people entering the draw into a hat and drawing it next Sunday, the 22nd of March. The winner will be contacted by email so that I can grab their details to mail out their giant bag of white cornmeal!

Recipes:

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

Mary Baird’s Johnny Cake

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

Cresent Dragonwagon declares this to be the recipe that started it all, the staple cornbread that was the single most requested recipe during the time that she ran the Dairy Hollow House b&b. Having served it to a (former) president and a princess (Bill Clinton and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia), it seemed like a great recipe to start my journey into cornbread with – and I certainly wasn’t proven wrong! Dense, fluffy, moist and tender, it went marvelously when served with some hot chili, a dollop of (light) sour cream, some perfectly ripe avocadoes and a little diced onion! I’ve made this twice since the first time and each time I try it, it renews my love for this simple yet simply terrific breadstuff

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread
(from ‘The Cornbread Gospels‘ by Crescent Dragonwagon)

Ingredients
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup white all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal (finely ground polenta)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup mild vegetable oil
2 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and spray a 25cm (10″) cast iron skillet with oil and set it aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt into one bowl, and stir together the buttermilk and baking soda in a different bowl. Into the buttermilk, then whisk the sugar, egg and oil.

3. Put the oiled skillet over medium heat, add the butter and heat till it begins to sizzle, making sure to tilt the pan so you coat all the bottom and the sides.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together lightly and quickly till just combined. Scrape the batter into the skillet, then pop it into the preheated oven to bake for about 15-20 minutes, or till it’s golden. Once baked, remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before slicing into wedges to serve.

I didn’t have a cast-iron skillet, but I just used a pie tin which worked pretty darn well!

Technorati Tags: cornbread, dragonwagon, chili con carne, Southern food, recipes, savoury

Mary Baird’s Johnny Cake

One thing I tried to do when testing recipes from the cookbook was to keep it varied. After all, I wasn’t about to make multiple batches of the same sort of cornbread in a row, having quite a few to try, I knew that in order to try and avoid OD’ing in the stuff, I’d need to keep it mixed up between the sweet and savoury and ‘not strictly cornbread’ recipes. My favourite plain sweet cornbread from the book was easily this very simple recipe which came extremely highly recommended. The source of the recipe is a woman named Mary Baird and passed on by her daughter Brinna, who Crescent Dragonwagon states has a “pedigree (in baking) by both blood and marriage”.

This was the recipe that actually prompted my mother to remember and share an element of her childhood with me, a part that she had never told me before. I’ve mentioned before that my mother grew up on a farm in a rather rural area, far from the city smoke, and her fellow students were the mostly farmer’s children, from families who were anything but rich. For those of you who are unaware, South Korea, though it is a democracy, is also an ‘occupied’ country, having an extremely strong American presence all over the country and it has been so since the Korean war (which technically isn’t over). Anyway, as I pulled this out of the oven and its sweet buttery smell filled the kitchen, my mother followed her nose in and her eyes lit up when she saw what it was that I’d baked. Apparently, since her school and district had been rather poor, the local US base would give bags of cornmeal to the school kitchens to bake into cornbread to feed the students with, and a piece of this fresh out of the oven, spread with a little scraping of butter and a dollop of jam brought back old memories for her.

Though best when fresh, this is also marvellous when split in half and toasted and spread with butter and jam, to be enjoyed with a glass of ice-cold milk, enjoy it in a similar way (though it is quite different) to a sweet scone!

Mary Baird’s Johnny Cake
(From ‘The Cornbread Gospels‘ by Crescent Dragonwagon)

Ingredients
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup white all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal (finely ground polenta)
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2/3 tbsp butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 210 degrees C, and spray a square baking pain with oil and set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Break the eggs into a seperate bowl and whisk together well, then add the milk and melted butter and whisk till well-combined.

3. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients till just combined, then transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 min, or till golden brown.

4. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into squares, and serve warm with some butter and homemade jam!

Technorati Tags: cornbread, dragonwagon, chili con carne, Southern food, recipes, savoury

At the moment, I’m afraid that there hasn’t been any action on the romantic front, which means many long, lonely nights curled up in bed with a book and my dog, sighing wistfully as I imagine a dashing gent who’ll come along and sweep me off my…

HAH!

Sorry, couldn’t help myself I’m not much of a writer at the best of times, and when it comes to writing pseudo-romance chick lit, I’m about as useless as knees on a fish. However, I am ridiculously single at the moment which does mean that the only sort of dates I get are the dried fruit variety!

What’s the old saying? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade…well, in my case, I just used my dates in another homely, beautiful lot of scones!

My last documented dash into scone-land was with Belinda Jeffery’s buttermilk scones, and one of my readers who left a comment also highly praised Ms. Jeffery’s pumpkin scones as surpassing all overs! Well then! I had to see whether I agreed, so I added pumpkin to my shopping list (though butternut instead of jap) and made note to give them a try at the next available opportunity.

I have to say that while I like these just as much as the buttermilk scones (the latter being better for jam and cream combinations while the pumpkin really shouldn’t be paired with anything other than salted butter), the pumpkin scones have been FAR more popular with the family members. My mother and kid sister have been absolutely wolfing these down, and on every occasion, a batch of 12 scones has been reduced to nothing but crumbs in just a few days!

The pumpkin really is the key here – it provides lots of moisture to the mix and while it makes it quite difficult to knead and roll out your scones (all I do is mix with a wooden spoon till combined, then pat my dough together then dump it onto a well-floured bench and pat it it flat and into shape instead of even attempting to knead the dough), it also means that these scones stay soft and moist for days and are so full of flavour that there’s no jam or cream required. In fact, having tried them a few different ways, I can safely say that all these golden nuggests require is a little pat of salted butter and a mug of tea to help wash them down

Pumpkin & Date Scones

(from Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffery)

3 cups (450g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarb/baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
120g cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
200g chopped pitted dates (not medjool, they’re far too moist and sticky for this)
1 cup cold cooked mashed pumpkin (I used butternut)
3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, then very lightly dust it with flour and set aside.

2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking/bicab soda and salt into a large bowl and use a balloon whisk to whisk it together. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir together the buttermilk and cooked cold mashed pumpkin and set aside for now.

3. Add the dates to the bowl and toss them through to coat them in the flour mixture, then make a well in the centre of the bowl and pour in the pumpkin/buttermilk mix. Stir it together till barely combined, then tip it onto a well-floured chopping board and lightly knead till the mixture comes together (not till the batter is smooth – just till it holds together and doesn’t have any unmixed bits).

4. Pat the dough into a round about 4cm thick, then dip a scone cutter (or glass tumbler) into some flour and stamp out your scone shapes. Alternately, you can cut the round into triangular wedges or pat it into a cylinder and just cut off rounds.

5. Carefully sit the scones closely together on the baking tray, using up all your dough (press the scraps together rather than kneading them). Either dust the tops with flour or give them a milk or egg wash, then bake for 20 minutes or till cooked through and golden. Once they’re done, remove them from the oven and wrap in a clean tea towel for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool.

6. Serve whilst warm with some salted butter, or store in an airtight container for up to three days. Cold scones can be reheated in a microwave or toaster oven to make them warm and soft again.

Technorati Tags: pumpkins, dates, butternut, Belinda Jeffery, scones, biscuits, baking, recipe

Sorry for the lack of updates, folks, but my mother has been ill this week and consequently I’ve been kept busy running the household and taking care of the rest of my domestically-challenged family. Not to worry, there are posts in draft, just need the time, energy and mental capacity to blog them.

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I have a confession to make. The last time that I made sultana scones was actually the the one and only time that I’ve blogged them. Now don’t get me wrong – the recipe itself is a gem, and the resulting scones are marvellously polished, gorgeous golden mountains that frankly look like they belong in a hotel as part of a spread for a rather posh afternoon tea. While they had awakened a hidden desire of scones, the fact that you had to pre-soak the sultanas meant that you could hardly whip up a batch when you were in the mood for one, and by the time the sultanas were ready for the scone-making ritual the next day, the craving may have passed!

Not happy, Jan. Not happy.

While it is, in my opinion, still my scone recipe of choice, what I needed was to find a recipe that would give close to sensational results, a moist and tender crumb that still had some heft, and something that could be whipped up in a heartbeat. Whilst I do not have the world’s biggest cookbook collection, I have my fair share but I found that though many held scone recipes of their own, reading the recipes left me feeling decidedly dull and uninspired.

Since I’d made my new year’s resolution last year had been not to buy any new cookbooks, I was stuck with the internet as being my only source of new inspiration (which isn’t so bad, considering the sheer excess of food blogs that there are), however, while I kept my eyes open, I just didn’t spot anyone doing a nice simple sultana scone recipe. Why is that? What have you lot got against sultana scones?!?

Anyway, my brother, bless his cotton socks, had read about this resolution on the blog (hi Martin!), so what did he get me for Christmas? Why, a couple of cookbooks that I just happened to have my eye on! How awesome is that?

One of the cookbooks he got me was a wonderful little marvel by an Australian lady by the name of Belinda Jeffery called ‘Mix & Bake‘ and has very quickly become one of my favourite baking books. Full of uncomplicated, easy-to-follow recipes, from beginning to end it’s an absolute gem and, in my humble opinion, it’s a darn shame that Ms. Jeffrey isn’t better known as I consider this to be far superior to all of my Donna Hay cookbooks.

There is a whole chapter in this book dedicated to sweet scones, and I drooled over each recipe before finally deciding on these marvellous fluffy buttermilk scones, which are perfectly marvellous in every way, and wonderfully homely and comforting, especially with some homemade jam and freshly whipped cream!

Fluffy Buttermilk Scones
(from Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffery)

Ingredients (makes 10)
1 cup/150g self-raising flour
1 cup/160g wholemeal self-raising flour (or wholemeal AP flour + 2 tsp baking powder)
2 tbsp/25g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
80g cold unsalted butter, diced
100g natural sultanas (or chopped dried dates or other similar dried fruit)
1 cup/250mL buttermilk

To make a vegan version of these scones, you can use margarine instead of the butter, and make a buttermilk substitute by mixing together 1 cup soymilk with 1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice and allowing to sit for 5 minutes before using.

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and line a baking tray with some baking paper, then liberally dust with flour and set aside.

2. Sift together all the dry ingredients (both flours, sugar and salt), then rub in the cold butter with your fingertips till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the dried fruit and toss well so it’s well coated.

3. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture, then pour in the buttermilk and quickly stir together till it holds together, then tip onto a floured chopping board and knead till just combined. Pat the dough about 4-5cm flat, then dip a round cutter into some flour and stamp out the scones, carefully placing the scones closely together on the prepared baking tray.

4. Lightly dust the tops with flour, then bake for 20 minutes, or till the scones are golden and sound hollow when lightly tapped on the top. Remove the tray from the oven and tightly wrap a clean tea towel around it for 5 minutes before serving with some homemade strawberry jam and freshly whipped cream!

Technorati Tags: scones, Belinda Jeffrey, sultanas, raisins, quickbreads, biscuits

Now tell me that this picture doesn’t make you hungry. I dare ya. Ethereally light and moist ricotta pancakes resting ever so gently on a pile of fresh, sweet, ruby-red strawberries, dusted in a generous helping of powdered sugar.

Here, want a napkin to wipe up that drool?

Now, if you’re even the slightest bit familiar with Aussie chef and toothpaste icon Bill Granger¹, you’ll know that his ricotta pancakes are famed for being the breakfast/brunch food of choice, and as a result most folks who visit any of his cafes in Sydney end up ordering them and joining the list of converts. Unfortunately, the last time I made it to Sydney quite some years ago, I was unaware of who exactly Bill was and thus didn’t seek the chance to try them out – something I regret quite a bit now (mostly because I would rather have every teeth pulled than willingly go back to Sydney – I tell you, the town planners were on crack cocaine when they designed that city) as I don’t see myself visiting the area again anytime in the near future.

However, thankfully all is not lost, and continue reading to find out why…

Recently, I have been lucky enough to have an independant grocery store open in my area (YEAH! F*CK YOU, COLES!), and whilst its small and no frills, they’re doing things that I highly approve of – such as training their staff to keep a careful on on the produce (there is a staff member manning every section and constantly checking over all the fruit/veg/meats/chiller cabinet goods, removing anything that is no longer fit to be there and keeping the shelves stocked with a minimal amount of produce – enough so that you have choice, but not so much that everything risks going off), and using 100% biodegradable plastic bags. The flip side of this is that the store is extremely bare bones and has no kind of print advertising, though frankly I think of this as another bonus as they’re producing less waste this way

Anyway, back to the story…

So, I was browsing the grocery store the other day when I noticed that there was some extremely loud commentary going on somewhere in the store. At first I thought that someone had just turned up a tv WAY too loud, I scanned the store to spot a little figure in the corner who appeared to be in the midst of cooking and waving his arms around. As it turned out, it was an Australian/French chef by the name of Gabriel Gaté who happened to be giving an in-store presentation. Now, while I know OF him, I don’t actually know much about him, so I decided to take a closer look, being very careful to look very intensly at the various product aisles that I was passing so that I wouldn’t look like I was making an actual beeline in his direction. Deciding that the dairy chiller was about as far as I wanted to go, I parked my trolley and cast a lazy eye over the goods on display while keeping one ear in Gabriel’s direction to listen to what he was saying.

Something about garlic…and Greek cooking…ahh, poor bastard, he may be a good chef but he’s pretty darn uncharismatic and not much good at getting an audiences attention.

Anyway, having lost interest in the cooking demo, I began to look over the goods in front of me in earnest when I spotted a tub of ricotta right in front of my face. Hmmm…I’d never cooked with ricotta before, but they suddenly reminded me of Bill’s pancakes, so I took ‘em off the shelf with the intention of trying them the next day.

And the verdict?

Fluffy? Obscenely so.

Light? As a cloud.

Moist? Almost TOO moist.

Would I make them again?

Ahh, now there’s the sticking point. You see, to me pancake breakfasts are all about lazy mornings, kicking back with a well brewed pot of tea, taking your time and slowly moving about. Since this recipe requires the beating of egg whites to firm peaks, this meant waking up the household on a Saturday morning at 8am – something that wasn’t entirely appreciate. Of course, the pancakes did make up for it, but the complaints I got before they sat down to enjoy the pancakes kinda killed that thrill. So yes, I would make them again, but perhaps only for a brunch or special occasion. Otherwise, my 5-minute pikelets will more than suffice for a regular pancake indulgence…

Bill Granger’s Ricotta Pancakes

Ingredients

For the honeycomb butter
250g/8¾oz unsalted butter, softened
100g/3½oz sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin (you can use a Crunchie bar for this)
2 tbsp honey

For the hotcakes
225g/8oz ricotta
170ml/6fl oz milk
4 eggs, separated
140g/5oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch salt
50g/1½oz butter
To serve
banana or strawberries
icing sugar for dusting

1. Make the honeycomb butter first. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on clingfilm, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for two hours.

2. Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.

3. Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

4. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop two tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (don’t cook more than three per batch).

5. Cook over low to medium heat for two minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.

6. Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients.

7. Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack three hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar. You can use strawberries in place of the banana.

Technorati Tags: Bill Granger, pancakes, strawberries, breakfast, brunch, recipes, dessert

1 – Bill Granger has an insanely white and picture-perfect smile, and was featured in a commercial for Macleans toothpaste earlier this year…I looked for a video on youtube but alas, nothing can be found

• Thanh at I Eat Therefore I Am
• Trish from TeaLilyPhotography