I absolutely adore almost anything that comes from the sea (with the exception of jellyfish - I just can’t get my head around it!), and this love is particularly strong when it comes to anything that resides in a shell. Crayfish, bugs (also known as slipper/shovelnose lobsters), crabs, prawns, pipis - they’re all marvellous, but one shell-residing critter that I adore but seem to rarely enjoy is the mussel.
At the markets earlier last week, I was meandering around the fish vendors when I spotted a tall water fountain-like box filled to the brim with these live beauties and I couldn’t help but wander over. Their gleaming black shells looked so beautiful under the rippling water that without any further hesitation, I nabbed a half-kilo and trundled off to pay, eager to get back home quickly and cook them up for my lunch.
Getting them home, I have to admit that I was a little stumped as to what to do with them (here’s a confession for you, I’d never actually cooked a mussel dish before! I’d used them as part of spicy seafood stews, but never used them for a dish that allowed them to shine in their simple glory!). A few hours at the markets meant that by the time I got home I was quite peckish, so I needed something that was quick and easy, so after perusing the internet for awhile, I decided on a simple poaching for my babies.
The recipe is much sparser than any other poached mussel recipes that I’ve seen on the net, but if you’re looking for a simple preparation that will take these babies from sink to plate in less than 10 minutes, give this a try 
Simple Poached Mussels
Ingredients
500g fresh, live mussels
1 cup light white wine (my current tipple is the Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc)
1 long red chilli, thinly sliced on a bias
2 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, diced (I thought I had onion when starting prep…but I didn’t. Boo)
3 black peppercorns
1 tbsp salted butter
Lemons and coriander, to serve
1. Clean those mussels - scrub and debeard them and discard any that appear dead and/or have cracked shells (mussels very quickly become toxic once they die)
2. Heat the butter in a large pot over medium heat and once it has melted, add the chilli, garlic, onion and peppercorns. Fry till the garlic and chilli have softened, then add the wine and bring to a boil. Allow to boil till the liquid has reduced by almost half, then toss in the thoroughly cleaned mussels and put on a tightly fitting lid and allow to boil for 4-5 minutes.
3. Once time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid of the pot. Remove the cooked and open mussels and plate up, then strain the poaching liquid over the top. Serve with wedges of lemon to freshen the flavour, and chopped coriander for a little colour
Technorati Tags: mussels, seafood, poached, savoury, recipes
When I saw all the posts popping up for the ‘A Taste of Yellow” event, all sorts of thoughts entered my head as I began planning a sweet creation. Slowly, an image formed in my mind…a striped joconde, encasing layers of honeyed jelly and a banana bavarian cream, and the Livestrong wristband proudly encasing my towering sweet. And then I figured - why stop there? Why not plan an entire 3 course meal of yellowy goodness? A shot of intense sweetcorn soup with some chili coriander corn as sides to stuffed squash, followed by my beautiful honey & banana dessert!
*sad sigh*
Without going into detail, let me just say properly planning these sorts of things has never been my forte. The corn that I boiled up for the soup was devoured by my mother and brother (entirely my fault as I forgot to account for their eating of my ingredients - something I usually do!), and the dessert…
*sobs*
It looked fine. It looked beautiful, in fact. And then I had to transfer it out of the springform tin onto a plate for photographing.
And then it didn’t look so beautiful anymore. The slightly dry (overbaked) joconde refused to stay together at the seam and pulled apart, splitting my beautiful dessert straight down the middle to expose its insides which threatened to begin a little bit of a droopy journey out of their cakey skin.
This post should probably have some heart-touching story about how cancer has touched my life or the life of someone that I know (instead of the trivial brain-farts I’ve spewed forth so far), but the fact of the matter is that I’ve never had it’s deadly tendrils touch the life of my family or anyone that I know - something I’m very grateful for. However, should the unfortunate occur, it’s reassuring to know that there are others out there already fighting for an answer, a solution, a cure.
While the deadline for Barbara’s photo competition is today, you still have till the 27th of April to get entries in for the ‘Livestrong - A Taste of Yellow‘ event so if you haven’t done so already, get cracking!
Stuffed Scalloped Squash
Ingredients
5 small, firm scalloped squash
1/2 green capsicum/bell pepper, roasted, skinned and diced
Kernels from 1 ear of cooked corn
1 spicy Italian-seasoned sausage, deskinned
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese (go for something quite sharp in flavour)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and boil the squash till they are firm but the flesh is easily pierced with a knife (approx 15 minutes).
2. Allow to slightly cool, then cut off the tops and scoop out and discard the seeds. Scoop out the flesh, and put into a bowl. Add the capsicum, corn kernels and sausage to bowl and mix together, shredding the sausage meat with your hands.
3. Add the sausage mix to a preheated frying pan and cook till the sausage is done, then remove from the pan and stir in the cheese, salt and pepper. Stuff the hollowed squash with this filling, then place them into cupcake liners (to keep them upright) in a muffin tray, then bake for about 20-25 minutes, or till the squash are tender and golden brown.
4. Serve warm as finger food or with a salad or pasta for a meal.
Chilli Coriander Corn
Ingredients
40g unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 ears of fresh sweetcorn, cut into 2″ (5cm) lengths
1. Boil the corn cobs till the kernels are cooked, then drain.
2. Melt the butter, then stir in the chilli powder and coriander leaves. Give it a taste and adjust seasonings to suit you, then add a little salt and pepper to taste and stir through.
3. Use a pastry brush to brush each corn cob with the spiced butter mix, and serve straight away whilst still warm.
Technorati Tags: Livestrong, A Taste of Yellow, corn, squash, recipes
To celebrate the blog turning 2 years old (and because I ‘broke’ the last design while upgrading), I’ve redesigned the thing from scratch (in the hopes of making it PDA/iPhone friendly) but am still working out the kinks - if you spot any problems with the site or would like to offer feedback about the design, please feel free do so in the comments
Well damnit, apparently this blog is now officially two years old! See, people don’t believe me when I tell them that I almost forgot my actual birthday last year, perhaps now they’ll see that I really am that forgetful!
I just want to say thank you to my readers - I know a lot of you have been with me from the earliest days, through my many design changes, rants and tantrums. Your comments and emails help me stay motivated and keep this blog going, despite how tired and uninspired I may feel So, thank you for reading Now, onto the post!
That about says it all, doesn’t it? Though I’ve never had the chance to visit the Magnolia bakery, after this video clip became famous a few years back, it helped spread the word about the cupcake awesomeness around the world, even reaching us down here in Australia!
However, that wasn’t quite enough endorsement for me…to be honest, it took me awhile to actually find out that Magnolia was a real bakery and not something just made up for the sketch. It wasn’t till my friend presented me with a box of three little, rainbow frosted cupcakes a few years back. I took an initial bite and recoiled at the sheer sweetness of the frosting, but once I scraped it off and managed to just taste the cupcake, I’d fallen in love!
In the early days of this blog, I professed something to my then tiny readership - an intense fear of cupcakes. After a few forays into the world of these cutesy miniatures, I managed to lessen the fear, but I’m afraid that true love was yet to blossom. After encountering these cupcakes, I knew that it really was love - pure, sweet (how sweet!) and true, these cupcakes took my breath away and stole my heart!
In terms of flavour, they’re nothing spectacular - just plain vanilla cupcakes topped with lemon buttercream frosting (the original was vanilla and too sweet for my liking), but they are insanely moist and have a beautiful tender crumb. Once paired with a pastel-tinted frosting, the end product is just almost too adorable to eat
And if that wasn’t enough temptation, how about the fact that they’re extremely easy to churn out? In fact, I made 75 of these suckers on Friday night for a seminar without breaking a sweat, and reports back from the seminar was that the attendees wolfed them down to the very last crumbs Not that I think you should make 75 of them, but make one batch and share the Magnolia Bakery cupcake love
Vanilla Cupcakes w/ Lemon Buttercream
(Adapted from More From Magnolia)
Ingredients (makes approximately 24 cupcakes)
225g cups self-rising flour
190g cups all-purpose flour
225g unsalted butter, softened
360g caster sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. Sift the flours together in a small bowl and set aside. Measure out the milk into a cup and stir in the vanilla and also set aside for now.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the flour in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat (this will make them very tough, I speak from experience!). Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.
5. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
6. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing with Magnolia’s buttercream frosting.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
(Adapted from More From Magnolia)
Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups pure icing sugar*
4-6 cups soft icing mixture*
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp lemon juice (original called for 2 tsp vanilla extract)
8 cups of pure icing sugar (confectioners sugar) is a LOT of sugar, and the first time I made this frosting as is, it literally made my teeth ache in a most unpleasant fashion. Soft icing mixture is just pure icing sugar cut with a starch (mine is cut with tapioca starch), which helps to add bulk and a little firmness without so much of the sweetness, so I used it in my frosting (as this recipe does not make a ‘true’ buttercream) with great reported success!
If you want to make the magnolia recipe, use the vanilla and 6-8 cups of pure icing sugar - but be warned about the tooth-achey sweetness and sugar rush!
1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the 2 cups of pure icing sugar and 2 cups of soft icing mixture and then the milk and lemon juice. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.
2. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency.
You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Undressed and ready for the eatin’!
Technorati Tags: Magnolia bakery, recipe, baking, sweets, desserts, cupcakes
*listens to the sound of some very lonely crickets*
Hmph! Fine then!
Being very much single 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
People who have tried this recipe:
- Pammie from Tomato Preserve
A long time promised - and finally here it is! Our recipe for japchae, a magnificently multi-coloured noodle salad dish that is a must-have on any celebratory table. Though, like many Korean recipes, it is quite time-consuming, this extremely fragrant and flavoursome dish is well worth the time and effort it requires, and is guaranteed to evoke raptures from your dinner guests twice - once for it’s aesthetic beauty, and again for the myriad of textures and flavours it combines.
This dish is one that I can remember as being part of my life as far back as I can remember - made in large batches as part of any celebratory feast, it was either served on its own, on the side as just one of the many banchan (side dishes) or atop a bowl of steaming hot rice to form a meal called japchae bap (mixed noodles [on] rice). The sweet potato starch noodles (dangmyun) that provide the element of this dish which holds it together also make it quite healthy, being low-GI, and combined with the other components, it makes for quite a satisfying dish.
Ingredients
1pk/340g dangmyun/sweet potato starch noodles
2 medium brown onion, thinly sliced
8 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in boiling water
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in half, then cut into thin strips
120g spinach, roots cut off and rinsed twice to remove all dirt and grit
15g dried cloud-ear fungus (also sold as wood-ear fungus), rehydrated in boiling water
150g lean pork, thinly sliced
1/2 green capsicum (bell pepper) - cored and thinly sliced *optional
1/2 red capsicum (bell pepper) - cored and thinly sliced *optional
Pork marinade
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Noodle dressing
6 tbsp light soy sauce
4 tbsp caster sugar
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
*NOTE: To make a vegetarian/vegan alternative, replace the pork with firm tofu which has been drained/pressed and sliced into thin strips. Pan fry the strips in a little oil till they are firm and brown, then mix them through with the pork marinade and set aside till step 5.
1. Mix together the pork marinade and massage into the pork, then set aside to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil, then blanch the spinach for 1-2 minutes before quickly removing and refreshing in ice water (this helps them regain their bright verdant colour), then setting in a large strainer to drain.
2. Remove the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms from the boiling water and drain, then use your hands to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Cut out the woody stems then slice into thin strips and set aside. Drain the rehydrated cloud-ear fungus and then once again use your hands to squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then add to the shiitake mushrooms put aside.
3. Heat a little light/mild olive oil in a frying pan, then add the strips of carrot and stir-fry till barely cooked - they should have a bit of tenderness but retain a kernel of crunch in the centre. Remove the carrot, then add the marinated pork to the pan and fry till browned and cooked through. Set aside.
4. Set another large pot of water to boil and cook the sweet potato starch noodles till al dente, then rinse in hot water and drain (unusual, but I find that rinsing them in cold water makes them take on a lot of moisture). While the noodles are draining, chop the blanched spinach into smaller pieces then use your hands to squeeze out as much moisture as possible - make sure to work in small batches as you’ll be able to squeeze out more water that way.
5. Get a large mixing bowl, then add the drained noodles and all the other ingredients. Mix together the noodle dressing then pour it over the bowl and use your hands to lightly yet thoroughly toss it through. Once is has been well mixed together, give it a taste - if it tastes too sweet for you, add another tbsp of light soy sauce, and if you find it too salty, add another tsp of caster sugar.
6. Serve warm, over rice or as a banchan/side dish.
Technorati Tags: japchae, Korean food, recipes, Asian, noodles, savoury, salad
