Okay, before I forget, I have to document this sauce. Originally invented by A’s grandmother, it was perfected by his step-dad to the version which exists today.
Believe me when I say this sauce will beat ANYTHING you can buy on a shelf. Sure, it’s tedious and time-consuming, but when you pour it over a lamb chop, my god you’ll realise it was all worth it.
Ingredients
4.5 kg tomatos, blanched, skinned and quartered
1 kg apples, cored, skinned and diced
14g garlic
7g black pepper
7g cayenne pepper
7g allspice
14g cloves
1 cup water
500ml vinegar
650g sugar
1. Boil together water, apples, tomatos, garlic, cayenne pepper, black pepper, allspice and cloves for 2 hours, then use a stick blenter to blend ingredients till smooth.
2. Once smooth, add vinegar and sugar, and leave till it starts to boil, stirring occasionally.
This makes about 3-4 lemonade bottles worth of sauce, make sure that you sterilise the bottles otherwise it won’t keep as long as you’d like!
How to sterilise bottles
This method can be used to sterilise any glass container to be used to keep food not in the refrigerator. Bear in mind that once they’ve been opened, shelf live will drastically drop.
1. Wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water, then rinse in hot water
2. Put into a stockpot of boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain upside-down on a clean tea-towel, then dry thoroughly in an oven set at 150 degrees C (302 degrees F)
3. Remove jars from the oven one by one, filling them as you remove them. Make sure you don’t have any air holes when filling them, as they could host pockets of bacterial growth.
4. Place the lid on and leave them in a cool place (not fridge!) overnight to cool.
Technorati Tags: sterilising bottles, sauces, tomatos, apples
I spoke to my supervisor for my Media Project at uni today, and she has said that this blog (along with other documentation which I won’t go into here) will qualify as my project?
You know what this means, right?
It means I can say that cooking is my STUDY! HAH! I may never make it to Le Cordon Bleu (AUD $7000 for a beginner’s pastry course? In my dreams!), so I’ll take what I can get 
In celebration, there was more baking to be had tonight, albeit a quick and easy recipe as I’m a bit wiped…these cookies are crisp, crunchy, and very much for a person with a bit of a sweet tooth.
By the way, if you’re reading this, HI LISA 
Honey & Macadamia Cookies
(warning – these are decadant, and equally as dangerous for the waistline!)
Ingredients
125g melted butter
2 tbsp honey
55g caster sugar
1 heaped tsp bicarb soda
50g cup shredded coconut (not dessicated, you need the texture of shredded)
185g plain flour
35g finely chopped unsalted macadamias
Demerara or Coffee sugar (they’re both large grained sugars, I prefer the flavour of demerara, but the coffee sugar crystals look a lot more impressive!)
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Beat melted butter, honey, caster sugar and bicarb soda till smooth. Stir in sifted flour, coconut and macadamia nuts.
3. Roll rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls, press one side into the sugar granules then place the rounds 4cm apart on a lined baking tray, flattening them slightly.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes, or till they have lightly browned on top. Remove tray from the oven and stand for about 5 minutes before lifting them onto wire racks to cool.
This quantity will make about 20-25 deliciously decadant, crisp and crunchy cookies.
And what was my kitchen-hand doing whilst I was making these golden lovelies?
“Maybe if I look pretty, I’ll get some cookie dough?”
“Pretty please?”
Technorati Tags: honey, macadamia, cookies, baking, dogs, golden retrievers, photos
So, there is a special someone that I need to impress with bakery/cookery prowess tomorrow. No, not the boyfriend as I’m not seeing him till majority of my assignments have been handed in as I don’t have the time for a social life right now. Sigh.
At any rate, I got home at 7:30pm, soggy from the rain and more than a little frostbitten from the bone-chilling winds. The day at work was killer, as though I’m now only working 2 days a week, working on the production team for a publishing company means that you are always busy.
Always.
Despite all this, I had a plan in mind. A plan to bake some scrumptious tidbits that were easy and not too time-consuming, which would also fill the house with warm, comforting smells. The only problem was that I couldn’t decide WHICH scrumptious tidbits would be made! Muffins? Cookies? Biscotti? Mini cakes?
Then the ghost of Marcel Proust came flying out of the sky and hit me on the head with a madeline tray. No, really. Hey, it’s my imagination, I can imagine whatever I please! If my sleep-deprived mind wants to tell me that Proust dropped the madeline tray on my head, then I have every right to believe it.
A-ha-ha, yeaaaaaaaaah.
This recipe is based on one by Aussie chef Shannon Bennett, arguably one of Australia’s most skilled chefs in the art of French cuisine.
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
3 large-ish eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp vanilla essence
Extra butter and flour for brushing and dusting madeline tins
1. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till pale. Add the eggs and beat till combined. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles, it has absolutely no effect on how this recipe turns out.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into the wet mixture, then beat at a low speed till mixture is well combined. Mix in the lemon zest, juice and vanilla. Place mixture in the refrigerator till it is chilled.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and brush the madeline tins with butter and dust with flour.
4. Remover batter from the fridge and drop teaspoonfuls into each mould – don’t worry about smoothing it out or making sure it covers all the indents, as it bakes it will rise and fill out on it’s own.
5. Place in the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, till the tops (flat sides facing up) are golden and the edges have slightly browned. Remove from the oven, tap them out of their moulds and place them on a rack to cool.
6. Serve dusted with icing sugar and a good coffee (or tea, in my case!)
Depending on the size of your teaspoon and the size of your moulds, this will make roughly 25 – 30 little madelines. If you prefer yours softer and without the crunchy, caramelized edge then take them out of the oven a little earlier than what I’ve put (probably around the 5 minute mark rather than 10).
Also, this is a really basic batter – if you want to make a variety of flavours, then go for it! You can add instant coffee powder dissolved in hot water, cocoa powder or melted chocolate, honey, concentrated orange juice, or even rosewater (as Nigella did for her ‘Rosewater madelines’ in “How to be a domestic goddess”).
I had no lemons in the house so I added 1/2 cup pulpy orange juice instead, and since that made the batter very watery, I also added 1/2 cup self-raising flour to bring it back to the right consistancy. They turned out fine, but the orange flavour is disappointingly weak. Next time I’ll try it with orange syrup or concentrated orange juice and see how I go.
Got home from uni at 1pm and was starved, so I wanted something warm, comforting and filling. Not including time taken to prepare the chicken (I am a chicken nazi – I’m terrified of the fat in the skin so will painstakingly sit and remove every piece of skin and fat from the chicken pieces, and since I was using boned chicken thighs, there was quite a bit!), it takes about 10-15 minutes to make.
Sweet and sour chicken on purple rice
Ingredients
1kg skinless, boneless chicken meat, cut into small, bite sized pieces
1/2 cup thinly sliced green capsicum (bell pepper)
1/2 cup thinly sliced red capsicum (bell pepper)
1 cup carrot strips
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup snow peas
1/4 cup soy sauce (a little less than 1/4 otherwise it could be a bit too salty)
1 small tin of diced pineapple (about 250g/8 oz)
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1. Sautee chicken, garlic and ginger till the chicken is browned. Make sure you do this on a high heat, a low heat will cook the chicken too early, making it lose all it’s juices and it will be dry and tough by the end of the cooking process.
2. Add capsicum, carrot and snow peas, stir fry for 1-2 minutes then remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl, combine corn starch, soy sauce, pineapple juice and pieces, vinegar and sugar. Put the chicken back onto a medium heat, pour the sauce over the top and stir through, bringing it to a full boil. Leave to boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
Purple rice is just a mix of regular white rice (jasmine or calrose, you choose) and black rice. We use a 5:1 ratio of calrose to black, and the colour is amazingly vibrant. The black rice is a lot chewier and helps to add more texture to the fluffiness of the calrose.
You’ll notice no red or green in my chicken – that’s because I was so taken with the colour of the yellow and orange capsicums that I decided to substitute those instead. They’re a lot milder in flavour, but I think I’ll go for red and green next time, as I think a dish as strongly flavoured as this needs a more prominant capsicum flavour. I also forgot to throw the snow peas in whist cooking, so I munched on them raw yumyum!
Technorati Tags: chicken, capsicum, snow peas, black rice
I’ve been furiously trying to finish a research assignment for class these last few days, but don’t seem to be having much luck. During one of my hair-pulling sessions this evening, mom ‘politely’ pointed out that we had 4 bananas which had gone squishy and black skinned. In short, they were close to dying a smoodgy death unless they were used tonight or tomorrow…so I reached for the Family Circle ‘Classic Essential Cakes’ book which has been around since my childhood and whipped up this ridiculously easy banana cake… which incidently requires 4 ripe medium bananas! HAH!
Ingredients
125g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 cup milk
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line springform round cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat together butter and sugar. Add eggs gradually, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla essence and mashed bananas, beat till combined.
3. Dissolve bicarb soda in milk, and using a metal spoon, fold in sifted flour alternately with milk. Stir till ingredients are just combined, then spoon into cake tin. Bake for 50-60mins, or till a skewer comes out almost clean (just a couple of moist crumbs sticking to it)
…and that is it! Enjoy!
Things to consider:
While this cake is really yummy, I think I might add some walnuts next time as I love the crunchiness they provide in cakes – great contrast to the fluffiness.
