Swedish Meatballs – Cooking Class 5

May 8th, 2009

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I’m not sure of the reasons behind Swedish meatballs being chosen for the fifth cooking class… but I’m glad it was! Having never had Swedish meatballs before, I can’t comment on the authenticity of the flavours, but I was very happy with these flavoursome, slightly creamy, very more-ish meatballs. So much so that I did… lick the plate 🙂 .

This is a definite dish to try and can be modified to what you’ve got in the fridge or freezer, the original recipe was modified to include both pork and beef mince as I was told many of the Swedish meatball recipes on the internet varied between different minces and different ingredients. Our meatballs were served with mashed potato and honeyed caramelised onions in kumara (sweet potato) mash, although serve with what you desire, salad, rice or steamed vegetables.

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Swedish Meatballs
Recipe from Taste.com.au

Serves: 4

1/2 cup (45g) breadcrumbs
1/4 cup (60ml) cream
500g Heart Smart beef mince (or 350g beef mince + 150g pork mice)
1 small onion, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
3/4 cup (185ml) beef stock
1 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 cup (125ml) cream, extra
Mixed salad leaves and crusty bread, to serve

Soak breadcrumbs in the cream. Add the mince, onion, garlic, allspice, egg and salt. Season with pepper. With wetted hands, shape mixture into small balls.

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Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. In batches, cook meatballs until brown. Drain excess oil.

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Return all meatballs to the pan and add the stock. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs and cover with foil to keep warm.

Combine the cornflour with a little water and stir into the stock mixture. Heat through until boiling. Reduce heat to low. Add extra cream and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour sauce over meatballs and serve with salad leaves and crusty bread – or serve with mashed potato and veggies, as we did.

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Posted in Cooking Class - Family, Main Meals, Recipes | 11 Comments »

Dukkah

May 6th, 2009

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I am becoming quite adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, although a few years ago I wasn’t the most adventurous eater. Nick and I were out for a lovely dinner out on Sydney Harbour. At the beginning of the menu, for either sides or starters was dukkah served with oil olive and bread. I couldn’t pronounce the name of the dish on the menu and just read the description, which was something like an Egyptian nut and spice mix.

So, taking the plunge I decided, lets order that! Nick, with a surprised look on his face due to my decision at trying something quite ‘random’ at the time, was a little hesitant to order it in case I didn’t like it – but I continued to express my interest in it, so we ordered it.

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… and what a great decision. Once we had dunked a bit of bread into the oil and then into the dukkah, the taste was amazing. We couldn’t stop eating the relatively small helping we were served. Although as we ate, we tried (and when I say we, I mainly mean Nick, as he is better at distinguishing tastes) to determine what flavours, nuts and spices were included in this mix – as this was a definite dish to try at home.

I searched the internet quite soon after (probably the next day) to try and find a recipe that matched closely to the flavours we detected. We found a fantastic recipe and then a few months to a year later saw dukkah becoming increasingly more popular and sold at all supermarkets, although mind you, at supermarkets it is quite overpriced.

I still have yet to try the many different flavours you’re able to use while making dukkah, so hopefully in the near future I can trial out a few more recipes. (I just find it difficult to move away from a recipe that I already know I love).

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Dukkah
Recipe from Recipezaar

1 cup of shelled pistachio nuts
1 cup blanched almonds
1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ cup sesame seeds
¼ teaspoon salt

Toast the pistachio nuts and almonds in a hot oven for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Toast the spice seeds and sesame seeds separately in the same way.

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Cool and combine with the remaining ingredients in a food processor. Grind the mixture until it resembles small breadcrumbs. The mixture should be very dry and crumbly, not a paste.

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Be careful as over processing can release the oil from the nuts making the mixture moist, which you don’t want.

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This can be made a few days in advance and stored in an airtight container. Serve with hot bread rolls and olive oil.

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Posted in Appetizers, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian | 11 Comments »

Cannelloni and Quick Cannoli – Cooking Class 4

May 4th, 2009

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It’s my turn for our family cooking class!!! And the “theme” is TUBES 🙂

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I wanted to make both a main meal and dessert and what better than Cannelloni and Cannoli? I knew I wanted to make spinach and ricotta cannelloni, so that was an easy choice. When it came to the Cannoli (which I have never even tried before, let alone made before) I wasn’t organised enough to find somewhere that actually stocked cannoli tubes or forms (metal tubes used to stick the pastry together, which is then placed with the pastry into hot oil). I searched the internet and called stores around Sydney City and there was nothing to be found! Essential Ingredient said they normally stock them, but unfortunately they were out of stock too! (Not that I had much time to go and get them anyway). Guess I will put this on my birthday or Christmas list – along with a pastry bag, sugar thermometer and some new cookbooks 🙂 .

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So I guess the quick version will of cannoli will have to do and I bought some pre-made brandy snap tubes. I’ve seen the majority of recipes using ricotta, although the pack suggested using whipped cream, so seeing as it was already not exactly what I wanted to make, I went with the cream version.

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The spinach and ricotta cannelloni turned out lovely, with the tomato sauce a MUST! (even more could have been made). The cannoli was beautifully tasty, with sweet vanilla cream, chocolate and pistachios.

Cannelloni

Serves: 8-12

2 packets lasagne sheets (16 sheets altogether)
1.8kg ricotta
3 packets finely chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
½ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
parsley
basil
salt and pepper
2 cups grated cheese or mozzarella cheese

Tomato Sauce
Oil
3 onions, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 x 800g can diced or crushed tomatoes
5 tablespoons tomato paste

Make the tomato sauce by sautéing onions in oil in a large saucepan heated over medium heat. Once onions soften and become translucent, 5-10 minutes, add the garlic and stir for a minute. Add tomatoes, stir then add salt, sugar and tomato paste. Cook for 5-10 minutes over medium heat until reduced slightly. Blend in a food processor or with a hand blender in the saucepan. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl mix ricotta, spinach, parmesan cheese, parsley, basil, salt and pepper.

Pour a third to half the tomato sauce into two lightly greased lasagne dishes. Preheat oven to 180°C.

Lay each lasagne sheet out on a clean bench or board (you may cut the lasagne sheets in half if you want less pasta). Add a spoonful or two of tomato sauce onto the lasagne sheet and spread around the middle, missing the rolling ends. Sprinkle with some grated cheese. Add a large amount of spinach and ricotta mix onto the short edge of the sheet, making it evenly distributed. Roll up to form a tube and place on top of the tomato sauce with the loose edge down.

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Continue with remaining lasagne sheets, until all mixture is used up. Place the remaining tomato sauce on top of the cannelloni and sprinkle with cheese. Cook in preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until browning on top. Serve with salad or herb bread.

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Quick Cannoli

1 packet (approximately 8 ) brandy snap tubes or cannoli tubes
150ml thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon caster sugar
¼ cup pistachios, chopped
100g chocolate, chopped

Beat thickened cream with vanilla and sugar until medium peaks form. Fold in chopped pistachios and chocolate and place in pastry bag with star nozzle (or place in cake decorating bag without nozzle attached. Pipe into tubes and dust with icing sugar or icing mixture. Serve very soon after piped.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Cooking Class - Family, Dessert, Healthy Eating, Main Meals, Recipes, Vegetarian | 10 Comments »

Pancakes – Nigella Lawson

May 2nd, 2009

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I’m on my way to find fluffy, thick, tasty pancakes. I do admit I enjoy the macadamia pancakes from Pancakes on the Rocks (my favourite choice of their sweet pancakes – which I actually haven’t had in a very long while).

So whilst looking through Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess I found her recipe for American breakfast pancakes, which looked nice and fluffy and so I decided to make them. As I love pancakes so much, I’m going to end up going through so many recipes to find the right one, that it’s likely I’ll forget what half of them tasted like.

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These pancakes were quite nice and fluffy, although they seemed to be missing something or a slightly odd flavour. I’m not entirely sure what exactly that is, whether it be not enough sugar or salt or missing vanilla or maybe too much baking powder?… not sure. I guess I’ll have to try them again – I’m not complaining 🙂

American Breakfast Pancakes
Recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess and also on Nigella’s website.

225g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
30g butter, melted and cooled
300ml milk
butter for frying
Serving Size : 11 blini-pan-sized pancakes

The easiest way to make these is to put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz. But if you do mix up the batter by hand in a bowl, make a well in the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, beat in the eggs, melted butter and milk, and transfer to a jug: it’s much easier to pour the batter into the pan than to spoon it. I like to leave the batter for 20 minutes before using it; and you may then want to add more milk to the mixture if you’re frying in the blini pan, so that it runs right to the edges.

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When you cook the pancakes, all you need to remember is that when the upper side of the pancake is blistering and bubbling it’s time to cook the second side, and this needs only about 1 minute, if that.

I get 11 blini-pan-sized pancakes out of this, maybe 16 silver-dollar-sized ones on the griddle.

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Posted in Breakfast, Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Recipes, Vegetarian | 8 Comments »

Stuffed Capsicums – Cooking Class 3

April 30th, 2009

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You may be wondering what has happened to our family cooking classes… Well they have continued, even with the busy process of moving. Although there was an added delay due to possibly deleted photos – and I didn’t want to post without photos 😛 . Yay – photos found… now I’ll continue…

Our third family cooking class was a lovely stuffed capsicum dish, with a rice, lamb, onion, tomato and spice stuffing in capsicums which had been boiled in salted water (a step I had never done before) then cooked on the stove (another step I hadn’t done – I’ve always cooked them in the oven) in diced tomatoes and lemon juice.

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It may have taken a bit longer than we had expected, as it often takes a while to figure out what you’re meant to be doing from the recipe and trying to make sure everyone gets a go. They are relatively easy though, even though I mentioned it took a while, especially if you have made the rice or filling beforehand. I’m sure for those who do not want or are unable to get lamb mince, that you could substitute it with beef mince or a vegetable filling of mushrooms, eggplant etc and it would still taste fantastic!

Nonetheless, once you’ve got these capsicums in and cooking, there is plenty of time to make naan bread and/or clean up from the preparation.

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Stuffed Capsicums
Recipe adapted from rice and risotto (sorry I’m not sure of the author as this isn’t from one of my books)

Serves: 6

6 capsicums
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 spring onions, finely chopped
150g minced lamb
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup yellow split peas
1/2 – 1 cup cooked long grain rice
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon cinnamon
juice of two lemons
2-4 tablespoons tomato puree
400g (one or two cans) chopped tomatoes
tablespoon butter
salt and ground pepper
natural yoghurt and naan bread, to serve

Cut the tops off the capsicums, remove seeds and core. If the capsicums are going to fall over, trim a little off the bottom, so they stand. Cook in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, then drain, rinse under cold water and set aside.

Place the split peas in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until soft. Drain.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook onion and spring onions until golden brown. Add the garlic and lamb and cook over medium heat until well browned. Stir in split peas, cooked rice, herbs, cinnamon, juice of lemon and tomato puree into the meat mixture. Stir to combine, then stuff into the capsicums. Place capsicum lids on top.

Place chopped tomatoes, butter and juice of one lemon into a large saucepan. Place capsicums on top of tomato mix with stems upwards. Bring to boil, cover with lid and cook on low/medium for 40-45minutes until peppers are tender.

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Serve with the tomato mixture, yoghurt and naan bread.

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Posted in Cooking Class - Family, Healthy Eating, Main Meals, Recipes | 9 Comments »

Pear and Raspberry Bread

April 28th, 2009

Do you think I’ve gone a bit “pear” crazy and obsessed?

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Perhaps…

I love pears… although for the last few years I’ve bought bad batches of them – not ripening, still hard on the outside but rotten inside.

This year I found the quality of pears available here in Sydney were fantastic. So what did I do? Buy, buy, buy!! I ended up buying pears at three different places as I kept finding them for better prices – and I love a bargain!

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This means that I could finally use this lovely recipe that I’ve had for a year now, given to me by a friend at work. I had forgotten all the tips she gave me and have no idea where she got the recipe from, perhaps a magazine or newspaper?

The pear and raspberry bread is unlike a bread, as it contains no yeast. I was hoping for it to be similar to the bought pear and raspberry bread that you buy at café’s and is toasted and served with butter. This bread (or cake) is a bit more crumbly than the bought bread, but the beautiful combination of brown sugar and cinnamon with the pear and raspberries make this a big winner anyway!

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Pear and Raspberry Bread

125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup unprocessed bran
2 pears, cored, peeled and chopped
1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper. Cream the butter, brown sugar and vanilla until mixture lightens in colour. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Sift flours, baking powder and cinnamon and add to mixture with bran. Fold in gently until combined.

Add chopped pears, folding through followed by raspberries – make sure to fold gently to try and keep raspberries intact. Spoon into prepared loaf tin and cook in preheated oven for 1 hour or until browned and cook through. Leave in tin for 10 minutes, remove and cool, then slice thickly.

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Serve as is or toasted under grill and served with butter. Store any leftovers in a container or wrap up cooled slices in plastic and freeze.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Recipes, Vegetarian | 13 Comments »

Lemon Curd Friands

April 26th, 2009

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I have been introduced to a number of foods (mainly baked goods) at work and one of these was the friand, a lemon curd one to be precise. I tried it a while ago and the colleague at work left before I had a chance to get the recipe. As I knew she read the delicious magazine, and thought I remembered hearing her mention it about the friands, I was excited when I found this recipe from the delicious magazine on Taste.com.au.

When deciding to make them, I made sure I could use up the remaining egg yolks and as Portuguese Custard Tarts are one of my favourite foods now, I made almost a double batch of these to use up the egg yolks.

These friands were lovely, I’m not sure if they were the same as what I had tasted, mine seemed a little denser than I expected. I also realise I probably should have swirled the lemon curd in a bit more into the friand mix too, as it was a bit sticky on the top (or bottom, if you turn them over to show the pretty friand star). The lemon curd complemented the friand perfectly and was lovely for afternoon tea or perhaps even a high tea, which is on my list of things to do 😛 .

Lemon curd friands
Recipe from delicious magazine and also found on Taste.com.au

Makes: 10-12

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1 1/2 cups (185g) almond meal
1/3 cups (200g) pure icing sugar, sifted, plus extra to dust
5 eggwhites
200g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
5 teaspoons lemon curd, plus extra to serve
Whipped cream (optional), to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 10-hole or 12-hole friand pan or line with paper cases.

Mix the flour, almond meal and sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggwhites with a fork until foamy, then add to dry ingredients with butter and zest and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Divide batter among friand pans. Place 1/2 teaspoon of curd on each friand and use a wooden skewer to swirl through batter.

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Bake for 20 minutes or until light golden. Cool, then dust with extra icing sugar. Serve with extra lemon curd, and whipped cream if desired.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Egg Whites, Recipes, Vegetarian | 8 Comments »

Corn Bread

April 23rd, 2009

After seeing corn bread being made on Food Safari for their USA episode, Nick was inspired to make some. We saw versions using corn kernels, corn off the cob and creamed corn. The ones on food safari looked so easy and very convenient in the muffin tin, that he decided to go with that recipe.

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This was a very easy recipe, just combine all ingredients and spoon into muffin tins. Once cooked they smelled lovely and tasted great when we let them cool down a bit. We had made quite a few muffins and accidentally forgot to take them to share with people, leaving us with quite a few in our container at home (we had also frozen some). When trying these a couple days later they had already started going bad, they weren’t fresh and became a little soggy around the edges. So if you’re likely to not get through all the corn bread on the day of baking or the day after, make sure you individually freeze them!!!

I think it would be lovely with a bit of crispy bacon on top… perhaps next time.

Corn Bread
Recipe from Food Safari

Makes: 12 muffins ( I can’t remember if Nick doubled the recipe – ours made 24 muffins)

½ cup polenta
1½ cup self raising flour
½ cup castor sugar
Pinch of salt
½ cup melted butter
3 eggs
1 cup of creamed corn
1 cup full cream milk

Mix polenta and self-raising flour, castor sugar, salt, melted butter and eggs.

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Add creamed corn and milk. Mix until you get a nice creamy consistency.

It took a bit of mixing to get to this stage, and was a bit lumpy (perhaps we should have added the creamed corn and milk a bit at a time)

It took a bit of mixing to get to this stage, and was a bit lumpy (perhaps we should have added the creamed corn and milk a bit at a time)

Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown in color.

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Remove muffin tray from the oven and let them cool until they are ready to be remove from the tray.

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Once cooled either store in air-tight container for up to one day or alternatively wrap indivually with cling film and store in freezer. Remove from freezer and thaw when required, heating in microwave or oven to make a bit fresher.

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian | 6 Comments »

Vodka Cream Pasta

April 21st, 2009

You won’t be single for long!!!

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Well, this is what was claimed on TV, when a family member of mine saw this recipe on a TV show, with women claiming that once they made this for their partner they were proposed to.

Wow! This pasta must be a absolutely fantastic for someone to propose after eating it. (I must admit there are some foods were I would have seriously considered accepting a proposal, although they tended to be decadent chocolate desserts 🙂 yep, that’s me – loving the desserts!)

So we decided to make the pasta and I’ll admit that I’ve made it more than once as it’s very easy, with few ingredients and quite tasty.

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I wasn’t proposed to immediately after Nick tried this pasta – let’s say maybe a year after (does that still count?) 😛

I wouldn’t go on to suggest that anyone will be proposed to after serving this pasta, it is good, but not propose-worthy good. I would suggest trying it though, if it’s a Friday night and you can’t be bothered spending too long on dinner.

I have tried this without the vodka too – with skeptics suggesting it didn’t contribute to the pasta at all (as most is steamed out of the dish). So after trialing out the non-vodka version, it still tasted good, there was some small taste missing, so I would recommended adding a little or half the vodka if the budget is tight or you really hate vodka, otherwise try the whole amount and alter the recipe from there.

Vodka Cream Pasta
Recipe from Foodnetwork.com

Serves: 4

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 brown onion, finely diced
½ -1 cup vodka
1 cup chicken stock
1 can crushed tomatoes (820g)
Coarse salt and pepper
500g pasta, such as penne or fettuccine
½ cup heavy or thickened cream
Fresh basil leaves, shredded or torn, to serve
Herb or crusty bread, to serve

Heat a large saucepan over moderate heat. Add oil, butter, garlic and onion. Gently sauté onion for 3 to 5 minutes to develop their sweetness. Add vodka to pan. Reduce vodka by half; this will take 2 or 3minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes and bring sauce to a bubble and reduce heat to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

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While sauce simmers, cooks pasta in salted boiling water until cooked to al dente. While pasta cooks, prepare your salad or other side dishes.

Stir cream into sauce. When sauce returns to a bubble, remove it from heat. Drain pasta. Toss hot pasta with sauce and basil leaves. Serve pasta with crusty bread.

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Posted in Main Meals, Recipes, Vegetarian | 8 Comments »

Easy Chocolate Brownies

April 19th, 2009

This is a recipe I use a lot and as Sarah has requested on my About page, I’ve gotten around to posting it 🙂

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This is one recipe where I have no idea where it originated. I received it from someone at uni, who got it from someone at uni… and I don’t know where they got it from.

I’ve doubled the recipe, because there really is no point in only making just one batch (16 brownies) of these (as you can freeze left-overs and take them to work or school). They are great! And even though there are other more decadent recipes for chocolate brownies, which include rich chocolate pieces and toasted nuts, these are easy and pretty cheap too!

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Chocolate Brownies

Makes: 32 brownies

250g butter
1 cup cocoa
4 eggs
2 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or imitation vanilla
1 cup self-raising flour
1 heaped cup dark choc bits, plus a few tablespoons extra

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C for a fan forced oven). Grease and line two 20cm square cake tin.

Put butter into saucepan and melt over low/medium heat. Add cocoa and whisk until well blended and smooth. (Add extra choc bits at this stage). Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Don’t be tempted to lick the whisk… many a passer-by have succumbed to it’s beauty… but cocoa and butter just isn’t as good as it looks! :)

Don’t be tempted to lick the whisk… many a passer-by have succumbed to it’s beauty… but cocoa and butter just doesn't taste as good as it looks! 🙂

Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and caster sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

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Beat in butter and cocoa mixture and vanilla essence. Sift flour over the top and fold in gently. Then fold in dark choc bits.

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Pour into prepared cake tin and bake for 40-45 mins or until firm to touch at the centre. Take care not to over bake the brownies as they dry out. (If you accidentally undercook them, just say they were meant to be fudgey brownies 🙂 .

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Leftover brownies can be frozen and thawed at room temperature.

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Chocolate, High Tea, Recipes | 13 Comments »

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