Roast Pumpkin, Chorizo and olive salad

I found this salad in the Masterchef magazine dec 2011 and made it for big BBQ.  A fantastic salad... love love loved it! So did everyone else too.

You will need:
2kg small jap pumpkin, seeded and washed halved and sliced into thinnish wedges (24 if you are using whole thing).
2 chorizo sausage sliced
1/2 cup kaamata olives
1/4 cup green olives
1 bulb garlic in separated but left in skins
1 long red chilli seeded and chopped finely
80g piece day old sourdough or rustic loaf torn roughly into pieces (croutons)
6 sprigs thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon sumaac
100 mls extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon zested and juiced

what to do:

Preheat oven fan forced to 220 C
Use very large roasting pan or two pans so as not to overcrowd ingredients ;)
Place pumpkin, chorizo, garlic, olives, chilli bread and thyme into a bowl. Sprinkle with sumac, dazzle with 1/4 cup of oil, and bless with salt and pepper to season.

Fondle ingredients to combine.
Transfer mixture to pans and roast for 25 mins until golden brown
Transfer to platter. Whisk remaining olive oil and lemon juice, and anoint dish and scatter with lemon zest.

Tuck in...
Amazing.

pomegranate salsa

I rejoice at xmas time because I can easily get my hands on Pomegranates and they aren't too expensive. This salsa is a great accompaniment and I usually make it when having BBQ with steak/ sausages. The acidity of the salsa is a great counterpoint for rich meat.


Ingredients

2 tomatoes quartered deseeded and finely chopped
1/3 cup parsley or coriander chopped
seeds/ juices (yum) from one 1 pomegranate
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon pomegranate molases
season with salt and pepper

Combine ingredients in bowl.....delish!

Rocky Road kid style

Super easy, super delicious.

2 blocks white cooking chocolate (or you could go mix it up and go 1 x white and 1 x milk choc)
1 bag jelly snakes
1 bag marshmallows (or the mini ones in the cooking aisle)
1 bag jelly lollies
desiccated or shredded coconut

Line baking tin with greaseproof paper.
Chop up lollies and marshmallows and spread all over paper.
Sprinkle coconut over them.
Melt chocolate in microwave, about 1 min at a time, stirring in between.  Doesn't take long.
Pour melted chocolate over lolly mix.
Sprinkle more coconut over top.
Put in fridge until solid.
Chop up.
Eat.

Margaret Fulton's ChristmasCake

I make this cake every year and it is a rich fabulous cake that we can never leave alone long enough for it to mature. It's a lot of work cutting up ingredients but if you have help with it's not too bad and definitely worth the effort..


Ingredients:
Dried fruit/nut


375 g raisins chopped
375 g sultanas chopped
250 g currants chopped
125 g mixed peel chopped
125 g glace cherries halved
6 dried apricots, nectarines, peaches, (i sometimes substitute dried mango as well if i cant find peaches chopped.
125g blanched chopped almonds
4 tablespoons rum and brandy


cake mix


250g butter
250g brown sugar
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons marmelade/ golden syrup
1.5 cups plain flour
.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
5 eggs
blanched almonds and glace cherries to decorate


Day before making cake:


chop all nut/ dried fruit  put into large bowl and add alcohol. Mix well.  Cover and leave overnight to soak.


Next day:
Using electric mixer beat butter until soft/ creamed.  Add lemon brown sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add golden syrup. Mix well.
Sift flour, baking powder and mixed spice together in separate bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons flour mixture to dried fruit and mix well so that it doesn't sink to the bottom of the cake.
Add eggs one at a time beating well into mixture, add tablespoon of flour mix to wet mixture if it curdles in between eggs. Add the remaining flour into the cake mix and then fold through the fruit mix. You might want to transfer cake mix into huge mixing bowl to incorporate the fruit otherwise the batter wont fit. (there is a lot of it)


To prepare the tin you need a 24 cm square or round cake tin greased and lined with 2 layers of baking paper. Put the mixture into the tinand drop the tin a couple of times onto the counter to  settle the mixture int the tin.


Decorate with cherries and almonds.


BAKE


In a preheated oven at 150 degrees for 2 and 3/4 hours or until a fine skewer inserted into cake comes away clean.


HINT:


Keep checking on the cake after half way thru and cover the top with foil so it doesn't burn.


When its cooked and removed from oven turn cake upside down lift the paper and sprinkle the hot cake with extra rum/ brandy. Wrap in a clean tea-towel and leave to cool on a cake rack. Wrap in grease proof paper and then foil.


Try keeping your hands off it.... its sensational!!!

Mixed fruit ready!!! Soaking in booze.

All done ......out of oven. Now, how long before we crack it open???

beautiful lemons

My Mum has just returned from visiting friends at their farm near Rylestone.  They grow everything, make their own cheese, sauces, jams and marmalade.  I scored some freshly made goats cheese and several very large lemons.  Hence, a lemon cake tonight.

Thanks to Monica and bestrecipes.com.au - Monica's Lemon Cake

Now to find a recipe for the goats cheese. Or maybe I'll just eat it on crackers...

Apple and sultana muffins

Just savoring one now as I type. Plump sweet sultans and crunchy pieces of apple and a crunchy sugary finish give these little babies multiple textures and make them very moreish.
Prep 12 mins as long as u don't have to rush down local shops for missing ingredients.

Bake 20 mins


Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
1 tbs baking powder
2 tspn ground cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 medium granny smith apples peeled cores and roughly chopped
3/4 cup seedless raisins or sultanas
125g melted cooled butter/ marg
2 eggs lightly whisked
185 mls milk


What to do

Sift flour cinnamon and baking powder into large bowl
Add brown sugar apple and sultanas
Whisk wet ingredients together and add to dry mixture
Mix together with big metal spoon til just combined. Don't over handle/ mix!
Spoon into 12 muffin cases and cook for 20 mins in 185•C oven or until golden.

Allow to cool so that top of muffin is crunchy! See if u can stop yourself from hoeing into them!

THE best mini molten choc puds

This little pud is SO easy to make and takes such a short amount of time so you can put it together after dinner. Serve with ice cream/ double cream for extra decadence.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

• 125g butter
• 100g good-quality plain chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons plain flour

	Printer friendly
	Email to a friend
	Add to Facebook
	Add to favourites

Preparation method

Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 7 minutes

1.

Preheat the oven to 230 C. Butter and flour 4 ramekins or souffle pots.

2.

In the top half of a double boiler or basin set over simmering water, heat the butter and the chocolate until chocolate is almost completely melted.

3.

Use a hand held electric mixer beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together until light coloured and thick.

4.

While beating, slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then quickly beat in the flour until just combined.

5.

Divide the mixture between the 4 prepared dishes and bake for 6 to 7 minutes. The centres of the cakes will still be quite soft. Turn dishes onto serving plates and let stand for about 15 seconds, then unmould. Serve immediately with fresh cream, if desired.

basic muffin recipe

Hopefully MK will share her fabulous apple muffin recipe on here (hint hint) so in the meantime, here's my basic muffin recipe. Add whatever you fancy. Two mashed bananas (now that they are mildly affordable) and some choc chips or M&Ms are the favourite in this house.

• 2 cups self-raising flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ cup oil
• 1 cup milk
• Flavourings of choice (1 cup is usually enough)

Put everything in a bowl.

Mix until just mixed (over mixing = muffins like bread).

Bake in 180C (or 170C fanforced) oven for about 20 mins.

Recipe surfing

Yes its Saturday night and I am scouring the interwebs for new recipes.  In particular I am looking for recipes with lemons, pears and apples (I've just had a big box of fruit delivered and I know that we won't eat it all before it spoils).

Anyway, Best Recipes has again come up trumps so I am busy clipping recipes to Evernote and writing the shopping list.

Photos to come...

midweek pasta sauce recipe

This one is a great dish to make if you have a free afternoon and you pick up ingredients that are on sale. I like to make it and have in fridge /freezer for during the week when i can just reheat and cook pasta. I usually bake in 180 degree C oven in olive oil, 2 punnets cherry toms, 2 red capsicums, a handful of chillies and a handful cloves of garlic in skins after generously sprinkling with alt and pepper. If you are cooking for kids omit the chillies and add dried chilli flakes at the end as you serve if you like heat in your dishes.


So you bake until skins are loose, maybe 1/2 hr-1 hr, then sweat under foil and when cool skin veggies and remove seeds from capsicums. Add veggies with juice to blender and whizz, add a little extra virgin olive oil. Reheat when ready to serve reinvigorate :) with a squeeze of lemon, black pepper and your dried chillies if you desire..and voila fabulous pasta sauce. 


PS dont forget your parmesan cheese liberally shaved over dish.

John style chunky coleslaw

John likes his coleslaw chunky and with crunch.  And I have to agree, makes it much more substantial and enjoyable.  He also likes raw onion but green scallions work just as well.

1/4 purple cabbage - sliced and diced
1/4 white cabbage - sliced and diced
1 capsicum (you choose the colour) - sliced and diced
2 carrots - grated
1 spanish, white or brown onion OR about 4 scallions
Whole egg mayonnaise (must be whole egg!)

Chop all vegetables up.  Chunky or thin, its up to you.  You can even put it through the food processor (although this seems to bring out a lot of moisture in the vegetables or is that just me?)

I put all the chopped vegetables in a big plastic container, put the lid on and then shake it to mix everything together.  You can do this in a bowl like a normal person if you like.

Mix about two big dessert spoonfuls of whole egg mayonnaise through the coleslaw mix and refrigerate.

Will keep in the fridge for about 3 days.

*You could add grated apple, chopped walnuts....

**Delicious on fresh bread with cheese or with the Pork & Apple Sausage Rolls.

ST :)

Pork & Apple Sausage Rolls

Homemade sausage rolls are so easy and a great easy meal.  In our house we have them with a garden salad and homemade coleslaw.  I like that you can put whatever you like in the mince, hide some vegies like grated carrot or zucchini.  Don't bother with sausage mince or combining pork and beef, just go with pork, its much lighter and full of flavour.

500g pork mince
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 onion - finely chopped
2 granny smith apples - grated
2 carrots - grated
Handful of flat leaf parsley and mint - finely chopped
salt and pepper
3 sheets of puff pastry
1 beaten egg

Heat oven to 220C.

Combine garlic cloves and onion with the olive oil in a small bowl.  Cook in microwave for about 3 minutes, making sure you stir half way through.  Let it cool.

Combine apple, carrot, mince, parsley and mint in a bowl and mix well.  (You could add a beaten egg here but the grated apple is very moist as is).  Add the garlic and onion mixture.

Defrost the pastry so it is slightly soft.  Spoon the pork mixture onto the pastry at the bottom of the sheet, spreading it out all the way across the sheet, but make sure you leave a little edge to fold.  Fold the pastry up over the mince then paint some egg wash across the pastry so it sticks as you continue to roll.  Roll the pastry all the way to the other end and then brush the whole long roll with egg wash.  Poke some more mince into either end if they need filling out.

Slice the roll up into whatever size sausage roll you would like to eat.  Line baking tray with baking paper and place rolls onto tray.

Cook in oven for about 30 mins.

Serve with homemade coleslaw or green salad or both.

Enjoy.

ST :)

Best way to roast a chook... Maggie Beer

This recipe is a real hit in our family.... the chicken is always moist tender and tasty. This is the only way I roast a chook these days. Some days I stuff the bird with a thyme butter garlic and bread stuffing, other times I use lemons as per Maggie's instructions. It take about 1.5 hrs to cook and then rest for an hour breast down. Once you try you wont cook it any other way :)

30 cloves garlic

1 lemon
1 x 2 kg Barossa Chook or an equal well brought up chook
3 sprigs rosemary, chopped
50ml extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
125ml verjuice
125ml water
1 cup chicken stock

Save to Cookbook

Method 

1 Preheat a fan forced oven to 200°C. Blanch the unpeeled garlic in boiling water for four minutes, then drain and set aside.

2 Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the cavity of the chicken, then add the rosemary.

3 Mix olive oil with a good pinch of sea salt and pepper and massage into the skin of the bird. Cover the breast (only) with foil and sit the chook on a trivet in a shallow baking dish about 5cm deep.

4 Transfer to the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 40 minutes.

5 Remove foil from breast and use to cover the legs. Pour verjuice over the chicken, place the blanched garlic to the baking dish and add the water to the base of the dish to avoid burning.

6 Cook for a further 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the chook and place breast side down on the trivet to rest for 40 minutes, covered loosely with foil.

7 To make the jus, pour all the pan juices from the baking dish into a small saucepan and add 1 cup of warm chicken stock, pour into a narrow serving jug, then refrigerate this while the chicken is resting. Just before serving, scoop away the fat that has risen to the top, warm the remaining jus. Carve the chook, then pour over the jus and serve accompanied by the roasted garlic, parsnip and pear mash and bitter green salad.

another great idea!

Welcome to our new recipe sharing blog designed to whet our creative juices and expand our daily menus. And what better way than to share our favourite staples, post piccies of dish and write amusing stories to go with each one. I will be posting easy everyday dishes that dont take too much prep or cooking time. Happy sharing, cant wait to read about yours. MK