Apple & Blackberry Crumble

Thanks to Peppa Pig the kids are having this tonight for dessert. Zachie requested by asking Mummy do we have any apples? Do we have any Blackberries? Yes, yes Zachie we do… why? Can you please make apple and blackberry crumble?

I made a small one probably enough to serve 2-3 or 4 for kids. It’s a very easy dish to make and takes no time at all!

You will need

Apples

Blackberries

Sugar

Water

Butter

Plain Flour

I worked on equal parts of apples to blackberries, for this one it was 2 Royal Gala apples to about a cup of blackberries. (If you’re using frozen make sure they’re Australian Grown and packaged to avoid any nasty chemicals, or better yet use fresh ones.

Simply stew the fruit in about 1/2 a cup of water. When the fruit is soft but still holding it’s shape add sugar to taste and reduce the liquid. Pour the fruit and syrup into an oven proof dish. Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. While the fruit is cooking rub butter into the sugar and flour so that you have the consistency of wet sand. I used approx 1 cup of flour to 1/3 cup of sugar and 100g of butter, you want the crumble mix to hold together if you crush it in your hand.

Sprinkle over the fruit and bake for approx 20 mins or until golden brown.

Serve with either ice cream or cream.

 

Who doesn’t love a scone?

We had a catch up today with our Mother’s Group, we have been meeting for nearly 5 years and are still going strong. A very dear friend & colleague gave me her scone recipe (The English Scone) it is without question the easiest and least time consuming recipe ever!

I am sure my darling Jeanma (Dad’s Mum) would be none to impressed that there is no butter in this recipe, but I tell you even the purists would go for these. So thanks Paulina, You ROCK!

You will need

3 cups of self raising flour

3 tsp sugar

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup cream

1.5 cups milk.

METHOD:

PREHEAT oven to 220 degrees. Put all dry ingredients into bowl, whisk for a few seconds using a hand whisk. Add cream and milk, stir LIGHTLY using a thin spatula or knife ( the less you mix, the lighter and fluffier the scone) Pour sticky dough onto a floured board. Sprinkle some flour on top to prevent your hands sticking. Pat dough lightly to even it out. Dip your scone cutter into flour and cut out scones. Repeat to prevent dough sticking to cutter.

Put them together on a baking sheet if you want ‘pullaparts’ or place them separately if you want individual, crusty topped scones.

Cook for about 11 mins until hollow sounding when tapped. Take out of oven, cover with a clean tea towel until ready to serve with whipped cream and good quality jam.

Note: This mix is really really sticky, have faith it does work, I have played around with it just a little and because it’s so wet I get two dessert or soup spoons and make rough quenelles and spoon the mix onto a lined tray and end up with pull a parts.

Sensational is an understatement!

Dinosaur Salad

We were watching Peppa Pig the other day, Sophia loves her and every time she says Peppa Pig she snorts like a pig which is hilarious – to me anyway – So Peppa’s brother George wouldn’t eat his salad which Grandpa Pig had grown in his own garden, so Grandpa Pig tore up the pieces of lettuce and made a dinosaur with it and cucumber & tomatoes.

Soph & Zachie thought it was great and tonight we had a go at it as well. I have found that a sure fire way to get the kids to eat is to get them involved in making the food. Tonight was no different. Zachie had grazed all day so wolfed down this salad followed by a bowl of weetbix, another great alternative to dinner when you know if they don’t eat something they’ll be up through the night!

Now I do have to confess that I have no issue at all with getting either of our kids to eat salad, they love it and would quite possibly eat only salad, some nights it’s a fight for who gets the most.

My dear friend gave me her wonderful garden salad recipe and it’s a staple in our house even through winter, I love salad in preference to vegies any day as does Hubby, which is probably where the kids get it from as well.

If you struggle to get your kids to eat salads or vegetables or just want to make it a bit more fun, this could be the way… stay tuned for a Semi Trailer styled salad soon.

Dee’s delicious Salad

You will need for 2 adults & 2 kids

1 tomato diced

1 decent sized Lebanese cucumber peeled, forked & quartered

4-6 coz lettuce leaves, rinsed and chopped

100gms of danish fetta, crumbled

dash of balsamic vinegar

Combine the ingredients in a salad bowl, mix well and serve. We do also add avocado &/or olives on occasion too.

Blood Orange Candied Peel Short Bread

Spreading a little Christmas Cheer to our kindergarten teachers, tomorrow is Zachie’s last day and I wanted to give them something to show our appreciation. What do you give someone who has cared so lovingly for your child but that you don’t really know??? Food!!

These are incredibly easy to make and are very yummy!

You will need

250g soften butter

3/4 cup Icing sugar (you can use caster but you will need to mix it for a little longer,

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup candied blood orange peel.

Cream the butter & sugar until it’s light & fluffy, add sifted plain flour carefully & mix to combine. Finely dice the peel and add to the mix. Refrigerate for 15 mins depending on how hot it is outside. Roll into little balls and press down with a fork – like yoyo’s bake in a mod oven for 10 mins or until golden, dust with icing sugar to serve.

I made our own candied peel and have used it for all sorts of things from these biscuits to the filling for cannolli. It’s very easy to make, you just cut the rind from the orange or lemon ensuring that you don’t cut a lot of the pith when you’re cutting it, then slice the rind into strips, place it in a saucepan with enough water to cover the rind & the same amount of sugar, generally 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water is a good ratio. Then bring it to the boil & simmer until the syrup has thickened DO NOT WALK AWAY!! This is like making toffee, the sugar syrup gets really hot really quickly so you need to keep an eye on it.

Both are great ideas for Christmas presents!

Simple Sushi

Well this is definitely one to get your kids onto. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make sushi or california rolls as the larger ones are known here. Zachie & I went to the supermarket and bought Sushi rice, one of those bamboo mats you use to roll up the sushi, some nori paper and the vinegar that you use to flavour the rice.

We already had tuna, cucumber, carrots, avocado etc to use as fillings so we were all set to have a go – now the first attempt I have to say was very impressive. I did undercook the rice slightly, but it was okay, there is certainly a reason they call it sticky rice.

So I simply followed the recipe on the packet of rice, which pretty much says to cook a cup of rice in 375 mls of water, you have to rinse the rice first, bring it to the boil and simmer for 10 mins then let it sit for 10 mins.

Then transfer it to a plate and add about 3 tbsp of sushi vinegar, stir it around & fan it so it cools down as quickly as possible. Once it’s cold/cool then you’re good to go ahead and use it.

I mixed a tin of plain tuna with some mayonnaise, julienne some cucumbers & carrots, you could also add capsicum & sliced up some avocado.

Just spread the rice over the nori paper to within 2 cms of one edge and right to all the other edges, put your toppings on and roll up. It really is that simple, Zachie had a great time making it & eating it as well!

Definitely something to add to your repertoire if you & your family love sushi!

Almond Shortbread

Zachie has a best friend from kinder so we made some biscuits to take for morning tea when we went to play there last week. These biscuits are gorgeous, easy to make and you can quite easily change them from Almond shortbread to Lemon Shortbread but swapping the Almonds for Lemon Zest.

I do like the rustic look of just taking little clumps of the mix and baking them, but you can roll them into balls and press them down with a fork if you want something more uniform.

You Will Need:

250g Butter, softened

3/4 Cup Caster Sugar

2 Cups Plain Flour, Sifted

1tsp Vanilla Essence

100g roasted Almonds, roughly chopped

Pre heat your oven to 170 degrees celsius. Cream the butter & sugar until it’s really light & fluffy, add the vanilla essence mixing to combine. Sift the flour over the mix and beat slowly ensuring it is well combined. Tip in the chopped almonds and mix well. Refrigerate for about 5-10 mins.

 

Either roll or shape into 2-3 cm balls and place at intervals on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in a moderate oven for 10 mins or until just golden, allow to cook before storing. This recipe makes approximately 20 -30 biscuits depending on the size.

Spaghetti Marinara

This is my easy cheats version of Spaghetti Marinara made with just a few simple ingredients, as Hubby always takes last nights dinner to work for lunch the next day this makes for a very easy friday night dinner as left overs aren’t required.

I am usually making this for 2 adults & 2 kids, the kids mostly have just the pasta with tomato sauce and 2 or 3 prawns, so if you’re serving more just increase the quantities accordingly.

You will need:

A handful of Shelled Prawns

8 Mussels, cleaned with the beards removed

large scoop of Pippies, Clams or Vongole depending on what you call them

1 finely diced brown onion

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 400g tin crushed italian tomatoes.

handful of freshly chopped italian parsley

Salt & Pepper.

Olive oil

1/2 a pkt of spaghetti (or more depending on how hungry you are)

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. When it’s boiling add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. (approx 12-15mins) Heat oil in a frying pan and add the garlic & onions and saute until translucent, add the tomatoes, rinsing out the tin with a little water and add that to the pan as well.

Bring to a simmer & allow to cook so the liquid is reduced and the sauce thickens, add the cleaned seafood and stir, cover with a lid (or oven tray as my frying pan doesn’t have a lid) and allow to cook until all the shell fish have opened. Discard any that don’t open as they could be off and therefore make you sick. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Drain the pasta and either toss into the sauce or vice versa & Va bene dinner is served.

Just remember the purists among us will say no parmesan cheese with seafood (I think it’s because it makes the seafood taste sour)

Perhaps serve with some crusty bread to mop up the juices

Chermoula

In a Moroccan kitchen there are some essential ingredients and equipment just like there are in any kitchen. One of the main things you must have are the ingredients which go towards making chermoula.

If you’ve been following the blog, or my recipes you will notice a bit of a trend especially since the 1st of August which marked the start of Ramadan & the start of Moroccan month in our house. The trend being mainly Moroccan inspired cooking. As part of that you need a recipe for Chermoula.

It’s a bit like Pesto but perhaps more versatile in that it can be added to almost any savoury dish from Fish to Carrots. We will quite often marinate chicken thigh fillets, wings, drumettes or spareribs in chermoula before barbequing.Lamb fillets, steaks or chops & rump steak for kebabs. You can also put chermoula on sardines, all over a whole snapper or any white fish before either barbecuing or pan frying.

Add a teaspoon or two to boiled carrots with some olives and you have a classic Moroccan salad. You could also use it as a dressing for roasting vegies or a vegetable tajine.

This quantity will make a fairly considerable amount and it can be kept in a glass jar covered with olive oil for at least a month.

You will need:

1 bunch of flat leaf parsley

1 bunch of coriander (Cilantro)

4 large cloves of garlic, crushed

2 Tbsp ground cumin

2 Tbsp Paprika (smokey is great too)

Juice & zest of 1 large lemon

Good pinch of Sea Salt & 4 grinds of black pepper

1/2 – 1 Cup of extra virgin olive oil

You can process this in a food processor if you wish, but it’s not essential.

Fill your sink with cold water and thoroughly rinse the parsley & coriander to ensure all the dirt & grit has been removed – this is particularly important with the coriander. Drain and dry lightly with a tea towel. Place on a chopping board and chop until fairly fine. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.

Add the all the other ingredients and mix well to combine, depending on how large your bunches of herbs are will depend on how much oil you need, you don’t want it to be drowning in oil, but you need it to look wet. Check the taste, you want the lemon/olive oil ratio to be similar to a salad dressing and be able to taste all the other spices as well.

Store in a glass jar and cover with olive oil. Place in the fridge and use as required. Generally speaking I would cook about 500g of protein for a meal and therefore use about 2-3 large spoons of this chermoula mix as a marinade.

 

Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding

So we held a vote & I thought the Raspberry Frangipane Tart was going to take it out, but it was neck in neck at the end & the Self Saucing Pud is the easier by far so we’ll start with that one! I can’t take the credit for this, it’s my Mummy’s recipe and it’s fantastic! By all means double the recipe if you are serving 4 or more people.

You will need:

1 cup Self Raising Flour

½ Cup White Sugar

Pinch of Salt

1 Tbsp Cocoa

2 Tbsp Butter

½ cup of Milk

Sauce – ½ Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Cocoa

1 ½ Cups hot water

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Melt the butter & milk in a large saucepan, sift dry ingredients into the saucepan & mix into a firm dough. Pour into a greased baking dish – 4 cup capacity.

In a small bowl mix the cocoa & brown sugar, then sprinkle over the pudding dough, pour over the hot water & bake for 30 mins or until set.

Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream or Cream.

Lamb & Cauliflower Tajine

1 Brown Onion Diced

4 Carrots, peeled, cut in half length wise and then in half width wise

handful of chopped Italian Parsley

6 Lamb Loin or forequarter chops

1/4-1/2 a Cauliflower head

1 Tomato halved

2tsp Ground cumin

2 tsp Paprika

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/3 cup water

Place the onions & spices in the base of your tajine or a cast iron pan. Add the chops and allow to brown slightly. Remove chops and place the sliced carrots on top of the onions, then layer the chops on top.

Cut the cauliflower into small flowerets and lay over the top of the chops, place the tomato on top, pour in the water and sprinkle a little extra, salt, cumin & paprika over the cauliflower. Cover and bring to a gentle simmer. Leave to cook slower for at least 2 hours or until almost all the water has evaporated. If you’re using a cast iron pan then you may need to add a little extra water and keep an eye on it as it seems to get hotter & hold the heat for longer than a tajine.

Serve with crusty bread & a garden salad or greens.

P.S. I was NEVER a fan of cauliflower but this has completely changed my mind, I even ate it by it’s self… no white sauce in sight!