pavlova

Here is the recipe to one of my favourite desserts.
It is from the red NMAA Cooks book available here.

(this pav is still cooking and I don't have one of the finished pav)

Pavlova

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

8 T castor sugar

0.25 t sugar

0.5 t vanilla

1t vinegar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Beat egg whites and salt until stiff.

add sugar gradually, I like to do 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, beating constantly.

Fold in vanilla and vinegar.

Cover tray (I usually use a large pizza or biscuit tray) with baking paper and spoon mixture onto it, making outer edges a little higher.

Turn oven down to 130C , put pavlova onto the lowest shelf and cook for 1.5-2hrs.
Allow to cool in oven.

To serve cover with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Strawberries in season are lovely or passionfruit, banana and kiwi fruit is another favourite.

Hint: Do not cook this on a rainy humid day if you want it crispy on the outside.

pickled onions

VCH made pickled onions out of some small onions in his garden, here is the recipe he used.

Pickled Onions

3kg pickling onions
250g salt
250g sugar
1L vinegar
2t ground mace
2t pepper
2t allspice
2t coriander seeds

Peel onions , cover with salt and enough water to just cover them.
Leave 24 hours, drain,pour cold water over them and drain again.
Wipe onions dry and place in dry jars.
Boil together vinegar and other ingredients for 15 minutes.
Strain, pour over onions immediately and seal.

Too easy, they taste very nice- the kids say like the shop bought ones.

beetroot and mint salad

This was last night's tea.
Steak, potatoes, and veges.
The vegetables were golden zucchini and eggplant from the garden char grilled.
VCH even declared that the eggplant was yummy!
Fresh asparagus also char grilled- not from the garden but in season and cheap at the moment.
Nothing can beat fresh asparagus - yum!!
It would have to be one of our favourite vegetables but you can only eat it for such a short period of time.

The other vegetable was beetroot also from the garden.
I didn't have time to cook it so I made up this super quick salad that we all agreed was just so yummy.
I have written it down here for you to try.


Beetroot and mint salad

Ingredients:
2 beetroot
white balsamic vinegar
2 heaped tablespoons sour cream
Mint

1. Peel and grate the beetroot leaving the stalk on it- to stop it bleeding too much.
2. Put this in a bowl with a splash of white balsamic vinegar
3. Mix in sour cream and roughly chopped mint

It is just so delicious.

peru

Last week we studied Peru.

Our meal was a dish from Peru called Tacu Tacu which is traditionally a working man's lunch dish made from leftovers and originated with African Slaves.


It consisted on a rice and bean patty, a thin sheet of steak, Fried Plantain (I used bananas - as per recipe) and a fried egg on top.
The rice and bean patty was too hot even though I had used half the amount of chilli.
The fried bananas were good.
VCH thought the dish was a bit dry- I would probably agree with him.

We also had a frozen lime drink- very refreshing in this hot weather.
I would definitely make this again.

Dessert was a caramel meringue parfait.
The caramel was made by boiling a tin of condensed milk for a couple of hours. (it tasted exactly the same as caramel top'n'fill) and the meringue was made by boiling port and sugar together and then adding to whipped egg whites.
You put the caramel into parfait glasses and then pipe the meringue on top, chill.
Sprinkle with cinnamon just before serving.
These were extremely rich.

There was heaps of meringue mixture left over so I piped it onto a tray (I am not one for piping much) and cooked it as for cooking meringues and we ate them at the same time as the dessert.
I think the kids liked them best of all.
I also found a nice salad recipe with corn in it but I didn't think we would be able to fit it in, but I would like to make it some other time.
It is interesting trying different things from other countries.
Some are hits and others not but I am glad that the children are always keen to try new things.

in my kitchen- pantry

My kitchen is very special to me, I waited a long time for it and when we did our extension two years ago I finally had the chance to build my dream kitchen and I love it!

It is beautiful, functional and I love to cook in it!

We have a large walk in pantry with bench space.
VCH fitted it out for me using the timber bench from our old kitchen, restaining it to match the bench in the main kitchen.
VCH and I designed it and he built the shelves out of white melamine.

It has space for my cookbooks, electrical appliances- the ones we use everyday we keep on the bench.

We keep the first aid kit and medical stuff in here.
It has space for a month's worth of groceries for my family of 8 as well as some of the larger Tupperware and casserole dishes
.
The pantry has sliding doors to hide away the mess when visitors come but other than that we hardly use them.

Last year I picked up a design book in a tile showroom and happened to flip open to a pantry that could have been mine- it was almost exactly the same (except it had been "styled" for the photo with matching everything), I couldn't believe it!

eating our national emblem

Some people from other countries may think it strange to eat your national emblem but here in Australia the aboriginals have been doing it for thousands of years.
The early settlers often did too.
As we have become more refined we have moved away from it.
But now it is coming back into fashion.
They have found that kangaroo meat is actually very good for you, and people are starting to eat it more.
VCH and I have tried it a couple of times at restaurants usually as an entree, but I have never cooked it myself, until the other day that is.
Whilst shopping for ingredients for our meal from Brazil I saw some in the meat section of the supermarket.
They had them as garlic and herb mini roasts so I thought we would give it a burl.
Here is the result.

Most people enjoyed it, they particularly liked the red wine jus I made to go with it and we had roasted veges with a breadcrumb topping - very nice and some lovely fresh broccoli straight from the garden. - yummy!

don't cry for me argentina

My children are so sick of hearing me sing the lines to that classic song every time we talk about Argentina.

But they now know the meaning behind it.

Here is what we cooked.

Pastel de papas.
Which is basically cooked mince sandwiched between mashed potato.


And a salad- their salad only had lettuce and tomato but I had to add some cucumbers from the garden and a nice dressing with parsley and mint from the garden.

Everyone really liked this and have requested it again.

Then yesterday morning we had Churros for morning tea.

You boil water, salt and butter and then add the flour and cook.
Then you roll the dough into shapes and deep fry in hot oil and sprinkle with icing sugar.
In Argentina they serve it with dulce de leche which is basically a tin of condensed milk boiled until it caramelises.
I didn't bother with this but got a tin of caramel fill out of the pantry and heated it until it was smooth.
Dip your Churros into the caramel and enjoy.

meal from brazil

For our meal from Brazil we had Brazilian donuts for morning tea.

For the night time meal we did a Brazilian BBQ with chicken skewers marinated in garlic and lime juice and then topped with yoghurt and Parmesan cheese before grilling. Yummy!
We also had kebabs with lamb, pork chorizo sausage and mushrooms, I used a Portuguese marinade, because a lot of their recipes are Portuguese based, it was very spicy. this was served with Brazilian rice, and a salsa made with capsicums, tomatoes, and onion.
We made Swiss lemonade (which is made with limes) and for dessert we made Brigadeiro, a little sweet made with condensed milk and cocoa.

I have become out of practice at taking photos of meals and forgot to take some of the main, so I only have photos to show you the donuts and the sweets.
We are off to Argentina next- stay tuned.

V slicer

This is my V slicer.
Well technically it is VCH's not mine, I bought it for him for Christmas.
He had wanted one for so long - like they used to have when he was a kid.
We bought one on e-bay but it didn't work good enough for him.
But when our new kitchen shop opened just before Christmas they had them, so I bought him one for Christmas.
It is great, he loves it, I love it, the kids love it.
It is so easy to slice onions, tomatoes, carrots- anything you want thin and uniformly sliced.
It is quick and easy to use with very little washing up.

sachertorte

This is the Sachertorte that B2 made for his dessert - come morning tea to conclude our study of Europe.
This has been sitting in my draft folder for weeks and I hadn't got around to publishing it.
I was going to include the recipe but when I looked at it it is all in grams which I find annoying and I can't remember what the cup measurements were when we went through it as it was too long ago.
It was nice but I think I would add more cocoa powder, as I don't think it was really dark enough.

last meal in europe

This week the boys got to pick their own country in Europe to study.

B1 chose Norway, B2 Austria and B3 Denmark.
They each had to pick a part of the meal to make and choose a recipe.
B2 chose dessert but we forgot to start it before we went out for the afternoon to our Home School meeting.
So we will have that for dessert tonight.

B3 did the main- a meatball dish from Denmark
So B1 had to make some vegetable dishes from Norway.
They mustn't eat many salads or veges in Norway as it was really hard to find any recipes.

We settled on a cucumber salad, and a beetroot salad that was inspired by a salad someone had in Norway.

We decided that the coconut in the dish was probably not authentic!
Next term they have decided to study South America.

strawberry jam

Today I made strawberry jam.

Strawberries were 66c a punnet (250g) at our local fruit and veg this week so I bought 6 punnets to make strawberry jam.
It actually only makes 1 1/2 - 2 cups of jam.
6 punnets don't go a long way.
But it is still fun to make.
The recipe I have is very simple.

Strawberry Jam
1.5 kg strawberries
2 C sugar
juice 1 lemon

Hull strawberries and then wash them,

place them into a saucepan and sprinkle over 1C sugar,

cook until sugar softens slightly, then add the rest of the sugar, warmed.

Add lemon juice and boil until jam jells when tested, usually about 1 hour.

Bottle while hot in warm sterilised jars, seal when cold.


To test jam place a small amount of jam on a cold saucer or plate that has been in the fridge or freezer. Leave for about 1 minute. push your finger through the jam if it wrinkles on the surface it is cooked and ready for bottling. this is what is meant by the term jells.

To sterilise jars wash them thoroughly in hot water and then place in an oven on a low heat for 5-10 minutes.

a take on a sausage sandwich

We don't always eat gourmet meals around here, a lot of our meals are very simple- a roast, meat and veg or meat and salad.
Last night was one of those nights.
We had our healthier version of a sausage sandwich- a classic Australian BBQ dish
We had sausages, buns, and coleslaw with grated cheese, cooked onions, mustard and sauces for tea.
The cabbage and carrot for the coleslaw came fresh from the garden.
B2 also added, grated zucchini, capsicum and red onion.

wedding anniversary

To celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary we had a lovely three course meal with the children.

We stared with a prawn cocktail with a twist.
I made a mango and avocado salsa (chopped mango and avocado, coriander, mint with lime zest and lime juice, brown sugar and sweet chilli sauce) and a lime mayonnaise (mayonaisse, sour cream, lime juice and zest) to go with it and some chopped Asian style lettuce from our garden on the bottom of the dish.


Then for the main we had our favourite harrissa lamb cutlets.
Dessert was reminiscent of our wedding cake (pictured below) we had a Croquembouche.


(I would really like to make one of these one day).


So I made profiteroles and filled them with a custard cream and served them with macerated strawberries and chocolate fudge sauce. YUMM!!

It was a lovely family meal and we thought the children should be involved after the weekend.

apple turnovers

We love these for breakfast, morning tea or dessert.
They are quick and easy to make.
I usually use frozen puff pastry and tinned pie apple.
But I have made them with my own pastry and stewed apples.

Apple Turnovers

Large tin Pie Apple (425g)
Sultanas (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)

6 sheets puff pastry (makes 24)
Icing sugar
Whipped cream or ice cream to serve

1. Cut pastry sheets into four squares, place a spoonful of pie apple on each, sprinkle with cinnamon and sultanas if you want to, or you can mix it all into a bowl and just spoon from there.
2. Fold over pastry square to make a triangle and press edge with a fork.
3. Put on an oven tray with baking paper and bake at 220C until cooked 10-15 minutes (I use my fan bake option on my oven which heats top and bottom evenly which is great for pastry, if you don't have this you may need to turn them over to brown the other side)
4. Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes and sprinkle with icing sugar.
5. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
(NB the cream in the photo had cocoa powder added to it for some chocolate scones I made the day before)

This is the pattern left by the icing sugar after I sprinkled them the other day, I thought it looked cool!

french food

We visited France last week.

So dined in Paris on Tuesday night!
We enjoyed an entrée of Deep Fried Camembert with Cranberry Jelly courtesy of B1.

A Spinach Quiche from B2 and a lovely salad by B3 were the main

and I successfully pulled off Creme Caramels for dessert!

We used lovely greens from the garden for the salad and our never ending supply of silverbeet for the quiche- it is so satisfying to cook with vegetables from your own garden- I just need to remember to use the cabbage!

thursday night's tea

This is one of our home-grown chickens.

Last night I roasted it and served it with mashed potato, coleslaw, corn on the cob and gravy.

I couldn't work out why this looked strange when I took the photo- like I had forgotten something- can you guess?

The gravy!

I poured it on and ate this delicious tea- another one of my favourites- like a take-away without all the nasties!

The cabbage, carrot, and chicken were all home-grown. YUMMO!!

Tonight's tea is Thai fish cakes another favourite- what a great week of super yummy meals we've had.

wednesday night's tea

On Wednesday night we enjoyed a scrumptious tea.
I cooked my favourite lamb cutlets (which are affordable when you buy a whole lamb).
I always do something with lamb cutlets because they are such a special cut of meat.
This time I crumbed them.
I have found an easy short cut.
Mix breadcrumbs with melted butter, grated parmesan or some other hard cheese, and chopped parsley together in a bowl.
Press onto each side of the cutlet and grill under the griller in your oven.
This was accompanied by boiled potatoes tossed in butter and parsley, green beans lightly cooked so they are still green and crisp and honeyed carrots.
So simple yet so delicious.

Strawberries are cheap at the moment so we had strawberries and cream for dessert.
We don't often have dessert but who can resist strawberries and cream?
I quartered the strawberries sprinkled them with sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar- it might sound strange but it really brings out the sweetness. After they had marinated about 1/2 an hour I added some chopped fresh mint and served them with whipped cream MMMMM!!!!

muesli bars

Yesterday for morning tea B2 made muesli slice.
This is a really easy recipe and is also very easy to adapt with whatever dried fruit or nuts you like or have.
This is really yummy with chopped dried apricots, macadamia nuts and white choc chips.
Although I usually add just whatever I can find in the pantry at the time.

Muesli Slice

Ingredients:
2 C rolled oats
3/4 C raisins or sultanas
3/4 C sunflower seeds
1/2 C Choc chips
1/2 C chopped dates
1 tin Condensed Milk (395g)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl adding the condensed milk last.
Pour into a 20x30cm shallow pan lined with baking paper, press down with the back of a spoon or a wet hand.
Bake for 30-35 minutes at 160C
remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes and slice into bars or squares.

scotch eggs

B1 and B2 made scotch eggs the other night for tea. They were delicious and easy to make.

Simply boil the eggs we did 16, and had a couple left over for lunch the next day.
Cool the hard boiled eggs and peel.
Wrap them in some sausage mince (1kg) that you have added flavouring to -we usually add some curry powder and tomato sauce, but you can use any herbs, spices or sauce just don't make the mince too runny. Put them in muffin pans and cook at 180C for about 20 minutes or until the mince is cooked through.
They are great with salad, you can eat them hot or cold and are also yummy the next day.
Good also for a picnic lunch.

german cooking

We travelled to Germany last week so enjoyed cooking and eating a meal.

It is quite enjoyable with B1, B2, B3 and myself all cooking together.
I give one dish to each child to cook and we all help where needed.


B1 made the apple strudel for dessert.


B2 made the hot potato salad.


B3 made the carrot salad.


I made the cucumber and dill salad.
And we all pitched in to do the mustard pork chops.


The meal was very yummy.
The sauce on the pork was very rich and we felt very full after the main meal so the kids cleaned up the kitchen, put the dishwasher on and washed the big stuff up before we had dessert.
We have been having so much fun visiting all these countries we are off to France this week.