spanish night

This is from our Spanish night.

We made spicy sausage and cheese tortilla


red onion and orange salad


stuffed tomatoes


apple empanadas

easy sponge

When I got my stand mixer I was determined to master a sponge cake.
I searched through cook books and the internet and came up with several recipes to try.
This was the first one I tried as it was simple and easy, didn't have fifty different ingredients and it worked well. I have used it since.
I did try a different recipe not long ago but while I really liked the texture the rest of the family did not. So I will stick with this recipe for the time being.

Sponge Cake:

Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
1 C sugar
1 C SR flour
1/2 C warm milk

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Beat egg whites until very stiff, slowly add sugar while still beating, then add yolks, and lastly add warm milk
3. fold in flour gently and pour into 2 lined sandwich tins and cook in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
4. Cool and serve at room temperature.

To serve: I usually fill with jam, lemon butter (as in the picture) or passionfruit butter and Vienna cream (whipped cream with icing sugar and vanilla added). Place other half on top and dust with icing sugar or if you use passionfruit butter you may like to ice this with passionfruit icing.

my favourite things: toaster

The above toaster is my latest kitchen friend.
I have been looking for the last twelve months or so for kitchen equipment that lasts, has long warranties or can be fixed when it breaks rather than thrown away.
As we use our toaster everyday I think it is worthwhile to buy something that is going to last rather than have to constantly replace it.
I am sick of putting up with toasters that do not cook properly- the last toaster we bought drove me insane as you would have to press it down twice to get it to cook the bread and then watch the second time that it didn't burn, or toasters that last 6 -12 months and then die.
We have been using since February a toaster that we got from Paul's uncle, a little two slice toaster. It obviously couldn't stand up to the rigours of a family of eight and died last week.
A few days of cooking toast under the grill was not very successful so I went back to the internet and compared the two brands I was thinking about- this one won.
It is a Sunbeam Cafe Series 4 slice toaster.
It has a 5 year warranty on the elements and they are replaceable.
Yes it is more expensive than the average toaster but it will last me at the bare minimum 5 years, so it will actually work out cheaper in the long term.
It also has a lovely crumpet feature that we tried the other day.
I don't get crumpets too often as they contain the preservative 282.
It cooks the crumpets to perfection with the top brown and the bottom not burnt.
They were a lovely breakfast treat smothered in butter and honey.

my favourite things stand mixer

This is my Kitchen Aid Ariston Stand Mixer, I got it just before Christmas last year.
It was not technically a Christmas present, but a tax return present.
For most of last year I had to use my food processor for everything.
My blender had broken, one of the kids dropped the hand mixer and broke it, and my processor was not looking too good either but it was the only thing I had.
I decided to invest in good quality appliances that have long warranties, and that could be fixed rather than thrown out when broken.
My Kitchen Aid was one of these.
I love it!
I can actually make a lovely sponge with it and it is nice not having to stand and hold a mixer while I'm whipping things.
We use the dough hook for pizza or bread dough and it gets it done in no time.
I haven't got any attachments for it yet but am considering an ice cream attachment, and a mincer/ sausage maker.

melt- in- the- mouth vanilla biscuits

These delicious biscuits are exactly as the name implies melt-in-your-mouth. I make them in the food processor and they are very easy. You need to put them in the fridge for an hour before baking so not a last minute thing. But you can have the dough in the fridge or freezer ready for any last minute morning teas.

Melt-in-the-mouth Vanilla Biscuits

Ingredients:
180g butter, softened, chopped
1t vanilla bean paste (you can use extract)
1/3C icing sugar plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 T milk
1 3/4 C plain flour
2T cornflour

Method:
1. Put butter, vanilla, icing sugar into food processor, whiz until smooth. Add milk whiz again. Add sifted flour and cornflour, whiz until just forms a dough.
2. Place into fridge for 10 minutes until firm enough to roll.
3. Roll dough into a 30cm log, wrap in plastic or baking paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 160C. Grease oven trays (I usually use baking paper)
5. Cut dough into 4mm slices. Place on trays. Bake about 10 minutes or until just golden. Stand on trays 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool slightly.
6. While still warm, dust biscuits liberally with extra sifted icing sugar. Cool completely.

pizza

Pizza, pizza I like to eat the pizza, tomato and the cheese pizza pizza please!

This song from the Hooley Dooleys (children's band like the Wiggles) always comes up when we make pizza.
We have just started making pizza's again after a long break. We were inspired by the pizza on Master Chef and have been making them ever since.
We had pizza on the weekend. Our new family favourite is prawn and chorizo sausage topped with some coriander leaves after it comes out of the oven. Our second favourite is roasted pumpkin, caramelised onions and fetta cheese, some basil leaves sprinkled over after cooking makes it delightful.

Here is the recipe for the dough - I usually double this and make 6 large thin crusted pizzas.

Pizza Dough

15g Dried yeast
2 T sugar
2t salt
250ml lukewarm water
1T olive oil
425g bakers flour (approx 3 cups)

Place all ingredients into the bowl of your mixer with dough hook attached and mix for about 5 minutes until the smooth dough forms (or you can mix by hand- if you are doing that put water sugar and yeast together in a bowl and when it starts to bubble put in other ingredients, mix together and then knead until smooth and elastic).
Place in a greased bowl and cover, put in a warm spot until doubled in size (I usually cover with a tea towel and put into my oven at a very low temp 50C).
Knead dough and cut into 2 or 3 pieces depending on how thick you want the base.

Top with your favourite toppings:
The key is not to overload the pizza with lots of different toppings - less is more 3-4 max. Sometimes fresh herbs added at the end give it a fresh feel.

Here are some ideas:

Prawn and Chorizo: cover base with harissa paste (or use tomato) top with mozzarella and then large green prawns peeled and halved, chorizo thinly sliced, sprinkle with a touch more mozzarella. After cooking sprinkle with fresh coriander leaves.

Pumpkin and Feta: Roast small thin pieces of pumpkin until cooked. Harissa or tomato paste on the bottom, add a layer of caramelised onions top with pumpkin and sprinkle with crumbled fetta, cook. After cooking add some more crumbled feta and torn basil leaves.

Chicken and bacon: dice and cook bacon, top base with BBQ sauce or tomato, add a layer of caramelised onions, add chicken (we used shaved breast from the deli) bacon and mozzarella, cook

Hot Salami Pizza: Tomato sauce (I use home made) sprinkle with mozzarella top with salami and halved cherry tomatoes- cook until crisp, tear some buffalo mozzarella and sprinkle over the top and add some fresh mint leaves (from master chef)

Meat Lovers: BBQ sauce, mozzarella and meats of your choice- ham, kabana, salami, chorizo, bacon etc.

Classic Ham and pineapple: BBQ or tomato sauce, top with cheese (we use some caramelised onions on this one - pictured top) ham and pineapple (we usually used crushed pineapple drained but didn't have any so used pineapple thins instead)- top with a bit more mozzarella and cook.

To Cook: Turn oven up really high to heat 230C. My oven has a function where I can use top and bottom elements together and this is the best as it cooks the base crispy and top browns nicely. Pizza should only take 6-8 minutes at this temp depending on thickness of base.

caramelised onions

These are a lovely accompaniment to meat, particularly, hamburgers or steak sandwiches.
They are great on pizza and a restaurant I go to always has some on their pate plates with pears and quince paste mmm.

They are easy to make and only take a few minutes. You can keep them in the fridge, but we never have any left over.

Caramelised Onions

2 red or Spanish onions thinly sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar
splash olive oil
splash balsamic vinegar

Put a splash of oil in the bottom of a fry pan and put onions in, place lid on and cook over low heat for a few minutes until soft- you may need to turn the onions a few times.
Do not brown the onions.
Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved,
splash with a bit of balsamic vinegar and stir through.