A Quick Crumble

Hubby and I had a weekend away recently - no kids for the first time in 2 and a bit years! It was heavenly. We did nothing! except I did drag him to a Country Thrift store and found the old school desk you can see in the photo. I fell in complete love with it....Now I have to find a couple of old school chairs to go with it!

The desk is so low and tiny and yet, as you can see in the photo, someone has carved, Skool sux, into it.....how cute!

ingredients for 2 people

1 ripe beurre bosc pear, peeled and diced
1/2 punnet ripe strawberries, washed, stalk taken off and chopped in half
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon water
cream or icecream for serving

crumble

4 Shredded wheatmeal biscuits, crumble them in your fingers (which is what I did or if you are after a more uniform look, whizz them in a processor (I'm sure you could use savordi biscuits or anzac biscuits too - I used what I had in the cupboard)
1/4 cup shredded coconut (I only had desiccated in the cupboard - doesn't alter the flavour, just the look)
1/4 cup oats

how to make A Quick Crumble

Under your griller, lay some baking paper or foil and lay out the crumble mixture. Pop on a medium heat and toast lightly. When you smell the coconut and the biscuits, mix it around again. Keep doing this, while not letting it burn, until everything is a light brown.

Mean while, throw the fruit, water and sugar in a medium saucepan and warm over a medium heat. Keep it moving and add a touch more water if the fruit is catching on the bottom. When the fruit is soft enough add it to your serving bowls, top with crumble mix and your choice of cream or icecream.....you could even add a dash of dessert wine to the cream if you like!

perfect for easing yourself back into parenthood!

Pea and Fennel Crostini

Thinking about this combo now I'm sure it has already been done.....however, I am always a little slow with these things!

I was getting dinner together, the usual scenario, and I was was thinking about what vegetables I was going to serve with my sausages. In the fridge there was: half a carrot, a few cobs of corn and a bag of peas in the freezer.........that was it! So I had a look at what was ready in our vegie patch (sorry for not updating pics of our vegie patch. It is in full swing as usual but I am just so busy keeping up with everything else - so apologies to everyone) Anyway, the fennel was looking gorgeous..........what to do, what to do!


Ingredients

360 - 380g fennel (not including fronds) fronds removed and fennel chopped into thin wedges

200g frozen peas

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Rustic baguette

How to make your pea and fennel crostini

Pop your oven on to 180C. Grab a heat proof dish and throw in the fennel with some extra virgin olive oil. Pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes. Make sure the fennel doesn't char, you want it to be lovely and silky soft. With about 20 minutes to go, grab another heat proof dish and throw in your chopped rustic baguette and drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil. When both the bread and fennel are ready, pop the fennel in a bowl. Meanwhile, pop your peas in a microwave proof dish with about 2 tablespoons water and microwave for about 3 minutes (depending on your wattage) drain and add to the fennel. Grab your bamix and blend roughly, till your desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve!

I haven't tried it but roasted garlic pureed through might be nice too.....let me know if you try it!

Grab a large plate and throw on the warmed chopped baguette. In a small dish add your pea and fennel puree.

Great mixed with Tuna and salad or enjoy instead of mashed potato! YUM

Buckwheat Pikelets with Manuka honey and orange syrup

Friends sometimes ask me how I work out my recipes, where do the ideas come from. Well,I love pouring through cookbooks, magazines - especially those ones at the Doctors from 1998! Sometimes it's a word like, pie - something so very homey about that word to me. Sometimes it's a namelike , Gwyneth Paltrow - what? Ms Paltrow has written a cookbook? ok, ok,ok - let me have a look
.........................hmmm..................oooooh.........really?................


the girl can cook!


Notes from my Kitchen Table is a really lovely cookbook filled with a nice mix of things from soups, to salads, to mains, to sweet treats and breakfast ideas. She talks about her Dad, her family, her little ones and really if you didn't know who she was you would just think she is like every other Mum wandering what to cook her kids for dinner....

She explains a few things about brown sugar and flour and it got my mind turning and whirring until today I popped into the shops and found my self in the health food aisle and discovered they actually had what I needed - Buckwheat flour!!!

I followed my friend Carolines recipe guide for pikelets at her blog here with a slight variation and I've teamed it with a delicious honey, cardamom and orange syrup.

And make sure you are pretty liberal with that syrup too as these pikelets are just too darn healthy without it!

Ingredients

1) 1 cup buckwheat flour (160g)
2) 1 cup soy milk (240g)
3) 1 egg, beaten
4) 1 large tablespoon of raw sugar ( 15g)
5) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

ingredients for syrup

2 large tablespoons of manuka honey (approx 90-95g)
3 cardamom pods
a small amount of orange zest, you don't want to overpower it.


how to make your buckwheat pikelets with Makuka honey and orange syrup

Throw the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl and whisk. Set aside for 10 mins, as Caroline does. Meanwhile, make your syrup.

In a small saucepan add the 3 ingredients together and warm over a low heat for about 6 minutes. Sieve into your sauce pourer.

In a large saucepan add some butter and when heated enough add small scoops of your pikelet mix. I could fit 4 per batch and made in total - 10 pikelets. Wait till they start to bubble and then flip over. They are pretty quick!

Done......my kids totally loved these.....smothered in the syrup of course!
I think these would also be delicious with some creme fraiche mixed through the syrup!