rustic lemon clouds

Whenever I visit a close friend of mine she always gives me a few of her Aunt's lemon bicuits that she has stashed away in the cupboards. You know the kind, lemon flavoured, crunchy, spicy hard icing - DELECTABLE. I even found a store-bought variety when we were living in the inner west. Whenever I'm in that way I always manage to buy a box....or 3!

here is my version of that recipe. They are not as crunchy, these are quite light but still delicious with that hint of lemon. There's no egg or nuts so anyone with allergies can devour these too!.......enjoy!


Pre heat oven to 200C. Line a biscuit tray with baking paper.

ingredients

150g self raising flour (approx 1 cup)
20g caster sugar (just over 1 tablespoon)
70g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup light sour cream
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) lemon zest


1/2 cup icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoons boiling water
2 teaspoons lemon juice

how to make your rustic lemon clouds

Mix flour and sugar together in a large bowl. Make a well and add the butter and sour cream. Incorporate with a dessert spoon. The mix will be quite crumbly. Now you can knead it with your hands in the bowl. When you've brought it toghether in a ball (try not to overwork) break into smallish balls (I usually get about 12 balls) place on your tray and gently push down a little with your thumb. Pop them in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Don't discard your baking paper!!! Place this under a cooling rack and take your biscuits off their tray and cool them on your rack

When cool enough for the icing, mix together and spoon over about a teaspoon over each biscuit. It will drizzle over the sides but the mix should be quite thick too. When the icing has hardened they are ready for popping in a container or devouring. They also taste fine the next day after they have been overnight in the fridge...if of course they last that long!

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!

Apple and Rosemary Jelly - Sweet or Savoury?

well, to answer the question - both!

I've created 2 versions of this recipe. The first version is with less apple juice and more rosemary - Once it has set, leave it out of the fridge for at least half an hour prior (nearly room temp) to serving with your roast lamb.

and

The second version is with more apple juice and less rosemary - perfect for a refreshing dessert! Serve it with some hazelnut shortbread perhaps...

ingredients for the first version

1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 cup apple juice, not a chilled variety, I used Dewlands
approx 10cm piece of rosemary stork, stripped of its leaves

1 tablespoon of powdered gelatine softened in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of cold water

How to make your Apple and Rosemary Jelly - First version

Place the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan and bring it just to the boil. Take it off the heat and add the softened gelatine and stir to combine well, ensuring there are no lumps! Strain into 3/4 cup capacity ramekins. (I used little jars that previously held GÜ cheesecakes from Woolworths - I find they are the perfect size for jellies and look pretty too!)
For decoration you could add a sprig of rosemary into the jelly prior to popping in the fridge. Pop in the fridge until set.

ingredients for the second version

1 1/2 cups apple juice, not the chilled variety, I used dewlands
1/2 cup boiled water
approx 10cm sprig of rosemary
1 tablespoon of gelatine softened in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of cold water

How to make your Apple and Rosemary jelly

Boil the kettle and measure out a half cup of boiled water. Add the sprig of rosemary and steep for at least half an hour.

In a saucepan, add the apple juice and the steeped water (discard the rosemary) bring it just to the boil. Take off the heat and add the softened gelatine and stir to combine well, ensuring there are no lumps! Pour into 3/4 cup capacity ramekins. (I used little jars that previously held GÜ cheesecakes from Woolworths - I find they are the perfect size for jellies and look pretty too!)
For decoration you could add a sprig of rosemary into the jelly prior to popping in the fridge. Pop in the fridge until set.

Makes 6.

Yummy Casserole with no name

I've been trying to think of a name for this casserole for the last 2 weeks! My husband suggested, "Earthy Casserole".....and then I told him to shush. Actually, my ideas weren't any better........Beef Casserole with risoni, chickpeas, tomatoes, spinach and lemon.......Rustic Casserole with lemon........then I told myself to shush.......so here's my Yummy Casserole with no name.

Just a heads up....Our kids weren't a huge fan of the spinach in this dish but they loved everything else....but our kids are weird.....they like sucking on lemons....**

ingredients

500g beef chuck steak, cubed (approx 2 - 3cm)
approx 6 eschallots. peeled and kept whole
1-2 whole cloves (optional)
5 peppercorns
1 litre beef stock
1 tin of chick peas, drained
about 10 cherry tomatoes, whole, preferably ones on the vine, vine removed
1 cup risoni pasta
1 - 2 bunches spinach (after the stems and the middle membrane have been removed and you are just left with the green bits you should have approx 130 - 180g
1 lemon

how to make your Yummy Casserole with no name

Pre- heat oven to 180C. Grab a large roasting pan and line with baking paper if necessary.

Drop some oil into a high sided pot and bring to a mid heat. When the oil has heated up enough add pieces of meat. Brown the meat in 3 batches otherwise you will crowd it and the meat will stew and not brown. I use my BBQ tongs here so I don't get spat at by the oil. If the meat is burning turn the heat down otherwise you will get a horrible vegemite flavour in your end result. Brown each side and set aside on a plate when done. When you have browned off all your meat add the eshallots and garlic if using and keep moving over a low flame. When they have softened a little add the meat again and throw in all your stock. Bring to the boil. Once boiling take off the heat and pour carefully into your roasting pan. Cover with 3 layers of foil tightly and pop in the oven.

Now you can cook this for 1.5 hours or up to 2 hours. It's up to you. I've done both and the only difference is: the meat is a little more tender with the 2 hour time and there are less juices.

If doing the 1.5: Take out of the oven (Don't discard the foil) Add the risoni first, then the chickpeas and the tomatoes. Pop the foil back on and cook for another 35 mins.

If doing the 2: Take out of the oven (Don't discard the foil) Add the risoni first and a half cup of boiling water, then the chickpeas and the tomatoes. Pop the foil back on and cook for another 35 mins.

After 35: Take out of the oven (Don't discard the foil) Add the spinach over the top of the whole dish. No need to mix it with the juices. Pop the foil back on and cook for another 5-8mins until the spinach is cooked.

Pop the spinach on the plates first then pile over the top the remainder of the casserole. Serve with Lemon wedges. (The lemon juice goes perfectly with everything on the plate and just adds that little extra something) Enjoy!


**Ok, you are not weird if you like sucking on lemons.

Sweet Things - any way you like them....

Golly, is all I can say! I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. Quinces are all ready gone for another year....I often wonder if I would love quinces as much if I could have them all year round. I wonder? and Winter is here....again! and we are enrolling our big little guy into kindy for next year so finding his birth certificate proved to be a bit more of a challenge then expected.....but it was eventually found.....with last years enrolment form! and I lost my voice for a few days too......Life is never dull here!

I've adjusted the following recipe from one I found in a Country Style magazine. The original was a savoury version but I have much more of a sweet tooth (as I'm sure you're all aware) so I re-jigged the recipe accordingly. I'm sure you could use all sorts of fillings if you like. I've tried milo and cream cheese; diced fig, ricotta and honey and I've also tried diced pear and honey too. Use whatever you have in the pantry I say. Make things easy for yourself and just see what happens! have fun!

ingredients

2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons caster sugar
40g butter, chopped
up to 1 cup of milk

fillings of your choice

How to make your sweet things

Pre-heat oven to 180C fan forced and grab a few biscuit trays and line them with baking paper.

Place flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter until it resembles bread crumbs. Make a well and pour in the milk, slowly, (Don't add all the milk right away it depends on the flour) Use a flat blade knife to bring it together. Turn onto a floured bench and knead until smooth. Sprinkle some more flour onto the bench and roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle with a 1cm thickness. Now you need to get your fillings ready. I normally cut into 2 rectangles so I have 2 different fillings. When adding your fillings just remember to cover the whole rectangle otherwise you might miss out on the flavours!

Once you've added your fillings you need to roll your rectangle (kind of like a swiss roll I guess - the long part gets folded over. Now cut into approx 1.5cm slices and lay each sweet thing onto your tray, leaving a small space around them. You should get at least 30 or so. Pop your trays in the oven and bake for 30 to 35mins or until golden brown. (just be careful when using honey it tends to brown the bases quickly)