That's one humble crumble - pear and ginger crumble

I found this delicious looking recipe in an old copy of Australian Table magazine. I've kept fairly true to the original recipe except for a couple of things. In the original, Ginger in syrup was used. Unable to find it anywhere, even in a Chinese grocer, I then turned to plan B. What about a ginger jam? So that is what I have used and it worked a treat! Next thing was the Oat bran. I just wasn't sure about it.It sounded a bit too healthy for my liking.... So I've cut it out and added an extra half cup of rolled oats.
If you really love ginger then use 1 tablespoon and a half of the jam; otherwise 1 tablespoon is just perfect.
This dessert would easily serve 6 people as you don't need a huge amount to be satisfied. Another tip, you could also use ramekins so each of your guests gets their own individual bowl of yumminess...


ingredients

4 pears (I used Buerre Bosc) peeled, cored and diced
1 tablespoon of ginger jam or marmalade (I used Buderim Ginger Spread)
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
1 and 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
50g butter


how to make your crumble

pre heat oven to 220C.
combine pear, ginger, caster sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small pot over a low heat for 5 mins until sugar has dissolved. Now increase the heat to medium and cook for another 5 mins. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a food processor until mix resembles breadcrumbs. Pop the pear and ginger mix into a dish. Sprinkle over crumble mix and bake for 20 mins.
Devour with vanilla icecream. I haven't tried it but I think a simple warm chocolate sauce could even work with this dessert. Give it a try!

One cool Winter treat - Rhubarb and Mixed Berry Brown Betty

I came across this recipe a while back and thought, "I have to make this dessert, it has the cutest name!". Aside from that it tastes delicious too!
Traditionally this dish is made with plain bread, berries and a touch of lemon. Well, I've kept the lemon, I've added rhubarb to the berries and I've used raisin toast instead to add to that fabulous sweetness. My kids have allergies to eggs and nuts so I'm always on the hunt for yummy desserts that don't have those things in them. I have to say, this is one yummy dessert! Enjoy it fresh from the oven with icecream. Bizarely enough you will find another Brown Betty recipe, made within days of eachother, at Smitten Kitchen. We must be onto something people!

ingredients

250g rhubarb, chopped into 1cm pieces
400g mixed berries (I used frozen mixed berries - blueberries, raspberries and blackberries - you could just use blackberries if you like)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
a good tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
approx 7 pieces of raisin toast (you need 4 cups of crumbs)
90g unsalted butter, melted

how to make your brown betty

If using frozen berries make sure they are thawed before using.
Pre heat oven to 180C and get out your oven proof dish. A glass one if you have it, it will look beautiful when you take it out of the oven and pop it on the table.
Chop up the rhubarb and pop in a bowl with the berries. Add the sugar, lemon zest and juice, the cinnamon and the salt. Stir to combine and place in the base of your dish.

Make the bread into crumbs. Use a food processor if you have one, it will just make a better crumb. Melt the butter in the microwave. Mix the butter with the crumbs using a spoon or your hands until well combined. Top the fruit with the crumbs and pop in the oven for about 40 mins. The top should be nice and browned and the fruit all lovely and bubbling. So easy, so Yummy!

You could even add a finely chopped apple to the berries and rhubarb, if you like.

Make it a little bit fancy - Sausages and veg

I love trying out different flavoured sausages. One thing I miss about living in the Inner West is AC Butchery in Leichhardt. They have an amazing selection of sausages to suit everyone. I have to say though, our local Butcher is pretty good too. I have asked them for a few things like chicken and rocket sausages and they have given me a strange look and with other things they have said with a wink,"Let's see what I've got out the back".
I've used Herb and Garlic sausages with this dish but you could use another kind if you like. I think something fairly simple would work best in this recipe. Have a play around with it!

ingredients

6 sausages (2 per adult and 1 per child - you could easily add more, just adjust your cooking time)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
a good tablespoon of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
black pepper, freshly grinded
1 leek
4 carrots
4 potatoes
Green beans, enough for everyone (or any other vegetable you'd like to serve)
a good strong red wine like a pinot noir or a merlot perhaps


how to make your sausages and veg with red wine reduction

First thing, pop your sausages into a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to just under the boil and reduce to a very light simmer (otherwise you'll bust the skins) Cook for 15 mins. Meanwhile prep your veg. Chop the leek in half and then each half into half again until you have 4 equal pieces. Place in your roasting pan (The snags will sit on top of these) Chop your carrots into quarters, lengthways and place in the pan. Chop up your potatoes into largeish wedges and pop into your pan. Pre heat your oven to 200C. Now put the oil into a small saucepan and add the herbs and lots of pepper. Warm gently over a low heat. When the fennel starts sizzling, take it off the heat.
When your snags are ready, take them out carefully and place on top of the leeks. Pour the herbed oil over everything, cover with foil or lid and cook in the oven for 35 mins. At the end of 35 minutes, check to see how it is all going. If it's browning nicely put back in the oven for another 10 mins. If cooked but not browned, take off lid and put back in the oven for another 10 mins putting the heat up slightly to 220C.

When done, take out of the oven and remove sausages and veg from the pan and either place on your plates or put on another tray, keep warm. You want all the lovely juices from the pan now. Drain into a small saucepan and add 1/2 cup of wine. Put ovet a high heat and bring to the boil. Boil for about 5 - 10 mins, ensuring you are left with a thickish syrup. Cook your beans, either in the microwave or on the stove. While this is happening you can decide whether you want to puree the leeks and potatoes together or leave them as is. If you want mash potato whizz the leeks until smooth and then mash with the potato and a little butter or enjoy just as they are.

When everything is plated up, drizzle over the red wine reduction on the Adults plates. Think of it as a meal the kids will eat and with a touch of 'sauce', a special dinner for you guys.

Do Winter, Old School Style - pea and ham soup

Don't let the photo scare you, this is one tasty soup. Check out those retro colours! This soup is very simple to make and really doesn't take that long to put together. You can walk away and let it do its thing, add the peas, then walk away again. The tricky part is separating the meat from the bones at the end. You'll need a bit of space to do this as well as a sturdy pair of tongs and a small sharp knife.
This meal is very,very filling so it could easily feed 4 adults and 2 children with some lovely crusty bread; or leftovers can easily be frozen for up to 2 months for a quick and easy meal. Make sure you buy your ham hocks from a reputable Butcher and ask them to chop each hock into 3 pieces. It's also a relatively cheap cut of meat too. The smoky flavour it gives this soup is to die for!

ingredients

1 onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 parsley stalks, no leaves(I saw this in an old pea and ham soup recipe ages ago and have done it eversince. Try it!)
3 ham hocks, about 1 to 1.5kgs worth
3.5 litres water plus an extra 500ml for later
500g split green peas
fresh lemon juice, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste (you won't need a lot of salt)

How to make your soup

In a large saucepan add some oil and pop over a medium heat. Add your onion, celery, carrot and garlic and fry off until nicely done. Make sure you don't burn it. Then add 3.5 litres of water, your ham hocks and your parsley stalks and bring to the boil (this may take a little while) once boilng, reduce to a medium simmer,cover and cook for a good hour. When your hour is up add your split peas and 2 cups hot water. Pop the lid on and cook for another 45 mins or so. Give it a stir every now and then in case the peas are catching on the bottom. When it's ready take out the hocks and get rid of the skin and bones. Puree your soup with a hand held blender (I like it a little chunky)Pop half of the meat back into the soup, stir it through, add your lemon juice, salt and pepper, stir it through and ladle into your bowls. (Some pea and ham soups also add mint, but I really don't think it needs it) Top each bowl with some of the meat and serve with some crusty bread.

Too easy. Enjoy!

spice it up - chai tea cake

When I met my husband in 1999 he was the one who first introduced me to chai tea. On one of our very first dates we discovered this sweet little modern australian cafe in Glebe called 'The Edible Trader', which unfortunately is no longer there, but they had the most wonderful food and they made excellent chai tea, the traditional way.
So, soon after trying it and of course making our own at home, I had to make it into a cake! My first attempt for our very first house warming party (little did we know we would move 7 times in 11 years) was kind of a disaster. Something was not quite right, the cake came out as flat as a pancake. So for the night I called it my chai tea slice. Back to the drawing board I finally came up with this recipe and it has never let me down since. As you can see from the photo I made them into muffins but you can do either really, it's up to you. If you collect old copies of foodie magazines like I do, you may find this recipe in a 2003 issue of Australian Table, in the reader's recipe section!

ingredients

7grams of ginger, skin off
10 cardamom pods
10 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tea bag of your choice (I use a plain black tea)
2 teaspoons honey
60g Nuttelex
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
170g Self raising flour
100g hazelnuts, roasted, skins off and chopped (keeping some hazelnuts whole for topping each muffin or a few for the top of the cake)

when roasting your own nuts, put the oven on a lowish heat, place them on a tray lined with baking paper and leave them in for 5 mins or so. You can test one by taking it out of the oven carefully, using your fingers to rub off the skin. If it comes off easily they are done.

how to make your cake

pre heat your oven to 180C. Get your cake tin or muffin tray ready with baking paper, cases and/or oil spray.

Place ginger, cardamom, cloves and the cinnamon stick in a saucepan with 3/4 cup of water on high heat, bring to the boil and boil for 2 - 4 mins. Reduce heat to medium, add soy milk and the tea bag and simmer for 2 minutes. remove from heat, add honey and stir well to combine. Strain the liquid into a jug or bowl and set aside to cool. You will only use 3/4 cup of this chai liquid. Also at this point you could just enjoy it as a chai tea!

Place nuttelex and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 3 mins untl pale and thick (it will happen!) Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Fold through flour and hazelnuts, alternating with the chai liquid until well combined. Pour into prepared tin. Cook the cake for 55 minutes or until browned and a skewer comes out clean. Cook the muffins for about 20 - 30 minutes, checking them as you go. When you take out your muffins/cake pop your whole hazelnuts on top while the cake(s) are hot, this should keep them in place! Serve with a little thickened cream if you like but this cake is really yum on it's own.

For a double dose, enjoy with a cup of chai tea!

quince jam - marmellata di mele cotogne

First and foremost I would like to acknowledge that this recipe comes from the cookbook, "Twelve - A Tuscan Cookbook" by Tessa Kiros. As this was my very first attempt at jam making I have not altered the recipe at all, I followed her every word! This book was given to us as a wedding present in 2004 and unbelieveably I have never made anything from it. This recipe, however, was always in the back of my mind saying, "make me!, make me!". Well, I finally listened.

The process, from start to finish, took me 3 hours (not including cooling time at the end). I'm sure when I make it again it will be a little quicker and hopefully I will give you some tips that will lessen the time for you too. I have to say though I felt like an Italian Mama with my headscarf on, chopping and stirring and developing flavours. At each step I marvelled that it was all doing what it was meant to. The aroma throughout the house was like a beautiful rosy perfume. The whole experience was all very magical, especially seeing these bright yellow quinces transform into a rosy red jam in a space of a couple of hours. Truly worth every minute.


Pre-jam making - what you need

* A very large stainless steel pot (or 2 if you have them) to make the jam in but also to sit the filled jars in when you are ready to create your vacuum.
* Have some small jars on hand (I bought special preserving jars that actually did'nt work)Smaller jars that once held dijon mustard or salsa or whatever will be easier to use up as once they are opened they should be kept in the fridge and consumed fairly quickly
* Check that your oven can do 100C for the steralisation process. I discovered on the day that our oven started at 120C! Thankfully I found I could just as easily pop each jar in the microwave to steralise. Whichever you end up using just make sure they are clean
* Make sure everything else you use is clean too, like tea-towels, spoons, knives, chopping boards and even your sink
* You'll also need good kitchen scales, a timer and a hand held blender


Ingredients

* Buy about 2kgs of quinces (You will need 900g worth or 1.3kg depending on whether you want to add the pears too, but by the time you cut out the cores or discard any rotten bits I think it's better to have more on hand then less - in the end I had 3 spare)
* about 3 pears (You will need 400g worth after they have been peeled and cored)
* 1 cup of good red wine (I used Petit Clos by Clos Henri Marlborough New Zealand Pinot Noir - a gift from our friends who we helped cater their wedding)
* 500g Caster sugar (Next time I will use a little less but it in the end it all comes down to taste - see what you think)
* 1 lemon (You will need the zest and the juice)
* 1 litre cold water plus an extra 2 cups of hot water for later


How to make your jam

Wash the quinces with water and dry them with a tea towel to wipe away any fur and grit. Get out your saucepan and bottle of red wine. Cut the quinces into quarters, leaving the skins on but removing the cores. Pop them into the saucepan with the wine and over a low to medium heat, let the wine reduce a little. (If you are not using pears as well make sure you use 1.3kg of quinces instead of just 900g) Meanwhile, get your other bits ready. Peel and core the pears (if using) and zest the lemon. pop these into the saucepan along with the lemon juice, the sugar and the 1 litre of cold water. Bring to the boil then lower the heat slightly and cook for about an hour or until there is only a bit of thickened, syrupy liquid in the pot. (Be careful towards the end of the time as it may catch on the bottom. Stir it often or lower the temp but only until you are happy you are left with the thickened syrup) If using the oven to steralise your jars, pre heat it now to 100C.

Take the pot off the heat and add 2 cups of hot water and puree the quinces with a hand held blender. Put back on the heat and simmer for another 30 to 40 mins or until the jam has thickened and is a deep red colour. Spoon a little jam onto a plate and tilt the plate slightly. The jam should slide down with a little resistance. Take it off the heat if it is ready.

Just prior to this you should wash your jars and lids in the sink using very hot and soapy water. Rinse them, dry them and pop them onto a baking tray and place them in the oven for 10 mins prior to filling them. Take them out very carfully from the oven and carefully fill with the hot jam. Alternatively wash and rinse your jars (don't dry them) and pop them into a microwave, one at a time, for 1 minute per jar. Take them out very carefully and fill with the hot jam. Screw the lids on very tightly. If you have another large pot, use that, otherwise you will need to wash the pot you just made the jam in. Make sure it is extremely clean then fill it with cold water. Place the jars in the water bath ensuring they are well covered (you don't want water to evaporate during the boiling process,exposing the tops. You want to create a vacuum.) Now bring to the boil and once boilng, do so for 20 mins. Remove the pot from the heat and allow the jars to cool in the pot before removing them. Check the lids to see a vacuum has been created. Store them upright in a cool dark place and the jam will keep like this for up to 1 year. Once opened, store in the fridge.

I hope you enjoy making this jam as much as I did! have fun mxx

Cheap and Cheerful - Chicken and Rice

This is another dish that I grew up. I remember my Grandmother making this and when she grinded the pepper it seemed to go on for hours. She loved the peppery flavour the simple spice imparted. However, when I started eating grown up food I remember complaining about this. So for many years, untl my palate had grown up a little, my family would add the pepper after the cooking process or my Grandmother would make one especially for me, in a seperate roasting pan. She always knew how to keep everyone happy. Now I absolutely LOVE lots of pepper in this dish. The success of this meal kind of counts on it.

Depending on how many people you are feeding I generally do 2 chicken legs per person or 1 per child. This recipe will feed 4 people easily. Traditionally we ate this dish with some crusty bread but I think you can have too many carbs!

You'll need:
1 onion, chopped
500g uncooked, medium brown rice
8 chicken drumsticks
salt and pepper

Pre - heat oven to 190C and place baking paper in a roasting pan or use a creamic dish with a lid (no baking paper required) Heat oil in a fry pan and add your onion. Fry over a low heat so the onion softens. Turn up the heat a little and add your rice. Stir to slightly fry the rice. Now add salt and plenty of pepper. (You may want to see how you like the pepper taste after it's cooked so maybe go easy the first time you make it - it's up to you) Take off the heat and pour into your roasting pan. Now place the chicken drumsticks on top of the rice and pour over 2 cups of water. Cover tightly with 2 layers of foil or put on your lid and pop into your oven and bake for 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours.

The chicken will be falling off the bone so take them out carefully and hopefully the rice will be lovely and crispy around the edges, mmmmmmm my favourite part!