Monthly Archives: July 2014

Jul28

Fruit and Nut breakfast bars

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I said this was the best breakfast bars I have ever baked.  I  picked up this recipe from an Aldi pamphlet.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup dried fruit roughly chopped ( I used dates, figs and apricots)
  • 1 cup trail mix 
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup pepita seeds
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 3 tbsp natural sweetener – Stevia or Equal
  • pinch of ground ginger
  • pinch of ground cinnamon
  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • extra cranberries and pepita seeds to sprinkle on top.

Method

  • Preheat a fan forced oven to 180 deg C.
  • Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  
  • Add butter and honey to a saucepan and stir over low heat until the butter has melted and mixture has combined.
  • Pour mixture over the dry ingredients and stir.
  • Press mixture into a greased lined 18cm x 27cm slice tin.
  • Scatter and press extra cranberries and pepita seeds over the top.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. 
  • Allow to stand for 5 minutes before transferring to fridge and allowing to set.
  • Cut into bars or squares before serving.

 

 

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Jul27

Manu Feidel’s Braised Lamb Shanks in Red Wine

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For those of you who don’t know –  Manu Feidel is a French chef who hosts a program called “My Kitchen Rules”  He is renowned for his love of copious amounts of sauce. This particular sauce has subtle layers of flavour but the hint of cinnamon just drives your palate crazy – well it drives mine crazy. Serve this with mash and heaven is created in your mouth.  Manu did use Veal Shanks in this recipe but I used Lamb Shanks.

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 60g cold unsalted butter, chopped
  • 4 Lamb shanks (about 500g each)
  • 1 onion cut into 2 cm pieces
  • 1 carrot cut into 2 cm pieces
  • 1 leek white part only cut into 2 cm pieces
  • 2 cloves garlic, bruised
  • 375ml red wine
  • 1 litre brown chicken stock
  • 3 sprigs thyme
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 10 juniper berries
  • 125 balsamic vinegar

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
  2. Heat the olive oil sand 20g of the butter in a large casserole pot over medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the shanks and cook for 5 mins until browned all over.  Remove the shanks and add onion, garlic, carrots, leek and stir for 6-8 minutes or until golden.
  3. Return shanks to the pan, than add the wine and bring to the boil.  Ad the stock, thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, juniper berries and balsamic vinegar.  Bring to the boil again, cover with a piece of baking paper (cartouche), then seal with a  lid and bake, turning the shanks once, for 2 hours or until the meat almost falls off the bone.
  4. Remove the shanks from the sauce, then strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve into a clean pan, pressing down on the solids with the back of a ladle to extract as much flavour as possible. Simmer the  sauce for 20 minutes or until it has reduced by half, then whisk in the remaining 40g of butter , one piece at a time.
  5. To serve, check the seasoning of the sauce and then pour it over the shanks. Serve with mash if desired.

TIP: After adding the wine and herbs and bringing it to the boil you can move this into a slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone.  Pick up the process from Step 4 once the meat is cooked

 

 

 

Jul23

carrot, ginger, and walnut cupcakes

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I have baked a lot of cakes in my time but this one has become my all time favourite. Its a recipe from Leila Lindholm.

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Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 270g caster sugar
  • 180g plain flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar ( I use vanilla paste)
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 150ml  sunflower oil
  • 450g grated carrots
  • 100g walnuts chopped
  • whole walnuts for decoration

Cream Cheese Lime Frosting

  • 65g soft butter
  • 300g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 100g cream cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175 Dec C.

2. Beat the eggs and the sugar until pale and fluffy.

3. Mix together the dry ingredients and fold into the egg mixture.

4. Stir in the oil, carrots and coarsely chopped walnuts.

5.  Put paper cases in a muffin tin and pour in the mixture until the cases are tow-thirds full.

6. Bake in the centre  of the oven for 12-15 mins. Leave to cool.

7. Make the frosting by mixing together the ingredients until creamy.

8. Spread the frosting on top of the cupcakes and decorate each one with a  whole walnut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jul15

Potato and Leek Soup

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This is a simple but delicious soup – a must for this cold winter…

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Ingredients

2 medium potatoes (400g) chopped coarsely
2 medium carrots (240g) chopped coarsely
1 large brown onion
1 medium tomato
1 trimmed celery stalk chopped coarsely
1.5 litres water (6 cups)
1 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
4 medium potatoes (800g) chopped coarsely, extra
1 large leek (500g), sliced thickly
300ml cream
2 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

Method
Combine potato, carrot,onion, celery and water in a large saucepan, bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes. Strain broth through colander into a large heatproof bowl, discard solids.

Heat oil and butter in same cleaned pan; cook extra potato and leek, covered 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer covered, 15 minutes. Cool 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make croutons.

Blend or process soup until smooth. Return to same pan and add cream, stir over medium heat until hot.

Serve bowls of soup sprinkled with combined herbs topped with croutons.