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Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

Small Man’s Treacle Pudding

Posted in Frugal Living, Recipes, tagged on August 31, 2011| 64 Comments »

Small Man doesn’t like “bits” in his cakes, but he does love treacle, so I morphed Edith’s Economical Pudding into a Treacle Pudding for him.

In the process, we’ve made it even more economical!  I’d like to think Edith would be proud.  Here’s the reworked recipe:

Cake

  • 60g (2oz) unsalted butter, very soft
  • 70g (1/3 cup) vanilla sugar (or white sugar)
  • 1 large (59g) egg
  • 125g (½ cup) milk
  • 225g (1½ cups) self-raising flour
  • 3 teaspoons treacle

Sauce

  • 150g (¾ cup) brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon (4 teaspoons) treacle
  • 250g (1 cup) water
  • 60g (2oz) unsalted butter
  • juice of half a lemon

I followed the same method as before, and baked the pudding for 40 minutes in a 170C fan-forced oven.  I’m not sure if it was a product of the slightly shorter baking time or the smaller casserole pot, or if the absence of dried fruit meant that the cake absorbed less liquid, but the finished dessert had a wonderful layer of sauce on the bottom.

Needless to say, Small Man was very happy!

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Weekend Garden Pasta

Posted in Recipes, tagged , on August 28, 2011| 39 Comments »

Step 1: Go into the garden with your beloved and gather cooking greens.  Spread them out on the outdoor table and admire them.

On this particular day, our yard offered up broccoli, perennial leeks, Tuscan kale, bok choy, spinach, Continental parsley (of course) and the funny little peas growing in the chook plantings.  We also had some radishes (which I washed and ate straight away) and a few self-sown potatoes (which we turned into potato salad with homemade mayonnaise).

Step 2: Wash all the greens and chop them up.  Defrost and cut up some of Diana and Ian’s garlic, and count out ten anchovy fillets.  Have a little chilli oil on standby.

Step 3: Go to the pantry and choose a packet of fancy pasta.  Put a big pot of salted water on the stove, and once it’s at a rolling boil, butta la pasta (throw in the pasta)…

Step 4: In a large wok (like this gorgeous red clay one from Emile Henry), heat up a generous slurp of oil and gently fry all the garlic, anchovies, chopped greens and a little chilli oil (if desired).   Mix well, adding water as needed, and let it simmer gently with the lid on, stirring occasionally to stop it burning.  Cook until soft and wilted, which should take about as long as the pasta needs to cook.

Step 5: Once the pasta is al dente, ladle a scoop of the cooking liquid into the garden sauce to loosen it, then stir the drained pasta into the sauce.  Turn it over to coat evenly, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil, and serve with cracked pepper and grated parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

Note: this recipe is an adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s Farfalle with Broccoli, Anchovies and Chilli (The Return of the Naked Chef), and it really does work best if there’s some broccoli in the mix of greens.  It’s also the perfect recipe for using up all the little broccoli shoots that sprout late in the season after the main head has been harvested!

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Playing with Bread

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on August 24, 2011| 65 Comments »

I’ve been playing around with a new bread formula.

It’s a lower hydration (69%) version of my ciabatta con semola rimacinata di grano duro, and it’s proven (no pun intended) to be a good base dough for shaping.

  • 300g active sourdough starter (fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup flour)
  • 580g cold water
  • 500g bakers/bread flour
  • 500g Semola Rimacinata di Grano Duro (remilled durum wheat semolina flour)
  • 18g fine sea salt

Note: don’t be tempted to use fine or coarse semolina instead of remilled semolina (durum wheat) flour – the former is too coarse and won’t absorb enough water, and you’ll end up with a soggy mess. If you can’t find the rimacinata, substitute more bread flour or 00 flour in its place and reduce the water to 550g.

. . . . .

I’ve been experimenting with a new shape, inspired by this photo sent to me by my friend Anna in Paris.  It’s known as La Sarmentine – a sarmenteux is a climbing plant, and Anna thinks the name might be related to that.

The bread is made by shaping a long baguette and then using scissors to cut a slit into the ends of each loaf to allow them to be separated into “ears”.  I was really happy with the crumb…

. . . . .

Also, inspired by Brydie’s quest, I’ve used this dough to make Italian style rolls.  After half a dozen phone calls, I finally tracked down a rosetta stamp at Chefs’ Warehouse (and I’m still wondering why I didn’t just call them first!).

The dough was shaped into 125g balls, before being imprinted with the cutter. Each batch of dough made 15 rolls…

Shape the bulk proved dough into a tight ball first, then dust the top well with rye flour and stamp hard – right through to the bottom of the ball.  Dip the cutter into rye flour before each press, and allow the rolls to prove a second time before baking. I didn’t manage to achieve a hollow centre, but Small Man did declare at dinner that he thought these were my “best breads ever”…

I now own three cutters – the rosetta stamp, plus a couple of German made metal ones which were a gift from the lovely Chris (who is not cranky, despite what his girls call him)…

I haven’t had much success with the small metal star-shaped one yet, but the spiral one has produced amazing rolls, which look like small sculptures…

This new dough recipe has been very popular – we’ve had the neighbours over filling large paper bags with rolls for school lunches…

Playing with bread is always such fun – thanks Brydie, Anna and Chris for inspiring this latest baking adventure!

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Edith’s Economical Pudding

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on August 23, 2011| 64 Comments »

A lovely old recipe which I’ve made on and off for years, both because it tastes delicious and because I adore the name!

It’s probably a little less economical these days, as I’ve thrown more expensive dried fruit and a little date molasses into the mix, but it’s quite flexible and can be adapted to suit what you have in the pantry.  It uses one mixing bowl, a casserole dish of any size (although this will impact on the baking time) and a saucepan – no electric mixer required.

Edith’s Economical Pudding
(adapted from a recipe in Maureen Simpson’s Australian Cuisine)

  • 60g (2oz) unsalted butter, very soft
  • 70g (1/3 cup) white sugar
  • 1 large (59g) egg
  • 125g (½ cup) milk
  • grated rind of 1 lemon
  • 225g (1½ cups) self-raising flour
  • 150g (1 cup) sultanas (or other mixed fruit – I added dried blueberries and cranberries as well)

Sauce

  • 150g (¾ cup) brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon golden syrup (or treacle or light molasses – I used date molasses)
  • 250g (1 cup) water
  • 60g (2oz) unsalted butter
  • juice of half a lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180C/360F or 170C/340F with fan. Put 60g butter, white sugar, egg, milk, lemon rind and flour into a bowl and beat with a spatula or wooden spoon until combined.  Make sure the butter is very soft (but not melted) before you start and this should only take a minute or two.  Stir in the sultanas.

2. Scrape the batter into a greased baking dish or casserole – there was enough mix to just cover the bottom of mine.  The size of your baking dish will determine how long you’ll need to bake the pudding for.

3. In a medium saucepan, combine all the sauce ingredients excluding the lemon juice.  Stir over a medium heat to dissolve the sugar, and then bring to a boil for 2 – 3 minutes.  Add the lemon juice. Pour the hot sauce over the top of the batter.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 – 60 minutes, depending on the width of your baking dish.  The wider your dish, the thinner the cake topping and consequently the shorter the baking time.  Our pudding took 45 minutes to bake to dark golden.  Serve with microwave custard!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe

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Handy Chocolates

Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes, tagged , , on August 19, 2011| 50 Comments »

Tim the Boy Wonder is studying for exams, and we thought we’d give him a hand.

Several, in fact, including the milk, dark and hazelnut praline studded ones above.  He can use them to practice his royal wave!

They’ll be a lot to remember, but hopefully the ol’ string around the finger trick will help…

An assortment of minis, because many hands make light work, and also because the Boy Wonder loves a round of applause…

At the same time, Tim’s dad PeteA is having a birthday.  We’ve made him a birthday card using Christina’s blend…

…and a hollow chocolate Ferrari.

My Pete is somewhat concerned that his car obsessed friend will feel this isn’t a real Ferrari (as this model was made after it was bought by Fiat)…

I, on the other hand, am somewhat concerned that PeteA will break a tooth like he did on the last car we made for him.  Although back then we were less practiced at moulding chocolate, and we’d made the whole thing solid.

That was six years ago – hopefully he’s overcome any aversion to car-shaped chocolates since then!

PS. All moulds were from Candyland Crafts, although the car is now discontinued.

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