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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A wintery afternoon tea treat

Decadent caramel slice..

Base:
150g plain flour
70g ground almonds
125g melted butter
160g caster sugar
Filling:
2 cans condensed milk
1/2 c golden syrup
125g butter
Topping:
200g dark chocolate
2 tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Mix base ingredients in a bowl then press into a baking paper lined 20cm x 30cm tin.  Bake for 15 minutes and allow to cool.
Put filling ingredients into a pan on a low heat.  Stir to melt butter and until it has combined properly, about 5 minutes.  Pour into tin and bake for 20 minutes.  Cool completely in fridge.
Melt chocolate with oil over a double boiler, stirring until melted.  Spread the chocolate mixture over the cooled caramel mixture then refrigerate for a few hours to set.
Slice, eat but give some away or you'll get fat.

Friday, June 24, 2011

birthday cake

It's my friends mothers birthday today....and since she has coeliac disease which means she is totally deprived of dessert choices... I baked her a cake!

Chocolate, ricotta and almond cake...Happy Birthday Marilyn xxx

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Salsa

As promised, here are two salsas to blow your mind.  Basically put everything into a blender and whiz away.  Add as little or as many chillies as you can handle.  I put 3 birds eye green in my salsa cruda, 2 birds eye red in my salsa roja.

I served these salsas with corn tortillas (tio pablo) shredded lettuce, grated cheese, chopped avocado mixed with coriander and lime juice, panko crumbed terakihi and a chipolte pepper sour cream.  My mouth is salivating just remembering....

Salsa Cruda

10 small green tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 handful chopped coriander
1-4 green chillies
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon salt

Salsa Roja

1 can chopped tomatoes in juice
2 large red onions, finely chopped
1 handful chopped coriander
4 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1 lime
1-4 red chillies

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

It's been a good day




I just wanted to share the flowers in my house with you. Thankyou winter for giving us early cheer.  I will fall asleep happily smelling your sweet perfume.
Hope you all had a lovely day too...life is just better with flowers!  ...................and it's only getting better.  Dad. gf and baby brother are coming for dinner - fish tacos, like, proper ones.  My friends went to Mexico recently and I now am proud owner of authentic salsa verde and salsa roja recipes.  Smother your tacos in these salsas and you will be one happy chappy.  Obviously I'm too busy making them right now to provide you with the recipes so you'll just have to wait!  xx




Friday, June 10, 2011

Green Peppercorn Sauce

This is kind of bad for you.  But I don't care cos it makes me happy. Makes enough for two steaks plus extra to scrape up with your chips.  Trust me, you'll be doing that.


large knob of butter
dash of olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
splash or two of brandy, can use sherry or white wine if you wish but brandy is best
1 oxo cube, crumbled into 100mls boiling water, stir to dissolve
2-3 tbsp green peppercorns, drained
150mls cream
sea salt

Melt butter in a frying pan, adding oil to keep it from browning.  Add onions and saute VERY gently on a medium heat so they get all sweet, soft and delicious.  If you burn them start again.
Turn the heat up hot wait a minute then splash in your brandy, deglazing the pan.
Add stock and peppercorns and let it simmer for a minute.
Add cream then reduce, maybe 5 minutes on a medium heat.  Your sauce should be thick and a nice creamy peanut butter colour.

Enjoy! x

Thursday, June 9, 2011

For my lover.......no greens in sight

Scotch fillet steak + green peppercorn sauce + homemade chips + a nice merlot.....don't mind if I do!




Tuesday, June 7, 2011

L O V E P A S T A

Queens birthday weekend sure was eventful.  Aside from the dancing...we created LOVE pasta!

Saturday was to be my BFF's engagement party lunch and being the foodie of our friends I put my hand up for some of the prep.  On Friday I slow cooked beef for a ragu, in port, organic tomatoes and beef stock.  Then at night my friends and I kneaded, rolled, cut, dried and made the pasta into pretty little baskets to dry.  We turned 5kg of flour and forty five eggs into parpadelle.  Only took five hours!  The next day we served the feast to 45 hungry guests.  It's a beautiful thing when woman band together and put on such a delicious feast, there was even a dessert table!  I am a little obsessed with dessert tables at the moment.

The menu du jour;
Beef ragu parpadelle
Tomato + chorizo mussels parpadelle
(homegrown) pumpkin, ricotta and pinenut parpadelle with salsa verde

We used Jamie Olivers recipe, simple + easy, you can find that here