Improvised chocolate biscuits

Basically I don't buy sweet food anymore - I make it. I feel like it's a healthier option despite that it's probably not...

Ingredients:
120g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup flour (I used wholemeal)
1 1/2 cup raisins

Mix the butter and sugars until creamed, then add the egg and essence and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Make the mixture into small round balls, about 4cm in diameter, and bake in an oven at 170C. DELICIOUS

Milo Biscuits

Thanks Mum!

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
  
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup self-raising flour (I used whole-meal and it worked well)
  
• 1/2 cup milo

First I beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla, then add the egg once it were mixed. Then I added the sifted flour and milo. I made them into balls and flattened them with a fork on a baking tray. They were cooked for 15 mins at 180C.

Chile Con Queso

My favourite Mexican dip!

Chile Con Queso

Ingredients

• 2 tubs cream cheese
• 1 red onion
• 4 chilies, red or green
• 1 tin tomatoes

I sliced up the onion and chilies and placed them in a saucepan with the tinned tomatoes, and cooked until warm. I then added the cream cheese and stirred until it had kind of melted through. I kept it on the heat until all the large pieces of cream cheese were mixed in. It can be served either hot or cold, this is a pretty large portion and could be kept in the fridge for about 3 days. Eat with corn chips!! So easy and delicious!

Vegan comfort

Somehow this blog has been vegetarian so far - I haven't even cooked meat at home for over a month. This takes it even further with it being my first true vegan dish. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan but I enjoy cooking in this way, as I'm not actually very good at cooking meat! This is a wonderful lentil recipe from Smitten Kitchen which falls into the vegan and comfort food categories. Om nom nom. It was also relatively easy to prepare - just make sure you leave enough time to cook the lentils... I didn't and we ended up eating them a little before their prime. But it still turned out pretty well I'd say!

Stewed lentils with tomatoes

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups large-diced yellow onions (2 onions)
2 cups large-diced carrots (1 really big carrot!)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
1 800g can whole plum tomatoes
1 cup French green lentils (400g)
2 cups vegetable stock
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

I fried the onions and carrots in olive oil until the onions started to brown, then added the garlic and cooked for a further minute. I then added the tomatoes, lentils, stock, curry powder, thyme, salt and pepper and cooked for about 40 minutes - until the lentils were tender and nice. I then added the vinegar and served.

I would probably advise maybe 3/4 tablespoon of vinegar in future as it was a little overpowering.

Banana bread/cake

Our local greengrocer was having a huge sale on bananas about a month ago... While I don't actually like fresh bananas I totally couldn't pass up this offer for the prospects of cake baking! I froze all the bananas as soon as I got home and have been using them gradually for baking... which is fun when you already have all the ingredients and don't have to go out!

I found a relatively simple recipe on Smitten Kitchen and reproduced it using what ingredients we had - for instance, I ground my own cloves then passed them through a sieve before baking. We also had no nutmeg so I added a little more cinnamon instead.

Ingredients:
5 small ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

First I defrosted and smashed the bananas, then mixed them in with the melted butter. I added the brown sugar, beaten egg, vanilla essence, cinnamon and ground cloves, and mixed around with a wooden spoon. I then sifted the baking powder on top of this mix and stirred it in. The flour went in last and I stirred it until it was a relatively thick consistency and all the ingredients were uniformly distributed. I greased the edges of a bread tin (20cm x 10cm - but smaller might be better in future) and put the mix in, spreading it out as evenly as possible. I then baked at 175C for 45mins - or until a tester comes out clean - and turned out onto a plate.

Best served buttered!

French toast mod. #1

I love french toast. Absolutely love it. When I was little we used to have french toast sandwiches with cheese in the middle and this is a kind of modification to that.


Ingredients for 1 sandwich:
2 slices of fresh bread
1 teaspoon of butter/margarine
1 teaspoon of grated Gruyere cheese
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 egg
1/8 cup milk
Pepper and salt to taste

First I whisked the egg and milk together until fully combined, then chop the thyme and mix with the cheese. Add a little salt and pepper to this if you like. Next I wet the bread all over with the egg mix like with normal french toast. I melted the butter on the pan and then put the
first slice of bread on. I covered this with the thyme and cheese then put the other slice on top. Once the bottom was sufficiently cooked, I flipped the sandwich over and cooked the other side until also crispy. And then I ate it in record time.

Vegetarian dinner with my folks!

Tonight Mum, Dad and my little brother came over for dinner! I don't often cook for more than 2-3 people, but it turned out pretty well and I have leftovers for work which is always a perk! I have been cooking vegetarian a lot lately, so I thought I'd continue by making a pumpkin soup and onion tart. I got the recipes from smitten kitchen again... waiting until I get some verjuice before I continue on with Maggie Beer's book as almost everything in that book requires verjuice. Anyway, onto the recipes!

Butternut Pumpkin Soup:
Made about 6 portions...

Ingredients:
125g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1L chicken stock (animal content free)
1kg butternut pumpkin
1 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoons minced fresh sage
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 cup cream

First I prepped the pumpkin, garlic and onion by cutting the pumpkin into small pieces, and dicing the onion and garlic. Next I melted the butter in a heavy based saucepan, and fried the onion and garlic until they were clear. I then added all the stock, pumpkin, and herbs, and brought the mixture to the boil and simmered on a medium heat until the pumpkin was nice and tender. Once the pumpkin was cooked I turned off the heat and took the pieces of pumpkin out and blended them until smooth, which could then be added back to the stock. After returning the pureed pumpkin, I whisked the soup until it had thickened sufficiently, then added the cream. And it's done! I served it with little bread rolls with Gruyere cheese melted on top AND the following onion tart - which was probably my favourite part of the meal!

Onion Tart:
Makes 1 tart (1 sheet of frozen puff pastry)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
500g onions
1 sheet puff pastry
1/3 cup shaved Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 190C.
So I got my lovely boy to slice the onion for me (as my eyes are way too sensitive) and kept it aside ready for frying. I added the olive oil to the frying pan and, once hot, added the fennel seeds and sauteed for just less than 1 minute. I then added the onion and cooked until the onion started to caramelise - YUM. While the onion was cooking I spread a thin layer of the mustard over the pastry. Once the onion was done I put it over the mustard and covered with the Parmesan. Now into the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the puff pastry looks nice and golden. Oh man, we have extra onion cut and I am totally making this again tomorrow night!