Raspberry-spiked chocolate brownies

I made these for an afternoon tea. It was a very good spread: egg nog and rum, cucumber sandwiches, beetroot sandwiches, celery and carrot sticks, dips, bread, and several delicious varieties of tea.

This was a very easy and relatively quick recipe with very pleasing results. One of the best brownie recipes I've tried to date. Not too attractive in this picture but believe me, they looked GOOD.




200g dark chocolate, chopped
250g butter
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups plain flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 cups raspberries, frozen or fresh (you can also sub in blueberries)

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Melt the chocolate and butter. I use the metal bowl over boiling water method, stirring until smooth.

Pour chocolate in a large bowl with eggs and sugar. Stir to combine.

Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl. Stir to combine.

Pour the batter into a baking tin lined with baking paper. Top with berries.

Bake for 45 minutes or until set. The centre of the brownie will have a very fudgey texture.


From a Donna Hay recipe

Miniature empanadas

I made these for a high tea. Everyone brought along a plate of home-made goodies and we ate until we could eat no more.

All of the dishes were really impressive - polenta chips with sweet potato mash and mushrooms, peking duck salad rolls, sponge cakes with tia maria custard and toffee, custard trifle with berries and chocolate mousse, four varieties of cookies, salmon rolled in seaweed with shabu-shabu noodles... and the list goes on. I felt my contribution was pretty humble, especially because I bought the pastry! Oh well.

I made mini empanadas, about 50 in total with each sheet of pastry cut into 9 pieces, but you could make normal-sized ones as easily with the same recipe.



6 garlic cloves, chopped
120g brown onion, chopped
650g mince beef
1 long red chilli, finely chopped
90g raisins
110g olives, chopped (green or black according to your preference; I used black)
1 teaspoon paprika
1.5 teaspoons salt
parsley
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
short crust pastry
beaten egg, to brush


Hardboil 2 eggs, let cool and chop.

In a pan, heat olive oil and cook garlic for 1 minute.

Add onion and cook 3-4 minutes.

Add beef and cook 5 minutes.

Add chilli, raisin, olives, paprika and salt, and cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in parsley and eggs.

Fill pastry and brush with egg.

Bake at 230C for 20 minutes or until golden.

Serve hot, with a squeeze of lemon if you like.


Adapted from a Bourke Street Bakery recipe

Passionfruit and coconut slice

I should probably get the hang of taking better photos of my food. "No, really, I swear it was better looking than this!"






Pastry:
125 g (4 oz) butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup plain (all purpose) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt

Filling:
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
1 1 /2 cup (12 fl oz) cream
160 ml (5 1/2 fl oz) coconut milk
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) passionfruit pulp


Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). To make the pastry, place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat well.

Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt, and stir until combined and the mixture forms a sticky dough. Flour hands and press pastry evenly into the base of a greased and baking paper-lined tin. Bake pastry base in the oven for 15 minutes.

To make filling, place eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale. Add coconut, flour, cream, coconut milk, lemon juice, zest and passionfruit pulp, and stir to combine.

Pour filling over pastry base in the tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden (mine took about an hour). Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.

When cool, slice into squares. Makes 20 squares.


From a recipe by Bill Granger

Potato Salad with Apples and Bacon

Ingredients
5 thick strips bacon
1 large red or yellow onion, chopped
Salt
2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut in 1/2-inch dice
1.3kg waxy potatoes, diced
4 shallots, thinly sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper


Combine the potatoes and enough cold water to cover by a couple of inches in a large saucepan. Add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cover the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain well.

While the potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon over medium heat. Once cooked, remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve the bacon fat in the pan. Once the bacon is cool, chop it.

Cook the onion in the fat in the pan on medium heat, until softened and just starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove the onion from the pan to a large bowl and set aside. Add the chopped apple to the bowl.

Add the potatoes and chopped bacon to the onions and apple. Add the green onions, olive oil, vinegar, mustard, and thyme. Salt and pepper to taste.

Can be served warm, room temperature, or cold. Serves 8.

From Simply Recipes

Lamb Tagine

I don't think this isn't really a tagine recipe. It's more tagine style, or tagine lite. I don't even own a tagine.

Anyway. It's something rich and warm and filling after a very rainy day. And now the whole house smells like spices.


1.5 kg leg or shoulder lamb cut into 2.5cm pieces (I cheated and got diced lamb from the butcher's. Also, I only used 1 kg. It was still a LOT.)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
80ml olive oil
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 onions, thinly sliced
580ml beef stock (I cheated again and used store-bought stock)
zest of 1/4 preserved lemon, rinsed and sliced
425g canned chickpeas, drained
35g green olives (I omitted this. But I did add some leftover pumpkin I had in the fridge.)
3 tablespoons chopped coriander


Place the lamb in a non-metallic bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, and the garlic, cumin, ginger, tumeric, paprika, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper and some salt. Mix well and marinate for an hour.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and brown the lamb in batches. Remove the lamb. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes, then add lamb back and add beef stock.

Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Add lemon zest, chickepeas, olives and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until meat is tender and sauce is thickened.

Serve in bowls with couscous and coriander.

Financiers with berries

I baked these for what I expected would be four or five friends dropping by for afternoon tea. In fact ten people showed up. I did the jazz hands of "oh noes!" and apologised for only having one type of cheese and cut the financiers in half and hastily washed some grapes and you know what? It all came good.

Oh, and since people kept asking, a financier is really just a fancy name for a friand.




150g (1.5 cups) almond meal
90g plain flour
240g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
280ml (about 8) egg whites
250g unsalted butter, melted
seasonal berries or other fruit


Preheat the oven to 190C. Lightly grease standard 1/2-cup 12-hole muffin tin with butter.

In large bowl, mix almond meal, flour, icing sugar, baking powder.

Add egg whites a little at a time and whisking well after each addition.

Pour in melted butter and whisk through until just combined.

Spoon mixture into muffin tins until they are almost full.

Gently place berries or fruit pieces on top of each financier.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool on wire racks.

Makes 12.


From Bourke Street Bakery, by Paul Allam and David McGuinness

Spicy pork and apple pasties

As previously mentioned, this week the ABC's The Cook & The Chef aired its final episode. My friends and I farewelled the show with champagne and the following pasties, from a recipe by Maggie Beer (the 'cook' of the title).

This was my first time using verjuice - this is a bit of a joke for anyone who's ever watched the tv show or flicked through one of Maggie's cookbooks. She loves verjuice (and quince paste, and olive oil) and will never ever pass up an opportunity to throw it in somewhere. Of course, she does sell the stuff as well. LOL.




1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup verjuice
1/4 cup dried currants
1/3 cup dried apples, chopped
extra virgin olive oil, for cooking
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey
500g minced pork
1/4 preserved lemon, flesh removed, rind rinsed and finely chopped
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup flatleaf (continental) parsley, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 free-range egg, for brushing pastry (recipe suggests beating with 1 tablespoon pouring cream)
puff pastry


Preheat fan-forced oven to 180 C (350 F). Place pine nuts on baking tray and roast for 5-8 minutes or until golden. Remove and leave to cool.

Place 1/4 cup of verjuice in each of 2 small saucepans. Add currants to one and apples to the other. Heat both pans gently over low heat for a few minutes. Set aside to plump and cool.

Heat olive oil in a small frying pan over low-medium heat. Saute garlic and onion for 10 minutes or until translucent but not coloured. Add ginger and cinnamon and cook for another minute, until spices are fragrant. Remove from heat, stir in honey, and leave to cool.

Put minced pork, pine nuts, cooled onion mixture, currants and apples (including juices), preserved lemon, 2 eggs, parsley, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover and refridgerate until ready to use.

[The original recipe calls for handmade pastry but I used pre-bought puff pastry. I imagine shortcrust pastry (handmade or bought) would work just as well.]

Preheat oven to 230 C (475 F).

Cut puff pastry into 4 squares per sheet and fill with pork mixture. Fold over into triangles and fold over edges to seal. Brush with egg, prick with fork, and place on baking tray lined with paper.

Bake pasties for 20-25 minutes or until golden, then serve.

[The original recipe says this will make 8 - somehow, I made 20. I don't know.]




From Maggie's Kitchen by Maggie Beer

Egg Nets

I first encountered egg nets at upmarket Thai restaurant Longrain in Sydney - it's their signature dish and very impressive, with huge but delicate dinner-plate sized nets encasing sweet, tangy, spicy salad. My interest was piqued again when Longrain chef Martin Boetz recreated the dish for Masterchef Australia (MY FAVE SHOW NO LIE). I've wanted to try them ever since.

This is not the Longrain version - rather, I've gone for a simpler version from beloved but soon to end ABC show The Cook & The Chef, itself adapted from chef David Thompson's recipe. (Thompson is the chef behind Sailors Thai, mentioned in this photo post.) It was still not easy!

An aside: I am so very glad my mother taught me how to shell and devein prawns in my youth. I haven't had to use the skill much - prawns are so much more fun to eat than cook - but you never really forget. Scrunch, crunch, gloop, crack. It's not for the squeamish... then again, not much about omnivorous cooking is.




Ingredients

3 eggs

Paste:
3 coriander roots
4 garlic cloves
10 white peppercorns (I used black ones)
Pinch of salt

Filling:
Oil to fry
50g pork mince
100g green prawn meat, chopped
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoon palm sugar (I just subbed the usual sugar)

Garnish:
1 tablespoon lemon grass whites, finely sliced
1 1/2 red shallots, sliced (what are red shallots? I used green!)
1 tablespoon red chilli, julienned
Handful coriander leaves


Method

Whisk the eggs to combine, but do not over beat. Strain eggs through a fine strainer. Chill overnight (or even just an hour or two, as I did).

Prepare paste by pounding the coriander roots, salt, garlic and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Set aside.

Bring eggs to room temperature.

Lightly oil a flat frypan and heat to a medium heat.

Dip fork* in the egg mix and wave across the wok/flat frypan so that the egg drizzles in the oil. Move your fork backwards and forwards and from side to side to form a net. Do not move too quickly otherwise the strands will be too fine and will break. Circle the perimeter to form a border. Remove and drain on paper. Repeat until egg mix is finished.



Heat oil in a pan and fry off the paste you prepared earlier, until fragrant and golden.

Add pork, stir and add prawns.

Season with fish sauce and palm sugar and bring it all together.
Set aside and when cool add lemongrass, shallots, chilli and coriander.

Lay out an egg net, spread some mix on the lower third of the net and roll up.


* The original recipe suggests using your hand. This, I discovered, is IMPOSSIBLE. The first ones turned out horrible! The fork-netted ones were much much better.



From The Cook & The Chef, ABC TV Australia

Larb Gai

1.5 cups (10 oz) minced chicken breast
4 shallots, thinly sliced
2 slices of fresh ginger, finely sliced
3 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of lime juice
1 red pepper
1 small red chilli

Combine ingredients and cook until chicken is thoroughly done.

Mix with freshly chopped coriander. Mint or extra lime optional.

Serve with steamed brown rice and vegetables. I had steamed green beans, but the original suggests an assortment of raw vegetabls such as: shredded green or red cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, red pepper, sprouts, or green beans.

Adapted slightly from The Skinny Gourmet

Recent fooding

Some photos of recent fooding as placeholder until I get home and start cooking again.



Uchi Lounge



Red Oak Boutique Beer Cafe



Red Oak Boutique Beer Cafe



Heritage Belgian Beer Cafe



Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe



Sailors Thai

Baked Snapper

I have the foodiest housemates of all time! It's great because we're always pushing ourselves to make good food, encouraging one another to try new recipes, and sharing the results. So take tonight - I wanted to try this recipe, offered to feed the two housemates who were home, they decided to bake a carrot cake, and it ended up being an impromptu two-course dinner! \o/





1.5 kg snapper (I used 2 snappers, each about 0.6 kg)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Several sprigs wild fennel (I just used the ordinary, tame fennel)
1 lemon
2 medium leeks, quartered lengthwise, sliced into 2cm pieces
3 medium carrots, peeled, cut into 2cm dice
3 medium potatoes (desiree, nicola or other yellow-fleshed variety), cut into 2cm dice
1/2 cup good quality tomato pasta sauce or drained crushed tinned tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine


Use an oven-proof flat dish that will hold both the snapper and vegetables, and can be brought to the table. Pour in a thin film of extra virgin olive oil.

Wipe fish inside and out with damp paper towels. Score skin on one side to allow even heat penetration. Brush fish with extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper inside and out. Rub with fennel stalks so seeds fall onto oil skin (okay, tame fennel is de-seeded, so I just sprinkled some dry fennel seeds on the top) and tuck the rest of the herb inside the cavity.

Cut 3 slices of lemon, quarter each slice, and tuck into score marks. Squeeze the rest of the lemon over the fish and then cut spent lemon into 2-3 pieces and place in the cavity. Transfer fish to oiled baking dish (or if you're me you had it in there before).

Preheat oven to 200 C.

In a separate, heavy-based frying pan cook leeks and carrot in extra virgin olive oil, covered, on moderate heat. Stir from time to time. It may take 20 minutes for the vegetables to be just tender.

Cover potatoes with cold water and bring to boil. Cook for 5 minutes, drain, dry with a cloth. Toss in 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Scatter leeks and carrots around the fish. Scatter potatoes on top of the leeks and carrots. Season vegetables lightly. Mix tomato and wine, pour around the fish.

Drizzle with oil if you like, cover with aluminum foil, bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil for last 10 minutes.

Serves 4.

From a recipe by Stephanie Alexander

Passionfruit Melting Moments

I had a baking failure tonight and wound up throwing out a whole batch of cookies. DDD:

Perhaps we should focus on memories of happier times. Here are some cookies I recently made for a high tea. We had a really lovely afternoon and it was so nice sampling everyone's homemade food.





250g unsalted butter
40g (1/3 cup) icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
185g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
60g (1/2 cup) custard powder

Passionfruit filling:
60g unsalted butter
60g (1/2 cup) icing sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp


Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Line two baking trays with baking paper

Beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in vanilla essence.

Sift in flour and custard powder. Mix to a soft dough.

Roll level tablespoons into 28 balls and place on trays. Flatten slightly with a floured fork.

Bake 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on wire rack.

For filling, beat butter and sugar then beat in passionfruit pulp. Use filling to sandwich biscuits together. Leave to firm before serving.

Lemon and Passionfruit Tarts

A little dessert experiment cooked up with friends, using a desserts cookbook and whatever ingredients we had to hand. We substituted a lot of ingredients - raw sugar for caster sugar, puff pastry for filo pastry - it worked out fine!



Lemon and Passionfruit Tarts with Berries

60g unsalted butter
90g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons self-raising flour
60ml (1/4 cupe) lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 passionfruit, pulp removed
3 sheets filo pastry
125g (1 cup) fresh berries


Preheat oven to 180C.

Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour, lemon juice, zest and passionfruit pulp, and beat until well combined.

Carefully line muffin tins with pastry. Pour in the lemon mixture and bake for 20-25 minutes or until set.

Serve topped with fresh berries and cream (we used hand-whipped cream, mixed with passionfruit pulp).

Makes 6.

Spicy eggplant spaghetti

A basic pasta dish. It feels almost like cheating to put this in - I mean, I'm not documenting the dishes I make on the fly or from memory, and this is pretty close to some of those - but I got this out of a book, so it qualifies under my self-imposed rules, I guess.



Spaghetti
Olive oil
2 red chillies
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
2 bacon rashers (or more, if you like)
250g eggplant, diced (or more, to match the bacon)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tomatoes, choppes
3 tablespoons shredded basil


Cook spaghetti.

Heat oil to medium heat in a pan and cook bacon, chilli, onion and garlic for five minutes or until onion is soft and bacon is cooked. Remove from pan.

Heat more oil on high heat and cook eggplant, turning until browned.

Add back the bacon mixture. Add the vinegar, tomato and basil. Cook through and season to taste.

Top the spaghetti with eggplant.

(See? EASY.)

Beef Casserole with Soft Polenta

The soft polenta was both fun and easy to make (lots of stirring!) and you get good value out of just one cup of polenta. When hot, it filled up the whole of a small saucepan and had the consistency of cake dough. As it cooled, it became firmer and started looking a lot like scrambled eggs. Tastewise, however, it was blander then I expected - next time I might make cous cous or rice as a side instead.

Full disclosure: I did not make my own stock, I got pre-made at the supermarket. Shameful, I know. /o\


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons plain flour
800g gravy beef, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces (I halved this and the flour)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 carrot, peeled, halved, chopped
2 celery stalks, trimmed, chopped (I used 1)
1 parsnip, peeled, chopped (I substituted a potato)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
2 cups beef stock
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves


Soft polenta:
2 cups milk
1 cup polenta
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese


Method:

Coat beef in flour (suggested method is shaking them together in a sealed snaplock bag).

Heat half the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add half the beef. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining oil and beef.

Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery to pan. Cook for 3 minutes or until tender. Return beef and juices to pan. Add parsnip (or potato), rosemary, stock, tomato paste and vinegar.

Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Remove lid. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until beef is tender.

Meanwhile, make soft polenta: Combine milk and 2 cups cold water in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil. Gradually add polenta, stirring. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring, for 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheese.

Add basil to casserole. Stir to combine. Serve casserole with polenta.


Adapted from Taste.com.au

Apples Baked In Port Wine

This started with a bottle of novelty port.

At the liquor store we spotted a bottle labelled "Cobweb Port". Honestly, if the name weren't enough, the black drippy wax used to seal the bottle should have been warning enough - not for serious consumption. Instead we got all excited and then and there decided we had to have this ridiculousness.

To be completely fair, Cobweb Port isn't terrible. It has a really nice aroma and the first sip isn't bad at all. But it's not as smooth as you want a port to be, and there's a kind of dusty (cobwebby?) aftertaste that really put me off.

Which left us in the position of an almost full bottle of port and no idea what to do with it... CUE GOOGLE.



Ingredients:
4 red baking apples - I used Pink Lady
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup nuts walnuts (or pecans)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp light corn syrup or golden syrup
1 tbsp butter
1 cup port wine
Vanilla icecream (to serve)


Method:

Carefully core apples – I used a knife to take out the stem, slicing down and inwards, so it came out like a cone. Then I used a teaspoon to dig out the seeds.

Cut away a bit of the top of the apple. If necessary, slice just enough from the bottom to set the apple firmly in a baking dish (without piercing the apple).

Combine the sugar, nuts, and cinnamon. Stuff the mixture into the apples.

Dab with little pieces of butter. Pour the port slowly over the apples.

Cover the baking dish with foil and bake at 180C for 45-50 min.

Remove from dish and serve with vanilla icecream. Drizzle with leftover juice.

Enjoy on a cold autumn night after dinner with a glass of nice port or a soothing cup of tea.

Adapted from Pamela Lanier's B&B Inns

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another easy one - but when the latest batch came out of the oven, I was sure I'd gone wrong.

They were all flattened out, not round as I'd expected from previous batches, and they were so soft some crumbled as they were lifted to the cooling rack. However, after cooling, they turned out beautifully chewy.

For this batch, I used wholemeal flour. This gave the cookies a texture almost like shredded coconut and made a nice change.


125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup dark choc chips


Preheat oven to 160C

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy

Mix in the vanilla essence and egg

Stir in flour and cocoa

Add dark choc chips

Place teaspoons on baking tray and bake for 10-15 min

From Cadbury's Chocolate Chips

Olive Oil, Grape and Polenta Cake

I'm going to try documenting some of the recipes I've tried over the past year or so, as well as the ones I try in future. Winter's coming on and I anticipate BAKING.

This is a simple and effective recipe. The polenta gives it a really nice texture, and the flavour of the cake is mild and goes excellently with coffee or tea.


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal/polenta
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk (low fat is ok)
1 1/2 cups red grapes


Preheat the oven to 350F (about 180 C). Lightly grease a 9-inch round springform pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in flour mixture, mixing just until no streaks of flour remain visible in the batter. Stir in about half of the grapes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread into an even lay with a spatula. Sprinkle remaining grapes over the top of the cake.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool cake for at least an hour before removing from pan and serving. Let cool completely before slicing if you do not intend to serve the cake while slightly warm.

Serves 10


From Baking Bites