A fast and easy muffin recipe that cooks in 20 minutes. You can replace the raspberries for blueberries etc.
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups self raising flour, sifted
1 cup raspberries
Lightly beat eggs, oil, sugar and sour cream together, fold in sifted flour and stir in berries. Spoon mixture into the mini muffin tin lined with muffin papers or just spray the tin with vegetable oil. Cook for 20 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.
A simple little recipe which provides big results. This cake can be warmed and served as a dessert or cut into cubes for snacks etc.
225g brown sugar
150g butter
100g good quality dark chocolate
20g cocoa
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bi carb soda3 eggs lightly beaten
Place brown sugar, butter and chocolate in saucepan and melt over low heat. Remove from heat sift cocoa over mixture, return to low heat and whisk until combined. Remove from heat sift flours and bi carb soda over mixture and whisk until combined, add eggs, combine.
Pour into 19cm round tin (lined) and bake in moderate oven, 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
This is my favorite curry sauce for slow cooking of stewing quality steak or lamb. Nothing really beats a slow cooked curry which has been simmering away for 4 or 5 hours served with hot naan bread and basmati pilaf rice.
1 tbs. oil
1 cinnamon stick
6 cardamon pods, 4 cloves
1 heaped Tbs. of turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp each of fresh crushed garlic and ginger
1 kg cooking tomatoes fresh, blended
2 red onion finely shredded
In a pan saute off the whole spices for a few minutes, add the red onion and saute off until the onion browns and softens, add the ground spices and further cook for a few minutes more, then the garlic and ginger paste and saute on a low heat stirring all the time. Add the tomato mix and bring to the boil and add the browned beef or lamb to the mix and place in a slow cooker for 4 to 5 hours depending on your settings.
The humble omelette is probably the most over looked dish that I can think of. its quick and easy to make and with the addition of a few ingredients you can transform it into a gourmet affair. It can be as simple as you like or “Posh” with some truffle oil splashed over the top. Their are hundreds of variations only limited by the cook’s imagination. Its a versatile dish than can be served for breakfast with toast, lunch with a salad or dinner with a side of fries and coleslaw.
Ham, Tomato And Onion Omelette
3 Eggs Beaten
60g Sliced Ham
1 Small Tomato Diced
1/2 Brown Onion
Salt And Pepper To Taste
Saute of the onion in some butter until soft, add the ham and tomato and on a medium heat adding the eggs and gently folding the eggs from the outside to the inside with a heat proof spatula. When the bottom of the omelette is set, gently free the omelette from the pan and reduce the heat, season and turn on to a plate exposing half of the omelette on the plate and gently fold the remaining omelette over itself to form a half moon shape. The centre will still be a little runny but will continue to cook out. If you prefer the eggs well done you can pop the omelette under the grill to brown the omelette prior to plate up.
Comfort food doesn’t come any better than this in our household. After a busy Sunday lazing around nothing comes close to a perfectly cooked Corned Beef with Savoy Cabbage, cooked in the corned beef liquid all served with fluffy mash, crisp vegetables and the star of the dish, the white sauce.
I Piece Corned Beef
1/2 Head Savoy Cabbage
2 Cups White Sauce {See Recipe Below}
1/4 Cup Sea Salt
1 tbs Pickling Spices
Salt And Pepper To Taste
Australian corned beef tends to be a bit flavorless so a good idea is to soak the piece overnight in a salt brine to add a bit of flavor to the meat. So place the thoroughly washed piece of corned beef in a large bowl and rub the sea salt all over, cover with water, add the picking spices and place in the fridge for 24 hours. Next day wash of the brine and place the corned beef in a clean pot and cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Once it has boiled remove the corned beef and throw away the water with all the impurities that came out with the first boil. Next cover with boiling water from the kettle and cover with a lid leaving a small gap for the steam to escape. Simmer gently on low heat for about 2 hours for an average piece of about 1.5kg. Carefully taste the water with a tea spoon, if you can taste salt all good, but if you cant you need to add some sea salt the the pot, salt is a key ingredient in this dish so you need to be able to taste it in the water.
About half way through the cooking stage add the sliced cabbage and replace the lid and let it settle by itself and continue to simmer it slowly with the corned beef.
Once the cooking period is up stain both the cabbage and corned beef together in a colander and let drain for a few minutes, remove the corned beef with a carving fork and brush of the cabbage pieces that remain. place the corned beef on a plate and cover with plastic wrap for 15 minutes to rest and then place a small plate on top of the cabbage and put a weight on or press down firmly it to squeeze the remaining water from the cabbage. After the cabbage is thoroughly drained return it to a warm pan with some melted butter and gently toss in the pan with some freshly ground pepper and sea salt.
Re heat the white sauce with some cream, add chopped parsley or mustard or whatever you like to the sauce to your taste and plate up by placing the cabbage in the center of the plate, add two generous slices of corned beef on top and smother with the white sauce and garnish with a simple herb sprig.
The combination of these three dishes is for me the ultimate in comfort food when done right, served with some fluffy mash and crisp vegetables this is a classic dish which will stand any test of time.
White sauce is a foundation sauce, it has been around for hundreds of years and it’s the beginning to countless numbers of sauces which we eat at restaurants, take ways etc. and has many uses for binding ingredients in other dishes. Variations of sauces may include cheese sauce, mustard sauce, parsley sauce etc. Used as a binding ingredient it can be used in a tuna mornay for example to bind the pasta, vegetables and tuna together or as a binding agent in seafood crepes. In any case it’s a great sauce to know and master and with a little leftover white sauce you can whip up a tasty dish from leftovers added with some cooked pasta, a little white wine and some cream. White sauce needs to be correctly seasoned as it is fairly bland on it’s own and good quality table or freshly ground sea salt with some fresh ground white pepper is the go here as black pepper makes the white sauce look “dirty”
The method I use is to melt the butter on a low heat and the flour and cook for 2 minutes still on low heat. Add the milk and whisk gently until it thickens, add the cream and season. Place a side and cover it with plastic wrap, making a skin directly on the sauce with the plastic wrap. the sauce will thicken a little more as you leave it stand so a little cream stirred through as you gently re heat it to serve.
In cooking school we were taught to stud an onion with cloves and poach or blanch the onion in the milk, strain and return the milk to the stove and add the roux or butter flour mix and whisk until combined. The disadvantage to this method is the flour does nor really cook out in the sauce unless you boil it at which time the bottom of your pot will burn and the burnt taste will resonate through your sauce. Again use only a good quality thick based pot for this sauce and keep stiring all the time as it has a tenancy to stick to the bottom of the pan.
40g Butter
50g Plain Flour
3 Cups Full fat Milk
1 Cup Cream
Salt and White Pepper.
Mornay Sauce
Add 1 grated cup of cheddar cheese to 2 cups white sauce. You can also add some grated Parmesan cheese or any other type of cheese you like.
Parsley Sauce
Add 1 tsp finely chopped parsley sauce to 1 cup white sauce.
Mustard Sauce
Add 1 tsp whole grain mustard to 1 cup white sauce.
The above simple recipes are really just a guide. If you are making Pan Fried Pork Fillets With Mustard Sauce for instance you could seal off the pork medallions in a hot fry pan and remove to rest covered, add some chopped onion and lightly cook, add white wine and deglaze the pan, add the mustard grain and white sauce, stir and finish the dish with some cream and butter to give the dish a shine, add the rested pork medallions cooking them in the sauce for a couple of minutes depending on their thickness, then the remaining juices from the pork as it sat resting and add some chopped fresh garden herbs before you plate up.
White sauce also goes great with vegetables, giving them an extra flavor boost they sometimes need, broccoli or cauliflower with a little white sauce, some grated cheese and a few minutes under the grill will transform these ordinary vegetables into a tasty dish in it’s own right.
You can experiment with these vegetables and make cauliflower fritters and serve them with a blue cheese sauce using 1 cup of white sauce with some nice blue cheese crumbled in, add about 1/2 cup of the blue cheese with some white wine and cream.
For the fritters just make a thick batter of self raising flour and some soda water, adding the flour to the liquid and beating until a thick batter is made. Toss the pre cooked cauliflower florets in some flour and drop the florets in the batter, mixing well, spoon the battered florets gently into a hot deep fryer and cook until golden brown. Serve with the blue cheese on the side as a “Dip” and voila you have a very tasty vegetable dish indeed.
Remember ALWAYS SEASON and TASTE everything before you serve.
A delicious and easy “bread” to make and a great anytime snack.
1 and 1/2 Cups Self Raising Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Bi Carb Soda
1 Egg
125g Warm Melted Butter
3 to 4 Over Ripe Bananas
Basically mix all the ingredients in a kenwood chef or other electric mixer until all combined, place mixture in bread tins lined with grease proof paper and bake at 175 °C for 45 minutes.
A really easy and healthy dish that my kids love. It took me ages to get the right recipe for this and the key is simple, fresh tomatoes.
1.5 kg fresh Tomatoes Quartered
1 tsp. Chopped Garlic and Ginger
5 tbs Butter
8 Cardamon Seeds
1 Sliced Fresh Chilli, 1 tsp Optional Chilli Powder.
Cooked Tandoori chicken
1 Cup Fresh Cream
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1tsp sugar
Fry off the cardamon, garlic and chili in butter, add the tomatoes chopped and fry off until the color is bright and the tomatoes are soft. cool and then blend the ingredients. Pass the mix through a fine strainer and in a clean pan fry off the fresh chilli, add tomato mixture and continue to cook for a few minutes, add the sugar, cream and chilli powder with the salt and pepper to taste. add the cooked tandoori chicken and gently warm through. Serve.
Really simple and quick recipe.
2.5 kg Fresh Strawberries
2 kg Sugar
100g Jam Pectin
Juice of 1 lemon
Place all together and bring to to boil skimming off as you go. Boil for 10 minutes and place in clean glass jars and lid them straight away. Place jars in cold water bath to cool. Place in fridge and keep for 3 months. The result is a slightly runny thick jam. Kids love it.
Organic Tomatoes are now cheap and readily available from all the major supermarkets. This simple sauce is also great for kids lunch wraps.
2 tins Organic Whole tinned Tomatoes
1/2 Small Jar Organic Tomato Paste
1 brown organic onion finely diced
1 Organic Medium Red and Pepper, diced
1 Clove Organic Garlic Crushed
50g Taco Seasoning
50g Chopped Fresh Garden Herbs, Basil, Parsley, Oregano etc.
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Fry off the onion and garlic, add the peppers and sweat off for a few minutes, add the tinned tomato and tomato paste, chop up the tomatoes in the pan as they cook, simmer with a little water for 10 minutes, add herbs and season to taste. Pour in to canning jars and place sealed Jars in a sink of cold water to cool. store in the fridge sealed for up to 2 months.