Meal Motivation: Articles

Home-made Golden Breadcrumbs

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +1200

This recipe for homemade breadcrumbs isn't rocket science, but it's always bothered me in the past that my breadcrumbs never had that nice fine texture that the commercial ones have. Tonight I set out to solve this little problem.

Breadcrumbs are great friends with schnitzel, fish, sweet-n-sour pork, hamburger patties, and plenty else. If you are baking your own bread (like I do) then this is a good way to get a bit of extra use out of your creations.

Start by preheating the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grab half a loaf of homemade wholemeal bread - if the bread is a little bit stale, that's best. Chop it up into chunks, then throw into the blender on high until it's a pile of coarse crumbs. Normally, this is where I stop, and that's why my breadcrumbs haven't turned out awesome in the past.

Spread the breadcrumbs out on a baking tray, about 1-2cm deep. Put them into the oven for about 5 mins, keeping a careful eye on them and stirring once. Turn the oven off, and leave the crumbs in the warm oven for a further 5-10 mins.

Put the crumbs into the blender and blend on high-speed again - this time they will come out very fine, and a lovely golden colour. Yum.

Longevity

I'm not yet sure how long these will last - I'm storing them in an airtight plastic container at room temperature - I'm expecting them to last at least 1-2 weeks but it could be a lot longer or shorter. The commercial ones seem to last forever, but then we aren't adding all the preservative and other crap that goes into those.

How to use breadcrumbs

Again, not rocket science. Here's how I like to crumb fish / schnitzel.

Start by coating the meat in white flour. Then dip in a mix of 1-2 eggs with 1-2 Tbsp milk. Then coat with breadcrumbs. This 3-layer approach gives it a lovely coat which crisps up nicely when cooled.

Source: Home-made Golden Breadcrumbs

Curried Pumpkin & Bacon Soup Recipe

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1300

This is a nice twist on my old favourite, the roast pumpkin soup. The bacon gives the soup a lovely smokey salty taste, and the curry keeps the flavour alive. Use real chunks of bacon for best results.

Ingredients

Half a pumpkin (normal-sized)
200-300g bacon pieces/chunks
3Tbsp curry powder, or to taste
1Tbsp sugar (more or less depending how sweet your pumpkin is)
1 large red onion
Olive oil, salt, pepper
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tin of chopped / whole tomatoes
1 tin coconut cream

Method

I'll be honest - this recipe was a bit of a last-minute thing and I wasn't sure if it was actually going to work. The bacon infuses the soup with a nice smokey salty flavour which I and our male guest loved, but my wife commented that it was more of a "man soup". I think that was a compliment, but women aren't that easy to read sometimes.

Start off by deskinning and chopping up the pumpkin into large chunks. Chop up the red onion into large chunks. Place these on an oven tray, and sprinkle curry powder, salt, pepper, and oil over the top, then toss to give all pieces an even coating. Roast for 40 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft through the middle, and a little bit charred in places on the outside.

Remove the veges from the oven and place in the blender. Add 1 tin of tomatoes to the blender and blend until smooth.

While this is happening, bring 2 cups of water or stock to the boil, then add the pumpkin mush from the blender. Stir together until consistent. My pumpkin wasn't especially sweet, so I added a little sugar at this point. Taste the mix to make sure it's not too bitter or nasty, then add the bacon pieces. Adding these raw is fine, given the long cooking time.

Leave the soup on low heat, and let it bubble away quietly for about 2 hours. Make sure you have a lid for the pot as the bubbles will otherwise throw pumpkin splatter all over the kitchen.

Just before serving, stir through 3Tbsp of red wine vinegar and 1 can of coconut cream. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and coriander on top, and some fresh bread.

Source: Curried Pumpkin & Bacon Soup Recipe

Tomato & Coriander Salad Recipe

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1300

Sick of serving a plain old tomato + iceberg lettuce salad with dinner because that's all you can be bothered with? Yeah, me too.

Try this simple recipe - ready in about 5 mins and using basic ingredients.

Ingredients

5 large tomatoes, finely chopped (best at room temperature)
A large handful of chopped coriander
1 grated carrot
half a red onion, finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon, and a little lemon zest
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Method

Chop it up and mix it together. Let it stand for about 15 mins if you can before serving.

Source: Tomato & Coriander Salad Recipe

Madeira Wedding Cake Recipe

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1300

Last week I designed, baked and decorated my first wedding cake, as a present for my sister-in-law and her new hubby. A good opportunity to try something new, and get a little practice without the pressure of doing it commercially. In other words, nobody was going to growl if it wasn't perfect.

I needn't have worried - the cake turned out especially well.

Here's a detailed breakdown of what went into this cake - including the quantities used in each tier size - in the hope that someone else can make use of this.

Planning

I did a lot of research before making a start to this, with the help of my lovely wife Kirstin. There was to be no dessert provided by the caterers, so the cake would need to feed 150 people by itself. With the wedding being held on Waiheke Island, there were additional logistical concerns in getting the cake to the venue undamaged. The cake needed to stay fresh for at least 2-3 days so choosing the right recipe was important. It needed to be a recipe that most people would like, which rules out the traditional fruit wedding cake, and be stable enough to support several tiers. The large cake tins needed to fit in the oven I had available. And I needed to attempt something with a realistic level of difficulty, this being my first cake and all.

Practice cake

I decided early on that a smaller-sized practice cake would be a good idea, made a week in advance. This would be a good opportunity to test out the chosen recipe and see how it tasted 3 days on. I would take the practice cake to a party with friends (not the same ones attending the wedding) and solicit their feedback on taste, decration, and overall thoughts. I would be able to refine my decorating techniques and hopefully make some mistakes to learn from.

Above: Friends deliver some "honest" feedback on my scaled-down practice cake.

While the practice cake added additional complexity to the job (and another 6.5 hours), I learned a lot from my practice cake.

My chosen recipe was very good, though perhaps a bit dry which I now attribute to storing it in the fridge.
The shortening I used in the icing was a bit chunky, and jammed up the fine tip piping nozzle I had chosen. The decoration looked rather messy.
The bottom layer had a very 'rounded' top edge, which didn't look great.
The 2 inch increments between layers (10-8-6 inch) made the cake look too steep, prompting me to choose 14-10-6 for the final cake, so 4 inch increments.
Each layer would need 2 cakes rather than one, to give the cake the required height.

Valuable feedback.

The plan

After the practice cake was done, I decided to go for a Madeira cake, which research indicated was a nice firm consistency and stayed fresh longer than most other cakes. I would go with a 3-tier cake of 14-10-6 inch, with 2 cakes in each tier to give a height of 3-4 inches per tier. I would colour the middle layer burned orange to match the bridesmaid's dresses, and decorate with white icing and orange flowers as found on the day. I would bake the cakes on Wednesday, transport on Thursday, and decorate on Friday (Wedding day). Flowers would be sourced and arranged immediately before the ceremony, as they would otherwise wilt in the hot weather. Yes, the plan was coming together.

It's worth noting at this point that the 14" cake tin won't fit into most household ovens. Measure your oven at the early stages of planning to make sure you don't get a last-minute surprise.

Baking

Setting aside a whole day for baking, I opted for Anne's Madeira cake recipe, tweaked slightly. My research indicated that most madeira cake recipes were pretty similar - all had lots of butter, caster sugar and lemon zest as the main ingredients, although the proportions do vary slightly.

I have been told on good authority that the secret to good wedding cakes is to lower the temperature 40 degrees and increase the cooking time, and not to use fan-bake. This is especially important on the triple-mix recipes used on the larger-sized cakes.

This recipe makes an 8" cake - I did some calculations to figure out how much was needed for other sizes.

175g butter - softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups self raising flour
3 tablespoons milk - full cream
Zest 1 lemon

Generously grease sides and line base with baking paper, an 8 inch tin. Using a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Sift flour then fold into creamy mixture along with milk and lemon zest. Spoon into cake tin, level top. Bake at 140 degrees C, the baking time depending on the size of the cake (see below).

6" = 1 hour
8" = 1 hour 10 minutes
10" = 1 hour 20 minutes
12" = 1 hour 30 minutes
14" = 1 hour 45 minutes

There is no magic formula here, these are the times I used and they worked well. Your oven may vary, so always test with a wooden skewer near the end of the cooking time.

I like having a little helper

Where to get cake tins

After looking around a bit to find cake tins, I decided to buy myself a set as hiring for 1 week plus didn't work out to be economical, and there is an excellent chance I will use them again for a future wedding cake.

If you do need cake tins (and are in New Zealand), I'm quite happy to hire these out for a reasonable rate, please visit my new site Cake Tin Hire for details. I have 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 inch tins available. These cost around $200 to buy, which adds a lot to the cost of a one-off cake.

Cooling

After the cakes come out of the oven, allow them to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then place on a wire rack to cool. Once cool, put the cake in the fridge for 30 mins to firm up, which makes them easier to cut.

After the cake has cooled off and firmed up in the fridge, you will need to cut off the top so you have a flat surface. With this recipe, I cut each cake to 4cm, which worked out to be 8cm or 3 1/4 inches when doubled-up, a good, impressive height. I measured each cake when cutting off the top to ensure this was accurate.

Upscaling

I wanted each tier to be the same height, so I was quite particular at making sure the right amount of mix went into each size cake tin. As you use bigger tins, the amount of cake mix required gets exponentially larger. I calculated the required mix based on the surface area of the cake, which turned out to be very accurate.

The numbers here are relative to an 8 inch cake (ie the standard mix), and indicate how many mixes are needed for each cake. Note that I was using 2 cakes for each layer, so double these numbers when buying your ingredients.

4" = 0.24
6" = 0.56
8" = 1
10" = 1.56
12" = 2.26
14" = 3.06

So if you are making a 14 inch cake, multiply the standard cake recipe by 3, or if you are being fussy '3 and a bit'. Because I used 2 cakes per layer, the bottom 14 inch layer was made up of a whopping 6 mixes of cake recipe.

If you have another size cake, divide the area in inches (Pi R Squared) by 50 to get the number of mixes required.

Icing

Icing is done on the same day as baking. The rolled fondant icing seals the cake, and helps it stay fresh. Alternatively, you can store the un-iced cake in the freezer and do the icing on the day.

There are 2 layers of icing. The first layer is a crumb layer which gives the fondant something to stick to, keeps crumbs under control, and stiffens the cake up which makes applying the fondant easier. I also put a layer of jam and icing in between the 2 cakes in each tier. The jam is yummy, and also looks good when cut.

Crumb-layer icing

Use the following recipe for buttercream icing. You will need perhaps 2-3 mixes to ice all cakes, but do these one at a time and use what you need.

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1 cup icing sugar
6 Tbsp water (approx)

Mix the shortening, salt and vanilla together with a spoon, and break up any large chunks. Add icing sugar and water, then whisk with an electric blender for up to 5 mins. Add water as needed to get the right consistency, which should be soft enough to spread but firm enough to stay in place.

Assemble the 2 cakes, cut sides together. The top cake will be upside-down, as the un-cut side of the cake will have a better shape and will look better. Optionally, apply a layer of jam and icing between the cakes, otherwise just a layer of icing. This helps the cakes stick together, though admittedly, not much.

At this point, the cakes should be sitting on their cake boards. You want to buy cake boards that are a half-inch smaller than the cake tin, so a 5.5" board for a 6" cake and so on.

Ice the top and sides of the cake with buttercream icing. The goal here is not perfection, as it will be hidden by the fondant - however you want to make sure there are no major bumps or dips as these will show through.

After the crumb layer has been applied, return the cake to the fridge for the icing to harden. After removing from the fridge, trim off any little bits of icing sticking out with a knife.

Fondant icing

I still have a lot to learn about fondant icing, so I'll refrain from giving out too much advice on this one. I was told to use 'Pettinice' brand icing, available from Foodtown, Countdown, and other supermarkets (but not Pak n' Save). Each pack of icing is 750g, and you will need to use approximately the following amount for each cake...

6" = 1/2 pack
8" = 3/4 pack
10" = 1 pack
12" = 1.5 packs
14" = 2 packs

This allows for a fairly generous icing layer - I didn't micromanage this and as such my icing may have been different thicknesses. Use this as a starting point.

Fondant needs to be massaged by hand to get it to a pliable consistency. Add your colouring at this stage if you are using it, it will take extra massaging to get the colour consistent and avoid marbling. Make sure your hands, tools, and work surface is spotlessly clean as you don't want crumbs or contaminants getting into your icing. If you have a cake wheel sheet like I did, this is a very handy tool to have. Otherwise, lubricate your work surface with shortening, and roll out the fondant to the size of the cake + the height of the sides. So for a 10 inch cake with 3 inch sides, you will need a 16 inch circle of fondant.

Carefully drop the fondant sheet over the cake, and trim off the excess with scissors (don't recycle this excess fondant if it has crumbs in it). Using a plastic fondant tool or similar apparatus, smooth the fondant into the cake. Use a mix of icing sugar and cornflour as a lubricant, used sparingly, especially on coloured layers. You will probably need to re-trim the sides as the fondant is pulled down the sides of the cake.

My best advice is to not to play with the fondant too much. There will be small holes and imperfections in the fondant which are surprisingly difficult to remove, but surprisingly easy to hide using the decoration layer of piped icing and flowers. Guests will have trouble spotting small imperfections. The bottom of the cake will be a bit ratty looking, which is why the bottom half-inch is usually covered by icing blobs or a decorative ribbon.

Storage and transport

I didn't manage to find a definitive answer on this, so I'd be interested to hear what professionals do at this stage. My practice cake was stored in the fridge and was a bit dry / stale after 3 days - so I wouldn't recommend that option.

I stored the 2 smaller layers at room temperature in airtight plastic containers - the cake placed on the lid of the container with the container being transported upside down. This meant I didn't have to reach into the container to remove the cake, which was great, but extra care is needed when picking up the container. What I should have also done is use double-sided tape or a splotch of icing to stick the cake board to the container lid - my cakes moved around in their containers and banged the side, causing a small amount of damage.

The large 14" layer was too big for any containers, especially with the 18" tray it was mounted on. I settled for a cardboard box with tin foil loosely draped over the top of the cake. Extra care was taken to not place anything on top of this box. I tried to store the cakes in a cool place at all times, but with all the moving around and the hot weather this was far too difficult and I settled for 'out of direct sunlight'.

Freezing the cakes before icing is also a good alternative, and would potentially mean you could ice at the venue and save on the stress of moving the iced cakes around.

Decorations

The pattern I chose was found in a cake book - a nice effect which adds texture to the cake (and hides a great many flaws). The contrast of the white pattern on the orange cake looked fantastic. I then decorated with orange flowers, sourced at the last minute from a local florist and off the side of the road.

Assembly

The cake should be assembled on the day, at the venue. Use small wooden dowel sticks to support each layer, and these need to be cut to length with a saw. I used 5 support sticks in the bottom layer, and 4 in the middle layer. Passers-by seemed concerned that I would need a saw for making a cake - they were wondering what the thing was made of.

Decorative Icing

Icing the pattern is easier than expected. I used the cake wheel to mark the cake into sixteen segments, with the decorative icing going in every other segment. If you don't have one of these available, measure the circumference of the circle and divide by 16, then measure and mark each segment. Try to setup your markings so the decorated segments cover the worst flaws in the fondant.

Use the above icing recipe for the decoration - keeping with a stiffer consistency so it doesn't droop. Probably a half-mix is sufficient, but make up extra if you are colouring the icing as you don't want to run out and have to colour-match. Make sure you use fine, good quality shortening. I didn't on my practice cake, and it jammed up the piping nozzles, forcing me into using a very large nozzle which didn't look great at all. On the real cake, I used a better shortening, a finer nozzle, and the effect was far better.

Buy a good steel nozzle from a cake shop, I used a size 2 nozzle but had others available just in case.

I did the decorative icing at the venue. Being a handy strong lad and also technically competant with laptops and projectors, I was constantly being given other tasks, however don't underestimate the size of this job. I was there for 6 hours in total, with some time being lost to other tasks and some to getting the consistency right for the icing and dealing with a few minor blockages (even with the good shortening).

I used coloured ribbons to place around the base of each cake, secured in place using a little buttercream icing.

Flowers

I got lucky. The local florist had some nice gerberas which I plucked the petals from and 'randomly' sprinkled around the layers and base. For the top, I found some pretty orange calla lillies that were growing at the bottom of our driveway, a perfect match I thought. (Update: A reader tells me that calla lillies can be a bit poisonous. Yikes. Although now that I search around for more information, I'm not certain these actually are calla lillies.)

I picked and assembled these at the last minute so they stayed fresh and looked at their best.

Final thoughts

I received nothing but great feedback from the cake overall. Despite the amount of work involved, it's a great display of competance to the new in-laws and a good way to impress people with your wide range of skills.

The structure held together very well. The quantity was bang on - with 150 guests, they ate through the middle layer and perhaps three-quarters of the bottom layer, with the top layer being reserved for the bride and groom to keep in the freezer for their anniversary. The taste was considerably better than my practice cake, so I was happy with the plastic containers used for storage. It was hard to spot any flaws under all the flowers, so only I knew they were there.

A big thanks to Kylie Frost-Mackey who loaned me a lot of gear that made this job easier, and gave me the heads-up on how to go about some of the more technical parts of this project.

All in all, very pleased with this result, though possibly not in a rush to do all this again :)

Source: Madeira Wedding Cake Recipe

German Pretzels (Brezeln)

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +1300

I love brezeln. The chewy soft bread in the thick part, then the crunchyness at the thin ends, combined with yummy salt and butter - these are hard to beat. If you haven't tried these yet, you need to.

I have been wanting to make proper German brezeln (pretzels) for months, but surprisingly, the ingredients aren't all that easy to find in Germany. Baking Soda is not stocked at most Supermarkets, and Lye (Lauge) seems to be equally rare.

This recipe is based on a recipe found at About.com, but adapted slightly to use Baking Soda instead of Lye, and to make a smaller number of larger brezeln instead.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
4 1/4 cups of bread flour (550)
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp baking soda, to be dissolved in 1 litre water
Sea Salt, the big gritty stuff

Preparation

Start off by mixing the yeast with 1/4 cup of water and 2 tsp sugar. Leave to one side for 5 mins until the yeast is frothy.

Sift the flour into a bowl, add salt. Add the yeast mixture and another 1 cup of water to the flour, and mix into a dough. Using a little extra flour, knead the dough into a smooth ball for approx 5 mins. Allow to rest for 5 mins, then add the butter and knead again for 5 mins. The butter will make the dough very sticky at first, but this will go away by dusting with a couple of Tbsp of flour.

Clean and grease the bowl, add the dough to the bowl, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Once the dough is ready, punch down to remove air bubbles, then break into 4 - 12 smaller portions, depending how big you like your brezeln. Roll each portion into a smooth ball, then roll out on a clean bench into a 20" / 50cm sausage shape - tapered thin at each end. Twist the ends around to make into a brezeln shape.

Place in the fridge for approx 1 hour to harden up a little, which makes the next part easier.

Lauge - the fun part

I used baking soda rather than Lye / Lauge for this part. Mainly because I wasn't able to find Lauge, but also because it's safer and easier to clean up. If you choose to use real lye, please take all necessary precautions.
Boil 1 litre water in a pot, then turn down to simmer temperature. Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda slowly and stir. Using a slotted spoon, add each brezeln to the lye water for approx 30 seconds, then place on the baking tray. After all brezeln have been dunked in lye, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and bake at 200 degrees celcius for 20 minutes.

Serve with butter, or sprinkle with cheese before putting in the oven for a käsebrezel which is another excellent combination.

Guten appetit.

Source: German Pretzels (Brezeln)

Grilled capsicum with Jalapenos

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +1300

I found myseld this week in a delightful position of having too many capsicums in the fridge. We found 5kg of red capsicum for 9 euro, so what's not to like about it.

I have spent the whole week having stuffed capsicums for lunch, and it's been a great week. Here is my favourite combination - inspired by the 3kg tin of sliced jalapenos that I also bought.

Ingredients

4 ripe red capsicums
1 small jar sliced, pickled jalapenos
50g goats cheese or feta
100g pork or chicken
1tsp Paprika
6 baby corns
Grated cheddar cheese for topping
balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper

Capsicums

You want to get the capsicums into the oven as quick as you can. Chop them in half and deseed/destalk. Set the oven to bake at 200 degrees, and place the capsicums on an oven tray cut-side-down with some oil. Let them cook for about 15 mins while you prepare the other ingredients.

Toppings

Chop the pork or chicken into very small cubes, and toss with salt, pepper and paprika. Fry on high heat with a little oil until cooked through - fry a little longer if you like crispy.

Once the capsicums are soft and starting to go a bit black in places, remove them from the oven and set the oven to grill.

Turn the capsicums over and start filling them up.

Chopped baby corn first.
A generous helping of jalapenos.
Crumbled goat's cheese.
The pork or chicken from the fry-pan.
The grated cheddar.

Grill these for about another 10 mins, drizzle a small amount of balsamic vinegar across the top, and season with salt / pepper to taste. I happen to have some really decent quality balsamic vinegar from my trip to Modena last month, and this really gave the dish a boost. Yummmmm.

I still have a drawer full of red capsicums in the fridge too.

Source: Grilled capsicum with Jalapenos

Tuscan Omelette Recipe

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +1200

I have been enjoying a few more recipes based around eggs lately - they are a good source of protein and are easy to work with. Added to that, they stay fresh for a reasonable length of time and don't need to be defrosted - we haven't had a Microwave in the house for the last 8 months so this is important.

I thought I would share this omelette recipe - which I put together in the hills of sunny Tuscany, Italy. The fresh ingredients here are too good to miss out on - fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, olive oil and goat's feta - and some amazing little Pholiota Aegerita (mushrooms) that I found in the local shop. I had intended to use Gorgonzola cheese, but I discovered that tasted pretty decent on crackers instead. Yummm.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

6 eggs
A large handful of fresh basil, chopped
A large handful of cherry tomatoes
50g feta cheese
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1/2 a red onion
Salt, pepper, olive oil

Start by coking the onion and mushroom together with some olive oil, then when nearly cooked, add the cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered) and the chopped basil. Season with salt and pepper, cook for 30 seconds then remove from the pan and put to one side.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Whisk the whites until fluffy, this makes the ommelette light and yummy, and I think is well worth the extra time and hassle. Stir / mix the yolks, then lightly stir through the whites. Don't worry if it's not completely mixed.

Pour the egg mixture into the pan on medium heat and allow to cook - don't intefere by stirring. Once the bottom is solid (but while the top is still liquid), add the topping that you previously cooked, and sprinkle slithers of feta cheese on top.

Put the pan under the grill for 2-5 minutes, until the top is cooked through. Serve as is, or fold the ommelette in half.

Source: Tuscan Omelette Recipe

Deep Fried Sweet n' Sour Pork Recipe

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +1200

Sweet n' sour pork is my favourite choice from the local Chinese takeaway, but as it turns out, you can do a far better job yourself - without all the MSG and other crap that goes into the takeaway version.

It all starts with good ingredients. I'm currently in Germany, and the pork (Schweinefleisch) is the best I have ever tasted. And it's cheap as well (relatively speaking). Using pork filet instead of cheap meat makes all the difference - even if it means you go for a smaller quantity of pork. Also crumbed rather than battered pork pieces makes for a nice change from the norm.

Ingredients

500g Pork fillet
Half a fresh pineapple or a tin of pineapple pieces
Chopped green capsicum / carrots / baby corn
2 onions

Breadcrumbs

1 cup Breadcrumbs (approx)
2 eggs
Flour
2 Tbsp milk

Sauce

1/2 cup pineapple juice or water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
A pinch of salt / pepper
1 tablespoon cornflour

Breadcrumbs

Chop the pork filet into large chunks. Mix together 2 eggs + 2 Tbsp of milk and a little salt/pepper in a bowl, then add breadcrumbs to a second bowl and flour to a third.

Cover the pork pieces in flour, then cover with egg, then cover with breadcrumbs.

Veges

I like to have lots of veges, especially pineapple. Using fresh pineapple makes this dish especially nice, but tinned is fine too. Chop the onions into large wedges, slice the capsicum and carrot, and chop the pineapple into large chunks.

Cook the pork

We don't have a deep-fryer so a pot of sunflower oil on the stove will have to do. Make sure to use a good size pot for this, and make sure you keep an eye on the pot because boiling oil can be dangerous.

Deep fry the pork for 5-10 mins, depending on the heat of your stove. The breadcrumbs will go a dark brown colour, chop a piece of pork in half to ensure it is cooked through. Carefully remove the pork pieces and rest them for 5 mins on some paper towels to drain some of the oil.

Sauce

Mix all sauce ingredients together except for the cornflour in a large pot and heat through. Add all the veges and simmer for about 15 mins. At the end, poke the veges to make sure they are the right consistency (don't want them too soft). Mix the cornflour with a little water, then stir through the sauce to thicken it up.

I like to add the pork to the sauce mixture and give it a good stir so the pork is covered, but you may also like to serve up the pork on the plates and pour the sauce over the top.

Serve with rice and enjoy.

Source: Deep Fried Sweet n' Sour Pork Recipe

Couscous Salad Recipe

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +1200

Fancy a yummy couscous salad that can be adapted easily depending on wat you have in the fridge? I stumbled across this recipe by mistake and was pretty pleased with what I came up with - my friends agree.

Great for barbeques and parties, this is something that you can take along anytime.

Tabouleh

One evening, I was attempting to create a middle eastern style tabouleh to go with some slow roasted lamb and some yummy yoghurt sauces I had made. Tabouleh calls for bulgur wheat, which isn't available at most supermarkets (if you feel like a laugh try asking the spotty grocery boy to find you some bulgur wheat). On a deadline, I decided to go with couscous instead of the bulgur wheat and it turned out perfectly.

Adapt, evolve

Another time I made the same recipe, but we were almost out of couscous and had some tomatoes that needed to be used. I swapped out some couscous for some more tomatoes, and it tasted perfect.

I made this recipe a few more times, and when I moved to Ireland I was shocked at how expensive parsley was - I didn't feel like spending the equivalent of $20 on parsley just to make one dish. So, I made the recipe with only one small bunch of parsley. Tasted perfect.

The image shown here is using a lot less parsley than I would normally use (parsley isn't cheap in London either), and the tomatoes weren't as great as normal so the salad is quite couscous-heavy. I added some roasted sunflower seeds and flaxseed as well - I like the extra crunch that the nuts give.

Ingredients

The quantities are flexible. Feel free to experiment.

1 - 3 large bunches of parsley (flat or plain)
1 cup couscous
1 Tablespoon of butter (optional, stir into the couscous)
6 ripe tomatoes
1-2 red onions
2-6 cloves garlic
Juice of 2 lemons
Approx 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Optional - roast nuts or seeds

Mix

Start by cooking the couscous according to pack directions and leave to cool. Season the couscous with salt and pepper. Don't mix the salad ingredients into the couscous until it has cooled, otherwise it will wilt the parsley.

If you are using them, roast the nuts/seeds in the oven with a little oil for about 10 minutes. Pine nuts and cashews work particularly well, but pumpkin and sunflower seeds are a cheaper way to go.

This salad comes out extra-special when the ingredients are super-finely chopped. Make sure you have a sharp knife for this. Finely chop the tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley.

Mix everything together and add stir through the olive oil and lemon juice. Add the lemon juice slowly and taste as you go, just to make sure it isn't too acidic or bitter.

Also...

This salad refrigerates well - I have kept for 3-4 days, but it always gets eaten before then. It also works really well as filling for bread rolls, wraps and sandwiches. You can also add a little vegetable stock to the couscous which adds to the flavour nicely, or consider using one of those pre-flavoured sachets of couscous.

Enjoy.

Source: Couscous Salad Recipe

Little Girl's Castle Cake

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +1200

Here's a pretty neat girl's castle cake recipe that will result in lots of oooohs and aaaahs. I managed to impress all the mums at our daughter's 3rd birthday party with my culinary skills on this creative little number - and the kids loved it too. Though I'll have to admit, very time consuming.

So what we have here is a fairy castle with a tower, covered in white chocolate bricks and surrounded by a moat made of blueberry jelly. Allow several hours to put this together - the time needed to bake the cake, a couple of hours creating the chocolate bricks, a couple of hours assembling the cake, and then about another hour on the day to put on the final decorations. Easily 6 hours total, though I was experimenting and having fun the whole way through.

Don't let that put you off - this is great fun, looks awesome, and will really impress the crowd.

Ingredients

3 cake tins - preferably all round or all square
A muffin tray for approx 4-6 small muffins
Double cake mixture - I used carrot cake, but choose something you like (must be a reasonably solid cake to hold everything up, so don't use a sponge)
3 King size bars of white chocolate, or about 700g of white cooking chocolate
500g bottle of white chocolate truffle - available from cake decorating shops
1 x cake board, to lay everything out on
2 packets of blue jelly - I used blueberry
A packet of ice cream wafers
3 long kebab sticks
Marshmallows of various shapes and sizes to line the outside
6 x candy sticks
Hearts, flowers etc for decoration

Chocolate bricks

The first task, and possibly the most time consuming is to create the white chocolate bricks for the walls of the castle. Maybe you can buy pre-made chocolate squares that you can use - but I couldn't, and the lady at the cake shop mentioned that they always make their own. Actually, I quite enjoyed making the bricks myself, it makes the thing look a bit more homemade.

Start by finely chopping the white chocolate - do only half a block at a time, at least for the first couple of runs. Any more than that it gets harder to manage.

Add the chocolate to a microwave-safe measuring cup, and into the microwave. The trick here is to cook for 15 seconds, then stir the chocolate - then repeat until the chocolate is fully melted.

Spread the chocolate onto a sheet of greaseproof paper, and use a spatula to get the chocolate to a consistent 4mm (approx) thickness.

The chocolate sheet goes into the fridge or freezer until it sets, minimum 15 minutes.

Remove the chocolate from the fridge and carefully cut into long strips. Builders say to measure twice, cut once; this certainly holds true here, so use a ruler or block to make sure the strips are a consistent width - this will make life easier later.

Cut the strips at random intervals to make rectangle bricks - I prefer some element of randomness to the wall, but you might prefer all bricks to be the same size.

The offcuts go back into the measuring cut, ready for the next batch.

You will need to multitask a little on this - half a bar of chocolate at a time, working on the next batch while the first is setting. Do some basic measurements of your cake tins and calculate how many chocolate bricks you need - I made about 160 of them, and had lots left over.

Once you have made enough chocolate squares, place them in a bowl and then into the freezer - they are much easier to work with when frozen.

Bake the cake

I chose a carrot cake because they aren't too sweet (the cake has enough sweetness on top), but also because carrot cakes are thick and substantial - which means the tower is less likely to fall over. I won't include the cake recipe here, as I'm sure you have a favourite chocolate / carrot / banana cake recipe that will work perfectly.

Make a double mixture, or more if you are planning on making a larger cake.

I opted for a round cake, but I would have made it square if I owned enough square cake tins. I had a square tin, a round tin, a round tin with a hole in the middle, and the muffin tins. Most combinations of square and round should work, given that you can cut the corners off square cakes and make them round.

So choose 3 cake tins, and fill them each about 3/4 of the way to the top - we want the cakes to come out as flat as possible, and filling to the top usually results in a rounded top. This is why I designed the cake around 3 layers rather than 2, but 2 layers would probably work just as well for a smaller cake.

With the remaining cake mix, fill in 5 or 6 muffins in a muffin pan. Again, don't overfill these as the shapes will be harder to work with.

Once the cakes come out of the oven, assemble the cake as pictured above. Use a knife to carefully cut a hole in the top layer so that the outer ring is about 3cm thick. Chop the battlements out of the top layer, being careful not to remove so much cake that the integrity of the structure is weakened. If you used square cake tins, chop off the corners and get them looking as flush as you can.
After doing all this, I found that some of the battlements were slumping, so I needed to pack some off-cuts between the layers to get everything sitting right.

Leave the muffins to one side for now, we will create the tower once the icing has gone on.

Icing

Working with chocolate truffle is an absolute treat after working with buttermilk icing. It melts easily, at which point it's easy to spread and easy to squeeze into holes. Or with less heat, it becomes thicker and easier to mold into shapes. It makes a perfect glue for sticking the chocoate to the cake, and it sets rock hard so that you can hold decorations in place easily. Hands down, a great material to work with.

Start by spreading a layer of truffle over the cake, then sticking the bricks on top. You may want to spread a little extra truffle on the back of each brick to make them fit into place better, I didn't need to do this for the walls but did for the intricate bits.

One of the reasons for laying down the truffle layer is to whiten the cake - helps where you miss a bit in the wall construction.

Tower

I decided to do an inner lining on my battlements for extra strength - see pictured below. This needs to be done before the tower goes in, which is why I left this till now. Once tha's done, you can insert the tower - I chose to create the tower then carry on with the icing.

The tower is essentially 5 or 6 muffins stacked on top of each other. Stick a kebab stick through the middle to keep them together, then run a knife down each edge to make the stack as square as you can (don't be too particular about this, the bricks will hide most mistakes).

Stick the tower on top of the cake structure, and drive the kebab stick into the cake. Add 2 or more kebab sticks at slight angles to give additional suport as required.

At this point, finish off adding the bricks to the cake and tower. I used 8 candy sticks for the 4 corners of the tower, and each tower face was only one brick wide (I used some bricks of a consistent size for this). Use plenty of thick truffle to fill in gaps and get the candy sticks to hold in place.

See image below in the 'moat' section.

Moat

The moat is a little tricky because the timing needs to be just right. The moat is 2 packets of blueberry jelly mixed to packet directions. Instead of cooling in a bowl, use a shallow tray - the jelly will set faster, and will be much more consistent, which you definitely need.

Put the jelly in the fridge and allow to partially set - this will take about an hour, but check regularly. It needs to be set, but still a bit sloppy so you can mold it into place. But not so runny that it spills over the edge of the flat board you are putting it on.

Once you think the mixture is the correct consistency, spoon it around the castle in blobs and arrange how you like. You can push the jelly right up against the castle wall, the chocolate offers good protection.

I did the jelly in 2 batches, this image shows the first batch completed. The 2nd batch was spooned over the top and thickened the moat - I suspect I was able to get my moat thicker than I otherwise would have by doing this in 2 stages.

Bedtime

If you are making this cake the day before, this is the right time to put the cake in the fridge and call it a day. Any decorations added at this stage are likely to spoil, so it's best to do these in the morning.

Decorations

Doing the decorating from the above photo, to the completed cake took less than an hour.
Firstly, add a door to the castle, which is simply an ice cream wafer. Cut window shapes out of more wafers and place as many windows on the castle and tower as you need - stick them on using the truffle mix.

The roof is a little more complicated to get right - it's 4 equal sized triangles stuck together using the white chocolate truffle. Use plenty of truffle, and make sure it's quite thick. Get it arranged right on a plate, then stick in the fridge for a few minutes to set in place.

I thought a little bridge would be a nice effect - another wafer with the candy sticks for supports, with chunks taken out to hold the wafer.

I found a little fairy that looked just like my daughter Lulu, so I put her in the moat for added effect. Marshmallows around the edge to make a nice border - the kids went crazy over these, and it kept the little fingers away from the jelly for at least a few minutes.
I used some candy flowers as lillies in the moat, and some candy hearts for decoration around the edge of the battlements - anything to add a girly touch to the creation and make it look a bit more interesting.

Let me know if you manage to recreate something like this - it's great fun, and the kids will love it.

Harvey.

Source: Little Girl's Castle Cake

Lamb Hamburger Patties

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +1300

Here's a lamb hamburger patties recipe I use - not much different to the recipe for beef patties really. These hamburger patties come together in a nice malleable consistency which makes it easy to form patties that stay in one piece and don't fall to bits.

Ingredients

700g Lamb mince
1 onion
1 egg
half cup of breadcrumbs (approx)
fresh herbs - basil, coriander or parsley
1Tbsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp paprika
salt / pepper to season

Assembly

This isn't rocket science. Mix everything together in a bowl, except for the breadcrumbs. Adding the egg really moistens up the mixture, and adding the breadcrumbs is how I dry out the mixture again. Add the breadcrumbs until the mixture is somewhat dry, and is easy to shape into patties.
Shape the mixture into approx 8 patties, and grill or fry to cook.

Great with your favorite homemade burger. I find that homemade bread makes all the difference, but I have used a fresh kaiser bun in the photograph which was also pretty good.

Source: Lamb Hamburger Patties

Moroccan lamb skewers

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +1300

I have just discovered lamb mince, and it has a few nice advantages over lamb pieces that I hadn't considered earlier.
This recipe for Moroccan lamb skewers doesn't require any marinating (which I usually do with all my skewers / kebabs) and threading the meat onto the stick is much less time consuming than regular lamb pieces.

Ingredients

700g lamb mince
half a cup of cashew nuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 handfull of fresh chopped coriander
Kebab skewers - 6-10 of them depending how big you make them
Salt & pepper to season
Fresh yoghurt to garnish

Mix it up

Mix everything together in a bowl, except for the yoghurt. Make sure there is a good dash of salt / pepper as these can taste a little bland without good seasoning.
Mix together with your hands, or a wooden spoon. The mix should be sticky enough to hold itself together in little balls.

On the stick

Roll the mince mixture into little sausage sized shapes, and then push a wooden skewer through the middle - much easier than threading individual pieces onto the skewer right?

Place the skewers onto a plate and place in the fridge for about an hour - this helps the meat stay on the stick.

Cooking

Grill, fry or barbecue the skewers until cooked through.

Garnish with yoghurt and fresh coriander, serve with couscous and salad.

Source: Moroccan lamb skewers

Dukkah recipe

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +1300

Here's an easy recipe for Dukkah - a lovely mix of spices and nuts that you eat with fresh bread. Surprisingly, this dukkah recipe can be made with pretty ordinary ingredients - nothing expensive required, yet dukkah is very expensive to buy ready made from the deli.

This is my take on dukkah - there are plenty of ways to customize.

3 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp fennel seeds
2 tsp rock salt (or regular table salt if that's what you have)
A dried chili or some chili flakes (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a blender on high speed for about 30 seconds. Done.

To serve

Serve with fresh bread and olive oil / balsamic vinegar. Dip the bread in the oil / vinegar, then in the dukkah to add a tasty crunch to the bread.

This recipe makes a good amount of Dukkah, which you will need. It's quite addictive.

Source: Dukkah recipe

Stuffed mushrooms with Falafel or Hummus

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +1300

Following on from my last post about falafel, this nice stuffed mushroom recipe is easy to make after work, and because it's vegetarian you don't have to fluff around defrosting meat.

The concept is to take a large field mushroom - sprinkle some herbs and garlic over the top, and let it absorb some oil and vinegar. Then fill in the mushroom with some falafel or hummus mix. Either works well, though the falafel tends to be a thicker consistency and will stay in place better.

The recipe pictured uses Hummus.

Ingredients

Large flat field or portobello mushrooms. Actually, buttom mushrooms work fine too - if you pull out the stalk, the cavity is actually quite large inside and holds stuffing well. Great for "kid size" portions, and very cute too.
Fresh or dried herbs - thyme, basil, rosemary or sage all work well.
2 cloves of chopped garlic
A drizzle of olive oil
A drizzle of red wine vinegar
Falafel or hummus, homemade or from the supermarket
Cheddar cheese to top - Parmesan tastes great too, but doesn't melt as much.
Sale and pepper

Place the mushrooms on a baking tray, and sprinkle herbs and garlic on top of each mushroom.

Drizzle a little olive oil and red wine vinegar in the cavity. Go very sparingly with the vinegar, as it can taste quite bitter.

Cover the cavity with falafel or hummus, and sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

Serve and enjoy - hopefully with more side dishes than I have pictured here!

Source: Stuffed mushrooms with Falafel or Hummus

Chili bean and Couscous Falafel Recipe

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +1300

Not exactly authentic, but still delicious, this falafel recipe is based on chili beans and couscous. Chili beans can be as spicy or as mild as you like, and the half-cooked couscous gives the falafel a really nice amount of crunchyness.

Falafel is available in the supermarket, but can be quite expensive to buy - which is silly, because the ingredients are actually really cheap. This recipe is for the basic falafel mix, and it's up to you what you choose to do with it from here. Some of my favorites are...

Roll into little balls and fry in a pan (the standard way of cooking). Add the falafel to a salad with some homemade dressing, and serve as a main course.
As a replacement for beef or chicken on homemade burgers - falafel makes great burger patties.
As stuffing for rolled chicken breasts (see my recipe for stuffed chicken breast with cashews).
As stuffing for mushrooms - sprinkle some chopped herbs over some field mushrooms and then fill in the cavity with falafel. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 25 mins.
Sausage stuffing - split a sausage down the middle and fill in the gap with herbs and falafel.
In a pita pocket - add fried falafel to a pita bread pocket, and add minty yoghurt + fresh salad.
As the main event - nothing wrong with fried falafel balls on their own.

Ingredients

All quantities are up for discussion, feel free to experiment with this one.

1 can chili beans with sauce, as spicy as you like
1-2 medium onions
1/2 a cup of couscous
Juice of one lemon
2-4 cloves of garlic, according to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil
Chopped fresh parsley and mint
Salt and pepper
Optional - a few chopped fresh chilis or pickled Jalapenos

Chop the onions into large chunks before adding to the blender. Add all ingredients except the couscous to the blender, and mix until well blended but still fairly chunky, as shown. The consistency should be quite moist, but not a liquid. This may vary depending on how much sauce came with your chili beans, so adjust if required.

Half-cooked couscous

My first go at this recipe used uncooked couscous - it tasted nice, but the couscous was just a bit too crunchy and it spoiled the dish overall. My second attempt used cooked couscous, but that didn't work either - the recipe turned to paste, and there just wasn't any texture or anything to make it interesting.
So the answer is to partially cook the couscous, and you get the right amount of crunchiness.

Couscous is cooked by absorbing boiling water, so to half-cook, simply use half the recommended amount of water as per packet directions. Place the couscous in a bowl and slowly add boiling water, until the consistency seems about right - it should have absorbed the water, but not be light and fluffy like couscous normally is.

To finish off, mix the couscous with the other ingredients and stir well.

Cover, and leave in the fridge for at least 30 mins to become more solid.

Source: Chili bean and Couscous Falafel Recipe