Tea and Cake on the River

I’m considering blocking this blog from all except those that are following the site so if you are keen to keep in touch with us through reading this blog you will need to click on the ‘follow’ tab.  I’m getting a few hundred readers of the site and prefer to keep this more personal so would like to restrict access to people we know….if you are having problems with the link or set-up let me know.

Those of you that know us also know we love a good cake.  Mum has been encouraging of Nick taking up the careful art of baking and in turn this leads to a growing collection of baking books. 

While thumbing through one of Nicks books (that my Mum had gifted to him at some point) I found and baked the following cake.  It was served last weekend while boating on the Hawkesbury River with friends and calls for big cups of tea!  I’d recommend it as a dense and most cake, really tasty and does look better than the photo I promise. 

One of the ingredients is milk powder which I don’t think I have bought for years if ever, I’m intrigued as to what people do with milk powder as there seemed to be a lot of it in the supermarket when I went looking   - any ideas? Make home made yogurt possibly….what else? And no it wasn’t baby formula – but I guess you could use it if you have access….why not.

From the book – A treasury of New Zealand Baking

Weekend Cake

Makes a 20cm round cake, preheat oven 180 C, lightly grease / line with baking paper your tin

1 whole orange

1 cup pitted dates

½ cup walnuts

125g butter softened

1 egg

6 tbsp milk powder

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup water

Chop the orange, including the skin, then whiz quickly in the food processor.  Add the dates and walnuts, processing until coarsely chopped.

Place the butter, sugar and egg in the food mixer and mix until smooth.  Sift the milk powder, flour and baking soda together. Combine the fruit mixture, water and dry ingredients.  Pour into the tin.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. 

Quick and simple, tastes great and keeps really well.

As a side we have a spectacular show of flowers on the Yucca plants at Castlecrag, if they weren't 12 foot tall and spiky I might have cut the flowers they are so beautiful.

Love

Mary

Brick Chicken

It’s been a busy few weeks with trips to Sydney and a weekend on the Hawkesbury.  We have farewelled friends from Orange and work for both of us has been a busy.  This week we are both in Sydney for work  then hope to see a quiet weekend.  Maybe time to book a couple of short holidays we have planned.  Later this month we will also be in Brisbane, great timimg to catch up with Joe and Meg who have arrived for their three year stint there.  It will be nice to have a few more family members close by.

The garden continues to provide us with fresh produce.  What looks to be the last of the tomatoes where enjoyed after slowly cooking them in a pan with a little olive oil, lots of finely sliced garlic and some thyme.  Just as they where ready I splashed some verjuice in the pan and they where perfect with a simply grilled piece of Atlantic Trout.  Delicious and couldn’t have been more simple.

On a fun note we decided to try a recipe I had found in an American cook book ‘Brick Chicken’. 

I took a chicken, cut in half through the breast and back bone then removed the back bone , rib cage and thigh bones.  After seasoning really well with salt and pepper I placed the chicken, skin down in a very hot pan with a little oil.  On top of the chicken I placed another pan and in this I stacked all the tins I could find in my pantry.  The recipe had called for a couple of bricks but they weren’t available at the time.  Made for an amusing sight as you can see below. 

After about 10 minutes of cooking at a moderate heat we removed most of the tins and decided instead to use a couple of weights from the gym  (not getting much use in there anyway) and continued cooking for another 8 minutes.  I then removed the weights and the  top pan and turned the very flat, gold brown chicken over.  At this point remove any excess fat from the pan and add a ½ cup of stock and a good squeeze of half a lemon and cook for a further 3 minutes or until cooked.  The end result was a crispy skinned, really moist and tasty chicken, served with some simply cooked spinach, tossed in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and a taste of white wine vinegar – it was a great, fun method to quickly cook a very tasty chicken.  

Enjoy

Love Mary

PS The full recipe for Brick Chicken can be found in 'The New Brooklyn Cookbook' by Melissa Vaughan & Brendan Vaughan or visit Marlow and Sons in Brooklyn New York apparently its been on the menu there for years.

First Aid and Chilli

Last week I attended a 2 day First Aid course, not the standard first aid which most people do or at least should do, this one is the Mental First Aid course.  With 1 in 5 Australians suffering with some form of mental illness in their lifetime it’s become essential to know how to deal with a situation if it happens.  I have certainly had my share of staff that needed help over the years and wish I had learned these skills some years ago.  If anyone has an inkling of interest its well worth your time and yes I will be watching you all…….I have the certificate.

I also had my regular trip to the Gold Coast which I do each month and luckily this coincided with Maggies birthday so also had a night in Brisbane.  We had a great evening in a Restaurant called Ortiga  www.ortiga.com.au.  It’s a Spanish restaurant that has been open just a year serving shared plates, magnificent food, the three of us shared numbers of dishes like Croquetas ,Mar y montana of oysters with pig trotters and stinging nettle picada and Codorniz rellena – stuffed quail with fennel and black olive picada.  And these Pimientos De Pardron with baby calamari.

Sorry not a good photo, taken descretly in a restautrant but all the food definitely had the wow factor.  I had purchased a night off especially for this birthday from Feb Fast so was able to share a bottle of 2006 Neudorf Chardonay from Nelson NZ which if you can find I’d highly recommend.

Its still febfast we are 17 days into it and both being strong.  Looking forward to this being over, it’s a bit dull eating good food without a decent glass of wine to complement.  Thanks to all those who have sponsored us to date we are almost at our target of $500.  If you would like to support us the address is -http://www.febfastfundraising.com.au/team_debere  

The weather turned from oh so hot to cold this week so we cooked a very un seasonal pot of chilli.  We served it with sour cream, avocado, chopped corriander and grated cheese and loved this for its comfort.  It makes a really large pot so you could freeze or just keep eating….Or turn it into a base for Taco’s or Boritos or Nachos…..for crowd.

Chilli For the Slow-Cooker

     1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1KG minced beef

2 large onions chopped

2 green pepper chopped

2 red pepper chopped

Fresh green halapenos (straight from our garden) depending how hot you like it, I added 6

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon sea salt - might need a bit more

½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chili powder (or less if your feeding children)

1 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

2 tablespoons brown sugar

As needed: water

Brown the meat, in a separate pot cook the onion, when soft add peppers, garlic and fresh chilli, combine all other ingredients and cook for at least an hour or in the slow cooker at least 3 hours.

Love

Mary

Feb Fast and Flix

What an amazing week, so hot it was really hard to work over 30 degrees for a week!

But who are we to complain, a bit of heat and a few bad nights sleep is all we got, while hundreds of people are homeless in Queensland and today the front page is 40 homes in WA lost to fire.  Frightening times for so many people in Australia.

So have just enjoyed another great weekend.  We attended ‘Flix in the Stix’, as it sounds an outdoor movie / music experience held in the local botanic gardens.  A number of award winning short films, interesting and thought provoking, humorous and beautiful.  There where also a couple of slots where Mark Seymore (x hunters and collectors) was on stage – could have done with less of that but he was a big hit with a number of chair dancers close by that made it all allot more entertaining.  All in all a really nice way to spend a Saturday evening with a picnic dinner and a couple of camping chairs, especially for those participating in Februarys – 'Feb Fast' 

For those of you that don’t know….

FebFast Ltd challenges people to press the pause button on their alcohol consumption during the shortest month of the year, and at the same time raise funds to help reduce alcohol and other drug related harms amongst young Australians. 

Proceeds raised through registration and fundraising go towards the Australian Drug Foundation, YSAS (the Youth Substance Abuse Service in Victoria), Mater Health Services Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Withdrawal Service (Queensland), The Ted Noffs Foundation (NSW and ACT), BushMob (Northern Territory) and Mission Australia youth alcohol and other drug services in WA, SA and Tasmania. 

Further funds will also be distributed through a grants program for smaller grass-roots organisations. 

For more information about FebFast and its beneficiaries visit www.febfast.org.au

If you would like to sponsor us just follow this link….

http://www.febfastfundraising.com.au/team_debere

Back to food.........while in Spain last year Nick and fell head over heels for salt cod, prepared in a number of different ways but at the moment I’m trying to perfect a recipe for salt cod croquettes…so Friday was our second version, it takes a bit of thought as the cod must be soaked in several changes of water over at least 48 hours prior to making the croquettes.  You can only just see these ones that we served with prawns, on mayo and with Rocket and Roasted home grown little Tomatoes.

I’m definitely not there yet.  The ones here tasted okay – they looked great but not anywhere near as light as the ones we where eating in Madrid, just means we have to eat more I guess….I’ll share the recipe once I’m happy with it but if anyone has the perfect recipe I'd love you to share.

Love Mary

Pizza and Ice Cream

Saturday was women’s finals of the tennis so what better than pizza for a night in front of the television.  Nick had made some great ice cream so it really was a night of home made fast food!

We like our Pizza best with a home made base and just a few toppings.

As long as you have a bit of mozzarella cheese, a decent tomato sauce for the base, a couple of tomatoes and a couple of basil leaves you can have a great pizza.  We added mushroom to one and prosciutto to both and had a really tasty couple of pizzas.

We are lucky enough to have been given a pizza maker which I would recommend to anyone but if you don’t want to go that far a good pizza stone or even a terracotta tile (unglazed) will do fine.  Make sure you heat up the oven or barbeque well before you start cooking and it will be great.

This is the recipe I use for my base.  It will make 4 medium size bases.

Thin Pizza Dough

1 x instant active dry yeast sachet

¼ teaspoon of sugar

1 ½ to 2 cups lukewarm water

4 cups good quality bread flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon of oil

Combine yeast, sugar and 1 ¼ cups water in a small bowl, set aside in a warm spot until mixture starts to bubble – 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile put flour and salt into the bowl of your kitchen aid and pour yeast mixture slowly into the flour, knead for about 5 minutes.

Brush the top with the oil, cover and stand for about ¾ hour or till it has doubled in size.

Turn out to a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes.  Divide into 4 parts.  Roll to desired size, I place this onto a sheet of baking paper and then add toppings or you can pop it straight on the pizza stone and top there.  Delish..

I'll come back to the iceceam later...
Love Mary

Stuff it!

Happy Australia Day to everyone.

Cricket has turned to tennis and we are now enjoying the semi finals of the Australian Open with a few surprises. What a great time of year for sport!

Its been particularly warm and we seem to be in the wrong house away from the pool and the air conditioning, makes working very hard but can’t complain about the weather as it continues to caste a terrible toll on so many and it looks like more to come.

I’m very proud to say that today Nick went solo for the first time today so it won’t be too long now and we will be able to check out the countryside together from above.  I’ll take photo’s I promise.

The highlight of our food during the week had to be the stuffed capsicum ….If you read my last entry we had a great pilaff and with some left over I decided to use it to stuff some beautiful red capsicum (pepper).

Simply cut the top off the pepper, clean out any seeds and fill with the pilaff.  Pop the top back on and bake at 150C for about an hour or until soft.  We served this with some char grilled chicken fillet, a few roasted tomatoes and a sprinkle of basil leaves.  Now that’s a delicious way to use leftovers.

We have been using loads of tomatoes and loving them cooked with a few new potatoes which we served with a grilled piece of Tasmanian salmon or as last night in a salad……simply cut served with steamed potatoes, lots of leaves some avocado and Queensland Prawns very nice.

Nick is currently making burnt caramel ice cream to eat with the tennis tonight and I am making pizza, I will let you know how we go.

Have a great weekend

Love

Mary