MONDAY PROJECT: Rainbow cake

Need an excuse to make this rainbow cake - it looks amazing, and apparently it's very easy. Appearing amazing with very little effort...2 of my favourite things!

Recipe from here

So many delicious things to make, so little stomach space....

I've been finding so many things I want to make lately... Number one is definitely David Lebovitz's Homemade Nutella. This has 'Danger' written all over it. I would have to give some away as gifts, for my own sake.

Homemade Nutella

1/3 cup (40g) whole almonds

1 1/3 cup (160g) hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup (400g) whole milk
7/8 cup (60g) powdered whole milk
3 tablespoons (40g) mild-flavored honey
pinch of salt
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
5 ounces (140g) milk chocolate, chopped (use one that’s at least 30% cacao solids)

1. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet, keeping the almond separate, and toast the nuts in a 350ºF (180ºC) oven, stirring a few times, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the hazelnuts are browned.
2. While they are roasting, warm the whole milk and powdered milk in a small saucepan with the honey and salt just until it starts to boil. Remove from heat.
3. In a clean, dry bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, or in a microwave oven, melt the chocolates together until smooth.
4. Once the nuts are well-toasted, remove them from oven and use a spatula to place the warm hazelnuts in a clean tea towel, then fold them inside the towel and rub them vigorously to remove any loose skins. They don’t need to be pristine; just try to get as much off as possible.
5. In a food processor, grind the warm hazelnuts and almonds until they’re as fine as possible. You may not be able to get them completely smooth, depending on your food processor. (I have a brand new one and even after five minutes, there were little bits of nuts in mine, which is normal.)
6. Add the melted chocolate and continue to process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl, as necessary.
7. Once the mixture is smooth, add the warm milk mixture and process until everything is well-combined.
8. Transfer the mixture into two jars and refrigerate until ready to use.

The Chocolate-Hazelnut Paste will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Recipe here


The second thing I'm dying to make is homemade Irish Cream. I mean, who even knew you could make this yourself? The 'Danger' siren should also be going off with this discovery as well.

Homemade Irish Cream

1/2 cup heavy cream 

1/2 cup milk
1 can sweetened, condensed milk (14 ounces)
1 2/3 cups Irish whiskey (Canadian whiskey is also very good)
1 teaspoon instant espresso granules (or instant coffee granules)
2 tablespoons thick chocolate syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk everything together, making sure that mixture is well combined. Pour into bottles; seal and store in the refrigerator for up to 8 weeks.

Recipe from here.

Homemade Vogels bread

I can't find a bread that I like over here, so I had a faff about on that awesome font of knowledge; the www (honestly, what did we do before that?) for a good wholesome, easy bread to make myself.
I find the bread here really, really sweet, even when we're buying the ridiculously expensive Whole Foods organic palaver. Also, I like the idea of making bread myself, because when it goes stale after 3 days, I know I'm not eating a whole lot of added who-knows-what.
Anyway, good news. I stumbled upon an Annabel Langbein recipe called 'Busy People's Bread'. It is super-easy to make - i.e. there's no kneading, and just 10 minutes waiting time while you wait for the yeast to froth.
I whacked in a tablespoon of flax seeds as well, just to feel extra virtuous when eating your homemade bread.
And it was awesome - it tastes a lot like Vogels bread, something that when toasted and covered in butter and marmite, is a bit like NZ on a plate.
As an added bonus it also received rave reviews from the sidekick. Happy times all round.

Recipe here

Lemon curd

I made some lemon curd this week as thank you gifts for our Thanksgiving hosts.
I like making this back in NZ, as it's feels like a good way to use up some of the lemons that would otherwise be mown over in the back yard, even though you only use up about 2 lemons and 500gm of butter (ok, that's a slight exaggeration). But it still seems a good thing to make here, as even though lemons are like buying citrus gold, the free-range eggs here are next to nothing (well, compared to home).
I forgot to bring my usual lemon curd recipe with me to Boston, but after a search high and low on the trusty www, I came across this recipe which fit the bill - i.e. unlike others didn't extravagantly use 5 egg yolks (eggs aren't that cheap). And given that the recipe also told me the temperature to get the curd to, it gave me a good excuse to use the confectionery thermometer I bought ages ago (somehow I convinced Carl we needed one), for the very first time. Which I can report, works a treat.

Lemon Curd

3 large eggs
1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
1 tablespoon (4 grams) finely shredded lemon zest
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
4 tablespoons (56 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces.

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice until blended.
Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C). This will take approximately 10 minutes. - This stage always, always takes me about 20 mins.
Remove from heat. Whisk butter into the mixture until the butter has melted. Add the lemon zest and let cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.
Makes 1 1/2 cups (360 ml).

Recipe from here

Sonya's Mum's Sally Lunn

I made this recipe yesterday - Sonya's legendary Mum's Sally Lunn. It is soooo delicious.
My only complaint us that unlike when you bake biscuits and you can sneak away say one, two, maybe three if they're really good....and nobody really has to know, well, it's not so easy to disguise how much you have gobbled away in that 'testing' phase with the Sally Lunn.
I guess the way through that little conundrum is to secretly make two.

Sonya's Mum's Sally Lunn Recipe

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cold mash potato (This sounds like a pain, but really, it's just peel a spud, put in pot for 20 mins or so, ignore for another half an hour and then get on with making the Sally Lunn).
2 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup sultanas
1/4 cup milk (I used a little over 1/2 cup as my mixture was quite dry).

Pre heat oven to 180 deg. celcius. Grease a flat oven tray or lay down baking paper
Cream the sugar and potatoes thoroughly (mind the potatoes don’t go grey and watery).
Stir in the flour, coconut, sultanas and enough milk until you get a smooth firm dough (like scone dough).
Put dough onto tray and shape into 'bun' shape, then bake for 25mins.
Let it cool and ice.

Icing

1 tbsp butter (soft)
3/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup coconut
Warm water (enough to make a firm mixture)

Mix butter, icing sugar, coconut and slowly add water to make a nice firm mixture.

Onto a winner...

These chocolate meringues have done me wonders in the quick-to-whip-up-yet-look-very-impressive desert department recently.



Chocolate meringues

3 egg whites
.8 C / 150g / 5 1/2 Oz. caster sugar
2-3 tsp cocoa

Pre-heat the oven to 275 Farenheit / 135 Celcius
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form
Gradually whisk in the sugar until stiff peaks form
Fold the cocoa in
Spoon onto tray lined with baking paper
Cook for 40 mins

Top with dollop of whipped cream, some fruit (my go-to is the frozen blueberries we always have in the freezer) and dust with cocoa.

Stand back and wait for compliments to roll in.

Roast pumpkin salad

Here's a salad that's featuring with a fair bit of regularity on our menu at the moment. Carl got this delivered to him for lunch today. How outrageously domesticated is that? (Although I'm pretty sure proper-amazing-wives don't feel the need to skite about it).

Roast pumpkin salad
The beauty of this salad is substituting for whatever is available or on special.

Mix together;
Roasted pumpkins (or I've also used carrots, or sweet potatoes.) Roast them in oven for approx 35 mins with dash of olive oil, some cumin and chilli seeds.
Prepared bulgar wheat
Feta
Olives
A good whack of pesto (I've used a variety of pestos - rocket (arugula), italian parsley or basil. Whatever greenery I have lying around that I can transform, with the magic of parmesan and toasted pine nuts and olive oil, into a pesto basically.)
Walnuts or toasted pinenuts
Splash of olive oil, S&P
Zest of 1/2 lemon and the juice.

Friday night

Loving the look of this recipe.

Image: Design Sponge

Baked Beans

I've got the shits with myself now (not because of the beans) as I keep making these gourmet delights and then bluddy well forgetting to write them down so I can make them again. (Do you like how I take license to call them "gourmet delights", yes I know, so immodest, but in light of evidence to the contrary I will go forth and stake this claim.) I made a cassoulet the other week inspired by going to Parnell's magnificent French Markets, and it was rave-able. But do you think I can remember all the ingredients I used now? No.

But, back to the baked beans...before I forget them.

I get so sucked into the fruit shop accross the road, they have this health section that is heaving with roasted almonds, LSA seeds, dehydrated strawberries, bran, the list goes on. And I always have to stand there for at least 5 minutes, mouth agape, looking at all the goodness, making sure there's nothing that I haven't seen before, or don't need. My favourite bit is that all the packets have why the products are so good for you. Which is basically just another incentive to go bananas and stock up. Because you feel like when you buy the stuff you're just going to be reeking of health. Reeking, I tell you. (And you can conveniently ignore the fact that the dried mango slices you've munched 30 of, calorie-wise, you may as well have had a pack of 'party mix' lollies, because these are health-y.)

So, the latest outcome of a trip to the fruit shop was a bag of haricot beans. The pack promised "enhanced energy levels, supports the nervous system, aids liver function. They also have anti-cancer and anti-oxidant properties". I mean, why wouldn't you? Anyway here was the result.

image: donna hay (again, taking outrageous license that mine looked this good, but without any evidence to the contrary, see note above)

EM'S BAKED BEANS
1 C haricot beans
2 chirozo
400g whole peeled tomatoes
1 red onion
Sprinkle cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you want it, I just wanted a hint of heat)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
S&P

Soak haricot beans overnight, then rinse (helps reduce"flatulence" apparently), the boil for 35 mins.
Meanwhile, caramelise thinly sliced red onions for 20 mins, then add sliced chirozo to the pan and cook a further 10 mins. This means all the nice chirozo fat goes through the onions. Mmmm...chirozo fat.
Next add the whole peeled tomotoes, seasonings, S&P and heat through. Finally add the cooked beans and combine (being careful not to 'moosh' the beans when you combine).
Serve to appreciative family members.

Seriously delicious. We had it for lunch 2 days running. And did I mention healthy?

One of my fave Sunday arvo things...

...is eating homemade pizza washed down with a cold beer. Sundays are just made for chillin' out and messing up the kitchen.

Here's a recent one that went down well...

• Caramelise the onions with bit of butter and brown sugar
• Fry up mushrooms with some chili
• Top pizza with good homemade t. sauce, cheese, onions, mushys and top with feta. Yum.