Hearty hodge podge for cold summer days

1 tbsp cumin
2 handful lentils
1 can chick peas
1/2 onion
1 can chopped tomato
salt
1 c rice

A slow cooker is the best appliance to cook this recipe in - no fuss. But a sauce pan does just as well.

1. Add lentils, can of chickpeas, chopped onions, can of chopped tomatoes and cumin. Add two and half cans of water. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Put slowcooker on High. Cook for 1 hour.
3. Add rice and cook for another 1/2 hour. Make sure the mix does not dry out and add water as required.

Crunchy lemon cake for when life throws you lemons

115 g butter
150g sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
2 eggs
180g flour
1 tsp baking powder
110 ml milk

Lemon crunchy icing:
1/3 c castor sugar or granulated sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice (roughly juice of 2 lemons depending on size)

Pour into a 450g (1lb) loaf tin, greased and lined

1. Mix everything together except for the crunchy icing ingredients.
2. Bake in the preheated oven at 150 degrees for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and springy to the touch.
3. While the cake is still warm, make the topping. Mix together the sugar and lemon juice, and pour over the warm cake.
4. Leave to cool a little and loosen the sides of the cake, then lift the cake out of the tin

Bang Bang Sesame Sauce

Sesame sauce for skewers or salads or freshly cooked veges

1 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp of sweet chilli sauce
11/2 tbsp vinegar
2 Tbsp water

Ravioli biscuits for cookie monsters like me!

Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe.

Filling
Juice of 4 oranges or use 400ml of cranberry juice for poaching
Cinnamon stick 1
Dried apricots 15
Sugar 2 Tbsp
Brandy 2 Tbsp

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan.Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Then pour into the poached fruit 2 tbsp of brandy. Burn the brandy off by lighting the poached fruit with a match. Take out the cinnamon stick and blend into a pulp.

Dough
Butter 1 c (at room temperature)
Sugar 1 c
Eggs 2 (large ones)
Vanilla 1/2 tsp
Flour 2 c
Baking powder 2 c
Salt 1/2 tsp

Add butter and sugar into a food processor, add a cup of sugar and eggs one at a time. Pour in vanilla essence. Then sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and add one cup at the time to the dough while mixing.

From hereon in refer to photo.
Divide the dough in quarters and form rectangles, gladwrap each one and refrigerate for an hour.
Ensure to momentarily chill the pastry again in the fridge between handling to avoid it running away or cracking.The pastry is easier to handle when chilled.

After an hour heat the fan oven to 200 degrees. Add 20 degrees if you are baking the ravioli in a normal oven.

Take one quarter and roll out the dough on gladwrap with another sheet on the dough in between the roller and the dough. Repeat the process with another quarter until you have two sheet rolled out.(Perhaps keep the other sheet in the fridge while doing this.)

Take a small zip lock bag and fill it with puree. Cut one corner off and use it as a piping bag.
Now squirt five little amounts of apricot puree across and down three rows.
Peel back the gladwrap and fold the second sheet of dough over the bottom sheet.

Take a knife and cut between the little mounts like you would making ravioli. If you have a ravioli cutter, even better.

The oven should be at the right temperature now.Fill an oven tray full of ravioli and bake for 10 minutes. Watch the biscuits carefully so that they don't burn!

Dipping sauce
Greek yoghurt (Easiyo is great)
Honey

Mix yoghurt and honey until combined and pour into a dipping bowl.

Serve with yoghurt as deseert morning or afternoon treat.

Gnocchi Gnocchi who is there!

Adapted from River Cafe.

White floury potatoes 1 Kg
Plain flour 250g
Unsalted butter 100g

Wash the potatoes and keep them whole.Cook with their skins, in boiling salted water until soft, about 20 minutes depending on size.
Peel and whilst hot, immediately put through a mouli or potato ricer on to a clean surface. If you don't have a mouli or ricer then use a normal kitchen sieve and push the cooked potato in cubes through the wire with a spatula, so the potato comes out nice and satin-like.

Sift over the flour, season and combine rapidly, to form a smooth, soft and elastic dough.

Roll into sausage-like roles of about 1.5 cm in diameter, and cut into pieces about 2-3cm long. See photos for help.Press each piece against the prongs of a fork to form little ridges, or make tiny incisions with a sharp knife on each piece - these will help hold the sauce.

Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water for 3 minutes but make sure the water is not furiously boiling but a very gentle simmer or your gnocchi will disintegrate. Cook them until they rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon to a warmed dish.

Melt the butter until just soft, and combine with gnocchi. Season and serve with cheese, or alternatively with either a mushroom, vege, or tomato sauce-recipes to follow below.

Tomato sauce
red onions 3
Basil leaves 3 tsp
Olive oil 2 tbs
Tin tomatoes 2 x 400g

Peel and slice the onions as thinly as possible into rounds. Peel and finely slice the garlic.

Heat the olive oil in a wide thick-bottomed pan, then add the onion and garlic. Cook over low heat until very soft, but not brown.
Add the tomatoes, and stir to break them up, then season. Cook slowly over a low to moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour. remove from the heat and stir in basil.

Cook the gnocchi as before but omit the butter. Serve with the tomato sauce, sprinkled with parmesan or plain colby!

Mushroom sauce
Shallots 4
Mushrooms 400g
tbsp cream
Olive oil

Add olive oil to a pan.Peel and dice shallots. Add mushrooms and shallots together and on slow heat let mushrooms cook until their halved their size. If the pan gets a little dry add a dash of water to help the cooking process. Add a generous tbsp of cream and sir under and serve.

Silverbeet sauce

Shallots 3
Silverbeet 5,6 big leaves (or spinach, peas, beans etc)
Olive oil

Add olive oil to a pan.Peel shallots and add with thinly sliced silverbeet into pan. Let slowly cook untilt he leaves are wilted. Again if the pan gets too dry add a dash of water to help the cooking process.

Stir under the gnocchi

'Give yourself a break' prefab cheesecake - Costs a fraction of a real one to make...

Give yourself a break today and grant yourself the best of both worlds - prefab meets Mollie Katzen, vegetarian!

During a walking group meeting a friend confided she uses Edmonds Scone Mix.
As religious I am of what and what not to eat, I got home made scones the traditional way and found that they sucked, so the other day I bought Edmonds Smooth Continental Cheesecake and gave that a try - Fake, maybe. But no flake!

Straight out of the pack expect nothing, so add some flavour like vanilla essence, passionfruit sauce or ginger to give the mix aroma.Or, just glaze it!
Other than that it's all on the pack!

Serve with tinned fruit, peaches, mango. Serve with dessert sauces and cream, flowing or whipped.

If you want to glaze the cheese cake to ramp it up a bit and return to the converted new eco-worldliness of reusing food, glaze it with Moosewood's ginger brandy glaze, or Britta Lieven's Zabaglione glaze as given below:

Make sure OJ and cornstarch are mixed cold or it will create clumps.)

Combine 2 T cornstarch and 3/4 c orange juice, and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, for about 5 minutes, until smooth. Remove from heat, and whisk in 2 T honey, T brandy, and 1/2 t zest.
Serve with a brandy...

Or,
Combine 2 T cornstarch and 3/4 c old gris, sauvignon or other, and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, for about 5 minutes, until smooth. Remove from heat, and whisk in 2 T honey, and lemon 1/2 t zest.
Serve with a glass of dessert wine or Sauterne or lemon icecream/sorbet...


Spread glaze over cheesecake and chill for several hours before serving.The longer you let it chill (for days even) the better it becomes.