A perfect fruitcake for a family of nutbars

Ingredients
1 l/2 cups mixed fruit or sultanas
3 beaten eggs
8 oz/225 grams butter
12 oz/1 1/2 cups caster sugar
12 ozs/1 1/2 cups flour
2 level tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond essence

Method
Cover fruit with water, like Bircher Muesli leave for two days to soak fruit. Drain and add the melted butter. Add this to beaten eggs, essence, sugar and beat until thick and creamy. Add fruit and flour and baking powder.

Mix well and pour into a 25cm cake tin or two old sized loaf tins.

Bake at 150C for one hour on fan. Add 20 degrees to oven without fan. Leave to cool in tin.

Little cakes for hungry stomachs!

Yum yum yum . I made these lovely cup cakes today-another budget snack! There are not anywhere the standard that Jaimie makes at Remarkable Markets but it's worth a try!!
I used soy milk instead of milk and super cheap ingredients which makes these even sweeter. I know soy isn't cheap but it's an incentive of the other ingredients. The soy adds extra spongy texture and eats like a ricotta cake.

125g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup soy milk

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence.
Add eggs one at a time beating well. Sift flour, baking powder together and fold into creamed mixture.
Use a small cup cake pan or whichever you prefer. Make sure you grease them well.
Use cup cake cases if you don't have a mini muffin pan if you like! You can get them at the supermarket or at Spotlight and are not expensive.Spoon mixture into individual cases.
Bake 190 degrees for 15 minutes or until cakes spring back.Transfer to wire rack.
When cold decorate as you wish. I used cream cheese icing and a trivial widget of lemon.

Silverbeet and broccoli tart

Everybody will love this tart. You don't have to use silverbeet and broccoli if cauliflower, peas, bacon, feta, spinach are the thing in your fridge put your own take on it.




Ingredients

Savoury shortcrust pastry (bought)
1 tbs olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped. Substitute onion with leek if you'd like.
Head of broccoli
500g silverbeet leaves, chopped
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 cup (250ml) thin cream. I use long life and always have a supply at the ready for on a cook's whim.

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Roll out pastry on a floured board and use to line a shallow, 10cm x 34cm rectangular loose-bottomed tart pan. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place a sheet of baking paper in the pastry shell, fill with raw rice or pastry weights and blind bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, remove weights and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frypan over medium heat, add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened.Add a drip or two of water to stop the onion pieces from burning and allow to soften graciously.

Add the broccoli, cook for 3 minutes and then the silverbeet and cook for a further 1-2 minutes until just wilted. Remove from heat, drain off any excess liquid from pan and allow mixture to cool.

Sit tart pan on a baking tray and fill with cooled silverbeet mixture. Beat together the eggs and cream, season with salt and pepper and pour over the filling.

Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set. Serve warm in wedges.

Lamb shanks in tomato and rosemary w polenta

Ingredients
6 lamb shanks
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 large carrots, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bottle red wine
1 can whole peeled tomatoes with juice
1 can chicken stock
1 can beef broth
5 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Couple of sage and bay leaves

Directions
1.Sprinkle shanks with salt and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook shanks until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer shanks to plate.
2.Add onions, carrots and garlic to pot and saute until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in wine, tomatoes, chicken broth and beef broth. Season with rosemary and thyme. Return shanks to pot, pressing down to submerge. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 2 hours.
3.Remove cover from pot. Simmer about 20 minutes longer. Transfer shanks to platter, place in a warm oven. Boil juices in pot until thickened, about 15 minutes. Spoon over shanks.

How to cook polenta in a rice cooker

1 cup cornmeal (polenta)
3 cups water
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
3 green onions, finely chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon sage

Directions:
1 Place all ingredients in rice cooker.
2 Start cooking cycle.
3 After cycle is complete, wait an additional 10 minutes to allow the polenta to absorb all the liquid.
4 Stir well before serving.
5 If you like firmer polenta, let it stand for 5 minutes prior to serving.

Sushi made with leftovers-Easy-peasy, non-greasy dinz without dear finz

Forget salmon, fish eggs, sashimi de la la, WHY NOT grab the remains of last night’s chicken, beef or lamb roast for some delish sushi - a perfect recipe for economic,classy, guiltless digestion of RWC matches on tellie after a hard day in the office. Hai!

Ingredients
Cold meat
Cold roast veggies
Raw carrots or cucumber sticks
Home grown water cress for a bit of sting
Pickled ginger
Soy sauce
Wasabi
Sushi rice
Sushi sheets
Sushi vinegar
Sushi mat

Method
Cut lengthwise cold veggies (not the potatoes, fry them up with bacon for brekkie tomorrow).Cut one raw carrot ( or some cucumber, bamboo shoots, ... whatever is in your pantry or fridge. Avoid cauli, cabbage or broccoli).
Repeat the cutting process with the meat.
For sushi making technique see your local sushi outlet and, google, for example, click to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Qpo4G42_A.
Usually it is easier having prepared all the individuals beforehand so all you need is to coordinate the different elements (filling, nori etc) to make the end product.
Cut the roll into decent bite size and put on Royal Dalton’s serving platter from Salvation Army!
Serve soy, Japanese pickled ginger and mayo on side

PS Rice cookers are cheap to pick up at Cash Converters and second hand stores and best way to make non-stick, stress-free rice quickly.

A rice cooker was my first ever dabble in kitchen appliances, and has paid good returns over the years cooking.

Sushi kits for an initial investment of $25 upwards , and which can be picked up from a supermarket near you, are also futures worth investing.

Wasabi, Japanese pickled ginger, soy are expensive at first but last for years,as they are used sparingly over time so worth the extra penny too.

Cheers

Tagine made by slow cooker

I wanted to make something special, easy and super convenient for a dinner party - tagine made by slow cooker is it!

I have always been intrigued about tagine crockery as I have been with slow cookers but until I tried marrying both of them I thought they;d be more trouble than what they are worth.

The cooking processes both seemed far fetched and to be more complicated and specialised (what's with the big Moroccan pizza-oven like crockery) so I thought, but watching a friend use the slow cooker recently, the lure of a cheap slow cooker at Mega (you can pick one up for $40 at Mega and Briscoes), and an easy online tagine recipe search, got my act together and I cooked a lamb tagine for our local winter quiz wind-up the recipe for which is to follow.

Ingredients

500 g lamb
1 tsp ginger
2 clove of garlic
1 onion
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp brown sugar
can of chopped tomatoes
1 c chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
5 prunes
5 dried apricot
1/4 c of preserved lemons finely diced (see preserved lemon recipe to follow)
1/4 c ground almond meal (roast and grind almonds in blender)
1 tbsp parsley (in tube)
1 tbsp coriander (in tube)

Alternatives
Use whatever dried fruit (figs, dates, prunes, apricots, fat sultanas) you have. Substitute preserved lemon with lemon juice.
Add a can of chickpeas.
If there is too much juice for you, thicken it by adding a tsp or two of cornflour

Method

Chuck into Slow Cooker all but the last five ingredients. Stir them together.
Set cooker on slow and leave to cook for 10 hours. This means if you prep around 10AM, the tagine will be ready at 8PM.
Half an hour before serving add the last five ingredients
Serve with couscous

Method for couscous
Use one cup of slightly oily boiling water for one cup of couscous.
For four people add 2 cups of slightly oily boiling water to 2 cups of couscous.
Wait until all the water is absorbed by the couscous and fluff it with a fork adding some ground almonds for flavour before serving it hot with the tagine.

If you can afford it mezze like flat bread and mint yoghurt goes well with tagine.

M'mallow/Chocolate/Banana cake- the perfect pick me up for lambing farmers & RWC hangovers

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 - 2 cups of mashed bananas ( about 3-4 bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 tablespoons of hot milk
2 cups standard plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 marshmallows
1 cup of chocolate chips

Method

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add mashed banana and mix thoroughly.
Stir soda into hot milk and add to creamed mixture.
Add chocolate chips. Cut marshmallows in half and add those too.
Sift flour and baking powder. Fold into mixture.
Turn into a greased and lined 20 cm round cake tin or a standard loaf tin.
Bake at 180 degrees for 50 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turing out onto a rack.

Amended and taken from Edmonds Cookery Book