What are you cooking right now?
#21 02-05-2014 
I hate cooking, but love baking, and more importantly love what comes out of baking nom nom nom!!
So thought I'd share my playdate coffee morning brownie with you all! (Warning, very fattening!!!)

Ingredients

226g Butter
3 Cups of white sugar
1 TBSP Vanilla Essence
1 and half Cups of Flour
1 cup of Cocoa
1 tsp Salt
half (or little bit more Big Grin) cup of milk chocolate buttons (lil ones)
half (or lot more Big Grin) cup of white Chocolate buttons (lil ones)

Method

Preheat oven to 175°C
Melt your butter
Chuck it in a bowl with sugar and Vanilla,
give it a mix,
beat eggs one at a time,
Sift together dry ingredients,
Chuck that into the bowl (I cheat and sift it straight into the bowl, no messing round in my house!)
stir it into the wet ingredients
Stir in the chocolate buttons
pour into your tray (slice tray works well)
If you're smart and have either greased it or lined it with baking paper then you'll get it out easier at the end! Wink )
Bake 35-40 minutes or until your knife comes out mostly clean in the incision test, I like to have a little bit of goo on it, as it make it a bit gooiy inside!

Enjoy!!

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#22 02-05-2014 
@ekrubynaffit Now that does look good. Totally agree on the "goo" - it's not a brownie without goo.

2
#23 05-07-2014 
Garlic Dough Genovese Pizza

-dough-
'00' Flour - 130 g
sugar - 2 tsp
yeast - 1/2 tsp
salt - 1/4 tsp
water (40C) - 80 ml
garlic - 1 clove
olive oil - a couple drops
dried crushed oregano - some

1. mix all together (add more flour or less water accordingly for consistency, don't change the other measurements.)
2. roll into a dough ball and let sit for 15-30 minutes (can sit longer)
3. use a garlic crusher or mince the garlic clove
4. after dough rises, add drops of olive oil (not too much) and oregano (as much as you'd like)
5. mix together folding the dough so that the oregano spreads
6. add crushed or minced garlic to dough
7. mix and fold the dough
8. roll the dough flat (thin crust is best for this version)
9. stick it in a toaster over (rub the toaster pan or aluminium foil with olive oil)
10. toast for 5 minutes or bake at 190C (375F) for 5 minutes (or until dough browns a little)
11. take dough out and place on board
12. spread olive oil on dough

Genovese Pizza (or you can make your own toppings)
cherry tomatoes - 3-5
pesto sauce - 1 - 1 1/2 tsps
slice black olives - some
garlic - 1 clove
mozzarella cheese - very little (a pinch) or to taste
Kewpie ™ Mayo - very little
pepper - to taste

1. quarter or slice cherry tomatoes and slice garlic
2. spread thin layer of pesto and mayo on dough
3. top with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and olives
4. add a pinch of cheese (should not cover or hide toppings!)
5. top with pepper
6. stick pizza in toaster and toast or bake at 190C (375F) for 5 minutes or until cheese becomes golden

Eat and enjoy! Oh yeah, you can cut up some fresh basil and sprinkle it on top afterwards for extra yumminess!

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#24 23-07-2014 
Pumpkin Soup-Slow Cooker Style
Ingredients-
1.2 kg Pumpkin
4 Onions
4 Potatoes
4 Cups of Chicken Stock
1 tps Curry Powder
1/3 cup of Sour or Whipping Cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
Method-

Peel and Chop all ingredients and add chicken stock, Curry powder, salt and Pepper.
Cook in slow cooker 4 hrs on High, 6 hrs on Low. Depending on Cooker of course
Once cooked add to blender to smooth, return to cooker add Cream ( I use Fresh Cream), Serve Hot with Fresh Crusty Rolls/Bread.

This one is so easy and is so moreish!! Being Winter here I cook this once a week, is very cheap to make and I double the ingredients and freeze leftovers Smile

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#25 20-08-2014 
Spicy Morrocan Chicken

Ingredients
Diced Chicken thigh, breast or Turkey (enough to feed your family)
1 courgette cut into chunks
1 pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
4-5 mushrooms cut into chunks
6-8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 red onion, chopped
1 tin of chick peas
1 lemon
chicken stock cube
couscous (enough to feed your family)
chillie flakes
olive oil
garlic (if you must!)

Method
1 Preheat the oven to around 180C.
2 Cut the meat into chunks and place in an oven proof flat dish along with the olive oil and put in the oven.
3 Whilst the meat is cooking, chop up the vegetables.
4 Add the veg to the dish, along with the chick peas and chilli flakes.
5 Crumble the stock cube into the couscous and add the boiling water.
6 Grate the zest from the lemon and add to the couscous, squeeze the lemon and add to the couscous.
7 Add the couscous to the dish and serve.

Is great cold and if you leave the meat out makes a great vegetarian dish too!

2
#26 11-09-2014 
Turkey/Chicken/Pork Meatballs

Ingredients
500g lean minced turkey (or other meat)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Steamed sugar snap peas, to serve (or other green veg)

For the herbed tagliatelle:
350g dried tagliatelle (or other pasta)
6-8 tbsp finely chopped mixed herbs (parsley and tarragon)

For the sauce:
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 x 400g chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar/sweetener

Method
1 Place the minced turkey, garlic, cumin and cinnamon in a bowl and, using your hands, mix until well combined. Season well. Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hour to allow the flavours to develop.
2 Meanwhile make the sauce by placing a large, non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery, stir and cook over a medium heat for 6-8 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season well.
3 For the meatballs; make small walnut-shaped balls from the mince mixture. Add the meatball to the sauce mixture. Stir to coat evenly and simmer gently for 12-15 minutes or until cooked through.
4 While the meatballs are cooking make the herbed tagliatelle by cooking the pasta according to the packet instructions, drain well, stir in the chopped herbs and season well.
5 Divide the herbed tagliatelle between four warmed plates and top with the meatballs. Serve immediately with the sugar snap peas.

2
#27 18-04-2015 
Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

1 Butternut squash, deseeded and diced
1 Sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
1 lime, zest and juiced
1-2" Ginger grated or diced (to taste)
Chilli flakes (to taste)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinammon
1 vegetable stock cube
Water to cover

Simmer all ingredients until soft.
Blitz everything in the blender until smooth.
Adjust the thickness of the soup with extra liquid.

PS You can add garlic in if you want to, I don't like it so always leave it out Big Grin

PPS Popping my recipes here so I can find them!

1
#28 27-06-2015 
So I made Quiche Lorraine. On day 3 the pastry finally worked Tongue

day 1 : pastry was kinda like eating dried sandcastle
day 2 : pastry burnt (arggg)
day 3: pastry success (looked a bit "rustic" but that is hip right?)

Ingredients:
Pastry:
1 egg yolk
175g flour
100g butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon of cold water

Filling
3 large eggs
3 medium onions sliced
120g grated cheese (Cheddar, Gouda, Gruyere - any sort like that)
200g creme fraiche
200 ml milk
1-2 handfuls of diced bacon
20g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Quick version:

Buy a ready made pastry case follow directions on that packet and skip straight to the filling bit

Long version:

Make pastry in food processor with dough blade and save many tears; alternatively use classic method of rubbing butter into salted flour and cutting the water/egg mix in with a knife (aka the good grief do I have time for this version).

Put flour in food processor bowl.
Add salt to flour.
Pulse briefly.
Chop butter into small squares, put in food processor bowl.
Pulse at medium/low speed until it looks like crumble

Mix the yolk of one egg with the cold water and add to the mix ( I pour it in from the top).

Halleluja - pastry. Take it out of bowl and put on lightly floured surface. Squash it a lot and then form into a flat round shape about 10cm diameter.

Put pastry in a plastic bag and throw in fridge for 15 mins or so.

Have a cocktail.

Remove pastry from fridge, flour surface and rolling pin, roll out pastry so it is round (I failed) and about 3 cm bigger than the tin base and then lift it onto the pastry tin using rolling pin (Google it). Rage in fury cos the sharp tin chopped all the edges off. Attempt to make edge of pie look sort of decent.

Prick all over base of pastry case with a fork, put into fridge for twenty minutes, preheat oven to gas mark 6, 220 centigrade, no idea fahrenheit.

Have another cocktail then start on filling...

Put pastry case in the oven for 20 minutes; after ten minutes, open oven and squash down all the rising pastry with your fingers. SET A TIMER FOR THE PASTRY (see day2).

Filling

Peel the onions and slice thinly.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a BIG fry pan on a low heat. When the butter foams add the onions.
Stare in stunned disbelief at amount of onion and have cocktail.
Break three eggs into a BIG measuring jug and whisk with a fork. Add the creme fraiche and stir with fork until less lumpy.
Add the milk and stir. Add a few grinds of pepper.
The onions should now be soft; turn up the heat so they go golden brown, and in another pan fry the diced bacon til crispy. then add the bacon bits to the milk and egg.

At this point the onions are cooked, the pastry is cooked and out of the oven and the filling is ready. Turn the oven down to gas mark 3 and have a cocktail.

Last lap now.

Get the pastry case (still in the tin) and layer the fried onions all over the bottom then and pour in the filling. Give it a snuffle about to make sure the cheese and bacon are evenly distributed and return to oven for 30 minutes.


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#29 27-06-2015 
Yum, Lee'! It's a specialty of my region! Smile Argh, you made me feel hungry now! *poisson goes to the kitchen*

1
#30 27-06-2015 
What's for lunch today:

Ingredients:

1 husband
$5 pizza deal
1 van

Mix together, send out for 15 minutes, enjoy!

Tongue

* justJones is lazy today

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