Cooking For The Month

JULY 2014
From savouries to sweets, beautiful and delicious dishes were very precious as they were shared with family and friends

The cake pops were for the grandkids, they come for a visit during school holiday, and they enjoyed the slow-cooked lamb, which I served with tomato rice.  It is so appropriate to have a rice dish at Nana's.

Cake Pops

Cake Pops for The Grand Kids

Chicken Ballotine in Brioche
 One of my winter baking was very successful, it's stuffed brioche: chicken ballotine in brioche, a savoury brioche and it's served with vegetables or salad.

Baked Chicken Ballotine in Brioche

Chicken ballotine in brioche served with baked sliced potato and mustard sauce.

The family enjoyed the chicken ballotine in brioche, and it was plenty to be shared around with friends. The leftover was sliced, warmed up and served with my garden musclan salad.

Sliced cold chicken ballotine in brioche

Musclan salad with sliced chicken ballotine in brioche

Currant Scones
Another baking which surprised me was the scone - current scones.  The scones were very light and delightful, and I share the recipe.

Currant Scones
2 cups self-rising flour
30 g butter, softened
(mix the flour with butter together)
2 tablespoons currants (you could have more if you wish)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup milk
extra flour for kneading
Method
Place the flour and butter mixture in a large bowl, the sugar and the currants.
Add in the milk all at once and mix them together quickly
(the mixture is slightly wet and sticky)
Rub your fingers with some flour, transfer the scone mixture onto the floured board, pat and knead lightly to make a soft dough.
Roll the dough lightly onto a thin dough, and cut them to small rounds with a scone cutter
Brush the scones with egg mixture (lightly beaten egg mixed with milk)
Bake in the preheated hot oven at 200 degrees C, for 11 minutes.
To serve
Split the scone into two, butter or top them with jam.

Scones are brushed with egg mixture before baking

Freshly baked currant scones

The scones were soft with fine crumbs, a new variation of my scones.  Adding extra liquid is the answer to get a smooth texture.  Family and friends love this goodie, so I will be using the recipe from now on; indeed, it is my very own recipe.

Chocolate Malt Cake
It based on my moist Milo cake, decorate with extra melted chocolate and Maltesers.  Simply bake onto a square tin, cut the onto the rectangular shape, dust with icing sugar. Another way to serve the moist Milo cake.

Freshly Baked 

Sliced and dressed

I believe friends loved them, but some of them did not even try as they are on a special diet.  The cake was good.


Christmas In July.

Most families are having Christmas celebration in July, but we did not; however we had enjoyed our Christmas cake for morning tea today.  It baked seven months ago.

The morning tea was excellent, the cake was delightful,  it's very mature, moist fruit cake, complemented by the freshly brewed Earl Gray tea.



July is an important month for us, two birthdays within our family,  that is often the reason I do good cooking.


Thinking of you, Susan, have a pleasant weekend, and I hope to see you soon.


Today is the first day of August, a new month, a new story to tell a new recipe to share.



Until Next Post
Susy

SOUPS

Hot soups, from earthy vegetable to any creamy soups can be a treat for cold winter days.

Here are some soups that I cooked in my kitchen, and a couple of recipes for you.

Hot Soup for Winter

Earthy and chunky vegetable soup is comfort food for a cold winter day,
simply add a lot of fresh herbs to serve.

Chickpea and Vegetable Soup
Garnished with Grilled Pancetta and Apricot

Creamy celery soup served with a poached egg.  Another treat for a cold day.

Pumpkin soup, smooth vegetable soup, served with sour cream.  A very satisfying
food for lunch on any day.

Smooth pumpkin soup, garnished with shredded vegetable pancakes, and sour cream.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Recipe

Ingredients:

Roasted pumpkin, about half pumpkin (medium size)

2 cups vegetable stock, one bay leaf and a tablespoon olive oil.

Herb and spices, a bay leaf, nutmeg and freshly ground pepper and ground bay leaves (optional)

Milk and sour cream to serve.

Method: Discard the seeds and skin, mash the pumpkin, put it in a heavy based pot.
Add in the stock, bay leaf and the oil, and cook for a few minutes to bring to simmer.

Put the lid on and continue to cook over low heat for 45 minutes.

Add in the dry spices: freshly ground pepper, nutmeg, a pinch of ground bay leaves, and salt to taste. Stir the soup, keep it hot on the stove.  Add some milk for extra creaminess.

To serve: serve hot,  garnish with sour cream.

Another way serving the soup is, garnish with roasted apple or peach. Also, it is delicious to be served with crouton, fried crispy bacon, and chopped fresh herbs.

The Cooking Preparation

Roasted pumpkin, skin on

 Roasted pumpkin meat, skinned

Cooking the soup, bring to simmer.

Pumpkin puree with stock

Cook the smooth pumpkin soup over low heat to a very gentle simmer.

Add nutmeg, black pepper and
ground bay leaf

Stir in the milk, mix until the soup is
very smooth and silky

Serving the Pumpkin Soup

Chickpea Soup

Chickpeas and mixed vegetables soup, with Moroccan flavours.  Delicious, flavoursome soup for the family.  It can be served as it is or serve it as a creamy smooth soup with extra garnishes.

These are what you need: a tin of chickpeas (400g), a cup diced the sweet potato, a cup diced potato, half red capsicum - diced and fresh spinach or baby silverbeet, 2 cup chicken stock, and 4 cup water.  One brown onion, peeled and diced.  The spices: teaspoon turmeric, 1/3 teaspoon of each-cinnamon powder, nutmeg, and ginger.  A quarter preserved lime/lemon, and a spoon shredded lemon rind, 2 bay leaves and rosemary.  Two tablespoons olive oil to saute the herb and spices.

400 g chickpeas

diced sweet potato and potato

baby silverbeet

onion, red capsicum, lemon rind

and preserved lemon

What I did was, simply saute the onion in a large pot with the oil until softened, add in the rest of the spicy powder, stir together, add in the chicken stock and bring to simmer.  Put the chickpeas, all the diced vegetables in, the preserved lemon, lemon rinds and the water, continue cooking over medium heat for ten minutes, add in the spinach.  Reduce the heat and keep on cooking over low heat for one hour to get a rich and flavoursome broth.   Serve hot.

Chickpeas and vegetable soup

Serve the soup hot and drizzle extra olive oil if you wish to

Blend the soup with a blender to make smooth and creamy,  reheat the soup before serving.  Add garnishes as you like.

chickpea soup

Smooth Chickpea Soup
Garnished with Grilled Pancetta and Grilled Apricot

Hot and freshly homemade soup is not only delicious, but it is also a comfort food and winter warmer, excellent food for the season.

Give a recipe a go, you may enjoy it too.



Thank You for Visiting
Until Next Post
Susy

Orchids, 2014

Cymbidium orchids are in flower from bright pink, dusky pink to red.

I celebrate the flowers inside the house, they fill up the open place. More orchids are in buds, and within a month we shall enjoy more beautiful flowers.

This year the orchids are doing well.

The Orchid show is coming soon in August, we may be going to see it, do I need new or more orchids?  A big Question, indeed.

Thanks for visiting

Until Next Post

Susy

Tahu Guling

Javanese Food.
Another Javanese dish to cook is Tahu guling, my favourite meal.  Tahu guling is a combination of tofu, vegetables, crackers with soy dressing.  I can say 'Tahu guling' is tofu and vegetable salad with soy and herbs dressing. Recipe for you.

Tahu Guling

The Recipe

Tahu Guling

Tofu and vegetable salad with soy and herb dressing

Ingredients

200 g sliced firm white tofu

2 tablespoons vegetable oil to pan fry the tofu

30 g mung beans, blanch in hot water

1 tomato, thinly sliced

½ cup shredded fresh cabbage or lettuce

Krupuk, fried prawn crackers

Dressing

3 tablespoons sweet soy (ABC-kecap manis)

1tablespoon salty soy

1 fresh red chilli, chopped finely

Juice of a whole large lime

2 kaffir lime leaf, shredded finely

salt to taste and fried shallots

(mix the ingredients together)

Method

pan frying the tofu

Pan fry the sliced tofu in oil lightly
Place the cooked tofu on a serving place

Put the mung beans, tomatoes, and the shredded cabbage on top of the tofu

Pour the dressing over, garnished with the prawn crackers, and serve at once.

(Toss it thoroughly prior eating)

The taste should be sweet and slightly sour, delicious balance flavour is added with the crunch of mixed fresh vegetables.

It is a very popular street eat food, but family cooks and prepares the dish at home too.  Here in Australia, you could make Tahu guling easily as the ingredients are obtainable in any market or supermarket.

There are tofu dishes in Javanese cooking:  Tahu isi, Tahu goreng, Tahu bacem, terik Tahu (braised tofu in mild coconut sauce) and a lot more, and they are delicious.
More Javanese cooking to come.


Until Next Post
Susy

B B - Beautiful Brunch

It has been a hectic week for us, by Sunday we had it, the morning passed quietly without any breakfast.  A hot brunch was taking place.

Baked flatbread with filling and chocolate Milo pear sponge cake that what we had for a lazy Sunday brunch.  It took about half an hour for preparation and cooking. Not bad at all.

Hot Baked Flat Bread 

Baked Flat Bread with Cheese and Egg Filling

Baked flat Bread with Filling.

Butter both side of the flat bread, keep aside
The filling:
2 eggs
lean sausages, chopped thinly
1/2 half red capsicum, sliced
2 sundry tomato, chopped
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
Some salt.
Fresh herbs: parsley, rosemary
(mix all ingredients together)

Method
Place flatbread on the bottom of a lined baking tray
Put the filling on it, cover with the rest of the flat bread
Brush with extra oil
Bake in a preheated hot oven 175 degrees  C for 25 minutes.
Serve hot, it is delicious with crisps crusty top.

Delicious Hot Sponge

The freshly baked hot sponge

Hot Pear Chocolate Milo sponge.

I had a poached pear in red wine and sugar. Kept in the fridge already, (the pears were shiny red in the sweet syrup),  what I needed was to prepare the sponge. 

The sponge mixture: a cup full of self-raising flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons Milo, that was all the dry ingredients which were needed.  The wet ingredients: 50 g melted butter, 2 eggs (small), 2 teaspoons sour cream, half cup milk.

Mix the dry with the wet ingredients to make a smooth mixture to drop spoon consistency (adjust the mix, add more milk if need be)

You need four poached pear and half cup liquid syrup to cook the sponge, place onto a baking dish, and put in a preheated oven at 175 degrees C for about 10 minutes to heat up.

Pour the sponge mixture over it, and bake for about 18-22 minutes until the sponge is cooked.

Take it out from the oven, dust with icing sugar.

Serve hot, scoop the cake and pear onto a serving plate.  Add cream or ice cream if you wish.

Pear Sponge Chocolate Milo Cake

We can indulge our self sometimes, mainly if you are tired, it picks you up, then enjoys the day better.  Hot soup is sufficient for the dinner.

You can use apple or banana whatever fruits that you fancy for the hot sponge.  Happy Baking!  

I wish you all to have a restful weekend and a relaxing Sunday.  Thinking of you Mel, Jane, Susan, the grandkids and family.

Until Next Post

Susy