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Dinner while I sew
Oct. 18th, 2016 07:49 pmSo I'm almost finished the top for my older son's wedding next Monday, but an attack of the tummy-icks has held me back a bit. Even so, it's gone stupidly freezing here in Melbourne (8.3C, feeling like 2C, and with snow up in the ranges). So I remembered on the River Cottage series, and made up this one:
( Sausage slow cooked dinner )
( Sausage slow cooked dinner )
Many of the local restaurants have started serving this, so I wanted to try and make them myself. I've almost got the texture right, and I think I have the proportions (trust me, there's been a lot of experimentation).
Serves 2 by themselves for a middle-large breakfast.
You can put in grated squash, peas, whichever. You could use buttermilk, plain flour and baking soda to make them a bit lighter (I suspect that may be what the local cafe does). They can be a breakfast by themselves or a side dish to a Complete Fryup. I like the polenta as it adds a lovely texture to them - it could be replaced with semolina if you can't have corn, or just flour if you don't.
Enjoy!
Serves 2 by themselves for a middle-large breakfast.
- 1 large zucchini (courgette) grated - you're going to want 1 1/2 to 2 cups. Don't peel it - the peel adds some nice flavour and colour. Hold it by the attachment end to grate - makes a great holder and then you just chuck it in the compost at the end.
- 2/3 cup self-raising flour
- One ear's worth of corn kernels. Best done fresh - it really makes a difference. But if you can't get a fresh ear, a small tin, drained, will work.
- 1/3 cup polenta (corn meal)
- 1 egg
- A little milk (Have 1/4 cup ready but you may not need this much
- Oil for light frying
- Grate the zucchini into a mixing bowl
- Cut the corn kernels off the cob and add them.
- Mix in the flour and the polenta, stirring until the flour coats all the zucchini
- Add the egg, and mix until incorporated
- Add a little milk, enough to make the mix into a batter but not too sloppy
- Have a medium-heat frypan ready with a little oil in it.
- Drop the batter in tablespoons to fry, flattening it a little to make a patty
- Fry until golden-brown on both sides
- Serve hot with either tomato relish, or Greek yoghurt, or whatever suits :-)
You can put in grated squash, peas, whichever. You could use buttermilk, plain flour and baking soda to make them a bit lighter (I suspect that may be what the local cafe does). They can be a breakfast by themselves or a side dish to a Complete Fryup. I like the polenta as it adds a lovely texture to them - it could be replaced with semolina if you can't have corn, or just flour if you don't.
Enjoy!
A ninety-year old recpie for Apple Cake.
May. 19th, 2016 08:26 pmBit of a back story first. When my mum and dad married in 1963, about six months after my paternal grandmother Marge went to my Mum and said "You know, George is looking a bit thin. You might need this." And she gave my mum a copy of the 1962 Commonsense Cookery Book. From it, my mother learned the basics of plain cakes, Irish Stew and Puff Pastry. She taught me from the book, and it still has the best profiterole recipe I've ever used.
When my grandmother moved from her home to a retirement village, we discovered among her belongings a copy of the 1926 Commonsense Cookery Book, and I can just imagine young Marge, about 6 months into her marriage, being approached by Granny Richards and handed a copy of the book and told "You know, Chas is looking a bit thin, dear. Perhaps you might need this..."
One of the recipes in the 1926 edition is for vegetable soup, and starts off "3d worth Beef Bones". The 1962 book has many of the same recipes, including this one, and it still starts off with "3d worth Beef Bones". You'd think in 36 years the value of beef bones might have changed a little. (For those not sure, 3d is "threepence", which translates as 2½ cents. It would buy 2 eggs out of a dozen in 1926, and less than 1 egg in 1962.)
Anyway, without further waffling, here's the recipe I first made from the 1962 cookbook. I shall translate the whole thing to modern-day terms, unless of course you're comfortable with "moderate ovens".
( Apple Cake! )
When my grandmother moved from her home to a retirement village, we discovered among her belongings a copy of the 1926 Commonsense Cookery Book, and I can just imagine young Marge, about 6 months into her marriage, being approached by Granny Richards and handed a copy of the book and told "You know, Chas is looking a bit thin, dear. Perhaps you might need this..."
One of the recipes in the 1926 edition is for vegetable soup, and starts off "3d worth Beef Bones". The 1962 book has many of the same recipes, including this one, and it still starts off with "3d worth Beef Bones". You'd think in 36 years the value of beef bones might have changed a little. (For those not sure, 3d is "threepence", which translates as 2½ cents. It would buy 2 eggs out of a dozen in 1926, and less than 1 egg in 1962.)
Anyway, without further waffling, here's the recipe I first made from the 1962 cookbook. I shall translate the whole thing to modern-day terms, unless of course you're comfortable with "moderate ovens".
( Apple Cake! )
Shortbread, Reynardo Style
Dec. 11th, 2011 10:38 pm( For something made with only three ingredients, it works rather well. )
Warnings:
Make sure your mixing bowl is in a secure place or you may find the dough shrinks every time someone walks past.
Make sure your cooling racks are in a secure location or you may find the freshly-cooked biscuits disappear.
Hide the biscuit tin. Keep a spare stash in a safe place. They may still disappear, but at least you tried.
Warnings:
Make sure your mixing bowl is in a secure place or you may find the dough shrinks every time someone walks past.
Make sure your cooling racks are in a secure location or you may find the freshly-cooked biscuits disappear.
Hide the biscuit tin. Keep a spare stash in a safe place. They may still disappear, but at least you tried.
One thing leads to another...
May. 12th, 2011 03:09 pmI need some rare roast lamb.
You see, right at the end of the warm weather my bloody tomato plants decided to suddenly fruit up. So I stripped down the plants the other day, salvaging a half kilo of ripe tomatoes and a half-kilo of green ones.
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lederhosen can't eat onions or their variations, and we rather like Indian food which is often best served with raitas and chutney. And most bought chutneys have onion in them. (I have spent so much time in supermarket aisles reading ingredient lists and cursing).
So I thought I'd turn the green toms into chutney. So currently simmering on the stove, beside the enormous pot of chicken stock (I've found if I make up a stock with onion in it and strain out the bits of onion so that all that's left is the flavour, that works rather well) is a small pot with my green tomatoes cut into small chunks, zucchini, sultanas, brown sugar, vinegar pepper and cloves.
I just tasted it, and all I could think of was a roast leg of lamb cooked the day before, served cold and sliced thin on fresh rye bread with some of this chutney on it.
I think I know what I might do for Christmas...
You see, right at the end of the warm weather my bloody tomato plants decided to suddenly fruit up. So I stripped down the plants the other day, salvaging a half kilo of ripe tomatoes and a half-kilo of green ones.
lederhosen can't eat onions or their variations, and we rather like Indian food which is often best served with raitas and chutney. And most bought chutneys have onion in them. (I have spent so much time in supermarket aisles reading ingredient lists and cursing). So I thought I'd turn the green toms into chutney. So currently simmering on the stove, beside the enormous pot of chicken stock (I've found if I make up a stock with onion in it and strain out the bits of onion so that all that's left is the flavour, that works rather well) is a small pot with my green tomatoes cut into small chunks, zucchini, sultanas, brown sugar, vinegar pepper and cloves.
I just tasted it, and all I could think of was a roast leg of lamb cooked the day before, served cold and sliced thin on fresh rye bread with some of this chutney on it.
I think I know what I might do for Christmas...
Another night of domestication.
Oct. 9th, 2007 12:16 amI've snuck in here while the kitchen fills with the smell of rising dough and cooking cake. Yup, it's Superbowl time again.
And why ( superbowl? ) A bit picture heavy under here. You have been warned.
And why ( superbowl? ) A bit picture heavy under here. You have been warned.
Anzac Biscuit recipe
Sep. 18th, 2007 11:15 pmBy request
Pre-heat oven to 160C and grease or line 2 cookie trays.
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
Mix these dry ingredients together in a large bowl
In a saucepan melt
- 125g butter and
- 2 tablespoons of golden syrup
In a cup mix
- 2 tablespoons boiling water and
- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda,
then add to saucepan butter/syrup mix.
Then pour this fluffy fizzing mix into the dry ingredients, and mix well until everything is moist. If it is a little too dry, add another tablespoon boiling water. A 2.5 cm diameter ball should hold together nicely.
Try not to eat too much mix at this point.
Put dessert-spoon sized blobs onto the baking trays, spacing so that as the mixture spreads out it doesn't stick to all the other ones around.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool down on a wire frame. Be warned - this is the point when most biscuits will disappear mysteriously. I am going to be generous and assume it's evaporation.
Be prepared to make another batch fairly soon afterwards.
Substitutions:
For golden syrup, which is a rich sugar syrup, use light treacle or if desperate, 50% corn syrup 50% maple.
Baking Soda is also known as Saleratus, Bicarbonate of Soda or cooking soda. It is not Baking Powder.
Using shredded coconut instead of dessicated makes a slightly drier biscuit which looks like it has tentacles coming out of it.
Pre-heat oven to 160C and grease or line 2 cookie trays.
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
Mix these dry ingredients together in a large bowl
In a saucepan melt
- 125g butter and
- 2 tablespoons of golden syrup
In a cup mix
- 2 tablespoons boiling water and
- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda,
then add to saucepan butter/syrup mix.
Then pour this fluffy fizzing mix into the dry ingredients, and mix well until everything is moist. If it is a little too dry, add another tablespoon boiling water. A 2.5 cm diameter ball should hold together nicely.
Try not to eat too much mix at this point.
Put dessert-spoon sized blobs onto the baking trays, spacing so that as the mixture spreads out it doesn't stick to all the other ones around.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool down on a wire frame. Be warned - this is the point when most biscuits will disappear mysteriously. I am going to be generous and assume it's evaporation.
Be prepared to make another batch fairly soon afterwards.
Substitutions:
For golden syrup, which is a rich sugar syrup, use light treacle or if desperate, 50% corn syrup 50% maple.
Baking Soda is also known as Saleratus, Bicarbonate of Soda or cooking soda. It is not Baking Powder.
Using shredded coconut instead of dessicated makes a slightly drier biscuit which looks like it has tentacles coming out of it.
