muesli bars

I’ve been experimenting with muesli bars lately. A few disasters – some of the healthier ones aren’t great as they come out the other end. My son has had some wicked nappies after a batch that were heavy with tahini.

I’m back to Nigella. In various forms, she’s been on our kitchen bench a lot this month. My biggest muesli bar success has been with her formula for breakfast bars – basically a can of condensed milk, 250 grams of rolled oats and another 425 grams of nuts, seeds and dried fruits.

The ones pictured have in them:

• 395g can of condensed milk
• rolled oats
• shredded coconut
• dried gogi berries
• sultanas
• dates
• hazelnuts
• pumpkin seeds
• sunflower seeds
• sesame seeds

Simply mix together all the dry ingredients, warm the can of condensed milk and mix it in. Press into a lamington tin (about 30 x 20cm) and bake in a low oven (130C) for an hour. Let them cool for about 20 minutes and then slice into bars using a hot knife.

Very addictive.

nigella’s lemon roast chicken

Lately I’ve been thinking that it was Nigella Lawson that turned cooking around for me. Suddenly anything seemed possible, especially with her no nonsense advice.

I’ve shared my versions of a lot of her recipes here, but one of my favourites is her simple take on roast chicken.

Surely, you say, you just shove the bird in the oven and take it out when it’s done? Well, yes, that’s pretty much it, but until I started doing it Nigella’s way the end result was often a bit hit and miss. The lemon stops the chicken from drying out and creates beautiful juices for making gravy or your own chicken stock.

So do it like this:

Ingredients:

1 chicken
2 lemons, cut into wedges
salt
1 tbspn olive oil

Stuff the lemon wedges into the chicken then rub the olive oil over the skin of the chicken and sprinkle with salt.

Turn your oven up full blast and put the bird in with timer set for 15 minutes. This makes the skin go beautifully brown and crispy. Then turn the oven down to 180 celcius (fan forced) and leave it for 20 minutes per 500g plus an extra 30 minutes.

Check it’s done by seperating the leg from the carcus – if the juices run pink then send it back for another 20 minutes.

You must make your own chicken stock with the left overs. It’s so simple and so worth the effort.

As you carve your chicken chuck all the skin and bits into a big stockpot and once the carcus is picked clean, throw that in too. Leave the lemon wedges out. Chop up a carrot, an onion, some celery, parsley or rosemary (or sage, thyme or all of them) and any other veges you need to get rid of into the pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of hours, then turn the heat off and leave to cool. You can then skim off any fat from the surface, drain the liquid off the vege/chicken remians and either store it in the fridge for up to a week or freeze into cup sized portions.

We roast a chicken at least once a week because its so great to have your own stock (not least the smell of roasting chicken in your home).

ancient wine

Tracing the history of wine parallels explorations into the history of humanity and its traditions. There is no food or beverage that is so intensely scrutinised by its fans, so it comes as no surprise to find the origins of viticulture and winemaking are subject to similar scrutiny in books such as Ancient Wine, by Patrick E. McGovern.

Read my full review at Heritage-Key.com.

italian meatball in tomato sauce

How do you photograph a pan of beautiful little meatballs bubbling away in a rich tomato sauce? Food stylists will tell me to turn off the heat and let things go cold, then get some natural light and get up close. Unfortunately hungry husband and cranky toddler care nothing for image quality, so the best I can do is  the flash over the stove and a little steam on the lens.

We saw an episode of My Family Feast a few nights ago and host Sean Connolly was cooking with four generations of the Pacialeo family and learning how they create their annual home-made tomato sauce. The meatball recipe was fantastic, and so much simpler than ones I’ve made in the past – no faffing around frying off the meatballs before putting them into the sauce, they had a pan of tomato simmering next to them as they rolled and plonked them straight in. Of course I didn’t have the correct ingredients, so here’s my approximation, which were delicious all the same.

ingredients

500g veal and pork mince
breadcrumbs
grated Parmesan cheese
a handful of italian parsley
2 eggs
salt and pepper

sauce

a jar of Italian passata (about 700g)
1 can chopped tomatoes

Make a pile of equal quantities of breadcrumbs and grated parmesan that is about the same size as your quantity of mince. Add to a large bowl with finely chopped parsley, an egg and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with your hands, kneading like bread, until it all comes together. You may need to add another egg depending on the wetness of your mix (I did).

Pour the passata and chopped tomatoes into a large shallow pan and bring to a slow simmer. Wet your hands and roll the mince mixture into small balls (a large tsp of mix makes a good sized ball) and drop these into the bubbling sauce.

Cook for about 1/2 an hour. Serve with spaghetti.

self saucing banana butterscotch pudding

It’s not often a banana survives long enough in our house to make it to the brown, mushy stage needed for good banana bread or muffins. But suprisingly one was unattractive enough to be left in the bowl until it was past eating on its own.

Self-saucing puddings are delicious and I lost a very good recipe for a simple butterscotch pudding that a friend gave me a long time ago. However, this one was a great find in a recent Women’s Weekly.

It creates a beautiful crusted cakey pudding top with a rich butterscotch sauce underneath. I added a couple of knobs of butter to make the sauce even creamier. If you try it make sure you don’t overcook or the sauce gets absorbed into the pudding cake.

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 over-ripe banana, mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
60g butter, melted

sauce ingredients

1 tbsp cornflour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup golden syrup
1 1/2 cups biling water
30g butter in small cubes

Preheat your oven to 180 celcius (or 160 celcius fan forced) and grease a 1.5 litre dish.  Sift your flour into a medium bowl and add the brown sugar, mixing to break up any lumps.  Mix together the syrup, banana, vanilla, egg and butter and pour into your flour mix, then whisk to get a smooth batter. Pour into your dish. Mix the cornflour and brown sugar for the sauce together and sprinkle the powder evenly over the batter, the mix the golden syrup and boiling water and pour evenly over the whole lot. Then dot your cubes of butter over the lot and into the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cake topping is firm.

Serve with ice cream.

vue de monde

It’s been a few weeks since we dined at Vue de monde in Melbourne but I’m still having flavour flashbacks.

I wish I’d taken photos of each dish, but I was shy and distracted. I am a bad blogger. The couple at the table next to us were furiously snapping away and reminded me of tour buses in New Zealand where the tourist see the country through the lens of their video camera and don’t take the time to taste, touch and smell everything around them.

However, in a very nice twist, Vue de monde emailed me our menu – created especially for us from a selection of about 160 tiny and beautiful dishes.

So I share:

AMUSE BOUCHE – Scallop Osso with Angelica velouté

‘KINGFISH’ À la sauce xo – Kingfish, marinated in XO sauce with apple, avocado and wasabi purée (loved the puree. must try it at home.)

RISOTTO AUX TRUFFES – Classically inspired truffle risotto

GNOCCHI AUX CHAMPIGNONS – Liquid cep gnocchi with mushrooms and herb beurre blanc

TERRINE DE FOIE GRAS – Terrine of ox, foie gras and Puy lentils with Pedro Ximenez jelly and eight spice powder (yes, I know what they do to the ducks, but oh god it tastes good.)

TRUITE MARINÉE AU GINGEMBRE – Coral trout marinated in ginger and miso with spring onion, parsley purée, mandarin and spices (the highlight – absolutely brimming with flavour. hello sous vide.)

JUS AU VERJUS – Liquid verjus at – 8°C

AGNEAU RÔTI ET RIS D’agneau – Poached loin and rillette of lamb with caramelised sweetbread and Pedro Ximenez reduction (we used to walk miles to a little fried chicken shop at home that did crumbed sweetbreads. they were awesome, but shannon’s are better.)

SALaDE DE FRUITS – Fruit Salad (hubby is still raving about the frozen golden kiwi submerged in peppermint gel that sat atop this little gem.)

OEUFS DE POULES – Prune and Armagnac eggnog, pistachio custard, Grand-Marnier mousse, served in an egg carton (so cute, so funny. vue de monde’s birdie to financial miserables.)

TARTARE DE FRAISE  ET CHOCOLAT BLANC CHAUD – Tartare of strawberry with white chocolate and mascarpone mousse, finished with basil oil (when they poured the basil oil on the white chocolate ‘lid’ disintegrated. strawberries, basil, oil, biscuit crumbs … such a divine combination. must try this at home.)

WINES
2007 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre  Loire Valley, France
2008 Curly Flat Pinot Grigio  Macedon Ranges, Victoria

Thank you beautiful husband for the birthday present a foodie could wish for.

jansson’s temptation

My very lovely and utterly delightful friend Val went off to university a year before me. A year later I moved to the same university town and spent a lot of time hanging out at her flat.

Val, who remember is lovely and delightful, wasn’t particularly accomplished at cooking. Her favourite meal, which was also her only meal, was mock waitbait patties. Real whitebait patties are a kiwi delicacy. Mock whitebait patties substitute grated potatoes. It’s nice, but not the same at all.

The flat, like most New Zealand university share houses, had a weekly cooking and cleaning roster. Val made mock whitebait patties every week.

So I thought of her and her disgruntled housemates, who weren’t overly fond of mock whitebait patties after the first month, when I discovered this reciepe.

Jansson was a Swede and a religious fanatic.

Pause to picture that. Do the accent. Okay, now let’s move on.

The legend goes that this dish was so delish that Jansson renounced his vow to give up earthly pleasures.

So this is what we had for dinner last night, with some little veal tbones and steamed green beans.

Ingredients

50g tin oritiz anchovies
4 medium potatoes (good all rounders will do)
2 large onions
200ml cream
200ml milk
pepper
1 slice day old bread, blitzed to crumbs

Measure the oil from the anchovies into a fry pan – you’ll need about 2 tbpns. If there isn’t enough then top it up with olive oil. On a low heat cook the onions until soft, but not brown. If you’ve got an anchovy phobic husband like me then chop the anchovies and add them with the onions – this cooks them down and they disappear into the onions. If you’ve got anchovy fans dining then add them later.

Grate the potatoes or use a mandolin to make julienne (looks better, more fun). Mix in the onions, anchovies and pepper and fill an oiled baking dish.

Pour over the cream and milk, top with breadcrumbs and drizzle with olive oil

Bake at 180 celcious for an hour until golden, bubbling.

Serve with another earthly pleasure like a very sinful, silky pinot noir.

apple and oat muffins

Who knows what my child eats in a day at daycare? I should know, I should read the menu posted next to the kitchen, but most days, err… every day, I forget. He knows where the biscuit tin is at home and one of his very few words is bissss, pointing to the pantry and the tin. So I’ve made these apple and oat muffins, which are a much healthier alternative to bissss …

150g plain white flour
1 tablespoon baking power
1 tsp mixed spice
100g brown suger
175g porridge oats
3 small apples
handfull of sultanas (optional)
2 medium eggs
125 ml milk
125 ml apple juice (I didn’t have any so used water)
1/4 cup sunflower oil (any low flavour vege oil will do)

Sift flour, baking powder and mixed spice into a bowl. Mix in oats and brown sugar. Chop apples finely – about 1/2cm cubes leaving the skin on – and mix into dry ingredients. Mix eggs, milk, juice and oil together and pour into a well in the middle of your dry ingredients. Mix lightly – don’t overmix.

Spoon into greased muffin tins. I used paper cases – so much easier than greasing tins. Bake in a 200 celcius oven for 20 minutes until risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave in the tin 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

fresh peach souffle

I just about fell over when these came out of the oven. There’s something about souffle that just sounds so hard. Incredibly, amazingly hard. In fact these turned out to be incredibly simple. However, when instructions for souffle say serve immediately they mean immediately.

By the time hubby and I did the victory dance, took the photo, changed the angle and the lighting, took the photo again, did the dance again, and sat down to eat the rise was on the decline.

Ingredients

2 ripe peaches – skin and blitz
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons caster sugar

Beat the egg whites and sugar until firm but not dry. If you go too long the souffle will sag fast. Fold in the peach puree and place (yes, place) in two lightly greesed and sugared souffle dishes (I used ramekins). Here’s the trick of the century – flatten the top then run your finger around the edge of the dish – this encourages the souffle to rise evenly because it doesn’t have to pull away from the edge.

Bake 15-20 minutes. Do the dance. Serve immediately with some great vanilla icecream with a little leftover peach puree poured over.

Drink with something light, sweet and fizzy. I love the new style Moscato’s that are around, especially McGuigan’s Discover Moscato and Wirra Wirra Mrs Wrigley’s Moscato, which is a lovely pink, low alcohol girly guzzler.

sourdough bread starter

I’ve been writing a lot about wine and talking to a lot of winemakers recently, and a topic that comes up often is wild yeasts and fermentation (no suprise there). It’s been interesting especially given my new pet – a sourdough bug that I’ve started from scratch.

I’ll call it a bug, because it’s like the old ginger beer bugs we used to have as kids, except this bug is fed regularly with flour and water rather than sugar.

Starting the bug was relatively simple, but I can’t help thinking that maybe I just got lucky. The odds of it all going wrong and your flour and water mix catching the wrong “wild yeasts” floating through the kitchen is really high. But, for me a milky smelling, bubbling, creamy broth developed in about four days and has been gracing the kitchen bench, wrapped in a damp muslin blanket for the last month.

Ingredients (to start your bug)

100g 00 white flour
115 ml tepid water

for each feed

100 g 00 white flour
enough tepid water to make a paste

Mix initial measurement of flour and water in a small bowl until you have a sticky paste. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or muslin secured with a rubber band and leave it in a draught free spot in the kitchen.  Re-dampen the cloth as needed.

After 2 – 5 days the paste should have a skin and look bubbly, with a milky scent. If it smells bad rather than simply sour, or if you have mould, then chuck it and start again.

If you’ve got a live one, give it its first feed. 100 g of flour and enough water to mix the whole brew into a sticky paste again. Work the mix to get plenty of air in – your hand is best.  Cover with the damp cloth and leave on the bench for 24 hours.

Feed it again with another 100 g of flour and tepid water – it should be really bubbling and rising up in your bowl now. The bug should be bubbling and ready to use in about 8 hours and you should have about 400g of sourdough starter in your bowl.

Sourdough bugs last forever, as long as you keep feeding them. Mine lives in the fridge during the week and comes out on Thursday nights to warm up (with a damp cloth on top) and then get it’s first feed on Friday morning, getting ready for a weekend baking. They need feeding at least once a week, but even if you miss a week or it gets into bad shape, just stir it up, halve it and feed it and you’ll get it back in good heath fairly quickly.

You need about 200 – 300 g of starter to make a  loaf of bread.

Good luck.