Wednesday 31 August 2011

Self-saucing Vegan

My Omi is a seasoned baker. She would always have more than one thing coming out of the oven and they would always have more than one thing missing from their 50 or 60 year old memory recipe. I remember asking my mom one day when she arrived home announcing, "Omi's given us some cake", "What's it missing?", "Baking soda - but it still tastes good!" Whatever ingredient she accidentally bypassed she made up for in effort and love. She would always have food on her table or perpetually at the ready to be swiftly shoved into a grandchild's ever hungry belly. I will always remember this meatloaf sandwich that she made for me with German butter cheese and day old leftovers. Amazing. Meatloaf never tasted so good! I love food memories. Even if they were missing pieces or a little over done - they still leave you with that longing for them to return. 

We never made self-saucing pudding growing up. I have only been introduced to it's simplicity and deliciousness in the past couple of years. It's one of those things that makes you feel comfortable, safe, overweight. It is completely effortless - other than the part where you have to roll out of your seat to get a second helping before the cake sucks up all it's molten gooeyness. It is perfect. It is a memory maker.

*This version is Vegan - replace with animal products if you wish.

In the dish (with lid) that you are planning to bake it in, mix up one cup of self rising flour, 1/4 of a teaspoon salt, 1/2 a cup of sugar, two tablespoons cocoa, 1/2 a cup of soy milk, and 2 tablespoons melted margarine. It will look like a cake batter - I threw in a few squares of dark chocolate to make it taste even more amazing. On top of your batter sprinkle 1/2 a cup of brown sugar that has been tossed together with 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Pour over the back of a spoon (to avoid creating a hole in the batter) 1 and 3/4 cups of boiling water. Do not mix!



Pop your lid on and cook for 30 to 40 minutes in a 180c oven. The top will look like cake but all planet like and bumpy. Scoop out and eat when hot. Soy ice cream with this was beyond amazing. 


Monday 29 August 2011

As comfortable as curling up between two sheets of lasagne

upComfort is something I know a great deal about. If there is a stretch waist within a ten foot radius - I will slither myself straight into them. I'm like an airport drug beagle with a lust for the casual. When you stumble across me on holiday my uniform is loose and you better believe it, my appetite is even looser. The words "Whatever, I'm on vacation!" are on continual loop all the days I am away...and for a few thereafter. I like to eat and I love to eat good food. Food is to be enjoyed, to be shared, to some days even be devoured. The weather outside generally determines what I put on my families plates. I like to be crammed full of warm over indulgent coma inducing home style comfort food on cold and ugly winter evenings. And if you follow that up with a freshly out of the oven self saucing pudding, I could live out the rest of my days in a morbidly obese bliss. 


With my residing country currently being hampered with a winter chill and my time to construct daily dinners at a minimum, I like to ensure left-overs are present. This lasagne can be made big or small, vegetarian or not - you make the call - but no matter what you do, your belly will thank you for the comfort you are filling it with.


Make a tasty sauce by browning up some ground pork/lamb/veggie meat or just the following vegetables - onion, garlic, mushrooms, peppers/capsicums and I like to grate in a carrot for another hit of your 5+ a day. Once everything starts to get a bit soft throw in two cans of tomatoes - I like at least one of those to be whole peeled. Start to get your simmer on. Add whatever seasoning you are in to. You could do some thyme, oregano, basil, italian parsley, sage. I did a smokey chipotle, chilli, basil, oregano and the obvious salt and pepper. Let this get nice and rich - doesn't need to be too thick though - extra liquid will aid in the pasta cooking. In a bowl make up a mix of spinach and ricotta (200g tub) - salt and pepper that also. 




Once your sauce has some flavour, you can start your layers. I like to use a wholemeal lasagne sheet that needs no precooking. Start with a bit of sauce, pasta, sauce, pasta, spinach mix, pasta, rest of sauce and a sprinkle of cheese. These are not rules. Do as you wish. 




Cover with foil and cook at 200c until the pasta is fork tender - roughly 40 minutes with the foil on and another 10 minutes without to crisp up the top.  



Sunday 28 August 2011

Gourmet log cookery

A touch of OCD isn't always a bad thing. I believe in most cases it can work to everyone's advantage. Locking multiple doors multiple times - a secure dwelling, washing hands in clusters of three - always ensuring you have ceased the possible germ contamination in family dinners,  hoarding throw-away's for fear of not having an item that might someday be of use (but that's highly unlikely) - you are reducing your carbon footprint. I am by no means excluded from this lump of obsessive compulsive delinquents. My extreme is minimal but my extreme is still apparent. Not being able to sleep until I've checked once, maybe twice that I've turned the lock on the front door, my unkempt obsession with numbers, their sequence and how they will determine the course of...well...everything, and by no means least, my unadulterated list writing. 


I feel that none of these slight obsessions hinder me in my day to day ongoings - I can still make left turns without feeling anxious and I can still high-five without the need for gloves. One quirk I am having trouble shaking is my love for rolling food into a log like shape. Things seem to taste better like this. 


Make your self a basic bread/pizza dough. Knead together three and a half cups of strong flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of olive oil or EVOO if you're a Rachael Ray fan, and 1 and a half teaspoons of dried yeast that has been growing in 1 and 1/4 cups of warm water with 1 teaspoon sugar. 






Let it grow in a bowl until it's doubled in size and then roll out into a decent sized rectangle. Smother with any delicious fixin's you are fond of. We put down tomato paste, salami, mozzarella, red onion, fresh basil, a little grate of parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. 






Roll into an enticing log shape and cook til golden in a 175c oven - about 20 minutes. Eat when still molten and while dreaming of your next adventure in log cookery. 




Thursday 25 August 2011

Back in time travel

I guess in some way I have always (maybe a bit more now) loved the romantic idea of being whisked away on an adventure of mass proportions. Trudging through land I have never trudged, seeing sights my eyes have never viewed. Generally I am not picky - a suburb next door or what seems to be a million hour drive - I just like to get away. I wish I had this same zest for the travel when I was an angst filled teenager being carted around on family tours. My parents would try and take my sister and I on a road trip most summers. This one year we went to pick up my sister who had gone away a few weeks earlier with another family, my parents thought it would be awesome to go on a longer, more beautiful, more eye appealing way - I was fully against this. I pretended to be asleep in the back seat the whole way. I could hear my mom yell out with delight at one point, "Look Janel, the Rockies!". I could barely muster up the energy to look out the side window and with every ounce of bad attitude and hatred for all things that made other people enjoy themselves - the only reply I could free from my lips was, "Ugh." and probably a faint "Humph".


Maybe my guilt for not being a decent travel companion in my teenage years is what has made me lust for the make up of lost world viewing time. I really wish I could see more than I do, be on one of the planes that thunder  from the runway moments away from my house, be the jerk on the highway pulling the sloth like caravan with no rear vision. I really wish I could be the person that won the lottery. 


When I did my last rearrangement of furniture I found I was left with two beaten up old suitcases filled with DVD's and nowhere to home them. 




I also found that I had a large empty cinder-block wall with nothing to hang upon it. I did some thinking and poking and prodding and found a way to suspend my old suitcases to magically turn them into shelves (after removing the lids as suggested by my ingenious red bearded husband). I stabbed some nails into the moulding along the upper half of the wall and attached some wire to them and to the handles of the suitcases. The bottoms of the cases needed a bit of support so we attached a piece of wire from the bottom up to the nail as well. I filled them with love and failed knitting and am more than stoked with the way they turned out.





Sunday 21 August 2011

I'm 31 - let's get fat!

Thirty-one years of my life will be celebrated tomorrow. Thirty-one years of a life well lived - a life well loved. I have travelled a little, I have experienced a little more and I have loved every little bump and struggle in my road of life. My choice to move countries broke many hearts, including my own. But it was a chance I hastily took and a chance that proved to be one that I will never regret. I have become an honest married woman, birthed a rad little being, and finally feel like I am coming into my own. My creative juices have surfaced and I am doing my best to hone in my craft(s). 


Luckily for my colleagues at work one of my dabbled in crafts is baking. There is a little tradition at my work that I still don't fully understand - your birthday so you bring the cake...for everyone. I don't really mind because it's an excuse for me to make something tasty and to not devour it all on my lonesome. I did put a little bit of extra time into this one. Made it special. Made it full of calories.    


Cinnamon buns:


In a cup dissolve 7.5 ml of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar in a 1/4 of a cup warm water. Let it hang out for 5 minutes or so - it will get bubbly. 




While that's doing it's thing, throw these ingredients into the bowl of your mixer: 3/4 of a cup milk, four tablespoons butter, three egg yolks, one tablespoon orange zest, 1 and a 1/4 teaspoons salt and roughly 3 and a half cups of flour depending on the wetness of your dough (leave 1 cup aside and add a little at a time once you start mixing). Chuck the yeast into the bowl when it's ready and get your dough mix happening. When it's not sticky to the touch, it's ready. Give it a good knead on a floured surface then into a greased bowl to rise. Double it in size - 1 hour or so depending on how warm she gets. 


Once risen, roll out to form a rectangle. Brush with 2 tablespoons of melted butter and then sprinkle your filling over the top. Filling includes: half a cup of brown sugar, 3 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg. I like raisins, so they made an appearance plus some toasted pistachios. 



Roll this up into a long tube and cut into even chunks. I managed to get 20 buns. In a pot melt up 3/4 of a cup brown sugar, four tablespoons of butter and a 1/4 of a cup maple syrup. Pour this into the deep pan you are intending on using and sprinkle with more nuts, if you're keen. On top of the sugar syrup place your rolls swirly side up and pretty close together. Let them hang for ten minutes to puff up. Get them in a 180c oven for 30 minutes. Right when you take them out flip them over onto a baking tray or serving dish so the bottom now becomes your top. The syrup is super hot so be really careful! Next step is the best...EAT!




Friday 19 August 2011

Sans sommeil - Without sleep

It's amazing what a good nights sleep can do for your exhausted being. I am saying this only from past memories and not from the life that I am currently existing in. A deep, uninterrupted, full 8 (I will even take seven) hour sleep, where you wake up without a screaming alarm or a small child inches away from your face asking for water from the cup beside his bed that he himself put there at the beginning of the night - but for some reason you are the only person who can lift it to his mouth to assist in the quenching of thirst. See, as I am typing this, I have a happily twitching, snoring husband adventuring through the windy avenues of dreamland beside me, a teething kid with a belly full of food having his own misguided magic play dates across the hall, and me...unable to even get relaxed enough to R.E.M for even a snippet of a sleep. At night I make a plan of attack, I write lists in my head to transcribe in the a.m, I analyse the week just past and recount tactless moments that slipped under my minds radar, I think about what I am going to make for dinner the next day and if we will have enough leftovers to fill us for another serving (we will...don't worry). I do everything at night but sleep.   

So, you might be wondering how I am going to segue my rambles about sleep into a blog about a craft project...I cut up a blanket to make pillows. Pretty clear transition.

Basically, I went into an Army surplus store and bought an old French Military blanket, cut it into the sizes of  pillows I wanted (I found pillows super cheap and they had sizes written on them - handy). 


*Health Service Army

When you are measuring you need to have enough material to cover both sides plus a flap (it will be stitched on the sides so it isn't just flapping around - like an envelope but with the corners stuck down) that covers about half or 3/4 of the back or front - depending on how you want your pillow to look. 


This is a really easy sew if you use one long piece of material - two sides to be sewn - easy. One thing to remember when sewing this up is to have your flap part against your finished side - you are sewing this inside out just like you would anything else. But really, it's only a few stitches to remove if you do accidentally get a bit backwards. Sometimes it's nice to add some buttons to hold the flappy bit closed, and you could totally use this as detailing make the flap side the front.



Tuesday 16 August 2011

Snowy Sunday food for comfort 2 of 2 - Cornbread

When I first wrote the prequel to this cold and snowy feed myself to warmth blog post, I didn't fully realize how bad it was going to get. I don't mean how bad the overeating was quickly spiralling out of my control but how New Zealand was freezing over. The Antarctic Heaven's opened up and released her icy insides all up inside our country. Power being cut, roads being blocked, access to accessible homes becoming inaccessible. The effected citizens began to scramble, myself included. Electricity was out and a drafty beach-side home was in. Candles lit,  wind up torches illuminated and the sweet sounds of Elton John playing on the radio (until I got bored of winding up the multitasking torch and decided it was far less of an effort to just sit in silence). 

Luckily though, for my ever enlarging food cavity, my brother-in-law had created that nights dinner in advance and since I always construct meals that will feed a whole sports team for days, the fridge had previously been filled with a bounty of belly filling delights. One of the things I had an abundance of was an awesome spicy Cornbread. Perfect for filling the empty void no electricity had left behind.


Warm up 1 and a half cups of milk on the stove, add 1/2 a cup of butter - take it off the heat and let it melt. After that cools down for a bit, add in 1 and a half cups of plain yoghurt and two eggs - give her a beat with a whisk. 






Add all the dry bits together in a bowl - 2 cups of corn meal, 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Here's where you can add some extras to it. I threw a couple fresh green chilli's and two spring onions in the mix but you could totally do anything. The Cornbread is your oyster - so maybe crumble up some bacon in it. Mix the two parts together and throw it in the oven at 180c for 40 minutes or so (maybe check it a bit earlier - I got a bit distracted while timing). We had this straight out of the oven with some homemade hearty Chilli and it was probably the best meal I have had in ages. 






  

Sunday 14 August 2011

Snowy Sunday food for comfort 1 of 2 - Onion Rings with Honey Mustard

Today was one of those days you long for. Good company to be shared, fun craft jobs awaiting your touch, black storm clouds rolling in after you have locked up shop and are preparing to hunker down for the night. Even though there is a slight chill in your living room air - life is perfect. Days like these infect me with the lust for all things that fill my belly. The feeling that food gives you on a cold blustery Sunday is immeasurable. It is a day of comfort - a day of worship, if you will. Today I am feeling semi spiritual  - my being has been filled with the divine life of the humble Onion Ring. Underrated and I believe, misunderstood. Seen as being grease laden and heavy on the thighs, a menace in the fight against bad breath, an afterthought. 


Today's Onion Rings are just the opposite of most of that (weight dilemma: probably less fattening if you didn't eat them at all). They are baked in deliciousness and eagerly awaiting a good Honey Mustard dunking. 


Grab two large white onions - cut them into rings and let them hang out in approx. 500ml's of buttermilk for 30 minutes. This pulls out some of the smelliness of the onion and makes them milder on the taste buds. 



Fill a small bowl with plain flour - another bowl with three (or so) eggs that you have beaten - and a third bowl with Panko bread crumbs, grated parmesan cheese (about a handful), a teaspoon of dried parsley and some salt and pepper. Coat each onion starting with the flour, then egg, then panko. 




Get these bad boys in an oven at 200c and cook for 20 minutes flipping after 10. While cooking, whip together a tasty honey mustard sauce by whisking together one tablespoon of honey and dijon mustard with a 1/4 of a cup mayo and half a tablespoon lemon juice.  




When the rings are ready, grab a warm blanket and a delicious beverage and proceed to dine like a soldier in the Onion Ring army. 








Thursday 11 August 2011

Cranberry, Almonds and a Bar - Oh my.

You know, there are some things that you miss more/less as you grow older. I miss the comfort of a full body snow suit, the way dill pickle chips wrinkle your lips if you eat a whole bag, the undeniable way poutine solidifies in your stomach, leaving you sleepy and unable to muster a cohesive sentence. The past I urge to stay behind should start out with the tri-yearly home perms that only worked on 2/3rd's of my head, the multi coloured neon bike shorts that I wore with a matching hat and tank top...and ten speed, the fact that I used to eat uncooked 2 minute noodles out of the package with it's MSG filled seasoning sprinkled all over their crunchy dryness - note: this was despite the fact that it was rumoured that by doing such a wild thing you would swiftly develop an incurable case of tape worms. 


I really crave the way that in your younger years you could eat without thinking about your health. You relied on your parents to nourish your growing body and depended on them to fill you with the vitamins and minerals to make your bones soar you to new awkward teenage heights. When you get to a point in your life where you are responsible for feeding your belly and paying for it...you tend to take the corners a bit sharp on the road of nutrition. You eat on the run, late at night, out of packages. A snack is a bag of chips or an expensive muesli bar filled with sugar, the unknown and promises of energizer power. What people don't understand is that a muesli bar can be the easiest thing to make and tastiest to eat. It can be light on the sugar and heavy on the goodness. 


In a lightly heated pot melt together 1/2 a cup honey, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and slightly under a half a cup of butter. 




Throw together one and a half cups of oats, 1 cup of crushed up breakfast cereal...seriously, anything in your cupboard, 2 tablespoons ground almond meal, half of a teaspoon cinnamon, a third of a cup toasted almonds that you've chopped up, third of a cup dried cranberries - or any type of dried fruit you have sitting along side your miscellaneous morning cereal, and 1 tablespoon coconut.  




Add your melted deliciousness to your fruit and nutty goodness. Press this mixture firmly into square baking dish of your choice and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 200c oven. You want it light brown and set. Cut when totally cool or it will fall to pieces. 



Saturday 6 August 2011

Kiwi lime together in harmony

When I first moved to New Zealand I was saddened by the lack of condiments in established home kitchens. They had the basics - ketchup aka: tomato sauce, mayonnaise, and possibly brown sauce - known to common non NZ folk as HP sauce. Myself, being a lover of all things made to moisten a meal, felt lost. I swiftly began a hunt for deliciousness...and swiftly became disappointed. If I did track down a food accompaniment I felt familiar with, it's cost was beyond my upkeep means and the taste left me missing my childhood refrigerator door. 

A few years back, Hayden and I had a yard that could support the garden we desired, and we began to grow vegetables. With said grown vegetables, we would make our own lavish meal enhancing sidekicks. We grew pickles and dill for some epically amazing dill pickles, tomatoes and coriander (cilantro) and chillies to make the freshest salsa you could ever imagine. We made dips and dressings, jams and chutneys - something's grown and some bought (but only where our fertile green thumbs fell short). This process was immensely rewarding and is now - from lack of grounds to cultivate - overwhelmingly missed.  So when a colleague from work, who had seen my blog, offered up a bounty home grown of Kiwi fruit for the making - I snatched up the generosity of free and set my brain into Kiwi creation overdrive. And this folks, is what I came up with...

Kiwi Lime Jam:
Scoop out 24 Kiwi's and zest up two limes. Chuck these into a pot on medium/low for thirty minutes all together. 


After about ten minutes of the cooking process throw in 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of Citrus Pectin to aid in the thickening. Continue cooking for the last 20. I found that there were some chunky bits hanging out so I gave it a quick blitz with the hand wand and then added in 3 tablespoons of lime juice right at the end. 


Dump your jam into clean jars - tighten the lids and place into a boiling bath for 10 minutes (Have the water level come to a bit under the lids). Once cooled the lids will suck in a be totally sealed. 



Friday 5 August 2011

Ode to the Colonel's coleslaw making wife

My first job, at the tender age of 14, was working for the Colonel. He was a generous man that let me work after school and on weekends for what I believe was $5-something an hour. He faithfully offered me an endless bounty of free deep fried goodness and in return I faithfully delivered a mountain of teenage tomfoolery and beyond sloppy customer service. Day to day, us children of the chicken, worked tirelessly to avoid further hot fat damage to our virgin skin but rarely did we succeed. Leaving for the day with six circles of burn on the crest of your foot from molten grease that leaked through your shoelace eyes, was not an uncommon occurrence. Putting on gloves - that no matter how religiously you turned them inside out - still smelt like a rotten cat - was not the highlight of anyone's afternoon. 


I would have to say that my favourite part of the working day was in the morning - when no one was there to bust your chops and your uniform still smelt slightly human. You would fill hundreds of gravy pots, gossip about your lazy workmates and portion questionable salads into appropriate sized containers. Even though these salads were beyond unnatural, I did secretly dabble in the potato salad from time to time but rarely did I partake in the consumption of the mutant green coleslaw. When no ingredients are listed on the box and I don't remember ever seeing a neon cabbage in the supermarket - I will not be shoving it down my gullet. It's a shame that the Colonel's wife (who I imagine is the salad maestro in the family) didn't put more effort into the - what should be - crunchy and fresh dinner accompaniment. So here, Colonel's wife, whoever you are, this is a coleslaw recipe. Ghetto, I know...but it's filled with the love and memories of the years I spent with your husband in the confines of a greasy kitchen. 


Grate up some cabbage, carrot, red onion and fennel. (Feel free to chop if you have the knife skills - Hayden chopped - he's got the skills)  






Mix together 1/2 a cup of mayo (probably less - don't go overboard because once it sits in the slaw for a bit, it seems to multiply) with one squeezed lemon and a teaspoon of fish sauce. Salt and pepper. Throw the two components together and voila! So simple, so tasty.  



Tuesday 2 August 2011

Brownies with a pepper-minty fresh jive

I'm not really very good with dieting. Generally I do my best at eating healthy, cutting back on the cheese, leaning up the meats, and matching my portion sizes to that of my two year old son's. I shakily crumble under the pressure of a hostile military eating regime - I like to eat and I like to eat food that tastes delicious. I know when I've eaten too much and I know when I need to rein in my snack tooth. When you make rules for yourself, you are destined to falter onto the guilt ridden side of the line. I would rather feel happy than guilty. My rules: no rules - only brownies (and maybe a cleanse or two). 




*Doubled measurements below (I doubled this recipe because that's how much chocolate I had - plus, it's the weekend - sweatpants are at the ready).


In a metal bowl placed on a pot above shallow simmering water, melt 120 grams of a high percent dark chocolate with 1 cup of butter.




Remove metal bowl from the heat and whisk in 2 cups of sugar, one teaspoon peppermint essence (add more if you are keen...I did), get 4 eggs up in there, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 a teaspoon salt and some toasted nuts...or not. Crank your oven up to 165c and cook your thigh enhancing treat for 30 to 35 minutes. I tend to like my brownie nestling on the edge of uncooked. Once it cools it is perfect.