Sugared flowers

Click here for a "how to" guide for making sugared flowers by Design Sponge.

From the sea

I am spoiled. My man loves to fish, and I am lucky to be the happy recipient of his fishing prowess. Today C and Stonefish went diving for crayfish, and C brought home some friends for me.

The prospect of fresh crayfish for lunch was too good to pass up, and C cooked a tail on the barbecue for us with some cheese and mustard. He also boiled up the legs for me to eat so that we would not waste any. Yum!

Varietal apple juice

I enjoy watching the ABC's Landline program. This interest is a little unusual, as I am definitely a city girl and have never spent time on a farm.

One article that interested me today was about Sutton's Farm in Queensland. They are an apple orchard. Initially they supplied apples to the supermarkets and then sold at farmer's markets and would end up with a high percentage of product they could not sell full price. As a way to repurpose their apples they started to make apple juice in the different apple varieties. They also make cider and you can pick apples at their farm as well.

The product that appeals most to me though is their varietal apple juice. I am an apple juice fan and do prefer it to be fresh. It would be great to be able to buy juice of your favourite flavoured apples without preservatives or flavours.

I will keep my eyes open to see if I can find anything similar here in Perth...

Image here

A barbecue feast!

C's lamb kebabs. We got to take our metal skewers out of the packet - we have only had them for eight months! Diced lamb with capsicum from the garden, red onion and (tinned) pineapple.



I was responsible for the marinade on the prawns. Honey, olive oil, mustard and lime juice. Messy but very tasty!

Eggs and eggs

We have been buying Free Range Eggs for a while. I do occasionally wonder how honest the manufacturers are about the conditions of the hens as you hear stories about how "free" the concept of free range actually is.

A few years ago one of Chad's workmates gave us fresh eggs from his chickens and we were impressed with how bright yellow the yolks were compared to commercial caged eggs. It was from this point that we decided we wanted to buy eggs from happy chickens.

We usually buy our eggs from Scutti's in South Perth. Occasionally we stray. Chad recently bought eggs from Woolworths. He really only looked for free range and I did not think any more of it until I saw the packet. I remembered this story from the ABC's Landline about the egg industry in Australia and thought that I recognised the brand from this show. When I checked the box I realised that they were packed in NSW. It was very disappointing as we try to buy local (WA) fresh produce as much as possible.

I also checked the eggs that we had in the fridge. We had previously strayed and purchased our eggs from IGA. Thankfully they support local producers and our eggs were Pioneer Farms

When searching for the Landline story on the ABC website I also came across this recently filed story suggesting that the WA market would soon be swamped by eggs from Eastern States manufacturers due to an oversupply in their market.

We shall try to be more vigilant from now on and check labels!

Fast Fish Fried Rice

I was feeling lazy tonight. I had defrosted Breaksea Cod so needed to cook it and I had some rice in the fridge that I had planned to make fried rice with. So I thought I would be slack and just make fish fried rice!

Ingredients include egg, soy sauce, rice, peas, fish and tinned pineapple. To be honest it was not that nice, the pineapple was too sweet and overpowering and the whole mix a little bland. It needed some bacon or prawns to give it a bit of kick!

Note to self, do not cook this combination again.

Lime Madeira Cake

Having the girls around for afternoon tea means cooking a sweet treat! This time I wanted to use my limes. We have a few left still and once they are gone my mum will most likely keep us in supply until hers run out too! Last year we juiced quite a few of them and we still have the ice blocks in the freezer, so this year I wanted to actually use the limes.

I first thought that I would recreate the lime curd tart that I made for mother's day, but decided it would be too fiddly to make. I then thought about making a lime chiffon cake but discarded that on the basis of having to buy a new tin. So back to basics and I pulled out a the recipe for a Madeira cake from the Sweet Foods cookbook. I have modified to my quirks and also to use the lime.

The cake was nice and light, although I thought it a little bit dry.

180g unsalted butter, softened
185g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
3 eggs
165g (1 1/3 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
1 teaspoon lime zest
2 teaspoons caster sugar, extra, to sprinkle
icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 160C (150C fan forced). Grease and flour a deep 20cm round cake tin, shaking out any excess.

Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well to combine after each addition.

Fold in the flour, lime zest and juice until well combined.

When smooth, pour into the tin and level the surface. Sprinkle the exra caster sugar over the top.

Bake for fifty minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack.

To serve, dust with icing sugar.

Notes
- The recipe suggests that to serve you also garnish with zest.
- The recipe says to cook for an hour. I cooked the cake for 50 minutes before I checked it and the skewer came out clean. I left it in for an extra five minutes just because and then removed it. I am thinking now that could explain why it was dry!

Eye of the Tiger

E and I met for a spot of shopping on Saturday morning. We did not buy much but it is always good to catch up with my sister. The two things we do together seem to be shopping and eating and we usually combine the two!

We went to tiger, tiger. I have known it was there for a while, frequently walking past its alley way, but have never actually eaten there. We were there for lunch but early enough to be able to order off the breakfast menu. E had poached eggs with salmon and I ordered baked beans. What I actually got was their baked egg but it looked pretty good so I kept it! The chorizo and tomato was tasty and the sourdough that they served it with generous in proporation and great for soaking up the sauce of my egg.

E was impressed with the heart she got with her cafe latte. I had nothing so spectacular, my juice came complete with green botanical additives and was a healthy shade of green!

I would like to go back to try the baked beans, among other things.

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush

My mulberry tree is having its second wind of fruit for the season! It is not overly laden as for the first crop, but it has a few fruit worthy of picking.


As you can see, going 'round my mulberry tree would be difficult due to the wall. Still, Daisy the garden gnome might get there one day!

It does not always look this nude either. Chad is quite ruthless when giving my fruit trees a hair cut!

Chicken and Vegetable Pie

This morning I felt like eating something savoury and warm. A sausage roll sprang to mind... not really that good for me but solid and predictable comfort food.

There are a few places around the office to buy such goodies, and I decided to try Posh Nosh as I remember them as having a selection of pies and sausage rolls. (The last time I felt like a sausage roll I tried a shop that only had sausage rolls or $6 quiches! Not enough choice at snack price...)

Posh Nosh had a few different items to choose from, including cornish pasties, a beef steak pie, chicken and vegetable pies, german sausage rolls and spinach and feta filo triangles.

I asked if there were any particularly recommended and was told that they were all good. That did not particularly help me to make my mind up so I eventually opted for the chicken and vegetable pie (it had vegetables).

The pie was excellent. The pastry was soft with a bit of crisp on the outside, and not soggy at all. The vegetables on offer were corn, onion, celery and carrot, and to be honest I did not much notice how much chicken was in the pie as I was enjoying eating it!

When I got back to the office to eat my pie I realised that it had been wrapped in paper before being put into the paper bag, and I was also given a fork as well as a napkin. One of my colleagues told me it was very civilised! I was doubly impressed with the pie and presentation.

Light as an Angel

I thought this recipe for Angel Food Cakes courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings would make a lovely afternoon tea treat! The cakes are so sweet and they would be very light.

The only issue is what to do with twelve egg yolks... now that is a lot of custard or curd!

Image here

Home mixed muesli

I am a creature of habit. My breakfasts during the week will be either weetbix/vita brits or natural muesli. Generally I buy generic brands from the supermarket, but inspired by this article on the ABC's Landline I purchased Brookfarm macadamia muesli.

I do like the muesli, and the macadamias are a nice touch! The downside of the muesli is the sugar content. I have found with a few of the more interesting mueslis that you can really taste the added sugar and I would rather be able to add my own (and I do not) than have someone else add it for me. I also had a few bits and pieces lying around in my pantry so I thought that I would give mixing my own muesli a go.

I started with All Bran, then rolled oats, Large Sultanas and I think currants as well. There are pepitas and sunflower seeds, dried apricots and dried peaches and walnuts. All of the ingredients except the All Bran and walnuts are Product of Australia.

I added everything in layers and then mixed it all up once I was finished! It is very tasty, although next time I will substitute the walnuts with something else, maybe macadmias or pistachios.

Garden of Fragrant Delights

I rather neglected our garden this last summer. We went from an abundance of tomatoes, capsicum and chilli in Summer 2008 to a sad sight of wonky tomato plants and flowering basil this summer.

Renewal is required for Autumn. The weekend just gone we decided to get the garden back into shape. After losing much of the top layers of dirt in the storm in March (it was replaced by the back neighbour's yellow sand!), we knew that replenishing would not go astray. A trip to buy some chook poo last Sunday and it has been dug into the garden. What a wonderful aroma!

I have not quite figured out what we will be planting, but definitely on my list are leeks and spring onions and spinach and more silver beet.

Wonton Mein

One of my favourite lunch dishes, wonton noodles soup! This bowl was purchased at Yen Do at the Woodside Plaza. They have a small selection of Asian dishes cooked to order. This is the one that I sample the most frequently.

Baking beads

The first time that I blind baked pastry, I used some brown rice that was hanging around in my pantry and well past its best before date. I kept that rice to be used again for baking, and it was. The down side of the rice was that I kept spilling it into my pastry when I removed the baking paper and having to pick out the small grains.

It all came to a head one day when I made pastry and managed to drop quite a few grains into the hot pastry. Instead of picking it out I thought I would be smart and tip out the rice.

Of course gravity defeated me and I ended up with pieces of pastry on my stove top! Luckily my filling held the cooked tart shell together however I was most unhappy and in a fit of pique I threw the rice away, vowing to buy some ceramic baking beads.

This was all very well and good, however the next time I made pastry I still had not bought beads and so I resorted to using the remaing soup mix that was in the pantry. You can see the result above. Unfortunately there was not enough leftover soup mix and it does not do much at all to weigh down the pastry!

So I see that my options are to buy some ceramic weights, or to invest in another packet of soup mix. The ones below are $22.95 a packet, so I may just buy half a kilo of brown rice...

Pie weights by Wheel & Barrow

Mass to cup conversions - baking

I have a set of scales, however they are analogue and I have no faith in their accuracy. So, for recipes that may rely on accurate measurements here is a list of common baking ingredients and their conversions to cups!

Lime curd tart

Last Sunday being Mother’s Day we invited my family over for dinner. C’s parents have been travelling for the last few months and have not made it back to Perth so we shall have to celebrate with them at another time.

I was still wishing to use our fresh limes in a dish, so I cast around for inspiration. My first thought was to make a panna cotta and there was a Donna Hay recipe for Lime Yoghurt Panna Cotta that caught my eye. My friend MB sent through the recipe and it does look tasty but in the end I decided to put together a couple of recipes that I have tested before to make a lime curd tart.

The pastry recipe is from Gabriel Gate. A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to make a fruit tart, with a shortcrust pastry base, creme patisserie filling and slices of fresh fruit on top. I searched around on the internet and found Gabriel Gate’s short crust pastry recipe, and it has been a favourite ever since! The recipe makes enough pastry for two tarts, and I usually freeze the uncooked dough to use later.

The lime curd recipe is from Australian Gourment Traveller "Party Food" book.

The pastry is crispy and sweet, the lime curd is tart and zingy and I love the combination.

My sister E took the leftover egg whites home with her to make pavlova. I am hoping to see a photo of her creation, and a taste would be even better! I do need to find some suitable recipes for the egg whites, perhaps I should invest in a friand pan!

Pastry
50g almond meal
150g butter, cubed
1 egg
vanilla essence
pinch salt
100g icing sugar
250g plain flour

Lime curd
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
110g caster sugar
1/2 cup (125mL) lime juice
180g cold unsalted butter, chopped

Place almond meal, butter, egg, two drops of vanilla essence and a pinch of salt in food processor and blitz until the butter is softened and the mix is combined. Slowly add the sifted flour and icing sugar until the mixture comes together. Remove from processor and form into a ball. Flatten slightly, cover in cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Remove pastry from the refrigerator. Roll between two pieces of baking paper to a size to fit in removable base tart shell. Carefully place pastry into the shell. Place pastry into the freezer for at least half an hour.

Preheat oven to 180C. Remove tart shell from freezer. Place on a baking tray and blind bake the tart shell for approximately 20 minutes. Remove baking paper and beads and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Place egg yolks, lime zest and caster sugar into a heatproof bowl. Whisk over a pot of simmering water until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a pale yellow. Gradually stir in the lime juice.

Add pieces of chopped butter one at a time, stirring to combine and adding the next piece when melted. Continue to stir until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not boil.

Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Allow the bowl to sit for five minutes then cover the surface of the bowl with cling wrap.

When the tart shell and lime curd are cooled to room temperature, pour the lime curd into the shell and spread evenly.

Serve with a dusting of icing sugar if desired.

Notes
- I attempted to zest the lime to use as a garnish on the tart. The limes were too soft however and I was only ably to get short pieces of zest or huge chunks of rind!
- My (Mum’s) food processor let me down again. My Sunbeam Mix Master came to the rescue. I was about halfway through adding the flour. I think it is dying, I have previously made this pastry with only the processor.

- A tip I read off the internet for blind baking is to scrunch up baking paper before you line the pastry. This makes the baking paper more manoeuvrable and will fit into the pastry better. I tried it and it works so well!
- For the tart that I made I used half of the pastry. The rest is double wrapped in cling wrap, placed into a container and frozen.
- Must buy baking beads!!

Sunday breakfast

I love my Sunday breakfasts. I have time to put something together that is more than cereal and milk. Last Sunday was my attempt at scrambled egg and ricotta with smoked salmon, orange juice and pot of tea.

Morrocan lamb tagine

In honour of our new tagine, I thought that I would try to cook in the style. In the end I was too concerned about using our tagine - I was worried that the heat might crack the base! - so used a saucepan.

As inspiration I followed this recipe by Rick Stein. I made quite a few changes for various reasons.

The dish was a mix of wonderful flavours, and quite spicy. Definitely one to make again!

Tagine
400g diced lamb
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons ras el hanout
250g carrot, cut on diagonal in 3cm pieces
100g onions, sliced
200g small potatoes, halved
200g sweet potato, cut into the same size as the potatoes
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
40g dried apricots, halved
1 tablespoon honey
500mL chicken stock
2 bay leaves
salt

Couscous
200g couscous
1/4 teaspoon salt
200mL boiling water
15g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

Spice Paste
2 garlic cloves
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt


Season lamb with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Place all of the spice paste ingredients into a mortar and pestle and grind to a smooth paste.

Heat the olive oil in a large flameproof casserole dish. Add lamb pieces and brown on both sides. Remove from dish and set aside.

Add the spice paste to the remaining oil and fry gently for 2-3 minutes.
Add the ras el hanout and fry for a further minute.


Add the carrots, onion, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, apricots and coat with the spice mixture.

Return the lamb to the pan. Add the honey and enough stock to not quite cover the meat. Add the bay leaves and half teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer gently, uncovered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the lamb is tender. Stir occasionally.

Ten minutes before the tagine is cooked, put the couscous and salt into a large bowl, stir in the boiling water.

Cover with a tea towel and leave to soak for five minutes. Then uncover and fluff up into separate grains with a fork. Melt the butter with the oil in a large pan, add the couscous and stir over a low heat for a couple of minutes until heated through.

Notes
- The recipe called for lamb shanks. By the time I made it to the butcher they had sold out of shanks and were half way through packing up their store for the day. I had to make do with diced lamb.
- Scutti's where we buy our fruit and vegetables did not have ras el hanout in their spice collection. The cook book that Chad's sister had given us had a recipe so I used that to put together most of the spices.
- I left out the coriander due to the cost of buying it and the fact that I could only buy it in large quantities.
- I did not peel any of the vegetables.
- I thought that the couscous was quite bland, so next time would try to find an alternative recipe with a more interesting flavour.

Cupcake inspiration

Beautiful cupcakes on a sweet plate. I feel like baking now!

Image here

Fried rice

Fried rice is one of those wonderful dishes. You can pretty well make it up as you go along, and add whatever you like to it! Last night I whipped up a batch for dinner, and added some traditional and not quite so traditional ingredients to it.

There was tinned baby corn, beans and peas, fried egg and tinned pineapple. There was hot chorizo sausage and chilli marinated prawns. There was a spring onion from our garden! Oh, and of course there was cooked basmati rice, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Yum!

Making your own Mayonnaise

A recipe and some hints and tips on making your own mayonnaise, by local Perth blogger Kristy Leigh.

Image Kristy Leigh

An abundance of citrus

We are getting our very first crops from our mandarin tree and lime tree! We have had both trees now for three years, so there was a little bit of time to wait before they cropped. They are Imperial Mandarin and Tahitian Lime trees.

We have had lemons before from an established lemon tree that kept us going while we waited.

I am on the lookout for recipes to use the limes so I would appreciate any suggestions. At the moment C is using them to flavour his Corona.