Purple beans!

Our first crop of (purple) beans from our garden. We bought a three bean mix and took our chances. Of the seeds that we planted, all but one that sprouted gave us the purple beans! I have planted some more and we shall see if we can produce the other two colours.

Despite the colour they definitely taste like beans, and when they are steamed they lose their purple hue.

Pancakes for one

I thought that I might change from the usual weekend porridge, and made myself a pancake feast! Pancakes are very easy - you need three ingredients for the batter - but do need a little patience, and not too great a hunger, to cook.

1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 egg
1 cup milk (approximately)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl to make a batter. This mix should be fairly runny. The wholemeal flour requires more liquid than using plain white flour.

Sit batter for half an hour before using.

Heat a pan on a low heat. Grease pan as required with butter.

Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan and allow to spread to a wonky pancake shape. Bubbles should form on the pancake. Cook until these pop and then turn over the pancake.

Once the pancake is cooked, pop onto a plate lined with kitchen paper and cover with a second plate to keep the pancake warm.

Practice makes perfect in getting the heat right and the length of cooking time.

Serve with cut strawberries, banana, caster sugar and fresh lime (or lemon) juice.

A Garden in the City

A few weeks ago I was intrigued to discover the Urban Orchard in the Perth Cultural Centre.

According to the official website, the "...planter boxes are made from recycled waste from other parts of the building works, the plants are managed organically and will be harvested and planted seasonally. This is the embodiment of sustainable community gardening and is a resource for all."

I think that this is such a great idea. The fruit trees and vegetables and herbs are available for all to use and I hope that is is used in a positive way. It is great to bring food production so close to the city.

White chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

Father’s Day (and Mother’s Day for that matter) is always a good excuse to have the family around for dinner. Of course, a good dessert is essential to finish any dinner and since Dad loves chocolate I thought that I would bake something along that theme. I initially planned to make chocolate brownies and serve with vanilla ice cream, but I ran out of time to make them and thought I would make something simpler and quicker – white chocolate and macadamia cookies. Yum!

I looked to Donna Hay Chocolate for inspiration. I had not tried this recipe before and I was a little skeptical about the amount of flour and other dry ingredients. It seemed like a lot of flour to the ratio of wet ingredients but I pressed on. I ended up using my hands to bring the dough together but it did in the end and they baked beautifully!

125g unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup unsalted macadamias, chopped
250g white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Cream butter, vanilla and sugar. Add the egg and beat until incorporated.

Mix in the flours, macadamias and white chocolate.

Form two tablespoons of mixture into a ball, place on lined baking tray and flatten slightly.

Bake for up to 12 minutes or until just golden. Cool on trays

Chicken soup

For the last week and a half I have been craving chicken soup! So I finally got organised and cooked some up!

Throw four chicken carcasses, three potatoes, two sticks of celery, two small-ish onions, one carrot and a cob of corn into a large pot. Fill with water until the chicken is almost covered and simmer until the bones fall apart. Yum!

Chad hates my chicken soup as he does not like picking through the bones. Me, I think that is the best part!

A packet full of custard

Today, I felt like something sweet, and custard was in my sights! I have to confess to going the easy route and pulling out the custard powder, rather than using egg yolks but really what do I do with all of the egg whites??

A local Western Australian brand of custard is the Fulcreem Co Custard Powder. This is the custard powder that I grew up with. Mum used it to make us custard and she had a special plastic spoon that she used to measure and stir it with. Ahh, memories of childhood.

This brand was cruelly taken off the shelves for a wee while, and we had to resort to other unfamiliar brands. Thankfully the makers of Nurses Cornflour reinstated it on the supermarket shelves! I still have the cut recipes from the Fulcreem box in my tupperware, you can see that they have changed the name to Full Creem and the "Nurses" name is on the new box.

Yum! Anyway I thought I had no cake in the house to eat with it so I broke a biscuit over my custard. It just wasn't the same.