This is a treat I picked up while living in Australia. Apparently it’s a common procedure for eating Tim Tams.
Take your Tim Tam and bite off opposite corners, dip into a cup of tea and suck through it until you get a yummy burst of chocolate/tea. Now quickly eat the Tim Tam before it collapses into your tea cup.
It’s yummy, I can no longer eat Tim Tams any other way.
Enjoy,
Kim.
A quick, simple and yummy snack. It’s especially good when you’re cooking for one or in a hurry.
Ciabatta, Tomato and Olives
Enjoy,
Kim
My parents were disappointed when I overcame my childhood aversion to eating mushrooms . It wasn’t that they had something against the consumption of fungus by young people – it’s just that they’d have to share.
Now I live with Kim and we both like mushrooms on pizza and in hamburgers, but I can’t get her to appreciate the simple beauty of mushrooms on hot buttered toast. Sadly I think that the fault might be mine as I seem to have an inability to cook them consistently. There seem to be three possible outcomes whether I fry or grill them:
1. Too dry – burnt and leathery
2. Too wet – soft and slimy
3. Just right – hot and juicy and tasty
Today’s effort was one of the better ones and I’m going to keep using this technique until I learn a better one (tips greatly appreciated!).
Take sufficient portobello mushrooms. Shake off the dirt and slice thickly. Heat a large (in relation to the amount of mushrooms) frying pan with a little bit of canola oil. Put the mushrooms in and shake/stir them fairly continuously. Put the toast on when the mushrooms are starting to sweat. Butter the toast and put the (with any luck) cooked mushrooms on top. Eat with a knife and fork.
~Thomas
The Edmonds Cook Book
I remember being given one when I left home as most household have *at least one*.
I suspect the reason for its popularity is that the Edmonds does the basics. It’s hard to mess up its straight forward recipes.
Here is one of my favourite Edmonds recipes. I’ve made it with lots of different fruits but my favourite remains apple and plum.
Fruit Sponge
Place stewed fruit in an ovenproof dish. Sweeten with sugar to taste. Cover and keep hot. Put butter, vanilla and measured sugar into a bowl. Beat until pale and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold into creamed mixture. Add milk and mix to combine Spoon mixture over fruit. Bake at 190C for 40 minutes or until sponge springs back when touched. Serve hot with cream or dusted with icing sugar.
Potato Pizza is a simple way of combining both major food groups into one delicious meal.
In the past I’ve always had problems getting the potatoes just how I want them. Either they’re too leathery, or too hard and underdone, or … just not as good as they should be. Indeed, I would say that I generally have problems with frying things and it’s my worst cooking method (although I seem to have finally got the hang of frying eggs).
Tonight I decided to take a different approach and decided to roast/fry the potatoes in the oven – and it worked just great and the pizza was delicious. Here’s how I did it.
Potato and Leek Pizza
(serves 1-2 depending on desired belly fullness)
Ingredients
– One small pizza base (yes, I’m lazy, feel free to make your own)
– 2 tbsp basil pesto
– One large potato
– 1 sprig fresh rosemary, or 1-2 tsp dry rosemary (inferior, less classy, easier)
– Extra light olive oil, or other cooking oil
– One leek (or about four spring onions)
– 30gm grated mozzarella cheese
– 30gm grated cheddar cheese
– salt grinder
Method
1. Heat oven to 200c
2. Scrub the potato and cut into thin slices. Cut the slices in half if they’re too big.
3. Pour a little oil into a baking dish and make sure the bottom is covered.
4. Put in the potatoes, drizzle over the rest of the oil.
5. Sprinkle the rosemary over it.
6. Cook until half-done (5-10 minutes) and then turn. Complete cooking.
While waiting for the potatoes:
7. Spread the pesto on the pizza base
8. Chop the leeks. They can be small to large depending on your whim.
9. Nibble on some of the cheese (we call this “emergency cheese” as we’re normally pretty hungry by the time we start cooking).
And now the potatoes are done:
8. Put the potatoes in a single layer on the pizza. Eat the rest.
9. Arrange the leeks over the potatoes.
10. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese.
11. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese (yes, the order is important).
12. Put on a baking tray at the top of the oven, cook until golden and bubbly (5-10 minutes)
13. Grind some salt over it, cut it up and serve. Don’t be too hasty and burn the roof of your mouth.
Enjoy, Thomas.
For the Bron Marshall Wild Weeds Event I made Spirulina Wedges.
Spirulina is a blue-green algae (Mmmm, sounds delicious) which grows wild in fresh water ponds.
It’s a bit of a wonder food. As well as being a complete protein it is one of the few plant sources of vitamin B12. In powder form it’s also rather strong smelling. After mixing all the ingredients together I got this green concoction.
I confess to having a back-up lunch in mind in case it tasted as strange as it looked. Fortunately it actually turned out rather yummy. The wedges ended up with a nice savoury crust.
Spirulina Wedges
Mix oil, cajun spices, spirulina and garlic together. Cover wedges evenly with the mixture. Cook at 200 C until done (turn wedges at least once).
I often take pleasure in getting the little things right when cooking.
One thing I like to do, especially in winter, is to make sure I heat the plates the food will be served on. Obviously this keeps the food warm for longer and if you’ve living with a food blogger it gives you more time to take photos. Don’t do this if you’ll be serving something like lettuce which won’t like the heat.
To warm them I either just put the plates into the oven at about 50c degrees, or if the oven is in use I stack the plates on the hotplate above the oven vent.
If you’re afraid of lentils but intrigued by them at the same time, then now might be the time to give cooking them a go.
Red lentils give this pasta sauce a nice thick, smooth taste. Best of all it’s extremely quick and simple to make.
(Thanks to Healthy Food Magazine for the recipe).
Red Lentil Pasta Sauce
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Pour in the lentils and stir to ensure they do not stick to the base of the saucepan. Boil the lentils for 8-10 minutes or until soft.
Heat the oil in a medium pan and saute the onion and garlic until soft.
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, and herbs. Stir in the lentils.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, and simmer until flavours develop, around 15 minutes.
I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it’s always tasted yummy. One thing I do suggest is making the effort to get small grapes. The larger ones seem to turn into lip burning juice bombs.
Oh, and never ever put your piece of hearthbread down on a surface you’ve just used for cutting garlic. Grapes and garlic don’t really go together. Who’d have thought it?
Sweet Grape Hearthbread
Sponge:
Dough:
Topping:
Put all the sponge ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until smooth. Set aside for 10-30 minutes.
To make the dough, add to the bowl the warm water, olive oil, sugar, salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix in with a wooden spoon, adding more flour if needed to make a soft dough. Attach the dough hook to the machine and knead the mixture for about 5 minutes. Detach the dough hook and cover the bowl with a damp tea towel.
Set aside in a warm place until the dough has risen by at least double.
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured bench and roll out approximately 3mm thick to fit into a shallow-sided baking dish approx 45x30cm. Brush the dough lightly with olive oil and set aside until it is well-risen and puffy. Depending on room temperature, this will take an hour or so.
Half an hour before the dough is likely to be ready, turn on the oven to 220°C. When the dough has risen, use your fingers to press deep dimples into it. Scatter the grapes over the dough, so that many of them are lodged in the dimples. Use the flat of your hand to press the grapes firmly into the dough. Sprinkle generously with sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the fruit bursting.
Slide the hearthbread onto a rack, and leave to cool until lukewarm before cutting into 12 large squares. Serves 6.
note:
The recipe says to use a mixer but I did it all by hand and it was fine.
During the 9 months I was in Central America I developed an excessive pineapple habit. The pineapples in Guatemala are divine. On good days I could get 2 pineapples for $1 (my bargaining skills weren’t very good) .
I’ve been back for about three months and today the pineapple urge hit me hard. I was worried that pineapple cravings in New Zealand in the middle of winter would go unfulfilled. I was therefore happy to pay $3.99 for one at the local supermarket.
Pineapples in NZ are good, sometimes very good if you know how to pick them. Unfortunately if you don’t pick well they can be almost tasteless. My experience in Guatemala has made me much better at picking them. Below are my two simple tips.
