A Little Black Book… Of Recipes?

I like to collect recipes.

I guess that’s just my Chef-ley-ness kicking in, but I love to collect every recipe I see.

Chicken recipes are a favourite of mine to keep, so are Desserts and Cakes (Pastry Chef, doy). I even collected Seafood recipes, just in case my Husband/Wife to be happened to be a fan of the stuff. Looks like I can throw them all out, James is not a fan at all. Win.

But as good as collecting a whole lot of recipes are, only a select group are hand written into my Little Black Book.

Oh yes. The elusive few that are a complete success. That work every time. That are a hit with every person I feed.

Including me. It has to be delicious to me, otherwise it’s straight out of there and into the regular scrap book with a dinosaur on the front, full of magazine cut outs.

My Mother, my Grandmother, my Aunt, they all have recipes that are kind of… their speciality. But they never really wrote any of them down, and that kind urks me a bit. I was never really taught to cook, its more a skill I developed myself after I found out that food wasn’t as bland as I was given as a child. Thank you very much, English Heritage.

So, I want something I can show to my children. Something that I can continue adding to for the rest of my days. My own little handbook of the recipes I have worked so hard to work and tweak to perfection.

I think this week, when I get my pay, I’m going to buy myself a nice big Moleskine book notebook. I have been told they last the test of time. And with the few tried, tested and perfect recipes I have, I’m going to start that little dream of mine.

Do you have a recipe file? A little book? A scrapbook full of special recipes? What about recipes that are handed down? 

What do you do with your little culinary secrets?

Berry Berry Beautiful!

Just look at the bright color on these babies!

Blueberries, Strawberries and chopped Mango! No better way to start the day than with a fresh fruit smoothie!

Add some Vanilla Soy Milk, some Vanilla Icecream, and a few ice cubes, blitz it, and tada!

When you choose fruit, to keep healthy, bright is best! Go for the bright bright colors, they always have the best antioxidants and stuff that makes our bodies feel great! Its a good rule of thumb.

What do YOU like to have in a smoothie?

The Humble Pikelet!

I love recipes that use cupboard staples.

There have been so many times that I have peered into our cupboard and just sighed. No food in the house yet again. I think it is a great thing to have a book full of basic recipes that are quick and easy to prepare.

Now.

Pikelets!

Super awesome mini pancakes!

Mainly found in Australia! .. and New Zealand, and parts of Britain, so wikipedia says, these little delights can be enjoyed both cold and hot alike.

I remember when my Mother used to bring home a pack of pikelets from the supermarket, and for lunch the next day, two used to be sandwiched with strawberry jam and wrapped in tin foil. Now. I like the packaged version just as much as the next person, but something I really love is a fluffy, hot, freshly cooked home made pile of pikelets.

I also love this recipe because it is one of the ultimate recipes of variation. You can add so many different things to this, and I won’t forget to show you before the end!

So lets get started!

Pikelets

2 cup self-raising flour
2 Tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 cup (185ml) milk
2 eggs

See? This is one of the simplest recipes, and I’ll bet you a dozen of these that you have these ingredients in your kitchen right now.

This is an all in one recipe to boot, so sieve the flour and sugar together, crack your eggs and pour in your milk and start mixing! The trick with this mix is to get rid of all the lumps. No one wants to bite into a lump of flour when they’re eating. I usually achieve this by using a bamix, or an electric stick mixer. But you can use a good old whisk. Just make sure to be thorough.

Here comes the fun, and sometimes tricky part. The cooking! Pop about a tablespoon of butter into a non stick pan. We found that this is about all you need. You don’t want your pikelets dripping in fat after all. Pop your butter into a cold pan, and heat it up to a medium heat. Swirl it around the pan till it coats the bottom, and you are ready to start.

The pikelets we made were fairly big, but its down to person preference, for large we used a 1/4 cup measure, for smaller, I would go half. Here, patience is a virtue. You need to wait and flip them when all the bubbles are comingto the surface. Just like you see in the photo.

Flip them over, and about a minute, then pop them onto a paper towel lined plate. Keep going until all your mix is gone!

I would treat this recipe as a base recipe. There are so many things you can add, my personal favourite is mashed banana and chocolate chips.

But here are just a few combinations you can try, just mix them right in!

Apple sauce and cinnamon
Banana and chocolate chip
Triple chocolate (replace two tablespoons of flour for cocoa powder, add white chocolate and dark chocolate chips)
Mashed strawberries and white chocolate chips
Maple syrup and vanilla essence
Banana and toasted oats

And if you omit the sugar, you can make some very nice savory pikelets.

Creme fraiche and Smoked Salmon
Spinach and Fetta
Seeded Mustard and Dill
Red capsicum, Spring Onion (all finely chopped) and Cheddar Cheese
Crab and Creamed Corn

Its all about trial and error, you can try all different combinations.

But nothing beats a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, and a crumbling of honeycomb pieces. Yum!

For my next WeHeartLife foodie post, its getting closer to Christmas, so how would you all like some Christmas themed baking? There are so many things that can be done in advance, and I would love to tell you some tips and tricks to help you all out in a jolly but crazy time!

Ho ho ho! See you next time!

Confidence In your Food Choices.

I would like to take a break from our regular programming for this special post.

Of course, it is about food.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in San Churro in Macathur Square, it is one of my favourite chocolate cafe’s, besides Max Brenner, and as a treat for myself I will sometimes get some Churros! Delightful Spanish doughnuts with a pot of melted chocolate.

I saw a group of teenage girls walk in, chatting and laughing and walked up to the counter to order. There was a girl in the back of the group in particular, a delightful looking little thing. She was gorgeous, had a lovely figure and was eyeing the menu board with a gusto.

Her friends all ordered their food, there was iced chocolates, Churros, truffles and Fondue. This was when that beautiful girl went to order. But as she went to open her mouth, one of her friends butted in a said, “Oh don’t worry about her! She doesn’t need the calories! She’ll have a Latte’.”

I could see the woman at the counter raise an eyebrow, and the girl did nothing but sigh and look back down. She put through the order and handed the friend a number, and the friend took ahold of the girl’s hand and pulled her over to their table.

I just sat there speechless. What I saw had been a joke, honestly, how could someone, almost twice the size of this girl, ordering anything she wanted herself, stop her from ordering what she wanted? How could her other friends that were there condone this? How could the girl do nothing about how she was being treated?

I do not know the reason to why all this happened, but one thing I know is that I do not like it.

Not to sound overdramatic, but this is how eating disorders happen. Enough negativity from people about food, including those who are your friends and family, can really damage yourself esteem, and can effect your food choices.

Of course, food like chocolate and sweets and deep fried foods like Churros aren’t ment to be eaten everyday. But most people know this, and I’m sure as hell that girl did. Most people have a grasp of the concept of moderation, and stick by it.

I want nothing more than for people to be confident in their choices.

In keeping with moderation, if you want that piece of Triple Chocolate Brownie, then have it!

If you want to make yourself that Chocolate and Banana Smoothie, then go for it!

If you want to go out with your girlfriends and sit and eat that slice of Lemon Meringue Pie, then have it.

If you want to share chocolate fondue with your partner, or snuggle on the couch eating pizza, then do it.

The key to having a healthy diet, and sticking to it, is giving yourself those treats inbetween. Rewarding yourself can take you a long way.

So everyone, listen to yourself, not other people. Keep yourself healthy and happy, and remember to give yourself those treats in between. Do not bend to peer pressure, and have that confidence in yourself to stick by your own choices.

I would love to know what you think of my posts, and would appreciate any requests for recipes or articles you would like to read about.

Just drop me a comment, I would love to hear from you!

xx

This post will be crossposted on WeHeartLife.com on Tuesday!

Coconut Cheesecake

There is a funny story about this Cheesecake. It was my birthday a month or more ago, and my Uncle’s a few days after. For months before, my Aunt was asking and asking what kind of cake we would like, and we settled on a lemon ricotta cheesecake. As she was gathering the ingredients, she found this recipe on the side of the Condensed milk tin. It was never made in time for our birthdays, but it still tasted great!

A time before we begin, take your cream cheese out of the fridge, so it can be nice and soft for mixing.

Toasted Coconut Cheesecake

This cheesecake was devoured so quickly that I never got the chance to take a picture! Click the picture to take you back to the owner of this lovely product.

Base

185g crushed Nice biscuits

½ cup toasted coconut

90g melted butter

Filling

500g cream cheese

395g can of sweetened condensed milk

½ cup coconut milk powder

2tbsp warm water

1tsp vanilla extract

300ml carton of cream

1tbsp gelatine, dissolved in ¼ cup of boiling water.

Before doing anything else, you should prepare your tin. Spray with oil, paper around the sides and on the bottom of the tin, and you’re good to go!

Now, you should prepare the base first, since it has to chill for about an hour in your fridge. Everyone has their way of preparing the biscuits, and personally, I use a rolling pin, but my aunt favours the food processor, so which ever way you please, turn the biscuits into a nice, fine crumb.

Melt your butter, and mix it into the biscuit to make it a wet-sand like consistency, and press it into the base of your prepared tin. Nice and smoooth looking. Awesome! Now pop this into the fridge while you make the filling. We need it nice and cold and firm so there are no leaks.

We now need to toast the coconut so that it has time to cool down before we top the cheesecake. We toasted the coconut in a pan, which was a first for me, I usually do mine spread thin on a tray in the oven. So, which ever you prefer, make sure the coconut is a nice even golden colour, and set aside to cool down.

It’s time to get out your mixer, hand held or bench top, and soften the cream cheese. We want it smooth and soft, and lump free. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a scraper, and open your can of condensed milk.

I used to work a lot with condensed milk! Imagine a twenty five kilo liver full of it, ready to be used in Florentines and coconut macaroons. I used to mix them with my bare hands! Clean of course.

With the mixer running, stream your condensed milk into the mixer. You will end up with a smooth, pale yellow mixture. It’s time to scrape down the bowl again!

To give the cheesecake a nice, milk, coconut flavour, we used coconut milk powder. To give you an idea of what it looks like, take a look at the picture below.

Our powder was rather lumpy, so we sifted it into a bowl before adding the warm water, and what we ended up with is a thick, smooth paste. Scrap this out into the cream cheese mixture, and turn the mixer on again. This time, stream your cream into the mix. Nice and smooth again!

Now for the quick part. Gelatine does not wait for time or person, so clean down your bench, clear away the dirty dishes, and take your tin out of the fridge, ready to pour in the mixture.

Weigh up the gelatine into a bowl, and pour over your hot water. Quickly, with a small whisk or a spoon, dissolve the powder and transfer quickly into the cheese mixture. Stir it in, and using a scraper, empty the filling into the lined tin. Give the tin a tap to even out the top.

The recipe said to coat the top of the cheesecake in coconut AFTER it was set, but that didn’t make a lot of sense. Surely we want the coconut to stick to the top? So, using a spoon, completely cover the top of your cheesecake with toasted coconut, and pop into the fridge to set.

My advice would be to let this cheesecake set overnight before you slice into this baby. When you do, use a hot knife, by running your knife under hot water and drying with a cloth. Cut into slices, and enjoy!

I find this cheesecake rather light, it is not thick and dense like other set cheesecakes, and has just the right coconut flavour without being overbearing. So everyone, try out this recipe and tell me what you think! This is a recipe from the side of a Nestle: Sweetened Condensed Milk can, and its a good recipe at that. I’ve made quite a few recipes from the Nestle site, and if you’re ever stuck to find a recipe, its a good site to have bookmarked!

So that was the coconut cheesecake, Happy Hula-ing everybody, and see you next time!

Crossposted on WeHeartLife.com~!

S’mores: A Repost

Now, one thing that I do love is a candle lit meal, or sharing a pizza snuggled up on the couch, or making chocolate chip pancakes late in the morning still wearing your pyjamas. Well, that one thing is romance. I love romance, and I am lucky to have my partner James, he seems to make the littlest thing special.

Monthly anniversaries are special to me, not because I want presents or expensive meals or extravagant planned nights; I just like to take the time out every month on a day or a night, or even a few hours, to focus on us, to really pretend that we’re the only two people in the world, and to look back at what we have done and what we have accomplished. Nothing else, if we can help it, comes into it, and this is something that we did for our three months, it may not seem like a long time, but this relationship was in the making for over two and a half years, so for us, it already seems like a lifetime.

Now! Onto the treat. Smore’s, are indeed American, and were first found in the Girl Scout handbook in 1921. They literally mean, ‘I want some more’, and boy, do you enjoy them.

James’ lovely parents have a property a few hours from the north shore, and this is something I would love to do in a proper setting, with a great big roaring fire on a cold winter night, but alas, there was none. But it was cold! And well, tea candles work easily enough.

Credit ‘Insiders Passport’ for the photo.

Smores

Ingredients – for each Smore


Two plain biscuit, we used Arrnots Milk Coffee biscuits

One marshmallow

Two squares of chocolate, we used Cadbury Milk Chocolate

A tea candle, or a roaring fire

A metal skewer, or if you’re really desperate, a stick.

This is really very simple, and all the candles do make it very romantic, but remember, you are using a dangerous element to help in your cooking, so I would have a jug of water or a fire blanket ready to smother any out of control flames. But really, if you’re careful, and you are prepared to take your time and cook the marshmallows slowly, then you’ll have no problem. If any mallows go up in flames, take care in blowing them out!


So! Skewer your marshmallow, and light your tea candle, and sit back and relax. With your mallow held an inch or two above the flame, start cooking, the heat will start to turn it a golden brown. Rotate the marshmallow during cooking, so you get that same nice colour all over. When you feel the mallow become soft, it is ready.

You will need two biscuits for your smore, and two pieces of chocolate. Take a biscuit, and place your two squares of chocolate onto it. Then place your marshmallow on top of the chocolate, and top off with the other biscuit.


Now squeeeze the two biscuits together, squishing the marshmallow in between them, like a sandwich, then pull out the skewer, and you’re all done!

Now here’s the hard bit, its a long thirty second wait before you can eat the smore! This allows time for the hot mallow to cool down, and the residual heat from the sweet melts the chocolate. So resist temptation, and you’ll be biting into a mix of chocolatey mallowey goo. Yum!


Continue making s’mores until all ingredients are gone! But don’t make yourselves sick.


I would love to make this recipe with my children when I am lucky enough to have them, it was certainly a lot of fun for us, and there are a few ways to twist it to incorporate some healthier items. You could always add some chopped strawberries instead of chocolate, or some banana, for a way to worm some fruit into your diet when having something special. Carab chocolate can be used for those who are not able to consume regular chocolate, and gluten free biscuits for those who are gluten intolerant. There is always alternatives when you’re in a pinch.


James and I are both Pastry Chefs, and working in a commercial kitchen is very hard thing, so we always cherish the times where we can relax and enjoy spending time with each other, doing something we love.


Someone once told me that we should think of ourselves as a tea pot, every time we are in a stressful situation, and expend our emotional energy, a little more water gets poured out of the pot. If we don’t do something that makes us feel good, and top ourselves up, then well, we tend to burn out.


So I’m going to give you all homework. I want everyone who reads this, to go out and do something good for themselves. It can be anything that makes you feel wonderful and tops up your tea pot. I’m still learning how to do things for myself, but I’m lucky to have James, who seems to fill my pot right back up again!


Have a happy week everyone! See you next time!

Quesadillas: A Repost

Picture this, its Friday night, everyone is too tired to cook, and are itching to watch that movie that needs to be sent back to Blockbuster or you’ve got yourselves a late fee. Everyone is tired from work, and the male pipes up that he is ‘dying’ of hunger. What do you do? The cupboard seems empty, and your fridge is full of leftovers, plus, all your poor bread bin contains are a lone pack of tortillas?

Its Quesadilla time!

I first had these when I was 16, my best friend wandered into her kitchen and came back with a piping hot tortilla filled with melted cheese and spinach, that was also the first time I had spinach, and its really the only way I’ll eat it, ahaha.

To me, ‘Quesadilla’ sounds like some strange, exotic, African animal. But really, its a toasted folded tortilla, and you can fill it with anything you like. That’s the beauty of them, I think, plus, its a great way to hide vegies from the little ones… and those few vegetable haters, I have to say I’m guilty there.

When I was a child, my mother and grandmother would always pile the veggies on the plate, right there, for the world to see. I would have to say that this was a mistake, if I saw it, I didn’t want to eat it. But, hide mushrooms in a pie, or cooked carrot in a casserole, and mashed pumpkin in mashed potato? Like magic! It was gone.

This is something I have taken with me into my adulthood. Sure, I still don’t like vegetables all that much, except a select few, but I always try and make sure to hide it in something, or cover its taste with something else. I get my daily lot of veggies, without hating what I’m eating. If I was given Quesadillas as a child, I would have wolfed them down.

Quesadillas

Ingredients examples
One pack of flour tortillas/wholemeal wraps
avocado
grated cheese
chicken
chutney
mushrooms
rocket
spinach

I can’t really give you a list of ingredients for this, because really, you fill it with anything you like, but I have put down all the ingredients I used. We had some chicken left over from the night before, and some spare grated cheese from last weeks pizza, digging around in your fridge can prove fruitful!

Do some prep first, dice all your veggies so they cook quickly, and mash your avocado if you have it, and have everything ready. Clear away anything you don’t need and lay your tortillas out on the bench.

White bread products are virtually non existent in this house, so we chose to use wholemeal wraps, which worked out just fine. (Personally I would have LOVED a flour tortilla, but what can you do?)

If you are going to have any sauces or chutney’s in your quesadilla, or you have some avocado, this would be the time to spread it all over the base, this just makes things easier, and its nice to have a nice hot sauce in these. Don’t spread it to far though! Otherwise it will just melt and leak. Ick.

Now is the time to pile on your toppings! Keep in mind though that the tortilla has to be folded in half, so I wouldn’t overstuff it, otherwise you’ll end up with a big mess in your sandwich press.

Now, the usual way to cook your Quesadilla is to cook it in a fry pan, but hey, its a Friday night! Who wants to have the hassle of using the stove and having to clean it and put it away and ugh. So! If you have a sandwich press, now is the time to use it.

Carefully place your folded tortilla into the sandwich press, and let it work its magic! In a few minutes, the tortilla turns all golden brown, the cheese melts, the fillings end up all warm and toasty, and you have a great Friday night snack! Cut into three or four, and enjoy ~ <3

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies: A Repost

Something that has frustrated myself, and I know many others, is cooking for those with some sort of intolerance to different foods. This is daily life for me, since both gluten and dairy poses some problems on my health, and well, a lot of my family too. I often find that cooking is a bit of a pain… No, scratch that, a complete pain. At times, it is unbearable.

I’ve been a Pastry Chef for over three years now, and I’ve been cooking ever since I was little, and can I tell you, I’ve never really had much experience at all with cooking without butter and milk and flour or any of those staples. The closest we got to a gluten free dessert in the bakery was a coconut macaroon.

But all that changed about five months ago.

See, I had to have a little… sea change. Economic downturn, jobs and termites were the cause, and I ended up moving from the Western Suburbs of New South Wales, down to the Southern Highlands, where I am now living with my Aunt and Uncle. The temperature is a lot colder, and the public transport a lot less frequent. Both my relatives have a somewhat bad reaction to gluten and lactose, so I’ve really had to rewrite my whole cookbook.

This is one of the favourite recipes, and one of the easiest, and also, one of the easiest to modify, a plus is that is doesn’t make our insides feel like sin. It’s oh so yummy, and don’t stay for long around this house!

Gluten Free Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oven 180 Degrees Celcius, 160 fan forced

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup melted butter or soy counterpart (I used Nuttlex)
1 egg
1 1/4 cup self raising flour or gluten free self raising flour, sifted
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

As I was saying, this recipe is a very simple one, and does not require a mixer, just a strong hand. I do adore one bowl recipes too. When I need a quick batch of biscuits, this is the recipe I use.

So preheat your oven to 160 degrees celcius if you’re using a fan forced oven, 180 if its regular.

Start off by combining the sugars in your bowl, so it looks a lot like beach sand. Easy peasy. Next, melt down your butter. The beauty of this recipe, is that I was able to use Nuttlex, Australia’s variation of soy butter. The only downside is that the final dough might be a bit wet, but that’s no problem in the baking.

Crack your egg into the sugar and give it a mix until it is all combined, then stream in your melted butter, and stir until it is all incorporated. You’ll end up with a caramel coloured soup, yum!

Next, we’ll add the sifted flour into the mix, I personally like to add the cocoa powder in, half way through adding the flour, so all the chocolatey goodness won’t have a chance to escape, but add it how you like. You will learn that I love chocolate as I post more and more… Mmm, chocolate.

Just a little note, you can also use gluten free flour in this recipe, like I have done here.

I would have much rather have used normal flour, it acts less like its a cloud and doesn’t turn your bench white, unless you’re working next to a pedestal fan… Don’t work next to a pedestal fan.

You will learn that I HATE gluten free flour, and I’m not scared to use such a strong word for the stuff. It turns many of my recipes to mere shadows of them selves, and it gets EVERYWHERE. Like talcom powder, it just goes poof. But, alas, this is what turns the recipe Gluten Free.

Fold through the flour, until the mixture is clear, then add the delightful chocolate chips! … Mmm, chocolate.

Now, you all must be thinking, only white chocolate chips? Where are the dark chocolate ones? Well, I must tell you, I have a habit, whenever I make anything with chocolate chips, which isn’t very often, its always a bag for me and bag for the mix. Well, I forgot the second bag of chocolate chips in my mad dash around Coles.

.. ahaha.

Moving on!

Now, whenever I make these cookies, I always make them HUGE, I love a good huge cookie. My aunt calls them Land of the Giant cookies. So if you want to go ahead and make giant cookies, this mix will make about 14, but make them smaller, and you will about 28 biscuits. Enough to feed the tribe.

Now, the Pastry chef in me wants to weight up the entire mix and divide it by 14 and get exact weight cookies. (A little back story on myself, I worked in a biscuit bakery for two years, were we made all the biscuits by hand. It was, and always will be, my favourite place to work, I miss it to this day, and Laurence Hopkins will always be my favourite boss.) But it’s good enough just to place heaps spoonfuls of the mix onto a sheet of baking paper on the appropriate tray. Baking biscuits at home isn’t supposed to be technical, its supposed to be fun! These puppies will spread just a bit, so I recommend baking 6 at a time for huge, and perhaps 8 for small.

We’ll bake these biscuits for 12-14 minutes, when you take them out of the oven, they will be soft, but leave the tray to cool for about 5 minutes, and transfer them to a wire rack with a spatula.

For this I think it’s good to have two trays going for the oven, recently I’ve had the time to bake my cookies one tray at a time, but if you are using two trays, remember to rotate your trays in the oven half way through cooking.

And you’re done! And you have a mountain of cookies to eat. With milk… or chocolate milk… or strawberry milk… or tea or coffee if you insist~

I recently gave this recipe to a friend of mine who’s child is allergic to everything in the book. I couldn’t imagine being a child and not being able to have a cookie, I was lucky enough to not have my intolerances impact me much as a kid.

This is partly the reason why I became a Pastry Chef, I want to make people happy with my sweets and treats, but to have a child say to their mother that they can finally be like the other kids, and have extra special chocolate biscuits just for them because of me? Well, that’s worth more than any award or medal or hat or michlen star I can be given.

All photos and drawings by me! See you next time! <3