J is for Jerusalem Artichoke

Well overdue blog post! So much has happened since my last post in November, I have just got back from a trip to New Zealand for Rippon (Fat Freddy's was definitely a highlight), Wellington 7's (dressed as Amy Winehouse - how appropriate), and many merry catch ups with family and friends. I got to visit some of my favorite food spots again including Kai Whaka Pai in Wanaka, Fidel's in Wellington and good old Fergburger in Queenstown. Huge thanks to Maria for putting PVC and I up in Wanaka - though I am pretty sure she wasn't complaining about the number of platters made without even having to ask!

Back here in Melbourne - the puppy is growing (and teething - I found a tooth on the bedroom floor today), work is hectic, and most importantly our touch rugby team "Can't Touch This" just took out the C grade grand final for Royal Park Touch, WOOHOO GO TEAM! I have also been thermomixing up a storm, with a variation on my Grainy Awesome Bread (check the comments section), a delicious white bean dip, and cookies that were supposed to be gluten and dairy free until I added white choc chips... ooops!


For J I have picked a Jerusalem Artichoke - these root veg are high in minerals including iron, magnesium, and potassium, and B vitamins, and they are tasty too. They look kind of like ginger or a white yam. We used them in a Spanish cooking class at Raw Materials, which I have now done twice and would highly recommend if you have a day to fill in Melbourne - great fun and value, you get an awesome feed and learn to make a paella too.

Honey Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes, Pear and Ricotta salad

(Note this recipe serves a big crowd, you may want to halve)

1kg Jerusalem artichokes
3 brown pears
2tbs Honey
300g Fresh ricotta cheese
100g Pistachio nuts (roasted)
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley
Sea salt and cracked pepper
Olive oil


Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Wash artichokes and trim off any dark bits. Cut into wedges. Place into a bowl and drizzle a little oil, salt and pepper. Add honey and mix well. Place on an oven tray and into the oven for 35 minutes. Wash the pears and cut into wedges, removing core, leaving the skin on. Coat in olive oil, salt and pepper and place on a second oven tray and into the oven for 25 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. Mix pears with artichokes. Crush pistachios and sprinkle over with roughly chopped parsley. Gently break up ricotta cheese over the mixture, add salt, pepper and a dash of honey. Drizzle with some olive oil and serve.

H is for Harissa, Halloumi, and HOMETIME

The last couple of months have been super busy, with lots of trips away, including two weeks at home in New Zealand for fun times in the snow and visiting friends. We were lucky enough to house sit for a good friend in Wanaka for the first week, which included their beautiful cat and dog Coco and Harlow, then a couple of nights staying with some more friends in Dunedin, then five nights in Queenstown with more snow and good times. We ate our way through way too much good food, platters and drank wine and cc CC and dry to wash it down. Highlights included Florence's cafe and Red Star Burgers (hands down better than Fergburger) in Wanaka, Mexican in Dunedin at Del Sol, and breakfast at Vudu in Queenstown (even if the food did take ages, it tasted pretty good). The whole trip made us think seriously about whether it might be worth investing in a holiday house back home in NZ, as the snow in particular is definitely somewhere we will keep going back to, but we will just have to wait and see how many pennies we manage to save now we are lucky enough to no longer be paying much rent (a whole other story). 

Anyway, I got back to Melbourne from New Zealand and realised I am well overdue for the letter H - this is one I had saved up for awhile, and it was well worth it - Halloumi aubergine burgers with homemade Harissa relish.

Harissa Paste
(adapted from taste.com.au)
 
6 fresh chillies
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbs olive oil

Halve the chillies, remove the seeds and discard. Chop chilli and garlic cloves. Using a mortar and pestle, crush all the ingredients together to make a smooth paste.

Halloumi Aubergine Burgers

(adapted from BBC good food)

Serves 2

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion finely sliced

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

4 round slices of fresh aubergine

4 slices halloumi cheese
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 roasted red pepper chopped
2 tsp harissa paste
2 rolls with the bread in teh middle pulled out (it's just a filler!)

4 tbsp hummus (you can use the basic TMX recipe or buy some)

Add half of the oil to a pan and cook onions until soft. Set aside. Heat remaining oil and add aubergine. Pour over soy sauce. Fry for a few mins on each side until tender. Set aside. Fry halloumi until golden. Set aside. Add the onions, pepper and harissa into the hot pan. Cook until the sugar has melted. While the relish is cooking, spread the rolls with hummus, laying halloumi and aubergine slices on top. Spread relish and serve. You should have some extra relish left over to put in your lunch the next day :)

G is for GINGER

Wow! What is happening?! The year has flown, its already August... Since my last post I have had heaps on, including a trip to tropical Samoa with my three sisters and my mum, which was super relaxing and a perfect winter break - I would highly recommend one. We stayed in a couple of cute little beach fales and did a whole lot of reading, sleeping, eating and drinking - I want to go back! But unfortunately I had to come back to reality at some point...

For this (well overdue) post I am up to 'G' - and I have chosen Ginger. Ginger is a root, and can be eaten fresh, dried, powdered, juiced or as an oil. It is packed with flavor and goodness, and has been shown and known to be an effective cancer fighting anti bacterial cancer fighting digestive balancing pain reliever (I could keep going - its pretty amazing). You can add it to your stir fry, fresh juices, or as I have chosen below to your baking. 

 

I asked my mum for her recipe for Ginger Crunch - it was a favorite of mine growing up, it reminds me of trips to my grandparents house where my nana always had her arnotts tins of baked goodness including this super yummy treat. J has also tried it and loves it! Mum and nana use powdered ginger in their but I used fresh grate ginger and in my professional opinion its just as tasty!

Ginger Crunch

(adapted from Mums recipe) 

250g butter (room temp)

3/4 cup caster sugar 

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon grated ginger (if you don't have fresh ginger then ground is fine)

 

Icing

80g butter

4 teaspoons grated ginger 

1/4 cup golden syrup  

2 1/2 cups icing sugar

 

Preheat oven to 180. Cream butter and sugar (TMX 30 sec/Sp 5-7). Add remaining ingredients and mix until combined (TMX 1 min/Sp 5). Cook for 25 minutes or until slightly golden. Set aside to cool before icing. To make the icing, heat all ingredients, stirring until melted and combined (TMX 80 degs/4 mins/Sp 5-7 increasing), then pour over base and leave to set before slicing into squares.

 

 

 WARNING - EASY TO OVER CONSUME!!!

E is for Eggs and Edamame

There seems to be massive gaps between my blog posts, I have been super slack, I actually had the photos all ready to go for this one last week but haven't been able to find the time to sit down and actually write it, so here goes...

April was my 'fly free' month for the year with no trips away planned for a change, but it was still so busy! I had my mum, sister and a friend here for a week, and we shopped and shopped and shopped, and also managed to squeeze in a show, and a winery tour out to the Yarra Valley - highlight was definitely the homestyle cooked lunch and wine at Seville Hill, followed by some grape stomping action at Whispering Hills.

I finished another round of the 12WBT last week, with minimal physical changes, but I have learnt to manage my eating better - diet coke is not the answer if I'm hungry and craving sweet! I think we all know what is good and bad for us but sometimes need to be reminded. One thing that I eat heaps of these days that tends to have some myths associated with it is eggs - while some say they are high in cholesterol and fat, and they actually do contain these things, but in the form of polyunsaturated fats. In other words, the types of fats you should be eating rather than things like butter. The whites are also the purest form of protein you can find in food, plus they have a number of other vitamins and minerals. So eat your eggs! I am a massive fan of omlettes or poached for brekky, but for something a little different this time I tried sous-vide style eggs - cooking at a lower temperature for longer which aims to keep the food more flavorsome and evenly cooked. Well worth the one hour wait, these were so creamy and delicious. I used my thermomix but theres plenty of online recipes for using your stove top, but it might be harder to regulate your temperature.

Sous-Vide Eggs

(adapted from Themomix Recipe Community)

5 eggs
2 litres water (I used 1 L boiling, 1 L warm tap water)

Boil 1 L water in your conventional jug. Add to TM bowl with 1 L warm tap water.

Place the whole eggs (in shell) on he basket basket and place into the TM full of water.
Cook at 60degs / 60min / speed 3.

Crack the eggs over your toast, pouring them out like raw ones.

I have another 'E' food that I really want to share - Edamame. So tasty! These are a really delicious and easy snack from the frozen section at the Asian grocers, you may have seen them on sushi trains, in Japanese restaurants and the like. I have a bag in the freezer so i can put a handful in the microwave with some water, then sprinkle with salt and serve. YUM!

C is for Cacao, and Cruising back home, AND D is for Date

I spent a week at home in New Zealand relaxing for a week, hanging with family. Sometimes the best holidays are the ones when you do a whole lot of not much - this was definitely one of those. J and I spent the better part of a week hanging out in Levin, which is a tiny town in the south of the North Island, population of about 20,000, and not a whole lot going on, so we just hung out with my Nana, weeded her garden, cooked and baked - including a VERY indulgent Banana Cake (from my newly inherited old school Edmonds cookbook, with the quantities in pounds and ounces <3<3<3) with Chocolate Buttercream frosting and whipped cream filling. We also a couple of day trips, as well as having a few nights in the capital city Wellington to complete our week away.

One highlight was definitely the trip over the hill to Martinborough for the day. I was in wine and cheese heaven! If I was to go back I would stay at least a night here and adventure round a little more - you can hire bikes in the town to get around the vineyards and the town centre is so cute. We had lunch at Alana Estate, visited a couple of other wineries, then had some more local wine and cheese at Village Cafe in Martinborough, before visiting my favorite winery of the day - Loop Line in Opaki, small vineyard that produces a delicious drop.

But now, back in Melbourne, reality, the 12WBT (which has been a bit of a fail this round), and this blog... I am only up to 'C' and its already April, I figured I better get cooking and writing, so have also combined 'D' in this post...

Cacao (raw chocolate - YUM) is high in antioxidants (around 4 times the amount of cocoa powder!), has many cardiovascular benefits, AND its an aphrodisiac! There are some great cacao recipes you can try here.

Fresh dates are available in most supermarkets in the produce section. Medijool dates are a good source of fiber and contain high levels of the essential minerals potassium, magnesium, copper, and manganese.

Check out the recipe below, which produces delicious little brownie bites, a combination of these 2 super foods to have with your cup of green tea.



Raw Cacao Fudge Bites
(adapted from Melissa Ambrosini)

1/2 cup walnut
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup dates
1 1/4 cups fresh dates, pitted
1/2 cup cacao powder

Whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor (Thermomix 1 minute speed 9) unitil it is in small crumbs. Press into balls or a small mould and freeze for 1 hour before serving. Store extras in the fridge to enjoy with a cup of green tea as an after dinner treat.

A is for Almond

After a week in Bali, drinking my weight in cocktails and gaining a few holiday kilos, I am ready to get back on the 12WBT bandwagon! The plan for this whole alphabet cooking thing I promised in my last post was to pick a new healthy food each post, cook with it, so starting with A....Almonds are a rich source of nutrients and are really good for you. I eat them as a snack, or with yogurt, in my smoothies, on my muesli, and also in baking. They are gluten free too, so bonus for people with allergies! This week I made pita bread using almond meal. Almond meal is available in the supermarket, or you can whizz up your own (TMX, 10 sec/spd 9). These are gluten free, low carb, and delicious - winning!

Pita Pockets

1 egg
1/2 cup of water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp coconut flour (I didn’t have any so I used a tbsp of dessicated coconut TMX, 15 sec/spd 9)
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 170. Whisk egg, water and oil together (TMX 10 sec/spd 5). Add dry ingredients, mix well till a smooth paste forms (TMX 30 sec/spd 7). Pour into 2 equal portions onto a well greased sheet tray. Bake for 15-20mins. Cool on a wire rack and they will keep for a couple of days, or eat warm from the oven, served with some TMX homemade hummus (1 can drained chickpeas, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp tahini, 2 tbsp oil, juice of 1 lemon) or tzatziki, or stuff with salad for a tasty snack or meal.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

With all the festive celebrations, this is not the time of year to be on a diet! There are so many good foods, treats, wines, beers, ciders and everythings to be had, as well as good times with family and friends. I am home in NZ with the family, Thermomix-less so persevering with good old fashioned cooking (I haven't forgotten how).

Drink of the festive season would have to be the Old Mout cider range. I have it every time I come home, they now have a Passion flavor to add to my list of favorites, currently topped by the Feijoa flavor. Epic. I will be filling the suitcase.

One thing I did try this year that I have not tried before are Christmas fruit mince pies. These are not something we generally have at home, so when Dad claimed from out of nowhere that all of a sudden we needed them to make it more Christmassy, I thought I should give them a shot. Result - amazing...

I had a whole day baking day in the kitchen, made mums famous afghans from my previous post, some red velvet and blueberry cupcakes, a variation on my basic vanilla cupcake recipe (one tablespoon of red food coloring and one tablespoon of cocoa mixed into a paste then added, plus 3/4 cup frozen berries), and also nana's shortbread (which is ridiculously easy to make, and will share the recipe for that too in another post).

Christmas Fruit Mince
(adapted from Annabel Langbein)

½ cup brandy
1 packed cup soft brown sugar
300g currants
150g raisins, chopped
150g cranberries
1.5 cup stewed pear (apple would also work)
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground mixed spice
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
¾ cup almonds, toasted and chopped

Melt sugar into brandy over a low heat. Add all other ingredients and cook for 30 mins. Store in fridge until ready to be used - this has no preservatives, but you could put in a sterilized jar and keep for a short period if you don't use it all.

Citrus Shortcrust
(adapted from BBC recipe)

250g flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
140g soft butter
Zest 1 lemon
Zest 1 orange
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp water

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until the mixture comes together as a soft dough. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (my mum has a super powerful over so I had it at 160°C). Roll out two-thirds of the pastry to about 2-3mm thick. Cut out 12 discs with a larger circle for the bases (if you are using a slightly larger circle than the size of your pie dish this will work fine to mould into the dish. Spoon a tablespoonful of mincemeat into each pastry case then roll out the rest of the pastry. Cut 12 discs or stars for lids. Place the stars on top of the pies and press down gently. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

What's eating you?

Well, the 12WBT (for me for this round anyway) is officially over, I'm sure I will be back for another round as there is always more to learn, and I would highly recommend it. I feel like the biggest lesson I learned is that about 80% of weight-loss is what you eat - the whole "you are what you eat" thing is true! It doesn't matter how much you exercise if you still fill up on junk food. How annoying is that! Sadly it's not enough to stop my bake-fests, so never fear! And sadly I finished the 12WBT with a binge - a weekend in Adelaide visiting my friend Katy and her gorgeous little family, and drinking and eating mostly junk food for two days straight... OOPS! To be fair you can't really go to Adelaide without visiting a surrounding wine region or few - we went to just one this time around. South Australia is well known for its wine (mostly reds, but it was not a red wine kind of day),  and the hot weather took us to McLaren Vale, where we visited a really cute little brewery, Goodieson which had a delicious Pale Ale and IPA, Hugh Hamilton Wines for a tasty Rose, and Penny's Hill which had a really nice Sauvignon Blanc.

I figure since I had a binge-fest in the weekend I might as well have one more treat - the guys in the office will appreciate them tomorrow...

Raspberry Red Velvet cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow tops

(I can't take complete credit for inventing these, I got the idea from heartbreakpies blog and have made the cupcakes a few times, and even won a bake off with them at work (yes another bake off!). I have wanted to try using a toasted marshmellow topping on something for awhile - nothing like a Tuesday night home alone to try new things...)

Use my previous Vanilla Cupcake recipe but leave out the vanilla, and when up to the stage when adding the dry ingredients, mix together 1 tablespoon red food coloring (one day I will try a proper red food cake) and 1 tablespoon cocoa in a small bowl making a smooth paste. Add with the dry ingredients. Mix in TMX until just combined (TMX 10-20sec ish/Reverse/Sp 5).

Spoon into cases, add 2 raspberries to each and push in slightly. Bake for 12-14 mins, pull the cupcakes out, put the oven on grill. Place a large marshmallow on top of each cupcake and put back in the oven until the top is just toasted and the marshmallows begin to melt. This will not take long so don't walk away from the oven! Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. The marshmallows will be a little sticky until they cool.

C is for cookie... omnomnomnom...

Another week or few of failing somewhat to stick to the diet, and I blame cookies (hopefully you have had a chance to read my past post introducing my Cookie Monster), wine (on that note, another plug for Redbox Winery, their Cabernet Blanc is amazing - light drinking, similar to a Rose, perfect summer wine), and Melbourne Cup. I thought I had my self control well refined but it turns out I have a weakness for cookies, and get into the whole internal debate with myself when presented with the temptation - surely one won't hurt...???

One of my (numerous) favorite cookies, which has been a not so secret love of mine since the days when we used to go on our family Christmas camping trips to the Coromandel, is Afghans. Nana would always bring enough baking to feed an army, and I always used to sniff these babies out and make sure I got my share - the list of other delish treats such as Ginger Crunch, Fruit Cake, Surprises, Choc Coconut Slice were all equally as good but these ones are something extra special. They are one of my mum's favorites too, so she has got Nana's recipe off her, and was kind enough to share it with me. J is also a big fan of these

Afghans 

200 grams butter, soft not melted
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 1/2 cups  flour
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 cups corn flakes
2/3 cup of dark chocolate drops or buttons

Pre-heat the oven to 170. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar, add flour and cocoa powder and mix. Fold in the cornflakes (don't worry if they smash up). Roll into balls, place on trays and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Melt the choc drops (I do this in the microwave, 10 sec at a time, stirring in between). Mix well until the chocolate is a smooth consistency. Drizzle on to cookies. (Nana used to put a walnut on top too but I prefer them without).

The monster bake off

Baking is one of my favorite Sunday activities (picture me in my new pink floral apron - very stepford wife!), and what better excuse than a Bake Off. It means I get to still enjoy baking without having to scoff them all and feel guilty about it later. I also won first prize! (Well first equal with a fellow much deserving coconut cake baker).

I was given a cookie monster soft toy from J after returning from a six week trip to Europe (he is a soft toy fanatic), and since then, Cookie has become my mascot (this pic is from Canada in 2011).

One day I saw cookie monster cupcakes online, and could not turn down the challenge - they were  a hit and tasted great too! Here are a couple of snaps of the ones I made first time around, vanilla cupcake, choc chip cookies....

This time around for the bake off I was a little more pressed for time, so used Oreo's instead of homemade cookies, but here is the step by step for the baking and decorating, as well as the cookie recipe I used first time around. If you have the time to make the dough the day before its better...

Choc chip cookies (I don't use my Thermomix for cookies, the less you mix the batter the better)
(adapted from Jacques Torres recipe)

1 ¼ cups unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
1 cup raw sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 ½ cups plain flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
600g chocolate chips/chunks

Cream the butter, vanilla and sugars. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add dry ingredients and choc to the buttery-sugar mixture. Mix until just combined. Glad-wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours (24-36 hours is best). Preheat oven to 170*C. When dough has had time to chill roll into 50c piece-ish sized balls around 1cm thick and press gently with a fork or spoon. Place on baking paper and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes – until they are golden brown but still soft. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla cupcakes
(adapted from Edmonds)

125g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup standard plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 cup milk

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla (TMX 1 min/Sp 5) until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and baking powder and milk, mixing until just combined (TMX 20sec ish/Sp 4 - if you over mix they will come out tough). Place cupcake cases in standard size muffin tin and spoon mixture in (should make about 18). Bake at 170*C for 15 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.


To decorate you will need...
Approx 3 cups of icing - I use Buttercream Icing (200grams unsalted butter, whipped until pale, add 2 tbsp milk and approx 3 cups icing sugar until desired consistency)
White choc buttons
Dark choc drops
Blue food coloring (around 1-2 tsp)

 Before coloring the icing, use a small drop on each white choc button to stick the dark choc button for the eyes - you will need one pair per cupcake.


Once the cookies and cupcakes are cool cut a small slice out of the cupcakes and insert one cookie into each. The slice/cookie should only go about halfway into the cupcake.



Use a large star fitting for piping the icing - if you don't have one a plastic bag will give a similar effect - you are trying to have a messy effect anyway. Place the eyes on before the icing dries.


Enjoy :)