Malva Pudding

17 Jun

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon smooth apricot jam

1 Cup seld raising flour

1 Teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Teaspoon vinegar

1 Cup Milk

Sauce:

1 1/2 Cup cream

180g Butter

1 Cup sugar

3/4 Cup water

Oven 180 Celsius

1. Beat egg, sugar and jam together on high for +- 15 minutes.

2. Sift flour, bicarb and salt into a bowl.

3. Melt butter and add vinegar.

4. Add milk to egg mixture alternately with flour.

5. Fold in the vinegar/butter mixture.

6. Pour into an ovenproof dish (about 25cmx25cm)

8. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. It must be a rich brown colour.

For the sauce:

Heat all the ingredients until it just starts to boil.

Pour the hot sauce over the pudding as soon as it comes out the oven. It may look as though it’s too much sauce, just give it a hand by slightly pulling the pudding away from the edges with a knife, and sticking a knife into a few places in the centre of the pudding. Trust: It will absorb everything 😉

Butternut Fritters

15 Jun

Makes 10

500g Butternut, cut into chunks & cooked until soft

+- 1/2 Cup self raising flour

2 Eggs

1 tsp Baking powder

1. Blend the butternut to a pulp.

2. Stir in the flour and eggs, and then the baking powder.

3. Heat a little oil and butter in a non stick frying pan and spoon about 1/3 cup of the butternut batter into the pan.

4. Fry on a medium heat until the fritter starts to bubble a little on top and then flip over, and fry for another minute or 2.

5. Place cooked fritters on a plate sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and sprinkle the sugar mix over the top too.

Cinnamon Sugar:

2/3 Cup Castor sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp Ground cinnamon

Mix together until cinnamon is evenly spread through the sugar.

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Cottage Pie

14 Jun

Serves 6 – 8

Oven 200 Celsius

2 Tbsp Olive oil

2 Large Onions, chopped

750g Minced Beef

2 Beef Stock Cubes

500ml Boiling water

3 Large carrots, halved and sliced

1 1/2 Cups frozen peas

3 tsp Cornflour

1/3 cup Water

1. Heat oil and butter and add the onions. Fry until softened and lightly browned.

2. Add the mince and stir until meat is broken into bits and browned (about 5 minutes)

3. Add the stock cubes and water, turn up the heat and reduce.

4. After about 40 minutes, add the carrots and stir them into the mince.

5. After a further 20 minutes, add the peas, stir through the mixture, boil for another 10 – 15 minutes.

6. Mix the cornflour with the 1/3 cup of water and add to the mince mix.

7. Place into an ovenproof dish.

For the Topping:

6 Medium potatoes

2 Tbsp butter

2/3 Cup cream

1 Egg yolk

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp White pepper

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1. Peel, cut and boil the potatoes until cooked.

2. Mash the cooked potatoes with the rest of the ingredients.

3. Spread over the mince filling.

To finish:

Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, if you would like a little more colour on top, stick the grill on for 2 or 3 minutes.

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Butternut Soup

11 Jun

Makes about 600ml – 750ml

Oven 200 Celsius

500g Butternut, cut into chunks

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 tsp butter

1 Medium onion, chopped

1 Chicken stock cube

2 Cups boiling water

1 tsp Thai red curry (John West) + 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger or 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon or replace 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup orange juice or 1/2 tsp medium curry powder

1. Roast butternut for 40 minutes or until cooked and edges start to blacken.

2. Heat the oil and butter and then add the onion and fry until softened and slightly browned.

3. Add the butternut, stock cube and water (and orange juice if using) and boil for about 10 minutes.

4. Add the flavouring(s) of choice.

5. Blend until smooth and adjust the seasoning according to your taste.

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Banana Bread

28 May

125g Butter

250g Caster sugar

2 Eggs

2 Tablespoons yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

6 overripe bananas

250g flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

 ¼ teaspoon salt

Oven 180°C

Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, yoghurt and vanilla essence to the butter mixture, beat well.

Break the bananas into chunks, and beat in with the electric mixer. (the mixture will look as though it’s seperated).

Sift the flour, bicarb & salt and fold it into the banana mixture.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured loaf tin (2/3rds).

Bake for 1 hour, until golden brown and firm. Cool completely.

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Fish ‘n Chips: Accompaniments

25 May

Mushy Peas

Serves 2

170g frozen peas

20g butter

30ml water

salt & pepper

  • Defrost the peas in a bowl with cold water. This should only take a few minutes. Strain, shaking off as much of the excess water as possible.
  • Reserve about 1/5 of the peas. Place the remaining peas in a pan, along with the 30ml water.
  • Cook over medium heat until all the water has evaporated and the peas are cooked through.
  • Place the peas into a blender (or use a stick blender) and puree.
  • Adjust seasoning by adding salt and pepper.
  • Fold in reserved peas and serve.

Tar Tar Sauce

Makes 170ml

1 Tbsp finely chopped gherkins

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1 tsp finely chopped chives

1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

1 1/2 tsp horseradish cream

2/3 cup Hellman’s real mayo

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp chutney

4 capers, finely chopped

  • Mix all ingredients together, season with salt and pepper

Fish ‘n Chips

25 May

Classic:


Serves 2

oil for deep frying

80g self raising four

pinch of salt

1/3 cup soda water

1/3 cup beer

1 tsp baking powder

2 x 145g pieces of white fish (such as hake or cod)

Oven 180 Celsius

  • Whilst heating oil to desired temparature, mix all the ingredients together with a whisk until a smooth batter forms.
  • When oil is ready, first fry the chips for about 7 minutes, then drain and put on a baking tray in the oven.
  • Then,  one piece at a time, dip and coat the pieces of fish in the batter, and fry in the hot oil.
  • (A method of testing whether the oil is ready or not is to drop a bit of the batter in the oil. If it sizzles and bubbles and floats to the top – the oil is ready)
  • Fry the fish for about 3 to 4 minutes per side and until the batter is nice and golden in colour.
  • Serve

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Fish ‘n “Chips”

25 May

Modern:

(only for kids with more adventurous taste buds 😉 )

Serves 4

12 baby potatoes

2 slices white bread*, toasted

60g roasted and salted cashew nuts

1/4 tsp mild english mustard**

1/2 tsp chopped garlic

10g parsley

salt and pepper

20ml olive oil

2 x 145g white fish (such as hake or cod), deboned and skinless

3 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp chopped parsley

Salad greens

Avocado

Oven 180 Celsius

  • Put the baby potatoes on to boil.
  • In a blender, break the toast into pieces, add the cashew nuts and blend to form a coarse crumb.
  • Now add the mustard, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, and blend again until ingredients all chopped.
  • Add the olive oil, blend again, to form a wet crumb that sticks together when pressed together.
  • Lightly oil a baking tray, put the pieces of fish “skin side” down and press the crumb mixture onto the flesh of the fish
  • Place in the oven for 8 minutes
  • The potatoes should be ready just before the fish is done: Cut them in hald and toss them in the butter and chopped parsley and season with a little salt and pepper.
  • Toss the greens and avo in some balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
  • Remove fish from the oven and serve.

* For an even healthier option: Use whole grain bread instead of white bread, and for a wheat free version, don’t use bread and use 8 Tablespoons of ground almonds for every slice of bread.

** If this is a bit strong for sensitive taste buds, use Dijon mustard instead

  Parsley, Garlic and Mustard added to the Bread and Cashew “Crumb”

 Herb and Nut Mixture

Press the Herb and Nut Mixture firmly onto the Flesh of the Fish

 

 

 

 

Toss hot, cooked, Baby Potatoes in Butter and Parsley

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Lamb Chops with a Simple Salad

22 May

Serves 2

4 Lamb Loin Chops

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Black Pepper

Maldon Sea Salt

Pour the oil into a plate and just turn the chops in the oil so they are lightly coated in oil.

Grind pepper on both sides of the chops and sprinkle with some salt.

Heat a pan up very very hot and fry the chops to desired “doneness”.

Remove from pan and rest them for a few minutes.

Arrange on plates.

While they are cooking, make the salad:

Put about 2 Tbsp Olive oil and about 1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar in a bowl.

Toss in about two handfuls of baby butter lettuce and shavings of Pecorino or Parmesan.

Dish onto a plate with chops.

(For a comparison and review on Lamb Chops, click here)

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Getting Started

19 May

I am a firm believer in getting kids involved in cooking. Not only that, but to teach them where their food comes from, how it’s prepared and exposing them to the wonderful rainbow of flavours and textures out there. I hear more and more parents complain or mention how “fussy” their kids are or how they “won’t eat” this that or the other.

Like us, kids are also sceptical to try new things. One has to introduce them to things in a way they understand, a way that is appropriate to their age, level of understanding and current “world” of what they know.

Something I think very important is to make the whole introduction process fun and interesting. It’s absolutely pointless to be telling a 5 year old “eat your vegetables, just try them”. Most kids of that age have a negative connotation to veggies, and no matter what, they will refuse to eat them, or even if you are lucky enough for them to try the “horrible, dreaded veg”, you will still be met with a face scruch and “yuk”, because they are mentally “wired” to just not like veg.

I have made it a bit of a mission to find out how to make healthy eating more appealing to kids. The two clear and consistent “rules” definately seem to be:

 1. The Sooner You Start The Better.

2. Kids take chances, you need to be more stubborn than they are, because they only are how you allow them to be.

I don’t believe in kids getting cooked seperate meals to “suit their taste”. Any meal should be eaten together and part of a routine.

I would love feedback from all of you. Every child is not the same, and it is always interesting to hear people’s experiences with their kids and food.

Starting your child early with a foundation of healthy eating sets a good platform for him or her for the rest of their life. If it’s “the norm”, then it’s easy, and “healthy eating” won’t even be healthy eating anymore. It will just be “eating”.

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