Christmas Roast

This was our little christmas cooking with chicken instead of turkey...

I stole this from nigella lawson, christmas is so exciting for cooking, fantastic time to cook without fear and limit... Nigella just really understands this on my wavelength... Owww i am excited about Christmas... 

So instead of making a big turkey bath I just used the bag the chicken came in and added some extra spare sealed bags I had around, and filled them with water add goodies to make the brine for a moist turkey...

-salt

-pepper

-cloves

-star annise

-mustard seeds

-parsley

-allspice berries

-cinnamon 

-a little sugar/maple syrup

-chopped onions

-quartered orange, squeezed and chucked in

-rough chopped ginger

Then this is left in the fridge secured for an afternoon or overnight. 

ready to be cooked for a lovely moist and delicious dinner. The bird gets drained off, stuffed and painted with maple syrup for a delicious crunch.

this means the bird is taken out of liquid and left to strain, it will still have a very moist wet skin, it can be basted in butter and maple syrup to give it a lovely richer glow... 

Nigella says that a 4-5 kilo bird will take 2.5 hours in the oven... 

(try the online bird calculator)

Hokey Pokey Cookies

125g Butter                      

1/2C Sugar

1T Golden Syrup

1T Milk

1 1/2C Flour

1t Baking Soda

Combine Butter, Sugar, golden syrup and milk in a saucepan. Heat until butter is melted and mixture nearly boiling. Stirring constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool to lukewarm. Sift flour and baking soda together to the mixture. Stir well, roll into balls and press down with a fork. Add chocolate buttons on each cookie. Bake for 15 to 20 mins at 180degrees Celsius. Makes 22

Orange & Berry Delicious Cake

This recipie is inspired from here

I just added a whole orange's rind and juice, and about two tablespoons or natural unsweetened yoghurt. Took 50 mins to cook.

1 c flour
1 t baking powder
zest of 1 orange/juice of orange
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
100g Butter
1 t vanilla

2 T natural unsweetened yoghurt

1 1/2 c boysenberries (frozen) (or any soft fruit)
1 T raw sugar

Slivered Almonds

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, add vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and orange zest, juice and yoghurt.  Mix to combine. Butter an 8 or 9 inch cake pan and add in batter. Batter will be quite thick, so use a spoon to smooth out the top. Drop in berries, pressing them into the batter. Sprinkle with raw sugar and slivered almonds. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hr or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Best served,  warm with a dollop of natural unsweetened yoghurt, or cream if your feeling decadent.

Nana's Red Pepper Chutney

4 large red peppers                                      1tablespoon mustard seeds

500grams tomatoes                                      2tablespoons flour

4 medium onions                                         1/4teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon salt                                         1/4teaspoon turmeric

2 cups white vinegar                                     

1/2cwater 

1 and half cups sugar

 Chop seeded peppers finely.Chop tomatoes finely.Peel and chop onions finely.

Combine vegetables in bowl,sprinkle the salt over and let stand for a few hours then drain.[This process is to get most of the moisture out of the tomatoes or your chutney will be too watery.]

Combine in large saucepan vinegar sugar and mustard seeds,stir over low heat until sugar dissolves,bring to boil.Add vegetables, bring back to boil 10 minutes.

Combine flour,paprika,turmeric with the water, add to pickle,stir until boiling.Simmer a further 10 minutes.

Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal. Makes 4 medium Jars. 

tiramisu ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

mascarpone
coffee liquor
those dry hardy tough sponge biscuits fingers form Italy?
vanilla essence
sugar
eggs
strong brewed black coffee


a bowl of
4 egg yolks
half cup sugar
teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 tablespoon of coffee liquor

held over boiling pot of water,
and mixed well constantly until the ingredients are lightly cooked and combined
do not over cook
take off the heat and add the mascarpone
beat the egg whites from the 4 eggs until soft peaks form and fold this into cream mix


line a tray with some biscuits dipped quickly in a mix of coffee liquor and cooled black coffee
cover with the cream stuffffffff

keep layering till you run out

cover with lightly sprinkled cocoa
keep in the fridge

lime pie

half a cup of freshly squeezed lime ju
4 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of lime vest
a can of condensed milk

mixed together
placed on top of

butter melted with a little sugar and added to some crushed sweet wheat crackers (graham crackers or digestives) add half gingernut biscuits crushed too if you like for a ginger hit
with a teaspoon of lime vest
2 tablespoons of coconut grated

press this mixture into a pie tin then fill with the lime custard

bake for fifteen minutes

leave to cool

place in the fridge

kale dahl

kind of taken from here ... http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/palak-daal-recipe.html

kale chopped into small parts and steamed
the thick stems can be seperated and chopped small with
a lot of fresh garlic
an onion
and fried with some cumin seeds and
a few cloves
turmeric
garam masala
coriander

this pic is using spinach not kale, but all is good !!!!

this can all be fried in a lot of butter or ghee if you have it...

use the water from the steamed kale, and some chicken/vegetable stock or water to boil some urad (white) dahl till mushy


add this to that and some tin chopped tomatos if you wish
serve with rice, naan, yoghurt