Minced Beef Wellington

I made this for dinner last night, and as it wasn't a spectacular success, I wasn't sure whether to blog about it. But I decided to add it anyway, if only to remind myself how it turned out.

When I say it wasn't a success, it wasn't that no one liked it, because it was eaten and enjoyed. But I wasn't sure the time and effort it took was worth the result. Although as I discovered the next day, it tastes much nicer when it's cold.

(This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's book Ministry of Food.)

Firstly fry all the chopped vegetables in a large frying pan, in a little olive oil. Add a generous handful of frozen peas - or sweetcorn, which is what I used. Put them in a large bowl and allow to cool.

Add minced beef, egg, salt and pepper; and I also added a couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce because I couldn't see how this wasn't going to turn out to be very bland otherwise!

Roll out the pastry to the size of a small tea towel (according to JO) or if you've got the ready-rolled pastry, defrost 4 or so slices.

Shape meat mixture into a sausage shape - or if you've got the square pastry, it's going to be several sausage shapes. Put the 'sausage' at one end and roll it all up. (If you have a tea towel-shaped bit of pastry, place it along the long edge.)

Roll it up completely...

...and then seal the ends. I used egg along the edges, but in the end I decided I would have been better with no 'glue' as the pastry was quite gummy already and the egg was making things more slippery.

I ended up making some little pasties aswell.

Put them on a baking tray, brush with egg and cook at 180 C for an hour. In the photos in the book, there are no slits cut in the top to let out steam, but I thought it was better to have them.

The cooked pies aren't very pretty! There was quite a lot of leaking out of the holes. But they got eaten up, with tomato sauce, and were quite filling.

I suppose my problem with this is that the filling was a little bland (I know I didn't follow the recipe exactly but I don't think that would have made a lot of difference) but then I'm not a big fan of meat pie in any form - I find they often have an unappetising 'steamy' flavour - so maybe that's why it didn't appeal to me much.

Part of one of the long 'wellingtons' was left over, and I kept it in the fridge overnight. We ate it at lunch time, and it was actually *much* nicer cold. So I would suggest this would make a good lunch dish or picnic food, cooked the day before.

Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 potato, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
2 large flat mushrooms, finely chopped (I left this out)
2 cloves garlic, minced/grated - I chopped mine finely
4 sprigs rosemary, leaves stripped and finely chopped (I used one sprig)
a big handful frozen peas (I used frozen corn)
1 large egg, beaten
500g good quality minced beef
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g puff pastry, or 4 or 5 sheets of ready-rolled

Cypriot Orange Cake

I saw this orange cake on Anna's blog and decided that today - a cool and rainy Saturday - is the perfect day to try it out.

I actually got my eldest son to do most of the work, while I was making dinner - it's one of those cakes where you just mix everything together and put it in a cake pan.

Put the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar) in a big bowl, and in a jug combine eggs, oil, vanilla extract and orange zest and juice. Mix it all together gently.

Pour mixture into an oiled bundt tin or a 23 cm round tin.

Cook for one hour (mine took 50 mins) at 180 C. Leave to cool in pan and then remove onto a cake rack.

As Anna says, it's light and fragrant - orangey and tangy and not too sweet, and very easy to make.

Ingredients:
3 cups self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
3 tsp baking powder
zest and juice of 2 oranges
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla essence

Berry Sorbet

This was going to be Nectarine Sorbet, as I had some overripe nectarines that needed using - but when I went to cut them up I realized I'd waited too long and they had lost most of their taste. In the freezer I had some frozen mixed berries, so I used them instead.

Put 225 g sugar in a saucepan and add 150 ml water. Heat gently until sugar has dissolved.

When sugar has dissolved, increase heat and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool. (I forgot to boil the sugar and it worked out fine - although it took ages to freeze, so maybe this was why.)

Puree or blend about 450 g fruit and then seive to remove any seeds. Stir fruit into the cooled sugar.

I heated frozen mixed berries in a pan, mashed them up and then pushed them through a seive.

Make in an ice cream maker. I stood my sugar/fruit mixture in the freezer for a couple of hours to make sure it was totally cold, and then churned it in the ice cream maker. It wouldn't freeze convincingly, but after a night in the freezer it was perfect - not too soft, not too hard.

Delicious! A beautiful colour and intensely flavoured.

Ingredients:
225 g granulated sugar
150 ml water
450 g fruit

Chocolate Cola Cake

This is a recipe I found by chance while I was looking for something else, and I had to make it straight away, even though it's hot here at the moment, and not really a good time to have the oven on!

I halved the original recipe to one I can fit in my 20 x 20 cm Pyrex dish, because it isn't anyone's birthday and I didn't think we needed to eat a whole cake between us. (OK so it's Australia Day, but that's not really enough of an excuse for us, as we don't really commemorate it in our house!)

Put flour, bicarb, sugar and cocoa in a bowl and combine. Beat an egg lightly, and add vanilla extract.

In a small pan, melt the butter gently, then add cola and milk. Turn off heat. Add egg and the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix in quickly and lightly.

Pour mixture into a cake pan - mine was a 20 x 20 cm Pyrex dish lined with a strip of baking paper. Cook at 180 C for 30 minutes or so until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 mins before removing to a cooling rack. My cake was quite delicate so needed to be handled carefully.

The icing was made by melting butter then stirring in cocoa and cola. Pour the mixture into some icing sugar and beat together until smooth.

Pour onto cake and spread over the top. There was enough to cover the top of the cake and for some to dribble down the sides a little.

Cut into slices and watch it be demolished extremely quickly.

This was a very light, moist cake, with an interesting taste - the cola gave it a subtle flavour that was different to other chocolate cakes - it's hard to describe, so maybe you should make it yourself and see!

Ingredients:
Cake:
125 g self-raising flour
pinch of bicarb
2 tbsp cocoa powder
150 ml caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
125 g butter
100 ml cola
2 tbsp milk
Icing:
100 g icing sugar
50 g butter
1 tbsp cola
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Leek and Sweet Potato Quiche

I made this quiche the other day when our friends Lisa and Ailin were coming over for lunch. It uses the olive oil pastry (the easiest pastry in the world) that I always use for quiche, so it's really quick to make.

Sarah, my sister, has a friend who uses the recipe - and she says that instead of rolling out the pastry, she just presses it into the quiche dish with her hands. I tried this and it works well, so now it's even quicker and easier! It gives a slightly ragged-looking edge, unless you spend a little time tidying things up, but raggedy edges don't worry me.

I lined the dish with the pastry, then put in a layer of leeks that I'd sliced finely and softened in a little butter and oil. I was planning to use onion, but the leeks were very reasonably priced today.

Then I put over a layer of thinly-sliced sweet potato.

I scattered over some creamy fetta cheese - and a little cheddar too, as I wasn't sure I had quite enough fetta - and added some chopped parsley.

To the eggy/milky mixture I added a generous teaspoonful of wholegrain mustard and some salt and pepper. As usual I had enough to make a mini quiche aswell.

Then I poured the egg/milk over, and cooked it for 45 - 60 mins at 170 C.

It was very tasty, I thought - mildly flavoured but not bland, and quite filling.

The original recipe for quiche is here

Ingredients:
pastry:
8 heaped tbsp flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp olive oil
8 tbsp water
filling:
1 medium onion or leek
1 small sweet potato
fetta/cheddar cheese
eggy topping:
3 eggs
400 ml milk (approx)
wholegrain mustard
salt, pepper

Mango Smoothie Ice Cream

I read about this very quick and easy way of making ice cream on the Claytons Blog, where Coby made a banana version. It uses sweetened condensed milk and doesn't need to be churned in an ice cream maker.

I made mine with mango instead, as it's pretty warm here at the moment, and mango is such a summery flavour. Coby said her children called theirs 'banana smoothie ice cream' which is a good name, so mine is 'mango smoothie ice cream'.

Put the condensed milk and cream in a large bowl, then mash up the mango with a fork and add that too.

Whisk it up really well with electric beaters. (This was very splattery, probably because of all the little lumps of mango.)

Pour into a container and freeze for several hours. Take it out of the freezer 15-20 minutes before serving, because it will probably be spoon-bendingly hard at first.

It's a pretty sweet ice cream - not really surprising when you think that condensed milk is one of the sweetest substances known to man.

Today, for some reason I decided it needed biscuits and melted dark chocolate, but they weren't necessary at all - it definitely doesn't need accompaniment.

Ingredients:
Flesh of 1 mango
400 g can of condensed milk (I used skim)
Enough cream to fill the empty condensed milk can (about 300 ml according to Coby)

Peanut Brittle

I've never made toffee or peanut brittle before, but Stephen convinced me we should try, as brittle is one of his favourites and he hasn't made any for years - so at 1030 the other night, this is what we were doing.

Put 3 cups of caster sugar and 1 cup of water in a heavy-based pan and heat, while stirring, until sugar dissolves.

Once dissolved, boil for around 10 minutes until it goes golden.

That's what it tells you to do in the recipes - but ours was taking ages and we were waiting at least 30 minutes before we decided maybe we should turn up the heat and boil it more rapidly.

Once it was boiling more rapidly it pretty quickly went golden, and when a drop of the hot sugar was put into a glass of cold water, there was a distinctive 'crack' sound which meant it was ready.

We used a large baking tray lined with buttered baking paper, and spread roasted peanuts over. (Protect the table/work surface underneath the pan, as the whole thing gets very hot.)

The peanuts could have been spread more evenly, but the non-peanut edges were good for the children who don't like peanuts.

And we found for those who do like peanuts, the middle part of the brittle (with lots of peanuts in) was the best part - so maybe next time more peanuts would be better.

Allow to cool, then break into chunks/shards.

Ingredients:
3 cups caster sugar
1 cup water
200 g (or more) roasted peanuts (unsalted)

Chocolate Raspberry Slice

I felt like eating something chocolatey today, and I wanted to make something new, so I tried this recipe, which is from the AWW. I halved all the ingredients because the original recipe was for selling at a fete or cake stall, and I wanted this just to be a little treat.

I really like chocolate recipes that use cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate. I find them less rich, cheaper to make, and you don't have to melt cocoa to use it. The biggest reason I prefer it though, is this: cocoa powder can sit in the cupboard for weeks and months for the moment when you need to make a chocolate cake, slice etc, and I don't think anyone's ever tempted to eat it - which can't be said for chocolate bars.

To make this slice, sift flour and cocoa into a bowl, stir in sugar and coconut, then mix in egg and melted butter until it's all well combined.

Press half the mixture in a lined 20 x 20 cm baking tray, using the back of a spoon and your hands. Cover with a layer of raspberry jam.

Cover this with the remaining mixture and spread over evenly. I could see this wasn't going to be very easy, so I crumbled the mixture evenly over the top and then gently pressed it all down with my fingers.

Cook at 170 C for about 40 minutes until firm.

While slice is still hot, make the icing by sifting icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl, then stirring in melted butter and a tbsp of hot water until you have a spreadable consistency. Add a few more drops of water if necessary.

Spread over the slice. I found there was only just enough to cover the whole thing, so doubling the icing recipe would make it easier to get a smoother topping. But I thought the finished slice had a good amount of icing, and it didn't seem skimpy.

Leave to cool in the pan, then cut into squares.

I had trouble taking a photo of these slices, as little hands wanted to reach in and take one. They were very popular with everyone (I especially like the crunchier corner slices) and they taste a little like Cherry Ripe bars in that they're a combination of chocolate, coconut and 'fruit'.

I know I'm going to be asked to make these again.

Ingredients:
150 g plain flour
25 g cocoa powder
180 g caster sugar
60 g desiccated coconut
1 egg
100 g butter, melted
85 g raspberry jam (I used about 4 heaped tsp)
Choc Icing:
80 g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
5 g butter, melted
1 tbsp boiling water, approx

(the above ingredients are for a 20 x 20 cm pan)

Concrete

I didn't do any real cooking yesterday, but I did mix a lot of concrete. As I was standing there at the mixer I was thinking how in a way it is quite similar to mixing up a cake.

So in case, like me, you happen to have a cement mixer hanging around and you feel like doing a bit of building one day, here's how you make concrete!

Three buckets of gravel,

two buckets of sand,

(the sand can also act as a great babysitter)

and one bucket of cement.

Note the colour-coded buckets. I think you can tell a girl was involved in this building job!

Mix it all up in the cement mixer while adding just enough water to make a sloppy but not runny mixture. Keep making loads of it, starting a new lot every time a load is taken away in a wheelbarrow, and keep going until you're told to stop by the Man In Charge.


This is where all the concrete was going (actually it's called grout because it's runnier than concrete and is used for filling the concrete blocks).

These are part of the footings for the veranda for the back of our house. Hopefully one day soon we'll be all sitting out there sipping drinks and eating something tasty I've made.

I won't put a picture of the rest of our garden, but I think maybe you can imagine what it might be like!

Which is why last night we ate our dinner (fish nuggets and potato wedges from the freezer because it's all I could manage between loads of grout) in the front garden.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Morning Muffins

I made these orange and cranberry muffins on Christmas morning - it's the fourth year in a row I've cooked them on Christmas Day, so I suppose it's becoming a sort of tradition! They are a Nigella recipe, from 'Feast', I think.

Of all the muffins I make, these are my favourite - they contain butter and are have a crunchy topping, so they are a little more luxurious than the others - but they also seem to have a better texture on the inside.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Squeeze orange juice into a measuring jug, then add milk until it reaches 150 ml.

Add melted butter and egg, then beat to combine.

Add wet to dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Lightly fold in cranberries and fill muffin cases.

Top with cinnamon and sugar mixture then cook for 15 - 20 mins at 200 C. Nice spread with butter.


Ingredients:
200 g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
75 g demarara sugar
grating of nutmeg
juice of 1 small orange (about 100 ml)
50 ml milk (approx)
60 g unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
75 g - 150 g dried cranberries (I use a handful)
Topping: 2 tsp demarara mixed with 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Strawberry and Cream Cake

My choice of birthday cake this time, and as it's summer, I thought it would be nice to have some summer fruit.

I'd never made this cake before - it's from Tessa Kiros' book 'Falling Cloudberries' where it's called 'Sipi's Strawberry Cake' - and as strawberries are delicious at the moment, I thought it might be a good time of year to make it.

In one bowl put the flour, sugar and 1 tsp of baking powder. Mix in the melted butter, milk and then add the egg yolks and beat in well.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, adding the remaining 2 tsp of baking powder as they start to become frothy.

Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.

Pour the mixture into a 22 cm springform pan, greased and floured.

I lined the base with baking paper, too.

Cook at 180 C for about 1 hour until top is golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Let it cool in pan for a while and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

When cool, cut in half horizontally with a long bread knife. Put base of cake on a serving plate.

This is where you can start filling and decorating the cake. The recipe said to wash and hull the strawberries, leaving a few with leaves if you like for the top.

Dice half the strawberries and put in a bowl with a tsp of lemon juice and a tbsp of the icing sugar. The other half you can use to decorate the top of the cake.

Whip up the cream into soft peaks with the rest of the icing sugar. Mix the chopped strawberries into a third of the cream and spread over the bottom of the cake (I put a layer of cream then the strawberries), then add the top of the cake and spread over the rest of the cream. Decorate with the remaining strawberries. And blueberries as they are very pretty and delicious!

Add candles, have everyone sing 'Happy Birthday' loudly, and then don't get to blow any candles out yourself because your children are so keen on helping. It's what it's all about.


This was a really lovely cake - a lot of that had to do with the fruit being so perfect, but the sponge was substantial and tasty - not a flimsy Victoria Sponge-type thing.

I only added 300 ml of cream to my cake and I thought it was plenty - Tessa Kiros uses 750 ml.

Ingredients:
sponge:
220 g plain flour
180 g sugar
3 tsp baking powder
180 g butter, melted
185 g milk, warm
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract

to decorate:
800 g strawberries (I used about 600 g)
1 tsp lemon juice
4 tbsp icing sugar
750 ml thick/double cream (I used a 300 ml tub)

Best eaten immediately but leftovers will keep well in refrigerator overnight.

Banana Oat Bars

I saw this recipe in a magazine - in an ad for soymilk - although I used normal cows' milk instead.

I thought it looked interesting because it contains no added oil/butter which would make it a pretty low-fat snack if it worked out.

Stir together flours, oats, sugar, sultanas, baking powder and cinnamon (if using - I left this out) in a large bowl.

In another bowl, beat together banana, milk, egg and egg white.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and fold to combine.

Put mixture in a lined 20 x 30 cm pan (I used a 27 x 18 cm) ...

... and cook at 180 cm for 30 - 40 mins until golden on top and until skewer comes out clean.
Cut into pieces when cool.

This worked out really well, even though I managed to overcook it slightly and it was a bit more dry than it should have been.

I really enjoyed it - the texture is hard to describe but it was sort of like a chewy sponge; the taste was quite a lot like an old fashioned bread pudding (not the hot bread and butter pudding) and the banana flavour was very mild.

I enjoyed it even more knowing that it contained no oil or butter. I'll be making this again.

Ingredients:
110 g (2/3 cup) plain wholemeal flour
100 g (2/3 cup) plain flour
90 g (1 cup) rolled oats
70 g (1/3 cup) brown sugar
90 g (1/2 cup) sultanas
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 ripe bananas, mashed
60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
1 egg
1 egg white