Quinoa breakfast

Here's a fact about me you probably don't know, though it wont surprise you.  I don't like ironing.  I also have a thing against day time television.  I think this is a hangover from my Mum's opinion of the TV being on during daylight hours for anything other than cricket or footy.  Anyway, in spite my dislike of ironing and my preference for the television not being on much.....I do both every day!  The only way I can get through my daily ironing (I can handle a small load daily much better than the pile that happens if it's left) is to have some distraction.  Sometimes I pop on a cooking DVD, but mostly I stagger the times I iron to see a bit of Dr Phil here and Dr Oz. there! 

Recently, while getting the ironing out of the way early, I have put The Circle on.  As good luck would have it, I have been met with cooking segments.......a daily iron means I am unlikely to have the teev on for much more than 20 minutes.  This is how I found the Slaw I made recently, and how I discovered a terrific idea for a make ahead, filling, high protein breakfast.  Gorgi Coghlan made a Quinoa Porridge and I have taken that idea and made one to suit moi.

My parent's authentic home-grown apples - so much so they even came with leaves, blemishes and webby bits!  Dare say you couldn't sell them, but they taste fabulous.

Gingered Apple Quinoa Porridge

1 metric cup quinoa (I went with about half and half white quinoa and red quinoa for the fun of it)
500ml (2 metric cups) water
5 apples, peeled and diced
10 prunes, diced
5 pieces glace ginger, diced (or to taste)
125ml (half metric cup) verjuice or water
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp agave syrup or raw caster sugar, or honey - whatever you like to sweeten things
350g yoghurt*

Rinse the quinoa, drain it and pop it into a medium pot with the water.  Bring to the boil, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 12 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave to rest with the lid on until ready to continue.

Meanwhile put the apples, prunes, glace ginger, verjuice or water, ground ginger and ground cinnamon in a pan.  Bring to a simmer and cook until the apples are just cooked.  Taste and add enough agave to sweeten to your taste - no way of knowing exactly how much extra sweetness you'll need, less or more than a tablespoon I guess!

Scrape the cooked quinoa and the still hot stewed fruit into a mixing bowl, stir about to combine and then add the yoghurt.  You are now ready to eat it.

To serve, you can eat it just as it is.  I really like a 'moat' around my porridge, so, in keeping with the theme today, I used rice milk, but of course any milk will work, as long as you like it.  I topped mine with just a few slivered almonds. 

Any leftovers can be saved in the fridge for eating during the week.  A little extra yoghurt or milk will be needed to loosen the mixture.  You can eat it cold or warm it gently on the stove or in the microwave.

*I like a creamy thick 'proper' yoghurt here.  A Greek style one would work, though I've got a leaning toward a slightly sweeter flavoured yoghurt for this recipe.  I used Gippsland Mango Blood Orange today.

This cake spoon may seem like a bit of an affectation, but it really serves a purpose.  It's cute yes, but it's also a smaller spoon than I usually use.  In the same way that using chopsticks makes me eat slower, so, a spoon with a smaller capacity than others ensures I take my time eating breakfast, rather than scoffing it down in a hurry.

This is a filling yet not stodgy breakfast.  The quinoa is quite light, and when you then add the yoghurt it turns it somehow fluffy.  Of course upon cooling it WILL gloop up, but you can bring it back to life with a little TLC in the form of a gentle warming with a some extra liquid such as milk  (even water would do), or if you want it cold, stir through some more yoghurt.

I am as thrilled with this as I was the first time I made bircher muesli, only this seems even more filling and satisfying, but the combinations of flavours you can make are just as varied.  Gotta love good tasting good-for-you food!

Satayish salad

I am always keen to try new ingredients.  Now when I say 'new' that doesn't mean, necessarily that it's unfamiliar to others, but simply I personally haven't had experience with them.  So it was today that I got to use almond butter and stevia.  Thrilled with the results.  In our usual berserk day, where I need to have food seemingly appear as if by magic, I prepared most of the meal ahead of time, a little tossing and a quick fry of some steak, and a delicious dinner was on the table.

The recipe today comes via 'The Circle' a morning TV show which has guests come in to cook recipes.  Crunchy Asian Slaw is by Lee Holmes author of Supercharged Food a book for those of us keen on 'eating for optimum health'.  The book is filled with recipes that are free from gluten, wheat, dairy, yeast and sugar.  If you want to find out more, you can look over at Supercharged Food.

Crunchy Asian Slaw

1 carrot, peeled and cut into julienne
½ red capsicum, finely sliced
½ orange capsicum, finely sliced
3 spring onions, finely sliced
150 g (2 cups) finely shredded green cabbage
150 g (2 cups) finely shredded red cabbage
handful bean shoots, straggly ends pinched off
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
for the dressing
1 small garlic clove, microplaned
2–3 cm knob of fresh ginger,microplaned
2 x 20ml tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 x 20ml tbsp almond butter
2 x 20ml tbsp low-sodium tamari
½ tsp sesame oil
2-3 x 20ml  tbsp lemon juice*
1 sachet (about 1/4 tsp) stevia powder
salt flakes and black pepper to taste
Throw the carrot, red and orange capsicum, spring onions, green and red cabbage and bean shoots into a large mixing bowl.

Make the dressing by whisking the garlic, ginger, apple cider vinegar, almond butter, tamari, sesame oil, lemon juice and stevia together.  Taste and add salt and pepper if you feel the need.

Pour the dressing over the vegetables and stir it all together well.  Sprinkle over the toasted sesame seeds before serving.

Serves 4-6 depending on if it's THE meal or a side.
*Original recipe called for 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, but I found 2 sufficient, as always taste and adjust in need.

I cooked up a piece of rump steak that I'd flavoured with some soy and Worcestershire sauces, and sliced it thinly to serve with the coleslaw.  In truth though, this is one of those salads that you could plonk into a single serve bowl and sit with on your lap in front of the TV.  It's so good my children asked for seconds!  They might be 'good eaters', but asking for more vegetables is not an everyday event.

I was a bit wary of the stevia, but the quantity was so slight in this recipe, it was neither here nor there.  I would certainly be happy to use it again under these circumstances.  By rights I should have been using liquid stevia as per the recipe, but beggars can't be choosers.  I was glad to find SOME version of this product!

The almond butter is delicious.  Certainly a 'good fat' option.  I am keen to get the idea that fat is 'bad', but rather, not all fats are created equal, and only eating low fat is as unhealthy as eating too much fat, particularly animal fats.  Almond butter in this salad made it taste positively decadently healthy!

Al Sugo Crudo Chevre...no....Capra

It's that time of year when my parents have more tomatoes than they know what to do with.  It's that time of year when I make, on a fairly regular basis, Nigella's delicious Forever Summer recipe Pasta Al Sugo Crudo.  Having made it once with the mozzarella, and once just with the tomatoes singing their beautiful red summery song, I thought that, what with third time being the charm (as if the first two weren't already charming enough), I could play around with the recipe a little more.

Here's the thing.  The children and I really like goat's cheese, more famously known as chevre, with the Italian name Capra I am let to believe.  Particularly the fresh versions.  The Lovely Man however, just doesn't see what all the fuss is about.  How then, do we get to enjoy it, while still ensuring that one-fifth of our family, and such an important fifth at that, is still contented with what is served up?

Let me make this clear.  I never 'hide' food.  I am not one to 'not tell'.  My children have never eaten a vegetable without them being aware.  Quite the opposite in fact.  If a dish isn't clearly showing them what is in it, I will be at pains to let them know.  I figure then, they see that just because they didn't find a food served in one way to their liking, another version could be right up their alley.  It was, for me, only having tasted tinned asparagus for so many years, thinking I didn't like asparagus.  When it was finally available fresh, I tentatively tasted, and WOW, felt like it was a completely different beast!

So, when I decided to add goat's cheese to the tomato sauce, although it was somewhat 'disguised' I still let on.  Sure it makes for a cautious first taste, but to see the expression 'Oooooh, now THIS I like!', well that is priceless and reminds us all, of the importance of being willing to give things a go.

So, for the original recipe, see the link above.  All I did was:

**Mush up about 75g of goat's feta (or your favourite feta) with the zest of 1 lemon.  I then added the juice of a half a huge lemon (so perhaps a little more than a half of a regular sized lemon - taste and see) and the leaves from a generous sprig of marjoram.  Mash, mash, mash until you have a finely lumpy creamy looking, thick sauce.  Stir this into the tomato sauce just before you add the pasta.  I went with vermicelli this time.  Serve immediately.**  Serves 6

The lemon helps to somehow soften the cheese flavours, and the whole lot, as you can probably well imagine, just marries perfectly with the already magnificent tomato sauce.  The sauce is perfect as it is, the only reason I like to mix it up is because I want to keep making it and making it.  By changing it ever-so slightly here and there, it can just feature time and again, well, probably not now until next summer.....  The goat's cheese and lemon make this a creamy, yet still summery fresh tasting meal on a warm  late summer's evening - OK, technically, March is the first month of Autumn, but it's never really autumny weather until at least mid April to me!  

Everyone is sure to beg for seconds.  The sludgy sauce at the bottom mixing with a smaller amount of pasta, just makes it the most deliciously slurpy round.  If you're a bread with pasta kinda person, this is a Utopic moment, who wouldn't want to dunk?  Look at this goodness:

A note on the pasta.  We still can't quite come to wholemeal pasta 100%.  It works with heavier sauces and baked pasta recipes, but for lighter recipes like this, it just wont do.  Because this is a 'way of life' and not a diet, then, I feel that a meal of regular pasta, that is, not even high fibre, is OK.  We have it with leaves, and, in spite of my comment, we don't have it with bread - though, for a special occasion I would do that too!  I tell you, knowing we're not eating this a couple of times a week as we used to, sure does make the appreciation levels rise all that much higher!  For a delicious dish then, you really do end up in ambrosial territory.  Good stuff!

What a cop-out!

The copper-outer would be me.  I bought myself some lovely pandan leaves:

I've frozen most of them, but was keen to make an indulgent breakfast for the family this Sunday, and had great plans to turn a leaf into sludge and add this to a pancake batter.  I cut up the leaf and popped it into a small mortar:

I pounded the pandan leaf with my pestle, and turned it into....grass:

I added some boiling water (a quarter of a cup):

It was at this stage, I started to doubt myself.  I was starting to fear that one pounded up leaf might be too strong.  Then, after I looked at the finished product, that is, strained through a Chux, I also feared the colour wouldn't be the pretty and soft pastel green that you often see in cakes made using pandan.  So........

I shamefully admit to adding a half a teaspoon's worth of pandan paste.  There is nothing wrong with this aromatic syrup, it's just that I really wanted to try the real thing, and now I am none-the-wiser.  Oh well, breakfast was delicious, I DID use the pandan water I made as well, but I have no idea how much flavour it gave.  I do know that (naturally...or perhaps unnaturally enough) the artificial colouring made all the difference from an aesthetic point of view.  Now, this may be a positive or negative point of difference, but I will have to trust to next time and only use the real thing to know if the flavour comes through.  I will probably go further and do two leaves next time.  Meanwhile this is the recipe I did today, and it was gobbled up in no time by the whole family.

Pandan Pancakes

1 pandan leaf
60ml boiling water
30g butter
230g self raising flour
1 tsp caster sugar
good pinch salt flakes
2 eggs
1/2 tsp pandan paste
250ml full-fat milk
scant teaspoon of flavourless oil or a cooking spray
to serve with the pancakes
1 mango
6 tsp golden syrup


Cut the pandan leaf into four and pop it into a mortar.  Pound it well until it looks like grass.  Pour in the boiling water, give it a stir about, and leave to steep for a few minutes.

Meanwhile gently melt the butter, and set it aside to cool slightly.

Pour the pandan water through a clean cloth (I use a Chux - classy) and squeeze out into a small measuring jug.

Pop the flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl and stir about to combine, make a well in the centre.

Add the butter to the pandan water and whisk in the eggs and pandan paste.

Pour the green mixture into the well of the flour mixture, and using a small whisk slowly bring the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 

Pour the flour into the jug that had the wet ingredients, and stir up any of the green sludge into the milk.  Now as you whisk the batter, continue adding the milk until you have a smooth batter.

Set the batter aside for a moment to rest.

Prepare the mango by cutting the cheeks off each side, using a spoon to scoop the flesh from the skin and dice the mango flesh into chunks.  Cut the sides of the mango, and dice this too - watch not to get too near the stem portion if you dislike that numb feeling of course.

Heat a pan to medium heat and using a bit of paper towel, brush a small amount of oil onto the pan (or spray it very lightly).

Dollop on the batter in whatever size you see fit.  I use a small quarter ladle, which is about 2 tbsp worth of mixture.  This makes about 24 pancakes.

Cook until bubbles start to form on the top of the pancakes, and then flip them over, cooking them for just another 20 seconds more. 

Put the pancakes aside in small stacks while you cook the remaining pancakes. 

Serve a stack of pancakes with a good spoonful of the diced mango and a a teaspoon's worth (or to taste) of golden syrup.

Serves 5-6

Because the pandan paste was added, the colour was just as I'd hoped.  Also though, the flavour was there.  So, for my next attempt I WILL double the fresh pandan leaf, though keep the quantity of water the same.....Ha, and I will probably end up still adding a little of the paste!  Nevertheless, this is yummy.  A great change, a subtle change (flavour wise) to the usual pancake breakfast.

I hope adding the fresh pandan leaf made a difference, I suspect, not much, but I am still glad to have it now.  I think rice scented with pandan is lovely, and there are so many recipes I've never tried to cook - only eaten - using pandan leaves I am keen to see if there are some easy options for me.  I was given some suspect looks from the children when this came to the table - it's not yet St Patrick's Day, and Halloween is months away.  The first taste though, and they were all smiles, and very keen they were to reassure their Daddy, who they felt sure would be as surprised and cautious as they were.  'Don't worry Daddy they taste yummy!'.  Thank goodness for THAT.

So yes, I copped-out, but the main thing is, the final flavour was a winner, and in the end, that's all that matters.

A Jamie moment

I enjoy watching Jamie Oliver cook, he's entertaining and makes a lot of food I would tuck into with great gusto.  Not sure why I don't cook more of his recipes than I do.  I have lots of his books, I suspect I am only missing maybe one or two of his vast library of deliciousness.  When I came across a recipe that was quick and easy, I had to make it.  It appeared in a newspaper of ours, and it doesn't mention which book it is from (so I may indeed have it on my bookshelf), it does credit the website: jamieoliver.com .  I haven't checked over at the website, but when the recipe made it's way to our daily publication it would have been a good idea to proof read it as it might throw someone who wasn't confident in the kitchen.  Happily, because I have watched the busy Mr Oliver enough times that I felt confident I would know what to do with the ginger....that is, I used a microplane on it, as I suspected dropping in a peeled chunk of it would do little good to the final dish!  Here is my version of the printed recipe:

Crispy, Sticky Chicken Thighs

6 cloves of garlic, skin on
8 chicken chops* skin on
1 lemon, halved
1 tbsp rice bran oil
Thumb-sized piece of ginger
2 tbsp honey
few drops of sesame oil
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 180C.  Line a shallow baking tray with foil first and then baking paper over this.

Crack open the skin of the garlic slightly with a mortar and pestle and put the bits of garlic on the lined tray and then the chicken around it. 

Squeeze the lemon over then drizzle over the oil, finally microplane the ginger over it all.

Shove the lot in the oven, on a high shelf, set the timer and walk away for an hour...and I used the time to prep a simple couscous salad with an Asian lean.

After the hour, remove the tray of crispy chicken from the oven, drizzle over the honey, drip a scant drop or two of sesame oil over each triangle of chicken and finally sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

Pop the lot back in the oven for a further ten minutes before serving with your preferred sides.

Serves 4-5
The garlic will have softened wonderfully and  mustn't be left on the tray, everyone will want at least one piece.

*Recipe doesn't stipulate if the thighs should have a bone or not, but for the cooking time, and again, having an idea of the way J.O cooks, I presumed chicken chops (bone still present) would be the way to go.

Delightful recipe using a cheap cut of chicken - the cut with all the flavour.  The salad was a quickly thrown together one.  A cup of couscous, cup of chicken stock, bunch of blanched, refreshed and chopped broccolini, three spring onions, chopped, a big home grown apple cucumber and a bigger home grown tomato both cut into chunks.  A few drops of sesame oil, a splash of low salt soy and yum.

This is what you want midweek.  You can whip out the chicken from the freezer in the morning, and have the chook cooking while you get about helping the kids with homework or whatever.  I really like having the aromas that waft from a dish like this happening - while I appear to be doing nothing whatsoever to make it so!

Miss Newly Nine's other cake

It's a given, it seems, that Miss Now Nine will turn to Nigella's Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame *CCHoF*  to decide on the cake for her birthday each year.  I have been more than happy with this, as they are guaranteed successes.  A 'guaranteed success' is far from a certainty for me if I bake from anyone other than Nigella and more recently Belinda Jeffery.  Having a collection of chocolate-specific recipes in one area as Feast does (which is where the aforementioned 'CCHoF' resides) means it's an easy browse for any one of my chocolate cake loving kidlets.

I'm not blogging about that cake though - I already have - it was the deliciously traditional Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake.  No, this is the OTHER cake, the cake we had on the very day Miss Eight became Miss Nine.....can it really be so?  Anyway, I was feeling nostalgic, thinking about the only person who always baked me a cake for my birthday as a little girl.  My Nana.  Now, Nana's sponges were famous, but alas she didn't write down the recipe, and she didn't teach anyone.  I can remember standing with her and watching her make them, but it was all done by feel, and I was too little to learn these measures.  When I read Nigella's Kitchen Witter where the subject was a Hot Milk Sponge filled with Nutella I thought it could be the perfect recipe for me.  I have made it a few times, but as the recipe talks about this recipe being Kyra's first, then Nick's, then of course for me, Nigella's, well I put my own twist on it, and it's now mine - though I will always think of it as Nigella's really.  The way my Nana always filled and topped her sponge, is the way I wanted to make this cake for Miss Nine this day.  Oh the Nutella version is fab, but I can at least ensure that we can pass on one family tradition this way!

Hot Milk Passionfruit Sponge

60g soft unsalted butter
125ml (1/2 metric cup) full-fat milk
3 large room-temperature eggs
generous pinch salt
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
225g plain flour
2 level tsp baking powder
for the filling
2 tbsp jam  (I used 'fruits of the outback', but any red jam you like will work)
300ml thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
for the icing
4 passionfruit (with a spare in case one is dry and useless)
320g (2 metric cups) pure icing sugar
little squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 170C.

Line a set of 20cm sandwich tins and grease them well.  If you are in doubt as to how leak resistant your tins are, I suggest using a large liner (like a cupcake paper only bigger) or placing the tins onto a baking sheet. 

Put the butter, in small dollops and milk into a small pot and heat gently until the butter is starting to melt.  Remove from the heat, give it a whisk about until the butter completely melts and set aside.

Meanwhile using a free-standing mixer (or after if you are using a hand-held mixer) whisk together the eggs,sugar  and salt for a few minutes, or until it all looks paler and lighter then mix through the vanilla bean paste.  Whisk the milk and butter together once more, and while the sugar mixture is turning on a low speed, pour in the milk and butter.

Stir the flour and baking powder together and then spoon this into the batter as it all continues to mix at a low speed.  When all the flour is added, turn off the mixer and use a silicon spatula to fold any remaining flour in.

Scrape the mixture evenly into the two prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to sit on a rack for about 10 minutes before turning them out to cool completely.

When the cakes are cool, place one of them, topside down (so you have a nice flat surface for filling) and spread the jam evenly over. 

Whip the cream with the vanilla bean paste until it's just firm enough to hold it's shape.  Slather this generously over the cake, though take care not to go right to the edges as it will ooze some when the top is put on.

Place the second cake right way up (flat side to the cream) and gently straighten.

To make the icing, put the pure icing sugar in a food processor and mix it up until all the lumps are gone, add the passionfruits and mix once more.  Taste, and if you think it needs it, add the juice, go carefully though, you want it to still taste of passionfruit, not lemon, and of course, you don't want it too runny.  To make this without a processor, simply sift the icing sugar and then mix in the passionfruit and juice (if needed) by hand.    
Pour the icing over the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides.

Serves 10 approx

I love it all drizzling and dripping like this, I know my Nana didn't like this.  In fact, her choice was a thicker icing (simply reduce the quantity of passionfruits and/or lemon juice) and she'd only spread the icing to the edges.  I always wished there was more of the icing, which is why I go for this more OTT effect! 

The cream looks almost too white in this picture against the pale yellow of the cake and icing  - it's not mock cream I assure you! 

I hate to say it, but if you don't finish all this cake in one go, it's really the only option to shove it in the fridge.  The cream dictates this, it will mean the cake will firm up a little - but it will still taste absolutely amazing the next day.  Obviously you can keep it out of the fridge if you just filled it with jam or Nutella.  You can also go the traditional route for the top by just sprinkling icing sugar over.  On a little girl's ninth birthday though, once again, more is more.

The cake is so easy, and light and delightful.  Never used the hot milk method until this cake, but I have already made this cake for three celebrations, I am sure it's going to be appearing at least a couple of times a year forever more.

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Girl!

Happy St Valentine's Day 2012 too

I did some baking, a bit of easy baking, for St Valentine's Day.  You don't have to 'do' the day to enjoy cupcakes of course, but for me, an 'excuse' to bake is a good reason!  For my Valentines:  The Lovely Man, Miss 'Nearly Nine', Master Six and Master Three, chocolate is the way to their hearts.  For me, the key is simplicity. 

From How to Be a Domestic Goddess by my favourite cook, Nigella Lawson the tried and trusted Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes were the option, they're a melt and mix recipe.  You can find the original recipe on Nigella's website here.  The recipe makes a dozen, which meant these were the perfect option for my two older little tackers to take to school for their teachers too.  Spread the love far and wide I say!  I think red and pink, hearts and roses, and of course chocolate all shout Valentine, so went about putting as much of these into each cake as I could.  Chocolate, check, pink heart sprinkles, check, roses?  Well I thought I could alter the jam in the recipe to make it a little rosier!

Chocolate Cherry Rose-Scented Cupcakes

125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100g cherry jam
100g rose petal jam or jelly
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
100g dark chocolate
for the icing
100g dark chocolate, broken up
100ml double cream
1 or 2 drops rose water
loveheart sprinkles to decorate (optional)

Preheat your oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tray with papers.  I don't have especially good quality ones, so find it best to use 2 papers per muffin.

Pop the butter in a pan (that will fit all the ingredients later) on a gentle heat, start it melting, and when it's mostly melted add the chocolate. 

When the chocolate is almost melted add the two jams turn off the heat and continue to stir it all until it's combined. 

Mix in the sugar, salt and eggs, and when it's all mixed in, stir through the flour. 

Pour the mixture into the papers, filling each to about 3/4 full. 

Put the muffins in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, remove from the oven, wait a few minutes and then turn the cakes out to cool completely.

When the cakes are cooled, prepare the icing;  put the chocolate and cream into a microwave safe bowl, zap at half power for 30 seconds to one minute, remove from microwave and stir well, until the chocolate has melted.  Add ever-so cautiously just enough rose water to barely scent the ganache. 

Use a spoon to spread the ganach generously over each cupcake, sprinkle with some lovehearts and serve.

Makes 12 cupcakes

I think these are delightfully moist and tender crumbed.  Obviously the jam options are endless, but I am so pleased with this version which leaves the recipient in no uncertain terms how you feel about them! 

I love my family, I love this fun excuse to bake something delicious and decadent and to be able to indulge with my family. 

One for each of my Valentines, plenty left for teachers, and for days to come for The Lovely Man to take to work, they stay really fresh tasting for a few days.

The ganache will dull over time, but this doesn't stop them tasting delicious, at least I've never heard any complaints! 

I'm a sucker for it, and I don't care who knows!  Happy St Valentine's Day everyone!!

Happy St Valentine's Day 2012

Happy St Valentine's Day!  Look, most of the people I mingle with these days have next to no interest in this 'commercialised' day, but I LOVE it - what better day to love than a day about love?  I guess you can make it as tacky as you want or you can say it's just for the young, but that seems a bit of a waste to me.  We celebrate as a family in part, as well as The Lovely Man and I taking a few hours together alone.  I want our children left in no doubt that while of course you can and should tell someone you love that you do love them, every day or even more often, equally it can be special and fun to celebrate that love once a year. 

It's been a long time since I got flowers - this doesn't happen ever St Valentine's Day, and that makes it all the more special I think.

Over at Nigella.com  in the Kitchen Witter section there was a delightfully simple recipe for Red Velvet Pancakes which I thought would be just perfect for us to share.  A bit of King Island Cream, some Maggie Beer Strawberry Ice Cream and some fresh smelling-of-strawberries strawberries would ALL work with these little pink pikelets.

Red Velvet Pancakes/Pikelets

150g self-raising flour
1 tbsp good quality cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tbsp caster sugar
pinch salt
250ml buttermilk or runny plain yoghurt
1 large egg
1 tbsp rice bran oil or other flavourless oil
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
'blob' red food colouring or about a tsp of red liquid food colouring

Whisk together the self-raising flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar and salt until well combined. 

Using a measuring jug pop the buttermilk or yoghurt in and then add the egg, give it a whisk about before adding the oil, vanilla bean paste and red food colouring, whisk it all once more until the colour is well distributed (it can take a bit of time if using paste).

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and slowly add the wet ingredients as you stir ensuring there aren't any lumps. 

Heat a griddle or non-stick pan on medium heat, brush with a little oil and add tablespoon dollops worth of mixture onto the pan.

When you see bubbles form and pop on the surface of the little cakes, flip them over, leave them for another 30 seconds and then remove, continue with remaining mixture.

Makes about 30 pikelets, or using Nigella's measures of small ladlefulls makes about 12 pancakes
Serve with fresh raspberries or strawberries, fresh cream, strawberry ice cream, grated chocolate, whatever you fancy really!

These are gorgeously light and fluffy, delicious of course too, and just look very pretty on the plate.

There was no doubt the kidlets were thrilled with these.  In fact, Master Three ate all of his - and can I tell you, when we've visited The Pancake Parlour (which he enjoys very much) he leaves the pancakes.  He's only eaten moderately of my other pancakes in the past.  These he tucked into and went back for more.

Master Six felt that a pikelet sandwich was the go, and on St Valentine's Day, using your hands to eat seems somehow a right not a wrong.  Doesn't it look delicious??

We are a single income family, we do a lot of saving for things!  This is why, it was such an overwhelming surprise to find that The Lovely Man had bought me two gorgeously tactile bowls for me from Mud Australia!  I love to hold them in my hands, and I am going to enjoy using them.  Generally the 'stuff' we get is the mass produced item.  To have another couple of very special items which I can treasure and use, and hopefully have for years to come (The Lovely Man was paranoid about them breaking before I even unwrapped the gift because 'they're not cheap' - so he's a frugal romantic, and that's fine by me).  It's having the pleasure of art on our kitchen table. 

If you like the day, or if you don't, I hope that whatever you cook for yourself and or those you love is delicious!

Step away from the fridge!

Because I have a make ahead salsa which ideally shouldn't see the inside of a fridge.  I wouldn't want to live without a fridge, but I think I have a tendency to use it unnecessarily.  'If in doubt, shove it in the fridge'.  Really, I think a lot of us do this, the refrigerator can be used as a pantry.  Often times this is fine, but with a gorgeous salsa I think the fridge would do more harm than good.  The cold fridge would stilt the flavour development, it would kill the gorgeousness that is a wonderfully healthy side dish that could just bump the star of it's pedestal.

When we have a day like today where I need to pick up Miss Eight and Master Six from school and walk right over to another school for netball training and then walk home and have tea ready within ten minutes so that The Lovely Man can head off to pool within a half an hour, you don't want much left to the last minute.  It's easy in the cooler months to have a stew ready to reheat, but what about on these hot days?  You don't want to prepare something that is going to wilt away, but neither do you want something heavy that's been prepared earlier.  Enter salmon, taking just minutes a side.  Serving it with a packet of leaves tossed with some chickpeas, capers and dressing and, a salsa that deserves equal billing, you're on a winner. 

Salmon Fillets with Roasted Capsicum and Coriander Salsa

4-6 salmon fillets*
1 tbsp rice bran oil
for the salsa
3 large red capsicums (peppers)**
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 large ripe tomato, seeded and diced
1/3 cup finely chopped chives
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
1/2 - 1 tsp dark brown sugar
salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup roughly chopped coriander leaves

For the salsa: Prepare the capsicums by blackening them by your preferred method.  You can roast them in a hot oven, though I just put them on a griddle pan (lined first with foil, then with baking paper for easy cleaning) and turn them as they blacken.  Takes about 15 - 20 minutes.

Put the blackened capsicums into a bowl and cover with cling wrap, leave to steam for about 10 to 20 minutes - or until the have cooled enough to handle.  At this stage the blackened skin should peel away easily.  Remove the stem, membrane and any seeds at the same time.

Dice the roasted capsicum and add to a mixing bowl.  Add to this the spring onions, tomato, chives, juice, sugar, salt and pepper.  Stir it all about, cover it and set it aside - on the bench - until ready to serve.

For the salmon: Brush both sides of the salmon with the oil and place onto a preheated pan and cook for about 3 minutes a side (depending on how you like your salmon).  When it's cooked to your liking, pop he salmon on a plate

When you are ready to serve, stir the coriander through the capsicum and serve spooned over the salmon.

Serve with a side salad if desired and a wedge of lemon or lime.

Serves 4-6

*Generally 1 per person, though for us, our two youngest are happy to share a fillet between them.  Skin on or off is fine.
**You can replace the fresh capsicums with bought roasted capsicums, which have their place, but here, I find the freshly roasted capsicums are the absolutely preferred option.  It's not hard, just takes a bit of time.

The biggest risk with this recipe is picking at the salsa before serving!  You know you have to taste it for seasoning right?  And then, after it sits you need to check it again before serving.  Tempting moments, but thankfully because it's a relatively healthy dish, this is only an issue from the point of view of the other people you are feeding missing out.

What is great about this salsa is that it is a wonderful foil for salmon.  Important for a family like ours who has a Master Six 'not very fond of fish'.  When he has this salsa on his fork with a piece of salmon, he enjoys it very much.  Far more salmon is accepted with this recipe than would be without the salsa.

Proving that you just never know where a winning entry is going to come from, this recipe (slightly altered to suit me) was the 'poster girl' for February 2011 in an Amcal Pharmacy free calendar!  I rediscovered it when I was checking the months for anything important I may need to pass onto this year's calendar.  Crisis averted.  Had I just tossed the calendar out, I would have been reminiscing about a delicious salsa I made once, and no matter how I searched, I'd not be able to find it, did that once with a stained glass window biscuit recipe, I never found it again...........now, at least with this recipe I'm safe!

A Housework Treat!

My husband and I have swapped roles for a short time. Before, I had been the one working on client sites and he ran the office and the household. Now, it's the reverse.

It's kind of funny and weird in a way. I had visions of enjoying the time off and not having to do much, suffice to say in the week that I have had off I haven't stopped! I haven't rested, I haven't relaxed - well until today.

One of the new "jobs" I do now is the housework. I haven't done the housework for 5 years it's been my husband's job whilst I commuted and as he was working from home he had the time and opportunity!

Anyway, today I did the housework, all on my own, everything! (Really, there is no need for sympathy). We now live in an apartment rather than a house and it still took 3 1/2 hours to finish!

Still, the job is done, house looks clean and smells great - time to bake! That's what relaxing is to me.

I quickly made some scones, cut them square and put them in the oven, but this post isn't about them it's about the delicious cupcake you see above.

A cupcake, I thought, was a just reward for all my hard work and I just walked into the office and selected one of the cookbooks I have on the go at the moment.

The selection was the Women's Institute Cake Book. Perfect!

Quickly ran through the cupcake list in the index and spied Vanilla Cakes with Hazelnut Chocolate.

That could only mean one thing!

This product is lovely and weird all at the same time. Now technically, I can't eat chocolate and yet when I eat this I don't get the fast beating heart as I would with normal chocolate, go figure. I don't often eat this as I actually don't see it as all that healthy but hey, I had worked hard doing all the housework all on my own and I deserved a treat. Right?

These are very simple to make and can I say having just "tested" one (purely for blog posting purposes) they are the bomb!!!

The recipe states that you will get 14 cupcakes out of the recipe but I am assuming they would be patty pan size. I did normal cupcake size and I got 11. I am not complaining just saying.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Hazelnut Chocolate

115 grams softened butter
115 grams caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
115 grams self raising flour
1 tablespoon of milk
7 teaspoons (if you get 14 out of the recipe) of chocolate and hazelnut spread (Nutella)

Icing

4 tablespoon of chocolate and hazel nut spread (Nutella)
50 grams milk chocolate
2 teaspoons butter

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C or 160c Fan Forced

Place 11-14 cupcake cases in your pan (again depending on which you are using)

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla

Gradually add the beaten egg, if it looks like it's curdling just add a teaspoon or so of the flour between additions.

Add the flour and the milk

And fold until you have a dropping consistency batter

Put a small teaspoon of batter into the bottom of the cupcake case and make a dint and then place a half a teaspoonful of chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella)

Then divide the rest of the batter between each cupcake and spread evenly (I use damp fingers to make them smooth and it gives a flat finish to the cupcake)

Place in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the icing.

Place the chocolate and spread and butter into a microwave proof container

Microwave for short bursts. I did 20 seconds, mixed and then 15 seconds, but this will depend on your microwave. And it's done

Spread on top of each cupcake and enjoy.

It's nice with the surprise at the bottom!

These really do taste great and I wondered if they needed roasted crushed hazelnuts on top for a textural difference. I didn't but could, you try it and let me know. Either way these are a must make!