A good helping

There are so many foodie movies, Julie and Julia, Big Night, Chocolat, this list goes on. Sometimes you can find a little surprise plate when you least expect it.
Recently I saw The Help, and not only did it leave me knowing that "I is good, I is kind, I is important" but also all I could think about was how tasty Minny's fried chicken and okra looked. I had to have it!
After I had satisfied that desire I found the need evolved into making some of Minny's pies, I did omit her special ingredient. If you haven't seen it i won't spoil it, you must see it, you will never think of pie the same way again.

 

Fried Chicken and Okra
This recipe is very flexible you can use any cut of chicken and mix the spices the way you like them. Normally I use garam marsala as my "KFC" type fried chicken but when I was making this I had run out, I know I was shocked too!
Into about a cup and half (don't measure it just guess) I added a Pandora's box of spices. No measuring just a bit of this and a touch of that, go wild!
These are what ended up in the flour:

• Chinese 5 spice
• Ground coriander
• Ground cinnamon
• Ras le hanout
• Paprika
• Salt
• Pepper
• All spice
• Ground Cumin
• Chilli
• Sesame seeds

The chicken pieces I marinated in soy sauce while I made the flour.

Heat a deep saucepan of which ever oil you prefer to fry in, I had canola.

Drain the chicken and then coat in the flour.
In the hot oil fry till just crispy and then finish cooking in a 180° oven for about 20mins or until chicken is cooked. This will help keep the chicken juicy without it drying out from the fast cooking in the oil.

For the Okra.
Simply cut the stalk end of the okra and and coat it in the flour.
Fry in the hot oil for about 3 mins till crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

This recipe isn't really even a recipe more of just a method but it tastes soooooooo good. I'm sure it's not a patch on the real southern fried chicken but sometimes you do what ever you have too to satisfy a fried chicken need!

Looks aren't everything, but they help!

One thing I am loving about this cooking adventure are the happy snaps. Instagram is the best invention since sliced sourdough!
A picture tells 1000 words so next time I need to write a report I think I'll try and Instagram it, 5 snaps 5000 words, transaction complete.
I have had a bit of time on my hands the last weeks so I have been preparing for the remote chance of the onset of famine.
So far 2 cheeses made, a Parmesan and a farmhouse pepper cheddar. The Parmesan is nine months from being ready so just enough time to paint the nursery and think of some names.
Home made pomegranate molasses, limoncello, blueberry friands.
Gave life to a sour dough starter, still haven't come up with a name, suggestions greatly welcomed
Cleaned the pantry and paid the garden a little bit of attention.
Whiped up a croquembouche and some adorable puppy dog cupcakes (stolen idea from a twitter pic, i love the inspirations from the internet)
And even managed to fit in Yum Cha two sundays in a row, life is good!
The broken fence has been replaced so it could be weeks (hopefully not months) away from getting some little chickens, bring on the pavlova and quiche....or it's off with their heads!!

Oh it's a cake

It can be a big step to go from buying supermarket cakes to making your own packet mix, to the ultimate of doing it from scratch. This is a simple guide that you can not muck up. The blueberry pound cake is a favourite of a friend of mine, who with some inspiration will become a star baker (maybe). I have dreams this might be a To Sir with Love moment but instead of taking her from crayons to perfume, I'll take her from filling the cannoli to making them as well.

Blueberry Pound Cake
based on the basic pound cake at www.taste.com.au
Ingredients

• 250g butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 4 eggs
• 250g (1 2/3 cups plan flour)
• 3 tsp of baking powder
• 1 cup blueberries (thawed if using frozen)
• icing sugar to dust or cream cheese icing.

Method

• Preheat oven to 170 °C
• Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. (Use electric beaters or bench top machine)
• Add eggs one at a time to combine into mixture, (this is an important stage that it doesn't curdle, but in the end it will still be cake, just serve with ice cream)
• Sift flour and baking powder into mix and fold in. (be gentle)
• Into greased bundt or cake tin put half the mixture, it will be thick and doughy.
• sprinkle the blueberries over batter.
• cover with remaining batter.
• Put cake tin on an oven tray and bake for 50 mins.
• Test cake is ready by poking a skewer into the cake and checking it comes out clean.
• Wait 5 mins and then turn cake onto cake cooler or serving plate.
• Dust with icing sugar to serve or cream cheese icing (that will be lesson 2)

hola chico's

The fun never stops with ice creams flavours, there truly are no rules. OK maybe the meat lovers was a step to far, as i'm often reminded but somebody had to do it.
AB loves Chicos, every birthday or christmas present is always accompanied by a couple of bags of Chicos, transaction complete.
Chico ice cream was the natural progression.
It follows the base ice cream recipe, with the addition of 3/4 of a bag of chicos stirred through when the custard is hot.

Ice cream base

·         6 egg yolks

·         ½ cups sugar

·         3 cups of milk

·         1/2 cup cream (optional)

Method

·         In a heavy base saucepan add eggs, milk, sugar, cream and whisk.

·         Keep stirring over a low heat until the custard thickening enough to coat the back of a spoon.

·         Be careful not to overcook it or it will curdle.

 

·       Chill on ice or in the fridge overnight.

·         Put into ice cream machine as per manufactures instructions

·         And churn

A few sprinkles and topped with a Chico, must take picture before it melts or gets eaten.

You say gelato I say gelati

My love affair with gelato started on my first trip to Rome and a dish of banana gelato. I had ordered lemon but either the waiter was a little hard of hearing or my Italian wasn’t what it is today, but I ended up with banana. Prior to this my experience of  banana ice-cream was that hideous artificial yellow chemical enhanced iced confection that has never been next to a real banana let alone be made of any.  In one Italian mouthful my world changed, banana, and very little else, real banana.

There are so many variations of the ice cream gelato base recipe; you just need to go with one that works for your tastes. Cream, no cream, whole eggs, just yolks, and the amount of sugar can vary by the cup load.

Christmas was at our house a couple of years ago so for dessert I did a gelato bar. This gave me plenty of practice to find the base I liked, as well as experimental flavours, the highlight was meat lovers!

Lemon lime and bitters gelato

·         6 egg yolks

·         ½ cups sugar

·         3 cups of milk

·         ½ cup lemon lime and bitters butter

Method

·         In a heavy base saucepan add eggs, milk, sugar, and whisk.

·         Keep stirring over a low heat until the custard thickening enough to coat the back of a spoon.

·         Be careful not to overcook it or it will curdle.

·         Pass through a sieve and either chill on ice or in the fridge overnight.

·         Put into ice cream machine as per manufactures instructions

·         Add the lemon lime and bitters butter

·         And churn

Serve with blueberries or just as it is.

Lemon lime and bitters butter (say that 3 times drunk)

·         Juice of 2 lemons

·         Juice and zest of 1 lime

·         2 eggs

·         ½ cup sugar

·         100g chilled unsalted butter, chopped rough.

·         5-10 ml Angostura bitters (about 3-4 bottle shakes)

Method

·         Add all except the bitters to a saucepan and stir over a low-medium heat.

·         Once the curd is at the thickness required take it off the heat and add the bitters.

·         Cool before adding to ice-cream.

It can also be used for toast or as cake filling. I’m not sure how long it will last, it’s never survived overnight in my house

Most important meal of the day

As if there is an unimportant meal of the day or ever for that matter. I have a love hate relationship with porridge.  Done well it can be the most wonderful way to start the day, and healthy as well.  You may think that it is because of the layer of honey, golden syrup or brown sugar that is amassed on top it is such a comfort food.

Alas as I child I wasn’t allowed to have sugar on top as it would make me fat, well I dunno what happened, there must be some other explanation. I never add sugar to coffee or tea and would usually opt for a savoury plate rather than a sweet (unless it’s a crisp coconut biscuit), so there must be hidden sugar just waiting out there to get me.  

If I did some research it would probably freak me out to see all the hidden sugar there is and I’d end up just eating home grown mung beans, so best not research I say.

Done badly and porridge has us all thinking back to our school days and that bottle of Clag with the lid that didn’t make all the way back on.

My jaded past with porridge stems back to a hotel buffet breakfast, that had a great selection of delights but was poorly laid out. Who would put the chipolata sausages behind the porridge in the bain maire?? No really who would do that; you know where this is going.  

Needless to say 1 pair of over heated tongs and the next thing there were sausages performing Olympic synchronized diving straight into the porridge.

Dilemma do I stay and fish them out or do I just walk away very quickly, you know we would all just work away quickly.  So to the vegetarian that only had the porridge to look forward to that morning, I am truly sorry.

Rest assured that each time I stay in a hotel now there is a sweep of the porridge to sausage location proximity just to see if I am able to proceed unaided.

2016 update: During my stay in Stockholm for Eurovision there was a concerning moment when I realised the porridge was right next the sausages again! 

Thankfully there are no international sausage related incidents to report on...

Date and Almond Porridge.

·         1 cup rolled oats

·         1.5 cups milk (full or light or non dairy)

·         ½ cup pitted dates (dried or fresh)

·         ¼ cup almonds (slivered, flaked, whole, choice is yours)

·         ¼ tsp. cinnamon

Method

·         Add all ingredients to a large saucepan and simmer on medium heat till a soft porridge consistency, about 15 minutes

·         Add brown sugar/honey to taste (remember the childhood fat warning, or not and live a happy guilt free life)

To speed up the cooking time you can soak the oats in the milk/water, in the fridge overnight.

Some recipes say boil and then simmer, but I go for a slow simmer as porridge is very easy to catch on the pan. If that happens to make cleaning simpler, soak pan in a small layer of water and about half a cup of bi carb soda.

Just be wary of stray sausages in the porridge, if ever there is a life lesson to be learned it is to be wary of stray sausages!

Post updated with new photos July 2016

Going old school

I like to do a periodic clean-up, the one where you decide to empty the cupboards to throw out anything you don’t need, but spend the day going through the gems you thought you’d lost forever. This is followed by the several days of it all staying out because by the time you have reminisced with old items, you’re too tired to put it all away.

In the latest endeavour I discovered an old recipe book I had complied years ago, before the internet was on phones and just computers.  A few odds and ends, a Nigella salad recipe I had seen, a few magazine clippings but the prize was a Women’s Weekly recipe card.  

I’d had a complete set till they didn’t survive a clean-up about 100 years ago, then I managed to find a set at an op shop, I’m hoping they have survived but I’m too scared to look.  If all else fails there is always eBay!

The card was for a recipe I first started making when I was a child, crisp coconut biscuits.

This latest batch was a glorious trip down memory lane, and prompted the question “are you going to make the Georgie Parker cookies too?”  So named because she was on the cover of the Women’s Weekly that month, “yes I think I must” stay tuned.

Crisp coconut biscuits

·         125g butter

·         1 cup caster sugar (plus extra for topping)

·         1 egg

·         2 cups self-raising flour

·         Pinch of salt

·         1 cup coconut

Method

·         Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

·         Cream butter and sugar

·         Add egg, mix

·         Add flour salt and coconut, mix

·         Roll into balls and flatten slightly

·         Dip top in extra sugar

·         Place on greased oven tray, they will spread slightly

·         The size of the biscuit is up to you.

·         Bake in moderate oven for 10-15 mins

·         Cool on a cake rake, they will harden as they cook.

I also used this recipe in mini spring form cake tins as a pastry base.

This little treasure was the cake tin bases with cream and strawberry, all natural it's almost a health food???