A Little Bit of Orange

I've been all about blue and green lately.

But a bit of orange snuck into my home via my cooking today.

Pumpkin Soup...

and Mango Icecream...

I'm in love with my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker which I got for Christmas - it's wonderful to be able to share ice cream with Miss Seven, who can't have the shop bought stuff due to her peanut allergy.  I couldn't find a good mango ice cream recipe so I just winged it and it turned out absolutely delicious...though I forgot to write down how much of everything I put in, so unfortunately I don't have a recipe for you.  I will probably never make mango icecream as nicely again...oh well.  Also, those that know the extra fattening divineness that goes into making good homemade icecream will know that one scoop is enough and I definately didn't eat all three of the scoops that you see in my photo.  Maybe.

I can share my pumpkin soup recipe though,  I've been making it forever so I have no idea where it's from but it's super (souper? ha ha) simple and Miss Seven (who refuses to eat pumpkin in it's whole form) actually asks for me to make it.

Lillabilly's Delicious Pumpkin Soup 

Ingredients

1kg Pumpkin - get some nice golden orange stuff!

1 Onion

4 cups of chicken stock (you can use vegetable stock if you want to make a vegetarian version)

1 tblspn sugar

Fresh fine ground pepper to taste

1 cup of single cream

Salt (perhaps)

Method

Dice up the pumpkin and onion  and add them, the sugar, pepper and the stock to a saucepan.  Bring to boil, then simmer until everything is nice and soft.  (I leave it for a couple of hours)  Switch off and allow to cool, then puree completely in a blender or food processer.  Pour back into saucepan, add cream and mix through.  Reheat (taste and add salt only if necessary) and serve!

Extra nice with some sort of toasty bread to dip!

You should also head on over here to How About Orange which is a nice place to go when you are keen on some extra orangey lovliness amongst all sorts of other interesting things.

Muesli Squares

Have you ever made your own muesli bars?  If not, you should try!  It's super easy and you can put in whatever grains, seeds, nuts or fruit you like!  Or leave them out if you don't like.  It's really versatile and the combinations are as limited as your imagination and taste buds will allow.

I found my recipe here, but I changed it to suit my own ingredients because while I was cleaning out my pantry recently, I discovered this...

I think I may have bought it at the beginning of the year with lots of good intentions to start eating a nice healthy breakfast (it is awesomely delicious mixed with greek yoghurt and fresh blueberries), but somehow it got pushed to the back of the cupboard and forgotton.  Since the best before date is the end of the month, I figured there was no way I could slog through a whole box of muesli  in a few weeks, so muesli bars (or squares, in my case) would be perfect!

Instead of including a whole heap of seperate dry ingredients, I simply added up the amount needed in the original recipe (five cups), used the muesli (which came to four cups) and topped it up with the last of Miss Six's cornflakes, the last of a packet of craisins (dried cranberries) and some extra sultanas to make the five cups.  Not only did I get some yummy muesli treats, but I got more space in my pantry too!

So here's my recipe...

Homemade Muesli Squares

Ingredients

5 cups of dry ingredients (cereal, grains, dried fruits, seeds, nuts, whatever you like)
125g unsalted butter
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Grease and line a 3cm deep, 16cm x 28cm (base) baking pan with baking paper. Cook your dry ingredients (without fruit, although I didn't bother seperating the stuff that was already in the muesli) in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring, for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden.

Transfer to a bowl. Set aside to cool. Stir in dried fruit if you are adding extra.

 

2. Cook butter, honey and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until sugar dissolves. 

Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, without stirring, for 7 minutes or until mixture forms a soft ball when a little is dropped into ice-cold water. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until combined

3. Spoon mixture into pan. Use a large metal spoon to press down firmly.

Cook in oven for 5-7 minutes.  Allow to cool. Cut into squares - it may still be quite soft but will harden up a bit on refridgeration. Store in an airtight container (I put baking paper between layers to stop the pieces sticking together)  in the fridge.

Obviously these are designated snackage for myself and the hubby as the muesli I used is not nut-allergy friendly for Miss Six (it has almonds, which she is actually not allergic to, but just in case) so I am working on a nut free version for her to take in her lunchbox to school.

Here's the finished product with a little more blue/green love and a sneek peak of my latest crochet project.

 

Yum!  If you'd like some more baking inspiration, head on over to the girls at A Spoonful Of Sugar for some yummy ideas and links to which you can add your own delicious treats!
Happy baking!

The Most Delicious Easiest Peasiest Banana Cake Ever

Can you believe that we still have these sitting in our pantry?

I think it's testament to how much choc Miss Six actually received at Easter time!  I must admit though, since it's hard to buy nut free chocolate for her at other times of the year, we all tend to go overboard a bit.

So anyhow, I suggested to Miss Six that we could add some of her chocolate to some nice lunchbox treats which would mean that not only would she get to eat chocolate at school (not something I normally let her do) but that we'd be able to get through a bit more of that stash.  She whole heartedly agreed and was even generous enough to say that she didn't mind sharing one or two treats with me because "the baby might like to try some of my choc too."  Awww, caring and sharing!

So I turned to my most favourite banana cake recipe which I just love to make into cupcakes.  If you are  short of time and want something yumalicious that you can make in an instant for lunchboxes or afternoon teas or special treats - this is definately it!  I found the recipe a while ago here and it's been one of my most used recipes ever since.  I can imagine it would even make a pretty nice birthday cake with some chocolate or cream cheese icing. You can also go mad with toppings such as choc chips, cinnamon or coffee sugar (you know the large granulated stuff?)  And it's so very easy with hardly any washing up - I wish every cake recipe was like this one!

Quick and Easy Banana Cake

Ingredients
125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tspn vanilla essence (I use extract, it's nicer!  Yes, I am an essence snob)
1 egg
2 ripe bananas, mashed (older bananas taste better)
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour
1/4 cup milk
As much as you like of broken choc pieces or choc chips if you want these through the cake.  We used broken pieces of two large bunnies for the cake mixture and a smaller one for the tops.

Method

1. Melt butter, sugar and essence (extract!) in a medium sized saucepan.
2. Remove from heat
3. Add mashed bananas and stir through until blended
4. Add egg and mix in well.  Stir in flour, add milk and mix in lightly.
5. Stir through your choc if you are using it.
6. Spoon into patty papers or pour into non-stick cake tin
7..  Bake at 170 deg celcius for approx 40 minutes (or about 15-20 minutes for muffins/cupcakes and 6 minutes for mini muffins or fairy cakes)


Before baking...

 

And after...

 

And with a sprinkle of icing sugar and a hot cup of tea, here was my the baby's share...

Miss Six rated them as "Extra-extra-yum!"  and from the amount of kicking I was receiving before I ate to the complete stillness afterwards, I can only assume the baby did too.

Paw Paw Chutney

At the moment we have way too many paw paws.  Despite giving lots away to family and friends and the resident possum sneaking a few when we got a little slack about picking them, we are still usually left with a back log of three or four.  And I can only eat so much paw paw!  So what do you do when you have too much paw paw?  Make paw paw chutney, of course!  (But you already had that worked out, didn't you?  'Cause you were clever and read the title!)

And how great is the internet?  You ask and it provides.  I found a few fabulous chutney recipes, got hubby to choose one he thought he might like the best and set about making chutney.

The recipe I used is here by Chef Alison Alexander at the 612 ABC website but for quick reference and with a few of my own added hints, here it is below as well.  It requires that you make a "spiced vinegar" to go in the chutney so a good bit of time is needed if you decide to make this.  But it's well worth it.  And there is also a maturing time of 4 weeks for the flavours to develop.  During the making I was a bit alarmed at how vinegary it smelt (talk about burn out your nasal passages!) and even tasted at the end.  But I put the last spoonful that couldn't fit into my bottles, in a dish, in the fridge and sampled it the next morning.  It was absolutely divine and not a bit vinegary in the least.  I can only imagine how good it will be after four weeks.

If you are going to have a go, don't forget to sterilize your jars first.  It's quite easy, the way I do it is to fully immerse the jars and lids in a pot of water, bring to boiling point and boil for 10 minutes.  I remove them with tongs and place them on a tray in a slow oven to dry for about another ten minutes.  Then allow them to cool before filling.

Paw Paw Chutney

by Chef Alison Alexander

Bracketed notes by Lillabilly

Ingredients

Spiced Vinegar:

2.5 litres vinegar (I used white)

250 g sugar (I used white for this too)

60g bruised ginger (peel fresh ginger and "bruise" by pressing down on it with the flat of your large knife or by giving it a bit of a bash with a mallet)

2 bay leaves

2 blades mace (I couldn't find this, but the nearest substitute is nutmeg.  I used 1/4 tsp)

6 whole cloves

1/2 cinnamon quill

2 tblespns white peppercorns (I couldn't find these either so I used the mixed variety)

1 tblespn white mustard seed

1 tsp salt

Chutney

1.5 kg paw paw, ripe or slightly under-ripe

1 kg ripe tomatos skinned (do this by immersing the tomatos in boiling water until the skins split.  They will then come off quite easily when you rub them.  I'm not a fan of tomatos seeds in things so I squished mine to get most of the seeds out and chopped them roughly too, make sure you measure a kilo after you do that)

2 hot chillies, seeds removed (I finely chopped these)

500g sultanas (go through these by the handful to ensure none have tiny hard stems still attatched)

30g finely grated ginger

30g finely chopped garlic

2 onions, very finely chopped (I used brown)

1 tblspn salt

500g brown sugar

Method

1.Vinegar: Place all ingredients in a large stainless steel pot and bring slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Simmer uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to stand, covered, for 1 hour.  Strain vinegar (use a fine seive to get that nutmeg out) and pour into sterilized bottles for later use.  (Since you only need 1.2 litres for the chutney, I put that amount aside and put the rest in a bottle.  Not sure what I'll do with it yet!)

2. Chutney: Dice paw paw and place into large (Yes! It needs to be large!) stainless steel pot with remaining ingredients and 1.2 litres of spiced vinegar.  Slowly bring to boil then simmer for 2 hours or until mixture has a jam like consistency.  ( I stirred mine fairly regularly.  You will need to make sure you watch the heat and stir it a bit towards the end when there is hardly any liquid left or it will burn.  Turn the heat down a bit at this stage if needed and don't walk away!)

3. Remove from heat and spoon into sterilized jars and seal immediately.  Store in a cool dark place (Once my jars had cooled completely I put them in the fridge 'cause I'm paranoid like that)  Allow to mature for 4 weeks before using.  Chutney very good with pork, ham or lamb (or beef! or on meat, cheese and salad sangas!)

For a smoother texture, paw paw, tomatos, chillies, sultanas, ginger and onions can be pureed in a food processor before cooking.  (I like chutney to have a bit of body to it and most of it cooks down to be very soft and squishy so I think finely chopping everything is a nicer way to go.  But you might not!  So you should definately do whatever you think you might like better.)

And that's it!  It makes heaps - I filled about 8 medium sized jars and a couple of smaller ones so there is lots for sharing around or giving as gifts.  Here's some of my finished product happily maturing away.

 Can't wait to try it out!  Do let me know if you have a go of this.  Happy chutneying, everyone!

Friday Lunchbox #1

In an effort to inspire myself a little more when making my daughter's school lunches, thus begins "Friday Lunchbox".  Hope you feel inspired too!

Here is today's...

Morning Tea - fresh strawberries, stove popped popcorn (gotta love those Nude Food Movers containers)
Lunch - Stromboli and banana (yes those are butterfly and flower stickers on that banana, Miss 5 gets all excited when she finds those)
Drink - Water (not pictured)

The stromboli recipe comes from this book...

...which I picked up a number of years ago at one of those discount book places that pop up in the middle of shopping malls every now and then.  Basically a stromboli is like a pizza which is rolled up, baked and sliced.  YUM!

Here's how you make it.

Stromboli

Easy Bread Base Ingredients
2 tspn dried yeast
1 cup plus 2 tblspn warm water
2 tspn sugar (I used caster sugar)
1 tspn salt
2 tblespn olive oil
3 cups of high grade/bread flour

Method
Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
Measure the first 5 ingredients and 1 cup of flour into a large bowl.  Mix until well combined.  Cover bowl and leave for 15 minutes.  Stir in remaininig flour (adding extra if necessary) to make dough just firm enough to knead.  Knead for 10 minutes, then return to bowl, cover and rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Roll dough into a very large thin rectangle (sorry about the poor picture quality here, it was a gloomy day and the indoor lights just didn't cut it!)

Top like a pizza (use toppings SPARINGLY).

I used a sachet of Fountain Pizza Sauce, about 1/4 red capsicum, 1 mushroom, 1/2 brown onion, 10 kalamata olives, fresh basil, Masterfoods "Italian Dried Herbs" and about a half cup of grated cheddar cheese.  I chopped the capsicum, mushroom and onion very finely as Miss 5 won't eat them if they are chunky, whereas she loves the olives in bigger pieces.

Before the cheese...

After the cheese...

Roll the dough up and press any openings firmly shut.  Slash the top diagonally to prevent splitting, then bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden.  If it is cooked all the way through, the stromboli should sound hollow when you tap it on the top.

Before cooking...

After...

You can see it's a little mishapen on the left side near the base (toward the top of the photo) - it actually split a little.  I will make the cuts on top a bit deeper next time as the ones I made just seemed to seal up rather than open to let the heat and moisture out.  It was no biggie though - as I didn't overstuff the inside, not much came out.

And here is the final product...

It's completely delicious and despite my dodgy oven, an absolute success - the bread is lovely and soft (kneading the full 10 minutes really helps here) and I know I'm going to have lots of fun experimenting with the fillings.

If you get the time, do try it - I'd love to hear how you go!

How Does My Garden Grow...And The Best Pie Recipe Ever.

Well, now that the school holiday madness is over I can finally get back to some blog love!

Even though it's the middle of winter here, my vegetable patch is coming along quite nicely right now with a multitude of healthy deliciousness just waiting to ripen or to be picked and eaten.

Growing up with migrant parents from farming backgrounds who've always grown their own foods, I've always known that the stuff you grow yourself beats the stuff you buy from the supermarket, hands down, for quality, flavour and freshness.  But having my own child now means that it's even more important to me that my family eat produce of the highest standard, not only to keep us healthy but to help little growing bodies be the best that they can be.

Growing up, I was always a little embarrassed that my parents grew their own vegetables.  No one else I knew did this and who doesn't want to be the same as everyone else as a kid?  I was already the little dark haired, dark eyed, olive skinned girl with the home-sewn uniform in a sea of blondes, light browns and red heads who only owned and ate store bought stuff.  To then have a family that did things so differently from everyone else was quite mortifying.  This feeling was magnified when I was older, out of home and only growing a few herbs of my own to use in cooking when a friend noticed them and jokingly (and slightly mockingly) told me I was going to turn out exactly like my parents.  I was outraged!!  There was no way I was going to be anything like my parents!  Right?  Right??

Flip to many years ahead, the global financial crisis, the growing cost of food and the big question marks over whether the things we eat which are covered with pesticides or highly processed or full of presevatives, additives, flavours and colours are really the best stuff to be putting in our bodies and giving to our families and I knew already which direction I would take. So I took it.  And then, suddenly, the things which my family had been doing for decades became the latest trend and everyone was on the homegrown, homecooked, homemade wagon.

I visited my friend (the one I mentioned earlier) not so long back and upon glancing out her back door noticed a big plastic container with some struggling, wilty herbs growing in dry, poor soil.
 "Hey!" I said "You're growing stuff!"
"Yeah," she replied "Herbs are just so expensive so I thought I'd try to grow my own.  But they arn't really doing much and I don't know why."
I knew why.  I knew exactly why.  And so I told her what to do.
"Thanks!" she said brightly.  "I'll try that out!"
 
And in that very moment the realisation came rushing home, striking me completely and fully out of the blue.  I was never, ever prouder than that precise moment, to be exactly like my parents.

***

Anyway, now you know a little about the background behind why I grow things, here's a small sample of what's happening in my garden right now.

I pulled up these little beauties this morning, they will be lovely with  barbequed morrocan chicken kebabs and couscous tonight. These guys can easily grow three or four times bigger than this but I didn't thin the crop out when I planted them and as they are starting to get quite crowded, the smaller ones needed some growing space, so up came these!  Besides, they are sooooo tender and flavoursome when they are babies!!

Some developing pea pods, climbing bean plants beginning their ascent and green truss tomatoes.   We have a resident possum who likes to sample the tomatoes once they begin to ripen.  I can't ever leave them for just one extra day because I will always come out the next morning to discover a big chunk out of the ripest side.  Naughty possum!  As a result I pick them the moment they begin to blush and they ripen beautifully on my kitchen bench.

  

Nasturtiums growing in amongst the vegetables.  Both petals (which I also have growing in red and yellow) and leaves can be used in salads and have a peppery taste.   My daughter loves the leaves of the plant in the top photo because "it looks just like someone painted them!"  Garden faries perhaps?  Shame they don't chase the possum away!

 Cos and mignonette lettuce varieties and the biggest english spinich leaves I've ever grown!

And lots and lots of silverbeet.

This is about the third crop of silverbeet I've had this winter.  I always used to hate it with a passion as a child, mostly because it would be served simply steamed...bleh!  I couldn't really imagine eating it that way even as a grown up.  My most favourite way now is in a pie with lots of cheese, perhaps not the least fattening way but then, I like to think that I've earnt it after all the hard work that goes into growing all my veges in the first place.  If you would like to try it out, here's the recipe.  I really can't take credit for it as although I've changed it slightly, it's pretty much right off the side of the fillo pastry box (thanks Pampas!) but of all the recipes I've tried, it's been the absolute best.  Yum!

SILVERBEET AND THREE CHEESE PIE

 INGREDIENTS
20 Sheets Fillo pastry
1 large bunch Silverbeet with stalks, washed and finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped mint
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
125g fetta cheese
125g ricotta cheese
60g parmesan cheese, grated
black pepper
olive oil spray
poppy or sesame seeds

METHOD
1.  Cook the silverbeet by placing it in a  lidded saucepan on medium heat and stir occasionally.  Do not add water as the silverbeet will develop it's own water as it cooks.  Drain well (I like to put it in a large sieve and press it with a spoon to get out all the liquid).  Add onions, herbs, nutmeg, eggs, fetta, parmesan and pepper.  Mix well.

2.  Lightly oil a 26cm dia quiche dish and also spray first 10 sheets of fillo pastry lightly, arranging in dish to cover base and sides.

3.  Spoon the filling into the pastry.  Spray and layer the remaining pastry on top of the filling, folding the edges in to give a ruffled finish.  Sprinkle top with seeds of your choice.

4.  Bake in a preheated oven (170 deg fan forced/ 190 deg conventional) for forty minutes or until golden.

Here it is with my very own peas, corn and carrots (which have been coated with honey from a local grower).  I'm pretty proud to say that not only the silverbeet, but the spring onions, mint and parsley in the pie also came from my garden.  Oh and the eggs in the pie were free range, organic, jumbo sized ones from our local farmers markets.  We will have our own chickens one day,  but until then the farmers markets ones are brilliant and so much better (and cheaper!) than anything I could buy from the supermarket.  Also, for those of you who have an oven as dodgy as mine, you may want to cover the outer edge of the pie in aluminium foil for the first thirty minutes and uncover to brown in the last ten.  If I don't do this, the ruffled edge burns to a crisp!!

Enjoy!