Jam!

My parents have a mandarin tree which always bears the sweetest mandarins I have ever tasted. Usually providing way more fruit then even our family of 6 plus all of our respective friends and loved ones can handle so a few days ago I made some mandarin jam and in the first day my family managed to eat a whole jar of it, it was so easy to make and so delicious that I decided to make another batch today.

You will need:

8 medium to large mandarins

3 1/2 cups water

the juice of one lemon

1k sugar

peel the mandarins and leave to soak for a few hours in the water and lemon juice. after soaking, bring the mandarins to the boil and then allow to simmer until they are tender. While simmering, soak your jars in very hot water, this aids in sealing the jars after jam is poured in. Add the sugar and stir through until it is dissolved. bring to a rapid boil in order for the sugar to reduce and thicken, you will have to keep a strict eye on it once the sugar is in as it can burn very quickly (I had to throw away my first batch even after my auntie told me 4 times to be very careful) stir often and turn the heat down if bubbling too much. Test the mixture in a shallow dish of cool water, when it is jellylike and stays together in the dish, remove it from heat. pour into the jars and put the lid on immediately.

Key Lime Pie

James gave me some limes a few weeks ago and all they have been doing is sitting in the fridge. As I had such great success with my lemon meringue pie over easter (still waiting for my brother to give me the pics so I haven't been able to post the recipe yet) I decided to make another citrus pie... and of course what pie should I make with limes but the famous American Key Lime Pie....

You will need:

1 packet shredded wheat biscuits

100g butter

1 tin condensed milk

2/3 cup of cream

4 good size limes (the juice and the zest are both used)

4 medium eggs

oven preheated to 170 degrees celsius

a greased pie dish

I started by crushing the biscuits up finely and adding the butter (melted) to the mix and pressed it all into the base and sides of the pie dish. It's ideal to push the mixture in quite firmly so it sticks. Put this in the fridge to chill

Lightly beat the eggs and then whisk the cream into them, add the condensed milk and lime juice and zest and mix through

traditionally green food colouring is a no no. but hey... it just looks so pretty (I only added 3 drops, any more and you have a pie that looks like it's made from playdough)

Pour the mixture into the pie dish and bake for about 15 mins.

Allow to cool and then pop in the fridge for a couple of hours.

soup and seafood

So the other day James and I went to Sunnybank for lunch.. we went to our favourite Japanese restaurant there and our food was amazing as always. I had Tempura prawn and veggie udon and James had a Miso based egg noodle soup. We had sweet potato's which had been crystalised in honey and a pot of Japanese green tea... heaven

red wine, steak and bacon pie with mushy peas

to make 6:

1 kg diced steak

6 rashers bacon

1 tbspn tomato paste

1L liquid beef stock

1 tbspn cornflour

1 cup red wine

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 basil leaf

handful chopped fresh basil

1 tbspn olive oil

lightly fry chopped onion and garlic and add the cornflour to make a paste.

add the tomato paste and fresh herbs

fry off the steak and bacon in a seperate pan to seal in the juices and add to paste

add the beef stock (you may not need to use the whole litre just see how its looking) and the red wine (you may add more of this and less beef stock if you wish!)

add basil leaf and allow to simmer for an hour on low heat.

you want the consistency to be thick like a gravy so if its looking like too much liquid let it boil down a little more and maybe add a little more flour.

to make the mushy peas boil 1/2 bag to a bag of frozen peas till soft and blend into a paste, dont puree it completely as the texture is not as good. add a teaspoon of vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

i used my shortcrust pie recipe from earlier to make the pastry lids for this but puff pastry is also very good with it.

spoon the mixture into miniature pie dishes or just one large one and layer the peas over top, pop on the lids and brush with milk and bake in a 180 degree oven until pastry is golden,

i prefer to serve this with homemade sweet potato chips,

enjoy

tea party

i spent this afternoon baking pikelets and having a tea part with my gorgeous little friend from next door. (she's the one in charge of mixing whenever i cook), enjoy

my simple pikelet recipe is as follows,

add

3/4 cup milk

1 cup SR flour

3 tbspn sugar

1 egg

2 tspn melted butter

splash vanilla essence

sprinkle of all spice

to a bowl and mix thoroughly (this is where the little helper comes in handy)

put a little butter in a hot pan and spoon the mixture out into it, making small, round pikelets, cook till golden (about 2 mins either side) and serve with plenty of strawberry jam and a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

baked fish

to make:

get 4 fillets of any white fish and brush them with oil, crumb them with dukkah and pop into a baking dish, sprinkle pumpkin seeds and crushed garlic over the top and top with lime slices, then put in the oven on high for about 15 mins or until flaky.

to make the sauce put 1/4 of a cup of whole egg mayonnaise in a bowl and then add the following:

2 heaped tbsp mustard pickles

1 tspn of unsalted tomato paste/ketchup

a liberal sprinkling of chilli powder

2 tspn ground tumeric

1 tspn vinegar

when fish is ready top with the sauce and a lime slice and serve with your favourite veggies.

Homemade Toasted Muesli

this recipe is so easy to do and tastes really yummy, you can make enough for a few days and store it in an airtight container. It's crunchier than store bought and you can tailor it to what you like in your muesli.... or what you have in your cupboard. you can use and nuts, seeds or dried fruit you wish. To make the one above...

Get a large shallow baking tray and spread plain rolled oats evenly over the tray.

Add almonds (untoasted),hazlenuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds and shredded coconut

Add 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp olive oil

toast lightly in the oven

When muesli is toasted add 2 large handfuls of dried berries and sultanas

serve with milk or yoghurt and enjoy. you will find this muesli sweet enough so you dont even need to add any sweetener before serving

ugh too much cake mix...

Ricky's Birthday Cupcakes.

So Ricky wanted cupcakes for his birthday as he is very partial to my cupcake recipe. I made a double batch and iced them in green and blue. I used my normal butter cream icing and in the blue i used creaming soda jelly crystals and a splash of rose water essence, its tastes like creamy vanilla and turkish delight with lovely little crunchy candy peices throughout. The green icing was given a good dose of musk flavoured essence (bought for making homemade musk sticks but never used) and after writing his name on 5 of them i decorated the other green ones with a swirl of darker green and some green tea flavoured pokki!

mrraaaow

Tegan's Birthday Cake.

She wanted a cat stretching which was going to present a few problems as the cake would have been too thin, after much deliberating i used a whole round cake for the body and then cut a square cake into the pieces i needed to make it look like a cat. I was a little disappointed with the cake on the whole but for a first time effort, on the day of the party i think it worked out rather well, and it tasted delicious, i just used my basic vanilla cupcake recipe and doubled it for this cake and then used a butter cream icing.