Thai Chicken Curry

This is a great recipe for a cook ahead dinner. The fragrant sauce can be prepared well ahead of time, ready to simmer chicken.

Ingredients:
2 T green curry paste
1 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 c chicken stock or water
400 ml can of coconut cream
2 T fish sauce
finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon
salt and ground black pepper
1 kg boneless chicken thighs, thinly sliced
sliced spring onions
1/2 c toasted cashew nuts
Optional: 6 - 8 dried curry leaves or fresh lime leaves

Method:

1. In a large heavy saucepan heat oil and fry curry paste for about a minute.
2. Add coconut cream, stock or water, fish sauce, lemon rind and optional curry leaves and simmer for 10 minutes. Sauce can be prepared ahead to this point and stored in the fridge.
3. When ready to serve, add the sliced chicken.
4. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly and leave to cook on lowest possible heat for 5 - 6 minutes without uncovering until the chicken is cooked and has turned opaque.
5. Do not over cook.
6. Season to taste and garnish with spring onion and cashew nuts.

Serves 6 - 8 as a main course.

Note: you can experiment by adding vegetables to this recipe. I like to add in a little sliced capsicum.

Choclate Truffle Fudge Cake

Ingredients:
125 g butter
1/4 c caster sugar
2 T golden syrup
2 T milk
2 T drinking chocolate
1 T cocoa
1 pkt plain sweet biscuits, crushed
1 1/2 c chocolate cake crumbs or crumbled sponge cake
nip of whisky or rum
60 g cherries, chopped
1/3 c raisins
250 g dark chocolate, melted for icing

Method:

1. Heat butter, sugar, milk and syrup over a low-medium heat.
2. Add drinking chocolate, cocoa and 1/2 biscuits and mix.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix.
4. Press into 20cm sandwich tin or flan dish.
5. Melt chocolate in a bowl over boiling water.
6. Spread melted chocolate over slice to ice.
7. Allow to set.
8. Cut with a sharp hot knife.
9. Store in the fridge in a sealed container.

Makes about 30 small pieces.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is best made with chocolate chopped up roughly. The mixture is very soft; chilling it slightly before shaping makes it easier to work with.

Ingredients:
250g butter
1/2 c sugar
3 T sweetened condensed milk
1 - 2 drops vanilla essence
2 1/4 c plain flour
2 t baking powder
250 g Energy chocolate, hand chopped into chunks, not too small

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. Beat together butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Beat in the condensed milk and vanilla essence.
4. Stir in dry ingredients and chopped chocolate.
5. Chill.
6. Roll into large walnut-sized balls.
7. Place on cold, greased oven trays, allowing some room to flatten.
8. Flatten with the palm of your hand.
9. Bake at 170 degrees celsius for 15 - 20 minutes until lightly golden.
10. Cool, then remove from trays and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 30 biscuits.

Laurel's Summer Potato Salad

INGREDIENTS:

6 large boiling potatoes
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 cup French dressing (made with cider vinegar if homemade) plus 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup minced onion
2 red apples, unpeeled but cored and diced (optional)
1 cup diced celery
6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 1/2 cups best brand mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper

METHOD:
1. Place potatoes in large pot with dill. Add enough cold water to cover and salt well. Boil until just tender, about 30 minutes.
2. Drain, peel and dice them and marinate them while still hot in the French dressing. Add the onion and let stand until cold - at least an hour - while you prepare the rest of the ingredients as per instructions set out in the ingredient list.
3. Combine potato-onion mixture with remaining ingredients, including mayonnaise blended with sour cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

VARIATIONS:

Use this mixture instead of normal French dressing

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon caper liquid from jar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Combine vinegar, caper liquid, and mustard in small bowl. Whisk in oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

Add 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh chives, 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley and 2 tablespoons drained capers to the salad. Pour dressing over potatoes; toss gently. Season salad with salt and pepper.

Or this mixture:
4 spring onions, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup chopped fresh corriander
6 anchovy fillets, drained, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Things that can go into potato salad:
Crispy bacon
Prawns
Crumbled blue cheese
Pesto
Tarragon
Chopped dill pickles
Radishes
Horseradish sauce
Garlic
Chopped salami

This basic potato salad recipe is a winner, especially with the boys! Play around with it and add in your favour extra ingredients. p.s. there is never any leftovers of this one after a BBQ, too delicious :-)

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 T brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium pumpkin (~ 1.2 kg), peeled and diced
2 c water
400 ml coconut milk
1 – 2 fresh or dried chillies, finely chopped
1 T lemongrass, minced or ½ t finely grated lemon rind
1 T fish sauce
salt
pepper
¼ c fresh coriander or parsley, chopped

Method:

1. Heat oil in a big pot and gently cook onion, sugar and garlic until softened (8 – 10 minutes).
2. Add all other ingredients except fresh coriander/parsley and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Mash roughly.
4. Adjust seasonings to taste.Garnish with fresh coriander or parsley.

Serves 4
Freezes well

The most time consuming part of this recipe is cutting up the pumpkin. You can short circuit this by buying chopped pieces of pumpkin. Aternatively, microwaving a whole pumpkin for 10 minutes makes cutting easier.

Mum's Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS:

20 cm square tin
300 g butter
6 T cocoa
9 t hot water
1 ½ c sugar
1 1/8 c flour
1 ½ t baking powder
3 eggs

METHOD:

Melt butter, cocoa and hot water in a thick based saucepan.
Add sugar and stir well.
Add flour and baking powder and blend together lightly.
Stir in egg yolks and then quickly stir in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour into a greased tin and bake at 180ºC for 30 – 40 minutes.

ICING:

90 g cream cheese
90 g butter
2 c icing sugar
2 T cocoa
Vanilla essence

Beat cream cheese and butter to a cream.
Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth.

Morriss' Fudge Squares

170 g butter

3/4 c sugar

2 T golden syrup

2 T cocoa

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

3/4 c coconut

Icing:

125 g icing sugar

1 T cocoa (sifted)

15 ml warm water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius or gas mark 4.
   
2. In a pot melt the butter, sugar, golden syrup and cocoa (I like to sift this to get out any lumps).
   
3. Add the flour, baking powder and coconut to the melted mixture.
   
4. Press mixture out in a Swiss roll tin (or similar, shallow tray).
   
5. Bake for 10 minutes.

Icing:

1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl.

2. Add warm water and mix until smooth. Add extra water drop by drop if the icing is too stiff.
TO FINISH:

Ice fudge squares when cool and cut into squares.

Beef Teppanyaki

This is an easy stir-fry with a Japanese twist. Take care not to over cook the beef. Once added, the meat should only be cooked for about 3 minutes.



To prepare: 5 minutes and 10 minutes standing beef
To cook: 5 minutes

Marinade:
2 T soy sauce
1 -2 t hot chilli sauce, to taste
1 T sesame oil
2 T root ginger, grated
1/4 c sake, mirin or sherry
1 T rice wine vinegar or wine vinegar
1 T sugar
Other ingredients:
200 - 250 g lean beef steak, eg. rump, sliced in very thin strips
2 T vegetable oil
200 g mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, cut in thin strips
2 spring onions, peeled and thinly sliced


Optional:
1/4 c pickled ginger, finely sliced as garnish

METHOD:

1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a clean bowl or plastic bag.
2. Mix sliced meat through marinage. Leave for 10 - 15 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a large wok or fry-pan and cook mushrooms and pepper for 2 - 3 minutes stirring or shaking the pan frequently.
4. Remove mushrooms and peppers from pan and put to one side.
5. Lift meat from marinade and drain, reserving marinade.
6. Add meat to pan with spring onions and cook over very high heat for 2 -3 minutes until cooked.
7. Add reserved marinade into pan with onion and mushroom mixture and heat through.
8. Sprinkle over pickled ginger and serve at once.

Serves 2

Accompany with noodles or rice.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
1/4 cup oil (eg peanut or sunflower)
1 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup low-fat milk
2 egg whites and 1 whole egg
1/2 cup flour
3-4 cup sugar
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tsps baking powder, baking soda and vanilla essence
2 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cups chopped walnuts and raisins or chopped prunes
1 234g can pineapple crushed with juice

Method:

1. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, apple sauce, milk, egg whites and egg until well mixed.

2. In another bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmet and cloves. Make a well in the centre. Carefully pour the apple sauce mixture into the well in the dry ingredients and mix them together lightly with a holed spoon.

3. Add the carrots, walnuts, raisins, pineapple and vanilla. Pour mixture into a 23cm greased cake tin.

4. Bake for 60-70 minutes at 180 deg C. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted comes out clean and the cake has come away form the side of the tin. This cake is very moist.

5. Allow the cake to cool 10 minutes before turning out and leaving the cake to cool on a cake
rack.

Topping:

1. In a food processor, put 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese, 3 tblspns low fat yoghurt, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tblspn lemon juice, 1/4 cup cream cheese, and 3 tblspns icing sugar. Process until blended.

2. When the cake is cold, spread the topping over the cake and decorate with walnuts or grated lemon rind.

Barbara's Pinwheel Scones

Ingredients:

2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt (optional)
4 T margarine
2/3 c milk

Savoury Flavour:
60 g Edam cheese
pepper to taste

Sweet Flavour:
4 t sugar
1 t cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
   
2. In a bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Rub in the margarine with the tips of your fingers until it is just crumbly.
   
4. Mix in the milk quickly with a knife until the mixture sticks together in a lump.
5. Without touching the dough, roll into a rectangle about 1 cm thick.
6. Sprinkle dough with your chosen flavour ingredients.
7. Roll up from the longest side.
8. Cut into eight pieces and place pinwheels on a lightly floured oven tray.
9. Bake at 200 degrees C for 10 – 12 minutes or until golden.
10. Serve warm.

In memory of my great scone making grandma 19/11/19 - 24/4/08.

Chocolate Brownies

To prepare: 20 minutes
To cook: 35 minutes

225 g butter
200 g dark chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 t vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa, sieved
1 1/2 cups walnuts, roughly chopped (optional or substitue for other nuts)

Brownie topping:
200g melted dark chocolate
OR
dust with icing sugar

Method:

1. Melt butter and chocolate over a low heat in a pot.
2. Add sugar to the melted butter and chocolate. Allow to cool if necessary before adding eggs.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Stir in vanilla essence.
5. Sift in flour and cocoa. Add nuts and mix until evenly combined.
6. Pour into a greased 30cm x 24cm baking tin.
7. Bake at 180 degrees C for 35 minutes until set.
8. Cool then spread over melted chocolate or dust with icing sugar.
9. If topping with melted chocolate allow to set before cutting in to squares.
10. Makes about 30 pieces.

TIP: I often make this recipe ahead of time. It can be pretty gooey even when properly cooked. It is easier to cut if you freeze it first. Obviously take out of the freezer for a bit before you try and cut it unless you are super strong and have a really good knife! If you are going to freeze this mixture, dust with icing sugar after freezing and before serving.

Enjoy!

Lamb Chwarma Pockets

To prepare: 5 - 10 minutes
To cook: 10 minutes

500 g lean lamb, cut into tiny slivers
1 t ground cumin
1 t dried oregano
1 t allspice
1/2 t cinnamon
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 t crushed garlic
1 T olive oil
salt and ground black pepper
juice of 1 lemon
pita breads

salad vegetables
dressing

LAMB:

1. Combine the lamb with the spices, onion, garlic and oil. Leave for at least 15 minutes before cooking, or up to 6 hours refrigerated.
2. Pre-heat a pan or barbecue hotplate to medium-high and oil lightly.
3. Cook the lamb, tossing over heat for 3 -4 minutes, until it is just browned.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place the meat in a serving dish and keep warm.

PITA POCKETS:

1. To prepare warmed pita pockets, slice the pita breads in half.
2. Stack one half on top of the other and wrap in tinfoil.
3. Place on a hot barbecue or oven and turn the tinfoiled stack frequently, until warmed through. This takes 5 - 10 minutes.

SALAD VEGETABLES:

• Prepare desired vegetables as required.

TO SERVE:
Squeeze the lemon juice over the meat and serve with warmed pita pockets, vegetables and your desired dressings.

Serves 4 - 6