Home Made Pumpkin Bread & Strawberry Jam!!!

Here in Oz we are on a tight budget at the moment. This gave me a chance to look around the web and find ways to reduce my monthly food bill.  I already started a small veggie patch here in our garden and I am happy to say that my zucchini seeds are already little plants soaking the sun. The orange tree is blooming very happily and I already can see the fruits forming so we will have a great crop this year. The poor tree when we got the house was almost dead so I am very pleased by her happy recovery. We have mature almonds at the moment which the black cockatoo's are munching on, they are beautiful big birds and Luke is delighted to see them in the afternoon. Not bad for a city girl who didn't know anything about gardens!

Last week Luke and I went to the farmer's market near our home and  they had strawberries on special, so I bought 1,5 kg for less then 4 dollars. Too much for our house hold so I decided to make jam out of 1kg of strawberries. I used Jamie's Oliver's recipe and I am sad to say this but, it didn't work too well. I used the special jam sugar but it is still was runny even though I left it to boil much longer than in the recipe requested. It is still yummy, don't get me wrong you can still eat it but it is more like a strawberry sauce than jam. Well I guess next time I will make it with normal white sugar, I think it would set better and also be less acidic.

Grandma bought for me a huge pumpkin so I also had more than a kilo of pumpkin in the fridge which I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to make pumpkin bread. I used this great recipe from FRESH LOAF. It turned out perfect so I have two small loafs which I will bring one to grandma when Luke wakes up from his nap. She is has the flu so I can am sure she will enjoy the bread. I changed the recipe a bit I added more spices than the recipe and also used a little less flower (just 3 cups), also I added soaked raisins in orange liquor and walnuts. Like Luke says when he smells something nice hmmmmmmmmmmmm!! Enjoy the pictures of the garden and the loafs!

Grated Apple &Potato Crepe

Now that Luke is having his afternoon nap I thought it would be a good time to update my blog. I just made these beautiful yummy apple and potato crepes that I thought I'd share the recipe with you. They are not something you can eat everyday because of the calories(610 kcal per 40 g) but they are a wonderful Sunday brunch treat. I love to have them with smoked Tasmanian salmon but my hubby doesn't eat fish so I buy a good quality smoked ham for him. Its a fairly easy recipe and the results are really impressive, light and with that wonderful sweet and sour hint. It is a great recipe to do when your apples are starting to have a sorry look, here at home we always have apples but they tend to linger too long sometimes. So here it goes:

Ingredients: (this will make about 6 crepes)

1 onion (medium size)

2 potatoes (medium sized)

3 granny smith apples (I think they are the best ones for this recipe but if you don't have them in the house, any apple will do)

1 egg

2tbsp plain flour

Chives

Horseradish cream

Dill

Sour Cream or Cream Fresh

Salt

Pepper


Preparation: (45 minutes)

1. Peel 1 onion and grate on a hand-grater. Put it in a bowl. Peel and wash the two potatoes and grate them coarsely on the grater. Wash and peel the three granny smith apples(if you have large ones use only two apples). Grate them coarsely as far as the core and add to the bowl with the grated onion and potatoes.

2. Stir one egg into the mixture and add salt (1tsp), pepper and the flour, mixing well. Add the chopped chives and mix again. The mixture should not be dry, if its too runny add a little more flour.

3. Heat a good quality oil ( I use rice bran oil because of it's high heat point) in a non-stick frying pan and add a little butter if you like. With a spoon add the batter and press it a little till its flat. The best, so far for me is three crepes at a time, cooking them for about 4 to 5 minutes in each side. Set aside in plate with some paper towel to drain any oil.

4. Put a generous amount of smoked ham (triple smoked is the one I usually use) on top of the crepe. Add 1tsp of sour cream to the top. Sprinkle some chives over the sour cream and serve. For the salmon crepe: Add a nice generous slice of smoked Tasmanian salmon on top of the crepe. Add 1 tsp of sour cream, 1/2 a tsp of horseradish cream on top of the sour cream and sprinkle with fresh Dill. Its ready to serve and devour!!!

Brazilian Pudding (Pudim de Leite Condesado)

I have noticed that this particular post is very popular, so welcome to my blog, please feel free to also see other posts and features in my blog. It would be great if you would come back now then and see whats new. Well enjoy!!! For all of you who want a very nice dessert with no fuss, you should try this classic Brazilian pudding. It has a lot of sugar so its not something you should make every week. This dessert can make any occasion special and it will hit all the right places. But please be warned that this dessert is addictive, once you start eating you cant stop! It needs to be cold so take that in consideration when making it. I usually make it on the end of the day and eat it the next day. Like any pudding there are a lot of variations to this traditional recipe out there, I have altered the recipe as well just because I like an extra hint of orange to my pudding but they are all basically the same. The big secret of this recipe is how to make the pudding have the little bubbles in it, don't worry this recipe guarantees the bubbles in your pudding. The method seems very difficult and complex but when you do start you cant believe how easy it is! I will write this recipe in English and Portuguese so bare with me OK. Lets start....


Ingredients (Ingredientes):


2 cans of condensed milk (2 latas de leite condesado)


2 cans of milk -use the same cans from the condensed milk for mesaurments. (a mesma medida de leite comum)


5 eggs (5 ovos)


1 orange zest (1 raspa de laranja)


Vanila extract (estrato de baunilha)


sauce (calda):


1 cup of castor sugar (1 xicara de acucar)


1/2 cup of water (1/2 xicara de agua)


*You will need a bunt baking pan; the one that is round with the tube in the middle.


Methode (modo de fazer):

1. Start with the sauce. Please be extra careful with this step specially if you have small childeren at home because the caramel can be very hot and make a lot of damage on little or adult fingers. Bring the sugar and the water together in a small sauce pan. Let it boil in medium heat on the stove. You have to keep an eye on this all the time because it can burn and then your pudding will become bitter. When the sauce is becoming a lighter brown keep steering so it wont burn and turn the heat down a little. Let it get a little darker, you will know when its ready when it reaches a medium caramel color. In a bunt baking pan pore the caramel and make circular movements so the caramel covers the sides of the baking pan (be careful with this because the pan becomes hot so use cooking gloves). Set aside to cool completely (this is very important because if you don't let it cool completely it will make scramble eggs of you pudding). While its cooling get a deep backing pan in which the bunt baking pan will fit inside. Poor warm water in it and stick it in the oven and pre heat your oven 200 Celsius. This will insure that the water will be warm when you put the pudding in the water in the deep baking pan. This is the secret for the little bubbles in your pudding!

Misture o açúcar refinado com a água e leve no fogo sem mexer no comeco e depois quando comecar a escurecer mexa até ficar com cor de guaraná. Coloque em forma de buraco no meio e mexa a forma até caramelizá-la por igual. Espere a calda ficar em temperatura ambiente. Caso contrario a temperatura da calda poderá talhar o pudim.

2. When the caramel is cool you can start making the pudding. Put all the ingredients together the eggs, milk, condensed milk, orange zest and vanilla extract (its up to you how much you want from the vanilla) in a blender. Blend it on high for 5 minutes. Pore the liquid into the bunt baking pan. Put the bunt pan on the water in the deep baking pan, who is already hot in the oven. Let it bake uncovered for about ten minutes or till you see the top becoming a nice golden colour. When this happens just cover the pudding with aluminum foil and let it bake for 1 hour, keep an eye on the water and be sure to top it up, you need the water so it wont burn the pudding.

Bata todos os ingredientes no liquidificador por cinco minutos. Despeje o pudim na forma já caramelizada. Para você conseguir um pudim com bastantes furinhos, leve ao forno em banho-maria com a água já quente. O forno deve estar pre-aquecido 200 graus. Deixe o pudim discoberto ate ele comecar a ter uma cor de caramelo ai voce pode ccobri-lo com papel aluminio. Deixe em fogo alto por uma hora.

3. You should be able to see if the pudding is ready if it has risen like a souffle and if you prick the middle with a tooth pick and no liquid comes out than you can take it out of the oven. Let it cool completely before bringing it to the fridge; please leave the aluminum foil on or your pudding will take the flavour of your fridge and that is yuck.

Voce vai poder saber se o pudim esta pronto quando ele crescer como um souffle. Ele quase dobra de tamanho. So pra ter certeza faca o teste do palitinho. Retire do forno e deixe esfriar completamente antes de coloca-lo na geladeira.

4. The next day you can take it out of the fridge and in the same deep baking pan add hot water and let the pudding sit on it for a while, this insures that the caramel will melt and make it easier for you to turn the pudding on a plate. I leave it in the water till the water cools down.

No dia seguinte ou depois que o puddim esteja bem gelado coloque em banho maria novamente so para a calda degrudar da forma. Voce nao presica colocar ele no forno!!!! Deixe ele de banho maria ate a agua esfriar.

5. Now this is the moment of truth!! With a knife cut the pudding from the side of the baking pan. Put a nice big plate on top of the bunt backing pan and turn it upside-down and leave it for a while. Don't mess with it, just let the pudding slowly on its own fall down to the plate. If you mess with it it will brake and you will have an ugly pudding. It will fall, trust me and then there it is you beautiful delicious traditional Brazilian pudding. Very very yummy....specially very cold!

Agora e o momento da verdade. Com um faca descole as laterais da panela. Num prato grande coloque-o em cima da panela do pudim e vir-o de cabeca para baixo para desformar. Deixe ele cair sozinho, nao bata na panela pois vc pode quebraro pudim e ai vc tem uma meleca de caramelo. Deixe o pudim cair sozinho. E quando ele cair vc tera um lindo pudim com furrinhos que e uma delicia!

Eggplant Lasagna (glutenfree!!!)

Here is my favorite lasagna recipe; even though it takes some time to prepare, it is just worth all the trouble. This recipe is great because it's full of veggies (you can also make it a vegetarian lasagna just don't add the minced meat). There is no pasta in it, so for the ones who might be on a diet or have gluten allergies this is a great alternative.


Preparation time: 1 1/2 hours

Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:

1 good sized eggplant (for a lasagna dish 33 x 22cm. If you have a bigger dish just use two eggplants.)

2 carrots chopped in cubs

1 zucchini chopped in cubs

1 yellow pepper chopped in cubs

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable stock

1 bottle of tomato puree

1 onion chopped in cubes

3 garlic cloves chopped or minced

400 grams of good quality minced beef (I like to use the one that has the least fat.)
1 big bag of grated cheese (I use mozzarella light but you can use whatever cheese you prefer.) breadcrumbs
Fresh Basil
salt
pepper

*You can use whatever veggies you have in the fridge for this recipe; the only must have is the eggplant.

Preparation:

Step 1: Start by cutting the eggplant length wise in thin slices. Don't worry if slices are not perfect it will work anyway and no one will see because it will be used for layers.

Step 2: Dip the eggplant slices in the eggs and then in the breadcrumbs. Put some butter in a frying pan and fry them still they are golden brown set them aside in a dish. Do this till all the eggplant is fried.

Step 3: Pre-heat the oven to 190 C. In a medium pan add some olive oil and saute the onion and garlic till soft. Then add the minced meat let it cook till all the juices of the meat are gone. Then add the zucchini, yellow peppers, carrots and any other veggies you want. Let it fry for a little while. Add the tomato sauce (leave some sauce in the bottle so you can use this for the bottom of the lasagna dish), vegetable stock, salt, pepper (I like to add some vegetable stock to the sauce but it is not a must but if you do this be more careful with the salt.) Let it simmer till the sauce thickens a bit. At the end add the fresh basil (I love to use a lot of fresh basil but its up to you how much you put in it...if you don't have fresh basil just use dry oregano.)

Step 4: In the lasagna dish use the left over tomato puree for the bottom (I do this so the eggplant doesn't burn and it gets the taste of the tomatoes too.) Add a layer of eggplant then a layer of the minced meat sauce then a layer of grated mozzarella cheese. Continue till all the eggplant and sauce is gone. Now be sure to leave some mozzarella cheese for the top, its the best part!

Step 5: Stick it in the pre-heated oven till you see the top become golden and the sauce bubbly. Take out of the oven and serve. There it is, a beautiful healthy dish which will comfort you, your friends and family without breaking the budget. Enjoy!!!

Craving for Eclairs!!!

I was really craving for Eclairs for a couple of days so I went in search of an easy and good recipe so I could make them at home. Eclairs are a french chocolate pastry that are light in texture but very rich in flavour. Eclair actually means lightning in french and it was given this name because of its beautiful glaze. Not much is known about the origins of this famous pastry but its birth place is France. There are some who speculate that Eclairs were first made by a famous royal pastry chef called Marie-Antoine Carême (royal life must have been sweet with this chef around the royal kitchen!). Also oxford English Dictionary traces the term "eclair" in the English language to 1861. The first known recipe for eclairs appeared in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, published in 1884.

Well that was a bit of culinary history for all of you who actually are interested but of course eating the eclairs is more important and fun! After some research and changing the recipe to suit what I wanted, I managed to make them and they were delicious! Very decadent dessert that takes some time to make but it is sure to impress your guests and your tummy. Here is the recipe with pictures so you can try it at home! Enjoy...I am sure you will!

Preparation Time: 1 hour Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Eclair Dough:
2/3 cup Milk
2/3 cup Water
4 oz (113 grams) Butter
1 cup Flour
5 Eggs
2 tsp.Granulated Sugar
Pinch of Salt

Chocolate Cream Filling:
6 oz.(170 grams) Unsweetened dark chocolate powder (cocoa)
1 cup Milk
4 Egg Yolks
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Flour

3 tbs. Tia Maria or Amaretto liquor
2 tbs brewed coffee

Chocolate Icing:
5 oz.(141 grams) Dark Chocolate Bar
2 oz.(56 grams) Butter
1/4 cup Water

How to make Eclair Dough:

Preheat oven to 425°F (218 C).
1. In a pot, mix water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil.
2. Once butter has completely melted, take off flame, and slowly pour in flour, stirring constantly (sometimes this will be enough to make the dough drier and start to unstick to the sides of the pot if that happens you wont need to put it back on the flame as step 3 tells you).
3. Put pot back on flame and continue to work it with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring and kneading with spoon until the dough dries out and stops sticking to the sides of the pot.
4. Take off flame and wait a little till dough cools down (if you put the eggs when the dough is too hot it will make the eggs cook too fast and you will have some scramble eggs in your eclair dough!). Add eggs, one at a time, stirring energetically.
5. Fill a icing piping bag with the eclair batter. Butter a baking sheet. Squeeze out "finger-sized eclairs" onto baking sheet, well-spaced. This will make 20 small eclairs but if you like making them bigger please take into account that you probably will get 12 eclairs or even less.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. Then turn oven down to 385°F (196 C) and bake another 10-12 minutes with the oven door open. Now this bit is up to you to keep an eye on the progress of your eclairs, I left the oven closed for a little longer and on the last 5 minutes I opened the oven door. This is all up to your judgment and how hot your oven gets. But the oven needs to be hot so the eclairs can rise.
7. When they are done take them out of the oven and let them cool while you make the filling.

Chocolate Filling:
1. Add the cocoa powder and milk in a pot, and bring to light boil, remove and let it cool.
2. In a bowl, whisk yolks and sugar until it whitens.
3. Slowly add flour, stirring.
4. Slowly add chocolate milk and the coffee stirring until homogeneous.
5. Put back in pot, bring to light boil, stirring constantly, until cream thickens and becomes smooth. If your cream becomes lumpy don't panic, just add some more coffee or milk whisk it till it gets smooth again.
6. Add the liquor and while waiting it too cool off place a piece if glad rap on the top of the filling so it doesn't get a crusty.
7. When cream cools off (and eclairs have cooled off as well), you can begin filling the eclairs: Use your icing piping bag to inject the filling into the eclairs.



Icing:
Now be careful not to eat all of them before you put the chocolate icing on them it really pays off to wait till they are done!
1. Finely chop chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl that fits snuggly in a saucepan.
2. Once melted add butter.
3.Remove from heat and remove bowl from saucepan . Add the water and whisk thoroughly. It should look shiny and creamy!
3. Now dip the top of your eclairs (face down of course) into the chocolate icing and place them on a tray to cool. Voilà your eclairs are ready to eat! I love to eat them cold that is why I put mine in the fridge to be nice and cool. Enjoy!

Butternut Pumpkin Roast

This recipe is super easy and simple and it is gorgeous for the pallet. The recipe bellow makes two serving (2 people). It also can be made on the barbecue instead of in the oven but u still will need to use aluminum foil. Prep time: 1 hour . Check it out!

Ingredients are:
1 Butter Pumpkin medium size
2 tablespoons of Castor Sugar
Butter as much as you like ( I love putting loads)

Pre-heat oven 180C

Peel the pumpkin and cut them in halves and than in big chunky cubs.

In a medium size roasting pan cover the bottom with aluminum foil that it creates a bed for the pumpkin and all its juices. Put all the chunky cubed pumpkin in the roasting pan and sprinkle sugar all over them and than add the small pieces of butter all over the pumpkins. Cover the roasting pan with another sheet (big enough to cover all the roasting pan!) of aluminum foil.

When the oven is heated put the roasting pan in and leave it for about 20 minutes. Be careful not to over cook it or you'll have pumpkin puree instead of pumpkin roast. So after 15 minutes check if the chunks are tender with a fork. Take the top foil and than grill it for another 5 to 10 minutes just to make it a little crisp (keep an eye on the roast at this point so it doesn't burn). Take out of the oven and vuala! You have a delicious chunky sweet goodness to make your meal perfect. Enjoy everyone.

American Pie!

For some reason I am fixated in becoming a crack jack in all house-proud crafts. I started to bake pies like there is no tomorrow. I was doing groceries the other day and could not stop looking at the apples..they looked great for baking. So I bought 12 of them and some fresh pie crust and went home. I looked in the Internet for some recipes but all of them seemed too complicated and boring. So I just got pots and pan out and just improvised. My first pie was nice but a little too sweet, but it over two days!!! Rob really enjoyed it, plus I gave a couple of pieces to Utah. So I went again to the supermarket and bought more apples. So here is how it went.

Ingredients:
12 apples
1 pack of yellow custard
fresh pie crust (I got the safeways one, which was ok-but a little thin)
butter
milk(1/2 a cup)
cinnamon
nutmeg
cloves
ginger
lemon
sugar(if needed)
vanilla extract
obs: as you can see I have no amounts for the spices because I think it depends on your own pallet.

Ok, how to put everything together:

1 .Peel all the apples: 2.Cut them in wedges and than in cubs:


3. In a medium to large size sauce pan add 1 cup of water, butter,1 spoon of sugar(if you like-but custard already is sweet), cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves(about 10) and lemon (about two tea spoons). Bring it to boil and than simmer for 15 minutes or so when you see that apples are almost cooked (not mushy though)!

4. Than in a small container beat very well 1 egg yolk (only if you want a rich custard) and add 1/2 a cup of milk and stir. Add the vanilla extract plus the custard powder and stir well. The apples should be boiling by know so throw the mixture in and stir carefully not too much than you will end with something too soft (its important not to over cook the apples or you will end with apple puree). The consistency will thicken than its up to you to see if you like a thick apple filling for you pie.

5. Now its time to put the crust in place. The fresh crust should be room temperature. Unroll the dough and place it in a pie pan. Be sure to add some pressure to the sides so the dough is well placed in the pan. With a fork make some holes so the pie crust wont be too soft. Than when apple filling has cooled down you add it to the pie. Unroll the 2nd dough again and place it over the top of the pie. With your fingers pull the sides towards the inner pie and use a fork to make nice edge. With a knife make some 3 cuts on top so the steam is able to escape. If you want your pie to shine just brush it with some egg yolk. Place it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. When the edges become brown you know its done. Oven Heat 425 F. And tataaaaaa...you have delicious home made apple pie!!!!! Enjoy!