Retro and Delicious - Prawn Cocktail

Isabella and I often have sushi for lunch while out shopping. Earlier this week she had sushi and I had prawns and salmon with a seafood sauce. It got me thinking about how much I loved prawn cocktails as a child. It was a real treat although they were usually small tinned shrimps rather than large prawns we had. I even bought ice-burg lettuce for the base.

We all loved this as a started with Isabella gobbling as much as the rest of us and asking for more.









Chopped ice-burg and rocket
Sliced and chopped tomato
Large cold cooked prawns
Thousand Island dressing
Coriander
Fresh lime to squeeze over
Salt and pepper.

Feijoa Butterscotch Self-Saucing Sticky Pudding

Yes, it's feijoa season and I'm on the look out for new feijoa recipes.
This one worked well, but probably promised a it
more than it delivered. It was nice to have individual puddings and it is probably a good way to ensure portion control - something we are not so good at in our house!
It was really, really easy to make and the result was good. Next time I'd probably slightly reduce the amount of feijoa in each pudding and slightly reduce the boiling water added in the last stage.
My oven suffered a bit from the overflow of sauce.

We had them with runny cream which soaked in well.

FEIJOA BUTTERSCOTCH SELF-SAUCING STICKY PUDDINGS

Ingredients

• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 100 gm butter melted
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup
• 6 large feijoas, halved
• 6 tablespoons extra brown sugar
• ½ cup boiling water
• icing sugar to dust

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Coat 6 one-cup capacity oven proof ramekins or small pudding bowls with non-stick baking spray.
2. Place the first measure of brown sugar, the flour, milk, egg and vanilla and melted butter in a food processor and mix until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl so the mixture is thoroughly combined.
3. Pour equal amounts of the golden syrup into the bottom of each ramekin. Scoop out the feijoa pulp, keeping it intact, and slice into each ramekin. Pour the batter over the top of the feijoa, filling each ramekin to just three-quarters full. Sprinkle each pudding with a tablespoon of extra brown sugar, then gently pour ¼ cup of boiling water into each ramekin. Do not mix the water in, just carefully pour it on top.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the puddings have risen and are firm, set and golden brown. Serve immediately with a dusting of icing sugar and, if desired, a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Slow Cooker - Sugared Cinnamon Almonds

This recipe has been catching my eye so I decided to give it a go. It seemed to good to be true...but it really works and the end result is fantastic. I made half the recipe just in case it was a disaster. They seemed to cook faster than the recipe said but I left them in for the full time.

I'm now keen to experiment a bit and try adding different spices. I think a slight hint of chilli would be great with the sweetness.

These will be an ideal Christmas gift.






Slow Cooker - Sugared Cinnamon Almonds

4 Cups whole raw almonds

2 Egg WHITE

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 C. Granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

Dash Salt

Gather your ingredients and spray the stoneware of your large crock pot with cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, blend sugars, cinnamon, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg whites and vanilla until good and frothy.

Add almonds.

Toss until the almonds are very well coated with the egg mixture. Add Sugars and stir to coat the almonds thoroughly.

Dump the almonds into your slow cooker and cook on low for about or up to 3 hours (this varies by slow cooker. for this batch, mine went for just under 2 hours before I removed them), mixing every 20 minutes or so. It’s important to mix your almonds fairly often because nuts tend to burn easily due to their high oil content. The sugars can also burn.

Once the almonds have finished cooking, I spread them out onto a baking sheet to cool. As they are cooling, I like to break them up a bit with a wooden spoon as they tend to clump together.

Greek Slow Cooker Chicken

Thanks http://www.mommiecooks.com for the picture

I love the combination of garlic and lemon so this recipe looked like a good one to try. That coupled with the fact that my oven is not working other than to grill prompted me to give this one a try.
My picture didn't look so good, so I've used the one from the site I found it on
. I guess we are used to beautifully browned chicken and the slow cooker doesn't do that so well.
The recipe was easy and in my slow cooker cooked faster than the time listed in the recipe.
I'll be making this one again. Possibly preparing in advance freezing then cooking while I'm at work.

Greek Inspired Slow Cooker Chicken

1 Lemon, Juiced
4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Cup White Wine
1/4 Cup Chicken Broth
1 tsp Dill
1 tsp Rosemary
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Whole Chicken, Broken into it's Respective Pieces

Directions:

Add all the ingredients with the exception of the chicken to the marinade.

Mix up well.

Add in the chicken and coat all the pieces completely.

Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 6 hours.

Serve over noodles with sauce from the slow cooker spooned over the noodles and a little feta and olives for good measure.

Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken

Another day without my oven working means another slow cooker meal. This one looks very very like Maple Mustard Chicken except it is made in a slow cooker.
I cooked it with layers of thinly sliced potato in the bottom of the slow cooker dish. A good addition that meant I didn't have to prepare another part of the meal.
It really is nicer cooked in the oven, I missed the browned sticky chicken but it was still nice.

Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts
1 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix together and zip bag closed.

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours). Sprinkle with fresh or dried rosemary for serving.

Italian Baked Feijoas

It's feijoa season again but unfortunately after the drought we have experienced this summer the crop is not looking promising. I'm going to be strategic about how I use them this year. We usually have so many we can't get rid of them.
Tonight I made the following recipe. I needed to cook something.
It was pretty simple and the finished dish was good. This will be one we make again.

ITALIANATE BAKED FEIJOAS

Ingredients

• 10 savoiardi (sponge finger biscuits)
• 16 large ripe feijoas, halved, flesh scooped out with a teaspoon
• 200g mascarpone
• 100ml limoncello, white wine or port
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the savoiardi in the bottom of a 25cm x 15cm or similar ovenproof dish then evenly space the feijoa halves on top. Pour over the limoncello or wine.
2. Place tablespoons of mascarpone in between the feijoa halves. Sprinkle the lemon juice and zest on top and then scatter the sugar over evenly.
3. Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until everything is bubbling. Remove from the oven and serve with liquid cream if desired.
4. Serves 4-6.

Meringues

We seem to have a over supply of eggs at the moment which does not bode well for when our chickens start laying in about a month. We should go from the half dozen that are delivered in our Ooooby box to 14 a week.
As Easter is next weekend Isabella and I decided to deal with the egg glut and use the cartons to decorate for Easter gifts.

The first thing we made was meringues. Our plan is to stick two together with chocolate to make something resembling an egg.

The meringues got a lot bigger while cooking (something to remember next time) so we didn't use them as planned. They were great crumbled over Ambrosia when we had visitors with children. The adults seemed to enjoy them too.
I have kept them in an airtight bag and have found a few different uses for them.

Ingredients

6 egg whites
2 cups Chelsea Caster Sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
Pink food colouring
Blue food colouring
Whipped cream to serve or Dairy Free Berry Sauce (see tip below)

Method

In a large bowl (not plastic) beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually, add the Caster sugar very slowly. The mixture should be getting thick with each addition. The whole sugar adding process should take at least 10 minutes. Beat in the essence, vinegar and cornflour.
Put half of the mixture into a separate bowl and, using a few drops of food colouring, colour one bowl pink and the other blue. Spoon mixture out into little 'blobs' onto abaking paper covered tray. Bake in a low 110°C - 120°C oven for 45 minutes.
The meringues should lift off the paper easily.
Cool on a wire rack and jam together with whipped cream, when cold.

Tip: For a dairy free alternative omit the cream and instead drizzle with berry sauce(blitz fresh or frozen berries with a little icing sugar in a food processor). Pour onto meringues just before serving, garnish with extra berries. The fruit will complement the sweetness of the meringues.

Honey and Garlic Chicken - Slow Cooker

Slow Cooker meals really appeal to me and this one even more than usual because it was so easy. I think this would also make a good 'freezer meal' too.
It took less than 5 minutes to put together and ended up cooking a lot faster than the recipe suggested but that seems to be the case with my slow cooker.








Honey and Garlic Chicken - Slow Cooker

The Ingredients.

serves 4

1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (4 or one thigh per family member)
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped (I used my microplane)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup  soy sauce 
1/2 cup ketchup (tomato sauce)
1/3 cup honey


The Directions.
Check after 3 hours on high, 5 hours on low
Put the chicken into your cooker. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, then pour evenly over the top.
Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 (I'd go with low---). It was probably more like 2-3 hours on Low for me.
Serve with basmati rice and steamed or roasted vegetables.  I served it with couscous

Banana and Pineapple Chia Pudding

I have to admit I was drawn to this by the picture on Pintest and my version looked a lot different. Luckily it tasted really nice. Isabella (5 years) loved it, so it will be a 'make again' for me.
It was easy, it is really healthy and tastes good.
I have been trying different Chia seed recipes after coming across information about the incredible health benefits (included in a previous post)

The picture that attracted me.

Isabella suggested using blueberries instead of pineapple next time - a great idea.
We ate it after about 4 hours and it was fine.

Banana and Pineapple Chai Pudding

Ingredients

4 Tbsp chia seeds
4 medium bananas
1-2 cups of fresh diced pineapple (I used canned)
1 cup of water

Directions

In a blender blend banana and water.

Pour blended mixture into a dessert container or bowl. Add chopped pineapple.

Stir in chia seeds. Mix very well.

Pop into refrigerator to set up. The longer you let it set up the better it tastes. I generally let it refrigerate over night.

30 Minute Dinner Rolls

I'm pretty addicted to the bread I mix in my bread maker and then shape and bake in the oven. The only downside is that it takes a 3-4 hours from start to finish.
I came across this recipe that had been pinned by a friend and thought it was worth giving a try.

The result was good. Not the super light bread rolls that you buy from the super market or bakery, more yeasty and heavier - almost scone like.

30 Minute Dinner Rolls

1 C plus 2 Tbsp warm water

1/3 C oil

2 Tbsp yeast

1/4 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3 1/2 C bread flour (seems to work better but all purpose flour will also work)

Heat oven to 200 degrees celcis

In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.  Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour.  Knead with hook until will incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes)

Form dough into 12 balls and then place in a greased 9 x 13 pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  They will be small enough that they are not touching but when they rise and bake they get bigger.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

Easter Chocolate Bark

I was after an idea for Easter gifts for the children we would be visiting over Easter...but it had to be quick and easy.
After looking around at ideas on Pintrest we came up with decorated egg cartoons and our own version of Easter Bark.

Isabella had a great time decorating the egg cartoons, although after 5 or 6 of them she lost a bit of interest.

The Easter Bark was simply a large baking dish lined with baking paper with a variety of lollies and treats poured in. We uses jelly beans, marshmallows, smarties and mini easter eggs.
Isabella poured them in and arranged them...eating a few along the way.
I then poured in melted white chocolate, cooled and then broke into rough pieces.
Simple, effective and the children (and adults)
loved them.