Cheese and Garlic Scrolls

These were a bit of an experiment but they disappeared from the lunch table really quickly.

I used my basic bread recipe in the bread maker.

I rolled the mixture out in a large rectangle until it was quite thin, then sprinkled a lot of crushed garlic and grated edam cheese over the rectangle.

I then rolled it up into a scroll, sliced each piece off and laid it on baking paper to cook. They cooked for about 15 minutes.

Warm Lemon Tart

My latest Cuisine magazine had lots of recipes I wanted to try and this Lemon tart looked great. I really liked the fact that it was warm rather than cold since we are in the middle of winter.

My blind baked pastry was not fantastic. I used rice instead of baking beans (I'm buying baking beans asap!) and the sides slipped down quite a bit making my tart base more shallow than it should have been. The good side of this was that I got to try the filling on its own as the recipe suggested a
s another option. It was really nice.

I'd make this again - with or without the pastry

Warm Lemon Tart

Short pastry
180g flour
pinch of salt
135g unsalted butter, chilled, diced

Put the flour and salt in a food processor. Pulse once to distribute the salt evenly then add the butter and pulse until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 3 tablespoons chilled water and pulse once or twice, but don’t allow the mix to form a ball. 

Turn out on a clean bench and knead lightly to bring the pastry together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 4mm thick. Place in a 25cm round tart tin and trim. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before baking. 

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prick the tart base with a fork then cover with baking paper and fill with dried beans, rice or ceramic beans. Blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Cool on a rack before filling. This tart base can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container. 

For the tart
75g unsalted softened butter
150g caster sugar
5 eggs, separated
4 tablespoons flour, sifted
zest and juice of 4-5 lemons (you will need 150ml juice)
icing sugar to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the butter and sugar in a food processor and process until well combined. Add the egg yolks and process to combine. Add the flour and blitz briefly to combine then add the lemon zest and juice and process to combine.

Transfer the mix to a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until light and fluffy then fold gently through the lemon mix. Spoon into the pastry case and smooth the top then bake for 35-40 minutes until golden on top. 

Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Lemon and Olive Chicken - Slow Cooker

This is yet another from Pintrest and adds to my growing slow cooker repertoire.
The dish was nice. A positive verdict from all who ate it.

The cumin added an interesting flavour and I loved the olives with the lemon.
My slow cooker is a quite fast - I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not?
The meat was cooked is about 3-4 hours on slow.
The sauce was a quite thick (maybe because I added it to the slow cooker while it was hot)  I so I added more chicken stock to it.


Lemon Chicken Thighs with Olives Recipe

 

Ingredients

• 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon pepper, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¾ cup pitted green olives

Instructions

1. Sprinkle chicken thighs evenly with salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add half of chicken.
3. Cook about 3 minutes per side, or until browned.
4. Transfer to a slow cooker.
5. Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and repeat procedure with remaining chicken.
6. Transfer to slow cooker, and add lemon slices.
7. Combine broth, juice, flour and cumin, stirring with a whisk.
8. Pour broth mixture over chicken.
9. Top with olives and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper.
10. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Coconut Macaroons

I made these a few years ago for Christmas presents. At the time I was amazed at how easy they are and how quick to make. With a birthday 'morning tea shout' looming I needed a few ideas to make over the weekend. These seemed like a good idea. They were as easy as I remembered and my colleagues enjoyed them.

They are best when they are fresh and a bit crispy but still pretty good after a few days.

This recipe makes about 60.




Coconut Macaroons

 400g shredded coconut (not fine coconut)
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 150 degrees C

Mix coconut, condensed milk and vanilla together.

Whisk egg whites and salt until they are soft medium peaks. If you can turn the bowl upside down and nothing falls out they are done.

Fold egg whites into coconut mix. It will end up looking a bit wet.

I put them on a baking sheet using a heaped teaspoon to measure them out. Press down so they are not a ball.
Bake for about 13 minutes.

Once cooked, allow to cool then drizzle chocolate over them.

Belgium Biscuits

This one is an old favourite that Mum used to make. They are a little bit time consuming but soooo worth the effort.
Today's version are for the school 'cake sale' tomorrow so are not really decorated traditionally...and to be honest I think didn't look anything near as good as they should but I bet the children will love them.

I called Mum to get the recipe and instead of writing it out checked against my trusty 'Edmonds Recipe Book' and the recipe was the same.

I made these quite small - I used a very small wine tasting glass to cut them out. They don't need to be big because you get two as part of the finished biscuit.

Belguim Biscuits

Ingredients

126 g butter
75g Soft Brown Sugar
1teaspoon cinnamon
1teaspoon mixed spice
1teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg
225g flour
1teaspoon baking powder
raspberry jam 

 Icing Sugar (for the icing only)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C, cream butter and Chelsea sugar together. Add all the dry ingredients to the butter and Chelsea Soft Brown sugar. Mix it all together. Cut out circles (but have an even number!)
Bake on a cold greased tray and bake them for 15-20 mins. When brown, take out of oven and leave to cool. When the biscuits are cold, put together with raspberry jam in the middle.

Boil the jug, put about 1/4 - 1/2 a cup of icing Chelsea sugar in a bowl and then add a tiny amount of hot water. don't put too much otherwise it will be runny! it has to be runny enough to spread.

Put the icing on the top of the biscuits, sprinkle with jelly crystals or hundreds and thousands.

Green Tea Salmon and Coconut Rice

We watched this on Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals several weeks ago and liked the look of it. After a trip to Auckland Fish Market today where we bought salmon it seemed like a good opportunity to give it a go.
While it took more than the '15 minutes' promised it is a good one to add to our repertoire.

When we saw it on TV Jamie only used a couple of tea bags. I used a lot...possibly too many.

The coconut rice was ok but not all of the family liked it so it probably wont be one we make again.

Green Tea Salmon and Coconut Rice

4 x 120g salmon fillets, skin-on

2 green tea bags

Olive oil

Salt / pepper

400g tin of coconut milk

300g basmati rice

½ lemon

method

1. Fill and boil the kettle
2. Place the salmon onto a plate, open the green tea bags and shake the green tea over the salmon. Season with salt and pepper and make sure the salmon is evenly coated on all sides.
3. Pour a small amount of olive oil into a frying pan over a medium heat and place the salmon in the pan, skin side down. Fry the skin side for at least four minutes then periodically turn the salmon until it is golden brown on the other sides.
4. Wash the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear then add it to a saucepan with the coconut milk, 400g water (refill the coconut milk tin) and half a lemon. Bring the water to a boil then place a lid on the saucepan and turn the heat all the way down. Cook for 10 minutes then turn off the heat.

Pear Liqueur and Pear Garden Cocktail

A few too many pears got me searching for a recipe to use them, I came across this one for a Pear Liqueur. Simple, probably lethal and very very yummy.

The finished liqueur has a subtle pear smell and is quite brown and cloudy but used in the cocktail below is amazing.
I had intended to make just one round but one was just not enough. I didn't met any resistance from the others drinking them with me.

The lemon juice cut through the sweetness of the other ingredients.
I used supermarket cranberry drink which was probably a bit too sweet. I'd use unsweetened pure juice next time.

The sugar syrup was made in a hurry but putting half a cup of sugar and half a cup of water in the microwave for 3 minutes, then stirring while hot. I left it to cool and it was perfect.

Because we don't use 'oz' measurements I just treated each as a part or measure using the measure that came with our cocktail shaker.


Pear Liqueur

1.5 lbs. pears ripe (.68kg)
750ml vodka (cheap is good)

Peel, seed, and stem the pears. Cut them into 1″ pieces and place in a large glass container (at least a half gallon – I doubled the recipe). Pour the vodka into the glass container. Seal tightly and shake the jar. Place the jar in a cool, dark location for one week. Strain the pear out and then let sit for another 2 weeks.

Pear Garden Cocktail

2 oz (part/measure) pear liqueur (which you just happily made)
1 oz (part/measure) cranberry juice
1/2 oz (part/measure) Crème de Cassis (black currant liqueur)
1 oz (part/measure) lemon juice
1 oz (part/measure) simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water – dissolve sugar, bring to boil for a minute, let cool)
pear, for garnish (optional)

Place martini glass in freezer. Pour everything except the pear garnish into a shaker, fill with ice, and shake until cold. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with pear slice and other fruity things.