Haloumi with Beetroot Salad

Hi all

Been a little slow/lazy on the blog posts this week.

Here's a lazy recipe for you! Last weekend I had some friends over and just threw this together quite quickly.


Serves 2

• 225-250g haloumi
• 150g cold cooked beetroot (I boiled mine)
• 2 tsp lime juice (or to taste)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 100g Rocket leaves
• warm pita bread, to serve

1. Drain all of the juices from the packet of haloumi over the sink, then transfer the cheese to a board and slice.
   
2. Roughly chop your beetroot, then blitz with a hand-held stick blender (or in a food processor), adding the lime juice and oil as you go.
   
3. Warm a large, dry, non-stick frying or griddle pan over a high heat and, when hot, add the slices of haloumi. Keep the heat high and after a minute or so the haloumi should have scorch marks on the underside. Flip the slices over and cook likewise.
   
4. To serve, place handfuls of the salad leaves onto two serving plates and place the haloumi strips on top. Divide the beetroot and lime purée between the plates, dolloping it alongside the halloumi, and serve with some warm pita bread.
   
   Too easy! Enjoy.
   
   
   
   
   

Mussels In Cider

Hey guys,

So last night Daniel and I whipped up a little storm for dinner. Grilled salmon and this little gem of a recipe. I must say I never really tried mussels properly until now, and yummo! Will be having them again in the near future.

Enjoy!

• 2kg mussels
• 2-3 x 15ml Tblsp olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and very finely chopped, or 3 spring onions, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 650ml dry cider (I used Matilda Bay - Dirty Granny)

1. Soak the mussels in a sink of cold water. Clean, debarnacle and debeard. Discard any cracked and open mussels that do not close again after being tapped or pressed.
2. Saute the onions in a large saucepan with a lid in the olive oil, then add the garlic.  Stir all together for a while until just soft.
3. Add the cider, turn up the heat, throw in the cleaned mussels and clamp on the lid. Cook for a couple of minutes, giving the pan a shake occasionally.
4. Check to see if the mussels have opened, if they haven’t cook a little longer, if they have remove from the heat. Let sit for a moment to let the juices settle and and grit sink to the bottom.
5. Divide mussels between bowls and spoon the juice over them, avoiding the gritty sediment. Sprinkle over the remaining parsley. Serve with crusty bread and an extra bowl for the shells.

Don’t force open any shells that have not opened during the cooking or that have damaged shells- these should be discarded.

Beer-Braised Beef Casserole

Hey all

Hope you had a good weekend. I was a little lazy with cooking this weekend (oops!). So to make up for it I made a delish casserole last night. Once again, stolen from Nigella Lawson. I have tweaked it a little by adding dumplings to the recipe though. This ones a slow cooker so put it on before work and come home to an amazing meal. Hope you like it!

Serves 6-8

For the casserole

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 250g bacon, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 tsp dried allspice
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1.5kg casserole beef, cubed
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups beef stock
• 4 tsp grain mustard
• 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 600ml dark beer (I used White Rabbit Dark Ale)
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• Good grinding pepper
• Packet of thick flat egg pasta 

For the dumplings

• 250g self raising flour
• 120g butter, softened
• 1 cup milk
• Half a cup of shaved parmesan cheese

Casserole:

1. Get out a large fry pan and add the oil and bacon pieces and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, till they've crisped up a bit.
2. Add the chopped onion, stirring well so that they're mixed into the bits of bacon, and turn down the heat to low and cook — stirring every now and again — for 5 minutes, by which time the onions will have softened.
3. Stir in the allspice and thyme and then tumble in the cubed beef and, for ease, with a pair of spatulas or suchlike, toss and turn the meat in the pan.
4. Shake in the flour and stir to mix as best you can. Once mixed, put all this into your slow cooker.
5. Pour the broth into a large pitcher and stir in the mustard and sugar and then add the beer. Pour this over everything in the slow cooker.
6. Add the bay leaves and salt and a good grinding of pepper, then clamp on the lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours (for maximum tenderness)

Dumplings:

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
2. Add the softener butter and rub between your fingers until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
3. Make a well in the middle and add the parmesan and half the milk, then use a butter knife and use a cutting motion to mix the milk in with the flour/butter mix. Add small amounts of milk until completely mixed and forms a non sticky dough (you may not need ALL the milk so dont just throw it all in at once).
4. Roll into balls and store in the fridge until ready to use.

To serve:

1. Bring to boil a large saucepan of water and cook pasta to packet instructions. As soon as the water starts boiling this is when you should put your dumplings into the casserole to cook. Leave the lid off the slow cooker and turn setting to 'High'.
2. Strain your pasta and immediately separate into bowls.
3. Use a ladle and generously pour the casserole/dumplings over the pasta.
4. Enjoy!

This seems like a huge effort, but honestly the prep takes about 20 minutes, and serving up takes about 10 - so for half an hour of your time you can have an amazing hearty meal! Put it on before work and leave it on all day for best results.

p.s yes, if you're super lazy or time poor you can just put everything in the slow cooker without frying it all first in the pan (as you can see I did this in my photo above).

Have a great day! xx

Peanut Butter Cups

Hi all!

TGIF huh? What a beautiful day it was today in Sydney. Hope the rest of the weekend is like that too!

Currently enjoying a Matilda Bay Dirty Granny (APPLE CIDER).. hehe..


So here is a recipe I stole off the lovely Talitha. Props to her - DELICIOUS!

• Block of Milk Cadbury cooking chocolate
• 5 tbsp Crunchy peanut butter
• Icing sugar to taste
• Mini paper/silicone cupcake wrappers/moulds

1. Melt half the chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave, short bursts of 15 seconds and stirring in between should do the trick.
2. Blob in the melted chocolate to almost half way into as many patties as you can fill.
3. Soften the peanut butter for 15 seconds in the microwave, and add a little icing sugar to make it a bit sweeter. Mix it around good until the sugar is dissolved and then blob a good amount in the middle but try to keep it from touching the sides of the mould.
4. Melt the rest of your chocolate the way you did the first batch, and then blob that on top, ensuring you cover all the peanut butter.
5. FREEZE!
6. ENJOY!

So simple, yet SO delicious! I can only eat one or two because they're so morish.

Have a great weekend guys!

x

Chewy Choc Chip Cookies

Hi all!

Hope you're all doing well. Me, not so much. Woke up with a migraine and then later had to go to the dentist for fillings :(

Anyway, thats enough about me... lets talk about food!

Now, I must say I AM recycling these recipes from days/weeks past until I can find the time to start making some new stuff.. but here's a recipe you're sure to enjoy. It's so simple yet so awesome. Definite crowd pleaser ;)

• 2/3 cup (150g) melted butter
• 2 cups (500g) lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of hot water
• 2 2/3 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda (ie bicarb)
•  Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1 pack of Nestle Milk "Chips" (or if you want you can do half Milk half White like I did)

1.  Preheat oven to 190C.
2.  Mix together melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla essence, eggs and hot water. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mixture will form into a stiffish dough. Stir in chocolate chips until well distributed throughout the dough.
3. Drop from a small spoon onto sheets of baking paper (or you can roll them in your hands into balls then squash them slightly if you like). The cookies do spread out a bit as they bake so leave room for this.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Don't let them brown too much... I sort of like to leave mine a little 'uncooked' in the middle so they're extra chewy and break apart like Subway cookies!

Enjoy! Eat them while they're warm - they're at their best then.

That's all for now. xx

First Post!

Hi guys,

Ok so welcome to my blog.. which is dedicated to my hobby; cooking!

I've only just recently discovered how happy it makes me to cook.. and then to watch people enjoy it - which is probably the most rewarding part.

So I'd like to share some recipes with you and hopefully inspire you to make something delicious every now and again ;)


I'm going to start off with a favourite of mine which I made on the weekend for a group of friends. I say favourite because I LOVE eating them, and recently found them in my new cookbook (Nigella Lawson - Kitchen).

For the Churros:

• 90g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 125g plain flour
• 125g self-raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 litre vegetable oil for frying

For the Chocolate Sauce:

• 150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 300ml double cream (dollop cream.. whatever you want to call it)

I have altered the chocolate amounts slightly from the sauce recipe I followed, as it was a bit *too* dark for my liking, but if you like dark chocolate then by all means use 200g dark 50g milk as the recipe calls for.

1. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together on a plate or flat bowl and set aside (this is for dusting later!)
2. Put all the chocolate in a saucepan with the golden syrup and cream and heat over a low heat, stirring continuously, to melt the chocolate (just make sure it doesnt burn)
3. Sift the flours with salt into a heatproof bowl and make a well in the centre.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil and 450ml boiling water together, and pour into the well, beating it well with a fork to get rid of any lumps. The dough should be slightly soft and sticky to touch. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
5. Fill a large saucepan with the sunflower oil - it should be about one-third full. Heat the oil until a small piece of bread browns in less than 30 seconds.
6. Add the dough to a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle and squeeze out churros directly into the hot oil, cutting them with a pair of scissors into the length you want. Be careful not to cook too many in the pan at once, as they stick together. Fry until crispy and golden. Remove from the oil with a draining spoon and drain on paper towel. 
7. You can either sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top of the churros or roll them in it - up to you! 

I let all my friends dip sauce out of the saucepan (I guess by that time I'd become super lazy and couldn't be bothered dividing the sauce into individual bowls) - plus we dont have germs!

This recipe should make enough for 3-4 people - I doubled it and had (mostly) enough for 6 people. Depends on how long you make them as to  how many it will make ;)

Enjoy!