August 2014 - Orange & Ginger Jellies

I actually made these last weekend but didn't get around to finishing them off until tonight. I'm not really that fussed about them. I think they could have used a bit more gelatine. The sugar really didn't last long on them. They were too wet. I used blood oranges. The ginger was a bit strong. 

Urgh, I just didn't really like them. 

Orange & Ginger Jellies

250 ml Orange juice

125 ml Lemon juice

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

1/3 c (75g) caster sugar + extra to dust

4 gold-strength gelatine leaves

Oil base 10 x 18 tray. 

Bring orange & lemon juices, sugar & ginger to a boil over medium-low heat. Simmer for 5 min or until sugar dissolved. 

Soak gelatine in cold water until soft. Squeeze out and whisk into hot juice until dissolved. 

Pour in tin, chill until set. 

Cut into squares, roll in caster sugar.

Gingerbread loaf

Despite best intentions I didn't get any posts done during my holidays. There really isn't any excuses. I sat down many a time to do some but seemed to get easily distracted by something else. 

Like my previous post I made this Gingerbread loaf for the April Bake Club challenge over at taste.com.au. It just looked so good and I really do like ginger. I had some gluten-free flour in the cupboard so decided to give it a go and see how it would turn out. Also with it being gluten-free I could easily give some of it to one of my friends. I was really pleased with how it turned out with the gluten-free flour. The texture was just excellent. It did sink a bit in the middle but it wasn't too bad. I think I should have cooked it another 5 minutes and it would have been fine. I was, however, rather disappointed with it otherwise. I reduced the sugar by half but it was still ridiculously sweet and the ginger flavour was crazy strong. Most of it did get eaten but all agreed that it certainly wasn't the best thing that I have made. It is not something that I will make again...it does look good though.

Delicious July 2012 - Ginger chicken with coconut rice

 There is so much to make from this issue of Delicious magazine. I really wasn't sure where to start. I must admit that it was the first time in a while that I was immediately taken with about 8 recipes from the one issue. Usually on the first scan I can only find 1 or 2 and then find more when going back. 

I really want to make the apple, pecan & gingerbread loaf. I know a couple of people who have made it already and said how wonderful it is. I would love to make the cannoli cupcakes but I really don't have anyone to feed them to. So I will probably have to pass that recipe by. There is a brioche cake that looks absolutely fabulous. The brioche is baked in a springform tin and then sliced in 3 layers and filled with cream & strawberries. I think that I might make the brioche in my 10 cm springform tins and then I can have individual ones and freeze them. 

I am intrigued by the mushroom sformato. I am not really sure how to describe it. Some sort of soufflé sort of thing I guess. The only way that I will know is to make it I think. There is a ham hock soup that I will be able to use my christmas ham bone in. However the bone is too big for my pot so I will have to take it down to my butcher and see if he will cut it in half for me. I also really want to make Rick Stein's Lamb karahi. I guess that I am going to be busy this month. 

First up I decided to make the Ginger chicken with coconut rice. I was away from home visiting friends and made this for them one night. I was very pleased with the chicken. It had great flavour although I think it would have benefited from a longer marinating time. My friends didn't have fish sauce so I used soy sauce. I wasn't impressed with the rice though. I would have thought that the rice would be cooked in the coconut milk not cooked in water and then the milk added. As far as I was concerned it just made the rice gluggy. I wouldn't do it that way again. 

Ginger Chicken with Coconut Rice

10cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup (35g) chopped salted peanuts, plus extra to serve
2 tbsp sunflower oil
4 chicken marylands
1 1/2 cups (300g) long-grain rice
3/4 cup (185ml) coconut milk
 

Combine the ginger, garlic, lime zest and juice, fish sauce, sugar, peanuts and 1 tbs oil in a large bowl. Coat chicken in the marinade, then stand for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Heat remaining 1 tbs oil in a non-stick, ovenproof frypan over medium heat. Remove chicken from marinade and cook, skin-side down, for 2 minutes. Turn and cook for a further 1 minute. Transfer to the oven and cook for 15 minutes or until cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook rice according to the packet instructions. Drain, then stir through the coconut milk. Serve with chicken and extra peanuts.

Corn & Ginger Soup

I didn't manage to get my picnic in today but I did get a bunch of stuff done around the house. Plus I started to sort through my dvds, cds, books and previously unpacked boxes in preparation for a garage sale. It has been almost 2 years since I moved house. In my previous house I had so much stuff and oodles of storage. I am now in a slightly smaller house with little storage space. There is so much stuff that I just don't need or use so it is time for it to go. I have been saying that I would have a garage sale for about a year now but finally decided to do something about it. 

I remember a soup recipe in a Nigella book that she referred to as 'my body is a temple' soup although I don't remember now anything about the actual recipe. It was my first thought when I saw this recipe though. A very quick and simple recipe. Full of flavour and almost restorative. It was so easy to whip up for a quick lunch. I think this will end up being a regular in my house. 

Corn & Ginger Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup green onions, finely sliced, plus extra to serve
• 1 tbsp ginger, finely sliced 
• 2 cups corn kernels, cut from cobs (or frozen) 
• 4 cups chicken stock (I used vegetable)
• 1 tbsp shao hsing wine
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil, to serve

Method: 

• Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat.
• Add green onions and ginger, stir for 1 minute. 
• Add corn, stir for another minute (or longer if corn is still frozen).
• Pour in stock, bring to boil.
• Season with wine, salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce.
• Simmer for 5 minutes.
• Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with green onions and drizzle with sesame oil. 

July 2005 - Fig, Pistachio & Ginger Muffins

I had so many things marked in issue #40 that I wanted to try and it was very hard to pick just one thing out. The Thai-style pumpkin soup on the cover looked really nice. However I make pumpkin soup regularly. I have also done a Thai inspired one after having it at a cafe a number of years ago. I normally fry off some red curry paste before adding stock. It is very nice.

Glenn Reid's Field mushroom tarte tatin with cress salad was the first recipe to catch my eye but I cannot get cress so decided to move on to one of the other options.

I have had Valli Little's bean trenchers marked to make ever since I got this issue. It is basically a baked bean mixture cooked on the stove served on toast. I have made my own baked beans before. No matter how hard I try I always end up with a massive pot of beans and get sick of eating it before I get through it all. This recipe sounds great but serves 6 and I am sure that even if I cut the recipe in half I would end up with more than 3 serves as I find that most recipes give more servings than they say they do.

Another marked recipe is Valli's chunky potato corn & bacon soup. I have made this one before and it is a wonderful hearty soup. Perfect in the winter time. However since I have already made it before I decided to go with one of the many other options.

When I made up my blog menu plan for the month I had opted for Nancy Duran's date, gorgonzola & prosciutto tart. It is an easy recipe and perfect for lunch. I was going to make one change, substituting goat's cheese for the gorgonzola. This was for two reasons, firstly I am not overly keen on blue cheese and it is hard to get a nice gorgonzola here and secondly, I had some goat's cheese left over from another recipe. I ended up not making this because I used the goat's cheese for some thing else and it was another recipe that had a cress topping to the tart. I may have to look into how to grow some cress. On the couple of occasions that I have been able to purchase it, I have quite enjoyed it so if it is easy to grow it would be a nice addition to the edible garden.

I ended up making fig, pistachio & ginger muffins. A recipe from Tanya Beard, it was included as part of an article on Toby Smith, owner of Toby's Estate coffee. These were fabulous muffins. I uses pecans instead of pistachios as that is what I had on hand. I am sure the pistachios would be terrific in there too. The reconstituted figs soft and almost caramelised. Even though I burnt my hand while removing the pan from the oven. I am not sure that they were worth it exactly but they are extremely good. So good I have already bought more figs to make them again. This time I am planning to use macadamia nuts, again because I have them on hand. They store and reheat well too. I think that they could also be very successfully frozen.

Fig, Pistachio & Ginger Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 350 g dried figs
• 3 1/3 c (500g) plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarb soda
  
• 1 c (220 g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 c (560g) thick natural yoghurt
• 150 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
• 3/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, chopped (I used pecans)
  
• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/3 c (80 ml) milk

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease 12-hole muffin pan.
  
• Soak figs in boiling water for 15 minutes then drain and chop.
  
• In a bowl combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and then add yoghurt and butter and stir well to combine.
  
• Pour egg mix into flour mix and stir with a metal spoon until just combined.
• Add figs, ginger and nuts and gently stir to combine adding milk if the mixture is too dry.
  
• Spoon mixture into muffin pan until 2/3 - 3/4 full.
  
• Bake 25 - 30 minutes.
  

April 2005 - Gingernuts

I have been rather neglectful of this poor little blog of late. I have been cooking up a storm but just have not had a chance to sit down and write to posts. Well, that is not exactly true, there has been times when I could have been writing but some how it just never seemed to happen. I guess that I just need to right motivation to write and the urge just did not hit until tonight.

I struggled with what to make from issue #37. It was not struggling in a nothing I want to cook way, it was the constant swaying back and forth as to which of the lovely recipes to make.

The first recipe that I was going to make was Juliet Kellow's Mediterranean Salmon. Juliet is a registered dietitian and has a column about super foods in delicious magazine. The Mediterranean Salmon is basically salmon fillets, thick sliced potatoes, garlic, cherry tomatoes and herbs that are baked in the oven for various lengths of time. The picture accompanying looks so good and I had fully intended on making this but I could never seem to find a nice piece of salmon to make it.

The next recipe that I really wanted to make was from the guest chef for the month, Tyler Florence. His recipe for Mexican Street Tacos with Pico de Gallo looked sensational. The recipe was packed full of all those flavours you would expect from Mexican food, chilli, lime, garlic and, unfortunately, coriander. I wanted so much to make this, even though I though it would be difficult to reduce the two recipes. Unfortunately since I do not (will not) eat coriander and I just did not think that it could be substituted without it really effecting the taste so I decided to cut my losses and make something else.

I moved on to planning to make a very simple but tasty sounding dish from the Junior Cooks column called Savoury Vegetable Puddings. It is basically vegetables, they used carrots and peas, in a thick cheesy batter in individual ramekins topped with breadcrumbs and baked in the oven. It sounds so simple and could easily be made with different vegetables. I had planned on broccoli, carrots and corn. I was going to have it with a nice steak however I just seemed to keep putting it off and then I had other meals planned so I decided make something else.

The final recipe that I was tossing up making and the one that I finally settled on was Bill Granger's Gingernuts. I really like ginger biscuits/cookies. I have a really nice recipe from my Mum's old Better Homes & Gardens cook book that is nice and gingery and rolled in sugar. I was drawn to these ones of Bill's as they used grated fresh ginger in place of the usual ground (dried) ginger. These were really easy to make, although I think that they could have done with a bit more ginger. I think next time I make them I will put in 4 or 5 tsp of grated fresh ginger just to give them more of a kick. They are lovely and soft and cakey, just the way I like them. I don't like the store bought gingernuts that are so hard they could break your teeth.

Gingernuts

Ingredients

• 2 cups (300g) plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 firmly packed cup (200g) brown sugar
• 3 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 125g unsalted butter, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp golden syrup
  

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Put flour, soda, sugar, ginger and a pinch of salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine.
• Add butter and whiz until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• In a small bowl whisk egg and golden syrup together. Add to processor and whiz until it comes together. (I had to add about 1 - 2 tsp milk and finished combining with my hands.)
• Roll teaspoons of dough and place on lightly greased trays. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes (I baked for 12) or until lightly browned.