Holidays

Posted on September 17, 2011 by DemeterG

Hello Bleeps, now, I know I said I would not leave it so long between blog posts again, but in my defense, I have been away.

I have been on Tasmania’s North West Coast and sampled some wonderful Tasmanian fare. Anvers Chocolate Truffles, Ashgrove Cheese, Walnuts, Beer & Wine, Apples, Seafood and Bush Honey.

I am back home now, with a few days off work and I am planning to cook up a storm tomorrow, so hopefully some culinary successes to blog for you next week.

Until then, happy eating!

P.S. The Poss Off! didn’t work 🙁 I came back from the West Coast to find the small parsley shoots that were recovering from the last possum attack have been totally decimated by the nasty beasts, along with the baby spinach that had started to sprout and the new coriander plant. Time for a new plan, which looks like a hot house….. after the deck renovations……after the chook pen……looks like no fresh herbs for a long while….

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White Sangria

Posted on September 9, 2011 by DemeterG

This is my favourite thing to drink while sitting in the spa and watching the stars. The original recipe suggests that you serve with ice cubes and soda water. Personally, I can’t stand the idea of watering it down and choose to omit those ingredients. The other thing I do is double the sugar syrup, Cointreau and wine and that ensures there is enough to drink for a long spa stay.

Ingredients: 

55 g (¼ cup) caster sugar
60 ml (¼ cup) water
1 cinnamon stick
80 ml (¹⁄³ cup) Cointreau liqueur
1 red apple, halved, cored, thinly sliced
1 orange, halved lengthways, thinly sliced
1 lemon, halved lengthways, thinly sliced
750 ml bottle white wine
ice cubes and soda water to serve (optional)

 

Method:

Stir the sugar, water and cinnamon stick over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 1 minute. Set aside to cool.

Combine the sugar syrup, Cointreau, apple, orange, lemon, wine and ice in a large jug. Top with soda water (if you are a complete nutter do the soda water bit). I sometimes throw in a sliced lime as well, if I have one handy.

I leave the jug in the fridge for up to 4 hours (if you can wait that long) to give a stronger fruit flavour.

So, I have the sangria in the fridge……. what do you think I might be doing tonight 😉

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Spinach, Brie, Bacon & Mushroom Pie

Posted on September 6, 2011 by DemeterG

This pie is simple but absolutely delicious. It was originally a vegetarian recipe, but I just can’t help adding bacon to things 😉

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
350g Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
10g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes then drained
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
250g diced bacon
400g spinach leaves
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3 x sheets, pre-made puff pastry, thawed
200g brie, sliced
1 egg, beaten

Method:

Melt butter in a large pan over high heat, then add sliced mushrooms and cook for 2 – 3 minutes, stirring, until soft. Reduce heat to medium, add chopped porcini, bacon, garlic and rosemary. Season and cook for 1 – 2 minutes until fragrant. Cool

Place spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over to wilt. Refresh under cold water, then squeeze to remove liquid.

Line the baking tray with one 1 ½ sheets pastry. Scatter over the spinach leaving a 2cm border on all sides. Top with cooled mushroom and bacon mixture, then sliced brie.

Brush pastry edges with egg. Top with remaining pastry and press gently to remove air pockets. Seal edges with a fork. Lightly score the top with a sharp knife, then chill for 20 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 200 ºC.

Brush Pie with remaining egg and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

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Penance Day 5…….. I made it! or did I?

Posted on September 4, 2011 by DemeterG

Day 5 and I have fulfilled my penance and feel absolved of my transgressions. I will try harder to keep my blogging up to date and not lapse so long in the future.

Today, as promised, I want to share the cake pop experience with you. It did not go to plan but there was ……… a kind of cake ball at the end. You can learn how to make cake pops the proper way by watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXCm7XTKXRc&feature=related OR you can learn how to make a disaster and keep reading:

Step one, whizz up a perfectly good chocolate cake into crumbs. Add some frosting (that is icing for those who don’t speak American) and whizz again until it has formed a nice gooey batter.

 Do not add too much frosting (like I did) or what happens is the balls do not set and when we went to coat them in chocolate, they were so heavy, they fell off the sticks. Hence we had cake balls and not cake pops.

Roll mixture into “rum ball” size – about a tablespoon and set on greaseproof paper in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Melt some chocolate and dip the lollipop sticks in to get a blob on the end. Poke and twirl the sticks into the balls and then put back in the fridge until set.

When the balls are set (if you haven’t used too much frosting, otherwise they will not set and will be gooey balls), melt your white chocolate and add chocolate coloring if desired. We chose a lovely blue. NOTE: Chocolate colouring and lollipop sticks were sourced from Spotlight.

Dip and twirl your “cake balls on a stick” in the chocolate and tap gently to remove any excess chocolate. Now this is where we came unstuck, as the balls either fell off the sticks as soon as there was any weight of the chocolate, or the tapping caused them to fall off.

We managed to get one lonely ball to stay on the stick and quickly gave up and decided that cake balls were just as good as cake pops and this is the end result. Having said all that, B1 and I had a lot of fun dipping and decorating  and we were both very glad that DB was nowhere near the kitchen, as we could both imagine him saying “Bloody Hell” when he saw the mess.

The verdict: not in a hurry to make them again, happy to stick with normal cake for a bit longer but glad I gave them a try.

Day 5 down, not sure if I officially made it as I had some issues and could not post last night….. surely I am close…..

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Penance Day 4……. This was a tough one

Posted on September 3, 2011 by DemeterG

Nearly all the teenagers have left and we have cleaned up most of the debris. The cake pops ended up being cake balls as they fell off their popsicle sticks during the chocolate dipping phase (photos to come). I suspect it was because there was too much frosting in the cake balls, but B1 and I had fun trying to put them together. DB and I are absolutely knackered now after spending the day grocery shopping, setting up lights and sound system and a smoke machine, making bruschetta, pizza, birthday cake and generally tidying.

There is no rest tomorrow either, as it is Father’s Day, so no doubt there will be an early morning wake up and all go again from there.

So, hopefully I can get to bed soon, just waiting on the the last of the parents pick up their kids…… I think I’ll be able to stay awake…..

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