Cauliflower Soup

When out shopping one day we visited a little cafe and ordered some soup.  Teena had Cauliflower and Chilli soup and I had Pumpkin and Coconut soup.  Or maybe it was the other way around...  either way they were both delicious.  Of course we found some recipes to make our own and these are now two of our favourite soups!  So when Teena bought a lovely big head of Cauliflower the other day, she requested I make some soup with it.  The original recipe for this was a Cream of Cauliflower soup, but we rarely have any cream as it's not something we use very often.  We prefer our soups to be chunky and cream free anyway.  There should be some dried chilli flakes in there as well but I had run out of those and didn't have any fresh chillies handy.

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil
1 brown onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 large head of cauliflower
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water



Heat oil in a large stockpot or saucepan.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft.

Add cumin and coriander, cook stirring for 2 minutes.  Add the cauliflower, stock and water.  Cover and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until cauliflower is soft and breaks apart.

Use a potato masher to break up the cauliflower slightly.  This gives it a nice chunky but soft texture, but you can blend it if you prefer it smooth and creamy.

Lime and Ginger Cookies

Tati over at Polka Dot Pantry Sweets described these cookies as amazing, and I have to agree.  Teena and I both love them!  Visit Tati's blog if you would like the recipe.

I used a lime from our potted Patio Lime. It was only a small lime though and I think the cookies could have used a bit more lime flavour.

I wouldn't recommend using a hand mixer like this one for making cookies and cakes though...  I think I need to get myself a proper electric mixer.

Raspberry Spiced Muffins

This is our favourite spicy muffin recipe, I just love the combination of spices and the muffins are just delicious!  I've made a few different variations by changing the type of berries and nuts.  This one uses raspberries and sunflower seeds rather then nuts.  The original recipe was for Cranberry Spiced Muffins which I found while trying to find a way to use up some leftover cranberries.  I use frozen raspberries as that's how we buy them, but you could use fresh if you prefer.

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1 tbs white sugar
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 1 tbs sunflower seeds, extra
• 1 tbs brown sugar, extra

Put the frozen berries into a bowl, sprinkle a little white sugar over the top and add 1 tbs boiling water.

Mix the flour, brown sugar, sunflower seeds, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil and egg.

Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and stir until just combined.

Spoon the mix into a 12 cup muffin tray which has been sprayed with cooking oil.

Put the extra sunflower seeds and brown sugar into a mortar and pestle and mix until the seeds are crushed slightly.

Sprinkle the crushed seed mix on top of the muffins and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Try to let them cool just a little before tasting :)  What's your favourite muffin flavours?

Pumpkin, Spinach and Eggplant Lasagna

I had planned to make some Moussaka, but I'd used some of the ingredients the night before, so I looked around for a lasagna recipe with pumpkin and spinach in it.  I didn't really find one that I liked, but I had a good idea of how I wanted to do it and I've made traditional lasagna heaps of times.  So I just made a lasagna with layers of all the ingredients I wanted to use, pumpkin, spinach and eggplant.

I was also trying some dried wholemeal lasagna sheets which I soaked briefly in some boiling water before using, but you can use any type.  I like using fresh lasagna sheets as you don't get any uncooked bits in your lasagna.

Ingredients

• Lasagna Sheets
• 400g Pumpkin
• 1 bunch Spinach
• 2 Eggplant
• Salt
• Olive Oil
• 2 Brown Onions
• 400g Tin Diced Tomatoes
• 2 tbspn Tomato Paste
• 100g Button Mushrooms
• 1 tbpsn fresh Oregano
• 1 qty of Bechamel Sauce

Heat some Olive Oil in a frypan and cook onion and garlic until soft.  Add mushrooms and oregano, cook for another minute.  Add tomato paste and tomatoes, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Slice eggplant in thin slices and sprinkle with salt.  Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and fry eggplant in batches until brown on both sides.  Transfer to some paper towel.  Peel and slice pumpkin thickly.  Steam or boil pumpkin for about 5 minutes to soften slightly.  Chop Spinach roughly and toss it in some boiling water for a few minutes.  Transfer to some paper towel to drain.  Squeeze out extra moisture before using.

In a large dish, spoon a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom.  Add a layer of lasagna sheets then top with a layer of eggplant, a layer of spinach, followed by a layer of pumpkin.  You don't have to fill each layer, just scatter evenly.  Add another layer of lasagna sheets, followed by the tomato sauce and then eggplant, spinach and pumpkin.  Repeat like this until you have used up all your ingredients.  I managed to build three layers with mine.

Top with a layer of lasagna sheets and finish by pouring the bechamel sauce over the whole lasagna.  Cook in oven at 180°C for 30-40 minutes, or until the lasagna sheets are soft when tested with a skewer.  I forgot to put any cheese into my bechamel sauce... and if I had remembered I probably would have scattered some on top as well.  It was still very tasty though!

Differences

I love the internet.  Mostly because you can get information about anything with the click of a button, but also because it allows people from all over the world to share their lives with each other.  It allows us to share ideas and discover new ways of doing things.

For example, I used to play online games with friends who live in America (I live in Australia).  During this time, one of my friends, Chris, would often say he was going to make some PnJ on toast.  I had no idea what he was talking about and when I asked him what PnJ was, he was amazed that I didn't know and was quite happy to share something that appears to be a part of American culture.  Of course most of you probably know that PnJ is Peanut Butter and Jelly.

In Australia, Jelly is a crystalised powder that, when mixed with hot water and then chilled, turns into a gelatin dessert (something like this).  Something which I believe is referred to as Jello in the US?  You can imagine my thoughts at the time as I pictured a peanut butter and jello sandwich...  until I worked out that jelly in the US is what we call jam in Australia.  I have since tried PnJ many times and agree that it is rather tasty!

Another difference that came up was with pumpkin.  I would often tell the guys that I was cooking a roast dinner with roast potato and pumpkin.  Pumpkin as a main course??  Pumpkin is a dessert they would tell me.  A dessert??  No way, you guys are weird!  Afterwards, Chris told me all about pumpkin pie and said I had to try it.  In Australia, we traditionally boil, steam or roast pumpkin and eat it as a vegetable with our main course, so the concept of pumpkin as a dessert is a little strange and unfortunately I have yet to try one.  So if anyone has a good recipe they would like to share, let me know :)

So thank you internet, and thanks to all the blog writers out there for sharing just a little bit of their lives.

Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

This is our favourite Meatballs and Spaghetti recipe.  The meatballs are just so tasty and it's very easy to make.  The recipe is adapted from one I found at Taste.

Ingredients

• 500g beef mince
• 1 onion, finely chopped 
• 1-2 tablespoons hot chilli sauce
• 1 tbspn lemon juice
• 1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
• 2 x 400g cans diced Italian tomatoes
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tbspn sweet chilli sauce
• cooked pasta and extra basil, to serve

Combine beef mince, onion, chilli sauce, lemon juice, breadcrumbs, basil and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Roll small handfuls of mince mixture into balls. Place meatballs on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes or until firm.

Combine tomatoes, sweet chilli sauce and stock in a deep frying pan. Try to use something that will fit all meatballs in a single layer and allow the sauce to cover them easily.  Bring slowly to the boil over medium heat. Drop meatballs into tomato mixture. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

Serve meatballs on top of freshly cooked spaghetti.  Enjoy!

Apple Dumplings

I saw these Apple Dumplings while flicking through Australia The Beautiful Cookbook.  They just looked so interesting that I had to try them.  They were really tasty too.  The apples just seem to melt inside their crust and hidden inside somewhere was the sweet pile of honey and walnuts.  The original recipe used golden syrup instead of honey and made a quantity of 4.  I reduced the ingredients to only make 2.

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tbspn sugar
60g butter
2 tablespoons iced water
2 Granny Smith apples
1 tbspn honey
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 egg, beaten
Extra sugar

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, stir in sugar.  Rub in butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Sprinkle water over the top and mix with a knife to a firm dough, adding extra water if it's too dry.  Wrap in plastic film and chill for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into two pieces and shape each piece into a ball.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a large circle large enough to wrap around the apples.  Peel and core apples.  Mix honey and walnuts together and use to stuff apples.  Place an apple on each pastry square, dampen edges of pastry and wrap around apple.

Place dumplings seam side down on a greased baking tray.  Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes at 200°C.  Reduce heat to 180°C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until apples are soft when tested with a skewer.  Serve dumplings warm with custard or ice-cream.

We really liked these, they were really yummy and not that hard to make either. We'll be making them again for sure, perhaps with some different nuts next time.