Shitake Mushroom & Soba Soup

What with our house hunting getting serious, I've lost my appetite from the stress! Now is the perfect time for a bowl of refreshing noodle soup to help lift the spirits! Yesterday I didn't feel like eating either, so I made this with chicken. Today I had run out of chicken, so I used a small tin of flavoured tuna instead. Delish!

shitake mushroom & noodle soup is perfect when you're not feeling your best

Ingredients
5 or 6 dried shitake mushrooms
4 cups of water
vegetable stock, salt reduced preferred
quick cook noodles, like organic soba
2 cups fresh veggies eg. green beans, organic broccoli, finely sliced cabbage etc
optional, a handful of shredded roast chicken breast OR 90g tin of flavoured tuna eg. sweet chilli

mushrooms and soba noodles cooking on the stove top

1. soak 5 or 6 dried shitake mushrooms in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes, then cut in half
2. dissolve 1 or 2 tablespoons of powdered vege stock in 2 cups of water
3. add vege stock, mushrooms with water, broccoli and green beans (and the chicken if using) to a saucepan and bring to the boil
4. lower heat and add the noodles and cabbage to the boiling water, (add tuna if using), simmer for 3 minutes

by Teena from Flushed with Rosy Colour

Teena's Vegie Bake

David had a rare night off cooking last night, so I whipped this up! I'm not as good a cook as Dave, but this one was an unusual success. So now I just have to write down what I did so I remember for next time he wants a night off!

Teena's version of a veggie bake

I used to make veggie bakes a fair bit in my early 20s, when I attempted to be a vegetarian. I managed to refrain from eating red meat for 3 months, but I still ate chicken and fish, so I wasn't really a vegetarian! But after 1 month off not eating red meat, the aroma of red meat cooking became an unpleasant smell. I found the original idea for this veggie bake in the Australia the Beautiful Cookbook, which someone gave to me many, many years ago.

You will need -
your choice of veggies, enough to fill 2/3 of your casserole dish
your choice of a base, like rice or couscous, your choice of beans (optional), and olive oil
mushrooms, garlic, butter and flour for the mushroom sauce
grated cheese for on top, a couple of handfuls

For my adaptation last night, I began by preparing the vegetables. You can use any veggies for the bulk of the bake. Last night I used a bunch that needed to be used up, some home-grown potatoes and a squash from David's father's garden, a zucchini, a sweet potato, a red onion and some pumpkin. In my younger days, I would use celery and carrot as well, they are very cheap! There were enough vegetables to fill our small steamer.

Next I made a garlic mushroom sauce. That's a white sauce using butter, flour and liquid from the bottom of the steamed veggies. Then I fried up some butter, garlic and mushrooms in a small pan, and added that to the sauce.

I also prepared some couscous, which is too easy and convenient not to use. All you have to do is add boiling water to the same amount of couscous, I used half a cup which made plenty for us. Let it sit while you prepare other things, then fluff it up with a fork. To the couscous I added some olive oil and strained butter beans.

To put it all together you put the couscous mixture in the base of the casserole dish, you could also use rice or pasta for this. Next you pile in all the strained steamed veggies. Then you pour the mushroom sauce over them. Lastly, you put a couple of handfuls of grated cheese on top. I also put the last few dobbles of left over garlic herb butter on top to melt. Then it all goes in a 220 oven for 15 minutes until the cheese is golden brown, yum!

Gingerbread Hearts

We made these biscuits for Christmas in 2010.  Thomas was still in the Special Care Nursery at that stage so we were passing time before we went to visit him.  We travelled in to see him every day during the 7 weeks he was in the nursery, except for two days when it was flooding and we weren't able to get in.  We ended up giving the biscuits to friends and family as a nice home-made gift for Christmas.

An assortment of Gingerbread Hearts.

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 tbs golden syrup

2 cups plain flour

Pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp ground ginger

Cutting out the hearts.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and golden syrup, beat thoroughly.  Sift dry ingredients together and work into butter mixture to form a soft dough.

Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll out to about 3mm thickness.  Cut into heart shapes and arrange on a greased backing tray.  Bake in a preheated oven (180°C/350°F) for 15 minutes.

Teena was in charge of decorating the hearts.

Heart Shaped Steak Pie with Vegies

This year for Valentines day dinner, we had Heart Shaped Steak Pie, Crunchy Baked Potatoes with Rosemary, Baked Pumpkin, Honey and Soy Roast Carrots and Minted Mushy Peas.  The pies are adapted from a recipe at Taste.com.au

They turned out great and were very tasty.  We will probably use this recipe again, but make normal shaped pies as it should be a bit easier.  To save having to cook too much on the actual night, I made the pies the night before (right up until the point where you put them in the oven), wrapped them in cling wrap and popped them in the freezer.  Then it's just a matter of cooking them on the night, though they did take a little longer as they were still frozen.

A hearty meal!

Ingredients - Heart Shaped Steak and Gravy Pie

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 500g beef chuck steak, cubed
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 2 tbs instant gravy powder
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry

These mini heart shaped cake tins were perfect for the job

Heat oil in a saucepan over high heat.  Cook beef for 3 to 4 minutes, or until browned.
Add onion and garlic.  Cook, stirring, until onion is softened.
Add flour.  Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Add gravy powder and water.
Cover and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Stir in rosemary.  Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until beef is tender.  Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced. Grease two heart shaped cake tins.
Line prepared tins with pastry. Trim excess. Spoon filling into cases. Brush edges with egg. Cut puff pastry into 2 squares. Place over filling. Press edges to seal. Trim excess. Brush with egg.
Bake for 40 minutes or until golden.

The steak is chunky yet so tender

Spicy Broccolini and Bacon Spaghetti

Sometimes you don't have much time to cook or you just don't feel like standing in the kitchen for hours.  That is when a simple and quick meal like this one is great.  All up it should take well under 30 minutes to make and tastes delicious.

Quick, easy and tasty!

Ingredients

• 250g Spaghetti
• 100g Bacon, roughly chopped
• 1 Onion, roughly chopped
• 1 clove Garlic, finely chopped or crushed
• 1 bunch Broccolini
• 400g can chopped Tomatoes
• 2 tsp Hot Chilli Sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• Shredded Cheese (we used mozzarella as we were out of parmesan)

Cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling, salted water.
In a large frypan, cook bacon for 3 minutes.  Add Onion and garlic and fry for another 3 minutes.
Roughly chop the stems of the broccolini and add to the pan.  Continue frying for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes,chilli sauce, broccolini heads and water.  Bring to the boil then reduce heat to simmer for 5 minutes.  To serve, put spaghetti into bowls, then add sauce and top with cheese.

Chilli Mayonnaise

I tried making my own mayonnaise before I bought a food processor without much luck.  Using just a whisk I was never able to get the right consistency (it was always very runny).  Now that I have a food processor though, it's really easy to make mayonnaise and it comes out thick and creamy!

This is the chilli version that Teena and I both like, but we also make plain one with Dijon mustard and a garlic mayonnaise that I like.  I hear people talking about ranch dressing all the time but have yet to attempt that ( I don't think it's as popular in Australia as it is in America).

Chilli Mayonnaise

 
Ingredients
1 egg yolk
150ml canola oil
1 tbs hot chilli sauce
salt

Place egg yolk and 1 tsp oil in food processor.
Blend for 20 seconds.  With processor turned on, slowly drizzle oil into the top funnel.
Start with a very thin stream and increase as the mixture thickens.
After half the oil has been added, add a pinch of salt (to taste).  Add remaining oil slowly.
Once all the oil has been added, add the chilli and continue mixing until it is mixed through.

A jar of Chilli Mayonnaise

Beef Casserole with Rosemary Dumplings

Lots of vegies!

 There's nothing like a nice casserole or stew to warm you up in winter.  But it's not winter in Australia at the moment, it's actually quite hot.  That didn't stop us from making this delicious dish the other night.  We love the dumplings, they really make the dish in our opinion.  The best thing about a dish like this is that you can add just about anything you have on hand.

Ingredients

• 500g casserole steak, cut into small chunks
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 large Clove garlic, sliced
• 1 red capsicum, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 1 sweet potato, roughly chopped
• 1 potato, roughly chopped
• 1 cup pumpkin, roughly chopped
• 2 tbs plain flour
• 4 cups vegetable stock (or beef stock)
• 1/4 cup wine

 Rosemary Dumplings

• (2/3 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 25g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tbs rosemary leaves
• 2 tbs milk

Sponsered by... ???

Heat oil in pan.  Add steak and stir until browned.  Remove from pan and set aside.
Heat some more oil.  Add onion, capsicum and garlic.  Cook for 3 minutes on high.
Add carrots, kidney beans, green beans, potato, sweet potato and pumpkin.  Cook for 5 minutes stirring often.
Stir in flour and cook for a few more minutes.  Add stock and wine.  Bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

The dumplings soak up the delicious stew.

To make the dumplings, sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.  Add butter  and rub until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in rosemary, salt and pepper.  Add milk and mix until you have a soft dough.  Add the dumplings into the casserole and cook a further 20-30 minutes until dumplings are cooked through (test with a skewer).

Ready to eat!

The Rosemary was dried from the plants in our potted garden.  You can read more about our rosemary on my wife Teena's blog, flushedwithrosycolour.

Hot chilli sauce

I love chillies.  I've grown them for years and often make my own chilli relish with fresh chillies Straight from the garden.  Sometimes I dry them as well and make my own dried chilli flakes.

A bowl of chillies fresh from the garden.

Today I noticed there was a nice crop of chillies on my plants when I looked out the window, but I already have a jar of chilli relish in the fridge. So I decided to make some hot chilli sauce instead.
I found a simple recipe that popped up a couple of times when I was searching for recipes and added some extra ingredients to add to the flavour.

Chopped chillies, ready to go.

Ingredients
200g chilli peppers, ends removed and roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tsp lime juice

Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly for 8 minutes.
Transfer the sauce to a blender and blitz it for a minute or so until you have a nice consistency.
Pour into clean sterilised jars.

A jar of chilli sauce ready for tasting.

It turned out really good.  It's very hot but that's how I like it.  You can always blend it together with some tomato sauce or something if it turns out to be too hot, or replace some of the chillies with capsicums.  I think I might use some of this to make some chilli mayonaise tomorrow...

Hint:  If you get chilli on your hands while chopping them and it starts to burn, rub your hands on something made from stainless steel (like your kitchen sink or a large spoon).  Sounds weird but it works!

I think these are jalapeño peppers

Visit Teena's blog for more about our chilli garden.

Choc Chip Cookies

 
I'd never made choc chip cookies before but thought I would give it a go.  After a quick search I found a pretty simple recipe over at Best Recipes.  It also gave me a good excuse to use my new electric mixer!

Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup choc chips

 

Preheat oven to 160°C.  Cream butter and sugars.  Mix in vanilla essence and egg.  Sift in flour until well combined, then add choc chips.

As always, you never know what's going to happen the first time you try a new cookie recipe.  The first batch I used too much mixture for each cookie and they flattened out more then I thought they would.  So I ended up with some giant cookies!

The next batch I used about a teaspoon of filling and they turned out just right.  They only take about 10 minutes to cook and were very tasty!

Steamed Buns

Here is the recipe for the Steamed Buns I made for my Birthday Feast.  Normally these are made with pork as Char Siu Bau at Yum Cha (Dim Sum).  As soon as I saw the recipe in my The Food of the World - A Journey for Food Lovers book, I knew I had to make them!  We just love going to Yum Cha and this is possibly my favourite dish, though there are so many yummy foods it is hard to choose a favourite.  I was very pleased that these worked so well and tasted just like the real thing.  I think they may become a regular item on our menu!  The dough does take some time to prepare, but once it is ready they are very easy to make and well worth it.

Basic Chinese Yeast Dough
3 tbsp Sugar
1 Cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
400g plain flour
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Place the water, sugar and oil in an electric mixer bowl.  Add flour, make a small well on top and add yeast.  Mix with dough hook attachment until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.  If you don't have an electric mixer you can mix with a wooden spoon, then knead dough on a lightly floured surface.  Lightly grease a bowl with some oil, place the dough in the bowl and turn it so that all sides are coated.  Cover with a cloth and set aside to rise in a draught free place for 3 hours.

Uncover the dough, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  If you are not ready to use the dough, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and place in fridge until ready.  When you are ready to use the it, flatten the dough and make a well in the center.  Place the baking powder in the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder.  Pinch the edges to seal.  Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to evenly incorporate the baking powder.  It is not ready to use.

Red Bean Filling
1 tsp oil
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed.
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, finely chopped
3 button mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
3 tsp sugar

Heat the oil in a wok or large frypan.  Add the beans and stir fry for about 3 minutes until the beans are soft and breaking up a little.  Add the onion, mushrooms and zucchini and cook for a further 2 minutes.  Add the sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar, cook for a further minute, then leave to cool.

Steamed Buns
Divide the dough into 24 portions.  Press a portion into a circle and place 1-2 tsps of the red bean filling into the middle of the dough.  Fold the sides up to enclose the filling, pinching the top to seal them completely.  Repeat with remaining portions.  Place the buns well apart into a steamer.  Normally this would be done in a bamboo steamer over a wok but as we didn't have any, I just used a vegetable steamer insert over a saucepan of boiling water.  Steam the buns over simmering water for 15 minutes or until the buns are well risen and a skewer inserted into the center comes out hot.

A Birthday Feast

For my Birthday this year, I decided to cook my own special Birthday feast!  As Teena and I both love going to Yum Cha, I wanted to try cooking some myself at home.  I'd found a recipe for Sweet Pork Buns in a book...  It looked easy enough and I wanted to try it as soon as I saw it, so this was a good opportunity to try it out.  So in the end I came up with the following menu:

Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Steamed Sweet Buns, Fried Rice and Hot and Honeyed Chicken Wings

The Vegetarian Spring Rolls were very tasty.  Teena doesn't usually like spring rolls, but she did like these one.  I found the recipe at Taste.com.au.  They were fairly easy to make, but I ended up using all the wrappers and still having a bowl full of vegetables and noodles left over.  We just fried that up for dinner though so it wasn't wasted.  We froze the leftover spring rolls and they cook up just fine after defrosting them.

The original recipe for these Sweet buns were with a pork filling. As Teena is 16 weeks pregnant, we are being careful with the food she is eating.  So I made the filling with red beans instead of pork.  I wasn't sure how these would turn out but I was hopeful as i really love these when we go to Yum Cha!  I'm happy to say they were delicious!  A bit involved as it takes a while to prepare the dough, but once that's done it was fairly easy.  They may not look so great in the picture, I should have taken one opened up...  But they do taste great, the bun is so sweet and soft, and the filling turned out great as well.  You can see the recipe for these here.

I also love fried rice.  This one was a little different then usual with some ginger and shredded Chinese cabbage in it.  It was nice but I prefer the type you get in a restaurant, something I've never really been able to recreate...

These chicken wings are so tasty!  It's really hard to stop eating them...  I've made them before though, so you can see the recipe here.

So needless to say, I had a good birthday :)

Baked Cheesecake with Passionfruit Topping

Teena loves cheesecake, so for her Birthday this year, I made her this Baked Cheesecake with Passionfruit Topping.  We've decided to only make one cheesecake per year because after a week of eating a whole cheesecake between the two of us... it felt like we put on a few kgs.  Luckily, this year Teena's parents visited her for her Birthday and helped us eat it, so it wasn't so bad.  I had meant to get a few more pictures of the cake after it had been sliced, but it just didn't last long enough :)  This recipe is based on a recipe found here.

Ingredients
Crust
2 cups ground Arnotts Choc Ripple Biscuits
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling
900g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
Juice from 1/2 lemon, strained
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup heavy cream

Passionfruit Topping
1 tbs cornflour
1/3 cup water
4-5 Passionfruit
1/4 cup caster sugar, extra


Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch (20cm) springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

To Make the Crust:
In a mixing bowl, combine the biscuit crumbs and the melted butter with a fork until evenly moistened. Spoon the biscuit mixture into the prepared pan and, using the bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Chill crust in refrigerator until ready to fill.

To Make the Filling:
Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute, until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined, then beat in cream. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the strained lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. Beat until well combined and the mixture is light and fluffy (the batter should be well combined but not overmixed).

Using clean electric beaters or a balloon whisk, whisk the egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, fold beaten egg whites into cream cheese mixture until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the chilled crust. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until just set in the center. Loosen the cheesecake from the sides of the pan by running a thin metal spatula around the inside rim. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours to overnight to set.

To Make the Passionfruit Topping:
Combine the cornflour and water in a small bowl. Transfer to a saucepan. Add the passionfruit and extra sugar. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens. Set aside to cool slightly. Pour over cheesecake. Place in fridge until set.

Moussaka

I'd never even heard of Moussaka until after I met Teena.  She told me her dad had made it all the time and that it was delicious.  So she bought me some eggplant, found me a recipe and asked me to make her some.  The recipe I use is from Taste.com.au.  I've since made Moussaka several times and Teena was right, it is delicious!  I have also discovered recently that there are several versions of Moussaka. This one that I make is the Greek version with layered egg plant and white sauce, although I use beef mince instead of lamb mince.  There is also a Turkish version which is not layered, but sautéed instead.  And other versions which use zucchini or potatoes instead of eggplant.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggplants
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 500g beef mince
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp allspice
• 400g can tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 50g butter
• 2 tbs plain flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup grated cheese

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Thinly slice eggplants, then cook in olive oil until golden brown.

Brown mince and onion. Add allspice, tomatoes and water. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in chopped parsley.  Layer eggplant on the bottom of an ovenproof dish.  Top with a layer of mince.  Repeat until you have used up all your ingredients, finishing with a layer of eggplant. 

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour, stir for 1 minute. Whisk in milk and stir over medium heat until it boils. Add nutmeg and egg, stir well.  Pour mixture over the top of your layered eggplant dish and top with cheese.  Bake for 20-30 minutes.

 The only thing I would do differently next time is perhaps bake the sliced eggplant as it really absorbs a lot of olive oil when you try to fry it.  I'll have to it with lamb mince one day as well.

See more great recipes at Foodie Friday.

Passionfruit Kisses

We had a handful of passionfruit to use up, and came across this recipe for Passionfruit Melting Moments, although we prefer to call them Passionfruit Kisses.  They looked so good we just had to try them!

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cornflour

Passionfruit filling
60g butter
1 large passionfruit
1 cup pure icing sugar

Preheat oven to 160°C.  Line two trays with baking paper.
Cream butter, vanilla and icing sugar with an electric mixer (or a hand mixer like the one above if you're feeling energetic!).  Once mixture is light and fluffy, add flours and continue to mix until it forms a soft dough.

Roll  small teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on trays.  Use a fork to flatten each biscuit.  Bake for 15 minutes or until firm.  They don't change colour much so don't go off that.  Cool them completely before adding icing.

To make the passionfruit filling, beat butter until light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp and icing sugar.  Spoon 1 tsp of the filling onto the flat side of a biscuit and top with another biscuit.  Repeat with remaining biscuits.  Dust with icing sugar.

For us the icing texture was not quite right.  It wasn't fluffy enough, perhaps I didn't beat it enough or something.  It still worked ok and tasted great, but it should have been thicker and creamier.  We will make these again for sure, but I'll try something different with the icing.  The biscuits could have been a bit thinner as well, as when you put them together they can be quite thick.

See more great recipes at Foodie Friday.

Missing Comments

Apparently Blogger is having issues at the moment with comments.  I've noticed some comments have gone missing on my blog and some other blogs today.  Hopefully they can fix it soon.

Margherita Pizza

It's the middle of winter here in Australia. The nights and morning can get fairly cold, but when the sun comes out, the days can be quite warm.  On the weekend, Teena and I spent a lot of time sitting out in the courtyard in the sun to warm up a bit.  Teena did some crocheting, as I looked through some cookbooks for ideas.  I came across a page about pizza and it's history.  The Margherita pizza's history in particular caught my eye.

"The Margherita, topped with modest amounts of tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil is widely attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito. Esposito worked at the pizzeria "Pietro... e basta così" (literally "Peter... and that's enough") which was established in 1880 and is still operating under the name "Pizzeria Brandi." In 1889, he baked three different pizzas for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen's favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag — green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). This combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor." - Wikipedia.

As Teena was feeling a bit queasy, she requested some simple food (i.e. no fancy ingredients).  So I decided to make her a Margherita pizza.  We didn't have mozzarella, so I just used tasty cheese.  Normally when I make a pizza I load it with onion, capsicum, mushrooms, and other yummy ingredients.  So making a pizza with only three toppings was unusual for me.  The base was covered with tomato paste, then topped with cheese and basil leaves.  So simple.

I have to admit though, it was very good.  You can really taste the basil, which was picked fresh from our garden, and it's always nice to be able to use fresh ingredients you've grown yourself.  I ended up making four pizzas, eating two and freezing the other two, ready to be cooked next time we feel like pizza. 

What's your favourite pizza topping?

Baked Apple Chips

Whilst looking at other blogs I came across a method of baking slices of apple to make apple chips.  It was so easy that I thought I would give it a go.  Teena also commented that she liked apple chips and I was curious to see what they tasted like.  You can see the original recipe from Patricia at ButterYum.

Step 1. 
Preheat Oven to 200°C / 400°F.
Slice and core apples.  I wanted to do a heart shape in the middle but was having trouble carving it out with a knife.  Then Teena came along showed me the easy way to do it using the apple corer. 

Step 2.
Arrange apples on a lightly greased baking tray.

Step 3.
Pop the tray in the oven, reduce heat to 75°C / 170°F.
Bake for 2 hours.

Our chips came out very crunchy.  You should be able to make them chewier by taking them out of the oven sooner.  I used a sweet apple, Pink Lady, and it was very tasty.  You could really taste the flavour of the apple still.  We might try it again sometime with a different type of apple, probably baking it a little less to make them a bit more chewier and a little less crunchy.

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

What do you do when you have too many potatoes?  Well, there's a lot of things you could do actually, but we decided to stuff them and bake them!

Most recipes for stuffed baked potatoes have you wrap the potatoes in foil and bake them for an hour before scooping out the flesh and stuffing them.  I didn't have that much time though, so I steamed my potatoes for 10 minutes, let them cool slightly and then scooped the flesh out.  You could also microwave them if you wanted.

For the filling, I just fried up some onion and garlic, added some white butter beans and smushed them up a little.  Spooned the filling into the scooped out potato, added some shredded cheese and baked them for another 20 minutes until the cheese was melted and browned.  They were really tasty too.  Will have to try them again with some different fillings.

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.