From My Kitchen

No photos, because I’ve been slack.

I made beef burgers yesterday and they are honestly delicious. The children love them, I love them, even my partner hasn’t complained. This recipe is gluten free, so long as you double check all of your ingredients for GF status.

1kg of beef mince (2 lbs ground beef)
1 cup of rice crumbs (I bought mine from the supermarket)
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of all purpose seasoning (check the ingredients, most companies use rice flour in their season-all, but I have found a few brands with wheat starch in them)
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of tomato paste
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 carrots – grated.

Pop the cold mince into the bowl of your mixer and start the mixer churning, using the paddle/cake batter attachment. You want the meat to become sticky and hold together. After a minute or two, add the Dijon, the all purpose seasoning, the tomato paste and sauce and the salt. Keep mixing until everything is combined and the texture of the meat begins to change.

Once the meat starts to look sticky, add the cup of rice crumbs and continue mixing to combine. At the last moment, add the grated carrot and once combined, stop mixing.

Shape into burgers and fry or grill. The rice crumbs keep them nice and light, as well as helping to retain moisture so the meat isn’t dry at all.

Of course, you don’t need a bench mixer to do this, I just use one because it’s easier on my hands. If you’re not using a mixer, dump everything into a bowl and use either your hands or a wooden spoon to mix the meat vigorously until it starts to stick. Add the rice crumbs and the carrot at the last moment. Prepare to work up a sweat.

Normally I would also add one finely chopped onion and 4-5 cloves of garlic to my burgers, but I didn’t have any in the cupboard this time.

Because I’m not buying gifts for anyone this Christmas, I have been testing out some recipes for bits and bobs that I can wrap in cellophane and give for gifts instead. Peppermint creams have been one of my experiments and honestly, I was really happy with how they turned out.

I actually split the recipe once the icing sugar was mixed in and added peppermint to hafl the batch and strawberry to the other half.

No photos yet because I haven’t made the final (pretty) batches, but if you check back you may (or may not, depending on how lazy I get) find photos added later.

Peppermint Creams

Ingredients

2 eggwhites, at room temperature
4 cups (600g) pure icing sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon peppermint essence
green food colouring
400g good-quality dark cooking
chocolate, melted

Method

1. Place eggwhites in a clean, dry bowl. Using a whisk, whisk until frothy. Add icing sugar, peppermint essence and green food colouring. Using a wooden spoon, stir until mixture almost comes together. Then use your hands to bring the mix together into a bowl.

2. Turn mixture onto a clean surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Knead until smooth and not sticky. Work in extra icing sugar if necessary. Roll small amounts of the mixture into balls.

3. Line 2 large, flat baking trays with baking paper. Place balls on prepared trays and flatten; either with a fork or with your thumb, depending on whether you want fork marks or not. Set aside, uncovered, overnight, turning over once, to allow peppermint creams to dry out. Make sure you leave them in a cool place or they won’t set properly.

[Side note, I should be grateful that the weather is winterlike at the moment hey, rather than the typical December temperatures of 25C+]

4. Once the surface is dry to touch half-dip each peppermint cream in melted chocolate (make sure chocolate is not too hot or it will melt the peppermint mixture). Return peppermint creams to trays. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.

Notes: Make sure that the icing sugar you use is PURE icing sugar, not icing mixture. Icing mixture has tapioca starch added (for stability? for thickening? I don’t know, should research it) which makes the peppermint creams taste floury. Not a good thing.

Variations: Use strawberry essence and pink food colouring for strawberry creams. Lemon essence and yellow food colouring for lemon creams. Orange essence and orange food colouring for orange creams. You could also use rosewater essence for a Turkish Delight tasting cream.

It’s the very last day of NaBlo and I don’t have anything.

Maybe later today I will get my act together and post a recipe, but don’t hold your breath. I’m just thankful that I managed to get through the 30 days without missing a day.

WOO!

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked chicken (I used a bit less in this soup, as I was using the leftover’s from a roast chicken I had done the night before)
6 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of water
3 cups of yellow split peas
salt and pepper to taste
cream and chopped spinach to serve

Method:

Heat the chicken stock and water to almost boiling and then turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Add the split peas and cook until they are soft – about 45 minutes.

Remove about half the soup and process in a blender until smooth. Return to pot and add the chicken.

Let simmer slowly for 5 minutes until the chicken is hot.

Serve with a little cream and some chopped spinach.

1/2 cup of butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar (I didn’t have either white sugar or brown, so I used 2/3 cup of raw sugar and it worked fine)
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
1 2/3 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Method:

Grease 2 oven trays and preheat oven to 180C (350F)

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, gradually add the beaten egg and continue beating. Add the vanilla, chocolate chips and cocoa. Mix to combine.

Add the flour a little (or, if you are lazy like me, a lot) at a time. Continue mixing until everything is combined.

Shape teaspoonfulls of mix into balls and place on tray. Leave enough room for spreading and no, they don’t need squashing prior to going in the oven.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. They will still be soft when you pull them out of the oven, don’t worry, they harden up once they start to cool. Eating them still warm is half the fun though.

If you want to make them even more chocolately, add 2 tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder to the creamed butter, sugar and egg shortly before adding the flour. It makes them delicous.

I made this salad a while ago, when I had lots of vegetable that needed using up.

You will need:

some pumpkin (I used butternut)
sweet potato
potato
carrot
olive oil
mixed herbs
salt and pepper
mixed salad leaves
cucumber
snow peas
tomato
parmesan cheese

Yes, I know that I don’t have amounts for you, just kind of work out how many people you are feeding (I was feeding 2.5. Amy being the half) and judge how much you will need from that.

Prep the sweet potato, potato, carrots and pumpkin by peeling and chopping into similar sized chunks. Throw them into a baking pan and coat with olive oil. Sprinkle with the mixed herbs and some salt and pepper.

Bake at 220C (430F) for about 25 minutes, or until all the vegetables are cooked through and golden looking.

Make yourself up a salad using the mixed salad leaved, sliced cucumber, tomato and snow peas. Add some salad dressing if you want to, I don’t think I did, although I did use a little extra olive oil on the salad.

Plate the salads up and while the vegetables are still hot, place on top.

Top with shaved parmesan cheese and enjoy.

Amy was almost 12 months old when Imade this (yes, the photos have been sitting on my hard drive for that long) and she thought the vegetables were wonderful.

Remember, if you have any questions, just ask and I will answer them for you.

Okay, for Amy’s first birthday I made this tart instead of a cake. She didn’t cope well with sugar or dairy (eczema etc) so I was pretty anal about her sugar intake.

That said, I CANNOT find the recipe I used to make it, so I am going to ad lib it just for you.

Firstly, you need a flan tin.

Mix together biscuit crumbs and melted butter, and then press firmly into the flan tin.

No, I don’t know how many biscuit crumbs you need. I think I used a bit less than a packet of Arrowroot biscuits and then I added enough melted butter to leave them moist, but not sodden. Remember, I’m working without a recipe here.

Once pressed into the flan tin, pop it into the fridge to harden up.

While the base is hardening up, peel, core and quarter about 6-7 pears. Place into a saucepan along with about 1 1/2 cups of red wine and the same amount of water. Also add a cinnamon stick, a half a dozen cloves and some mixed spice.

Cook the pears until they are nice and soft, them remove them from the wine/water mix. Boil the remaining liquid until it is nicely reduced and syrupy looking. (I can’t remember if mine reduced enough, but I’m assuming it did since the tart turned out okay).

Okay, once the liquid is reduced, place the pears and the liquid into a blender. Remember to remove the cinnamon stick and cloves from the liquid first though.

Process until smooth.

Tip the lovely smooth liquid back into a pan and heat. When hot, add enough gelatine to make it set. Again, use your judgement, depending on how much liquid you have. I think 1 packet of gelatine (2 tspns) will set 600ml (1 pint) of water. So go with that.

Make sure you whisk it firmly once you add the gelatine so that everything dissolves. The last thing you want are gelatine lumps.

Once whisked and suitably gelatine’d remove from heat and let cool a little. When it has cooled a bit, pour the pear mixture into the flan base. Place back into the fridge to set, leaving it overnight is a good idea.

When the filling is set, arrange cut fruit over the top and glaze with a little apricot jam mixed with hot water.

Ta da!

Also, I just realised, I made a pear red wine tart for my daughter’s first birthday! What kind of mother am I? Surely cooking would remove most of the alcohol, right? Right?

Ah well. Could of been worse.

1 1/4 cups of brown lentils, washed
3 celery stalks, sliced. Leaves reserved
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
400g can diced tomatoes (14 oz)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
shaved Parmesan and crusty bread to serve

Place lentils in a large saucepan with 7 cups of water. Bring to the boil on high heat.

Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, tomatoes and olive oil and simmer on a low heat for 1 hour or until the lentils are tender and the soup thickens slightly.

Stir through chopped celery leaves and season to taste. Serve with Parmesan cheese and crusty bread.

Coriander is commonly called Cilantro in the US and Canada.

500g (1 lb) of spaghetti
300g of silken tofu (10 oz)
1 bunch of coriander, roots scrubbed and trimmed (ues the whole bunch, roots and stems as well)
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 punnet of grape tomatoes, quartered

Cook spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling salted water according to packet directions. Drain and return to pan.

Meanwhile, place tofu, coriander, Parmesan, garlic and oil in a food processor and process until smooth. Season to taste.

Add two-thirds of the coriander sauce and the grape tomatoes to the spaghetti and toss well over low heat until warmed through.

Serve spaghetti with dollops of the remaining sauce.

You could also use basil or mint instead of coriander here. OR you could leave out the spaghetti and use the coriander/basil/mint sauce as a low fat dressing for salads.

Now I haven’t tried this recipe, so don’t lynch me if it’s horrible! I thought it sounded interesting though.

2 1/2 cups of frozen peas
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
juice from 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of tahini
Ground paprika, toasted Turkish bread and lemon wedges to serve

Cook peas according to the directions on the packet until just tender. Rinse. Pat dry with paper towel.

Place peas in a food processor with garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini. Puree.

Season to taste, adding more lemon juice if desired.

Spoon into bowl and sprinkle with paprika. Serve with Turkish bread and lemon wedges.