make it up as you go along cake

I haven't been doing much cooking of any note lately, nothing worthy of posting about anyway...I mean who wants to see a photograph of a cooked lamb chop or piece of fillet steak with a salad on the side

But today I thought let's get cooking, or baking to be more precise

I decided to make a cake. A "make it up as you go along" cake.

Then I decided to put some of the mix in patty cake pans

 

I had bananas and a can of boysenberries.

Now I have to tell you it's true what the Chaser boys on their new ABC show The Checkout report...what's in the can looks nothing like the photograph on the label. In fact, it's much worse than they claim, at least it was in my can of fruit. The boysenberries were a sloppy, dark, gooey mess when you poured them out of the can and into a bowl...really only good for a cake

I can't give you measurements for this cake or a real honest to goodness recipe, because I really did make it up as I went and I made it "by feel"...but if you have a good banana cake recipe, or have used mine posted here before, then you get the idea...just add whatever fruit you like and see how it goes

I used about 200 grams butter, some olive oil and some sugar...foofed it up till it was light and creamy, added two eggs, three mashed up bananas i had in the freezer and the can of boysenberries.

Some self raising flour, plain flour, bi-carb soda mixed with a large dollop of yoghurt and a splash of milk made it look downright awful!

But hey, it's just a cake batter. A grey cake batter, but a cake batter nonetheless

Put the mix into patty cake pans and put them in a 180 degree oven for 17 minutes..

This is how they turned out

Moist, light, soft and really delicious!

MONT's already eaten 4 of them!

Limoncello - bottled and ready to drink

It's all done and looks fabulous

And yes, it tastes pretty good too

Line a funnel with some gauze and place it in the bottle...then  pour the lemony liquid in...

That's all there is to it really.

Limoncello - the wait continues....

Here's the rest of the Limoncello process...

After making the sugar syrup and allowing it to cool completely...place the vodka/lemon zest mix and sugar syrup into a large container.

Mix around a bit, seal ...

...and place in a dark cupboard for the next 30 days

Now all you have to do is wait...

So far though, it's looking good!

The final process:  Now I know I said you only let this stand for another day before straining and putting the mix into bottles...but I'm changing it a bit. Let the entire mix stay in the container in the back of the cupboard for a month to let the flavour intensify.

Time now to drain the Limoncello into sterilised bottles. Use a funnel lined with cheesecloth to make sure you remove all the zest

Seal the bottles, put them in a dark place or fridge and let sit for a few days until ready to drink....on Christmas Day!! The night before Christmas, put the bottle in the fridge so it's nice and chilled for the big day

Limoncello - pure sunshine

Making Limoncello is easy peasy...you just need lemons and alcohol...oh and patience

The process is long but oh so worth it.

Here's the recipe for 2 litres.

I'm making just the one at the moment

Ingredients for 2 litres of Limoncello

- 10 lemons
- 1 kg of sugar
- 1 litre vodka- 1 litre of water

Grate the lemons with a fine grater and put the zest in a couple of jars with lids. Pour in the vodka and close the containers tightly, letting the mix rest for 15 days in the dark. Make sure you shake it every two days to help distribute the flavour

At this stage, the alcohol will remove all the colour and scent from the lemon zest.

Not a difficult recipe at all huh?

I haven't made the syrup as yet...but here's the rest of the recipe if you'd like to get started

To prepare the syrup... juice the zested lemons, add 1 litre of water and sugar and mix together in a pot. Bring it to the boil then let simmer for a few minutes till it thickens a little and resembles a syrup. Let it cool and refrigerate

After 15 days, it’s time to mix the lemony alcohol with the syrup. Put all the liquid in a large container or bottles and let stand for another day

Time to drain the Limoncello into sterilised bottles. Use a funnel lined with cheesecloth to make sure you remove all the zest

Seal the bottles, put them in a dark place or fridge and let sit for another month...then drink...on Christmas Day!!

Happy Happy everyone

Bouillabaisse

I seem to have been making soup a lot over winter....and I haven't eased off even though it's Spring

Saffron - purchased in Morocco 

This is a lovely, easy recipe that I first saw on French Food safari on SBS. It's Guillaume Brahimi's Bouillabaisse recipe, which is basically a rich fish soup. He originally didn't mention quantities so I just played around until I thought it looked right, but I've since seen it in recipe form on the SBS website

To make the Bouillabaisse you'll need.....

Whole fish- red mullet, rock cod, leather jackets, flathead whatever is cheap and you can source.

For this recipe I used leather jackets and flathead. I also bought 2 kilograms of mussels and all up it cost me $17.00

So, chop the fish into large pieces and fry it in a little olive oil then add a strip of orange peel, a chopped fresh fennel, 4 chopped tomatoes, 2 crushed garlic cloves, sprigs of thyme, 2 chopped celery stalks 2 large spoons of tomato paste, fennel seeds, a pinch of saffron and a good splash of pernot.

It's looking very colourful at this point.

Add some hot fish stock (I used a litre of vegetable stock and some water that I simmered the fish heads in) to cover it all and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Let it cool for a few minutes then put it all in a blender (bones and all) and whizz it till it's smooth. Strain it through a sieve into another pot and heat through. Now I have to say, at this stage I was tasting it and it was amazing! ... in fact I really liked it as a broth and will be making another version of it in future to see how it goes.

Add some mussels and let them cook then place in bowls and eat with some gutsy bread.

Guillame's recipe called for a Rouille and some scallops and crab meat placed in the bottom of the bowls that you spoon the soup over. I didn't have them so we just made some garlic bread and devoured it all.

MONT loved it so much he's taken all the left overs out with him to work today to share with friends.

Spicy Soup

I know it's been ages since I've posted any recipes...but you know how it is...life sometimes gets in the way

Anyway I hope this nice spicy soup will make up for my absence..

The thing with this is you can make it as spicy or mild as you like, it all depends on your taste

I got the idea one afternoon while watching Everyday Gourmet with Justine Schofield and (as usual) tweaked it to suit what I had in the pantry and fridge...

It's a Sweet Potato soup with a Thai influence...and there's a nice little twist at the end...

You'll need
----------------
3 or 4 large sweet potatoes
2 large dollops of Thai red curry paste
1 can coconut cream
1 litre vegetable stock
1 cup of water
salt or fish sauce to taste

Pesto
------
1 bunch coriander
a good handful unsalted cashew nuts (or you can use blanched almonds)
1 red shallot
peanut or rice bran oil
lemon or lime juice

In a large pot, fry off the curry paste in a little oil, then add a large spoonful of the creamy, globby bit at the top of the coconut cream and heat it through with the paste.

Add the chopped and peeled sweet potatoes, then the veggie stock and water and bring to the boil...then let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

Once the potatoes are soft, add the rest of the can of coconut cream, stir it around and then take to it with your stick mixer to blend it so it's smooth and thick.

I put mine in my new blender and it was fabulous

To make the special pesto additive for this soup...

Blend together the nuts, shallot, coriander, oil and lemon juice...spoon it into the bowls of hot soup and voila!!!

That's all there is to it.

I made a huge pot of it and it was all gone in two days so I hope you like it as much as we did!

Meatballs with mozarella

I love meatballs...or rissoles or whatever you call them in your part of the world.

They don't look too good starting out, but the end result is pretty delish

Everyone has their own way of making them I guess...meat, veggies...some even put a pack of chicken noodle soup in their mix...and yes I have been known to do that too.

Whatever you include in the meatball mix, it's going to turn out really well, as long as there's an egg in there to help bind it all together.

I saw a recipe by Justine  of Masterchef fame a little while ago and thought I'd try her version...to be honest, they tasted almost the same as the ones I normally do, but hers were baked...and they had cheese in the middle!

The recipe calls for little balls of boconcini to be hidden in the middle of the balls...

They are delicious...really delish

You can have them as-is...

or you can add them to some pasta sauce, as suggested by Justine...

I also added some pasta spirals to the sauce...

Preheat oven to 180deg.

Get you mince mix together...whatever you usually use is OK...then flatten a tennis ball size in the palm of your hand, place a delectable ball of cheese in the middle then mold the meat mix around it.

Continue until all the meat's been used up, place in a baking tray in the oven. 

You can make a tomato sauce with pasta to go with them, which is really yummy...and don't forget the crusty bread to mop up the sauce.