Lemony rice pudding with poached tamarillos

This is the rice pudding to convert all rice pudding haters. It is rich and lemony and the strips of peel melt down and you get a lemon hit when you bite one. This recipe is an adapted Jane Grigson recipe and you can serve it with anything you like. I have done it with slow roasted quince and poached rhubarb before. Its nice with fruit with a bit of tartness to cut through the rich rice. My mum requested this for Mother's day dessert and she loved it.


Lemony rice pudding
50g short grain rice
300mls milk
300mls cream
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon

Peel the lemon thinly, taking off strips with a vegetable peeler. Put rice, lemon peel, sugar, butter, milk and cream into an ovenproof dish. Cover with tin foil and cook in a very slow oven, 125°C, for 2-3 hours until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and it looks deliciously creamy. Stir it every 3/4 hour.

When the pudding is done, give it a good stir and add the juice from the lemon and some more cream or milk if it is too solid. I cooked the pudding for 2 1/2 hours and then let it rest in a warm place for about half and hour, it only need a little of milk to loosen it up.

Poached tamarillos
8 tamarillos
2 cup water
1 cup sugar
Zest of  one oranges and lemon
1 cinnamon quill
1 star anise 

Meanwhile you can get on to your tamarillos. You can do these ahead and then gently reheat them when your pudding is ready.
Put a small pot of water on to boil. Score the bottoms of the tamarillos with a cross and when the water has boiled blanch them in boiling water for about 10-15 seconds. You can leave them in a little longer if they aren't the ripest. After about 10 seconds, scoop them out and plunge them into iced water. When cool, starting at the scored end carefully peel them and set aside.

Place the water, sugar, zest, cinnamon and star anise in a saucepan and simmer to dissolve the sugar. Add in the peeled tamarillos and bring to a simmer and gently cook them for 10-15 minutes.


To serve...
100g almonds - roasted and roughly chopped
Extra cream or yoghurt if you like

When your rice pudding is nearly ready, bring your tamarillos back up to temperature.
Spoon the rice puddings into bowls and top with the tamarillos and with a little extra syrup, sprinkle over the chopped almonds and serve.

Salted caramel almond cake

Salted caramel almond cake

I originally saw this recipe online here and saved it as I thought it looked so delicious. I have only slightly adapted it, changing the cooking method and adding salt. I would definitely make again and might change the cake a bit to make it chocolate or add some orange zest into it as I think that would be nice.

For the cake: 
75 ml buttermilk
75g unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
150g plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

For the topping: 
150g flaked almonds 
125g butter 
125g light brown sugar 
50ml milk 
1/2 tsp sea salt 
1/2 tsp vanilla 
Extra good quality flaky salt to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 160 degrees

Grease a 9" or 22cm round tin (preferably with a removable bottom) and line the bottom and sides with baking paper. 

Roast the sliced almonds  in a oven tray for 5-10 minutes until they're a light golden brown, then set aside.

Melt the butter for the cake in a saucepan and leave to cool.
Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together on medium-high for 5 minutes or until the mixture is a yellowy-cream colour and very thick. While it whisks, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. 
When the eggs are thick remove the bowl from the stand and sieve 1/2 the  flour mixture into the egg mix, folding it in gently and alternating with the buttermilk. When the flour is nearly mixed in, gently fold in the cooled melted butter  Be gentle but thorough, scraping down to the bottom and making sure to get out the little pockets of flour. You don't want to remove all the air you created at the start.

Carefully pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 22-30 minutes until golden and set - a skewer or small knife should be able to be removed cleanly.
Meanwhile start making the topping. Place the butter, sugar, milk, salt into the saucepan and stir as the butter melts. Keep on a low heat until your cake is nearly done. When your cake is out quickly turn up the heat to high and let the mix bubble and thicken slightly. Pour in the toasted almonds and cook for a further 2 minutes

Turn the oven up to 200 degrees and onto grill. Move the over rack up a notch so that the top of the cake will be closer to the grill. Make sure there isn't any baking paper sticking out to high as it will burn.

Pour the almond caramel mixture on to the cake and working quickly spread the  nutty caramel out evenly and place it under the grill. Don't walk away! Watch the topping carefully, you want a bubbly and golden caramel topping. I think I had mine under the grill for 2-3 minutes.

Carefully remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to cool. At this point you can sprinkle on extra flaky salt which I would definitely recommend! After 30 minutes loosen the sides of the tin with a knife if necessary and remove the ring. You cake wait a bit longer to do this if you aren't worried about it coming out

When the cake had cooled to room temperature transfer it on to a serving plate. My bet is that it won't last long!

The first time I made this cake I made the recipe by three and it filled a 12' round tin nicely and only took 30 minutes to cook. It had a great ratio of caramelly almond deliciousness to cake.

Best Baked Potato Ever

I had a craving for baked potatoes last night for tea but also wanted something healthy. Not something layered with sour cream, bacon and cheese. So after searching our cupboards this is what I came up with. It was delicious, and had a fab texture. Best of all we were left full but feeling fresh and healthy.
I have added fish and chicken stock to this recipe but you could easily replace or remove these to make a vegetarian version, and, remove the cheese to create a vegan dish.

Ingredients

Large potatoes

frozen corn

sprouted legumes

splash of chicken stock

anchovies, cut up

cracked black pepper

baby spinach

chia seeds

roast walnuts

avocado

goats cheese/feta/quark

I haven't added amounts to the ingredients - it really just depends on how many people you are going to feed and how hungry you are feeling.

Bake the potatoes whole in a hot oven.

When the potatoes are pretty much cooked heat up a frying pan on the stove. The filling takes less than 5mins to cook.

Place the frozen corn in the pan, let it thaw and allow the pan to become hot again.

Add the legumes, a splash of chicken stock, anchovies and black pepper.

Stir until slightly heated through.

Add the baby spinach. Stir until wilted.

Add the rest of the ingredients, other than the cheese, and stir to combine.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and slice open.

Place the filling on top of the potatoes.

Top with cheese.

Enjoy!

Grampians Grape Escape

We were lucky enough last week to go away for the weekend and attend the 23rd Grampians Grape Escape. And what a brilliant weekend!!!
The Grampians is a small, western, regional area of Victoria, Australia. It has spectacular scenery, unbelievable amounts of wildlife and some fantastic outdoor activities. Besides the festival we often make camping trips to the area - its just such a nice, peaceful area to go and relax. This time we stayed in a little cottage and the photo below shows what we woke up in to in the morning. Pretty much where ever you go in the Grampians you get a similar view.

The view from our kitchen window

The Grampians - the festival is held at the base of the Mountain

This yearly food and wine festival is an event that aims to showcase all of the local food and wine in the area.
The quality of the food and wine is incredible and so unbelievably cheap. Tickets were $45. That got you into the festival (both days), a free wine glass, and as many wine and food tastings as you want! Furthermore, all the produce was so cheap to buy. Straight from the owners too!
For two days we gorged ourselves on wine, beer, cider, cheese, desserts, honey, sweets, chocolate, etc, etc. I have never eaten so much!
We discovered some amazing local produce that I will definitely hunt out again. I discovered new products to use in cooking. And had such a fun time.
We came home with  blue cheese, buffalo cheese, brie, quark, tea, cider, beer, wine, bee pollen, chocolate, pork scratchings, and, many new places to shop.
Along side all of this they have cooking demonstrations, music, wine tasting sessions, guest speakers and much more.
They do this festival every year and I cannot recommend it enough. One thing I would say if you are going to go - is book accommodation early. I think every speck of accommodation was used over the weekend!

Egg Success!!!

It has finally happened. After months of patiently checking the coop, talking nicely to the chickens, pleading with the chickens and then finally threatening the chickens - we FINALLY have our first egg!!!!!
Hopefully the first of many!!!! I am SO excited!!

Sweet Chilli Sauce with a Bite.

What to do with sooooo many chillies?????? Make sweet chilli sauce! And you would not believe how simple it is.

Ingredients

Approx 350grams of chillies.

2 garlic cloves

2 1/4 cups of white vinegar

2 1/4 cups of white sugar

Halve about 70grams of chillies and place in a food processor. Halve and deseed the rest of the chillies and place in the food processor. If you want a bit more bite add more chillies with seeds, if you want less bite deseed more of the chillies.

Add garlic and 3/4 cup of the white vinegar to the food processor with the chillies.

Process until you have little flecks of chillies but not a liquid or paste.

Place the chilli mixture, the rest of the vinegar and the sugar into a saucepan on a low heat.

Heat and continuously stir the mixture for 5minutes until the sugar dissolves.

Increase heat and bring the mixture to a boil.

Once boiling turn down the heat and simmer for approximately 30-40minutes until you get a slightly syrupy consistency.

Pour liquid into sterilised bottles or jars.

I find the best way to sterilise glass bottles of jars is to wash them in warm water. Then place the jars in an oven preheated to 100 degrees celsius until they are dry. The rule is that if you want to put warm mixture into a jar the jar must be warm. If you want to put cold mixture into the jar you must let the jar cool to room temperature. Otherwise you will have to deal with exploding glass which is never fun! 

All that is left is to do is enjoy the sauce with some dim sims!

Easy Peasy Crusty Bread!

Home made bread is just the best!!! The smell and the taste of warm bread cannot be beaten. We try and make our own bread as often as possible. Every now and then our lives get too busy and we get too lazy and we have to buy a loaf. Every time we buy a loaf we are disappointed and quickly remember how much better home made bread is. Also, it always slightly grosses me out how much longer shop bread lasts compared to homemade bread. It really must be full of some pretty nasty preservatives.
This recipe is so easy. I make it using a dough hook with my mixer but apparently you can you use a food processor as well.

Ingredients

18g of fresh yeast (a must!)

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1/2 tablespoon of white sugar

1 tablespoon of olive oil

700g of flour - we usually use wholemeal but any flour will do

extra olive oil

sea salt flakes

Break the yeast up into crumbly little bits and place in a bowl with 500mls of lukewarm water.

Whisk the mixture until the yeast has dissolved.

Add the salt, sugar and olive oil and mix.

Leave for about 30minutes or until the watery mixture starts to bubble.

Add the flour and place in the mixer or food processor.

Mix dough for 12minutes.

Turn of the machine and let the dough rest for 5minutes.

Mix dough again for 5minutes.

Remove dough, place in a bowl, cover with gladwrap and leave to rise for approximately 30minutes.

Turn the oven on at 230 degrees. 

On a floured surface briefly kneed and shape the dough into a round or loaf or whatever shape you like. 

Place a little bit of olive oil in your hands and rub it all over the dough so that all of the dough is covered and therefore sealed.

Place dough on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place in a warm spot and allow to rise again for 20-30minutes (or until the oven is warm enough).

Drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and place it in the oven.

Bake for 30minutes.

Allow to cool.

Enjoy!