Gourmet on a Shoestring

My current favourite cake – so quick and easy, with delicious crunchy edges and warm moist filling. It’s also equally yummy cold!

Ingredients

For the caramelised pears:

• 3 small Pears, peeled, quartered with centres and stalks removed (reasonably firm, but not rock hard)
• 25g unsalted Butter
• 1 tbsp granulated Sugar

For the cake:

• 150g unsalted Butter, softened
• 125g Caster Sugar
• 2 medium Eggs
• 75g wholemeal Flour
• 75g Almond Meal
• Pinch of Cinnamon
• teaspoon of Almond Essence

Method

Preheat oven to 170oC. Prepare a spring-form tin (20cm) with a greaseproof paper bottom and sides.

First caramelise the pears, add the butter to a frying pan under a medium-high heat, as it starts to froth add the sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved then add the pears. Move them around the pan so they go equally caramelised all over. This should take between 5 and 10 minutes. Once ready leave them to cool.

Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and beat until fluffy. Add an egg at a time, while beating the mixture, with each egg add a tablespoon of flour. Once both eggs have been beaten in, add the remaining flour, sugar, almonds, almond essence and cinnamon and fold in.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, then add the pears on top evenly, leaving them sitting on top of the cake. Pour the buttery pan juices on top of the cake. Put in the oven for 40-50 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool for another 5 minutes, either eat warm with ice cream or eat cold later on.

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Easy, delicious and healthy finger food, suitable from 9 months old and right up to adult! I make this as a quick portable lunch for my baby (no teeth), the kids and myself. You can add any vegetables you like, zucchini is a great one too.

Makes 15 small pikelets.

Ingredients

• 100g Flour
• ¼ teaspoon Bi-carb Soda
• 150ml Milk
• 1 Egg
• 75g finely grated Carrot (approx. 1 carrot)
• 4 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan Cheese
• Butter for frying

Method

• Sift flour and bi-carb into a mixing bowl, along with the egg and milk. Whisk thoroughly.
• Add grated carrot and parmesan, and mix well.
• Heat the butter in the pan until hot and then add small spoonfuls of pikelet mix into the pan.
• When bubbles form in the pikelets, flip over.

Place cooked pikelets onto a paper towel until ready to eat! Can be served with a cheesy dipping sauce (see Béchamel sauce recipe) or some sweet chilli and mayonnaise.

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes  Cooking Time: 90 minutes  Makes: 30

For a last minute dinner party desert, I love these quick and easy chewy meringues.

Ingredients

• 4 Egg whites, at room temperature
• Pinch of salt (or pinch of cream tartar)
• 220g (1 cup) Caster Sugar

Method

The most important thing to remember when making meringues is that moisture is their greatest enemy. Apparently moisture in the air, humidity, will prevent them from drying completely and will make them “weep”, however we live in a tropical climate so there is no avoiding humidity and I haven’t noticed any problems.

Bring your eggs to room temperature before using them – cold egg whites incorporate less air than those at room temperature. When you separate the egg whites from the yolks, separate each egg into a small dish rather than straight into a large bowl. This way, if a yolk breaks into a white, you will not spoil all four egg whites.

The salt will help to stabilise the meringues and help them stiffen before the sugar is added.

Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Have all the required utensils on hand. Make sure your egg whites, bowl and whisk attachment/s are free of any water, or fat such as butter, oil or egg yolks, as this will inhibit the egg whites from incorporating air and producing a good volume. It is best to use a stainless steel, glass, ceramic or copper bowl for whisking egg whites and not plastic as traces of fat are difficult to remove from plastic bowls.

1. Preheat oven to 120°C.
2. Place the egg whites and salt in a large, clean, dry mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.
3. Add the sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking until just combined. The sugar should be added gradually but there is no need to whisk well after each addition. If the sugar is added too slowly, the resulting mixture will be fluffy and not smooth and will give the final meringues an open texture.
4. After the last of the sugar has been, added, continue to whisk for a further 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is very thick and glossy, all the sugar has dissolved and a long trailing peak forms when the whisk is lifted. The best way to test if all the sugar has dissolved is to rub a little of the mixture between your thumb and forefinger.
5. If it is smooth, all the sugar has dissolved. Keep a close eye on the mixture and stop beating as soon as it reaches this stage. If the mixture is overbeaten, the meringues will collapse during cooking and beads of sugar will form on their surface.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the lined trays to form the meringues. As a guide, each meringue will be about 2 level tablespoon measures of mixture.
7. Place the meringues into the oven and reduce the temperature to 90°C. When you place the meringues in the oven, the initial slightly higher temperature sets their outsides. The lower temperature then dries the meringues rather than bakes them. For slightly soft and chewy meringues, leave the oven on for 1 hour or until the meringues are crisp and sound hollow when tapped on the base. Turn the oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the oven.
8. Store the meringues in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Serving suggestion: add lemon curd (see my receipe), vanilla ice cream and some passion fruit or raspberries sprinkle on top. MMM!

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Makes 1 1/2 cups

This very lemony lemon curd is beautiful with meringues (see my receipe for meringues) and ice cream, or in a lemon meringue pie, or on toast, I could go on….

I make a lot of this when our lemon trees are in season!

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
• 80g chilled unsalted butter
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Method

1. Whisk whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then place pan over a low heat.
2. Add the butter, juice and zest and whisk continuously until thickened (this will take 10 minutes or so, so turn up the heat to speed it up).
3. Strain through a sieve into a sterilised jar. Lemon curd keeps, covered, in the fridge for 2 weeks.

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Makes approx. 25 squares

I received this recipe from a friend and modified it slightly – I have lowered the sugar content hugely so the resulting muesli ‘bars’ are sweet enough but won’t send the kids over the edge!

Note: for the dried berries I used a pre-packaged mix of  cranberries, blueberries, and cherries from the supermarket, and handful of goji berries and sultanas, but if you are on a real budget you can simply use just sultanas.

Ingredients

• 30g Butter
• shredded coconut 125g
• dried berries and sultanas 250g
• rolled oats 90g
• whole almonds 200g
• sunflower seeds 125g
• wheat germ/oat bran 80g
• brown sugar 100g
• honey 100ml
• vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
• ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a 23 cm square tin with baking paper.
2. On a baking tray combine oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, and wheat germ. Bake until toasted and fragrant, 5-10 mins at 180.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine coconut, cherries, blueberries and set aside.
4. Add hot oat mixture to the fruit mixture and stir till combined.
5. In saucepan over medium heat melt butter, add sugar, honey, vanilla and cinnamon. Stir till sugar dissolves, bring to boil then remove from heat and pour over fruit mixture.
6. Using a large spoon gently stir together until well combined.
7. Scoop the mixture into tin, and using a spoon firmly press making compact and even layer.
8. Let set in pan for 10 mins or until cool. Invert onto cutting board, lift off tin and cut into squares.

These will keep for over a week in an airtight container in the cupboard. Great for snacks or lunch boxes!

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Makes 2 cups

My kids go crazy for this really healthy, simple and fun snack or dinner dish. There is always a fight for the last carrot!

Ingredients

• 30g Butter, chopped
• 1/6 cup plain Flour
• 2 cups Milk
• 40g Parmesan Cheese, finely grated
• Small pinch of Salt
• Small pinch of ground Nutmeg

Method

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until foaming.
2. Add flour. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes or until bubbling.
3. Remove from heat. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly, until mixture is smooth. Return to heat.
4. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until sauce comes to the boil, thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
5. Remove from heat. Stir in parmesan, salt and nutmeg.
6. Lightly boil veggies that are easy for little hands to hold like carrot sticks, broccoli, cauliflower and beans, and serve with little pots of the cheesy sauce on each plate for dipping!

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Ingredients

• 1 large bag of washed Baby Spinach or Mixed Dark Lettuce leaves
• 2–3 rashers cooked Bacon cut into strips, or cooked Chicken (optional)
• 1 Avocado, sliced into chunks
• 1 Mango, sliced into small cubes
• ½ Cucumber, sliced
• ½ cup chopped Walnuts

  Dressing

• 2 tbspn Olive Oil
• 1 tspn Lemon juice
• 2 tspn Lime juice
• 1 tspn whole seed Mustard
• Pepper to taste (optional)

On a flat serving platter, arrange spinach and layer meat, avocado, mango and walnuts on top. Pour dressing over salad just before serving. It is de-licious!

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Ingredients

• ½ Kent Pumpkin
• 1½  blocks of low-fat Australian Feta
• 50g Pine Nuts
• 1 Spanish Onion
• 1 bunch of Coriander (leaves only, chopped)
• Honey
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Chop pumpkin into bite-sized cubes, drizzle with oil, honey, and season with salt and pepper. Put in oven at 200 for 40mins.
2. Chop onion in thin strips and pan fry until soft
3. Add onion to pumpkin in oven when pumpkin is half done to crisp up.
4. Toast pine nuts lightly in pan.
5. Chop feta into small cubes and add pine nuts and coriander.
6. When pumpkin is browned, take out and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Add a bit of honey (to taste) over the whole mixture and gently mix.

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Ingredients

• 4 Beetroots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 3 ripe Pears, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 200g Feta
• Small bunch of Mint
• Salt and Pepper
• 3 ½ tablespoons Lemon Juice (approx 1 lemon)
• 10 tablespoons Olive Oil

Method

1. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper in a small container and shake well.
2. Place the beetroot and pear into a bowl and mix with salad dressing to taste.
3. Mix mint leaves into salad and crumble the feta over the top.

[   No Comments   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.

Ingredients

• 250 gms philly cream cheese softened
• 250 gms mozzarella cheese
• 1/3 cup mayo
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup sundried tomato, drained and chopped
• 1 cup marinated artichoke, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained and chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c
2. Mix cream cheese, mozzarella, mayo & garlic until blended
3. Spoon into oven proof serving dish and bake for 10 minutes
4. Pull out of overn and stir artichokes in, and arrange tomatoes and peppers on top.
5. Bake additional 10 mins
6. Serve with water crackers or French bread sliced.

[   1 Comment   |   Add Your Comment   |   Print This Recipe   ]
Like this recipe? Subscribe to this site.