Japanese Pancakes

These used to be our food court staple, until we realised they were so easy to make at home. The secret is buying okonomiyaki sauce, which can be easily found at your nearest Asian grocery store.

To be honest, this is probably not quite the most authentic version of okonomiyaki, but when you drizzle anything in that mayonaise and sauce, it's close enough for us!

1/2 cabbage shredded

1 carrot shredded

2 zucchinis shredded

1 green onion shredded

1 egg

¾ cup of water

1 cup flour

Mayonnaise

Okonomiyaki sauce

Add shredded vegetables to flour, egg and water. Shallow fry in vegetable oil and serve with the mayonnaise and sauce.

Orange and almond cake

We found this recipe online whilst looking for gluten free desserts. We have a few kilos of fresh almonds to get through, so spent an afternoon shelling nuts and cooking this up for our gluten free friend!

The use of the whole oranges sounds bizaare (like 80's microwave cake recipes), but gives the cake a deep orange flavour. And because we ground up our own almonds the cake had a crunchier texture than processed almond meal (like poppy seeds but no need to spend the next few hours picking them out of your teeth!!!)

2 oranges, scrubbed and roughly chopped (with skin)

5 eggs, separated

200 g caster sugar

225 g ground almonds

sifted icing sugar 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 23cm springform tin.

Cut oranges into quarters, remove pips and place in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water. Place over low heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes until the orange is soft.

Once cooked, puree the orange into a smooth paste (e.g. food processor).

Separate the eggs and whisk the whites until stiff peaks form, then add half the caster sugar- whisk for a further minute. In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar until thick and creamy (about 2-3 minutes).

Whisk the orange mixture and ground almonds into the yolk mixture. The gently fold the egg whites in, using a large metal spoon. Place in the prepared tin and cook for 50 -55 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin.

Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Fennel Seed Biscuits

These are quick and easy to make and thanks to their high salt content, they're extremely addictive! They are slightly sweet and can be served with a cheese platter, although mostly ours get eaten whenever we walk past them.

If you don't like fennel flavour I made a batch of them this week with dried rosemary which was equally delicious!

Fennel Seed and Marsala Rings:

3 cups plain flour

¼ cup caster sugar

1 ½ tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

1/3 cup sweet marsala

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 egg yolk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a baking tray.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, fennel seeds and sea salt in a bowl.

Combine the marsala, olive oil and 1/3 cup water in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until a dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface. Roll into 10cm long logs and form each log into a ring. Place on the prepared tray.

To make a glaze, combine the egg yolk with a tablespoon of water. Brush the rings with the glaze and bake for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes reduce the temperature to 150 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Tagine Week: Algerian Okra and Potato Tagine

We have to credit this amazing recipe find to Travis and Yvette- who have been insisting that this would change the way we saw okra.

I had a hard time convincing Frank to try it. Our last attempt to cook up okra was fairly bland and revoltingly slimy! But we have seen the light- okra is amazing. I thought we were onto something when I spotted an elderly woman stealing Okra from Coles a couple of weeks ago. If it's worth stealing then there must be something we've been missing.

So, many thanks to Travis and Yvette for steering us in the right direction (and for the Algerian spice mix and preserved lemons).  Soaking the okra helps with the texture and this combination of flavours was so unusual but very refreshing. We'll definately cook this over and over again.

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/health/nutrition/16recipehealth.html

Tagine week: Eggplant and Pumpkin Tagine with green chillies

Now that the evenings are much cooler, we have dusted off the tagine and gone a little overboard with it.

This is a hearty vegetarian tagine, prompted by our pile of delicious butternut pumpkins and late season eggplants and zucchinis (although of course we used tromboncino).  This is a bit of a staple recipe in our house whenever we have too much of any of these vegies (usually this time of year).

Eggplant and Pumpkin Tagine with Whole Green Chillies
 

Sauce:

100ml olive oil

2 large onions, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 heaped TBS coriander seeds

1 heaped TBS cumin seeds

1 heaped TBS caraway seeds

1  TSP ground allspice

2 TSP sweet paprika

1 TSP chilli powder

1 TSP ginger powder

2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

6 long green chillies

1 TBS honey

600ml water

Vegetables:

1 kg pumpkin diced

2 small eggplants

2 small zucchini

100mL olive oil

150g cooked chickpeas

100g black olives

Greek yoghurt (to serve)

Use a mortar and pestle to grind coriander, cumin and caraway seeds to a fine powder. Sieve to remove husks. Mix with other remaining spices.

Heat oil in frying pan, sauté the onions and add the garlic- fry until browned. Add the spice mixture to the frying pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes, chilli, honey and water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Bake the pumpkin in the oven for 15 minutes.

Cut the eggplant and zucchini into medium sized chunks. Salt and leave for 20 minutes. Wipe off excess water and sauté in olive oil in batches.

Add all the vegetables, chickpeas and olives to the tomato sauce. Add more water if the sauce is too thick. Bring sauce to the boil, season with salt and pepper. Serve with couscous and plenty of thick Greek yoghurt.

Playdough

So we baked up a batch of this earlier in the week and it went down well. Didn't even get eaten (well, may just a small amount of licking the fingers). Originally we optimistically started out with three colours (red, green and yellow) but it very quickly started to look like this.

The red is a bit psychedelic as I accidentally tipped too much food colouring into the mixture, then had to walk around for the next few days with bright red palms.

Anyway- here's the "recipe" I used (they all seem to be basic variations of the same ingredients):


2 cups plain flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity)
Food colouring




Mix the ingredients (Except for food colouring) in a saucepan and beat to combine. Stir over heat until the mixture thickens. When cool enough to handle, knead on a clean surface until it is smooth and elastic. (If mixture is too sticky just return to the saucepan to cook a bit longer). Divide into balls and add food colouring. Sit back and watch the fun.

Sweetcorn Relish

This is just like the stuff you can buy at the supermarket, only nicer. This makes a delicious dip when combined with cream cheese (I'm sure you've all tasted this at a BBQ when you were younger). Or you can serve it alongside roast beef or a corned silverside (mmmmm, boiled meat).

5 fresh sweetcorn on the cob

2 capsicums (any colour) deseeded and chopped finely

3 celery sticks, chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)

350g sugar

450mL apple cider vinegar

Sea salt

50g plain flour

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

¾ teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon celery seeds

Boil the corn cobs in a large pot of water for 4 minutes. Remove the corn cobs and reserve 200mL of the water.

Cut the kernels off the corn cobs. Put the corn and the reserved cooking water in a pot, together with the capsicum, celery, onion, garlic, chilli (if using), vinegar, salt and sugar.

Bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make a runny paste with the flour, spices and approx ¼ cup of water. Add this to the boiling pot (stirring as you add it), then simmer for a further 15minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the mixture sticking.

Place into sterilised jars and boil the filled jars in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes to seal the jars.