Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Coconut Rice and Vanilla Honey

I love creamed rice. Love, love, LOVE creamed rice. I can't express how much I love it. If i were ever on Death Row (which would probably be for eating too much chocolate!) my last meal would be creamed rice.

I grew up with my Dad's creamed rice. It's my absolute favourite dessert, any time of the year. Hot, straight off the stove with cold, cold ice cream is the best way to eat it. Every birthday I'd get a lovely big bowl of creamed rice, which always followed Dad's Pumpkin Soup. The best two things that Dad can cook, well in my opinion anyway. So when I found this recipe, I had to try it. I knew straight away it would be completely different, but I don't care. It's creamed rice.

The big difference between my Dad's recipe and the Season's one is that Dad uses plain white rice and the recipe I was following uses Arborio, or Risotto, rice. And, the absorbtion method is again different. Arborio rice is renown for being difficult to cook with, having to stand there and stir for what feels like hours upon hours. Season's says to add the rice and water all at once and let come to the boil. Ok. Easy. Gives my arm a break too. (when Dad cooks it he brings milk and sugar to the boil then add's the white rice to cook it)

Once boiling, it only takes 10 min for the water to absorb, which is a lot quicker than I anticipated, I add the sugar and coconut milk and let cook for a few more minutes then its done. Huh? Done already? Seriously? I'm loving this recipe.....!

It's served with Vanilla Honey, which is just a matter of slicing a fresh vanilla bean, removing the seeds then adding them and the bean to 1/2 a cup of honey and heating gently so the vanilla infuses. Some sliced stone fruit and I added some fresh blueberries.

I loved it. So simple. The coconut in the rice wasn't over powering but the honey could easily take over the dish, so only a little is needed. Eating it warm made it seem quite rich but cold the next day and it seemed to have mellowed out a lot. And I ate all the leftovers myself.

Birchier Muesli

Looking through 'Season's'  I'm grateful to find a breakfast recipe. I am a big fan of toasted muesli and have never made my own before so I was keen to give it a go.

The recipe supplied is quite simple and neat, so I add my own tweaks to it. It's a great base recipe, of oats, almonds, apricots, pepita's, dried apple and honey, so I add sunflower seeds, LSA (ground linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds) and cranberries, just for a little extra sweetness. I cut up the dried apple and mix it through rather than roasting them as whole slices. Mixing it all up in the tray with the honey, I leave little clumpy bits so they cook together and I'll have little crunchy clusters in my cereal. Tip for the new cooks: spray your measuring cup for the honey with some cooking oil, it will slide right out!

The original recipe cooks the muesli for 15 min, but I leave it in for an extra 10 so it's really golden, just the way I like it. I think there's enough to last me about a week and a half, more than the average $5 - 7 box of decent toasted muesli, so it's definitely a recipe I'll be cooking over and over. I love it's simpleness, so I can add my own flavours to make it just the way I like.

What do you make for breakfast?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sponge Kisses with Cream

For Valentines Day I thought it only fitting that I make something that's titled 'Kisses'.

Sponge Kisses with Cream, a very simple sponge recipe that's easily whipped up in my Mix-master, baked in rounds and sandwiched together with some thick cream. My husband loved it, but then again, he loves anything with cream. I found it a bit lacking. I could've added a bit more vanilla extract to the mix. Then a friend suggested some lemon zest, which would've been very nice as well. Or mixing somethig through the cream too. Either way, they were very nice kisses. And kisses is what you need on Valentines Day.






X X X X X X

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Promise!

I promise I've been cooking!! Please don't think I started the challenge then left it hanging there....waiting to be eaten. 

Last night I cooked some yummy yummy 'Kisses'. Just right for Valentines Day. I promise to share more about them with you shortly. Tomorrow even. Right after I catch up on some much needed sleep........

Promise!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Fig and Goats Cheese Tart

Okay, so I don't have a tart tin. I'm improvising. I guess you could say I'm cooking my 'interpretation' of Donna Hay's dishes. Well, I'm trying to anyway.

Fig and Goats Cheese Tart. Do you know how hard it is to get a fig where I live? Impossible. I was lucky enough to be visiting Emerald last week and pounced on the best fig I could find in Wollies, as there's guaranteed to be...uh....NONE here. Ever. So, I had my beautiful ripe fig and wanted to do something beautiful with it. I love figs. I got very close to cutting it up and making my cardboard-tasting-gluten-free cereal a whole lot better, but I resisted so I could bring you my Tart.

As I mentioned, I don't have a tart tin. Well, actually I do. But it's a great big ceramic one and this recipe calls for small individual ones, so I used a ramekin instead. Lined with greaseproof paper so I could lift the tart out effortlessly. Oh, and store bought Shortcrust pastry is a godsend with a clingy toddler. I was so grateful to Donna that she'd put that in her recipe!

This recipe is rather easy and a great summer lunch (or dinner, as was my case). Pastry, fig (cut in half to show off the rose coloured inside), goats cheese (I used goat's Feta, as it was the only goats cheese I could find) then whisk some eggs, cream, chives (or parsley, in my case) and more cheese. Mmmmm....cheese.

The end product is delicious. The crisp pastry contrasts so well with the creamy cheese filling. I love the flavor of the Fig and Goats Cheese together, they compliment each other so well. Definitely one to make again.