Meringue covered Lemon Muffins

It's been a little while since I cooked from this book, so when looking to satisfy my sweet tooth the other day I found this lovely recipe.

It reads like a classic Baked Alaska, muffin hollowed out and filled with ice-cream before being encased with smooth meringue and baked till golden....without the flambé alcohol.

The muffin is a simple lemon muffin recipe, but surprisingly really nice on its own. So nice that I've since made the muffins on their own a few times since. Once baked, the top of the muffin is hollowed out and filled with vanilla ice-cream before being placed into the freezer to set. You want the ice-cream quite firmly set before covering as you're placing it in the oven and don't want it to melt everywhere.

A basic meringue mixture is used to cover the muffins. Donnas secret ingredient of white vinegar helps stabilize the whites. Don't forget to rub a bit between your fingers to test the sugar has been dissolved. Completely cover the frozen muffins, leaving no gaps at all with the meringue before baking till golden.

I've never made this before and was a bit apprehensive about cooking ice-cream in the oven, but figured its a popular dessert and must work. I was excited to crack the meringue and see how it fared. The ice-cream hadn't melted! It was understandable soft, but still there. Yay!!!!

I think if I were going to make it again I'd have to try the flambé.

Lamb Rack with Sweet Potato Mash

There is one main reason I loved this dish.....my son ate it!  Getting him to eat meat is like getting blood out of a stone. I offer every night with hope, but it ends up most likely in Hubby's belly instead of Noah's. So when he picked up a cutlet and started gnawing at it, sucking off the meat, I just about cried.  The recipe is simple, the rack coated with oil and cumin and baked till already.  Mash of sweet potato (I added white potatoes to bulk it out a bit), cream and coriander (works do well!) is a fantastic compliment to the lamb.  For our dinner I added some easy greens, which I'm proud to say Noah ate as well!  Now, if lamb wasn't so damn expensive, I'd make this every night!  Check out this post on The Strands Of Me for some photos!

Beef, Onion and Red Wine Pie

While it's still cold out here I thought I'd take advantage of the weather and use the oven to warm the house. I don't honestly think I've ever made a savory pie and had a craving for hearty, homemade food.

Beef, Onion and Red Wine pie. Ok, I cheated and used 'Alcohol Removed' red wine. I know when cooking there's no need to, but I couldn't be bothered dealing with the look I'd get, as a pregnant woman, buying wine from the only bottle-o in town. Even if I explained it was for cooking. Then I'd get the 'yeah, right' look. When I saw the bottle in IGA - problem solved!

For a pie, it's quite quick. Cooking beef, onion, garlic then adding stock, thyme, a bay leaf, wine and water. Season and let simmer. I love those 'walk away and forget about till the timer goes off' type recipes. Easy peasy.

While the mixture cooled I defrosted some shortcrust and puff pastry that everyone keeps in the freezer. I lined my newly bought pie tin (I had somehow managed to keep from Noah as he LOVES to play with everything in my kitchen) with shortcrust. Poured in my now warm beef mixture then topped with puff, pressing the pastries together. A good brush with some beaten egg and into the oven for another 'set and forget' timeslot.

The result:

A very yummy dinner! Another to be tagged and made again!

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

As it's getting colder it's nice to cook a whole roast and warm the house up with the heat of the oven. As we've all been sick lately I wanted something with lots of healthy garlic and was glad to find a whole roast chicken recipe.

But, this chicken is cooked in stock and wine on the stove top, not in the oven. But, oh well. It'll still taste great.

After stuffing it with fresh lemon, I rubbed the skin with some oil and seasonings. I browned some eschalots and garlic in the bottom of my cast iron pan then removed them and dropped in the chicken, breast down so the skin would start to crisp up. But, I didn't put enough oil in the bottom and all that happened was the skin sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Bugger.

After 5 minutes I turned it, pouring more oil in and browned the bottom of the chook. Another 5 min later and I re-added the garlic and eschalots with some stock and Riesling. Wait, no, I didn't have any Riesling, so I used a wine I have sitting on the bench waiting for me to be not-pregnant so I could drink it. I did the next best thing and cooked with it instead.

Now, the recipe states to simmer it covered for 30 min, then for another 30 min uncovered. I did this, but found that I was always basting the chicken in the stock and wine as I was scared the breast would dry out being out of the liquid. I suppose if the skin hadn't burnt off I wouldn't have worried about it as much, but I did this every 5 minutes.

Pulling the chicken out at the end the beautiful aroma of lemon greets me. I carve it up and we ate it with some polenta and my home grown cherry tomatoes. I loved the subtle hint of lemon through the chicken meat. I squeezed the cooked garlic out of their skins and stirred it through my polenta. Great!

While it didn't cure our colds, it filled our hungry tummies!

Creme Carmel

I don't think I've ever even eaten a Creme Caramel, let along made one. But I was looking for a dessert one week night and found I had all the ingredients, so I gave it a go.

It's actually pretty easy, a basic baked custard recipe as well as a caramel. Creme Caramel.....bit self-explanatory really....

Custard is something I make a lot as my son Noah loves it and it's a nice way to fill his tummy at the end of the night. I usually use only milk, but this recipe included cream to make it a bit richer. The only difference is the custard I make includes cornflour to thicken it and this one doesn't, but I suppose the cream did that job. Adding an extra egg yolk so it sets well when baking, I set the made custard aside while I made the caramel.

I've only made caramel a handful of times in my life, so it's something I'm still new at. Boil sugar and water till it's golden using a brush in water to brush down any crystals that form on the sides. Check. BE CAREFUL. Boiling sugar syrup is not a nice thing to get on your fingers.

When I removed the caramel from the heat I poured it directly into the ramekins. The recipe says to let it sit for a few moments to allow the syrup to begin to set. I think this is where I went wrong. I did let it sit for the allocated 5 minutes, but when I turned them out after cooking a lot of the caramel was stuck hard in the bottom of the ramekin. Even after dipping it into hot water to loosen it up a bit. Next time I won't leave it for so long before pouring the custard in.

Bake in a bain-marie. Check.

My oven is stupid and I had to bake for an extra 5 minutes.

Refrigerate till cold. Check.

As I mentioned, they didn't turn out easily, but a lot of caramel still came out with them, so it wasn't a huge loss. I really liked them, finding the custard quite smooth and delicate. I liked that the rich caramel didn't take over the custard either.

Hubby thought they were too rich but he thinks anything with flavor is too rich. Next time I make it I'll make a single serve. Might be tonight....

Pizza!!!!!!

Just like everyone else, I too love pizza.

Home-made is always better.

We have a take-away night once a week and sometimes instead I'll make home-made pizza's instead of eating the greasy food from the only available take away in the town. Usually I'll use flat bread as a base and top it with all the things we like to eat, but I was excited to make a base from scratch and luckily the Seasons cookbook provides a great base recipe.

A big thing for me is working with yeast, which I haven't done since I was a teenager making pizza bases in my Mum's bread maker (they were always the BEST pizza bases!). I was nervous to try it without the safety of the bread maker, but there's only one way to learn new things hey?

So I activated the yeast by adding it to some water with some sugar to feed it and set it aside until it bubbled at me. Then I mixed it with the dry ingredients gently and set it aside to prove. Once it had doubled in size I cut it into quarters and set it aside again until it had doubled in size.

See? Not as hard as I thought! They were so soft it seemed a shame to flatten and roll them out, but it must be done for a good pizza!

First I made Hubby's pizza. A Meat + Meat + Meat pizza. Just the way he likes it.

Then a little ham and pineapple one for Noah. I must admit, I'm pretty sure I ate more of it than he did.

Then, I made a smaller one with the garlic topping recipe in Seasons. Definitely more garlic next time. I could probably eat it straight from the bulb I love it that much. It was very simple: garlic, cheese and olive oil. Definitely don't forget the olive oil or it's a bit dry.

Then my favorite. Pizza Margherita. The first thing that strikes me about this recipe is that there is no sauce for a base. The tomatoes are squeezed to extract the juice (so it doesn't go soggy) and then lovingly placed on the pizza along side some mozzarella, basil and olive oil. When baked the cheese forms the missing sauce base, but I still found the end result a bit dry. In my opinion, anyway. Next time I'll make a basic tomato sauce base, but still keep the rest of the ingredients the same. Less cheese so my ass doesn't get so big.


 A crack of salt when done baking makes the world of difference. DON'T FORGET IT!

While different to the usual take away version of the Margherita, it was still a great pizza to eat and full of flavor.

Roast Pumpkin and Garlic Soup

I grew up with my Dad's Pumpkin Soup and his Apple and Rhubarb stew. I will say that absolutely nothing beats Dad's pumpkin soup....mainly because I'm not the one cooking!

When I was pregnant I routinely made myself roast pumpkin soup for my work lunch. I'd cook up a big batch on Sunday and eat it throughout the week. I made so much soup I got sick of it. I could not physically eat any more pumpkin soup.

My son is now 18 months old and as the weather cools Pumpkin soup seems more and more appealing. I realised the other day that I haven't had any since my pregnancy, so a warming lunch time soup and buttered toast will hit the spot.

The difference is the honey and cream. So. Much. Cream. Roasting the Pumpkin with honey really brought out the sweetness in the vegetable, but next time I'll definitely use less. (I didn't exactly measure.....) After blitzing it, you add some cream. Then more cream. Then sour cream.

So much cream. I suppose that gives it the....uh...creaminess. It's a very smooth soup and easy to enjoy. And freeze for lunch the next day.

More garlic and less honey and I'll be in heaven.