Chocolate Anzac cookies

  Sometimes you have to give into something, and I am not talking about these delicious biscuits. I am referring to the fact that I have not been very well over the last week or so. It started with a sore throat that went away, came back and morphed into a thick throat and a voice that made me sound I was on my last legs!
  It was probably the sleep deprivation that really got to me in the end. On going to bed I couldn't decide if I was hot or cold. Or if I wanted to lie down or sit up. Or creep out of bed so as to not disturb the man. Or stand beside the bed wailing (to wake the man up, with the aim of getting some sympathetic, soothing words!). The only upside to all of this night time activity was that I finished two books in record time.
  I did not have time to be sick. I had a couple of events I wanted to attend during the week, so I 'soldiered' on, swallowing Panadol, immune boosters, lemon drinks etc etc. (You get the picture). Which actually ended up making me feel a bit queezy in the tummy as well. Honestly, give me a break!
  In the end I just gave up, and succumbed to it all!
  I stayed in my dressing gown most of the day, and went to bed for nice Nana naps in the afternoon when I felt a little drowsy. For some reason I rose early most mornings. Perhaps because I decided it felt better standing up, with all the 'toxins' draining downwards my feet. It is now a week later, and I am feeling a lot better. With more energy and enthusiasm for life.....
  During this awful time, I turned to my batch of Chocolate Anzac cookies I had made a few days before all of the above started. They tasted pretty good, no matter what the hour!
  I have posted my best Anzac biscuit recipe before, but this one is lovely with chunks of chocolate and a nice texture. You would have heard of Alice Arndell, she appeared in the NZ Hottest Home Baker series last year. She has since published a cookbook called 'Alice in Baking Land'. Her recipe appeared in the 'Life' supplement of the Dom Post a few weeks ago.
Note: I didn't have the orange infused oil on hand so I just used the zest of an orange stirred into my oil. I also topped up the dark chocolate (I had already eaten over half of it!), with chocolate bits.
My mixture was a little dry and didn't form balls very well, not sure why. But I just added a little more oil to the mixture and they turned out well.

Early morning, nice cuppa and Anzac biscuits (not one but two) while reading the paper

Orange olive oil and chocolate Anzac biscuits 

 Makes about 24

1 ½ c self-raising flour

1 c brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 c rolled oats

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp golden syrup

125g butter

1 tsp Baking Soda

250g dark chocolate (Whittaker’s is best) roughly chopped

 

Preheat oven to 180°C and line baking trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together, flour. Sugar, oats and salt. Set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat golden syrup and butter until butter is melted.

Stir well, stir in baking soda.

Make well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in melted butter and orange oil.

Stir until combined, stir in chocolate pieces.

Take a generous spoonful and roll into a ball.

Flatten slightly onto prepared trays, leaving about 3cm of space between biscuits.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Armenian Nutmeg Cake

 I had a quick trip to the dentist a month or so back, and while waiting I flicked through a magazine and found this lovely cake recipe. Actually it was the photo that caught my eye. It was such a lovely shot,with the cake in a dark setting (with candlelight I think), with beautiful pink rose petals scattered across the top. That did it for me, so romantic and so clever. I really aspire to being a decent sort of photographer but I am a true novice when I see shots like that!
 I used my phone to take a photo of the recipe. And I am sorry I didn't note down the name of the magazine  (or the name of the recipe creator) - it may have been an overseas magazine. I got called into the dentist before I had finished uploading what I needed.
 The cake is gorgeous. It is quite different in its construction. Looking 'on line' there are lots of variations of Armenian Nutmeg cake. Some use walnuts or pecans. From the magazine article I seem to recall you can use orange blossom water instead of the orange zest, or rosewater to add a different flavour (hence the rose petal decoration I suppose). And in spite of having a full box of nutmeg spice in my pantry, I stuck to the recipe and bought whole nutmegs for this cake.

 The pistachio nuts had to be shelled and of course were a little salty. The cooks assistant remarked that might not work, but it did, thankfully. In fact I liked the slight salty, sweet taste of the topping and so did my friends.
 I am not sure if this is a 'traditional' cake. But it is obviously a great cake to finish off any Middle Eastern meal. I would definitely bake again.

Armenian Nutmeg Cake

1 ½ c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 ¼ c brown sugar, firmly packed

½ ground almonds

125g butter

1 tsp baking soda

½ c milk

½ c natural unsweetened yoghurt

1 egg

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

½ c pistachio nuts, chopped

Method

Heat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line the base of a 20cm round spring-form or loose bottomed cake tin.

Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in brown sugar and ground almonds.

Using fingers, rub in the butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Press a third of the mixture firmly into the base of the prepared cake tin.

In a separate bowl, mix baking soda with milk. Add egg, nutmeg and orange zest, and beat to combine.

Fold into the remaining flour mixture, combining thoroughly.

Pour batter over base in tin. Sprinkle chopped pistachios over the top, and bake 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

(Watch the topping does not burn, cover with tinfoil to protect if necessary)

Allow cake to cool at least 30 minutes before removing from tin.

Serve with a little yoghurt or cream

My friendly Tui kept me company while taking shots!

Brandy balls and cake stalls

I love cake stalls, and I love 'working' on them. You meet nice friendly people who are really happy to part with their money for a good cause. This week I baked for Bellyful. The tables were laden with wonderful homemade baking and sweets. They looked a treat. And not surprisingly, everything flew off the table!

Wonderful cup cakes - this baker is so clever!

I enjoy volunteering for Bellyful. The women are fun, enthusiastic and best of all, have a great community spirit. They are always willing to give their time to help Mums and families with newborns and/or sick children, every week cooking and delivering meals for them. Let's face it, most of us have experienced similar exhausting times and remember wondering..... can we get through this! A little bit of help is a godsend.

Items ready for sale

For the cake stall I offered to make a fruit loaf, a carrot cake, and some Brandy Balls. I thought Brandy Balls might be something a little different. I had made them a few weeks earlier (for the adults at a children's party), and they all went in seconds!!
When I went down to help at the stall, I noted only one bag of my Brandy Balls were left. It made me smile, thinking that my baking might not be appreciated (recall my earlier post about lamingtons).

The last bag of Brandy balls

I recalled the story my lovely husband told me not long after I had met him. When he was a young boy, for a Scout 'do', his Uncle Jack kindly made date sandwiches (with lovely wholemeal bread). Everyone else bought pies, cream cakes, sausage rolls etc (you get the picture) and it became clear to him that his sandwiches were not at all popular with the other scouts.
He went on to tell me he only got a meat pie about once a year, and while he would have preferred to chomp into one of the many 'unhealthy' items on offer, he felt he had to eat as many of his sandwiches as he could... to show his appreciation for Uncle Jacks efforts. Like M's mother, he was also a vegetarian.... they were somewhat few and far between in the 50's.
Both times I have made my Brandy balls, I've been so focused on the task, no photo was taken, so my apologies for the copy from the Edmonds Cookery Book. I can assure you mine looked (almost) identical. They are really easy to put together - but allow a bit of time - rolling the balls and dipping into chocolate hail can be a little time consuming.
They are wonderful with coffee, and lovely to give as a little thank you gift. And as one lady who bought them from the cake stall said, 'they will be perfect for my mid winter dinner tonight'.
Brandy balls – Edmonds Cookery book (Pub. 1998)
Ingredients

250g pkt Vanilla wine biscuits – crushed

2 tbsp currants – finely chopped

2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 egg

¼ c castor sugar

1tbsp cocoa

1 ½ tbsp brandy or sherry - you could use pure essence but the real thing is better!

125g butter, melted

Coconut or chocolate hail

Method 

Place crumbs in bowl, add currants and walnuts

Stir to combine

In another bowl beat egg with a fork, add sugar and cocoa, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Add brandy, pour this mixture into crumb mixture.

Add melted butter, stirring until well combined.

Measure tablespoons of mixture and shape into balls.

Roll in coconut or chocolate hail.

Chill until firm.

Makes about 20.

(I made a single mix the first time and the balls were perfect. I doubled the mixture for the cake stall but made the mistake of adding extra currants. The mixture needs to be quite sticky in order to cover with chocolate hail easily, the extra currants made the balls a little less sticky.)

Copied from Edmonds Cookery book

Vegetarian Risotto Sausages

May was a very busy month and it looks like June will be as well. There has been lots happening around here! We've also attended many gatherings with friends and family, both here in Welly and in Christchurch. All involving good times, sharing meals, the odd bottle of wine (or two) and catching up with the very special people in my life. I always feel very blessed when I am with them.
Over Queens birthday weekend, I attended an interesting session at Handmade called  "Planning an edible summer garden". Our group was small but big on ideas. And I picked up some great tips from Rachel (of The Kitchen Garden). In fact the very next day (with renewed enthusiasm) I dug out the remaining compost, put my vegetable garden to bed by laying down pea straw and ordered a stack of stuff from Kings Seeds. The winter months will give me plenty of time to really plan the summer garden. There are a number of things I won't be growing anymore, and a few I will give a bit of a go.
Last week we had a team of arborists on the property. Their work has made a huge difference to our garden (and our view), and all the trimming and lopping produced a huge pile of gorgeous mulch which (thanks to the hubby and a guest) is now spread over the other parts of our garden, quietly doing its magic over the winter months.
The same said guest gifted me a copy of  'Mackenzie Muster, "A century of favourites". Published in 1984, it's a great little recipe book, with some very weird and wacky recipes, not likely to be cooked here but interesting to read about them just the same. The recipe for Liver patties or Lamb in a Hollow Log springs to mind.... But I might try the Turkish Pilaf, it sounds a bit exotic for its time!
The book is interspersed with local prose and pen drawings and amazingly it was in the Eat my Books library. I'd love to know how many were printed. So thank you for your present Paula, I will treasure it.
On Sunday I found myself sorting out a cupboard and came across a folder of old Next magazine recipes. I spotted a recipe for Vegetarian Sausages. With not a bit of offal or meat in sight, they are really simple to make, very tasty and a total hit in our household! We not only liked the flavour, we also liked the chewy texture.
Please excuse my photo, my sausages look more like torpedos and they did not photo well in the early evening. I will take more care next time. We cooked a few for Monday's dinner and popped the remainder (uncooked ones) in the fridge for the following night. This worked really well, they held their shape.
The recipe could easily be adapted by using gluten free breadcrumbs.

My effort, a humble but tasty sausage

Vegetarian Risotto sausages (Next magazine) Serves 4 - but it served more like 8 large sausages

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 tbsp oil

25g butter

2 cups Arborio rice

4 cups vegetable stock
2-3 eggs beaten

6-8 halves sundried tomatoes – chopped

250g mozzarella, cut into 1 cm cubes

½ c freshly chopped basil

1 ½ c fresh white breadcrumbs (I will try Panko bread crumbs next time)

Clarified butter or oil to fry (I used canola)

In a large heavy-based saucepan, gently cook the onion in the oil and butter for 10 minutes

until soft but not brown.

Stir in the rice, and cook for a minute so the grains are glossy and white.

Add ½ cup stock, stirring constantly over a moderate heat until the rice is absorbed all the stock. Add the remaining stock, ½ cup at a time, stirring continuously. Allow to cool.

Combine the eggs, tomatoes, cheese and basil and fold into cooled rice.

Shape into sausages, roll in breadcrumbs and pan-fry in the butter or oil until crisp and hot.

Serve with salad greens.

From the magazine photo - what they should look like!

Figgy cakes and free stuff

Don't you love it when someone gives you a bag of free stuff, especially when that bag contains a squillon, fat, juicy, fresh figs. Well, not exactly a squillion but I was pretty excited about receiving them just the same.
I was told fresh figs ripen very quickly so thought it best to freeze half and eat the remaining ones nice and fresh. They freeze well.

Most of my life has been spent in Christchurch and the Canterbury region. Our home garden, while full of a variety of fruit trees and berry bushes, it didn't contain anything as exotic as a fig tree. I am not sure why, possibly because they didn't like very cold winters. (Having said that my good friend Deb has a huge one in her garden). I guess it is more likely Mum and Dad didn't know much about fig trees in those days and the soil was a bit on the sandy side on our side of town.
I know my Mum was a huge fan of dried figs, a treat I'm rather fond of as well! In the past I've cooked the odd Middle Eastern dish with dried figs but never with fresh figs. So it was a bit of a nice adventure hunting out a recipe using fresh figs, made easier of course, with my new 'Eat my Books' library.
I happened upon this recipe from 'Savour Italy' by Annabel Langbein. A lovely moist cake, it was perfect to serve when I hosted my book group. It makes two cakes, and being suitable to freeze, the extra one was stored away for another time. Use other fruit like plums, apricots or grapes when they are in season.
(Tips - Line the bottom of your tin, my cake stuck to the bottom and while in the oven, put tin foil on the rack - the cake drips syrup while cooking!)
Harvest Fig Cake
10 - 12 fresh figs or other seasonal fruit
3 tbsp sugar
300g (11oz) butter
1½  cups sugar
3 eggs
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 c milk
2 c plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c ground toasted almonds (my almonds were not blanched and gave a nice wholemeal look to the cake)
Optional: icing sugar to dust
Cut figs in half and sprinkle first measure of sugar. Put to one side
Heat oven to 180C. Beat together butter and second measure of sugar until creamy.
Add eggs, lemon rind, and vanilla essence.
Gently stir in milk, flour, BP and almonds to form smooth batter.
Divide batter between two greased springform tins, 20-23cm (8-9ins) diameter. (Best to line the bottom, my cake stuck to the bottom and while in the oven, put tin foil on the rack - the cake drips syrup while cooking!)
Arrange figs or other fruit cut side up, on top. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 180C for 30 mins., reduce heat to 160C and cook a further 25-30 mins or until
tested. Leave to cool before turning out.
Dust with icing sugar and serve warm, with whipped cream (or yoghurt).

The figs are prepared beforehand

Ready for the oven

Dust with icing sugar and serve with yoghurt or whipped cream

 

Spinach and Zucchini Ricotta cake with tomato and eggplant side dish

This is such great a vegetarian option for a meal. I spotted it in the latest Cuisine magazine (Issue 164). It hasn't appeared on their website yet, but I would highly recommend it.
Yes, I am being a bit lazy today and not jotting down the recipe, but you should soon be able to retrieve from the Cuisine website - or you could just buy the magazine.
I made it for a luncheon a couple of weeks ago and it went down a treat. And it was just as lovely warmed through the next day for our dinner.
The recipe is very similar to another post, the Zucchini Loaf, but with the addition of spinach and/or silver beet, more egg yolks and lots of fresh parsley.
Last week I went to make it again and tried to buy Ricotta at one of our very large (and usually fabulous)  local supermarkets. Apparently all brands of ricotta were sold out and they couldn't get more stock in the foreseeable future. It crossed my mind that this recipe was so popular - it emptied the shelves of ricotta in my area!!
Really only kidding.....but something is not quite right is it? Given that we have so many dairy cows and billions of litres of milk production in this country. Makes you wonder what the heck is going on.....
Anyway, back to the recipe. It is perfect for vegetarian dinner party or for that different, healthy and handy substantial lunch dish to transport to a family gathering. Which is exactly what I plan to do next week.
The recipe includes a lovely Eggplant and Tomato side dish which complements it beautifully.
Today's newsflash! ricotta is back on the shelves...
And by the way.... I am busy spreading the word about Eat my Books. For me, it is the best discovery this year!

makes a large round 'cake',  love the crispy bits of Parmesan on top

all those healthy vegetables inside!

with a tomato and eggplant side

Eat my Books, discovery of a great website

I have discovered a wonderful new website. One of my friends from my food appreciation club told us about it. It is called Eat My Books http://www.eatyourbooks.com/
It was designed by two British sisters, (one based here in N.Z., with the other sister in Boston). It is a godsend for people (like me) who have scores of recipe books and who seems to spend hours looking for the right recipe or one to use a particular ingredient on hand.
How it works.... it allows you to create an online library of all your recipes from books, magazines and favourite blogs. Which means no more searching for a recipe when you want to use up that kilo of fresh figs or a bucket of lemons! 
You can search and add your books from their extensive list. They suggest buying a bar coder to scan the books IBN number, which is certainly a quicker way if you use that option. But I just made a list of my favourite books and it didn't take long to add them into my library.
After logging your books, it indexes all the recipes from said books. Once set up, all you do then is search with your key word, it lists all your options and where to find the recipe. You then look it up in your book listed and viola! the recipe quickly found. Some listings also include the full recipe, especially when it is linked to another publication. It's so easy.
As I said, It will also link to your favourite blogs and magazines - I have yet to complete that part. But it will mean I can put some of my 14 years of the Cuisine magazine to more effective use!
There are three options for subscription. I took the monthly one at US$2.50, I thought that was pretty reasonable, but you can take out a yearly subscription if you so desire. I wanted to check it out before committing to a year.
Take a look and see if you agree with me - it is brilliant!.....

And just because I felt like it and I had to clear my freezer to make space for more stock, I made this little bowl of decadence in a blink of an eye.
Take some frozen strawberries from last summer, throw them into a pot, bring it to a fast boil, add sugar and boil until it is thick and jammy. Test on a cold saucer. And hey presto, a fresh easy topping on plain buttered scones or pikelets. Delicious.... and reminds me of warmer, sunnier days!