The Chronicles Of…

Doing a spot of ‘cooking’ today, going to try and make this complex recipe:

Ingredients:

- A banana or two

Method:

Cut them into small pieces and freeze them for 1 – 2 hours. Then supposedly you just keep blending them over and over until they finally go to a texture like soft serve.

I read somewhere you can freeze it afterwards in an air tight container and it will go the same texture as real ice cream and also that it is better to use banana’s that have gone a little brown.

The Banana bits are in the freezer so will let you know how it goes. By the way, I haven’t got the highest hopes as a high percentage of things I try in the kitchen fail, but we’ll see…

Here’s the link to one of the sites i saw this on: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/stepbystep-instructions-for-oneingredient-ice-cream-097170

So on Tuesday night I cooked dinner, I kid you not it’s a true story!!

Ok, so that’s not so unbelievable, but what is is that it wasn’t spag bol or meat and veg, but rather roasted chicken breast stuffed with Camembert cheese and prawns, made from scratch by myself.

I also think that it tasted great!! And want to have it again and the last time I said that about my own cooking was probably never…

Don’t ask Nat how it tasted though just in case my view was biased…

Here’s what I did… a recipe if you will…

Ingredients:

- Chicken Breast or Two

- Half a Kilo of Prawns if they’re on special, or only a dozen or so if they’re not…

- Block of Camembert Cheese

Method:

Open a bottle of beer, this could take 15mins and you might get thirsty.

Peel the prawns, you’ll only need 3 or 4 per serve.

Eat some prawns.

Cut up about half the Camembert into cubes.

Eat some prawns, eat some of the left over Camembert on crackers.

Get the chicken breast and slice it in half, horizontally if you know what I mean.

By now you know to eat prawns, Camembert and crackers here…

Something I didn’t do but would help is to bash the chicken pieces flatter with one of those kitchen hammers.

Then put a few pieces of Camembert and some prawns on one end of the chicken bit and roll up… I then used a bunch of tooth picks to hold each one together.

If you then cook them in the fry pan for a little while it’ll cut down the time in the oven.

Whack ‘em in the oven, on 170, and cook until ready, like 20mins, maybe more.

Crack open a  bottle of wine and serve it and the food and you’re done!

You could serve with steamed veggies, but after eating all those prawns, Camembert, crackers and drinking the beer you’ll be full enough to not worry.

Given Chris’ recent blog…

lemonade scones

Let me introduce to you LEMONADE SCONES!!! Woohoo!

OK, brace yourself, this might be hard to remember…

• 3 Cups of SR flour
• 1 cup of thickened cream
• 1 cup of lemonade (shweppes, no frills, whatever…)

1. Stir it all together in a big bowl (settle down, get off the speed, don’t over mix).
2. roll the dough in a bit of flour (less sticky)
3. Mould the dough into whatever shape you want your scones (triangle, round, etc…)
4. Throw it in a preheated oven (205 degrees celsius) for about 15 minutes
5. Eat scones with jam and cream.

Presto.

(Politely stolen from Matt & Alison Nutt [AKA: The Nutts] with permission)

LANGUAGE WARNING (sort of)

A friend sent me this, and I thought it was fun (if not fairly predictable)…

These are fairly simple and taste GREAT!!

• 150g Butter
• 150g Sugar (approx 3/4 cup)
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Coconut Milk
• 2 Cups Self Raising Flour
• 60g Shredded Coconut (approx 3/4 Cup)
• 1 Pack white choc bits, I use a 250g pkt of Nestle

Beat butter and sugar, add eggs then add rest of ingredients. Mix and cook on about 180-200C.

NB – Don’t over beat & make sure to use papers as chocolate sticks to the pan!

Also these puppies only take about 12-15mins to cook, so keep an eye on them!

This recipe for apple pie takes skill and discipline, but the result is awesome!

You will need:

• 1 tin of sliced baking apple (I prefer Ardmona)
• 3 slices of puff pastry
• a pie dish

This is kinda optional but the first step is to put one hand in your pocket and leave it there.

Now… with one arm:

• Grease the pie dish with butter.
• Place one sheet of puff pastry on the base of the pie dish and press the pastry up the sides (leave the corners hanging over the edge. You will need to cut of some pastry from the 3rd sheet to fill in the gaps that the square puff pastry has left behind.
• Open the can of baking apple.
• Pour the apple from the tin into the pie dish and spread out evenly with a fork.
• Cover the apple with the second sheet of pastry. Take the base pastry that’s hanging over the side of the dish and fold it on to the top pastry. Cut off any other overhanging pastry and use it to fill in any gaps in the top pastry.
• Use the leftover third sheet of pastry to decorate.
• Bake in the oven at 180 C for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

There you have it, one arm apple pie.

This cake is awesome…

• 125g Butter
• 1 Cup Castor Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 2 Cups Coconut
• 1 Cup Self Raising Flour

Lemon Syrup Ingredients

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2/3 Cup Water
• 6 Strips Lemon Rind

Grease a 20cm ring pan, line base with paper; grease paper.

Cream butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, beat in eggs one at a time, beat until combined. Transfer mixture to large bowl, stir in coconut, then sifted flour. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in 160C oven for about 45mins.

After the cake has cooked for about 25mins start making the syrup:

Combine all ingredients in saucepan, stir over heat without boiling until sugar is dissolved, bring to the boil, reduce heat, simmer uncovered without stirringfor 3 minutes; strain syrup.

Remove cake from oven once finished cooking and leave in pan, pour hot syrup over hot cake, all of it, it may seem like too much but just pour slowly letting it soak in, leave cake to cool in the pan.

Done.

I judge a cafe by it’s iced coffee.

I mean, atmosphere, service, food quality is all important but the real test is the iced coffee… You make a good iced coffee Ill be coming back for more. What I mean by good is good strong coffee flavour (real coffee not syrup, yuk!), and a cold tempreture, I think that’s not too much to ask, yet so many cafes pour luke warm milk into a glass with some whipped cream and call it iced coffee – $4.50… I don’t think so.

Often at college I crave an iced coffee. There are some cafes kinda near by (like 5 minute drive) but I ride a motor bike and don’t have any cup holders… so I have managed to create the perfect iced coffee with what’s available to me at college, and here it is (works at home too):

Get a tall glass and add about 2 teaspoons of instant (you know blend 43 or something – not industrial roast).
Add half a teaspoon of sugar. Pour in a small amount of boiling water (like 1/10 of the glass size). Stir the coffee and sugar til disolved.
Add a couple of generous scoops of vanilla ice cream to the hot coffee mix. Let the ice cream cool down the coffee.
Add milk and give a light stir.
Hey Presto!! Ice coffee in an instant that’s not too bad.

It’ll most definately be better than half of the luke warm cups of crap that you get for $4.50 from some Sydney cafes.

Did some baking yesterday. Check out this banana bread, oooh yeah!

It smells and tastes as good as it looks!

This is the first banan bread I’ve eaten since a very bad experience at the Last Drop Cafe in Dulwich Hill during the great banana shortage of 2006… My faith has been restored in the good ‘ol banana bread. It’s particularly good toasted under the grill, with a generous spread of butter, and cup of coffee… mmmmmm.

Takes about 15 minutes of prep and 55 minutes to cook.

You need:

Cake Tin (about 20cm x 8cm x 5cm or something…)

Self Raising flour x 1 3/4 cups

Brown sugar x 3/4 cup

Walnuts x 1 cup (crush them up in the packet)

Butter x 125 grams – that’s about half a block of cooking butter (melted in the microwave for about 40 sec. on high)

Eggs x 2 or 3 (lightly beaten)

Salt x 1/4 teaspoon

Vanilla extract x 1 teaspoon

And 3 or 4 mashed bananas (preferably old brown bananas).

1. Preheat oven to 155 degrees celsius. Grease your cake tin with some butter.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and nuts together in a mixing bowl.
3. In a seperate mixing bowl mash the bananas, mix in the lightly beaten eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.
4. Fold* the banana mix into the dry ingredients (don’t over mix)
5. Put into the oven for about 55 minutes (or until golden brown).

*Fold – A simple but crucial technique used when combining a light and airy ingredient into a heavier ingredient or mixture in such a way as each ingredient maintains its original volume.  This technique must be done quickly but gently and stop ‘folding’ as soon as the ingredients are blended.  Start by placing one quarter of the lighter mixture on top of the heavier mixture.  With a rubber spatula cut down vertically through the two mixtures, sweep across the bottom, up the nearest side of the bowl, and over the top of the mixtures (go in clockwise direction).  Rotate the bowl a quarter turn counter-clockwise and repeat the down-across-up-over motion.

BTW – I ripped off that bit about the fold from another website… just in case you think I’m a serious cook.