October 19, 2008

Pink Love-Heart Cake





So Ninny has landed herself a full time job. Congratulations!! Her recent success deserved a cake, so I promised Ninny I would bake her a pink cake. I had to try out my newly purchased Love Heart Cake Pan, Pink Food Colouring and ready to roll ready icing....Someone had to be the guinea pig.

To save time, I picked up a ready made cake mix (chocolate), baked that, slapped the ready made icing on top which I had coloured with pink icing a few days ago and this is what I got. Not too bad for a first timer ey? Although the cake didn't look that smooth, most likely because I rushed it - but overall it looked pretty good for my first attempt.

Potato and Broccoli Bake



I served this with Braised Diced Lamb and Red Cabbage Salad.

Ingredients

  • 6 potatoes, diced and boiled
  • broccoli small bunch, boiled
  • salt
  • Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
For the bechamel sauce
  • 3 tablespoons margarine
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • salt/pepper
  • 2 tablespoons cheese spread (kraft brand)
  • 2 cups milk, heated
Method

1. Boil potatoes for about 10 minutes, add broccoli and boil further 5 minutes. Drain.

2. Make the bechamel Sauce. Melt margarine, brown the flour, add in heated milk slowly whilst whisking so that lumps do not form. Add salt/pepper, stir through cheese spread and cook until sauce thickens.

3. Grease baking dish, add in the potatoes and broccoli, mix through with the bechamel sauce and sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese. Cook until golden brown and crusty on top.

October 18, 2008

Braised Diced Lamb



I made this and served it up with Red Cabbage Salad and Potato and Broccoli Bake.



Ingredients


1 kg diced lamb
Salt/Pepper
Season all (optional)


Method

1. Wash the lamb.

2. Place the lamb in a pot and cook on high heat until it starts to absorb its juices.

3. Add some hot water until the meat is covered and reduce the heat to low and let it simmer Check the water level every now and then as you may need to keep adding more. I usually cook this for about 1.5-2 hours. Until the meat is nice and soft.

4. Add seasoning and serve.

Red Cabbage Salad (Kirmizi Lahana Salatasi)



I made this salad and served it with some braised diced lamb and potato and broccoli bake.



Ingredients


  • 4 leaves of lettuce, sliced
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1/4 small red cabbage, sliced

Salad Dressing
  • Half a lemon
  • Oil
  • Salt

Method

1. Wash all ingredients.

2. Slice the red cabbage and place in a separate bowl. Add oil and salt to soften it.

3. Slice/dice rest of ingredients and place in a bowl. Add the softened red cabbage.

4. Squeeze lemon and add to salad ingredients, add oil and salt and mix.


Notes

Depending on what I have available other things I usually add to this salad are:
  • capsicum
  • 4 bean mix
  • parsley
  • cucumber
  • onions
  • carrots

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Bake



This pasta bake actually turned out really nice. It's probably because I threw it together using leftover ingredients I had from dinner the night before - Chicken with Mushroom Sauce.

All I did was cook some pasta (I used spiral pasta), drain and lay into a greased baking dish. Stir through the mushroom sauce and add the cooked diced chicken, sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese, cook in the oven until the cheese is brown and crusty. So easy when you have everything ready. If you wanted to make this dish from scratch then here is the recipe. This recipe would probably feed about 4 people.

Ingredients

  • 300g chicken breast, cooked and diced
  • Chicken Seasoning/Season All (Whatever you prefer to season with)
  • salt
  • half a packet of pasta (your choice)
  • mozzarella cheese, shredded

For the sauce
  • 300ml thickened cream
  • 200g mushrooms, sliced
  • chicken stock powder (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon cornflour/flour
  • salt/pepper

Method

1. Cook the chicken according to preference and dice. Either pan fry/grill or boil it. I think pan frying is the tastiest but probably not the healthiest.

2.
Make the sauce by sauteing mushrooms in some oil, when the mushrooms have softened remove them from the pan, into a bowl and stir through some cornflour or flour until the mushrooms absorb and look gluggly. Add cream back into the same pan, place the mushrooms back in, add in your seasoning. Simmer until sauce thickens.

3. Cook pasta and drain.

4. Grease baking dish, add chicken, sauce and pasta and mix through. Sprinkle genouroulsy with mozeralla cheese and cook in the oven until the top is golden brown and crusty.

5. Serve with salad.

Notes

You could omit the chicken if you didn't have any on hand.

October 15, 2008

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce




Ingredients
  • 1kg chicken breast, thinly sliced
  • Chicken Seasoning/Season All (Whatever you prefer to season with)
  • oil, salt

For the sauce
  • 600ml thickened cream
  • 400g mushrooms, sliced
  • chicken stock powder (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons cornflour/flour
  • salt/pepper
Method

1. Cook the chicken according to preference. Either pan fry/grill it. I think pan frying is the tastiest but probably not the healthiest.

2.
Make the sauce by sauteing mushrooms in some oil, when the mushrooms have softened remove them from the pan, into a bowl and stir through some cornflour or flour until the mushrooms absorb and look gluggly. Add cream back into the same pan, place the mushrooms back in, add in your seasoning. Simmer until sauce thickens.

3. Serve with some rice and/or salad.


Notes

If you have any leftovers, you can make chicken and mushroom pasta bake.

October 14, 2008

Tahini Cookies




I had some Tahini left in the fridge that was annoying me, I came across this recipe from the Devletsah website and it was so simple I had to try it. These cookies are the melt in your mouth type, I enjoyed eating them because they don't contain any butter/margarine, so it seemed a little healthier than the usual shortbread type cookies.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Tahini (sesame seed paste)
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 1 cup oil
  • 25g Vanillin Sugar
  • 1 cup walnut pieces (cut into smaller chunks)
  • 4.5 cups plain flour

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together and form a soft dough

2. Rest the dough for 10 minutes under a wet tea towel

3. Divide dough into small balls, roll and flatten

4. Place cookies on a greased tray and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes. Until it looks golden brown

5. Dust with icing sugar whilst warm.
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