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I scream, you scream, we all scream...
for ICE CREAM!! Look what we bought on the weekend!  Can't read the writing on it? It is a Cuisinart icecream maker. It's just the small one with 1.5L capacity and freezable bowl, but what's important is that it works!  We froze the bowl for a day and then started churning. I made one batch using the "basic" recipe (which is just milk, cream, sugar and vanilla) and 1 batch using the "premium" recipe which uses a custard mixture. I had some home-made strawberry sorbet sitting in the freezer so I tipped it into the bowl while it was churning and made strawberries and cream icecream with the basic batch. Both were delicious. The basic recipe is lighter than the premium recipe. Not lighter as in lower in fat - both contain the same amount of cream - but lighter in taste and texture. The premium recipe is definitely smoother and more well-rounded in flavour.  I wonder now why I waited this long to buy an icecream maker! Labels: cooking, icecream
My mother-in-law's spring rolls, with a twist
My mother-in-law makes the best springrolls on this planet. Honest to God, she does!
Last weekend I learned how to make them. So this week, I decided to give it a whirl. The recipe is simple enough.
The original recipe used spring onions, carrots and pork. I decided to add to the vegetable content and use chicken instead of pork as the pork mince at the butcher looked a little manky this morning.
My version of the recipe:
Ingredients:
500g minced chicken
1 medium carrot - grated
1 large zucchini - grated
salt
white pepper
5in square springroll wrappers
Put vegetables and meat in a food processor and process till well mixed. Sprinkle with a little salt and white pepper and process further.
Separate the spring roll wrappers a few at a time. Place teh unused skins under a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out.
Place a wrapper diagonally facing you. Place about a heaping teaspoonful meat mix on the lowest third of the wrapper. Pick up the corner closest to you and roll it upwards once, firmly encasing the meat mixture. Fold the two corners on the sides inwards and then continue rolling the bundle upwards. Lightly moisten the upper corner and stick it to the bundle.
In a medium pot, heat about 1 inch of peanut oil. Fry the springrolls a few at a time. Be careful not to overcrowd the pot as that will lower the oil temperature and the rolls will be oil logged. Fry till golden brown and drain on a wire rack or paper towel.
You can also use the same mix and shape it into nuggets. Lightly coat in breadcrumbs and pan fry till golden on both sides.
Absolutely delicious. Goes well with tomato sauce, sweet chili sauce or Vietnamese dipping sauce.
Labels: cooking, spring rolls
A sight for sore throats
Today we have a little man who woke up with a very sore throat. All day he has not been keen to eat, and by evening, not only was he hoarse and miserable, he was starting to run a temperature.
So for dinner I made seafood congee. For the uninitiated, congee is rice porridge - cooked by boiling up rice with lots and lots of water.
Ingredients:
1.5 cups rice
7 cups water
500g mixed boneless and shell-less seafood
A knob of ginger the size of your thumb - peeled
Soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil to taste
In a large pot, wash the rice. Then add 7 cups of water and the ginger and boil till the rice grains are soft (like porridge) and the water starchy. If you have a large rice cooker, you can do this in a rice cooker too.
In a bowl mix the seafood with about 1 tsp of soy sauce and a dash of white pepper.
When the rice congee is ready, keep it boiling and add the seafood mixture. Remove from heat and stir the seafood into the congee. Add soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil to taste.
If you like, you can garnish with chopped spring onions and coriander.
Labels: congee, cooking
mmmmm... caaaaaaake...
 Okay, so I am not very good at arranging pear slices.. but it was still very delicious, pears falling off the cake or not! The recipe is from taste.com.au - here. Be warned, this cake is NOT good for people on diet. It is tasty and more-ish. Very more-ish. See that shiny glossy caramel on top? That's brown sugar and butter. I told you it's not good for people on diet (unless it is a weight gain diet). Last Sunday, I went to Canberra with some friends to have a look at Wool Day at the Old Bus Depot Markets. I didn't end up buying any wool but instead came home with some very delicious dip, sweet sweet persimmons, goat's milk soap and some nuts... and a recipe for pear and almond upside-down cake. The girls were talking about it in the car and made it sound so delicious and easy, I could not help myself. So there you have it, hardly a week has passed and I have already made my first pear and almond cake. Not only that, I am already dreaming up variations.. persimmons, apples, peaches, apricots, quinces, and so many other varieties of fruits. I did not follow the recipe exactly, though. I did not have buttermilk in the house, and so I substituted with half a cup of yoghurt and half a cup of milk. Seems to have worked. The cake is lovely and moist. Despite reducing the sugar by a touch (and substituting with a little extra yoghurt), it is a touch too sweet for me and I will probably reduce the sugar content further next time. Maybe apples next time? Labels: cooking, pear cake
Cooking with Alex
It's fun cooking with Alex. It's slow as he wants a go at everything, but it's fun. I love seeing the obvious joy on his face when he is allowed to help. Alex loves being "helpful". If you ever need him to do anything, the best way to convince him to do it is probably by telling him that he would be very helpful if he did it , and most of the time he WILL do it right away! Last weekend, we made pasta. Alex helped me roll the pasta sheets out.  Then when the sheets were ready for cutting, he helped turn the handle to cut the pasta sheets while I fed it through.  After a lot of hard work from both of us..  Voila! Pasta!  Lots of it! Alex enjoyed the fruits of his labour that night. We had the pasta with a tomato based sauce cooked with some leftover baked ham.  Then last Tuesday, during the Australia day holiday, we stayed home and cooked some more. We made dumplings on that day. I wasn't sure how Alex could help, but he wanted to, so I gave him a lump of dough to play with.  He made a worm. He lso wanted to wrap some filling when I started filling the dumplings, but I did nto want him messing around iwth raw meat, so Chris gave him two macadamia nuts to use as filling. We should have taken a photo of his "dumplings" but sadly we didnt. We did, however, take a photo of my dumplings.  I was very proud of my dumplings. The pleating looked better as we went on. Practise makes perfect!  Well, not quite perfect, but they were very tasty! Oh, and on that day, we gave Alex my old camera. He likes taking photos but we really didn't want him messing around with our cameras and dropping them, so we figured that siince the old one was sitting around anyway, he could use it.  Like Father like son.. need I say more? :) Labels: Alex, cooking, dumplings, pasta
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