Valentine Scones - raspberry and white chocolate

Valentines Day is not a big deal for E and me but we usually acknowledge it in some way. A little card or present. For me, it is an excuse to have fun with cooking. Yesterday I had decided to bake special Valentine raspberry and white chocolate scones before taking Sylvia to swimming lessons. We just made it on time for her lesson but I was glad of the scones so I could leave a little treat for E at home and take some to my parents.

I was delighted to find a recipe for raspberry and white chocolate scones that used cream and lemonade as I had another tub of cream in the fridge that needed using pronto. I had also decided to use some of my beetroot powder to make the scones pink and my heart shaped cookie cutters. After all, Valentines Day is the day for pink hearts.

I had fun tossing the raspberries in the flour mixture but regretted it later when they collapsed a bit because I had not put them in toward the end of the mixing the dough.

Cutting out the scones was tricky work because the dough was so sticky. I was going to take a photo of the dough laid out while I was doing this but I had too much muck on my fingers to even pick up the camera, and I was racing to get this done before going out to the pool. But you can see it made a mess of my cookie cutter and the chopping board that I use for kneading and cutting dough.

I didn't have time to brush the scones with a milk glaze as I usually do but I don't think it would have helped these brutish hearts. The scones came out of the oven looking less than pretty but tasted fantastic. Soft and pink, they weren't that sweet but for the white chocolate chips. It was probably just as well that we had to take Sylvia to swimming lessons or I might have been tempted to eat my way through the whole batch. Although that would have been some feat as the mixture made quite a few scones.

Instead Sylvia and I had a splash in the pool while E looked on. Afterwards we left E to go for a coffee at Andre's and we drove to visit my mum and dad. When we arrived, they were just finishing lunch with my dad's cousins and there was a fruit platter and orange cake on the table. Sylvia had a lovely time on my dad's lap eating grapes and pineapple. The cousins left and we had a late lunch. Then Susie arrived with her three girls and some delicious gluten free grubs that she had made with Arnotts rice cookie. Sylvia and Ella had fun playing with this little kitchen set.

The little girls were also into their crafting. My mum bought them some lengths of shiny coloured material. They had lots of fun making it into belts and hair scarfs. Maddy even cut a little piece off for Sylvia. E thought she looked like she had on a cravat (just like Matt Preston) when she got home.

However the great excitment was the new chickens that arrived yesterday to live in my mum's new hen house. There are four young ones and my mum had told my four nieces that they can name a chicken each. It was not easy to get a photo through the wire, especially with the four of them being scatty as anything. (I was going to say running about like headless chooks but that might be a bit insenstive!) They are still very young but Maddy, Grace and Ella thought they had already grown over night. I am sure they will be producing eggs in no time.

As for the scones, I got them out for afternoon tea. Both my mum and dad refused to try them without butter - they are so stuck in their ways - but loved them buttered. Maddy and Ella told me that they don't't like scones. I thought they were great on their own. E ate them plain like me until he was led astray by the bad example of my mum and dad. Even Sylvia enjoyed cramming a corner into her mouth. I had one with my lunch today and it was still good. I have never thought of using the lemonade and cream scone recipe to make flavoured scones but there's no looking back now.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Scones
Adapted from Michelle Cake Designs
Makes about 16-20

• 3 cups self raising flour (or plain flour and 6 tsp baking powder)
  
• 4 tsp beetroot powder (optional)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup (or a 250g bag) white chocolate chips
• 200ml cream
• 1 cup lemonade (eg schweppes) not diet
• 1 cup (or 125g punnet) frozen raspberries

Heat oven to 210 c. Grease a large baking tray or two small ones or use silicone non-stick mats to line tray(s).

Sift flour, beetroot powder (if using) and salt into a large mixing bowl. Mix in white choc chips. Mix the cream and lemonade together in a small to medium bowl - watch for the lemonade frothing up. Mix lemonade mixture into the flour and when it is almost mixed add in the raspberries. (I mixed my raspberries in before adding the liquid and it is not advisable if you want them to stay together.) I used a knife to mix to keep the mixture as light as possible.

Using well floured hands scrape the dough onto a floured surface. The dough will be very sticky. Knead briefly and then pat out into a circle of about 2cm thickness. Use a floured scone cutter to cut out (or pat circle onto a greased baking tray and marke wedges with a sharp floured knife). I found the dough very sticky to cut out and handle.

Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown on top and sound hollow when the bottom is tapped. Remove from tray and wrap in a clean tea towel until ready to eat. Best eaten warm or duing the day of baking but will be good the next day too. Good enough to eat plain or you can butter them or serve with cream and jam if desired.

On the Stereo:
ELO: the Collection: ELO

NCR Bann’s Parsnip Soup with Walnut Ravioli and Carrot Cream

A blog event, a chance meeting with a blogger in the street, a tub of unused cream and a memory of a very good meal in Scotland. What do they all have in common? They were inspiration for a very good meal at home this week.

Firstly I looked in amazement at Jacqueline’s theme of Copycat for this month’s No Croutons Required. This monthly blog event hosted by Lisa and Jacqueline focuses on soups and salads. I am used to themes like tomato, Indian, legumes. Not emotive themes that take me back to school days and playground rhymes such as this one:

Copy cat from Ballarat,
Went to school and got the strap .
Teacher said it wasn’t fair
Because he lost his underwear.

We would chant this to someone who was copying us at school. Copying was considered cheating rather than a compliment. Fast forward many years to the blogosphere where imitation is seen as the sincerest form of flattery. So much so that it is encouraged by blog events.

But Jacqueline was not just suggesting any sort of copying. Rather she was asking us to make a dish based on one from a favourite restaurant. Initially I couldn’t think of a meal I wanted to copy. Then I decided to think laterally. Jacqueline had suggested checking out menus online at favourite restaurants. The one I first thought of was David Bann, the wonderful vegetarian restaurant I visited in November on my trip to Scotland. I have already written about my visit.

So I went back to Bann’s menu online expecting to see ‘soup of the day’. I was delighted to see a dish called ‘Walnut tortellini and parsnip soup’. It even had a description: ‘Homemade pasta filled with toasted walnut and our own cheese curd, served with a lightly spiced parsnip soup and carrot puree’. I looked no further. This sounded wonderful. This would get me out of my soup rut.

Unfortunately I am not good at copying any recipe to the letter. I only looked at the website once before I wrote up this post. By the time I made it, the soup had morphed in my head. I didn’t know what David Bann’s soup looked like and by the time I finished I am not sure it was anything like it. However, it was fantastic inspiration.

Having eaten at Bann’s I thought it would be a rich and substantial soup. I then looked to my kitchen for further ideas. I had cream that I had bought for my birthday cake which was never used and suddenly had the useby date looming. We didn’t have any white wine but we had whisky, which seemed right for a Scottish soup. I wasn’t sure exactly what was meant by curd cheese. A chance meeting with Lisa found us talking about substituting tofu for cottage cheese in my favourite nut roast like Cindy had in her wonderful vegan sausage rolls. That made me think I should try using the tofu that was in my fridge rather than buying more food.

I decided it needed good home made stock and luckily I had some frozen vegetable scraps to make freezer stock. I was a bit heavy handed with the salt and was concerned that the addition of beetroot would make it too dark for the creamy colour of the parsnips but this wasn’t a problem, especially with the cream helping to lighten the colour.

I made this on my day at home while waiting for a tradesperson who never arrived. Though the bulk of the work happened once E was home from work while he watched Inspector Rex and Sylvia teased Zinc with a coathanger. (Ah domestic bliss!) As always dinner took longer than usual. The first night it tasted lovely but the ravioli were large and unwieldy and the presentation wasn’t up to scratch for fine dining in a restaurant.

To my delight, we had leftovers. Happily this fell on pasta night. (This week we managed a corny cottage cheese on toast with salad on pizza/bread night on Monday because I forgot to defrost the pizza dough, then salad and pudla on salad/soup night on Tuesday but on Friday yet again, I didn’t manage a rice night.)

I was even more pleased to have leftovers when Melbourne had storms on Thursday and it took a long time to drive Sylvia home from childcare. She had eaten her Mediterranean pasta bake for lunch so I gave her a simple dinner and sat beside her making up more ravioli. With less time needed to prepare dinner I could put a bit more effort into presentation. I decided to cut the wonton wrappers in half so they were smaller. I put the carrot cream into a ziplock bag and snipped off the end so I could pipe it into the dinner. Sylvia didn't eat any but was eager to help photograph it.

E thought the soup a bit thin but I loved this meal. As always, it is a great thing when a blog event challenges me to go outside my comfort zone and try something new. The key to the soup was generosity with honey, salt and cream, which seemed just what I would expect from a restaurant meal. Next time I would use less parsley but I needed some green with dinner. I think you could probably do without cream, use a different sweetener and some tofu to make it vegan. The ravioli were quite tasty and would give a simpler soup lots of flavour. However I would like to think that David Bann would have been proud of my version of his soup.

Bann’s Parsnip Soup with Walnut Ravioli and Carrot Cream
Inspired by David Bann
Serves 4

Parsnip Soup:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp whisky
• 700g parsnip, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 cups home made stock
• 2 cups water (or more stock)
• ¼ cup cream
  

Walnut Ravioli:

• ¼ cup walnuts
• 125g firm tofu
• ½ garlic clove, chopped
• ½ tsp mustard
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 8-10 wonton wrappers
  

Carrot Cream:

• 2 medium carrots
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp cream
  

Parsley to serve

To make soup: Fry onion in olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan until they are golden brown (about 5 minutes). Deglaze with whisky (ie stir whisky into the onions till they absorb all the liquid – it will be quick). Add parsnip, honey, and stock. Check seasoning. My stock was very salty so I watered it down with the 2 cups of water but if your stock was less intense you might substitute some more stock for water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until the parsnips are soft and tender. Add cream and blend with a hand held blender. While the soup is simmering, make the ravioli and carrot cream.

To make the ravioli: Place all ingredients except wonton wrappers in the food processor and blend. On a clean surface, place a wonton wrapper and cut in half. Roll a small ball of the walnut mixture and place in the middle of a half of the wrapper. Don’t make it too big or it will ooze out the sides. Have a small bowl of water to dip fingers or pastry brush into to dampen the edges of the wrapper. Fold in half and pinch edges together. Repeat with other half of wrapper and then with remaining wrappers. Have a large saucepan of boiling water and drop ravioli in. Cook in water for about 4-5 minutes. (On the first night I cooked ravioli in the simmering soup but the second night I just used some salted water.) Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside in a colander or on a plate.

To make carrot cream: Cook the carrots till very soft. (I peeled and thinly sliced mine – then I put them in a little water for 2 minutes in the microwave and then cooked them in salted water on the stovetop for another 10-15 minutes.). Mash with a fork and stir in honey and cream.

To assemble: Ladle some soup into a pasta bowl. Arrange ravioli in the bowl. Drizzle carrot cream over (I put mine into a plastic zip lock bag and snipped the corner off to pipe it into the soup). Then scatter with parsley.

On the stereo:
Beauty reaps the blood of solitude: Nature and Organisation

More baby food, more healthy muffins

It is a hot and muggy day and I have finally got Sylvia to sleep. So I have a little time to share another list with you, following on from the post on a week of firsts. This list is of Sylvia’s new experiences since that post. It is a little over a fortnight but is another impressive list.

I sometimes wish I could remember what it felt like to be a baby trying all these new foods, seeing new face, trying new things. It must feel amazing! Just watching the experience is fun. Here is the list, with some of the food you would have seen in recent posts:

Sylvia’s new experiences:

• Nut roast – we had nut roast at my birthday lunch and it made me very nervous to try giving some to Sylvia because there is so much we hear about nut allergies but she loved it. I was relieved that she can share nut roast with us because I love it so much.
• Chocolate cake – after my birthday lunch, I gave Sylvia little piece of chocolate mud cake. I was glad that I had left whisky and coffee out of the mix.
• Chocolate – while I made the above chocolate cake, a small piece of chocolate cake fell on the floor. I don’t know how it happened but I do know that I turned around and found Sylvia putting a piece of it in her mouth.
• Dead fly – don’t ask! I sweep the floor and it is amazing what she manages to find once I think it is clean. I am just glad she spat it out.
  
• Child care – Sylvia has her first days at child care last week. No tears from her or me. By all reports she was a good girl but is not so keen on their food.
• Tomato soup – her first taste of cooked tomato. She was not keen.
• Thai curry soup – begged for some of mine – I gave her carrot and tofu covered in the soup and she lapped it up.
• Banana, blackberry and strawberry smoothie – just a taste of mine and I let her dip her fingers in once but it seemed there was more on the high chair than in her stomach.
• Zucchini and rice burgers – she ate it but see Emergency Department.
• Strawberry yoghurt – she cried and cried and wouldn’t eat it – see Emergency Department
• Emergency department at the Royal Children’s Hospital – hope this is an experience we wont have to repeat too often. Still not sure if it was due to the egg in the zucchini and rice burgers or strawberry yoghurt because there was nothing in the meal she hadn’t had before but I suspect the strawberry yoghurt and am trying to keep her off dairy and eggs at home til we see a specialist.
• Crying for a bite of my cake in a café – Sylvia is so well behaved I don’t normally have to put up with such behaviour but I gave her a little bit partly because it was such a sturdy slice I knew she couldn’t bite off much.
• Rice vermicelli noodles – loved them.
• Plum jam – only a tiny bit. But I am glad her first jam was home made. I must post about it soon.
• Drinking from my glass – not much of it gets in her mouth but it makes me smile. Mostly she wants to dip her pudgy little fingers in the water and even drop food in it. Maybe she will be a scientist as she has already found that chopped tomato sinks and cucumber floats.
• Drinking from my water bottle - loves this too though most of it spills.
  
• Couscous – loved this mixed with chopped vegies, a bit of cumin, lemon juice and soy sauce plus some mushed peas and avocado.
• Carrot muffins – recipe below – she loved these.
• Being given food by a shopkeeper – the man in an Italian deli gave her a little wrapped chocolate to ‘make a mess with’. I had to eat it – she is too small. Honestly!
• Eating lunch on a chair rather than in a high chair – this is what they do in child care. I was a little worried but she doesn’t seem to have fallen off yet.
  
• Pizza - she wasn't keen.
  
• Pita bread – she ate this at child care (but refused vegetable rolls and vegetable chasseur).
• First attempt to hit guitar strings with clothes hanger – forbidden by her dad. He also is most displeased when he tries to play guitar and she jigs the neck up and down.
• Curry powder – I made us dal on the weekend with lots of vegetables and red lentils. I chopped all the vegetables and put them in a large stockpot and put a little curry powder in. Then I took a few large spoons of vegetables out for Sylvia to eat with rice. She loved it. E thinks it is the easiest meal he has fed to her. We had a lot more spice and seasoning in ours.
  
• Swimming lessons – she loves her baths but was not keen on going under the water in the pool. At least she was laughing by the end of the lesson.
• Lamington – after her swimming lesson we went to Andre's. She wanted a bit of what we were having. I gave her some lamington and she was fine. As I have said before, I don’t think the allergic reaction that landed her in the Emergency Department was due to egg. If you want to read more about lamingtons, go to Delicious Delicious Delicious to check out all the different takes on the traditional lamingtons people made for Mr P’s recent event.
• Chia bread – I know that chia is trendy when the local bakery starts making white bread with chia seeds. Sylvia had a try of the sample we were given and seemed to like it.
• Pudla – I made it last night along with some pumpkin hummus. She ate them both. See below for my baby-friendly versions.
• Falafel – she stuck her hands in my lunch today. I think she tasted some falafel but mostly saw her pull out lettuce.
• Gingerbread biscuits – I’d like to tell you these were home made but they were from a packet. However the Organix seems a good brand for kids. She loves them.
  

Now that Sylvia is eating more of the food we eat, I am modifying some recipes to be suitable for her. My mum tells me I can’t give her much in the way of sugar or salt. Every obedient, I am taking this into account. It can’t hurt us to reduce our intake of either.

Recently I made some carrot muffins, based on Ricki’s parsnip muffins. Her recipe are always healthy and delicious. I grated the carrot in front of the Australian Open tennis final, watching Andy Murray cry at defeat while Sylvia stood in front of the television and banged it with a little toy. I only used ¼ cup maple syrup and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, which seemed restrained. They didn't taste very sweet. E wanted them with icing, so I iced a few. I was pleased to see it was carrot cake day on the week I made them.

Mum said they had too much sugar for Sylvia. So I tried again but used apple puree instead of the maple syrup and sugar. This time they were barely sweet but full of fruit and I really enjoyed them. So did Sylvia. I would tear them up into chunks but she was quite happy to grab a chunk from a muffin if offered one. I suggested that E had them with cream cheese and jam rather than me icing any. I can’t remember if he did.

It is strange what Sylvia will love and what she rejects. I was surprised she didn’t want any tomato soup but lapped up the thai curry I was eating. She is not keen on cheese but love tofu tossed in a little soy yoghurt. Her favourite salad vegetable seems to be cucumber, which amazes E and I because we hated it as children. I also expected she would love the regular wheat pikelets I made and reject the strong tasting chickpea flour in pudla but again she surprised me.

I made some pudla for Sylvia last night. It was full of peas and pumpkin, which are among her favourite vegetables. She loved it. We ate the rest of them with salad for dinner. I topped them with some mashed pumpkin, beetroot chutney and yoghurt.

I also made more pumpkin hummus. E and I love this dip. I am always struggling for something to put on Sylvia’s bread. Peanut butter seems too risky. Promite seems to salty. Jam seems too sweet. Honey is dangerous for babies. Sylvia is not keen on cheese. I am so relieved at least she likes hummus.

I have modified it like the other recipes below. I left out cumin, parsley and spring onions because I didn’t have much energy. If not making it for Sylvia, I would probably put a little more soy in it. However, that is a small sacrifice to make so that I know she is eating good food.

Fruity carrot muffins
adapted from Diet Dessert and Dogs
makes 12 muffins

• finely grated zest and juice of one large orange (it should be about ½ cup juice)
• ¼ cup apple puree
• 1 medium very ripe banana, mashed
• 3-4 carrots (about 250g), grated
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 cup plain flour
• ½ cup wholemeal plain flour
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ¼ cup wheatgerm
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp bicarb soda
  

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Place zest, orange juice, apple puree and oil in a medium mixing bowl. Lightly whisk with a fork. Add flours, wheatgerm, spices, baking powder and bicarb soda. Mix until just combined. Spoon into muffin papers. You might want to smooth the tops a little as they don't smooth out much while baking. Bake for 30-35 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Pea and Pumpkin Pudla
adapted from my previous pudla post
makes 10-12

• ½ cup besan (chickpea flour)
• ¾ cup water
• ½ cup frozen peas, thawed in microwave and lightly mashed
• ½ cup mashed pumpkin
• 1 spring onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• squeeze of lemon juice
• oil for frying
  

Mix all ingredients together, except oil. Heat non stick frypan over medium heat. Add a little oil – use a silicone brush to spread about the pan. Drop dessertspoonfuls on hot surface and cook till mixture is starting to look cooked (drier rather than gooey). Flip over and they should be golden brown on the side facing up. Cook another minute or two until golden brown spots appear on the underside and the batter is cooked through.

Child-friendly Pumpkin Hummus
adapted from here and here
makes a couple of cups

• ¼ medium butternut pumpkin
• 400g tin of cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• ¾ cup tahini
• juice of 1½ medium lemons
• ½ clove garlic, finely chopped
  
• splash of tamari
  

Peel and chop pumpkin. Place in tub with a vent or a lid not quite on so there is room for steam to escape. Microwave for a few minutes until pumpkin is well cooked. Check every 30-60 seconds. Drain off any water that has been released from the pumpkin. Use a fork to roughly mash the pumpkin.

Place pumpkin and remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend. Add a splash of water if it is too thick.

Check seasoning and adjust to taste. You could also add some cumin, cayenne, parsley or spring onion, depending on whom you are making this for. It will keep in a tub in the fridge for a week or two.

On the Stereo:
Elastica: Elastica

Pizza for the Working Woman

Last week was my first week back at work for a year. This means huge changes to my eating habits. So I thought I would reflect on my meals, especially in the evening..

It is funny that we say we ‘return to work’ after being at home with children as though I have just been at home with lots of time to bake and blog without noticing the demands of a child. Ha ha, that is my little joke about how much I have got to blog while at home with Sylvia. Much more than I expected but I had to fit it around a lot of work that a baby requires, even if it is a labour of love.

Returning to the office was a challenge. I think I miss the time to prepare dinner but in reality, I often was busy with Sylvia and still not getting dinner ready till late. However, work in the office can exhaust me , especially when bookended by work at home looking after Sylvia. And I am lucky to have E to help out, unlike some mothers I know.

But E does not cook. We discussed meal preparation prior to last week. I need to keep it simple and not spend all night on extravagant meals inspired by blogging. So we have decided to try having loose themes for each night. Monday is pizza (or tortilla or bread), Tuesday is soup or salad, Wednesday I am not in the office and can make what I like, Thursday is pasta night and Friday is rice night. I hope these themes will also appeal to Sylvia, and help us make meals she can share with us. Of course we wont always stick to these but it might help me think about what to make when I am really tired.

So how did it go? On Sunday I did a large shopping expedition to make sure we had lots of fruit and veg, given that I couldn’t go for walks to the shops with Sylvia each day. We stuck fairly closely to the plan.

Monday is the day that E is home looking after Sylvia. I made pizza dough the night before and left it in the fridge overnight for a slow rise. When I got home from work the gluten looked quite stretchy but it tasted good. E helped with the toppings and Sylvia had a small taste but wasn’t keen. Both E and I loved it.

The recipe for pizza dough came from Maybelle’s Mom. It had wholemeal flour, wheat germ and mashed potato. I was keen to try the mashed potato as I love it in baking and this was no exception. We topped it with tomato pasta sauce, zucchini, mushroom, red capsicum, pineapple and cheese. I serve it with a simple rocket and tomato salad.

Tuesday was the day for soup or salad. I was inspired by Mangocheeks Thai Butternut Squash Soup to dig out my Thai curry paste. I wanted to follow her recipe but also wanted lots of veg and vermicelli noodles in it. It ended up looking nothing like it but tasted delicious.

Wednesday was the day I thought I would have lots of time for dinner but as usual was racing and ended up with an odd tofu scramble with creamed corn, peanuts, mushroom, tomato and rocket and Asian seasoning like san choy bau. It tasted good but I did look longingly at Sylvia’s noodles, tofu and veg.

Hence on Thursday for pasta night I made a veg, noodle and tofu dish. It was simply vegetables lightly fried in water, soy sauce, ketjup manis and lemon juice with some vermicelli and microwaved pumpkin thrown in at the last moment. It was even good for lunch the next day with a few chopped peanuts.

Finally on Friday I was too tired to cook. The rice night theme went out the window and I reheated some pasta stew from the freezer and put together a salad. I had intended to make dal but ddn’t have the energy. However as I had quite a few vegetables that I had intended to throw into it, I made it yesterday. It was handy when my sister Fran and her partner John came to babysit Sylvia last night and I could offer them dinner. We at at a 40th birthday party last night but will eat it tonight and another serve is in the freezer.

Not a bad week of eating. Less time is going into cooking and thinking about cooking but we are still eating decent meals. Below is the recipe for the pizza dough. I highly recommend it, even though I suspect my method is not quite orthodox. So it is going to Susan at Wild Yeast for Yeast Spotting. Now I am off to the shops for the coming week.

Wholemeal Mashed Potato Pizza Dough
Adapted from Maybelle’s Mom
Makes 4 medium pizzas or 2 large

2 cups mashed potatoes (just potatoes no salt or milk or butter)
1 tsp dried yeast in 1 cup warm water
3 cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup wheat germ
1 tsp salt
Extra white or wholemeal flour for kneading

Mix together all ingredients except extra flour. It will be a very sticky dough. Maybelle’s Mom did this in a stand mixer but I did it with a spoon and mixing bowl. Knead and gradually add in white flour til the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. (I kept adding flour for about 10 minutes but the dough was still sticky. I was tired of kneading so I just went on to the next step..

You can let it rise for an hour, punch it down and then let rise another hour.
OR
If you want to make it the night before using it, place in a greased bowl, cover with a damp teatowel and place in fridge overnight. In the morning punch it down and shape into a round ball. Cover again and return to the fridge until you are ready to make pizza at dinner time. My dough had very stretchy gluten strings by then but I think it was ok.

Punch down. Cut dough into 3 or 4 pieces. I only used one piece and put the other two in the freezer. Pull and push dough out into a round circle. Place on a greased pizza tray (or a warmed pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal) and arrange toppings on the pizza. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes at 240 C or until topping is golden and crispy and the dough is lightly browned.

On the stereo:
Winter Ruins: Shattered Hand & Strydwolf

Emergency Zucchini and Rice Burgers

Sylvia was going so well with her eating. Really truly. I am still not sure what went wrong but this time last week we were hanging about the Emergency Department of the Royal Children’s Hospital and wondering what had made her face swell so alarmingly. All I know is that it might have been these burgers but probably not, and even if it was, I was glad to have them to eat before running off to the hospital.

It had been such a pleasant day. Sylvia and I had been to the city. We had bought clothes for both of us and stopped at a café where I ate vegetarian sushi and Sylvia ate rice cakes in her pram. It was so lovely to sit at the pavement chairs and tables during the day out among leafy trees, cheeky birds and blue skies. Then I headed home, intending to feed Sylvia dinner and make pizza with E for our dinner.

My plans for making pizza went out the door as quickly as we did. The staff were very good at the hospital. Quick to see her, though it seems a follow up appointment will take much longer. We got home at 2am, glad to get to our own beds and even gladder that Sylvia’s face was looking slightly better. The next morning we kept looking at her face and asking ‘Do her lips look a little swollen still?’ or ‘Can you see traces of the rash around her lips lingering?’

It was a frustrating experience because I had made some burgers that I thought she was enjoying a little and I did not feed her anything that she had not tried before. The burgers were really good. I tore one up to put on Sylvia's plate and she helped herself to some of it. Maybe the egg reacted with her. My suspicions are on the strawberry yoghurt. But I am still keeping egg out of her diet for now. So the burgers that were intended to be put in the freezer for when I returned to work were suddenly off the menu.

It is a shame that she reacted when she did because the eggs were the ones from Kathleen’s chooks. I was all excited by them because there was a double yolker. It is ages since I cracked open an egg and found two yolks in it. Why don’t the eggs we buy have such wonderful surprises! Kathleen’s chooks gave me not one but two double yolkers. The second was in a nut roast that I threw together. Both burgers and nut roast used up the rice that I had intended to be a salad at my birthday lunch, as well as the backyard eggs.

I have swithered over whether to post the nut roast but it really was too good not to mention. I made it the following night to use up some failed tahini walnut balls and mashed veggies, as well as the remainder of the rice. I added a couple of eggs and grated a few carrots. This nut roast was excellent so I will give you an approximate recipe below. I loved the flavour of the tahini and the texture of the rice in it.

Sadly, nut roast with eggs also seemed too risky for Sylvia until we knew a bit more about any allergies she might have. I will tell you a bit more about her eating soon. But I recommend these burgers for small and big kids alike, allergies permitting. They are delicious with some chutney as a meal grabbed when running out the door, but I am sure they would also be lovely as finger food or a sit down meal.

Zucchini and Rice Burgers
from The Australian Women’s Weekly Vegetarian
makes about 10-12

1½ cups cooked brown rice (about ⅔ cup uncooked rice)
3 medium zucchini (about 360g), grated
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley (I probably used a bit more)
2 tsp seasoned pepper (I didn’t use much black pepper because I wasn’t sure if Sylvia would like it)
2 eggs
1 cup stale breadcrumbs
125g can of creamed corn
oil for cooking

Mix all ingredients except oil to make a thickish batter. Use hands to shape handfuls into burgers-shaped patties. Brush with oil and place under the grill to cook till golden brown on both sides. (This can take a while). NB the recipe said to fry in a frypan but I find it easier to fry under the grill (or broiler).

Tahini walnut roast
With inspiration from the Vegetarian Society

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
6floz/175ml tahini
6oz/175g walnuts crushed
¼ tsp cayenne
½ tsp coriander seeds. crushed
2 thick slices of wholemeal bread, finely grated
1-2 cups of cooked brown rice
about 1 cup of mashed vegies (I used a potato, pumpkin and white bean mash)
2 eggs
3 carrots, grated

Mix everything together and spoon into a silicone loaf tin (or a well greased and lined tin). Use the back of a spoon to smooth it down. Cook for about an hour at 180 C. It should be firm and starting to brown on top when it is ready. Stand for 10-15 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cook.

On the Stereo:
Illusia: Dark Lily

My Camera Birthday Cake

When I was looking for a new camera last year, I thought it would be nice to buy a green one. Unfortunately the camera that I wanted didn’t come in green. Luckily birthdays make everything possible and wishes come true. I decided that on my birthday this year I would have a green camera. A green camera birthday cake.

Actually, I first decided on a camera cake because my camera is so constantly in use with blogging and Sylvia. Green frosting seemed like fun as well as wish fulfillment. I usually make a walnut fudge cake for my birthday but this year seemed a good one for a novelty cake. However, with the rest of the preparation for the birthday lunch, my energy was limited. I looked on the web for some ideas. It had to be fairly easy so I preferred the camera flat on its back rather than standing up.

As my own camera is a Canon PowerShot SX110IS, I decided I would make one that looked a bit like it. Though the writing on it is so small that I didn’t even attempt to get that on the cake, just a few representative symbols. While it is not perfect (I miss the viewfinder), one of my favourite features is the flash only goes off when you flip it up rather than when the camera feels like it. Blogging has taught me the beauty of photos without the flash and this camera is so good that I rarely need to use the flash. In fact, if I need to use it, it is very dark and it is not worth taking a photos. This is all very well with food, which always stays still, but less easy with people especially babies who just keep moving. For every gorgeous picture of Sylvia, I have many blurred ones. Thank goodness for digital photography. Ah, bloggers love camera talk, and if you want more discussion on photography, check out this post by Melbourne Gastronome with all the comments. But I digress. Though I rarely use my flash, I chose to have a flash up on my cake because it helps represent a camera.

It was not my finest moment in cake decoration. I was so busy thinking “mmmm… green white chocolate cream cheese frosting”, that I didn’t do much further planning for decoration. Fortunately I forgot to buy cream cheese, and had to make a quick trip to the supermarket on the morning of decorating the cake. While I was there I decided to buy a packet of liquorice allsorts.

I did think about buying fruit leathers but couldn’t see any in green (why?), though there were ones with green stripes that I could have chopped up. Later I thought, if I had been more prepared I could have bought some coloured chocolate buttons from the Victoria Market. I love how liquorice looks but am not sure it is the right taste on the cake. I could have piped icing but was not sure I had the patience while watching Sylvia chase Zinc.

As it was, the frosting was delicious and was much easier to spread than the usual plain icing sugar and water with a little butter that I often use or the ganache I recently used. I was inspired by the white chocolate ganache on Dash’s airplane cake but wanted it to be less rich. I also decided to make mud cake, because it held its shape well for Dash’s cake. However, because there would be a few kids about, I decided to make it without alcohol.

It seemed a good decision to leave out the alcohol when I gave Sylvia a wee taste. I wasn’t sure she would take to the chocolate but she is her mother’s daughter and loved it. The other kids did too although Grace was not keen on her gf cake. Susie didn’t comment on the gf cake but did say how much she loved the frosting. The frosting was fantastic - even better than the white chocolate ganache - but the recipe made far more than I needed. I still have a couple of cups of it in the freezer.

Although the cake was enjoyed by everyone, small pieces were quite sufficient and we had a lot leftover. I confess I wasn’t too upset. It was delicious and I was pleased to still have some when my actual birthday came around. Below is what I did.

How to Make a Camera Cake

What you will need:

• 1 rectangular mud cake baked in a lamington tin (20 x 30 cm)
• 1 flatter 20cm diameter round mud cake
• 1 small gluten free mud cake, optional
• about 1½ to 2 cups of white chocolate cream cheese frosting

NB: See below for recipes for these

For decoration:

• liquorice allsorts and bullets

or

• green and brown chocolate buttons

or

• green and dark purple or red fruit leathers

• yellow sparkles
  

Cover a large oven tray with foil (or use a large cake platter or tray if you have one that is large enough). Place large rectangular cake on the tray.

Here is what I did – I took a ruler and measured a photo of a camera cake and then multiplied it to be about the same size as my cake. It helped me to work out the proportions. You could even measure your camera if you wanted the cake to look like it.

Take a ruler and measure the long side. Use a sharp knife to mark the flash at the top of the camera. It should be about 8cm wide, about 4 or 5 cm long, and be about 8 cm from the right edge of the cake. Before cutting, take the round cake and place it on top of the rectangular cake so that the flash is lined up with the centre of the cake. If this looks right, cut away the flash, if not move it so it does look right.

Once you have cut the flash, you should now cut the long off cuts to make a bar that is about 4 cm wide along the left side of the cake. It took me a bit of trimming the off cuts so that they all sat together uniformly.

Now check your decorations look right before you put on the icing. It took me a few goes to get mine right and is easier to do without the icing or frosting. I chopped off the green ends of liquorice allsorts but you could also use chocolate buttons or fruit leather or even pipe firm darker coloured icing. If I did it again I think I might go around the outline of the whole camera not just the flash and lens but this would have taken more planning so it depends on of you are reading this as you are about to decorate the cake or a week beforehand!

Use a pastry brush to brush away as many crumbs as possible. If desired you could sandwich the round cake onto the rectangular one with some frosting, but I don’t bother. Cover the cake with green frosting and smooth it over with a butter knife as much as you can.

Place your decorations on the cake. I used black liquorice to outline the flash and lens and then green to do swirls to represent the opening of the lens. I used yellow sparkles to fill the flash. I chopped up liquorice to make marks where there is writing on my camera. It doesn’t actually just say canon along the side but this was the easiest thing to write with liquorice. (Hey, if you want to try writing PowerShot SX110IS along the side, you are welcome – though in retrospect I think I might write SX110IS rather than a brandname.)

Finally ice and decorate your gluten free cake and place candles on it, if you are doing a gf cake. Now you are ready to display the cake to your guests.

Mud cake

330g butter, chopped
200g dark chocolate, chopped
1⅓ cup hot water
2⅔ cups sugar (I used both castor and raw sugars)
⅓ cup pomegranate juice
½ tbsp ground wattleseeds (or coffee granules)
2 cups plain flour
½ cup self raising flour
⅓ cup cocoa
3 eggs
1-2 tbsp gluten free flour and pinch of baking powder (optional)

White chocolate cream cheese frosting:
adapted from Fabulous Foods
makes about 3½ cups

750g cream cheese, at room temperature
180g white chocolate (I used Cadbury)
¼ cup butter, at room temperature
2½ cups icing sugar
food dye, optional

Grease and line a lamington tin and a 20cm round cake tin.. Preheat oven to 160ºC.

Combine butter, chocolate, water, sugar and cranberry juice in a large bowl and microwave til melted – it will be a watery speckled mixture but will be smooth once flour is in. Cool slightly. Sift in cocoa and stir in eggs.

If you would like a gluten free small cake for gf family and/or friends, take a small amount (about ¼ - ½ cup) of the mixture and place in a separate bowl. Mix in gf flour and baking powder. Pour into a small greased and lined cake tin – I use a ramekin but I have used muffin cups before. This will be the cake that the candles go on.

Now sift flours into remaining mixture. Mix til mixture is smooth but it will still be runny. Pour into prepared cake tins. The batter in the lamington tin should be twice as high as in the round tin.

Bake 40-50 minutes for the large cake and I think about 30 minutes for the round cake – mine was on a lower rack in the oven so it took a bit longer. Ditto for the small gluten free cake. Times will vary for each cake so check early to see if the middle is firming up quickly or not. Don’t worry too much if it is a little undercooked but for this cake you don’t want it sinking in the middle so test with a skewer in the middle to check it is cooked before removing from the oven. Cool for at least 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool or cool in the tin.

To make frosting:
Melt white chocolate in a large bowl together. Cool to lukewarm (I didn’t cool as much as I should have and had a few little lumps of white chocolate in my mixture). Rather than beat cream cheese and butter separately, I beat them with the melted white chocolate, using an electric beater. Gradually beat in icing sugar. Frosting will be quite fluffy and easy to spread.

On the Stereo:
The Love Songs of Burt Bacharach: Various Artists

Birthday lunch, noodle slice

Having a birthday on the week of Australia Day is a mixed blessing. It means that there is a public holiday that week but also that many friends are busy on the said holiday, especially if like me you decide on a casual get-together on the holiday only about a week beforehand. (You can see why I never manage to celebrate Burns Night on 25 January in the same week.) Despite such disorganisation, we had a great lunch to celebrate my birthday last Tuesday with friends and family.

I had decided it was a good year to hold a lunch while I was not working. I forgot just how busy it is with a baby. Despite good intentions, I never get as much done as I want. (Oh yes, I remember, that also happened before I had any babies!) I decided to make food the few days beforehand as some things keep well in the fridge.

On Sunday I made cheese and walnut loaf, pea pesto dip, and apricot and cheese balls (with some cranberries thrown in) plus a stew and some jam. On Monday I made pumpkin hummus (a bit like this dip but boiled pumpkin rather than roasted), mud cake, grubs, and noodle slice.

I was relying on many old favourite recipes but had been attracted by the noodle slice in the lastest SuperFood Ideas magazine. It required a bit of chopping vegetables but was easy and yummy. Unfortunately, I had thought it was gluten free until I noticed myself throwing in self raising flour. But there was plenty else for the GF sister and niece. The slice was easy to cut into neat squares and made great finger food.

I also had the lovely tomato and peach relish in the fridge (perfect for the noodle slice and nut roast), lots of vegetables, fruit and rice crackers. By Tuesday the house was still a mess, albeit slightly reduced, but at least it was packed with good food. We spent most of Tuesday morning cleaning. What couldn't be sorted by midday was unceremoniously dumped into the bedroom. Sylvia helped by having a sleep and I was relieved that the council emptied out bins on the public holiday.

By the time everyone arrived I was exhausted. More food and drink arrived with the guests. First to arrive were Kathleen, Michael and kids. They brought fresh eggs from the chooks in their backyard and some home made sourdough spelt bread with olives. This bread was amazing and I was only too sad to see how quickly it disappeared but I did manage to nab a piece. Kathleen set to work slicing up bread and nut roast. I cut up vegetables for the dips and made a quick lentil salad. I also cooked up lots of rice for a rice salad that I never managed to make, but Sylvia enjoyed having some of it with her lunch.

My parents, family and more friends soon arrived. My mum had made zucchini and feta balls (and remembered to put in gluten free flour unlike me) with a yoghurt dipping sauce. My sister, Fran, had brought bread and coleslaw. We ran out of room on the coffee table and started using the kitchen table. You can glimpse my birthday cake on the kitchen table but I will tell you more about that in a separate post.

I had been concerned that it would be unreasonably hot but the forecast 34 C never appeared. Instead we had a beautiful day of 24 C. Drinks were still very welcome. Water was a good option except when someone dropped hummus in it. Cold fizzy drinks always go down well, especially with the kids. Fortunately just as I was running out of ginger beer, Yavanna and Chris arrived with an armload of bottles of fizzy drink. We had beer in the fridge but sort of forgot about it. (Oh yes, most unAustralian but what do you expect of us who shun meat and bbqs on Australia Day.)

Here is my plate of savoury food. You can see the excellent texture on Kathleen's bread. After most people had had their full, we cleared the plates of savoury food onto the benches in the kitchen, for the latecomers to pick at, and we put out dessert. By then I had run out of time, energy and patience as you can see by the delightfully chaotic way I have piled up the fresh fruit. We also had grubs, apricot and cheese balls, little cakes (thanks Wendy), frerrer rocher (thanks Heather) and my mum's pav.

You can see the pavlova above on the right covered with crushed peppermint crisp. For those of you not familiar with peppermint crisp, it is covered with chocolate which is why there are chocolate shards as well as green peppermint. We all agreed it was the perfect patriotic dessert for Australia Day. It went quickly. I am not a huge pav fan but had a little piece for nostalgia's sake, and I do enjoy a little of it. My mum even brought it on one of the dinner plates she has had since we were kids. Ah, memories!

But I digress. Here is my dessert selection with another view of the lovely green birthday cake. I had to blow out the candles before we started eating the sweet food. It was probably one of the few quiet moments in the day. There were quite a few kids who had lots of fun running about our bedrooms and backyard. Ella and Rosie had a house under our desk at one stage until my mum told them (in the way that only a retired schoolteacher can) to go to Sylvia's room.

They had lots of fun with the toys in Sylvia's room, if the distribution of them over the floor was any indication. Cooper got upset by the little gate to the bathroom to stop Sylvia getting in, but was placated by a toy B2 (whom I am sure you would all know is one of the Bananas in Pyjamas!) Sylvia didn't do too much playing with the other kids because she was busy cuddling. Anyone who wanted to hold her wore my mum's beads as Sylvia was very keen on these. Meanwhile my little niece Grace was carrying our cat Zinc around like one of her dolls.

My family, as ever, was very helpful in keeping the house under control. I had been worried about having too many people in our small house but it worked very well. I saw my mum doing the dishes with my brother Andy drying at one stage and I think others also helped. It was lovely when the last guest left to have hardly any dishes to do or lunchtime mess to clean up.

We had loads of food leftover, which was just as well. I was tired after the preparation, so we were able to live on leftovers for a few days, including on my birthday when the dish I made was a disaster.

After everyone had gone, I gave Sylvia a little piece of chocolate cake and she gobbled it up. (Who wouldn't!) I breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't react to the egg. Then I got bolder and checked on this website that I could feed her ground nuts at her age, and fed her a little nut roast. She ate it up and I breathed another sigh of relief.


As for presents, it seemed to be the a birthday of cookbooks. I am still trawling through my new weighty tomes and loving them. Yav and Chris brought flowers, and as I have mentioned above, others brought food. Good company, good food and good books are just the thing for a happy birthday.

Zucchini and Noodle Slice
Adapted from SuperFood Ideas February 2010
serves 6 (or a crowd)

• 50g dried vermicelli
• 3 medium zucchini grated
• 2 small carrots, grated
• kernels of 1 corn cob
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 red capsicum, finely chopped
• 1 cup self raising flour
• ¾ cup grated tasty cheese
  
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup milk
  
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp umami plum vinegar

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and line a lamington tin (20 x 30cm).

Place noodles in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 10 minutes. Drain and use scissors to snip into shorter lengths. Cool.

Squeeze excess liquid from grated carrot and zucchin (I pressed them into a colander). Combine vegetables, flour, cheese and noodles in a mixing bowl. Use a fork to lightly whisk together eggs, milk, oil, soy sauce and vinegar in a small bowl or large jug. Pour into vegetable mixture and mix together.

Spread batter into prepared lamington tin and smooth with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20-25 minutes (I think I did mine for a bit longer but can't quite remember). It should be golden and springy in the middle. Stand for 20 minutes before serving or cut into squares and keep in the fridge for 2 days. It is a great nibble for parties, picnics and lunchboxes.

On the Stereo:
It: Pulp