Cooking Fear: Vanilla Pannacotta

Do you have cooking fears? Those recipes that seem impossible or that ingredient that just seems to tricky. I had this with panna cotta.  It seems that my fear was unwarranted, this was possibly one of the easiest things I have ever made. I was inspired to go out of my comfort zone as this was the dessert for my boyfriend and I going away. That's right we will be departing Adelaide, Australia, a little town known as the city of churches, Farmers Union Ice coffee, Frucchocs and the Malls Balls to the bustling streets of Hanoi, Vietnam where we will be over landing through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali for 6 weeks! This will mean that posts will for a short time will not be any of my recipes but all the interesting and yummy food that we will be eating. 

Anyway, back to the food; the panna cotta was everything I wanted it to be creamy, silky and had a beautiful vanilla taste, it tasted incredibly refreshing and not heavy, despite being 99% cream. I paired it with cherries that I got at my local farmers market that morning. 

I trusted the recipe of the fantastic David Lebovitz

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of Heavy cream

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla paste/essence

4 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin

6 tables spoons of cold water

Grab a saucepan and combine the sugar and cream. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. I kept stirring throughout to not let the cream burn on the bottom of the saucepan. To check if the sugar was dissolved I stopped stirring for 30 seconds (to let the sugar settle) once I started stirring again I listened for any crunchy noises. If there wasn't then all your sugar is probably dissolved!

Stir in vanilla paste, sit mixture aside. 

In  a medium bowl pour cold water in and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. I also kept stirring my cream mixture during this time to avoid a skin from developing. 

There are two different ways of presenting the panna cotta. If you want to take the easy route which I totally did,  pour the cream mixture in pretty glasses and let it set (This can be left in the fridge for up to two days, or will set in about 2 hours). 

Now, if you want to be fancy: Spray the moulds with oil (non-tasting), then pour mixture in. When trying to get the panna cotta's out, run a knife around the edge of your mould, and slowly place the panna cotta on your plate. 

I served them with de-pitted cherries which I soaked in lemon juice and honey for an hour. 

Meat-bean Balls

Hands up if you have cravings. Most people crave the beautiful creaminess of chocolate or a sugar hit. I am not most people, I am a weirdo. Give me a plate of garlic sauce with hints of a yiros contents and I am a very happy woman. Give me some bacon, or cheese or anything that will had to my cholesterol level and I will have a fork, devouring it. Currently I'm on a serious sour cream hit. People I am not pregnant just designed to be fat. 

So what does a person do when you love garlic sauce but have less than a month to get into a bikini for a trip around Asia do. You make it healthy. Oh baby that sounds sacrilegious-  I mean this is so healthy that even personal trainers will shake their head and go OH NO YOU DIDN'T! Yes, yes I did.

You know what it still tastes freaking delicious, maybe even better than the fat one.

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

500g of lamb mince

1 handful of parsely

1 tablespoon of oregano

pinch of salt and pepper

1 tin of butter beans (can be chickpeas)

Recipe

Blender, Blender how I love thee, you make my life so much easier. Shh, I have been in exam study so I'm allowed to blabber.

Anyway, Drain your butter beans and dump them in the blender/food processor with the garlic and parsley. Combine the meat and the butter bean mixture (It will hold with no egg). Roll into little balls or even patties. Place in the refrigerator till chilled (about 30 minutes). Heat up pan with some oil, and fry in batches. The great thing about these is that they freeze very well. 

Enjoy and bask in the healthiness!

Oreo Brownies

I swear Mr. Personal trainer I do not generally eat so many oreos! I swear. I promise this is a one off, I had left over oreos from my brother's engagement. I promise these are left overs, there will be no more oreo recipes. My waistline will not expand anymore!

I have recently started to realise that I am growing up. Decisions are being made that will afect my life. After having 2 very bad days of rejections, decision and waistline issues. I decided to throw in the towel so to speak and make these for my leaving hospitality forever party. That's right, no more smelling like food or being nice to arrogant customers (Thankyou Mr for telling me I walk to loudly!). I will miss the nice ones though, like the lovely couple from the isle of White in merry olde England, the business men who were constantly asking about my degree, or even the little kiddies that used to give me kisses.

But, I need to move on. Also go to Asia in the mean time (future blog will explain).

I give you Oreo Brownies to solve your sorrows and to put a smile on your dile. Growing up ain't so bad as long as there is chocolate, I swear i'll run tomorrow.

RECIPE

Curtesy of the Nestle tin

150g melted butter

1 c baking cocoa

4 eggs

2 c brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla essence

3/4 c plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

20 whole oreo

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease with butter and line tin with baking paper. I used a 27cm x 18 cm tin.

Melt the butter fully and stir in cocoa. Let it cool down for ten minutes (when im really lazy I just skip this bit- but its worth it). Stir in the brown sugar and vanilla. 

Sift in the flour and baking powder together. Stir, until combined. 

Pour half the mixture in the tin and spread it to the edges. This is the delicious part, make sure that there are extra oreo's for this bit. Take the oreo's and place them on top of the mixture, you can either be neat or just chuck them in the middle. I used the neat method as it meant that every slice I cut got an Oreo.

Put the other half of the mixture on top of the oreo's, spreading the mixture and making sure to cover the oreo's with the batter.

Pop it in the oven for 35minute for undercooked fudgy brownies, 40-45 for cooked but still delicious brownies.

Wait until cooled to slice. 

Slap your boyfriend hand's when he tries to steal them. 

Ladies for a Day! Hilton Adelaide High Tea

I am the girl that likes to stay in pyjamas all day, sipping a cup of tea whilst watching one of my nerd shows. However sometimes I like to dress up and be a lady. I was fortunate to win a High Tea at the Hilton International Hotel through the Good Food and Wine Festival. It meant that five of my friends and I could dress up all nice and pretty and be ladies. According to my friend N, this means changing our names to Metsy and Betsy.

Overall, the High tea was an enjoyable experience. Would I of actually paid for it, all my friends and I agreed with no. Although everything was adequate, for $39 a head, I personally think you should be able to choose what you want on your high tea platters.

 I liked that I ate out of my comfort zone today, I tried caviar for the first time and pate. I must say, I think I am a girl of simpler tastes. There may have been a bee-line to the prosciutto- does anyone else just eat it out of the deli packet, maybe if the boccincini is in hand grabbing distance I will go between the two. Wow, my eating habits are mmm interesting. 

My favourite food from the High tea would have to be the strawberry and rose cake. It was light, fluffy and did not leave that heavy feeling that I feel from most cake. I think I am going to try and recreate this cake...Anyone work at the Hilton and want to get me the recipe? I'm serious, I'll pay you in cake. Not that cake though, that's mine. 

Now, a food blog wouldn't be right without some pretty pictures.

I just would like to say a quick hello to my wonderful lady friends that came to the High tea, you made my day and the burritos and frozen margheritas that we had afterwards were even more special. 

O-O-OREO! cheesecakes

Who doesn't like oreos's? Ok, if you say that you don't get of this page, I mean how can you not! You basically have permission to play with your food. Twist, Lick, Dunk!

These cupcakes also featured at my brother engagement. I loved the squeals of delight when people realised there was a whole oreo at the bottom. You hear me, a WHOLE OREO!!  Now, I have to admit, I am not a huge chocolate cheesecake fan, I would prefer a chocolate mousse, or just plain chocolate. FYI do not let me buy a jumbo bag of nestle chocolate chips, I have now gone to that stage where I don't have enough to actually make the intended chocolate chip cookies I was going to make. 

To the cheesecakes, make them,then you will make lots of friends. 

These cupcakes have been on the blogging scene for a while but I used this recipe from Handle the Heat. I did not change the recipe one bit, oh i might of added a few more oreos in the mixture..... there are left over oreos, save me!

These make 30-36 depending on cupcake patty pan size. 

Ingredients:

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, 16 coarsely chopped

Room temperature 1 kg of cream cheese, I used Philadelphia 

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, 

1 cup sour cream

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 135 degrees (I was surprised about how low this was, but apparently its some cheesecake science). Fill each cupcake hole with a patty pan, then place a whole oreo cookies in each hole...this may include your mouth. I may have been using the one for the tin, one for the mouth technique. Total sugar high!

 Beat the cream cheese, making sure not to combine to much air into the mixture (they can explode- who knew!). Keep beating the mixture whilst gradually adding the sugar, and then the vanilla. Keep on beating whilst adding each egg make sure each one is incorporated before adding the next one. Then add sour cream and salt, and keep in beating! Time to stop that beating and stir in those cookie crumbs.

 Grab a big spoonful of cookie cheesecake mixture and feel each cupcake tin almost to the top. Bake for 22 minutes, TURN THE CHEESECAKES AROUND HALFWAY THROUGH (22 minutes). Cool the cheesecakes completely, then refrigerate for up to 4 hours (overnight is ok). Try to keep the cheesecakes in the cupcake containers till serving. 

Caramel Cake

Prepare to grab your cookie pants, this week I will be posting numerous desserts that I made for my brothers engagement party. Congratulations Allan and Emma! They are the cutest couple, so in love.  To see my brother love and care for one of the most wonderful girls in the world make me incredibly happy.

I feel sorry for Emma as I bombarded her with ideas, and she willingly agreed to most of them!

The flavour of the cake was a delicious caramel, which is my brothers favourite flavour.

As a very very novice cook, I was extremely scared to tackle a) the cake itself, and b) home made caramel! I like making cupcakes for a reason, they generally don't sink on me. Cakes are another story, they like to be evil and burn, or dry out, or sink to the size of a pancake. It was a very stressful few hours.  I searched the internet for hours and even did a trial cake on the boyfriends family.

The cake was a success! My brother, the extremely fussy health eater loved the cake! I have officially been hired as the wedding cake maker, although they are waiting for me to do a few cake decorating classes first.

I trusted the recipe from Annie Eats, Annie is a wonderful food blogger and she was the first food blog that I got addicted to. Her recipes have never failed me and she is my go-to girl for any recipe that I need. I converted her yellow cake into a caramel cake. 

INGREDIENTS

Caramel  cake:

1 cup room temperature unsalted butter

1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans

1½ cups cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1¾ cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp. caramel extract

1¼ cups milk

Caramel:

1/2 brown sugar

1/4 water

3 tblsp of milk

1 c icing sugar

Frosting:

500mL of thickened cream

4 tablespoons of caramel

METHOD

This recipe makes two 9 inch cakes, it is designed to be a layer cake. 

Fisrtly, preheat the oven to 180 degree, grease and line both your cake tins.

In a bowl, mix both flours, salt and baking powder. Blend the mixture well. 

If you have an electric mixer (you can use a hand held one, just prepare for the Arnie guns) combine the butter and sugar. For 4 minutes beat the butter and cream till light and fluffy, the mixture should turn a bit paler. 

Mix one egg at a time, making sure that each one is combined before you put the next one in.   Blend in the vanilla. 

 Turn mixer on low speed, in three alternate additions add the flour then the milk, keep beating.

Get a spoon and eat mixture...

 Or

Half the batter between the two cake tins. Now, this is when your own oven takes over, my cake took 40 minutes, however Annie's took 30-35. I find that if you open the oven before the 20 minutes mark the cake will sink-- so don't (I might of jumped on my dad when he tried to!) Insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is ready to eat!

Let the cake cool for 20 minutes and remove from tin. 

To make caramel, combine 1/2 brown sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Let the caramel go amber, it will slowly change colour, when hot add a dash of milk and stir. In the electric mixer beat in icing sugar, just let it going till icing sugar is combined. This will make the caramel extremely sweet, you can avoid this step if you want to maintain the caramel taste.  Let it stand till cool. 

To make the frosting, whip cream till stiff peaks forms. Slowly, fold in one tablespoon of caramel at a time. This is when your own personal taste come in. I wanted my cream to be quite pale, by adding the caramel which is quite dark you will change the colour. So add as much caramel as you like, this is taste and colour that you have to determine. 

When layering the cake, make sure that any concave bits are cut off, otherwise it will not sit well. On the top of the 1st cake spread a layer of caramel, and a layer of frosting. Place the second cake on top of it and spread frosting all over the cake. Do this as neatly or rustic as you like. Decorate to your liking.

 Place in refrigerator whilst waiting to serve. Or just get a fork, right now and eat it. It was soo good! 

Super Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

Did you know that I have been craving the smell and taste of apple and cinnamons. What is wrong with me, its bordering on the Australian summer. However, we are in that in-between area, I am desperately waiting for mangos to come in season and the bananas to drop in price still. I will seriously gorge myself on summer fruit and when stone fruit come in, I will be in state of constant bliss...

So these muffins are for those in-between periods. When you are waiting for something,  when the wind wants to gush cold air at you and when you need something quickly to eat.

I will tell you if you are not used to wholemeal flour, these muffins are dense, they are not as light and fluffy as white flour. However they make for a fantastic morning snack and breakfast. Furthermore the batter does not look good, but even ugly things deserve second chances.

They come through on a sweet, cinnamon apple flavour. The best thing about these muffins, is they make 24 muffins, and freeze great, just individually wrap one, zap it in the microwave and you have a quick snack that will get you through three-thirtyitis.

RECIPE

2 1/2 c of plain Wholemeal flour

1 c of oats

1 c of greek yogart

1 c of juice (orange, or apple)

3 tbls of cinnamon

1 tbls of all spice

1/2 c honey (Make sure it's runny- heat it up in the microwave for 40 seconds)

2 eggs

2 tbls of baking powder

Stewed Apples

1/2 c of brown sugar

1/2 cups of water

3 apples (cut into small cubes)

Get one saucepan, plonk the brown sugar and water, stir and let the sugar dissolve Add the apples, let them simmer down till all the liquid has absorbed, the apples should look a little sticky.

Let them cool down whilst you are making the mixture.

Preheat oven till 180 degrees, prepare cupcake pans, I will warn you these do not need muffin or patty pans, the mixture sticks to it :(

Add all the dry ingredients - flour, oats, cinnamon, all spice, baking powder and stir till combined. Use a spatula from now on and fold the ingredients- This will allow the muffins to be a little bit more airy. Add the juice, honey, yogart, juice, eggs. Fold ingredients together. Add the stewed apples, fold the mixture till combined.

Fill cupcake patty pans 3/4 full.  Cook for 15 minutes.

NOTE: Cooking times vary between ovens, cook till golden brown and the knife comes out clean.

Spread some butter and enjoy!

Adelaide Food and Wine Festival

I am a self-confessed food nerd. I love all thing food, wine and anything in between. So when I heard about the Adelaide Food and Wine festival coming to Adelaide, there was no stopping me. As soon as you arrive you are immediately met by smiles and a strange woman giving out coopers stratchies! FYI Coopers, thanks for the four free key rings and the two stubbie holders!

I had to immediately get my bearings, its a big venue, filled with many different components, from the giant celebrity venue to the wine and beer education lounge and the stalls upon stalls of lovely food and wine. Every stall that I went to I was utterly impressed with. The quality of food that Adelaide produces astounds me.

There were a few stand outs that I feel the need to point out. These stalls have not paid me in any way and this is my own personal opinion. I may be over dramatic with my description but that's the food nerd in me.

PANGKARRA

There website can be found here.

I love pasta, what I don't love is the increasing butt size. I was extremely fortunate to be able to taste a sampler of their wholegrain pasta, note the whole grain, not wholemeal factor. This pasta is extremely nutty. It should be the hero of this dish, so please for the love of god do not smother this beautiful, delicate pasta with a carbonara sauce. The ladies at the stall simply served it with garlic, oil and broccolini. Simple, delicious and I might of bought a packet. Whole grains I wanna kiss your butt friendly goodness.

HONEY LADY

Do you guys ever eat nutella out of a jar, you know that feeling of OMG this the sweet goodness I need. Well Honey lady and her honey's do that to me, it's liquid gold! I was so happy to see her at the show, she is a regular stall holder at the Adelaide showground markets and the Willunga markets, immediately upon seeing me she got out her cinnamon honey (Yep, she's my own personal Santa Claus) and gave me a tasting. I would like to say that  I have had many, many tastings of her honey's.

However, it's her cup gum honey that gets me. A honey that isn't sickly sweet, melts in your mouth with out leaving any residual bitterness that I personally find with raw honey. I bought the 700gram cup gum honey and have been looking up recipes to truly make this honey shine (secret recipe coming soon). Or, you can just make my wholemeal banana bread, because banana and honey are two best friends. Her facebook page can be located here. I implore you to go visit her at one of the markets though for generous tastings.

GELISTA

A day would not be complete without gelati. I love mango gelati, in the dead of winter it reminds me that summer is near and I can gorge myself on the beautiful summer fruits. Gelati makes me insanely happy, I tend to not really taste it but gulf it down. This beautiful stall had some wonderful passionate ladies who were just wanting to show their product through free samples. Hey, if they want to give me a free sample of gelati I will never say no. Oh, the gelati itself was creamy, it had that mango flavour punch and was extremely edible.

Other notable stores was Beerenburg, they had a fantastic 3 for $10 dollar sale on their products. The hardest part was choosing which ones to buy but we settled on the Blueberry jam,  Coopers Ale BBQ sauce and the Sticky Rib sauce. 

Mountain Fresh Juices, I am a big fan of their juices, I was lucky to try the apple and lemon juice that they are currently trying out. I can imagine this with some vodka and soda water. The perfect summer cocktail

LIQUEURS

I was surprised with the amount of liqueurs they had on offer at the show. Yes, I tasted them all, No, I cannot remember what half of them tasted like... I had a nice little buzz though. From memory, the flavours were:

St. Germaine- Elderflower, extremely good in a summer cocktail.

Pama- An amazing pomegranate liqueur that did not have that sickly red cordial taste.

Hypnotiq- I have to say I can't remember what this liqueur was, it was my last liqueur I tried. 

Also, the Coopers beer appreciation class was fantastic, for someone like me who has no clue about beers, I learnt a lot and really enjoyed the beers. Oh, the fact that there were six or seven coopers beers including there vintage ale kind of helped- Did I mention that was free.

The Vintage Ale was the best, although, I have know realised I love malt beer.

The coopers Bar was also a nice place to get away 

from all the hustle and bustle of the show. A mellow band was playing and you go to enjoy the wonderful beer, wine and food outside. Just a note on the food- this is what take-away should be. Healthy, fresh and one of the best burgers I ever had. The meat was juicy and succulent, the tomato and lettuce, was extremely crisp. They also had oysters on offer, but I was that full I had to split the burger.

This show was amazing, if you are going , Saturday 8th or Sunday 9th. Please visit the celebrity chefs, from what I heard they were funny and endearing. Manu will be there for you ladies, so just soak in his French accent. 

Butterfly Cupcakes

Who doesn't like cream and strawberry jam? Combine them with cupcakes and it's a party in your mouth. The combination makes me extremely happy in life. It also reminds me of when I was a child these would be THE cupcakes  to have! Sometimes, you have to remind yourself of the simple life. That when you have massive decisions to make, constant pressure and bad news, that you can make these cupcakes sit outside in the fresh air and remind yourself that these decisions are only a moment, and that's it. So, what did I do with the majority of these.Well, I am very fortunate to help out with a High tea for some lovely elderly ladies every month for St. John. It's great to listen to their wonderful stories, their knowledge and wise advice. I made these at the first high tea and I was asked to bring these again. A sign that these are a hit!

So eat a cupcake, and smile.  

This recipe is from Exclusively Food: Butterfly Cupcakes (Click on the link to get the recipe).

 I did not change the recipe one bit, the website also provides very detailed instructions on how to make and construct them. The only slight bit of difference is that I used fresh strawberries to create the body of the butterfly and they used jam. 

Wholemeal Banana Bread

If you are from Australia, you would know that banana prices have been around the $12 a kilo mark, something that makes me want to cry. Bananas and I are like lovers. I used to eat them everyday, twice a day. My favourite fruit without a doubt. My boyfriend hates them, which makes me love him more as I get to eat the whole bunch! He likes banana bread though...

Imaging my excitement, when I saw in the fruit shop mushy bananas reduced....rapidly reduced!

This banana bread is incredibly moist and light, however it fills you up and is bound to get you over the three-thirty blues. The great thing about this recipe is that it can be changed to suit your dietary requirements or likes. For example, you could add nuts or even chocolate chips. Today, cause I could I added passionfruit.

This banana bread has been changed from the original recipe which can be found here. As I said this recipe is incredibly versatile and can be adapted to include anything you like. Below is the basic recipe.


INGREDIENTS
2 cups of wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
3 lg very ripe bananas mashed
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of Honey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of natural yogart
zest of a lemon or an orange (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Butter a loaf tin.
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl together, mix till combine.
Add all the wet ingredients (This includes the banana and Honey).
Fold all the ingredients with a spatula.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin (It should go close to the top of the tin- don't worry it should go up and not over the tin).
Put it in the oven for 50 minutes.
To check if it is cooked insert a knife and if it comes out clean it is cooked, if not continue to cook for 5 minutes.
BEWARE: Because there is banana in this recipe, the knife may not come out completely clean.

Eggplant Chips

Procrastination I wish you were a degree, I would be getting HDs throughout. Many people when faced with a major assignment worth 50% of your grade due in ten days might just do some research on said topic. Not me, I  procastibake, it is where cooking becomes more important than studying. I think my family would wish I would clean when I'm procrastinating, honestly, I would much rather study if that's the case. 

These eggplant chips are amazing, extremely crispy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside. 

The perfect chip! They are baked and some say healthy, I say that they are so delicious that even when I was full to the point that my jeans were about to pop, I kept eating them.

Recipe sourced from All Recipes: Eggplant Chips

RECIPE

1 Eggplant (Sliced into strips)

A good splashing of oil

30grams of fresh breadcrumbs

1 clove of garlic (Crushed)

2 sprigs of fresh parsley (Chopped finely)

1 teaspoon of oregano

3 tablespoons of parmesan

1 egg

1 tablespoon of milk

Preheat oven to 180degrees.

Slice the eggplant into thick chips. 

Combine the breadcrumbs (I used stale rye bread and blitzed them). Throw in the parsely, garlic, oregano, and parmesan in a bowl and combine.

Get a bowl and crack the egg. Stir to break the egg up, add the milk and stir again.

This is the messy part: Dip the eggplant in the eggwash and then place it into the breadcrumb mixture. Now, the breadcrumbs might not hold onto the eggplant that well, but as long as there is some on then you should still get that nice crispiness to the chips. Once crumbed place them on an oven tray, or if you have a pizza crisper tray that works wonders!

Splash some olive oil over the chips, don't toss them as the crumbs will go loose

. 

Cook for around 25 minutes. You want the middle to be nice and soft and the outside crispy

Enjoy and serve with a burger!