homemade wraps/tortillas

I first made this recipe when my eldest child was a baby.  I was planing on making burritos for dinner but discovered I didn’t have any tortillas, logically one might pop off to shops for the required ingredient, but one problem, my baby was asleep and as any parent knows one of the golden rules with a baby is don’t wake a sleeping baby.  Also even if I did wake him up I would have to load him in the car, drive to the supermarket, fight for a carpark at the supermarket, get him out the car, hope he didn’t cry or vomit in the supermarket, then load him back in the car and go home.  All for a packet of tortillas.  So I busted out this recipe and they worked really well.  

I’ve made them many many times since because I like the fact I know whats in them, and because my family loves them and asks for them often.

They’re also so good when you need to stretch the budget, not only are they cheap to make, but can be used to stretch leftovers.  Got some casserole left over that’s not quite enough for a meal?  Wrap it up in one of these wraps, they are really filling so you make a smaller serving of casserole etc stretch.  They also work well as a substitute for nann bread to.

The only thing I find with them as they are a bit hard to roll out andIi can never get them as thin as shop bought ones, but that’s ok, it just makes them more filling.

 

Tortillas/wraps recipe adapted from Destitute Gourmet by Sophie Gray

2 /12 cups of four

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 tbls oil

about 1 cup of warm water

 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a  bowl of mixer. add oil and mix using a dough hook.  Gradually add enough water to form a soft dough.  Kneed in mixer for a bout 2 minutes rf by hand on floured surface for about 5 mins.  

Allow the dough to rest I’ve left it between 5 mins and 1/2 and hour and its been fine. 

Divide dough into about 8 pieces, less if you want large tortillas more if you want smaller tortillas, and roll out, try to get them pretty thin and may about 20 cms across.  Its not the easiest dough tot roll out so you may not get it in a perfect circle shape that’s ok.

Spray a hot pan with oil and cook them for about 30-60 secs until they bubble and get brown spots on them, turn over and cook other side.  repeat with remaining tortillas, re oiling pan in between each one.  

If not eating straight away cover with lightly damp clean tea towel.

cookbooks and blogs of the moment

Anyone who’s been to my house knows I may have a slight problem with cookbooks.  Some may I have too many, to them I say pfft as if that’s possible.  

I thought I’d share a few I’m particularly enamored with right now, as well as a couple of blogs that I seem to be hitting up for recipes and ideas.

No surprise there’s a bit of a baking focus

Baking – from my house to yours by Dorrie Greenspan

The best way to describe this book is its baking porn, hundreds of baking recipes, she’s got, cakes, cookies, pies deserts and even breakfast sweets covered.  Beautiful photographs and recipes written in a really easy to follow way from a lady who worked on cookbooks with Julia Child.  Everything I’ve made from this book has worked perfectly.

Women’s Weekly Baking Day
Who doesn’t own a Women’s Weekly cooking book? This one has a bit of a focus on retro baking recipes and some more modern classics and has a very cute cover.  Cute pics and most importantly easy to follow recipes that work.

The Blue Ribbon Cookbook  -by Liz Harfull

A lovely collection on recipes that have won blue ribbons at South Australian country shows.  The recipes are as delightful as is reading about the history of various country shows and people behind the recipes.  Lovely historical and current photographs.

I’m also a bit addicted to reading cooking/food blogs. At the moment a couple of my go to blogs include

Bakeaholic Mama
Lovely blogger who posts always look delicious. Lots of baking recipes with a few savoury ones thrown in too. I’m just itching to try her cider yeast doughnuts.

Shutterbean
Some fantastic recipes often with some unusual flavour combinations, that at first you might question. 2 of our favourite pizza topping combos come from her site, bacon and brussel sprouts and corn, zucchini and lime pizza. Gorgeous photos of not only her recipes but of her life. Everything I’ve made form her site has worked.

What are some of your current cookbook or blog reads?

My Granny’s vegetable soup

Hi, its a been a while.  Life and lack of time and inspiration have conspired against me blogging, but I’m back and hopefully can blog more regularly.

This post is my Granny’s vegetable soup.  My beautiful Granny passed away a few years ago just a few months short of her 90th Birthday.  To my knowledge she didn’t leave behind a folder full of her recipes, in fact I suspect she preferred reading and gardening to cooking, but like fact the teapot at my grandparents house was never allowed to be empty, in winter you couldn’t visit my grandparents without leaving with a container of Granny’s vegetable soup. I’m lucky and she shared her recipe with me, its yummy, filling, cheap and healthy and dead easy, Whenever I make it I’m transported back to my grandparents kitchen drinking endless cups of tea with them (or lemonade when I was younger)

 

All the quantities are approx and you can add more of 1 or 2 veggies if you like or omit others if you don’t have them (put don’t  skip the parsnip, turnips or swedes)

Granny’s vegetable soup

1/3-1/2 packet of yellow (not green) split peas (quantity depends on how much soup you are making and how thick you want it)

1 parsnip

1 turnips

1 swede

2 sticks celery

2 carrots

1 onion

2 potatoes

chunk of pumpkin

1 cup of frozen peas

Soak split peas overnight in water. Drain put in saucepan cover with lots of water, bring to boil, then simmer for about an hour.  You wan the peas to be quite soft.  Skim of any foam that rises to the top

While the peas are simmering, chop all the vegetables except the frozen peas.  You don’t wan’t them chopped too finely nor do you wan’t them particularly chunky, just make sure they are all about the same size.

Once the split peas are cooked, drain them then pop in soup pot and cover by a  few centimeters with water. You can either grab a potato masher and kind of mash them up or take about 1/2 the water peas mix and blend it up, then pop back with rest of the peas.  If you had a stab mixer you could probably use that ( I don’t so I use the blender).  What you want is a lumpy thick yellow split pea mixture.  Then put your all your veggies but the frozen peas in.  Bring to boil, simmer until veggies are nearly done, then put in frozen peas. Simmer until all veggies are cooked.

Serve with parsley.

This soup makes a large amount and keeps for a few days. It also freezes really well. 

Asparagus Tart

On a whim last week I bought a bunch of Asparagus. I went to the supermarket for something else and of course bought more than was on my list including a bunch of Asparagus.

Once I got home I got season shopping guilt. Sure the sign said it was from Australia but was it really? I mean Asparagus is usually in season in spring and here it is the middle of Autumn. And if it was from Australia where in Australia did it come from , what sort of food miles were involved.

Once I had thoroughly over thought the matter I pondered what to make with the asparagus. I rather liked the idea of roasting it but couldn’t find much info on doing that so I settled on a tart, which given I adore puff pastry was fine for me.

Asparagus Tart – adapted from Joy the Baker

about 1/2 bunch asparagus (I ended up using 7 spears)
large handful of grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
balsamic vinegar
1 sheet puff pastry
olive oil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
defrost sheet of puff pastry
while puff pastry is defrosting trim asparagus spears
beat egg
cut defrosted puff pastry to a size just bigger than asparagus, brush with egg and sprinkle 1/2 the parmesan cheese on pastry
then lay asparagus over the top then top with remaining parmesan cheese, drizzle over some olive oil
bake until pastry is golden and puffed and asparagus is cooked through
drizzle balsamic vinegar of the top,
Enjoy

Saturday is for pancakes, Sunday is for bacon and eggs

I love on the weekends having time to make a really nice big breakfast, most people who know me know that in our household pancakes rule the breakfast choices on Saturday. But Sunday, well Sunday is for bacon and eggs.

One Sunday recently we sat down for bacon and eggs and assorted accompaniments and I looked at the plate and started to think about what makes the perfect bacon and egg breakfast.

Obliviously it starts with the bacon. Good quality Australian bacon is a MUST. My butcher does pretty good bacon, all made on site, the rashes are not too thin and not to thick and taste amazing. The only flaw is that they are short cut bacon rashes and my husband in particular misses the crispy fattiness of the middle bacon rashes.

Eggs well it’s a given they should be free range, and free range as in really free range, not oh look we meet some flimsy guidelines so can stamp free range on the carton, but ones that come from a farm that actually give their chickens access to free range. We are lucky that we have our own chickens who give us the best eggs. How you cook the eggs is up to you, we prefer to have ours scrambled. Usually I whisk up some eggs with a bit of cream, melt some butter in a saucepan, add eggs and stir with via wooden spoon till done. I’ve even been known the add in some pesto and fetta too.

Tomatoes, now some people grill this or fry them up, but I prefer to drizzle them in olive oil and sprinkle some fresh basil on them and roast them. Obliviously if you are doing whole or even halved tomatoes this takes a bit of time and planning, but I’m not an organised person so usually just throw some cherry tomatoes in the oven as they roast in no time.

For me spinach is a must (for husband it’s a avoid at all costs). Fav way to cook it for breakfast is to sauté it in butter and an whole garlic clove (discard garlic when serving)

And lastly there needs to be toast. Preferably thick cut sourdough toast, with butter, real proper fantastic tasting butter. Others in the family also put things like, honey, jam vegemite etc. on their toast. Not me, when it comes to bacon and eggs I like it with just plain butter.

Others might add sausages or mushroom or even a has brown and I’ve been known to add corn fritter to the list of things on the plate. But what’s above well I think that makes a pretty perfect bacon and egg breakfast.

Champagne Ice Cream

I love champagne, there I’ve said it.

Maybe it’s clichéd, lady in her mid 30’s loving champagne, but it’s quite hard to find a bad champagne. Don’t get me wrong there are some average ones out there, but hardly any I’d class as bad. Plus it’s so celebratory drinking it. Perfect for so many occasions, catching up with friends, tick, enjoying pre dinner drinks, tick, Christmas day drinks, tick.

Last year before Christmas I became obsessed with the idea of making champagne ice cream. I had it in my head would go well with Christmas pudding. So after a fair few attempts (some ending in scrambled eggs) I made a good batch, taste tested it on my work colleagues, then made some for Christmas day, where I served it up with the Christmas pudding and……..

It went amazingly well with Christmas pudding.

There’s just one thing about the champagne ice cream, it requires 1/2 cup of champagne, this leaves an awful lot of a bottle left over. I’m sure like me you don’t want to waste it, so enjoy the rest of the champagne whilst the ice cream is chilling.

Champagne Ice Cream – adapted from Gourmet Traveller

1/12 cups cream

1/2 cup champagne (like most things related to cooking and wine, don’t use anything too cheap and nasty)

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

Combine cream and champagne in a sauce pan and just being to boil.

Meanwhile whisk egg yolks and sugar in bowl sitting over simmering water, whisk until pale and creamy.

Add eggs and sugar mixture to cream and champagne mixture. Whisk to combine. Heat over a medium heat, stirring with spoon, unlit thickened and coating back of spoon. Be careful with this as if you take it too far, it will scramble the eggs in the mixture.

one thickened put into bowl (not glass or ceramic) and put bowl into cold water and stir for a couple of minutes (you want to cool it down and prevent further cooking).

Once mixture is no longer hot, pop into fridge until cold. then churn in ice cream maker, if you don’t have an ice cream maker, that’s ok just beat it with beater, op in freezer 30 min, then beat again, repeat 3-4 times. Freeze until fully frozen.

Serve with Christmas pudding, Enjoy.

Part of the Sweet Adventure Blog Hop Sweets For Santa Hosted by the Hungry Australian

375 ml (1½ cups)	pouring cream
125 ml (½ cup)	Champagne
4	egg yolks
110 gm (½ cup)	caster sugar

Pear and Vanilla Vodka Granita with Sweetend Lemon Scented Cream

A while ago on the Sundays with Joy facebook group they made espresso granita with sweet lemon cream. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t like coffee, so I really didn’t want to make it as well its coffee flavoured. However I did play around and make granita based on a cocktail I had recently had. At the time I didn’t blog about it as it was the middle of winter and I had a couple of other posts on the go.

Well Summer’s got off to an early start here, cue ridiculous heat and some humidity. So I thought it might be time to revisit it. Its prefect for summer as its cold, icy and refreshing. It’s also really really really easy to make. You are pretty much mixing a few liquid ingredients, freezing then topping with some whipped cream sweetened with lemon infused sugar.

It’d be a delightful dinner party desert and its easy put sounds really fancy.

I’m giving you a recipe but I suggested tasting it and adding more of less of the ingredients to taste

2 types of vodka (winner) plus the always fancy sounding elderflower cordial are amongst the ingredients

Pear and Vanilla Vodka Granita with sweetened lemon scented cream recipe adapted from Joy The Baker Cook Book

2 cups warm water

70ml of pear vodka

30ml of vanilla vodka

50 ml elderflower cordial

30ml lemon juice

1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups cream

3 tbls sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

In a glass bowl dissolve sugar in water, leave to cool for a bit

Add vodkas, elderflower cordial and lemon juice, mix taste and adjust if required.

Put in freezer, after 1 hour take out and scrape and break up with a fork (what you don’t want to happen is for it to freeze into a solid mass, which is probably unlikely with all the vodka), put back in freezer. After 30 mins take out and scrap with fork again. Leave 3-4 hours until frozen into flaky crystals.

Once it’s all frozen  and flaky, it can stay like this for a few day.

When ready to serve, put sugar into mortar and pestle with lemon zest, lightly pound together to release oils form lemon.

Whipped cream for 1 min, then add sugar, keep whipping until peaks form.

fill glasses with granita, and top with dollop of lemon scented cream.

Enjoy on a hot night.

Strawberry and Tim Tam Cheescake

Ok quiz time

What do you get when you cross strawberries, cheesecake and tim tams?

Answer – something utterly delicious that you need to make ASAP (if this was not your answer I’m not sure I can help you).

Today’s offering of a strawberry tim tam cheesecake is not only delicious but utterly easy.

for the base you need 2 ingredients

for the filling just these ingredients

and we are pretty much doing a bit of food processor magic and letting it set. Easy right

Strawberry and Tim Tam Cheesecake

250g Tim Tams (a packet its only 200g so you’ll need 2 packets which will dangerously leave you with most of a packet left over)

2 tbls melted butter

250g Cream Cheese at room temp
1 Punnet of strawberries (you could use raspberries etc although if I were using raspberries I’m inclined to think you’d use the white choc tim tams)
1/3 Cup sugar
300ml thickened cream
1 1/2 tbls of Gelatine
3 tbls of hot water

In a food processor blend biscuits until fine crumbs are formed add butter and process until mixture kinda forms a ball. Press into a springform tin ( I used a 23cm one but I think a slightly smaller one would be better as you’d get a slightly thicker base and higher filling), refrigerate.

Process strawberries and sugar till well mixed, adding cream cheese and blend till smooth.

Sprinkle gelatine over hot water and whisk with a fork until dissolved. Process into the mixture in small quantities (if you add it all in at once into mixture it won’t disperse as well and you’ll get gelatinous chunks, this I found out form experience)

Add thickened cream and process until combined.
Pour over base and refrigerate until set.

Eat with others as dangerously good if alone you’d probably eat more than respectable

Part of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop -Berry Nice to Meet You hosted by The Hungry Australian

Sausage Rolls

Everyone can make sausage rolls right, there an Australian classic? Yeah maybe not me. Up until now I’d tried several times to make them with varying degrees of failure. At hearing this people just look at me like I’m crazy and tell me “but they are sausage rolls, they’re so easy to make”.

Based on a conversation like this I set myself a mission to successfully make sausage rolls. I put the call out for hints, tips and recipes for making them and people gave me loads of advice and recipes.

So now I had the problem of lots of recipes. In the end I went with 3 recipes, thinking that at least 1 of them would work out

Guess what they all worked out!!!!

Ingrediants at the ready

The first one I selected was one a delightful colleague at work gave me. it seemed pretty basic, 500g sausage meat, tomato sauce, onion, garlic, herbs and bread crumbs tolled up in puff pastry. How’d it taste? pretty good

The second one was the famed recipe of a friend’s mother. It was pretty basic 500g combination of beef mince and sausage meat, onion, garlic and some dried thyme rolled in puff pastry. How’d it taste? again pretty good

The third one was the Annabel Langbein’s lamb, rosemary and apple sausage rolls. How’d these taste we these were the winners (only just).

Lamb, rosemary and Apple Sausage Rolls recipe adapted from Annabel Laingbein’s The Free Range Cook

400g lamb mince

250g sausage meat

1 apple unpeeled and grated

2 eggs

1 small onion grated

1 clove crushed garlic

2 tbsp. chopped parsley

1/2 tsp chopped rosemary

1 tsp tomato sauce

2 sheets frozen puff pastry defrosted

preheat oven to 200 C

combine lamb mince, sausage meat, apple, onion, 1 egg, garlic, parsley, rosemary and tomato sauce in a bowl (I just used my hands to mix it all up).

Place mixture along one side of puff pastry roll up to enclose the filling.. I basically just putt filling along one side then rolled it up in whole sheet.

Cut into desired sizes, make a couple of slashes on top of each sausage roll.  Beat remaining egg and brush on top of each sausage roll.

Put onto oven tray and into oven and bake for 35 mins or until golden (which if you have an oven like mine is closer to an hour). They release a bit of fat/liquid soak this up about 10 mins before they are ready to let them really crisp up.

Then eat and enjoy. I also froze these and they defrosted and reheated in the oven really well.

Caramelised Onion and Feta Tart

The tart in the photos was made for a farewell morning tea for a colleague. I’ve worked with her for over 11 years and will miss her knowledge and her willingness to share that knowledge and I’ll also miss her on a personal level.

We had one of my workplace’s famous morning teas to farewell her. Unlike most of my colleagues who are sweet tooths she has a savoury tooth. For that reason instead of making a cake or other sweet baked good I made a caramelised onion and feta tart

This tarts amazing, it has to be as its pushed my incredibly popular spinach dip out the way in most requested thing I make. it sends people into a eating frenzy

Make this and people will be requesting you make it over and over. But that’s ok because it’s so delicious

Lets make us a tart

all of this makes the caramelised onion

and all of this makes the pastry

pastry plus caramlised onions = tasty tasty

Caramelised Onion and Feta Tart – recipe adapted from the Free Range Cook by Annabel Langbein

Caramelised Onions

6 red onions cut into thin wedges

375ml water

100gbrown sugar

75ml balsamic vinegar

2tbsp oil

1/2 tsp salt

Place all the ingredients into a large pot and bring to the boil then simmer gently, stirring now and then, for about 1 hour until the liquid has all but evaporated and the onions are very soft. It important to keep a close eye on it towards the end to make sure the onions don’t catch and burn/

Remove from the heat and cool before popping into a container and storing in the fridge.

Pastry – you can use puff pastry instead, but this pastry is really yummy
250g strong white flour the stuff you might use of making bread
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
220g frozen butter grated
4tbsp cold water

To make the pastry, mix the flour and baking powder in food processor.

Add the grated butter and process in bursts until it resembles rough crumbs.

Add the cold water a bit at a time until you have a soft dough, Try not to over work the dough otherwise the pastry will end up tough.
Place a large sheet of baking paper on your work surface and tip the dough onto it. Place another sheet of baking Roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of baking paper until you have about a 35cm circle.

Leave between the baking paper put on a baking tray. Chill in the fridge for min 10 minutes or until ready to use.

Filling
Caramelised Onions (recipe above)
150g feta cheese
2tsp fresh thyme

Preheat your oven to 200C

Take the pastry from the fridge and remove the top layer of baking paper.

Spread the onions over the top leaving an approx. 4cm border all around.

Crumple the feta over the top and sprinkle with thyme.

Fold the pastry edges toward the centre to partially enclose the filling, I will look a little rustic, that’s ok.
Bake for 40 minutes or until pastry is golden and crispy.