Corn Fritters (gluten free)

I love long weekends. I particularly love extra long weekends! I also love breakfast. During my working week breakfast is fast and dirty as I fly out the door to make it to the train on time. Toast, perhaps a smoothie if I am feeling particularly energetic. (My favourite smoothie - one banana, a handful each of frozen berries and spinach, and about half a cup of coconut water or enough to make it a consistency you're happy with. Delicious!)

So long weekends give me the opportunity to indulge in breakfast. And this long Easter weekend, indulge I did. 

I started with corn fritters. I love corn fritters. I read an article by a well-known chef the other day who said that you wouldn't really serve corn fritters to adults, they are really a dish for children. Hmm, well this adult disagrees. So it seems do all the cafes that serve corn fritters! 

One of the brilliant things is the variety of condiments you can serve with corn fritters! As kids we always, always had corn fritters with Worcestershire sauce. That's what my parents did, so that's what we did. Worcestershire  is a delicious accompaniment, something about the salty, tangy zing it adds. But, so many other things also work, right down to good old tomato sauce. My favourites are a spicy chilli sauce, fruity chutney and plum sauce. 

So, here is my recipe for gluten free corn fritters. If you don't want or need them gluten free, just substitute the flour for regular flour. 

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

2 eggs, separated

1/2 - 3/4 cup gluten free flour (I used a mixture of tapioca flour, corn flour and corn starch) 

1 tsp gluten free baking powder 

1/4 cup milk

Salt and pepper

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until they are stiff. Put the egg yolks, corn and baking powder in another bowl and mix. While you are stirring the corn mixture, gradually add the milk and flour to make a thick batter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir through half the egg whites until well mixed, then add the remaining egg whites. You should end up with a smooth, pourable batter. 

Heat oil in a frying pan on a gentle heat and cook spoonfuls of the mixture until the fritters are golden brown, flip and cook until golden on the other side. Don't let the pan get too hot, you want to make sure the mixture cooks right through. 

Serve with you favourite sauce, sit back, relax and enjoy the long weekend! 

 

Quick and easy dinners

You know those nights when you need something nourishing quick - either you can't be bothered or you're coming or going from the gym or a meeting. You need dinner and you need it fast. This week I had two of those nights. I had the added issue that we have not been shopping for a while so our cupboards are looking rather bare. Here are two of my quick and easy dinners.

First, my Throw it all in the pot pasta. The title says it all and I make this quite often. Whatever I can dredge up from the bottom of my fridge's vege drawer goes in. Pasta like this can be a bit boring, so it's important to make sure it has a flavour punch. I did this by whizzing up a quick pesto - I use basil, cashews, chilli, parmesan, garlic and olive oil. If you can't be bothered making pesto, other flavour punches can simply be added by using chilli, garlic and lots of fresh herbs such as parsley.

So, to make the pasta I got my frying pan going with some oil and fried some chilli and garlic. In went mushrooms, corn, peas and broccoli heads. To speed up the cooking time I threw the broccoli stalks in with my boiling pasta. When the pasta was done, I simply drained the whole lot and threw it in with the rest of the veges. I had some leftover chicken, so in that went too. I mixed the whole lot together with most of the pesto and some of the pasta cooking water to make it a bit saucy. I topped it off with some pesto and, in true Jamie Oliver style, "olive oil drizzled from a height". Done.  

Although it's a bit of a funny colour, don't be put off because this next dish tastes amazing. This is my version of Tom Yum Soup.  Note I say my version, I have no idea what authentic Tom Yum Soup tastes like, but this does the trick for me. It's super quick, easy and only uses one pot!

You will need: ginger (chopped finely), lemongrass, a tomato, mushrooms, green veges, capsicum, Nam Prick Pao (a Thai chilli paste that you can pick up from an Asian grocery store), fish sauce, lemon juice, corriander and prawns.

Put 3 cups of water into a pot. Add a 2 teaspoons each of the ginger and lemongrass and bring to the boil. Add a chopped tomato, a handful of chopped mushrooms, some chopped beans (or whatever green veges you have), half a chopped capsicum and 4 tablespoons of Nam Prick Pao. Let that bubble away for about 10 minutes and then add a handful of rice vermicelli noodles. When the noodles are almost done, add about 200g of prawns. Boil until the prawns are cooked, or warmed through if they are precooked. Don't overcook your prawns! Remove from the heat and one tablespoon of fish sauce, some chopped corriander and the juice of a lemon.  
This will serve two for a hearty dinner. You won't be disappointed.

Sticky date pudding with caramel rum sauce

My darling partner often has to watch as I whip up some baking and trot off somewhere with it (usually work), only to return with crumbs. So when I was musing about what I could bake on a relaxing Sunday afternoon and he suggested sticky date pudding, I couldn't disagree. I had a craving for caramel and wanted to experiment with making rum caramel. And what goes more perfectly with sticky date pudding than caramel sauce!

I have a gorgeous sticky date pudding recipe, it really is the best. Never fail, deliciously moist and moreish. It's one of those fantastic recipes that I have cut out of a newspaper many years ago and sellotaped into a recipe notebook. I return to it time and again.

I like making them as little individual cakes - using a giant muffin tin.

1 cup of pitted dates, chopped
1 cup hot water
50g butter
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs

Pop the dates and water into a microwave bowl and microwave for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the butter and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda and spices into a bowl and stir in the brown sugar.

Add the eggs to the cooled date mixture and mix well. Fold in the dry mixture.

Pour into muffin tins or a 23cm cake tin and bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes for the muffins or 30 minutes for the cake. Leave them to stand for 5 minutes or so before you turn them out - this helps them keep their shape. They are best served warm - they will heat beautifully in the microwave.

This time I made it as a cake, just cos.

I smothered it in rum caramel sauce, mmmm. I just made a simple caramel (a cheat's caramel, not a melt sugar and make sure you don't burn it caramel) and added a good slosh of rum. I love rum. There are tons of recipes online for easy caramel sauce, I would recommend on like this.

You could add sultanas to this recipe if they are your thing, just use a few less dates and make sure you soak them or you will end up with a dry cake.

Yummo

Quinoa

I discovered today that 2013 is the United Nations International Year of Quinoa. I am amused that the UN has declared this, but there you go.

Anyway, Quinoa is amazing. However, not everyone knows what quinoa is, let alone how delicious it is. I need to fix that, everyone should be able to share in this deliciousness! As an added bonus quinoa is also ridiculously good for you! It's packed full of important nutrients (fiber, iron, calcium and protein) and gluten free. In my opinion, it can do no wrong!

You can buy it from the supermarket, or the bulk bins at Bin Inn and Common Sense Organics in Wellington also sells it. In the supermarket I usually find it either in the gluten free section, or the organic/'other' section. I think the supermarkets are still trying to find a real home for it.

Quinoa looks a bit like couscous, but the grains are a bit smaller, and a bit more uniformally round. It comes brown, red or black. Brown is much more common, and usually the cheapest I have found.

It is super easy to cook. You simply put two parts liquid (water or stock) to one part quinoa, bring it to the boil and then simmer. Done. As simple as that! I usually allow a 1/4 cup per person of dried qunioa. However I always cook more as it is perfect for lunch the next day.

Adding stock gives the quinoa flavour - like couscous, quinoa has very little flavour on its own, it's up to you to pack it full of tastiness.

This is a mixture of cooked red, black and brown quinoa.

With this lot I made a scrumptious salad for dinner the other night. I cooked the qunioa in chicken stock and then while it was still warm I added a whole bunch of chopped vege and herbs - fresh sweetcorn, beans, celery, capsicum, mint and parsley. I dressed my salad with lemon juice, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Simple and delicious.

I served it still slightly warm, but it was still delicious for lunch two days later.

I seriously recommend you try quinoa. You won't regret it. My workmate just gave me a book of 365 days of qunioa, so I hope to be able to share more quinoa ideas with you shortly.

Barbie Cake

I made a cake the other day for a 5th birthday party. The birthday girl loves Barbie and the colour purple, so her Mum asked for a purple Barbie cake :-)

I made a chocolate cake and sandwiched the layers together with raspberry jam.

I made the yellow 'flowers' that I used to decorate the cake, and I sprinkled over lots of edible glitter to make Barbie sparkle.

Apparently the birthday girl loved it, so I was thrilled.

Courtney's Wedding Cake

My very good friend Courtney got married recently and I was honoured to be asked to make her cake. Courtney's theme was red and yellow and she wanted cupcakes, and a cake. I thought I would go through my process for making the cake (for simplicity, I'm calling it a "cake") as it was a precision mission!

Firstly, flavours. Courtney's husband-to-be loves banana cake, so that was the cake flavour sorted. I suggested a lemon cream cheese icing as I think that's a great combination. For the cupcakes, chocolate with a buttercream icing, half yellow and half red. There were around 100 people at the wedding, so we decided on 60 cupcakes and two banana cakes. As I made a cutting cake for display, the banana cakes were just left out the back and were cut up at dessert time.

I sat down with my recipes and worked out the quantities I would need. Turned out I needed over 11kg of ingredients!

To make things easier for me, and to speed everything up on baking day, I measured everything out into individual quantities and bagged it all up. It took about an hour, but it was well worth the effort. It meant I could go through and make sure I had enough of everything and that I didn't miss anything out (easy to forget something crucial like baking powder when you are a bit stressed - and I knew I would be feeling a little under pressure - wedding cakes are a big deal!)

Because of all the prep I had done, baking was actually very stress-free and everything went to plan. I certainly had a production line going!

My next challenge was to transport everything two hours away to the wedding venue! I was so paranoid about someone rear-ending me!

Courtney had arranged for a couple of figurines to be made for the top of the display cake (reflecting the occupations of the bride and groom) - they were pretty cute! These were put on top of the cutting cake - a banana cake that I covered with white fondant and attached a ribbon to.

I was so pleased with how everything turned out, and most importantly, so was the bride! She didn't see the finished result until she walked into the reception venue, so I must admit I was nervously awaiting her arrival!

One of the biggest thrills for me was watching people take photos of my cake! The temptation on the faces of the children present was pretty funny - I guess the bright cupcakes looked pretty enticing if you're only 3!

All in all, I am calling this one a success! The cake looked great and the wedding was wonderful.

Chicken soup

I have been feeling very sorry for myself these last few days, suffering from some sort of nasty cold. The only thing I felt like eating on Thursday was chicken soup. I'm not sure why, but that's all my head felt that my stomach could handle.

Naturally I had few of the ingredients necessary to make chicken soup in my house (most importantly, chicken). Luckily, I have a wonderfully obliging partner who called in to the supermarket on his way home from work armed with a list of ingredients needed.

My chicken soup was a raging success, if I do say so myself. It hit the spot, and I credit it with my speedy recovery (although resting and drinking lots of fluids may also have something to do with it).

So, here's how to make my chicken soup. This made enough for dinner and lunch the next day for the two of us. You will need:
Garlic - I used about five chopped cloves as I wanted it super-garlic infused
A finely diced carrot (plus another half a carrot I had lounging about in the fridge)
A tin of whole kernel corn (or fresh corn if it's in season)
1L of chick stock
Three bone-in chicken thighs (skin removed)
Frozen peas (I didn't measure them - probably about half a cup)
Two handfuls of dried rice noodles broken into small bits
Salt, pepper, parsley, thyme

What to do:
Gently fry the carrots and garlic until softened. Add the chicken thighs and just give them a quick fry to give them some colour. Add the stock and herbs. The liquid should cover the meat - if not, just add a bit of water. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 40 minutes - until the chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken onto a plate and let it cool a bit. While it's cooling, add your corn, peas and rice noodles. Shred all your chicken off the bone, and add the meat back to the pot with some more fresh herbs. Taste and season to your liking.

Some notes: If you don't like thigh meat, or bones, you could use chicken breast. Although, I think thigh meat gives much better flavour and is less likely to dry out.
I don't eat onion, but if you do, I'd throw a finely diced onion in there too. Finely diced celery would also be a tasty addition.

Ahhh, how good does that look. Deliciously comforting.