Saturday 31 May 2014

Sour Cream


Put 300ml pure cream in a 300g glass jar such as an old coconut oil jar. Add 1 ½ tbsp of natural active yoghurt. Put the lid on and shake. Put in an easy yo maker and fill with very hot water. Change the water every 8 hours and let it ferment for 24 hours. Taste every so often until it is the flavour that you like, you can let it go over 24 hours if you wanted more sourness. You can do this in a dehydrator, thermi or I have seen people do this in the oven just using the oven light on. Have also seen this with a heat pack and wrapped in a blanket and put in an esky. Heat the heatpack every few hours. The colder the temp is the longer this will take. You can of course use an electric yoghurt maker. The easy yo you can buy at the supermarket for $20. This should turn out really thick just like store brought sour cream!











If you want to make yoghurt the instructions are the same but you use whole milk. I like to make ½ milk and ½ cream for a richer yoghurt. Still use 1 ½ tbsp. of starter yoghurt to 1 cup approx. of milk/cream.






Lamb, zucchini and feta rissoles

Serves 6

Ingredients
500g lamb mine
2 zucchinis, grated, squeeze out excess juice
150g greek feta or other crumbly feta, 1 cm dice

Method

Knead the mince until it is sticky, this is what binds the mince together. Then add your zucchini and feta, mix through and season well with salt and pepper. Form into 6 rissoles and fry off in a large pan for 3- 4 minutes each side or until your liking. Sere up with extra veg or salad..


Chicken Tikka


Chicken tikka- done in the slow cooker, full of indian spice, if you have tried my butter chicken recipe you will like this too!

You can use as a marinade for your chicken and bbq or roast or use as I have done as a curry. Why not make your taste buds dance
Thank you, come again!

I served this with millet. Millet is gluten free and is technically a seed. Millet is a good source of the minerals copper, phosphorus, manganese, and magnesium. Millet is thought to have originated in North Africa, specifically in Ethiopia, where it has been consumed since prehistoric times. There is even mention of millet in the Bible as an ingredient for unleavened bread. Millet is still an extremely important food staple in many Africa countries.




Tikka masala paste

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

Thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons garam masala

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons tomato purée

Small bunch of fresh coriander

1 tablespoon desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons ground almonds

Optional 1-2 red chillies

Spices for toasting: These are dry fried in a small pan for about a minute until fragrant

1 teaspoon cumin seeds / 1 teaspoon coriander seeds

Method

Blitz up until a smooth paste forms.


This can be used as a marinade enough for about 1 kg of meat such as chicken. I have used this as a curry and added 600g chicken thigh, 1 diced onion, 700ml of tomato passata and added a chunky dice of 1 large eggplant and 2 parsnips. You can use any veg you want such as sweet potato, zucchini, capsicum etc…put in your slow cooker for the day. I did have cream to use so I added that too, but you dont have to!




Thursday 22 May 2014

Chocolate chip muffins

Ingredients

1 cup almond pulp- this is what is leftover when you make almond milk
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp honey
100g melted butter
½ cup of chocolate chips- you could also use blueberries

Method
Preheat your oven to 180 c
 Grease your mini muffin tin really well or use paper/silicone liners.
Mix everything in a bowl and put into your mini muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes or until firm in the middle. If you use the bigger holes you will need to adjust the time, about 18-20 minutes. Makes 16 mini muffins. Store in an airtight container.






Thursday 8 May 2014

Orange blossom, cinnamon and honey poached pears with an almond and coconut custard.




Use 1 egg per 100 ml liquid- if you want to make 500ml use 5 eggs.

Almond and coconut custard

Ingredients
3 eggs
200ml almond milk
100ml coconut cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp of honey or maple etc or to taste

Method
In a medium pot heat your almond milk, coconut cream and vanilla. In a small bowl whisk your eggs, when the milk mix is hot (do not let it boil) pour slowly into your egg mix and whisk as you go, then pour back into your pot. Add your desired sweetener. Over a low heat keep stirring until it coats the back of a spoon, this does not take long. DO NOT LET IT GET TOO HOT! it will curdle. Then pour into your bowl through a strainer. Cool it a quick as you can to prevent it from continuing to cook. If you are not dairy free it's nice to put some cubes of butter in and whisk it in while its still hot.

Poached pears in orange blossom, cinnamon and honey
Ingredients
6 pears, peeled and quartered
1 tbsp orange blossom water- you can get this at the supermarket or deli's. You can leave it out if you dont have it.
¼ cup of honey
1 cinnamon stick, snap in half. Use both halves


Method

Place everything in a pot and put in just enough water to cover the pears. Simmer for about 15 minutes, the pears should be tender, test to see if a knife goes in easily. Take out and pour it all in a container. Keep in the fridge. With the leftover liquid you can use to poach more pears, just drink it, freeze in ice cubes and use for juices and smoothies etc… dont throw it away!