Kitchen Therapy

Monthly Archives: January 2011


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Fresh From The Oven – Khrushchev Rolls

After I came across a recipe for Kiflice, I joined Fresh From the Oven.
A monthly baking group.

I was ready and excited to learn! You see, I love bread recipes but avoid them. Like the plague. Not sure why!
Habit?
Fear?
Yeast?
A habitual fear of yeast?!
Dunno…
Nevertheless, it was a habit and a fear I was prepared to face and work through!
Cos I love bread!
(Unlike my crazy fear of snakes that I have decided does not need to be addressed. Ever.)

Anyway…

The challenge was Khrushchev Rolls by Mushitza (click to see recipe).

I made the dough very late one night after another hectic, school holiday day at the beach with all the kids and their friends… (and that’s just half of them, the other half were riding the waterslides around the corner!)

After our 8 hour day at the beach we were exhausted.
However, I was determined to participate in this month’s challenge and psyched myself up to bake!
I began… and within minutes it was over!
The dough was made and resting in the fridge overnight!

I was thrilled with how easy it was and convinced myself I must have messed it up and surely missed something in my bleary eyed enthusiasm!

The next day I wasn’t expecting much.

My first batch I rolled around a thin beef sausage.

We ate these for lunch.
I put all the sauces out for the kids, who were happy to eat the ‘sausage rolls’.
I found that the sauce detracted from the wonderful taste of the bread!
The dough smelled amazing while baking and it tasted too good to hide under any sauce flavouring.

For the rest of the dough, I followed the cutting and rolling style of the Kiflice.

I filled half with crumbed goat’s feta…

And the rest with Nutella…

I rolled them up. Baked them…

And for such little effort what an amazing result.
I can’t recommend the flavour of the pastry enough.
The smell and taste was so good, the kids actually fought over them (especially the Nutella ones).

The following day we had a futsal gala day and my only regret was not making enough of these to feed the team.

And the younger sibling (supporters) that get dragged around to watch their older brothers!

With school around the corner, I will definitely be making batches of these rolls to put in lunch boxes and have ready for after school snacks.


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Chicken B’stilla

I love cookbooks! I love to read them, take in the photos and then stack them lovingly on the bookshelf, full of good intentions to return soon and often!

But if I’m to be honest, I don’t return soon enough or often enough. And if I’m to be really honest, when I decide to make something from one of my beloved books, it’s usually something I am comfortable with. You know… we all have our comfort zones. Our grooves… Okay! Our ruts! I admit it! As much as I like to think I’m open minded and expose myself to new experiences, my initial reaction is “play it safe!”

Now that’s no way to live life!

And that’s why I joined French Fridays With Dorie. I knew myself enough to know that I would follow through on a commitment and I would cook recipes that I would normally dismiss.
Recipes like this one!

A “sweetly spiced” chicken pie which has “as it does in Morocco, a dusting of cinnamon sugar over the crust.” Ummm… no thank you!

But I made a commitment…

So I found myself marinating the chicken in onions and spices.

 

Boiling and simmering ’till “falling-off-the-bone tender.” Then whisking, reducing and thickening some more.

 

Spooning into stacked and buttered filo sheets.

 

Then topping with some more stacked and buttered filo sheets before tucking the edges in “as though you were making a bed.”

 

Baking ’till golden brown and serving warm.

 

Yes, I skipped the dusting of cinnamon sugar on the top (what can I say?! I really wanted the kids and husband to eat it!).
I also skipped the almonds (my daughter is allergic).

The final result… everyone loved it! Even my 3 year old!

The only issue we had was that it was so rich and flavourful we couldn’t eat too much of it so I had to make sure we had other bits and pieces to fill up on.

Best of all… feeling amazingly good about myself for stepping out of my comfort zone!

Thanks French Fridays With Dorie!


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Australia Day Classic: Pavlova

What is more Australian than a BBQ and Pavlova?

I’ve made many (oh so many!) different pavlova recipes from a variety of books and magazines but have found the following works best.

Firstly, my recipe has 12 egg whites, it makes a decent sized pavlova. I wouldn’t even bother making a smaller size!

Once I’ve added all the caster sugar to the egg whites I let the Kitchen Aid mixer run for a good 10-15 mins, beating the mixture until it’s fairly glossy and firm.

Once it’s baked, I turn the oven off and open the door slightly and then leave it until it gets cold in the oven.

Most of the time I bake the shell the day or night before and decorate it with cream and fruit the next morning.

Ingredients:

12 Egg Whites

1 2/3 cups Caster Sugar

300g Thickened Cream

2 Tbsp soft icing sugar

1 Punnet Strawberries sliced

4 Kiwi Fruit diced

4 Passion Fruit

 

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees.

2. Whip egg whites until firm.

3. Add caster sugar a spoonful at a time until it has all been incorporated.

4. Set the Kitchen Aid at a speed of 6 (medium) and leave it! I walk away and check on how it’s going every few minutes. You want the mixture to be thick and glossy. (I’ve walked away and forgotten the mixture many times and have returned each time scared of over-beating, but it has never happened).

5. Pile the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

6. Place into oven and after about 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 120 degrees and cook for about 75-90 minutes.

7. I turn oven off after this time and open the oven door a fraction. I leave the pavlova in there until it goes cold (a few hours or overnight).

8. Once cold, I whip the thickened cream until stiff peaks form then add icing sugar.

9. Spread the whipped cream over the pavlova.

10. Scatter strawberries and kiwis on top then spoon passion fruit over pavlova.

ENJOY!


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Australia Day 2011: Dee Why Beach

We get up early and head down to Dee Why beach along with thousands of others.

It’s tradition.

Bacon and egg rolls, sausage sandwiches, swimming, cricket on the beach, BBQ’s and beer!

January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, commandeered 11 convict ships from Great Britain into Sydney Cove.

Today, we celebrate everything Australia stands for.

The outdoors, our beaches, our families, friends and community.

So, with the local band belting out AC/DC.

BBQ sauce dripping down our wrists.

And a killer rip dragging us like rag dolls into the surf so huge waves can spit us back out into the sand, we celebrate another Australia Day!




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Michel Rostang’s Double Chocolate Mousse Cake

Just joined French Fridays with Dorie! Very excited!

I’m kind of new to this whole blogging thing. However it didn’t take me long to find some amazing sites!

And even less time to work out what most of these guys had in common was an appreciation for Dorie Greenspan.

I have to admit I had never even heard of Dorie prior to this but after looking at pics of some of the amazing stuff being cooked from her books, I found myself eagerly awaiting my Amazon delivery of a few of her books!

So this is my first French Fridays post and I just discovered the Problems and Questions page which I read in retrospect.

I was lucky the one cake pan I had was exactly the right size and my cake didn’t leak!

And while I’ve been reading about the all the baking being done in snow storms and oohing and aahing over fairytale pics of snow-covered fields and trees, I forgot that I live on the Northern Beaches of Sydney Australia! Our 6 week summer school holidays are coming to an end with the kids back at school Jan 31st but most of our days are spent here…

Doing this…

You may be wondering what in the world I am on about!

What I’m trying to say is… it is hot down under in Oz!

So to complete this week’s recipe I started cooking after 9pm when the humidity and heat isn’t so bad (sometimes) and chose the option to chill it over night.

I was up and baking the rest of the cake at 6am the next morning before another full day at Manly Beach and the water slides!

The kids were exhausted and famished after another 10am-5pm beach day so they devoured the cake.

The final verdict was “delicious!” from myself and my 10-year-old son, while my husband and 13-year-old daughter thought it needed to be more sweet!? (Each to their own I guess!)

Thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this week’s event and I found that while participation is voluntary having some accountability and a set day and time to complete the recipe by, motivated me into action.

Have been enjoying reading all the other posts on Michel Rostang’s Double Chocolate Mousse Cake at French Fridays With Dorie!

And loving the snow pics, but still stopping to appreciate this…

The Aussie summer and Manly Beach at dusk!




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Tasmania Day 1 (Part 1): Launceston and the Tamar Valley Resort

As the plane descended into Launceston my husband, Emily (13 and jumping above) and

Todd (10) strained their necks to look out of the tiny plane window. They took in the the endless, rolling, green hills with a random farm house scattered here and there. They all turned to me and said in awed wonder “Where the hell did you take us?!’

“We flew over a town back there! Seriously!” I defended my choice of holiday destination.

They weren’t really complaining I realised, just slightly concerned and bewildered about about finding food and lodgings amongst so much emptiness!

After a short wait, we were told our rental car was going to be upgraded from a full size sedan to a full size sports model. And in no time at all my husband was loving the empty freeways that he could “play” on with his new toy!

Launceston was a short 15 minute drive from the airport and our accommodation, the Tamar Valley Resort, was another 10 or so minutes after that.


Seriously, this place is real!
I was half expecting to see the Griswold’s kitted out in their Bavarian slap-dancing polka outfits strolling through the putt putt golf course!

Our two room lake-view cottage was picture perfect and newly refurbished (so we were happy to overlook the fact we weren’t on the lake along with the paper thin construction of dwelling until we froze our arses off the first night there).

However all was forgotten when the kids discovered the jumping pillow.

And putt putt golf, kayaks, paddle boats and trikes.

The Tamar Valley Resort was a bit out of the way however I think it’s part of being in Tasmania. There is a lot of empty space, as long as you have access to a car though, it’s really no issue as the roads are pretty good and empty!

Overall, a pretty good choice of accommodation for a family staying a few days in Launceston and a great start to our Tassie vacation!