Recipe Thirty Four: Viennese Orange Kisses

It has been the best long weekend.

Miss MT came to stay.

We played with the dog, braided our hair, sewed a Totoro, played some more with the dog, watched movies, hung out in the hammock, wiggled our toes in the grass, went bowling...

and we also made Viennese Orange Kisses.

Viennese Orange Kisses

• 220 g butter
• ½ cup icing sugar
• The finely grated rind of one large orange
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 cup plain flour
• ½ cup self raising flour
• icing sugar , extra

Orange Cream

• 60 g butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice from your now rind-less orange,
• orange food coloring

Preheat oven to 180C

Cream butter, sifted icing sugar and rind till fluffy, Add cornflour and beat in well. Add sifted flours 1/2 at a time beating well between each addition.

Place dough in the fridge for 5 minutes.

Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until 4mm thick and then return to the fridge for another five minutes.

Cut heart shapes and remove excess dough. Bake for 8 minutes.

Make your orange cream by beating the butter until pale, add the icing sugar, juice from your orange and food colour and beat until combined

Sandwich cookies together in pairs with orange cream filling, dust with icing sugar.

*I wasn't able to get my hands on Mum's cookbook so I used the same recipe from HERE.

xx

Recipe Thirty Three: Pear, Almond and Coconut Crumble.

It's no secret I am far from a fan of summer.

I could give you a list of reasons as long as my arm but instead I'll keep it short & give you the most relevant:

Winter food is better.

When Tuesday arrived with some ever so slightly wintery conditions I was pretty thrilled and immediately grabbed my umbrella and headed out. On my travels I picked up some typically 'wintery foods' namely: casserole beef and pears.

On the flip side my body also noticed the suddenly cooler, wetter temperatures and immediately gave me a slighty fever, aching bones and terrible asthma. Go figure.

Anyhow, I made a stew (more about that tomorrow) and finished it off with this amazing Pear, Almond and Coconut crumble. A perfect way to greet grey whether and an oncoming flu!

Pear, Almond and Coconut Crumble

4 ripe pears, cored and sliced.
1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

1/2 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of shredded coconut
1/4 cup of flaked almonds
1/4 cup of brown sugar
3 tablespoons of plain flour
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of demerara sugar
60gms of butter, slightly softened.


Pre-heat your oven to 180C
Place your pears in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with the caster sugar.
In a large bowl combine all other ingredients but butter.
Now rub in your butter. The best way I can describe this action is that you push the mixture between the pad of your thumb & along the pads of your other fingers.
Once your mixture is full of small clumps pile it onto of your pears and bake for 20 minutes.
Serve with custard or ice-cream.

xx

Leap Day Food Resolutions

I have been cooking, I promise.
It's just I have been doing something I should be avoiding. I've been being just a little lazy but that laziness means I'm not expanding my recipe knowledge or file.

I've been sucked in by recipe bases. I know they have their place eg. Monday night or when you're not writing a blog about expanding your recipe knowledge...

But I have been using them all week.

I look at the ingredients and I think: 'I just paid $2.50 for a few tablespoons of corn flour & spice mix.'

So this brings me to my first food resolution:

No.1 No more recipe bases, well not for a while.

No. 2
Stop neglecting the blog.

Number three comes about because I believe I am following number two. I don't want to post 4 sweet things in a row or a week of just cookies. However in my heart I am a baker and therefore:

No. 3
I will bake as much as I feel like.

The pictures on this post are of a stir fry I cooked last night. I don't really think stir fry counts as a recipe if you are using a jar sauce and what ever veggies are on their way out in the bottom of your crisper...

I'm hoping to have a beef stew and pear crumble recipe up in the next two days.

xx

Recipe Thirty Two: Roasted and Glazed Pork Belly.

Roast your Pork Belly:

500gms of Pork Belly (:Make sure you get your butcher to score the skin of your pork.)

Olive Oil

Salt

Preheat the oven to 200C

Coat the skin in olive oil and sprinkle with salt, massage into the skin and scores.

Place your pork in a roasting tin and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180 and cook for a further 20 minutes.

If the skin of your pork hasn't crackled place your pork skin side up under the grill until crackled and golden.

Cover with foil and rest for 20 minutes.

Cut into strips or chunks.

Glaze:

2 tablespoons of Hoisin Sauce

2 tablespoons of Sweet Chilli Sauce

1 tablespoon of Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons of Honey

Small splash of water.

Whisk all of your ingredients in a small saucepan.

Place over medium heat and add the pork chunks.

Mix until the pork is glazed and hot.

And serve!

Recipe Thirty One: Popcorn

I was tossing up whether or not to include this as a 'recipe' since it is more of a technique. However once you have popped as much popcorn as I have in the last 24hrs you see it how essential this technique/recipe is to have on hand.

I first came across this method, posted by Elise on Simply Recipes. If you make your popcorn like this it is fast and you have barely any of those annoying, hard un-popped kernels.

As I mentioned on Thursday Miss MT had just celebrated her 11th birthday and last night we held her party.

A few months ago we came across this old fashioned popcorn bar over on The Hostess with the Mostess's Daily Blog. We were inspired. What you see above and below was our own interpretation. 

Popcorn

Saucepan

2 Tablespoon of an oil with a high smoke point eg. canola oil

Popcorn Kernels

Put your oil into the bottom of your saucepan along with 3 popcorn kernels.

Place this over high heat with the lid on.

Once these kernels have popped remove the saucepan from heat and very quickly add enough kernels to make an even layer on the base of the saucepan and put the lid back on. Give the pan one quick shake back and forth. Count to 20.

Return the saucepan to the heat. Within a few second the rest of the kernels will start to pop, even few seconds give the pan a shake back and forth to send any un-popped kernels to the bottom.

Once the popping has slowed remove the pan from the heat and immediately pour your popcorn into a wide bowl.

Now heating the oil with a few kernels in it lets you know when the oil gets to 'popping temperature' then adding the rest of the kernels and counting to 20 lets the rest of the popcorn get as close to popping temperature as possible.

Genius huh!?

Now add a flavour, some melted butter, a glaze, caramel, spices, the list is endless!

And you're done!

xx

Recipe Thirty: Lemon Meringue Pie

Another recipe as testament to my love of the lemon.

I really believe lemon is to sweet food as onion is to savoury. 

I put it in most things. 

Whether its a little shaving of the rind or a squeeze of juice it just gives food such a nice brightness.

Speaking of things bright, today is Miss MT's 11th birthday.
So here is a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY my gorgeous cooking buddy.

xxxx

Lemon Meringue Pie

1 1/2 cups of plain flour.

3 teaspoons of icing sugar.

140gms of cold butter

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons of cold water.

The juice and finely grated rind of 2 lemons.

1 x 395gm can of sweetened condensed milk.

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

3/4 cup of caster sugar.

(5 egg whites is you'd like to use the one left over from making the pastry, I did & my filling/meringue ratio is slightly off)

Throw your flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor and process until you have a mix that resembles breadcrumbs. Next add your egg yolk and gradually add your water until the mixture comes together.

Transfer the pastry to a floured surface and knead lightly until smooth. Form into a small disk and stick it in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.

Combine your juice, rind and condensed milk in a bowl and whisk together.

I am assured at this point you can also whisk in your egg yolks but I'm always worried that the lemon will start cooking the yolks and ruin my texture so I leave it for another few steps.

Preheat your oven to 180C. Roll out your pastry to fit a 24cm loose bottomed flan tin. Line the tin with the pastry, trim the edges and fork holes in the base. Line your pastry with baking paper and fill the case with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Blind bake at 180C for 10 minutes. Remove weights and cook for a further 5 minutes.

At this point I whisk in my egg yolks (you may have done this earlier).

Once the pastry case is out of the oven for the second time fill with your lemon mixture and place back in the oven for a further 5 minutes.

Whilst the middle is cooking whisk your egg whites until the form soft peaks.

Add your caster sugar gradually, say in 5 parts. Whisk until dissolved between each addition. I count to ten. 

Once the middle has cooked for 5 minutes remove it from the oven and reduced the oven temp to 150C.

Spread the top of your pie with meringue and stick it back in until your meringue has slightly browned.

Let cool completely on a wire rack and serve.

xx

Recipe Twenty Nine: Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Cupcakes are everywhere; their popularity has grown hugely in the last few years and until last night I hadn't been sucked in.

It all started at breakfast with Miss C & Mrs D.

Happily chatting away Mrs D bought out her pre-breakfast purchase: Cupcake cups. Gorgeous, pink, stripy cups. And that did it. I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

I had promised my Mum a chai spiced birthday cake for her birthday this year...that was in January.

Better late and in cupcake form than never I guess!

Hi Mum! I hope there is at least one cupcake left for you when you finally make it home tonight!

This recipe is adapted from "Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes" by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Chai Spiced Cupcakes:

2/3 of a cup of Milk

2 Chai Tea Bags (not chai latte powder)

1 Breakfast Tea Bag

2 Whole Eggs

1 Egg Yolk

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1 1/3 cups of Plain Flour

1 cup of Caster Sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons of Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of Ground Cardamon

Pinch of Salt

110gms of Butter.

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line your cupcake pan or layout your cup-cake cups.

In a small saucepan bring you milk to just before boiling point. Remove from heat and add your chai teabags. After 3 minutes add your breakfast tea and let this steep for a further 2 minutes. Remove the teabags from the milk and squeeze out any excess liquid. Let this cool until its tepid.

In a medium bowl combine your eggs, egg yolk, vanilla and 1/3 of your chai milk.

Whisk together.

In another bowl place your flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamon and a pinch of salt. lightly whisk these together. Add your butter and rest of the chai milk and using an electric beater, beat until light and fluffy.

To this batter add the egg mixture in three parts, beating to combine between each addition.

Divided your mixture between yours pans/cups. Do not fill more than 2/3rds full.

Bake your cakes for 12-15minutes or until browned. Cool on a wire rack whilst you make some butter cream!

Buttercream Frosting:

125gms of Butter

1 3/4 cups of Pure Icing Sugar.

Milk for texture.

Beat your butter until pale and fluffier. This took me about 3-4 minutes.

Gradually add your icing sugar. I would say 1/2 a cup at a time. Beat in after each addition. 

If you feel as though the icing is getting too stiff add a splash of milk to bring it back to a texture you feel happier with.

Bare in mind to get beautiful defined icing you do need quite a thick consistency.

Put the butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a jumbo star tip and pipe a spiral onto each cupcake.

Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

You're all done!

xx

Recipe Twenty Nine: Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding.

This pudding contains no eggs, no chocolate & very little butter, but don't let that put you off.

What this pudding is:

 moist, saucy, rich and very inexpensive to pull together.

This recipe originally comes from the Australian Womens Weekly.

I'm not sure when it was published but my mum had been making it for as long as I can remember.

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

60gms of butter

1.5 cups of  self raising flour

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 cup of caster sugar

3/4 cup of Milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa

2 cups of boiling water.

In a large microwave safe bowl melt your butter.

Mix into the butter: flour, the 1/4 cup of cocoa, caster sugar, vanilla and milk. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Sprinkle the top of this batter with combined brown sugar and  the 1/3 cup of cocoa.

Very gently pour the boiling water over the batter and sugar-cocoa mix.

Place in the microwave and cook for 9 minutes or until just firm in the middle.

Serve immediately.

xx 

Recipe Twenty Eight: Roast Chicken

I'm not sure why but doing a 'Roast' seems to be something that has an unnecessary 'difficult aura'.

This is a good and bad thing.

Good:

 'You'll have to wait I'm making a roast' 

is an perfectly acceptable excuse for when you pour yourself a glass of wine make your self a cup of tea, grab a new magazine and shut yourself in the kitchen away from the rest of the world.

Bad:

So many people avoid making them all together.

So to dispel that myth (for the cook only, everyone else should still think you are slaving away all day just to present them with the horrendously difficult to prepare meal) here is a dead easy, quick prep Roast Chicken.

Roast Chicken:

A medium sized chicken ( Around 1.6kg)

1 Lemon (cut in half)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves
Garlic Salt 

Paprika

Preheat your oven to 220C.
Rinse your chicken and inside the cavity. Pat it dry with some paper towels.
Place a wire rack in your roasting pan & place chicken on top.
Squeeze the juice from your lemon over the bird & massage into the skin.
Brush your chicken all over with the olive oil.
Sprinkle the outside liberally with garlic salt & paprika.
Smash your two garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife, don't worry about peeling them & place the cloves & the rest of the lemon halves inside the chicken.
Tie the legs together with kitchen string.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 1hr & 10 minutes or until cooked through.
You can test for this by piercing the thigh with a skewer and making sure the juices run clear.
Stand for 10 minutes covered loosely with tin foil & then serve.

xx

Recipe Twenty Seven: Lemon & Pistachio Biscotti

I know I have fallen woefully behind on my whole six month challenge.

I don't think I'm going to make it to 130 by the beginning of May but I will try to get as close as possible.

When I made myself a coffee at work on Monday I noticed how devoid the work kitchen was of a perfect biscuit to eat with said coffee and I decided I would rectify the situation.

It had to be Biscotti.

I'm sure you're aware I love lemon & pistachio together and so I put those flavours  in what I think turned out to be a wonderful crispy, not too sweet balance to my slightly bitter & milky cup of coffee.

Lemon & Pistachio Biscotti.

60gms of chopped butter

1 cup of caster sugar

1 teaspoon on vanilla

The finely grated rind of one lemon.

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups of plain flour.

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda.

3/4 of a cup of shelled pistachios, roughly chopped.

Splash of water

1/4 cup of extra caster sugar.

 Preheat oven to 180C & line 2 baking trays

In a bowl beat together: butter, sugar, vanilla & rind until just combined.

Add three of your eggs, one at a time beating to combined between each addition.

Stir in flour, baking powder & bicarb soda.

Stir in the nuts.

Cover & put in the fridge for an hour.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Halve dough & make each half into a 30cm long log.

Place each log on a separate tray. Combine the last egg with a splash of water, brush your logs with this mixture and sprinkle each very liberally with your 1/4 cup of caster sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on trays.

Reduce your oven to 170C

Using a serrated knife cut your logs on the diagonal into 1cm thick slices.

Place these slices back on the oven trays and bake for another 15 minutes turning half way through this baking period.

Cool the slices on a cooling rack & you're good to go

xx

Recipe Twenty Six: The Perfect Pancake.

It has been a busy week.

I have made pencil rolls for back to school, attempted to keep the house cool, failed, attempted to cook as much as possible without using heat, pretty much failed & didn't take photos...

I did however spend many hours taking photos for my Mum's upcoming book (she needed someone who would take payment of love, good coffee & free copies of family portraits), she has three days to her deadline and the pressure is on. You can see her progress and a couple of my pictures here.

Pancakes played a big part in my childhood.

They were one of those foods that Mum was happy to let us take on alone.

The one downside to an 8 year old making pancakes however:

 THE MESS!!!

I cant ever remember cleaning it up though.

My Dad and I also had the 6 month long 'Battle of the Best Pancake'.

I still maintain I won.

Pancakes:

2 Cups of SR Flour

1/3 Cup of Caster Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups of Milk

1 egg

More butter for greasing the pan.

Put your dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.

Make a well in the centre.

Put egg and 1 1/2 cups of milk in there.

Start whisking the milk & egg and gradually bring in the dry ingredients from the edges.

Once everything is combined & smooth stick your batter in the fridge for 20 Minutes.

Heat a pan to medium ONLY.

Take your batter out of the fridge and give it a quick stir, if it is too thick mix in the remaining milk.

Melt a little butter in the pan so it covers the bottom.

Even if you are using a non stick pan please still used the melted butter it will give your pancakes a crisp outer like nothing else.

Pour mix into pan.

 I used about 1/3 of a cup for a decent 15cm diameter pancake.

Either by tilting the pan or a spatula, spread your mix out a little.

Wait until quite a few bubbles are appearing on the top of the batter before you turn your pancake over.

Cook for about 1/2 the time on the other side or until golden brown.

Continue from 'melt a little butter' until you are out of mix.

If you are making a huge batch and want to keep them warm set your oven to low and put them on a lined baking sheet in there whilst you finish off your remaining cakes.

And serve how ever you like...

Maple Syrup?

Nutella and Strawberries?

Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Butter?

Lemon and Sugar?

xx

Recipe Twenty Five: Chilli, Soy & Sesame Drumsticks.

It has been a super quiet week around the kitchen this week.

It has also been super hot & I'm just one of those people who turn into a 'tired four year old who is constantly on the verge of tantrum' when its hot.

It's not an admirable trait...I know I should work on it.

Anyhow our air conditioning doesn't quite make it to the kitchen so on days like these I am effectively preparing food in a sauna. 

Now I hear sauna's are supposed to be good for you HOWEVER this kind of sauna (any any kind of prolonged exposure to temperatures over 35) seem to be really bad for my marriage

(Love you Honey!)

So in normal Courtenay fashion I am apologising with food,

this recipe in fact:

Chilli, Soy & Sesame Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

1/4 cup of Soy Sauce

1/4 Cup of Tomato Sauce

1/3-1/2 Cup of Sweet Chilli Sauce 

(I added this to taste so I have to estimate the actual amount)

2kg of Chicken Drumsticks

1 Tablespoon of Sesame Seeds

1/4 cup of sliced spring onion (for garnish)

Arrange your chicken legs in an oven proof dish.

Whisk your three sauces together.

Taste & add any extra of the sauces to taste.

Pour over your drumsticks

Turn all of the drumsticks to coat them in the marinade.

Put the dish in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

I only marinated them for half an hour and still got a very nice flavour.

 However I did complete one of the next possibly completely unnecessary pain-in-the-but step.

Preheat your oven to 200C
Put the chicken in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Because I only marinated my drumsticks for half an hour I basted the legs with marinade every 10-15 minutes. I think this may have help with the moist factor too...

Take the chicken out of the oven and decoratively sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven again and let rest for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with sliced spring onions and serve.

Optional step:

Ask for forgiveness for your crappy attitude the last week...turn up air-conditioning.

xx

Recipe Twenty Four: Cinnamon Rolls.

I have made A LOT of cinnamon rolls from many, many recipes. I have used nuts, different combinations of sugars, this butter or that butter, this flour or that flour and this is the result of my few years of trial and error.

Bun

2 cups of Bread flour

2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 a cup of warm water

2 1/4 teaspoons (or one sachet) of yeast

1 teaspoon of Caster Sugar.

1/2 a cup of Milk

50gms of Butter

1/4 cup of Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

Filling:

125gm Butter

3/4 cup of Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon

1/4 cup Demerara Sugar

Cream Cheese Icing:

200gms of softened Cream Cheese

1 1/2 cups of Icing Sugar

Splash of milk.

Your first step is to get your yeast going.

Pop your warm water ( you want this water to be between luke warm and warm), your teaspoon of sugar and your yeast in a bowl. Give them a quick mix to dissolve the sugar and leave it to sit in a warm spot for 10 minutes. 

If you cant find anywhere particularly warm sit your bowl in another bowl of slightly warmer water.

Next up warm that half a cup of milk in a small pan until just before boiling.

Take it off the heat and whisk in your butter and caster sugar.

Sit to cool for 5 minutes.

Mix your yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 cup of your flour in a bowl.

Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, combing well between each addition.

Once this has come together turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

This took me six minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl with a damp cloth over the top in a nice warm spot for 1 hour.

Your dough will double in size.

About 50 minutes into this hour melt your butter for the filling & in a small bowl combine your brown sugar and cinnamon. Grease oven proof dish/dishes. I used two 25x25cm square cake tins.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to a 60cm x 25 cm rectangle.

Spread melted butter over the dough leaving a 2cm border.

Sprinkle melted butter with brown sugar mix.

If I have any butter left over I then GENTLY pour this over the brown sugar.

Roll the dough up length ways and cut 5cm rounds.

To prevent squashing your log cut the rounds using a strand of  fine cotton.

Place the cotton under underneath your roll and then wrap the string around and cross over. Keep pulling the cotton ends across one another & the string will slice through cleanly.

Place each slice facing upward in your tin. Leave a little space between rolls (0.5cm) as they need to rise again for another hour. Sprinkle the top of the rolls with demerara sugar.

Leave to rise & preheat your oven to 190C.

Cook for 25minutes.

Make your icing.

Beat cream cheese in a bowl for 2 minutes.

Add icing sugar 1/2 a cup at a time. Beating well between additions.

Add a splash of milk to give the icing a creamier texture.

Now I know I've piped icing on the top in sweet lines

HOWEVER 

spreading it thickly on the top looks far uglier but tastes far, far better.

These taste best still slightly warm or eaten the day they are made.

If you want to eat them over the next few days just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to freshen them up.

xx

Recipe Twenty Three: Double Chocolate, Sour Cherry Cheesecake.

Here is the culminating recipe of Friday night's dinner at The Kindled Kitchen. 

Now aside from being amazing to eat with all of it's sweet and sour goodness I actually started making this at 6pm for a 7pm dinner so it is also amazingly quick and easy!

What you will need:
220gm of plain chocolate biscuits
125gms of butter, melted.
500gms of cream cheese
200gms of dark chocolate.
70gms of brown sugar.
1 tablespoon of boiling water
1 teaspoon of gelatine.
1 670gm jar of Morello/Sour Cherries.
2 tbs of caster sugar
1 tbs of cornflour

Line the base of a 24cm spring form tin with baking paper.
Process the chocolate biscuits to a fine crumb & then add in the melted butter.
Press this mix into the base of your tin and chill in the fridge for 20minutes.

Either in a bowl over boiling water bain-marie style of in the microwave in 30 second bursts, melt your chocolate. Leave to cool slightly whilst you make the rest of the filling.

In a bowl beat together cream cheese & brown sugar until smooth.
Sprinkle gelatine over hot water and mix until it has dissolved.
Add this & the slightly cooled chocolate to the cream cheese & brown sugar and beat until combined.
Spread over chilled base and refrigerate.

In the meantime drain your cherries, place syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Taking 1 tablespoon of the syrup dissolve the caster sugar & cornflour in it and return to the pan stirring constantly. Cook until it comes to the boil and then add cherries.
Set aside.

Once you have removed the cheesecake from the pan & are getting ready to serve. Pour the cherries & syrup over the top of the cake.

Serve

PS- This post is part of The Sweet Adventures Blog Hop 'Death By Chocolate Addition'

Click through some of the thumbnails below for more amazing chocolate recipes 

I know you want to....

Or even better, you could join in?

xx

Recipes Twenty One and Twenty Two: Arancini & Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni.

Last night, after work I had a dinner party.

I'm not sure when I decided getting home from work & having only an hour to get myself, the house and food ready for 5 guests would be a good idea but I must have been seriously sleep/caffeine/sanity deprived.

That said the night actually turned out really nicely.

No-one mentioned the slightly unkempt house or host and everyone ate up with tonnes of enthusiasm.
We then made coffee and had the funniest, uncivilized game of scrabble I have ever been involved with.

Like I said, excellent night.

On the menu was Arancini, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni & Double Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake.

The last of which I will be putting in its own glorious post on Monday.

Oh, and before I get started a big thank you to my little, although much taller brother  for manning the camera whilst I cooked away.

Arancini:

2 cups of left over Risotto.

(I am doing a post of my favourite, 'non stir-stick in the oven and wait' recipe soon)

1/2 a cup of Plain flour in a bowl.

1 Egg

1 tablespoon of Milk

1 cup of Panko bread crumbs in a bowl.

1cm cubes of Mozzarella

Vegetable oil for deep frying (the amount will depend on the size of your pan)

Roll two tablespoons of risotto into a ball and press one piece of mozzarella into the center, 

mould the risotto back over the cheese.

Combine milk & egg in a small bowl and give a slight whisk so they are combined.

Once all of your balls are made coat them all in this order:

Flour

shake off excess

Milk & Egg mix

drain off excess

Bread Crumbs

Next up you want to heat up your oil until a cube of bread dropped in there will sizzle around and brown in about 10 seconds. Then gently fry your arancini in batches until heated through and brown.

Serve nice and hot so your mozzarella is nice & melty.

Serve.

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni:

8 Lasagne Sheets

500gms of Ricotta Cheese

100gms of Fetta (crumbled very finely)
1 cup of grated cheddar
1/2 a cup of parmesan

1 Tablespoon of Basil

1 Jar of Passata
1 teaspoon of sugar.

1 large red capsicum

1 packet of frozen spinach, thawed.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Slice your capsicum into 4cm strips and place under a very hot grill until the skin blackens.
Once the skin is black immediately transfer to a tupperware container or zip-loc bag. The capsicum will sweat in here and make the skin very easy to remove.

Combine ricotta, fetta and Parmesan in a bowl, add thawed spinach and the salt and pepper to taste.

In blender add the passata, basil, sugar and skinned capsicum.
Blend until smooth.

Take 1/2 of this sauce and spread over the bottom of a large oven safe dish.

Cut each lasagna sheet in half through the long side.
Then on the short side of the half spoon approx 1/4 cup of filling along the edge.
Roll up and place join side down on the sauce in the dish.
Continue until all cut sheets are filled.

Spread the rest of the sauce over the top of the cannelloni and sprinkle with the cheddar and more Parmesan if desired.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese has browned and the cannelloni are warmed through.

Serve.
Play Scrabble.

xx