Mint Chutney

I love, love mint chutney. I love putting it in sandwiches, eating it with salads, dabbing it here and there and so basically everywhere. If I can consume it, it will be there. Well apart from anything that is sweet. This variation is taken from word of mouth from two real people and it involves all of the following.

The ingredients

1 bunch of coriander (leaves)

3 bunches of mint (leaves)

1 onion

A pack of chill (the type of the chili depends of the amount of heat you want)

A juice of a lemon

a garlic clove

an inch of ginger

Salt to taste

The method

Place all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. As easy as that. I placed an entire packet of small red chilies into the chutney for the punch factor. You could add the chutney to yogurt for a minty yogurt. This will go well with any curry.

Pumpkin Curry

I decided to make pumpkin curry. There was a rather large chunk of pumpkin that was sitting in my fridge and was threatening to go off. It was part of a larger chunk, in which was part used to make roast pumpkin. The rest of it was then put in the fridge and I was not too sure what to do with it. So it sat in the fridge for a bit.

My mind was then cast back in time, say about ten years ago, I was first introduced to India. It was very, very hot in the summer and could be rather chilly in the winter. I was introduced many curries, that is north Indian curries and pumpkin curry was one of them. I have not had pumpkin curry for ten years and so I then knew what to do with my pumpkin. It was not to be roasted, nor turned into soup but it was to be curried.

This is a relatively quick meal. I found I spent more time removing the skin of the pumpkin rather than cooking. I  find the practice of cutting off the skin rather daunting. With sudden quick knife slip just missing my fingers, I made sure after that I was careful.

After finding a recipe on Healthy, Yummy Vegetarian Recipes (I do not have the link), I found the ingredient composition a educational experience. There were such things as ajwain, sanuf...............................two month pass and I have lots the recipe for this. I do have the pictures though but the recipe disappeared into the void that is my unit. Some other things have disappeared yet to be uncovered. Perhaps I myself disappeared into some sort of void and now have re-emerged because where have I been for the past two months or was it three.

I do not usually like pumpkin, but this curry masked the taste of the pumpkin to some extent that I was able to eat it.

Cookies and cream cheesecake

I had recently made a cheesecake that flopped when I took it out of the pan. I should have taken a photo of my failure, for cooking is filled with its failures and its successes. This time I did not want it to flop and so I made sure it had adequate gelatine. This recipe required 8 little cheese cakes to be shaped by PVC piping. As this was probably the only time that I would require the PVC piping and so I opted for the springform tin. 

This recipe was taken from the Womens Weekly Cupcakes Cheese Cakes Cookies that sister dearest gave me. What a wonderfully beautiful cook book. I so inspire to one day master your recipes even though I failed at your macarons and Easter egg cup cake basket. For this challenge I decided to make the cookies and cream cheesecakes.

The Ingredients

The Base

125 grams plain chocolate biscuits

75 grams butter, melted

Filling

2 teaspoons gelatin

2 tablespoons water

375grams cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup caster sugar

300ml cream

180 grams white eating chocolate, metled

150 grams chocolate cream-filled biscuits, broken

The method

Grease a 24cm spring-form pan and line it with baking paper.

For the base process the biscuits until fine. Add the butter and process until combined. Place the mixture in the springform pan and spread evenly along the base of the pan until it is level and compressed. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I use the bulldog clips to keep the baking paper in place

Melt the gelatine in warm water until all is dissolved.

Beat cheese, extract and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixture until smooth. Beat in the cream and then stir in the white chocolate, gelatine mixture and broken biscuits.

Remove the springform pan from the fridge and pour in the filling. The refrigerated over night.

The next morning I awoke to a soiled and not mushy cheesecake. The baking paper did not leave the cake that smooth around the edges so that is something that I need to work on. I adored the creaminess of the cake and the chocolate biscuits bits and pieces hidden in the cake. I would definitely make this again.

Once when eating out a lady who got a piece of apple pie declared that some of the cake is missing and rejected it. Perhaps she would declare some part of the cake missing and reject this too..

Egg, chrizo and wholemeal bread pie

I really haven't felt like writing lately. Had an exam last week. Only the one but it was enough to stress me out. It has passed and suddenly I have some free time and I am not quiet sure what to do with it. Should I cook, no don't feel quite like making something new. Write on this blog. Not really, I rather enjoy looking at the creative efforts of others. What else? The creative efforts of yester years have disappeared and I tend to roam the internet in search of ghost stories and some photo history of Sydney. I waste plenty of time on this world wide web. It doomed my creativity. Alas, I return to this blog and try to pick up some of what remains of my literary merit and I aim to say I baked a pie and show you the efforts of my labor.

The pie featured in the New Idea magazine and I thought it looked nice. Though it demanded 12 eggs and so I split the recipe in half. Luckily the halving of the ingredients was done otherwise it would have overflowed my spring form cake pan. Thus it would have demanded a clean up in the oven. So, here is to the birth of the Egg, chrizo and wholemeal bread pie.

The ingredients

6 eggs lightly beaten

150 ml thicken cream

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 loaf of wholemeal bread (crust removed and cut into 2cm pieces)

1 chorizo, cut up

1 tablespoon of oil

1 onion thinly sliced

1 zucchini, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme

1/2 cup grated vintage cheddar

The Method

Grease and line a 24 cm round cake pan with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine eggs and cream in a bowl. Add salt and pepper and then press the bread into the mixture, until all the bread is completely covered.

Pan fry the chorizo for about 3 minutes. The remove from the pan and allow to cool.

Heat oil in the pan now. Cook the onion until soft. Add the zucchini, garlic and thyme. Stir for about 5 minutes until the zucchini is soft. The remove from the stove and allow to cool.

Add the chorizo, zucchini mixture, with half of the cheese to the bread mixture. Mix to combine. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. 

Place into the oven and cook it until the egg is cooked and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.

 

Serve it with something green and yummy.

Milk Chocolate Souffle

After failing to make a souffle in my previous post, I set out the next night to make an actual souffle. This time I decided to use milk chocolate. I did want to make a souffle that was half white chocolate and half dark chocolate but with time constraint only lead me to find milk chocolate in a convenience shop close to home.

The Ingredients

Soften butter for greasing the ramekins

90 grams of milk chocolate

1/2 tablespoon of caster sugar plus some for coating of ramekins

3 egg whites

2 egg yokes

75 ml of thicken cream

1 tablespoon brandy

Icing sugar for dusting

The Method

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Grease the ramekins with butter and then sprinkle caster sugar. Refrigerate until you place the completed mixture into the ramekins.

Place the milk chocolate and cream into a bowl sitting over warm water in a saucepan to melt the chocolate. Mix until the chocolate melts and it is all smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in the egg yokes and the brandy.

Using an electric mixture, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the caster sugar and whisk it until its glossy.

Gently fold in the egg whites gradually and fold until combined. Fill up your ramekins just below the rim and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and dust with icing sugar and gobble it all up with a special someone. 

 

Dark Chocolate Souffle Derivative

I didn't have any luck recently trying to make a cheese cake. It would have been a stunner if only it did not collapse when I tried to remove it from the pan. It never set and if you closed your eyes and ate it, you would not know any better. I also had some issues making my first souffle. I didn't read the recipe properly and did a variation which I call the souffle derivative and I rather liked the velvety texture it create. I am just not so keen the dark chocolate, its a bit to rich for me.  

I did not take any photos until the completed product. Just wanted to get it all done quickly rather than posing for photos. I will resume taking photos soonish of the process. 

The Ingredients

Soften butter for greasing the ramekins

90 grams of dark chocolate

1/2 tablespoon of caster sugar plus some for coating of ramekins

3 egg whites

2 egg yokes

75 ml of thicken cream

1 tablespoon brandy

Icing sugar for dusting

The Method

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Now my oven started to smoke here and even set off the smoke alarm when I opened it. My oven has never been to that temperature since I moved in. When I made an actual souffle I preheated the oven a bit later on.

Grease the ramekins with butter and then sprinkle caster sugar. Refrigerate until you place the completed mixture into the ramekins.

Place the dark chocolate and cream into a bowl sitting over warm water in a saucepan to melt the chocolate. Mix until the chocolate melts and it is all smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in the egg yokes and the brandy.

Using an electric mixture, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, which is when you can hold the bowl upside down over your head and it will not fall on you. Now add the caster sugar and whisk it until its glossy. WAIT!!!! This is what I should have done but something got all mixed up in my blonde head (no I am a brunette), well it was a blonde moment. I am sure we all do have these moments, including guys. What I actually did was add the egg whites to the chocolate, cream brandy mixture and started whisking it with an electric mixture. It was then, when I reread the recipe that I saw that something was amiss. Where were my fluffy egg whites. Nonexistent!! They were all combined into the chocolate. What to do? I asked myself. Abandon it? Nahhhhh. I whisk the mixture a bit more, took out the two ramekins from the fridge, poured my derivative mixture into them and placed them in my hot smokey oven to bake for about 10 minutes.When done dust with some icing sugar.

Here is how they looked like when they came out. I really like the texture of it. Different from a souffle and different from a cake. If anyone knows what this is actually called I would love to know. The texture was thick and velvety. As you glided the spoon into it and through it, it broke away. I may make this again, but maybe a white chocolate one. Dark chocolate is not my favorite but otherwise this is and was my souffle derivative. 

Chrusty (Faworki)

I have a Polish background. My mother hailed from Poland and my father's family hailed from Poland, though his family migrated to another European country before his birth. I was born in Australia and I always remember my mother making a Polish sweet. We made it for family gatherings, made it for multicultural day at school. Then I made it for my children's multicultural day at school and I made it for this year's harmony day at work. This sweet is called Chrusty or Faworki.

I got a recipe for it from my mother's Polish cook book but I somehow misplaced it, which is not unusual for me. I even at times have misplaced my car keys to find I was holding them in my hand. I got all flustered for absolutely no reason. So I looked for another recipe on English and Polish websites and settled on the following recipe. My ability to read Polish is somewhat limited and wondering how much is a glass of flour in a Polish recipe, left me taking hold of a English recipe. They do their measurements a in glasses so it left me wondering how big is a glass of flour? Does it mean a cup?

The ingredients

250 grams of flour

5 egg yokes

2 tablespoons of sour cream

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon on vinegar

Icing sugar for dusting

The method

Mix the flour, egg yokes, sour cream, sugar and vinegar in a bowl. Knead it into a dough and then, with a rolling pin, roll it out flat, a few millimeters thin.

 Using a knife make lines in the dough, as shown in the below photo.

In each cut out strip, cut it into roughly 10 centimeter length and cut a three centimeter slit in each piece that will become the Chrusty. See the photo below for guidance.

Take one end of the chrust and pull it through the slit in the middle until you get it looking as follows.

Heat up some oil for a shallow frying. Add spoon of vodka in the oil to prevent it from foaming. Yes the Polish solve everything with a vodka or two. When the oil is hot enough fry the chrusty until golden and then remove from the heat and when all completed, dust them over with some icing sugar on both sides. There has been hardly a person who could resist Chrusty. Faworki is another term they are known by but I have always known them as Chrusty. Pronounced with a H sound and not a CH.