Tasty Tuesdays: Coconut and Mango Meringue roll

I haven't done a foodie post in a while, mostly because I've been lazy. But I mentioned this recipe in a post last week and a few people asked me to share it, so here it is:

Coconut and Mango Meringue roll

4 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 tsp cornflour
2 tsp white vinegar
2 tbs dessicated coconut, toasted
1 tbs caster sugar, extra
Mango butter (see recipe below)
whipped cream
extra mango, diced

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease a 25cm x 30cm swiss roll tin, and line with baking paper.
2. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until thick and glossy. Sprinkle over coconut, cornflour and vinegar and gently fold through.  Spoon into tin and smooth top. Bake for 15 minuted until just set.
3. While meringue is cooking, lay a clean tea towel down and put more baking paper on top. Sprinkle paper with toasted coconut and reserved sugar. Turn cooked meringue out onto the paper and peel away the paper lining. Cool for two minutes.
4. Spread mango butter over the top of the meringue, (you may only need 1/2 a cup), then top with whipped cream and roll using the paper to help. Transfer to a serving platter (which can be a bit tricksy). Top with sliced mango, and chill before serving.

*Note, if you want to, you can also put a teeny bit of coconut essence in your whipped cream.


Mango butter

Blend the flesh of 1 large ripe mango with 2 egg yolks, 1/3 cup caster sugar and 2 tbs lemon juice. Once smooth, transfer to a saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Add 80g of diced butter, one piece at a time and whisk constantly until mixture thickens. Pour into small clean jars, seal and store in the fridge. This can be made a day before you make the meringue roll.



I didn't take any photos, but here's a picture of one that looks very similar.

It sounds a little complicated, but I found it surprisingly easy to make and it is one of my favourite sweets. I think it is just such a quintessential summer dessert, and so delicious! I made it for Christmas last year, and it was a big hit, I think it was nice to have something so light in the midst of all the heavy Christmas food.

Linking up with Jess for I blog on Tuesdays....

and with Kate for the Menu Monday Linky....

Tasty Tuesdays: Baked Moroccan Chicken and Rice

I was going to share a recipe today seeing as how it's the fortnight for me to share and all, but I was having trouble coming up with one. So instead I've decided to post a link to a fabulous recipe that I did not come up with, but it is a meal that I really like.

It is Baked Moroccan Chicken and Rice and it is on Erin's blog at Eat Play Bond, you should really check it out because it is is so good! I discovered it a month or so ago and since then it has been on a regular rotation at our house.

I love it because it is one of those 'one pot wonders' that you can get organised, and then leave alone. I really like meals that have everything in together, and this does. It has chicken, veggies and rice- so I can just put it in the oven, get Georgie bathed and then dinners ready! I think it is a really tasty dish, and it is also lovely with some capsicum and chopped fresh asparagus mixed in as well (I love fresh asparagus- can't stand the tinned stuff though). Erin suggests using chicken breasts, but I have found thigh fillets work well too, and they have the added bonus of not drying out if you lose track of time and put it in the oven for too long. But go check it out, it really is good, and say Hi to Erin at the same time.

In other news our camera is doing all kinds of weird things, and has decided that it will not, in fact, take photos. I've been wanting to take some photos of Georgie because she is getting super cute and grown up lately, and I also want to take some photos of her walking. But for now this will do.

Georgie. Walking.

Doesn't the artistic genius just leap out at you?



I'm also linking up with Jess for I blog on Tuesdays- come play!

Tasty Tuesdays: Chicken and Bacon Risotto

I have a serious love affair with risotto. It is one of my absolute favourite foods. If I had to pick my last meal on earth, risotto would definitely feature heavily in there somewhere. Until recently I had never made it. It just sounded too tricky. I'd heard that you have to stir and stir it, and can never leave it alone and so it was something I just put in the 'too hard' basket. This turned out to be a huge mistake, because while risotto can be a little time consuming, it really isn't harder than many other dishes I make and it is so worth it. The recipe I'm going to share is a low-fat (ish) version, so I don't use cream or any really high-fat ingredients like that, but it is still really nice. But, if you've never had risotto before, do yourself a favour and order it at a fancy restaurant some time where they will use all manner of bad-for-you ingredients. Because a really amazing risotto is seriously awesome.

That's about enough of that now.

So here is a recipe I've kind of pulled together that encompasses a few of my favourite flavours. It actually didn't go that well this time. I have made it better, but for some reason it wasn't quite as perfect as I have made before... but you know that's life.

Chicken and Bacon Risotto

Serves 4-6 (depending on how hungry you are)
Ingredients:

500g chicken thigh fillet, chopped
1 onion, chopped
20g butter
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 zucchini, shaved into ribbons
Sun-dried tomatoes, thinly chopped (I'll leave amounts up to you as I go a little overboard)
10 button mushrooms, chopped
4 pieces of bacon, diced
Shaved Parmesan cheese
2 cups aborio rice
6 cups of chicken stock (hot)
2 cups white wine
Thyme (fresh or dried)
1 cup of Greek low fat yoghurt or sour cream


First, fry your onion and half the garlic in the butter. Then add the rice and coat it. Then add a ladleful of stock at at time, stirring regularly. As the rice absorbs the stock, add more. You can also add the wine in between the stock.

While you are doing this, you can also fry the chicken and bacon and the other garlic clove in a separate pan.

Once this is done and the rice is cooked well (it is worth tasting it to make sure, if it's not just add more liquid until it is), add your zucchini and mushrooms to the rice. Stir.

Once the vegetables have softened, turn the heat off and then add the tomato, chicken and bacon and the thyme. Stir. Then add your yoghurt or sour cream and mix it in. Add however much of the yoghurt/sour cream you think you need to give it a creamy texture. I generally just add a couple of dollops until I get it right, so you may not need a whole cup.

Finally serve in bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Risotto is one of the few things I know Georgie will eat- she just loves it!

Yum!

A few tips:

-Risotto uses a liquid to rice ratio of roughly 4:1, that is 4 cups of liquid to every cup of rice. So if you want to up the ingredients to feed more that's one thing to bear in mind.
- It is not necessary to heat the stock before using it, but it's one of those little things that just seems to make it better.
- White wine makes a risotto so much better, so when I can I tend to use it, but it is not necessary.
- The key to a good risotto (I think) is not to stuff it full of ingredients. You're better off letting a few choice ingredients shine, rather than using too many, otherwise it ends up more like a fried rice.
- You have to use a risotto rice (I've always used aborio), plain rice will not work.
- Risotto is much better with Parmesan cheese on top

Tasty Tuesdays: Quick Vegetable Curry

This recipe is so ridiculously easy but it is a really yummy dish. I can cook it quickly as a dish for one (with leftovers) when I don't really know what to do for dinner, and I generally always have all the ingredients. It also wouldn't be a hard recipe to make for lots of people either, you'd just have to increase quantities.

Quick Vegetable Curry

Ingredients:

Onion
One clove of garlic
Carrot
Zucchini
Red capsicum
Mushrooms
Broccoli
125g can chickpeas, drained (optional- I just added them for some protein)
400g can crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons curry paste (I use Pataks Madras Curry paste)
Cooked white rice, to serve

You can also use any other vegetables you choose, I just used what I had, but I think cauliflower or sweet potato would be lovely with this too.


First, fry your onion and garlic in a oiled pan, then add the other vegetables.

Then stir-fry them all until they are tender. Once they are cooked add the chickpeas and the tinned tomato, once combined add your curry paste. It's a good idea to add your curry paste slowly, testing the heat, especially if you're don't love spices. I quite like hot food, so I sometimes add more than two teaspoons. I'm getting in all the tasty food I can before I have to breastfeed again and go back to bland!

Let the curry simmer for a few minutes to improve the flavour, then serve with rice.

It really is that easy, and so good! I love the freshness and zing to this dish. Enjoy!

All is well...

It's late and I'm tired, but I just wanted to say that the scan went very well! All looks good for our little one. Shane also managed to come home for the day (driving a 3 hour, both way trip) and see the scan too, so that was really really great! We were very strong and didn't find out if it's a boy or girl, even though I really wanted to! But baby number 2 is looking good!

However we did get another (another!) due date, which is..... the 24th of December. I'm feeling a little apprehensive, as our last date was the 31st, which meant after Christmas and that sounded so much nicer. But the baby will come when it's good and ready, and at the moment all is well. :)

Also, in case you were wondering... I've decided to make Tasty Tuesdays a fortnightly, rather than weekly thing... weekly was just a bit too much to keep up!

Tasty Tuesdays: Low-fat Creamy pasta

I love this pasta recipe because it's a yummy creamy pasta dish that you can eat without worrying about it turning you into the size of a house. It's a good one for those nights when you don't really want to be bothered about dinner and you forgot to get meat out.


Low-fat Creamy Pasta

Ingredients:


Fresh pasta (Now fresh isn't essential but it is nice. I buy the Latina fresh fettucini, that is 375g)
8 mushrooms, chopped
1 zucchini chopped
5 rashers shortcut bacon, chopped
1 onion, chooped
1 capsicum, chopped
oil for frying
1 can low-fat evaporated milk
cornflour for thickening (approximately 2 tbs)
Garlic
wholegrain mustard
Grated cheese (1/2 cup)
Thinly Sliced Avacado


First, put some water on to boil to cook the pasta in. Then fry up your bacon, onion, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic and capsicum in an oiled pan.

Once the water has boiled cook your pasta until just done.Then drain the pasta and combine it with the ingredients in the fry pan. Mix.

 

Then pour in almost all of the can of evaporated milk, and combine on a low heat. Then mix cornflour with the leftover evaporated milk, and then just add this slowly while stirring until the pasta is as creamy as you like it.

Then add some wholegrain mustard to taste, (I tend to use a fair bit so I'll leave that one up to you!) and the grated cheese. Finally, as a last thing, you can stir in a some chopped avocado, (but make sure you don't cook it!) and serve.

 

Tasty Tuesdays: Berry and Marscarpone Tart

On the weekend there was a fundraiser for Chaplaincy. It was a dessert night, so I made a Berry and Marscarpone tart. It is such a fun dessert to make! I love berries, and it's one of those desserts that seems very impressive, but is actually pretty easy to make. It's not good for you at all, so I only tend to make it for special occasions, because otherwise it is entirely possible that I could eat the whole thing!

Berry and Marscarpone Tart

For the pastry:

I always make the Biscuit Pastry from the Day to Day Cookery Book. It's the cookbook I follow for so much of my basic cooking. You could always make it even easier for yourself and buy a pastry shell but I've never had much trouble making pastry, although I know some people always seem to. My Grandma complained that she could never make a decent pastry. I also prefer making my own so you can make a nice flat-bottomed tart, instead of a pie shape one- but I'm sure it will taste great either way!

60g butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 cup SR Flour
2 tbs cornflour

Beat butter and sugar to a cream, then add the egg and beat well. Then add the flours gradually to make a stiff paste. Knead well on a floured surface. Then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out and use as required. Bake in moderate oven until golden.

 

For the Marscarpone cream:

250g tub marscarpone

1/3 cup double cream

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grated lemon rind

Combine all ingredients in a bowl with an electric mixer. 

 

 

Then remove the tart from it's tin, place on a serving plate, and spread the cream filling into the tart shell.

 

 

 Then wash and chop your berries, I used a combination of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.

 

At this point your baby (if you have one) may be doing something like this.

 

Then you get to decorate the tart with the berries.In my opinion the more berries you use, the better!

 

Finally, you can warm some strawberry jam and spread it in your berries with a pastry brush to give the berries a nice glaze if you want to. And voila! A beautiful berry tart that is sure to impress! 

 I must admit that this tart is probably better to be made in the summer months- my berries were quite nice, (especially considering the season) but they were not cheap! And it's the type of recipe that requires fresh berries. It really is a beautiful tart though- I hope you enjoy it!

Tasty Tuesdays: Bacon and zucchini quiche/muffin thingies

This recipe is one of my favourites. It started as a Zucchini Slice, but I tweaked it a little. It's one of the nicest eggy recipes I've come across, it's light, and very quick and easy to prepare. I really should come up with a more creative name, but you can feel free to come up with a better one and pass the recipe off as your own! :)

Bacon and Zucchini quiche/muffin thingies

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 cup Self-Raising flour
Salt and Pepper
2 grated Zucchini's
1 grated carrot
125g tin corn kernels
1 cup grated cheese, plus extra for the top
6 slices bacon
1 onion, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil

This recipe is a bit of throw-together one. I regularly substitute ham for the bacon. I also just tend to use whatever ingredients I have in the house at the time. The vegetables are all negotiable (aside from the zucchini and onion). I have also used mushroom, capsicum and tomatoes which work nicely too.

First, Preheat the oven to about 180, and grease some muffin tins (really well!). Crack the 6 eggs into a bowl and beat them.

Then, add the flour and salt and pepper and mix thouroughly.

Then add the zucchini (making sure you squeeze out the excess water- it's something I never used to bother with, but it does make a difference!), then add the carrot, onion, bacon, corn, oil, and cheese. If you've got lots of time and don't mind washing up, you can fry your bacon and onion first. It makes it taste just that little bit nicer, but it isn't necessary.

As you can see, I used ham this time- also the zucchini is in there, it's just under everything else!

Then give it a quick stir (it really doesn't need to be over mixed)

And pop it into some greased muffin trays. You can also just put it into a slice dish, and make a regular quiche.

They take about 15-20 minutes.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished product looking all pretty on a plate ready for playgroup, but don't let that stop you from making them, they are really yummy! I make them often, for breakfast, for Shane's lunchbox, for morning tea's. They're very light and easy- enjoy!

Tasty Tuesdays: Greek Feast

Lately I have been craving Greek food. When we were in Brisbane last, we had dinner at an awesome little Greek restaurant in West End, and all week long I have been wanting what we ate there. So I tried my hand at re-creating it, and while it wasn't quite as good as theirs (when is it when you have to cook it yourself?) it was still pretty great!

The recipe has a few different components, they were, marinated lamb skewers, Greek salad, marinated grilled mushrooms, toasted pita bread with cucumber tzatziki, and a Greek antipasto mix (which I bought from Woolies). I'll start with the lamb.

Marinated Lamb Skewers

Ingredients:

500gms diced lamb (I used rump)
3 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper
2 cloves of garlic
Fresh chopped mint
Soaked wooden skewers (or metal ones if you have them)

Combine all ingredients in a dish and then leave the lamb to marinate for at least 3 hours, or longer if you can.






Then, thread the lamb on the skewers, and grill for about 10 minutes on each side (depending on how rare you like your lamb).






Greek Salad

(This is pretty basic, but I'll still pop the recipe on here)

Ingredients:

Cos lettuce
Red Onion
Cucumber
Tomato
Pitted Kalamata Olives
Feta Cheese
Red Capsicum
Balsamic Vinegar

Chop all ingredients, combine and serve with Balsamic vinegar.


Marinated Grilled mushrooms


300g mushrooms (I used button mushrooms, but it doesn't really matter)
Diced red onion
1 clove garlic
Oregano
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt

Pop mushrooms into a bowl and then pour over vinegar and oil, sprinkle with salt and oregano and then mix. Leave to marinate at least for 15 minutes, and then put on a greased tray and put under a high heat, grill until mushrooms get brown and lovely. Turn mushrooms half way through. It took about 10 minutes in my grill but grills can be different.


Toasted Pita bread with Cucumber Tzatziki

Toast a couple of pita breads under the grill and then chop into triangles. 

Tzatziki Ingredients:

150g Greek Yoghurt (I used Jalna Low fat Greek yoghurt)
Very Finely chopped cucumber (I used a quarter of a Lebanese cucumber)
1 clove Garlic
2 tsp Lemon Juice
Chopped mint

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and you can adjust the measurements of the lemon and garlic to suit your taste.

The Greek antipasto mix I bought at Woolies just had semi-dried tomatoes, more feta, and kalamata olives in it.

The nicest way to eat this (I feel) is to put everything in the middle of the table and let people just help themselves. It probably isn't a kid-friendly dish, (unless your kids are older and eat everything) but it is so very yummy. The meal serves 4 adults, but you could probably increase the amount of lamb, especially if you're feeding men who like their meat. It's a good meal for entertaining and really nice when you want something really fresh! Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesdays: Chicken and Potato Slice

This recipe is one that my Mum used to make. It is one of my favourites, I think I may have even requested it for a birthday dinner once. The name isn't terribly romantic, and I could be creative and rename it, but to me, it is Chicken and Potato Slice. And it is goooood. I don't tend to make it often because it's a little fiddly, but it is well worth it!

Chicken and Potato Slice

Serves 4

Ingredients:

500g chicken thigh fillets
3 large potatoes
1 tsp chicken stock powder
1 floret brocoli
1 floret cauliflower
1 onion
Garlic
1/2 cup grated cheese

For the sauce:

4 tbs butter
4 tbs cornflour
2 cups of milk (alternately you can use 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of chicken stock)
2 tsp mustard
4 tsp mayoniase
3 tsp sour cream
1/4 cup of grated cheese



First, put two pots of water on to boil. In one, place the chopped broccoli and cauliflower, and in the other place the potatoes slice thinly. Then fry chopped chicken fillets with garlic, chicken stock, and onion.

Once the vegetables are cooked, (if you hate washing up like me) you can re-use one of the saucepans to cook the sauce. Melt the butter over a low heat, then add the cornflour. Once that makes a paste, gradually add the milk while stirring. Once the sauce has thickened, add the mayonaise, mustard, sour cream and grated cheese.

Once everything is cooked, grease a baking dish, then place the potatoes on the bottom.

Followed by the brocolli and cauliflower.

Then place the chicken on top.

Finally pour over the sauce and sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese.

Then place the dish in a fan forced 180 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the cheese is beautiful and golden. Hopefully something like this.

It even has the Georgie seal of approval!

Also, guess who is being a big girl and drinking cows milk?

Wohoo!!! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the dish if you make it, we did!

Tasty Tuesdays: An Introduction

I've decided to start doing something a bit different. Every week, I'm going to try to cook something new.

I've been in the doldrums a little with food lately. Just a bit over it. I know morning sickness probably hasn't been helping too much. But now I'm feeling better and I want to give myself a little motivation and inspiration.

So I'm going to try to cook something different and sharing it here on Tuesdays. It might not be fancy-pants-gourmet food. I can't really see this becoming a foodie blog.  But it will be something different to the usual meat and three veg, spaghetti bolognaise or basic chicken stir-fry, all of which seem to make a regular appearance on our dinner table. I'm also not just limiting myself to dinner, I might try making an interesting dessert, or something for morning tea. But I just feel like my cooking needs a bit of a shake-up at the moment.

I'm hardly a master chef. But I can cook. I am not a terribly precise cook. I rarely measure things. I tend to be more of a do-it-as-you-go cook. My sister Jenny doesn't get my cooking at all, she is a precise cook and watches me in disbelief and horror sometimes. So I will post recipes and photos, but many times my recipes may include a pinch of this or a splash of that, so you'll just have to bear with me if you give my recipes a go (and probably just look the the other way of you are a precise cook!) The recipes won't be fancy. I rarely use cream, I tend to just use the types of ingredients I have in the house most of the time, unless it's a special occasion. I also don't have a Thermomix or a Kitchenaid. (sob!) I do have a Food Processor, but still haven't quite figured that one out, most of my recipes will be quite basic, so don't expect to see any of this kind of thing!

Image taken from here

It's funny. If I actually had to describe my cooking I'd say I'm a lucky cook. I have made some spectacular things in my time, I went through a cupcake craze, and once had a go at making my first ever sponge cake for my Grandma's birthday. The cake turned out really well, (surprisingly!) but I learned a very important lesson about turning egg-beaters off at the power socket before you fiddle with beaters. My poor hands got a bit twisted and sore, but I managed to do no lasting damage! Luckily, most of my flops seem to be reserved for the family dinner table. But fortunately for me Shane is not very picky, and will try most things. He's honest, and will tell me if he doesn't like something. But he will try it.

I was actually going to take photos and share the recipe of something different I cooked last night. But thanks to Ergon and their power supply stuff ups, I ended up going over to Mum's and cooking dinner yesterday afternoon, so I didn't get any photos. But I will begin next week!