Spring Has Sprung

Though technically there is another week of winter, if you go by Sunday’s 33 C/92 F temperature, I think it’s safe to say that Summer Spring has well and truly already arrived.  To combat the heat and provide a bit of relief, I’ve been focusing on light and refreshing food and drink.

With all the lovely (and cheap!) new season strawberries, this dish has graced our table more than once in the past two weeks.  It’s perfect as a breakfast, side dish or dessert, and it’s loaded with noms!

Strawberry Salad With Orange Blossom Water

1 lb fresh strawberries, washed and sliced
1 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 cup orange blossom water
1/4 cup sugar
mint leaves or pistachio nuts, to garnish

Mix together the orange juice, orange blossom water and sugar. Pour over the strawberries. Place mixture in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Serve cold, sprinkled with chopped mint or pistachio.

Makes 4 servings.

Sweet Mixed Nuts

These have quickly become the new snack food of choice at Casa Nowson.  If you were to search Scott’s desk at the office, you’d probably find a jar of them squirreled away there too.  Luckily they take no time at all to make, and we always have a supply of nuts on hand.  This week I used walnuts and macadamias because they were on top in our nut basket and thus easiest to access.  Besides, walnuts are never a bad idea because they have Omega 3s, and macadamias, well they’re just plain tasty. 

Sweet Mixed Nuts
by Calee

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups nuts (any combination)

In a microwave safe dish combine sugar, water and spices.  Heat in microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes until sugar melts.  Stir in nuts.

Spread nuts evenly on a microwave safe plate, and heat on high for 3 1/2 minutes or until syrupy (mine are usually done in 3 mins 10 secs).  Watch closely making sure the sugar doesn’t burn.

Place nuts on wax paper to cool completely.  Break into pieces and store in an air tight container.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Tomatillo-Green Guacamole

I just made my first recipe from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen: Tomatillo-Green Guacamole.  I’m going to serve it with some grilled fish for lunch today.  All I can say is:  NOMS!

Tomatillo-Green Guacamole

1 cup Essential Roasted Tomatillo-Serrano Salsa (to follow)
4 large ripe avocados
1 teaspoon salt

For 1 cup Essential Roasted Tomatillo-Serrano Salsa:
8 ounces (5 to 6 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 to 3 fresh serrano chiles
1 large garlic clove, unpeeled
1/2 small white onion finely chopped
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro (coriander)

Making the Salsa:

Lay tomatillos on a baking sheet and place 4 inches below a very hot broiler.  When the tomatillos blister, blacken and soften on one side, about 5 minutes, turn them over and roast the other side.  Cool.

Roast the chiles and garlic in a heavy skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally, until blackened in spots and soft, 5 to 10 minutes for the chiles, about 15 for the garlic.  Cool, then pull the stems from the chiles and peel the garlic.

Combine the tomatillos, chiles and garlic in a food processor.  Process to a coarse puree.  Transfer to a medium-size bowl.  Scoop the onion into a strainer, rinse under cold water, shake off excess and stir into the tomatillo mixture along with the cilantro.

Finishing the guacamole:

Mash the avocados with a large fork.  Stir in the salsa, and season with salt to taste.

Makes 4 cups.

* Tomatillos are thin on the ground in Australia, so I had to use canned  (I know, I know) for the Tomatillo-Serrano Salsa, but if you’re in a pinch for time, I suppose you could easily sub with store bought salsa verde.

Fresh Peach Cobbler

It’s no secret that I enjoy cooking.  Just look down this page, and you’ll be hard pressed to find four posts that don’t at least mention food or drink of some kind or another.

However, one thing you may have noticed among our weekly menus and recipes is a distinct lack of traditional Southern cuisine.

There is a reason for this:  I moved away to attend university in New York City at 17.  I have spent my entire adult life living in New York, Dublin, Edinburgh & Sydney, so my cooking skills have predominately been honed far away from the place of my birth.

This trip, I decided it was time to play catch-up, so I’ve been practicing all manner of Southern dishes.

This was my first attempt at making a traditional Southern peach cobbler, and it was Scott’s first attempt at eating one.  The results were extremely well received (plus it’s super easy and quick).  Make sure you serve it warm, topped with vanilla ice cream.  Lots of noms! 

Fresh Peach Cobbler

4 large fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash cinnamon
3/4 cup milk

Mix peach slices with 3/4 cup sugar, and set aside.  Pour butter into an 8-inch square baking dish.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and remaining sugar.  Stir in milk, until just combined.

Pour into baking dish over butter.  Top with peaches.

Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.

*Makes 6 servings

Passion Fruit Puddings

Sue was kind enough to bring us more passion fruit from her vines when they visited last week, so “do something with passion fruit” has been on my Google Tasks list for five days now (I love Google Tasks btw- I have totally done away with Post-Its.  It’s almost as fantastic as Google Goggles.  ).  So this morning, I had a bit of free time and decided to surprise Scott with a little lunchtime treat.  I chose this recipe because we had all the ingredients on hand, and it didn’t require me to make pastry at 9am like so many of the others I perused.  Mmm passion fruit. . .

Passion Fruit Pudding

1 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1/3 cup passion fruit pulp
1 lemon, juice of
1/2 cup self raising flour
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 200C.  Beat egg yolks and half a cup of sugar until pale; add rind, pulp, butter, flour, juice, milk.  In a separate bowl, beat whites until stiff; add half a cup of sugar.  Fold egg whites in yolk mixture.  Pour into a six cup oven dish or individual ramekins.  Place in a baking dish in the oven.  Pour hot water into the baking dish until it’s filled half way up to the dish containing the pudding.

Bake 50 minutes for a large pudding and about 30 minutes for small ones. They should be golden brown but not burnt on top and have separated into a light sponge on top with lots of creamy sauce underneath.

Serve with cream and/or ice cream.

Makes 6 servings.

*I used four large ramekins, and mine were done in under 20 minutes, so keep an eye on these.

From recipezaar.com

Chewy Toffee Cookies

Yesterday Scott mentioned that he’s been working very long hours from home, and he has indeed.  I’ve missed him very much (though my Harvest Moon farm is now THRIVING! ).  Along the way, to keep his spirits bolstered, I used some of my extra free time to whip up a batch of Chewy Toffee Cookies.  They are incredibly helpful for selecting topic driven features (or so I’ve heard).

Chewy Toffee Cookies

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup honey
1 large egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces crunchy toffee bits (bits-o-brickle)

Preheat oven to 180c.  Mix sugar, butter, shortening, honey and egg in a large bowl.  Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Stir in toffee bits. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls 2-inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Cool 3-4 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Makes 24 cookies.

(*I couldn’t find a recipe I liked, so I combined a few to come up with this one.)

Get In My

It’s no secret that one of Scott’s most favourite foods is pork belly, so as a treat this week I made Pork Belly and Szechuan Salt & Pepper.  It’s so unhealthy, that this is the kind of treat that comes along maybe once a year, so I hope he enjoyed it while it lasted. 

The recipe can be found here.

Passion Fruit Cordial

On their recent visit, Sue was kind enough to bring us a bag of passion fruit from her garden.  Seriously, they could open a fruit market out of their house with their abundant supply of passion fruit, bananas, pawpaws and mangoes.

Yesterday I set out to find a nice recipe in which to use them.  Of course, it didn’t take long for me to figure it out: Cocktails!  So I made this lovely Passion Fruit Cordial.  I can already tell you that it is noms in sparkling water.  Now to experiment with some cocktail recipes. 

Passion Fruit Cordial

1/2 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup passion fruit pulp
1 lemon, juice of
1/2 teaspoon tartaric acid

Boil water and sugar in a saucepan for 5 minutes.  Add the passion fruit pulp, lemon juice and tartaric acid.  Boil for another 3 minutes. Strain seeds and pulp, and pour the mixture into a bottle.  Refrigerate and use within a month.

Makes 1 cup.

Basil & Spinach Pesto

One day I asked Scott to pick up some basil on his way home.  Upon arrival his first words were, “This was the only size they had.”  As he pulled out the GIANT bag, I laughed and asked what exactly I was supposed to do with that much basil.  It’s pretty obvious really: make pesto (I mean really, what else was I supposed to do with it?)!  The bonus is that pesto freezes really well, so you can make as much as you want, and there’s no fear of it going to waste.  Not surprisingly in our home, very little actually made it to the freezer.  Someone discovered a love of homemade cheese bread slathered in pesto (and bovril, but that’s another story all together- yuck!). 

Basil & Spinach Pesto

3 1/2 c fresh basil leaves (firmly packed)
1 1/2 c fresh spinach leaves (firmly packed)
1/2 c pine nuts
8-10 garlic cloves
1 lemon, juice of
1 c extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt

Chuck everything into a food processor (or blender) and blend, or you can do it the proper way: Combine the basil and spinach with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor.  Add the garlic, pulse a few times more. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended.

Both ways work just fine. 

Sunday Brunch

Rosti with Smoked Trout & Scrambled Eggs. . .noms!