Slow news day today. Pikelets

Slow news day today. The weather here to-day is overcast with a few showers.  And on top of the forty mm of rain in the previous twenty four hours plus the twenty-six mm last Friday it's just way beyond to wet to do anything outside.

A rainy day treat/comfort food for me anytime is pikelets. A favorite of mine from childhood (who doesn't have a 'favorite from childhood') when my mum would make them for us. I don't remember having them hot but I do remember them cold with thick butter and jam spread over them and then made into a little sandwiches.

Cooking, cooking, cooking

Eating, eating, eating.

I found the recipe on a website called Kidspot where there is a truck load of interesting stuff all related to um, er, kids of course.

This is a link to the recipe on their website and following is a copy and paste job.

Pikelets recipe

Serving Size:

Makes 20
Category:

Breakfast, Budget, Cakes and Baking, Kids cooking, Kids food, Lunch Box, Easy recipes, Snacks, Cake stall
Ingredients:
Gluten-free (see note below), nut-free

2 cups self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup (250mL) milk
1 tablespoon butter
Method:

    * Sift flour and salt, add sugar, drop unbeaten egg into the middle of the bowl and stir.
    * Slowly add enough milk to make a thick batter. Beat well until smooth.
    * Heat a non-stick pan over a medium heat, melt  teaspoon butter and drop heaped tablespoonfuls of mixture into the pan.
    * I cooked about 5 at a time. When bubbles appear on the surface, turn the pikelets (muttering and cursing and chasing them all over the pan) and allow to brown on the second side.
    * Transfer pikelets onto a plate and cover with a cloth while you finish cooking the remainder.


Notes:

    * Easy to pack in lunchboxes because you don't need to do anything else to them. Handy for afternoon tea, too.
    * I also make these for breakfast (on those infrequent 'perfect' mornings) as a change to regulation weet-bix or toast.
    * It can be a bit tricky getting the temperature right, I prefer to cook at a lower heat and potter round the kitchen doing other things while they cook slowly.

There you have it,

Cheers and happy pikeleting

Stewart.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. ~John F. Kennedy

The Food of Italy by Claudia Roden

Whilst I was out on my training walk for my Mt. Kosciusko climb yesterday, I knew full well I'd be going past the Lifeline second hand Book shop at the Range Shopping center and that I'd find it irresistible to dropping in.

And as usual I came away with a little gem. This one is called The Food of Italy by Claudia Roden.

I've only had this book just on twenty-four hours but already there is half a dozen recipes I'm eager to try.

The inside liner notes suggest 'The Food of Italy' is an original and authoritative record of the world's best loved cuisines.

It goes on to say, 'For her award-winning series 'The Taste of Italy' in the Sunday Times Magazine in 1988, Claudia Roden travelled up and down the country, through every region, to discover the local specialities on their home ground. She spent much of her time in the kitchen of both professional and private cooks, watching them at work and listening to their stories. In this book, which is based on her series but offers a great deal more, she gives us the best of the dishes she discoverd in more than 300 fully tested recipes. Uncomplicated and unaffected, they are part of the authentic regional traditions now being rediscovered'.

I'd go on further to say she gives each region, eighteen in all, its own introduction including some history of the area. The recipies also include a brief introduction along with an Italian and english title ie:-

PATE DI FEGATO

Liver Pate

The recipe for this pate comes from Danilo, the young owner-chef of La Crota at Roddi d'Alba. Most of his customers ask for assaggi-small tastings of everything, a way of eating which has come into fashion in the last ten years.

I'm going to find this book very enjoyable as a read as well as a reference for some good cooking.

Biography

CLAUDIA RODEN was born and brought up in Cairo and educated in Paris and in London, where she now lives. Widely admired as both a great cook and a fine writer, she is the author of several books, including The New Book of Middle Eastern Food and The Book of Jewish Food. The Food of Italy grew out of "The Taste of Italy," a series of articles she wrote for the Sunday Times of London. Her writing has been awarded many prestigious international prizes, including five Glenfiddich Awards, the James Beard Award in the United States, the Versailles Award in France, and the Prince Claus Award for Culture in the Netherlands.

Happy cooking and cheers everyone,

Stewart

Lunch is served.

Baked pasta with fetta and pumpkin

I've been getting around to making this for a while now and finally succeeded today.

It could easily drop 100g of pasta and pick up 100g of pumpkin and maybe some extra fetta wouldn't hurt either, but as it is it was very yummy.

A great way to use up some extra pumpkins.
Three thumbs up





I'm going down to the Toowoomba Community Organic Gardens this afternoon to start digging up my patch so the extra carbs should come in handy.

Have a nice day and happy veggie gardening, cheers,
Stewart

Straight forward Tomato Jam

After requesting a recipe for Tomato Jam on the Aussies Living Simply website, and with many thanks to Kirsty for her recipe, I set about making my first batch of Tomato jam.

I've been eating this stuff ever since I can remember, between two Grannies a Mother and the local markets I've never had to go without, but I had to have a go myself.






Tomato Jam Recipe

3kg ripe tomatoes
500gm green apples
4 medium lemons
2.5 kg sugar

Peel and slice tomatoes. Peel, core and chop apples finely. Put all in a saucepan. Add grated rind of the lemons and cook 1 hour.

Add the juice of the lemons and the warmed sugar, stir until sugar has dissolved and then boil rapidly until it jells when tested.
Pour in to warmed sterilized jars and seal




I had about 10 Tomato Jam recipes to choose from and a few said to use a teaspoon of Cinnamon, which I did.



Apples about to get the chop


Just starting to cook.












A little bit longer

I cheated a little bit here, rather than wait for the apple to blend in with the Tomatoes I used a stick blender. It worked really well and even blended the Tomato skins into a smooth pulp.










In goes the sugar. Note the colour change.
















Ready











Ta Da.
I also had a recipe my Mum sent over which said basically the same thing with smaller portions, so between the two of them I managed to get the job done.

One and half kg tomatoes skinned and sliced. Skinning optional

500 gr apples, peeled and chopped.

Finely zested rind and juice of 2 lemons

One and quarter kg sugar

Put tomatoes,apples ,lemonjuice and rindin boiler or large saucepan

And simmer until the apples and tomatoes are tender and partially blended.

Add sugar, stirringuntil it dissolves. Boil until setting point is reached.

Bottle and seal.

The Verdict

Pretty bloody good if I do say so myself. I would have liked it a bit thicker but I'm not sure how to go about that, does anyone have any suggestions?

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Worlds biggest Tomato, well not really. Update

The Worlds biggest Tomato, well not really.

Clicking on the photos will give you a bigger picture if you want.












Is now lunch.


The big one in the middle will be lunch.
















All sliced and ready to go.


Now in my book there are only two ways to eat a Tomato like this.

Both involve bread, white bread, I grew up on the stuff so anything else just spoils the taste.









One involves cooked silverside and the other involves ham, any kind, sliced, pressed, off the bone, dosen't matter.

First is fresh white bread, silverside, 'the Tomato' and cucumber, I usually have beetroot and lettuce but I wanted to enjoy the taste of 'the Tomato' without too much distraction. Bit off salt and pepper.

Verdict, terrific, damn terific.










The second way to enjoy a Tomato like this is toasted, again with fresh white bread, cheese and ham, in this case just sliced ham 'cause that was all there was left in the fridge.

Butter the outside of the bread, sit it in a frying pan, just hot enough to toast the bread, cook till golden brown and the cheese has melted









Verdict, Heaven, If heavens got food like this I want to go to heaven.



I like hearing from you all and all comments are welcome.
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Highly recommended #2

Pommes Dauphine
French for Potato bake only better.

The book is a Christmas present and since I have an abundance of Pommes (pink eyes to the rescue again) I decided to give Pommes Dauphine a try and it turned out the best potato bake I've had, seconded and thirded by wife and daughter.

Btw not a bad cookbook either.

Ingredents

1 clove garlic peeled and crushed with the flat of a knife
30g butter
1kg potatoes, peeled (I left my skin on) and thinly sliced
140ml single cream
Salt and Pepper
180g grated Comte or Gruyere cheese
90g butter cut into very small dice (not easy)

1/ Preheat the oven to 200c. Rub the bottom and sides of a heavy baking dish with the crushed clove of garlic. Grease the bottom and sides liberally with butter. Use a dish that can also be employed as a serving dish.

2/ Spread half of the potato slices in the bottom of the dish, sprinkle with half the cheese, salt and pepper and dot with half the butter dice. Top with the remaining slices of potato, neatly arranged. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, salt, pepper and butter.

3/Pour the cream into the side of the dish around the potatoes.

4/ Cook in the top part of the oven for 30-40 minutes (mine took 60 min), or until the potatoes are tender and the top is nicely browned.
Serve immediately.