Tag: Recipes

Cooking legend

After posting the other day that I hardly use the stove anymore, I did use it yesterday for something that made me feel very clever…

Egg and Garlic Chive Pot-sticker Dumplings

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5 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
bunch garlic chives
teaspoon cornflour plus more for preventing sticking

Crack eggs into a bowl and mix with oyster sauce. Cook in a frypan like scrambled eggs (they don’t need to be cooked through). Mix together with chopped chives and cornflour.

Put a teaspoon of mixture in a dumpling wrapper (the white ones, not the yellow ones), moisten edges and crimp together. Nobody really cares if it’s perfect!

When you run out of filling or wrappers, put them in a frypan with a splash of peanut oil and ¼ cup water. Crank up the heat and put a lid on. The dumplings will steam until the water evaporates, and then the bottoms will crisp up nicely.

I served mine with chinese red dumpling vinegar (I have no idea what this is really called), but that isn’t really necessary – they are entirely delicious without sauce!

Recipe adapted/stolen from http://www.mijorecipes.com/appetizers/crispy-chinese-dumplings/.

Ferdinand!

A couple of months ago, Mark and I attended a thermomix demo. I was curious about the machine, it chops, it stirs, and it cooks – and it costs about $2,000!

I went to find out more, and was very impressed. I wanted one, but couldn’t see a way of justifying the expense. Mark disagreed – he helped me to rationalise it, and a few weeks later we ordered one.

So Ferdinand took up residence here a few months ago, and we haven’t regretted the decision. Even considering the cost, it’s been worth it. I’ve given away the food processor, and only used the stove about twice since he came. I’ve made risottos, vegetarian sausage rolls, soups, casseroles, sorbet, ice cream (creme anglaise, frozen, then blended with strawberries), steamed veggies, polenta, fruit juices, pancakes with pear and strawberry sauce, pizza dough (the only thing that isn’t as good as my original recipe!), béchamel sauce, “chocolate” date balls (Inigo LOVES these – dates and cocoa with a bit of coconut, he thinks it’s chocolate), apricot iron booster balls, Moroccan tomato soup, home made preservative free veggie stock etc, etc.

It’s been great, and since a few friends are also interested in finding out more about the machine, I am having a demo on saturday – let me know if you’d like to come!

Bread. Yes, again.

I first posted about the bread here.

Then here after I refined the recipe a little.

But now I’ve done a final re-jig to make the recipe work for me. I buy flour in 2kg bags, so I asked my maths man to do the numbers so I didn’t have to measure 13 cups of flour each time.

So now I use 2kg of flour, 4 tablespoons of bakers yeast, 2 tablespoons of salt, and 1.6 litres of warm water. Mix, and dump into a tub that will go into the fridge.

What I have found is that I can just throw a lump of dough into a bread pan lined with baking paper and it makes a nice dense, almost sourdough like loaf. If you like, you can also brush it with milk and scatter sesame seeds, caraway seeds, poppy seeds, or my favourite, nigella seeds on top before baking.

Or, you can work the dough a little, and leave it in the pan to warm up to room temperature before baking for a lighter loaf.

You can also use wholemeal flour, with exactly the same recipe.

And it makes wonderful french toast, and after a day, fantastic dippers for your baked brie. Recipe to come one day….

Bread

I posted a while ago about my marvellous bread discovery. But I keep forgetting the measurements, so I am posting the ratio detail so that I will always have the recipe on hand.

And for me, it’s more of a 6.5-2-4-13 rule. But your mileage may vary….

The “6-3-3-13” rule. To store enough for eight loaves, remember 6-3-3-13. It’s 6 cups water, 3 tablespoons salt, 3 tablespoons yeast, and then add 13 cups of flour. It’ll amaze your friends when you do this in their homes without a recipe!