Stuffed Peppers (another version!)

Ingredients:

1 large pepper per person
25 g. peas
handful of mushrooms
50 g. rice
1 Tbsp. Cream Cheese
3-4 meatballs (or veggie balls) optional
olive oil

Slice the top off the pepper, and cut in half lengthwise if it will not stand upright of its own accord.  Remove all pith and dice a good bit of top.  Put aside.

In a small-medium pan, boil the rice for 10 minutes.  Add the peas after 4 minutes.  When ready drain and return to pan.

Mix the cream cheese, mushrooms, and meatballs into the rice and peas.

Place pepper on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, and stuff with mixture.  Drizzle again.

Place baking tray on middle shelf of oven preheated to 190 C for 20-30 minutes.  The longer they are cooked, the crispier the rice becomes.

Enjoy!
-Juliet

Profiteroles filled with Creme Patisserie and covered in Chocolate Butter Sauce

Here’s a fancy and impressive dessert recipe to try!

For Profiteroles:

65 g / 2.5 oz. flour
50g/ 2 oz. Butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
120 ml/ 4 fl. oz. Water
1 egg beaten with 2 tbsps. milk (for brushing)

Preheat oven to 200 C/400 F.  Grease cupcake tray with 12 depressions at least.

Put butter and water in saucepan over low heat, stirring continuously until butter melts.  Bring to boil then remove from heat.  Add all flour and salt and stir until well mixed.

Return saucepan to medium heat and stir mixture continuously until it comes away from the sides of the pan.

Add two eggs, one at a time, beat until smooth.

Spoon pasty into tray.  Whisk remaining egg with milk and brush the resulting mixture over the pastry.

Bake in oven 25-30 minutes.  Poke each profiterole with a sharp knife or fork to release the steam.  Leave to cool.

For Creme Patisserie

1 Tbsp Flour
7 Fl. Oz. Hot Milk
2.5 Oz. Sugar
2 egg yolks
2 Tsp. vanilla

Beat egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl

Add flour and stir in

Heat milk in saucepan.  When hot (but not boiling!) slowly pout into egg, sugar, and flour mixture.  Mix well.

Return mixture to saucepan and cook on low-medium heat, stirring constantly.  The mixture will start to turn lumpy, keep stirring until it recovers a uniform consistency and add vanilla.  The resulting mixture should taste very like thick custard.  Add more sugar if desired.

For Chocolate Butter Sauce:

225 g./ 8 oz. Plain Chocolate, broken into pieces
250 ml/ 8 fl. oz. Water
90 g./ 3.5 oz. butter, but into pieces

Stir chocolate pieces and water together in a saucepan over low heat until the chocolate is smooth and completely melted

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until the mixture is glossy.

Open the profiteroles, fill with custard, and douse in chocolate sauce.

-Juliet

Small Batch Baking

Every time I feel like trying out a dessert recipe, im struck with the same old notion : it’ll probably go to waste! Coming from a family of fairly health conscious eaters (Im sure most of us are these days…..although i have a very very demanding sweet tooth), and one thats not very large, my sweets often get comfortable in a little corner in the fridge, only touched once in a while, when someone gets that intense sugar craving or if friends come to visit. As a result of this, i went in search of a recipe that produced a small quantity of my all time favourite snack : a crispy, granola inspired cookie. I baked them yesterday and I’m proud to say they are hardly any left, probably because there were only about 10 cookies to begin with!

This recipe was originally for chocolate chip cookies but i substitued the chips for oats, sunflower seeds, coconut, cashews and almonds! You can use anything really.. all that matters is that you get the basic dough right.

2 tbsp + 2 tsp butter (room temp)

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp egg (well beaten)

1/4 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour

scant 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips or A handful each of oats, sunflower seeds, dessicated coconut, chopped almonds and chopped cashews

1. Cream the butter and sugar.

2. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

3. Stir in the dry ingredients.

4. On a greased cookie sheet, place balls of dough (size according to your prefference) and press them slightly so they flatten. Be sure to leave some space between each ball as the cookies expand as they bake.

5. Bake at 190 degrees celcius for about 8-11 minutes.

Tina

It’s not Easy Eating Greens

Actually, it is with this tasty and simple recipe!  Try this to avoid any Kermit the Frog related complaints at the dinner table.  You can use any kind of greens: kale, chard, collard greens, spinach, brocolli leaves…they’ll all have their own flavor, but will be tasty.  Keep in mind that the greens will melt down to practically nothing, so you need to start with quite a lot to get a decent serving.

For approximately 1/2 pound of greens

2 tbsp. olive oil
a pat of butter
3 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
chili flakes or cayenne pepper to taste

Warm the olive oil and butter (the blend gives a wonderful flavour, but isn’t necessary) over medium heat and add the greens.  Once the greens are approximately half their original size, add in the chopped garlic and let it sautee, now is also the time to add the spice if you’re using any.  After the garlic has been sauteed, add in the balsamic vinegar, and let it carmelise.  Now turn off the heat and serve.

The result is a wonderful medley of sweet, sour, and spicy flavours.

Enjoy!
-Emma

Spiced milk

My spin on chai, minus the tea aspect. It’s a great, relaxing drink for getting yourself to sleep, and I prefer it to drinking warm milk straight. I’ve given quantities below for whole spices and estimations for substituting whole spices with ground. Don’t stress out about crushing the spices – just whack them with a mortar (or a mug) and throw the shards in. Also, sometimes, if I don’t have any ginger to hand, I grind in a bit more pepper for that fiery kick.

Spiced milk
Serves one – just double or triple the quantities if you’re serving more

1 cup milk
2 cinnamon sticks, crushed (1 1/2 tsps)
2 – 3 star anise, crushed (1/2 tsp)
1 tsp ground ginger, or two tsps freshly finely-grated ginger root
3 – 4 cloves, snapped in half (about 1/4 tsp)
a couple of grinds black pepper – about 1/8 – 1/4 tsp)
1 – 3 TBS runny honey, depending on your taste

1) Place milk and spices into a saucepan. Place over low – medium heat (depending on your patience!) and bring to a boil. Remove from heat (you don’t want it to boil over!) and strain. Mix in honey to taste and serve.