Crumbly raspberry and oat slices

Crumbly berry and oat slices

 

It is spring here, going into summer, so in a couple of months we should be inundated with berries! This is a delicious slice to make for an afternoon snack. I love raspberries in this, but then again I love raspberries in everything!!

100g plain flour
100g plain wholemeal flour
175g porridge oats
175g butter
150g sugar
Finely grated rid of 1 lemon
250g fresh or frozen berries
Icing sugar

1. Lightly butter base and sides of a shallow 27x18 rectangular baking tin or similar sized roasting tin
2. Put flour and oats in a bowl. Rub butter into them. Stir in sugar and lemon rind and continue to crumble the mixture until it starts to cling together.
3. Turn half the mixture into the tin and put it down into an even layer. Scatter the berries over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining crumble.
Bake in a preheated oven 180 degrees celcius for 45-60 minutes or until the topping is turning golden. Cut into fingers and leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

Dad's Italian Biscuits

I am not sure where my dad got this recipe - though it must have been from an Italian friend or recipe book. They were my mothers favourites. Every now and then she would get a craving for them and she'd turn to dad and say "Johnny, make me some Italian biscuits", and he would. As a child I didn't really appreciate the subtle sweetness of these - I'd make sure I grabbed the one most liberally doused with icing sugar. These days, I love the subtle vanilla and lemon flavour of them. OK, to be honest, I still love the icing sugar - just a dusting though, not a snowfall! My dad has slowed down as he has gotten older, and he has problems with one of his hands, so he does not cook as often as he used to. Dad's precious recipe book has been bequeathed to me. I've had it now since last Christmas. So when dad asked me last week, "have you made the Italian biscuits yet?", I knew what he meant. He's coming over tomorrow for lunch - and I have a lovely tin filled with Italian biscuits ready and waiting for him.

Dad's Italian Biscuits

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups self raising flour
60g butter or marg
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Sift flour, rub in the butter or margarine. Add sugar, mix well, Make a well in the centre and add the combined lemon rind, vanilla, egg, and milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until it is a soft, pliable dough.
2. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead gently until the dough is smooth.
3. Roll dough out gently until 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds. Place on a greased baking tray. Bake at 200 degrees C, for 15 minutes of until a light golden brown. Cool.
4. When cool dust with icing sugar and enjoy.

Spinach and Feta Pie

This is a great little pie to make when you have lots of green spinach or spinach-like plants in your garden (or at the farmers markets lol). I usually use english spinach, rather than silverbeet or chard, as it seems to have way less moisture. I also will throw in some of my perpetual spinach, and a few leaves of sorrell which give a lovely lemony acidity to counter-balance the saltiness of the feta. If you don't have sorrell squeezing half a lemon into the spinach-feta mix will do just as well.

It is lovely served hot out of the oven, but it is also very nice served cold with a salad - making it a nice dish to take to a picnic!

Ingredients

Filling
About 400g of spinach/perpetual spinach - chopped roughly
A few leaves of french sorrell or the juice of half a lemon
300g of green onions/spring onions - sliced
200g feta in small cubes
4 eggs beaten

Pastry
A pack of filo pastry
olive oil

Method
Preheat oven to 200C.

Mix the filling ingredients together. taste and season if necessary (usually only pepper, as the feta will salt the dish).

Take a sheet of filo and lay on your oiled baking dish. Brush lightly with olive oil, and lay one cross-ways across it. Continue layering the filo until you have about 14 sheets, brushing lightly with olive oil on every second sheet. Doing this in my square dish allows the filo to create a thin layer of pastry up the sides of the dish/pie and will then fold over the top a little. I then use extra filo to fill the gap. But if your dish is bigger or you don't want to have the pastry on the sides then feel free to trim away!

Fill the pie dish with the filling mixture, pressing down firmly. Top with 7-10 layers of filo sheets. Brush the top layer with olive oil.

Place in over and bake for about 50 minutes or until pastry is golden and crunchy. Serve with a green salad.

Beef Stroganoff

There are a million recipes for beef stroganoff, but THIS is the strogonoff that my dad makes. So in my eyes it is comfort food, and the best stroganoff recipe out there.

Ingredients

250g mushrooms sliced
500g blade steak
1 onion fine diced
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 tbs tomato paste
1/3 cup of beef stock
1 tsp sour cream

Method

Cook onions in oil until translucent. Add in beef and brown. (if your pan is small you might want to brown the beef in batches so it doesn't stew).

Once all the beef is browned add in the mushrooms, a pinch of salt and pepper, and pour in the stock. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add in the sour cream and cornflour and stir till thickend. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Serve with something green like snow peas, beans, or brocolli, and some potatoes or pasta.

Enjoy!

Home made chicken noodle soup

I always loved it when my dad made his chicken noodle soup. So light and filling and yummy. Now that I make it myself I love it for many reasons - because it reminds me of home, because it makes a bucketload of soup (very economical), because it is so easy to make, and because it is good for you! These days I tend to make the soup, and then use the poached chicken for salads or in other dishes. I have the veggies and broth with noodles.

One pot of soup makes many many dishes.

Home made chicken noodle soup

1 whole chicken
3 carrots sliced
2 parsnips sliced (we do lengthways quarters, just a family thing)

1 onion diced
1 garlic finely chopped
water to cover
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley (optional)

salt and pepper to taste
egg noodles for serving

Cook onion on a low heat until translucent in a big old soup/stock pot.  Pile all the other veggies in. Sit the whole chicken on top. Cover with water. Bring to boil and then lower the heat and simmer for about 50mins - 1 hr or until the chicken is falling off the bone. Adjust your seasoning of salt and pepper to taste. Remove chicken. Use a paper towel to skim any fat/froth from top of soup. You can then either shred the meat and return to the pot or use the poached chicken in other dishes.

Serve soup with freshly cooked egg vermicelli noodles.

Makes about 10-12 bowls of soup, freezes well (sans noodles), and lasts in the fridge for days.

Placki z jabłkami (aka apple pancakes)

I bought some yummy apples at the farmers markets a couple of weeks ago & figured I should use them up!
Apple pancakes are just delightful served warm, and are also nice served cold so they make a lovely snack to take to work/school/picnics. Very easy to make - if you can make a pikelet you can make these babies.

Ingredients

2 eggs
350ml milk
2 tbs sugar
2 1/2 cups of self raising flour
3 small or 2 large apples

bit of butter for frying
icing sugar to serve

Method

Whisk eggs, sugar, milk till frothy. Fold in flour.

Peel, core, half and finely slice apples.

Makes a generous amount for breakfast or morning tea :)

Heat pan, rub v lightly with butter. Put a spoonful of batter into pan, press two halves of apple into the batter. Cook till bubble appear. Flip over and cook till the bottom is brown.

Serve with icing sugar sprinkled over the top. They are also nice with a bit of cinnamon in the batter - a bit apple tea-cakey. :)

Note: You can also slice the apples into match-sticks or even grate them and just incorporate them into the mix instead. I just prefer this method because you get a little bit more crunch to the apple.

Chive Kluski with Garlic Cream

Love love love this. I was tired, and had only odd things in the fridge - leftover mashed potato, boursin, half a carton of cream, and a rubbery carrot. I really must go shopping... Anyway, mother is the neccessity of invention, so I took on the challenge, and came up with this dish. OMG it is really yummy. It's a take on a normal potato kluski (see my kluski recipe for more detail). Basically to the potato kluski recipe add 1 bunch of finely chopped chives. Then boil them and strain them. These kluski are soft, pillowy, and savoury. A great addition at this point to soups and stews... I can just imagine them in a chicken soup. The experiment was not to end here, though...

To a pan add a lug of olive oil with 1tsp of butter. Add in the kluski and cook until golden on the outside. At this point they are great as a side dish to steak etc - soft inside, slighty crunchy outside, with that lovely slightly oniony flavour. But, I wasn't yet done.

Pour in some cream and crumble in 1/2 a pat of boursin (a lovely creamy garlicky cheese). Stir till melted and the sauce thickens. Eat with cries of pleasure at just how delicious it is. I would have sprinkled some herbs on top, but I had used all the chives and it was too dark and cold to go outside and find any herbage... but I think a little bit of parsley or thyme would be lovely on top.