Bondon Cheese

Bondon cheese is a French cheese from the Normandy region. It can be made with either cow or goats milk. It is a mild cream cheese, with a greatly reduced fat content to normal cream cheese as it is made from milk rather than cream. Great with crackers, or mixed with herbs. Melts nicely into a white sauce as well ;)

Ingredients

• 2 litres of full cream milk
• 4 drops of calcium chloride diluted in 2 tbs of non chlorinated water (unless you are using milk straight from the cow/goat!)
• one dose of MO 030 meophilic starter culture
• 2 drops liquid rennet diluted in 2 tbs of non chlorinated water

Instructions

• heat milk to 20^oC 
• remove from heat source, add the calcium chloride and stir well
• add the starter culture and mix well
• ass the rennet and mix well
• cover and let stand for 24 hours in a warm place so that the milk mixture does not drop below 20^oC 
• line a colander with cheesecloth. ladle the curds into the cloth, and drain for 5 minutes. 
• Tie the colth and hand to drain for 6-8 houirs.
• Press the cheese for 5-6 hours either in a cheese mould or in between two cutting or cheese boards with a 5kg weight on top. 
• remove it, place it in a bowl, and add salt to taste.

Staisa's Sousy Scallywag Pudding

This was my mums signature dessert. Every year she was asked to bring it to work Christmas functions, and she would also make it for New Year's Eve. It is simple, but really really yummy. This year I made one for Christmas eve dinner with friends, and was forced to make one again for New Year.... not so much of a hardship, really.

Ingredients

600ml bottle of cream
A packet of scalliwags*
1/3 cup icing sugar
sprinkles and other sugar decorations as your heart desires
1/2 cup Tia Maria (rough estimate)** 

Method

This was for a news year dinner;
using kahlua instead of tia maria

Whip the cream with the sugar and the vanilla till stiff. You don't want the cream too sweet, as the rest of the dessert will be very sweet, so use less sugar if you wish but don't add more.
dunk a scalliwag into tia maria. Slather it with cream. Stand it on a serving tray. Take another scalliwag, dunk it into tia maria, slather it with cream and sandwich it to the previous biscuit. Repeat until you have run out of biscuits, and have created a long log of creamy little scalliwags.
Cover the entire log in cream. Decorate to your taste.
Cover and chill for at least 6 hours.

Cut, serve and eat. Is yummy on the day, better the next day, and awesome on day 3. It never makes it to day 4, so I can't tell you how long it would actually last ;)

Notes:

* Scalliwags are thin chocolate biscuits shaped like scalliwags, which is to say politically correct golliwogs.
** You can experiment with other alcoholic beverages here- kahlua, schnapps, frangelico all work well.

This was our Christmas version

Disclaimers:

Alcoholic, so not for the kiddies.

I really like the word scalliwags

Queso Blanco (White Cheese)

This is a mexican curd cheese. It is remarkablly bland and mild in flavour, and is a great carrier and complement to other flavours. It is great used as a base for dips - adding in fresh herbs, garlic, etc makes for a really lovely spread for crackers. It is a fantastic complement to spicy foods, and makes a nice white cheese sauce.

Ingredients

2 litres of milk

1/4 cup of vinegar

Method

• heat milk to 60C - note to those who don't have a thermometer: this is when the milk starts to achieve a slow boil.
• take off the heat, pour in the vinegar and stir for a minute.
• leave for 20 minutes for the curds to form
• line a colander with cheesecloth, and place this over a saucepan or bowl to catch any liquid
• pour or ladle the curds into the colander
• leave for 5 minutes, then tie the cheesecloth and suspend over a bowl for 2 hours on until it has stopped dripping.
• Salt to taste

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!