Well, I’m now back home after my amazing UK trip. Already planning for next year’s…..which means tightening the belt and saving hard.
I really struggled to find time to post whilst away, and wasn’t cooking anyway, although I did have some fabulous food experiences. I found using WordPress on the iPad quite frustrating, both via the app and via Safari, so a couple of times I started a posting and then gave up in disgust! I will, however get back to normal now, after I get over the time difference, the 30 hours of travel, the unpacking and the washing…..
Waterlily House
I’ve already fired off an email today asking Kew Gardens if they’ll share their Peyton & Byrne Kew Explorer muffin recipe with me. I had a fantastic day at the gardens/palace last Sunday (basically the weather was disgusting most of the time I was there, but the last 2 days were amazing), and I had the foresight to 1) get there at 9.30am when the gates opened, and 2) grab a takeaway sandwich & muffin from one of the great cafes, so that I didn’t have to line up for food later when it got too busy. This was a good move, as I just stopped and ate when I was ready, then continued my explorations (it’s huge!), and when I left at 2.30pm there was a queue of 100m out the gate and down the road, waiting to get in – Londoners do like to make the most of the sun coming out, especially this year when it has been their coldest Spring since 1979.
Queen Charlotte’s Nosegay Garden
I hope the cafe is nice enough to share the muffin recipe with me – it had carrot, zucchini and apple in it, and pumpkin seeds on the top, and was absolutely delicious. Fingers crossed. And no I don’t have a photo to show you, as I had devoured 3/4 of it before I thought of it, and by then it looked too pitiful to take a picture of!
Also in Kew I went through the Georgian kitchens – and met some Youtube cooking stars – which I will tell you about later…..
I am amazed at how great these dairy-free Fruit Cocktail Muffins taste – this recipe is from the 4 Ingredients: Kids recipe book, and in fact only has 3 ingredients in it! I wasn’t expecting too much of this, but it turned out brilliantly. Mind you, the blurb in the book says “these are ideal for breakfast when in a hurry” …..well, considering the sugar content from the caster sugar and the fruit/liquid, I’m not sure I’d encourage children to eat this in place of other breakfast options – but certainly as a supremely easy morning tea or after school snack this is ideal.
Kids could easily make these themselves with very little assistance, and all you need is to have a can of fruit cocktail in the pantry and you can whip them up and have them in the oven in literally 2 minutes.
For a more decadent version, I might add some choc bits next time. And a bit of cinnamon in the mixture would be good. Or if you have any leftover tiny Easter eggs lying around (unlikely I know!), you could press one into the centre of each muffin before cooking – caramel-filled eggs would be even better.
I’ve frozen some to see how they taste when thawed – possibly they’ll be quite dry and might need butter or jam spread on them. And I’ve realised just how similar this recipe is to the Pineapple Cake I’ve made before – in fact, almost identical – so that means you could easily substitute a particular fruit in this (or the cake recipe), rather than the mixed fruit cocktail. Lots of scope!
Fruit Cocktail Muffins
2 cups SR flour
1 cup caster sugar
410 gm can fruit cocktail, undrained
Preheat oven to 150C (140C for fan forced). Grease or line a 12-capacity muffin pan.
Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl and stir well.
Add the undrained fruit cocktail an stir until just combined (if a little dry, add 1 tbsp milk).
Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops of golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
I’m in Melbourne now, for Christmas with the family, and am more in party mode than cooking mode! Lots of socialising and catching up with people going on this week. I have cooked one meal for my mum and son, my delicious and sooooooo easy Beef Rendang, but apart from that I’ve been eating out or having a sandwich.
I’ve had a lovely lunch at Red Fire Lounge (see pic below of yummy calamari stirfry with hokkien noodles – the calamari was ultra-tender and it was a HUGE serving, no way could I eat it all), and a wonderful brunch in the sun at Barmah Park Winery, complete with champagne at 10.00 in the morning!! It is Christmas, after all, and I’m on holidays. In fact, my friend and I spent 3 hours there yackety-yacking, and the waitress asked if we’d then like to order lunch as well lol. I’ve eaten there before but never ordered from the breakfast menu, and it was divine. Sitting outside on the verandah, looking out at the vineyard – supremely relaxing and fun.
Mum and I have written our grocery shopping list for this weekend, and we’re pretty well organised, so it should be fairly stress-free. We will do most of our cooking and a lot of other preparation on Christmas Eve, so that on Christmas Day it’s all just a matter of throwing a few easy things together and slicing things up. Chilled out and relaxed, is the aim.
The Christmas ham is all ready to be hacked into, and I’m sure that will happen in the next day or so – after all, it’s so huge there will be more than enough for Christmas Day (along with roast turkey, rolled/stuffed pork and a myriad of vegies and salads….not to mention nibbles and dips beforehand and LOTS of desserts later on….let’s face it, it’s just one big food-fest ALL day!!).
So…whilst I might not be doing too much actual cooking this week, I’m certainly doing some fabulous eating!
I had a go at making these last week for a quick dinner after work. This was SO easy and I thought for sure it would be a winner, but for me the flavours didn’t quite work. I found it too greasy tasting, and mine did not come out as perfect looking – in fact they sunk when cooling down, into concave little cheesey blobs really. I had trouble getting them out of the tin, despite it being non-stick and oiled, and the taste just didn’t do anything for me. I ended up scraping it all into the bin and ordering a szechuan prawn Crust pizza instead!
I do think this is a great recipe for kids to make though, and I think little taste buds would enjoy the flavours more than I did.
I burnt these! I’m still not used to just how hot my current oven is – I keep turning the temp down lower than every recipe says, but it is still too hot. Actually it has been great for cakes rising so far, much better than my previous oven, but I must remember to turn it down even more. Also the oven doesn’t have a window in the door – how archaic – which is a bit frustrating, as you can’t see how things are going, but you don’t want to open the oven too often to check, especially with cakes.
Despite their burnt bums, these muffins, which use yummy Cherry Ripe bars in them, were all eaten by the TAFE class that I took them to!
I’m sorry if you are not able to get Cherry Ripes where you live – you haven’t lived ’til you’ve tried one!
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl; stir in the remaining ingredients and mix (do not over-mix).
Spoon into a lightly greased muffin tray. Bake at 190C (unless your oven is super hot like mine in which case lower it a bit and keep an eye on them) for 25 minutes.
Now that banana prices have finally come down (yay!) I can make these muffins again. I love to make a batch of these and freeze for those moments when you need a sweet fix that isn’t too unhealthy – 20 seconds in the microwave and you have a yummy warm banana snack.
Banana Muffins
1 3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 cup low-fat plain yoghurt
1 egg
2/3 cup olive oil
2 large or 3 small overripe bananas, mashed
Preheat oven to 180C.  Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin pan.  Sift flour and sugar. Combine yoghurt, egg, oil and banana in large bowl and gradually add dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.  Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 mins or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 5 mins before turning out to cool. Serve warm or cold.
Makes 12.
(and you might think this is gross, but try them split open and spread with Vegemite…….sounds awful but this combination of flavours really works!)
Easy to whip up at the last minute, these little puffs make a great savoury treat to take to a morning tea. Â I’ve been making these since 1986, and although the recipe calls for plain tasty cheese, nowadays there are so many wonderful Australian cheeses available that I have experimented a bit sometimes – this particular batch has Tilba Trilogy in it, because it is one of my favourites and I nearly always have a wedge sitting in the fridge.
If you want a vegetarian version, leave out the bacon and add finely chopped mushrooms instead. At times I have actually divided the mixture in two and made half with bacon and half with mushrooms.
Egg & Bacon Puffs
2 eggs
2 rashers lean bacon, diced
2 cups self-raising flour
2 cups grated tasty cheese
fresh parsley, chopped (to taste)
2 cups milk
Mix all ingredients except milk, then add milk gradually and mix well. Â Let stand in fridge for an hour. Â Place in greased metal patty pans, and cook at 210C for 20 mins (turn tray after 10 mins to cook evenly). Â Makes ~24
Allow to cool for 20 minutes before removing from tin.
For many of you, school is looming all too quickly. Â I still have 3 weeks of holidays left, but I do like to stock up the freezer with snacks and lunch things to take with me to TAFE.
Here is a Bran Muffin recipe I like to use – easy and yummy.  I always make double quantity – partly so I don’t have to bother too often, and partly because buttermilk is not something I use more than in an occasional other recipe – so a 600ml carton of buttermilk leaves a lot of wastage if you only make 12 muffins.
Actually, with double quantity of the mixture I get around 22 muffins, so I must make them a tad bigger than the author.
These muffins are great for play-lunch when I go to a full day of classes – sweet, but not too sweet. Â And although there is a fat content to them, it is the right sort of fats, so it is healthier than a muffin recipe with butter in. Â Plus there is bran, so it’s great for that all-important fibre intake!
If I get a sweet pang at home, there’s no need to wait around for a muffin to thaw out – zapped in the microwave for about 25 seconds, it is all warm and yummy for that immediate sweet craving fix!
I’d better go and taste-test one of the fresh ones just out of the oven…..it is my duty to make sure they are alright, after all……
Salmon & Avocado 