Zucchini Bread (Cake?)

It’s interesting that carrot cake is always cake, but banana cake and zucchini cake are often called breads. The ingredients for all of these are very similar, but we never say carrot bread (or beetroot bread!) do we! I think they’re all really cake, because bread in my view is generally a savoury thing. But who am I to argue with the masses…….

Anyway I came across this great looking zucchini “bread” recipe a couple of weeks ago via a Food.com e-newsletter, and decided to make it for morning tea at work, last week. As I had successfully made my usual carrot cake in the bread machine the week before, I looked at the zucchini bread ingredients and thought hmmmmm they’re very similar in quantity etc. so I’ll do this one in the bread machine too.

It worked, but it was not as moist as the carrot cake, so I think this one would be better eaten straight after cooking (I made it the night before taking it to work). Also it didn’t rise quite as much and I think would have been better on the medium crust setting, which would have baked it about 8 minutes longer. It was good enough to be a “keeper” though, so I will change the baking time slightly next time.

Below is my bread machine version for 1 cake – if you want to do it the original, oven way, here is the website I got it from – which is in fact quantities for 2 loaves.

The Ultimate Zucchini Bread (CAKE!!)

In order, place the following ingredients in bread machine bowl:

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 1/4 cups grated zucchini

1 tbsp orange zest, grated

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bi-carb soda

1/2 tsp salt

Bake on bread machine’s Cake setting, with Medium crust and 750gm loaf settings.

If you’re feeling like a more savoury bread, try this lemon & dill bread, also in the bread machine. I made this again recently and we had it at work with apricot & almond cream cheese on top – a great combination with the bread flavours.

Happy Fooding!

Mulling Over This One….

This Mulled Pork recipe looked excellent on the face of it – anything that calls for a whole bottle of red wine can’t be bad! I did enjoy it; however, the meat was too dry, particularly with the leftovers the next day. The flavours were fabulous and my flat smelled amazing – lots of citrus and red wine and cinnamon and cloves in the air – it was quite Christmasy in fact!

The dish is adapted from a recipe from More Than a Schnitzel, a German cookbook recently acquired by my library. I will make this again quite happily, but use beef instead of pork – slow cooking for 8-10 hours is just too much for pork, in this instance. Venison would probably be good with these flavours, but might also dry out I suspect.

Mulled Pork

1 kg diced pork

750 mls red wine (I used a Merlot)

2 1/2 tbsp brandy

juice and zest of 2 oranges

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp brown sugar

6 cloves

1/4 cup raisins

1 tbsp beef stock powder

4 apples, sliced

3 onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

cracked pepper, to taste

1 tbsp cornflour

Place all ingredients except cornflour in crockpot bowl, and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (or leave overnight in fridge).

Place bowl into crockpot base and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours. About an hour before serving, mix the cornflour with a little cold water and blend to a smooth paste. Add this to the meat and stir through.

Serves 4-6

Happy Fooding!

Green Bean Salad

I’m sorry there is no photo of this yummy salad – I DID take photos but they seem to have disappeared into cyberspace somewhere. Take my word for it, this does look great!

I’ve mentioned before that I got a great new cookbook for my birthday, and have shared with you a wonderful barley recipe from it. I’ve also tried a stuffed squid dish, which tasted quite good but to be honest wasn’t tasty enough to warrant the amount of effort that went into preparing it.

This vegie salad is a delight of vibrant colours and zesty fresh flavours. Although the book says it serves 4, it actually makes quite a large amount, so is a great salad to add to your Summer bbq side dish collection.

The recipe calls for flat beans, but hey use whatever fresh beans you like. Same goes for the parsley – curly-leafed would be fine, and you could use walnuts instead of hazelnuts.

Italian Flat Bean Salad

800 gms flat green beans, trimmed

2 lemons

1 orange

1 red onion, thinly sliced

2 bunches of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

80 gms hazelnuts, finely chopped

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Blanch the beans in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling water for 3 minutes or until tender, then cool under running water.

Remove the zest from the lemons and orange with a zester or vegie peeler. Cover with a little boiling water and let stand for 1 minute; drain well.

Remove the remaining pith from the fruit and discard, then cut the flesh into segments.

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Refrigerate until serving.

Happy Fooding!

Home Again…..

I’m back home from my 10 day sojourn in Brisbane – back to the real world. I made this delicious pork dish in my crockpot the day after returning – so it was ready when I got home from work. It is great to have that convenience of coming home and smelling the wonderful smell of Wintery meals cooking, especially when you have unpacking and washing to do from a trip away!

This dish is from the new Sally Wise cookbook, Slow Cooker 2. I love crockpot recipes where you don’t have to do any browning or pre-cooking – after all, what’s the point of a slow cooker if it still requires just as much work as a dish baked in the oven or on the stovetop. The whole idea is to make your life easier, so I always go for the recipes that are just thrown in together. This is one such as that and it turned out great, although the pork was a tad dry – I probably should have reduced the cooking time by an hour or so I think. The recipe said 7-8 hours on Low, but I think 6 would have been better.

Not sure why it has “chilli” in the title either, as 1 tbsp of sweet chilli sauce has no spicy effect on a mail meal at all!!! I will up that next time. The orange flavours really came through, and I ate the strip of rind rather than discard it – mmmm very nice (I am a bit weird though).

Chilli Pork with Orange

700 gms lean diced pork

1 onion, diced

1 strip of orange rind

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tsp grated orange rind

1 red capsicum, chopped

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

3 tsp tomato sauce

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp chicken stock powder

1 tsp apricot jam

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook for 4 hours on High or 7-8 hours (I suggest 6) on Low.

Happy Fooding!

A Visit to the Valley

I took my mum to Feral Brewery in the Swan Valley last week for lunch, after first stopping at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory for tea & a chocolate truffle, and the Cape Lavender shop for some lavender and coffee bean smelling.

Feral is a micro brewery that has a lot of the pale ale type beers – not my preference, but it is a nice relaxing place to take visitors – and they do serve wine and champers as well, phew.

I just wanted something light and healthy for lunch, so continuing with my current seafood frenzy, I had a prawn, cucumber & orange salad. Absolutely delicious – so light and refreshing tasting, with a gorgeous orange & coriander flavoured dressing. Mum didn’t want anything much so she ordered “just” a serve of wedges – haha, she couldn’t eat it all, and we ended up taking the fresh sourdough bread home for later as well.

We ran out of time because I had to work later in the day, so we didn’t get to visit any of the valley’s wineries – probably have to go back there again before Mum leaves, for the obligatory wine tastings….

Happy Fooding!

Let’s Get Fruit-Cake-y

Soaking the fruit...

Well here is the super dooper EASY Christmas cake I made last week. It tastes very, very fruity – not surprising when you read what’s in it! I’ve cut a bit up already, as it was so easy I think I’ll just make another one at the last minute if we need it. Also I may splosh a bit of booze over it a few days before Christmas, to give it some alcoholic pepping up!  It is yummy just as it is anyway.

The cake is dairy-free, and I guess it is low-fat, although to be honest I am not really sure what goes into making dried fruit – apart from loads of sugar that is.

Christmas Cake

1 kg mixed dried fruit

500 mls (2 cups) orange or apple juice

2 cups self-raising flour

Place the dried fruit in a bowl; mix through the orange or apple juice. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge to allow the fruit to soak up the juice.

Combine the flour with the fuit/juice and mix well.

Place mixture in a greased/lined 25cm round baking tin.

Bake in 150C oven for 2 hours (cover loosely with foil after about an hour if the top is looking cooked/browned enough).

Happy Christmas Fooding!