Beef Casserole with Herb Dumplings

This was very very nice..... no leftovers...

About 500g diced beef
Olive oil
3 carrots
Celery (3 sticks)
Garlic (2 cloves)
2 onions
c. 1.5 pints of beef stock (2 cubes)

1. Garlic. Chop.
2. Onions. Chop.
3. Into the pan with garlic and onions. 2 mins. High heat (5-6 on the hob)
4. Add the beef. Stir until browned.
5. Add chopped celery and chopped carrots.
6. Add half the stock (you can probably add all in one go, but I did half, and then added the rest once it had disappeared) and turn down to 3-4. Cover.
7. Cook for 1-2 hours (I didn't keep track - just pop in and check occasionally).

Make the dumplings:
100g SR flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder (I was a little too generous with this - closer to 1tsp = v.big dumplings!)
50g Atora Light Shredded Vegetable Suet
Herbs - Flat-leaf parsley was suggested in the recipe I started from, but didn't have any and so used dried rosemary. This was OK, but probably will experiment with something else next time (thyme, perhaps?).

1 Mix ingredients together with c. 5-6 tbsp of cold water (enough to make a sticky dough).
2. Put spoonfuls into the casserole - stir slightly (so some of the juice covers the dumplings). Cook for a further half an hour, then serve.

Butternut Squash, Bacon and Sage Risotto with Pine Nuts

This is very nice, perhaps a little rich (next time I'll actually measure the sage....). However, very good for taking lunch to work.

1 large butternut squash (or as much as you've got left)
3 rashers of unsmoked back bacon
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
15 sage leaves (says the original recipe from the BBC website, but I used dried sage, which I got from Spice Master)
Sea salt and ground pepper
400g of risotto rice
Vegetable stock (2-3 cubes, about 1.5 pints)
Parmesan cheese
Pine nuts

Step 1: Roast the squash with the chopped garlic, glug of olive oil, half the sage leaves, sea salt and pepper. (Will take around 40-50mins @ 200C)
Step 2: Mash the squash (lightly).
Step 3: Heat some oil in the saucepan, cook off the chopped bacon.
Step 4: Add the squash and sticky juices from the roasting pan.
Step 5: Stir, add in the risotto rice and stir until grains are covered by the oil.
Step 6: Add some of the stock, stir, wait until absorbed, add stock, stir, wait until absorbed, etc.
Step 7: Add in some dried parmesan (c. 1-2 tbsp).
Step 8: Toast the pinenuts in a hot frying pan, and scatter over the risotto once served.

Lamb kofte and herby couscous with citrus and pomegranate dressing

I made this a few weeks ago, after we'd been sent pomegranates in the fortnightly fruit and veg box (which I would generally recommend - it does expose us to a wider range of fruit and veg than I would eat otherwise).
I'd also picked up some reduced lamb mince from Associated Dairies which was just sitting in our (small) freezer waiting for some inspiration to hit. It was the large stockpile of couscous which eventually triggered a Middle Eastern train of thought and so after a little Googling, I came to this. The kofte recipe is an adaption of a Jamie Oliver one (but I don't like pistachios, so left them out) and the couscous recipe comes from BBC Good Food.

Lamb kofte
500g lamb
2 heaped tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves (I think that I used the remnants of a 'Herbes de Provence' packet
1 tablespoon ground chilli
1 tablespoon ground cumin
4 tablespoons sumac if available, or finely grated zest of 1 lemon (yep, I went with the lemon)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
A good handful of pistachio nuts (yuk, no!)

1. Blitz lamb in food processor with thyme, chilli, cumin and sumac, a little salt and pepper. Repeat until it looks like mince.
2. Shape into balls/four pieces (as you will).
3. Griddle.

Herby couscouse with citrus and pomegranate dressing

200g couscous
150g pack of pomegranate seeds (I used 2 pomegranates, which are a bit of a pain to deseed, but there is a knack to it*)
Handful of chopped herbs e.g. coriander
Juice of 1 orange
2 tbsp each white wine vinegar and olive oil

1. Add 200ml boiling water to the couscous (in a shallow bowl), cover (e.g. clingfilm) and leave for 5 mins.
2. Ruffle with a fork to separate the grains, then stir through the pomegranate seeds and herbs.
3. Make the dressing by mixing together the orange juice, white wine vinegar and olive oil and then stirring into the couscous. Season well with salt (it says, but I don't remember adding salt!) and serve.

Delicious and lovely and spicy and warm.

* Deseeding a pomegranate is quite fiddly and can be quite messy apparently. The trick is to deseed while holding the pomegranate in a bowl of water. The seeds will sink, the pith will rise (and can then be removed e.g. with a tea strainer). Much easier.

Shepherd's Pie

An unexpectedly good shepherd's pie was produced this evening, the method hereby recorded for future reference and to assist in repetition.

It all started when I picked up a reduced pack of lamb mince when scouring the shelves in Associated Dairies. For a while, I was thinking along the lines of lamb kofta, but went along the pie route after realising that it had been a little while.

1. Glug of oil and dried rosemary into a stockpot/deep saucepan (I used my IKEA 'fake Le Creuset' stockpot) on a medium heat (3-4/6 on the hob dial)
2. Add two onions, roughly sliced
3. Add lamb
4. Add two tins of tomatoes (one chopped, one plum)
5. 3 leeks, roughly chopped
6. Stir and cover.
7. Pop back in a while, and check how it is getting on - add a lamb stock cube (just crumble it over the contents, don't add water)
8. Stir and cover.
9. Pop back in a while, add a lamb stock cube and some frozen veg (e.g. sweetcorn) and some more rosemary.

At this point, my lovely husband took over, made mash with more rosemary, and made the pie up. Topped off with left over mozzarella and a little parmesan.

Nice.

Carrot Cake (Light Fruit Cake?)

It has been rather a while since I blogged, I see...., well... I'll blame 'busy season' for that one.

So - the carrot cake. As I am currently being willingly coerced out of my long-standing objections to a number of different vegetables (Reader, I willingly ate cabbage and chard last week), I thought that it was time to revisit my objection to vegetables being mixed with cake.

This recipe (from the BBC Good Food site originally) tastes quite like a light fruitcake. It was better the day after making (although not objectionable then, certainly).

Ingredients
175g light muscovado sugar (I used up some demerera and a little light golden sugar)
175ml sunflower oil (I used extra virgin olive oil, as that's all I had)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
140g grated carrots (I chopped them in the food processor)
100g raisins (again, I didn't have these in, so had half and half sultanas and currants)
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nuetmeg

Icing:
175g icing sugar
1.5-2 tbsp orange juice

Instructions:
1. Oven on to 180c (160c if fan). Prepare the cake tin (I used a loaf tin).
2. Mix sugar, oil and eggs with a wooden spoon.
3. Stir in carrots, raisins and orange rind
4. Mix the flour, bicarb and spices and then sift into the bowl (I didn't do this - just popped it into the mixing bowl and let the Magimix do its work)
5. Pour into the tin and bake for 40-45 minutes.
6. When firm and springy, remove from oven, cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
7. Beat the icing sugar and OJ together until smooth. The consistency should be approximately as runny as single cream.

Indian chicken ... (murgi musallam)

This weekend saw Sister-In-Law-The-Younger (SILTY?) leave London for the Promised Land in the North to complete her university studies after a year's internship. As such, she (and Mumsy) stayed over on Saturday evening. I wanted to cook something a bit nice for Sunday lunch, and a bit Indian, so that we could try out the mango chutney (recipe to be posted) which I had made earlier in the week.
I was wanting to cook 'murgi musallam' - as set out in the recipe here.
I think that it worked quite well - I susbtituted butter and a little olive oil for the ghee, and chopped the chicken breasts up instead of cooking them whole. I also stirred through (on the advice of The Husband) half a tsp of ground cumin and a tsp of ground coriander towards the end.
Served with leftover saffron rice (rescued from SILTY's freezer) and plenty of fiery mango chutney. Yum!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 medium-size chicken

2 tbsp yoghurt

2 medium-size onions

1 tsp salt 8 raisins ½ tsp coriander, grated or powder ½ tsp ginger, grated or powder

4 cloves of garlic, grated or chopped

8 whole black peppercorns

2 cinnamon sticks, about 4in

4 cloves

2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

4 cardamoms, peeled and sliced

4 almonds, peeled and sliced

Pinch of powdered saffron

Method

1 Marinate the chicken with the yoghurt, one onion (grated), salt, raisins and all the spices, except the cardamom , almonds and saffron. Leave for up to an hour.

2 To cook the chicken, heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and about 2 tablespoons of water in a pan, add the meat, and cook covered until it is tender, removing the lid until most of the liquid has evaporated.

3 Remove all the marinade and mash to make a paste. Meanwhile, fry the chicken slowly with the other tablespoon of ghee until it is nicely browned.

4 Rub the marinade paste over the chicken and cook for a few minutes more on a low heat, adding the cardamom, almonds, saffron and one onion (fried).

5 Serve hot with pilau rice.

Fridge cake.... possibly

During the aforementioned lunch, I suddenly remembered 'fridge cake' which I last made when I was about 13/14 years old. I remember biscuits, butter, possibly golden syrup, all bashed up and put in a foil-lined tray in the fridge to chill with some melted chocolate on top. So.... I texted The Sister - but she had no recipe for it.
She did, however, have a recipe (from her mother-in-law) for 'No-Bake Chocolate Crunch' which seems very similar, and will be tried out tomorrow (in amongst the Bank Holiday spring clean, aquaerobics, charity shop trip, cooking hushpuppies etc. etc.).

4 oz marg
3 oz sugar
1 tbsp syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp milk
12 oz digestive biscuits (apparently you can't buy these in the States - how odd!)
3 oz raisins
3 oz of cooking chocolate - melted.

1. Melt: marg, syrup, vanilla essence, sugar, cocoa, milk
2. Bring to the boil.
3. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
4. Add the crushed biscuits and raisins.
5. Pour into a shallow 7" square tin.
6. Cover with melted chocolate.
7. Chill.

Fish pie

Prompted by a rather delicious Sunday lunch at Sister-in-law the Younger's today, this is the recipe for Fish Pie which I have used recently. Taken from 'Easy Living' -

Serves 4-6
Prep 30 mins
Cooking 35 mins

Mashed potato to cover (make more than you think you will need, as it is difficult to spread across the top of the pie dish)
500g (1lb) firm white fish fillets
250g (80z) smoked fish fillets
600ml (20 fl oz) milk
1 bay leaf
4 black peppercorns
50g (1 3/4 oz) butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
250g (8oz) small uncooked prawns, peeled
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tbsp chaopped flat-leaf parsley
20g (3/4 oz) butter

1. Make mashed potatoe, head oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4
2. Skin fish, remove bones, flake into bite-sized pieces.
3. Into the saucepan: white fish, smoked fish, milk, bay leaf, peppercorns - over a medium heat and summer for 5 minutes.
4. Strain the mixture, reserving the fish and the milk.
5. Melt butter over a low heat, add the onion and cook for 7 mins, stirring lots, until soft and translucent.
6. Add flour, stir well, cook for 1 minute.
7. Slowly whisk in the reserved milk, and bring to the boil, whisking frequently, and cook until smooth and thickened. Allow to cool.
8. Add the prawns, cayenne pepper and parsley to the bowl containing the fish, and pour over the sauce.
9. Add milk if appears too thick, season with salt and pepper (I tend to leave out salt)
10. Spoon the mixture into pie dish.
11. Cover over with mashed potato. Fluff with a fork. Dot with additional butter.
12. Bake for 30-35 mins / until golden and bubbling.

Serve with something green (mmmm, petits pois, green beans!). When I made this for the Husband's parentals, I added tarragon to the mashed potato, which I think worked.

Lamb tagine in the slow cooker

I've called this 'tagine' because it tastes Moroccaan, and it's suitably catchy. Lamb with Moroccan seasoning and couscous is somewhat of a mouthful.

Anyway - here goes:

2 onions
2/3 carrots,
Vegetable stock (one cube + enough hot water tSo cover the contents in the slow cooker)
Lamb chops (one pack - c. 5 small chops)
Seasoning to taste (in my case, generous shakes of:)
- ground coriander
- ground cumin
- cayenne chilli pepper
- crushed, dried chilli flakes
- a bay leaf (The Husband says all seasoning begins with bay leaves)

This needed to be in the slow cooker for 12 hours - so I popped it on low.

About 20 minutes before eating, add couscous to the slow cooker. Leave to absorb the juices. Add more seasoning and stir in.

Nice, nice, nice. Lamb falling apart. Would work well as a cold meal (e.g. for packed lunches).

Next time, I might trim some of the fat, or sear the meat first - a little on the greasy side, but only a touch.

Mmmm ... Beef Stifado

First day back at work today, The Husband and I went via the Rose of Waiting to pick up some provisions in advance of a big on-line shop next week.

We picked up 'Beef Stifado'. Gorgeous!

A little hunt on t'internet produced a variety of recipes, including this one.

One to try, methinks...

Fruity chutney

This weekend was the first one 'in' for a while, so I had time to cook properly.

As we had a pot of stem ginger in the cupboard (which has been there since I-don't-know-when) and a mango, beginning to go off, I decided to look on the BBC Good Food website where I found this recipe.

• 900g plums
• 2 Bramley apples (about 550g/1lb 4oz)
• 450g pears
• 1 large mango
• 900g muscovado sugar
• 500ml bottle cider vinegar
• 2 medium onions (not red)
• 85g chopped stem ginger (from a jar of ginger in syrup, or crystallized)
• 3 garlic cloves , finely chopped
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 rounded tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp crushed dried chillies
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cinnamon stick

1. Halve, stone and chop the plums (about the same size as you would for an apple pie - not too big, not too small). Drop them into a large saucepan. Core, peel and chop the apples and pears in the same way. Peel, stone and chop the mango. Put all the fruit in the pan.
2. Stir sugar, vinegar, onions, ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, coriander, crushed chillies and salt into the pan, then drop the cinnamon stick on top. Heat slowly for about 20 mins, giving an occasional stir, until the sugar has dissolved. Now leave the chutney to simmer at a steady pace, without a lid, stirring occasionally until reduced and thickened, but still with a nice balance of syrupy juice. This will take about 1½ hrs. You don't want to cook it until all the liquid has gone, as it will thicken once it cools. Discard the cinnamon stick.
3. Using a heatproof jug, pour the chutney while still hot into sterilised jars. It will keep for about a year in a cool, dry place.

Notes:
This smelled quite vinegar, but apparently (I don't eat chutney, so have to go by The Husband's comments) doesn't taste too vinegary. It is rather nice apparently.

Lamb biryani

I've just tracked down The Husband's favourite dish, which I shall have to attempt at some point...

Madhur Jaffrey's lamb biryani.... I found the recipe here.

Flapjacks

Thanks to The Sister for passing this recipe on. Perhaps, once my broken cooker is fixed, I will be able to try this one out myself.

1. 2 x 250g blocks of butter
2. 1 x small (454g) tin of golden syrup
3. 1 x sugar bowl/cup of sugar
4. 300g plain flour
5. 600g oats

6. large baking tray with at least 1" deep sides
7. Oven pre-heated to 200 degrees centigrade.

place 1, 2 and 3 into a large saucepan and boil until all melted,
combined and caramelised. remove from heat. pout in 4 & 5 to the
liquid mix and stir. pour into lined and prepared 6 and level.
place in 7 for 9-10 mins until light golden brown. remove from oven.
score into slices. allow to cool in tin for approx 10 mins. cut down
along scored lines. invert onto cooling rack, use second cooling rack
to then make flapjack right way up again and separate out the pieces
and allow to cool, checking the quality control slice(s).

Hunter's Chicken

What I cooked for Saturday dinner (shortly before the brand-new cooker died - grr!) for The Husband, Sister-In-Law The Younger and me.

Serves 4

Recipe is taken from Nigella Express and tweaked here and there.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
Garlic to taste
Pancetta (c. 75g - or a whole packet, if more)
Red onions
Bunch of rosemary
3 chicken breasts
1/2 tsp celery salt
125ml white wine
400g (tin) of chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
400g (tin) of cannellini beans.
2/3 peppers - red/yellow will work best

Method:
1. Fry off the chopped garlic, onions, rosemary and pancetta for a couple of minutes (adding one at a time - probably in the order stated above)
2. Add the chicken, stir well, sprinkle with celery salt
3. Pour in the wine, and let it come to a bubble.
4. Add the tomatoes and bay leaves.
5. Replace lid, simmer for 20 minutes.
6. c. 5-10 mins before serving, add the sliced peppers.
7. Drain the beans and add to the pan just at the end of the 20 minutes (in 5.) - when they have warmed through - Serve!

This was accompanied by some rather lovely focaccia (with a garlic and pesto centre) made by Sister-In-Law-The-Younger.

Yum!

Chilli Con Carne

My chilli recipe - adapted from Mary Berry's 'Complete Cook Book'.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
250g (or a tin) of red kidney beans in water
2 tbsp olive oil
450g (or a pack) of beef mince (steak mince is best)
2 onions, chopped
2 fresh red chillies
Garlic to taste (recipe says one clove crushed, I would probably use c. 1/4 - 1/2 bulb as The Husband's family are *very* keen on garlic)
1 tbsp plain flour (or, at a push, any flour)
500ml of beef stock (made from Oxo) + another beef Oxo cube to crumble in
2 tbsp of tomato puree

Method:
1. Put olive oil in pan, throw in chopped garlic, and chopped chillies. Cook off for a few minutes to let the garlic/chilli infuse into the oil.
2. Add the meat. Brown off. Add the onions.
3. Add the flour, stir in and cook for a minute.
4. Add the stock, and then the tomato puree. Stir.
5. Crumble in the additional stock cube. Stir.
6. Add the beans. Stir.
7. Bring to the boil.
8. Turn the hob down to c. 3 or 4 (assuming it goes up to 6) and leave, covered with a lid, for c. 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
9. Eat.

This works very well (The Husband thinks that it is better, even) if it is cooked, put in the fridge overnight, and then reheated through (e.g. in the slow cooker when at church, as we did this morning - even if parking restrictions meant that we didn't actually make it to the service).

Lamb shanks

We had very nice lamb shanks for Sunday lunch today - recipe as follows (taken from the BBC Good Food website, and tweaked):

Lamb shanks (1 per person - the quantities below were for 4 people)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
rosemary
3 bay leaves
1 garlic bulb (this is due to the family being v.pro-garlic - the original recipe I looked at suggested 4 cloves)
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp tomato puree
350ml white wine
500ml lamb stock
and an extra stock cube.

The original recipe also had the lamb cooked at 200C for c. 2 hours. As our oven is half broken (so we use just the grill/top oven, and the hob), we had to tweak that as well as we needed the oven to cook roast potato wedges for the meal...

So....

• Put the olive oil into a stew pan, add the lamb shanks, cook at 200C for 10 mins
• Add chopped carrot and onion, cook for a further 10 mins
• Add the garlic, rosemary and bay leaves, cook for a further 3-5 mins
• Remove lamb from the pan, set aside, transfer pan to hob
• Add white wine, lamb stock (could probably use both cubes at this point - i used one, and then put one in later on), flour (remember to mix in well) and tomato puree (n.b. this amount does make it quite tomato-ey - I may cut back slightly in future.
• Simmer for a while
• Add the lamb back, put lid on stew pot, continue to cook for c. 90-120 mins (the liquid should be simmering, rather than boiling - we cooked this at c. 3/4 (on a scale of 1-6) on the hob.
• Turn the shanks halfway through - this helps you to see when it is falling off the bone.

This was lovely - the lamb fell off the bone, and fell apart on our plates. We served with roast potato wedges, sweet potato mash, baby corn and mange tout. Followed by white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake ramekins.

And... I'm back

Thanks to a handy hint from my sister-in-law... whose musings on food, incidentally are available at http://www.teaflavouredgourmet.blogspot.com ... (and mighty fine they are too)... I'm back here, having worked out how to access this blog with my new email address.

Posts which were made over at http://www.tea-and-ribena.blogspot.com as follows:

Well - before I work out how to link back to http://www.dlc79.blogspot.com/, I shall post some recipes first, just to make sure that I don't lose them.

Kedgeree

Firstly, kedgeree. This is really T's mother's recipe, but I won't remember it unless I write it down, and I'm likely to lose the piece of paper (the study is not sorted since T and I married some six weeks ago. But we do have two goldfish - so hey!).
Cook ½ pint Basmati rice as follows – rinse in several changes of cool water, then drain in a sieve. Melt a knob of butter in a heavy-based saucepan and turn the rice around in it for a couple of minutes.
When the rice is well coated, add ¾ teas salt and ¾ pint water. Bring to the boil, then cover and reduce to a very low simmer for 20 mins, without removing the lid. Then it is ready to serve. You can turn the heat off and leave it in the pan for a little while if you are not quite ready for it.
Meanwhile, put about 350 g smoked white fish in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 mins, until the fish is just tender all the way through.
Remove fish to a plate. Skin and bone the fish and flake roughly.
Hard boil 3 eggs. Cool quickly and then peel.
Cut 2 eggs into quarters lengthways and chop the remaining egg.
Chop 1 medium onion and fry in a little butter and oil.
Add 2 heaped teas curry paste (I usually mix 2 different sorts of paste, perhaps 1 teas of ‘Garam Masala’ and 1 teas ‘Rogan Josh’ or ‘Madras’) to the onion.
Add a heaped teas flour, mix in and cook for a minute.
Then gradually add some milk, until you have a sauce that is the texture of double cream.
Add the flaked fish and the chopped egg.
Serve on top of the rice and decorate with the quartered eggs.

Family life

As you are short when one is young and the older you get the taller & bigger you get... (quoth my brother, aged 4) Drain (our brother-in-law, 6'4") must be very old....

Travel

After a mammoth drive (ending in rescue by the in-laws after the Land of Nod beckoned just a little too strongly somewhere after Donnington), T and I spent a lovely weekend away with his parents' church. The venue: The Jonas Centre in North Yorkshire. Beautiful area, nice cosy cabins, and a caravan pitch for those who bring their accommodation with them. T's sister S came down on Sunday afternoon, and we had a nice time catching up as a family, culminating in a bit of store cupboard magic, where T and S (predominantly S, he tells me) created what we shall henceforth call: S's Store-cupboard Smoked Sausage Surprise Spectacular.... described as best I can below: * Fry off smoked sausage (Mattesons?) with butter and olive oil (slice the sausage). * Dip Camembert in egg and breadcrumbs, and fry off. * Boil asparagus * Combine on a plate. Lovely. Lovely. Lovely.

Flapjacks

4oz brown sugar 6oz butter 6oz porridge oats 1 dessertspoon of golden syrup. 150C for 40 minutes.

Raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake

I have been told I need to blog this for future reference/wider enjoyment.
Here goes (taken from BBC Good Food in April 2003 and tweaked a bit).

Makes 8 ramekins (and 1 ramekin is quite enough for anyone)

100g/4oz plain digestive biscuits
50g/2oz butter, melted
200g proper white chocolate (e.g. Green and Black's)
142ml double cream
125g full-fat soft cheese - e.g. Philadelphia
125g mascarpone [Edit 15/5/09 - creme fraiche works as well, and is a lighter taste]
Raspberries

1. Bash up the biscuits (food processor/in a plastic bag with a rolling pin), stir in melted butter and spread across ramekins, pressing down with the back of a spoon to make the layer firm. Place in fridge until needed.
2. Mix together (beat) the cream, cheese and mascarpone.
3. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie / bowl over simmering water. Let the chocolate cool slightly.
4. Tip the chocolate into the cream/cheese/mascarpone and stir in.
5. Add the raspberries (n.b. if you are using frozen raspberries, don't put them straight into the white chocolate - makes it go lumpy and frozen again.
6. Spread mixture amongst ramekins, and smooth with back of spoon.
7. Place in fridge for 3 hours/overnight.

Recipe donation....

A contribution from a friend overseas - hello Debbie-buzz!

mint mousse

250ml milk
100g castor sugar
25g mint leaves
2 sheets gelatine
250ml whipping cream
1 teaspoon peppermint extract or equivalent

Wash leaves and snip into pieces.
Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes and drain.
Whip cream until thickens.
In saucepan, bring milk and sugar to a boil, whisking all the time.
As soon as it bubbles, whisk in mint leaves.
Take pan off heat and cover with lid.
Leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
Dissolve gelatine in infused milk.
Blend to ensure mixture is smooth and strain into a bowl.
Leave to rest at room temperature.
As soon as mixture is cold but before gelatine sets, fold in whipped cream and peppermint.
Chill and serve.

Recipe exchange

From my sister's friend Sarah:

Oat cookies



2 cups sugar

¼ cup cocoa

½ cup milk

¼ cup raisins

½ cup chunky peanut butter

1tsp vanilla essence

¼ pound marg

3 cups quick-cooking oats



1) Heat sugar, cocoa, milk, marg in a pan until it starts to boil

2) Take pan off the heat

3) Leave the mixture to cool for about 5 mins then add vanilla, peanut butter, raisins and the oats. Stir well

4) Take spoonfuls of the mixture and place on grease proof paper.

5) Leave to cool.

6) Eat and enjoy