Gingerbread muffins

Christmas baking today. The house smells wonderful. I wanted to make some muffins, as I had some beautiful little Christmas muffin cups in the cupboard, and I just love the smells of cinnamon and ginger in baking. Given that the weather is also freezing cold today - currently it is 1 degree Celsius outside - what better than warming up the house a bit with the oven.

I didn't ice my muffins; you could if you like, but they are lovely to eat warm, directly from the oven with a cup of tea. Did I mention the divine baking smell?

Eggplant schnitzel

These schnitzels are really gorgeous; crunchy, crispy coating and silky, soft eggplant inside. So, so delicious to eat. If there is anyone if your family who doesn't like eggplant, give them these and you might find they are converted. My grandmother used to make these when I was a child, so I have some nice memories of eating these too.

Cherry tomato and goat's cheese tart tatin

Aaawww, look that this little tomato tart. Isn't it so pretty! The colours are so vibrant. I enjoy food that looks good, as well as tastes great. I am definitely a person who eats with my eyes, as well as my mouth. If a meal doesn't look so good, or isn't presented well, then for me, it is not going to taste as good as it could.

Roasted pumpkin, eschalot and tomato tart

Dear someone. I am hungry; please cook this for me now. Love me.

Pumpkin and feta strudel

Living in Austria, of course strudel is on many restaurant menus - the traditional apple, the less common berry and sometimes 'topfen' which is like a local cottage cheese. Even though the strudel originated next door in Hungary, the Austrians have adopted this as the national food. Certainly if you come to Vienna, you must try one, with lots of fresh cream and maybe even a rum hot chocolate in the winter.

I made this vegetable version of a strudel, using in-season pumpkin and feta cheese. This was a tasty side dish for our grilled steaks. The leftovers kept well for lunch the next day.

Super-easy, cheesy sausage rolls

Three ingredient snack food recipe coming up.

Gather ready-made puff pastry, sausages and some grated cheese from your nearest grocery store and turn it into these sausage rolls.

Five minutes preparation time, 15 minutes cooking time and you have a 'homemade', filling and tasty snack or lunch if served with salad or vegetables.

These sausage rolls are totally kid-friendly and could be served at a party or as 'in front of the TV' snacks during the football.

Banana, raspberry and coconut bread

Quick recipe for banana, raspberry and coconut bread.

Desserts and cakes using banana are rare here is Austria. Most probably because the banana is a tropical fruit and there weren't many around when the traditional cake recipes were devised.

I sometimes get an interesting reaction from people when I bring banana muffins or a banana cake to morning tea. As was the case when I handed over this banana, raspberry and coconut bread to my host for as my contribution to afternoon tea by the lake.

But it went down a treat with all the hungry swimmers and I had to leave the leftovers there so the host could eat it for breakfast the next day! 
So it must have been alright.
Great with a cup of tea or coffee, or have it for breakfast - you could even toast it! The bread had the tang of the raspberries and the moistness of the coconut and banana. I also added cinnamon and nutmeg for a subtle hint of spiciness. Add some cold butter for a nice treat.

Cheese, bacon and tomato tart

Quick lunch for the kiddies here. The young lady asked if we could have pasty for lunch. I thought this was a fairly strange request. 'What kind of pasty?' I said. 'Just pastry,' she said.

This took about 30 minutes to make, including baking time, so it is a quick one. But I don't think the short preparation time lessens the taste of this little tart.

What you'll need

Served two for lunch

1 piece of short crust pastry, approx 40cm x 30cm

4 cherry tomatoes, thickly sliced

4 rashers of bacon, torn into medium-sized pieces

2 tablespoons cream cheese

4 slices fresh mozzarella (or 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella)

Handful fresh basil, torn

Salt and pepper

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 

Roll out the pastry. Hand shape the sides. I basically folded the sides over and pinch the pasty together to make sure it stays put.

Place the pastry into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until it is golden brown. 

Remove the pastry from the oven. Smooth the cream cheese over the base of the pastry. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the base, then the bacon, then the tomato. Place back into the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the bacon is crisped. 

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with some fresh basil and serve immediately. 

Serve with a side salad if you like or just by itself. Quick and tasty and it fixed the 'pastry' craving of the young lady apparently.

Zucchini and cottage cheese cakes

Here are some delightful little 'cakes' that we had for brunch last weekend. I had a large bag of zucchinis (courgettes) in the fridge and I wanted to use them up, but in a way that our guests and the little people would enjoy. The result was zucchini and cottage cheese cakes. The zucchini gave these cakes a lovely lightness and the cottage cheese provided a wonderful tang. I served them warm with bacon, grilled tomatoes, chopped avocado and toast along with some other brunchy things. It was yummy and worth skipping breakfast for.

What you'll need

Makes 30 medium-sized cakes

2 x medium zucchinis, grated and drained of 'juice'
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 3/4 cups cottage cheese
1 cup grated cheese (I used gouda)
2 tablespoons chopped chives or eschallots
Salt and pepper
Butter for frying

What to do

Place egg yolks, flour and milk in a bowl and mix until smooth.

Add the zucchini, cottage cheese, grated cheese, chives/eschallots and season well with salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

Place the eggwhites in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters until they are stiff. Gently fold through the zucchini mixture.

Heat a frying pan (I used two at the same time) over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of butter and melt until it is foamy. Dallop in tablespoons of the mixture. Cook until you see bubbles rising on one side of the cakes, then flip and cook the other side. Both sides should be golden brown. Cook in batches, keeping the cakes in a warm oven.

Serve warm with bacon, roasted tomatoes and some chopped avocado. Delicious!

Scrambled eggs

For a quick and super-yummy weekend breakfast, try these delicious scrambled eggs. Treat your eggs very gently when preparing and cooking and you'll be rewarded with a deliciously soft and scrumptious meal. The sour cream or natural yoghurt makes the eggs just that little more rich in this recipe.

What you'll need

Serves 3 - 4 people

6 large eggs
100g bacon or prosciutto, finely diced
1/2 cup sour cream or natural yoghurt
Salt and pepper

Fresh basil, grated cheese and toast to serve

What to do

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the sour cream/yoghurt and chopped meat and gently whisk. Season well with salt and pepper. I leave my egg mix a little lumpy; I do not incorporate all the yolk into the whites. This makes for better colour and texture when serving I think.

Pour the mixture into the pan and reduce the heat to low. Using an egg flip or straight-edged wooden spoon, gently scrape the cooked egg from the bottom of the pan and move to the side of the frying pan. The uncooked egg mixture will then run into the bottom of the pan. Repeat a few times until the cooked egg is to the side and the uncooked egg fills in the holes. Cook for approximately 3 to 4 minutes.

While the eggs are still quite runny and wet-looking, remove from the heat and set aside. The eggs will keep cooking. Removing the eggs from the heat before they are fully cooked will ensure they are not too dry.

Gently spoon onto prepared plates with buttered toast. Sprinkle with grated cheese of your choice and some fresh basil. Serve while warm.

Smoked salmon and avocado timbale

I was feeling a bit creative today after a weekend spent mostly on the couch watching the Olympic boys and girls battle it out for world supremacy.

I'm going through a 'salmon phase' at the moment; can't get enough of it. It is so tasty, relatively healthy and a very versatile ingredient.

I wanted to make something using avocado and smoked salmon. These ingredients complement each other perfectly. I enjoy the texture and flavours and the lovely colours of these two ingredients. I didn't want to make a salad, and I wanted the dish to be cold, so I decided to wrap some smoked salmon around some spiced, mashed avocado and make a 'timbale.' Basically this is a fancy name for the round shape of the mould that you'll make this dish in.

I think it worked out rather nicely, don't you think? 

What you'll need

* This dish serves four as an entree or a light meal.

200g sliced smoked salmon

1 cup white rice, cooked and cooled - I used sushi rice

1 large ripe avocado

2 tbs red wine vinegar

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbs olive oil

20g cheese, I used crumbled blue cheese, or you could use shaved Parmesan or goat's cheese

8 roasted cherry tomatoes (alternatively you could slowly pan-fry the tomatoes to soften them)

2 cups salad leaves - I used rocket 

Lemon wedges to serve

Salt and pepper

What to do

You will need four same-sized small containers to make this dish. I used glass ramekins, but you could use tea cups, small plastic containers etc. Whatever you have is OK. 

Lightly grease the containers. I put some vegetable on my fingers and rubbed it around the inside of the containers. Next, line the containers with plastic wrap, so the salmon will not stick and is easy to remove later. Use enough so there is an overhang that you can wrap over the top at the end.

Take one or two pieces of salmon and lined the inside of the container, pressing the salmon into the corners. If you have enough salmon to overhang the container that's great. If not, that's Ok, as you will invert this salmon to serve it, so if the bottom is not covered, you will not see it. Put the salmon-covered dishes in the fridge while you make the filling.

Scoop the avocado flesh into a bowl and mash roughly. Mix in the rice, vinegar, lemon juice and oil and season well with salt and pepper.

 Remove the salmon containers from the fridge.

Scoop the avocado mixture evenly between the four containers and smooth down with a spoon.

Wrap any overhanging salmon neatly over the top of the avocado. Then wrap the plastic wrap over the top of this to seal it. Place in the fridge to chill for one hour before serving.

To serve, place some of the salad leaves in the centre of a plate. Unfold the plastic wrap from the top of the dish, then invert it onto the salad leaves. Carefully remove the dish and then the plastic wrap. You should end up with a perfectly round salmon 'ball' sitting on the salad. Place one or two tomatoes on top of the salmon. Scatter the cheese around the plate and garnish with the lemon wedges. I also put a good grind of fresh black pepper over the dish before serving.

If you like you can drizzle some olive oil over the salad leaves, but I don't think it is necessary. Once you break open the salmon, the avocado will mix with the salad leaves to flavour them, and the juice from the roasted tomato will also mix in.

This would be a great entree dish for a dinner party, as you could prepare it in the morning and store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Fresh beetroot, goat's cheese, walnut and prosciutto salad

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be given some fresh beetroot from my cousin Melanie's garden. Danke  Melanie! It got me thinking about how I would eat it. 

I decided to simply simmer the beetroot until it was tender, and toss into a salad with rocket, walnuts, goat's cheese and some crispy prosciutto. This was so good; the tender beetroot with its sweetness and vibrant ruby colour, the soft and tart goat's cheese, crunchy walnuts and crispy prosciutto and rocket. This is texture heaven. If you can't get a hold of any fresh beetroot, you could substitute for tinned, whole baby beetroot.

*The ingredients picture below and the recipe includes avocado, which I had intended to put in my 
salad, but I completely forgot. 

Pancakes

My children and I like to have hot, fresh pancakes for morning or afternoon tea.  

My Mum, Aunties and Grandparents also cooked pancakes for me when I was little. It was so lovely to come home from school absolutely starving, as you always seem to be as a child, and find a fresh stack of pancakes with butter and jam ready to be eaten.

Pancakes are so quick to make and the children can help. You can add in any fruit you've got that needs eating also. Banana pancakes are beautiful, especially if the bananas are extra ripe and brown. Today I had a handful of cherries that I chopped up and used. Any berries go really well as cooking them makes them extra sweet. 

For me, there must be butter and jam, honey or golden syrup to serve with these. And you must serve them warm, straight from the pan.

Goats cheese, honey and mint.

I have a bit of a thing for goat's cheese. I love the tartness, creaminess, the flavour, the texture. I am happy to eat this cheese by itself, crumbled into salads, mushed onto fresh bread or melted into pasta. Goat's cheese in Austria is less expensive and more freely available than in Australia, which I am very grateful for, so you can usually find some in my fridge. I am very happy when I open the fridge door and see that little container of white, creamy goodness!

I was at the gym this morning. I hadn't been for a while, and had that 'jelly muscles' feeling when I got home. This is a sign that I need to eat something; I needed something quick, so I ate 'Krustenbrot' (crusty bread, which is very heavy and brown, but yummy), smushed goat's cheese, honey and fresh mint, with a hot cup of tea. My muscles are feeling much better now!

Vegetable fritters

Gee, it is really hot! So hot that I barely want to eat! (OK, that's a slight exaggeration as I always want to eat, but I'm sure you are familiar with this feeling.)

Today I have stepped out of the house exactly once to buy fresh bread. The rest of the day we've all been inside with the windows shut tight, blinds drawn, snacking on cold fruit and frozen jelly and drinking loads of cold water! I would have thought that all those years spent sweltering through Australian summers would have given me some immunity to hot, sticky days. Unfortunately, no! Bring back winter I say, and in a hurry.

I was looking for some inspiration for a lighter lunch in this weather and I had some zucchini (courgette) in the fridge. A little bit of vegetable-grating later, we ate pan-fried vegetable fritters with zucchini and carrot.

We had a floor picnic on our picnic blanket; too hot to sit at the table and more fun on the floor.