Foccacia Bread

We had friends over for a barbeque last week and to complement the grilled meats and salads I'd put together, I made fresh foccacia bread. Served warm straight from the oven, it was a fabulous complement, delicately fragrant, and deliciously tasty. I can and have eaten a half loaf of this bread standing in the kitchen having just pulled it out of the oven.

You can top a foccacia bread with whatever toppings you fancy - olive oil, is of course, compulsary. I'm a big fan of coarse sea salt and fresh rosemary, and if I'm organised, I roast a garlic bulb in the oven while the bread is cooking and then squeeze the garlic all over the freshly baked hot bread - yummmmm!

Foccacia Bread

2 teaspoons dried yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

3 1/2 cups flour (plus extra if needed)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup olive oil

Topping

 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

olive oil to drizzle (about 2 tablespoons)

Method

1. Mix the warm water and sugar together, sprinkle yeast on top and stir briefly. Set aside for 5 minutes until yeast is activated and starting to froth.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour and salt, add olive oil and yeast mixture and stir together. Turn onto a floured bench and pull together and start to knead. Add more flour if the mixture is too sticky. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. (I'm going to be honest, I pop mine into my mixer with a dough hook and let it do the kneading for 10 minutes)
3. Pop the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave for 1 hour in a warm place to rise.
4. Punch the dough down, roll into a oblong, pop onto a baking tray and stretch to fit the tray, poke holes in the dough and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle sea salt and rosemary over the top and leave to rise for 15 minutes.
5. Bake at 200 degrees celcius (400 degrees fahrenheit) for 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Serve warm if possible.

Thai Prawn & Pomelo Salad

I love Pomelo, a big fat green citrus fruit with pink flesh. It is close to a grapefruit in taste, but is sweeter and drier in texture, and it is amazing in salads as it soaks up the flavours of the sauces and herbs really well.

Hubby though is not a fan, so I don't get to make this salad often. I had a more adventurous friend coming over for lunch so I took the opportunity to make it.

In Thailand this salad is called Yam Som-O. I have played around with the ingredients so much over the years that I'm sure this varies from the traditional salad, but it still tastes great.

The combination of fresh herbs, sweet sugar and coconut, sour lime and tamarind, the spicy red chillies and the chewy texture of the prawns and pomelo create a stunning dish both in flavour and looks.

I like to serve this salad warm, but it is equally nice served at room temperature - everything can be prepared in advance and combined at the last minute before serving, just take the prawns out of the fridge 15 minutes before serving to come to room temperature.

You can also make this salad with crabmeat if you don't fancy prawns.


Prawn and Pomelo Salad
(serves 4 as an appetiser)

• 300 grams prawns, peeled and deveined
• 20 grams dried shrimp, crushed (optional)
• 1 medium pomelo, pith removed and shredded
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1 or 2 red chillies, de-seeded and sliced
• 2 shallots, sliced (or 2 spring onions, sliced)
• 2 tablespoons dessicated coconut, toasted in a dry pan to golden brown

Dressing

• 100 mls tamarind concentrate
• 40 grams palm sugar (or brown sugar if you don't have palm sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 30 mls lime juice (juice of 2 or 3 limes)

Method

1. Soak the shallot slices in water for 5 minutes (this removes the pungent onion taste), drain well.
2. Put the dressing ingredients into a pot, and bring to the boil, stir until sugar has dissolved and then simmer gently for 3 minutes to thicken. Set aside to cool.
3. Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the prawns, poach for a minute or two until they are opaque and pink. Leave to cool if you want to serve your salad cold.
4. Combine prawns, dried shrimp, pomelo, shallots and coconut
5. Add dressing to taste, it will not need all of the dressing. Serve on individual plates and sprinkle with coriander and chillies.

Hot Cross Buns

I know, I know, it's a bit late for an Easter recipe, but it was the first time I'd ever made these gems, they tasted fabulous, and look so scrumptious, that I just couldn't resist sharing the recipe.

I woke up one morning and quite fancied a hot cross bun (as you do around Easter time). Unfortunately the only two places in Doha I'd found that made them, made a very poor rendition - too bready, not enough fruit or spices, and the deal-breaker...no rich sticky sweet glaze.

So I googled and found a fabulous recipe on taste.com.au and gave them a whirl. I didn't have mixed spice, so I made my own - mix together 1 teaspoon ground allspice, 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and a pinch of ground black pepper.

I've just made a batch of the dough and it's happily rising on the bench, I'll just leave off the cross and have them as plain fruit buns instead.

Hot Cross Buns

1 tablespoon dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

185ml (3/4 cup) warm milk

125ml (1/2 cup) cold milk

50g butter, melted

1 egg, lightly whisked

525g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour

200g mixed dried fruit (I used sultanas, currants and some mixed peel) 

70g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

2 teaspoons mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

A pinch of salt

Flour paste - 1/2 cup plain flour + 75mls water

Glaze - 1/3 cup water + 2 tablespoons caster sugar 

Method

1. Whisk yeast, sugar and the 3/4 cup of warm milk in a jug. Set aside for 10 minutes or until frothy. Whisk in the 1/2 cup of cold milk, butter and egg. Combine flour, dried fruit, sugar, mixed spice and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture. Stir to combine, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Or like me, let the mixer and dough hook do the work.
2. Place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside to rise for an hour or two in a warm place until doubled in size.
3. Punch down the centre of the dough with your fist. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 2 minutes. Shape into 12 even portions. Brush a baking tray with melted butter. Place portions side by side in the prepared pan.
4. Cover with a clean tea towel. Set aside for 30 minutes, buns will have risen and almost joined together.
5. Preheat oven to 190°C. Combine flour and water to make a paste. Place in a sealable plastic bag. Cut 1 corner from the bag to make a 2mm hole. Pipe crosses onto the buns.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden and cooked through.
7. Heat sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Simmer gently until the glaze thickens (about 5 minutes).
8. Transfer buns to a wire rack and brush tops with hot glaze.
9. Serve warm, smothered in butter.

After first rising

After second rising

After baking and glazing

Iced Cookies

February was a busy month for me cookie making. Generally I'm not a big baker, but I do like to create, and baking for friends is great fun. I'm not an expert, there are plenty of people who are - if you start googling iced cookies you will be amazed what you'll see. I'm a rank amateur compared to most, but I enjoy looking at the finished product and thinking "I did that!"

I also bought a heat gun, one that strips wallpaper, or in my case dries icing faster. Hubby despairs of me, just when he thought I had every single kitchen gadget you could ever own, I buy a power tool. It's quite cool actually, I can feel the testosterone surging when I switch it on - I think he's just jealous.

The cookie recipe I use is so easy to use. You can re-roll the leftover dough pieces until the very last cookie is cut, and the dough freezes in it's 'raw' state. You can also freeze the cooked iced and un-iced cookies.

The icing recipe I use is from http://sweetopia.net and tastes fabulous, you can adjust the consistency depending on how you want to decorate the cookies. I pipe by outlines on with an icing bag and when they set pipe a slightly runnier version of the icing in the middle which results in a nice smooth cookie. You can spread the icing on with a knife or dip the cookies in the icing if you prefer. It uses meringue powder, for those in Doha, I buy egg white powder from Lulu's - also I sift the icing sugar here twice to get rid of all the lumps. You can also pipe the icing onto baking parchment to make cupcake toppers (like the wee birds above), just pipe lots of extra ones, as they're fragile and break easily.

Sugar Cookies

• 2 cups sugar
• 350 grams butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add in the eggs one at a time, beating well before adding the next one. Beat in the vanilla essence
2. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the wet mixture. Mix well. Pop dough into the fridge for at least half and hour to firm up
3. Heat the oven to 190 degrees celcius (375 degrees fahrenheit).
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper, roll out the dough to 1/2 centimetre thick and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, place on the baking try and bake for about 6 -7 minutes until golden brown on the bottom and starting to colour on the top. Watch carefully as the difference btetween cooked and burnt is less than a minute.
5. Take out and leave on the baking tray to cook a little bit more (or pop straight onto a cooling rack if they're already golden brown). Cool on a rack, and ice or freeze.

Royal Icing for Cookies

• 180 mls warm water
• 5 tablespoons meringue powder (I use egg white powder)
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 kilo icing sugar, sifted twice

Method

1. Mix the warm water and meringue powder together in the bowl of a mixer and whisk by hand for 30 seconds, add the cream of tartar and whisk for another 30 seconds.
2. Add in all of the icing sugar (I mix by hand here to incorporate it, otherwise the mixer sends the icing sugar flying and my kitchen looks like it's been snowing)
3. Using the mixer on the lowest speed, beat the meringue for 10 minutes until thick and glossy.
4. Thin the mixture to the consistency you like by adding a teaspoon of water at a time and beat.
5. Tint with icing colours and pipe, spread or dip onto the cookies. Let set and then scoff! or package up for gifts.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Rosemary and Red Wine

I started a new job this week so in my determination to be organised I cleaned out the freezer. Lurking in the back were some lamb shanks I'd forgotten about. Lamb Shanks are one of my favourite cuts of lamb - they have such a lovely earthy flavour, and cooked well - slowly, on a low heat for a few hours, they'll be tender and delicate and loaded with the flavours you cook them with.

In my case I love pairing lamb with rosemary, it's one of those flavour combinations that just works. I also popped in some garlic, a good dollop of red wine and some beef stock. Simple comforting flavours and a hearty rich sauce that works well with garlicky mashed potatoes or like me, serve it with a baked pumpkin.


Braised Lamb Shanks with Red Wine and Rosemary

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, sliced finely
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped finely, or 200 grams canned tomatoes
• 4 medium lamb shanks
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 100 mls red wine
• 500 mls beef stock
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• salt and black pepper to taste

Method

1. Sprinkle the lamb shanks with flour and brown in 1 tablespoon olive oil over a medium heat until browned all over. Set aside.
2. Tip off most of the oil from the pan. To the remaining oil add the minced garlic and onions and fry over a medium low heat until onions are soft (about 3 minutes). Add in the tomatoes and red wine and cook for 5 minutes until it resembles a sauce. Add thyme, rosemary and beef stock, season with some salt and pepper.
3. Add in beef stock and carrots.
4. Put lamb shanks into an oven dish, cover, pour sauce over the top and bake at 160 degree celsius (300 degrees fahrenheit) for 2 and a half hours, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove lamb shanks from pan, and thicken sauce with cornflour and water mixture.

Bacon and Egg Pie

I grew up in a house of 8, so spending lots of time in the kitchen preparing dinner wasn't a luxury mum had (apart from desserts, love love love her desserts, and preserving - amazing what you can preserve), so dinner fare was pretty basic. We never ever turned our nose up at this traditional New Zealand favourite - it's simple to make, filling and tastes divine. We used to pop a wedge of it on a plate, smother with 'Watties Tomato Sauce' (tomato ketchup for you american folk), and pile the plate high with salad. We also had it many times cold for picnics. Every time I make (and eat) a bacon and egg pie, it brings back so many wonderful, nostalgic memories of family times.

Hubby too, is a big fan of bacon and egg pies, and because he's adamantly against Valentines Day, I couldn't resist making him a pie in a heart shape cake tin just for today :)

The recipe below is my basic recipe (don't say I didn't warn you, it is seriously basic), but I often add extras like cheese, spring onions, potatoes and peas, so experiment with the flavours you like.

Basic NZ Bacon and Egg Pie

• 300 grams good quality bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 8 large free range eggs
• 400 grams puff pastry
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water

Method

1. Grease a deep dish pie tin well with butter. Roll out two thirds of the pastry and line the pie tin
2. Spread half the bacon on top of the pastry,
3. Break the eggs into the pie on top of the bacon and break the yolks, gently swirling the yolk and white together. Season with salt and pepper and top with remaining bacon.
4. Roll out the remaining pastry and place on top of the pie, crimp the edges of the pastry together.
5. Brush the beaten egg mixture over the top, cut a couple of holes in the lid of the pastry and bake at 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit) for 40 to 50 minutes until cooked through and golden on top.
6. Serve with a decent dollop of tomato sauce and a green salad

Vanilla Caramels with Sea Salt

It's school holidays which means lots of time in the kitchen with the little chefs. Yesterday we whipped up a batch of my favourite caramels - the recipe contains sea salt so I thought it would be fun (and pretty) to pop some on top. These would make fabulous gifts, wrapped individually in wax paper and popped into a decorative box.

When you're making the caramel you can use a candy thermometer if you've got one - I don't, so I just use the 'softball' method - which means popping a drop of the mixture into very cold water and the caramel is ready when you can roll the drop into a soft ball.

Vanilla Caramels with Sea Salt

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, chopped
• 1 cup cream
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup golden syrup
• 1/4 cup water

Method

1. Bring butter, cream, vanilla essence, vanilla bean and salt to a boil in a pan, set aside to cool
2. Line a 20cm baking tin with baking paper and butter the paper
3. Boil sugar, syrup and water in a large heavy bottom pan until sugar is dissolved, don't stir at this stage, just swirl mixture until sugar dissolves. Cook until a light caramel colour
4. Remove pod from the cream mixture and carefully stir into to the caramel mixture, it will splatter and is scalding hot, so be very careful (this is one job the little chefs didn't get to do)
5. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally until the mixture is at soft ball stage - this can take anything from 20 minutes to 40 minutes, so I start testing the caramel at 15 minutes. It's trial and error, if it's too soft the mixture won't set properly (but you can pop it back into the pan and try again), if it's too hard, it will still taste fabulous, it will just be less chewy than intended
6. Once ready pour the caramel into the baking tin, sprinkle with sea salt and leave until completely cold, cut into 2cm squares