She really does surprise me sometimes. I just stood back, mouth open, became very quiet - akin to watching from the shadows, a lion dining on its prey – I daren’t disturb her, and witnessed this miracle unfold before me.

It didn’t last long – a handful of bites and she was over it, but none the less, I was still impressed. She’s not too bad with some vegetables – peas, corn, potatoes, broccoli, sometimes carrot, never asparagus – but I still lay a spear on her plate everytime we have it for dinner – no pressure! I figure the more she sees us enjoying vegetables, and the more they are available to her, one day – just maybe – she might like it.

Schnitzel

pork – a small, fairly simple cut, not too thick

wholemeal flour (or plain flour)

1 free-range egg, lightly beaten

panko (Japanese bread) crumbs (if you’ve never used these before, do yourself a favour and grab a packet of them from the Asian foods section in the supermarket. They are super crunchy!!)

big handful of fresh parsley, chopped

oil with a high smoke point (rice bran oil is brilliant) – just under 1 centimetre of oil in the pan

Method

Pour the flour, egg, and crumbs with parsley added into 3 separate bowls

coat the pork:

in the flour

then Egg

then the panko/parsley mix

If you have time, pop them onto a plate and into the fridge for maybe 30 minutes – this helps the crumbs to stay put.

Heat the oil (about 1 centimetre) in a frypan on a medium-high heat. Keep a good eye on it – add a couple of panko crumbs every once in a while – once they start to bubble as soon as they are in the oil, it is hot enough. Place the fillets in the oil (don’t overcrowd the pan) and wait until they look golden on the sides then flip over and cook until golden all over. Drain on an absorbant paper towel.

Then serve with the appleslaw and maybe some oven chips.

Apple-Slaw

Mix all these ingredients together in a big bowl:

1/4 white cabbage, shredded finely

1 granny smith apple, grated with skin on

handful of pecan nuts, chopped

dollop of whole-egg mayonnaise

pepper

Serve it all with a wedge of lemon.

He first started with following the recipe to a T, found in the Edmond’s Cookery Book, then he tried a few variations, and this one has come up as the winner.  It’s a temperamental beast though - you have to keep an eye on it and take it slowly, otherwise it’ll turn into a grainy, crumbly-concrete-like mess.  If it’s done right it should be completely grainless, with a fine melt-in-the-mouth quality. It’s not like a russian fudge, creamy and sticky – it’s more like a candy-style fudge. quite firm, and when cut it’s a little flaky. Infact, that’s one way it’s been described – like a Flake chocolate bar.

I’ve never (successfully) made this fudge. I tried once and it was a complete disaster (see description above) , and since then I’ve left it to the Fudge Maste…Expert Darren has this fudge down to a fine art, and I show you all the steps he now takes.

Ingredients

2 cups caster sugar

2 heaped tablespoons cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cream

25g butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

100g dark chocolate (about 70%)

Method

Grease and line a large tin with butter

Pour sugar and cocoa into a saucepan.

mix to combine.

add milk and cream and stir to combine – leaving for 5 – 10 minutes to help start dissolving the sugars

and butter and the candy thermometer

Heat RIDICULOUSLY slowly on the stove top, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved and butter melted. (this could take 20 minutes – you want it to have NO grains of sugar whatsoever before it starts to boil) Wet the sides with a pastry brush to get all the crystals.

Bring to the boil. DO NOT STIR! Watch it carefully.

To ensure there are no crystals of sugar forming on the edge (sugar crystals are your enemy) dampen a pastry brush and wipe the sides gently.

Ask your wife to chop the dark chocolate into fine shards (It’s the only part of the process I’m game to help with!!)

Darren will station himself in front of the stove, never taking his eyes off the candy thermometer! He’s rather particular about his fudge.

Let mixture boil until the soft ball stage. Darren now uses a candy thermometer – and this is definitely the way to go. It has a ’soft ball’ marking on it.

Have a folded teatowel on the bench ready, then remove saucepan from heat, place on teatowel and wait a moment or two

carefully pour in the vanilla and add the chopped dark chocolate.

whip it with an electric beater on a fast setting in the saucepan until the fudge becomes thick. If you don’t whip it long enough, it won’t set firmly, too much and it will stay put in the saucepan!

Quickly pour the fudge into the prepared tin.

Score the top and let it cool on the bench, then in the fridge.

Grate the vegies, caremelise the onion and garlic, add pumpkin to the onion to cook a little

Toss all the vegies in flour

Add the rest of the ingredients – QUICK! don’t overmix it!

Pop into greased muffin tin then into the oven until a skewer comes out clean.

Photograph them at ten thirty at night with front flash and no care whatsoever.

Ingredients

1 large red onion, diced and caramelised

3 large garlic cloves

200g pumpkin, grated

200g carrot, grated

100g zucchini (1 sml zucchini) grated

1/2 capsicum, diced

120g fetta, cubed

30g parmesan cheese, grated

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 heaped teaspoon of mustard

1 big handful of herbs, chopped - basil, oregano, sage, parsley

1/2 cup milk

60g butter, melted

3 eggs

Why it became so messy is probably because we were so damn excited to try a drink that doesn’t actually exist - be it only in the mind of millions of children and adults around the world.  I think the most exciting thing is that it started off as a little idea, and then all of a sudden all of us knew about butter beer before it actually existed. And ever since, culinary nerds like me have been trying to recreate the mythical brew.

And when we first tasted it… it actually tasted the way I expected!

I’m just going to gush here a bit about how much I LOVE the Harry Potter series – both the books and the movies – and I cannot WAIT to see the new movie tomorrow with Darren. Yay for movie dates!

There are a multitude of recipes online for butterbeer, and a lot of them would taste awesome! I was really impressed with this one – thank you KC for letting me know about this one. The best thing about this version is it uses local Bundaberg Ginger Beer, brewed not 4 hours north of Brisbane.

Pour some ginger beer  and a few tablespoons of cream into a jug (only about half full) then froth it up with the milk steam wand on your espresso machine. If you want a cool drink, froth it for a short time, if you want a warm drink froth it like you would milk for a cappucino. Pour it into a glass (we really should have used steins!).

You need no specialist equipment! Or, in other words, my lovely daughter has been playing with the juicer and it is, quite possibly, at the bottom of her toy box. I better go find it…

I  know this sort of post is a little bland  -  and duh, anyone can squeeze an orange. But I think it’s important not to forget these simple ways of preparing delicious, healthy food. 

So cut the orange in half (valencia are the best, you can use navels, but they are more of an eating orange, you’ll get less juice). Squeeze the bejeebers out of it. Squash and massage every last bit of juice out of the flesh with your thumbs and squeeze it again. The reason for the big bowl is you don’t need to be so specific about where the juice goes – you can get a bit tribal!

Pour it into a glass, fish out the pips with a spoon and top it up with water.

And they are SO cheap. And they make you feel AMAZING when you eat them. And they just POP when they’re cooked just right. Fresh. Vibrant.  Crisp, but still yielding on the tooth.

This is a way I’ve recently been cooking beans.

I boil them fast in half a centimetre of salted water in a frypan for a few minutes until they are almost exploding out of themselves with that vibrant GREEN.

Then I pour away the rest of the remaining water that hasn’t evaporated, add a teaspoon of good olive oil, a chopped garlic clove and fry it on high heat for about a minute.

I’ve been serving them with everything, in a bowl to share, next to pizza, stew, anything. And they were only 99cents a kilo today. This really is something that you see at top end restaurants – for $9 for a handful of beans.

Last Sunday I was given the opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by ‘Cakes by Judy C’ at Ashgrove.  Her shop sells an array of beautiful cakes, biscuits and other baked sweets. Just recently she has been offering workshops to small groups of people who are interested in learning specific cake decorating skills.  I’ve always been impressed with decorated cakes but daren’t try making one myself – I simply didn’t know how to do it! But since doing this workshop I have complete confidence that I will be able to ice a cake again at home. And this all comes down to Judy’s teaching style. She is a natural tutor – for the 5 ladies in the workshop, she first showed us how she would decorate the cake, and then we were each given a cake to decorate ourselves. Throughout this time she would move between us, offering advice and assistance if we needed it.

If you are interested in learning this skill, I highly recommend Judy’s workshops.

I was pleased as punch with my cake and so proud of what I had acheived. And at the end of the day we not only went home with our finished creations, but we also took with us the confidence of a new skill.

Here follows a step-by-step How To of icing a traditional fruit cake. I have focused mainly on the base icing only, because I feel that the only way to get that flawless, professional-looking cake is to get a perfect, satin-finish white base.  

 Here is a quick list of utensils and tools we used during the day. Most of them, apart from the wood float you probably will have already. If you would like to buy a wood float, you can contact Judy – she has them handmade! (I’m seriously thinking about getting one!)

• A cake to decorate
• Pettinice icing (or any good quality ’plastic’ icing)
• Cornflour
• Decorations
• Royal icing (eggwhite and icing sugar)
• Sherry
• A foil-lined card cake platter (or a plate!)
• dessert spoon and water
• Pastry brush
• Rolling pin
• Wood float /acrylic float (see photos below)
• a pin
• a small knife

Judy had baked a batch of beautiful fruit cakes for us and had them ready at room temperature. (P.S. Judy’s cake is to die for – one of the best I’ve ever had!)

Hot Tip! Often, before adding the fruit to the cake batter, she will smear some batter over the sides of the cake pan then  add the fruit to the batter and pour it in. This eliminates a lot of the extra fruit on the outside of the cake, which can cause dimples.

Turn the cake over so the flat bottom is facing up and remove the paper (Judy uses old butter paper to line her tins. I love her for that!! )

Hot Tip! To stop the cake from ’sweating’ after it’s complete, make sure the cake and the icing are at room temperature before you begin.

Make sure the cake sits in the centre of the presentation platter

If the cake is sitting unevenly, take some icing and roll it into a sausage with your hands and wedge it under the cake to ensure it sits flat

Make more thin sausages and with moist fingers press and wipe it along the bottom edge of the cake to fill the gap down there.  If there are any divits on the top or sides of the cake made by the fruit in the cake, press them down and see how far they go in. With wet fingers, press little smudges of icing into them to fill the hole.

As you go, wet the back of a dessertspoon and press and wipe the icing so it sits flat on the cake.

Wipe away any crumbs and water with a teatowel

Brush the whole cake with a fortified alcohol. You could use sherry (which we used), brandy, cognac or rum. Whatever you choose, to help preserve the cake, it must be over 17.5 percent alcohol.

Again, wipe away any crumbs off the platter and clean and dry your whole bench.

Dust your bench with pure cornflour, cut a large piece of pettinice icing from the block and knead it with your hands until you feel a change in texture to smooth and silky. The heat of your hands with make it more maleable.

Dust the dry bench again with plain cornflour. Roll the piece of icing until it will fit over the cake and down the sides. Don’t roll it too thin!

Pick it up and with one quick movement place it straight onto the cake.

Working quickly now – rub your hand across the top of the cake to make it smooth

Carefully smooth the sides and press it onto the cake

Rub the icing back and forth so there are no creases or lumps

This is a specialty tool, but it is wonderful! Use the smooth wood float to further smooth the surface of the icing. Rub it firmly across the top and around the sides

If you notice any air bubbles sitting under the icing take a very thin pin, find the airpocket with your finger and at an angle pierce the icing then press out the air with your finger and gently smooth it over.

With the acrylic icing trowel smooth the top and sides and with the edge cut into the icing all the way around the edge of the cake

Now use a knife to cut the excess icing completely away from the cake

Lift the excess icing away and smooth out the edges again with the trowel

Wipe away any smudges of icing from the presentation platter.

Ta Da! That’s how you ice a traditional fruit cake!

Use extra pettinice icing to make the decorations. It can be coloured using liquid food dyes. Massage the dye into it, then shape it how you wish.

To get the decorations to stick to the cake, use a small wet artists brush and use the water as a glue.

Add extra decorations (like these lovely red cinnamon flavoured holly berries)  by piping royal icing onto the cake. Also use the royal icing to add the candle wax detail and to use as a glue to help the inedible ribbon to stay put.

We used a little edible lustre powder to make the candles glow.

Iced cakes like this can last for months and months at room temperature – just pop them in a container so the bugs won’t get to it before you do!

I’m sorry to say this cake lasted no more than a few days – but it was delicious! My justification is that I plan to make one just like it again before Christmas to hone my skills.

Merry Christmas!

Cakes by Judy C

Shop 1/227 Waterworks Road
Ashgrove QLD 4060

Phone: (07) 3366 9111
Fax:(07) 3366 9222

http://www.cakesbyjudyc.com.au/

This was in the Courier Mail, on November 2nd, the back page of the Taste magazine –  I’ve been a bit slack getting it on here. It was great fun, and I’m surprised at how many people have seen it!   We really do get a lot of happiness from our little garden and I really have Darren to thank for all the work and expertise he puts into it. Also, the recipe down there is his too – I’m merely the mouthpiece!

And yes darling, I always wear my pearls whilst doing the gardening (I won’t mention they’re made of plastic and cost $1! )

oh, and thank you David for quoting me SWEARING IN THE PAPER! My dear mother was horrified!

hehe

Follow your instincts to make pizza dough.  Because one thing I’ve learned when it comes to pizza dough is that you pretty much can’t get it wrong. The only thing is that the texture will be different each time – and that’s not a bad thing at all!

Try it with different flours, with or without oil, add some herbs or spices, add more or less water, yeast, salt… even try letting it rise for diffferent amounts of time.

Use your eyes, feel the density and elasticity with your fingers and the heel of your palm while you knead the dough.  Smell the yeast doing it’s thing.   Perhaps keep an eye on what you put in, just in case it turns into the perfect creation – and you can emulate it once more if you wish.

Now, I’m not saying I’ve perfected it – no where near it! But this a great exercise to allow your instincts to take over for a while. Get the practice of cooking out of your head and into your senses.

Ingredients. These are all approximates, go on…. follow your senses!

2 cups plain flour and extra for dusting

about 1 cup luke-warm water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pinch salt

1 tsp instant dried yeast

1 tsp raw sugar

Method

Mix it up on your kitchen bench or in a big bowl, knead it, massage it – then leave it rest in a lovely warm spot (I pop it on my stove – unlit of course). You can use it straight away - it just won’t be so risen. Or you could leave it overnight! Do whatever makes you feel good – or whatever you have time for

Then, dust some flour over a baking sheet and roll the dough out, arrange your choice of toppings over the top and pop it in a moderate (180 degrees) oven until it looks delicious!

My Toppings

for the pizza sauce I used a can of tomatoes, heated in a frypan until it becomes very thick (it takes about 15 minutes. This is a very easy and very cheap way of making your own sauces!! and no added salt and nasties!)  But use can use any good pizza sauce

crispy bacon

fetta

baked pumpkin pieces

sundried tomato strips

lots of herbs from the garden – oregano, rosemary and thyme

grated cheese

Serve with some bright green vegies!

Oliver is working with Premier Anna Bligh to support the initiative, which will see the Ministry of Food based in Ipswich, and mobile cooking demonstration trucks travelling throughout the state of Queensland. Whilst there are no plans to produce an Australian run of the TV show, Jamie is still seeking to equip Australians with the critical culinary skills needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle full of delicious food.

The program is set to launch in the coming weeks – perhaps this will help people in combatting the drastic silly-season snacking that always seems to lead to ill-kept New Year’s resolutions. In all seriousness, though, I think it’s fairly safe to say that every Australian has someone close to them who battles with obesity, and has seen the devastating physical and emotional toll it has on people’s lives.

Whilst it’s all well and good that we’re taking our new-found Masterchef-inspired cooking skills to the kitchen table, it appears that many Australians are still struggling with the balance of quality and quantity when it comes to food.

I am really excited to hear that this program is being run in our fair city.  I really hope that it helps all the people who truly need the skills, motivation and support to overcome obesity.

Check out details on the programme at Jamie’s website, or watch the video of Jamie announcing the reasons for starting Ministry of Food in Ipswich.

Get involved in the Ministry of Food in Ipswich!

If you think you can contribute knowledge or assistance to Ipswich’s own Ministry of Food, sign up at Jamie’s website as a volunteer!

What do you think about the Ministry of Food being launched in Ipswich? Will it make a difference? Tell us in the comments.