tea-experimenting for the May SABH oat hotcakes with chamomile poached pears and gingerbread sauce

I'm not sure whether you're interested or not, but I had a really lovely weekend. Dinosaur Jack and I had a garage sale yesterday in the sunshine and made a bit of money from stuff we don't need anymore. I also made about $15 selling some chamomile, raspberry and white chocolate muffins for $1 each at said garage sale.

There will be a recipe for these soon, and I almost posted that recipe for this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. The theme for which is...

I also considered posting the recipe for some sweet tapioca pearls green tea coconut milk and lychees that I'm currently making for tonight's get together with friends. Yes, this weekend has been a little tea-sperimental. However, I have decided to share our breakfast treat from this morning. My lovely friend Claire came over for breakfast, after which we decided on the spur-of-the-moment to do some Guildford Antique shop wandering to try and solve some of Dinosaur Jack and my furnishing issues.

We didn't find any chests of drawers that we loved within our price range, but we did discover an absolutely amazing shop that we just fell in love with. Check out this amazing shop, Stories on the Wall, a shop that sells furniture made out of old fishing boats! There are pieces that have shells embedded into the wood and they are all, frankly beautiful. I am totally in love and obsessed. Fortunately they are also not outlandishly priced. Whoa.

Chamomile Poached Pears with Oat Hotcakes and Gingerbread Sauce
Serves 2

You need:
1 cup of self-raising flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Pears:
2 pears cleanly and peeled (I left the stalks/cores in for visual effect)
2 chamomile tea bags
1.5 L water
3/4 cup sugar
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon quill
a pinch of saffron (optional)

Sauce:
2/3 cup brown sugar (or 1/3 cup agave and 1/3 brown sugar)
1 tsp dried ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp of the chamomile syrup
10g of butter

You:
Sift your flour and bicarb into a mixing bowl, then fold your oats and sugar through gently.

Whisk the egg into the milk in a separate bowl, then add this into your dry ingredients, mix together with a wooden spoon until combined. Set aside while you prepare your pears.

While the pears are cooking, prepare your sauce and hotcakes. I prefer to make the hotcakes first, but you can prepare these in either order (or if you're feeling multi-tasky try doing both at once!).

Heat a non-stick frying pan to a medium high heat.

Put all the ingredients for the pears into a medium sized pot on the stove, over a medium heat, cover and bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer until the pears are cooked through (about 20 mins).

While this is occurring you need to prepare your hotcakes and sauce, you can prepare these in either order, but need to keep the items warm until the pears finish cooking.

To make the hotcakes you: heat a non-stick frying pan to a medium heat, spoon the hotcake sinto the pan (each hotcake should be about 3 tbsp of mixture.) Cook in batches of 2-4 until golden brown on each side and cooked through. Put aside and keep as warm as possible

While these are being made or after they have, prepare your sauce.

To prepare the sauce you heat the agave, sugar and chamomile syrup cinnamon and ginger in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves and just starts to bubble. Lower to a simmer, heat until the sauce thickens slightly, then stir through the butter, reduce slightly.

Serve as soon as your pears are cooked through, reheat the sauce and hotcakes if you need to. Pile the hotcakes however you like- I usually serve 3 per serving, place the pear next yo them and pour the sauce over!
I served these with some berry yoghurt on the side. It was delicious, would also work with quark or ricotta or creme fraiche on the side.

Tricks from the Fridge: Quick and Easy Creamy Leek and Mushroom Pasta

There are those days when you get home from work and all you can think of doing is resigning your sorry self to the sofa with something mind-numbing to consume on the television. On days like these it’s so easy to pick up the phone and dial yourself a take-away. Let’s be honest though, the last thing your body needs if you’re feeling exhausted is the low nutritional value that most fast foods deliver. Personally, I’m also not entirely sure that I can justify spending money on take-away, when I should just be able to make something with the stuff in my fridge.

This little recipe was invented from the bits and pieces in my fridge in exactly a scenario when I felt like just taking the easy way out and ringing for something of the fast-food variety.  It's also evidence that you don't have to have meat in a meal for it to be delicious, nutritious and wonderful. I used to have an inexplicable aversion to wholemeal pasta and brown rice. I think it might have been a hangover of a few childhood food fusses, however in recent times we've discovered just how delicious wholemeal pasta is. On top of this, my local IGA sells an organic wholemeal pasta, made by ecor. I thoroughly recommend it, it's $3.95 for a 500g bag, which is more expensive, but not unjustifiably more expensive, my money is going to support the industry I believe in, after all!

Creamy Leek and Mushroom Pasta

Serves 4

You need:

500g dried wholemeal pasta of your choice

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 large leeks, thoroughly washed and thinly sliced

500g mushrooms (whichever kind you like)

1 cup canned artichoke hearts, roughly chopped (optional)

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or white wine, or a combination

1/2 cup water

a pinch of saffron (optional)

1tbsp plain flour

1/3 cup cream

2 tbsp cream cheese

2 good handfuls of baby spinach

zest of half a lemon

2 tbsp shelled pistachios or walnuts, roughly chopped

a handful of roughly chopped parsley to serve

shaved Parmesan cheese to serve

You:

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large non-stick frying-pan over a medium heat.
2. Add the leeks and mushrooms, for about 5 minutes, until the leek is softening.
3. Add the wine/stock and water, bring to the boil, then lower to a low boil.
4. Add the saffron (if you’re using it).
5. At this point you should start cooking your pasta, according to the instructions on the packet (keep an eye on it and don’t allow it to over-cook).
6. While the pasta is cooking reduce the liquid in the leek and mushrooms down til there’s barely any left, stir the tbsp of flour through the mixture.
7. Lower the heat, add the cream and cream cheese, simmer (don’t allow to boil, it’ll split the cream).
8. Allow the sauce to thicken, then remove from the heat and stir the spinach and lemon zest through.
9. If you haven’t already – drain your pasta (it should definitely be done!)
10. Mix the pasta through your sauce.
11. Serve immediately, topped with the pistachios, Parmesan and parsley.

What quick little 20 minute meals do you have up your sleeves? Share! Share!

days for tea and sympathy- the May SABH

There are days when we all need a little tea and sympathy. Preferably, though, there will be cake as well. It's always nice, I like to think, to be the provider of tea and sympathy and cake. And this month, for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop you can combine at least 2 of those 3 to make something wonderful! That's because this month's delightful theme for blog hopping is:

Yes, it's TEA! You have to include that lovely accompaniment to a good old feet-up. Here's a picture of me. Doing exactly that. With tea, in my very own backyard...

Love tea? Got a blog? Care to get involved? Do! All you have to do is write a recipe for something sweet that includes tea (any kind of tea) in its ingredients, then link it up to the lovely JJ's blog entry between 9am Monday 21st of May and Monday 28th of May. We'd love to have you!

Put your thinking caps on, co-crusaders.

-KCxx

fast vegetarian Saturday breakfast - quick baked beans with bagels and cream cheese

Is there anything more glorious than the feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning? That beautiful feeing of waking up to a day with limitless possibilities... what does Saturday morning mean to you? We've all got our own little Saturday rituals, right? The way we initiate the weekend? For me, it's all about the preparation and consumption. 

We've  made a bit of a habit of preparing something together for breakfast on Saturdays. Previously we prepared:

French toast with blueberry sauce, bacon and maple syrup

Scrambled eggs with baked cherry tomatoes

 This morning I was inspired by a pack of BAGELS. Oh my god. I love bagels. Toasted bagels with cream cheese and jam: OHMYGODYOUGUYS.

So I decided I wanted to make baked beans with toasted bagels and cream cheese. Can i just say: delicious. And also: vegetarian (as long as there's not renin in your cream cheese- you could also use goat's cheese instead.) Of course these baked beans are also great as a side with some scrambled eggs or under baked eggs, or just on some toast. They're quite different from the baked beans you buy in a can, but I think they're the better kind of different.

Baked Beans

Makes enough for 4 serves of the size pictured

You need:
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 a red onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 drained cans of beans (any kind, cannelini, 4 bean mix, butter, red kidney... whatever you like)
3 med sized tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/4 cup of passata (tomato puree)
1/2 a red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp lemon juice
zest of 1/2 a lemon (optional)
1 bay leaf (optional)
2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
some parsley to serve (optional)

You:
Soften the onion in the olive oil over a medium heat in saucepan on the stove.

Stir in the tomatoes and parika, allow the tomato to soften slightly.

Add in the lemon zest, lemon juice, passata, sugar and beans, stir everything through. Make sure you don't get any lemon seeds in there. They don't exactly taste delicious.

Bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, allowing the liquid to reduce. Meanwhile prep your toast or eggs etc...

Season to taste. Remove the bay leaf.

Serve immediately (sprinkling with the parsley) or keep in the fridge for up to a week as a great snack, side or breakfast on the go.

This is one of our favoruite quick little breakfast dishes. What's your favourite Saturday morning breakfast?

Over and out
-KCxx

Chilling in alley ways and getting street cred (a review of Cabin Fever)

So: apparently there’s this back alley-café-gem that all the cool-Perth-kids are talking about. It’s called Cabin Fever.

You might not have heard of this place, and that’s probably no indictment on your cool-status. It’s probably because it’s in Bonne Marche arcade in the city (Perth city), not a place renowned for amazing coffee or cool prowess.

It’s worth a look-see though, this little Cabin Fever place. It’s got a strange, quirky charm. The décor reminds me of something your grandmother might put together if she had drunk a little too much sherry and was living in the 70s. Which she probably was. The living in the 70s part, not necessarily the sherry part, though I'm not ruling that out. There’s a lot of old retro furniture and a fair amount of paintings of a menagerie worth of animals sporting unicorn horns. There are some very cutesy tea-cup collections, spoon displays and old-school board games. In other words it’s like an ageing old-school lounge room.

We had some fairly lovely nosh there, actually, one of the nicest savoury muffins I’ve had in a while and a really delicious fudge brownie.

said delicious muffin

a very tasty cherry choc tart- how cute!

choc fudge brownie

The staff were lovely, friendly, a little quirky, a bit like the décor. I have to say though… the award behind the counter for “Perth’s best coffee” felt a little misleading. The coffee was alright, but I have definitely had better in Perth. My soy flat white was strangely sweet. I did like how the coffee was served though, in old school mugs like your parents used in the 80s or 70s (unless you were a live then, in which case: you probably used them too!)

Cabin Fever. I liked it. It’s cutesy and had back-alley-cred. The cakes/muffins we had were really nice; I don’t think the coffee is anything to write home about, though. Have you been there, co-crusaders? What did you think?

great gifts for foodies/people with kitchens

So: you have to buy someone a present. You're stuck. You're between a rock and a fry pan, you're out of the fire and into the hard place. Maybe you're even tearing your hair. Stop that, it's probably bad for you.

Anyway, suddenly you hit upon something... "OH MY GOODNESS!" You might shout to no-one in particular, "they like cooking/eating/have a kitchen/sometimes eat food!"

Food, what a saving grace at a time of difficult present buying. However, very quickly a new problem may rear its ugly head: but what food related item shall I buy? We all know that strange an unusual pickles in pretty jars that WE got given by someone gifting food-stuffs just sit at the back of our pantry whiling away the years and used by dates. That's not to say that I haven't loved some of the jarred gifts I've been given, I've got some amazing chutneys and totally delcious truffles oils /mustards in the past that have made me the happiest little kitchen nerd ever. I'm just suggesting we should be cautious with the gifts of actual-food that we give.

So here are my non-actual-food-gift idea for people who live near/with/about food. These would probably also make good wedding gifts, as most people are putting together kitchenware when they get married.

Bison stuff.

Okay, this may sound vague, but bison stuff is amazing, it lasts and lasts and lasts, it's beautiful and earthy and made of earth. They're all about environmentalism and long lasting quality and the colours are amazing. My favourite bison item is their lipped large mixing bowls, expensive, but so worth it. That's a gift people will keep for the rest of their lives. And it'll look awesome that whole time.

Recipe book holders with an acrylic cover...
what does that even mean? It means this:

OR THIS:

Why are these so great? Because the acrylic front keeps the book on the right page AND protects cook books from splatters and grubby finger prints. They're also nowhere near as expensive as the bison option.

Recipe folders/binders/boxes...
Okay, these might not be for everyone, but if you know someone who seems to collect or write recipes then these are really valuable.
You can get books like this:

You can click it to go to a site that sells it

or this one...

I have recipe boxes (several) You can get them from all over the place... here are some cool ones I found. You'll also need to get some recipe cards, some boxes come with these already, some don't, you can order them too. If you're lucky enough one of your lovely friends will make you up some specially constructed personalised recipe cards all for you. A lot like these, except with your name on them:

a diagramtic picture representing my recipe cards

A diagramatic picture representing the lovely friend who gave them to me

Also: here are some recipe boxes/cards I found and liked and then told you about (largely from etsy sites because I love etsy):

This etsy site allows you to design your own!

Do YOU have any excellent food related gift ideas, co-crusaders? Share! Share!

the perfect flu comfort soup - Asian influenced chicken noodle soup

Dinosaur Jack and I have the flu. I have been trying to justify the flu's horribleness by telling myself that perhaps the best test of a relationship is surviving a time when you are both completely unsexy and managing to come out relatively unscathed. Let's be honest, I'm pretty sure that even Scarlett Johanssen looks at least a little less sexy when her nose is raw and blocked up with snot, forcing her to breath like an enraged rhinoceros in her sleep.

But probably not. She probably doesn't even get colds.

Anyway, so what do Dinosaur Jack and I do when we're feeling sickly and snotty and completely unsexy? We get overly excited about making a soup that's as nutritious and tasty as possible, of course! I'm not even joking. We actually went through a process of trying to work out how we could get as many different vegetables as possible into our soup yesterday. Now, you don't have to be sick to enjoy this soup, it's delicious regardless, but if you do get struck down by a bad case of the loogies, I highly recommend making yourself a batch of this. It might look like a long list of ingredients, but it's actually super easy... and the list is mainly that long because of all the vegetables in it!

Asian Influenced Chicken Noodle Soup

Serves 6-8
You need:
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 star of star anise
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2L chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups water
400g chicken thighs or fillets, cut into small pieces
a handful of sliced dried shitake mushrooms
half a Chinese cabbage, thinly sliced
2 cans creamed corn
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
a handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

You:
Fry the onion, leek, carrot in the olive oil over a medium heat until the leek and onion soften.

Add the stock, water, fish sauce, soy sauce, star anise and bring to the boil (covered).

Add the chicken, shitake mushrooms, bring back to the boil, then lower to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the corn, cabbage and noodles, bring back to the boil and cook until the noodles are nearly done (they'll continue to cook once you take them off the heat).

Serve immediately, sprinkle liberally with spring onions and top with some fresh coriander.

Hell yes. Hell yes.