Panna Cotta

Many Moons ago I worked at a hotel where the chef at the time was pretty adventurous for the kind of establishment it was. He would make some amazing dishes and I luckily got to taste test many of them. The Panna Cotta he made was so delicious - I had never tried it before and remember thinking it tasted like ice cream without being frozen. It had that creamy texture, it really was so good. So for todays post, I decided to give this little desert a go and this is my attempt. Personally I think his was better, it just seemed creamier so next time I might change the milk and cream ratio to more cream.

Panna Cotta

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 tablespoons boiling water

2 teaspoons gelatine 

Place the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla into a saucepan. On a medium temperature, heat until the sugar has dissolves.

In a separate bowl place the boiling water into a separate bowl with the gelatine and stir until dissolved. Pour this into the cream mixture and stir through. Pour into 6 greased moulds and place on a tray. Place this into the fridge until set, approximately 5 hours

Red Velvet For Mum

Happy Mothers day to my Mum and all the other Mums (or Moms) out there, I hope you have had a wonderful day and have been spoiled. My Mum and I have been tiling the kitchen in my studio for the past two days, she deserves a medal for putting up with me and everything I get her to do:) Love you Mum. We have another day of tiling as I have to cut all the tiles to fit, which I have been putting off, then we have to grout them all. Because of all this tiling work I prepared a cake for mothers day a few days ago, so hope you enjoy it. 
I can't say I'm a fan of the Red Velvet Cake I find they don't have much taste,  I can think of much nicer cakes out there to be had, in particular a mud cake or carrot cake, yum!!
So to resolve the lack of taste I have covered it in sugary meringue goodness just for you and your mums. 
If you have a mouth watering Red Velvet cake recipe that you think will change my mind please share, they're not as popular in Aussie as they are in other countries. 

Red Velvet Cake

3 eggs

1 2/3 cup white sugar

1 cup buttermilk

150g butter (melted)

3 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoon red food colouring

Frosting

2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

4 egg whites

Place the eggs, sugar, buttermilk and melted butter into a bowl and stir to combine. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder and stir through. Add the milk and red food colouring and fold in until everything is incorporated then pour into two 20cm cake tins. Bake for 50-60 mintues or until cooked. Set aside to cool completely before icing.

To make the frosting, heat the sugar, water and cream of tartar in a saucepan until the mixture starts to bubble and the sugar has melted.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then slowly add the liquid sugar and beat until glossy. 

Cut the cakes into two and ice.

Chocolate Pudding for two

The winter months are slowly creeping in on us down here in Melbourne. I love winter time, I know most people find winter dull, and can't wait for summer, but I think winter is snug and beautiful. That's why two years ago I packed up and left Brisbane, to come to Melbourne so I could enjoy the seasons. I love coming in from the cold to a nice warm house. I would love to have a roaring, crackling fire to come home to, it seems such a romantic notion. My little heater will have to do for now. One day though, I'll sit near a roaring fire eating this next recipe. Like a scene from a movie, a girl can dream!! Nom nom nom :)

 Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

1 cup flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup milk

50g melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup hot water

Pre heat the oven to 180C

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa into a bowl, add the sugar. Combine the milk, butter and vanilla essence together and add to the dry ingredients, stir until well combined. pour into a baking dish or frypan and spread the mixture out. Top the mixture with the brown sugar, cocoa powder and then pour over the water. Place in the oven and cook for 50 minutes or until cooked.

Ginger & Walnut Slice

I have been looking for a recipe that includes walnuts and ginger for the longest time, well ever since one of my most loyal and devoted readers told me how good the flavour combo was. At Christmas time when walnuts are around she gets a big bag full and some crystallised ginger and eats the two together. She suggested I should use them together in a recipe, so G this one is for you!!!

I was at the Auckland Airport, having been told my plane was to be over 3 hours late!!! So I was at the airport for nearly 6 hours waiting. My brother and sister in law hung out with me for as long as they could and then had to go to put the little one to bed. So to kill some time I went to look at the magazine racks, and I stumbled upon a New Zealand Magazine, Taste, that had this next little recipe in it. The recipe in fact comes from Elizabeth Messenger who was a 1950's cooking icon. I snapped the magazine up and settled myself into a corner with a coffee and was transfixed with this magazine until my plane arrive. If you can get your hands on Taste I would highly recommended it. I have even written to them to ask if I can get it anywhere in Oz. Oh by the way the flavour combo is fantastic.
Enjoy xxx
Sophia

Ginger and Walnut Slice

100g butter

100g brown sugar

2 egg yolks

170g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ginger

2 tablespoons of water (optional)

Meringue Topping

50g walnuts (chopped)

2 egg whites

100g brown sugar

70g crystallised ginger (chopped)

Preheat the oven to 150C

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the yolks one at a time beating after each addition. Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger into the bowl, and stir to combine. If the mixture is to dry and doesn't come together to form a dough, add the water, and form a dough. Press the mixture into a lined 30x20cm tin and sprinkle the walnut over the top. 

To make the topping, place the egg whites in a bowl and whisk with and electric beater until soft peaks form. Slowly add the brown sugar while still whisking, whisk until the mixture is glossy. Fold in the ginger and smooth over the top of the base. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until cooked, serve with a fresh pot of tea.

Orange Blossom Pancakes

During my trip to New Zealand, my sister in law and I went to a fantastic little coffee shop, Atlas in Ponsonby, where we had some out of this world pancakes. We had only dropped in to have a coffee on our shopping expedition of Kitchen shops around the Ponsonby area. However when we saw the menu, well what can I say - it was destiny. We had to give the pancakes a try.

They where Orange blossom pancakes served with seasonal fruit and natural yogurt. Talk about yummy!

When I returned to Australia, I had to try and recreate the recipe, so went on the search for orange blossom water which is not as easy as you would think to find. I ended up finding some at a little turkish cafe/supermarket. 

I couldn't resist opening the bottle to have a smell on the way home, I was expecting a beautiful orange zesty smell, boy oh boy was I wrong, the stuff stinks, I mean it smells really, really bad. It smells like old ladies - kind of musty. Oh well I thought I spent $5 on this bottle I may a well see what its like. All the way through making the pancakes I was still unsure if I should use it as I wanted beautiful tasting pancakes, but I persisted, and I'm glad I did as the taste is subtle but slightly there and gives the pancakes a great orange taste, that the orange juice alone doesn't give. So when you make them you may think you can leave out the orange blossom water, but don't!! Consider yourself warned, or you won't get the full flavour.

Orange Blossom Pancakes

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup juice from an orange

1 egg

60g butter (melted)

1 teaspoon orange water

1/3 cup of sugar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Butter to fry

Place the buttermilk, orange juice, egg, butter and orange blossom water into a bowl and whisk to break up the egg and combine the ingredients. Sift in the flour and baking soda and whisk until all the ingredients have combined and you have a thickish batter. 

Heat a non stick pan with a little butter, use a 1/3 measuring cup to scoop up the mixture and pour into the saucepan, when the mixture starts to form little bubbles, flip it over, when cooked remove from the heat. Add a little more butter and repeat.

Makes 7 large pancakes

Guava Jelly

Last weekend I went to New Zealand to spend the weekend with my brother and his family. I got to spend the whole weekend with my adorable little Nephew, who is just starting to speak. His favourite word is 'spider' which he terms 'pider' anything and everything that moves like a spider is a 'pider', its so adorable. He's the cutest little chap.

They have a smallish guava tree at their place which produces so many little fruits, it was incredible. They were covering the ground turning it red. So me being me thought I have to do something with all these little fruits, and not let them go to waste. I had never seen the fruit before much less cooked  with it, however that didn't stop me collecting a bowl full. It even started to rain when I was collecting them, and I thought maybe this is a sign that these berry's are poisonous and I shouldn't be cooking them, however I persisted and collected a bowl full. When Tracy (my sister in law) got home, she saw the bowl of guavas sitting in the sink soaking and pulled out another two bags from the freezer that she too had collected, as she doesn't like seeing things go to waste either. So we had a mission, to cook something out of these little fruits. Good old google to the rescue - we discovered the different things you can do with them. In the end we decided to make a Jelly, which is much like a jam, but doesn't have the pulp of the fruit -  you make it using the liquids.

We needed some mesh to strain it so we set out to a little kitchen shop in Ponsonby called Milly's, its jam packed full with kitchenware's and has every possible kitchen gadget you could ever want to get your hands on. Tracy brought the mesh and the beautiful colander you see in the photos, as well as some awesome gadgets that I will show you in other posts. I ended up buying the cute little jars that I haven't been able to find in Oz, needless to say we were two very happy girls leaving Milly's. If you're ever in Auckland check them out, you're sure to leave with a smile on your dial!

Guava Jelly

1.5 kg guavas

1/2 cup water

2 cups of sugar (amount depends on the amount of juice)

half a lemon

Place the guavas and water into a big saucepan, and boil until the fruit becomes soft and begins to break  apart. Remove from the heat, and strain through a piece of mesh for 24 hours.

For every cup of liquid that you get from the guavas, use a cup of sugar. We had 2 cups of juice so used two cups of sugar. Place the sugar and juice into a saucepan and boil for approximately 20 minutes or until the jelly sets when you put a small amount on a plate. Just before you remove it squeeze half a lemon into the mixture.

Pour into some sterilised jars and seal.