Make your own cheese!

I decided to make my own cheese. Well, kind of cheese. Labne.

I couldn't believe how ridiculously easy this was to make.

1. Take a 1kg tub of Greek yoghurt. Take a large piece of muslin, or, alternatively cheese cloth (makes sense, doesn't it?). Up end tub of yoghurt onto your cheese cloth.
2. Draw up the edges of cloth around the yoghurt. Drain as much of the fluid as you can initially then tie a string around it so it's a tight ball. Suspend the ball over a bowl (suggestions from here): tie the ball to a wooden spoon, then rest the spoon on the top of a bowl (or jug!), allowing the ball to hang down. I thought I'd be able to do it with some bamboo skewers, but they couldn't take the weight, even when I used 3-4 skewers. Wooden spoon is definitely the way to go.
   
3. Leave to drain in the fridge for 5 days. You can leave it for less time, but it just tastes like thickened yoghurt. 5-6 days mean it's starting to mature slightly.
   

Spoon it out. Roll in spices or herbs (dukkah, paprika, parsley etc). Mix in dried fruit, like apricot. Serve with bread, marinated vegetables, with roasted mushrooms, on anything really! It's creamy and slightly tangy... and too good because I can't stop eating it. It keeps for up to a week.

Cheese made using cheese cloth. Who'd have ever thought?

Speedy last minute snacks

It's that time of year when there's always people popping over or you need to bring a plate to some event somewhere. Here we have two recipes that I've made from stuff on hand and actually turned out well. Thankfully I remembered to write down how I made them so I can recreate them if necessary! I thought I'd better put them here, because the scraps of paper I wrote them on wont be so permanent (or so readily searchable).


Carrot & chickpea dip with pita bread dippers

I made this when I had eight people coming over and was concerned that I perhaps I don't have enough pre-dinner nibbles. So I whipped up a dip and crackers.
Bits in the fridge and cupboard:
1/2 tin chickpeas
2 carrots (you could use pumpkin or sweet potato)
Jar of tahini (although peanut butter would work too, I reckon)
Curry powder
Cayenne pepper
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

• Steam 2 carrots in a steamer or microwave
• Dry roast 2-3 tbsp curry powder (or to taste) and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, dry roasted in a pan for 1 min until fragrant.
• Blend together carrots, chickpeas, 2 tbsp tahini, 1 tsp olive oil, S&P and spices until smooth. Add a little water if it's too thick.

• Meanwhile, take a piece or two of leftover pita bread, chop it in triangles, spray with oil and sprinkle with a little salt, bake for 5 mins in a hot oven or under the grill until brown and crispy (if you're using the grill, just flip them after a couple of minutes - and keep an eye on them!).

Super Speedy Savory muffins

Muffins always save me when I'm in a pickle. At 10pm last night I suddenly remembered I had a lunch to go to and had to bring something. The reason why I like muffins is because, unlike most baked goods, little precision is required. All of these ingredients were leftovers that I had in the fridge or cupboard. I didn't quite have enough milk, and didn't have any fresh, frozen or tinned corn, but did find a tin of creamed corn way up the back of the cupboard. The cream corn worked out really well actually and I think it's a great addition to savoury muffins. I'll have to remember that one in future! Oh, and muffins freeze well. How good are muffins?!

My muffins included:

2 cups self raising flour
1/4 capsicum (about 3/4 cup, diced)
3/4 cup frozen peas (it's all that was left in the packet)
1/2 onion (about 1 cup chopped)
1/2 carrot, grated, sqeezed with paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible.
1/2 tin creamed corn
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I had soy on hand)
100 g butter, melted
3/4 cup grated cheese

• Fry the onion in a little oil for about 5 mins until soft
• Stir the onion, capsicum, carrot and peas into the flour
• Combine the creamed corn, eggs, milk and cheese
• Mix the wet and dry mix together until just combined
• Spoon into 12 muffin pans. Bake at 200 C for 15-20 mins fan forced.

(un)healthy obsession with cranberries

I go through fads of favourite foods, but right now it's cranberries. Cranberry juice, cranberries, craisins (especially craisins)... it really doesn't matter. I can't get enough of their sharp, tarty, tangy flavour. Gib even bought me some real, unsweetened cranberry juice from Macro a few weeks ago - you know, the sort that make it feel like your face has been punched in if you try it straight. Cranberries are good for you too!

I spotted this recipe at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody for Pumpkin Cranberry Bars. I had a spare hour up my sleeve before going to training and had everything on hand, so I thought I'd give it a go. I used dairy free margarine, walnuts instead of pecans and I steamed and pureed some fresh pumpkin we had in the fridge. Because I'm lazy I made it in the food processor, leaving the walnuts and craisins until last.


The outcome was fantastic: as proof I've made 2 batches in 4 days! (Ok, so there was a book club being hosted at our house, and there were lots of people to share with). The walnuts and craisins gave the bars a lovely texture. This recipe goes into the "favourite recipe" pile.

The theme at Meet Met At Mikes this week is "A week of baking". Go check it out!

Vegie burger mission

Tonight I'm attending a BBQ for Gib's open water diving course graduation. A perfect opportunity to try out one of the vegie burger recipes recently featured in Epicure.

I decided to give the tofu burger a go. I have attempted many bean and lentil burgers in my time, but tofu burgers are a place I have never gone before. Probably because tofu is something I have generally disliked in the past, but it seems to be growing on me. Gib and I went for a wander along our local asian grocer strip (our most favourite one had a fire out the back of it a couple of evenings ago, so it was not open for obvious reasons) so I picked up some tofu, wakame and other bits and pieces.

I found the mixture to be quite bland when I tried it, so I made some additions.

Beth's new super tasty tofu burger recipe (that doesn't fall apart!)

2 sheets dried wakame, boiled for 3 mins, drained.
6 spring onions, finely chopped
300 g firm tofu, marinated in 5 spice
1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs (made from the crusts of sprouted wheat bread)
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
2.5 cm piece ginger, finely diced
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp nanami togarashi (Japanese Seven Spice)
2 tbsp peanut oil
Some extra sesame seeds

• Boil the wakame for 5 mins, until fully rehydrated. Dice into 1cm pieces (my food processor wasn't going to cope with it whole).
• Put wakame and half the tofu into processor and process until crumbly. Transfer to a bowl.
• Place bread into processor, process until breadcrumbs form. Add remaining tofu, let run until smooth.
  
• Add to bowl with the tofu/wakame, sesame seeds, soy sauce, lemon juice, peanut oil, ginger, nanami togarashi and freshly ground pepper. Stir/mix with hands until well to combine (it formed a dough, so I used my hands, it was much easier). Form into 2-4 patties, depending on how big you like them. I find veggie patties very filling, so I made 4 small ones. Press the patties into a tray of sesame seeds to coat them, brush off any excess.
• Cook 4-5 mins each side.

I let mine rest for about 30 mins: the time taken to drive to the BBQ and have the BBQ started. I don't have any photos because the camera was forgotten (d'oh!) however, I can say they looked exactly like the ones in the picture.

I was surprised at how meaty they tasted. I think it was the soy sauce/tofu/lemon combination, and even though I was despairing about the recipe at the start, I think my additions really lifted the flavour of the patties and I'd definitely make them again. Using tofu in the buger was really easy and it did bind everything exceptionally well. The patties were more structurally sound than any bean/lentil patties I have made previously. And they looked great!

Vegetarian gyoza - YUM!

My Japanese friend, Erika, taught me how to make gyoza. In restaurants around here, gyoza are horribly oily and greasy and flavourless (apart from the mountains of oil). But when Erika and her mother made them for us, they were one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. They were filled with fresh ingredients, loads of garlic and fresh chives, cooked lightly on the bottom and then steamed to finish them off. Very healthy, filling and wholesome. They make for a great side or, if you make a few different types, a dinner that sits lightly in your tummy (unlike those stodgy horrid things in restaurants). Another inspiration in my gyoza experimentation was Confessions of a Food Nazi who is also an advocate of the delicious, healthy gyoza -- she also has some very useful tips!

I think of all the meals I've made recently, this has certainly been the most satisfying. Oh my gosh, for something so healthy they are just so incredibly delicious and moreish. A little bit crunchy on the bottom and all soft and almost velvety on top, and the smell of fresh crushed garlic is just divine.

Erika and her mum's wonderful gyoza. Look at a all of that beautiful fresh chive!

Ingredients:

• Store bought gyoza wrappers (from the local Asian grocer, these are ridiculously cheap)
• Cabbage (which will be about half of your filling)
  
• Mushrooms, marinated tofu or ground pork, as the "feature" ingredient
  
• Garlic (another key ingredient in gyoza)
• Leek or spring onions
• Ginger
• Sake
• Mirin
• Tamari soy sauce
• Sesame oil

I followed the preparation instructions from this website, given that Erika wasn't by my side to guide me. I made two types: one with shimeji and shiitaki mushrooms, the other with marinated tofu (I think I preferred the fresh mushroom one though). I'm leaving the ingredients list kind of open because it's totally your own preference. You really don't need to make much filling, only a small bowl full will make about 30 gyoza as you only put about a teaspoon of filling in each.

1. Place a small amount of the mixture in the palm of your hand. Wet around the edges.

2. Fold in half

3. Pleat (this is surprisingly quick and easy but looks really cool!)

I coated a large fry pan in spray oil, placed the gyoza in and cooked until the bases of them were brown. Approximately 5 mins. You can either place the gyoza on their sides or have them sitting upright (like in the photo below): Erika tells me that it really doesn't matter.


I covered the top of the fry pan with aluminium foil (if it had a lid I would have used that), and added about 1/2 cup water to the pan, then let it steam for another 5-10 mins until cooked through. I served the gyoza straight from the pan. The dipping sauce was a simple mixture of tamari soy sauce and mirin, however there are many varieties of dipping sauce inspiration on the net.

Beth's Bushwalker Bickies

Ok, I'm a little late on this one. This is for the June Recipe Box Swap at I have to say. There wasn't a theme this month, so it was easy to choose a recipe.

I had an unusually quiet Thursday evening and I spent it baking biscuits and reading the newspaper. Nothing exceptional in the paper, but I managed to finish the sudoku. What was exceptional was how these biscuits turned out. They are sweet, but not too sweet, and a little bit nutty tasting. They have a wonderful, slightly chewy texture but the cornflakes and oats make them a bit crunchy at the same time. I think could happily polish off the whole batch on my own.

Beth's Bushwalker Biscuits
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup dates, chopped
3/4 cup wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup plain self raising flour
1 cup Carman's rolled oats
1 cup cornflakes
1/2 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 120-140°C (these cookies are very high in sugar and will burn easily). Grease baking tray.
Blend margarine and sugar together. Mix in egg, water and vanilla essence until combined.
Mix through dates, then the remaining ingredients.
Roll into balls then flatten on the tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Makes 25-30 (I got 26 in the batch I made, but I think there would have been more if I hadn't eaten the dough... it was so yummy)

Chickpeas. Love 'em.

For many years I've been told about how good dried legumes are compared to their tinned counterparts: they’re cheaper, easy and the taste and texture are second to none. But I always put dried legumes in the too-hard basket and bought the tinned variety instead. Chickpeas are my favourite, I eat them all the time (I eat them out of the tin!), so finally I decided to give the dried ones a shot. I discovered how genuinely easy it is: I just put my chickpeas on to soak before I go to bed, and then cook them up in the pot for 20-30 mins while I get ready to go to work and they’re done. There is no big change to my routine and no “extra time” required. Even if I forget them for a few days, it’s no big deal – they just keep soaking.

For a mid-afternoon snack, I love hommus on crackers, pita crisps or with celery or carrot sticks. It takes about 5 minutes to whip this up and stores in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Quick and easy hommus

3/4 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight, cooked + 80 ml water
or
400 g can chickpeas, drained, half the fluid reserved.
1½ tablespoons tahini
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tsp olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic

You could also add: Cumin, chili flakes, smoked paprika, dukkah, parsley, coriander

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Make your own pita crisps:

I usually have pita bread on hand, but sometimes I notice it’s getting towards its used by date fast so I turn them into pita crisps. Once cool, store your pita crisps in an air tight container or ziplock back for up to 5 days .

Cut your pita bread up into chip-sized triangles. Place on a tray, spray lightly with spray oil, sprinkle with salt and bake for 5-7 minutes at 180°C. For a super-healthy low-sodium version, you can just place your pita triangles on the tray without oil or salt (but, I am a massive salt fiend so this personally isn’t my preferred option!). Be sure to watch your pita crisps carefully as they can brown very quickly.

Early Anzac biscuits

Next Friday I leave for Japan for 3 weeks, which will be very exciting, but it means I will miss out on Anzac Day. April 25, 1915, was the date that the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops landed in Gallipoli, Turkey. It was the first Australian and New Zealand involvement in World War I. During this time I like to bake Anzac biscuits. There are several ideas about how Anzac biscuits came about, but basically they're crunchy, well keeping biscuits that were eaten - and later sold by - the Anzacs.

This is my mother's recipe for Anzac biscuits:

75 g rolled oats
125 g sugar
70 g desiccated coconut
120 g wholemeal flour
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
40 ml boiling water
125 g butter, melted

• Preheat oven to 160 C.
• Mix oats, sugar, coconut and flour together.
• Combine the golden syrup and boiling water. Add the bicarbonate of soda, followed by the butter. Stir until frothy and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined.
• Spoon onto greased baking sheets, making sure there is plenty of room for them to spread. Bake for 15 mins.

Cooking with Kate

Today my buddy Kate came around and baked and cooked. I found out that Kate is remarkably more productive in the kitchen than I am. I made curried carrot soup, gingerbread men and Kate made steamed sweet red bean buns, pumpkin scones and baklava. What an absolute machine she is! I gecook quite healthily but today we went all out... I don't think I've used that much butter in one go for quite some time (heheheh just ignore the fact that we worked together as researchers at a heart research institute!). The steamed buns, while fun to make, didn't turn out so well so I wont bother posting the recipe for those.

Now you'll notice that there are photos! I haven't got my new camera yet, but I did get a new phone which has a camera! So some of the photos have come out a bit strange and aren't great quality... oh well.

Curried carrot soup

• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 kg carrots, grated
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp hot cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
  
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 400 ml light cocounut milk

Heat oil in a large heavy based pot. Fry the garlic for 30 seconds and then add onion. Cook the onion until clear.

Add the mustard seeds, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon and turmeric and fry for 1 minute until fragrant and the mustard seeds are starting to pop.

Stir through carrot and ginger. Add stock, bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 mins. Blend with a stab mixer until smooth.

Stir through the coconut milk, bring the soup up to temperature and serve.

*This soup is actually more orange coloured than this, and the wall is actually white, not blue. But you get the idea!

Karatebread men (makes 18)

Kate and I met at work and became buddies after we both discovered we both do karate and both love to cook. So we combined our passions today and made... karatebread men!

• Melted butter, to grease
• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
• 125ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup
• 1 egg, separated
• 375g (21/2 cups) plain flour
• 1 tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150 g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper
Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Beat in the golden syrup and egg yolk until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn out onto a

floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 4mm thick. Make sure to coat the rolling pin in flour too because this dough is quite sticky. Avoid handling the dough too much. Cut out your 9cm gingerbread men and use a spatula to lift and place onto trays (about 1 inch apart). Reroll the dough and repeat until all the dough is used up. Any scraps can be rolled up and made into some random shape, like a circle or gingerbread "log" or if you're like me you might just like to eat the dough raw! Or if you're feeling boring, put scraps into the bin.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 mins before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make your icing by beating the eggwhite to soft peaks. Add icing sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Ice your men however you want, but we chose to put little white dogis on ours... and once we started to run out of icing we made sumobread men. My icing skills aren't well practiced, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit!

HAI-YAAAAHHH!!!

Baklava

Recipe from here.

• 375g (1 packet) filo pastry
• 180g butter, melted & cooled (although, I think we only used about half of this! I don't think we were trying hard enough)
• 2 tsp water

Filling

• 150g walnut pieces
• 150g unsalted pistachios
• 55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 1tsp ground cinnamon

Honey syrup

• 1 375g jar honey
• 165g (3/4 cup) sugar
• 250mls (1 cup) water
• 1 lemon, rind finely grated and juiced

Preheat oven to 180°C. Spread the walnuts on a baking tray and lightly toast in the preheated oven for 5-8 minus. Cool.
Combine walnuts, pistachios, sugar and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor and process using on 'pulse' until they are finely chopped.

Remove the filo pastry from its packet and lie flat on the work bench. Cover with a dry tea towel and then a damp tea towel. (This will keep the filo from drying out while making the baklava.)

Brush a shallow 18 x 28cm cake tin with some of the butter (see right). Take 1/3 of the sheets of filo. Brush the top sheet generously with butter and fold into thirds to make a rectangle the size of the tin. Place in the base of the buttered tin and brush surface with butter. Spread 1/2 of the nut filling over the filo to cover. Layer 1/2 of the remaining filo sheets as before. Spread left over nut filling over filo and top with the remaining layered buttered filo sheets. Lightly brush top with remaining butter.

Using a sharp knife, cut a diamond pattern into the top layer of filo and sprinkle with the water. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes longer or until the filo layers are cooked through.

Meanwhile, to make the honey syrup, combine honey, sugar, water, lemon rind and juice in a saucepan and stir over high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and keep on medium heat for 10 minutes or until the syrup has thickened slightly.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. When cooked, remove baklava from the oven and immediately pour the cooled syrup evenly over the surface. Stand to cool completely.
Cut into diamond shapes. This can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Pumpkin Scones

40 g butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
350 g pumpkin (e.g. jap, kent)
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
~1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease your tray. Cut off the rind from the pumpkin, cut into chunks and steam or microwave until soft.

Beat butter, sugar and egg together. Stire in pumpkin, flour and nutmeg and enough milk to make a soft, sticky dough. Kneed lightly until nice and smooth.

Roll out dough to about 1 1/2 inch thinkness, cut out into circles with a cutter (or a tumbler or wineglass or whatever!). Brush the top with milk and cook for 12-15 mins. Best eaten soon after baking.

Perhaps 12 mins would be better than 15! But ooooohhhh soooo yummy!

Peanut butter cookies

Betty Crocker is no good for my waistline!

It's my last day of work today (yes, ever, at this job) so at about 11pm last night I decided to bake a batch of peanut butter cookies. I found the recipe here.

For whatever reason my cookies didn't turn out exactly like the picture (I suspect my habit of not bothering to measure might have played a part in this... I think I put in too much butter) so they flattened out a little more, kind of like the cookies you buy at Subway, but damn they still taste good. I'll post my version of this recipe:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
A handful and a bit of peanuts

1. Mix sugars, peanut butter, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours (or overnight) or until firm.
2. Heat oven to 180ºC
3. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped into sugar.
4. Bake 9 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. While waiting and watching the butter from your cookies ooze underneath the greaseproof paper, eat the remaining scraps of mixture in the bowl with a spoon. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.