Pumpkin Scones

Do you have an ultimate comfort food that makes you happy, no matter what? For me, comfort food isn't something you make when you're sad, just something that makes you happy when you eat it. It used to be mashed potato until I had a bad incident with instant mash. But pumpkin scones are the BEST, you don't even know. Drop everything and make them immediately.

And with homemade butter? LORDY. Have some with a cup of tea for a mid-afternoon snack. Nuke them for 30 seconds and eat on the way out the door in the morning. Just have some, please. It will enrich your life.

PUMPKIN SCONES
Makes 12 scones
Total time commitment: 40 minutes
Recipe from The Golden Wattle Cookery Book


1 1/2 tbsp butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup cold mashed pumpkin
2 cups self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Cream butter and sugar together. Add the egg and pumpkin.

2. Add flour and mix well. Pour in heaped tablespoons onto a greased tin and bake for 15 minutes.

Baking Basics: Homemade Butter

I've been wanting to make homemade butter since I read about it on a blog a while ago. It conjured up memories of Year 1 when we made our own butter, and then I found out that its even easier to do with an electric mixer. When you've made the sale, stop selling, internet! Everyone has also mentioned its a good source of entertainment for kids to make their own butter, and my memories of Year 1 can attest to that.

Keep watching for a scrumptious snack to go nicely with your homemade butter, I promise it was a little source of heaven all week for me. 

HOMEMADE BUTTER

150mL cream makes about 100g butter

Cream

Strong arms or a stand mixer

1. With stand mixer: Put the cream in the bowl.

With brute force: Put the cream in a jar or container, leaving some space at the top for expansion. 

*Want to add extra flavourings to make chilli butter? Garlic butter? Nutmeg, cinnamon, salted? Add them now!*

2. Make sure the lid is secure and shake away, or put the mixer on a medium-low heat. You want the butter to be yellow and separated from the buttermilk otherwise it will spoil very quickly! You can reserve the buttermilk for cooking if you like.

Gluten Free Friday: Alycake

Alycake (and Aly, the Vigilante) was the main inspiration behind GFF. I thought that it would suck to not be able to eat gluten, so originally I was going to do gluten-free week to challenge myself to make things that were tasty and quick and non-glutenous. Then I was like, OR I can do something every week. In retrospect, a lot more (continuous) work, but it's fun! Also now that the Uber-Blonde is GF as well, its nice to know that I can always steal recipes from her blog to replicate if I have an uninspired week. Heh.

So guys, this is Aly, eating her Alycakes at Tim Minchin last weekend.

Actually, before I introduce you, can I just take a second to say OH MY GOD TIM MINCHIN WITH AN ORCHESTRA BLEW MY MIND. And that here is a photo of me and Miss Italia dancing (he hadn't even started by this point, we just decided to get our groove on).

Ok, carry on.

ALYCAKES
Makes 12 small cakes
Total time commitment: 40 minutes
Adapted from recipe on the Xylitol website

2 eggs
75g almond meal
75g sugar
Pinch of baking powder
Vanilla essence (see note below)

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Beat eggs and add other ingredients. Mix until smooth, pour into cake tin and bake 15-20 minutes.

TADA.

But seriously, flavour these however you want. I tried orange, as in the original recipe, but it didn't really do it for me. I've done them with no flavouring in the mixture but lemon zest grated on top. Its a pretty stock-standard gluten free recipe, which just means you can keep adapting it to your (or your lucky gluten-free buddy's) tastes! Bravo, recipe. Bravo.

Coconut Bread

Good morning pumpkins! I hope your week has started off splendidly. I overslept and now I'm a bit grumpy (not that I missed anything, but its true that when you turn off your alarm and fall back asleep you feel worse when you eventually get up), but I'm going grocery shopping soon and then working through my massive to-do list before Panto starts up again tonight! Its Scooby-Doo themed, and we find out the casting tonight. Fingers crossed my Velma-esque haircut swayed the casting panel a bit :P From what I've heard so far, the script is hilarious so I am mucho excited.

I was also mucho excited to make this Jamie Oliver recipe coconut bread, because I thought it would be a good breakfast food, and gosh-darn was I right! My only problem was that there was a lot of sugar (luckily after reading the UB's post on Jamie Oliver sorbet, I had the foresight to halve it when I thought the measurement was excessive) and it was kind of cakey in consistency as opposed to bready, but I also undercooked it a little so the middle was still a bit doughy and that could be why. Regardless, it was a nice breakfast and snack food while it lasted!

COCONUT BREAD
Serves 8-10
Total time commitment: 1 hour 30 minutes, most of which is baking
Adapted from Jamie Magazine, Sept/Oct 2010


3 eggs
400ml milk
300g self-raising flour
100g caster sugar
180g dessicated coconut
1 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped/1 tsp vanilla extract/1 tsp vanilla essence
100g unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease a loaf tin with butter. Whisk eggs and milk together.

2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, coconut and vanilla) in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and gradually add egg mixture, then butter, mixing until smooth.

3. Bake for one hour.

Notes:
- The original recipe calls for 200g each of sugar and coconut
- Recommended loaf tin size is 22x8cm
- You are pretty :)

LOOK AT HOW DELICIOUS THIS PIZZA LOOKS.

JUST LOOK AT IT, FOR GOODNESS SAKE.

Ignore the quality of the photo, focus on the deliciousness of the pizza and how evenly spread the toppings are. It was possibly the best pizza I've ever eaten, ever.

Gluten Free Friday: Leek and Parmesan Risotto

I don't want to constantly "resort" to rice as a staple of my GFF meals, so I'm trying to avoid it entirely, but this was too good to pass up. I bought a bunch of leek on a whim at the farmers' market (goodness knows why, because its a winter vegetable and we're in the middle of a darn heatwave, so it was expensive) and had to find a way to use it all up once it was cooked. This ticked all the boxes for a weekend meal - quick, easy, not too many ingredients, delicious, and I didn't have to think too much to cook it. Perfect, no?

If you've read my previous risotto recipe, I found a rather ingenious way to cook risotto on Not Quite Nigella that doesn't involve slaving away over a hot stove for 40 minutes. Just for funsies, I actually made risotto the *proper* way for the Vigilante one night, and it didn't taste markedly different. Actually, I hated that risotto, but thats another story for another day.

LEEK AND PARMESAN RISOTTO
Serves 4
Total time commitment: 45 minutes (including 20-30 minutes cooking time)


2 leeks
Parmesan
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups stock, heated

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Place rice and stock into a large baking dish, cover with alfoil and bake for 30-40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, wash the leeks carefully and cut into discs, discarding the root and dark green leaves.

4. Cover the leeks with water in a large pot. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

5. Combine leek and rice, serve and top with cracked pepper and parmesan to taste.

Cooking Basics: Rissoles

Get all of the ingredients together. You'll need an onion, a carrot, breadcrumbs, tomato sauce, salt and pepper, basil, oregano, and mince. 

Dice the onion and put it in a bowl with the mince

Grate the carrot into the bowl

Don't forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang

(Name that song!)

(...)

(... anyone?)

Season with salt, pepper and herbs as you see fit. 

Add breadcrumbs. These help to absorb some of the fat in the meat. So it follows that the fattier the mince, the more breadcrumbs you use.

Fry them in a little oil, and try not to cringe at the blurriness of this photo...

And serve!

You can add an egg to help bind them together a little better, if you so wish. 

RISSOLES

1kg mince

1 onion, finely diced

1 carrot, grated

Tomato sauce

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper, basil and oregano, to taste

1 egg

1. Combine mince, onion and carrot in a bowl.

2. Add salt, pepper and herbs to taste, a dash of tomato sauce, egg and breadcrumbs. Combine. 

3. Shape into patties and fry in a little oil until cooked through.