Avocado Dressing

It feels like summer has arrived here in Newcastle.  I know its weeks away but with the weather the way it is we have gone into summer mode in our house, lots of salads, cold meats etc.

In Canada Scott discovered he loved Caesar Salads and especially Croutons!  So I make homemade croutons but that is for another post in the future. 

I have been trying to find some salad dressings that are tasty and lower in fat, other than the oily ones or the creamy ones.  I have a couple of avocados in the fridge that are very ripe and need to be used however there is only  soooo much avocado you can eat at every meal.

 

I found with this dressing that you could dip crudité, a nice slice of crusty French stick or you can use as a salad dressing.

1 whole Avocado
1/2 clove Fresh Garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon fresh lime or lemon juice
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
Water

In a food processor add the peeled clove of garlic, avocado, lime or lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times.  Thin the salad dressing out with a little bit of water 1/4 cup or until it reaches a desired consistency.

Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for at least a week.

Chocolate crackle caramel Slice

This slice is a gooey caramel, chocolate slice of YUM!

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
5 cups rice bubbles
150g copha, melted (Crisco)
2 x 380g cans of caramel top n fill
150g milk chocolate melted

Line a 20cm x 30cm lamington pan with baking paper and allow the long sides to overhang.

 

 

Sift the cocoa powder and icing sugar together into a bowl with the rice bubbles.

Toss to combine.

 

Add the melted copha and stir to combine.

Spoon the mixture into the pan and using the back of your spoon press down evenly.  Place in the fridge for 1 hour.

 

Place caramel filling in a saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens.  Pour over the prepared base.  Place in fridge for 2 hours to set.

 

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir with a metal spoon until the chocolate melts.  Pour over the caramel mixture and spread to coat.  Place in the fridge for 1 hour to set.

Cut into squares and snag one for yourself or you may miss out!

 

Pepper Steak Tagliatelle

Scott loves Pepper Steak or Pepper sauce on anything just about ... well second only to Smokey BBQ Sauce!

Many years ago when we first started living together I found this recipe in a cooking mag I then subscribed to that he loved, since then I make it when the teenager is not here. 

It is a fantastic recipe if you know, friends drop over and stay for dinner, you have 2 pieces of steak and need to stretch it to 4 adults, or shock horror you have one nice juicy steak and cannot be bothered to go to the shops for another, yes that is me.

I keep one of these nifty little cans of green peppercorns in the pantry for use when I need to throw this together.  You can get these cans in the spice aisle of the supermarket with the salt and pepper.

The following recipe is for 4 however it is easy to half for 2 or double for a dinner party!

2 steaks (porterhouse or such)
1 tin green peppercorns (see above picture)
2 cups beef stock
300 ml cream
250g tagliatelle
parley to garnish

Put on your water to boil for the pasta.  When water comes to the boil, salt the water and cook the pasta to the instructions.

While this is happening you can season your steak and fry in pre heated fry pan for approx. 3 minutes per side,  you just need to seal the meat and colour slightly,  remove to a plate to rest.   The steak will not be cooked through but this is good.

 

In the same fry pan add the stock and allow to come to a rapid simmer.  Add 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of  drained peppercorns or to taste to the stock and allow to reduce by a third.

While the stock is reducing slice the steak on an angle to desired thickness.

Add the cream to the stock, stir to combine and allow to simmer on low for 3 minutes.

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce, add the chopped parsley to taste,  approx. 1 tablespoon, to the pasta and sauce.  Toss together then add the slices of steak. 

Toss together for 2 minutes and serve.

Milo Cake

I have a friend who immigrated to America to live with the love of her life, she is a bit of a Milo fanatic!  On Facebook you can literally see her go into withdrawals during the freezing winters without a cup of Milo.  And we shall not mention Vegemite!

Milo is an Aussie kids drink, snack, breakfast cereal, sneaky midnight feed of choice in a tin.  I like to leave the lid off the tin when you get down to the last say half an inch of Milo and let it harden into a disk in the bottom of the tin,  you then take it out cut it into chunks and eat it.  It's nice and chewy by that stage.

So when I saw this recipe on the Raspberri Cupcakes website I felt it my duty to help an expat with her Milo addiction.

125g butter (room temperature)
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/4 cups of Milo
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 20 cm springform tin.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.

While this is happening sift flour, baking powder and milo together.  You may need to push the larger bits of milo through the sieve. 

Add the milk and milo/flour mix to the mixer in batches on low speed until just combined.

Pour into baking tin and bake for 40 to 50 minutes or a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack until cold.

I filled mine with whipped cream and strawberries and did not ice it however a nice chocolate buttercream or a chocolate ganache would work well.

 

Potato Pancakes

 

 



Sorry I didn't put up this post last weekend.  I have had it sitting on my computer minus the photos for a week.  I can only say in my defence ... I got lazy *blush*

You know when you come home from work and most potato dishes are just to fiddly or boring night after night?  Well here is another one to add to your quick list.

These potato pancakes are also great on the barbecue as well.

You can add just about anything to these, if you have kids that don't eat their veggies add some grated carrot or zucchini or both.  Add a handful of grated cheese for cheesy potato pancakes or a bit of chili for spicy pancakes.

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
salt and pepper
2 potatoes grated
2 spring onions finely chopped

In a bowl mix the flour, salt, pepper together then beat in the egg and milk until there are no lumps.

 

In a tea towel squeeze the juice out of the grated potato (and any other veggies you are using).

Stir the grated potato and spring onions through the flour mixture.  You can set this aside for no more than 1 hour in the fridge if needed.

In a fry pan heat olive oil and a teaspoon of butter for shallow frying.  Add spoonfuls of the potato mix and flatten, allow to cook until golden and then turn.

Place the pancakes on paper towel on an oven proof plate to keep warm in the oven set on 100C while you cook the remaining pancakes in batches.

Holidays. A Wedding, Family and a Road Trip

Thank you for your patience while the kitchen was closed.

A fake Mountie however the only Mountie we saw

 

 

Scott and I took a holiday to Canada.  We had planned a holiday in Canada in about 3 years time, however my brother Owen decided to get married.  So as with many things, our plans got moved forward.



This post is about the trip, the wedding and the food!

 



We spent our time along the east coast of Canada,  Deana my wonderful new Sister in Law lives in Toronto,  some of the photos are mine (the food ones) most are Scott's and yes I nicked them *evil grin*.



There are some dishes that I am going to try to replicate for the blog over the next couple of weeks such as the *drumroll* Onion Ring Tower,  it was as impressive as it sounds and one of the first things Scott asked "can you make this please".

The first week of our holidays was spent in Toronto.  We stayed with my parents and a friend in a condo downtown.  Toronto is a lot like inner city Melbourne with Trams and a diverse culture.  We did a lot of wandering around looking at things.  We also spent time with new family getting to know each other, its funny to find a family who are sooooooooo similar to yours in so many things, the main difference is just where they live.

Toronto Sunset CN Tower on the left

We also took a drive to Niagara Falls and spent a couple of hours wandering.

First and Last Selfie

After the wedding we took a drive up the east coast from Toronto to Montreal, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.  In total about 1600 km each way.

We did stop in Montreal however decided just to spend the night and drive on to Quebec as it was not as nice as we thought.  We did love Quebec!  The people of Quebec speak French and English however French is their main language.  Old Quebec city is glorious, it is very like France, lots of cobbled streets with old buildings, flowers draped from window boxes on beautiful old buildings and light poles everywhere.

 



Quebec is a walled city and to get up to the old city you have to take the Funicular (railway up a steep cliff face), as we were walking to the Funicular station we saw a glass blowing shop called Three Crows Glass.  They make ornaments, statues and bowls to sell to the pubic, they do the glass blowing on site for the public to see.  Mum and I found some Hummingbirds that we loved and bought one each.



At the top of the Funicular we found a gorgeous restaurant to have lunch outside in the sunshine.  Photos of the food below.

Steak Frites

 

Hamburger Frites

 

Grilled Prawn Caesar Salad

 



Next we went on to Prince Edward Island.  It was a 2 day drive to PEI.  PEI is where the writer of Anne of Green Gables set the books and where the Mini Series was filmed.  The Island is a lot bigger than you think and would take you at least a week to explore.  We stayed in Charlottetown in the middle of the Island.  The buildings here are beautiful I particularly liked the modest 3 storey house below,  I could live here!

 

 



We found out that the reason for so many people lined up to get off the island as we drove on was that the evening before Shania Twain has a concert in Charlottetown.  We had dinner that evening in a restaurant overlooking the harbour watching a re enactment of a pirate attack in the harbour which was fun.

Mum and I had always promised ourselves that we would have a lobster meal at PEI and we did pictures below.



On our drive back to Toronto from PEI we did spend more time in Quebec as we loved it so much and we found so much more we had not see the first time.

Scott and I were on a time constraint and had to fly home after 3 fabulous weeks away, however Mum and Dad continue their adventure and travel from Toronto to Vancouver by train with a stop in Jasper along the way.