Author: Bruce

Moroccan Lamb Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 large (900g) lamb shanks, or a lamb leg after most of the meat has been taken off
  • 1 medium brown onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 400g can diced tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon Massel beef style stock powder
  • 1/2 cup dried green lentils, rinsed
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Method

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shanks. Cook, turning, for 6 to 8 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate (not necessary if using an old leg bone – already cooked)
  2. Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery to pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until onion has softened. Add cumin, coriander, ginger and cinnamon. Cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Return shanks to pan with tomato, stock powder and 6 cups cold water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour. Add lentils. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until lentils and shanks are tender.
  3. Remove pan from heat. Remove shanks. Remove and discard bones and fat. Shred meat. Add meat and parsley to pan. Return pan to heat. Simmer for 5 minutes or until heated through. Serve.

One pot creamy mushroom soup

Ingredients

  • 2 chcken breasts, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh basil
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 400 g mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 litre chicken stock
  • 375 ml can coconut milk
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • Pepper, to taste
  • NO SALT REQUIRED
  • 450 g uncooked penne pasta
  • 1 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
  • A handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Method

  1. In a large pan or wok, cook the chicken pieces in oil, seasoning with basil and pepper.
  2. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
  3. Add the remaining oil to the pot. Fry the onion and garlic until the onion becomes transparent, stirring occasionally (about 2 minutes). Pour in the white wine and allow to simmer for 5 minutes, or until beginning to reduce down.
  4. Add the chicken back to the pot.
  5. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 3 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
  6. Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, salt and pepper, and bring to a gentle simmer.
  7. Add the pasta and simmer until pasta is al dente, about 15 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
  8. Stir in the parmesan cheese until it melts through the sauce. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken. Slice the chicken into strips and stir through the pasta.
  9. Garnish with fresh parsley and extra parmesan, if desired
  10. Enjoy!

Innocent Sweet Pea Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 cos lettuce dark leaves discarded. Pale inner leaves finely shredded
  • 360g (3 cups) frozen peas, cooked
  • 140g celery cut into pea size dice
  • 100g green apple peeled, diced
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 6 rashers of streaky bacon
  • 40g butter
  • 160g (1 cup) pepitas
  • 100g (half cup) brown sugar
  • Salt flakes
  • 200g fresh ricotta from wheel at deli
  • 100g feta
  • 1 bunch mint chopped
  • 4 spring onions
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Method

  1. Lay the shredded lettuce down the middle of a platter
  2. Layer the peas and celery on top
  3. Toss the apple in the lemon juice and sprinkle on the platter
  4. Make the bacon and pepita crunch: fry the bacon in the butter until it is tanned. Throw in the pepitas and let them toast. When some of the pepitas are starting to go golden at the edges, throw in the sugar and let it melt. Keep stirring and a caramel will form from the brown sugar and the pork fat. Sprinkle with salt flakes and spread on baking paper.
  5. Now finish the salad. Crumble over the cheeses. Large like of ricotta. Smaller lumps of feta.
  6. Scatter on the herbs
  7. Dress with oil and vinegar
  8. Smash up the evil pepitas and spread over the top.

Banana Bread Brownies

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup self-raising flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1 cup about 2 large ripe bananas, mashed

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
  2. Line or grease an 20cm x 20cm baking pan.
  3. Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
  4. In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, melt butter. Continue to cook while it foams and stir constantly until it browns and you see some brown specks at the bottom and it starts to smell a bit toasted. Remove from heat.
  5. Once butter cools a bit, add sugar and vanilla extract.
  6. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoon.
  7. Gradually add the flour mixture, and stir the batter until it’s evenly moistened.
  8. Divide the batter in half to two separate bowls.
  9. Into one bowl of batter, blend the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. This mixture will be very thick.
  10. In the second bowl of batter, stir in the mashed banana.
  11. Spread 1/2 of the chocolate batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, and follow with all of the banana batter. For the remaining chocolate batter, you can either spoon it on top or you can put it in a plastic bag, snip off the corner, and squeeze it onto the banana batter in lines.
  12. Use a butter knife or a spatula to swirl the two batters together to create a marbled appearance.
  13. Bake in the preheated oven until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes
  14. Cool in the pan, cut into squares, and serve.

Junior Cook – Pizza

Pizza Base

  • 2 Cups self raising flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 30g butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • ¼ cup tomato sauce

Topping

  • 2 Cups grated cheese
  • 1 tomato thinly sliced
  • 1 cup well drained pineapple pieces
  • 1 cup finely chopped ham

Method

  1. Turn oven to 220 degrees (200 in fan forced oven). Get out a large oven tray
  2. Soft for and salt into a bowl. Chop up butter and add.
  3. With fingers, rub in butter until blended in
  4. Add milk (more of needed). Mix and knead to a soft dough.
  5. Roll out onto the baking tray (about 35cm diameter)
  6. Brush the dough with oil then tomato sauce
  7. Sprinkle cheese over then put tomato slices evenly over it.
  8. Spread pineapple and ham over evenly
  9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked.

Rhubarb crumble

Ingredients

  • 10 sticks of rhubarb
  • 4 tbsp water
  • 8 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp powdered ginger
  • 110g/4oz butter, softened
  • 110g/4oz demerara sugar
  • 180-200g/6-7oz flour
  • double cream (to serve)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  2. Cut the rhubarb into 7.5cm/3in long sticks and place on an oven tray, sprinkle with the water and caster sugar and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
  3. Once cooked, remove from the oven, sprinkle over the ginger and mix well.
  4. Fill an ovenproof dish about 4cm deep with the rhubarb.
  5. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar to make the crumble toppping. Sprinkle over the rhubarb and bake in the oven.
  6. Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving with double cream.

Bon-bons

Crazy easy to make. But take a bit of time to do the actual assembly.

Main ingredients

  • 30 blended digestives
  • 125g melted margarine
  • 4tbsp crushed walnuts
  • 6tbsp icing sugar
  • 5tbsp milk
  • 4tbsp cocoa

Optional ingredients

  • rum essence
  • orange zest
  • cinnammon

Method

  • Mix it all up!
  • Make balls about the size of a large grape – say half the diameter of a golf ball.
  • Roll the bon bons in dried coconut. Put in the fridge to harden.

Muffins Choc/Apple

Basic Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
  • 6 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2/3 cup caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 6 tbsp margarine/butter (melted)
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Put all in food-processor. Blitz until smooth.
Transfer the mixture to a normal mixing bowl

Add your choice of flavourings

Blueberry

  • 1 cup of fresh/frozen blueberries

Strawberry

  • 1 1/4 cups strawbs chopped into small pieces
  • 1 additional dessert spoon of flour

Choc chip

  • 150g choc chips
  • 12 small cubes of chocolate (1 in the centre of each muffin)

Apple

  • 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped cooking apples (probably about 1 large sized cooking apple)
  • Size of the apple pieces to be about 1cm x 2cm
  • 1 tea spoon of ground cinnamon

Method

  1. After mixing your flavourings, pour your mixture into individual muffin cases. It makes about 12 muffins.
  2. Put into the oven on 195 degrees on a fan oven.
  3. After 20 minutes, check how they’re doing. If you’ve got fruit in the muffins, you can’t test they’re cooked by using a skewer, so instead try prodding one of them with your finger: if they spring back when you push them, they’re cooked.

Penne Lasagne

Ingredients

  • 350g penne pasta
  • 250g minced beef
  • 440g tin of beans
  • 440g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • Onion
  • Grated carrot
  • Garlic
  • tomato concentrate
  • 200g grated cheese
  • 150g mozzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg, beaten

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease a biggish baking dish.
  2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
  3. In a large pan, brown the mince
  4. Remove the mince to a separate bowl and saute garlic and onion in the same pan.
  5. After garlic and onion has softened add grated carrot, beans, tomatoes, tomato concentrate. Cook for another 5 mins, add the cooked mince, then remove from heat
  6. In a bowl, combine cheddar, parmesan, and most of mozarella and beaten egg. Stir until well combined.
  7. In the prepared baking dish layer half the pasta, half the sauce and half the cheese mixture. Repeat. Top with remaining mozzarella.
  8. Bake in preheated oven 34 to 40 minutes, until hot and bubbly.