Who knew that the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia was a hot bed of macadamia nut growing? Â I for one did not, and yet, I find myself in possession of a packet of macadamia nuts from Nutworks, thanks to my parentals and their recent visit …
We now found ourselves at Almond Biscuits in the Edmonds Cookbook index. Almond Biscuits, as a category of baked good, enjoy a little more history and reputation than I had suspected.  The internet informs me that these popular biscuits are “prepared in different ways across various …
On a recent trip to the supermarket, ample signage informed me that Sunday 4th August was National Roast Day. Â Although no doubt a ploy to sell more products, it’s been a while since my tiny kitchen knew the joys of a hearty roast, so Sunday was National Roast Day chez nous.
In my household, the only type of roast that counts is that of the beef variety. Â And when preparing roast beef, I simply cannot go past Delia Smith.
My copy of Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course is pictured below.
I picked up this little gem for a mere $2 at the Downtown Community Ministry’s annual book fair a couple of years ago. Â I love the cover; Delia in her 80’s finery and for some reason feeling the need to pose with an egg.
All joking aside, it’s a wonderful book and many tips and recipes have stood the test of time. Â Not least of these is Delia’s roast beef method.
It’s really pretty simple. Â All you need, asides from your beef of course, is flour, mustard powder and pepper.
One beings by preheating the oven to a whopping 245 degrees celsius. Â I’m putting this bit first in case any of you happen to be following these instructions, because there’s nothing more annoying that getting everything ready to go in the oven then realising the damned thing is stone cold because you forgot to turn it on.
One dusts the surface with a mixture of flour and dry mustard, followed by a sprinkling of ground pepper.
Delia asks that you add a knob of beef dripping to the tin before placing the beef in. Â I have no beef dripping – can you even buy it nowdays?! – but a little olive oil came to the rescue.
The beef is given 20 minutes at 245 degrees, after which time one reduces the heat to 190.  If you hanker for meat on the rarer side of cooked as I do (bad ex-vegetarian!) then the beef cooks for  a further 15 minutes per pound, which in our case equalled another half an hour.  Treat your beef kindly by basting it with the pan juices from time to time.
You can use this time to get your other bits and pieces in the oven…in our case, kumara and potato.
Once out of the oven, Delia counsels that one should leave the beef to relax for about 30 minutes before carving. Â My idea of relaxing usually involves sauvignon blanc. Â Sadly for our beef, no wine was forthcoming and it had to make do with resting on the bench in a teetotal fashion.
Mind, this seemed to relax it all the same as it carved up nicely and I was most pleased with its pinky-rareness. Â Roast veges, some token greens and savoury gravy courtesy of the roasting pan completed the set.
Thanks Delia!
Albert Squares are the next instalment in my Edmonds challenge series, following Afghan Biscuits in the index section of the Edmonds Cookbook. Â Although not strictly – there is an entry for Afghan Slice hot on the heels of Afghan Biscuits. Â However, the recipe for Afghan …
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good sandwich. Â Although bread has been having a hard time of late, what with low-carb fashions and suspicions about gluten, I do not let these things hold me back. Nonetheless, we all have times when we crave a …
Today was an exciting first for me. Â As you may have read in earlier posts, I have taken to gardening over recent months. Â Well folks, today was the first time I harvested and ate something I had grown myself (aside from herbs…I’m talking things you can make a meal out of here).
Rocket was the lucky plant in this instance.  Rocket  made the final cut into my garden largely because I had it on good authority they are  easy to grow and low maintenance.  This has proven to be true.  Aside from losing a couple of seedlings to an enthusiastic blackbird chasing worms, my rocket plants are starting to resemble a pretty decent salad.  I am proud.
So, when one is harvesting one’s first crop, one really wants something special sharing the plate. Â And that special something is goat cheese. Â If you fancy hearing about my rocket and goat cheese salad with honey and balsamic dressing, read on.
To make this for two people I used:
A handful of rocket leaves
Goat cheese – I used about 50 grams
2 tablespoons of pine nuts
A heaping teaspoon of runny honey
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
This salad requires doing pretty much all preparation simultaneously and then throwing to together at the end, which requires vigilance to any burning smells.
I started by toasting the pine nuts in a non-stick frypan.  Watch those little critters, they  burn all of a sudden.  I find they only need a couple of minutes of medium heat.
Slice rounds of the goat cheese and place in a heat proof dish. Â Put it under a hot grill and grill for several minutes until golden brown.
While all this is going on, make the dressing by whisking the honey, vinegar and oil together. Â I microwaved my honey first for 15 seconds first, which was helpful to proceedings.
Place the rocket leaves in two bowls. Top with the grilled cheese and pinenuts. Add the dressing and combine.
As my rocket plants are in the first flush of youth, my harvest was modest, and so we had this salad on top of some fresh pasta to fill the meal out a little. It was okay teamed with the pasta, but another time I would have the salad with bread or grilled chicken if a little padding was needed.
Not so bad if I say so myself.
I have been toying with the idea of cooking my way through the entire Edmond’s Cookery Book for some time now. The seed of this idea began to germinate a while back, after I watched Julie and Julia and my mind leapt to some more …
I am probably not the only person inspired by the recent New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker episode featuring caramel garnish. Â With my sister and sweet-toothed brother in law due for dinner later in the week, what better and tastier way to impress than a simple bowl of ice cream crowned with some caramel finery?
I have had a life-long fear of creating anything involving molten sugar, following my mother’s dire warnings of children disfigured permanently following coconut ice and the like gone wrong. Â This may have been a ploy on her part to discourage rampant sweet-making and resulting hyperactivity. Â But now dear reader, as a fully grown human being, I am pleased to report that I am ready to tackle this one head on.
Caramel garnish is not a field I feel I have the expertise in to start making up my recipes willy-nilly.  Not to worry, the internet is most obliging on the matter of caramel garnish.  I used this lovely blog’s Decorative Caramel recipe.
So, one needs to begin with melting some sugar. Â Taking a deep breath and banishing fears of third degree burns, I put my pot of sugar on the heat.
The idea is you melt it until it starts to go amber. Â I found this took what felt like an age, to the point where I was contemplating googling ‘caramel not going amber’, except for abundant warnings about turning your back on the caramel for a mere second and finding the whole lot reduced to a smouldering mess. Â That would not be an auspicious introduction to decorative caramel.
Lo and behold, after looking like a strange alien-like bubbly mass for at least fifteen minutes, it developed a most attractive warm amber hue.
And now for the tricky bit. Â The internet, with a cavalier attitude, tells you to simply dip your spoon into the caramel and drizzle it onto your baking paper in attractive shapes. Â And for the real over-achievers, you can make baskets, spirals and I don’t know, probably name cards for your dinner guests.
Frankly, getting any kind of shape out it took a few goes. Â We had some wonky hearts and some spiral whirly things. Â The Mr also made some rather rude shapes but I will not include photographs of such base humour.
You will notice some of the shapes are a bit bubbly…perhaps I needed to leave the caramel to settle down a little, or boil it more softly?
Once the shapes are all laid out on the baking paper and your caramel is all gone (or starting to harden, as in my case), you can leave them to set and peel them off the baking paper when they are ready. Â As it’s winter here and our heating is on a lot, I found mine were going a little sticky, but I popped them in the freezer and this restored them to their crunchy glory.
To serve, I impaled the garnishes atop a mound of vanilla ice cream and we smothered the ice cream with Martha Stewart’s easy caramel sauce. Â Successful dessert and not a third-degree burn in sight.
I have recently taken up gardening. Â That is a sentence I never thought I would write. Â Yet, here we are, and so far I am enjoying it immensely. My Italian flat-leaf parsley in particular is going great guns. Â The picture above may not look as …