Chocolate Cake

After the milk tart André seemed to be in a sweet mood - he wanted chocolate cake. It's his birthday next week so I decided to bake a pre-birthday cake. I have this great chocolate cake recipe, it's the best, well I think so, but André doesn't. He wanted a traditional chocolate cake with two layers and it had to have a caramel and apricot jam filling. Mmm. Ok, so we had to go buy a cake tin, that ring thingy for baking a round cake in.

The recipe didn't tell me how long to bake the cake for, it only said bake until a knife comes out clear when you test it. So I opened the oven about four times to check. When it came out clean, I left it an extra 5 min - just to be sure. Well. Don't do that. Our chocolate cake turned out nice and crispy around the edges and on top! Not too bad though, we're still enjoying it!!

Ingredients:

Mix 90 g cocoa with 130 g brown sugar.

Heat 285 ml milk on medium heat until it starts to bubble.

Gradually add the cocoa-sugar mixture. Beat until smooth and leave to cool.

Cream 125 g butter.

Gradually add 250 g caster sugar.

Add 3 eggs, one at a time.

Add 1 t vanilla essence.

Beat until light.

Sift together 250 g flour + 1 t baking powder + 1 t baking soda.

Add alternately with cocoa mixture to butter mixture.

Beat until smooth.

Bake at 180 C for approximately 60 min. But do check before- you don't want it over done like mine!

Then we cut the cake in half with a piece of thread, or André cut it. Spread apricot jam on the bottom half with caramel over the jam. Place the top half onto this spread and spread icing and decorate! We made icing using butter, powder sugar and cocoa.

Doesn't this look delicious? Mmmm...

You want a bite?

Oh, you want to taste the apricot - caramel inside? Surprisingly good isn't it?

Ok, that's enough now. The rest is mine. Go bake your own!

Salmon with mango salsa

My mom sent me this recipe which she got from the weight watchers website, so enjoy (in moderation) as it probably means it is less fattening! (The potato wedges aren't from weight watchers, but at least they were oven baked!)

For the marinade:

- 2 T red curry paste

- 4 T plain yoghurt

- Pepper

Mix together and place fish in marinade for at least half an hour.

For the salsa:

- 1 Small mango

- 1 Red onion

- 1/4 Gherkin

- Chili to taste

- 4 T Fresh mint

- 1 t Lemon juice

Finely chop all the ingredients for the salsa and mix.

Grill salmon 6-8 min, turning once. Serve with salsa and a wedge of fresh lemon. Don't be like me and only remember about the already cut lemon wedges still lying on the counter when we've just about finished the fish!! I always forget something!

Chicken Pot Pie

I've been wanting to make a chicken pie for a while now. Then I came across this recipe for a chicken pot pie on this website and thought I'll give it a try as I like trying out new recipes.

Prep time 25 min

Cook time 30 min

Difficulty easy

Ingredients

6 T butter

1/8 t thyme

1/4 t pepper

6 T flour

1 1/2 C chicken broth

1 1/2 C half-and-half (half cream)

2 C chicken breast, cubed

1 whole carrot, diced

1/2 C peas

6 whole new potatoes (I used one big potato), cubed

1 box Double crust pastry shell (Not sure exactly what this is, but I used puff pastry)

Cook chicken in some butter until brown. Remove from pan.

Boil vegetables until soft.

Cook butter, thyme, flour and pepper (add salt to taste) on low until bubbly.

Remove from heat and add chicken broth and cream. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly till think.

Fold together sauce with chicken and vegetables.

Pour into uncooked pastry shell. Cover with pastry.

Bake in preheated oven at 220 C for 30 min.

Wash the dishes while the pie is in the oven.

While your husband has a beer after he helped with the cooking.

Keep an eye on the pie! Make sure it doesn't burn in the oven. I turned the oven down to 150 C when it started getting a bit too brown on top.

Then enjoy your pie with a glass of wine!

PS Next time I will fry some onion and garlic too and add some mushrooms.

Milk tart - first attempt

Before I tell you about the milk tart I just have to show you what I bought today. I'm so excited about it. My baking has been limited here in Switzerland until now without this. Look.

Don't you love the color? I do! And it happens to go with my kitchen which has some touches of red. And look what it can do, frothed milk! Pretty, hey?

Ok, so I wanted to bake something this morning after buying this and I asked André what he'd like me to bake. It needs to be something he likes, otherwise I end up eating it all. He doesn't eat much sweet stuff, so I might just end up having to eat it all myself anyway... But I really wanted to bake something and from the list I gave André to choose from, he chose milk tart.

I have two recipes. One is my grandma's recipe which my mom made in Melkbos some time ago. It turned out really good. But the other recipe I have, one without a crust, sounded way easier so of course I chose the easy way out. Perhaps not the best choice! I will give you both recipes in a minute. If you look at the picture you can see the two layers and it feels as though something separated which shouldn't have. The bottom is too dense and the top too foamy. I looked up other recipes on the internet afterwards and the first one I found is exactly this recipe I used today and the reviews say that it is supposed to form a sort of crust with the bottom layer. So maybe it's supposed to be like this. Just not the way I know milk tart. And I like a pastry crust so next time I'll try the other one and let you know how that turns out.

But here's both recipes so you can choose and let me know what you think if you do try it.

Today's recipe: Crustless Milk Tart

4 C milk

1 C sugar

1 t baking powder

1 C flour

2 T butter

1 t vanilla

3 eggs, separated

pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Melt butter and add sugar, salt and egg yolks. Mix.

Add baking powder and flour. Gradually add milk and vanilla.

Fold in the egg whites.

Pour into an oven dish. Bake at 180C for 30-40 min. (I baked mine for 50 min today. It musn't be too wobbly when you take it out. It will be a little wobbly, but if too much it won't set properly.)

Sprinkle with cinnamon while still hot. Leave to cool and set.

And here's my Ouma's recipe:

Melktert

500 ml milk

30 ml butter

1 cinnamon stick

pinch of salt

2 extra large eggs, separated

100 ml milk

15 ml flour

30 ml maizena (cornflour)

125 ml sugar

Puff pastry

cinnamon

Heat milk, cinnamon stick, salt and butter.

Heat until just before boiling point.

Beat egg yolks, sugar, 100 ml milk, flour and cornflour.

Add a little bit of the warm milk to the egg mixture and beat well. (This is important, don't ask me why but you have to do it this way!)

Now add the egg mixture to the rest of the warm milk. Keep stirring until it starts thickening.

It will start looking like custard.

Let the mixture cool completely.

Line dish with puff pastry.

When the mixture has cooled completely, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in.

Pour into dish and bake at 180C for about 35 min. (Would probably be longer.)

As with the first recipe, it mustn't be too wobbly when you take it out the oven.

Allow to cool and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Risotto

I took these pictures such a long time ago and thought I'd posted this already, but it seems not. I made risotto again tonight. Here's how:

1. Fry onion and garlic in some olive oil.

2. Add chicken pieces. You don't have to, you can leave this out and do a vegetarian risotto.

3. When the chicken pieces are nice and brown, add 1 cup Arborio rice (special risotto rice available in most grocery stores) to serve 2 people. To serve 4, double the rice and the liquid. It makes more than enough. Fry the rice in the pan for about 1 minute or so.

4. Then add the liquid: 1/2 cup white wine (or red if you don't have white- it will change the color a bit but still tastes good) + 2 cups water. With the liquid add either vegetable stock or half a packet mushroom soup powder. The soup powder makes it nice and creamy.

5. Add your vegetables. You can really add ANYTHING you like!! We usually add mushrooms, one tomato, green/ red pepper. Other things to add are zucchini, butternut/ pumpkin, broccoli, really any veg.

6. Simmer until liquid is absorbed. Taste the rice. It might not be soft yet, then add a little more water to just cover everything and simmer some more until rice is soft and creamy.

7. Before serving you can stir through some grated cheese!

This dish will not score high on presentation, but it will on taste!

Zucchini salad

I found this recipe on another blog quite a while ago and I would add a link to that blog but now I really can't remember where I found it... I know zucchini salad sounds a bit strange and that is the reason why I took so long to try it but don't be scared, this tastes amazing! I just made it and wanted to eat it straight away after having a small taste, but the rest of the dinner is still in the oven so I have to wait.

For the two of us I grated only one big zucchini, the zucchini here are seriously big so you'll have to grate and see how much your zucchini gives you. Then add some lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese and mix well. Sorry, no measurements, you'll have to taste! I liked the taste of the parmesan so added quite a bit.

My mother in law's Rusk recipe

These rusks are so good! Obviously I wont post anything not good! We spoke to my mother in law on skype last night and she had these rusks drying in the oven. I could almost smell them! But I won't bake them. Simply because they're too good and I won't be able to leave them alone. I will be sitting here at my laptop trying to work but won't be able to think about anything else but the rusks in the kitchen. But if you have better willpower than me, here's the recipe.

Health rusks

500 g margarine

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 kg self-raising flour

3 t baking powder

2 ml salt

2 eggs

3 cups All Bran (crushed slightly)

2 cups digestive bran

200 ml sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raisins

500 ml buttermilk

Melt margarine and sugar.

Sift self-raising flour, baking powder and salt.

Add All Bran, digestive bran, sunflower seeds and raisins to flour mixture.

Beat eggs and buttermilk and add to flour mixture.

Add melted margarine and sugar mixture and mix well.

Bake at 180 C for 50-60 min.

Remove from bread pans and allow to cool.

Cut/ break into pieces and dry overnight in oven at 80 C.

Lasagne, my absolute favourite!

Hold on. I'm going to tell you about lasagne in a minute. Thinking about lasagne just reminded me there's still some in the fridge from last night and even though we had such a good lunch and LOTS of dessert this afternoon, I just have to have a small bite. Drool over the picture while you wait... Watch out, don't get any on your keyboard!

Mmm... that was good. Do you see the croutons in the salad? I've always wanted to make my own croutons. Last night there wasn't anything else to add to the salad so I made croutons for the first time! Turned out good.

Ok, back to the lasagne. I hope you can make lasagne. If you've never tried then today is the day to start. It's really not difficult. I don't know why some people think or say it is. It's actually very simple. And if it's the béchamel sauce (white sauce) you're worried about - which is also not hard to do- I do have an easy way out for you.

I looked up the spelling of lasagne because my spell check is telling me it should be with an a at the end. According to Wikipedia lasagna is singular for the pasta sheets used and lasagne is plural and also the way it's spelled in Italy. You need more than one sheet to make lasagne.

Lasagne has always been my favourite dish and when I became interested in cooking and wanted to learn to cook I didn't want to start with boiling an egg as my mom tried to convince me. I wanted to make lasagne. So as far as I can remember that's the first thing I learnt to cook and still my favourite. I do it without a recipe now.

Whenever I make a mince dish I cook extra mince, like double or three times what I need and freeze it in smaller containers. Ready to be converted into a quick lasagne, cottage pie, spaghetti Bolognese or whatever.

Ok, I'm going to give you my recipe which I've been making for years and years. I wish I can remember how old I was. This is so good, I never order lasagne in a restaurant because it's never as good as this one. Along the way I'll give you some optional extras which I add depending what I have in the fridge.

Oh I just noticed my recipe is in Afrikaans! I will translate.

Lasagne (This makes quite a big dish, could probably serve 6)

5 ml olive oil

500 g mince

1 packet minestrone soup powder (or a few teaspoons vegetable stock powder - Ina Paarman if you're in SA)

1 tin tomatoes

30 ml red wine or water

lasagne sheets (I like the green spinach ones)

50 g (60 ml) margarine

50 g (100 ml) sifted flour - I never sift it

570 ml milk

5 ml salt

pepper

100 g grated cheese of your choice

Cook the mince.

Add the soup powder (or veg stock), tomatoes and wine/ water.

Melt the margarine in a separate pot.

Stir in flour.

Gradually add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Add salt and pepper.

*Now for years I used to make the béchamel sauce like this on the stove. Then I learnt a much easier way from my mother in law - use the microwave! So you melt the margarine, stir in the flour and then I add about 1 c milk and mix well. In the micro for 1 min and then stir again. Do 1 min at a time and take out to stir otherwise it will boil over = BIG mess in your microwave. You don't want to have to clean that too. When that one cup starts to thicken add some more milk and carry on until you have enough sauce and it's thick enough. I don't measure the marg, flour and milk anymore but do if you're not sure. Otherwise it might not thicken and you will end up frustrated and never want to make lasagne again and I don't want that.

Now you are ready to layer in your oven dish. The order of layers vary and I can never remember so this is the one thing I still until recently got the recipe book out for! Right at the end I have to find the lasagne page to see which layer goes first! Now I'm not that bothered and just put whatever first. As long as you end with a sauce layer and cheese.

So this recipe I have here says lasagne sheets first, then half of your bolognese, and half white sauce. Then repeat pasta, mince and sauce and top with cheese.

Bake 30 min at 200 C (without a lid.)

*I add the without a lid part because after my mom moved to Germany years ago I had to phone her to ask if I need to put the lid on the dish or not? They should tell me that in a recipe!

*Some extras to add when you're cooking the mince (bolognese sauce): chopped chilli, green pepper, mushrooms (we always add these three). Also when available in the fridge some kind of veg like finely chopped carrot. Be creative and make it colourful! You can also add some tomato paste if you like it more red. I do. And a fresh tomato too if you like it tomato-y. I do. Mmmm.... what else... I think that's it. Oh garlic and onion!! How can I forget those two! I can't believe this recipe doesn't add that. It's a must.

*By the way, you know you don't have to cook the lasagne sheets? You just place them in the dish and make sure they don't overlap.

Ok, so that was my original trusted recipe. Then another recipe my sister sent me which is supposed to be a healthier (read less fattening) version is what we tried last night and this is the one in the photo - although the above recipe turns out looking the same. You know the top layer of lasagne will always be cheese so will look the same :-)

Now I still have to ask her how all this cheese is better than the milk in the white sauce, but here it is. I call it the:

Easy-way-out Lasagne!

500 g ricotta

4 egg yolks

500 g mozarella

1 c freshly grated parmasan

lasagne sheets

2 cups Bolognese sauce

Mix ricotta with egg yolks and season with salt and pepper. Layer as above, ending with the cheese and bake as above.

*NB I halved the ricotta (250g) and egg yolks (2) and it was enough for 4 portions of lasagne. And it looked rich and cheesy enough without the parmesan so didn't add that.

The ricotta gives it a different taste. I'd say a bit richer and creamier but not too heavy. It was really really good too. I just need to find out which one is less fattening now and that's the one I will continue making. This last one is definitely quicker. Last night I had the mince ready made from earlier in the week so I just had to mix the ricotta and egg yolks and in the oven it went!

Ok, now go make some lasagne for your family!!

Banana-Oatmeal-Choc Chip Cookies

As I've mentioned before, my sister has been so kind to help me get rid of a few too many Swiss chocolates I ate and sent me a meal plan with lots of healthy tips. Even which fruit are safe (sugar wise) to eat and which to stay far away from -e.g. bananas :-( She's also been sending me some healthy recipes including this one for cookies. Okay so maybe cookies aren't exactly healthy, but it's a healthier alternative if you're going to eat cookies. I baked them today and they turned out so yummy. I left a few spoonfuls in the bowl on purpose to eat while their baking ( don't tell my sister!)

I'll first give you her recipe and then I'll tell you what I did.

Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 25 minutes.

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour

3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup plain soy milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 ripe banana, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup chopped walnuts or other favorite nut

1/3 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips (such as Tropical Source)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine first 6 ingredients (through sugar) in a bowl. Whisk together oil, soy milk, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients; stir to combine. Fold in banana, walnuts, and chocolate chips.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop dough onto pan with a small ice-cream scoop. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown, turning baking sheet halfway through. Let cool on a wire rack.

________________________________

Now in America-land you get all weird and wonderful stuff in the grocery store. Like vegan choc chips? Semisweet?? What is that? Okay, maybe I'm just jealous because you get ANYTHING and everything in the grocery stores there and it's even labeled in English. (But seriously, I don't know what that is.) Anyway. Since I live in Switzerland and I'm not going to buy soy milk no matter where I live she helped me adapt the recipe a bit. Then I adapted it a bit more myself. (After translating the ingredients into German before going shopping.)

Instead of oat flour I used 1 1/4 c whole wheat flour.

Instead of raw sugar I used 1 1/2 c brown sugar.

Instead of the oil I used 1 c butter.

I couldn't find baking soda so only used the baking powder.

I added 2 eggs.

I didn't use any milk.

I didn't add any nuts.

I had a choice between chocolate choc chips or caramel and chocolate chips mixed. No vegan... I used the caramel and choc mix. Really good. Use whatever you find or like.

I just noticed that the recipe says 3/4 c oats, but in the revised recipe she told me to use 3 c oats. Don't know if that was a typing error she made, but I used 3 c and it worked fine. I think only 3/4 c would be too little. Is this getting too confusing? Yes I agree, let me type up exactly what I did and then you can decide which one to follow.

Combine: 1 c butter + 1 1/2 c sugar

Add: 2 eggs + 1 t vanilla

Add: 1/2 t baking powder + 1 1/4 c flour + 1/2 t salt

Add: 3 c oats + 1 c choc chips + 1/2 banana

Then some extras which sister adds, but I didn't. Might try it next time.

-1 c raisins (might try this instead of choc chips for a less kj version)

-2 t cinnamon (I forgot to buy..)

For those of you not baking in the US: 350F = 190C

This recipe says bake for 25 min. In one email my sister said bake for 12 min and in another bake for 9-10 min so I guess it's really up to you!! I started with the 9-10 min then took it out. The next batch I tried for 25 min. Luckily I checked on them after about 15 min and I saved them just in time! I put the first batch back in again after food critic André said he liked the longer baked ones better. I agree.

Simóne says she freezes hers and eats them straight from the freezer. Oh and I forgot to mention, the rule is one biscuit as your sweet treat per day ONLY. I will try that. The freezer part, I can't promise anything about the one per day part. I can imagine it will make them nice and crunchy.

Hey I just noticed on this original recipe it says 1/3 c choc chips but on the revised one she sent me she said 1 c! I guess she decided there's no hope getting this sister into canola oil, soy milk and vegan chocolates. Might as well give her the full fat version. So if you're not bothered then go ahead and add those choc chips!!

I'm not sure if this really was what I know as vanilla essence. I'm used to it being a very dark colour and this didn't smell as good. I love the smell of vanilla essence. But it tasted good. I added one whole little bottle. It wasn't as much as the recipe said though.

Oh here are those caramel-choc chips I told you about!

These were some really good choc chips!

Mix it up!

Yummy cookies in the making

Go on try them, I know you'll like it!

By the way, they make a nice home made gift too!

Poached salmon

Tonight I cooked salmon for the very first time! And it turned out great :-) I never cook fish. Mainly because I don't know what to do with it. The only fish we ever eat is tuna from a can and the smoked salmon my mom brought us a few weekends ago which I loved!

When one of the dinners on my sister's healthy menu she set up for me said salmon I started thinking I should give it a try. Then last week André came home from work (and I always ask him what he had for lunch because they get the most delicious sounding lunches at work) and he told me about the salmon he had which was so good. One of his co-workers actually told him how they just cook it in some veggie stock. That didn't sound to hard.

So here's what I did tonight: I bought two salmon fillets in a weight watchers package because it looked like a good size, it looked clean and neat and not like a fish or a used-to-be fish. And an added bonus - it's from weight watchers so it should be even less fattening!

Once in the kitchen with the frying pan out, I started feeling a bit more creative. I got the veggie stock to a boil and then added chopped onion, garlic, red pepper and broccoli.

I let that simmer for a bit, then moved it to the sides of the pan and added the salmon. 6 min on one side then about another 3 min on the other side and it was done.

André wanted some oven baked fries so I had that going in the oven as well as a sweet potato which I wrapped in foil and baked for an hour. Delicious! I love sweet potato.

And here it is! (This is Andre's plate, his looked better with all those fries!)

Now I plan to do salmon once a week and try a different recipe each time.