Inner Solace

(via Rémtörténet - A csiga - La Cuisine - Francia Finomságok)

This looks wonderful. I must try to get the recipe translated from Hungarian.

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Berry and custard dessert thing[1]

Ingredients:

• Custard
• Puff pastry
• Berries
• 1 Tbs jam

Method:

1. Cut puff pastry into shapes of your choosing.  Brush lightly with egg or milk and sprinkle with a little sugar.  Bake according to package directions or until puffed and lightly browned.
2. Buy, prepare or otherwise obtain custard of your choosing.  This one is a Thermomix vanilla custard.
3. In a small pot, add a bunch of berries, and a tablespoon of jam.  Mash a couple of them to get a little juice out.  Heat until warmed through and the berries soften just a little.  Make sure it’s mixed well.
4. Layer the puff pastry with custard and berries to your liking.

[1] Not very good at naming things, sorry.

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A cure for what ails you.

To the left is a jar of garlic cloves which have been sitting in apple cider vinegar for a while.  It’s a remedy/preventative Eric’s mum told us about (although I’ve heard about the combination before).

Take a bunch of garlic cloves and stick them in a jar. Pour apple cider vinegar to cover. Leave in a cool dark place for at least three months to fully infuse.

Warning: If you don’t want the smell of vinegary garlic to stink out your kitchen, use an airtight jar.

When you feel that tickle at the back of your throat that signals an impending cold or flu, take one tablespoon of the infused vinegar in a mug and top up with hot water.  Sip it and make sure you finish it while it’s still warm.

If you want to kick it up a notch, mash one of the cloves in your mug before you add the hot water.

Keep topping it up with hot water throughout the day or until the garlic loses all its flavour. :P

If you want to add an aspect of cooling (yin) to it, add a teaspoon of honey[1].

[1] Interesting thing.  In Western Australia, any honey that is imported from outside the state or country is super heat treated to nuke any bugs.  It’s part of the strict customs regulations.  Unfortunately this makes the honey completely useless for medicinal or healthful purposes.  Buy local honey (Wescobee or other local apiary) if you want it for more than the taste.

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Miso and Green Tea Soba Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp miso paste (white or red)
• 1 Tbs dried wakame (or to your liking)
• 1 Tbs of firm tofu, dice small
• a large pinch of dashi granules
• 200mL hot water
• 1/4 portion of green tea soba

Method:

1. Break the soba in half (if you like) and cook according to package instructions.
2. Mix the miso with a little hot water to form a loose paste.
3. Add everything else and mix well.
4. Give it a minute for the wakame to rehydrate, then eat.

Photos will continue to look crap while I feel the same. :P

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A salad of steamed potato and carrots, lettuce, avocado, tamagoyaki, kewpie mayo and s&p.

I felt inspired this morning and decided to improvise a breakfast parfait.  It’s called a parfait, I suppose, because that’s what those fancy-schmancy cafés call them so they can charge $12 for fruit, yoghurt and cereal/muesli.  Either way, it looks nice and is pretty delicious.

Apple and Cinnamon Breakfast Parfait

Ingredients:

• 1 large apple (cored, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces)
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1-1.5 Tbs raw sugar
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla essence (optional)
• Vanilla yoghurt
• Cereal or muesli
• Toasted sliced almonds (optional)

Method:

1. Sauté the apple pieces in butter, cinnamon, optional vanilla and sugar until it browns and caramelises to your liking. Remove from heat.
2. Layer cereal/muesli and optional nuts with yoghurt and apple in a glass, finishing with yoghurt and a few decorative pieces of apple and nuts on top.
3. Devour.

If you don’t want the apple warm, make the apples the night before and refrigerate it.

Baked za’atar coated chicken nibbles, za’atar flatbread and buttered peas and corn.

Baked za’atar coated chicken nibbles (adapted from Serious Eats)

Ingredients:

• ~900g chicken nibbles (wings cut into three pieces at the joints, discard wing tips)
• 1.5 C buttermilk
• 1 C flour
• 5 Tbs za’atar
• 1-1.5 tsp salt

Method:

1. Soak the chicken bits in buttermilk for at least an hour in the fridge.
2. Preheat the oven to 160C (fan-forced, 180C if not)
3. Combine the flour, za’atar and salt.  You may want to taste your za’atar first for salt and adjust the seasoning to taste.
4. Coat the chicken bits in the flour mix and place on baking paper.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, turning at least once.

Note: If you don’t have buttermilk, just add a tsp of vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk.

I had quite a bit of flour and buttermilk left from the chicken, and I didn’t want to let it go to waste, so I also made some flat bread. :P

Za’atar Flatbread

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C flour mixed with za’atar
• 1/2 C plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bi-carb
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 Tbs oil
• 1/2 egg
• generous pinch of sugar

Method:

1. Mix in the egg and the oil with gently warmed buttermilk.
2. Combine the dry ingredients.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry.
4. Knead into a dough (add more flour/buttermilk as required).
5. Tip onto a floured surface and divide into egg-sized portions.
6. Roll as thin as you can manage, making sure each piece is dusted so it doesn’t stick.
7. Heat a non-stick frying pan or skillet (or lightly oil them) and pan fry the flat bread for a couple minutes on each side or until cooked through. Be careful that it doesn’t burn.