Category Archives: cooking

Spring salad recipes

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It’s warming up and spring is almost here. Here are some super easy and delicious salad recipes from our friends over at Bake and Brew.

Caesar Salad

Bake and Brew’s Caesar salad and potato salad

 

Caesar salad recipe

Caeser recipe

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole Cos lettuce (washed and sliced)
  • 6 rashers of bacon (with rind removed and chopped)
  • 50g Shaved Parmesan cheese
  • 8 Boiled eggs
  • 4 slices of toast to make croutons
  • 100mL of Caesar dressing (Zoosh brand)
  • Parsley (optional)

Method:

1. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until crisp and browned. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.
2. To boil eggs, place 2-3 eggs in a saucepan and cover with warm water. Cook on high until the water starts to boil, then remove from the hot plate and cover with a lid for three minutes (set a timer). Once three minutes is up, transfer the eggs to cold water and leave there until cool enough to peel.
3. Toast and butter the bread, before cutting into small squares for croutons.
4. Combine the lettuce, croutons, bacon and half the Parmesan in a salad bowl.
Drizzle over the dressing and top with the remaining Parmesan.

5. Sprinkle parsley over the top if desired.

Potato salad recipe
Potato Recipe

Ingredients:
  • 1kg potatoes (quartered)
  • 6 rashers of bacon (with rind removed and chopped)
  • 1 whole red onion (finely chopped)
  • Six pickles (chopped)
  • 200mL Coleslaw dressing (Zoosh brand) OR mayonnaise
  • Parsley (optional)
  • Balsamic glaze (optional)
  • Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until crisp and browned. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

2. Place potatoes into a large pot and cover with salted water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

3. Mix potatoes, coleslaw dressing, bacon, pickles, onion, salt, and pepper together in a bowl until all combined. Refrigerate to allow flavors to blend and bacon to soften, about 1 hour.

4. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and parsley if desired, prior to serving.

 

Recipe: winter warmer veggie soup

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soup 2

I don’t know about you, but this weather makes me crave soup: packed full of flavour and healthy veggies, served hot with a buttery piece of bread or a savoury scone… yum!

The cafe here at the Library, Bake & Brew, were kind enough to give us their recipe to share with you all. Happy soup-making!

Ingredients:

2 Turnips

2 Swedes

1 Pumpkin

2 Zucchini

1 Celery head

4 Carrots

6 Potatoes

Vegetable stock (the amount of stock will be the amount of soup liquid you get)

(This the Bake & Brew suggested veggie combination, but the great thing about soup is that you can chuck so many different ingredients in! Experiment with different veggies if you like)

Note: The veggie amounts in this recipe is for a big serve of soup, if you are cooking for a small group of people, adjust the recipe for less veggies and less stock.

 

Method:

1: Dice all veggies in even sizes.

2: Take pumpkin, swedes, carrots, potato, celery, turnips. In a large saucepan or pot big enough for your soup, saute off in a little butter.

3: Add stock. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender. Add zucchinis in last few minutes.

4: Season with salt and pepper to taste, and top with fresh chopped parsley. Serve with savoury scone or bread with butter if you like.

5: Enjoy!

Soup 1

Recipe: Pumpkin, Haloumi, & Chickpea Fritters

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IMG_6938

Meatless Mondays just got a whole lot more exciting thanks to these easy, healthy (but more importantly) tasty Pumpkin, Haloumi, & Chickpea fritters! The cafe here at the Library, Bake & Brew, were kind enough to give us their recipe to share with you all. Happy cooking!

 

Ingredients:

1/4 Pumpkin, grated

200g Haloumi, grated

1/2 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup self-raising flour

 

Method:

1: Combine pumpkin, haloumi, chickpeas, flour, and egg in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper if you like.

2: Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.

3: In batches of 3, spoon a heaped tablespoon of pumpkin mixture into the pan. Flatten slightly with a spatula. Cook for 3-4 minutes each side, until golden.

4: Serve with garden salad and capsicum mayo*, and drizzle patties with balsamic vinegar if you like.

*Capsicum mayo is a mix of capsicum puree and mayonnaise: you can buy capsicum puree and mayonnaise from groceries, or you can make them yourself.

Way back when, Wednesdays

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For the woman who loves cheesecake

In the summer of 1968, the North East Leader, a Messenger Newspaper featured a section dedicated to its female readership, on page 4 of the edition dated 17 January. A Page for Women was made up of articles that were deemed to be of interest to the average woman in the 1960s.

Take a look at these articles which are predominantly about social occasions: a birthday and weddings. Plus advertisements for home furnishings and the latest ‘modern’ novels to enjoy, when you had finished spending most of your day on home duties and looking after your family. You might reflect that many publications aimed at women still focus on Society, weddings, celebrities, home decor and recipes!

modern novels plus shopping

celebrations

Burns for Blinds

Future Liberal politician, member for the seat of Kavel (1970 to 1992) and 3rd Deputy Premier of SA (1979 to 1982) Roger Goldsworthy also managed to secure some advertising space to criticise the State Government in office at the time (The Labor Government with Don Dunstan as Premier).

Roger Goldsworthy advertisement

For a fabulous dinner party, to celebrate a special occasion, to impress family and friends or perhaps to entertain your husband’s boss, the North East Leader printed this recipe for a pineapple cheesecake.

You might like to make it for your loved one! Let us know how it tastes. You will need scales which measure weight in the Imperial system or go to http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/ounces-to-grams.htm to convert to Metric.

You can use butter or salt reduced margarine for the melted shortening. You may also substitute cream cheese for smooth ‘creamed, cottage cheese’ if you wished. To make cottage cheese less crumbly, cooks online recommend adding a little cream, https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/16693/can-i-use-cottage-cheese-instead-of-cream-cheese-when-making-a-cheesecake

Pineapple Cheesecake

Ingredients

For the biscuit crust:

2 cups crushed plain biscuits
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons ginger
4-6 ounces melted shortening

Method

Combine all ingredients. Press into the sides and bottom of an 8 inch spring form tin. Chill.

Ingredients

For the filling:

1 15 ounce can well-drained crushed pineapple in juice.                                                             Note:  You can now buy a 440g tin of crushed pineapple in supermarkets.
1 1/2 tablespoons gelatine
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1/4 cup lemon juice
½ pound creamed cottage cheese
1 cup sugar
1 large can of undiluted evaporative milk, chilled icy cold.
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

Soften gelatine in ½ cup pineapple juice and dissolve with lemon rind over hot water. Cool. Cream cottage cheese and sugar together. Add cooled lemon juice and gelatine, cool until partially set. Whip the icy cold evaporated milk in a large bowl to soft peaks. Beat in gelatine, cheese mixture and vanilla essence. Fold in crushed pineapple. Pour into crumb crust. Chill 6 – 8 hours or overnight.

Ingredients

The glaze

½ cup remaining pineapple juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 dessertspoon cornflour
¼ cup lemon juice

Method

Blend cornflour and sugar, stir in lemon and pineapple juices. Cook until boiling, stirring constantly. Cool. Spread over cheesecake top, decorate as desired. Serves 6 to 8.

Pineapple cheesecake

#waybackwhenwednesdays

Did you know…what to do with your Christmas leftovers?

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If you are anything like me, you will no doubt have over-catered for Christmas. I actually believe that if you haven’t over catered, you are not catering properly! But after everyone has eaten their fill, what do you do with all those leftovers?

Here is one idea:

Christmas Leftover Risotto

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 1 leek
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 heaped of thyme leaves
  • 200g of leftover turkey (shredded)
  • 200g of leftover ham (diced)
  • 300g Arborio rice
  • 1 glass of white wine
  • 1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1/4 cup of grated parmesan (or any cheese you may have)
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of cream cheese (optional)
  • Olive oil

Method

Heat the stock.

Chop up the leak, onion and garlic.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the leak, onion, garlic and thyme.

Once the leak and onion starts to turn transparent, add the white wine and bring to the boil before adding the rice and meat.

Reduce the heat and begin to ladle in the stock, stirring continuously. Cook for about 20 minutes, continuing to add stock as it is absorbed. It is important to keep the dish ‘wet’.

Once the rice is soft and the butter and cheese and stir through.

Serve immediately with some crusty bread.

Delicious!

Lady Alice biscuit recipe

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Lady Alice biscuits melt in your mouth.

These little golden beauties have no comparison. They are a divine accompaniment to a creamy latte or a hot chocolate, any time of year.

Library cafe Bake and Brew, always have a fresh batch on the go. Here’s their recipe.

Lady Alice biscuits

Fresh at Bake and Brew every day…perfect with coffee or hot chocolate

Sue’s Lady Alice biscuits

This recipe came to Sue from her great-aunt, who lived in Port Pirie.

Ingredients:

340gm butter, softened
115gm icing sugar
340gm plain flour
115gm custard powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

(Measurements have been converted to metric from imperial).

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
  2. Cream butter, vanilla and icing sugar in a bowl. Add flour and custard powder and mix until smooth.
  3. Roll teaspoons of biscuit mixture into balls and place on a lined baking tray 2cm apart
  4. Gently flatten each ball with a fork. After flattening, place the tray in the fridge and let the balls chill (takes approximately 1 hour).
  5. Place the tray in oven and bake biscuits for 10-15 minutes until just golden around the edges. Leave to cool on the trays for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Way back when, Wednesdays

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Miss Potato Head

We can all remember what we especially liked to eat as kids. Your tastes can change as an adult and sometimes we cringe at the peculiar foods that we used to crave as children. On the other hand, there are foods that we will always love, such as hot chips!

During the first part of 1969 the Leader Messenger featured photographs of little girls enjoying the hot weather. Like cute Nadene Woods who was pictured on the front page of the edition dated 5 March. Her fondness for potatoes started from a young age and she had developed a curious taste for eating them raw.

Potato feast

Unlike other vegetables, potatoes are seldom eaten raw because of their starchy texture and somewhat bland taste. However, some people like to eat them uncooked, seasoned with salt! Raw potatoes don’t increase your blood sugar and they contain more vitamin C, thiamine and riboflavin than the cooked variety.

For those who enjoy the taste of an uncooked spud, take care. Choose fresh, unblemished potatoes. Wash potatoes thoroughly to remove all traces of soil from the skin and peel them to avoid ingesting bacteria and other microorganisms which are usually killed in the cooking process.

Potatoes are full of goodness but it is advisable to eat this raw vegetable in moderation. They are high in starchy carbohydrates, as the main purpose of a tuber is to nurture a new potato plant. Unfortunately humans digest raw starches poorly. Pieces of raw potato pass through the upper intestine and into the lower intestine largely intact. Intestinal bacteria then start to break down the fibrous mass, starting a fermentation process. Fermentation produces gas, which can cause the raw potato eater to experience discomfort through bloating, cramping and flatulence.

Beware of eating a green or sprouted potato, even if it is cooked. Never eat the leaves and stems of the plant itself or any fruit growing above ground. Potatoes are a member of the nightshade family, which protect themselves by producing toxic alkaloids. Potatoes produce solanine and chaconine, both of which are dangerous to humans. Normally a potato tuber harvested underground contains only small amounts of these chemicals.  However, sprouted or green potatoes become high in solanine.  A tuber that’s been bruised, exposed to sunlight or stored for an extended period of time might develop patches of green. The green pigment is chlorophyll, which enables photosynthesis to take place. Once this happens, solanine is present.  Solanine causes diarrhea, nausea, cramping, headaches and in extreme cases organ failure and death http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com,  http://www.livestrong.com/article/523041-the-risks-of-eating-raw-potatoes.

#waybackwhenwednesdays

 

 

 

 

Way back when Wednesdays

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Chocolate Marbled Cake

Chocolate Marbled Cake

Chocolate Marbled Cake

In celebration of Wednesday birthdays (including mine) why not try this vintage recipe for Chocolate Marbled Cake? It’s delicious and it works.

It comes from my mother’s cookery bible of 1961, A Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium. Compiled by The Good Housekeeping Institute, the book was first published in 1952. In the Forward on page 6, the book states that cookbooks “sometimes assume that their readers are already familiar with the very simple processes, it can still happen that a young housewife  –  or a daughter-at-home called upon to produce a meal in time of domestic crisis-finds embarrassing and unexpected gaps in her cookery knowledge.” By today’s standards this is an outdated perspective which assumes that women are responsible for home duties and it does not allow for the modern practice of ordering takeaway food!   In contrast to other books of its time, A Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium instructs the reader on everything you need to know about different techniques and how to prepare every type of meal, from cooking eggs, selecting different cuts of meat, preparing seafood, to making and decorating a wedding cake.

You could ice this cake with chocolate frosting or a ganache, drizzle melted chocolate over it or simply just sprinkle the top with icing sugar, as pictured.

Note: As this is an older recipe, you will need scales which can measure imperial weight.

6 oz. butter or margarine

6 oz. sugar

¾ cup warm milk

4 egg whites

9 oz. plain flour

2 tsps. baking powder

Vanilla essence

Milk to mix

1 ½ oz. block chocolate

Cream the fat and sugar very thoroughly and stir in the warmed milk and the stiffly beaten egg whites. Sieve the flour and baking powder and add to the creamed mixture, together with a few drops of vanilla essence, and if necessary a little milk. Divide the mixture into two, and add the chocolate (dissolved in a very little milk or water) to one part. Put alternate spoonfuls of the two mixtures into a prepared tin and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F, 190 degrees C, gas mark 4) for 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hours, until firm to the touch.  Enjoy!

Modern tips: Oven times may vary; if your oven is fan-forced, cooking time will be reduced. I use a ring tin for this recipe, which works well, but you could also use a round tin with a diameter of around 23cm. I lined the tin with baking paper. You may prefer to use silicone or non-stick cookware or grease and flour your tin. I interpreted ‘block chocolate’ as dark cooking chocolate.

The simple, but delicious scone

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Who doesn’t enjoy a Devonshire tea, with warm scones fresh from the oven, topped with lashings of thick cream and jam?

The simple but delicious scone is loved around the world. In Patisserie : an encyclopedia of cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits, chocolates, confectionery and desserts, celebrated pastry chef Aaron Maree writes that scones come in many flavours and varieties. In America, scones are known as biscuits or soda biscuits and they can be served with both savoury dishes and sweet toppings. The scone is a cousin of the Scottish bannock, a flat disk baked on a hot griddle plate, which is then marked into triangles.

“A good scone should be of uniform colour and size, lightly golden brown on the base and top, but with white sides. The interior should be light, soft and white.” He stresses that in order to ensure that your scones are soft and well risen, you must always rub the butter into the dry ingredients lightly. Never overwork the dough and do not knead it at all.”

Next door to the Library is our cherished cafe Bake and Brew, who bake delicious scones daily. And! We have secured the recipe from Sue the pastry chef.

Scones

Oh sweet scones, how graceful you sit. Your fluffy, subtly sweet texture melts in our mouths on these days we toil. We honour and give thanks to you, heavenly light beings.

 

Here it is:

World’s Best Scone Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of self-raising flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 50g butter
  • 500mL milk
  • 1 dessertspoon cream

Method:

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the baking powder.

In a microwaveable jug add butter, milk and cream and microwave for three minutes on low.

Add this liquid mix to the bowl.

Mix gently and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently and pat like a baby’s bottom.

Use a scone cutter or glass to make round scone shapes and put them onto a greased oven tray. Ensure the scones are placed close together, as they give each other support as they cook.

Cook in a 180° oven for 15 minutes.

You can also borrow Patisserie : an encyclopedia of cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits, chocolates, confectionery and desserts from the Tea Tree Gully Library.