This is one of the quickest and tastiest salads and if you use all the different colored peppers, yellow, red, orange and green and serve in a glass dish it can look magnificent.

• How to:
• Grill or BBQ the peppers until the skin turns black
• Place in a bag or bowl to steam through enough to make the skin easy to remove.
• Slice the peppers
• Add salt and pepper to taste,
• Sprinkle Olive oil ( or avocado oil is nice too) and vinegar ( I use cider vinegar)
• Serve with herbs of your choice, spring onions, chillies or you favorite things !

Potato Soup Goes Thai

This is a unique twist on potato soup when you feel like something a bit more exotic but want the comfort of steaming hot potatoes and it also works  well for a start to a dinner party as an entree.   We like it steaming hot with grilled Ciabatta bread cut lengthwise and grilled until crisp or lebanese bread popped under the grill.  We also like it chunky and not blended for a hearty meal with grilled thick slices of homemade bread.  Try it and see if you have found another favorite.

• 4 Large potatoes  (around 500g to 600 g)
• 2 Cups water
• 1 cube chicken stock powder
• 2 Tablespoons Fish sauce (Nam Pla)
• peeled rind of 1/2 lemon or lime ( don’t grate)
• 2 Teaspoons  fresh chopped coriander – use ground coriander  spice if you can’t get fresh but the green adds a better look
• 1 cup coconut cream
• Peel and chop the potatoes
• add water, stock cube, fish sauce and the lemon or lime peel.
• Simmer together for 20 mins or until the potatoes are tender.
• Remove from heat and remove lemon or lime peel
• Add coconut cream and lime juice and puree until smooth
• Blend or pure until smooth and creamy
• Season to taste using freshly ground black pepper

350 Recipe Ideas for Busy People

Home made wine brewing, Green Grape, Blackberry, Feijoa and Apple Cider vinegar

Recently we have got into making our own wine. We started off with Lemon Champagne, moved on to Rose Petal Champagne and now have things bubbling and fermenting away continuously.  If you would like to give it a try but think it’s too hard, rethink it as its pretty neat to sip away at something you have made yourself with the big plus that you know what is in it and the process is quite simple once you get the hang of it and its exciting watching it all happen and knowing you have made your own wine from scratch.

As you can see from the photo we have a variety all fermenting away and all we have really had to do was cut up the fruit and give it the odd stir and keep an eye on it.  Currently we have Persimmon and another lot of Pear Wine (called Perry) on the go as well.

Try some simple wines first to start off with and the only materials you really do need are glass bottles or carboys and  air locks to keep insects out – you can use cotton wool instead but the airlock ensures fruit flies stay out.   Plastic water containers will work if you can’t get glass.    Read more for the recipe following post

We have recently moved house complete with the newly made wine sitting fermenting in its bottles complete with airlocks fitted to keep out insects. Moving doesn’t seem to have harmed it in spite of being warned not to move it round and disturb it, the wine is still bubbling away nicely and we have invested in several more glass carboys so we can siphon the wine off to leave the dregs or finished yeast that has settled in the bottom.

You can make wine with almost any fruit or vegetable, like Parsnip, Beetroot, Apple, Grape (the Classic of course ) Guava, Plum is delicious – use your imagination.

Wine Recipe for most fruits is similar:

Cut  6 cups into smallish diced pieces (crush if berries)

Add at least 6 cups of sugar (yes, the dreaded white sugar) into a spotlessly clean bucket or glass jar or carboy.  If you can get a one gallon one or five liters its easier to judge the amounts as you need to fill to the top with filtered water or previously boiled and slightly cooled water.  Cover with cloth, tied tightly so insects cannot get in or put in your glass container covered with cotton wool.

Stir every day for 30 days and watch it ferment and bubble away.

Keep a close watch on it as if you fill it too full it will ferment all over and come up the top of the jar and out over everywhere !

When the bubbles have stopped coming up and it has stopped fermenting strain and pour into bottles or jars.  Let it stand until it settles and the used up yeast goes to the bottom and then you can siphon it off and let stand again until it goes clear, then bottle and it will be fine to screw the caps down.

Keeping will improve it or you could choose to have a sampling now.  You need to have a bit of patience for this process as a lot of wines improve on standing, like say, 6 months or longer.

Gluten Free Recipes Here

It is a very old family recipe that has been well tried and tested and is so old it was still in imperial measurements – we make it when we want something crunchy and shortbready without going to a lot of effort and they always get the ultimate compliment of disappearing very fast !   Today, we used up the last of them on a visitor and the look on one family members face when our visitor polished up the last of them was a classic.

Conversion tip  25 grams equals one ounce

Dutch Shortbread Biscuits

• 4 ounces  or 100 grams butter
• 3 ounces or 75 grams sugar (caster sugar is quicker to melt in or brown sugar makes a more caramelly biscuit )
• 6 ounces or 150 grams flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• one crushed weetbix or large handful of cornflakes or other crunchy cereal of your choice

Method

• Turn oven on to 180 – 190 degrees
• Melt the butter, add to all the dry ingredients
• Mix well
• either place teaspoonfuls on a cold greased baking tray OR shape into small ovals and place on baking tray
• Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
• Cool on tray for a few minutes – this is because if you try to get them off too soon they will break up
• Transfer to a wire cake rack to cool down if you can wait that long !

Sugar free cakes and cookies here

Variations

Add grated zest of a lemon or orange

Add coconut or cinnamon

Vanilla is a good addition for a change

We  put raisins in sometimes  but some family members complain these are no good for dunking into coffee !

Gluten Free Recipes Here

Bread, crunchy, crusty, fresh from the oven – don’t you just love it ?

Breadmaking is easy.  Making bread at home from scratch is so easy and it tastes divine. You know what’s in it and if you are worried about all the additives in commercially manufactured breads its even more of an incentive to give it a go plus you can add extras to suit your own tastes.  Try it – its easier than you think and you can make your own Artisan bread in less time than you think.

Quick and Easy No Knead Bread Recipe

Dissolve 1 Dessert spoon of Molasses in 3/4 cup of boiling water

Stir well then until it is all completely dissolved, then  add 1 cup cold milk and sprinkle on 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of active dried yeast powder.  Let this stand for around 10 – 15 minutes so the yeast can do its work and start to go frothy.  Room temperature is fine.

Make sure the liquid is warm and not too hot, yeast needs a warm temperature to work properly

Put in a large bowl

! & 1/2 cups wholemeal flour

1 & 1/2 cups white flour

2 Tablespoons wheatgerm

1 teaspoon salt  

Add the liquid you did earlier with the frothy  yeast mixture and stir well. You may need to adjust the liquid or flour to get a reasonably firm mix. This is because all sorts of things affect the moisture in flour, temperature when you make it, humidity in the air etc.  Don’t stress just experiment.

The loaf above I did a quick knead on a floured board but you don’t really need to, I am just a hands on person and I like kneading bread and I tend to adjust the ingredients each time to experiment and have different flavored loaves.

Add the liquid you did earlier with the frothy  yeast mixture and stir well.  you may need to adjust the liquid or flour to get a reasonably firm mix.  This is because all sorts of things affect the moisture in flour, temperature when you make it, humidity in the air etc !  Don’t stress just experiment.

The loaf above I did a quick knead on a floured board but you don’t really need to, I am just a hands on person and I like kneading bread and I tend to adjust the ingredients each time to experiment and have different flavored loaves.  Put the dough into a well oiled clay or terracotta pot.  If you don’t have a clay bread baking pan then use a flower pot.  Keep it specially for the purpose of bread baking and you will have a cool shaped loaf.  Be sure to oil it well when you first get it and oil it each time you use it and then you will only need to brush the crumbs out as its best not to wash the pot all the time.

Place your bread in a COLD OVEN.

Turn the oven on at the lowest temperature for 30 mins and watch the mix rise to almost the top of the pot.  When it gets to just under 1cm of the top turn the oven up to 200 degrees Centigrade (400 F) and bake for 30 minutes.  Turn upside down on a rack to cool and leave for a few minutes then run a knife around to loosen the loaf and it should turn out easily.

Bread is cooked when it sounds hollow when you tap it so if you are not sure give it a few more minutes or pop it back in the oven if you think its not quite ready.

Extra ideas to try out

• Add some bran, swap around the amounts of white and wholemeal flour.
• Grind some of your own grains for the flour
• Use rye flour, a mix of grains,
• add sunflower seeds, linseeds,
• raisins, mixed peel, and add another spoon of sugar for a sweet bread
• Sundried tomatoes, garlic,
• Olives, gherkins
• Use gluten free flour

You can also use golden syrup, rice syrup, treacle, malt  or honey or brown or white sugar to dissolve in your liquid before you put the yeast in for added variety.  Use this recipe as a starting point and you will quickly see  what you can put into your bread is limitless.

• Two large carrots – grated
• Handful of raisins
• 1/2 a tin of pineapple pieces (drained)  or use fresh if available
• Sprinkling of cold pressed olive oil
• Juice of one orange (lemon is fine too if you prefer more tart taste)
• Seasoning to taste – salt and pepper, gomasio or your choice of seasoning
• Combine all ingredients
• Stir through and let stand for at least half an hour – better longer
• Garnish with finely chopped Italian parsley or chopped chives
• Extra delicious with pine nuts added

We make this often and its great with cold meats, or a crusty loaf and green salad and optional  extras can be added  like cashew nuts or  swapping  the pineapple for orange segments or exchanging  the orange juice for pineapple juice.  Use this recipe for a starting point and be experimental and see how many favorites you can come up with.

Secret up until now

Just make sure you have lots of delicious, crusty French bread to soak up the Mussel broth left over !

Ingredients:

• Enough mussels for all your guest – naturally New Zealand green lipped ( large!) Mussels are preferable
• Lots of chopped Garlic
• Butter
• White Wine
• Lots of ground black pepper
• Crusty French – or sourdough bread
• Extras like chilli, coriander, capsicum,
• cream or coconut cream

How to

• De-beard and wash mussels
• Heat butter in a heavy pan ( one that has a close fitting lid
• Add garlic and fry until you get that delicious aroma
• Add Chilli & capsicum
• Toss in mussels with a BIG splash of white wine
• Put lid on and give the pot a few shakes, check for any open mussels and discard these
• Remove to a warm bowl or to the table
• Stir cream or coconut milk into remaining juice, pour over mussels
• Serve with bread – lots of it

Best eaten with good friends on a sunny deck or by the beach and a glass of wine

Fun loving pasta eaters, rejoice! The fennel, garlic and broccoli go very well with sliced sauteed sausage and freshly grated parmesan cheese along with the crumbled goat cheese – ciao bella! Quick and easy meal to help sneak in some veggies to unsuspecting teenagers and hubbys everywhere!

Ingredients:

2 or 3 each hot and sweet sausage links, semi-frozen

• 2 small crowns of fresh broccoli
• 3-6 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1 or 2 bulbs fennel with their fawns
• Olive Oil
• Large pot of boiling water for pasta – try rotitini or penne
• One large deep skillet, enough that when after cooking sausages and veggies, you can also throw pasta in.
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
• A couple shakes of dried red pepper flakes
• Freshly cracked pepper
• Salt

Directions:

1. Put pot on to boil for pasta
2. Take out sausage from freezer, and slice links into 1/3 inch slices
3. Put skillet onto stove, add small drizzle of olive oil and put sliced sausages in.
4. Add red chili flakes and fresh cracked pepper – the heat from the skillet opens up their flavors.
5. While the sausage cooks, mince up garlic and set aside.
6. Rinse and break apart broccoli into small bite size pieces and set aside.
7. Cut off frawns from fennel, and with the remaining bulb, slice thin and break apart to resemble onion slices. Set aside frawns for now.
8. Once water has started to boil, add good amount of salt to water and a bit of olive oil.
9. To cooking sausage slices, add sliced fennel and broccoli to skillet.
10. Continue cooking broccoli, sausages and fennel allowing the fennel to caramelize along with sliced sausages.
11. Mince up two tablespoons fawns from the fennel and grate up your cheese.
12. Drain pasta when just al dente, but try and reserve up to 1 cup of pasta water.
13. Add drained cooked pasta to deep skillet and add freshly minced garlic to the mix.
14. Add 1/2 of the cheese and up to 1/2 cup pasta water and stir till all are combined. Continue cooking for one to 4 minutes. Add crumbled goat cheese.
15. Serve up on plates, sprinkle a little of the minced fennel frawns and extra grated cheese. Ciao Bella! Mangia Mangia pronto!

This is one of those great tasting easy dishes, and the goat cheese once is melts creates a similar feel in your mouth to alfredo sauce but without a lot of the naughty added fat.

Leah Quinn, a multi-media artist and writer whose work specializes on food, health, feng shui, and self-improvement. leahquinn.com

Ingredients:

2 Cups self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1/4 cup chopped parsley,  (optional – add additional herbs of choice like basil)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup cottage cheese

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

Grated cheese and paprika

1. Put flour, salt, and mustard in a bowl and add chopped parsley and onion
2. Mix cottage cheese and melted butter, add milk and egg and stir into flour mixture to make a soft dough.  Mix with a knife. Turn out onto a floured board and knead lightly
3. Shape into a 3cm thick round
4. Place round o a lightly buttered tray and mark it into six.
5. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese and paprika
6. Bake at 190 – 200 degrees C for 25 – 30 minutes
7. Eat Warm

Great with a green salad, egg dishes, soup, and a great bread to experiment with adding different herbs, spices an is even great with grated veggies in it too like zucchini.

Try it, you will find its a favorite